The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 62

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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 62. Surprise Attack (2)
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The loud bells of Beneron Manor rang out in chaotic succession.
And as those bells continued without pause.
Crash! Boom!
Splinter! Crack!
Eerie and bone-chilling sounds of destruction and deafening explosions erupted in rapid succession.
Only those who were unconscious or dead would remain undisturbed by such a commotion.
But Baron Beneron was neither unconscious nor dead.
“…What on earth?”
Looking out the window, I found absolute chaos.
The manor’s front gate lay in ruins, the walls had collapsed, and guards lay scattered about, bleeding profusely.
Crash-boom!
And then came another deafening sound.
Kaboom!
…No, an explosion.
Just as I was wondering what in the world was happening.
“M-My Lord!!”
Someone burst through the door as if smashing it open, stumbling frantically into the room.
The Estate Manager who oversaw this manor.
His face was etched with panic and dread.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“Intruders have attacked the manor!”
“…Intruders?”
“This is no time for questions! You must evacuate immediately!”
The Estate Manager urged me with desperate urgency.
While the situation was certainly dire, I found myself tilting my head in confusion at an unbidden question.
Intruders, you say?
Who on earth?
And so suddenly? Out of nowhere?
“Who are these attackers? Has their identity been determined?”
“I-I’m not certain. However, from what we can tell, there are only two of them!”
“…Two?”
My head, which had tilted left in confusion, now tilted right.
“You’re telling me the manor’s defenses have been breached by merely two people?”
“Y-Yes, that’s correct!!”
At the Estate Manager’s affirmation, I was left utterly dumbfounded.
How could the security of this manor, which I had always considered impeccable, be so easily overwhelmed by just two intruders?
Could it be that the Master’s knight had attacked?
No, that didn’t make sense either.
And for good reason—all the guards stationed throughout Beneron Manor were—.
That was precisely when it happened.
CRASH!
With a deafening explosion, one entire wall of the chamber crumbled inward in a cascading collapse.
A thick veil of dust billowed through the air.
My vision blurred for but a moment before the haze settled rapidly.
And what emerged from the settling dust was a man drenched entirely in blood.
Unmistakably one of the intruders who had assaulted Beneron Manor.
Yet he wore a mask that obscured his face entirely.
“Who are you?”
“A madman.”
“A madman?”
If he was a madman….
“Adrian Whitewolf?”
“What, you know me?”
In that instant, a sigh echoed from one side.
Presently, another man equally drenched in blood appeared beside Adrian.
Crimson hair stained dark with blood.
Yet between the strands, a golden gleam shimmered through.
The golden-haired man exhaled a long, weary sigh before tearing away the mask he wore.
His face was unmistakably handsome by any measure.
Yet the look in his eyes as he regarded Adrian was—.
“Did you not say this was to be an infiltration?”
…His gaze suggested nothing short of exasperation.
* * *
With a sigh, Kai tore away the mask he had been wearing.
“Did you not say this was to be an infiltration?”
And then Kai turned to me, his tone accusatory.
“If you were going to reveal your identity, why wear the mask in the first place?”
“I thought they wouldn’t know if I just said ‘madman.'”
There are scarcely any nobles in the Battenberg Kingdom who do not know of the ‘madman.'”
“Am I truly that famous?”
The memory was so distant that it had grown hazy.
I had never paid it much attention anyway.
Yet judging from the expression on Kai’s face, I was apparently quite well-known.
Well, that aside.
‘But a homunculus wouldn’t know me, would it?’
Even a replicant homunculus would only retain thirty percent of its memories, so it wouldn’t know that ‘madman’ referred to me.
The same applied to Avarus.
No—if anything, it would be even more true for Avarus.
Avarus is a worshipper of fallen souls.
In other words, he is no nobleman of the Battenberg Kingdom.
There was no way he could know rumors about the wayward son of Count Whitewolf’s House—mere gossip.
‘Did I misread the situation?’
Swallowing that doubt, I activated my predator’s instinct [S], and information about the man before me crystallized with perfect clarity.
==【Character Information】==
Name: Evolutas de Beneron
Classification: Animalia, Mammalia, Hominidae, Human
Gender: Male
Age: 42
Traits: Transmog
The information that materialized before my eyes.
Yet it revealed that Baron Beneron was not a homunculus.
Nor was he Avarus.
It clearly indicated he was Baron Beneron himself.
Could I have truly misread this?
For a moment, that thought crossed my mind, but I quickly shook my head.
The key lay in the trait information listed there: Transmog.
Activating my predator’s instinct [S] once more, information about Transmog surfaced before me.
◆Transmog
: This magic is a spell of transformation and reconstitution. The user can perfectly mimic and transform the appearance, characteristics, abilities, and even the psyche of a designated target.
However, if the transformation persists for an extended duration, it can induce permanent transformation.
A magic that perfectly mimics a target and assumes their form—Transmog.
Unlike Polymorph magic, which merely alters appearance, this was fundamentally different.
It could mimic down to the genetic level itself. And for this, what was required was the genetic material of the target one wished to mimic.
Transmog was a magic that scraped away the target’s genetic code and perfectly replicated it.
To do so, the true target had to be ground up entirely—the real Evolutas de Beneron was dead.
Standing before me now was the architect of greed, Avarus.
‘I nearly fell for it.’
If not for my predator’s instinct [S], I would have.
I bared my dragon’s claws [A] with lethal sharpness.
Avarus, worshipper of fallen souls.
He was an alchemist.
A deranged one at that—one who synthesized homunculi using humans as raw materials.
Yet commonly, people regard alchemists and mages as entirely separate disciplines.
They think of alchemists as mere potion-peddlers incapable of wielding magic.
But that is a grave misconception.
Alchemy is fundamentally a branch of arcane science.
One cannot even learn alchemy without understanding arcane science.
An alchemist is a mage with deeper knowledge in the field of alchemy.
Not all mages are alchemists.
But all alchemists are mages.
Therefore, Avarus was also a mage.
Simply one obsessed with alchemy above all else.
And when facing a mage, there are certain iron-clad rules one must observe.
The first of these rules.
Never give a mage time.
◆Combination Skill ‘Metabolic Overdrive [U]’ activated!
◆Caloric Expenditure – 50,000 Kcal
◆For [500 seconds], all of the player’s stats increase by [+50%]!
Thump!!
In an instant, my endocrine system surged into overdrive.
I kicked off the ground—crack!
The floor cratered beneath me as my body rocketed forward.
“What the—!”
Avarus recoiled in shock.
My speed was far too swift for him to react, yet translucent barriers materialized before him in overlapping layers.
Shield magic.
But Avarus was currently Baron Beneron.
Transformed by Transmogrification down to the genetic level, his body could no longer cast magic.
This appeared to be a magical artifact that activated in moments of crisis.
In any case, the man was meticulous as ever.
I drove my Dragon’s Claws [A] through the layered shields without hesitation.
Dragon’s Claws [A] is an ability imprinted with dragon genetics.
Its offensive power rivals that of a dragon, and it ignores [-35%] of the target’s defense.
A few stacked shield spells stood no chance against it.
Crunch—!
The overlapping shield magic shattered like cookie crumbs.
Splash—!
Avarus’s chest tore open, and blood erupted skyward.
The impact registered clearly through my fingertips.
Yet Avarus did not fall.
No notification confirming Avarus’s defeat appeared.
Even setting that aside, the grotesque form before me dispelled any such notion.
Squelch—!
His entire body melted and dripped away like a nightmarish transformation.
Then Avarus’s true form revealed itself.
His body was bent and twisted.
His frame was gaunt as withered branches, and his two supporting legs trembled while moving in an eerie rhythm.
His fingertips were charred black from countless experiments.
Several of his fingers had been replaced with metallic prosthetics.
The unmistakable mark of someone who had used himself as an experimental subject.
Consequently, his exposed skin bore the scars of burns, deep lacerations, and flesh that bulged or caved inward in grotesque deformity.
Countless unidentifiable devices clung to his body like parasites.
Some had fused with his living tissue, circulating through his veins alongside his blood.
Others protruded from his hunched frame, continuously supplying him with unknown pharmaceuticals and viscous liquids.
His eyes darted erratically without focus, yet burned with an endless curiosity and manic obsession.
This was Avarus as I remembered him.
Kai’s eyes widened in shock.
“What…?”
Kai’s eyes stretched wide with unmistakable astonishment.
And for good reason—Transmogrify was the ultimate transformation magic, capable of rewriting one’s very genetics.
Even a master’s senses could not perceive it.
It eluded every form of magical detection.
“…How did you know?”
Avarus himself was bewildered.
“The detection concealment should have left no traces. Surely you didn’t identify my unique mana signature? That’s impossible…”
Avarus rambled on incoherently.
But I cared little for such theories.
There was one thing that could not deceive me—the predator’s instinct [S].
An ability acquired by devouring the Lycanthrope [S+], and one of the prerogatives wielded by the Beast Lord.
To summarize the predator’s instinct [S] simply: it was the ‘survival instinct’ that all living creatures on this world had evolved to possess.
To survive against natural predators.
To avoid being consumed by fellow predators.
An instinct honed over hundreds of millions of years—knowing which mushrooms bore poison, which places offered safety, which things benefited me.
Information accumulated by countless lives struggling for survival across innumerable natural environments.
Through this, I could inherently and a priori perceive the information of all creatures, environments, and subjects.
Moreover, I possessed knowledge of Avarus surpassing anyone else.
All the intelligence I had gathered on the Dark Merchant Company during my tenure as Special Forces Duke Commander remained vivid in my mind.
“How did you discover my identity?”
No matter how desperately Avarus struggled,
“What good does it do you? Buying time?”
he remained within my grasp.
Avarus trembled visibly, his body shaking.
A direct hit.
Yet he could not rush forward recklessly.
“I don’t understand how you discerned my identity…”
For there existed an absolute rule one must observe when facing a mage.
The second rule.
“The moment you stepped into this place, it was already too late!!”
Do not enter the mage’s domain.
Kiiiiiing—!!
A piercing ringing tore through my eardrums as mana vibrated around Avarus.
Incomprehensible hexagram magic circles etched themselves across all directions.
Soon, the entire space within this room became completely severed from the outside world, as though shrouded by a transparent veil.
What arrived in its wake was a distorted silence.
The sound of wind, the breath of lungs, the beating of hearts.
They stretched out lengthily and trembled.
Every phenomenon occurring in this space felt fundamentally at odds with reality.
‘A barrier.’
The moment I activated Predator’s Instinct [S], information about the barrier materialized before my eyes.
◆Infinity Silence
: Within this barrier, the flow of mana comes to a complete halt. All entities within the barrier cannot utilize their own mana.
This barrier persists infinitely, regardless of the passage of time.
Looking at the description alone, I wondered if such a barrier could even exist.
In truth, there was no barrier more absurdly overpowered than this one.
‘Even The Grand Mage was taken aback by it.’
It wasn’t only The Grand Mage.
The Spirit Summoner, hero of the Allied Forces, had also been caught off guard by Avarus’s barrier.
A barrier so absurdly powerful that even heroes could not stand against it.
Of course, it was equally difficult to activate.
It could not be used anywhere but specific locations, and even then required tremendous time and effort to construct.
This was precisely why the iron rule existed: do not enter the mage’s domain.
This was the reason Avarus had not fled despite the chaos.
‘I didn’t expect him to activate it so immediately.’
It was somewhat unexpected.
It seemed that upon witnessing Kai and myself—the estate’s guardian and the combat homunculus slayer—Avarus had judged victory impossible.
“Ugh…!”
Kai suddenly staggered.
This made sense, for the power Kai wielded was aura.
Aura was ultimately energy converted from mana into a usable form.
When the flow of mana ceased entirely, aura’s power was severed as well.
However.
The same applied to Avarus.
Avarus was a mage.
The power he wielded was magical force.
Magical force too was one form of energy converted from mana into a usable form.
When the flow of mana ceased entirely, magical force’s power was severed as well.
It appeared his intention was to engage in pure physical combat within a domain where mana flow was completely blocked.
He could not use magic, just as his opponent could not use aura.
Then it was merely a fight between human and human.
But Avarus was both a mage and an alchemist.
There were methods to strengthen the body through pharmaceutical means.
In that sense, the mysterious devices affixed throughout Avarus’s body began moving with fervent intensity.
Fused with his living flesh, the mechanisms coursed through him like blood, now boiling with activation.
With each surge, Avarus’s body underwent grotesque transformations.
Now it had become a battle between monster and human.
The outcome of this clash seemed predetermined—
Except for one thing.
There existed a variable.
I was the exception.
After all, I could not use mana whatsoever.
Therefore, the abilities I wielded were not rooted in mana either.
They were the powers of biological evolution.
Even if the flow of mana were severed, Dragon’s Claw [A] remained Dragon’s Claw [A].
Regeneration [B+] remained Regeneration [B+].
Hardened Skin [B], Nutrient Synthesis [B], Accelerated Metabolism [C+], and all my combination skills—everything stayed intact.
I was Avarus’s perfect counter.
Moreover, I understood precisely what manner of mage Avarus was.
I did not walk into this domain of magic, Avarus’s own sanctuary, without reason.
Conversely, Avarus knew nothing about me.
More precisely, he regarded me only as a reckless fool from the Whitewolf House.
It seemed he believed all he needed to do was suppress Kai’s aura.
“Kekekekek…!”
Avarus began to split into a maniacal grin.
“Foolish beyond measure.”
He was convinced he had seized victory.
Come to think of it, he had been the same in my previous life.
Within a domain where mana flow was controlled, watching the heroes of the Allied Forces panic, he had split into laughter so violent it bordered on cackling.
And thus.
“Crawling into my domain of your own volition—kekekek…!”
His heart was torn from his chest and he fell.

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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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