The Price of Fame

The long night eventually passed, and Leo, who knew nothing of what had happened the night before, woke up as usual at the crack of dawn, grabbed his toiletries, and headed outside.

However, when Leo walked down the corridor, he was no longer greeted by his familiar seniors, but was immediately surrounded by a large group of seniors with shining eyes and incredulous expressions.

"You're finally awake, Leo!"

"You finally came out, kid!"

"Quick! Tell us!"

Is the news really true? You've really already—

Leo didn't hear what was said after that.

Because it's just too noisy.

The senior members of the clan were all excited, thrilled, and even shocked, shouting louder and louder than the last, giving Leo, who hadn't yet reacted, a huge fright.

He was completely stunned, having no idea what was happening. He only felt a series of commotions around him, which almost ruptured his eardrums and made him dizzy. He nearly turned around and ran away.

At the crucial moment, Raul pushed his way out of the crowd and put his arm around his shoulder.

"You really did something amazing without making a sound!" Raul said excitedly, "I never imagined you could break Miss Ais's record, it's unbelievable!"

Upon seeing Raul appear, Leo breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had seen a savior.

"What exactly is going on? Why are you all so agitated?"

Leo quickly asked.

"Still keeping it a secret, huh?" Raul was still excited. His words sounded like a complaint, but they were actually full of joy for Leo. He said, "Now the whole clan knows. You've leveled up, haven't you?"

Upon hearing this, Leo immediately understood.

So, it turns out the news of my relationship advancement got out?

That's true; there's no way to hide something like that, especially within the same clan.

Only----

"You found out so quickly?"

Leo hadn't expected the news to spread so quickly.

After all, I only leveled up last night, and I found out about it first thing this morning. The news spread way too fast.

If the leaders and officers of a clan were to level up, it would be understandable that the news would spread so quickly. After all, they are all first-level adventurers and the pillars of their clans. Each level up means that the strength of their clans will increase significantly. Once something like this happens, it would be impossible for Loki not to spread the word to everyone immediately.

Even if it's just Raul and others in the Second Army who upgraded from Lv.4, it's understandable that the news spread so quickly. After all, they've already reached Lv.5 and become first-class adventurers. This news would spread like wildfire even in Orario, let alone within their own clan.

But what about myself?

It's just an upgrade from Lv.1 to Lv.2, there's really no need for it to be upgraded so quickly, right?

As one of the strongest Familias in the city, the bottom-ranked members of the Loki Familia are all Level 2. He himself has simply gone from a rookie who couldn't keep up with the main group to one of the bottom-ranked members, so there's nothing to brag about.

Because of this mindset, Leo didn't take his advancement to Lv.2 seriously at all. After returning from Loki's Divine Room last night, he fell asleep immediately and was completely unaware of what happened after he left the Divine Room.

As a result, after sleeping soundly until dawn, he found himself the center of attention in his clan?

This was truly unexpected.

This is the downside of being born into a large clan.

Because he was surrounded by high-level adventurers, the best among adventurers, and even because he usually interacted with first-level adventurers like Ais, Leo didn't realize that reaching Lv.2 was no small matter, no matter where you were.

Especially considering he reached Lv.2 in less than a month, it would be strange if this didn't cause a sensation.

Why were these elders from his clan, who were surrounding him, so excited and agitated?

It wasn't because he became Lv.2, but because he had only been Lv.2 for a very short time.

"Last night, our Chief God announced to us that you had successfully leveled up and were no longer Lv.1." Raul exclaimed, "It's only been less than a month, and you've already reached Lv.2, breaking Miss Ais's record for the fastest level up!"

"You have no idea how excited Loki was last night. After coming out of the Divine Room, he rushed into the captain's office yelling and shouting, alerting everyone."

"We initially thought something serious had happened, but after Grandpa Gareth came out, we realized it was just that you leveled up."

As he said this, Raul's face was still full of disbelief.

"How did you do that? Even Miss Ais took a year to reach Lv.2, and you did it in less than a month."

Not only Raul, but everyone else present also had expressions of disbelief and incredulity on their faces.

God knows how shocked they were when they found out about it last night.

They even thought Loki was drunk and talking nonsense, until Gareth came forward to confirm it, and only then did they have to believe it.

Yet they still found it incredible, unbelievable.

There's no way around it; upgrading in less than a month is just too outrageous.

Ais's leveling up in just one year was already unbelievable, causing a sensation worldwide. But Leo not only broke that record, but also shortened it from one year to less than a month! Who could believe that?

That's why they were so excited and thrilled so early in the morning.

"Well—how should I put it?"

Seeing that Raul and the others were looking at him with shining eyes, Leo scratched his face.

"Even if you ask me how I did it, I don't know how to explain it. I just normally cleared Dungeon, did normal adventures and training, I didn't do anything special."

This is the absolute truth.

It was just normal Dungeon raiding, normal adventures, and training; nothing special was done.

The reason he was able to level up so quickly was twofold. First, he was truly daring; even with all abilities at I0, he dared to single-handedly venture into the 7th level of the Dungeon, encountering numerous life-or-death crises and accomplishing what others couldn't. Second, he was a [People of the Alien Star].

This inexplicable special skill is truly a bug, allowing him to grow at an inhuman speed, just like the protagonist of the original work, and even seemingly reducing the difficulty of his leveling up.

It's fair to say that without the [People of the Alien Star] skill, Leo would never have been able to level up to Lv.2 by breaking through the limits of all his abilities. At most, he would only have improved his basic abilities by a few stages. In that case, he would probably still be struggling on the 5th to 7th floors of the Dungeon, unlike yesterday when he could move freely and do whatever he wanted on the 12th Floor.

As for upgrades?

It would be impossible to do this in less than a few years.

Even worse, if Leo's potential is too mediocre, he might not even be able to level up.

Knowing his own limitations, Leo couldn't possibly offer any decent advice, much less reveal the existence of the [People of the Alien Star], so he could only tell Raul and the others in this way.

Although Raul and the others were eager to know how Leo had done it, they were also very discreet and didn't pry too much into it. Instead, they continued to excitedly chat about Leo breaking the world record.

They didn't feel jealous or anything like that; on the contrary, they were genuinely happy.

No matter what, Leo is a member of their clan, one of their own. The more special he is, the happier they, as fellow members of the clan, are for him, because it shows that the Loki Familia is becoming stronger and stronger, which makes them proud.

Next, whether they were familiar with Leo or Leo, everyone who saw him would immediately surround him, chattering about his level-up. This caused the number of people surrounding Leo to increase to the point that he felt overwhelmed.

Finally, their commotion alerted Gareth and woke up the old man.

"What kind of noise is this first thing in the morning? Get out of here! Go do what you're supposed to be doing!"

The old man's voice was so loud it shook the ceiling, causing those surrounding Leo to scatter without hesitation.

"Thanks, sir."

Overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of his fellow clan members, Leo expressed his gratitude to Gareth, who had come over.

"What? You can't even handle this?" Gareth looked at Leo, who was covered in sweat, and said with a teasing smile, "Then you're in for a lot of trouble later."

Given Leo's growth rate, this kind of thing will probably happen frequently in the future.

Moreover, this situation is considered good within the clan; once they go outside, things get really lively.

Leo roughly knew what Gareth was referring to.

Let's talk about the future later.

Leo sighed and said this.

"This is the price of fame. Get used to it."

Gareth patted Leo on the shoulder with his big hand, almost knocking Leo off his feet.

To be fair, this dwarf warrior has incredible strength; he truly deserves to be called a formidable individual with both "Strength" and "Durability" at the S level.

"This is just the beginning," Gareth said meaningfully, patting Leo on the shoulder. "The really troublesome ones are yet to come, and you'll have to deal with them."

As she spoke, Gareth cast her own light out the window and looked towards the courtyard.

Leo understood and looked over with Gareth, and then they saw the figure wielding a longsword under the shade of the tree.

"Go ahead," Gareth encouraged with a smile, "Don't let our Princess."

Leo was silent for a moment, then nodded.

The courtyard in the morning still carried a hint of the night's coolness, leaving a lingering chill in the air.

Before the sunlight reached this place, the blonde, golden-eyed female swordsman had already appeared, wielding her beloved sword as she had done for ten years.

"Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!"----

The crisp air was sliced apart by the sharp slashes. With each swing of her sword, the blonde, golden-eyed female swordswoman created a flash of silver light in the air, cold and sharp.

However, if someone familiar with Ais were to see her performance at this moment, they would notice that Ais seemed somewhat absent-minded today, not as focused as usual, to the point that her swordplay was somewhat chaotic.

The ordinary members, who were so engrossed in Leo's upgrade that they couldn't extricate themselves from the situation, naturally couldn't have witnessed this. Seeing their own [Sword Princess] completely unaffected by external factors and continuing to practice swordsmanship every day with self-discipline, they could only express their admiration and sighs.

Although Leo had only known Ais for a year, he understood her far better than the ordinary members who could only admire her from afar. So he immediately noticed that Ais was not in a good mood.

But he said nothing, and as usual, he didn't disturb the girl at all, quietly watching from the side.

But the girl had already sensed the familiar presence approaching, so she immediately stopped and lowered the long sword in her hand.

She turned around, her translucent golden eyes gazing at Leo, filled with emotions that no outsider could understand.

Seeing this, Leo walked straight up to them.

Why did it stop?

He greeted Ais with a faint smile, just as he always did, seemingly unaware of the commotion he had caused within the Familia, remaining unusually calm.

Ais raised her eyelids, glanced at Leo, and then lowered them again.

She placed the longsword under a tree nearby, leaned against it, and picked up the scabbard that had been standing there.

"----Want to come?"

The girl raised the scabbard in her hand, the tip pointed at Leo, her meaning clear.

This has been a common occurrence over the past two weeks, and even over the past year.

This is also the daily routine of the boy and girl.

Leo, who had practiced swordsmanship with his opponent for a long time, drew his small straight sword from his waist without saying a word.

Then, he heard this sentence.

"Give it your all."

Ais's voice came through, carrying a stubbornness that only Leo could detect.

Leo paused in his movements, and sighed inwardly.

Well, my strategy of hiding my true strength and pretending to be weak in previous sparring sessions has finally backfired.

Now that she's already upgraded, if Ais still can't realize that Leo was hiding his strength, then she's not just naive, she's stupid.

She finally understood why she had always felt something was off when sparring with Leo.

Now, the truth has come out.

"Let me see your current strength."

Ais stared directly at Leo, her expression incredibly serious.

Seeing Ais like this, Leo knew he couldn't escape it.

"Good."

Leo didn't mince words and nodded directly.

I will give it my all.

As Leo spoke, his posture remained unchanged, yet the aura emanating from him shifted.

That's the kind of aura that only seasoned veterans exude.

Although Leo has been an adventurer for less than a month, he has been constantly engaged in battle for 27 consecutive days. It would be an understatement to say that he is a veteran of countless battles.

This sight of Leo made Ais tighten her grip on the scabbard slightly.

The two stared at each other, creating a tense atmosphere.

Soon after, the two moved at the same time, rushing straight at each other.