The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 176

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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 176. Transaction (1)
My Sanity stat climbed madly, multiplying like a copy machine.
I withdrew my extended fist and pulled my body back.
Marzen’s teeth ground together with a sharp crack.
His face twisted, flushing red and purple in turns.
He must have thought I was toying with him—his rational judgment had completely vanished.
“You bastard…!!”
Marzen stamped the ground.
He closed the distance between us with frightening speed.
A mage must maintain distance when fighting.
Fine-tuning mana requires considerable concentration.
Engage in close combat, and your focus splinters between defense and evasion—making spellcasting nearly impossible.
Yet Marzen closed in anyway.
Rage had consumed his judgment entirely.
Or so one might think—a grave miscalculation.
The fourth iron law of fighting a mage:
Never assume.
Never assume mages are weak in close combat.
Marzen was a Transmutation Mage. And the varieties of transmutation magic were vast.
What Marzen primarily wielded was the transmutation of magic itself.
Stretching a fireball into a lance.
Compressing atmospheric density into razor-sharp blades of air.
Or warping the earth’s structure to thrust jagged stone spears upward.
But transmutation magic was far from his only tool.
He could transmute things beyond magic.
And one such transmutation was his own flesh.
A wet, gurgling sound erupted.
Marzen’s muscle fibers realigned, his strength surging.
Cracks and pops echoed through his frame.
His skeletal structure and bone density warped, his body’s durability amplified.
A slick, sliding noise.
His skin tissue transmuted into something like chitin, his defense skyrocketing.
Beyond that, he merged his nervous systems.
Marzen remade his own body.
And through it, he wielded formidable close-combat prowess.
Yet a mage cannot exceed the limits of human physiology.
He had already “understood” that such transcendence was impossible.
So Marzen’s form no longer resembled anything human.
A monstrosity. A chimera of flesh.
【I’ll kill you!!】
Marzen charged forward, no different from a monster.
His speed surpassed that of an arrow.
His strength was powerful enough to shatter boulders into dust.
His body was as hard as steel.
But.
No matter how much he flew and crawled—.
Crash—!
He could not overcome the genetic abilities of the Ogre, called the apex predator of the Surface.
* * *
A tremendous impact that shook my entire body.
【Cough…!】
Marzen’s mind reeled from the collision.
…I was pushed back. I was the one pushed back.
No, more than pushed back—I was overwhelmed.
But that shouldn’t be possible.
Through body transformation magic, I had ceased to be human.
Though I possessed physical abilities that transcended humanity, no different from a monster, the outcome remained unchanged.
Could it be that Kim Fujiwara was also using transformation magic?
If so, that inexplicable source of power would make some sense.
But there was something even more inexplicable.
Body transformation necessarily alters one’s external form.
To exert that level of strength, the body structure would need to be completely warped.
Then one would inevitably take on the grotesque, mutated appearance like mine.
But Kim Fujiwara?
He simply maintained a human form.
Moreover, he possessed the most perfect appearance a human could manifest.
‘How…?’
Questions piled upon themselves, yet I could find no answers.
Boom—!!
In an instant, a massive impact struck my abdomen.
My eyes nearly rolled back into my head.
【…!!!】
I nearly lost consciousness to the searing pain that rang through my mind.
A scream leaked through my clenched teeth.
But I endured.
My transformed body was sufficiently durable.
Yet against Kim Fujiwara’s attacks, that durability meant nothing.
Even a glancing blow inflicted fatal wounds.
…A direct confrontation won’t work. Not even with this transformed body.
I simply cannot believe this.
But Marzen perceived it with absolute certainty.
【Aaaaaaahhhhh!!】
The unleashed mana detonated. Uncontrolled and wild, it shredded the warped space and everything within it into ribbons.
A colossal tempest of mana swept through the arena.
Kim Fujiwara halted his advance and retreated backward.
He did not deploy Dispel. He could not.
There were limits to his power.
A fact I had already confirmed.
Marzen pursued Kim Fujiwara’s movements with wide, unblinking eyes. His speed had accelerated further still.
Visual perception alone could not follow him.
What of my Mystic Eye?
【Screeeech—!】
…Nothing registered.
Then—.
‘I’ll shatter the space itself!’
Marzen extended both hands forward.
This realm was mine.
Everything existed within my dominion.
【Crunch-crack!】
The very fabric of spacetime warped and crumpled. Kim Fujiwara was caught within the distortion. A flicker of bewilderment crossed his eyes.
【It’s over!】
Marzen tore his clenched fists apart, one upward and one downward.
【Snap-crackle!】
The crumpled spacetime tore asunder.
The durability of flesh meant nothing.
When one tears spacetime itself, no matter how resilient the body, it cannot withstand such annihilation.
And so Kim Fujiwara’s body was cleaved in two.
…It was finished.
My victory.
He had been a formidable opponent.
Had he fought with full intent, I could never have claimed victory.
His fatal mistake was singular.
A moment of carelessness.
Kim Fujiwara’s arrogance had delivered him unto death.
The torn space began to restore itself—.
“…That was dangerous.”
Kim Fujiwara stood unscathed?
【Nonsense!!】
My eyes trembled violently.
…It made no sense. No sense at all.
I saw it clearly with my own eyes.
Kim Fujiwara’s waist being torn apart along with space and time itself.
I witnessed with absolute clarity how his upper and lower body were separated!
But now?
He’s completely whole again.
Is it healing magic?
No. The limits of healing magic are distinct and clear.
Reattaching a severed body so perfectly—that’s not within the domain of healing at all.
That’s the power of divinity.
But divinity is a transformed energy of aura.
The ultimate aura that a mage could never possibly wield!
“I need to be careful.”
Kim Fujiwara murmured lightly.
Then he vanished.
Marzen hastily deployed a shield spell.
—Crash!
The shield shattered mercilessly.
Movement I couldn’t see at all.
…I couldn’t even tell what attacked me.
All I knew was that if I hadn’t instinctively deployed a shield spell, my body would have been torn to shreds.
—Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
Countless strikes rained down relentlessly.
Marzen continued deploying shield spells, filling the gaps in the shattered barriers. With each strike, my body was pushed further backward.
—Crash-crash-crash-crash!
…There was no way to counter this.
No method existed.
How could I possibly deal with this monster when even spatial tears proved useless?
And so.
Marzen could only endure relentless blows until my mana was completely depleted.
* * *
The spatial tear that Marzen had used.
Since it worked by tearing space itself, physical defense was meaningless.
Just as even the sturdiest fortress crumbles when the earth beneath it collapses.
It was only because I hastily reattached myself with Regeneration [B+].
And it was only because the tear struck my waist.
If Regeneration [B+] had been sealed.
Or.
If the torn part had been my heart instead?
‘I would have died without question.’
…Mages were certainly troublesome opponents.
There was a reason for the iron rule never to enter a mage’s domain without cause.
Even with a body evolved through Ogre Predation [S+], a mage could neutralize my physical defenses through countless methods.
The powers of other legion commanders were equally unbearable through sheer physical resistance alone.
Especially the lords of Another Level.
I couldn’t claim superiority over them yet.
‘Still a long way to go.’
The distance still felt vast.
But one thing was certain—the gap was narrowing.
And it was narrowing rapidly.
In the future, it would narrow even faster.
A body evolved through Ogre Predation [S+] deserved to be called the strongest on the Surface.
And my ability, Predation [S+], could continue to transcend its limits and evolve.
In any case.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
I drove Marzen into a corner.
And the Barrier Space was a separate realm divorced from reality.
Since separating spacetime from reality required immense effort, the Barrier Space couldn’t be deployed easily. Moreover, maintaining it consumed considerable mana.
Uuuuuung—!
The distorted reality returned to its true form.
I could return to my original location.
…It was regrettable.
If Marzen had possessed infinite mana like Avarus.
If Marzen had borrowed Luseria’s power of oblivion.
I could have copied the Sanity value infinitely.
But since he didn’t, I could only squeeze out Sanity until Marzen’s mana ran dry.
‘Still, though.’
I’d accumulated a tremendously satisfying Sanity value.
[Sanity] = 10,421/ℵ0
Far exceeding my target of 3,200.
Even surpassing the 9,999 I’d mentioned in jest.
‘This is a first.’
At The Vanished Social Club, I couldn’t accumulate 9,999 despite all my experiments.
‘If this is the case….’
I could use Rampage [A+] for the first time.
The estimated Sanity requirement for Rampage [A+] was 6,400.
If that was correct, I could use Rampage [A+] and still retain enough for Super Regeneration [A].
And the tier above that, Rampage [S-].
That required a Sanity value of 25,600.
‘That won’t work.’
…It was out of reach.
Still, through Berserk Form [A+], I gained the leisure to create a new ultra-fusion skill.
‘Marzen—.’
Buried beneath the rubble, he showed no signs of rising.
He wasn’t dead.
More precisely, I hadn’t killed him.
‘He doesn’t seem like he’ll wake up anytime soon.’
While waiting for Marzen to awaken, I organized the mechanics of each skill required for Berserk Form [A+].
* * *
Light gradually seeped into the darkness of his vision.
An empty mind.
A bone-tearing agony jolted Marzen’s consciousness awake in an instant.
“…Ugh.”
Marzen tried to push himself up, but his body wouldn’t obey.
As he slowly opened his eyes, shattered walls and organization members scattered across the floor came into view.
…It took a moment to comprehend that he’d returned to his original reality.
His mutant-like form had also reverted to its normal state.
With his mana depleted, the transformation magic should have naturally dissipated.
And then.
“Have you awakened now?”
Kim Fujiwara Bloodhound.
He sat before Marzen with a faint smile playing at his lips.
Only then could Marzen comprehend the full situation.
“…Why didn’t you kill me?”
“Would you have preferred to be killed?”
“….”
“I could still kill you now if you’d like.”
Marzen said nothing.
If he opened his mouth out of sheer bravado, the man would likely kill him without hesitation.
“But I don’t particularly enjoy killing. Besides, disposing of corpses is troublesome in many ways.”
“….”
“As I mentioned, I dislike noise. For that reason, I spared your organization members as well.”
Marzen gazed at the organization members sprawled across the floor.
They lay motionless, as if dead.
Yet faint pulses could still be felt.
“Here’s what we’ll do.”
Kim Fujiwara added with leisurely composure.
“Hand over your Unofficial Distribution Network to me.”
“What?”
“In exchange, I’ll spare your life, along with your position and the lives of your organization members.”
Marzen bit his lip.
And then I asked quietly.
“…What’s your reason?”
“To work my way, I need a certain pathway, sir.”
“Then couldn’t you just use your Unofficial Distribution Network?”
Frankly, it was his distribution network—one that even Marzen’s intelligence apparatus couldn’t fully comprehend.
In other words, it meant his network was far more covert and systematic than Marzen’s.
If he made direct contact with Marzen’s superiors through that, Marzen would inevitably become a useless figurehead—it was an inevitable outcome.
“Or you could kill me, take my position, and seize this entire operation for yourself, couldn’t you?”
So killing Marzen right here wouldn’t matter.
As long as he proved his usefulness, the higher-ups wouldn’t care who died or who sat in this seat.
“You understand well.”
“Yet you still want to put me in this position?”
“Do you dislike it?”
“I’m simply curious about your reason.”
Kim Fujiwara smiled faintly as he answered.
“My thinking has changed.”
“So you’ve had a change of heart?”
“Rather than that… let’s say a better idea occurred to me.”
“A better idea?”
“Someone of your caliber already seems to have the trust of the higher-ups.”
“….”
“I thought—why should I force my way through? I can simply use you instead.”
The words were lengthy, but the meaning was simple.
“You’d use me as a puppet?”
“Do you dislike it?”
“Does anyone actually enjoy being a puppet?”
“I think it’s quite a reasonable proposal.”
Kim Fujiwara’s expression grew meaningful.
Marzen drew a breath and spoke.
“Wouldn’t it be better to just kill me and take my position?”
“I’m merely a merchant, after all. I have no interest in anything but profit.”
“….”
“What matters to me is profit, not power.”
“Then why didn’t you propose it that way from the start?”
“As I mentioned, my thinking did change, but….”
Kim Fujiwara continued with a cold gleam in his eyes.
“If I’d made such a proposal from the beginning, would you have accepted it?”
Marzen didn’t answer.
Because he wouldn’t have.
This was a proposal he could only accept because Kim Fujiwara was an uncontrollable monster.
In that sense, Marzen could finally understand.
‘So this is how he remained hidden.’
Now I could comprehend why I had been unable to detect Kim Fujiwara’s existence.
As one can infer ten things from observing one.
He had been manipulating everything from the shadows like a puppet master.
Positioned always where he could retreat at a moment’s notice should things go awry, he secured his profits with absolute certainty.
I understood his intentions all too well.
“What happens if I refuse?”
“As I mentioned, this is the price for sparing your life.”
Whether I refused or complied, death awaited either way.
I had no choice in the matter.
“Then, shall we begin by examining the structure of the Unofficial Distribution Network?”
I had no choice but to divulge everything.
How the Unofficial Distribution Network moved goods through various routes.
Which regions and strongholds it passed through.
What secret passages and illegal routes across kingdoms were used to circumvent official channels.
Who the brokers, transporters, and smugglers were.
What goods were traded, where they were sourced, and where they were sold.
I had to surrender all classified information without reservation.
Any attempt to conceal or hide even a portion was futile.
Kim Fujiwara extracted every detail as if he could read my thoughts directly—
“What about the money laundering routes?”
With uncanny precision, he stripped bare every secret of the Unofficial Distribution Network I had built, leaving nothing untouched.

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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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