The first thing Takuma did was to make himself comfortable. The bed was rather stiff -- not well used, which was good in his opinion. There wasn't much in the room aside from a table, a wash bucket, a bedpan, and a dresser near the wall. There was also a large square window facing the main street of Arnia on the far end of the room. Takuma could see both Wyvern's and the General Store from his room, as well as a row of other street stands and shops -- most of which were closed or unattended.
He unwrapped the cloth belt around his injured hand and flexed it a few times. The large holes in his hand had all but healed, leaving little more than indentations. It had taken less than an hour by Takuma's reckoning.
"Good to know my regeneration can handle wounds like this." He remarked aloud as he walked over to the bed and opened his dimension storage. He pulled out the three items he'd purchased from the general store just over an hour ago, starting with the most interesting of the three.
"
Dream Gourd(Quality : 222) [Curse Rank 3] [Type Zero] - A magical tool said to trap nightmares.
Curse Effect: Sandman - Restful sleep only lasts two hours.
Curse Duration: 15 days.
Mana Rewarded: 325
Experience Rewarded: 125
Secondary Effect : Lullaby - Inflict Slumber (Lvl 2 Sleep) on any within a three-meter radius.
Uses : 5
"
The first thing Takuma noticed was that the Dream Gourd didn't seem to have a blessing attached to it. This most likely meant that not all cursed relics did. He thought back to his earlier encounter with the Bloodletter and something else that bothered him at the time. The Curse rank for the Bloodletter was five originally, but after being purified, the Bless rank dropped to 2. This suggested that perhaps an item could receive less powerful blessings during the purification process. This contradicted Takuma's assumption that he would get something of equal value based on his experience with the Goddess Amulet. It was a logical assumption, but a guess just the same.
The Dream Gourd was by far the "safest" curse he could hope to deal with. He quickly spammed his Partial Purification skill until the item was cleansed in a flash of white light.
"
Dream Gourd(Quality : 222) [Bless Rank 0] [Type Zero] - A magical tool said to trap nightmares.
Magic Effect: Doze : Inflict a single target with a sleep spell. Causes nightmare illusions that damage mana.
Secondary Effect : Lullaby - Inflict Slumber (Lvl 2 Sleep) on any within a three-meter radius.
Uses : 5
"
As Takuma suspected, the Bless Rank decreased, this time completely, with this item. If he had to venture another guess, the item's original effect had most likely been restored.
"This is a really nice item. Normally, with status ailments, there's a chance to fail on activation. This seems like an absolute cast type-- maybe because there are a limited number of uses?" Takuma said as he picked up the Dream Gourd and inspected it. It was little more than a decorative gourd at this poin,t but he could feel a strange sensation from within the item--no doubt what he perceived was mana.
He placed it into his inventory for later and next turned his attention to the small ring.
"
Iron Ring(Quality : 55) [Curse Rank 3] [Armament] - A sturdy iron ring that can be enchanted with one or more magic effects.
Curse Effect: Miasma Poisoning - While wearing the ring, users will suffer from the effects of minor miasma buildup.
Curse Duration: Constant
Mana Rewarded: 600
Experience Rewarded: 25
Secondary Effect : N/A
"
He equipped the ring and stood silently, waiting.
"+1 Mana."
"+1 Mana."
"-2 Vit."
This cycle repeated once every thirty seconds or so. Takuma's initial idea was to equip the ring and use it as a mana regeneration item, but with the vitality drain, that would be impossible. It would eventually kill him at this rate. It might take a few hour,s but…
"Wait…" He thought to himself as he quickly opened his Inventory menu. He hovered over the equipped Goddess Amulet and was surprised to see that the item's resistances had changed.
"Lesser Miasma Resistance: 17%"
"Severe Miasma Resistance: 2%"
This was significantly higher than before but Takuma waited several minutes to test his theory. He watched as the lesser miasma resistance occasionally increased, a broad smile spreading across his face.
"Interesting." He said with a smug grin. This experiment would take a little longer to play out, and the only downside was that one of his three equipment slots was sealed until the ring was purified. Still, infinite mana gain, however minimal, was a pretty good deal.
The final item was a white cloak with leather in various places. It seemed to be in poor condition as the ends were in tatters and several holes could be seen in the fabric. Originally, the item caught his eye because of its appearance, but he also wanted to test something else.
"
Phantom Cloak(Quality : 15) [Curse Rank 2] [Armament] - A cloak that makes the user 'feel' faster. Bless Chance 2%.
Curse Effect: Slow Poke - -2 Accel, -50% movement speed and reaction time.
Curse Duration : Constant
Secondary Effect : Phantom Step - Create an after-image of yourself.
"
It seemed like the higher the quality of an item, the better the chance of obtaining a blessed item after purification. He equipped the cloak and attempted to walk around, but he couldn't do so without bursting into a fit of laughter. His movement was painfully slow, worse than a sloth's! He purified the item (as quickly as he could, given the curse) and then checked the Phantom Cloak's description once more.
"
Phantom Cloak(Quality : 55) [Bless Rank 0] [Armament] - A short ,hoodless cloak that makes the user faster.
Item Effect: Fleet Footed - +2 Accel while equipped. Increases both movement speed and reflexes by 50%.
Secondary Effect : Phantom Step - Create an after-image of yourself.
"
As suspected, the Bless rank dropped completely, but the original item was pretty good on its own merit. What's more, the item's quality increased during the purification process. This manifested in a very physical way; the damaged cloak was now in better condition, although some holes remained in the fabric. This suggested that some curses actually might degrade the items themselves over time.
Takuma plopped down on his bed, his mind swirling with thoughts. He'd confirmed quite a few things today. The first was that curses ranked three or lower were much easier to deal with. They could even be considered "safe" under the right conditions.
Item quality seemed to be a major factor in whether an item would become blessed after purification. Also, most of the curses seem to be inverse reactions to the item's intended effect. The Goddess Amulet was meant to protect, but instead ended up harming. The Phantom Cloak, once purified, increased his Accel and made him faster. By contrast, its cursed counterpart sentenced the wearer to life at a snail's pace.
"The world of curses is more complex than I thought."
With this, Takuma hopped off the bed and stretched lightly. Now that he'd settled in, it was time to revisit the general shop.
—----------------
"1,200 experience points," Takuma repeated to himself as he walked along Arnia's main street, his destination was Dot's shop.
This number referred to reaching his next Class Rank and, by extension, more skills and abilities. It had only been about a day and some hours since his arrival in this new world, but he'd managed to progress one-fifth of his class ladder. It's not that he had a problem with skill-based "games" but there was a certain appeal to reaching level 999 and obtaining the most powerful gear. Takuma decided to reserve his judgment for now and instead focused on upcoming skill and ability acquisition.
The more he examined the Relic Meister skill tree, the more he realized just how essential all of the skills and abilities would be.
Secondary Effects on relics seemed to function as item-specific skills that he could activate at a certain point. Now that he had two of them, he couldn't help but wonder about their use. It was clear what the secondary effects were by the description, but for Takuma, it was like a child awaiting Christmas day -- he just wanted to unwrap the present and play already.
"Rank 5, Relic Activation." Though he'd just gotten done gloating about how close he was to being a rank 3 Meister, the amount of experience needed to reach each rank seemed to double. At first, he only needed 1,000 points to reach rank 1, he got a little more than that simply from equipping the Goddess Amulet if he remembered correctly. Rank 2 requirements had shot up to 2,000 and now Rank 3 required 4,000.
In a way, his near-death experiences were good in the sense that he'd managed to quickly rank up. If rank three and lower cursed relics were any indication, it might have taken dozens or even a hundred purifications to break his first level. For Takuma, this also added a sense of foreshadowing since if his Rank up requirements continued to double, at some point he would need to resort to purifying relics of rank four or higher..
Takuma entered the general shop and closed the door behind him before making his way to the counter.
"Oh. Hello, back again?" Dot asked.
"Indeed. I'd like to make a few purchases. First things first...do you perhaps have some better clothes I can buy? I'm borrowing these." Takuma said as he motioned to the borrowed suit he was currently wearing.
Dot nodded, inviting Takuma to follow her to a nearby room. Inside were assorted pieces of clothing of varying prices. Surprisingly enough, none of them were cursed. After a few minutes and several suggestions Takuma decided to choose a traditional caster's outfit. A free-flowing green tunic bound by a leather belt, somewhat baggy pants, along with ankle-high boots.
"Is it also possible to have this cloak repaired?" Takuma asked, pointing to his Phantom Cloak.
"No, sorry. I don't have the materials here to fix this cloth. It seems enchanted." Dot said as she fingered the holes in the fabric.
"She can tell that much? Hmm.." He thought.
It may have been because Takuma stared intently for a bit too long but he noticed something that gave him cause for concern.
"Dorothy Hemslock. Class - Shopkeeper Rank 7/10.
Height : 155 cm
Weight : 65 kg
Party : None.
Guild : None
Status : Cursed [Curse Rank 6] Longevity Syphon - A hereditary curse passed on from generation to generation. Halves vitality and slowly decreases lifeforce over time until death."
"What the hell?" Takuma mumbled as he stared at Dot in disbelief. He had begun to register a faint purple outline surrounding her body.
"+1 Mana."
"She's cursed. Is that even possible?" Takuma whispered. Now that he thought about it, his assumption and limited experiences led him to believe that only items could be cursed. He wouldn't call it a "possession", because that implied being taken over by an entity. It was just that he never really thought it possible. The more Takuma thought about it, the more foolish he felt.
"What's that?" Dot asked, suddenly looking up to meet his gaze. Her face seemed paler than before, and Takuma's mind flashed back to the sensation of discomfort when their hands met earlier in the day.
"This is worse than I thought!" Takuma gritted his teeth as he receded into his own thoughts. The original plan was to purchase as many of the relics as possible and purify them himself over time. If for some reason that wouldn't work, he decided to ask for a job -- even if it meant working for free. This would allow him to handle the relics directly and remove as many of the curses as possible.
He never considered that Dot herself would be cursed. Because he'd nearly died or had been seriously injured several times over the past day, it was almost a certainty that he would need to improve his skills to help Dot. Unless he cured Dot in one go, the curse would most likely flare up and claim her life. Not only that, but the curse was a rank-six curse.
"+1 Mana."
"Severe Miasma Resistance : 3%"
"Dot. I'd like to buy more of the items out front, if that's okay." Takuma said suddenly. This was something he planned to do anyway but now he simply needed time to think. Dot escorted him back to the front of the store and he quickly went to work purchasing cursed items. He started with every rank three item (about twenty in total), then moved onto rank two items. Finally, he collected all of the remaining rank one items as well.
"That comes to about 302 silvers," Dot said as she tallied his purchases. Takuma carefully studied the young woman's face, her mannerisms -- even her breathing. She seemed winded and her hands shook as she moved to set all of the items before him. He handed her three gold coins and twenty-two silver as a tip and then insisted that she allow him to finish up.
Dot bowed graciously as she wobbled slightly. The next thing Takuma knew, she'd fallen face-first to the floor with a loud, resounding thud.
"+5 Mana."
"Severe Miasma Resistance : 4%"