I Can Copy Curses

After some time, as he moved forward, he suddenly heard the sounds of battle nearby.

Curious, he immediately changed direction and headed towards the source of the commotion.

***

Not long after, Orion arrived at the edge of a gorge where the sounds of battle grew even more intense.

He immediately activated the curse of Dimensional Dissonance, slipping into his own dimension and disappearing from sight.

Orion suspected that the intense battle below involved platinum rank experts, given the ferocity of the sounds. The number of such experts could be counted on one hand, with most belonging to the Dungeon Management Association.

He wanted to be as cautious as possible, fearing that even from a distance, they might sense his presence.

\'They shouldn\'t be able to find me now,\' Orion thought as he moved closer to the edge of the gorge and looked down.

\'Who are they fighting?!\' He exclaimed in surprise at the scene unfolding below.

In the gorge below, the rocky terrain was dotted with four individuals: Carl Rollins and his three friends. This didn\'t surprise Orion, but what did was that they were brandishing their weapons at seemingly empty air. However, he could hear the sound of their weapons colliding with something unseen, indicating they weren\'t just swinging blindly.

\'What are they fighting against?\' Orion wondered as he descended into the gorge and approached them.

Upon arriving, he focused on their surroundings but still couldn\'t see what they were battling. However, he noticed blood splattering whenever they swung their weapons.

\'I see,\' he thought, realizing the nature of their opponent. \'An invisible enemy or a wolf with the ability to become invisible.\'

Orion nodded at his conclusion and watched with patience.

Since they couldn\'t see the wolf or wolves—Orion couldn\'t tell if it was just one or many—they were having a hard time. These wolves must be at the peak gold rank, and Carl\'s team, despite approaching platinum rank, struggled against them.

\'This should be a pack of wolves,\' Orion thought. Wolves typically roam in packs, so he speculated that Carl\'s team was attacked by a group of invisible wolves. Even a single invisible wolf should be no match for Carl\'s team given their strength, but a pack would be a different matter altogether.

As he observed their fight—more accurately, their weapon swings at seemingly empty air—he got a general idea of the strength of someone at the platinum rank. With his current strength, Orion believed he could only barely match someone in the early stages of platinum rank, or mid-stages if he used three or four curses in Curse Transformation mode.

Platinum rank was a universal divide between general fighters and experts; the difference between peak gold rank experts and early platinum rank experts was immense. An early platinum rank expert could easily handle 100 peak gold rank experts and still have energy to spare.

Orion speculated that there must be a reason beyond talent mastery for why Astral, Elyn, Erick, and other geniuses at the peak of gold rank hadn\'t broken through to platinum rank. It seemed too coincidental that all these geniuses were stuck at the same rank for so long.

He also believed that whatever was preventing these experts from leveling up could be the reason behind the huge power gap between peak gold rank experts and early platinum experts.

As Orion pondered this, he noticed Carl\'s group\'s battle was nearing its end. Three of the four had ceased attacking, leaving only Carl still swinging his sword.

A moment later, Carl unleashed a powerful strike, and the gorge fell silent.

Orion narrowed his eyes at the scene, sensing the strength of Carl\'s final attack. He could tell it was significantly stronger than any of his own.

However, one thing puzzled him throughout the fight: the wolves hadn\'t roared, not even when they died. This made him wonder if they were truly fighting wolves or some other creatures in the dungeon.

Just then, he heard them talking.

"These shadow wolves are really a headache when they attack in packs," Carl complained, shaking his head as he wiped blood from his sword.

"What can we do?" Damian laughed helplessly, glancing at the red particles of the wolves that were now barely visible. "They\'re just like that."

"So, Carl, you still haven\'t told us why you brought us to the Magus Kingdom," one of the other two asked, his carefree demeanor evident as he leaned against the wall with his arms folded.

"I\'ll explain when we leave this dungeon," Carl replied, his voice carrying an unusual tone of respect, which he rarely showed to others.

The carefree guy shrugged. "I\'m getting bored here. I might just leave if you keep me in suspense."

"No, no. I\'ll tell you right now, Ethan," Carl said, suddenly flustered at the thought of Ethan leaving.

"Haha, only Ethan can make you look like that," laughed the last member of the group. He was a heavyset man with dark red hair so dark it might be mistaken for black.

"Ogos, you\'re right about that," Damian agreed, chuckling along with him.

"Tsk," Carl clicked his tongue in annoyance, then turned his attention back to Ethan. "Do you know what our family\'s strength is?"

Ethan nodded. "Devil flames."

Carl\'s expression turned serious. "But what you don\'t know is that my family is cursed."

"What do you mean?" Ethan asked, puzzled. Damian and Ogos also looked at Carl with curiosity.

Carl took a deep breath before speaking. "My family recently informed me that there\'s a dark flame burning deep underground in our mansion. If that flame were ever to be extinguished, our family would be destroyed, one way or another. That\'s the true nature of the Devil Flames."

"Are you serious?" Damian laughed lightly, treating Carl\'s words as a joke. "Does your family really believe in such things?"

Carl shook his head, his expression serious. "At first, I didn\'t believe it either. But when my father told me about another family in the same situation, I had no choice but to believe."

"Which family are you talking about?" Damian asked, now intrigued.

Carl glanced at each of his three friends before answering slowly, "The Elven Family."

"..."

A heavy silence fell over the group when Carl mentioned the Elven Family. No one spoke for a moment until Damian\'s trembling voice broke the silence.

"A—are you serious?"

Carl nodded, his expression dark.

"Then why are we here?" Ethan, who had been silent until now, asked.

Carl replied, "My father told me there are three cursed families: the Elven Family, my family, and the last one is called the Darkwood Family."

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