The Strongest Curse Master

"These are just a bunch of trinkets," DD muttered, opening the wooden room at the edge of the Weasly Winary estate. She was disappointed seeing the loot. Hopefully, the curse tools and curse cores have interesting skills that come in handy in her master's agenda.

Shaking her head, DD took out the cursed cores and cursed tools from the wooden room before breaking off a dry branch. She then transferred the wood room from the tree onto the branch and stored all the loot inside the new wood room within the branch.

The cursed wooden cane's wood room skill was quite interesting. By using the cane as a key, one could open a stationary and untraceable 21x21x21 space within any piece of wood. However, the internal environment of the wood room depended on the biological system and condition of the wood used as the medium.

This is where things got tricky. The cursed cane could open a wood room in any type of wood, but if it was opened in dead wood, there would be no ventilation or even breathable air. This was because dead wood lacked a functioning biological system, meaning no living being could survive inside such a room. To create a livable wood room, it had to be opened within a living plant or tree, which had an active biological system that could support air and nutrient exchange.

That said, using dead wood had its advantages—just like how DD was using it now as mobile storage space. Despite its limitations, the woodroom skill was highly versatile.

But what truly made the cursed wooden cane exceptional wasn't just the wood room—it was its ability to let the user walk through wood. That feature alone made it the perfect cursed tool for DD.

It was thanks to the cursed wooden cane that DD had been able to hide underground earlier that morning as her master confronted Matthews and Janice. As it turned out, DD and the cursed wooden cane's abilities were highly compatible.

DD's mutated racial skills allowed her to communicate with and control trees. With the guidance of the trees and plants, she used the cursed wooden cane to navigate a realm on this very planet that no one had ever explored before—the Realm of Roots. Thanks to the combination of her mutated racial abilities and the cane's cursed powers, she could now traverse the underground through the vast network of roots, much like walking on land or swimming through water.

DD was originally supposed to use her powers to help resolve the issue of the estate's borewells drying up. The plan was to direct the roots to locate a new underground water current and connect it to the one supplying the borewells, thereby rejuvenating them.

It was a tedious and time-consuming task. She would have to maintain communication with the trees above while their roots explored the underground in search of new water sources. Once a suitable underground current was found, she would then have to determine the shortest and most efficient path to connect it with the old one—ensuring the flow would revitalize the existing borewell system.

If successful, the plan would resolve the water shortage plaguing the Lander avocado orchard.

This plan relied entirely on the tree roots being able to locate a new underground water current and navigate the shortest path to rejuvenate the old one. Expecting the roots to accomplish all that on their own was a bit of a stretch. However, DD believed that with her guidance, it was possible—especially since tree roots had been proven to possess a natural sense for locating underground water.

But thanks to the cursed wooden cane, she could now take the lead and guide the roots directly from within them. Exploring the underground with them. Combined with her master's Status Screen skill that kept her connected to her seniors, she believed she could use their vertitle talents and could pull this off much sooner than she had initially expected.

The cursed wooden cane was proving to be an incredibly handy curse tool—so much so that DD had started to believe it was tailor-made for her. It was significantly easier to communicate with trees when she was inside them. Within a tree, she felt completely connected to it, as if they were one and the same. If she wanted, her will could easily take over the entire tree—similar to possession, but even more seamless.

In that state, her power increased severalfold. Possessing a tree allowed her to communicate more efficiently with the surrounding trees, and they responded to her more willingly. She often wondered if it was because they sensed that she was one of them, though she had no concrete proof to support the theory.

However, it was true that when she possessed a tree, she felt like the empress of every tree and plant within the range of her abilities. Just this morning, while possessing one of the avocado trees in the orchard, she felt like the queen of the entire grove, with the other trees acting as her loyal knights, ready to protect her with their lives.

She strongly believed that, if not for her obligation to hold back out of respect for her master, she could have mobilized the entire avocado orchard to fight for him—maybe even conquer in his name. Not even those three Apaches would have stood a chance against her avocado army. Still, she would never know for sure if what she felt was truly real or simply the result of being overwhelmed by her newfound power.

Having collected the loot, DD didn't waste any more time and rushed toward Delores's board, which had dropped her off at the Weasly Winery resort. However, no matter how much she commanded it to take her to the exact location of the woodroom or follow her there, the board wouldn't budge an inch. She even contacted Ace via the status screen, only to learn that there was a limit to the instructions Delores could relay to her innate curse tool remotely.

Left with no other option, she jumped off the board and began running to the location on foot.

As DD hurried through the forest toward Delores's innate curse tool, she suddenly sensed multiple strong emotional signatures within her range. Without hesitation, she used the cursed wooden cane's ability to hide within a nearby tree, then began moving underground through the root system.

However, just then, a massive explosion occurred above ground, shaking the land violently. DD barely managed to avoid being ejected above ground by the cursed wooden cane's safety mechanism by quickly retreating into the root of a tree outside the blast's area of effect. This safety protocol was designed to protect the curse user in case the tree they were in was suddenly damaged.

[—Status Screen—

DD: Master, I am under attack. For now, I am safe, but I have no idea who the enemy is.

Ace: Hold tight. Crimson Eyes and other C.I.B. agents should be there protecting the millionaire Weasly. Escape when they engage the enemy.

Ace: Don't do anything reckless. That's an order.

DD: Understood, Master.]

"My clone is under attack," Ace informed the McSuile trio in a panic, unable to recall DD since she was out of his one-mile range.

"Is it still functional? Did you find out who attacked it?" Janice asked immediately, while Delores nonchalantly remarked, "So, your errand was a bust. I guess I should recall my innate curse tool now."

"No, don't recall your innate curse tool. My clone is still functional and rushing to the pickup point. Unfortunately, it has no idea who the attackers are," Ace answered, clearly frustrated by their casual reactions.

He especially glared at Delores, his instincts proving correct—she had indeed planned to treat his clone as expendable. Distracted by all the talk about his trust issues, he had forgotten to ensure Delores wouldn't abandon his clone if things went south.

"Kid, it doesn't stand a chance against seasoned curse users. No need to be dramatic. It is just a clone. Get over it," Delores said bluntly, giving Ace a dose of realism.

But Ace ignored her and turned to Janice, asking, "Janice, your brother is stationed there, right? Could you talk to him?"

"What gave you that impression? He's been hunting down cult members with the others since last night," Janice replied, updating him on the situation.

"Then who's protecting Millionaire Weasly?" Ace asked urgently.

"He was moved to the guest house near the C.I.B. agent quarters," Janice explained. Even if the whole country were burning, those quarters would remain under tight security. Otherwise, agents wouldn't be able to do their jobs, knowing their families were at risk.

"Fuck!" Ace cursed, then quickly used his status screen to update DD.

[—Status Screen—

Ace: DD, the C.I.B. agents have been reassigned; you're on your own. Please make it back safely.

Ace: I'm sorry—my carelessness might cost you your life.

DD: Don't blame yourself, Master. You couldn't have predicted this. And please, trust in my abilities.]