Chương 6: Accidentally Scaring People with Friendly Whispers as a Rock?!

Chapter Six Accidentally Scaring People with Friendly Whispers as a Rock?! One of the carriage's back wheels cracked with a noise like thunder. It had been less than an hour since they had left the lake, and nobody had been in much of a talkative mood. Petre had been watching the woods as though he expected some terrible monster to charge out of them. Sorin was full of smiles and excited mumbles. Alice heard the words adventure and Castúel several times.

The hard-faced Mittica seemed to have fallen asleep, though the wheel's collapse jerked him awake. As for Alice, she still could not believe she had heard Eva's name after so many years.

"I told you!" Petre howled, baring his crooked teeth in panic.

"I told you we should have left that damned stone behind! We're cursed! We'll never make it off the mountain!" Sorin was kneeling over the broken wheel. Petre and Mittica hovered behind him unhelpfully, the horses unhitched from the carriage and tied to a haunted oak.

"This is the third wheel we've broken on our journey, friend," Sorin said slowly, as if he was trying to explain to an overexcited child why they cannot have a third slice of cake.

"Have we been cursed this whole time? No, no. Wheels break. Mittica? My tools?" Mittica did not move. The boy's brow was furrowed as his fiery eyes darted from his uncle to the haunted forest around them.

"Maybe... Maybe we should throw the stone away," Mittica said after a moment's deliberation.

"What do we even need it for? Ought to chuck it into the woods, I say."

"No, no, no!" Alice said, though nobody bothered to listen. She had not spent three years trapped in a pond only to be hurled into a bush an hour later.

"Don't blame me because your wheel broke! Or was it my fault...?"

"Chuck it?!" Petre's mangy mane seemed to bristle at the thought.

"Boy, we need to take it back. Never should have... disturbed it. And it ain't like we've come all that far. I could- ""You two are too much," Sorin said, shaking his hairless head.

"See what you've done to the boy, Petre? His mother will flay me alive if I bring him home with a Bearblood's sense of worry." He rose to his feet with a little difficulty and patted Mittica on the shoulder.

"Wheels break," Sorin said simply, and he pinched his nephew's cheeks.

"My tools, please." Mittica swatted his uncle's hand away. He did not seem convinced, but the boy climbed back onto the carriage and began to search through several boxes. Alice's [God Sense] allowed her to see both the inside and outside of the boxes simultaneously, so she knew most were supplies. Others seemed to be... souvenirs? She did not think these three were merchants despite all of their cargo.

Eventually, Mittica found a leather bag full of what looked like a workman's craft and hopped back off the carriage. He handed the bag over to his uncle, his face still defiant.

"You don't think this is the Witch's work, Uncle?"

"The Witch!" Alice perked up immediately. That was what they had called Eva earlier.

"Eva the Black is dead. That is, of course, if you believe the Counsel of Magi," Sorin said in an airy voice.

"She certainly would not be taking a holiday here, in any case."

"Hmph." Mittica looked around the decrepit woods, his chin held high.

"I'm not afraid of no [Witch]. If she were here, I'd introduce her to my blade." And the boy produced a sharp-looking knife, slashing it across the empty air.

"You Goldtooths need to keep them lips shut," Petre said harshly. Sorin rolled his eyes and turned back to the cracked wheel.

"Won't do no good mentioning her here. The dead remember."

"The dead were a bunch of loonies," Sorin said as he began to fiddle with the wheel.

"And they're very much dead. We walked through the ruins of their... Would you call it a temple?"

"I didn' do no walk," Petre said immediately, and he cast a look around, as if afraid someone might have heard Sorin's slander.

"I wonder what it looked like before the Inquisition burned it," Sorin continued, ignoring Petre." That's who should worry about your dead cultists. We didn't do anything to them."

"We took that," Petre said, pointing at Alice the Rock and her bundle. Alice scarcely heard him, however, her nonexistent eyes wide with surprise.

"Cultists?! Did he just call them...?" She quickly replayed Sorin's comment a second time with [Geological Memory].

"Erik and Eva were... cultists? What does that mean for the [Awakening] and [Magi] stuff? And what was that about a Counsel of Magi??" Sorin answered none of her questions, however. He simply stood with a wide smile as he hefted the mended wheel back into place. Neither Mittica nor Petre shared in his delight.

"I think the curse has passed," Sorin said with a self-satisfied laugh as he inspected his work.

"Good as new. Can't have an adventure without a broken wheel or two. No, no. When I discovered the first overland route to Castúel, two of our horses actually... But neither of you are listening." The three of them hopped back onto the carriage. None spoke. Never mind that Alice had a hundred questions. It would be too wild of a coincidence for all of this chatter about cultists and [Witches] to be about someone else.

"I wish they would talk more about Eva!" Alice practically shouted. It was a shame she could not just ask them to explain. And a firework of excitement went off in her nonexistent chest.

"[Malevolent Whispers]!" Alice felt like such a fool. Why had she not tried to use [Malevolent Whispers] sooner? All three of her new companions were cursed!

"But who should I try to speak to?" Alice studied the three in turn, her attention anchoring first onto the bear-like Petre.

"Eh... Not him..." She had a feeling that Petre might run off into the woods screaming if he started hearing mysterious whispers.

"What about...?" Her attention shifted to Mittica. The blonde-haired boy watched the decrepit woods roll by with an oaken expression.

"Yeah, I'll try Mittica!" Alice said with a phantom nod, and though she had no body to speak of, she could feel herself tremble with excitement. After almost two decades, she was about to speak to someone.

"All right... All right..." She tried to calm herself and, focusing on Mittica, said...

"H-Hello?" Mittica did not move. His face remained the same oaken mask as before. Alice cleared her nonexistent throat and spoke a little louder.

"Hello?! Excuse... Excuse me?!" Mittica scratched himself in a place Alice did not care to see scratched.

"I don't think he can hear me..." Much of her excitement drained away. If she had shoulders, they would have slumped onto the ground.

"I guess... I've never really used a skill before. How do I...?" Malevolent Whispers (Rank I): A red string connects you and your accursed. You can pull and tug on this thread to scratch at the edge of their thoughts. [Geological Memory] summoned the skill description, and she nodded her nonexistent head.

"I just need to pull and tug on the red string that connects us," Alice said slowly.

"All right. All right. What... does that even mean?" The words sounded rather pretty, but as far as instruction on how to actually do it, the skill description was absolutely useless.

"Pull on the string..." She wondered how literal the description was. She supposed there was no harm in trying. Alice had not had arms or legs for over a decade, but the phantoms of those stringy appendages still remained. Even without eyes or a mouth, she still found herself opening and closing them, though they never actually did anything. And so it was that Alice reached out with nonexistent hands. She simply imagined herself reaching towards where Mittica lounged.

It was easy enough to imagine an imaginary string after that. Feeling a little silly, she envisioned herself pulling on the imaginary string as one would pull on the loose thread of a t-shirt, except this one was attached to Mittica's ear.

"H-Hello...?" Mittica jumped as if he had sat down on hot coals. The boy banged his leg against one of the crates beside him, swore, and collapsed back onto his knees.

"He heard me!" Alice cheered. She was surprised her wrapped bundle did not perform a little somersault in joy.

"He definitely...! I mean, it's too bad he freaked out, but he must have heard me!"

"Wh-what are you doing, Little Master?" Petre barked, half annoyed and half amused.

"I...! There was...!" Mittica was looking left and right, his face scrunched up in pain as he rubbed his knee.

"I thought I... heard something?"

"Fell asleep back there, eh?" Sorin snorted a good-natured snort.

"A good idea, lad. Just don't let this old fool of a Bearblood spoil your dreams."

"I wasn't...!" Mittica said, blushing, but he looked unsure now. Alice had to keep herself from laughing. She felt a little naughty for having given him such a fright. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Don't care for this place none," Petre muttered, turning away from Mittica.

"Sooner we're off this mountain, the better." The hammering of Mittica's chest slowed, and after a short while, he crossed his arms and settled back down beside a crate. He took out his small knife and began to stab the wood of the carriage absentmindedly, his eyes narrowed and alert.

"I can speak to people now..." Alice said dreamily. She had not thought much of [Malevolent Whispers] back in the pond, but if it meant she could finally communicate...!

"What should I even say, though?" She really, really wanted to know more about Eva, but she worried the boy might freak out if she suddenly started talking about the dreaded [Witch].

"Now that I think about it, he'll probably freak out no matter what I say." She did not think hearing voices would be any healthier in this world than it had been in her own.

"I suppose if I... Maybe if I just introduced myself first?" That seemed like a safe start, so she focused once more on Mittica. She would just introduce herself. That was harmless enough. She reached out with her invisible hands, pulled on the imaginary red string connected to Mittica's ear, and began to speak.

"D-Don't be frightened, but my name- " She might as well have shouted BOO O into his ear. Mittica's ponytail bounced with panic as he scrambled to his feet, lost his balance, and fell off the carriage and out of Alice's cone of vision.

"M-Mittica?!" Sorin shouted, looking over his shoulder.

"Petre, what- " But Petre had already hopped off the carriage, his large battleaxe held tight in his meaty fists.

"Little Master!" the bear-like man roared. He charged forward... and came to a rather abrupt stop at the edge of Alice's vision.

"What is it?! What happened?!"

"V-V-Voice!" Alice could not see Mittica's face, but she could hear his terror. The bravado from before had disappeared like the last bits of snow in March. She could not help but blush slightly, though the heat did not show up on her earthen cheeks. So much for a friendly introduction...

"What do you mean?!" Petre asked, his head popping in and out of Alice's vision as he looked around with a feral look.

"What voices?!" Sorin had stopped the carriage by then and had clambered down himself. The doughy man waddled over with the first bits of worry Alice had seen since her discovery.

"What happened?" Sorin asked, and he too looked around at the haunted woods.

"I h-heard... a voice...!" Mittica said, and Alice felt particularly awful as the once oaken-faced boy burst into tears. She was almost alarmed by his transformation.

"P-Please, Uncle! We n-need to r-return the st-stone!"

"You... You heard...?" Petre seemed to shrink as he digested Mittica's wail.

"Just a... Just a bad dream," Sorin said, and he lifted his nephew off the ground.

"Come now. We'll be gone from this mountain soon enough. When I found the first overland route into Castúel, I almost wet myself when... But this isn't the time for that. Just come along, lad."

"Pleaaaaase, Uncle!" Mittica came back into view, though Alice wished he hadn't. His fiery expression was now full of snot and tears. He scarcely seemed to notice the small knife in his hand as he rubbed his eyes vigorously.

"I heard...! There's something...! The stone...!"

"I hope you are pleased with yourself," Sorin said, shooting Petre a nasty look.

"All your talk about curses. It was just a broken wheel. We'll be off the mountain before nightfall." Alice felt very red in the face as Mittica was hefted back onto the carriage. The horses soon resumed their weary trod, and an even heavier silence than before fell over them.

"I... I should really apologize," Alice mumbled to herself. She had clearly tried to say too much.

"A-And an apology...! There's nothing scary about that." Her mind made up, Alice reached out to Mittica for a third time.

"Uh... S-Sorry...?" But her apology never reached the boy. Unable to use [Malevolent Whispers]. Insufficient cursed energy.

"Cursed... energy?" She studied the notification with a frown.

"What is that supposed to be?" She stared dumbly at the words until they disappeared and then quickly brought up her stats for the first time in what felt like years. Name: Alice Merryweather Race: Grudge Stone Class: N/A Level: 4 C E: 0/100 STR: 0 AGI: 0 VIT: 2 END: 20 PER: 2 INT: 6 WIL: 4 Alice blinked in surprise to find far fewer zeroes than before. Her stats were all still pretty much nil aside from endurance, but it was a welcome transformation.

Her attention quickly anchored onto the newest addition, however. CE.

"That must be cursed energy..." Alice said.

"Zero, huh. How am I supposed to get more of it?" Unfortunately, in all the years she had used this system, she had never found any kind of helpful tooltips. And she certainly couldn't go onto the internet and look up how.

"But what's that?" Her attention turned to her achievements, and for the second time that day, she felt like an absolute fool. Unlocked Achievements First Blood! The Patient Hunter First Kill! Spreading a Little Misfortune (Claim Reward)"Why didn't I check sooner?!" Alice groaned. She had gotten so caught up with her new companions that she had never bothered to see if [Spreading a Little Misfortune] came with a reward. She quickly focused on the achievement, and a second window popped up.

Spreading a Little Misfortune Requirements: Spread a curse for the first time. New Skill Unlocked: Chest of Misfortune I Chest of Misfortune (Rank I): Mortals collect woe and misery like a debt that cannot be repaid. Those you curse feed the reservoir of your cursed energy.

"What a waste!" Alice shouted, wanting very much to hit herself.

"I could have been gathering cursed energy this whole time!" There was no use crying over spilled cursed energy, however. She wondered if she would have gotten a nice boost from the carriage wheel breaking. She still was not sure if she had been responsible for- Number of active curses: 3 (2) Powerful (1) Weak Received cursed energy! Alice stared at the sudden notification and then her nonexistent heart soared.

She was not sure why she had just earned cursed energy, but she was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Now I can apologize!" But one look at the Sniffling Mittica gave her pause. Perhaps it would be best to leave the poor boy alone. She was fairly certain she had traumatized him enough for one day.

"I suppose that leaves... Sorin?" Alice said, turning her attention to the bald man.

"I probably should have started with him in the first place." Her mind made up, the problem then became what to say... She was still not entirely sure Mittica had actually understood her. He had certainly heard her, yes, but had he understood her words? An hour or two passed as Alice struggled with what to say. And then... Number of active curses: 3 (2) Powerful (1) Weak Received cursed energy!

"Huh." Nothing had happened as far as she was aware. There had been no obvious misfortune to speak of aside from the... the inevitable death the curse had already promised.

"I-I'll worry about that later, though. I wonder how much cursed energy I have now." Name: Alice Merryweather Race: Grudge Stone C E: 6 0 /100"That seems like a lot," Alice thought to herself.

"Definitely enough for an experiment!" She still needed to figure out if her accursed could fully understand her when she used [Malevolent Whispers]. If all the skill did was fill their heads with screams, her hopes of communication were doomed.

"I could try that..." Alice said to herself. It seemed like the simplest test. Her nonexistent heart quivering, she reached out to Sorin and said...

"Stop!" Sorin pulled hard on the reins, bringing the carriage to an abrupt halt.

"It worked!" Alice cheered. Nobody else shared in her excitement, however.

"What is it?!" Sorin asked, concerned, turning left and right.

"Did Mittica fall again?!"

"Wh-what?" Mittica sputtered from the back of the carriage. His face returned to its oaken mask, and he glowered at his uncle.

"I didn't fall! I'm f-fine!"

"Why are we stopping, Goldtooth?" Petre asked nervously.

"Did you see something?"

"Eh?" Sorin turned from Petre to Mittica with a deflated look.

"But you... I heard..." The words brought another flush of excitement to Alice's nonexistent face. That settled it. [Malevolent Whispers] could be used to communicate! After a decade of eavesdropping, Alice could finally have a conversation with someone.

"I d-don't care for this joke, Uncle!" Mittica said, biting his lower lip. Alice really hoped he didn't start crying again.

"I wasn't...! Petre's stories just made me feel all... funny, is all. I'm fine now!" Sorin looked thoroughly confused, but a good-natured smile soon found its way back onto his puffy face. His basset hound eyes drifted away from Petre and Mittica.

"S-Sorry about that. Just getting a little tired," Sorin said.

"A little too much adventure for one day! Hah, hah..." He urged the horses back into a trot.

"Wh-what should I say next?!" Alice wondered excitedly. Would he have understood her if she had said more than one word? She would have to experiment!

"But before that..." Name: Alice Merryweather Race: Grudge Stone C E: 10 /100"Hmm, hmm." Alice nodded her nonexistent head thoughtfully as she reviewed her stat screen.

"It looks like [Malevolent Whispers] uses 50 cursed energy... Seems a little excessive." The carriage rolled forward without any additional chatter as Alice waited, praying that she would soon be rewarded with more cursed energy. Number of active curses: 3 (2) Powerful (1) Weak Received cursed energy!

"That settles it! Seems like that notification pops up every hour," Alice said as she received another infusion of cursed energy.

"I don't think anything terrible is happening to them, so it must be... some sort of curse tax?" She didn't think too hard about it. All that mattered was that she would soon have enough cursed energy to resume her conversation! Or start it, rather. Sorin had been the right choice.

"I should probably let it max out," Alice said to herself as she considered how best to cram a conversation into two phrases. She would have to wait for at least an hour after she used her first two [Malevolent Whispers] before she would have enough cursed energy for a third, after all.

"Unless... I wonder what happens if I go over my max cursed energy." Her stat screen had shown a max of one hundred, but maybe...

"It could be an achievement? Or a prerequisite for some skill?" Stuck at the bottom of the pond, she had not had much opportunity to experiment with this world's system, but now...

"I've decided!" Alice declared, and she was glad Alice the Rock was covered. Her rock body was no doubt sparkling with anticipation.

"I'll wait and see what happens if I go over my max cursed energy." Even with [Geological Patience], the next couple of hours passed as though they were a year. Color slowly started to return to the forest, and the three travelers, while still largely silent and dour, seemed to perk up a little. Alice felt as though she was going to explode with anticipation when the notification she had been waiting for finally showed up. She had already reached [100/100 CE] the previous hour.

Number of active curses: 3 (2) Powerful (1) Weak Received cursed energy!

"I'll be pretty annoyed if nothing happ- " Before she could finish the thought, however, a second notification appeared. Her nonexistent heart leapt for joy... and then her spirits sank. [Alice Merryweather] cannot store additional cursed energy. Excess cursed energy will be released into the surrounding area. Nothing seemed to happen at first. Alice the Rock did not fart out a black cloud, and none of her accursed seemed to notice the release. But then a sound scratched at the edge of perception.

It was a moment before she realized it was a howl, so twisted and deformed were its syllables. Sorin brought the carriage to a halt, and another howl filled the air... but it was closer now.

"Uh oh..." Alice winced as Petre unslung the ax from his back. Mittica clutched his knife with white knuckles.

"That... That doesn't sound good..."