The spreading radius of the Dark Wave exceeded Minori's expectations.
He arched an eyebrow, and then — grinned.
Tread.
With a sharp stomp, Minori's figure vanished.
He reappeared in the next instant, right before a petrified lizard mid-charge toward the summoned Fire Archangel.
With a clean arc of his arm, the iron sword sliced horizontally toward the creature's neck.
Sshhlick—!
A burst of foul-smelling, thick black-red blood sprayed from the wound as the creature's grotesque head was severed.
Thud!
As the petrification broke, the headless body twitched once, then collapsed lifelessly to the swamp floor.
Experience Gained: 723[EXP Slot: 10,355 / 10,000]
—
Minori blinked in mild surprise.
"Only 723 experience? Is that low… or is the curse interfering somehow?"
He didn't linger on the thought. Twisting his foot, he launched himself toward the next immobilized basilisk.
Crack!
His iron sword snapped upon contact with its scales.
Minori didn't hesitate. A new iron sword manifested in his hand from his inventory as he continued his momentum and brought it down.
Experience Gained: 539
Again, he moved — another kill.
Whoosh—
Each shattered iron sword marked a dead petrified lizard. He moved like a phantom, weaving between them as his two Fire Archangels floated behind him, illuminating the cursed mist with golden light.
The effects of Dark Wave rendered the creatures motionless — gripped by both Fear and Curse of Weakness — unable to resist as he carved through them.
Without resistance-type traits or magical blessings, they were little more than statues awaiting execution.
—
As the slaughter continued, Minori began to feel it again:
That creeping, pulsing sensation within his soul — the stirrings of cursed power.
It was more potent this time.
These creatures — petrified lizards mutated by the swamp — carried a far stronger concentration of curse energy than anything he had previously encountered.
But…
Even though he could absorb it, the actual intensity of the cursed power inside him didn't seem to grow.
It was as though something in his body was processing or suppressing it.
Still—
More than a dozen kills later:
Crack.He casually tossed aside the broken hilt of yet another blade.
[EXP Slot: 16,789 / 10,000]
Another upgrade ready.
Minori exhaled.
"A good harvest," he muttered.
He turned back to the collapsed figure of the forest gnome, Duogan, lying unconscious in the wet moss. Half the man's skin had turned blackened and necrotic, corroded by lingering curse energy.
Minori frowned.
This was beyond standard poison or infection. It was deeply magical, and likely rooted in whatever entity was behind this swamp's corruption.
He had no way to reverse it.
Not yet.
Without a word, Minori hoisted the unconscious gnome over his shoulder, then gestured.
The two Fire Archangels took formation — one ahead, one behind.
—
Time passed.
Monsters with rotting bodies ambushed them sporadically from the darkness, but they were no threat. Each one fell swiftly, incinerated or decapitated.
[EXP Slot: 17,520 / 10,000]
Minori's thoughts remained fixed on one thing:
The cursed power in these monsters was weak, yet strangely nourishing to his curse affinity.
It was like his soul was being fed, but not yet changed.
But as he continued forward—
The swamp's landscape began to change.
The rotten monsters vanished, replaced by silence and bones. White, cracked skeletons littered the narrow path.
And then—
After another twenty minutes of silent walking—
A towering mountain wall suddenly rose before them, sealing the path entirely.
"…A dead end?"
Minori approached the sheer rock face, raised his fist, and struck it.
Thud.
Solid.
Too solid.
Frowning, he had his Fire Archangels scatter and begin sweeping the surrounding area like magical searchlights.
Even with a night-vision item equipped over his left eye, it wasn't enough to spot subtle shifts in stone texture.
Eventually—
Roughly ten meters above, one Archangel found a hidden crack between the cliffside and a jutting rock shelf.
Minori rose upward, carried gently by his summoned servant.
Sure enough, he saw it: a monster-dug tunnel, just wide enough for a basilisk to pass through.
"The cursed energy's stronger here," Minori noted, stepping toward the entrance. "This might be it…"
He signaled the other Archangel to enter first.
Nothing emerged from the dark.
Moments later, Minori entered.
The cave walls were covered with gouges — old claw marks, dried blood, and debris.
They descended in a spiral.
Eventually, light from the Archangel ahead revealed the end of the path.
—
A natural rift between two mountain plates — a sealed, narrow underground space.
The cursed power here was thick enough to feel like fog.
Minori landed with a thump, causing echoes to ripple through the chamber.
He immediately looked forward—and froze.
—
A human skeleton, slumped against the far stone wall.Its bones were pale grey, desiccated from age and magic.
No rotting flesh, no foul stench — only silence.
But in front of it—
A massive black scale, over one meter tall, sat like a stone monument.
Dark, visible wisps of curse energy curled from its surface like smoke.
Minori's pupils narrowed.
"…What is this?" he whispered, stepping forward slowly.
A scale?
A dragon? A creature from the Deep Abyss?
Nothing he'd imagined matched what he saw now.
He extended a hand, invoking magic.
"Item Appraisal."
But the result:
Item: Mysterious ScaleGrade: ???Description: ???
Minori frowned.
It was his first time encountering something completely unreadable.
That alone made it extremely dangerous.
The cursed power in his body began to stir restlessly, responding to the scale — like a beast waking from slumber.
He reached out—
And touched it.
Boom—!
In that instant, the trickling curse energy became a torrent.The power within the scale surged violently into his body.
Like water breaching a dam.
—
In moments, it happened:
[Cursed Knight: Lv1 → Lv2]
Minori's eyes widened.
A system notification? Career rank-up?
But the flood hadn't stopped.
The scale continued to discharge power, and the ambient cursed mist was pulled inward — toward him.
He gritted his teeth, heart racing.
His soul was being rewritten again.
[Cursed Knight: Lv2 → Lv3]
At last, the flow stopped.
The once-black scale had turned grayish-white, its surface now veined with cracks.
The power inside had been spent.
Minori stood still, breathing heavily.
"…I leveled up my class?" he whispered.
He checked his character panel.
The [Cursed Knight] profession had jumped from Level 1 to Level 3 — without using experience points or training.
A third way to level up.
"…By absorbing profession-aligned energy?" Minori muttered, still dazed.
But that logic wouldn't work universally.
The Sword Master class, for instance, had no such external 'source' to feed on.
This was something special.
Something rare.