Glass Mind, developed by Tahl Rime, a monk turned witch hunter in Siderius' old world.
This technique focused on repressing emotions during meditation. The core of it was to make peace with your psychosis and slowly dissolved it into nothingness.
This required a great deal of self-reflection and emotional control of a witch hunter. Hunters that went with this meditation usually withheld all their emotions and appeared cold on the outside.
A perfect technique for beginners. Easy to start, easy to train but very hard to master. It's not easy to get rid of all your emotional attachments and become a walking machine.
This was not the technique that Siderius followed in his past life. It was also not the one that he deemed suitable for this situation.
He was in the wilds with so many elements that could evoke his emotions. Emotions were also good. Fear keeps you alive. Hesitation makes you think twice before doing something risky.
Siderius did not choose this technique.
Beast Growl, developed by Kor Valnec, a fearsome witch hunter that operated in the highland regions. He was also the famous Highlander, the hunter that destroyed the reign of the Witch Queen many years ago.
The highlands were cruel, unforgiving land that was filled with dangers. Similar to Siderius' current situation.
This technique was the opposite of Glass Mind. Instead of repressing your emotions, Beast Howl focused on relishing your primal urges and the beast's instinct.
In meditation, the technique would focus on the invasion of the beast's psyche and fused it with the witch hunter.
"You don't chain the beast. You become one with it." That was the mantra of Beast Growl.
Additionally, this technique also encouraged a witch hunter to fulfil the beast's needs.
Previously, the owl loved to eat rodents. So if Siderius wanted to apply this technique. It was best to fulfill these needs.
The upside of this technique was that it lowered Psychosis extremely fast. The speed of it would be at least two times more than Glass Mind.
Its weakness was also much worse. Fusing with the beast psyche would affect the witch hunter's mind. Siderius would have to add rodents into his diet forever if he had to go with this technique.
Beast Growl was easy to start, easy to master and had very quick results. It was also extremely powerful and granted the witch hunter almost all the power of the beast. But it also had the worst consequence. The witch hunter mind would become more and more beast-like the more mutations he had and these consequences were irreversible.
Truth be told, the fearsome Kor Valnec killed himself in his last days due to the beast he had become. One could argue he was hardly a person anymore.
This technique had too big of a drawback so Siderius didn't choose it.
The Hunter Oath was also a notable technique. It was developed by Sir Cael Rohan, also a Knight of the Holy Order as Sir Siderius Satterblade.
The Hunter Oath was simple. This meditation broke the process into a string of lines that the witch hunter kept repeating to himself.
The oath was:
"Through dark and mud, through fear and curse,
My blade shall thirst for evil blood.
Fear me, monsters of evil trust,
You shall die for the hunter's just."
In his meditation, Sir Cael would recite this oath repeatedly, to remind him of his purpose and goal. In turn, the oath would melt down the psychosis.
The biggest drawback to this technique was that you needed to do exactly as your oath said. If you went against it, you would never be able to use the Hunter Oath again. Or worse, your psychosis may face a total breakdown.
Aside from this restriction, the Hunter Oath had no actual side effects. It didn't affect the hunter's emotions, it did not turn them into a mindless beast nor a cold killing machine.
Sir Siderius really considered using the Hunter Oath as it was a very complete meditation technique. However, in reality, your action needs to be flexible.
Killing a witch may not always be a good idea if it costs you your own life. If Siderius took this oath, he couldn't make a choice and had to kill that witch if he'd have given the chance.
Siderius liked to have a choice. So he didn't choose Hunter Oath.
Siderius' previous meditation technique was Alchemy Palace.
This technique focused on using a special Alchemy concoction to make you hallucinate during your meditation. This hallucination would materialize the beast into an enemy inside a Mind Palace, a fictional location made from the hunter's consciousness that existed only in the mind.
All Siderius needed to do was to kill or capture the beast inside this Mind Palace to lower his psychosis.
The speed of this technique was very respectable, only lower than Beast Growl and Hunter Oath but had a quicker rate than the majority of meditation techniques.
Its weakness was that the witch hunter was completely vulnerable during his meditation.
This wasn't a problem for Siderius back in the old world. He would stay in the Alchemy Guild, where it was completely safe, or the Hunter Association, where his allies were everywhere to protect him.
He had no allies in this world nor an actual safe place. Even this hideout was only good until it would be located by the witches.
Siderius needed something safer without any big mental drawback.
He chose the Nine Rings, developed by Sister Elvyn Shar, a female witch hunter that was also a Priestess of the Holy Order.
Nine Rings represented nine different aspects of one psyche. Each ring would become a shackle to imprison the mind of the beast.
Not all rings needed to be used to conquer the beast's psyche. For a beginning mutation like Ocula, the first three rings should be sufficed.
Once the rings completely imprison the beast, its entire essence would be consumed by the witch hunter, leaving no side effects nor drawbacks.
As a Priestess of the Holy Order, Sister Elvyn treasured one's mind above all. This was reflected in her meditation technique, which if done right could completely eliminate a beast's influence on a hunter's mind.
Her method was also extremely safe to do in every situation. It did not require a moment of vulnerability like Alchemy Palace.
Siderius controlled his breathing. He calmed his nerves and relaxed his muscles.
He looked deep down inside his own mind and opened up the intimate dark space of his spirit.
And then he raised his hand.