The Moon Thief

After Heinald bought all the ingredients he needed in Saylam City's Market Square, he set out for Saint Mevson Temple.

When he arrived there, he could easily get in as he was already recognized by the priests there.

As he walked into the temple, he saw Galer and Osmond talking about something.

A cold light flashed in Heinald's eyes when he saw Galer, but was later deliberately destroyed by him. He had been tricked and used by him last time.

He would definitely make him pay for it when the time was right, but that day was not today. He had come to the Saint Mevson Temple to ask him for help with something today.

"Gallery! Osmond!" Heinald greeted them as he approached them.

"Heinald! Which wind brought you here?" Gallery was surprised to see him. He had no idea why he had come to the Saint Mevson Temple.

Heinald sighed and said, "Actually, I was going to ask you for a little help."

Galer's eyebrows rose slightly, "If it's something I can help with, I'll enjoy it."

"Thanks!" Heinald smiled faintly.

"Come, let's take a walk with you." Galer pointed to the garden.

"Actually, I came here because you know a lot more people in this city than I do." Heinald started walking with him.

Galer gave him a look, "Speak more clearly, please."

"Do you know anyone interested in Dark Magic?" Heinald asked.

"Dark Magic?" Galer stopped abruptly and stared at his face for a moment, then continued, "People interested in Dark Magic are not very tolerated ... You should know that."

"Don't worry, I have no intention of surrendering my soul to evil. My intention is only to learn a few facts." When Heinald felt that he was uncomfortable, he felt the need to explain himself.

"Heinald, the methods used by those who deal with Dark Magic are even more dangerous than they think…" Galer sighed, "Most people who deal with Dark Magic conduct various spirit experiments on ordinary people, but all who do so face one end."

"What do you want to say?" Heinald's brows furrowed.

"Do you know the Karmic Punishment?" Gallery asked.

Heinald nodded. "Even though ordinary people are an ant alongside the Ainsars, they are also part of the Order. A person who kills too many ordinary people will be exposed to Karmic Punishment by the Order."

"Yes. Those who are interested in Dark Magic use ordinary people in their experiments, and most of these experiments result in the death of those ordinary people." Gallery view.

"He must have thought I was dealing with curses... How pathetic!" Heinald grinned inside.

Galer shrugged and said, "But after all, I know you're not one to recklessly put yourself in danger. So I can give you the address of someone I know."

Heinald smiled faintly.

***

When Heinald returned to Redsand Mansion, he learned that his master had called him for the experiment. He immediately walked to his master's laboratory. Earlier, his master had told him that they would conduct many experiments in the coming days.

"Master!" When Heinald entered the laboratory, he immediately greeted his master. When he saw Albin preparing various materials, he immediately went to him and prepared the materials he intended to use for the experiment, at his orders.

"Blue Tendon Lotus Flower, Wild Sunset Grass, Angel Feather Rose and Red Jubek Crystal." His eyes lit up as Heinald looked at the precious ingredients in front of him. All these ingredients were hard-to-find ingredients that most potion masters dreamed of.

"What do you have master?" Heinald noticed that Albin had a strange stone in his hand.

"Watch carefully!" While Albin was holding the stone with his right hand, he brought his left hand over the stone and small seals began to form around his hand. These seals quickly shrunk and were engraved on the stone. The stone began to emit a pale blue light and soon turned into dust and flew in a line through the air.

As the dust slowly descended to the ground, they formed a thin circle. Various seals appeared within this circle.

With a wave of Albin's hand, the Red Jubek Crystal flew into his hand. When he placed the crystal on the circle, the crystal did not fall to the ground and remained suspended in the air.

Heinald was watching the whole process with interest and curiosity.

"This formation will pulverize the Red Jubek Crystal. Meanwhile, we will deal with the remaining materials." Seeing the expression on his apprentice's face, Albin explained.

Heinald watched his master use Spirit Flame to destroy harmful particles on Blue Tendon Lotus Flower, Wild Sunset Grass, Angel Feather Rose and couldn't help but admire.

Through his splendid eyes, Heinald could see the particles and the energy flow of the Spirit Flame. So,brewing a potion seemed impossible to many, it wasn't too challenging for him.

Albin, on the other hand, could act with expertise thanks to the experience he gained from hundreds of thousands of experiments.

Albin and Heinald later extracted the essences of Blue Tendon Lotus Flower, Wild Sunset Grass, Angel Feather Rose through various processes.

After hours, the red Jubek Crystal was floating above the formation like a cloud of dust.

Albin picked up a small tube and filled the powder floating above the formation into a small tube.

"The purity of these ingredients we're working with is way above the others. That's why we have to be extra careful when working on them. When adding these ingredients to the mix, if we add a small amount or a little more than the required amount, the whole process is instantly over. Keep in mind the amount ratio that I will show you."

Albin meticulously began adding Red Jubek Crystal Powder to the essences they had previously extracted.

He then added the extracts sequentially onto the silver water.

Heinald began to observe this process as carefully as he had last time. As the reaction began in the mixture, he strained his eyes and examined the reaction.

The result from this process was the same as last time. Although the ingredients in the potion seemed to destroy each other, he thought there was a different problem. When he looked at the essences, the filamentous tissue he saw resulted in the tissue in the essences not destroying each other, but self-destructing.

According to Heinald's calculation, it was between 1.5 and 2 seconds before the mixture started to decompose after the reaction.

Albin thoughtfully took a few notes and said that he could leave and go rest. In addition, he told him to think about this experiment until the next experiment.

When Heinald went to his room, he compared his previous experiment with his new experiment and hoped to discover something. Unfortunately, he still couldn't understand what was going on during the reaction. He analyzed all the data he had on potions and herbs for a long time, but couldn't come up with a logical theory.

He's stopped thinking about it for now and brewed Phoenix Feather Potion, Shied of Fire Heart, and Distilled Thunder Essence. He brewed as much of these three potions as he could brew with all the ingredients he had.

After upgrading this inner potion, the value of these potions increased even more. Using his knowledge of potions and herbalism, he was able to increase the effects of these potions.

"Master Albin won't be in a rush for a new experiment. First I'll go and sell these potions, then I'll go to the address Galer gave me and talk to that person who's interested in Dark Magic." After Heinald had listed the things he wanted to do, he left Redsand Mansion and traveled to Market Square of Saylam City.

When he walked into the shop where he always sold his potions, he saw again the old man who had helped him last time.

"Greetings! I have some potions I want to sell."

"Welcome!" The old man got up excitedly.

Heinald opened the bag and showed the old man the potions. This old man naturally did not know these potions advanced by him. He explained the feature of all the potions to him, and the old man confirmed it with the magic item he had.

"5 Phoenix Feather Potion,Shied of Fire Heart and Distilled Thunder Essence." Looking at these potions, the old man thought about the price he could offer, "I can give you 110,000 Arkana Stones for all of them."

"Very reasonable." Heinald nodded.

"Distinguished sir. The institution I work for will be honored to cooperate with you. Would you like to cooperate with us?" When the old man saw that Heinald had left without another word, he spoke immediately.

This old man understood that the young man in front of him was a potion prodigy. If he could persuade him to cooperate, he would definitely be rewarded by his superiors.

"What benefits will I gain and what responsibilities will I have to take on?" Heinald asked.

"We can give you some discount on any ingredients you buy from us. All you have to do is brew potions just for us at the frequency determined by our institution." The old man answered.

Heinald immediately shook his head, "I'm sorry. I don't want to take that kind of responsibility for now."

When Heinald left Market Square, he immediately went to the address given to him by Galer. This address belonged to a house located on a high hill in the northern part of Saylam City.

When Heinald arrived in front of the house described to him, he began to inspect the house. This house looked quite old, there were cracks in various parts of the walls. The flowers and herbs in the garden in front of the house had all dried up. There were no other buildings around the house.

"What a comforting place…" Heinald muttered.

When he got to the entrance of the house, he knocked on the old black door.

*Squeak* The door opened slowly.

However, no one was there to open the door. All he saw was a dusty corridor.

He started walking slowly down the corridor. He passed several closed doors as he walked, and at the end of the corridor he reached an open room.

"Stop right there! What do you want?" Heinald heard a hissing sound. He could feel the energy waves of a peak Level 1 Ainsar coming from inside the room.

"Are you interested in Dark Magic?" Heinald asked.

"So what?" The hissing sound was heard again after a while.

"There's nothing wrong. There's just something I want to ask you." Heinald continued to wait in the doorway, not seeing what's inside.

"Ask quickly and then go!"

"Do you have a Malicious God's Torture Stone?"

There was a long silence.

"Come in." The hissing sound was heard again.

When Heinald entered, he found a room covered with dust, just as he had been in the hallway. Most of the room had bookcases covered in dust and cobwebs. On these bookshelves were various skulls and different-looking candles.

There was a kind of formation in the middle of the room that was emitting a pale red light. On the right was a large black table. Behind the desk there was a figure wearing a hood, sitting on a black chair just like the color of the desk. He was wearing a gray, unembroidered robe, his face was darkened.

"I don't feel Dark Energy emanating from him." Heinald began to observe the figure before him.

"Why do you need the Malicious God's Torture Stone?"

A scene emerged that gave Heinald a great shock when the mysterious figure raised his head.

There was a skeleton in front of him!

Heinald did not answer for a moment, studying the skeleton before him. Inside his jet-black eye sockets were two red dots. Various runes were carved around his skull. When he tried to study these runes, a great discomfort rose in his heart.

"Karmic Punishment?" Heinald asked.

"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to!" The skeleton raised its hissing voice.

"Why I need the Malicious God's Torture Stone is my business." Heinald squinted, "Do you have it or not?"

*Kekeke!* The skeleton laughed.

"I have it, but don't think you can get it easily!"

"What do you want in return?" Heinald asked.

"Bring me two Naksha Serpent fang and 500g of Odux Rhinoceros blood." The skeleton placed his fingers on his desk, "So I'll give you a Malicious God's Torture Stone right away."

"I've never even heard of those." Heinald's brows furrowed.

"It's your problem, I said what I wanted." Two dots on the skeleton's eye sockets flashed ominously, "Now go!"

***

Heinald was very thoughtful as he journeyed to Redsand Mansion. The things that damned skeleton demanded, he had never heard before.

He could guess that these items the skeleton wanted were not found in the Market Square either. Otherwise, he wouldn't want those things from him.

"I'm going to do a little research on these materials. If I can't find information that works for me, I'll have to find another way." Heinald's expression darkened.

That skeleton was exposed to Karmic Punishment for his malicious experiments. He probably did all this to integrate Dark Energy into his body, but he was unsuccessful.

According to Heinald, he had a pretty good chance. He had already obtained a large number of souls in the Starlight Realm.

If he had collected that many souls himself, he would definitely be exposed to Karmic Punishment.