I Can Copy Curses

As Orion waited, he checked the curse he copied from her.

[Curse: Lord of Darkness]

[Description: She was the Child of Light, but her life has always been full of darkness. Therefore, this curse allows her to embrace the darkness forever so that she can become the Lord of Darkness and abandon the light—the hope.]

'What the! Such a strange description for a curse.'

He became interested when he saw how different the description was from all the curses he had ever copied. Moreover, it didn't provide any information about the side effects and only mentioned that it would allow her to embrace the darkness forever.

'What an unusual curse!'

From the description, he understood that her talent was something called Child of Light and her curse was the exact opposite—Lord of Darkness. This made him wonder how someone could have such an opposite curse compared to their talent. Usually, curses were side effects of the talent in one way or another, but her curse was not related to the overuse of light magic.

'But there is the phrase that says, where there is light, there will always be darkness. Is her talent based on that?' Orion wondered.

However, he didn't dwell on it and activated the curse in the abyss of darkness, trying to use it on his right hand. Like a flame, a black mass of light lit up around his palm.

'Is this the darkness element? What does it do exactly?'

Orion understood the practicality of fire, ice, and lightning elements because they were basic elements, but he had no idea about the darkness element. The only thing he did understand was that the darkness element could be very useful at night. Other than that, he didn't know how this element could be used in combat or other situations.

He stood up and went outside the cave. He didn't want to wake her up in case he messed up something with the darkness element.

'Let's see what it can do.'

Orion thought and increased the energy output of the curse, causing the dark flames in his hand to become even denser and slightly harder.

'It became slightly solid.'

He found it strange that the darkness element in his hand became a little solid when he increased the energy supply.

Curious to see how solid he could make it, he immediately increased the energy even more. A black glove-like structure covered his entire hand.

Orion was surprised and understood one thing about this darkness element of his—unlike any other element, the darkness element could be shaped into any form very easily if there was enough energy to support it.

Thinking of this, Orion was reminded of Carl's dark flames. He recalled how easily they transformed his arm and how he was able to form a huge fist entirely made up of dark flames.

'Were his dark flames a part of the darkness element too?'

He became excited at the thought of this feature of the darkness and looked at his hands again.

As he thought, the glove in his hand soon transformed into a sword—a pitch-black sword.

Orion touched the blade of the sword and was surprised to find it hard enough to go toe-to-toe with platinum-rank experts.

'This is great!' He became excited at the thought of the many ways he could use this curse.

Although he had only found the hardening ability of the darkness so far, this ability could be the most versatile depending on the situation.

'Also, this is perfect for what I am going to do tonight.'

Orion smiled evilly, thinking of how this curse could save him from many problems that could follow him. With this curse, he didn't have to worry about those problems.

'Let's practice more and get used to this curse.'

He thought and began transforming the darkness into various forms like a sword, shield, cloak, mask, and even a full-body armor.

"Hahaha, with this curse added, it would be difficult for even platinum-rank experts to kill me."

Orion laughed, feeling that this curse—Lord of Darkness—was very practical and strong, and he had only discovered a fraction of its potential.

'I need to practice daily with this curse to fully unleash its potential,' he thought and went back to the cave to wait for her to wake up.

Three hours later, the masked girl opened her eyes.

"Are you okay now?" Orion asked as soon as he saw her eyes open.

The masked girl immediately sat up in alarm when she heard Orion and took out her sword.

"Wow! It's me—Orion—the one who saved you just now, remember?"

Hearing Orion's words, she finally came to her senses and recalled everything that had led to this moment.

A long sigh escaped her mouth as she sat down, leaning against the wall, and turned to Orion.

"Thanks for saving my life," she thanked him.

Orion nodded and chuckled. "It's no big deal, but you should not fight someone to the death when you are so weak. Otherwise, it would only be you who dies."

He added, "Especially when you are outnumbered."

The masked girl didn't say anything for a moment before she uttered some barely audible words, "I couldn't control myself when I found out he was coming to this dungeon. It was a rash decision on my part."

Orion looked at her and wondered what could have happened between those two to make her so hateful towards Carl.

"So, what happened? Why did you want to kill him?" he asked.

No reply came from her for a long time before she said quietly, "His family murdered my family. Everyone died except me—died protecting me. In the end, I became the lone survivor of my family."

Upon hearing her, Orion finally understood why she had so much hatred towards Carl.

'Carl's family is really trash,' he thought with hatred.

They were also coming for his family, and God knew what they would do when they arrived.

'That's why I have to kill them,' his urgency increased now that he knew Carl's family could kill others without batting an eye.

'Should I tell her about what is going to happen to Carl's group?' Orion thought but soon shook his head.

He really wanted to tell her that they wouldn't remain alive for long, but he couldn't risk it even if he knew she wouldn't tell anyone. He just couldn't. His family was at risk, and he wouldn't gamble their wellbeing.

Orion looked at her and saw that she had her head down.

"What's your name?" he asked. He felt a little strange that they had gone through so much, yet she hadn't told him her name.

And yet again, no answer came from her.

Seeing that, Orion shrugged and was about to ask something else when he heard her say her name.

"Alice."

"Alice? That's a nice name," Orion nodded and asked. "So, how are you now? Will you be able to move?"

Alice nodded and stood up. "Are we leaving?"

"Yeah, we should probably look for the boss room. Everyone should be there by now," Orion said.

"Alright, let's go then," she said, walking out of the cave.

Orion shook his head at her. He had asked her if she was fine, and she immediately left for the boss room.

'This girl is very difficult to understand,' he laughed lightly and followed her out of the cave.