Chapter 283
Chapter Title: The Giant King's Curse
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The next day.
The streets of Tarkam were bustling with energy.
Parties preparing to explore Mount Erdien.
Parties conducting inquiries within Tarkam, and so on.
The students were tackling this mission practicum in their own ways.
Leo and his party members were also in Tarkam's central plaza, searching for witnesses of the monster from that night.
“I found the hospital where the guards are admitted.”
Karl approached with a grin.
Driana let out a gasp of admiration, “Hoh-!”
“You. You're more capable than I thought.”
“Information gathering is my specialty. It's no big deal.”
“That's amazing, Karl!”
“Hmph, praise me more.”
A smug Karl wiggled his fingers.
‘Ugh? He's better than I thought, isn't he?’
‘How does he find information so quickly?’
Lunia looked at Karl with a flustered expression, while Ar, feigning disinterest with a yawn, secretly kept glancing his way.
When Leo had recommended Karl as the party leader yesterday, Lunia and Ar had been quite displeased.
It wasn't that they looked down on him, but it was a fact that Karl's abilities were the most lacking among the party members.
Despite Leo's explanation, the two proud girls couldn't easily accept it.
“See? Karl is capable, isn't he?”
As Leo asked with a smile, Lunia crossed her arms.
“He is competent, I'll admit.”
At her words, Leo chuckled.
“Take this opportunity to observe Karl closely. You'll definitely find there's a lot to learn from him.”
“To learn?”
“Yes.”
Leo looked at Karl.
“The fact that Karl, Lumerne's weakest student, has survived until his second year isn't just because of luck.”
The competition between students at Lumerne is fierce.
Endless competition.
Those who can't keep up are naturally weeded out.
But Karl has been the weakest since he enrolled.
However, he shattered everyone's expectation that he'd be the first to be eliminated and still proudly remains the weakest of the second years.
This is by no means an achievement born of simple effort and luck.
“Karl has a strength that you two don't.”
“And what's that?”
“The ability to devise strategies to win against those stronger than himself.”
Unintentionally, the environment at Lumerne forced Karl to develop such a skill.
For Karl, every moment was a challenge against his limits.
That's why Karl naturally acquired an ability that the top students lack.
Giant-killing.
Karl has firmly acquired a skill that all heroes must possess.
Hearing Leo's words, Ar crossed her arms.
“Hmph. 'Surpass your limits'… is it.”
Muttering Lumerne's motto, Ar looked at Karl.
Leo patted the two on their shoulders and followed Karl.
Following Karl's lead, they soon arrived at the hospital.
Visiting the guards was forbidden.
However, using their authority as hero cadets, the party members were able to meet the guards without much difficulty.
“Times like these, being a hero cadet really has its perks.”
Karl muttered in admiration.
The status of being a student at a hero academy was an all-access pass for most situations.
And so, the five of them stood before the hospital room.
The attending physician glanced at the party and said.
“I've allowed the visit, but I'd appreciate it if you could finish your business relatively quickly. The patient's stability is the top priority, after all.”
“Yes, we'll be quick.”
Nodding in response, the group entered the hospital room.
There, a single dwarf was trembling in a corner of the room.
The room's furniture was in disarray, as if he had already thrown a violent tantrum.
Seeing this, the party members wore bewildered expressions.
The guard's condition was more serious than they had expected.
“In that state, it seems like it'll be difficult to even have a proper conversation.”
As Karl spoke cautiously, Lunia, her lips pressed firmly together, approached the guard.
“Excuse me, we have something to ask you…”
“D-Don't come any closer! Don't come any cloooser!”
As Lunia approached, the guard began to struggle wildly, his face contorted in terror.
“Let me out! Don't hold me, just let me out of here! The monster! The monster will come again! It's going to come!”
“Calm down! We're students from the hero academy! We're just here to ask you about that incident!”
“Gyaaaargh!”
The guard began to thrash about madly.
Driana, who had been observing him closely, muttered.
“It's a curse.”
“A curse?”
“Yes. That guard isn't just suffering from a simple mental breakdown; he's afflicted by a curse of fear.”
“Wait a minute. Didn't this guard just see that unidentified monster? He got hit with such a strong curse just from looking at it?”
Lunia wore a bewildered expression.
Karl's expression turned serious as he checked the patient's chart he had received from the doctor.
“It's not just a strong curse. It seems they couldn't break it even after prescribing dispelling potions and rituals.”
The treatment for curses, one of the demons' most powerful weapons, is a field that has been researched for a long time.
Therefore, most magical physicians were well-versed in the knowledge of curses.
No matter how powerful the curse, it could be broken given enough time.
But despite receiving proper treatment, the guard's curse had not been dispelled.
While everyone was flustered, Leo spoke.
“Eiran, can you break the curse?”
“I-I'll try.”
Eiran stepped forward, her expression tense.
Fairy magic has long been the natural enemy of curses.
For that reason, the members of the Ersar family, descendants of the last Fairy Knight, Verchia, naturally possessed a strong resistance to curses.
They were also natural-born curse breakers.
“Please hold him so he can't struggle.”
At her words, Ar and Driana grabbed the guard's arms.
“Kraaaaargh!”
The guard thrashed about even more violently.
But in terms of physical strength, he was no match for students from Azonia and Damian.
A light green mana flowed from Eiran's hands.
It was the power of fairies, overflowing with life force.
The moment Eiran extended her hand toward the guard.
Zzzzzzt! Pop!
With an intense, dark red spark, Eiran's hand was flung back.
“Eiran!”
Lunia rushed to Eiran's side in shock.
“I-I'm fine.”
Eiran said with a smile as she looked down at her hand.
A blister had already formed, as if she'd been burned.
Watching Eiran heal her hand with magic, the party members' expressions grew grave.
A curse of fear is not a difficult one to break.
And yet, a user of fairy power had not only failed to break it but had also suffered a blow from the rebound.
‘Just how powerful is this curse?’
Leo, who had been observing the situation, stepped forward.
“L-Leo-nim. Be careful! The curse's power was activated by my power.”
Eiran said urgently.
Sparks flew from Leo's hand as well.
Zzzt-!
But Leo paid it no mind, summoning his gray mana to push back the curse's power.
Thump-!
“Gyaaaaaaaargh!”
Leo's mana flowed into the struggling guard.
Leo quickly analyzed the curse.
‘Dispelling this will be difficult.’
It was a curse composed of a complex formula.
Of course, with Leo's abilities, he could certainly dispel it.
However, it was layered with a formula that would strengthen the curse the moment one attempted to dispel it.
It was a curse that would ultimately run rampant and kill its victim.
‘Unless it's Lisinas or Luna, it'll be impossible to remove this completely.’
Leo clicked his tongue.
Of course, it wasn't that there was no solution.
Zzzt-!
Dark red sparks flew from Leo's hand.
But Leo ignored it and used his mana to envelop the curse formula.
Then, he slowly extracted the curse formula.
Swoosh-!
He removed his hand from the guard's head.
At Leo's fingertips was a dark red orb of black magic.
Inside it, the curse formula was densely inscribed.
He hadn't dispelled the curse, but had extracted it directly from the body.
Everyone's eyes widened in astonishment.
Leo's eyes narrowed as he examined the curse closely.
Zzzzzzt-! Pop!
He forcefully crushed the orb-shaped curse, destroying it.
With that, the guard's seizure stopped.
“W-What in the world?”
Watching the guard look around in bewilderment, Ar and Driana cautiously released his arms.
“Amazing! Leo-nim! You extracted the curse itself and destroyed it! What incredible mana control!”
Leo had chosen not to dispel the curse, but to destroy the curse itself.
It looked simple at a glance, but it was a high-level technique that required an understanding of the curse's properties and near-divine mana control.
Looking at the guard who had returned to normal, Leo said.
“Now he'll answer our questions properly.”
“Right.”
Karl approached the guard with a serious expression.
“Excuse me. There's something we'd like to ask you.”
Leo looked down at his palm, breaking out in a cold sweat.
In the process of destroying the curse, he had realized whose curse it was.
‘…I was hoping my guess was wrong.’
Leo's expression hardened.
‘The Giant King.’
***
After finishing their questioning, Leo and his party immediately headed for the entrance of Mount Erdien, where the guard had seen the monster.
Leo was lost in thought until they arrived at the location.
‘What on earth is the reason for his appearance?’
During the first-year entrance exam.
Leo had definitely seen Erebos here, in Gerwin's World of Heroes.
‘But that wasn't the complete Erebos. No. It was closer to a lingering thought.’
5,000 years ago.
On this land, he and Erebos had fought a final battle with the fate of the world at stake.
And in the end, Erebos was vanquished.
He was split into several pieces and sealed away.
‘His essence was said to be that of a being comparable to a god, right? If so, it's not strange for a lingering thought to remain.’
A lingering thought composed of the hatred and resentment from being defeated just before destroying the world.
‘But there's no way the Giant King would move because of that. A lingering thought is just a remnant of will with no power.’
It's neither Erebos's will nor his power.
Just a lump of resentment towards the Hero of the Beginning, Kyle.
From Tartaros's perspective, it was a useless mass of consciousness that offered no help.
Of course, its symbolic meaning was significant.
‘If he has moved… this is something more serious.’
Leo was lost in thought.
“But is it really possible for a monster as big as this tall mountain to exist in this world?”
Lunia glanced up at the towering Mount Erdien as she scouted the surroundings.
“The largest creature in this world is the Gigantes, right? Speaking of which, you guys fought a Gigantes last year, didn't you? How big was it?”
As Lunia tilted her head and asked, Karl replied.
“The ones who fought were the top students of our year. I just watched the fight.”
Shrugging, Karl shook his head as if horrified by the memory.
“They said that Gigantes wasn't even an adult yet, and it was still huge… But still, even if it were an adult, being as big as a mountain doesn't make sense.”
Hearing Karl's words, Ar bit her index finger and tilted her head.
“Hmm. What about the Giant King?”
“That Legion Commander who hasn't shown himself in 5,000 years? Isn't that too out of the blue? He's a commander who, according to some theories, might have even been vanquished during the Age of Calamity.”
He was literally a Legion Commander who existed only in legends to the people of this era.
“In the first place, if a being of that size were to teleport, a mana fluctuation would inevitably be left behind. It's strange that it vanished in the blink of an eye. The probability that he saw an illusion is high. Of course, since he was cursed, it seems to be related to the demons…”
Hearing Driana's words, Leo paused.
‘Vanishing from the world without a trace?’
Leo knew of such a phenomenon.
‘When entering a Hero Record.’
Leo's expression hardened.
‘What if one of the Great Heroes' Hero Records is here?’
Tartaros has been conquering the Great Heroes' worlds and burning their Hero Records.
If that's the reason, it wouldn't be strange for the Giant King to have moved personally.
The moment Leo's thoughts reached that point.
“Leo! How long are you going to just stand there thinking? Help us search!”
Lunia protested to Leo in a sullen voice.
“Something smells strange over here.”
“Oh? Really? For some reason, you seem more like a dog than a cat.”
“Who are you calling a dog!”
Keuk-!
Karl exclaimed in admiration at the words of Ar, who had been sniffing the air while scouting the area.
Immediately after punishing Karl, Ar walked toward the source of the smell.
“Huh? Whoaaaaa!”
At Ar's shout, Karl, who was flinching from the kick to his side, pushed himself up.
“What did you find!”
“Look at this! It's a Hero Record!”
“What?!”
“Where! Where!”
The party members gathered around Ar in surprise.
“Wait!”
Leo shouted urgently.
“This is… Lord Dweno's Hero Record! A Hero Record this intact!”
“What? Let me see! Me too! Me too!”
A startled Driana jumped up and down.
“But what are these burn-like marks here and there?”
The moment Eiran touched the Hero Record to show it to Driana.
[Hero Record Open. World of Dweno. Chapter: ■■-■■■■ ■■■.]
A message appeared before their eyes.
“W-What is this?”
“A Hero Dungeon?!”
The entire area was engulfed in a brilliant light.
The entire party cried out in shock at the message that had appeared before them.
Fwoosh-!
Their vision was obscured by a familiar light.
And with that, Leo opened his eyes.
‘What? Why did the Hero Record suddenly open…?’
The moment Leo felt bewildered.
Clatter!
“Keuk?!”
“Kgh?”
Losing his balance, he collided with something and tumbled to the ground.
“Y-You're heavy!”
A clear voice came from beneath Leo.
Leo pushed himself up.
“Sorry. Are you hurt anywh…”
“You! What do you think you're doing, appearing out of nowhere!”
the girl shouted, her face filled with anger.
Her sharp, upturned eyes.
Her tightly pressed lips.
And her ears, twitching as if in anger.
It was an elven girl he knew all too well.
A girl whose head he'd flicked countless times, calling her impudent if not for her cuteness.
‘Verchia.’