“It’s already been over a year… Time really flies, doesn’t it.”
A whole year had passed since he joined Fairy Tail.
Before he knew it, so much had happened.
Gildarts had returned a few times and left again, plenty of newcomers had joined the guild, and he himself had completely integrated into this world.
He hadn’t encountered much trouble—and whatever did arise was eagerly snatched up and dealt with by the guild’s members.
The only major incident was that, not long ago, the master’s son, Ivan—Laxus’s father—had been expelled from the guild for endangering its safety.
Apparently, Ivan had wanted to obtain something called Luminous Starlight, which was why he had been driven out.
Aibo had “accidentally” overheard the matter, but he wasn’t interested in it.
At the time, Laxus had even gotten into a huge fight with the master.
It hadn’t been a pretty sight, but Aibo had never had much to do with Ivan, and Laxus was such an insufferable show-off every day that Aibo had no time to run over and comfort a grown man.
In any case, Ivan was a real piece of shit, and he hadn’t been well liked in the guild to begin with, so his expulsion had virtually no impact.
Nobody cared.
As for the changes, the greatest one was naturally in his own abilities.
His three base stats had improved considerably:
[Vigor: 36/36]
[Stamina: 30/30]
[Magic Power: 505/515]
Unfortunately, his body, now more than seven years old, hadn’t even begun to develop, leaving him rather frail and weak.
Of course, the main problem was that he had far too many things to keep busy with and simply had no time to exercise.
Even so, several of his core abilities had improved significantly:
[Telepathy Magic LV4, 37786/10000000]
[Spatial Magic LV2, 15086/100000]
[Script Magic LV2, 7364/100000]
[Magic Control LV2, 1415/100000]
[Meditation LV1, 9156/10000]
In just over a year, he had gained three LV2 abilities.
The data showed that when he focused on a particular ability, he could gain roughly twenty thousand experience points a year.
Assuming Aibo was a native with fairly good talent, learning a magic would take a few days to reach LV1, half a year to reach LV2, four to five years to reach LV3, and fifty years to reach LV4.
LV5 would be nearly impossible within a lifetime.
This showed just how extraordinarily blessed those geniuses whose magic awakened spontaneously were.
One could say that Aibo’s Telepathy Magic, which had awakened at LV4 from the very start, was probably the pinnacle an ordinary person could reach only after exhausting an entire lifetime.
Of course, skill level and personal strength were not directly related.
After a year of studying magic, Aibo had already understood one principle: battles between mages were, in essence, battles of magic power.
If magic power was the numerical value, then magic was the mechanism.
Only when two mages’ magic power was fairly close did a contest between magic levels become meaningful.
If one mage’s magic power was overwhelmingly greater, then even LV1 magic would be enough to crush the other opponent.
Of course, that didn’t mean magic levels were useless.
Different magics had their own counter relationships.
In most cases, mages couldn’t completely suppress one another through magic power alone, and battles contained many variables as well, so naturally there were all kinds of contests and gambits.
For example, Gray’s Ice Magic and Modeling Magic were both at LV2, but his magic power was only around 200+.
If the two of them fought using only those two magics, the outcome would be difficult to predict.
But if Aibo also used LV2 Spatial Magic, Gray would probably have no chance of winning.
However, Gray’s vigor and stamina were both far higher than Aibo’s.
If they both exhausted their magic power and started fighting hand-to-hand, Aibo definitely wouldn’t be able to beat him.
Erza would be a different matter altogether.
Her vigor, stamina, magic power, and magic levels were all much higher than Gray’s, so a fight between them would be completely one-sided.
Strength couldn’t be judged by looking at the data for any single ability alone.
Furthermore, if two people in battle were unable to establish much of a gap in magic power and both used the same type of magic, then the suppression created by a difference in skill level was absolute.
Some time ago, a young man named Valen had joined the guild.
He had learned Telepathy Magic, but his skill level was only LV2.
Whenever the two of them used Telepathy Magic at the same time, Valen was completely suppressed by Aibo.
Aibo could sense the fluctuations of Valen’s Telepathy Magic, eavesdrop on the information transmitted through it, and even forge false information and insert it into Valen’s magic.
Conversely, Valen had absolutely no way to detect the traces of Aibo’s Telepathy Magic.
A duel between the same type of magic with such a level gap was a complete higher-dimensional beatdown.
Of course, if Valen’s magic power were as strong as Gildarts’s or the master’s, he could in turn affect Aibo’s Telepathy Magic.
It could only be said that, in the contest between magics, magic power still carried far too much weight.
As long as the number was high enough, magic became the power of miracles.
According to the master, some people were like the protagonists of shonen manga: they could ignite their emotions in battle and unleash, for a short time, magic power far beyond their normal limits, thereby reversing the course of the battle.
Aibo could only comment that this magic world was far too idealistic.
He didn’t consider himself the sort of fighter who relied on emotional outbursts.
If he really encountered an enemy like that, he would probably be taken out by some underhanded trick.
Sure enough, he should just become the Sword God of Ten-Mile Slope, train until he reached max level, and only then venture out.
He was getting off track.
Besides those few core skills, Aibo had learned a great many LV1 magics.
The ones he could name included… [Crush Magic LV1] [Fire Magic LV1] [Ice Magic LV1] [Enhancement Magic LV1] [Smoke Magic LV1] [Light Magic LV1] [Lightning Magic LV1] [Earth Magic] [Wood Magic] [Giant Magic LV1] [Transformation Magic LV1] [Water Magic LV1] [Sand Magic LV1] [Shadow Magic LV1] [Card Magic LV1] [Metal Magic LV1]…
Because learning a new magic was simply too cost-effective, Aibo would study one whenever he had nothing to do and some free time.
He had basically raised every magic he could learn to LV1, and for those he couldn’t learn, he had forcibly raised them to LV1 with Inspiration Points.
Aibo might not have been the strongest young person in the guild, but he was absolutely the young person who had mastered the most magics.
No one would object if he called himself a mage of every element.
And the amount of Inspiration Aibo currently possessed was…
[Inspiration Points: 660528]
Yes, six hundred and sixty thousand Inspiration Points.
He gained an average of fifty thousand a month.
Aibo had barely spent any of them, hoarding them like a hamster the whole time.
These Inspiration Points were enough to raise six LV2 skills to LV3, but… Aibo still felt that he was collecting them too slowly.
After all, they looked like a lot at first glance, but even going all-in wouldn’t be enough to raise a single skill from LV3 to LV4.
At this rate, it would take ten years just to barely raise one skill to LV5!
If leveling up was this slow, how was he supposed to become the one and only supreme being under heaven?
Sigh, this cheat was still far too useless.
If only he could put Inspiration Points into Magic Power among the three base stats…
Wait.
Am I overlooking something?
“Aibo, Aibo~”
His thoughts were interrupted by a young girl’s call.
In the next instant, Aibo had already arrived downstairs at his own home.
Because he loved Teleportation Magic so much, Aibo had gotten into the habit of instantly appearing behind anyone who called him.
This was also the main reason his Spatial Magic experience was increasing so quickly.
“Sis Cana… what’s up?”
Cana was wearing a floral dress today.
When she turned around, her black hair brushed across the tip of her nose, carrying the sweet fragrance unique to a young girl.
Her eyes were filled with undisguised delight, and a smile curled around her lips:
“Aibo, we agreed to watch the stars together tonight, right? Your big sis is here to keep our appointment~”
“Uh, but it’s only afternoon.”
“We still have to get ready! Come on, come on, accompany your big sis while I go shopping. We’re going to buy a whole bunch of tasty things!”
Ever since Erza had saved enough money to move out of Aibo’s house half a year ago, Cana had finally given up on her futile challenge against Erza.
Their score ended at eighty-one to zero.
Actually, Cana’s magic power wasn’t much lower than Erza’s.
She was unquestionably outstanding among her peers.
The main problem was that although Card Magic was highly functional, it was really only average in actual combat.
Aibo had learned Card Magic as well.
It was an extremely versatile magic that could be combined with all kinds of other magics.
It was very powerful when used as support or logistical magic, but it became rather awkward when treated as a primary magic.
Aibo had also advised her to learn a different magic, but Cana didn’t seem to care much about it.
Without the pressure from Erza, she had even grown lazy about training.
In the past, whenever Gildarts returned, Cana would often circle around her father, probing him for answers.
But after her repeated indirect hints yielded nothing, she simply stopped trying.
Now, even when Gildarts came back, she ignored him, focusing entirely on Aibo and becoming a complete “brocon.”
Aibo didn’t know how to assess Cana, either.
If he had once wanted to clear up the misunderstanding that he was “not Gildarts’s illegitimate son,” then by now, his relationship with Cana was no different from that of family.
Whether he said anything or not no longer seemed important.
Aibo raised Cana as his little sister, while Cana doted on Aibo as her little brother.
Each treated the other according to their own understanding, and they got along harmoniously.
“Tonight is July 7, X777—the Day of the Sun and Moon’s Crossing. This is an extremely rare celestial event. My divination shows that tonight is a night of destiny. Something good is bound to happen, and there’s a very high chance we’ll see shooting stars!”
Holding Aibo’s hand, Cana looked both proud and delighted:
“On such a special day, we siblings absolutely have to spend it together! Maybe we can even make a wish on a shooting star!”