The Beginning

After leaving the office, Cecia headed straight for the library.

Although Asgard Magic Academy was only a primary academy, it housed a considerable collection of books.

In a world where knowing too much was not necessarily a good thing, knowledge was especially precious.

After half an hour of searching, Cecia finally found the book in a dusty corner.

Compendium of Famous Curses of the World, authored by Archmage Merlin. To be honest, Cecia didn't know who that was.

She opened the book and flipped through the pages, searching quickly.

Finally, under the Legendary Curses section, Cecia found the curse attached to her—Abyss Erosion.

【Abyss Erosion】

Effect: Continuously erodes the host's body and physical constitution. In the late stage, it begins to interfere with the recipient's magic core and magic circuits, rendering their magic useless.

In the early stage, those afflicted show no abnormalities and are no different from normal people. In the late stage, their bodies become covered with Abyss imprints, causing excruciating pain.

Dispelling methods: Pope-level Holy Light magic, purification potions brewed by legendary witches, life sacrifice (forbidden; details omitted), legendary blessings bestowed by the Goddess, and forbidden-level soul magic.

Because the curse is imprinted deep within the soul, most methods involving body-stealing are completely useless, as it attaches directly to authority.

Legendary soul purification spells should also be effective, but the methods have long been lost.

Delaying methods: Elevating one's realm can strengthen the soul's fortitude, thereby slowing down the effects of Abyss Erosion. However, most individuals who contract this curse are already Legends, making it naturally difficult to elevate their realm further. Cases are extremely rare.

Cecia read carefully, page by page.

She needed to know more; what the system had told her was still far too little.

Sure enough, the next page contained a more detailed description.

Curse mechanism: Just as all curses stem from an ultimate core statement, the essence of Abyss Erosion is the Abyss uttering a single phrase to the recipient: “You shall ultimately become my mouthpiece, my stable anchor, and my loyal subjects.” The above was translated by a famous Abyss language expert.

What did that mean? Data missing.

Cecia looked at the ink-black text in the book and fell silent.

Curses and blessings were two sides of the same coin. To Abyss creatures, this was an extraordinary blessing, but to humans, it was undoubtedly fatal.

Cecia still wanted to live. It seemed that only by making a breakthrough as soon as possible could she survive well in this world.

In the evening, the remnant rays of the setting sun painted the entire world in a warm amber.

Seeing that her classmates had all gone home after school and the adjacent training field was now empty, Cecia decided to go practice her Fireball spell.

After two days of high-intensity forging, her Fireball spell had broken through this morning.

【Fireball LV2, 30/500】

Although she could practice while forging, Cecia still wanted to see what her Fireball was truly like now.

Cecia knew deep down that there were many ways to use magic: chanting to pray to spirits to increase power, using imagination for fast casting, or using mental willpower to direct and adjust magic.

This was the first time Cecia had used Fireball in a true sense since transmigrating.

She finally had the chance to see what a real Fireball spell looked like.

Cecia had plenty of mental power. First, she used her mental power to engrave a magic circle, condense fire, shape it into a sphere, and then launch it.

When Cecia used Fireball again, she always felt a bit strange, like a victim of a major disaster undergoing rehabilitation training.

The condensed flame was awkward and unnatural.

Her level and proficiency were still too low; at Cecia's current level, she could probably only cook meals with it.

Although Cecia had felt something similar while smithing, the amount of flame she controlled back then was tiny. When the quantity grew larger, she couldn't handle it smoothly.

It was like a person missing limbs trying to walk with crutches.

Cecia activated the skill. A magic circle appeared in her palm, and then a roaring flame condensed above her head, only to disperse soon after.

Cecia stumbled through the process again, successfully condensing it before launching it at a magic scarecrow.

The scarecrow shook, its surface slightly charred.

Mm.

Super effective.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, because even ordinary students could achieve this level of performance.

Cecia practiced by herself for a while and seemed to get the hang of it. She made the flame softer, brighter, and then burn fiercely.

This time, she launched the fireball without even manifesting a magic circle.

How should she put it?

A fireball produced through a magic circle was a bit like aiming down sights in an FPS game—accuracy and power were increased, but firing without a magic circle was like hip-firing: faster movement, but sacrificing accuracy and power.

Of course, true experts didn't need to worry about such things; their mental power was formidable enough that they didn't rely on magic circles anyway.

Boom! Flaring flames shot up into the sky.

Its power had increased significantly once more.

Cecia continued to practice, absorbing the subtle principles behind it.

She seemed to gradually understand what a magic core was and what magic circuits were after all.

Now, Cecia began attempting to split a large fireball apart, dividing it into three small fireballs to attack.

Then she injected more mental power to increase the damage.

Unfortunately, the decay of magic was quite severe, but Cecia felt like she had touched upon something deeper.

Right at that moment, someone patted Cecia on the shoulder. Turning her head, she saw Scarlett, her face beaming with a bright smile.

“Hi, Senior!” Scarlett said with a smile.

“Whoa! It's Scarlett. Did you need something?”

“No, not really! I just happened to see you practicing magic after school, so I came over to take a look.”

“Ah, I see. I'm practicing my Fireball spell.”

“Since a moment ago, I've felt that your Fireball spell is a bit strange, Senior. Even though Fireball is supposed to be explosive, in your hands, its flavor seems to have changed completely...” Scarlett offered a gentle and tactful reminder first.

“Oh? Is that so?” Cecia asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Senior, I think you're practicing Fireball the wrong way. Fireball isn't supposed to be trained like this...”

Scarlett finally pointed out the core problem.

Scarlett had been watching Cecia practice Fireball from afar, but the more she watched, the stranger it felt.

Cecia shouldn't be dispersing the fireball to attack; that went against the explosive nature of the fire element.

On the contrary, she should inject a large amount of mana, fix the spell model, and compress it before launching it.

That way, shouldn't the resulting explosion be much stronger than what Senior Cecia was doing?

Cecia smiled without saying anything. After a short moment, she said:

“Oh, so that's how it is? Miss Scarlett, how about the two of us have a magic sparring match?”

Hearing this, Scarlett was delighted. She felt as though she was seeing the former, non-despondent senior return.

Back before all those terrible things happened, Scarlett used to spar with Cecia just like this.

“Sounds great! Senior, let's hurry and put on our sparring suits, then get started!”

“The sparring match is about to begin!”