The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 12

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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 12. The Rogue Has Changed (1)
Rough yet rhythmic breathing.
Someone was training in the Frost Trial Grounds.
The Frost Trial Grounds were available at any time for training and conditioning.
Soldiers who wished to conduct independent training could use the Frost Trial Grounds whenever they pleased.
But not once.
No soldier had ever emerged before Kai to train.
Kai entered the Frost Training Grounds, curiosity stirring within him.
And then.
Huff! Huff! Huff!
I could see Adrian conditioning his body.
Adrian’s bare torso, his shirt cast aside.
Firm muscle had taken root there.
Perhaps that was why.
The bitter cold of dawn—a chill that justified the word “frost”.
Yet it could not overcome Adrian’s heat.
‘Again today….’
It was already the tenth day.
Kai had naturally heard the rumors.
Rumors that Adrian had changed.
All the soldiers of Whitewolf Territory, even the handmaidens of the Lord’s Residence, spoke of nothing but Adrian—it was impossible not to know.
Adrian practically lived in the Frost Trial Grounds, so Kai encountered him daily.
But I paid it no great mind.
I thought it would be brief, nothing more.
After one day passed, I paid it no mind.
After two days, still no mind.
By the fourth day, I thought he would soon give up.
After four days, a slight disturbance arose.
By the fifth and sixth days, I briefly wondered: perhaps…?
After a week, by the eighth day, I admitted he possessed the will to change.
But I thought that was all.
By the ninth day, I deliberately shut out the thought.
And today, the tenth day.
Huff! Huff! Huff!
Adrian was conditioning his body in the Frost Trial Grounds without fail.
At this point, even I had to reconsider.
Of course, ten days is not such a long time.
It was far too brief to declare that a person had truly changed.
But such physical conditioning was not something anyone could do.
To be honest, ten days—no, even a single day—is grueling.
Kai had not neglected his own physical training either.
But he lacked the confidence to push himself to that extent.
What Adrian was doing transcended the limits of human physiology by an unfathomable margin.
Of course, he possessed a remarkable—almost bizarre—capacity for recovery.
I wondered how Adrian could possibly have such regenerative abilities, and yet…
Even so, recovery alone merely restored the body.
But driving muscles to their absolute breaking point?
That required something else entirely: willpower and mental fortitude.
Without willpower and mental strength as the foundation, even troll-like regeneration became meaningless.
And superior recovery meant less actual damage accumulated.
Without sufficiently intense stimulation, the body couldn’t be trained at all.
This training was, quite literally, impossible unless the mind dominated the flesh.
Only through sheer mental strength could one transcend the body’s limits.
Yet it was far easier said than done—extraordinarily difficult.
Mental strength without the physical stamina to support it.
Such willpower was thinner than paper.
Adrian had sustained this training for ten days.
For ten consecutive days, this reckless madman had pushed past his limits, day after day.
The soldiers of Count’s Castle no longer regarded Adrian as the Count Whitewolf’s House’s disgrace.
The handmaidens of the Lord’s Residence no longer saw him as the Count Whitewolf’s House’s disgrace either.
Only the common folk of Whitewolf Territory, still unaware of these changes, continued to think of Adrian as the Count Whitewolf’s House’s disgrace.
In other words—
Even Kai had come to accept it.
That Adrian had changed.
That this was no mere temporary effort.
And yet, in Kai’s gaze fixed upon Adrian—
“…”
The distrust and suspicion lingering in those eyes remained unshaken.
* * *
◆This guy is absolutely insane!!!!
The frantic words blazed across my vision.
I hurled the barbell to the ground, and it crashed with a thunderous boom.
In that instant, every soldier’s attention snapped toward me.
But I had no mind to care about such things.
My ruptured muscles could no longer obey even a finger’s twitch—breathing itself had become a burden.
My body, like a puppet with severed strings, crumpled limply to the floor.
◆You may use the skill ‘Regeneration [C+]’ to restore your ruptured muscles.
◆Required nutrient – Protein.
◆Will you consume Protein to regenerate your ruptured muscles?
The moment I accepted, a wet, gurgling sound echoed through me—
My entire body convulsed as the ruptured muscle fibers began to regenerate.
The muscles reconstructed themselves more densely, more tightly woven than before.
“Ugh…!”
My whole body felt as though it were being torn apart.
What was wrong with me? With each passing day, the intensity of my training increased exponentially.
As the strength of my muscle fibers increased, so too did the intensity of the damage I inflicted upon myself—and consequently, the pain escalated exponentially as well.
This time, I had truly shattered myself; regeneration came painfully slowly.
It appeared I had sustained damage that exceeded the grade of my regenerative ability.
It seemed I would need to hunt Icetroll soon to acquire additional genetic material.
I lay sprawled on the ground, waiting for my body to regenerate.
Then, suddenly.
My gaze fell upon Kai instructing soldiers in their training at one end of the trial grounds.
Kai had always been that way.
He personally trained the soldiers of Whitewolf Territory.
I had questioned it at first.
Why would a noble knight concern himself with such duties?
But through my time with the Allied Forces, I came to understand.
It was the true obligation of a knight.
A knight was both a title and a position.
Though the Lord held supreme military authority, in times of war, a knight became a commanding officer, directing most military operations.
Therefore, “Chief Knight” meant the supreme military commander.
Operational command and soldier training fell within his purview.
Yet commanders, as they tend to be, grew sluggish in their duties.
Training soldiers?
They simply dumped such work onto their subordinates.
But Kai was different.
In all my memories, there was not a single instance.
He never shirked his responsibilities and obligations.
A man devoted to the “chivalry” of fulfilling his duties.
Though he had fallen as commander of the Frost Legion, the Kai of his human days was the very model of a knight.
Look at him now.
Kai wore armor made of metal.
Of course a knight would wear metal armor, you might ask?
Not at all.
Iron armor weighs approximately forty kilograms.
A full plate armor weighs roughly double that—eighty kilograms or so.
No sane person wore such a thing casually.
Moreover, this place was the Northern Snowfield.
Do you know what happens when one wears metal armor in an environment of relentless, year-round bitter cold?
Your skin tears open.
It was no mere figure of speech.
Metal exposed to the cold rapidly absorbs the frigid air, and when it touches bare skin, the flesh freezes instantaneously, the skin tearing apart.
This is why the soldiers of Count’s Castle wear leather armor.
Donning metal armor in this cold would be suicide.
Yet Kai remained unscathed—the reason being—
‘He’s protecting his body with aura.’
And he’s been doing it all day long.
‘That absolute madman.’
There was truly no one quite as mad as him.
What made it even more absurd was his reasoning for it all.
First, it was because he was a ‘knight.’
He had to maintain complete readiness for combat at any time, anywhere.
And second, it was all in the name of training.
‘He said he could consistently train his aura even during ordinary moments.’
Kai didn’t even remove his armor during meals.
Moreover, he viewed rest itself as a form of training.
In that sense, Kai transcended every moment—his very existence was cultivation and refinement.
The most insane person I’ve ever encountered across all my lifetimes.
I found myself thinking that one had to be this mad to become a Lich through sheer will.
Genius cannot surpass the diligent, the diligent cannot surpass those who love what they do, and those who love cannot surpass the mad—or so the saying goes.
Kai was both a genius and utterly mad.
To kill someone like that?
I couldn’t afford to remain idle.
I had to embrace madness myself.
◆Muscle fiber tissue has transcended human limits!
◆Muscle fibers are being reconstructed anew!
◆Strength stat increases by +4!!
I shoved the portable meal into my mouth while adding more weight to the Babel.
* * *
After the soldiers completed their basic military training.
The next phase was ‘physical conditioning.’
It was a training session in which not only the soldiers participated, but Kai as well.
Even a knight who wielded aura could not neglect physical cultivation.
The efficiency of aura varied depending on the quality of the body that served as its foundation.
For a knight, the body is both foundation and bedrock.
No matter how exceptional one’s swordsmanship or how brilliant one’s talent, without a solid foundation to support it, all becomes worthless.
Talent alone amounts to nothing more than mediocrity.
Kai underwent physical conditioning alongside the soldiers.
Absent any special reason, it was simply his daily routine and training.
“Everyone. Match your breathing and advance at a run.”
With Kai leading the way, the soldiers began sprinting in unison.
At first, they all kept pace.
But gradually, those who couldn’t match the speed began to fall behind.
Yet Kai did not urge them forward.
Even among soldiers, physical endurance varies from person to person.
It is wrong to demand identical training when their natural capacities differ so greatly.
Physical conditioning is not a competition.
It is simply pushing oneself to the limit of what one can achieve, and doing so consistently every day.
True training lies in recognizing one’s own boundaries through that process, and cultivating the grit and perseverance to transcend them.
Mental fortitude without the foundation of physical endurance is mere tissue paper, just as physical strength devoid of mental resolve is nothing but hollow candy.
“Haah…! Haah…!”
“I… I can’t go on…!”
After about an hour, soldiers began to surrender.
By the two-hour mark, most of the soldiers had collapsed from exhaustion.
Now only the Captain of the Guard and the instructors remained.
But even they could not push past three hours.
A few had surpassed the three-hour mark, but the difference was negligible.
Only then did Kai increase his pace and speed further.
Now it was time to test Kai’s own limits.
“Wow…!”
“Truly remarkable….”
As the speed increased, exclamations erupted from among the soldiers.
It was only natural—they had run together for nearly three hours, yet he was accelerating further.
At first glance—
It was admiration directed at Kai.
But Kai could discern the truth.
Those exclamations and gasps were not meant for him.
Kai’s head turned slowly backward.
His gaze swept behind him.
Someone was pursuing him closely from behind.
“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
…It was Adrian.

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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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