Chapter 45: The Way to Break the Curse
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Benjamin laid on his bed and suffered from the aches all over his body. He had the urge to use the Healing Waterball.
But he dare not risk it because the church was too near.
When he recalled the training he had in the morning, he was still traumatized. As a demonstrator for hand-to-hand combat, the coach did not exert too much force, but it was already agonizing for Benjamin.
It was even worse with the rest of the recruits.
Although he was not a punching bag and could retaliate in the training using the techniques Dean taught them, Benjamin was still weaker than the other recruits. He could not defeat all of them.
The bruises on him would probably take a fortnight to subside.
Well, if he were to stay positive, he did learn quite an amount from this.
People always say that to learn how to fight, you first need to be beaten, right? Benjamin could only comfort himself as such.
‘In this process, an individual will gradually improve and grow,’ Benjamin thought as he saw himself in the mirror. Although the person in the mirror was badly injured, he looked very distinctive from the Benjamin he first saw. Although the face and the features were the same, the aura he had was different.
He was no longer the weak and listless teen. His eyes exuded confidence and a hint of slyness. The experiences he went through in the past few days really did change him.
Now, his face was quite a handsome one! Benjamin could not help but entertain his narcissistic thoughts.
However, Benjamin felt wrong the longer he stared at himself.
He looked too similar to Grant!
It was not noticeable before when he was still as weak as a chicken. Now, if the bruises were removed and his hair done the way Grant has, people would think that they are twins if Benjamin and Grant were to walk together in public.
This all felt quite eerie to Benjamin. However, after some thought, Benjamin suddenly realized that this was a great tool for him in the future.
As long as he slightly groomed himself, he could now disguise as Grant and it would be difficult for others to notice. With Grant’s status and reputation with the nobles in the Kingdom, Benjamin could actually do a variety of things; after all, Grant was the natural born genius and the Pope’s most hopeful successor.
Really, Benjamin could not believe that he never noticed how similar his looks are to Grant. No wonder Michelle kidnapped the wrong person.
Benjamin felt much better after he accidentally found a leverage that he could utilize. Although he could not think of a place for him to use it, he was convinced that there will be a time and place in the future where this would come into play.
Once he calmed his emotions and got used to the pain in his body, Benjamin drew the blinds and prepared himself for his daily magic assignment.
He took out the Magic 101 that he hid yesterday.
He always wanted to read this book, but he never found the chance to. However, this was the time for him to learn magic from this book. He could finally understand the research of magic done by the people in the Silence Academy.
However, Benjamin became more and more disappointed as he flipped through the book.
"This book is poorly written......"
Compared with Divine Arts 101, Magic 101 was miles away from it. This book did not have a description on the nature of magic, and there was a lack in details in most of the pages.
Although it did talk about the variety of magical elements, they were defined as ‘the floating forces in the world after Cain’s death’. It suggested that mages were using Cain’s energy to make magic.
As a child who grew up in an atheist environment, this was absolute nonsense to Benjamin.
How great was Cain to leave so much energy after his death that could supply mages for thousands of years?
Also, since Benjamin and the System already concluded that magic and the divine arts were the same thing, this would mean that the priests and bishops who used the divine arts were also using Cain’s energy. What rubbish!
Under the oppression of the church, the development of magic was really slow as compared to the divine arts.
There was no need for him to talk about the rest of the book; it was just introducing spell after spell, much of which was already included in the Holy Bible. It was of no use to Benjamin.
After Benjamin flipped through the whole of the book, he concluded that the three parts that were useful to him were: The basics for enchantments, the basics for curses, and the creation and usage of magical tools.
If he was not greedy, this was an acceptable haul.
Without hesitation, Benjamin flipped to the part of the book that described curses, and started paying attention to each and every word as he read.
He would not be playing around with this; if he managed to learn how to break a spell, he would not need to bother Michelle anymore! Without the curse, Michelle would need to consider thoroughly before appearing in front of Benjamin.
According to the book, curses are a unique way of using magic. It is used by mages to plant magic into another body to weaken or control the opponent. There are a myriad of curses and methods to implant a curse, but no matter what type of curse it is, it could never avoid a crucial element: The medium of the curse.
A mage will be required to use a special method to consolidate magic into a physical matter to form a curse. This matter could be food, a weapon, water or even air. The book did mention that the usage of water and air as a medium would only be possible if the mastery of curses was high enough. Also, if they were used as a medium, the magic they absorb would also be much weaker than solid mediums.
On how to make a curse, though......
There are two ways to break a curse. The first is to use a spiritual power that is much stronger than the curse-caster to break the curse; the second is to use the same medium of the original curse and cast another curse on oneself using opposing magical properties than the initial curse. This would cause the curse to neutralize one another as they collide in the body.
Benjamin expected that it would be difficult for him to reach the levels required by the first method. Thus, he could only choose the second method.
"Do you still remember the scene when Michelle planted a curse in me? Repeat it to me," he said to the System.
He had to know the medium and magic Michelle used in the curse.
Please, oh please let it be a fire magic. Otherwise, he would not be able to use magic that has properties that oppose the curse.
"Of course I remember! She chanted a complicated spell, and a dark red light suddenly flew into your chest," the System answered.
"You said this before. What I want is details," Benjamin continued, "What magical element did she use, did you sense the gathering of the fire elements, how did the light fly into my chest, did she use anything as medium?"
"Uh, hold on, I need to do some analysis," the System replied and went silent. It did not answer Benjamin regardless how hard he shouted for it.
No reply.
Benjamin was stuck in this situation again. He had no choice but to wait anxiously.
A minute passed, then two...... Benjamin felt like he was staring at the download bar that was stuck at 99.9%. He did not have any motivation to do anything else but to wait for the download to be completed. However, it was stuck at the final bit, and it stubbornly refused to finish.
The only matter that he could be grateful was that the System would never crash.
....Right?
After a wait that seemed to have lasted a decade, the System’s voice echoed in his mind once again, "According to the System’s analysis, there was a gathering of the fire elements the moment Michelle cast her spell. Thus, the probability of her using fire magic was 98%. Secondly, she had a leaf in between her fingers, and it was most probably the medium of the curse. When compared to the trees Benjamin had in his memories, there was no match for the leaf."
A preview picture similar to one of a computer’s was shown before Benjamin alongside the System’s description.
In the image was a zoomed-in photo of the leaf in between Michelle’s fingers: It was a leaf of dark green with some parts of it was fading into yellow. It has a slight curl and was shaped like a fan. It has a beautiful shape, and it looked just like a delicate, natural cattail-leaf fan.
When Benjamin saw the leaf, he was stunned.
"This...... Isn’t this a Ginkgo leaf?"