6931 The Many Limitations of Curses Ves found it rather ironic that while he wanted to reconnect with the Astral Octagon, Formation Master Andrea Vos wanted to distance herself from the unique space station. The headquarters of the Red Collective had already fallen into factional strife. Disputes over policies and the distribution of limited resources caused a lot of members to pick sides. The Farsseer took a dim view on these conflicts. "Many individuals have developed wolfish ambitions within the Red Collective. They have become consumed by power and the possibilities of advancing their cultivation. Instead of working honestly, they would rather spend their time on scheming and plotting. If they have so much time to fight against each other, they may as well fight the native aliens instead." "I suppose it also helps that cultivators who volunteer to fight against the native aliens can earn greater rewards and prestige." Ves spoke. "During times of war, the best way to gather more influence is to earn more merits on the battlefield. Those human phase lords may not be so good at nuanced stuff, but they are absolutely great on the battlefield. If you want to check their expansion of power, you need to stand up and contribute to the war effort as well." The formation master gave Ves a helpless smile in response. He had figured out the crux of the matter. "The future of red humanity is at stake." She said. "Not only are we fighting for the survival of our race in this dwarf galaxy, we are also fighting to determine our emphasis in systematic cultivation. I believe it is better for us to return to our roots and revive the arts that we have mastered in the past than to assimilate the wasteful methods of the native aliens. Relying on phasewater alone to fuel the expansion of our bodies is a privilege that can only ever be held by the wealthy and the privileged." It became clear to Ves that the Farseer had very defined goals in mind. She fought for a cause that was greater than herself. The only difference between her and fanatics was that she still retained her logic. Ves could work with that. He was not afraid of ideologues. He just did not want to deal with unstable idiots. That did not mean that the Farseer and her ilk posed no threat to Ves. These types tended to hatch incredibly deep and complicated schemes. It did not take much thinking for Ves to realize that he had definitely gotten caught in her webs. If he was not careful enough, he might end up getting taken advantage of without realizing what was happening. "Enough about politics." He said as he dismissively waved his hand. "I want to know more about the power of other cultivators. For example, how powerful are curse masters?" "Do not expect too much from them." Andrea Vos warned him in order to temper his expectations. "Curse masters have developed a number of techniques that can debilitate or in a few cases outright kill their targets, but such actions always incur a heavy price. In order to effectively curse a target, they must acquire a possession or a tissue sample first. It is much easier to curse an enemy from afar through this medium." That matched his own understanding of curses. Ves was not unfamiliar with the general rules concerning curses as he was able to master one himself with the help of the System. However, Ves expected more from curse masters who specialized in this field. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂 "Is it possible for them to cast their curses onto distant targets without relying on a medium that belongs to the latter?" "Yes. There is always a way. Curse masters are highly invested in casting curses on distant targets without the use of a related medium. I have cooperated with their research as well as my scrying attempts can facilitate their efforts. They have already attained limited success, but their solutions are still too crude and limited. There is little use in cursing random individuals. Alien leaders and scientists usually have access to good healthcare. Curses can harm them, but they can counteract much of the damage by relying on modern treatments. Those with stronger cultivation are also inherently more resistant against this line of attack." She mentioned a bunch of other limitations. For example, curse masters were not able to cast their debilitating spells onto larger populations. The curse masters were not strong enough and had yet to master the rituals and other methods required to curse a huge amount of targets at once. More importantly than that, no curse master had yet to successfully cast a curse onto a phase lord. Perhaps it had taken effect, but because the physiques of phase lords were so exaggeratingly strong, nobody could tell the difference! "If what you are telling me is correct, curse masters are completely useless." Ves flatly stated. "You are largely correct, sir, but it is not advisable to give up on curse masters so soon. They are well aware of their limitations and are working hard to improve their capabilities. They are conducting research on numerous different curses that may be of inestimate value once they are successfully developed." "What are they working on?" Ves asked. "Curse masters have identified two different curses that should work particularly well on phase lords. They do not add anything new, but instead focus on amplifying their existing faults. The Sloth Curse is a subtle means of encouraging a phase leader to lose interest in the present and become sleepy. A successful application of this curse should induce a phase lord to retreat from reality and enter into hibernation for a couple of hundred years. Another curse they are working on is the Pride Curse. This should strengthen the arrogance and impair the judgment of a phase leader." The two curses sounded particularly apt for phase lords and phase whales. Ves could actually see how this could work. "If you can't harm phase leaders directly with curses, then manipulating their behavior by strengthening their behavioral faults is a good alternative." Ves said. "It doesn't sound likely that the effects will be strong." The Farseer curtly nodded. "That is why curse masters are researching other curses as well. They are working on at least two different methods to curse large groups of people. One of them is extremely ambitious, but can have far-reaching effects if it is effective. Unfortunately, it is part of a classified research project, so I am unable to mention any specifics." That sounded weird. "What about the other mass curse?" "Ah, that is much more limited in scope. Curse masters are also working on a means to apply the same curse on every blood-related member of a family. This Bloodline Curse will be a convenient means to eradicate the surviving remnants of a defeated family. As long as it can take effect, it does not matter whether your troops are unable to hunt down the survivors who have fled your reach or have already hidden themselves far away. The Bloodline Curse can transcend all boundaries and either weaken them or kill them over time at the same time." Ves straightened his back when he heard this! This was a much more vicious and scary possibility than everything else he heard! He could not even wrap his mind on how it was possible for a single curse to affect so many individuals that were potentially spread across many different star systems. The cost and requirements must be huge, but the potential effects were remarkable! "Wait, how easy would it be for hostile curse masters to apply this kind of curse to my own bloodline?" "Rest assured that the cost will be prohibitive. Even if it takes effect, our own curse masters or other experts can seek a means to dispel it. We already know that the Saint Kingdom of ace pilots are overbearing enough to erase most curses outright." That reassured Ves. Although ace pilots were not too common, the Larkinson Clan had enough on hand to guard against this difficult line of attack. "I see. That is useful to know." He said in a relieved tone. "Are the curse masters working on other useful stuff?" "There is a branch of curse masters that seek to improve their effectiveness during direct combat." Andrea Vos replied. "They disdain underhanded means such as secretly weakening enemy leaders outside of an active engagement. They want to sling curses directly at enemies on the battlefield. The Misfortune Curse should affect their accident rate. The Bloodlust Curse is meant to increase their aggression and impair their sober judgment. The effects should not be strong at first, but that reduces the time and cost needed to cast them onto enemies." These sounded like practical curses. They did not attempt to do anything fancy. In fact, the enemy might not even notice that they were under the influence of a curse! "All of that sounds useful enough… if the curse masters can cast them right away." "I am afraid that you will have to be patient, sir. Curse masters are less numerous than formation masters. It is not a particularly popular profession. The lack of manpower is limiting their research speed." Ves crossed his arms. "If that is the case, these curse masters need to pool their efforts together. I don't want them to research 6 different curses at the same time and not accomplish anything significant in the next decade. If they all focus on realizing a single curse, then they will become much more useful in a shorter time frame." "I agree." The old woman said. "It has been… difficult to persuade them to unify their efforts. These curse masters possess strange personalities and are resistant towards collaboration. However, if you issue a strong request to them, they may be able to overcome their stubbornness and work together." Those that wanted to become good at this needed to feed the malice in their hearts. Those with gentle mindsets would never be able to accomplish anything worthwhile as curse masters. After the Farseer explained a bit more about the peculiarities of curse masters, Ves eventually grew tired of the topic. "I think I have heard enough about curse masters." He said. "Please tell me more about the other professions of the Moloch Squadron." The formation master obliged. She explained the basic details of cultivators who specialized in nurturing exoplants and those who learned how to hide their presence from others. "I imagine that diviners are less useful to the Larkinson Clan than other groups due to the presence of Ylvaine." Andrea Vos said. "However, our diviners have expressly requested to become a part of the Moloch Squadron in order to seek cooperation with your 'design spirit'. They believe that they can combine their techniques with Ylvaine's natural future sight to make more accurate and targeted predictions of the future." That sounded intriguing. Ves shared his thoughts on the matter. "From what I have been able to surmise, Ylvaine is able to glimpse future possibilities. His predictions are probability based on the most likely outcomes, but that does not mean he is 100 percent correct." "Just because the results of divination are not entirely reliable does not mean that they are useless, sir. Prophecies may have a chance of leading us astray, but that is only when we use them as our sole source of information. It is much more logical to treat diviners as unreliable scouts. Instead of observing potential threats at distant locations, they instead do so in distant points of time. We do not necessarily have to take their prophecies seriously. Our priority should be to verify the results of divinations with corroborating proof." The Larkinson Clan already developed a similar attitude towards Ylvaine's predictions, but it was not realistic to independently verify every prediction. "It would be nice if we can do this, but our intelligence arm has not been able to keep up with the expansion of our clan." He told the formation master. "Our ability to verify Ylvaine's prophecies is not that good." "Then you should borrow the intelligence gathering prowess of the Red Collective, Professor Larkinson. The Secret Department should be willing to cooperate with you on account of your high station." "Really?" "You are the chief councilor of the Upper Council. It should be your prerogative to borrow a limited amount of intelligence support from the Red Collective. Just be mindful that you will owe favors to the Secret Department if you persist." Thank you for reading my work. If you wish to support The Mech Touch, please vote with your golden tickets! Purchase Privilege for The Mech Touch! Read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers while enjoying a 99% discount on unlocking new chapters! Join The Mech Touch's unofficial Discord server: https://discord.gg/APB5KCU Exlor