The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - LLD Chapter 68: Infinite vs Infinite (2) (Part 2)

Day 124 of being trapped in the Infinite Trial Grounds.

At last, Avarus gave up on life.

His flesh—the very substance of his body—had been ravaged by incomprehensible pain and endless regeneration cycles.

All his willpower had been shattered. He didn’t even seem to have the will to keep living.

Maybe his mind had completely broken.
Or maybe he’d just gone utterly mad.

Avarus began clawing at the walls, ceiling, and floor of the labyrinth.

That wasn’t enough. He started slamming his tentacles wildly in every direction—

He cried and screamed in agony, desperately begging for death—

Rumble…

The torn wounds regenerated instantly—

<AAAAAAAGHHHHH!!>

Only serving to multiply Avarus’s pain.

Day 187 of captivity in the Infinite Labyrinth.

Avarus had changed his strategy.
He decided to cooperate with Adrian.

If there was no escaping the pain, he might as well choose the path of lesser suffering.

“The elixir you took earlier. Was that the one said to be able to heal Serapia?”

<Y-Yes! It’s called the Elixir of Infinity. It grants the user unlimited power!>

“Unlimited power?”

<Yes, yes! As you can see from what I’ve become—it truly grants limitless power!>

“How is that possible?”

The “Him” Avarus spoke of—
Kai had no clue who he meant, but Adrian seemed to have an idea.

“Hm…”

Adrian paused in thought for a moment, then asked again.

“Then why were you going to give it to Serapia?”

“If it’s such a broken elixir that grants infinite power, why didn’t you take it yourself? Why give it to Serapia?”

<I-I did take it…>

“You took it because you thought you were going to die in battle. You had no other choice.”

<T-That’s…>

“Judging by how your mind’s still scheming, looks like you’re not planning on cooperating for real.”

Fwoooosh!!!

The eternal flames of wrath erupted from Adrian’s entire body.
Avarus shrieked and jumped in terror.

<N-No! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything—right now—!>

But…

KRAAAAAAAHHH—!!

By then, a ferocious dragon had already awakened within Adrian’s arms.

<GYAAAAAAAAGHHHH!!>

Day 188 of captivity in the Infinite Labyrinth.

Avarus had blacked out yesterday amidst the raging flames.
He only came to his senses a full day later.

No sooner had he regained his mind than he began confessing on his own.

“When you say the Church, you mean the worshippers of corrupted souls?”

<H-How do you…?!>

Avarus’s eyes widened in shock.

Kai hadn’t been able to follow the conversation since yesterday, but Adrian seemed to understand more than he let on.

Day 190 of captivity in the Infinite Labyrinth.

Over the course of two days, Avarus spilled every secret he knew to Adrian.

More precisely, he “confessed” while drifting in and out of consciousness under torture…

Regardless—

“That’s enough. We’ll end the questions here.”

It seemed Adrian had extracted all the information he could.

<Then… a-are you going to kill me now?!>

Avarus didn’t even ask to be let go.
That’s how thoroughly broken he was—mentally devastated.

But Adrian tilted his head, as if confused by the question.

“Kill you? Why would I do that?”

<Y-You said… you’d kill me after I told you everything…>

“When did I ever promise that?”

<Wh-What?>

“I never made such a promise.”

And that was true.
Avarus had offered to cooperate out of desperation to escape the pain.
From Kai’s perspective, Adrian never made any kind of deal with him.

“Besides, I don’t even know how to kill you.”

“What are you doing? Time to resume training.”

CRACKLE—!

<GYAAAAAAAGHHH!!>

Day 211 of captivity in the Infinite Labyrinth.

<Sob… Hic… Sniffle…>

Avarus had begun to cry.
Every time he did, the flesh and tentacles of the labyrinth squirmed and bubbled—it was a grotesque sight.

“So disgusting. Stop crying.”

FWOOSH—!

<AAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!>

Day 241 of captivity in the Infinite Labyrinth.

At last, Avarus’s screams could no longer be heard.
Nor could Kai see the fleshy walls of the maze anymore.

Above them, a bright full moon shone through a gaping hole in the ceiling.
All around lay broken stones and shattered timber in a disordered mess.

“This is…”

The Viscount Benneron estate.
In other words, this was the place Kai had been just before they were trapped in the Infinite Labyrinth… or rather, the Infinite Trial Grounds.

They had finally escaped the Infinite Labyrinth.

<Heh… hehe… hehehe…!>

And Avarus was now a complete madman.

At some point, all the flesh had vanished.
Looking around, the scene of a broken-down mansion came into view.

“We’re out?”

“Seems that way,” Kai replied immediately.

“How long were we inside?”

“About 241 days.”

“Two hundred and forty-one…”

More than eight months.

“Fortunately, it seems no time has passed outside.”

Kai let out a breath of deep relief.

And I agreed with him.

According to Rule #6, the Infinite Labyrinth was a separate dimension detached from reality.
No matter how much time passed inside, time outside might not flow at all.

And sure enough—

The wreckage of the ruined estate still lay scattered everywhere.

If 241 days had truly passed outside, there would be no reason for the debris to remain untouched.
Someone would’ve come and cleaned it up long ago.

But the ruins were undisturbed—
Which meant no one had visited this place since the day we attacked.

And above us, the bright full moon still hung in the night sky.

That meant less than a day had passed since our assault on the Viscount’s territory.
Time in this space hadn’t moved an inch since we were imprisoned.

But I had most definitely spent 241 full days training inside the Infinite Labyrinth.

Strength Stat +43
Stamina Stat +59
Agility Stat +12

That made for a total of +113 stat points gained—
Essentially, 113 levels’ worth of stat growth.

‘Then my current stats are…’

I opened my [Player Info] window—

== [Player Info] ==
[Name] = Adrian Whitewolf
[Title] = Ruler of the North
[Level] = Level 53
[HP] = 9,460
[MP] = 0
[Stats] = STR: 87.4 (+11.4) / AGI: 84.5 (+19.5) / STA: 93.6 (+19.6) / Mana: 6.9 (+0.9)
[EXP] = 55.8%

‘…This is insane.’

Truly, there was no other word for it.
The numbers were outright absurd.