rcadius’ Seeds
I had not yet guaranteed that the immortal possessed knowledge about this skill. However, I knew I couldn’t kill it right away without even attempting to ask. After all, the similarity between the immortal and [rcardius’ Seeds] seed more than just a coincidence.
And so, as I prepared to absorb it with [Mana Drain], I asked it straightforwardly.
But then, the answer I got in return was…
-rca… What?
My attempt proved to be fruitless.
Either it really didn’t know what it was, or it was busy coming up with an underhanded sche. I didn’t an to go easy on it, so I added so more force on my finger.
At this, the thing hurriedly spoke once more.
-Wait, wait! Wait! Do you know how many skills there are in the world? Including unique skills, it’s impossible for one to know everything! However, there is always a pattern evident among them. Explain it in more detail!
I contemplated for a mont. Upon sensing my hesitation, it continued.
-Let start with sothing I can infer right now! Since there is a proper noun in the skill, it is currently soone’s unique skill, or even if it weren’t, it originated from a unique skill. And it could an that an Awakened has made a deal with the system to modify or change it!
Wait, what did that an?
“Modifying the unique skills? Change it?”
As I showed interested in this information, it quickly began to pour more details into my mind.
– This option could only be revealed when the being ets the special condition in the dinsion where the tutorial has finished! The transaction condition is that the system retrieves the unique skill acquired at the mont of Awakening. The Awakened one has nothing to lose. Instead of the unique skill being retrieved, the system opens the path for the Awakened to obtain an enhanced and modified version, or change it to a completely different kind of unique skill.
– Unique skills retrieved by the system will be set up to reduce performance and be converted to a normal skill card, so that other Awakened people can learn. Only the system knows how many dinsions it will distribute the skill cards to and how many it can duplicate.
It was information that could not be known in the past, seeing as we had not finished the tutorial.
Two more facts could be inferred from the words of the immortal.
– A unique skill is sothing that the system can’t create by itself. If it could, there would be no need to trade one with an Awakened to retrieve it. If it was possible, it could just make such a skill by itself.
Aside from that, it was apparently also possible that the very generic skills that Hunters learned through cards may actually be unique skills of Awakens that existed in other dinsions long ago.
“Are you saying that we can trade in skills with proper nouns by modifying or replacing them again?”
– It is possible! That’s how all of the normal skills with proper nouns are made.
If so, then that should be the case with [Artha’s Sword Dance].
I rembered when the devil’s sword witnessed my sword movent. It imdiately recited the na of ‘King Artha.’
“Is the proper noun in the skill’s na of the Awakened person who modified or changed the skill?”
Was the na of the man who planted this curse in ‘rcadius’?
– Not necessarily. Depending on the Awakened’s intentions, it may be nad after a mythical and legendary being that are passed down to the society instead of their own nas, or the na of the region, country, or any unique concept.
I found it all ambiguous.
However, the more I thought about it, the more it hurt my head. Modification of unique skills was an option only available in a world where tutorials had been completed?
Based on the Mana color, my body’s curse was indeed a unique skill that the creator had unfolded by himself, not a normalized skill.
Then that ant that the being which had cast this curse upon was not human.
‘This is too much. I would be prepared if I could at least know their race.’
With this, I asked, “Have you ever heard of rcadius?”
– I haven’t.
I threw so keywords to the immortal that would specify the skill [rcardius’ Seeds].
“Have you ever seen this kind of unique skill? Or sothing similar to it?”
Then, as if it found it surprising, it replied with agitated telepathy after a brief silence had occurred.
···What… is this?
It was too similar to its being.
– I don’t know who the caster is, but it has reached a trendous level. The unique skill may not have been modified only one or two tis. You judge this skill as of two functions: ‘brainwashing’ and ‘parasitism,’ but what’s more important to note is that it is linked to a parasitic creature on the host.
These were red tentacle-like creatures that made a cry like an animal’s whenever they were overpowered by [The Successor’s Eyes]. They then implanted a seed that would be hidden in the heart of the host via a yarn.
– There is no life-creating skill, but it is possible to modify sothing that already exists. This is a skill that is very rare and can only be accomplished by consuming a huge amount of Mana.
Who the hell was I up against?
“How do I track down the caster of the skill?”
– A permanently invoked curse cannot be quickly scattered.
[Dominating Touch] alone was subject to limitations, and the Mana was consud throughout the duration. However, this skill had already been maintained for ten years.
– Special conditions must have been t to plant the curse. Therefore···
At this point, the immortal looked hopeful.
– To find the criminal, you must keep alive!
What the hell was it saying now?
– Allow to stay in this host or, if not, prepare a body of another Awakened to beco my host. Not the woman whose heart is torn. Restoration of the host’s body is possible once I have settled in the heart.
I wasn’t even thinking about it, and it still had lots of requirents for the creature in danger.
– Listen. I can search through the mory of living things without missing out on anything to determine what happened throughout their lives. There must be a special occasion where curses were invoked even if you don’t realize it yourself! I can search the mory of the cursed hosts, and you can find out what they have in common! If you follow that link, you’ll find out who the caster of the skill is!
I could see what it ant by its words. With this skill, I could look through the minds of Han-seol, Park Chang-Hee, and the original Seo Jin-Wook. Seo Gyu-Cheol was also a possible target.
In other words, if this being could look through the mory of all of them, I could gather valuable information.
– I can bring up mories that you yourself have forgotten for a long ti. Therefore, you must save !
The immortal had obviously guessed why I had asked it this.
No, it decided in the first place that the reason why I didn’t get affected by its [Dominating Touch] was that I had other kinds of brainwashing.
This was the reason behind its confidence. However…
‘Am I crazy? To let you go to Earth?’
I asked as I let it flow with the other ear.
“Can you read the mory of the dead?”
-····It’s impossible. But you can still bring all the suspicious ones among those still living in front of !
I found that part aningless.
I asked a few more questions, but almost all of the answers it gave were speculative ones. Instead of things about [rcardius’ Seed], it gave out general concepts about those similar kinds of curses. Knowledge that was unknown to the Earth in my previous life was quite helpful.
By this ti, I was certain that I had almost all the information I needed. An idea suddenly popped into my head.
“One more thing.”
I was hoping that this might be the last.
“Your race, what’s the population? How many more are there besides you?”
There was sothing that I couldn’t understand when I heard the explanation from the devil’s sword. This was because this being that was called an immortal seed to be the only one existing in the entirety of the dinsions.
The alien answered with a short silence.
– I existed alone from the mont I gained my will. Of course, I don’t have any mory of before I existed. Other beings of the sa race have never been seen even after traveling through so many worlds.
In short, this was a species with only one individual from beginning to end.
Of course, this was not normal. There was only one reason as to why such abnormal races exist, from my point of view.
“Soone touched it.”
– What?
There was a concept that had always remained in the explanation of the immortal. There was a kind that could modify a life form among the unique skills.
A parasite was linked to the [rcardius’ Seed]. Therefore, the seed may be such a modified entity.
If so···
I called it with a na that I thought fitting rather than calling it an immortal.
“Parasite, you could also be soone’s skill-modulated existence. Your existence itself could be a by-product of so other skill.”
As soon as I said this, I could feel the creature’s utter disgust.
Undecoded telepathy had started pouring into my mind. The raging anger swirled and poked my mind like a thorn. However, it still couldn’t do any harm because of [The Successor’s Eyes].
The parasite itself couldn’t have not thought of what I had inferred.
After a long period of self-examination, it must have co up with this possibility; the idea that itself could be a component or by-product of a skill.
The only difference between it and the seed was the intelligence and presence of Mana core.
‘Must it be the sa being that made the curse on ? The idea itself is very similar. I can’t tell at this stage.’
Furthermore, the interrogation could no longer continue. I had already noticed the raging parasite sneaking its smoke of Mana out of the heart.
‘Let’s get this over with.’
It didn’t even know that I could see Mana.
It must have thought that my [Stealth] was unusable due to so kind of detection type skills. Because of the missing link in its information, the immortal was now making vain attempts.
Pshk!
I thrust my finger into its heart.
-Damn it!
When it was clear that it would lose its host, it escaped as fast as it could.
-Even if you can do such a thing to the host, you can’t easily destroy my….!
I didn’t even give it a chance to finish; I activated my skill.
[Mana Drain!]
At that mont…
Aghhh!
A shriek of the mind that sounded like its living soul was being ripped away echoed in my head.
W- What is this?! No! No!
The swirl of suction at the tip of my finger began to absorb the Mana core, much like a wispy cloud of smoke that integrated the parasite’s body along with it.
-No, my being… My existenceee!
If I had to liken it to a creature with a body, would it be like being eaten by a carnivore whilst maintaining its consciousness?
The speed of Mana core absorption was different from the usual.
Perhaps because of the peculiarity of existence, the Mana core, which had mixed in with the parasite, slowly absorbed into my fingertips.
As the absorption progressed, the telepathy it once scread now beca dull and faint.
– No. I’m being consud. I’m ·······
The wall between emotions, thoughts, mories, and cognition collapsed. It both mixed and shattered.
– I am ··· I am ···
It was never a pleasant experience to witness the collapse of a being’s spirit.
Everything that had made up its world lted and shattered, and eventually left a very thin, shallow mass.
-·······I am.
Once it had been fully absorbed into my finger, an unbelievable silence enveloped .
I said aloud, “It’s over.”
With this, I put an end to the bad blood of my past life here.
*
After completely finishing Angelica, I approached Han-Seol’s corpse.
‘The common denominator of the surely cursed three. It ant that I had to find it in my mory, right?’
Even if one didn’t realize it for himself or herself, I recalled the end of Park Chang-Hee.
‘If a situation similar to that happens.’
When I pierced through the heart of Han-Seol, I only confird the existence of a curse and imdiately distanced myself from the body.
I didn’t want to create a situation where the seeds would fight each other in a setting where I also had to fight off the aliens in the vicinity.
‘Is it already gone?’
I looked down at Han-Seol’s body, and my worries proved to be unneeded.
‘It’s livid.’
I could hear it, even from here.
‘Geeeek!’
Red energy was rumbling in the fragnts of the already torn heart. I observed its size.
‘It’s almost like the one that Park Chang-Hee had.’
Even when I looked at the one inside my heart or now, it was exactly double the size of that thing right now.
This ant that the size wasn’t different from the host’s potential Mana, or its progress on brainwashing the host.
‘Geeeeek!’
From the seed that had lost its host, a cry similar to that of a small beast ca out. It sounded like it was throwing a fit.
‘Is that going to rush at too?’
However, things were different this ti around.
Swoosh!
Like a predator in front of its prey, the curse hidden in my heart produced a red tentacle out of my body.
I knew a similar thing would happen now.
‘Destroy that seed as it was then.’
When Park Chang-Hee’s seed was dying, the mory of Park Chang-Hee was reflected in my mind. His whole life flashed before .
It was all vast information that one couldn’t rember all just by looking at it once, but···
‘I’m different.’
Once I saw it, I could always rember it, no matter how vast the content was.
‘mories of original Seo Jin-Wook that are slowly being pieced together, and the mory of Park Chang-Hee. And the mory of Han-Seol.‘
If I compared all these mories, I would eventually find common ground.
‘On who placed this curse on !’
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