The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 13

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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 13. The Ruffian Has Changed (2)
Adrian pursued behind me, his breathing ragged and heavy.
He maintained a distance not far from Kai.
Adrian’s bare torso glistened with sweat, drenched from exertion.
It seemed he had begun the endurance training alongside the soldiers from the very start.
In other words, Adrian had been running for over three hours now.
Yet still, Adrian continued to run.
Though his breathing came in harsh gasps, his legs never faltered in their rhythm.
Even as the soldiers, the Captain of the Guard, and the instructors had all collapsed and fallen away, Adrian pressed on without yielding.
In that instant.
Adrian surged past Kai.
For a brief moment our bodies drew close, and as he swept past, Adrian’s eyes locked onto mine.
A fleeting meeting of gazes.
I could glimpse the emotion burning in Adrian’s eyes.
It was the look of a victor.
The composure of one who had defeated me, saying: I have beaten you.
The mockery of one declaring: you are nothing but a loser.
That very arrogance blazed in Adrian’s eyes as he pulled ahead.
Snap!
Something shattered inside my mind in that instant.
Without thinking, I surged forward, my speed and pace exploding upward.
My teeth clenched hard.
…I will not lose.
I cannot—will not—lose to Adrian of all people.
I burst past Adrian.
The distance closed in a heartbeat.
Our bodies drew near once more as we passed.
I fixed Adrian with an indifferent gaze as I swept by.
And as I pulled ahead without hesitation—
Crunch!
The sound of teeth grinding erupted from behind me.
He was clenching them with such ferocity.
I wondered if he wasn’t grinding his teeth but shattering them entirely.
Boom!!
A tremendous sound thundered in my wake.
There was no time to look back and confirm.
No need to confirm.
Adrian had already shot forward like an arrow, surging past me.
…Full speed.
Adrian was squeezing every ounce of power from his body, accelerating as if determined never to lose to me.
Of course.
I couldn’t afford to lose.
The moment I tensed my thighs, the ground erupted with a deafening crack!
With a thunderous boom, the floor caved inward, and Kai’s body catapulted forward.
Adrian spun around in startled surprise.
Seeing the distance between them rapidly closing—
He answered with equal fury, the ground exploding beneath him!
The very earth where Adrian stood collapsed entirely.
“What… what in the world is that…?”
“This is insane…”
The soldiers watching this spectacle stood speechless.
Adrian and Kai sprinted at full speed, constantly leapfrogging over one another.
Neither yielded an inch—the intensity was truly…
Boom! Crack!
It resembled a blood-soaked duel.
* * *
The stamina battle between Adrian and Kai spread throughout the Count’s Castle in moments.
Before long, wagers erupted over who would emerge victorious.
“Kai will obviously win!”
“Of course! What kind of person is Kai!”
Most predicted Kai’s victory.
The Chief Knight’s reputation was hardly earned through gambling, after all.
Yet there were those who wagered on Adrian’s triumph.
“But… Adrian might actually win, don’t you think?”
“He’s not just keeping pace—he’s actually overtaking him.”
The match between them was evenly contested.
Their duel instantly became the castle’s greatest spectacle.
* * *
◆How much longer do you intend to keep running?!!
◆You’ve clearly lost your mind!!
Translucent text blazed across my vision.
Incomprehensible messages streamed relentlessly, obstructing my sight.
I wanted nothing more than to swipe them away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“Gasp…! Gasp…! Gasp…!”
This was absolute torture.
My breath rose to my throat, threatening to choke me.
I had reached the absolute limit of my stamina.
Strength drained from my body without warning.
My legs suddenly gave way beneath me.
Just as my trembling legs refused to move any further—
◆You can restore cardiopulmonary endurance by using the skill ‘Regeneration [C+]’.
◆Required nutrients – carbohydrates, fats
◆Will you consume carbohydrates and fats to restore cardiopulmonary endurance?
Translucent text suddenly materialized across my vision in a cascade.
Without hesitation, I accepted.
The stored fat within my body ignited instantly, carbohydrates converted rapidly into energy, and my stamina surged back to full capacity in a single breath.
◆Your stamina has exceeded its maximum threshold!
◆Your Stamina stat increases by +2!!
Following that, another message appeared confirming the stamina increase.
From this, I could deduce that stamina, like Strength, operated under the ‘principle of overload’.
It meant that pushing my body beyond its stamina limits during exertion would enhance my stamina stat.
And like Strength, there was a corresponding price to pay.
◆Massive nutrient consumption causes extreme hunger!
Grrrrrrrowwwwl…!!!
Thunder erupted from my stomach.
Ravenous hunger.
Though my stamina had returned, a dizzying vertigo washed over me.
I frantically pulled out the organ-meat bento I’d stored in my inventory and shoved it into my mouth.
A reward from clearing the tutorial Quest—the Inventory.
Simply put, it was a ‘pocket dimension’.
A virtual space separated from reality, the concept of a pocket dimension had been imprinted upon me, granting me the authority to use it freely.
Because it was imprinted only upon me, only I could perceive it.
In other words, it was a personal warehouse and vault accessible only to me.
Crunch, crunch.
As I chewed and swallowed the organ meat, the vertigo vanished.
Though the primary nutrient in organ meat was protein, it contained carbohydrates and fats as well.
My stamina recovered, and I pushed strength back into my legs.
Kai, refusing to be outdone, accelerated further.
The reason he could do this was because while I used the ‘Regeneration’ ability, Kai was employing his ‘Aura’.
In other words, it was cheating.
…Though I wasn’t exactly one to talk.
Regardless, I could sense Kai’s fierce determination—a will to not lose, even if death came soon.
Thus the back-and-forth competition continued for several more hours. The soldiers watching the spectacle grew weary and began leaving one by one.
Before long, only Kai and I remained in the Frost Trial Grounds, running endlessly.
…This way, no victor would emerge.
The Frost Trial Grounds was too small to decide the match.
We needed a harsher environment to settle this competition once and for all.
I glanced sideways at Kai.
As if thinking the same thing, Kai looked back at me.
Without a word, we both sprinted out of the Frost Trial Grounds, expanding our arena to encompass the entire Whitewolf Territory as we ran.
Snow accumulated on the Snowy Plain clung to my ankles.
My stamina depleted at an accelerating rate.
The bitter cold froze the muscles in my legs.
And so.
A day passed.
* * *
“They’re still running…?”
Seraphia looked not merely bewildered but as though her composure might shatter entirely.
Of course, Seraphia had heard about Adrian and Kai engaging in a running competition.
Just yesterday, in fact.
“Does that mean the two of them haven’t slept at all?”
“That is correct.”
Bernard gave a small nod.
Which meant Adrian and Kai had been running all day long.
This was no mere figure of speech.
It was literally ‘all day long’.
In hours, that would be twenty-four.
To be precise, it had been roughly twenty-one hours, yet they remained conscious nonetheless.
“No, wait… what do you…”
Seraphia felt as though her mind might truly abandon her.
Above all, she was deeply concerned that their bodies might suffer injury.
Her worry for Adrian in particular was considerable.
For the past decade, Adrian had never exercised once.
She had heard recently that Adrian had been training diligently.
But even so, it had only been about ten days.
Wasn’t Adrian pushing himself too hard?
Even as worry consumed me, I felt a secret joy.
‘My brother has truly changed…’
Since Adrian returned to the family, I had never managed a proper conversation with him.
Adrian would leave whenever he saw me.
Because of that, despite living under the same roof, I couldn’t even exchange a single word, let alone see his face properly.
The rumors circulating through Count’s Castle and the Lord’s Residence were my only means of learning anything about Adrian.
Perhaps that was why.
‘I envy her…’
I felt a small pang of envy.
For Kai, who spent all day beside Adrian under the pretense of a running competition.
When would I finally have a proper conversation with Adrian?
More than conversation, I wanted to face him properly, to meet his eyes.
It was selfish, but someday I wanted to eat meals with Adrian like a normal family.
So, for just a brief moment—
‘If I learn to exercise too, I could do it together with my brother….’
Seraphia entertained that fleeting fantasy for just a moment.
* * *
Two days had passed since I began running.
In truth, I couldn’t say the exact time.
I could only infer that two days had elapsed by observing the sun set and rise twice.
The internal rations I’d stashed in my inventory had long since run dry.
I could no longer draw upon my regenerative abilities, though fortunately Kai was in the same predicament.
Kai’s aura too had been depleted, his speed noticeably diminished.
From this point forward, it was a contest of pure human physicality and stamina.
“Gasp…! Gasp…!”
My lungs felt as though they might burst from the strain.
My heart pounded wildly, and blood rushed to my ears, the drumming in my eardrums a constant hum.
My throat, having drawn in the biting cold repeatedly, had become as frigid as ice.
Yet my parched mouth desperately craved even a single breath of that cold air.
With each inhalation, the chill pierced my lungs like daggers stabbing between my ribs.
In stark contrast…
“Huff…! Huff…! Huff…!”
Kai’s breathing remained perfectly steady.
A rhythmic, diaphragmatic pattern.
Two legs driving against the snow of the Snowy Plain.
Unwavering. Resolute.
‘That lunatic.’
There was no one quite as mad as him.
‘Is he even human right now?’
A reasonable suspicion.
Even when the mind dominates the body, there are limits to what’s possible.
And Kai was wearing metal armor, no less.
How could anyone run continuously for two days without rest and still be human?
Of course, stamina was humanity’s exceptional gift.
Every living creature on this world evolved with an emphasis on abilities optimized for their environment, maximizing those advantages.
In other words, each race possessed one outstanding ability—like the Icetroll’s regeneration.
Humanity too possessed an ability unique only to itself.
That was ‘intellect’ and ‘stamina’.
Intellect required no explanation.
Human stamina was unmatched by any other living creature.
Unmatched was an understatement.
Humans were ‘overwhelmingly’ superior.
Thus, I had no need to devour abilities related to stamina.
I only had to hone and refine the abilities humanity possessed by nature.
During my time in the Special Task Force, I could run for six days straight without rest—all for the sake of mission survival. That capability stemmed from this very resolve.
I ground my teeth together and drove my feet hard against the snow-covered ground of the Snowy Plain.
Either way, I couldn’t afford to lose.
Truth be told, I hadn’t intended to push myself this far.
But now that it had come to this, I had to see the competition through to the end.
Kai shared the same conviction.
The moment I caught up, he accelerated even further.
And that was precisely when it happened.
Grrrrrowwwwl—!
At the sudden, bone-chilling roar, both Kai and I came to an abrupt halt.

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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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