And so, Iver Begins to Hunt

Chapter 44 And so, Iver began to hunt "—it's a curse."

Iver's expression turned solemn, and he immediately identified the type of curse: "It's the Filthy Blood Curse."

This is a painful curse made with poisonous scorpions, snakes, and live poisonous toads as materials, using menstrual blood as a medium to cast the spell. It can make people continuously feel three times the pain of menstrual cramps, and depending on the resistance to the curse, it can torment people for half an hour to six hours.

Sherlock's expression immediately turned solemn, and deep blue light instantly bloomed in his pupils.

A cold, rational, and mysterious light reflected from the depths of his eyes, and he extended his left little finger, drawing a rune in the air that looked like a cane.

"Water overcomes blood, just as the pure must overcome the impure."

As he chanted in a low voice, he picked up the bottle of pure water from the table.

Sherlock directly inverted it, but the water did not fall to the ground, instead filling the rune.

When it filled up, it suddenly contracted into a ball of water. Then it flew forward and hit Lu Lu's face.

As the water splashed, the pure water splashed from her face turned into foul-smelling blood and dripped onto the ground.

Lu Lu's painful low moan immediately ceased. But she was still vomiting, constantly vomiting blood.

Iver reached out and probed, finding that her nape and chest were unusually cold.

He frowned: "You didn't completely dispel it, only half of it."

Sherlock glanced over and judged from Lu Lu's symptoms: "This curse is a bit complicated. It seems that her esophagus and stomach are being corroded by the curse, and the medium should not be just menstrual blood. This is a compound curse, or you should do it… professionals do professional things."

"Yes, I'll do it."

"Is your mana still enough?"

"At least enough to heal her."

Iver replied.

He helped Lu Lu up, making her sit halfway with her face down, to prevent the foul blood from choking her.

Then Iver extended his left hand, his fingers plunged into "his wife's" thick and dense white-gold hair, grasping her somewhat cold nape with the heel of his palm, and pressing the tip of his left middle finger against the back of her head.

His expression was heavy and solemn, and a light as bright as the setting sun burned in his azure pupils.

The deep red, gold-tinged light that bloomed when he resonated with the Path symbolized the excess of fire element in the Dedication Path.

—This was the most obvious healing reaction of Iver's Illumination Spell.

Black smoke continuously poured out of the back of Lu Lu's head with a hissing sound, even dyeing her white-gold hair somewhat dull. Her body convulsed violently, trembling at a very high frequency. But she gritted her teeth and made no sound, worried about waking Little Iver… but there were still muffled groans that she couldn't help but make.

"We have guests, not very friendly ones."

Sherlock said quietly, "Leave it to me, you continue to heal."

He reached out and threw the Sulfuric Acid on the table directly, letting it fall on the wall.

But at the moment the bottle shattered, he stretched out his right hand into a fist and suddenly punched the Sulfuric Acid bottle in the air from a distance.

The transparent oily concentrated Sulfuric Acid did not splash out, but was filled with some kind of dark green gas, causing it to bulge slightly… like a fist, or like a beating heart. It was more viscous than Sulfuric Acid, but the volume had increased instead.

The next moment, Sherlock opened his right hand into a claw, vaguely grabbing towards the corner not far from where the Sulfuric Acid bottle had fallen.

There was an unnatural patch of shadow there, gradually becoming clearer and turning red.

Long-distance teleportation requires manifestation time. After Lu Lu was cursed, Sherlock had been observing the surroundings.

"Mr. Fox" had picked a good spot. Inside this closed factory, the brightness should be uniform.

As long as a certain place suddenly darkened or brightened, that was a sign of the Iron Hook Demon teleporting in!

The clump of oily green viscous liquid suspended in the air also synchronously formed sharp claws, grabbing towards that location!

Like an infant crying, yet also like an old cat in heat. An exceptionally shrill sound came... a high-pitched sound that could penetrate eardrums, making one feel like something was buzzing in their ears.

But even so, the sleeping Little Iver was not awakened. He only struggled painfully, as if having a nightmare.

"I hate impolite children."

Sherlock said in a gloomy whisper, "Especially the loud and noisy kind..."

His spell caused very effective damage and control—

Only calf-high, completely red, with two legs and four arms... a little demon with a head like a bald fatty or a ferocious infant, had just appeared when it was tightly grabbed by sulfuric acid claws! A sizzling burning sound came, and it couldn't break free for a moment.

The liquid-formed sulfuric acid claws seemed to have a solid substance inside, firmly holding it in place and continuously burning it!—The situation seemed great, but Sherlock had no joy at all.

Because he could clearly feel that when he guided and maintained the spell, the water and earth attribute mana in his body were burning rapidly.

He had used a little water attribute mana when he purified the curse on himself before. Only the last two points of water attribute mana remained.

Even if he forcibly used his richest earth attribute mana to replace water attribute mana to activate the concentrated sulfuric acid and construct the "Water Demon Hand" with his Path Trait, and bear half of the subsequent maintenance mana consumption. But this spell still required at least half of the water attribute mana to maintain.

Two points of water attribute mana, plus two points of earth attribute mana, were only enough to maintain this spell for forty seconds.

That was more than enough for humans of flesh and blood.

An activated sulfuric acid claw with a maximum speed of twenty meters per second could easily kill a squad of ordinary people. The Water Demon Hand constructed with pure water could briefly melt and penetrate the inside of armor; while the Water Demon Hand he constructed with earth attribute mana could easily break trees and tear apart leather armor.

But even so, this was likely not enough to kill the Iron Hook Demon. He could only hope to injure it and scare it away.

As long as "Mr. Fox" dispelled the compound curse on "Lu Lu" as soon as possible, it would be a victory!

Because without the cursed person nearby, the Iron Hook Demon could not teleport. Then its threat... at least wouldn't be so great.

...Wait? Sherlock's expression suddenly changed, realizing something.

Curse?

Although he didn't know much about it, he also knew a principle.

That was that the difficulty of repeatedly cursing a person would become increasingly high. Curses would also increase the curse resistance of the cursed person, and the medium used once could not be used again.

In other words, in the limited time of four hours, the enemy might only be able to curse one of them once.

If that was the case, Ke Ke might not have built an Anti-Demon Magic Array... but like himself, directly dispelled the curse on herself, causing the positioning to fail! Among the Alexander couple, the first to be cursed was not "Mr. Fox."

—But "Little Iver"! Now that he and Lu Lu had both been cursed... then the next one would be Mr. Fox! Thinking of this, Sherlock's heart sank.

Terrible.

This was the disadvantage of the Dedication Path.

He could easily dispel other people's curses, but he couldn't use Illumination Spell on himself. That was a secret art of burning oneself to illuminate others.

"Right, Priests can use Sacrificial Fire!... But there are no candles here! Fox!"

Amidst the Iron Hook Demon's shrill screams, Sherlock suddenly opened his mouth and asked loudly, "Can you use 'Sacrificial Fire' on burning wood or chemical reagents?"

"...You think too highly of me, don't you?"

Iver said helplessly, also responding loudly, "Besides, the healing power of Sacrificial Fire is far less potent than Illumination Spell. Even if I could use it, I, at Level One, can't dispel a Level Two curse!"

...That's true.

Sherlock wasn't that familiar with the Dedication Path. But he had just remembered... that Iver Moriarty was also a Priest, yet he still had to use a wheelchair. Presumably, the level of the source of the damage was too high, so Sacrificial Fire couldn't dispel it.

Because the Priest's "Sacrificial Fire" is essentially "restoration," not "healing" or "regeneration." This means that the higher the level of the source of the damage, the more difficult it is to heal. What can truly be considered "regeneration"—the ability to restore health by relying solely on the body's own self-healing power—is found in the Path of Adaptation and the Equilibrium Path.

But hearing what Fox said, Sherlock understood that this clever and cunning young man had already realized the problem.

"Then what do you plan to do?"

Sherlock asked.

"What else can I do?"

Iver replied briskly, "Haven't we already secured the win?"

As he spoke, he had successfully dispelled the curse on Lu Lu.

When he said this, Sherlock knew what Iver was going to do.

The Iron Hook Demon's screams came to an abrupt halt.

This was clearly not death—its condition was still very healthy. It must have been recalled by its master.

Iver breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Don't look over here, Mr. Sherlock."

He reminded him, and unbuttoned Lu Lu's coat, having her lie on her side. He then reached his left hand into the waist of her skirt, directly touching the skin of her chest. Using the little light-attribute mana he had left, he activated the Illumination Spell.

"You're the one to talk."

Sherlock didn't turn his head, but retorted in the same manner, "You're the one who shouldn't be groping around—Miss Lu Lu is still a young girl."

And a princess, at that, he added mentally.

"Of course, I know."

Iver replied unhappily, "What do you take me for? Some kind of beast who preys on children?"

He subconsciously treated Lu Lu as a child.

Out of politeness, Iver touched the back side of her heart, rather than the front.

The scorching, bright mana flowed through her limbs and bones with the powerful pumping of her heart, and the corroded mucous membranes in her throat and stomach rapidly regenerated. Lu Lu's injuries were easily healed, only using a bit of Iver's mana.

After Iver withdrew his hand, the first thing Lu Lu did upon getting up was to tidy her clothes.

"...Thank you, Mr. Fox."

Lu Lu's face was slightly red, but she still thanked Iver earnestly, "You didn't have to save me..."

"You mean, kill you?"

Sherlock was the first to react.

"I refuse."

Iver said lazily, "If Luo Le were here, perhaps she would do that. But I won't."

After saying that, he walked alone in the direction they had come from.

"—Mr. Fox?"

Lu Lu was startled, subconsciously wondering if she had said or done something wrong again.

Iver stopped and turned back, saying leisurely, "The demons can't find you anymore. But they can still find me... The ritual will be over in an hour. So as long as I don't stay with Little Iver, we've already won.

"Since a sacrificer is needed to achieve victory at this moment, it can only be me. You guys stay here and behave, don't move around."

As Iver spoke, he looked at Sherlock and asked casually, "Oh, right. Do you have a dagger? I plan to take some personal belongings with me, otherwise I'll be a little uneasy."

"...Do you want a paper knife?"

Sherlock took out a small knife.

It was a paper knife carried by a newsboy, with no power to speak of.

But it was enough for suicide.

Sherlock thought that the Fox wanted a knife to commit suicide after he lured the demons out—that way, at least he could avoid the pain of being disemboweled.

"That'll do."

Iver took it, "It's better than nothing."

"Do you want me to help you? I can make your death more painless."

"I'd rather die outside, otherwise Lu Lu will be scared."

Iver said lightly.

Of course, he certainly didn't want this knife for suicide.

As long as he could cut himself, it would be convenient for him to use the "Shepherding Method"... otherwise, he might have to bite himself.

—Yes, the Shepherding Method.

The skill "Shepherding (Flesh)" belongs to the Dedication Path. It's probably because he had read the Shepherd's Secret Covenant and possessed the Shepherding Method that the ritual assigned them the Iron Hook Demon as their enemy... believing that they had the possibility of killing a powerful enemy and finding the mastermind.

It was because the difficulty of this mission included not only the Bone Carver and Sherlock, but also the Shepherding Method possessed by Iver, and his knowledge of demons! As long as he successfully completed the Shepherding Method, he could control this low-level demon.

Even Shadow Demons couldn't resist Iver's blood... the Iron Hook Demon was much weaker than the Shadow Demon.

Moreover, the Iron Hook Demon's intelligence, like that of a three-year-old child, was considered one of the most idiotic among the low-level demons.

This Iron Hook Demon had not been specifically trained in intelligence; its master obviously didn't know this technique, or didn't think that anyone in Avalon was familiar with the characteristics of the Iron Hook Demon.

After being caught by Sherlock, it only knew how to squeal and didn't know how to use teleportation to escape—which it could do with training and special enhancement.

Jack the Ripper had undergone this kind of enhancement, which was why he had become so difficult to deal with.

According to the original, ideal development, an Iron Hook Demon should have descended before "Little Iver" and then been controlled by Iver.

After Sherlock used his Wisdom to gather everyone, they should have formed a nine-person team with distinct roles and followed the clues of the Iron Hook Demon to his doorstep.

That would indeed have been easy mode.

But just as the Bone Carver refused to cooperate with them...

The ritual also failed to determine that Iver "didn't want to reveal that he possessed the Shepherding Method"—especially not in front of Sherlock.

That was why the difficulty had been raised so much for no reason.

After all, the identity of the Fox had to be clean. This was a superficial identity that Iver had deliberately created to be exposed.

That was why he deliberately maintained his image in front of the two of them.

What he wanted was to use the identity of the Fox to hide his other identity on the Path of Transcendence! Iver was right just now.

For Sherlock and Lu Lu, this ritual was already over—they had already achieved victory.

Ensuring Little Iver's survival and guaranteeing the role-playing until the end. The two necessary tasks had already been completed.

But for Iver, who was pursuing higher points and exploring the truth... his adventure had just begun.

Iver turned his back to the light-filled door, hid his killing intent, smiled, nodded gently, and waved.

He gave Sherlock, who had a complicated expression, and Lu Lu, who was somewhat sad and reluctant, a final greeting, and delivered the "last words" he left in their minds before his heroic sacrifice: "Take good care of 'our child', Lu Lu. Sing him another lullaby, he doesn't seem to be sleeping very soundly. He seems to have been disturbed.

"Also, Mr. Sherlock. If I have time, I will come and find you... if I have time."

They will definitely be impressed with me.

—And now, I will begin the hunt.

Iver thought silently.

Today's update was eight thousand words, written until seven thirty in the morning...! Leave a message if there are any typos, I will fix them when I get up! The dungeon will end tomorrow! The follow-up reading has already reached seven thousand! Continue to ask for votes and follow-up reading~