Orario, Northwest Main Street, the Pantheon's great hall.
This was Guild Headquarters, the entry hall fitted with an enormous notice board.
Because the notice board standing in one corner of this hall always carried important public information, things like the Dungeon's real-time exploration progress, details of Irregulars appearing on the various floors, Floor Boss subjugation announcements, the adventurer requests posted by the Guild, and the level-up reports of the various Familias' members, this place was forever packed with all sorts of adventurers.
Especially after the Denatus held once every three months, when the aliases of every adventurer confirmed to have leveled up were announced here and made widely known, the crowds packing the front of the notice board were a sight you could regularly catch here.
Today, however, the front of the notice board showed a different scene.
It wasn't that it had quieted down. Quite the opposite, today the front of the notice board was still packed with people, and the volume of the crowd seemed even larger than after the Denatus held once every three months.
Only, in this hall packed with so many adventurers, the faces of the people were now full of bewilderment.
You could even spot a few nosy ordinary citizens or merchants among the crowd, but they too wore faces of shock, astonishment, and disbelief.
A commotion soon broke out across the entire hall.
"...You're kidding, right?"
"How could something like this even happen?"
"Are my eyes playing tricks? Or did the Guild's records mess up?"
"Impossible..."
Whether it was a fully armored Beast Human warrior, or a Pallum hauling an enormous backpack, whether it was a beautiful, captivating Elf clutching a wand, or a Dwarf carrying heavy weaponry, or an Amazon in revealing clothes, or even the rather unremarkable Humans among the crowd, every one of them fell in that instant into uncontrollable agitation, the uproar steadily swelling.
To confirm the information they were seeing, some strained their eyes wide, some wiped the corners of their eyes before looking again, and in the end, after checking again and again, they could only admit they hadn't misread.
Look closely, and on that enormous notice board made of cork, many sheets of parchment were posted, recording all kinds of content.
But among all these sheets of parchment, in the very center, was posted a level-up report with an attached portrait.
The many gazes were naturally drawn first to this sheet of parchment standing dead center, yet when people confirmed the content on it, the first thing they doubted was their own eyes, and whether the Guild employees had written it down wrong.
There was no helping it. The information recorded on it was simply too inconceivable.
Name: Leo Eligos.
Affiliation: Loki Familia.
Race: Human.
Age: 16.
It has been confirmed that this Human formally joined Loki Familia one month ago, received the Falna, and registered as an adventurer with the Guild. In less than a month, his Level has successfully Ranked Up, and he is currently Lv.2.
The content on the parchment was that brief, yet this brief content carried so much information that it made countless people of the lower world go numb at the scalp.
Only formally joined the Familia, received the Falna, and registered as an adventurer with the Guild one month ago?
And then, in less than a month, successfully Ranked Up his own Level to become Lv.2?
How could this not astound people? How could this not shock them?
"You guys wrote this wrong, right?"
"You actually dare to scribble down something this ridiculous?"
"You're treating us like idiots, aren't you?"
Many people even came up to the counter and loudly vented their dissatisfaction at the Guild employees, leaving the Guild employees rather helpless.
All they could do was tell the crowd again and again.
"The information recorded on the notice board has all been confirmed. It is all true."
Yes, all true.
Though many Guild employees had also found it hard to imagine this was fact when they saw the record, and many had gone to confirm it with their superiors, the superiors were just like them now, helplessly telling them over and over, with faces full of resignation, that it was all real.
Even though they too were bewildered, even shaken, someone really had taken less than a month to rise to Lv.2.
"We sent people to Loki Familia to confirm and investigate long ago, and the final result was exactly this."
The time Leo received the Falna, the time he registered as an adventurer with the Guild, it could all be traced.
Unless Loki Familia and the Adventurers Guild had banded together to manufacture this absurd hoax, then this was a confirmed and true matter, a miracle that could not be questioned.
At this, everyone unwilling to believe it was thrown into an uproar.
Countless people began hurrying out of the Guild, spreading the word, telling, propagating it everywhere across the city, until all of Orario began to grow lively.
Familia after Familia began receiving the news, merchant after merchant began carrying this news to every corner of the city, even beyond the city, letting the matter spread at an astonishing speed.
"This is fake, right?"
"How could anyone possibly do something like this?"
"Leveling up in less than a month? Can the Falna granted by the gods even grow like that?"
"The Guild's messing with us, right?"
Countless Familia members held newspapers carrying this report, discussing the matter with great excitement, and most people's first reaction was disbelief, deciding it was a rumor, that the Guild had made a mistake.
The adventurers who, like Loki Familia, were exploration-type Familias especially, all questioned the truth of this matter.
As adventurers, no one understood better than they did just how difficult a thing leveling up was.
You had to complete a certain great deed, accomplish some great feat, before you could earn the chance to level up. This destined it to be a miracle only a few could achieve.
So, with so many adventurers in Orario, fully more than half of them were only Lv.1, and those with the chance to Rank Up their Level and become Lv.2 upper-class adventurers numbered fewer than half. That ratio already explained plainly just how hard a thing it was to accomplish.
And this was the result of accumulated time, too. Most adventurers who succeeded in Ranking Up their Level had basically gone through years, a dozen years, even decades of adventuring before finally accomplishing it.
Even that Sword Princess, who set the world's fastest level-up record, took time measured in years to rise to Lv.2.
In other words, before this, no one had ever managed to successfully Rank Up their Level in less than a year, right?
Less than a month?
That probably wasn't even enough to meet the most basic condition for leveling up, having one basic ability reach D.
And on top of that to go adventuring and achieve a great feat?
Forget a month, accomplishing it in a year would already be a miracle enough to stun the whole world.
That was why Ais had made such a name for herself back then, sending shockwaves through the entire lower world.
And now, someone was telling them that this very historical record that had once stunned the lower world had actually been broken?
And broken this ridiculously?
How were people supposed to believe that?
"This is absolutely a lie!"
"They've gotta have lied about the timing, right?"
"Either way, I don't believe it!"
Many people shouted things like this.
"But this is Loki Familia we're talking about."
"The people of Loki Familia don't need to get ahead by lying at all, do they?"
"With anyone else, sure, it's possible they'd lie to inflate their own or their Familia's name, but Loki Familia... doesn't need to at all, right?"
"I don't think that Loki would exaggerate over something this ridiculous either. She's not stupid."
"And the Guild's side isn't likely to fabricate this big a lie together with Loki, are they?"
"Don't tell me... this is all real?"
After calmly analyzing it, some people gradually grew uncertain and uneasy.
Among them were the gods.
"This... isn't likely to be a lie."
"There's no way Loki would tell a lie this easy to see through, either."
"The real point is there's no need for it, right?"
"Exactly. This is that Loki we're talking about. She's usually a little reckless, a little loud, a little improper, a little fierce, a little flat, but no matter how you think about it she wouldn't tell that kind of lie."
"Oi, didn't you slip something weird in there just now?"
The gods, the moment they got the news, fell into heated discussion, and one by one they reached a consensus.
That being, this matter was most likely real.
Others might have reason to spin a sky-shattering lie like this, but as one corner of the city's strongest, Loki Familia had no need at all to lie about something like this.
Their fame had long ceased to need such things to maintain and expand it, and even if they wanted to prop someone up, they wouldn't do it in a way capable of ruining the entire Familia's reputation. That would only cost them more than they gained.
Besides, the Guild had no reason to be in cahoots with Loki Familia over something like this.
To sum it all up, ridiculous as the matter was, since it came from Loki Familia, it was extremely likely to be real.
The gods unanimously thought so, and broke into wild, excited clamor.
"Someone really can level up in less than a month!"
"And a Human at that!"
"Only sixteen years old!"
"I..."
"I..."
"I want that kid so baaaaaaaaaaad!!!"
The gods had all gone mad. Some kicked up an enormous fuss, laughing and carrying on within their own Familias, while some flat-out ran over to Twilight Manor, and in their worked-up state actually began openly digging for information on Leo, and poaching.
The Loki Familia members coming and going at Twilight Manor were, without exception, grabbed today by some god or by someone sent from some Familia, giving them all a fright.
"Get the hell outta here, all of you!"
Loki, who'd gotten the news, came sprinting straight out of the God's Chamber, face dark, kicking who knew how many self-unaware gods flying, until who knew how many screams rang out in front of Twilight Manor today.
In response to this situation, Finn and the others also handed down some instructions to the members on how to deal with it.
"If they're here to poach, people sent by other Familias, then beat them back. If it's a god, go call Loki and let Loki deal with them."
"If they're here to dig for info on Leo, you can let some of the unimportant stuff slip, but nothing else is allowed to leak."
"Tell Leo that if he wants to go out anytime soon, he'd better be careful and not get carried off by that pack of troublesome gods."
Finn, Riveria, and Gareth, the three of them, issued their instructions one after another, setting the Familia's members bustling.
"Ah, well, it turned out like this after all."
"Knew the second this got out, all of Orario would be in an uproar."
Tiona and Tione kept sighing over it, and so did the members of the Familia.
"A bunch of bastards with too much time on their hands."
The Werewolf Bete looked rather contemptuous, but according to the Familia's members, he too had started going in and out of the Dungeon frequently lately, spending less and less time at the main base, even more elusive than before.
Lefiya said nothing, watching the lively scene with a complicated expression.
Ais, on the other hand, was as if she'd seen none of it, practicing her sword in the courtyard. But anyone paying attention would surely have noticed that the look in her eyes had become different from before.
The matter of Leo taking less than a month to rise to Lv.2 passed from one mouth to ten, from ten to a hundred, from a hundred to thousands upon thousands, and in just a single day it had spread across all of Orario.
By nightfall, there were already bards and the like out on the main streets praising Leo's name, extolling his great achievement, so that quite a few people who knew little of Leo gradually came to learn of him.
By the time they woke the next day, some of Leo's basic information was already known to the major Familias, merchants, and other well-informed figures.
For instance, although he had only formally joined Loki Familia a month ago, as early as a year ago he had already been brought into Loki Familia's main base, handling logistical work within the Familia as a trainee.
For another, the reason he had joined Loki Familia was nothing else but that that Sword Princess had found him in danger in the Dungeon, brought him home, and personally brought this result about herself.
Over the course of that year, this breaker of the fastest level-up record may have been little known, but within Loki Familia his presence and renown were no small thing.
The reason was simple. That blonde swordswoman they called the War Princess seemed to have always favored him highly, and her relationship with him seemed quite out of the ordinary.
The moment this gossip got out, the name "Leo Eligos" spread faster still.
"So he's that Sword Princess's rumored boyfriend?"
"My man, you've got some moves."
"How come Loki hasn't beaten this stray man to death for daring to flirt with the apple of her eye?"
"Even that Sword Princess sees him in a new light? Now I'm getting more and more curious about him!"
For a while, gods and mortals alike were all discussing this intriguing figure.
As for all of this, although Leo didn't know about it, he had long been prepared anyway.
Without Finn and the others even having to remind him, Leo had been especially careful and low-key whenever he came and went within the Familia these days, even starting to wear a hooded trench coat for it, leaving early and returning late each day, avoiding the lively crowds as much as possible, even handing things like processing spoils over to Line.
What he cared about most right now wasn't the matter of his sudden fame, but his own growth, and... a brand-new weapon.
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