“En-“
Justin felt a sudden chill that crept out from within.
As if suffering from a bad cold, his body shivered subconsciously.
From the left calf, a sharp pain spread to the knee.
Justin was familiar with this feeling.
“Curse hunter” had such a unique trait.
Only those who had taken a special potion and smeared a deadly ointment on the skin without disfigurement could acquire this trait—the prerequisite of curse hunter [Curse Sensitive Skin].
Just being close by to Transcended, the corresponding body surface would have a faint tingling sensation. When inflicted with an inconspicuous curse or becoming a ritual target, the curse hunter could immediately feel pain.
After a long period of training, the curse hunters would acquire this new sensory sense.
This new tactile sense could be used to sense the curse, feel the curse, and hunt the curse.
Therefore, that was how “curse hunter” came from.
As soon as Justin felt the pain, he wanted to fight back.
He subconsciously kicked out the painful left leg.
At this time, he just realized-
That seems to be where Annan was.
Was Annan attacking me?
Thinking of Annan’s noble status, Justin subconsciously reserved his strength.
But the moment Justin reacted, he felt a little regretful in his heart.
No, holding off 30% of my strength isn’t enough!
With a half-committed kick, Justin kicked at an underage wizard in the face from this angle. If this kick landed on Annan’s chin or the back of Annan’s head, it was possible to kick Annan to death.
Justin was a civilian; he couldn’t bear Chilly Austere’s Grand Duke’s anger at all!
Moreover, he just realized what Annan had imposed on him was not some lethal curse.
There was pure malice in the curse, which meant that it would only negatively debuff him. But this malice only gave him chills with no sensation of scorching pain.
This meant that its curse concentration was not high.
Pa.
Unexpectedly, Annan did not retreat but reached out to steadily block Justin’s sharp kick. Then, he calmly halted the counterattack Justin thought he failed to control.
But this made Justin’s heart sink.
The fourteen-year-old wizard…
Even though he was born in Chilly Austere Dukedom, can he take my blow casually?
Impossible. I can’t believe it.
Justin’s committed kick was enough to kick an adult’s head and half of his spine into the air.
Transcended was said to be Transcended because they had exceeded the level of ordinary people.
Justin’s kick was enough to kick down a solid tree thicker than the waist of an adult man. Even if the room doors in viscount’s mansion were locked, he could knock them open easily.
Since Annan could block Justin’s attack without his bones breaking, it meant that he must have hidden a Bronze Rank level combat profession!
“Brother Justin, why did you attack me suddenly?”
But, the outcome was different from what Justin had imagined.
After Annan blocked Justin’s counterattack, he backed away with vigilance.
Annan looked at Justin with a puzzled face, with a bit of dissatisfaction in his eyes, “If it’s not me who is standing here, something bad already happened.”
Seeing Annan’s expression, Justin couldn’t help but hesitate.
Is it a misunderstanding?
It can’t be. My senses are sharp.
Everything went according to Annan’s prediction. With Justin’s personality, he had hesitated with clenched fists when facing Annan Chilly Austere, who was much higher status than him.
Justin subconsciously wanted to apologize but cautiously turned his head and knelt.
At this distance, his hand could reach Annan directly. As such, he wouldn’t be too vulnerable to any attacks.
“Sorry, it may be my fault.”
Justin hadn’t finished speaking this time.
Annan swung his right arm and punched the knee socket on the inner side of Justin’s leg.
Only then did Justin finally see the hammer hidden in Annan’s palm.
It was a small, slender, white hammer that looked a little comical.
It was like a toy. Hamming a nail would prove too strenuous for it. It was more like a hammer used for tooth extraction, just one size bigger than its kind.
Can this thing hurt people?
Such thoughts flashed through Justin’s mind.
However, the indecision of not knowing how to react faded after Justin confirmed that Annan was indeed an enemy.
After all, Justin had multiple combat experiences in hunting down Transcended.
Almost instinctively, his left hand tried to intercept Annan’s hammer.
His right hand reached Annan’s slender neck, with his knees bent and his abdominal muscles tense. Justin was like a leopard with a bowed posture. He lunged to grab Annan’s neck directly to throw Annan to the ground.
But something Justin had not expected happened.
Justin wanted to intercept Annan’s left hand, which looked fragile due to the toy hammer.
The heavy force that the bearer exerted on the hammer was brutal to fend off.
It quickly overwhelmed Justin’s strength. Creaking fracture noise came from his wrist. His wrist failed even to hinder the hammer attack for one second. In the end, it hammered successfully into Justin’s leg!
However, the power attacking the leg socket this time was far worse than the force that directly broke Justin’s wrist.
It was the strength at the standard of an unranked swordsman’s All-out Blow. Unfortunately, this strength level was still impossible to dislocate Justin’s wrist!
Justin immediately realized what curse had been imposed on him.
It was “Speak No Evil!”
The hammer’s properties were subtly different from what Salvatore had discussed with Annan. But it was roughly the same.
Annan made a provisional plan for tonight after going through its attributes.
[The Venerated Skeleton’s Bone Blood Trigger]
[Type: Tool/Ritual Prop (Gold)]
[Description: “Cardioplegia LV34”, “Forgotten Secret LV28”, “I’m Not Here LV1”, “Speak No Evil LV8”, “Claustrophobia LV1”, and “Page Lock LV14” can be used once a day. It can only be activated after hitting the desired target’s boned part with the hammer. Everyone can be inflicted with up to three curses every day.]
[Effect: If the user hits the target’s bone, the curse will entangle the victim. The curse will return and be strengthened after the victim dies. The enhanced curse level is equal to the total slain Transcendend level. If the curse does not return within 24 hours, then a new curse will be regained. The previously imposed curse can’t be retrieved.]
[Effect: If the user fails to hit the bone, it will be registered as a failure. The curse will remain on the struck object for a month. No more curses will be reborn during this period.]
[Cost: Each time you use it, you need to consume a different human “bone” and “blood.” The hammer must be used once a week. Otherwise, the holder will be randomly applied with three kinds of curses. The level of the curse applied will be equivalent to the currently stored curse level. Human beings used as materials will have their life span reduced by one year.]
There was only one difference from what Salvatore mentioned.
Salvatore did not mention that this weapon could be a “hammer for murder.”
If the cursed target were killed within 24 hours, the difficulty of resisting this curse would continue to increase. The curse level would not revert to zero until a particular curse failed to be retrieved within a day.
Of course, according to Annan’s judgment on Salvatore, it shouldn’t be Salvatore deliberately hiding it from Annan. Rather, it was plausible that Salvatore himself didn’t know the specifics.
But when Annan confirmed that “speak no evil” could be utilized, the reason why he didn’t use it on Viscount Barber was to have the curse available for the day. It would prove to be convenient to go against Justin!
Cardioplegia’s instantaneous ability was not necessarily effective for a Bronze Rank Transcended.
But Speak No Evil is different.
This curse should be enough to break Justin’s defense, right?!