My Charity System made me too OP

The creatures burst from the fog, their bodies resembling twisted wolves with elongated limbs and glowing red eyes. Their fur was black as the abyss, and their jagged teeth dripped with an eerie, luminescent saliva. Their movements were unnatural—jerky, almost like marionettes controlled by an unseen force.

Leon barely had time to dodge as one of the beasts lunged at him, its claws swiping past his face and gouging deep marks into the tree behind him.

"These things aren't normal!" Naval shouted, slicing through the mist with her enchanted blade. The moment her sword connected with one of the creatures, it let out a distorted screech and dissolved into black smoke—only to reform a few feet away, completely unharmed.

"They regenerate?" Roman muttered. "No, that's not regeneration… That's some kind of illusion."

Roselia was already moving. She extended her hand, and a glowing alchemical circle formed beneath her. "Then let's see if they can regenerate from this!"

With a flick of her wrist, the circle expanded, and golden fire erupted from the ground, engulfing several of the creatures. The flames roared hungrily, consuming their twisted forms. But as soon as the fire faded, the beasts simply reappeared—untouched.

Lilian's eyes widened. "They're not real… They're projections!"

Leon clicked his tongue. "Then we need to find the source."

The creatures lunged again, forcing the group to scatter. Milim grinned, summoning a surge of raw energy around her fists. "Fine! Let's see if illusions can withstand brute force!" She punched one of the beasts, and to everyone's surprise, the moment her attack connected, the illusion shattered like broken glass.

Leon smirked. "Oh? So direct, overwhelming force works?"

"Guess so," Milim said, cracking her knuckles. "In that case…"

She launched forward, obliterating another illusion with a single punch. Naval, taking the cue, infused her sword with raw mana and slashed through several creatures in a single sweep. The illusions shattered instantly.

Leon took a deep breath and activated his mana vision. His eyes gleamed with a faint blue light as he scanned the surroundings. If these creatures were projections, then there had to be a caster…

"There!" He pointed toward a large tree in the distance. "Something's hiding over there!"

Without hesitation, Roselia chanted a quick incantation, sending a wave of fire in the direction Leon indicated. The flames struck something unseen, and a distorted screech filled the air.

A shadowy figure emerged from behind the tree—a gaunt, hooded humanoid with glowing white eyes. Its hands were covered in ritualistic tattoos, and dark energy pulsed around its fingers.

"A nightmare conjurer," Roman muttered. "That explains everything."

The conjurer let out a guttural hiss and raised its hands. The fog thickened, and the illusions multiplied, forming an endless sea of twisted creatures.

Leon cracked his neck. "Alright… Looks like we're doing this the hard way."

He surged forward, blade in hand, ready to cut down the source of the nightmare.

Leon activated his Sage Eyes, and the world around him shifted. The thick fog parted like a veil, revealing the true nature of the Nightmare Forest. What seemed like towering trees were nothing more than jagged stone pillars covered in illusory bark. The sky above wasn't dark—there was no sky at all, just an endless void filled with swirling phantasmal energy.

"This whole damn place is an illusion," Leon muttered, gripping his sword tighter.

Naval, who stood beside him, smirked. "Took you long enough to notice." She flipped her long, dark-blue hair back, her sharp eyes gleaming with amusement. "I could tell something was off the moment we stepped in."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it was fun watching you figure it out."

Leon ignored the Cheeky maid, not that he don't want to but he can't.

Before Leon could retort, the Nightmare Conjurer raised its hands again, summoning another wave of twisted illusions. The creatures roared and lunged at them from all directions.

"Milim! Roman! Disrupt its casting!" Leon commanded.

"On it!" Milim shot forward, her fists radiating with raw, destructive energy. She punched through several illusions, shattering them like brittle glass. Roman followed suit, firing compressed wind blades from his dual daggers, slicing through the creatures effortlessly.

But as fast as they destroyed the illusions, new ones formed.

"They're endless," Roselia said, clicking her tongue. "As long as that thing is still standing, we won't make any progress."

Leon's Sage Eyes flickered as he focused deeper. Then he saw it—the true core of the illusion.

"It's not just the conjurer," he realized. "The entire Nightmare Forest is being maintained by a hidden artifact. It's buried underground, right beneath that thing's feet!"

Naval nodded "Then let's go dig it up, shall we?"

Without hesitation, she activated her unique ability—Blood Ocean Fang. Her twin sabers glowed with deep-blue energy, forming watery blades that extended far beyond their physical form. With a single spinning slash, she parted the illusions like a tidal wave, exposing the ground beneath the conjurer.

Leon didn't waste a second. Channeling all his strength, he stabbed his blade into the earth and unleashed a concentrated burst of pure mana, shattering the ground below. A hidden black crystal pulsed ominously in the pit beneath the conjurer.

"That's the source!" Lilia shouted.

The conjurer screeched, realizing its deception had been exposed. It lunged at Leon in desperation, clawed hands glowing with dark energy.

"Too late."

Roselia stepped forward and hurled an alchemical vial at the crystal. The moment it shattered, golden flames erupted, consuming the artifact. The illusion broke instantly.

The Nightmare Forest dissolved.

The sky reappeared—blue and clear. The eerie fog was gone, and the twisted creatures vanished as if they had never existed.

The conjurer, now powerless, fell to its knees. Its true form was revealed—a frail, robed figure with sunken eyes and ancient tattoos covering its skin.

Leon raised his sword. "Game over."

With one swift motion, he ended the conjurer's existence.

The silence that followed was deafening.

A system notification echoed in their minds:

[Quest Complete: Nightmare Forest – Solved the Mystery]

[Rewards: 1000 Ascender Points, Rare Material: Phantom Dust]

Milim stretched. "Welp, that was fun."

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Roman exhaled. "Fun? You have a weird definition of fun."

Naval crossed her arms, smirking. "Well, at least we got something useful out of it."

Leon glanced at Roselia. "That Phantom Dust—can we use it for the potion?"

Roselia's eyes gleamed with interest. "Oh, most definitely."

Lilian nodded. "Then let's get back and start experimenting."@@novelbin@@

"Hold your horses there. We need much more if we're inventing a new potion," Roselia said as Leon nodded. Most of the time, he had given her the alchemy ingredients they had gathered or sold them if they couldn't use them.

"So now, we have to go and hunt for them ourselves," he said with a sigh.