[Sublimation Ritual Completed]
[Proceeding to Class Promotion——]
Annan’s vision swept across a torrent of data.
The deep crimson sea around him suddenly began to roil uneasily, burbling as large bubbles emerged.
From the unfathomable depths, black sludge slowly seeped out. A cacophony of whispers, soft laughter, and a long, strange melody began to play.
Eventually, the sludge clumped together, slowly ascending. In Annan’s eyes, it began to shimmer with a bright red glow.
Until it rose to be level with Annan’s sight, the radiance burst forth violently. Like a low-flying aircraft zooming past, Annan’s head buzzed, and his vision dissolved into pitch darkness.
In the lightless world, three orbs emerged.
They were an emerald eye, a bloody kitchen knife, and an abstract painting of a backstabbing.
At that moment, a new light curtain scrolled before Annan:
[Curse Manifestation——]
[Eternal Eye (Sustained Type): Your left eye will occasionally throb with severe pain, as if gouged out with a knife.]
[Note: If the interval between two episodes of pain exceeds three days, the duration of pain will increase gradually, with a maximum duration of no more than 12.4 seconds, and a minimum of no less than 2.4 seconds.]
[Butcher’s Blade (Dissolution Type): You must kill one person with a kitchen knife each month.]
[Note: The damage inflicted must account for at least 10% of the total damage. The kitchen knife must have been used to normally cook human food the day before the ritual.]
[Backstabber’s Oath (Taboo Type): You cannot backstab and kill a person who trusts you from behind.]
[Note: "Trust" means that at the moment of your betrayal, the person didn’t consider the possibility of you killing them, and both parties are aware of each other’s presence.]
The contents of the three Curse Bindings were laid out very clearly, displayed to Annan by the system.
However, contrary to the clear negative effects, what powers each Curse Binding would grant was not mentioned at all.
"Three types of Curse Binding...huh," Annan muttered.
In fact, at least as far as a bronze-tier’s Curse Bindings were concerned, there was nothing too harsh.
Aside from the first Curse Binding being potentially fatal during critical moments, the remaining two were actually viable options.
The second one was straightforward, equating essentially to killing a person each month, which was almost no challenge at all.
Annan, after all, held a special status. Executing one death row prisoner a month was certainly not difficult. Even if he couldn’t find someone to kill, Annan could issue a quest to players, having them select someone to die once.
What of it if they dropped a level or two?
If Annan directly compensated them with enough experience to level up three or even four times, along with five hundred personal favorability points, how could that not be enticing?
When the time came, players would undoubtedly come to be executed amid a cacophony of gongs and drums, fireworks, fluttering red flags, and a sea of people.
The third Curse Binding also wasn’t difficult to avoid.
Although the inability to betray was somewhat challenging for Annan... With Annan’s approach, he could easily breach this rule.
Fortunately, the Curse Binding’s requirement for "backstabbing" was quite lax. That "the person at the moment of attack didn’t consider that you would kill them"... meant that you just had to declare your intention to kill them before betraying them; or subdue them rather than kill them after the backstabbing to avoid breaching the rule.
However, after some thought, Annan chose the second option.
Not for any other reason.
It was merely to pave the way for his next promotion.
After all, although the third Curse Binding now seemed to have a minor effect... with each advancement, he might obtain new Curse Bindings. They could very likely interfere with one another, further limiting Annan’s Backstabber’s Oath.
The most important thing about Curse Bindings was secrecy.
Aside from the secret-keepers, it was best if no one knew one’s Curse Bindings... or even if they did know, they wouldn’t be able to decipher it.
So, once Annan started to act with his hands tied, if there happened to be a clever person among his enemies, they might easily guess what his Curse Bindings were after investigating his behavior patterns.
Conversely, Taboo Type Curse Bindings, despite looking compulsory, were actually the easiest to resolve. And they were the least likely to conflict with other Curse Bindings.
As a certain thought crossed Annan’s mind, the blood-stained bubble began to expand rapidly, swiftly engulfing the other two bubbles. The contents gradually turned into a murky red and then slowly darkened, eventually becoming a small lump of black muck.
Afterward, this muck flew over and attached itself to the forearm of Annan’s right hand, beginning to slowly flow... as if it were etching something onto the skin of his arm.
Wherever it flowed, excruciating, corrosive pain followed, leaving a visibly pure black scar behind.
The color was as if the skin had naturally split open to reveal a void inside... not a trace of blood, just dull and profound.
The shape of the scar resembled an abstract broken sword or a twisted circuit.
New words then flowed before Annan’s eyes:
[Butcher’s Blade: Affix to any bladed weapon (blade must not be longer than one and a half meters), no maintenance cost, cooldown of thirty minutes after detachment]
[When attacking consumable creatures (defined as those not dying upon consumption), if an attack does indeed hit and cause damage, and is not blocked, parried, or deflected en route, then upon repeated attacks on that target, the weapon’s sharpness and hardness are treated as temporarily double.]
[This effect can stack indefinitely, with an inherent cooldown of 2.4 seconds. After stacking two layers of effect on other enemies, all other buffs reset.]
...That seemed pretty good.
A bright idea struck Annan.
This was a quite practical ability.
To put it simply, this ability was...
...a flesh unit-specialized version of the Black Cutter?
For most enemies, it meant that as soon as Annan’s weapon inflicted injury, its sharpness and hardness would rapidly increase. As long as he could bypass the opponent’s weapon or shield and strike a blow or two, he would become markedly stronger.
Until his weapon was enhanced enough to hack through an enemy’s weapon, to slice through their shield.
This meant that even if Annan wielded two kitchen knives, after a few exchanges, he could stage a Blade Storm and crush the enemy’s weapon and armor.
However, it seemed not quite suitable for those types of broad, expansive sword techniques.
It did seem a better fit for those more delicate and agile fencing techniques.
The fragility of thin or rapier swords could also be completely compensated for by this weapon enhancement. As long as Annan could strike rapidly a few times, he could enhance his weapon to an astonishing degree— even piercing through shields or armor and directly taking down the enemy.
And the first thing that came to Annan’s mind was his own Frost Sword Technique.
The trigger condition for this ability was "causing damage," not necessarily "drawing blood." And the sword energy unleashed by the Frost Sword Technique could not be blocked or deflected...
So, if Annan started with a Frost Sword Technique strike, wouldn’t that reliably activate one layer of buff?
The only downside was that, apart from the main target on whom it could stack indefinitely, it could stack only one layer on others.
This meant that he couldn’t make a monkey out of them, which was a pity...
After the black mire finished branding him, Annan once again lost consciousness.
When he awoke, he had returned to the real world’s Frostwater Harbor.