Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

As he continued to meditate, Rain felt a subtle shift in his perception, a heightened sense of awareness permeating his consciousness. It was as if the barriers between the physical and spiritual realms were thinning, allowing him to glimpse the true essence of his being.

At first, nothing happened, but soon Rain's body began to get hot, to the point that he began to sweat without doing anything and then even steam began to leave his whole body. A couple of hours passed and it became clear that Rain was getting exhausted… he was barely sweating anymore, but steam was still leaving his body.

His skin was also getting drier and drier, as if most of his water and nutrients had been consumed during that exercise. Eventually, he achieved his goal…

Your stamina increased by one point.

Your stamina increased by one point.

Your stamina increased by one point.

…

"Phew… this was tiresome," Rain said. "It took a bit while longer than I had expected."

"This was pretty boring…" Elisabetha said.

"You tried to consume your stamina to forcefully increase its total amount, but it seems that doesn't work," Sakaki said. "However, by sacrificing your body's nutrients and water, you can do that."

"You can say that, but my plan all along was to burn my calories and transform into stamina," Rain said. "Thanks to it, I am starving.'

Loar's meditation technique worked by severing the connection between spirit and body, allowing the spirit to expand and grow unhindered by the limitations of the physical form. It was a practice rooted in detachment, enabling the practitioner to transcend the confines of the flesh and explore the boundless depths of their consciousness.

On the other hand, Rain's newfound technique operated in the opposite manner. Instead of disconnecting the spirit from the body, Rain gained full control over his physical form, harnessing the power of his mind to manipulate his body's energy reserves. With precise focus, Rain directed the flow of his internal energy, converting his calories into stamina with remarkable efficiency.

While Loar's technique focused on spiritual growth and expansion, Rain's method centered on physical endurance and resilience. By exerting control over his body's metabolic processes, Rain was able to push his limits and increase his stamina through sheer force of will.

"So, you will be able to trade calories for stamina?" Elisabetha asked when Rain left the pocket dimension.

"It isn't as easy as eating and then the magic will happen," Rain said. "I will consume my stored energy in my body, so there is only so much that I can process at a time, but the rate wouldn't be bad. Besides, I don't even have to use my mana, I will just work the trent people to make my tent always be full of food."

"They are already overworked…" Sakaki said. "Regardless, what about the health version of that technique."

"What indeed… I have no idea how to come up with this, so I will focus on increasing my stamina as much as possible before the next mission." Rain shrugged.

Speaking of which, while Rain was gorging himself with food, he realized that his skin was truly weird. With low amounts of fat on his body, he truly looked shredded like never before, but the feeling of weakness that it passed to him was rather annoying. Only after two hours he began to feel better, and by then, the next meeting was started, and Rain joined the others.

"You teleported Sakaki. You should have at least asked," Seara said.

"Sorry, I had a food reason for it," Rain said.

"We will now start another meeting to decide our next steps," Regis said. "Considering what we heard, we should be even more cautious in the future. The machine gods will be even more ready the next time, so we need to decide the best target. And that would be one that the enemies won't be waiting for us."

"What are our options?" Sealyn asked after she crossed her arms.

Rain addressed the group, laying out the closest options available to them for their next mission. The first option was another space station similar to the one we recently infiltrated. It likely serves as a storage facility for the dark sentinels, similar to what they encountered before.

He then moved on to the second option. The second target was a larger and more unique base. It's situated in a peculiar location, with multiple structures rotating around a central sun. It's unlike anything they have encountered before, which makes it both intriguing and potentially dangerous.

Lastly, Rain mentioned the third option. They had the potential location of another relic. However, they lacked any additional information about the planet where it's located. It's a bit of a wildcard, but if they were successful, it could provide us with valuable resources or artifacts.

"Is it normal for such a piece of information to be missing in the enemies database?" Esmeralda asked.

"There wasn't much information about the prison either, aside from the fact that it was used to keep some people there to harness corrupt energy," Rain said.

"So, the chances of the place being guarded by a machine god are high," Esmeralda said.

"... They are," Rain said after nodding once.

"... Even though your technique can prevent deaths, it isn't foolproof, right?" Esmeralda asked. "It is better if we focus on doing small things until all of us can participate in the missions. Once we do that, we can even try to attack several targets at the same time."

"This base is near the sun… I would imagine that it would be the most dutiful place for us to be, and the enemies wouldn't expect us there… at least to some extent," Sealyn said. "If they have several structures, their defenses should be limited in each one of them."

Everyone nodded… that seemed like the best option. Truth be told, they wanted to obtain something more tangible instead of just weakening the enemy, but they couldn't overreach.