"This temporary surge in power comes from the curse of the World Boss, the Seven Deadly Sins Demon, just as I sensed before."
The crimson blood moon cast an eerie, ominous glow, while seven twisted and hideous Demon phantoms flickered high in the sky.
An enormous circular magic array sealed the surrounding space, with pitch-black threads extending from it like tentacles.
Below, water brimming with life force churned within a vast stone pool as wisps of steam rose into the air.
The water had an unusual green hue and radiated tremendous vitality.
With a towel resting on his head, Naohara spread his arms and felt the water surging around him as he analyzed the nature of this power.
A Gift.
Behind that pleasant-sounding word lurked endless danger. It was more like a cursed bargain.
To put it another way, the Seven Deadly Sins Demon was a ruthless banker who controlled the power and resources, while the Player who activated the effect became a desperate borrower.
Just as the description of this World-Class Item stated:
[Are we truly willing to exchange our freedom and Souls for fleeting power? In this sinful world, the Gift is a temptation that draws people into a vortex of desire until they lose themselves.]
Compared to the World-Class Item wielded by the highest-ranked World Champion in the game, the price demanded by this item was undoubtedly far greater.
That World-Class Item allowed a Player to transform into one of the Seven Deadly Sins World Bosses. This one summoned phantoms of all seven Demons to empower its user.
One involved transformation, while the other involved summoning.
The two appeared completely unrelated, yet there seemed to be some hidden connection between them.
"Fundamentally, both use curses as a medium to bestow power."
At that thought, Naohara's lips curled into a smile.
The Power of Catastrophe.
According to Yggdrasil's lore, it was a power born from the resentment and curses left behind when the world was destroyed.
In terms of rank alone, even a World Boss could not compare to it.
Moreover, he possessed the class [Catastrophe Dominator].
The power of curses?
Heh. Hand it over!
High above, an unending tide of curses poured into Naohara.
Once he had filtered them, he divided the power into three portions. He kept one for himself and directed the remaining two toward Momonga and Herohero beside him.
This World-Class Item from the Twenty required time to complete its activation, which gave him plenty of room to interfere.
Judging from what had happened earlier, if he severed the connection with Wild Magic before the activation finished, the item would judge the attempt a failure.
As long as the activation was not considered successful, the World-Class Item would not disappear.
In other words, he could exploit this loophole to keep siphoning power from the Seven Deadly Sins Demon without paying any price!
After all, there were no developers overseeing the New World.
Products of the game might be powerful, but they could only rigidly follow their established settings.
...
An unknown amount of time passed.
Just as the seventh Demon was about to turn its gaze upon them, Wild Magic formed a barrier and forcibly severed the connection.
Everything immediately vanished like smoke, leaving only a small Demon statue falling from above.
Naohara reached out and caught it.
Momonga and Herohero also regained consciousness.
"Is it over...?"
Momonga examined his body. At that moment, he was not an Undead, but a human.
[Mask of the Dead]
This item allowed him to wear a human shell for three hours each day, changing his racial designation from Undead to human, like a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing.
It was also the main reason he could soak in a hot spring formed from the Water of Life.
That had been an unexpected benefit.
"My race hasn't changed, but my skills and Karma have."
Herohero opened his status panel and quickly noticed the differences.
[Sloth: Greatly increases the HP, MP, and SP consumption of all nearby enemies other than the user!]
[Pride: Greatly increases experience and proficiency gained, while also increasing the growth of all ability scores!]
Karma: -790
His attributes had risen slightly, he had gained two special skills, and his Karma had broken through the normal limit and fallen to -790.
"Mine is about the same. I gained three special skills, and my Karma is now around -810."
Without hesitation, Momonga shared his status panel with his two friends.
[Envy: Seals all of an enemy's skills. There is no limit to the number of skills that can be sealed, but activation requires a channeling period!]
[Greed: When killing another being, the user can seize a portion of the target's power!]
[Lust: Allows the user to freely control targets weaker than himself, forcing them to obey him with absolute devotion. The effect cannot be removed!]
Karma: -810
"As for me, apart from a slight increase in my attributes and Power of Catastrophe from absorbing the curses of the Seven Deadly Sins Demon, everything else is about the same as yours."
Naohara opened his own status screen.
[Wrath: At the cost of losing all reason, doubles every ability score, including both base values and values gained from enhancement effects!]
[Gluttony: Grants the ability to devour all matter, convert it into pure energy, and store it!]
Karma: -903
He had gained two special skills from the Seven Deadly Sins Demon.
Aside from that, the greatest change was his Karma.
It had plunged from -436 to -903, surpassing both Momonga and Herohero in a single leap.
"We gained the abilities of the Seven Deadly Sins Demon, and our Karma broke through the normal limit. I'd say we made quite a profit."
Momonga spoke with visible excitement.
Few things were more intoxicating than feeling oneself grow stronger.
There was no question that the Seven Deadly Sins Demon's skills were powerful.
[Envy] functioned similarly to the World-Class Item [Eternal Seal].
[Greed] could steal power from the dead to strengthen its user. It complemented Momonga's ability to use the corpses of Players who had been Arcane System Magic Casters with [Dark Wisdom], allowing him to keep learning new Arcane System spells.
[Lust] could practically be treated as another version of [Downfall of Castle and Country] or [Millennium Rod].
As for Karma, it could passively increase magical damage.
In Yggdrasil, Karma affected the damage dealt by certain skills.
Some spells became more effective as positive Karma rose, while other abilities grew stronger as negative Karma deepened.
As an Undead, Momonga belonged to the latter category. The lower his Karma, the more powerful his abilities became.
"Getting stronger really does put me in a good mood."
Herohero melted into a puddle of slime and floated across the water.
The current, saturated with life force, enveloped his body in warmth and left him feeling completely relaxed.
[Sloth] was well suited to supporting others in battle, while [Pride] indirectly accelerated the speed at which he learned magic and increased his attribute limits.
Using the World Boss range of 100 to 200 as a standard, he was probably hovering around 140 now.
"Any improvement is good. Once we've had time to recover, we can start exploiting it again."
"Sooner or later, all three of us, and even every NPC in Nazarick, will possess the skills of the Seven Deadly Sins Demon."
Naohara extended a hand.
Flames of Catastrophe blazed from his palm, casting a fierce light over his slightly sinister face.
Wonderful.
He wanted to destroy this world so badly.
Surely that would produce even more curses~
He wanted them.
He wanted them so badly!
Madness flashed through Naohara's eyes, but he returned to normal the next instant.
Becoming a puppet controlled by power was not his path.
"I have to admit, we're starting to look more and more like villains."
Naohara could not resist making a joke.
Though he was not exactly wrong. Having Karma as low as theirs was unusual even by Yggdrasil's standards.
After all, the normal lower limit in Yggdrasil was only -500.
Only the Super-Tier Magic [Judgement of Osiris] could break that limit and lower it as far as -1,000.
"I'd rather save my own world than play the hero and save everyone else's."
Herohero spoke lazily.
He was actually looking forward to meeting a hero. It would give him a different flavor to sample and relieve his boredom.
As for his Karma being surpassed by his friend, he could only feel helpless.
At this point, he could not beat them at anything.
"We'll develop things gradually from here. Honestly, there's still a lot to deal with."
Reviewing the Deep Darkness Dragon Lord's centuries of research into [Erosion] would take time, as would studying the so-called [Cocooning Godhood Method].
Then there were all the other miscellaneous matters.
The Guild Weapon of the Eight Greed Kings, the World-Class Item belonging to the captain of the Thirteen Heroes, the Demon King's World-Class Item, the handling of the perpetual motion system involving the Deep Darkness Dragon Lord and the Eternal Night Dragon Lord, planning the future direction of the Sorcerer Kingdom, implementing the periodic Demon harvesting plan, dealing with the True Dragon Lord known as the Primordial Mother, spreading the Power of Faith, analyzing the Elf King's memories, administering half of the Great Forest of Evasha, Demiurge's God of Judgment plan, the World Disaster plan involving the Platinum Dragon Lord's son, handling Albedo's second-generation Supreme Being assassination squad, the underground mining operations related to converting Caloric Stones, and so on...
Just thinking about it was exhausting.
None of those matters were important right now, however.
There was something else that had to be dealt with first.
***
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