Amber stared at the red-haired woman with confusion. She was just staring at her with wide eyes without saying anything. In fact, it had been a whole minute without the Explosion Mage saying anything, which was odd.

  “Is there something on my face?” Amber asked, raising an eyebrow.

  And finally, she seemed to snap out of it. “A-Amber?”

  “That’s me,” Amber nodded peering curiously at the mage. “Are you worried about something?”

  “I’m worried about you.” She pointed at her. “Your entire body is black flames! I can barely even see your face at this point.”

  “Oh. But I can see just fine?” Amber tilted her head.

  Her vision was perfectly clear, in fact the flames that were constantly trying to gnaw at her felt a lot less threatening at this point, but maybe it was due to the fact that her Curse Resistance had leveled up a few times now, and she felt like Inexorable Manipulation was also on the verge of breaking to the 6th Rank.

  …

  [Curse Resistance has leveled up from 6th Rank level 7 to 6th Rank level 8.]

  After glancing at the notifications, Amber turned back to the mage.

  “Is it really that bad?”

  In response she got a nod, before the woman continued. “But if you can bear with it then I suppose it’s useless to worry about you.”

  Amber agreed with that sentiment, so she didn’t say anything else and instead changed the topic.

  “But why did you come? I told you that until I can use the Curse of Eternal Flames myself I won’t be able to help you.”

  Hearing that Alyssa shifted awkwardly, before finally speaking, “Your companion seemed worried about something yesterday. Is there anything you know about it? She said things in the republic may get worse in the near future.”

  Amber blinked. “Frei said that?”

  Getting a sound of affirmation Amber frowned.

  “I don’t know anything but, I’ll let you know if learn anything. She’s still gathering information right now.”

  The mage took in her words and then spoke up, meeting Amber’s gaze.

  “Also, I came to you for something else.”

  “What is it?”

  “Compensation.”

  Alyssa’s words lingered in the air for a moment, eliciting confusion from Amber. But before she could ask about it, the mage continued.

  “I know I offered a Divine Artifact, but considering how much effort you’re putting into this, I don’t think it will satisfy someone as strong as you…” Alyssa hesitated. “After all, as an important member of the council, I’m sure you know that not all Divine Artifacts are great.”

  “So you’re saying yours is quite bad?”

  In response, the mage hesitantly took out a small flask containing red liquid. And as Amber stared at it, she got the expected result.

  [??? Grade ?— ??? ?— ??? Quality

  ??? ??? ??? ??? ???.]

  “What is it?” Amber asked.

  The mage blinked. “It’s a potion. A consumable.”

  She sighed. “I know that much, but what does it do?”

  Hearing her words, she got a rather interesting stare in response. But after that incredulous look she quickly explained.

  “As you can see in its description, by drinking it it will teleport you to a desired location within a few hundred meters of your vicinity. It’s a one time use,” she said her head lowering. “It’s not… very good.”

  “I’ve seen worse, like a book that boosts Wisdom and Intelligence by 5%, and whose abilities is to make or solve riddles.” Amber shook her head. “This one isn’t bad.”

  Amber could already imagine a use case. After all, Quick Dash wasn’t infinitely spammable ?— it was simply near that ?— but more importantly, the biggest factor was. Quick Dash lacked the ability to teleport oneself into objects. So if she wanted to appear inside an enemy it was simply an impossibility, but this vial given its origins would most certainly achieve those effects.

  Well, it had a high probability of not having that limitation.

  “S-Still…” The mage hesitated. “It’s a mere one-time consumable?—”

  “It’s satisfactory,” Amber continued with a shrug. “Besides, learning the curse that’s within you is already a form of payment for me.”

  Alyssa stiffened and then looked up with fear, but unable to glean Amber’s expression she simply pursed her lips.

  “R-Right, well if you have anything else to demand in exchange for your services just ask for it and I will?—”

  Seeing her body language, Amber finally realized why the mage was acting like this. In the first place, the Arcane Council was known as a callous organization, so she must’ve felt that the reward she was offering was not up to the task; at least as far as the Arcane Council context went.

  There was also the fact that Alyssa seemed to regard her as some type of monster; someone much higher leveled than what her actual level was. So taking all of that into account Amber could somewhat picture the image that Alyssa had of her in her mind.

  Amber took a breath.

  “I won’t demand anything else. I’m not the type to really take advantage of someone like you.”

  After all, from the looks of it, Alyssa was simply pushed towards bad people due to her circumstances rather than anything else, Amber thought.

  “So, really don’t worry about it. I’m also nowhere near as important as you think. But if you really want to help in some way you could try helping Frei with the bone rune schematics. If you’re good with runes that is.”

  Hearing Amber, the mage Alyssa nodded in a hurry before departing in order to help. Amber could tell that she hadn’t taken the words to heart, but at that point it didn’t matter to her. There was, something much more important and that was trying to comprehend the curse and also pushing the 6th Rank of Inexorable Manipulation.

  * * *

  Time passed and a day quickly flew by, allowing Curse Resistance to gain yet another level. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the flames themselves were an external source, but the long frozen resistance was steadily progressing which was good for Amber.

  [Curse Resistance has leveled up from 6th Rank level 8 to 6th Rank level 9.]

  After all, as a Cursebearer the fact that she wasn’t exactly immune to curses was a laughable notion. Especially if she stepped foot in Ill’hine and just dropped dead due to some other curses. Though that reminded her?— wouldn’t her resistances need arduous training for when she stepped on Ill’hine? If anything, it was actually ridiculous, but it also made sense.

  As far as her understanding of that higher realm went, one needed to be basically at the peak of Vir in order to compete with the bottom of the food chain. So maybe it made sense, if the limit of resistances in Vir was around 6th or 7th Rank then that basically was the entry level for that place.

  What a shame, Amber sighed. If she had come to this realization she could’ve had the Primordial Spirit of the Shattered Tower help her by forcefully raising her resistances. Sure, maybe he would’ve asked her if she was insane, but honestly it felt like a missed opportunity.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Alas, all she could do was lament on it now. Maybe try to pay a visit, but that spirit might’ve just closed down his tower from her at this point; denying her access. All she could do now was just add this as a future task for her bucket list.

  Well, for now I have something much more important to deal with, Amber added in her mind.

  At the same time the flames that were surrounding her quelled considerably before erupting again as if they were breathing. The pile of flames that was nearby also did so. Such were the effects of Inexorable Manipulation, and maybe if she added Inexorable Will to the mix, an Essence Skill, then maybe she could even try to forcefully extinguish the flames by straining herself.

  But that wasn’t the point, rather by doing this she had one simple goal and that was to push Inexorable Manipulation to it’s Rank up. By constantly trying to push the Skill past its limits it would grow; a day ago she was far from achieving this effect but now, it was a completely different thing.

  She estimated that by the time that she could extinguish the flames ?— with great effort ?— the Skill would reach the 6th Rank, and she had a feeling that that time wasn’t far off. However, she was beginning to realize that the flames weren’t too inconvenient. At this point she could fully stop them from spreading, so they were closer to an aesthetic effect, and the pain of the flames was…

  Frankly she started to forget about them, moreover it constantly counted her state as in-combat which meant that Skills like Inexorable Body and Inexorable Momentum were constantly at max at this point. However, none of her Legacy Branch Skills responded to it, which was a bit saddening but it also made sense. None of her blood was truly shed, instead it was just burned away by the skill constantly. So something like Crimson Fervor or Demonic Frenzy that specifically needed the blood to flow in some way were simply not constantly active.

  “In which case, isn’t it better to just leave some arrows stuck in my body?” Amber murmured. “No wait, I can just bite my tongue for that…”

  It seems she had forgotten about that fact, self inflicted injuries totally counted for the Legacy Branch Skills since it didn’t specify it required other’s blood. So all in all, the flames were actually pretty good. Moreover, anyone that tried to fight her at close range would end up quite injured by the Curse of Eternal Flames.

  The more she thought about it, the more appealing it seemed to her to just let the Curse of Eternal Flames permanently active on her body. After all, it apparently looked quite cool according to Frei, giving Amber a ‘menacing aura’. The fact that she could have a ‘menacing aura’ was great; in fact, who wouldn’t want to have ‘aura’? Now she could truly claim to have ‘aura’.

  There was also the fact that the flames covering her body obscured her face quite well so maybe it would be useful for future confrontations. As for Appraisal just showing all her relevant information? Well?— there was not much she could do about that at the moment, but at the very least it could cause confusion.

  However, there was a much more important thing to keep in mind if she wanted to maintain this state. And that was to actually understand the Curse of Eternal Flames, unlike the Curse of Disintegration whose Essence was to essentially ‘erode’ everything it touched, the Curse of Eternal Flames was a bit more complicated. But she estimated she wasn’t too far off from understanding it.

  Unlike the Curse of Disintegration she could get a feel for it from the start since its potency wasn’t as high. But the time to comprehend it seemed to be much longer due to its rather complex nature, that essentially used anything and everything as fuel.

  Thinking about curses made her think of something.

  She took out the vial that had once held the Curse of Disintegration, and after a moment of deliberation she inserted her finger inside and?—

  Through gritted teeth she conjured the Curse of Disintegration, or rather… it wasn’t conjuring but concentrating it. Her finger began to hurt like hell as the bone was degraded into nothingness and from the tip of that a small single drop of purple liquid with glitter like the stars fell down into the vial.

  “So I can make concentrated curses…” Amber let out a deep breath. “Not bad.”

  Although, just a single drop left her panting for breath. It seemed to burn a great deal of stamina. But it wasn’t bad.

  I’ll do this as much as I can then.

  With that added to her tasks, Amber focused on her curse related training. Whether it was understanding the Curse of Eternal Flames, or increasing Inexorable Manipulation, or trying to make more liquid Curse of Disintegration, she did them all diligently. All while sitting in a lotus position since it made it all easier for some reason.

  * * *

  And just like that, two more days passed. During this time Amber received some completed body parts in regards to the bone runes; though unfortunately Alyssa hadn’t been able to help with them much to her disappointment.

  So with that, she made four permanent conduit constructs out of curses for her bone carving endeavors. These four covered the entirety of her arms, something that quite pleased her. Not only that, but she felt like she was getting pretty close to understanding the Curse of Eternal Flames at long last. And there were also two more good pieces of good news.

  One was the fact that the vial with the Curse of Disintegration actually had around a sixth of liquid filled up, which was about enough liquid for a small gulp. Which was great since she could start consider various applications for it.

  The other was the fact that Inexorable Manipulation could reach 6th Rank at any point she wanted it to at this point.

  Amber smiled to herself as she saw the sun high in the sky, but she sensed a presence. Looking over, it was Frei and she had a serious expression. So far, Amber hadn’t received further information from Frei, but she was well aware of what Frei had told Alyssa a few days ago.

  And now, it seemed that this visit might’ve been related to that.

  Amber looked at her: “Is the condition of the republic really that bad?”

  “It’s not the end of the world but it’s bad. However, more importantly you should prepare for battle, the Arcane Council is making quite a grand act now,” she said rubbing her forehead.

  Amber blinked, “Wait, are they coming after me with a whole subjugation party or something?”

  Frei shook her head. “Not quite, they are bound to come after you but after they finish their current objective. After all, they have issued an official bounty for you within the organization. But more importantly, the higher ups of the council have decided to assist the Demon of Genesis.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “I don’t quite understand it, but…” Frei met Amber’s gaze seriously. “The outcome is that the Arcane Council have decided to destroy the remaining settlements in the Republic of Mercenaries.”

  Amber paused and Frei continued.

  “And it seems that the previous members present here have been gathering demons for the past month. Which means…”

  Frei met her gaze.

  “A horde of demons shall besiege the Grand Fortress, tonight.”

  Oh…

  * * *

  Reading a piece of parchment, Mercoth couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. His weathered features showing rare surprise as he scratched his white stubble.

  “Is this brat really that important?”

  A flash of red appeared behind him as the voice of his companion echoed.

  “What brat?” Glam asked.

  Mercoth glanced over at the brown haired youth. He had curious expression. It was none other than the person he was working with, and the second member of their two person squad. Glam, the Executioner.

  In response, Mercoth took a moment as he shook his head, before placing a small wrapped paper on his mouth. Shortly after, he ignited it with a purple flame as he took in the smoke and let it out with a long breath.

  “Amber the Cursed Berserker. The higher ups have announced an official bounty on her, and every squad that’s in the republic should be on the lookout for her.”

  “And what’s the verdict? To capture her?” Glam raised his brow.

  Mercoth lowered the burning paper, “Death. Kill on sight.”

  Glam nodded. “Hm, interesting.”

  “More importantly, do you almost have all the demons we need?” Mercoth glanced over at the blood littered surroundings. “I’m not fond of this kind of dirty work.”

  “Actually, I’ve finished. We can bring down the Grand Fortress of Sishet soon.”

  “Sure, sure. Just remember to not kill too many people, it’s important for our plans.” Mercoth took a deep puff of the paper. “Don’t get carried away rookie.”

  “You always nag me, you fossil,” Glam snorted, rubbing the inside of his ear. “It’s alright, don’t worry.”

  “Alright then.”

  With those words, Mercoth stood up and tossed the paper onto the ground, stomping it out as he turned to look at his surroundings properly. The scenery in front of him was devoid of people, yet there were small shacks. If one had to say the biggest thing to see were the large puddles of blood.

  Finally, Mercoth glanced behind him and the sight made him show a rare smile. There, as far as the eye could see, were hundreds of demons. A whole sea of red, awaiting their orders.

  While the Arcane Council wasn’t a group of demon summoners, this much wasn’t that hard to achieve for them.

  However, the reason Mercoth was smiling wasn’t because he was proud of the organization he belonged to. No, the reason was far simpler than that.

  “After this, I’ll finally be able to take a half-year vacation,” he said happily as he walked forward.

  Raising a blood red staff that appeared on his hand he called.

  “Let’s bring that old fortress down.”

  And as if understanding, all the demons cried out, filling the dusk sky with their cacophony of roars.

  * * *

  “We’ve found the lead.”

  At the maw of a cave a person in white robes walked in, getting the attention of the two figures inside. One of them had a large white scythe at her side, their face wasn’t visible except for some white hair that fell down from the opening of the hood. The other was a rather average looking man with glasses, dressed in white robes. He was reading a book, and a rosary was tightly wrapped around his hand.

  Following the words of the man that just entered, the book was closed and the man looked up with a serious gaze.

  “Is it enough to reach our target?”

  Hearing his words, the man in white robes that had just entered flinched for a moment but quickly nodded.

  “I’m quite certain it is enough, Archbishop Theoderick. By nightfall we will see our target, I guarantee it.”

  “Good.” He stood up as he glanced over at the other person next to him. “Let’s get going, Archbishop Esther.”

  The girl stood up and grabbed the white scythe that stood taller than herself, before simply giving a nod and walking past Archbishop Theoderick. The sight made him frown slightly, but at the end of the day they were the orders of the Holy Principalities of the Saints of Truth. He was to work with this girl and eliminate the heinous Dark Reaper that called Archbishop Anael. Or at the very least, investigate her and report back.

  Their main goal was to facilitate vengeance, not vengeance itself. If the situation was disadvantegous it was best not to engage. This was a careful plan arranged by the Saints, and given the precarious situation in the republic Theoderick wanted nothing more than to execute it to perfection so that his strength could be better used by the organization. The clash with another big organization was in the horizon.

  The Arcane Council.

  Which is why, he had to conserve his strength and only act if needed. And therein lied the problem.

  Archbishop Esther was too much of a radical figure.

  Let’s hope it all goes according to plan.

  Shaking his head, he walked forward and exited the cave where two bishops were waiting, including the one that had just reported.

  “Let us go.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  “To complete our mission.”