Noah opened his eyes to find that it was already morning.
From the kitchen, he could hear the cheerful humming of the little fox and the bubbling sound of boiling water.
It was a very peaceful, tranquil morning.
Noah sat up in bed and placed a hand on his forehead.
"Appraise."
The boy held his hand there for a few seconds.
The information that usually popped instantly into his mind was nowhere to be found.
'What is going on?'
He was puzzled.
He immediately tried to activate the Truth Seeker skill again, but after several attempts, there was still absolutely no response.
Noah lifted his head and casually stared at various objects around his room.
Truth Seeker seemed to be completely offline, offering no feedback whatsoever.
Frowning, he stood up and stretched his arms.
Then, he clenched his fist and threw a quick punch into the empty air.
The sharp sound of his fist cutting through the wind was clearly audible.
"My physical stats are fine."
"But something feels very off."
This strange sensation, as if he had suddenly gone blind or deaf, carried an inexplicable sense of wrongness.
"Flame."
Noah raised his hand, attempting to use his Spell-Weaver skill to grab the mind in the air and control the fire element.
However, no flame appeared.
At that exact moment, he understood what was wrong.
That was the source of this strange feeling.
He, who used to be able to sense raw mind and magic elements as easily as feeling water and air, had suddenly lost that ability.
The magic that used to be everywhere now seemed to have completely vanished.
'It is my skills!'
His unique skills, Truth Seeker and Spell-Weaver, seemed to have disappeared!
'No.'
'It was still too early to panic and jump to conclusions.'
First, he needed to figure out exactly what happened.
Noah repeatedly told himself to stay calm.
He looked down and found the now-blank Ancient Grimoire sitting by his bedside.
The reason he could not use his skills definitely had to do with this book.
After opening the book last night, he seemed to have experienced something very strange.
But no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember what had happened.
His memory completely stopped right after the moment he opened the cover.
"Noah-sama, breakfast is ready!"
"Haruhime," Noah called out.
"Yes?" she poked her head out of the kitchen.
"Let me try something for a second."
Noah walked past Haruhime and stepped into the kitchen.
He casually picked up a raw radish, grabbed a kitchen knife and began rapidly slicing it.
In less than 20 seconds, a perfectly carved dog's head appeared in his hand.
For half of that time, he wasn't even looking at the radish or the knife.
The physical muscle memory and crafting experience he had gained from Truth Seeker were still there.
But the skill itself could not be turned on.
With no other clues to go on, the only thing he could think of was returning to the Familia base to seek Hephaestus's help.
If she updated his Falna, he might be able to figure something out.
Noah immediately returned to the Familia base with Haruhime.
Along the way, he kept trying to activate Truth Seeker, but it remained completely dead.
After explaining everything that had happened, Hephaestus had no other ideas either.
She could only try updating his status to see what was wrong.
Taking off his shirt, Noah sat down on the sofa.
Hephaestus pricked her finger and began updating Noah's back using her divine blood.
As the sacred text appeared on his skin, Hephaestus stared at it carefully.
She stayed silent for a very long time before finally speaking.
"Hephaestus?" Noah noticed her silence and grew nervous.
"How could this be..." The goddess's voice was filled with pure disbelief.
"Hmm?"
"Noah." Hephaestus pinched her chin, struggling to find the words to describe his strange situation.
Her face looked incredibly complex as she quickly copied his status panel onto a piece of paper.
Noah took the paper and looked down at his stats.
In the past, he never even needed to read the paper—he could just Appraise himself or the paper directly to know all his information.
Suddenly being unable to do something so simple felt very unnatural.
Noah unfolded the paper and began reading his status.
But his eyes were met with dozens of question marks.
[Name]: Noah
[Level]: Lv. 2
[Stats]:
Strength: E499 |
Endurance: E499 |
Dexterity: E499 |
Agility: E499 |
Magic: E499
[Development Abilities]: Enhancement I
[Magic]: > * ?? Gate? (※Unreadable)
[Skills]:
"Truth Seeker" (※Unreadable)
* Can appraise objects upon contact (※Unreadable)
* While repairing equipment, gain insights from the user's experience (※Unreadable)
* When crafting items, chance to raise the product's rank (※Unreadable)
* ??? (※Unreadable)
"Spell-Weaver" (※Unreadable)
Can directly manipulate mind (※Unreadable)
Can directly manipulate elements (※Unreadable)
??? (※Unreadable)
"Denier"
* Nullifies one instant-death attack while removing all abnormal status effects; can only activate once every 24 hours.
'What the hell is this?'
"Strange, corrupted symbols that cannot be translated into sacred text are mixed into your magic and skills," Hephaestus explained.
"The skills still exist, but because of these corrupted symbols, they cannot be used normally."
The same was true for his magic.
Since those bizarre question marks were displayed, it meant his magic slot was no longer empty.
He really did gain a new spell from the Grimoire, but now he could neither use it nor read what it actually did.
Hephaestus narrowed her single eye in deep thought, as if she had suddenly realized what might have caused this.
"Noah, put your shirt back on. We are going out."
"Hmm?"
"To the Dian Cecht Familia."
With that, the goddess immediately marched toward the door.
Judging by her fast pace, it was clear she was extremely anxious.
If they were going to the Dian Cecht Familia, were they going to see Airmid?
Did Hephaestus think he was sick or injured?
Wait. Speaking of the Dea Saint... Airmid's Dia Flatel isn't just a healing spell—it can also cure abnormal status effects and dispel powerful curses.
So, could this corrupted text actually be a type of curse?
If the Grimoire was cursed, he should have known when he appraised it last night.
That ancient book did not have any curses listed on its item description...
Guessing Hephaestus's thoughts, Noah did not argue.
He obediently followed his goddess all the way to the Dian Cecht Familia's hospital.
...
Inside the private examination room.
Airmid's face flushed a bright red.
She seemed incredibly awkward and unnatural upon seeing Noah again after he had "confessed" to her.
It was very rare to see such a flustered expression on the usually serious healer's face.
But when she finally took a closer look at Noah, her eyes suddenly went wide.
Her voice turned tense.
"Noah!"
Airmid quickly pulled a magical monocle from her chest pocket, placed it over her right eye, and leaned in to observe him.
Then, as if she were certain of what she was seeing, cold sweat dripped down her forehead.
She whispered a single word.
"Curse..."
That single word caused both Noah and Hephaestus's faces to change.
However, unlike Hephaestus's panic, Noah was just confused.
'It really is a curse?'
Could it be that this curse was so hidden that even Truth Seeker could not detect it?
Come to think of it, the true author of the Grimoire was listed as "Unknown"... But deep down, he still felt that might not be the real answer.
"Can you dispel it?!" Hephaestus asked hurriedly.
Airmid's magic, Dia Flatel, had the rare ability to shatter curses.
It was exactly because she knew this that Hephaestus had dragged Noah here.
"Let me try!" Airmid said seriously.
She pulled out her personal weapon, the Dian Cecht Staff—one of the three sacred staves gifted directly by the god Dian Cecht.
The silver-haired girl pointed the staff at Noah, closed her eyes to focus her spirit, and slowly began her long, powerful chant.
"Healing drops, tears of light, eternal sanctuary, call upon the melody of three hundred sixty-five rhythms here."
"The healing calendar shall save all things. Come forth, and break the evil."
"Bury the wounds, bury the sickness, send the curse to the distant shore, to the other side, to the pivot of light."
"In the name of the gods—I shall heal!"
The ultimate magic of Orario's top healer, the Dea Saint Airmid Teasanare.
This was exactly what Noah had always wanted to witness with his own eyes!
"Dia Fratel!"
A blinding, sacred white light filled the room.
Bathed in the glowing light particles, Noah could feel an unbelievable, surging vitality bursting within his body.
The healing light washed through his entire body, but Airmid's face showed no sign of relief.
Her expression grew even more strained as she kept pouring all of her mind into the spell, desperately trying to break the curse.
But Noah already knew the result.
Truth Seeker still could not be activated.
The curse-breaking spell had.... failed.
It was a curse that even the Dea Saint could not dispel.
Noah was deeply skeptical now.
Was this glitched state really a curse?
As far as he understood it, curses were powerful dark spells.
As long as the caster paid a heavy price, they could achieve evil effects that normal magic could never reach.
Normal magic resistance could not block them, and there were very few ways to cure them.
Aside from using ultra-rare curse-breaking magic like Airmid's, the simplest way to remove a curse was to hunt down and kill the person who cast it.
Once the caster died, their curse would naturally fade away.
That was exactly why this made no sense!
The Ancient Grimoire was an item from over a thousand years ago.
Excluding the immortal gods and sages, who could possibly live for a thousand years?
Even if the book's creator had placed a curse on it, there was a 99% chance that person was already dead!
----
Will be 'cursed' for about 5 chapter 😂