The Dungeon, 12th floor.
Above the grassland terrain wreathed in drifting white mist, countless roars were now shuddering through the air, setting the very ground trembling along with them.
Leo stood right at the center of this trembling, one hand gripping his short sword, the other hanging naturally at his side, his expression perfectly calm, not affected in the slightest by the strange spectacle.
With a wet, splitting sound, the ground cracked open all around Leo and gradually bulged up into mounds of dirt.
One by one, the massive Orcs bored their way up out of the earth, letting out menacing roars while each grabbed the nearest dead tree and wrenched it from the ground, turning it into a club, gripping it tight, giving off wave after wave of savagery.
"Ungohhhhhh...!"
The Orc nearest Leo was the first to attack, raising its club high overhead and bringing it down on Leo's head without mercy.
Wind shrieked, a gale spreading through the air as the massive Orc's swung club came down with a terrifying force, smashing into the spot where Leo stood.
A heavy, thunderous crash rang out the next second.
The Orc's all-out blow shattered the ground where Leo had been standing, leaving it a deep crater.
Thick dust and smoke rose up there, mixing into the hazy white mist and dropping the visibility another notch.
That strength was truly frightening. Never mind a Lv.1, even a Lv.2 caught square by it would likely be left gravely wounded on the spot.
Of course, that was assuming it could land.
A figure flickered through the dim mist like a phantom, in an instant slipping past the club planted in the ground and shooting toward the Orc.
A cold, sharp light flashed, and the keen short sword cut through the air, cut through the rising dust and smoke, and sliced into the Orc's body, drawing out a great spray of blood.
It was a strike aimed at the Orc's belly.
That was the spot where the Orc carried the thickest layer of fat and flesh on its whole body. Before, even with the short sword's sharpness, hitting there would have met resistance, and managing to open up a wound on it would have been doing quite well.
But this time, with that frightening force behind it, the slash the short sword traced became faster and sharper, its momentum and acceleration far exceeding before, so this single strike cut the Orc's belly clean open down one side, leaving it as if cleaved half in two, spraying out the thickest spray of blood it had ever produced.
"Ungohhhhhh...!"
The Orc let out an agonized scream, its whole huge body convulsing as it collapsed into a pool of blood, never to rise again.
"Ungoh!"
"Wuhoo!"
"Teehowoh!"
Watching this bloody, terrifying scene, the rest of the Orcs seemed frightened, all of them taking a step back, their once-ferocious momentum greatly weakened.
Seizing the moment, Leo, who had cut one Orc down to the brink of death in a single blow, spun his body and turned into a white streak, sweeping out at staggering speed to strike at the Orcs.
In the blink of an eye, three more Orcs had their bodies cut open and their flesh gouged out by Leo's short sword, blood spraying everywhere as they collapsed screaming.
"Howohhhhhhhhhhhh..."
The remaining Orcs had been badly frightened, but their monster instincts still had their viciousness stirred up by this bloody slaughter, and they roared as they swung their clubs, hammering them down again and again at that phantom figure, trying to force it to a halt.
The heavy collisions of clubs slamming into the ground rang out one after another, dust and gravel mixing into the blast wave that scattered out.
Leo was not affected in the least by this fierce barrage, his body flickering back and forth between the clubs coming at him with their terrifying force, dodging every one of the attacks.
Sometimes a sidestep, sometimes a leap, sometimes a dodge, sometimes a vault, Leo evaded the clubs with the simplest, most effective movements, looking like an acrobat trained for years, his agility on a completely different level than before.
The Orc attacks that had once carried a faint sense of threat now held not a shred of threat in Leo's eyes, dispelled by him with ease.
There was no helping it.
"Compared to Ais's attacks, yours are honestly pitifully slow."
He hadn't felt it before, but now that he'd reached Lv.2, to Leo the Orcs' attacks were simply too slow, so slow they couldn't even make him feel the least bit cautious.
So Leo's movements grew bolder, more aggressive.
Facing yet another Orc's club coming straight down at him, this time Leo didn't choose to dodge. He twisted his body into a flying kick, his foot slamming into the hand holding the club, with a dull thud kicking the club away and knocking the Orc's hand aside too.
A cold light flashed, and a sharp slash fell on the Orc that hadn't reacted at all, cutting open its belly and bursting out blood.
"Ungoh!"
"Wuhoo!"
"Teehowoh!"
Seeing this, several Orcs came at Leo from behind in a rage.
"Hmph!"
Leo gave a soft snort and, without turning his head, grabbed the thigh of the screaming Orc in front of him, twisting like the wind to come around behind it, then delivered another flying kick, slamming his foot heavily into the Orc's back and actually sending it flying.
The kicked Orc crashed straight into the pack of its kind lunging in, and like a bowling strike, knocked them all sprawling.
The other Orcs had their footing blocked by these fallen ones too, either toppling to the ground because they couldn't brake in time, or hurriedly stopping and going around them, their speed greatly reduced.
Seeing this, Leo narrowed his eyes.
"Perfect. Let's see how the change in my Magic plays out."
Because he'd already had a bout with Ais back at Twilight Manor and had crossed swords with plenty of monsters along the way, Leo had by now made an initial adjustment to his Lv.2 strength, and the mind-body dissonance problem had eased greatly.
Attack, defense, speed, technique... Leo had gotten all of these under control, and he'd come to understand just how strong he'd become at this stage.
The one ability he hadn't yet tried was Magic.
This was the strongest power Leo had. Even before leveling up, the closely related Magic stat had already been the strongest of all his basic ability fields, and after leveling up he'd chosen Mage, the Development Ability that comprehensively assists and strengthens magic. With Magic cast in this state, just how strong this power had become, even Leo couldn't predict.
Now was the perfect time to give it a proper try.
"Light of heaven, sword of stars."
The ultra-short chant left Leo's lips in barely a second, completing the most important and most critical step before casting magic.
"Meteor Dance!"
Leo didn't choose to spend extra Mind to boost the power, nor did he choose to add attacks. He simply cast this magic in the most ordinary state.
And yet, even though he hadn't chosen to spend extra Mind to boost the magic's power or attack count, the magic he cast took on a form completely different from before.
"Hmm!!"
A gorgeous magic circle spun open before Leo, glittering with dazzling starlight, slowly shining bright.
This was a phenomenon only those who had acquired Mage could trigger. This magic circle was proof of a high-rank Mage, a device that comprehensively amplifies, assists, and strengthens magic.
The next moment, a meteor as thick as a pillar shot out of the magic circle, carrying a roar that shook the atmosphere, and swallowed up the charging Orcs one by one.
This time the whole pack of Orcs couldn't even get out a scream. Their huge bodies, swallowed by the meteor, were either annihilated on the spot or had whatever the meteor grazed vaporized outright, completely losing the ability to fight.
"This is..."
The stunning sight left even Leo blank for a moment.
Never mind Leo, even Line, who was watching from a distance while dealing with the monster corpses and gathering the magic stones and drop items off them, was stunned by the sight.
"Mr. Leo's magic... the power's gotten so strong!"
That power, never mind for dealing with monsters categorized at only Lv.1, would probably be enough even for dealing with Lv.3 monsters.
After leveling up, Mr. Leo's magic had gotten far too strong!
"That magic circle... has Mr. Leo already acquired the Mage Development Ability?"
Line quickly caught on, coming to understand somewhat why Leo's magic had such tremendous power.
It wasn't just that the power of his magic had gotten stronger after leveling up. With the assistance of Mage, this power had climbed another step higher.
"Howoh..."
After Leo's magic attack, not many of the Orcs were left alive, and their charging steps had completely halted, none of them daring to advance another step.
Their monster instincts made them want to attack the adventurer before them with no fear for their lives, but when the fear in those instincts overpowered that viciousness, they panicked all at once and actually chose to flee.
"Think you can get away?"
Watching the few Orcs scatter and flee in different directions, Leo, having come back to himself, cast his magic again.
This time he didn't even chant. He simply loosed several meteors directly, sending them tearing through the white mist toward those Orcs.
"H-he used magic without even chanting...?!"
Clearly, Line, seeing Leo use magic without chanting the incantation for the first time, was dumbfounded.
Because magic cast without chanting the incantation had pitifully weak power, not even half of its power in the normal state, Leo had never used magic this way since teaming up with Line, so the girl had no idea at all that Leo's magic could even be cast without a chant.
But now, after leveling up to Lv.2, Leo's magic power had surged so much that against the Upper Floors' monsters it was already in a state of overkill, so Leo no longer needed to fret about chanting-free casting leading to insufficient power.
Even at under half its power, Meteor Dance now was stronger than before leveling up, sending meteors bursting straight through the thick white mist, scattering it, and catching up to the few fleeing Orcs.
Explosive roars rang out as the meteors tore through space and punched through the white mist, striking the fleeing Orcs one after another and blasting their bodies into ash on the spot.
"...Looks like I can do this too?"
Leo didn't even bother looking at how those Orcs ended up. After loosing the magic he fell into a thoughtful state, looking at his palm, then once again cast magic without chanting the incantation, making magic circles suddenly appear all around him.
Meteors flew out from each of the magic circles, but no longer flying in straight lines. As if controlled by an invisible hand, they wove back and forth, changed direction freely, and wheeled above the entire grassland terrain.
The sight left even Line entranced.
"Mr. Leo's magic, no matter how many times I see it, it's so beautiful."
The girl marveled inwardly, her eyes shining with wonder.
Leo too was watching this scene, and something dawned on him.
"Looks like, with the Mage Development Ability assisting, my control over this Star attribute magic has gotten stronger too."
Leo had noticed before that the strength of his Star attribute magic compared to magic of other attributes lay in its extremely high controllability.
It was very easy to control, not difficult to manage like magic of other attributes, and now that he had the Mage Development Ability, its controllability had grown even stronger, to the point where Leo could freely control it like this and change its direction.
"One of Lefiya's spells has a tracking property. As long as I control mine properly, my magic can do the same thing, maybe even do it better."
Something stirred in Leo's mind, and the meteors flew over to his side, sweeping back and forth around him.
Leo could even make them stop, hold them motionless, then abruptly accelerate them to fly off in all directions.
This confirmed once again for Leo that his magic really was very useful.
Depending on how it was used, this magic could fully serve all kinds of purposes, including but not limited to single-target attacks, group attacks, tracking attacks, small-range attacks, wide-range attacks, wide-area annihilation, and even setting traps, doing with a single spell what several spells together might not even be able to accomplish.
"The firepower's completely transformed too. It still can't possibly match Lefiya, but compared to an ordinary Lv.3 Mage, it shouldn't be bad at all, right?"
At that thought, Leo couldn't help but look in a certain direction.
"Maybe this time I really can head down to the deeper floors..."
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