We walked to the other area and encountered 9 Minotaurs, their numbers were more than our team. Minotaurs were intelligent creatures and hard to fight with, but it was not the case for us.

All the young elves divided into 2 teams. Antlia, Norma, and Sagitta were on the same team. Lyra and Oliver were on the same team. They seemed to know that they did not need to worry about him.

Ilario intended to fight with close combat because the limited area, and there were other members in the area. He could not use the strong magic power to kill them like he did in The Practice World.

He activated “Solis” on his dagger knives and used “Teleport” to go behind one of Minotaur to cut off its head. He aimed at its head, it was the easiest way to kill an intelligent creature. It had no meaning to stab in the other areas due to their thick skins.

He did the same method to kill them one by one while Luna was backing him up. He killed 4 Minotaurs without getting any attack back.

On side of Antlia, Norma, and Sagitta, they were fighting the 3 Minotaurs as a teamwork. They activated magic power on their weapons and helped each other to fight and back up very well. Antlia was attacking mainly. Norma and Sagitta were supporting her in both of attack and defense. — Antlia was using fire magic sword to fight with them, she aimed for cutting off their heads. Norma was using earth magic power to block their movements and attacks while Sagitta was shooting wind magic arrows to them continually. They killed 3 Minotaur without getting hurt.

On side of Lyra and Oliver, they were fighting the 2 Minotaurs as one on one fight. Lyra was using fire magic sword to fight one of them. It was using its claws to attack her. She was using her speed to dodge its attack and cut off its head very quickly. She hurried to help Oliver.

While Lyra was fighting with another Minotaur, Oliver was using fire magic dagger knives to fight with one of them. It attacked him first but he dodged its attack and stabbed back on its shoulder. It attacked Oliver aggressively. He dodged and blocked its attacks. It was a tough fight when fighting with Minotaur without using strong magic power. Lyra helped Oliver by shooting wind arrows at its head. Oliver cut off its head quickly.

Ilario led the team members to the lowest level of the underground. He felt dark energies densely on this floor.

We followed the path until we saw a lot of dark magic stones on the walls and the ground, like a mine. All the dark magic stones contained many kinds of dark energies.

While we were surprised by the number of dark magic stones, the 3 Cerberus, the gigantic, three-headed hounds with serpent tails, showed up and came toward us.

“Ilario, you destroy all the dark magic stones. We will kill the Cerberus,” said Lyra seriously.

“Yes,” Ilario said.

He activated “Lumen” and Luna used “Light Purify” to purify the dark magic stones, then destroyed it one by one.

On side of the young elves, Antlia, Norma, and Sagitta were attacking mainly. Oliver was working as a bait. Lyra was supporting and controlling the situation. — Oliver was baiting one of Cerberus by slashing its leg. It turned to bite Oliver but he dodged and stabbed another leg. Antlia cut off one of its head while it was attacking Oliver. It used its claws to attack Antlia but she blocked it on time. Oliver cut off its tail to distract it from Antlia. Antlia got a chance, she hurried to cut off another head. Oliver jumped on its body and stabbed on the last head. Antlia cut off its body on vitals area and turned to help the others. — In the meantime, Norma, and Sagitta were shooting fire arrows to another 2 Cerberus to block their movements and prevent them to help the another one. Lyra activated “Wind Slashing” to cut off one of their heads. She could not continue to cut due to the limited area. They run madly toward Norma and Sagitta. They tried to bite and use their claws to attack Norma and Sagitta but Norma activated “Earth Wall” to block them. They smashed the Earth Wall but Norma and Sagitta were waiting to attack them after they destroyed the wall. Norma and Sagitta shot the fire arrows to them continually. Lyra activated “Wind Slashing” to cut off one of their heads. Antlia came to help after she killed one of Cerberus. She used fire magic sword to cut off one of their heads. — The young elves were baiting, attacking, blocking, and dodging the Cerberus by switching back and forth smoothly, their combination was like the perfect rhythm. They cut off all of their heads one by one, burned their bodies, and destroyed dark magic stones. They could kill 3 Cerberus before Ilario destroyed all the dark magic stones at that area.

We followed the path to the next area while Ilario and Luna was purifying and destroying dark magic stones along the way. There were many dark magic stones alongside the path. We took time to destroy it all.

Afterward, we continued to follow the path until we reached to the large area which were built to be prisons and laboratory. It was dark and musty area. There were the faint grimmer of the lamps on the walls.

We inspected all the prisons. There were Chimeras, and the experimental wild animals, their bodies had mixed with 2-3 types of animals. There was one Lycan that has 2 heads, and wings on its back, its eyes were red. It was trying to break the prison when it saw us. There were many experimental monsters, it can compare to a small zoo.

Lyra led the team to kill the experimental monsters one by one.

While we were killing the experimental monsters, a woman suddenly appeared in the laboratory area, she was wearing black cloak with hood, and a mask which completely covered her face.

“Ilario, that one! The one who have powerful dark magic core,” mind communicated Luna.

Before Ilario could warn everyone, all the prisons were unlocked and open. The experimental monsters came out and attack our team members aggressively.

“That woman, she’s a monster lord. Please be careful,” Ilario shouted, “I will deal with her.” He decided to fight with her after he saw everyone were busy fighting with the other experimental monsters.

While Ilario was warning the team members, a monster lord activated some kind of dark magic power to make all the experimental monsters attack more aggressively.

Ilario intended to kill monster lord to calm the situation down.

“Solaris, come here” mind communicated Ilario.

Solaris showed up after called.

“We need to kill that one,” mind communicated Ilario.

Ilario activated “Wind Dragon Wings” to boost up his speed and fly over the ground. He avoided the chaotic fights on the ground and flew toward monster lord.

“Burn her. I will activate barrier to cover our fight area,” mind communicated Ilario while he was activating “Light Barrier” to scope the area of fighting and prevent the risk of cave destruction.

Both of Luna and Solaris used “Light Beam” to attack monster lord. She blocked the attacks with “Dark Shield”. Ilario activated “Solis Breath” to attack her. It worked well, her ‘Dark Shield’ cracked.

“Increase more power to burn her,” mind communicated Ilario.

We were burning monster lord by increasing our powers. Her ‘Dark Shield’ was broken, she got our attacks directly. Her body were burned, her skins regrew itself but changed to be wrinkled skins, her mask cracked in half. He saw skin sutured on her cheek. It seemed she became an old woman after got burned.

“You!” said a Monster Lord coldly, her voice was hoarse, while she was activating ‘Dark Cursing’ to shot direct at Ilario, then disappeared.

Ilario could not block the curse on time because she attacked him while he was burning her. The strong dark magic power was spreading inside his body.

He fell from the air. Solaris run up toward him and caught him on time.

“Activate Lumen!” Luna said while she was using “Light Purify” on his body.

Ilario activated “Lumen” strongly to get rid all of dark magic power inside his body, then activated “Recover” to make sure of getting rid all of dark magic power completely. Fortunately, his magic core was very strong with light and healing magic power. He could get rid all of dark magic power but it exhausted him so much.

“You need to practice ‘Resistance’ until you can automatically activate it. That power can kill normal people instantly. It’s dangerous and strong curse,” said Luna seriously.

The young elves were still fighting with the experimental monsters.

Ilario sat on the ground and rested. He was tiring and could not go to help them now. Both of Luna and Solaris gave him light energy, they afraid that Ilario will lose his consciousness in this kind of situation. There was no light energy here, he could not use “Light Absorption” to fill up his power and make him recover faster. He could do nothing but rested.

***

Go back at the time while Ilario was fighting with monster lord.

The young elves were fighting with experimental monsters.

“Oliver, you kill all low level of monsters. You three kill the Chimeras. I will kill that Lycan.” Lyra said.

They separately went toward their targets after they got command from Lyra.

Antlia activated “Wind Slashing” to cut off the lion head, one of Chimeras. It was still moving and using its serpent tail to spit poison to Antlia. She dodged the poison, then shot fire magic arrows at its goat head and its body continually until it was dead.

Norma activated “Water Bubble” to cover all over Chimera to make it suffocate. It was trying to break out of water bubble but Norma increased power to make a thick layer of water bubble. It finally suffocated. Afterward, she cut off its heads and tail, and stabbed its heart.

Sagitta activated wind magic power on 3 arrows, then shot directly at heads and in vitals area of Chimera at once. It breathed fire at Sagitta. She dodged and repeat the shot of arrows until it was dead.

Lyra went toward Lycan. It ran madly toward Ilario. She shot fire magic arrows at its head and body to distract it from Ilario. It changed direction and run toward her. It used its claw to attack her, its claw was growing in length. She blocked its attack with sword on time, then activated “Fire Shooting” to attack its head. It was attacking Lyra aggressively with long claws, its movements were like human fight, it could attack and dodge with its tactic. It’s more intelligence than normal Lycan.

Oliver went to support Lyra after killed all low level of experimental monsters. He made the bait by shooting its back and legs to distract it from Lyra.

Lyra cut off its body at vitals area after it turned toward Oliver. She activated “Fire Burn” to burn its body and make sure that it was dead.

After the elves killed all the experimental monsters, they found out that Ilario lost his consciousness. They collected all the dead bodies of experimental monsters and the evidences in that area. Oliver carried Ilario, all of them left the cave and went back to the elves’ village.

Ilario opened his eyes and found himself lying on the bed in his room. He was feeling fresh after he got enough rest. He did not feel any dark curse inside his body. It seemed he completely recovered.

“Oh my…you woke up. You slept for 3 days. Everyone was worried about you. I will prepare you a meal,” said Ms. Carina with a relief, she came to check his condition continually since he came back after surveyed.

Both of Luna and Solaris were resting beside him. He had recovered fast because of their energies nearby.

“Anybody hurt?” Ilario asked.

“No, no one get hurt. They are great at fight and they possessed magic power at medium to high level. They killed all the monsters without getting injured,” Luna said.

“What do you think about that monster lord? Is she a human? She looks like a witch,” Ilario asked curiously.

“What is ‘a witch’?” Solaris asked Ilario.

“Umm…It’s kind of evil woman who can use magic power like Magus…,” said Ilario timidly, he did not know how to explain them because ‘a witch’ was some kind of imaginary creature and there was no word of ‘witch’ in this world.

They both were confused by his words but ignored it.

“She seems to be a creature like you, even though it’s not exactly the same type. She is a mixed race for sure but we could not describe which race were mixed with human race. And she possessed powerful dark magic core at the same level as your light magic core,” Luna said.

Ms. Carina knocked the door and came inside to give him a meal.

“Queen Agnes has something to talk to you. Please go to meet her tomorrow,” Ms. Carina said kindly and left.

The next day, Ilario went to meet Queen Agnes. He also needed to report the details of monster lord that he fought inside the cave.

“I’m so glad you’re doing well. How are you feeling?” Queen Agnes asked kindly.

“I’m feeling better after I got enough rest. Thank you for your concern,” said Ilario sincerely.

“I got the report from the survey team. I would like to discuss with you in details, especially monster lord that you fought with,” Queen Agnes said.

Ilario reported all the details to her.

“She is not one of monster lords in the book ‘How to kill Monsters’. As the matter of opinion, Luna and Solaris said that she seemed to be a mixed race with the powerful dark magic core,” Ilario said.

“Thank you for your information. I guessed that she might be a mysterious monster lord that escaped from the suppression of monsters in the past. She did not show up herself at that time. That’s why it has no record about her. I suspected that she must be the one who is behind all the creation of monsters. There is high possibility after I saw the evidences. Moreover, there were monsters up until now,” said Queen Agnes seriously.

“I was wondering why there were a lot of dark magic stones like a mine in Magnus Forest. As the information in the book ‘The History of Magnus Forest’, this forest is plenty of nature and have a great energy for lives. There is nothing compatible with the dark energies, as far as I know” said Ilario curiously.

“You’re right. After the survey team reported everything to me, I assigned Globus and Marius to inspect and destroy the cave. That cave had been processed not long before a century. She used alchemy to make those dark magic stones by mixing many kinds of substances and rushing its process. That’s why those dark magic stones have many energies inside. In other words, those dark magic stones did not occur from nature but alchemy. — And she chose that area to do the wicked things because she knew that the elves did not strict on guard at that area,” said Queen Agnes. “Did you know about Tenebris Forest?”

“No, I’ve never heard about it,” Ilario said.

“Magnus Forest is a great forest in The South World as you had read in the book. Tenebris Forest is the same but it’s located in The West World, its nature is also different from Magnus Forest. ‘Tenebris Forest’ is a dry forest, there are plenty of caves and mountains, it’s the source of dark energies. Its boundary is close to northwest of Magnus Forest. — All the monsters in the past came from Tenebris Forest. That’s why we were strongly guarding at that area instead of the Northeast area,” Queen Agnes said. “Let’s say that the mysterious monster lord is very intelligent and genius. She could hide herself and did the experiment on the monsters secretly up until now. It means that she has powerful power and extensive knowledge of darkness.”

Ilario left while he was thinking of the way to make himself become stronger as soon as possible. He knew very well that the mysterious monster lord did not use all of her power when she cursed him but she might think that he could die from that curse. She disappeared because she was also badly injured from our attacks.

***