Sorcery is indeed a strange and mysterious field of study.
It is the oldest power, yet the least systematized.
Though it has been used the most, it is said to be the most incomprehensible power.
Always… perhaps it has been used since the origin of humanity. This enigmatic field of study has almost no records as a scholarly pursuit and is so familiar to humanity that it is not considered a study at all. Like a mirage in the desert, there is clearly something real out there, but it is inaccessible and, when approached, dissolves into light like a mirage.
What is certain is that this peculiar field has captivated countless people.
With the face of good, the face of evil, the most familiar face, it hides its true form under the name of secret rites, enchanting and bewitching people throughout history.
That is why Jinseong was fascinated by sorcery.
Perhaps this sorcery became Jinseong’s purpose and the essence of his life.
In middle school, when he was bullied by other kids, he stumbled upon a curse spell on the internet and fell into the world of sorcery. To him, this world was more captivating and beautiful than anything else in the world.
A curse where you carve a figure out of a vegetable, smear the target’s blood on it, and perform a simple ritual.
The curse Jinseong saw on the internet was too crude and unstructured to be called ‘sorcery.’ It was a fresh piece of urban legend, seemingly made up by someone who liked ghost stories, but Jinseong, exhausted from bullying, decided to use it anyway.
He mustered the courage to punch the main bully, causing him to bleed. He smeared that blood on the figure.
Naturally, his first attempt at sorcery failed.
Even though sorcery is a mysterious and complex field, it is hard for a hastily invented spell to be effective. The legend was indeed a hastily created spell, and this fake curse, meant to ‘make someone you hate suffer,’ only brought Jinseong frustration.
But that frustration led Jinseong to seek out more.
For the first time in a long while, perhaps for the first time ever, he found the courage to fight back and struck the bully hard enough to cause injury. In return, he was severely beaten, bruised all over, and even sustained a fracture in his left leg.
Could he accept that the spell he used at such a great cost was a fake?
After that incident, Jinseong began to collect various forms of sorcery that went by the name of ‘curses’ on the internet. From entertaining necromancy to all sorts of sinister spells from Japan, ghost stories about sorcery, and even childish spells like those from letter-based skills…
The countless stories circulating on the internet filled Jinseong’s mind. At that point, he was able to use real curse sorcery. Among the legends, there were very rare genuine ones, and Jinseong, with a naturally broad perspective, was able to distinguish them to some extent.
Real sorcery was similar to but different from the fake spells that circulated for fun.
Rituals were indeed performed, but they were absurdly simple.
Instead of using vegetable figures or straw dolls, it was enough to use human-shaped dolls sold in stores.
No blood from the curse target was needed, and no blood from the curse caster was required either.
50,000 won.
Jinseong used sorcery for just 50,000 won without any effort.
He bought a doll, ink, and well-prepared pork.
The total cost was 50,000 won.
That was… all there was to it.
The doll, covered in pork, was discarded somewhere in the mountains and rotted away alone. Strangely, no insects approached the decaying pork, and there were no maggots to be seen. Flies, sensing the rotting meat, hovered around it like satellites but never came close. The flies, unable to approach the meat, turned into scavengers, eventually falling to the ground one by one out of hunger.
The fallen flies piled up and formed a black shape…
It was the moment when a black ring was drawn around the decaying meat doll.
Though too distorted to be called a true ring, the black shape, lacking sharp edges but connected, enclosed the decaying doll, and the doll darkened within the ring. As time passed and every part except the sorcery script turned black, the script itself remained red, forming a strange shape.
The curse was activated.
First.
The main bully fell down the stairs.
It was a common accident for children, and the main bully was not severely injured. He only sustained a hairline fracture in his leg and was hospitalized.
However, due to some unknown reason, the fractured area developed severe inflammation.
The bully, who tormented Jinseong with a group, was extremely sensitive to his own pain. Though a thorn in his finger was nothing compared to someone else’s fatal illness, the bully’s condition was severe, and his parents, unable to control the child’s tantrums, used pain relief magic and medications to make sure he did not feel pain.
Yet, that kindness became a poison.
The bully, unable to feel pain, did not notice the inflammation, and since it was a minor injury, he did not think to check it carefully. Strangely, the inflammation did not show symptoms until it became severe, like cancer…
Thus, the bully underwent a major surgery to scrape the inflammation directly from the bone. With such a major surgery at a young age, it was clear that there would be lasting aftereffects, a perfect example of retribution.
Second.
The bully had accomplices.
The accomplices, consisting of three boys and one girl, had lost their parents at a young age and had bullied Jinseong, whose depression made him an easy target for their sinister and violent torment.
The boys suffered from food poisoning.
After eating the school lunch, they showed unusual symptoms and were taken to the hospital. Strangely, they were the only three in the entire school who suffered from it. In the hospital, they writhed in agony, and when they vomited, it was filled with disgusting things like spiders and worms.
They suffered.
They were constantly hungry, unable to eat proper food, and had to endure the pain while relying on intravenous nutrients until they recovered. Additionally, they developed an eating disorder triggered by the insects they had vomited.
This, too, was retribution.
Third.
Mental suffering can be harder than physical pain.
The girl was not excluded from the curse.
The curse that came under the name of a hormonal imbalance shattered her relationships. Excessive testosterone caused hair to grow on her face, her shoulders widened, and her face became covered in acne. Thick, curly hair grew on her legs, and eventually, she became a target for children’s ridicule, called a “hairy monster.”
While the power of hormones granted her superior physical abilities, it was a horrific experience for a girl who enjoyed manipulating others for sinister purposes rather than achieving something.
Thus, every process had to pay its due price, and it returned as retribution in the form of a curse.
And lastly.
Jinseong paid half of his stomach as the price for the sorcery.
It was a tragedy born from ignorance of the fact that sorcery requires a significant price, especially in the case of curse sorcery, where one must consider both the cost and the backlash effects.
However, despite the fact that half of his stomach was rotting away and he had to undergo surgery to remove it, Jinseong could not escape the allure of sorcery. Perhaps the necessity to sacrifice half of his stomach only made it more compelling to him.
At a glance, the cost of sorcery resembled the nature of gambling.
‘With just half of my stomach, I inflicted pain on five people. How lucky I am.’
In poker terms, it was like hitting a full house, or in lottery terms, it was like winning second place.
Especially considering that despite using the curse spell thoughtlessly, the price paid was so minimal, it was beyond expression. Even simple curses often backfire, causing the caster’s death, with the cost of the curse typically being several times more severe than the effect.
On top of that, luck was on his side.
When such events occur, it is natural for investigations to focus on supernatural retribution. With five injured children all connected to Jinseong, he became a suspect and was investigated.
But fortunately, the sorcery he used was of a type that left no trace. Unlike other curses that leave deep lingering effects, this one caused only minor injuries and trauma that mostly faded away, and due to the low level of the case and the lack of enthusiasm from the investigators, it was dismissed as a coincidence.
Though rare, the events that happened to the bully and the girl were not unheard of, just as there are athletes with high testosterone levels in the Olympics.
Additionally, the boys who were hospitalized were rumored to be involved with drugs and alcohol, leading to suspicions of them having consumed something harmful.
Later, rumors about Jinseong’s use of curse sorcery surfaced, but the minimal price paid compared to the children’s suffering and Jinseong’s extreme stress from ongoing bullying led to the issue being resolved as a stress-related illness.
Jinseong was fortunate in every aspect.
As if sorcery was trying to draw him in.
‘Those who become entangled with sorcery are all destined for such fates. No, all the world’s endeavors come like this, weaving into fate, and this is called a profession.’
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