Chương 126: Chapter 424 : Cursed Frost

Although I said all that to Vee, I'm admittedly a bit curious about how it froze my slime wolves. Sure, I didn't include [Cryo Slime] specifically, but given how [Primordial Slime] works, I still retain some of the resistances even if I don't. That's why my slime isn't affected by the cold environment… Testing my slime and its limits was usually a top priority for me, so I'd "done my homework" on the matter.

Keeping the slime composition simpler made it easier to manipulate en masse, but it had drawbacks, as we just witnessed. However, it wasn't just that; there was another factor based on whether a slime core was present. Yes, it seemed [Slime Puppetry] wasn't without some nuances, as the presence of a slime core was more important than I'd previously realized.

Slime composition or not, having a core present significantly boosted the specs of the attached slime, and even with [Core Collective] closing the gap, my own slime core was the clear winner by a long shot. Of course, that might change when my [Sub-Cores] reached level ten, although I suspected even then I would remain on top of the slime core hierarchy. That also begged the question: Did I need to start uncapping [Sub-Core] traits, or could I combine them into one big trait and then uncap that?

I'd tried trait fusion, but at the moment, even with all twenty-four traits, there was no reaction from that system feature, and now I was waiting till they all reached max level to try again. Curious for some further testing, I split off two "champions" to fight the wendigo; both had [Sub-Core], but only one had [Cryo Slime] directly in the mix, as I was curious whether my passive resistances were enough when boosted by a core's presence.

They weren't wolves, more like formless amalgamations of slime and monster parts with claws and tentacles aplenty, and they rushed at the creature. I could've left the fight up to the [Sub-Cores] themselves, but I was asserting direct control here, like a master puppeteer from behind the scenes. My two creatures clashed with the wendigo, which, until the fight began, had seemed almost lifeless, only to spring with sudden, unexpected ferocity.

It went from seeming almost like a corpse to a frenzied beast on the flip of a switch, and its eerie claws cleaved through the air with an ominous whistle. It was a capable fighter, but with my level of manipulation over my slime and boosted by the presence of a [Sub-Core], it was no match for us. I could've avoided every one of its blows, but that would've rendered my experiment moot, so I let it score a few hits against each of my creations.

The result was particularly interesting as I had expected my [Cryo Slime] puppet to be entirely immune, but the wendigo's strange claws seemed to do something to it. It didn't freeze, but it still seemed oddly chilled by the wounded area. As for my other puppet, while it didn't freeze outright and shatter like the coreless slime before, it was having jagged shards of ice erupt from wherever the claws ripped through.

This directly proved my point that cores were far more important than I'd given them credit for, able to prevent what would have been instant death just by their mere presence. After seeing enough, I had my two creatures overwhelm the wendigo, attacking from coordinated, inhuman angles thanks to their unparalleled flexibility. When the wendigo slashed out with its claws, my slime would split apart, leaving it swiping through the air, and then have tendrils wielding weapons of their own strike it back.

Yet despite the number of wounds it was rapidly accumulating, the creature seemed no slower, and it kept fighting at full ferocity until its eventual death.

"Well, that was something…" Vee commented, looking at the finally lifeless creature.

"I can't wait to see what secrets it's holding. I've never seen something quite like that…" I had my two minions bring back the body, which I happily devoured and received a brand new profile for. Truthfully, I had been a bit concerned I'd be denied the profile, as it had been happening far too often recently between shadow creatures, disintegrating demons, or just unremarkable monsters that gave me nothing. Finally, something I can sink my teeth into!

The wendigo seemed like a branching path from the yeti monsters, and to my surprise, seemed to almost be considered an undead creature. Rather than a monster of undeath, this thing was powered by curses, which it channeled through its claws, manifesting as an icy doom. This is kind of like warlock stuff… So rather than being frozen through temperature, it's "freezing" through a curse. Very weird.

Its two defining traits were [Accursed Body] and [Accursed Claws], the former of which allowed it to keep fighting unhindered until death, and the latter of which allowed it to channel its curse energy. I didn't have curse energy myself, but borrowing [Accursed Body] was enough for me to generate it artificially through Mana, similar to how [Inferno Sac] worked.

What was a bit unsettling about this was that the creature would die when its cursed energy ran out, and considering it also attacked with that energy, it was literally fighting with its life. [Chimeric Mimicry] let me kind of cheat by using Mana as a substitute, so I wasn't sure on the specifics, but I had to imagine that it wasn't normally too easy to generate this energy. I relayed most of this to Vee, but she had no idea of the matter, other than mentioning that curse energy was very fitting for a wendigo.

I just hoped this wasn't a sign that we'd be fighting warlocks or something similar as we progressed. Of course, I had my trusty hat, so in theory, both Vee and I were safe from any mind-related shenanigans. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Although this begs the question… What's the counter to curse energy?"

"Divine or holy magic, I'd imagine," Vee replied.

"Sorry, don't have that in my slime magic repertoire."

"Uh… You could try fighting fire with fire and use [Death Magic], maybe?"

"I guess I could see if [Drain Touch] can suck the curse out of them. Otherwise, I can just stick to completely overwhelming them with irrecoverable damage and leaving them a husk." We loosely split up and began cleaning up the town, with Vee focusing on attacking the yetis with the help of some slime wolves, while I personally handled wendigos. Vee's suggestion worked, and I could, in fact, suck the curse out of them, although, unexpectedly, that left the foreign energy in the core that cast the spell.

It felt genuinely unpleasant, like something my body was desperate to expel but couldn't, or something stuck to your hands that wouldn't come off no matter how much you tried to wash them. Thankfully, by using [Accursed Claws], that particular [Sub-Core] managed to use up the remaining energy; otherwise, the only other option was to destroy it and remake it. After that, I stuck to just destroying them outright, as it genuinely didn't feel like a good idea to keep using these abilities.

It might have been all in my head, thanks to my bias against anything even tangentially related to warlocks, as I saw no side effects to the core once it had expelled all the energy it had siphoned. Still, it also wasn't like I needed this ability, so was it worth the trouble? Although I suppose it might be a way to train my resistances. But I could do that with the artificial energy created from Mana through [Chimeric Mimicry]. Why take the risk?

I did ask Vee for a second opinion, and for once, she didn't accuse me of being a paranoid slime. In fact, she also felt it might have a nefarious underbelly.

"It sounds fishy… I mean, who would want to use something called 'curse energy' in the first place? But ignoring that, it's something you can't get rid of without the right abilities, right?" I nodded.

"So what if you get infected with curse energy, and you look for a way to get rid of it. Then you eventually get the ability, maybe the system reveals a skill to you after some time through a revelation or something while holding the energy. Then you use it, and it's a super-powerful ability. I mean, look at what the wendigos did, that crap seemed really powerful for what's otherwise a pretty underwhelming monster." I nodded again.

"Then you get addicted to that power and seek more cursed energy. Then eventually you can't live without it. It's like some big self-fulfilling prophecy."

"I thought I was supposed to be the paranoid one, but you've gone and made an entire cursed energy conspiracy…"

"I'm not saying I'm right, but you've got to at least admit that it sounds plausible. A cursed power that corrupts its user is totally in the playbook." I could only shrug in response. While I could usually paint a vague picture of a monster's backstory by looking into their profiles, it wasn't foolproof and was no doubt influenced by my own interpretation. The better option would be to look into resources from, say, the adventurer's guild and see if they had anything on wendigos.

I'll leave a note for Sylvester to ask Keldenar about it. The streets were growing quiet as the monster's numbers rapidly dwindled. All in all, this had been a rather simple task, and when the last creature fell, I wondered if the castle itself would be our next destination. I reunited with Vee and had my slime wolves converge on our location to clean up and move on; however, that's when the quiet town began to change in a way neither Vee nor I could have predicted.

It started with what seemed like a light dusting of snow, but then glowing flakes began to accumulate into vague silhouettes. Vee and I watched with fascination as the silhouettes continued to grow in number, starting at the houses and gradually filling the once-quiet streets. Our guard was up for what we thought was going to be a fight, but soon the silhouettes began to take on more shape and form, and eventually, with a glistening burst, they became people.

The once monster-infested castle town was now populated with what looked like ordinary people, if not for their slightly grayish-blue skin and sparkly white eyes.

"Are they ghosts?" Vee asked, looking around.

"I'm really not sure…" I admitted, trying my best to decipher what exactly they were. My rudimentary spell version of [Identify] failed me, and Vee's skill only said that they were a "Citizen of Moonscar" no matter how many she tried to use it on. [Soul Sight] was also confused by their presence; as far as I could tell, they were effectively beings of Mana with only a faint trace of lifeforce.

Vee's earlier suggestion of ghosts felt close to the mark, but unlike the specters I'd seen, they were fully interacting with their environment. The so-called citizens of Moonscar were cleaning streets, picking up boxes, and genuinely going about their day. You'd swear we were killing yetis and the occasional wendigo a few moments ago. Vee and I wandered the now-populated streets, which became more lively as we passed by.

Soon, hawkers were selling their wares, families were walking around with their children, and even animals such as horses began to take shape. At first, they seemed to ignore us entirely, as if we didn't exist. Yet, as the town became more lifelike, they started to greet us as we passed by, ignoring the fact that Vee was quite literally a spider monster nearly double the size of even the largest dog.

This abnormality caused me to change my own appearance, no longer donning my usual "social elf form" and taking a more monstrous appearance. Despite this drastic change, people of Moonscar didn't even bat an eye and continued to greet me as if I were one of them.

"Okay. I thought the wendigo creeped me out, but this place is even freakier…" Vee finally said.

"Can we go back to the crazy monsters trying to kill us? At least that made sense."

"I hate to say I agree, but I do… I'm really not sure what to make of it. What exactly are we expected to do next? Do we fight the people? Do we head to the castle? Or something else entirely?"

"My vote is the castle before we suddenly start attacking. Even if they aren't exactly… People … They look like it. I'd feel weird about it."

"I only suggested that since that's usually what dungeons have us do. Then again, I had to build a seal in the previous labyrinth, so who knows what this one wants us to do."

"Yeah… This is definitely outside our comfort zone. Anyway, let's see if we can head into the castle. Hopefully, we can get some answers there, or at the very least, our next obvious task." And so we started making our way to the castle. Meanwhile, the town around us continued to grow more and more lively, with the "people" going about their day without a single care in the world, as if nothing could possibly go wrong in their idyllic life.