The man frowned while Kukurnal hid a gleeful smile tinged with greed. Joe turned away and took a look at the girl’s status window. The rude priest came close as well then froze immediately when he came into Joe’s sphere. He seemed to panic a bit, staring wildly at Joe as he began to pant, and Joe just stared at him a bit before turning away. No point in pushing it, but man… Why does he piss me off?
Joe stifled his sigh and turned back to the status, eager to see the results of his efforts. On the girls curse tab, there was a single red curse, shaped a bit like an average looking stylized monster core placed on a virulently glowing red background. The color itself made him concerned. Just looking at it seemed to generate an actual feeling of fear or concern. Huh… didn’t think a color could… do that to me, but… Joe glanced at the priests and noticed their reactions as they also seemed to be quite concerned over the curse.
Kukurnal actually hissed in response, “A great curse!”
The rude priest frowned as well, and replied with quite a bit more respect, “A great curse. It truly is.”
“Yet now we know… but…”
Joe glanced up at the two priests, “Great curse?”
Kukurnal looked at Joe and frowned, sighing slightly, “A great curse, Joe. One that cannot be easily cured.”
“But, it can be.”
Kukurnal nodded but frowned, “Curses can be cured, and usually quite easily. They require the working of a single priest, but a great curse… Great curses require the working of many priests in conjuction. You must know how many and which gods or goddesses. To discover such takes… years, decades. If the great curse is exceptionally deadly, it could require two or more gods or goddesses. If it requires three, it is very difficult to know which gods or goddesses. If it’s more, it is… a great work. Such efforts are… very difficult. It requires the priests to … properly ascertain the curse, to pierce its mysteries, and then heal it.”
Joe frowned, grimacing. Kukurnal noticed and quickly shook his head before slapping a hand down on his shoulder, “You should not feel so saddened. You have done a great… amazing service. Now we know. Now… we can work.”
Joe’s worried faded and he looked to Kukurnal, “Then, you can heal her?”
Kukurnal frowned, his face dropping, “Joe, even if it is a work of only two gods or goddesses, it will take months… possibly years! If it is more, we will see decades… centuries before we are able to reveal the cure.”
Joe grimaced, “Well, that’s no help to her! Let me…”
Joe turned away from the two priests even as the third joined in and all three began debating excitedly with one another. Joe ignored them. So… I guess the easiest first thing is to explore the curse. Name… details… help… if I could? Let me see.
Joe turned to the girl, “Can you poke that icon for me?”
She stared at him, despairing after hearing the priests and Joe smiled, patting her on the shoulder, “Hey! They said there was nothing to do. I’ve already figured out what it is. We could learn more! Please, keep helping me.”
Her despair didn’t lift but she still did as he asked, poking the curse icon with a finger. It exploded outward, much like a touchscreen phone starting an app, and a screen popped up with details on it, including a name. Joe read it carefully.
Curse of Mana Contamination: You have been cursed with impure uncontrolled mana. It has contaminated your mana well and meridians. Your condition will continue to deteriorate until your mana well and mana run wild. Please cleanse your mana well and meridians before the mana contamination deteriorates your mental capacity.
Corruption: 46%
OK! There we go… mana contamination. Maybe?
“What’s mana contamination?” Joe looked back behind him at the group arguing. They all stopped at stared at him, but all looked confused and Kukurnal responded for all of them.
“We have never… I have never heard of such a thing, have my esteemed colleagues heard of such a thing?” he asked will glancing around.
The other two quickly shook their heads ‘no’ while the rude one added a question, “Why do you ask?”
Joe shrugged his shoulders and returned to the status screen, “It’s the name of the curse. Curse of Mana Contamination. Her mana well and meridians were contaminated by impure uncontrolled mana. It seems to be… infecting her somehow. It affects her mana, specifically, it seems. Once she is fully corrupted, she will lose her mind.”
Kukurnal nodded at that, replying quickly, “We did not know of such causes, but it is the result of … breeders. Those who were forced into breeding become feral and insane, becoming monsters themselves.”
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Joe raised an eyebrow at that, “Do they… do they have cores if killed?”
That brought up the priests short, although one of them had a sly look and Joe frowned, pointedly looking at the third priest, “Do you know something?”
The priest smiled, ingratiatingly but with a hint of greed, “I may know of some helpful information. Shall we discuss a favorable price?”
“How about being a part of this momentous moment discovering a new thing?”
The man’s ingratiating smile soured at that, “You would begrudge the god of knowledge his due?”
“You would begrudge dozens of women their lives?”
The priest shook his head while waving his hand in dismissal, “They are only breeders.”
“One of them is my fiancé!”
The priest’s breathing hitched at that, and he stared at Joe with concern, “I … apologize, eccentric. I … am sorry that such a thing has…”
Joe completely ignored the man’s apology and turned to Kukurnal, “What’s his expertise?”
“Breeding, breeders, and monsterization of the peoples.”
“Is there another in town who could know?”
Kukurnal frowned at that, then looked to the rude priest, “My temple has no one of this man’s caliber, does your temple have such, sir?”
“We do, although their expertise is separated, one specializing in breeding and breeders and the other in monsterization.”
The third priest became quite agitated at that and interjected, “I am more than enough…”
Joe turned to Gwenvair and ignored the man, “Excellent. Gwenvair? Could you ask for these two priests to come. And please remove this man, he is a hindrance to life and development, seeking personal gain at the expense of others and all peoples. We have the chance to remove a great curse on all people, yet he desires only his own gain.”
Joe looked at the priest then, speaking directly to him for the first time since the man’s greedy bargaining, “Leave now, if you want to maintain any dignity. Leave.”
The priest began to protest, shouting and calling for a second chance, but Joe had already turned away, ignoring everything the man was saying. His eye’s went back to the status window as well as the curse pop up and considered his options.
So… what can I do… more sphere thingy… magic on the status window? On her? Or… ooh.. help! What useless crap can he tell me! Help. What is the Curse of Mana Contamination?
The blue box with the information about mana contamination disappeared and Joe grew expectant with hope before grimacing in anger as his hope died. The exact same box reappeared in its place.
Curse of Mana Contamination: You have been cursed with impure uncontrolled mana. It has contaminated your mana well and meridians. Your condition will continue to deteriorate until your mana well and mana run wild. Please cleanse your mana well and meridians before the mana contamination deteriorates your mental capacity.
Corruption: 46%
So… wanna play dumb! You piece of… Joe controlled his thoughts and strangled the curse he wanted to say but still muttered angrily under his breath. So… options, what can I do to… figure more things out… Let’s see… I… oh! Joe remembered how he’d originally solved seeking out and finding Kilniara in the first place and popped open his available skills tab. Maybe… something there?
His available skills popped up and he began scrolling through it and studying it, cautiously looking through his skill lists. As his eyes scanned down the list of skills, he didn’t feel too optimistic, the skills from the generic and commoner jobs not showing anything very useful. He didn’t spend too much time on them, but he did make sure to take a look. Hmm… something with healing... or curses, right? Education line has the doctor, if I remember… and priests… something about curses, right? So…
Joe made sure to look at everything else before getting to the education and priest lines, just in case his memory failed him and he’d missed something important. He still went quite quick and soon found himself at the education lines. Hmm… not much useful… ooh… here, doctor… diagnose and heal… Hmm.. that’s… Diagnose is a good option… and mana doctor has cure basic and advanced status. And the healers, faith and magical, can cure all and magic heal, so… donno… nothing about curse, but maybe diagnose could help? Joe made sure to take one last look over his available skills under the education line and stopped when he looked back at the theorist jobs. Wait… I forgot about guidance? Ho… that helps with the job… but… would it also help with doing the job? That’s… ok… options… And next…
Joe continued on down to the faith jobs and scanned through it but found almost nothing. The faith line of jobs seemed to have cure disease, debuffs, and curse. Joe smiled to see cure curse, but then frowned remembering what Kukurnal had explained. So… if it’s the dangerous red flashy one, it takes more than one cure curse… Why only monks have cure… never mind, not important… so… cure curse… so…
Joe quickly swapped his jobs to Loki monk, doctor, and theorist, making sure to not put Loki monk as the main job. Right… let’s see what happens, even if it will fail… test everything! Joe initiated cure curse on the woman but nothing happened, and he felt no feedback whatsoever from the skill. Joe frowned. Help, how do you use Cure Curse?
Cure Curse: Use: Initiate skill on target and pay an appropriate price to the deity of choice.
Joe blinked at that response, a bit surprised and relieved by the blunt answer. Now you answer clearly? Why? Nevermind… don’t care… Joe paused for a bit before poking through his bag and pulling out a core. He quickly swapped his job to Loki monk. Expensive… and everyone wants them, so… should be good, right? So… then, what, I’ll hold it up… uh… Cure Curse… with… this core as sacrifice?
Nothing happened and Joe frowned, glancing back and forth between the core and the woman, confused. Ooh… target! Forgot the target. Cure the curse on this woman with this core as sacrifice.
Immediately, a small flash of light lit the dark room and Joe found his hand empty. Joe smiled glanced up at the woman’s status. Sweet… that was easy! But then frowned immediately. The curse was still very much evident on the woman’s status. What!? That’s a rip off! Why didn’t it… Help… why did the cure curse not work?
Cure Curse: Failures: Failed to pay the price. Failed to target the correct curse. Invalid curse for the god’s domain of power.
Joe grimaced and withheld his anger. This is… so why would… really!? Then how are we supposed to…
Right… so not useful… does incompatible mean Loki’s cure isn’t useful? Or I need more? Man… this is frustrating… I can see how … hmmm… right… then on to trying to get info then? So… let’s see… Joe looked at a chair and cast the cure curse, waiting expectantly then nodded. OK… makes sense.
Your attempt to cure the curse has failed. Incompatible attempt.