"What?"
In that instant, Leo froze.
That sword just now was only about equal to a full-speed strike from a Lv.3 with Agility at D?
No way, right?
"Hard to believe?"
Finn asked with a smile, and got an honest nod from Leo.
If that sword really had been only that fast, there was no way he should have failed to even raise a block in time and ended up with its tip pressed to his throat.
An attack that didn't even leave him time to lift his sword to block, how could its speed really be only that level?
Leo didn't much want to believe it.
But it seemed to be a fact.
"The reason you thought that sword was fast just now is nothing more than an illusion." Finn started to explain. "The speed of my sword when I swung it wasn't fast at all, but along the way it went through three changes of speed and three extremely small changes of direction, which made your optic nerves unable to keep up with the shifts in the blade's speed, producing a sensory dislocation that gave you the illusion the sword was moving fast.
"In other words, your eyes and your brain were both deceived by that swing of mine, to the point that your body itself lagged, making you feel you couldn't block that sword because you'd failed to react in time."
Finn's words made Leo frankly show a look of astonishment.
"You can even do that?"
He looked thoroughly shaken, and didn't bother to hide it in the slightest, which made even Finn break into a smile.
"Why not?" Finn said, smiling. "The same strike, the same swordsmanship, depending on how well the user applies it, can end up producing wildly different effects.
"A simple single thrust, depending on the spot on the target it's aimed at and on how the opponent reacts, can end up producing wildly different results.
"Even without using the tricks of changing speed and small shifts of direction, if I thrust a sword at you, a thrust that goes straight in head-on versus a thrust that catches your blind spot and your opening, which of the two is more of a threat? I shouldn't have to spell that out, right?
"Techniques like these, tactics, the back-and-forth contest with an opponent, the clash of combat wits and so on, are all qualities a strong fighter should possess, which is exactly the kind of thing you're after now: the 'technique of fighting.'"
As he said this, Finn raised the wooden sword in his hand once more.
"Now, I'll use one more strike. Watch closely again..."
Finn began to swing a sword in front of Leo, one carrying all manner of techniques and tricks.
He didn't spar with Leo the way Ais had, and he didn't teach him actual swordsmanship either, but broke down for him all kinds of small combat techniques, demonstrated all kinds of small combat tricks, treated "fighting" as a discipline to be taught, and kept cramming every sort of knowledge into Leo's head.
He would tell Leo how, when the opponent was a monster, to kill it the fastest.
He would tell Leo how, when the opponent wasn't a monster but a person, to defeat them.
Depending on the type of monster, and on the race of the person who was the opponent, the combat methods Finn taught would change too; even against the same race, the same individual, the fighting style he chose would differ depending on the situation.
This was the sort of thing Finn taught Leo.
"That's right, all I can teach is the knowledge and thinking of fighting.
"You need to memorize all of this, adjust it as appropriate to your own circumstances, make it your own, even turn it into a kind of bodily instinct or an action you'll take subconsciously.
"To me, fighting is an art. Only when you've studied it through, seen it clearly, worked it out thoroughly, can you be said to understand how to fight."
Finn's way of teaching was completely different from Ais's. There was no sparring, no correcting the posture of an attack or the stance of a defense; instead it required thinking, working out the problem of "fighting."
If Ais's teaching style was the rote memorization of the humanities, then Finn's was the brainstorming of the sciences.
He would give you a formula, but exactly how to apply that formula, what to plug into it, Leo had to think out for himself, work out for himself, solve for himself.
"So-called combat technique is this kind of thing. Technique and tactics can't do without either one, countermeasures and the contest of wits advancing side by side, that's how you do it best.
"There's one set of methods for when the opponent is a monster, and another set for when the opponent is a person.
"You should already be used to fighting monsters, but you haven't fought another person yet, right?
"That's what you're lacking."
When he got to this point, Finn even showed a wistful look.
"In the past, back when Ais and the others hadn't yet joined this Familia, there were two great mountains in this city that no one could cross.
"There were two Familias, basically full of monsters who didn't give a damn about latecomers catching up, every one of them terrifyingly strong.
"Back then, any adventurer staying in Orario had no choice but to hone their person-to-person combat technique to the most polished level, or else, forget about catching up to those monsters, even just wanting to stay in the same place as them, you might be ground down so badly by their whims and torments that you'd wish you were dead."
That was an era that could only be called hell for any adventurer in Orario who wanted to make a name for themselves, who had a dream they wanted to realize.
If you wanted to rise, you had to chase those monsters.
If you wanted to realize your dream, you had to cross those two mountains.
If you didn't strive to hone yourself, train yourself, make yourself grow strong fast, then in the end there was only one outcome: being weeded out by the truly strong.
Finn, Riveria, Gareth, and the others had lived through that era, through a trial that could fairly be called cruel.
"Later, those monsters all fell, every one of them, because they wanted to subjugate another monster, and the two great mountains that had stood in our way all that time were finally cleared away.
"But their exit also caused a pack of bastards who'd never dared make trouble openly to start raising their heads, dragging this city out of the hell-like era of trials and formally into a dark period of competing for survival.
"That time was another kind of cruel experience. Many Familia seniors, our own Familia included, were lost back then."
A shadow surfaced in Finn's eyes, and only then did he return to normal and speak calmly.
"You're very lucky, showing up only after our struggle with those monsters and villains had ended, not having to go through those cruel trials.
"But for that very reason, compared to those who lived through them, the skills of you up-and-comers are all far too green.
"I'll hand over to you in full these skills that were only born after being honed. It just comes down to how much you can learn."
Leaving those words, Finn went on teaching, and didn't leave until three hours later, letting Leo stand there alone, mulling over what he'd been taught.
During this time, people from the Familia would now and then come back from outside, pass through the courtyard, and catch the sight of Finn teaching Leo how to fight.
"Hold on... Leo's started learning from the captain now?"
"Even the captain's stepped in to teach Leo himself?"
"First Miss Ais, then Lady Riveria, and now even the captain's become Leo's teacher?"
"Isn't that guy a little too lucky?"
Quite a few of them started muttering, eyes full of envy and surprise as they looked at Leo.
They envied beyond measure that Leo could receive instruction from three of the Familia's big figures one after another.
They were surprised that these big figures were willing to step in and guide him personally.
But on second thought, if even Leo couldn't receive these big figures' instruction, then wouldn't that be the real problem?
This was a monstrous prodigy who'd reached Lv.4 in only two months. The Familia's leaders and executives would naturally regard him differently, and would hope he could grow up quickly and become a pillar of the Familia.
For that, a bit of guidance and instruction, of course they couldn't be stingy with.
Most people thought this way, but there were also those who couldn't accept the situation.
"I want the captain's loving guidance too!"
When a certain elder sister of the Amazoness twins came back and learned of this, she was so green with envy she could have wept on the spot, and if the younger sister of the twins hadn't done her utmost to stop her, the other might not have been able to help running off to vent her frustration on Leo.
After Ais learned of it, she silently observed Leo standing in the courtyard lost in thought for a while, then left without a sound.
Bete likewise glanced at Leo as he passed through the courtyard, then left expressionless.
As for Lefiya... this elf girl had been listless since yesterday.
"Lv.4..."
The elf girl muttered under her breath, her mood unbearably low.
"And I'm still only Lv.3..."
Clearly, the elf girl was rather hung up on the fact that she'd been overtaken by a certain someone, even taking it hard.
In Raul's words, when she was Lv.3, Leo was only Lv.1, and now she was still Lv.3 while Leo was already Lv.4, having passed her by. How could the elf girl, who ground her teeth in resentment at a certain someone and regarded him as a rival (a rival in love), not feel low?
"As expected of Mr. Leo!"
Line, on the other hand, admired Leo more and more now.
She counted as one of the witnesses who'd watched Leo grow rapidly from the closest distance, and at Leo being able to achieve what he had today, the girl felt nothing but happiness.
And so, under the silent watching and gazes of countless people, Leo began a stretch of days learning from Finn.
Every morning, Finn would deliberately squeeze out two or three hours to teach Leo, having Leo follow him in learning all sorts of combat techniques and ways of thinking.
Sometimes it was nothing but lecturing, sometimes it was demonstration done in person; Finn passed on his experience and combat techniques to Leo without holding anything back, helping him hone his close-combat ability.
Leo didn't show any astonishing learning ability that would have shocked Finn, but every time after Finn finished teaching, when he taught Leo again the next day, he could always feel Leo's growth.
Leo kept absorbing Finn's teaching, soaking up all kinds of combat knowledge like a sponge.
Meanwhile, the outside world also learned of the fact that Leo had formally reached Lv.4 after returning from the expedition.
"No way? He's already Lv.4?"
"Isn't that way too fast?"
"Don't they say the higher the level, the harder it is to level up? How is this guy's leveling speed getting faster and faster instead?"
"Reaching Lv.2 took less than a month, reaching Lv.3 took a bit over half a month, and now barely half a month has passed and he's reached Lv.4 again?"
"In all of two months, start to finish, he's gone all the way from Lv.1 to Lv.4?"
"What kind of monster is this guy?"
Everyone was numb, their heads buzzing, feeling as though the whole world had started to become unfamiliar.
Since when did Falna levels go up this easily?
Before this, even the Sword Princess had taken a full year just to reach Lv.2, and that was already the world's fastest leveling record. So what the hell was this now?
Three levels straight up in two months?
What kind of daydream could produce such a ridiculous feat?
Even though people had already accepted the fact that Leo was a genius, and even though after his earlier feats they understood this person's growth speed was out of the ordinary, on learning he'd reached Lv.4 they were still badly shaken.
Mainly, the level of Lv.4 was already no small thing.
In Orario, an adventurer of this level was already at the top of the core fighting force, with fewer than forty people stronger than them.
Once you reached this level, you only had to advance one more step, Rank Up one more time, and that was Lv.5, a first-class adventurer.
And Leo was already very close to that step.
He was no longer that jaw-dropping newcomer, but a strong fighter who surpassed over ninety-nine percent of the adventurers in Orario.
In the span of two months, the man had gone directly from a newbie adventurer to a Lv.4 that the vast majority of adventurers could only look up to, which absolutely sat badly with those still struggling at Lv.3, Lv.2, even Lv.1.
Those who were Lv.4 would feel astonished by it too and question their own lives, while those first-class adventurers at Lv.5 and above would begin to take this up-and-comer seriously.
In everyone's mind, the same thought arose, as if by agreement.
"Maybe, before long, Orario's going to have one more first-class adventurer."
This person had overtaken numerous seniors one after another at a speed ordinary people couldn't comprehend, so wasn't he going to catch up to those first-class adventurers next at that same speed, and even surpass them?
This inhuman growth speed, just what level would it take before it started to slow down?
How long would he need to reach Lv.6?
Was there a chance he'd become Orario's second Lv.7?
Even more than that, the Lv.8 and Lv.9 that had vanished from the whole world, would someone climb up to them once again?
"After the Familias of the god and goddess withdrew from the stage of history, is the lower world finally about to give birth to another monster for countless people to look up to?"
This thought inevitably arose in the minds of the countless people who knew the glory of that era, and of the gods.
About it, some were wary, some jealous, some curious, some cursing; every person's and every god's thoughts were different.
Leo, however, turned a blind eye to all of it, and pressed steadily ahead on the road he'd decided on.
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