"Flesh Fungus is the most precious shapeshifting material in black magic."
The Cursed Doll explained, "With this, you could turn my dear husband back into a human... Uh, no!"
"If my dear husband really became human, he'd definitely be cursed to death by me."
"Wouldn't that make me a widow?"
The Cursed Doll shook her head repeatedly, deciding that was a terrible idea.
But Ethan looked puzzled, "The Flesh Fungus you're talking about... you mean this puddle?"
"Of course!"
The Cursed Doll walked over to the Ghost Ferryman's liquefied body. With her tiny hand, she scooped up a little as if digging into ice cream, opened her doll-like mouth, and took a bite.
Slurp!
"Not bad! Not bad! It tastes great!"
"It's been a long time since I've had such authentic Flesh Fungus. If I could eat this every day, I think I'd soon be able to control the prehistoric... Oops, wrong. My curse power."
"You can level up by eating this?", Ethan was a little surprised.
If it didn't look so disgusting, he would have been tempted to scoop up a little and try it himself.
The Cursed Doll let out a cold laugh, "What are you thinking? If you took even one bite, I guarantee you'd drop dead on the spot."
"Only beings from the Dark World can eat this. Humans will die from the slightest contact."
"Though with your condition, there's a certain chance you could become an undead creature instead. Want to give it a try?"
"I'll pass."
Ethan waved his hand and flatly rejected the Cursed Doll's suggestion.
The Cursed Doll stared eagerly at the terrified Flesh Fungus.
"Ethan, I still haven't settled the score with you for tricking me into finding the Many-Eyed Monsters."
"You think I don't know you talked my husband into making me go fight them?"
"I only went because I wanted to make him happy."
"So what are you planning to do about this..."
"All of this Flesh Fungus is yours."
Ethan answered without hesitation.
"And I won't tell the Scarecrow that this fungus can turn it back into a human."
"Deal!"
The Cursed Doll immediately agreed with delight.
There was one thing she hadn't told Ethan.
Flesh Fungus could also slowly help her become human.
The process was a bit slow, but fortunately, Flesh Fungus kept growing.
As long as she cut off a piece every so often and kept eating it over time, she would naturally take human form.
Then, if she also turned her beloved Scarecrow husband back into a human... wouldn't they be able to get married and have children of their own?
'Wow!'
'Just thinking about it makes life seem wonderful!'
["You two bastards!"]
Just then, as Ethan and the Cursed Doll reached their agreement, the Scarecrow suddenly appeared beside them.
["I treated you like my brother, and I treated you like my fiancee that I have to take responsibility for. And this is how you two treat me?"]
"Uh...", Ethan forced an awkward smile, "Well... I won't get involved in a fight between husband and wife. Guard Three got hurt, so I should go check on him."
["ETHAN!"]
The Scarecrow roared.
But Ethan immediately activated the Lord's Domain and ran away.
Now that the fungus was already in the Cursed Doll's hands, he had no interest in getting involved in the couple's business.
———
[Residential Building]
The second floor of Residential Building No. 2 had been converted into an infirmary.
Whenever the Medical Lady wasn't out on a mission, she was usually on duty there.
When Ethan arrived at the infirmary, he found that everyone else had already left.
Only the Medical Lady remained, folding the blankets on the hospital beds.
This left Ethan puzzled, "Where's Guard Three?"
"L-Lord."
The Medical Lady quickly turned around and saluted, "Guard Three suddenly recovered. I don't know what happened, so I had him go back and rest first."
"He recovered?"
Hearing that, Ethan asked again, "What about the other residents who went mad? Have they recovered too?"
"Yes, Lord. When the other residents were brought in, every one of them was acting like a madman."
The Medical Lady carefully explained, "I used all kinds of healing spells, even Purification, but none of them worked."
"But for some reason, not long ago, they all suddenly stopped attacking at the same time."
"Then they all returned to normal."
"And I asked them if they knew what had happened just now, but they all said they had no idea."
"I see."
After hearing that, Ethan more or less understood.
It seemed they had gone mad entirely because they had been influenced by the Ghost Ferryman.
Now that Ethan had turned the Ghost Ferryman into Flesh Fungus, his control had disappeared, and everyone naturally recovered.
"Y-Yes, Lord."
Whenever the Medical Lady spoke to the Lord, she always seemed especially nervous.
Ethan patted her on the head, "All right, all right. You don't have to be so nervous. Since they're fine, I just came to ask. You've already done a great job."
"R-Really?"
The Medical Lady's face turned red, and she immediately bowed to Ethan several times.
"Thank you for your praise, Lord!"
"Mm. Keep it up. I still have something to do, so I'll be going."
After confirming that Guard Three was all right, Ethan didn't waste any more time.
After the battle just now, he had realized just how inconvenient it was not having a weapon that could be used for both magic and melee combat.
Now he had to hurry back and fuse the Instant Cast Staff with the Godslayer Sword.
To create a brand-new magic weapon.