I Can Copy Curses

Orion bathed in the glory of winning the assessment. Although it was an easy win for him, what he did was almost an impossible feat for all the people out there.

Hearing all these people cheer for him made him feel something. Five years ago, maybe these people would have been the ones who mocked him, but at present, they all cheered for him.

This made him wonder if the phrase 'Time Changes' was meant for a situation like this.

Soon, his father, Estor, and Claose came to the stage.

Although they appeared calm, their hearts were raging with storms. They just couldn't understand how Orion could defeat everyone so effortlessly. As he said previously, no one could take a move from him; all of them were defeated in one move.

This made the trio of Magi Kings wonder how strong Orion really was to be able to do something impossible like this.

"Orion, was it?" Estor patted him on the shoulder. "Good job. I believe it won't be long before you are listed in the elite rankings and I have a feeling your ranking would be very high—at least in the top ten."

"Yeah, you are very strong." Claose also nodded from the side. "But you are also too arrogant and one day this arrogancy will make you fall. So you should know what to do."

Orion bowed down to them in respect.

"Thanks for the praise and the advice, Magi Kings."

At the same time, Barion looked at the son and his youngest son with complex expressions.

"Orion, I hereby declare you the leader of this time's young generation," he said with a smile. "Though you should be aware, it isn't permanent yet. Tomorrow morning, you will be assigned a mission. Complete it and make your spot as the leader permanent."

"I understand, father." Orion also bowed down to him.

Barion nodded and turned his attention to the bustling crowd in the arena.

"The assessment has come to an end and all you know is the winner. But I will announce it one last time. The winner of this time assessment is Orion Darkwood."

Everyone in the crowd once again erupted as Orion's name was heard. They just couldn't get enough of this. However, all good things must come to an end and so did this.

***

In a large hall full of weapons hung on the wall around it, seven silhouettes stood there, facing one silhouette.

They were the eight participants who had participated in the assessment earlier.

As Orion looked at them, he noticed various expressions on them—neutral, jealous, not convinced, and many more—but he didn't care about any of them. He was feeling very frustrated right now.

"I don't care if you are convinced or not but I am your leader right now so do as I say and I won't be judging. But if anyone of you were to go against me or not heed my orders during the mission, I wouldn't care if you were my cousin brothers or sisters. I will punish you as I wish. I hope you keep this in mind tomorrow."

Orion's face appeared dark as he warned them. Though the reason behind his foul attitude wasn't them, the fact that the mission he was going to do tomorrow would require him to take them with him. They were his team and he was their leader. Whatever the mission he would get tomorrow, he would have to complete it with his team; otherwise, he would fail automatically.

He didn't like this type of thing at all. He thought that if the mission would require only him to do it, he would definitely complete it without any problem but with them, the situation became very complicated.

'But I can at least make use of it to copy some curses.'

He thought excitedly as his eyes turned to look at each of them.

"If any of you want to say something, say it right now."

Hearing those words, Tray clenched his fists hard. He wanted to say many things—he wanted to refute him, to insist that he wasn't convinced. But he could only look at him, unable to utter a single word. It wasn't out of fear; deep down, he knew that even if given a second chance, he would probably be defeated by him in a single move again—the result wouldn't change at all.

For the first time ever in his life, he was feeling an emotion he couldn't describe. It was a tumultuous mix of frustration, sadness, and deep-seated anger at his own strength that he once was proud of.

As for others, they also wanted to say something but they hesitated.

One minute passed and nobody said anything.

Seeing that, Orion smiled and said to them,.

"You guys can leave now but be ready tomorrow morning. I will brief you all about the mission tomorrow as well."

They nodded and they were about to leave the hall when Orion stopped them.

"Before you leave, let's shake hands on the making of our team."

He held his hand to the first guy who was closer to the door—Monty. Though Orion had already copied his curse, he would still have to shake hands with him.

Monty hesitated but he eventually gave in when he saw Orion glaring at him. He shook his hands with Orion and quickly left the hall.

Likewise, everyone shook hands with Orion. Some didn't like it, while others didn't care but they all eventually shook hands with him before they left.

However, Orion's face turned dark once again as they left.

This time it was because of the curses he copied just now. While copying their curses, he noticed that none of them had curses that sounded very good. All names were like Shadow Slave, Wind Destroyer, Blood Vines, etc.

'Let's check them; maybe just the names were bad.'

With much optimism, he checked all the curses. As he did, his face shifted from dark blue to pale white until he finally sighed.

'Damn, not one of them had curses that are useful to me.'

He cursed silently, thinking about those descriptions of the curses he copied.

'But I guess this is also good in a way. I don't want to reach the limit of the number of curses in iron rank so easily.'

He thought that since he had six curses at iron rank and his talent mastery was still only at 12%, he would need a long time before he could make his talent mastery reach 20%. In that amount of time, he would surely come across many good curses.

So, with that thought, he calmed down and thought of the problem he just noticed.

'Why is my talent mastery increasing so slowly?'

He remembered he barely did anything in the bronze rank and his talent mastery shot to 10%.

'I guess the higher the rank, the more difficult it is to increase the mastery of the talent. In my case, there hasn't much time passed; that could be one of the reasons why my talent mastery hasn't increased.'

He speculated. Though he wasn't sure about this, He would have to see the change in a week before he could assume anything.

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