Instructor Luna walked to the front and said, "One last thing about this cursed land. So, you must have heard about the three types of cursed lands, right?"
Everyone nodded in unison. "Yes, Instructor."
She waved her hand. "Well, those types are based on when the wars that created them must have taken place."
"So, first is the Ancient Three Cursed Lands. The wars that formed these cursed lands happened hundreds of millennia ago."
"Now, we don't know which of the Ancient Three came first, but all three were formed within one millennium of each other."
Xane cursed inside Zayn's head.
[Fck, now she's talking about stuff that happened hundreds of millennia ago... Dude, does this world even exist for that long?]
Zayn sighed.
Xane quieted down at this. He remembered the first vision when Viyron stood in front of that fog wall to form a contract. Not only that, the murmurs he heard when he opened his status. He just sighed.
[Yeah, man… they must've had god-like power.]
Instructor Luna held up four fingers. "Then we have the Four Middle Cursed Lands. These are a dozen millennia old. There's a big gap between them and the Ancient Cursed Lands, but these four were formed within 1–2 millennia of each other."
Xane sighed.
[Damn, she's really throwing around big numbers again.]
Zayn replied,
[Wait, really? How long do hex masters live?]
Xane mentally rolled his eyes.
[Are you for real? Even back on Earth, some oldies lived for 125 years. And that's not even counting those monks and babas in the mountains who supposedly lived for 500+ years.]
Zayn sighed.
[Oh? Can we live forever?]
Xane mentally nodded.
[Mmm.]
Instructor Luna then held up three fingers. "Finally, we have the Last Three Cursed Lands—those are around 5 to 6 millennia old."
She suddenly clapped her hands. "Now that you understand the cursed world, let's move back to the curse marks. We know that 7 out of the 10 curse marks have a high chance of being passed down through generations. The only exceptions are the Ancient Three Cursed Lands."
She pointed to Melina. "Like most from the House of Zenaris are born with the curse mark belonging to the Cursed Land of Explosive Volcanoes."
She then pointed to an elf in the first row with red ear tips. "The child from the House of Bloodmoon, on the other hand, has a high chance of getting the curse mark from the Cursed Land of the Deep Red Sea."
The elves and red-haired youth from the House of Zenair nodded their heads.
Instructor Luna shook her head. "Now, I won't bog you down with history and reasons. Let's move to the next step of becoming a hex master—which is the trial."
"So every year, the teens of different species get pulled into different parts of the cursed land—into regions filled with only one type of cursed Nytra."
"In the cursed land, you'll form a bond with a cursed entity and absorb the cursed Nytra into your body, which, upon combining with your soul essence, will form your hex core. Am I right?"
This time, all around, Zayn and the others nodded with full confidence. "Yes, Instructor."
Instructor Luna paused for a bit and said, "Everything we've talked about so far summarizes how you become a hex master. Now the big question is—how do we progress as hex masters, right?"
Everyone nodded. "Yes, Instructor."
This time, Instructor Luna started mumbling something.
Zayn gripped the side of the bench as he felt massive pressure from her. It was like he was sitting in front of a massive beast that could devour him in the blink of an eye.
He saw the other students were in a similar condition.
Not caring about the students, Instructor Luna simply snapped her fingers, and the next moment, a blue flame appeared in her hand.
Zayn stared as the blue flame engulfed her hand like some sort of fiery glove. Even with all that fire, it didn't seem like it was burning her hand in any way.
Instructor Luna transferred the flame from one hand to the other and said, "As new hex masters, your first priority is to understand the hex energy produced by your hex core."
"The biggest limitation you'll face while using your hex arts will be the cursed property of your hex energy."
As she said that, Zayn saw her hand start to pale. Within moments, her skin lost all its shine and turned ghostly white. It kept getting paler with each second until, within a minute, blue veins appeared all over her body.
She started to look like a frozen corpse. At that moment, she clapped her hands—and the blue flame disappeared.
She moved her palm, and Zayn saw her skin begin to recover, starting from her hands.
In the next minute, she transformed from a corpse back to the beauty she was.
As her face regained its color, she said with a smile, "I am a hex master linked to the Cursed Land of Icy Deserts. What you just saw was the curse attached to the hex energy of those who use Nytra from the same cursed land as mine."
Even though she was smiling, the teens before her did not share the same reaction.
Even her beauty couldn't hide the horror of what they'd just seen. Everyone looked at her with serious expressions.
She waved her hand to diffuse the tension. "Don't worry, what I did is uncommon. If you follow the proper way, you won't face this problem. Now, before I end this class, let's talk about hex arts for a bit."