"Dane, I have arrived in town." Heinald took the Communication Crystal and communicated with Dane.
"Heinald!" Dane came out of one of the small houses and waved.
"What's going on, Dane?" Heinald asked after hugging his friend.
"Come in, very interesting things are happening in this area!" Dane had a solemn expression.
Heinald came in and hugged the rest of the family as well. There has been no change in their appearance since the last time he saw them.
"The waves of energy emanating from you are much stronger than before." Morena noticed the change right away.
"Indeed! My trip to the Mesqur Area was lucky, I found a few resources that would work for me." Heinald did not mention, of course, that he had a Spirit Potion formula and was able to brew it successfully.
"What was it that made you get so strong in such a short time?" Dane asked curiously.
"I cooperated with a clan for a short time and helped them with very difficult potions to make. In return for my long-term help, I received three fruits with intense Spiritual Energy." Heinald lied.
"You are really lucky that you have the ability to brew potions! We have been traveling for almost a year and we have received very few Arkana Stones." Mady let out a long sigh.
"But I think we found something really interesting this time." Dane said in a solemn and excited tone.
"I noticed the Dark Energy surrounding the town." Heinald said.
"A few months ago, an old friend of mine noticed the Dark Energy surrounding the area while passing through this area. Luckily, when we came across a tavern, he talked to me about this area and offered to cooperate. According to him, if we can find the source of Dark Energy behind this area, we can obtain valuable resources. So we settled in this town and we've been observing the surrounding area for a while. "
"But the situation seems a little more serious than we thought..." Morena said.
"What exactly is going on here?" asked Heinald.
"There are three Cruxals that show up at night." Dane said.
"What!?" Heinald was taken aback.
Cruxal was a type of cursed spirit, they are not dangerous without possessing a body, but if they found a body to take shelter in them, they would be quite dangerous. But a Cruxal was not a natural creature, it was the result of cursed experiments.
"What's behind this?" asked Heinald.
"That's what we want to learn." Dane snapped a finger and stood. "Who were those Cruxals created by?"
"Didn't most of the curses disappear with the ancient Ainsars? Are some people still known how such curses were done?" Heinald had an uneasy expression.
There were Ainsars who still knew about the curses, but these curses were generally not effective curses. However, in a book he read about curses, it was written that the curse required to create a Cruxal originated in ancient times.
"We are not the only ones looking for what the ancient Ainsars have left behind. Many powerful associations are searching for ancient Ainsar relics with research groups of thousands." Ruske shrugged.
"No wonder, after all, even we know information about Cruxals." Mady said.
"There is a huge difference between knowing information about Cruxal and knowing the curse that created a Cruxal..." Dane exhaled.
"So what does your friend suggest?" Heinald asked.
"He thinks we need to make observation first, when he comes here I'll introduce you to him." Dane said.
"If we get valuable gains at the end of this, all the gains will be shared equally among all of us." Mady said.
"We're going to be six in total, actually we are a pretty strong group." Morena smiled slightly.
"So what do we do when we find the person or people behind this incident?" This was exactly the question that confused Heinald.
"If possible, we will kill them." Dane said.
"During our observations, we visited a few more towns in the region and you know what they all have in common?" Morena looked directly at Heinald.
"What?"
"There were cases of disappearance in all of the towns. Some Apprentice Ainsars and ordinary people living in the towns suddenly disappeared." Morena said.
"This ... Are they using them as test subjects?" Heinald's expression became serious.
The intense Dark Energy, Cruxals and disappearing people in the region ... When all these were brought together, a disturbing picture emerged.
"Let's say we killed the person or people behind this business, is it certain that we will profit from it?" Heinald asked a question after a short silence.
"Well ... No." Dane shook his head.
Heinald fell silent.
In fact, another question that had stood in the corner of his mind for a long time was about Dark Magic and Dark Energy. Although Dark Magic appears to be much worse than other types of magic, it was actually because Ainsars thought Dark Magic and Cursed Arts were the same. Cursed Arts was mostly a concept that encompassed various curses made or created with Dark Energy. Black Magic could be used just like Elemental Magic, but its difficulty, function, and destructive power were far greater than elemental spells.
The point that misled Ainsars was that the Cursed Arts and Dark Magic originated from Dark Energy!
Moreover, Elemental Energy could also be used in very malevolent ways, some elemental spells could be much more malevolent, so Dark Magic was just another type of spell in his opinion.
"Dark Arts and Black Magic are concepts that should not be confused." Heinald remembered a sentence written in one of the books he had read.
Moreover, he did not deny that the technique he gained to bring Dark Energy into his body was an extremely malignant technique. So he decided to focus on different topics until he learned more about Dark Magic and Dark Energy.
"I'm not sure, I have a gut that says this is too dangerous." Heinald said.
"I know, but our earnings may be huge. Whoever was behind this work must have acquired the relic from Ancient Ainsar era." Dane exhaled loudly.
"Take into account Heinald that if we work with you, our strength as a group will increase a lot. You are much stronger than us in terms of Magic Energy and you can also make various potions." Ruske said.
"First, let's observe enough, we will make the final decision based on the information we have." Heinald said after a moment's silence.
"Where exactly did you see the Cruxals?" Heinald asked.
"In a field a few miles from here." Dane answered.
"I want to go there alone and observe." Heinald said.
"Alone? If you are spotted, you will die." Mady objected in surprise.
"Mady is right, are you crazy?" Morena's brows frowned slightly.
"Don't worry, I'll be very careful. Besides, I have some potions to use in emergency situations, I think I can easily escape. Observing with more than one person makes it difficult for us to stay secret. Heinald responded to the reactions. He thought he could easily observe from a safe distance thanks to his eyes. Moreover, it would also hide the energy waves emitted by the energy suppression technique Kunes gave him.
"If you say so ..." Dane exhaled loudly.
Heinald followed the directions given to him and started walking towards the region where the Cruxals were last seen. He would not use his horse because secrecy and quiet movement were important. He was curious about the appearance of the Cruxals.
After a roughly two-hour hike, he reached a small hill, collapsed among the tall grasses on the hill, and began to walk slowly, at the same time using energy suppression technique.
Behind the little hill was the last land of the Cruxals.
He purposely wanted to climb this little hill because he could see the whole terrain. He felt quite well hidden and safe in the dark of the night and in the tall grass. He began to observe the land with all his attention.
Hours passed, but no Cruxal was able to see any. After a while, his eyes were quite tired as he strained his eyes to see the distance.
"Maybe they've gone out of the field..." Heinald muttered.
As Heinald was about to make the decision to move, he saw movement in the distance. He immediately began to look at the movement area with all his attention.
"This must be one of those Cruxals..." Heinald's brows frowned slightly.
A figure with some of their skin rotten and shed entered the viewpoint. Blackened bones were visible because there was no meat in some parts. Apparently, he claimed the body of a corpse in the tomb.
Heinald watched Cruxal for a while without taking his eyes off. As far as he understood from its actions, he was keeping watch around the region. He had not been able to see the other two Cruxals around, and they were likely to be on guard in different areas.
"Hm? Who is this?" Heinald saw someone in black robes walking towards Cruxal. He couldn't see his face properly, so he crawled on the ground to find a better angle for himself. When he found a good angle, he could see the face of the person in the black robes.