The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 72

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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 72. The Infinite Inventory
A translucent message appeared: my inventory’s weight capacity had changed.
It had been converted to ‘∞kg’.
‘…Is this real?’
Honestly, I couldn’t believe it.
Of course, the translucent messages had never lied to me before—
‘But still, this is absurd.’
∞kg? How was that even possible?
I couldn’t even fathom how much mana would be required to recreate a pocket dimension with infinite storage capacity through magic alone.
Actually, I knew the answer.
It would require infinite mana.
But infinite mana? That was beyond reason.
For that very reason, neither The Grand Mage nor even Ian could use an infinite pocket dimension.
As it turned out, Ian’s wasn’t a pocket dimension at all—it was an inventory. But regardless.
‘Let me try this.’
A sack stuffed with gold coins larger than my own height.
Just by estimating its weight, it seemed to weigh several thousand kilograms.
But when I reached out my hand lightly—
◆Storing ‘Sack of Gold Coins’ in inventory.
It stored without any resistance whatsoever.
And when I reached for the sack beside it—whoosh!
◆Storing ‘Sack of Gold Coins’ in inventory.
This one too stored without any resistance.
The sack next to it, and the one beside that.
My inventory’s weight limit based on my Strength stat had been exceeded long ago—
◆Storing ‘Sack of Gold Coins’ in inventory.
◆Storing ‘Sack of Gold Coins’ in inventory.
◆Storing ‘Sack of Gold Coins’ in inventory.
.
.
.
They continued disappearing into my inventory.
‘It’s real.’
My inventory’s weight capacity had truly been converted to ∞kg.
Now I could store anything and everything in my inventory, provided I met the storage conditions.
And the storage conditions were simple—just two of them.
It had to be an ‘object’.
I had to ‘own’ it.
If The Continent were classified as an object and I could claim ownership of it—
Then I could store The Continent itself in my inventory.
With the pouches of gold coins and all the remaining gold and jewels I hadn’t yet stored safely tucked into my inventory—
“…!!!!”
I could see Kai’s eyes widen so dramatically they looked ready to split.
His blue eyes, which had already grown impossibly wide, were now literally tearing at the corners.
It was only natural—tens of thousands of kilograms of gold coins had vanished right before his eyes.
“Magic…?!”
And this was coming from me, someone who couldn’t use mana at all, whose mana sensitivity approached zero.
“Were the soldiers telling the truth…?”
I had no idea what the soldiers had been saying about me—
“Well, it really was true.”
I was equally astonished.
I knew the system wouldn’t lie, but actually witnessing it firsthand left me unable to contain my shock.
The Abyss Lord’s authority was no accident.
The [M] grade was no accident.
It was an ability so absurdly broken—no, overwhelmingly broken—that the word “Myth” didn’t even begin to do it justice.
Moreover, Infinite [M] could be combined not just with inventory, but with other concepts as well.
And concepts are generalizations of collections of objects.
They encompass invisible subjects too—human thoughts, time, divinity, transcendent things.
That meant if I raised my understanding of Infinite high enough, I could combine it with literally anything.
Starting with Infinite stamina and mana like Avarus possessed, I could achieve Infinite strength and agility, Infinite calories, Infinite vision, Infinite memory, Infinite luck, and so on.
Anything that could be generalized as a concept could be combined.
Just to be safe, I tried combining it with every concept I could think of.
But nothing worked.
It seemed my [Understanding of Infinity] was still too low—only the inventory function was available for now.
‘Understanding of Infinity, huh….’
Honestly, I had no idea what that even meant.
I wasn’t unfamiliar with infinity itself.
An endlessly expanding state.
Something without limits or constraints.
That’s what infinity is.
But what the system told me was different.
That infinities could be compared in size to one another.
That different infinities could exist.
That some infinities could be ‘counted’.
‘Hmm.’
It wasn’t easy to understand.
More precisely, I couldn’t intuitively grasp it.
‘The Grand Mage might know.’
If the Grand Mage, the hero of the Allied Forces, existed, he might possess knowledge of infinity.
Magicraft—the discipline that interprets all phenomena and laws of the world.
Therefore, the field of arcane magic encompassed numerous disciplines.
Life arcana—the study of biological phenomena.
Energetics—the study of energy laws.
Elemental arcana—the study of nature’s fundamental forces, and so forth.
Alchemy, too, was a branch of arcane magic. And mages who specialized in alchemy were called alchemists.
Being a mage did not mean one was versed in every discipline.
It was not merely common but absolutely expected that a mage would choose a single field of arcane study and dedicate themselves to it entirely.
However.
The Grand Mage was different.
One who had mastered all branches of arcane magic.
It was in this context that The Grand Mage once said to me:
-If you ask me why a phenomenon occurs, I’m afraid I cannot answer you.
But.
-Given the conditions, I can explain to you exactly how a phenomenon manifests.
The laws that constitute this world—truths known only to the divine.
The Grand Mage had drawn closest to such truths, and the Allied Forces called him [The Mage of Truth] for this reason.
In this sense, all the knowledge of evolutionary biology that I currently possessed—
—had been learned and studied from The Grand Mage during my time with the Allied Forces.
If The Grand Mage existed, he would surely know something about the Infinite that I did not.
‘At this point in time, he should be at Langrit Tower.’
Unlike Ian, I had a rough idea of The Grand Mage’s location.
I had set it aside for now since reuniting with Ian remained my top priority—
‘But it wouldn’t hurt to establish contact beforehand.’
After all, he was one of the maximum forces that absolutely had to be recruited into the Allied Forces.
In any case.
For now, regrettable as it was.
Expanding my inventory to ∞kg capacity alone was not merely satisfying but a tremendous gain.
I could now store unlimited nutrients needed for Regeneration [B+].
In other words, I had obtained ‘conditional infinite stamina.’
Of course, I didn’t have infinite money to purchase infinite nutrients—
‘Over twenty million gold.’
The gold I’d plundered from Avarus’s secret vault exceeded twenty million.
Precisely 23,453,200 gold.
This was not quite the annual budget of a kingdom…
—but it rivaled the annual budget of a small duchy, an astronomical sum.
And this was certainly not wealth that could be accumulated in a mere barony.
‘Was this the Dark Merchant Company’s operational fund?’
It seemed likely.
Operational funds the Dark Merchant Company had accumulated to subvert influential figures across each kingdom.
In other words, this was bribe money meant for the nobility of Battenberg Kingdom.
In my past life, the Battenberg Kingdom’s political sphere would have been completely devoured by the Dark Merchant Company.
But in this life, I intercepted it midway.
This was tantamount to dealing a tremendous financial blow and utterly demolishing the Dark Merchant Company’s plans.
‘This is absolutely delicious.’
I could already hear the Devotees of the Fallen Souls practically salivating with delight.
‘This much is more than enough to serve as the Allied Forces’ foundational funds.’
Now.
‘I just need to find Ian.’
All I had to do was reunite with Ian.
Ian had been silent so far, but it seemed likely he was searching some remote mountain valley trying to find me.
In my past life, before I met Ian, I lived a life indistinguishable from a monster, consumed by madness.
To avoid drawing attention, I wandered regions far removed from civilization.
Therefore, if Ian was searching for me, he would prioritize scouring those isolated, uncivilized areas.
But he wouldn’t spend his entire life searching only in such places.
The Predator Merchant Company’s reputation was spreading steadily and widely.
Before long, I would surely meet Ian soon.
In other words, everything was unfolding smoothly and perfectly.
With those thoughts organized, I continued forward.
“This… this is impossible…!!”
Kai still hadn’t recovered from the shock.
A reaction and astonishment of historic proportions.
“Ugh… ugghhh…!”
The Infinite Inventory had proven quite the shock.
* * *
Adrian waved his hand through the air, and the piles of gold coins vanished.
Then Adrian simply continued walking as if nothing had happened.
“…Ah, right. I should take this rune steel door too.”
Crack!
Adrian tore off the entire solid rune steel door as easily as splitting tofu. Then he waved his hand, and the entire door vanished somewhere.
Watching Adrian’s actions in silence—
“Ah… no…”
I couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of person he was.
The power to transform the impossible into the possible.
The ability to turn recklessness into miracles.
Until now, I had tried to package such things with those very words, but Adrian was beyond explanation or comprehension anymore.
Because he was Adrian.
I could only accept it as such.
But separate from that, there was a matter I needed to address.
“Surely you’re not planning to take all the wealth with you?”
When Kai asked, Adrian stopped in his tracks.
“So you’re saying we should just leave it all behind? All that money?”
“But that is Baron Beneron’s wealth, is it not?”
“And?”
“Yes?”
“Did that thing back there look like Baron Beneron to you?”
“….”
Kai had nothing to say in response.
“The real Baron Beneron died long ago.”
“Then surely his children—”
“Dead as well.”
Kai pressed his lips shut once more.
…As Adrian said, Alteron, Beneron’s son, was also dead.
And beyond that.
“Count Edmond, the original owner of the Whitewolf Territory, is dead too. Avarus killed him and all his blood relatives. He had to seize the territory, after all. You’ve heard this yourself, haven’t you?”
Count Edmond, who had granted Baron Beneron his title.
He was dead as well.
When Adrian had interrogated Avarus in the Infinite Labyrinth, Kai had heard it too, so it was certain information.
Yet still.
“While it is true that the victor has the right to claim spoils of war, such matters must ultimately be conducted under the Royal Court’s supervision. Taxes accordingly—”
“What are you talking about?”
“What I mean is—”
“When did we do it?”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“When did we wage a territorial war?”
“Well, obviously—”
…Come to think of it, we didn’t.
“We conducted a surprise attack. A sudden one at that. As long as we keep our mouths shut, no one will know we ambushed them. See? We even wore masks.”
And with that, Adrian produced a mask from somewhere and put it on.
I have no idea when he acquired it, but what good does wearing a mask do now?
“You revealed your identity as a rogue the moment the ambush began, did you not?”
“Ah, right. I thought you wouldn’t figure out it was me, but who could have predicted you’d use Transmogrification?”
Adrian removed the mask and tossed it aside.
“Besides, there are no witnesses who saw our faces anyway.”
…That was true.
“So what’s the point of the mask?”
No witnesses meant it was an assassination.
It was what Adrian had declared when he first kicked through the front gate of the manor.
In other words, it was absurd logic.
Yet remarkably enough—.
…I had no counterargument.
Yet despite everything, my concerns were far from dispelled.
“The Royal Court will dispatch an investigation team regarding this incident.”
Beneron Barony had been utterly destroyed.
Even a baron was nobility, and more importantly, Beneron timber was a high-quality material used by the Royal Court and numerous other nobles alike.
What if the timber supply suddenly ceased?
“It’s only a matter of time before the Royal Court learns of this incident.”
And once they did, they would conduct a thorough investigation.
“If we were to be identified as the perpetrators of the barony’s attack….”
We could even end up bearing the blame for Count Edmond’s murder.
“What are you talking about?”
Adrian cut off Kai’s words as if questioning what nonsense he was spouting.
“The one who attacked the barony is right here inside me.”
Kai lifted his gaze, looking upward past Adrian’s head.
The ceiling of the dark underground vault.
Nothing was visible.
“No, not that. Inside here.”
Adrian gestured with his chin toward his abdomen.
The stomach.
The organ responsible for digestive function among human body parts.
In other words, he was referring to the flesh being digested within Adrian’s stomach—Avarus.
For just a moment, Kai’s mind went completely blank.
“Beneron Barony was destroyed by Avarus, and all of the barony’s assets were embezzled by Avarus before he fled, weren’t they?”
And just like that, Adrian constructed an entire scenario.
Kai’s departed mind could never return.
And for good reason—not a single word was wrong.
Beneron Barony truly had been destroyed by Avarus.
That Avarus, who had consumed the barony.
He had impersonated the Baron of Beneron and embezzled all of the barony’s assets.
Only—.
“When we arrived, the vault was already empty. What are you even saying?”
We had merely added a slight embellishment to the narrative.
“Besides, this is the cleanest money in the world, so it’s fine to take it.”
“The cleanest money in the world, you say…?”
“A criminal’s money.”
…Remarkably, there was no refutation to be made.
In other words, not a single word Adrian had spoken was wrong—
“I understand perfectly.”
Kai picked up the mask I had discarded, dusting it off carefully before putting it on.
* * *
Having convinced myself, I watched as Kai retrieved the mask I had cast aside and donned it.
Kai meticulously checked his mask, paranoid that his face might somehow be visible.
I wondered if such precautions mattered at this point, but regardless.
Following the ethereal glow of Kai’s aura, I emerged from the Underground Vault.
A long spiral staircase stretched before me.
As I climbed slowly, I organized my thoughts one by one.
Specifically, the information I’d extracted from Avarus in the Infinite Labyrinth.
Desperate to escape even momentary relief from his endless torment, Avarus had spilled details I never even asked for.
Most of it was information I already knew.
But there were several unexpected revelations I hadn’t known even in my past life, and the first among them—
‘He deliberately approached Seraphia.’
Avarus had deliberately approached Seraphia.
His purpose was to feed her the ‘Infinite Elixir’—the very substance he’d reluctantly consumed himself.
‘In my past life, Seraphia must have consumed it.’
She would have suffered the same affliction in that timeline as well.
Though the manner in which the Lycanthrope and his monster army that attacked Whitewolf Territory were dealt with differed, Seraphia’s suffering remained identical.
Therefore, the future altered by my existence as a variable.
That could be said to begin now.
From this point forward—now that Seraphia hasn’t consumed the Infinite Elixir because of my intervention—new branches of fate would unfold.
In that sense—
‘So that’s what he meant by “the Arranged One.”‘
Avarus had referred to Seraphia as ‘the Arranged One.’

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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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