Chương 133: Chapter 138: What to Do

Status.

──────────── Name: Elias Mercer Race: Human Class: Hexer Level: 25 Titles: Apex Slayer, Paragon of Potential, Baron Slayer, Untouchable, Defiance of Tiers, Elite Slayer (I, II, III), Paragon of Growth, Profane Substitution, Overpowering Magic, Genesis of Damnation, Enhanced Will, Butcher (I, II), Forced Evolution, Origin of Unity, Deviation of Sequence, Paragon of Ascension, Dreadful Gaze, Enhanced Being, Refined Will, Paragon of Supremacy Stats: Vitality: 360 (702) Constitution: 346 (657) Endurance: 364 (691) Strength: 404 (767) Agility: 386 (772) Dexterity: 321 (642) Perception: 339 (644) Charisma: 374 (710) Wisdom: 416 (811) Intelligence: 463 (902) Willpower: 666 (1431) Free Stat Points: 0 Traits: Curse-Born Resilience, Cursed Aura, Arcane Shaping, Hexer's Touch, Unbound Arcana Skills: Arcane Sense Lv43, Arcane Manipulation Lv38, Entropic Lance Lv25, Curse Detonation Lv25, Curse Absorption Lv10, Reinforced Infusion Lv10, Passive Casting Lv10, Spreading Hex Lv10, Malignant Threshold Lv10, Feast on the Ruined Lv10, Whispering Impulse Lv8, Aural Manifestation Lv15, Accelerated Processing Lv3, Aura Tether Lv3, Piercing Eyes Lv7 Conditions: Curse of the False Saint Tutorial Points: 51227 ──────────── I was keeping up my Arcane Sense, Accelerated Processing, and Piercing Eyes all at the same time, with no strain.

Granted, I wasn't pushing the skills, and the accelerated perception was weak right now, but still, before there was always a certain amount of strain, of lost focus. But now I was actively just using Aural Manifestation, the others were working by themselves. Best skill ever, that Passive Casting. But I had something more to do. I was looking at my grimoire, checking for the right curses to assimilate into my aura, something that would not fuck me over but strong enough to push my trait too.

I had to evolve that soon. And for that I needed to suffer. But actually, I was starting to get how to fight back the curses actively. Now that I was capable of manifesting my aura, I was starting to be able to manipulate it more actively than before. My grimoire looked much more dangerous right now. The book floated beside me, tethered to my aura, the pages flipping by themselves with a simple mental command. To my senses, it felt like the Liber Maledictionum was happy. It feasted on a ton of life-force.

I filled many of its pages with new curses, but strangely there were still too many blank pages, as if the book made more. Still, the damn glyphs and symbols that started from half the book onward were impossible for me to read. Nothing changed since the first time I looked at it. Despite my higher stats, new skills, or Hexer class, the book didn't give up its secrets. At least it would be better put to use from now on. I flipped the pages absentmindedly, taking into account all the new curses.

I'd have to learn their effects and use them properly in combat. And the list was long. • Momentary Distraction — Occasional unfocused thoughts under monotony. • Muscle Twitch — Involuntary small spasms under stress. • Fatigue Echo — Heightened sense of tiredness after exertion. • Over-Attunement — Heightened sensitivity to mana fluctuations. • Hollow Echo — Strikes against you produce a strong, lingering ringing in the wielder's ears.

• Weight of Remembrance — Your weapon is unnaturally heavy, growing more burdensome the longer it's held or used. • Resonant Suffering — All curses on the wielder become linked. When any curse triggers, the others briefly echo its effect, amplifying the overall burden. The resonance grows stronger as more curses accumulate. • Duskvision — Colors dull and distort in bright environments, causing mild eye strain under direct sunlight.

• Sovereign's Burden — Any display of weakness (hesitation, fear, retreat) causes a cascading debuff to all stats until dominance is reasserted. • Obsession Field — Others become fixated on you… and hostile if ignored. • Crushing Grip — Fine motor control is nearly impossible under stress. • Nerve Overload — Pain signals are amplified. • Heightened Hunger — Constant need to consume. • Drift State — Difficulty staying physically still. • Stiffening — Reduced overall flexibility.

• Thought Spiral — Can't stop overthinking, even when necessary. • Choice Paralysis — Too many optimal paths impede you from acting. • Domination Urge — Greatly intensifies the desire to control others. • Fractured Focus — Important details compete with trivial ones. • Exhaustion Debt — Fatigue returns multiplied after stopping to rest. • Absent Step — Occasionally phases your step slightly out of sync, causing you to partially "miss" the ground and stumble. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road.

Report any occurrences elsewhere. • Hunger Coil — Increases caloric drain, causing frequent hunger pangs. • Magic Backlash — When casting magic, part of the energy causes backlash on yourself. • Lingering Decay — Healing effects are greatly reduced. • Sterile Touch — Reduces tolerance to natural environments, increasing discomfort over time outdoors. • Living Deficit — Gradually drains life-force.

• Shatter Feedback — Excessive force creates microfractures in your own bones before rapidly regenerating them, causing intense pain while gradually reducing their elasticity. • Autonomic Override — Limbs may act independently in high-stress moments, sometimes against your intent. • Parasitic Bloom — Regeneration consumes internal resources, draining stats if prolonged. • Velocity Tear — Sudden stops or impacts deal internal damage proportional to speed.

• Deferred Ruin — Small damage taken is stored internally, then released all at once if the threshold is exceeded. • Truth Erosion — Whenever you lie, you lose your own sense of self, making it harder to distinguish if what you said was true or false. • Cognitive Burn — Overuse of magic causes mental overheating, leading to hallucinations and temporary loss of clarity. • Sight Fade — Physical vision randomly fails. • Tyrant Mind — Inability to yield or retreat once making a decision, even when survival demands it.

• Overexposure — Sensory overload in stressful environments. • Endless Drive — Rest becomes increasingly less effective. • Weight of the Fallen — Each being killed weighs on you physically, hindering your movement until you won't be able to move anymore. • Echo Addiction — Missing attacks causes backlash damage and disorients you. • Blood Debt — If no blood is spilled for a time, you'll enter a state of anemia until you lose all your blood. • Overcommit — Once you begin an attack, you cannot redirect or stop it.

• Anchored — Each attack partially roots you, reducing mobility. • Sight Tithe — Each shot temporarily dims your vision, stacking with repeated use. • Undertow Pull — Every strike subtly drags you toward the center of combat, making disengagement more difficult. • Fading Grip — The longer combat continues, the harder it is to maintain a solid hold, increasing the chance of dropping weapons.

• Recoil Rupture — Heavy strikes send shock back through your body, causing stacking internal strain and potential organ failure. • Withered Vessel — All stats reduced by 25%. You experience severe pain and discomfort both physically and mentally. The last one had been the worst to extract. It was powerful, far more powerful than the others, and it hated its new place in the grimoire. Without the increase in stats, I wouldn't have been able to move it easily.

One last cursed object remained, but I still preferred to wait before touching the mask. That was another entirely different can of worms to deal with. I was hoping that someone in the other safe zone could help me with that. For now, I would have to learn to use the curses I had available based on the enemies I'd face. Many in combination would be devastating against physical fighters, others for mages, but I needed time to learn and apply them all correctly.

Anyway, one by one I selected the curses to use for absorption: Overcommit, Over-Attunement, Domination Urge, Tyrant Mind, Sovereign's Burden, and Resonant Suffering. There was a clear pattern. These curses would make me more narrow-minded. Though, with my resistances and the new skill, I could feel the effect take root, but I could resist it quite easily. I couldn't add more curses for the moment, my aura was already saturated, but I could feel that I wasn't dismantling them as usual.

No, my aura was starting to assimilate them and enhance itself with them, somehow. I could use less debilitating curses, but these, I had the feeling, would help me empower myself better. I would try to go for more physical curses later on, but for now it was working fine. As I finished absorbing them, I noticed that my Curse Absorption skill didn't lose its previous capability. The same as Curse Detonation, I could create blasts of mana even if the skills didn't show it. It was an evolution, not a devolution.

That put me more at ease. At least I wasn't losing any capability. I would have to extensively test everything, but given that I had quite some time until sundown, I was finally going to spend some of it for myself. I'd deal with the group tonight. But one thing I had to decide. I was constantly postponing it, but I think it would be better to wait at least until tomorrow before facing that snake.

Not only did I have new skills and curses to learn to use properly, but my stats had increased so much that I would have to revise my fighting strategies and learn to apply them as best as I could. It's not that I couldn't fight the same way as before, but I felt I should at least try to push my body a little more. For that, Vix would be perfect, but at the moment I wanted to try a bit of everything, and go back to the shrine… There was still golden potion in the pond, and it would be a waste to leave it there.

I didn't know how much remained. The others were still nagging about the points we left behind, though. Well, those would come away with me. I lifted higher, over the canopy and way above the town. It was midday, more or less. The sun was high in the cloudless sky. I took a breath of fresh air. I could still feel the power thrumming through my being. Would it ever fade? I could understand why Vix got so mad at the merchant. If at higher tiers you constantly feel like a god and some little shit tries to talk back…

In this world, power was everything, and those who were weak had no rights. I knew that technically I was still a small fry, but the improvement made me want to roar like a lion to the world that I was there, and no matter what, I would prevail against anything that came my way. Maybe the curses were having a bigger effect than I thought… Anyway, I was pushing my flying speed now, but maybe I could increase it further?

I tried to make my aura propel me faster, and while I was clearly faster than before, it still felt insufficient. I was never the kind of guy to like high speeds. I didn't drive fast, nor did I particularly enjoy roller coasters and the sensation of accelerating. But in my accelerated mind, my current speed was just insufficient, especially with a sky so beautiful all for myself. Flying was still one of the most magical things that had ever happened to me. But let's see about that boost.

I tried reducing the size of the aura around me, making it more aerodynamic, and flew in a Superman-like fashion. It helped somewhat, but not that much. Air resistance was clearly still a thing, but I wanted more. After some minutes of trial and error, I found out that condensing my aura actually reduced its speed of movement, while keeping it more volatile but still capable of pushing me was the best way of accelerating. Then I made a disk.

I created it just behind my raised leg, and as soon as I was in the right position, I stepped on it, pushing and propelling myself forward. That was a burst of speed. The wind whipped my hair backward as I soared forward. Before the momentum of my push faded, I created another platform, this time just the size of my feet, condensed just enough not to shatter with the push. I broke it, fumbling in the air. I restabilized myself and tried again.

It was quite tricky, but after five minutes I was drastically getting better. The point was that I was here. I looked downward. The shrine was still there. The door that I blasted open from the inside had been repaired and was actually sealing the entrance quite well. I blasted it open once again, this time from outside, and entered. As I went down the stairs, I noticed the place losing that magical feeling it had the first time. I saw the broken statues, the rotting bodies of the warriors.

The stench was potent in the sealed chamber. Despite the size, it filled all the air with the smell of death and decomposition. I walked through it all and reached the other side. The pond was there, mostly empty except for a big puddle of liquid at the bottom. I should have thought this through. My waterskin wasn't enough for that amount of liquid. There was more than I expected. What should I do now?