Practical Applications of Curses (1)

"....."

I drew in a long, deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing down the rage boiling up from somewhere deep in my gut.

Getting angry wasn't going to let me butcher Montblanc right here and now. I couldn't afford to let this fury show — not even a flicker of it.

Everything Montblanc had given me, she'd given because she thought of me as a cute little pet. And if a pet bared its teeth and tried to bite, Montblanc was the kind of vicious woman who would put it down without a second's hesitation.

...Then again, who am I to blame anyone?

There was no point dumping this anger on Montblanc.

Sure, I was pissed she hadn't told me something this important. But the person I was angriest at was myself.

I'd seen the notifications. I'd confirmed I was cursed. And I'd ignored every last one of them, because I'd felt too damn good — like I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was riding a high. My heart had been hammering and all I'd wanted was to slaughter monsters, so even as the windows kept popping up to tell me I'd been cursed again and again, I'd waved them off.

If I hadn't ignored them, I never would have hurt Aquaril and Oralisa.

This was entirely my fault.

...So what the hell do I do about it now?

I didn't want to go back into that dungeon.

Even if I got cursed, I had Molt (Lv.3 / Mythic). I could cleanse it whenever I wanted. The problem was that every cast burned a thousand gems.

A thousand gems was enough to come back from the dead. Spending that just to scrub off a single curse felt like a massive waste.

But if I didn't spend it, I could end up hurting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my party all over again.

...Fuck it. No choice. Just think of it as raising my stats. I was planning to use it that way eventually anyway.

One of the growth methods I'd cooked up was Infinite Suicide.

Not actually infinite, of course. The second I ran out of gold to convert into gems, the skill would lock. Still, every time I used Molt, every stat went up by one point — no cap. In the worst case, I'd figured I could just keep dying and coming back until my numbers blew past anything level or rank was supposed to allow. Die more, grow more. Stats that transcended the system itself.

I just hadn't needed it yet. And I still hadn't completely shaken the fear of dying, so I hadn't pulled the trigger.

...Wait. If I just keep using the skill like this, I don't even have to die, do I?

Molt wasn't something I could fire off whenever I felt like it. It only unlocked when I was on the brink of death — or when I was under a status ailment.

That was why I'd been thinking in terms of dying. But if Gigaesingwan, the six-star boss of the Catacomb, kept slapping curses on me... I could keep using Molt indefinitely.

Raise my stats without dying once.

And I only just thought of this.

There was an easier path sitting right in front of me and I'd gone straight to planning my own ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠funeral. Some former ranker I was.

All right. Then I'll just keep using Molt.

The last time I'd cast it, I'd been left with 390 gems. First things first — I converted gold.

A hundred million gold that had been sitting idle in my inventory converted into ten thousand gems. Watching that number swell so fast was a genuine comfort.

I hadn't gotten a proper night's rest, so we ended up taking one more day off before resuming the dungeon raid.

Hoo, fuck... This bastard hits me with it the second I walk in.

The windows bloomed in front of my eyes the instant I set foot in the Catacomb. The anger I'd been sitting on, and the filthy, crawling hunger I felt toward Aquaril, Oralisa, and Kanisia, all tried to tear loose at once.

Not now. I'll use it once we hit the second floor.

Gigaesingwan's Lust Release was still a skill. Skills had cooldowns, and if this thing could reach across floors, that cooldown had to be long. If I wanted to clear this dungeon efficiently, the smart play was to drop to the monster-infested second basement and cleanse it there.

"Are you all right, Master?"

"Master... you okay?"

I'd stopped walking, and Aquaril and Oralisa — who'd been watching me the whole time — came straight over to check on me. I could feel it on them: the fear that I might change the way I had before.

"Don't worry. I can hold it this time."

I gave my anxious fairies a smile, and at the same time I crushed the surge of euphoria climbing up through my chest.

As long as I could keep a lid on my emotions, I could endure this. The reason I'd folded so pathetically last time was that I hadn't even tried. Now that I understood how dangerous this thing was, I could keep the runaway feelings in check.

"Wouldn't it be better to just use that mythic skill now?"

Kanisia asked from beside me. I shook my head.

"I'll cleanse it once we get down to B2. I can hold out until then."

"If you say so... I'll trust you, Alan."

"Thanks."

Trust, huh. That was more than I deserved.

Fuck. Just hold it together.

I had party members who believed in me. I was not going to fall apart in front of them again.

"Let's keep moving."

"Okay."

We descended to the second basement together. Last time we'd pulled out midway through clearing this floor and gone back to base camp, so the entrance was empty — no monsters waiting.

Clatter. Clatter.

"All right. Cleansing it now."

Something was knocking together in the dark ahead. In a dungeon, the only things that made noise besides a raid party were monsters.

My gems dropped from ten thousand to nine thousand. Every stat ticked up by one.

A thousand gems for seven points. A godawful exchange rate, no two ways about it.

Still, the second Molt went off, every emotion that had been stampeding around inside me like a horse with a chewed-through bridle went quiet.

Just like I thought.

And just as I'd predicted, Gigaesingwan's curse didn't come right back. Current time: 09:40. From here on, I'd start clocking the bastard's cooldown.

"Let's go."

"Okay!"

The moment I told them the curse was gone, every face in the party brightened. We charged the monsters waiting in the dark and tore through them without slowing down.

"Die!"

"I won't forgive you!"

Aquaril and Oralisa in particular were ripping into the monsters like they'd lost their minds — furious, I realized, that something had dared to curse me. The one who'd actually done it was the boss, Gigaesingwan, but the zombies were his servants, and that was enough. The anger landed on them just fine.

We smashed through wave after wave and pushed forward until we were standing at the door of the room that held the floor's mid-boss. We were too worn down to take that fight, so we called the raid there and headed back to base camp.

Status window.

Look at those stats just shooting up.

I couldn't decide whether to be happy about it. Being able to raise my numbers without a single Growth Stone was genuinely encouraging — but I'd already burned through five thousand gems, and that made my stomach twist.

Nine casts of Molt so far, right?

Strength, Agility, and Vitality had all broken past 80 — the 4-star stat cap — but those points had come from Molt, which meant I could still push them higher with Growth Stones.

The skill level isn't going up, though. Don't tell me... it only levels if I actually die and come back?

Before, a single use had been enough to bump Molt's level. Today I'd cast it five times and nothing. The only real difference between then and now was whether I'd died, so that was where my mind went.

Every time the level goes up it picks up another effect, so raising it would be nice, but...

Too many things to think about. My head was starting to hurt.

Maybe I should just throw the whole thing away, find some nowhere village in the countryside, and spend my days quietly fucking Aquaril and Oralisa. What the hell kind of glory was I even chasing, living like this day after day...

"Master, you okay?"

"Hm? Yeah. I'm fine."

Oralisa, who was sharing the night watch with me, came over and sat down at my side, looking up at me with open worry. I dismissed the status window and looked at her — at that cute little face.

What the hell did I do to a girl this precious?

"I put you through a lot, didn't I?"

"Huh? N-no! Oralisa wasn't tired at all!"

I stroked her hair as I said it, and she startled, shaking her head so hard her trademark twintails whipped from side to side.

She said she was fine. I knew better than anyone that it was a lie — because I was the one who'd put her through it.

On top of everything else, I'd screamed things at her I would never say now, all because her arrow had grazed my mask in the dungeon. She had to have been hurt badly.

"I'm sorry, Oralisa."

I pulled her onto my lap and wrapped my arms tight around her waist.

If Kanisia saw this she'd tell me it was sickening — but everyone else was asleep. No one to watch us. No reason to care.

"No! Oralisa's really fine! So stop saying you're ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sorry, Master! Say you love me instead!"

"...Yeah. I will. I love you, Oralisa."

"Heehee!"

I pressed my lips to her soft cheek and whispered it, and she lit up like a kid who'd just unwrapped a Christmas present.

Then she whipped her head left and right, checking the camp. Once she was sure everyone was out, she grinned and leaned in to whisper.

"Master, want Oralisa to suck your cock?"

"...Huh?"

A blowjob, just like that? Not like I had a reason to say no, but — now?

"Hang on a second."

"No, Oralisa, wait—"

She wriggled out of my arms and went for my pants. I told her to stop, and at the same time I lifted my hips to help her get them off. Yeah... that was a little too obvious, wasn't it?

Twing — smack!

"Ow! Hee... Master's cock got big."

The second she yanked my underwear down, my swollen cock sprang free like a coiled spring and slapped her across the bridge of the nose. She rubbed at it, wincing — then, curious, wrapped her hand around me and started stroking.

"Ahem."

I cleared my throat for no good reason. Truth was, I'd been hard since the moment I sat her on my lap. Oralisa's ass was so soft it was criminal.

"Hauung!"

"...Nngh."

She worked her jaw in exaggerated circles to loosen it, then took me into her mouth. Her mouth was so small that even fitting the head used to be a struggle — and now she'd managed to swallow me down to the middle of the shaft.

That soft tongue wrapped around me the moment I was inside. Her mouth was wet and warm and obscenely good.

"Haa... fucking love this."

"Mmph! Mm! Mmmph!"

I caught one of her twintails as I said it, and she sucked harder, like the praise had delighted her.

Taking this from her when I already felt so guilty would have been too much, so I slid a hand under her clothes and palmed her chest. Her little nipples stiffened and swelled under my fingers.

Bent over between my legs the way she was, her ass lifted into the air.

Hhh... that's so fucking hot.

She was wearing thin, tight pants, something like leggings, and the campfire light caught them just right. Tonight, especially, that ass looked good enough to eat.

"Oralisa. I want to put it in you."

"Mmph... pwah~! Okay!"

She stood up, hooked her thumbs, and tugged her pants and underwear down in one casual motion, like she was about to take a leak. Then she shoved her ass back toward me.

I groped those pale, perfect cheeks for a moment, then took her by the waist and pulled her down.

Schlick—!

"Hhk—!"

"Haa... that's good..."

I split her open and drove all the way to the back of her in a single stroke. Oralisa leaned against my chest, spine drawn taut, and clapped a hand over her own mouth — everyone was asleep, and she wasn't about to let a moan slip out.

"Haa... Master, um..."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"When we go back to Littleberry later..."

"Yeah?"

She suddenly didn't know what to do with herself, squirming with embarrassment. She hesitated, then whispered it against a face gone red.

"I'll let you... put it in my ass."

"...Wait, really? N-no. You don't have to."

The offer hooked me for a second. Then I shook my head. I remembered — under Gigaesingwan's curse, out of my mind, I'd told her I was going to fuck her ass and to get herself ready for it.

That was why she was saying this now. Because of what I'd said then.