Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

In the end, Rain decided to use the power of the Seals and make his kids able to use them as well. Since he loved them, he had an easy time casting the magic. The conditions for them to use his power were simple… they had to fear for their lives.

"It doesn't matter if they use it to fight or not, once they sense the danger, they can use it to run or fight," Rain thought.

When morning came, everyone found Rain there making breakfast. They sighed in relief, but soon they heard of the news. Rain didn't seem that worried anymore. He got a bit disappointed, but for a different reason.

The Cook's path leveled up.

Level 40: Culinary Alchemy - Infuse your dishes with special magical properties, granting unique buffs or effects when consumed. Magic attacks + 10 points of damage per level.

Level 45: Cook's Blessing - Bestow a culinary blessing that protects your allies from certain status effects, providing them with immunity to ailments. Decreases the power of negative effects by one percent per level.

Level 50: Feast of Plenty – Prepare feasts, restoring the health and mana of your comrades while invigorating their spirits, improving morale. + 10 points of health and stamina per level for thirty minutes.

"No new path?" Rain frowned. "This is disappointing."

Rain couldn't help but notice that reaching level fifty in the Cook's path hadn't unlocked a new path for him, which was a first. However, he considered that perhaps this was due to the path being focused on non-combat abilities, unlike the usual combat-oriented paths he had used.

It was a new experience for him to level up a second-tier path that primarily focused on other aspects of his abilities, such as cooking. Rain understood that not all paths would lead to the unlocking of new abilities, but that was suspicious…

"Maybe it is because this path can't evolve like others… or maybe…" Rain thought while squinting his eyes.

"What are we going to do?" Terra asked.

"Everyone else is preparing for the fight… I asked Liss and Asche to send their soldiers to West and help Jori and Reca if the enemies makes any moves," Rain replied. "Branden and Esmeralda will send reinforcements to either side, and while we are supposed to help Dad and my sisters, we will stay here for a while since we can't leave the southern coast unprotected."

"And until then?" Seara asked.

"We probably don't have much time, but we will train everyone until they can barely walk," Rain declared.

While Rain wanted to learn and teach his warriors new techniques, it would be better if they could improve the ones that they currently had and could also get used to them in battles. As such, even though he avoided doing that, Rain began to spar with his troops one after the other.

Even if Rain blocked they passed the test if they could hit him before he could hit them, but if they failed, they would have to take a full lap around the area with weights on and that would take at least three hours… in the end, when the first completed the lap, all the others were running while feeling a throbbing pain in their ribs.

"The battles will be away from large cities, so we won't have many places to rest," Rain said while he was doing handstands and his hands were sinking on the ground. "Do you want to go home once the battles start?"

"My home is with you all, I don't want to hide whenever this happens," Seara said. "Sealyn will be fine since your mother and grandparents won't join the fights."

Seara had a point… once again, one of his wives decided to hurt Rain with logic and sound reasoning, so there wasn't much that he could do about it. Aside from accepting that they wanted to join the fight.

To prove her determination, Seara even learned the absorption technique that improved one's mana, health, and stamina Regeneration. Even without starving herself… it was easy to learn from others, but even so…

"Dad sent a letter and apparently he learned that and he sent me some tips," Seara said. "He said that he is owing you once more."

"What should I ask him? I mean, how much money," Rain said.

"Don't ask me how you can rip him off," Seara said while frowning. "He will send enough help when the time comes, and that should be enough… if he doesn't himself come to help."

"There is something else he can help me with, but it has to be done in secret since I don't think that they are being watched like we are," Rain said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I think that they will remain like that until they do a big move."

"What is that?" Seara asked.

"I think it will be more interesting once I manage to make some progress on that, but I don't have time to put that plan into motion yet," Rain said. "So, let's just wait for the end of this next conflict."

Almost as if someone could hear Rain, the enemies, most likely, the enemies on both sides to make their move.

The situation became increasingly worrisome for Rain as he finished reading the reports. The magic people's army and monsters had penetrated the border of the human territory. This incursion was particularly alarming, as the sea folk, who had tried to defend the land, were unable to deter the invaders even for a couple of hours.

The enemy force included skilled magic users who could repel the waves and attacks the sea folk employed for defense.
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Adding to Rain's concerns, Geo, who had been monitoring the situation in the beast people's territory, brought disconcerting news that nothing had changed there. This raised questions about the intentions and objectives of the invading forces.

With two major threats to contend with, Rain faced the challenge of protecting the kingdom and its inhabitants in an uncertain situation filled with mysteries.