The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 346

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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 346. The First Mage (2)
Arcanis Rilsein’s entire body froze under an incomprehensible wave of pressure.
The Man’s words continued to echo through her mind.
-I have never abandoned an attempt to kill you, only failed.
Her teeth clenched involuntarily with a sharp sound.
“Insolent….”
Who in all existence dared speak to her in such a manner?
Arcanis Rilsein.
She was the first Mage, the Vampire Queen who had walked through eons of time.
One who had reached the pinnacle of magic.
One who had transcended death itself and ruled through eternity.
Yet he spoke of her as though she were nothing more than prey.
It was beyond insult—it was humiliation.
“How dare you…!!”
Seething rage coursed through her veins, consuming her entire being.
The fury could not be suppressed.
Yet it was controlled.
The reason refined across eons of time would never be eroded by mere emotion.
Arcanis Rilsein swallowed her rage whole and opened her eyes with glacial coldness.
‘This is no opponent to underestimate.’
This was an opponent she could never afford to underestimate.
There would be no carelessness.
Arcanis Rilsein drew in a breath.
“…Very well. I shall face you. With full power.”
Behind her back, colossal wings of blood unfurled in their entirety.
The crimson runes inscribed along each feather blazed with sanguine light.
Arcanis Rilsein’s power held no direct connection to immortality.
Perfect understanding.
Her primary strength lay in magic rooted in reason—the intellect that pierced through and wielded truth itself.
Yet it differed from ordinary magic.
Magic draws upon mana as its energy source.
But Arcanis Rilsein uses blood as her energy source.
Blood Magic.
Sorcery fueled by the essence of life itself.
As life force diminishes, the incantations become more precise and devastating.
In exchange, the price is merciless.
The caster’s life force is consumed.
Yet Arcanis Rilsein did not hesitate.
She was an immortal being.
The Vampire Queen possessed of infinite life force.
“Trakur Elie Neren Sakri.”
A single incantation.
In an instant, blades of blood erupted from the void.
As though a crimson downpour had been unleashed.
Sharp edges of blood cascaded forward with devastating force.
Space itself was cleaved asunder.
Yet The Man did not retreat.
He neither dodged nor defended.
The moment the blood blades descended upon him—
Crack, crackle!
…something shattered.
And the blood blades began to vanish one by one.
Anti-mana incantation.
Blood magic draws upon blood as its energy source, yet ultimately it connects to the world through mana.
Anti-mana is the force that severs that connection.
The moment blood magic channels through mana, it becomes powerless before anti-mana.
Arcanis Rilsein roared, amplifying the blood magic coursing through him.
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
Veins bulged grotesquely.
Wings trembled violently.
The cascading blood blades multiplied, filling the entire space.
From crimson downpour to blood tempest.
The blades bombarded mercilessly in all directions, not merely forward.
The anti-mana incantation manifested once more.
The blood blades dissipated helplessly.
Yet not all of them vanished.
Boom, boom, boom, crash!
The deflected blood blades bombarded the surrounding terrain.
My eyes gleamed with realization.
‘It has limits, then?’
In other words, anti-mana is not infinite.
Therefore, it cannot counter density, range, or power that exceeds its threshold.
But blood magic is infinite.
I curled my lips into a smile.
“Now the real battle begins.”
Blood exploded outward.
* * *
Space consumed entirely by blood in a single moment.
Crimson vapor rose as blood itself boiled.
Blood magic of indeterminate form stained my entire vision.
I activated the Dragon’s Word.
A power I had obtained from T-Rex, the primordial Dragon and Beast Lord.
The Dragon’s Word required no formulas, no calculations, no incantations.
Only will.
With that alone, I could manifest any phenomenon I desired.
But T-Rex rarely used the Dragon’s Word herself.
Though the Dragon’s Word was powerful, it came at a cost.
The Dragon’s Word demanded vast amounts of energy.
So T-Rex channeled the energy she would have spent on the Dragon’s Word into her own evolution instead.
But I was different.
The energy I used for the Dragon’s Word was not calories.
Anti-Mana.
A force that negates, reverses, and denies mana.
Yet its essence was no different from mana itself.
Only its nature was inverted.
Therefore, I could modify the Dragon’s Word’s mechanism and reconstruct it to align with Anti-Mana.
Crack, crackle!!
A violent spark erupted.
The magical power that had been pouring forth like blood vanished as if it were a lie.
Arcanis Rilsein gnashed his teeth with a grinding sound.
“This creature…!!”
Arcanis Rilsein’s pupils blazed crimson, as though drenched in blood.
“Aaaaaaah!!”
With a roar, a torrent of blood-tinged magical power exploded outward.
It tore the Library asunder.
Bookshelves crumbled from the shockwave, and volumes were swept up like leaves in a tempest.
I activated the Dragon’s Word again.
A counter-current gale manifested through Anti-Mana collided with the blood-tinged power.
Boom!!
The crimson maelstrom was halted.
The scarlet torrent split apart and could advance no further.
But that was all.
The blood-tinged power merely stalled.
It did not dissipate entirely.
‘Insufficient.’
My current MP was -403,680.
It was not enough to consume the entirety of that magical maelstrom.
I retreated backward.
Then I activated a special skill.
◆Growth Reset Factor [EX] activated!
◆ You have acquired an additional stat bonus of +3,498.
A privilege skill that instantly resets the additional stat bonuses I invested and returns 100% of them.
I did not consider other stats.
I reinvested everything into mana.
Crackle!!
Sparks erupted as if tearing through the very fabric of space.
The inverted current exploded outward.
The blood storm that had been churning was swallowed whole.
“…What?”
Arcanis Rilsein’s pupils trembled.
A moment of bewilderment.
I launched myself forward instantly.
My body shot forth, following the trajectory and velocity of the Dragon Impact.
Arcanis Rilsein hastily unfurled a blood veil.
I layered dragon words upon one another.
I compressed the anti-mana vortex into my fist.
Then I overlaid the anti-mana wave upon the trajectory and velocity of the Dragon Impact.
Arcanis Rilsein’s expression shifted.
“What is that…?”
Boom!!
The blood veil was torn asunder.
“Impossible! This kind of thing─!!”
Arcanis Rilsein’s body lifted into the air before being hurled backward.
Blood trickled from between his crushed lips.
His body staggered.
One knee struck the ground with a dull thud.
Arcanis Rilsein gasped for breath, his breathing ragged.
His contorted face was tinged with shock.
But soon it blazed with fury.
“How dare you…!!”
Arcanis Rilsein screamed, consumed by rage.
Blood surged and boiled around him once more.
Roooaaarrr─!!
Twisted currents of blood erupted violently upward.
The space before my eyes was dyed crimson.
‘He still possesses that much power.’
I was genuinely astonished.
Arcanis Rilsein.
The First Mage.
Yet being the First Mage does not mean he is the greatest Mage.
Knowledge accumulates as time passes.
Even theories that once shook entire eras eventually become commonplace.
The primitive who first wielded fire was revered as a god.
But now?
Children play with fire.
Abilities once held in awe become ordinary as ages turn.
Then another genius emerges.
Civilization leaps forward once more.
That leap, too, becomes commonplace.
Through endless cycles of advancement, we arrive at this present age—the ‘modern era’.
In other words, even a genius of unparalleled brilliance.
Even The Grand Mage who dominated an entire age.
Eventually falls behind with time’s passage, reduced to merely an exceptional mage.
But Arcanis was different.
Her words, her theories, her questions.
All of them still captivated the minds of countless mages to this day.
[Thousands of years have passed since Arcanis entered eternal slumber. Yet we still merely learn the laws she interpreted.]
A mage whom even the modern era has not surpassed.
Such was her existence.
The first and the pinnacle of mages.
Of course, time renders all things obsolete.
It rots the flesh.
It wears down the spirit.
Arcanis Rilsein was no exception.
But The Immortal Lord was different.
One older than time itself.
(Elder Beyond Time).
Arcanis obtained the power of immortality and transcended time.
Thus.
The first mage pursued truth through eons.
The pinnacle mage contemplated truth through countless ages.
How far had she truly reached?
One thing was certain.
She was not merely one who seized the moment first.
The first to open her eyes.
The one who gazed longest.
The law that constitutes this world, closest to the truth known only to the divine.
Wizard of Truth.
One could speak of her thus without exaggeration.
And when facing a mage, there is one absolute rule that must be obeyed.
The first rule.
Do not enter the domain of the Mages.
Rumble, rumble!!
The entire Library trembled.
The bookshelves twisted.
Blood-red magic circles etched themselves into the void, spinning chaotically.
The Archive of Truth.
According to Gwendolyn, this space had been designed by Arcanis to awaken us to the folly of pursuing the infinite.
In other words, the entire Archive of Truth was Arcanis’s domain.
Crack, crack!!
Fissures spread across the space.
Gravity warped.
Light flowed down like thick blood.
It wasn’t merely the space that was changing.
The very laws themselves were transforming.
I expanded my hypersensitivity.
Placing the Archive of Truth beneath my awareness, I invoked the predator’s instinct.
Then information surfaced before my eyes.
◆Akashic Records
: A transcendental space formed by crystallizing the absolute knowledge accumulation function that exists within the Archive of Truth.
Within this space, all beings can perceive the totality of past, present, and future, and contemplate infinite intellectual capacity.
I recalled hearing of this before.
When was it?
Iliana had spoken of it.
-If we could only know the precise position and momentum of every atom in this world, we could manipulate all possibilities as we wished.
The omniscient power to distort, adjust, alter, and modify reality.
Arcanis could predict every possibility that would occur.
Through this, she could determine all events and phenomena.
That was why the world had no choice but to banish her—
The first Mage.
Her eyes pierced through me.
A sense of wrongness permeated my entire perception.
My hypersensitivity wavered.
I made a swift judgment.
‘Half-mana alone won’t suffice.’
I needed a different answer.
Fortunately, that answer was not far away.
Perfect Organism [UL].
A life that had never existed even once in this world.
I was the sole uncertainty that Arcanis could not see through.
* * *
Gwendolyn gasped in successive waves of shock.
The Immortal Queen who could not die.
Space drenched in blood centered around her.
Crimson vapor.
Surging bloodflow.
Magical energy so formless it defied comprehension stained my vision, and the entire space of the Library twisted violently.
“Good… goodness gracious…!!!”
As a sub-archivist, Gwendolyn had recorded countless spells throughout her tenure.
But the spectacle unfolding before me now.
This belonged to no category of magic Gwendolyn had ever known.
Crrrunch!
The bookshelves warped as though melting.
The floor pulsed like veins, and the endless staircase coiled serpentinely into a labyrinth.
It was as though the very laws that upheld the Archive of Truth itself were screaming in agony.
Soon the bookshelves curled inward on themselves.
The stairs extended downward, upward, and sideways all at once.
Gwendolyn’s body lifted into the air.
Ceiling and floor, left and right—all dissolved into chaos.
“Eek!”
Gwendolyn cried out.
Her arms and legs flailed through empty space.
Yet she did not release the book cradled in her embrace.
Then, in that instant.
Space froze.
The twisted stairs and bookshelves found momentary stability.
The body suspended in air fell with a thud.
Crashing to the floor.
The impact against bone was excruciating.
“Ugh… hnngh…!”
I bit my lip, swallowing the cry of pain.
Suppressing the sharp, tingling ache that coursed through me.
Then, in that moment.
“Are you alright?”
A familiar voice reached my ears.
It was not Adrian.
The voice of a youthful woman.
Gwendolyn reflexively turned her head.
Beyond the chaotically twisted space, a slender woman stood.
Hair touched with pale sky-blue hue.
Calm, sky-blue eyes that gleamed with an ethereal light.
Though her appearance was disheveled and worn, Gwendolyn could discern the truth.
“…Iliana?”

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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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