I have Nine Lives

Chapter 40: Strengthening the body through training

Felix decided to go to the inn and practice these new training techniques he just got from Catro, he felt that they would improve his already impressive physique even further!

Felix decided to start with the thing he needed improvement the most right now, while his stamina was a little above average due to his eating, it wasn't extremely impressive, so he started to breathe in and out according to the instructions that Catro gave him.

The Hex energy surrounding him started to enter his body, he was like a whale inhaling water as the surrounding energies started to be devoured by his body, his heart started to pump blood at a higher pace while his lung capacity increased at the same time.

Stamina could be increased by having a higher lung capacity and faster blood flow and the breath training technique was doing just that!

It was using the Hex energy that was flowing in the air to increase these two attributes slowly but surely, since it was Felix's first training time using the technique, the amount of hex energy he needed to increase his stamina wasn't that high, but it still reduced the density of hex energy around the inn by 20%!

Felix's eyes opened as he felt that quite a bit of time passed, he looked outside the window and saw that it was almost night, he could feel that there was Hex energy surrounding his heart and lungs now, it was of a simple white color. If he could see his insides he would also realize that there was one stack of Hex runic characters running along with his heart and lungs now, they were very transparent and weak, this symbolized that he didn't finish the strengthening properly and he needed more hex energy before he was done with it.

Felix's eyelids were quite heavy, this type of training put a strain on the body, and continuously using such training could indeed cripple the body, Felix realized what Catro's warnings meant right now.

Since he couldn't train his body anymore and it was also getting late, he decided to go to sleep and train his soul!

Who knew? Maybe that God would talk with him again, he still wanted to know what was his purpose of being on this planet. He felt empty and without any goals, he just lived to live. He felt quite hollow inside, he actually lived so he wouldn't die, he hated dying, the sensation had trickled into his psyche and it scared him to the point that he would do anything to not die, even though the death wasn't permanent.

This was a psychological issue that came when his brain and intelligence weren't fully formed so it stuck to him and became a trauma that he couldn't get rid of at this point.

Felix found himself back at the top of the train station, he looked around and saw that some more memories appeared, it seemed he didn't need to plant them himself anymore as they would insert themselves in the empty spaces that appeared as his soul grew stronger.

Felix could feel his mind getting clearer as this happened but nothing else happened to him, he was the same person as before.

He couldn't fill the empty spots with memories anymore as they would appear automatically now, so all he could do was doze off on the train station rooftop.

The moment he fell asleep in his mental space, his memories started to automatically flash before his eyes, both the good and bad ones, he woke up with a shake of the head, he really didn't like the bad memories, he looked around and spotted the ones that had to do with death, he didn't know what to do with them, could he seal them? He wasn't sure if he could get rid of them, and if he did would something bad happen to him?

Felix wasn't very smart, but he couldn't be considered dumb either, so he decided to put those thoughts on hold and not fall asleep in his mindscape again, it wasn't a good experience to relieve your life so suddenly and quickly at the same time.

Felix woke up from his mindscape after a while passed without anything else happened.

As he started to get into this thing, he would first go and find someone to spar with, Lindo if he was available, if not he would find some random person at the training spot and ask him for some guidance, most of the time he would win 90-95% against these random persons, after all, he was surely at the lieutenant level by now, unfortunately, he couldn't make any progress with killing intent masking.

Time passed quickly as Felix trained, doing his best to prepare for the upcoming intercontinental battle, he would also visit Landers and Catro from time to time to get some more advice, since he couldn't properly train in his mindscape anymore he took some time to read, the lion capital had a big library he could use to get the information he needed, while there were also scrolls that could give you information directly, they were rather expensive and with the money, he saved he could at most buy one or two, He didn't need very much sleep even though he liked doing it.

The lack of needed sleep was due to his continuous training in the stamina breathing technique, as his stamina increased, his need for sleep and rest decreased dramatically after he finished his first rune, he was already on his second one and things were going around nicely for him regarding his training, as his second rune started to get more solid on his heart and lungs, he could feel that his stamina was slowly recovering as long as he didn't do anything strenuous.

It could be a lie if Felix said he didn't like the current situation, he could eat as he wanted and train as he wanted, even though he was innately lazy, he did like the feeling of improvement that washed over him after he finished a day of training.

Felix yawned as he finished one more day of stamina strengthening then stretched his body, suddenly there was a knock at his inn door as the voice of a female could be heard:

"Marshall Landers is here to see you, sir Felix!"

Felix smiled, he could only briefly talk with Landers here and there due to his new responsibilities, after he came back from that mission he could only get advice from him 2 times.

He sighed as he left his inn room and met with Landers outside, Landers now had a different outfit that consisted of a red military armor that showed he had advanced in military-grade, he had the characters for marshall printed on the front of his armor and his mane was now tied into a ponytail.

Felix looked at Landers and smiled as he asked:

"Finally finished all of your work?"

Landers nodded, he was quite tired of all the stuff he had to do but didn't forget about Felix, he was one of his most talented people and he wanted to visit him to see how he improved, and what he saw left him happy enough considering he could feel that Felix's aura took a turn for the better.

Landers suddenly waved his hand to the side and Felix's sense went haywire as he jumped up dodging a sudden attack that came out of the ground, Landers smiled as he continued to wave his hand making attacks appear from thin air and slash or impale Felix.

Felix did his best to dodge everything he could and Landers stopped playing with Felix after a short while as he nodded at him and said:

"It seems you have grasped the important factors of killing intent detection, all you need to do now is temper the ability through live deadly combat, I can't help you much with that as I have my own things to do and there aren't many if any tribes that you can fight with anymore after the Shaman united all of the tribes on our Tarot continent."

"Anyways I came up with some important news for you and the other youths in the tribe, the intercontinental battle has been announced, it will begin 9 months from now on the island that stands between all of the four continents, its the hub that connects the continents together after they were forcefully broken."

"You are the first one that I have come to tell the news, the others will have to learn by themselves when they will get the information from the mission debriefing person."

He waved his hand at Felix as she slowly made his way to the mission building to inform the person behind the counter about this.

Felix looked at his receding back as he thought about the incoming intercontinental battle and his blood started to boil!

He wasn't a fighter by nature, but to survive those instincts ingrained themselves in him, the thirst of fighting stronger opponents and prevailing against them!

Felix went directly to Lindo to talk to him about the intercontinental battle, even though the date has been announced it wasn't truly known how the 'fights' will consist of.

Felix met with Lindo at the same restaurant they usually ate after they sparred, Lindo became quite serious the moment he heard the battle will start 9 months from now, Felix wasn't sure why he looked like that so he asked him:

"Anything wrong about the date?"

Lindo shook his head:

"Nothing is wrong about the date, but it's quite soon, I thought that it would happen one or two years later, I'm not sure if I will be able to finish my special training before the battle will start, its quite unfortunate."

"Don't mind me, but if we fail in this battle, not even our corpses will be recovered from the battlefield, my father told me that he was one of the few survivors from the last intercontinental battle, it's a bloody and ugly event that only exists to gauge the upcoming talent of the youths of each continent, it's actually quite sad."

"These are some words my father imparted me: War is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other, he realized this when he came alive from the battle and then he was supposed to invade the Tarot continent and enslave or kill the people on it..."

Felix kept quiet as Lindo talked about his father, he seemed like an experienced man who went through difficult things, but like all people who were in the military, he could also be considered average in these types of scenarios, he could be counted unique because he was still alive. Fear the old man in a profession where people die young.

Lindo looked at Felix and asked him:

"What do you fight for? What are your dreams? Have you decided on anything? You just seem lost..."

Being questioned so suddenly with such a serious tone made Felix unable to answer immediately, what did he fight for? What were his dreams? Did he decide on anything? Did he have to do that?

Couldn't he live just because he wanted to live? Did he need dreams? Did he need to fight for something?

This wasn't something that Felix could understand even though his soul was mended and his emotions were whole now, he just didn't have enough emotional time to develop such things yet, it was still below a year since he had developed such things.

He looked at Lindo and didn't know what to answer, what could he say?