Apocalypse Hunter

< Curse Play (Part 2) >

As Zin foretold the coming death of the guard, everyone, including the captain, gasped.

“If you don’t believe in sorcery, you can ignore this curse. And I just explained the outcome of the fortune drain sorcery. If you accept the curse, stay seated. If you do not accept it, stand up. Since you don’t believe in sorcery, whether you die in four days or not, it’s all a lie to you anyways, right?”

Zin was taunting the captain to stand up, but the captain who lived by his pride refused to stand up.

“I will assume that you have agreed to accept the curse. I will begin the ceremony.”

As everybody remained silent, Zin walked around the bonfires and started to cast the curse. The two characters – Fortune and Drain – from the spellstone started to emit dark energy. Zin started to murmur, but nobody was able to figure out what he was saying.

The captain was watching Zin, who had appeared in front of the bonfire and then disappeared into the darkness. He would then appear by the other bonfire.

Zin was simply walking, but Zin appeared to be like a devil that was fading in and out of the darkness.

The atmosphere was creepy as Zin continued to murmur the spell. Everybody was still holding their breath and watching the scene.

Many sorcerers turned out to be con artists. Con artists utilized tricks, circus acts, or illusions.

However, Zin only lit up bonfires and was simply walking around the bonfires. Zin wandered like a grim reaper, and he would throw things into the bonfire to light it up. But his actions didn’t look out of the ordinary.

Leona stayed silent and looked at the bonfires.

The ceremony was different from the one performed earlier in the day. It was not horrible. There was no gruesome killing, and there were no monsters involved.

But everyone was afraid.

The calmly walking hunter terrified the residents. Even though there were only bonfires burning, everyone was feeling something creepy about the whole deal.

They thought that Zin was performing a real sorcery. Everyone was getting a taste of a real sorcery.

— Zap! —

And all of a sudden, one of the bonfires went out. The fire didn’t die down, the light completely and instantly disappeared.

The children who were watching started to freak out, and the adults were also surprised. But no one screamed. They were afraid to the point where they couldn’t make a sound.

— Zap, Zazap! —

The remaining bonfires were also put out in a split second. No one was able to breathe. They felt like something horrible would happen to them if they made any sound.

As soon as all the bonfires were put out, the people saw nothing but darkness. It was not the effect of the sorcery. The people had been looking at the bonfires so long that their pupils were constricted. They did not know about this fact, so they felt like they were in pitch darkness. They thought that this was part of the sorcery.

— Thump, thump —

In the complete darkness, Zin continued to walk in circles around the bonfires. Nothing could be heard but his footsteps, the sound echoing in a steady rhythm.

The captain at the center of the ceremony was scared to death.

— Krrrrrrroooom! —

And then a dark mist shot outside of the bonfire and started to surround the guard captain. Everyone was able to sense the rumbling of the ground, and were all shocked.

“Ah, aaaaarggh! Help!!!”

The captain stood up hurriedly, and ran away from the bonfires. As he ran, he lost control, and fell flat down on the ground.

“Aaahhhck! Something is trying to grab me! It’s grabbing me!!!” The captain tripped trying to get up by himself, and then collapsed on the ground.

Zin looked down at him, and spoke calmly, “The ceremony is over. You may turn on the lights.”

— Zap! —

The guards who were on standby turned on all the lights, and everyone was able to see the guard captain on the floor unconscious.

Leona who was watching the ceremony in the corner started to laugh out loud.

“Hahahaha! What is that? I think he shit on his pants?”

And he had.

The lord shook her head and ordered the guards, “… Please help him and let him rest.”

As everyone was still in panic after witnessing the ceremony, Leona continued to laugh by herself.

——

It was obvious, but no resident came close to the inn that Zin and Leona were staying in. Before even seeing the final outcome, everybody was certain that Zin performed a real sorcery.

The lord seemed to be afraid after witnessing the power of Zin thanked him, but soon walked away from him after delivering his meal.

“Pfft, what’s the deal? She’s the one who asked for help in the first place.”

“Strangers are either exalted or rejected. It’s not surprising at all.”

Zin and Leona ate the dinner that the lord had brought over. The guard captain was still unconscious without any movement.

Leona was thinking about the notion that the strangers were either exalted or rejected.

In fact, she was familiar with the attitude of the residents. The despising looks of the residents were exactly the same as the looks of the Mok-Gol people.

People were afraid of Leona, and they hated her.

“What does it mean to be exalted?”

“It means that people regard them as important people. Dangerous sorcerers gain great status in a village. Wouldn’t people rather have someone powerful on their side?”

“Hmm… if I had power in my hometown, would I have been exalted?”

“Hmm.” Zin looked at Leona and said, “Then you would have not been suspected of being a witch.”

“Really?”

“Most likely.”

Leona slowly nodded. A witch was feared by people, yet people imposed that name on weak people. People have been using that name to harm those who were not witches at all.

Leona had hard time understanding what he was explaining to her. But she was curious about another matter.

“So, is the guy who was cursed today going to die?”

There would be nothing scarier than that. Leona was afraid how a ceremony would cause someone to die within four days. Listening to Leona’s question, Zin laughed.

“Of course not. That type of curse is called ‘death wish’. It is not a curse that someone like me who performs sorcery occasionally can easily activate. The curse that I activated today simply makes the man become unlucky.”

“Can you give some examples?”

“I can’t give you the specifics, but for example, he will bite small stones while eating food, he will bump his toe on a chair, or bugs will enter his eyes or ears.”

“… it doesn’t sound that serious.”

Leona was a bit disappointed that the curse would only have minor effects on the person. But Zin smiled.

“However, how would you feel if those misfortunes happened consecutively?”

Leona became horrified to think that one would always bite stones in every meal, and bump his toes on the chairs every single time.

“Okay, I take it back. It sounds horrible.”

It would cause great fear if misfortune happened many times.

“The ceremony was a gimmick, and if I had such powers, I would have laid the curse on the devils.”

Zin had created a scary atmosphere utilizing visual effects, and he gave out a death sentence in order to scare the captain. Leona laughed at Zin.

“Then why did you even say that the captain was going to die in four days? What would happen after four days? Wouldn’t he come after us?”

Leona couldn’t understand why Zin lied.

“How will he feel when misfortunes happen every single moment? And how will he feel about the death sentence?”

“…”

“He won’t last more than two days.”

The threat that the captain would die in four days acted as a countdown, and the captain would end up giving up under pressure.

It became clear that Zin had deceived the people.

“Remember this. It is okay for a hunter to lack skills, but it’s not okay for a hunter to give up his reward.”

Zin was determined to get the reward at any cost. After eating the dinner, Zin started to chisel a wooden block near him.

“What is that?”

“Now that I have activated a curse, I need to create an anti-curse item.”

“Anti-curse? Does that stop from the curse from happening?”

“Yes.”

Leona was able to figure out the meaning of the words that she didn’t know. Zin kept on chiseling the wood after Leona went to bed.

—

The captain did shit on his pants, but when he woke up in the morning, he seemed to be fine. He acted as if nothing had happened and he started the roll call.

Given the fact that the effect of sorcery was unpredictable, Zin was not able to predict the outcome. The guard captain did not bite a stone while eating breakfast. Instead, he bit down on a cockroach.

“What the hell…”

A cockroach could be a valuable for someone else, but it was not the case for the people of Jule. As he stood up to put away the dishes, he tripped himself and fell on the floor.

—Bam! —

“Oooph!”

Everybody laughed when they saw the captain fall down. They all forgot about the horror from last night. The guards laughed out loud.

“Captain! You are unlucky today!”

“What did you just say? Hahaha.” The captain joked around and started to lead the guards out on patrol. And strange events happened where the chair’s leg broke off, and the captain hurt his finger while using tools.

The captain and the guards started to feel that something was not right, but they laughed it off.

Zin simply stated that the captain will become unlucky, but it was an understatement.

—Boom! —

“What the-!”

—Bam!

“…”

One of the guard’s crossbows had fired accidently. The arrow grazed the cheek of the captain and struck the wall.

Nobody was laughing at that point.

“Um, uh… captain… it fired by itself…”

The guard whose crossbow fired started to explain what had happened, and the captain became frightened as he swiped his bleeding cheek. He yelled at the guard, “You crazy bastard! We are not in the middle of the battle. Why did you load the crossbows!”

“It was the time to check the weapons…”

“… damn it. Put your weapon down, put it down!”

At the captain’s command, all the guards laid their weapons down. Nobody was smiling. If the arrow had flown a couple of inches to the right, the captain would have been killed on the spot.

Unlucky…

There were too many bizarre events happening to call it a coincidence.

Luck drain…

The luck of the captain was getting drained with every passing moment. The sorcery was invisible, but it was certain that it existed.