I Can Copy Curses

"They aren't here?" one of the old men asked, surprised that the four hadn't left the dungeon yet.

"Look, the portal is still active. That means there are people in the dungeon. It must be them," another old man said, pointing at the glowing portal atop the hill.

The first old man nodded and said with some dissatisfaction, "They are sure taking their time exploring the dungeon."

The second old man shrugged. "Young Master Carl's identity makes him arrogant, and Young Master Ethan's background is even more mysterious than Young Master Carl's, so we can't do anything about them." He shook his head helplessly.

"Huh, I know," the first old man nodded, still dissatisfied.

Meanwhile, the third old man, who appeared even older than the other two, noticed the peculiar atmosphere in the crowd.

"Something is wrong here," he muttered, looking at the anxious expressions of the people in the crowd.

He could see that they were panicking for some reason, their eyes constantly darting in the direction of the old men.

"Huh? What happened, Zim?" the second old man asked when he heard Zim.

"Lary, don't you see the strange expressions in the crowd?" Zim signaled with his eyes.

Lary frowned upon hearing him, then turned to look at the crowd and saw the anxious expressions.

"There is definitely something wrong here!" Lary exclaimed.

The first old man also looked grim. "You are right. These people are acting strange."

He thought for a moment, his expression darkening. "Could something have happened to the young masters?"

Zim shook his head. "That would be impossible. With their strength, they should be invincible in the dungeon."

He was very sure of that, especially since he had experienced Ethan's strength firsthand.

But at that moment, Lary's trembling voice rang in his ear.

"L-look!!"

Zim turned to look at where Lary pointed, and his expression turned aghast. "No, how could this be possible? How could the dungeon be closing down when our young masters haven't left yet?"

"It's over, it's over, it's over for us," the first old man muttered in despair as he watched the glow of the portal disappear.

"The dungeon is closed, but the young masters haven't left," Lary said, still in shock, unable to process what he had just witnessed.

As if recalling something, he turned his attention to the crowd, his expression desperate. "They—they must know what happened to them."

Zim's eyes turned sinister as he heard Lary and turned his attention to the crowd. "Yeah! Them! They might know something."

He was about to go and interrogate them when the first old man said, "Maybe the young masters already exited the dungeon while we were in the shuttle and went ahead to explore the Heaven City."

A glimmer of hope appeared in Zim's eyes as he heard him.

Lary also nodded, believing that to be the case.

"Let's go and make sure that's the case," Zim said, immediately flying and landing before the crowd, followed by the other two old men.

The people in the crowd had their backs drenched in sweat, their hearts beating like thunder when they saw the three old men appear before them.

It felt like their doom had come, seeing the desperate expressions on the three old men's faces.

"Tell me, where are Young Master Carl and the others?" Zim asked, his expression hopeful as he looked at the crowd.

But what he got was pin-drop silence. Nobody spoke, not even a word. All the people had their heads down as if they had done something guilty.

The three old men's hearts turned cold when they saw the crowd's reaction, and a feeling of unrest arose in their hearts.

"Have they already left?" Zim asked again.

But still, no one said anything.

The three old men looked at each other and saw the horror in each other's eyes. They understood that something might have happened in the dungeon that took the lives of their young masters.

In fact, they had already suspected something like that when they first saw the crowd's expressions.

But they refused to believe it, thinking it was impossible for the young masters to die in a platinum-rank dungeon.

However, the truth was in front of them, and the only thing left was someone's account of what had occurred in the dungeon that led to their young masters' deaths.

"No, this is impossible," the first old man shook his head.

He looked at the crowd, his eyes red with anger, or perhaps with grief at the loss of their young masters.

"You!" He immediately went ahead and grabbed the first man he saw. "Tell me, what happened in the dungeon. If you dare to conceal even a little thing, your entire family will be exterminated."

The man trembled when the old man caught him, so scared that tears streamed down his face. The poor man was one of the few silver-rank experts who survived the dungeon, only to be caught by a threat even bigger than the dungeon.

"I-I will tell you, I will tell you everything," he immediately agreed, his voice trembling with panic.

"T-the boss of the dungeon was a golden wolf of peak platinum rank..."

The more the man explained, the more serious their faces became until he reached the part where the hooded man appeared and killed Carl's group of four.

At that point, the three old men's faces turned red with anger, only to be replaced by despair and hopelessness.

They really died—killed by a man wearing a mask.

But they soon calmed down. They understood that they had to investigate the situation carefully, and panicking wouldn't help.

The silver-rank man then went on to explain everything the hooded man blabbered when he was killing them, to the point of repeating his exact words.

The poor man was so frightened that he spilled everything from start to end without leaving anything out.

"A man wearing a white mask, in a complete black cloak of energy, with strength beyond diamond rank, could control black flames and...no one could touch him?" Zim once again recalled the description of the hooded man and looked at the other two old men.

"Lary, Dane, do you know anyone with this description?" he asked.

Lary and Dane both shook their heads.

"I also don't recall anyone like this man," Zim said grimly. "Also, how did he enter the dungeon with such strength?"

Lary shook his head. "This matter is beyond us now. It's better if we inform the Archons and the Dungeon Management Association about this."

"Yeah, we can't slack off when something this big has happened," Dane said, agreeing with Lary.

"Alright, let's go and inform them first," Zim nodded and turned his attention to the crowd. "Dane, you stay here and investigate these people about the hooded man. After that, go and inform Emperor Maximus and Kane about this."

He added at last: "Tell them the Archons will be visiting the Magus Kingdom in a month's time."

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Also, I was hoping you could leave some comments or reviews to let me know your thoughts!

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