Curse Skills

The bottom of the pit kept rising up slowly to the upper part of the cave, and Morgana had managed to drink the antidote and the healing potion.

Now able to sit up, she raised her palm in the air. "Recovery," she chanted, making small trails of light appear around her for a quick moment, then vanishing.

It was a spell that didn't cost mana. Instead, it made the person recover it at a fast pace.

Drinking water also helped with mana regeneration, although it wasn't something that many could do in the middle of a battle, so she just sipped on it slowly now that the encounter was over.

With the platform reaching the top and connecting the two sides of the tunnel, the teenagers ran up to the trickster, who was switching her gear back to her primary set, which consisted of her black leather cloak and corset.

Angie hugged Morgana tightly, catching her off guard as she didn't expect such a warm reception while the others stood around with shy expressions.

They were jealous of Angie's courage since they felt like they were too timid to approach the trickster with such care, thinking that maybe she wouldn't like that.

Noticing the teenagers' bashful expressions, she approached the entire group and held them together with one embrace, sharing a smile with her younger siblings.

At the same time, the entire group heard the voice in their head notifying them of their level-up, making Morgana activate her appraisal skill to check the results. Her level had gone up from 102 to 107, and the teenagers leveled from 40 to 45.

Considering it was much harder for her to level up, she felt satisfied knowing that the battle had given her five whole levels.

As for the teenagers, even without participating in the fight, they also got a small amount of experience simply by being there with a member of their party. They gained much less than Morgana, but it was still enough to bump them five levels.

The trickster walked to the side of the arena where a chest had appeared and dumped its contents into her item box.

Between the items, she noticed a few purple skill books that she could give to the teenagers, but they wouldn't be able to read them at their level, so decided to save them for whenever they could.

Once they crossed the tunnel and left the cave, they found themselves next to another narrow mountain edge that they had to cross carefully.

After a few hours of crossing corroded stone bridges and narrow mountain edges, they managed to get to the bottom of the mountain next to an expansive field with a single dirt road.

Morgana took out her steed and cart from her item box, and once the party was being hauled to the city, they relaxed and ate sandwiches that their big sister shared.

While eating, the teenagers began inquiring about Morgana's skills she used against the boss, and since they had time, the trickster began explaining the battle more in-depth.

When Morgana leveled up as a mage to max-level, her sub-class evolved into "Curse Mage," which specialized in curses and some types of destruction magic.

"Curse skills" were abilities that were more powerful than normal skills. However, casting them always had a price.

For example, the time she saved the teenagers from the cultists and bound their movements with "Curse: shadow root," her legs were bound too, as that was the price to pay for casting such a curse.

In the case of the curse she used against Terrador, "Curse: Thunder Wrath." The price was to spend all of her mana in exchange for an extremely powerful ultimate attack.

Her strategy was to spend most of her mana before casting the curse. That way, she could weaken the boss enough to finish it with that last move and not run out of mana in the middle of the battle.

The teenagers were perplexed at Morgana's explanation of curses, as they had always thought that they were a form of black magic.

The trickster kept explaining that everyone knew what curses were and how they worked before the Red Calamity. They only became a taboo a few years after the calamity when Aelara's Church deemed them so, although they were manipulated into doing it.

"I see, so curses are just a form of more powerful abilities that have a side effect for the caster…" muttered Conrad to himself, loud enough for everyone on the cart to hear.

Morgana confirmed his statement as she reminisced back to the days when she first started learning curses in the game. Of course, if she had known that everything would turn out real, she would have probably chosen a different build.

After the Red Calamity, curses also became extremely more dangerous to use. For example, if a curse skill had the side effect of hurting both the target and the user, then it was scarier to cast it in reality as the pain had also become real, compared to when it was just a game.

"Thunder Wrath was so powerful, though… I wonder if we should learn curses too…" said Angie, who, as a mage, felt extremely compelled by the skills that her big sister used during the fight.

Morgana advised them not to learn curses as they were not needed and would only be a hindrance to them in the long run. The only reason she had a curse build was because, back then, she liked being the top damage dealer.

However, now that Aegis was real, damage numbers didn't exist, and all that mattered was to have skills that could save them from hairy situations.

Ray raised his voice. "What about the skills you used against the gnoll?" he asked with excitement as a warrior himself.

She explained that when she leveled up as a warrior to max-level, her sub-class was "Berserker," so most of her skills had to do with increasing her physical strength and using heavy weapons to cleave through waves of enemies.

Ray and Kaede's eyes sparkled as her big sister told them about the different sub-classes for warriors and what they could do.

None of the teenagers in the party had a sub-class yet, so they were excited to guess what they were going to get as they were randomly assigned once a person was high enough level.