Monsters glared at me as I approach a large door with stone dragons that perched the walls of the room. The monsters consists of skeletal soldiers covered in glowing purple growths and what looks like members of the dark folk that are mutated by such magic the way they transition between humanoid and animalistic. The torches of the room dimmed as what appear to be a tall skeletal mage wearing a red mantel with collars that reached its skull suddenly appeared out of thin air in front of the large door "turn back now before it is too late and give me the sacred crystal and the idol of sorrow!" said the skeletal mage.

I drew my sword and yelled "Who are you!? What do you want with the sacred crystal and the idol of sorrow!?" But the skeletal mage snickers "that bothersome crystal can create more of the dark folk even though they are too weak when it comes to us being immune to poison and darkness and I shall destroy it, and as for that cursed idol I might as well keep it so that your pathetic kingdom forever be cursed". I shook my head "no! I won't hand you the idol and the sacred crystal!" I charged at the skeletal mage but he cast a spell that emit a purple aura thus draining my strength, I collapsed on the stone floor as the skeleton mage laughs.

I heard a voice in my head and I recognise it as the old man "can you hear me? I am using telepathy to communicate you" said the old man "that skeleton mage you are facing is called the hollow mage, one of the powerful servants of the shadow king. The hollow mage himself is a powerful foe that cannot be reached in close combat and can only be defeated with anything holy attributed" he said as I got up. "If you wish to save your beloved kingdom and the dark folk, you should meet the king! To do so, *snickers* try and defeat my servants in order to press on" said the hollow mage as he disappears and the torches turn back to normal but the monsters turn their focus on me.

One of the mutated dark folk rushed towards me so I sliced it in half and they skeletons readied their bows and was about to shoot their arrows until I dodged some arrows and managed to defeat some skeletons. After defeating the rest of the mutated dark folk, I felt sorry for those who are mutated and lost their free will over to the so called shadow king and hopefully they will rest in peace. I walked towards the large stone door and there's a key hole which it is locked probably to keep the monsters at bay, suddenly a shadow formed on the wall and out stepped the old man "I see you've defeated these poor corrupted souls" he said. "Tell me sir, what is going on? Who is this shadow king?" I said but the old man didn't say anything with a forlorn look on his face "these poor souls were the castle staff that worked with the king at the time before the seed of evil attacked the moment the king hidden the sacred crystal you have in your possession" he said as he walked towards the large door.

He took out a stone key and insert it into the key hole and turns it thus unlocking the door "I was entrusted this key by the king until he is corrupted by the seed of evil" said the old man "what is the seed of evil?" I asked "the seed of evil is a type of entity that was trapped underground by the gods thousands of years ago but as the forest dragon created us it told the king to build the city underground in order to guard the seal. The sacred crystal is created for the purpose of maintening the seal and create more of us in someday we will permanently destroy the seed of evil, the seed itself is almost invulnerable but is still vulnerable to diseases and violence and if it were to be killed then it will be sent back to where the gods lived and probably sealed it" he explained.

I opened the door and found a large chamber that across it was a large pond, the black tar like substance is hardened to the point it is like rock but at the center of a large pond lies the pedestal from which the sacred crystal glowed white as if it wanted to reunite with the pedestal. I look around and there's horned skeletons wearing robes like the ones I saw at the study but I ignored them and continue walking across the bridge towards the pedestal. I pulled out the crystal which is glowing and set it on the pedestal and it started to float above and it's glow illuminated the room with its gentle glow but suddenly, the tar like substance slowly turned from rock to liquid and started to bubble.

I ran back to the old man and watch as a figure formed from the black substance, it formed horns and it started walking towards the shore before collapsing with a splat. I walked over at the figure until the black substance left, revealing a pale white skinned horned woman completely naked so I looked away but the old man approached me "I'll take care of the newly formed dark folk and you'll have to go back to explore the rest of the castle" he said so I have to leave the chamber and the old man created a ward at the entrance to prevent any monsters from entering the chamber. I went east to the cellar to explore in order to find some food which I haven't ate but I was lucky that there's no monsters in the cellar.