I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 87

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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 87. This Is How You Use It, Ancestor

Upon his return, Krash immediately sought out Crimson Garden for counsel.

She was the natural choice for advice on such matters.

-Hmm, so you’re looking to buy time to extract more bargaining chips from the negotiation, are you.

Crimson Garden’s thoughts aligned closely with Krash’s own.

“Crimson Garden, what do you make of the value of Thousand Kill Nature?”
-The drawbacks are evident, which is problematic, but in terms of sheer destructive power alone, it’s formidable. The strength of Thousand Kill Nature courses through the body itself.

Its worth truly varied depending on the person.

‘I wish I hadn’t revealed how valuable Thousand Kill Nature is to me.’

A twinge of regret flickered through him.

Yet given Blavi’s skill nature, lying would have been pointless anyway.

He would have to content himself with simply being drawn into negotiations.

“Crimson Garden, do you know what kind of person Seirang Sepirah is?”

Mirbis, Crimson Garden’s servant whom Krash had seen several times before, held a rank three position under Sepirah.

Surely they must have spoken with Seirang at some point.

-Seirang Sepirah isn’t treated as Sepirah’s princess without reason. Being part of Sepirah, there’s even less reason to have had any conversation with her.

The publicly known image of her was merely one of a somewhat cheerful and curious personality.

Sepirah Seirang maintained her mystique by keeping her face hidden behind a veil at all times.

As a result, even Crimson Garden didn’t have much information about Seirang.

‘Though I do know a few things about that one for other reasons.’

‘In any case, we’ll inevitably cross paths soon enough one way or another.’

Krash decided not to dwell on it further.

For Lilish and the knight commanders were already returning from their meeting.

“Krad, we’ve prepared a room for your younger sister to stay in.”

Reblien then called out to Krash.

He had apparently found the barracks tent that Sepirah had set up beforehand for Bianca to stay in without any trouble.

“Bianca.”

Krash gestured to Bianca.

Of course, Bianca couldn’t follow him into the Demonic Realm.

“I’ll be back.”

So he reached out and stroked her hair as he spoke.

Bianca’s head moved with the motion of his hand, and soon she lifted her own to clasp his.

“Don’t get hurt.”
“You’d think I was always coming back damaged, the way you say that.”
“But you always do come back hurt.”

Though it was more accurate to say he’d overextended himself than taken true injury.

But to Bianca, the distinction seemed to matter little — so he made a note of it.

After his farewell with Bianca, Krash entrusted her to Reblien’s care.

She’d spend the time reading in the barracks, no doubt.

By then the knight order had finished its preparations and moved to the walls of the Demonic Realm.

The Cheong Hae knights wondered what he and Seirang had discussed, but none asked.

They figured it was personal business — something more than idle talk, certainly, but not theirs to pry into.

‘If nothing else, the Cheong Hae Knight Order has the most upstanding character of any force I’ve seen.’

He suspected it wasn’t so much Captain Vega’s doing as Reblien’s influence.

“Everyone listen up.”

It was then that the deputy commander, standing in for Lilish, opened his mouth.

“This expedition into the Demonic Realm is to eliminate the newly risen Named and the established Named in the vicinity of the eastern entrance before they enter into a territorial war.”

The Demonic Realm was so vast that ordinary World Erosion operated on an entirely different scale.

Because of this, countless Named Erosion Species thrived within the Demonic Realm.

They waged territorial wars constantly, growing ever stronger.

‘Erosion Species within the Demonic Realm consume the World Erosion power their opponents possess.’

It was a mechanism similar to the Secret Art Extreme Blood Acupoint Poison he’d learned.

And so with each Erosion Species it devoured, it grew stronger.

So when an Erosion Species capable of consuming an entire region of the Demonic Realm faced off against one of equal standing—

Humanity had to intervene and kill them both, or at least eliminate one before the clash resolved.

If by chance one won and consumed the other—

Then an unstoppable Erosion Species would be born.

This expedition had been triggered by an Erosion Species that had recently swelled in power.

The fact that Sepirah couldn’t respond and had to rush a call to Balheim made it clear the situation was spiraling out of control.

‘The Demonic Realm.’

And Krash swallowed a bitter sigh as he looked upon it.

The Demonic Realm, one of the Forbidden Realms, required constant vigilance because of its nature.

But when war broke out between the Empire and Staron.

All the other kingdoms tried to hoard their strength, and as a result, support for the Demonic Realm had all but dried up.

‘Sepirah had fought tooth and nail to contain the Demonic Realm.’

But Sepirah’s own military power was not particularly strong.

They were specialists in World Erosion investigation, not suppression.

Eventually, the limits that befell Sepirah led to power struggles continuing within the Demonic Realm.

And in the end, a major-class Erosion Species was born—one mighty enough to shatter the stone walls surrounding the Demonic Realm.

The Erosion Species slaughtered every tribesman in the plains, and ultimately swept over the Empire.

The Empire, hollowed out by the demands of war, was utterly devastated.

Ironically, it was that very Erosion Species that ended the war.

Because as knights and soldiers rushed back to defend the Empire, the war itself became irrelevant—the Empire’s front lines crumbled.

But while they were returning, the Erosion Species had already advanced to the capital itself.

‘And it was there that Arthur made his move.’

Arthur, who alone brought down the Demonic Realm’s Erosion Species, rose overnight to become the Empire’s hero.

In fact, the Empire rewarded him with a title.

He was even granted a grand epithet—the Hero King.

And it was around that time that Sigrin, the imperial princess, fell completely under Arthur’s sway.

‘Damn bastard.’

Looking back, Krash had caught on to Arthur’s true intent.

Why that beast had stood by and done nothing despite already knowing, and had convinced the Starry Generation to participate in the war.

And how, because of all that, a gap had opened in Sepirah, allowing the World Erosion entity to kill Seirang.

‘Arthur—this bastard had planned to do it all alone from the very beginning.’

Arthur, who swallowed the Empire, then Sepirah, and finally the Starry Generation.

From start to finish, he never intended to delegate any role to others.

‘But if he keeps doing things like that, the Empire and Sepirah won’t be able to handle the World Erosion.’

Recalling Arthur’s actions, Krash’s brow furrowed.

Krash understands this too.

If the Empire and Sepirah were to stand properly, World Erosion would spread at its worst, becoming impossible to contain.

Arthur must have witnessed that calamity more than once.

And he likely attempted, in his own way, to preserve the Empire and Sepirah.

‘……Yet even so, he could not prevent their ruin.’

So Arthur had made his decision.

If his suffering and others’ efforts to save people could not ultimately escape destruction,

then he would simply take whatever gains he could from it instead.

For Arthur, Regression was an act that rendered everything meaningless.

‘So Arthur could not trust anyone unless he held them beneath his own feet.’

Krash had watched over Arthur from his side all along.

Arthur had certainly spoken with the confidence befitting a hero-king to everyone.

Yet his actions carried an obsession—a compulsion that he himself had to take the lead, or things would not proceed.

Back then, Krash had attributed that compulsion to the weight of everyone’s expectations on his shoulders.

But now he knew better.

‘Arthur was a Regressor.’

Arthur had become incapable of trusting others completely.

Krash’s eyes narrowed as he grasped a single truth.

‘……Had he been betrayed by someone?’

Arthur had not repeated a single cycle.

He who had repeated many cycles might have suffered an irredeemable betrayal from someone within those countless iterations.

‘That Arthur entrusted Meri, Abella, and Sigrin, and granted them Memory Inheritance.’

Perhaps these three alone had supported him unconditionally throughout the many cycles Arthur had endured.

‘I won’t deny the accomplishments and abilities of those three.’

Frankly, Krash had harbored many doubts about why Arthur, who sought to prevent the world’s destruction, had chosen to grant Memory Inheritance to those three.

But now, looking back, Krash could discern Arthur’s true intent.

‘The reason for giving Memory Inheritance to those three was not merely their competence.’

For him, what mattered most was that they were members who supported him with their full backing.

Those who, even across Regressions, provided him psychological stability through their absolute faith in him.

“Damn.”

Krash let out a curse without thinking.

Now he understood why Arthur had deliberately chosen not to bring him into the Memory Inheritance.

‘I acknowledged his skill, but I never trusted the man himself.’

They had walked together all this time only because their resolve was the same — to prevent the world’s collapse.

Deep down, Krash had never truly trusted Arthur as a person.

Arthur must have known that, too.

So Krash had been abandoned back then.

In the end, that very act had become the catalyst for Krash to strip Arthur of his Regression.

Krash swallowed a hollow laugh and lifted his head.

Ku-ku-ku-ku-kung—

The gates of the Demonic Realm were opening at that very moment.

Arthur had tried to place the world beneath his feet and prevent its collapse.

But Krash had no intention of following that path.

After all, the reality was that even Arthur, for all his efforts, had failed to prevent the catastrophe.

‘I’ll go my own way.’

Grow viciously strong, shatter every single root cause, and suppress the collapse through sheer force.

That was Krash’s goal.

‘So this time I’ll gain the Thousand Kill Nature and absorb the World Erosion too, growing even stronger.’

Krash’s blue eyes gleamed with clarity.

Then he turned back to look at Crimson Garden.

She had never left his shoulder, remaining here the entire time.

“Crimson, are you sure you’re all right heading into the Demonic Realm in that form?”

Krash asked casually, his voice pitched low so others wouldn’t hear.

Crimson Garden glanced at him and let out a soft snort.

-You should know by now that this child is no ordinary being.

He already knew that much — Crimson Garden’s choice of host would be far from ordinary.

He’d witnessed proof of it countless times before.

-Don’t worry. The World Erosion can’t touch this child, even if nothing else will protect her.

Hearing that made Krash curious about the raven’s true identity.

But for now, he decided not to ask.

Because it was Lilish, standing at the vanguard, who had opened her mouth.

“Falhiem Knight Order, advance!”

With Lilish’s cry from the front, every knight of the order stepped into the Demonic Realm.

The moment they crossed into the Demonic Realm.

Krash felt the very air around him transform in an instant.

World Erosion hung thick in the atmosphere—breathing alone felt suffocating, as though his lungs were drawing in smoke.

At the same time, his entire body grew heavier, as if wrapped in chains.

It was a phenomenon born from the fact that the space itself was twisted within the Demonic Realm.

Whoooosh!

Black rainwater fell past Krash’s hair and face.

Where mountains and dark thickets now grew wild instead of the plains from before.

Columns of inexplicable grey stone stretched in endless rows.

Beneath a violet sky, black storm clouds gathered, unmistakably declaring this place a Demonic Realm.

“Everyone, shield yourselves properly with Aura.”

Then Vega, commander of the Cheong Hae Knight Order, spoke with a grave expression.

The black rainwater of the Demonic Realm.

This rain was a kind of curse.

Without constant Aura protection, it creeps across the skin and absorbs into the body.

As a result, the black rainwater seeps inward, draining all blood from every vessel and pore.

Then the black rainwater fills the space where the blood once was.

Humans turned into shells of black rainwater lose their will and become another Erosion Species wandering the Demonic Realm.

In a grotesque form, their flesh swollen and burst from the rainwater itself.

Parasitic Rainwater.

Those who had ventured into the Demonic Realm called the black rain by that name.

Yet in that downpour, Krash had not wrapped himself in Aura.

Even as the cascading black rainwater was being absorbed into his body, he let it happen.

Whoosh!

Instead, Ignis ignited from within Krash’s body.

Before the black rainwater could force out his blood, it was incinerated by force through the Ignis.

As a result, the incinerated black rainwater simply dissolved into the power of World Erosion.

What did that mean?

It was simple.

The black rainwater was, to Krash, nothing but a resource he could dissolve through the power of World Erosion.

“Phew.”

Krash exhaled softly.

Then, unnoticed by the others, a bleak smile crossed his face.

How could he not laugh?

‘I suspected as much.’

What was a hellscape to others—a place where death awaited any who failed to cloak themselves in Aura—

was for him the greatest ground for growth.

‘Now I understand why Demaris Balheim became the strongest.’

Had he not descended into madness and destroyed himself, he might truly have brought the world to ruin.

But Krash had no intention of following the same path.

The younger generation had their ancestor’s example as a guidepost—they could advance without repeating the same mistakes.

‘Ancestor, watch how the younger generation wields the Secret Art.’

He would make Demaris Balheim envious even from beyond the grave.

—A fitting end.

Never mind that Crimson Garden was watching with contempt.

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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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