"It's been a month since we started your special special training, how do you feel right now?"
Sitting while panting heavily, Felix whose back was rested against the metal walls had a smile on his face which was the reason behind Maria thinking he was a masochist.
"It's great… Haaa… My soul is now feeling hungry."
Smiling proudly from hearing those words, Maria looked towards the pitch-black gravity bracelet Felix always wore on his left arm.
More specifically she looked towards the setting which had been placed on ten times.
'Only a pervert like him would set such a high suppression even when inside the gravity chamber.'
Due to how the cultivation system had been established, no cultivator had any way of knowing when they were going to breakthrough into the next level because of the absence of sub realms.
After all, the levels of cultivation were split into Tiers ranging from 1 to 9, and that was it.
Therefore, the cultivators other than seeing how much Astral Force was there inside their soul and how much more they would need to fill it to the brim had one other way of telling when they were close to breaking through into the next Tier.
This was by assessing the condition of their soul.
As known by everyone, a cultivator could only inscribe a rune on their Nascent Soul when their cultivation was in a Tier that was same as the number of Astral Rune they planned to inscribe.
That is, a Tier 1 cultivator could only inscribe one Astral Rune, and someone in the Tier 7 of cultivation could inscribe their 7th Astral Rune, given that they possessed at least seven Nascent Souls.
Due to this, depending on their current cultivation and the number of inscribed runes, every living being's soul would either feel full or hungry.
Full as in completely satisfied and could no longer bear the pressure of another rune being inscribed on it, and hungry as in ready for a rune to be inscribed on it.
Thus, Felix who could sense that his soul was starting to feel hungry was not just getting close to enter Tier 4, but at the same time he could inscribe his third Astral Rune as well.
Usually, it is recommended for all cultivators to wait until their soul feels hungry before they inscribe a rune on their Nascent Soul even after they managed to breakthrough into the next realm.
Unfortunately, in this world where people wouldn't mind killing their own family in exchange for growing stronger, it was impossible for everyone to wait until their soul was ready due to which they'd inscribe a rune as soon as they managed to breakthrough.
As for Felix in the past, he had honestly exceeded the suggestion and went as far as letting his soul starve for many years before he finally inscribed his runes, but this was only because he couldn't inscribe the rune and not because he didn't want to.
For now though, Felix planned on waiting until he entered Tier 4 before inscribing his third rune since this would allow his foundation to stay strong and not be affected in any way despite his soul feeling a little hungry and ready to bear the presence of another Astral Rune.
"That's good. Since you are feeling like that, maybe it is now time for me to change the focus of your training. Until now I've been focusing on letting your body grow stronger to make up for your poor foundation, but now that we've managed to do that which is obvious due to how greatly your cultivation has been advancing, it's time we start training in combat techniques."
"Combat techniques?"
"It's normal for you to not know what I'm talking about."
Not overthinking about Felix's lack of knowledge regarding what she was talking about, Maria sat beside him without minding his the overbearing smell of the sweat coming from his soaked body.
"Since you've already inscribed a few runes and even used them, you should know how strong they are right?"
"Yes."
"But, they have an innate weakness as well. Did you notice what it is?"
Turning silent for a while, Felix began speaking with a little uncertainty in his voice, "I don't know if it is the weakness of the Astral Rune or mine, but using them makes me feel a little rigid and almost as if I'm not using them to their full potential?"
"Correct. Though everyone likes to believe that this is due to the Astral Runes not being strong enough and not completely omnipotent, I'll say this honestly, it is you who are lacking and not using them to their full potential."
"Still, while you, me, and the real elites can accept this fact, it is not enough to change the mindset of the entire world. Due to this, specific combat techniques are present which let you 'make up for the weakness' of these Astral Runes. Though what they actually do is help you use the Astral Runes to their full potential."
"But either way, regardless of what people think about them, combat techniques are essential and needed by all cultivators if they want to become an elite who can control their strength and become a true expert. After all, all that Astral Runes give you is raw power. How you use it is entirely up to you."
"Let me give you an example, consider that you've inscribed the Scarlet Drake Rune which helps you in the creations and control of flames."
"Now that you've inscribed this rune and obtained control over fire as well as being capable of creating it whenever you want, how will you use it?"
"Will you cover your body in it and make it act as armour? Lace the blade of your weapon with it and increase its power? Or will you simply create a ball of flame and throw it towards your enemy?"
"You understand what I'm saying, right? Regardless of what Astral Rune you inscribe, you'll only obtain the power given by it and no special skills which tell you how to use them properly. This is why you can use the power of the Scarlet Drake Rune to even do something as simple as light a match, or create something a ball of fire as big as the sun and incinerate everything you want."
Nodding his head every now of them, Felix who had long since wanted to learn some sword techniques or sword skills to help him wield the Sword of Kronos finally understood what it was that he needed to do.
He now needed to learn some sword-based combat techniques so that the next time he uses the Sword of Kronos, he wouldn't look like a greenhorn despite possessing such a mighty sword.