Cursed Wraith, Completing the Trial

In the Curse Temple Noah had fought the monsters over and over again. He had slowly climbed up and had now reached the last step.

[You have entered the ninth Step. Kill 9 Cursed Creations and a Cursed Wraith to break the barrier protecting the rewards.]

There were nine monsters around that he had been expecting but behind them was another.

[Cursed Wraith] (Special Elite)

??? Class

Level 90

It was a floating skeleton wearing a black robe. The robe was long enough to hide its legs and arms completely. On its head was some type of crown made of purple crystals. It held a black staff with a purple crystal at its top.

[You have been Cursed! Your attributes have been decreased by 5%]

Noah saw the message as he moved. He reached the Cursed Wraith and kicked. The blades under his shoes grew sharper and wider, Slicing Ice!

The ice blade hit nothing, as the Cursed Warith turned into a black swirl that sucked into itself and disappeared. It then appeared a distance away.

Noah dodged the attacks it shot as he fought the Cursed Creations.

He used to be the one teleporting around as he fought monsters, now it was the other way around. Whenever he got close to the Cursed Wraith it would teleport away.

The Warith was able to use a lot more curses than the Cursed Abominations. His attributes dropped exponentially, while he would constantly hear the system telling him about one debuff after the other.

...[You have been Cursed! You can not speak anymore!]

'I can't cast spells either.' Noah thought as fought with his sword as he shot with his flintlock. He already had his sight and hearing sealed. He now had his mouth sealed away by the wraith. The nine cursed creations were already challenging, being weakened further by curses he was being suppressed.

'I should just focus on killing one to ease the battle up,' Noah started to slowly widdle one of them down. His sword struck to kill his first Cursed Creation.

Cursed Recovery! The Cursed Wraith cast a spell sending energy to the Cursed Creation. The almost dead Cursed Creation regenerated completely as it fought back with redoubled fury.

'It can even heal? I'll need to kill it first.' Noah thought as he looked around. Killing it would be hard as the Cursed Creations acted as body guards to protect the Wraith.

Curse of Self Harm! Noah activated the skill as he saw the wraith attack. A black beam hit him pushing him back. He took the hit head-on. His armour soaked most of the damage, while he bared the rest using Qi.

The Wraith screeched as it felt the damage come back onto itself.

Noah drank a potion as he continued to fight. The True Wood Staff floated next to him as it sent a storm of leaf blades to all monsters.

The wrath pointed its staff at Noah as it cast the attack behind a black barrier.

Soul Steal!

Noah felt his body freeze as he looked at the black swirling magic circle. Before he lost himself further the Ancient Wood Magic Flintlock pointed forward.

Ancient Solar Ray!

The beam of solar energy hit the magic circle causing the Wraith to stop casting as it dodged.

Noah flashed close as his leg kicked. Slicing Ice! It worked this time. The blade sliced up at the Wraith's robe forming ice on it, freezing its movements.

The gun in his hand switched to the Helleborus.

Black Cero!

A black beam hit the monster straight on. Noah then shot explosive bullets one after the other. He hadn't been using them since he had a limited amount. Not being able to leave the temple he wouldn't be able to buy more if he finished them at an earlier step.

He attacked all the monsters around. Indiscriminate bullets hit and burst causing fire damage to the monsters. The Cursed Creations had been pushed away so he came close to the Cursed Wraith.

Silent Screech!

The sword rang, Noah then moved close and slashed as swiftly as he could in sequence. The wraith finally died.

He then flipped back as a Cursed Creation attacked. He then landed on the ground skating back weaving out from the incirclement he was in.

Then through the grueling process of taking one down after the other be killed the nine cursed Creations.

Noah saw the final barrier disappear as bright light shines out. Seven objects floated on pedestals locked in dark bubbles of light.

[Congradulations on completing the trial!

Choose one of the Seven items as your reward! (You have one 60 seconds to select before you are thrown out.)]

Noah moved closer and saw the Seven items. The system didn't explain what they did so he would have to choose blindly.

He first noticed the second object was a black diamond. He recognised it as the Diamond of Darkness he had gotten before. As for the others, they were a bottle with a black liquid, a black arrow, a dark silver metallic shard, a spider eye and two books.

He looked through all of them judging the energy they were giving off. It was difficult to tell since they were all at a similar level.

{2s}

'That book seems like the strongest!' Noah grabbed one of the books. THere was no time left to think about it further.

[0s]

The timer ran out. Swoosh! Turning around he saw the door he entered from at the bottom of the temple open as if it had been pushed by great winds. From it, a strong suction force feel on him.

He lost all control over himself as he was pulled off from the top step. His body moved as if it was connected to a rope. He was then thrown to the ground outside the temple as the door shut in front of him.

[You have already completed the trial!]

Noah saw the message of the system on the door as he stood up. He looked at the book in his hand. It was black and red in colour. The red contrasted deeply with the black. It was blood like as it flowed around the book, giving a demonic craziness to its energy.

All the items were valuable so he wouldn't lose out on choosing any of them. The rest seemed like materials. He had already gotten quite a lot of materials through dungeons although not many on the level he had just seen. Seeing two skill books on the same level as such high-class materials, he was interested in them more so he selected the one that caught his attention.

[Curse Magic: Rageful Berserker] (B Class)

A B Class skill. No matter what the other items were he didn't think he had lost out. A B Class skill was a lot more valuable than any material. It was something that would never drop in a Dungeon. Only S Class monsters had the chance of dropping them.

He learned the skill.

[Curse Magic: Rageful Berserker]

B Class

A strong curse that will cause the target to enter a state of madness and rage, increasing attributes by 50%. The rage takes over their mind causing them to lose control and indiscriminately attack all living things in sight.

"Buffing the enemy and making them lose control to kill their own, it's quite a cruel skill." Noah could see the benefit of the skill. It was meant for group battles, he could already imagine setting off monsters in a dungeon to attack others while he stayed back and watched. He just had to make sure he didn't enter its line of sight, which was quite easy for him.

As for one on one battles, it could be used on intelligent monsters. Having them dumb down to instinctual attacks would be easier for him to deal with than calculated ones. The increased attributes weren't too much of a problem as long as he was able to dodge everything.

Then another way hit him.

"Wait... can I use it on myself?" It wasn't the best idea, but he felt like Winter Style would be able to resist its effects of losing his mind. "If Winter Style can keep my emotions in check I should be able to use this as a buff skill." Winter Styles core principle was to be void of all emotions. Cold Mind and Frozen Heart both had an effect on them.

Noah pulled out the Helleborus and then pointed it at his head.

Curse Magic: Rageful Berserker!

An insidious red magic circle formed in front of the slick black barrel. In it was a five-pointed star forming a pentagram. There were two outer circles detailed with crimson writing turning in opposite directions. At its centre was a demonic goat head with curved horns drawn elaborately with blood, overlapping and covering most of the pentagram.

The spell was cast. A red glow shot and hit Noah in the head. His body relaxed as his head fell forward.

Boom! He then burst out with a frightening aura. His body glowed a bright blood red. His head slowly rose as his greyish white eyes had changed to crimson with a pentagram forming in them.

He gave off a completely different feel. There was madness and lunacy sizzling off him, anyone nearby would find him much more frightening than any psychopath or serial killer. Being in a state of craziness yet also be similar to a cold-hearted machine.

"It worked. I can still reason," Noah's face was devoid of emotions as he talked to himself.

"But it seems a D++ Class skill is no match for a B Class skill. Winter Style wouldn't have stood a chance if Blessed Mind hadn't helped lessen the effect. It seems like Guardian of Love also has an effect. The benefits of having multiple talents are becoming apparent."

A single talent may not be able to stop its effects but having it layered with multiple powers in his bodies stopping the power from talking over he was able to keep rationality.

Still, he felt like his mind was throbbing as the powers were at war inside his body. One trying to eat away his personality, the other blocking it.

He deactivated the skill.

"It uses quite a bit of Mana, but I can still use it for one minute if I put away some of my mana for Flash Step," Noah thought as he started walking out.

He then started swimming up again. His hand waved opening up the Explorer Map.

"This blue temple seems the closest from here. If the colour does correlate with the element it should be the water temple."