Versatile Mage: Lord of Space

The man cried for a long time, watching his family members die helplessly.

He was a mage, but not a healing mage... His younger brother's pained appearance changed day by day, his face grew paler and paler, and he desperately craved water.

The man locked up his brother, but what good did it do? He still drowned in his own blood...

The man's older brother had also died before, also from a drowning curse...

"Tell us what's going on." Lin Lan took out a few bottles of beer from her spatial storage and handed them to the man, then casually froze them with her ice magic.

The man trembled as he took the bottle, tilted his head back, and gulped down two mouthfuls, his Adam's apple bobbing violently. Cold beer dripped down his chin, but it couldn't extinguish the fear in his eyes. "Noko... Noko's obsessed with surfing. I didn't let him go, and he went crazy, attacking and scratching me." His voice was hoarse and barely audible. "I had to lock him in the house. I didn't go home last night, hoping he'd reflect on his actions, but who could have imagined..."

The beer bottle slammed onto the table with a crash. The man covered his face, tears welling between his fingers: "He actually... he actually drowned himself in a pool of blood... God, what did I do wrong?"

Mo Fan observed the man's devastated expression without revealing his feelings, his knuckles lightly tapping the table. "This isn't your fault. However…" he leaned forward slightly, "two drowning curses occurring in one family in quick succession is truly strange. While there are many drowning curse cases globally, the probability of two occurring in the same family…"

“They were always together.” The man wiped his face, the wine mixed with tears glistening on his stubble. “I’m a mage, stationed at the guild year-round… My older brother often took Noko out to play, but I don’t know exactly where they went.” His voice suddenly choked.

"This is too bizarre." Mu Ningxue lowered her voice, her icy blue eyes churning with dark undercurrents.

Mo Fan stared at the flickering light spots on the floor: "Noko was clearly under a curse too. He was supposed to run to the sea to complete the ritual, but he was locked in a waterless place..." His Adam's apple bobbed, "and in the end... he used blood instead of seawater. This goes beyond the realm of disease; it's more like some kind of absolute control on a spiritual level."

Mu Ningxue unconsciously clenched the hem of her clothes: "What kind of mental manipulation is needed to make someone willingly... drown in their own blood?"

"The problem lies in the blood. Mu Ningxue, do you remember that woman in Japan? I discovered the maggots back then," Lin Lan said.

"So you were observing... maggots?"

"Lingling," Lin Lan called out.

Lingling nodded and then walked towards the dead Ruo Ke.

"Little friend, don't go any closer, you'll be scared!" The man hurriedly stood up.

Lingling went over, took out a container, filled it with some viscous blood, and examined it carefully.

The man was stunned, staring at Lingling in disbelief for a long time before he came to his senses.

“These are all the things,” Lingling said, staring at the debris in the blood.

"We can just have it tested when we get back," Lin Lan said. ...

Lingling brought over a fine filter and gestured for Mo Fan to help secure it.

Mo Fan did as she was told. Lingling picked up the basin of dark red blood and poured it onto the filter without hesitation. The viscous blood slowly seeped down the mesh, and a strong smell of rust filled the air.

Bobby, standing to the side, turned pale, his Adam's apple bobbing. Though a well-informed mage, he was speechless, stunned by the bloody scene.

What surprised him even more was that the little girl with pigtails in front of him remained expressionless, her focused expression as if she were simply filtering ordinary tea.

"Huh?" Mo Fan suddenly noticed a dark red substance wriggling slightly on the filter screen.

The thing resembled a congealed blood clot, yet possessed a strangely soft texture, as if it could be squeezed out of the mesh with the slightest pressure.

"Don't touch them!" Lingling slapped away Mo Fan's outstretched fingers and took out tweezers and a glass dish from her backpack. "They'll die immediately if they leave the blood environment."

Mu Ningxue's long eyelashes trembled slightly, her icy blue eyes fixed on the strange object. In her extensive reading, she had never seen such a peculiar creature.

After Lingling rinsed the blood clots with water, an even more astonishing scene unfolded: the blood clots seemed to melt away completely.

“Look closely.” Lingling held up a magnifying glass. Under the lens magnified tenfold, a completely transparent maggot was slowly curling up.

Its body is even more transparent than the purest jellyfish, and it is almost impossible to see with the naked eye unless it is reflected at a specific angle.

“They really are jellyfish maggots, Lin Lan was right.” Lingling’s voice suddenly lowered. “In their larval stage, they are like undeveloped embryos, mimicking the host’s form.”

Bobby suddenly sprang to his feet, slamming his fist on the table: "Nonsense! My brother could never be some kind of monster!" His eyes were red-rimmed, and the veins in his neck bulged.

Mo Fan pressed down on Bobby's trembling shoulders, but his own mind was also in turmoil. "Isn't this a bit exaggerated? It's impossible that all the prototypes of those drowning curses are these maggots, right? How can such a transparent thing transform into a human and even speak and act like a human?"

Lin Lan coughed at this moment, and when everyone's eyes turned to him, he explained, "It's them. First of all, these maggots are a very terrifying parasitic demon. They live in seawater and, like some plankton, can easily enter the bodies of organisms, for example, through your mouth, nose, or ears. In earlier times, there were no species of maggots that could live in the human body. Only in recent decades have these maggots that lurk in the human body gradually evolved. Once inside the human body, the maggots attach themselves near the stomach and frantically absorb human nutrients and food. As a result, those infected with the maggots begin to have a greatly increased appetite. In fact, it means that they not only need to absorb the energy they need, but also have to feed this maggot embryo in their body."

"As the maggot embryo matures within the human body, it is no longer satisfied with food. It is no longer content with secretly absorbing energy in a tiny parasite. It needs to replenish itself in the vast ocean. At this point, it begins to devour the human body, drawing most of the vital bodily functions to itself, as a way to store up its supplies during its ocean journey. Then, these terrifying little things will exert a kind of mental control on the person under the drowning curse, directing them to places with water, especially the ocean."

"Once they reach the ocean, the fat, maggot-like creatures emerge from their bodies. This burrowing action instantly drains all their energy, causing them to die and weaken within seconds. Then, these transparent, wicked little devils leisurely swim into the sea and begin their new lives." (End of Chapter)