I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 13

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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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Chapter 13. The Reality of Unease

“Th—that is, yes, quite so.”

The knight answered absently, his expression vacant.

Thirteen was, by any measure, an age that ought to be protected.

The notion that Krasus could have experienced World Erosion before this made no sense at all.

At that, the knight beside him gave his arm a sharp jab.

The intermediate knight corps of Valheim was, to all intents and purposes, the bottom rung of Valheim’s hierarchy.

This was a power struggle between the direct bloodline.

If they inserted themselves, blood would surely be spilled.

“Ah, ah ha ha! A jest, nothing more!”

And so the knight hurried away from Krasus with a forced laugh.

Velokin, meanwhile, fixed Krasus with a dark and searching glare.

Velokin could make no sense of the situation.

‘How is he so composed?’

The Krasus before him now bore no resemblance to how Velokin had been when he first entered World Erosion.

He should have been flustered, stumbling through blunder after blunder.

Instead, Krasus was dispensing counsel to the knights themselves.

‘How in the world did that half-wit….’

Krasus had become someone entirely different from before.

For reasons he could not name, it gnawed at him relentlessly.

In that moment, Krasus and Velokin’s eyes met.

Krasus smiled at him.

As if to say: are you truly my equal?

Velokin bit down hard and turned his face away.

For some reason, he could not bear to meet Krasus’s gaze directly.

He had believed Krasus would remain beneath him all his life—a half-wit, nothing more.

Yet in a single day, everything had changed.

Deep within Velokin’s darkness, a question stirred to the surface.

A question, perhaps, that had always been there.

Wasn’t he the biggest fool in Valheim?

If Krasus grew as Charlotte had, eventually climbing higher still…….

Then the one at the very bottom would be…….

With each new doubt that surfaced, Velokin’s teeth ground together.

‘No, no, no!’

Velokin pushed harder through the Swampland.

His agitation was written plainly in every movement.

Velokin had always been worse than Charlotte, and that inferiority had left him unstable, perpetually envious.

Ironically, the only anchor he had for his sanity was none other than Krasus himself.

Someone beneath him.

And each time he pressed down on that someone below, Velokin found his mind at ease.

But that someone below was now surging upward.

As though about to pierce through him and climb still higher.

The reason Velokin had brought Krasus today was to confirm he remained beneath him.

Yet a far more terrible reality was now tightening around his throat.

If Krasus rose above him.

There would be only one person left at the bottom in Valheim.

Velokin’s mind spiraled.

The thought of ‘what if’ kept gnawing at him.

“Brother, Velokin.”
“What? Huh?”

The sudden voice startled Velokin, and he lifted his head.

Krasus pointed ahead.

“I think we’re getting close to where the master is.”

Velokin heard this and belatedly turned his gaze forward.

Just as Krasus said, the color of the Swampland was gradually darkening to black.

The dangerous aura that hung over it made clear this was indeed where the creature dwelt.

“Hah, easier than I expected. Looks like Krasus has good luck. My first time was much harder.”

Velokin forced down his churning thoughts and spoke with forced ease.

As though Krasus’s first encounter with World Erosion were nothing special at all.

And indeed, not just Velokin but the knights shared the same thought.

“It seems there are no other Erosion Species besides the master, at least not nearby.”

The knights then spoke as if reassured.

Given the nature of the Swampland, combat would be extraordinarily difficult.

They seemed relieved that there were only insects at most and they’d managed to pass without major engagement.

“Which is exactly why we need to be even more careful.”

But Krasus cut sharply across the knights and Velokin.

As Velokin’s brow furrowed and the knights turned in puzzlement, Krasus spoke as though teaching them something obvious.

“Which means the master is dangerous enough to earn a 3-Star Rank even without any Erosion Species.”

And the moment they heard what came next, everyone went rigid.

The implication was clear: the master they now faced was an Erosion Species capable of maintaining World Erosion alone, without any lesser species.

Caution was indeed necessary.

But Velokin was displeased that Krasus had contradicted his assessment.

“In any case, you worry too much, boy. He’s only 3-Star at best. Why are you all letting a kid’s words shake you so?”

Even as Velokin himself was clearly the one most shaken, he chided the knights.

Then, keeping one hand on the sword at his hip, he began striding forward into the depths with long steps.

The knights had no choice but to hurry after him.

Velokin was the center of this mission, after all.

Following behind Velokin and the knights, Krasus detected something far more potent than the swamp’s noxious gases seeping into his nostrils.

This sharp, pricking scent that pierced deep within his nose was the thick aroma of a Curse.

‘I suspected as much.’

This master was clearly quite formidable.

‘Anyone who catches that Curse is going to have a hard time.’

Or they’d be dead before the Curse even took hold.

But since Krasus had already issued his warning, he wasn’t overly concerned.

Valheim wasn’t some common name, and Velokin belonged to Valheim, as did the knights.

In Krasus’s judgment, as long as they didn’t grow careless, they could handle this without major difficulty.

So Krasus shifted his attention elsewhere.

What he focused on was the power of World Erosion itself.

The source of the force that comprised World Erosion.

To the eyes of an ordinary human, it would have been invisible, but to Krasus—whose body bore multiple layers of Curses and who had mastered the Geuk Hyeol Chim Dok—the scene was crystal clear.

It was as if he had stepped into a place where gray smoke billowed thick as fog.

With even the slightest breath through his nose and mouth, the power of World Erosion seemed ready to pour into him at any moment.

‘It has to work.’

Krasus, who had continued mastering the Geuk Hyeol Chim Dok, knew how to absorb and control this kind of power.

But theory and practice were different beasts.

Even for Krasus, the power of World Erosion gave him pause.

‘No—it has to work.’

As visions of what lay ahead flashed through his mind, Krasus clenched both fists tight.

If he couldn’t prevent annihilation, there would be no future anyway.

He’d already rolled around half-naked in Curses before—he wasn’t about to fail at this.

“Inhale.”

In that moment, Krasus drew in the power of World Erosion through controlled breathing.

The gray smoke rushed rapidly through his nostrils and began to spread throughout his body.

“Cough!”

As waves of agony struck his entire frame, Krasus let out an involuntary cry.

“Krasus?”

The alarmed knights turned to look, but Krasus waved a dismissive hand while covering his mouth, gesturing that all was well.

“Sorry, just lost my footing for a moment.”

Krasus spoke casually while keeping his mouth covered.

At that, Velokin’s eyes lit up with what looked almost like satisfaction as he turned his sympathy toward Krasus.

“Tsk, World Erosion in its early stages already—you’re pushing too hard. If it’s getting to be too much, just say so. I can have one of the knights carry you if needed.”

Evidently he had misread the situation, thinking Krasus had finally reached his limit.

Watching Velokin suddenly seem to brighten, Krasus slowly lowered the hand that had been covering his mouth.

What met his eyes was dark crimson blood.

The moment he had absorbed the power of World Erosion, his body had begun hemorrhaging.

‘Well, that figures.’

World Erosion was a force so potent it could remake the very environment around it.

It was a virulence far worse than even a Curse.

Drawing it in raw, it was only natural that his body would reject it.

But he had no choice but to accept it.

‘Geuk Hyeol Chim Dok.’

He had learned this forbidden art precisely for this moment.

Krasus synchronized his breathing and focused on the rhythm of his heartbeat.

He began to slowly weave the power of World Erosion into the flow of his Aura, allowing his body to accept the World Erosion.

Aura was like the trunk of a great river.

As it circulated endlessly without pause, the Erosion’s power gradually diluted as he wove it in.

It merged into the great river of Aura.

Demaris Valheim had handled this river of Aura with extraordinary delicacy.

And he had recorded that method of delicate handling in dense detail within the Secret Martial Manual.

It was an essential process for mastering the Geuk Hyeol Chim Dok.

Krasus had read that Secret Martial Manual hundreds of times over.

By now, he could recall every word of it even with his eyes closed.

So Krasus focused.

To draw out the true power of this forbidden art called Geuk Hyeol Chim Dok.

As time passed, his body gradually ceased to distinguish between Aura and the power of World Erosion.

Some of the Aura’s color shifted to a murky hue, yet it created another clear color in its stead.

A pitch-black darkness.

A color so absolute that no other shade could overlay it.

Krasus slowly exhaled and opened his eyes.

For an instant, darkness flickered across his pupils, then vanished.

A low groan escaped him.

In that moment, his body staggered.

Because the entire world had twisted and flooded with crimson.

It was the residual effect of the Madness that emanated from Geuk Hyeol Chim Dok.

Demaris Valheim must have gone insane after witnessing such a world.

Knowing this well, Krasus pressed his fingers to the corners of his eyes.

Now was the time to use the forbidden art he had learned in preparation for this very moment.

After Demaris Valheim, Cheong Song Gwan had essentially been sealed.

Yet not everyone had failed to discover the Secret Library that lay hidden thereafter.

Just one person.

Someone who perceived the world in an entirely different way had discovered the Secret Library.

A blind man—pushed to the furthest edge of the direct Valheim line.

He had found the Secret Library, yet could not read the Secret Martial Manual.

And so he had to seal the library’s door once more, but in its place, praying that no one like him would be born in distant ages to come, he left behind a single copy of the Secret Martial Manual.

An alternate sense to replace the eyes.

Threading his Aura like fine silk through all directions, perceiving everything around him.

His sixth sense.

Not gained through physical sensation, but a transcendent perception—feeling all awareness through his Aura.

‘So small.’

Unlike the Blind Ancestor, who had cultivated his sixth sense his entire life, Krasus could manage only a feeble expansion of his Aura—barely the width of a knuckle.

And yet he could sense the presence around him, could recognize where he stood.

This place was not a world covered in Madness born from World Erosion.

His mind recognized it as the world he had lived in his entire life.

The moment he grasped that truth, Krasus slowly opened his eyes.

Then the twisted world before him began to fade, growing translucent.

The Madness that had erupted was beginning to vanish.

Though it could not be said to have disappeared entirely.

As long as he continued to absorb the power of World Erosion, Madness would arise again at any moment.

And so Krasus needed Bianca’s Curse all the more.

His sixth sense was nothing but a temporary measure, after all.

But what mattered now was that he could suppress the Madness with his sixth sense.

Even a stopgap was still a solution.

In this moment, Krasus felt himself take another step forward.

The joy of growth—something he had never felt in all his years—he was only now, after his return, beginning to awaken to it one by one.

A chill ran through him.

It was in that instant.

“The master!”

The moment Krasus grasped it, Velokin’s voice carried through the darkness ahead.

Krasus turned to look forward, and there—jutting from the absolute black—was the face of a hairless man, startling in its sudden appearance.

The shuttered eyes of that face began, slowly, to peel open, and the moment they fixed on Krasus, the pupils rolled once.

Then, one after another, more faces began erupting from the darkness.

Not only human faces—animals too, insects, everything.

Every conceivable visage existed there.

As that horrific sight dredged up a wave of revulsion, the mouth of the first face to emerge began, unhurriedly, to open wide.

“Shhhhrieeee!”

In that instant, a sound that felt as though it would split the ears, and eight arms thrust upward from the darkness.

Cheon An Gwi.

The master of the 3-Star Rank World Erosion had sensed the intruders and begun its assault.

“Battle stations!”

As Velokin’s cry pierced the air, a blue Aura erupted from his blade.

That Aura’s form shifted, burning into flame—tied unmistakably to his skill.

A skill that could kindle fire from anything.

Ignis.

Velokin had kindled flame upon his Aura.

Watching those brilliant, roaring flames, the knights’ resolve surged.

Velokin’s Ignis held the power to quicken the spirit of all who beheld it.

Krasus, by contrast, felt only a sickening churn rise in his chest.

He had endured those flames before, in a time when he was powerless.

‘This is the difference between you and me! Do you understand? You’re not even worth ranking in the same category as me, you worthless insect!’

Where had he heard such words?

Velokin’s face—the one that had beaten him down and burned away half his arm with that Ignis—remained vivid in Krasus’s memory.

Both he and Velokin had been broken back then.

And Krasus knew.

Even now, standing here, he remained broken still.

Return as he might, those memories had never been erased—they persisted, cruel and sharp.

‘But what of you now, Velokin?’

A boy of seventeen trying to poison his thirteen-year-old brother—what of you now?

Can we say it hasn’t broken yet?

A bleak smile tugged at the corner of Krasus’s mouth.

How convenient.

It seems I’ve stumbled upon an unexpected chance to see what it truly is.

On this day of departure, some will weep, and some will rejoice.

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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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