''2000!''

''D-Done!''

[You have completed the Normal Mission]

[Reward: 5 Chaos Points]

—

[Personal] [Summon] [Gacha] [Mission]

Chaos Points: 135

—

Khaled lightly toweled the sweat off his face, then slowly stood up and took a long breath after swinging his 2,000 vertical slashes for the day.

Now, his muscles had improved a lot—well, at least he didn't look like a skeleton anymore, though he was still slender and pale.

"It's good to see my hard work isn't wasted."

Alaric chuckled, then walked over to the chair to eat the meal Khaled had prepared beforehand.

Chewing the meat with satisfaction, he shifted his attention to the human-skin-covered book Baxter had given him.

"Well, I'll read it during my break."

One hour passed.

All in all, the book covered everything related to curses. There were so many types of curses he'd never even imagined. For example, one curse he skimmed over said: If a woman goes a whole day without having sex with a man, she'll die.

…Damn, that was kinda creepy.

Still, he'd study all of that later. Right now, the most important thing was reading his curse.

"Oh, there you are."

He smiled as he read through the lines in the book.

[Curse of the Demon King:]

[Description:] A type of curse that causes everyone to feel hatred toward the cursed one, but it has some rather strange features.

1,Not everyone hates the cursed one, but most people do feel hatred toward them. From the research I've found, if a cursed one does even a slightly uncomfortable or displeasing action, unknown people will instantly hate them. Over time, that hatred just keeps growing to the point where everyone wants to kill the cursed one as if that person had murdered one of their family members.

Still, there are a few people unaffected by the curse… though it's extremely rare.

2,If a cursed one goes into a dungeon, it's basically a walking disaster. All kinds of monsters will chase them down for some freaky reason. Most of them never meet a good end once they step into a dungeon.

3,They have a type of blood that's pretty bizarre. It looks like poison, but not exactly. Whenever their blood mixes with another human's blood, a biological reaction happens—hideous worms are born… worms with origins straight from hell. These worms will keep eating mana inside the host until there's nothing left. Luckily, the worms are easy to deal with if people know about them beforehand. But if they let the worms keep growing until they reach the brain, there's no saving them—except for someone with a special body, a high mana core, or a particular summon.

4,It seems the Demon Cult really wants to kill these cursed ones.

5,The cursed one is really a troublemaker… I honestly hate them… maybe I'm already affected by the curse. However, I admired them because they managed to kill a Demon King—a thing almost no one in this world can do.

"Goddamn! … Now I'm pretty sure how that old man knew I'd killed the Demon King."

Alaric nodded quietly. Because the [Curse of the Demon King] only appeared on someone who had actually killed the Demon King. That's why the old man had overrated him, even showered him with gifts and offered his granddaughter just to recruit him.

His curse was solid proof of the Demon King's death. It was literally a curse, but in another way, it was also a blessing. A blessing that gave him a reputation or infamous even a mighty elder of a legendary clan could never hope to have.

A big matter… Before this, everyone might've been suspicious about his achievement, but now they were convinced it was real—especially the high-ranking members of the clans and the government.

Alaric slowly let out a breath. He put the human-skin-covered book on the chair, then summoned his longsword and Khaled.

Pretty soon, Khaled materialized from the void, lowering his gaze as he waited for the order.

There was no room for laziness anymore. He'd have many enemies, even demon worshippers. He'd be a literal troublemaker for sure.

There was only one way to deal with all of it: get stronger.

"Teach me the next lesson… I don't want to learn in sequence anymore. I want a shortcut, no matter how dangerous or deadly it is. Uh—no, don't kill me, but you know what I mean."

The slave demon gave him an emotionless look for a moment before asking—

"Are you sure?"

"Even if it breaks my bones."

"Even if it hurts so much you wanna die."

Alaric flinched when he heard that, but he only gritted his teeth.

"Certainly… as long as I don't die, and all parts of my body are still… attached."

Khaled frowned and replied,

"That's quite hard to do. I can't fulfill both of your requests at the same time… however, I'll give it a try."

Just like that, he trained with Khaled for a full week in the training room without going to the academy. To be honest, not because he didn't want to go—he just forgot time existed. Practicing like hell, he had to push through every day; the pain and the thought of the sword were the only things left in his mind.

Aside from that, there was another reason. His growth in combat technique was extremely fast, and he didn't want to miss that momentum. For sure, his blessing had helped him a lot.

He ate and slept right inside the training room… each of those things lasting only three hours. The rest of the time, he just swung his sword, moved, and performed the new slash.

Improve.

Improve.

Ignoring the pain and agony the demon inflicted on him as if it were barely noticeable.

The demon just chuckled and used his wooden sword to adjust Alaric's stance and technique like a master craftsman sharpening a blade to perfection, not allowing a single mistake.

Over time, even the demon himself was stunned by the insanity of Alaric's training.

Time after time, a week passed… until his disappearance finally became a problem for the academy. The professors even broke into his training room to look for him.

They found Alaric's wretched and broken body lying on the floor. He was in terrible shape, but with the academy's high-tier medicine, he recovered quickly—though his spirit hadn't. Surely, his spirit still needed time.

Finally, three days passed, and he could return to the academy again.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.