An adventurer's strength was made up of several major parts.
First, ability values.
These represented all of an adventurer's basic attributes, such as strength, speed, defense, and so on.
Second, skills.
The effects of skills varied greatly, and under specific conditions, they could often correct or enhance those basic attributes.
Third, magic.
Magic was a special power, broadly divided into attack, defense, and healing types.
There were also spells like Futsunomitama, which manipulated gravity, though in essence, even that was categorized as attack magic.
The power of magic could make it possible to "kill above one's level."
However, even this had already been taken into account by the gods.
With the effect of her skill and her bottomless Mind, Lefiya Viridis—the mage of Loki Familia who would one day be known as Thousand Elf—could, while still Level 4, threaten Level 6 enemies and even interfere with Level 7 enemies.
Such a ridiculous increase in power still did not truly break through the boundaries set by the gods.
This had a lot to do with the nature of mages.
In this world, magic was not a trick, nor was it an ordinary combat method.
It was more like a part of strategic planning, a trump card meant to decide victory in a single strike, a final killing move.
The sum of ability values, skills, and magic raised the limit of each level to a height that almost no one could reach.
And yet, Alfia could break through that limit at will.
[Gif Blessings]
This skill allowed Alfia to remain in a state of limit break, ignoring the boundaries set by level and unleashing terrifying power far beyond Level 7.
Without it, she would never have been able to fight the Level 9 Empress head-on.
Even Bell Cranell, stacked with every aura and buff possible, still seemed as fragile as a kindergarten child when he fought Apollo Familia's captain after leveling up to Level 2 with all his ability values at SSS.
That was the absolute boundary between levels.
Even if one had several extra S-rank values, without achieving limit break, their strength would still remain confined within the range defined by Falna.
Because of that, fighting above one's level was almost impossible among adventurers.
Even Bell had to use his skill, Argonaut, to charge power and temporarily enter a limit-break state during an attack.
The heroic strike carried the possibility of overturning all unreasonable odds.
It was the greatest unreasonable force, and that unreasonable effect could even reverse and break through the boundary of limit break.
However, compared to [Gif Blessing], which allowed Alfia to remain in a constant state of limit break, Argonaut required more conditions to achieve the same effect and came with greater restrictions.
That was also why [Gif Blessing] had extremely severe side effects.
Not only did it apply a debuff to the user, it also caused permanent damage to the body.
Now, that ability had been sealed inside a Zanpakutō.
Otherwise, Alfia might not have lived more than a year at most.
Just dealing with the aftereffects left behind by that skill had consumed a tremendous amount of Rayleigh's energy, making him sigh more than once at how terrifying the skill truly was.
Both its performance and its side effects were too heavy for life itself to bear.
By comparison, the existence of Zanpakutō was practically unfair.
A Zanpakutō's Bankai surpassed the boundaries set by the gods.
Once Bankai was released, its power broke through the limit and fulfilled the requirements for limit break.
That's right.
What Alfia valued was not Rayleigh's level.
It was that abnormal power, so powerful that even levels could not fully express it.
"The gods are a troublesome lot," Alfia suddenly said. "Not all of them are good. Some are evil, and there are even some who make you want to vomit. But without exception, they all long for the appearance of heroes."
Rayleigh looked at her in confusion.
"I've never thought about becoming someone that great."
"You already are." A faint smile appeared on Alfia's face.
She said, "Didn't you save me? To me, you are my hero. Or are you dissatisfied because the person you saved wasn't a young girl or a princess, but a twenty-five-year-old woman like me?"
Her words shook something inside the boy's heart.
'You are my hero.'
Alfia had said that to him?
Just now?
He had not misheard her?
This was really...
Far too unfair!
"The person I risked my life to save was you. How could I be dissatisfied?" Rayleigh suppressed the joy rising in his chest and answered seriously.
Alfia turned her face away.
"I see."
Leaving only those brief words behind, she returned aboveground.
Rayleigh was left standing there alone.
There was no doubt that he had feelings for Alfia.
The problem was how Alfia saw him.
If she continued seeing him only as a "boy," that would not do.
But he had not expected to hear words like that from her today.
A hero, huh?
Not the kind of savior the gods expected.
That sort of hero interested him much more!
...
The next day.
Rayleigh was walking toward the Guild when he saw many adventurers gathered together, discussing something.
They all looked rather excited.
'Hm?'
'Had something happened?'
With that question in mind, Rayleigh headed forward and arrived in front of a tavern.
Just as he approached, before he even reached out to push the door open, he felt a warning.
The instant he flashed away from the doorway, a figure flew out upside down.
Thud.
"Ah!"
The one who flew out was a man.
No, it would be more accurate to say he had been thrown out.
The man lay sprawled on the ground, looking utterly miserable and humiliated.
But rather than anger, what showed on his face seemed to be shame and fear.
Rayleigh glanced at the man, then leaned slightly to look inside the tavern.
His eyes widened a little.
Inside the tavern, two girls with obvious Amazon traits stood there looking as if there was no one who could match them.
They were twins.
The older sister sat on a table, her short, plump legs swinging back and forth, while the younger sister stood on the floor with her hands on her hips, her face full of pride.
"So this is Orario? We heard this place was full of powerful adventurers. What the heck? That was totally fake," the Amazon twins said, their voices filled with disdain and disappointment.
Rayleigh looked at them with a smile.
'So they had arrived.'
'The future stars of Loki Familia.'
'The Amazon twins, the Hiryute sisters.'
'Tione and Tiona.'
Just as he remembered, they caused quite a commotion the moment they came to Orario.
The man who had just been thrown out was definitely not the first.
According to Rayleigh's memory, Loki Familia would soon receive the news and come here to recruit the sisters.
He had not expected to witness this scene personally.
Rayleigh felt somewhat lucky.
To him, this was almost like making a pilgrimage to a sacred place.
However, just then, the arrogant Tione suddenly noticed him and pointed at him.
"Hey, what are you smiling at? You looking for a beating?"
Rayleigh: "..."
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