Observing all the kids gathered here, Orion realized that he had seen them before on the pirate's boat he had been on earlier.
'All of them are from the boat. What do they want from us?'
But he couldn't understand what Liira and his team wanted from them.
Further down the spacious area, Orion noticed a man of about the same age as him laughing as he played with a skeleton. He had black hair that reached down to his shoulders, but the most striking feature was the black flame mark etched on his forehead.
Playing with the skeleton in a twisted sense, the man seemed to be toying with them. Bits and pieces of the skeleton's remains were scattered around him as he watched the skeleton reconstruct itself.
However, once it was whole again, the man would break it once more, only to watch its reconstruction with an unsettling satisfaction on his face.
'So this crazy dude is responsible for that night.'
Looking at the man's antics, Orion thought that this guy had a screw loose in his head.
At this time, the blue-haired girl—Rina approached the crazy guy.
"Derek, here is another, and keep a close eye on this one as he appeared to have some strength, which caused us some losses."
Derek turned to look at Rina, then at Orion, but as his eyes fell on Orion, his body began to tremble uncontrollably. Black flames seeped out of him as he pointed accusingly at Orion.
"He is the one who destroyed my three cute special skeletons. I am going to kill him."
As he yelled, all the skeletons guarding the kids in the hall turned to look at Orion and made their way towards him.
Seeing this, Rina frowned.
"Stop it, Derek. You also know he wants them alive and not in pieces, right?"
Derek made a face as if he had been scolded by his parents.
"But what about my cute little skeletons? He killed them."
Rina had a headache thinking about how to deal with him when she came up with an idea.
"When our task is over, you can kill him anytime you want, but for now, don't touch him. Is that alright?"
Hearing her, he reluctantly nodded. Although he wanted to have revenge for his skeletons, he couldn't deny that he wanted to leave this place all the more.
"Alright, I'll leave them for now."
Satisfied with Derek's behaviour, she let Oreon escape from her force field.
"Take good care of him."
With that, Rina left Orion with the crazed maniac before leaving the huge tree.
Orion had heard everything they talked about, and because of this, he couldn't help but wonder how that skeleton seemed to be as cute as the man said. According to him, if anything appeared, it would be pure monstrosity.
Seeing Rina leave, Derek turned to look at Orion, his expression still gloomy.
"Go sit down and don't cause any trouble."
Having said that, he once again started playing with his skeletons.
Seeing this, Orion observed the spacious hall and found a place where no other kids were sitting. Reaching there, he sat down and opened his status.
[Name - Orion Darkwood
Rank - Bronze
Talent - Copy Curse - 3%
Curse - Null Body, Electrostatic Disruption, Dimensional Dissonance, Velocity Burst
Strength - 10
Stamina - 10
Agility - 12
Perception - 10
Constitution - 10
Mana - Nil (Due to the host's curse—Null Body, host isn't able to feel any form of mana. Please check your curse for more information.)
Skills - Nil (Due to the host's curse —Null Body, host isn't able to feel any form of mana. Therefore, the host is unable to use any skills. Please check your curse for more information.)]
Looking at his new curse, Velocity Burst, Orion smiled. He had copied this curse from Liira when she had taken him hostage.
[Velocity Burst – It afflicts you with an accelerated metabolism that cannot keep up with your speed. Each burst of super speed causes your body to rapidly overheat, leading to severe exhaustion, dehydration, and tissue damage. The more you push your limits, the greater the risk of internal combustion, turning your incredible speed into a deadly curse.]
Observing the details, he wondered how this curse would be useful for him since he didn't seem to have super speed.
'Let's activate this curse as well as Dimensional Dissonance.'
He thought as he mediated and let his dark thoughts and memories consume him. In no time, he once again appeared in an area full of darkness.
Looking around, he found what he had been looking for. Two orbs floated in the air. One shone as brightly as the sun, while the other radiated heat like fire.
Without wasting time, he went towards the two orbs, and as he closed the distance between them, the one that glowed like the sun started sahking erraticly before disintegrating like fireworks all around the imposing darkness.
Seeing this, he went close to the other one as well, and it resulted in the same way as the prior. It also disintegrated into particles scattered around the empty darkness.
When two orbs disappeared from the abyss of darkness, Orion found himself returning to his body.
'The sudden shift between the darkness and my real body is kind of abrupt.'
To him, it felt like he was in the domain of darkness in one moment, and at another, he found himself back in his own body. This sudden shift made him go momentarily blank for a moment, as he couldn't react to the change in his surroundings so fast.
Putting this thought aside, he pondered whether he should use his curses here or not.
On one side, he didn't want to draw attention, and on the other, he wanted to know what effects these two curses would have on him.
The feeling of having powers and not having knowledge of their uses made Orion really irritated. Especially in this situation where having extra cards would always be good for him.
'Dimensional Dissonance deals with space, so I shouldn't use it here. As for Velocity Burst, I don't know how it will affect me. But I guess it's time to find out.'
In the end, he decided to use his Velocity Burst to see how it would affect him.