Thariel stared at the shed as she lay on the ground.

She was exhausted beyond compare yet somehow still conscious.

Was this the price of regeneration?

The day had been so peaceful too...

... Wait, no, that wasn't a good thing! It just turned what happened during the night into an unexpected curveball!

Regardless, Thariel closed her eyes and reminisced about the painless, peaceful morning where she had to do nothing but painless and peaceful (but still monotonous and repetitive) work.

After lunch, she managed to make the last two batches of strength boosting potions and added an extra 12 of durability potions on top of it, safe to say, she was beyond the deadline she set for the delivery. She might even add resistance potions on top it.

Knowing that brewing potions is a quick and easy process was a good thing, especially now that her nights from now on are going to be filled with nothing but... This.

Thariel tried to raise her arm, she failed. Her muscles didn't respond to her command.

Tomorrow, after she finishes the last of her potions, Thariel decided to take initiative and practice for the rest of the day.

It may not be the arduous (torturous) physical training like the one she just went through but it'll still be lengthy.

And well, she's also fond of magic so she thought that practicing how to use it wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Thariel soon heard the words she dreaded would come.

"Get up, I know you still have the energy to keep going," Clyra said from somewhere above Thariel.

Thariel groaned but still did as told.

Clyra jabbed the butt of her wooden staff to the ground, "after exercising, you should get a move on and start with your stances, teach yourself to naturally do this."

Thariel didn't mention the fact that the aforementioned "exercise" was a hellish physical regime where she had to run several laps with rocks tied to her chest, legs, and arms, and then do push ups with a backpack full of pebbles, most of which were biting at her skin through the backpack's leather!

The last time she complained, everything she needed to do increased two folds, which she had a feeling may have been why she was this exhausted.

Past Thariel had been so stupid.

"Stances?" Thariel asked, the only thing keeping her from falling down was her remaining will power, "I don't even know where to start!"

"Then let's start with something more simple," Clyra stared her down, "what kind of weapon do you think suits you?"

"Weapon?.." Thariel thought about it, she had never even considered that she'd fight in melee, as shooting things from a distance is simply the better option.

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Problem is though, she now had the Plasmononicon, which opens up a lot of things in the close combat avenue.

Thariel genuinely put some thought into her answer and after a while, she came up with what she thought was the best weapon to keep her safe during melee, "a spear I guess?"

Throughout Earth's history, peasants used spears. Untrained peasants. And they won wars. Spears were kind of ridiculous in terms of versatility during melee combat.

And a spear is just an overall good choice; it had decent range to keep enemies away, could be used for both stabbing and slashing, and when the enemy is too far, then a spear can just be thrown.

Clyra hummed in thought, "you sure?"

"Yes," Thariel confirmed, "I'd like to use the spear,"

"I'm not good with it but I know the basics," Clyra explained, and Thariel thought that was enough, it's not like she herself planned on mastering the spear.

Clyra went away for a while and came back holding a wooden stick whose ends had been sharpened into a point.

"Here,"

Thariel caught the spear mid air, she then stared at Clyra, "you're actually not good with the spear right? I just want to make sure,"

"No," replied the redhead, shrugging, "actually, I'm not good at any weapon... Or I'm not a master at using them, would be the better description," Clyra further elaborated, "I did learn how to use all of them though,"

"All of them?" Thariel asked, shocked, "you learned to use every single weapon?" Her mother nodded gravely in response, "okay?.. Then do you actually specialize in something?"

Clyra looked at the forest, "I think what I specialize in is aiming,"

To demonstrate, Clyra bent down and picked up a pebble, she threw it at a faraway tree, the resulting impact caused the bark to break into countless splinters and leave behind a white surface of exposed wood.

"I... See," Thariel murmured.

Well, then, it just so happens to be that she also wanted to use a weapon which utilizes aiming more than any other skill so this might prove useful.

"I think I'll also just learn the basics when using the spear," Thariel at her mother, "what do I need to do?"

"To start?" Clyra asks, Thariel nods, the redhead shrugged, "nothing tiring-" what did this mean? "- you start thrusting your spear forward, don't stop until you've done a hundred, and no, you can't take breaks,"

"Yeah, I can do that," Thariel casually replied before going into a stance, she stabbed forward and felt the ease of doing it. A hundred thrusts was easily doable!

It wasn't doable.

She had felt tired after her 30th and the rest that followed was absolutely hellish, her arm was crying out for her to stop when she reached 60 and by 80, her movements had turned sluggish but she pushed on anyway, only stopping at 94, where her limb lost its strength and dropped the spear on its own.

"That was a good start," complimented Clyra as she neared, "but the way you did it was wrong, what you were practicing just now was a short stab, something soldiers only do when they have no other choice, give me the spear,"

Thariel exchanged her spear with the flask of water her mother brought, she quenched her thirst while watching Clyra showcase what a proper spear thrust was and hers looked downright sloppy when compared to Clyra's.

"You see now?" Clyra turned to her, "that's how you thrust your spear, you will always do this, no matter what." The redhead explained with a tone of steel, "and when you can't? Then figure out a way for you to do it again, run away and put distance between you or your target,"

"I think I'm starting to understand," Thariel replied as she took the spear again, holding the weapon with her tired arm made it feel heavier than it was.

"Now, while your arm regenerates, you'll practice how to properly do it, I'll be the judge, when I think you're finished, you'll rest for another 10 minutes before doing another set of long thrusts, this time try to reach 200,"

Thariel exhaled deeply, "hooo- okay, okay, wow that's..."

200? Seriously? Her arms were already tired!

"Isn't that too much?" Thariel asked.

"It's not, you'll be fine by morning," Clyra deadpanned, "actually, you're lucky you can even improve your physique, actual vampires don't have this kind of ability,"

That's not a good thing!

Instead of shouting out her thoughts, Thariel just nodded, "okay, so, I just pull my arm back and then thrust right?"

"Use your elbow to extend your forearm when you thrust," explained Clyra, "you'll probably have a hard time figuring out how to lower your posture but don't worry, you have all night to learn how to,"

"Ugh," Thariel groaned but didn't bother to physically protest, she pulled her arm back and did her best to imitate the spear thrust that her mother did just now.

For a while, she practiced how to properly thrust a spear and the constant breaks where Clyra explained to her what she did wrong allowed her muscles to recover.

Thariel wished they didn't.

When she was finally allowed to start with the following exercise, the sky had become entirely black and the full moon was fully visible in the midnight sky, this caused her regeneration to be at their peak.

It had been so much easier to do the 200 spear thrusts because of it and it took her no time at all to finish the task.

She turned to Clyra, expecting another set of spear practice from her but instead what Thariel saw was the woman nodding in approval, the redhead then pointed at the rocks and rope on the ground.

"Wear these, you're going to exercise again,"

"Again?!"

Cue another hellish hour of physical exertion that left Thariel panting and sweating even with her regeneration.

"Good job," Clyra's face replaced the starlit sky as the woman stared Thariel down, "well? Get up. What are you waiting for? You're going to start practicing how to use the spear again,"

And so, she did, and when she was done, Thariel was finally allowed to take a break and she gobbled up the food that her mother cooked for her like a victorian child seeing meat for the first time in their life.

Normally, eating so much meat would put her off but in this instance, Thariel thought that she at least deserved this much. Especially after all of that!

When she finished eating, Thariel was left to clean the field all by herself while Clyra went back to the house to sleep.

When she was done, Thariel finally had the relief of dipping her aching muscles into a tub of steaming water and it was the best feeling in the entire world.

She even took a brief nap.

Thariel cleaned herself clean and afterwards headed to bed.

She fell asleep seconds after making contact with her bed.