Ais actually knew better than anyone else that it wasn't that she was finding it difficult to improve, but rather that she had already grown to her ceiling.
Just as Leon could feel before each rank up that he had already reached the limit of his current level and could no longer effectively raise his various abilities, Ais had likewise distinctly felt the existence of the thing called the "limit."
Three years had already passed since she rose to Level 5. Over these three years, she had raised the abilities she excelled at to near S-rank, so trying to improve further would absolutely carry immense difficulty.
Not everyone could be like Leon, easily breaking through the limits of status values.
For anyone else, being able to reach the S-stage in a status parameter was already the limit, and the people capable of reaching this limit were few and far between. Aside from a tiny portion of blessed children of heaven, ordinary adventurers who could raise their own abilities to the D-stage—satisfying the basic conditions for a rank up—were already considered decent.
Ais was an unquestionable proud child of heaven; she had raised even the abilities she did not excel at to D, and her remaining abilities had successively neared the highest S-rank. Under such circumstances, how could she not hit a wall?
Her "magic" parameter, which lacked just a single point of proficiency to reach S but had stubbornly failed to rise by that single point even after this expedition, had already proven the matter of her hitting a barrier.
This was undoubtedly telling her that she had already walked to the end at Level 5, had already reached her limit, and hardly had any space left for growth.
Even if things continued like this, it would be very difficult for her to accumulate enough excelia to raise her own abilities.
This was the primary reason Ais's mood had become terrible.
"—What about you?"
Ais did not reveal her inner thoughts, instead asking Leon such a question.
The underlying meaning of her words was very clear, which was simply asking Leon how his harvest fared.
Leon really wanted to say that he was the same as her, with not much harvest.
But he had already ranked up this time; this news would presumably be reported to the Guild very soon and made public, at which point he would instead carry the suspicion of deceiving Ais.
He didn't particularly want to deceive Ais.
Therefore, even knowing that this would stimulate Ais, Leon still pursed his lips and spoke with some helplessness.
"I am already Level 4."
The surroundings instantly became completely quiet, no longer bearing any other sounds.
The blonde, golden-eyed girl stared at the youth before her, her lips likewise pursing unconsciously.
Level 4—
He was already Level 4?
It really was—so fast.
It had clearly only been two months; why was he able to grow so fast while she had been constantly pacing in place?
Next, was he going to launch a sprint toward Level 5?
This time, how much time would he need to achieve this accomplishment?
A month? Or even shorter?
By the time he rose to Level 5, she would definitely still be pacing in place, right?
At this moment, Ais finally felt it.
This man before her, who was once so pitifully weak and had been brought out of the Dungeon by her, had already caught up to her.
With his growth speed, he would very quickly reach the same domain as her, wouldn't he?
Furthermore, before much longer, it was even possible that she might be overtaken by him.
A sense of urgency arose quietly, and the pressure moreover abruptly increased many times over, giving Ais a faint sensation of being unable to catch her breath.
It wasn't that she couldn't bear to see Leon grow stronger; she simply couldn't bear that she herself was unable to grow stronger.
"Why—"
Why didn't this kind of growth speed belong to her?
For the first time in her life, Ais gave birth to an emotion called "jealousy."
"Are you alright? Ais?"
Leon looked at the girl with some worry, seemingly capable of perceiving the intensely fluctuating emotions within the girl's heart at this very moment.
"—I'm fine." Ais was silent again for a moment, and only then did she say: "Congratulations."
Having said that, Ais turned around and left this place.
Leon watched Ais's departing back, for a time actually not knowing whether he should chase after her.
In the end, he still abandoned the thought of chasing after her.
"Let her be alone to quiet down for a bit."
At this time, no matter what he said, it seemed rather inappropriate.
The next day, early morning.
Today's Twilight Manor would still be exceptionally bustling, and even the entirety of Orario would become exceptionally bustling.
On the first day after returning from the expedition, the Loki Familia also needed to begin processing the various spoils of war brought back.
Be it magic stones, drop items, or rare mineral metals collected from the Dungeon, all of these needed to be taken to be sold and exchanged for money, so as to replenish a bit of the massive expenditures spent before the expedition.
Of course, the spoils of war this time definitely couldn't replenish the expenditures before the expedition.
It couldn't be helped; who told the expedition force to run into the worm monsters, leading to a massive depletion of resources?
Under the circumstance where they hadn't even commenced the raid on the unreached domains, they had actually lost so many resources; this was a very vitality-sapping matter even for the Loki Familia.
The various resources purchased before the expedition had been discarded, and the large amount of spoils obtained during the expedition were also gone; what the expedition force brought back this time was only the spoils obtained during the return journey. Compared with the harvest during normal expeditions, it was truly too far off.
Coupled with the fact that the equipment of most people in the expedition force had been dissolved by the worm monsters, including the primary weapons of the first-tier adventurers which had been ruined, the harvest of this expedition fell far short of reaching the point of compensating for the losses. It was simply a deficit to the extreme.
"—For real?"
Arriving inside Finn's office and hearing the entire course of the expedition from his mouth, the wine bottle Loki had been holding constantly in her hand slipped and fell to the ground.
Particularly when Riveria listed out all the lost amounts, finished the statistics, and spoke them aloud, Loki was simply like being struck by lightning, her entire person turning grey and white.
The people within Orario also learned a bit of the situation as the members of the Loki Familia ran about everywhere and began processing the spoils brought back from the Dungeon.
"So—the Loki Familia's expedition failed this time?"
"To actually encounter a new species of monster capable of dissolving weapons—this is just too unlucky, isn't it?"
"Poor things, let alone the 59th floor, they didn't even reach the 52nd floor this time, returning in failure as a result."
"It can only be said that, fortunately, no sacrifices of personnel occurred."
"Yeah, as long as the combat capacity is still there, it's fine. At worst, they can just try again on the next expedition."
"Though you say that—"
Every corner of the city was filled with such discussions.
The Loki Familia's failure in this expedition, though causing many people to feel astounded, did not provoke too much criticism.
After all, though the loss was a bit grand and they hadn't achieved the goal set before departure, just as some people said, at least the Loki Familia's combat force hadn't suffered sacrifices or deficiencies, so the impact wasn't considered very large yet.
If this expedition had not only failed but also incurred sacrifices, then it would cause an impact on the Loki Familia's reputation.
Therefore, people discussed as they pleased, yet didn't make too great a reaction.
The Loki Familia likewise didn't take this to heart; they processed the spoils as they ought to process them, and re-repaired and purchased weapons as they ought to re-repair and purchase them.
Tiona thus placed a new order with tearful eyes, preparing to consume a massive sum to forge a grand double-bladed Urga once more, having already made the psychological preparation of incurring huge debts for this purpose.
Ais also finally sorted out her mood, temporarily pressing last night's dejection to the bottom of her heart, taking the Desperate to be repaired. But it was said that because the damage was too severe, this sword could not be repaired in a short while; she could only first use a sword lent to her by the Familia that repaired her weapon, and go back to swap it once the Desperate was repaired.
Finn, Gareth, Tione, and the others also successively commissioned familiar blacksmiths, letting them forge new weapons for themselves, leading to a highly busy state the entire day.
Although the tasks to be done after returning from an expedition inherently piled up like a mountain, and they would busying themselves like this every time they returned from an expedition, this time was definitely bound to be busier than before. Therefore, it wasn't just the people of the expedition force; almost all members of the entire Loki Familia mobilized, being assigned a certain amount of work.
Even Leon was not exempted this time, being assigned some aftermath work of the expedition along with Raul and other core personnel of the second tier, running around everywhere in the city the entire day, so busy that he didn't even have time to do his own matters.
It was just that the news of him already rising to Level 4 ultimately still spread smoothly.
"You're already Level 4?!"
Raul, who was the first to know of this matter, made a highly grand reaction.
Let alone him, even the others who journeyed with the two, processing the aftermath items of the expedition return together, were astounded.
"You're just too fast, aren't you?"
Even the consistently steady and calm Anakitty could not help but smack her lips slightly.
"—Already Level 4 just like this?"
Alicia's expression likewise shifted, the gaze she used to look at Leon becoming somewhat unusual.
"There's no need to be so surprised, right?" Seeing everyone staring blankly at him, Leon was also a bit uncomfortable, speaking promptly at the moment: "It's merely that I have finally caught up to your footsteps, you guys are probably not far from Level 5 either, right?"
Leon indeed thought this way.
Raul, Anakitty, and Alicia—these three were the people recognized within the Familia as being closest to Level 5, the highest existences of Level 4. Even if they ranked up to Level 5 at any moment, it wouldn't be worth being surprised.
Compared with these three, he had only just risen to Level 4; there was nothing to make a great fuss about.
Leon who thought this way only received rolled eyes from everyone in return.
"Do you want to listen to what you're saying?" Anakitty said with a rather un-amiable tone: "How much time did we take to walk to this step? And how much time did you take?"
Setting other things aside, just speaking of Raul and Anakitty, it had already been seven or eight years since they joined the Loki Familia, and they had only walked to this step with great difficulty, the blood and sweat expended during the period being countless.
And what about Leon?
By any full calculation, it had only been two months of time since he officially joined the Familia!
Using only two months, this person caught up to them who had strived for seven or eight years of time for this purpose, and just like this, he actually still said there was no need to be so surprised?
Then when should one be surprised?
"—When I was Level 4, you were Level 1. Now I am still Level 4, yet you are already Level 4 too. You acting like this makes me feel like my face as a Familia senior is almost about to be lost."
Raul spoke thus with a bitter face.
Thinking back to the beginning when Leon was still an apprentice member, he was already Level 4, and had constantly carried the status of a Familia senior to look after Leon for an entire year.
When Leon received Falna and debuted, he had even deliberately brought a gift to encourage him and see him off.
As a result, it was merely two months of time. The newcomer who had stepped onto the path toward the Dungeon under his gaze back then had now already caught up to him, becoming a Level 4 just like him. How was he supposed to feel?
This wasn't even the most terrifying part.
"With your growth speed, it's feared you will officially surpass us before much longer, right?" Alicia murmured with a sigh: "As expected of the person Lord Riveria didn't hesitate to personally enter the field to teach into a talent. You should be able to rise to Level 5 faster than us, catching up to the footsteps of the first-tier adventurers."
The moment these words were spoken, let alone Raul, even Anakitty and the other Level 4s present fell into silence.
A particularly grand pressure manifested within all their hearts.
This feeling of the Yangtze River's rear waves pushing the front waves, and the front waves being about to be slapped to death on the beach, was truly not too pleasant to endure.
On one hand, they felt happy for the appearance of such a junior with immense potential and a promising future within their own Familia.
But on the other hand, they felt that their face as Familia seniors was truly difficult to preserve.
At the mere thought that they had strived for so many years, only to be caught up to by the newcomer before them in a matter of a few moves, and the other party would very quickly be able to surpass them and catch up to the footsteps of those people in the Familia's first echelon, whether it was Raul or the others, all felt highly complex in terms of mood.
Worse yet, the person involved still put on a posture of "where has this even reached yet."
"I instead hope to be able to catch up as quickly as possible, so I won't always need others to take care of me, protect me, and worry for me," Leon said with a calm expression. "Therefore, I still need to strive a bit more."
"You still need to strive?!" Raul couldn't help but wail, saying: "You've already grown so fast, yet you're still striving so hard. This is driving us to our deaths!"
He felt his psychological pressure was about to explode past the meter.
This feeling of both fearing that his brother would suffer hardships and fearing that his brother would drive a Range Rover truly made him uncomfortable to the absolute limit.
In response to this, Leon only wanted to say: if you can't out-roll me, just wait to be rolled to death by me.
It couldn't be helped.
"Next is the true season of many troubles."
Recalling the worm monsters encountered on the 51st floor, as well as the female-type monster met on the 50th floor, Leon's gaze grew deep.
"When the true disaster arrives, there won't be an opportunity to complain about oneself not being strong enough anymore."
Leaving behind such words that caused people to feel bewildered, only then did Leon continue to walk forward.
He needed to complete the work handed to his hands as quickly as possible, so as to empty out time to go and consult Finn.
"I must quickly raise my capability in close combat; otherwise, relying solely on my capability in magic, it will be very difficult to face those difficult checkpoints that appear next on my own."
The familiar plot had already officially commenced, and Orario, which had been peaceful for a long while, would also welcome a moment of turmoil once more.
The darkness was stirring restlessly; they were sharpening their knives, staring at the Loki Familia in the background, preparing to strike against this Familia as well as this city.
There was also Ais—
That girl would next encounter new challenges as well, running into villains who stared at her fixedly, intending to act maliciously against her.
In order to possess the capability to deal with these impending difficulties, he absolutely could not stop his footsteps.
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