Swish!
The wind tore past his ears as Leon rushed forward at an astonishing velocity, lunging toward the young girl standing a short distance away.
Almost the very instant his sprint began, Leon sensed the changes within himself.
It was a speed like night and day compared to before.
It was an unbelievable acceleration that would have been absolutely impossible in the past.
His body felt as light as a feather, his senses grew as sharp as a wild beast's, and his thoughts seemed to accelerate several times over during this critical juncture, leaving him with enough leeway to feel astonished.
By the time Leon fully processed it, he was already right in front of Ais, catching a glimpse of a faint, matching astonishment surfacing within the girl's eyes.
Although the distance between them wasn't far, the speed Leon displayed still seemed to startle her, causing a fraction-of-a-second delay in her movements.
And it was precisely this fraction-of-a-second delay that allowed Leon to seize the initiative.
Clang!
The small straight sword cut through the air, turning into a cold, sharp arc that slashed rapidly toward Ais.
The high-speed strike caused the startled Ais's eyes to instantly narrow. Her body moved almost purely on reflex, swinging the sheath in her hand to meet the incoming slash.
Clank!
Sparks erupted, and a fierce wind expanded outward like a shockwave.
Leon's small straight sword collided heavily with Ais's sheath. Bouncing off one another, the impact caused both sprinting figures to stall simultaneously, halting their forward momentum.
However, Leon did not stop. As if he had long anticipated that his attack would be blocked, he instantly lowered his stance and accelerated once more.
His figure completely blurred into an afterimage, circling like lightning toward Ais's flank, unleashing another slash aimed directly at her shoulder.
Clang!
Ais's reaction was swift—even faster than Leon's. She moved almost simultaneously with his swing, twisting her sheath to block the strike and causing sparks to burst from her side.
Leon still showed no intention of stopping. Failing to land the blow, he sprinted rapidly again, circling around Ais.
Like a swirling gust of wind, Leon rotated at extreme speeds around Ais's body. As he ran, he continuously unleashed his small straight sword, sending a relentless barrage of sword light directly at her.
The flashes of sword light came one after another, wave upon wave, looking as though a vast storm of blades was flickering around Ais, slashing toward various parts of her beautiful physique.
Shoulders, chest, abdomen, back, thighs, neck, heart, and even her head—just like before, Leon had absolutely no intention of holding back. Every single slash was directed squarely at Ais's blind spots and vital areas. If an uninformed bystander witnessed this scene, they might even suspect that Leon was trying to kill this doll-like girl.
But as the saying went, this was only because Leon believed that an attack of this caliber would definitely fail to compromise the golden-haired, golden-eyed girl.
Sure enough, faced with Leon's completely unmerciful assault, Ais maintained her expressionless state throughout. With mere flicks of her wrist and twists of her sheath, she deflected every single one of those consecutive slashes.
No matter which blind spot Leon's sword aimed for, Ais seemed to see it all, tracking the blade clearly and blocking it with ease.
She was even capable of finding openings for counterattacks amidst Leon's seamless, rapid offensive, sending her sheath cutting through the seemingly endless sword light toward Leon's body.
However, this time, Leon was no longer as easily struck by Ais as he had been in the past.
Whoosh!
The sheath lunged like a blurry whip, coming fast and sharp, causing Leon's pupils to contract to the size of pinpricks.
Yet, within those pinprick-sized pupils, unlike in the past, he successfully tracked that blur of an afterimage during the split second of crisis.
Consequently, Leon's figure abruptly ground to a halt, and his upper body instantly pressed downward. Utilizing a flawless bridge technique, he dodged the howling strike.
"He dodged it—"
Seeing this, Ais's expression couldn't help but stiffen slightly.
In that exact same instant, from his lowered upper-body stance, Leon delivered an upward scoop with his sword, aiming directly for her ankle.
Ais reacted, leaping backward to open up some distance while evading the strike.
Refusing to let her off, Leon dug his foot into the ground, throwing his entire weight in Ais's direction to launch another bewildering offensive.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang...!
For a time, inside the courtyard where the sunlight was about to spill over, the sound of clashing metal rang out incessantly.
Faced with Leon's relentless and seamless offensive, Ais's defensive maneuvers were both sharp and steady. She maintained her distance from Leon while continuously blocking the oncoming slashes.
Leon's assault was incredibly fierce and intense, yet Ais could still catch it firmly, refusing to let a single flash of sword light bypass her defensive line to touch her body, keeping herself entirely undefeated.
But as time ticked by, Ais also noticed that Leon's offensive wasn't slowing down. Instead, it was continuously accelerating, and his speed, coordination, and reflexes were all steadily improving.
That appearance looked just like a metamorphosis.
That appearance looked just like an evolution.
"It's different—"
It was completely different.
The Leon of this very moment was a completely different person compared to before.
This caused Ais's heart to accept that reality with mixed emotions.
He really leveled up.
Level 2 was not an unfamiliar domain to Ais.
She had reached that realm eight years ago, and now she far exceeded it, meaning she could easily disregard it.
But the moment she remembered that the man before her was just a helpless, ordinary apprentice member a month ago—the type who hadn't even received a Falna yet—Ais found it completely impossible to suppress the complicated emotions in her heart.
Furthermore, just yesterday, he was sparring with her while looking barely stronger than a normal human. Now, he was displaying a strength that seemed practically reborn. It truly left Ais feeling complex, and even somewhat at a loss.
Ais even discovered with some surprise that although he had only just leveled up, the strength Leon displayed carried some massive differences compared to the Level 2s she knew.
In comparison to other newly leveled-up Level 2s, both Leon's attacks and his speed were a cut above.
Moreover, he was still continuously growing stronger and faster.
"Is he... adapting to his own power?"
As someone who had gone through it, Ais could easily discern exactly what kind of state Leon was currently in.
He was working hard to master the status values that had received a massive enhancement after reaching Level 2.
Adventurers generally encountered this situation after a rank-up; because their own strength experienced a sudden and dramatic increase, it caused their physical bodies and mental states to drift out of alignment, resulting in a mind-body mismatch.
The mind couldn't keep pace with the rapidly growing physical body, making it inevitable for combat precision, sense of distance, and reaction times to fall into disarray, leaving them unable to exert one hundred percent of their current strength.
Leon had encountered this situation when he previously updated his status, and the current mind-body mismatch was significantly stronger than the last time. To eliminate these sensory errors, he was forced to continuously repeat and attempt various movements during his fight with Ais to harmonize his mind and body, slowly drawing out the strength he should possess after leveling up.
Because of this, his current performance gave others the impression that he was steadily growing stronger.
Whoosh!
Faced with the afterimage of the oncoming sheath, Leon evaded it with increasingly clean and simple movements, ensuring that Ais's attacks could no longer touch him as easily as before.
In the past, when Leon faced Ais's attacks, he could barely dodge one out of ten strikes. The remaining nine would all land squarely on him, sending him flying on the spot.
But today, the number of counterattacks unleashed by Ais had long surpassed ten, yet not a single one of those numerous attacks managed to touch Leon.
This caused Leon, who was still constantly adapting to his own strength, to experience a distinct surge of realization.
I am indeed growing stronger again.
This realization caused his eyes to grow brighter as the battle progressed, and his movements became increasingly intense. Whether it was sprinting or attacking, he became more and more proficient and dominant.
If it were anyone else facing Leon's continuously strengthening offensive in battle, they likely would have gradually fallen into a disadvantage due to failing to keep up with his intensity.
But Ais didn't.
She remained completely expressionless, maintaining her casual demeanor. Her eyes locked tightly onto Leon, as if staring at some crucial object from which she couldn't avert her gaze, blocking every single bit of Leon's increasingly violent offensive.
Only then did Leon belatedly realize that while his offensive was growing stronger, Ais's intensity was rising correspondingly.
That was only natural.
When sparring with a newcomer who had just debuted, Ais was suppressing her own strength to begin with. How could she possibly be countered by Leon?
So what if Leon brought out a strength that could be called a complete transformation?
In front of Ais, a First-Tier Adventurer at Level 5, it was still far from enough to make an impact.
Thus, alongside Leon's metamorphosis, Ais was also slowly liberating her own power, gradually raising the intensity of the spar to firmly suppress Leon, ensuring that no matter how violent his offensive became, it couldn't breach her line of defense.
Clang!
Amidst the seamless storm of blades, Ais's sheath cut through the space for the countless time, striking the small straight sword Leon swung forward and creating sparks that flickered for the countless time.
This time, the power Ais applied was visibly greater, causing Leon to feel a formidable force travel through the small straight sword, pushing him back.
Leon was forced to leap backward, neutralizing the force while opening up distance from Ais.
The fierce offensive and defensive battle between the two finally gained a moment of respite, causing both sides to halt their movements simultaneously and enter a state of confrontation.
Leon didn't speak, maintaining his silence.
Ais looked at him, and after hesitating to speak for a moment, she finally broke the silence.
"Before you leveled up... what were your status values?"
Yes, Ais had discerned from the strength Leon displayed that his status values before leveling up might have been exceptionally high.
Otherwise, having only just leveled up, it would be impossible for him to display a strength that far surpassed an average, newly ascended Level 2.
Unless—
"Or... do you have a skill?"
Clearly, the thing Line could think of, Ais could think of as well.
Given the strength Leon just displayed, he either possessed very high base stats before leveling up, or he had some sort of skill capable of increasing his base status values.
Only this could explain why Leon's strength exceeded that of ordinary, newly ascended Level 2s right after his rank-up.
At the very least, back when she had just ascended to Level 2, if she didn't utilize her magic and skills, she was absolutely not as strong as the current Leon.
"...I do have a skill."
Leon remained silent for a brief moment before letting out a sigh and answering honestly.
"But that skill does not directly enhance my combat strength."
At the very least, it was completely different from the buff-type enhancement skills that Ais and Line understood it to be.
"Then you—"
Ais's expression remained complex, and her hesitant demeanor became even more pronounced.
"You want to ask me how I managed to grow stronger so quickly, right?"
Looking at Ais like this, Leon finally voiced the thoughts in her heart.
Ais didn't speak. She simply kept her gaze locked tightly onto Leon, silently demonstrating just how much she cared about this matter.
Growing stronger—this was the obsession Ais had been pursuing consistently since the age of seven.
Ever since joining the Loki Familia, Ais's sole obsession was to grow stronger, to become more powerful, to become stronger than anyone else, so that she could kill more monsters and exact revenge against that ultimate nightmare.
To achieve this, she had initially driven herself practically insane, constantly pushing herself to the limit, destroying her physical health for the sake of power, and disregarding her own safety. It was as if she wanted to completely burn away her limited lifespan, desperately seeking strength in a manner that others felt would shorten her life.
Although she was considerably gentler now compared to her past self, the obsession with growing stronger still remained in her heart, an element she could discard under no circumstances.
In the past, when facing Leon, Ais rarely displayed this side of herself.
But now, she couldn't hold it back.
Before her eyes stood a living example of someone growing stronger at an mind-boggling speed. Ais truly couldn't restrain the desire in her heart, wanting to reach out toward that staggering growth rate.
"Just how did you do it?"
Ais asked the question that countless people had asked before, except her inquiry was far heavier and more urgent.
Leon didn't answer the question right away. Instead, acting as if he hadn't heard a thing, he slowly slid the small straight sword back into its sheath and placed it along with its scabbard beneath the shade of a tree, leaning it right against Ais's beloved sword.
Then, Leon walked over to a nearby bench, sat down, and waved his hand toward Ais.
Ais understood immediately. Mimicking Leon, she leaned her sheath under the tree, then walked over to his side and sat down next to him.
In the next second, Ais heard Leon's words.
"Let's start with the conclusion: there is no way for you to be like me and raise your status values this quickly."
Leon's very first sentence poured a bucket of cold water over Ais.
Chilling, and down to the bone.
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