Chapter 26: Cursed Again

Another tentacle came flying towards me from the Chasm Kraken, Kritikikuku. It landed on me—causing {Shrouded Shadow} to activate—but instead of going for an attack, I decided to dip the hell out, moving the maximum distance I could away from the pool where the tentacles came from. Another tentacle started coming for me, so I just took off. The tentacle eventually stopped, quickly returning to the pool of water.

I did hardly anything to it. It was Level 34, and apparently had a resistance to magic or something—my bolt dealing very low damage compared to normal. I needed a different way of fighting it—perhaps my ‘Ashen Gladius’, so I swapped to it. The stairs to the next floor also weren’t here. Everything was strange in this chasm.

Warden of Abupho—what does that mean? Often, the titles had some kind of meaning. Perhaps Abupho was a treasure, a person, or maybe an area? Hmm, only one choice here—I need to kill that kraken. I let my mana regenerate quickly, swapped ‘Vanquisher’ to ‘Ashen Gladius’, and headed back towards the kraken.

I approached slowly—quietly as to not instantly provoke its attack. Even though I would be fine because of {Shrouded Shadow}, I wanted to check the pool. I made it safely to the pool, when something came from it again. It was a Chasm Cuda—great in its size as its teeth clenched around me. {Shrouded Shadow} activated, so I swapped ‘Ashen Gladius’ to ‘Vanquisher’ and shot it dead.

Following its death and my receiving of experience points, I landed beside the pool and touched it with my hand. I instantly felt a tough tugging on it like I was being dragged in, a torrent of power wanting to pull me into its depths. I struggled to pull my hand back—surprised I hadn’t been attacked by a mob. I stepped back, still near the pool—waiting for the next mob, perhaps the kraken. But still—nothing happened. I waited 15 minutes before deciding to walk away from the area—again to check the other end past where the floor began for me.

“System, how many players are there?”

[System: You are currently the only player on this floor.]

Strange. What is going on? I had already spent quite some time on this floor, yet no new players had arrived. Additionally, there were no mobs except for the single mob every now and again in the pool. And the dead end was, well, a dead end. The cliffs of the chasm were still touched with dew—the water not yet having risen past my feet. Drops of water continuously fell from above the cliffs, an area I couldn't see. The sky seemed very far away—further away than normal.

It’s getting dark. I guess I’ll go back to the pool—check it out again. I walked in the chasm, going towards the pool of water and waterfall. There was nothing there—yet. I approached the pool, looking in. The waterfall got stronger, crashing into the pool of water—I couldn’t even see my own reflection. I patiently waited for a mob to appear, preferably the kraken. This time, I felt it—something was coming straight for me. I took a step back, when something large—larger than the Chasm Cuda and the tentacles—leaped from the pool.

[Tidal Shark, Lv30]

The rows of teeth came for me—again I wasn’t worried due to {Shrouded Shadow}, but the sight itself was terrifying. I dispersed into smoke, melding into the shadows as the teeth crushed my body. I blinked upward, watching as the Tidal Shark landed on the ground with two feet—it had feet. The feet were tiny, yet were more than capable of holding up its ginormous body. I used {Mana Bolt}, loading the bolt into ‘Vanquisher’, and shot towards its mouth. It opened wide, swallowing the bolt of mana.

[Tidal Shark, Lv30 takes 4200 damage.]

The shark came charging at me—not yet dead. It leaped from the ground towards where I was in the air, coming in for another bite. I swapped to ‘Ashen Gladius’, wanting to test the physical damage against these water beasts, swiping down as I met its mouth. I landed my hit—as did the beast—but I was safe due to my continuously regenerating mana and {Shrouded Shadow}.

[Tidal Shark, Lv30 takes 1586 damage.]

My physical damage still hits fine, but it resists magic, cutting my damage to a fourth. Though it still hits harder than my ‘Ashen Gladius’—it’ll be good against Kritikikuku. I blinked away again, switching to ‘Vanquisher’ and finishing it off. I received 5000 experience points—my level was catching up quickly.

I collected my loot—a Tidal Fang. Then, I waited again to see if a mob would pop, and as I expected—nothing. I left the area around the pool, moving a good distance away. Afterwards, I went back to the pool—a monster appearing from its depths. I killed the Chasm Cuda with ease—repeating the process of walking away. It seems the process would be quite drawn out—repeatedly leaving the zone around the pool and returning. The kraken didn’t appear again, only Chasm Cudas, Tidal Sharks, and a new mob—Shadow Eels. Their level was 27, and like the Chasm Kraken, it could sense me in the shadows—yet it died a swift death having no magic resistance.

“Remaining mobs!”

[System Notice: There are 14 mobs remaining. Mobs cleared: 27/41.]

I was quickly going on level 11, but it had already grown dark long ago—taking rests, eating, and keeping myself hydrated while having to run back and forth through the chasm was quite tiring. I decided to take a rest—to wait until morning came to continue fighting. I closed my eyes as I laid against the dewy cliff side, the water on the ground slightly wetting my lower body.

I felt drops of water fall on my face as I slowly started waking up. I opened my eyes—to be met with a man in a black robe, staring at me sleeping.

“Funny meeting you here!” Henry said, excitedly. I looked at him, noticing the water was up past his ankles—and I’ve been lying in this rising water. This chasm is filling up over here. Is it the same over by the pool?

“Um, hello?” Henry tried to get my attention.

“What?”

He looked at me, his eyes drooping down a bit, “It saddens me you aren’t cursed again.”

“How long have you been here?” I started getting up out of the water, starting to move towards the pool of water, ignoring his fetish.

“Whoa whoa! I wouldn’t go over there—there’s a nasty boss-type over there! My curses did nothing against it.”

“Damn it. I was hoping I’d encounter him again,” I looked at him, “did anything else spawn?”

“Nope nope. I took off as soon as my strongest spell—the curse I got from you—did absolutely nothing! Luckily I could save myself with—”

“Gotcha.” I took off towards the pool of water—it seemed this chasm was slowly filling up, and I didn’t know what would happen then.

“Wait, wait! Where are the stairs?” Henry started following me, but my agility allowed me to quickly keep ahead as I went to the pool.

I checked the area out—the waterfall kept crashing into the pool of water—but the water level didn’t seem to rise in that area. There was something special about it—but what could it be? I took slow steps as I approached, when Henry had caught up and started speaking, “So, this is a Hardcore-only instance?”

I stopped my steps. “What?” I asked. I had never heard of Hardcore-only instances.

“Fine fine, you don’t need to ask, I’ll tell you. Hardcore-only instance is something I heard about from a fellow Hardcore player—he was quite weird I tell you. But he invited me to join him after Floor 20! He had this huge—”

“Hey, look. Just tell me about the instance—why is it Hardcore-only?”

“Sorry sorry, I tend to get away from myself sometimes!” His black-veined face somehow seemed cheerful even though the curses writhed within him. He was an odd one—this Cursemaster. “There are times that—for some unknown reason—only players playing Hardcore can enter an instance. I knew you were a Hardcore player!”

“...thanks, Henry. Now then,” I looked him over, “what can you do? Keep it short.”

“Okay okay, hmm,” he seemed to give it some thought, possibly taking his time to answer. I really just wanted to know if he had some way of helping in the fight against the kraken. “What can you do?”

“I can kill stuff.” I stated matter-of-factly. It’s what I did.

“Of course, of course. I can, too! Fine fine, okay here, I can curse you—but my curses also provide a benefit—a buff of sorts. The curse is temporary and I have to remove it afterwards—we also have to have an agreement made because we can’t hurt each other, okay?”

“What’s the curse?” I could use a buff, I thought.

“It doubles your strength, but drops your intelligence to zero. Sometimes I use it on mobs—they don’t need an agreement! I make them so stupid they forget what they are doing and—”

“No thanks.” I didn’t want to end up unable to figure out what’s going on. “Anything else?”

“Well, this one is not so great—it makes you die faster. Um—”

“What is it?”

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking.”

“No, what else does it do?”

“Oh, oh! Right, well. It makes you die faster by causing you to lose 10% of your health every minute, and also doubles the damage you take! But in return you deal double damage. Unless you are a healer, it’s really bad, though good on mobs if they are too stupid to find you! Oh, right, but this next one—”

“I’ll take it. I can heal myself, no worries.” Doubling my damage? I definitely needed a damage boost right now.

“Okay.” I noticed a change in him immediately—his semblance changing greatly. He approached me, placing his hand on me. “Do you agree to accept {Curse of the Defiant Berserker}?”

I could feel mana surging from his fingertips, wanting to enter my body but unable to. “Yes,” I accepted. I suddenly felt a chill, my heart grew heavy for a second before returning to normal.

“All done.”

I nodded my head, walking to the pool. “Time to do what I said I can.”

I looked into the pool, waiting for something to leap out. Now that another player had appeared, I wanted to make sure I could get my conquer credit before it was too late. The number was still at 27—it didn’t seem as if Henry actually got the chance to kill anything. I sensed a mob approaching from underneath—I was used to this feeling already. It was definitely a Chasm Cuda.

I cut into the Chasm Cuda with my ‘Ashen Gladius’ before it even had the chance to bite into me. My damage definitely doubled.

[Chasm Cuda, Lv24, takes 3172 damage.]

[System Notice: Player Henry gained 3000 experience points.]

I looked down at the disintegrating Chasm Cuda. My damage definitely doubled—but something else was going on. I looked back at Henry—he had his hand behind his head, scratching it.

“Oh right—I forgot to mention… I get all the experience points and credit when players using my curses kill mobs… Hah, hahaha.”

I didn’t know if he really forgot or not, but now I wasn’t quite sure if using this curse would truly benefit me. My {Heart and Soul of a Troll} regenerated any lost health, but the loss of experience points was something I didn’t want—especially if I killed a boss, titled and named, which would grant four times the experience points!