The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 19

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 19. The Hunt
The Northern Region of the Continent was divided into three zones: the Frozen Lands, the Snowy Plains, and the Snowy Mountains.
The Frozen Lands Zone, being closer to the central regions, enjoyed a relatively temperate climate where conifers and similar vegetation flourished naturally.
Yet “relatively” was the operative word.
One could hardly call it warm by any honest measure.
Temperatures routinely hovered between negative four and five degrees Celsius as a baseline.
When the harshest season arrived, the average plummeted to negative fifteen degrees.
And now was precisely when that brutal season was beginning.
A single night spent exposed to the elements meant freezing to death; even water was nearly impossible to find, let alone food.
In these conditions, survival itself was an endless trial in the Northern Region.
Which was why—
“I’ll set out immediately with the soldiers to search for my brother.”
Adrian had to be found as quickly as possible.
Seraphia drew her heavy fur coat tightly around herself.
Yet the penetrating cold remained absolutely murderous.
Each time it struck, Seraphia found herself unable to shake the ominous dread blooming in her chest.
Adrian had been missing for two weeks.
Two weeks in this merciless cold meant he was almost certainly dead.
The possibility of him surviving naked and exposed was, realistically, nonexistent.
“Kai, please search for my brother alongside the soldiers as well.”
….
Kai did not answer.
His lips remained firmly sealed.
Yet his face and expression betrayed deep deliberation.
It seemed he had something he wished to say.
After a moment, Kai slowly opened his mouth.
“…I don’t understand why we must search for Adrian.”
Adrian’s disappearance had been convenient—he had simply vanished of his own accord.
For Kai, this was an ideal situation.
There was no need to search for Adrian, no reason to search for him.
Kai confessed his honest feelings, and Seraphia answered him with a single word.
“Because he’s family.”
A bond forged the moment one is born into this world.
Thus a relationship that heals one another.
Yet a bond that cannot be severed.
Thus a relationship that wounds one another.
When those closest to us inflict harm, the scars run deeper than any other wound—irreversible, permanent.
Perhaps family is a disease that bears that very name.
And so one must cure the disease called family.
This was why the previous Count had cast Adrian out.
You severed the bonds of blood between parent and child without hesitation.
Yet Seraphia and Adrian are not even bound by blood, are they?
“Even if it had been Kai, I would have done the same.”
But the same held true for Kai as well.
Kai and Seraphia were likewise not bound by blood—
“We are family.”
Family.
“I understand.”
Kai nodded in acknowledgment.
But this did not mean he had accepted Adrian.
It was merely the expression of Kai’s loyalty and chivalry.
And Kai’s loyalty and chivalry belonged to only one person.
Seraphia.
Directed toward her alone.
“I will search the Snowy Mountains this time.”
“Then I’ll explore the Snowy Plains and Frozen Lands.”
Seraphia offered a small, grateful smile.
Sensing the urgency, she rose from her seat at once.
With each step she took, her silver hair swayed gently side to side, and Kai watched her figure for a moment before moving forward at a measured pace.
* * *
The metal armor, chilled by the frigid air of the Snowy Mountains, pressed against his skin.
Kai shielded his body with aura as he and his soldiers trudged through the snow ascending the mountain.
How long had they climbed?
It was when they reached the midpoint of the Snowy Mountains.
“There! Something is there!”
At the soldiers’ cry, I turned my head to see something buried beneath the snow.
Approaching swiftly and excavating the object, a massive four-meter creature revealed itself.
“It is the corpse of an Alacron.”
Alacron—a monster that inhabits the Snowy Mountains.
Judging by the state of the frozen corpse, at least a day had passed since its death.
Moreover, the condition of the body was far from ordinary.
Chunks of flesh had been savagely torn away, as though something had devoured it.
“The monsters on the Snowy Mountains have been scarce lately…”
“It appears the monsters here have been competing for territory among themselves.”
The soldiers quickly reached their conclusion.
They believed this corpse had resulted from conflict between monsters.
Indeed, the torn flesh scattered about bore unmistakable signs of predation.
And only one type of being could commit such an act.
Monsters alone.
Humans could never consume the flesh of monsters, after all.
“It seems Adrian is not on the Snowy Mountain after all.”
Therefore, this was an entirely reasonable conclusion.
But Kai’s thoughts diverged.
Kai examined Alacron’s corpse with meticulous attention.
The marks where flesh had been torn away.
They differed somewhat from those of a monster.
Rather than the bite marks of a monster, the traces suggested the teeth of a human had done the gnawing.
Some sections even bore clean incisions, as if severed by a blade.
Kai could reach his conclusion swiftly.
‘Another monster….’
This was what Adrian had left behind after eating.
The soldiers had never imagined Adrian would actually consume a monster.
It was impossible to even conceive.
No matter how starved, eating monster flesh would shatter one’s sanity.
Therefore, consuming monster meat was no different from choosing death.
It was an ancient law and common knowledge across the Continent.
Yet Kai’s thoughts diverged once more.
…Because I saw it.
I witnessed Adrian tearing out Dermexus’s heart and devouring it.
With my own two eyes, I saw it clearly.
That truth could never be denied.
Only, it had been manageable then.
Adrian, after tearing out Dermexus’s heart, had fallen into brief madness but quickly returned to his normal state.
At the time, I wondered how such a thing was possible.
But as expected, it was exactly as I feared.
‘Has he finally been consumed by madness?’
Adrian had succumbed to insanity.
In truth, it was an entirely natural and inevitable outcome.
Now that I think about it, Adrian disappeared after devouring Dermexus’s heart.
‘That’s why….’
I could immediately understand why Adrian had not shown himself for two weeks.
It was not that he had failed to appear.
He could not appear.
Once consumed by madness, Adrian was no longer human.
Even now, Adrian was likely wandering the Snowy Mountain in a state of lost reason.
He was likely slaughtering the monsters there.
Tearing apart monsters and endlessly accumulating madness.
Soon, Adrian would undergo ‘monsterification’.
If it came to this, Adrian could not be left alone.
Adrian, bereft of reason and wandering the Snowy Mountain.
Adrian must be killed without fail.
“What should we do?”
Without hesitation, Kai answered the soldiers’ question.
From this moment on, this mission was no longer a search for Adrian.
“We continue the pursuit.”
A mission to track Adrian down and eliminate him.
Adrian was very likely in the Snowy Mountains.
Though it was an environment of such brutal cold that one couldn’t survive even a single day, let alone two weeks, Kai didn’t believe Adrian was dead.
Adrian was definitely alive.
But today, Adrian would die.
Kai followed the tracks and led the soldiers higher up the Snowy Mountains.
And then, at that very moment—
BOOM—!!
Suddenly, a massive explosion erupted from one side of the Snowy Mountains.
* * *
The mysterious entity that had suddenly attacked me.
As the blizzard finally subsided—
Fragments of emotion—joy and ecstasy alongside hatred—bloomed within it.
A beast cloaked in pitch-black hatred and madness, a creature forged from blind murderous intent.
From its low, rumbling roar poured forth a frenzy that seemed wrung from every fiber of its being.
An endless thirst for blood.
The hunger of desire.
It felt as though these would tear me apart at any moment.
“A Gelu-Drake….”
A Gelu-Drake.
A Drake monster that had undergone mutation, bearing the prefix “Gelu-” meaning ice.
In simple translation, it could be called an “Ice Drake.”
In other words, a Gelu-Drake was of the same race as a Drake.
Taxonomically classified as a subspecies, they could interbreed and reproduce with one another.
They simply didn’t naturally interbreed due to differences in habitat.
Therefore, whether Gelu-Drake or Drake—
All Drakes shared a single common ancestor.
The Dragon.
The name “Drake” itself was derived from “Dragon.”
It wasn’t merely because of similar appearance.
It referred to a creature similar to yet distinctly different from the Dragon.
Drakes were, in the distant past—
A race that had diverged and separated from Dragons.
In other words, Drakes belonged to the Dragon family.
Tigers and cats both belong to the same feline family.
Dragons and drakes differ much like tigers and house cats.
In other words, they exhibit stark differences.
But the problem was that dragons themselves were inherently bizarre creatures.
Dragon.
The strongest being on the Continent and an apocalyptic calamity.
Dragons are called the ‘pinnacle of biological evolution’.
A single organism can adapt perfectly to a specific environment.
Just as life thrives even in the harsh Snowy Mountains where temperatures plummet to minus seventy degrees.
But perfect adaptation to a specific environment is a double-edged sword.
Because when that environment collapses, the species goes extinct without resistance.
Like how a monster from the Snowy Mountains would be cooked to death in a single day if thrown into the scorching heat of the south.
Adaptation to a specific environment is possible.
But adaptation to all environments is impossible.
There is exactly one exception.
Dragons.
Dragons could adapt and survive in any environment across the Continent.
In bitter winters, in scorching heat, in salty oceans, in barren deserts, in dense forests.
Across countless natural environments.
Dragons could thrive.
And in all those environments, dragons reign as apex predators.
A single individual once burned an entire kingdom without sustaining a scratch—that is their strength.
A life form virtually invincible, the dragon.
Drakes are a species that branched off from dragons.
Though they exhibit stark differences like tigers and house cats, they remain formidable creatures nonetheless.
By that measure, they earned their name: Master of the Snowy Mountains.
True to being a distant relative of dragons, Gelu Drake was the apex predator dwelling at the very summit of these Snowy Mountains.
One could tell simply by looking at Gelu Drake’s hide color.
Most monsters inhabiting the Snowy Mountains bore a ‘white’ coloration.
It was camouflage to protect them from predators.
But Gelu Drake was different.
Vivid reddish-brown hide.
Gelu Drake had no need for camouflage; its very existence proclaimed it as the ‘Master of the Snowy Mountains’.
Having diverged from dragons, its wings atrophied. In exchange, it gained the agility to traverse the ground with incredible speed.
Its muscular tail not only maintained balance but also served as a formidable striking weapon.
Yet contrary to appearances, it was nearly herbivorous.
Technically omnivorous, but Gelu Drake had evolved that way.
In the Snowy Mountains where food was scarce.
Gelu Drake used its hard claws to excavate through snow and fed primarily on the moss and grass growing beneath.
For this reason, it dwelled at the mountain’s peak and rarely descended.
‘Then why on earth…?’
Doubt and the terror of death descended upon me all at once.
My instincts screamed relentlessly, urging me to flee without hesitation.
Yet my entire body remained frozen, unable to move.
I felt like a statue carved from ice itself.
But this paralysis stemmed not from the cold—it came from fear.
And yet, on the other hand—
I could not suppress the electrifying thrill coursing through my entire being.
Though Drakes had diverged from Dragons countless ages past, they remained classified within the same Dragon Family.
In other words, the genetic imprint of Dragons flowed through every Drake.
A Dragon was a creature I had never preyed upon, even in my previous life.
The apex predator of the Continent itself—even I, who had been a Predator of the Allied Forces, had never dared attempt to devour one.
And now that supreme genetic legacy stood directly before my eyes.
Grrrowwwl—!
How could my entire body not tingle with exhilaration?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————