Chapter 95 94. Reader's Crook.

"Do you know what 'that' is?" Katline asked.

"Y-yes." Jiwoo replied.

"What is it?" Katline asked.

"He is..." Jiwoo started to speak but stopped before he started to talk nonsense.

'I can't tell them about the 'novel'..... A white lie or the truth.... She knows about the future because Vinny told her, so why not both? The truth but only half.' Jiwoo thought.

"In the future I know, he was named as the 'Demon of Slaughter,' who killed several heroes after 'your' death because he did not believe they were worth your sacrifice." Jiwoo said, gulping loudly.

"Hm? Really?" Katline asked with a bit flustered and proud face.

"F**k! Call Esh-" Jiwoo didn't notice her reaction and cursed his bad luck before pulling a katana from his inventory and started to say something but was cut off by a hoarse demonic voice.

"Is this a human's palace?" the demonic figure spoke in hoarse melancholic voice.

Jiwoo shuddered and so did the others, the demonic figure had a leisure smile on his face before he looked around and noticed there were others beside him. Because Jiwoo's concentration broke, his katana remained in the inventory.

"Hello, humans." The figure landed on the ground before his magic power exploded violently.

KRAT-KAT-TAKKRAT

Black lightning followed the demonic figure's every step, snapping everywhere and black flame lit on his body, forming a jacket of black flames, the black fire resembled faux.

"Show me around... Please." With a wide grin, the demonic figure said, his eyes arched and his neck lowered forward, his gaze fixed on Jiwoo and the others.

"F**king hell, seriously?" Jiwoo cursed out, involuntarily.

"Not hell please, I have been there for too long and..... Yes, I am serious." The figure spoke.

"And, now that I'm here..... Let's do some stretching." The figure said, took a step back, leaned forward and disappeared.

WHOOM

The figure instantly appeared in front of Jiwoo and punched his stomach.

BOOM

"Guh!??" Jiwoo groaned, his body arched forward, and a circular wind pressure formed on his back as a result of the impact.

WHOOSH

BAM

Jiwoo flew back, collided into the wall, and slumped down before he could even assess the situation he was in. His vision blurred and he coughed up several mouthfuls of blood while hearing his friends' agonising groans.

BAM

BOOM

'F**k! I should have compelled them to contact Eshwar! He could have at the very least assisted us in holding our ground! I couldn't even see that demon-like figure move!' Jiwoo grumbled in frustration and attempted to get up, but his body refused to do as he wanted.

"Aaaa!!" Violet's weeping scream filled the training chamber.

'Move! Goddammit! F**king MOVE!!' Jiwoo thought but his body didn't even flinch.

"Urg!!" This time it was Katharine's voice, which was a scream filled with agony.

"MOVE!" Jiwoo's mouth moved abruptly, and his own voice sounded strange to him. The voice was a harsh growl that sounded far too cold and emotionless to be Jiwoo's.

[Specialized Trait: Reader's Crook activated.]

[Searching for the user with high favourability with the user 'Gang Jiwoo.']

[Copying a technique of the user 'Eshwar' 'lowest' ranked skill.]

[Skill crook successful.]

[Crooked skill's abilities are sealed at 50 percent.]

[Crooked Skill: Will Power [NEW] activated.]

WHOOSH

[Warning!]

[Due to forceful Skill Crook, the strongest emotion of the user 'Eshwar' if overwhelming the user 'Gang Jiwoo.']

[New! Temporary Trait acquired!]

[Trait: Eshwar's Rage [NEW] (3 uses)]

[Trait: Eshwar's Rage activated.]

WHOOOOMMM

"Grr..." Jiwoo growled while standing back up.

'What exactly is going on? Eshwar's rage? Rage is his strongest emotion? And that is high enough to qualify as a 'Trait'?' Jiwoo opened his eyes wide in disbelief as his body moved carelessly, oblivious to the damage it contained.

CRA-CRACK

Jiwoo's cracked ribs made a low cracking sound, but his body continued to move, causing further internal injuries.

'Trait' is a very powerful 'set' of powers; only the strongest of the skills are considered traits; even if a user knows many techniques, they are not even considered as skills. A skill's strength could be equivalent to 100 techniques, whereas a trait's strength is easily equivalent to 1000 skills.

There are five skill levels: lowest, low, mid, high, and highest. While considering the low-ranked techniques, techniques are classified as lowest-low, low-low, mid-low, high-low, and highest-low.

'Techniques are almost in the numbers of a billion, skills are in the numbers of millions while the Traits are only in the number of thousands!! And now, his rage... His rage??? His rage is a trait!!!!???' Jiwoo's thoughts were filled with disbelief and absurdity.

[Trait: Eshwar's Rage is synchronised with the [Crooked Skill: Will Power.]]

Jiwoo's hand moved forward, and the demonic figure who had dashed at Katline abruptly kneeled down, as if under duress.

WOOONGG

"Uck!?" The demonic figure appeared confused but was soon to recover; he released more magical power, vanished, and reappeared at the same location he had previously stood, but Jiwoo's hand moved before Jiwoo could even comprehend what was happening.

SWISH

'Did he just teleport?' Jiwoo thought while his head abruptly snapped at the spot where the figure appeared.

"Uck!!?" the figure groaned.

Jiwoo's body dashed forward, towards the figure, took out the katana from his inventory before slashing horizontally at the figure's neck.

THUMP

The slash connected but couldn't slash through, but the movement Jiwoo's body slashed, the pressure that bore down on the figure disappeared, setting the figure free.

"What a interesting human you are...." the figure spoke and jabbed at Jiwoo's face.

"Tsk." Jiwoo's body clicked its tongue in annoyance.

'Who are you clicking your tongue at?' Jiwoo asked because he could feel the emotions that were being overwhelmed by the rage and knew that his body clicked its tongue due to its weak-a*s body.

His body leaned to left, where he was soon going to be greeted by the demonic figure's fist.

'Hey! Hey, I'm sorry!' Jiwoo apologized, his gaze fixed on the fist in front of him, but the trajectory of the fist shifted to the right, in the direction Jiwoo would have tried to avoid if he could.

Jiwoo's eyes followed the fist's movements but suddenly....

BAM

Jiwoo's left fist hurt, his eyes moved to look at the figure from the corner of its eyes and noticed that his left fist had struck the figure's face while his eyes were still following the figure's fist.

Jiwoo's body grinned widely, grabbed the figure's protruded horns, jumped and knee kicked his face.

'Daaayyyaaaammmm!!!!' Jiwoo thought in awe as his attack punctured the figure's nose.

"Uck!" the figure groaned and took a step back, leaned forward.

"GET UP!"