Chapter 26

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Morning light shone across the room and the chirping of the birds filled the air, Nathan was having a nice dream of sleeping among the clouds, but the sound of thunder was annoying him.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

"Nnnghhh…" Nathan was trying really hard not to wake up,

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

"WAKE UP NATE! WE'RE LATE!" Sophie's shout brought Nathan back from the land of dreams in an instant.

"Oh shit!" He scurried up and ran out of the room, only to find Sophie waiting for him, "Why didn't you go ahead?"

"Why would I do that? Aren't you my Prince now? If there is trouble, we go through it together!" Sophie didn't seem to regret her actions in the slightest.

'If there is trouble, we go through it together, huh…' Nathan was very happy to hear those words. Who wouldn't like it when someone is willing to go through thick and thin with them?

"Then let's go! Our punishment won't be light as is, let's not make it worse by being too late!" Nathan took Sophie's hand and started running, not minding it much. They were five year olds after all.

When they got to the training grounds, they saw a Grandpa standing in the middle with the most gentle smile imaginable. The moment Nathan and Sophie saw that, they shuddered in terror! Grandpa was super pissed!

"Hoho~ I see that your training yesterday was not hard enough for you to be this late… Don't worry! Don't worry! This old man is very considerate. From now on, you will continue this training on one leg!" Grandpa smiled amicably, totally planning on beating the living soul out of them.

Nathan and Sophie wanted to cry, but they had no tears! They could only comply with Grandpa's hellish training.

"Before we start Grandpa, I want to try healing Aunty Solina tomorrow morning. I may not have enough energy to train for the rest of the day if I do, sooo…" Nathan was afraid Grandpa would think he was trying to ditch training, but his worries were baseless.

"Not to worry, there are many ways to replenish your energy fast. I'll make sure you don't miss your training young Prince." Grandpa didn't show much surprise at Nathan's fast growth. The stronger he gets, the more burden he can carry in the future, and not get crushed by its weight.

Sophie suddenly jumped and hugged Nathan as hard as she could, "Nate! You're the best!" She kept giggling like a fool, happy that Nathan cared so much about her Mother's health, and also that her Mother would be cured! She didn't doubt for a moment that he would fail!

"Alright. Enough wasting time. Start your training!" Grandpa moved to rest under a shade. Training two kids didn't require much focus from him.

Nathan was the first to jump on the plank. As he was trying to find and maintain his balance, which he would normally get five seconds to do so, he abruptly felt the presence of incoming projectiles! He barely managed to dodge two, before he was simultaneously hit by six energy bullets!

"Ghah!" he was sent flying for 3 meters before he stopped, but thanks to his high Stamina and Toughness, he wasn't injured. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt however…

He whispered quietly to Sophie, "He is definitely holding a grudge!"

"Well! Let's just take this as a higher form of training then!" Sophie was not intimidated.

"Then let's do our best!" Nathan was all fired up and ready to try again

They wouldn't stop until they got to their previous record times they achieved yesterday!

…or so they thought…

Only a bit after noon, they were in so much pain and fatigue, that couldn't even move a muscle.

Grandpa walked over to them, and seeing that they could barely keep their eyes open, he nodded, "Good. That's enough for today. Take these and take the rest of the day off."

He gave each of them a round shaped pill, and continued, "These are Low-Level Stamina Replenishing Pills. Eat them."

Nathan and Sophie felt a rush of energy enter their bodies the moment they swallowed the pills, and the pain and fatigue slowly got relieved!

"Wow…" Nathan was in awe!

"Grandpa! Can we have more of these!? Please!~" Sophie took the chance and started acting spoiled for benefits.

Grandpa couldn't say no when she started to act spoiled, so he complied. He gave each of them 3 pills, "Use them sparingly. They will be very useful in your training." Grandpa turned to leave, now that the training was done.

"Wait a moment Grandpa! I want to practice my Curse Spells, but I don't know who I should use them on…" Nathan called out.

"Hmm… wait here for a few minutes, young Prince…" Grandpa vanished.

A few minutes later, he returned with a burly man, bound in chains and his head was covered entirely with a bag.

"This man is a criminal set to be executed. You may use him to practice as you like." 

As Grandpa left, Nathan prepared himself to start practicing. In The Path of Darkness, few things were forbidden, and each and every one of them were unforgivable sins. In their Path, the sinned have no rights.

Sophie didn't seem phased either, as she too was a member of The Path. She was educated about The Path of Darkness in the trials, and by The Herald himself too.

"I will try simple Curses and then try dispelling them. Hopefully, I will be ready to cure Aunty by tomorrow…" Nathan prepared to cast his first ever Curse on a living being.

"I'm certain Nate would succeed. I'll be here if you need me!~" Sophie cheered.

Nathan decided to start with the simplest Curse and work his way up,

'So, according the Spell, I have to imprint the Curse on his stomach, and the more food he eats, the stronger the curse would get, as the curse converts all the food into energy to strengthen itself. This would also cause the person to die from undernourishment… but if the person avoids eating anything, the curse will simply dissipate…'

Nathan raised his hand and pointed it at the unknown prisoner,

[Curse of Hunger!]

Grayish gaseous energy emerged from his palm. Nathan focused intensely and tried to shape the energy into the shape it should be. Unlike what he thought, the Curse Energy responded to his every thought with enthusiasm!

'Must be the effect of my affinity with Dark Energies…' Thought Nathan.

The energy reached it's final form as he desired, looking like a simple rune of about 5 centimeters of hight.

Nathan pointed the rune in the direction of the man, and the rune simply disappeared, and Nathan could feel its presence within the body of the prisoner.

"YES! Success on my first try!" Nathan celebrated. He conveniently chose to forget last night's attempt.

"Congratulations! So, what does it do? Tell me!" Sophie asked cheerfully.

"He will feel intense hunger and the more he eats, the stronger the Curse will get. Its weakness however, is very simple. Just don't eat anything and it will go away." Nathan explained in detail.

"So cool! Should we secretly try it on one of the guards?~" Sophie looked at Nathan mischievously!

"As fun as that sounds, I don't want to accidentally harm any of them, so let's stick with this guy." Nathan returned to his training.

"So the next step is to extract the Curse without harming him… as much as possible…" Nathan looked up the Spell in his memories,

'I'm supposed to gently peal off the curse, without causing any injury to the person while maintaining the stability of the Curse Energy, and slowly guide it to exit the body through his pores… sounds complicated!'

Nathan put held his hand a small distance from his stomach, and tried taking the Curse out gently…

[Nullify Curse]

This Spell was of utmost importance for any Curse Master to learn. It was the basic of the basics, and one of their main sources of income, as Aristocrats pay a hefty amount to these 'Curse Masters' to cast this Spell on anyone whom they think is cursed.

The Curse Energy was easily detached from the stomach, as it was his energy to begin with, and slowly started to exit his body and gather at tip of his fingers,

"BLURGG"

The man coughed up a mouthful of blood, as the bag covering his head turned crimson.

"Eh? Nate? What happened?" Sophie asked curiously, not concerned about the criminal at all.

"Ah! I accidentally hit a blood vessel! This is going to take a bit more getting used to…" Nathan maintained his focus on the rest of the process.

As time went by, bit by bit, more Curse Energy came out of the pores of the criminal, although he did cry out in pain a few times, as Nathan almost injured him again, but thankfully he managed to extract it all without another injury.

"Phew! That didn't tire me out as much as I thought it would! I can keep this up for a few more tries before I need to rest!" He naturally didn't want to use his pills so soon.

"Then I will practice with my sword while you train your Spells.~" Sophie didn't want to fall behind him either. Seeing him do cool things like this also encouraged her to try harder.

And so for the rest of the day, and part of night as well, they continued to train, while taking breaks when they got tired, until Grandpa had to drag them back to their rooms.

Nathan mentally prepared himself for the task ahead before going to sleep…

Healing Aunty Solina of her Curse!