Night covered the whole sky without a sound, sinking the entire Labyrinth City into darkness, leaving only the light of the magic-stone lamps flickering in every corner, which somehow looked rather beautiful.
Orario at night always had a liveliness different from the daytime, especially in places like the taverns, where it was far livelier than in daylight.
During the day, adventurers had to go into the Dungeon, had to match wits and courage with monsters, had to fight with their lives on the line, so the night was the only time in their day to relax.
Some drank to relieve the pressure, some to celebrate their haul, some because they had lived another day... adventurers spent the night hours enjoying their leisure to the fullest, boasting wildly to friends or to drinking companions they had just met about how brave they had been that day, and the noise over the whole city never died down.
Tonight's noise, though, was bound to be greater than any that had come before.
That was because the greatest piece of good news about Loki Familia, who had been the focus of every citizen in the city since returning from the expedition, had already spread through the whole city.
They had submitted their report to the Guild, formally registering not only that the Familia had stepped into unexplored territory and reached Floor 59, but also the level ups of many of their members.
Among them, four members' level ups shook not just the entire Guild but the entire city.
Amazon, Tiona Hiryute.
Jörmungand, Tione Hiryute.
Vanargand, Bete Loga.
And Leo Eligos, who had only just formally received his alias, Polaris.
All four of them had gone through Rank Up after this expedition and risen to Lv.6.
The Guild had not yet had time to announce the news publicly, but the gods, who loved entertainment and had been watching Loki Familia ever since their return from the expedition, got hold of it a step early, and in a frenzy of excitement spread it through the whole city at speed, setting all of Orario boiling.
"One expedition and Loki Familia produced four new Lv.6s?!"
"Aaaah! I'm going crazy!"
"That's Lv.6 we're talking about!"
"Before Sword Princess leveled up, all of Orario had only a handful of Lv.6s, and now Loki Familia produces four at once?"
"Add in Sword Princess before that, and Braver and the others who reached Lv.6 long ago... th-th-then doesn't that mean every first-class adventurer in Loki Familia is Lv.6?"
"Lv.6... eight of them?"
"No, come on... it can't be that ridiculous, can it?"
People were stunned, shocked, shaken, some refusing to believe it, but after checking from several directions the news could basically be confirmed as true, with no room for doubt.
The whole city fell into a commotion far greater than any before.
Every first-class adventurer in a single Familia, a full eight people, all Lv.6. It really was too astonishing, and no one could have reacted any other way.
"Even Freya Familia only has three Lv.6s..."
"Loki Familia only had three before too, and then people kept leveling up to Lv.6 one after another in this stretch of time. What kind of adventure did they go through?"
"Unexplored territory, Floor 59. Looks like Loki Familia went on an enormous adventure to conquer that place."
"Sword Princess, Vanargand, Amazon, and Jörmungand leveling up is surprising, sure, but it makes sense. Those four have been sitting at Lv.5 for years. But how the hell did Polaris get to Lv.6 too?"
"It hasn't even been a month since he made Lv.5, has it?"
"Again? This absurd growth rate again?"
"His growth doesn't even slow down at Lv.5?"
"Does that guy have any limit at all?"
Everyone was discussing the same sorts of topics, and when Leo came up the feelings ran especially thick.
The story of how this Monster Rookie of Loki Familia had risen to Lv.2 at an unbelievable speed and broken Sword Princess's fastest level up record felt like it had happened yesterday.
And even if it was not yesterday, it was only a little over two months ago.
Back then he had appeared in the public eye for the first time, setting off discussion across the whole city and indeed the whole world with his unbelievable leveling speed, making a name for himself in the lower world in no time.
Now, only a little over two months later, he had broken people's assumptions again and again, leveling up at an unbelievable speed over and over.
By now he had caught right up to Loki Familia's first rank and become a Lv.6 alongside those famous first-class adventurers.
That was Lv.6!
In the lower world as it stood, the highest Level was Lv.7, and there were only two who held it.
Of those two, one was inside the city and one outside it.
So in all of Orario, there was one and only one Lv.7 at the highest Level, and that was King Ottar of Freya Familia.
Apart from him, the strongest group of people in the city were all Lv.6.
And which of those Lv.6s had not struggled for a decade or more, even several decades, to reach their current Level?
And Leo?
He had done it in a little over three months!
How could people not be shaken? How could they not sigh over it?
Next to that, Tiona and the others reaching Lv.6 hardly counted for much.
They had been among the strongest of the Lv.5s to begin with and had worked at Lv.5 for years, so after going through a grand adventure unlike any before, rising to Lv.6 was not that surprising.
But Leo was different.
Even though people had already marveled at his unbelievable growth time after time, when the news came out that he had risen to Lv.6 together with the Familia's leadership, plenty of them still fell silent.
There was no denying it, Orario tonight belonged to Leo, and it belonged to Loki Familia.
Every executive of the Familia rising to Lv.6 and catching up to the three veterans was not only a story worth telling, it was solid strength.
Without question, after this expedition, with so many members leveling up and several more Lv.6s added, Loki Familia's strength was about to surge.
The city's strongest Familia had been powerful already, and now it was more powerful still, and people never tired of chewing it over.
Some said that after this campaign, Loki Familia could stand fully abreast of Freya Familia and its King, or had even surpassed it.
Some said Loki Familia was now the true strongest in the city and that Freya Familia could no longer match them.
Some said that with several executives making Lv.6, the three veteran powerhouses, Braver, Nine Hell, and Elgarm, were probably close to Lv.7.
And some said that with several executives moving up to Lv.6, Loki Familia now had no Lv.5s at all, a gap at that Level, which was very likely suspicious. Maybe someone was hiding their true Level, and Loki Familia might still be concealing its real strength...
All sorts of claims, rumors, and guesses spread through Orario that night, but none of it dampened people's enthusiasm.
Bards sang the praises of these brave adventurers on every corner, exalting their greatness along with the melodies of their instruments.
Among the gods, some laughed out loud, some fell silent, some were envious, some jealous, some amazed, and some just wanted the spectacle to get bigger, and in the end it all turned into wild celebration.
Most adventurers, while chattering happily about it, also spoke with anticipation of the day their own names might spread through the lower world like that.
In short, every street and alley in the city was talking about Loki Familia and the several executives who had reached Lv.6, and gods, adventurers, and ordinary people alike were all in a fever over it.
Naturally, Loki Familia themselves, the stars of the whole business, were also celebrating the expedition's success and the smooth level ups of so many members.
After every expedition, Loki Familia held their customary victory banquet, both to celebrate the success of the expedition and to celebrate the members making it home alive.
This time was no exception. Loki Familia threw a grand victory banquet, eating and drinking in high spirits while congratulating those who had leveled up.
And Leo, Bete, Tiona, and Tione were the four biggest focal points of the party.
Four Lv.6s born at once. Outsiders marveled at it, and they, as family in the same Familia, were proud of it too.
As for the four themselves, none of them was keeping a straight face tonight.
Tiona especially. Having made it to Lv.6, she was as happy as a butterfly fluttering about, circling Leo and Ais the whole time.
Still, in the middle of her happiness, Tiona was also a little sulky.
"I finally made it to Lv.6 and caught up to Ais, and then Leo goes and levels up right along with me. Doesn't that mean I didn't shake anyone off and got caught up to again?"
Tione, beside her, twisted her mouth at Tiona's sulking.
"Even if he didn't catch up this time, he'd catch up later anyway."
At this kid's freakish level, being caught up to, or even left behind, was only a matter of time.
"Before, we were the ones in the lead and we still had to feel the pressure, worrying about being overtaken from behind. Now everyone's at the same Level, and we leveled up at the same time on top of it, so with this kid's unbelievable growth rate, getting passed wouldn't be strange at all. It might not even take long."
...She suddenly felt not very happy at all.
Tiona understood what her sister meant, and got even more sulky.
The little angel then looked at Leo with suspicious eyes and said this.
"Come to think of it... you were already way stronger than us back at Lv.5, weren't you? Now that you're Lv.6, isn't the gap even bigger?"
At those words, everyone present turned to look at Leo.
Nobody there doubted Leo's strength anymore.
Even though Leo had stayed faithfully in the rearguard through the expedition without showing off, the earth-shaking sight of him every time he cast magic and the reactions he displayed from time to time all said he was no ordinary Lv.5.
The main force had all seen Leo cut loose at full power, whether it was holding back every flying monster on Floor 58 single-handed or suppressing the defiled Spirit by himself on Floor 59, and both told them that Leo was far stronger than they had originally expected.
Now he had transformed once again, gone through the miracle called Rank Up, so was he not much stronger than he had been then?
That thought was not only in other people's heads. Even Ais had it.
The golden-haired, golden-eyed girl fixed her gaze on Leo, looking like she wanted to know the answer.
"...How would I know?"
Leo, uncomfortable under everyone's stares, could only squeeze out that line.
What else was he supposed to say?
That he was already confident he could thrash anyone present?
Then never mind Bete and the rest, even old Gareth would probably want to spar with him on the spot.
The old man had clawed his way through the Orario that had once been like hell, and his opponents back then had not only been Freya Familia with King Ottar at their head, but also the monsters of Zeus Familia and Hera Familia, who had swept across the lower world for years.
As Finn had said before, every adventurer born in that era, no exceptions, was forced to hone extraordinary skill at fighting other people, or they simply could not survive in an age overrun with monsters like that.
They had long grown used to facing stronger opponents, and even more used to fighting from the weaker side.
So even the Leo of now would only go so far as to say that in terms of Status alone he could absolutely stand above them. If it came to a real fight with live steel, and he did not go at it with everything he had, then with the little combat experience and technique he possessed, these old hands would probably run him in circles.
That was why Gareth was always saying things like "these kids still have a long way to go."
The way Finn, Riveria, and Gareth saw it, these young people who had not lived through the age when the two thousand-year Familias ran roughshod over everything, nor through Orario's Dark Age, were green, every one of them.
Look down on these veteran powerhouses and you would be taught a lesson.
Finn, though, said one thing without hesitation.
"Leo should be our Familia's strongest fighting force now."
That was the conclusion of Finn's own judgment.
At the very least, he had no confidence in facing Leo's third magic alone, and even less confidence in doing better than the defiled Spirit against those twelve star beasts.
If Leo did not use magic, he was confident he could beat a Leo with higher Status through experience and technique.
But once Leo used magic, that was out of the question.
Even without that astonishing third magic, with only the first and second, he could not be sure of a win.
"It's a shame you three didn't level up this time, captain."
Lefiya muttered it quietly, and the three of them smiled wryly.
With so many members breaking past their own limits one after another and reaching a new stage, the three veteran leaders of the Familia had not managed to level up and were still standing in place at Lv.6, which counted as a regret, if not a large one.
"Lv.7 is Lv.7. It isn't reached that easily."
"We still lack some accumulation."
"The world's strongest are still only those two Lv.7s. I'd really like to know how they managed it back then."
That was Finn, Riveria, and Gareth, one after another.
"I figure you're all close." Loki, drinking herself drunk, said it cheerfully. "'Course, if you don't hurry it up a bit, maybe Leo'll make Lv.7 before you do."
At that, everyone turned to look at Leo again.
Leo's mouth twitched, and he said nothing.
Everyone burst out laughing, and the mood turned merry once more.
This, too, was the last calm before the storm.
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