The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 171

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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 171. Unexpected Fortune
Levantis, the mayor of Caravana, contorted his face into a menacing scowl.
His gaze fixed upon Fenric was murderous—like a butcher eyeing cattle bound for the slaughterhouse.
“I… I beg your pardon?”
Fenric was bewildered.
Beyond the blow to the back of his head, he couldn’t fathom why Levantis was glaring at him as though ready to kill.
As if to answer his confusion, Levantis pointed deliberately at the young man standing before the reception desk and spoke.
“Do you even know who this person is?”
“Well, I…”
A mere slip of a boy, barely twenty years old.
A noble’s son, green and untested.
…Or so he thought?
“You fool!!”
Crack!!
“Gack—!”
“The administrative clerk of Caravana, and you can’t even recognize the guild master of the Predator Merchant Company?!”
The Predator Merchant Company…?
“Surely you mean the company that distributes monster meat?”
“Exactly, you idiot!!”
Fenric’s mind went blank in an instant.
Of course he knew of the Predator Merchant Company.
But the guild master was this impossibly young boy?
“Adrian himself—personally!—has deigned to distribute goods all the way to Caravana, and instead of lowering tariffs, you’re causing trouble?!”
Fenric’s complexion drained to the same pallid hue as the youth before him.
He had never imagined the Predator Merchant Company’s master was so young.
Never in his wildest dreams.
Running a merchant company is no trivial undertaking.
Even with an extraordinary commodity like monster meat, expanding it requires exceptional capability.
As the saying goes, knowledge comes only through experience.
Even the keenest merchant’s instincts amount to nothing without experience—mere brushstrokes in the void.
In other words, failure is inevitable.
And experience demands one irreplaceable commodity: time.
Even a genius of the age cannot bend the passage of years.
Which is precisely why he hadn’t realized it.
That the master of the Predator Merchant Company—the enterprise shaking the entire Continent—was so impossibly young.
Yet Fenric had no excuse.
His failure to recognize the Predator’s master was indeed his own fault…
“B-but, Mayor!”
Fenric felt equally wronged.
Truthfully, had the permit item been listed as monster meat, he would have recognized it immediately.
But.
“Look at this!”
Fenric thrust the document he’d been holding forward.
“It says they’re distributing some unknown liquor called Night Beer! What does this have to do with monster meat?!”
And then—
“These numbers are absolute nonsense!”
===
[Monthly Production] – 8,000,000L
[Inventory Turnover Rate] – Average 0.6 days
[Recontract Rate] – 99.9%
===
“What merchant company on The Continent achieves numbers like this? It’s impossible!!”
This could only be interpreted as a loophole—leveraging the Predator Merchant Company’s reputation to secure trading rights without proper justification.
Levantis, the market director of Caravana, couldn’t possibly be unaware of this.
He was a legendary figure known as the Trading King.
He possessed a monstrous sense for numbers—even the slightest discrepancy would catch his eye immediately.
Levantis must have overlooked these figures, which was why he’d approved them.
“This is nothing but fraud!”
Fenric declared boldly.
And Levantis—
“You brat!!”
Simply struck the back of Fenric’s head once more.
Crack!!
“Ugh—!!”
The impact felt like his skull was shattering, and his vision flooded with yellow spots.
“How dare you speak such nonsense!!”
Fenric’s body staggered.
He barely managed to cling to consciousness as it threatened to slip away.
“And is your head filled with nothing but shit?! You’re an administrative clerk, aren’t you?! You don’t know what’s happening in Caravana right now?!”
“Y-yes, sir…?”
Levantis seized Fenric by the collar.
He dragged him to the window of City Hall and shoved his face toward the glass.
“Look!”
And there, before Fenric’s eyes, the scene unfolded.
“Wh-what…?”
Fenric’s mind went blank.
* * *
Throughout the alleys of Caravana.
New signs hung above every tavern and dining establishment.
[Night Beer (Chestnut Beer)]
And throughout every alley of Caravana, an endless queue of people stretched on and on.
“How far back does the line go now?”
“Word is it’s reached all the way to the western walls!”
“Insane, it’s spilled outside the city itself?”
All of them were here for one reason: night beer.
And those who had already tasted night beer were praising it in every street and alley.
“The flavor is absolutely unbelievable…!”
“This is what real beer tastes like! Everything I’ve drunk until now was just glorified grain water!!”
The commotion showed no signs of stopping, accompanied by raucous cheers.
But the guards of Caravana made no serious effort to suppress them.
“Um, senior…? Shouldn’t we be dispersing the crowd?”
“Do you really think we can stop a bunch of drunks on that stuff?”
“Then shouldn’t we at least call for reinforcements….”
“It’s fine, kid. Actually, we’re just using this chaos as cover to sneak a drink ourselves.”
Using the commotion as an excuse, the guards were secretly passing around night beer among themselves.
And then there were the priests of the Holy Kingdom.
Depending on their sect, priests considered drinking itself a sin.
Even those who did drink refused to touch anything but wine—
“This is sinful… it’s a sin not to know of such a divine beverage!!”
Even those priests had fallen under the spell of night beer.
“Now I understand why the Lord created the chestnut tree!”
“Oh my! Then we could use it in the Eucharist?!”
And so the bizarre sight of conducting the Eucharist with night beer instead of holy water was unfolding.
“How could you keep something like this hidden!”
“Repent, you brewers!”
“Hey, that’s mine! I grabbed it first!”
“Kyaaaah─!! This is what living is all about!”
The entire city of Caravana had gone mad for night beer.
* * *
The night beer craze….
No, the night beer storm that was sweeping through—a bizarre spectacle.
It was as if the massive city of Caravana itself had become intoxicated by night beer.
But then.
‘It wasn’t like this just a moment ago…?’
More precisely, it hadn’t been like this before Fenric came to work.
If it had been, Fenric would have certainly noticed.
Which meant.
‘This… all of this happened in just half a day…?’
Fenric’s eyes wavered slightly, drifting downward.
And as I confirmed the contents written in the documents.
[Inventory Turnover Rate] – Average 0.6 days
A miraculous figure—completely sold out in less than half a day.
I could confirm this was indeed fact.
And the entire city of Caravana was trembling from it.
It meant that enough supply had been released to meet the enormous demand.
[Production Volume] – 8,000,000L per month
…So this was also true.
A 99.9% contract renewal rate?
There was no need to even mention it.
‘This… this can’t possibly be real…?’
Yet I still couldn’t believe it.
Because I couldn’t simply look at those numbers alone.
Caravana is a city where multiple races and cultures intermingle. And just as races and cultures differ, so too do their dietary habits.
Starting with priests who view drinking itself as sinful.
Races that cannot eat pork.
Tribes that won’t touch anything but vegetables.
Nations that must have rice with every meal.
A single product could never suit all races and cultures.
But.
Night Ale was different.
It transcended race and culture.
More precisely, before Night Ale, even culture and taste transformed.
And so all of humanity had become utterly obsessed with Night Ale!
A monstrous product that completely upended The Continent’s distribution structure.
And to completely upend The Continent’s distribution structure was, in another sense, to completely ‘destroy’ it.
Therefore, monopoly had to be guarded against, yet Adrian, the guildmaster of the Predator Merchant Company, did not monopolize Night Ale.
He released Night Ale freely to the market.
He made it so that anyone could drink Night Ale, not just the Predator Merchant Company.
As a result, every tavern and dining hall in Caravana now sold Night Ale.
Countless customers visited to drink it.
The view outside the window right now was proof of that.
Naturally, sales skyrocketed.
Sales of side dishes, meals, and desserts served alongside Night Ale also skyrocketed.
Suppliers of such ingredients, delivery personnel, and logistics merchants all thrived in turn.
Consumption was triggered in a chain reaction.
To handle more transactions, merchant companies hired new workers.
Money circulated endlessly.
Caravana’s economy was experiencing a renaissance.
Thus, the trickle-down effect of this monstrous product that completely upended The Continent’s distribution structure could revive an entire city.
And the reason this was possible was Adrian.
Because he chose ‘symbiosis and mutual prosperity’ rather than monopoly.
Perhaps that was why.
Levantis, the mayor of Caravana.
The legendary figure who had brought three kingdoms to their knees—
“My sincerest apologies, Adrian. My employee… no, that blockhead with nothing but shit crammed in his skull showed you disrespect without understanding his place.”
He was bowing ninety degrees to Adrian.
No, his waist bent so far it seemed he would fold completely in half any moment.
“I shall beat him personally until his bones shatter, and I’ll ensure his funeral is conducted with the utmost grandeur. Please, I beg your forgiveness….”
And then—crack!
Levantis’s gaze toward Fenric blazed with murderous intent.
‘D-dead meat….’
Fenric’s ashen complexion had begun to shift toward a sickly purple hue.
* * *
The first step toward the Predator Merchant Company’s expansion across The Continent: the Caravana trading rights.
But securing the Caravana trading rights proved far more difficult than anticipated.
With approximately twenty-three percent of all continental goods passing through this crossroads, competition was fierce.
The bidding for Caravana’s trading rights was so brutal it drew blood.
No matter how renowned the Predator Merchant Company was for monster meat, their product range and trade routes remained limited, and consequently, the company’s standing and credibility were not high.
What they called a one-hit wonder.
The Predator Merchant Company was precisely that—a company that struck gold with one product and nothing more.
Therefore, I needed to devise a strategy to secure Caravana’s trading rights.
My first strategy was simple: ‘favor-seeking’.
Caravana was a Free City.
In other words, it was an autonomous administrative district guaranteed independent self-governance, unaffiliated with any nation.
Which meant my status as a nobleman held no sway whatsoever—but.
The City Congress.
The City Congress was the central governing body that mediated complex interests between free cities and administered the city.
It handled all administrative affairs, legislation, and budgeting of the free city.
In simple terms, it was the heart and brain of the free city.
And I had already secured the allegiance of this Congress’s members.
When establishing the Frecce branch, I had poured forth numerous bribes, including monster meat.
Thus, all of Frecce supported me, and currently, the City Congress was filled with my people, led by the Merchant Guild.
Of course, there was this.
“Fenric, I have an iron rule. Blockheads get beaten like dogs until they’re dead, and idiots never improve, so they belong in coffins.”
“….”
“If you didn’t know it was Adrian, you’re a blockhead. If you did know and still acted that way, you’re an idiot. So, which is it?”
“….”
“Answer.”
“A b-blockhead…, sir.”
“Good. From today on, you’re the footstool at the complaint reception desk.”
“…What?”
“If you keep getting stepped on every day, your thick skull will end up filed as a complaint too, you bastard!”
Thwack! Crack!
The Mayor of Caravana was beating the administrative clerk.
Levantis Pel Guardian was not one of my people.
But he could never ignore me, given my overwhelming influence in the City Congress.
That’s why I could propose a ‘Trade Rights Agreement’ directly through City Hall instead of competing through a bidding process.
Combined with my second strategy—the title “Sovereign of the Underworld”.
With the effect of a [+250%] success rate boost to negotiations, threats, and persuasion, securing the trade rights wasn’t difficult.
The real problem was the tariff negotiations.
Since Caravana lived and breathed by trade and commerce, tariffs were the lifeblood of the city’s finances.
Therefore, tariffs couldn’t be handled by City Congress influence alone….
But what do you know.
The tariff rate written on the currently approved trade rights was—.
[Tariff Rate: 0%]
…This was unique in all of Caravana.
A 0% tariff rate was unprecedented in my past life and would never happen again.
With that in mind, my target had been around 5%.
‘I never expected to get 0%.’
…Completely unexpected.
Probably an apology from the administrative clerk Fenric for his rudeness toward me.
The legendary item called Night Beer.
And the fact that I hadn’t exploited my monopolistic position.
These three factors combined created an abnormal special privilege.
“How could even the head of the Predator Merchant Company not know this?! Your head’s stuffed with nothing but shit, you bastard—did you grow an asshole instead of eyes?”
Crack! Thwack!
…Regardless, good was good.
Caravana’s trade rights.
A 0% tariff rate.
I had perfectly established a foothold for expanding across the Continent.
Now all that remained was to distribute once Broombar finished manufacturing the Ether Carriages.
And with Adlern’s peanut wine in development, along with acorn wine and sweet potato wine.
The Predator Merchant Company’s signature spirits were lined up for release one after another.
There was nothing stopping my march toward becoming the greatest merchant company on the Continent.
Now only one thing remained.
‘Should I dangle the rune steel bait.’
It was time to place the Empire on the board I had set.

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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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