In the land of the tiger.

After I finished reading the giant scroll that was handed to me by the dragons I handed it back to him. It didn't take long at all since I can summon an army of shadow clones, well plus there actually weren't that many techniques on it surprisingly. Yup, you head that right. There were less than a hundred techniques on that scroll for as long as it is. I mean I read them all and memorized them so I don't need the scroll any more.

I still had around a day left before I left for the tigers domain... actually maybe I can go early. Hm, "Hey, think I'd be able to go to the tiger's area since I'm done here?" I called that out to nobody in particular, but the sage dragon seemed to talk in a lowish voice.

"Yeah sure. Just visit when you get a chance. Gets boring here." He then yawns and passes back out. What a lazy bunch.

I flash over to where the tigers were when all of a sudden something pounces towards me so I try to duck quickly to dodge, though I was too slow and I ended up failing. When I looked at what it was that knocked me down it was a medium sized tiger, this one was pure black so he must be the son of the tiger I met, "Um, hello? I'm here to start my training?" I ask to the tiger, maybe it will let me up.

After a few moments of silence the voice of the tiger gets louder as it gets closer, "Ezekiel. EZEKIEL?! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU BRAT!?" Yup, definitely the tiger. After a few more moments he walks into the clearing and sees the tiger sitting on me proudly like prey before he starts speaking to me, "Ah I see my son found you. Naturally you didn't learn anything about actual combat from those pacifists. On the bright side you came early which shows dedication, and I like dedication. Get off him Ezekiel, and you. Follow us."

I stand up after the tiger gets off him and he starts walking in a direction. I can't really tell which way it is since even the map on the HUD is all screwy. I think I need to upgrade it if I want it to be able to functions in areas like this one that can't let me get a bearing.

After walking for around half an hour we finally came upon a cave system that had been dug out in rocks. The tiger then leads me to one that is close to where we walked in from and then speaks to the smaller tiger, "Ezekiel. You are to guard our home while I take this human brat here to get trained, if you leave at all before I get back tonight you are to hunt your own dinner." The tiger, Ezekiel, quickly runs into the cave and sits down making sure to pay attention to anything the sage tiger (Since I called the dragon the Sage Dragon) may say.

The Sage tiger then led me into a large pathway in the middle of the cave systems, and at the end of it was an arena in which 2 tigers were currently fighting. Both of them were heavily injured with one of them having their mouth around the other's throat, but the tiger was not going to go easily and pushed into the tiger biting it which caused it to fall back a bit and give the tiger enough space to get away from the jaws.

The tiger then used its freedom to swipe at its opponents throat that was left exposed from the opening it gave, killing it. Many tigers roared in happiness and some in sadness as all watched the injured tiger compete in such a fierce competition. Man I wish I could do that! Looks cool!

"Get ready since you are going to be non stop fighting in there after I teach you the first technique." These animals are insane. Why do they keep setting these unrealistic goals. Wait no, the bigger question is why do I keep going along with this shit?

My defense of not being a masochist seems to be shrinking as time goes by. Well I am here, "What is the method then? Since fighting non stop for any length of time seems impossible to me right now." I swear to god if its skooma.

The tiger hands me a scroll with his tail before he speaks, "This is something my old master devised that can allow for someone to fight for hours of combat on end at its weakest stage, at his stage he could fight for a week straight, though he told me he could imagine that it could go farther. Now this is a sage technique but it can actually be used with very little nature energy so it doesn't require the mode. You have an hour to learn it before you start fighting and learning on the fly brat." God dammit, well an endurance boost would be nice.

I summon 10 batteries to start charging since I feel I will need them later, I also summon clones to start practicing the technique with a very small amount of nature energy.

Slowly my clones make progress until my batteries finished and I unsummoned one to get its energy. I instantly summoned more clones and had them start practicing with it to make it better and better. I can't tell much of an effect, though my body does seem healthier since I am sending Natural energy into my cells instead of just transporting it around my body like I did before. The essence of this is efficiency, and the more efficient I make it the better.

Another bonus was that I didn't need to do it often eventually, at one point it says in the scroll that I will be able to do it once a month and it will last me almost the whole time, which I consider pretty amazing. Man, imagine how many shadow clones I could use at that point, it will be amazing and then they would truly be negligible.

After another half an hour the tiger walks up to me and looks me up and down before speaking, "Good. You should last the time that you are here well enough now. Get into the ring and I will explain different abilities that you should do."