Inside the spiraling staircase that wound upward, Leon was ascending at a high speed he had never shown before, quickly arriving at the top floor of the Central Tower.
The moment he reached Loki's divine chamber, he immediately pushed the door open and walked in.
"Loki, help me—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Leon, who had burst through the door, froze right where he stood.
Inside the divine chamber, Loki was also stunned by Leon's sudden intrusion. In her hand, she was still holding a golden needle, having just pricked her finger to squeeze out fresh blood, which she was about to dot onto the back of a young girl sitting in front of her.
In front of Loki, the elven girl, who had been waiting for her deity to update her status, was completely petrified.
She stared blankly at the intruding Leon. A pair of pointed ears turned red at a visibly rapid pace, her small mouth slowly opened wide, and her delicate little face flushed incomparably crimson.
It couldn't be helped; to have the status on her back updated, the elven girl had already taken off her top.
In other words, her upper body was currently in a completely bare state, fully exposed to the eyes of Leon, who had burst through the door and come face-to-face with her.
The air in the divine chamber instantly became as silent as death.
With a stiff face, Leon's gaze reflexively dropped a few inches before snapping back as if he had received an electric shock.
"Excuse me."
He backed out at top speed and shut the door.
"KYAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
A second later, a piercing, deafening shriek echoed from inside the room.
Not long after, the door that had just been closed was violently kicked open, swinging wide with tremendous force.
Inside, the elven girl, now fully dressed, looked as though her eyes were burning with fire. Without a single thought, she pounced in Leon's direction.
"I'll kill you!!!"
Dominated by intense emotions, the elven girl burst forth with a speed a Lv.3 Mage shouldn't possess, tackling the caught-off-guard Leon straight to the ground.
She rode on top of Leon just like that. Her ears were red, her face was red—whether from shame or anger—and her slender hands wrapped around Leon's neck, shaking him hysterically.
"I'll kill you, you degenerate! You creep! You annoying pest who clings to Miss Ais all day long!"
Yes, this elven girl was none other than Lefiya.
"W-Wait a minute! I didn't know you were inside!"
Leon was being choked by Lefiya to the point where he could barely catch his breath. He quickly grabbed her hands, hurriedly trying to explain himself.
"Just because you didn't know I was inside means you can just burst in whenever you want? Is this your room? Even if you want to come in, at least show some basic manners and knock on the door, you absolute bastard!!!"
Lefiya was completely losing her mind. She actually managed to ignore Leon's struggles, shaking him violently while choking him. Her eyes were even growing moist, with tears hanging at the corners—clearly, she had suffered a massive psychological blow.
Although she was a sociable elf who didn't possess the extreme germaphobia of some of her kin, who viewed their purity and innocence as equivalent to their lives, as a fifteen-year-old girl in the prime of her youth, being seen completely bare like that by a man face-to-face was still an incredibly humiliating matter.
Furthermore, this person was a man whom she had always regarded as a formidable rival and opponent.
The moment she thought about how she had just been sitting stark naked right under his nose, with her entire upper body fully seen by him, Lefiya felt a burning sensation all over her body, a wave of shame so intense she wished she could die on the spot.
Dominated by this sense of shame, the girl unconsciously began to move her lips, chanting a magical incantation.
That's right, she was going to use magic.
"Hey! Lefiya! Are you for real?!"
Hearing the sound of the incantation chant, Leon instantly lost his composure as well.
Loki, who had walked out from the divine chamber, was also startled out of her wits. She rushed forward hastily and locked Lefiya in a tight embrace.
"Wait, wait, wait! Hold on a second for me! Lefiya!"
Loki interrupted Lefiya's chanting and dragged her off Leon's body.
"Let go of me! Let me kill him!"
Lefiya struggled desperately, falling into an unprecedented state of frenzy.
At this moment, she completely lacked her usual nervousness when facing monsters, and she showed none of her timidity when facing seniors of the Familia like Ais. All she possessed was a madness that was a far cry from the impression she usually gave people. If those who were accustomed to Lefiya's usual demeanor saw this, their jaws would surely drop on the spot.
"Calm down! Lefiya! This isn't your character archetype, right?"
Loki held onto Lefiya tightly, actually managing to ignore the desperate struggles of a Lv.3. While dragging her away, she repeatedly tried to persuade her.
"Isn't it just having your upper body seen? What's the big deal? A year ago, when Ais-tan had her whole body seen by this kid, I still spared his life!"
Why is your temper even more explosive than mine?
A certain deity who extremely doted on the blonde girl grumbled inwardly.
However, before Lefiya could react to her words, they first left Leon, who was rubbing his neck as he stood up, completely dumbfounded.
"Y-You, how do you know about that?"
Leon looked at Loki in utter bewilderment.
Shouldn't that matter be known only to himself and Ais?
How did this trash deity find out?
"Hmph hmph, did you think that just because you two didn't speak up, I wouldn't be able to tell?" Loki said huffily. "With you little brats who can't hide what's on your minds, I can guess your business seven or eight times out of ten just by dropping a few casual hints."
They were, after all, gods who had lived for hundreds of millions of years. Before them, the children of the lower realm couldn't even lie without being seen through, so how could they truly hide anything?
Ais was inherently spacey, so she had probably been pumped for information by Loki without even realizing it, right?
It was just that the two involved individuals thought they had hidden it very well. In reality, on the very day Leon was brought back to Twilight Manor by Ais, Loki had already dug up everything about how the two met, knowing everything she should and shouldn't know.
At that time, she had truly gone into a frenzy. Her own cleanly raised, innocent little white cabbage had actually been seen completely by a brat who popped out of nowhere—just thinking about it made her furious.
If Finn, Riveria, and Gareth hadn't stopped Loki, she really might have directly blasted Leon into oblivion back then.
Therefore, when she said she had spared Leon's life, it really wasn't just idle talk.
However, Lefiya, who had just learned about this matter, had a reaction far larger than Loki had anticipated.
"—He actually saw Miss Ais completely as well?"
Lefiya stopped struggling, and she stopped blushing. Her eyes, which had originally held tears, seemed to lose their highlights, turning as dark as a bottomless pit.
A dark aura began to ooze out from her body, and her entire being seemed to go dark as her expression became incomparably terrifying.
"Gulp—"
Loki couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.
Never mind Loki; even Leon's mouth twitched a bit, and he couldn't help but take a step back.
"C-Calm down, calm down a bit, okay? Lefiya?" Loki said warily. "Why is this reaction of yours even more terrifying than when you were seen completely yourself?"
Lefiya paid no attention to Loki's words. She merely stared fixedly at Leon, as if looking at a dead man.
"Saw me completely—and saw Miss Ais completely—"
Like a zombie, she swayed unsteadily as she walked toward Leon.
"As expected, it's better to just kill him—or else gouge his eyes out—no—his head should be chopped off—that way he'll forget those things—"
This completely emotionless whispering frightened even Loki.
"You're being way too terrifying, Lefiya!" Loki complained. "Your character archetype has completely collapsed! Quickly give back the Lefiya who was so bashful that she didn't even dare to take off her clothes in front of me just to update her status!"
Under Loki's persistent persuasion and desperate restraint, Lefiya finally gave up on her decision to incinerate Leon on the spot, departing with a dark face.
Leon and Loki looked at each other as they watched Lefiya sway away, unable to speak for a long time.
"That woman is definitely crazy."
Leon voiced this evaluation.
"It's also my first time seeing Lefiya like that. To be able to push that girl into this state, consider yourself capable, kid," Loki said to Leon testily. "Look at you, you've already updated your status, so why did you suddenly run back here?"
"Could it be that you knew Lefiya was on my side, so you purposely burst in to take advantage of her?"
Loki looked at Leon with a suspicious gaze.
"Who would know she was here?" Leon also said with a dark face. "At this hour, good children are already tucked into bed sleeping, okay?"
Leon had only come to find Loki to update his status after finishing dinner, after which he went to the archives, read a grimoire there, and took a nap.
This nap, while not lasting until the next morning, had carried him straight into the middle of the night.
It was almost the early hours of the morning now. Logically speaking, the members of the Familia should have all returned to their rooms to sleep.
After all, there were things to do the next day. Even if the matters of the expedition were wrapped up, adventurers rarely slept late. They were used to waking up early and working until dark. Those with plans to enter the Dungeon would generally set out just as the sky was turning light, entering as early as possible so they could kill more monsters that had just spawned, whose numbers hadn't decreased too much, and without facing too much competition from their peers.
In light of this, Leon truly hadn't expected that someone would actually come to find Loki to update their status at this hour.
He had thought that at this timing, at most, Loki would be alone in her room binge-drinking.
"That's because you don't know how much of a stimulus you've given this child," Loki glanced at Leon and said. "Lately, Lefiya has always been coming back after the middle of the night."
Hearing this, Leon froze slightly.
"What has she been doing?"
He asked in confusion.
"What else could she be doing? Going to the Dungeon, of course!" Loki said as a matter of course. "You're already a Lv.4; even Lefiya is anxious at this point."
"That girl doesn't want to be left far behind by you, and she doesn't want to continue like this either. So whenever she has free time lately, she runs to the Dungeon, dealing with a pack of monsters that pose no threat to her in some corner of the upper floors."
"If nothing goes wrong, that girl should be training her concurrent chanting."
Hearing Loki say this, Leon realized that he indeed hadn't seen Lefiya for a period of time.
No, it wasn't just Lefiya; including Raul and the others, he seemed to have rarely seen them during this period.
Ais, Tiona, Tione, Bete, and so on—each person he would still see from time to time in the past had been acting like ghosts lately.
Although he had also been immersed in training, he hadn't gone to hide in some corner; he usually trained openly in the courtyard. Even if he didn't notice them for a brief moment, it shouldn't have escalated to the point where he hadn't seen anyone at all, right?
"You've noticed, haven't you?" Seeing Leon's thoughtful expression, Loki understood that he had detected something unusual, and she immediately grinned. "Whether it's Lefiya or the others, they've all been heavily stimulated by your inhuman growth speed. They're working harder and harder now."
"The low-tier members are fine, but the veteran Lv.4s like Raul and the others are all exerting themselves frantically now that you've caught up to them. Tiona and the others are even more terrified of being overtaken by you. Aside from having the mood to go out and wander around during the Monster Feria, at all other times they're either handling the aftermath of returning from the expedition or diving into the Dungeon to strive forward."
"Even though things are already like this, you're great; you still spend every day in the courtyard studying and training desperately. Anyone walking past who sees this would feel ashamed, thinking they aren't working hard enough, right?"
Loki's half-smiling expression left Leon somewhat speechless.
"—It's not like I'm purposely trying to stimulate them."
Leon mumbled.
"An unintentional stimulus is the greatest one. Don't play dumb with me, kid," Loki said with her hands on her hips. "Spit it out, what did you suddenly run back to find me for?"
"To update my status," Leon stopped thinking about other people's affairs and spoke bluntly. "Riveria gave me a grimoire. I want to know if I've learned a second magic."
"A grimoire?" Loki was first surprised, then remarked with emotion, "That's truly paying a heavy price. It seems our mama-san still cares a lot about her new disciple!"
Saying that, Loki also grew interested.
"Let's go, let's go. Let me take a good look at whether you've learned a new magic, kid."
Loki dragged Leon into the divine chamber, picked up the golden needle, pricked her finger, and squeezed out fresh, red blood.
Leon sat in front of Loki, took off his shirt, exposed his back, and let Loki operate.
Very quickly, Loki's operation was complete.
Leon Eligos Lv.4
Strength: F364
Endurance: F322
Dexterity: S900
Agility: E417
Magic: G205
Mage: G
Magic Attack: H
Spirit Healing: I
Magic
[Meteor Dance]
-Star attribute.
-Extra consumption of Mind can increase power.
-Extra consumption of Mind can trigger additional attacks.
-Chant: Light of the heavens, sword of the stars.
[Comet Chase]
-Flight magic.
-Star attribute.
-Continuously accelerates during activation.
-Continuously provides protection during activation.
-Chant: Fly swiftly like a comet.
Skill
[]
Undecipherable.
[Eternal Star Soul]
-Magical effect amplification.
-Development ability "Mage" effect amplification.
-Basic ability "Magic" highly strengthened.
A new magic had indeed been born.