Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"Why do you worry about her so much?" Elisabetha asked.

"I worry about my friends in general, that is all," Rain said.

"Half of her is technically our enemy," Elisabetha added.

"From your perspective, maybe, not from mine," Rain said. "I won't judge people by their origins, but by their actions. You guys fought a lot, but you fought mainly against monsters, but I fought a lot against people too. I wouldn' have had half of the allies that I had if I were to think too much about those who they were associated with."

As expected, Elisabetha was the one who had the most issues with Isa thanks to her dragon bloodline, and she didn't mind expressing that clearly. The others were a bit more mindful, but they never tried to interact with her, so their instance on that aspect was clear.

Rain was willing to respect that since he didn't want to take on the crazy task of making everyone like everyone, but he wasn't going to let them choose who was his ally or not.

Regardless, since Rain found that the vessel was doing well and most of his friends were also doing well, he decided to focus on training a bit during his free time, at least until they reach their next destination. It was weird, though… even though they were moving away from Earth, it felt like the life was the same as back then between the battles and wars.

"I wonder what I was expecting to happen…" Rain furrowed his eyebrows.

In any case, one of the idea of techniques that Rain had in mind was rather complicated, so he had decided to split the learning process into many sessions… it was probably the most elaborate training regimen that he had come with until now to learn something that seemed simple on paper, but it wasn't.

For starters, Rain stopped on the middle of the garden of his house and then crossed his arms. Before long, he suddenly appeared a few meters away. He did the same thing several times in a row… and the people who passed nearby and saw him training thought that Rain just learned teleport, but they couldn't be further from the truth.

"Your training methods are really interesting," Sakaki said.

"I left you to deal with the issue of improving our movement speed further, didn't I?" Rain asked. "The first solution can't improve our movement speed forever."

"You know… just because I don't have a body, it doesn't mean that I don't get tired of doing the same thing over and over again," Sakaki said. "Even in the past one hundred years I took several breaks."

"Why do you need a break when we haven't been working together for two months?" Rain asked.

"Let's just say that you are hard to deal with, as much as you think that we are hard to deal it," Sakaki said.

"Touche," Nigel said.

"Anyway, you are skilled enough to do that with your entire foot, why only use a single finger?" Sakaki asked. "It will put much strain on it overtime."

In this technique, he focused on using a single toe to generate the required strength and propulsion to move instantaneously from one point to another. The reason behind using only one toe was clear. Rain aimed to mimic the appearance of teleportation while also introducing an element of surprise.

By concentrating all the strength into a single toe, the sudden burst of movement gave the illusion of teleportation, catching others off guard.

However, Rain was well aware that this method was not sustainable in the long run. The strain on a single toe, even for someone of his caliber, could lead to fatigue and many injuries. To address this, he intended to refine the technique somehow… perhaps increasing his strength and endurance would be enough to deal with the drawbacks.

Despite the potential efficiency gains from using all toes, Rain recognized the tactical disadvantage. A smart opponent with keen eyes might discern the subtle differences in the movements when all toes were engaged, revealing the true nature of the technique.

Therefore, Rain opted for a phased approach, gradually introducing improvements while maintaining the surprise factor in his initial training.

"What is the end goal of this anyway?" Sakaki asked.

"Pure, unrestricted, unrivaled, absolute power," Rain said.

"That is why I said that you are hard to deal with sometimes," Sakaki shrugged.

Rain didn't have anything to say in his defense… in any case, he kept training since speed and dexterous movements were absolutely necessary for his technique, but soon he was forced to stop… even though his body was pretty resilient, he ended up peeling the skin of his toe so much that it even reached the muscles…

"That is hardcore…" Sakaki said, visibly uneasy. "You know, when it comes to speed, lightning magic is unrivaled, perhaps you should use the Electric Mage and unlock its branches."

"That is probably why you guys failed, you skip the basic and went straight for the super techniques," Rain shrugged. "Your foundation always improve all of your techniques, that is why it is never a waste to keep doing the basics over and over again."

"Now I understand how old people feel when the younger generation acts to condescending," Sakaki said. "This isn't something wikipedia can teach you."

Rain laughed a little when he heard that… he had to be more cautious not to show these bad examples to others. He had to at least show some results before acting smug… there were few things more annoying than people who preach about things and how to improve them when they never showed results about anything on their lives.

With that in mind, Rain healed his finger and did the same exercise with the other toes of both feet. All the toes suffered the same fate, but at least Rain confirmed that he was dexterous enough, the real issue was his strength and his body…