Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Rain spent one day resting and putting his family at ease, but he soon began to investigate the whole situation further the next day.

Rain, relied on his magical abilities and ascended to considerable heights, surpassing the looming dust-laden layers that veiled the skies. As he soared to higher altitudes, he observed a gradual thinning of the dust's density, consistent with the thinner air found at greater heights.

However, even at these elevated positions, he noticed no discernible improvement in specific areas within the regions he meticulously surveyed.

Despite ascending to the highest points reachable through his magical flight, Rain encountered no relief or indications of a lessening of the dust. Instead, the haze seemed to extend uniformly across the expanse he surveyed, painting a concerning picture of the situation below.

Using his control over earth magic, Rain tried to get rid of the dust by attracting it to a single spot like a magnet. Still, while he did that for a full day and used ten of the highest-quality potions, he didn't see many changes.

"I pull out and transform the dust into bricks, but soon more of it takes its place…" Rain furrowed his eyebrows. "If this were ashes, I would think that dozens of volcanoes became active, but this isn't ashes, and I can't sense any magic in the dust."

Rain could only think that all the dust was still being expelled by something… and without the help of magic. If that were true, Isa would have told Rain that, so it probably wasn't. Then again, Isa never told Rain that she knew the whole world.

"Aside from Isa… who are the most knowledgeable people that I know?" Rain rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Seadrei and… the teleport guy… the guy helping the magic people and the beast people should be pretty knowledgeable too…"

Rain couldn't contact those guys… it was also unlikely that they would promptly help him. Still, if the dust was able to cross the barrier, then the guy helping the magic and beast people probably didn't know how to deal with that.

In the end, Rain returned home on the first day without learning that much. The only thing that he knew for sure was the fact that flying dragons wouldn't find the dust, a real problem, and the fact that earth dragons wouldn't find it either. They probably were feeling great.

As soon as Rain returned, everyone realized that he didn't learn much based on the expression on his face.

"Well, the dust is bound to settle eventually… it happened before," Branden said. "Besides, it would be weird to think that you could solve a problem that the whole world needed years to solve in a single day."

Rain's sense of determination and confidence, which had bolstered his resolve in the face of myriad challenges, now wavered in the wake of this vast and unexpected predicament. In the past, he had set his sights on evolving his own physical capabilities, aiming to push the limits of his potential.

However, confronted with this colossal and inexplicable dust phenomenon, he felt a profound sense of humility wash over him.

The enormity of the situation dwarfed his own aspirations, leaving him with a disheartening sense of being unable to tackle a problem of such immense scale. This humbling experience highlighted the limitations of his abilities and brought forth a daunting realization—that this unforeseen challenge might surpass his individual capacity to resolve.

The gravity of the situation left him grappling with a profound sense of powerlessness in the face of this inexplicable catastrophe.

Still, Rain didn't feel like giving up now… he wasn't a quitter, and he definitely wouldn't let his kids grow up in a depressing situation like that.

"I wanted to ask Isa if the dust is bothering them as well, but I can't ask for much without giving anything in exchange," Rain thought. "I assumed that one day I would obtain their knowledge regarding their technology and magic circles, but I can't just wait for that."

The only time Rain had seen a magic circle being drawn and activated was when the dungeons were created… still, and there wasn't enough information for him to try to use it… but at this point in time, he didn't have any point to start from.

The monsters that sacrificed themselves didn't do anything odd aside from using their blood. That made Rain feel uneasy. It also seemed complicated, so Rain decided to use something simple like creating circles and trying to infuse his mana on the ground… he only made the Earth be controlled by his will, though.

"As expected, it isn't that simple… if it weren't, the demi-humans wouldn't be the only species that could use it," Rain thought. "Well, just thinking about it seems inefficient. I have to train my body as well... that should help to make my brain work better."

Rain began to do some handstands while he tried to brainstorm about the subject. His mind began to move from one point to the other while he also thought about the path system and how it worked… it wasn't the first time that he had done that, but after many years in that world, perhaps he had enough experience to come up with some explanations. Discover hidden tales at My Virtual Library Empire

The first thing that Rain recalled were the basics… the human path had skills that all humans would have on Earth or in all worlds for that matter… even though the path could reach level one hundred, that path alone would only make a human reach the level of strength of a muscular fighter on Earth.

Probably the full potential that a human from Earth could reach in terms of physical and mental abilities.

In that sense, all the other species had the upper hand over the humans… the beast people were naturally stronger physically and had better instincts, while the magic people were weaker physically but stronger in terms of magic potential… such a balance couldn't be a mere coincidence…