The Strongest Curse Master

"Master, Madam Lyra's flight will land at the nearest airport in forty-five minutes," Dame Wasp informed Ace from the front garden of the Wood Palace.

"Alright then," Ace said, rising to his feet. "How far have you guys progressed?"

"We've set up the workshop, created the Specwork toy, and were preparing to begin work on the bionic skeletal frame for my new body," Dame Wasp reported, though she seemed a bit disappointed with their progress.

"I'm impressed. You guys are fast," Ace said, genuinely complimenting her. He could see that she and Emi had accomplished a lot in a short time. Then he got to the important question, "Is the Specwork toy ready for animation?"

"Yes, Master. Would you like to inspect it before we proceed with animating it?" Dame Wasp asked eagerly. The Specwork toy was made using the advanced knowledge from her universe. While she called it a toy, the people of this world would consider it a state-of-the-art machine—centuries ahead of its time, a true miracle.

"Lead the way. I guess we have a couple of minutes to spare," Ace agreed with a slight nod, curious to witness the capabilities of the toy Dame Wasp had created using her world's robotics and nanotechnology before he turned it into one of his summoned toys.

As Dame Wasp led Ace toward the workshop, he used the moment to check his stats—he had swallowed nearly two dozen common mortal-tier curse cores, including the mutant rust worm cores Emi had looted. He mentally muttered, 'Status Screen.'

[ — Status screen—

Name: Ace Lander

Race: Human (♂)

Class: Toymancer

Title: Curse Master

Health: (17/200)yrs

Physical Power: 179

Spiritual power: 170

Curse Energy: (2021/2021)

Skills: Cursed toybox(5/12), Status screen.

Arts: Body Reinforcement, Curse Concealment.]

The growth in all his power and energy stats was within expectations. However, the increase in his toy summon space slots and health bar surprised him, as they were significantly lower than he had anticipated.

He was disappointed to find that his toy summon space limit had only increased by seven, despite digesting nearly two dozen common mortal-tier curse cores. At this rate, Ace began to think his dream of commanding a legion of toy summons might be more difficult than he had originally thought.

As for his health stats, he suspected its growth was being capped by his current mortal-tier. From that perspective, a 200-year lifespan for a mortal was actually impressive—borderline unheard of. Then again, how many mortal-tier curse users ever survived long enough to truly enjoy such a long life?

"Is that it?" Ace asked, pointing to a metallic gray liquid swirling in a tub. As he stepped closer, the substance emitted a soft rhythmic hum, vibrating its entire liquid-metal body—as if greeting them. Ace gave a small nod of acknowledgment and said, "It looks just like in the cartoons. You did a great job, Rose."

"Thank you, Master, but it was a team effort," Dame Wasp replied, too humble to take all the credit for herself.

"Senpai, don't be modest. I just helped out a little. If not for the time crunch, you could've done it all on your own," Emi added, too polite to claim any real credit for what she saw as her senpai's hard work and brain child. She was just happy with the fact that she got to help and work on such a wonderful creation.

"Stop praising each other and show me how to use that thing," Ace urged the modest duo, as he was short on time. His sister's plane would be landing in the city in forty-five minutes, and he still had a lot to prepare.

"Master, it's voice-controlled. It recognizes your voice. Go ahead and try it out," Dame Wasp informed him, encouraging him to communicate with the Specwork toy verbally.

"Hello, Specwork," Ace greeted the metallic liquid. It immediately rose into the air and attempted to form a humanoid shape. After a few failed attempts, it finally managed to take the shape of a 7-foot-tall, flat, cartoonish stickman, emitting a rhythmic hum that sounded very much like, 'Hello, Master.'

"Awesome," Ace exclaimed. The scene reminded him of the moment in the cartoon when the protagonists first meet Specwork in the junkyard and nearly soil themselves, thinking they'd run into a ghost.

"Master, try feeding your phone to it," Dame Wasp advised.

Ace nodded, took out his smartphone, and extended it toward Specwork. "Here, buddy, this is for you."

Specwork took the smartphone and absorbed it into its body. Dame Wasp then sternly reminded it, "What do we say?"

Specwork hummed again, the tone sounding remarkably like, 'Thank you.' Only then did Dame Wasp nod in satisfaction.

"Specwork, use technomorph: Smartphone," Ace commanded eagerly.

In response, Specwork's large body retracted inward, reshaping itself into a perfect replica of the smartphone it had just consumed. Ace picked it up from the floor and found that it functioned perfectly, without a single glitch. Thrilled, he gave another command: "Specwork, upgrade smartphone!"

Soon, the entire external aesthetic of the smartphone morphed into a sleek, metallic gray slab. Seeing this, Ace yelled in pure joy and excitement, "This is incredible, Rose! You created an alien life-form from another cartoon universe using the knowledge of your own universe—without even relying on the cursed toy box. This is just mind-blowing!"

"Master, actually, it only changed its appearance. The smartphone still functions like your original enhanced device. It did not upgrade it," Dame Wasp quickly clarified, not wanting her master to get his hopes too high.

"So… it's just a fraud?" Ace blurted out in a moment of disappointment. However, he softened his tone when he heard Specwork hum, that sounded like an apology, 'Sorry!'

"For a toy, it's great and fun. Now, quickly turn it into a cursed item so I can begin the animation process," Ace instructed, handing the Specwork smartphone to Emi without bothering to check for compatibility. He also didn't ask for his smartphone back, knowing that in the cartoon, Specwork's diet electronic devices so his phone was as good as gone.

From an economic or marketing standpoint, Dame Wasp's Specwork toy was a complete dud. But for Ace, it checked all the boxes needed to animate it as a toy summon.

"Give me a minute, Master," Emi said, taking the Specwork smartphone and getting to work. Meanwhile, Ace wandered around the workshop, and Dame Wasp explained their design decisions whenever he looked confused or skeptical.

"Master, I'm done," Emi finally said, handing Ace the Specwork smartphone—now a cursed item, or rather, a cursed toy.

"Alright, let us begin then," Ace said, taking the Specwork smartphone and feeding it to the curse toybox along with a mutant rust worm curse core. Specwork's diet was electronic devices, while the rust worm's diet was cursed tools. Ace's decision here was a no-brainer, yet he went ahead and did a compatibility test before proceeding to the animation process.

[ — Status Screen —

Curse Core: Mutant Rust Worm

Cursed Toy: Specwork

Compatibility: 100%

Recommendation: The success rate of animating the cursed toy 'Specwork' with the curse core 'Mutant Rust worm' is determined to be very high.]

"Holy crap!" Ace exclaimed in shock—this was the first time he had seen perfect compatibility between a curse core and a cursed toy. Even with the evidence right in front of him, he could hardly believe it. Overcome with excitement, he shared the news with Emi and Dame Wasp, saying, "You two really outdid yourselves today."

"Senpai, you did it!" Emi cheered, congratulating her senpai and giving her full credit for the achievement before she could modestly try to share it.

While the toy summons politely congratulated and praised each other, Ace didn't waste any more time. He gave the cursed toybox the green light to animate Specwork as his toy summon using the mutant rust worm curse core.

[ — Status Screen —

> Cursed toybox is merging mutant rust worm curse core with cursed toy Specwork...

> Cursed toybox is animating the toy Cursed Specwork as a toy summon…

> The cursed toybox has animated the toy summons Specwork.

> Toy summons Specwork undergoing advanced enhancement…

> Toy summons Specwork's stats and skill are being augmented…

> Toy summons Specwork's advance enhancement complete.

> Toy summon Specwork has been added to the toy space.

> Toymancer can now summon toy summons 'Speckwork.']

After tasking the cursed toybox to animate Specwork into a toy summon, Ace minimized the status screen without reading the updates and headed out of the Wood Palace, recalling Emi and Dame Wasp into their toy space.

However, to Ace's shock, stepping out of the Wood Palace, he was greeted by a room full of dead insects, birds, wall crawlers, and other small creatures. He exclaimed in shock, "WTF!"

"Ace, language. Lilith is here," Ace's clone—aka DD—quickly reminded him, gesturing toward their small, cute company.

"Hi, Lilith!" Ace greeted her awkwardly before shooting a glare at DD, silently demanding an explanation. Upon learning that Lilith had figured out Ace was DD in disguise and ran over to play, Ace couldn't help but wonder what the point was of having DD stand guard when Emi and Dame Wasp could've used her help with the workshop.