I Can Copy Curses

She could feel his strength was the strongest of any individual she had come across in Aethelgard City. Although she wasn't sure of the exact rank of the old man, she had a feeling he would at least be at the gold rank. That was two whole ranks above her.

'I just need to get out of this room. With so much space outside, I doubt they will be able to find me. But now that they are so alert, how do I escape from here?'

She thought as she eagerly looked around for anything that could help distract them.

Meanwhile, Orion was looking at the whole situation carefully from the wall. He could tell that the girl in the mask hadn't moved at all, fearing it would alert the three individuals searching for her in the room.

'But that way she would soon be found out.'

He saw that the old man and the man and woman were slowly coming towards the area where the girl in the mask was standing, and if she were to not move from there, her fate would be doomed.

'Can I help her?'

Orion's mind raced with thoughts before coming up with an idea. He speculated that the reason she wasn't moving was because her movement would reveal her position to them, but what if he were to create a diversion for her? What if he could distract the old man and the other two?

'I hope she uses this opportunity to escape from here.'

He thought as he looked towards the two cube-shaped boxes he had seen when he came here. It was placed in the opposite direction of where the girl in the mask stood.

Activating the curse of Electrostatic Disruption, he used the power of attraction on those two boxes, causing them to glow in blue before they floated up and slammed on the wall where Orion was hiding.

Bang!—

All that happened too fast, from Orion's activation of his curse to the boxes slamming against the walls, didn't even take a second.

So, the old man and the other two didn't notice anything until the boxes were slammed against the wall.

"Who goes there?"

The old man shouted as he swiftly arrived before the two boxes that had now been glued to the wall.

Not long after, the other two also arrived there.

"How did this happen?" The armored girl asked as she looked around.

The old man's face turned ugly as he looked at the two boxes. If the gasping sound was an indication that someone other than themselves was here, then this was proof that there was indeed an intruder here.

However, as they busy themselves scouting the area around the boxes, the girl in the mask held her breath, ready to make an escape.

She understood that even if she were to tiptoe here, she would be detected by the old man, so the best she could do now was to make an escape as fast as she could.

Moreover, with them being distracted in the opposite direction of her, she felt her chances of escaping were high. She just had to be fast enough.

'Let's do this.'

She thought as she activated her talent, and like a flash of golden light, she moved towards the door.

In a moment, she crossed the door and exited the room.

Almost instantly, the old man turned around, sensing an overwhelming use of mana from his back. However, what he saw was only the residue of golden light left behind by the girl in the mask when she escaped.

"Damn, that person escaped. Claire, Jamie, go after that guy."

He shouted, looking at his son and daughter.

Jamie and Claire, the fat guy and the amored lady, nodded to the old man and hurriedly went to search for the girl in the mask.

Meanwhile, the old man stood there, pondering how someone infiltrated the castle when it was restricted by the Space Tear.

'Are there any loopholes in the restricted space? No, that shouldn't be. After all, the Space Tear is one of the many cosmic wonders. Then someone from the inside betrayed us?... Most likely. It seems I'll have to rearrange these guards in the castle.'

He thought as he exited the room.

Orion, who was the only one remaining in the room, sighed in relief that the girl in the mask had escaped.

'I should check out all the rooms; maybe I will find the Space Tear.'

He thought of sweeping all the rooms in the castle because, without the Space Tear, he couldn't leave this place. So, he felt that a thorough check was necessary.

Therefore, he moved through the walls and appeared in the next room adjacent to the previous one.

He didn't come directly into the room and was only scouting the room from its walls.

He saw that this room appeared to be some sort of storeroom, as there were only boxes as far as his eyes could see. Also, all of these boxes had dust settled over them, indicating they hadn't been moved in quite a while. Seeing that, Orion doubted the Space Tear would be in one of the boxes, but he still decided to check them out.

He appeared in the room and moved towards the boxes. As he reached closer, he dipped his head into one of the boxes, causing his head to disappear into it. He found there were indeed some things there, but not any he recognized.

He moved to the other boxes and did the same thing, but after searching almost all of these boxes, he didn't find the Space Tear. He had been searching for anything in the shape of a tear. Also, he had a feeling that if this Space Tear was as valuable a treasure as that girl said, he would recognize it just by looking at it. But he didn't find anything like that here.

However, he suddenly stopped when he checked one of the last boxes, for he found something very precious.

He saw a box full of cores, not just any cores. From the aura they radiated, he could tell they were silver-rank cores.

But his face soon became gloomy as he thought of a problem. He couldn't store these cores in his dimensional pocket since he couldn't access the other dimension in this restricted space.

So he thought about how he would carry them out. It would be very difficult to carry five of them while making an escape from this place. Moreover, if things didn't go smoothly, he might even have to fight, so carrying these cores wasn't a choice for him.

Most importantly, he couldn't upgrade himself here. If the upgrade procedure was anything like the last time, then he would definitely be found out.

'System, if I absorb all these cores, then will I get to choose when I want to upgrade or will the upgrade commence as soon as I absorb the mutagens in the cores?'

[Upgrade will commence as soon as the host absorbs all the mutagens.]

'All?'

He had an idea as soon as he heard the system.

'What will happen if I only absorb the four mutagens?'

[Upgrade will commence when the host absorbs the last mutagen.]

A smile appeared on his face as he heard the system.