The news of Leo's level-up was like a big stone dropped into a long-still pond. The splash wasn't all that large yet, but the ripples were spreading wider and wider.
For now, this news was still known only to the members within Loki Familia, but before long it would surely shake all of Orario, and even the entire lower world.
If Ais taking a full year to reach Lv.2 could shake the lower world, then Leo doing it in under a month certainly could too.
In any case, Loki was already planning to go report it to the Guild today, and the news that Leo had reached Lv.2 in less than a month would no doubt turn the whole Guild upside down over the course of the day. After that it would just be a matter of waiting for the Guild to announce it.
Of course, none of this had anything to do with Leo right now.
Even after reaching Lv.2, he was just like before, ready to head off and diligently tackle the Dungeon.
So after parting with Ais, he went straight back to his room, gathered all his equipment, and once Line came out, the two of them left the headquarters together, leaving the Familia members who saw it staring at one another.
"He only leveled up yesterday, and he's not even going to take a day off?"
"Isn't that a little too hardworking?"
"With him being like this, I'd feel bad doing anything to him."
"He's got talent and he still works this hard... he's practically a second Miss Ais..."
The members talked it over among themselves like this, until even some of the people who'd been holding a grudge against Leo started to feel a grudging respect.
That group included Lefiya. Watching Leo and Line leave together, the look in her eyes turned very complicated.
"My, the new guy's working this hard, it's making me feel bad for lazing around the house any longer."
Even Tiona let out a sigh, which got Tione to twist her lips.
But say what you will, seeing Leo level up in under a month and then go right back to grinding the Dungeon this diligently, without a shred of pride or smugness, even the now-calmed members of Loki Familia found themselves a little stung.
So before long, people began trickling out the front gate of Twilight Manor, some fully armed, some leaving in pairs, all heading out together.
And the direction they left in was strikingly uniform, all toward Babel, or rather toward the Dungeon.
Tiona and Tione, too, slipped out of the headquarters without a word and quietly made for the Dungeon.
Lefiya, on the other hand, suddenly walked into the Familia headquarters' library, where she started leafing through all kinds of books on Magic, getting down to studying very seriously.
As for Ais, oddly enough she didn't go to the Dungeon at all, instead shutting herself in her room.
"Face yourself, seek out the thing hidden in the depths of your heart..."
Ais silently recited that line to herself, lying on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, lost in thought for a long while.
Loki and the others naturally noticed all this.
"Just as I figured, every last one of them got stung."
"There's no way they wouldn't, right? A new guy growing this fast... if they don't put in the effort, they'll get caught up to."
"It's been a while since we've felt this kind of pressure. Even Tiona and Tione must be feeling it."
In the office, Finn, Riveria, and Gareth exchanged smiles and traded these words, as though they'd long since seen this result coming.
Loki, too, had shown up here first thing in the morning for once, sitting perched on the desk, grinning away.
"Long as that kid's growth doesn't slow down, it shouldn't take long before he catches up to those girls, eh?" Loki teased the first three children she'd ever taken in, milking the spectacle for all it was worth. "Maybe he'll even catch up to the three of you, who knows."
At that, all three Familia leaders gave wry smiles.
"That kid's got a long way to go before he catches up to us."
Gareth gave a soft snort.
"He's still only Lv.2. It's far too early to be talking about this."
Riveria, for her part, didn't seem to mind the idea, carrying herself with grace and composure.
"If he really can catch up, I'd be able to breathe a little easier. Having one more Lv.6 in the Familia would take a lot of pressure off us."
Finn was smiling with even more composure, not bothered in the least.
"You three are something else," Loki said, finding it boring that none of them would take the bait. "Watch yourselves, or you really will lose your old-timer standing, and won't that be a riot."
At that, Finn and the other two traded a glance and gave another wry smile.
It was precisely because they were old-timers, more able to take things in stride than the young ones, that they could put on this picture of sitting calmly and unbothered.
To say they felt no pressure would of course be a lie. The three of them had been stuck at the Lv.6 level for years now, and had yet to come across the chance to take that final step.
As for basic abilities, Finn, Riveria, Gareth included, had all trained them to the point where there was nothing left to raise. Even after going on expedition after expedition and slaying countless monsters, they still hadn't been able to accumulate the great feat needed to make their Level Rank Up.
These days, every time they came back from an expedition and updated their Status, their basic abilities barely climbed at all, at most gaining a point or two of proficiency in some ability, and sometimes not even that, no improvement whatsoever.
In the beginning they hadn't been without their frustrations, but over time they'd all gotten used to it, made peace with it, stopped being so anxious.
Watching the young ones in the Familia all charging valiantly ahead, especially Ais, Tiona, Tione, Bete, Lefiya, and the others, growing at a pace that left people slack-jawed, until now every one of them was either a first-class adventurer at Lv.5 or a promising future successor for the Familia, what Finn and the other two felt was more relief, more happiness.
So seeing Leo, an unprecedented and special existence, gradually begin to make a name for himself, Finn and the other two were able to take it in stride, unlike the rest, who felt it so keenly.
It had to be said, this presence of mind alone was something the Familia's gifted prodigies couldn't match.
Old-timers were old-timers after all, not so easy to chase down. Loki was only teasing, having a bit of fun, and in truth she had more confidence in Finn and the other two than in anyone else.
There was no helping it. These three were the first family she'd met after coming down to the lower world, the genuine founding elders of the Familia.
In the very beginning, the whole of Loki Familia had been just the four of them. They'd started out from beyond Orario, then come to the center of this world, and from the very bottom where they couldn't even keep their footing, they'd kept challenging the more powerful Familias above them all the way up, going through adventure after adventure, crisis after crisis, even sacrifice after gut-wrenching sacrifice, before finally reaching the height they stood at today.
You could say that this Familia, rising from utter obscurity to being called one of the city's strongest Familias today, owed everything along the way to the efforts of these four people present.
The four of them were this Familia's foundation, the load-bearing pillars that absolutely could not fall.
For some reason, all four of them found themselves thinking back on the past at the same time.
"...I'm feeling a little nostalgic, actually."
"Yeah. Back then, it was just the four of us in this Familia."
"Sometimes I really do envy those young ones, never having gone through the hard times we had."
Finn, Riveria, and Gareth let out these reflections one after another.
Loki said nothing, instead producing a bottle of liquor from somewhere, swishing it around as she took swigs.
She thought back on all the hardships this Familia had been through along the way, and the children who had long since been lost.
After all, back when they made their oath, Orario had been nowhere near as peaceful as it was now.
Back then, the adventurers' enemies weren't just the monsters in the Dungeon, but each other as well.
Back then, Orario had been in a period of turmoil, even a period of darkness, with strife and slaughter everywhere.
The first hardship they'd faced had been two heavy mountains, the two great Familias that at the time reigned over all of Orario and even the entire lower world, pressing down on everyone, mortal and god alike, until they could barely breathe.
They stood at the absolute summit, looking down on everyone. To climb higher, Loki Familia had no choice but to keep challenging these two immovable mountains, getting hurt again and again, getting crushed again and again, only able to lick their wounds and go right back to challenging them, otherwise they'd have to slink away in defeat and resign themselves to mediocrity.
That was something Loki, Finn, Riveria, and Gareth all could not accept, so even covered in wounds, they still went on challenging, still went on trying to shake those two mountains.
Later, those two mountains sacrificed themselves for a shared wish of the people of the lower world, and Loki Familia along with Freya Familia finally seized their chance, rising forcefully to claim the top of Orario. But by the same token, because those two mountains were gone, many of the worms that had once been pinned down, never daring to show their heads, began crawling out of the earth one after another, lunging out from the shadows with sneering grins, wreaking havoc everywhere, doing evil everywhere, causing untold numbers of innocent people to die.
That stretch of time could be called Orario's dark age. As the reigning ruler that had already claimed the top of the city, Loki Familia had not only the duty to face it, but reason enough to be targeted.
And so once again people were left battered and broken, once again people were lost because of it.
They lost a great many companions and paid no small price in sacrifice, and only then did they make it to where they stood today.
Now Orario as a whole had returned to peace, but who could say how long this peace would hold?
Loki Familia and Freya Familia were hailed as the Two Great Powers of Orario, but Loki, and that other goddess as well, both understood very clearly that they still fell far short of those two mountains that had once reigned over the city.
The highest-leveled in Loki Familia now were Finn and the other two, three Lv.6s, while the highest in Freya Familia was a single Lv.7.
Lv.7 was also currently the strongest in Orario, the one and only.
Even counting beyond Orario, the highest Level was still Lv.7, and there were only two.
But of those two mountains that had once reigned over Orario, one had a Lv.8 and one had a Lv.9.
If even they had fallen, how long could a so-called strongest Familia in the city like Loki Familia, without so much as a single Lv.7, hold out?
Loki did have confidence in Finn and the other two, that was true, but even she couldn't be certain that Finn and the rest would catch up to those two mountains in the end.
Ais did show promise, but the darkness lurking in the depths of that child's heart was too thick. There was no telling when it might hurt her, even drive her to her death, which worried Loki and the others greatly.
Now, in Leo, Loki had glimpsed the real possibility of catching up to those existences that had already passed on.
"Grow up as fast as you can, kid..."
Drinking as she gazed out the window, as if she could see that figure walking off toward Babel, Loki murmured to herself.
"While there's still time, while there's still a chance, grow as fast as you possibly can."
Only then could he become this Familia's hope, even the hope of the entire lower world.
...
Before Babel, at the Central Plaza.
When Leo arrived here with Line, having grown thoroughly familiar with the route, Line, who had been excitedly going on about his level-up the whole way, finally asked a question.
"Are we still going to the 12th floor today, Leo?"
Line looked at Leo walking ahead of her, an admiration she hadn't even noticed herself surfacing in her eyes.
She really hadn't expected that the teammate she'd been spending day and night with these past two weeks had quietly gone and done something so huge.
Going from Lv.1 to Lv.2 in under a month, for Line, who was still only Lv.2 herself, it was honestly hard to believe.
At first she hadn't even wanted to believe it, but the proof was ironclad, and while she had no choice but to believe it, she could only trail along behind Leo cheering like crazy.
"Let's go to the 12th floor first." Without sensing the girl's adoring gaze behind him, Leo answered without turning his head. "I want to check how strong I am after leveling up, then I'll think about the rest."
"Okay." Line nodded obediently and smiled. "With how strong you are now, the 12th floor's monsters are definitely no match for you."
Never mind now that he'd leveled up, even before, Leo could already run circles around the 12th floor.
Clearing the 12th floor was no trouble at all for Leo. It hadn't been before, and it certainly wasn't now.
Leo smiled and was about to say something back to Line when he suddenly felt a sense of being watched.
His steps faltered slightly. He raised his head and glanced up at the top of Babel.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Leo stop, Line asked in confusion.
"...It's nothing." Leo fell silent for a moment, then said flatly, "Let's go."
The two walked into Babel and entered the Dungeon.
At the top of Babel, in a lavish room, a graceful and beautiful figure stood gazing down through the enormous floor-to-ceiling window at the Central Plaza below.
"...Sharp, aren't you."
The figure smiled before the window, radiating an endless allure, the kind that made one's heart race and one's breath catch.
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