The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 181

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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 181. The Justice of the Weak (1)
Orlando Residential District.
A densely populated residential area where the citizens of Caravana lived.
It bordered the Hyisen Administrative District, a vital hub of the city, and served as the heart of urban life where commerce, public facilities, and educational institutions were concentrated.
A peaceful street where children’s laughter and neighbors’ conversations once flowed freely.
But now.
The streets of Orlando echoed not with laughter and chatter, but with screams and shrieks.
“Please! Someone help me!!”
“Mom!! Where are you, Mom! I’m here…!!”
Hands jutted from collapsed rubble, and the cries of children searching for their parents filled the streets.
Guard Corps members hastily deployed to Caravana desperately searched for survivors.
“We have a survivor over here!”
“Stretchers! Bring stretchers!!”
One person, then two, were rescued.
But simultaneously, three, four more people were caught in the disaster.
“We’re transporting the wounded, but the roads are blocked!”
“The fog is so thick we can’t see anything!”
“Damn it!”
Henrick, the Guard Corps captain of Caravana, ground his teeth harshly.
All of this was because of that ashen fog.
At first, it had merely been thick.
But gradually it began to take shape, and now it engulfed the entire residential district.
Whoooosh!
The fog crept forward relentlessly, spreading in all directions.
And then a man was seized by the fog.
“Aaahhh, aaaahhhhh!!”
He thrashed to break free, but the fog coiled around his legs and dragged him into its depths.
And then.
—Gaaahhhhh!!
…only a horrifying scream echoed from beyond the fog.
“Kyaaaaaahhh!!”
“Run, run!!!”
People fell into panic.
Losing all reason, they scattered in every direction in blind terror.
And the fog pursued those who fled.
Whoosh, whooooosh—!
As if reacting to moving life, the fog relentlessly chased after the people.
Henrick, the Guard Corps captain of Caravana, drew his sword and charged toward the fog.
“Evacuate the children first! Don’t break formation!”
At Henrick’s command, his men responded in unison.
We deployed barriers, secured evacuation routes, and moved into position.
Henrick drew upon his aura and swung his blade toward the encroaching mist.
But then…
“It won’t cut…!”
The ashen fog, true to its nature, could not be sliced.
“What is this…?”
“Commander!! Fall back!!”
The Guard Corps member’s cry jolted me to awareness.
But it was too late.
The mist coiled around Henrick’s hand.
‘I… I have no strength…!’
There was no way to resist.
Henrick’s body began to be dragged deeper into the fog.
Once, this peaceful street had echoed with children’s laughter and neighbors’ conversations.
But now.
“Commander!!”
“No, nooooo—!!”
The streets of Orlando Residential District were consumed by screams and cries of despair.
* * *
The City Hall of Caravana.
Now converted to wartime operations, the building had become a temporary command center.
Dozens of mana stones were activated, and reports from each district poured in continuously.
Levantis, the mayor of Caravana, received field updates through magical communication.
-Northern passage of residential sector breached! Containment failed!
-Second defensive line collapsed! Intrusion is occurring!
-Civilian evacuation impossible! Rescue support is… needed…
-…The mist, this mist…!
-No, nooooo—!
Crackle, pop!
The magical communication cut out.
Only static remained.
“The response unit… completely annihilated.”
The command center fell into silence.
Levantis’s face drained of all color.
Within the crumbling city.
The ashen mist spread thick across all of Caravana.
Levantis’s legs gave way beneath him.
He collapsed, covering his face with both hands.
…He had to say something.
…He had to make a decision.
If I were the ‘Mayor’ responsible for Caravana, I would have had to issue orders even in this moment of despair.
But.
“….”
No words came out.
I couldn’t speak at all.
…An overwhelming despair crushed Levantis.
Just then.
Crackle, crackle…!
Faint static came through the mana communication device.
-Command center, can you hear me?!
Could there be survivors who made it out?
Levantis slowly lifted his head.
Grasping at even a thread of hope, he approached the communication stone hesitantly.
“…I’m listening.”
-This is… Orlando Residential District First Stronghold center…! Boom!
-The situation is… currently crackle…!
The communication cut in and out.
The screams mixed in between were harrowing.
Levantis squeezed his eyes shut.
He couldn’t bring himself to face the horrific reality that would soon be revealed.
Levantis’s head drooped downward.
And at that very moment.
-The mist has stopped!
Levantis’s eyes flew open.
As if answering the question of ‘how?’
An excited voice came through the mana communication device.
-It’s the Predator Merchant Company Master!!
Predator Merchant Company Master, Adrian.
-The Predator Merchant Company Master is driving back the mist!!
He was rekindling the dying embers of hope.
* * *
The ashen mist blanketing Caravana’s urban center.
The mist had no substance, so it couldn’t be cut physically.
But the Monomolecular Blade [S] severs ‘bonding structures’ at the ‘molecular level’.
Thereby inflicting direct damage regardless of any material.
◆Fusion Skill, Monomolecular Blade [S] is activated!
I severed the bonding structures of the particles composing the mist.
The mist, its bonding structure broken, lost its form and dispersed.
Soon, the forms of people trapped within the mist became visible.
A child lying unconscious on the ground.
An elderly man curled up, hugging himself.
And a Guard Corps member who had held his ground until the very end, sword in hand.
…They were still alive.
“Are you all unharmed?”
“W-who are you…?”
“I’ll hold this position. Please evacuate at once.”
I severed all the encroaching mist with my monoatomic blade[S].
Venturing deeper, I continued searching for survivors.
Fortunately, there were more survivors trapped within the mist.
“W-we’re alive…!”
“We’re saved!”
“Thank you…! Thank you so much!”
I cleared a path as I guided them all to safety.
Then, in that instant.
Fwissssh!
Ashen mist shot toward me like needles.
I deflected them all with my monoatomic blade[S], and a voice pierced my ears from beyond.
“Who might this be.”
A voice dripping with mockery, yet somehow familiar.
The sneer laced through those words grated on me. Yet it stirred my memory with unmistakable clarity.
‘Blake…?’
…The name surfaced naturally in my mind.
Beyond the ashen mist, a pale silhouette emerged.
A face obscured by the fog.
Activating my Predator’s Instinct[S], information materialized before my eyes.
==【Character Information】==
Name: Blake Battenberg
Classification: Animalia, Mammalia, Hominidae, Human
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Traits: Contempt for the Weak[L], ???[?]
Second Prince Blake Battenberg.
He gradually revealed himself from within the ashen mist.
A flawless face and refined features.
Ashen hair that permeated like mist itself.
Black eyes that seemed to swallow light, merged with darkness.
He looked much the same as when I had seen him in the Capital, Battenberg.
Of course he did.
Not enough time had passed since the Royal Social Society for his appearance to have changed so drastically.
Yet there was one thing.
Blake’s left arm was different.
The left arm that had been cleanly severed by Blade last time.
But it was, after all, only a “physical amputation.”
In other words, it could be restored again through power like holy force.
Yet because the molecular-level bonding structure had been completely severed by the single-molecule blade[S].
Blake’s left arm was not bone and muscle, but rather ashen mist in their place.
Was it still unstable?
The mist functioned as an arm, yet whenever Blake moved, it scattered and reassembled repeatedly.
‘I see.’
I had already sensed something amiss from the ashen mist.
And as expected.
Blake appeared to be the culprit behind the disaster Quest.
“Our kingdom’s notorious rogue, Adrian, is it not?”
Blake recited with a mocking tone.
After a moment’s deliberation, I put distance between myself and Blake.
‘Many people haven’t evacuated yet.’
If I fought Blake now, people would be injured.
I needed to buy time for people to evacuate to relatively safer locations.
I opened my mouth calmly.
“What audacity.”
“Audacity?”
“Why reveal yourself before me.”
The attack on Caravana never happened in my past life.
Of course, even if it had, it would have been forgotten by the power of oblivion.
Yet I could still say with certainty.
‘This never happened in my past life.’
Then the variable was me.
And in the current situation with Nightbrew bustling with activity, a little investigation would quickly reveal that I was in Caravana.
In other words.
“What audacity to reveal yourself before me?”
Blake had deliberately come targeting me.
“Are you thinking of taking revenge on me?”
“Revenge?”
Blake continued with a sneer.
“Revenge is something you take on an equal opponent.”
“…?”
“What I do to those weaker than me is not revenge, but slaughter.”
“You say that after I’ve already beaten you?”
Blake’s eyebrows twitched.
“Have you already forgotten who did that to your left arm?”
“….”
“Even a goldfish would remember that. Your intelligence is remarkably lacking.”
“….”
“No wonder you lost the succession to Leon.”
Crunch!!
Blake ground his teeth harshly.
His face was blotchy red and white—clearly scratched.
Crack!!
He was in absolute turmoil.
Blake spoke again, grinding his teeth repeatedly.
“…Only you wouldn’t know what happened in the Whitewolf Territory.”
“What do you mean?”
“Who knows.”
Only then did Blake regain his composure.
From Blake’s demeanor, I could discern something.
‘The Quest must have been triggered because of Blake.’
The sudden Quest from before seemed to have been triggered by Blake.
‘That explains it.’
I’d found it strange that the failure penalty for the sudden Quest was marked as ‘???’.
Similarly, the penalty for the current calamity Quest was also ‘???’ for the same reason.
The Power of Oblivion had erased the penalty information from existence.
Quests were my ability, yet even I couldn’t perfectly resist the Power of Oblivion.
And the fact that both the sudden Quest and the calamity Quest appeared simultaneously despite Blake being before me meant—
‘There seems to be another force supporting Blake.’
Yet Blake had currently lost all his backing forces.
With the bounty on his head, gathering forces in such a short time would have been difficult.
Therefore, the attack on the Whitewolf Territory could only be one of two things.
The Dark Merchant Company.
Or the Imperial Army.
But the Imperial Army’s involvement seemed unlikely.
‘The Imperial Army wouldn’t have devastated Caravana like this.’
Caravana functioned as an unofficial distribution hub for the Empire.
With the Black Markets across the Continent collapsing in succession, alternatives were scarce.
In such circumstances, Caravana played an increasingly vital role as a distribution channel.
In other words, if the Imperial Army were supporting Blake, they wouldn’t accept a plan to reduce Caravana to rubble.
Therefore, the one supporting Blake was likely the Dark Merchant Company.
In other words, the Devotees of the Fallen Souls.
I couldn’t be certain.
Though truthfully, it didn’t matter either way.
Whoever attacked the Whitewolf Territory had been beaten down by the Allied Forces’ heroes and either driven away or killed.
Simply put.
“Why don’t you go check it yourself? If you’re capable, that is.”
Blake had no idea about any of this.
Of course, Iliana came to Whitewolf Territory because of my sudden letter.
Isolde also came secretly after receiving Leon’s covert message.
Broombar went without saying.
It wasn’t the kind of information a wanted man like Blake could possibly know.
Considering all these points.
‘He was trying to pin me down here.’
A plan to keep me bound to Caravana while laying waste to Whitewolf Territory.
That’s why the disaster Quest was titled [Sorry, I drew aggro to raid the main base].
You could call it a feint operation, but….
“Did you come to me because you’re afraid of Seraphia?”
From what I could tell, he seemed terrified of Seraphia.
And for good reason—Blake knew it well.
The Abyss Spider, pregnant with fifty thousand offspring.
The Abyss Queen had been annihilated by Seraphia.
Of course, The Darkness Lord surpasses The Frost Lord—another level entirely.
If Blake were The Darkness Lord?
Even Seraphia wouldn’t stand a chance.
But The Darkness Lord is ‘a being that is created’.
In other words, Blake at this moment was still incomplete.
“You came running to me out of fear from a sixteen-year-old girl, and you dare speak of weakness.”
Crunch!
Blake’s teeth ground together as if they might shatter.
His face was utterly flushed with rage.
Crack! Snap!
He had become a demon incarnate.
“I’ll kill you!!”
Unable to contain himself any longer, Blake roared like a fiend.
With his face twisted in fury, mist exploded outward, engulfing the surroundings with far denser magical power than before.
Roooaarrr!!
It was far stronger than last time.
It seemed he hadn’t been idle all this while.
I surveyed my surroundings.
Thanks to dragging out the fight long enough, most people had evacuated.
The wounded had been safely transported to the rear.
Now there was no need to buy time, no reason to hold back.
In that sense.
I was the same.
After the battle in the Capital, Battenberg.
◆Activating the Combination Skill ‘Metabolic Overdrive [U]’!
◆Caloric Consumption – 150,000 Kcal
◆For [1,500 seconds], all of the player’s stats increase by [+150%]!
I had reached the pinnacle of biological evolution—a state incomparable to anything I had been before.

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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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