Grey stayed in the forest for just over two hours before heading back to the Academy. He needed to head over for forging lessons since he wouldn't be going for the next two days. He wanted to focus fully on modifying and improving the wooden objects, if possible, create his own before any of his friends leaves the Academy.
They continued with the tempering process, before ending the lesson with the cooling process. With this, he was almost done with the basics of forging. But since his friends would be leaving soon, he had to wait a little longer before completing it.
He didn't go for array lessons this time since they were only going to repeat what he already knew. Although it would help him understand it better, nothing beats actual practical.
On his way back home, he encountered an acquaintance.
"Hey." Damian called out when he saw Grey walking by.
Grey turned around to see who it was, "Oh, it's you."
Damian was the first summoner he saw before Reynolds became a high-grade summoner. After seeing him at the door that led to where the old expert's legacy was, he hadn't seen him again.
"When did you return?" He asked while approaching Damian.
"Yesterday. Hmm, the Fifth stage, that's the highest anyone from our Academy who came out of the trial land got to." Damian said after noticing Grey was in the Fifth stage of the Origin Plane.
"You're not far from it yourself." Grey smiled lightly.
Damian was already in the Fourth stage, had they been allowed to stay in the trial land for another week or two, then he wouldn't have any problems with getting to the Fifth stage.
"When did you return?" asked Damian.
"Four days ago." replied Grey.
"And your friends, have they come out as well?" Damian asked again.
He remembered always seeing them together, so he wanted to know if they came out as well. After all, not everyone who goes into the trial land walks out.
"We came out together, we were lucky to find each when heading to the array that led outside." Grey explained.
He spent a few minutes with Damian before leaving, of which he was the one who did most of the talking. Damian had always been the type who spoke less, so getting to actually have a conversation with him was extremely hard.
Grey went over the Klaus' place and was lucky to find him at home. They headed over to Reynolds' place, before heading to Alice's.
He told them of his plan to modify the wooden objects, so they could find each other when they've left the Academy.
"Will you be able to make it in time? From everything you've said, you haven't seemed to make any progress with it." Alice asked a little concerned.
She could tell Grey was putting in so much effort just to make this thing, especially how he didn't attend array lessons, it was evident how much effort he was putting.
"Well, if I can decipher the array, then modifying it will be too easy..." Grey explained.
He planned to change the process of locating each other. Unlike before when one of them had to break the wooden object before the others could find the person, this time, as long as they had it with them, they would be able to get a general direction of where each other were. He even had a bigger plan, being able to use it to send messages across a long distance. But he knew that wouldn't be possible for now, so he wanted to focus on just locating each other first.
"If you can do it then that's wonderful." Alice said which the others agreed with.
Grey's plan to make this communication device wouldn't only help them, but it would help their families as well.
"Of course I can, since those guys could make it, I can modify it. All I need is just time. But I'm not too confident in the communicating part for now, I don't even know how to start with that. At least with the locating process, I can use their previous model as a guide." Grey shook his head sadly.
"No need to beat yourself, being able to think of it is already amazing." Klaus encouraged.
"Yeah, I'm not too bothered if I fail in doing that though. Locating you guys is enough for now." Grey nodded.
They stayed for some time before Alice suggested they sparred. Klaus immediately rejected the idea since he was the weakest, but after the others agreed and gave him an ultimatum, he didn't have much of a choice, it was either he sparred with them, or they would gang up on him and beat him up.
The group stayed together till just after sunset, and Grey even prepared something for them to eat. Alice had some items in her house that he used in making porridge.
"You see Rey, this is what it means to be a good cook." Klaus said after burping out loud.
"I know, it's like he's blessed by a God or something. My mom's a great cook, but to be honest, I don't think she's near as good as he is." Reynolds replied while looking at the delicious porridge Void was eating.
They were done with theirs, and Void's own was starting to call them. But recalling the cat's space element, they gave up the idea of stealing it.
They each went to their houses after their meal. Grey soon went back to work, he noticed each of the objects didn't have the same arrays. There's always a difference, even though it's small, there's always a difference. This made deciphering it hard, but he was already starting to get a rough idea of it.
'I should be able to completely decipher it within the next five days, hopefully.' He thought while looking at the different lines he had drawn on the papers on his table.