I Became a Disaster-Class Newbie by Stealing Abilities - Chapter 61

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 61. Four Calamities, ‘Gunggi’ (3)
Warriors who had just completed their coming-of-age ceremony.
Their faces were flushed with excitement at the thought of their first proper battle.
Ju-sang approached them casually.
“Jung the warrior?”
“You were here too!”
Everyone cried out in surprise.
Well, he understood their joy well enough, but they’d have to set that aside for now.
“Can you all trust me and follow my lead?”
Trust and follow him.
There was no one who didn’t know how selfish and reckless such words could be.
Yet for these warriors, the weight of Ju-sang’s words carried a different gravity.
He was the driving force behind their breakthrough against the young ogre—that towering obstacle.
His leadership and warrior’s bearing were unforgettable.
But then.
“We have to go alongside the pointy-ears?”
“That’s a bit….”
The moment they heard they’d have to fight with the elves, their warmth turned to ice.
Sigh. Nothing is ever simple.
He couldn’t fathom why these Barbarians were all so stubborn.
“As you all know, for a warrior, strength is the greatest element to appeal to the opposite sex. If we claim the greatest glory in this battle, we can become an alpha male.”
He pulled the males aside separately.
To explain why they should accept this mission.
“You mean—I could lose my virgin status?”
“That’s right! It’s possible!”
“Eat meals with women, hunt together too?”
“Of course! You could stroll intimately through the Swamp hand in hand! Perhaps you might even shave each other’s beards.”
“S-shave? That’s something only married couples do, isn’t it?”
“If you’re a strong man, it can happen.”
“We follow Jung the warrior!”
One team of fools recruited, then.
Now came the turn of the female warriors.
“I’m deeply grateful for the proposal you made to me before, to fight together. But there was a reason I had to refuse all of your offers.”
“And what was that?”
“Money. I didn’t even have enough to buy a proper first-date meal. Isn’t that shameful for a warrior?”
On their first meeting, he couldn’t afford chicken breast and premium protein drink—only fatty lizard steak and a cup of cold water.
Even if you stretched it three for 1,500, it was unacceptable.
Worse, eating that scraps would cause muscle loss.
For Barbarians, this was clearly a line never to be crossed.
“So I had no choice but to refuse. But this time, I’ll earn great glory in battle and book a top-tier restaurant for our first date! So help me!”
“Yes!”
“Let’s earn! Money!”
“For our first date!”
The female warriors too burned with determination.
Thus an Attack Party was formed, driven by visceral instinct.
Soon, the monster army led by Gunggi’s split body reached the Barbarian Territory.
“Kraaagh!”
“Grawww!”
[The ogre activates the skill Berserk!]
Crash-boom!
The thick wooden door crumpled as if it were paper under such brute force.
It had to be stopped.
It had to be.
Splinter!
Thud!
Its resistance to physical damage was so extreme that ordinary blades couldn’t wound it.
And it wasn’t just one—dozens came swarming in, making matters exceedingly difficult.
“Chieftain! The main gate is collapsing!”
“Ortukan and Yaisa are wounded and pulling back from the line! The shamans are exhausted trying to purify that mist!”
This is hard.
No, it goes beyond that. He was overwhelmed.
The self-assured atmosphere of the beginning had vanished.
Now he was fighting just to hold the line with everything he had.
Then, at that very moment.
Clatter-clatter-clatter!
A group of warriors drove into the monsters’ flank.
It was a most unusual combination.
“Kra-ha-ha! Power surges through my veins!”
“Look well! I am Makthar!”
Leading the charge were Barbarians armed with shield and axe.
Their distinctive durability and area aggro drew every eye to them.
“Your Highness! Leave these to me!”
The Black-haired Female wielded Talismans, continuously buffing the Barbarians and maximizing their breakthrough power.
“Mm. It certainly does make hunting easier.”
A white-haired girl unleashed a blizzard, slowing the movements of nearby monsters.
“Aha-ha! Compared to getting here, this is absolute heaven!”
The Red-haired Woman used a whip wreathed in flame to cut down her enemies.
“We’ll provide support!”
Elves in the rear unleashed Spirit Magic and arrows.
And the one who stood out most of all was, of course…
Whoosh!
A single warrior moving between vanguard and rear, making a profound impact.
[The skill ‘Black Sun’ activates!]
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
An area technique that erupts where monsters cluster most densely.
Watching dozens of them burn to ash at once was a spectacle unto itself.
Thud! Crack!
Powerful individual specimens like Ogres were singled out and systematically crushed.
Swordwork as fluid as flowing water, and a radiance pouring forth like moonlight—even Rodbrock, watching from the sidelines, found himself swallowing hard more than once.
The numbers were only dozens…
Yet solid.
As if to say: this is what a true attack party looked like.
“These young warriors who’ve just completed their Coming-of-age Ceremony show promise?”
“Was the strength of the Elves always this formidable?”
“The humans hold their own well!”
Among the Barbarians watching the secondary force in action, cries of admiration erupted.
“Jung Ju-sang. Is this what you were trying to tell me?”
Rodbrock’s gaze wavered.
Humans, Barbarians, and Elves woven together as one, each contributing their strengths.
Truly, it inspired nothing but awe.
* * *
Thanks to the secondary force’s efforts, momentum swung decisively in one direction.
The greatest reason was that Baek Seol-gi, who had slipped away mid-battle, had disposed of Gunggi’s duplicates.
“Was it difficult?”
“He used strange abilities and was troublesome, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Except…”
“Except?”
“I let one get away. It suddenly fled into mist, so I couldn’t pursue it.”
Hmm.
Two of Gunggi’s duplicates reduced to nothing in three minutes.
Even seeing it again, it was absurd.
Though, unlike Gunggi, a minor calamity, Baek Seol-gi was a body destined to become a great calamity in the future.
Still, here a whip worked better than a carrot.
“You remain rash and careless. Had it been me, I would have dealt with all three outright. The fact that you couldn’t even manage that—doesn’t it make all the internal injuries I sustained rescuing you feel wasted?”
Intentional reproach.
He made sure to mention the internal injuries he’d suffered dealing with Goldo, driving the point home repeatedly.
“I-I’m so very sorry.”
Baek Seol-gi lowered her head, completely cowed.
Her face was tense with anxiety.
She was terrified she might be abandoned.
“Your swordwork has become much smoother. That’s proof you’ve worked hard in the time I haven’t been watching. You’ve done well.”
“……!?”
You can manage a word of praise even while criticizing, can’t you?
So be it.
“Thank you… I’ll work even harder.”
A smile of pure joy bloomed across Baek Seol-gi’s face.
Moments later, Jung Ju-sang and the rest of the Attack Party approached Rodbrock like victorious soldiers returning home.
Rodbrock’s expression, usually composed and resolute, had grown visibly conflicted.
His entire worldview—that strength and muscle were all that mattered—had just crumbled. Of course he’d be troubled.
“Do you understand now? The kind of strength your enemies possess, and the limits your warriors face?”
“Somewhat… I think I’m beginning to.”
“Then will you do as I say?”
“Before that, if you’d hear my proposal first!”
“Go on, then.”
Something felt off about this.
The heat radiating from Rodbrock’s entire body was far too intense.
“Become one of the elders of our clan!”
An immediate refusal.
I had no desire to live on high-protein meals alone and repeat endless heavy-weight high-repetition sessions in sweat-drenched gyms every day.
“Or, I could have you marry my daughter! She seems quite taken with you as well. We could hold the wedding right away.”
“Oh my, Father. How embarrassing!”
A shy laugh from a muscular girl(?) standing 2.5 meters tall.
The veins writhing beneath her skin were not earthworms—they were nearly the size of baby snakes.
By the standards of this place, she was supposedly a great beauty.
Damn.
“…I must respectfully decline.”
I couldn’t even meet her eyes.
“First you dislike this, then you dislike that, yet expect to hear only your terms? I too need a clear cause to unite my people with these pointy-eared ones!”
A cause, then….
“To be honest, I’m not sure.”
What that cause might be.
Home.
A place our distant ancestors built with the devotion of their entire lives.
A place where generations yet unborn will live.
At the same time—a land where a whole people has taken root, the sanctuary where they rest their hearts.
“Is it not cause enough to protect it?”
Not race or history.
Not vengeance or hatred either.
There was no nobler purpose for which to shed blood and stake one’s life.
“So I ask you: what is the reason you have taken up arms?”
[Lord Stat has been activated!]
“Is it mere pride? Or is it to preserve your honor?”
[All on the battlefield turn their attention to your words!]
Thump.
The hearts of the watching warriors beat as one.
A threat unlike any they had faced before.
Thump.
And an alliance unlike any they had dreamed.
“There could be no better battlefield to reach Valhalla.”
Two peoples become one as they fight.
And together, they defend.
The home of us all.
“A storm shall sweep into the hall of gods!”
“Ooooh!”
“Sound the horns!”
Warriors thrust their shields and axes high into the sky.
Praying they would bring no shame before the gods of Asgard and the warriors of our people.
“Jung Ju-sang. You are truly a great warrior and leader.”
Rodbrock had made his choice.
From this moment forward, he would set aside all the past that had divided Barbarian and Elf.
* * *
At the same moment.
The Immortal Cult, in pursuit of Jung Ju-sang, received unexpected news.
“They say they’ve passed through Barbarian Territory.”
“What? I thought we couldn’t even catch a glimpse of them. So the idiots went to a place crawling with brainless savages.”
A sneer played at the corners of Lusyon’s mouth.
He’d expected them to attempt something to cross the Swamp.
But to think they’d treat that as a viable plan.
There was no strategy more foolish than this.
“When we pursued them a few hours ago, they only had one Tank.”
“They must have judged it impossible to reach the Swamp without reinforcing their forces.”
That much was certain.
To survive, a Tank’s role mattered more than a Dealer’s.
Especially when facing someone like Gunggi, who possessed skills with such devastating damage potential.
But still, none of that mattered.
“The stubborn Barbarians won’t cooperate with them, and even if they manage to recruit a few, they can’t cross the Swamp with just Tanks.”
The Barbarians’ shamans were few in number anyway, and they wouldn’t be sending them out of their sacred grounds.
In other words.
They were nothing but a disorganized rabble masquerading as a proper Attack Party.
“Send Gunggi.”
Now that their location was pinpointed, nothing remained but the hunt.
Conveniently, there was only one path from the Barbarians’ sacred grounds to the Swamp.
“Yes, sir!”
A Priest who received the order moved at once.
It was now a foregone conclusion that all those troublesome fools would die.
Yet one thing gnawed at him.
‘That looked like the Gate of Avici….’
Lusyon turned over in his mind what had happened just moments before.
A gate emanating an indescribable ill omen, and the grotesque creature that emerged from it.
It bore far too much resemblance to the Gate of Avici he’d read about in the texts.
Surely not.
The sacred relic sealed in the Cult’s treasure vault for centuries couldn’t have suddenly vanished.
Managing the treasure vault was Lusyon’s exclusive prerogative among the Cardinals—no one but the Master himself could access it.
So it was reasonable to dismiss it as mere anxiety.
“How proceeds the construction of the Chapel?”
“It’s nearly complete, but a problem has arisen.”
“A problem? What do you mean?”
“The Black Iron Ore we were supposed to procure from the Labyrinth—all of it has disappeared. It seems someone made a massive bulk purchase… but their work was so clean that it will take time to trace them.”
“What? How can this be?”
Supply was plentiful and demand nearly nonexistent for such material—he’d given it little thought.
Now, at the final hour, a major complication had emerged.
“Fortunately, we’ve found an alternative.”
We’ve managed to make contact with a merchant company roaming throughout the Labyrinth.
“If you ensure their survival in this mist and provide appropriate compensation, they say they’ll hand over all the stock they have.”
“What are the conditions?”
“They wish to meet Cardinal Lusyon directly and conduct the transaction in person.”
“What gall—as if small-time traders like that have any right to make demands of me.”
Normally, he would have crushed them with overwhelming force.
But regrettably, time was equally pressing on his side.
The deadline he’d set with Murim for releasing Gunggi into Gangdong District was nearly upon them.
“An escort will be necessary.”
What danger could there be from mere merchant rabble?
But then again, one never knew what might happen.
The problem was that most of the Rankers had been deployed toward the Swamp for the mission….
It was then.
“Allow me to handle it.”
A handsome young man with coarse, violet-hued hair stepped forward.
It was Boradoli.
“Ah, yes. You were here.”
Lusyon’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“When you said you’d possessed the Jester’s body… I’ll admit, I wasn’t pleased. That fellow was extraordinarily capable—the skill with which he orchestrated Empire knights and completed missions was nothing short of remarkable.”
“…….”
“But what can be done? This too is the will of the Evil God.”
“I shall do my utmost to fill the void left by the Jester.”
“Good. Yes, that’s how it must be. If you continue to fail at your duties, how could you possibly maintain an executive position?”
This was a warning.
A threat to strip him from his position if things went wrong.
Or perhaps something far worse awaited him.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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