Chapter 51: Selling Information, Cursed Spirit Ranks And Classification
...
[Cursed Spirit Code: Shade Nest]
Classification: Environmental Corrupter, Rank 3
Threat Area: Western Outskirts, Abandoned Metro Line 7, near Beeston Tunnel, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Primary Ability: Reality Bleed
Behavior: Passive until provoked; becomes aggressively territorial when exposed to sudden light or sound.
Containment Protocol:
1. Area must be kept in darkness.
2. Use echo-dampening runes to muffle all sound-based vibrations.
3. Spray corridor entrances with Null-Distortion Spray (Type-B).
4. Three concentric boundary layers must remain active at all times.
5. Sleep gas may reduce activity but has no long-term effect.
Defeat Method:
1. The Cursed Spirit’s core is located in the third maintenance tunnel, marked by melted concrete pillars.
2. The core looks like a floating obsidian crystal with pulsing red veins.
3. It must be pierced with a Rank 2 weapon embedded with a Light-element rune.
4. Mana-based attacks are useless. They’ll be absorbed or redirected.
Additional Notes:
1. Corpse matter within the area can produce Rank 1 or Rank 2 Specters within 2 to 6 hours.
2. Specters are unstable but aggressive.
3. All infected remains must be burned completely.
...
I read the submission twice before sending it.
The wording was technical enough to be taken seriously but didn’t use so much jargon that it looked fake.
Just before submitting, another message appeared.
[Do you have proof of this information? Upload photos, video, or approved verification seal.]
I didn’t have any of those.
Still, I wasn’t worried that my intel would be marked as nonsense.
The information would be verified soon enough.
I clicked "Send."
[Submission Received. Review in Progress. Expect a response in 12 hours or less.]
I leaned back in my chair and stretched my shoulders.
"Couldn’t you have earned more money by selling information about a Rank 4 Cursed Spirit, Lord of Shadows? You must know about a few."
"A Rank 4 report would attract too much attention. A Rank 3 Cursed Spirit, instead, should be valuable enough, but not so rare that I attract attention."
The submission covered everything. Location, weaknesses, behavior, and sealing methods.
Cursed Spirits were bizarre entities.
They could be objects, memories, phenomena, or pure monsters.
Some said they came from another dimension. Others believed they were pieces of a broken reality.
A few claimed they were born from people’s dark emotions.
No one really knew the truth.
What everyone agreed on, though, was that Cursed Spirit were far stronger and more dangerous than exorcists of the same rank.
The Exorcist Union had divided Cursed Spirits into seven ranks.
Rank 0 to Rank 2 Cursed Spirits could be exorcised using brute force.
Multiple "variants" of the same Cursed Spirit could exist, each with different appearances and exorcism conditions.
However, if you understood how to exorcise one variant, you could usually guess how to deal with the others.
For example, the Rank 2 Cursed Spirit known as the Weeping Woman.
Its known variants included the River Mother, the Widow on Fire, the Birch-Bride, the Theater Maiden, and the Rooftop Lover.
Each one had a unique exorcism method and form, but their trigger was the same: responding to their cries.
Until Rank 2, the exorcism methods and variants of most Cursed Spirits were well-documented.
These Cursed Spirits were like weeds after rain.
No matter how many were exorcised, new ones appeared soon after.
But if you stopped exorcising them, their numbers would grow too quickly, and they could evolve into higher ranks.
Rank 3 was where things changed.
From that point on, Cursed Spirits became a lot more dangerous.
A single Rank 3 could destroy an entire town.
Approaching one without preparation was suicide.
They could regenerate, recover from injuries, and even come back to life if exorcised the wrong way.
Fighting them head-on wasn’t recommended.
It was better to study their narratives and use that knowledge to minimize their impact, or seal them.
Rank 4 Cursed Spirits were called Calamity-Class.
A single one could destroy multiple cities.
They could spawn lesser Cursed Spirits to work as their servants, or corrupt entire environments.
The longer they existed, the wider their kill zones grew.
Teams sent to deal with them were required to have at least one Rank 5 Exorcist present.
Currently, there were twenty-two known Rank 4 Cursed Spirits.
Rank 5 Cursed Spirits were called Extinction-Class.
They were nation-level threats, and were indestructible and impossible to seal.
They roamed the Earth freely, treating it like their playground.
Exorcists could only hide their existence from the public. In some cases, even that was impossible.
Examples included the Bermuda Triangle, the Pyramid of Giza, Fate, and Knowledge.
They were already influencing the world, some even affecting minds so subtly that people never realized it.
The current known numbers of Rank 5 Cursed Spirits was ■.
’Huh?’
My eyes froze.
’The number of Rank 5 Cursed Spirits is... ■?’
It tried to repeat the number, but all my mind could come up with was ■.
’Tsk, looks like ■ or ■ of the Rank 5 Cursed Spirits erases any attempt to read or think about their existence. So I can’t even guess their total numbers properly.’
I sighed.
I did know their exact numbers.
But as soon as I tried to pronounce the number in my head, my mind glitched, skipping the numbers.
’Tsk, I really hate the Cursed Spirits that affect the minds like this.’
Still, none of the current Rank 5 Cursed Spirits were an immediate threat.
They were not going around massacring the humans.
The major Hidden Clans had decided to take their time researching ways to exorcise these Cursed Spirit, since they were not bloodthirsty.
They were focusing on more dangerous Cursed Spirits instead.
’Wait.’
’Taking their time to exorcise Rank 5 Cursed Spirits?’
’What kind of stupidity is that?’
’They should be exorcised immediately before they evolve into Rank ■ Cursed Spirits.’
The thought flashed in my mind. My vigilance spiked, but another quickly followed.
’Why am I even worried?’
’The Exorcist Clans know about these Rank 5 Cursed Spirits.’
’And yet they are not hurrying to exorcise them.’
’If so many powerful Exorcists think these Cursed Spirits are not dangerous, then it’s clearly safe to let them be for now.’
I leaned back, calming down.
’I should focus on Rank 3 and Rank 4 Cursed Spirits first. They’re the ones still harming humans directly.’
’It’s even better to target the ones that might evolve into Rank 5 in the future. Some of them will annihilate major Hidden Clans soon.’
’This way, I’ll be preventing disasters before they happen, and farm rare alchemy materials at the same time.’
After Rank 5 came Rank ■ Cursed Spirits (Deific-Class Cursed Spirits).
They couldn’t be injured, sealed, or exorcised.
They are capable of wiping out humanity.
If a Rank ■ Cursed Spirit appeared, all people could do was pray.
Many doubted that the Monkey King had truly sealed the Silver Whale, a Rank ■ Cursed Spirit.
Rumor said the Silver Whale left on its own, and the Monkey King just took the credit.
But since he was still the strongest Exorcist alive, no one dared challenge his claim.
Rank 0 to Rank ■ was only one way to classify the Cursed Spirits.
The other way was by how they operated.
Invasive Domain types pulled victims into their own domain.
Environmental Corrupter types infected the real world itself instead of dragging people elsewhere. An example was the Rank 4 Cursed Spirit, UV Ray.
Then there were Parasitic types.
They didn’t change reality but lived inside living beings, feeding on them or granting powers in return.
They possessed a body, be it physical, spiritual or of another kind.
Cursed Items, like my sword, were counted under this type too.
But this method classification (Invasive domain type, Environmental Corrupter type, Parasitic type) wasn’t used much.
A single Cursed Spirit could fit multiple categories, like being both an Environmental Corrupter and possessing a body like a Parasitic type.
That made the numeric ranking from 0 to ■ far more reliable.
I stared at the screen for a moment, then leaned back and sighed.
This world was barely holding together, yet most people had no idea.
It was thanks to the Hidden Clans.
Humans were weak, but they never gave up.
They had always found a way to survive no matter how ugly the odds became.
They studied the Cursed Spirits, fought them, and built Clans to serve as a line of defense against them.
And while the process was slow, Cursed Spirit by Cursed Spirit, they were reclaiming the world.
I glanced at the clock.
"The information I sent and the Rank 2 amulet, they’ll probably verify it by morning."
I stretched and stood up.
"I should have money in my account by tomorrow afternoon."
...
Lucien POV
Crowshade Headquarters
The hum of the overhead lights never went away, even late at night.
Inside Crowshade’s main building, hidden among plain offices on the edge of the city, a man sat behind a desk piled with papers.
Lucien Krail flipped through another set of documents with a practiced hand.
He was the manager of the Verification Department, part of Crowshade’s Intelligence Division.
Thin lines under his eyes showed how little he slept, though he didn’t look tired. Just annoyed.
Another stack of papers landed on his desk, materializing out of thin air.
Lucien sighed and rubbed his temples.
"Always more paperwork..."
A knock sounded on the door.
Before he could answer, the door opened a little and a young man peeked in.
"Manager Krail. We received a new Cursed Spirit report. I thought you’d want to see it."
Lucien didn’t look up. "Did the sender attach proof?"
"Uh... no, sir."
"Then throw the report out. Why are you even here?"
The assistant hesitated, clearing his throat. "Sir, it’s not about the report itself. It’s about the sender."