Chapter 18: A holy curse
A cool moment was nothing without an audience; Bryce had that audience, and it was a girl whose holiness made her reaction a hundred times better. Upon seeing her reddened face, Bryce knew he'd done a great job, and something within him stirred.
Was it the heroic bloodline? Bryce thought.
'I am fated to be an attention seeker, or is there a better connection between our mana now?' The former seemed unlikely as demon lords and their speeches were famous worldwide, which reeked more of that trait. Bryce sacrificed some time dwelling on that new feeling, deciding it'd to be related to Sharla.
Expecting great things from Excalibur, Bryce smiled and lifted his eyes to the troll. The monster was in its finest fury, its engines loud and hot, and its body shivered with profound power to protect the dignity of its race; that form seemed frightening, but not to Bryce as he'd fought against enraged troll already.
After the troll balled its hands, Bryce kicked the ground, flying toward it, his sword drawing a golden-blue trail.
Transparent golden walls coalesced around Bryce after he had taken a few steps forward, those seemed like protection, and they indeed could take some burden off Bryce, but their main purpose was to lessen the usage of stamina, sharpen senses, and lower mana costs.
If Bryce had a defensive skill on his own, he would be able to mix that skill with Sharla's protection, and she would lend him her mana to keep it active! That was mainly for tanks, though.
Not startled by the golden embrace's appearance as he had seen those walls before, Bryce continued stomping on the ground. So far, nothing appeared in his skill list, and Bryce surely hadn't felt any offensive skill forming within him; that didn't really mean anything wrong.
Excalibur itself could be a great weapon against monsters as their existence was a danger to humanity, and Bryce didn't need any fancy moves, for he believed his footwork and swordsmanship were enough and could only go better the more he clashed with stronger people.
At last, Bryce and the troll had a short face-off.
He then eluded its punch, scratching the monster's torso with his golden-blue sword.
[Excalibur has extracted 100 MP to inflict a holy curse on the troll.]
Bryce skimmed through the message, then glanced at the wound he had left on the troll, it was deep and shining golden; if it weren't for blood fountaining out, Bryce wouldn't think of it as a laceration at all.
The blood kept gushing in abundance, and when it seemed like the curse couldn't squeeze anything more, the golden veins stretched around the wound, gnawing for more blood.
Just at first glance, it was a terrifying curse. Bryce just needed 100 MP to inflict it, and it kept going for more, as though the monster was really a mistake of the world. If the troll had the means to heal himself, the curse probably would turn that useless, or maybe it would pulse with joy, going for more blood.
"It's an amazing and useful passive skill, but if I can't control it, I will run out of mana." Bryce found a first weakness he'd cover in the future. For now, he could deal with it by not making unnecessary slashes through the monster's skin, and his mother's bloodline greatly helped him as she blessed her son with high mana points.
Having her abundant mana reserves, Bryce threw himself at the troll with a smirk and left more wounds on its flesh. He drew a pretty cool pattern on the troll, deflected its blows through the blunt side of his sword, and then waited for the monster to just die.
[You have killed a Cave Troll!]
[You have leveled up!]
"So fast and efficient! That's the power of a hero!" Sharla exclaimed with palpable happiness and excitement, her appearance seeming more and more like a fan girl, which made Gengo look at her oddly.
He then glanced at his owner, his eyes asking the question about girls.
Bryce acted as though he couldn't see his friend's expression.
Sharla found their silence weird, so she quickly added, "I mean, you are also strong, Bryce. You have received such a beautiful sword; maybe it has chosen you, so it was mostly you killing the troll!"
"It's fine, I don't need really need compliments," Bryce lifted his hand to gesture to her it's okay and chuckled.
While cool moments were indeed awesome and felt good, when it came to his swordsmanship, no reaction could satisfy Bryce more than his own delight in his sword. No matter how many girls, jade beauties, queens, empresses, demon lords, heroines, and whoever else was in another world fawn over Bryce's skills, that wouldn't change.
"I see," Sharla replied with fewer enthusiasms, knowing she had made a blunder, even though Bryce had told her it was all fine. To not repeat the same mistake, she glanced at the troll's dead body and carefully said, "There's chance holiness has been ingrained in this troll's body, so you have to decide whether you want to pass it to others. It might be better if you keep it to yourself and Gengo."
Hearing her words, which sounded legit, Bryce took a good glance at the troll, then nodded, "There might be parts with holiness within, so I will leave those for us."
It wasn't like the holy curse had spread across the whole body. It was mainly because Bryce kept attacking around vital spots of the torso, so it was mostly shiny here.
Sharla nodded, a faint but beautiful smile spread on her lips as she felt being included in 'us', and her heart warmed.
While these two talked, Gengo found no presence around them. He followed his friend's minimap, found Stasia Flowers by sniffing them carefully, then took them to his spacious inventory by tugging them with his nose. He returned with good news and showed his inventory to Bryce.
Bryce laughed and patted his friend's head, "Good boy!"
"Good boy!"
Gengo barked happy noises.
He was so useful, wasn't he? Surely, as useful as these two humans!