“It’s already been more than a year…
Time really flies.” A full year had passed since Aito joined Fairy Tail.
Without him even noticing, quite a lot had happened.
Gildarts returned several times, only to leave again.
Plenty of newcomers joined the guild, and Aito had completely settled into this new world.
He hadn’t encountered much trouble either.
Whenever something did happen, the people in Fairy Tail practically fought over who got to solve it first.
The only major incident occurred not long ago.
Makarov’s son Ivan—Laxus’s father—was expelled from Fairy Tail for endangering the guild.
Apparently, Ivan had been trying to obtain something called [Lumen Histoire].
Aito had “accidentally” overheard that particular detail, but he wasn’t interested.
Laxus had gotten into a huge argument with Makarov afterward, and the scene wasn’t pretty.
But Aito had barely interacted with Ivan in the first place.
And Laxus acted smug and obnoxious every day anyway.
Aito had no intention of wasting time comforting another guy.
Besides, Ivan was already considered a bastard by most of the guild and wasn’t popular to begin with.
His departure barely affected anyone.
When it came to changes over the past year, the greatest difference was naturally Aito himself.
His three basic attributes had risen considerably.
[Vitality: 36/36] [Stamina: 30/30] [Magic Power: 505/515] Unfortunately, Aito’s seven-year-old body hadn’t even started developing yet.
Physically, he was still pretty weak.
Of course, the main problem was simply that he had too many other things to do and barely had time to exercise.
His core abilities, however, had made excellent progress.
[Telepathy Magic LV4, 37786/10000000] [Spatial Magic LV2, 15086/100000] [Script Magic LV2, 7364/100000] [Magic Power Control LV2, 1415/100000] [Meditation LV1, 9156/10000] In a little over a year, he’d gained three LV2 abilities.
From that, Aito could make a rough estimate.
When focusing heavily on one ability, he could gain around twenty thousand experience points per year.
Suppose Aito were simply a talented native Mage.
Learning a new spell might take a few days to reach LV1, half a year to reach LV2, four or five years for LV3, and perhaps fifty years to reach LV4.
LV5 would be nearly impossible within an ordinary lifetime.
That made naturally awakened magical geniuses seem downright unfair.
Aito’s Telepathy Magic had awakened directly at LV4.
For an ordinary person, that might represent the peak they could only reach after devoting an entire lifetime to one form of magic.
Of course, skill level wasn’t directly equal to combat strength.
After studying magic for an entire year, Aito had understood one fundamental truth.
Battles between Mages were ultimately battles of Magic Power.
If Magic Power represented raw stats, then magic represented mechanics.
Only when two Mages possessed roughly similar Magic Power did the difference between their magical skill levels become truly decisive.
If one Mage’s Magic Power overwhelmingly surpassed the other’s, even an LV1 spell could crush the weaker opponent.
That didn’t mean skill levels were useless.
Magic had compatibility and counter relationships.
Most battles didn’t involve one side possessing an absolute Magic Power advantage either.
And once actual combat began, countless other variables entered the equation.
Naturally, there was plenty of room for tactics.
Take Gray as an example.
His Ice Magic and Molding Magic were both around LV2, but he only possessed a little over 200 Magic Power.
Aito had LV1 Fire Magic and LV2 Molding Magic, but more than 500 Magic Power.
If they restricted themselves to only those types of magic, the result could go either way.
But if Aito added LV2 Spatial Magic into the fight, Gray would probably lose.
On the other hand, Gray’s Vitality and Stamina were far higher than Aito’s.
If both of them completely exhausted their Magic Power and the fight turned into a fistfight, Aito would definitely lose.
Erza was another matter entirely.
Her Vitality, Stamina, Magic Power, and magical skill level were all significantly higher than Gray’s.
Their fights were completely one-sided.
So judging someone’s strength from a single stat was meaningless.
There was another situation where skill level became overwhelmingly important.
If two Mages had similar Magic Power and used the same type of magic, then the higher-level user’s advantage became absolute.
A young Mage named Warren had joined Fairy Tail recently.
He also used Telepathy Magic, but his ability was only around LV2.
Whenever Warren and Aito used Telepathy Magic at the same time, Aito completely suppressed him.
Aito could sense Warren’s magical fluctuations.
He could intercept the information Warren transmitted.
He could even fabricate false information and inject it directly into Warren’s Telepathy Magic.
Warren, meanwhile, couldn’t detect the slightest trace of Aito’s Telepathy Magic.
When two similar abilities possessed that large a difference in level, it became a completely one-sided battle.
Of course, if Warren possessed Magic Power on the level of Gildarts or Makarov, he could still brute-force his way into affecting Aito’s Telepathy Magic.
Magic Power simply carried far too much weight in magical combat.
When the number became large enough, magic truly became the power to create miracles.
According to Makarov, some people were practically shonen protagonists.
In the middle of battle, they could ignite their emotions and temporarily unleash Magic Power far beyond their ordinary limits.
That sudden explosion could completely reverse a losing battle.
Aito had only one opinion on that.
‘This magical world relies way too much on feelings.’ He didn’t consider himself the type who could suddenly explode with power through sheer emotion.
‘If I meet an enemy who can do that, couldn’t I get blindsided and killed?’ ‘Yeah.
I should become the Sword God of Ten-Mile Slope instead.’ ‘Grind until I’m max level before leaving the starting area.’ Anyway…
Those were merely his core abilities.
Aito had also learned an absurd number of LV1 spells.
[Crush Magic LV1] [Fire Magic LV1] [Ice Magic LV1] [Enhancement Magic LV1] [Smoke Magic LV1] [Light Magic LV1] [Lightning Magic LV1] [Earth Magic LV1] [Wood Magic LV1] [Giant Magic LV1] [Transformation Magic LV1] [Water Magic LV1] [Sand Magic LV1] [Shadow Magic LV1] [Card Magic LV1] [Metal Magic LV1] Learning a brand-new spell was simply too cost-effective.
Whenever Aito had spare time, he studied something new.
He’d pushed almost every spell he could reasonably learn to LV1.
If one proved too difficult, he simply used Inspiration Points to force it to LV1 instead.
Aito might not be the strongest young Mage in Fairy Tail.
But he was unquestionably the one who knew the greatest number of different spells.
Calling himself an all-element Mage wouldn’t even be much of an exaggeration anymore.
And his current stockpile of Inspiration Points had reached— [Inspiration Points: 660528] That’s right.
Six hundred and sixty thousand.
Aito gained roughly fifty thousand Inspiration Points every month and had barely spent any of them.
He had become the ultimate little hoarder.
That amount was enough to raise six LV2 skills to LV3.
And yet…
Aito still felt like he was gaining Inspiration Points too slowly.
Six hundred thousand looked enormous at first glance.
But even if he went all-in, it still wouldn’t be enough to raise a single LV3 skill to LV4.
At this rate, it would take nearly ten years just to scrape together enough points to push one ability to LV5.
‘How many decades does a person even get?!’ ‘If leveling is this slow, how am I supposed to become unrivaled under heaven and earth?!’ Aito sighed internally.
‘This cheat ability really isn’t powerful enough.’ ‘If only I could allocate Inspiration Points directly into my basic Magic Power stat…’ …
‘Wait.’ Aito froze.
‘Am I overlooking something?’ “Aito, Aito~” A girl’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
In the next instant, Aito had already teleported downstairs.
He loved teleportation so much that he’d developed the habit of instantly appearing behind someone whenever they called his name.
That was also the main reason Spatial Magic had accumulated experience so quickly.
“Big Sis Cana…
what’s up?” Cana was wearing a floral dress today.
As she turned, her black hair brushed past Aito’s nose, carrying a faint sweet scent with it.
Her eyes were filled with undisguised excitement, and her smile was impossible to hide.
“Aito, we promised we’d watch the stars together tonight, remember?” “Big Sis is here for our appointment~” “Uh…” Aito looked outside.
“It’s still afternoon.” “That’s why we have to prepare!” Cana grabbed his hand.
“Come on, come on!
Go shopping with Big Sis.
We’re buying tons of delicious food!” Half a year ago, Erza finally saved enough money and moved out of Aito’s house.
Only then did Cana finally abandon her hopeless campaign of challenging Erza.
Their final score had been— Eighty-one to zero.
Cana’s Magic Power actually wasn’t much lower than Erza’s.
Among children their age, she was unquestionably outstanding.
The problem was Card Magic.
It had incredible utility, but its direct combat ability was honestly mediocre.
Aito had learned Card Magic himself.
It was an extremely versatile ability that could combine with many other forms of magic.
As support or logistical magic, it was excellent.
But choosing it as your primary combat specialty was rather awkward.
Aito had even suggested that Cana learn another form of magic.
She didn’t seem particularly interested.
Once the pressure of competing with Erza disappeared, even her motivation to train began fading.
Back when Gildarts returned, Cana would frequently hover around him and cautiously test the waters.
But after repeatedly dropping subtle hints without getting anywhere, she’d eventually given up.
Now, even when Gildarts returned, Cana barely paid attention to him.
Instead, almost all of her attention went toward Aito.
She had become a complete little-brother fanatic.
Aito didn’t really know what to make of it.
At first, he’d considered clearing up Cana’s misunderstanding that he was another of Gildarts’s illegitimate children.
But by now, their relationship wasn’t much different from actual family anyway.
Whether he explained it or not hardly seemed important anymore.
Aito treated Cana like a little sister he had to look after.
Cana spoiled Aito like her little brother.
They each followed their own logic.
Somehow, it worked perfectly.
“Tonight is July 7, X777—the [Day of Sun-Moon Convergence]!” Cana proudly held Aito’s hand as they walked.
“It’s an incredibly rare celestial event!” “My fortune-telling says tonight is a night of destiny.
Something good is definitely going to happen!” Her smile widened.
“There’s even a really high chance we’ll see a meteor!” “On a special night like this, brother and sister obviously have to spend it together.” Cana squeezed his hand excitedly.
“And if we really see a meteor…” “Maybe we can even make a wish!” …
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