“For a properly managed cursed land, this is par for the course,” Rosenberg said. “The City of Lost Souls was far more expansive, for one. If it was overflowing with Undead, I expect it to have been no less than forty degrees. I suspect the center of the city must have been at sixty degrees or higher. A typical example of a neglected cursed land.”
“So this place could turn out like that if it goes unchecked?” I asked.
“Exactly.”
With a better understanding of how dangerous a situation the City of Lost Souls had been, I quietly promised myself I would never let this testing ground turn into another version of it. Keeping an eye out for landslides, we navigated the mountain and its steep slopes, even using climbing ropes when necessary. Although we’d split up, it took a lot of time and effort to figure out the range of cursed energy. By the time the sun began to set, we had confirmed that the bald patch accurately reflected the range of the cursed land—about a two-hundred-meter radius around the center of the landslide. The area wasn’t a circle, but more like a rounded triangle, with the initial landslide area spreading wide as it descended the mountain. In particular, the settlement ruins towards the top of the mountain and the endpoint of the landslide lower on the mountain were teeming with cursed energy.
“So far, everything matches the reports,” said Rosenberg. “If there were any discrepancies, it could cause the cleansing to fail or lead to accidents. Always make sure to verify that the site is as expected before performing cleansing.”
“Got it,” I said. “Are those what keep the cursed energy contained to the landslide area? Those marks?”
A strange symbol—a snake or worm or centipede—was carved into trees surrounding the landslide area at regular intervals. I sensed magical energy from them, and I couldn’t really think of another answer, considering the circumstances...
“That is a hex that prevents cursed energy from spreading. Many warlocks use some sort of symbol like that,” Rosenberg said.
“Then would it be similar to barrier magic, or is it more like an enchantment? If these were set up half a year ago to coincide with the latest file, that’s a long time for a spell to hold its effect.” I could use some barrier magic myself, but not one that could retain its effect for half a year, unless I regularly reapplied the same spell. As the state of the cottage proved, no one had come up here in a long time. That led me to believe the hexes could be woven into objects like enchantment spells used to create permanent magical items.
“That is quite astute. In fact, curses are very similar to enchantments. They don’t call it holding on to grudges for nothing. Powerful, negative emotions last a long time. The hex in the trees uses that tendency to elongate its effect,” my tutor explained.
“I see... There’s a lot for me to learn.”
“And we will have time for it later. I had planned for lessons on curses, and you’ll need to learn that very spell once the cleansing is over. But first, we need to clear the cursed energy... It has been an arduous day. Let’s walk through the cleansing process before we call it a day.” Rosenberg turned to Sebas and requested a few things out of his Item Box. “This is where we start.” He brought over the largest basket that Sebas had produced. It was stuffed with over twenty magic wands, like an umbrella stand at a corner store during a downpour. The wands were simple ones—basically a wooden stick with a Dark magic crystal on its end.
Rosenberg plucked one out, took a few steps away from us, and pointed the wand at the ground. “Curse Transfer.” Magical energy poured out of the wand and into the ground. Instantly, I could see the cursed energy rise from the ground like a cloud of black dust. While the cursed energy wasn’t moving quickly, I could see that it was very dense and dangerous. I kept watching as Rosenberg spun the cursed energy with his wand, spooling it at the tip until it shrank into the magic crystal.
When no visible cursed energy remained, Rosenberg stopped releasing magical energy. “Did you see it?”
“It looked like you extracted cursed energy from the ground, and also from the air, and then sealed it within the magic crystal on the wand,” I said.
“Good. This is the basic process of cleansing cursed energy—extracting it from corroded materials. The cursed energy doesn’t necessarily have to be transferred to a magic crystal... Take another look at the wand, without coming any closer and certainly without touching it.”
I could see what he wanted me to see immediately. “The tip of the wand looks...worn out. It looked brand-new a minute ago.”
“Objects rapidly deteriorate when exposed to concentrated cursed energy. The purpose of this wand is mostly to put distance between the user and the magic crystal where the cursed energy is going to be stored. I use Dark magic crystals as the receptacle not only because they make it easier to cast hexes, but because they’re exceptionally durable against cursed energy.”
That explained why there were twenty-plus wands ready to go. They were cheap and dirty wands that Rosenberg could easily replace as soon as one showed signs of damage.
“Some people use materials especially resistant to cursed energy, but most warlocks can’t afford such luxuries, especially when we have so many other tools we have to purchase. We don’t have too many corners to cut, out of safety concerns.”
“That has to be rough...” I said.
Rosenberg’s eyes were fixed on the distance. He deserved commendation for not cutting costs. There were plenty of workplaces that would ignore their workers’ safety to save money. “It won’t be easy, but you do have a brilliant financial manager who should be able to make ends meet,” Rosenberg said.
“Absolutely,” Eleonora said simply.
Now, it was time to practice. Plucking a fresh wand, I took a few steps away from the others and pointed it at the ground. “Curse Transfer.” I cast the spell, replaying Rosenberg’s demonstration as I did...but it felt like something was stuck, preventing the cursed energy from coming out. Did I mess it up?
“The spell was successful, just not powerful enough. Concentrate more negative emotions in your magical energy, and capture the cursed energy that lurks in the darkness below the soil,” Rosenberg said.
Taking his advice, I focused on magic detection. Sure enough, I could sense cursed energy that threatened to prick me with discomfort, even though it couldn’t touch me past the layer of magical energy I’d set up. Still, it was unmistakable—the air beyond my thin layer of protection was tainted with cursed energy. I shifted my energy to my feet and saw a clump of cursed energy. My detection didn’t reach far enough to see how deeply it corroded the ground. I could only tell that the cursed energy that had seeped into the ground seemed bottomless—pulling all that out would be quite a feat.
“There is no need to dredge up all of the cursed energy at once. In fact, doing so would be dangerous. Do not overextend. Mark out a section of cursed energy that you will cleanse, just below the surface. Concentrate on that patch of cursed energy, and pull it close.”
I cast my spell again, with a better focus on my target. This time, I felt like there wasn’t much of a clog, and I could see the cursed energy lift out of the ground, quickly mix into the air, and begin to spread—just like normal magic. I kept the cursed energy around the magic crystal on my wand, spooling the torrent of cursed energy into the crystal...until I managed to contain all of the cursed energy that had emerged from the ground into the magic crystal.