Curse masters can grow their curse energy and stats using the curse cores dropped by Curselings. As for the skills, the Curse master can gain them in two different ways. First, innately, during the curse core initiation ceremony. These skills are called Innate curse arts. Second, learning and practicing curse arts, these skills are called Acquired curse arts.
Even though Gloria never actively hunted Curselings, she had killed seven teenagers to harvest their innate curse tools and exchanged them for curse cores and two curse arts. With these curse cores, her curse energy might have entered three digits, meanwhile mastering the two curse arts helped her reach the peak of Hero-tier in curse control.
Dame Wasp had found four curse arts, Body reinforcement, Curse Detection, Curse Shroud, and Curse Slash, saved in Gloria's devices. These curse arts were ranked and priced based on curse energy control a Curse master could achieve by or require to master them.
[Curse Art: Body reinforcement
Curse Tier: Mortal Tier
Effect: The user can enhance their physical prowess using this curse art. Its master will help the user achieve curse reinforcement I.
Cost: Steal Song Society welcome gift]
[Curse Art: Curse Detection
Curse Tier: Mortal Tier
Effect: Under regular conditions, the user can utilize it to sense curse energy in their surroundings by augmenting their senses using curse reinforcement-I.
Cost: Steal Song Society welcome gift]
[Curse Art: Curse shroud
Curse Tier: Knight Tier
Curse Effect: The user can hide their curse energy and erase their presence with this curse art. Its mastery will help the user achieve curse reinforcement II.
Cost: One innate curse tool]
[Curse Art: Curse slash
Curse Tier: Hero Tier
Curse Effect: The user can release concentrated curse energy from their fingertips, creating powerful slashing attacks. Its mastery will help the user achieve curse reinforcement III.
Cost: Four innate curse tools]
Body reinforcement curse art was a welcome gift for everyone joining the Steal Song Society. Also, the only curse art that Gloria did not practice as she believed it would make her body frame bulky and broader, similar to a man's body frame. So, Gloria bought the curse art 'curse shroud' with one innate curse tool to practice her curse energy control instead of having to rely on the body reinforcement curse art.
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Aside from these acquired curse arts, Gloria's innate curse tool, 'Charm Earrings,' was also not to be underestimated. Even though its ability was deemed subpar by Steal Song Society, it was because of its ability she was able to go around fooling and killing teenagers without being suspected. It even had Ace believing her lies and ignoring the obvious tell signs.
Fortunately for Ace, as the newest and weakest member of the Steal Soul Society, Gloria had to 'discuss' the abilities of her 'Charm Earrings' in the group chat. So, he knew that Gloria's innate curse tool did not have any offensive abilities except for charming her targets.
Overall, Gloria had Hero-tier curse energy control, high triple-digit curse energy, superior stats, subpar innate curse tool (Charm Earrings), and a minimum of three acquired curse arts. She was far from something a newbie like Ace, who awakened as Curse Master a few hours ago, could contend against.
'How am I supposed to kill someone so powerful?' Ace pondered. Now that he had decided to take matters into his own hands and kill Gloria before she came for him and his family, the answer to how he would see through his decision remained elusive to him.
'Master, you don't have to fight her directly. You can try to assassinate her in her sleep for one or poison her food and drinks. With my capabilities, she will never know what hit her,' Dame Wasp offered her services as a professional assassin.
'Yes, we can do that. But where do we find a poison strong enough to take down a Curse master? I don't think rat poison will kill her,' Ace agreed with Dame Wasp's suggestion, but where was he supposed to find a strong poison? He did not suppose rat poison could kill a Curse master whose physique was augmented by curse energy.
'Master, I noticed a few poison mushrooms in your neighbor's garden on my way here. If we dry, grind, and mix them, we can make a poison strong enough to kill an elephant,' Dame Wasp informed, willing to give her best to help her master.
'Wait, we don't need to go through all that trouble. Rose, in your 1/100th form, can you stealthy enter Gloria's ear?' Ace proposed.
'I am currently 1.2 mm tall, and with my camouflage, I can enter Gloria's ear canal without being noticed. Master, I like your plan better. I think you have a future as an assassin,' Dame Wasp was genuinely impressed by her master's idea. She wondered why she never thought of this before.
That's because the original Dame Wasp character was 6 feet tall in the movies, and in her 1/100th form, she would be close to 2cm tall. At that size, it would be impossible for her to enter a person's ear without being noticed, even with her silent flight and camouflage. However, as a 5 inch toy, it was a different story.
'This is only a one-time thing. I don't want to make a career out of this, let alone something I am good at. However, you got this right, or we could just stick to poisoning her food,' Ace asked, as they would only have one chance at assassinating Gloria. If they failed, he had no idea how she would react. Therefore, Ace preferred a plan with the highest success rate.
'Don't worry, Master Ace. I got this. I think we should strike when she is fast asleep. She would never see us coming,' Dame Wasp had already planned her course of action to assassinate Gloria.
'Okay then, let us wait till she is asleep,' Ace agreed with Dame Wasp's plan to assassinate Gloria in her sleep.
At that moment, they heard the sound of water draining from the tub in the bathroom. Shortly after, the noise of a blowdryer starting filled the air. A sudden thought crossed Ace's mind, and then he quickly instructed, 'Rose, go check on Gloria.'