The Monarch Who Levels Up by Devouring – Chapter 16

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Early evening.

The twilight had faintly begun to color the ground.

I moved forward quickly while jumping across a continuous stretch of rocky terrain.

“Kweeeek!”

Thorn Boars lingering on the mountainside occasionally charged at me.

“Don’t get in my way.”

Drrrrt!

With my elongated claws, I slashed at the Thorn Boar’s weak point.

Blood spurted out.

My current stats were already comparable to a level 70 player.

Though, since I had almost no item bonuses, my actual combat power was probably around level 50.

Still, in the tutorial stage, these were overwhelming specs.

I didn’t forget to devour the fallen Thorn Boar.

I had already collected all the essences I needed, but thanks to [Dragon’s Heart]’s effect, my mana stat accumulated bit by bit.

It was less than 0.1 points, so the increase was minuscule.

But don’t they say that even specks of dust can become a mountain one day?

After a few more battles, the mountaintop shimmered before my eyes.

I walked up the gentle slope and reached the summit.

“The sky is really pretty.”

The sky had turned pitch-black, like black ink dissolved in water.

A full moon began to reveal its presence, pushing back the darkness little by little.

A full moon.

Instead of its usual gentle glow, an intense blue light began to drive away the darkness and rise into the sky.

That brilliant light soon dyed even my retinas blue.

A blue moon.

The moon of powerful magic had begun to rise.

As I faced the moonlight directly, the buff was applied to me.

It was an incredible buff that more than offset the penalty of Mount Emirate!

Well, it didn’t mean much to me, though.

‘The important thing is that I’ve confirmed that it’s a blue moon.’

I grinned and looked down below.

There were two paths to the summit of Mount Emirate.

South – a gentle path.

North – a sheer cliff.

Technically there were two, but the northern cliff was so steep that it was almost impossible to climb without rock-climbing gear.

Tuk.

A stone kicked by my foot rolled off the cliff.

Not long after it fell, the stone fragment vanished from my sight.

If I fell from this cliff, I would end up just like that, wouldn’t I?

But I had to go down this cliff now.

The discovery of the explorer Laurent.

Following the Forgotten Temple, he had found another one of Rainbow Island’s hidden elements.

It was a fact that would be known in five years.

Sorry, but I’ll be taking this one too.

With Ultrasonic Wave activated, I stepped onto the cliff.

An incline of nearly 90 degrees.

One wrong step and I would plummet a thousand meters down to the bottom.

Well, I had gathered essences knowing this would happen.

[Sharp Claws.]

I reinforced my elongated claws with mana and stabbed them firmly into the rock surface.

The claws went in about 10 centimeters.

With this, I could regain my balance even if I misstepped.

‘I have something to rely on.’

Hehehe.

I smiled with satisfaction and began to descend the cliff.

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A seemingly endless cliff.

I descended while actively using my reinforced claws.

The moment I let my guard down or became complacent, I would fall to the bottom, right?

That Laurent fellow, he was bold to even think of climbing down a cliff like this.

Even for me, who had raised my stats by devouring various essences, the cliffs of Mount Emirate demanded my full concentration.

However, the explorer Laurent had descended the cliff without overwhelming stats or skills.

I heard that even before being invited to the Tower, he had mainly done rock climbing and expeditions into uncharted territories.

I also heard that he brought related equipment when he participated in the tutorial.

‘He must have found the hidden place because he’s that kind of eccentric.’

How far down had I gone?

[Ultrasonic Wave] detected a hollowed-out area.

I moved my arms and legs carefully and headed toward a concave spot.

It was a crevice from which a blue light was leaking out.

As I proceeded while sweating profusely, I soon reached my destination.

“Whew, I thought I was going to die.”

I inhaled and exhaled as if letting out a scream.

The moment my feet touched flat ground, the tension that had gripped my entire body melted away like snow.

Even before my regression, I had rarely been this nervous.

It was an experience I didn’t want to have a second time.

A portion of the light lingering on the surface of the Moonview Cave seeped into my body.

Ahh.

This is why I can’t pass up hidden elements.

“I’ve come to the right place.”

I walked into the cave without hesitation.

The structure of the Moonview Cave was simple.

A straight passage.

If you walked straight ahead, you would come to a cavern 50 meters in size.

Were there no monsters, traps, treasures, or hidden quests here?

‘Yeah, none.’

A cave to greet the moon.

It was a place that was exactly what its name implied.

I took out the moonstones from my pocket and walked around the cavern.

Tuk- tuk-

The moonstones were placed one by one on the cavern floor.

Only after arranging the 32 moonstones I purchased from the company in a circle did I sit down on the floor with a relaxed heart.

‘Now that the setup is done, let’s rest.’

I had done everything I needed to do.

All that was left was to wait for the moment when the full moon rose to its highest point.

Gugugung!

The cave ceiling split in half and slid open to the sides.

Moonlight streamed through the gap.

Through the fully opened ceiling, the perfect full moon settled above the Moonview Cave.

At that moment, the blue light enveloping the blue moon poured into the cave like a waterfall.

‘Wow, this is a real spectacle.’

I clicked my tongue in admiration.

I reached out with my right hand to caress the moonlight.

Even though it was formless mana and light, a soft texture, like that of a blanket’s, tickled my fingertips.

A phenomenon where mana, condensed beyond its limit, became tangible.

The energy of the blue moon, which held immense mana, filled the Moonview Cave.

Woooong-!

The moonstones I had laid on the floor resonated with the light of the blue moon.

The moonstones then levitated from their spots.

Before long, they began to absorb the streams of light that filled the Moonview Cave.

‘Good. So far, it’s just as I heard.’

The one who discovered the Moonview Cave was the explorer Laurent, right?

Looking at the result alone, it was a half-baked discovery.

The immense mana gathered in the blue moon’s light poured into the Moonview Cave, but it didn’t actually grant any buffs or blessings to the player.

‘The secret of the moonstones was revealed around 2037.’

Laurent began climbing the Tower of Babel in 2030, so the secret of the Moonview Cave was revealed only seven years after that.

After about 10 minutes, the blue moon began to move westward.

“Phew, this is nerve-wracking.”

The strange phenomenon that occurred in the Moonview Cave.

Before my regression, I had only heard about it. I had never seen it myself.

With a trembling heart, I picked up a moonstone.

“Ha, haha.”

I collapsed onto the floor.

After checking the item details, strength left my legs.

I wanted to scream with joy, but I held it in.

Moon-Greeting Stones.

I had obtained a whopping 32 unique-grade elixirs.

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The Moon-Greeting Stone was a rare elixir.

It could only be obtained on Rainbow Island.

And if the cycle of the blue moon didn’t align, you couldn’t even attempt to acquire it in that round.

After the hidden secret of the Moonview Cave was revealed, various guilds trained their promising prospects even more harshly to secure some Moon-Greeting Stones.

‘Unique-grade elixirs weren’t so rare that one needed to go to such lengths to get them, though.’

As you climb the Tower, you can sometimes obtain [Legendary] or even [Transcendent] grade elixirs as rewards.

The Moon-Greeting Stone was less effective in comparison.

So why did the major guilds go so far as to stake their lives on obtaining Moon-Greeting Stones, even while nurturing their prospects?

The reason was…

‘An internal energy enhancement elixir.’

Internal energy was a stat related to martial arts.

Elixirs related to magic often appeared as rewards in the Tower.

But elixirs that enhanced internal energy weren’t only few in kind, but were also much trickier to obtain.

Come to think of it, at this point in time, martial arts would be treated with contempt.

‘When was it that martial arts-related traits started getting a second look?’

Among the players, there were those who awakened traits that synergized with [Martial Arts].

But for a very long time, those with martial arts-related traits were treated as non-mainstream.

To use martial arts, you first had to learn a cultivation technique. Without learning some kind of cultivation technique, the [Internal Energy] stat wouldn’t even be created.

It didn’t end there.

Unlike mana, the internal energy stat was incredibly difficult to control.

If you failed to manage it, you could suffer internal injuries, and in severe cases, you would even fall into a status effect called qi deviation!

‘Still, if you master it, you become incredibly strong.’

It was much later that players who learned martial arts began to receive attention.

This time, that period might come a little sooner.

Because of me.

‘Learn a suitable cultivation technique, then rapidly increase my internal energy with the Moon-Greeting Stones.’

[Dragon’s Heart] only increased my mana.

Internal energy had to be accumulated separately by practicing a cultivation technique.

The hidden element of Mount Emirate, the Moon-Greeting Stone, would be a great help in enhancing my internal energy.

I gathered the Moon-Greeting Stones from the floor.

I had taken all the fortuitous opportunities I could get from the Moonview Cave.

Now it was time to go devour other essences.

The way back was much better than the way I came to find the Moonview Cave.

The ceiling had opened up to let in the light of the blue moon.

If you looked closely, there was a staircase that one person could climb located in the gap.

‘The guy who designed this at least had a shred of conscience.’

[Agile Hind Legs.]

I kicked off the cave floor and leaped upward.

I grabbed onto the stairs with my right hand, got my footing, and slowly climbed up.

This path was also steep, but having places to step on made it much easier than climbing down the rock face from before.

‘I was sweating buckets on the way down, too.’

I felt unfairly treated for some reason.

Once I exited the crevice, I was at the peak of Mount Emirate.

The moment I stepped away, the path leading to the Moonview Cave closed and vanished without a trace.

‘I’ve gotten everything I can from Mount Emirate.’

I looked to the northeast.

Thanks to the light of the blue moon, I could see the landscape of that area without difficulty.

The forest region.

I clenched my fists tightly as I looked at my next destination.

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T/N – I got ptsd the moment the MC mentioned “cultivation”. Those Chinese web novels traumatized me, man. Had to remind myself this is a Korean web novel. 😅

Laurent really is a real one. He basically told the MC all of his achievements in hopes that the latter can go back in time and use them to strengthen himself. Laurent probably isn’t the only one too. I hope the MC repays them in some way in this timeline.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.