Chapter 394: What Is Lv10 (Patreon)

Alfia wanted to go back to the past once more.

But not a thousand years back. She meant the days before Zeus Familia and Hera Familia set out to slay the Black Dragon, when the two Familia still held the city.

The reason was simple. Isagi was interested too. It came down to this:

"Don't you want to see just how strong a Lv.9 adventurer really is?"

"Mm… I really do."

Earlier, Isagi and Alfia had accidentally traveled to the past and fought Maxim, the captain of Zeus Familia. That was when they'd realized what was unique to Lv.8 adventurers: the so-called "power of wishes."

So what would Lv.9 look like?

On that subject, Alfia had only ever heard fragments. The captain of Hera Familia, the strongest adventurer, whose epithet was [Empress], had said flatly that Lv.8 and Lv.9 weren't all that different in essence. Just like Lv.5 and Lv.6.

Of course, the elevation of the "vessel" that came with each level-up was still there, and so were the gains in an individual's Strength, speed, Endurance, Magic and the rest. But the gap between Lv.9 and Lv.8 was no longer obvious. It was nothing like the crushing difference between a Lv.2 and a Lv.1 adventurer.

Alfia had given Isagi an example. Say a Lv.5 and a Lv.6 fought, and the Lv.5 had an enormous advantage in skills and magic. Say the Lv.5 was Ais, and the Lv.6 was just an ordinary adventurer.

The fight would still be brutal, and in the end the golden-haired girl would lose. An ordinary Lv.6 could easily defeat a genius like Lv.5 Ais.

But once Ais reached Lv.6 and got through the initial period of not being used to her new vessel, once her body fell back into coordination, the result would flip. If the two fought again, the girl, now Lv.6 as well, could beat her opponent with ease.

Lv.9 and Lv.8 were much the same. The influence of Stats was already limited. What mattered more were skills and magic. Or rather—the gap in the "power of wishes."

Of course, to Isagi's eyes, you could also call it a gap in "Arcanum." After all, an adventurer's "power of wishes" could, in a sense, be called "Arcanum" without being wrong.

"And that might mean something very important." Alfia was only guessing. "After Lv.10, perhaps there will be another breakthrough."

That was what the former Empress had said. As the strongest member of Hera Familia, she seemed to have already touched the edge of "that level." If she could defeat the Black Dragon, she might become the first Lv.10 adventurer in history.

"Only the Black Dragon will do."

Back then, Hera Familia had already descended below the 70th floor of the Dungeon. Even so, they could no longer find a Monster fit to be the Empress's opponent.

Isagi listened to Alfia ramble on for a long while. He understood her thinking, more or less. If they traveled back this time and managed to meet the Empress, they could at least hear some of her insights.

Then let's go.

Isagi didn't agonize over it. Time travel was familiar ground for him by now. So he called Alfia over, and beneath the towering Golden Tree in the courtyard, he activated his ability—

A summer night in Orario, more than a decade ago. It was raining.

The Court of Stars wasn't there yet. The site held ordinary houses, and the whole surrounding area looked run-down and desolate. In the era when Zeus Familia and Hera Familia ruled Orario, they had completely suppressed Dark Familia, but the city was no less chaotic for it.

Isagi and Alfia decided to get straight to the point. In that case, they only needed to head for distant Babel.

And then… It was as if she'd known they were coming.

The moment the two stepped out of a rather gloomy alley onto the main street, they spotted a beautiful woman sitting in a café along one side of the long road, waving at them through the glass of the window. Alfia seemed used to it. Without a word, she led Isagi over.

The café was the kind of "high-end" shop Elves often ran in Orario: pleasant atmosphere, quiet, always filled with a faint, elegant fragrance.

"We meet again, Alfia."

The Empress blinked.

She was a human woman, not an Amazon, and entirely unlike a certain idiot Empress Isagi knew. She wasn't tall. She was even rather short, much like an ordinary girl, perhaps about 160 centimeters. Her build was slender, her chest barely rising, her whole look plain and understated. Her black hair hung loose, with hardly any ornament.

Her skin was a deeper shade, as if tanned, though different from the natural wheat-brown of Amazon skin. Her pitch-black eyes were deep and heavy, and they pressed down on whoever met them. They were the only remarkable thing about her.

The Empress wore very plain adventurer's clothes, a bit like what Ryuu had worn when Isagi first met her: a dark cloak, a dusty, thin top, brown trousers, and leather shoes of the same color. A small dagger hung at her waist. Isagi could only see its dark hilt. Walking down the street, she would look like the most ordinary female adventurer in Orario.

Aside from her aura.

Isagi couldn't put his finger on it, but just sensing Alfia sitting bolt upright beside him, he could tell there was some enormous pressure here.

Most important of all—had she been waiting here for the two of them all along? Prophecy? Or something else? Was this the Empress's "ability," the power of the City's Strongest adventurer of this era?

"Ah, so between Maxim and little Alfia now, who's stronger? Why not go find him and have a fight? He'd be thrilled. Best to do it deep in the Dungeon, though. If you two went at it here in the city, you'd probably wipe out a small chunk of the continent—"

The Empress turned out to be a real talker. Once she got started, she never stopped.

Isagi had heard Alfia complain about it before: "The captain's personality is exactly like Goddess Hera's." She loved to mutter. Like some resentful wife, she always had endless things to say and was nattering about something every moment of the day.

"Boy—"

"Mm, you're the one who brought Alfia back, aren't you? Such an interesting ability. Were you the one who fought Maxim before? That dream was fun, but a dream is never real, no matter what. You could even say it's very far from real."

"It's your dream, after all."

Sipping her coffee, the Empress seemed to pin down something very important all at once.

"Because it's your dream, it runs the way you expected it to, even if you never noticed—"

So that was it? Isagi blinked, grasping what the Empress meant.

"Still, I'm glad. Alfia got a healthy body. If Hera saw it, she'd be happy too, and also… ah, sorry."

A sudden silence fell. Probably what the Empress had wanted to mention was Alfia's younger sister.

"I don't really want to know about the future. It's probably not good news, right, Alfia?"

"…"

Alfia couldn't bring herself to say it.

The annihilation of Hera Familia: the very thing Ryuu had once agonized over. Even so, if she told the Empress that their expedition to slay the Black Dragon would surely fail, it still wouldn't stop them. In a sense, they were even more stubborn than Senior Alise and the others, because this was an adventurer's "pride." Even knowing they would surely fail, they would go anyway. To them, losing courage was harder to accept than death.

So in the end, out of a thousand words, Alfia answered with only a soft one.

"Yeah…"

There was no need to say anything more. The Empress nodded as if she already knew, then turned to Isagi.

"So, boy, did you come to fight me? What a shame. Like I just said, you have a very handy ability, but fighting in a dream like that doesn't mean much. And I can't be bothered to go back to the Dungeon. Back and forth, what a hassle. Or should we go to the bottom of the sea? No, that sounds even more trouble. Forget it. You want information anyway, right? Sometimes I think that instead of fighting with our bodies, wouldn't it be better if everyone just talked?"

…

Isagi fell silent. Facing the chattering Empress, he thought he finally felt some of the helplessness Alfia had shown earlier.

"Lv.9 really isn't any different from Lv.8. If I had to put it somehow, it's probably fully understanding your own power. You should know what I mean."

"Ah—"

His own power of wishes was [Never Disappearing]. But that power was very broad. In fact, there were a great many things it could do, far more than the simple "as long as I don't give up mentally, I won't die."

"Fully understand it, then wield it freely, like mastering a craft. In the end, it's all the same thing. The power seems complicated and profound, but really, it's no different from how you use the sword in your hand."

[Return to Simplicity]. For some reason, Isagi read something like that meaning in the Empress's words.

"And once you fully understand everything about yourself, you'll feel a kind of 'perfection,' as if nothing in the world has any meaning and you've suddenly come to a standstill. Mm… that's about it."

There was no way to improve any further. Whether Stats, technique, or combat experience… everything was complete. Then, having reached this point, could one still climb higher?

"I used to think Lv.9 was the limit for adventurers. But I soon rejected that idea. Do you know why? Because back when I was Lv.8, I thought Lv.8 was the limit."

The Empress smiled softly. Only then did Isagi realize that she was rather pretty when she smiled. No, very pretty. It was a matter of her bearing, too. It wasn't the pure beauty of the Goddess of Beauty. It was something gentle, magnanimous, and intangible.

"Hera said that in a thousand years, I was the only adventurer to reach Lv.8. Later, counting Maxim, there were two. Then I advanced to Lv.9. So I figured… There should be a Lv.10 too. And Hera goes on all day about how the possibilities of the children of the lower world are infinite, and neither denies my idea nor confirms it. What a useless woman!"

Probably the woman before him was the only person in the entire city who dared to badmouth that old goddess whose fame rivaled Zeus's.

"That's how I see it. I think that after 'perfection,' you should be able to take one more step. Do you understand?"

Isagi nodded. But Alfia obviously understood none of it. She was a genius, yet she hadn't followed a word of their conversation since the start.

What did "should be able to become even stronger" mean? Even if you thought so, then what?

And then… It came down to "imagination."

"I often wonder what a version of me stronger than I am now would look like."

That line put a final period on the conversation.

"Ah… Alfia, want to try this shop's cake? It's delicious. Elves don't like sweets, but the desserts they make are surprisingly good. Maybe it's their perfectionism. Even if it's something they dislike, if the customer wants it, they have to make it the best it can be. That's their stubbornness. And that's exactly why Elves keep turning out such interesting, and very formidable, people."

The sudden digression left Alfia utterly speechless. But it was plain that the Empress had no intention of continuing. Or rather, the topic was completely over.

Alfia couldn't refuse, and in the end she simply accepted the chocolate cake the Elf waitress brought over. It really was delicious. Probably the kind her sister liked, so should she take some back for her…

"Finish it up. I'll have one packed to take back, don't worry."

The two women seemed to start catching up. The Empress kept teasing Alfia with meaningful looks, glancing curiously at the boy beside her, grinning slyly, until even Alfia grew embarrassed.

"If Hera found out… ah, she'd definitely find out. Heh heh heh. If everyone in the Familia knew, they'd all find it unbelievable."

"?"

Alfia had no idea what the Empress was talking about.

Isagi sat to one side drinking coffee, thinking it tasted no different from the coffee in the city he came from, over a decade later. Then it occurred to him that the Elf owner of this café would most likely still be running the shop a dozen years on. In that case, it was no surprise at all. Elves were stubborn people. They would never casually change the taste of their own shop.

With that thought, Isagi felt this time travel had gone unexpectedly smoothly. He had understood the Empress's words completely, so…

…

A Lv.10 adventurer was the self he imagined.

Countless images began to flicker through Isagi's mind. He had clearly grasped the full meaning of that sentence.