Leveling Up through Eating

Chapter 1154

Since the NPCs were born and had lived their entire lives in Athenae, they possessed strength and abilities that players could never overlook. But of course, as a player, Minhyuk also has something that they did not have–overgeared, over-quest, over-skilled, over-artifact. Just as NPCs had their advantages, players also had their advantages.

Minhyuk had decided not to deny these things anymore.

‘They are them, and I am me. We’re different.’

That was why he could hold the Sword of Aeon in his hands and wear the armor that he was wearing now.

Bul’ark, who felt something was wrong, approached Minhyuk again to hit him and confirm his suspicions.

Slash–!

“Keheuk!”

And the result was the same.

[The damage has been reflected.]

No matter how hard he hit, the damage that he had inflicted was reflected to him. In the end, another stream of blood dripped down Bul’ark’s mouth.

‘How can this be…?’

He found it to be unbelievable. He had broken Minhyuk’s armor easily. Even his sword’s attacks were something that he could endure.

When using Soaring Dragon, Bul’ark’s defensive power would increase significantly, and the effects of his armor break would become 1.4 times greater than usual. Only a dent was left on his silver armor after Bul’ark’s punch. The worst part? The dent was actively being restored.

Meanwhile, Minhyuk had already checked his strengthened armor and sword.

(The Greatest Transcendental Armor)

Rank: Transcendental

Requirements: Those who received Ruffiso’s recognition. Those who received Leo’s recognition.

Durability: ​∞ / ∞

Defensive Power: 2,501

Special Abilities:

•All of your stats will increase by 25%.

•Your magical defensive power will increase by 3x.

•Your magical defensive power will triple.

•Your skill attack power will increase by 1.3x.

•Your armor’s recovery rate will quadruple.

•The armor is as light as a cloth that weighs 50 grams.

•Your attack speed and movement speed will increase by 5%.

•Transforms to: Black Dragon Armor

•Transforms to: Silver Dragon Armor

•Passive Skill: Slaughterer’s Absorption

•Passive Skill: Asura’s Shield

Description: The Transcendental’s Armor, which was reborn in the hands of the blacksmith Transcendental Nekk, was evolved by Leo’s tremendous patience, care, and suffering.

The armor’s defensive power had increased more than 200 times the usual. That was not all. Surprisingly, his attack and movement speed would also increase by 5%.

In the first place, armor with materials like the ones used for the Transcendental Armor would often weigh around twenty or so kilograms. It was common knowledge that an armor with high defensive power would be heavy while an armor with low defensive power would be light. Somehow, this cheat-like and ridiculous Greatest Transcendental’s Armor weighed just fifty grams and could even increase one’s attack and movement speed by 5%.

The true charm of the newly reborn Greatest Transcendental’s Armor was in the newly acquired “Silver Dragon Armor.”

(Silver Dragon Armor)

Rank: Transcendental

Requirements: Those who received Ruffiso’s recognition. Those who received Leo’s recognition.

Durability: ​∞ / ∞

Defensive Power: 3,454

Special Abilities:

•All of your stats will increase by 24%.

•All of your attack power and defensive power will increase by 4x.

•Your magical defensive power will triple.

•Your skill attack power will increase by 1.2x.

•Your armor’s recovery rate will quadruple.

•The armor is as light as a cloth that weighs 50 grams.

•Your attack speed and movement speed will increase by 5%.

•Armor can only be equipped for 5 minutes.

•Passive Skill: Asura’s Shield

•Passive Skill: Slaughterer’s Absorption

•Passive Skill: The Defier

•You can only activate Black Dragon Armor ten minutes after Silver Dragon Armor has been activated.

The Silver Dragon Armor could be said to be the absolute armor. The other abilities had been slightly lowered in exchange for the dramatic increase in defensive power. With this level of defensive power, the damage he could receive from several high-rankers would instantly be halved.

The craziest part of the Silver Dragon Armor was the passive skill “The Defier.”

(The Defier)

Artifact Skill

Level: None

Mana Required: None

Effects:

•There is a 45% chance of reflecting the damage inflicted when being attacked by enemies.

•There is a 70% chance of reflecting the damage of close-range attacks.

•Your defensive power will instantly increase 1.3x when damage reflection is triggered.

The most interesting part was that the armor followed the concept of addition. In other words, Minhyuk could use the Black Dragon Armor. Of course, there was a ten-minute delay after wearing one armor, though he could immediately equip the other once the ten minutes had passed.

By comparison, the Sword of Aeon did not change much. However, just like Minhyuk wanted, the artifact modification function was now added to the sword effects. Also, even if the modified Sword of Aeon were used to harvest or swung as a pickaxe, the number of swings required for growth would also increase.

“H-how…”

“Amazing.”

The people were still in disbelief. The man, who had just been trampled on earlier, had changed so much by equipping a new armor and carrying a new sword.

And the story, which had stopped, started again.

[The events that happened are similar to those written on the third page of the ending.]

[He wanted to punish the evil and cruel king who made blood spill to the point that it dyed his entire body. Looking at his gleaming sword, the people finally felt like they had seen the light.]

[That light…]

Minhyuk activated the Sword of Carnage, his sword cutting through Bul’ark. The attack ripped dozens of screams off of his mouth and harvested ten blood beads, which restored Minhyuk’s HP from his body.

[...was the most brilliant light.]

The story ringing in the ears of the people made their blood boil.

Bul’ark and Minhyuk clashed and fought against each other non-stop. In the end, Bul’ark realized that his attacks were not working. He crouched on the ground and said, “Fist Ascending the Heavens…!”

Bul'ark's fists, which grew to the extreme, seemed to be trying to punch Minhyuk’s chin. But Minhyuk was one step faster. He had already brought out his mixer and bowl and started mixing the mix, forcing Bul’ark’s fists to return to their original size.

[The light might be small compared to the infinite darkness that covered the sky.]

[But this light was different. It was completely different from the great and overwhelming darkness.]

Seeing the flustered Bul’ark, Minhyuk did not hesitate.

“The Annihilator’s Sword.”

A flash of light appeared. When the light disappeared, Bul’ark’s left arm had already disappeared without a trace.

[Even though the light was small, it slowly lit up the dark world.]

After losing his left arm, Bul’ark’s final string of reason snapped. Furious at the fact that he was forced to fall to the ground, he punched the head of the soldier standing next to him.

Crack–!

First, the Predatory Disaster could absorb more power from the living than the dead. And unlike the people, the army carried the king’s stigma. Those carrying the king’s stigma could never defy Bul’ark’s orders.

“Become my strength! Let me devour you!”

The knights and soldiers pouring out of the castle could no longer control themselves. They immediately ran toward Bul’ark.

“H-hiiiiik! I don’t want to!”

“Your Majesty. P-please! Keuaaaaack!”

“Please kill me… Uwaaaaaack!”

The scene of Bul’ark devouring the more than 100,000 knights and soldiers charged at him was ridiculous.

Of course, Minhyuk did not just stand still. He attacked Bul’ark’s back like crazy. Regardless, Bul’ark did not pay him any heed. After all, both his HP and defensive power were beyond imagination in the first place.

[Bul’ark has gotten a bit stronger.]

[Bul’ark has gotten a bit stronger.]

[Bul’ark has gotten a bit stronger.]

[King Bul’ark. Level 967.]

Bul’ark, who had devoured his troops, punched Minhyuk straight in the abdomen with his gigantic fist.

Bang–!

“Ugh!” Minhyuk groaned from the impact of Bul’ark’s fist, whose damage had increased dramatically.

That was not the end of it. Bul’ark had sent half of his army toward him while the other half was sent toward Minhyuk. Minhyuk tried to charge forward and attack him, but he could not move quickly from the soldiers attacking him. The worst part? It was their shouts.

“Please! We’d rather you kill us instead!”

“Just kill us!”

“We beg you!”

They knew that they were going to be devoured in the end. That was why they were begging for him to kill them. But Minhyuk could not swing his sword against them that easily. After all, he did not know them. Although some might just be like Bul’ark, some might have been forced by the circumstances and were coerced by those higher than them.

Perhaps what Bul’ark was aiming for was this. Maybe he just wanted to see Minhyuk hesitate like this.

“Please go on ahead!”

“We’ll stop them!”

The people jumped in front of Minhyuk. With the help of five men grabbing the soldiers’ necks, arms, and legs and knocking them down, the path ahead opened up.

[In the dark sky, tiny lights appeared one after another.]

[The lights were tiny, but as they gathered together, they slowly illuminated the world.]

[The events of the third page have been completed.]

Nevertheless, it was not enough. In just an instant, Bul’ark devoured tens of thousands of people. Minhyuk released a shaky breath as he looked at Bul’ark.

[King Bul’ark. Level 1,001.]

When NPCs reached a certain level, sometimes special powers would be made available or their special characteristics would evolve. And, of course, the same was true for Bul’ark.

[The Predatory Disaster has evolved into Predatory Catastrophe.]

[A gigantic black hole appears above Bul’ark and devours everything within his one-kilometer radius.]

A black hole appeared right above Bul’ark’s head. Then, the black hole began to suck in and devour the knights and soldiers within his vicinity.

“A-aaaaaack!”

“N-no! I don’t want to!”

Despite their desperate screams, the knights and soldiers floated in the air and got sucked into the black hole. Soon, this power began to spread and reach out to the people. They also began to float in the air. Among these people was the girl, who Minhyuk stroked the head of earlier.

At this moment, Minhyuk realized that Bul’ark was no longer an opponent he could defeat alone. Even so, Minhyuk did not back down. He immediately ran toward the girl.

Seeing this, Bul’ark raised his feet and kicked Minhyuk as hard as possible.

Bang–!

Minhyuk, sent flying down to the ground, was in a daze. For a moment, his vision spun and grew blurred. Nevertheless, he did not give up. He still stretched his hand out toward the girl, who was being sucked into the black hole.

Flip–

The sound of a book being flipped floated in his ears.

[The glittering lights struggled desperately so they would not get swallowed up by the darkness.]

[Despite their struggles, the darkness consumed the lights.]

[At that moment, four radiant lights appeared.]

At that moment, Minhyuk saw ropes appear and wrap around the ankles of the people who were being sucked into the black hole. The people who threw the ropes immediately tied the other end of the rope to the buildings, poles, and various other things to prevent them from being sucked into the black hole. Every single one of these people wore epaulets carrying the revolution symbol.

“Hihihihihing!”

The four most brilliant and radiant lights were coming!

Minhyuk was aware that he was nothing but a temporary revolutionary. Like him, the true revolutionaries ran under the names of the brightest lights. They were running at the vanguard through the ruined city.

Although Minhyuk did not understand one thing, only three of them stopped in front of him. According to the story, there should be four revolutionaries: Story Revolutionary Gardin, Army Revolutionary Bharal, Weapon Revolutionary Leo, and finally, the Cooking Revolutionary.

Alas, the things that he could not understand increased in number.

“Why did the stigma not disappear? What about the Cooking Revolutionary?”

“The Cooking Revolutionary has already been defeated.”

They had made it clear to Minhyuk that they could only temporarily remove the stigma and show off their full power, which they could use to cinch their victory.

Minhyuk turned to look at Leo. There were traces of burns all over Leo’s body. Even his lush and thick hair had burned down, and only the gross burn marks remained. At this moment, Minhyuk recalled something.

–Was evolved by Leo’s tremendous patience, care, and suffering.

This was part of the description written in the Greatest Transcendental’s Armor. Minhyuk, who could not understand why the word suffering was written in the description, finally understood what it meant.

For a moment, sadness surged within him. He felt like crying. The sword in his hand made Leo’s head turn hideous, while the armor on his body left burn marks all over the older man’s own.

That was when Minhyuk recalled the drunk Gardin's words to him.

–We might need to sacrifice for the revolution.

Minhyuk understood everything. In the first place, there was no way for them to remove the stigma. Regardless, they still said these words.

–We can temporarily remove the stigma.

These words were said only to instill hope and a dream in the people's minds and hearts. Minhyuk, who was holding and wearing that sacrifice, clearly remembered that whenever a person carrying the stigma tried to use their original power, they would suffer from bone-numbing pain.

At this moment, Minhyuk knew what he had to do. He said, “I’ll become the Cooking Revolutionary.”

[Finally, the four most brilliant and radiant lights have gathered together.]