Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

After a journey of six hours, Rain found himself back home, relieved to see that nothing had changed during his trip. The familiar surroundings of his territory brought a sense of comfort and stability, and he was glad to return to his family and friends, who were eagerly waiting for his return. It was a moment of tranquility and a reminder of the things he held dear in his life.

"Good day, beloved wives. Have you missed me as much as I had missed you?" Rain asked when he landed in front of the house.

"... He did something, didn't he?" Seara asked while whispering.

"I would bet on it," Terra replied while studying Rain with eyes filled with suspicion.

"You guys hurt my glass of heart," Rain said. "Steel is my body, and fire is my blood."

"... I can't say now since he is acting like usual," Seara frowned.
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"It seems that you learned a few things. I would scold you until your ear would start to ring if you didn't learn anything while staying away from home for this long," Terra said.

"I need to sleep a bit since I need to explain things more thoroughly, but I can at least say that the mission was a success," Rain said. "Sort of."

In the end, Rain went to his bed and slept until dinner time. As he got up and made his way to the dining area, he was met with the unfortunate news that dinner wasn't ready. His wives had decided that it would be a good idea for him to prepare the meal for six hundred people.

Despite just returning from his journey, it seemed that culinary duties awaited him, and he reluctantly set to work in the kitchen to feed the hungry mouths of his warriors.

"You are such slave drivers…" Rain said and then sighed.

"That is because you spoiled everyone with your cooking. Ours is perfectly fine, but these guys keep eating my food with a disappointed looks on their faces," Terra said while she rubbed her eyes.

That should have hurt her pride… maybe that was why the recruits looked more beaten than usual. Terra had her revenge by giving them one hell of a Spartan training.

In any case, Seara and Terra helped Rain cook while he also told them what had happened in the last few days. They were as surprised as he was when they heard all of that…

"Hmm, a barrier that covers a giant Island… that can't be the only thing that keeps the dragons away," Seara said. "By the way, you keep making this insane discoveries like it is a normal occurrence. We are going to get used to it, you know."

"They seem like good people… this Isa person, too," Terra said while frowning. "But I can't help but worry why she wanted to keep you away from their society."

"Well, it probably would be very troublesome and time-consuming," Rain said. "Besides, we are going to get busy for a while."

Terra and Seara wanted to know how, but Rain decided to finish the meal first. As he had expected, the recruits sure looked happy when they began to eat. Terra ended up headbutting the foreheads of those who looked too happy and knocked them out.

"Somehow, that way of attacking suits you well," Rain said and then had a hard time not laughing.

After the meal, Rain wrote some letters to his friends to reveal some of the things that he had learned… he kept hidden the most troublesome things in order not to worry them. It's not like people like Jori and Reca worry about things as much as him.

When morning came, Rain stretched his body and then relaxed. Considering all the things that he had learned, there was this one thing that he really wanted to test.

As Rain stood in the training ground, his mind couldn't help but drift back to the moment when he had used the shield. The surge of hatred that had overwhelmed him, the darkness that had threatened to consume his thoughts, was a sensation he couldn't forget. It was a reminder of the power and the price that came with wielding the shield.

Now, without the shield, there was only one way he could muster such feelings: by imagining the worst possible outcome, by envisioning himself failing his family. The mere thought of letting them down, of not protecting them, sent a chill down his spine. His mind went blank, and he felt his body burning with a burning resolve to do whatever it took to ensure their safety. It seemed that it worked…

An unknown skill leveled up.

An unknown path gained experience.

"... It worked, huh," Rain thought after taking a deep breath.

The power of the sins… Rain didn't realize that before, but he recalled such a thing happening. When he got pissed, he received those notifications. It was weird since his equipped path didn't get any experience.

"Onto the next experiment… while this thing about sins seems useful, I don't want to risk that much on this and invest all my time on it," Rain thought. "I am not sure if only dragons can evolve based on the sins, but for now, let's try to make progress in other fields."

Rain recalled what Isa told him about the dragons and their evolutions. The first type was the siren dragon. The creature could use water magic to attack and even support their allies… that seemed like an ability that would belong to wind dragons and their evolutions. Still, it wasn't because they used the water in the atmosphere to control the sound of their voices and affect the targets.

Isa explained to Rain how that worked, but her explanation was quite abstract since she was a half-dragon, so using magic for them was very different from humans. Still, it didn't take much longer for Rain to make progress in that field since water magic was his specialty.