I Can Copy Curses

"Look at that wolf! And someone is riding that wolf here."

"That-that\'s the Young Master Loren from the Grimwolf family!"

"Yeah, only they have the ability to tame these wolves."

"Look behind him! The kid with silver hair... he-he is from the Silverflame Family! Young Master Fixen."

"Are they also here to try their luck?"

"I don\'t know but I heard they are very competitive with themselves. Young Master Fixen Silverflame and Young Master Loren Grimwolf are both in the 5th and 6th ranks of the elite ranking, respectively. So, they always compete with each other for every little thing."

The crowd began to murmur and hum in excitement when those two kids made their appearance in the hall. The atmosphere shifted from tense curiosity to eager anticipation, as everyone seemed intrigued by the sudden arrival of two geniuses from the Magi families. Whispers and excited chatter filled the room, creating a lively buzz around the unexpected entrants.

One wore brown, fully covered clothes and rode a wolf comfortably. He had long black hair down to his shoulders, and his face bore the intent of a wild spirit. His piercing eyes scanned the room with predatory sharpness, and the crowd couldn\'t help but be captivated by his commanding presence.

The other wore red clothing and walked side by side with the former. He had short silver hair with locks of red at the sides. His face exuded confidence and arrogance, a sharp contrast to the wild intensity of his companion. The two of them together created an imposing and captivating presence, drawing the crowd\'s full attention.

Orion, too, was surprised to see geniuses from Magi families here. But thinking about it, he felt that it was inevitable. The allure of being a student of Sword Sage was all-time high, even in the seven Magi families.

But what made him pay attention to the two of them was that they were both in the elite ranking and were quite high at that.

He had heard of rankings in the Magus Kingdom. His mother told him that there were three types of rankings that were popular among the folks of the Magus Kingdom.

The first was the elite ranking, where geniuses from all over the Magus Kingdom were ranked based on their strength. They were young geniuses and their ages had to be below twenty or equal to twenty to be eligible for the ranking.

The second one was the emperor ranking, where the strongest beings of the Magus Kingdom were ranked. This one didn\'t have any age limit and anyone could come under this ranking if they had the required strength.

Number one on the emperor ranking was Kane Maximus, Sword Sage.

The last was the celestial ranking. This ranking ranked the strongest individuals from all over the three domains: Magus Kingdom, Human Federation Realm, and Martial Domain.

Sword Sage, who ranked number one in the emperor ranking, ranked 4th in the celestial ranking. There were three other people stronger than Sword Sage in the whole three domains but Orion didn\'t know their names or anything about them.

His information only revolved around Sword Sage.

That was why he was surprised when he heard these two were in the elite ranking and they were also quite high at that.

\'Silverflame Family, huh?\'

Orion remembered his mother telling him that their family\'s biggest enemy was the Silverflame family. According to her, something had happened a long time ago that caused a deep and bitter feud between the two families. The details were shrouded in mystery, but the animosity had persisted through generations, shaping much of their interactions and conflicts.

\'I don\'t care about anything for now.\'

He thought as he waited for the lottery to start.

Fifteen more minutes passed when an old man made his appearance.

Everyone respectfully gave way to him and soon he appeared in front of the huge spherical ball.

Orion saw that the old man who arrived before them carried a staff with him. He had long white hair and his beard almost reached his stomach.

"Everyone, I will be hosting the lottery this time," the old man said, his eyes looking at everyone in the hall.

"For those who don\'t know about the lottery and its rules, let me enlighten you," he continued. "The lottery was designed by Sword Sage himself. He wanted to accept a student but his requirements were very high, prompting him to think of some other ways to go about accepting a student. Therefore, he came with this lottery."

He paused for a moment to let everyone digest what he just said before continuing.

"There are exactly one million tickets on that blue sphere and only one of them had the symbol of the sword on it. You would think if the probability of winning is only one in a million, then someone should have already won the lottery considering there are tens of thousands of people trying their luck every month."

He smiled, looking at their puzzle faces as he mentioned the query before them.

"But there is a trick that increases the difficulty of winning to a whole new level. To win the lottery, one would have to draw the card with the sword symbol ten times consecutively and there is only one ticket with the sword symbol that would be replaced on the sphere once again for the next try if one wins. This made the probability of getting the ticket with the sword symbol even lower.

Hence, there hasn\'t been anyone who has ever won this lottery, even though this lottery has been here in the Magus Kingdom for years now."

Orion hadn\'t known about this either. He only had information that there were two ways to become Sword Sage\'s student. One was winning the lottery and the other was kind of losing the lottery with the worst luck possible.

\'I hope he also explains this too.\'

He only knew the basics about the latter and it was mentioned that if winning required one to have the best luck possible, then losing also required one to have the worst luck.

The old man looked at the dispirited new faces who had come to try their luck and laughed lightly.

"Everyone, listen to me one last time," he said loudly, drawing their attention.

Seeing that everyone turned their heads to him, he began what he wanted to say to them.

"There are two ways to become the Sword Sage\'s student. The first is to have the best luck possible and draw the ticket with the sword symbol and the other option is to have the worst luck ever in the whole universe."

The old man paused for a moment to gather his thoughts when he saw the sneer on the faces of the regulars in the Starforge but he shamelessly ignored their faces and continued with his explanation.

"In the second way-"

BOOM!

The old man couldn\'t complete his sentence because of the sound of a sudden explosion. The ground shook violently, and a shockwave of dust and debris swept through the hall, causing everyone to instinctively duck and shield themselves from the blast.

\'Damn, I was so close to becoming his disciple but this bad luck backfired.\'

Orion cursed the seven generations of his luck. He had originally wanted to use this worst luck of his for his own good, but it seemed fate or his worst luck had other plans.