The instant that he read the notification Ajax quickly cut off his [Mana Syphon], for the first time he had found a downside to his core skill, he had read a few times that there was no such thing as a perfect skill all of them had limitations or downsides only the rumored Mythic skills didn’t and he had finally ran into [Mana Syphon].

He had paid very close attention to how his skill absorbed mana in the past, even when using it against spells that were cast by others the process was always the same. It would break down whatever structure the mana had before it absorbed it and used it to fuel him. It had never been an issue in the past but it seems that curse mana, even without a structure, was harmful to him. He theorized that there must be a mythic version of his skill that not only broke down the mana but also neutralized it before absorbing it but getting something like that was not realistic.

“You’re not going to let him keep it right?” he heard a voice behind him that broke him out of his pondering.

“Our rules stand.” Nina’s voice was one he recognised so he turned towards the people behind him.

“But he’s an outsider, not even one of us.” the same crafter complained.

“Our. Rules. Stand.” Nina’s tone brokered no argument.

As Ajax paid a little more attention to the pile of gargoyle at his feet he realized what the fuss was about. The gargoyle he had killed was one that could be taken back outside without dissolving into mana. The rules of the delve was that whoever kills it can keep it and that was how house Silvertongue incentivised their combatants to volunteer for helping out on crafter delves.

Taking another look at the curse notification Ajax decided that it wasn’t anything he needed to be all too concerned about right now, the duration was only an hour long and ten Strength wasn’t too big of a loss but the phenomenon was something he would be researching the first chance he got. With that settled he nodded his thanks to Nina and quickly packed up the gargoyle coal.

As he waited around for the curse to dissipate Ajax found himself paying a lot of attention to the tanner as he was using a set of runic magic equipment to speed up the tanning process. Unlike with chanting or monster free casting Ajax could just barely use sense mana to get an idea that mana was being used, let alone find a way to copy the spell or mana type used.

“Interested in runic magic?” the crafter who was tanning them asked.

“No, it doesn’t mix with my style.” Ajax denied. “I am curious what mana type you are using though.”

“I never thought about that to be honest.” the crafter said, surprised. “I’m sure the person who made them knows but as long as they help with my crafting that’s good enough for me.”

The hour passed quite slowly as he was basically watching paint dry only with leather but by the end of it he was pleasantly surprised to see that he had gotten a new skill. [Curse Resistance] was the first Rare resistance skill he has seen but it was a welcome addition, especially since he had yet to learn anything about how curses worked, all he knew was that using curse spells was outlawed.

By the time that his curse dropped off quite a few of the ingots had cooled down enough for the crafters to start actually using them. The process was fascinating since the increased stats that people had here meant that some of the smaller works could be done in a few hours despite the high quality metal.

A few more of the crafters were adept enough with smithing to try their hand at it, even if it wasn’t their main craft though they were making some much simpler pieces like a knife or a basic sword.

“Do all of them have the blacksmithing skill?” Ajax asked Nina when she took another break from smelting the metal.

“No, but blacksmithing even without the skill helps improve other crafting skills.” Nina said. “It's all about watching how the mana dense materials react, when doing something as simple as hammering a metal bar into a longer and thinner shape then sharpening it you still make some progress even if the end product isn’t all that great.”

With the curse gone Ajax went ahead and took up at one of the open anvils as he started crafting a knife. He was hoping to use some of the imp leather for a grip and hopefully make a decent knife.

“That’s not bad for a beginner.” the smith crafter said as he looked over Ajax’s knife.

“My dad was the village smith, I watched him a few times.” Ajax said. “It’s still not as good as yours.”

Ajax wasn’t lying, the blade the smith made was a two feet long two handed sword, it had a good guard and was only missing a handle, the pommel was even detailed into a snake’s head as a symbol for house silvertongue.

“We’ve got imps incoming.” the scout called out as he looked out in the distance.

“Alright.”

“Finally”

“About time”

“Let me at them.”

Despite some of the combatants being handy with crafting some of them were still just sitting there bored out of their minds. With Ajax’s recent windfall all of them were eager to make their own tidy sum and wanted to take a swing at the approaching imps.

“Get in formation.” Trevor shouted over all the excited cheers. “These are still abyssal imps, they may seem chaotic but they have some teamwork when it comes to fighting, I don’t want to lose anyone on this delve, you hear me?”

“Yes sir!” they all responded and stomped down their eagerness as they quickly formed their formation.

Ajax was left to sit on the side lines for this battle, which was fine by him as he was really interested in analyzing how the imps casted their black fire. The reason for this was very simple, the mana type that they mixed with fire to get the black flames was the curse mana that was prevalent throughout the floor.

Now that he was fully focused on the imps Ajax got a much better picture of how they were casting their magic. Much like all the other casters he fought before the imps were channeling fire mana quickly through their hands as they brought it into their palms to summon the fireball.

The difference in their technique was that they weren’t simply channeling the skill during the second or two that spell took, instead during that entire time they were going through a pitching motion at the end of which the flames that sprouted in their hand quickly turned from red to black before being flung at the combatants.

With there only being twenty imps in this group the group make quick work of them even without the help of Ajax or any of the crafters. Ajax wasn’t sure if he was glad or slightly disappointed that none of the black fireballs made contact. It wasn’t that he wanted anyone to get hurt but more that he wanted to see what the effects of curse mana was when mixed with other mana types.

As he pondered this he tried summoning up a small amount of curse mana in the palm of his hand, he had taken precautions to move away from the group and waited until all of their mana users were busy doing something else. There was plenty of mana in the air for him to get a good idea of the feel of it so he had no problem turning three points of his mana into curse mana.

From there however he quickly found the curse mana connecting to his mana pool and spreading like a drop of food coloring in water, by the time he managed to contain it he felt his entire arm burning.

Curse of clumsiness

Type : Temporary

Strength : Minor

Effect : Dexterity lowered by 30 with the right arm.

Cause : Curse man infused in right arm.

Duration : 2 hour

Unlike all other forms of mana Ajax found that he couldn’t enforce any control over the curse mana. The result was far from the worst case scenario but Ajax still berated himself over the stupid risk he just took, he knew curse mana was dangerous but so far his prodigious talent had let him turn any setback into an advantage so he got overconfident.

He should have realized from the start that generating curse mana wasn’t a good idea. He didn’t know how the imps did it but even they only generated it at the last possible moment, even then they only did so when it could combine with the fire mana that was already severed from their mana pool

The final test he had for the curse mana, at least until he did some further research in the Academy library, was to try and use his [Mana Syphon] on the curse he could feel in his right arm. That test was a decent success as while it may have spread the curse it did also break it down and weaken it.

Curse of clumsiness

Type : Temporary

Strength : Minor

Effect : Dexterity lowered by 10.

Cause : Curse man infused in the body.

Duration : 15 minutes