The Strongest Curse Master

"How are you back sooner than me?" Ace asked, finding Elinor playing board games with Lilith on the front porch while Delores dozed on the lounger, her sunglasses perched on her nose. Clearly, someone was missing her sunbaths by the lake after moving to the countryside.

"Delores' taxi services," Elinor answered, and then with a half-serious tone, she added, "My dad thanks you for the gas bath."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Ace denied, climbing onto the porch while Dee3 followed behind him. Getting comfortable in one of the chairs, he pulled one forward for Dee3 while introducing them, "Dee3, this is Elinor, the little one is Lilith, and that's—"

"Delores," Dee3 cut in, surprising Ace, revealing that she knew her. "You know her?"

"Yes, she acted as my driver/bodyguard when the McSuile family borrowed me from the government to help them build their family bunker with a sturdy treasure vault," Dee3 answered, taking the lounging chair next to Ace.

"Bullshit!" Elinor exclaimed, while Lilith giggled, "You said bullshit."

Throwing a classic mommy 'Do as I say, not as I do' look at Lilith, warning her, Elinor went on to explain herself, "You couldn't have built our family's Treasure Vault because my grandfather did. It's the number one impenetrable vault in the mortal world's curse community. It is one of the top thousand searches on the curse web. Even the government has been trying to build a similar one for a few decades now, but has failed."

Elinor wasn't exaggerating. The McSuile family's treasure vault was considered one of the wonders of the mortal world's curse community.

The McSuile family's treasure vault's reputation was also why Duke Lambert III had entered a secret contract with them. He was willing to personally help the McSuile family gain a foothold in his country, believing that the Sole Ring, the mark of his heir, would be safest in the McSuile family vault, waiting for his daughter to return and claim what's rightfully hers.

"That's only because earlier the government did not have the required materials, but now that they have the materials, they don't have me. Besides, I have improved a lot since then. I can build a better bunker with much cheaper materials," Dee3 remarked. She wasn't trying to brag, just stating the facts. She felt the McSuile family's treasure vault wasn't worthy of the pedestal it was being put on. As its designer and builder, she had every right to judge it. If the creator didn't have the right to be critical of their work, then who did?

"Ace, where did you find this lair and a con artist?" Elinor asked, glaring at Dee3. She did not believe a word that came out of Dee3's mouth. The only reason she didn't curse the latter was because she felt that Ace, along with the stranger, was messing with her.

This wasn't like Elinor, but the McSuile family's vault was one of her grandfather's prized legacies. She had grown up hearing how her grandfather was a visionary for building their family's vault, but now that some stranger claimed credit for it, she could not remain silent and couldn't help but get defensive about it.

"You are rude. I am not a liar or a con artist," Dee3 stood up for herself without waiting for Ace. Her face scrunched up in annoyance. She was beginning to think that leaving the dungeon was a bad idea.

"My grandfather built the McSuile family treasure vault. Everyone knows that. What does that make you?" Elinor scoffed, glancing at Dee3 in disdain.

"It makes her the true designer and the builder of our family's treasure vault."

Before Dee3 could argue, another voice sounded, crediting her for the design and construction of the McSuile family treasure vault.

"Janice?" Elinor uttered, seeing that the voice agreeing with Dee3 was her own cousin.

"Grandfather only commissioned the construction of the family's treasure vault. He is praised because he managed to borrow Madam Dee3 from the government, giving her full intellectual freedom to build the bunker and the vault. But back then, Madam Dee3 was a closely kept secret of the government, so they couldn't openly say that. Instead, they praised him for building the family vault, which was intentionally misinterpreted by a few enthusiastic family members, and the rest, you are the perfect example of that," Janice revealed the truth, proving that Dee3 wasn't lying.

Unlike the government, which could gather and fund the greatest Curse array masters of the country to design secret bases for them, the McSuile family lacked both. Patriarch McSuile had to pull in a lot of favors and pay a steep price just to borrow Dee3 from the government. Cash-strapped and out of favors, Patriarch McSuile commissioned Dee3 to design and build his family's infamous bunker and vault, trusting that she had gained enough experience building secret bases across the country for the government to do so.

This was a huge gamble on Patriarch McSuile's part. He trusted Dee3 and provided her with all the help and materials she asked for. Rewarding his trust and persistence, Dee3 came through for him, instantly raising the prestige of the McSuile family by a level.

Ignoring stunned and tongue-tied Elinor, Janice greeted Dee3, "Madam Dee3, I am a fan of your work. Many of my early works have taken inspiration from your book on curse crafting. It's still the classic for getting started in curse crafting. I wonder if there is a second one."

Also, Aurelian Eyes had been to a couple of the government's new secret facilities. They were better than their family's decades-old bunker and vault. But she did not bring it up in front of her hero. Now that wasn't good, and also, she strongly believed Dee3 could have done a better job designing and building them. Janice wasn't being a fan girl right now. The Dungeon Curseling's abilities were unmatched when it came to building underground infrastructure. Combined with Dee3's genius mind and experience, she couldn't imagine what the current Dee3 was capable of with the right materials and support.

"No, I had to divert my focus to the field of Curse Gadgets as the government needed them more than the Curse Tools," Dee3 answered without much enthusiasm, as it wasn't new for her to meet people who were fans of her work. Her time with the government had taught her to keep these people at arm's length. Getting close to them never ended well for her.

Under Dee3's indifference, Janice clearly noticed the latter's wariness towards her and could only force an understanding smile, praying that someone else would take over the conversation before she made things worse for herself. She eyed her cousin, but the latter was still in shock. Not surprising, considering that Patriarch McSuile was a hero that all the younger generation of the McSuile family aspired to become one day.

"Janice, could you hand over the control core of the curse array formations covering the estate to Dee3? I think she could further optimize them for our use," Ace directly asked, seizing the opportunity Janice provided him.

There were two reasons he visited the McSuiles first instead of his family:

i) To take the curse array formations' core from Janice and give it to Dee3, who can further enhance and optimize them using her curse slave abilities and her wide knowledge.

ii) To recruit Aurelian Eyes as a middleman to help him sell the information he had on the forgotten colony of Roanoke.

For Ace, the second one was easy, as Janice stood to make a killing on this deal, but as far as the first one was concerned, he believed Janice would have a hard time relinquishing control to Dee3. However, to his surprise, Janice readily agreed, "Sure. But I have a request, can I watch?"