After staying in his room for half an hour and polishing off all the food and water Raul had brought him, Leon finally recovered a significant amount of his energy.
The splitting headache had receded considerably, and his body had fully bounced back after the extended rest. Feeling that he was finally well enough to get out of bed, Leon left his room at once to show his face to his Familia comrades, wanting to save them from any further worry.
According to Raul, he had been asleep for a whole day and night, and everyone in the Familia had been waiting for him to wake up.
Ais, naturally, went without saying; she had been constantly checking on his condition. Loki, Finn, and the other executives had also been waiting for him to regain consciousness, and the rest of the members were equally invested in his well-being. It made Leon feel too guilty to keep lying around like a corpse.
Thus, Leon left the room alongside Raul, met up with his Familia comrades, and was instantly enveloped by everyone's warmth and enthusiasm.
Nearly everyone in the Familia shared Raul's wild excitement over Leon's solo subjugation of a Floor Boss. The moment Leon appeared, he was instantly surrounded by a crowd, just like during his last level up—except this time, everyone was noticeably more enthusiastic.
Leon could distinctly feel that his comrades' attitude toward him had undergone a massive shift.
Previously, even though Leon had leveled up to Level 2 at an unprecedented, mind-boggling speed, he was still practically at the bottom of the hierarchy within the Familia. To many members, he was still just a junior—a rising star who needed time to grow.
But things were different now.
Goliath was a Floor Boss categorized as a Level 4 threat. Even Level 5 First-Class Adventurers had to exert a fair amount of effort to deal with it, yet Leon had brought it down while still at Level 2.
Granted, he had relied on an absurd, almost brute-force magical output to blast it to death, and he didn't quite possess the raw combat stats to fight it head-on in close quarters. However, the mere fact that he had defeated a Floor Boss proved that his capabilities were no longer trailing at the bottom of the Familia.
On the contrary, his current standing in the Familia might actually be higher than many of the Level 3 or even Level 4 core members, mirroring Lefiya's situation to an extent.
Both of them possessed destructive magical firepower comparable to First-Class Adventurers despite being at lower levels. As long as they were properly protected in group battles, they could completely sweep the battlefield with their staggering magical might. In terms of raw output, they were essentially no different from two Level 5 rear-guard mages.
The role these two could play in the Familia was far greater than that of an ordinary Level 3 or Level 4 adventurer. They were the kind of teammates the Familia's captain and executives would choose to bring along for dungeon expeditions without a moment's hesitation.
Under such circumstances, how the crowd viewed Leon naturally changed.
After a great deal of effort, Leon finally managed to extricate himself from his enthusiastic comrades and made his way to the Central Tower to see Loki in the deity's chambers.
"Look who's finally awake, kiddo."
Loki seemed to have received word of Leon's awakening long ago. She was waiting leisurely for him in her room, a sly grin plastered across her face.
"How is it? Your body holding up okay? Didn't lose any indispensable parts, did ya?"
—Why did that phrasing sound a little suggestive?
"No missing parts, I just feel like my head is splitting open."
Leon answered honestly, which only earned him a soft snort from Loki.
"Who told you to push yourself so recklessly?" Loki had clearly heard about Leon's performance from Finn and the others. Pouting, she said, "You're only a Level 2, yet you dared to squeeze your mind power like that to unleash a firepower several levels above your own. It's a miracle your brains didn't get fried right then and there."
"It wasn't that bad, right?" Left without a good counterargument, Leon could only manage a bitter smile after a brief pause. "My baseline firepower is already comparable to a Level 3 or 4, so I only pushed it a level or two higher to boost the spell's potency. Surely it wasn't that dangerous?"
"If it weren't for that, do you think you'd be standing here in one piece right now?" Loki looked at Leon as if looking at an idiot, speaking in an annoyed tone. "Getting off with just a day and night of sleep means the smoke of good fortune is practically pouring out of your ancestral graves."
At this, Loki burst into a proud grin again.
"Still, you've got serious skills, kiddo. To actually pull off a solo Floor Boss subjugation... That's something even the simps under that narcissist goddess couldn't manage, yet a child of mine did it. Just thinking about it makes me ecstatic!"
Loki patted Leon's shoulder triumphantly as she spoke.
"As expected of my brightest star. Mommy loves you to death!"
Hearing this, Leon couldn't help but roll his eyes and swat Loki's hand away.
"I'm not even bragging, so what are you getting so smug for?" Leon sat down in front of Loki, turning his back to her. "You haven't forgotten why I went to challenge the Floor Boss in the first place, have you?"
"Of course, of course. For a level up, right?" Loki picked up a needle from a nearby box. Pricking her finger without a care in the world, she added, "You've successfully soloed a Floor Boss two levels above you. Could there possibly be any suspense left?"
With that, Loki let her divine blood drip onto Leon's exposed back after he took off his shirt, initiating the status update.
The crest depicting a clown immediately materialized, and upon receiving a second drop of Loki's blood, it began to emit a faint, ethereal glow.
The sacred hieroglyphs began to shift and dance.
The accumulated excelia was drawn out, transforming into nourishment that flooded into Leon's body.
As the crest settled into its new configuration, Loki spoke in a tone that said it was all foregone conclusion.
"Congratulations, you've reached Level 3."
The result was beyond question.
If a solo subjugation of a Floor Boss—a "Monster Rex"—while bridging a two-level gap wasn't enough to trigger a level up, then practically no one in the world would ever be able to level up.
Therefore, whether it was Leon, Loki, or the rest of the Familia, everyone had already known that the moment his status was updated, Leon would ascend to Level 3.
It was no longer something to get overly excited about.
However—
"You really hit the jackpot this time."
Loki said with a grin as she translated and copied the new status onto a sheet of parchment, keeping her eyes fixed on Leon.
"Not only did you level up, but you also unlocked a brand-new skill."
The moment those words left her mouth, the previously calm Leon instantly snapped his head up.
"A new skill?"
A look of genuine surprise washed over his face.
"Yep, you heard right, a new skill." Loki handed the parchment over to Leon, huffing proudly. "And thank goodness it's not another one of those bizarre skills that can't even be deciphered. If another one of those popped up, I was genuinely planning to head back to heaven to retake my hieroglyph classes."
"Take a good look at it yourself."
Receiving the parchment from Loki, Leon cast his eyes down to read his brand-new status.
[Leon Eligos: Level 3]
Strength: I 0 Endurance: I 0 Dexterity: I 0 Agility: I 0 Magic: I 0
Mage: H Magic Attack: I 1
Magic:
[Meteor Dance]
- Star attribute.
- Additional mind consumption increases power.
- Additional mind consumption allows for follow-up attacks.
Chant: Light of the Heavens, Sword of the Stars.
Skills: [ ]
- Unable to decipher.
[Eternal Star Soul]
- Increases the effects of magic.
- Increases the effects of the developmental ability 'Mage'.
- Greatly enhances the basic status 'Magic'.
—[Eternal Star Soul].
This was the new skill Leon had acquired.
Without a doubt, just like Lefiya's [Fairy奏楽 / Fairy Anthem], this was a skill purely dedicated to enhancing, boosting, and amplifying magic, making the power of one's spells significantly stronger.
"Your frantic pursuit of raw firepower turned into excelia, which dug out a whole new path of possibility. The result is this very skill," Loki remarked, clicking her tongue in wonder. "With this, our Familia is going to have yet another magic idiot."
The title "magic idiot" had originally belonged to Lefiya.
Because she possessed firepower comparable to a Level 5 while only being Level 3, a certain werewolf had given the elf girl that nickname. Now, Leon had earned the exact same honor.
"With your current firepower, even if you compare yourself to Lefiya, you should be neck and neck, right?"
Loki stared intently at Leon, a faint trace of a smile appearing in her narrow, occasionally opening eyes.
Currently, Leon was a Level 3. Though he had only just leveled up and his overall stats couldn't match Lefiya's—who had been grinding at Level 3 for two years—Leon's Magic stat had shattered the limits during his time at Level 1 and Level 2, reaching SSS both times.
Because of this, the gap between his current Magic stat and Lefiya's wasn't actually that vast, especially considering Lefiya's current Magic stat sat at B.
As for their developmental ability, 'Mage', both of them currently held it at rank H.
When it came to skills, Lefiya's [Fairy Anthem] and Leon's [Eternal Star Soul] both shared the effect of amplifying magic. While [Fairy Anthem] had the specific perk of doubling the amplification of offensive magic, Leon's [Eternal Star Soul] countered with the effect of boosting the 'Mage' developmental ability and heavily reinforcing his base Magic stat.
Weighing it all out, the advantages both sides possessed in terms of Magic stats, Mage ranks, and skills practically canceled each other out. The only glaring disparity left was their equipment.
Leon's Jade Staff was a third-tier weapon that merely approached the threshold of second-tier gear, whereas Lefiya's staff, 'Forest Teardrop', was a bona fide second-tier masterpiece.
However, through this level up, Leon had also obtained a new developmental ability—'Magic Attack'.
As the name implied, it was a developmental ability capable of directly increasing the destructive power of offensive spells.
Just like [Eternal Star Soul], this was indisputably the direct consequence of Leon's frantic, single-minded pursuit of destructive power during his battle.
Leon didn't know if his unreadable special skill, [Outworlder], had played a part behind the scenes by lowering the difficulty of acquiring skills and new developmental abilities, allowing him to obtain two such precious assets at once. But the emergence of these two traits undeniably propelled his magical prowess to a whole new echelon.
Just as Loki had said, his baseline magical firepower now was likely not a single bit inferior to Lefiya's, firmly reaching the realm of Level 5.
If he chose to burn extra mind power to force an even higher output, then even Lefiya would be hard-pressed to match him.
"Now that you have this new strength, I don't have to worry too much about how you'll perform during the upcoming expedition." Loki patted Leon's shoulder once more, speaking with a grin. "Go pay a visit to Finn. Our little Pallum captain and the vice-captain have quite a lot they want to say to you."
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