Mark had no intention of keeping it secret. He set down the fish tail in his hand, looked at Hawkins, and said, "Of course it has other uses. Using curses to cancel out curses is the most basic method. Cursed Relics aren't items from our world. They say all Cursed Relics come from the Dream Realm. It's a... how should I put it?"
For a moment, he found himself at a loss for words, unsure how to describe the Dream Realm.
"Right, the world of daydreams." Suddenly, he put down the grilled fish, clapped his hands, and said with a smile.
Hawkins frowned. "Daydreams?"
"That's right. The Dream Realm is actually the world where all living creatures' daydreams exist. For example, Captain, if you desperately wanted an incomparably sharp knife, once that thought reached the Dream Realm, such a knife would appear there," Mark said with a nod.
Hawkins looked at Mark and asked, "Then how does that knife reach our world?"
"I'm not too sure. The Dream Realm is incredibly chaotic and impossible to fathom. I'm only a First-Rank Curse Master, so I can merely sense its existence a little," Mark said, shaking his head.
Hawkins pondered this. "So Curse Casters are people who make proper use of Cursed Relics?"
"More or less. But becoming a Curse Caster isn't that simple." After answering, Mark reached out and grabbed another fish, eating as he explained the requirements for becoming a Curse Caster.
To become a Curse Caster, one needed at least three Cursed Relics, as well as a Qi-Suppressing Stone.
After consuming powdered Qi-Suppressing Stone and becoming tainted by three or more evil curses at the same time, one's God-given mind would briefly connect to the Dream Realm. So long as one did not suffer a mental breakdown within the Dream Realm, one would sense Curse Power once it ended.
Successfully gaining control over Curse Power meant becoming a First-Rank Curse Master.
After hearing this, Hawkins roughly understood how to become a Curse Caster. The only question was where the Qi-Suppressing Stone came from.
He looked at Mark and asked, "The Qi-Suppressing Stone isn't a material from this world either, is it?"
"Correct. Qi-Suppressing Stone is also a material from the Dream Realm. As for me, I received mine directly from my Lineage. Ordinary people who want one can probably only rely on luck," Mark said with a nod.
Once Curse Casters reached a sufficiently high rank, they had a chance to bring Qi-Suppressing Stone back from the Dream Realm. Thus, Curse Caster Lineages truly possessed an incomparable advantage in this regard.
However, Qi-Suppressing Stone was not found only in the Dream Realm. Just like Cursed Relics that appeared in this world for no apparent reason, Qi-Suppressing Stone occasionally appeared here as well. The earliest Curse Casters had actually been lucky people who obtained Qi-Suppressing Stone.
"Captain, the odds of a Qi-Suppressing Stone appearing are minuscule. If you truly want to become a Curse Caster, the best way is still to join a sufficiently powerful Curse Caster Lineage." At the end, Mark looked at Hawkins and offered his advice.
Hawkins looked at Julian and shook his head. "The Seven Seas probably don't have a Lineage like that."
Among the Six Great Islands of the Seven Seas, each island had an absolute ruler. If Curse Casters truly existed in the Seven Seas, they would certainly be among those six.
Unfortunately, none of those six would likely be willing to share their own interests or grant power to unrelated people.
Night fell.
Hawkins returned to the captain's cabin, sat before his desk, and took out paper and pen to record what Mark had said.
Curse Casters felt somewhat like a profession such as mages, yet they also differed in certain ways.
Moreover, Curse Casters were often covered in evil curses. Though powerful, they came with all manner of drawbacks.
For instance, members of the Storm Lineage where Mark belonged were swept away by storms every year. The lucky ones survived, while the unlucky ones landed in dangerous areas and died outright.
However, Curse Casters possessed an incredibly broken ability: Curseguard.
Curse Power automatically protected its master. So long as the opponent lacked Curse Power, they would be completely unable to break through its defenses.
Joyce's attacks had actually been blocked by Curse Power, so no matter how sharp the paper figures were, they could not cut Mark.
Hawkins was very curious about what kind of energy this Curse Power actually was, how its automatic protection operated, and whether Curse Power possessed a mind of its own.
However, compared to the mage-like profession of Curse Caster, Hawkins was actually more interested in the so-called Dream Realm.
Why could humans in this world communicate with the Dream Realm?
If the two worlds were truly connected, would they be in an "onion-shaped configuration" or a "double-yolk configuration"?
He could be certain that two curses he did not yet know about existed on his body. One was bad luck, while the other remained unknown for the moment.
These two curses came respectively from the Black Knife and the Sea Chart.
The Black Knife's abilities were unknown, as was its curse. The Sea Chart's ability, on the other hand, was obvious: it displayed the locations of treasures.
Hawkins gently stroked the Sea Chart. His consciousness continuously searched through the original Hawkins's memories. After finding nothing, he fixed his attention on Hawkins's father, Huo Blackblade.
In the Seven Seas, whether at sea or on land, danger lurked everywhere.
Those dangers came not only from nobles, but also from other pirates, strange legends, God's mysterious sea monsters, and evil Demonic Beasts.
"Ghost Corpses walking through the sea mist..."
Hawkins found the scene of the day Huo Blackblade had died in his memories.
At the time, the Blackblade Pirates had clashed with another pirate crew, and the conflict eventually escalated into a battle between the two sides.
Both sides wanted to wipe out the other and devour their wealth and influence, so the fighting was exceptionally brutal. People continuously died on both sides, and the seawater around the two ships was dyed red.
Just as both sides had killed until their eyes turned bloodshot, fog suddenly rose over the sea.
The mist gradually shrouded the opposing pirate ship. The pirates, who had been fighting with bloodshot eyes, all felt an indescribable chill.
Yet neither side could stop. The moment they stopped, they would surely be killed by the other side, so the slaughter continued.
At that moment, the pirates who had already died all "came back to life." They grabbed nearby pirates and bit into them, while the corpses that had fallen into the sea climbed out of the water and joined the slaughter.
Amid the chaos, Hawkins fled back to the Black Knife. After cutting down dozens of Ghost Corpses, he turned the rudder and escaped without the slightest hesitation.
Huo Blackblade had not made it back to the Black Knife in time, yet he did not blame Hawkins. Instead, at the final moment, he threw the Black Knife onto the ship. In the end, he was left behind in the mist forever.
In fact, after Huo Blackblade's death, Hawkins had continuously pursued the secret of the strange sea mist. Unfortunately, none of the people he could reach possessed extraordinary knowledge, so he had gained no further clues or information.
When Hawkins had chatted with Mark earlier, they had discussed this very topic. Mark's answer had been simple: an animal had obtained a Cursed Relic, and it had merely been an ordinary hunt.
Though it looked strange, its purpose had been crystal clear: to hunt for food.
In the eyes of Curse Casters, every inconceivable phenomenon was surely caused by Cursed Relics. The Dream Realm had long forged them a heart of steel, so they were rarely surprised by such things.
Yet Hawkins still harbored doubts about that explanation.