I Became a Disaster-Class Newbie by Stealing Abilities - Chapter 64

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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 64. Festival of Two Colors (1)
Yes.
They’ve finally arrived.
The elven reinforcements had reached them at last.
And they were the elite—those versed in Spirit Magic and Elemental Magic both.
“Treat the wounded.”
“We’ll summon the spirits.”
Warmth wrapped gently around those who had been fighting with exhaustion.
“The… the pointy-ears?”
“They’ve really come to help us?”
The barbarians muttered in disbelief.
They’d heard talk that they would fight together, but…
They hadn’t truly believed the elves would come.
Even if support arrived, they’d expected at most a dozen or so fighters.
Protecting their own forest was far more important to them; they wouldn’t send their main forces.
That was what they’d believed.
Until just moments ago.
There were approximately two hundred elves now on the field.
They had brought even the minimum forces needed to defend the forest.
‘Good.’
Jusang clenched his fist tightly.
The Attack Party filled with nothing but tanks was gone.
Their available options had expanded dramatically, and tactics had become incomparably more varied than before.
[The skill Spirit Forest activates!]
Vegetation sprouted and grew.
“Kyaoooh!”
“Shiiit!”
Starting with salamanders and sylphs, countless forest spirits revealed themselves from within the woodland.
“Everyone, get up with your thighs locked tight! Or do you want to be remembered as cowards who couldn’t protect a single pointy-ear?”
“Move in formation with the barbarians. We’ll apply support buffs in sequence.”
The two races fought as one.
Something unprecedented was unfolding.
* * *
“That… that’s impossible. Why have the elves come to the forefront?”
Lucion cried out in disbelief.
A handful of elves scattered among the existing Attack Party could be written off as exceptions caught up in the chaos.
But for the elite composed of High Elves to reach this place was impossible.
Their duty was to protect the forest—something more precious than life itself.
Could it be.
“Because of that man?”
Lucion’s gaze turned toward Jusang.
From the incident at Hannam Starfield.
To the auction held in Yeouido.
The root cause of all the Immortal Cult’s troubles had entered his field of vision.
“Yeah. The Elba Union really is perfect for exterminating cults. Whoosh—whoosh! Let’s sweep them all away!”
Crack.
His body tensed involuntarily.
That loathsome smile was utterly repugnant to him.
Yet there was no time to hurl proper curses or vent the anger seething within.
“W-We’re being pushed back!”
“Your Eminence. You must retreat deeper into the Chapel!”
The dark knights withdrew Lucion to the Chapel—the last bastion.
Jusang watched as Lucion disappeared into the Chapel’s interior, wetting his lips with his tongue.
Hmm, so he really was planning to flee.
This battle was starting to look like it was coming to an end.
“Seol-gi.”
“Yes, Jusang.”
“Can you take over here for me? I think I need to have a serious conversation with the Cardinal inside.”
“Of course… Yes! Leave it to me.”
Baek Seol-gi looked at Jusang with admiration in her eyes.
Venturing alone into the most perilous place of all?
No one would say such a thing unless they had absolute confidence in their own strength.
“Please, enjoy yourself to your heart’s content.”
As always, it was enough to trust and wait.
And as always, he would deliver victory.
* * *
Click.
The master stepped into the Chapel.
Lucion and Boradoli were waiting inside.
“Crawling all the way here, are you? You’re like a leech, clinging to everything.”
“That’s precisely why I warned you. It would be relentless.”
“Shut your mouth! If you’d dealt with that bastard from the start, none of this would have happened!”
…….
Boradoli fell silent under Lucion’s barrage.
“Never mind. It’s my own fault for bringing along incompetent fools as guards. From now on, I’ll handle it personally.”
The Chapel was optimized as a stronghold for manifesting the Evil God’s diverse powers.
Especially if it worked in conjunction with Kabalda’s Temple, the Evil God’s law scripture, it could perform miracles beyond reason.
“That combination is certainly potent, I’ll grant you. If this Chapel had been built properly, even I would have hesitated.”
“What do you mean? Built properly?”
What did he mean, indeed.
“You bought Black Iron Ore from the merchants.”
The smile playing at the master’s lips deepened.
Lucion’s expression, by contrast, froze rapidly.
His entire body sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.
“How could you possibly know that I bought it?”
“I wonder. How indeed could I know?”
“You… surely you didn’t…?”
“That’s right. I’m the owner of that merchant house.”
More precisely, he’d established a merchant company composed of Heuk-bi and his subordinates.
And.
He’d ground fragments of the Ark into powder, mixed them with Black Iron Ore, then reprocessed the whole thing through the Yin-Yang Five Elements Art before selling it.
When used as the primary material in construction, it allowed for quite amusing tricks.
As if to prove the point.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Countless status windows suddenly began appearing.
[This building has 25 mortgages registered against it.]
-The soul of a debt collector clamors that our turn comes first.
[This building has no confirmed date of registration.]
-The soul of a con artist drools over such an appetizing prize.
[This building is not covered by guarantee insurance.]
-A soul of state-level authority declares it shall show this society the bitter taste of consequences.
[A substantial portion of this building’s materials are revealed to be made in China.]
-Gaaaaahhhhh!
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Lucion screamed as the Chapel filled with red tax lien notices.
Several structures built for worshipping the Evil God even collapsed inward.
“What on earth is all this?!”
What indeed.
This entire building had been fraudulent from the construction phase itself.
[The previous owner failed to mount proper legal defense.]
[Ownership of the Chapel is being forcibly transferred.]
And so the Chapel—the only escape route the Immortal Cult possessed—was seized entirely.
Let’s see.
Would “Eoeryeongcheong” serve as an adequate new name?
He’d gathered so many useful things, it would make a perfect warehouse for the realm.
Of course, that wasn’t all he’d gained.
[Plunder Condition: Thwart the dream of home ownership.]
[Reward: Randomly steal one unique ability, trait, stat, or memory item from Cardinal Lucion Dante.]
After the Archpriest, it was time to suck another drop of honey.
[You have plundered a stat!]
What he obtained this time wasn’t a Skill or Trait, but a Stat.
Just as he was about to feel a twinge of disappointment—
[You acquire +10 Stat in the target’s Anti-Magic Resistance!]
That thought reversed entirely.
‘That’s incredible.’
What was Anti-Magic Resistance?
It was the core among cores—the essential Stat that had allowed him to overcome countless crises.
Its usefulness hardly needed explanation; discussing it would only exhaust the tongue.
From his existing 52, it had grown by roughly twenty percent—in future battles, he’d feel that increase acutely.
Excellent.
Now that he had everything he wanted in hand, it was just a matter of finishing this.
Whoosh.
Jusang turned his gaze toward Lucion.
Lucion, no longer able to draw on the Chapel’s power, bore the unmistakable marks of panic.
“Fool! Kill that wretch at once! If you do, I shall forgive all your blunders until now!”
True enough.
He still had Boradoli left to contend with.
Even stripped of his Trait, the Ranker possessed formidable reserves of power.
‘Should I use Calamity Beast here.’
In fact, the timing was perfect—he had a new Trait begging to be tested.
But just then.
“Jusang.”
Boradoli spoke first.
What followed was a rather unexpected proposal.
“Leave me be, and I won’t hinder you either. Do with this old man as you please.”
“Fool! You treacherous scum—you dare betray the Cult!”
Lucion howled, but the jester paid him no mind.
Well, well.
He read the tide with admirable precision.
With victory slipping from his grasp, he was choosing the path most likely to keep him alive—a wise calculation.
“Not bad, but wouldn’t it be safer to deal with you here, rather than deal with your interference every time?”
“Perhaps. But even if the Chapel has passed to your hands, if I go all out, you’ll have your hands full.”
That wasn’t unfounded.
A Ranker’s reserves had always created variables of consequence.
“Besides, given the Trait I possess, I could transfer one of my items to you.”
Surely not.
“You obtained Binding Destruction?”
“I did.”
Boradoli nodded briefly.
How fortunate did one have to be to snag such a supremely rare Trait?
With Binding Destruction, one could unbind the restrictions on items already bound to someone.
The cooldown was brutally long, but the value more than compensated for it.
“That does appeal to me.”
This changed the calculus considerably.
“You damned wretches—you think you can scheme like this and walk away unscathed!”
“That’s what you’ve been doing all along.”
Those sacrificed in the name of serving the Calamity Beast.
In his mind’s eye, the dying words of the warriors who fought alongside him remained vivid and seared.
So then.
Slice.
It was time to repay that karmic debt.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Lucion’s anguished scream echoed throughout the entire Chapel.
* * *
The major incident at Twilight Hall had reached its conclusion.
While there were considerable casualties, hundreds of times that number had survived.
Jusang’s first action was to report the matter to the Empire.
More precisely, to cement his role in it.
-If that’s true, you’ve made an extraordinary achievement. We’ll dispatch an investigative team shortly, and we’ll need a detailed account from you at that time.
The official who received the call immediately reported upward to his superiors.
The Murim and the Immortal Cult.
Having thwarted the schemes of both factions, a substantial reward in Merit Points was virtually guaranteed.
‘I wonder how much they’ll grant me.’
The last time I rescued the Guild’s Scouts from the ghouls, the compensation felt rather modest.
This time, I’m hoping for considerably more generous terms.
Just then.
“Warrior Jeong! What becomes of our glorious hero if he abandons his post!”
“Have you forgotten that I cannot rise without at least 55,000cc of beer and two wild boars to devour!”
A band of thoroughly intoxicated Barbarians stumbled forward.
Their faces had turned as red as beets—they were well past the point of sobriety.
“In a moment, we shall stack the fallen warriors and kindle a grand campfire! We’re planning to roast sausages as well, so don’t be late!”
Rodbroc himself was equally flushed and animated.
Hm. I have no idea what sort of funeral customs these are, but….
Isn’t this bordering on desecration of the dead?
One would hardly be surprised if Valhalla itself were to strike them down.
“Don’t sully yourself with those crude brutes—join us instead. It will be far more rejuvenating.”
Shanes invited me to join a bath perfumed with fragrant incense and a wine party abundant with fruit flavors.
Truth be told, that does sound far more appealing.
“This is a sacred space for women alone. Men should go elsewhere and amuse themselves. And if you dare peek, you’ll die. Understood?”
“Lord. I’ll see you in a moment.”
Hong Su-a and Baek Seol-gi swiftly declared their territory.
Occasionally, Barbarians harboring impure intentions attempted to breach the forbidden boundary.
“Ahhhhh!”
“P-please, spare me!”
They met their end either ensnared in whips of flame or frozen solid as ice statues.
Naturally, among them were a few bearded female Barbarians who suffered unjustly.
“I must decline! I am a man, I tell you! Moreover, I have an obligation to remain at your side, Lord.”
“We’ll arrange a separate bath for you. Don’t worry about it. Tsk.”
Strangely, Heuk-bi and Boradoli were granted permission by Hong Su-a to enter the bathhouse.
No doubt owing to their idol-and-actor caliber of looks.
A cruel paradox: some men faced no objection, while others faced execution.
Even in so brief an episode, the workings of the world revealed themselves.
As the night deepened amid feasting and carousing.
I quietly excused myself from the festivities.
The reason I had come here.
‘Occupation’.
At last, it was time to verify it.

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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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