The old man’s face darkened. He thought his bad karma had caught up with him.
Anyway, while it was true that he had scammed a bunch of people in the past by selling trash as treasure, this time, he was not lying. After all, according to the legend passed down in his family that only had him and his wife left, the rusty old sword was an actual cursed artifact with unlimited potential. While even he found it hard to believe it, he had to sell it as only then would he get enough money to buy the medicine that was needed to save his wife.
He looked at the busybodies and barked, “What concern is it of yours if I sell a trinket as a treasure? Not to mention, my family’s heirloom is an actual cursed sword with unlimited potential. You lots are just a bunch of jealous mongrels, barking up the wrong tree out of envy!”
Then he turned to Val with a serious look on his face.
“Young man, don’t listen to them. This sword is my family heirloom. It has been passed down in my family for generations until it ended up in my hands. It holds great significance as it was once wielded by my ancestor, a renowned bloodline user who helped in the foundation of our kingdom. I would never sell it if I weren’t in dire need of money. Believe me, you won’t regret buying it,” the old man said to Val in an attempt to counter their claims.
“This old fool is full of nonsense!”
The crowd erupted into laughter. The idea that a deceitful shopkeeper like him could be a descendant of a kingdom’s founder was unthinkable.
Only Val believed him. After all, unlike the crowd, the true value of the rusty, old sword wasn’t lost on him.
“I will buy it,” Val said, drawing surprised gasps from the onlookers.
An onlooker murmured, “Another person has fallen for the old man’s scam.”
The old man’s competitor, a vendor from a neighboring shop, grumbled, “Every gullible customer always ends up at old Cedric’s. Why am I not so lucky?”
Cedric looked visibly relieved as Val agreed to the purchase. “Your contribution points, please,” he said.
Val’s contribution points decreased by another 1000 as he purchased the cursed sword from Cedric. Now he was left with 5000 contribution points.
After the purchase was made, Cedric handed the rusty sword over to Val, saying, “The sword is yours now. Please take good care of it.”
“I will,” Val promised after thoughtful consideration.
The sword held unlimited potential—it could keep growing by consuming other cursed swords. He would never need to change it. As his lifelong weapon, he would naturally take great care of it.
Exiting the treasure pavilion, Val returned to the haunted house. Eliana was nowhere to be seen. It seems like she had gone to work.
Given that it was morning, Val did not have to worry about having paranormal encounters. Devils were weak to sunlight, and they wouldn’t dare show their faces while it was still daytime.
Upon returning to the haunted house, Val bathed the rusty sword with his soul power. As his soul power showered on it, the sword quivered, emitting a faint glow. Suddenly, the sword’s rusty exterior shed away like falling leaves, revealing an ancient and majestic sword underneath. Its hilt was black as ink. Its blade was as pure as silver, and its entire body was decorated with intricate symbols. It was a sight to behold.
A system notification popped up before Val.
[A bond has been established between you and the cursed artifact. Voidslayer has now become your bound item.]
The Voidslayer hummed. Val could somehow understand that it was going crazy because it has been sealed for too long and hadn’t had a meal in ages. It also said that since he has become its master, it has now become his duty to take care of it. So it better do something about its hunger or it will be severely disappointed and refuse to cooperate with him.
Val felt surprised. The cursed sword’s ability to express its desire to him in such a comprehensive manner that he understood it without a problem as if it had spoken to him telepathically signified that it had formed a spirit.
It was a high-level spiritual sword!
This didn’t only surprised but also confused Val. As far as he knew, while every cursed artifact was spiritual to some extent, only special-grade cursed artifacts were rumored to have spirits, and this sword was clearly just a rank-2 cursed sword. So why does it have a spirit? He decided to get his answer for Voidslayer itself. However, he first needed to leave a favorable impression on it as then it would become easier to converse with the spirit sword and have it open up to him.
“So basically, you’re hungry and want to be fed, right?” Val said.
The sword hummed in agreement.
Val placed Aquarius close to the Voidslayer.
“Have a good meal,” he told the spirit sword.
“It’s a rank-3 cursed sword. Are you really going to feed it to me? Won’t you regret it?”
“I don’t repeat myself twice.”
“Thank you. You are a good man, just like my previous owner!”
The end of the Voidslayer then morphed, taking the form of a giant metallic mouth. It chomped down on Aquarius with its knife-like teeth, crushing the cursed sword into pieces and gulping them down, before reverting back to its original state.
Another system notification appeared.
[Voidslayer has devoured a rank-3 cursed sword and upgraded. It now grants a boost of +4 STR and +2 REF and has gained the Crimson Slash skill!]
Val couldn’t help but grin. The Devour skill of the Voidslayer was just as effective as he had anticipated. With such a tool at his disposal, he felt invincible.
“What did you do to get yourself sealed?” Val asked Voidslayer. “Be honest with me. In return, I promise to feed you more cursed swords in the future.”
“It’s… complicated,” the Voidslayer said in response.𝔬𝓥𝑳xt.𝓒𝑜𝗆