After spending half an hour in his room and finishing off all the food and water Raul had brought, Leo had finally recovered a good deal of his energy.
The stabbing pain in his head had eased considerably, and his body had fully recovered during the long rest. Feeling that he could already get out of bed and move around, Leo left his room at once and showed his face in front of his Familia companions, so they wouldn't keep worrying.
According to Raul, he'd slept a full day and night, and the people in the Familia had all been waiting for him to wake up.
Ais went without saying, having kept an eye on Leo's condition the whole time. Loki, Finn and the others had all been waiting for Leo to wake too, and everyone else was just as concerned about his state, which made Leo feel too embarrassed to keep lying around like a corpse.
So Leo left the room together with Raul, met his Familia companions, and felt everyone's warmth.
Almost everyone in the Familia was just like Raul, thrilled beyond words at his feat of subjugating a Floor Boss alone. The moment Leo appeared, he was immediately surrounded by a crowd, just like the last time he'd leveled up, and everyone was even more enthusiastic than when he'd leveled up before.
Leo could clearly feel that his companions' attitudes toward him had changed a great deal.
Before, even though Leo had leveled up to Lv.2 at an astonishing, unprecedented speed, he was still near the very bottom in the Familia, and to many of its people he remained a junior, an up-and-comer who needed time to grow.
But now it was different.
Goliath was a Floor Boss of classification Lv.4, something even a Lv.5 first-class adventurer would have to put in real effort to deal with, yet Leo had brought it down while at Lv.2.
True, he'd done it by near-brutally blasting it to death with unreasonable magic firepower, and Leo himself didn't have the strength to face it head-on, but being able to bring down a Floor Boss was already proof that Leo's ability was no longer the bottom of the Familia.
On the contrary, his standing in the Familia now was perhaps higher than that of many Lv.3 and even Lv.4 core members, somewhat like Lefiya.
Both of them had possessed firepower rivaling first-class adventurers while at low Levels. In group battles, as long as they were protected, they could sweep the battlefield with astonishing magic power, no different in those moments from two Lv.5 rearguard Mages.
Two such people could play a far greater role in the Familia than ordinary Lv.3s and Lv.4s, the kind of teammates the Familia leaders and executives wouldn't hesitate to bring along when forming a party for a raid.
Under such circumstances, Leo's standing in everyone's eyes was naturally no longer what it had been.
Only after finally fending off his enthusiastic Familia companions was Leo able to head to the Central Tower, to the God's Chamber to see Loki.
"So you're finally awake, kid."
Loki seemed to have gotten word of Leo waking up long ago, lazily waiting in the God's Chamber for him to come find her, her face full of a sly grin.
"How're you feeling? Body holding up okay? Didn't lose any important parts, did you?"
...The way she put that, why did it feel a little dirty?
"I didn't lose any parts, my head just feels like it's splitting open."
Leo answered honestly, and got nothing but a soft snort from Loki.
"And whose fault is it for going that wild, kid?" Loki had clearly already heard about Leo's performance from Finn and the others, and said with a curl of her lip, "Barely Lv.2 and you've got the nerve to squeeze your Mind dry like that, putting out firepower across several Levels. The fact that you didn't fry your brain, even I think it's a little unbelievable."
"It's fine, isn't it?" Leo was at a loss for words, and after a moment said with a wry smile, "I've already got firepower rivaling a Lv.4 to begin with, so I only boosted my magic's power across a Level or two. It shouldn't be all that dangerous, right?"
"And if it weren't, you think you'd still be standing here in one piece?" The look in Loki's eyes as she watched Leo was like looking at an idiot, and she said sourly, "Lying in bed for one day and night and walking it off, that already counts as your ancestors' graves smoking with good fortune."
At that, Loki started laughing again.
"Still, give it to you, kid, you actually pulled off subjugating a Floor Boss. That's something not even that lust-struck goddess's pack of lapdogs managed to do, and one of my kids did it instead. Just thinking about it makes me happy!"
Loki clapped Leo's shoulder smugly as she said this.
"You really are my finest boy. Mama just loves you to death."
At that, Leo couldn't help rolling his eyes and slapping Loki's hand away.
"I'm not even gloating, so what are you so smug about?" Leo sat down in front of Loki, his back to her, and said, "You haven't forgotten why I went to challenge the Floor Boss, right?"
"Of course, of course, it was to level up, right?" Loki picked up the needle from the box beside her, and as she pricked her finger, said offhandedly, "You've already crossed two Levels to subjugate a Floor Boss. Is there even any suspense left to this?"
As she spoke, Loki let her blood drip onto Leo, who had taken off his shirt to bare his back, unlocking his Status.
The clown-patterned engraving appeared at once, and under the second drop of Loki's blood, began to give off a faint glow.
The Hieroglyphs started to drift.
The latent excelia was drawn out, turned into nourishment, and poured into Leo's body.
As the engraving shifted, Loki spoke a line in a tone of no surprise at all.
"Congratulations, you're Lv.3."
This was a result beyond all doubt.
If crossing two Levels to single-handedly subjugate a Monster Rex still couldn't get you a level up, then there'd be hardly anyone in this world who could level up at all.
So Leo, Loki, and even everyone else in the Familia had already been certain that the moment his Status was updated, Leo would rise to Lv.3.
This was no longer anything worth getting excited about.
But...
"Your haul this time is a real big one, though."
As Loki translated and transcribed the new Status onto the parchment, she watched Leo and said with a smile,
"Not only did you level up, you also triggered a new Skill."
The moment she said it, Leo, until then unruffled, immediately lifted his head.
"A new Skill?"
A look of surprise crossed his face.
"Right, you heard correctly, a new Skill." Loki handed the parchment to Leo and said with a grumbling whine, "This time it's finally not some weird Skill I can't even read. If you'd hit me with another one of those, I was about ready to head back to Heaven and retake Hieroglyphs."
"Take a good look for yourself."
Taking the parchment Loki passed him, Leo looked at his brand-new Status.
Leo Eligos Lv.3 Strength: I0 Endurance: I0 Dexterity: I0 Agility: I0 Magic: I0 Mage: H Magic Attack: I
Magic
Meteor Dance · Star attribute. · Spending extra Mind can increase power. · Spending extra Mind can add attacks. · Chant: Light of heaven, sword of stars.
Skill
????
※ Cannot be read.
Star Soul Eternal · Amplifies Magic effects. · Amplifies the effect of the Development Ability Mage. · Strongly enhances the basic ability Magic.
Star Soul Eternal.
This was the Skill Leo had newly acquired.
Without a doubt, it was a Skill just like Lefiya's Fairy Canon, made specifically to boost magic and amplify it, to make the power of magic even stronger.
"Your wild pursuit of firepower, kid, turned into excelia and dug up a whole new possibility, and the result was this Skill."
Loki clicked her tongue in wonder as she spoke.
"With this, our Familia's about to get one more magic idiot."
The title of magic idiot had originally belonged to Lefiya.
Because she'd had firepower rivaling a Lv.5 while only at Lv.3, a certain werewolf had called the elf girl that, and now Leo possessed this honor too.
"Your firepower right now, even compared to Lefiya's, should be about even, yeah?"
Loki gazed at Leo, a trace of a smile surfacing in the divine eyes she'd opened at some point.
Now Leo was already Lv.3. Though he'd only just leveled up and his Status couldn't match Lefiya's, who'd been training at Lv.3 for two years, Leo had broken past the limit on his Status at both Lv.1 and Lv.2, bringing his Magic parameter to SSS twice over.
Such a Leo wasn't actually all that far off from Lefiya's current Magic value, since Lefiya's Magic right now was only B.
As for the Development Ability Mage, both of them were currently at H.
As for Skills, Lefiya's Fairy Canon and Leo's Star Soul Eternal both had the effect of amplifying magic. While Fairy Canon also had the effect of doubling the amplification for attack magic, Leo's Star Soul Eternal also amplified the Mage Development Ability and strongly enhanced the Magic parameter.
Adding it all up, the two of them were nearly even in their advantages across Magic parameter, Mage level, Skills and the rest, with the only clear gap left being their equipment.
Leo's Emerald Staff was merely a Third Class equipment approaching Second Class equipment, while Lefiya's magic staff, the Forest's Teardrop, was a genuine Second Class piece of equipment.
But this level up, Leo had also gained a new Development Ability, Magic Attack.
As the name suggested, this was a Development Ability that could raise the attack power of magic.
Just like Star Soul Eternal, this was without a doubt the result of Leo's wild pursuit of firepower this time around.
Leo didn't know whether the unreadable special Skill Stranger from Another Star had played a part, lowering the difficulty of acquiring both a Skill and a new Development Ability, letting him gain two such precious abilities all at once. But the appearance of these two abilities had, without question, sharply raised his power in the realm of magic.
Just as Loki had said, his magic firepower in its normal state was probably no less than Lefiya's now, able to reach Lv.5.
And if he spent extra Mind to push his output even higher, then not even Lefiya could compare with Leo.
"With this new power, I don't have to worry too much about how you'll do on the expedition."
Loki clapped Leo's shoulder again and spoke with a smile.
"Head over to Finn's place. Our little Pallum captain and our vice-captain have got a whole lot to say to you."
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