Chapter 138—Curse Resistance

When it was time for the compulsory two hours in the isolation room, Tom was looking forward to it for a reason other than training. Today he was going to explore and plan out the process of gaining curse resistance titles. It was slightly whimsical and not at all brutally efficient like he usually approached things, but he been deliberately stopping himself from exploring the alternate body tempering pathways for fun. Not completely, of course. He already knew the order he was intending to gain the titles and there was no danger of missing out because Corrine had confirmed that him starting at five years old instead of her ten meant he would finish everything comfortably. There was no harm in waiting, so he had held himself back from investigating the specifics. Preferring to leave it as a reward to be consumed after completing each prior step. A morale boost to be used on days like today. 

It was something he could have looked at last night, but in the euphoria of getting the new title and the residual dullness from his soul training he had deliberately left it as something to look forward too.

Once the doors to the isolation room were locked and he had scanned the roof to make sure nothing unexpected lurked there, he went to work and constructed his ladder and for the first time truly studied the curse shelf. 

It gave him the chills. The venom and acid sections had been filled with different sized vials like he had seen in the storage section of the science classroom all those decades ago. This shelf was distinctive. The whole layout screamed warnings about the supernatural that the primal animal side of his soul couldn’t help but listen to. It was not necessarily evil, but deeply and unsettlingly wrong.

Logically, the carefully packed and sealed boxes shouldn’t have evoked that kind of reaction, but it did and he supposed it was because some part of the aura of the contained cursed objects was leaking out and that was what he was picking up. The variety of boxes was actually fascinating. Not only did they come in a range of sizes, but they were also made out of different materials. There were diverse metals and woods, but while there were a dozen examples of them, they weren’t in the majority. That designation belonged to the stone like containers, and they were not jade boxes like in cultivation stories, instead they were different stone types with shades ranging from a pale yellow to glittery black like a moonless night sky and each of them radiated unique energies according to his developing earth sense. It was obvious the container had been tailored to its contents.

Every box had a small number printed on it and to gain a better understanding he snatched up the singular book that was titled ‘Curses 101.’

It was clear after reading a few pages that the process of gaining curse titles was quite different from venoms and acids. Those books had been all about dosage information, while the curses had none of that. Each curse was basically conveyed by environmental radiation when you opened the relevant box. Some of them needed to be worn or held, but most only required proximity. The basic concept seemed to be built around you getting cursed and then you dispelled the infliction either by using your own spell or one of the supplied purification crystals. 

To facilitate this, the curses were broken down into increasingly more tenacious and deliberating effects that required more and more powerful purification crystals or spells to remove. The entire book was structured as a guide to gaining extra levels in purification spells, but if that was the only purpose then the purification crystals wouldn’t have been included as anything other than an emergency measure. That they were there, and part of the process was the orphanage’s way of alluding to title acquisition without crossing the line where too much help would block you from gaining the benefits. 

There were multiple warnings about ensuring the purification crystals had sufficient charge for the training session, so he took a moment to check and discovered that the lower tiered versions were almost depleted while the spells for the more powerful curses were nearly full.

Tom smiled upon seeing that.

Someone else was regularly using the room to gain the curse titles. Given this was a standard isolation room it had to be one of the older kids taking advantage of the longer sessions they received as the recommended exposure time varied between two and six hours depending on the curse. Tom currently could only start working toward the title at night but he didn’t mind as that was hardly new information.

He kept reading and was unsurprised to see a warning to do the book in order and not skip sections. That made it clear that the title gained in the previous section was required for later ones. Once more the breadcrumbs were placed for him to follow, smiling he studied the first section.

·        Requires the spell tier 0 Basic Purification or the relevant crystal with a charge greater than 11%.

·        Familiarise yourself with only one curse at a time. More than one risks resonance between curses which may overwhelm you.

·        Exposure time required varies by curse, and the estimate provided is under the assumption that a purification spell is cast every minute.

Tom nodded to himself. They were all warning and instructions that he had had expected to be included and while they might be useful for any true child who was lucky or unfortunate enough to find these cupboards, they would not change the behaviour of reincarnators. They all knew this stuff. He switched his attention to the important details. The actual directions that could be used for training.

Curse name and box number of Curses 101, first step.

1.      Baldness – 3 hours. (Note: The included statue of a cat is enchanted to be able to restore you to your physical state from  five hours previously. Please use before leaving the room.)

2.      Weeping Eye – 3 hours

3.      Leg Cramps – 5 hours

4.      Bad sleep – 5 hours

There were another eight of the possible curses but there was nothing interesting contained in them, so he ignored them. The fact the total count was twelve meant that the requirement at this level was eight exposures.

He flicked back to an earlier paragraph.

Note: Some people have an innate immunity to specific curses. Unless you possess a diagnosis curse ability, you won’t be able to tell if this is occurring.

That was the reason for the redundancy and he suspected those immunities were related to his first Existentia life. Because he couldn’t remember large chunks of his first stint in Existentia it was quite possible that he could possess some unexpected immunities. 

All in all, despite the significant structural differences to his previous tempering successes this process looked simpler than expected.

Expertly, he returned everything to the cupboard and dismantled the platform he had created to get there. Because he no longer had to empty boxes before stacking, it only took a few minutes to clean up.

It was a good outcome, as it meant that he would have time to go through his hammer forms and check the competition update.

He chose the latter to do first and then frowned as he read the details.

The ranking ladder had the same dynamics as previously. Humans on face value were not in a terrible spot, but the trends were all against them. Even worse, the giants had gained an unexplained four million, above and beyond their previous long-term baseline. This was the second week that an increase had been present for, which made it an unwelcome trend rather than a single feat of brilliance. It was noted that what the ladder was showing was a steady improvement of regular one to four hundred thousand point increases rather than just one off significant jumps. That implied they had discovered a repeatable process. 

They were making a move, and none of the analysts seemed to know what it was.

Tom clenched his fists and stared up at the ceiling.

The giants jumping ahead put humans in a struggle for the fifth and sixth spots against the wador.

It was them losing big time. They were looking at billions dying and the extinction of humans with in a dozen generations. The idea of the failure made him sick, and he wondered why Everlyn was not doing more. She had the strength to make an impact, but wasn’t.

“Why?” he asked helplessly.

He remembered what she had said. That he had done his part and didn’t need to do anymore. That he shouldn’t risk himself because he had achieved enough.

It was bullshit. There was no such thing as enough when their collective failure was going to cost billions of lives.

He brushed the tears away from his eyes.

Was she following the same logic personally that she had given him? Were a whole host of humanity elites thinking they had done their bit? Had they collectively decided to hang up their weapons in retirement?

“Selfish Bastards,” he hissed. His fists clenched, and he wanted to fight. Lash out and feel bones crunching under his strikes.

Was that the cancer that was inflicting humanity? In addition to so many dying due to fate, was plain old laziness also destroying them. There was no way to tell from the sterilised, cultured environment of the orphanage and he hoped he was wrong, but Everlyn’s advice to him kept echoing in his head.

Fucking Bitch, he thought furiously. That was not the person he knew, but it made too much sense. They were losing because of their stupidity and now because of the lethargy of his people.

There was only one response to this realisation.

He snatched up the hammer and went extra hard with the routine. When his two hours finished, he was covered in sweat and breathing heavily.  

It didn’t help.

It wasn’t enough.

Mathematics and trend lines weren’t difficult concepts, and it didn’t take a genius to see what was happening. There were unknowns. Way too many of them for him to be happy with the outcome like: What are the inventors doing? How about the giants? What could twelve metre tall creatures with perfect stealth be doing? Were they raging a war? Could humans go to war like that?

He felt like hitting something.

It wasn’t the first time he had these thoughts. He knew there were grand projects being carried out like the crystal slimes and also outreach to diminishing species like Baptiste’s people. That was all documented and had the potential to chip away at the debt. But beyond that tinkering at the edges, what else was happening?

Then there was Everlyn’s advice to him. Which was so at odds with the version of her that he remembered. Back then she would have implored him to do whatever it would take and now she was waving the white flag. If she was an example of humanity’s leadership, it could explain a lot. “What the fuck happened to you Everlyn?” he whispered unable to comprehend the nature of the change.

Then the doors dinged, ready to be opened, and he put all the anger and doubt aside and walked out.

AG. It was a short chapter and there should be another tommorrow. I'm not posting the Royal Road one because I have to run to a wedding (not literally )but its the first time I'm a wearing a proper shirt for like five years. Not happy with having to get dressed up and its going to be hot.