The atmosphere completely changed when the two locked eyes after Madilith blurted out that she wants to join the magic ritual too.
Madilith, as air-headed as she was, didn't feel the shift in the mood and blushed at Arnold's intense gaze.
She did not notice the murderous intent behind those eyes that disappeared as quickly as it came.
From Madilith's right stood Flora who was frowning at Arnold and was probably the only person to have noticed the look in his eyes.
Thinking nothing of it since it went away as fast as it came, she addressed Madilith.
"The two lovebirds decided to join us." Flora smirked at Madilith and Hofir.
"T-That's… We're…" Madilith looked at Arnold to explain that it was nothing like that.
I don't love him.
I'm only letting him sex with me to take my mind off things.
Anyone would be able to see what was wrong with the above but the person herself did not.
Arnold just looked away as if he lost all interest in her which made Madilith sad. A hug seems impossible to get now.
Madilith and Hofir went over to the table, greeting everyone as they sat down.
"Good morning, Hofir." Hans nodded at Hofir.
"Morning, Hans." Hofir nodded back, "Oh, and good morning, everyone."
This casual greeting made Arnold look at him, "Since when has this guy been greeting people with actual words and not a grunt or scowl?"
"Ah… That's…" Hofir looked at Sabrina and blushed, "A friend helped me socialize better with everyone… I wanted to help her as much as she helped me but… I was powerless to do anything…"
Unlike in the past, Madilith noticed that Hofir didn't stutter anymore. Of course, he still spoke slowly, probably because he wasn't used to speaking like everyone else.
Hofir put his hand on Sabrina's. With a relieved sigh, he said:
"I'm glad you're okay."
Sabrina made a small smile, "It's all thanks to Al."
'Al!?!?!?!?!?!?!?'
Al!?!?!?!
"Al!?!?" Madilith blurted out subconsciously, causing the others to jump from her exclaim.
She blushed and lowered her head.
Since when did she begin calling Arnold "Al"!? Only those closest to him are supposed to call him that! Madilith thought that if he called him Al then the distance between the two would be shortened.
Only Celeste called him this out of everyone at the academy from what Madilith knew. His juniors address him with "Lord" and his seniors (the boys) either "Bro" or just his name (the girls).
Madilith thought that because of the special relationship they shared, only she was allowed to call him that.
Castacia looked at Hofir.
"Uhm, from what Arnold told us, all of us will soon start experiencing the same symptoms that Sabrina had shown prior to meeting with Arnold."
"Symptoms…? Of her disease?" Hofir asked Castacia.
"According to Arnold… It wasn't a disease but something far worse." A shadow loomed over everyone's faces.
Castacia cleared her throat and looked at Madilith, "While I appreciate your willing to cooperate, I think it's best if you don't take up this task. I'm not saying you're not a capable mage but this will be too much for you to handle."
Madilith's arms dropped to her waist. She looked up at Arnold with a hopeful glint in her eyes.
"Professor Castacia is right. The number of mages won't increase the succession rate of the magic ritual. But things might still go wrong if I select the wrong person."
Madilith lowered her head.
Arnold then spoke again, "It should be a day or so until another afflicted start showing signs of the curse," he glanced at Madilith for a second, "So, we need to get started on the ritual immediately once everyone gathers."
"What about the information guild heist?" Hans asked.
This made Arnold sigh.
"…Right, there's that too. Whoever is going to infiltrate the guild will most likely be affected by the curse after we're done with the ritual and there's no telling if their curse will be as mild as Sabrina's curse was at first. It could even be more severe than hers. We don't know the caster's motive or if they can even control the curse to the point of increasing its power as much as they want to."
"Should we wait until tomorrow then?"
Arnold nodded at Sabrina's question.
"There's still some preparation to be made. First, earth magic to dig a hole large enough to hold everyone in the group. Second: drawing the rune at the bottom of the hole. Third: drawing multiplier runes on scrolls and putting them around the hole. Fourth: filling it up with water—"
◇◇
Everyone hurriedly left to get ready to leave after Arnold was done speaking to them.
He urged them to hurry back to the main camp and contact the other teams as well. Of course, if necessary, buy new gear as well. If they meet the Divine Titans who are noncompliant in handing the sword over then a fight is likely to happen. They have to be prepared for such a situation.
'I can get started right away if the other teams are back at the main camp by this afternoon.' He looked up at the clock tower. It was currently two hours away from noon.
He didn't want to delay.
Not after he saw the reason behind why the curse was happening.
Mark of Cursama.
A form of curse magic so dangerous that it could wipe out entire guilds.
Just like there exists Forbidden Martial Arts (like Sword Tribulation), there exists Forbidden Magic Spells. These are spells so malicious and dangerous that it can cause suffering or genocides in the millions.
Seventeenth-Rank [One Breath Shall Kill All] is one of the most powerful spells ever created. It's a spell that can kill you instantly if you draw even one breath. Of course, this even affects players in the game since they are breathing within the world of Star Fantasy. What's a fantasy game without some immersion?
Players like Lufulur and other top-ranking magicians pressured the developers to ban the spell since even low-level magicians could wipe out entire guilds by utilizing another magic item found in the game—Magic Sheets. There were ways to increase your magic control and intelligence to extraordinary heights without going through the process of leveling, giving level 1 mages the opportunity to cast insanely powerful spells. The only restriction they faced was money since magic sheets are ridiculously expensive for most.
In any case, Misteltein's entire lobby almost crashed one night because a low-level mage attempted to kill them all with the spell. Luckily, Lufulur had prepared several antimagic measures that kicked in the moment the magic sheet was used.
That user was banned and so were several others who tried to do the same thing. After many protests and controversies, the developers had to remove the spell entirely and increase the requirements to use magic sheets.
Ordinary magicians can only use a magic sheet stacked with First to Fourth-Rank spells. Anything above requires a legendary or Unique class, which is what makes Elora's class so special and why Arnold wanted to keep her by his side.
Now then, what correlation do the forbidden magic spells share?
While Arnold was deep in thought, he noticed Madilith and Sabrina casually speaking with each other.
Madilith seemed pouty about something and Sabrina was smiling wryly. One might assume that Madilith would be happy that her friend recovered…
Arnold checked Madilith's status.
· Level: 25
· Class: Magician
· Title: Mark of Cursama
What is the most powerful weapon in all the nine realms? Was it Aether? Golden Aura? Seventeenth-Rank spells? An army of Offspring? The Holy Sword of Song and Light? Forbidden Martial Arts? Battle Spirits? Demon Lord factors?
It is none of those things. Or more like, they are just a level below in danger scale to what was truly the most dangerous and powerful weapon—
Fate.
Fate is related to one's misfortune. Part of it actually but exactly the same in some ways. Misfortune involves what happens in someone's life. It could be something that hurts them, causes them great sorrow or something that kills them.
That's why the phrase "Fate was not by their side" is sometimes thrown around when attending someone's funeral or when a loved one is gravely injured in a battle. It could be because a person died from a sickness, or was murdered, or even suicide.
Misfortune is not predetermined by fate, but it is the driving force for everything bad that happens in our lives.
The Mark of Cause—or infamously known as the Kiss of Misfortune as Arnold calls it—is a mechanism through which Fate's influence manifests.
An afflicted could be hiking somewhere with friends but then falls even after being careful of the mountain paths… Misfortune.
Another afflicted could lose his entire family, whether it be in a storm or a bandit raid on his hometown… Misfortune.
A stray arrow could shoot through a random villager's head while tending the fields… Misfortune.
The caster of [Kiss of Misfortune] is quite literally toying with Fate. Or the caster could just want the power of Fate itself. Such a blasphemy is usually not tolerated by the gods since finding artificial ways to ascend to godhood is the greatest crime one can commit.
A pseudo-God of Fate.
'If I cannot remove the Mark using the rune antibodies…'
He'll be forced to do the unthinkable.
But first he'll need to make contact with the caster.
"If I could stop my entire guild from being killed by a Forbidden spell then I should be able to stop the curse from evolving."
He obviously did not have Lufulur's power anymore so there's a low possibility that his plans will succeed. The only thing by his side was the knowledge of the greatest magic caster in Star Fantasy.
Arnold recalled the name of the being the mark belonged to.
Cursama, a runic phrase meaning Unified or Unification.
The unification of the Soul King's Special Organs.
'A midgame boss… How many more troublesome things will get thrown my way before I can get that martial arts book…'
He closed his eyes and then recalled the pain that went through his body when his fight with Gederick was at its climax.
Arnold shuddered and he bit his lip. He decided to look back at his own status.
· Cursed
He stared at the status screen blankly for up to a minute.
A worry lingers in the back of his mind what could possibly be behind those question marks.
He knows what type of curse it is (Group Curse) and what it can do (Cause the deaths of others which is influenced by fate) yet he did not know its name or the purpose for its existence and even why Madilith was made the source…
The curse's name and the caster's goal could change his entire outlook on this situation but he was hoping that wouldn't be the case…
While telling himself that there shouldn't be anything to worry about since he's faced these types of curses before, he headed back to the inn to check if everyone was ready to leave.
◇◇◇
"—Interesting plan." Daraia spoke after Arthur finished explaining their next course of action.
Infiltrating the guild by force would be stupid since every guard in the city will be on them the moment they try to leave the guild. She's seen how densely populated the streets were with knights. Infiltrating at night would be much easier.
"Miss Daraia, what will we do if the closed dungeon's entrance is gone?" Fleridine, who was standing behind Daraia, asked, "Dungeons that have lost their means of producing mana crumble after a certain period of time. The mana itself is what keeps them standing."
"I get your concerns. We can simply use magic to blow up the rubble, right?"
"…Doing that will trigger the mana veins underground to explode…"
Mana veins are responsible for supplying mana into the dungeon and out into the atmosphere. Even if they no longer supply mana to the dungeon, a simple destruction spell can trigger the residue mana inside the veins to explode which also triggers the magic crystals deep inside the dungeon to erupt, creating a powerful earthquake that can damage the forests and nearby settlements.
It's risky and Daraia knows that.
"Ngh… I don't know what else we can do besides clearing the rubble with our hands then. We can just send a scouting party to check if the entrance is open. Going there as a group without first confirming that the entrance isn't blocked will be troublesome."
"I'd like to lead the scouting party, Guild Master." Fleridine said with a determined expression.
'Hm, she's been eager to lead a lot lately.
She had volunteered to do a lot of things lately. When Daraia confronted her about this and suggest she rest, Fleridine said "How can I aspire to be a leader if I don't gain experience in actually leading my comrades?"
Daraia had also noticed that Fleridine had gained some sort of respect for Arthur during their time together, going as far as addressing him with "Lord". Arthur had told her that it was unnecessary but she hit him with a "those I consider my superiors shall be treated with respect".
Superiors could mean two things:
1- Someone with a higher rank in the party than Fleridine (like Daraia, who's the guild master and her own guild master, Admeera)
2- Someone with better leadership skills and with more experience in leading people.
It was awkward to see a woman in her late twenties go "Yes sir", "No sir" and "Right away sir" to someone almost a decade younger than her. Seeing as how leading had nothing to do with age but more with experience, Daraia decided to just watch Fleridine's growth as her own leader.
She might just become the guild master of the Magic Guild one day. Daraia definitely wanted that to happen since Admeera is an annoying and stuck-up bitch who treats adventurers like cockroaches.
"How many members will you need?" Daraia asked which made Fleridine's eyes sparkle.
With a smile, she replied, "Five is enough, Lady Daraia!"
"Alright. Take a ranger with you to mark the path to the dungeon. We don't want to get lost if the dungeon is located deep in a forest or the mountains. The rest of the team can be left up to you."
"Affirmative!" Fleridine suddenly frowned after that cheerful salute, "Ugh…" she groaned as she clutched her head.
"What's wrong?" Arthur asked with urgency.
"I-It's nothing. I was just lightheaded for a second…" Fleridine took a few deep breaths before bowing to Daraia, "I'll gather the members of the scouting party as soon as possible. We will be awaiting your success in retrieving the archives."
She walked away with unsteady steps.
"I wonder what that was about…" Arthur couldn't keep his eyes off her.
"She must be tired from overwork," Daraia shrugged, "We'll all rest for a few days after confirming that the entrance to the dungeon is cleared. She needs that much needed rest but will need to push through for a while."
"Yes… Hm?" Arthur suddenly stared somewhere random, no, he was looking in the direction of the city.
He squinted his eyes.
"What the… Why is he here?"
"Hey, where are you off to!? We aren't done with our discussion yet!" Daraia shouted at Arthur who ran in the same direction he was looking earlier.
"I'll be right back! Sorry!"
Daraia let out a deep sigh. She decided to follow after the kid to see what got him so spooked.