Right now I was sat against the wall like a sack of potatoes while Annabell was on my lap messing around with my hair and presumably giving me some wacky hairstyles. The reason for my unsightly predicament was due to my training session with the landlady who insists that I call her Aunty from now on as it feels more natural than just referring to her as just 'landlady'.

She started training in using the hammer and scythe with some basic forms but obviously due to my scrawny build I could barely keep this up for more than an hour so she got me doing strength training instead with the occasional danger sense exercise where she literally lifted stones with her mind and pelted them towards me. This surprised me because I'm pretty sure she's a warrior and they don't have such over control elements like this without the use of a skill but she's been doing it a flick of her eyes. I tried asking her how she does it and she replied,

"You can't even swing that hammer properly and you want to learn this, get over yourself kid." She then punctuated her statement by throwing a couple larger stones my way

Afterwards, when my body has been completely spent she sat me down and told me to get started on the mana mastery exercises they only require mental strength and some mana. They are basically different forms of mana control like how one would have different forms in sword fighting. The first exercise is materialising where you just summon your mana to your hand and form it into a stable sphere. Turns out my control is utter crap as I could barely coax the mana out of my body. I spent hours trying to mana from my source and summon it to my hand, trying to get mana to my hand inside my body is hard enough to not need to mention controlling it above my hand.

Although these exercises have no combat uses they're a good way to gain better control over mana which indirectly helps develop combat skills but people tend to disregard them as after the first couple they're just variations over the same techniques. I thought about it the same way but the landlady quickly put me in my place by controlling the Earthen Wall skill so they appear as a fist and punch me in the gut and then put me into a full nelson. I then quickly quieten down and begin the exercises as Mathias' and Annabell's raucous laughter could be heard from the house.

In the mana mastery exercise, there are 3 main points, emission, amplification, manipulation. Emission is summoning mana from outside your body and perfect emission would be summoning mana from any point on your body. Amplification is amplifying a property of the mana for instance brightness, colour, etc. And manipulation, the hardest part, controlling the movement of mana.

After all these exercises left in me current circumstance where I am powerless against an 8-year-old as she uses me as a canvas for her artistic vision. I tried to fight her away but my body is too weak and Annabell is frighteningly strong for her age, much stronger than I was at her age that's for sure.

"Annie sweetie could you please get off my lap, you're crushing me." Annabell, obviously unhappy with my remark, began to tug on my cheeks,

"Samuel commenting on a woman's weight is extremely rude, I expected better from you," She said with her deadpan face. Mock tears fell from my eyes, why did she have to use my full name.

----

Mathias chuckled at the sight before remembering that Annabell never refers to him as dad instead she always called him Mathias for as long as he could remember. It's almost laughable being the guild master of the Adventurers Guild but not being able to get basic respect from his own daughter. If any of his employees ever saw how she treats him they would be on the floor in tears as the great Mathias McCroyle is on a first-name basis with his daughter. Crestfallen he looks towards his wife he was watching him with an amused face. She then leaned in towards him and gave him a kiss on the cheek to quell his sadness.

With his mood lifted he looked back at his child and his wife's unofficial disciple who collapsed into a deep sleep despite his hair having unprecedented amounts of volume. Annabell with her masterpiece done fell asleep in his arms which made Mathias feel a pang of jealousy as his daughter never fell asleep in his arms since she was a toddler. He was always vexed by his daughter who shared his fiery, wild, red hair was exactly like his wife when she was younger, especially her cold facade and deadpan expression which is why he's so confused as to why she got so friendly with this Samuel boy so quickly despite their short time together.

Sighing to himself, he looked back towards Samuel, this kid was an enigma to him. His wife who never much cared for any youth that's not her daughter took an interest in this random newly awakened who seemingly came out of nowhere and is now treating him like her own son despite knowing him for only about a week. Mathias tried asking about it but she only replied that he's her sister's son but this confused Mathias further as he knows for definite that Maria doesn't have any siblings but he decided to leave it be as it doesn't really concern him. Also, he could be completely wrong about Maria not having siblings but he won't open that can of beans as of this moment.

----

After waking up my body was sore all over, every part of me hated each other made sure I knew about it. The groans and creeks were deafening. I quickly gave up trying to get up as I was going nowhere fast so I look down and see Annabell drooling on my shirt. It was so cute, especially since she's making a sound sleeping expression rather her usual deadpan, it almost made me hesitant to wake her up, almost. Nudging her awake she slowing got up, squinted at me and let out a small eep sound. Before I could do anything she began rubbing her face into my chest wiping all of her drool onto my chest after which she then ran straight upstairs.

"Annabell! Just you wait," Aggrieved I finally got up and cleaned myself up, afterwards I went outside and started doing aunties warmup exercises in preparation for today's training.

I continued this torturous routine of strength training and mana mastery continued until it was time for my escort mission which was postponed for a month. By that time I could do the basic forms for scythe and hammer sort of comfortably but my control over both my body and my mana shot up. I managed to summon my mana and make it slightly brighter and make it travel, albeit very slowly, around my hand which is good progress in one month according to aunty, and my dodging ability increased slightly as well, especially since my life was on the line as Annabell joined in and started throwing her razor-sharp cards at me with a small smile on her face.

After eating breakfast that aunty prepared for me I got ready to set off, I put some extra clothes into my pack and some cooking utensils as you'll never know when you might need to hunt and cook your own food. I brought more provisions with me as the mission got upgraded from a usual low F-rank mission to a low E-rank mission that'll last about a month. This increase in difficulty made aunty slightly hesitant in letting me partake in the mission. Despite the increase in difficulty for someone like me, it was a large leap but Mathias, who I only recently found out was the Guild Master, deemed me capable enough to take part after reviewing my recent training which is why Aunty let me go through with the mission.

I got a hug off Annabell as she got really attached to me in the time I've been staying there although you wouldn't see it on her face as it remains blank but I got proficient at reading her emotions from the smallest change in her expression. I replied in kind to her hug by showering her in kisses onto her small cheeks which in turn made her face blaze up and match her hair colour. It was an extremely humorous sight to the patrons seeing the ever stoic Annabell who cheated them out of their socks acting so meek.

After Annabell started to punch me with her small hands to make me stop did I let her go, she then promptly retreats behind her mother. I then go up to aunty and give her a warm hug,

"Don't get killed out there kid or there'll be consequences." She said in a faux stern voice but her voice sounded extremely warm. I squeezed her a bit with my embrace.

"Of course I won't die out there I've been trained by Storming Centurion of all people." She pinched my cheek while giving me a warm smile.

I then turned to Mathias and gave him a wide grin, I've grown closer to him as he gave me some training on how to use the axe. I repaid his kindness by helping Annabell prank him, for instance, we put a live frog into his sandwich and we braided his hair with flowers and cute hair clips which made him a laughing stock at the guild. Mathias looked like he was waiting for his turn as he looked like he was about to drop some pearls of wisdom onto me but I shut him up by giving him a big wet kiss on the cheek and running away as fast as I could. I could see Mathias go even redder than Annabell did, but for a different reason, and the entire room burst out into guffaws at Mathias' expense.

I made my way to the south gate as that's where mission said to gather for the mission. After 10 minutes I finally made my way there, there were 6 people. The 6 were split into 2 groups one was a duo who looked like brothers with a run off the mill brutish appearance that is typical for adventurers. The other group consisted of a lanky man with an eye patch for both of his eyes and he had two cutlasses by his side and he was also wearing a bandana. I almost choked on my spit when I saw the dude, like how was he walking about all normal like that without seeing and why isn't anyone perturbed by it. Shaking my head I look towards the next person.

Next to the lanky man was a girl that looks to be a bit older than me, she was wearing a mages garbs and she had tomboyish features with her hair cut short to match. I could tell she was expressive from the excitable way she carried herself and her bubbly aura from when I saw her conversing with her teammates. The off-putting thing about her is the fact she is currently wearing massive jewel-encrusted gauntlets on both hands making her hands akin to something you would see on a golem.

Shaking my head again I look to the next person, they were wearing a large cloak that obscured most of their features but you could tell it was a female due to their stature. However, the most interesting thing about her is the fact she was standing a bit further away from the other 3 like she isn't close to them. It's not my problem anyway, at least she seems remotely normal in contrast to the other two.

And finally, I look towards the last person he had purple hair and blue eyes and a smile that can make any maidens heart... holy fuck I remember describing this guy before. It's that good looking bastard that made me briefly question my sexuality a couple of chapters of ago. I feel an irrational annoyance towards him as I have a feeling he is going to be a source of headaches for me in the future, especially that whimsical expression of his and that lackadaisy atmosphere that follows him. As if on cue he looks towards me and gives me a flashy smile and gives me a knowing look,

"It seems like the final member of our party has arrived." He gave me a wink. I look towards the group of oddballs in front of me and I realise this going to be a long mission.