Name: Mutated Rust Worm
Title: Samsara Cult Fanatic
Info: Mutated Rust Worms are essentially Rust Worms born with human souls, making them smarter and more conscious of their actions than any Rust Worm curseling ever is. They manifest as plump, swollen worms about the size of a human infant, their bodies appearing full and distended with curse energy.
They have no limbs, but strands of hair sprout from odd lumps and moles on their glistening, smooth skin. Sometimes, their flesh is slightly translucent, revealing the internal fluids within. Most, however, have a deep, rich reddish-brown color.
Due to their natural stealth ability, they cannot be perceived by eyes or senses enhanced by curse energy. Detecting them requires special methods as they are invisible to conventional means.
Mutated Rust Worm Curselings can infest any cursed item or tool, though they have a strong preference for the innate cursed tools of curse masters due to the tendencies of their human souls that want to live as humans again.
When infesting a cursed item or tool, they adopt its color and texture, seamlessly merging with it. This makes them nearly impossible to detect despite one having the means to perceive their presence. Even if a Rust worm infestation is identified, there is no way to remove them. The only option is to abandon the cursed item or tool entirely.
Unlike standard Rust Worm Curselings, Mutated Rust Worms cannot lay eggs within the cursed items or tools they infest as their existence is considered as blasphemy even in the ’World of Curses.’ However, like regular Rust Worms, they can morph into any cursed item or tool they have ever consumed—but only one at a time. In this form, they can fully access and use the abilities of the cursed item or tool they have transformed into.
Mutated Rust Worms feed on the curse energy of the items or tools they infest, but they can survive or use curse energy by consuming the emotions of their human souls but at the risk of making themselves heartless and emotionless like Curseling.
By fusing their curse core with the core of a cursed tool they are infesting, they temporarily gain its tier and abilities, sustaining themselves until the tool’s curse core is fully drained, as they cannot recover curse energy higher than the mortal tier. Their tier changes depending on the strength of the curse core they are currently merged with.
i) Natural Stealth/Invisibility:
The ability to passively remain undetectable to normal and curse-enhanced senses.
The ability to merge with and inhabit cursed items and tools, along with the skill to change their appearance to match the infested object. Making it nearly impossible to detect their presence in the cursed items or tools.
iii) Emotion Consumption:
The ability to absorb and feed on emotions of their human to increase their natural rate of curse energy recovery.
iv) Curse Core Fusion:
The ability to temporarily fuse their curse core with the core of the curse tool, allowing them to assume the tool’s tier until the curse energy of the curse tool’s core is drained, as they can only recover the curse energy of a mortal-tier even if their tier is temporarily elevated to higher tiers.
v) Cursed Tool Transformation:
The ability to transform their entire body into a cursed object they have consumed. In the transformed state, they can use the powers of the cursed object they have transformed into.
i) Source: Delores, a.k.a. Sky Slayer
ii) This data is created for human convenience by humans. Curselings don’t assess to this.]
Ace frowned as he sifted through the information on Mutated Rust Worms, noticing a critical limitation in their abilities. It turns out that the mutated Rust Worms couldn’t recover curse energy for curse cores higher than the Mortal tier, even if their own tier was temporarily elevated due to fusing with the said curse core.
Learning this info, Ace quickly felt that things did not add up. If the limitation of mutated Rust Worm listed by the cursed toybox were true, then the Samsara Cult fanatics would have to swap bodies far more often. Meaning they wouldn’t be able to afford this war. Find adventures at NovelHub.Côm
Something wasn’t right. Why would these fanatics go all out to hunt down a bunch of low-tier curse masters while using high-tier bodies? The exchange didn’t make sense. High-tier curse master bodies had to be rare commodities for them—especially in the mortal world. Unless… they had a way to recover the curse energy of higher-tier curse cores. Now, that would explain why they were willing to start a war.
Ace’s mind raced, wondering if it had something to do with the curse possession art they were taught right after being reborn as Rust Worms. Maybe that curse art was more than just taking possession of a body. If so, he needed to know more. The thought intrigued him, causing him to ponder if there was a way he could get his hands on a genuine curse possession art.
A single therapy session with Doctor Druid and these fanatics would spill all the Samsara Cult’s secrets. With that in mind, Ace made a decision—he needed to capture a high-ranking Mutated Rust Worm. However, his gaze unconsciously drifted to the spot where MindBug’s innate curse tool had pinpointed the Mutated Rust Worm, the one that Elinor had just thrown.
Then, he retrieved an engineered seed from Doctor Druid’s toy space. She had just edited it to meet her master’s needs. Apex Ace fed curse energy to it, and the seed transformed into a wicker jar. He waded into the blood pool like he was on the beach, briefly stirring the crimson liquid, before he caught the invisible mutated rust worm and placed it in the jar, all while Elinor and the fanatics stared in stunned silence. His actions, amidst the crimson pool, were bizarre and unnerving; it looked much like he was picking up a sea cucumber on the beach. Unlike him, they could see the mutated Rust Worm making his actions much disturbing for them. Especially the fanatics. They were starting to feel bad for their captain.