Chapter 39
8 min read ·
The Predator’s Way (1)
The pinnacle of all living creatures: the Ultimate Lifeform.
Ian had laid down the following condition for me to become one.
["You have to do more than simply acquire a creature’s abilities. You have to surpass them."]
But Predation[S+] merely absorbed a creature’s genetic material. It did not cause mutations that would let me surpass that creature.
In other words, I could only approach its abilities. I could not exceed them.
On top of that, in my previous life, I had been unable to control the Madness from Predation. I could never fully absorb any one creature’s abilities, so most of the powers I acquired during my time as Predator were inferior versions.
Yet even with those inferior abilities, I had surpassed the original creatures’ powers and limits.
How had that been possible?
Because of this.
◆Activating combination skill ‘Metabolic Overdrive[U]’!
A combination skill.
As the name suggested, it was a “combination” of my skills and abilities. Its assessed rank was therefore [U], for Unique. It signified an ability unique to me, one that existed nowhere else in this world.
It could hardly be otherwise, since such an ability did not exist in this world.
More precisely, it could not exist.
Metabolic Overdrive[U], for instance, was the product of combining three abilities.
The Rex’s Promote Metabolism[D].
The ice troll’s Regeneration[B-].
The Alacron’s Nutrient Synthesis[B-].
Three separate creatures, with three abilities that could never coexist. I had brought them together into a combination skill.
The principles and mechanics behind it were as follows.
Promote Metabolism[D] stimulated the endocrine system to drastically increase metabolic output. In exchange for reducing the Strength stat, it greatly increased Agility and Stamina.
This was an ability possessed by the monster known as the Rex. It reduced muscular strength to balance metabolic expenditure—a strategic evolutionary adaptation for surviving in the snowy mountains, where food was scarce.
But what if there were a sufficient supply of nutrients?
Then there would be no need to reduce muscular strength.
Furthermore, there was a limit to how far Promote Metabolism[D] could stimulate the endocrine system. Nutrients aside, excessive stimulation would damage it.
The endocrine system was the collection of organs that secreted hormones throughout the body. Damage to it was irreversible; once damaged, it could not recover.
That was why the Rex never stimulated its endocrine system beyond a certain point. It had evolved with a ceiling on its metabolic output.
But I was different.
I had Regeneration[B-].
I could regenerate the damage, so there was no need to impose a limit.
Thus, by using Nutrient Synthesis[B-], I could remove Promote Metabolism[D]’s metabolic ceiling, send my metabolism into overdrive, and use Regeneration[B-] to restore the endocrine system damaged in the process...
◆Metabolic Overdrive[U]
: Using this skill sends the player’s endocrine system into [Overdrive]. This removes the metabolic ceiling, eliminating the endocrine system’s biological limits.
All of the player’s stats increase by [+Calories Consumed/1,000](%) for [Calories Consumed/100](seconds).
<This is a combination skill formed by combining Nutrient Synthesis[B-], Promote Metabolism[D], and Regeneration[B-].>
I could amplify my stats at will according to the [Calories Consumed].
And I had oil prepared that contained a total of 1,350,000 kcal.
◆Available Calories - 100,000 kcal
Unfortunately, 100,000 calories was the most I could currently store. My body’s storage systems could not accumulate any more than that.
So the skill was still incomplete.
But if I evolved the component abilities further or combined it with other abilities, this combination skill had limitless room for development.
I burned half of my stored 100,000 calories—50,000 calories—all at once.
◆Activating combination skill ‘Metabolic Overdrive[U]’!
◆Calories Consumed - 50,000 kcal
◆All of the player’s stats increase by [+50%] for [500 seconds]!
THUMP!!
My endocrine hormones ran wild. My nerves became acutely sensitive.
Fed more energy, my muscles bunched more densely together. My five senses sharpened until not even the slightest movement escaped them.
Then, pushed past their critical thresholds, every organ in my endocrine system burst. The cells connecting nerve to nerve were torn to shreds.
But they regenerated in an instant, restoring the ruptured organs and reconnecting the torn nerves. I suppressed the resulting pain by blocking my sensory nerves.
==「Player Information」==
[Name] = Adrian Whitewolf
[Title] = Master of the Snowy Mountains
[Level] = Level 28
[HP] = 3,100
[MP] = 0
[Stats] = Strength:43.5(+19.5) Agility:42(+19) Stamina:31.5(+15.5) Mana:6(+5)
[Experience] = 34.7%
Together with my title’s effects, the boosted stats alone were equivalent to gaining a staggering 62 levels.
My stats had truly skyrocketed.
"Let the hunt begin."
I shot forward like lightning.
* * *
To be honest, Kai had thought Adrian had gone mad.
There was the way he had plunged toward the monster legion without hesitation.
"Hahahahaha!!"
And then there was the deranged laughter he let loose before the legion. Everything pointed to Adrian having lost his mind.
Kai’s blue eyes fixed on a single spot: Adrian, facing the teeming monster legion below the walls.
He was neither trembling with fear nor gripped by terror.
"No one interfere."
Instead, he was enjoying himself. It was as though the monster legion were his prey, and he was warning everyone that he would not tolerate anyone touching his prey.
No matter how Kai looked at it, Adrian was clearly mad.
But what Adrian did next forced him to revise that assessment immediately.
Adrian’s body suddenly swelled. Every tiny blood vessel bulged against his skin, giving him a grotesque appearance.
It was as though the savage something Kai had glimpsed lurking within Adrian had taken physical form.
What he could see in Adrian now was neither terror nor fear. Adrian was not trembling with either emotion.
A predator’s hunting instinct.
The moment it revealed itself—
THUD-THUD!
Adrian vanished in an instant.
When he reappeared, he was in the middle of the monster legion.
It was reckless.
Yet before Kai could think of how reckless it was, another question struck him: how?
'When did he...?'
... He had missed the movement.
He had not taken his eyes off Adrian for even an instant, yet he had missed it. He had only vaguely registered that Adrian had moved at all.
... This was different.
He was on an entirely different level from when he had fought the Gelu Drake.
If Adrian had been a hunter then, now he was...
A predator.
Adrian stood in the center of the monster legion. He was hemmed in on every side, with no escape in sight.
... There were too many.
Adrian could not handle them alone. This was not something anyone could resolve single-handedly.
Kai had to help.
He gripped his sword and was just about to leap in when—
"Stay out of this!!"
Adrian shouted, and Kai froze in his tracks.
He did not know why. It was just like that time during the Gelu Drake hunt, when his body had reacted to Adrian’s commands on its own.
He could not move, as though obeying an absolute order.
Adrian remained surrounded by the monster legion. Every direction was blocked; there was no path out alive. Death was the only way he could leave that place.
And yet his gaze did not waver with fear.
His red eyes darted swiftly about. As though taking aim at each monster filling his vision, his hunting instinct was drawn taut.
His breathing was cold and quiet.
But within him, joy and ecstasy—fragments of those unfathomable emotions—boiled up.
ROOOAAAR!!!
Monsters surged toward Adrian from every side like a wave.
Just before a Rex’s claws struck him, he dodged at a speed far beyond the creature’s.
Kai’s eyes widened.
The soldiers still had not grasped what had happened.
Adrian bent his knees and sprang upward, counterattacking immediately. There was no wasted movement.
In a flash, his sharp nails tore the Rex’s chest apart.
SPLURT!
Before anyone knew it, Adrian held the Rex’s heart in his hand.
"Wh-what the hell!!"
"Impossible!"
Only then did the soldiers realize what had happened, and cries of disbelief erupted.
Seraphia’s red eyes trembled violently as well.
But Adrian nonchalantly shoved the heart into his mouth.
SKREEEE!!
The enraged monsters’ roars thundered in every direction. They seethed with a mad determination to tear Adrian’s flesh apart and devour him.
Faced with that blood-red madness, several soldiers collapsed where they stood. Even those who remained on their feet had trembling hands.
Yet even then, Adrian’s gaze remained cold.
He charged forward in an explosive burst of madness.
With every sweep of his hand, monsters’ hides tore like paper. Flesh split, bones shattered, and scarlet blood soaked everything around him.
Every movement was sharp and economical. The strength and speed behind his attacks were in perfect harmony.
A black wolf roaming through a flock of sheep.
The way Adrian fought was like a work of art that combined the savagery of a beast with the precision of a human.
Before long, everything around him was stained red with monster blood. The ground was filled with the remains and corpses of fallen monsters.
Even so, countless monsters remained.
Even so, Adrian’s movements never faltered.
His breathing grew ragged.
Yet his eyes kept searching for prey.
On that battlefield of madness and destruction, Adrian was hungrier than the monsters.
* * *
◆You have slain an Alacron!
◆You have slain a Dermexus!
◆You have slain an Alacron!
◆You have slain an Alacron!
◆You have slain a Dermexus!
◆You have slain a Rex!
.
.
.
.
Translucent messages filled my vision until they blotted out everything else. Alongside them, notifications of increased combat experience streamed past.
◆You have leveled up!
Every so often, a level-up message appeared among them.
There was a limit to how much experience I could gain through ordinary hunting, but the sheer scale of the monster legion pouring in was enough to render that limit meaningless.
And that was not all.
◆You have devoured additional Dermexus genetic material!
◆Skill ‘Toughened Skin[D+]’ is upgraded to ‘Toughened Skin[C]’!
The more I fought, the more I evolved and grew stronger.
And thanks to my constant use of Predation[S+], Toughened Skin had jumped a full two ranks in an instant.
That allowed me to acquire another combination skill—one I had previously been unable to create because Toughened Skin’s rank was too low.
◆You have acquired combination skill ‘Dragon’s Skin[U]’!