X777, July 7

"It's already been over a year... Time really flies."

It had been a year since he joined Fairy Tail.

A great many things had happened without him even noticing. Gildarts had returned several times and left again, the guild had taken in quite a few newcomers, and he had completely integrated into this world.

He had not run into much trouble. Whenever there was any, those guys in the guild rushed to solve it before he could.

The only major incident was that not long ago, the guild master's son Ivan—Laxus's father—had been expelled from the guild for endangering its safety.

Apparently, Ivan had wanted to obtain something called [Meteor Stardust], which was why he had been kicked out. Aibo had "accidentally" overheard about it, but he was not interested.

At the time, Laxus had a huge argument with the guild master. It had not been a pleasant scene, but Aibo had never had much contact with Ivan, and Laxus strutted around all day like his shit did not stink. He had no time to go comfort a man.

Besides, Ivan was an asshole. He had never been well-liked in the guild, so his expulsion barely had any impact. No one cared.

As for changes, the greatest change was naturally in his own abilities.

His basic three stats had improved considerably:

[Energy: 36/36]

[Stamina: 30/30]

[Mana: 505/515]

Unfortunately, his seven-year-old body had not even begun developing yet, making it pathetically frail. Of course, the main problem was that he had too much to do and simply had no time to train his body.

However, several of his core abilities had improved significantly:

[Telepathy Magic LV4, 37786/10000000]

[Space Magic LV2, 15086/100000]

[Word Magic LV2, 7364/100000]

[Mana Control LV2, 1415/100000]

[Meditation LV1, 9156/10000]

Over the past year or so, he had gained three LV2 abilities. From the data, when focusing on a single ability, he could gain roughly twenty thousand experience points per year.

Assuming Aibo was a native with fairly good talent, learning a magic would take him several days to reach LV1, half a year to reach LV2, four to five years to reach LV3, and fifty years to reach LV4. LV5 would be nearly impossible within a normal lifetime.

This showed just how blessed geniuses who awakened magic on their own were.

It could be said that Aibo's Telepathy Magic, which had awakened directly at LV4, was likely the pinnacle ordinary people could only reach after exhausting their entire lives.

Of course, skill levels did not directly correlate to personal strength.

After a year of studying magic, Aibo had come to understand one principle—battles between wizards were, in truth, battles of mana.

If mana was the numerical value, then magic was the mechanism.

Only when two wizards had roughly similar amounts of mana did the contest between magic levels hold meaning.

If one wizard's mana was overwhelmingly stronger, then even LV1 magic could crush the other side.

Of course, that did not mean magic levels were useless.

There were countering relationships between magics. In most cases, wizard battles did not involve absolute mana suppression, and there were all kinds of variables during combat, naturally leading to various strategic contests.

For example, Gray's Ice Magic and Mold Magic were both at LV2, but he only had around 200+ mana. Aibo's Fire Magic was LV1 and Mold Magic was LV2, yet he had over 500 mana.

If the two fought using only those two magics, the outcome would be difficult to predict. But if Aibo then used LV2 Space Magic, Gray would most likely be unable to win.

However, Gray's energy and stamina were both far higher than Aibo's. If both of them exhausted their mana and began fighting hand-to-hand, Aibo would definitely lose again.

It would be different with Erza. Whether in energy, stamina, mana, or magic level, Erza far surpassed Gray, so a battle between them would be completely one-sided.

Strength could not be judged by looking at the numbers of just one ability.

Furthermore, if two combatants could not widen the gap in mana and both used the same type of magic, then skill-level suppression became absolute.

Not long ago, a young man named Valen had joined the guild. He used Telepathy Magic, but his skill was only LV2. When they used Telepathy Magic at the same time, he was completely suppressed by Aibo.

Aibo could detect the fluctuations of his Telepathy Magic, eavesdrop on the information transmitted through it, and even forge false information to insert into the other party's magic.

Meanwhile, Valen could not detect any trace of Aibo's Telepathy Magic at all. A confrontation between similar magics with such a level gap was a complete dimensional beatdown.

Of course, if Valen's mana had been as powerful as Gildarts's or the guild master's, he could have affected Aibo's Telepathy Magic in turn.

All that could be said was that mana carried far too much weight in magical contests. As long as the numbers were high enough, magic was the power of miracles.

According to the guild master, some people were like the protagonists of shonen manga. They could ignite their emotions in battle and unleash mana far beyond their usual limits for a short time, thereby reversing the tide.

Aibo could only say that this magical world was far too idealistic. He did not think he was the kind of fighter who relied on emotional outbursts. If he encountered that sort of enemy, would he not get screwed over?

Sure enough, he should become a hidden master and only leave the novice village after leveling to the max.

He had gone off on a tangent.

Aside from those core skills, Aibo had also learned a great many LV1 magics. The ones he could name included... [Crush Magic LV1] [Fire Magic LV1] [Ice Magic LV1] [Enhancement Magic LV1] [Smoke Magic LV1] [Light Magic LV1] [Lightning Magic LV1] [Earth Magic] [Wood Magic] [Giant Magic LV1] [Transformation Magic LV1] [Water Magic LV1] [Sand Magic LV1] [Shadow Magic LV1] [Card Magic LV1] [Metal Magic LV1]...

Since learning a new magic was simply too cost-effective, whenever Aibo had free time, he would study one. He had basically raised every magic he could learn to LV1, and he had forcibly used Inspiration Points to raise the ones he could not learn to LV1 as well.

Aibo might not have been the strongest young person in the guild, but he was definitely the young person who had mastered the most magic.

No one would argue if he said he was now an all-element wizard.

Moreover, the Inspiration Points Aibo currently possessed were...

[Inspiration Points: 660528]

Yes, six hundred and sixty thousand Inspiration Points. He could gain an average of fifty thousand per month. Aibo had barely spent any and had been hoarding them all along.

Those Inspiration Points were enough to raise six LV2 skills to LV3, but... Aibo still felt he was gathering them too slowly.

After all, they looked like a lot at first glance, but even going all in would not be enough to raise a single skill from LV3 to LV4.

At this rate, it would take ten years just to barely raise one skill to LV5! How many decades did a person have in a lifetime? With leveling this slowly, how was he supposed to reign supreme over heaven and earth? Sigh, this cheat really was too underpowered.

It would be great if Inspiration Points could be added to the mana among his three basic stats...

Wait.

Had he overlooked something?

"Aibo, Aibo~"

His thoughts were interrupted by a girl's call, and in the next instant, Aibo had already appeared downstairs from his home.

Because he loved teleportation magic so much, Aibo had gotten into the habit of instantly appearing behind someone whenever they called him. That was also the main reason his Space Magic experience increased so quickly.

"Cana... What is it?"

Today, Cana wore a floral dress. When she turned, her black hair brushed past the tip of her nose, carrying the sweet scent unique to a young girl. Her eyes held undisguised delight, and her lips were full of smiles.

"Aibo, we agreed to watch the stars together tonight, right? Your big sister is here for our date~"

"Uh, it's only afternoon."

"That means we need to get ready! Come on, come on, go shopping with your big sister. Let's buy a whole bunch of delicious food!"

Ever since Erza had saved enough money to move out of Aibo's home half a year ago, Cana had finally given up on the futile effort of challenging Erza. Their score had ended at eighty-one to zero.

In truth, Cana's mana was not much lower than Erza's. She was absolutely outstanding among people her age. The main issue was that although Card Magic was highly versatile, it was honestly average in combat.

Aibo had learned Card Magic too. It was an extremely versatile magic that could be combined with all kinds of other magic. It was incredibly strong when used as support magic or logistics magic, but it was rather awkward when treated as a primary magic.

Aibo had advised her to learn another kind of magic, but Cana did not seem to care much about it. Without Erza's pressure, she had even become lazier about training.

Whenever Gildarts came back before, Cana would often circle around her father and test the waters. But after repeatedly making subtle hints to no avail, she simply gave up. Now, even when Gildarts returned, she did not care. She focused all her attention on Aibo and had become a complete and utter "little-brother fanatic."

Aibo did not know how to evaluate Cana either. If it had been before, he might have wanted to clear up the misunderstanding that he was not Gildarts's illegitimate son. But now, his relationship with Cana was no different from family, so whether he explained it or not no longer seemed important.

Aibo treated Cana like a younger sister, while Cana doted on Aibo like a younger brother. They each went by their own terms and got along harmoniously.

"Tonight is July 7, X777—the Day of Sun-Moon Crossing. It's an extremely rare celestial event. My fortune-telling says tonight is a night of destiny, and something good is bound to happen. There's a high chance there'll be a meteor!"

Cana, holding Aibo's hand, looked both smug and delighted.

"On such a special day, us siblings definitely have to spend it together. Maybe we can even make a wish upon a meteor!"