I Can Copy Curses

Once the crowd had dispersed, grateful and clutching their new treasures, Orion turned to Emily. "Alright, let's head to the boss room."

Emily nodded and led the way again, with Orion and Alice following closely behind.

As they walked, Orion's mind raced, thinking about the curses he had copied and the impending confrontation with Carl's group. He sorted through the curses and, to his luck, found three good ones. One of them was even a fire attribute curse, just what he needed.

'It's called Blood Combustion. With this, I don't have to worry about wasting a curse,' Orion thought as he closed his status screen.

The journey continued, and before long, they reached a large, imposing door adorned with intricate carvings and symbols. It was unmistakably the entrance to the boss room.

Many individuals stood beside the door, including Carl's group of four. But Orion wasn't worried about them. He believed they wouldn't be foolish enough to start a fight over what had happened, not in front of so many people. After all, it was they who fled, not the other way around, so they definitely wouldn't want to lose face by starting a fight here.

As he expected, they just glared at him as he arrived with Emily's group and didn't say anything else. Orion laughed lightly when he saw that, but he soon noticed them scanning the group as if searching for someone.

'It's good that I asked Alice to remove her mask after we left the cave,' Orion thought.

He had feared they might target her somehow inside the boss room, so he had asked her to remove the mask earlier. Now, seeing them looking for her, he felt glad about his decision.

As for Alice's face behind the mask? It was also a mask—a skin mask, to be precise. When he asked why she wanted to hide her face so much, she gave a strange answer: her face wasn't worth seeing by others. Beyond that, she stayed silent about everything else Orion asked.

But one thing Orion figured out was that Alice had a very big secret she was hiding, and this secret might be related to her face, considering how hard she had been trying to conceal it. Adding to that her hatred for Carl, he wondered if she was somehow connected to Carl's friends from the same organization—the Dungeon Management Association.

'Let's not dwell on this matter.'

Orion shook his head and decided not to think any further. At the end of the day, all of this was merely speculation, and who knew if any of it was correct.

Meanwhile, people continued to gather around the door of the boss room. Orion didn't know if there was a rule or not, but his sister mentioned the door of the boss room automatically opened when the number of people outside reached a sufficient number.

She also mentioned that if there were fewer people, the door would still open automatically, but it would be quicker and wouldn't take as long as it was taking now.

Finally, after about an hour, the huge door in front of them began to rumble before slowly opening, revealing nothing but a huge black portal.

Carl's group didn't hesitate and entered first, followed by everyone else.

"Let's go too," Emily said to Orion and the group behind her.

Orion and the others nodded and walked into the boss room along with Emily.

***

Inside the boss room was a very spacious area supported by four pillars far apart from each other.

At the center of the room was a giant wolf. It was twice the size of the wolves Orion had killed earlier and appeared to be golden in color. It was resting with its eyes closed, and even as all the people entered, it didn't open its eyes.

There was a reason for that. Surrounding the golden wolf was an area sealed by a special type of barrier where anyone inside couldn't see or hear outside the barrier.

However, the main function of the barrier was much more than that. When people entered this region through the barrier to kill the boss monster, they couldn't leave until the boss was defeated. This was true for every dungeon in the world.

Orion looked at the golden wolf and felt a very wild aura emanating from the monster. It was his first time seeing such a strong monster, excluding the anomaly of the Apocalypse-level monster he witnessed in Aethelgard City.

'It's very strong—at least stronger than Carl's friend who protected him.'

Although he couldn't gauge the exact strength of the golden wolf, he felt it might be stronger than that friend of Carl, judging by its aura.

At this moment, Carl stepped forward, sneering at Orion for a moment before turning to the crowd. "Everyone, we will need the help of every platinum rank expert to kill this golden wolf, and we might even need the help of gold rank experts. So be ready for any orders I give during the battle."

Many faces darkened at his words. Fighting against a boss monster was a risk they had taken when they chose to enter the boss room, but being forced to follow someone else's orders during the fight increased the risk of losing their lives.

That didn't mean these people lacked experience in killing boss monsters. No—almost everyone here had taken part in eliminating boss monsters in lower-ranked dungeons and understood the procedure.

Usually, a group of strong experts would take the lead and assign roles to people with special talents. Those with offensive talents would lead, followed by those with defensive talents to protect them. Ranged attackers would be stationed at a distance to strike when they got the chance, and healing-type experts would be on standby to heal the injured.

This was the common method used in every dungeon to kill boss monsters. In fact, it was suggested by none other than the Dungeon Management Association, so people all over the world had always used this method.

Therefore, they were bound to be upset when Carl announced his authority here.

Seeing the angry faces and clenched fists, Carl laughed and added, "As for those below the gold ranks, they will only be a burden for us in our fight against a peak platinum rank monster. So I suggest we throw them out of this boss room. What do you guys think?"

His words enraged even more people in the crowd.

"We can't do that."

"Everyone has the right to remain here. You can't order us."

"Yeah, we will also not listen to any of your orders. We should follow the rules of the Dungeon Management Association, yet you are trying to break those rules."

"We won't listen to you."

In the end, people couldn't take any more of Carl's orders and began refuting him.

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*Some gifts would be appreciated as well, but up to you.... *