The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 117

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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 117. The Vanished Social Club (2)
Seraphia’s body had gone rigid, leaving her utterly paralyzed.
Bone-chilling shrieks erupted from every direction.
The Tea Reception Hall was consumed by grotesque horrors.
Limbs twisted unnaturally as forms crawled across the ground, shrieking.
They wore human faces, yet were unmistakably not human—writhing in their anguish.
The once-elegant Tea Reception Hall.
In a single breath, it had been drenched in terrible dread.
“Ahhhhh…!!”
…It was far too terrifying.
Truly, unbearably terrifying.
Fear and panic had frozen my very mind.
I couldn’t move a single step.
In the end, I clenched my eyes shut.
But then.
“Don’t turn away. Face it. Fear loses its power once you visualize it.”
Adrian’s voice reached me once more.
Slowly, I opened my eyes.
And there before me was Adrian’s back.
Adrian stood between me and the grotesque things, confronting them directly.
I stared at his back, my mouth half-open.
It was so impossibly broad—
No one would dare to covet what lay beyond it.
And it was so unshakably solid—
Nothing could ever hope to break him.
A back broader than any Castle Wall on The Continent, more unyielding than any shield.
In that instant, the grotesque things lunged from all directions.
Their speed defied imagination.
But something faster and far more devastating erupted from Adrian’s fingertips.
Kwaaaaash!!
A razor-sharp gale swept across the landscape.
Kee, kieeeek!
Eerie shrieks pierced the air.
The grotesque things were instantly swept away.
They ceased their assault.
They could not continue.
Instead, as if terrified of Adrian, they began to retreat hesitantly backward.
…It was magnificent.
Truly, utterly magnificent.
Somewhere along the way.
Seraphia no longer felt fear or dread.
My brother is protecting me.
Nothing frightened me anymore.
Nothing terrified me anymore.
Seraphia swallowed hard.
Kiiiiiiing—!
Tendrils of frost radiated outward in all directions from Seraphia’s center.
The tendrils of frost grew colder and more intense with each passing moment.
In the next instant, Seraphia’s eyes blazed with pure white light.
Crackle, crackle, crackle—!!
The explosive burst of frost silenced the Tea Reception Hall in an instant.
* * *
The explosive burst of frost that consumed the Tea Reception Hall.
I lowered the dragon’s claws I had raised sharply downward.
It’s over.
As expected, all the grotesque things were swept up in the frost explosion and frozen solid.
The Tea Reception Hall where even screams had frozen.
Everything was suspended in stillness.
“Haaaa…!”
The sound of Seraphia’s breathing, now that her tension had eased, reached my ears.
Overwhelmed by exhaustion, Seraphia collapsed to the ground.
Seraphia, who had awakened the power of the Frost Lord.
Certainly, it seemed she couldn’t properly control the power yet.
But she was still inexperienced.
When I thought about it, she had only recently begun wielding this power.
Literally just at the stage of awakening.
That’s why the frost explosion just now couldn’t be properly controlled.
The air froze irregularly, and ice shards burst forth from unexpected places.
The destructive force was absurdly weak compared to my previous life.
Compared to the Frost Lord, she was nothing but a novice.
In the first place, how could the Frost Lord possibly feel fear toward a mere Gremlin?
Yet despite this, Seraphia continued to grow stronger.
She had grown since the Chameleon incident, and she had grown since the Royal Palace disturbance.
So the Frost Lord truly is the Frost Lord.
It wasn’t for nothing that she was called the greatest military asset of the Allied Forces.
…In any case.
I gathered my thoughts calmly.
Those grotesque things that had covered the Tea Reception Hall.
They were not nobles.
They were not human to begin with.
Through the predator’s instinct [S], I discerned their true nature….
‘They’ve summoned Gremlin.’
Gremlin is a cunning and malevolent demon.
A treacherous and wicked demon that spawns fear and dread in all existence, consuming the very mind itself.
Only a being powerful and dangerous enough to command such malice and chaos could ever summon Gremlin.
In other words.
‘It’s Luseria.’
Luseria, the seductress of lust.
This is her doing.
Gremlin’s defining trait—Formless.
Gremlin possessed no fixed form.
Without a defined shape, it could transform into anything.
Yet it was hardly a blessing.
Without form came the absence of substance.
Without substance, it could not define itself.
It could become anything, yet ultimately nothing.
In that sense, Formless was not an ‘ability.’
More a nature, one might say.
Which is why no rank was ever assigned to it.
Therefore, my predation [S+] could yield nothing from it.
Regardless.
Gremlin’s substanceless nature.
Because of this, it easily falls under the dominion of nightmare powers.
Luseria, the seductress of lust.
She is a Cambion who inherited the powers of nightmare.
And she was also a dark sorcerer wielding formidable black magic.
Black Magic—sorcery that channels the power of darkness.
Yet in truth, it was not the ‘power’ of darkness.
Similarly, it was not ‘magic’ at all.
According to Iliana, the Grand Mage of the Allied Forces—.
—It’s sorcery.
Sorcery.
A power that borrows mysterious forces to manifest various phenomena and create inexplicable transformations.
In other words, it was classified as a transformed aura energy—.
—If you think of the spirits of the supply commander, it will be easier to understand.
The power wielded by the Spirit Summoner, the hero of the Allied Forces, is also the power of sorcery.
—If I were to explain sorcery in detail….
It’s based on the law of sympathy.
The law of similarity and the law of contact and so forth.
Homeopathic sorcery, imitative sorcery, contagious sorcery, and whatnot.
…Beyond that, my head ached too much to continue listening.
There was only one thing I could understand.
-For these reasons, sorcery is often mysterious, sometimes grotesque, or overwhelmingly powerful.
…That was all I could grasp.
In any case.
Luseria was likely watching over this social club from somewhere even now.
‘Even The Spirit Summoner hadn’t found it easy to contend with Luseria.’
Being a Cambion from birth meant she was born with formidable power.
Above all, she was the being chosen by The Abyss itself.
Born from the void of The Abyss, a queen who had subjugated The Abyss itself.
The dark spider of The Abyss, pregnant with fifty thousand offspring.
While The Spirit Summoner’s spirits embraced the natural world, they struggled against the spawn of The Abyss that the dark spider carried within her.
Fortunately, Luseria had not yet been chosen.
Even so, she was a formidable dark mage.
Therefore, if Luseria was involved in this social club….
◆Error: Inventory is not responding.
This phenomenon of the inventory not responding.
Based on my experience in the Infinite Labyrinth, this place was a separate space isolated from reality.
‘A barrier-bound space, in other words.’
Of course, a barrier couldn’t be erected in a single breath.
It required considerable effort invested over a long period in a specific location.
There was no way a barrier could be established within the heavily guarded Royal Palace.
But what if Queen Marceline had been corrupted?
‘Then it would have been entirely possible to spread a barrier throughout the Royal Palace.’
In other words, the entire Royal Palace had been the ‘domain of a dark mage.’
I slowly drew my senses upward.
And by expanding my domain not merely to the Tea Reception Hall, but to the entire Royal Palace, and activating the Predator’s Instinct [S]-.
I could perceive every hidden truth of this social club.
◆The Vanished Social Club
: You have been trapped in an infinitely forgotten social club. Familiarize yourself well with the [Rules] below and reach the final day.
===[Rules]===
[Rule 1] – Restore your memories of the original social club. It is the only guideline by which you can identify the anomalies occurring here in The Vanished Social Club.
[Rule 2] – In The Vanished Social Club, anomalies occur that never happened in the original social club. Do not overlook even a single one.
[Rule 3] – If an anomaly is discovered, immediately eliminate that phenomenon, then proceed to the next social club event.
[Rule 4] – If no anomaly is discovered, proceed to the next social club event.
[Rule 5] – If you eliminate a phenomenon that is not an anomaly, the state will revert to its initial condition. Exercise caution in your actions.
[Rule 6] – If an anomaly is not eliminated and the next social club event proceeds, ⱩἷⱲἰⱷⱲⱩⱾ will devour your memories and soul. You must eliminate the anomaly without fail.
[Rule 7] – The Vanished Social Club repeats infinitely until you escape.
[Rule 8] – Familiarize yourself well with the above rules and reach the final Ballroom.
* * *
Returning to the Guest Chamber of the Royal Palace, my thoughts grew heavy.
‘I’ve grasped the entire plan.’
Queen Marceline, whose every move I see through completely.
She rests in the palm of my hand.
Now, what remained was simple.
Dismantle the plan piece by piece, and overturn the intended outcome entirely.
Then.
‘I cannot remain in darkness forever—.’
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists the fragmented self!!
◆110 Sanity points have accumulated.
Suddenly, text materialized before my eyes.
At that same moment, the fragmented memories of my fractured self reconnected once more.
…Yet the memory was forgotten again.
Truly, a terrifying power.
But I resisted nonetheless.
Through that resistance, fragments of memory were restored.
‘…Was there another anomaly.’
It seemed there was another anomaly besides Gremlin.
After all, the [Rules] only stated that anomalies ‘existed’, not that there was ‘only one’ anomaly.
‘How cunning.’
In the end, I had overlooked the anomaly.
And by [Rule 7], it appears I’ve returned to the beginning.
[Rule 7] – The Vanished Social Club repeats infinitely until you escape.
Therefore, now was before the Social Club began.
In other words, it was the moment before the anomaly occurred.
◆Error: Inventory is not responding.
The inventory was not responding again this time.
‘The inventory not responding means it wasn’t an anomaly.’
So there was definitely another anomaly besides Gremlin.
With this, it became certain that this space was a separate realm isolated from reality—a barrier.
But.
‘Luseria couldn’t possibly use a barrier like this, could she?’
As a powerful dark mage, she could use barriers.
But not one of this kind.
It’s not that she doesn’t use it.
She cannot use it.
Memory erasure.
A scale of forgetting this vast is beyond Luseria’s power.
At a point where she hasn’t yet been Chosen, commanding Gremlin and wielding powerful dark magic represents the limit of what Luseria can do.
Frankly, even Iliana from my past life couldn’t manage it.
Only one.
Six Lords serving The Emperor.
‘So The Darkness Lord has finally stepped in.’
Once I blocked all of The Vanished Social Club’s machinations from my grasp, they had no choice but to make their move.
Therefore, this barrier’s domain belongs to The Darkness Lord.
It is a barrier space created by Luseria, borrowing his authority.
In other words, this place is not the domain of a dark sorcerer.
It is a ‘Realm of Darkness’ where all phenomena are thoroughly distorted.
A space that even Ian could not resist, and thus one from which no one could escape—
But not for me now.
The Successor’s Will [EX].
The pressure of authority is certainly present, yet it can never erode me.
Only I remained perfectly free from his dominion.
In that sense, [Rule 6].
[Rule 6] – If the next Vanished Social Club event proceeds without the Anomaly being removed, ⱩἷⱲἰⱷⱲⱩⱾ will devour your memories and soul. You must remove the Anomaly without fail.
Even though I overlooked the Anomaly, my memories and soul were not devoured.
None other than the Successor’s Will [EX].
The limit of my mental fortitude is Aleph-Null.
In other words, it is infinite.
In that sense, each time my memories and soul were devoured, my Sanity value accumulated instead.
The value just accumulated was 110.
Thus my current accumulated Sanity value reached a staggering 682.
‘Should I push it all the way to 9,999?’
…I found myself genuinely contemplating it.
The reason being that until now, Predation [S+] was the only method to accumulate Sanity value.
And on average, 3 to 5 Sanity accumulated per monster.
The Sanity value determines the power of the transcendent skill, Rampage [?].
It was good that the limit disappeared with the Successor’s Will [EX].
But the Sanity value accumulated so slowly and incrementally that I could not properly grasp Rampage [?].
So I could not know.
What ‘Transcendent Fusion Skills’ could be obtained by transcending other skills besides Metabolic Acceleration [C+].
What the required Sanity values were for each rank.
How much Sanity was needed to reach [A] rank.
And how much more was needed for [S] rank.
Furthermore, whether I could transcend beyond [S+] rank to even higher tiers.
And what would happen if I transcended Predation [S+] beyond its current rank.
Moreover, whether I could transcend two skills simultaneously.
If possible, whether there were any side effects.
And if so, what kind of side effects.
I wanted to test directly and discover the answers, but I could not.
Building up the Sanity stat that determined the power of Berserk[?] had been incredibly difficult.
But with the Authority of Oblivion, just one activation?
A staggering 110 Sanity stat accumulated instantly.
Overwhelming efficiency.
Here, I could use Berserk[?] infinitely, test it, experiment with it endlessly.
After all, with the Successor’s Will[EX], I could accumulate Sanity stats infinitely.
Through this, I could create absurdly broken ultra-fusion skills and combination skills anew.
I don’t know what ⱩἷⱲἰⱷⱲⱩⱾ that devours my memories and soul is—
‘Do I need to escape from here?’
…There’s no real need to, is there?

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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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