Expectedly, Thariel felt sore when she woke up.

And how could she not? She basically tortured herself last night under the guise of "exercise" and "improvement"!

Well, she could still get up at least, a shock all on its own really.

Thariel got out of bed, she sighed in relief when she felt her sleeping muscles get pumped with blood and invigorated. Besides the fact that her limbs felt tired, everything else was fine.

This was the power of a Damphir's regeneration, literally, it allows them to fight all night and then get up in the morning like it was nothing.

This ability would get boosted once she awakens her bloodline too, and Thariel was curious what it would become when she gets to that point.

Would she be able to heal an entire arm if it got chopped off? Thariel considered the possibility. It was tempting.

Unless they were expert blood mages or something, Vampires wouldn't be able to heal an arm that had been cut off, this is because they're undead. If they wanted their arm back, they'd have to reattach it.

But Damphirs were living beings, they should be able to regenerate lost limbs right?

And speaking of limbs, Thariel's knees lost their strength and she fell down to the floor. Groaning, she checked herself for any broken bones.

Okay, she's willing to admit that she may have been over exaggerating when she thought she had broken bones, she didn't thankfully, and after a few stumbles, she was soon able to start moving again.

Thariel went downstairs and got greeted by the smell of meat, a lot of it, Clyra did say that she needed to eat a lot of meat for recovery and muscle gain. Guess the woman delivered on that promise.

"Oh good, you're up, buy more meat from Streamwise when you go there tomorrow okay? We're a quarter into our current stock," Clyra said as Thariel reached the table.

"I can do that yeah," Thariel agreed, she took a seat, "but I won't get paid until the potions get shipped out,"

"And? You have extra gold and also, a ship is coming tomorrow, actually, ships visit that village almost daily now since there's a war going on and all that," Clyra looked as calm as a stormless ocean while explaining the frontier's current situation.

Glad to be reminded of the war, Thariel decided to ask about its progress, "how's that going anyway? Are the Martollians still keen on conquering us instead of helping out with the Ytallotiks?"

"It's not going well," that kind of response was more or less expected, "they've pushed deeper into our territory and have been claiming land left and right, they're also starting to make outposts,"

"So they'll be hard to root out," Thariel hummed in consideration, "how did the crown react to this?"

"Nothing as far as I'm aware, they just sent out a battalion of knights in response and that's it," Clyra answered.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Knights? Not the militia?" Now Thariel was confused, why was the king conserving his forces? Because of the Ytallotiks? Wait, that might be a good reason why actually.

"Yes, I think the militia is still in reserve for now, the Tenlors are relying on their own men to push the Martollians back,"

"Ah," Thariel replied in dumbfounded realization.

Right, guess the Tenlor House losing power might also be why the crown decided not to expend their army, not just the invasive squid things from another dimension.

Thariel paused and considered the ramifications of her realization.

This might be why Virelith was so keen on marrying the crown prince during canon, because her house was starting to lose power (and for good reason, apparently) and the only way to get that back was through marriage.

Thariel wondered that if she helps the war efforts with her potions, would the Tenlors not become as desperate as they were during canon? That means she essentially stops Virelith from becoming the villainess right?

Right.

Guess her plan on dedicating a lot of time into making potions was a good idea after all, she'll have to sacrifice at least a few weeks to do it but hey, knowing her mother, she'll most likely still find a way to make Thariel exercise when night comes.

Maybe she can even practice magic while she's recovering in the morning? Earlier seemed like the perfect time to circulate her energy...

... Actually yeah, it's a decent idea.

With her plans now set, Thariel ate through her meal as quickly as she could, she didn't even bother to chew for taste and just broke the meat down enough for her to swallow.

After breakfast, she went ahead and brewed the 8 remaining durability boost potions and then spent the rest of the afternoon circulating her energy.

She did take the occasional break, such as for lunch, and during these, she also worked on her blueprints, her idea of making some kind of device to redirect magic had merit and so far, her math had proven that it was possible.

She just, you know, needed a lot of gemstones and enchanted silver to make a prototype. Sounds easy enough.

Not. It's expensive as heck!

Where does one even get enough money to buy that much stuff?!

It's a good thing that selling potions was so lucrative, otherwise saving up for 10 Platinum's worth of enchanted silver would have been a massive pain in the bum.

It'll take her what? A few months to get that much?

Actually, no, it'll take her at least two years since she's not gonna spend every second of her waking hours brewing potions to sell. Does she have enough time to do that? Definitely not.

Well it's fine, she could always just make more potions every week. That'll solve the issue somewhat.

Back to her magic, her progress in circulating her energy and lowering her body's resistance to Surge had been pretty fruitful so far, and she didn't have prodigious progress or anything like that but she could confidently say that her progress was pretty good.

"Your progress in magic is slow,"

So naturally, Clyra would put a dampener on her feelings of self-praise and rain on her parade! How exciting!

"R-really?" Thariel held herself back, she was one minute away from snapping at the woman and telling her that her progress was just fine actually!

"Yes," Clyra walked away from her and grabbed a pair of... Enchanted silver knuckles from the kitchen counter? How come Thariel never noticed them? When did Clyra get those? Where? She had those?

Clyra looked at Thariel as if to check for something, she seemed to have been satisfied because she nodded, "do you know that the best way to widen magic channels is to strike and temper them with enchanted silver?"

"That's false actually," Thariel was willing to defend herself on this, even if she was aware that her rebuttal is blatantly false.

She knew that this was the case, she just hoped that Clyra didn't know about the method. In retrospect, Thariel realized that she was hopelessly stupid.

"I think I remember a paper detailing that something like that is just a false rumor borne from mass hysteria," Thariel looked at her mother, Clyra... Didn't seem convinced.

"Uh-" why was she getting close?! Thariel raised her hand, "are you seriously gonna beat up your own daughter?!"

"We're at the frontier, a small beating would be nothing compared to what you'll experience at the hands of the enemy, you need to learn how to defend yourself," Clyra had the same tone all parents had when yapping about something called "tough love" or whatever.

THIS IS NOT TOUGH LOVE!

"Mom..." Thariel said with a gulp, "I don't want to feel pain,"

"Bleed now, sweat later," was all Clyra's response before she was upon Thariel in a sudden burst of speed. Her fist was just as fast as her legs and the Damphir could barely react to the punch coming to her abdomen.

Pain erupted from her core.

Thariel gagged.

She puked. She actually puked.

Thariel glared at her mother, Clyra glared back, "good, be defiant. You're going to need it for what's to come,"

The following was a complete and utter beat down that left Thariel battered on the ground.

Thankfully, her ballistic suit had soaked up most of the damage so she only had pain to deal with but by this point, what kind of difference did bruises make?

She was given the relief of a small break following this and since the sun was about to set, her regeneration kicked in and it didn't take her long to recover.

When she did, she exercised and the events of the previous night repeated themselves.

"You know," Thariel asked as the night concluded, "why are you even doing this?"

"You're going to the Militant Academy aren't you? This isn't just for the ritual," Clyra sounded sure of her claim, and well, it's not like she's wrong.

Thariel didn't reply and stayed silent.

"You're going to need to do this much if you want to graduate from there,"

Right. Guess that makes sense. Damphir or not, at the end of the day, she's just a regular person, not some kind of main character who will overcome all odds.