Kill the Sun

For the next two hours, Nick had to collect three more spears, each one more difficult to get than the last one.

By the end of it, Nick felt like he was about to die.

His arms were nearly unusable, and his back was aching whenever he tried to straighten his posture.

When Nick reached the top of the building again, Manela nodded at him.

"Good work. That should be enough for today," she said.

Nick breathed with difficulty and only nodded without saying anything.

By now, Nick had realized why Manela had made him do these things.

First of all, Nick became familiar with his new training spot.

Second, he was undergoing arduous physical training, which should also improve his strength.

Third, Nick was getting more used to the weight of his spears and learned how to carry them without using up too much of his power.

Fourth, Nick was getting very familiar with his spears.

The way he was handling the spears now was far easier and more skillful than before the exercises.

Even more, Nick had gotten familiar with creating several footholds with his spears and using them to reach terrain that he otherwise couldn't.

Funnily enough, even though Nick's task hadn't been to throw spears, he had needed to throw his spears more than once, and the throws always needed to find different targets.

Sometimes, they needed to pierce a wall below Nick.

Sometimes, they needed to pierce a wall above him.

Sometimes, they needed to pierce the ground far away.

And sometimes, they needed to pierce the ceiling.

Additionally, since a wrong throw would cause huge issues for Nick, every single throw he made was very careful and calculated.

After all, if one of his spears bounced off a wall, they would fall towards the broken grates, which meant that they would fall into the sewers.

If one of the spears fell into the sewers, Nick would have to get it back.

The spears were too valuable to leave like this.

Even more, Manela would probably become quite angry if Nick left one of his spears in such a dirty place.

Nick needed to be extremely careful with his throws, and that had already resulted in him becoming much better at throwing them.

All in all, the training had been quite effective.

"Same time tomorrow," Manela said, "but this time, we will meet here."

"Of course. Thank you," Nick said through difficult pants.

Manela nodded once more and jumped off the building towards the Outer City.

She was extremely silent and made no noise, even though she had probably jumped over 50 meters into the distance.

Even when she landed, she made no sound.

'Is that her ability?' Nick thought.

'My spears already weigh 30 kilos each, and they are made for Mid to Peak Johns. She's a powerful Veteran, which means her spears are even heavier.'

Nick saw seven thin spears on Manela's retreating back.

'She's probably walking around with over 300 kilos of extra weight.'

'Yet, she makes no sound when she moves.'

'It's almost like she's a ghost.'

'Or a Specter.'

Nick looked at Manela until he couldn't see her anymore.

Then, he took a deep breath.

A moment later, his spears suddenly became very easy to carry.

His ability had activated.

Nick easily jumped down the building.

With his stronger body, he would have no issues withstanding such a high fall.

Nick calmly fell.

BOOOOM!

But then, Nick's eyes widened in shock as the ceiling he landed on broke into pieces.

'Fuck!' Nick thought.

Nick landed on the floor below the ceiling, and since the ceiling had slowed Nick's fall, he didn't break the floor as well.

However, half of the roof of the building he landed on was broken.

'How the fuck did she do that?!' Nick thought as he pushed the bent metallic rubble to the side.

'She should weigh three times as much as me, but the building she landed on didn't show any signs of breaking!'

After climbing out of the broken house, Nick jumped from building to building to get back, much more careful not to break them.

For the remainder of the day, Nick ate some food and trained with his melee weapons.

The next day, after working with the Dreamer, Nick grabbed some lunch and moved to the training field again.

It was easy to get there since nobody saw Nick as soon as he reached the rooftops, but when the four-story building came into view, things became difficult.

Nick didn't see Manela, but he could tell that she was there since his ability had deactivated.

Traveling across the rooftops became problematic again.

Eventually, Nick managed to reach the top of the big building, but…

"You're late," Manela complained with narrowed eyes.

"Sorry," Nick said. "I forgot about the difficult path to this place. I'll start earlier tomorrow."

Manela snorted in annoyance. "How could you forget? You should have known how far you needed to travel and what you would carry. Clearly, you knew how long it would take."

Nick took a deep breath. "I would have come ten minutes early with the use of my ability."

Manela frowned. "I don't need to know about your ability," she said. "If you tell me your ability, it would seem like I coerced you into telling me with my superior power, and my motives would be called into question."

"I don't want to know what ability you have," she said.

Nick nodded. "Of course."

Manela also nodded and turned to the training field.

"But you don't seem to mind," Nick added.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Your ability," Nick said. "How else would you be able to remain so silent while jumping so far with so much extra weight?"

"That's not an ability," Manela said.

Nick's brows raised in shock. "It's not?"

"No," Manela confirmed.

"Then, can I learn that?" Nick asked.

"It's on your training plan," Manela said. "It's not a focus, but it's part of your training."

"That as well."

Nick just looked at Manela with confusion.

What as well?

The next moment, Manela just gestured towards Nick's side with her head.

Then, Nick saw one of Manela's spears stuck in the roof of the tall building, just two centimeters away from Nick's left foot!

This spear hadn't been there!

He hadn't heard or felt anything!

How did this spear appear there?!