Mitra Worshiper

If this curse were cast on an ordinary person, it might significantly reduce their thinking ability.

But for Sherlock, it was just right—he actually felt his mind clear up. In fact, because the noise in his head had disappeared, he was able to access more resources.

"... How dare you curse me to my face?"

Sherlock frowned. "This is the first time I've ever seen Curse Master who makes the cursed person watch the whole thing..."

"No?"

Iver retorted confidently, "Just tell me if it's cured or not."

"Really..."

"Teacher Ibn taught me."

Iver laughed, "Including the ceremony."

"Tsk."

Sherlock clicked his tongue, his expression visibly relaxing, and the effects of the alcohol began to take hold. "I knew it, you vixen, you definitely have an adaptability Path of Transcendence..."

"Bewitching the Lord, so what? You're not convinced?"

Iver squinted and chuckled softly.

"There's nothing to be dissatisfied with, Minister Moriarty," Sherlock said expressionlessly.

"It seems you are indeed dissatisfied, Mr. Hermes, Secretary."

Iver couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Sherlock becomes noticeably more interesting when he's drunk—he's usually a complete taciturn guy, though he can be sarcastic, but he lacks flexibility. He'll stop talking after a couple of polite remarks.

But Iver actually quite enjoyed being teased like this. After all, that's how he interacted with his friends in his Previous Life, and it made him nostalgic. It's just that this world lacks the art of speaking strangely... or perhaps it's just that the rigid Avalon lacks it.

"How long will this curse stay with me?"

Sherlock asked, "How long can this spell last?"

Two weeks.

Iver casually replied, "Of course, it doesn't mean it'll be effective for two weeks... but rather that two weeks later is the New Moon Night. The curse will be even stronger that night and might harm you. So we need to remove it once before then, and then reapply it after that night."

"... So you mean I have to keep it hanging up all the time?"

Sherlock's face turned ugly.

"Otherwise what?"

Iver retorted, "Then why do you exercise? It's because your body is too weak that you're being attacked by the Path Power."

"... How long do I need to train?" Sherlock asked hesitantly.

"It will take at least three or four years."

Iver said with a smile, "So you don't really need to train anymore, because it's too late—your promotion speed will definitely be faster than physical exercise."

It's a pity he's lost all his muscles now.

Otherwise, he would lift his shirt to show Sherlock his prized abs and tell him he needed to at least work out to look like him. Now, Sherlock would probably laugh at him.

However, Sherlock was clearly furious at Iver's words—he downed the hot cider in his glass in one gulp.

"What should we do then?"

Sherlock frowned. This time it wasn't because of a headache, but because he felt this was a bit tricky. "Could it be that I really went the wrong way...?"

"That's true."

Iver nodded and explained in terms Sherlock didn't quite understand, "Or rather, this is the price you pay for choosing two magic-based classes and leveling them up simultaneously. Consuming double mana pools of the same color is terrible... It's also normal to take debuffs."

The magic pool of Law Mage is primarily wind and secondarily light, while the magic pool of a mage is earth, fire, water, and wind.

The Path of Wisdom profession grants twice the mana pool upon leveling up compared to other paths, with the mana evenly distributed across the four attributes. Furthermore, the Mage profession, starting from the Third Level, possesses the unique ability to convert mana between the four attributes of earth, fire, water, and wind. By spending twice the mana, one can convert mana into mana of an adjacent attribute.

For example, earth can be transformed into fire or water, but not into wind. If you want to transform from earth into water, and then from water into wind, it would take four times the magical power.

This means that if Law Mage also works as a mage, he can essentially gain nearly three times the Wind Attribute mana of a normal Law Mage. Furthermore, he can use the mana pool he gains as Law Mage to cast Wind Attribute spells or convert it into mana of other attributes.

This level of strength is extremely high. This is also the fundamental reason why mages can be considered an all-around, overpowered class.

However, when both spellcasting classes reach the Third Level, they will receive a "Spiritual Body Imbalance" debuff. Its effect is "Reaction Evasion -10%, Spell Success Rate -20%, and gain [Mental Frailty] upon waking up each day, lasting one day."

[Mental Frailty] is a mentally debilitating condition where, when subjected to negative status effects such as charm or drowsiness, you must roll two dice each time, and the lower save throw probability applies. Fortunately, this condition can be dispelled, unlike "Spiritual Body Imbalance".

The treatment Iver gave Sherlock earlier was to remove this negative status.

Even Iver couldn't cure "Spiritual Body Imbalance".

However, Iver can cast a Moron Curse on him to temporarily prevent this effect from triggering.

[Curse: Curse: Mist of Ignorance] can reduce Sherlock's intelligence by one-third and nullify all "Super Intelligence" skills.

Super Intelligence is a skill category within the Path of Wisdom, somewhat akin to a curse. Simply put, it's about overclocking the brain, an extremely dangerous skill. Prolonged use could potentially burn out the brain.

Or, in player terms, these are burst skills exclusive to mage classes. Only by activating at least one Super Intelligence state can mages use multi-elemental composite spells. And when Super Intelligence is activated, one either starts losing health, starts losing mana, starts applying vulnerability debuffs, or reduces movement speed... in short, becomes more vulnerable.

The reason why "Spiritual Body Imbalance" cannot be cured or dispelled by priests is that it is essentially a Super Intelligence skill that cannot be cured by oneself and is of little use. Its greatest significance is that it is completely useless.

"If you were to choose someone else... even Bishop Mathers, he absolutely could not cure you."

Iver spoke with absolute certainty and confidence, "So you're doing me a favor by thanking me. I'm the only one in all of Avalon who knows how to cure this disease."

This is true.

This symptom is considered incurable even in the Narcissus Principality. Only the Parthian Ancient Kingdom knows how to use curses to suppress the disease—they even have specialized techniques for using curses to amplify or cure effects. Many players even specifically learn their techniques.

For example, there is a curse called "Reckless Axe," which turns the person wielding the axe into a mentally challenged and simple-minded person, reducing their intelligence to proportionally increase their strength and physique.

If it continues for a long enough period, it can drain intelligence completely—to the point where it's less intelligent than a dog. Once intelligence is drained, one can't even use martial arts techniques, let alone fight calmly.

However, through the ritual of "Iron Reason," one can mechanize their logical thinking, thereby locking in their intellectual limits. In this way, they become a calm and absolutely rational axe-wielding guard with twice the strength and physique of others of the same class and level.

A spellcasting class that primarily uses the four elemental mana pools, also working as a Third Level mage, and then casting the "Mist of Ignorance Curse"—this is the standard tradition of the Parthian Ancient Kingdom.

Iver cautioned, "The Curse: Mist of Ignorance will reduce the power of your spells, by about a third. However, the benefit is that the backlash from failed spells will also be reduced by a third."

"If you need high-intensity combat but don't prioritize spellcasting stability, you can try removing the curse. I'll prepare a simple hint for you to remove the curse later. If you remove the curse, your spellcasting stability will decrease, but your power will increase significantly—"

"And most importantly, you no longer need to activate the ' Super Intelligence ' skill to use composite spells. Because in this state, you can use composite spells at any time."

Iver added.

Sherlock was somewhat taken aback. "How do you know about Super Intelligence arts and composite magic?"

Even ordinary mages don't know this!

He must have read a lot of books to know this... With so much knowledge and diverse understanding, how could Iver still have the leisure to read esoteric books on the Path of Wisdom?

Iver said meaningfully, "I know everything."

"I even know that the reason you were delayed in getting promoted before was because you were sick."

"Had a seizure? What disease could I possibly have? Rabies from you, Seductive Fox?"

Sherlock scoffed, unimpressed.

But what Iver next made him tense. "Of course it's just pretentious artsy pedantry."

"You dare not continue on the Path of Wisdom. This is partly because Avalon has no successor, and partly because of me and Isabel."

"You didn't expect Isabel to be such a genius, accumulating energy from the Second Level to the Third Level in less than a month. You also didn't expect me to be even stronger than you... So you think your Path of Wisdom is not enough to support you to continue, and you want to turn back to the path you don't like, but are better at."

Upon hearing Iver's words, Sherlock's eyes gradually cleared.

—He sobered up.

"... What do you think?"

For once, Sherlock showed confusion in front of Iver: "Which path should I take? The right path, or the path of dreams? The longer, smoother sandy road, or the trail in the forest?"

"Is there even a question?"

Iver smiled confidently, "Of course, it's the path I chose for you—a completely new path, but the one best suited for you. This profession is called ' Mitra Worshiper '."

"Oh, right. You probably don't know what happened to Ms. Meg, do you? Let me tell you the whole story."

Then, Iver recounted to Sherlock from beginning to end how Meg had become Ligeia.

The cat's gone to grab lunch, will be back to writing! Post it as soon as it's done!

It's the third update today!