I Can Copy Curses

But he just couldn't stay with them after what he had done to them, so it was his only choice.

Did he run away from them after what he had done?

He indeed ran away. Although he deluded himself with all that crap about stopping General Dray and his team, deep down, he knew all of that was just him finding an excuse to run away from them.

As for why he did that, it was just that he couldn't face them anymore. Every time he looked at their faces, the guilt clawed at him harder, twisting his insides into a knot.

'Let's not think about this anymore.'

Orion thought as he increased his pace.

Along the way, he found even more rotten corpses of the scorplings. But seeing them, he remembered the ones they had faced before—the ones he had killed using his Curse Transformation.

What he couldn't understand was how they were still alive. These corpses here were proof that all the scorplings in this section of the cave should have been killed by General Dray's team when they passed through here. So, how did the ones that attacked their team remain alive?

'It's quite strange.'

He thought as he carefully strode along the path, mindful of the poisons left behind by the remnants of the scorplings.

Not long after, he arrived in a huge section of the cave. Looking around, he found that this area resembled some sort of ruin.

There were drawings and symbols carved on the walls all around the ruined structure.

But what drew his attention was the huge corpse of the scorpidar in the distance. It lay on the ground with a dark green liquid surrounding it from all directions.

He noticed that its two pincers were missing from its body, while a gaping hole was present on its head. There were also many light injuries covering its whole body, where traces of dark green liquid could be seen.

'So, this is the first gold rank monster guarding the core.'

Orion thought as he observed the corpse of the scorpidar.

At that moment, his eyes caught the attention of the corpses of humans not far away. Previously, he didn't notice those corpses because they appeared to have almost melted in the poison of the scorpidar.

There were around ten human corpses, and seeing them, the question that had been in his mind forever now resurfaced.

'How did they come here?'

He searched for a whole day in the mirror world but failed to find the correct mirror leading to the outside, and now there were human corpses in large numbers. Seeing them made him wonder if they had interpreted the trap in the wrong way.

Maybe they didn't find the correct mirror because it simply didn't exist and there were other ways to pass the trap.

'I will have to ask them if I see them, then maybe...'

He thought of asking General Dray's team when he had the chance, thinking it might reverse their situation.

He soon moved closer to the corpse of scorpidar to check if it had the core or not; however, as his luck would have it, there was a big hole in its stomach area, and it appeared the core had been taken away by the members of General Dray's team.

'That's a bummer, I guess.'

After observing the corpses of the scorpidar and the humans, he checked on them for the last time to make sure he didn't miss anything before he turned his attention to the carvings etched on the walls of the ruins.

He noticed that these carvings were made as if they were carved into the wall itself, but when he looked at them, they shone with a dark red light for some reason.

The carvings included symbols of men holding swords, a very large octopus-like monster, and a bright red sphere.

They were arranged in a very peculiar order. First was the red ball of the sphere, then the octupos-looking monster, and at the end were the men holding swords.

Observing them carefully, Orion felt that the situation here was similar to that of the carvings in the painting, with a little difference.

For example, the bright sphere might represent the core, and the octopus-like monster might be the fifth gold rank monster. Last but not least, the men holding swords could represent General Dray's team, who were hunting all those gold-rank monsters to get to the core. The men depicted in the carvings surrounded the monster, with the core in the center, while they stood in a circular position.

If there was any difference between the carvings and the situation here, then that would be the absence of the other gold rank monsters from the carving. It only depicted one monster, whom Orion assumed to be the fifth gold-rank monster. The first four were missing for some reason

He couldn't understand why these carvings were drawn here and why it appeared as though the people in the carvings were also after the core of planet Sadola.

'Did the Valen Family get the idea of stealing the power of the core from this carving?'

He speculated that because he had never heard of anyone doing something like that. Stealing the power of a core hadn't been in the history of the three domains, as far as his memory could remember.

'They must have thought that since people from ancient times were after the core of the planet Sadola, there must be something special about this core. However, since they couldn't take the core itself from Sadola, they are now trying to steal all the energy inside of it.'

He felt that his speculation was more or less true. They must have accidentally stumbled upon the lair of the scorpidar and could have seen the carvings etched on the walls here, leading them to the idea of stealing the energy of the core.

But the greater question was why the people from ancient times would want to steal the core of planet Sadola.

Did they not know that without a core to sustain itself, a planet would just die?

Orion highly doubted that. He thought that since they knew about the core, they must have some information about its importance to the planet.

That again begged the question: why—what was their motive behind stealing the core?

'I guess I will find out later.'

Orion thought as he looked at the carvings.

After checking everything here and making sure he didn't miss anything else, he decided to head deeper into the path.

'Wait a minute.'

However, at that moment, he suddenly had a thought regarding the trap—the mirror world and the carvings drawn here.

'Were they the same person who put the trap there and drew the carvings here? If so, then why put the trap there? ... Were they afraid other people would notice the core and build a trap there to not let any people pass through it?'

He felt that it was most likely true. But then again, how did General Dray's team pass the trap if it was meant to not let anyone pass?

'So many questions and little to no answers.'

Orion shook his head and moved forward deeper into the cave.

He also activated the curse of Dimensional Dissonance and moved to the other dimension while he headed forward.