Twilight Manor. Leo's room.
Back from Finn's office, Leo was packing up what he needed to bring.
First he changed into a set of outdoor clothes, an outfit made for easy movement, very plain, the kind that didn't look at all like something you'd wear into the Dungeon.
Any other adventurer heading into the Dungeon would have suited up in proper gear right away. Maybe not full plate armor head to toe, but at the very least sturdy clothes that wouldn't tear at the first scrape.
But in Orario, a decent set of adventurer's gear didn't come cheap. Tens of thousands of valis at minimum to put together a complete kit, and if you wanted armor, there was no upper limit on how much you could spend. Leo, naturally, was in no position to afford that.
He'd spent a year as a trainee in Loki Familia, doing nothing but logistics work. Forget the Dungeon, he hadn't even taken on any odd jobs outside. How could he have saved up any money?
So of course Leo didn't own a single decent piece of equipment.
Fortunately, the floors he was heading to weren't all that dangerous. For the first few floors of the Dungeon, going without proper armor was fine. He could always kit himself out properly later, when he got stronger and needed to push deeper into more dangerous floors.
"The monsters on the first few floors aren't much stronger than wild beasts on the surface. As long as I'm careful, I shouldn't get too badly hurt."
Thinking this, Leo took down a weapon hanging on the wall.
A short sword.
The blade was only about forty centimeters long, plain in shape, clearly a very standard, ordinary weapon at a glance.
But for a rookie adventurer heading into the Dungeon for the first time, the quality of this weapon was actually pretty good.
After all, the weapons new adventurers normally used on their first Dungeon trip were cheap things issued by the Guild, worth a thousand or two thousand valis at most. Even on the first few floors, those things had to be patched up once a day. That should tell you all you need to know about their quality.
The short sword in Leo's hand was a cast-off from a male member he was on good terms with. Sure, it was something the guy had thrown out, but that guy was a Lv.2 upper-class adventurer. A weapon an upper-class adventurer had outgrown was bound to be far better than any Guild handout.
The guy had once claimed he'd shelled out a full eighty thousand valis for this sword back in the day.
That price was enough to buy some cheaper large weapons. For a short sword to cost that much showed it ranked as top-tier among ordinary weapons.
Of course, that was only the case among normal-quality weapons. The truly high-quality weapons in this world were the extraordinary superior equipment.
That kind of superior equipment could only be made by master smiths who had received Falna and mastered the Development Ability called Blacksmith.
Some had special effects close to magic, some had mysterious traits or attributes, and even those without such features were far sharper and more powerful than mortal steel. To say they could cut through iron like butter wouldn't be an exaggeration.
The value of that kind of gear was far beyond anything mortal hands could forge, like the weapon in Leo's hand. Even the cheapest piece went for hundreds of thousands or even a million valis, and decent superior equipment selling for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of valis was perfectly normal.
The ones who could afford superior equipment were basically all upper-class adventurers. Take the member who had discarded the short sword now in Leo's hand: he'd saved up for over a year before he could finally buy a single piece of Third Class equipment.
Third Class equipment was the lowest tier of superior equipment. The highest was First Class equipment, which generally only First Class adventurers could afford. Ais, for instance: her sword, Desperate, was First Class equipment.
Leo did yearn for that kind of superior equipment, but right now he was just a beginner who had only just received Falna. Forget being unable to afford weapons at that level, even if he could, using them on the first few floors of the Dungeon would honestly be a waste.
"For me right now, even using a weapon at this level is already a bit of a luxury."
Leo hung the eighty-thousand-valis short sword at his waist, then left the room and headed down the tower.
On the way down, he ran into Raul.
"Finally, you're out."
Raul seemed to have been waiting for him here specifically, and the moment he saw Leo, he stepped forward.
"Here, this is for you."
Raul handed something to Leo right off the bat.
It was a shield that could be strapped to the arm.
The shield was wooden, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, shaped roughly like a "V". It wasn't large overall, nor was it heavy. You could tell it was designed not to hinder the wearer's movement.
"This is a shield I used to use. It's not superior equipment, but it's not a cheap piece of junk either," Raul said with a smile. "This shield should hold up fine all the way down to Floor 12 of the Dungeon. As long as you don't head into the Middle Floors, it shouldn't break on you."
Hearing that, Leo immediately understood that this shield was definitely not cheap.
A piece of gear that could be used down to Floor 12 without breaking had to be worth tens of thousands of valis at minimum. No worse than the short sword in his hand.
"You're really giving this to me? Doesn't it sting a bit?"
Leo looked at the well-made shield and said with a smile.
"Sting what? This is from back when I was Lv.1. After I leveled up to Lv.2, I shoved it in a corner and forgot about it. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't even have remembered it existed," Raul said breezily. "I actually wanted to give you something better, but you're still a beginner. Handing you really valuable gear wouldn't help much. It might even hold you back."
Leo nodded, agreeing with what Raul said.
Using equipment that was too good at a low level wasn't really beneficial to your own growth.
Basic ability growth came down to proficiency, and raising the proficiency of a basic ability meant using that ability as much as possible.
If Leo used overly good weapons or armor right now, his basic ability growth rate would take a hit.
Against a single monster, Leo would normally need to land several strikes to take it down, which meant using his basic abilities several times over. But if he used an overly advanced weapon and killed it in one stroke, that was only one use of his basic abilities. Naturally, his proficiency would rise more slowly that way.
On top of that, relying on high-end weapons to dispatch monsters easily wasn't a good thing either, for an adventurer who wanted to hone his combat skills.
Add to that the risk that a low-level adventurer using high-end weapons might attract the attention of people with ulterior motives, and giving Leo overly good equipment right now would be all harm and no benefit.
That was why no one in the Familia had given Leo too much help. Otherwise, with Loki Familia's vast resources, it wasn't as if they couldn't outfit one of their own members with even a single piece of superior equipment.
"I'll take it, then."
Leo didn't bother being polite with Raul. He fastened the shield at the small of his back.
For Raul, who was Lv.4, this shield really wasn't anything. There was no need to stand on ceremony.
"Yeah, just take it." Raul smiled, then pulled out a small pouch and pressed it into Leo's arms. "And these too. Everyone in the Familia put them together for you. Take them with you."
Leo opened the pouch and saw rows of potion bottles neatly arranged inside.
He was startled.
"These are potions?"
Potions were magical liquids with special restorative effects, made by alchemists who held the Mixing Development Ability.
"They should come in handy for you, right?" Raul said, scratching his head. "Everyone figured you'd get hurt at some point on your first Dungeon trip, so we all chipped in some of the potions we hadn't used yet. Consider it a gift."
"But isn't this way too much?" Leo did a quick check and clicked his tongue in amazement. "The regular potions for stamina recovery are one thing, but there are two High Potions in here, and a Magic Potion too. Damn, those three bottles alone have to come to nearly a hundred thousand valis, right?"
Potions came in several types. Regular potions mainly restored stamina. Effects like patching gashed flesh, stopping bleeding, mending broken bones, the healing-type effects, were the job of High Potions or Elixirs. As for Magic Potions, those were used to restore Mind.
Magic in this world consumed Mind every time it was used, which was why potions that restored Mind were called Magic Potions.
Generally, a single stamina-recovery potion sold for around a thousand valis, while a Magic Potion went for around ten thousand valis. High Potions were on the pricier side, usually worth tens of thousands of valis each.
And the Elixir, said to be able to heal any injury instantly, started at a minimum of five hundred thousand valis per bottle.
Two High Potions and a Magic Potion. The three of them together really did come to close to a hundred thousand valis, and that wasn't even counting all the stamina-recovery potions in the pouch.
Leo even spotted two potions with very strange colors. Unless he was mistaken, those should be antidotes specifically for clearing abnormal status effects like poisoning.
The prices of antidotes fluctuated wildly. An antidote for common toxins might only go for a few thousand valis, but ones that could cure deadly or special poisons could fetch hundreds of thousands or even a million valis without anyone batting an eye.
The two antidotes sitting in the pouch probably weren't of the top-shelf variety, but judging by their color, they should still be worth around ten thousand valis each. Definitely fairly high-grade antidotes.
The value of this one small pouch of potions probably exceeded that of the two pieces of equipment in Leo's hands.
"Everyone's worried about you, you know. Scared you'll get hurt in the Dungeon," Raul said with a goofy grin. "This is everyone's way of showing they care. You're not going to refuse, are you?"
Leo was silent for a moment, then solemnly accepted the pouch.
"Tell everyone thank you for me."
Leo said it to Raul with real seriousness.
"I will." Raul clapped Leo on the shoulder. "Be careful with everything. If things really don't work out, just come back. Worst case, we'll spar with you when we've got time. That'll raise your proficiency too."
Basic ability growth didn't have to come from killing monsters alone. Daily training and sparring with others could raise basic abilities just as well.
As long as you still had potential left to draw on, as long as you hadn't yet hit the ceiling of your current Level, any action that gave you training and growth could draw enough excelia to raise your basic abilities.
What's more, if you went through life-or-death struggles, through real adventure, then even without killing monsters you could earn high-grade excelia called "great feats," which raised your own Level. The so-called level up and Rank Up.
"When I need someone to spar with, I won't hold back on you."
Leo didn't refuse, taking the goodwill of his Familia seniors as it came.
They were already comrades of the same Familia. In Loki's words, family with the same goddess's divine blood running through them. No need to stand on ceremony.
Down the line, they'd fight side by side, even trust each other to watch their backs through life and death. In a relationship like that, formalities were unnecessary.
"Alright, off you go then."
Raul, having said everything he needed to, stepped out of the way.
"Then I'm heading out."
Leo waved to Raul and left the tower with him watching him go.
But as Leo entered the courtyard and was about to leave Twilight Manor, he ran into someone else.
"...Are you going to the Dungeon?"
Ais had appeared there without him noticing. Watching Leo come down from the tower, she spoke softly.
"Yeah." Leo stopped and smiled. "Are you here to see me off?"
The girl didn't answer. She just stepped forward and met his eyes.
The two of them looked at each other, neither saying anything for a long while.
"...Here."
After a long moment, the girl handed Leo a small pouch.
"Be careful out there."
With that, Ais turned, her long hair swaying, and drifted away.
Leo looked at the two potions sitting inside the pouch and fell into a long silence.
They were potions in stylish bottles, with a color far deeper and more mysterious than ordinary potions.
Leo recognized them. These were two Elixirs.
The highest-grade potion. Retail price: five hundred thousand valis.
Two of them. That came to a million valis.
"If I just turned around and sold all the potions on me, I'd be rich overnight, wouldn't I?"
Leo gave a wry laugh and solemnly tucked the pouch with the Elixirs away too before stepping out of the courtyard and leaving Twilight Manor.
Standing outside the gates of the Familia's headquarters, Leo looked back at the manor, which seemed to burn like flame.
"Be back before you know it."
After leaving these words for no one in particular, Leo stepped onto the road and headed off.