"Hmmm. It's just an amulet. How terrible could it be?" Takuma said to himself as he responded to the question.
"Purify A Cursed Relic [2] : Cursed relics can be activated in one of two ways. Equipping them or touching them. In either case the curse effects activate and the user will be forced to endure until the purification process is complete. To begin, equip the Amulet at your feet."
Takuma knelt down and knocked away the rubble covering the amulet, some old boards, rocks and pieces of stone. Just looking at the object his skin began to crawl as a tingle shot up his spine. The longer he stared at the Amulet the less "safe" he felt. Was he really okay with wearing something like this? He swallowed hard as a sensation of defiance welled up from within him, he refused to be afraid of something like this!
The instant he picked up the amulet he noticed two things, how beautiful it was and also the cold sensation flowing through his hand. The object was devoid of warmth, and it seemed to sap the heat from his body with each passing second.
"Acquired Goddess Amulet[Cursed]. Wear it? Y/N"
As he clicked the 'Y' confirmation the Amulet hovered from his grip and bound itself to his neck with enough force to shake his balance.
Takuma couldn't help but cringe reflexively as the amulet fastened around his neck. The sensation of coldness was now permeating through his torso in brief waves. Simply wearing the item was uncomfortable both mentally and physically.
He dared not move for the first few seconds, his eyes squeezed tightly shut until he found the courage to open them.
"Purify A Cursed Relic [3] : Relic Meisters do not have gear slots like traditional classes. You may only equip relics, cursed or otherwise. Relics can be powerful tools in the right hands, but also extremely dangerous. Once a cursed relic is equipped it cannot be removed -- though there are a few exceptions to this rule."
This tutorial alert was followed by another.
"Relic Effect Activated : Blight Carousel - For the duration of this curse the wearer will be afflicted with progressively more potent physical ailments.
Duration : 18 hrs 59 mins 32 secs."
"What the hell? That doesn't sound so bad. Maybe I was spooked out for nothing." Takuma said to himself reassuringly. He also noticed an alert just below the curse description.
"
+25 XP (Discovered new curse.)
+150 XP (First Curse Bonus)
+1,000 XP (First Tier 4 Curse)
Relic Meister has reached Rank 1/10. Visit the Status Menu to level up.
New Quest Obtained ' Class Ranks '.
Lore Menu updated with (7) new entries.
"
"Wow. I already leveled up. Maybe this won't be as difficult as I thought." Takuma mused to himself with a sense of achievement. He decided to visit his Lore menu to check out the assortment of information listed there in the new entries.
"0.4 Curses. Curses are concentrations of negative energy known as miasma. Miasma can alter the mental and physical state of lifeforms that are affected by it. In large concentrations miasma can even manipulate the environment."
"0.5 Blight. An intensely powerful form of curse resulting from extremely powerful miasma coalescing."
As Takuma continued reading through the Lore entries he suddenly felt his heart skip a beat. His eyes widened as he grasped his chest and sank down to one knee, blood spurting from his mouth. The sensation sent a crippling shock throughout his body, it was so potent that Takuma could do little else but focus on breathing as his vision began to blur. Just when he thought he would black out the sensation halted just as quickly as it had begun. The effects of the curse lasted less than thirty seconds but it was enough to bring him to his knees.
"Holy...crap..." He said through labored breaths. "What the *actual* heck was that?"
His hands were still shaking as he slowly got to his feet, struggling to calm his heartbeat. The amount of blood he'd spit up was significant and he quickly recognized the symptoms of internal bleeding.
"There's no way… Nineteen hours of this? I'll definitely die.." He said as he wiped his mouth and lamented his stupidity. He was a fool to think that this would be easy. For a moment he couldn't think properly, the pain was a ferocious wakeup call. What's more he thought back to the description of the curse and a sense of dread slowly began to rise from the pit of his stomach. Could it actually get worse than the attack he'd just experienced?
"Dammit.!" He said as he angrily opened his inventory screen and attempted to remove the amulet, with no success. In fact with each attempt he lost one vitality point due to an intense shock to his hand.
"Ah.. Ha ha." Takuma chuckled to himself as a grim realization set in.
"This is definitely like hell. Impossible difficulty, indeed." He lamented to himself before he sank down to his knees, his head in his hands. He could do little else but sit until his nerves calmed down. Looking at things logically he would need to find a way to mitigate or remove the effects of curses so that he could increase his chances of survival. He thumbed through his new Lore entries with a renewed sense of urgency, but they were all pertaining to subjects on blight, leveling and the Cursed System.
"I did… level up." He thought to himself. "Maybe that's it." He next opened his Status menu and was greeted with a new alert.
"Class Ranks [1] : When your class raises a level you gain access to more skill points and your stats rise according to the amount of effort you put in prior to ranking up. In order to achieve the best results, try raising your Modifier stats to the limit before triggering a rank up."
This revelation presented Takuma with a dilemma. He needed to raise his level so that he could max out Meister's Constitution with the hopes of decreasing the severity of Blight Carousel. However, he could only gain ten levels total from what he could surmise. This suggested that the amount of gains were finite. The last thing he wanted was a high level build with useless stats. It would be a complete waste of a level to trigger it manually now.
He sat for a moment, mulling his options before he decided to hover over the Modifier stats for more info.
"
Vitality (73%) - Can be raised by suffering Vitality damage, defending oneself, self injury and recovery or strenuous exercise.
Mana (6%) - Use and collect mana to improve this.
Stamina (35%) - Exert yourself physically with conditioning activities to improve this.
Force (2%) - Building muscle will improve your force.
Accel (0%) - Speed, agility or dexterity building activities raise your Accel.
Knowledge (8%) - Acquire knowledge of any kind to improve this.
"
Takuma also noticed a new number next to most of his modifier stats which supported the description next to them. His Vitality was much higher than the rest of his modifiers, no doubt due to his near death experiences.
With this in mind Takuma finally decided on a course of action. He briefly summarized the situation in his mind : eighteen hours remaining, plagued with the threat of random ailments which may endanger his life. He decided to take action on three fronts.
One action would be to find a nearby town if possible, he absolutely needed to get his hands on some kind of restorative items. These could work in his favor to perhaps remove or nullify some status ailments he might be afflicted with.
The second would be to work on improving as many of his modifiers as possible before triggering his next rank up. This would be easy enough since it seemed to deal mostly with normal tasks. His primary focus would be to raise his stamina and vitality as much as possible for now, the rest could wait. The last action was one he would take immediately, to use his final SP to improve his Meister's Constitution.
Takuma quickly went to his "Skills and Abilities" menu and placed the point into 'Meister's Constitution'. Almost immediately he could feel the heavy, cold energy from the amulet lighten as a new alert flashed before his eyes.
"'Meister's Constitution has reached 2 of 3. The effects of this passive skill have increased : 30% reduction to curse effects. Regen 3 Vit every 7 mins."
Also as Takuma expected, the duration of the Blight Carousel ailment decreased from 18 hours to 16 hours. He allowed himself a moment of celebration as he got to his feet. Increased regeneration and higher resistance to curses were a very good start.
There was a small ray of hope that Takuma could conquer the challenge before him. Unfortunately that ray of hope grew more dim by the second as Takuma noticed everything around him growing dim. He gazed around wildly, eyes wide, his hands outstretched before he finally looked up to the sky. The last thing he saw before blindness set in was the sight of fading sunlight.