Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

Although Leon's skills and status were growing by the day, Leon was feeling weird again. It was that bizarre situation where he couldn't feel himself growing stronger. The numbers on his status screen were just number... they didn't represent anything.

"I wonder where and when I became such adrenaline junkie..."

It was clear that Leon was feeling like that because the number of times where his life was indeed in danger decreased by manifold. Even though Ilyana was constantly using spells powerful spells to level up Leon's resistances, she always gave him time to cure himself. As weird as it sounds, Leon reached a point where he didn't feel his life threatened even when his health was on the single-digit mark. He always felt like that when Ilyana was around, and that was kind of disturbing.

Leon got surprised by that other human a few weeks ago, but his sense of urgency was decreasing little by, and so was his motivation. Leon needed to do something about that because he couldn���t remember anything more annoying than his current lack of motivation.

"Efreet, I need a favor," Leon said.

"Sure, if it is anything related to fighting, then I will do my very best," Efreet said.

"Great, I want you to punch me every time I sigh or start daydreaming," Leon said.

"It looks like someone's losing their mind because of boredom..." Celsius said.

"Things are getting interesting all of a sudden," Undine said, and Leon imagined her smirking.

"Instead of fighting, playing would surely solve your current lack of motivation, Leon," Sylph said.

All spirits were right in some sort of way. It was all because Leon wasn't disciplined enough. If he had a clear goal, he could work hard and single-minded to achieve it, but when he is goal was something so distant and unclear like vengeance, he couldn't help but feel like his current training was pointless. Maybe if he had a clear image of the bastards he wanted to kill, things would change, but he only could recall the lizard bastard, and he couldn't even feel much hatred towards it. Most likely, because Leon also felt responsible for every single problem he faced.

"I have another job for you," Ilyana said via Telepathy. "Come to my castle."

Ilyana 'appeared' right before Leon could concretize his new strategy to keep himself working at full speed and still stay motivated. Still, he couldn't help but sigh thanks to that. A job would probably keep his mind busy for a while, but since it was something that Ilyana wanted him to do, it wouldn't be something dangerous. Just a minor nuisance.

"Who am I trying to fool like this? I don't even have the discipline to keep myself focused in order to grow strong and protect the earth in a few hundred years... Now I understand how come, Hector, Amanda, and Maya grew tired of battle and started a new human society in another world."

"It can't be helped, Leon," Volt said. "You lived only one-tenth of the time you will have to wait for the enemies to appear. It is like you are hired by someone to do something for free for ten years and only receive payment after those ten years... On a much larger scale."

Leon nodded. Even though it was rare for Volt talk or even start a conversation, he always would reach the core of the question very quickly. Unfortunately, just knowing that wouldn't solve anything. Maybe talking with his old friends would help, but Leon was aware that that could also cause some addiction effects. Besides, it wouldn't be the same thing talking with them as of now in comparison to the people they were a long time ago.

"A spaceship is going to land on one of the worlds that are connected to this one," Ilyana said when Leon arrived where she was. "You have to prevent them from landing. If you fail, you will have to all of them."

"... Are you for real?" Leon asked astonished.

"Yes, we can't afford to take the risks of letting any race capable of crossing the space in spaceships to find this world," Ilyana said.

"Why are you worried about that?" Leon asked. "This world and Earth are connected, after all."

"It isn't the same thing," Ilyana shook her head. "The people of the earth decreased in number thanks to the interference of those who worked for harvesters and also because of in-fighting. Not only that, but Japan also had the chance to grow technologically speaking, but they didn't because the chances of things growing wrong were high. But why do think it happens when a species survives the assimilation by growing stronger and also making good use of technology?"

"I don't know... I'm not imaginative enough to think of what might happen," Leon frowned. "Perhaps they created the exterminator, Skynet, or something."

"... Science develops a lot thanks to mana, and the species of such world starts to modification their bodies to become much stronger while being able to use mana," Ilyana explained.

"That sounds convenient... why wouldn't you use such a method to grow stronger?" Leon asked.

"Body modification can make one's body stronger and sturdier, imagine someone that has half of their body made of mithril, it is very convenient as you say, but it has some demerits," Ilyana said. "For example, you can't heal such parts with magic. Even if you become smart enough to repair yourself, the process will take a few hours, at least."

"I see..." Leon rubbed his chin. "I imagine that they also would have a hard time facing enemies that can drain their mana and the mana inside their mithril parts."

"Yes, but that isn't the real problem," Ilyana said. "Since it isn't something simple to do, only a few selected individuals would be modified. Soldiers would become the first ones to have those modifications, and in many worlds across the cosmos, soldiers only have one job. Die protecting their world and its citizens... instead of letting a soldier die and waste those mithril parts, many would require modification them even further to make them explode at the very moment they die."