Chapter 30: Ability Coordination (2)

Seo Yeon-hwa’s ability.

The functions of my Current Status Window.

These two combined might offer a way to defeat the Curse.

I can’t be completely certain this will work as I expect.

I’ve never tried combining another person’s ability with my Status Window’s functions before.

Moreover, the function I’m about to use…

I haven’t touched it even once since upgrading to the Current Status Window.

To be blunt, it’s a makeshift solution.

But it’s a method worth trying.

I voiced my question.

“Guild Leader, how much Mana does it consume to dispel a spell?”

“Mana consumption…? It varies depending on the target skill’s rank, but the minimum is 200.”

200, huh?

Then it’s possible.

Screeeech!

In the darkness, the ‘curse’ began to stir, its movement stealthy and sinister.

I tracked its motion with my eyes and spoke.

“Then there’s one way to defeat it.”

“A way?”

“Yes. First of all…”

Seo Yeon-hwa looked at me, her expression puzzled. To her, I continued in a low voice,

“Hand over the Counterspell to me.”

I was transferring a skill.

Seo Yeon-hwa possessed a buff skill called “Divine Empowerment.” Its function was simple: to temporarily transfer one of her own skills to a designated target.

Of course, Seo Yeon-hwa’s Divine Empowerment operates on a completely different level than that of other Hunters.

Ordinary Divine Empowerment could only transfer skills up to B-rank. But Seo Yeon-hwa was capable of temporarily granting even S-rank skills.

”…You want me to transfer the Counterspell through Divine Empowerment?”

“Yes.”

“I see that Taejun still has enough mana to cast Spell Nullification,” Seo Yeon-hwa said, a flicker of suspicion in her eyes. “But Spell Nullification isn’t just about casting a skill.”

I know.

Spell Nullification is like driving a car to the destination of “Skill Invalidation.” Casting is simply turning on the ignition. To reach our goal, I have to take the wheel, manage the accelerator and brakes, shift gears, and steer the entire way.

Screeeeech!

Instead of answering, I hurled a fireball forward.

[10% Fireball]

Boom!

After briefly binding the cursed ghost’s feet, I spoke.

“We don’t have time, Guild Leader.”

”…”

Seo Yeon-hwa didn’t press further.

Whoosh—

In her hand, fresh mana materialized and took shape.

This time, it was a bright yellow.

A tiny, firefly-like light fluttered and flew towards me, seeping into my being.

The status window popped up.

“I’ve never lent this to anyone,” Seo Yeon-hwa said with a wry smile.

“Even if I did, no Hunter could use it properly anyway.”

She was right.

The description of [Spell Nullification] in the status window read:

The minimum mana consumption for this technique rivaled the average A-rank Hunter’s total mana pool.

Screechhh…

The curse demon’s ear-splitting shriek echoed once more.

“Fine, let’s give it a shot,” Seo Yeon-hwa said.

“Even if Hunter Taejun succeeds in breaking the ritual, the computational value needed to instantly annihilate the curse…” She paused, nodding slowly. “Since it’s a materialized curse, we should call it a weakness.”

“Yes,” she continued, “finding a single weakness that can instantly destroy it is impossible.”

That’s probably true.

The borrowed abilities through mana infusion have their effects and potency halved.

“But we might be able to find a very small weakness. If I teach you the calculation method and Taejun pours all of his mana into it…”

Screeeechh!

The ear-splitting shriek reverberated again.

Amidst the cacophony, the curse demon continued to shift its position erratically within the dense mist.

Like a predator stalking its prey, seeking the optimal position to strike in a single, decisive blow.

And then.

Kiiiiaaaa!

The moment the monster’s grotesquely twisted arm burst through the pitch-black smoke,

activated.

Fshhhht!

Sparks flickered in my vision, and a scorching pain seared my left eye.

“Ugh…”

Agonizing pain, as if my optic nerves were melting and the flames were consuming my entire brain.

My vision narrowed to a sliver.

Screeeeeee!

The cursed spirit rushed toward me through the swirling mist, its form the only thing visible in my diminished field of vision.

For some reason, its movements were sluggish—almost sloth-like.

Or perhaps, I thought, the flow of time had slowed in everything around me except myself.

Twitch.

The monster’s arm lunged forward.

The veins pulsating grotesquely beneath its gray flesh.

The horror of its gaping maw.

The rasping sound of its black pupils rolling in their sockets.

All these etched themselves vividly onto my senses.

Simultaneously,

all sorts of letters, symbols, shapes, and formulas began flooding into my vision and pouring into my mind.

Naturally, in that deluge of information,

nothing made any sense whatsoever.

Unprecedented, extraterrestrial knowledge.

It felt like trying to compress images of it into my brain through force.

Originally, I was supposed to gather and compute all this data to find the answer to break the curse.

But instead,

I tapped on the Current Status Window right in front of me.

“Activating Calculator.”

The ‘Basic Functions’ of the Current Status Window possessed properties that defied all common sense.

Even within the dimensionally twisted dungeon, the watch displayed the exact current time with zero error.

An analyzer containing item information from all dimensions.

A universal translator capable of deciphering even the ancient languages of long-extinct dimensions.

Then the calculator can’t be limited to ordinary arithmetic either.

This conviction stemmed from experience.

And…

[Calculator] is linked to spell breaking (S).

Clearly, this was a logical decision.

For the first time, the Status Window’s functionality and skills were combined.

[Remarkable Growth (S)] is activated.

Once only, the [Calculator]‘s performance will operate at 90% Synchronization Rate with the Status Window.

The following message appeared in succession.

[Calculator] begins automatic calculation.

Countless mathematical symbols, numbers, and operators began cascading down beside the slowly moving curse spirit.

Within the time it took to blink twice, the chaotic moment passed.

The Calculator had deciphered the spell formula embedded within the living gray curse (S).

Before my eyes, I saw that the Calculator had successfully performed the inverse calculation of the formula, deriving the value without consuming any Mana.

A “strategy” for breaking the curse had materialized.

Time, which had slowed to a crawl, returned to its normal pace.

“Listen carefully. You’ll now see computational expressions that represent the skill’s structure. You need to extract the value from within them. I’ll explain it as simply as possible…”

From behind, Seo Yeon-hwa began to say something.

But her words didn’t register.

All my focus was solely on the curse demon charging toward me in the distance.

To break the curse, act on the derived value.

My gaze was fixed on the shimmering “answer” displayed on the calculator before me.

Dash.

I stepped forward with my left foot and sprang forward with explosive force.

“Wait…?!” Seo Yeon-hwa’s panicked voice faded behind me.

I opened Parsley Market.

Unregister: Priest Justinianus’s Healing Potion (Lowest Grade).

I reached out and seized the potion bottle that materialized from the subspace.

As I charged at the curse demon, I uncorked the bottle and scattered the remaining liquid across my left hand.

I tossed the empty potion bottle aside.

Kreeeee!

The screech of the Curse Demon intensified.

Its mouth tore wide open, as if delighted to have its prey in its grasp.

But before it could extend its arm—

A fireball erupted from my right hand, which had held no potion.

Whoosh!

The flaming orb struck the Curse Demon squarely in the face.

Kreeee!

Of course, the attack inflicted no significant damage.

But it obscured the demon’s vision and caused it to stagger briefly.

That momentary opening was all I needed for my “Counter” strike.

Whoosh!

Closing within two meters of the creature, I leaped skyward with all my might.

“Kii?”

For a fleeting moment, my eyes locked with those of the Curse Demon.

It twisted its upper body in mid-air.

Crack!

I thrust my left hand, drenched in holy water and shaped into a shuto, into its flesh.

The strike landed precisely at the junction of its neck and shoulder, piercing through its right ribcage.

“Kieee, kieeeeee!”

Its pitch-black pupils dilated wildly.

Normally, physical attacks of this sort would have dealt zero damage.

But this time was different.

The spot where my fireball had struck…

Was precisely the area corresponding to this creature’s living curse’s ‘vulnerability value’.

Therefore…

Kieee?!

The previously triumphant Curse Demon began to writhe violently, desperately trying to dislodge me.

Shiiiik!

A jet of jet-black demonic energy erupted from the wound, attempting to engulf my hand.

But this was holy water, blessed by a saint from another dimension.

The moment it made contact, the demonic energy hissed, released a puff of steam, and fizzled away.

Kieeeek! Kiaaaaaah!

The cursed spirit’s struggles grew desperate.

Yet the more it resisted, the deeper my hand-blade sank into its ribcage.

Crackle!

Bones shattered.

Tear!

Flesh ripped open, spewing pitch-black demonic energy instead of blood.

Then, in an instant—

Kiaaaaaaah!

The completely shattered curse dissolved into a miasma of death, scattering with a final scream that echoed the spirit’s agonizing demise. It was a death cry truly befitting the Valley of the Shrieks.

What exactly did I just witness? Seo Yeon-hwa stood in stunned silence, her mind racing.

Her gaze remained fixed on the center of Lee Taejun’s being.

He had annihilated the cursed spirit with a single strike.

Now he stood calmly, catching his breath.

How could he…?

Spell dispelling wasn’t merely the act of casting a skill.

The crucial part came after the initial cast.

It involved analyzing the target skill and deriving a countermeasure through computational analysis.

Even after Seo Yeon-hwa’s own spell dispelling ability had awakened, it took her a full five years to fully establish the intricate computational mechanism.

Yet Taejun had…

In barely thirty seconds, he had completed the analysis of the skill’s structure.

After deriving the most effective countermeasure, she neutralized the curse.

Even for her, dissolving a D-class curse for the first time had taken five hours.

And that was still overwhelmingly faster than traditional cleansing techniques.

Yet.

It took Taejun only 30 seconds to dissolve an S-class curse.

I didn’t even teach him the calculation methods.

Even with his skill at only half the effectiveness of traditional spell-breaking formulas,

just 30 seconds.

There was only one explanation for this.

Lee Taejun’s talent for understanding the structure of mana and skills was unbelievably exceptional.

Since the Great Change, excluding the Four Heroes,

he far surpassed Seo Yeon-hwa herself, who was hailed as the greatest genius in magic.

Regardless of whether I want to recruit him to our guild… this is…

Her pride was in shambles.

Just hours earlier, Seo Yeon-hwa had already suffered a different kind of blow to her self-esteem from Taejun.

“Guild Leader,” she called as he approached.

”…”

Seo Yeon-hwa awkwardly turned her head away, feeling ashamed of having been staring at him, dazed, just moments before.

“Your skill in deciphering spells is truly remarkable.”

Whether he noticed her inner turmoil or not, Taejun’s eyes sparkled as he continued, “You’re truly amazing. To wield such a complex and difficult skill with such mastery…”

“Uh… yes. Thank you.”

Seo Yeon-hwa nodded awkwardly, then fell silent, tapping her lips with a finger. She was unsure of what to say, given the circumstances.

Finally, she pointed to the skeletal staff lying on the floor and spoke.

“Now that the item’s curse has been completely dispelled, you can examine it without worry.”

“Yes. Oh, and…”

Suddenly, Lee Taejun held something out to her.

“This came from the area where the Curse Spirit vanished. What should we do with it?”

It was a fist-sized crystal swirling with a murky, blackish light. Judging by the amount of Mana it emitted and its appearance, it was a High-grade Essence Stone.

The curse demon was a materialized skill, yet it also possessed the nature of a monster.

It wasn’t surprising that it left behind an essence stone.

Seo Yeon-hwa’s gaze shifted to Taejun.

Should I tease him a little? she wondered, before deciding against it.

“Do as you please.”

With a dismissive wave of her hand, she added, “I’ll head up first. I need to rest.”

“Let me assist you,” Taejun offered, picking up the essence stone and reaching out his hand.

Seo Yeon-hwa shook her head with a bitter smile. “Take care of the staff and come up soon.”