Ethan dug out a popular science book titled "Understanding 100 Types of Dark Creatures" from beneath the pile of thick documents on the table, the author August is said to be an experienced Demon Hunter who lived in the fourth epoch, a time when the Evil God was most active, and was honored as a walking encyclopedia.
The encyclopedia man unfortunately met his end while searching for the 101st dark creature, at the age of 43.
For dark creatures like werewolves, which are considered riff-raff, the book provides a very detailed interpretation.
Ethan quickly found the page about werewolves, "Werewolves are followers of the Hunting Goddess Cynthia, who is one of the seven Middle-Level Gods."
"Half good, half evil, right?"
Ave responded without looking up, "However, the Divine Hall of Hunting has long lost its reputation, while more and more dark creatures follow Her."
"This is due to the way the followers practice their faith."
Ethan had flipped through every book in the town related to Divine Spirits, although no one had ever truly seen the appearance of a god, various pieces of evidence indicate that divine spirits are real, and they are the key to unlocking the extraordinary path.
Most scholars believe that the power of divine spirits far exceeds human imagination, making their stances meaningless to discuss, and thus can only distinguish the factions of divine spirits via the morality of their followers.
Middle-Level Gods do not indicate the strength of power but rather that the followers of the Hunting Goddess might become righteous Demon Hunters or degenerate into dark creatures like werewolves, which feed on humans.
Ethan condensed the parts of stories and research in the book into a simple theory, "Followers of the Hunting Goddess believe that humans can gain power from beasts and even monsters, thus they developed the 'imitation' trick, gaining certain abilities from beasts by imitating their ways of life, yet this has sparked internal debates among followers—what level of imitation is truly necessary?"
Theoretically, the more thorough the imitation, the faster one enters the extraordinary realm, this is the consensus of Demon Hunters.
But on a critical issue, two schools of thought have emerged with great disagreement, "For instance, should they, like beasts and monsters, eat humans?"
In the past two years, Ethan has read many books on mysticism, almost all mystical systems have reached a subtle consensus on the act of eating humans.
Once you eat humans, certain irreversible changes will occur in your body and soul.
Just the definition of "changes" is different, some believe it's retribution and curse, others think it's growth and evolution.
"So, werewolves are actually followers who have eaten humans."
For the sake of accuracy, Ethan supplemented, "These are the original werewolves, but according to academic research, werewolves also have reproductive abilities, they can give birth to cub werewolves."
Ave seemed pensive, she took off the collar and held it in front of her pale neck, her eyes emitting a faint green glow, not forgetting to ask Ethan's opinion, "Do you think this collar looks good?"
The golden hair above her head expressed intense emotions, gesturing toward Ethan as if conveying a message with all its might—can't you just confiscate that lousy collar from her?
Ethan received the signal, continuing to explain, "In terms of pure power levels, werewolves are indeed much stronger than Demon Hunters of the same rank, but the downside is that they gradually lose human reasoning, driven by instinct."
Ave's complexion froze, as if she'd been electrocuted, tossing the collar aside.
She confirmed, "You mean werewolves become dumb?"
"To be precise, they completely lose the ability to think."
Ethan seized the weakness of the God of Truth's followers, who would rather die than lose wisdom.
The golden hair was quite satisfied, nodding repeatedly, even giving Ethan a thumbs-up.
Ethan redirected the discussion back to the topic, saying, "From the perspective of imitation learning, werewolves cannot be trained, even forcing a collar on them would only domesticate them into huskies."
"Huskies?"
"It's a creature I've seen mentioned in an ancient book, a dog with great destructive power, capable of easily tearing down houses, thus used as siege weapons during the second epoch."
"I've heard the theory that dogs are domesticated wolves."
"If you suspect someone captured a werewolf, kept it in the mountains as a monster for breeding, then that person must lack theoretical knowledge, because once the werewolf wears a collar, it strays from imitation learning and can barely grow anymore."
Ave, however, stole a glance at the collar, demonstrating the embodiment of the term 'persistent thief' through her actions, "I suspect that this collar can turn people into dark creatures."
Ethan was startled internally, if the werewolf in the mountain was converted by a cursed item, wouldn't that mean it had no family from the start?
But at least... the fireball skill which sent it off was warm, letting it see its grandmother at the end of its life.
And now, Ave seemed eager to try, very keen on testing the collar's effect.
Miss Ave, a pure follower of the God of Truth, is the type of woman who can't resist pressing a red button on the wall just to see what it does.
"This is a cursed item, it twists the human body, damages the soul, presumably above rank three..."
Rank three cursed items?
No wonder she is so eager to try, items like this are rare in a remote town like Ximu Town.
Ethan glanced at the collar dismantled and laid out on the table, this inconspicuous thing surprisingly had a higher rank assessment compared to Ave herself.
Ave mourned, "I'll write a letter to the people from the Reception Bureau, if all goes well, the containment team will arrive at the town in three days, and now I need some of your help."
He could only recall a parchment book he'd once read titled "Encyclopedia of Cursed Items," authored by the previous director of the Cursed Items Reception Bureau, who became director in his thirties, handling over a hundred cursed items, a young man with a limitless future.
Passed away, at 33, died during a containment failure.
The director proposed his insights into cursed items in the book, most curses require a specific user to exert their full threat, thus curse ratings are evaluated comprehensively based on the maker and threat levels, he inferred that Ave's mention of "above rank three" likely refers to the maker's level of the collar.
Ethan silently recalled details from the book.
Once a rank three cursed item is activated, it would cause great harm to towns, often resulting in dozens of casualties.
Ave suddenly said, "Bring me a pen and paper."
Ethan saw this as getting involved in curse assessment work, in order to ensure the safety of transport and containment, they must record the properties of cursed items as much as possible.
"Werewolf Collar (pending), estimated curse level, above rank three."
Ave took the paper and pen, seriously drafting the beginning, she then discussed with Ethan the details of the collar's return to the town, "The three Hunters didn't notice any abnormalities while bringing the collar back, but after meeting you, their desire to wear it gradually lessened, from now on, every answer you give is of paramount importance—Ethan, when you saw the collar, were you also attracted to it?"
"Not at all."
Moreover, Ethan suspected that from the moment Ave got the collar, the golden hair on her head had been scolding her, he even wondered if that tuft of golden hair might itself be some sort of cursed item.
Ave nodded, continued writing diligently, "Influence correlates with the number of companions, not significantly with extraordinary ranks, recommended transport numbers: two or more."
"Next, we address the actual effects of the cursed item."
She bit the pen in her mouth, suddenly having a bright idea, "Ethan, why don't you try wearing it?"