"Loki?"
In the cluttered God's Chamber, the Hieroglyphs that marked the Falna were still drifting on Leo's back, giving off a faint glow that lit the room around them.
Sensing that the goddess behind him had suddenly gone still, Leo came back to himself and called out to her.
"...It's nothing. The Falna has been bestowed."
Loki took a while to answer. Her divine eyes, which had opened a crack, closed again, and she spoke as if nothing had happened.
"I'll write down your Status and translate it into the common language. Hang on a sec."
With that, Loki pulled a sheet of parchment from the desk beside her and got to work.
Leo used the chance to turn his back toward the full-length mirror in the room, and checked what was on it.
There, on skin that had been blank a moment ago, was a pitch-black engraving.
The engraving looked partly like a stele, partly like a crest. Its rough shape was the head of a jester, and around it were a host of cryptic mystical characters, lending the jester's figure such a mysterious air that it didn't look comical or eerie at all.
This was the blessing the gods etched onto their Familia members. Status.
"Done." Loki handed the parchment over to Leo. "Take a look for yourself."
Leo took it and started reading.
The Status engraved on his back was written in Hieroglyphs, a script that only circulated among the gods. Very few mortals could read or write it, so every Familia's patron deity, after updating a member's Status, would translate it into the common language of this world to make it easy for the member to understand.
It was worth noting that, although Leo didn't know the common language of this world, ever since he'd transmigrated here he had been able to communicate freely with anyone in this world.
If not for that, when he'd first arrived he might have had no way of communicating with Ais, and wouldn't have been brought back by her.
Over the past year, aside from helping out with logistical work inside the Familia every day, Leo had spent most of his other time learning basic swordsmanship from Ais, and the rest of the Familia had taught him the common language. So as long as it wasn't anything too advanced, he could now read the common script just fine.
So Leo took in his Status easily.
......
Leo Eligos
Lv.1
Strength: I0
Endurance: I0
Dexterity: I0
Agility: I0
Magic: I0
Magic
Meteor Dance
· Star attribute.
· Extra Mind consumption can increase power.
· Extra Mind consumption can add attacks.
· Chant: Light of heaven, sword of stars.
Skill
■■■■
※ Cannot be deciphered.
......
As a fresh new recruit who had just had his Falna engraved, all of Leo's basic abilities were naturally at 0, and his Level was the lowest, Lv.1.
Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, Magic... the five most basic abilities in the Status were divided, from highest to lowest, into ten ranks: S, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I. The number after each ability was the proficiency.
0-99 was I, 100-199 was H, 200-299 was G... and so on. 700-799 was B, 800-899 was A, and 900-999 was S.
The proficiency of these ability slots only rose when the person actually used that ability, and it grew harder to raise the further up you went. If your own potential wasn't enough, you might hit a ceiling at a certain rank and never grow past it. The S rank in particular, out of all the countless people in the world who had been granted Falna by the gods, only a small handful of prodigies could reach it. Even a major Familia like Loki Familia, which stood at the top of Orario, only had a few members with abilities at S rank.
Leo had known all this for a long time, so he skimmed past his basic abilities and went straight to the Magic and Skill sections.
These were the important parts.
Magic and Skill had nothing to do with whether the person was new. Even someone like Leo, who had just received his Falna, might have them.
Magic, as the name suggested, was the power to bring about supernatural phenomena. In the past, it had only been something certain born magic races could touch, until the gods descended and brought down the miracle called Falna. After that, anyone among mortals had a chance of obtaining magic.
The minimum was one, the maximum was three. The moment the Falna was inscribed, magic slots would be generated, and as long as those slots existed, the person could learn that number of spells. But most people's magic slots ended up empty. Only those who held a deep interest in or affinity for something might have one triggered, and without that trigger, they might never learn magic in their entire lives. The discovery of magic remained a matter of luck.
Skills were the same. They were influenced by a person's significant experiences, their nature, their interests, and so on. You might gain one, you might not. The only difference from magic was that there was no limit on the number, and unlike magic, which you actively used, Skills generally produced special effects under certain conditions.
Basic abilities all started the same for everyone, at 0, so there was no real need to focus on them at the start. But magic and skills were different. Getting a powerful magic or skill right at the start was something that could shape your entire life.
Leo, who knew this well, was naturally most concerned about his Magic and Skill. They would decide how far he could go from here on out.
He didn't dare hope to obtain magic from the very start. The acquisition of magic was truly a matter of luck. Even in Loki Familia, plenty of members didn't have magic, including some first-class adventurers above Lv.5.
If he could get magic, that alone would set him apart from a lot of mediocre people.
Among the adventurers in Orario, those without magic easily made up over seventy percent, possibly more, proving that magic was still the privilege of a few.
Leo's biggest hope, of course, was to obtain magic, but he wouldn't be disappointed if he didn't. As long as he didn't end up a blank slate like Raul, he'd be satisfied.
That's right. That Lv.4 who had earned the captain of the Familia's regard had neither magic nor a skill. He was a genuine, blank-slate super-soldier.
If even a Lv.4 was like that, then there was nothing to say about a Lv.1. Obtaining a magic or a skill was absolutely something worth celebrating.
Leo just hoped he wouldn't be a blank slate like Raul, and he hadn't expected he would actually obtain magic.
"Meteor Dance..."
Looking at the magic name shown on the parchment, Leo's eyes lit up.
But before he could feel happy about it, the state of his Skill slot stopped him cold.
"What is this?"
Leo pointed at the skill displayed as ■■■■ and looked up at Loki, stunned.
"How would I know?"
Loki was shameless about it.
"You, you don't know?"
Leo was at a loss.
"Didn't you see the note above it?" Loki said, irritated. "Cannot be deciphered, exactly what it says. This skill showed up alright, but damned if I know why, I can't make out what it means. For a second back there I almost thought I'd somehow gone illiterate, like I couldn't even read Hieroglyphs anymore."
That made Leo frown, and then he fell silent.
If it were someone else, they'd probably be completely confused by this situation.
But Leo was different.
He suddenly remembered, in the original work, there was someone with the same situation as him.
Cassandra Ilion, currently an adventurer of Apollo Familia, Lv.2, possessed a special skill that couldn't be deciphered, with even the skill's name unable to be rendered in Hieroglyphs. Very mysterious.
Now, it seemed he was just like her, and had obtained an unreadable special skill.
"...Why?"
Leo stared at his Skill slot, baffled.
Was it because he was a transmigrator?
Or... was there actually something mysterious about him?
Did this count as having gotten a skill or not?
It should, right?
But what did this skill do? Who was going to tell him?
Leo couldn't help looking at Loki.
"Don't look at me, this is my first time running into anything like this either." Loki spread her hands, with meaning behind her words. "All I know is, you really are no ordinary kid."
When even an unreadable skill came up, if he wasn't someone with a strange background, then who would be?
"So what do I do? Pretend it doesn't exist?"
Leo's brow furrowed again.
"You can try to decipher it yourself." Loki said, taking absolutely no responsibility. "Most I can do is keep an eye out for you, and if I've got time I'll ask around. But honestly, this is something you'd better solve on your own."
"Orario has never been a peaceful place, and if a bunch of those nosy god-trash got wind of your situation, who knows what they'd cook up."
"So yeah, figuring it out yourself is the safest play."
As she spoke, Loki took the parchment back from Leo and wrote out a line in the blank space at the bottom.
"There. I wrote the skill info out exactly as it is, no translation. Have a crack at it yourself, kid."
After stuffing the parchment back into Leo's hands, Loki picked up the needle again, pricked her finger, dropped another bead of divine blood onto Leo's back, and traced a few strokes across it.
A short while later, as ripples spread across his back, the Status on Leo's body disappeared.
"I've locked your Status. Now no one can read it even if they try." Loki tossed Leo's shirt back at him and waved a hand. "Alright, go play. Don't bother me, I'm getting back to my nap."
"Oh, right. Make sure to go see Finn. He's got something he wants to tell you."
At her words, Leo silently put his shirt back on, tucked the parchment away, and walked out of Loki's room.
Watching Leo go, Loki opened those usually-narrowed eyes again, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly.
"Can't be deciphered, huh... The unknown down here really is something."
......
On the other side, after leaving the God's Chamber, Leo didn't head off right away. He stood with his back to the door, frozen there for a long while.
His eyes went back to the parchment in his hand, to that line that couldn't be deciphered.
It wasn't any script Leo recognized.
If even the gods couldn't read it, then a rookie like him, who'd only been studying the common language for a short time, certainly wouldn't be able to.
And yet, looking at it, Leo felt the same way he had when he'd first transmigrated here. He didn't know the script or the language of this world, and yet, somehow, he could understand it.
So... he understood what these words meant.
......
Stranger from Another Star
· Permanent. All ability limits removed.
......
Looking at what those words meant, Leo went quiet for a very long time.
Stranger from Another Star... huh?
"It really does fit the name."
Leo gave a self-mocking smile.
He understood now. This was a skill that had dug out his essence as someone from another world and made it manifest.
He didn't know the specifics of what this skill could do, but he'd just have to take it one step at a time.
With that, Leo crumpled the parchment in his hand and destroyed his Status information.
Then he headed down the spiral staircase of the Central Tower, and stepped back into the inner courtyard.
Ais was no longer there. He had no idea where she'd gone.
Leo didn't dwell on it. He got his bearings, then headed for the tower to the north.
He climbed up through the tower, and soon arrived in front of a room.
This was the personal room and office of the captain of Loki Familia.
"It's Leo. May I come in?"
Leo knocked on the door and called out.
"Come in."
Almost the next second, a childish voice with a strange undertone of maturity answered, an oddly contradictory sound.
"Excuse me."
Leo pushed the door open and stepped into the office that was connected to the Familia leader's personal room.
The office was quite spacious. The walls were lined with bookshelves that filled them from one end to the other, the carpet was patterned like a vivid floral wreath, there was a white stone-built fireplace, and a tall grandfather clock with what looked like a magic stone crystal set inside it. The overall tone was a deep brown, the style steady and composed.
The most striking thing in the office was a tapestry hanging on the wall above the fireplace at one end of the bookshelves.
It was woven from many threads of gold and silver, depicting a goddess in armor surrounded by spears, lances, and many other weapons.
The leader of the Familia sat at the back of this office, behind a large desk that didn't match his small frame.
"You're here, Leo."
That childish voice with its undertone of maturity rang out again, and the boy who looked no taller than a child smiled at Leo, easy and approachable.
Finn Deimne. This Pallum Braver, who looked like nothing more than a young boy on the outside, was the captain who led all of Loki Familia.
He looked young, but he was actually forty-two this year, and stood at Lv.6.