"Master! There's a package outside, I took it in..."
Jerry's voice sounded through the comms. Ashton straightened his back and wiped away his sweat using an already damp towel hanging by his shoulder. He looked at the time and saw that it was around the time he wraps-up his daily routine, so he deactivated the training room and stepped outside.
His trusty helper-bot was already waiting for him outside, carrying an innocuous box which doesn't even have any kind of designs in it. It looked just like a plain old cardboard box.
"Did it say where it came from?" He asked the bot.
To which Jerry replied with a shake of his head. Ashton shrugged and pointed at the table. The bot then whirred and went ahead to put the box in there.
Once he sat down, Jerry told him that he'll be cooking food and left Ashton on how own.
Ashton took a couple of seconds to relax. He's still a little bit out of breath from his training just now. He could even feel himself still sweating even while resting.
Meanwhile, he inspected the box using his senses. He didn't sense any maliciousness in it not anything that could possibly tick him off. But he does notice that the box radiates a good chunk of mana, which made him wonder what's inside of it.
A little while later, he decided to open it anyway. He really wouldn't know unless he did after all.
He'd admit that he's on guard. After all, the sender didn't leave any information on the box itself so that's already suspicious. And since one can never be too careful, especially in this day and age, he might as well assume that the box might explode the moment he opens it.
...which it didn't, thank god. That made him sigh in relief. .
He then proceeded to take a look at the stuff it contains and to his surprise, the items here were mostly something that he didn't recognize.
There's a chip in here which he can insert to his smartwatch, this usually contains information and so on but it has many other uses. He also saw a lot of books, a weird looking crystal and a small box.
Ashton frowned, he didn't remember doing any online shopping recently so he couldn't possibly be the one to have ordered this. Plus, if he was, then someone would've actually come and talk to him, right? The fact that the box looked plain and didn't contain any information was a dead give-away.
He then noticed a small tape attached to the chip. There's words on that tape which reads: 'Scan this first.'
Ashton raised a brow. He was hesitant at first but it's not like he can discover anything if he didn't do this so he might as well. He peeled off the tape and inserted the chip to his smartwatch to scan it.
After a couple of seconds, his smartwatch lit up and displayed a paused audio recording. Ashton blinked and somehow, an idea on who this package might've come from crossed his mind.
He played the audio recording and this is what he heard:
"Greetings, Young West. Regal King here."
'Thought so...' Ashton murmured to himself.
"You might find this weird and very out of the blue, frankly I don't care. I wanted to do it, so I did it. I sent you another package."
'I can see that...thanks I guess?'
"You might be wondering, why? Well, because I was intrigued, that's all."
'Intrigued? About what?'
"I received reports on your first week of school. So far, you've been impressive and I hope you stay that way. But, I digress. What I'm interested about is that curse of yours."
'Ahh...'
"It's intriguing to say the least...this, Curse of Mediocrity, as you call it. A curse that prevents you from learning Intermediate Spells and above. I did some research about it and found out that, so far, this a Unique Curse."
'A Unique Curse?'
"Aisha might've already told you this, but if she didn't, then listen carefully. Curses doesn't really disappear. It just goes around and gets passed around."
"Even if someone got rid of their shackles, the curse they once bore doesn't really dissipate into nothingness. Someday, someone will be unlucky enough to be the next host of the curse and the cycle just repeats itself."
Ashton nodded to this. Aisha did inform him about this being the case.
"The reason why I call your curse a unique one is because there weren't any records of it so far."
'Oh?'
"This means that, this Curse of Mediocrity, is something that only you, so far, has had throughout history. Which also mark you as a unique individual."
"If there's one thing that you should know about me, Young West. It's the fact that I am a very curious individual, so much so that it gets me into trouble sometimes, but that's a story for another day..."
"I sent you a package that contains things that would help you determine how deep this curse is embedded to you and what are it's limits. See, curses can be fickle at times and some can be manipulated or worked around. The items in that box I sent you will help you determine more clues about it. Of course, I've added some bonuses as well, I'm not asking you to do this for free. After all, I'm already crossing the line with this."
"I'd like you to take a look at the weird looking crystal that's in the box first."
Ashton peeled his eyes away from the hologram and took out the weird looking crystal out of the box.
The crystal looked...unnatural, to say the list. It's jagged and covered with thin yet sharp looking shards all over it's body, then again the bottom part was smooth and flat, allowing it to stand on itself.
It looked untainted for the most part, but at the very center of it, there seems to be a tiny wisp of...something blue. It's moving slightly and it jiggles whenever he touched the crystal itself. It's radiating mana but weirdly enough, Ashton didn't think that, whatever that thing is at the center of the crystal, it wasn't made out of mana.
He placed it in front of him and then heard the Regal King say:
"That, is a Soul Reflecting Crystal, a small fragment of it, more like. It has many uses that you'd eventually discover in the future but the one thing about it, is that it reacts to Curse Individuals strongly."
"Listen to my instructions first before using it. You must know everything first since the reaction will be quick and that crystal can only be used once. It is rather pricy and difficult to find so I'd appreciate if you don't waste it."
"Now, to use it is simple, you'd only have to inject it with your mana. But like I said, this crystal reacts strongly to people like you so once you do that I want you to pay close attention to what will happen next."
"There's a total of five reactions we're looking for here. Scaling from weak to strong, they are:
• If the core of the crystal turns into a deeper color
• If it turns black
• If it turns black then taints the inner parts of the crystal.
• If it taints the entirety of the crystal
• And if the crystal just melts into black goo.
These are the reactions you should look for. Remember this happens quick, no matter how strong the reaction is, this crystal will always dissipate into nothing, yes even the black goo."
"If it's alright with you, I'd like you to tell me how the crystal reacted to you honestly. You have my contact information so you can use that to inform me."
"As for the books, some of those contain knowledge about curses in general. It has records of what are the known curses and who succeeded in getting rid of them, it even includes how they did it. These should be useful to you."
"Additionally, one of the book there is special. I sent you a book that contain knowledge about Staff Wielding since I discovered you picked that as your choice of weapon. That should be useful to you as well."
"To top things off, that small box contains a necklace. Wear it, it will help you increase focus and increase your cultivation speed slightly."
"I might ask you to perform more experiments later on but do tell me if you're uncomfortable with it, I won't force you unless you're willing to do so."
"That's it for me. Do think about it. I'd be expecting your reply."
The audio recording stopped and chip dislodged itself from his smartwatch before turning into dust. Ashton watched this happen with a wry smile. This sponsor of his is really being thorough huh?
"Prof. Aisha wasn't kidding..." he murmured despite himself, "He really is generous once he's invested."
Ashton shook his head and kept the things away for now. Jerry arrived with his food and he'd rather have that first before the experiments.
He doesn't mind participating with the experiments the Regal King has for now, after all he wants to get rid of this curse no? So, why not? Who knows? Maybe he can help him figure out a way to remove this.