I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 64

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

Episode 64. Finding a New Weapon

The ceiling came into view—one he’d grown accustomed to seeing of late.

It was the ceiling of the place the Cheonghae Knights used as their quarters in Halgram.

Krash stared at it blankly for a moment before slowly pushing himself upright.

At once, his body protested in a dozen places.

The aftereffects of Muelwha Chimsik still lingered in his muscles.

It was the price he’d paid for that final surge of greed—and he had no grounds for complaint about bearing it.

‘I wanted to know how far I could push against the Top Ten Under Heaven.’

Still, the results had been worth it.

No matter what Adolf said about watching over him, Krash had left his mark directly on the man.

He’d even burned a master of flame magic—leaving scars that proved it.

Krash’s hands clenched into fists.

The performance of Weorleum Jiche that he’d acquired this time had felt undeniably real.

But he’d encountered another problem.

It was, quite simply, his sword.

‘The blade couldn’t withstand Muelwha Chimsik.’

The intense heat and force of that technique had shattered his weapon.

It was a serious issue.

No matter how strong he became, he couldn’t fight without a blade.

‘I need a sword. One with real durability.’

Krash crossed his arms and sank into thought.

Then something occurred to him.

‘Uuraeseong.’

One of the world’s ten Heavenly Swords—said to contain captured lightning itself.

He remembered the blade’s existence clearly.

And it might well be the perfect weapon for his current situation.

‘The problem is who owns it.’

Krash’s expression turned uncertain as he wrestled with the dilemma.

Because at this point in time, Uuraeseong’s owner was still alive.

“What occupies your mind so?”

In that moment, Crimson Garden took the form of a raven and alighted upon the bed.

Krash set aside questions about the sword for now and decided to ask about other matters first.

“Crimson Garden, what of Aslan?”
“I checked on him briefly, and he’s finished speaking with Yeonju. It seems he mentioned the Weorleum Jiche as well. Yeonju has decided to actively support the boy’s actions—apparently because of something he’s done himself.”

At least that was welcome news.

“Now that I think of it, that Aslan boy is set to become a Spirit Contractor.”
“I would have told him what becomes of a Spirit Contractor who makes a pact with humans.”

The chaotic spirit born from the first Spirit Contractor.

Krash, who knew this well, turned to look at Crimson Garden again.

“But this time, I’ll be there.”

Krash spoke as though the matter would be settled if he—the one who had obtained Immortality from Crimson Garden—resolved it himself.

Crimson Garden regarded Krash with barely open eyes, then let out a hollow laugh.

“Do you truly believe you can surpass me with that meager growth? In my view, you won’t manage it even by the time your lifespan runs out.”

A cutting remark, casually delivered.

Yet Krash understood her words were not mere sarcasm.

The bond between Krash and Crimson Garden deepened with each passing moment.

So when the end came someday, perhaps Crimson Garden would think to herself—

That she wished her own relentless Immortality would not pass on to Krash.

For she was one prone to attachment.

“Crimson Garden, we are bound by contract.”

So Krash made it clear.

“You give me Immortality, and in exchange I take your Immortality and grow stronger—a very simple transaction.”

Both she and he must not forget that truth.

“Who said otherwise?”

Crimson Garden descended from the bed with a playful gesture.

It was her way of saying she understood.

With a wry smile, Krash decided to ask about something else while they were at it.

“Have you learned anything about Abella, the one who went missing?”
“She vanished without a trace while residing in the Red Tower. Apparently that Igrit fellow emptied House Egrit for the sake of finding her.”

Adolf, who had gone to search for Abella, had returned empty-handed.

She definitely didn’t find it, then.

‘What is she doing?’

Krash felt his thoughts growing tangled.

Then he shook the confusion away.

Unlike Merina and Sigrin, a mage’s realm could elevate itself through pure magical knowledge alone.

‘Be straight with me.’

Krash regarded Abella as the most latent threat among them.

She was the one who could grow strongest the fastest among those who’d returned.

‘I don’t know what she’s doing or where, but right now she’s not a spark I should touch. If we don’t meet, it’s better we don’t. There’s nothing good for me in being exposed.’

In the first place, Krash had no intention of ever revealing to them that he’d returned.

As for Abella—he’d simply gather information on her for now. Krash rose from his seat.

He’d get a meal, acquire something obtainable in the magical city of Halgram, and then depart.

He’d spend considerable money doing it, but that hardly mattered.

He could simply tell Balheim to cover the expense.

“Looking at you, it’s clear you’ll need a weapon soon.”

At that moment, Crimson Garden spread her wings proudly, speaking as if showing off.

True to form, her instincts were sharp.

“There’s one thing I happen to know about.”

But Krash blinked.

“I’ll get you something decent from a fellow who knows his way around weapon-making.”
“Hey, Crimson.”

It was genuinely kind of Crimson Garden to offer to find him a weapon, but Krash already had other plans, so he smiled awkwardly.

“I already have a place in mind to get a sword.”

Crimson Garden faltered.

Then, without moving from her posture, she slowly drew in her wings and glared at him.

“Temporary. Temporary—who said you’d use one sword your whole life? This is annoying.”

Crimson Garden flapped her wings and flew out the window.

Watching her go, Krash let out a hollow laugh despite himself.

He’d done something unfair to Crimson Garden.

Yet there was something about the way she still looked out for him.

‘So next I’m headed to Maseonggung.’

Even by his own reckoning, Krash moved without pause, always in motion. He rose from his seat.

There was no rest for Krash.

Only the next step forward.

That was when it happened.

Bang!

The door swung open, and there stood Bianca.

And for some reason, a large basket hung from her hand.

For some reason, her eyes were impossibly grave.

“…Bianca?”

The moment Krash called out to her carefully, she walked straight ahead and set the basket down on the table.

“It’s food.”

Krash’s eyes blinked.

“Please eat.”

Without a word, Krash rose from his seat.

When he opened the basket, there lay various dishes, just as Bianca had said.

With Bianca watching, Krash removed the food and pulled out a chair to sit.

The warmth still lingering suggested it had been prepared just moments before.

As Krash took a spoonful and placed it in his mouth, a faint sweetness registered on his tongue.

Though less than before, that sweetness alone told him Bianca had made it.

“From now on, you won’t be getting meals from anywhere else.”

Krash faltered.

That day, Bianca had met him together with Lirena.

Of that, he was certain.

Then she had heard from Lirena everything he and Lirena had done all this while.

“Bianca, that’s…”

Krash tried to make an excuse, but the moment he met Bianca’s expressionless gaze, he began moving his spoon.

He couldn’t fathom why he was reading her mood, yet it seemed like the right thing to do now.

Sometimes keeping quiet was how you survived a crisis.

＊ ＊ ＊

Inside the rattling carriage.

Early summer had arrived, and glimpses of verdant meadow peeked through the windows.

After exchanging greetings with the Cheonghae Knights’ vice-commander, who had hosted him these past days, Krash had boarded the carriage and was now in transit.

He hadn’t made a point of meeting Aslan and Lirena again.

They’d said their farewells already, and besides, they would see each other again at the academy eventually.

The parting had been sufficient.

So Krash, as always in a carriage, had let sleep claim him.

But then he felt someone fidgeting beside him.

When he cracked an eye open, Bianca was leaning against his shoulder, doing something with her hands.

Looking closer, he saw that she was unfolding his fingers one by one from his clenched fist.

Curious to see where this was going, Krash watched quietly until she worked all his fingers open and slipped her small hand between his, looking pleased with herself.

Bored, then.

Krash closed his hand firmly around hers.

Bianca startled where she leaned against his shoulder.

But she made no move to pull away.

“Doesn’t it get boring, traveling in the carriage every day?”

At his question, Bianca glanced up at him while keeping her head rested against his shoulder.

“It’s all right, since you’re here.”
“We’ll pass through a town soon. We can pick up some new books there.”

It was remarkable how well Bianca kept pace with the journey, considering she was only thirteen and the endless travel must have been grueling.

“So you’ll be going to Rahelern Academy next year?”

Bianca’s next question followed.

“That’s right. I have a lot to do there.”

Not that there was much worth learning in classes—his real purpose was to pilfer the skills from those useless recruits.

“What about me?”

Krash and Bianca were a year apart in age.

Since Rahelern Academy admitted students only from fifteen onward, Bianca would not be eligible for entrance when Krash was admitted.

Having grasped this fact, Bianca seemed to have been dwelling on it lately.

“Do whatever you want to do.”

“Maybe I should learn something too. I’d like to go to the academy with you, Krash.”
“With a mind like yours, you could walk into the Literature department right now without any trouble.”

Bianca was the sort who had her nose buried in books every waking hour.

She was genuinely exceptional, no exaggeration.

But Bianca shook her head.

“You’re always going to dangerous places, though.”

What she meant was that she wanted to follow him into World Erosion itself.

“That’s…”

Krash opened his mouth to object, then stopped.

When World Erosion truly began in earnest, the world would become dangerous for everyone alike—commoner and nobleman made no difference.

He worried whether Bianca could protect herself.

‘She doesn’t need to chase after me, but she’ll definitely need enough strength to fend for herself.’

Still, with Bianca, his concern wasn’t quite as severe.

The Baekgwi-era Bianca had been a monster capable of breaking even the Top Ten Under Heaven—the Poison King himself.

Of course, that owed much to her becoming a servant of a World Erosion Conqueror, but it proved she had possessed the talent for it from the start.

‘Maybe I should find her a proper master.’

As Krash was turning this over in his mind, Crimson Garden came into view, sitting quietly in the chair across from him.

An Immortal, Crimson Garden had walked alongside countless races and knew their techniques.

Krash himself had learned quite a lot from Crimson Garden.

During the Baekgwi era, Bianca had wielded poisoned blades and ice magic.

Crimson Garden could certainly teach her both.

“Crimson.”
-No. Absolutely not, you wretch.

But he was rejected the moment he called out to her.

She’d been in a peculiar sulk ever since he’d brought up the matter of the sword.

-Do you think I’m some master who goes around teaching everyone? Child, teaching just you has yielded such poor results that I click my tongue at you every single day.

Though I’ll admit you’ve grown quite strong, for all that.

Still, by Crimson Garden’s standards, he was nowhere near her threshold yet.

‘The most important thing is reaching Master-rank before I enroll.’

Only then could he hold his own against those from Starry Generation.

“It doesn’t have to be you, anyway.”

Crimson Garden had many subordinate creatures under its command.

Krash knew which of them were strong enough to stand against Arthur.

“Your creatures are plenty strong too. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. So give them some consideration, at least.”

They would make fine teachers for Bianca.

Hearing this, Crimson Garden’s expression showed the praise for its subordinates was not entirely unwelcome.

—Tch.

Crimson Garden glanced sideways at Bianca.

Bianca, who had always been quite fond of Crimson Garden.

Whenever the creature’s raven fell asleep, she would gently lift it and place it atop a soft pillow or blanket.

Because Bianca took such care with the raven, Crimson Garden had grown rather fond of her in return.

—Fine.

Unable to bear the weight of her impassive stare any longer, Crimson Garden finally flapped its wings and departed outside.

Truly, an honest creature.

Clatter—

Meanwhile, the carriage’s pace began to gradually slow.

As Krash turned his gaze toward the window, a town rose before him as if climbing a mountain.

Maseonggung—the masterwork of a mad weapons engineer who had devoted his entire life to the ultimate goal of forging a weapon as world-altering as World Erosion itself.

Surrounding such a place, Ravala was a city where its inhabitants subsisted on the byproducts that emerged from it.

And this was precisely the town Krash had come to for the sake of obtaining a weapon.

Upon entering the town gates of Ravala, armed figures could be seen scattered about everywhere.

They were all Conquerors of Maseonggung, those who lived to descend its depths, and the very elements that composed the city.

Maseonggung extracted subterranean resources of its own accord, internally combining them to produce countless byproducts.

The Conquerors had but one true purpose: the byproducts of Maseonggung itself.

The quality byproducts emerging from Maseonggung fetched high prices, after all.

Moreover, the deeper one ventured within Maseonggung, the better the byproducts that appeared.

Thus the Conquerors formed teams, all striving to descend to greater depths.

‘Though that effort won’t take them past the eighth floor.’

Of course, what interested Krash was not byproducts of Maseonggung at all.

A single sword that Belokin, Balheim’s third, had once retrieved from within Maseonggung.

Uuraeseong.

The Uuraeseong, one of the Heavenly Swords, was a blade Belokin had obtained through pure chance.

Of course, its master was no longer Belokin.

A specter wandering the halls of Maseonggung held it now.

‘Pathetic.’

Krash, who knew what Belokin had done after obtaining that blade, let out a hollow laugh.

Belokin’s recklessness and malice, fed by the confidence the Uuraeseong granted him, had spiraled beyond all bounds, and in the end that sword had been turned against Charlotte.

He could not resist his own hubris, and followed Charlotte into the Forbidden Realm.

It had led to Belokin’s death.

Krash had never learned the full details of what happened then.

At that time, he lay unconscious until the Saint arrived, his face scarred by Belokin’s Ignis.

He had only heard afterward, once he recovered, that Belokin had died in the Forbidden Realm and that Charlotte had brought back his corpse.

Later, the Uuraeseong passed from Belokin’s dead hands back to Charlotte.

So Krash knew well enough what power the Uuraeseong wielded when held in Charlotte’s grip.

But this time, the Uuraeseong would not rest in Charlotte’s hands.

‘It will be mine.’

And to claim it, Krash had to kill the specter’s current master.

The figure who had slain more souls in all of Maseonggung’s history.

The phantom that haunted these halls.

The specter of Maseonggung.

Nakcheon.

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