I Can Copy Curses

Chapter 116: 116. Strongest Cowards

As Orion was walking down the path leading to the lair of other gold-rank monsters, he couldn't help but think something.

'Are there going to be more traps like the one at the entrance, the scorpidar lair?'

If there were indeed traps placed in each section of the area where a gold-ranking monster lay, then that would be very dangerous.

But it didn't matter to him.

Soon, he arrived at the entrance of the second gold-rank monster, but he didn't find anything here that would be identified as a trap.

As he walked inside the lair, he saw a huge snake-like monster's corpse lying on the ground. However, this snake had legs at the bottom and fins at the top.

Orion didn't know what type of monster it was, but it looked super strong to him.

Looking around, he noticed many human corpses littered like fallen leaves all around the area.

'There are more corpses here than in the previous lair.'

He thought and was about to get closer to the monster to check if it had the core inside or not when he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps in the distance.

'There is someone here?'

He was surprised because, according to him, everyone should be at the last monster lair hunting the gold-rank monster at this time.

'Let's see who it is.'

Moving towards the source of the sound, he saw a wounded man limping down the way.

He was coming from the direction where the core was situated, and most importantly, a skull mask covered his face.

Seeing the skull mask, Orion's pupil dilated, for the injured man was none other than the assassin who had tried to assassinate not one but twice.

However, he didn't immediately show up, and observed him from a distance.

He saw that the assassin was heavily injured. He was limping; blood flowed from his mouth, and all around his body he could see markings of being heavily hit by something. Because of it, the clothes he wore were damaged all over.

But it was at that moment that a tentacle came from behind the assassin and latched onto him.

"HELP!"

He screamed, plunging his sword into the ground, which only slowed down the tentacle from pulling him back towards wherever its body was.

"I know you are here. I smelled you when I came here. Help me, please, and I will tell you why we want to kill you."

Orion was shocked by the sudden turn of events and felt fortunate that he decided to hide in the other dimension when he came here and did not show up the moment the assassin walked in.

As for the assassin's plea, he ignored it without much thought. Although he was a little naive, he wasn't a complete fool that he would save an assassin's life who had earlier wanted to kill him.

Moreover, who knew if the tentacle would decide to target him if he were to get any closer to it?

"Help me. Please, help me."

The assassin desperately yelled for help, but his pleas were ignored. Not long after, his sword, which had been stabbed into the ground, started to loosen as the tentacle continued to pull him back.

A moment later, his sword didn't hold longer and was uprooted from the ground. As a result, the man was immediately pulled back by the tentacle and disappeared into the darkness of the cave in the distance.

'What happened in there?'

Orion was completely shocked by the tentacle. For it to pull a peak silver rank human as if he were a toy made him sweat in fear. The sheer strength and sudden appearance of the tentacle made him wonder what had happened deep inside the cave.

"Thank God, it's gone."

At that moment, Orion suddenly heard a low voice muttering to itself. The voice sounded so close to him that he flinched back when he heard it.

'I am not alone here.'

He was shocked to realize that someone else was here besides himself.

Turning around, he saw a figure seemingly detached from the wall.

The figure belonged to a male, and his body appeared as though he was made up of rocks and mud and very much resembled a golem.

After he fully separated himself from the wall and saw that no one was there, he touched the wall, causing his skin, which appeared to be covered in rocks and mud, to slowly disintegrate into powder, revealing his human skin hidden underneath.

At that moment, Orion saw the face of the man and was shocked to see him here.

Because the man hiding here was none other than General Dray.

Orion couldn't believe what he was seeing.

First it was the assassin, and then General Dray. These two were supposed to be the strongest in the group that went to hunt the last gold-rank monster, but the irony was that one fled only to be caught later by a tentacle monster, and the other hid behind.

He couldn't fathom what happened down there to cause two of the strongest people in Aethelgard City to run away like frightened children.

As he observed General Dray, he saw that he was also quite injured. Blood could be seen leaking out of his wounds, dying his clothes red.

At that moment, he also heard him talking to himself.

"Damn, how could an Apocalypse-level monster be here? Aren't they supposed to be the rarest of the rarest breed of monsters? And it's just a 3-star planet, but there are so many things going on here, and we happened to awaken the only Apocalypse-level monster sleeping here. Talk about luck."

General Dray muttered to himself as he anxiously took out the mana crystals and started to absorb them one by one.

"I will have to inform the family head; otherwise, all our efforts would be in vain."

After absorbing all the mana crystals he had taken out, he stood up and was about to flee once again when a menacing roar sounded.

"ROOAAAAR!"

The roar was so loud and powerful that it caused the entire cave to tremble. Small rocks and dust began to fall from the ceiling, and the ground where Orion stood began to crack.

And before either he or General Dray could react, the ground below them caved in, and from there came a humongous monster.

To Orion's horror, the whole section of the cave they were in could only fit the eye of the monster. The enormous, unblinking purple-colored eye glared down at them, its pupil dilating as it focused.

Orion's heart pounded in his chest as he realized the true scale of the creature they faced. The air grew colder, and an oppressive sense of dread settled over him.

Even though he was in the other dimension, he could feel the overwhelming pressure. The weight of the monster's gaze bore down on him, transcending the boundaries of space and reality. It was as if the creature's very presence could warp the fabric of existence itself.

However, what Orion failed to notice, perhaps due to the pressure of the monster or fear itself, was that the eye wasn't glaring at him but at someone who stood behind him.

"No…no…no."

General Dray looked at the monster in despair as he blankly muttered to himself.

He wanted to run—he wanted to escape at that very moment—but as the enormous eye locked onto him, he couldn't move. He felt as though his whole body was paralyzed, gripped by an unseen force that held him in place.