In the main hall of the castle, Bookie summoned a single Kidjikkik Guardian. âDo we need to shackle him, Sofia?â Bookie asked, looking up at the tall worm skeleton he had just summoned.
âNo need, this one is quite weak, you should know.â
âI know, but curses are a bit scaryâ¦â
âDonât worry about it, just let him do whatever, donât give any orders, alright? Let's proceed with the test, Pareth, light!â
Pareth summoned a bright shield of light and held it up above his head. Giving him a nod, Sofia used [Aberrant sunlight] for the first time.
The skill came with very little information but it really felt quite instinctive, Sofia pointed a finger at the skeleton and activated the skill, when she felt the magic formation pull on her mana, she let about one thousand out to begin with.
A small puff of mana left Sofiaâs finger like a weak fart of cursed mana, almost invisible to the naked eye, which slowly floated in the direction of the Kidjikkik.
Before it could collide, Sofia ordered the Kidjikkik to sidestep, and the curse pathetically missed, and dispersed after it hit the back wall of the hall.
âWere you able to see it?â Sofia asked.
âI felt the mana move but I didnât see anything,â Bookie reported, while Pareth held out his right thumb and index close to each other in response.
âYou did see it a bit, Pareth? Even with the augmented eye I had a hard time. Well, letâs try with more mana now. The skill doesnât have any cooldown, it feels like. Itâs almost like just a filter to convert my mana to cursed mana,â she explained while she aimed her right index at the Kidjikkik skeleton again.
Itâs quite complex but the cast is still instantaneous, just like Summon Blood. I wonder if I just created another theoretical anomaly.
This time, Sofia fired a packet of ten thousand mana. It was not the same. It fired like a cannonball, quite easily visible even to the naked eye as it flew through the hall, as if she had invoked a ball of translucent-white jumbled noodles and thrown it at the skeletonâs face.
The ball of cursed mana hit the skeleton and, instead of exploding and disappearing like when the first shot hit the wall, the cursed mana was absorbed into the skeletonâs bones entirely like water sucked in by a dry cloth.
Carefully observing with her mana vision, Sofia saw the curse latch onto the Kidjikkikâs mana, and rapidly turn it into cursed mana structures.
It spreads fast!
âI lost control!â Bookie exclaimed, shocked, when the curse had spread to about half of the Kidjikkikâs mana.
The skeletonâs head snapped to a different position, its eye sockets locked onto Parethâs shield.
Stop looking. Turn around.
Despite Sofiaâs orders, which she could tell reached the skeleton, the skeleton kept looking. Quickly, as the curse spread more, the Kidjikkik shambled forward, taking a few steps toward Pareth with its many legs. All the legs not touching the ground were reaching out for Parethâs shield. As the curse finally spread to every last bit of the skeletonâs mana, it broke into a sprint, jumping and throwing itself a Parethâs shield.
CHAINS! Do not touch him! Sofia mentally warned Pareth.
Pareth jumped back and his chains of light shot from the floor, latching tightly onto the airborne skeletonâs spine, and yanking it to the floor. Even bound to the hallâs floor, the Kidjikkik kept struggling like a mindless insect to try to grab Parethâs shield.
âBookie, rat! We need to check if it is contagious.â
Bookie nodded and hurriedly summoned a skeleton rat, sending it to bite the Kidjikkik skeleton. The cute skeleton rat gingerly followed its orders, and as it bit down onto one of the Kidjikkikâs legs, as soon as they made contact, the curse started to spread from the Kijikkikâs mana to the ratâs.
The ratâs skull snapped in Parethâs direction.
Dismissed.
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The rat evaporated in the usual puff of mana fog. It seemed the sudden process of vaporizing the summon also cleansed the mana of the curse.
So it spreads by direct contact, but not through spells, good to know. The Kidjikkikâs mana is starting to un-curse itself already, the curse formations are breaking, but the process is a bit slow.
âIt looks like it can last for maybe a minute?â Sofia noted as she observed the uncursing rate. âIt is nice that the curse is not permanent. It seems pretty potent considering Bookie lost controlâ¦â
What ifâ¦
Sofia pointed at the Kidjikkik still spasming on the floor, and activated the skill, putting in ten times the amount of mana. With 100 000 mana, the attack was no longer a single shot but a powerful ray of white cursed mana blasting directly into the skeleton. The skeletonâs mana which had started to free itself from the curse was converted back into cursed formation in an instant, and its struggle to free itself from the chains intensified greatly.
Interesting.
Sofia sent another ray of cursed mana at the skeleton. Despite all of the Kidjikkikâs mana being converted, his bones still absorbed more of the curse Sofia sent at it, guzzling the cursed mana like a thirsty Soguva. The skeletonâs squirming intensified yet again, it spasmed and pulled so strongly against the chain that its bones started cracking and falling apart. After a few more seconds of this, it died, its crumbling bones evaporating into a thin mana mist.
Huh huh. This is an attack spell. A gruesome one. Anyone I can pump full of cursed manaâ¦
I wonder if this is a worse fate than the rot.
And does one hinder the other? I feel like the rot will eat the curse with no issue, so it might actually help cure it faster. Not the greatest of synergies but it might open up interesting possibilitiesâ¦
Wellâ¦
Sofia conducted another test on the rat, making sure that the curse would end up disappearing by itself, which it did quite quickly when the initial blast was weak. In fact when Sofia tried sending just a single string of cursed mana worth 10 points of mana to the rat, it failed to even infect it despite being absorbed.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
âThen. Considering the skill description⦠The next step is to try that on myself.â
Pareth buried his main skullâs face in one of his big skeletal hands.
âHey, arenât you being a bit too dramatic? This is mostly safe, here we go.â
She did not even have to raise a finger this time, she just activated the skill directly inside of her body, converting about five thousand of her own mana into cursed mana. There was no system warning or notification, Sofia just started to feel an intense need to look in the direction of the shield of light.
Oh, thatâs slightly unsettling, I guess.
She tried to look away, but no matter how hard she tried, her eyes just happened to keep turning in Parethâs direction. She turned her head away, only to feel it start turning back slowly without her being able to really do anything about it. She could see the curse spreading out inside of her body, and quickly starting to convert more of her mana. The cursed mana latched onto her nerves of light, her muscles, her soul, and it forced them to move. To move toward the light.
Despite her sight being locked in on Parethâs shield, she could still manage to stand still, and she could still observe her surroundings with her mana sight, but even that started to falter, as her attention kept being distracted by the light.
She could not even close her eyes if she tried.
Then, when about a quarter of her mana was infected, she started hearing a voice, her voice. Like sweet whispers right into the deepest parts of her ears, like her internal voice decided to stop broadcasting her own thoughts, and instead, started worshiping the light.
The light!
We need⦠The light!
Oh, NOW this is disturbing COME TO THE LIGHT!
The blissful light! It will be our salva-
Stop!
Sofia ejected all of her mana at once, spreading a thin wave of slightly visible mana through the castle, washing over everything. Free of cursed mana, the voices and the strange attraction stopped instantly.
Worrying that her expelled cursed mana might have infected Bookie and Pareth, she fought against the intense dizziness and nausea from the mana loss and looked at their mana, thankfully finding them curse-free.
âI still think this is scary,â Bookie shily chimed in.
Sofia cleared her throat. âI agree. Great spell to have, though. And according to Zerei, we can build tolerance to specific curse patterns through repeated exposure, so all of us can slowly work on that until we have nothing to worry about!â
âHnn! What about the other skill, Sofia?â
âItâs still not ready, but I can actually feel my mana circuits moving a bit, the shock from the sudden expulsion made them a bit sensitive. Thatâs an interesting find⦠Anyway, any second now, I think.â
It took ten more minutes for the passive skill to arrive, during which Sofia started creating new bone furniture for the main hall, since she and Alith had pilfered most of the original appliances the last time before they left.
Finally the new passive went live, the mana already making its way into the newly formed pathways.
[Sixth melody]: Olden tales tell of a Goddess of music and arts long gone from this world, but their craft is not entirely gone. Lock a portion of your maximum mana to play different movements of Remiaâs sixth great symphony in a large area around you.
More total mana expands the musicâs reach.
Expand description for a detailed movement breakdown.