The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - LLD Chapter 62: Ambush (2) (Part 1)

Ding—! Ding—! Ding—!

A loud bell echoed violently throughout the mansion.
Even as it kept ringing non-stop—

Crash! Clang!
Thud! Crackle!

Bone-chilling, skin-crawling crashes and booms erupted in every direction.

Anyone who didn’t wake up from such a ruckus was either unconscious or already dead.

But Viscount Benneron was neither.

“…What’s going on?”

He looked out the window—and saw utter chaos.
The mansion’s front gate had been smashed to pieces, the stone walls had collapsed, and around the wreckage lay blood-splattered guards strewn across the ground.

Craaaash—!

And then another massive impact.
BOOM!
…No, an explosion.

Just as he thought, What the hell is that?—

“L-Lord Viscount!!”

Someone burst into the room, practically slamming the door open and stumbling in out of breath.

It was the steward in charge of managing the mansion.
His face was twisted in a mix of panic and sheer terror.

“What on earth is going on?”
“The mansion is under attack! Intruders have broken in!”
“…Intruders?”
“This isn’t the time for questions! You must evacuate—immediately!”

The steward practically screamed as he urged the viscount to flee.

Sure, it was a critical situation, but Viscount Benneron couldn’t help tilting his head to the side at a rising question in his mind.

Intruders?
Who the hell?
And so suddenly—out of nowhere?

“Who are the attackers? Have you identified them?”
“N-No, sir. But at the moment, it seems there are two!”
“…Two?”

His head, which had tilted left, now tilted right.

“You’re telling me all this chaos was caused because we couldn’t stop just two people?”
“Y-Yes, sir!!”

The steward’s firm answer left Viscount Benneron speechless.

The security in this mansion was airtight. How could they be completely overrun by just two people?

Were they Master-level knights?
No—even then, it wouldn’t make sense.

After all, the mansion’s guards were all—

That’s when it happened.

BOOM—!

With a deafening roar, one wall of the room came crashing down.

A thick cloud of dust filled the space.
For a moment, visibility was completely blocked—but then the dust quickly settled.

And emerging from the debris was a man drenched head-to-toe in blood.

Just one look, and it was clear—he was one of the intruders.
But his face was hidden beneath a mask.

“Who are you?”
“A maniac.”
“A maniac?”

A maniac…?

“Adrian Whitewolf?”
“Oh? So you’ve heard of me?”

Just then, a sigh echoed from the side.

A second man stepped forward next to Adrian, just as drenched in blood.
He had crimson hair, but streaks of gold shimmered between the locks.

The golden-haired man let out another deep sigh and ripped off his mask.

A face so handsome it could stop a crowd.

But the way he stared at Adrian—

“I thought we were going for stealth?”

…He clearly thought Adrian was insane.

At the same time, Kai ripped off his mask with a sigh.

“I thought we were going for stealth?”

He looked straight at me, as if demanding an explanation.

“If you were going to reveal yourself anyway, why wear a mask at all?”
“I figured no one would recognize me if I said I was ‘the maniac.’”
“There isn’t a noble in the Battenberg Kingdom who doesn’t know who ‘the maniac’ is.”
“I’m really that famous?”

It had been so long, I could barely remember.
I never really cared either.
But judging from Kai’s expression, I guess I was.

Still—

‘If he’s a homunculus, he shouldn’t know who I am.’

Even a clone-type homunculus only carries over about 30% of the original’s memories.
They wouldn’t associate “the maniac” with me.

Not even Avarus would.

Especially not Avarus.
He was a worshipper of corrupted souls—
In other words, not a noble of the Battenberg Kingdom.

He had no reason to know about the gossip of a lowly count’s wayward son.

‘Did I guess wrong?’

Suppressing that doubt, I activated [Predatory Instincts S].

And then—information about the man in front of me surfaced in my mind.

====
Name: Evolutas de Benneron
Classification: Mammalia, Hominidae, Human
Gender: Male
Age: 42
Trait: Transmog

The data that appeared confirmed it—
This man was not a homunculus.
And he wasn’t Avarus either.

It really was Viscount Benneron.

…Could I really have been wrong?

For a moment, I doubted myself.
But then I saw the listed trait: Transmog.

I reactivated [Predatory Instincts S], and the details of Transmog appeared before me.

◆ Transmog
A magic of transformation and reconstruction.
The caster can perfectly imitate and transform into a designated target’s appearance, traits, abilities—and even their mind.
※ However, if the transformation is maintained for too long, it may become permanent.

A spell that mimics the target down to perfection.
Unlike a simple Polymorph spell, this wasn’t just skin-deep.

It replicated the subject down to their genetic structure.
And to do that, it needed the target’s genetic material.

In other words, Transmog was a magic that restructured the entire self using another being’s DNA.

Which meant—

The real Evolutas de Benneron was dead.
The one standing before me now was none other than Avarus, the Architect of Greed.

‘He almost had me.’

If not for [Predatory Instincts S].

I sharpened [Dragon’s Claw A].

Avarus—worshipper of corrupted souls.
An alchemist.

A madman who crafted homunculi using human materials.

People often think alchemists and mages are separate.
That alchemists are just glorified potion-makers.

But that’s a major misconception.

Alchemy is a branch of magical science.
You can’t even study alchemy without first mastering magical theory.

An alchemist is simply a mage with deep knowledge in the field of alchemy.

Not all mages are alchemists.
But all alchemists are mages.

And that meant Avarus was also a mage—
One simply more obsessed with alchemy.

And when facing a mage, there are a few ironclad rules.

Rule number one:
Never give a mage time.

◆ Activating Combination Skill: [Metabolic Overdrive U]!
◆ Calories consumed: 50,000 kcal
◆ For [500 seconds], all stats increased by [+50%]!

Thump!!

A surge of hormones blasted through my endocrine system.
I kicked off the ground—BOOM!—
The floor caved in as my body shot forward.

“W-What the—?!”

Avarus was caught off guard.
He was far too slow to react to my speed—
But in front of him, layers of translucent shields quickly stacked.

A defensive spell.

Translatin_Otaku

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