The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 351

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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 351. The Eve of the Storm (1)
Ever since entering the Archive of Truth, Gwendolyn had been surrounded by things she simply could not comprehend.
But now it was worse.
Gwendolyn looked around her surroundings.
Arcanis had suddenly vanished from sight.
Iliana had disappeared with him.
And Adrian lay collapsed on the floor.
“What in the world is happening right now…?”
She couldn’t make sense of any of it.
Gwendolyn first checked Adrian’s condition.
“Are you alright…?”
There was no response.
He appeared to have lost consciousness.
Gwendolyn approached him carefully.
Adrian lay motionless.
She gently shook his shoulder.
Adrian’s body went limp as though every tendon had been severed.
His face was far too pale.
His body temperature was cold.
In truth, his presence was nearly that of death itself.
“No, that can’t be….”
Gwendolyn laid Adrian across her lap.
Adrian’s eyes, which she could scarcely perceive.
They were stained with violet light.
Gwendolyn brought her ear close to Adrian’s face.
Breath, heartbeat, warmth.
She desperately hoped that something—anything—remained.
Perhaps her fervent prayer had been answered.
Thump-thump.
I heard the sound of Adrian’s heartbeat.
It was faint, barely perceptible.
But his heart was undoubtedly still beating.
“Haaa….”
Gwendolyn exhaled a breath of relief.
As the anxiety that had weighed upon her chest dissipated, strength drained from her body.
Gwendolyn remained still in that spot for a moment.
Once she had finally composed herself, she lifted her head and glanced around uncertainly.
“Iliana, where on earth did you—”
She hadn’t even finished speaking.
Whoooosh!
My vision blurred on one side.
Gwendolyn instinctively ducked low.
She cradled Adrian, who lay across her knees.
Crash!
Something tore through the warped space and tumbled to the ground.
Blue hair.
Slender limbs.
A small, diminutive frame.
“Iliana!”
Gwendolyn’s eyes widened as she rushed forward.
Iliana lay collapsed on the floor.
She gasped roughly, unable to lift her body.
“Iliana, are you alright!?”
Gwendolyn knelt and helped Iliana up.
She reached out to brush away the hair from her face.
“Ow, it’s hot!”
She jerked her hand back instantly.
Iliana’s face was scorching.
Hot enough to cause severe burns.
Gwendolyn stared at Iliana with alarm.
A blood-soaked forehead.
Bruised cheeks.
The wounds appeared ordinary on the surface.
Yet an immense heat radiated from within her face.
“Your body is burning…?”
At Gwendolyn’s words, Iliana barely opened her eyes.
At that very moment.
Boom!!
The entire Archive of Truth shook violently.
The ceiling trembled.
The walls cracked.
Fissures began spreading throughout the library.
“W-what is happening…?”
“T-to Whitewolf Territory….”
Iliana opened her mouth.
Words barely squeezed out through shallow breaths.
Gwendolyn cried out.
“How can you possibly make it to Whitewolf Territory in this condition!”
Iliana could not even support her own body.
Adrian was on the verge of death.
“We need to get treatment at the Magic Tower first! Let me go out and get medical support—”
“No, I can’t…”
Iliana clutched at my sleeve.
With lifeless eyes, she barely managed to look up at Gwendolyn, her voice nearly breaking as she spoke.
“The Magic Tower… I can’t… go there…”
“What?”
“I can’t get help… It’s actually… a trap…”
“A trap? What are you talking about?”
But no answer came.
Iliana’s head drooped, and she lost consciousness, collapsing.
“Iliana! Iliana!”
Crash!
The ceiling came crashing down in a thunderous collapse.
The space was deteriorating beyond the point of fracture into complete destruction.
There was no time to delay any further.
Gwendolyn concentrated her mana, lifting both Iliana and Adrian simultaneously.
She lowered her waist to dodge the falling debris.
She ran desperately through the collapsing library.
Rumble!
Boom! Crash!
“What in the world is happening?!”
…Truly, I couldn’t understand what was going on at all.
* * *
The cultural city of Orpheum.
A city formed by the gathering of those who loved learning and the arts.
Artists took up their instruments and made the city itself their stage.
The Town Square was filled with impromptu performances.
Poetry recitations echoed from every alley corner.
A living city of art.
Orpheum.
But today was different.
“Ahhhh! Yes! This is it! This is the taste!”
“Insane, night beer isn’t just alcohol, it’s magic! Pure magic!”
As the supply of night beer resumed after a brief interruption, the entire city erupted in excitement.
Scholars picked up poached eggs instead of books.
Poets shouted toasts instead of verses.
Orpheum had transformed into a city of pure revelry.
The demand for night beer skyrocketed with each passing day.
As the demand for night beer surged, snacks and provisions flew off the shelves in a frenzy.
Merchant Guilds from across the Continent formed an endless procession, flooding into Orpheum to meet that demand.
And as always.
When crowds gathered, rumors began to simmer alongside them.
“Have you heard the gossip?”
In the center of the Town Square.
A merchant carrying provisions set down his load for a moment.
The merchant beside him wiped his brow and muttered in response.
“Gossip? What gossip are you talking about?”
“Well, you see—”
“Are you talking about the rumor that the King of Battenberg Kingdom has awakened?”
“…What? What are you saying?”
A sudden silence fell between them.
The merchant tilted his head in confusion.
“Wasn’t the King of Battenberg in a coma for several years?”
“He was. Due to the Queen’s machinations. Eventually, the Queen was beheaded for treason, but…”
“I heard the King was in a state from which he could never awaken?”
“That’s right.”
“But he’s awakened?”
“Yes. That’s why the Royal Court of Battenberg is in complete upheaval right now.”
Another silence settled between them.
Soon, the two merchants’ gazes met.
“Then what about the succession? Prince Leon, who was acting as regent. What happened to him?”
“That’s why everything’s turned upside down.”
“Well, Prince Leon has been handling all the actual governance anyway.”
“And he opened his eyes right when the date for his investiture as Crown Prince was being set…”
“It must be absolute chaos.”
“Exactly. There are countless factions that have rallied around Prince Leon.”
“There must be quite a few who aren’t welcoming the King’s return.”
“Quite a few? Most of the practical administrative organizations within the Royal Palace have been under Prince Leon’s authority.”
“Then why doesn’t the King just hand over the throne to Prince Leon?”
“Apparently it’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean?”
The merchant glanced around and lowered his voice.
“There seems to be an internal problem within the Royal Court.”
“What exactly?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself. But they say the King hasn’t spoken a single word since awakening.”
“…He hasn’t spoken?”
“That’s right.”
“Does that mean his mind hasn’t fully recovered?”
“Some say that’s the case, while others claim he’s deliberately keeping silent.”
“Why?”
“No one knows that.”
“Hmm.”
Silence settled once more.
After a moment, the merchant spoke again.
“But what was that rumor you wanted to tell me about?”
“Ah, right.”
The merchant straightened his posture and changed the subject.
“It’s about Langritd Magic Tower.”
“The one that was sealed off recently?”
“That’s the one.”
“Did something happen?”
“They extended the seal indefinitely.”
“…Indefinitely?”
Originally, it was supposed to be for one month.
But suddenly they postponed it indefinitely.
“For what reason??”
“No one knows the exact details. But there’s talk that something went wrong with their internal decision-making body.”
“The internal decision-making body? You mean the Council of Elders?”
“That’s right.”
“Could something really go wrong there?”
Langritd Magic Tower was entangled in complex interests.
Kingdoms and great nobles from across the Continent.
While they claimed neutrality on the surface, their true nature was a collection of self-serving calculations.
“Isn’t the Council of Elders structured so that it can’t function if even one member is missing?”
“That’s right.”
“But something went wrong?”
“They say they can’t make any decisions.”
“What?”
“More precisely, they’re calling it ‘decision deadlock.'”
“…That doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s why I’m telling you.”
The merchant lowered his voice, glancing around cautiously.
“There’s a rumor going around that there was a mysterious higher authority within the Council of Elders.”
“What?!”
“Shh! Keep your voice down!”
“…What do you mean? A mysterious higher authority within the Council of Elders?”
“While the Council of Elders appears to be the supreme decision-making body, there was an unofficial power broker above them.”
“That can’t be right. That would mean all those decisions weren’t made by the Council of Elders but by someone else’s hand.”
“Exactly.”
“Wait, then the indefinite extension of the seal…?”
“My suspicion is that some mysterious upper echelon simply vanished without a trace.”
Silence settled over the conversation.
After a moment, the merchant spoke again.
“But… does that upper echelon actually exist in the first place?”
“I can’t say for certain. However, the movements of intelligence agencies across various nations have been decidedly unusual.”
“Unusual, you say?”
“The thing is….”
The merchant paused, drawing a measured breath as if carefully selecting his words.
* * *
Krvil, the chief intelligence officer of the Levent Kingdom.
As I gazed upon the report laid before me, my subordinate spoke.
“This is a classified document we discovered while investigating the actual existence of an unofficial power broker within Langritd Magic Tower.”
I picked up the report.
Within it lay secret research, sealed zones, concealed documents—
The hidden truths that Langritd Magic Tower had kept concealed were unraveling in succession.
My eyes halted as I read through the report.
“This is….”
I extracted a single page.
The sealed Fourth Quarantine Zone.
A region that officially did not exist and was marked on no map.
Yet within it, clandestine research continued unabated.
Werebeast experimentation.
Mana-based biorecombination.
And experiments involving mana influx from the Dark Dimension, among others.
Unethical practices had persisted for over a decade.
The subjects of experimentation were varied.
Missing mage apprentices.
Vagrants, unidentified outsiders, and the like.
“…Just how long has this been going on?”
With each page I read, my expression hardened further.
And then came the following passage.
[By order of the upper echelon. All results are to be disposed of immediately without report.]
In that instant.
The puzzle pieces within my mind began to click into place.
The indefinite extension of the seal.
The Council of Elders’ silence.
The paralysis of the decision-making body.
All the pieces pointed in a single direction.
“…The upper echelon was real.”
Langritd Magic Tower had been under someone’s control from the very beginning.
The cradle of all mages across The Continent.
Langritd Magic Tower.
On the surface, countless magic towers and schools existed independently across The Continent.
And the Mage Guild operated as separate entities, yet their roots and apex ultimately traced back to Langritd Magic Tower.
Therefore, controlling Langritd Magic Tower meant controlling The Continent itself.
In other words, someone had been covertly orchestrating portions of The Continent’s order.
For decades, no less.
No—what had been revealed so far spanned merely ten years.
Langritd Magic Tower had stood for nearly thousands of years.
If this had continued since its inception…?
Krvil lowered his gaze back to the report.
At the bottom of the page lay a single sentence.
[All authority above was transferred according to ■■]
The critical term had been redacted.
Therefore, who it was.
Or what it was—remained unknown.
Krvil rose from his seat.
“Investigate all records of the Magic Tower Council of Elders. Start by finding those called the ‘Supreme Elder.'”
“Understood.”
His Subordinate moved immediately.
Krvil quietly closed the report.
Yet a single sentence continued to circle through his mind.
All authority transferred according to ■■.
That redacted word there.
If it wasn’t the Supreme Elder…
“Then who stands above them…?”
And the word ‘transferred’ itself.
If that someone still existed…
“What in the world is happening on this Continent…?”
Krvil drew a deep breath.
* * *
A peculiar sensation tickled the corners of my eyes.
Yet I could not easily open my eyelids.
In that moment.
A strange vibration resonated through my ears.
A flash of light!
My eyes opened.
A familiar ceiling.
And familiar air and scenery.
Inside Yggdrasil.
the heart of Yggdrasil.
It seemed I had indeed returned to Whitewolf Territory—
◆Gaaaaahhhhhhh!!!
Suddenly, Mungu obscured my vision.
But something felt off.
I knew it had evolved into Perfect Howl Form alongside me.
◆Is this really happening?!?!
◆It must be a dream, it has to be a dream!
◆Gaaaahhhhhhh!!
…right now, how should I put it.
◆I can’t breathe—gaaaaahhhhhhh!!
It seemed to have awakened into Ultimate Howl Form on its own.

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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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