The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 75

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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 75. The Lawless City (1)
The Predator Merchant Company.
Though the name was unfamiliar, Isolde remembered it well.
A fledgling merchant company that dealt in monster meat distribution.
And for some reason, the name of the Predator Merchant Company’s guild master was etched deeply into Isolde’s memory.
“Are you referring to Adrian Whitewolf?”
“Indeed. It is said that he donned a mask the moment he entered the Lawless City, but before that, they confirmed both his face and black hair.”
Black hair—uncommon across the Continent.
The possibility of misinformation was slim.
“Has it been determined what purpose he has in the Lawless City?”
“They were unable to confirm that much, but….”
The Lawless City, where even the barest semblance of law and order had crumbled.
Despite its name as a Free City, the Lawless City was the very wellspring of evil.
Thus, it was a dead city that no one ventured into willingly.
If one’s purpose was commerce, there was even less reason to go there.
The Lawless City was rife with crime and chaos—merchant companies could not traverse it.
Those who attempted trade there invariably left stripped of everything.
Not a single merchant company across the Continent would dare conduct business in the Lawless City.
Yet if there were a company that moved freely through that place—
“I suspect he may be a member of the Dark Merchant Company.”
The Dark Merchant Company.
Only they move freely through the Lawless City.
More precisely, the Lawless City is one of their primary strongholds.
“And the recent drastic change in this Adrian’s movements….”
The Attending Priest drew a deep breath and added carefully.
“I believe one of the Dark Merchant Company’s members has possessed and is controlling this Adrian.”
At this point, it was no longer mere speculation—it could be called certainty.
In fact, it was a vicious tactic the Dark Merchant Company commonly employed.
“What shall we do?”
The Attending Priest’s question that followed.
Isolde’s long lashes lowered slightly.
And for a moment.
“Tell the Eye of The Pilgrim not to act, but to continue watching.”
“Understood.”
The Attending Priest bowed deeply and departed from the Chapel.
As the Chapel’s door slowly closed, the candles hanging on the wall flickered faintly.
“Adrian Whitewolf….”
For some reason, the name echoed in her mind once more.
Isolde reached out and pressed one side of the altar. Then, various symbols rose to the surface.
When she pushed away a particular symbol with her hand—
Creak…!
The heavy altar shifted slowly, and the hidden entrance gradually opened.
* * *
Violess, the Lawless City.
The moment I stepped into Violess, I retrieved a mask from my inventory that covered my entire face and put it on.
Since black hair was uncommon on The Continent, I had deliberately brought a mask that concealed even that.
On top of that, I switched my title to 【Master of the Snowy Mountain】.
Since Violess wasn’t in the Northern Region, I couldn’t benefit from the 【Ruler of the North】 title effect.
After confirming the mask was properly fitted and the title change had taken effect correctly.
I ventured deeper into Violess.
Passing through narrow, labyrinthine alleyways—
A landscape of crude wooden structures tangled in chaotic disarray came into view.
And everywhere, the creaking of wood and air thick with dust.
On one side of the street, miscellaneous goods were piled haphazardly, and crowds of people gathered around them.
It was one of Violess’s market formations, where the displayed wares consisted of magical herbs whose efficacy was unknown and artifacts of mysterious origin.
Or rotting food that appeared to have been stolen from somewhere, scattered about.
Throughout the streets, there were people staggering about, intoxicated by some substance.
And people lying bloodied on the ground, as if from some territorial dispute.
People hiding themselves away in alleys.
‘This is absolute chaos.’
It was madness in the truest sense.
‘Though compared to the Allied Forces war, it’s far better.’
Back then, the environment was so devastating that no living creature could have survived.
Even as deplorable as Violess’s conditions were, they couldn’t compare to that.
If anything, compared to the relentless bitter cold of Whitewolf Territory, it might be different.
In that sense.
‘Whitewolf Territory is slightly better.’
The Territory was somewhat more livable.
The Territory only had problems with cold and starvation.
Unlike Violess, it didn’t have the issue of a war of all against all.
‘So this was once a marquessate.’
In fact, Violess had been a marquessate.
That is, it was a Territory—a land granted by the sovereign to a feudal lord, not a Free City.
Perhaps the marquess had been too greedy.
When the territorial subjects rose in rebellion, the marquess hired mercenaries to suppress it.
But old habits die hard.
Upon completing their mission and returning, the marquess gave the mercenaries no compensation whatsoever.
And so, the mercenaries suddenly found themselves with nowhere to go.
Unable to endure any longer, they killed the marquess, seized the Territory without authorization, and built houses and formed settlements illegally.
When the sovereign of the kingdom heard this news, they immediately dispatched troops, but they couldn’t easily suppress the battle-hardened mercenaries.
In the end, the kingdom abandoned its attempt to reclaim the territory.
As time passed in that state—
Exiles, criminals, and refugees from various kingdoms flooded in, and as vagrant paupers streamed through, an organic city formed—
That was precisely—
The origin of Violess, the Lawless City.
Today, Violess had become a chaotic city teeming with criminals of every stripe.
If you died here, your corpse couldn’t even be found, and even the kingdom’s resources struggled to extract someone from the dangers of the Lawless City.
A city where exposure to severe violence and crime was virtually guaranteed.
Thus, it had long since become a ‘No-Go Zone’ that even adventurers refused to enter.
In other words, whether noble or royalty—
The moment you set foot here, you were essentially advertising “please kill me.”
In fact, anyone who even remotely resembled nobility or royalty became a target for crime.
Exactly like—
Slash!
This.
A man brushing past me, delivering what they crudely called a knife strike.
The distance was far too close to evade.
Just days ago, I wouldn’t have been able to dodge it.
But now, that wasn’t the case.
Two hundred and forty-one days of training in the Infinite Trial Ground… or rather, the Infinite Labyrinth.
Added to that, the +21 level-up stat gains from clearing Quests.
My agility and reaction speed, refined through all of that investment, could now respond within 10 milliseconds.
Truth be told, I didn’t even need to dodge.
But there was no reason to deliberately take the hit either.
If the blade happened to be poisoned, recovering with Regeneration [B+] would be difficult.
With an instantaneous reaction, I twisted my body to evade the knife strike, then raised Dragon’s Claw [A] and tore the man’s entire shoulder clean off—
“Aaaaaaahhhhh—!”
Blood sprayed in all directions alongside his screams.
All eyes suddenly converged on the scene.
There was certainly more than just this one man.
But among the gathering crowd, I couldn’t distinguish who was who.
However, my senses had now transcended mere intuition, approaching something nearly like ESP.
As I focused my perception, the faint killing intent directed at me became distinctly clear.
Three directly ahead.
Two approaching from the left alley.
One waiting for an opening from behind.
The moment I pinpointed their positions, I launched myself forward.
First, the three in front.
Perhaps they hadn’t grasped the situation yet.
They were frozen in shock.
I wedged myself into the gap and tore out the leftmost one’s throat.
Crack—!
One fell without even a scream.
The moment I confirmed it, I spun around and crossed the dragon’s claws in a sweeping arc.
Two more shredded like paper.
The first three dropped in an instant—
“That… that bastard!”
“Kill him!”
The rest revealed their true colors and drew their weapons.
The motion of drawing daggers from their sleeves.
Thrusting them forward without hesitation.
These weren’t men who’d killed only one or two.
I tilted my head slightly to dodge the incoming dagger, then grabbed the man’s arm and pulled.
I drove his face into my knee, twisted my waist, and struck the one behind him with my raised knee again.
Gag—!
I didn’t even need to use Metabolic Overdrive.
No point wasting calories.
That left one.
Shriek—!
The one who’d been waiting for an opening from behind.
I didn’t kill him—I grabbed him and slammed him into the ground.
Crash—!
“Which organization do you Visters belong to?”
Vister.
Vi, meaning violence.
-Ster, meaning person.
The combination of these two words meant a person who wielded violence.
In short, ‘organized thug’.
And countless Vister groups existed in the Lawless City. In a place where law and order didn’t exist, force was absolute power.
Visters were those who wielded force and imposed their own rules.
That’s why countless Visters were born and destroyed in endless cycles.
My territory, your territory.
Power struggles erupted constantly, day after day.
But among that chaos, there were Vister groups that maintained unwavering power—
The Crimson Soiree in the red-light district.
The Black Grasp at the gambling den.
“I… I can’t say…!”
Crack—!
“Ahhhhhhh!! The… Black Grasp! We belong to the Black Grasp!”
These men were Visters from the Black Grasp.
Contrary to my expectations, he wasn’t just a common thug.
But he wasn’t the Bisster I was looking for.
What I was searching for was—
“Where do I need to go to find the Black Market?”
The Ashen Mask of the Black Market.
A Bisster belonging to the Dark Merchant Company, no less.
“T-that way—!”
Crack!
“Aaaahhh—!! I-I was trying to answer—!”
The man glared at me as if deeply wronged.
In truth, I hadn’t expected him to answer willingly.
“If you’re going to answer, don’t waste time. Don’t confuse me.”
“U-ugh…!”
“I just told you not to waste time.”
Crack!
“Kyaaahhh—!”
“So where do I need to go?”
“T-turn around that alley over there…”
Fearing I’d break his other arm, he provided detailed directions.
After I’d heard everything he had to say,
Boom!
I grabbed his face and slammed it straight into the ground.
His body went limp.
He didn’t move.
None of the others I’d dealt with before moved either.
…Returning to the past, my first murder.
Lycanthrope wasn’t human, and homunculi weren’t strictly human either. Avarus was no different.
Therefore, this could be called my first true murder.
But with memories and experience from my time in the Special Task Force, I felt nothing.
Of course, that didn’t mean I was indifferent to killing.
Taking a life weighed heavily on me and burdened my conscience.
However, not sparing someone unworthy of living was an entirely different matter.
The fact that they’d tried to kill a random passerby without hesitation suggested their crimes were far from minor. Countless innocent lives had surely fallen to their hands.
As I rose to my feet—
“H-he took down the Black Grasp members so easily…?”
“That’s impossible…!”
“Who is he…?”
Everyone around me stared with expressions of shock.
From their faces, it seemed my personal notoriety extended beyond just being affiliated with the Black Grasp.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd of onlookers, creating a stir.
In any other place, people would have screamed and fled, guards would have rushed to the scene, and the entire city would have descended into chaos—
But this was Violess.
A lawless city where even the bare minimum of law and order had crumbled.
* * *
The Black Market.
A place where goods that couldn’t be openly traded in ordinary markets were bought and sold in secret.
In Violess’s Black Market, forbidden grimoires and magical materials, cursed items were sold.
Illegal drugs and alchemical components.
And human slaves.
Items that could make one a wanted criminal across the entire Continent if discovered.
Because suppliers bore such enormous costs, the prices of these goods were inevitably astronomical.
The Dark Merchant Company operated multiple Black Markets like this and had accumulated vast wealth.
In other words, the Dark Merchant Company’s Black Markets existed in more than just Violess.
However, the Black Market operated in Violess was by far the largest.
Violess—a lawless city where no absolute authority like lords or sovereigns existed.
Because there was no absolute power to stop them from operating the Black Market openly.
That’s why Violess’s Black Market was situated in the heart of the city.
Yet maintaining strict anonymity meant that traders followed the principle of concealing their faces with masks or hoods.
‘I’ve already put on the mask.’
I retrieved a ring from my inventory.
At the center of the ring sat a Shadow Amethyst that shimmered with subtle purple and black hues depending on the angle of light.
This ring, unremarkable at first glance, had a name—
◆Covenant Of The Abyss
: This ring is synchronized with the bioenergy of a specific target. It has been crafted to detect the unique mana pattern and genetic information of a designated individual, allowing only the preset person to wear it.
A mark proving I was a worshipper of the fallen soul.
As the description indicated, only the preset person could wear it.
I had obtained this from Avarus’s secret vault.
In other words, it was a ring that proved I was Avarus.
Therefore, only Avarus could wear it—but I possessed the ability Predation [S+].
Predation [S+] didn’t merely absorb the abilities of the target entity.
It absorbed the background and genetic factors that gave rise to those abilities.
Therefore, I possessed the genetic information obtained by devouring both Avarus and Z’thulonak through Predation [S+].
I slipped on the ring.
Kyiiing—!
The Shadow Amethyst emitted a violet light.
As if recognizing biometric data, the violet light wrapped around my body once before settling down.
It had recognized Avarus’s genetic information absorbed through my Predation [S+] ability.
From this moment on, I was Avarus, a worshipper of the fallen soul.
The Dark Merchant Company would have no doubt that I was Avarus.
‘I’ll strip them clean without leaving a speck of dust behind.’
I adjusted the mask on my face and stepped into the Black Market.

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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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