Maybe because he could use Power Shot and he had some experience already using energy, it didn't take long for Sigma to concentrate and then feel a bit of the energy returning to his body… it was like trying to feel all the water of a river with a single hand. Still, eventually, Sigma felt his hand getting bigger a bit. Still, soon he stopped feeling that since he had recovered all of his Stamina.
"As expected, you have some talent…" Lucius said. "Still, you have a long way before you can master that technique, and there is only one thing that you can do to accomplish that."
Practice… a lot more practice. Sigma soon got up and then began to run again. Eventually, Ed, Eclair, and Sabrina woke up, and then they prepared breakfast while Sigma kept practicing it. They also left to see where they could buy a few things with the magic stones, and he kept at it.
Sigma only stopped at noon when his legs started to suffer damage. He felt like he was almost there… he could feel like half of the energy. While he thought that it would be enough, he tried to control the energy, but he failed. Once again, he felt like he tried to stop the flow of a river with a single hand.
"You are quite hasty, aren't you, youngster?" Lucius said once he realized what had happened.
Sigma sighed… he wanted to complain, but he couldn't. In any case, he just healed himself until he was certain that his legs were fine and then went to run again.
"You can even use magic, huh," Lucius rubbed his white mustache thoughtfully. "If you had time and patience, you could learn my other techniques."
"You teach all of them to everyone?" Sigma furrowed his eyebrows.
"Naturally, my master taught me two techniques, and then I developed two others myself," Lucius replied while nodding. "I want to see how those who learned my techniques will develop once I am dead."
Sigma wanted to ask how he was planning to see while he was dead, but he decided to keep quiet about it. At some point, Sigma realized that those three were taking their sweet time to return. It wasn't like dozens of people were raising cattle and veggies in the city, so their delay was hard to explain.
Regardless, Sigma kept going until the sun began to set, and those slowpokes finally appeared in the distance. At the same time, Sigma confirmed the results of his training aside from five levels in Pain Resistance and two in Heal.
[You learned Stamina Manipulation.]
[Stamina Manipulation: you can control your stamina with an amount that is equal to the level of the skill.]
"It seems that you pulled it off," Lucius said as if he could feel that Sigma could use the technique. "Now you just have to keep using it to enhance your attacks. After a certain point, you will be able to burn a certain amount of vital energy, and you will learn the next technique."
Lucius was probably talking about Vital Aura… while Sigma didn't know what it could do yet, and he could test that skill since he was dead tired, he could imagine that it would eventually be useful. Someone wouldn't make that technique reach level seventy if that weren't the case.
"Thanks, I owe you one," Sigma replied while healing himself and getting up.
"Don't thank me, this will all be meaningless if you can't cross the northern area," Lucius declared, and then Sigma frowned.
Ed, Eclair, and Sabrina arrived and tried to change the flow of the conversation… they were hiding something. It was obvious, thanks to their nervous faces. Regardless, at least they brought a bunch of things that would help them travel toward the North. Most of them were thick clothes made using the fur of the monsters in the north, and they had magic properties to fight the cold.
They explained that they had a hard time finding someone who wanted to trade a certain magic fire lamp that could illuminate the area and offer the heat of a campfire anywhere, even without wood. They consumed a small magic stone per hour, but it was worth the hassle. Sabrina couldn't use her magic throughout the night to keep them warm, after all.
"The area ahead is basically a massive land covered in ice and snow where multiple small frozen lakes can be found, most of them are filled with monsters, carnivore fish… even if we are lucky to avoid one of those, we will probably die due to the cold," Ed said, and then he showed Sigma a mirror. "But with this mirror, we can check the path ahead for any of those traps."
"I see… spill the beans about what you are hiding," Sigma said while changing topics. "I don't care about the message that you told him, but I know that you have something else."
"Right… the thing is, Boss wants us to talk with all the leaders of all the cities since she believes that some changes will happen soon, and she wants them to cooperate," Ed said and then sighed. "We learned that Lucius' daughter took his place after rebelling, and most of his students decided to follow her, and they are stubborn enough to think of only fighting and follow only the strong. They won't let us cross the northern area that easily."
"So, we will have to break some of their bones to make them listen to reason, but I am guessing that we can't kill any of them," Sigma said.
"That is right," Ed said and then nodded.
"Too much of a hassle. If they try to get in my way to kill me, I will just kill them all," Sigma declared.