Chapter 77
Cursed items, like [Cursed Power Crystals], tasted like nothing to Kazuma Hatori; they melted in his mouth.
The moment the interface displayed the spell power level rising to level three, Kazuma Hatake's mood immediately improved.
The [Black Flash] below has also been upgraded to level three, but this was because he used it too many times when he was beating up the NPC, and it has nothing to do with the cursed item.
Of course, he wasn't stubborn enough to swallow the cursed substance head-on or try to test the poison on himself.
The main point is that when the cursed item was held in hand, a brief description appeared in the system.
[Level 1 Cursed Item: Can find a suitable container to awaken the will within it. Consuming it can also greatly increase the maximum power of the curse.]
The description was slightly different from that of the [Curse Power Crystal], but it seemed like he could eat it all, so Kazuma Hatake naturally didn't hold back.
Container, what container? He needs to level up first.
However, Kazuma Hatori remembered that during his first playthrough, he also obtained the special-grade cursed item, "Ryomen Sukuna's Finger," which wasn't described as edible back then.
Is it necessary to be defeated by him, or is it that top-grade cursed items cannot be eaten?
Kazuma Hatori thought about it and decided to do some more related experiments later.
As for now...
"This, you, uh, this..."
Xia Youjie stared wide-eyed, so shocked by what he saw that he was speechless.
Unlike cursed spirits that can increase their power by consuming cursed objects, humans, whether sorcerers or ordinary humans, will most likely either be unable to withstand the cursed power or become containers for the cursed objects, completely losing their self-awareness.
But Kazuma Hagoromo just calmly ate the cursed object right in front of him!?
Xia Youjie stared at his colleague who had just saved his life with bated breath, not wanting to see him succumb to the curse power, nor wanting to see his consciousness completely replaced by the cursed object.
But after a while, Xia Youjie found that Yuqu Kazuma was still standing there perfectly fine, without any adverse reaction.
Rather, there were no symptoms that would occur after consuming the cursed object. She even turned her gaze away nonchalantly, and seeing that he still had an incredulous expression, she calmly offered an explanation.
"I can eat this; it will increase my spell power."
Xia Youjie: "…………"
...Really? You can actually use cursed items as experience points??
Xia Youjie, who had also played games, subconsciously thought of this analogy.
No, strictly speaking, this cursed object did indeed fall from the cursed spirit... well... although it is actually a foreign object that is highly poisonous to humans... but since he seems to be fine... then he... doesn't seem to be anything to be shocked about?
"Oh...I see."
Xia Youjie wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve—he didn't know if it was from the exhaustion of the battle or from being frightened by seeing Yuqu Kazuma eat the cursed item—but the result finally allowed him to relax and breathe a sigh of relief, and even feel happy.
The immense thrill and sense of accomplishment from fighting side-by-side against a formidable enemy, using their intellect to find its weaknesses, and then taking the most appropriate actions to counter it, until finally breaking through the deadlock, brought a genuine smile to his face.
"Now we can all go back safely!"
Kazuma Hatori, who already knew they would be fine, nodded slightly, still without any expression.
However, Xia Youjie had almost gotten used to this about the other party. With a completely unguarded and visibly friendly demeanor, he approached Yuqu Kazuma and knelt down to examine the curse master's corpse.
Yuji Kazuma had already searched the entire area and put the only empty wooden box the other person had into his inventory; now that Xia Youjie was searching again, he naturally found nothing.
“We need to deal with this body; we can’t just leave it here… and the scene where you killed her.”
Xia Youjie cautiously released a cursed spirit that barely resembled a snail, instructing it to carefully lick up the bloodstains that had dripped along the path that Yuqu Kazuma had taken earlier.
"We need to clean up all the bloodstains."
Kazuma Hatake watched as the cursed spirit slowly wriggled, causing the bloodstains that had seeped into the cracks in the rocks and the soil to gradually disappear. He thought to himself that this thing was quite useful.
"Bury it on the spot?"
Yuqu Yizhen asked.
He didn't care at all. He used to just kill his way through games and then throw everything away. Why would he bother to cover it up?
At this moment, Xia Youjie clearly did not have such a low moral bottom line. He choked for a moment after hearing this before taking out his phone.
"Let me call Mr. Xinshi first."
Fortunately, Mr. Xinshi was very good at handling these kinds of incidents. After he found out the location and what had happened, he told them to leave the curse master's body there and not move it, and that someone would come to take care of it soon.
After all, curse masters are different from cursed spirits that dissipate after exorcism. They leave behind corpses after death, but they are wanted persons sentenced to death by the world of curse magic. Even if they are encountered in a busy city, they need to be executed immediately.
Therefore, the world of sorcery naturally has a separate set of solutions for this special situation, independent of the rules of the ordinary social system.
It's impossible for the sorcerer to execute the curse master only to have the sorcerer himself immediately arrested by the police in ordinary society and thrown into jail to await execution, right?
Yutori Kazuma and Natsumi waited at the spot for a while, and soon several people drove over to hand over the work to them.
All they need to do afterward is submit a task report detailing the process, and that's it.
After thinking it over for a long time, Xia Youjie privately approached Yuqu Kazuma and told him not to reveal that he could eat cursed objects.
If the higher-ups in the sorcery world discover that Kazuma Hatori has consumed a cursed substance, he will not be able to live a peaceful life at school—even if Kazuma Hatori is completely unharmed after consuming the cursed substance, the higher-ups will still consider him a ticking time bomb and decide to execute him prematurely.
Just as Xia Youjie lied to Gaozhuan about a certain mechanism of his [Spirit Manipulation Technique] from the very beginning, he didn't think it was a big deal to hide the information that Yuqu Yizhen could eat cursed objects from Gaozhuan at this moment.
Let's just consider this as the death of the curse master, and the puppets she controlled also collapsing.
Although the cursed spirit that devoured the cursed object was not her technique, and she never even had a chance to use her own technique before being sent to the Six Paths of Reincarnation by Kazuma Hagoromo.
Kazuma Hatori was a little surprised that Natsume Yuuki would take the initiative to cover it up for him, but he nodded and said that he would definitely tell the truth if Satoru asked.
Xia Youjie had no intention of hiding it from Wutiao Wu, so naturally he had no objections.
Given how close they are, Wu will definitely help keep it a secret.
As for why Xia Youjie took the initiative to consider Yuqu Kazuma's needs...
The latter opened the [Entrustment] interface, stared silently at the trust level that had reached 68%/80% for a moment, and then sighed softly.
In life-or-death situations, it's easy to gain trust.
………
Before returning to the vocational high school, Kazuma Hatori made a special trip to Enoshima to buy many small cat-shaped porcelain items, and then, carrying two large bags of souvenirs, boarded the train to Tokyo.
Xia Youjie followed behind, his hands unsurprisingly stuffed full of two heavy bags by Yuqu Kazuma.
He held a large bag of almond brittle of various flavors in his left hand and a large bag of red bean paste dumplings in his right, and fell silent.
"Is this even considered a souvenir?" Xia Youjie couldn't help but complain. "Is this some kind of plan to open a dessert shop at the college?"
"Besides, Kamakura is less than an hour's drive from Tokyo, is it really necessary to buy so much..."
When Kazuma Hatake heard this, his brows furrowed slightly, and his dark eyes, which were fixed on him, were filled with disapproval of these words.
"The sentiment behind a gift is the most important thing."
He lifted the shopping bag in his hand, then looked at the two bags in Xia Youjie's hand, and replied seriously.
"These are all manifestations of my thoughts and intentions."
"...like this."
That sentiment is truly heavy...
Xia Youjie carried two large bags up the long, long stone path in front of the school gate, feeling like he was climbing a mountain with a heavy load, and was extremely tired.
But when he thought about how the black-haired boy had even tried to get him to release the cursed spirits before he came back, and how each of them carried a shopping bag, he suddenly felt that this was not so bad.
Ultimately, the reason the other party gave up wasn't that the cursed spirit couldn't carry shopping bags, but rather that the cursed spirit couldn't be seen by humans. If they really did, the scene of their return would be extremely bizarre—two people walking down the street, with a large pile of shopping bags floating around them at varying heights...
Kazuma Hatori had considered putting it in his inventory, but it's clear that not everything can be put in the inventory.
When they finally finished climbing the winding mountain road and arrived at the entrance of the college, Xia Youjie looked up and saw a white-haired boy sitting on the steps, eagerly waiting.
With his elbows resting on his legs and the heels of his palms against his chin, he looked quite excited and expectant.
There was also a paper bag next to him, and you couldn't guess what was inside just by looking at it.
Xia Youjie subconsciously turned to look at Yuqu Kazuma, who then began to explain.
“I sent him an email.”
Xia Youjie: "..."
So the other person kept looking down at their phone the whole way, were they chatting with Wu...? These two are really clingy.
"You're back!"
When Kazuma Hato finally came into view, Satoru Gojo was overjoyed and raised his hand to greet him. His sunglasses were pushed up and held firmly in place by his soft, wind-blown white hair.
Meanwhile, her beautiful, fully exposed blue eyes curiously scanned the shopping bags that Xia Youjie and Yuqu Kazuma were carrying.
"Hmm? Which one is the gift bag for me?"
As soon as he opened his mouth, he uttered a familiar line that made Yuichi Makoto momentarily dazed—even the rising intonation was almost identical.
When he and Megumi Fushiguro returned from their business trip in the first timeline, having completed a mission and brought back several large bags of souvenirs, Satoru asked the same question.
With an upturned, curious, and happy tone, her voice was a little soft, and her pronunciation was light and airy, like a colorful bubble being blown into the sky.
"They're all yours."
Then, Kazuma Hatori heard himself give the same answer.
"Is it all mine?"
Those deep blue eyes were wide open, their corners slanted upwards like a cat's as they blinked their fine, pure white eyelashes—but then curved upwards again in the next moment. That smug and triumphant expression transformed into an adorable reaction completely different from that of the beautiful Dawu.
"I knew it! Hmph, if it wasn't for me, who else could it be for?"
He knew that he was very special to Kazuma Hagoromo and was extremely proud of it, and he didn't feel embarrassed at all.
Then, Kazuma Hagoromo laughed too.
"certainly,"
He answered cooperatively.
"I won't give it to anyone but you."
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