A Strength stat that had risen by +4 from completely rupturing the muscle and then using Regeneration [C+].
'Each level grants +1 to a stat, so...'
It amounted to gaining the same effect as raising four levels in one stroke.
You might think a mere +4 was nothing, but that was not the case at all.
The stats were based on an adult man as their standard.
That is, 1 Strength was equal to the strength one adult man possesses.
Strength +4 followed the same principle as gaining the strength of four adult men.
And since Solo Level Up [EX] granted an additional +1 stat every time I levelled, it amounted to being able to keep gaining the physical ability of one adult man at a time.
It was exactly as I had expected.
The secret of Ian's absurd strength lay precisely in 'Solo Level Up [EX].'
=="Player Information"==
[NAME] = Adrian White Wolf
[LEVEL] = Level 6
[HP] = 12
[MP] = 0
[STATS] = Strength: 7 Agility: 1 Stamina: 1 Mana: 1
[EXP] = 12.7%
+3 levels for slaying the Ice Troll.
+2 levels for clearing the tutorial quest.
I had been able to reach Level 6 in total, and gained +5 in stats accordingly.
On top of that I gained +1 stat as the tutorial quest's additional reward.
A combined +6 in stats granted to me.
I distributed these evenly, one at a time, into Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Mana.
It was to confirm how much efficiency one point of a stat produces. And by doing so I was able to work out that 1 stat point is based on an adult man.
Which brings me to my stats, buried at 0 in the beginning.
That meant I had fallen a very long way short of the adult male standard.
The me of the past really had been a wastrel — but anyway.
'It's certain that raising experience is the most efficient growth.'
Gaining additional 'stats' is one thing, but with my own ability, Predation [S+], I could gain additional 'abilities' as well.
Ian's ability, Solo Level Up [EX].
My ability, Predation [S+].
'Monster hunting,' which could bring out the synergy of these two abilities, was an explosive method of growth.
'Hunting is beyond me in my current state.'
My body right now is not the allied forces' Predator but the Count's wastrel.
'I nearly died going out to hunt.'
Before returning to the house I went looking for monsters on the Snowy Mountain, calling it hunting.
And I nearly died.
All I had was a slender sword with not a damn bit of practical use, and even that had me gasping for breath after a few swings.
My combat power from my Predator days was beyond dreaming of.
With my body and stamina as they are now, I fell short of even a common soldier's combat power.
'It was lucky a blizzard suddenly blew in.'
If it hadn't, I would have died before ever meeting Ian.
'It was providence that the first Ice Troll I ran into was a weakened specimen.'
At any rate, for now I needed to temper my body.
Monster hunting was impossible with the body of a wastrel who lived sunk in gambling and pleasure.
Even if not up to my Predator days for now, I had to build a body and stamina that could sustain combat.
I gave up hunting and came straight back to the house.
I invested the remaining +2 stats entirely into Strength, and on that foundation I reconstructed the muscle to gain an additional Strength +4.
By that, the Strength that had been buried at 0 now stood at a full 7.
I had come to possess the strength of seven adult men.
'Definitely...'
I could feel explosive strength from the reconstructed muscle.
Ordinarily it would be impossible to grow this much in so short a time.
What made it possible was, again, the Ice Troll's 'Regeneration [C+].'
'A troll's recovery ability wasn't this good.'
In my days as the allied forces' Predator, the ability I gained by devouring a troll's heart was 'Recovery.'
That troll Recovery ability was a considerably good ability in its own right.
Injuries like cuts, lacerations and bruises recovered within a few minutes.
Even injuries like a severed arm or leg could be recovered, so long as you retrieved the severed part.
The Ice Troll is a variant of that troll.
Since its recovery ability was a full five times better than a troll's, I had expected it to be superior.
But...... I had no idea it would be to this degree.
'This is nearly on a par with the Saintess.'
It's no exaggeration — it was comparable to the allied forces' hero, the Saintess.
And that with a Regeneration [C+] that hadn't even secured its complete genetic factors yet.
If I hunted more Ice Trolls and secured additional genetic factors, I couldn't imagine what ability it would display.
'There was a reason the Emperor rounded them all up and bred them.'
And in that sense, it wasn't only Ice Trolls.
Monsters with abilities on a par with the Ice Troll were inexhaustible on the continent.
In my previous life the Emperor caught them all.
But at this point in time, having gone back to the past, that isn't so.
Rare monsters with abilities superior to the Ice Troll are spread through the wild.
'If I could gain all of those abilities.'
Surpassing my previous life's Predator would be nothing at all.
Grrrrrowl...!!
All at once a sound like thunder burst out of my stomach.
The savage hunger brought dizziness with it, and my head swam.
The Ice Troll's regeneration was not unlimited recovery.
It required a price.
The Saintess's miracles required divine power.
The Ice Troll's regeneration ability required......
◆The massive protein consumption leaves you feeling extreme hunger!
Nutrients.
Food, in other words.
Having gone past recovering the ruptured muscle to reconstructing all of it, the protein in my body was completely depleted.
'The meal should be arriving about now.'
I soothed my hunger and raised myself up.
At which came the shrieking cries of the soldiers.
"Good grief!!"
"H-he got up like nothing happened!!!"
"Wh-what on earth...!"
Every one of them was staring at me with their eyes wide.
Their mouths hung open and showed no intention of closing.
Their faces and expressions went past the level of looking at a curious animal, and were closer to observing some bizarre and grotesque life-form.
But what was all this fuss over a bit of exercise?
'Have they never seen anyone work out?'
Then again, thinking it over carefully, I am currently the Count's wastrel.
In my allied forces days I trained every day.
But in my days as the Count's wastrel I lived sunk in pleasure, never mind conditioning, so—
'That lot would be seeing it for the first time.'
From the soldiers' point of view it could only be a curiosity.
I got lightly to my feet and brushed the dirt and dust off my body.
"Wh-whoaaa!!"
"A monster...! It's a monster...!"
Curious is one thing.
Treating me as a monster crossed a line.
Just as I was about to give the soldiers a piece of my mind, it happened.
◆In your maddening hunger, you regard everything you see as 'food'!
For an instant my head swam.
I hurriedly gathered myself and set my vision straight.
But the landscape before my eyes was already distorted.
The wooden training swords set out looked like long loaves of bread, and the straw dummies looked like enormous blocks of cheese.
And the soldiers looked...... like fresh meat.
I wanted to drive my sharp teeth into their throats that very instant.
I want to chew that flesh and soothe this hunger.
I want to wet my throat with the blood that sprays out and slake this thirst.
Thump!
My heart lurched violently.
Blood vessels stood out in my eyes, and madness dyed my reason crimson.
The instinct of a predator with prey before it.
That is what draws my body forward.
When I closed my eyes once and opened them—
At some point I was already lunging at the soldiers.
A body whose muscle had been ruptured and reconstructed.
My strength and speed had become vastly stronger and faster than before.
When I kicked off the ground, CRASH!
With a roar the floor of the training ground broke apart.
That recoil pushed my body forward.
The soldiers were not responding.
They were horrified at my behaviour, and that in turn made them unable even to react to my speed, let alone answer it.
In truth, even without that, they could not have registered how I was moving now.
The distance between the soldiers and me closed fast.
Clear killing intent filled my eyes. I stretched out my hand. To seize the nearest soldier by the neck and take his flesh and his blood—
That was when it happened.
◆Player's Will [EX] resists the gnawing hunger!
A translucent message surfaced out of nowhere.
At the same moment my mind snapped clear.
I hurriedly pulled back the hand I had been reaching toward the soldiers.
But a step ahead of that, there was a hand blocking me.
SMACK—!
Some brutish hand seized me by the wrist. Instinctively I threw the hand off. But it did not come off.
This was unmistakably my reconstructed strength.
And even so I could not easily shake off the hand that held me.
CLATTER—!
A dull sound came.
When I lowered my eyes, I saw a covered dish fallen on the floor. The turkey dish that had been inside it had made a wreck of the ground.
It seemed to be the meal I had asked Bernard for.
But the one holding my hand was not Bernard.
Slowly I raised my head and confirmed the owner of this hand.
And I was able to see the figure of a man, twisted like a vengeful demon.
"What do you think you are doing...!!"
It is a face I have in my memory.
I remember the name clearly as well.
Though my memory is stained and fouled by the horrors of the battlefield, this man at least I remember clearly.
How could I forget?
"Sir Kai!"
This damned bastard who mercilessly slaughtered the comrades of the allied forces.
***
The first time I met Kai was around the age of five.
My father once had occasion to go to the kingdom's capital. And he came back to the house with one grubby little boy.
A boy small and slight, past slight into skin and bone.
My father named the child Kai, meaning 'a dog that resembles a tiger.'
And whenever my father spoke to me of Kai, he called him 'a fairly usable stray.'
My father also said this.
—His intelligence is high but his head is not good, so the difficulty of raising him will be low. He will never betray one he has once acknowledged as master, so raise him well and use him as your hands and feet.
That was how my father attached Kai to me.
My father's words were not wrong.
As a loyal knight, Kai would not refuse even death for my sake.
Come to think of it...... when we were children, the relationship between Kai and me seems to have been decent.
Me toward Kai, and Kai toward me.
There was a time when we thought of each other as brothers, beyond the relation of lord and vassal.
But at some point.
Our relationship went wrong.
Kai and I could no longer live as brothers the way we had, and with Seraphia's fall we finally ran all the way to a relationship past repair.
And now, having gone back to the past.
The Kai standing before my eyes called to mind a noble wolf.
Standing tall with my wrist in his grip, he was as lofty as a wolf of the snowfield, and it suited the house name 'White Wolf' better than I did.
But the meaning held in the name Kai is a dog that resembles a tiger.
Dog and wolf are no different genetically.
In the distant past, one or two of a wolf pack came to lean on people with good cheer, and what was born of that was the species called 'dog.'
Which is why there is no difference in appearance between a dog and a wolf.
Therefore the element that separates wolf from dog lies in the 'inside.'
Loyalty.
A dog wags its tail when it sees a person.
A wolf grows wary of a person and attacks.
But the dusk that stains the twilight hour makes dog and wolf impossible to tell apart.
"Leave the county at once."
Is the Kai coming toward me now a dog, or a wolf?
If a dog, he will wag his tail in gladness.
"And if I refuse?"
If a wolf, he will try to do me harm.