Methods to Break a Curse

Benjamin lay on his bed, feeling the pain radiating throughout his body and nursing a strong urge to use a Water Sphere for healing.

However, he was still too close to the Church to risk such a move.

Recalling the morning's training, he still felt a lingering fear. As the instructor demonstrating combat techniques, Dean hadn't actually used much force, but for Benjamin, it had already been quite the ordeal.

That was to say nothing of the new recruits who followed.

Although he wasn't just a target meant to be beaten, he could fight back during the training sessions and practice the various techniques Dean taught them. But given his frail foundation, he was no match for any of the new recruits, let alone a group of them.

He doubted the bruises covering his body would fade in less than ten or fifteen days.

Still, looking on the bright side, he had received the most training.

Didn't everyone say that to learn how to hit others, one must first learn how to be hit? Benjamin had no choice but to use these words to comfort himself.

People always grew slowly through this very process.

Thinking this, he walked over to the mirror and looked at his reflection. Although the person in the mirror was black and blue, he was already vastly different from the Benjamin he had first seen. The face was the same, and the features were identical, but his temperament had changed completely.

He was no longer that sickly-looking teenager; a sense of determination and confidence had emerged between his brows, with a hint of cunning if one looked closely. The experiences of these past few days had brought him quite a few changes.

Looking at it this way, his face was actually quite handsome! He couldn't help but think with a touch of narcissism.

However... as Benjamin stared, he felt something was off.

He looked far too much like Grant.

When he had looked like a weakling before, it hadn't been obvious, but now, if he removed the bruises and styled his hair like Grant's, people would likely mistake them for twin brothers if they walked out together.

It felt a bit eerie.

Yet, thinking about it more carefully, Benjamin suddenly realized this was a point he could exploit.

With a little grooming, he could disguise himself as Grant, and it would be very difficult for anyone to tell the difference. Given Grant's reputation and status in the Royal Capital's noble circles, he could actually accomplish a lot—after all, Grant was a genius born with the heavens glowing, hailed as the Pope's most promising successor.

It was truly strange; why hadn't he noticed before that Grant looked so much like him?

No wonder Michelle had kidnapped the wrong person back then.

Having inadvertently discovered another advantage he could utilize, Benjamin's mood improved significantly. Although he couldn't think of how to use it for the moment, it would surely come in handy if something happened in the future.

Calming his mind and growing accustomed to the pain in his body, Benjamin drew the curtains and prepared to begin his magic studies for the day.

He took out the Introduction to Magic he had hidden away yesterday.

He had wanted to read this book for a long time, but he hadn't found the opportunity until now. It was the perfect time to study magic. He could finally get a good look at just how far the people at the Silent Academy had researched it.

However, as he flipped through the pages, Benjamin soon felt disappointed.

"This book is... not very good."

Compared to the Introduction to Divine Arts, the Introduction to Magic was far inferior. The book lacked any essential explanation of magic, and many parts were vague. Although it mentioned various magical elements, it defined them as "the power that drifted between heaven and earth after Cain died," suggesting that mages used magic by borrowing Cain's power.

As a young man raised under the influence of atheism, he found this ridiculous.

Just how powerful was Cain that he could leave behind so much energy for mages to use for thousands of years after his death?

Furthermore, he and the System had already confirmed that magic and divine arts were actually the same thing. Did that mean the priests and bishops were also borrowing Cain's power when they used divine arts? It was complete nonsense.

Under the suppression of the Church, the development of magic was far slower than that of divine arts.

The rest of the content went without saying; it was just a list of spells, most of which had already appeared in the Bible, making them completely meaningless to Benjamin.

In the end, after finishing the entire book, Benjamin found that only three sections were useful to him:

The basics of enchanting, the basics of curses, and the creation and use of magical items.

Well, if he wasn't too greedy, it was an acceptable harvest.

Thus, after skimming through the book, Benjamin turned without hesitation to the section on curses and began to read it word for word with intense focus.

Are you kidding? If he could learn how to break a curse, would he still need to worry about Michelle? Once the curse was gone, if Michelle dared to show herself in front of him again, she would have to think twice.

According to the book, a curse was a special magical technique where a mage used specific methods to plant magic into another person's body to weaken or control them. There were all sorts of curses, and the ways to cast them were bizarre, but no matter the type, they all revolved around one essential thing:

The medium of the curse.

A mage had to use a specific object and apply special techniques to condense magic within it to form a curse. This object could be food, a weapon, water, or even air. However, the book noted that if one wanted to use air or water as a medium, they needed a very high level of proficiency in curses, and as media, they could carry far less magic than ordinary solid objects.

As for how to break a curse...

There were two ways: one was to use a level of spiritual power far higher than the caster's to forcibly dispel the curse; the other was to use the same medium as the curse and a magic with the opposite attribute to plant a new curse on oneself, fighting poison with poison and causing the two curses to collide and vanish.

Benjamin estimated that he was unlikely to reach the level required for the first method, so he had no choice but to choose the second.

"Do you remember the scene when Michelle cast the curse on me? Recount it for me," he asked the System.

He had to figure out what medium and magic Michelle had used.

Please, let it be fire-attribute magic, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to use a magic with the opposite attribute himself.

"I remember. She chanted a rather complex spell, and a dark red light suddenly flew into your heart," the System replied.

"You've already said that; I need more detailed specifics," Benjamin pressed. "What attribute of magic did she use? Did you detect the gathering of fire elements? How did that light fly into my heart? Did she use anything as a medium?"

"I see. Wait a moment, let me analyze it," the System replied, then went silent. No matter how Benjamin called out, there was no response.

Again with this.

Benjamin had no choice but to begin an anxious wait.

One minute, two minutes... He felt like he was watching a download progress bar stuck at 99.9 percent. He had no mood to do anything else; he just wanted it to finish downloading, yet it remained stuck at that final bit, refusing to conclude.

The only thing he could be thankful for was that this System wouldn't crash.

...It shouldn't crash, right?

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, the System's voice returned:

"According to the System's analysis, there was a gathering of fire elements when Michelle cast the curse; the probability of her using fire magic is 98 percent. Additionally, she was holding a leaf between her fingers at the time, which is highly likely to be the medium of the curse. After comparing it to all the leaves in Benjamin's memory, I could not identify what kind of leaf it is."

Along with the voice, an image similar to a computer preview suddenly appeared before Benjamin.

In the image was a magnified view of the leaf Michelle had been holding:

It was a deep green leaf, yellowing in some parts and slightly curled. The leaf was fan-shaped and quite pretty, resembling an exquisite, small, natural palm-leaf fan.

When Benjamin saw this leaf, he froze.

"What the hell... isn't this a ginkgo leaf?"