Anthony was currently seated in the second rest station, meditating while floating in the air. He was trying to activate the secret bloodline ability of his race; Sage Mode. The Sage Monkey race in which half of his blood flowed was truly powerful, but scarce.
Years ago, they were declining in population due to how hard it was to conceive with each other. Even short-term solutions like potions and useful magic could not override nature's limitation on their species.
They were too powerful to be left to grow, like the Dragon Race. As such, the Sage monkey clan were forced to crossbreed with other species to ensure their survival, even if it would no longer be pure-blooded children.
After generations of trial and error, the Sage Monkeys were excited to discover that conception with the human race never failed, and not only that, the human bloodline was so weak that any bloodline it mixed with would take the dominant position.
It sort of existed in the backdrop, and what even fueled the Sage monkey clan with even more glee was that a half-beastman, half-human with their bloodline could have a 75% chance to conceive with a full-beastman of their clan.
It was like the human bloodline's only purpose was there to facilitate conception with any and all species, so the Sage Monkeys had developed a very beneficial relationship with the human race.
Antony himself had a half-beastman/half-human father and mother, so he too was a half-breed in both aspects. With each generation these two bloodlines went down, their merger became stronger, and the Sage Monkey clan even found that their original bloodline, though less concentrated, was now much stronger as the human bloodline introduced many things that allowed it to grow.
While this was great, there was always a price to pay for everything in this world. In this case, the Sage Monkeys found that while all other aspects of their original bloodline were enhanced, they could no longer easily achieve their bloodline's pinnacle form, the Sage Mode.
The Sage Mode was crucial because it allowed them to achieve a special ability that negated all costs and detrimental effects from using magic. While the duration of the transformation was usually short, it was the secret to why the Sage Monkey clan could dominate in most battles.
After all, if a platoon of them could suddenly transform and shoot out magic like it was a bullet from a machine gun, how could any orthodox army survive? If it wasn't for the small numbers of their clan, they could have long conquered Fallon.
Ironically, now that they found a loophole that allowed the clan to rise in both power and size greatly, the heavens saw fit to seal this special ability behind even tighter doors.
To Anthony, it was imperative that he unlock this form. The five elements he had chosen, Space, Time, Order, Chaos, and Aether were extremely costly to use, especially the two in the middle.
In fact, he had never used them before. In order to master them, he had constantly simulated the spells internally, but never cast them outwardly due to Darius' warning. He was aware through his own research that using those two elements may yield great power, but came with a great cost that could never be recovered no matter how much Lunar Dew you guzzled.
However, if he could achieve his Sage Mode, he could sue them for a short duration without suffering the backlash. The kind of boost it would have to his power was inestimable.
Still, he wasn't even sure if the Sage Mode could allay the costs of the elements. After all, these two elements had only been discovered recently, and only a select few top echelons in Fallon were aware it existed.
First things first, Anthony had to unlock the form. He had already read through the ancient texts of his clan to find the method to unlock it, but whether or not he could was up in the air.
The first step was to achieve Clear Heart: Able Mind. You must cast away all negative and positive emotions clouding your mind and achieve a purely logical train of thought. Detached, aloof, and calculative.
This was not difficult for Anthony with his long training under Darius and his won talents. He cast away his pride, his desires, and his ambition to understand the world, leaving only a mind more powerful than a supercomputer to work without distractions.
The second step was Boiling Blood: Spirit Resonance. You must use your superior mental faculties to stimulate your blood to race through your body far faster than is base. You must achieve at least, a 50x speed to begin the boiling blood.
This was why Anthony had such a high Endurance when he first came, because his race had built their bodies tough precisely for this purpose. He too had already achieved great progress in increasing his stats to amazing levels, so his Endurance should hold out.
Anthony was able to force his heart to pump faster and faster, achieving 50x speed easily but stopping at 75x the speed as he couldn't take anymore. This was his reasonable limit, and even a single increment would rupture all his vessels and see him explode in a fountain of blood from all parts of his body.
The Boiling Blood was only the first part of this stage, the second part was Spirit Resonance. One must be able to achieve a tight connection to their spirit - not their soul - while the blood was billowing through their body.
This was where the Clear Hearty aspect of the first stage came into play, as having earthly emotions blocked one from achieving a connection with their spirit. This was why monks and such always advocate for cutting off earthly emotions, as they were a barrier to the average man.
Anthony may not have activated the Spirit Element when he first awoke, but it wasn't exactly necessary to achieve this. It only made this step easier, not impossible. It took the lad a concentrated effort for over 30 minutes to finally see his spirit.
