As a distinguished transmigrator, Aibo naturally had a cheat.
His cheat, however, was quite plain and unadorned.
It had only one basic character panel—
[Energy: 21/21]
[Stamina: 16/16]
[Magic Power: 351/352]
And one simple skill panel—
[Telepathy Magic LV4, 230/10000000]
[Meditation LV0, 233/1000]
[Crush Magic LV0, 23/1000]
Plus one more point value whose meaning was still unclear.
[Inspiration: 648]
And that was all.
That was the entire current contents of Aibo’s cheat.
This unremarkable panel could quantify his physical attributes and his skills’ “experience bars.”
In the panel, Energy was most likely equivalent to a health bar, Stamina was an endurance bar, and Magic Power was a mana bar.
These three basic stats were fairly easy to understand.
The upper limits of the basic stats would grow.
In just the past few days, they had already increased by several points.
The skill panel was a little more complicated, but Aibo had more or less figured out how it worked.
At first, he had thought these progress bars represented skill proficiency, but later he discovered that they were actually experience bars.
Whenever he “correctly used” the corresponding skill, his experience would increase.
As for what counted as “correct use”?
For example, just now, while Aibo had been spacing out and emptying his mind, his brain had heard plenty of miscellaneous noise, but the progress bar for [Telepathy Magic] had not increased at all.
But when he subconsciously listened for Cana’s inner voice, the experience bar increased.
When Aibo deliberately used a skill correctly and successfully, the corresponding skill experience would increase.
His Telepathy Magic had been LV4 from the moment it awakened.
Aibo guessed that he might be just a little—well, absurdly—talented in this magic, though that was probably also the main reason he could not control his mind-reading ability properly.
A high skill level only meant that the skill’s effects were stronger; it had nothing to do with proficiency.
It had only been a few days, and Aibo was still unfamiliar with Telepathy Magic, so naturally he had not mastered it completely.
Besides that, there were also [Meditation] and [Crush Magic], which he had learned from Gildarts.
[Meditation] was a skill that could train his magic power, and it was through learning Meditation that Aibo had figured out how to use this skill panel.
[Crush Magic] was a magic Gildarts commonly used, and its power was extremely formidable.
Aibo wanted to learn it, and Gildarts was willing to teach him, but unfortunately, he had not managed to learn it.
Those few experience points had been gained purely by blind luck.
As for what [Inspiration] was, Aibo still had not figured it out.
His cheat did not come with an instruction manual or anything, but it was still better than having nothing at all.
Watching a progress bar increase gave people a sense of satisfaction, especially when that progress bar concerned their own vital interests.
So Aibo was not stingy about using his abilities.
If not for the headaches, he would have wanted to practice every second of every minute, just as he was doing now—
[Tsk tsk, old man, so you’re that kind of frivolous man after all? Sister Elo already has a boyfriend, so you should at least show some restraint.]
Gildarts had long since grown used to the voice suddenly ringing in his mind.
Telepathy Magic could actually be actively “blocked” by cutting off the flow of magic power, but Gildarts did not do that.
For one thing, when Aibo’s Telepathy Magic activated, it was almost entirely instinctive.
The fluctuations in his magic power were extremely faint, and they were hard to detect without paying attention.
For another, Gildarts did not treat Aibo like an ordinary child.
After spending these past few days together, he had already discovered that Aibo was far more mature than a child his age.
So he answered just as bluntly:
[Shoo, shoo! Things between adults aren’t as simple as they look to you! And hurry up and get out of Elo’s arms! A little brat like you should be off playing with the other little brats!]
On the surface, Gildarts was still teasing Elo, but the furtive, envious look in his eyes unmistakably conveyed one message: you little bastard, get out of Elo’s arms!
[…]
Aibo squirmed in Elo’s arms, rubbed himself against her, and showed Gildarts a “Momonosuke smile.”
Gildarts: ???
[You little bastard! What have you done?! (angry gesture)]
[You’re too loud~ Say, Gildarts, at your age you should have been married long ago, right?]
[Heh heh, what does a little brat like you know? Marriage is a man’s grave! Your uncle here isn’t about to hang himself from a single tree!]
[What a terrible old man!]
Aibo had originally wanted to remind Gildarts about Cana, but now he changed his mind.
Gildarts clearly did not know that the little girl beside him was his daughter.
This guy had saved his life, but wasn’t he a little too much of a scumbag?
Aibo gave Gildarts a look of contempt.
Gildarts ground his teeth, angry and jealous, but there was nothing he could do about Aibo.
He could only turn away to avoid seeing him and getting upset, then went off to challenge someone else to a drinking match.
“Little Aibo, for now you’ll stay in the guild dormitory. Once I’m off work, big sister will take you to buy some daily necessities. Of course, none of this is free. Consider it a guild benefit; once you earn money from completing jobs, you’ll pay the guild back…”
Miss Elo held Aibo in her arms and explained a few things he needed to know, along with the guild’s benefits.
Aibo could feel that this guild was very friendly to newcomers.
Gildarts had not lied to him—Fairy Tail really was a good place to be.
He did not know much about this world of magic.
Back in the village, he had been completely cut off from news and had never even come into contact with a mage.
Now he was all alone.
He had awakened some kind of “superpower,” but he was not much of a fighter.
He might as well stay here and develop at his own pace.
Aibo was still very interested in the magic of this world.
“Sister Elo, why don’t you let Gray and me take this little brother shopping? We’re not doing anything anyway. Gray, you’re with me, right?”
Cana stood on her tiptoes and braced herself against the table, elbowing Gray beside her as she spoke.
Gray: “? Oi! I don’t want to go shopping with some little brat. I’m going to train!”
“Stupid Gray! You’re not allowed to leave!”
[I still need to find out exactly what this child’s relationship with Dad is. That hair color is really suspicious!]
Aibo glanced at Cana, who was tugging at Gray.
Did this little girl think he was that bastard Gildarts’s illegitimate child?
Tch, our hair colors aren’t even the same.
Your dad’s is orange-red, while mine is pale cherry-pink.
That’s a huge difference, okay?
Aibo’s eyes flicked over Cana’s black hair, and he quickly came up with an idea.
He looked up at Elo.
“Big Sister Elo, I want to play with big brother and big sister.”
Gray: ?
“Emmmm~ All right, then. I’ll leave little Aibo in Cana and Gray’s care for now. Here, this is the money for buying daily necessities. Be careful, okay?”
Elo thought it over and decided Cana had a point, so she reluctantly set Aibo down.
The child was so soft and sweet-smelling, and so adorable, that she felt she could hold him like that all day.
“I know~ I’m awesome, you know. Let’s go!”
Cana tucked the 10,000 J into her pocket, then took Aibo’s hand with one hand, grabbed Gray with the other, and dashed out through the guild’s main entrance.
“Oi! OI! Cana, let go! I don’t want to gooooo!”