The Moon Thief

The priest accompanying Heinald went to the other priests and whispered something. Thereupon, one of the priests waiting in front of the door opened the door and entered. A short time later he came out again and pointed in.

"Follow please, you need to speak to Master Orn." The priest turned to Heinald.

When Heinald came in, he saw an old man sitting at a gold-embroidered table.

"May I ask who you are?" The old man began to stare at Heinald.

"My name is Heinald. We worked with Master Kunes for a while. He described me as a genius in Herbs and Potions and wrote a letter recommending me to Lord Albin." Heinald took the letter out of his pocket and handed it to the old man, while the priest standing next to him held out the gold medallion.

"I'll keep you waiting for a while." After examining the medallion, the old man stood up and disappeared, opening one of the back doors.

After about an hour, the old man came back.

"Please follow me, Grandmaster Albin will meet with you. I will escort you to the mansion." The old man pointed to the door behind him.

The old man led Heinald down a long corridor and into a wide underground tunnel. Together they got into a rather ostentatious carriage and began their travel through the tunnel. This tunnel connected the temple and the mansion.

After a short journey, the carriage stopped. The place where the carriage stopped was just in front of the stairs leading up. As they climbed the stairs together, they came to a huge golden door. The old man went to the door and placed his hand on a partition in the middle of the door, and a red light emanated from it for a short while.

Then the huge door opened.

After passing many corridors, they came to a large door again. In front of the door were four priests dressed in white robes. No energy was emanating from any of them, but when Heinald looked into their eyes, he felt a great weight descend on his heart.

"The guest Lord Albin has been waiting for has arrived." The old man spoke in a formal tone. One of the priests in front of the door looked at Heinald for a moment, then opened the door behind him.

When Heinald entered, he saw a sight he had never expected. The interior of the room was as simple and small as possible. There were only candles and cushions lighting up the room. The room was filled with a refreshing and comforting scent of incense. In the middle of the room was a man sitting on the mat with his eyes closed. This man's hair and beard were starting to turn slightly gray, and he was wearing a loose black robe.

The man slowly opened his eyes and brought his gaze to Heinald. The look in the man's gray eyes was wide and calm, like a deep lake. However, it was a gaze that could see through the skin and directly into the soul.

At least that's how Heinald felt.

"You can leave!" Albin Redsand looked at the priest standing next to Henald.

The priest immediately bowed his head and left the room.

"What's your name, young man?" Albin asked in a very flat voice. It was a very plain voice, unaffected by any emotion.

"Heinald, sir."

"Sit!" Albin pointed to the cushion in front of him.

Heinald nodded and sat down on the cushion.

"Kunes specifically mentioned you as a genius...Do you consider yourself a genius?" Albin looked directly into the eyes of the young man in front of him.

"Yes." Heinald nodded without hesitation.

"Who do you call a genius?" Albin asked.

"A person of extraordinary ability and creativity in one or more fields." Heinald replied.

"I want to give you a little test. If you're really good enough, I can offer you a collaboration, maybe even take you as my personal apprentice." Albin said his thoughts after waiting for a while without saying anything.

Heinald snorted, trying to suppress his excitement.

As Albin snapped his finger, Heinald began to feel a strange energy in his mind. Everything around him was starting to agitate, he soon realized that the weight of his body was gone. He started flying upwards as if pulled by a vacuum. All of a sudden he found himself flying out of the mansion into the sky. All he saw was vast clouds.

"What's going on?" Heinald was quite confused, he didn't know what to do. He knew in one part of his mind that it was a test, but that didn't stop his mind from being nauseous.

"Shit!" Heinald's soaring stopped abruptly, and he began to fall downward at an abnormal speed. A garden was in his view, everything else around was dark. He thought he was going to crash extremely quickly, but when he hit the ground, it felt like he had landed on the softest thing in the world.

When he got up, he was in a garden with many different plant species around.

"Are you ready?" A voice came from behind Heinald.He turned around to see Albin waiting with a scroll in his hand.

"Is this some kind of illusion world?" asked Heinald.

"Inside this scroll is the formula for a potion that can be made with herbs you see around. I want you to craft the potion in the formula within two hours." Albin ignored his question and held out the parchment in his hand.

"Southern Rute Grass, Desir Flower, Gsetrum, Rete Pine..." Heinald quickly began scanning the plants around him. These plants were quite rare, he had never actually seen them, he just knew how they looked and what they looked like from the various sources he had read.

"Luckily I know all the plant species around, that might be an advantage for me!" Heinald muttered.

He immediately opened the parchment and read the potion formula inside. This scroll contained very understandable instructions on how to make the potion. This was a kind of vitality potion, but he did not have information about the purity rate and potency rate to be revealed.

"How do I start preparing the potion?" asked Heinald.

"All the tools you'll ever need are there." Albin pointed to the right side with his hand.

When Heinald looked at the indicated spot, he saw several alchemical tools lined up on a large table. He could have sworn those tools hadn't been there before. He was sure that this was a realm of illusion, since Albin was the creator of this realm, he could control it however he wanted. Most likely, these alchemical tools appeared on his sole thought.

"This is the first part of your test, I'm going to measure your potion brewing ability and your ability to focus." Albin said.

Heinald immediately proceeded cautiously through the garden and began collecting herbs. While collecting the herbs, his thoughts were that this world of illusion seemed so real. If he didn't know the truth, he certainly wouldn't have realized that this place was an illusion.

"I wonder what realm the power level is in?" Heinald was trying to gauge how mighty Albin Redsand could be.

Heinald gathered the herbs with his thoughts in mind, all that remained was to gather Rute Grass. He walked to the Rute Grass area and bent down to collect it, but then noticed something interesting.

"Among these Rute Grasses, there are some Nati Tear Grasses!" Heinald cried inside.

Rute Grass and Nati Tear Grass were almost identical in appearance. The only difference was the structural differences in their veins, which were evident only upon careful inspection. If Heinald had normal eyes, he certainly wouldn't have noticed it.

He immediately began to examine the other plants he had collected and noticed that they also had fake ones mixed in. He immediately separated the fake ones and went to their place and collected the real ones.

"It's not good! I've wasted a lot of time..." Heinald had taken extra care in examining the plants he had regrouped to make sure they were real.

Heinald began to closely examine the herbs he had gathered and then tried to burn off the harmful particles on them, but came across a scene he had previously seen in the ingredients needed to craft Spirit Potion. He needed to apply the Spirit Flame equally and evenly everywhere, at the same time.

Heinald soon got used to working on these plants, having spent the previous few months with similar plants. He was not brewing the potion written in the formula, quickly but carefully. Only then did he realize that needles were starting to prick his feet.

"Damn! Is that part of the test too?" Heinald shouted inside.

He was aware that his time was running out, he probably had less than five minutes left. So he pushed his limits, trying to concentrate and continue brewing the potion. The piercing needles gradually rose up to the knee area, making it more difficult for him to focus.He was trying to calm himself so that he could focus, but it wasn't easy, yet he never thought of giving up.

"A little more!" He took a deep breath and started to do the last step written in the formula. The number of needles that pricked his body was increasing with each passing second.

"If this prickling sensation reaches my eyes, it will be impossible for me to focus, I have to hurry!" A cold glint appeared in Heinald's eyes. He gathered his attention with all his will and managed to complete the making process of the potion before the needle prickling sensation reached his eyes. After the distillation process at the end of the brewing process, only one tube of potion emerged, but this was a normal and successful result as stated in the formula. The prickling sensation had completely disappeared before it reached the eyes.

"You passed the first test, next is the second test." Albin appeared alongside Heinald.

"Whats this test about?" Heinald asked.

"Analysis talent and creativity." said Albin, waving his hand to the right. With this hand gesture, the vegetation in the entire garden changed and different plants took their place.

"What do you want me to do now?" asked Heinald.

"Create a potion formula with the herbs you see, you have five days." said the Albin and disappeared.

Heinald stood gaping at where Albin stood before he disappeared.

"Five days to create a potion formula? This man must be crazy!" Heinald grit his teeth.

He quickly began to examine the plants in the garden. There were Bamoth Grass, Yetri Flower, Starlight Grass, Eris Mushroom and Orvus Herb... He knew all these herbs.

"All of these plants are known to contain Humutren, with the exception of the Yetri Flower. Humutren is a secretion that triggers regeneration, often providing the 'Regenerate' function in healing potions and similar types." Heinald thought and made a quick inference about the situation.

He realized that he had to create a healing potion using these herbs. He was aware that he had little time, so he immediately gathered what he knew about these plants and began to sketch out a theoretical construction process.

Heinald thought about the process non-stop for three days. At the end of the third day, he snapped out of his thoughts and started experimenting with an idea he thought might work. Yetri flower contained a large amount of purifying extract in its leaves, but this extract was so strong that it gained more abrasive properties, so it was often used for different purposes.

"This purifying extract contains a very small amount of Rufss Acid, I can use it as a trigger for the Humutren Secretion of the plants, but I have to be very precise about the amount. More or less means the whole process is wasted..." Heinald scratched his chin thoughtfully.

Heinald began experimenting with the Yetri Flowers he had gathered to obtain Rufss Acid. To find out the amount of acid needed to trigger the secretion, he extracted some secretion from plants with Humutren secretion and conducted experiments on them. After hours of experimentation, he was able to precisely determine the required amount. However, these experiments caused almost half of the plants in the garden to be used up, for the rest of the process he had to use the Spirit Flame to destroy the toxicity on the plants. Otherwise, the plants in the mixture would become useless without obtaining the Humutren Secretion.

After taking a short break, he started the process of eliminating the toxicity on the plants. Fortunately, the toxicity on these plants was not very mobile and sensitive, so he was able to detoxify the plants relatively easily. A few times he had rendered some plants unusable due to unforeseen mistakes and fluctuations in Spirit Flame, but the result was still better than he had expected.

"Well, it's time to trigger the Humutren secretion in all the remaining ingredients at the same time..." Heinald sighed nervously and continued the process.