The Moon Thief

"I can see the town now..." As Heinald stepped out of the wooded area, he saw the town perched on the small hill. This time he would not observe the town but the surroundings of the small hill.

For the next few hours he wandered around the hill looking for something odd. However, he could not find anything around the hill that would attract his attention.

"That little girl told me that spiders appear at night. Maybe I should wait for them to reappear ..." Heinald muttered inwardly.

He decided to continue observing around the hill. At worst, he would come to this area and observe every night until the spiders appeared. He rode as slowly as he could, observing the area and the slopes of the small hill.

As he continued his observations carefully, he noticed an interesting detail on the hillside. The slope of the hill usually had a light green vegetation, but in a small part this color was slightly darker. However, this tonal difference was very difficult to distinguish, if Heinald's eyes were normal, he would definitely not be able to notice this detail.

He immediately got off his horse and started climbing that area. As he got closer and closer, he became more and more certain that he wasn't wrong, the surrounding plants were the same, but the colors were different. When he arrived at the different area, he began to carefully examine his surroundings.

"The Horizon Grass..." Heinald studied the surrounding vegetation closely and shook his head. There was a visual fluctuation in a small area when he touched one of the different shades of grass in front of him.

Heinald frowned slightly.

Nothing had come to Heinald's hand instead of grass. There must have been some kind of camouflage formation in this area. When he carefully stepped inside, he realized that he had stepped inside a large cave. The cave was quite large and had spider webs all over it. There was a foul odor that permeated the entire cave.

He took his sword and began walking cautiously. After a few hundred meters, the cave began to curve. There were incredible pointed stalactites above, but almost all of them were covered with cobwebs. Although it was not very obvious, there was a constant shaking on the ground, this shaking was not felt above.

At that moment, Heinald began to feel the waves of energy coming from ahead. Before long, three huge spiders appeared. However, there was an extremely interesting but also frightening situation.

Both Fire Energy and Dark Energy were emanating from the bodies of these three spiders!

"Damn it!" Heinald's expression turned rather serious.

He immediately realized that these spiders were being experimented with. Normally, Magical Beasts were born with Elemental Energy, just like humans. The only difference is that if a human managed to become Ainsar, they could control all the elements, but Magical Beasts could only control whatever element they were born predisposed to. Heinald had read in some books that some evolved Magical Beasts could contain different types of energies, but these spiders front of him were not evolved. If they were,he would probably not be able to withstand the energy waves they expose and would explode.

"There are so many flaws in their bodies, these spiders must be the result of an incomplete experiment...." When Heinald examined the spiders' bodies, he saw that there were some flaws in various parts of their bodies. For example, one of the spiders had two heads, but one of the heads was smaller than the other.

Another spider had two more legs protruding from its middle body. The last spider he examined had no eyes and had four extra legs.

Fortunately, the energy emanating from these spiders showed that they were not very strong. The energy emitted from these spiders was as much as the energy of a Level 1 Ainsar that had just made a breakthrough. Although they had the advantage of numbers, he himself had various potions. But he still had to be very careful. He had no clue how these spiders front of him will use the Dark Energy they have.

Heinald's right hand flashed, and Astol's Caustic Poison Poiton appeared in his hand. Without hesitation, he threw it towards the spiders.

*Puufss* When the bottle was broken, a snake hissing sound and a cloud of toxic gas appeared.

"Fire Vines!" Heinald muttered harshly.

As the spiders began to feel the effects of the scorching and poisonous gas, burning vines emerged from its underside and gripped their bodies, so they were trapped in the poisonous gas cloud.

Heinald ignored the spiders' scream of pain and focused on the state of their bodies. The cloud of poisonous gas and burning vines left open wounds on the spiders' bodies, but not enough to topple them.

The eyeless spider broke free from the burning ivy and leaped towards him, its forelimbs covered with fire.

At the same time, Heinald swung his sword at the spider.

His sword slashed through in the air and easily blocked the spiders attack.

The force of the collision created a shock wave and sparks flew. The two-headed spider also got rid of the burning ivy and began walking along the walls of the cave for a suitable attacking position. Violent waves of fire began to radiate from its body.

The two-headed spider's entire body was engulfed in flames, and when it jumped from the wall to the ground, a scorching wave of fire began to spread across the cavern.

"Frost Wave!" Heinald shouted out inside.

The freezing wave emanating from his body and the scorching wave of the spider had annihilated each other.

While Heinald was fighting, he was also watching the spiders. These spiders had used fire energy in the fight until now. His estimation was that these spiders were using Dark Energy for defense rather than attack. He had noticed that Dark Energy was accumulating in the areas where the spiders had open wounds, and the wounds were healed quite quickly.

He had to kill them quickly! If this war was to prolong, the disadvantage would be greater.

Heinald quickly cast his 'Fire Vines' spell again and briefly stopped the spiders from moving again.

"Dragon Instinct!" Heinald's eyes gleamed coldly.

He raised both hands and five fireballs formed around him. These fireballs flew directly over the spiders and stuck to them. At the same time, a fire bond began to form between the fireballs and the reaction began.

*BAM!*

A fierce explosion of fire took place, and the resulting scorching flames burned the surroundings. He was thinking of using his magic called Lightning Spear, but the violent explosion he would create could cause part of the cave to collapse.

He didn't want to take the risk!

When Heinald raised his hand, red and black smoke began to rise from his hand, then a scorching fire ray shot out of his hand and hit the spiders. The temperature in the environment had increased so much that it could literally be considered a hell. Luckily, it didn't hurt him, as all this was the result of spells cast by him.

When the scorching flames dissipated, the charred bodies of the spiders were revealed. Even though Dark Energy gave them a superior regeneration speed, it wasn't enough to save them. Heinald's spells had become noticeably stronger, especially after his spiritual strength had improved.

However, he had to admit that if the energy of these spiders were equal to his, he might not be able to overcome them even with the help of potions.

Heinald split the charred parts of the spiders and reached for their blood. He filled a small vial with spiders' blood and sent them into the dimensional pocket of his robe. He wanted to examine the blood of these spiders whenever he had time.

He stopped fumbling on the spiders' body and started walking deeper into the cave. The cave was not divided into any other road, and although it was curved, there was only one direction to go.

"Hmm? These are..." Heinald continued to walk cautiously, seeing many skeletons wrapped in spider web in front of him. He approached the skeletons and began to examine them. There were fractures and bruises in various parts of these skeletons. These skeletons were about two or three years old, not very old.

After a short while, he stopped examining the skeletons and continued walking. After walking an estimated few hundred meters, he saw the burning torches hanging from the ceiling. This showed that this cave was visited recently.

"I have to be careful..." Heinald muttered.

Considering the possibility that a trap might have been set, he took every step he took very carefully and examined his surroundings down to the smallest detail.

After continuing to move forward, it came to a spherical field. This space was not very big, just a little bit bigger than a standard room. There was a blue colored crystal on the ceiling that illuminated the surroundings. There were many shelves in the vicinity, and on each of these shelves were storage containers and bottles of various sizes.

When Heinald looked inside the bottles and containers, he saw various animal organs and blood samples. On the large table in the middle of the space was a table filled with the alchemical tools he was familiar with. A slight amount of Dark Energy was emanating from the blood on this table.

In one corner of the field were broken spider eggs. Inside was a dark liquid that gave off a nasty smell.

"I think this is where the spiders I killed were created..." Heinald muttered.

After thoroughly scanning the area, he confirmed that there was nothing of use. The blood sample from the spiders should have been the last point of the experiment anyway.

Heinald did not want to linger there any longer and left.