ALL NOVEL Chapter 55: Adventure Begins!
Eyes went wide as Lee came back to his senses. He looked as if he saw a ghost. The dilated pupils came back to its normal size within an instant. He sighed lightly as he glanced at An who was sitting right next to him and her head was resting on his shoulder. She was wrapped around by his comforting hand.
Lee didn't twitch or move as it might disrupt her delicate nap. He sat still without any movements for a while. His eyes were aimed at the vast sky visible through the greenery of trees. His mind was wandering aimless like a kite.
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1 P.M.
1820 Essence harvested.
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The hourly notification jumbled Lee in his tracks. Glancing at the popped up panel, he sat like a dumb as he forgot what he was thinking upon. He scratched his head as he tried to recover his thoughts, but in vain.
'D, do you remember what I was thinking?!'
[Kid, your perspective was weirdly familiar. Even though I am in your brain, all I could see was a formless cluster of symbols and figures randomly floating. But from my opinion, it looked too complex to comprehend!]
*sigh*
Lee opened up his attribute panel and scanned through it. His observing eyes glimpsed at the Essence points left to spend.
'D, do I have enough Essence to buy a new beast core?'
[You have enough to buy the Death element beast core of an Evil Phoenix. Want to proceed?]
'Yes please!'
The Essence reduced to 2,800 and the beast core appeared in the Inventory. As he expected, the prompt regarding absorbing the core came up and he approved it.
[The Death element. It's pathetically powerless at lower grades, but increases its potential by leaps and bounds by each upgrade. An attack imbued with this attribute acts like an immovable curse. It slowly eats up the opponent from the inside like a parasitic worm. The opponent will be unknown to his or her impending death!]
'Scary!'
Lee uttered as soon as D narrated it's characteristics. He can feel this attribute's fatality from D's words. He glanced at the affinity bar.
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Affinity:-
• Greater Poison Affinity (11884/1000000)
• Greater Lightning Affinity (12385/1000000)
• Lesser Fire Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Water Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Ice Affinity (0/100)
• Greater Rock Affinity (11975/1000000)
• Greater Metal Affinity (11974/1000000)
• Lesser Sand Affinity (0/100)
• Greater Nature Affinity (11984/1000000)
• Medium Air Affinity (1049/10000)
• Greater Sound Affinity (11985/1000000)
• Greater Dark Affinity (11797/1000000)
• Lesser Light Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Death Affinity (0/100)
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'D, how does it look?'
[Looks like you need a lot of enemies to practice.]
An woke up from her short nap and rubbed her eyes like a little child. Her behaviour was that of a little girl whenever Lee was near. An beamed at him like a little girl who was gifted a candy. Lee patted her head with care and love.
'Why would one need many opponents when you have a partner?'
D did not reply and agreed in silence.
"Shall we continue our journey?!"
An sprang up as a response to Lee's query. She helped him up and let him lead the path. An was expecting to walk to the destination, but Lee's love and care detected a muffled yawn from her. Out of the blue, An was lifted off the ground and into his hands like a baby. She was surprised by his action. Before she could speak, Lee stated as he flew forward-
"If I make my dear walk without enough rest, I am not fit to be called your husband!"
His words carried his truest intention of caring from the bottom of his heart. A few drops of tears rolled down her cheek as she coiled her arms around his neck. Using his Air element affinity and Flight skill, he flew towards the rocky hills.
The progress of the Air element went up step by step and the distance kept reducing. The airborne Lee slowed down as he felt the distance is apt for controlled descending. As he descended, he applauded this hidden formation's vastness. On the surface, they are nothing more than a series of lithic hills. Upon a closer inspection, Lee found a strange fact about these hills.
These two rows of short hills that make a valley between them was actually a shallow canyon. The valley between them inclines downward so as to let anything go in and come out of it. But the lack of vegetation made it hard for any species to survive there. The presence of such a lifeless barren formation inside a forest piqued Lee's interest. The canyon had many big and small caves that were toondark for starlight to reach. Lee did not probe further as he found a cave at the first hills itself.
Letting An on the ground, Lee scouted the area with his Map. There was no sign of life anywhere near. The cave Lee found surprisingly had a few skeletons in high quality armours and swords at a corner. The accessories looked pretty new while the remains were all bones. D scanned the area and found that the area had no hidden hostilities. Lee entered the cave and daylight departed from them. As Lee scanned, the cave was very long and is interconnected with innumerous other caves at different points. The large network was complex and immense, but D assured Lee that it is devoid of any danger.
Lee and An came closer to the skeletons and inspected them. The bones were crumbled beyond recognition, but the weapons and armours that scattered on the floor were in good shape. D sounded out a warning as Lee extended his right hand to grab one of the swords lying on the ground.
[LEE, DON'T TOUCH IT! THEY ARE CURSED!]
Lee jolted and took a step back the very moment as his blade came out in his left hand. An frowned at his action and unsheathed her sword. Lee tapped her hand and nodded to sheath it back. She was reluctant, but did not want to disobey Lee.
'D, are you sure it is a curse?!'
[Yes, it definitely is a curse. The one who put the curse on the sword made sure that it's user did not live long. Not only the sword, but the armours, shields and spears around the withered bones are cursed. Anyone who touches the object will be the next bearer of the curse.]
Hearing this, Lee stored his blade and was not in guard anymore. He recalled his 'Curse Remover' ability and asked D-
'How does the skill work?'
[With an Essence cost. The cost varies according to the curse strength. Use 'View' to see the properties of the object and the curse type. The Essence count needed to expel it will be seen adjacent to it.]
Lee turned his head around to spot all the weapons on the floor. There were a total of 12 swords, 8 shields, 4 spears and 8 sets of Steel Silver armour. The highest grade among weapons was Higher Iron grade. But the armours were all of Higher Mortal grade.
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Curse: Necginhawa.
Description: A 4th order curse that can only be applied to inanimate objects. Needs an immense amount of resentment to activate beside chanting. After activation, the curse binds to the first person that comes in contact with the object. The breath of death starts to flow and the person is subjected to extremely unfortunate events. After the target dies, the curse stays dormant to be awakened by another person. Protects the bound object from wear and tear.
State: extremely weak.
Cost: 97 Essence.
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All the accessories shared a common curse. The description of the curse was short and concise. Lee went through the details once again and saw a few unfamiliar terms in it. Before he asked any, D replied-
[There are 5 categories in curses. They determine the longevity of the curse.
The 1st order curses are the weakest of all. Their maximum span does not exceed a year. The curse stays in its peak potential to 8 months. Then it slowly began to weaken and fade away completely by the one year limit.
The 2nd order curses are uncommon to be seen. They are used by professional battle wizards or higher order sorcerers. It can keep its peak power to about 7 years and then begins to fade and vanish to the end of the decade.
The 3rd order curses are the same as before, but their total span is 5 decades. They start to weaken by the beginning of the 40th year and disappear by the end of the limit. This is the highest order of curse one can ever cast without any backslash or demand. But only a very few have ever succeeded in it.
The 4th order curses are something that takes blood and life as fuel. These curses are two-edged swords as it usually drains the life energy of the invoker and tortures the victim. A slight mishap can take the life of the invoker itself. The Black Mages of Chaos are only known to invoke such curses. It stays unfazed for over 85 years and deteriorates by the end of the limit of century.
The accumulated life force of the entire kingdom of Venus cannot quench the demand of the 5th order curses. The terrain itself becomes barren by the immense sinister pressure. The Great Devil had to sacrifice over 180 crore lives including demonoids, humanoids and legendary beasts with or without their consent to crack open the continent of Exiriado. The curse rippled over all 4 continents and ripped them in half to create 8 smaller continents. It is said that the Great Devil is still hibernating from the overload of the curse. Spanning over 5 centuries, the weakening starts by stepping into the last 100 years. According to my calculations, we are only a few decades away from another extinction level event.
The 4th and 5th order curses have an additional ability to make itself dormant and propagate itself like a chain reaction. This is the reason for its extremely high demand in the resources.]
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(A.N. from here on, the ability 'Curse Remover' will be renamed to 'De-Spell'.)
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Name: Lee
Age: 20
Title: Grim-reaper, Soul Liberator
Fame: 2015
Essence: 2800 (1 PM)
Money: 953 Gold, 0 Silver, 31 Copper
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Partner: An
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Health: 320
Strength: 320
Vitality: 320
Agility: 320
Defense: 320
Endurance: 320
Sense: 320
Intelligence: 320
Resolve: 320
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Immunity:-
• Greater Poison Immunity (191/1000000)
• Medium Lightning Immunity (3229/10000)
• Medium Air Immunity (200/10000)
Affinity:-
• Greater Poison Affinity (11884/1000000)
• Greater Lightning Affinity (12385/1000000)
• Lesser Fire Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Water Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Ice Affinity (0/100)
• Greater Rock Affinity (11975/1000000)
• Greater Metal Affinity (11974/1000000)
• Lesser Sand Affinity (0/100)
• Greater Nature Affinity (11984/1000000)
• Medium Air Affinity (1165/10000)
• Greater Sound Affinity (11985/1000000)
• Greater Dark Affinity (11797/1000000)
• Lesser Light Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Death Affinity (0/100)
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Mastery:-
• Absolute Blade Mastery
• Absolute Nunchuck Mastery
• Medium Bow Mastery (778/10000)
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Cultivation: Peak stage Core Formation realm
Qi: 0/1100
Mana: 0
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Innate Skills:-
• View
• Foresight
• EsGen
• EsConv
• De-Spell
• Flight
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INVENTORY:-
QUESTS:-
MAP:-
SHOP:-
RE-MODEL:-
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