Once she'd explained everything that needed explaining, Riveria left.
She gave Leo three days. After three days she'd come back to spot-check him, to confirm how well he'd learned. If she was satisfied, she'd personally teach Leo for a few days herself.
Leo had no objections. Once he'd seen Riveria off, he immediately began leafing through those instructional texts on magic, memorizing them ten lines at a glance.
Back before he'd received the Falna, Leo naturally couldn't have done such a thing, but after two Rank Ups, his abilities in every respect had already surpassed the realm of ordinary Humans, and his memory had grown enormously, a world apart from before.
The Falna existed precisely to keep digging out the body's potential, to unearth the various powers a person could originally reach but couldn't actually touch, and in the process, through the miracle of "Rank Up," to keep expanding that potential, raising one's container, bringing it to new heights, new realms.
The gods called this process drawing ever closer to Them, edging ever nearer to the realm where They resided, so the higher one's Level, the closer one actually came to the gods' realm, with even one's lifespan extending accordingly and the signs of aging being delayed.
Before a miracle like that, a mere increase in memory was nothing at all, let alone since Leo was also a skilled hand at magic, and the stronger his Mind, the more it benefited his memory too.
In such circumstances, Leo memorized the knowledge in the books point by point at a speed his past self could never have matched, and slowly came to appreciate how true Riveria's assessment of "You don't know how to use magic at all" really was.
Before he'd seen this knowledge, he truly hadn't known there were so many knacks, so many techniques, to using magic.
Learning just one or two of these knacks and techniques might not open up too obvious a gap with other Mages, but once you'd learned a lot of them, the advantages when using magic would grow more and more obvious, until finally a qualitative change occurred.
From the books, Leo saw quite a few knacks for applying magic firepower. These knacks would teach him how to concentrate firepower better, extend the range of his magic, increase the damage, and make originally scattered magical force more lethal.
If I'd learned these techniques for applying magic before all this, the fight against Goliath would definitely have been a lot easier, wouldn't it?
After learning that these knacks existed, looking back at his own performance in the fight against Goliath, Leo could only feel that his past self had been exactly like a green recruit who knew nothing. It was just as Riveria said, completely taking magic and using it raw, like a reckless brute, without any of a Mage's elegance or composure.
Although he'd always cast himself as a Magic Swordsman rather than a Mage, with his current ability, even specializing solely as a rearguard Mage wouldn't be any problem at all.
His magic firepower had already reached the Lv.5 level even at base, and he'd learned even the Mage Development Ability that only high-rank Mages could acquire. Even though his number of spells was on the small side, only one, Meteor Dance was inherently very versatile, and depending on how it was used, it could do things that took several spells for others to do. So even if he gave up melee and served directly as a rearguard Mage, Leo would have no problem.
In fact, Finn and the others were planning to slot Leo into the rearguard position of the expedition force this time.
There was nothing for it. If they sent Leo into melee, he'd be no more than a Lv.3 vanguard or middle guard, and for Loki Familia's expedition force, one more Lv.3 vanguard or middle guard wouldn't be much help at all.
But if they had Leo specialize solely as a rearguard Mage, then he'd be no different from a Lv.5 rearguard Mage.
After all, his output ability was right there for all to see, genuinely on par with Lv.5, and depending on the situation he could even push it higher. Not putting him in the rearguard Mage position would be a waste of a good thing.
That was the reason Riveria had hurriedly led Leo here. Only by laying down the foundation could he properly fill the rearguard Mage role, and perhaps even become the person with the highest output ability in the whole expedition force aside from her.
Leo didn't know Finn and the others' plans, but this magical knowledge was too precious to him. He'd already realized that, and he took it all in without turning any of it away, working hard to memorize and learn it.
During this time, a few members also visited the archive. When these people saw Leo bent over the desk studying so hard, they were quite surprised, but in the end none of them chose to disturb him. At most they'd greet him, then leave on their own.
Leo, too, paid little attention to the outside world, completely immersed in the world of the books, forgetting even to eat lunch.
Fortunately, he himself forgot, but someone remembered for him.
"...Here."
A pair of slender, pale hands reached out in front of Leo at one moment, sending a distinctive aroma drilling into his nose along with them.
Leo froze first, then realized a familiar figure had taken the seat across from him.
"Ais?"
He let out the word, dazed.
Ais had appeared before Leo at some point, her transparent eyes fixed on him, while in her hand she held out a fried snack.
"You haven't eaten, have you?" the girl said softly. "I bought it for you."
At that, Leo's gaze turned to the fried snack.
It was a food made by coating mashed potato in flour and deep-frying it, the potato croquette that showed up quite often in the original work too.
Leo knew this snack counted as one of the few foods the usually desireless doll-like girl loved, the snack she secretly liked to eat on the sly.
"Thanks." Leo took the croquettes, breathing in the fried aroma rising off them, and smiled at the girl. "I was just wondering why I hadn't seen you around. So you went out into town?"
"...Mm." Ais nodded, putting it concisely. "The expedition's almost here. The weapon needs maintenance."
Because even on ordinary days the girl would often slip into the Dungeon whether she had reason to or not, her beloved sword saw a fair amount of use and had to be repaired and maintained regularly.
Even though Ais's Desperate had the unbreakable property and wouldn't be completely destroyed, with frequent use its blade still wore down, dulling its sharpness.
On an ordinary day, that bit of lost sharpness wouldn't matter, but the expedition was almost here, and the Familia's expedition force would push down below floor 50. The monsters there wouldn't be cut even if they stood still and let you hack at them, not by a weapon lacking power. On top of that, the expedition would run long, and the frequency of combat would be extremely high, so it was best to bring your weapons in at their absolute peak condition for peace of mind. That was why people in the Familia had recently been cutting down on their time in the Dungeon and getting all their weapons repaired.
"I see."
Leo nodded to show he understood, then bit into the croquette in his hand.
The girl kept staring at Leo's movements, watching him eat the croquette, not budging at all.
"...Want some?"
Looking at Ais like this, Leo found it a little funny, and teased her with the question.
"........I don't." The girl moved her gaze away with difficulty, setting her delicate, pretty face into a blank expression as if displaying her own iron will. "I've already eaten."
"I figured."
Leo nodded along in deep agreement, then mercilessly wiped out every last croquette in his hand, drawing a regretful look from the girl.
"When I collapsed, you were the first to come over, weren't you?" Leo finally brought up the matter from last time, looking straight at Ais, and said softly, "Sorry to have troubled you, Ais."
"...It's no trouble." Ais shook her head, meeting Leo's gaze, and said with utmost seriousness, "After all, we had a promise."
That was right. Unlike the others, Ais had been someone Leo invited along, specifically to back him up.
Ais had kept that in mind the whole time, with extraordinary seriousness and focus. During Leo's battle she'd never moved her eyes off him, and her hand had never stopped gripping the hilt of her sword for a moment, ready to act at any time.
"You did it." The look in Ais's eyes as she watched Leo carried an emotion he couldn't read. "Congratulations on defeating the Floor Boss."
"Just luck." Leo gave a wry smile, tapped the books in front of him, and said, "See these? Riveria had me read all of them. They made me deeply aware of just how lucky it was that I managed to beat Goliath."
He really did feel now that his success in defeating Goliath had come down not to strength, but to luck.
It wasn't that he wanted to belittle himself. The more he understood how magic was supposed to be used, the more Leo could recognize just how reckless, how out of control his self that day had been.
To succeed in defeating a Floor Boss with that kind of blast-away-wildly style of fighting, Leo himself wouldn't believe it if you said he'd cleared it on anything but good luck.
But while he didn't believe in himself, Ais believed in his ability more than he did.
"Not at all." Ais looked straight at Leo and said with the utmost seriousness, "You're strong."
"In some ways, stronger than me."
This was Ais's most direct thought after witnessing that battle.
That brilliant meteor, dispelling the darkness, piercing through space, had been carved clearly into her heart all this time, leaving Ais unable to forget it through these past day or two.
It wasn't just her. Many people remembered that scene deeply, remembered that brilliant meteor.
The gorgeous starlight of that moment had lit up not only the whole of the Dungeon's 17th floor, but had also shone clear through many people's hearts, leaving an impression they couldn't forget for a long while.
"You're already Lv.3 now, aren't you?"
Ais brought this up.
"Mm."
Leo confirmed Ais's words.
"...I really envy you."
Ais fell silent for a moment, then voiced her most honest words.
In the span of just half a month, he'd leveled up again, grown stronger again. Ais really was envious of Leo in her heart.
"Don't worry." As if seeing through Ais's inner voice, Leo smiled. "You'll get stronger too."
Ais pressed her lips together and said nothing more.
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