The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 295

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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 295. The First Dragon and….
Something writhed within the corpse of the dead Fafnir.
It took the form of a spherical orb.
Its surface was hard and rough, as if cooled lava.
The size was extraordinary.
It boasted a magnitude as if carved from Rocky Mountain itself.
Thus, the true nature of what appeared to be cradled within the dead Fafnir was—.
“An egg?”
It was an egg.
Unmistakably, a Dragon’s egg.
Could it be that just as Yggdrasil reverted to a seed state, Fafnir too had returned to an egg form?
“There is such a myth, certainly.”
The Phoenix.
An immortal bird that immolates itself in flame to be reborn when its time comes.
A creature called the Dragon of the avian realm.
It was known merely as a fantasy creature.
But that was incorrect.
It was a life form that genuinely existed.
True to its epithet as the Dragon of the avian realm, the Phoenix was both the ancestor of birds and a branch of Dragons that actually existed.
A pterosaur-lineage Dragon.
Yet it was merely a Dragon that wielded fire and ash.
It did not possess the power of resurrection as the myths proclaimed.
“It was merely a phenomenon that occurred when awakening from hibernation.”
Phoenix-lineage Dragons—.
That is, pterosaur-lineage Dragons undergo a process of recalibrating their ancient internal organs when awakening from prolonged dormancy.
They incinerate their own bodies to purify the tissues that had necrotized during the long hibernation.
Yet to an outside observer, this appearance resembled nothing so much as ‘a bird that burned itself to death, only to be reborn from the ashes’.
It was merely myth embellished by imagination.
The truth was otherwise.
It was regeneration, not resurrection.
In other words, Dragons possessed neither the power of resurrection nor the ability to regress to an infantile state.
In either case, Fafnir’s corpse should not have remained.
Whether through resurrection.
Or reverting to an egg state.
Fafnir’s corpse should not have persisted.
Yet Fafnir’s corpse was unmistakably present.
“Then what is this egg?”
A descendant of Fafnir?
That possibility seemed most likely.
“…Still, something feels amiss.”
First, the egg’s size was far too abnormal.
A Dragon’s egg is typically around 4 to 5 meters.
So a newly hatched hatchling is weak enough to be hunted by an Ogre.
Of course, Fafnir is a brachiosaurus-class Dragon.
The largest living creature in the history of The Continent.
The largest among all Dragons.
Its egg size is also overwhelmingly massive even among Dragons.
Still, it should be around 10 meters.
But this one was a staggering 30 meters.
It boasted a size three times larger—absolutely colossal.
The shell itself was peculiar.
Not an ordinary organic shell, but a rocky structure formed as if lava had cooled and solidified.
When I activated Predator’s Instinct [S], information materialized before my eyes.
And that information—
awakened something I had completely failed to notice until now.
* * *
After Adrian vanished into the deep darkness of the Underground Vault to confirm the Dragon’s hibernation,
Rielin and Broombar remained.
The two began preparations for hunting the Dragon.
Rielin placed her hand on the ground.
With her fingertips, she calmly traced the flow of the earth veins.
The pressure and heat of the deep underground.
Even amid the suffocating pressure and searing heat that burned the lungs, thick and powerful earth veins writhed.
Rielin synchronized her consciousness with the earth veins.
Uuuuuuung…!
With a low vibration, spirits gathered.
The spirit of earth gently stabilized the ground.
The spirit of fire suppressed the heat.
The spirit of wind formed an air layer and deployed a protective barrier.
The spirit of water gathered moisture to alleviate the parched heat.
The spirit of light dispelled the darkness, and
the spirit of cold formed a delicate crystalline veil.
Multiple spirits were completing their preparations to ameliorate the underground environment.
But spirits were entities of sorcery.
And sorcery originated from mana, the primordial energy.
Though there was no mana-nullifying element like Runesteel here, the earth veins writhed so intensely that mana interference occurred.
As the spirits wavered in the distorted mana flow, at that moment—
Kiiiing—!!
Broombar activated the mana stabilization device.
The distorted mana flow was brought into order.
As the mana stabilized, the spirits regained their equilibrium as well.
Rielin slowly withdrew her hand and spoke.
“At this rate, we should be able to maintain it for about an hour.”
The previous limit of thirty minutes had extended to a full hour.
Broombar checked the device’s output readings and nodded in satisfaction.
“An hour is more than manageable.”
Broombar made fine adjustments to the device’s amplitude.
Spirit magic and Arcane Engineering.
Two forces that seemed fundamentally opposed to one another.
Yet Broombar now understood something crucial.
The energy of Arcane Engineering—ether.
It was, in truth, merely the lingering resonance left behind by communion with spirits.
And Rielin had come to understand something as well.
Nature does not always pursue harmony alone.
Water swallows flame before it spreads too far.
Mutual aid and symbiosis are not nature’s only way.
Mutual destruction and opposition are equally natural laws.
Harmony within opposition.
Two forces that could never have coexisted were now filling each other’s gaps, producing perfect synergy.
The reason this had become possible.
Yggdrasil had allowed Rielin to connect deeply with the spirits.
The Demonic Beasts had brought Broombar’s stabilization device into the depths of the Underground Vault.
The being who had laid the foundation for all these possibilities.
Adrian.
None of this would have been possible without him.
Rielin fixed her connection with the spirits one final time and spoke.
“All preparations are complete.”
Now they only needed Adrian to return.
Rielin and Broombar steadied their breathing.
Dragon hunting.
They centered their minds for the battle that was about to begin.
A silence like the calm before a storm.
It was at that very moment.
Kuuuuuuung—!
A vibration resonated from not far away.
A tremor as if some colossal heart were beating.
There it was again.
Kuuuuuuung—!!
Another vibration rippled through the space.
Deeper and heavier than the one before.
Rielin and Broombar turned to face each other simultaneously.
“Just now….”
“That was….”
Their questions overlapped for a single moment—
Grrrrrowl!
Kraaaaaagh!
The Demonic Beasts waiting in the rear began to emit a crimson radiance.
* * *
The information that materialized before my eyes upon activating Predator’s Instinct [S].
It was not an egg.
◆Core of Evolution
: The quintessence of evolution whose origins remain unknowable. An anomalous existence that defies all existing biological theories, and the primordial form of evolution itself—a concept so fundamental that even causality cannot define which came first.
“The Core of Evolution?”
It was at that very moment such a question crossed my mind.
Crrrrrack—!!
The shell of the core fractured.
Along the jagged fissures, an immense force erupted outward.
It was no mere power.
Vitality.
An overwhelming life force as if the very concept of evolution had taken tangible form.
Kuuuuuuung—!
A heartbeat resonated from within the core.
And again.
Kuuuuuuung—!!
The heartbeat echoed once more.
Deeper, heavier.
A more primal reverberation.
The surrounding space itself cried out.
The echo of the vast cavern was like a scream.
As if the world itself rejected it.
No—as if it feared it.
More primordial than anything else.
More alien than anything else.
The birth of this innocent life that no longer obeyed the laws of nature.
Crrrrrack—!!
The fissures within the core deepened.
The surging life force could no longer be contained.
And so the world began to tremble.
Kuguguguguung…!!
In this moment, as it was about to be born.
As if I had instinctively sensed that it was already too late.
And then.
The entity within the core finally opened its eyes.
The moment it opened its eyes, it gazed upon me.
And without my realizing it, I stumbled backward.
It was beyond my will.
‘This is….’
I was being forced into submission.
That entity was subduing me with nothing more than the act of opening its eyes.
Through that, I could understand.
The identity of that entity.
The answer lay in the Evolution Quest.
==[All paths to supremacy ultimately lead through the Dragon]==
[Objective] – Devour a Dragon
[Reward] – Complete Awakening of 【Primordial】 Bloodline
[Failure] – No Penalty
The Evolution Quest’s objective was to devour a Dragon.
In other words, it wasn’t asking me to devour the Dragon ‘Fafnir’.
If that were the case, the Evolution Quest should have failed.
Fafnir was dead.
More than ten days ago, at that.
Its life force had even dissipated to the point where I could no longer absorb its genetic material.
The Evolution Quest should have been a complete failure.
But it hadn’t failed.
Even now, the Evolution Quest was still in progress.
In other words, the Dragon was still alive.
No, from the very beginning.
The Evolution Quest hadn’t arisen because of Fafnir.
That made sense—ten days before Fafnir died was when I had received the Evolution Quest.
In other words, the Evolution Quest had manifested at the exact moment Fafnir perished.
Therefore, what had just awakened within this core.
That which forced my submission with nothing but its gaze.
The Evolution Quest had arisen because of that entity.
==【Individual Information】==
Individual: T-Rex
Classification: Ancient Creature – Saurischia – Tyrannosauridae – Dragon
Gender: Female
Age: 67,532,007 years
Characteristics: Selection Pressure [S+], Mutation [S+]
The most formidable predator in the history of The Continent.
The Tyrant Dragon.
Tyrannosaurus.
The last of the mighty dinosaurs to emerge, the final reptile that had brought the entire Continent beneath its feet in a single sweep.
The ultimate crystallization of evolution itself, the final apex predator.
And.
The one that had endured even the natural judgment of mass extinction.
The first Dragon.
The Evolution Quest had been generated by T-Rex.
T-Rex’s eyes within the core pierced through me.
As if gazing upon life itself.
As if evolution itself was looking down.
…Such was that gaze.
T-Rex’s voice reached me.
【I sense the power of mighty evolution.】
It was less a voice than a resonance.
Rather than language, the very vibration of existence itself seemed to bore into my eardrums.
Craaaaaack—!!
The fissures in the core deepened further.
Life energy seeping through those cracks spiraled in helical patterns, swirling violently in all directions.
Within that maelstrom, it awakened.
Bones not yet fully formed.
Flesh not yet settled into place.
An incomplete body wracked by premature evolution trembled.
Yet still, it awakened.
And thus I found myself confronted with the birth of an incomprehensible existence.
That was… yes.
An incomprehensible form of life.
Approximately fifty meters in length.
Its massive frame, built upon a Tyrannosaurus skeleton, was overwhelming in its sheer presence.
Plate-like scales covering its colossal body seemed as though countless layers of steel had been layered upon one another.
Wings spread to either side, still incomplete, dripped with blood and mucus as they convulsed.
It was as though evolution had halted mid-sculpting of a Dragon.
Perhaps that was why.
…It bore not only a Dragon’s traits.
Its two deep black eyes possessed multiple focal points like the compound eyes of an insect.
Spines rising along its vertebrae resembled the fins of a fish.
Its long, rigid tail evoked the hind limbs of an amphibian.
It was a grotesque amalgamation—the blended evolution of disparate life forms.
The cold ruthlessness of reptiles.
The keen agility of avians.
The robustness of mammals.
The fluidity of fish.
The adaptability of amphibians.
The survivability of insects.
A fusion of all biological kingdoms.
This was no creature born from nature’s hand.
And thus, something that could not—should not—exist in this world.
‘Could it be…?’
I could see it now.
Come to think of it, something had always felt off.
The Beast Legion’s assault on Feractrum.
How. No—why.
Why had the Beast Legion attacked Feractrum?
To covet the Dwarves’ technological prowess?
To plunder their resources?
None of it.
It was to annihilate Feractrum itself.
The true objective was Fafnir.
They coveted the Dragon’s genetic legacy slumbering beneath Feractrum.
Therefore, this creature was—
A lifeform that defied biological evolution.
Not a creature born from nature.
A creation wrought by an intelligent being with deliberate purpose.
Irreducible complexity.
(Irreducible Complexity).
It was one of the six Lords who served The Emperor.
‘A Beast Lord.’
T-Rex was a Beast Lord.
T-Rex’s true identity was a Beast Lord.
As if to affirm my conviction—
◆Calamity Quest [Wait, you’re saying your mother came too?!] has begun.
A Calamity Quest materialized before my eyes.

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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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