Chương 225: I Should Be Mindful Of Dosage...

The moment I placed my hand against the trunk, I felt the siphoning begin even though I didn't willfully attempt to drain anything just yet–It was a natural reaction of my body… I placed my other hand upon the tree's surface as well, fingers digging into bark as I began chomping down as well.

I felt the ripple of primal fear and panic pass through me as the Blood-Cursed Tree let its unrefined instincts take the helm completely–This overgrown plant only had a single way of defending itself against threats, and it was to unleash the feral curses contained within it. Of course, this was of no use here, but the simple life form was only reacting according to its limited scope. It was either do nothing and die, or try to do the one available thing… But die anyway.

Whether it actually understood that its demise was inevitable was up for debate. Nonetheless, all it did by chucking curses at me was speed things up… I must admit that I am uncertain how much time passed exactly as I feasted upon the tree.

I might have slightly blanked out for a moment or two as I reached the sap–It was so thick with curse energy that it had become genuine Cursed Essence, and the absolute richness of it all was so great, and came in such a large amount that it might have genuinely overloaded my senses. It absolutely did, Mara! You went into your dormant mode for ten whole minutes! Oh. Only ten minutes? That's less than I would have guessed. I suppose even an excessive dose of curses can't shake me much… Did I…?

You ate the whole tree, absorbed all traces of curse energy and the like in the area, and you even drained this entire underground space of its negativity! You absorbed so much that you even cleaned the other energies of the negativity that had naturally seeped into them–Hell, even the soil and oils have had their good stuff extracted by you in your trance Mmh… That's… That's definitely quite something, huh?

I'll need to be more careful if I ever run into another buffet like this one, and I wasn't responsive for the entire time? Actually, you were until you went into dormancy. You were just a little… In the clouds, I suppose we could say? Frankly, I was hoping that you would admit that you liked Mari or Leou while your mind was elsewhere, but even then, you deny every sort of attraction with frightening clarity What can I say? I'm always consistent, no matter what. You should have interrogated me on my tastes in men.

Not only would I have happily responded, but I guarantee that you would have learned juicy information that you've never heard before! Really? Darn it. Anyway, did this yield anything- Right as I thought this, system panels showed up in my sight as though they had been waiting for the right moment to make a dramatic entrance–I swear the supposedly 'regular' system had been getting more lively lately… Wasn't this thing just under THE system's control? Surely, THE big one wasn't messing with me, right? …

Well, I guess I don't care even if that's the case, what are these things talking about? There were two of them. Congratulations, your successful absorption of such a drastic amount of curse energy, Cursed Essence, cursed wood, and curses has awarded you a new innate curse! See the details for yourself Oh, so I can actually get more innate curses than 'Remember Me?' That's quite big, and now that I think about it, is this how the 'Pure Curse Form' that I haven't actually ever heard of is unlocked?

I was slightly knocked out, so I might have missed the tingle informing me of something relating to that. Without checking the other notification, I opened more panels to check things out–First of all, there was indeed a new form listed amongst those for which I had begun completing some requirements. Mascot Form Revenant Jack-Out-Of-The-Box Wire Mess Form Pure Spirit Form Rusted Plague Form Biobot Form Ghost In The Machine Pure Curse Form Yup, it's right there.

I can only imagine that actually unlocking this one will require me to do more curse-related things, unlock other innate curses, and perhaps cook actually powerful curses in The Kitchen.

Also, a quick visit to the Mindscape confirmed that I now had access to Cursed Essence as a material for The Press–Actually, it seemed like me going into a slight trance due to overeating had made me miss a bunch of things, The Furnace had changed slightly as well, and when I went to investigate, I realise that it had acquired the ability to use Ghostly and Cursed Essence as fuel now.

A bit weird that I could use these on top of negative emotions, but that negative energy itself was still unavailable as a fuel still… Nonetheless, it was excellent news. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Hold on, that is more than excellent news. With Cursed Essence at my disposal, doesn't this mean that I can make Anathema into a proper little sister now?

At least, I have acquired ingredients that will be vital to giving new life to the adorable little Living Curse. I will have to run some tests to be sure. The two kinds of essence hadn't been added to The Kitchen, though. Perhaps it would be for a bit later. For now, I looked up what my new innate curse was all about. Forever Bonded Together - Those bearing this insidious, quiet curse will have their souls and alike bond to you.

Not only will all of their negative emotions be stored by the curse and given to you upon their demise or the destruction of the curse, but additionally, if they die while accursed, their souls will also belong to you regardless of how and where they met their end. Mmh… It is definitely less impressive than 'Remember Me?', but I find this new curse to be quite interesting nonetheless.

As per usual, I could only assume that the curse wasn't described in its entirety in the description–System descriptions had the tendency to leave out some information, after all… It seems like the description actually tells pretty much everything, but it would have been better if it had placed more emphasis on the beginning. The 'quiet' part isn't just flavour text. This curse is genuinely incredibly difficult for others to detect.

It burrows itself deep inside its bearers and is excellent at remaining hidden on its own Basically, since all it does is collect things and not actually harm anyone, it doesn't show up as anything harmful. In fact, by absorbing negative emotions, it actually helps those cursed with it and places itself in a sort of symbiotic relationship, using this to actually get the bearer's body to subconsciously help in hiding it No wonder it's called insidious as well… The soul-snatching effect was the main thing in my eyes.

As long as I could sneakily place it on someone by touching them, I basically guaranteed that, eventually, their soul would be mine, and that I would be able to use it for my own gains. It could come in handy to create new adorable little sisters, useful ghostly servants, and more. I had discovered just earlier that I could create actual items, so perhaps the souls of powerful people could be used to manifest some really nice weapons and such. This is quite exciting.

As for the fact that it stored negative emotions, it was a nice bonus and should allow me to feast on some unusual emotions. After all, some negative emotions couldn't easily be directed my way. Unless I started going around breaking hearts, I wasn't going to harvest a lot of sadness and the like, for example. Alright, let's check that other panel. It wasn't too important a message… You are nearing your second evolution.

Do remember that it is best to boost BOTH of your sides before going through with evolution It was just a reminder that my Steel-Bound Curse side was eating way better than my Vengeful Spirit side. I hadn't forgotten that it was best to have them on the same level, but it wasn't my fault if I just ran into way more opportunities relating to curses than ghosts. I'll have to ask Leou to get me to go to a haunted mansion or something–Maybe Mister Dusty Skeleton has spectral enemies he would like to get rid of?

It wouldn't be too surprising, necromancers loved to turn themselves into undeads, some definitely tried taking on less corporeal forms for sure. Yep, I'll try to look at this side. Otherwise, the imbalance between the two portions of my hybrid self will be absolutely huge. I am not quite certain what effect it would have on an evolution, though. I can imagine that the curse side would be more empowered through it, but would it lead me down a more curse-specialised path? I somewhat doubt it.

Evolution seems to have little to do with a transformation compared to what I had heard about evolving monsters before–The transformative stuff was left to my various forms instead. Well, it doesn't really matter. I'll do my best to evolve with a good balance between the two. I dusted my shoulders, taking a good look at my slightly torn cloak. It was a good thing this attire was ample. If it were a bit tighter, the purple cat would have ruined it far more thoroughly.

The reason I cared about this was that I couldn't use my warp. It would leave the container I had tucked inside my chest behind. This was making me think that I might want to try to invest in an upgrade that had to do with storage. If Leou sends me to get more stuff after this, being able to just warp back to her tower with the goods would be great. Hopefully, Mari will be able to do it. She's been making good progress. Will you reward her with a kiss on the cheek? No. You seemed to think it was worth it in the A.

R. DL… I shook my head. Nara would definitely never let this go. I appreciated that she wanted me to find someone to be happy with, but the me in the alternate reality, and the me here were different in this regard. I didn't feel lonely enough to consider going after Mari or Leou. The other me had been more isolated. She had lost all of her family, but me? I had a whole family with me all the time–Frankly, I didn't even really care much about a man anymore, either.

Even if not related by blood, I had several little sisters, a daughter, and even a dog… As well as a whole bunch of ghostly servants. … Not to mention that the whole point of my seeking a man before was, in strong part, to eventually start a family. I sort of lacked the equipment to do that now… And it was also going to get harder and harder to find a man stronger than me. What a tragedy my love life is. Anyway. How am I going to climb out of here?

I jumped down into this place, but there isn't exactly a ladder I can take to get back up. I might be able to make the jump if I had hydraulics enhancing my legs… I'll dig up to the surface, I suppose. Mara, people are approaching the pit Ah, shit. I would have loved to hide, but the one thing that I could hide behind had already gone into my imaginary stomach, so I was just standing in the middle of this dark space as a single, floating flame descended from the hole, so bright that it illuminated everything.

Two figures jumped down from above, landing softly, probably using some mana to slow their fall. There was a moment of silence as the newcomers just stared at one another, until I slowly raised my arm and waved to them.

"Hello–lo, it ha–has been a little while" This duo were not strangers to me.