The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 302

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

Chapter 302. Word of Mouth (1)
A silent storm erupted.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
No—it truly felt as though the world itself had momentarily swallowed its breath.
As if something that existed vanished.
As if something that moved froze in place.
A silence without tremor crushed down upon the space.
And then.
The T-Rex’s offspring that had been bearing down upon Rielin simply ceased to exist.
Thus Rielin could witness it.
The colossal egg.
The moment when life’s primordial evolution was torn asunder.
There was no scream.
The outer shell that had enveloped the egg twisted backward and crumbled.
The vital force that had flooded within the egg burst outward, dispersing in all directions.
And then it vanished.
The crystallization of evolution—having reached the end of survival’s history, something that even nature’s greatest extinctions could not claim—finally met its death.
And yet.
What exactly, who, and how.
Rielin could not comprehend what had made such a phenomenon possible.
The roar of a sovereign piercing through this world lengthwise.
It had been executed in a single instant.
A moment so extreme that no process of perception was even permitted.
Shhhhhhh—!!
A gust of wind swept through.
The ashes of life scattered on the breeze.
And beyond the ashen smoke, someone stood.
A body charred black and twisted.
Muscles split open, bones exposed—a form ravaged beyond recognition.
…It did not seem alive.
But it was alive.
He had not fallen.
Yet he was merely standing, nothing more.
Precarious and grave, as though a single touch would send him crashing down.
And yet none could approach.
His presence bore down upon this entire world.
Rielin could finally perceive something inherent within him.
The Celestial Dragon that governs the world’s order.
The Terrestrial Dragon that holds the breath of the earth.
The Human Dragon that embodies will and soul.
Three primordial powers converged and condensed into one.
Thus, the laws that composed this world naturally bowed their heads.
The natural order of wind, the heat of fire.
The circulation of water, the endurance of earth.
Even the spirits born carrying the will of nature prostrated themselves before it.
A true sovereign reigning over all things.
As if worshipping his birth.
All life and nature bowed their heads before him.
* * *
Kuuuuuuuuuu….
The vibration spread through the grain of time, drawn out long and deep.
More precisely, through the grain of time as I perceived it.
Everything appeared slow, yet vivid.
My accelerated axis of consciousness had not yet returned to its original state.
And no wonder—I had torn through even the realm of instants, reaching the realm of moments.
The moment was a time even Ian could never touch.
There, I had detonated everything within me in a single breath, and in exchange, I now remained alone in this distorted time.
But that was not all.
There was also a price for condensing everything into that moment and tearing through the fabric of spacetime.
‘Kuhahahak—!!’
…I felt as though I were dying.
No, I wanted to die right then and there!
My bones shattered, my nerves burned, my mind crushed—to the point where being alive felt like pure hatred, and….
‘Kuhak—!’
…Just kill me.
If you asked me to do this again?
Don’t talk such insane nonsense.
Even beating me to death wouldn’t be enough.
In the first place, even the realm of instants was beyond my reach alone.
Much less the realm of moments.
‘Kuhahahak—!!’
…Just kill me.
Please.
I grasped at my tearing consciousness with difficulty.
Fortunately, my accelerated consciousness was gradually returning to normal.
After regaining some semblance of awareness.
I examined what lay in my hand.
A sphere larger than a watermelon.
Its surface had no fixed form.
It writhed like a living organism.
Upon closer inspection, endlessly spiraling helical strands of genetic code were interwoven within the sphere.
Perhaps for that reason—bones, scales, wings, gills, roots, feathers, and what appeared to be rod-like protrusions?
‘What is this?’
All manner of life forms flickered across the sphere’s surface in fleeting moments.
It had been torn from T-Rex, certainly.
‘It doesn’t resemble a heart.’
I activated Predator’s Instinct [S].
Fortunately, only my consciousness had accelerated, so confirming the information should pose no problem—
◆Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
…There was indeed a problem.
My consciousness had accelerated so excessively that the information Mungu was interpreting arrived at a glacial pace.
Slowly, painfully slowly, Mungu surfaced in my awareness.
‘Pri…mal…Es…sence…of…Ev…o…lu…tion…?’
Reading that single phrase alone consumed approximately five minutes within my accelerated consciousness.
…Damn it.
I could barely manage to consolidate Mungu’s sluggish information into a coherent whole.
Fortunately, my consciousness gradually decelerated, and I managed to grasp the complete information within twenty minutes.
◆Primal Essence of Evolution
: A crystallized condensation of all genetic information and evolutionary potential across all life. It contains the evolutionary data of every living creature currently existing on the Continent.
Essence.
The distilled extract of the most characteristic and exceptional aspects of genetic code.
Yet it was not a heart.
It diverged from the conditions of Predation [S+]—
‘Does it matter?’
It seemed it might not.
When I had obtained Berserk [?] immediately.
No, not immediately—but in Violess, I had obtained Berserk [?] without predating Crawlgar’s heart.
‘Had it been the source of rage?’
That was likely the case.
In other words, it did not necessarily have to be a heart.
If it firmly contained the life force of an existence, it could serve as a trigger for Predation [S+].
In that sense, taking the form of essence rather than a heart was actually more advantageous.
‘I cannot absorb it immediately.’
…I would die if I tried right now.
If I absorbed the Primal Essence of Evolution here, my body would not withstand it—I would collapse first.
And with good reason, for it was no mere essence.
The Beast Lord, T-Rex.
A crystallized evolution—the accumulated and condensed genetic information of every life form she had ever assimilated.
Evolution itself, and perhaps—
No, with high probability, the very key to ascending toward the ultimate life form.
You want me to absorb that into my battered body right now?
…That’s madness.
Before that, my body and consciousness might be torn to shreds.
Therefore, I had to make thorough preparations before using Devour[S+].
But the heart?
If I leave it as is, it will lose its vitality.
I had no choice but to use Devour[S+] immediately, but this essence was different.
‘Still, just in case.’
I decided to store it in my inventory.
The only question was whether it would be treated as an object.
‘Ah, it doesn’t need to be an object anymore.’
My inventory—now capable of storing even concepts and phenomena.
As long as my ‘ownership’ was certain—
◆Iiiiiinveeeeentooooory
Fortunately, in just 56 seconds, I managed to store the ‘Essence of Evolution’ in my inventory.
That meant my accelerated consciousness largely returned.
My twisted senses stabilized as well.
And as my fractured sense of time slowly found its way back—
◆Individual T-Rex has been eliminated!!
Only then did the message confirming T-Rex’s certain death appear.
The Beast Lord—stronger than in my previous life.
It was on the verge of being reborn as the ultimate lifeform, yet it ultimately fell to its knees before the transcendent skill Sovereign’s Roar[T] that Broombar and I had created together.
The experience points that emerged from that were—
◆You have acquired 6,053,000,000 combat experience points!!
…How much?
For a moment, I thought the unit was wrong.
But it wasn’t.
6.053 billion.
Not 605 million—a full 6.053 billion!
‘Really 6.053 billion?’
No matter how much of another level the title of Lord represented, did this make sense?
Even with amplification from Growth Accelerant[EX].
Obtaining this much experience from a single entity was utterly unreasonable.
Unless I had swept away every living creature and monster across the entire Continent—
‘Ah.’
That must be it.
When T-Rex transformed into the nucleus of evolution.
The genetic information of every living creature and monster across the Continent was expressed, and because I was credited with defeating it, the experience points became what they are.
And with that, level-up messages flooded my vision in black.
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
◆Your level has increased!
.
.
.
The notifications kept rising endlessly, it seemed.
…In any case.
Mungu was displaying normally.
In other words, my accelerated consciousness had definitely returned to the world of 1, but….
◆KYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHH!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
…Why was it doing this?
I genuinely had no idea.
The level-up notifications and frantic messages swirled before my eyes simultaneously.
◆This makes no sense at allllll!!
◆Your level has increased!
◆It truly makes no sense at allllll!!
◆Your level has increased!
◆This is absolutely, positively impossible!!
◆Your level has increased!
.
.
…My mind was in complete chaos.
It wasn’t merely the brink of madness.
My consciousness and sanity were being shredded and torn to pieces.
◆The Quest objective was ‘Survive the Beast Lord’ in the first place!
◆So what are you saying?!!?
◆That you defeated the Beast Lord?!?!”
…It seemed determined to do this.
Well, defeating one of the six Lords was certainly noteworthy.
◆Lately, monsters have been naming their newborns Adrian, I hear?!
◆”My child, you must become a monster like Adrian!”—they say!
…Even so, aren’t you being a bit excessive?
More importantly, I had just defeated the Beast Lord.
Yet monsters were already naming their offspring after me—.
‘That can’t be right.’
There’s no way that could happen.
◆No way, you say?!
◆Nonsense! Absolute nonsense!
◆In short: utter drivel!
◆Shortened further: brain rot!
…I’m going to lose my mind, seriously.
◆Look over there—do you see the Weresnakes?!
The Beast Legion that had been absorbed by T-Rex.
But not all of them were absorbed.
By my command, many individuals managed to escape and survive.
◆”I’ve never seen such an alpha male before♥” and they’re writhing their bodies all over the place!
…They’re lying through their teeth.
There’s a limit to how much fuss you should make.
If you keep making a spectacle while fabricating stories that don’t exist, that’s just brain-dead nonsense.
Sssslither, sssslither!
Writhe. Purrrr.
“…?”
…It was real?
◆And what about those Weregorillas over there!
◆They’re plucking out their chest hair and scattering it while saying “This is for breeding… please take it♥” as they court you!
Huff! Huff!
Thump thump thump thump!
“…??”
…That’s actually what it means?
◆Look, all the Werepigs are rolling around in muddy water!
◆You know why?!
◆”Because this is the mud that Adrian rolled in…♥”
“….”
◆Whoa!! What are those ones doing?!
◆The Werecats have all flopped down at once?!
◆”Purrrrrrr♥”
◆And they just collapsed!
◆And look over there!!
◆The Warerabbits are each burying their heads and shaking their rear ends!!
◆As if they were right now in this very place with you-.
◆Ahhhhh! Aaaahhhhh!!!
◆They’ve completely lost their minds right now!!
…That’s not something you should be saying.
You’re the one who’s lost their mind the most here.
Let me correct that assessment.
The strongest madman on the Continent wasn’t Kai.
Mungu.
It was this bastard.
◆Can you hear it?!
◆The desperate mating calls of the beasts trying to obtain your genes?!
◆”I want to evolve as your descendant, Adrian♥♥”
“Sigh.”
…How do I even deal with this creature?
Its escalating madness has evolved to a point where I can no longer manage it.
I haven’t even become the ultimate lifeform yet.
But Mungu—this one has already become the ultimate drama queen.
◆With a single sigh from you, hundreds of species abandon reproduction!!
◆With a single glance from you, natural selection changes its course!!
I’m already on the verge of collapse, and now this is making me lose consciousness.
◆The universally acknowledged furry commander?
◆That’s a no-no!
◆Now the recognized alpha male of all lifeforms!!
◆The greatest mating competition in the biological world, all for your genes!
◆And then enters the dark horse!
“Are you… alright?”
◆Nature’s ultimate beauty, the Elf Rieeeeelin!!
Rielin approached me.
She seemed concerned after hearing my sigh.
◆Her long ears trembling slightly…!
◆Her golden hair shimmering…!
◆Her pristine eyes brimming with worry for you─!
“My goodness! Just stay still, I’ll heal you!!”
◆Action in motion!!
…I can’t take this anymore.
No, I can’t endure this any longer.
◆All beasts wailing in unison!!
◆The entire biological world on maximum alert!!
◆Who could rival Rielin, nature’s ultimate beauty!
‘…Let fate decide.’
I simply let go of my sanity in the face of Mungu’s unbearable theatrics.
* * *
Thump.
Adrian suddenly collapsed.
Rielin reflexively reached out.
As his weight shifted, she found herself cradling Adrian in her arms.
Adrian leaned against Rielin’s chest, his entire body limp.
At that very moment.
Kwaaaagh! Kuhuung!
Kuaaaaaah─!!
The beasts let out anguished cries.
But something felt off.
The atmosphere was strange.
Beneath the creature’s piercing shriek, there was unmistakable killing intent.
And that intent was clearly directed at Rielin.
Yet something—
Something was subtly twisted.
Not mere hostility or primal aggression—
Kuuuuuuuuung…!!
Suddenly, the entire Cavern shook violently.
The ceiling fractured, rocks cascaded from the walls, and the Cavern began to collapse.
We were 10km Underground.
If trapped here, survival was impossible.
Kuuuuuuuuung…!!
Another deafening crash erupted.
“We have to move now!”
Rielin clutched Adrian to her chest while searching for Broombar.
Then came an ominous sound.
Thud.
…Broombar lay crumpled on the ground, unconscious, his body limp.
* * *
The trade city of Caravana.
Since the calamity of the Death Knight descended upon it.
Not only had it recovered—it had flourished beyond its former glory.
Defensive systems were reinforced with meticulous care.
Dilapidated roads and buildings that had resisted demolition were completely razed.
Administrative structures were reorganized from the ground up.
With a more comprehensive urban plan in place, Caravana could advance further than ever before.
As accidents and casualties plummeted, Merchant Guilds and consortiums across The Continent increasingly chose Caravana as their waypoint.
Thus, as Caravana developed its function as a trade city—
“Have you heard the rumors?”
The merchants’ whispers too were spreading with ever-growing reach.

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