The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 68

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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 68. Infinity vs. Infinity (2)
Adrian continued his grotesque, utterly unconventional movements.
Kai’s astonishment at witnessing this spectacle lasted only a moment.
Fwooosh—!
Tentacles flooded from every direction, engulfing everything in their path.
There seemed to be no space left to evade.
Yet, remarkably, I dodged every single tentacle.
With extraordinary perception and reflexes, I evaded and countered every tentacle that came crashing down.
Admiration bloomed unbidden across Kai’s bewildered face.
My movements defied human capability—never pausing for an instant, constantly shifting, evading tentacles, tearing them apart, devouring them.
Separate from the grotesque display, it was nothing short of miraculous.
As both a knight and a warrior, Kai felt reverence surge within him.
What would Kai have done in my place?
Could he have matched my performance?
Kai could answer with certainty.
…No.
Even with his master’s perception, he couldn’t perceive all the tentacles of that mass of flesh. Responding to them was naturally impossible.
Yet Adrian was managing it.
Perceiving hundreds of flesh masses individually, grasping the trajectories of all their attacks, evading them, tearing them apart, devouring them.
What made this even more astounding was this:
‘He’s growing stronger.’
With each passing moment, Adrian grew progressively more powerful.
As I evaded Avarus’s attacks, my muscles tore and my breathing grew ragged.
As a human, I should have reached my limits as time passed, but each time, I bit down—crunch!—on the tentacles of the encroaching flesh mass.
Chewing and swallowing the flesh, I continued the battle without pause.
Then my torn muscles grew denser and more compact, and my ragged breathing instantly stabilized.
Repeating this cycle again and again, infinitely repeating it, I grew infinitely stronger.
Now.
“The efficiency of my stat growth is insane!”
For me, this place was not the Infinite Labyrinth.
It was the ‘Infinite Trial Ground’—where I could grow infinitely.
“Hey, Avarus! Try going faster!”
【This crazy bastard! You think I’ll just obey whatever you say—!】
“You won’t? How about this?”
Crack—!
【Aaaaaaahhhhh!! I’ll do it! Just stop!!】
Kai abandoned all further thought.
* * *
Day 68 of being trapped in the Infinite Trial Ground.
【P-please… stop, you madman…!!】
In the end, Avarus broke first under the endless torment that was not quite torture.
My prediction had proven correct.
Though Avarus possessed infinite stamina and mana, his mental fortitude was anything but infinite.
Moreover, with each passing day, I grew stronger and more formidable.
I did not even sleep.
More precisely, I had no need to sleep.
Thus, through endless cultivation and growth, I had become a true ‘monster’.
A monster on an entirely different tier from Avarus himself—a creature of another level entirely.
A predator that devoured monsters.
To Kai, any further combat was meaningless.
No matter if Avarus was a madman, an alchemist of madness, or whatever else.
“What, it’s already over?”
True madness simply could not overcome genuine madness.
Honestly, even Kai was growing weary of it.
In that sense, sixty-eight days was quite an endurance.
【I… I lost….】
Avarus’s voice cracked as though he were surrendering unconditionally.
【I’ll let you out… so go… leave….】
Soon after, a mass of flesh on one side groaned open with a squelch. Beyond it, a brilliant shimmer of light beckoned.
Thus, the infinite battle concluded with my victory.
At last, I had reached the terminus of this long, arduous struggle—.
“I don’t want to.”
…What was that supposed to mean?
【W-what?!】
“I’m not leaving.”
【What do you…?】
“Who gave you the right to decide when I leave?”
【Of course—!】
“You let me in as you pleased, but now leaving isn’t my choice?”
Wasn’t that backwards?
Shouldn’t he be the one saying that?
Shouldn’t he?
…I wasn’t entirely sure.
And I didn’t particularly care to know.
“Besides, what guarantee is there that this is actually an exit?”
That was a fair point.
The rules in the Codex had stated there was no exit in this place.
【I-it’s true! That really is an exit! I stake everything on it…! No, I swear by that one—it’s truly an exit to the outside world!】
It did seem to be genuine, though.
“Never mind. I’m not leaving. Where else could I find a training ground better than this?”
Adrian showed no intention of leaving whatsoever.
“I’m not leaving until I hit 9,999, so understand that much.”
I couldn’t fathom what he meant by hitting 9,999.
“What are you doing? Start again.”
And so.
【SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!】
The Infinite Trial Ground continued endlessly.
* * *
Day 89 trapped in the Infinite Trial Ground.
【P-please… please let me out…】
Avarus began begging desperately.
The surroundings were filled with tentacles of flesh, but they were no longer a means to attack Adrian.
【I beg you…! Please… please let me out…! What?!】
Pleading, pleading, pleading.
Hundreds of tentacles surrounding him began pairing off, begging in unison.
Begging turned to desperate supplication.
The tentacles rubbed together so frantically, as if swatting away a fly.
From the friction of the rubbing, pieces of flesh from the tentacles crumbled and fell away.
It was a sight of incomparable grotesqueness, and yet.
“I hate this.”
Despite being an enemy, he was quite pitiable.
But then.
“The people you mercilessly experimented on suffered far more than this. Compared to their pain, this is nothing.”
Hearing Adrian’s words, I felt no pity for him whatsoever.
* * *
Day 124 trapped in the Infinite Trial Ground.
【Kill me!! Just kill me, you insane bastard!!!】
Avarus finally abandoned all will to live.
And no wonder—his body, that mass of flesh, was ravaged by incomprehensible agony and endless cycles of regeneration.
All will had completely shattered, leaving him without even the desire to cling to life.
Whether his mind had utterly collapsed.
Or whether he had simply gone mad.
Avarus began tearing at the walls, ceiling, and floor of the labyrinth himself.
And as if that weren’t enough, he thrashed his tentacles wildly in all directions—
【Kill me!! Please kill me!! I want to die!! Please!!!】
He cried out and wailed, begging for death—
Squelch!
But the torn wounds regenerated instantly—
【AAAAAAAAAAAGH!!】
Only multiplying Avarus’s suffering.
* * *
Day 187 of my imprisonment in the Infinite Trial Ground.
【W-Whatever you wish to know! I shall answer everything!!】
Avarus changed his strategy.
A strategy of cooperation with Adrian.
Since there was no escaping the torment either way, he chose the path that would cause him less suffering.
“First, that elixir you consumed. Is it the elixir that could heal Seraphia?”
【Y-Yes, that’s correct! It’s called the Infinite Elixir, and it grants the consumer infinite power!】
“Infinite power?”
【Yes, yes! As you can see from my current state, it truly grants infinite power!】
“How is that even possible?”
【It was forged through that person’s divine authority!】
The “person” Avarus spoke of here.
Kai couldn’t discern who it was, but Adrian seemed to know something.
“Hmm….”
Adrian fell silent in thought for a moment, then asked again.
“Then why were you trying to give it to Seraphia?”
【Eh? Y-Yes…?】
“If it’s such a broken elixir that grants infinite power, you would have consumed it yourself. Why were you trying to give it to Seraphia?”
【I already consumed it…didn’t I.】
“You consumed it out of desperation because you thought you’d die in combat.”
【That, that is….】
“I see you’re still scheming. It seems you don’t intend to cooperate properly.”
Whoooooosh—!!!!
Primordial flames of eons bloomed across Adrian’s entire body.
Avarus shrieked and leaped backward in terror.
【N-No! I’ll tell you! Right now, I’ll—!】
But.
Roooaaarrr—!!
A ferocious dragon had already awakened from Adrian’s arms.
【Kyaaaaaahhhhh!!!】
* * *
Day 188 of my imprisonment in the Infinite Trial Ground.
Avarus, his mind scattered and consciousness overturned by yesterday’s raging inferno.
Avarus regained consciousness only today, after a full day had passed.
【It was the Cult’s orders!!】
The moment he came to, Avarus began spilling everything without hesitation.
“The Cult? You mean the Devotees of the Fallen Souls?”
【H-How did you…!】
Avarus’s eyes widened in shock.
Kai had been unable to comprehend their conversation since yesterday, yet Adrian seemed to know something.
* * *
Day 190 of being trapped in the Infinite Trial Ground.
Over the course of two days, Avarus confessed every piece of information he possessed to Adrian.
Or rather, he ‘confessed’ by repeatedly losing consciousness and regaining it over those two days….
In any case.
“That’s enough. Let’s end the questioning here.”
After two days of interrogation, Adrian seemed to have extracted every last bit of information Avarus could provide.
【Then… will you… will you kill me now?!】
Avarus, strangely, didn’t even dare ask Adrian to leave.
He was that mentally devastated.
But Adrian simply tilted his head in confusion at the question.
“Kill you? Me? Why would I do that?”
【Didn’t you say you’d kill me once I told you everything I know?】
“When did I ever make such a promise?”
【Yes… what?】
“I never made any such promise.”
That was true.
Avarus had simply volunteered to cooperate out of his own unbearable suffering. From what Kai had witnessed, Adrian had made no such promise.
“Besides, I don’t even know how to kill you.”
【What do you mean by that—!】
“What are you doing? We should start training again.”
Crack—!
【Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!】
* * *
Day 211 of being trapped in the Infinite Trial Ground.
【Sob…! Sniff…!】
Avarus had begun to weep.
Each time, the flesh and tentacles of the Labyrinth would gurgle and writhe, and the sight was truly….
“It’s disgusting. Stop crying.”
Whoooosh—!
【Kyaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!】
* * *
Day 241 of being trapped in the Infinite Trial Ground.
No more screams from Avarus could be heard.
And the walls of flesh were no longer visible to Kai’s eyes.
A bright full moon shone through the gaping ceiling, and the surroundings were scattered with debris of shattered stone and timber.
“This place….”
It was the Beneron Manor.
In other words, the space from before Kai had been trapped in the Infinite Trial Ground… or rather, the Infinite Labyrinth.
I had finally escaped the Infinite Labyrinth.
【He, hehehes…. Hehe…!】
Together with Avarus, who had completely lost his mind.
* * *
The mass of flesh suddenly vanished at some point.
Looking around, the sight of the destroyed Beneron Manor came into view.
“We’re out?”
“It appears so.”
Kai answered immediately.
“How long were we in there?”
“Approximately 241 days.”
“241 days….”
More than eight months of time.
“Fortunately, it seems time outside did not pass.”
Kai exhaled a sigh of relief as if grateful for this mercy.
And I agreed with that assessment.
According to the sixth rule’s content, the Infinite Labyrinth was a separate dimension disconnected from reality. No matter how much time passed within the labyrinth, time outside could remain frozen.
As if to prove this.
The ruins of the destroyed manor lay scattered across my entire field of vision.
If 241 days had truly passed outside, there would be no reason for the manor’s remains to be scattered like this.
Someone would have come and cleaned it up long ago.
But the fact that the ruins remained untouched meant that no one had visited this place since our assault.
And there was the bright full moon illuminating the night sky.
It told me that less than a day had passed since we attacked the Beneron Barony.
It seemed that time had not flowed here from the moment I was trapped in the Infinite Labyrinth.
Yet I had certainly trained for the long 241 days within the Infinite Labyrinth.
Strength stat +43
Vitality stat +59
Agility stat +12
The increased stats alone amounted to a +113 level-up.
‘Then my current stats are….’
As I checked the 「Player Information」 window—.
==「Player Information」==
[Name] = Adrian Whitewolf
[Title] = Ruler of the Northern Region
[Level] = 53
[HP] = 9,460
[MP] = 0
[Stats] = Strength: 87.4(+11.4) Agility: 84.5(+19.5) Vitality: 93.6(+19.6) Mana: 6.9(+0.9)
[Experience] = 55.8%
‘…Have I lost my mind?’
The staggering number before me was enough to make that very thought escape my lips unbidden.

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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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