“Yes” Ajax nodded eagerly, surprising the old man. “I just came out of an Abyssal themed floor and I was cursed, more than once.”

“Oh” All of the righteousness and anger was replaced with an undercurrent of guilt as the old man deflated. “What, kind of curses, are they progressing right now?”

Ajax realized now that he hadn’t properly expressed himself. “They were all minor and temporary, no longer than an hour. But I want to know if it would have any adverse effects on me in the long term.

“From three minor ones, you should be fine.” The old man said as he turned around and plucked a scroll from the shelf. “Just to be on the safe side you should make sure to avoid getting hit by similar types again so soon. Which types were you hit by?”

“There are multiple types?” Ajax sounded surprised since the System didn’t have a Category like that.

“They do.” the old man nodded. “Most lethal but also the easiest to cure if the infection type, applied to a wound directly, targets the flesh. Then there is the mana corruption, curse mana mixes into your mana pool. Causes weakness and weakens the mana channels in your body. Backlash curses, most often come from curse weapons but they are mostly a double edge sword, but one you can be sure your opponent took the worst off as long as you connect. And…”

“And?” Ajax asked.

“Controlled, cursed mana attached to you with a purpose. The least immediately dangerous but the most versatile. Not something that would appear on a third floor of a dungeon since none of those creatures can actually manipulate the cursed mana.” he waved it away.

“It was mana corruption, all three times.” Ajax admitted.

“That’s not good, lucky enough for you the exposure was minimal.” he shook his head a little. “I suggest you take the next few days away from your mana practice and simply focus on expelling your mana, maybe injecting it but definitely no manipulation or control of any way. That should refresh your mana channels.”

“Thanks.” Ajax dipped his head.

“How did you get cursed three times with mana corruption?” he asked.

“Well…” Ajax rubbed the back of his head, he wasn’t about to admit to [Mana Syphon] but everything else was easily explainable. “I initially learned magic by copying monsters who could control it, kobold casters to be specific, so I tried the same thing with the cursed mana since I hadn’t run into it before.”

“Well that was stupid.” the old man said. “Surprised it passed so quickly, if you generated any cursed mana yourself it would start to infect you mana pool so quickly you wouldn’t even have time to use it.”

“That got me cursed.” Ajax nodded. “But I figured out from the hellhounds that you can also get it in exchange for stamina, though using it gets a bit tricky.”

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“Tricky is an understatement.” the old man agreed “ But the way to use curse mana generated through loss of stamina is by either applying it directly to your opponent or mixing it with some mana you can control that you have already launched. Though I advise you to give up on it, the skills that do that without cursing yourself are Epic rarity.”

“You ain’t gotta tell me.” Ajax mumbled under his breath.

Apparently that was still too loud as the old man turned back, fixing him with a look. “You got an Epic stamina based cursed skill?” Balthazar's next movement was odd for Ajax to watch, it seemed to him like someone put the old man on fast forward and he dashed to him. “Which one?”

“[Cursed Slash].” Ajax said softly.

“That’s pretty good, better than the one he has from straight up combat though it would lose some of the assasination potential.” it was Balthazar’s turn to mumble loud enough for Ajax to hear.

“Who are you talking about?” Ajax asked.

“There is only one other person, that I know of at least, that can use stamina based cursed attacks in the kingdom. He is one of the royal group leaders, high level and skilled too. Combine that with his [Cursed Stab], he is not someone you want to meet in a dark alley.” Even the ancient Vitality stacker didn’t seem to want to pick a fight with someone like that.

“I would also advise you to keep this skill under your hat for a while.” the old man continued with a hint of gravitas.

“I know better than to go around telling everyone I have a skill that uses curses.” Ajax retorted a bit aggrieved.

“That’s not what I meant. Under normal circumstances I would tell you to get as much practice with it as you can once you rest your mana channels.” the old man shook his head. “Even now sharing that skill with a few nobles here and there wouldn’t be all that much the idea is for the commoners not to hear about it.”

“And why would that matter?” Ajax was getting a bit heated, after all he was a commoner too.

“For the same reason the assassin and his entire squad were sent on a mission away from the capital. That brat, what’s his name, just released a plaque on the capital, then he all but lynched an entire city after he ran away. Commoners don’t know enough to distinguish between disease enhanced by curses and stamina sacrificial curse generation.” the old man spread his arms as if it was obvious. “His trial is next week, I say give it at least a month after it’s all done to settle down.”

Ajax could help but agree with Balthazar here. A person was smart, even if they didn’t have much schooling. If you explained it to them they would understand the difference between his skill and the genocidal plague doctor. However people as a collective were dumb, quick to make snap decisions even more so when they were powered by fear and anger.

“Anyway, you have access to curse mana now.” Balthazar jumped to a different point. “Oh the possibilities. I could never get that muscle head to work with me at all but now we have a chance.”

Ajax felt a little like a lab rat as the old man eyed him. The feeling passed in a second “ I have an apprentice that is rather skilled with many types of mana, would you be open to working with her and me so we can document what happens when certain mana types mix with curse mana?”

The offer surprised Ajax, more so that it was an offer at all rather than a command that he would help with testing. Ajax was also very much interested in that same result, not only that but he would get a chance to analyze a lot of mana types up close when running this experiment, it was all upside.

“I would be rather interested.” Ajax admitted.

“Great, come back here tomorrow at noon…” He drifted off as he took a longer look at Ajax. “No, not tomorrow. You should first rest your mana channels. I’m sure that I should be able to get her to come for three days after school once the new cycle starts.”

Ajax took the hint and grabbed the scroll he was given and read it quickly before he made for his bee hives. Since he was going to just be releasing mana on mass he might as well put it to good use as nourishment for the trees and plants there.

Ajax’s arms started to feel slightly itchy after the first two hundred mana points. He knew that Holy mana and Curse mana were highly reactive to each other but he couldn’t feel any trace of the curse mana in his channels yet passing holy mana through it to nourish the plants felt like an allergic reaction.

As for why he was using holy mana the answer to that was simple. He first planned to make use of sustainable qualities of honey for medical purposes, perhaps a honeyed mead or two on the side as well. For that Holy was the best aspect to use, at least from those he had access to.

That night Ajax fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Not only was emptying one's mana pool also a quick way for them to get tired and sleepy but he had done that exact same thing night after night as a before sleep ritual as a child.

His final thoughts as he went to sleep was that he should visit Hatchet and Luna tomorrow. It had been a while since he had talked to them, not only that but he wanted to start buying materials to start getting his [Alchemy] off the ground again and Luna would be very well connected with at least a few alchemists and their suppliers.