The Moon Thief

Chapter 120: Incredible Discovery

Heinald stood at a safe distance and began observing the crater. He thought that even if that creature didn't die, it would have been seriously injured as it had been struck repeatedly by severe lightning.

"Graaaaghh!" The creature inside the crater roared and emerged from the crater.

Its two legs were severed and various parts of his body were charred. However, it still seemed that he was still far from death.

"Even Divine Chaos couldn't deal much damage to it. What the hell is this creature!?" Heinald grit his teeth as he stared at the creature.

Since this creature wasn't a Magical Beast, it didn't have an elemental aptitude, but it had very high physical strength and stamina.

As the creature swung its tail at Heinald, he leaped to the right and began to back away quickly. There was no way he could fight it closely.

"Aodon's Hand!" Heinald shouted out in his mind.

A large black orb appeared above the creature. From within this orb, jet-black arms emerged and grabbed the creature in various parts.

"Grarghh!" The creature roared angrily. Despite his efforts, he could not escape the grip of the black arms.

This was the only Dark Spell he had, and it was very difficult to learn and master. He was able to control even High Rank Spells normally after he became a Level 2 Ainsar without much difficulty. However, this Dark Spell was still quite a challenge for him.

Although he was able to construct the pattern of this spell in his mind perfectly, it took a lot of mental strength and willpower to keep this energy stable while integrating it with Dark Energy.

But the results were there!

Even that creature with incredible physical strength could not escape the effects of this spell. It was held by black hands and could not move.

Infernal Fireball!

Scorching flames rose from Heinald's hands, and they came together to form a fireball that emitted an incredible amount of heat and fire energy into the environment.

This scorching fireball began to fly, leaving traces of scorching flames behind it. Although it did not touch the surrounding trees, the heat it emitted caused them to ignite.

When the fireball collided with the creature, waves of very destructive fire spread across the sky and the entire environment. Everything in the hundreds of meters area burned down to a handful of ash.

"GRAAHH!" A very loud and painful howl shook the entire forest and its immediate surroundings.

The fires rising to the sky were clearly visible from the whole town, while the loud howl made all the houses tremble.

Even Anford, a Level 1 Ainsar, was staring at the sky in fear and trembling.

The Apprentice Ainsars, who stood guard outside the town, could not stand it any longer and fled into the town.

A lava pit about fifteen meters in diameter had formed in the area where the fireball had exploded, and the creature was roasting in this lava pit.

"He should be close to death now as the Infernal Fireball hit it directly!" Heinald muttered.

At that moment, the creature jumped out of the lava pit and soared about twenty meters up. Its whole body was black and smoke was coming out of it. Still, it didn't seem to have lost much of its physical strength.

While the creature was in the air, a few shards of bone pierced its ribs and blasted out, and they began to move towards Heinald at a speed that could pierce even air.

With Heinald's only thought, a pale red layer appeared over his body. Those bones had moved so fast that almost even thinking would not save him.

*BAM!* As the bones slammed into the pale red layer, a loud explosion sound was heard, and a sudden burst of energy spread out. Everything started to be blown away by the strong winds.

Heinald had sunk about twenty feet into the ground, and the pale red layer surrounding him had increased in number of cracks.

"The bones that hit me consumed about 12% of my Protective Type Magical Treasure!" Heinald's pupils twitched. This attack was almost as effective as his spell called Infernal Fireball. If he had been directly hit by these bones, his body would definitely have been pierced by these bones.

Moreover, it was just a physical attack!

After Heinald took a few of those bones and stored them in the dimensional pocket of his robe, he jumped up and stepped out of the pit. When he detected the creature's location, he saw that the skin on its chest was deeply pierced, but this creature's regeneration rate seemed to be too high.

The holes in its chest were closing!

"I can't let it regenerate!" Heinald cried out in his mind.

Heinald started casting Infernal Fireball again.

*Grarghh!* The creature roared angrily when it saw that he was still alive.

"Die!" Heinald roared and sent the fireball toward it, emitting incredible heat waves around it.

Although the creature tried to escape, it could not move as fast as it wanted due to its severe injuries and was hit by the Infernal Fireball.

*BAM!* As the scorching fire spread all around, scorching flames filled the already pierced chest of the creature at the center of the explosion, and they began to fry it from the inside.

The creature howled bitterly and fell over. A lava pit had already formed where it fell.

The creature writhed inside the lava pool for a few seconds, then managed to throw itself out of the lava pit. Its entire body was burnt and almost charred.

"How can it still be alive!?" Heinald grit his teeth.

The creature could not afford to fight any longer and began to flee at full speed. As it was badly injured, its speed had slowed considerably, moving towards the northern part of the forest.

"Hmph! Does it think it can escape?" A cold glint appeared in Heinald's eyes.

He began to run after this creature. Since the creature was so badly injured, he could finish it off with any magic. Contemplating which spell would be more appropriate, he realized that the creature was moving towards a large hollow.

"Hm? What is that?" Heinald's brows furrowed.

Indignation of Ice!

A freezing aura began to radiate from his arms, and an icy hand leapt out towards the creature. When the icy hand touched the escaping creature, it instantly froze its body.

The giant creature's entire body was completely frozen inside a thick sphere of ice.

After Heinald was sure that the creature was dead, he destroyed the sphere of ice. He severely severed the creature's head and stored it in the dimensional pocket of his robe to take to the academy as evidence.

He walked towards the hallow where the monster was running and looked inside. It was spiraling downward like a tunnel made by a giant worm. He got into the hallow and started walking.

After walking for several minutes, he came to a strange and large area. When he illuminated the to see the surroundings more clearly, he encountered a sight that surprised him quite a bit.

Ahead was a stone bridge about a hundred meters long!

"What's a bridge doing in this place?" Heinald was confused.

Heinald did not use the bridge and jumped directly with all his might and landed on the ground a hundred meters away.

"There is a way going deeper..." Heinald muttered.

He started walking slowly. The path he walked on was as if made by a giant earthworm, various roots hanging around.

After several minutes of walking, he saw stone steps descending. When he descended the stone steps, he had come to a large area. The walls around this area were made entirely of stone and looked quite old.

"Wait! This is" Heinald's eyes widened as he looked beyond the area. A circular structure made of purple crystal stood on a kind of pavement. It was about fifteen meters in diameter and had seals and symbols on it.

The energy he felt as he approached this structure surprised him even more.

Spatial Energy was emanating from this strange structure!

Heinald began to examine it closely. The wall behind was visible from inside this circular structure. But he already knew what it was.

It was a portal where he had no idea where it opened!

Examining the seals and symbols carved on those crystals, he realized that they were very similar to those he had seen before in the Dimensional Gateway.

"Could these creatures somehow have come here from another plane?"

Heinald's heart was beating with excitement. This portal could be opening to a completely different plane. If there was such a thing and he reported it to the academy, he would definitely earn tens of thousands of Achievement Points.

However, he definitely did not intend to do such a thing!

He would first look for a way to operate this portal, and if he succeeded, he would begin to explore the plane on his own. If he failed to operate this portal, or if he succeeded in doing so but found dangers in the plane where the portal opened that he alone would not be enough, then he would notify the academy of the location of this portal and immediately receive Achievement Points .

When he started to examine the area around the portal, he couldn't see any power sockets. Most likely, directly the crystals which the portal was made needed energy.

"Spatial Energy waves are emanating from these crystals, so I should probably find stones or various items that contain a large amount of Spatial Energy to activate this portal."

Heinald had a rather thoughtful expression. Even if he managed to find various sources of Spatial Energy, it would cost him dearly.

On the other hand, he was curious about the origin of this portal. He was sure that this portal was built by the Ancient Ainsars, but he had no idea what time period it was.

He left after carefully examining everything around. When he got out, he took an Exmul Stone from the dimensional pocket of his robe and used the energy it contained to create a camouflage formation he had learned to create before.

He always kept high energy stones in his dimensional pocket for situations like this. He had improved a lot with formations and used them frequently. That's why he needed a stable energy source so much.

Of course, not all formations could be activated with pure energy stones, but such formations could be activated with such stones.

After Heinald had finished his work, he mounted his dragon and flew to Gilran Town. He left after the people there told them that the danger was gone but to stay away from the forest anyway.

He embarked on the journey to return directly to Ruthas Academy.

***

When Heinald reached Ruthas Academy, he went to complete the quest as first thing. After presenting the necessary evidence to the officials, he was put on hold for a while. With great surprise and disgust, they began to examine the bones and head of the creature that he had taken with him. The durability of these bones shocked them immensely.

He was soon confirmed to have completed the mission and was rewarded with 5000 Achievement Points.

The members of the Potions Division were overjoyed to have him back in a short time. In the past days, they had faced many failures again and had thrown away a lot of material.

Heinald planned to spend his next days making potions with almost no rest. He would brew these potions not only for the academy, but also to sell them in shops in the cities for the Arkana Stones.

Although he already had a few million Arkana Stones accumulated, even that amount probably wouldn't be enough for resources containing Spatial Energy.

He was sure that he could find resources containing Spatial Energy in exchange for Achievement Points in the academy, but he would only use these Achievement Points to purchase a copy of the information and research he needed.

Since he had completed his first mission, he could now enter the library, but unfortunately he didn't have time for that. He would spend all his time making potions.

"At least in the academy, I can get the ingredients for potions with very few Achievement Points. From that perspective, it's to my advantage that I won't lose the Arkana Stones."

Heinald thought as he made plans for the days to come. He was quite excited about his discovery, if luck was with him on the plane where the portal opened, he could get incredible resources.

Heinald started to work intensely in the following days. Sometimes he did not sleep for weeks.

A year has passed with a busy schedule.

Heinald had only brewed potions the entire time, and now he was really overwhelmed. He really liked brewing potions, but doing the same thing every day for a long time was just as overwhelming to him as anyone would be.

However, he got what he wanted. He had over a thousand bottles of potions in his hand, and he didn't need to spend a single Arkana Stone for the ingredients of these potions.

He also made up for the Achievement Points he spent on these materials by brewing potions for the academy. He would now do the quests given by the academy, not potions, to earn Achievement Points.

He had done simple, one-day quests given by the academy several times over the past year. Although these missions earned him very few Achievement Points, at least the academy left him alone.

Heinald traveled to Joskna City, the closest city to the academy. When he reached the city, he learned where the Market Square was and went straight there.

After wandering around the market square for a while, he saw a large potion shop and went inside.

"Lord Ainsar! Welcome!" A man waiting behind the counter inside the shop immediately stepped forward to greet him.

This man was a middle-aged man and was apparently a Level 1 Ainsar.

"I have a lot of potions I want to sell. I warn you, you may not have enough Arkana Stones to afford these potions." Heinald scratched his chin.

The man began to stare curiously.

Heinald took out dozens of large bags from the dimensional pocket of his robe, and when he opened them, a multitude of neatly placed potions appeared.

Seeing this scene, the eyes of the man opened wide. The poor man nearly fainted, he had to lean against the wall for a while to avoid falling over.