Aibo quickly grew accustomed to life in Magnolia.
The town was fairly prosperous, and law and order were better than he had imagined—there was even something as unexpected as a magic train.
Add to that all sorts of curious and wonderful magical craft goods, and ordinary people’s standard of living was far above the medieval “sword and sorcery” level of his stereotype, closer to that of the Victorian era.
But perhaps because of magic, civilization in this world was also severely divided and fragmented.
The country he was in was vast and sparsely populated, with only a handful of large cities.
Beyond the towns lay untamed wilderness, and tribal savages and powerful magical beasts were even scattered throughout the wilds and forests.
Ordinary villagers in remote places might never leave their hometowns in their entire lives.
So Aibo felt that Gildarts’s willingness to take him away from the village and bring him to Fairy Tail was a kindness no less significant than saving his life.
Although Fairy Tail was rather noisy, every person in the guild was talented, and they were all pleasant to talk to as well.
Aibo quite liked it here.
Relying on his innocent, adorable appearance, his harmless, good-natured facade, his emotional intelligence beyond his years, and a little assistance from Telepathy Magic…
Aibo successfully won the favor of nearly everyone in the guild—well, at least to the point that no one would refuse if he asked for guidance in magic.
Although Aibo very much wanted to begin learning magic right away, before he could do so, he first had to learn to read and write.
This world had many writing systems.
Aibo had even seen Chinese characters in some books, which were called Eastern script.
But he had never systematically studied the mainstream common script, so he still had to start from the beginning.
Cana volunteered to become Aibo’s language teacher.
At the same time, Aibo also acquired his first job in this other world—the guild’s waiter.
A daily wage of 1000J (50¥), with room and board included—pure child-labor exploitation.
Unfortunately, this was another world, and there were no laws protecting minors.
So Aibo worked and studied at the guild during the day, stayed up late studying at the guild at night, and even studied in his dreams.
These past few days had been extraordinarily fulfilling.
After Gildarts saw that Aibo had settled into guild life, he accepted a request and left.
Not long after Guild Master Makarov returned, the newspaper reported that the Magic Council had destroyed several Dark Mage Cults.
Those twisted cults seemed to have been wiped out before they could even wait for Aibo to gain the power to avenge himself.
And when the new teacher Cana saw Aibo skillfully reading the news in the newspaper, she bragged to Gray:
“Gray, I might be a genius teacher!”
“Could it be that Aibo is the genius?”
“Hmph, hmph. Of course my little brother is a genius too!”
Standing behind Aibo, Cana kneaded his cheeks:
“Little Aibo, there’s nothing left for me to teach you. If you still want to learn other writing systems, I can introduce you to a friend.”
It had taken Aibo only a few days to learn the common script.
After all, he could already read to begin with, and his new brain was quite useful too, so memorizing it had posed no difficulty.
“As far as written language goes, this should be enough for now. But I don’t mind meeting new friends.”
“Hehe, she’s a girl from town. She loves reading, and she said that once she learns magic, she’ll join our guild. I’ll introduce you next time~”
Cana had become much more cheerful lately, and she did not even seem to mind much that her father had left.
Because she had gained a very fun little brother.
She had never realized before that not every boy was as annoying as Gray.
“Tch, Aibo, don’t mix with those annoying girls! How about I keep teaching you the magic of real men? You’ll definitely learn it quickly.”
Gray also ran over and patted Aibo on the shoulder.
He liked this little brother who “knew how to play along” as well.
“Gray! You perverted exhibitionist, don’t lead my Aibo astray!”
“Hey! When did I!?”
“Sorry, Gray-bro. I’d like to learn some simpler magic first. Your magic is too advanced, and I can’t keep making you waste your time teaching me. But…”
Aibo smiled, his gaze falling on the “system panel” that no one else could see.
His biggest gain over the past few days had actually been figuring out how to use his cheat ability.
Now the data on his panel had changed dramatically—
[Vigor: 21/21]
[Stamina: 18/18]
[Magic Power: 365/366]
[Telepathy Magic LV4, 4550/10000000]
[Meditation LV1, 555/10000]
[Crush Magic LV0, 24/1000]
[Smoke Magic LV0, 404/1000]
[Fire Magic LV0, 200/1000]
[Ice Magic LV0, 211/1000]
[Molding Magic LV0, 333/1000]
[Card Magic LV0, 110/1000]
[Requip Magic LV0, 666/1000]
[Inspiration Value: 533] (*)
Stamina had increased by one point, Magic Power had risen by more than ten points after he learned Meditation, and he had also learned many LV0 spells.
These were spells Aibo had learned from the mages in the guild over the past few days, spending only one day on each.
Using the same amount of time to learn different spells yielded different amounts of experience.
This showed that different spells had different levels of difficulty, and that experience was gained at different rates as well.
Judging by his progress, Aibo had learned Requip Magic the fastest.
Naturally, Crush Magic was the slowest; its progress had not moved at all.
After spending a day learning Ice-Make Magic from Gray, two more entries appeared on the panel: [Ice Magic] and [Molding Magic].
The two did not even have the same learning difficulty.
The system calculated combination magic separately.
Here was the crucial point: based on his earlier rate of progress, Meditation’s experience should not have increased so quickly.
That was his cheat ability at work.
Inspiration Value!
An asterisk had appeared after Inspiration Value on the panel—that meant it could be used for leveling up.
The first time this (*) symbol appeared, Meditation’s experience bar had reached a little over three hundred, while Inspiration Value stood at more than seven hundred.
Aibo clicked it without thinking, and Meditation immediately rose from LV0 to LV1.
This cheat could fill in the missing progress on an experience bar by consuming Inspiration Value.
In other words, if Aibo wanted to, he could now consume 334 Inspiration Value and instantly learn Requip Magic.
The discovery sent Aibo into a frenzy of excitement.
The value of this cheat had skyrocketed.
But for now, he had no intention of spending Inspiration Value on leveling up.
Requip Magic was not difficult to learn.
Even without the cheat, he estimated that another day or two would be enough to master it.
There was no need to waste this much Inspiration.
Miss Elo had taught him Requip Magic.
Apparently, it was extremely popular among female mages, allowing one to change the clothes one was wearing at any time.
The principle was to set up a mannequin roughly matching one’s body in another room or space, then use a magic circle to change one’s clothes.
It was an application of Spatial Magic.
It was not difficult for a beginner; one only had to memorize the magic circle by rote and follow it rigidly.
However, there was a limit to the distance over which one could requip.
However, Miss Elo said it had taken her more than a month to learn this magic.
Aibo was not sure whether he was exceptionally gifted or had misunderstood the experience bar.
So he wanted to first try learning a spell entirely on his own.
As for Inspiration Value, he would save it for now.
It felt as though one could never have too much of it, because reaching LV5 from LV4 required ten million, and later levels might require a hundred million.
While the demand for Inspiration Value was enormous, Aibo had little idea how to obtain large amounts of it.
Although Inspiration Value seemed to increase every day even if he ignored it, the rate was simply too slow—an average increase of about 100 points a day, nowhere near enough.
As for how to actively increase Inspiration Value…
Aibo currently had one theory, though he was not sure whether it was correct.
He decided to test it today.