Chapter 82
The plan isn't very complicated. I'll get more diseases in hopes that my soul will get so drained of mana that the curse circle won't be able to support itself. Of course, I am banking on Henbrick not thinking of this and adding some countermeasure. Though for good reason, getting a bunch of fatal diseases to drain my soul enough to weaken the curse would be incredibly stupid if not for the blessing I've got. If anyone else tried such a thing, they might weaken the curse, sure, but it would cause their death due to all the foreign organisms ravaging their body. But in my case, if the curse weakens, I'm about 70% confident that the blessing will turn on again, and the diseases will get suppressed.
My confidence in the blessing turning on comes from the fact that, after Henbrick turned that stupid circle on, the blessing turned off long after I lost my ability to sense my soul. It is clearly made to resist high levels of abuse, probably about right if the thing is actually given to me by the gods.
Well, that plan is for when my execution date comes too near. Until then, I can try safer methods, maybe not depending on some third-party-given powers.
Over the next two weeks, which last sixteen days in this dumb world, I try different methods and experiments. Unfortunately, they all fail to do anything. The curse really is good at its purpose. The mystery disease I have has sort of stayed the same, though more black spots are appearing throughout my skin, and the circle on my thigh has been stuck in a loop of getting scars and then having them fall off because of mana breaches. It's very annoying.
I sigh to myself; I really don't want to go through with the plan. Well, who would? This is a fantasy world with fantasy diseases. As far as I'm concerned, the disease I have now is light on the symptoms. Who knows what kind of bullcrap other illnesses might pull?
I shake my head and fortify myself. I lick one of the walls of my cell a couple of times, trying to do the bare minimum to get myself even more sick. I start doing that every day, licking and putting dirty stuff into my mouth. Damn it, what have I been reduced to!? I blame Ustos.
On the third day of my lovely routine, I am met with a surprise, good or bad I do not know. My gums start bleeding. Either what I have has gained a new symptom, or I have new guests in my body.
Yet it still is not enough. I need more. Another two days and another disease has incubated. Now I feel a rash on my back, extremely itchy, yet when I itch it, it just brings more pain. My mind has started to get very woozy of late. I can barely get up without losing my balance, and I find myself constantly starving.
More days pass by. Fortunately, my awareness is barely enough for me to get bored in my cell anymore. I gain a couple more diseases. It's kind of wild how lucky I got with this gift because I have no doubt that in the slums, I would have gotten far worse diseases.
Suddenly, after I don't know how long of me lying on the ground, catatonic, half-conscious and half not, I feel something in my chest, which I thought at first was another illness doing its thing.
Though after some time, of my slowed-down brain comprehending its situation, I realize that the feeling isn't coming from my actual chest.
I hurriedly attempt to scan my soul once more, but I can't through the mana breach in my spinal cord, so I'm forced to use the mana cipher. I sense something other than static. It's my mana core. I've never been so happy to see an orb. Suck it, Henbrick.
The blessing is on, which should suppress the horrific amounts of diseases I have chilling in my body.
Well, I doubt there is much my currently rattled mind can do to assist the blessing, and it's quite late. Well, my internal clock says it's late. There aren't any windows here to tell the time, and I think the illnesses have messed with my internal clock too. The only thing I can use to tell time is the guards giving me food.
My tired self, not minding the pesky details, I decide to slumber and let the blessing do its thing.
When I awake, I do actually feel a little better. The rash on my back feels less itchy, my head feels a bit less chaotic, my gums aren't bleeding anymore, and so on. I can sense my soul is a little less chaotic because the output from the curse has slowed down a little. Though crucially, the damn wizard made it so the mana breach on my spinal cord is always being targeted even whilst being underfilled. And another interesting thing I find is the magic circle on my thigh.