The one who suddenly called out to me was Aoyama.
The woman asked if I need anything, not thinking that I already have done my job here.
Behind her stood Shigenori.
Instead of answering Aoyama, I looked at Shigenori and gave him a thumbs-up before getting into the car.
"Huh? Shigenori-san, Inumaki-kun is getting into the car. Did he forget something inside? He could've just asked us to retrieve it… Shigenori-san?"
As she spoke, she noticed that Shigenori was frozen in place, unable to move.
After a brief silence, she heard him mutter,
"…He already finished his mission…"
"H-Huh?! That fast?! If I'm not mistaken, that curse was good at hiding and hard to track. How did he do that?!"
"Like hell I know…"
Even Shigenori himself didn't understand it.
The time Inumaki took to exorcise the curse was even shorter than usual.
He didn't doubt even a bit about Inumaki's claim.
Just stood there amazed.
The speed of mission completion was simply too fast for him comprehend.
Ding!
The sound of a message rang from Shigenori's phone.
He immediately said, "Aoyama, I'll give you the details later… I need to go now,"before entering the car leaving behind the bewildered woman.
As he read the message, it said: Shigenori-san, let's go to the next mission.
From the moment he entered the car, he kept giving me curious looks but didn't ask for any further information, which I appreciated.
The first time people were shocked by my power and bombarded me with questions,
it felt fun, and I enjoyed the attention.
But as time passed, I got sick of it.
Now, all the disbelief and shocked expressions felt less like admiration and more like doubt toward my abilities because of my age.
I didn't like it anymore.
I would love it, they stay silent rather than ask endless questions.
Soon, we arrived at the second location.
The car stopped in front of what looked like an old forest tunnel.
Its stone entrance was cracked and swallowed by creeping moss and tangled roots growing wildly out of the ground.
Inside, water dripped constantly, the echoes of falling droplets reverberating through the passage.
This tunnel had a far stronger and creepier presence than the abandoned student dormitory.
At the very entrance, dark stains of blood remained.
Judging by the traces, they must have been left behind from yesterday's subjugation attempt.
Now that I remembered, two Grade 2 sorcerers had been dispatched here yesterday, one died, while the other was severely injured.
Just by the presence alone, I could tell there was a powerful curse here, far beyond a typical Grade 2.
The possibility of it being a semi–Grade 1 curse was extremely high.
At the site, there was no one else present other than Shigenori and me.
Without wasting any time, he immediately began setting up the veil.
Within moments, everything was prepared, and he uttered the chant:
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
Just like before, a dark, translucent veil spread across the sky before descending silently, wrapping the entire area like a funeral shroud.
"Inumaki-kun! You can go inside now…"
I nodded and stepped into the tunnel.
But the very moment I entered, my instant death ability activated.
An intense wave of malice rushed toward me without any attempt to hide.
Every hair on my body stood on end as goosebumps spread from head to toe.
I felt true danger as something tried to enter my mind, my ability pinpointed the exact locations of the two curses, the sources of that killing intent.
"Die!"
I immediately activated my instant death ability.
There was no need to even look at the curses, they themselves handed me the connection to kill them through the overwhelming killing intent directed straight at me.
Normally, I would take my time: observe my surroundings, keep a safe distance, and leisurely exorcise curses one by one.
But these two were different.
They were not something I could handle casually.
I could clearly feel that if I waited even a few more moments, they would do something terrible to me.
The sense of danger this time was overwhelming.
Were they really Grade-2 curses?
I shook that thought out of my head.
There was no fucking way.
These two were clearly semi–Grade-1 or even higher.
Not just one of them, both were the same level of danger.
"KRRRREEE—AAAGH!!""WOOOOO—RRAAA—"
Two shrill, distorted screams rang out, only to be cut off almost instantly.
The oppressive and heavy feeling that had weighed on me vanished into nothingness, replaced by a massive surge of cursed energy flooding into my body.
The two curses that had intended to attack me were already dead before they could even appear in front of my eyes.
Unlike the mirror curse from before, I didn't even bother forcing them to manifest.
They were so malicious that they actively tried to kill anyone who entered this place.
Thanks to that, I ended them the very moment I stepped into the tunnel.
I glanced down at my body, now completely wrapped in chaotic cursed energy, and couldn't help but smile wryly.
Closing my eyes, I did my best to suppress it, forcing the energy to settle within me and preventing any leakage.
If even a fraction of this escaped, it would definitely cause a stir from the sheer output and presence alone.
I was certain Shigenori had already noticed the abnormal fluctuations in my cursed energy.
He probably thought I was using some kind of binding vow to increase my reserves, but even that wouldn't explain the sheer amount my body was carrying right now.
Once the turbulence settled, I moved deeper into the tunnel.
I found several weaker curses lurking in the shadows and dealt with them using cursed speech instead of my instant death ability.
"Die."
The word left my mouth, and waves of cursed energy spread outward.
There was almost no backlash from such a powerful command now.
Just as I thought, the more cursed energy I possessed, the less strain I felt.
Dealing with ordinary cursed beings had become absurdly easy.
Before today, I could barely defeat three Grade-2 curses without relying on instant death, fully pushing my cursed technique to its limits.
Now, my cursed energy reserves had increased by nearly sixty percent compared to the morning. From the very beginning, my total reserves had already been abnormally high for a Grade-2 sorcerer, a result of constant killing since childhood.
"Twist."
"Plummet."
"Explode."
These three commands were also powerful words, costing relatively little cursed energy while efficiently erasing Grade-3 and lower curses.
After clearing the remaining presence inside the tunnel, I finally stepped back outside.
That made it the third mission I completed on the very same day.