"Here we go. A General Compendium on Curses." Moving the book detailing weapon bonds to the side, Valyr placed the book on curses in front of him, briefly admiring the craftsmanship that went into its cover before proceeding to read through its pages.
Unexpectedly, within the first few pages of the book, rather than mutter out some of the passages he came across, Valyr read through it in silence as his brain eagerly absorbed all of the information he was obtaining. As the book was a general guide on what curses were and what types existed, it was no surprise that the beginning pages detailed the definition of a curse, which he quickly found out his idea of a curse was wrong all this time.
"Huh. And here I thought all curses come about from reneging on deals with those from the Underworld." Muttering out these words to himself in response to his ignorance, Valyr swiftly returned to becoming silent as he read through more and more of the book, each page giving him a far better idea of how many curses there were.
Being a general compendium on curses, the book tackled the various types of curses that existed, with the most common ones being poison-based and magic-based curses. Naturally, these curses were self-explanatory, with the solutions to removing them being self-explanatory as well.
Nevertheless, with how detailed the book was in breaking down the various parts that went into forming a certain type of curse, Valyr eventually had a thought surfaced in his mind, pondering whether it was possible for him to create a magic-based curse utilizing the crimson flames he had control over. After all, being flames that were highly focused on destruction, using crimson flames on a magic-based curse would surely bring the one cursed great amounts of pain.
Quickly discarding the thought after realizing that a great portion of steps into making such a curse need a level of control over magic that he did not have at the moment, he then moved onto the more obscure types that the compendium enumerated, eventually finding the type that he felt was describing the Mark of the Alltide on his back.
"Authority-based curses," Valyr muttered as his eyes were glued to the pages he was currently on. "These types of curses take on the properties of the other curse types mentioned before, but these curses are separate from the other curses due to one reason."
"The existence of a greater authority having control over the curse." As Valyr's eyes glossed over these words, the engrossed expression on his face gradually had a slight frown on it, his mind recalling the description of the curse he had received.
"A greater authority… the Alltide, then." Deciding to see if this curse type was indeed the one he was looking for, Valyr continued reading through the pages detailing authority-based curses, only for the frown to grow deeper the further he went. By the time he had stopped reading, his eyebrows were furrowed as his expression had turned solemn.
"The layout for a magic authority-based curse is similar to what I have on my back," muttered Valyr to himself as he went over what he had obtained from the book. "The mark denoting the greater authority at the center and then magic circles surrounding it."
"To remove the curse, one could either get stronger than the greater being that cast it in the first place, kill the greater being that cast it, or die." Valyr scratched the back of his head as he let out a low sigh. "To obtain such a curse, one must commit a deed that offends a greater being, such that they want one's life to be a fate worse than death."
'I guess that deed is when Sana absorbed the blood and energy of that Prodigious Lesser Tidemother.' Taking in a deep breath to calm his emotions, Valyr then returned to the book, wondering if he could obtain more information regarding authority-based curses.
Though he did gain more information out of it, an incredibly bitter smile appeared on his face when he read it, only to let out a deep and long sigh as he closed the book. "Making an authority-based curse worse is quite simple to avoid. Just don't do the deed that made the greater being cast the curse in the first place."
"Well, fuck me then." Standing up to place the books back in their respective bookshelves, the lingering thoughts in Valyr's mind focused on the last tidbit of information he had gotten from the book on curses, which tackled how one could make a curse worse. "So you're telling me the mark on my back will get worse no matter what I do."
"Or would it be considered better due to my circumstances?" Pondering over it, Valyr gradually made his way to the staircase as the gears in his mind started to turn. From what he had found out, the mark on his back getting curse was an inevitability since he would have to upgrade Sana to a higher rarity eventually.
With that, he would have to slay a stronger Tidemother and have his spear absorb its blood and energy, which would be him doing the same thing he had done to get the curse in the first place.
Of course, there was also the option of just keeping Sana at its current rarity, though Valyr felt like it would be a waste since the upgrade path was considerably simple once all things were considered. Aside from that, he felt like having a worse version of the curse might be an advantage rather than a detriment, though that would only be true once he picked up a couple of monster summoning skills to take advantage of it.
'In any case, I've more or less answered the simpler questions in my mind.' Heading up the staircase, Valyr eventually arrive at the sixth floor of the Archives, the highest floor he could enter with his current level of authority. 'I guess it's time to answer the harder questions.'
Looking through the various bookshelves displayed all throughout the floor, Valyr eventually found the ones that contained books and other documents on the questions he wanted answers to.
Questions… that involved Greater Beyond itself.
