The Moon Thief

Heinald's sword was stuck in the head of the giant scorpion. His Spiritual Magic eroded the head area of the scorpion so that the armored head area of the scorpion was worn down and the sword could be stabbed.

"Disgusting!" Heinald grimaced. As he pulled back his sword, a mucous-like liquid began to flow from the scorpion's head.

After moving away from the giant scorpion's lifeless body, he began to carefully clean his sword, the venom of this scorpion have been quite strong, and if he was careless and touched the venom, he could get into trouble.

Heinald did not linger any longer and began to walk, entering the wide tunnel in front of him, walking quite carefully, as always.

"These ...?" Heinald's eyes began to shine at the sight he saw, with a huge herb habitat in front of him.

"Serpenteye Herb, Libus Flower, Wolirle Grass, Punfire Mushroom ... All these plants are very valuable and special plants!" Heinald's heart began to beat quickly, he didn't even know some of the plants around. But he didn't jump right away, he checked his surroundings carefully at first. A trap to be caught without preparation could have been his end.

After carefully checking the surroundings and verifying that there was no danger, he immediately began to carefully tear the surrounding valuable plants and store them in the dimensional pocket of his robe. They were so many that it took hours to collect them all.

When he collected all the plants, he began to return the path he came from with a pleasant smile on his face, and if he sold these plants he would probably be as wealthy as the kings, but he did not think of doing anything like that. All of these plants were rare and not readily available. He would use these for his Potion Brewing experiments.

When Heinald came back to the triple crossroads, he stopped there and waited for his Magic Energy to be restored. When he was ready, he started walking in the middle corridor. The end of this corridor did not lead to a door like the others. Heinald walked quickly for minutes, yet all he saw was darkness with no end.

After walking through the dark tunnel for long periods, he saw something.

"Hm?" Heinald saw a small blue light ahead, and began to walk quickly toward the light. As he drew closer to the light, he saw it emanating from a small ball on a stone pulpit. He went over to him and began to examine it, there was a ring and a book inside.

He soon realized that this ball was a kind of Barrier Formation.

"This formation is pretty solid. It will take a large amount of energy to decay." Heinald was muttered while examining the Barrier Formation.

For emergencies, he always carried lots of Compressed Energy Stones in the dimensional pocket of his robe. Sometimes it was needed, as in the current situation. He emptied his mind and focused all his attention on the Formation. After spending hours and 20 Compressed Enery Stones, he finally succeeded.

"Nice! Finally the barrier is gone, now I have to carefully examine these items. This ring and book seems not ordinary things." Heinald thought.

Heinald began to examine the items. There was nothing suspicious about them, and there was no Magic Energy emitting from them. He sent the Magic Energy onto the objects. At that moment the ring began to emit a pale golden light.

"Hm?" Heinald's eyebrows rose, and an intense fire element energy began to radiate from the ring. Heinald carefully picked up the ring, and interestingly, the ring was not hot, it could even be said to be quite cold. The ring in his hand was a plain silver ring, without any stone or embroidery.

Heinald put the ring on his finger, and he didn't really understand what was happening because the ring on his finger was getting colder.

"A cold ring that radiates fire element energy eh ... It's really ironic!" Heinald smirked. He sent his Magic Energy back to the ring, wanting to decipher this ring's trick.

"Wait! This..." Heinald's hairs pricked up with a strange feeling he felt. He could have sworn he felt a presence in this ring. He was sure now that he sent Magic Energy to his ring a few more times. There was the energy of another creature in this ring!

He immediately closed his eyes and focused his mind and soul on the ring, and after a short while he began to see a small golden ball in the distance, although his eyes were closed. As he kept focusing, it was as if the little golden ball was getting closer and closer to him. Time went by, the little ball grew bigger at first. Later, its shape started to change, the ball was gradually opening.

* Hiyaa! * The little ball began to burst golden flames around it, followed by a shrill scream. Heinald was astonished, facing a Phoenix. He immediately opened his eyes and looked at the ring, and the ring was no longer shining, but he could feel the presence of the Phoenix in the ring without focusing anymore.He was so confused that he had neither seen, heard nor read anything like this before. 

"What is this? A Phoenix's Spirit?" Heinald looked at the ring in his hand with some thoughtfulness.

Some later he picked up the book on the pulpit.It was thick and heavy. The tome of the book made of a kind of animal skin.

"The Art of Spirit Binding" Heinald saw this title when he opened the first page of the book.

"The Art of Spirit Binding?" Heinald frowned.

"Spirit Binding is one of the few techniques left over from the time of Ancient Ainsar. In fact, this technique was discovered incompletely at first. But Great Ainsar Enril has managed to complete this technique by blending it with his own knowledge. Spirit Binding is the name given to the process of binding a spirit that has already been captured of a Magical Beast can be successfully integrated into an object, that object will integrate with the core energy of the Magical Beast's spirit. An Ainsar who has such an object can bond with the spirit source of that Magical Beast. The Spirit Binding process can only be done with a special formation, this book will mostly contain technical information about this Formation. "

"This ..." Heinald gaped with astonishment when he read the book's introduction. There was a Phoenix spirit in the ring. He immediately began to examine its other pages.

He found some small notes between the pages and read them first. These little notes contained some information about The Art of Spirit Binding and experiments.

"The Magical Beast spirit required for the spirit binding process must belong to an Elemental King!"

Heinald's eyes widened when he read the first of the notes.

The Elemental Kings were the most powerful Magical Beast species in the world. The elemental energy of this species would be higher than any other species.Ancient Ainsars used to hunt these species for glory and fame, but now an Ainsar who might confront them was regarded as a fool.

"It would be insane to fight a grown Elemental King.But those that are not grown yet can be hunted." Heinald muttered, but this species was already a fairly rare breed, and a not grown one would be very difficult to find.

Heinald quickly scanned the contents of the book with his eyes, but could not find any information about this ring and the Phoenix Spirit within.

Heinald sent the book into the dimensional pocket of his robe and carefully observed its surroundings. After confirming that there is nothing else,he began to move on. He entered a dark tunnel again, but this tunnel was more spacious than the others, and as usual he was alert for the possibility of a trap. Fortunately, this tunnel was not very long, after a short walk he reached an area surrounded by sculptures, and when he examined the sculptures, he saw that these were various Magical Beast sculptures.

A fiery-red light came from the end of the road ahead of him, and he noticed that the temperature grew stronger as he approached the light. He speeded up his steps and soon reached the end of the road. There was another short road to the right, the road leading to a very large area.

Heinald walked quickly and went out into a large field. There was a long stone bridge across it, and below the bridge was like a sea of lava and surrounding was very hot.

* Hrrr * Heinald heard many growling sounds coming from the environment. He immediately began to look around carefully.

"These are the Lava Hounds! Their auras are weaker than mine, but they are too many. Still, it won't be a problem." Heinald saw the hounds rising from the giant sea. Flames were coming out of the eyes and noses of the lava hounds, and they were slowly gathering around him.

Heinald smiled slightly and suddenly released some of his Magic Energy. The sudden wave of Magic Energy created a small shock wave around. The Hounds shot by Heinald's Magic Energy immediately retreated.

They did not dare to approach Heinald.

"I'm sorry but I have to kill you, I want your hearts." The Heinald murmured mockingly. The Lava Hounds in front of him were actually not common creatures, mostly living in volcanic regions.

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