"Contact if sothing cos up," Ace instructed DD, asking her to replace him and guard the cactus plant as he entered the Wood Palace to power up while he still had ti.
Once inside the Wood Palace, Ace didn’t bother exploring. Instead, he found a secluded spot in the front garden and began feeding all his common mortal-tier curse cores to the Cursed Toybox one by one. "Slow and steady" was the last thing on his mind.
[ — Status Screen —
> Using curse core (Gremlin Form) to enchant Toymancer’s curse core…
> Enhancent complete.
> Toymancer has gained:
i) 5 Physical Stats
ii) 5 Spiritual Stats
iii) 70 Curse Energy
Note: Toymancer’s personal status screen has been updated.]
[ — Status Screen —
> Using curse core (Gremlin Form) to enchant Toymancer’s curse core…
> Enhancent complete.
.
.
.
.
.
Note: Toymancer’s personal status screen has been updated.]
Ace continued the process until he ran out of common mortal-tier curse cores, not bothering to check his updated stats screen. His only goal was to feed as many curse cores as possible into his own curse core—until the Cursed Toybox scread enough.
Just as he prepared to feed it the common knight-tier curse cores, he was interrupted by Emi’s report:
[ — Status Screen —
Emi: Master, I’ve found about two dozen hidden camps outside the town. They appear to belong to various forces of the country’s curse community. I managed to identify two that belong to the cult.
Emi: These are so of the dumbest enemies I have ever co across. I don’t understand how the curse community is having trouble exterminating these fools.
Emi: They have been made and surrounded, but they don’t seem to realize it. It is hard to believe these guys managed to infiltrate the C.I.B.
Emi: I fear sothing bigger is afoot. Should I proceed with the mission?
Ace: It seems the cursed array formations are not there just to protect us, but also to cut us off from the outside world.
Ace: Now I feel like the frog. No worse, the frog was born in the well, I dug my well myself.
Ace: Mission is still a go. Make it fucking loud.
Emi: Hai!]
Even with this new information, Ace didn’t doubt Janice. He knew that, despite everything she was hiding from him, she genuinely wanted to protect his family. Otherwise, moving into his family’s estate wouldn’t have been the first thing she did after learning the controversial information she learned.
However, he was angry at himself. In his effort to create a safe haven for his family, he had ended up isolating himself from both worlds, especially from their darkness. Now, he regretted not stepping deeper into the darkness of those two worlds instead of rely standing as the iron door between his family and the threats that lurked beyond. Rather than becoming a soldier feared by the two worlds, he had chosen to be a naless guard—unseen, unknown—even to the very people he was protecting.
’Rose, how far did your search get?’ Ace ntally asked Da Wasp through the sense-sharing skill, trying to understand why so many forces were camped outside his town. What were they truly after?
’Master, Janice is hiding a lot more than we thought,’ Da Wasp replied, hesitant, unsure where to begin.
’First—can we trust her?’ Ace didn’t care what Janice was hiding from him. What mattered now was whether she could still be trusted.
’Yes. Right now, in the entire curse community of the country, Janice is one of the few we can trust to save our behinds. Her uncle screwed us over big ti. Janice and Matthews tried to make a case for you—especially Matthews—even though she was already in hot water herself. But they were outnumbered and outmuscled. Matthews is lucky they still need her,’ Da Wasp explained, painting a grim picture of their situation while making it clear who their allies and enemies were.
’So, what are they really after?’ Ace asked, ntally noting who he owed and for what.
’The 36th shard of the Spirit Cot,’ Da Wasp revealed with a grim tone, trying to emphasise the seriousness of the matter.
’What?’ Ace replied in confusion. He had assud they were after the cult leader or soone higher up in the cult who was on the run—not over so space rock. Despite hearing Da Wasp say it, he still couldn’t believe all this commotion was over sothing like that… unless there was more to the story.
’The Spirit Cot is more than just a cot. It is an anchor to the Spirit realm. It has a rotation period of a decade. Once every ten years, it passes near our world. During the single hour it is closest to our world, one can use shards of the Spirit Cot to open a gate to the Spirit Realm—a mystical plane filled with powerful and ancient curse spirits. The entire environnt and ecosystem of the plane is built specifically for them. Even a speck of dust from that realm could fetch over a hundred thousand dollars at auction easily. These materials are the finest ingredients for crafting curse tools and extracting high-purity curse energy. To put it simply, the Spirit Realm is a treasure trove for curse users. That’s why a shard of the Spirit Cot is invaluable—too valuable for any individual or single force to possess alone,’ Da Wasp explained, introducing the legendary Spirit Realm to her master—a distant land inhabited by powerful curse spirits, far beyond mankind’s reach.
’Let guess… the Samsara Cult has it,’ Ace said, drawing the obvious conclusion from where this was headed. However, he wondered how a fallen cult could co to possess sothing so valuable.
’No, the Sarmasa Cult doesn’t have the 36th shard of the Spirit Cot. But one of the cult elders might know where it is,’ Da Wasp corrected him.
’How did the curse community get this information?’ Ace asked, still unsure whether to believe it. It was hard to imagine soone possessing sothing so valuable for decades and never using it. With resources from the Spirit Realm, they could have easily overpowered any force in the mortal world.
’The cult itself doesn’t know that one of their elders is aware of the location of the 36th shard of the Spirit Cot,’ Da Wasp replied. ’A C.I.B. agent stumbled upon this intel during a raid on one of the cult’s bases.’
’Turns out, the last descendant of the Overlords—rulers of the fallen colonies upon whose ashes this country was built—sought refuge within the cult. That descendant had grand ambitions: first to take over the cult and then the entire country. But unfortunately for him, we happened.’
’The curse community’s forces haven’t been able to track him down, so they’re using you as bait, hoping he’ll crawl out of whatever hole he’s hiding in,’ Da Wasp explained, filling in the pieces Ace was missing—though it only left him more confused.
’How does using as bait even factor into this?’ Ace asked, unable to understand why soone with such grand ambitions would risk exposing himself, risk everything, just to kill soone as insignificant as him.
’Well, the cult leader was killed by Elinor’s father, so his position is now open. The surviving cult elders—’ Da Wasp began to explain how her master made the perfect bait, but Ace cut in.
’Say no more, I got it. The surviving cult elders are fighting among themselves for the cult leader’s seat, and Elinor’s father hinted at a way to decide who gets to be the next cult leader—by awarding the Sarmasa Slayer title and crediting with the cult’s downfall.’
’Yes, master. That’s the gist of it. That’s why there were two cult camps outside the town. I believe they belong to two rival factions within the cult, each representing a different cult elder.’
’Based on Emi’s report about how they’re the dumbest enemies she’s ever faced, I suspect none of those camps belongs to the faction backing the Overlords’ descendant. Which is bad. Very bad. As we have no idea where they are and what they are planning. These people clearly have no bottom line, so it’s impossible to predict what they’re willing to do to get what they want,’ Da Wasp said, sounding clearly distressed.
’Lyra!’ Ace blurted, his sister imdiately coming to mind—knowing she was the one opening he had left unguarded.
’Master, I’ve been tracking Ma’am Lyra digitally. She’s made it to the airport, and it looks like she’s having a hard ti choosing a therapy dog to cuddle with,’ Da Wasp reported promptly, trying to calm her master’s growing worry.
’What? You can choose therapy dogs? Whatever—just contact the airport, prepare a charter plane for her to head ho imdiately, and make sure she gets to take a few of those therapy dogs on board. Buy the damn airport if you have to, but make sure she’s on her way ho. And inform before the plane lands. We’re going to pick her up personally,’ Ace instructed Da Wasp, then pulled out his phone to contact his sister and inform her about the change of plans.
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