The Cursed Extra: Twin Souls Against the World

#### revised chapter####

As everyone calmed down, a dwarf stood up and asked, "Instructor, what if a hex master has one basic element and one main element? Wouldn't that balance-"

Instructor Luna cut him off. "Well, that's not possible. The main elements are special to each cursed land. If a hex master has a main element, then that is the only element their hex core could have, and their potential will be pure."

The dwarf just nodded his head and sat down.

Xane asked this time, [Dude, what's with our element? Did you know anything?]

Zayn asked back,

[Come on, that thing barely stayed open for less than a second. How can you expect me to read through it?]

Zayn sighed.

Xane just quieted down.

He saw a few students start asking Luna some questions, but his mind drifted to the original owner of this body.

After hearing all this, it became clearer to him that Viyron just wanted to use both Zayn and his soul to increase his potential.

The guy might have died trying, but his method had succeeded.

What was more absurd in all of this was how a trapped kid, who was tortured his whole life, had gotten his hands on such a method.

Xane now understood Zayn's tension.

Was someone from the Zenaris family behind it? But then what was that letter?

And out of everyone, only he and Zayn got summoned. Was all of that just a coincidence?

The more Xane thought about this, the more it irked him.

There was seriously something very wrong with Viyron's past.

At that moment, the black-haired heroine got up and asked, "Instructor, what if two hex masters have the same level of element? Won't the one with higher potential always stay ahead of the one with lower potential?"

As she asked that, Xane noticed those in the back suddenly get more attentive.

All of them stared at Luna with hope.

Instructor Luna just nodded. "Well, there's an argument about the skill of throwing pebbles, but yeah, at the same level, those with high potential will have more advantage."

Those with low potential suddenly deflated as they looked down.

Instructor Luna smiled. "Well, but it's not like those with low potential can't compete. Let's take the earlier example. Now, say a hex master could grind their pebbles into marbles."

"Once all their pebbles become marbles, the hex master would gain extra power that doubles the size of all the hard marbles. Now, who do you think would have the advantage, now?"

Everyone answered in unison, "Those with marbles."

Instructor Luna smiled, "Well, you can equate that to reaching the next hex master level, and here, those with fewer pebbles will progress faster."

She waved her hand, "There are a lot of ways to progress as a hex master. I recommend that everyone of you just focus on how you can survive."

This filled everyone with hope until Instructor Luna dropped the bomb. "Remember, in the end, what matters is for you to survive and reach the next year. Do everything in your power not to fall into the last 20 percent."

The moment she said that, Xane remembered the contract all of them had signed with the academy.

This quieted down the entire class.

Not caring about that, the instructor just clapped. "Okay, so let's move to the cursed land."

"Now, to become a Hex Master, the second requirement is to have a cursed mark on your body. On average, about one in ten children is born with these curse marks."

She pointed to the elves. "Though there are exceptions, like the elves, where about three in ten children are born with a cursed mark."

Even though Instructor Luna stated it calmly, Xane noticed that the elves looked kind of agitated.

Not caring about them, Instructor Luna continued, "Let's discuss the curse marks for a moment. Who can tell me how many curse marks there are?"

A dwarf stood up from the front row and said, "Instructor, there are ten curse symbols, each corresponding to the ten cursed lands."

Instructor Luna shook her head. "First of all, that's a definition for common people. As hex masters, you need to be clear that these 10 cursed lands everyone talks about are just ten places on the big cursed world. We officially name it the world of Vareth. Are we clear?"

Everyone just mumbled the name as they nodded their heads.

The instructor pointed back to the dwarf. "Okay, so what were you saying about cursed marks?"

The dwarf paused for a bit and said, "Instructor, these cursed marks are related to different types of Nythra present in each of the cursed places."

She waved to him and said in a calm tone, "Okay, stop there. You see, the world of Vareth is filled with all kinds of unimaginable monstrosities and different types of Nythra."

"Now, what separates these cursed lands from other areas is that in these areas, only a single type of pure Nythra is present."

"Each place has a different type of Nythra. For some unknown reason, all teens with a cursed mark will teleport somewhere within these 10 areas. This is why common people call them the 10 cursed lands."

Xane asked Zayn, [Oh, so this cursed land of Chaos is just a part of a bigger cursed world?]

Zayn nodded.

At this, someone asked from the back, "Instructor, do we know how this cursed world was formed?"

Instructor Luna stared at the guy and shook her head. "From the little we've uncovered, you could say that the world of Vareth is some ancient battleground."

"Whereas the ten cursed lands are the places where ten great wars occurred between ancient creatures at different times. Based on that sequence, we also name them the 3 Ancient, 4 Middle, and 3 New cursed lands."

She shook her head. "You guys can read about those things at the library. The main point is—what does it mean for a hex master to teleport to a cursed land? Anyone want to give it a shot?"

An elf girl stood up from the middle row and said, "Instructor, isn't it due to the presence of a different type of Nythra? I mean, the other half of our hex core is made from Nythra. It should have some effect, right?"

Instructor Luna shrugged her shoulders. "Kind of vague, but not wrong."

She waved for the girl to sit down and said, "Like I told you, each cursed land corresponds to a battle. Now, the obsession of all the creatures that died in those battles transformed into cursed energy. We call it Nythra."

"Now, the key here is that the type of power those creatures used in those wars gives different properties to this Nythra."

One elf girl asked, "Instructor, what do you mean by different kinds of power? Don't they use hex arts like us?"

Instructor Luna shook her head. "Nope. We don't fully understand how their power worked, but we're sure they used some kind of different energy source."

"There was a war in the distant past between creatures who controlled fire and earth. The aftermath of that war formed the Cursed Land of Explosive Volcanoes."

"Then, at another time, in a different part of the cursed world, another war took place. This time between creatures who controlled frost and ice. That war formed the Cursed Land of Icy Deserts, and so on."

Zayn nodded.

Xane mentally nodded. [Yeah.]

The instructor clapped her hands. "Now, the thing is, these cursed properties of Nythra get transferred to hex energy."

"Let me show you what will happen if you're not careful about the cursed properties of your hex energy."