Entering his house, Ace called out, "Ma, I'm back."
In the kitchen, Ace found his mother busy at the cooking counter, preparing dinner, while his father was engrossed in reading the daily news on his iPad. Both of them were in their early fifties, and judging by their body frames, one could tell they had been popular in their youth. However, years of struggle took a toll on their physical appearance, making them look older than their actual age. Apart from raising their two children, this three-bedroom house represented their entire life's work.
"Go freshen up. Dinner will be ready soon," Mrs. Lander said, clearly busy with her tasks. Heading upstairs, Ace agreed with her aloud, "Okay."
"You're late. Look at your uniform—Is that a shoeprint on your back? Son, were you in a fight?" Mr. Lander enquired, setting his iPad on the dinner table, and Mrs. Lander paused her cooking, turning her gaze toward their son on the staircase, wondering if her husband was right.
"Fight? Nah, just played soccer with some friends," Ace fibbed, dismissing his parents' worry. Heading toward his room, he quickly added, "I'll be in my room; let me know when dinner's ready."
"Honey, do you think someone's bullying our son?" Mrs. Lander queried her husband as her son locked himself in his room. "Should we bring this up with his homeroom teacher?"
"Let's wait. If it continues, I'll talk to those soccer buddies of his," Mr. Lander advised his wife to be patient and watch out for apparent signs.
Ace didn't like lying to his parents unless necessary, primarily because they respected his decisions and generally didn't interfere unless they felt he was doing something wrong. They were pretty cool parents, which his elder sister took full advantage of, even in her mid-twenties.
Entering his room and locking the door. Sitting in a lotus position, Ace closed his eyes and focused on his cursed toybox within his soul space. Following his enlightenment's guidance, he channeled his curse energy into the teak-colored wooden cube, measuring 6x6x6 inches, attempting to establish communication with it.
Instantly, a message appeared before his eyes, written in an archaic font with golden borders and a glowing sunshine hue. Despite overlapping his field of vision, it didn't obstruct his regular sight.
Curse Energy: (201/201)
Skills: Cursed toybox, Status screen
i) Class 'Toymancer' will gain new skills with quantitative change in user's stats.
ii) Title 'Curse master' will help learn curse arts.]
[Skill name: Cursed toybox
Skill class: Innate cursed tool
Skill effect: Helps the Toymancer animate and enchant toys using curse cores and items. Then, store animated toys in it.
i) Sense share: Toymancers can share their sense with their toy to monitor and manipulate them. The current range is a mile.
ii) Recall: Toymancer can summon his toys back to his side. The current range is a mile.
iii) Repair: Toymancer can repair their toys in the toybox by providing the parts.
iv) Kill switch: Toymancer can detonate his toy with a command.
i) The toy spaces will increase with the toymancer's spirituality and cursed energy.
ii) The toybox can only store toys, their accessories, and curse items.]
[Skill name: Status screen
Skill class: Innate curse art
Skill effect: The user can perceive their sensory information in digital data form, allowing them to index and sort data faster.
Note: It is limited to the user's knowledge.]
"Awesome," Ace whooped, his voice ringing with excitement as he read his status screen. The enlightenment he gained after refining his curse core revealed that only a select few curse masters are fortunate enough to awaken their innate curse arts. As for the innate curse tool, one needs it to be called a full-fledged curse master.
"Cursed toybox," Ace declared, summoning his innate curse tool, eager to put its power to the test. He whipped out the curse core that Ria gave him and brought it next to the cursed toybox, only to see its lid open as a flamboyant clown emerged from within it and headed back into the box after collecting the curse core.
Snapping out of the wonders of his cursed toy box Ace eyed the lineup of action figures on his bookshelf, musing, 'Hmm, which one's gonna be my guinea pig?'
After a lot of struggle, Ace's eyes locked onto a 1:60 scale master-grade model of a sentient giant robot race from a hit anime series 'Morphing Bots.' His elder sister gifted it to him using her first salary. It was the most expensive model in his small collection. With a grin, he declared, "Starstream, you are the chosen one!"
Grabbing the 12-inch real-grade model, Ace hesitated, wondering how on earth he'd cram it into the tiny toybox. Yet, as the model approached it, its lid popped open, and the clown popped out with ghastly laughter and promptly sucked the model inside the toybox. Ace then peeped into the box, pondering how something so small could contain a clown toy and a toy two times its height. Only to find the curse core and the robot model suspended in a dark void. With a thought, he could command the toybox's clown to spit them back out.
> Curse core: Wasp form
> Toy: Starstream morphing bot
> Recommendation: The success rate of animating the toy 'Starstream morphing bot' with the curse core 'Wasp form' is low.
Note: A compatibility rate greater than eighty percent is optimal for animating a toy.]
"Now what?" Ace scratched his head, baffled that the curse core wasn't a match for Starstream.
"Sorry, Starstream, not your lucky day," Ace shrugged, plucking the model out of the toy box. Turning to the shelf, he pondered, 'Which one do I choose next?'
Remembering that the curse core came from a Curseling shaped like a wasp and was dubbed 'Wasp form' in the status screen, Ace figured he should opt for a toy with a similar nature this time. His eyes fell on the 1:144 scale action figure, a 5-inch tall female cyborg donning a wasp exoskeleton, on the shelf. Seizing it, he swiftly inserted it and all its accessories into the cursed toybox. Soon, the status screen once again conveyed the cursed toybox's response to him,
> Curse core: Wasp form
> Recommendation: The success rate of animating the toy 'Dame Wasp' with the curse core 'Wasp form' is high.]
"89%, hell yeah!" Ace shouted in excitement. The compatibility was high enough, meaning his guess was correct. Since he had no other wasp-related toys, Ace commanded, "Come to life, Dame Wasp!"