A gray wolf-type beast could be seen; it had long hairs all over its body. Its whole body was burning as it was moving. Four people could be seen standing on its back; three were men, while the small figure at the back was the only lady in the group.
"What happened here? I had gone to this forest some months ago; everything was normal till then," asked a man.
"I don't know, bro; there was a mission posted in the Adventurer Guild; the rewards were deserving, so I decided to take a look," replied the man at the front with a mustache.
"Why am I going? I am already tired from the previous mission; this lady needs some rest," said the woman at the back.
"Come on, Amy, you are the only one in our group who has a scanning skill. It's small work; we don't even have to fight; all we need to do is observe and report."
They saw a strange forest that was a lot darker than the other forests. The surroundings were very creepy. "What happened here? This looks completely different; what can cause such a change?" asked the guy.
"There could be many reasons; let's search," said the one at the front. They started looking at the flowers and fauna in their surroundings to make a guess.
"The shadow element is present in the surrounding area, which has caused this strange phenomenon. From where is this shadow energy appearing here? Could there be a high-level dungeon?" said the woman.
"We will become rich if we clear it," said the man, rubbing his hands.
The woman used her scan spell and noticed that there were some small holes where the shadow energy was leeching. "I found it," she said. "It is because of spatial cracks. A realm is connected with this area, and the shadow energy is leaking from it."
"This place will soon become a treasure trove if the link continues." She was just discussing it with her teammates when they all noticed a spatial earthquake. After a second, the environment was similar, but the shadow energy was disappearing.
The woman cast her scan spell and cried, "What happened? The spatial cracks have disappeared. It looks like something has happened, but how can this happen by itself?"
"Could it be that someone has done it?" said a guy.
"We can't let him escape; let's go," said the captain as he summoned his giant wolf and they started approaching the center area. The woman cast her high-level Area Scan spell. A bright light released from her at the center and moved around the whole forest, trying to search, "How can it be?"
They appeared in front of the cave and noticed the destruction around it, but the strange thing was that there were no traces. They tried to search for even a little evidence but were disappointed. They moved inside the cave and noticed the shadow energy inside was way higher than outside. There were some rare plants here, but all the precious things were already taken away.
"Who could it be? How can an adventurer be faster than us in this region?" asked the woman.
"Let's search around the nearby area," said the leader as they started to search.
Rishi came out of the shadow outside the forest and sighed, "That was close." He sat on the back of his contract beast and went to his tent. He covered up his traces there and left the area.
The Adventurer Group searched like dogs in all the areas but were unable to find anything. At last, they decided to be happy with what they got and informed the Guild about the incident. They didn't mention anything about the other person, as the reward was for the first team.
The news appeared on social media very quickly; incidents like this were not rare as the elemental areas were created like this only. If someone lucky got a chance to train there for a long time, they improved very fast, especially in elemental control and elemental affinity.
Rishi looked at his smartphone and saw the news: "So those cracks were spacial cracks, and they connect one plane to another. The area becomes a high-level training area in some years, so I have basically destroyed a high-level shadow environment that could have been worth millions of dollars."
"What have I done? I sometimes do things that don't make any sense," he sighed, "and where is that strange orb? I literally wasted a million dollars on habitat because of it."
He said, "At least I got these," and took out a bag from his storage ring. He opened it and exclaimed, "Why is it only half filled? I remember all the bags were full."
He took out another one and noticed it was empty. "It can't be. Are they also disappearing because they are made up of the Starangel Shadow Energy?" He took out another one and noticed that it was also empty. He checked his other bags and noticed that they too were empty.
"Why am I so unlucky?" He looked at the first bag. It was also empty; only one shadow orb, which was a little bigger than others and shining in a unique violet glow, was there. He looked at it "Will it also disappear?"
He looked at the orb in his hand with teary eyes. He kept looking at it, but it didn't disappear. "Is it the chosen one?" He moved it upward; he was thinking about it when it slipped from his hand and fell. "Oh sh*t, I dropped it."
He looked down but didn't see it and said in a dejected tone, "This too is gone; how unlucky."
He turned around and started moving. It was then that he sensed a presence. He looked back and saw the three-centimeter orb following him. He rubbed his eyes. "Is it for real? Is it really the chosen one?"
It started moving around him. He touched it and felt that it was soft and elastic, different from other shadow orbs. "What is this?" He looked at it and took a guess.
"Don't tell me." His eyes widened as he looked at it. "Is it that strange orb?" He flared up and moved his hand at it, but it escaped easily. "You are not going anywhere after making me suffer so many losses."
The cat-and-mouse chase went on for some time before Rishi used his will to suppress it. He caught it and laughed, saying, "You thought you would be able to escape." The shadow orb tried to escape by changing its shape and size, but it was futile. Rishi bound it with shadow energy, making it impossible for it to escape.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆webnovel