I woke up with a smile.
I didn't know what that energy that wrapped me in a cocoon in the Chamber of Awakening did to me, but my body felt great.
I started the day by picking a few more missions which I did to hone my Healing Mage Combat tactics.
I avoided taking missions that involved undead since I hadn't learnt exactly how I would go about defeating them with my healing 'magic'. I didn't know if it would work on them in the first place. And with not a very high strength stat, I focused on fighting the ones that were alive.
After I collected enough survival points from doing missions throughout the day, I walked up to the cafeteria where I had some food while observing the people taking missions like I always did.
Although people hadn't been taking very difficult missions yet, what I'd told them had definitely caused a shift. Instead of simply taking the same missions repeatedly teams started to share information about various missions to trade them with each other.
A lot of people still glared at me when I was in the plaza but I learnt to ignore them very quickly.
I continued eating peacefully until a lady walked up to my table and sat in the chair opposite me.
"Ho?" I raised my head and looked at the lady. I recognised her, she was none other than-
"Agnes. My name's Clair Agnes."
"I…what can I do for you, Miss Agnes?" I asked politely, wondering why this lady had walked up to me.
'Did I do something that requires her attention?'
'But I beat up those thirty people nearly two weeks ago now…'
'Did someone on the outside try and apply pressure to get rid of me for it? Is that why she's here? To get rid of me?'
'But she didn't come off as such a dark character in the story…'
'But she works for a gang that controls Haramark…'
'Perhaps she's just here to warn me about it? Maybe to ask me to keep my actions a little low?'
But I didn't have to think that much.
"I wanted to advise you to take fewer missions."
"...why? Is it to save missions for-"
"-No. Sorry for interrupting you. But I didn't want you to develop the wrong impression of me. I can see that you're taking missions to improve your fighting style and hone it better."
'Damn…I forgot they could see everything here, even inside the missions, so they probably know I can do healing 'magic'? Even though they probably don't know exactly how I'm doing it?'
"So why then do you want me to stop taking missions?" I asked calmly.
"Your current problem is that your enemies aren't intelligent enough, you are always able to outsmart them, or out manoeuvre them. You aren't improving because your enemies can't match your skill. You need stronger enemies but you can't face them since you aren't strong yourself."
"Huh…I hadn't realised that yet. But that makes sense…Thank you?"
"Just buy me a meal…if you want to thank me.", Agnes said with some strain on her face.
'Ah…is she thinking about how she asked Seol to do the same thing and now he's dead?'
"Then as long as you don't cross a hundred points please order whatever you want." I politely offered and after Agnes finished ordering I explained to her my point of view a little.
"I am not doing missions only because I want to train myself, I'm also doing it because I need Survival Points to look at the skill cards and such in the shop to learn about magic."
Agnes looked a little surprised as she asked, "You're a magician?"
But I laughed a little before sharing my status screen with her, only the Job part to keep the rest a secret.
It was fun to see her eyes widen before her tiny mouth hung loose by an inch as she uttered the word, "What?" with utmost confusion.
"You aren't seeing it wrong. Because of a few special circumstances surrounding me, I was allowed to skip the basic class."
Agnes's eyes shifted from the screen to me and then back to the screen as she tried processing exactly what she was seeing.
She then gathered her wits and *coughed* a little to clear her throat before she spoke softly, "I see. Your actions make a little more sense then. But I still have a better plan for you."
"Oh?" I was surprised this time, was she going to teach me too?
"If you could allow me, I would like to train you for a few weeks."
"Hmm? Why would I allow just any random person to train me?"
Although I knew exactly who Agnes was from the books and knew her intentions were good for me, I couldn't trust her blindly; otherwise, I'd seem too trusting, and that would set the wrong boundaries.
"You may not personally know me. But I'm called Sicilia's Demonic Instructor out there. There are hardly any people better than me to train you and that's still me being generous." Agnes said with pride as she adjusted her glasses on the tip of her nose.
I could sense there was a little hesitation in Agnes's tone so I spoke casually, "I doubt it's that easy to get the literal ' Sicilia's Demonic Instructor' to train me?"
Agnes closed her eyes and *gulped* softly before she opened them and looked right at me with her golden eyes that peered above her spectacles, "There is a condition that you have to unconditionally follow."
I was surprised since Seol didn't have anything like this so I asked, "What would that be?"
'Does she want me to heal someone?'
'Is that why she came to me? Because someone asked her to use my healing skills to heal someone in here?'
"I want you to follow my words to the T. If you fail to follow through even once, I'll stop teaching you immediately."
"Oh?" I was shocked. "That's it?"
"I will be very harsh. For example, I will not let you do missions for an entire month once you start training under me."
"Water and food-"
"I'll provide them."
"...then I'm sold I guess?"
Agnes looked at me seriously before repeating her statement, "I'm serious. If you even so much as breathe when I tell you to exhale I'll stop teaching you."
"As long as you don't do anything that harms me or gets in my way of getting stronger, I don't mind it since it's for my good in the end." I nodded since this was basically the best teacher I could find other than the King Maker of Haramark.
But I had a doubt, "Before we begin, will you also teach me magic? Or will I have to arrange that on my own?"
Agnes gained a serious look as she adjusted her glasses, "I will be teaching you everything, everything I know. You'll leave this place not as a newbie who will be confused about everything but as a veteran capable of commanding others to follow you."
"Although I can't teach you magic like others can, since I'm not a mage, at your level, however, I can do it just fine. And if you have any doubts I have a way to clear them too."
"Bold words Miss Agnes." I joked with a smile but the excitement in my eyes said otherwise. I was ready to see what this combat maid would turn me into within a month.
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A/N : How good should he get under Agnes?