mentor

After leaving town we managed to get far enough in the woods where no one can hear us talk. I start off by explaining to her how curses work essentially speaking, what little I can grasp from the bits and pieces of information that seem to be floating around in my head curses are based on two parts. Give and take in exchange for something you give something else. Unlike magic. Where in exchange for a preset amount of mana you get a preset amount of power curses don't have such a restriction. You could get a whole bunch of power in exchange for either an arm, a leg, your sanity, or your entire fortune. It all folds down to whatever set within the contract. Of course, cursed items have preset contracts that cannot be overwritten easily. So the plan is I will set two contracts for you. The first is whenever you experience pain via a curse you will heal and then the second one is whenever a curse activates you will receive pain instead of the agreed upon payment with these two contracts in effect, not only will you be able to wield unimaginable power, but you will also grow stronger from it. That's at least what I told her. Of course she started asking questions about why it had to be pain. My understanding of it is that whenever humans experience damage, generally speaking in the muscle area, whenever that heals up, it gets stronger which allows them to pull out more of their potential. If we keep repeating the healing and herding process, eventually she'll become strong enough. Of course they are plenty of downsides for one using curses will drop your level very fast and the more negative you're level, the more powerful the curse becomes, but also the more likely the church will reject you and pursue you in any attempt to put you back on the right path. Of course she seemed to already be aware of that stuff, but after finally hammering down the details of this curse I managed to get her to agree to them. And of course we are now wandering the forest looking for any and all potential enemies to test out. The powers of these curse on the Forest seems rather different than the area where I woke up In before the trees are a lot denser it's not as much sunlight this can't be the same Forest so after wandering around for a bit we finally spotted some goblins in the area which is just what I was expecting during my time stuck at the barrel. I heard a few villagers talking about how there are goblins in the forest and how they quest for adventures as well as requesting a mercenary to take care of it. Wonder what the difference is. Anyways, it looks like the goblins have someone surrounded hr up ahead. I told her she of course responded with a yeah. Yeah I see them and then tried to lift me up but it appears that she's still lacking in strength. She's barely holding my blade above the ground. I can feel it's vibrating from the amount of shaking she's doing on the hilt. This can't be good. Push a little bit harder she might reconsider fighting these guys. If she dies that's it for me. Activate the curse already. She said cutting off my train of thought. Okay yes I got no choice. It was nice having someone to talk to even though she barely listened to me as I threw my tantrum. I imagined that box appearing again showing my list of abilities if memory conserves I have a curse that I can use on a Target. Let's see power extraction convert. Mona into cursed energy that permanently strengthens bodies muscles. But exerts muscle tissue sounds about right. All right. Here we go. I shouted in her head without a moment's delay. Her body is coated in a black mist like substance that seeps into her skin. Then her hair becomes black, messy and wild and her eyes turn red and then she starts screaming at the top of her lungs which startles me. She runs at a fast pace. Swinging me around like a lunatic. The first swing of my blade arcs over splitting the goblin's head down the middle. Its blood starts to spray all over her and on my blade. Very strange. Sensation starts to influence me. What is this? This sensation it's like ew I guess the best thing to describe this would be taste. I don't like this taste. It's all musty and gamey. It has no redeeming qualities. Oh dear God don't tell me whenever she kills something it feeds me. I try to call out to her to stop her from making another attack. Hey wait, I don't think I like how this is going. We might need to reconsider. Let's retreat but before I could convince her she had already swung the blade again cutting off another goblin's head filling out more blood and coding her clothes even more making it grimy as heck and another wave of that gross taste overcomes me. If I had a mouth I would puke it up which makes it all the more torture. I try to call out to her begging her to please stop but she sees five more goblins out in the distance and starts running at them. I keep screaming no please no more. This tastes so disgusting but she cuts another one down vertically and another disgust didn't serving. Fills me up. What's the point of being able to communicate? If they can't understand me I cry out at the top of my lungs? She just keeps going one more and another one and another one without fail. She cooled all the goblins in the area. At that point her red eyes begin to fade and her black hair turns back blonde. My body hurts like heck that cursed stuff really does a number on you she said to me in an exhausted town, I'd love to empathize with her, but All I could do is feel contempt at the horrible experience she put me through God. I wish we are done killing goblins that taste really irks me as I whine about what she did. She starts to notice that the pain overtaking her body doubles down. Zane vanishes in one go proving that the contract is in effect and works. She tries lifting me up without the use of the curse and while she is able to hold me off the ground without two hands, I still weigh more than a lot. She sticks me back into the sheath she bought at the store and turns around spotting a muscular and middle-aged man who seems dumbfounded at the onslaught she had just performed who is he and how long has he been here? She asks me I try to recall the event leading up to her rampage and I think I vaguely remember an old man being surrounded but looking at his whole outfit I get the feeling you wasn't in danger considering he has a broad sword which is bigger than me and leather armor. Also a cape of black cape that's really dirty. It has burn marks over All over it. Proof of his experience. I guess Lisa calls out to the man noticing the things that I pointed out to her. Sorry, didn't mean to steal your kills. You're welcome to take credit for it. I just needed to test some things out as she begins walking away. The man snaps out of it and calls out to her. Hey wait little lady that sword on your back. It wouldn't happen to be cursed would it? Lisa stops looks at me clearly. Wondering if she should tell him I'm a mimic agreeing that I'm a cursed sword and that she needs in order to take care of a lifelong mission of hers, which isn't exactly not true minus the cursed sword thing, but I don't need him trying to destroy me or sell me away for some quick cash telling him what I told her his face gets a bit grim. Then he goes on a tangent about how cursed swords are dangerous and how they seduce people with power leading them to either lose their humanity or just flat out die due to their willingness to risk everything for power they didn't earn. I of course would have said something if I didn't agree wholeheartedly with most of what he was saying. But Lisa, on the other hand didn't like his words. In fact she spat on the ground. Told him that what she does with a sword she purchased is none of his business and then procedure to walk off. But before she made it too far away she noticed something she started looking over in the distance to her left. Starting to wonder what her deal was and then the mysterious box popped up once again this time with some new information. Apparently those goblins she killed using that curse had her dropped. -7 levels so essentially speaking. She's -7 now but apparently dropping that far down had unlocked a few curse skills of her own. One of them being she can now detect cursed beings around her general level which means anything below her level or higher so -1 through -7 or two more negative levels down, given that she must be picking up the nest with the remaining goblins. Oh God was my immediate line of thought hey. So now that we're done testing out that curse's work, why don't we hit the road? Maybe we'll find something better than goblins to further improve ourselves with is what I told her. Hoping she would take the hint and not kill more of those disgusting things but tomato smelly she said. What are you saying? I can feel it. We only just started dropping in level. If we want to really make a dent in it, we should kill all the goblins in this area and that should drop us at least to -10. Right? Or better yet. -15. The more we drop the better it becomes for us. After hearing this, I'm starting to worry that cursing her has made her a fiend or was she already offend and I just mistook her for being human because she was walking around human civilization. As I pondered this, I failed to notice that she was already walking in the direction of the nest. I continue to protest about the matter but of course she stopped listening to me the moment she started moving her feet. Another thing to note, the old man appears to be following us. I tell her about it for which she surprisingly did respond, meaning she's listening to me. She's just choosing to ignore what I say but whatever she doesn't seem to mind considering the old man can't do anything and if he tries she'd just beat him up. She's suddenly so confident in her abilities knowing what she's capable of with that curse under her belt. But we don't even know this guy's level right? As I think that the box appears once more this time not displaying his name but just his level and two skills. His level is 25 and his skills are sword control and blunt strikes we continue walking or more like those two continue walking and Lisa carries me on her back because I'm a sword and therefore have no ability to walk. I would have left knowing that I have no desire to taste those disgusting Gremlins on another tangent. I failed to notice that we have already arrived at the area in question. How do I know this despite being placed on her back with the jewel that I use as an eye facing behind her so that she's not blindsided thing is she immediately grabbed my hilt the moment she got close enough to the nest that she felt the possibility of an ambush. At that point, the tree started thin out a bit and signs of goblins marking their territory. We're more than present. Realizing where we are, the strange man pulls ahead of her spotting a cave and a bunch of goblins hanging out. He starts gesturing hand signs that I can't make heads or tails about to Lisa. Geez, somehow understands it or at least she has an idea of what he's getting at and readys me for an attack. The old man reaches into his side bag that he's carrying and pulls out a black orb. He throws it at one of the walls near the cave's entrance and a black smoke erupts from around the area the orb hits The goblins run out of the smoke cloud coughing up a storm before they could get a sense of what's happening. Lisa with black hair. Thanks to my curse jumps out and beheads three goblins she goes for a fourth that just emerged from the smoke stabbing it in the heart. And yes, they all tasted awful so bad. In fact, I can feel myself gagging without a mouth and no matter how much I gagged the sensation wouldn't disappear. It was just there. I didn't help but describe it as being violated she of course prepares to attack the goblins that emerged on the other side as the cloud of smoke starts to to fan out. But the old man who is very skilled had taken out seven goblins four of which were already guarding but three more that appeared to have came out of the cave. Trying to figure out what's going on with so many dead goblins on the ground. The man grows even more curious putting his ear near the cave's entrance. He stands quietly for a minute. Curious enough. Lisa imitates him. I of course have no ears but judging from the vibrations in the air. Yeah there's more than a few goblins down there. The man looks till they said I would prefer to retreat restock up on supplies and then take this one tomorrow. But there's no telling if these guys might see the dead bodies and spread out causing a lot of damage in the process and losing sight of them. Furthermore, for all we know a spawn point could exist deep inside that cave, meaning the amount of damage we did could result in nothing. He stands for a moment thinking of the best course of action. Meanwhile, Lisa takes her sleeve and wipes off the blood from my blade. And odd question is power injection the only curse you have that I can use hearing this? I vaguely recalled that there were other curses as I think about it, the mysterious box pops up once more. This time listing my curses, it would appear that there were three that are usable power injection enhances the target 's physical abilities speed injection enhances the target's mobility Force injection exerts the target's full potential Reading these off to her. She nods in understanding then positions herself firmly at the center of the cave. According to her, she's capable of detecting the exact positions of each goblin which should allow her to maneuver no matter how dark it is. Hearing this, I asked her if she's ever performed dance before. He tells me that her father had her learn dancing so that he could take her to social events so she has a general knowledge of the basics. With that confirmed, I recommend a unique move that I have a limited amount of knowledge of. Apparently, some swordsman who have a background of traditional dance incorporate dancing into their fighting styles to improve mobility and technique with it. The two of us come up with a new attack. She writes herself with me hoisted over her shoulders and positions her feet for the perfect Forward lunge seeing this the old man starts asking what exactly we're doing. I then perform a speed injection on her doing such. I notice the black mist appearing before her once more that same mist seeps into her legs. This causes her calf muscles just slightly bulge for a minute. She stands completely still as the wind blows. Zane, everything starts to move In slow motion she kicks off her foot lunging forward into the cave as she lunges. The old man starts saying no. At a very slow rate entering the cave. Her body starts to spiral as it ever so slightly descends to the ground before her back could touch it. She rolls up into a ball and stops herself with her feet in the first position. At that point two goblins were on her left and right. I tell her to do a spin for which she lifts off her heel and kicks off her right foot spinning on the ball of her left swinging me in a perfect 360 my blade. She thrusts me off of the wall kicking off the ground with her foot going for a 180 roll further into the cave blocking her path. We're five goblins. I tell her they're blocking her path. She then crosses her Freon and the arm holding me curls up and then spreads out fanning both me and her Freya arm out before I had realized it. She had slipped all of their necks. Zane, as the goblins fall to the ground unable to breathe, she does a tumble roll behind the fallen bodies and acts wielding goblin and a goblin holding a staff realize how far she has gotten in seeing them in front. One begins to chant. I tell her give it a thrust. She lunges forward lifting up her opposite leg while thrusting me into mage goblins neck. It fails to chant the spell and tries to use its arm to cover the bleeding, but she manages to use my blade to repel the hand attempting to cover her its throat. While lopping off the palm and fingers while spinning the sword in a circular motion using her wrists and arm, she then does a pure wet cutting off the legs of the oncoming acts wielding goblin and then rolling her arm around for a whooping blow. She lops off his Head more goblins can be felt a deeper in. She says she goes for an even higher leap rolling up in a ball with me at her side. When she lands at the center of the crowd of goblins, she starts to waltz around slashing off limb after limb after limb for almost a total of it 2 hours before long. All the goblins were dead and the color of the ground appears to be red everywhere. I'm starting to wonder if this was a blood cave cuz we're taking the Carnage she managed to achieve. I could say with certainty that the vertical dance was a huge success. Also I just realized this but the taste of all those goblins had just caught up to me and I am screaming my Head off ah! The old man catches up to us and commends her on her achievement. At that point her hair had returned to blonde again and her eyes were no longer red and the swelling of her thighs had gone down. According to the text, she's supposed to have a permanent boost in her speed, but from what I'm seeing it looks like there's a massive boost and then when it wears off she keeps half of the boost while the rest dissipates must be a conversion rate or something. According to the old man, what we managed to do is something. Only an expert mercenary or a halfway decent adventurer should be capable of. He then starts to ask who she's contracted with. She of course, says that she has no affiliation with either the mercenaries nor the adventurer's guild. The man then goes into thought feeling that he can't leave her. He decides it's in his best interest to take her back to the mercenaries guild have her licensed and then see if he can't get someone to keep an eye on her. Well you didn't say that out loud. That's what I'm getting from The vibes he's putting off. Lisa, hearing my speculation on the matter. Didn't want any of it. She told him to go f*** off. Flipped him off with her middle finger and began walking out of the cave. The old man desperate to not let something as dangerous as her out in the world. Her assisted saying that if she agrees to it he would teach her how to properly use me? Well honestly I barely know how to wield myself but I'm a sword so I guess I shouldn't know how to wield myself. It's probably up to the human. The more I think about it, the more his offer sounds pretty good. Hr take him up on his offer. You need all the training you can get is what decided to tell her feeling awkward about how little I can contribute besides giving her power to you. Lord knows whatever she has in mind with these powers. Honestly, she won't kill the hero that much. I know for sure. I had it stimulated in the contract and made sure she was very aware of it. The moment she tries to lock his head off the curse will trigger the penalty locking up her abilities until her hostility towards the hero fades or the hero is 100 miles away from her. There are of course cliff notes that allow her to do it under special circumstances that I pray will never happen. I didn't tell her those circumstances just so she wouldn't go acting like an evil mastermind. Anyways, she agreed to the man's conditions.