I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 50

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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 50. The Test of Balheim’s Direct Descendant

The training hall of Cheongsonggwan.

There, Krash stood alone with his eyes closed in silence.

Since returning from Danpelion, Krash had substantially increased his training hours, and now he concentrated on the depths of his own being.

Because the growth in his total Aura reserves meant he needed to become even more adept at wielding it.

‘Expert-level now puts me on par with Velokin.’

In Balheim, that would place him roughly in the middle tier.

Krash wanted to reach at least Master-level Entry before enrolling in the academy.

And Aura training was essential for that.

“Krash.”

But that concentration didn’t last long before he had to break it.

Because Alliod had appeared in the training hall.

And Krash knew well why he had interrupted his training.

“The Chief Steward has come.”
“Yes, she has.”

The Chief Steward had arrived to test Krash once more.

The Chief Steward’s test.

For a direct descendant of Balheim, it was essentially an examination that determined their future standing.

And Krash had his reasons for needing to pass this test properly.

“Bring her.”
“Yes, I shall bring her at once.”

Alliod bowed and departed.

As Krash finished checking his Aura and turned his gaze, two figures appeared at the entrance to the training hall.

White hair and a lined face.

Clearly an elderly woman of considerable age, yet the intense aura radiating from her deep blue eyes burned with a ferocity wholly independent of her years.

And those eyes were the exact same shade as Krash’s own.

Which made perfect sense.

She was none other than Krash’s paternal grandmother.

Keselin Balheim.

“It’s been a long time, Krash.”

Keselin greeted Krash with a smile that held genuine warmth.

But Krash knew her kindness was a carefully constructed illusion.

Behind that smile, she was taking his measure from beginning to end, weighing him as one might weigh goods at market.

“You’ve heard the story through Alliod, I assume.”
“Yes, you’ve come to retake the examination.”
“Good. I’m glad we understand each other.”

She spoke these words while tapping her staff against the ground, moving closer to Krash.

“I’ve heard about your recent deeds. You defeated a mad dog that was causing problems in the Empire.”
“It was fortune more than anything else.”
“Fortune itself becomes skill. You of all people know that best.”

She was right.

Krash had been born a bastard, his very existence a hair’s breadth of luck.

She had always possessed that particular talent for prodding at a person’s tender spots with relentless precision.

“I won’t waste time with pleasantries.”

She held her staff at an angle, fixing Krash with an unwavering gaze.

In the face of those eyes, even the direct descendants of Balheim instinctively shrank back.

But Krash met her stare head-on without flinching.

“If you cannot stand on equal ground with Charlotte, then renounce your claim to the position of family head.”

The moment those words left her mouth, Krash’s eyes blinked once.

Then, slowly, a smile began to spread across his face.

Seeing that smile, Keselin wondered if he’d lost his mind.

“What does the position of family head in Balheim matter that I should surrender it?”

But the moment she heard his reply, Keselin’s brow twitched.

“Position comes naturally to those who grow strong enough to claim it.”

Like Arthur ascending to the throne of the Empire despite bearing no imperial blood—an impossible situation that had somehow come to pass.

In the end, in this world, strength was position.

“Isn’t it far too soon to speak of such things?”

Krash’s smile carried an ease that bordered on indifference.

And in that moment, Keselin understood.

‘The reports weren’t lies after all.’

Krash had changed.

He was no longer the man she had known a year ago—he had become someone entirely different.

What changed him, I couldn’t say.

One thing was certain: a new upheaval might be stirring within the direct line of Balheim.

“Take the test.”

It was an arrogant response, as if to say he was ready at any moment.

Keselin let out a soft laugh and twirled her Staff Sword.

“Just one step.”

In that instant, a blade began to slide slowly from her staff.

“Make me retreat just one step.”

Hearing those words, Krash’s expression grew peculiar.

“…Are you quite certain about that?”
“Getting cold feet now?”

Keselin’s words carried a note of provocation.

She was a Master-level force.

Though age had left her unequal to directly confronting World Erosion, that hardly diminished her prowess.

In Keselin’s eyes, Krash was only now reaching Expert-level high tier.

Fear was understandable.

‘If only she’d grant me time, this wouldn’t be so difficult.’

But unfortunately, Krash’s true thoughts lay elsewhere entirely.

His reaction sprang not from fear.

For a single, decisive strike was precisely Krash’s specialty.

Krash rubbed the back of his neck for a moment.

“I believe that will be quite sufficient.”

His opponent was Keselin.

He would defend without issue.

Though he doubted it would end at merely one step.

Krash drew his blade to his waist.

Then he slowly withdrew his rear foot and extended his front one forward.

A stance with the sword still sheathed, held ready.

At this, uncertainty flickered across Keselin’s eyes.

‘The Geohapseul?’

The Geohapseul is a technique for learning to draw one’s sword with speed at any moment.

There was no particular reason for him to employ it here.

‘Is he planning to deceive me?’

Interest flickered in Keselin’s eyes.

She had once encountered a master of the Geohapseul in the past.

‘That old man’s long since been in a coffin.’

But his Geohapseul remained vivid in her memory.

The scar etched on the left side of her neck was proof—his mark, unmistakably.

‘Let’s see if this is anything to watch.’

She spun the Staff Sword lazily, waiting for Krash’s attack.

But for some reason, Krash did not draw his blade—he simply stood motionless in that stance.

His eyes had closed at some point, and his breathing came deep and measured.

Keselin’s eyes narrowed with confusion.

What was he doing?

Then it happened.

Boom!

Keselin’s gaze snapped sharply toward Krash’s blade.

The sword lodged in its scabbard.

She felt the vibration of Aura emanating from within it.

Boom!

Vast torrents of Aura were swirling inside Krash’s scabbard like a tempest.

The Aura hammered wildly within, expanding and swelling—its intensity made even Keselin feel a chill run through her.

What troubled her was that she had seen this Aura current before.

“What?”

The sound of disbelief escaped her lips.

It was certainly slower.

He had completed the entire process in a single instant, drawing his blade in one motion.

But aside from the slowness, the method was exactly the same.

‘Geomgwi’s Geohapseul?’

The one who had carved the scar on her left neck.

Geomgwi’s Geohapseul.

Keselin’s eyes faltered without warning.

She hadn’t anticipated that Krash would wield the Sword Ghost’s Draw.

‘Where in the world did he learn that?’

But while her expression betrayed that shock, Krash pressed forward.

His mind summoned a depth of focus that had no name, and somewhere in that crystalline stillness, he drew a lake into being.

The Sword Ghost’s Draw unleashes explosive destructive power the instant the blade leaves the sheath.

And truly, this principle differed little from the Blade-Self Unity.

The draw technique itself was a path that demanded the sword become me and me become the sword.

So Krash wove in another secret—a hidden layer of power within the Sword Ghost’s Draw.

The most destructive swordsmanship he possessed.

The One Sword.

Thud.

The moment a fallen water droplet resonated through Krash’s mind with perfect clarity.

As a waterspout rose skyward, the Aura of the One Sword surged violently within his scabbard.

Keselin’s eyes, catching that shift, widened a beat too late.

The air all around began to rush inward, converging on Krash at its center.

Crack.

In that instant, Krash’s teeth clenched together.

Heavy.

The One Sword and the draw technique.

The moment the two merged, Krash felt the blade’s weight shift into a realm entirely beyond what he had known before.

A sword so heavy he could scarcely draw it.

A flash of red crossed behind Krash’s eyes.

Thin vapor curled from between his clenched teeth.

Every muscle fiber, every nerve ending in his body absorbed the Blackflame Erosion, erupting with explosive force.

In that moment when even Keselin’s breath caught in her throat.

At last.

His blade drew like lightning itself.

Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!

A storm of blackflame erupted from the blade as it was drawn, devouring the Aura and tearing through the air to bare its fangs at Keselin.

Before a strike far more powerful than the one she’d faced against Charlotte—strengthened by the Nine Valleys Dragon Fire Pill.

Aura bloomed across Keselin’s entire body.

A Master-level Aura carries within it the depths of understanding that a person has cultivated over their lifetime.

Perhaps because of this, Keselin standing before Krash’s assault seemed vastly more imposing than before.

Her eyes blazed with clarity as she gripped her blade.

Not that a mere boy of fourteen should have seen such a thing.

This attack could not be simply blocked.

“I don’t know where you stumbled upon such a Fortuitous Encounter,”

With a sharp breath, something like petals scattering in the wind seemed to materialize between Keselin’s blade.

The blue petals swept across her sword in an instant, then extended toward Krash’s blade drawing near to her face.

In that moment, a smile crossed Keselin’s lips as her blade met his attack head-on.

“But I can certainly see you’ve resolved to become a dragon.”

Crash!

With those words, a tremendous explosion erupted in violent waves.

Amid the rising smoke, sight and sound were momentarily swallowed whole.

Krash barely remained standing in that chaos, gasping for breath.

Then, as the smoke slowly cleared,

Keselin stood far from where she had begun, driven back considerably.

Her blade trembled where it had met the full force of his attack.

She had not been able to absorb the shock completely.

Crack.

In that instant, a fissure began to spread across her blade.

Clang!

And with that final sound, her blade snapped, the steel clattering across the floor.

Keselin reached down to retrieve the broken blade.

‘It’s an old sword, and my reaction was slower than it should have been, but to break like that…’

A bitter laugh escaped her lips.

The Aura she possessed still fell far short of Master-level.

But this single strike—it seemed fair to call it Master-level in its own right.

“The test.”

Keselin glanced back at where she had been standing.

He had forced her back at least ten paces.

The result spoke for itself.

“You pass.”

Since she became Chief Steward, had there ever been a direct descendant of the clan who retreated this far in this test before reaching adulthood?

Charlotte herself had managed no more than seven paces at most.

Krash had driven her back three paces further than that.

Keselin turned to look at Krash.

That last blow had clearly been one he could only unleash by expending his full strength.

To speak frankly, it was practically on the level of self-destruction.

But the result was the result.

“Rest yourself now.”
“Wait, please.”

As Keselin turned to leave and make her report, Krash, breathing heavily, called out to her with difficulty.

“I wish to join the Cheonghae Knight Order of Balheim, the one supporting the Red Tower.”

As Chief Steward, she could speak directly to the commander of the Balheim Knight Order.

“…Why specifically the Cheonghae Knight Order?”

The Cheonghae Knight Order was merely a middle-tier order even within Balheim.

If he were trying to gain support for his future candidacy as the house lord by entering a higher-ranked order and building influence, she could understand—but the Cheonghae Knight Order puzzled even Keselin.

“Yes, specifically.”

Since he insisted, she simply nodded, resigned.

One of the Chief Steward’s duties was to support the growth of the direct descendants after all.

“Very well. I’ll see it done.”
“Thank you.”

With that, Krash stretched out flat on his back.

Standing on his two legs had reached its limit.

‘What a fellow.’

Thinking that this youngest among the current direct descendants was quite the unusual one, Keselin left Cheongsonggwan.

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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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