The Monarch Who Levels Up by Devouring - The Beast Lord Approaches
The training results that Thomas had compiled were immediately forwarded to the Player Association, the UN, and the Gold Moon guild.
—Unbelievable results.
“How long has it been since I sent the data for you to already be calling?”
—Do you dislike it when I call?
“Hearing a man’s voice at the crack of dawn is a bit much, you know.”
—I thought you might prefer men.
What?!
William Rockefeller. You son of a—!
I just don’t have much dating experience, that’s all! It’s not like I have zero!
—Then I won’t pretend to believe you.
“Could you at least listen to what people are saying?”
This is exactly why they call him the descendant of a robber baron.
—It is rather extreme training, but the efficiency is remarkable.
“The data might be exaggerated, you know.”
—Thank you for the confession. How much did you inflate it?
“I didn’t.”
—I figured you wouldn’t tell an obvious lie.
William’s trust, huh.
The Rockefeller heir, whose veins supposedly run with dollars and gold, sure is generous with his faith.
—You don’t believe me?
“Who in their right mind would doubt the words of the Gold Moon guild master?”
—You are a man I have acknowledged. You may take pride in that.
“Yes, yes.”
—If you had been my enemy, I would have destroyed you by any means necessary.
Uh.
That actually gave me chills.
I had tasted William’s ‘sincerity’ in my previous life, after all.
This guy.
He has the solid goal of becoming the world’s top player, sure.
But the methods he used to achieve that goal were more vicious than most villains.
Before my regression, I suffered immensely because I was at odds with him.
That’s why I approached him with the idea of splitting the concept of world supremacy through a ‘partnership.’
He’s incredibly reliable when he’s an ally.
But when he’s your enemy, he’s an exhausting man to deal with.
—Ah, right. I received a proposal from the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth, huh.
It was a loose alliance of former British colonies, if I remember correctly.
“What is it?”
—The King of Uganda contacted us via hotline. He wants to participate in the PT.
Who was that again?
The King of Uganda.
Not just anyone uses the title ‘King.’
I hadn’t heard of him before my regression, so his name didn’t immediately ring a bell.
—Do you ever watch international news?
“You’re telling a guy who’s busy climbing the Tower and clearing Gates to watch the news?”
—You must be managing some seed money in the stock market at least. You should keep track of current events.
I don’t do that, though.
Where would I find the time to play the market?
Once the world ends, it’ll all just be scraps of data anyway.
—Victor Onama. He is the leader of the Uganda Player Self-Defense Force.
.
That name…
“Tell him he can come right away.”
—Have you taken an interest in Central Africa now?
Why does he always jump to that conclusion?
—Aren’t you currently expanding your influence across every continent?
“I’m not.”
What kind of nonsense is he spouting?
—What about the Siberia matter?
“That was just to see if I could summon some undead.”
—And your tour of Europe?
“I went to help cover the gap left by Rene Davis and to establish the Yeokcheon European branch, obviously.”
—So purely that intention and nothing more. What a believable story.
“You sound like you don’t believe a single gram of it.”
—Put yourself in my position. America, Europe, and even the Far East. There aren’t many places your hand hasn’t reached.
Ah.
I guess that’s how it looks to others.
William’s offhand comment pointed out something I hadn’t considered.
—It really wasn’t intentional?
“I don’t have time to worry about such trivial details.”
If I can’t stop the third Great Erosion, influence won’t mean a damn thing.
We’re all destined to ride the Jordan River Express together. What’s the point of any of that?
—Hah. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone as unambitious as you.
“Just tell me the arrival date. I need to prepare.”
—Understood. Oh, and Ellen wants to join as well. Is that alright?
“She’s not the type to listen even if I tried to stop her.”
—That’s true. I’ll coordinate the schedules so you all arrive around the same time.
Click—
What a sharp cut. He never changes—says what he needs to and hangs up immediately.
“No direct connection. That’s why I’m thinking of making one this time.”
Victor Onama.
In his previous life, he was known as the King of Africa.
He was the first player in the world to reach the Monarch rank.
—By Monarch, you mean one of the six who stood at the pinnacle of humanity, correct?
The Beast Lord, Victor.
The Powerhouse Lord, Ellen.
The Machine Lord, Enrique.
The Fusion Lord, Rene.
The Magic Lord, Sergei.
And me.
“You’ve already seen four of them, haven’t you?”
—One of them received a one-way ticket to the afterlife from your hand.
“It was one-way, so he won’t be coming back.”
—Then what kind of person was the Monarch candidate you haven’t met yet?
“All I know is that he’s someone who loves his homeland.”
The title King of Africa wasn’t one he claimed for himself. It was given to him by the people.
The Dark Continent.
A land that desperately needs help from the international community.
A place where gunfire never ceases.
That’s the image most people have when they think of Africa.
I wasn’t much different.
In my previous life, I had almost no connection to the African continent.
There was only one thing I remembered.
“The Beast Lord managed to unite countless fractured tribes into one.”
Why did the African continent become a symbol of conflict?
It was the result of British and French colonial rule during the age of imperialism, when exploitation was rampant.
Divide and rule.
A governance method that split people along ethnic and religious lines and set them against each other.
Different ethnic groups trapped within the same borders turned their spears on one another to seize dominance.
That continued even after the 20th century, when they broke free from the great powers.
The Beast Lord, Victor Onama, succeeded in gathering the hearts of a continent split like tree roots.
But in exchange—
“We are strong. We do not need your cooperation.”
He rejected both receiving and giving help from other continents, clearing Gates with only his self-defense force.
They somehow managed to protect the continent until the second Great Erosion.
But during the third Great Erosion—the era known as the Age of Destruction—his isolationist policy caused the continent to collapse first.
“But he contacted us saying he wants to participate in the PT.”
I rubbed my chin with my right hand.
Did he not adopt isolationism at this point in time?
Or was this a butterfly effect caused by my own actions?
Man, this is something.
There was no connection in my previous life.
And in this second round, I’ve done so many things that I can’t even guess if this is a turning point.
A player I had almost no interaction with in my previous life.
The man who had been the first Monarch on Earth. Why was he reaching out now?
If things went well during this meeting, perhaps the isolationism that led to an entire continent vanishing in my previous life could be prevented.
“No time to rest, huh.”
I groaned and rolled my neck from side to side, shaking off the fatigue.
The additional training was scheduled for three days later.
There were no direct flights from Uganda to Korea, so a transfer was necessary.
And if any trouble occurred during the layover, it could be delayed by a full day.
It was awkward to schedule anything else around that.
In times like these…
“It’s training time.”
“I’ve gained a lot of abilities that didn’t exist in my previous life.”
The range of essences I could digest with Predation had widened considerably.
And thanks to Fusion Qigong—Rene Davis’s signature technique and exclusive art—I could now combine all sorts of skills.
The cooldown on Fusion Qigong was over.
Time to try combining some new skills.
[Thunder Wings + Blessing of Zeus + Thunder God are being fused.]
[Fragment of Keraunos has been created.]
◈ Active
Delivers divine judgment through thunder created by weaving divine power and mana together.
Requires ‘wings’ among the body parts to use this skill.
“The Goddess’s own ability is six-star too, so why are you acting like you don’t know?”
When she manifested in the Homunculus’s body, Dark Dominion was displayed as six-star.
Since it was a Constellation’s blessing or authority, it should have been marked as EX-grade.
But because it was housed within an artificial body created through alchemy, its rank had dropped, and the system displayed it as six-star.
“This skill is the same.”
Divine power was a higher concept than mana.
It didn’t fall under the blessing category like Mortal Sin Erosion.
Since the main component was Thunder Wings, even though divine power was involved in the skill’s implementation mechanism, it couldn’t be called a blessing.
It had surpassed the limits of five-star but had not yet reached the level of a true blessing.
That was exactly what six-star meant.
“A skill that requires both divine power and mana.”
My divine power stat was still quite low.
I wasn’t sure how much power it would actually produce.
I’d just have to try it.
After summoning the Dragon’s Wings, I drew up both divine power and mana.
[Using Fragment of Keraunos.]
Lightning writhed like a mudfish.
It kept thrashing, trying to escape my control.
Whoa.
This lightning is harder to handle than I expected.
Instead of holding it any longer, I released it. Blue lightning shot toward the hill.
KWAAAAANG!
It must have been like this when the world was first split apart.
Along with a deafening roar that made my ears ring, the hill I had been using for the PT process vanished without leaving a single speck of dust.
As expected. Her insight was sharp.
Erasing an entire hill with lightning was an impressive feat.
It was only possible because the lightning had gained ‘physical force’ thanks to divine power.
However, the amount of mana consumed to produce that level of destructive power was enormous.
“Yeah.”
Divine power plus mana.
To bring out its true power, I would need to increase the proportion of divine power.
But my divine power stat was only 13.
Even though it had eaten a quarter of my mana.
If it could only erase one hill…
I’d have to say its practicality in real combat wasn’t very high.
It was stronger than Thunder Wings, but it required intense concentration to use, was difficult to control, and had a high cost.
“I’ll need to secure some divine power stats if I want to use this properly.”
“It’s not like this is the first time I’ve pulled a dud.”
Shining Hand.
I had failed four times trying to create the dual combination of martial arts and magic.
Fusion Qigong, which had been completed after I devoured Rene’s essence.
The number of storage slots had increased to dozens, allowing me to test new skill combinations whenever I had the chance.
This skill was the same.
It was useless for now, but since I had spare storage slots, I’d keep it.
“I was going to secure some divine power stats anyway.”
Divine power was a stat that was nearly impossible to obtain under normal circumstances.
Unless one consumed the food of the gods, such as ambrosia or nectar, acquiring it was impossible.
And even if you somehow managed to add it to your status window through great effort, you couldn’t increase it with level-up bonuses, making it difficult to utilize properly.
“Who do you think I am?”
It was strangely factual, making it hard to respond.
But.
This time, the point was a little different.
“I’m the Devour Monarch.”
Devour.
My unique ability and the trait that had determined my title as Monarch.
Let me recall the first time I obtained divine power after regressing.
It was at the ruins of Olympus, a Greek holy site.
The stat had appeared after I devoured the essence of the Earth Mother Goddess that had resided in the ruins for a long time.
“I need to devour sacred relics or the essences of ruins.”
Goddess.
Please allow this righteous thief to do his work today as well.
So harsh.