An amazing transformation?

The curse's scream lasted a little longer, but Klaus ignored it. He was witnessing something amazing.

The dead body beneath him was turning, slowly, into a strange and grotesque form.

A few minutes later, the transformation stopped.

No legs formed, no hands either. But several spikes several centimeters long grew all over his body. These large-diameter spikes or needles had fire-red tips and gave off heat.

'What is this thing? Can human bodies transform into curses?' He grabbed his knife and pulled back quickly.

Then he noticed that that curse was dead.

He had managed to kill it just as its transformation began, so he found no problems.

But then he remembered that there was another body, so he quickly went to turn around, unsuccessful in his attempt because he soon felt that he had a scorching thing attached to his back and part of his chest and legs.

As he turned around, he noticed that it was a curse precisely like the one he had just killed, only this one had perfectly formed legs and arms. It was clinging tightly to him, and its grotesque, alien teeth dug into his shoulder.

"Agh..." He grunted in pain.

How hot he felt was from the strange spikes protruding from his body, which had managed to pierce his clothes a bit and were burning him.

"You bastard, that really hurts." Klaus grunted and jerked his knife backward, looking to plunge it into its head.

Still, like a cunning leech, it moved its head to the side, and the movement caused the fire spikes to grow from its body and dig more determinedly into Klaus' body.

Klaus winced in pain. Feeling his flesh being burned and pierced at the same time was not a sensation he liked. Still, it was nothing.

"Hehe, fine. Since you want to play burn, let's make you feel what it's like to be burned." Klaus grunted and took several steps forward as he tried unsuccessfully to shake the thing off of him.

Even though it had stuck the knife into it several times, this thing seemed to have an intense rage inside of it. It was as if it didn't care about the pain it felt; it was glued tightly to his back, with numerous holes in its body, but burning him continuously.

He couldn't tell how many degrees that was, but he was sure he had numerous holes in his back, too. If it weren't for his ability to move positive energy fairly quickly, he possibly would have bled to death.

He may have looked like a sieve on his back because of it.

Still, soon, Klaus lifted his left leg and placed it on a rock. "Come on, let me show you what it feels like to be burned." He put all his strength into his right leg and propelled himself forcefully backward at the same time as he did so with his left leg, jumping as if he wanted to fall backward.

Just below them was the other curse, already dead, but its strange spikes or needles were still burning like coals on a live fire.

The curse attached to Klaus didn't expect a move like that and didn't even understand why it was doing it. Klaus would die if it fell on a flat spot, so it did nothing, letting itself be carried away by gravity and falling resoundingly on the dead curse.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The curse's scream coincided with the moment when each spike of the other curse stabbed into its body, and Klaus seized the moment to plunge his knife into its head, managing to wriggle out of its grip by spinning a few times to the side.

The pain in his back was unbearable, but he ran to the place where the curse had been left, grabbed his knife, and plunged it further into the head, splitting it in half.

The screams of agony were terrible.

Klaus sighed heavily and endured the pain. Just then, several waves of cursed energy struck him again with ferocity.

"Ahh..." After a groan of pain, he immediately realized that he could not continue in such an open place like this. It was possible that people had seen him in the distance, so he had to leave.

Still, first, he had to check what thing these curses created from a human.

So he grabbed his knife and quickly cut it open in half.

But there was nothing.

'What?'

They didn't even have guts or organs inside. It was empty, and only a little smoke was emerging from inside them.

'It looks like something disintegrated or evaporated, but the beast I killed when I got here, it had guts and everything...' Confused, he thought that maybe they had moved a little bit of place because of the change in the body, so he cut into several more parts. Still, in the end, he found nothing.

The body inside was empty.

That got him thinking. Still, he knew he couldn't waste time. He searched those bodies, hoping to get a Cursed Core, but there was nothing. So he got up, grabbed his bag, and after a last thoughtful glance, started running toward the hill to look for a place to hide.

As he did so, his body was repeatedly hit by several waves of cursed energy. The System also told him that the Cursed Energy was too interested in him, so he could only endure it.

Because of these continuous hits of Cursed Energy, his wounds did not seem to heal, and this made sense. He couldn't use Cursed Energy, and to heal himself, according to what Jasmine had told him, he needed to cover the affected parts with Positive Energy.

In the end, he had to put several rags around his body while trying to keep the blood from coming out too much.

And after a long walk for an indeterminate amount of time, Klaus arrived near the Hill.

As soon as he arrived, he immediately noticed he was not alone. He could sense the people who were his nearby rivals, and the System told him so.

But he looked at the Hill and ignored where his rivals were.

'That's... Quite dangerous.' He even frowned.

There were many Curses over this great mountain, but that wasn't the most important thing. The important thing was at the top of this place.

'Such a powerful Curse... Even I can feel it from far away.'

Here, he remembered one of the things Jasmine had mentioned to him when they were eating the previous night before leaving.

Curses are not governed by the same system as Sorcerer, although they have a similar one. If the Sorcerer's system were called Path to Understanding, then the Curses' system would be called: Corruption of Understanding.

Still, for now, that is not important. What is important is that the system of Curses is divided into Phases. The First Phase is called the Birth Phase and starts when the Curse is born.

In this Phase, the Curse's abilities are not well developed. They are all over their body and can be seen with the naked eye, as they do not know how to control them. An example of that is the first curse that killed Klaus. Its ability was spread all over its body for the purpose of 'disgust'.

Yet, that is when they are just born. The more they learn and improve within their System, the more they learn to control them. This results in the Birth Phase being long and sometimes difficult for Sorcerers to understand.

Then comes the Second Phase, the Phase of Understanding. They have already understood enough of their cursed energy and ability to create a powerful aura that can be felt far away, which is only the first part of this Phase. This basically means that they can infuse their ability into the aura and expand it sideways; they can be felt at great distances, even by weak people.

Thinking about that and looking at the mountain, Klaus found similarities.

'A Second Phase Curse or maybe higher...' He thought.

From his little knowledge, he's not even close to the First Phase of the Sorcerer System. He has only just started on his journey as an Aspirant, and it's all thanks to Jasmine. So, he was confused about why they or the system would put such a strong beast in his first bath.

'The first bath is supposed to be the easiest, and the mission tends to be straightforward. On this occasion, from what Jasmine told me, the mission seems straightforward, but... With such a powerful beast, it gets complicated.'

Klaus smiled.

That wasn't a bad thing. He needed dangerous situations to feel alive in this strange world. Life-threatening situations helped him understand his new world and made life more enjoyable.

Although the danger lurking in front of him was deadly, and he possibly wouldn't even withstand a hit from that curse, giving up wasn't written in his books. So, after confirming that perhaps the Curse was one of the Calamity of Fear, he turned away.

He didn't want to talk to any of his rivals either; he needed to find a hidden place where the waves of cursed energy would be less aggressive so he could heal himself and check the loot he had stolen from the city.