Curse

With the Crystal Amplifier, the world once again shrunk tremendously as Minos's vision was pulled to a completely new realm.

Here, the genetic link Minos had isolated was swimming around comfortably. Minos watched as it tightly coiled around other parts of Tinka's genetic code, refusing to let go.

As long as he could find a way to somehow separate the two without harming Tinka's DNA, then the solution should be on hand.

Of course, that was much easier said than done, after all he had dozens of ways to destroy the 'curse,' but to do so without harming the rest of Tinka's DNA was going to be an incredible challenge.

Looking out of the cave, Minos saw the sun was a few hours from setting, deciding now was as good a time as any to get to work.

Calling his puppets back into the cave, he got to work creating different genetic 'fighters' wanting to create a genetic code that specifically attacked the 'curse' while leaving everything else alone.

If he could create this genetic code, then all he had to do was feed it to the white blood cells and let them go to work, fixing the problem from the inside without having to do anything drastic.

This solution was the best and safest, but was also likely to be the hardest, but Minos had no lack of time these days, so he didn't mind the effort.

The hours passed as Minos created different samples, testing them out on the 'curse' but failing every single time.

Sometimes the method was too aggressive, and would just destroy everything, other times it was too weak, and wouldn't do much at all.

Finding that delicate balance was proving to be incredibly difficult, but Minos kept working relentlessly until the sun completely set, signaling him to call an end to the day.

Tidying up his cave, he headed back home, the family gathered around the table as they waited for him to arrive as usual.

"Minos, I hear you're working on something new, is that true?" Ronkus asked.

"You heard right, in fact, I've finally started on the curse." Minos said with a smile.

Hearing his words, the entire family went silent. While they never doubted that Minos would begin working on the curse one of these days, after all these months passed, they had somewhat forgotten about it.

Hearing Minos remind them, they couldn't help but be excited, the only one looking around with confusion being Rinka.

"Is that true dear!" Tinka asked excitedly.

"Have I ever lied to you?" Minos laughed.

"Great! Soon enough our tribe will be free once more!" Ronkus said excitedly.

While Rinka didn't know what was happening, she could feel the mood improve, causing her to laugh joyously.

Seeing everyones happy moods, Minos decided not to mention the difficulty, not wanting to ruin the atmosphere.

"Once I'm cured, the three of us can finally explore the world. We'll take Rinka with us and we'll show her all sorts of things." Tinka said joyously, her mind wandering with all sorts of fantasies as she thought of the future.

"Of course." Minos smiled.

Seeing her dad and mom in a happy mood, Rinka couldn't help but giggle some more, Ronkus and Meninka also smiling as they saw their granddaughters glowing face.

The rest of the night passed by peacefully and the next morning, after the family enjoyed breakfast and Minos finished his lesson with the tribe children, he headed straight to work.

Sitting in front of the genetic sample of the 'curse,' Minos got back to work creating possible solutions, failing time and time again.

'Attempt 136, Gen-18A-C. Attempt result - Failure. Cause uncertain, but likely due to an overuse of strain-1ac3.'

'Attempt 233 - Gen-23-13C-C. Attempt Result - Failure. Cause likely to be acidity, causing the entire genetic sample to die.'

'Attempt 341 - Gen-30-5-H-D. Attempt Result - Failure. Cause, too weak, failed to make any impact on the genetic sample.'

…

In this way, the days passed by in a blur, Minos spending more and more time tucked away in the cave as he came up with possible solutions.

After the first week, he started coming home late, and by the time the month passed, he would only spend a few hours every night and morning with the family before getting back to work, not even sleeping at home anymore.

Tinka was the most worried about him, but despite trying time and time again to get him to relax a little, Minos refused, completely consumed by his work.

If one was to head inside his cave at this moment, they would find that the walls were completely filled to the brim with large charts that had all sorts of formulas and ideas dribbled on them.

Each corner of the cave had a puppet fast at work as they wrote down every single idea that came to Minos mind, and whenever he felt ready, he would put these ideas to work.

Yet he failed repeatedly, making it clear that this curse was far above his current level, but he was stubborn, and since he couldn't outwit the curse, he would just brute force it.

The months soon turned into years in this way, and Minos became more illusive as he was completely consumed in his work.

The villagers, who were once used to Minos's presence, started to notice him less and less, reaching a point where it was hard to see him at all.

Minos had even stopped teaching Rinka and the other children, instead leaving it up to Tinka who was long since capable of taking on the job.

Rinka was affected the most by this change, not used to the sudden absence of her father who was once always by her side.

Four years quickly passed by, and Rinka was already five years old, but given her lineage, she was already as smart as most adults, much more intelligent than her peers.

After not seeing her dad for so many years, she finally couldn't hold back anymore, and one day when the family was gathered for breakfast, she finally spoke her mind.

"I want to visit dad!" Rinka demanded.

"Honey, you know that your father is deep in his work, he can't be disturbed." Tinka said, though her heart ached seeing her daughter like this.

"I don't care! How could he abandon me! I thought he loved me?" Rinka said, her eyes slightly tearing.

"He does love you, extremely so! Why do you think he's so invested in his studies? None of this is for him, it's for us." Tinka said.

"Us? How is it for us? If he really cared for us, he'd put his work down and come visit us!" Rinka shouted.

Ronkus and Meninka couldn't help but look at each other as they saw their granddaughter in such a bad mood.

Normally, Rinka was an incredibly disciplined child, and she never let her emotions get out of her control, but it seems all of her repressed emotions finally couldn't be held back any longer.

Seeing his daughter and granddaughter fighting, he couldn't help but let out a sigh, deciding it was about time that Rinka learned the truth as well.

"Rinka, don't get angry with your mother, I think it's time I told you the truth about our clan…" Ronkus sighed, not thinking he'd have to say this so soon.

Like that, Ronkus explained to Rinka the same story he had told Tinka, causing her frown to change to shock, having never expected her tribe to have such a deep secret.

"So we are cursed? And dad is trying to break that curse so we can all cultivate and finally leave the tribe…?" Rinka said with surprise.

She had naturally heard about cultivation before, but she assumed her tribe simply didn't have the resources or techniques needed to cultivate, never knowing that the truth was so grim.

Beyond that, she never knew that none of the tribe members could leave too far beyond the tribe, and whenever she asked about traveling, she thought her mom just refused because she was too young.

She was appalled as she learned the reality, her heart sinking and her anger towards her father suddenly shifting into a deep warmth.

"So dad isn't cursed?" Rinka asked.

"No, that's why I said your dad is doing this for us…" Tinka said.

"I want to help him too! Please let me!" Rinka begged.

"You can't help your father, what he's doing is too complex." Tinka said.

"I don't care, let me try!" Rinka said firmly, not budging at all.

Despite her attempts to convince her daughter, Tinka realized it was useless, and after arguing for a little longer, she finally gave in.

"Fine, you can go, but make sure to be extra quiet so as to not disturb him." Tinka said.

"Don't worry mom, I'm not stupid!" Rinka assured, before running off excitedly.

Seeing her daughter bolt out of the door, Tinka couldn't help but smile softly, happy that her daughter didn't resent her father after all this.

…

After running for a short while, Rinka came up across the large cave that the entire tribe had long since designated a forbidden area.

Sneaking in slowly, she finally took a look inside the cave for the first time in her life, shocked by the sight she saw.