The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 288
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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 288. The Dragon (1)
Dragon.
The absolute sovereign reigning supreme over all existence.
The pinnacle of every living creature in this world.
Yet the biological classification of such a dragon fell within the Monster category.
In other words, it was a Monster.
However, Monsters were a classification born when flora and fauna underwent sudden mutations.
Then.
What creature could have mutated to become a dragon?
Countless scholars conducted research upon research.
The dragon’s overwhelming size.
Power so formidable that a single dragon could annihilate an entire prosperous kingdom.
One creature naturally came to mind.
Whale.
Indeed, whales had given birth to the Ogre, the apex predator of the land.
Then could it be that dragons as well?
Were they perhaps another evolutionary result born from whales undergoing mutation?
The conclusion was no.
A colossal body that soared through the heavens.
Strength that could tear asunder all things.
A physique harder than anything else in existence.
A biological structure imbued with mana.
No biological similarities were discovered between whales and dragons.
Dragons were not mammals to begin with.
They resembled reptiles far more closely.
Yet their aerial flight abilities aligned with the characteristics of avians.
Reptiles and birds.
Dragons possessed the traits of these two disparate lineages simultaneously.
Only then could scholars finally discern the dragon’s true origin.
The largest living creature in existence was undoubtedly the whale.
But.
It was not the largest creature in history.
Hundreds of millions of years ago.
During that epoch, The Continent was not ruled by mammals.
Hundreds of millions of years past, mammals were small and frail.
They dwelt hidden beneath the earth.
They barely survived by hunting insects in the underground darkness.
They dared not raise their heads before the mighty creatures that dominated The Continent in those ancient times.
Colossal bodies and tremendous strength.
Trampling the earth with two legs or four.
Spreading wings of membrane to traverse the vast sky.
Dinosaurs.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, The Continent belonged to the dinosaurs.
They dominated every land across The Continent, including the seas, and their reign extended to the skies, forests, wastelands, and valleys alike.
Yet that absolute era was not eternal.
An unforeseen catastrophe.
An Extinction Event.
The dinosaurs vanished in an instant, and that magnificent age came to its end.
An empty Continent.
The void left by the vanished apex.
Through that chasm, the mammals that had been hiding beneath the earth cautiously raised their heads.
Based on their capacity for social organization and intelligence, they gradually ascended the ecological hierarchy.
And finally.
Mammals became the new masters of The Continent.
However.
-Not all dinosaurs went extinct.
Some individuals barely survived.
But it was an environment where extinction was inevitable.
The dinosaurs’ survival was a fate that could never endure.
-No matter how powerful a life form is, it cannot overcome nature.
So the dinosaurs that survived the Extinction Event submitted to nature.
They reduced their body size and retreated to the shadows of swamplands and jungles.
They persisted by hiding in places where nature’s gaze could not reach.
This became.
-The origin of birds and reptiles today.
Thus dinosaurs differentiated into the new species of birds and reptiles, and went extinct.
Just as no life form can overcome nature.
That is why there are no individuals with [S-] rank in nature.
There exists only the highest rank within the structural limitation of [A+] rank.
Only one.
There are only the rarest of exceptions.
Such as the Ogre threatened with extinction by dragons.
-Or the last survivor of a species driven to the brink of annihilation.
Under extreme pressure, when desperate will to survive and an abnormal environment converge, evolution transcends its limits.
And thus.
-A certain individual among the surviving dinosaurs refused to become birds or reptiles.
It refused to submit to nature.
It boldly threw down a challenge to nature itself.
-And ultimately evolved in an abnormal direction, burning through its own genetic structure.
To survive.
To survive.
Transcending the framework nature had ordained.
Subjugating nature itself.
The ancient ruler of The Continent, reborn as the supreme lifeform that ultimately reigned supreme over all creation.
-Thus was the first Dragon born.
The birth of the Dragon.
A dinosaur that survived the great extinction, evolved into something transcendent.
A transcendent lifeform that even the great extinction could not extinguish.
And so the Dragon could adapt and survive in any environment whatsoever.
In the biting cold of winter, in scorching heat.
In the salt-laden depths of the sea, in the parched desert.
And in dense forests.
Across countless natural environments, the Dragon could thrive with ease.
And in every single one of those environments.
The Dragon reigned as the apex predator.
Its scales were harder than any metal.
Its claws were sharper than any weapon.
Its strength surpassed that of any living creature.
A lifeform virtually invincible.
The Dragon was no longer nature’s creation.
Where once it had reigned as the ruler of The Continent, dominating all life.
Now it reigned as nature’s hegemon, supreme over all existence.
And now.
The thought that consumed my mind.
‘A Dragon is sleeping in Feractrum…?’
The possibility that a Dragon sleeps in Feractrum.
The possibility that the presence Rielin felt in Feractrum was a Dragon.
‘…Does that even make sense?’
Honestly, it doesn’t.
The Dragon is supreme.
A single Dragon could annihilate an entire powerful nation without sustaining so much as a scratch—the ultimate lifeform.
Yet Rielin said she felt that presence ‘in Feractrum’.
If that were true.
‘Then a Dragon would have been sealed in Feractrum.’
…That made no sense.
A Dragon cannot be sealed.
The Dwarves’ technological prowess?
It wouldn’t work on a Dragon.
Dwarven magitech amounts to nothing more than recreating natural phenomena.
Whereas the Dragon subjugated nature itself.
Before a dragon, the technological prowess of the Dwarves was nothing more than child’s play.
Therefore, if the dragon had appeared in Feractrum in ages past, Feractrum could not exist in the present day.
The Dwarves as a race should have been extinct by then.
‘But how…?’
* * *
The Dwarf Kingdom, Feractrum.
A colossal stone roof formed the ceiling.
A magnificent vista as though the very heart of a mountain had been carved away whole.
Broombar sat in the Blacksmith’s Forge.
In his hands lay not a hammer, but a thick tome.
[The Foolish Dwarf]
It was a fairy tale.
A folk story passed down among the Dwarves through the ages.
Broombar opened the first page of the fairy tale.
====
Once upon a time.
In a time long, long ago.
There was a land where the beautiful ring of hammers echoed every single day.
Where gleaming jewels and metals poured forth endlessly.
In that land, the Dwarves were industrious and honest, and the weapons and jewels they crafted could not be matched by anyone in the world.
The Dwarves prospered day by day with the sound of black steel and the roar of fiery hammers.
Then one day.
A terrible dragon arrived before the Dwarves, accompanied by crimson ash.
The dragon’s wings tore through mountain ranges.
The dragon’s roar shattered the throne to pieces.
-My name is Fafnir! From this moment on, all your treasures belong to me!
Fafnir stole the Dwarves’ most brilliant treasures and piled them high in his nest.
The Dwarves fought valiantly.
But the dragon’s scales were impenetrable.
And the dragon’s breath incinerated even steel.
The once-prosperous Dwarves crumbled helplessly before the mighty dragon, Fafnir.
But.
Hope had not vanished entirely.
Deep within the mountain ranges.
In the darkest cavern, there was a young man quietly striking his hammer.
His name was Sigurd.
A foolish Dwarf, they called him.
For while other Dwarves wielded hammers and refined metals, Sigurd listened intently to strange lights and sounds.
He carved bizarre circuits into metal.
He etched peculiar runes and patterns.
I continued with my peculiar methods.
-That fool was more obsessed with strange things than with metal itself.
-His hammer strikes were clumsy too.
-He’s just an idiot, a complete idiot.
The Dwarves spoke thus and dismissed him without hesitation.
But Sigurd paid them no mind.
In his own way, without fail each day, he melted the ore.
And finally.
I was able to forge a single blade.
Its name was Balmung.
Sigurd walked toward the dragon’s lair, Balmung in hand.
The Dwarves tried to stop him.
There was no way a bumbling Dwarf could defeat a dragon.
But Sigurd fought with unwavering courage.
The dragon roared and spewed flames.
The earth cracked and stone melted away.
Yet Sigurd did not retreat.
He charged forward with all his might.
The Balmung I had forged drove Fafnir back.
And finally.
Boom—!!
Balmung cleaved through the inferno.
The dragon fell.
Fafnir collapsed into a pool of his own blood, and that crimson heart slowly ceased to beat.
But Sigurd was not unscathed.
His armor had melted away.
Deep burns marked his arms, and his entire body was covered in wounds from the dragon’s claws and flames.
Flames blazed anew in the Blacksmith’s Forge.
But.
Sigurd never rose again.
After that day.
The Dwarves buried the dragon’s heart beneath the throne.
And there they planted Balmung.
A blade that would not corrode in the dragon’s breath.
A blade that would not dull with time.
The Blacksmith’s Forge blazed anew.
And within those flames, the Dwarves sang.
-We shall never forget him.
The Dwarves followed the smelting techniques Sigurd had created.
They listened to the hands that commanded the flames.
I tried to sense the subtle tremors flowing through the molten metal.
It was far more than simply refining ore.
The breath of the molten steel.
The crystallization of magical power.
It was a method of singing in harmony with the metal while breathing soul into the steel.
From that day forward, invisible forces began to flow through the Blacksmith’s Forge.
The Dwarves could flourish far more than before, and they gained the ability to defend themselves against any threat.
It was the true legacy left behind by the ‘unconventional Dwarf’ who broke tradition and forged a new path.
====
“It was fun when I was young.”
Looking at it now, there was certainly a childish quality to it.
Broombar closed the storybook.
Sigurd.
An ancient ancestor of the Dwarves.
And a great Dwarf known as ‘the founder of Magitech’.
And the blade that Sigurd in the fairy tale had forged.
Balmung.
The first blade refined through Magitech.
The Dragon Slayer.
I believed in it as a child, but not anymore.
“It cannot slay a dragon.”
As a master of modern Magitech, Broombar could speak with absolute certainty.
“Magitech possesses no power capable of felling a dragon.”
Perhaps the original Magitech was different?
Perhaps it was more superior than it is now?
“Not at all.”
Being first is merely a matter of temporal precedence.
Even the greatest technique of its era accumulates over time, and knowledge spreads.
Eventually, technique becomes commonplace.
Then another genius emerges.
And technique advances once more.
Through such advancement, the era we call ‘modern times’ has been born.
In other words, even a genius of the past.
Even Sigurd, called the founder of Magitech.
In the modern age, he is merely a somewhat exceptional Blacksmith.
He could never match the current Broombar.
And even such a Broombar.
Cannot forge a blade capable of slaying a dragon.
“Fairy tales are merely fairy tales.”
Sixty percent exaggeration.
30% misconception.
And 10% exaggeration that weaves the tale together.
Therefore, a blade like Balmund does not exist.
A sword capable of slaying a dragon.
Such a thing has no place in this world.
But.
The power to stand against a dragon—that can exist.
“…Was it Yggdrasil, then?”
Feractrum is a kingdom built upon the roots of Yggdrasil.
The ancient ancestors of the Dwarves, the Dark Elves, lived in resonance with Yggdrasil.
The reason Yggdrasil lost its power.
Adrian claimed it was because the Dwarves had forgotten the existence of spirits, but.
“It was strange.”
Kindling the flames of the Blacksmith’s Forge.
Cooling the heat of metals.
Guiding the ley lines and ore veins.
There was no way they could have forgotten their ancient spirit companions so suddenly.
Dwarves were originally Elves.
Therefore, they did not forget.
They became unable to remember.
Fafnir.
The dragon that once sought to destroy Feractrum.
Yggdrasil exhausted all its power to protect the Dwarves.
“That’s why it reverted to a seed state.”
As Yggdrasil’s protection faded, the connection to spirits weakened as well.
In other words, the Dwarves did not forget the spirits.
They simply became unable to reach them.
And so, to fill that void—
“The technique called Magitech was invented.”
And the energy that Magitech employs.
Ether.
The source of this strange energy, a peculiar blend of mana and sorcery—
“It must have been the resonance that lingered from the spirits.”
Countless failed attempts to reach the spirits.
The remnants of forgotten channels, leaving only traces behind.
These persisted in the form of Ether, passed down through the ages.
But as centuries elapsed, the truth was forgotten.
Later generations of Dwarves retained only the technique, losing sight of its origin.
And there was one more thing.
A story different from the fairy tales.
In the fairy tale, Fafnir was slain by Sigurd.
But.
The recent resumption of tectonic upheaval.
The mana storms and mana-release earthquakes that once threatened Feractrum.
Two catastrophes that had been barely contained through the refinement of runesteel were beginning anew.
In other words.
The mana storms and mana-release earthquakes were not catastrophes at all.
They were omens.
Merely the harbingers of something stirring beneath.
Broombar returned to Feractrum and conducted his investigation.
And only now did he understand.
Deep beneath Feractrum’s underground.
Beyond countless layers of bedrock.
Beneath the forgotten abyss of oblivion.
“…The dragon was alive.”
Yggdrasil had not slain the dragon.
It had merely sealed it.
Burning all its power, it had barely bound the beast with roots connected to the earth itself.
And.
Rummmmmmmble…!!
That calamity dragon was stirring once more, awakening after thousands of years.
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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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