The Moon Thief

Heinald was confident in his own ability, so he was confident that he could handle the task given to him by his master. He was relieved that this task did not pose any danger to his life. Moreover, this task was within his branch of expertise, thats why he was also quite comfortable.

Heinald said, "Don't worry, I'll help you as much as I can."

"Fantastic!" Pastor Aesos nodded in satisfaction and looked around. "Osmond, come here!"

At the call of Aesos, a young man began to approach them. According to Heinald's observations, the other person should have been only a few years older than him. He had thick eyebrows and green eyes, his nose was slightly bent, and his skin was extremely shiny. This person also had the energy waves of a Level 1 Ainsar, but it looked like he had breakthrough recently. The energy waves emanating from it had some disorder.

"Please say your will, master."

Pastor Aesos pointed to the young man beside him. "Meet Heinald, he is Grandmaster Albin's new apprentice. I want you to take him to the Sundown Gardens. He will be tasked with extracting the essences of the Genyort Lotuses."

Osmond nodded and turned to Heinald standing beside him. "My name is Osmond, it's a pleasure meeting you."

"It's a pleasure meeting you too." Heinald displayed a graceful gesture.

"Sir, so how much essence exactly do I need to extract?" Heinald asked Aesos, who was standing next to him.

"Exactly 10 grams. That's equal about 40 Genyort Lotuses." Aesos scratched his chin and added. "Of course it will have its margin of error."

After Heinald had enough information, he and Osmond left the temple without delay.

Osmond had given Heinald one of the mighty horses the temple had. The place they went to was known as the Betelhallow Area, and it was actually a small place in the northwest of Neswind Forest. To get there, they had to leave the residential area of ​​the city and travel for hours across the vast plains.

Osmond turned to Heinald on horseback, who was traveling with him, and asked. "Are you new around here?"

"Yes, I'm pretty new." Heinald answered.

"How did you manage to become Grandmaster Albin's apprentice in such a short time?" Osmond asked, there was a pure curiosity on his face.

"I actually worked with his last Kunes for a while. Master Kunes was impressed by me and wrote a letter to his father recommending me. Grandmaster Albin tested me and allowed me to be his apprentice. However, if it weren't for Master Kunes' letter, I probably wouldn't have even met him at all. "

Heinald gave a brief summary of how events unfolded.

"I really envy you!" Osmond sighed. "You've managed to become a Grandmaster's apprentice at such a young age."

"I must admit I've been pretty lucky." Heinald said with a slight smile on his face.

After the two had traveled together for almost a day without stopping, they saw the southern part of Neswind Forest. When they entered the forest, they began to carefully pass through the trees. Although this forest was not very large, it was rather gloomy. Although the trees were alive, they also seemed lifeless. The trunks of these trees were usually gray in color and the color of their leaves was a shade darker than dark green.

"Wait!" Osmond called out to Heinald in a low voice.

"What's going on?" Heinald asked in surprise.

Osmond said, "We've got the Toothclaw Wolves around us."

"I can't see anything…" Heinald looked around with full attention, but he couldn't see anything.

"They're out of sight, but I can feel them, I've been here many times before. And I'm sure I just heard a faint growl." As Osmond slowly dismounted, he gestured for Heinald to do the same.

As Heinald dismounted, about 500 meters away, he saw a pitch-black wolf looking towards them. This wolf's fur was fluttering in the gentle wind, its red eyes staring directly into his eyes. At the same time, the sound of branches and leaves being crushed from various places began to be heard.

"The situation doesn't look good!" Heinald squinted as he observed his surroundings, and with one thought, Narox emerged from the dimensional pocket of his robe and appeared in his hand. Although the sword looked elegant, it also emitted a deadly aura.

"They will attack, be prepared! These wolves have very weak natural defenses, but their attacks are very ferocious and their numbers are many." Osmond whispered slowly.

Heinald knew about this wolf breed from a book he had read before. A Toothclaw Wolf's power level would be very low compared to a Level 1 Ainsar. Although they were seen as Magical Beasts, the amount of Magical Energy they had was very low. However, these wolves were much more crowded than most packs of wolves, thus drawing their combat strength up.

Heinald nodded lightly and said, "I know this breed, they are predisposed to the Wind Element."

*Whhrr!* From the left side, two wolves started running towards them at full speed. The two uneasy horses ran to the right.

Osmond immediately began casting a fireball. In a matter of seconds, a fireball the size of two palms formed and flew towards the running paths of the running wolves. The fireball fell directly on the two running wolves, and a burning explosion ensued within about fifty meters.

The wolves, their furs burning with the impact of the explosion, began to howl in pain, soon they succumbed to the red flames and died.

*Aaauuuu!* All the wolves around then howled at the same time, and they all attacked from the back and front.

"You take the front, I'll take the back!" Osmond started casting a fireball again.

"Alright!"

Heinald was able to stay calm now that he had a lot of combat experience. He made a quick count as the wolves rushed towards them; A total of 20 wolves were running towards them.

"Frost Wave!"

As the wolves approached Heinald, a freezing wave of ice emerged from around him and began to spread; all of the wolves that came within range of the freezing ice wave froze within seconds. He immediately jumped towards them and began to cut off the heads of the frozen wolves. At each cut, the frozen wolf heads were falling to the ground as a mold.

Within seconds, he had managed to finish off all the wolves in front of him.

At that time, Osmond had sent the fireball he had cast to the wolves and managed to ignite almost half of it, but the remaining half had gotten pretty close to him.

Heinald immediately took Embers out of the dimensional pocket of his robe and sent Magic Energy to him. Arriving near Osmond, he swung his sword horizontally, the resulting fire stripe flew towards the wolves and cut them in two before they could react.

Heinald turned to Osmon and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes." Osmond looked around in surprise, then replied.

"Good! We'd better keep moving forward." Heinald hurried to the direction the horses had fled.

"It was really good of you to finish off those wolves in such a short time! Have you been in situations like this before?" Osmond quickly caught up with him and began to speak.

Heinald said, "Yes, I believe I have enough combat experience."

"The horses are there!" As Osmond was getting ready to say something new, he saw the horses ahead.

The two of them quickly mounted their horses and continued their journey to the north side of the forest. After about three hours of travel, they reached the Betelhallow District. This area was a very lively place compared to other parts of the forest. There were lots of flowers, weeds, shrubs and nooks all around.

Osmond stopped in front of a small pond and asked, "Are you ready to see the Sundown Gardens?"

Heinald nodded.

Osmond took a palm-sized yellow sphere from the pocket of his black robe and dropped it into the pond. When the sphere touched the water, the entire pond shone with a golden light, but there was no movement in the water.

The golden light disappeared as Osmond bent and picked up the orb, and the water parted in the pond, revealing a staircase that descended.

"Lets go." Osmond started down the stairs.

As they descended, Heinald encountered an unexpected natural beauty. In front of him was a large underground garden, which was illuminated by many violets that gave off a dim blue light. In addition, although there were a few different types of flowers and plants, the majority of them belonged to Genyort Lotuses.

"Isn't it wonderful? Our temple has many more places like this one. There's another area ahead, but that's the lab where herbalists and Potion Brewers work." Osmond pointed ahead.

When Heinald examined the surroundings in detail, he realized that there was actually a formation covering the entire area. After thinking for a few seconds, he realized what had happened; they were adjusting the environmental conditions needed by the plant they wanted to grow in this closed garden.

"They can even create a fake climate! Very clever!" Heinald laugh inside.