[Condition → Heavy Weight]
[System Note → Movement decreased by 80% | Training effectiveness doubled.]
The notification flashed in front of his face, reminding Sami why he was moving more slowly than before.
His hands throbbed as he continuously thrust his hands into a bucket of sand, one after the other. Feeling slightly sluggish.
One of the many tasks that Anna will randomly assign him to do throughout the day. It is always progressively getting harder and more intensive.
It's been close to a month since they arrived at the training ground. They had left soon after Anna had popped up at his house.
Imagine Sami's surprise when he saw a tower about two stories tall at the end of the training grounds.
A lake surrounded the training grounds, and the water was so clear it amazed him. Seeing fish jump around was new.
Besides the lake, there are many other training items, such as punching bags and training dummies.
"Sami, how are your hands feeling?" Onyx asked softly, breaking him from his thoughts.
"They're hurting a little, so if you don't mind slightly healing them, that would be great."
Onyx nodded, dropping to the ground.
Sami followed suit, plopping down next to her.
"Now is a good time to look over my stats to see if there are updates to my status," Sami thought while Onyx busied herself with healing his hand.
[3 Skill Points Gained] [Skills Ranked Up]
[Aegis: E15 → D23]
[Binding Chains: E10 → E18]
[Trait Acquired → Unarmed Combat]
[System Note: Strikes without weapons increased by 30%]
"Huh, interesting," he muttered.
"What's interesting?
Sami looked down at Onyx, her head cocked to the side in interest.
He debated with himself about whether to open up to her. So far, he's been keeping things hidden. "But she is my familiar, so I wonder if I should trust her just a little."
"You know you don't have to tell if you don't want to," she said, interrupting his thoughts.
"No, it's fine. I'm just trying to find the words to explain things," admitted Sami, shifting nervously in his seat.
"Oh, if it's about the training being too hard, I can ask Anna to tune it down," offered Onyx.
"No, no, that's not it."
The duo went quiet after that, with Sami watching Lyra train.
He felt his cheeks grow warm at seeing her hair long, flowing through the air as she struck the training dummy.
"And done," Onyx spoke up, taking a small step back from Sami.
Sami quickly clenched and unclenched his fist, feeling no pain at all. "Thank you," he said with a grateful smile.
"Of course it's a familiar's job to help, She replied, puffing up her chest.
"Well, thank you for always being so helpful, especially when you make dinner. The food is amazingly tasty."
Onyx had a smile on her face as she took a quick bow. "Aww, thank you."
"You're welcome," replied Sami, returning her smile.
Onyx put her hands on her hips as she looked into Sami's eyes. "Would you like to tell me what's on your mind?"
"Sigh, just let me figure out how to phrase it."
"Let me guess, it's about Oracle, and you're still trying to get the hang of how it works."
Sami's mouth opened in shock, tried to speak, but honestly couldn't come up with anything. "How the hell does she know about Oracle?"
"Bunny!" Anna's voice echoed around the clearing before she suddenly appeared next to Onyx and grabbed her into her arms. "Oh, did you miss me this morning?"
"Help me!"Onyx cried out while being stuck to Anna's chest.
Anna ignored her cries, turning her head towards Sami. "My little gremlin."
"What the fuck is a gremlin?" he thought, but didn't voice it.
"I have a new exercise for you to do before you break for lunch," She continued before turning and walking away.
Sami shrugged his shoulders and followed her.
After a minute of walking, he saw her stop next to what looked like a long needle.
Behind the needle was a small ladder; on both sides were large tubs of water.
Anna brandished one arm. "Welcome to Mana Control 101"
"I assume Mana control is the ability to control Mana."
"Exactly! Good job, you little gremlin, you." She stepped closer to the needle. "The goal is for you to use your mana to balance perfectly on the needle, starting with a foot, then switching to a hand before eventually ending with a finger."
"I assume those buckets are there to help break my fall?"
"Exactly, also here, take this." Anna suddenly reached in front of her, a small portal opening as she reached her hand into it.
"Now that is a cool spell."
[ Error → Low Level]
"Sigh, of course I wouldn't be able just to learn it."
"This is a training tool much like the weights that'll be holding back your magic, making the task harder, She continued, the portal closing as she held up a pleated garment.
"Before you say anything, this isn't a skirt, it's a kilt."
"I refuse to wear a skirt."
They both said at the same time.
Sami frowned and crossed his arms in frustration.
Anna's smile grew as they stared at each other.
"Please help me", Onyx cried out, reaching a paw out.
"Shhhh, enough of that right now, bunny, just be relaxed in my grip," Anna soothed, hugging Onyx tight to her body.
"Relax, my ass, you're literally choking her to death," Sami commented in his mind.
Out loud, he told Anna. "I refuse to wear that skirt, end of discussion."
"Ugh, it's a warrior's grab worn by fighters in the northern part of the kingdom," Anna whined, stamping her foot in frustration.
"NO!"
"Please," she said, her eyes tearing up.
"You just want to see my legs, don't you?"
"Pshhh, no!" replied Anna, while looking around nervously.
"I will tell my grandfather," Sami growled, looking at her with disdain.
"UGHHHH fine." Suddenly, the kilt transformed into a necklace; she tossed it at Sami, a frown on her face. "Here it has the same properties, but is less cute now."
Sami caught the necklace out of the air before putting it around her neck. "Thank you."
[ Condition: → Magic suppression]
[System Note →Suppressed Mana by 80%]
Anna's lips turned downwards. "You just need to focus on the energy in your body, then push it to one foot. Now I'm going to go check on Lyra's progress."
Anna started making her way towards Lyra.
"Sami, please, you have to stop her, or at least save me from her, please!" Onyx called out as Anna forcibly took her away.
He shook his head. "Honestly, if she weren't such an effective teacher, I would've left by now. Anna would probably drag him back here anyway."
It's July now; apparently, school starts the first week of September, so there are fewer than 8 weeks of training left.
Hopefully, he doesn't have to take the entrance exam since his grandfather is supposed to give him a recommendation.
Though knowing his grandfather, he'd probably make him take part and call it training.
Sami slapped his cheeks, hyping himself up. " I can quickly learn how to control my mana, then focus on learning more skills."
He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the energy, as Anna said.
Though he wished she'd given more information instead of just saying 'feel some energy'.
Sami spent ten minutes standing there trying to feel some energy. He opened his eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"How do I feel for energy?" he muttered to himself.
Sami began thinking when an idea came to mind; upon first unlocking his magic, he felt a rush of warmth flow through his body.
Just like the time he met Onyx, his body overfilled with heat that felt like it was coming from his stomach.
"Maybe if I focus on recreating that feeling, then maybe I can finally feel the energy that she was talking about."
Sami lifted his arm, took a deep breath, lowered it, released the breath, and focused on the feeling in his stomach.
After about a minute, a small warmth began to bubble up in his stomach. Sami let out a small smile as he focused on that feeling, then spread it throughout his body.
[ Trait Acquired → Mana Mastery]
[ System Note → Can sense magic up to 1m(3ft) | Magic is 10% easier to control | Can hide from some sensing abilities]
"HAHA, yes, I did it!" Sami cheered, fist pumping in the air in excitement.
Sadly, his excitement was short-lived.
BANG!
The noise caused Sami to turn; he saw Lyra standing over Anna.
"I'm free!" Onyx screamed as she took off running as fast as her little legs could take her away from Anna.
Anna was on the ground, rubbing her head, looking up at Lyra. "You didn't have to hit me so hard."
"Next time fuck off when someone says leave them alone!" She replied with a scowl on her face.
"Right, I'm going to focus on my training, yep, just going to pretend as if I don't know them," turning back to the needle, blocking out the loud voices of Anna and Lyra arguing.