The Moon Thief

For a week with almost no rest, Heinald only brewed potions. He had run out of all the ingredients he had, so he wouldn't be able to continue brewing potions anymore. After carefully packing all the potions he had brewed into a large bag, he left the Redsand Mansion and went straight to the city's Market Square.

He walked into a potion shop he had seen before. There were no potions on the shelves of the shop, just bottles to put the potions and various containers to store the ingredients. There was an old man sitting behind a large bench in the back of the shop.

When Heinald came in front of the man, he put his bag on the counter and said, "I have potions I want to sell.

The old man nodded slowly and said, "Please let me see the potions."

When Heinald opened the bag, the old man's eyes began to shine. He carefully picked up the bottles and began to examine their colors, but it was clear that he didn't know anything about these potions. Thereupon, he told the old man the names of the potions and their effects. Inside the bag there were 10 Distilled Thunder Essence, Shield of Fire Heart and Rhimpous Potion.

The old man took out a palm-sized cube from his pocket. This cube had a round recess at the top. With the help of a stick, the old man took one drop of all the potions in the bag, one by one, and poured it into that round recess.

This cube was a special magical item that determined the potion's effects and impurity ratio.

"I can give 150,000 Arkana Stones to all these potions." The old man had the price in mind after he had finished his investigations.

After thinking for a while, Heinald said, "Deal."

The old man gave Heinald 150 Crystallized Arcana Stones and took all the potions to the room behind the bench.

When the old man came back, Heinald asked, "Can I see what kind of potions you've got?"

"Certainly." The old man handed him a catalogue.

Heinald looked through the entire catalog and said, "I want a Theton Potion, a Lus Potion, and a Pal Potion."

Theton Potion was increasing the Fire Element effect by 20% for ten minutes.

Lus Potion was increasing the effect of the Lightning Element by 15% for five minutes.

Pal Potion, on the other hand, increased physical strength by 30% for ten minutes.

The old man nodded and said "10,000 Arkana Stones."

Heinald gave the old man 10 Crystallized Arkana Stones and left the shop after sending the potions into the dimensional pocket of his robe.

Heinald entered a shop selling various materials and herbs, and after buying the materials he needed from there, he left and returned to the Redsand Mansion. He was exhausted, having been brewing potions with almost no rest for the past week. So he went straight to his room to get some sleep.

Meanwhile, an attendant was walking towards Heinald's room. When he saw him coming from the opposite side, he immediately walked towards him and said, "Sir, there is a letter for you."

Heinald nodded slightly and took the letter and entered his room. The news he had been waiting for from Galer had finally arrived.

"We'll meet at the south gate of the city at noon tomorrow. Please be careful not to be late."

After he threw the letter aside, he went straight to his bed and slept. He woke up early the next morning and left a note for his master that he was going to hunt the Azarb Serpent. Then he left the mansion and mounted his horse and started to ride towards the south gate of the city. After a few hours of traveling without haste, he managed to reach the south gate of the city.

When he saw Galer and three other people on horseback in front of the door, he went to them.

When Galer saw Heinald coming, he walked over and said, "Here's the person I told you about. Heinald, come. Meet the rest of the team."

A woman with long blond hair and stern green eyes gave a slight nod and introduced herself, "I'm Ajna, nice to meet you.

"Me too." Heinald replied with a slight nod. The energy waves that this woman emitted were even slightly more than her own energy.

"My name is Faniel, nice to meet you." A gray-haired man almost as tall as Heinald introduced himself. The energy waves emanating from this man were quite balanced. It was clear that he was a Level 1 Ainsar a long time ago.

"Me too." Heinald replied.

"I'm Labas, nice to meet you." A rather skinny-looking man introduced himself. This man was so stocky that his cheekbones were showing. His skin was pale, and anyone looking at him from afar would think he was suffering from a serious illness. However, the waves of energy emanating from this man showed that he was very close to becoming a Level 2 Ainsar.

Heinald was quite curious about the secret behind this man's body. This man's body had to be at least as durable and strong as his, or it would shatter under the pressure of Magic Energy. Normally, a women who became Level 1 Ainsars wouldn't have a very mascular body either, but that was due to their genetics.

Heinald decided to clear his head from these thoughts and said, "Me too."

Galer said, "There's one more person we're waiting for."

Thus, everyone started chatting in order to get to know each other better. When it was revealed that Heinald was Albin Redsand's new apprentice, they all began to look at him with special respect.

Heinald was glad that these were not a newly ascended Ainsar. The Magical Beast they were hoping to hunt was extremely dangerous, so he was relieved that those around him were relatively experienced Ainsars. If a newly ascended Ainsar like Osmond were in the team, he might not be able to perform as required.

"Oh, here's the last person we've been waiting for." Galer pointed ahead. On a white horse came a beautiful woman with long black hair. The energy waves emanating from her showed that she was also a Level 1 Ainsar.

"Greetings. I hope I haven't kept you waiting too long. I'm Aleinar, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you!" Everyone responded.

"Now that everybody's here, we can get going." They set out with the guidance of Galer.

As soon as you left the south gate of the city, the plains began. Galer's map marked the area where the passage was, but as far as he mentioned, there was no specific parsing description of the passage. They would most likely have to search and find the pass themselves in the marked area.

They rode non-stop for about three hours across the plains. Finally, they came to the area marked on the map. It was a place full of sparse trees and large rocks, with a riverbed on its right side.

Although Heinald looked around carefully, he couldn't see any 'gate' like place. It had to be some kind of secret passage so no one expected it to be easy to find, but everything in this area was similar and a 'gate' would look quite different compared to other things in the area.

After looking around carefully, Ajna exhaled and said, "I hope this guy isn't a liar and we're not looking for a place that doesn't really exist."

"I don't think that would happen. It would be very pointless for him to do something like that." Keeping looking around, Galer shrugged.

"So are we sure we're in the right area?" Heinald asked.

"I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure it's in or around this area." Galer replied.

Labas said, "We can't go on like this, let's spread and search the whole area. If anyone finds anything, let the others know."

Galer view. "I agree. Let's spread around and look for the gateway."

Everyone spread out around the area and started looking for the secret passage.

"The passage must be under one of these rocks... There's nothing around to hide a passage." Heinald thought.

As he rode slowly around the area, he carefully watched the huge rocks around. It was then that his eyes caught an important detail. The spots and marks on one of the rocks were recurring frequently.

This rock must have been created with a similar camouflage formation he had seen before!

Heinald immediately went to the stone and when he extended his hand, he saw that his hand had entered the stone. Afterwards, it almost completely went into the stone. There were several seals on the ground and a red crystal in the middle of the seals. This was the camouflage formation itself.

At first, he thought of breaking this formation, but later decided not to do it. If he disrupted this formation, the secret passage would be visible to others as well. If there was indeed an Azarb Serpent downstairs, they could be attacked by others while fighting him.

No one there would want something like that to happen!