Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix
Chapter 1311 - 1311: Dark Runic Knight Path

Once that was done, Rain began to work on analyzing the next core. The ones remaining were the Dark trolls, mechanical knights, and the giant golden golems… to have as much time as possible. Rain left the golden golems for last.

As soon as Rain finished working on that path, he went to make more relics… the number of people in their camp had increased once again since all of Jori's and Reca's kids had arrived, so Rain had to keep going… without any time to sleep… if he only could make his doppelgangers work for him and produce them… but it was easier said than done.

"Since the runes and gems are skills, they should be able to make them, and then I will only design the circlets," Rain thought. "Perhaps in the Future, they will do the whole thing. Not like we have time for that."

Rain decided to split the work, and that helped a lot. He doubled the speed of the production of the circlets, and thanks to that, everyone had their own after one day. The next mission to defeat the sealed ones ended after just two hours, thanks to it… No one got even closer to getting in danger, so the morale of the group was sky-high.

"This is good, I guess… with that in mind, I will take a nap," Rain thought.

"Your worrywart senses are too strong," Elisabetha said.

Rain couldn't deny that… lately, he realized that he had a hard time falling asleep. Unless he were completely exhausted, he would take some time before he could fall asleep. The reason for that was the fact that they were captured during one of those times when he was taking a nap.

When Rain woke up, he suddenly got up and checked things around and saw some people resting as well while half of the group was watching the walls. He couldn't help but sigh… his worries didn't want to let him relax even for a couple of hours… or perhaps it was his instincts propelling him to work.

In the end, Rain soon began to work on analyzing the next core. After the mechanical knights, he will have to choose between either one of the two related to greed, but he had done everything in his power to prepare for any changes, and there was no point in delaying the unavoidable. Moreover, analyzing that core had been pretty easy.

He finished it before the others could even wake up and decide who was going to be their next target.

The Dark Runic Knight Path is a combat path that melds mastery over weaponry with the forces of wrath and pride, empowering the user with lethal skills and the ability to summon weapons forged from pure energy. Strength and Dexterity +50.

• Level 1: Weapon Proficiency - Enhances the user's skill in wielding a variety of weapons, increasing precision and effectiveness in combat. Speed and attack power increases by five percent per level.

• Level 5: Ephemeral Wrath - Channels wrathful energy into attacks, temporarily boosting damage output and causing enemies to suffer from a wrath debuff. Decreasing the effectiveness of healing and regeneration by a percentage that equals the level of the skill.

• Level 10: Ethereal Weaponry - Summons weapons made of pure energy, providing the user with versatile and powerful instruments of destruction. The more energy used, the more powerful the weapons.

Rain used Ethereal Weaponry to summon a pair of gauntlets that covered his fists and forearms, and he could feel them getting hotter while the gauntlets made the air vibrate thanks to the massive amounts of energy… now he could understand why the blades of the giant mechanical knight destroyed his flesh so easily… that concentrated energy essentially was used to erase anything that touches.

"The energy will dissipate, and I guess against powerful enemies, the skill will lose energy faster, and the effect will be less powerful, but if I go out from the beginning…" Rain thought while rubbing his chin.

With his mana, Rain could do some insane things alongside that skill, and he just had to find the right moment. In any case, that was a question for another time… everyone was starting to get up, and teaching that path to them before they headed to the next mission would grant Rain some extra time, and it would also grant them some extra power.

"I am planning to split the group before the next attack," Sealyn declared. "Thanks to the circlets, our strength increased a lot, so we can probably target three enemies at the same time. Still, just in case, it will be better if we learn all the paths available from the cores that we have."

Well… Rain's plans were forced to be changed rather fast. Since Sealyn's intentions made sense, Rain couldn't do anything to try to convince the others otherwise aside from spilling the beans. However, that would only speed things up… the only thing he could do was to trust that their preparations would be enough and that whatever happened, they would overcome.

"I agree, Esmeralda's group is quite ahead of us, and considering the power that they showed earlier, they should have conquered the entire zone in less than five years if they wanted to. Their taking their time is concerning," Seadrei said. "Still, that is also a chance for all of us to catch up with them."

"Do you have anything to say, Dad?" Sealyn asked while turning to the side. "You look lost in thought. I mean, more than usual."

"No, this is the most logical step," Rain said.

While Rain had a sense of trust in his intuition, he remained committed to adhering to logic and reason, recognizing the limitations of relying solely on gut feelings. Understanding that personal instincts could be fallible, he prioritized a pragmatic approach to decision-making.

It was not a matter of claiming infallibility but rather a recognition that certain situations demanded a reliance on a more calculated and strategic mindset.