When the two hunters were busy burying the corpse, one of the crows under Ishar's command had sneaked up on them and pecked them a little and licked the spot.
Effectively transferring some of it's body fluids into them. Making them carriers of the curse.
Of course, they didn't take in too much of the fluid, thus the curse would take longer to kill them.
But under Ishar's control, the black blotches inside their bodies were rapidly multiplying and even undergoing drastic change.
"Not enough" Ishar stood next to the two of them.
His soul was still incomplete, and he didn't actually understand what he was doing so his control over the germs could only be described as 'weak' at best.
If his skill of manipulation and control was strong enough, he could've controlled the curse inside these people's bodies like he did with the crows and completely take control of them.
"Baby steps, success doesn't come overnight" Ishar approached one of the two people.
Because of the curses's interference, the white mist surrounding his body had become extremely weak.
So Ishar was able to easily neutralize it with his own white mist and expand his field of cognition into the man's body.
After so many days of being supplied the cold aura by the crows, combined with the white mist he absorbed from the man who died earlier.
Ishar's field of cognition had increased together with the healing of his soul.
It was currently able to reach 10 meters in the air, and about 5 centimeters inside a humans body, this was because the man didn't have the white mist protecting him.
The temples were the point of origin for the white mist.
So when Ishar injected his field of cognition inside the man's head through his temples, he lost his life in his sleep through brain-death.
To be more precise, Ishar overloaded the mans brain causing it to shut down.
Because of dying in his sleep, the man let out a huge amount of white mist. Ishar began to absorb this white mist.
As his own white mist expanded, he felt a sense of assurance, followed by an influx of the man's memories into Ishar.
Ishar silently stood still and slowly digested it, carefully rejecting the unimportant parts of the memory.
As expected, this man's memories and emotions were much easier for him to take in than the first man.
This was because at the point of death the main feeling that this man felt was confusion and loss.
Ther was no feelings of anger or hatred, and thanks to his experience during the first time, he managed to prepare himself and didn't get affected by these emotions.
"Let's continue!" sensing his soul fortified a bit more, Ishar approached the other man who was infected by his curse and poured his now-more-powerful interference force into the man's head.
"Interesting..." He stopped himself from killing the man right away.
It seemed that due to his soul having healed some more, Ishar could faintly sense the man's consciousness the same way he felt the crows' wills.
However, this consciousness was a lot more powerful, as such Ishar couldn't control this person at all, the most he could do was suggest a command or send a message.
He then proceeded to send a few words into his mind, causing the man in his sleep to frown and roll over, proving that his words did indeed have an effect.
"Very good, this way manipulating them would be a lot easier" thinking that, Ishar mercilessly killed him, absorbed the white mist and left the scene.
When dawn came and the night guard woke everyone up, they finally found out about the death of these two people.
Standing in front of the bodies, everyone was terrified, altogether, in their hunting party of 6, 3 people among them had die. That was half of their total number.
"What's the cause of death?" Strigoi asked with a scared expression, the village's hunting party hadn't suffered such heavy casualties for over a dozen years.
He was worried that it might somehow be his fault. And the others would blame him. Since this was his first time with them.
"I think... We've been cursed by Pilgrim Remember the crow that flew close to us?"
One person covered their nose and lifted the dead corpses' clothes using a cloth, showing a few large black spots on their face.
After some hesitation, he pulled his dagger and cut off a small bit of the skin to see some sort of black and red liquid slowly spilling from the wounds.
It had a pungent smell so they all covered up their noses and named away.
At this point, one of the 7 crows flew across the sky and cawed as if to assure them of their theory.
It caused everyone to feel a chill running down their spines.
"Are we really being watched by Pilgrim, the God of Curses!?" someone scowled and commented.
"Yesterday, those two buried Nick and now they're dead. It must be Pilgrim, the legend states that any man killed by Pilgrim is to be left alone for the crows. Burying him is a taboo to Pilgrim and he will haunt you."
"Enough!" Gran loudly cut him off: "We have to leave this place now, but we'll continue the hunt. Before confirming that this curse isnt affecting the rest of us, we can't return to the village."
Seeing the distressed hunting party, Gran sighed, if only one person had died, out wouldn't be too unusual.
He would be able to use his authority to calm them down. But now, two more people suddenly died from some unknown curse, causing everyone's minds to veer towards Pilgrim.
The current state of their faith towards the Gods was extremely shallow, but these faiths were deeply ingrained in every part of their culture.
Even if they normally didn't believe it, when they saw it happening in front of their eyes, it was hard for anyone to dismiss it.
"Very good, the plan is going accordingly."
Ishar was levitating not too far away from these people, observing their reactions.
Their mental state was now greatly affected. Fear was such an absolute weapon.
Now the only reason they could appear to remain calm at all was due to Gran giving them a false sense of security.
But the seeds of doubt have already taken root in them and it will only grow stronger.
"All I need to do now is dispose of this leader. After multiple consecutive blows like this, they will thoroughly break down."
The reason why Ishar did not kill the leader Gran the night before was simple.
People don't completely break down after a single setback, but rather multiple consecutive blows each leaving them silver of hope before completely destroying it.
"At that time, they will be completely under my domination, the same as my crows."
Although he didn't admit he felt great joy from manipulating others.
It was also this joy that made him realize, his need to become stronger, only then could he be the one manipulating and be manipulated.
"It was due to being weak that I was manipulated and fell as low as I currently am! I have to become even stronger and manipulate even more things, only then will I no longer be manipulated!!!"
If you didn't want a sword pointed at your throat, the only choice was to be the one gripping the hilt.
Ishar looked at the rising sun and new he needed to hurry.
If he left them for a bit longer, Gran might be able to weaken the influence Ishar had on them.
And at that point, he would have to start again from the beginning.
Under the sunlight, his white mist was quickly dissipating, but Ishar didn't care.
He had absorbed the white mist from two dead people, and had several 'fat' prey before him just waiting to be devoured.
He couldn't wait any longer, once he killed Gran, he would be able to subdue this group of people, and use them to take over the Weyian tribe.
At that point, he would have the support of many humans who would provide him with more prey.
They would provide him with white mist and breed more crows, creating more mutated crows and allow him to manipulate even more things!