After the man's neck was crushed beneath his foot, his body instantly dissolved into countless tiny black specks. The Sea Chart within Hawkins flew out, and the countless specks swiftly surged into it, all absorbed by the chart.
Hawkins held out his hand, and the Sea Chart fell into his palm like a scroll.
[Eternal Sea Chart, Immature]
A stream of information entered Hawkins's mind.
Hawkins came to a realization. Clearly, if he wanted his wish to come true, he needed to personally kill more creatures like that strange man until this Sea Chart matured.
At that moment, two bald, leopard-eyed men gradually emerged from the seawater, each gripping a blade.
"Hehehe, it's finally our brothers' turn." One of them, a man with a rather flat nose, spoke.
Hawkins said in surprise, "So you can talk."
As he spoke, he gave a light flick of his right hand. The Sea Chart in his hand swept around both men's necks, then rolled back into a cylinder and returned to his grasp.
The man who had just spoken wanted to say something else, but all that came from his open mouth was a hoarse gurgle. Before long, he and his brother both collapsed, their bodies swiftly turning into tiny black specks that the Sea Chart absorbed.
Lackeys like these definitely had nothing worth saying. Rather than listen to them spew filth from their mouths, he might as well wait for the next one.
Next, Hawkins noticed that their numbers gradually increased. The third group of opponents consisted of three people, the fourth group had four, and so on.
And through certain Big Mouths who might have been holding it in too long, Hawkins obtained the information he needed.
Strictly speaking, these people were not living humans. They had died long ago and, because of their own desires, had been forever imprisoned within those desires.
Now was their only chance to break free!
Either they killed Hawkins and seized his body to live a second life, or Hawkins killed them, and everything they were would be absorbed by the Sea Chart, leaving them completely dead forevermore.
Naturally, these people did not want to die, so their only choice was to kill Hawkins.
During the battle, Hawkins gradually understood the true purpose of the trial as well. The energy his wish required was simply too great. Although the Dream Realm possessed no self-awareness, it had a balancing mechanism. Like the physical laws of the original world, it was one kind of rule.
The more power he wanted to take away, the harder the trial he needed to undergo would become.
And his wish was simply too outrageous, practically a daytime dream. Thus, the difficulty was nearly infinite. He needed to keep killing the opponents that appeared until he was killed or there was no one left to kill.
Hawkins felt neither fatigue nor hunger. This was an excellent sign—it meant that as long as he did not die, he could keep fighting forever.
At the hundredth wave, a tall, straight-backed man emerged from the Black Sea.
Just as Hawkins was about to attack, the man hurriedly stopped him. "Wait. I don't want to fight you, and I don't think I'm your opponent either. I'm merely curious about one thing. What exactly was the wish you made? Do you know how many people are behind me?"
"How many?" Hawkins asked.
The man looked at Hawkins and answered, "Endless. There's no end in sight at all. So... what wish did you make?"
"A wish that isn't very realistic, but one I would give everything to fulfill if I had the chance." Hawkins thought for a moment, then smiled happily.
He was happy—happy from the bottom of his heart.
The harder the trial became, the happier he was, because that meant his wish truly had a chance of being fulfilled.
But then, the man opposite him smiled. "Unknown powerhouse, to be honest... I have no desire to fight someone like you. The person I've been waiting for isn't a powerhouse like you. Fortunately... you don't have much time left."
"Not much time?"
Hawkins froze, then noticed that his hands and feet were becoming transparent.
He immediately looked at the man and charged forward the next instant, but his fists and kicks passed straight through him.
The man smiled calmly. "You took too little Qi-Suppressing Stone powder, sir. Your time is up now. What a pity... this was your only chance to fulfill your wish, but you missed it."
"..."
Black Knife.
Mark waited quietly. He did not think Hawkins would fail.
After giving up on killing Hawkins, he had completely relaxed. Waiting was rather boring, so he took a book from Hawkins's bookshelf and read it carefully.
Several hours passed before he suddenly raised his head toward Hawkins. At that very moment, Hawkins opened his eyes.
For that instant, Mark felt as if time and space had frozen. A suffocating pressure rushed toward him. Hawkins felt like a dragon—no, even more terrifying than a dragon. Every cell in Mark's body trembled, and even the wolf soul behind him wailed.
But the feeling lasted less than a second before abruptly vanishing.
"The Dream Realm... truly is an interesting place."
Hawkins chuckled softly. The Eternal Sea Chart appeared out of thin air before him, with only a single tiny dot upon it.
What abilities the Eternal Sea Chart possessed remained unknown, but it had brought him a rather burdensome curse. His life force would continuously drain away; he would age faster than ordinary people, become hungrier, and tire more easily.
If an ordinary person could live to be a hundred, then he could only live to thirty.
However, this curse was not much of a problem for him. He could completely extend his lifespan by adjusting his genetic structure, or even transform directly into a silicon-based life-form and thereby achieve longevity.
The reason it was longevity rather than immortality was because the universe itself had a limited lifespan. It would eventually enter heat death; it was not that his own life would reach its end.
Thus, this curse was only a minor burden to him, not a major problem.
"It counts as a success... I suppose."
Hawkins nodded in acknowledgment. He truly had obtained Curse Power.
The feeling was strange, as though he had gained a second body. That power could flow according to his will.
Curse Power did not actually exist within the body. It was more like it "overlapped" with the body. Since "consciousness" or the "soul" existed within the body, Curse Power followed it like a shadow and fit the body perfectly.
If he had to put it into words, it was like how the Dream Realm and the Real World actually overlapped. In the past, he could only remain in the Real World, but now, through his "newborn" body, he could vaguely sense the existence of the Dream Realm.
He looked at Mark and smiled. "Since I've become a Curse Caster, tell me about the ranks of Curse Casters."
"Yes, Captain." Mark hurriedly nodded.
The ranks of Curse Casters were very clear. Once one mastered Curse Power, one became a First-Rank Curse Master.
A First-Rank Curse Master possessed one Natal Relic. This Natal Relic was extremely important. If a Curse Caster was killed, that relic would rise by one grade.
For example, if a Curse Caster's Natal Relic was a Fine-grade Relic, then if that Curse Caster was killed, the Fine-grade Relic he possessed would automatically advance to Dangerous Grade. Both its danger level and power would be greatly enhanced.
Thus, aside from existing in the form of Lineages, Curse Casters generally did not interact with other Curse Casters, mainly because they feared being killed for their treasures.
As for a Second-Rank Curse Master, their Curse Power doubled. A Third-Rank Curse Master gained a second Natal Relic, while a Fourth-Rank Curse Master saw their Curse Power increase tenfold.
As for the advancement requirements above the fifth rank, they were too far removed. Mark had not had time to learn about them before leaving his Lineage, so he did not know either.
After listening to Mark's explanation, Hawkins guessed, "The second Natal Relic—if I'm not mistaken—can be actively taken, right?"
Hawkins chuckled. "If one cannot choose for oneself, then there would be no need to take enormous risks to kill other Curse Casters. Since Curse Casters hunt one another, it isn't difficult to infer."
"Captain, roughly how much Curse Power do you have now?" Mark had recovered somewhat from his fear by then and could not help asking.
Hawkins frowned. "Can Curse Power actually be measured?"
"Of course. The method is actually very simple. Captain, try mobilizing the Curse Power in your body and extending it as far outside your body as possible. Extending one meter counts as one point of Curse Power, and so on. My Curse Power can extend one hundred meters, so I have 100 points of Curse Power," Mark quickly explained.
After hearing that, Hawkins raised his hand and tried to extend the Curse Power within him upward.
In an instant, a Red Thread visible only to him and Mark shot rapidly upward. Mark's eyes widened. He hurriedly got up and ran outside the cabin, raising his head to stare at the Red Thread piercing straight into the heavens.
"How is that possible? He clearly... clearly only just became a Curse Caster..."
Mark stood with his mouth wide open, staring in shock at the Red Thread in the sky, whose end could not be seen.
Within his Lineage, he had already been considered a minor genius. When he had first become a Curse Caster, he had possessed sixty points of Curse Power, meaning he could release the Curse Power within his body for sixty meters.
But before Hawkins, that was nothing but a joke.
One thousand meters? Ten thousand meters?
Mark could no longer calculate just how immense Hawkins's Curse Power was. In a collision of Curse Power between Curse Casters, Hawkins would likely fear no one.
By now, Mark had completely lost the confidence to become Hawkins's enemy. If he truly had to become Hawkins's enemy, he would rather kill himself.
Hawkins withdrew his Curse Power then. Curse Power was an extension of his consciousness, so even without leaving the cabin, he could clearly calculate the distance it had extended.
Three hundred and thirty thousand meters—three hundred and thirty thousand points of Curse Power.
From Mark's words, he could determine that his Curse Power was hundreds of thousands of times that of an ordinary Curse Caster. Yet such immense Curse Power also brought a problem: advancement would be difficult.
The advancement requirement for a Second-Rank Curse Master was to double one's Curse Power.
In other words, his Curse Power needed to reach at least six hundred and sixty thousand before he could advance.
The time required would likely be extremely long.