The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 311

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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 311. Even Dogs Were Once Wolves
It was a time when Adrian had not yet awakened.
The Whitewolf Territory was in upheaval over the massive dragon corpse.
“Hmm.”
Sarpedon was in the midst of a special assignment.
None other than the Werebeast.
That is, the task of monitoring and commanding the Werebeast.
Since there was precedent of them attacking the Whitewolf Territory before, Sarpedon knew of the Werebeast.
“But these Werebeast are different, you see.”
For one, they were Werebeast that Adrian had brought (?) with him.
Perhaps that was why.
The Werebeast did not display aggressive tendencies.
“And they even brought the dragon corpse here?”
A dragon with a body length of 100 meters.
That massive frame weighed a staggering 3,500 tons.
A dragon packed solid with hard scales and powerful muscles was not something that could be transported through sheer strength.
Rielin’s spirits could not do it.
Broombar’s tremendous strength could not do it either.
There was only one person—Adrian—but he had arrived unconscious.
Yet.
The Werebeast had moved it.
“That is what Lady Rielin said.
If she said so, there was no way it could be false.
Which meant.
These Werebeast were controllable beasts.
Controllable to the extent that they obeyed Rielin’s commands.
In other words, they were not beasts and monsters driven mad by instincts they could not overcome, but rather ‘animals’ that could understand the concept of orders and exercise restraint.
“Um… brother?”
“What.”
“What happens to them now?”
“What happens to them?”
“Are they all disposed of like the Werebeast from last time?”
“Hmm.”
Sarpedon gazed at the growling Werebeast.
Dogs, rats, rabbits, chickens, cats, and so on.
Various Werebeast created based on the traits of different animals.
Their appearance was unmistakably animal.
Yet because they bore a certain degree of human form, they could not be precisely classified.
It was difficult to call them human, but it was equally difficult to definitively call them beasts.
“…I’m not sure.”
Sarpedon exhaled slowly and continued.
“We’ll have to wait until Adrian wakes up to make any decisions.”
“…I see.”
“After all, they’re creatures Adrian brought here, and they follow him especially closely.”
“That would make sense…?”
“It would.”
“Then, if I may ask.”
“If you may what.”
“What happens if Adrian decides they can’t be kept alive?”
“What happens? We put them all down.”
If Adrian made that judgment, it meant they couldn’t be controlled.
“….”
“Why the silence?”
“Oh, no reason.”
“No reason what.”
“I was just wondering… couldn’t we make an exception for the nekomimi?”
“…Nekomimi?”
“Over there. Those ones sitting over there.”
Sarpedon narrowed his eyes and turned his head.
A cluster of Werebeast creatures with feline traits had gathered there.
Some sat demurely with their paws folded upon their laps.
Others were licking their forepaws with their tongues.
“They’re quite adorable, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, cats are naturally cute.”
“So couldn’t we make an exception?”
“Make an exception? What are you talking about?”
“I was wondering if some kind of reprieve… might be possible?”
“A reprieve?”
“What I mean is…”
“What do you mean?”
“If I took them and cared for them properly—”
“You son of a bitch!!”
Thwack!
“I’ve been watching you build up to this the whole time—!”
Thwack! Thwack!
“Last time you wanted to take home a Werefox and raise it! Now what?!”
Whack! Smack!
“You’re going to care for Werecat properly?!”
“Ow!”
“Is that really something that should come out of a person’s mouth?!”
“What’s the problem with that?!”
“Problem?! You damn fool!”
“Aaaaahhh!!”
“You’ll take care of it?! What the hell will you take care of?!”
“Well, I feed it, let it sleep, pet it─.”
“You furry bastard!!”
Thwack! Crunch! Crash!
“P-please stop hitting me!”
“Stop hitting?! Not a chance!”
“No, I have something to say, damn it!!”
The Furry Sergeant, taking a beating, widened his eyes in protest.
“Dogs were originally wolves that attacked humans, weren’t they?!”
He had a point.
Dogs and wolves have no genetic difference.
We simply call those wolves that readily depend on humans ‘dogs’.
Therefore, just as wolves become dogs.
Werebeast also had the potential to become humanity’s companion.
“Besides, where else can you find such an adorable Werebeast?!”
Though ‘companion’ was the operative word.
“…What?”
“That foul-breathed bastard even romances Dwarves, so why can’t I─!”
“Damn it, you crazy son of a bitch!”
Crunch!!
“Just cut your arm off and retire, you furry bastard!!”
Sarpedon stomped on the Furry Sergeant with all his might.
Screech! Screeeeeech!!
Yggdrasil had to desperately restrain Sarpedon.
* * *
“…So I’ve come to ask how we should handle the Werebeast.”
Sarpedon lowered his head, at a loss for words.
He seemed embarrassed to even be asking me this.
But I didn’t see it that way.
Surprisingly.
‘It was a problem in the Allied Forces too.’
It was an issue debated in my previous life as well.
Back then, all Werebeast were enslaved to a collective consciousness.
Later, when the Beast Lord fell to Ian’s hand, the collective consciousness collapsed.
The remaining Werebeast were instantly consumed by madness, tearing each other apart.
But.
Not all Werebeast were like that.
As it had always been.
‘There were mutant specimens among them.’
Werebeast individuals who retained their rationality existed.
A flaw in evolution.
Or perhaps an exception.
They were not consumed by madness.
Nor did they harbor hostility toward humans.
They possessed intelligence, used language, and experienced emotion.
Coexistence with humanity was possible.
And in fact, they did coexist.
Until then.
‘A child was born between a human and a Werebeast.’
A Werebeast was a being created by overlaying animal genetic traits upon a human base.
They were originally fashioned from transformation factors extracted from the Lycanthrope.
And the Lycanthrope was a mental illness—the delusional belief that one was a wolf.
Lycanthropy.
A werewolf transformed by that obsessive conviction.
In other words, the Lycanthrope was human.
Biologically classified as a human subspecies, which meant they could interbreed with humans and produce viable offspring.
Thus, The Empire conducted numerous experiments on the Lycanthrope, and from those experiments, the Werebeast was born.
In essence, Werebeasts were inherently close to humans.
Therefore, the possibility of interbreeding with humans had already been theoretically proposed.
However, when that theory became reality.
The matter entered an entirely different phase.
‘The child’s condition was far too normal.’
There were no deformities, no instability.
To anyone’s eye, it was human.
Simply a human with pronounced animal characteristics.
Thus, a new biological classification: the beastkin race.
In other words, fierce debate erupted over whether to recognize ‘beastkin’ as a new species within the mammalian class of the animal kingdom.
The arguments in favor went like this.
-The cat-girl smiled at me! That means she understands language and possesses basic social structure and hierarchy!
-The Werefox stumbled, and she said “ouch.” The biological compatibility response was immediate….
-Given genetic compatibility and morphological similarity, there is more than sufficient grounds to recognize them as a new Ain!!
The arguments against went like this.
-You insane furry bastards!!
-And you call yourselves human?!
-Interbreeding? You lunatics, the very fact that you entertained such thoughts proves you’ve already devolved from humanity!
-Bah!
-So you’d be fine with your daughter walking into a wedding chapel hand in hand with a Wearegorilla?!
You can go to hell!
Things escalated to the point of fistfights.
A compromise proposal emerged to separate and discuss “werebeast human rights” and “werebeast breeding rights,” but both sides rejected it so vehemently that the matter dissolved into nothing.
And so.
‘The Continent was finished.’
No conclusion was reached before the Continent fell to ruin.
In other words, I found it difficult to judge as well.
‘…This is troublesome.’
Leave them be?
I had no idea when or where they might cause trouble.
Cull them?
It wasn’t as though there were no individuals who had escaped the hive mind’s control.
‘Right now, I am the hive mind.’
That made judgment all the more difficult.
My hive mind was incomplete.
I possessed only a ‘portion’ of the genetic factors that the Beast Lord, T-Rex, carried.
Above all, I didn’t fully understand the mechanism of the hive mind itself.
‘Hmm.’
This is probably.
◆Primal Essence of Evolution
: A crystallized condensation of genetic information and evolutionary potential from all life forms. It contains the evolutionary data of all currently existing continental life.
…I should devour [S+] this first before making a decision.
* * *
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists the decay of dead alveoli!
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists the corruption accumulated between scales!
“Ughhhk—!”
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists the deformed spinal cord!
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists the turbid bone marrow!
“Uuughhhk!”
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists the putrefied, crumbling mucous membrane!
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists the eroded seminal gland!
…Huh?
What did that just say?
“Uweeegh!”
I vomited up everything in my mouth.
Somehow.
This was the most revolting texture I had ever consumed.
“Haa…! Haa…!”
I’m going to lose my mind, truly.
Slimy, rubber-like mucus streamed from my mouth.
My consciousness was beginning to blur when it happened.
◆45,676 Sanity points have been accumulated.
A message appeared before my eyes, pulling my fading mind back into focus.
I wiped my mouth.
Steadying my breath and composure, I summoned the “Player Information” window.
==「Player Information」==
[Name] = Adrian Whitewolf
[Title] = Dragon Slayer
[Level] = 1,018
[HP] = 557,700
[MP] = -403,680
[Sanity] = 410,046/ℵ0
[Stats] = Strength: 4,501 Agility: 3,885 Endurance: 5,577 Mana: -4036.8(x-1.2)
[Experience] = 1.2%
The changes were striking.
I invested all +2,945 additional stat points into Mana.
These were stats that could only be raised through leveling, but now with the growth reset factor [EX], I could distribute them freely as I wished.
Thus, my Mana stat became -4036.8.
My negative Mana value reached -403,680.
I had effectively become a “one-man legion” capable of neutralizing an entire Magic Tower.
“…I’ve finally gathered enough.”
I had accumulated all the Sanity points needed to transcend Predation [S+].
The expected Sanity requirement was 409,600.
But that was merely an “estimate.”
I had only directly tested Berserk [A+].
I had never used anything at [S-] rank or higher.
“It should be enough, right?”
Worry gnawed at me.
“There are still some scraps left in my inventory.”
…But I had no confidence in consuming them again.
Of course, if necessary, I would eat them.
But I wanted to avoid it if possible.
“The problem is if the required Sanity is different from my estimate.”
That would be a real disaster.
I’d be wasting all those hard-earned Sanity points for nothing.
“…I should make sure.”
I shoved all the remaining Dragon scraps from my inventory into my mouth.
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists against the congealed seminal vesicle!
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists against the necrotic urethral membrane!
.
.
.
◆The Successor’s Will [EX] resists against the fractured anal mucosa!
I crammed every last bit of it into my mouth—even the parts I truly despised eating.
◆120,572 Sanity points have accumulated.
The total Sanity gathered now reaches 530,618.
I intended to pour all of this into the transcendence of Predation [S+].
“It’s wasteful, but…”
If my calculations went even slightly wrong, there would be no stopping it.
A catastrophe among catastrophes.
I had to trigger the Berserk State [?] that would transcend Predation [S+] in this single attempt.
“Let’s go.”
I drew a deep breath.
And finally.
I activated Berserk State [?], grinding every last Sanity point into it.
◆You activate the Transcendent Skill, Berserk State [?].
◆530,618 Sanity is consumed.

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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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