Today I had to wake up earlier than usual and go to the guild with my day. Mom was going to be busy doing stuff out of the house for some reason, and it was decided that it would be better for me to get used to the atmosphere of the guild for when I'm older than for me to potentially interfere with what my mom had to do. Frankly, I would be fine staying home and reading, but there is no way parents would leave their 5-year-old child home by themselves.

After quickly eating breakfast, I clean up and get dressed in my training clothes before heading out with dad. This is my first time being outside before dawn, there are some merchants out and about, getting ready for their sales, but it is still quiet and mostly devoid of life at this hour. Arriving at the guild, other employees are showing up too, but adventurers will be arriving a bit later for the morning rush after the new quests are posted for the day.

Dad takes me behind the counters inside and has me wait in the employee area while he goes to check who has requested training for today, as well as any reservations for training ground space. While he was doing that, I was getting surrounded by the other employees, mostly the female receptionists and grandparent-like employees.

"And who might you be?" Asks one of the receptionists

"I don't know whose kid he is, but he's a cute kid"

"Maybe he's here to see what it's like being a guild employee"

"Or to see the adventures"

"Bah, who would want to look at those over-confident buffoons"

"Quiet! How is he going to be able to say anything if you idiots don't stop talking?" Finally, the room quiets down after this elderly lady shuts everyone up. "Sorry about that, they're good people, but they can be a bit chatty. They normally are dealing with brash, boisterous, and overly friendly adventurers all day. You must be Ronan's kid, I'm Revna, the vice guild master here."

"Hello, I'm Cero, and yes, Ronan is my father. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'll be spending the day here, so I'll be in your care." I respond with a slight bow of respect.

"My, oh my, how polite. You obviously take after your mother, if your father was even half that polite even once, I might have had a heart attack from the shock! Hahaha" Joked Revna, well the last part was probably a joke. "If there is anything you need, don't hesitate to come to tell me, alright?"

"Thank you, I'll be sure to do that if my dad gets too busy and forgets I'm here," I replied with a playful smile.

"What's all the fuss about in here? Come on Cero, I'll show you around while we head to the training grounds." My dad calls out having finished checking what he needs to do for the day.

"Coming!" I reply to my dad and say goodbye to the other staff that had surrounded me earlier. Then my dad pointed out what each part of the guild was for as we walked towards the training grounds. He also, showed me where the stairs were, and told me that there were meeting rooms, some offices, and the reference room was up on the second floor. There were also stairs going down, and I was told that the only things down there were a storage room, and some jail cells for adventurers found to have committed crimes to stay in until they are taken to the guard station. Though the jail cells can be used when the guard station is full up, or they need to keep prisoners separated.

Arriving at the training grounds, I saw that it was a lot larger than I had initially believed it would be. The huge area was divided into 3 side by side areas that can each have a protective barrier deployed around it to keep any debris or magic from affecting the rest of the training grounds. There was also a seating area on one side, a room with training gear and weapons, an equipment room, and a medical office which also has an entrance from the guild hall. I was also shown the outdoor training grounds, which had a track-like area around it.

After being shown around the training grounds, and having certain things explained to me, such as the barrier magic tool, which runs on magic stones that come from monsters, we walked back inside and my dad went to start preparing for an archery class that was scheduled for this morning. While my dad was doing that, I went and looked at the training weapons. There were a few I could handle, but no bows that I could draw easily enough to use. I could probably manage if I used physical strengthening magic, but then it wouldn't work to improve my strength stat.

Since there wasn't much for me to do, I went and ran around the track-like area outside while my dad was finishing setting up the archery targets and getting the practice bows and arrows ready. Once the group for the archery class all showed up, they went outside, and I decided to practice magic inside while there was no one else around.

Since my mom can't use it, I haven't had the opportunity to practice dark magic, so I planned to focus on dark magic today. "Darkness," I said activating my magic, causing the area above me to turn dark. "Dark Ball" shooting attack magic at a dummy about 30 feet away, I was able to confirm the effect of dark magic attack spells. While most people associate dark magic with summoning, it can also be used to attack a target directly. Dark magic can supposedly cause debuffs and also has a corrosive effect on the target, but the damage isn't as obvious as with other types of magic.

"Dark Arrow" Launching a pitch-black arrow at the dummy, I was able to finally notice some damage accumulating where the arrow hit. I continued practicing dark magic until my MP started getting low, and then swapped out my staff for my training dagger. I don't forget to use my staff when practicing so that my mana lasts even a little bit longer.

Instead of just practicing swings, I tried image training, imagining an enemy of similar size fighting against me. I used some Earthly knowledge as a reference since I've never seen a battle, much less been in one myself. I practiced this way for a while and found that it is far more tiring than just practicing sword swings. Getting all sweaty from practice, I went and wiped myself down and laid down for a bit to calm my breathing and fast-beating heart.

By the time I had gotten relaxed, the archery class was just ending, so I went and asked my dad if I could look around the guild by myself. Because my dad is far more easygoing than my mom, which does get him into trouble a lot, he easily permitted me to look around the guild as long as I didn't bother anyone or leave the guild. With permission given, I quickly headed for the guild reference room.

Inside the reference room, there was a table, some chairs, and shelving along the wall only a few shelves high. Obviously, there were not many books, but aside from the few books they had, there were also maps, loose documents, and some wooden boards with carved letters and pictures on them. I first looked at a map, since I had never been out of town, or even seen a map before. I had been told a bit about this kingdom, the Elysian kingdom, but hearing about something and seeing it have a very different impact.

The map I grabbed was a rough map of the duchy, the Arrius duchy, that was more detailed around the town, outlining areas where medicinal herbs are commonly found, as well as the monster's ranks by area. Because monsters are living creatures, they will of course move around, but this map still gives a general idea of where these monsters are regularly spotted. After looking over the map, I put it back and grabbed the top left book.

When it got close to lunchtime, I cleaned up the reference room before heading back downstairs and toward the training grounds. Dad wasn't busy when I walked in, and so spotted me rather quickly. Because he wasn't busy at the moment, he took me to get some food from the guild tavern. For lunch we had Rush Boar soup with bread, the Rush Boar was a monster hunted by some adventurers this morning in a field not too far from town. Rush Boars are known to be aggressive monsters that will charge their enemies on sight, their heads are said to be strong enough to smash boulders as large as themselves without taking any damage.

Once we had finished our food, dad had to go get ready to train a party of rookie E-rank adventurers. While he was doing that, I walked to the dismantling area to see if I could learn how to dissect monsters common to this area. Inside the large dismantling area, an old man was dismantling what was likely an orc, it looked like a humanoid, bipedal boar, with a more rounded head. The old man was quick to spot me and told me "this is no place for a kid to play."

Before he could throw me out, I quickly replied "I'm Cero, Ronan's son. I am spending the day here today because my mom is busy. I plan to be an adventurer when I grow up and was hoping I could watch the dismantling to learn a bit about how to properly dismantle the monsters nearby."

"Hm… well I suppose there is no harm in learning how to properly dismantle monsters. Alright, I'll let you watch, but you can't interrupt me or get too close, and you have to pay attention, if I find you aren't paying close enough attention, I will throw you out. Name's Marcus, I run this place, I also assess monster materials quality, so you best learn well." To my good fortune, it seems he likes teaching people how to properly dismantle monsters.

I was able to watch him dismantle close to a dozen monsters before heading back to the training grounds. During that time, I was able to learn quite a lot about dismantling monsters, as it turns out, Marcus is a better teacher than my dad, not only did he show me each step, he explained what he was doing, and why, in detail. Thanks to his detailed explanations that were better than anything I had read in a book, my appraisal skill was able to start giving me more details.

Inside the training hall, it looked like a scene of carnage, minus all the blood of course. What I saw was a group of 13 or 14-year-old kids sprawled out on the floor, covered in dirt and bruises, with my dad standing over them with his wooden training sword resting on his shoulder. Looking at this scene, I silently walked over to the first victim, I mean, trainee, and cast 'heal', before moving on to the next, continuing my work until I had healed each of them, at which time I said to my dad "Good work, but maybe you should leave them with enough health and energy to at least drag themselves to the medical ward. Though I guess, this way I at least get to practice healing magic."

"Oh, thanks for that. It was going to be a pain to carry all of them off, I still have mock battles after this." Said my dad, clearly showing the difference in ability between these rookie adventurers and him.

"I see, that sounds interesting. I think I'll stick around and watch if that's alright" I asked while casting 'Float' to move a knocked-out member of the party over to the medical ward, where there are beds.

"No problem, plenty of folks come and watch, hoping to gain some insight out of it, those guys won't mind," Dad replied while helping two other adventurers off the floor. The remaining 3 members of the party, were able to stand up on their own. They thanked me for the healing magic and introduced themselves as Fenrir's Fang. The party name sounded cool, but they are a long way away from matching that name.

It didn't take too long before adventurers started showing up for mock battles, they had likely just finished turning in their quests for the day. I stayed off to the side, watching as many of the fights as I could. It was a lot different from battles on earth, they hone their styles for killing monsters after all. I don't know about any insight my dad spoke of, but the mock battles were a good reference for my future training.

I occasionally got to use healing magic when someone made a mistake during their training and ended up getting injured, or injuring someone else. The individuals who got more serious injuries had to go to the medical ward to get treated. From what I understand, the guild does charge for treatment except during emergencies, but the adventurers can pay it back in installments if they can't afford it outright.

There was still about an hour before my dad's shift ended, so I decided to head back to the reference room. I continued where I left off, going through the materials available, but there wasn't much left. I suppose it isn't surprising that there weren't many materials available, it doesn't look like printing technology has been discovered yet. I'm sure most people are more interested in researching magic, monsters, magic tools, plants, and such, seeing as how they can make money, and directly improve one's quality of life. Printing presses aren't overly useful until plant-based paper quality, and literacy rates improve.

I had finished going through the books and such, and all that was left were loose-leaf documents, mostly pertaining to unusual monster movements in the past, such as stampedes and cases of strong monsters moving into the area. While I didn't gain as much as I had hoped, I was still grateful to learn more about monsters and plants in the area that frequently show up on requests, though the sketches were rather vague, and therefore can't be relied on too much.

While I was looking through the boards and remnant loose-leaf documents, I heard the door open and turned to see the vice guild master walking in with a young adventure. "Oya, what are you doing in here? I'm afraid those documents won't be too interesting for a kid your age" Perhaps she thought I had wandered in here out of boredom.

"I already read through the other materials, so these were all that were left. There was plenty of good information about plants and monsters around here, and these documents at least show what signs to watch out for that indicate stampedes. Unfortunately, the sketches of plants are too difficult to distinguish, so they can't be relied on too much when I become an adventurer in the future." I replied thoughtfully, as Revna's eyes got wider and wider.

"Did you truly read through everything in here?" She said a bit disbelievingly, with a hint of astonishment.

"Not everything, I have skimmed most of these boards and loose documents, only reading the parts that seemed important. I also skimmed over the stuff I already knew, from the books at home, but I've pretty much finished everything in here otherwise," I responded, not taking it to heart that she didn't fully believe me.

"Um, if you read everything in here, do you know where I can find information about the Windswept Plains?" Said the young female adventurer who had been quiet up until then.

"Sure," I said picking up a booklet from the second shelf, "it's in here, but I can't suggest going to the plains at this time of year unless you are a D-rank. Rush boars and Red Wolves tend to hunt there from the end of summer to mid-fall, before migrating towards the Dark Forest for the winter."

"B-but, the request is for Starbell flowers, and listed as E-rank..." She stuttered, with an air of despair.

"If that is truly the case, then the request wasn't properly ranked. I'll have to speak with the requester…"

"Sorry to interrupt, but while it is true that Starbell flowers can be found there, you can also find them in Honey Meadow to the south, and the bees there should be less active in this season," I say, interrupting Revna before she could finish.

"… You really must have read through everything in here, even I had forgotten that," Revna muttered, not minding my interruption. "Since you mentioned the plant sketches were difficult to extinguish, how about sitting with our plant appraiser to learn more about medicinal plants?" She asked me before turning to the young adventurer. "You heard how it is Lynn, will you still take on the request?"

"It's fine, I'll take it." She said with determination, after which I also gave my ascent to her question, and asked her to lead the way. Revna then led me to the plant appraiser, though I don't know why he only appraises plants when he has the Goods Appraisal skill according to my appraisal result.

"Oliver, this is Ronan's son Cero. He would like to learn how to distinguish between medicinal herbs, so I'll leave it to you. He already read the book in the reference room, so he should already know the basics." Revna didn't leave any room for argument before turning and walking away.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Cero. It won't be for long, but I'll be in your care." I said to Oliver, showing an appropriate amount of respect.

"Good, I like sincere types. Take a seat, I'll be making this quick, feel free to ask any questions. I'll quiz you on this next time I see you." It seems Oliver is the serious type of person, talking to me like he was giving a lecture, with a no-nonsense attitude.

Listening to Oliver, it was obvious he knew his stuff. I confirmed what he was saying with Detailed Appraisal, and the more I learned, the more I was able to get out of each appraisal. I think he figured out that I had an appraisal skill but did not say anything about it, just gave me a bit of a knowing look. A while later, after learning about most of the medicinal herbs in the area, my dad came in from the training grounds and took me home after I said goodbye to Oliver and Revna.

My days passed with things remaining mostly the same, aside from my training and studying becoming more intensive, the biggest change was that I occasionally went with my dad to the guild for the day, and spent my time practicing, and learning from various employees.

During this time, I got to know most of the guild staff, including the guild master Warren, also known as thunder axe. It seems that when he was an adventurer, he was a great axe user, and became well-known for his destructiveness. He wasn't all brawn and no brain, despite his large, muscular stature, tan skin, short black hair, and scars… I think most kids would be frightened by his appearance, perhaps that's why he took a liking to me because I wasn't.