4 Cursed Spirits

It was at this time that Shuichi had an extreme desire to increase his cursed energy reserves to a broken level. Like, to a level that it wouldn't run out even if he fought for days.

Such high, and borderline ridiculous, amount of cursed energy would far dwarf that of a special grade's, and he did not know how long it would be before he could get that amount, but he was sure as heck going to try it.

And what better way to increase his cursed energy than to visit places that are often plagued by cursed spirits?

Of course there isn't any!

That was the reason that Shuichi was heading to a nearby high school as of now.

Places which are frequently visited or are related with a lot of memories become beacons of cursed energy, birthing new cursed spirits and providing a haven for the existing ones. Even a newborn grade 4 curse can become as powerful as a 2nd grade when subjected to the correct environments.

And as for further evolution, it depends on the type of curse it is. If a lot of negative emotions are associated with it, it will be able to advance further and even attain some sort of pseudo-intelligence. While special grades are uncanny cases in themselves. Their minds get specially molded to the extreme, filled with arcane wisdom about cursed techniques, that being the reason that most of them are capable of domain expansion.

Special grades also dwarf the cursed energy reserve and cursed energy output of any other curse that comes below them. That was the true power of a special grade, they might even survive a nuke.

And the problem was, curses were all around them. Especially in Japan, where the cursed energy density was an all time high, new spirits were born every hour. Their speed of multiplication rivaled that of rabbit colonies.

That was the reason Shuichi wanted to amass as much power as possible. Who knows he might randomly encounter a first grade someday and get absolutely obliterated. The previous Shuichi had suffered through the disciplinary pit of the Zenin clan. And it was not a good experience for him.

Although he was only in there for 3 minutes, because he had failed to produce any significant results in training, he was on the verge of death. And mind you, the entirety of his time was spent trying to avoid those curses.

And the pit didn't even have any first grade curses. Heck, even second grades were hard to find in the disciplinary pit those days. Mainly because Toji would sometimes go and kill some for amusement, but that didn't make it any better for Shuichi.

The incident scarred him a lot. That was the reason that the current Shuichi was so eager to grow stronger. Logically speaking, waiting at his house until his reserves were a sizable amount would be better than to rush into an area that could be possibly infested with cursed spirits. But it seemed that his predecessor was affecting him in more than one ways and he seemed completely oblivious to it.

Though, either luckily or unluckily, his skill [Corrupted Mind] seemed to be doing its job and keeping most of the influences out of his mind. Only the strongest memories and emotions were able to affect him, given his unrest and illogical decision making.

Walking for a couple of minutes, Shuichi was able to arrive at the high school.

The twilight hours were about to start soon, hence there was no one in the school at the current time. And when he arrived in front of it, Shuichi could practically feel the cursed energy washing over him like waves. Okay, that might have been an exaggeration, but the point is, the cursed energy density here was far more than any other place Shuichi had been to since arriving here.

And taking advantage of that, his [Cursed Heart] began to greedily attract and absorb all of it into him.

As his cursed technique continued to suck in the cursed energy, Shuichi strode forth and jumped over the school gates into the school.

As he landed, he looked at his legs in surprise.

'The increment in physical strength is already showing' Shuichi had not used reinforcement upon himself, to test out how far he could jump. And to his surprise, he could completely jump over the gate without too much effort.

'It's probably because I'm being subconsciously strengthened by my cursed technique, my physical strength might not be at that level yet.'

What his cursed technique did was circulate cursed energy through his body, akin to a sort of pseudo strengthening. And just like blood, the cursed heart would pump more cursed energy into the body part that needed it more. In this case, his legs.

This would be something that he would have to fix soon, because just from an influx of cursed energy to a specific body part, the opponent might just find out about the type of move he was about to do.

'Oh well, I'll take care of it afterwards' He put that thought to the back of his mind and walked further inside.

At this point, Shuichi began to carefully manage the cursed energy flow inside his body, trying to streamline it more.

As of right now, the cursed energy pumped by his 'heart' was turbulent, like a raging river. Sometimes, it would pump more energy than necessary, and sometimes it would put less than necessary. That led to an irregular feedback by his body. Sometimes, his body would just explode with strength due to the sudden influx of cursed energy, due to the uncanny flow of it.

If he was able to streamline it, it would be for the best.

And hence, as Shuichi walked into the building unhindered, he focused on his [Cursed Heart], trying to see the 'strings' as he called them.

The description of the technique was pretty well written by Shuichi, but just because the description was well written does not mean that he would have an easy time doing whatever the description promised.

'I did mention as long as I practiced cursed energy manipulation, it would perpetually increase my control over it.' He thought and tried to look deeper into the 'heart'.

While he was walking around the corridors of the building, he saw several small curses. Their cursed energy was so low that they couldn't even be classified as grade 4. But this also meant the possibility of a stronger cursed spirit somewhere around here.

While observing the cursed spirits and trying to control the 'strings', he opened up the skill tree function and directly looked at the ability tree.

There were still only two green boxes in that section, [Cursed Energy Manipulation] which further led to [Cursed Energy Reinforcement]. But the difference was, previously, cursed energy manipulation was at 25 proficiency level. Now, it had reached a whopping 132.

That was also the case for Cursed Energy Reinforcement, which went from 11 to 53.

Shuichi still didn't know what the proficiency levels meant, hence, he could not compare these to other people. The system was not really user friendly...

But if Shuichi truly had to compare, then previously, Cursed Energy was like a spoiled child who refused to obey. Hence, he had to drag it everywhere. But now, it felt a lot more submissive, as if it had given in to his control.

As for reinforcement, he could not tell. Mainly because the reinforcement was so volatile due to his cursed heart, but also because his predecessor was never good at these things.

Shuichi kept walking through the dimly lit corridors of the school. The only source of light was the soft lighting of the twilight sun that filtered through the windows.

The cursed spirits followed him through the corridors as if they were hunting him, though they never dared to close in. Partly because they were too weak.

'I should try to kill one.' Shuichi thought to himself.

And then, without wasting too much time, a small ball ethereal ball made of cursed energy appeared in his hand. The ball seemed to mimic a burning flame, but was cold to the touch. As soon as the ball had formed, Shuichi flexed his arm and sent it hurling towards the nearest cursed spirit, that looked like a deformed lizard.

"HujhhUhGh!"

"KUjKhHu!"

"DOooOnnNt~!"

The cursed spirits screamed in an uncanny and strange voice, as if already sensing the danger that the simple attack held. Yet one of them was still hit.

Splat!*

The ball smashed into the spirit and it went splat onto the wall.

At the same time, Shuichi felt the slightest increment to his cursed energy reserves, one that wasn't due to the absorption of the cursed heart.

'It really works!' He smiled.

Cursed techniques were instinctive in nature. No one could teach someone how to apply their techniques other than themselves. Well, if it was a hereditary technique, then things would be different, but in most cases, innate cursed techniques could only be learned to the full potential by their user.

That was because using such techniques was second nature to the one that held them. Shuichi wasn't sure if the cursed technique he had made was also the same, but that doubt was cleared in that instant.

He really could use his cursed technique instinctively. He had previously thought that he would need to increase his control to a satisfactory level to create constructs, but it seemed like that was unnecessary.

'I don't what made me so impulsive. Rushing here without even properly trying out my technique, it isn't like me...' Shuichi thought ,'But since I'm here...'

A manic grin spread across his face and cursed energy began to gather in his hand. The ethereal flames gathered to form a long pole, and from the top a blade popped out. It was a Naginata!

'Let's just harvest some cursed spirits while I'm at it.'

Tightly gripping down on the Naginata as if it was a real object, Shuichi dashed at the small cursed spirits while enhancing his body with cursed energy.

A gust of wind blew across his face and with a great force, he was propelled towards the small curses at breakneck speeds.

Shuichi was surprised by his own speed, but quickly calming down, he slashed at the cursed spirits who were still unaware of the clear frontal attack. Their perception of speed was just that weak.

Slash*

With a single slash of his weapon, 3 cursed spirits were destroyed at once, and he felt his cursed energy reserves increase again.

Without wasting any time, he rushed at the other curses that were watching, a maniacal grin plastered onto his face.

'This is fun!'

The feeling of growing stronger in real time was an euphoric sensation for him, giving him a sense of false omnipotence. And even though he did not want to turn into someone with a god complex, he still delighted himself in that feeling, completely enjoying his increasing power.

10 minutes later, Shuichi was now on the fourth and the topmost floor of the building.

And while he was killing curses, he got a very peculiar notification.

[You experience had been filled!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You current level is Level: 2]

[For leveling up once, you have gained 10 skill points!]

[Skill points can be used to increase the proficiency of acquired skills and increase the level of innate skills!]

[1 Skill point will increase the proficiency of acquired skills by 20!]

[100 Skill points will increase the innate skill level by 1!]

Shuichi was happy that he could level up and get more proficiency with his skills like this. But what he was even more happy about, was that he had found a way to upgrade his innate skills.

This wasn't some gamer type system, and one of his skill had a limited number of uses and the other was completely passive. Even if he wanted to experiment if he could upgrade them by using them constantly, he couldn't.

That was the reason he was so happy. Now, all he had to do was level up and increase his cursed energy reserves to ridiculous levels. Both of which could be accomplished by killing curses.

'Right now, my reserves should be comparable to a grade 3 sorcerer. Considering my original reserves were just a bit above a grade 4, its really not a big increase.' Shuichi mused 'No, I shouldn't complain. It's just been a day since I got here, not to mention that I've only killed the weaker curses. I should focus more on the cursed energy manipulation and reinforcement for now.' He concluded.

"I don't think I'm going to find any more curses here." Shuichi whispered to himself, "I should head home now."

He looked outside the window, it was about to be night time soon and the twilight hours were ending.

'Let's just go home now, today was a productive day.' He thought.

But just then, he passed by the school bathroom for boys. And immediately upon passing it, he felt a gigantic presence.

A presence that made him freeze for a second. Just a second.

Reinforcing his body with cursed energy, he jumped away from the bathroom door just in time for something to crash through it.

Booooom*

Crash*

A cloud of dust was kicked up and a strange guttering sound made its way into his ears.

And when the cloud of dust cleared up, the perpetrator of the act was revealed.

It was a giant cursed spirit. So big that it occupied the entirety of the hallway.

Its shape roughly resembled that of a crocodile, but with the legs of a goat and a giant mane on its neck. It's eyes were protruding out of its eye sockets while being connected with antennae like structures and were numerous in number. 11 to be exact.

But that was not what made Shuichi surprised, nor was it that made him freeze up.

It was the amount of cursed energy the cursed spirit was leaking all over the hallway.

'A semi-second grade!' Shuichi thought to himself with a grim expression adorning his face.

'Damn! On the first day?! Isn't the Murphy's law striking too soon!?'