As I walked through the dungeon in search of goblins to desensitize myself to killing on I pondered the nature of monsters. Nobody actually knew all that much about them beyond how they tend to be after they spawn. Like how exactly the dungeon spawns them, why they have magic stones or why they go poof when you damage or remove said magic stone despite being very much solid flesh and blood things? All these questions went entirely unanswered and from what I can tell nobody even bothered to try and answer them.-
What gave me a clue to them however was the fact that after a monster goes poof my tattoos absorb the smoke. To most people my tattoos are just decoration but I know for a fact that they are the physical representation of my innate technique. The fact that the smoke is absorbed by my tattoos means that monsters might in fact be this worlds version of cursed spirits and by killing them my cursed technique takes the special form of energy that comprises their bodies as fuel for my growth. That was my theory anyway and might be wrong but also raised a concerning question about myself if true, was I really human?-
My falna said so and so did everyone around me. But if that was true why was my body alone compatible with the energy that comprised a monsters body if they are indeed this worlds type of cursed spirit? Is it just coincidence because of my technique or is there something more to it? I thought about this until I finally came across a goblin. It looked the same as all the others and had a wooden club as it noticed me and charged screaming wildly.-
As an experiment I covered my fist in cursed energy and dodging the overhead strike of the goblin decked it as hard as I could in the face. Nothing strange happened though, it was a normal punch with a normal effect of breaking the nose and sending the goblin sprawling.
'So it isn't just a matter of cursed energy then but something else as well, but what?' I thought as I walked up to the goblin struggling to get past the damage to it's head.
Dropping my knees on it's arms to hold it down I ignored it's violent struggles and placed my palm flat against it's chest before sending cursed energy to it. At first nothing happened but eventually the goblin started screaming in pain and I saw that it was faint but a bit of charring was starting to appear on the part of the goblin I was pressing down on.
'So my cursed energy was traces of fire in it, perhaps I can refine this into actual fire then?' I thought and gave it a go by picturing a violent flame as I willed my cursed energy to take that shape on my hand. It was slow but the longer I kept up the flow the hotter my cursed energy got burning the goblin worse and worse before I hit a barrier. My cursed energy simply wasn't getting hotter anymore not because it couldn't but because I could feel that something was missing like a key to what I wanted was not there and my progress was stopped as a result, it was frustrating.-
'I felt something similar when I went over my limit on cursed energy after drinking that undiluted potion. Oh I see! I need something to inspire me, something that gives my cursed energy an edge for the briefest moment. I almost forgot that cursed users need stimulation from danger to grow rapidly.' I thought quite happy with my discovery and realization.
So happy in fact that I drew my weapon and put the goblin out of it's misery by bashing it's head in. I retrieved the stone and felt the smoke get sucked into my tattoos. Perhaps I didn't get an answer about what monsters were or why I could absorb their discorporated forms to grow stronger but I did make an important discovery none the less. Learning that I might be able to turn my cursed energy into flame was a very valuable thing indeed.-
I moved on from there looking for the next goblin to hone myself on. It took me a good fifteen minutes but I did find a goblin though not in the best way as it was beating a dead adventurers body with it's club. Looking at the clothes of the body it was all too easy to understand what had happened. This was a hopeful young man who underestimated the danger of the dungeon even on the first floor and it cost him everything. The continued desecration of the body however pissed me off.-
I get that monsters kill people and I can even understand that monsters don't have any moral code and act instinctively but this just enraged me. In my anger I charged the goblin that paused mid swing at the body to look at me just in time for my weapons hammer side to smash into it's face at full force.
The impact reverberated through the air as the skull of the goblin burst apart from the sheer force of the blow pressing against it's side. I didn't care about the gore and placed my hand on the adventurers body.
"Hell's forge!" I spoke the incantation and black and blue flame sprung to life on the body as it began to turn to ash and vanish.
"I can't take you out of here but I can at least make sure your body won't be brutalized anymore." I said firmly as I cremated the body on the spot.
Amongst the remains was a small dagger with a familia crest on the handle that I put in my bag to return to the adventurers familia. I harvested the goblin coldly before moving on with a firm lesson on not getting too full of myself lest I end up like that young man. I ended up getting five more goblins with all of them giving me about twelve teeth thanks to my technique once I remembered to apply it. I left the dungeon and saw that a goddess that looked like a Pallum was asking about if anyone had seen her child.-
"Is this your crest?" I asked gently after presenting the goddess with the dagger.
The goddess looked at the blade and tears filled her eyes as she shakily reached out to take it.
"Did he suffer much?" she asked with a sob.
"I do not know as I came upon him after he was killed. The goblin responsible was desecrating the body so I killed it and cremated the remains to prevent another from doing so after I left. That dagger was the only clue I had to the familia that the adventurer belonged to, I am sorry for your loss." I said respectfully.