The Strongest Curse Master-Chapter 363: +1 Curse Art

"No wonder," Ace uttered, listening to Dee3's explanation.

He now truly understood why Ria repeatedly stressed to him that successfully condensing a curse core and then consecutively using it to forge an innate curse tool on the very first try was paramount for a curse master. It would determine the course of their future.

This was especially true for the initial step in condensing one's curse core: concentrating all the negative emotions in one's heart and compressing them until they condense into a curse core. This required maintaining concentration for as long as possible with enough consciousness to spare to successively forge an innate curse tool using the condensed curse core and a selected curse item.

Now that he comprehended Dee3's explanation, Ace began to understand how crucial each step of the curse core awakening ceremony was. Ultimately, it all came down to the strength of one's will. This seemed to be the common factor in condensing a curse core among both curse masters and curse slaves.

Gloria Hart was a crafty "bitch," but Ace had to agree that she did a great job guiding him to awaken as a curse master and successfully enter the 'World of Curses.' Regardless of the process and intentions, he did have to thank Ria and S.S.S. for their small part in his current achievements and prowess. They truly were well-organized, innate curse tool farmers.

"I want to learn too," Lilith suddenly said, causing Delores to turn her head, taking a break from her practice.

Removing her shades, Delores turned to Elinor and asked, "Who else wants to learn the Innate Curse Arts? I will only teach once and will not repeat myself."

Delores wasn't being eccentric. One only needed to hear the latent curse-sensing arts once to master it, or spend the rest of their life trying to master it. She knew this from experience.

Soon, Ace, Janice, Elinor, and Lilith sat cross-legged on four lounge chairs arranged side by side on the porch while Delores walked behind them like a military instructor. Dee3 watched from the side.

"Alright, now concentrate on the candlelight in that hot air balloon in the sky with all your senses until you find yourself within it," Delores instructed. She didn't elaborate much, as she felt the latent curse-sensing art was very straightforward. There were no curse energy circulation exercises or visualization charts, just a simple concentration method.

All one had to do was concentrate their curse senses on the candlelight, two miles away, to the point where they visualized themselves physically within the candle flame. It wouldn't work if they felt like they were merely next to or very close to the candle flame. That only meant their affinity to curse energy wasn't sufficient to master the latent curse-sensing art.

"I'm on fire!" Ace yelled, jumping from the lounge chair, only to realize it was all in his mind. The other three next to him had a somewhat similar reaction.

Janice and Elinor screamed before awakening to reality, while Lilith continued to concentrate on the candlelight, uttering, "It's moldy and stuffy in here."

Unlike Ace, Janice, and Elinor, who stopped out of fear, Lilith continued, enough to notice the unburnt wax vapors at the center of the candle flame due to incomplete combustion because of a lack of oxygen.

Janice, Elinor, and Ace were too busy seeing the world around them from a new perspective through their enhanced curse senses to hear Lilith.

Delores hurriedly snapped out of the shock of seeing all four of them mastering the latent curse-sensing art and called out to the little one, "Lilith, honey, you can stop now."

"Woah," Lilith exclaimed as soon as she stopped concentrating her curse senses on the candlelight flame.

Lilith's experience was more shocking than the other three. Even before her curse senses were enhanced, she could sense the living and the dead in her surroundings due to her innate curse art. Now, with her curse senses enhanced, the effect of her innate curse art had increased considerably, effectively evolving her curse senses for her innate curse art. Unfortunately, no one would know until much later because she wasn't articulate or outspoken enough to explain her experience to the others in detail.

"This is crazy!" Ace exclaimed, realizing he could sense all the curse energy in his surroundings precisely and effortlessly like never before. All he had to do to achieve this was concentrate on a candle flame two miles away. What impressed him most was that if he concentrated his senses, he could actively sense curse energy from two miles away, though it was limited to where he was concentrating. Passively, he could sense all curse energy in his immediate surroundings. This was truly miraculous. Now he understood why Delores would rather spend a century trying to master the Latent Curse-Sensing Art instead of trying to learn and master other curse-sensing arts. Learning the Latent Curse-Sensing Art made any other curse-sensing art moot. Ace didn't believe there was any curse-sensing art out there that would allow a mortal tier to pick up curse signatures from two miles away.

Unlike Ace, Elinor, and Lilith, who were happy with their enhanced curse senses, Janice seemed to be a little disappointed, thinking of the countless hours and effort she wasted trying to master various curse-sensing arts to refine her curse senses. Instead of being grateful that her fears about learning the latent curse-sensing art didn't come true, she was grieving over her lost time and effort.

"The McSuile family continues to live up to its reputation; the younger generation is more talented than the last one," Dee3 commented. She knew what she was talking about since she spent months with the McSuile family building their bunker and vault.

What surprised her most was Lilith because she knew the McSuile family was one of the few families that had added several rules to stop ambitious family members from forcing their kids to condense a curse core at a very young age. Instead, they started curse schools for the children of parents who wanted their kids to be prepared for the curse core awakening ceremony from a young age. She felt Lilith had a story like hers, or far worse, especially considering the child wasn't easily scared, unlike the other three adults.