Cursemancer

by A P Gore

  “Understood.” Noah focused on his spirit container again, but a thought lingered in the back of his mind. What if he’d gone with the blacksmith’s brute force method? Would it have worked?

  With more force, Noah pushed his spirit marble inside the tiny channel and pushed it forward. Every full rotation of the container required an immense amount of mental energy, but he didn’t give up. His daughter’s big blue eyes awaited him in the human kingdom, and the spirit wheel was his only way to reach her. When he was almost halfway, fatigue set in, and he slowed down.

  “Don’t give up now. I know you want to stop, but don’t.” Roderich’s motivating words echoed in his mind.

  Noah gathered all his will and pressed forward. He wasn’t going to give up so easily. When the container reached the end of his left-hand spirit channel, he opened his eyes. He was drenched in sweat, and his stamina had depleted by half.

  A slew of notifications covered his vision.

  Congratulations! With the practice and patience, you have demonstrated the will to tame the wild spirit living inside you. +1 Spirit Cycling. +1 Wisdom.

  Spirit Cycling: Enhance the spirit channels to smooth the flow of spirit through your body. Current level 1. Effect: 1% spell efficiency.

  He smiled with joy. “Wow, I gained a new spell.”

  “Good.” Roderich nodded and smiled his approval. “Do the same exercise for all other prime channels.”

  “Why would I require other channels?” Noah asked, confused. If he wasn't using any other channel, why would he need to clear and expand them?

  “There are multiple benefits. You’ll discover them yourself in the future. But one obvious one is the increase to your wisdom. You got that one, right?”

  Noah shook his head in dismay. Even the goddess left many things to the future. “Okay.”

  Noah sat on the ground, cross legged. He had learned this meditation technique in a yoga class, and it was quite useful for him in the real world to solve complex problems in his head. He would tame the spirit channels with the same method. With a deep breath, he started the grind. By the time he had finished his training, he’d added +6 to wisdom and +6 to spirit efficiency.

  “Now, you must have increased the size of your container?” Roderich asked.

  “Yes, it's the size of my fist now.” Noah smiled in victory. He’d had marvelous success from the exercise.

  “Now widen your prime spirit channels once more.”

  Noah repeated the whole exercise, and this time it was easier. But it didn't give him any boost or wisdom points.

  “Why didn't it boost my stats this time?” he asked, disappointed.

  “That's how the world works, human. It's periodic, and you have to show the goddess that you are putting effort toward it.” Roderich smiled back. “Now you are ready to try the spell.”

  “One moment. What is prime spirit channel? Are there more in my body?”

  “Yes, but that’s not something we’ll talk today.”

  Noah stood up and turned to the task with confidence. He would get it this time. The time to meet his daughter was drawing nearer.

  Noah extended his hand toward a tree and willed the spell to shoot. A green poison orb appeared in front of his palm and shot forward with lightning speed, putting a dent in the tree trunk. “Wow, I can cast a spell now!”

  “My work is done for today. Come and seek me once you have more information on the cave, and I might teach you a couple new techniques as well.”

  “That would be great,” Noah replied, bowing.

  He opened his character sheet when Roderich left the backyard.

  Name: Noah (Level 0)

  Class: Cursemancer

  Second Class: Zombiemancer

  Stats

  Strength 5

  Dexterity 5

  Constitution 5

  Intelligence 5

  Wisdom 16

  Chance 0

  Charisma 2

  Health 205/205

  Stamina 100/100 (5.25/sec)

  Mana 50/50 (5.25/sec)

  Spirit 160/160 (7.56/sec)

  Skills

  Poison Orb (Level 1): Damage: 5.8. Spirit Cost: 5. Progression: 10%

  Curse of Creation (Physical, level 1): Create a curse that mimics a re-animated physical attack on the target. Damage Penalty: 85%. Reduce 1% damage penalty with each level. Requirement: One Crystal. Crystal rank determines the type of attack captured. Progression: 0%

  Spirit Cycling (Level 6): Enhance the spirit channels to smooth the flow of spirit through your body. Effect: 6% spell efficiency. Progression: 0%

  There was a toggle switch next to the poison orb damage number. Clicking on it expanded it into a formula which was: current damage = base damage + base damage * spirit spell modifiers. He tried to look for what the spirit spell modifier was, but there was no information regarding that. Finally, he gave up and went back to his cellar, happy with his progress for the day.

  12. Critical Strike

  N oah opened his eyes with a smile that would have seduced even the Goddess Sumara to undo her nasty curse on the town. Unfortunately, she wasn’t watching him that morning. Too bad for her. Noah was as happy as he was when he’d reached the first critical step of his research in the real world. Today he would unleash hell on snakes, rabbits, and even orcs if they dared to cross the daredevil’s path. His path.

  Noah flashed a victorious smile at Mathial when he crossed the blacksmith’s path on his way out of the inn.

  “Are you up for some dagger training, human?” Mathial flashed him a salesman’s smile.

  Noah wondered what he should do. The blacksmith had tried to fool him by teaching him a crude method of yanking a spirit spell out of his body. It would have been very inefficient for him. Though Mathial got him for one gold and two copper, he still thanked God for sending Roderich at the right time. It was safe to assume that dagger training would be another means to fleece him for more gold.

  “I think I’ll pass,” Noah answered.

  Mathial raised a single brow. “Are you sure? The cost will increase the next time you come begging for it.”

  “I’ve got to get going. I have a few targets to kill off today.” Noah’s words ran together. His whole body thrummed with eagerness to try his spell on some damn animal and see the effect. Mathial was holding him back.

  “Just don’t get killed because you don’t know the proper techniques of a killing machine. And if you come back begging for the technique, it will cost you one extra gold now!” Mathial massaged his mustache.

  Noah turned to go and shook his head over the smith’s efforts to get more gold out of him. But who cared? He had snakes to kill and fishes to fry.

  The first snake that dared to sneak up on him died in four poison orb hits. It made little sense; his poison orb did 5.8 damage, so it should have taken 5 hits to kill the damn snake, considering it had 25 life. The next snake died in four hits too, confusing him further. Was the game bugged? No, it couldn’t be. He knew Laxania had worked on this game for decades, and per the inter-company announcements it was a major success. He had even gone to the celebration party with his wife. She was still alive back then. If only she’d been alive when he stupidly fried his own brain, Tia wouldn't have to live parentless for twenty years. He shrugged and accessed his battle logs. There was nothing else he could do about his actions now.

  You hit grass snake for 5.8 damage.

  You hit grass snake for 5.8 damage.

  You hit grass snake’s head for 11.6 damage (critical hit).

  You hit grass snake for 5.8 damage.

  That was good. He wasn't aware of critical hits until then. Heck, he didn’t even know something like that existed in the game But seeing the logs made him think about his future battle strategy.

  Critical hit must be an important component in the game.

  And he was getting one every four hits. He felt like a gold digger—a gold digger who’d found a stash of gold on his first try.

&nbs
p; When he encountered another grass snake, he shot four poison orbs at it and moved on. That was a damn mistake. He realized it when the snake wrapped around his leg and bit him, causing a spike of pain and a loss of 5 health points. The snake had even enlarged in size. He tried targeting the snake with a poison orb but failed because of the excruciating pain.

  What the heck is happening? Why can’t I shoot the damn snake?

  He kept trying until the snake took out 20% of his health with a few more attacks. Then Noah ignored his spell and pulled out his dagger, which nearly slipped out of his hand with each attack.

  Damn! I should have taken Mathial’s training. It’s like hitting a lion with a stick.

  After dozens of hits and losing forty percent of his life, the snake died. Noah dropped on his butt, exhausted and teary-eyed. His stamina had dropped to 10% of his normal value, and he was panting like he had run a marathon.

  First, he looked around, making sure no other snakes were in a five-meter radius. Then he took a relaxed breath as his stamina recovered.

  Stamina, I must do something about it.

  When his stamina was a bit up, he trudged his way back to the town's gate. When he was sure he wasn’t in danger of being attacked again, he sat on a stone and opened his battle logs.

  You hit grass snake for 5.8 damage.

  You hit grass snake for 5.8 damage.

  You hit grass snake for 5.8 damage.

  You hit grass snake for 5.8 damage. Grass snake stunned for 2 seconds.

  “What?”

  Grass snake enraged. Damage bonus: +4. Defense bonus: +50%

  “What?!” It was all his fault. But why had he failed to score a critical hit? Stupid game!

  What did I do differently this time?

  He went through the previous logs and new logs again and again, but nothing was different. Everything was the same. He was about to close the log when he spotted the difference. He had hit the snake on its head before.

  “Does that mean I need to hit the snake on its head to score a critical hit?”

  He got an answer soon, when a demon’s tail pierced through the back of his head. He saw a sharp black tail coming out of his throat before dying.

  Noah was lying in the respawn room when he woke up. His first reaction was to trace over his throat, checking if everything was fine. It was, but the savage pain of the demon tail’s assault still lingered there. With watery eyes, he got up and changed into new clothes. Death was real in the game. He didn’t stay dead, but he lived to experience the pain again and again.

  13. Skill Book

  D ark and grimy. That was Noah’s impression of the temple when he walked out of the respawn room. It matched his own foul mood.

  The demon had hit him for 240 damage, scoring a critical hit. In many ways, the game was too realistic. Hitting a critical point gave the attacker a critical hit. It was a good strategy to keep in mind, but a bad thing when happened to you.

  Noah shuddered when he spotted the blue pants demon standing at the temple gate. But the demon didn’t even look at him, which was good. Noah wasn’t ready for another death. Not today, not ever.

  Noah walked straight to the blacksmith’s inn. Mathial was working in his smithy, bending something that looked like metal armor.

  “Hey, good to see you sought out the tailor yourself.” Mathial gave him an appreciative nod.

  “I want to train in daggers. Can you teach me that, please?” He needed something to kill the animals with besides spells. He hadn’t been able to hit that snake for any damage once it became resistant to his spell. If that meant he needed to spend two gold, then so be it.

  Mathial kept hitting the metal plate, ignoring him. The only reaction Noah got was a couple of creases on the blacksmith’s forehead.

  “Mathial.” Noah sat on an iron ingot, feeling the coldness and smoothness of the metal with his palm. He wondered how the metal was prepared in the game world.

  “Two gold,” Mathial growled under his breath. His hand moved like an automatic machine, repeatedly hitting the plate. Noah watched as the plate started taking shape under Mathial’s hammer.

  “If you include armor like that, then yes, we can settle for two gold. Armor plus training.”

  Mathial stopped hammering and laughed. “Fock the goblins! Are you crazy, human? Come here and try to wear this.” Mathial pulled a chest plate from one of the walls.

  Noah stepped forward, taking the armor from Mathial's hand. It was weighty, and when he tried to pull it over his shirt, he staggered and fell to the ground. A nasty red and black notification appeared at the corner of his vision.

  Debuff applied: -5 strength until the armor is removed from your body. If you are foolish enough to wear 50-strength requirement armor, then you’d better die with it.

  Stupid game! He wanted to shout, but he couldn’t even speak a word. He was technically at 0 strength, and that was taking a toll on every function of his body. Thank God, Mathial came forward. Laughing hard, he lifted the armor from Noah's body.

  Noah’s strength returned, but his stamina took longer to recover.

  Mathial paused for a moment. “I hope you learned your lesson, mage.”

  Noah nodded while trying to catch his breath. What else he could do? He’d learned his lesson, and he would never try that again.

  “This armor ain’t useful to you, mage. You need to be a barbarian or a dark paladin to wear it. You lack strength, and you can’t even wave your dagger properly. Fock the goblins!”

  “Is there anything I can wear? So I won’t get killed by a random goon demon?” The memory of the pain still gave him shivers.

  Mathial hung the armor back in its place and lifted his hammer again. “You can wear padded leather armor. But I’m not a leather worker. And you are not yet level 3, either. If you get me two pieces of leather armor, I’ll patch it up with some metal to give it a nice boost.”

  Quest alert: Mathial needs leather pieces. Bring him one, and he will patch it with metal and make armor for you. Reward: Enhanced leather armor. Award: Experience: 200. Silver: 20. Accept? Yes/No.

  Noah accepted it like he’d been offered a chance to meet the emperor in the real world, which of course never happened for a commoner like him. Of course, he wasn't a commoner, he was a respected scientist, but still… The emperor never met a scientist. That would have changed if he hadn't fried his own brain, if he’d completed the groundbreaking tech. Then he might have had a chance to meet the mage emperor.

  Another lost opportunity.

  Mathial put down his hammer on a stone bench. “Let’s get to some training. I can’t teach you to be a rouge, you don’t seem to be of that type, but I can teach you some basic skills that anyone can learn. Even glass canon mages like you.” He smirked.

  “Anything would be a huge improvement over my current skill levels.” It was a shame that he couldn’t even kill a snake with 5 remaining life without getting heart.

  “Let me teach you to hold a dagger first.”

  Mathial asked for his dagger, then demonstrated various movements Noah could perform with the dagger. One was a straight hit, where he would have to hit the opponent with his dagger, as he had tried with the snake but failed to connect almost every time. When Noah tried to do it on nearby tree, he failed again and again. When his forehead was drenched in sweat, he decided to ask.

  “Why isn’t it connecting?”

  “What are your strength and dexterity levels?”

  “Five each.”

  Mathial facepalmed. “Fock the goblins! I was teaching a fool to wield a weapon.”

  “Come on man, for God’s sake, give me a proper answer once.” Rage boiled inside Noah’s throat. He was done with the petty jokes and all. If only Mathial would give him a proper answer, he would understand many things.

  Mathial’s face hardened. “You lack both strength and dexterity. Those stats are required to hold a weapon properly and learn new techniques.” His voice was too formal. Maybe Noah had made a mistak
e by shouting at him. Mathial could throw him out any time.

  “Sorry for yelling, man. Can you tell me how I can increase those stats?”

  “Level up.”

  It was frustrating now. Everything went back to leveling up, and he was still at level 0. When he’d checked his experience last night, he only had 40 for killing 4 snakes. At this rate, he wouldn’t get even to level one by the end of the month. And without leveling up, he wouldn’t get any stat points. Reaching the human town was getting far from reality.

  Damn! This game is hard.

  “Fock the goblins! I know one easy trick. Do push-ups. At low levels, you will gain some strength.”

  “Like this?” Noah dropped to the ground and pushed himself up and down. But after ten push-ups, his stamina was down to half. After the next ten, he dropped on his face, unable to move. The sweaty smell of the smithy floor annoyed him, on top of his frustration about the salty sweat dripping in his eyes.

  “That’s your stamina,” Mathial said. “I bet it’s lacking too. Is there anything you are good at, human?”

  “It…” Noah paused to take a breath. “Makes little sense. I could walk for half an hour, easily, but when I'm swinging a dagger or doing push-ups, my stamina drains like water in the desert.”

  “Try running. It’ll drain you like a leech sucking your blood, just a hundred times faster.” Mathial tried another poor joke and laughed hard.

  “So, the game categorizes the activities and uses stamina accordingly?” It made sense that way. His stamina was back up to fifty percent, so he started doing push-ups again.

  “What game?” Mathial asked, confused.

  “Nevermind.” Noah continued doing the push-ups, rest, push-ups cycle for almost an hour until he received a new notification.

  Congratulations: Due to your persistent effort with physical training, you have been awarded +1 strength.

  Noah beamed and continued the cycle for another couple of hours. With +1 to strength, now he could do twelve push-ups in a row. After he finished three more hours of training, he received the next notification of +1 strength, bringing his strength to total 7.