The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 298
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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 298. The Current Ruler vs. The Former Ruler (2)
The Beast Legion halted in unison.
Then they hesitated at T-Rex’s command once more.
Only to freeze completely at my order instead.
Thus, the legion was thrown into confusion.
Between me and T-Rex.
They couldn’t discern whose command to follow.
A hive consciousness follows a single supreme entity.
Yet the legion couldn’t determine who that supreme entity truly was.
And for good reason—the supreme entity of a hive consciousness wasn’t merely a matter of genetic superiority.
It meant an entity possessing ‘free will’—autonomy and judgment.
By that standard, the legion was now in turmoil.
Both me and T-Rex.
We both possessed free will.
Yet while T-Rex was undeniably the original, I too was a being capable of ‘issuing commands’.
This was the weakness of a hive consciousness.
To overcome such problems, in my past life there existed legion commanders—entities who governed subordinate forces.
They either served the Beast Lord, T-Rex.
Or commanded vast legions in her stead.
In my past life, many entities possessed the free will to independently execute specific missions.
But now?
Lycanthrope had died long ago.
‘It must be the aftermath of when I destroyed the critical breeding lineages last time.’
Thus, T-Rex had failed to complete the hive consciousness.
An incomplete hive consciousness.
In other words, within the legion’s collective mind existed both me and T-Rex.
Two conflicting orders coexisted.
With the command hierarchy overlapping, the legion was neutralized.
As a result, neither T-Rex nor I.
Could command the legion—but that was fortunate.
‘If T-Rex could use the legion, it would’ve been quite troublesome.’
I’d brought the legion without knowing the Beast Lord existed.
Originally, I’d brought them as hunting dogs for Dragon hunting.
Numbers overwhelm individual strength.
Even small fry became formidable when gathered in sufficient quantity.
And these were no mere small fry.
The Beast Lord’s creations were bioengineered weapons perfected through genetic design.
Even a Dragon would find such overwhelming numbers troublesome.
Conversely speaking.
These legions posed a grave threat to me as well.
The Beast Legion, enslaved to a collective consciousness.
A single organism perfectly synchronized with T-Rex.
Thousands of creatures reacting and moving as one entity meant I was essentially facing another T-Rex.
But what if I changed my approach?
The Beast Lord, T-Rex.
I only needed to face her.
‘Yet she was far from an easy opponent.’
The stat amplification of Dragon Blood Eruption [L].
The non-adaptive attack of the Monomolecular Blade [S].
I certainly held the advantage over T-Rex.
Despite this, T-Rex remained a formidable foe.
Evolution refined through eons of time.
The First Dragon—having transcended even mass extinction to ultimately subjugate nature itself.
A creature born from the fusion of every living thing in this world.
Thus, her exoskeleton, muscles, joints, and more.
Every physical capability transcended the boundaries of life itself.
But that was not all.
The burrowing ability to plunge into earth in an instant.
The ranged ability to discharge spines.
The utility ability to accelerate metabolism.
She possessed every manner of specialized ability imaginable.
And so, the poison now pouring from T-Rex’s entire body.
Hisssssss—!!
A toxic mist flowing through the air.
Even Broad Immunity Enhancement [B+] proved useless.
It carried toxicity beyond nature itself, as if designed by Selection Pressure [S+].
‘I could use Cytokine Rampage to neutralize it.’
But that would also strip away the buff effects.
In other words, the Dragon Blood Eruption [L] effect would vanish as well.
In a situation where my life wasn’t immediately threatened, using Cytokine Rampage was unwise.
‘At least the Cavern is spacious.’
The poison continued to spread.
If it filled the entire Cavern, I would be at a disadvantage.
Poison was called an asymmetric weapon for good reason—it could nullify weight class differences in a single stroke.
Though it would consume considerable biological resources, I possessed enough to blanket this entire Cavern.
Therefore, I had to eliminate T-Rex’s poison somehow….
At that moment.
Familiar silhouettes appeared between the neutralized Beast Legion.
Rielin and Broombar.
Yet the signs of battle were unmistakable.
‘It seems the Beast Legion has been causing quite a commotion this whole time.’
When T-Rex awakened, my control over them must have temporarily slipped away.
That’s why the legion ran wild without restraint.
Rielin and Broombar were the ones holding them back.
In any case.
The moment I saw Rielin, a single thought struck me like lightning.
I called out to her immediately.
“Rielin.”
“….”
“Rielin.”
“….”
She didn’t respond.
From her vacant expression, she clearly didn’t comprehend the situation.
…Well, I couldn’t blame her—I wouldn’t have understood it either.
* * *
Rielin and Broombar couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
Adrian had said he was merely going to check if the Dragon was asleep.
So why hadn’t he returned for so long?
Why had the obedient beasts suddenly gone berserk?
They’d been fighting desperately when the beasts abruptly vanished somewhere—what was that about?
They hurried after them, and what did they find?
A Dragon with a body length of 100 meters coiled up—what was that?
“KYAAAAAAAGH─!!”
And what was this alien creature shrieking like that??
“…???”
“…???”
Rielin and Broombar stood frozen, their faces filled with nothing but question marks.
“─lin.”
“….”
“─elin.”
“….”
“Rielin!”
“…Ah, yes.”
Rielin flinched at the sound.
She turned her head toward the source of the voice.
Adrian.
He was calling out to her.
So that’s where he’d been.
Adrian then pointed with his finger toward one direction.
“Can you purify that poison?”
“…Poison?”
Rielin’s gaze turned toward the direction Adrian had indicated.
Seething venom.
It carried a toxicity so potent that merely looking at it felt as though one’s optic nerves would dissolve.
“Would you be capable of handling this?”
“…I’ll give it a try.”
Rielin closed her eyes and raised her hand.
A swirling emerald radiance.
As if nature itself were drawing breath, the spirit’s resonance rippled outward.
Wherever the spirit’s wave touched, it began purifying the poison.
The venom writhed as if struggling for life.
Yet silently, and with undeniable strength, even that struggle dissolved into a gentle current.
“What?!”
The alien creature opened its otherworldly eyes in an otherworldly manner.
* * *
Rielin had purified T-Rex’s toxicity in a single breath.
Truly, she was a Spirit Summoner of the highest order.
The reason this was possible was, simply put, a difference in approach.
From my perspective, T-Rex’s venom was, how should I put it.
A high-dimensional genetic compound poison that my Broad Immunity [B+] could not resolve.
But for Rielin?
It was merely an unnatural poison that defied the principles of nature itself.
An imbalance of nature that T-Rex had arbitrarily warped.
So Rielin did not interpret or analyze the poison biologically as I would have.
She simply restored it to nature’s proper flow.
Thus, the genetic reaction that T-Rex had forcibly compressed collapsed.
The distorted structure returned to its original course, and the venom itself could no longer sustain itself.
It was something I could never accomplish, no matter how hard I tried.
But for Rielin, it was nothing at all.
And this.
Was the difference between humans and Dragons.
Dragons.
Mighty and arrogant ancient rulers of The Continent.
T-Rex hunted even her own kind to absorb their essence.
She survived by becoming stronger through her own power.
Humans.
Weak and arrogant current rulers of The Continent.
Yet humans did not hunt their own kind.
When their own abilities fell short, they sought help from others.
When another lacked ability, yet another would aid them.
Unlike Dragons, humans thrived through cooperation and collective effort.
Individual humans were absurdly weak, yet their communities were formidable.
What a single person could not accomplish, ten could achieve.
What ten could not do, an entire generation could accomplish through succession.
A species that acknowledged its own weakness, relied upon that weakness together, and came to dominate The Continent through survival.
That was humanity.
Which is why.
“Rielin, Broombar. From this moment forward, we hunt T-Rex together—. No, we shall hunt it down.”
Pack hunting was humanity’s survival strategy.
But weren’t Elves and Dwarves not human?
Not at all.
They were ultimately variants of humanity.
Mongma, born from the lies of the Monks.
Cambion, the bastard offspring of Mongma and humans.
Elves, who overcame Cambion’s desires.
Dwarves, who diverged from the Elves.
All of them were Ain with genetic distance not far removed from humans.
More directly stated.
They were kindred of humanity, compatible in reproductive function.
* * *
Adrian’s voice suddenly pierced the air.
“Rielin, Broombar. From this moment forward, we hunt T-Rex together—. No, we shall hunt it down.”
…What?
T-Rex? Pack hunting?
Broombar and Rielin could not fathom what Adrian was saying.
They couldn’t even comprehend what situation they were in.
But Adrian seemed to have no intention of explaining.
Rather, he seemed to have no time for explanations.
Adrian vanished.
When their vision cleared, Adrian and the alien creature clashed.
That alien creature was likely T-Rex, though regardless.
Adrian and T-Rex.
Two beings collided in violent confrontation.
CRASH!
A deafening roar shook the world as if it were crumbling.
Neither side yielded an inch.
Beast against beast.
Predator against predator.
A primal collision of primordial life.
BOOM! CRASH-CRASH-BOOM!
I’m not sure what’s happening or how it came to this.
But regardless, I had to help.
As Adrian said, we needed to coordinate our assault.
But an aggressive one.
No, there was nothing Rielin could contribute to the offensive aspect.
T-Rex was holding her own even against Adrian’s terrifying attacks.
And Rielin’s strength and spirits were weaker than Adrian’s.
In other words, Rielin couldn’t inflict even a single wound on T-Rex’s exoskeleton.
She might manage some disruption, but direct combat with T-Rex was impossible.
Buffing Adrian through the blessings of various spirits… that was also difficult.
Adrian wasn’t susceptible to spirit blessings anyway.
But there wasn’t a lack of ways to coordinate an assault.
Combat support and assistance.
In other words, tactical coordination existed.
Rielin began first with the original plan—softening the ground.
Whoooooosh—!!
An emerald-hued current of energy spread across the earth.
The rock softened.
The soil loosened like mud.
Thereby, the pressure of the ground pressing down weakened, and the roiling heat gradually dissipated.
As if the earth itself drew a breath, the suffocating weight lifted.
Adrian’s movements became considerably easier.
And noticeably faster.
As if leaping across space itself, Adrian descended upon T-Rex.
The distance between them was still insufficient.
Yet they attacked regardless.
Boom!
A deafening roar as if the world itself shattered.
“Ugh!”
Someone gasped sharply.
And the one sent flying backward was… T-Rex.
Crash!
T-Rex’s massive body tumbled across the ground.
T-Rex quickly righted herself and assumed an offensive-defensive stance, but before she could, Rielin drew a deep breath.
Splooosh!
Thick vines erupted from beneath T-Rex’s feet as if life itself burst forth.
They climbed her legs and constricted around her joints.
“You think something like this can bind me?!”
T-Rex roared and twisted her body.
The vines were instantly crushed and torn to shreds.
At the same moment, Broombar lunged toward T-Rex.
Broombar, wreathed in the blessings of countless spirits.
Unlike Adrian, Broombar could receive buffs from the spirits.
Boom!
Broombar’s fist struck T-Rex’s jaw with tremendous force.
The monstrous strength that had even pushed back the Ogre.
Rielin’s buff, infused with nature itself.
T-Rex staggered backward, retreating a few paces.
Yet.
She did not fall.
“A mere mammal dares defy me!!”
T-Rex seized Broombar directly.
Her exoskeleton trembled with fury.
The spirits’ blessings were torn to shreds.
Her massive claws gripped Broombar’s entire body, intent on rending him apart.
But in that instant.
“It would be careless to forget about me.”
Adrian’s voice rang out as space itself twisted and tore.
Crack!
Adrian materialized behind her.
…T-Rex’s reaction came too late.
Rather, she could not react.
The moment she realized this, Adrian’s claws were already tearing into her chest.
Crunch!!
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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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My guess is that the fight will end on ch300