The next day, early morning.
The sky had barely brightened when Leo, already washed and ready, left his room with the Dragon Fang Sword as he did every day, came down the tower, and arrived at the courtyard.
A faint smile hung on his face, and there was a touch of cheer in his eyes too; one look was enough to tell he was in a good mood.
Carrying that mood, Leo began warming up in the courtyard, practicing his swordwork while waiting for Finn to arrive.
He waited about half an hour, and Finn showed up as promised.
Only, the moment he came up he got straight to the point.
"Have you uncovered the new Magic yet?"
Finn's blunt question gave Leo pause.
"You know about that too?"
Leo was a little surprised.
"Not just me, Gareth knows too." Finn smiled. "Riveria mentioned giving you the Grimoire to us before the expedition. When she went to the library last night to wait for you with the Grimoire, we were the ones who saw her off, in fact."
These three Familia leaders spent nearly all day in the same office, so how could they not know what one another were up to?
And just as Loki wouldn't keep Leo's Status hidden, feeling that the leaders needed to be informed of a Familia member's abilities in order to allocate them properly, Riveria's using a Grimoire to uncover a new Magic for Leo was no small matter either, and certainly needed to be told to the other two.
For anyone else, gaining one more usable Magic might not call for much fuss, but Leo was clearly an exception.
Now that he'd risen to Lv.4, his already formidable magical abilities had naturally grown stronger. If someone like him gained a new Magic, there was every chance that this one Magic alone could completely overturn the standing of his current strength and his role within the team.
That being so, there was no way Finn wouldn't take an interest in it.
"Mind telling me what sort of Magic it is?"
Finn was plainly very curious himself, his eyes full of interest as he looked at Leo.
Leo of course wouldn't mind.
It wasn't anything shameful, and even if he kept it secret for now, with so many chances to fight side by side from here on, over such a long stretch of time, he'd reveal it sooner or later.
On top of that, he was feeling a bit of an itch himself, so Leo just came out with it.
"Why don't I use it and show you?"
Leo's words made Finn raise an eyebrow.
"Doesn't look like it's some high-power attack Magic, then."
That kind of Magic certainly couldn't be casually used at home, and even within the city it wouldn't be very convenient to use.
Seeing Leo so eager to give it a go, Finn had even guessed that this Magic might not be attack Magic at all, but some kind of support-type Magic.
The clever Pallum captain had, from Leo's attitude and just a few words, guessed most of the nature of his newly gained Magic.
Only, Finn surely couldn't have imagined just what sort of Magic this so-called support-type Magic actually was.
So when Leo used it, even someone as steady and composed as he widened his eyes in surprise.
"Race onward like a comet."
As though he'd been waiting a long time for this moment, Leo finished the chant for his new Magic in an instant.
"Comet Chase!"
The instant the chant fell, the strange sight appeared.
The first to appear was a soft, unblinding starlight, gorgeous and brilliant.
As the starlight flared, countless particles like fragments of stars floated up, wrapping around Leo's whole body, making his entire person give off starlight until he looked dazzling, like a human-shaped star.
Then Leo's feet slowly left the ground and rose into the air.
Yes.
He'd flown up.
"This..."
Finn widened his eyes in astonishment.
Forget Finn, even the members who happened to be passing through the surrounding towers, crossing one section after another of the sky corridors from which the courtyard could be seen, all stopped in their tracks, watching Leo fly higher and higher, their mouths slowly falling open.
"Wh-what is that?!"
"He's flying!"
Tiona and Tione happened to be passing along a sky corridor mid-bicker, and got a perfectly clear view of Leo floating up bathed in starlight, both crying out in shock together.
Even Ais heard the commotion over here, came out from one of the towers and onto a sky corridor, and finally saw Leo flown up into the air, stopping right where she stood, not moving for a long while.
Flight, this was an ability that, set against the adventurers of this world, still counted as a sliver of miracle.
In the Dungeon there were plenty of monsters with flight abilities, bird-type monsters or dragon-type monsters and the like, nearly all of them possessing wings that let them fly, but even after receiving Falna, adventurers still fell within the category of lower-world life, and had no way yet to shake off gravity at will, to shake off the bindings of the earth and fly freely into the sky.
Even Ais's wind Magic only borrowed the force of the wind to gain a brief ability to hang in the air; it was nowhere near being able to fly freely.
In the original work, looking across the whole story, there was only one adventurer with a flight ability who appeared, and that was the captain of Hermes Familia, the Lv.4 second-class adventurer, Asfi Al Andromeda.
She was a master magic-item crafter who possessed the Mystery Development Ability, which fewer than five people in the entire city had learned, and who had earned the alias Perseus for her skill at making magic items.
She'd created many magic items, including but not limited to a helmet that put its user in a transparent state, as well as flying shoes that let their wearer fly at will.
That's right, even this person with the Mystery Development Ability had only gained her flight ability with the help of a magic item she herself had invented.
These flying shoes were her trump card, never used lightly except when there was no other choice, so every time she used the flying shoes, those who witnessed the scene firsthand would be utterly stunned, which showed just how rare and precious a flight ability was among adventurers.
And right here, right now, Leo had gained this ability through a single Magic.
This was flight magic, Comet Chase.
Having flown up into the air and left the bounds of Twilight Manor, Leo suddenly shot off, kicking up a great booming crack of air, and flew toward the distant horizon trailing a long tail of star-light.
That sight was just like the Magic's name, a comet chasing after something, streaking across the heavens.
And it was fast, too.
"So this is what it feels like to soar above the sky?"
Turned into a comet, his whole body bathed in starlight, Leo spread his arms wide, looking at the scenery of the earth receding endlessly below him and the boundless, vast sky, feeling nothing but a rush of exhilaration in his heart.
The howling great wind hammered against his body, yet didn't touch him at all, like waves crashing into a reef, parted at once the moment they met the starlight around Leo.
Like that, in the blink of an eye Leo flew out of Orario and into the wilderness beyond the city.
"To think the first time I leave Orario would be under circumstances like this."
Looking at the circular fortress city receding behind him, Leo felt a touch of emotion.
After all, if an adventurer in Orario wanted to leave Orario, without passing through the Guild's layers of review and getting its consent, there was absolutely no way out.
Because Orario worried that the city's fighting strength would drain away to the outside world, high-end fighting strength in particular, every one lost being an enormous loss, and on top of that this city had a duty to serve as a fortress, preventing the monsters in the Dungeon from getting up to the surface, so they wouldn't allow high-Level adventurers to leave the city easily and head out.
Leo was already Lv.4 now, just one step away from a first-class adventurer, and a super monster of a talent who'd shaken the entire lower world, rising up through Rank Ups several times in a row in the span of just two months. If someone like him wanted to leave Orario, without an absolutely legitimate and necessary reason, the Guild certainly wouldn't allow it.
Everyone knew Leo's future would be anything but ordinary, so Loki Familia placed enormous importance on him, and the Guild had long since put him at the very front of its watch list, keeping an eye all along on his growth and his movements.
If Leo went outside Orario and then never came back, they wouldn't have anywhere to take their grievance.
Barring something unusual, if he wanted to leave Orario, the difficulty was definitely higher than for most first-class adventurers.
Leo had figured he'd stay in Orario the whole time, with little chance of ever getting out, and who'd have thought the appearance of a single flight magic would change that state of affairs.
With the Magic Comet Chase in hand, he could now go wherever he wanted, and Orario's fortress walls, enough to bar countless people and monsters, were as good as nothing to him.
"If I get the chance down the line, I could go wander all over the world and have a look around."
Carrying that thought, Leo, after seeing the sea and flying to the edge of a harbor city, flew back reluctantly in the direction he'd come.
Air surged and roiled as Leo once again turned his whole body into a racing comet, streaking across the sky.
Not long after, Leo returned to Orario, returned to Twilight Manor, and descended toward the courtyard below.
By this time, the courtyard had grown very lively.
Never mind Finn being here; the rest of the members had all come out as well, including Ais, Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, and the others.
"He's back, he's back!"
Tiona, looking like she'd been straining her eyes for ages, let out a ringing shout the moment she saw a comet flying in from the horizon, stirring up an uproar.
"How come you're all out here?"
Leo seemed to put away the flight magic while still some distance from the ground, the starlight dispersing from his body, and dropped down from midair. Landing steadily, he said in surprise.
But the next second, a big crowd of members led by Tiona swarmed around him.
"You're finally back, Leo!"
"What in the world was that just now?"
"How can you fly?"
"The captain said it was a Magic you newly gained, is that true?"
"Flight magic! It's my first time ever seeing this kind of Magic!"
"Where'd you fly off to just now? Don't tell me you left Orario?"
"It's just too enviable!"
The crowd chattered out a whole pile of words, everyone tripping over each other to get a line in, noisier than a vegetable market.
Among them Tiona, Raul, Line, and the others were the most worked up, and even Anakitty and Alicia were mixed in there, looking like they couldn't keep calm.
Ais stood quietly on the outer edge, watching Leo, with Lefiya beside her, a complicated look on her face.
"Alright! All of you pipe down for a bit!"
Gareth spoke up. The Dwarf great warrior had come to the courtyard at some point too, standing right beside Finn and Tione.
And as a matter of course, Riveria was present as well.
"To think your second Magic would turn out to be flight magic, this really is a surprise."
There was still a touch of marvel in Riveria's eyes as she looked at Leo.
She'd figured Leo's second Magic would be like his first, both attack Magic.
Because Leo had a Development Ability like Magic Attack, and his magical firepower was unusually formidable, Riveria had thought he should be like Lefiya, both especially skilled at attack Magic.
But on closer thought, Leo and Lefiya were still different.
Leo's Skill Star Soul Eternal enhanced magic effects, the effect of the Mage Development Ability, and the value of the basic ability Magic, and wasn't limited to attack Magic alone.
By contrast, Lefiya's Fairy Canon Skill, though it too enhanced magic effects, only when used with attack Magic would this enhancement directly double, proving that she was destined to shine brighter with attack Magic than with any other.
Aside from the Magic Attack Development Ability, which only raised the attack power of Magic, Leo's other Magic stat as well as his Skill that enhanced Magic were all very general-purpose.
For someone like him to learn a Magic other than attack Magic was, it seemed, not hard to understand either.
Of course...
"This Magic may be flight magic, but its effect is by no means just flight."
Leo dealt with his excited companions around him, smiled at Finn and Riveria, and added a few words.
"It has no time limit on use. From the moment it's activated it continuously consumes Mind, and it'll keep taking effect right up until the Mind runs out or the user himself cancels the Magic's activation."
"While the Magic is in effect, it gradually accelerates as time passes. In theory, as long as there's enough Mind, its speed has no upper limit."
"At the same time, it also has a protective effect. The starlight wrapping the whole body protects the user, keeping outside forces from interfering with the flight."
As he spoke, a thought stirred in Leo's mind, and starlight abruptly bloomed across his whole body.
Comet Chase, like Meteor Dance, was Star-attribute Magic, and its characteristic was an extremely high degree of freedom, extremely easy to control, to the point that even casting it directly without a chant could be done.
Only, the initial flight speed as well as the protective ability of a Comet Chase cast in this state would be a fair bit worse.
But that still couldn't hide its powerful effect.
"Flight, acceleration, protection... this one Magic has all three effects at once."
It fit almost perfectly with what Leo had subconsciously needed when he used the Grimoire.
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