The Cursed Extra: Twin Souls Against the World

Xane sat in the chair in the small, compact office. He saw a lot of paper scattered on the table.

Xenor just swiped the papers off his table, dropping them on the ground, making the office even messier.

Xane focused on a few of the papers and saw they were filled with different runes and circles.

Not caring about any of that, Xenor leaned back and said, "Viyron, now that you are under me, let me clear a few things for you. First of all, I will guide you to the best of my ability, but as you know, nothing is free."

Xane asked, "What will be the price, sir?"

"For the first three months, I will not charge for any of my lectures. After that, you will either have to do certain tasks for me or pay 100 points per lecture."

Xane stared wide-eyed. "100 points?"

Xenor looked into his eyes and said, "Well, this is the base price decided by the academy. Though your performance in the academy can give you certain relief."

Xenor added, "There are a lot of ways for you to earn points. You should talk with some seniors to learn more about them."

Xane nodded. "Okay."

Zayn said in his head. [No point. Most of them will just waste too much time.]

Xane didn't respond to Zayn as Xenor continued. "Now that's out of the way, let's move to the actual business. I believe you know what kind of hex art I specialize in."

"Summoning, it is a part of the core hex art of binding, sir."

"So, you understand all the basic theory regarding core hex arts?"

Xane decided to act like an excellent student and pointed to his ID. "Sir, I read everything before the class."

Xenor bent down and took out two old, worn-out books. "You can read these two books in your free time. The first one is about how hex art works. The second one focuses on how to train as a hex master."

"I do have to say, you will learn this stuff in your class. Just reading the book will give you my insight as a hex master. Though keep in mind, you are not allowed to show them to others."

Xane picked up both books. "Okay, sir."

Xenor then picked out a paper from the side and a glass pen, which he dipped in ink from time to time and scribbled on the paper.

"Viyron, as a hex master, there are a lot of things you have to learn about the hex arts, and it works. But to start, we have to make it so you can use a summoning hex art for yourself."

Xenor stopped scribbling and pushed the paper to Xane. "Here, this is the first hex art you're going to use."

Xane looked at the paper in confusion. "Sir, what do you mean by hex art? I thought I had to chant something."

Xenor looked up at Xane and slapped his forehead. "Oh yeah, you only took one class, right?"

Xane nodded. "Yes, sir. I applied to you just after the first class."

Xenor rubbed his forehead and mumbled, "Ah shit, how could I forget that? I didn't even accept the second application. Now I have to teach twice. How..."

Xane saw how Xenor suddenly looked more depressed. It was like his mentor had just heard news of someone's death or something.

Xane asked in a low tone, "Sir, are you alright?"

Xenor looked up at him and suddenly stood. "No, this time is different. This time it's worth the extra effort."

Xane saw greed in Xenor's eyes, which his mentor didn't even bother to hide.

Xenor started walking back and forth as he got lost thinking about something.

Xane was about to stand when Xenor waved to him. "Just sit there. I'm trying to remember what to teach you."

Xane stared at Xenor in shock as the man walked on the papers scattered on the ground with no care.

He couldn't help but ask Zayn, <Is this normal?>

Zayn replied in an unsure tone, [I'm not sure. There was a mention in the novel that some hex masters tend to develop extreme personalities. It's just that most of the hex masters Liam interacted with at the start were normal.]

<Interesting!>

Xenor stopped and sat back before Xane like nothing had happened. He asked, "Okay, so what are hex arts?"

Xane didn't have to think much. "It's the ability to use hex energy."

Xenor clicked his tongue. "No, Viyron. That's too vague. You see, every hex art is a combination of three parts. I call them IPE. They are Intention, Projection, and Effect."

Xane looked at Xenor with a confused face and asked Zayn in his head, <Do you know what our mentor is saying?>

Zayn shook his head. [Nope. Liam, in the novel, relied on the cheat, so all of this was skipped.]

Xane looked surprised. <Cheat? What kind of cheat?>

Zayn said, [Not now.]

Xane mentally nodded and focused on Xenor. He knew that learning about hex art was more important. He could ask about Liam anytime later.

Unaware of the inner talk, Xenor took out another paper and said, "The Intention part is all about what you want your hex art to do. You need to have some imagination, then learn about the relevant concept that imagination is based on."

Xenor looked up and asked, "Let's do this. Earlier, I showed you a hex art. What do you think the intention of that hex art was?"

Xane replied, "Sir, the intention was to summon a frog-like creature."

Xenor nodded. "Correct."

Xane raised his hand. "But, sir, I have a doubt."

Xenor waved his hand. "No need to raise your hand. From now on, whenever you have a doubt, just tap on the table. Tell me, what's your doubt?"

Xane thought for a bit and said, "Sir, in my first class, I saw Instructor Luna use a fire glove hex art."

"Oh, she took the class this year. Interesting!" Xenor looked at him. "So what about it?"

"Sir, actually, Instructor Luna mumbled some kind of spell to use hex art. But just now, I didn't see you using any spells."

"Well, that's the projection part of the hex art. You see, there are many ways a hex art can work. It could be sound-based, where you have to learn and recite the cursed language."

Xenor pointed to the paper in Xane's hand. "Or it could be rune-based, where you have to arrange different runes to start your hex arts."

He then pointed to Xane's hair. "You can also use hex arts by doing a certain combination of actions, from forming hand symbols to moving your weapon in certain ways. Hex masters from your family are masters of this."

Xane asked, wide-eyed, "There are so many ways?"

Xenor smirked. "Well, those are the main three. A few hex-masters also developed some other weird methods. Veyron, hex art was all about moving hex energy through the hex master's body."

"Once you become good at using a certain hex art, you won't need to use any projection method and can directly manipulate hex energy in the body with your thoughts."

Xane nodded his head.

Just then, Zayn said in his head. [Hey, don't forget to ask which method Sir Xenor uses.]

Xane repeated Zayn's question.

Xenor replied with a smile, "I'm good with the rune method. Actually, the hex art you saw is a 2-star hex art. I used a rune that automatically triggers the creature summon when someone suddenly comes close to me."

Xane scratched his head. "Sir, what is a 2-star hex art?"

Xenor waved at him. "Oh, that's based on the number of intentions you want your hex art to have. It's not that important right now."

Xane rubbed his head and asked, "Okay."

"Viyron, you need to understand that for a hex art to work, you need the correct combination of intention and projection. Once you find that, your hex will start to work."

Xane scratched his head. "Then what about the effect, sir?"

Xenor smiled. "Well, I only said the hex art is going to work, but that doesn't mean it will work in the way you intended."

Xenor pointed to his shoulder. "Now imagine if instead of that small creature, I mistakenly summoned a massive giant toad. What do you think would happen?"

Xane raised an eyebrow. "You would get crushed under the toad's weight."

Xenor clapped his hands. "And imagine if I summoned a small mini frog."

"That would have been completely useless against my fist, sir."

Xenor nodded. "Right. So you see, even if my hex art works, there are a lot of ways things could go wrong."

"Like if I accidentally summoned a fire toad, it could have burned my shoulder. Or what if I summoned another monster? What if the creature I summoned attacked me instead of protecting me?"

Xenor frantically started listing multiple ways a hex art could go wrong.

At first, Xane thought of it as rambling, but then his mentor started explaining the different ways a wrong hex art could kill a hex master.

After listing what felt like hundreds of ways to die, Xane wiped sweat from his forehead. < Whoa, what a great start!>

Zayn shared the same feeling. [Yup, who could expect that?]