The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 172

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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 172. Ties of Fate and Enmity (1)
The trading city of Caravana.
Caravana was a commercial city like Frecce, an economic hub, yet it bore distinct differences.
If Frecce thrived on internal consumption and production, fostering a ‘commodity-based economy’…
Then Caravana flourished through logistics, brokerage, and re-export, cultivating a ‘distribution-based economy’.
Perhaps that explained it.
‘It’s definitely different from Frecce.’
The very landscape spoke to this distinction.
Carts overflowing with exotic goods.
People of every conceivable complexion.
In the Central Plaza, merchant guilds from across the Continent bustled about, hawking their wares.
“Serukin silk! Feel it—lighter than the wind itself!”
“Fresh dragon-fruit berries from the southern reaches have just arrived!”
Yet unlike Frecce, the focus here was not consumption but ‘distribution’.
In essence, it functioned as a kind of ‘wholesale’—bulk transfers to other regions and merchant groups.
Goods were purchased in bulk from Caravana and resold in individual cities and kingdoms.
Consequently, the variety of merchandise flowing into Caravana was staggering.
It was no coincidence that roughly twenty-three percent of all goods across the Continent circulated through here.
Naturally, Caravana’s populace reflected this diversity—a rich tapestry of races and peoples.
This multicultural character permeated everything, evident even in the shops that lined the streets.
General stores run by desert nomads.
Herbal apothecaries in jungle-tribe style.
Dye workshops operated by maritime peoples, and countless others.
Dozens of cultures and traditions intermingled, creating an atmosphere befitting the most ‘free’ of cities… yet…
“Night beer isn’t merely a drink! It’s a culture!”
“Absolutely right! Its flavor represents continental unity itself!”
“Please, bring us more!!”
At present, everyone was obsessed with night beer.
As a result, my entire inventory of night beer had been depleted.
Demand surged proportionally with Caravana’s population, reducing inventory turnover from 0.6 days to 0.3 days.
‘I need to construct more breweries.’
Even the Dwarves’ breweries couldn’t keep pace with demand.
The one saving grace was that distribution posed no problems.
Once Broombar crafted ether carriages, constraints of speed and distance became meaningless.
Thus, if production could merely keep up, expanding the distribution network across the entire Continent was merely a matter of time.
‘It’s time to dangle the rune steel bait.’
Now was the moment to focus on rune steel.
The true bait to hook the Empire was not night beer, but ultimately rune steel.
Above all, to capture the Emperor’s attention, I needed to present rune steel—that rare strategic resource.
Yet I couldn’t simply thrust rune steel before him.
A Prime grade rating of no less than 18.1%.
The attention and focus of The Continent would undoubtedly converge upon it.
I could tell from how the high nobility of several kingdoms had gone into a frenzy over the rune steel I’d released at the Frecce auction house beforehand.
‘Drawing attention is not ideal.’
Excessive interest would impose constraints on my activities.
More importantly, if The Continent’s gaze turned toward me, even The Emperor might grow cautious and withdraw.
We hide in moonlight and walk beneath starlight.
To stand against The Emperor—that darkness—I too needed to conceal myself within the moonlight.
Therefore, The Empire’s distribution network.
In other words, I had to discreetly channel the rune steel only through the passages leading into The Empire.
But then.
‘At this point in time, there is no distribution network that leads directly into The Empire.’
The Empire had severed all diplomatic relations with other kingdoms long ago.
Because of this, nothing had been revealed—not diplomacy, military affairs, administration, nor even intelligence from beyond the borders.
Yet I possessed something: memories from my past life.
That is, the intelligence I had gathered while serving as Special Forces Duke Commander was etched into my mind.
And so I knew.
The Empire had only severed the official routes.
Currently, The Empire was maintaining the exchange of logistics and resources in secret.
And the place serving as that intermediary bridge was—
‘This place.’
This trading city, Caravana.
‘Let me search.’
The Empire’s unofficial distribution network lay hidden somewhere within Caravana.
* * *
I combed through Caravana meticulously.
Drawing upon memories from my past life, I personally investigated and traced clues to The Empire’s unofficial distribution network.
Two full days passed.
After turning all of Caravana inside out.
‘…Nothing.’
I couldn’t find it.
I was unable to find it.
‘Hmm.’
I recalled my past life’s memories once more.
I methodically pieced together and aligned the intelligence about The Empire that I had gathered while serving as Special Forces Duke Commander.
‘The information is sparse.’
Yet the intelligence was limited.
This was because during my time as Special Forces Duke Commander, all of this had been ‘history’—events of the past.
Since I hadn’t felt the necessity to investigate incidents that had already occurred in detail, I had glossed over them without much concern.
‘I wish I had investigated more thoroughly back then.’
But who could have predicted this?
If I’d known I’d return to the past, I would have burned every detail into my memory.
‘Regardless, that bastard Ian….’
The moment we meet again.
I’ll give him a proper piece of my mind.
…Anyway.
Right now, solutions matter more than regrets.
One thing I’m certain of—
‘There’s definitely an unofficial distribution network into The Empire running through Caravana.’
Then traces must remain.
And the method to investigate those traces….
‘If I conduct a full audit of Caravana’s distribution network, I should be able to uncover something….’
The problem is there are far too many variables.
Approximately 23% of all goods across The Continent pass through Caravana.
Investigating and cataloging each one individually?
It bordered on impossible.
As the saying goes, to hide a tree, hide it in a forest—and that’s precisely why The Empire established its unofficial distribution network in Caravana.
Still, I possessed memories from my past life.
Information was limited, but not entirely absent.
Difficult as it might be, it wasn’t impossible.
‘I’ll need to leverage the City Congress’s resources.’
I turned my steps back toward City Hall.
And that was precisely when it happened.
◆Affinity Quest, [A Dream Treasured Deep Within Your Heart] has been cleared!
Suddenly, a brilliant message flashed before my eyes.
None other than Adlern’s Affinity Quest had been cleared.
‘It wasn’t cleared just two days ago?’
Yet two days prior.
That is, when I secured the trading rights for Caravana, it hadn’t been cleared.
And even after two days passed without clearing, I wondered if I needed to conduct actual distribution myself….
‘Now the formal registration procedures must be complete.’
That seemed to be the case.
Especially after Levantis had turned the administrative clerk into a mere reception desk.
In any case.
◆You have acquired 3,643,000 Quest Experience!
◆Your level has increased!
It was substantial experience, but only a single level-up.
Since leveling up was the only way to increase my half-mana stat, it felt somewhat disappointing.
Still, the rewards from Affinity Quests weren’t limited to experience alone.
◆Adlern’s Favorability「Bond Stage」has been unlocked.
Affinity at the Bond Stage.
And the Bond Skill (Link Skill) I gained from it.
The mechanism of Bond Skills could be explained in three major ways.
My abilities influencing someone at the Bond Stage.
Or the abilities of someone at the Bond Stage influencing me.
Or the Bond relationship itself manifesting as an ability.
In that sense, Adlern was the second type.
His abilities were the ones influencing me.
And Adlern’s ability—Sense [R].
◆Sense [R]
: The user possesses an exceptional ability to swiftly and accurately discern the emotions, intentions, atmosphere, and circumstances of others, responding accordingly. Through this, the user can rapidly perceive subtle shifts in atmosphere, unspoken information, facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and more. This enables immediate situational judgment and the capacity to take appropriate action.
This was Adlern’s sensory-type ability.
The merchant’s “eye for detail”—observation, connections, information gathering, market intuition, and the like.
And now.
As the Bond relationship between Adlern and me took form, the power of Sense [R] connected (Link) to me.
◆Bond Skill, Market Reading [U] acquired!
◆Market Reading [U]
: When this skill is activated, the player can [intuitively] detect signs around the market, people’s movements, the flow of goods, and other invisible changes, thereby [proactively] predicting market fluctuations.
Through this, you can sense and utilize [unofficial supply lines]—black markets, contraband, forbidden items, and other goods outside normal distribution channels.
Truly, Adlern was the finest connection I’d made in this life.
What was there to hesitate about?
I immediately activated Market Reading [U].
◆Bond Skill, Market Reading [U] activated!
As the text materialized before my eyes, my mind began spinning rapidly.
But then.
There was… nothing I could discern?
‘…What’s this?’
I reviewed the description of Market Reading [U] again.
And soon I understood the reason.
Market Reading [U] was a skill that expanded “Intuition.”
But intuition wasn’t merely a vague sense like a hunch or instinct.
Its true nature was the judgment of intuitive thought.
In other words, thinking processes so rapid that consciousness couldn’t keep pace.
Feeling fear in a dark place is “intuitive thinking.”
But this occurs because our ancestors experienced danger in darkness and faced death throughout ages, and that experience became encoded as genetic information passed down through generations.
We simply feel that imprinted information without needing to verify it.
Simply put, intuition could be described as the rapid synthesis of accumulated information.
Therefore, intuition cannot function without information being provided.
I expanded my senses.
The ESP-like perception evolved through Ogre Predation [S+].
I picked out the muddled voices of the crowd with crystalline clarity.
And only then.
Did the information woven through their conversations begin to reveal itself to my Market Reading intuition.
For instance.
-The Child has been coughing suddenly these days.
-Oh my, mine too.
…from such exchanges, I could discern that medicinal herb prices would soon spike.
-It seems like people from the Ruble Kingdom have been speaking less lately.
-Really? Maybe everyone’s just tired?
-I’m not sure… who knows.
…from such exchanges, I could sense that anxiety was spreading through the Ruble Kingdom.
Whether rumor or vague premonition.
Anxiety compels people to seek stability.
Thus they save and hoard rather than spend—which meant the Ruble Kingdom’s demand for stored grain would soon rise. I could discern this clearly.
-The Ebula Merchant Group started selling grain in handful portions from yesterday.
That meant people’s purses had tightened.
Since grain wasn’t moving at wholesale, they were pivoting to retail sales.
A sight rarely seen in Caravana.
In other words, the surface appears calm, but beneath it, everyone is groaning.
The small merchants will collapse first.
Then the promissory notes of the major guilds will default in succession.
Within a month at most.
Physical commodity values will skyrocket.
In this manner.
Market Reading allowed me to synthesize and interpret market information intuitively.
Of course, it wasn’t perfectly accurate.
After all, I was merely inferring and interpreting based on fragmentary information.
…But what if I possessed certain, macroscopic information?
I have my memories from my past life.
In other words, knowledge of the future.
I knew when, where, what, and how the political landscape of The Continent would shift.
Armed with Market Reading and the information from my past life, I re-examined all of Caravana.
The people in the streets. Conversations in passing.
Their clothing. The goods displayed on stalls.
The price tags being swapped out.
The trends in traded items and so forth….
The entire flow of Caravana’s market became transparent to me.
Among it all.
…there was a district where people’s movement patterns had subtly shifted.
A time that should have been bustling.
Unusually quiet.
Was it because of the night ale?
Even so, the merchants were on edge.
The carriages stationed in the Back Alley.
…One of them caught my attention in the market analysis.
-No hoof covers on the carriage horses?
This was an attempt to reduce noise.
A means to move quietly without being detected.
In other words.
Goods flowing into the Black Market.
But unlike my past life, Violess had collapsed.
Luseria had mentioned that as a result, other Black Markets suffered cascading devastating blows and collapsed in turn.
Therefore, there should be no goods flowing into the Black Market in the current situation.
Then….
-Where’s it going? I don’t know either. There’s no recipient’s name, and the sender told us not to ask. We don’t ask questions.
It was highly likely that the goods were destined for The Empire.
* * *
Behind the desolate Dock.
The carriage with hoof covers wrapped around it rolled in quietly.
As the carriage came to a stop, the porters moved into action.
Boxes covered in cloth.
Items sealed tight.
It was then, as the porters carefully transferred them to the Dock.
“…Supervisor.”
Someone whispered quietly.
Then one of the porters lifted his head slightly.
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing else, but….”
The Subordinate approached carefully.
“We’ve obtained information about Runesteel.”
“Runesteel?”
The Supervisor’s eyebrows furrowed in question.
And for good reason—Runesteel was extremely rare.
It wasn’t the kind of mineral that suddenly sprouted from the ground like this.
“…Is that really true?”
“I’ve verified it multiple times. It’s absolutely true.”
“Huh…!”
The Supervisor let out an exclamation and examined the boxes that had arrived.
“Which one is it? Which box contains the Runesteel?”
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to secure the full quantity.”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve identified a Merchant Guild that possesses Rune Steel.”
“Which guild is it?”
The Subordinate handed over a small slip of paper.
The Supervisor unfolded it casually and examined its contents—
[Raven Dung Merchant Company]
…What in the world is this guild?

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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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