Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

After one week, both groups returned to headquarters, but Rain left ten squads in each side to watch things further. While Rain could probably keep improving his water magic to detect enemies in the mountains with rain, his soldiers needed more experience.

Upon returning, everyone realized that they needed to work harder because the war was far from over, and despite their losses, the beast people still had a lot of cards up their sleeves. So, they trained harder than before.

While Rain was coming up with a more efficient training method, Seara finally showed up, and she seemed to be in a good mood. Everyone could tell the reason why, but Rain was still surprised.

"That fight made the generals realize that the humans could become decent allies," Seara said, and then her face turned serious. "Half the reason for that was that attack that you blocked."

"They don't know who cast it as well, huh?" Rain asked. "That was a failure, and it couldn't be called a real block."

"Putting your perfectionism aside, Seadir will become the leader of the force that will work near the border. You will just have to call him to help in case something happens," Seara said.

"What about you? What is the point of keeping looking for those guys when they clearly are flying around to escape your radar?" Rain asked.

"I like doing the intelligence work; sometimes it is tiresome, but it is better than before when I didn't have much freedom," Seara explained and then frowned. "Do you want to tie me down already too?"

Rain felt like sighing… everyone needed freedom to do their own things, but he couldn't help but worry… he could understand why his parents looked worried before, even though he was capable of protecting himself. Sometimes, just doing that wasn't enough to make those who care about you feel better. Find exclusive content at empire

"Don't look at me like that. How is it fair that you can do whatever you want and have all the excitement? I want some of that, too," Seara said.

It was hard to believe that she was older sometimes… her words and behavior almost seemed on the level of Rain's sisters. In any case, that was something that Rain had to find a solution as well.

Over the course of the next few weeks, more recruits came and joined their ranks, but the numbers were starting to slow down since the rumors that they had to fight almost soon enough were unsettling for most people… they didn't have previous training, after all, and the rumors that despite that they didn't suffer any losses seemed too good to be true.

In any case, to make himself and the others stronger, Rain decided that they should return to the basics. They had to improve their basic skills for them to affect the most advanced ones.

For Rain, he decided that instead of solely relying on weights to increase the power of his attacks, he decided to sharpen his mind. While calmly meditating on a fighting stance, he would clear his mind and wait and wait until his body was completely ready. When that happened, he would activate his Impulse, Limit Breaker, and Magic Boost to suddenly attack the air.

When he felt that his punch had been good, the people around him would confirm it. From their perspective, it looked like Rain teleported in the blink of an eye and changed stances.

When it wasn't that good, they still would be able to see his after images… it was a small difference in reaction speed, but Rain wanted to reach that level of perfection… if he is able to fight like that all the time and keep his focus unbroken, he was certain that few enemies would be able to react to him.

"Still, only this isn't enough…" Rain thought.

While seeing his friends doing the same and sharpening their techniques, Rain realized that he would need more… while he was thinking about that, Rain made his troops train while playing volleyball… with a stone ball.

It took a while to teach them the rules, but eventually, they got the gist and began to practice it to kill time. It goes without saying striking and blocking a stone ball hurts like a bitch, but that made them get used to the pain and work together. Since for every point they messed up, the whole group had to play a punishment game that took the form of harsher training.

When Rain wasn't looking, they actually made a real ball to practice their skills and reflexes when they were relaxing… that worked as well.

Rain also checked all of his paths and skills and tried to study them to understand how they worked. Just knowing how to activate them with magic wouldn't do it…

"This system is part of this world. Even though I have been using it for years, I can only see this like it is gravity and not think too much about it," Rain thought. "Still, the level limitations of the Skills can't be natural since my own level surpassed that."

Considering that the strength that people gain when they themselves level up, it was easy to understand why their actual levels had no limits, but why paths and skills had a limit… Rain could only think that someone decided their limits.

Rain had heard things about the so-called dragon god, but it was a figure rarely revered in the world he inhabited. Humans and other species didn't engage in the worship of such beings. Perhaps the dragons themselves harbored a form of worship for this entity, but the rest of the world merely held a primal fear of its existence.

In that world, churches existed more as non-governmental organizations that undertook responsibilities like conducting funerals and occasionally providing aid to the wounded during times of conflict. Jori had called his party the Blade of the Goddess, but discussions about possible gods or goddesses remained conspicuously absent in everyday talk.

This made Rain question the notion of divine creators behind their world and the system that governed it.