Curse Arts: Tier Two
10:55 p. m.
In the bedroom, Molly sat at her desk.
"Call..."
She closed the book of Curse Arts, took a deep breath, and gently rubbed her throbbing temples with her fingertips.
After more than four hours of immersive reading, her eyes were sore, but the gains she made filled her with joy.
With a thought, the Proficiency Panel appeared in my mind.
[Curse Arts: Tier 1 6940/10000]
"I'm just over 3,000 more points of proficiency needed to break through to the second tier of Curse Arts."
Molly stretched and loosened her stiff neck.
I have already clearly sorted out the relevant knowledge about Curse Arts in my mind.
"So there are so many intricacies to Curse Arts; the costs of casting different Curse Arts vary drastically."
"Some require burning one's lifespan, exchanging one's lifespan for power, often for ten or twenty years, which is extremely vicious."
"Some spells require the use of vital essence and blood as a catalyst; the more vigorous the vital essence and blood, the stronger the Curse Arts's effect."
"Others are relatively mild, requiring only items containing a trace of magic, such as cinnabar and yellow paper, to be inscribed into a talisman for use."
"Of course, there are also insidious and vicious Curse Arts, specifically used to curse and kill others, which are impossible to guard against."
The Calamitous Child Curse in Xiao Zhuotao belongs to this category.
Molly leaned back in her chair, her fingers tapping lightly on the table as she carefully considered how to break the curse.
The book clearly states that there are only three ways to break this vicious curse.
The first option is to hire a powerful Curse Arts, stronger than the caster, to forcibly break the curse. But such masters are extremely rare; where can one find one?
Secondly, Divination Dao a fortune teller. Whether it's the I Ching, Eight Trigrams, or Tarot, they can use their luck to ward off the curse and buy time for the cursed person.
The mysterious woman from the Tarot Society that Xiao Zhuotao encountered before followed this path, which extended her life by six months.
As for the third path, it's simple and brutal, yet also the most effective and thorough—kill the caster!
Once the caster dies, the original power of the Curse Arts is severed, and the curse naturally breaks down.
Molly's gaze gradually hardened:
"Killing that cultist is the fastest and best way to break the Calamitous Child Curse."
"Of course, there's another option: I can level up my Curse Arts skills to a higher level and personally break the spell."
"However, my current level of Curse Arts is only at the beginner level."
"With first-tier strength, one can't even touch the edge of the Calamitous Child Curse. One needs at least second-tier, or even third-tier, strength to be qualified to attempt to break the curse."
"The task is arduous and the road ahead is long."
Molly muttered something to herself and looked up at the wall clock.
The clock has quietly slipped towards eleven o'clock.
I need to go replenish my sister's mana.
Molly got up, jumped out of the window, and left the bedroom.
After replenishing her mana, seeing her sister's complexion return to normal and the weariness in her eyes fade away, Molly finally turned and went back to her room with peace of mind.
Back in her bedroom, Molly went straight to her desk.
I pulled a stack of A4 paper from the drawer and found a thin needle tip.
She decided to try drawing a spell.
Of the basic Curse Arts recorded in the book, the [Great Strength Spell] is the most suitable for beginners.
The effect is to increase the user's strength by 30% in a short period of time. It is simple and practical, and it does not consume much of the user's essence and blood.
As for the even more powerful [Vajra Strength Spell], which can make a person invulnerable to swords and spears and possess immense strength, unfortunately, the book only provides the name and does not describe the specific method, so we can only leave it at that for now.
Molly picked up the needle tip and, as was her habit, first raised her middle finger.
With the needle tip pointing at her fingertip, she suddenly realized that the posture looked incredibly awkward—it resembled an international friendly gesture, and it was directed at herself.
"Tsk... This isn't a good habit. I should watch less of it in the future. I can't be so decadent. After all, magical girls are supposed to be pure."
Molly curled her lip in disgust, took out her phone, deleted a cartoon avatar app, and finally sighed:
Goodbye, 350234.
Switching to the index finger, the needle pierced the fingertip, and then the Warrior's Breathing Technique was activated, a warm current instantly flowing throughout the body.
As his blood and qi surged, the essence of his fingertips was slowly forced out, condensing into a bright red blood bead.
Molly held her breath, her wrists slightly steadied, and with the essence of her fingertips, she carefully traced the runes of the Great Strength Spell on an A4 sheet of paper.
The runes are not complicated, but the lines must be continuous and drawn in one go, without any mistakes.
"Swish, swish, swish!"
My fingertip traced a dark red mark across the paper.
Unfortunately, halfway through the first attempt, my hand trembled, the lines went crooked, and the entire rune instantly became a mess.
"It failed."
Molly frowned, crumpled the paper into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.
"Again."
She took a deep breath, picked up a new sheet of paper, forced out her essence again, and focused intently on sketching.
This time, she was extra careful. Just as the rune was about to take shape, at the very last stroke, the blood essence failed to keep up, and the line broke.
"Almost."
Molly bit her lip, but did not give up.
The third time, Molly adjusted her breathing, activating the Warrior's Breathing Technique to its fullest extent. The essence blood at her fingertips flowed continuously, as smoothly as red ink mixed with black ink.
Her wrists flew, her fingertips danced across the paper, each stroke precise and accurate.
Before long, a Great Strength Spell rune with clear lines and a faint hint of bloodlust appeared completely on the paper.
[Great Strength Spell Tier 1: 1/10000]
It's done!
Molly's eyes lit up, and she eagerly pressed her fingertip to the center of the rune, attempting to activate it.
"Buzz!"
The dark red runes suddenly lit up, then transformed into a beam of red light and disappeared into Molly's palm.
A surge of heat instantly coursed from his palms throughout his body, causing the muscles in his arms to bulge slightly.
Molly clenched her fists, feeling a surge of power coursing through her body!
Molly raised her eyebrows in surprise:
"Wow, that's really effective!"
"With this, my close-combat skills will improve significantly!"
"If Jesus had menstruation, then it should be the Bible; using it to draw spells might make them incredibly powerful."
That night, Molly was completely immersed in the joy of drawing spells and practicing swordsmanship.
When I get tired of drawing, I'll practice Curse Arts for a while; when I get tired of swordsmanship, I'll study incantations and runes.
The pile of crumpled paper on the table grew higher and higher. The wound on her fingertip healed only to be pricked again. Fortunately, she had the Warrior's Breathing Technique to restore her blood flow, otherwise she would have become anemic.
The night outside the window gradually faded, and the east began to lighten with the first hint of dawn. Day had broken.
Molly stopped swinging her sword, sheathed it, and stood still. Her forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, but she showed no signs of fatigue; on the contrary, she was full of energy.
"Call..."
She exhaled a breath of stale air and summoned the Proficiency Panel again.
[Fifth-Tier Basic Swordsmanship: 2319/10000]
[Second-Tier Curse Arts: 1419/10000]
[Great Strength Spell Tier 1: 3210/10000]
[Mining Tier One: 328/10000]
Looking at the numbers on the panel, Molly smiled with satisfaction.
In just one night, his Curse Arts broke through to the second level, and his swordsmanship proficiency also increased significantly. This efficiency was simply heaven-defying.
She walked to the table, picked up her phone, unlocked the screen, and sent a message to Luoxi:
[Is there any news about that cultist?]
Not long after, Luoxi replied with a message:
[No, not at the moment. Why are you asking this all of a sudden?]
Molly's fingers flew as she typed:
One way to Calamitous Child Curse is to kill the caster. Once the cultist is killed, Xiao Zhuotao's curse will automatically be lifted.
Luoxi was silent for a few seconds, then replied:
[Understood, wait for my message]
Three hours later, Luoxi sent a message with her location attached.
[Luoxi: Found it, XX Co., Ltd.]
Molly's pupils contracted as she looked at the company name.
XX Co., Ltd.?
Isn't this the company from that bizarre job fair she encountered a couple of days ago?
That company that requires a PhD and the ability to sing, dance, rap, and play basketball even for its doorman!
Is the world really that small?