Kael quickly surveyed the whole forest and quickly found the cave where these monsters were emerging from, so he headed there.

He concealed his scent as well as his presence to make his way into the cave. There were a lot of monsters inside, but they did not seem like they wanted to attack him.

In fact, most seemed content to ignore his presence, which was rather odd.

Usually, monsters did not know how to hold back, and Kael felt so curious that he did not even realize he was walking deeper into the cave to check the monsters out.

Most of them seemed frozen in place, unable to move, which made it obvious why they had not attacked him yet.

But something about these monsters struck Kael as odd. There was a sense of...detachment in this place. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Still, I better finish what I came here to do before it is too late."

Kael sighed before he readied his staff and smacked it down hard. All the monsters inside the cave collapsed.

Once that was done, it was time for him to find the array that was causing these attacks, and once that was taken care of, the village would be safe.

He was about to start searching when he suddenly felt an overwhelming amount of magic heading his way. Well, overwhelming was the wrong thing to say.

Rather, it was almost as if the magic was...concentrated?...into something, and the container was shut tight to prevent the magic from leaking out.

But because the container was so small, magic constantly leaked out of it and evolved. It must have caused this mess as well.

Now, the only question was - was it an accident or deliberate?

Gasp

"W-What happened here? What did you do to my creations? I worked so hard on them, and now they’re...they’re..."

The speaker was a small child, clearly not human, and their gender was also undefined. The sharp, pointed ears suggested that the child was an elf, but not a full-blooded one.

’And an elf child all alone in the mountains? Something smells fishy here. I better get to the bottom of this and fast.’

Elves usually lived in secluded societies that shunned outsiders and impurities. To them, anything that tainted their bloodline was taboo, and that included half-blooded children.

The only time it was acceptable for elves to embrace an abnormality was when the divine bestowed their blessing. But it was an urban legend that had never been proven.

Heck, most people never even saw an elf in their lives, much less a hybrid.

For now, the half-elf kid looked terrified, and Kael decided to make a good first impression on the child.

"Please rest assured! I am not a dangerous person. Are you the one who made these creatures? Don’t you think it is too dangerous to do so at your age? You don’t seem to have perfect control over your magic."

Kael pointed out, causing the elf kid to look at him in disbelief.

That lasted a second before anger took over his face.

"How dare you speak to me like that! I-I am not a child! A-And the reason I cannot control my powers yet is because of my curse! N-Now, please leave me alone."

The kid yelled, and his magic lashed out at the same time. The overflowing power tried to hit Kael but instead got eaten by Kael’s magic.

"Hmm, you have some strong magic. But it will be of no use if you cannot control it. All it’s doing at the moment is feeding the monsters."

Kael pointed out, but the small child looked too stunned to process how easily Kael was able to counter the magic.

"Y-You! How did you do it?! No! Get out. Y-You are destroying everything! I won’t allow you-!"

Kael ignored the elf’s discomfort and walked toward the kid.

For each step he took forward, the kid took a step backward until he could not physically step back anymore because of the cave wall.

"D-Don’t come closer! I said...don’t come closer...!"

The kid yelled, but Kael ignored him and grabbed him by the collar before checking the kid’s magic reserves and parentage.

Nothing seemed to be wrong at first, but something about the magic nagged at Kael in the back of his mind.

So he decided to check the magic a few more times, only to come to the same conclusion each time - this kid had his mana blower broken. No wonder magic was leaking out everywhere.

’But it still does not explain why he was creating monsters. Or...maybe he was not aware that these were monsters. Was he aware of it...? Or...’

Kael usually did not like to make assumptions about anyone’s character, but somehow, he could not bring himself to think of this child as the culprit behind what was happening.

To him, this kid felt more like a victim than anything else.

"Hey, what do you want from me? I won’t earn much if you sell me. S-So why don’t you head back now and leave me alone? O-Otherwise, my guardian will come and beat you up!"

The kid reasoned with Kael, trying his hardest to make him leave.

However, ignoring the situation was not going to magically make it better. The fact that this kid was leaking magic everywhere and it was forming monsters would not change if nothing was done.

"I would also like to leave you alone, kid. But I don’t think that’s possible. You are a danger to the people around you, and I have been hired to make sure the nearby village remains safe."

The kid flinched once more, showing that he was not as clueless as he had appeared at first.

"..."

"So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to kill me so that I cannot use my magic and make the situation worse?"

The kid asked in a terrified voice. But he also seemed to have accepted his fate of dying here.

Except, Kael had no intention of killing the kid.

People with exceptional magical capabilities were rare. The mage tower would be glad to take the kid in...but only after his magic was fixed.

"There is no point in me killing you. For now, let’s patch up the hole in your mana and then think about what we can do with you."

Kael told the kid before he pointed his staff at the kid’s chest and let his mana flow into the half-elf’s chest.