The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 325

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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 325. The Perfect Organism
Death, dissolved into the cycle of nature itself.
Thus, life did not reject death.
Death did not deny life.
Life and death circulated without separation, and ultimate evolution could reach its final stage.
Countless branches of evolution.
The evolutionary information accumulated by life swirled violently within me.
◆Evolution lineage stabilization complete.
◆Trait determination in progress…
My consciousness was dismantled and reassembled.
The self-awareness of all manner of creatures.
They crossed and tangled together all at once.
I was a troll born in House Whitewolf.
Though I carried noble blood, unable to wield mana, I fought hunger daily while my skin—which tore at my own heart—was remarkably tough.
I could convert to any nutrient and flee swiftly as the master of Snowy Mountain, yet I was hunted.
But she was so beautiful.
Silver hair and crimson eyes made my heart grow cold without knowing it, filling me with desire for her, and I came alive from beyond the Dark Dimension.
Thus, for three years I maintained an undefeated legend, assimilating females in darkness—whose form did I devour then?
At first it was mimicry, imitation.
Then it became me.
When I opened my eyes to kill the hatchling, one hump on my back became two.
The thorny tree did not sway in the wind.
My body submerged in the swamp was digging into the earth before I knew it.
I was Icetroll.
I was Dermexus, Alacron, Lex.
I was Gelu Drake.
I was Lycanthrope.
I was Crawlgar.
I was Cave Fisher, Chameleon, Noctura.
I was Memoria.
I was Ogre.
I was Camirus, Bacterion.
I was Calcatus, Corcordilo, Grotmol—.
…Who else am I?
All memories tangled together.
Life living in this world.
Life that had lived in this world.
The information of all life swirled violently at once, covering memory and consuming consciousness.
Right then.
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaa──!!
An emerald light engulfed everything.
Within it, a memory surfaced.
Dawn at the Predator Merchant Company, when members prepared for departure in a frost-laden stable.
Morning, when the maids gathered and drew lots to see who would attend to me.
Afternoon, when soldiers dozed off after lunch.
Dusk, when Kai glared at me as if he wanted to kill me.
Early evening, when Seraphia couldn’t even hold her fork, only fidgeting with her fingers.
It was the memory of a single, brief day.
Yet something felt strange.
The warmth and scent of those moments refused to fade from my mind.
Though nothing particularly special had occurred, those sensations lingered like cherished memories, pooling within my consciousness.
Joy, anger, sorrow.
Delight, love, hatred, desire.
I had felt all of these emotions.
And those emotions began to gather the fragmented memories that had been scattered like pieces of a puzzle.
I was the eldest son of House Whitewolf.
I had harassed women.
I had inflicted violence upon servants.
I had lived enslaved to gambling.
People called me the black sheep of the Whitewolf family.
In the end, stripped of everything by my stepsister, I fled the house.
I lived like a vagrant.
I suffered from starvation.
Unable to endure any longer, I consumed monsters and lost my mind.
Then I met a man.
Every single day, he beat me.
He said a beast needed a hawk’s discipline and threw his fists first.
I despised him intensely.
I wanted to escape by any means.
I fled hundreds of times.
And I was captured hundreds of times.
I forced myself to mimic how humans spoke.
I forced myself to imitate how humans behaved.
Then, at some point.
Without realizing it, I answered his words without growling.
Without realizing it, I nodded at his actions without snarling.
Everything I had forced myself to mimic and imitate had become my own.
Then, glancing at my reflection in a mirror at that moment….
I was no longer Icetroll.
I was neither Dermexus, nor Alacron, nor Lex.
It was not Gelu Drake.
Nor was it the Lycanthrope.
Nor was it Crawlgar.
Not Cave Fisher, Chameleon, or Noctura.
Not Memoria.
Not the Ogre.
Not Camirus or Bacterion.
Not Calcatus, Corcordilo, or Grotmol either.
The form reflected in that mirror at that moment was—.
◆Fundamental Existence: Human.
It bore the shape of a person.
And at that moment.
The name he called me—.
◆Primordial Consciousness: Adrian Whitewolf.
Thus.
As Adrian Whitewolf, a human—.
◆Primordial Ultimate Evolution has been completed.
…I could stand here now.
* * *
Light of life erupting in all directions.
Within it, division and proliferation.
Fusion and molting occurred simultaneously.
Skin cracked and peeled like a shell.
Thump!
The sound that echoed was so tremendous that every being in this world could hear it.
The Man’s movements ceased abruptly.
He could sense it instinctively.
Pristine life.
It had finally been born.
Thump!!
It pulsed once more.
As if the very world itself were pulsing.
Soon, a life emerged and raised its head from within the fractured shell.
But.
…something was strange.
Very strange indeed.
That life’s genetic arrangement was entirely different.
The DNA was not twisted in a double helix.
The chromosomes were not separated.
It no longer followed an RNA system.
In other words, life itself had been redesigned from its very foundation.
It had transcended the common ancestor of all living things, breaking free from the genetic origin of all life itself.
This was not evolution—it was creation.
A ‘perfect organism’ that had completely rewritten the very concept of life.
Yet what stood before my eyes was—
“Surely you’re not… human, are you?”
It was human.
That made no sense.
The skin was not protein.
The nerves did not function through electrical signals.
The genetic arrangement, the method of cell division, even the metabolic system—everything was completely different from any known organism.
“You cannot possibly be human… can you?”
And yet, it was unmistakably human.
In those eyes dwelt reason and emotion.
Will and suffering.
And memory.
“This is impossible…”
The Man trembled as he asked.
“How do you think with that structure? How can you feel emotion? How can you even exist?”
Thought is the product of electrical signals.
Emotion is the product of hormones.
Therefore, without electrical signals, there can be no thought.
Without hormones, there can be no emotion.
What we call consciousness is nothing more than the result of electricity and chemical reactions.
“Yet how do you…?”
He did not answer.
He simply gazed down at his own palms, which lay open before him.
It seemed he did not fully understand it himself.
* * *
My consciousness returned.
My eyes opened.
How should I describe it?
It felt like waking from a dream.
I looked down at my body.
It was not greatly changed.
A familiar form. A familiar body.
In other words, the appearance of a human.
The appearance of Adrian Whitewolf.
I turned my gaze calmly.
Familiar scenery came into view.
A landscape that space itself couldn’t trust.
I could recognize that this was the Valley of Kardun.
I turned my gaze further.
Rielin came into view.
Drenched in blood.
She was barely holding on.
Her breathing was shallow.
Her head was stained with blood, the brilliant gold color lost to the crimson.
One of her arms was nowhere to be seen—sold off somewhere, perhaps.
Yet she remained alive.
For that, I could find solace.
Rielin asked me with consciousness hanging by a thread.
“Are you… alive?”
I nodded.
I offered no further explanation.
I didn’t know what explanation to give.
I summoned 「Player Information」.
I worried that Ian’s authority might have vanished.
But it was merely concern.
Ian’s authority still displayed my information before my eyes.
==「Player Information」==
[Name] = Adrian Whitewolf
[Title] = Dragon Slayer
[Level] = 1,021
[HP] = 557,700
[MP] = -403,680
[Sanity] = 0/ℵ0
[Stats] = Strength: 4,501 Agility: 3,885 Endurance: 5,577 Mana: -4036.8(x-1.2)
[Experience] = 1.2%
【Additional Stats +15】
Nothing had changed dramatically.
Only my level had shifted slightly.
The Evolution Quest and the Calamity Quest.
Clearing both Quests had granted me +3 levels.
But somehow.
Much had transformed.
My body felt unlike before.
A far greater sense of discord than when I first awakened to the power of Predation [S+].
Right then.
KRAAAAAAAAHHHHH—!!
A grotesque shriek pierced the air.
Before me lay a twisted mass.
A form where flesh and blood had congealed together.
Limbs indistinguishable from one another.
I understood what it was.
It was a death mass.
Yet every single face covering that mass was my own.
Kraaaaaaagh—!!
The death mass shrieked and lunged at me.
I moved instantly.
* * *
Adrian vanished from sight in an instant.
Rielin’s eyes barely had time to blink.
Splorch!!
The sound of a rubber ball bursting echoed out.
There, Adrian was kicking the death mass.
The death mass didn’t fly away—it ruptured where it stood.
Fragments of flesh scattered in all directions.
Pitch-black blood gushed forth like a fountain.
The death mass staggered and collapsed limply to the ground.
The hollowed-out corpse no longer held together.
…What?
What did I just witness?
Rielin’s eyes widened in shock.
A death mass, by definition, is an entity where death itself has congealed.
Therefore, it cannot die.
It has already reached the state of death—to die again would be a logical impossibility.
Yet that impossible sight now lay before her.
Rielin stared at the remains of the death mass with a frozen gaze.
Still.
The flesh of the death mass refused to cohere.
‘…How is that even possible.’
Astonishment surged through her.
Yet even as shock overwhelmed her, Rielin began to dimly comprehend something.
Life and death.
These two were never truly separate to begin with.
Though they appear as beginning and end, they touch at their boundaries.
Therefore, reaching the end of life means simultaneously reaching the end of death.
‘Did he absorb the death mass… just now?’
In other words.
Adrian had now reached the very edge of life itself.
* * *
The death mass, utterly obliterated.
Its hollow corpse never cohered, and the death mass met its end.
Yet I had not employed any special ability.
My physical stats were not particularly high.
There was something else—a different kind of power.
A force that transcended mere physical attributes.
It seemed to be the sort that even 「Player Information」 could not grasp.
This time, I had activated Predator’s Instinct [S].
==【Character Information】==
Name: Adrian Whitewolf
Classification: Animalia, Mammalia, Hominidae, Perfect Lifeform
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Traits: Sole Leveling [EX], Successor’s Will [EX], Infinity [M], Extremity [M], Probability [M], Paradox [M], Perfect Lifeform [UL]
Fortunately, Ian’s abilities remained intact.
The abilities related to Infinity were preserved as well.
But Predation [S+] had vanished.
All the abilities I had gained through Predation [S+] had disappeared.
More precisely, they had been compressed.
◆Perfect Lifeform [UL]
: The player has completely merged with all branches of evolution, enabling instantaneous adaptation to any environment, the ability to mimic all biological functions, and the capacity to create any ability whatsoever.
‘…I can’t quite grasp how to use it.’
I had no intuitive sense of how to wield it.
It was then, as I was roughly sketching possibilities in my mind.
“You….”
A voice reached my ears.
It was not Rielin.
I turned my gaze, and a man stood before me.
Golden hair cascaded straight down to his waist.
Violet eyes that seemed to hold an infinite void.
Features carved with the perfection of a statue.
A familiar face.
It was the man I had seen in the Valley of Kardun.
“How were you able to remain human?”
The man asked.
I did not answer.
Instead of a response, I posed a question in return.
“Why are you here?”
The Man did not answer.
He simply stared at me intently.
Soon, his eyes gleamed with light.
“I’ve suddenly taken an interest in you.”
The Man opened his palm.
A violet aura began to bloom from his fingertips.
A power that seeped in like mist.
There was definitely something about this man.
Even when I first met him, something felt off.
But now that unease was becoming unmistakably clear.
Especially since I couldn’t quite grasp the mechanism of the Perfect Organism either.
“How convenient.”
The identity of this man.
And my own possibilities right now.
If I’m going to do this, I might as well do it thoroughly—
“Because I’ve taken an interest in you as well.”
It seemed I could figure it out if I struck hard and tested him properly.

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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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