The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 294

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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 294. Dragon Hunting (2)
Mole beasts burrowed through the earth at tremendous speed.
“This… this can’t be real…”
Broombar couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.
No, he couldn’t help but be astounded.
Broombar could perfectly envision every concept, phenomenon, and material in existence—even the laws governing them.
Based on this understanding, he could restructure and reshape reality itself, perceiving the information of concepts and matter with exquisite precision.
Yet the excavation method these mole beasts employed defied all comprehension.
Their efficiency far surpassed anything Arcane Engineering could achieve.
That made sense, as Arcane Engineering excavators were precision machines based on calculated angles and pressure.
Soil density, fracture direction—
Each required tedious numerical adjustments.
But these creatures were different.
They instinctively found the weakest points and—
Crack-crack-crack!
—burrowed through without hesitation.
Their razor-sharp claws tore through solid stone.
Their entire bodies were engineered for excavation.
A living excavator, not one forged from metal.
In other words—
A biological excavator.
This was a domain my Arcane Engineering could not replicate.
However.
They were not without limitations.
Relying on instinct rather than intellect made them unsystematic.
They excelled at immediate responses.
But sustained operations—
Or rather—
Complex pathfinding proved extremely vulnerable.
Rumble-rumble-rumble…!
They advanced blindly, never calculating the risk of ground collapse.
Quite a few individuals had perished, burrowing through unstable strata without consideration.
And that weakness—
“Broombar, would you mind coordinating them for us?”
I could resolve it instantly.
Or rather, I made it possible to resolve.
“Now, excavate according to Broombar’s instructions. Begin!”
Boom!
At Adrian’s command, the mole beasts responded in unison, launching themselves into the earth.
The method was simple.
“Three beasts to the left at a twelve-degree angle. The other five on the right—drive in diagonally.”
As Broombar issued his command.
Thud! Thud-thud!
The magical beasts moved with perfect precision according to Broombar’s intent.
It wasn’t flawless.
The movements weren’t meticulously choreographed.
Of course they weren’t.
The magical beasts didn’t follow the mechanical calculations of Arcane Engineering.
Yet they displayed sensory and emotional responses of living creatures.
‘They’re… comprehending?’
They were moving while ‘understanding’ Broombar’s intent.
That wasn’t all.
They understood the entire excavation operation.
When the mole beasts dug through the earth, the others moved immediately.
The gorilla beast pushed aside the excavated soil, clearing the surroundings.
The elephant beast extracted exposed rocks, widening the passage.
The bat beast flew about, regulating the internal oxygen flow with echolocation.
All these tasks unfolded with perfect synchronization, like a single organism.
This was a realm Arcane Engineering could never reach.
Broombar turned to Adrian with a dumbfounded expression.
“How are they moving like that…?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
Huh?
Broombar fell momentarily silent.
When he turned to look at Adrian, I too was watching the beasts work with fascination.
“Didn’t you do this?”
“Well, yes, I did.”
But if you don’t know, what am I supposed to do?
“They just moved on their own.”
Adrian shrugged.
So Broombar simply let the matter drop.
In any case.
Thus, averaging one kilometer per day.
The magical beasts tore through the earth at a frenzied pace toward the Underground Vault where the Dragon lay sealed.
* * *
The central district of Whitewolf Territory.
Seraphia sat in Count Whitewolf’s Administrative Office, attending to her duties.
Having been unconscious for so long, work had accumulated—.
“There isn’t much?”
There were fewer tasks to handle than expected.
Stacks of documents awaited her approval.
And the work that actually needed to be processed—
“There’s barely any?”
Seraphia calmly reviewed the raised documents.
And soon.
She understood the reason.
“…My brother handled it all.”
Adrian had taken on every responsibility in her stead.
A smile bloomed unbidden across her face.
Seraphia flipped through the documents once more.
Upon closer inspection, Adrian hadn’t processed everything alone.
“Yggdrasil helped tremendously.”
Truly a remarkable plant.
Seraphia methodically reviewed the documents.
At that moment.
Knock, knock.
—Countess. It’s Bernard.
“Come in.”
Seraphia set down the documents she’d been reading.
Shortly after, the door to the Administrative Office opened and Bernard entered.
“What is it?”
“It’s not anything else, but the Dwarves have apparently sought refuge in Whitewolf Territory.”
“…Pardon?”
The Dwarves sought refuge here?
“What could be the reason—No, I’ll go see for myself.”
Seraphia rose from her seat immediately.
And.
She beheld an enormous gathering of Dwarves.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say nearly every Dwarf in Feractrum had come.
“A Dragon?!”
Seraphia grasped the reason.
“And my brother is attempting to hunt that Dragon?!?”
Seraphia’s eyes widened dramatically.
How long had he been missing—
Ah, of course.
It had been quite some time.
The duration of her unconsciousness simply made it feel shorter.
But still.
First an Ogre, and now a Dragon!
“I must help him!”
Dragons are incomprehensibly powerful.
Of course, Seraphia had never actually seen a Dragon.
But she had read and heard of them countless times in books.
Tales of a single Dragon slaughtering a thousand soldiers in one fell swoop.
Stories of it turning mighty kingdoms into seas of flame in a single day.
Fairy tales, myths, legends, folklore.
In every account, Dragons appeared as catastrophes.
You might think the stories in books were exaggerated, wouldn’t you?
Not at all.
Even the Ogre, whom I had only read about in books, proved devastatingly powerful.
If such an Ogre could be devoured in a single bite by a Dragon, how much more formidable must the Dragon be?
No matter how incredibly strong Adrian was, no matter how truly magnificent my older brother might be, a Dragon transcended even that.
“I must go and help my brother!”
Seraphia took a long stride forward.
In that instant.
Someone blocked her path.
A handsome man with long golden hair.
“Sir Kai?”
It was Kai.
Kai stood firmly in Seraphia’s way.
“You cannot go.”
“But—!”
“Your body has not yet fully recovered.”
Seraphia clamped her mouth shut.
…It was true.
The battle with the Immortal Queen had drained me excessively.
My still-immature authority over frost was consuming me rather than sustaining me.
Normally, I shouldn’t even be conscious.
I could only regain awareness thanks to Yggdrasil.
And a battle with the Dragon would surely push me to my absolute limits.
“This time, I may not awaken again.”
Kai spoke with resolute certainty.
As if in agreement, Yggdrasil’s branches nodded vigorously.
Seraphia lowered her head.
“But…”
She spoke while biting her lower lip firmly.
“…My brother is in danger.”
Kai gazed quietly at Seraphia.
And as if he had realized something.
Kai nodded and opened his mouth.
“Come to think of it, you’ve never actually seen Adrian, have you?”
“…What?”
Seraphia’s head tilted involuntarily.
“You’re saying I haven’t seen my brother?”
“I mean Adrian after his disappearance.”
“Well….”
I’d been unconscious for far too long.
And when I awoke?
Adrian had already departed for Feractrum.
“Since then, Adrian has changed considerably.”
“…How much?”
Seraphia asked, her voice mingling anxiety with anticipation.
Kai hesitated before answering.
“I cannot say.”
“…?”
“It is beyond my capacity to comprehend.”
Kai’s eyes held no trace of deception.
Yet Seraphia could not easily believe him.
Adrian’s disappearance had lasted approximately four months.
It was not a short time.
But it was hardly an eternity either.
A span too brief for any dramatic transformation.
“A Dragon could never be Adrian’s equal.”
Kai harbored not the slightest doubt.
His face bore no trace of uncertainty whatsoever.
Awe, respect, admiration, trust.
And anger and sorrow?
“….”
When Kai spoke of Adrian, his expression bore an enigmatic complexity I could not decipher.
* * *
Approximately seven kilometers from Feractrum.
Roughly ten kilometers beneath the surface.
The heat in this underground vault was staggering.
‘Sweltering.’
A heat as though I had stepped into the fires of perdition itself.
The air entering my lungs exceeded several hundred degrees.
Had my body not been reinforced by Rigid Fusion [E], my organs would have incinerated instantly.
The pressure, too, was overwhelming.
The crushing weight bearing down upon my entire frame was—how to describe it.
In all seriousness, it felt as though I had hoisted an entire Rocky Mountain upon my shoulders.
‘Still manageable, I suppose.’
My physical stats were simply too abnormal for this to be otherwise.
But combat was another matter entirely.
I was fighting while burdened by countless restrictions.
‘Yet the Dragon treats this place like its own bedroom.’
Truly, it deserved the title of the strongest living being.
Which was precisely why.
I had to use Predation [S+].
As I spent a moment adapting to the Underground Vault’s environment.
“Shall we begin now?”
Rielin asked.
Rielin, enveloped in a mystical aura.
It was the blessing of spirits.
Earth, fire, water, wind, light, stone, and countless others.
All manner of spirits protected Rielin from the Underground Vault’s heat and pressure.
The Spirit Summoner of the Celestial Realm.
Rielin was displaying a performance worthy of her past life.
Thus, all preparations for Dragon hunting were complete.
But not yet.
“First, I’ll go confirm whether the Dragon is actually asleep.”
“Understood.”
“Then I’ll be back shortly.”
I pushed my body deeper into the Underground Vault.
* * *
Darkness so complete that I couldn’t see an inch ahead.
◆Low-Light Vision [C] activated.
As the text materialized before my eyes, my vision brightened.
And there it was—an enormous cavern.
No exaggeration: a cave the size of a city sprawled before me.
And.
A colossal creature lay coiled, so vast my eyes could scarcely encompass it.
Scales black and hard as solidified lava, like armor forged from stone.
Wings folded in ridges that stretched like mountain ranges.
Claws sharp and long, surpassing even my Dragon Claws [A] in their lethal edge.
Its face was buried within its own body, hidden from view.
So I couldn’t be certain if this was the Dragon from my past life’s memories.
But I knew instinctively.
No—my instincts told me.
This was the Dragon that had once clashed in mortal combat with the Death Lord in my past life.
Thousands of years ago.
A dragon that had been sealed by Yggdrasil after attempting to lead Feractrum to ruin.
Fafnir remained motionless.
It seemed still, as though not yet awakened from its seal.
I held my breath completely.
Then, activating Predator’s Instinct [S], information materialized before my eyes.
==【Corpse Information】==
Corpse: Fafnir
Classification: Monster-type Saurischia Brachiosauridae Dragon
Gender: Male
Age: 247 hours
Characteristics: Mutation [S+]
The largest living creature in the history of The Continent.
Its origins traced back hundreds of millions of years.
To the Brachiosaurus—the largest dinosaur among all dinosaurs.
Fafnir, the dragon evolved from such a Brachiosaurus, boasted an overwhelmingly immense size.
Even in its crouched state, its body length reached nearly 100 meters.
Its full size when completely unfurled was beyond reckoning.
I could not even fathom it.
In my previous life’s memories, when its wings fully extended, it could blot out an entire mountain.
By size alone, it dwarfed even Crawlgar’s frame.
And thus, the dragon’s heart.
The heart that pumped blood to every corner of that colossal body had condensed all vitality and mana—it was no exaggeration to say so.
‘…Something feels wrong.’
Something was amiss.
I examined Fafnir intently.
Fafnir, without the slightest movement.
It made sense.
It had not yet awakened.
‘But why is there no pulse?’
Yet I should have heard the heartbeat.
Even in the deepest sleep, the heart had to beat.
I sharpened my senses.
I concentrated all sensory nerves, including Spatial Sense [U].
And yet.
The heartbeat I should have felt did not manifest.
In that moment.
Information I had just grasped with Predator’s Instinct [S] flickered through my mind.
【Corpse Information】
Corpse—a body left behind by a living organism.
That was what it meant.
In other words.
‘Dead?’
That was Fafnir’s corpse.
Which meant the dragon Fafnir was dead.
And that placed his age at 247 hours.
It meant this corpse was 247 hours old, and Fafnir had died roughly ten days ago.
Therefore, he had lost so much vitality that Predation [S+] was impossible.
“What is this…?”
I examined Fafnir once more.
I felt no life force whatsoever.
It was unmistakably a corpse.
The corpse of a dead dragon.
“How could this…?”
In that moment.
Something writhed within the dead Fafnir’s corpse.

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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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