"But I have conditions." Adrian added firmly. "Your safety is my absolute first priority. I do not need you to be helpful on the battlefield. I need you to survive and you have to prove to me right now that you know defensive spells."

The lock clicked, and the door slowly swung open.

Adrian just looked down. And for the first time since he met her in this world, she was actually crying.

Her cheeks were totally soaked. Dark eyes completely red and puffy. Because this was not some fake tantrum to get new toys. The idea of being left behind had genuinely terrified her.

So Adrian’s heart just instantly melted.

Every single ounce of his strict parental resolve vanished into thin air. He dropped straight to his knees right in the middle of the hallway and pulled her into a tight hug.

Aria buried her face into his shoulder and let out a wet sniffle.

"Listen to Papa," Adrian whispered, gently rubbing her back. "It isn’t about me wanting to leave you behind. But the outside world is incredibly dangerous. And I cannot focus on a fight if I am terrified of you getting hurt. Can you prove that you can protect yourself?"

She just nodded against his shirt. "Yes."

She pulled back and wiped her wet eyes. The kid honestly looked ready to cast a live spell right there in the corridor.

"Not here." Adrian quickly stood up and took her hand. "Come with me."

He led her out to the backyard and straight to the dungeon entrance. They passed by the gacha wheel room completely.

Adrian used his Dungeon Master privileges. He did not open the combat rooms filled with goblins and instead, he generated a completely blank, empty stone room.

They walked inside. The heavy stone door sealed shut behind them.

"Show me." Adrian said.

Aria did not chant any weird magical words. She did not wave her arms around in a complicated stance.

She just stood completely still.

A second later, a transparent, faintly glowing sphere of pure mana materialized out of thin air and it completely encased her body.

Adrian recognized it instantly.

"A Mana Shield." Adrian said. "That is a third circle defensive spell. You already learned this?"

Aria nodded. "I learned a different version too. I upgraded it to be more efficient."

Adrian watched closely.

The massive floating sphere suddenly shrank. It collapsed inward, snapping tight against her physical body. It formed a completely invisible, skin tight layer of compressed mana over her clothes.

Because the surface area of the shield was drastically reduced, the mana density spiked heavily.

"That is brilliant." Adrian praised her. "But you know a thin shield can still be shattered by a heavy physical blow, right?"

"Yes." Aria smiled confidently. "So I just put more mana into it."

She pushed energy from her mana heart straight into the spell to boost it further.

The skin tight shield instantly expanded outward by exactly one centimeter.

Adrian stared at it in pure awe.

A standard mana shield was already an incredibly broken concept. If a knight wearing thick steel plate armor took a bullet, the metal would dent inward and crush their ribs. This was because steel transferred kinetic energy.

But a mana shield defied standard physics a little.

When a heavy blow struck a mana shield, the barrier did not dent. It instantly redistributed the kinetic force equally across the entire surface of the sphere. The shield absorbed the damage completely until its mana pool ran dry. And if the attack was too strong, the shield simply shattered like glass, leaving the mage unharmed.

A basic, one millimeter thick mana shield was already better than a standard steel armor.

Aria was currently using a one centimeter thick, hyper compressed shield powered by a fourth circle mana reserve.

’That barrier is easily ten times stronger than solid steel.’ Adrian calculated in his head. ’She could probably tank a direct hit from a catapult.’

But the most overpowered feature of a mana shield was its repair itself as long as the mage gave it more mana.

If a steel breastplate cracked in battle, it stayed cracked. But if Aria’s shield took a lot of damage, she just had to send a bit of mana into the shield and the mana shield would instantly fix itself.

As long as she had mana in her body, she was basically invincible against standard attacks.

Adrian let out a long breath. He honestly had no counter arguments left.

"Okay." Adrian nodded. "You have excellent defense. But if you want to come with me, you also have to learn healing magic on the way. We need a medic just in case."

"I can do that." Aria agreed quickly. "I already know the basic minor healing spell, papa... I can learn more, but I do not have any advanced magic spellbooks."

That was a total lie.

In her past life, Aria had mastered advanced cellular regeneration and even forbidden healing spells. She knew more about magical healing than the Royal family’s physicians, but she had to keep up the act. A five year old child knowing advanced healing arts without reading a book was far too suspicious.

"I have plenty of books." Adrian said.

He linked his mind to the dungeon, got it to give him a list of all spell books that had healing magic in them and then, he picked some of them.

Ten thick, leather bound spellbooks materialized in front of him and fell onto the stone floor in front of her.

"Read through all of these." Adrian told her. "Pick whichever healing spells you like and practice them on the road. Since your defense is solid, you can join the mission."

Aria beamed.

"Get your travel bag packed." Adrian smiled. "We leave early tomorrow morning."

The group was ready next day before the sun even came up.

The departure was completely silent. There were no grand speeches or cheering crowds since Adrian did not want to attract any unnecessary attention from foreign spies living in his town.

Adrian, Aria, and Claire walked out of the mansion.

It was finally time.