The wall was almost twice the height of Aegon, but he easily climbed over it and jumped outside without any hesitation.

As his lether boots touched the ground, all that awaited him was darkness along with flickering illumination from the bonfire on the other side of the wall.

His eyes easily found the boy who had slipped away, but his steps paused when he noticed something in the dark.

The appearance was completely unknown, yet haunting, something Aegon was seeing for the first time in his life.

A figure seemed to be rising in the darkness, with seven long dark tendrils shooting out from its grotesque body in every direction.

The body itself was changing every second, sometimes bulging and sometimes shrinking, looking like a stick. But there was something far more malevolent, its three yellow eyes that changed their position with every movement of the creature, and its wide maw dripping with dark mist.

The frightened boy trembled before the creature, too scared to even shout for help. All he could do was shift backward as the creature drew closer.

'Something is wrong with this one,' Aegon thought before he dashed forward, finally catching the attention of the creature.

It made the motion of screaming by opening its mouth, but of course, nothing came out.

Creatures of Darkness made no sound—unless they were powerful enough to resist the darkness itself.

A sharp and fast tendril came flying at him, which he easily dodged by ducking down and rolling forward toward the boy.

"Just take deep breaths! Everything is fine!" Aegon whispered to the boy as he picked him up and rolled to the side.

Feeling the sudden warmth in this chilling atmosphere, the boy finally calmed down a little and looked up, only to see bright golden orbs staring back at him.

"Seems like you're fine now," Aegon smiled and said. "Then, you should be able to handle this."

Before the boy could ask anything, Aegon jumped to the side, spun on his pivot, and threw the boy high up into the air.

Two dark tendrils tried to follow the boy into the air, but something sharp struck them as a flash of light made the tendrils scatter for a moment before they dispersed into the air.

The boy, on the other hand, was caught in the pale hands of Xavier. He had followed Aegon closely after but, instead of jumping, he had waited because he knew Aegon would do something like this.

They didn't need to communicate to have this level of cooperation.

"Hello, little brother. Are you scared?" Xavier asked, feeling the boy's small body shivering in his arms. "It's fine now."

"I-I saw two suns," the boy muttered, still remembering those golden orb-like eyes.

"Hmm, my little brother saved you just now," Xavier smiled and said. Then he looked at the other side of the wall where the townsfolk had gathered with anxious looks on their faces.

"I guess he can have fun with this one," Xavier muttered before he jumped down, knowing very well Aegon would be fine.

Meanwhile, Aegon stood before the creature of darkness with curiosity swirling in his eyes just like the dagger in his hand.

'Oh that reminds me. Good spot. Sign in!'

He was quite excited for the reward he would get for signing in close to a Creature of darkness.

[Ding! Signing-in in the Bralet Town.]

[Ding! Jar of Black Dirt obtained.]

[Ding! 10x Rewards Bonus Applied!]

[Ding! Ten Jars of Black Dirt Obtained.]

He was speechless, but pushed aside his disappointment to focus on the matter in hand.

"You are weak," he remarked, which irked the creature as it tried to hurt Aegon with more of its tendrils but failed miserably.

Aegon slipped under one of the tendrils and then slashed at another. The dagger's blade shone brightly for a moment as it cut down the tendrils.

Now, the creature was left with too few tendrils.

"You're fascinating too," Aegon said as he stepped closer to the creature of darkness. "You are physically here, but it also feels like you don't have a physical body. Interesting indeed."

In the next few seconds, Aegon easily cut all of the tendrils, leaving the monster with only a stick-like torso. Still, the abomination's yellow eyes shone brightly as it lunged at him to bite him with its terrifying maw.

Aegon took a step back and smiled. "Time to end this. You're too weak to be studied."

With that, he clenched his fists as crimson flames burst out of his hands, dancing around them as if the flames themselves were alive.

Just as the creature got close, Aegon threw a simple but powerful punch at it. He felt the impact against something soft before flames exploded from his hand, covering the creature completely.

"Phew!" Aegon took a deep breath as he backed away, watching as the flames devoured the creature in no time.

'That was... intense!'

He heaved a sigh of relief.

Although the opponent was too weak to even make him sweat, this was still the first serious battle he had fought, so he was a little nervous.

"Well done, Boss. You handled it very well."

He heard Hecte's voice from his shadow and chuckled. "I was a little worried, though. But it was fun."

"I'm happy for you."

Aegon smiled and made his way back toward the wall while keeping an eye on his surroundings. Although the chances were slim, there could be more creatures of darkness and powerful ones at that.

'Hecte didn't help me because she knew I wanted this,' Aegon thought. 'She really has begun to understand me.'

With that, he jumped over the wall again and landed amidst the folks who awaited his return. He paused for a second, sensing so many gazes on him.

"How did it go?" Xavier was the first to ask. "I guessed you were interested in them."

"A little," Aegon admitted and turned his head to find the boy.

"He lost consciousness, so we sent him to the Apothecary of our town," a young man with a surprisingly long beard spoke. "We thank you for saving him. We really thought we would lose him to the evil spirit today."

"Evil spirit?" Aegon raised an eyebrow and asked.

"Yes, although there was always the danger of darkness, we never truly encountered it as long as we didn't go out at night," the man continued. "But for the last year, that evil spirit has been haunting us. Two of us died at its hands, so I thought we would lose Calver too."

'A year? Is it because of the tragedy too?'

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