A Bit of Training

As Veronica walked towards the bathroom the whole Miles family had a field day with her tiredness. They didn't exactly mock her, but they did giggle a bit when she approached.

Luckily for them she was way too exhausted to make any kind of remarks about them. Instead she just walked into the bathroom in silence.

After she took a very long hot bath and put on one of her nicer dresses, she decided to go out and have a very late breakfast.

Before she could've left, James gave her this week's salary, which increased to 25 gelt as per their previous agreement. With it her current wealth nearly reached 50 gelt, but she had no intention of spending it anytime soon.

Her first objective was getting more comfortable with her ascended powers and strength. This is why she decided to head out and after getting something to eat, go to a remote place in a park and test out her mobility.

As she stepped outside the inn an unfixed public carriage was just about the drive past her. She quickly got on it and headed towards the Court District.

Veronica didn't quite travel that far, she got off about a kilometer before the Court Square and began walking through the side streets looking for some place to eat.

Since this was the rich part of the city, even the worst food would be considered a luxury compared to the other parts. Their price would also be way too expansive, but Veronica felt she deserved a bit of luxury in her life!

After wandering for nearly half an hour, she finally found something that was to her liking. On the corner of one of the small streets, there was a small bakery.

She stood in front of it for a few seconds, then headed inside. Above the door the usual clinking sound could be heard and a voice instantly greeted her from behind the large counter.

The man behind the counter was small about 160 centimeters if Veronica had to guess. He was also a bit overweight and his dark hair had been balding for quite a while now. On his face there was an impressive and well maintained mustache.

"Welcome young lady! What would you like to order from Old Bob's Bakery?" The man named presumably Old Bob seemed to be very happy and excited. It was a bit strange and very unlike what she was used to in the past.

'Isn't he a bit too excited to see a customer? Maybe he doesn't get enough traffic and is happy that even someone came to buy something... Hmm, unlikely. Why would he setup up shop in the Court District if that would be the case?'

"Good afternoon, I haven't decided yet." Answered Veronica with a small smile. The old man's eyes seemed to widen a bit, for reasons she didn't know. Eventually he just smiled and nodded.

With small steps Veronica walked to the counter and saw the many different pastries. There were loads of choices ranging from ones she knew in her previous life, and ones she had no idea what they were.

They all looked very appetizing and it took a lot of effort not to begin salivate all over the old man's counter.

Eventually her eyes stayed on two specific pastry. One of them resembled a croissant with chocolate filling, the other looked to be something made out of puff pastry with a vanilla and peach filling.

"Uhm... Can I get two from that chocolate pastry and two from that vanilla filled one?" While speaking she pointed at each pastry, so it would be more easy to understand. The man didn't looked offended about her lack of pastry knowledge and just smiled at her while he placed her order in a paper bag.

"Is that all Miss?" She nodded a few times, but her mood quite literally plummeted when she heard the price. "It will be 12 eura."

She nearly dropped the bag when she heard what the man said. With a bit of reluctance she gave him the money and went away quickly from the scammer.

While trying to find a suitable place to eat she wandered around a bit. After a few minutes she sat down on a bench at the edge of a well maintained park.

Here she finally opened the pastry bag, to find out if her purchase was actually worth it or not. As the bag opened warm light steam exited hitting Veronica in the face. The fragrance of the pastries was truly amazing and she quickly forgot about its cost.

First she pulled out one of the chocolate croissants and took a large bite of its end. There was a satisfying crunch as the pastry broke apart easily. It was quite warm and tasted like heaven itself. The melted chocolate gave the croissant a perfect gooeyness which enriched the texture even more.

The pastry didn't last long, within the next minute Veronica had already devoured it.

Next she took out the puff pastry with the vanilla and peach filling. She tried to hold herself back this time and only took a smaller bite.

The pastry broke apart with a smaller crunch this time and her mouth was instantly filled with ecstasy from the amazing taste. The vanilla melded together and increased the flavor of the peach filling. It possibly tasted even better than the croissant!

Needless to say that this pastry was a goner in a minute too.

Veronica looked inside the paper bag in disappointment since only half of her purchase was still inside. With a large and exaggerated sigh she slowly ate the other two pastries as well.

After that she just watched the peaceful nature around her. Weirdly enough the park seemed to be quite empty, which was perfect for what she was about to do next.

Slowly she stood up and while constantly looking around she walked further inside the small forest within the city.

After a few minutes she stopped and waited a bit to see if anybody would come in this direction. When she made sure nobody would notice her, Veronica began making different kinds of moves.

First she tested out her near unnatural amount of flexibility by getting into strange positions. It was truly amazing what her joints and muscles could handle.

After she had her fun with that it was time for the real tests to commence!

She began with something easy, like seeing how high she could jump without a running start. It turns out the answer is quite high it was about 1.6 or 1.7 meters she couldn't make an exact estimate. It was definitely much higher than she could've ever jumped, but what was truly amazing is that she managed to both jump that high and land in her high heels.

This was another aspect that got a huge upgrade... her sense of balance. It was nearly impossible for her to not find a perfectly balanced position.

With these two tests done, it was time to see how fast she could run! Without any warning Veronica began sprinting in a random direction. She didn't take of her heels, but it didn't impede her movements at all.

She couldn't judge exactly how fast she was running, but it was well above her previous max. The trees zoomed past her as she ran and jumped over the foliage. After a few minutes of sprinting she arrived at the spot where she began.

This didn't just test her running, but also her stamina, which judging by how she didn't even felt the previous sprint, greatly increased as well.

There was only one test left. She left the best one to the end.

Slowly she approached a large tree and went into a boxing position. In university she took a self-defense class in on of her earlier semesters for an easy credit. She only remembered a few things from the class, like how one should stand when delivering a punch.

With this past knowledge reignited, Veronica stood in front of the tree and made a few wrist curls for warm up.

She had nothing to cover her hand with, but this was also a test for her regeneration and constitution.

When she was ready, she bent her leg that was further from the tree and leaned into the punch as she delivered it. The tree made a small squeaking sound, but nothing seemed to happen.

Veronica felt a bit disappointed, she actually thought the tree might fall over from her power, but of course she wasn't that powerful yet.

The tree wasn't unharmed in any way though. Where her hand connected with the trunk a large indentation appeared, with the exact size of her fist. This at least brought a small satisfied smile to her face.

Next she checked on her hand, but surprisingly there was no wound on it. This brought another happy grin onto her face and while keeping the smile on, she began walking out of the park.

Her next destination was the Court Square, since she was curious about how the protests are going...