As Dame Wasp spoke about the mechanic's mother and cursed slaves, Ace found himself at a loss for words. The situation perplexed him. While he empathized with the mechanic's family history, particularly the tragedy surrounding his mother, Ace harbored no remorse for killing the Gremlin curseling—even if it meant he indirectly killed the mechanic's mother. His heart held no mercy toward those who threatened his family.
No longer sparing thought to it, Ace inquired Dame Wasp, 'Rose, did you thoroughly search her trailer? Given her extensive history as a curse slave, she may possess curse tools and cores.'
'Master, I searched the trailer and the area around it but found nothing. According to the diary, after the curse master who held her captive died, the mechanic's mother gave all her belongings to his killer in exchange for sparing her life. If it weren't for the fact that the killer had no interest in the cursed slave arts, she wouldn't even have the human skin book,' Dame Wasp explained, noting that the mechanic's mother was broke.
'I suppose if she had wealth or power, she wouldn't have been hiding in a trailer in the middle of nowhere and would have found a better way to assist her son and his family,' Ace reasoned. 'With the CIB around, curse slaves and even low-level curse masters could only stay hidden, especially when even members of the Steal Song Society had to bow out.'
'Master, our loot isn't entirely useless. Even though you can't utilize the curse slave art, it provides a detailed explanation of how to use the curse core to cultivate your curse core,' Dame Wasp informed Ace.
After refining his curse core, Ace was enlightened about forging an innate curse tool and nurturing it with his curse energy. This process aims to grow one's curse core by nourishing one's innate curse tool. Therefore, the profound insight centered on replenishing curse energy via a curse core, with less focus on directly using it to expand one's curse core. This approach was because growing one's curse core through one's innate curse tool reduced the associated risks. However, curse slaves operated differently; they utilized the curse core directly to expand their curse core.
Growing one's core by nurturing the innate curse core, while safer, was a slow process. On the other hand, directly using the curse core to grow one's core was faster, with minimal risks as long as the curse core matched the user's tier. Due to the safety-first and slow-growth nature of a curse master's practice, Gloria didn't hesitate to give Ace the core of a knight-tier curseling to nurture his innate curse tool. If it were curse slaves, they could never use a knight-tier or above curse core due to the volatile nature surrounding their practice. Not to forget, their strength was limited to the mortal tier.
'Master, while using curse cores to grow their curse core might pose risks for other curse masters, you have a status screen. With it, you can direct the cursed toybox to assist you in utilizing curse cores to grow your curse core. This way, you can bypass the associated risks, similar to how curse masters nurture their innate curse tool to avoid such dangers,' Dame Wasp suggested to Ace, highlighting that he could benefit from both methods thanks to his status screen.
For instance, let's consider guns. Typically, people use guns to shoot. But to hit a target accurately, they need to aim before firing. However, in Ace's situation, he had a status screen, allowing him to instruct his gun to both aim and shoot for him.
'Rose, that's a great idea. Do you think it will work?' Ace enthusiastically exclaimed as he listened to Dame Wasp's suggestion.
'Yes, it will. I've already instructed the cursed toybox about this through the status screen. With your permission, it's ready to assist you in growing your curse core using the curse cores stored in its toy space. Master, please forgive me if I overstep,' Dame Wasp informed Ace about her actions while he was enjoying his time with his parents.
'Rose, you are my guardian angel sent from heaven. You did not overstep at all,' Ace praised Dame Wasp for taking the initiative to make things easier for him.
'Master, I was simply fulfilling my duty as your toy summons,' Dame Wasp beamed with joy as she listened to Ace refer to her as his guardian angel. She felt as though she was bestowed with the highest honor imaginable.
'Okay, let's get started,' Ace said eagerly, unable to wait to see if Dame Wasp's proposal was feasible. If it was, his growth rate as a curse master would be unparalleled.
[ — Status screen —
> Chose a curse core to enchant your curse core with,
i) Curse Core: Gremlin form
ii) Curse Core: Humanoid form
Note: Cursed Toybox recommends the Toymancer have optimum body composition to gain maximum benefits from enchantment.]
'Fuck! Did my innate curse tool just call me fat?' Ace exclaimed, reading the note section. Not dwelling over it, his focus shifted to the humanoid form curse core and mused, 'This must be the curse slave's curse core.'
With countless toys compatible with humanoid form curse cores, Ace opted to save it for animating a toy and instead use the gremlin form curse core to enchant his curse core. After making this decision, Ace summoned the fat inverter of the apex earring to convert all the excess fat. Since he wouldn't be attending school that week and it had been a while since his uncle and his family had seen him, it seemed like the perfect time for him to make the change. As far as his parents were concerned, he had never been overweight. That was their words. Ace was only planning to use it against them.
[ — Status screen —
> Fat inverter
i) Toymancer's excess fat tissue: 40 pounds
ii) Toymancer's curse energy: (179/201)
> Do you want to interchange your fat and curse energy? (Y/N)]
'Convert all excess fat tissue,' Ace commanded.
[ — Status screen —
> Fat inverter
-40 pounds of excess fat tissue
+4 units of curse energy
i) Toymancer's excess fat tissue: 0 pounds
ii) Toymancer's curse energy: (183/201)
> Do you want to interchange your fat and curse energy? (Y/N)]
'No.'