Chapter 164: Dark Creatures

A flash of light appeared in front of the Adventurers’ Guild, and Donald, dressed in ordinary noble attire, appeared there before stepping straight into the guild without hesitation.
Donald’s arrival surprised the group of adventurers watching from outside. Some adventurers from other places, who had never seen Donald before, exclaimed in shock, “Good heavens! How did that man appear out of nowhere?”
Immediately, another adventurer spoke disdainfully, “You lack insight! That’s a teleportation spell—rumored to allow one to appear anywhere within a hundred miles. It’s an extremely powerful spell for escaping or traveling. How great it would be if I had such a ability!”
Someone else added, “Stop dreaming. I’ve traveled far and wide across most of Celt, and I’ve only seen one mage with such abilities—our lord himself. I’ve never heard of any others. Truly, he deserves to be called the kingdom’s youngest Bronze Mage and a hero who fought against the orcs!”
Only then did the previously surprised adventurers realize, “You mean that man is our local lord? Baron Merlinna?”
“Is there another noble mage so young?”
The adventurers around them all looked down on him as if they knew he was inferior.
Others said, “Judging from how urgently our lord came here, it must be related to Team Swiftwind.”
An experienced adventurer analyzed, “Exactly! That must be it. Team Swiftwind is quite strong. Unless they encountered a high-level monster of level five or above, they wouldn’t suffer such heavy losses. But since they’re experienced veterans, they usually avoid strong monster territories. So, it’s likely they encountered some unexpected situation that caused such heavy casualties!”
He nodded firmly and said, “Something serious must have happened. It’s another opportunity for us adventurers!”
The other adventurers found his analysis very reasonable and immediately took action—some went to gather information while others prepared their gear.
Regardless of the adventurers’ foresight, as soon as Donald entered the guild, a servant led him to the room where the supervisors were.
Inside the room, a wounded man with a pale face and covered in blood lay unconscious. Clinton looked cold, Sorg frowned, and mage Dina paced anxiously back and forth.

Besides the severely unconscious victim, there were several other injured adventurers in the room, whose injuries were not as serious. It seemed they had recovered well after treatment.
“The lord has arrived!”
Hearing the servant’s voice outside, the people in the room hurried to welcome Donald.
Upon entering the room, Donald took a quick glance and got a general understanding of the situation.
Clinton, without waiting for Donald to ask, reported the details.
“Master, these are members of the Swift Wind Squad. They were injured after being attacked by monsters in the Green Cloak Forest!”
Donald waved his hand and said, “Let’s not discuss the attack for now. Focus on their injuries.”
The two adventurers from the Swift Wind Squad immediately showed gratitude upon hearing this. Dina rushed to say, “The other two have recovered well after simple treatment with life potions. But this one, aside from severe blood loss, seems to have been infected by some strange toxin. Ordinary life potions can only restore vitality and have little effect on such toxins! I’ve tried the antidote prepared by Moray, but it also doesn’t work!”
Donald asked, “Has the master taken a look?”
Dina shook her head. “Master Mesel and three silver mages went to the Stone City Guildhall. We haven’t had time to inform them yet!”
Donald nodded and stepped forward to the injured man, activating his newly acquired divine vision. At a glance, he identified the problem.
Several wounds on the man’s abdomen and arms were covered with a layer of black mist, as if fog clinging to the wounds. It was this black mist that was preventing the wounds from healing. Otherwise, with the healing speed of the life potions he could obtain from the Alchemy Fire or exchange using honor points at the Adventurer’s Guild, such injuries should have healed with just two bottles.
“I know what’s causing this! His injuries aren’t from poisoning. Well, it could be considered poisoning, but not ordinary toxins. It’s dark energy eroding the wounds. They must have encountered some evil creatures that wield dark powers!”
Hearing Donald’s words, everyone present except Clinton was shocked!
Dark energy was a force that rarely appeared in the main world. Unlike demons that possessed chaotic and evil powers, pure dark energy was usually only found in followers of evil gods, underground monsters, or creatures from other realms. And apart from seeking help from priests and mages, there were basically no other means of treatment.

“My lord, we implore you to save Brian—we’re willing to pay any price!” Seeing the hope and earnest plea in the two adventurers’ eyes, Donald nodded and said, “Don’t worry. It’s easy to save him. Clinton, send someone to call Uther! While he’s on his way, tell me what happened. I want to see what kind of dark creature dares to come to my lands and cause trouble!” He had already explored the areas around his domain and the depths of the Green Cloak Forest and found hardly any humanoid tribes other than magical beasts. The only sizable group of half-orcs, such as werewolves, were concentrated in the warmer western region of the North County, around the Rocky Outcrops, blocked by the Bloodstone Fortress, so they rarely attacked human territories. Thus, he was quite angry at the sudden attacks by monsters in his vicinity. The two adventurers exchanged a glance, then one of them spoke, “My lord, our Swift Wind Squad is also quite famous in the North County. After hearing that you established an adventurers’ guild, we came to Dalaran to try our luck. Thanks to your favor, we’ve had good results lately. Who would have thought that on this simple herb-gathering mission, not even venturing into the territories of advanced magical beasts, we would lose two teammates!” As he spoke, both he and his companion grew sad, then he continued, “After planning to gather herbs, we intended to hunt some low-level magical beasts for extra income. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise, like a house collapsing. We went to check—it shouldn’t have been any large creatures nearby—so we headed in the direction of the sound!” “Following the sound, we soon reached a small, secluded valley, shaded by forests. If not for the noise, we wouldn’t have found it even after wandering around the forest! Once there, we discovered the source of the noise: a hole several feet wide in the ground, caused either by an earthquake or some creature, surrounded by broken rocks and soil.” “Just as we approached the hole, seven or eight monsters jumped out! They looked like enlarged lizards, covered in black scales, but they stood on two legs like humans. They wore leather armor and carried weapons.”

“These lizard monsters are all extremely strong and launched fierce attacks right from the start. Although they seem to only possess the strength of high-level Black Iron warriors and haven’t mastered sword energy, they are much taller than ordinary humans, equal in strength to Bronze-level fighters, and have a numerical advantage. That’s why the rest of us from the Swift Wind group could only defend passively, risking injury as we tried to escape and bring back news to the town. But then another lizard monster, slightly thinner in build, appeared in the cave, holding a wooden staff that looked like a staff. It muttered something, and the forked weapon in one of the stronger lizard monsters emitted a dark glow. It was that weapon that injured Brian. We fought desperately and lost two lives before finally escaping. Before leaving the forest, Brian fainted. Fortunately, we encountered other adventurers passing by who took us back to the guild!”

After hearing this, Donald and the others looked serious.

Mage Dina recalled carefully and said, “I think I remember reading in books about lizardfolk, human-like creatures that resemble them. But such creatures usually live in humid swamps or wetlands. I’ve never heard of any living underground!”

“Enough! There’s no need to overthink it. We’ll find out what those monsters are when we go and see for ourselves. Uther has arrived. Let him first treat this person’s injuries!”

Just then, footsteps were heard outside. Uther, clad in silver armor, entered and bowed respectfully to Donald.

“Uther, this adventurer has been harmed by dark forces. I need your help in treating him!”

Uther immediately nodded and stepped beside his master.

Donald untied the adventurer’s clothes, summoned a pool of clean water to clean the dirt from the wounds, then signaled Uther to proceed. Uther released a gentle white light, casting holy light on the injured person.

Since the person was facing away from the others, they didn’t realize it was Uther’s holy light; they thought it was Donald’s magical skill.

Although Donald also had ways to deal with this, there was an even simpler method. Uther’s holy light was inherently a counter to dark energy, and its properties were gentle for the human body, making its healing power more suitable for repairing injuries.

As soon as the holy light touched the person’s body, it drove away and purified the dark energy from the wounds. Without the obstruction of dark energy and with the healing power of the holy light, seven or eight terrifyingly discolored wounds immediately regained their color and healed at an astonishing speed.

Of course, the power of the life potion taken earlier was also at work. Previously, there had been dark forces blocking its effect, but now that those obstacles were gone, the effects of the potion still in their bodies immediately became apparent.
“Alright! This person’s injuries have been largely healed. The reason they haven’t woken up is due to excessive blood loss! You all risked your lives to bring important news to Dalaran. In the name of the lord, I will reward each of you with 300 gold sols and 100 honor points from the Adventurer’s Guild. Additionally, if the two who died had families, both the lord’s estate and the guild will provide compensation to ensure their families can live a stable life!”
Seeing their companion healed, the two adventurers were both happy and sad, as they had just lost two more companions. But after hearing Lord Donald’s words, they were all overjoyed and deeply grateful.
At that moment, Donald continued, “The situation is urgent. Clinton, arrange for these injured to rest. Uther, come with me to the scene of the incident!”
With that, he and Uther disappeared from the room.