Hearing his alarm clock Mars quickly opened his eyes and looked around with drowsy eyes and found it floating not to far from his bed

"come here you little s.h.i.+t"

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BE---

Slightly grumpy and with no other target Mars blamed the poor alarm clock and waved his hand after it but found that it was just out of reach

"oh for the love of all that is holy... I will kill you when I catch you!"

Mars pressed the release on the side off his bed that turned off the magnets that held him to the bed in the zero G environment and pushed off the bed with one hand

"got you, now DIE!"

*BEEP*

With a harder then necessarily click Mars turned off the alarm clock and garbed it before he pushed off the ceiling and landed near his bed where he grabbed the edge off the bed for stability as he floated around and put on his boots and flicked on the magnets boots before he stepped down on the floor

"there we go..."

Mars locked the alarm clock to his bedside table and grabbed his jumpsuit that was floating around and after putting it on he took a glance at earth though the window in his cabin and left the go wake up his squad

"captain on deck!"

One of the more alert grunts spotted him and yelled out to the others that quickly lined up and saluted Mars

"very good!"

Mars gave a smile as he watched the 30 elite soldiers that he had trained himself lined up in front off him

"at ease, today is a very special day"

He scanned over the soldiers one by one as he spoke with a grin on his face

"today is the day of the dreaded power armor orbit drop, so be sure to suit up probably! I don't want to send you a.s.ses back to mama in a bottle!"

"""YES CAPTAIN"""

Mars opened his eyes again and came face to face with cute, or rather Victoria that was lining on his chest and was staring into his face at close proximity with her big blue eyes

"...good morning Victoria"

Victoria lay still and continued to stare into his face for a while more before he horns flashed

"good... morning... Mars"

Mars gave her some pets on the head before she finally released him by getting up and jumping down from the bed and stretched while Mars raised his upper body and looked out the window

'looks like suns.h.i.+ne again today...'

Mars gave a yawn and swung his feet over the edge of the bed before he began to put on his clothes

"wait..."

Mars stopped and took his pants off again before he walked over to the shopping bags he had carried up to his room yesterday and began to dig through the contented before he found a new pair off light leather pants and put them on

"...yeah this is better than the old clothes"

Mars quickly dug out a new s.h.i.+rt and put it on before he stood for a few seconds and just enjoyed the feeling of new clothes and asked Victoria

"how do I look?"

Victoria looked at him for a few seconds before she walked around him a couple of times and sat down as he horns flashed

"...normal?"

"...yeah I figured"

He felt a little down but quickly recovered before he picking up his sword and started to walk down to the field where he sat down and started to meditate as he waited for the others to show up

'but that dream.... it sure was something...'

Mars thought back on the dream he had and felt like he started to remembered something but soon it disappeared like mist in sunlight

'oh well...'

Mars wasn't so put down after all the could just try with the next dream and soon he emptied his head of thoughts and started to meditate while Victoria climbed into his lap and settled down as she stated lightly purring while the morning sun shone on her black and orange red fur

"...Mars"

"hmm?"

Mars peaked up a little and suddenly detected Hanna was standing in front of him and opened his eyes to look at her

"what is it Hanna?"

Hanna wore her yellow hair in a ponytail and was clad in a tight fitting outfit that showed off her growing curves

"the others have something to do today so it's only us 2"

"really?"

Hanna gave a sigh

"yeah they are training the guards for the whole day today"

"I see... well then let's get started"

Mars gave Victoria a few pokes to get her to move but found she was strangely stubborn and lay still on his lap

"...what's wrong Victoria?"

Victoria raised her head and looked at Mars before her horns flashed

"you... smell bad"

"..."

Leaving Mars with those words Victoria jumped off his lap and ran off

"what's wrong Mars?"

"...it's nothing"

"okay?"

Hanna tilted her head to the side slightly as she looked at the strangely depressed Mars that walked over and took 2 wooden swords before he handed one off them to her

"let's start, come at me however you like"

"yes!"

This time Hanna was more cautious with her movements as she edged closer to Mars before she suddenly speed up and sent out a slash at Mars's upper body that changed mid swing to target his neck

"not bad, but!"

Mars leaned his body back slightly and the wooden sword pas by his neck before he gave a slow slash at Hanna that was out off balance which she just barely dodge by falling forwards and rolling before she quickly sprung up and slashed at Mars again

"good!"

Next followed another hour of training where Mars once again found that Hanna improved at a frightening rate and he guessed that at this rate she would be able to get the level 1 [Swordsmans.h.i.+p] within a few days at most, but there was one problem

"...come here for a second Hanna"

Mars waved over Hanna that stood up form the ground and walked over with slightly shaking legs

"I'm going to touch you now"

"...okay"

Mars carefully poked the mussels on her arms and confirmed his hunch before he activated his [Energy: healing] with 10 units of energy and healed her

"you need to do more or else your body won't be able to keep up with your technique"

"really..? well if you say so, then what should I do?"

"well it rather simple..."

Mars picked up a 2 handed wooden sword and gave it a few swing before he gave a nod and handed it to Hanna

"do 30 overhead swings and stop before it hits the ground"

"now?"

"yes, now"

Hanna gave a nod and raised the wooden sword over her head and slowly swung it down and right before the tip of the sword hit the ground she pulled it up over her head again and looked at Mars

"like this?"

"yeah just like that, but be sure to keep your back straight"

"okay..."

Hanna continued with the practice swings and did rather well even towards the end she kept her form proper even as the sweat was pouring down her face

"good job, do 2 sets of 30 after breakfast and after dinner"

"every day?"

"yep"

"...okay"

Mars could sense slight unwillingness form Hanna and gave a sigh before he spoke

"remembered this is to get stronger, you still want that right?"

Hanna gritted her teeth and eventually gave a nod which caused Mars to give a sigh

"you are doing well and that's why I steep up my expectations of you, you know that right?"

Hanna loosened up a little when she heard Mars's praise and looked at him with resolute eyes

"I will do my best"

Mars gave her a pat on the shoulder

"and that's all that I ask... well then we're done for today"

Mars gave Hanna a last encouraging look before he walked off into the town with Victoria following after him

'what to do now... let's head to the guild first I suppose'

Mars and Victoria walked through the busy streets and soon they reached the guilds where they walked into the mercenary's guild where Mars spotted Jack and called out to him

"hey Jack"

"oh hey there Mars"

"hey don't forget about me"

"yes yes sorry Lina, how are you today?"

"well thanks for asking, I tried some polish for my horns"

"oh I see that, looks nice"

Lina's horns looked a bit more s.h.i.+ny today compared to the last time Mars had seen her

"well what are you guys up too?"

"mot much, well we just found a decent contract so we were talking about taking it"

"oh, mind if I see it?"

"sure, Lina you know where it is right?"

"sure do right there Mars, the one with the Relt merchant company"

Mars followed Lina's finger and saw a contract

---escort request---

place: the nearby Glaenarm village

time/duration: 3 days round trip

subject: bandits have been more active on the roads lately, more details upon meeting

reward: 2500 cel

requester: Relt merchant company

"...seems interesting"

What interested Mars wasn't the merchant company nor was it the cel, it was the energy units he could drain from the bandits