Curselock

Chapter 100: Bonus

With the dungeon more or less completed, there really wasn’t much left for the boys to do. They had returned Gelo to her mother, gained plenty of experience, and even some items. Jude and Glenny got the most out of their troubles, each ranking up their Legacy abilities several times, while Jude also received a blessing and great advice. Leland, on the other hand, remained where he was with his progression, Soul Fire still blocking his advancement into rank two.

Soul Fire had been weighing on his mind since he unlocked the ability, mainly because it required human souls to activate. It took him a bit to realize it, but if he wanted to keep up with Jude and Glenny, he’d have to not only kill monsters. Ranking up the curse was going to be a problem, one that he wasn’t quite sure of the upper limits.

Now more than ever, he felt inclined to hide his Legacy from others. If people knew he required souls to rank up, surely there’d be a bounty on his head. That sort of thing was left for the vile Lords and their Legacies.

But then again, the Lords Leland had talked to didn’t mind his presence. Not like they would with a vile Legacy. There had been crusades to sunder the vile Lords’ forces before, all of which were started by one or more good-aligned Lords. But that was many, many years ago and Leland didn’t know all of the specifics.

No, the Lords he’d talked to all referred to him as the Calamity, son of the Calamity, or child of the Calamity. Which, while he still didn’t know what it meant, obviously related to Soul Fire.

Type: Curse

Rank: 1 (S)

Ignite a lost soul.

Soul Fire’s strength directly correlates to the strength of the soul used.

He reviewed the curse, finding the page of his grimoire unchanged since the last time he looked. There wasn’t much he could do right now, not with so much uncertainty. A battle was expected the moment they stepped out of the dungeon, and hopefully that would add two new souls to his collection.

Leland paused at the thought before reeling in guilt. Regardless of whether people attacked him or his friends, being thankful that he could collect their souls was a dark idea. Magic and power was a slippery slope, as was the hunger to progress in his ways.

He’d have to be more careful with how he approached Soul Fire. He couldn’t let himself get used to killing. He’d quit being an adventurer if that was the case.

“Before you all leave, take whatever you want,” Floe said, pulling Leland out of his internal musing. The massive bear gestured with her snout at the treasures of her den.

“We can’t—”

“Sure you can.”

“But the—”

“We have literally no use for any of this… stuff. And if we did, I could kill whatever drops said item over and over until we have a replacement,” Floe said.

Leland and the others shared a look. Only a few seconds passed until each shot to their feet and were scavenging the wide cave for whatever seemed interesting. The issue with dungeon items was that their uses were often hidden, thus requiring a professional appraiser to identify and give an estimate.

So, the boys took only the most unique items, filling their packs with golden hunks of ornate metal or fluorescent tablets with runic writing. Either way, they knew most of the stuff they were taking was going to be sold. There was only so much they could properly use before drowning in the failing of their own power.

It was a common mistake among the rich. Parents set their children with the best of the best items, thus hamstringing the child’s actual power. There would be no foundations to fall back upon, no failsafe for if an item fails, breaks, or is taken.

Each of the boys knew this quite well, after all they themselves were first hand examples of the correct way to handle magical items. Their parents had ingrained the failures of having powerful crutches into their minds early, which was why each boy only received the bare minimum before they left home. If they were going to acquire a powerful item, it would be because they had the power to do so in the first place, not because their parents were rich.

Even so, the boys didn’t hesitate to upgrade to a certain degree. Jewelry was the easy option, as such items usually only gave small bonuses like increased health regeneration or the ability to see in the dark. They stayed away from items that would completely change their fighting styles or abilities.

This was especially hard for Leland as he found six copies of the exact same magical wand. He couldn’t quite tell what it did, but just holding it, he felt a surge of air around him. He could feel the way the wind moved through the den, he could taste different aromas around the area. The wand was powerful, but just not for him.

That didn’t stop him from pocketing one to sell or trade.

At some point Floe offhandedly mentioned that she’d already removed all of the cursed items and locked them away. “If you want to see those, that can be arranged,” she said.

But the boys weren’t listening, not when each realized how foolish they’d been. If they so much as touched a cursed item, who knew what might happen. Losing the hand would have been the least of their worries. But with the knowledge that they were only handling safe items, the boys quickly got back to searching through the piles of items, albeit slower and with less greed in their eyes.

In the end, each boy picked out a few pieces of jewelry and an armor set. Having a full dungeon armor set was rare and often quite expensive. They’d have to get each item appraised to make sure the item fit with their personalities, but that was for later.

Right now, each boy fawned over their looks.

Jude had picked out an armor set made of bone and ice at Floe’s suggestion. It was a three piece set, with a chest piece, boots, and gauntlets and as soon as he put them on, he no longer felt cold. The obvious answer was that the armor gave him cold resistance, but he felt there was something more. Luckily, the bone matched the only other piece of dungeon armor he wore, the forearm guard from Liontrunk’s dungeon.

The armor itself was various lengths of bone sewn into a dark sheet of ice and fabric. The boots were the least intimidating of the three pieces, being the least icy and holding the least amount of bone. The gauntlets curled the length of his fingers, making his grip stiffer to hold his axe better. The most impressive was the chest piece. Two thick tusks hung from either shoulder, jutting out a bit like crocodiles ready to strike. They oozed cold white mist and were dipped in hoarfrost, much like Jude was during the battle with King Everald.

He found the look fitting.

Glenny picked all of his items next, finding a dark leather set of armor. He didn’t choose the set because it looked fancy or gave off some sort of magical aura, but rather because they reminded him of the set his father wore. His father’s set could shift with the shadows, teleporting him to any other shadow in the area.

Did Glenny think the set he chose had the same sort of ability? No, not one bit. But that didn’t change his decision. He’d been thinking about his father a lot over the last month, it was about time he started being a better son.

Leland’s armor choice was the most obvious. While his previous set of robes were dark blue and were a gift from his parents, the enchanted effect of bonus mana regeneration simply didn’t suit his Legacy of the Curse abilities. Instead he found a higher quality robe set with runic patterns stitched into the fabric and a matching wizard hat.

All in all, he kept the same dark blue color but adopted a golden hem and pattern. The hat was wide, brimmed, and had a soft point at the top. He’d always wanted a wizard hat, not so much for the style sense or practical purpose, but because as soon as he’d accepted their first caravan quest, he realized just how overbearing the sun could be.

At least now he’d have some shade if nothing else.

Of course they each took jewelry trinkets, but those were easily kept in their bags until they were properly appraised.

And with everything set, the boys, Floe, and Gelo exited the den and slowly walked toward where Floe had killed her husband not a day earlier. A glowing green-blue swirl marked the kill sight, a dungeon portal back to the entrance of the snow fields. They each walked through it, arriving at the barren white landscape.

“I guess this is goodbye,” Leland said to the two bears.

Floe gave a long nod, but Gelo burst into tears. “Don’t go!! Please don’t go!” she catapulted herself into Jude’s knees, almost knocking him over. Jude stood strong, however, despite the tears forming in his own eyes. He petted her and hummed the tune that caused them to meet in the first place.

Before they had left, the topic of taking Gelo with the boys had been brought up by Floe. It was obvious the cub was not happy with her current home life and wished to see the outside world. Before they could even discuss, Gelo put her foot down.

“I’m not ready,” she said simply. “I-I was impatient and almost died. Without Jude and the others I would have.”

“Indeed, child,” Floe said with a gentle smile. “I will teach you properly this time. No naps, no disparaging slumbers. When you leave home next time, it will be the last time.”

“Mother…?”

“I am a dungeon’s creation, I must remain near the core. You, however, are not, and can go anywhere you see fit. When it is time, you will leave here and never return. Not to this prison.”

Again, Gelo cried herself to sleep in her mother’s clutches. Their private conversations had warmed the two ice bears, and now they were inseparable. Mother and daughter, as it should be.

“Jude,” Floe had said once she was sure Gelo was asleep. “If something happens to me, and I am reset, I—”

“We will take her in,” Jude interrupted. “But that’s not going to happen, right?”

Floe gave a soft smile. “I will not. Not until I deem myself ready to leave this loop and destroy this dungeon once and for all. Not until she is ready to live on her own. Thank you three for being her first friends.”

The boys each wiped a tear from their eyes, just like they did currently in front of the dungeon’s exit.

“Come find me when you are ready,” Jude whispered to Gelo.

She nodded and backpedaled to her mother’s side. One by one the boys stepped through the dungeon exit, back into the glowing mushroom lit cavern.

They had adopted battle stances instantly, but they were only met with empty silence. “Huh, I guess they didn’t want to fight us,” Leland said.