The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 349

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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 349. The Immortal Predator (2)
Arcanis Rilsein.
The Immortal Lord.
She could recover from any wound.
The same was true for me.
Perfect Organism [UL].
I too could recover from any wound.
But the heart and brain.
These two remained my fatal weaknesses.
My heart was the source of my power.
If my brain were destroyed, I couldn’t conceive of the thought to regenerate it.
But Arcanis was different.
The Immortal Lord, fused as one with the dimensions of the Other Dimension.
She did not think with a brain.
She did not circulate through a heart.
Her very existence was a dimension itself.
The body was merely form.
Her essence already transcended the dimensional boundary.
Yet even as form, it held power.
Crossing dimensions required mana of the highest purity.
Therefore, Arcanis’s heart.
It was no ordinary heart.
It functioned as a Dragon’s heart and beyond—no exaggeration.
Crack!!
A deafening boom, and everything was drenched in crimson.
The roiling mist of blood transformed into a raging tempest.
At its center stood Arcanis.
Her crimson wings unfurled.
She was no longer a Mage.
The Vampire Queen.
In this moment, she reigned as the true Immortal Lord.
Her wings fluttered.
Arcanis’s body lifted into the air.
Her outstretched hands, opened in an instant, were as graceful as rose petals.
Whoooosh!!
Blood mana spread in all directions.
I instinctively retreated.
The spreading blood mana became tens of thousands of spears, engulfing me.
…The scale was different.
Above, below, left, right—every direction was filled with spears of blood.
The velocity and pressure of the incoming attack transcended the limits of human comprehension entirely.
I activated Perfect Organism [UL].
A genetic map unfurled across the depths of my consciousness.
The abilities of countless creatures flooded my mind.
The ocean floor, caves, polar regions, the Abyss….
Survival capabilities honed across every conceivable environment.
Among them, one ability rose to the surface—perfectly suited for this moment.
The hagfish and the cave fish.
Hundreds of millions of base pairs were redesigned within my body.
◆Fluid Sprint
: The player coats their entire body in mucus, reducing friction by -99%, increasing evasion rate by +99%, and movement speed by +60%.
My muscles and joints flattened.
My bones bent like rubber.
Yet I maintained the capacity for high-speed movement.
Fluidity and grace.
I became the very essence of those two qualities, boring through the barrage of spears.
Whoooosh!
Every blood spear slid harmlessly past me.
The moment they made contact, I slipped away.
The instant they collided, I was pushed aside.
There was contact.
But there was no damage.
The blood spears that grazed me shattered only empty space.
BOOM!!
The world tore asunder with a deafening roar.
I paused for a moment, observing the rift.
The crimson mana residue left behind swirled within the fractured space, and its fragments were already hurtling toward Iliana.
Fortunately, Gwendolyn was shielding her.
“Hngh…!!”
But she was straining.
Gwendolyn’s shield magic was wavering precariously.
I turned my gaze forward.
‘Evasion alone won’t suffice.’
Reminding myself of my objective, I activated Perfect Organism [UL] once more.
The genetic map spread open.
This time, there was no hesitation.
◆Chest Resonance Shell
: The player transforms their ribcage into a resonance chamber in a vacuum state, releasing a shockwave.
A variant technique mimicking Dragon’s breath.
A technique I had mastered through countless rib fractures within the Incubator.
I opened my mouth wide.
Forcibly compressing the air in my lungs.
I unleashed all of Rilsein’s energy at once into my chest, now in a vacuum state.
─KWAAAAAAAAAANG!!
The shockwave erupting from my mouth swept across everything before me.
The cascading spears of blood vanished in an instant.
Arcanis Rilsein lost her footing and was driven backward.
“Ugh…!”
A brief opening.
I immediately lunged toward Arcanis Rilsein.
The distance closed in a heartbeat.
I reached out and tore Arcanis Rilsein’s heart from her chest.
Squelch!
Arcanis Rilsein’s body arched backward.
But she did not die.
I had no intention of killing her either.
Crunch!
Her heart pulverized between my teeth.
The tough, viscous heart and blood essence spreading across my tongue.
It felt odd to say such a thing, but….
◆Ability Absorption Factor [EX] has been activated.
◆You have absorbed 2,116 mana stat points.
…It was sweet.
Incredibly, impossibly sweet.
Mana could only be increased through leveling up.
To gain 2,116 mana points, I would have needed to level up a staggering +423 levels.
And the experience required for that?
…Impossibly sweet.
“Hahahahahahahaha!!”
I guarantee you, no honey in this world could be sweeter than this.
* * *
That shockwave from moments ago.
Arcanis Rilsein had ultimately suffered the wound of her heart being torn out.
“…Ugh…!”
Short, ragged breaths burst from Arcanis Rilsein’s lips.
Her entire body convulsed and contorted.
But she did not die.
One cannot die from merely losing a single heart.
She rapidly regenerated her heart.
And her eyes widened at the sight before her.
Crunch!
Adrian was devouring her heart.
Had I misread the situation?
No, I had not.
Crunch!
With the sound of flesh tearing, Adrian’s teeth sank deeper into the heart.
Arcanis’s eyes widened in shock.
“…What… what are you doing…?”
No, what in the name of all existence was he doing?
Adrian paid no heed.
He crammed the remainder of Arcanis’s heart into his mouth.
“Hahahahahahahaha!!!”
Then came an eruption of laughter.
His expression was as though he had just tasted the sweetest royal jelly.
“Are you insane…?”
Is he truly mad?
Arcanis asked in earnest.
Adrian did not answer.
After swallowing the heart completely, he slowly raised his head.
Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth.
In his eyes as he gazed upon Arcanis burned a madness beyond description.
“Bring me that as well.”
…What?
Arcanis’s body trembled involuntarily.
By instinct, she shielded her chest.
At that same instant—whoosh!
Adrian shot forward in a straight line.
Arcanis instantly unfurled a veil of blood.
Yet the charge pierced through her momentary hesitation and shattered it entirely.
“…!!”
This defied all logic.
No, I could not comprehend it.
Adrian had sprouted wings like a bird.
His skin was as hard as a Dragon’s.
His joints and cartilage bent with the freedom of an arthropod.
Even stimuli bypassed his brain entirely.
Responses occurred instantaneously at the cellular level.
0ms.
His nervous system had become superfluous.
Even Arcanis’s perfected comprehension could not mount a defense against Adrian’s assault.
CRASH!!
The barrier tore asunder, and her entire chest was ripped away.
Her body was hurled backward.
Rolling across the ground, she regenerated her flesh.
Fragments of tissue scattered like shards coalesced and reformed into shape.
But her mind could not follow suit.
CRUNCH!
The sound came again.
Her consciousness was shredded to ribbons.
Again… and again.
Adrian was gnawing at my heart.
“HAHAHAHAHAHA!!”
…This transcended mere madness.
His eyes rolled back, whites gleaming.
“AHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
This was pure psychosis incarnate.
Arcanis Rilsein retreated backward.
I had to escape this place.
In that instant.
Adrian opened his hand.
SCREEEECH!
Gossamer threads erupted forth.
Woven like a spider’s web, they spread in all directions.
They ensnared Arcanis Rilsein in a single, suffocating moment.
Arcanis Rilsein stared at the threads binding her body.
‘…Tendons?’
Adrian’s own tendons.
He had hardened his tendons and extracted them like wire.
But to manipulate severed tissue with such speed and precision?
This was no mere biological mutation.
He was reconstructing genetic information itself in real time.
Arcanis Rilsein bit her lip.
She swallowed the rising horror, forcing it down.
In that moment.
The tendons pressed against her skin tightened.
“…Ah, ugh!!”
Her breath was cut off.
Even as she tried to inhale, the tendons crushed her lungs.
CRACK, CRAAACK!
The tendon’s grip intensified.
The flesh on the inner thigh bulged outward grotesquely.
Skin once pale as white jade flushed crimson along the sinew’s path.
Arcanis Rilsein drew upon her mana.
But it was useless.
‘Anti-mana…?’
Each strand of sinew was infused with the power of anti-mana.
‘And it’s grown even stronger…??’
The moment she channeled her power, it was annihilated.
Now even the mana flowing through Arcanis Rilsein’s body was being slowly corroded.
At this level of intensity and precision.
It was impossible to sever through magical force.
Arcanis Rilsein thrashed against the restraints.
But the sinew tightened around her mercilessly once more.
Gaaahhh! Gaaaaahhhhh!!
“…Ugh, uuugghhh!!”
Both shoulders were wrenched upward in an instant.
With a scream, her arms were pinned behind her back as though bound.
Her waist was forcibly bent, contorting her body into an unnatural position.
“Ugh… uugghhh…!!”
The sinew burrowing into the nape of her neck cut off her breath completely.
Her arched spine could endure no longer.
Arcanis Rilsein could barely lift her head.
Adrian was drawing near.
Bound entirely, Arcanis Rilsein could only look up at him.
Soon Adrian’s hand positioned itself near her chest.
Directly where her heart lay.
“Ugh… ugghhh…! You, this…!”
Arcanis Rilsein’s body flinched reflexively.
And then—crack!
Pain radiating from her heart pierced through her consciousness.
Blood gushed violently from her mouth.
“Cough…!!”
Arcanis Rilsein’s vision wavered.
Above her bloodshot eyes.
Adrian was forcing Arcanis Rilsein’s heart into his mouth.
Crunch!
* * *
◆The ability Absorption Factor [EX] has been activated.
◆You have absorbed 3,621 mana stat points.
…This is insane, truly.
The words spilled from my lips of their own accord.
How many times had I leveled up already?
It felt strange even saying it aloud….
I wanted to imprison her.
I wanted to lock Arcanis deep within the Underground Vault beneath the Whitewolf Territory and devour her heart day after day.
But unfortunately(?), that wasn’t possible.
‘My mana absorption capacity keeps increasing.’
Which meant.
Arcanis was growing stronger.
As time passed, she would accumulate deeper, richer energy from the Other Dimension.
There was no guarantee my current advantage would persist.
‘Does it matter if my half-mana increases too?’
…Not really.
The [EX] absorption factor skill only absorbs minute quantities.
In other words, Arcanis’s power grows exponentially faster and greater than my half-mana increases.
Extracting gradually over time wouldn’t work.
Extracting as much as possible, as quickly as possible, was the most rational approach.
As my gaze lowered, Arcanis’s heart had already regenerated.
I reached out again.
I sharpened my nails to tear out her heart, but at that very moment.
Thump!
My heart convulsed violently.
Blood surged as every cell in my body screamed in unison.
And before my eyes, a message appeared.
◆You have acquired the skill: Shard of Immortal!
…It was the power of immortality.
More precisely, a fragment of that power.
But regardless, it was the power of immortality.
In other words, I had absorbed the power of immortality.
‘Could it be….’
Predation had finally succeeded.
Arcanis’s genetic code.
The primordial essence that shaped the Other Dimension.
Through continuous predation, I had deciphered Arcanis’s genetic information—’Transcendent Concept-Breaking Immortal Lineage Actionless Sect’—and succeeded in converting that information into a skill.
◆Shard of Immortal
: Negates instant-death damage and critical status effects once. Upon activation, this skill is consumed.
…It was an absurdly broken skill.
And Arcanis did not die.
If I devoured more of her heart, I might be able to complete the full power.
But I couldn’t do that.
My chest burned with unbearable agony.
“Ugh…!”
My body collapsed.
I fell to my knees, gasping for breath.
In that moment, crimson blood flooded my vision.
Saaaaaaa—!
The blood dyed my sight in an instant.
The crimson deepened further and further.
Reality warped and space crumbled.
All sensation blurred.
A fleeting illusion of time’s fabric tearing apart.
No—it was no illusion.
Spacetime crumpled and distorted, repeating endlessly—
【
The boundary where the finite and infinite converge. I sought to pursue that truth, yet the lifespan granted to me was far too brief.
】
A strange vision suddenly engulfed my sight.
* * *
Gwendolyn still could not comprehend the situation.
First of all, that Queen.
It was still difficult to believe that the immortal, undying Immortal Queen was Arcanis Rilsein.
But that extraordinary magic….
No, that wondrous magic—it made her think, “Could it be Arcanis Rilsein?”
Because of this, Gwendolyn could assert with absolute certainty.
Crunch, crunch!
…That madman was insane.
That was truly a madman.
In all her life, she had never seen such a lunatic who devoured human hearts!
Gwendolyn made a retching sound.
Munch, munch.
Wouldn’t it be stranger if one didn’t feel nauseous watching that?
“Ugh! Uuugh…!”
Gwendolyn curled her body inward.
Fortunately, she had eaten nothing, so nothing came out.
Gwendolyn wiped the saliva from her lips and lifted her head again.
Right then.
“Ugh!”
Adrian’s body suddenly staggered.
It seemed his digestion was not going well.
Indeed.
Why would she tear out something like a heart and devour it?
Gwendolyn shook her head vigorously.
Then, in that very moment.
Adrian collapsed to the ground, dropping to his knees with a heavy thud.
“Haa…! Haa…!”
Adrian gasped for breath, each inhalation ragged and desperate.
Adrian’s face had turned deathly pale.
His eyes were wide open.
Consumed by a violet hue.
It was as though something invisible was strangling Adrian’s very consciousness.
“What… what is this…?”
Gwendolyn realized that something had gone terribly wrong.
Adrian’s pupils were completely overtaken by a purple darkness.
Soon after, his breathing grew increasingly shallow.
Then, in that instant.
Beside Gwendolyn.
Crack—!!
A strange wave of energy emanated from 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
—————