Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 1074

Ruba had been an evaluator for more than thousands of years. The only person he had ever knelt to, including before he was appointed, was him. The first reason was that he was strong, and the second was that he came to power and grew more influential after becoming an evaluator.

Yes, many Pillar Candidates in the past had the power to overwhelm the evaluators, but they had treated them courteously.

Thud–!

Ruba, who had received the attacks of someone who had yet to be acknowledged and accepted as a true Pillar Candidate, could not withstand the impact and was forced to kneel on one knee.

Ruba’s mind went blank. ‘W-what is this?’

He was so confused that he barely registered how the situation happened. Still in a daze, he looked up and met the cold, arrogant gaze of the man, who was pointing his sword at Ruba.

Snap–

Ruba’s final string of reason broke then, and anger clouded his mind. This was a bizarre feeling for him. It was the first time that he felt so angry at someone that he wanted to kill them, causing him to do what he was not supposed to.

One of the lines engraved on his arms disappeared once again. Minhyuk’s pupils shook. The first time, it increased his level by 50. This time, it increased by 60 levels.

At the same time, Ruba’s killing intent burst out and covered the entire area. It brought immense pressure that almost suffocated the ordinary knights and soldiers in the vicinity. The others hurriedly ordered them to escape.

“BASTARD!” Ruba shouted, his eyes bloodshot as he charged at Minhyuk, his speed much faster than before.

“Captain!”

“If you release the se-second seal, then…!”

The other evaluators shouted at him in worry, but Ruba was deaf to their voices.

Clang–

An unbelievably loud sound erupted when his sword made contact with Minhyuk’s armor.

‘The Mad Hound.’

The power that bit Minhyuk was twice as strong as the power before.

“Kghhk!” For the first time, a groan escaped Minhyuk’s lips.

Ruba did not stop there. He charged at Minhyuk rapidly and did not give him any room to breathe. However, Minhyuk was currently in a state of Transcendence and was 1.5x stronger than usual. Besides, now that Ruba had lost his temper and reasoning, it was not difficult to land attacks on him.

“Sword of Carnage.”

Stab, stab, stab–!

Despite the blood constantly flowing down his body, Ruba continued to attack Minhyuk, looking like a mad hound. Then, Ruba released another powerful attack.

“Hound Finding Prey.”

Bang–!

The moment his sword stabbed Minhyuk, it caused tremendous damage. Minhyuk felt as if something was twisting and crushing his organs in the area where he was stabbed.

“Urk!”

Blood dripped down Minhyuk’s mouth. Even though he was being pushed back, Minhyuk did not back down. He used Like the Wind and appeared right in front of Ruba.

Bang–!

Boom–!

Minhyuk, while still under the effects of Transcendence, could deal damage beyond one’s imagination. On top of the Sword of Carnage that slashed and hacked at Ruba earlier, this attack made the evaluator fall to his knees again.

“Eeeeeeeek!” Ruba shouted, his expression growing uglier and more grotesque as his anger soared to new heights.

Shwaaaa–

At that moment, the Transcendence that wrapped around Minhyuk was lifted.

“Hound’s Hunt.”

Sword lights, much bigger and stronger than Brod’s Wolf’s Death, shot out from Ruba’s sword and pierced through Minhyuk.

“Ugh!”

The attack sent Minhyuk flying back. It also depleted almost 30% of Minhyuk’s HP in one go.

‘With the effects of Transcendence gone, I can only last for at most two minutes against him.’

It sounded harsh, but this was the reality of the matter.

The furious Ruba stomped toward Minhyuk and the group of people. They looked at Minhyuk in worry as they savored their bungeo-ppang by eating it in little bites. Part of the reason why Ruba was so angry was also because of them.

“How dare you! How dare you ignore me, you f*cking bastards! How dare you treat an evaluator like me this way!”

The group of people eating the bungeo-ppang was worried about Minhyuk. But they knew that they could not charge in and interrupt without his orders. So, they continued to eat and relish their bungeo-ppangs while watching from the sidelines.

‘This is the last bungeo-ppang. I’ll save it… huh?’

At that moment, Bender saw his bungeo–ppang cut in half and slowly fall to the ground.

Flop–

“...”

For a moment, Bender could not tell what was going on. This warm bungeo–pang from Minhyuk gave him a new pleasure, especially since they hadn’t eaten proper food for thousands of years. Eating this warm fish-like bread made him smile and feel happy for the first time in a long while.

The Transcendentals were beings who had everything in life. Since they were already stronger than anyone, they felt like their lives were meaningless and empty. After all, reaching another realm was difficult for people at their level. For them, eating was a small happiness.

Unfortunately, this small happiness had been reduced to a shabby state on the ground.

“NOOOOO!!!”

It wasn’t just Bender who felt that way. The other Transcendentals were all staring in horror at the bungeo-ppang, which Ruba deliberately targeted, on the ground.

Bender looked very sad. “That was the last piece…”

Minhyuk finally stabilized himself, stood up, and saw himself in this group of people. They looked and behaved just like he was when he was in his late stages of eating addiction!

At this moment, Minhyuk realized something. He turned to look at the evaluators and said, “Hey, you guys should run.”

“...?”

Minhyuk had intended to break their arms and legs, but he never wanted to kill them. Besides, he wasn’t sure if he could handle the consequences.

Ruba was left dumbfounded when he heard Minhyuk’s words. However, there was obvious delight on his face when he saw the stunned looks on the faces of the people in front of him when the fish-shaped bread fell on the ground.

But he did not stop there. He walked toward the bungeo-ppang that fell before Bender and stomped on it with his boots.

Thump–

“Ah, my bad. I didn’t mean to crush it like that.”

“...”

Bender looked up at him.

Ruba smirked, “Go on, eat it.”

Only a single thought flashed in Minhyuk’s head at that moment. ‘He’s done for…’

Bender was the strongest among the Transcendentals. He could even inflict heavy damage on Helenia if she did not have her ores. That was saying something. If Minhyuk were honest, he could confidently say that he could not beat Bender even if he worked with Brod and Ben.

The other Transcendentals gathered around Bender. Bender turned to look at Minhyuk.

“Minhyuk.”

“...”

Cold sweat dripped down Minhyuk’s forehead.

“Shall we break them for you?”

“N-no. Do…” Minhyuk shouted.

But Ruba did not notice it. He just laughed at them. After knocking Minhyuk down and trampling on these trivial beings, he was finally slowly regaining his reason.

“Break? What are you going to break, huh? This? Why don’t you guys eat this bread like beggars, huh?” Ruba asked as he provoked them like crazy.

Then, Arshad, standing behind him, said, “C- Captain Ruba…”

“???”

Ruba looked back when he heard Arshad’s trembling voice.

“I can’t read anything from them.”

“...?!”

Shock colored Ruba’s eyes when he heard that. If Arshad could not see through and read people, would he still be tasked to evaluate the candidates? There were only two reasons why Arshad could not read someone. One was they were either at Arshad’s or Ruba’s level. And the other was…

‘If they are at a level that is higher than us?’

Something had gone very, very wrong. There had to be an error somewhere.

“It must be because you have read through so many people today.”

Ruba established his hypothesis and immediately created a third reason for this phenomenon. He even firmly believed it despite having no evidence to back it up.

“Even if they are Pillar Candidates, there’s no way you can’t see through them.”

They were standing behind Minhyuk, and Ruba assumed they were his subordinates. Based on Arshad’s reading, it did not make sense for these people to be his subordinates. After all, who would become subordinate to someone like Minhyuk if they were of a much higher level than him?

Ruba, who decided on the matter just like that, smiled viciously.

“...?”

A man suddenly appeared in front of Royer. The man was around two meters tall, with a bald head and a muscular upper body.

The Transcendentals present in this place were the only survivors from the hundreds of residents of the Transcendental village in the past. They were the most outstanding out of all of the Transcendentals.

Nekk looked at Royer and said, “The evaluation…” His cold eyes pierced through Royer. “...for the evaluators has begun.”

“...!”

“...!”

The evaluators were dumbfounded. How dare they say that they would evaluate their qualifications as evaluators?!

Nekk’s cold gaze scanned Royer from head to toe. “Defensive power is at 1,900. All stats will increase by 26%. Not bad for an armor.”

He could see through the armor on Royer’s body with just one glance. This feat was only possible if someone reached a certain level. Using the foreigner’s terms, it should be at around Level 1,000.

Of course, Royer could also do the same. Before his powers were sealed, he had already reached a level beyond Level 1,000.

Thump–

Then, Nekk grabbed Royer’s hand and put it on his armor. At the same time, the armor information appeared in Royer’s head.

“...!”

Royer was beyond shocked. The armor on the man, Nekk’s body, was wonderfully made. He had to admit that it would be hard for him to make something like this himself.

‘He’s at the level of Jack-of-all-Trades Rocado…?’

That was the only way that Royer could explain it.

Nekk laughed and said, “You failed.”

“...!”

“...!”

“Someone far worse than me is calling himself an evaluator?”

Royer’s face was flushed with anger. He stretched his hand out and said, “Ho? You speak as if you know anything about that.”

Nekk looked at him in interest. What Royer did was extend his hand to challenge him in arm wrestling. In the past, those with outstanding levels of dexterity would often play this game to determine who had the higher skill.

The level they achieved, their achievements, their hard work, and various other things would be made clear through this game. This was a game where the victory or defeat of the players would be determined by their dexterity alone.

Nekk grabbed Royer’s hand.

The air turned tense as everyone turned to look at them. The Dexterity Evaluator and Nekk, who said that he would evaluate him, began their power struggle.

Nekk looked at him coldly. “Not bad. However, do you think you can evaluate someone when you’re at this level?”

At that moment, the veins in Nekk’s muscles bulged. And just like that, the arm wrestling that put everyone in a tense state ended with Royer on the ground.

Bang–!

Nekk looked at Royer once again and chuckled. “You failed.”

“...!”

“...!”

Before they could even register their surprise, a woman appeared before Arshad. She was none other than Bernie, the Transcendental of Mental Abilities. She was the youngest out of all the Transcendentals. Of course, just like them, she felt thrilled eating the bungeo-ppang.

Bernie’s lips twisted into a smile as she said, “Let’s start the evaluation.”

“...!”

Arshad’s eyes behind his round glasses grew wide.

“Come on, do it. Read what’s in my head. You will either drive me crazy or…” She raised a dainty finger and poked him in the head as she taunted him. “...you will tremble in fear.”

A white light burst from Arshad’s glasses as he used all of his strength.

‘I can’t see anything.’

Even after giving it his all, he could not see through her past. He was not even close to seeing anything about her. Of course, the same was true for inflicting abnormal statuses. This only meant one thing. Her mental powers were much higher than his own.

Crack, crack–

“Then, I’ll do it this time,” Bernie said as she touched Arshad’s forehead with the tip of her finger.

At that moment, a strange feeling washed over Arshad. He realized that she was reading through his memories!

“Ho? So, this is how you became an evaluator?”

Goosebumps rose all over Arshad’s body.

Bernie chuckled lightly and gracefully. Then, she said, “Don’t worry, I don’t intend to tell anyone this.”

The smile suddenly disappeared from her face.

“Instead…”

Arshad started to tremble. He broke into a cold sweat as the human’s primal fear dragged him into the depths of the cold and dark abyss. Abnormal statuses, such as fear, terror, and darkness, caused this. These three were the only things that filled Arshad’s head now.

“A-aaaaaaaah!!!” Arshad screamed.

Bernie just looked at him coldly and said, “Failed. You definitely failed.”

Ruba, who saw the entire situation unfold, did not understand what was happening.

Thud–

Bender, the man who gritted his teeth in anger when he saw Ruba trample on his bungeo-ppang, grabbed him by the neck and spat coldly, “Your evaluation will now begin.”