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Chapter 137: Cursed (1)

Through the halls outside of the room that led to the Guardian, Reru hurriedly walked through the catacombs whilst dragging Rustly.

"H-Hey! Reru...!" Rustly cried out whilst trying to release the grip of Reru's attachment on his body. "Why are we so much in a hurry?!"

"..." Reru kept quiet whilst continuing to move through the hallways.

"Hey! Reru!" he seemed to be frowning. "Answer me!"

"...ugh. Rustly, could you please just shut up for the duration of this trip back to Renryth?" Reru clicked his tongue in an annoyed manner whilst releasing the grip on Rustly. In the next moment, his body turned to face him. "We're in a hurry because there's not much time left."

"Not much time left? I know that!" Rustly cried out. "But, why are we hurrying to the point you're dragging me? Why are we going to see Renryth too? What gives? Weren't we going to see his majesty?"

"..." he shook his head in a tired manner. "Are you trying to play dumb with me?"

"...huh?" Rustly muttered out confusingly. "Playing dumb? What do you mean?"

"How long have you been exposed to that?" Reru questioned.

"E-Exposed to what?" Rustly mumbled out.

"Ugh... Do I have to spell it out for you?" Reru scoffed. "The curse."

"Wait, what are you talking about?!" Rustly shouted out in a shaky voice. "Cursed? I'm not cursed!"

"Tch, it'd be much easier if you had out with it earlier, but whatever..." Reru shook his head in a tired manner whilst moving over to Rustly, in the next moment dragging him again.

"H-Hey! Stop!" With his cries and his efforts to make Reru release his grip, Rustly was helpless as he was dragged away through the catacombs.

...

Within the dark hallways where Renryth and Raina were, the two had continuously trained over the past hour. During that time, Raina's magic potency on 'Flames of Etheral' steadily increased.

"...huff, huff..." Raina let out a tired breath whilst waving her staff and shooting out constant flames of different spells consecutivelyFlame, Fire Bolt, Burning Wave, Flames of Etheral respectively. "Ah-" As she reached the end of her casting spree, she turned to her skill list. "I ran out of skills to cast and my MPs nearly running out..."

"This is why I said to not overdo yourself," Renryth shook his head helplessly. "We'll take another break whilst waiting for your spells and mana to recover. Meanwhile, you should probably reconsider to yourself how you cast certain spells in order."

"Huh?" Raina tilted her head. "Certain spells in order? What do you mean by that?"

"You've been managing your resources well to prevent total MP lost, but you're not considering the fact that the skills you use go off cooldown at different times," he stated. "Thus at one point, after all your skill usages, you'll have a drought of good spells to use."

"I-I see..." Raina mumbled out. "I wasn't considering that huh...?"

"It's fine," Renryth nodded his head. "Just keep that in note. You don't necessarily have to fully focus on that since that's beside the lesson, but it helps."

"Right..." Raina nodded her head as she sat down on the floors of the catacomb. Meanwhile, her eyes scrunched over to her skill list, noting the nine skills that she has, specifically her fire-based skills.

[ Flame Lv 2 ] [ 34 MP ] [ 30 Seconds ]

With a wave of magic that surrounds the user, cast a spell of fire that latches onto an enemy, quickly burning them slightly for 80% fire magic damage + 20% fire magic damage overtime for three seconds.

...

[ Fire Bolt Lv 2 ] [ 55 MP ] [ 45 Seconds ]

With the power of fire from the user, cast a flame shot that shoots out in a targeted direction. Enemies that are hit by the shot receives 155% fire magic damage. However, if allies are hit instead, they will take 75% fire magic damage.

...

[ Burning Wave Lv 1 ] [ 120 MP ] [ 5 Minutes ]

Channelling a powerful spell of fire, the user hurriedly shoots out a burning wave of flame that burns over an area. Those caught over the spell will receive 320% fire magic damage + 85% fire magic damage over time for seven seconds.

...

"...I've been using all my skills in ascending order from the one's I got initially to the new ones," Raina mumbled whilst scrutinizing the cooldowns of her fire spells. "Man, resources management sure is hard."

Most of the things regarding resources management were taught to her by Ethaniel at the start of the game. However, even though it was easy for her to comprehend and understand, putting it into practice was much harder than she initially thought.

"..." Thinking to herself for a bit, she suddenly heard a loud noise that rang through the hallway from her right side which led to the room of the Warrior. "...?"

"Reru! L-Let me go!" A voice cried out in despair.

"We're almost there," Reru stated as he dragged along Rustly through the hallways.

"...huh?" Renryth muttered out in a confused tone as he saw the approaching slimes. "What's the problem, you two...? You two came here yourselves?"

"Renryth! You're here good," Reru stated as he pushed Rustly over to Renryth. "Please verify whether or not he has been inflicted by Sanke's curse."

"Sanke's curse..." Renryth mumbled out as his eyes laid onto Rustly.

"I-I'm telling you! I'm not cursed... Why don't you believe me?!" he cried out.

"Stop lying. I don't even know why you're resisting," Reru scoffed.

"T-That's because-"

"Rustly... How come it has gone to this stage? This is even worst than mine..." Renryth frowned. "How long have you been inflicted upon his magic?"

"W-Well..." Rustly mumbled out.

"Spit it out, Rustly," Reru scoffed. "We don't have time for your charades."

"...since the day Sanke went into madness," Rustly uttered out in a tone of defeat whilst seemingly breaking eye contact from the two interrogators. "Years ago..."

"Y-You..." Reru angrily shoved Rustly to the side upon hearing his comment. "You've kept it under the radar this long and you didn't inform me?!"

"Huh...?" Raina blinked at the sight of the two slimes arguing and seeming to fight. "What's going on...?" Although she couldn't understand a single speck of word stated by the two, she could feel that it was dire.

"...I'm sorry," Rustly whimpered. "I didn't mean to keep it quiet... It just wasn't necessary to tell you this."

"Huh? What bullshit..." he frowned. "I'm more than surprised you haven't fallen into Sanke's control... Unless?" In the next moment, he quickly took out his sword as he pointed it at Rustly.

"N-No! You got it all wrong!" Rustly cried out. "I-I've been cursed... But... It's not that kind of thing that's been spreading around like the plague..."

"...if you got it initially..." Renryth sighed. "Does this mean, you're far gone than ever?"

"With the defeat of Sanke... We can cure the curse..." he muttered out. "So there's not to worry!"

"..." Renryth looked at Rustly who seemed to be putting up a smile. "How much pain are you feeling right now?"

"N-None..."

"Ugh, can you stop lying and just speak already?!" Reru cried out.

"...it hurts. It has been hurting for a while now..." Rustly stated in a helpless tone. "But, it doesn't hurt much now. Maybe due to Shinto's magic or something... But I'm fine. Really! So I can last till then..."

"You..." Reru scoffed. "Argh...! You're hopeless. You always were! Why did you think it was okay to act like this?! It has always been like that when Sanke first came here... You just led us to our doom because of you're shitty mistakes!"

"..." Rustly could only keep quiet as he could only look down onto the floor.

"...sigh," Renryth let out a tired sigh. "That's enough Reru. You should keep your anger to yourself. In anger case, do you mind giving me a status update on the situation with the statues?"

"...tch, yeah, yeah. Sorry. I'll do it now."

...

During the talk with Renryth and Reru, Rustly quietly moved towards the side. While he did so, Raina couldn't help but look in the direction of him, tilting her head and wondering what was going on.

"...from what I heard from Renryth... It seems that slime got inflicted by Sanke's magic?" she mumbled out. The only info that she could latch onto was through the words stated by Renryth. However, without the full context, she could not make any hypothesis. "..."

Whilst thinking to herself, she heard sudden footsteps moving over towards her. "Raina, it's been a long break, thirty minutes, was it? Should we get back to your training?"

"Oh...!" Raina was startled by Renryth's voice as she turned toward the direction. "I didn't realize that much time passed..."

"It's alright. I didn't expect something like to happen," Renryth shook his head helplessly. "Though... We may need to speed up our training much faster than before."

"Why so?" she tilted her head as her eyes moved away from Renryth, quickly turning to Rustly, and then to Reru. "...is it because of one of the slimes that have been inflicted by the curse?"