Kill the Sun

"How did this spear get here?" Nick asked in shock.

"You're going to learn how to do that later," Manela said before she opened her right hand.

Nick was about to shake it again, but he remembered the scene from yesterday.

Instead, he just awkwardly looked at it, not knowing what to do.

"My spear," she said. "Hand it to me."

"Oh, sure!" Nick said quickly as he grabbed the spear.

Then, he pulled it out with all of his power.

Whoop!

And nearly fell over as the spear easily and neatly came out of the roof.

'It's so light! That's probably only five to seven kilos!'

Nick had expected something like fifty to seventy kilos!

Awkwardly, Nick put the spear on Manela's hand, and she took it.

The next moment, the spear shrank in her hand!

The tip was compressed and entered the shaft, making the spear less than ten centimeters long.

The next moment, she slid the spear down her sleeve.

Without Nick asking, Manela unbuttoned the sleeve on her right arm, showing Nick her wrist.

There were six compact spears around her wrist. 

Then, she flicked her wrists, and one of the spears flew into her opened hand and expanded back to its big size.

"Not every spear needs to be equally strong," she said. 

"The spears on my back are for strong and durable targets, but they are not as silent."

"If you want to focus on throwing spears, you have to buy multiple sets for different purposes."

Manela looked at the spears on Nick's back. "The spears on your back are for single target assassinations and direct heavy battle. They are not made to be used against quick and nimble targets."

Nick nodded with understanding.

"Time to warm up," Manela said as she took all five of Nick's spears.

Shing! Shing! Shing! Shing! Shing!

Within three seconds, all five of Nick's spears landed on different houses in the training area.

"Get them within 20 minutes. If you can't do that, you will try again," she said.

Nick took a deep breath and immediately jumped down the building.

Without his spears, he became quite agile and fast.

However, he quickly found something that surprised him.

Right now, Nick stood in front of a gap that was five meters wide, with a three-story high building on the other side.

Nick was only on a building that was one story high.

Even more, except for the small holes left behind by Nick's spears from yesterday, the wall was rather smooth.

For quite a while, Nick looked with shock at the wall.

This entire time, Nick had viewed the presence of his spears as a drawback due to their heavy weight.

But right now, he couldn't climb that building!

Climbing it with his spears was quite easy since he only needed to create a small ladder, but it became extremely difficult without them.

Traversing the rooftops had become more difficult without his spears!

Nick would have never thought that this would happen.

Nick almost always used this building as a sort of central checkpoint to get to every other building since it was in the middle.

But this time, Nick couldn't climb it.

He needed at least two spears to get on top of the building!

'I can't waste time here!' Nick thought before he changed his route.

Originally, Nick wanted to get the spear that was the furthest away first since every spear added extra weight, but now, he would get that one last.

About ten minutes later, Nick retrieved three spears and reached the top of the tall building.

Five minutes later, he retrieved the last spear.

Now, he only needed to get back.

He reached the starting point…

23 minutes after starting.

So close!

Without saying anything, Manela threw the five spears to the same spots again.

This time, Nick knew what he had to do, and he was faster than last time.

21 minutes.

Once again.

20 minutes and 28 seconds.

And again.

20 minutes and 42 seconds.

Once more.

Over 21 minutes.

Nick breathed heavily.

He had already used up almost all of his power in the previous attempts.

Jumping from building to building with so much weight was extremely exhausting.

Nick knew that he wouldn't be able to finish the task today.

But when he saw Manela's strict gaze, he knew that giving up was the wrong move.

Nick also remembered that he would need to pay for the lesson if Manela felt like Nick was wasting her time.

So, he had to continue trying.

But since Nick couldn't possibly win anyway, he took the time to look at the route again from the top of the building instead of immediately jumping down.

He used this time to optimize his route for tomorrow.

A couple of minutes later, Nick raised an eyebrow as he noticed something.

There was another way to get two of his spears that was way faster than the one he always used, and the reason why he had never found that way was because he was planning his route with his spears in mind.

The original route was to go ten meters towards the center, 20 meters towards the right, get one spear, travel back to the center, go 30 meters towards the left, get the next spear, go back to the center, and climb the big building with the spears.

But with the new route, Nick could run all the way around the battlefield in a circle.

From the south, which was the starting point, Nick could go towards the east, then the north, then the west, grab spear number two, turn around, grab spear number five, grab spear number four, grab spear number one, and then go towards the center to get the last spear.

It would be much faster.

Nick took a deep breath and jumped down the building.

He followed the new route.

And came back after…

23 minutes.

However, Nick had also planned his new route for over five minutes.

After starting once more, Nick managed to get through the exercise in just a bit under 20 minutes.

He had done it!