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Chapter 870 Aggressive
The two of them had inadvertently spent an entire day in the Shionel
Dungeon. It had taken nearly three hours of exploring the dungeon with Rui's
Riemannian Echo, and then the rest of the remaining day for Kane to finally
extract all the esoteric resources himself from the corpse of the Earthen
Basilisk.
The two of them immediately left the fifteenth floor as they headed back
home.
On the way, back, Rui had much to think about. The floors of the dungeon
were definitely diverging from the norm far more than he had expected.
Generally, floors were pockets of esoteric resource reservoirs, monsters

tended to coalesce because they were large open spaces.
Thus, Rui had expected that the floors would all be straightforward monsters
that could very easily be dealt with similar strategies each time. Yet this, and
previous floors showed him that he should not be certain of what to expect.
After all, he ran into a town of monsterified living zombies inside a floor,
things didn't really get that much crazier than that.
Rui suddenly paused as his senses picked up something strange.
"What is it now?" Kane asked with dismay, having experienced this many
times now. "Is it a monster or another floor?"
"No, actually, it's a bunch of Martial Squires in different groups in different

places… They're actually coming down the same tunnel system that we're
traversing," Rui murmured.
"How many?"
"A total of forty-three that I can sense," Rui frowned. "They're spread out and
heading in different directions, exploring the dungeon."
"Wait, you're telling me that the normies have begun catching up with us?"
Kane's eyes widened with shock. Rui's Riemannian Echo gave him such an
absolutely uncontested dominant advantage in the Shionel Dungeon. The two
of them were much further and deeper down the Shionel Dungeon than any
martial Squire had ever been because they possessed absolutely no fear of
getting lost with Rui's senses and memory.
Most Martial Squires had to explore more conservatively due to this and
required more manpower.
Even Rui frowned as he found the presence of dozens of Martial Squire this
deep below the surface to be quite odd. He was sure that they had been left
quite behind in the dust.
"This must have something to do with the recent surge in Martial Squires,"
Rui's eyes narrowed.
In the past week, there had been a sudden surge of Martial Squires into the
Shionel Confederation, and the traffic in the Adventurer Ring had increased
visibly.
Rui had an idea as to what was causing this phenomenon, but there was
nothing he could do about preventing it. He just needed to make sure that it
did not change the outcome.
"Chairman Deacon sure is being aggressive, as predicted," Rui snorted. "The

monopolization of dungeons has been his one and only semi-fruitful
endeavor at beating me. He's going to start aggressively exploring with the
help of the capital and manpower of internal and external foreign
stakeholders that he has surely united by now and beat me with sheer
numbers."
"What do his allies gain by helping him though?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"The same success that they would have gained had I not participated in the
Shionel Dungeon exploration and plunder," Rui replied. "Basically, they're
going to join their forces and overwhelm me with numbers to try and restore
the balance that existed before. He has internal and external support, and on
top of that, he keeps increasing the bounty on my head that has also
successfully harnessed freelancers and independents into hunting the nation
for me. Furthermore, he is no doubt conducting extensive brute force
investigations on all Martial Squires as well, as expensive as that is."
Rui did suspect that he was probably one of the most wanted Martial Squires
in recent history. What other Martial Squire had so many countless Martial
Squires working against him or her in such a manner?
"Sheesh, the man truly is fit to be called a bloodhound. The only reason that
Chairman Deacon has not used his political power and governmental
authority to leverage the state's power against me is because Guildmaster
Bradt is singlehandedly crushing any attempt at that with his political capital
and authority, however, he's doing that out of self-interest. And unless I can
give him even more than I have given him, he is unwilling to do more," Rui
murmured.
Unfortunately for him, he couldn't think of any bargaining chips that he could
use to trade with Guildmaster Bradt to put an end to all this. Although
Guildmaster Bradt did have the power to put an end to all of this by
leveraging his enormous political and economic capital, it was extremely
expensive and costly. Rui was aware that even with the precious map, and the
profits of Esosale Suppliers, he would not be able to convince Guildmaster
Bradt to put in even more work without some heavy concessions.
This was on a whole other level compared to asking Guildmaster Bradt to

simply pass a bill amending some laws and protocols.
"Hmmm…" Rui narrowed his eyes. "What to do indeed… I can think of

numerous plans. But for now, Let's get the hell out of here. These guys will
eventually discover the fifteenth floor and inform Chairman Deacon, or the
Shionel Adventurer Guild about the fifteenth floor."
Rui was curious about what the analysis on the fifteenth floor from the
relevant experts would be. Every time a floor was discovered, eventually its
details would become public, and a large number of experts who were unable
to get a first-hand look would offer their insights on the floors of the Shionel
Dungeon.
Although he was quite confident in his deductions and analyses, it did not
hurt to learn the insight of actual experts who studied stuff like this for a
living. He was also quite curious about how his skinning of the corpse for
esoteric resources would be interpreted. Would they also give him credit for
killing the Earthen Basilisk?
He hoped so, it would make his life easier.
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Chapter 2 Exploration
It had been nearly a month since John had been reborn, and not much had
changed since then. His days were spent mostly in his cradle, which drove
him mad with boredom, the novelty of being reborn had long passed.
Hospital personnel would feed him, bathe and change his diaper, the latter of
which was humiliating for a grown old man. Still, he enjoyed this feeling of
youth. The feeling of inhaling massive amounts of air, envigorating every
single cell in his body was truly addictive.
He felt as if he was overflowing with limitless energy that he urged to

expend, his mind felt fresh, and his body felt comfortable. He would often
spend his days trying to move around as much as he could within his cradle,
but his body was far too weak to do much at this stage. He would often spend
time contemplating his future and gathering as much information about
anything he could.
He'd even learnt his own name in the process, the nurse always addressed
him with 'Rui'. A strange name, but one he was beginning to get used to. As
for his surroundings, he'd already noted several oddities about this place. For
starters, the race of the humans he'd come across was unclear, there was no
skin color that seemed to be the norm, both men and women ranged from
light skinned to dark. But this wasn't the strange part, the strange part was
their hair.
('Are they coloring it? Does this country have a fad or something?')
He had seen hair of almost every primary and even secondary color. Red,
blue, yellow, green, purple, blonde, silver, pink etc. This was a rather
shocking sight to a man from a world of mostly black, blonde and little red
hair. In fact, he had come across only one person with black hair, himself, he
was accustomed to this since he had black hair in his previous life as well, yet
it seems black hair was not only not the norm, but also exceedingly rare. Of
all the countless people that had walked past the corridor in the past month,
he hadn't seen a single person with black hair.
The second equally strange thing he had noticed were the eyes. People's eyes'
color was all over the place. Just like with hair, he found a spectrum of every
single color except, yet again, his own eye color: black. Both his eyes, and
hair were pitch black, something that was strange too, as if they sucked the
light out of the world. He suspected that these traits were rare, perhaps even
ominous based on the fearful, perhaps even disdainful glances that some
people would throw at him.
('I hope that isn't the case.') He sighed.
('In any case, this world definitely isn't Earth, there were no races with such
hair and eyes.')
Just then, the door opened and he glanced at the nurse who was assigned to
him. She was accompanied by a blonde-haired woman who looked to be in
her late thirties wearing something that resembled a fusion between a gown
and a traditional yukata. The nurse lifted and passed him to her as they
conversed, though he wasn't sure he understood what they were conversing
about. The blonde-haired woman played with and smiled at him while
occasionally asking the nurse questions. Ten minutes later, after she seemed
to sign some paperwork, she left the hospital with him.
('Figured this day would come, one month in a hospital is way too much.') He
mused to himself, but he welcomed the change. Finally, he could learn more
about this world. He glanced around and took in the environment. The first
thing he noticed was that technology was most strange, it was primitive
compared to the twenty-first century on Earth, but it was esoteric and didn't
seem to match the historical technological progression of humanity on Earth.
Their lighting sources were still a mystery to him, their medicine was also
strange, they used strange concoctions, and apparatuses while tending to him.
He had no frame of reference for them because he couldn't recall any such
equivalent in Earth's history.
('There's something very different about this world, that's for sure.')
A minority of people carried belongings in makeshift bags made from cloth,

it seemed only a larger majority used handbags, or other carrying articles.
The sense of fashion was strange, it was a mix of middle age western and
eastern clothing, it seemed both men and women wore clothing that generally
enveloped their entire body. This was generally a trend that existed prior to
the Industrial Revolution that allowed for the production of clothing articles
with a more sophisticated and difficult production process.
This would suggest that their technology was low, but the architecture of
buildings was rather pristine considering most of them were residences or
small-time shops, not something he would expect from medieval Earth.
These oddities threw him off, he wasn't sure what how to evaluate their
technological prowess.
The weather was beautiful, the sun shone bright, yet the presence of adequate
number of clouds shielded the surface from much of its wrath.
Cool winds blew, rustling the leaves and cherry blossoms of trees and grass
that populated the sidewalks, it was truly a picturesque sight to Rui, a sight
that could seldom be found on modern Earth.
The stone roads were populated with bustling citizens buzzing between what
seemed to be a flea market of domestic goods and services set up in small
stalls or shops.
Just as he was admiring and absorbing his surroundings, the blonde-haired

woman waved her hand and called out to a man pulling a rickshaw. She
quickly got on with Rui after exchanging a few words with the rickshaw
puller, before he started pulling them away at a brisk walking pace.
('Hm, an economical occupation with a low barrier of entry.') He noted, there

were plenty of travelling rickshaws he spotted as they crisscrossed through
the town. They travelled further and further away from the bustling populated
markets, before soon, they reached a house with a huge fence, before they got
off. Rui noticed that the blonde-haired woman paid him off with what looked
to be a bronze coin.
('The coins are remarkably intricate; how can their most common and
universal currency be so sophisticated without electricity? maybe I really
have underestimated this place.')
The house was a little worn down. The paint had significantly worn off and
the building was chipped and cracked at multiple areas, albeit small enough
to not be dangerous. Still, the garden was surrounding the house seemed well
maintained and all in all it painted a homely image. The blonde-haired
woman carried Rui to the entrance before knocking.
"Yes?" A young red-haired woman opened the door slightly, only to beam in
joy, as her eyes fell on the woman holding him.
"Mother Lashara!"
('Lashara is her name?') Rui wondered.
"Alice." Lashara smiled back.
"Welcome back." Alice replied before turning to Rui with a curious

expression. "So this is him? The black-haired, black-eyed baby that no
orphanage accepted for a whole month?"
"Yes, the poor child has been alone during the most tender moments of his
life, I couldn't help myself after seeing how cute he was."
Alice cooed and cuddled at him before taking him in and showing him off to
the others.
('So this is where I'll be living from now on eh?') Rui pondered.
('This... I can get used to this.')

Chapter 3 Shocking Revelation
"Say 'aaaaan'." Alice smiled at Rui holding a spoon of porridge near his
mouth. It had been eleven months since Rui had been born. He had grown
accustomed to the mundane albeit pleasant life that he had come to be living
for the past ten months. Still, although he had very few tribulations as an
eleven-month-old, he would notice that the state of the orphanage was not
what his comfortable life would lead him to think it was.
Life was hard. the 21st century had the highest quality of life in the history of
Earth and only got better and better every year due to growth in technology.
But this was a world in its Middle Ages, even basic necessities that he took
for granted on Earth such as easy access to food, shelter and security were
difficult to obtain, and even harder to maintain for the lowest of the middle
class and lower, the risks and consequences of failing were much harsher too.
He could tell that the financial state of the orphanage was poor, the condition
of the orphanage left some to be desired. He wasn't sure where the orphanage
managed to scrape the necessary money to sustain itself, but he was sure it
was far from easy, orphanages were a non-profit organization, they usually
made their ends meet by donations or in rare cases subsidies.
Though clearly this orphanage struggled with those. The sisters would often
forgo eating meals so that the children of the orphanage could eat fully, he
could sense the anxiety hidden behind their smiling facades when they fed
the hungry children.
('Sigh, to feed a helpless worthless baby like me, they sacrifice much, they
endure much.') He couldn't help but feel guilty.
('When I'm older, maybe I can use my knowledge to earn a large amount of
money. I'll support them myself. They already think I'm a genius after all.')
As an adult mentally, Rui was able to learn languages much quicker through
active learning. He quickly remembered everybody's names first, followed by
basic greetings, words he came across most, such as 'food' and 'eat', before
making his way across a large portion of the common language. He could
form basic coherent sentences by ten months, and had grown more
comfortable and fluent with them by eleven months. The orphanage
considered him a genius, after all, what baby could speak so well before it
even turned one year old?
The rate of growth of his speech was more than thrice of than that of the
average child. Of course, as an adult, Rui didn't feel very smart, ten months
of non-stop practice only to be able to speak as well as a four-year-old was
actually rather embarrassing, even, but of course that was without any active
help or learning resources, and purely from observation and deduction. But
he could use this rate of growth to get a well-paying occupation to support his
new family in the future.
For now, he indulged himself in the food his body needed to grow up strong.
"How's the porridge Rui? Is it tasty? I added extra pepper just as you
wanted." Alice smiled as she fed him another spoon.
"It's really tasty sister." Rui replied with as much sincerity as he could fake.
In truth, he hated porridge, as someone from the middle class of a first-world
country, he was accustomed to much better food than porridge, but this was
something Alice had personally made for him, with a lot of love and care, he
did not dare hurt her feelings out of his privileged lifestyle.
Besides, he did need to eat, nutrition was most important for a child his age
and malnutrition could screw him forever in the worst-case scenario. This
was not something he could tolerate, as someone who suffered from poor
health for a lifetime. As a former chronic asthma patient, the feeling of air
gushing into his lungs and invigorating every cell in his body was addictively
satisfying.
('That also means I can practice martial arts in this world!') He reminded
himself excitedly. Ever since he was reborn, he realized that the fact that his
body did not seem to be hindered by any health ailments meant he could do
all sorts of things he never could before, with the number one activity on his
list being martial arts.
('Fuck YES! This is by far the most exciting part of being reborn!') He
couldn't wait until he was old enough to start practicing martial arts.
"Alice, the Squire you called to clear the fallen tree trunk blocking the back
exit is here." Karin, another caretaker of the orphanage, informed,
"...Squire?" Rui inquisitively inquired, he'd never heard anyone mention that
phrase so far.
"Ah, you don't know yet. Well, would you like to come and see?" Alice put
down the bowl of porridge and gestured at him to follow, which he did out of
curiosity.
The man waiting outside the house was extremely tall, and ridiculously buff.
He wore a what looked to be a Gi, something that resembled training
uniforms, but his muscles could not be hidden despite his loose baggy
clothing. His head was partially clean shaved, while his remaining hair was
neatly braided in a single long pony tail.
('Wait a second.') Rui's eyes lit up.
('Is this a martial artis-')
"Ah, it's over there." Alice guided him to the back where a huge tree trunk
had fallen and blocked the gate.
"I see, then please take several steps away." The man nodded at the sight,
before taking a martial arts stance. He'd stood before the fallen tree before
putting his left foot forward, and his right leg back. He folded and brought his
left arm forward, with his forearm perpendicular to the ground and his fist
pointing to the sky. It was a common stance for launching a straight right in
most martial arts. Yet it seemed as though the man intended to use it to...
clear the tree?
Rui's eyes flew wide open at this sight.

"What is he tryi-"
"Floating Tiger Fist style: Roaring Impact." The man whispered.
What followed next shocked Rui from head to toe. Every cell in his body
froze as if they each wished to witness the miracle that had followed. He
didn't think anything could surprise him anymore, but he was wrong. This
was merely the beginning.
The man's body disappeared, Rui could only see a haze as he began his
movements, and it completely vanished in his vision as the man twisted his
core to generate enough torque while driving all that momentum into his fist.
The next thing Rui heard was a huge shockwave that hit him with a mild
force even at a distance of more than ten meters away, and a large thud
followed by the sound of crumbling wood. The shockwave had lifted up dust
and sawdust, that prevented him from seeing the immediate consequences of
the strike. Yet once it settled, his shock escalated.
The tree trunk was reduced to bits! The man damn near pulverized that huge
tree trunk with a single punch!
The man turned and glanced at Rui and Alice, unperturbed.
"Anything else?"
Chapter 4 Orphanage
Lashara sighed as she finished working on the accounts of the Quarrier

Orphanage, money was tough this month. An orphanage had many
expenditures, the most taxing of them being food. It wasn't easy to obtain
enough money to feed sixteen children and six adults. Although five of the
six adults earned money, they barely made enough for everybody, this was
despite the tax waivers that orphanages received from the government, and
the few donations that the orphanage occasionally received from benevolent
rich patrons.
Their monthly expenditure included food, clothes as children were constantly

growing and with sixteen of them something or the other was always
outgrown every month, sanitation supplies, the discounted tax, maintenance
and several other individually small needs and indulgences that culminated in
a daunting monthly expenditure.
The Quarrier orphanage had been founded by her twenty-three years ago,
back then she was the only caretaker, and she had taken in five children back
then. Generally, families looking to adopt went to larger and more famous
orphanages rather than smaller ones like her own, so the five children she
took in had never been adopted, she raised them like her own children.
Those five children Alice, Karin, Depp, Myra and Kenta grew up and decided
to support the orphanage and their mother, together they constituted the six
adult caretakers that ran the Quarrier Orphanage.
Lashara spent all her time at the orphanage, whereas the five caretakers had
part-times that allowed them to sustain the orphanage. Usually they had
anywhere between fourteen-sixteen children, this was their utmost limit given
the orphanage's accommodation and financial capacity, as well as the
caretaker to child ratio. Though, families preferred to adopt younger children,
below the age of one normally, so most of the older kids remained in the
orphanage.
They would be home-tutored in their early years by Lashara mainly, she

would teach them basic law, geography, history, mathematics and the
absolute bare basics of economics and politics. She did her best to instill the
foundational knowledge that all were expected to have as well as the things
all adults ought to know. Although she was no learned academic, over the
span of twenty-three years she had become a master of teaching the basics.
The ladies Alice, Myra and Karin worked part time in kitchens, restaurants, at
wealthier residences as cooks, waitresses, maids, baby-sitters and jobs of
those sorts. The men Depp and Kenta worked in manual labor jobs, rickshaw
pullers most of the time, albeit in winter they preferred to get into mining.
Together the five earned a majority of the monthly income the orphanage
received.
Lashara loved each one of them from the bottom of her heart, without them,
she would have to shut down the orphanage, the mere thought of which made
her heart ache. Things were hard, but because she had such loving children,
she could overcome these tribulations.
Things had gotten even harder since the orphanage took Rui in, a newborn
infant required constant attention and supervision, this put an even greater
burden on them, but Lashara did not regret her decision. She felt a great
amount of heartbroken pity when her sister, who worked as a nurse in the
hospital, informed her of a black-haired, black-eyes orphaned baby who had
not been accepted by even a single orphanage.
Black hair and eyes were exceedingly rare and were ominous and it is said
that those born with these traits could bring great ruin or fortune to the entire
world, thankfully Lashara never bought into that nonsense, and neither did
most people, but the superstitious fear of bad omens still remained. To
Lashara it was just a bunch of made-up nonsense that had no doubt made the
otherwise perfectly normal and ordinary children born with these traits go
through a harder life.
Of course, Lashara was not blind to the fact that Rui was far from a normal
child. In her eyes, he was a prodigious genius beyond fathoming. He spoke
his first word at the age of two months, shocking all the adults around him,
and his vocabulary and speech increased dramatically until he could speak
like a four-year-old even before he hit the age of one. Furthermore, his
temperament was truly unbelievable, he very rarely cried, and even then, only
shedding a few tears reluctantly when he got hurt badly. He was calm and
patient, something Lashara thought to be impossible in an infant.
It would be quite intimidating to her if it wasn't for the fact that Rui was a
truly wonderful baby, he was kind, affectionate and above all else truly
adorable, she was sure he would be a heartbreaker when he grew up.
She sighed as she shut the accounts book and put aside her abacus when-
BOOM!
A sudden loud noise startled her. She walked down the corridor towards the
back of the orphanage where the noise had come from.
"Ah the squire, I see." She peered through a window at the crumbled wood
and sawdust rubble.
('Yet another expense, but we didn't have much of a choice. Chopping it

down ourselves would take too much time and energy and the back exit is
regularly used for receiving supplies because the storage room is closest to
it.')
A storm had knocked down a brittle dead tree, leading to all these
complications. Fortunately, Martial Squires were quick, making their services
worth every bronze coin of their service. A Martial Squire was one of six
realms, or ranks, of Martial Artists, who were part of a Union known as the
Martial Union, which offered any and all services that employed Martial Art.
The Orphanage had commissioned manual labour from a Martial Squire,
through the Union, though only in rare occasions.
She noticed Rui by Alice's side as she paid the Squire the fees for his labor,
particularly she noticed the gaping awe and admiration he expressed at the
Squire. It was almost impossible to miss anyway, especially coming from a
childlike Rui, who was generally quite reserved and passive in his emotional
expression.
"Fu fu fu... I wonder if he'll strive to become a Martial Artist..."
Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 5 Martial Art
Rui spent the rest of the day pestering each and every single adult about what
he had just seen, after eight hours of incessant interrogation. He tucked
himself into his bed for the night, yet he was far too excited to ever fall
asleep. It had taken him a while to understand enough to just barely satisfy
his foremost layer of burning curiosity, after all, his vocabulary was still quite
imperfect.
He pestered the adults until he was able to comprehend their nuanced

answers, it was quite tiring, but he managed to obtain answers for his most
burning questions. After the rigorous interrogation, he'd spent time
assimilating and organizing everything he'd learnt.
Martial arts, or Martial Art as they called it, was real. It was not only real, but
it was extremely powerful too. Martial Artists were extremely powerful,
capable of extremely superhuman feats, like the one he had witnessed. Across
the country, and perhaps even the continent, Martial Artists were divided into
six Realms, which were basically ranks:
Martial Apprentice, Martial Squire, Martial Senior, Martial Master, Martial

Sage and finally; Martial Transcendent. Each realm was far more powerful
than the last, but none of the adults knew anything more specific than that.
('If a Martial Squire, who was only the second strongest of six realms was
this strong, then how much stronger were the higher ranks?') He wondered
with giddy excitement. This revelation was truly by far the most soul
staggering experience he had ever made. Even the shock of being reborn was
tame and rather boring in comparison. He quickly dismissed these thoughts
before revising the rest of what he learnt.
Martial Art could apparently be traced to a little over five hundred years ago.
Martial Artists grew stronger and stronger in every country, furthermore their
numbers increased as time passed, until the Martial Artist population grew
large enough for associations known as Martial Unions formed in every
country. Martial Unions were basically liaisons between customers of Martial
Art services and the Martial Artists themselves.
It served as a connection between the demand in the consumer market for

services like bodyguarding, assaults, manual labor as well as more covert
operations like sabotage, infiltration, espionage, surveillance, assassinations
etc. Even niche occupations like tutelage were within the purview of the
Union according to Kenta who once was an aspiring Martial Artist.
The Martial Union was an organization with a vested interest in the

propagation of Martial Artists, so it had taken measures to ensure there would
be a healthy influx of fresh blood martial artists, such as the Martial
Academy. The Martial Academies apparently were meritocratic institutions
founded, managed and staffed by the Martial Union, not to mention these
institutions trained aspiring Martial Artist till the Martial Squire stage
primarily.
Furthermore, according to Depp, the Academies had a hefty yearly tuition

fee, after all, tutelage from Martial Seniors was a privilege to aspiring Martial
Artists that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. Yet the high tuition fees
were not a barrier, thankfully the Martial Union was cognizant enough to
recognize that a large majority of talents would simply be buried due to their
low economic class.
Thus, the Martial Academies offered a scholarship program that allowed

aspiring Martial Candidates to incur the fees as debt and repay the debt after
they graduate from the Academy. The scholarship program was essentially an
investment with no guaranteed returns, after all if a scholarship student failed
to graduate, then the debt would never be repaid.
But ultimately this policy allowed the Martial Academies and by extension
the Martial Union to maximize the number of Martial Artists, their highest
interest and goal, the financial losses were rather trivial in comparison to the
economic might of an international Union, furthermore the scholarships were
given based on merit, so the losses were minimized.
The moment Rui learned about the Martial Academies he had already made
up his mind about his future, his motivation for it was extremely high, he
couldn't wait. He would get into an Academy, one way or another,
scholarship or not. He had already formulated potential solutions, but he
lacked far too much information to flesh them out.
"What are you thinking about?" A child's voice called out to him. Rui glanced
in the direction it came from.
"Not much, Farion." Rui responded. Farion was one of the boys at the
orphanage.
"Hehe, Rui is thinking about Martial Art, isn't he?" A girl beside himself
smirked mischievously. "He spent the whole day asking all the adults about
Martial Art."
This was Nina, one of the older girls at the orphanage. In the past 10 months,
Rui had familiarized himself with all the children in the orphanage, although
due to the age gap, both mental and physical, he had a harder time bonding
with them as much as he would have liked to, but he did spend time with
them nonetheless.
Children like Farion and Nina would take more time to spend time with Rui
and babysit him whenever the adults were busy to make their lives easier.
"Do you want become a Martial Artist, Rui?" A thirteen-year-old boy reading
a book asked him.
Rui's eyes sparkled.
"I'm going to become the best!" Rui declared.
"Then you'll have trained hard." The boy smiled, closing his book. "Martial
Artists train very hard to get their hands on superhuman power. Are you
willing to do what it takes?"
"I was born for it, Julian" Rui replied, without a shadow of doubt or
hesitation. It wasn't literal though, for he had no idea why or even how he
was reborn, but he suspected that there was some reason. If there was a
reason, what other reason could there be?
"Then we'll support you to the best of our ability, Rui." Julian walked over
and lifted Rui into a hug.
"Mmmm, thanks." Rui replied. Julian was a bright child, although he wasn't
freakishly prodigious like Rui, he was a quiet and intelligent child who spent
his time absorbed in books of all sorts, anything he could get his hands on.
Rui was impressed by his maturity despite his age, among other things.
The children chatted more until Depp told them all to put out the lights and
go to sleep. To Rui's surprise he fell asleep quickly, he was quite exhausted
after a whole day of excitement.
Chapter 6 Foundations
"Alright, let's begin." Farion said, glancing at Rui.
Rui nodded.
It had been seven years since Rui had been reborn in this world. Ever since
he learnt about Martial Art and the Academy, he'd already begun preparing
for them, doing everything he possible could. The minimum age necessary to
enroll into the academy was thirteen; adolescence. As for his preparation, he
had been unable to gather much specific information, The Martial Academies
kept a bit of a tight lid on the nature of the entrance exam. However, there
were simple deductions to be made based on the available information at
hand.
For starters, the entrance exam being open to only ages between thirteen and
eighteen implied that the Martial Art skill level requirements of the exam
were not too onerous. Thirteen-eighteen was a very young age group, it was
simply impossible for an overwhelming majority of adolescents of this age
group to be proficient in Martial Art.
After all, hiring a long-term tutor from the Union was very expensive,
something only the rich could afford, and even then, they would not be able
to master any more than the foundations. However, considering the age limit
being eighteen, it could be inferred that the exam would not be centered
around martial proficiency.
That left only a few possibilities.
Thankfully, Rui was a former martial art and combat sport researcher, he was
well aware of the predictors and determinant variables of a successful
fighting career. It wasn't even that difficult to figure out really. The two
biggest predicters of success were talent, and drive.
Talent in the context of Martial Art would mean the measure of innate,
natural physical and performance attributes. This would include health,
physical attributes like raw strength, speed, agility, reflexes, durability,
flexibility and stamina, as well as performative capabilities like balance,
analysis and judgement, body-eye coordination, alertness etc.
While these could most certainly be trained even within the window of
thirteen and eighteen, he was certain the impact of training would not be to
the degree that experienced Martial Art trainers of academy would be unable
to evaluate raw talent. Rui was relatively certain he was not talented,
unfortunately.
His health and physical attributes were just barely average, he wasn't gifted
with a godly body with unparalleled physical prowess, but he wasn't crippled
with a severe chronic disease either like in his last life, he was just average in
terms of talent. The problem was his performative attributes, he was rather
bad in this area. And there was mainly one reason for this.
For starters, there was the mismatch between his mind and body, his mind
had grown extremely accustomed to his former body on Earth, he was lean,
thin and quite tall with a weak physique. The physical attributes/mass
distribution of his previous body were drastically different from that of his
current body, his mind constantly treated his body like it was his old one and
not his new one, this was because of muscle memory.
Furthermore, his mind was that of an adult and despite, the developing brain
of his young body, it was extremely difficult to completely erase fifty-nine
years of engrained muscle memory in order to make way for new muscle
memory for his new body, certainly wouldn't happen any time soon.
That was why he had been training his performative attributes as much as
possible so that they could from go bad to, at the very least, average, ideally
as high as possible. He had begun training his balance and body-eye
coordination, alertness as much as possible outside of basic physical training.
It was the middle of the winter, Rui had gathered Farion, Horatio and Mika;
three adults to the frozen lake to help him with balance training. He was
standing on the frozen river one meter away from the bank, the training was
simple; playing catch. The three boys would stand on land and play catch
with Rui. They would throw balls at him one at a time, Rui was to catch the
ball perfectly on slippery ice and toss it back, all without slipping or falling.
There was almost no friction between his boot and the ice, meaning if his
center of gravity was not directly under the support of his legs, he would slip
and fall. Initially, Rui's sense of balance was so bad that he could barely stand
in one place without falling, and most certainly couldn't think about moving
around on the ice.
It was only after two years of training that his sense of balance improved
enough that he could begin playing catch, which required far greater balance,
since Rui would need to catch the ball and stop its momentum without ever
losing balance, and throw it back without shifting his center of gravity.
"Yeah, I'm ready." Rui responded to Farion. Farion nodded before throwing a
ball at him, before Rui got caught and returned it. Horatio and Mica followed
one after the another, throwing balls at Rui from different directions. It was a
whole one minute of rapid back-and-forths before Rui slipped and fell on his
ass.
"That was your longest record so far." Mica noted.
Rui nodded. "Alright, let's continue."
Horatio sighed. "Are you sure this is worth all the effort? You're not cut out
for Martial Art you know. It's especially a waste of your genius level
intellect, you could become a scholar like Julian did you know?"
"I already told you, I'm not interested in becoming a scholar, I'll become a
Martial Artist, or nothing at all."
"Yes yes." He sighed. Not everyone thought Rui's ambition was a good idea,
of course. It was not easy to become a Martial Artist, although a great many
people aspired to become one, ultimately a whopping ninety-nine percent of
them fail to become Martial Squires. It was an extremely difficult ambition to
fulfill.
Rui breathed deeply, readying himself. He couldn't do it in his previous life,

but this time, this time for sure he would become a Martial Artist!
"Continue."
Chapter 7 World
Rui burped, putting down his bowl and patting his inflated stomach.
"That's bad manners, Rui." Lashara gently reprimanded him.
"My bad, I'm just completely full." He apologized, before getting up. He
washed his used utensils and vessels and put it in the cupboard.
"Thanks for the delicious dinner, I love steak."
"Hehe..." Myra smirked from across the kitchen. "I knew you would be
absolutely famished after that ice balance training you always do in the
winters, today we managed to get some good steak at a low price!" Myra was
the head cook of the orphanage; she was in charge of all matter related to the
kitchen.
"Sweet, do you need help with the rest of the utensils?" Rui sked.
"Nah, there isn't much left. You must be tired, so why don't you get some
sleep?"
"Alright, thanks, good night."
"Good night."
He headed towards the study before picking up a book. The study had
numerous books on various subjects that Lashara would refer to while
teaching. From these books Rui had managed to learn about the world he was
reborn in, thankfully he'd spent the last six year learning the script to read and
write and he had become very proficient with language, far more so than a
normal seven-year-old. He'd read up on history, geography and civics with
some guidance from Lashara to answer some of the questions he had had for
a long time.
p The country he was born in was known as the Kandria Empire, named after
the Royal Kandrian Family whose ancestor founded the Empire. The country
bordered the Namgung Ocean, it was long and narrow in shape, extending
from north to south, with nearly half of the borders facing the ocean. The
other half was partially bordered by the three closest countries; The
Sekigahara Confederate to its south, Republic of Gorteau to its North, and
Britannia Empire to its west and large forests that occupied the gaps between
the countries.
Another important piece of information he had had gotten his hands on was
that the Kandrian Empire paid annual tributes to all three of its neighboring
nations, for some reason, unfortunately the exact details of the international
deliberations was not exactly well known. All four nations were part of the
Panama Continent, the one and only known continent on Planet Gaea.
The Panama Continent was gigantic, littered with nearly a hundred countries
of all sorts, with various cultures, socio-economic structures and
governments. Strangely enough, although each country had its own language,
there was an international common language known as Sanskrit, created and
propagated by the countries to facilitate greater international trade in
accordance to the Panama Linguistic Treaty ratified eighty years ago. The
treaty was highly effective, as the language barrier was the greatest barrier
between connections and exchanges.
('I've only learnt the Kandrian dialect, though.') Rui noted.
Another curious piece of information he learned about was that the fauna and
flora of the Panama Continent was, frankly, ridiculous. There were plants
with all kinds of exotic substances that served as raw materials and
ingredients in various types of products, the most prominent application
being potions. Potions granted incredible effects such as healing, stamina
recovery, temporary mental and physical augmentation of various sorts.
These potions allowed ordinary humans to match the superhuman prowess of

even Martial Artists, this was something Rui found absurd when he learnt,
but that wasn't even everything.
The fauna was even more bizarre. For one, there were intelligent species
outside of humanity. This came as a shock to someone from Earth, where
only one known intelligent species existed.
The fauna was much less restrained and resembled the pre-historic age of
dinosaurs. Despite nearly a hundred nations established on the Panama
Continent, roughly thirty-five percent of the continent's land was uncolonized
natural habitats that was occupied by incredible species with immense power.
One of the reasons Humanity had not yet completely colonized the Panama,
was because they simply could not, the animal species were no pushovers,
they were able to easily match the human's paltry applications of gunpowder,
potions and large-scale siege weapons, it could be said that they would have
long hunted Humanity to oblivion if not for the existence of Martial Artists.
A significant portion of the commissions that the Martial Unions of the

Panama Continent was related to the beasts, one way or another. Rui was
incredibly intrigued by these strange and fantastical species, but they weren't
immediately relevant to him at the moment. He was more concerned with
things that affected him more immediately.
Within the Kandrian Empire, Rui lived in the northern most region with the
harshest winters; Mantia.
('Sigh, to land into the region of the harshest weather of all the eleven states.')
Rui shook his head. He shouldn't think this way, he was blessed with a loving
family in the Quarrier Orphanage in this region.
Kandria had a capitalistic free market, and as expected there was a great
economic divide between people.
its governmental system was a monarchy, as he would expect from nations in

this age of development. The Kandrian Emperor had many wives, and even
more children, each one of them was a potential heir to the throne.
Apparently, it was Kandrian protocol for the emperor to test all the princes
and princesses in a manner of his own discretion, before declaring one of
them as the Emperor or Empress when his life was coming to an end.
Apparently, the current Emperor Rael Vi Kandria was already quite old, and
the Royal Selection would most certainly occur sooner or later. Rui wasn't
well aware of the nuances of Kandrian politics and, frankly, he would rather
not be involved at all if he could avoid it. The Royal Selections sounded like
a chaotic mess of a phenomenon. Even on Earth he merely kept himself
informed on the state of affairs in a superficial manner, and for the most part
ignored politics. He would probably care even less once he became Martial
Artist, not getting involved at all, directly or indirectly.
Or atleast, so he hoped.
Chapter 8 Kidnapped
The information he was most concerned about was that of the Kandrian
Martial Academies, it turned out there were sixteen Academies in the
country. One of them was located in Mantia, Rui intended to aim for the
Mantian branch. In the past six years he had deigned to do a more thorough
investigation into the entrance exam. However, the Martial Academy was
quite secretive about its entrance exams, the Union did not want every
applicant to be able to prepare targeted solutions that made their job of
evaluating their talent and drive more difficult.
They went so far as to almost completely change the exam every year so as to
diminish the impact of the leaked information from recalcitrant failed
applicants every year. The only thing Rui learnt was that there were multiple
rounds each year and the exam invigilators changed each year as well. The
difficulty of the exams was exceedingly high, furthermore it was said that a
small number of applicants died, every year, while a greater proportion were
greatly hurt.
('This was unexpected when I'd learnt about it, I was hoping to make targeted
training regimes that could allow me to overcome these tests.') Rui sighed.
Having dedicated his life to research into Martial Arts and combat sports, Rui
was an expert in evaluating the physical and performative attributes necessary
for any particular activity, and setting up targeted training regimes that would
most efficiently facilitate the growth of the athlete's ability to complete said
physical activity.
('I'll just have to stick to what I'm already doing, I guess.') He mused.
"Rui, it's time to sleep." Lashara said, standing at the doorway.

"Alright Mom." Rui replied. All the children treated Lashara as their mother,
Rui was no different, all of them had been raised by her, she was indeed a
mother-like figure to all of them, the adults included. Later on, having
changed into the medieval equivalent of pajamas, he lay in bed contemplating
what he ought to do tomorrow.
('Cardio early in the mornings; one hour. Then twenty reps of squats,
crunches, pushups, pull-ups and chest dips, three reps of plank variations all
until lunch. Rest, followed by balance training at the lake till evening,
followed by basic body conditioning and tempering.')
This was actually a relatively simple and mild training regime, but that was
because he was only seven years old. His body was still growing, especially
his bones, stressing them too much would be quite detrimental in the long
run. He planned increase his exercise load as he got older.
('I should be decently well built by the time I'm done.')
**********
The next day, he followed through with his early morning jog. He would
generally begin at the orphanage jog to the city and come back before the
rush hour begins, but today he was a bit late, so he was navigating through
the earliest bustle of the day. In one hand he had a carry-bag with the milk
that Myra had requested him to purchase from the market.
('Tsk, it's already so busy.') Rui tutted, as he was forced to slow down. He
couldn't really just jog past a crowd of adults twice as large as him. He was
forced to take a detour through an alley and skip through the crowd.
('I didn't want to break my run, maybe I should jog a little extra, but Myra did
say she wanted the milk so I gue-!')
He suddenly felt two arms grabbing around him, one to prevent him from
screaming and the other to carry him away.
"Heh, black hair and black eyes? That's rare, this one can sell for a fortune."
He heard a burly voice.
"Oh? He even has some change, good bonus!" He said as he scoured through
Rui's pocket.
('Fuck! I'm actually being kidnapped.') Rui began to panic. He wasn't sure
what he was supposed to do as the man began carrying him away.
('I need get away, but his grip is too strong.') Rui began to brainstorm. Brute
force was out of the question, he needed the man to loosen his grip, otherwise
he would have no chance of escaping.
('Think! How do I create an opportunity to escape?') He wasn't sure. The

man's burly hand was wrapped tightly over his mouth and nose to prevent
him from making noise. But that gave him an idea. He decided to let his body
go slack, acting as if he'd suffocated.
"Tsk." The man put Rui down for a second to take a good look to ensure his
goods was alright. Yet just as he did, Rui jammed his thumb into his
kidnapper's eyes and got up to run away as far as he could, even as the man
screamed in pain, cradling his eye. The pain of having his eye jabbed brought
the man to a halt, buying Rui only a few seconds of time, the man got up
quickly and chased after Rui with a closed eye.
('I just need to reach a populated area, he won't get away with a public child
crime.') Unfortunately, he couldn't get back to the market the way he came,
the burly man was in the way and he most certainly would have been caught.
He just needed to reach people, but unfortunately, he'd reached a dead-end
instead.
('Fuck, I need to go ano-')
"Hehehe... too bad you couldn't get away eh little boy?" The man threw Rui a
disgusting smile. In that moment Rui felt despair and true fear. He legs began
to shake, and he almost peed himself. Rui forced himself to take a fighting
stance, but the man walked over and, ignoring Rui's meagre struggles,
grabbed Rui by the neck forcing him down. Rui thought about screaming, but
when he opened his mouth, nothing came out.
"Let's have you choke for real." He whispered even as his grin grew wider.
Rui froze in terror.
('He's going to kill me') Rui panicked. His heart was beating hard and fast,
struggling to give Rui the power he needed, but Rui was too afraid to use it.
('It's no use, I'm too weak.') He knew this, giving up.
('I'm not just weak, I'm pathetic.')
Just as his vision was turning red-
THUD
The man's grip slacked and his arms let go of his neck, and Rui's body
contorted as he gasped and inhaled for air, before turning around.
('What the fuck just happened?')
What he saw shocked him. The man was dead, lying on the ground. What
was even more shocking was the cause of death, the top of his head was
dented and broken in. There was another man standing behind him, with a fist
midair.
"To attempt to snuff the life of an innocent child, is the greatest of sins one
can commit." The man said scorning at the corpse. His eyes turned to Rui.
"Are you alright my child?"

Chapter 9 Naïve
He was naïve. He had underestimated what it meant to be a warrior. This

wasn't a movie, or an anime, this was real life. He would have died on the
spot if his saviour was too late. Rui thought he could just train and become a
warrior, but he had severely underestimated the temperament and resolve
needed to fight with his life on the line. How could he, a former denizen of
the twenty-first century understand? He had never fought in his life, ever. He
didn't understand just how strong the primal fear of death was ingrained into
one's soul.
Martial Artists weren't decorative and aesthetical artists whose jobs were to
look cool. They were warriors, assassins, protectors, hunters, pioneers, they
were people who fought everyday with their lives on the line. They tread up
the Martial path knowing that every step could very easily be their last.
Did he possess such resolve?
That day had made the answer clear.
He did not. He was unworthy of being a warrior, a Martial Artist.
"You're wrong."
Said the man who saved him. He walked over and sat beside him, patting his
head. His gesture was warm and gentle, but his hand was heavy and rough,
like a boulder.
"Kid, you wanna be a Martial Artist, correct?"
Rui nodded; he was still choked with emotions.
"Mm, of course you do. There is no other reason a kid your age would put
yourself through the training that you have." He noted.
"Do you think yourself unworthy of being a Warrior because of the fear and
despair you felt?"
It was as if the man could read Rui's heart. Rui nodded, reluctantly. The man
smiled in response.
"Indeed, you were quite pathetic, not gonna lie. You quivered in fear and
despair as you were pushed into the ground..."
The words tore a hole in Rui's heart.
"... But whether or not you're worthy of being a Warrior, my child, depends
on what you do from here on out."
He turned to Rui, who met his gaze in return.
"There isn't a single soul who hasn't felt crippling fear and despair. Even the
strongest of Martial Artists who can split the Earth with a finger have
experienced what you have. What separates the strong from the weak, is
whether or not one overcomes that fear and strives forward."
Rui clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.
"Tell me, boy, will you succumb to your fear?"
"Never... Never again!" Rui swore even as tears of frustration, shame and
anger poured out of his eyes. Every muscle in his body went taught, he felt as
if every cell in his body stood united as he engrained his oath into each and
every single one of them.
"I will never let fear and despair get the best of me again!"
The man he smiled as he glanced at the fire in the young boy's eyes.
Rui got up and bowed deeply to the man. "Thank you for saving my life."
"I'm just doing my duty." the man got up, patted Rui's head one last time and
walked away.
"Stay safe boy. I'd like to see you become a Warrior, you have what it takes."
Rui nodded, before bowing down one last time. He made his way to the
market, before returning down the path home.
"Ah, I forgot to ask his name."
**********
He ran into Farion on the way back home, explaining what had happened,
leaving Farion in shock. Things only got worse when he reached back home.
All the adult caretakers would not stop fawning over him, and constantly
patting and hugging him, partially to reaffirm his well-being and also to
soothe their anxiety. Lashara went so far as to almost ban him from leaving
the Orphanage out of paranoia, but he managed to get her to change her mind
about that, albeit not completely. Rui had to stay within the vicinity of the
orphanage, or be under supervision if he wanted to go further.
He had no choice but to acquiesce with great reluctance.
He'd decided to skip the training for the rest of the day, and hang out with his
brothers and sisters, he wanted a change of pace.
"Heh you've finally decided to join us in playing Cards eh Rui?" Horatio

asked as he made space for Rui.
In the past seven years he'd forged unbreakable bonds with each of the
Orphanage members. He enjoyed spending time with the grumpy Farion, the
mischievous Nina, the pragmatic Horatio, the reserved Mica, and the
intelligent Julian. When Rui first joined the orphanage, the adults ignored the
silly superstition surrounding his hair and eyes, and children quickly followed
suit largely due to their ignorance, expressing adoration about how cute he
was.
The past seven years had caused him to develop a great amount of affection
for each of them, and the Orphanage as a whole. Almost to the point he'd
rather stay with them than leave to become a Martial Artist.
('Almost, but still not enough.') He mused.
His renewed will and determination after that morning's incident would not
allow him to not become a Martial Artist, he just felt a tinge of sadness that it
would eventually drive him away from his family. The Academy not only
took care of housing and food, but mandated its students to stay in the
Academy dormitories. The Martial Path was one that required discipline,
which could only be fully enforced if the Academy regulated the students'
lives from dawn to dusk. Even once he graduated, he suspected he would
have to spend long hours, days and maybe even weeks away from his family.
He would most certainly grow a little distant from them, it was inevitable.
Although he would always love them, prolonged periods of separation would
likely dampen his emotions. He was not a very social person, even in his
previous life, his parents died early, and since then he had never forged a
single significant relationship or even friendship.
('I'll make the most of these times, then, for the next six years... Then I'll have
to leave them.') It was a shame to Rui. He quickly shook away these thoughts
before getting invested in the game.
Chapter 10 Martial Exam
"Have you taken your identification."
"Yes."
"Have you taken some energy drinks?"
"Yes."
"Have you double checked the timings?"
"Yes."
"Have you-
"Enough mom! I have everything in place, don't worry." Rui reprimanded

exasperatedly. Lashara was notoriously overprotective. The Martial Entrance
Exam was notoriously difficult and dangerous, Lashara had warned Rui over
and over that it could be disastrous, but she knew Rui had been preparing for
this day for a long time. His resolve was quite unshakeable, she knew her
words would have no effect. Rather than antagonizing him and earn his ire,
she decided to give him her blessings.
Six years had passed since the kidnapping incident, Rui was now thirteen-
years-old. The time for the Martial Arts entrance exam had come. It was quite
unnerving to Rui, even though he had been mentally preparing himself for
this day for a long time. No, it was because he'd been preparing for this day
for a long time that he was nervous.
He breathed deeply, trying to calm his racing heart down as he prepared his
pouch with some basic essentials.
"Let me travel with you there, Rui." Julian smiled. He had managed to
graduate from the Kandrian Institute of Sciences, and was accepted into the
Institute as an apprentice scholar under a prestigious Scholar in the research
and development department.
"Thanks." Rui nodded. Julian had always been a calming influence, he was a
true genius too, unlike Rui.
Lashara hugged him one last time and kissed him on the head.
"Be safe, don't push yourself too far, okay?" She told him, a tinge of anxiety
rippled across her face.
"Yeah, don't worry mom. I'll be fine."
After receiving well-wishes from the whole of the Quarrier Orphanage, he

bid them farewell and set out with Julian on a rickshaw.
"Nervous?"
"Surprisingly not as much as just a while ago. Being supported by my family

puts me at ease, even though the significance or difficulty of the exam hasn't
changed at all."
"I'm glad to hear that." Julian smiled.
"I'm going to be honest with you. I truly never did expect that your drive to
become a Martial Artist would be this strong..."
Rui didn't know how to respond.
"Children undergo a lot of phases as they grow, this is universally true for
almost everybody. I say almost true, because I've only ever come across one
exception."
Julian turned to Rui with scrutinizing eyes.
"Born with hitherto unheard of prodigious, genius-level intelligence, having

mastered two languages, mathematics and sciences at an extraordinarily
young age, yet you've never changed, at all Rui." Julian continued. "It's pretty
absurd, your temperament was also unchanging and mature well beyond your
age. Your cognitive capabilities only grew exponentially sharper as you grew
older."
Rui knew what he was talking about, a human being's brain stopped
developing at the age of twenty-five, this was the age at which their cognitive
capabilities reached a peak. Rui, however, inherited the cognitive capabilities
of his previous brain stacked on top of the growing cognition of his
adolescent brain. It was as if he possessed the sum of the IQs of both John
Falken and Rui Quarrier. This was one of the biggest advantages of being
reborn with your mind intact; His already grown mind received the advantage
of growing even more for a second time.
"All of this data points to the conclusion that you're an adult in a child's
body..." Julian continued.
Rui turned his head and met his gaze, before smirking.
"You don't actually believe that do you?"
"No." Julian shrugged, smiling. "It's not impossible, nothing is, but it's too
absurd."
"Heh."
Inwardly Rui sweating. He had no idea why he was reincarnated, though he

suspected there was a reason behind it. He was pretty scared that his secret
would come out when Julian began talking about Rui. To think that this guy
had been scrutinizing and analyzing Rui for the past thirteen years and
correctly hypothesized the actual truth, as expected of an actual genius.
They bantered for a long time until the rickshaw had reached its destination.
"Well then, good luck Rui. I'll be heading to the KIS from here."
"Thanks Julian, goodbye."
"Ah one last thing"

Rui turned to face Julian as he got off.
"Even if you were someone else reborn in a child's body, I would still love
you as my brother." Julian smiled warmly. "Go on Rui, fulfill your dream."
Rui smiled back. "I sure as hell will." And with that, the two brothers split
paths.
Rui turned to face the Mantian branch of the Kandrian Martial Academy.
There many rickshaws, and even many chariots littered outside the Academy,
there were many thousands of adolescent boys and even a decent proportion
of girls accumulating inside the gigantic facility. Gigantic was an
understatement, the only reason he wasn't too shocked was because he had
demanded to see the Academy atleast once before. Still, it was an incredible
sight. Just the mere sight of it forcefully inspired ambition from within one's
heart.
"This is it."
The Kandrian Martial Academy was a multi-sectioned set of facilities that

revolved around one primary facility that served as the main facility for
training. It was fortified by a huge wall made from stones and cement, that
circled around the Academy for many kilometers on end.
The sheer prestige of this Academy alone drove more than a million aspiring
Martial Artists to apply for the entrance exam.
As Rui entered the Academy, having passed the huge gates after showing his
ID to the Gate security, he took a good look at the competitors, who were
heading towards the designated exam center.
('They're almost all older than me.') Rui noted.
Most of the adolescents taking the exam seemed to be sixteen and above.
('I guess it's somewhat rare for a thirteen-year-old to participate.') Rui said, as
he received a numbered tag upon reaching the facility, serving as his
applicant ID.
The exam center was even bigger than one would think from afar, within the
facility was a huge crowd of applicants. The mood was tense, although there
were Martial Artists serving as assistant invigilators to prevent the outbreak
of violence, just standing in the room with thousands of others put faint
pressure on Rui. A cursory glance at the crowd revealed a lot of information
about his competition.
('Most of them have trained their body, though not as much as I have. Yet a
lot of them are inherently physically superior to I am. I'm only making up for
a lack of talent compared to the strongest applicants. The age gap definitely
favours them significantly too.')
Rui smiled.
('Not that I give a fuck, I'm going to crack this exam no matter what.')
Chapter 11 First Round
Just then, a strong, loud voice echoed across the facility from atop the stage
near the opposite end of the room to the entrance.
"Welcome to the 106th annual entrance exam of the Martial Academy..." A

man who looked to be in his fifties spoke. He had a long salt-and-pepper
beard, and a bald head. He wore luxurious robes over a simple Martial Art
uniform that spoke to his position within the Academy. The most distinctive
feature about him was the most intangible one; the weight of his presence.
Rui could feel it. Every single applicant could feel it. They all even realized
they experienced the same pressure, when everyone began stiffening up or
showing other signs of anxiety, fear and discomfort.
('He's not even doing anything special.') Rui smiled nervously as he began
sweating. ('He just gave the most generic and simple welcome.')
"... I am Master Aronian, a Martial Master and the Headmaster of the

Kandrian Martial Academy, I will also be serving as your head examiner and
invigilater." He continued, ignoring the applicants' reactions.
('So this is a Martial Master... Incredible... This is fucking amazing.') Rui

grew more and more excited. How could he not? The man was more
hundreds of meters away and his lungs were powerful enough to talk loudly
enough without any aid. He was that far away, yet his presence alone was so
heavy that Rui felt as if he was staring a bloodthirsty, man-eating tiger in the
eyes point blank.
('He could kill us all in under a second, if he wanted.') Rui's instincts told
him.
"The exam will have three rounds. Each of the three rounds will require you
to complete one or more tasks. The exact conditions and stipulations of
passing and failure maybe left to the discretion of the individual invigilators
evaluating your performance for the third round particularly. The first round
and second round however, are objective."
('So, the criteria for passing the third round is not objective, that may make
things tricky. Different invigilators may measure your capabilities differently,
but why is the first and second round different?')
"We will begin the first round shortly." Master Aronian said, raising his hand.
Immediately, thousands of Martial Artists entered the facility and got onto
the stage with boxes, followed by a hundred distinguished looking Martial
Artists.
('They have a heavy presence, though not as severe as that of Master Aronian.
Martial Seniors maybe. It makes sense, Master Aronian isn't going to
administer the test personally. We applicants are not worth his time.')
Once the hundred Seniors had finished spreading out on the gigantic stage
and their assistants finished setting up a simple looking table with boxes
behind them and railing leading down the steps from them. Master Aronian
continued.
"The test will now begin. Within each of the large boxes placed on the table,
are the passes for the second round of the Exam. Your objective is very
simple; You must walk over to the Martial Senior standing in front of each
box, shake their hand... and request them for a pass, all rapidly within ten
seconds."
Master Aronian paused for a second, indulging himself in a smile. "Those

who can complete the aforementioned objective will receive a pass to the
second round, those who cannot, will irrevocably fail the first round as well
as the exam altogether. Good luck."
He walked away, having completed his duty.
('Huh...?') Rui was gob smacked. He could sense that each and every single
applicant save a small minority were just as confused as he was. He, like a lot
of others, decided to wait it out and see what happened. There was obviously
more to this than met the eye.
Rui watched with great scrutiny as the first applicant walked up the stairs to
the stage, through the railings. But just as he reached the stage, he froze.
('Hm? Why did he stop?') Rui glanced at the Martial Senior that the applicant
was facing before realizing what had happened.
('Bloodlust.') Rui sensed the emotion the powerful Senior was practically
radiating. In fact, all the Seniors had begun doing just that. The applicants at
the front of the queue had frozen in fear, unable to approach the Martial
Senior. Ten seconds later, The Martial Squires assisting the Martial Senior
began declaring applicants' failures.
"Applicant 00504; failed."
('I see. I get it now.') Rui realized. The first round was a test of fortitude and
resolve. Martial Seniors were exploiting evolutionary neurology and
psychology to evaluate the applicants.
All sentient life had evolved to evaluate danger, risks and threat. This was an
evolutionary psycho-genetic trait that allowed for species in ecosystems to
survive, it was a well-documented phenomenon of evolutionary biology in
his previous life.
This included even the smallest of animals like insects to the most powerful
of dragons and phoenixes that existed in this world. All of them were able to
evaluate danger subconsciously from observation and intuition. Based on
how high the danger was evaluated to be subconsciously, their minds would
experience a proportional amount of fear.
The first round of the exam utilized this neuro-psychological phenomenon in

testing the applicants. The Seniors were not literally radiating some magical
energy field that induced fear, they were merely exploiting the candidate's
instinctual, sub-conscious danger evaluation to induce crippling fear in the
applicants. This was a piece of cake for the Martial Seniors, considering the
applicants were basically kids. In fact, they even held back their bloodlust
and didn't seem to go overboard. They needed to see how far each applicant
could be pushed.
('Specifically, they're testing our resolve and our determination.')
A million applicants applied every year, each of them was driven by different
motivations. Glory, money, prestige, ambition, power, duty etc. The first
round tested the strength of the applicant's determination to become a Martial
Artist. The Martial Journey was an incredibly arduous and dangerous
journey, if the applicants could not overcome this simple obstacle, they were
wholly unfit to become Martial Artists. They would fail to reach even the
Martial Squire stage.
('This test... I've undergone this test before.') Rui remembered.
The kidnapping incident was somewhat similar to this test, and he failed that
test miserably. He'd sworn he never would fail ever again.
('This time... This time for sure!')

Chapter 12 I Will
"Applicant 11234; Kane Arrancar, pass!"
Rui heard, as he took a good look at the first applicant to pass the test and
head out the exit with a pass. To his surprise, the kid was short, about as short
as him.
('Woah, to think a kid my age would pass this test.') Rui noted, impressed. He
decided to wait his turn until the queue shortened and most of the applicants
failed.
('To think the first round alone would be this cutthroat.') Rui mused. Though
it was to be expected to some degree. More than a million applicants applied
to the entrance exam every year on average, there were only sixteen institutes
with what should be around a carrying and training capacity of no more than
a thousand or two each.
If the already existing students were factored in, that would yield an
acceptance rate of around one-percent. Meaning the three rounds of the exam
had to somehow whittle away ninety-nine-percent of all applicants. With that
stipulation in mind, this brutal filtering made a lot of sense.
('That also means that each Martial Artist was effectively the most talented as
well as the most determine and resolved of their generation.') Rui's respect
and admiration for Martial Artists went up. He quietly observed the ongoing
ordeal for quite a while, specifically observing those who passed the test. He
was quite a distance so he wasn't able to discern their characteristics, but in
general they had an air of solidity in them, they were people who had enough
determination to overcome their primal fear of death.
('the question is whether I'll join them or not.') Rui wondered. Yet for some
strange reason he wasn't as nervous as he was when he'd woken up that
morning.
('Weird, I was nervous back at the orphanage, but I feel serene now, shouldn't
it be the other way around?')
"The first round will be ending soon, we urge those who haven't attempted
the round yet to do so before the time limit ends, you will not be allowed to
appear for the round once the time is up."
That prompted Rui forward. He saw multiple empty queues as all the riff-raff
left with deflated spirits.
('...Maybe it's because I know?')
He walked forward nonchalantly, climbing the stairs step by step.

Maintaining eye-contact with the Senior who would be evaluating his
performance. Once he reached the top of the stairs, he stopped. He felt as if
the air was prickling his skin, urging him to stop. He felt as if the ground had
begun to incline upwards, denying him entry. He felt as if the world itself
barricaded his path forward while instinctual fear shackled him back.
('What a horrifying feeling, so this is the bloodlust of a Senior. It's millions, if

not billions of times scarier than the man who nearly choked me to death...')
He looked down at his quivering fingers. It was almost as if his body had
begun fearing it of its own volition. He clenched his fists, as if to forcefully
imbue courage in them, before walking forward at a steady pace.
('Maybe it's because I know...')
He reached the Senior.
('...that this isn't enough to curb me!')
He glared at the Senior with defiance, even as his jaw clattered. His legs felt
like they were turning to jelly. His limbs felt like an electric current ran
through them. But he pushed forward, going so far as to crush his tongue to
combat the fear.
('I WILL become a Martial Artist.')
Before bowing to show respect, defiance could be tolerated, but disrespect

would not.
Rising back up, he calmed down as his expression returned to neutral.
"Senior, may I have a pass to the second round?"
The man stared deeply into Rui's pitch-black eyes, before breaking into a
smile.
"Of course." He acquiesced, handing Rui a piece of paper that, written on it

was a declaration of his right to appear for the second round of the 106th
Kandrian Martial Academy entrance exam.
"Applicant 30947; Rui Quarrier, pass!"
With that, Rui made his way to the exit at the end of the stage heading down
the path indicated by signs until he reached a facility. Within it, of course,
were the applicants who passed the first round.
('There's still like a few thousand of 'em.') Rui inwardly tutted. He'd hoped
there would be fewer, resulting in lesser competition. He knew that the real
competition would start from here, all the people who made it to the second
round were built different from the wannabes. Everyone in the room eyed
each other, knowing exactly this. Rui drew a fair bit of attention himself
because of his youth and his pitch-black hair and eyes, though he didn't care
too much, it was something he had long grown used to.
The training room they were in was rather strange, it was basically a giant
hemisphere. There were also several panels located all across the hemisphere
as if they were meant to serve as hatches from which things could be dropped
into the training facility.
('Hm, that's eerie.')
The training hall confused him because he couldn't understand why it had
such strange architecture. It couldn't be easy to engineer and construct a
facility with such a strange shape. It was also rather inconvenient in a variety
of ways since it covered a lot of area on the ground but the net volume pf the
building was rather low in comparison to other conventional multi-story
buildings. So why on Earth would the Academy bother going out of its way
to construct something of this sort?
('It probably has something to with the exam.') Rui suspected, though he
wasn't entirely sure. If this was the case though, there were multiple possible
reasons for architecture he could come up with.
Suddenly Rui felt a familiar pressure interrupting his thoughts, he knew who
it was before even confirming with his own eyes.
"Congratulations on passing the first round of the Entrance Exam." Master

Aronian said, walking towards the applicants... "The fact that you stand here
before me is proof that within each one of you lies a burning desire to
become a Martial Artist, yet that is not enough. Will cannot alter your fate all
by itself... It needs power. You, need power... The only question I have for
each one of you is..." His eyes sharpened.
,m "Do you have power?"
His tone weighed on them, the answer to that question would decide the
outcome of the exam.
Chapter 13 Bouncing Slimes
"The second round will soon begin..." Even as he said that Rui could see
assistants bringing out thousands of boxes.
('Something to do with the second round no doubt.") Rui noted as they

finished bringing everything they needed seemingly.
"Your performance in the second round will be graded by points." Master

Aroanian continued. "Those of you whose number of points are lower than
that of the average will fail this round. As for the actual test itself, all of you
will be locked in this training hall with bouncing slimes. Bouncing slimes are
a species of slimes that hunt animals, humans included, in dungeons by
slamming into them repeatedly by bouncing in enclosed spaces. These slimes
will be released in here with all of you, and they will hunt to kill you.
Blocking or parrying a slime while incurring minimal damage will earn you
one point, dodging a slime will earn you two points and killing a slime will
earn you five points."
('Hmmm. This is not what I expected, I pictured a more straightforward

testing of physical and performative attributes.')
"There is more important information and rules, so please pay attention.

Firstly, the number of slimes in the training room at any point in time will be
maintained at one hundred."
('That's a fuck ton.')
"Secondly, you are prohibited from entering a two-meter radius of your

fellow applicants, every violation of this rule will cost you five points."
('Makes sense, it prohibits uncontrolled violence between the applicants.')

"Thirdly, you will be required to wear a special weighted suit at all times."
Master Aronian explained as the assistants took out said suits from the boxes
and began offering them to the applicants.
"These suits are quite heavy and will strain and hinder your body, allowing us
to evaluate your capability more objectively. The weight in these suits come
from an extremely dense and heavy liquid present in the outer layer of the
suit. You will not be allowed to remove these suits during the exam." Master
Aronian warned.
('Wait, so we have to block and dodge a hundred bouncing slimes that hunt
humans, while wearing these heavy suits??') Rui was stunned. Yet even as
fear crept into his heart, a nervous smile broke onto his face.
"Fourthly, you may not be within ten meters of the walls of this exam center."
('Tsk, that kills an obvious strategy.')
"And the final and most important rule: Once the second round begins, it will
stop only after the first applicant among you dies..."
All the applicants in the room froze; Rui included. Master Aronian just
increased the stakes. Even though the probability of them being the one to die
was low, just knowing that one of them would inevitably die made the air
macabre.
"All of you will be required to sign a consent form in order to appear for this
round and the next. You will be unable to withdraw from the exam once it
has begun, so please make up your minds carefully. Good luck. The second
round will begin in half an hour."
('So this is why the exam is known to kill a few applicants every year.') Rui
realized. ('This year, atleast sixteen applicants will die because each of the
sixteen branches of the Kandrian Martial Academy is holding the exam. I'm
going to have to give this round my absolute best.')
As Rui put on his suit, he noted how strange the fabric was.
('Extremely elastic, yet it doesn't exert a high restorative spring force despite
large amounts of strain and its thickness, I don't think even Earth had such a
remarkable material.') Every substance had something called a Young's
Modulus, it was a property that described how much stress was needed to
strain a certain material or substance. The suits that were provided had an
exceptionally low modulus, allowing to be stretched with great ease.
After he and many other applicants put the suit on, one of the assistant
invigilators inserted something into the suit from an opening in the back that
instantly added great weight to the suit while simultaneously began shifting
its center of mass. The drastic shifts in center of mass and gravity made both
Rui and most other contestants fall, losing their balance.
('I see! This isn't just meant to hinder our movements; it's meant to hinder our
balance as well. Master Aronian had mentioned that the extra weight came
from an extremely dense liquid in the outer layer of the suit.')
Liquids did not have a defined shape allowing them to flow within the suit,
every time Rui tilted it, furthermore Rui's movements were hindered by the
inertia of the liquid, reducing his agility.
('This is no joke, this will be quite difficult to handle.') Rui gritted.
His balance wasn't bad, but with a dense liquid flowing around inside the suit,
he had a hard time getting his bearing. He spent the remaining twenty
minutes testing how much the suit hindered his movements.
('It deviates my movements roughly twenty-percent.') Looking around, he

noticed that the other applicants didn't have an easy time adapting to the suit,
most of them had to perform every movement with caution.
('It seems they're doing their best to get used to its feel as quickly as possible
before the exam begins... How crude.') He tutted.
Rui had already prepared a set of tactics to make the most efficient use of his
body under the current circumstances. He'd made use of the rotational and
fluid dynamics he'd learnt thoroughly in his last life.
('Because of the extra torque caused by uneven distribution of the liquid
every time I bend, I need to reduce the degree to which I tilt or bend my
body. I've already determined that my legs can't handle full-body motions due
to the pre-existing torque of my body in addition to the extra torque caused
by the liquid, I need to reduce the net torque acting on my body by ensuring I
don't tilt or bend as much as I normally do. Doing this will keep the balance
and distribution of liquid in the suit even and uniform.')
This was a very fancy and technical way of saying; 'I'll trip if I bend too
much, so I should stay steady', this might sound like common sense, but the
difference was that Rui had determined at exactly what angle of tilting and
bending did the torque become too much. Due to his physics background he
could clearly estimate and extrapolate whether or not a certain maneuver was
safe and what the likelihood of losing his balance was.
('I'm not talented... I wasn't born with great strength, speed or durability, or
exceptional balance and flexibility or body-eye coordination... But I have the
wealth of knowledge of a lifetime and a mind growing past its ordinary
limits... I won't succumb to this challenge!')
Chapter 14 Pandemonium
The assistant invigilators quickly vacated the room, leaving the applicants
alone. All of them had been informed the exam would begin the moment the
doors shut closed. They'd maintained several meters distance from each other
with their guards up and their alertness at max, eyeing the gigantic dome
sealings and its many closed hatches. The tension was palpable, everyone
knew that the carelessness could end up meaning a slow and painful death.
With the doors closed, they could rely on nobody but themselves to survive
and pass this round.
Suddenly, a squeaking sound shook everyone as they directed their gaze to its
source. The hatch at the top of the dome in the center had opened. Yet
nothing came out.
('This is unnerving, I'd rather they just begin.') Rui complained.
A transparent blob appeared through the hole.
('Here it com-')
His thoughts were interrupted as ninety-nine other hatches opened

simultaneously, and a bouncing slime appeared out of each one of them.
('Oh fuck me.') It was difficult to fully appreciate the difficulty of tasks
you've never attempted. Only after the hundred bouncing slimes appeared did
Rui understand the gravity of the second round.
Yet despite all that, he had the audacity to smile. No, not just smile, but grin
like a madman.
All one hundred bouncing slimes dashed off towards the unwitting
applicants, and what followed was the most chaotic experience Rui has ever
undergone.
Bouncing slimes doing as promised; bouncing, and applicants doing as

expected; getting bounced at.
Rui had already been hit multiple times.
('Damn, this fucking hurts!') Rui cursed a slime rammed into his ribs. They
were as large as soccer balls, meaning their force somewhat concentrated. He
shook it off and concentrated. He had already made several plans, he just
wanted as few of his competitors to catch on
('The biggest obstacle here is the fact that the attacks are omnidirectional,
they can come from anywhere. With our limited field of vision, it is
impossible see them all. In that case...')
He turned to the closest applicant to him, who was also thirteen. This was by
no accident; Rui had already known that the AoE nature of the ordeal would
make it difficult to avoid getting hit.
He had decided to team up with an applicant and watch each other's backs,
and call every attack heading their way that they saw. He intentionally chose
to be near a young applicant like himself, the odds of them agreeing to team
up was much higher with a younger applicant, who would also be
disadvantaged against older applicants.
But before he could say a word to the applicant, he spoke to Rui of his own
volition.
"Hey, wanna team up?"
Rui was taken aback.
('Not bad, the fact that he was able to realize the merits in this alone means
he's worth teaming up with.')
Rui nodded, before they both faced their backs to each other. And the effect
was noticeable quickly, although they didn't dodge all the attacks from their
blind spots, they did so at a higher rate than when they were relying on
themselves.
Still, Rui was getting hit more often that he didn't.
('Thank God getting hit doesn't give you negative points otherwise probably
not a single person here would score above zero... But this isn't enough.')
Right now, his performance wasn't really exceptional compared to the others.
He needed to ensure he passed this round, in order to that he needed to dodge
more. Though he didn't have a concrete plan yet, he had already made several
astute observations.
('I had only suspected it initially, but these slimes are cannot seem to control
their trajectories.') Their trajectories were too random and inefficient; they
really did bounce around like a non-living super-bouncy ball.
('Specifically, their bounces obey the laws of motion and reflection far too
much. This implies that the only thing determining their trajectories are the
initial launch and the laws of physics, if they were manipulating their
directions, their bouncing would most certainly not be consistent with
kinematical predictions of their trajectories.')
Rui grinned.
('It's one thing if they could control their motion after the initial launch... But
if their trajectories are driven by physics, then they can be predicted it.')
Of course, this was not a perfect solution, first of all predicting all the slimes
was absolutely impossible, he couldn't even see more than half of them
because the rest was in his blind spot. Furthermore, predicting a large number
of slimes, even if not all required an extreme amount of focus which would
almos certainly tire him out. He wasn't sure he would be able to predict the
ones he could clearly see, but he had to try.
('Don't react after they bounce in your direction, react before they bounce.
The laws of reflection are extremely simple. The reflected trajectory and
incident trajectory will be in the same plane, and the angle of incidence will
be equal to the angle of reflection, it's extremely simple to verify whether or
not a ball will bounce in your direction. The problem is the number, I need to
maintain realistic goal, I can forget about those in my periphery vision, but I
should be able to manage the balls in my primary perifoveal vision.')
He decided to ignore the slimes in the extremes of his vision, clenching his
body and protecting the sides of his heads with his hands, focusing only on
the slimes he could clearly see. But unlike the other applicants, he wasn't
looking at the balls that had already bounced off the dome sealing. He was
looking at the ones that had yet to. Quickly confirming or denying their
future trajectories, he also reduced his movements to a minimum to make his
task of observation easier. Suddenly-
"Duck!" Rui warned his partner.
His partner crouched, but the slime came a split second later than he had
expected. He was surprised Rui had managed to give him such an early
warning. The same thing happened over and over, until he realized Rui hadn't
fallen down or grimaced in pain in the past twenty-minutes. He was dodging
all the slimes from that came from the front and back, while permanently
using his arms as shields to minimize damage from attacks from the side.
('Interesting, his physical capability doesn't seem to be too high. But he's
dodging them almost as good as I am. Furthermore, that hair and eyes of his...
Could he also be a genius?') The boy wondered.
Chapter 15 Outcome
An hour and twelve minutes had passed since the second round had begun.
Rui had grown more and more comfortable in his task of dodging, although it
was still very taxing on him, the delays in reaction time, wastage in
movements had decreased, albeit not by much. The real problem was no
longer how to dodge, but how long he could dodge. His stamina had been
well-honed in the past thirteen years. But ultimately, he was thirteen years
old. His body was not blessed with great amounts of energy, and there was a
limit to how much he could have trained as a pre-pubescent child, and a limit
to the impact that the training would have prior to puberty.
"Huff.. Huff.." He wiped sweat from his forehead, he was sweating so much
that it was starting to hinder his vision.
"Can you keep going?" His partner asked nonchalantly.
('Tsk, this brat. How on Earth is he not tired? Furthermore, he rarely gets hit,
he calls out slimes impeccably. He's accomplishing this through sheer field of
vision, agility, reflexes and crazy maneuvering. This kid is a fucking genius.')
"Are you rubbing your stamina in my face?" Rui barely managed to spit out a
retort, narrowly avoiding a slime.
"Heh, maybe... Duck!" He warned. Unfortunately, Rui couldn't do so in time,

and the slime grazed his shoulder.
"Fuck!" He grimaced. Yet the worst part is that the hit had diverted his
attention, preventing him from reacting in time to another slime that was
about to hit is head.
He braced himself, waiting for the impact. And he waited, waited, yet it never
came.
Opening his eyes only revealed a Martial Squire standing in front of him. The
slime nowhere to be seen.
('He.. protected me? But why?') He wondered, dazed.
('Wait, is the exam...?) He knitted his eyebrows. Looking around, he saw a

similar sight in all directions. The Martial Artists had intervened with their
remarkable physical prowess.
"The second round is now complete, your results will be tallied, and ranked
within an hour." Master Aronian's voice echoed through the facility.
('That means, someone just died...') Rui searched the facility before his eyes
caught the sight of a young boy's corpse being covered and carried away.
('Sigh, that could have been me.') He thought, before dismissing the thought.
"In the meantime, the assistant invigilators will provide you with stamina,
nutritional and healing potions and any other medical aid you may need. The
third round will begin only after the results of the second round are
published..." Master Aronian continued, rattling of a few more instructions.
"You okay?" Rui's partner walked over to him, giving him a hand.
"Okay enough, thanks." Rui accepted, getting up.
"I'm Kane, by the way, Kane Arrancar."
"Rui Quarrier." Rui replied nonchalantly.
Kane threw him an odd, curious look.
"Something on my face?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"Well... That's just not the reaction I get when I tell people my name. It's a bit
refreshing actually." Kane chuckled wryly.
"You're from a famous family?"
"Yeah, my dad is a Martial Sage. And my family has produced many

renowned Martial Sages and Masters in the past."
"Hmm, that sounds cool. No wonder you aced the exam, you're practically
born to be a Martial Artist." Rui complimented, only to receive melancholic,
helpless sigh in response. He could tell he'd touched a nerve, but he wasn't
sure what.
"I think you're pretty good too."
They chatted lightly as they consumed several potions that healed their
wounds and bruises while restoring their stamina. Rui had never actually
consumed a potion in his life, though he had long learnt of them. Potions
were not something that the lower economic classes could afford, especially
not an Orphanage trying to fund itself, he'd never had the opportunity to try
one. What surprised him the most was that potions were merely stored in
liquid form, in order to be effectively consumed, they needed to be inhaled.
('That... makes sense. I guess it's just a little counter-intuitive to me since

potions, in fiction, are always drunk. However, it would be impossible for
potions that are drunk to be effective immediately, of course. Digestion is a
long process. Whereas compounds directly inhaled reach cells extremely
quickly because they're diffused into blood that carries them to every cell in
the body, allowing them to be effective immediately. Furthermore, potions
being drunk would be subjected to a number of chemical reactions that
cannot be predicted, controlled and accounted for. It's a poorly constrained
means of administration of a complex compound, especially if organic in
nature... Interesting, I wonder how these potions work.')
Did they have such high technology that they had synthesized nanobots that
could enter the blood through the airway allowing it to perform all kinds of
operations on the entirety of the human body on a cellular level?
It was practically impossible, nanotechnology was the absolute pinnacle of

material science and engineering. How could a world have mastered such
technology when they hadn't even discovered electricity?
('Their scientific progression is low, and their engineering clearly leaves
much to be desired, yet they can do things that even cutting-edge tech from
Earth can't... This indicates that their technical prowess and understanding of
this world isn't high, however what is special is the world itself. The
capabiltiies of their technology comes from the supernatural but powerful
resources that can be obtained the powerful flora, fauna and the bizarre nature
of this world. This explains the oddities I've noticed throughout my second
life. The lighting technology that relies on plants that glow, the
communication technology that relies on supernatural creatures and
phenomena, the remarkably intricate architecture and engineering that no
doubt relies on something similar, and the medical technology the relies on a
vast variety of supernatural phenomena and life forms. Most fascinating
indeed.')
Kane noticed Rui's engrossed interest in the potions they were delivered.
"Have you never consumed a potion before?" He asked, tilting his head with
a surprised expression.
"Yes, this is my first time. It's fascinating."
"How come you've never had a potion before?" He continued, confusion

creeping into his expression.
Rui turned his head, throwing him a puzzled glance.
('I thought he was intelligent based on how quickly he decided to team up,
but is this kid actually an airhead?')
"...Because they cost three silvers?"
"...And?"
Rui looked at him with disbelief.
"... And I can't afford to spend that much money on a product that can only be
used once."
"...Oh" Kane responded, feeling embarrassed and even guilty. He was used to
drinking several potions of several kinds provided to him every day.
('He wasn't even making fun of me. He just seems to be so rich he has no
frame of reference what normal looks like. This kid must come from serious
money.') Rui sighed. He decided to ignore it, continuing to banter with the
kid. Just then, the assistant invigilators had appeared pushing a tall rolling
board with a sheet of paper.
('It's here... the results of the second round!') Rui tensed.

Chapter 16 Battle Royale
The results had arrived, and immediately a crowd had formed around the
board. Fortunately, the notice board tall, and the rankings were boldened so
that the crowd would not be able to block others from reading them. Rui and
Kane had already gone closer to get a better look.
('So the results are ranked in ascending order of points, those with the highest
points at the top. Each ranking has name, ID, points and whether they passed
or failed.') Rui noted. The board had also mentioned the average number of
points per applicant, which in this case was 347 points.
He began searching for his name rigorously, there were thousands of names,
so this would take a while. The problem was he was reaching the end of the
'passed' section. He still hadn't found his name.
('Dammit, did I fai-')
"Hey, found your name. You passed." Kane told him.
Rui jerked. "Where is it?!"
"Woah chill, it's right there, see?" Kane pointed towards at the top of the first
section.
"See, you got ranked ninth." He told Rui blankly.
"..." Rui stood there gaping as he beheld his ranking. He thought Kane was
trolling him when he said ninth, but unless his eyes were also trolling him, it
was the truth!
"What...?" He mumbled in disbelief. He'd scored 706 points. Putting him

above ninety-nine percent of his competitors.
"But how...?" Rui was confused, even after he teamed up with Kane, and
even after he applied his tactics, he still got hit more than half the time. Less
than fifty-percent was generally a horrible score according to his academic
sensibilities, but apparently the exam was so difficult for everybody that even
this low score was quite remarkable.
Rui sighed, trying to reign in his shock.
"Hey man, don't feel bad, ninth isn't a bad rank." Kane comforted him with
him consoling smile. "Cheer up, okay?"
Rui stared at him with a slack jaw. This kid...
"What's your rank?" Rui took the precaution of asking before he decided how
to retort.
"Fourth." Kane replied with a relieved tone.
"...!" Rui threw him a shocked look, before quickly verifying his rank.
('Amazing, this kid is something special alright. But...')
"But why don't you look happier though?"
"Father said that if I didn't get into the top five, my play time would become
be replaced with more training. So I just barely made the cut." He replied
with a tinge of relief and defiance.
('Seems being part of a famous martial family comes with its own fair share
of tribulations. I trained out of my own free will. How could someone force a
child to train so rigorously?') Rui wondered. Another thing he noted was that
Kane implied his father already knew what the test was, as well as about the
evaluation method and passing criteria.
"I see. Sounds rough." Rui offered.
"It's a pain in the ass."
Rui turned back to the board once more. From what he could see, roughly
sixty to seventy-percent of the applicants had failed. All around him
applicants seemed to be either relieved or disappointed. Large droves of
applicants exited the facility until a much smaller population remained,
having their wounds tended to or simply waiting for the third and final round.
Rui glanced around at those who had passed and remained in the facility.
These applicants were both determined and resolved enough to pass the first
round, as well as talented and skillful enough to pass the second round.
('These guys are the real deal. They possess both the drive and qualifications
to become Martial Artists.')
Everyone in the room could sense that too, each one of them could see that
everybody else was not ordinary. Rui once more drew eyes towards him than
usual, not just because of his odd hair and eyes, but more so due to his ID,
which belonged to the top ten. There were many who had looked for those
applicants that managed to get into the top ten, after all, depending on what
the third round ended up being, it could be of great help remembering the
most dangerous applicants in here.
"Congratulations on passing the second round of the Martial Entrance Exam.

Before I divulge details of the third round, each of you will be provided with
a badge with your score from the second round, you may not cover or store
the badge. The third-round is similar to the second round in that in that your
objective is to obtain as many points as possible. The means by which you
acquire points however, will be different. It's very simple. The number of
points you possess by the end of the round will be equal to the sum of the
points of all badges in your possession."
A spark of understanding flashed through the applicants.
"You may accumulate points by obtaining the badges of your fellow

applicants, through any means whatsoever. Once again; your goal is to
accumulate points. Only half of you will pass the exam. You will be
evaluated on your performance."
('So basically, the final round will be a Battle Royale.')

Rui quickly realized this was bad for him.
('The people who scored the highest will become the biggest targets,
obviously. They're the ones with badges of the highest score. Among the top
ten, I'm almost certainly the weakest in actual combat. I have no formal
training in Martial Art whatsoever, my experience in combat is negligible,
my physical prowess is inferior to all other applicants, Kane included.')
The only combat training Rui had done in the past three years was basic
kickboxing practice. For punching and jabbing he would put himself through
standard boxing training from Earth; Bag work, slip bad, pad work etc. These
were common boxing training exercises. Of course, he didn't have actual
equipment, he had to be a little clever and resourceful. He'd used rice bags in
place bag equipment, cloth wrapped think planks of wood nailed to trees etc.
But he did this only so that he could familiar himself with the sensation of
striking. It was by no means actual experience, or even substitute for
sparring.
('This is going to be genuinely rough. I'm going to become a complete target.

I can forget about trying get other applicants' badges, I don't need them
anyway with my high score. I need to everything I can to ensure that my
badge doesn't get stolen.')
Chapter 17 Discovering The Path
Rui could already feel the attention of his competitors on him.
"Man they're gonna come after us." Kane said, nonchalantly.
Rui had forgotten about his acquaintance; he had been too absorbed in the
eminent ordeal awaiting him. Kane was also his age, furthermore, he had
more points than Rui so he was a more attractive target, but having more
points meant he would be harder to beat. Ultimately both their young ages
meant they would be more alluring as targets.
"You sound confident." Rui noted.
"Yeah, the low rankers should be easy enough, but the high rankers are
strong... I don't know if I can take their badges easily."
('... The fact that that was what was on his mind means he's not worried about
losing his badge at all.') Rui sighed helplessly. He wasn't as confident as
Kane; his lack of experience was not something that could be overcome
easily.
"The most important rule of the third round is that the round will end when
half the number of applicants lose a badge. With that, the explanation of the
third round is over, we will begin the third round soon, good luck."
Rui narrowed his eyes.
('That rule is good and bad news. The bad news is that my attackers will be
more aggressive now that there is a limit to the number of times a badge can
be stolen. The good news is that I just need to hold out until the half the
applicants lose a badge. Which will likely happen quicker, because I probably
will last longer than the lower ranked applicants.') Rui concluded.
('My attackers will probably be mid or low ranked applicants. The higher
ranked applicants have no need to target each other at all. Retaining their high
scores alone will ensure they pass the exam. If they do bother stealing
badges, they will likely target low-mid rankers who they will easily be able to
defeat.') Rui continued analyzing.
('Another important thing to note is that the fact that the goal is retain and
obtain badges, means that physical prowess isn't the only variable. Everyone
has blind spots, regardless of how strong you are, and how strongly the badge
seems to stick to your body, you could lose it simply by being a little
careless.')
Kane nonchalantly hummed as Rui furiously evaluated his predicament and

what course of action he ought to take.
"What makes you so confident you'll be able to retain your badge by the
end?" Rui asked.
"Ahhh, that's because I'm already a Martial Apprentice" Kane responded.
"..!"
('To think this guy is already a Martial Artist, no wonder he managed to

secure rank four despite being much younger than the top three rankers. I
don't compare to him.')
"What exactly does it mean to be a Martial Apprentice?" Rui asked out of

curiosity.
"Well, dad said a Martial Apprentice is someone who has mastered the
foundations of the fields of Martial Arts and discovered their Martial Path,
and manifested their Soul."
"Fields? Martial Path? Manifesting the Soul??" Rui asked, confused.
"Fields are like the fundamental different aspects of Martial Arts; Offense,
defense, supplementary and maneuvering. These are the four primary fields
that every single Martial Art must possess. Without offense you can never
win, without defense you will always lose. And without maneuvering and
supplementation you will not be able to use offense and defense in harmony.
All Martial Arts need varying degrees of all four, no matter how little."
"Hmmmm."
"And the Martial Path is basically the journey of cultivating and creating your
own Martial Art."
"Wait, what do you mean by 'your own Martial Art'?" Rui inquired, puzzled.
Kane threw him a confused look at that question.
"Literally that, your own Martial Art."
"Wait, you're telling me every Martial Artist has their own Martial Art that no
other Martial Artist in the world has?"
Kane nodded in response.
"Yep, father said that Martial Art is a reflection of people's very core, their
very souls. Since every single human being in the world is different, every
single person will end up having a unique Martial Art. That's also what I
meant by Manifesting the Soul, it means you've discovered your Martial Art.
It's a metaphorical thing my father kept telling me, it's a pretty confusing way
of saying it if you ask me." kane shrugged.
This was shocking to Rui. The notion that Martial Art was entirely personal
and subjective and unique to every single Martial Artist was shocking. On
Earth, there were a small number of martial arts that people learnt and
combined, but to think that on Gaea, every single Martial Artist developed
their own unique Martial Art was shocking.
And also, incredibly exciting. Rui fell in love with the concept of personal
unique Martial Art that were metaphorical manifestations of one's soul. It was
just so romantic!
('I wonder how my Martial Art will end up looking... A manifestation of my

soul eh? I've always enjoyed all martial arts on Earth, they were all fun and
interesting, putting aside their effectivity. I also enjoy striking and grappling
combat equally. I can't really picture how my Martial Art will end up
looking.')
"So what is your Martial Art like, thus far?" Rui asked curiously.
"I only reached the Martial Apprentice stage a little over a year ago, so I
haven't developed it too much. But it will end up being a maneuvering centric
Martial Art."
"I see... So that's why you were avoiding the bouncing slimes that well..."
Kane nodded in response
Just before Rui could continue asking more questions. Master Aronian
declared the third-round begun:
"The third-round will begin the moment the doors shut close after I exit the
facility. Good luck." The moment he said the applicants immediately put
distance between each other and took a stance, waiting for the round to begin.
And with that, Master Aronian sauntered out of the room with lavish dignity,
and as soon as the door shut close, chaos wreaked havoc.
('This is the final round! I'll hold onto this badge even if it kills me!')
Chapter 18 Round Three
Rui and Kane leapt back as several applicants immediately began targeting
them.
"Tsk, fucking scavengers." Rui cursed, still, he wasn't able to suppress a grin.
This was the first time he would be fighting!
The first one to throw a punch looked to be around fifteen years old, male.
His form was terrible and his strike was practically telegraphed, Rui managed
to dodge it while throwing a strike to his opponent's nose, aiming his middle
knuckle at the tip.
THWACK
('Tsk, it was slightly off-target.')
But it was close enough, the nose was a particularly vulnerable spot. Getting
struck there extremely hard caused pain and disorientation. Rui was resolved
to land another strike while his opponent had openings. He threw a fully
winded kick straight to his opponent's testicles, leaving him in agonizing
pain.
Rui on the other hand was ecstatic!
('Yes! My first combat victory!') He celebrated before-
BAM
A powerful kick assailed him from the side, slamming into his arm.
"Aargh!"
The ambusher rushed forward to grab his badge. When suddenly-
"Not so quickly." Kane intercepted with a high kick that landed precisely on
the applicant's chin, cleanly knocking him out.
"You okay?" He asked Rui, helping him up.
"Yeah..." Rui groaned.
('Tsk, I was too careless. I need to be more alert. I would have lost my badge
if not for Kane.') Rui scolded himself.
"Thanks for saving me... But you didn't have to."
"I know, it's just that it would be a shame if you didn't enter the Academy. It
hasn't been long, but you're fun to spend time with."
He threw Rui an awkward smile, Rui snorted mirthfully in response.
"I owe you one."
"Don't worry about it, but don't get the wrong idea though. I can't help you
much, back then I was in a really sweet spot to knock him out so it was easy,
but this round will be hard, I can protect myself, but not you."
"Yeah, I know. I did not join this exam hoping someone would protect me."
Rui steeled his gaze at the applicants that had begun to approach them.
('Their goal is my badge, but they need to reach within arm's length in order
to take it. The key is to not let them get that close to me. I'll need to rely on
kicks.') Rui decided. It was also a conclusion that Kane himself came to.
Kick
Kick
Parry
Block
Retreat
Kick
Kick
Check
Kick
Retreat
Block
Dodge, this was a close one. He almost touched the badge.
Kick
Rui had absolutely no sense of time, he had absolutely no idea how much
time had passed at all. It could have been a few minutes, an hour, a few
hours. Heck, maybe it had been a few days.
('Certainly feels like it has.')
He panted, arms on his knees trying to catch his breath. He'd gotten a
moment's rest thanks to the fact that his targetters had been attacked by a few
low-ranking applicants. Buying him a brief but crucial reprieve.
His tactics were not as effective as he had hoped they would be.
('For one, although kicks can be used to maintain distance, that's because
their range exceeds that of punches or jabs. But I'm only thirteen-years-old,
my legs aren't really much bigger than the arms of my targetters due to the
age gap.')
This was a problem because they could potentially rob his badge while
avoiding a kick, they had come close multiple times, far too close for
comfort.
('Secondly, kicks have range and power, but lower flexibility and greater
demand for balance than punches, because you're balancing on one leg while
shifting your center of mass greatly as a consequence of generating greater
force. If someone gets super close while avoiding a kick, it's extremely
difficult to combat effectively because it's difficult to stop the ongoing
momentum and motion of your body in the middle of a kick, and also
because your body is balancing on one leg, it takes much more effort not to
lose balance in such a scenario.')
This meant that if someone dodged a full-powered, max range kick while
moving closer to the person kicking, then the person performing the kick was
practically screwed. At the very least, this was true at the Martial Apprentice
or below level of skill.
This further implied that Rui had to throw very light kicks, he could not
afford to throw kicks that made it difficult to counter any misses. But lighter
kicks generally had shorter range and power, thus it did not deter the targeters
from attempting to close the distance.
,m Rui had, of course, attempted to alleviate the problem. He attempted to do

so by ensuring the burden of his weight was being supported and maintained
by only one of his two legs at any point in time. This allowed him to throw
kicks quicker. The reason was because, normally, every time he chose to kick
with a certain leg, he had to remove all of his body weight from that leg, the
kicking leg, and shift onto the other leg, the supporting leg.
This had to be done and only then after could he launch a kick without losing
balance. However, by permanently keeping his weight on one leg, he did not
have to waste time shifting his weight every time. Thus, he had reduced the
time period needed to throw light kicks, furthermore he had reduced the
recovery time needed to defend properly should one of his kicks fail.
These tactics and solutions were not revolutionary, nor were they extremely
effective. But together they were able to allow Rui to barely hang on to his
badge without losing it.
('Kane is doing much better than I am.')

Kane's maneuvering was truly amazing to Rui. Watching him move gave Rui
the impression that his body was weightless.
('He has an extremely high muscle mass to body mass ratio. He's able to
move his with great easy because that.')
He was able to narrowly avoid jabs and grabs, while simultaneously setting
up attacks that exploited his targetter's openings. This seemed to be relevant
what Kane mentioned to Rui about his Martial Art prior to the start of the
round.
"So, this is a Martial Art, it's still in the earliest stage, but it's still amazing!"
Chapter 19 Gamble
From what Rui could see, Kane's maneuvering prowess came from both his
exceptional muscle mass to body mass ratio, but also because of how light his
body was, these two factors combined gave him extremely high agility and
speed.
('But that isn't the only cause.')
Rui could see that his dodges were extremely efficient. He moved as little as
he could to avoid, or atleast mitigate the effectivity of the strike while setting
up strikes of his own with his dodging motion. For example, if someone
aimed a strike as his head, he would bend backward while simultaneously
launching a straight high kick, while increasing its power and range by torque
generated by bending backwards, he'd cleanly knocked out one of his
targeters this way, and even took his badge.
Just as Rui was admiring Kane's prowess, he heard a female voice call out to
him.
"You're an interesting one aren't you, Rui Quarrier?"
Rui glanced at the person who called out to him as his eyes widened in shock.
The silver-haired girl had many badges pinned all over her body, he couldn't
even count all of them.
('Just how many people did she defeat??')
"It's not too much of a surprise that the direct disciple of Sage Arrancar made
it to the third-round with a high rank while still performing well at the age of
thirteen, although still very impressive." She smiled while throwing a gaze at
Kane.
"But it's odd some no-name commoner thirteen-year-old boy lasted this long,
and even flourish."
Rui heightened his alertness, he recognized her. Fae Dullahan, she seemed to
be sixteen-years-old. She was rank number two in the previous round, he'd
memorized her face when she collected her badge.
"You flatter me, I just barely made it here all this way, even now I almost lost
my badge many times."
"Hmmm..." She gazed into his sharp eyes, taking note off his ominous hair
and eyes.
Suddenly;
BAM.
Rui barely managed to block a heavy palm attack with a guard.
('She's fast! And more importantly what the fuck was with that power?") His
arms were throbbing with pain.
"Not bad, you blocked that well." She noted as she continued attacking him.
"I don't see why someone like yourself would need my badge." Rui managed
to squeeze out.
"Oh I don't care for your badge, you can keep it." She responded innocently
even as she pummeled him.
Kane had noticed had predicament but was too pre-occupied. Furthermore he
did not think he could defeat Fae, she was too strong, it was too risky. She
was the direct disciple of Sage Dullahan, her grandmother, who was an
acquaintance of his father.
('Damn, hang in there Rui, the round should be close to over!') Kane pleaded.
It had been nearly half an hour since the round had begun and many
applicants had lost their badges. He just hoped Rui would be able to avoid
losing his badge before the round was over.
Rui was bruised immensely. In a short time, she had inflicted more damage
on him than even an hour of the second-round had.
('Her speed is lower than Kane's but not by much, but her power is far
greater.')
Rui had observed that she was only striking him by the base of her palms,
reinforced by the Radius and Ulna bones which constituted the forearm.
('It makes sense, her hands are small, palming would be more effective than
punching.')
She wasn't particularly muscular but her strikes delivered great force. From
Rui could see, there were multiple reasons.
('Her arm is tough and rough. She's conditioned her entire arm.') Rui
grimaced as he endured her onslaught.
Conditioning, broadly speaking, was a set of procedures or action performed

by a martial artist in order to increase durability, toughness, hardness and
pain endurance of the parts of the body the conditioning was performed on,
usually over a long period of time.
('Harder and tougher strikes inflicted more damage because they made the
collision between the strike and the target increasingly inelastic.')
This was a scientific way of saying harder and tougher strikes hurt more than
softer and weaker strikes. If one were to get hit by a beach ball thrown very
hard, one would not get hurt, but what if one were to get hit by a steel ball
that weighs the same as the beach ball, and was thrown at the same speed?
One would most certainly get hurt. The reason was because of the difference
in their collision. The beach ball hit was an elastic collision where the energy
of the ball did not get converted into damage, whereas the steel ball hit was
an inelastic collision, where the kinetic energy of the ball would get
converted into damage, damage inflicted onto the target.
('That's not the only reason this hurts though. She's using her power
efficiently, and every power uses her body weight.') Rui noted, even though it
hurt a lot. The sheer brilliance of her combat made him, a martial arts/combat
sport junkie, extremely excited.
Fae continued her onslaught with an intrigued expression. She noticed

something strange.
('He's... smiling?')
It was faint, furthermore it was hard to discern under through his grimaces,
but she could just barely detect excitement under all of it.
('Haha, he's enjoying this. He's an interesting ki-')
THWACK.
She froze in surprise. Rui had just dropped his guard, crouched and rushed
into her strike, allowing her palm attack to strike the top of his head hard, the
sheer force by she had thrown the palm as well as conditioned toughness had
caused a wound at the top of his head that had begun bleeding. However, he'd
ignored the wound and dashed towards her waist grabbing onto her thighs.
"I have you now!" He screamed as he pushed her upper half while pulling her
lower half.
A takedown. This was what Rui had aimed for.
He had not made this decision lightly.
Prior, Rui made several astute observations
('She's throwing straight palms and nothing else, it's likely because while
palms are good at delivering impacts, they have very little inherent variation
because other types of trajectories require too much flexibility to be used
regularly. It's also because she's holding back against me a bit. Another thing
is that every strike she throws is close to max power from what I can tell, she
twisting her body, drawing power from her core and her legs. This delivers
great power but it must be difficult for her to counter if someone avoids it.')
Problem was, Rui didn't know how to avoid her strikes fully.
('She has too much speed, furthermore, palms have a wider range of effect
than fists. Dodging a fast wide strike like that requires preparation that she
will definitely notice, I cannot take her by surprise if she notices, thus
dodging and then closing the range is impossible. That leaves only one
strategy but it's a gamble.')
Dodging fast and wide strike required pre-mediated movements that would
tip her off on his intentions. But allowing her to hit him did not. If he could
simply rush in, endure the strike, not get knocked out by it, then he could
attempt a takedown and grapple with her.
('But what are my chances of not getting seriously wounded by her attack
without a guard?')
Non-existent, he would definitely get hurt, worst case scenario he would just
get knocked out. But he didn't really have any other choice.
('If I continue taking these palms, I'm doomed. This is risky, but it's better
than certain defeat.')
He waited for a strike that had been aimed high. When it came, he dropped
his guard and dashed to her legs, pretending the strike aimed at him did not
exist. But it did, and it grazed a streak of skin and a little flesh off the top of
his head, causing bleeding instantly
("FUCK THAT HURTS.") But, he endured. Rui rushed in grabbing her legs.
He had fullfilled the plan, the question is whether the plan was good or not.
He had few options in the first place. He could continue taking her attacks as
she pummeled him to oblivion.
He could run away even though she was faster than him and could attack his
back and head.
Or he could take a gamble that was risky and still very difficult, even if it
succeeded
He had to choose the lesser of three evils, did he choose correctly?

Chapter 20 Outer Convergence
Abandoning a guard and haphazardly dashing for a takedown mid-strike was

a very dangerous thing to. He could have easily been knocked out, or he
could have completely avoided the strike if he was skilled and experienced,
the only reason the strike didn't knock him out was because Fae had been
caught off-guard, thus her reaction time was a little greater than normal, she
wasn't able to adjust the trajectory to strike him in time.
('Yes! Now I can grapple her. This way her body conditioning won't really be
too much of a deal, furthermore the mechanism by which her strikes were so
powerful also cannot be applied to wrestling. I could potentially beat h-')
BAM
Rui spat out blood and immediately fell unconscious at her feet.
"Fuuu... To think he managed to almost get me. If it wasn't for One-Inch

Palm I might have had some difficulty." Fae mumbled, her palm facing
upside down at waist level.
Fae's One-Inch Palm was an attack that allowed her to strike with maximum
power in extremely close ranges. This was abnormal because it was difficult
to leverage the power of the core and legs in such a position, usually, greater
power required greater space. However, what Fae used was a principle that
was known simply known as Outer Convergence. Outer Convergence
allowed the user to use their full raw power in any position by stacking,
summing and converging the torque generated by all primary muscle groups
to increase the power of a strike.
There was a popular analogy used to understand what this meant, in the
Martial Academy. A child throwing ball at an adult would likely not hurt the
adult. But what if the child was sitting on a horse that was running at top-
speed? Then the ball would possess the speed generated by the child and the
horse, it would be moving very fast and would hurt an adult.
But what if the horse was running on top of a giant dragon that itself was
moving at ten times the speed of the horse? Then the ball thrown would
possess the sum of the speeds given to it by the child, the horse as well as the
dragon stacked together, the thrown ball would be extremely powerful. This
was because the power generated by three sources had been constructively
accumulated and stacked together into one attack.
This was exactly what the principle Outer Convergence was about. The
different muscle groups in the body were like the dragon, the horse and the
child. The fist, or palm in this case was like the ball being thrown. Outer
Convergence allowed the user to transfer the power to the strike in exactly
this manner, accumulating and summing torque and force from all across the
body additively and converging it into the strike. It was theoretically possible
to do so in any position, but Fae had not mastered Outer Convergence to that
degree yet. Still, being able to use Flow Accumulation at all in the form of
the One-Inch Palm was what allowed her to crush Rui's gamble instantly.
Rui had failed, miserably. He chose wrong.
"Still, if it had been 99.9% of the applicants here, they would have probably
lost..." Fae mused.
"Rui Quarrier, how interesting. I hope you pass the exam. You do seem
worthy of being a Martial Artist." She bade him, before leaving.
His badge was stolen the moment she walked away.
**********
Rui opened eyes in a daze, unsure where he was.
('An unfamiliar ceiling')
Only then did his memories kick in.

('Wait what happened to the third-round? I remember I was fighting Fae-')
"Ah applicant Rui Quarrier, you're awake." A voice called out to him.
"You're currently in the medical wing of the Martial Academy, you fell
unconscious during the third-round of the Entrance Exam. Your wounds have
been completely treated, so you may leave after gathering your belongings."
('A nurse of the Academy...?') He noted her medical uniform.
('Damn, so it's over? Fae must have done something to me, I can't really
recall what happened after I dashed for a takedown.') He cursed.
"What about the results of the exam?"
"You will be notified by the Martial Academy of the results of your Exam
within a few days."
Rui sharpened his eyes.
('A few days...? It shouldn't take that long since the criteria for passing or
failing was simple. I probably had zero points by the time the round ended
and zero is most certainly below the average number of points')
"Is there a badge among my belongings?" Rui asked nervously, just to verify.
The nurse turned to face him.
"No, there was no badge on your person when the third-round ended."
"...I see."
Deep grief and frustration assailed his mind. He'd spent practically his entire
life preparing for this exam, he'd given the exam his everything. All for a
complete failure.
"How long has it been since I was knocked out?"
"Around five hours."

Rui jerked his head towards her.
('Damn, I need to get back home soon or everyone will be worried.') He

changed back into his clothes from the medical garb he woke up wearing,
before bidding the nurse gratitude and leaving.
On the way back home he had a lot to think about.
('Fae... She was at a Martial Apprentice level too probably, just like Kane.')
She was the reason he failed. She attacked him on a whim and beat the living
shit out of him for amusement. Yet, Rui felt no resentment towards her.
Instead he felt a tinge of excitement and anticipation building up.
"When will I become that strong? I can't wait."
He would have been much more excited on any other day, but he found it
hard to get excited right after failing the exam.
Twelve years. That's how long he'd invested. He'd spent those years doing his
absolute best. It was not an exaggeration to say that Rui had done absolutely
everything humanly possible to pass the exam. If it was anybody else, they
would have likely not accomplished as much as he did with what he had, this
was because of the sheer expertise, knowledge and experience surrounding
martial arts and combat sport. There were very few people with as much
unadultered raw love for martial arts and combat sports as much as Rui had.
But it wasn't enough.

Chapter 21 Home
The sky was dark, the edges of the sunset were dipping below the horizon.
He'd spent nearly half the day away from home. Yet Rui was in no hurry, he
was walking home peacefully in a nonchalant manner, contemplating what
had occurred throughout the entire day.
('The first round weeded out a majority of the applicants, around ninety-
percent or so, the second round got rid of seventy percent and the third round
got rid of precisely half.')
That left only left around a little over one percent of the applications, such
was the tiny proportion of applicants that managed to pass the exam.
('Furthermore, even among the applicants who pass the exam, only a small
proportion of them reach the Martial Squire stage.')
It was a brutal ordeal, one Rui had almost overcome.
"Sigh... I wonder if Kane passed... He probably did."
He hoped so, atleast. Although he hadn't even known the kid for even a day,
he was cool. Furthermore, he helped Rui out. A debt Rui promised he would
pay back.
"Fae definitely passed too."
There was no doubt about this either, he was pretty sure she was either
extremely rich, or she was family of an extremely powerful Martial Artist, or
both. He sighed. He didn't regret being born in the Quarrier Orphanage, but
there were undeniably benefits that he missed being born in a lower class of
the economy.
('Still... I'd stick to the orphanage if given a choice.') He smiled warmly as he
thought about his family in the orphanage. The pain of being separated from
them was not something he wanted to voluntarily put himself through.
As his mind wandered, he kept trudging through. He was in a very dull mood,
but he didn't feel regret, at the very least.
('I gave it my all.') He shrugged. What more could a person do? Besides
although he was almost certainly done for, the official judgement had not
been released yet, so who knew? Anything was possible.
Rui stopped walking as he reached the gate to the orphanage. He almost

didn't want to go inside, he didn't want to be in the center of attention while
he was still saturated with shame and frustration.
('The problem is with me, not them. They'll console and encourage me.')
Rui sighed before entering. The door opened before he reached it, and Farion
could already tell what had happened based on Rui's expression.
"Don't worry about it, come in, dinner's ready." He said before gesturing Rui
inside. Rui smirked slightly, it was a very Farion-way of consoling people.
He was not someone who would bare his thoughts and emotions directly, but
would still convey what he wanted to. His words just then roughly translated
to:
'I know you didn't achieve what you wanted to, I know it sucks, but for now
come and spend time with the family you love, we're here for you.'
"Yeah... I'll do that."
He scratched his head walking in.
"I'm back."
Lashara looked to be full of pure relief. Out of all those in the Quarrier
Orphanage, she cared more for his well-being and life than his first attempt at
the Martial Entrance Exam. She'd scanned his body top to bottom, an
embarrassing ordeal for a thirteen-year-old, but even more so for a seventy-
two-year-old. But he allowed her to do it, he owed her that much atleast, after
ignoring years of overprotectiveness to eventually attempt the Martial
Entrance Exam.
Of course, his wounds had all been treated by the Medical Department, so
there was nothing to fear, but did that deter Lashara?
"Heh, looks like Mom might even force you to sleep beside her out of
anxiety." Nina smirked.
"Anything but that! I haven't done that in six years!" Rui complained.
"Well? How did it go?" Julian asked, despite already knowing the answer.
"I failed in the final round." Rui sighed in response.
"Shame, don't worry, you can try again next year. The fact that you made it to
the final round in itself is actually quite remarkable. But how do you know
you failed if the official announcement isn't out yet?"
He was aware that the Martial Academies sent official letters stamped with
the seal of the Kandrian Martial Union declaring admission of the candidates
who were accepted as students while setting up an appointment with the
candidate and/or with the Guardian.
"The objective of the round was specified, and I perfectly failed to meet it.
There's no way I passed."
"Hmm.. I see. Well, don't worry about it. Let's start eating."
And so they did. They discussed boisterously about a variety of topics

rapidly, forcing Rui to take his mind off the exam, which he was grateful for.
**********
Master Aronian had just finished grading the final round of the Entrance
Exam. Only 567 applicants had passed the Entrance Exam in the Kandrian
branch, this year. As the appointed head invigilator of this year, he was given
full discretion regarding the Exam, and as long as he didn't go overboard, he
could do whatever he wanted. Normally, he considered this duty a dull chore,
but this year's applicants were interesting, to say the least.
('The top-level talent in this year's batch is impressive... There's Kane

Arrancar. Son of Sage Damian Arrancar. Based on his performances, his
overall skill and combat capability was at the Martial Apprentice level.
Extremely impressive that he managed to discover his Martial Path at the age
of thirteen, a genius with unknown potential. What is interesting is how
vastly different his Martial Art seems to be from that of Sage Arrancar. Sage
Arrancar's Devil Fury Fist is a striking Martial Art that heavily emphasized
on raw power and durability at the cost of speed and maneuvering, although I
didn't particularly expect Kane to go down the exact same path, it's a little
strange he chose the exact opposite.')
Kane had chosen a Martial Art with a strong focus on speed, agility and
evasive maneuvering, at the cost of a powerful body.
('Martial Arts are manifestations of the Soul, in a sense. For Kane to have
focused on evasiveness and chosen a completely different path from the
Arrancar family tradition. I wonder how this bodes for Arrancar
Household...')
Chapter 22 Interested
Although there was nothing concrete, Master Aronian could a smell friction
between Kane and Sage Arrancar.
"Well, it's none of my business."
Another applicant he was interested in was Fae Dullahan, yet another

descendent of a Sage.
('Two of them in a single year is quite rare.')
She also was worthy of her status in his eyes. She consistently dominated the
rankings with ease. What particularly impressed Master Aronian was the fact
that she managed to learn how to use Outer Convergence. Although he could
tell she hadn't mastered yet, the fact that she managed to use a high-end
Apprentice level technique was rather impressive. He couldn't wait to see
where her Martial Journey would take her.
"Then, of course, is him..." Master Aronian said, looking at a sheer with a

picture of a fifteen-year-old boy on it. The boy had long, messy white hair
and unnervingly wide blood-red eyes, with a wild grin on his face.
"Rank number one... Nel."
He wasn't even a commoner; he was below that. From what the admissions
department of the Martial Academy had learnt about him from their
background check was that he was a child who was raised by animals till the
age of three, when he was discovered and rescued by humans. Although he
eventually adjusted to living like a human by the age of fifteen, he still
retained the savagery and ferocity he had obtained living with beasts. He was
territorial, cruel to the weak and seemed to have obtained a strong urge for
physical conflict. Master Aronian even suspected he got off of it, considering
he actually killed several applicants in the Entrance Exam with expressions of
unadulterated, almost innocent joy and pleasure.
He hadn't studied Martial Arts even a little bit, but he signed up for the
Martial Academy anyway.
And he was monstrously strong. In the second-round, he was the one and
contestant who didn't get hit by a slime at all; he successfully dodged or
destroyed every slime. Fae had challenged him towards the end of the third
round, but unfortunately for Master Aronian, the round ended before the fight
could reach a conclusion.
"I regret making the third round so short." He sighed. He wasn't entirely sure
which one would have definitely won, had the fight continued. But he knew it
would be extremely close, the two contestants were nigh equal.
What particular impressed Master Aronian about Nel was his ferocity and
tenacity. Nel grew up in the lowest strata of society in the poorest and most
dangerous of districts, he had a lifetime of experience of not just sparring or
training, but fighting for his life, every day. He had a shockingly
unpredictable, unconventional fighting style stacked atop a body blessed with
high physical attributes, and powerful senses and instincts. He was an outlier,
a beast. Using his unparalleled senses and reflexes, he was able to dodge or
destroy all slimes from all angles. This was something Fae, despite her age
and pedigree could not replicate.
"And finally... there is him." Master Aronian glanced at Rui's profile.
Rui was much of a deviant as Nel was, in Master Aronian's eyes.
"Thirteen-years-old. No formal Martial Arts training, well above average

physical attributes as a result of training, considering his age, but not too
much of note by itself, average physical performative attributes too, slightly
above average skill, but again, nothing special. Though the fact that an
untalented child like him fact that he reached this level without formal
training speaks of great determination and hard work.
Still, this was not the most shocking part about Rui. What is truly impressive
was his mind.
"He's an unparalleled genius."
He did not make that statement lightly, no Martial Master would.
"Despite possessing unremarkable physical and physical performative

attributes at the age of thirteen. He managed to score above 700 in the second
round and secured rank number nine. Furthermore, he did this purely
tactically with absolutely no other attribute contributing majorly. He observed
the slimes, drew hypotheses and conclusions regarding the slimes and the
exam itself, tested the hypotheses to confirm or deny them before devising a
set of tactics aimed at fulfilling the objective to the highest degree possible,
centered around predicting the trajectory of the slimes rather than reacting to
them."
This was an instance of analytical and tactical ingenuity as well as sheer

processing capacity absolutely unheard of in an applicant, let alone one as
young as Rui, according to the Martial Exam library. Usually only highly
experienced Martial Artists who were also inherently intelligent could
accomplish such feats.
"Unfortunately, he lost his badge to Fae, but he still held out longer and acted
better than likely anybody else would have with what he had. Not even Nel
pushed Fae far enough to hastily use her One-Inch Palm against her will."
Master Aronian thought quite highly of Rui, on par with the aforementioned
geniuses even though Rui would have undoubtedly lost to them in a fight.
None of the other applicants had held Master Aronian's interests. Although
they were all mildly different and some even unusual, it was nothing that
Master Aronian, an experienced invigilator and teacher, had not seen many
times.
He set aside the profiles in his hand and had begun stamping on the letters of
acceptance and rejection with the official Kandrian Martial Academy's stamp.
The seal pattern on the stamp was extremely intricate and even the materials
it was crafted from were from high-grade esoteric bestial matter obtain from
powerful beasts, forging a counterfeit was actually extremely difficult.
Furthermore, the ink itself was a compound derived from esoteric flora, it
absorbed light of all colours and thus was an absolute pitch black that did not
shine or reflect any light. These were means by which credibility and
reliability were ensured.
Just then, he came across Rui's letter.
"Hmm…"
The decision of course had already been made, it could not be changed now.
He just wondered if it was too hasty.
"Well, what's done is done. I'm interested to see what you do from here, Rui
Quarrier."
Chapter 23 Letter
Rui was lying on his bed, the next morning. He had been contemplating about
his path forward from here on out.
('The official announcement hasn't come yet, but I should forget about it.
What I ought to do is eradicate the cause of my failure.')
He was doing fine until he fought Fae. But what caused that loss? Well, he
was outclassed physically and technically; in skill. She was on a whole other
level. He still didn't even know what she did to him in their fight. The last
thing he recalled was dashing towards the lower half of her body for a
takedown, grabbing her and then the lights went out for him and he woke in a
medical facility later on.
('She knocked me out, obviously. The question is how.')
He wasn't sure how. He was especially confused on how she managed to

generate such raw power when caught off-guard, mid-strike with her whole
body still in motion in the failed strike, at point blank range. Was such a thing
even possible?
('With Earth's martial arts, that was impossible. No MMA or UFC fighter
would ever be able to generate such absurd amount of power, enough to
instantly knock someone out like that at point blank range. But she did,
how?')
This served as a little reminded that he knew too little about the Martial Art
in this world. On Earth, both humans and martial arts had hard limits. But as
he had witnessed twelve years ago, neither humans nor Martial Art had hard
limits like this. The laws of physics were somehow still the same, as he'd
noticed. This world obeyed the three laws of motion, Newton's law of
gravitation, Rotational mechanics, kinematics, Euclid's Axioms etc. Yet,
somehow, the limits that the universe and Gaea had placed on humans
seemed to simply not exist. He wasn't sure if this was something could ever
be investigated through scientific induction; the scientific method. But did he
care?
('No, not really. I'm grateful for it, of course. It allows me to live in a world of
my dreams, and live a life of my dreams. But I don't really care why this
reality is so different, I'm not a cosmologist or a theoretical physicist. I will
simply exploit the opportunity this reality has presented me with, and fulfill
the dream I couldn't fulfill in my previous life.')
Still, it begged the question he hadn't answered yet, how did she knock him
out so quickly? He didn't know, and it didn't seem like he could figure out
either.
('Some day… I'll reach that level, I'll reach it and far surpass it.')
He leapt up from his bed with renewed vigour.
"I'll work even harder and definitely pass the Exam next yea-"
"RUI YOU PASSED THE EXAM!"
"…?" Rui tilted his head towards a boisterous Alice running towards him.
"YOU. PASSED. THE. EXAM." She screamed, shaking him back and forth.
Rui couldn't understand.
('Is this her way of cheering me up? Alice's cheeriness was always abnormal,
but this is something else even for her.')
"Your letter came!" She shoved a paper into his chest.
"It says you passed the exam!"
"Huh?" Rui squinted his eyes in skepticism as he looked at the letter. "There
no wa-…!!"
He choked when he read the letter;
('Greetings, Mr Quarrier.
We are pleased to inform and congratulate you have passed the Kandrian
Martial Entrance Exam, and have been accepted into the Kandrian Martial
Academy. We have evaluated you as a student candidate of our Academy
thoroughly, and you have indeed demonstrated that you are more deserving
of a seat in our Academy than your peers.
We write to you to do more than just congratulate you, we invite you to the
official Induction in the Kandrian Martial Academy on the thirty-sixth
Autumn at 14:00. There, important matters such as the rules and regulations,
fees structure, payment method and structure, scholarships, housing and food
amenities, schedules and academic year structure and other facilities and
amenities will be presented in great detail, you may consult with our staff on
any enquiries you have after. You will also receive your student identification
and uniform. It is an extremely important and necessary meeting, so please
make sure to attend it. If you cannot, then please make sure to book an
appointment with our staff prior to the start of the Academic year on the
sixty-sixth Autumn.
And lastly, this letter serves as the official invitation to the Induction, please
bring it with you along with identification...')
...
Rui memorized the relevant information as he read every single word with
great scrutiny.
('...We look forward to meeting you.
With sincere regards,
~The Admission Department of the Kandrian Martial Academy.')
The letter ended after rambling on for a while about details. But the important
part had already been conveyed.
"...I'm accepted..."
"I'm accepted...?"
"I'm accepted." He asserted, chuckling.
"I'M ACCEPTED." The realization had finally struck his core.
He began guffawing uncontrollably, until he grew embarrassed enough to

stop.
('But how did I pass? I lost my badge, and the objective was to retain and
accumulate badges and points. I objectively failed that task.')
"..r…"
('I'm definitely going to find out how I didn't fail in the Induction.')
"r…i.."
('But still, I got in after all! YES!)
"…Ru.."
('I can't wait to begin!')
"RUI."
"Hm?"
"Sigh, you were so engrossed you didn't even hear us." Alice said with tired
helplessness.
"Oh, I didn't notice you guys here, sorry." Rui said as he realized a lot of
people had gathered around him. He was scolded by the adults for being so
self-absorbed, but ultimately everyone congratulated him. It was a well-
known fact within the Orphanage that Rui dreamt of becoming a Martial
Artist.
"Congratulations Rui, you made it." Julian smiled at him.
"Thanks."
"I have to say, I am extremely surprised. I thought the chances of you passing
the exam at the age of thirteen were practically negligible."
"Ha, thanks for the vote of confidence." Rui snorted.
"Still, the fact that you made it through despite your low odds is the strongest
testament to your sheer determination and perseverance. If it's you, you'll be
able to tread the Martial Path to the very end." Julian smiled warmly.
"…Hindsight is 20/20 they say." Rui retorted playfully.
"That's a mean thing to say in response."
Rui smirked "Thanks."

Chapter 24 Induction
A week rolled by and the Induction Ceremony of the Kandrian Academy had
arrived. The event was held in the morning on the thirty-sixth Winter, which
would be the sixth of October on Earth. There were multiple Calendar
systems used on the panama continent, but the most universal one was the
Calendar of systems. The year was divided into 365 days, just like on Earth,
but the days were not grouped into months, instead, they were grouped into
seasons. The thirty-sixth Winter referred to the thirty-sixth day of the Winter
season. This was one of the many differences in the cultures between Earth
and Gaea, it had taken Rui a while before he got used to them completely.
"Come on Julian, we might be late!" Rui urged
Julian threw him a helpless sigh.
"We already resolved to leave a whopping half an hour early in anticipation

of traffic., leaving any earlier would be silly." He told Rui.
('It's rare to see such a childish side of him.')
"Alright fine, but don't waste anymore time." Rui relented.
"Yes yes."
The reason Julian accompanied him was because all applicants below the age
of adulthood of sixteen needed to be accompanied by a Guardian, or an adult
who would serve as an acting Guardian. Lashara had requested Julian to
accompany Rui as the acting Guardian, and in order to aid Rui in the
Induction.
By the time they reached, they were, as perfectly predicted, half an hour
early.
"See? We're this early and you wanted to be even earlier." Julian poked at
Rui.
"Hey man, better safe than sorry." Rui yawned.
"Sleepy?"
"Not at all."
"You stayed awake all night excited about the Induction, didn't you?"
"…"
Julian sighed, he really did think Rui's childishness manifested when it came
to his passion and love for Martial Art. They followed the directions to the
Induction Hall after showing their ID and invites to the Guards at the gate.
The Induction Hall was a large facility that seemed to be explicitly designed
for presentations of this sort. On the outside, it was large and ostentatious in
its architecture, clearly designed to grab attention and demand admiration
from its beholders.
On the inside, there was a large stage with a podium upon it at the opposite
end of the Hall. The Hall actually descended downwards as one moved
forward, with the stage being the lowest in elevation, it had a wide carrying
capacity, clearly designed to accommodate the large number of new students
and guardians that attended the Induction every year.
"Truly, an extravagant hall that does the prestige of the Martial Arts
Academy justice." Julian sighed in admiration.
What held Rui's attention, however was not the Hall itself but its inhabitants.
"So these guys are my batch mates, eh?"
"Indeed, I hope you make a lot friends."
"I didn't come here to make friends." Rui shrugged.

"Yes, but it doesn't hurt to make a few. Good friends can have overall
positive impact on your life, maybe even on your Martial Art."
It was possible, Rui supposed.
"Speaking of which, didn't you make a friend in the exam?"
"I knew him for a few hours at most, he's an acquaintance at most." Rui said,
before feeling guilty. Kane had saved him in the third round
('Does that make us friends?')
Rui wasn't sure. In his past life, he had never made any friends, his disease
and the nature of his career simply prevented him from making any, he'd also
developed a relatively asocial attitude due to that.
"True enough, I suppose."
The accepted students were all strong, Rui could feel it. He wasn't sure he
could beat most of them in a fight. Even though he was in the top-ten of the
second-round, he didn't let it get to his head and bloat his ego. His success in
that round was a rather niche outcome and wasn't something that spoke to his
overall combat ability. Ultimately, he was younger, weaker and less
experienced than pretty much every single other student in his batch.
('The only other kid my age was Kane, and he was a fucking genius who was
personally trained by a Martial fucking Sage. I'd have to have my head deep
up my ass in order to think I'm comparable to him just because our ranks
were somewhat close in the second-round.')
Rui clenched his fist.
('It doesn't matter how strong I am currently; I have a lifetime ahead of me.
This is what the Martial Academy is for, after all.')
He couldn't wait for the academic year begin. He intended to grind and train
like a madman under the tutelage of the Martial Seniors of the Academy.
Just then, Rui saw a figure board the podium.

Master Aronian surveyed his audience, sweeping his gaze across them.
"Students of the Martial Academy. This time, allow me to welcome you all to
the Kandrian Martial Academy not as aspirants, but as members. Each and
every single one of you belongs within the walls of this Academy. You have
overcome tribulations as well as your peers and proved without a shadow of a
doubt that you belong here. Be proud of how far you've come, yet be
cognizant of how much you have left to traverse."
He spoke calmly with sagely dignity.
"Today, we aim to inform you about the everything you need to know, and
ought to know about the Martial Academy. Without further ado, I invite our
Honorable Chancellor Callux Haine to begin the presentation."
A strapping younger man walked onto the stage as an applause ensued.

Master Aronian shook his hand before deferring the podium to him and
walking off the stage. He smiled before cutting straight to the chase.
"The purview of this presentation is to provide you with an overall

understanding of how the Academy functions. I shall broadly be going over
several categories of topics. The educational services the Martial Academy
offers to its students. The responsibilities and entitlements that students
possess. The fees structure and means of payment. And finally, the future that
lies beyond the Academy."
"The primary service that the Academy provides to its students is, simply
speaking, the tools necessary to allow students to reach the Martial Squire
Realm. The curriculum is not set in stone universally, beyond the bare
foundations. The Martial Path is a deeply personal journey that cannot be
universalized, yet the conditions necessary to become a Martial Apprentice
and then a Martial Squire are defined. The Martial Academy possesses a vast
library of techniques and skills that can freely be explored by students in
order to discover their Martial Path, before pursuing it.
The Martial Academy offers the tutelage of highly qualified and experienced
Martial Seniors, who have all guided countless students into discovering their
Martial Path, and aided them in their Journey down it. We offer a variety of
highly refined training regimes and facilities for all physical and performative
attributes relevant to Martial Art.
Simply put... The Kandrian Martial Academy is a paradise for those who
strive to become Martial Artists!"
As he began rattling about the details, Rui pondered about his words.
('I see, so in order to reach the Martial Apprentice stage and discover your
Martial Path, one must explore different types of Martial Art techniques,
skills and forms, eh? That makes sense. After all, how else can one figure out
what kind of Martial Art they wanna pursue? In that case, having a library of
techniques and skills definitely makes life far easier. Hell, is it even possible
to become a Martial Apprentice without such resources?')
Regardless, just based off this alone the Academy was already worth every
ounce of his time, he probably wouldn't be able to reach the Martial
Apprentice stage any other way.
('I'm not like Kane, after all. Without the Academy I'll never be able to obtain
these learning resources.')
The sheer amount of resources the Academy dedicated giving its students the
most optimal education possible was mind-boggling to Rui. His astonishment
only escalated as every time the Chancellor presented yet another ostentatious
facility that targetedly trained one particular physical or performative
attribute or a foundational skill of some kind.
('Is it really worth it to spend so much on us students? I've heard that only
ten-percent of students reach the Martial Squire stage, is it really worth it to
spend such a large amount of capital into nurturing less than a hundred
Martial Squires every year?')
He wasn't sure. He lacked too much information on the interests and

decisions of the Union. Perhaps there were several concrete economic and
political incentives to increasing the number of Martial Artists than just
money. Perhaps he would learn of these reasons once he jumped up the totem
pole of the Martial Union.
('I should stop focusing on abstract irrelevant matters and focus on things
have a more direct impact on me.') Rui shook his head.
"… In addition to the facilities, amenities and services I've just gone over
there exists the possibility of being tutored by a Martial Master. Of course,
this is a decision that is entirely of their own discretion and volition. There
are no guarantees, promises or stipulations regarding this. There have been
several years back to back where not a single student was chosen by the
Martial Masters of the Academy, and conversely, there have been years
where a plethora of students were accepted by various Masters. On average, a
few students are accepted every year. The benefits, of course, cannot be
overstated. In addition to extremely high-quality tutelage, Martial Masters
can allow disciples to obtain opportunities that other students cannot, with the
vast authority they possess they can easily circumvent the restrictions and
barriers blockading resources, knowledge, events etc."
Rui grew excited when he heard that. The prospects of being tutored by a
Martial Master was incredibly exciting. Their prowess was known to be
extraordinarily high, and unless one was their direct descendent, the prospect
of one being accepted as a disciple by one was extremely low, Martial
Masters were very powerful, influential and naturally wealthy. It was difficult
to earn their tutelage services even with a small fortune.
Chapter 25 Disciple
('Ideally, a Master ends up offering me tutelage once I become a Martial

Apprentice. The problem is the low probability, as well as the difference in
criterias that Master evaluate potential disciples with. Every Master must be
looking for something different in the students. The only thing that can be
inferred is that they are likely looking for unique traits. After all it wouldn't
make sense if what they were looking for could be abundantly found in every
student, if that were the case, being accepted as a student would be a trivial
and easy matter.')
Thus it could be inferred that the likelihood of being accepted as a disciple of

a Master was greater the more unique one was.
('So now, the question is whether I'm unique enough.') Rui scratched his
head.
('Well, I'm reincarnated, that's something I'm relatively certain no other

student can claim to be. But revealing that is asking to be burned to the stake
as an alien. Even if they didn't believe me they'd atleast conclude I have
screws loose in my head. Nothing about this option is a desirable outcome.')
The problem was that Rui wasn't sure he was all that unique in practice. The
Martial Entrance Exam had shown him that.
('Sure, my scientific background and research experience in martial arts and

combat sports allows me to pull a few tricks like I did in the second-round of
the Martial Exam, but that's it. That's not too big a deal. It allowed me to cope
with the difference in prowess between me and the other applicants. But is
that something that would warrant the attention of a Martial Master?)
Rui didn't think so.

('Another things that likely influences their criterion is compatibility of
Martial Arts. I highly doubt a Martial Master with a defensive Martial Art
would take in a student with an offensive or maneuvering-oriented Martial
Art, no matter how brilliant that student was.')
That made sense. Why would a Martial Master bother with things that weren't
their specialty?
('That also implies that the students that do get chosen are probably are
Martial Apprentices. Assuming they choose students with compatible and
similar Martial Arts, then only those who have discovered and chosen their
Martial Art are eligible to be chosen.')
That meant that the best thing Rui could do to be eligible was to reach
Martial Apprentice. He highly doubted whether or not Martial Masters
bothered with students below that rank. Students who hadn't broken into the
Martial Apprentice rank weren't even Martial Artists, they simply weren't
worth the time and attention of such august figures.
('So ultimately, neither my goal, nor my decisions have changed. I just need
to become a Martial Artist worthy of their attention.')
Far easier said than done, Rui realized, but he wasn't going to let that stop
him.
"...And that about wraps up the first segment of our presentation." Chanceller
Callux concluded, smiling.
"I'll be moving onto the rights and privileges and responsibilities of students.
As an introduction, allow me to inform you about the goal and interest we
sought to achieve when the Academy framed the current iteration of rules and
regulations, as well as rights and privileges of students. We wish to create an
environment where students can dedicate their time and energy into
developing and pursuing their Martial Art without unnecessary burdens,
hindrances or restrictions."
"The framework of rules and regulations is centred around the goal of

preventing students from hindering and obstructing themselves or other
students through undesirable practises. The guidelines we present are aimed
at helping the students adopt the right mind-set and temperament needed to
become successful Martial Artists. We have a rigorous student evaluation
system that measures misdemeanours as defined the by the penal code of the
Kandrian Martial Academy's rules and regulations."
"The consequences for too many misdemeanours will be straightforwardly be

expulsion. The Academy seeks to retain only those students that have the
drive to become Martial Artists. Another thing that I will go into is..."
Of course, most of the students who managed to crack the exams were
usually all those who strongly wished to become Martial Artists, otherwise
they would not have passed even the first round. Yet there was a smaller
proportion of students who managed to pass the exam without possessing a
purer drive to become a Martial Artist. The strong penalties for
misdemeanours and violations were amended into the rules and regulations of
the Academy for this very reason.
"... etc. All of this is, of course, merely the philosophy and principle driving
the rules and privileges students possess, not the actual rules and privileges
themselves, you will all be provided with a rulebook when you leave. I
strongly encourage all students and all guardians to read them thoroughly."
He said, as he held up a copy of the rule book.
('That book is thick as fuck.') Rui groaned inwardly.
"Heh, looks like you'll have a lot of reading to do when we get back home
Rui." Julian chuckled mirthfully.
"Tell me about it. Can I ask you to read it and then give me an abridged
version of it?"
,m "Don't load your work off of others, young man." Julian said, while
playfully karate chopping Rui. "This is part of the process."
Rui sighed, still, he was glad to see that the rules were taken seriously, and
were seriously enforced. Back on Earth, bullying was rampant because
schools simply lacked the faculties by which it could enforce them. Teachers
couldn't be bothered with bullying unless it was too far; they simply weren't
paid enough. A lot of kids suffered from antagonisation, particularly amongst
the teenagers, they couldn't rely on the teachers.
And if they decided to take matters into their own hands, the situation would
escalate and the conflict would be intense enough for the school to be
involved, in such cases victims almost always were punished for escalating,
while bullies recieved punishment to a lesser degree or in some cases none at
all.
('I have no fucking interest in dealing with that nonsense for a second time.')
Rui clenched his fist in anger. He had been bullied in middle school and high
school, he was a weak and scrawny kid who would start gasping for air every
time he grew tense, after all. One of the major driving forces for his
motivation for martial arts back on Earth was because he admired the strength
that martial artists possessed.
They could fight for themselves, no matter who, no matter what. 'That's so
cool!' Rui recalled thinking as a child in his previous life. Of course, as he
grew up, so did his love and passion for martial arts and combat sports. What
was once a childish infatuation for the aesthetics and exaggerated strength,
matured into an intellectual passion, causing him to go down the path of
becoming a researcher of martial arts and combat sports.
('I guess, in some way, I ought to be grateful to my bullies?') Rui shook his
head, the mere thought if that was repulsive.
('Putting that aside, it seems I won't be re-experiencing that one more time in
this Academy. Assuming this Chancellor isn't talking out of his ass.') Rui
threw skeptical glance at him.
It was the Induction Ceremony of the Academy, after all. What chancellor
would talk shit about their Academy on this day? If anything, it was possible
he was just covering up the true state of the Academy with vague, flowery
lies that were merely meant to dress up the Academy. This wasn't an
uncommon phenomenon in his previous life either.
('Well, to be fair, he did just describe an intricate student evaluation system.

It would be one hell fo a lie if he blatantly fabricated all of that. Usually when
representatives of institutions lie about thebstate of affairs, they're vague and
ambiguous, but he's been nothing but detailed, elaborate and orecise, even
now.') Rui noted while listening to Chancellor Callux's words carefully.
('Well the only thing I can do either way is wait and see.')
He would find out what the Academy was like himself, soon enough. He took
careful mental notes of the extensive presentation on the rules and
regulations, the rights and privileges and the means by which they were
enforced.
"This brings us to the final segment. The future that lies beyond the
Academy." Chancellor Callux continued. "The Academy, as you all know, is
owned and funded by the Kandrian Martial Union. The Union invests in
students in order to maintain a fresh supply of Martial Artists. Part of the
reason for this is of course to compensate for the Martial Artists that perish in
missions..."
(' 'Part of it' eh? It seems there's more to it, just as I suspected.')
"Once you graduate, you can immediately register with the Kandrian Martial
Union. The Union has a flexible contract system. Graduates with higher
capabilities as measured by the Academy will receive more favourable
contracts, in regards to the commission cost cut you receive. Your
performance in the Academy will impact the contract you negotiate with the
Union." Chancellor Callux smiled.
Chapter 26 Provocation
('Interesting. I guess the contract you negotiate revolves around how much
utility you provide to the Union, the higher the utility you provide, the more
lucrative the contract you can negotiate. Martial Squires probably can't
negotiate that lucrative a contract with the Union, and would probably have
to settle with lower commission-cuts.')
From this it could be inferred that higher realms of Martial Artists would
easily be able to negotiate higher commission-cut rates; higher proportions of
the money paid for the mission.
('Martial Squires probably receive fifty-percent of the money paid for a

mission that they completed, or something in that range. It's likely that the
higher you go, the greater the cut/percentage of the money paid for the
mission you get.')
"...and these are the means and ways by which your time in the Academy can
influence your contract in the Union." Chancellor Callux concluded.
"This brings us to an end to the primary presentation of the Induction

Ceremony. As I'm sure you've realized, the goal of this short presentation was
not to cover every shred of information that is relevant in any way to your
studentship at our Academy. But to give you a broad understanding of our
system, norms, policies and regulations. The details are far too many to be
able to possibly fit within a single presentation, nor are they worth diving into
rigorously in a single presentation. Of course, that doesn't mean they are not
important, nor does it mean we won't address them, our Admission
Department is fully equipped to address your inquiries and doubts of any
kind once the Induction Ceremony is over." Chancellor Callux smiled.
"And with that, the presentation has come to an end. I thank you all for your
patience, and I would like you all to join me in welcoming the Honour's
Student in giving his speech. Please welcome Student Nel." He said, ushering
a round of applause.
('Honour's student, eh? That must be the student that ranked number one in
the entire Exam.') Rui mused curiously. He was indeed curious about what
the number one student was like. Especially so since this student was
evaluated to be higher than Kane and Fae by the examiners.
Messy silvery white hair, shockingly red eyes, an undignified and a carelessly
nonchalant saunter. These were the traits that stood out from the Honour's
student Nel. The applause even died down with how remarkably lacking the
adolescent boy seemed to be in the most common etiquette that encompassed
all human interaction. Apathy and disdain oozed out from his demeanour, he
had the bearing and mien of a wild animal.
('This is the kid that beat all of us?') Rui wanted to laugh. It was too amusing.
The bright light illuminating the stage only intensified his scowl. By the time
he reached the stage, Chancellor Callux was sweating.
"Welcome, Nel, I look forward to your speech." He courteously said, despite

himself away from the megaphone. "Hm, where is your speech copy? "
"Don't have it."
"Eh?"
"Don't have it."
"S-Surely you jest."
Nel ignored the man and took his place in front of the megaphone-like
device.
"Listen closely motherfuckers." He instructed. "He said something about no

violence, but I don't give a fuck."
"..."
"Imma fuck y'all up."
"..."
"I ain't playing. I'm boutta fuck all y'all motherfucking asses up." He grinned.
The crowd was unamused.
"Who the fuck you think you are kid?"
"Let's take this outside little brat."
"Acting all tough just cus you won number one."
The crowd heckled him. What was once a dignified gathering was beginning
to disintegrate into a chaotic mess.
Nel grinned even wider. This was what he wanted to see. The peaceful, calm
and dignified atmosphere was terribly dull. Conflict was his mantra. If this
little provocation could spark even a single fight, he would be grateful.
"There's no need to go outside old man, I'm right fucking here." Nel spread
his arms. "What? You scared? You a lil bitch? Huh? HUH??" He taunted
putting a foot atop the megaphone stand.
"The name's Nel! And I'm here to let you all know that each of you so-called
students ain't fucking shit. Y'all lil pussies who ain't got the balls to beat me.
I'll dominate each and every single one of you, anytime, anywhere, anyhow
and anywho. I'll spank your asses like the little children you are. Come at me,
motherfucking wusses." He said with a disgustingly smug, wide grin. He
walked away flipping the bird at the audience.
Yet, despite how crude the provocation attempt was, it didn't fail completely.
Rui get sense hostility emanating from his fellow batch-mates.
('... Is that even allowed?') He laughed. He wasn't sure. But it was a breath of
fresh air to him in all honesty. The kid was interesting. Still, what Rui was
more interested in than his antics was his combat prowess.
('He ranked number one in the second-round too from what I remember. It
would be cool to see him fight and check out what he's made of. I wonder
who'd win in a fight between him and Fae.') He couldn't know until he saw
Nel fight seriously, and Fae too. He was positive she'd held back against him,
and he still had no idea how she knocked him out.
('All in good time.')
**********
"Are you sure we shouldn't intervene, Headmaster?" Chancellor Callux

wanted to puke. He felt his lifespan reducing every time Nel tried to provoke
a fight.
"He hasn't violated any rules thus far." Master Aronion sipped some tea
peacefully. His calm and serene demeanor despite Nel's disruption boggled
Chancellor Callux. It gave him almost as much anxiety as Nel himself did.
('That's because not insulting your fellow batch-mates is basic common

sense! It's not in the rules because it's an obvious norm.') He facepalmed
himself.
Master Aronian chuckled at Callux's expense, amused by the turn of events.

He threw a glance at Nel. Where others might have seen a dangerous, savage
beast in human skin with a maniacal temperament, he only saw an excited
little chick throwing tantrums, eager to pick fights.
"This year's batch will be interesting.." He stroked his beard in a sagely

manner, while observing Nel's antics.
"He's finally done! That felt like forever." Callux exclaimed as he saw Nel
walking down the podium flipping the middle finger to the audience. Relief
sparked across his face only to be replaced with anxiety as he realized it was
his turn next to follow up after that catastrophe of an honour's student speech.
"Can I resign?" He mirthfully asked.
"Sure, go give that speech first."

"Sigh" Callux steeled himself while putting on his standard diplomatic
courteous smile, before walking down the stage, leaving Master Aronion
chuckling at his expense.
As Callux commenced the closing speech of the Induction ceremony, Master

Aronian threw a glance at the crowd from the guest chambers, spotting
several students he was looking for. Nel, Fae, Kane and Rui, among others.
('This year's batch will definitely be interesting.')

Chapter 27 Friction
('What a wild card...') Rui thought to himself as he exited the Presentation

Hall with Julian.
"It's a little worrisome that you're going to be attending the Martial Academy
in the same batch as him. Be wary of the boy." Julian advised.
"Will do. I doubt he'd go out of his way to bully a thirteen-year-old child,
though."
"You never know."
Rui didn't think the probability of him running into Nel was high. The
training and grouping system were not like they were on Earth, where
batchmates were of the same age and entered the schooling system in the
same year. Since the Martial Path varied drastically from person to person, it
made little sense to just thoughtlessly toss people of the same age into the
same category.
People developed their Martial Art at different rates, people like Kane were
far ahead of other students despite being much younger, it made little sense to
treat them the same, and train them the same. Furthermore, since Martial Art
was so drastically unique and personal, different people required different
trainings. It made little sense for one to be tossed into the same training
regime. A large portion of their Academic time would also be exploration of
one's volition. Self- training and self-learning were part of the journey.
Just as Rui was contemplating about the nuances of his Academic

curriculum-
"Rui! I'm glad you made it."

Kane called out to him. His green eyes wide with delight, he jogged over to
Rui.
"Hey man, it's been a while." Rui offered in return, smiling.
"Yeah, it has."
Rui glanced at his guardian escort. A middle-aged man, with neatly combed
hair and a well-groomed attire. He wore lavish clothes which, while not
enough to draw a lot of attention, indicated he wasn't just some small
assistant. Rui noted a crest like symbol embroidered onto his formal clothing,
one identical to that of Kane's.
('A family crest, eh?')
"Tell me, how did you pass?" Kane inquired curiously. "I know I saw
someone taking your badge."
"I have no idea, I was just as surprised as your when I received the letter of
admission."
"That's strange, but still, who cares? You passed, we can hang together now."
Kane grinned.
"Yeah, thankfully I was lucky enough to have passed."
Suddenly a voice called out to him.
"It wasn't luck, Rui Quarrier."
Rui didn't even need to turn around to see who called out. He recognized her
voice instantly.
"Fae..." He said. She was alone, as an adult, she did not need a Guardian. She
wore what Rui could swear was a fake smile. It was a perfect inscrutable
mask that hid her emotions remarkably well, preventing those around her
from getting a read on her.
Rui narrowed his eyes, clenching his fist as his expression turned stern. He
was not a vindictive person, rather than pursuing something as dumb as
revenge for getting knocked out by her, he would rather make the best out of
that experience and grow strong enough to never let it happen again. As long
as he didn't suffer an immoral injustice, he was used to looking forward. Still,
he could not look fondly at a person who basically bullied others for fun.
"What do you want?"
"My, you sound a little hostile."
"Tends to happen when people knock me out for amusement. It would be one
thing if you attacked me for my badge, it's another thing to torment others for
fun. I don't like people like that."
"Technically that self-defense, I didn't intend to knock you out, merely spar
with you till Nel was free, but you were strong enough to force me to go all-
out." She shrugged.
"That's sophistry, you know." Rui sighed in exasperation.
Fae's eyes twinkled. "Regardless, you passed of your own merit. The Martial
Academy's Admission department is not incompetent."
"I lost my badge, that's zero points for me, clearly below the average. I failed
in the criteria for passing."
Fae giggled softly.
"Who said the points had anything to do with the criterion?"
Rui threw her a confused look. "Master Aronian said so."
"Master Aronian..." She continued. "..Said that the criterion was up to their
discretion. He never said the fulfillment of the objective was a guaranteed
pass. Nor did he said failing the objective was a fail."
Rui glanced at her, unamused. Technically, she was right. Master Aronian's
phrasing did indeed match what she said, from what he remenbered. Still, if
an objective is provided with the goal of evaluating the applicants, wasn't it
obvious that the outcome of your attempt would be relevant to your
evaluation?
"You're splitting hairs again." He retorted.
"The outcome of the badges was frankly irrelevant from the very start. The
examiners merely wished to throw the applicants into conflict with each other
and evaluate their performance given their circumstances." She explained.
"You were a target for applicants from the very start. Yet you managed to
retain your badge almost till the very end despite being younger, and thus
weaker than most other applicants, you accomplished this through
resourceful tactics. Although, you did lose your badge, you lost your badge to
me, the strongest applicant. And even then, your performance against me was
quite impressive, all things considered. All these data-points factored into the
admission department's evaluation of you."
Rui threw a skeptical expression at her. So she attacked him knowing his
performance against her would do him good rather than bad? Seemed
convenient. "You seem awfully informed about matters that should be
classified within the Academy. How could you possibly know all this?"
"She has a Martial Sage for a grandmother." Kane interjected. "there's

nothing the Academy can keep hidden from a Martial Sage. She must have
gotten a ton of information and used that to her advantage."
Rui could hear a bit of spite in his tone. Fae threw him a courteous smile in
response.
"My, it's been a while, young master Kane."
"Wish it had been a bit longer, not gonna lie." Kane scowled.
"Is it just me or do I hear a bit of resentment in your voice. Ah, are you
perhaps jealous that I played with Rui here instead of you in the Exam, you
must be at that age, after all."
Kane, being the teenager that he was, took her bait.

"You-!" Rui put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.
"Calm down, Kane." He advised, before throwing an exasperated glance at

Fae.
('She's egging him on and she enjoys it.') Rui mused helplessly. ('These two
clearly have some history. There's no way such passive hostility springs out
of nowhere. Is it because of their prides as descendants of Martial Sages?
Kane never struck me as the proud type, and Fae seems to be half-trolling,
though I can't make out a damn thing about her under that mask.')
Still, the conversation had confirmed his suspicions that she was from a
Martial family, that partly explained her great combat prowess, she didn't
strike him as a genius like Kane was.
('Kane has raw talent and limitless potential, but her prowess strikes me more
as the product of maddening training and willpower, and sheer experience.')
Even if he wasn't particularly fond of her façade of a temperament, he had to

acknowledge and respect the sheer drive with which she reached her current
level of power.
"Let's chill guys." He tried alleviating the prickly atmosphere. He wasn't sure
what the deal between these two was, but he'd rather it didn't escalate.
Chapter 28 Limitless
Rui was still pondering about Fae's words earlier. They made more and more
sense in hindsight.
('I do recall Master Aronian saying the criteria was left to their discretion. But
I didn't think the criteria would be so independent of the outcome of the
objective.')
Rui didn't think the decision to accept it could have been too easy, the
outcome likely still mattered to some extent. Maybe there was some degree
of a controversy within the Union.
He shrugged, he couldn't possibly know and probably never would. And

frankly, he had no interest either. He glanced at Fae before asking her
something that had been bugging him for a while.
"How did you knock me out?" He really wanted to know what she'd done.
"I struck you with my palm." She smiled at him.
"How did you strike me hard enough to knock me out in that position and
range?" He squinted his eyes in confusion.
"I can't go around revealing my trump cards so easily, now can I?" Fae threw
a mischievous smile at him
"It's a technique called Outer Convergence, it's a technique that allows you to
gather power from all over your body into a single strike. It allows you to
strike with a great amount of power, above your weight class, from
practically any position if fully mastered." Kane explained.
Rui's eyes flew wide open, while Fae's eyes narrowed, throwing a subtle, yet
sharp glare at Kane, who basked in her hostility with a smug grin. It sparked
another bout of bickering provoked by Fae. But Rui couldn't be bothered by
their tantrums.
('Gathering power from all across the body into a single strike. That's
normally impossible except in a perfectly-suited position allowing you to
leverage torque from all muscle groups. It's interesting she could accumulate
and summate torque from muscle groups all across the body in that position.
It seems like a much more advanced version of the One-Inch Punch back on
Earth.')
The One-Inch Punch was an iconic strike that worked similarly to how Kane
described Outer Convergence. Obviously, Rui knew absolutely everything
fathomable there was to fathom about the One-Inch Punch. The reason he
failed to realize that Fae had hit him with a One-Inch Punch was because it
made no sense to him, a person from Earth. It was true that the One-Inch
Punch was a good demomstration of the channeling and convergence of
power, it was also flashy and cool.
Except the One-Inch Punch was useless in actual fights; it was completely
unpractical and worthless to launch strikes from one inch away, which is why
no MMA/UFC fighter did that. Whereas Outer Convergence allowed Fae to
perform feats that would be physically impossible on Earth.
('Martial Art, techniques and skills in this universe and world are not limited
the way they were on Earth.')
Well, duh. Rui had known this ever since he saw a Martial Artist destroy a
massive tree trunk with a single punch. But back then, it was all veiled in
mystery, seeing exactly how they defied the laws of physics was shocking to
him.
('It's almost as if the world is warping in and of itself, conspiring to allow

techniques and skills such as this to surpass their limits. The laws of physics
seemed to be just so ever slightly different such that his scientific background
was relevant, while still different enough to allow such phenomena to occur.')
That was, of course, still speculation. He didn't dive deeper into the profound
ontological gripes to be had between the differences of this world and his
own. Frankly, he didn't care to, it wasn't his main interest. He put the issue at
rest, for now.
"How do you know about the technique Kane? Have you also learnt it?" Rui
asked.
"I haven't, it's not particularly relevant to the direction in which I'm
developing my Martial Art. I know of it because it's a somewhat common
technique in offensive striking oriented Martial Arts, I've come across it
before several times, it's hard to deal with."
It made sense, Outer Convergence certainly seemed to be a technique that

was aimed at maximizing offense at the cost of maneuvering, this would run
contrary to what Rui knew about Kane's Martial Art.
"So the fact that you use Outer Convergence means your Martial Art is
probably centered around offense, right?" He asked Fae.
"My Martial Art is indeed a short-range striking-oriented offensive Martial

Art."
"Short-range because of the palm-centric offensive style, right?"
Fae nodded in return, smiling.
Within the domain of close-quarters combat, kicking length was treated long-
range, punching length was treated as mid-range, and elbowing/kneeing
range was treated as short range. Fae's striking style fell just short of mid-
range CQC(close-quarters combat), thus being short range.
"Speaking of personal Martial Art, I wonder what yours will end up looking
like." Fae told him with a hint of curiosity on her face.
"I'd observed you for quite a while during the third-round, you never
particularly demonstrated an affinity for any one particular domain, range, or
technique" She continued. "From what I can see, you've been dedicating at
least a large portion of your life to preparing for your Martial Path. It's rather
odd you haven't developed affinities. Usually, signs of one's Martial Art can
be seen to atleast some degree even prior to the Martial Apprentice stage."
Rui shrugged. "I'm not particularly drawn into any one particular style of
fighting. I might become an all-rounder."
"...Interesting, all-rounder styles are obviously more flexible than specialized

styles, so that is a good choice." Kane pointed out.
"Indeed, but there are also downsides to all-rounder styles. All-rounder styles
have a greater variety of types of approaches in a fight, however, this means
that the analysis and judgement needed to accurately choose the most
efficient and effective choice, is much more difficult. The greater the variety
of choices, the harder it is to choose correctly. Furthermore, the longer it
takes to choose. This is the downside to all-rounder styles." Rui continued.
On Earth, of course, the benefits that all-rounder styles, like the generic
MMA fighting style, brought to the table surpassed the benefits bought by
specialized styles. The empirical data was clear, fighters who hyper-
specialized lost in a UFC/MMA setting, which was the closest thing to real
combat.
Pure strikers were unable to deal with grapplers once the grapplers closed in
point-blank, pure grapplers were unable to cope with ranged nature of
striking that prevented pure grapplers from reaching point-blank, not without
getting severely hurt or knocked out.
However, this was not Earth. This was Gaea. The Martial Art in this world
was vastly different from that of the martial arts on Earth. This meant that
things that shackled the fighters of Earth did not exist in this world!
Chapter 29 Clueless Expert
Fae and Kane threw him an odd look.
"Hm? Do you disagree with what I said?" Rui raised an eyebrow to their
reaction.
"No.." Kane mumbled.
"I agree with it, I think it's a nuanced take, but it's something I heard from my
grandmother, it's odd to hear that from someone with no formal training." She
stared at him with a hint of puzzlement
"It's just weird because sometimes you seem clueless about basic Martial Art,
but the next second turn into an expert." Kane laughed awkwardly.
Rui shrugged. He, of course, knew the truth. He appeared clueless sometimes
because he genuinely was clueless, Martial Art was greatly different from
martial arts in many ways. Yet they shared many underlying traits on a
broader scale for a large portion of his expertise to be relevant. Things that
were completely alien to Earth such as techniques like Outer Convergence, he
was ignorant about. But the general advantages and disadvantages of styles
and the determinant variables that determined the outcome between two
different styles and approaches did not change, here he was an unparalleled
theoretical expert on these topics, the likes of which he doubted anybody but
the most experiences Masters and Sages could rival.
Still, he didn't let it get to his head. Fact of the matter was that he was
ignorant, he had a lot of learning to do before he could hold himself as an
expert on the field like he did in his previous life. And that would take a long
time. Not that he minded, the journey was half the destination. Every time he
entertained thought of his Martial Path, he would grow excited from the
bottom of his heart
"Well, as long as you know." Kane shrugged.
"For what it's worth, I do think an all-rounder style would suit you more than
a hyper-specialized style especially because of your resourceful and tactical
approach. But that means you'll have to become a jack of all trades, but a
master of none."
"I'm fine with that. The greater versatility and flexibility are worth the trade."
Rui replied. This he was sure of.
Rui often likened combat sports with artistry. There were several parallels
between them. A good painting was born of three things; The necessary tools,
the artist's proficiency with those tools and the manner in which the artist
applied his tools and proficiency to paint the vision he sought after. Another
analogy that Rui had conceived was that of a surgery.
A perfect surgery most certainly needed the appropriate tools and

instruments, as well as a surgeon who was proficient in using those tools and
also; a surgeon who knew what operations needed to be performed in order to
obtain the desired outcome.
Combat and Martial Art were no different, in a way. The tools of a fighter
were that of his body, his limbs, his torso, his head and every cell in his body.
The higher the quality of the tools, the more that could be accomplished with
them. Obtaining high quality tools was the foundation of Martial Art. A
powerful, capable body was fundamental to the framework of combat in both
Gaea and Earth. Next; the proficiency of those tools was analogous to the
techniques employed in combat.
These techniques were nothing more than means and ways to operate the
body in order to efficiently and effectively accomplish a set of tasks and
actions, this encompassed both accuracy and precision of movements
And finally, the application of the tools and techniques. Using the right move
at the right time.
An extremely important aspect of combat. What did it matter if one possessed
the body of a god, and the movements of a machine if one used the absolute
worst move at any given time? It didn't, such a person would lose to another
with bad tools and techniques, but great application.
Currently, Rui was closer to the latter. A lifetime of research into mid-combat
analysis and judgement, a lifetime of research into probability of success of
tactics applied in various scenarios with carefully constrained and controlled
variables.
This was something of immense utility in Gaea and Rui possessed it in

spades.
This was why he was likely to pick an all-rounder Martial Art. They were
more versatile and flexible compared to other Martial Art, their only
downside was that they were very tactically intensive, meaning, of the three
aspects of combat mentioned prior; tools, proficiency and application. All-
rounder styles required much higher quality of application compared to other
styles.
Thus, it was very suited to Rui, whose strongest advantage was his tactical
application.
p The reasoning behind his decision was certainly a bizarre outlier. There was
no way to train tactical application the same way one's body and technique
could be trained. Tactical application was something that usually came with a
vast amount of experience, real experience. It required fighting, and more
fighting, and even more fighting.
The quality of one's application of techniques was mostly combination of

intelligence and experience. This was why Rui was suited to it. His brain was
still developing, and would continue to do so until the age of twenty-five,
meaning his mind would be growing sharper and sharper for a second time.
And although he lacked practical experience which would no doubt hinder
him in the short run, his theoretical foundations and knowledge were simply
out of this world.
Rui suspected that whatever his Martial Art would end up looking like, he
would probably be unlike any other all-rounder in the world. Though he still
wasn't able to accurately extrapolate what this would look like, exactly.
"Rui." Julian interrupted his train of thought while approaching the trio. He
had distanced himself from them when they approached Rui, not wanting to
awkwardly be part of a conversation he clearly had no place in. He'd instead
given them space and taken the liberty to read up on the Academy
information booklet the Admission Department had been providing to
students and their guardians at free of cost. Ideally, he'd want to allow Rui to
spent time with fellow students for as long as possible, but;
"You really ought to read up and clarify any doubts you have sooner than
later Rui, you won't get another chance until the Academic year begins."
Chapter 30 Debt
"...True." Rui concurred, before facing Kane and Fae.
"Sorry guys, but I really ought to visit the admission department support
staff. That is one of the reasons I came here today, after all."
"Sure, no problem, see ya later. We should hang out iny my place sometime."
Kane replied, earning a nod from Rui.
"I'll be looking forward to meeting you once our academic year begins." Fae
bade courteously.
The two of them waved Rui off before setting out in the opposite directions,
as though they did not want to spend any extra time with each other.
('What's with those two?') Rui couldn't help but wonder at this point.
"You have some interesting friends." Julian noted, throwing Rui a wry smile.
"But they don't seem to get along with each other for some reason."
"Yeah, it's strange. They're acquaintances, probably because they both are
direct family of Martial Sages." Rui shrugged. "They must have some history
together."
"Hm, anyway, let's go now." Julian said as he led the way to down a long,
large and ostentatious corridor. The décor was so extravagant that Rui
couldn't help but wonder whether he was in at a school or the Royal Palace.
Gold, platinum, silver streaked across the décor. The architecture was so
unnecessarily extra, it made Rui wonder about the actual purpose.
('It's almost like the Martial Academy, no, the Martial Union is making a
statement to all students who traverse its Academy.')
It was one thing to rub in its prestige with facilities and amenities that had
actual utility, it was another to spend resources on something so vain.
('It's almost like they're purposely competing with Royal standards.')
He'd once seen what Royal extravagance looked like when he saw the
Mantian Royal premises from afar a few years back.
('Maybe they are competing with the Royal Family.') This was random pure
speculation on Rui's part. But he didn't think that two separate entities with
vast amounts of economic and militaristic power within a single nation would
get along with each other.
('Not that I know anything about politics.') He knew the bare basics back on
Earth, and only the bare basis because he didn't bother with politics, ever.
He'd never voted even a single time in his entire life. Democratic or
Republican government, what practical day-to-day impact did it have on his
life?
Ultimately, ambitious rich power-mongers engaged in a squabble for more

power and more money, most of which came at the cost of the poorest and
most disenfranchised class of people of society. Back on Earth, he hadn't
even wanted to even dip his toes in this quagmire of modern society.
Fortunately, he made enough money to not be affected much regardless of

how much the political landscape changed. His income was upper-middle
class, and he led a frugal and liability-less life, with that much money, he did
not need to give a shit and could engage in the things he cared about most,
combat research.
('Though, maybe I should care for the politics in this world, to some degree.')
The reason was simple:
The existence, as well as the impact of Martial Art.
One did not need to be a political pundit to see that Martial Art made a huge
impact on political considerations, just the very existence of Martial Art was
enough proof. It was highly likely the world would look extremely different
if it weren't for Martial Art.
As an aspiring Martial Artist and a lover of Martial Art. The impact of

politics in Gaea would likely have a much greater impact on him, should he
succeed in becoming a Martial Artist, than it did back on Earth. After all,
back on Earth, he was nobody. Just another cog among another 320,000,000
or so Americans. But as a Martial Artist, he would be part of militaristically
'elite' one-percent.
Rui was not arrogant, but Martial Artists impacted politics much more so
than other citizens, they were walking fully-autonomous armies. There was
no way such power would not get mixed up in a political muck with or
without their consent, as long as they lived in a society.
('If that is the case, I should be careful. I should also be more informed on the
current political climate. In the future.')
Rui shrugged. Making vague and generic precautious plans was the best he
could do. He lacked too much information and too much power to even
bother with anything more.
"Looks like we're here." Julian told him. They'd arrived at a large reception
hall looking room.
"Fancy as always." Rui noted. The room was filled with an array of counters
with staff on one side and students on the other side, clarifying their doubts.
"There's an empty spot there, let's go." Julian gestured. The occupied the seas
opposite to an empty counter as a staff member greeted them.
"How may I help you."
"There several things I'd like to learn more about, but specifically, I was
hoping you could tell me more about the scholarship program." Rui replied.
This was the most important matter to him presently. He needed to qualify to
get a scholarship, in order to that he needed to learn more about it.
The staff member nodded in response before replying.
"Absolutely. The scholarship program was set up to help students who are
unable to afford the hefty tuition, housing and other fees that end up
accumulating to a rather hefty amount per Academic background. You can
incur the fees as debt and repay it back when you become a Martial Artist."
"The information booklet provided specifies a specific mode of payment,

correct? Can you tell us more about it?"
"Indeed. Let me give you a brief overview about the contracting system of
the Martial Union before I speak about scholarship debt repayment. Once you
graduate from the Academy as a Martial Squire, you will be negotiating a
contract with the Martial Union that describes the payment structure/rates you
will receive your payment with, in exchange for completing missions
commissioned to the Martial Union by customers. So, for example, one
common contract offered by the Union is the commission-cut contract, more
commonly known as the Royalty Contract. You will receive a specific
proportion of the commission fees paid by customers for a mission.
Something like, say, forty-percent. So, if a customer commissions a
bodyguard mission for a hundred silvers, for example, then you'll receive
forty silvers, and the remaining sixty go to the Martial Union."
"In this case, if you have scholarship debt, then you may repay that debt by
taking a twenty-percent lower Royalty Contract." He continued.
"The Royalty Contract is only one type of contract that the Union offers, but
going in depth into the contracting system is not necessary. The point is; no
matter what kind of contract structure you negotiate with the Martial Union
when you register, your debt will be accounted for in the contract and you'll
sign a contract that effectively reduced your income until your debt is paid."
('Interesting...')
Chapter 31 Overview
The scholarship-debt was repaid directly to the Martial Union. This made
sense, since the Martial Academy was owned, staffed and even funded by the
Martial Union. What interested Rui was how sophisticated the economic
framework seemed to be. It wasn't something he would have expected, but it
was remarkably realistic, grounded and pragmatic.
The functioning of the Union, the Academies and Martial Artists in relation
to each other was quite rational, and not of the vague, ambiguous system one
would normally encounter in fictional fantasy settings.
"What happens to these debt-contracts once it's been fully paid?" This was an
important matter to Rui.
"The debt contracts include a condition and agreement of termination of the

contract once the debt has been fully paid, of course. No need to worry about
anything on that front."
"What is the typical time period needed for a Martial Squire to repay their
incurred debt through these debt-contracts? The information booklet does not
mention anything about the interest rate." Julian inquired.
It was quite possible that the debt incurred would be so high, and the interest
would be so overwhelming that it would take Martial Squires half their life to
pay back their debt. Signing an exploitative contract that would haunt you for
decades was a truly horrific possibility that Julian was determined to not
allow happen to Rui.
"The reason the information booklet does not mention an interest rate is
because we do not charge an interest rate. The interest to be paid is the
principle amount incurred as debt."
Rui narrowed his eyes. This meant that the scholarships weren't a system
meant to farm larger amounts of money through snowballed debt of hapless
victims. On first glance it seemed like plain philanthropy, but Rui was certain
that this wasn't the case.
('It seems the Martial Union's interest in maintaining a constant fresh influx
of new Martial Artists was stronger than I'd suspected.')
This was quite the sweet deal for students like himself, if true. The Martial
Academy was basically willing to make losses in order to ensure a greater
number of Martial Artists successfully graduate.
"As for the first question you asked me.." The man continued. "It generally
takes graduates several years of work with the general debt contract to fully
repay their debt and re-negotiate a standard contract with the Union. Though
there are some who manage to repay it within six months while those who
fail to repay it for one reason or the other. Typically, due to low rates of
mission completion, crippling injuries or death. It all depends on what kind of
occupation you take, and what kind of competences you possess."
"I also noticed that collaterals are not a necessary condition for being eligible
to scholarship-debt." Julian pointed out.
"Indeed, the kind of students who usually need a scholarship never have any
collateral in our experience." The man replied.
"So, the Academy just readily offers scholarships to all students who are
unable to pay the fees?" Rui asked with a confused expression. This was
honestly too good to be true.
"Yes, However you will need to provide a financial statement. We do not

permit students who possess the financial security to pay the fees to enter
based on a scholarship."
This was easy enough. Rui had already verified that there was absolutely no
way in hell the Orphanage had the funds necessary to foot the bill of the fees.
"Then from what you have clarified as well as the information available in
the guidebook, Rui here is fully eligible to apply for and receive a
scholarship." Julian noted.
The support staff member nodded his head as he flipped through Rui's
profile.
"There are no problems, as long as you have the documents at hand, you can
submit an application for a scholarship for student Rui Quarrier."
While Julian began the process. Rui was left to his own thoughts.
('Part of the reason the Martial Entrance Exam was this difficult was probably
because they wanted to a high degree of certainty that the students that end
up passing and applying for a scholarship are worth the money invested.')
Rui suspected that part of the reason the Martial Union was so liberal with
their scholarship policy is because the fact that the students applying
managed to pass the exam meant there was already a somewhat high degree
of confidence that a decently large enough proportion of students who passed
the exam and applied for a scholarship would likely graduate.
Otherwise, such liberalism didn't make sense. Some financial losses were fine
as long as the yield of Martial Artists were high enough. These were likely
long-term investments into the growth and development of the Martial Union.
Thus it made sense that the Martial Exam was served as not just a test for
whether people were worthy of becoming a Martial Artist, but also as a filter
that weeded out as many incompetent applicants that would be no more than
bad investments and money drains that would sap away the funds of the
Martial Union.
('Especially the first round, people who lack the resolve and determination,
the type of people who least deserve a scholarship, would have been filtered
out.')
Regardless, Rui was grateful for the scholarship program. The odds of him
successfully becoming a successful Martial Artist without scholarship was
truly bleak. He'd have to engage in manual labour for extensive periods of
time, decades probably, before he had enough money to pay the fees. By the
time he was a full-fledged adult, it was probably far too late to begin his
Martial Path. He suspected there was a real reason why the Entrance Exam
capped of at the age of eighteen.
They wouldn't reduce the pool of potential Martial Artists pointlessly unless
the detriments of doing so drastically outweighed the incentives. Unless he
found himself a Master Martial Artist independently of the Martial Academy,
he had no hope. And the notion of Rui being accepted as a Martial Artist
outside of the Martial Academy was absurdly ridiculous.
('I have a higher chance of becoming a Martial Artist by myself.')

Chapter 32 Foundation And
Exploration
Rui yawned as he faced the azure sky.
"Tired?" Julian asked.
"Yeah... That took fucking hours." Rui replied.
"Indeed, still, it was interesting."
Rui couldn't argue with that, no, it was a severe understatement. After they'd
applied for a scholarship, they'd gone onto clarify their doubts regarding the
curriculum of the Academy.
The Academy first began with a more thorough and in-depth evaluation of
the student's martial proficiency in various fields, much more so than even
the Martial Entrance Exam, apparently
('Makes sense, given that the Entrance Exam did not specifically test for
martial proficiency. It tested resolve in the first round and general physical
capability in the next two rounds.')
The Evaluation Exam was different. It performed detailed measurements of a

student's capabilities in various fields, and the results of the Evaluation Exam
would decide the curriculum for each student. The student would then
undergo that curriculum until they reach a satisfactory level of general
combat proficiency. This was the first step needed to reach the Martial
Apprentice Realm. This stage was also known as the Foundation stage, it was
allegedly the most important stage without which the Martial Path could not
be tread upon.
After the Foundation Stage, followed the Exploration Stage. According to the
guidebook provided by the Academy as well as the support staff, the
Exploration Stage was a less-controlled, self-paced stage of the curriculum.
The Exploration Stage was the final stage necessary to reach the Apprentice
Realm. From what Rui had learnt, this stage was a freely independent period
where students could freely access the Academy's Martial Library, a library
of Martial Art techniques, and learn and train any of those techniques that
they wished to. However, there would be mandatory sparring days every nine
days where students would spend the entire day engaging in spars with
others.
This was to allow both; the Senior instructors and students to measure their
progress at occasional intervals. It also gave a lot of students sparring
experience that a large proportion lacked. It was not easy to get controlled
and monitored sparring experience unless you were rich.
Unlike in the previous Stage, the Senior instructors would take less of a
teacher role, and more of an aid/mentor role in the Exploration Stage. They
were mandated to not be overbearing on students of this Stage, but rather
encourage them to be open-minded and inquisitive. To help them explore the
length and breadth of Martial Art, and help them take the very final step
needed to become a Martial Apprentice; Discovering their Martial Path.
('Seems freedom is necessary for the Exploration Stage.') Rui mused.
The Exploration Stage required to students to freely explore a variety of

techniques above the bare basics mastered in the Foundation Stage. The idea
was that with enough exploration and introspection, the students would
discover the direction they wanted to develop their Martial Path in: The
Martial Path.
Once the Martial Path was discovered, the Exploration Stage would end. The
Foundation and Exploration Stages were the two stages aimed at getting
students to enter the Apprentice Realm.
Rui was equally for excited both stages. The Entrance Exam had exposed his
glaring flaws and shortcomings. His Martial proficiency was subpar, he had a
lot to learn; far too much. He barely managed to pass the Exam relying on
tactics, but that was not a sustainable strategy. He needed to get strong if he
wanted to become a legit Martial Artist. He wanted to become strong.
The Foundation and Exploration Stage sounded like absolutely perfect to Rui
who looked forward to simply immersing himself in his love for Martial Art
without any other considerations of any kind. He had been starving for
exactly this for the past twelve years!
('It's a shame I wasn't able to learn what comes after.')
That was the extent to which support staff were willing to disclose. And any
and all information regarding the Martial Union as a whole, higher realms of
Martial Artist etc, merely earned him a courteous refusal. 'It isn't within the
purview of our role in this ceremony.' they said.
('It's a bit strange they're being this secretive when I'm already guaranteed to
be a student.')
The only answer was that they did not want to give out unnecessary
information prematurely. Perhaps the answers to his questions were partially
confidential, sensitive or dangerous to their interests. It wasn't implausible.
Higher-realm Martial Artists were practically considered National treasures.
It would make sense that the Union and Academy would take a hard stance
on all information regarding these assets. Anything that could diminish their
safety or contribute to their harm was strongly regulated by the Union by the
looks of it.
('That's one hell of a VIP treatment they got going on there.')
This one of the secondary aspects of being a Martial Artist, particularly a

high-realm one, that Rui was looking forward to one day. Who didn't like to
be held in high esteem? In his previous life, he was just a researcher. And
although his work did have an impact on an entire industry, ultimately, he
himself was not that prominent outside of certain academic circles. In
comparison, a high realm Martial Artist could impact an entire nation.
"The path to reaching a high realm as a Martial Artist is extremely difficult."

Julian reminded. It took him only a glance at Rui's dreamy expression to
more or less gauge his thoughts.
"Let a man dream." Rui shook his head.
"What 'man'?" Julian shrugged mirthfully. "I only see a child who needed an
adult to accompany him on his first day to school."
It was a provocation.
And it worked.
The two bantered as they rode a rickshaw back home.

Chapter 33 Home
"So, what's the Martial Academy like?" A young girl asked with curiosity.
"How many times have you asked that question Rita?" Rui sighed helplessly
"Oh come on, just tell!" Rita insisted.
p "After dinner. Focus on your food, I see you've barely eaten anything."
Myra interjected.
"Awww..." Rita pouted.
All of them had gathered in the dining room. Lashara had made it a point to
ensure everybody eats together. Every day, dinner would begin only after
everybody was in the dining room, ready at their tables.
('Probably to strengthen the sense of kinship between us.') Rui mused.
And it worked. Blood-related or not, eating together always conveyed a sense

of togetherness like no other group activity, it really hammered in the idea
that they actually were family. This was one of the many reasons Rui had
grown deeply fond of the Quarrier Orphanage.
Rui glanced around. In the past thirteen years the Quarrier Orphanage had
grown tremendously. As many of the adolescents from thirteen-years ago had
grown up and decided to remain with the Orphanage. Even those who had
gotten married and shifted away from Orphanage among the second
generation, still supported it when they could afford to.
Farion, Horatio and Mica were now full-fledged adults that had gotten into
manual labour, while women like Nina worked in restaurants and bars.
Together along with the first generation of adults of the Orphanage, Lashara
was able to adopt and care for children with a much lesser burden.
One source of income that truly helped the Quarrier Orphanage was that of
Julian's. Despite obtaining a prestigious position in the Kandrian Institute of
Sciences as an apprentice scholar in the Research and Development
department, he never forgot his roots. He still resided with the home he grew
up with, and aided the family that had put a roof over his head, and food in
his belly and given him love and care when he was alone in this world.
He had obtained a middle-class occupation, allowing him to pay back

everything he believed he owed to the Orphanage.
Rui intended to do the same. He had no intention of living elsewhere. What

was the point? He had a loving family, there was no need of going through
the extra expenses of getting his own place, only to live a lonely life.
('Once I start working as a Martial Squire, I'll give all the income I don't need
to the Quarrier Orphanage.')
Even on Earth, Rui had led a frugal life. He didn't even bother owning his
own place, he lived in an apartment. He tossed all his income into the bank
where it rotted for several decades until his health deteriorated drastically
near the end.
Still, this life was different. He still hadn't learnt as much as he'd like about
Martial Artist occupations. He wasn't sure how much of his income would be
needed to for his occupation. Maybe Martial Artists used gear like armour,
knives, swords?
Or maybe, they needed a large amount of funds for the learning and training
resources needed to grow stronger. After all, he highly doubted that the
Martial Union was unable to provide any aid to lower ranked Martial Artists.
It's possible they even had a monopoly on the learning resources, and
exchanged them for particular services, thus incentivizing Martial Artists to
always remain loyal and associated with the Union.
('Well, all of this isn't relevant at the moment.')

He had to first become a Martial Squire and graduate from the Academy
before he could even think about the details of working as a Martial Artist.
"You said the Academy would begin in thirty days right?" Nina inquired.
"Yeah."
"You'll be staying in the academy the entire time?"
Rui nodded.
"That's a shame." Nina shrugged.
"Don't worry." Rui reassured. "They have breaks in between. I'll definitely
come back during the breaks."
"How often are they?" Lashara asked, hoping they a frequent as possible.
"Seasonally. The first break after the start of the academic year will be the
Spring break, right around the Spring Festival, according to the information
guidebook." Rui explained.
"I see." Lashara sighed. It wasn't as much as she'd hoped, but still better than
the worst-case scenario.
"How long will the breaks be?"
"Around five days or so." He responded.
"That's it?" Horatio grumbled.
Rui shrugged. "That's it, yeah. Can't do anything about the rules."
The reason for the shorter break was due probably to ensure the students'
discipline wasn't broken due to extensively long breaks.
"On the other hand, it's nice they're letting you out during the Spring Festival,
meeting you after so long, and having you with us to celebrate it will make
the festival even more special.
"That's true." Rui smiled melancholically.
Now he that he had gotten his hands on the Academic Calendar, he knew that
he would see his family much less frequently. A meagre four times his year.
('It's a shame I can't live here once the Academic year begins.') Rui sighed
inwardly.
Ideally, he would have liked to stay at home and commute to school daily.
This was a norm for students his age in most schooling systems on Earth. He
wasn't fond of being ripped apart from his family. Though the significance of
the Martial Academies was admittedly higher than schooling systems back on
Earth.
"Still, you'll be leaving in a week." Alice muttered, on the verge of tears.
"Don't worry Alice, I'll always come back. You're my precious big sister after
all." Rui assured, with a smile.
"Oh you...!" She rushed to hug him, overwhelmed with emotion. The gesture
triggered yet another round of affection and fawning, which Rui duly
received and reciprocated. As the sole cause for their emotion, he did not dare
complain about this. It wasn't as though people hadn't left the orphanage
before, but this was indeed the first time that someone as young as him was
leaving the Orphanage for as long as he was. On one hand they were happy
for him, on the other they would miss him dearly.
Chapter 34 Play
"Alright, I'm headed out." Rui said as he jogged out the main door of the
Orphanage.
"Be careful, don't get lost!" Lashara warned.
Rui stuck a thumbs up even as he put distance between the himself and the
Orphanage.
('I wonder what his place looks like.')
Kane had invited him over to his house, before they'd left the Academy in the
Induction Ceremony. This was a new experience to Rui, even though he
albeit knew that this was a regular phenomenon on Earth. His disease had
prevented him from rendezvous in his previous life back on Earth. Severe
chronic Asthma was a disease that made even simple relatively light tasks
like travelling to a friend's house pretty difficult, not that he's had any friends
back in his childhood anyway.
('It's probably an ostentatious mansion.') Rui speculated.
Kane's home was pretty much in the center of town of Hajin, the town of
which the Quarrier Orphanage was more-or-less in the outskirts of. Rui
planned to jog a portion of the way where he was supposed to rendezvous
with a servant of the Arrancar family who would escort him to the Arrancar
houshold.
As he travelled, his surroundings grew increasingly populated and developed.

The Quarrier Orphanage was situated in a somewhat more remote location
closer to the open fields where crops were grown, however as he travelled
further into the town, the population density and infrastructure of the town
grew immensely.
The presence of a Martial Academy was a blessing to the town. It drew in a

lot of people from all over the Empire, specifically amongst the youth every
year.
The Martial Academies were a boost to economic prosperity, after all. Each
Academy needed a huge amount of labour and resources for maintenance
alone. There was a large number of suppliers and manufacturers who had set
shop in the town, who supplied the Academy with the needed goods and
supplies. There were many people who migrated to the town and ended up
being employed by the Academy, and many a youth who migrated to the
town looking to attempt and hopefully pass the annual Martial Entrance
Exam, the Martial Entrance Exam was held during winter, during which
travelling between states would be much harder, after all. Many non-native
applicants would travel to the town much in advance.
In this way, the Martial Academy empowered both the supplier and consumer
market. It was far from an exaggeration to that the economy of the town of
Hajin would collapse overnight without the Academy. The disappearance of
the Academy would mean a large portion of the demand for goods and
supplies would decrease drastically, causing excess supply of goods in the
local market, reducing the prices of goods significantly, smaller suppliers,
business and retailers would be unable to stay afloat and would be forced to
migrate to other parts of the Empire.
A large proportion of the locals who were employed by the Academy or

aiming for it would also be instantly unemployed, and would likely migrate.
After a brief period of chaotic flux, the GDP of the town would most be
reduced by a significant portion, without a doubt.
('This must be one of the ways the Martial Union maintains political and
economic power. Putting aside the direct authority and capital they possess,
the sheer passive impact and necessity of the Academies aka The Union has
on society is immense.') Rui mused as he reached his rendezvous point.
"Master Quarrier, I presume?" A voice behind him enquired.

Rui turned to meet the man. He wore simple but lavish clothing with a crest
of the Arrancar Family embroidered over the left chest area.
"Yeah, Rui Quarrier." He responded in affirmation. "Are you here to pick me

up?"
"Indeed, please come this way." He gestured to a horse-pulled carriage.
('A carriage, huh? My first time.')
It was indeed his first time, in either of his lives. He wasn't particularly
excited though. As someone who'd spent a lifetime in a world of cars, bikes,
subways, planes etc. A carriage wasn't that big a deal, it was, frankly, nothing
note.
Still, Rui played the part of a poor orphan and got all excited at the prospect
of the privilege of riding a horse carriage.
"Wooooow! A horse carriage!" He cooed as convincingly as he could,

suppressing the embarrassment that arose within him.
"Please make yourself comfortable." He said, opening the door and gesturing
inside at the posh, luxurious seats within.
"How long will it take us to get there?" Rui enquired.
"No more than twenty minutes." He replied.
('Longer than I expected.') Rui noted. ('Well, if it was any shorter than
sending a carriage would be kinda pointless, although there is the matter of
verification of my identity.')
Kane had explained that invited guests were usually provided with a letter of
invitation to enter the premises, but he didn't have any at hand since Kane had
invited him on the spot without any prior planning.
('Well, he didn't know whether I'd even passed or not. The invitation was
quite spontaneous after all.') Rui mused as he felt a sense of anticipation.
Normal kids invited each other to play games.
Kane had invited Rui for sparring.
And Rui accepted in a heartbeat.
In fact, had Kane invited Rui over to play cards, Rui would definitely refuse
the invitation with some excuse or the other. Travelling all this way and
spending a whole day at someone's place for cards? Just the mere thought of
wasting time like that with only one month for the Academy to start made
Rui laugh.
But sparring was a different thing. Rui had very little experience, at this
stage, he was thirsty for experience. This was the one thing that he could not
use his expertise in martial arts and combat sport training. Combat experience
was irreplaceable, it was supreme. He looked forward to gaining as much as
he could. Furthermore, from someone like Kane, who was a far superior
fighter than Rui was.
('How exciting!')
Chapter 35 His Home
"Rui, glad you're here." Kaned waved as Rui took in the majesty of the
Arrancar Household. Kane's home somewhat resembled a western palace of
sorts from the Middle Ages. It was lavish and luxurious yet the décor and
aesthetics were not ostentatious. It was as if the owner did not care for
superficial beauty.
"Thanks for having me." Rui replied.
"Come on in." Kane told him.
Rui followed him as he took in the visage of the Mansion.
('Yeah, this kid is loaded.') Rui affirmed.
There were servants of all kinds scattered across the premises, all engaged in
one task or another. Gardeners meticulously maintaining the beautiful garden,
maids and butlers tending to one task or another.
('That's a huge door. What's the point of having a door this big?') Rui
wondered. One could walk on stilts and still comfortably enter.
"You have a big place man." Rui told him.
"Yeah, too big if you ask me." Kane shrugged.
"Is your family around?" Rui asked.
"Some of my siblings, my mom, my step-moms."
"Your mom and your step-moms?" Rui tilted his head.

"My dad is polygamous." Kane briefly replied, it didn't seem like a pleasant
topic for him.
"...I see." Rui dropped the topic. He regretted asking. But he was caught off-
guard. He didn't know about other countries, but, at the very least, the
Kandrian Empire had a culture of monogamy. Even on Earth, most nations
and cultures were strongly monogamous, at least in the twenty-first century.
Kane had expressed hostility towards his father prior, maybe this had
something to do with it.
"My father isn't around, that's why I invited you around this time." Kane told
him. "Let's go. You don't mind starting immediately, right?"
"No problem." Rui smirked. It was a silly question. Rui would, in fact, mind
had they sat around sipping tea making small talk.
"Alright, this way."
Just then;
"Kane." A mature female voice called out to him.
Kane paused, turning towards the direction of the voice reluctantly.
"Yes mother?"
"I was told you called over a peasant of a boy, it seems I was told correctly.
Are you going to waste time playing around?" She reprimanded him sternly
and coldly.
('...Did she just call me a plebeian to my face?') Rui mused. He was a little
caught off-guard by the woman's unrepenting rudeness.
('Kane's life must suck with a mom like her. I'm starting to see why he doesn't
seem to like this place.')
"He's a friend." Kane sternly told her off. "We're not playing around, we're
going to be training."
"Train with the instructors your father has hired."
"I train with them every day, sparring with others will give me a wider range
of experience, which will ultimately help me grow stronger in the long run."
He retorted.
His mother begrudgingly accepted that explanation, after instructing Kane to

work hard.
"Hey man." Kane turned to Rui, bowing his head in shame and guilt. "I'm
sorry she insulted you."
"You don't need to apologize for other people's actions and words. I
appreciate the sentiment, but it's not your fault."
"This is why I wanted to begin our sparring session with you as soon as you
arrived." He muttered in frustration. "She never interrupts sparring and
training sessions. This way I could have avoided running into her."
"Why not train and spar away from your house?"
Kane sighed as his expression soured.
"I'm not allowed to leave the household unless permitted." Kane told him.
Rui jerked his head back in a double-take as he glanced at Kane in shock.
"You can't leave the household for anything? Like, at all?"
Kane shook his head. "Nope, not at all."
"Playing?"
"Nope."
"Walks?"
"No way."
"Fresh air?"
"We have huge open training areas and tons of balconies and even a gigantic
terrace."
Rui gazed at Kane with a visible discomfort.
"Damn..." he managed squeeze out.
"Yeah.." Kane sighed. "This is why I can't wait for the Academy to begin."
"I'm surprised your family allowed you to go in the first place."
"They didn't, it took me literal fucking years of lobbying to be allowed.

Ultimately my dad, who was also an Academy graduate reluctantly relented."
"I see..."
"The Academy is something the Martial Union has invested heavily in a huge
amount of resources and funds over a long period of time, making it an
absolutely ideal and optimal place for nurturing Martial Squires. Even for a
Martial Sage like my father, it's not easy to compensate for everything it
provides by himself. This was the key point that convinced him. But he set a
bunch of conditions."
"Conditions?"
"I had one chance, and that was when I turned thirteen. And I had to make it
into the top five overall."
"I see..." Rui recalled Kane telling him the latter during the second-round of
the Entrance Exam.
"We're here." Kane told him, opening a door to a gigantic facility.
Inside was one of the most aesthetically pleasing sights that a martial
arts/combat sports junkie like Rui had seen in the entirety of his second life.
A huge wide area, divided inti several sections. In one section, there were
what appeared to be a vast variety of body-building and exercise equipment.
Rui could see the equivalent of bench-presses, treadmills, a variety of weights
like dumb-bells and plates, squat-racks, barbells, cables and pulleys, pull-up
and callisthenic bars etc.
In another section was martial arts training equipment of a huge assortment;

boards, a large amount of dummies for various striking maneuvers and
combos as well as throws and holds. There were punching bags of various
sizes each meant for different purposes. Further off there were many sections
of area that seemed to be each dedicated to training specific attributes or
skills; awareness, sensory capabilities, endurance, balance, dynamic
flexibility. One that particularly caught his eyes was a circular section with a
bunch of bags attached to ropes to the ceiling above, the bags themselves
were attached to the ceiling. From what Rui could tell, this was dynamic
evasive maneuvering practice. One was supposed to stand in the center while
dodging the released bags.
"That reminds an awful lot of the second round." Rui gestured towards that
area.
Kane smirked. "That's my favourite training."
"No wonder you aced the second round." Rui laughed.
He looked forward to spending time here.

Chapter 36 Warm Up
Kane shrugged. "It's really fun. I often get scolded because I ignore other
forms of training in favour of doing this. Anyways, let's warm up."
"Start with cardio?"
"Sure." Kane nodded.
They head over to a set of machines that resembled treadmills.
"How does this work? Do we have to run on our own?" Rui inquired.
"The treadmill is powered by a slime." Kane explained.
"A slime?" Rui tilted his head in confusion.
"Yeah, within the cylindrical panel there is a species of slime that rotates
when pressure is applied to it." Kane pointed. "You can adjust the pressure
the slime experiences by adjusting this knob." He said, twisting a knob in
front of him."
('I see, it's a dial that can control how much pressure is exerted on the slim.')
Rui mused as he adjusted the speed to a comfortable jog.
This was yet another example of technology in this world mimicking that of
the technology in the twenty-first century of Earth, not through excellent
engineering, or highly sophisticated applications of science, but through the
remarkable features exclusive to this reality.
The extraordinary inorganic resources that could be mined and extracted from
the land, the variety of the supernatural flora and fauna and the esoteric
phenomena they offered together allowed this world to achieve things that
would otherwise be well beyond their capabilities.
Furthermore, in several areas, it even allowed them to surpass Earth.
The potions he had consumed in the Academy after the second round of the
Entrance Exam healed his wounds completely while also restoring his
stamina entirely in a short period of time. This was something no technology
on Earth could replicate.
"This is pretty amazing." Rui said.
"It's pretty normal though." Kane threw him a confused look.
"Anyways, that's enough cardio, my muscles have warmed up. Let's stretch
for a round before we begin."
It was a well-known fact, on Earth and on Gaea, that stretching before heavy
exercise or any physically intensive activity was a must. There were several
benefits it provided, and several detriments that were associated with not
stretching.
The most basic benefit was, of course, maintaining and increasing range of
motion. Muscles were bound together by web-like sticky tissue called
fasciae, this connective tissue bound muscles and restricted their elasticity.
Regular stretching was needed to prevent them from building up.
Range of motion was not the only benefit, of course. Flexibility was highly
relevant to multiple physical attributes; power and speed.
The amount of kinetic energy the body could generate depended on the
physical acceleration due to muscular power, and the distance over which that
acceleration could be maintained. Low flexibility inevitably meant the
effective distance over which muscles could accelerate was limited, because
low flexibility meant muscles could not stretch. If they could not stretch, then
the net energy they generate was very limited.
Stretching exercise also prevented loss of muscular tissue, during exercise.

Muscular tissue collapsed at much lower rates when stretched before being
put through intensive workouts. It also increased blood circulation which
ultimately increased the net output of the human body. Reducing fatigue,
stress, tension and risk of injury were also some of the more prominent
benefits among others.
('Furthermore, static flexibility exercises are not energy intensive. You can
obtain a lot of benefits with very little physical effort.')
So much so that even as asthmatic patient like himself could manage to

stretch daily as long as it was slowly paced. Flexibility exercises were an
absolute must in the field of martial arts and combat sports, Rui himself had
published several papers demonstrating the correlation between the
probability of a KO victory and flexibility.
"Alright, that should be enough." Kane said.
Rui nodded in affirmation as he lifted himself from a split. Splits were the
pinnacle of flexibility when it came to combat sports. They were at the
perfect level where flexibility was optimal, not too little to smother and
suppress one's own power and acceleration, but not too little to prevent
dislocation of joints.
It had taken Rui two years to achieve a split after he began a tad earnest
rigorous exercise at the age of five. Normally splits could be achieved earlier,
but given the delicate and fragile bones and muscles his body had at the time,
stressing them too much for an earlier result, would be more detrimental in
the long run.
"We can spar there." Kane pointed to a matted section. "No leaving the area.
We can start slow and light rolling, after moving onto light half-contact
sparring. Once we've gotten comfortable, we can move onto full-contact
geared sparring and maybe some conditional or free form sparring. Whatever
works for you. Ah, let me know if you don't entirely know the differences
between some of them." Kane explain patiently.
Rolling was the primary form of wrestling practice and sparring in Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu, it was a good of breaking the ice in regards to jiu-jitsu maneuvers
and honing them. Back on Earth, half-contact and full-contact sparring were
two popular and distinct types of sparring introduced by the ITF, the
International Federation of Taekwondo. Concepts such as conditional
sparring and free-form sparring were well-established forms of sparring used
in all MMA gyms in the twenty-first century of Earth. He was not just
familiar with them but an irrevocable expert. Rui was glad some of the more
colloquial knowledge he possessed was of use on Gaea.
"We can start with some light rolling sure, but I'd rather move onto some
heavy positional-grappling, if you don't mind. My experience in full-contact
grappling is paltry compared to my striking practice. It's a lot harder to
practice grappling by yourself than striking. After that I don't mind half-
contact and full-contact sparring either, though free-form is my preference
you see."
"..." Kane stared at him.
p "Hm?" Rui tilted his head under his stare.
"Uh nothing. I'm just surprised because you seem to be extremely familiar
with different sparring forms and their purposes."
('Familiar? I probably know more about them than you ever will.') Rui
mused. This was not an exageration.
"Ahhh, well I read about them in a book about Martial Art when I was a kid."
"I see. Well, that's all the more better."
Kane took his position on the mat.
"Let's begin."
Rui crouched a little, aligning his right foot behind his left foot. He brought
balled his fists and brought them up in a guard.
"Yeah." He grinned. "Let's get this show on the road!"

Chapter 37 Spar
The two shifted around the mat, maintaining distance. This was a common
practice even on Earth, by constantly shifting your balance and weight across
both your legs, it became more difficult to predict your opponent's
movements. It was a simple but an extremely practical tactic.
('He's not coming...') Rui noted. ('...Well, his Martial Art is centered around
evasive maneuvering.')
Rui thought for a moment before making up his mind.
('If he's not coming, I'll go for him!')
He dashed towards Kane, throwing light jabs at him. The strikes had very
little torque and weight behind them, making it easier to launch more of them
in rapid succession.
Kane grinned, swerving and bobbing his head to avoid the higher strikes. For
him, avoiding strikes to the head was more practical, the neck was a flexible
juncture and evasiveness was his forte.
('How about a body strike, then?')
Rui shot a mid-range straight right punch at Kane's abdomen.
BAM
Kane had blocked it with a solid guard.
The two put some distance between each other.
"Thought your Martial Art was centered around evasiveness." Rui huffed.
"It's not practical to dodge every single attack, in some cases, blocking is just
irrefutably the only correct choice." Kane shrugged.
That made sense. One could not win a fight purely through evasiveness.
This time, Rui closed the distance slowly. They both shifted around, feeling
each other out, testing and gauging each other's reactions.
Once Rui reached kicking range, he threw a light roundhouse kick at Kane's
abdomen, only to cleanly miss as Kane effortlessly dodged the attack.
('Figured, roundhouse kicks take too much time to land, it's easy for someone
with his mobility to avoid them.') Rui mused as he threw a few light jabs,
most of which were dodged.
He attempted to throw a straight kick to Kane's chin, only for Kane to dodge
while simultaneously closing the distance;
BAM
Kane landed a jab to Rui's abdomen.
"Tsk." Rui grimaced.
It was very difficult for Rui to land a clean strike on him, Kane was not only
extremely slippery, but was very good at exploiting slim openings to squiggle
his way in and land some strikes.
('He's strong.') Rui huffed. But he wasn't done yet. He closed the gap between
him and Kane, but this time he didn't bother trying to land a strike at the
earliest opportunity. Instead, he kept his left arm up as a guard while
preparing his right arm for a strong jab.
Kane, thus far, hadn't aggressed a single attack of his own volition, his only
strike was a counter.
('His plan is to let me initiate an offense and land attacks while or after
evading my own.')
This was Kane's element. He dodged attacks while simultaneously setting up
counters. But it was not without flaws.
('Such a strategy requires a lot of space.')
Evasive maneuvering, in general, required space. Much more so than most

other fields of Martial Art. The lesser the space, the lesser the evasion.
('Thankfully, leaving the ring is not allowed.')
Rui planned to exploit this. By cornering Kane, while simultaneously

reaching extremely close-range, His odds of landing a strike were much
higher. The reasons were simple; Reaching the edge would mean Kane
wouldn't be able to evade strikes easily due to the lack of space, and the
closer Rui was to him, the harder it was to avoid a strike. Avoiding a fast
super-close-range strike with very little space seemed to be difficult even for
Kane, he could have no choice but to launch a strike in order to avoid this.
Kane glanced backward as he realized the boundary was at his heel. Rui had
been making a few sweeping attacks launched in such a way that the ideal
way to avoid them was simply to step back, but in a closed area, there was a
limit to the number of times this could be performed before reaching the
boundary.
Rui rushed forward swinging his fist abruptly, prompting Kane bent
backwards while launching a sharp straight high kick, in the heat of the
moment.
WHOOSH.
Where Rui's head should have been, there was naught but nothing.
Kane's eyes widened in surprise.
('I've seen that before, Kane.') Rui grinned cleanly avoiding that strike, a
simple push was all it took to throw Kane out of the ring. In that bent position
with a kick mid-air and the boundary but an inch away, not even Kane could
seem to muster the power or the balance to avoid a ring-out.
"First round goes to me." Rui grinned smugly, offering Kane a hand.
Kane smiled wryly. "Sure, but that's the only round you're winning today."
"Ha!" Rui laughed. "You... weren't using a single technique, were you?"
"Heh. So, you noticed."
"Of course, you were moving like a freaking viper in the Exam, I had trouble
keeping my eyes on you. In comparison, you were moving like a lazy cat just
now." Rui retorted.
Kane threw a competitive smile at Rui in response. They quickly took their
positions, shuffling and shifting. Rui was more than happy to rehash the same
tactic again.
('If it ain't broke, don't fix it.') Rui chanted.
Just as he cornered Kane and launched a strike… Kane vanished!
('???') Just as Rui gathered his bearings;
BAM
A brutal impact landed on the back of his head, pushing him past the
boundary that he had cornered Kane with prior.
"Fuck!" Rui grimaced in pain, turning around in confusion. What he saw

shocked him. Kane upside-down on a handstand, and had launched a kick
down on Rui's head with his leg.
Kane flipped back over to his feet with a smug grin.
"Did you really think I would fall for the same tactic again? Evasion isn't
limited to two-dimensional maneuvering you know."
Rui grinned in awe. ('Did he really flip into a handstand to avoid my strike
while simultaneously launching a kick to the back of my head to push me
over the boundary I had cornered him into?')
Rui had underestimated him. Kane was far nimbler and more mobile than he
had imagined. Such acrobatic maneuvering made his evasion that much more
formidable.
"You're really something else, y'know?" Rui complimented, getting back into
the ring.
"Hehehe, you haven't seen anything just yet, I was barely using half my full
power." Kane cracked his knuckles, boasting a smiling with a hint of sadism
in it.
Chapter 38 Apprentice Level
The third bout began, and this time, Kane made the first move.
('He's coming.') Rui tensed in alertness.
Kane exhaled and suddenly, taking his first step, he blurred. In an instant he
accelerated to top speed, moving so fast that he crossed the distance in a
moment.
BAM.
Rui barely managed to intercept Kane's punch with hastily cobbled guard.
('Fast! His speed before was basically child's play!')
Rui haphazardly threw a punch at him, hoping to catch him off-guard, but
Kane attacked in such a way that the strike would naturally be avoided by the
attacking motion. Attacking in a manner that naturally avoids the attack of
your opponent, this was Kane was doing.
BAM
Kane managed to slip an attack through Rui's guard.
('Damn, this is different from before. Before he was evading first while
countering a slip second later. But right now, he's perfectly choosing an
attack such that the attacking motion naturally avoided Rui's attack.') Rui
realized.
For example, a jump kick naturally avoided a leg sweep. A leg sweep
naturally dodged a jump kick. Kicks possessed greater range than punches
thus, if well timed, they could be used to avoid punches by hitting the
opponent first.
"Hehe, dealing with Anti-Cadence is difficult, isn't it? Especially considering

you're a newbie."
Rui got up, taking up another stance. "You haven't mastered it yet, right?" He
could feel Kane's choices weren't entirely optimal.
Kane shrugged. "I learnt it a few months ago. It's also one of those
foundational techniques in counter-offensive maneuvering that doesn't have
an upper limit, you just get better and better at it with experience."
That made sense to Rui. Anti-Cadence was a technique that relied on

judgement, which grew with experience. Analysis and judgement were Rui's
strong suits. Among all the techniques he had seen, he was most interested in
Anti-Cadence. It had a lot of synergy with Rui's affinities and interests.
"How'd you cross the distance between us so quickly?" Kane was moving at a
speed that should be way above what someone of his physical stature should
be capable of moving like.
"Oh, that's another Apprentice level maneuvering technique called Parallel

Walk."
"Parallel Walk?"
"Yeah, normally people walk and run by twisting their upper body and
swinging their arms in the opposite direction to the legs, right?"
This was true, at a young age, humans naturally developed the habit of
walking with their arms swinging opposite to that of their legs. This was
because it was the most natural way to maintain balance by countering the
torque generated by the legs.
"Parallel Walk is a technique where you run with your arms and upper body
swinging in-line with and parallel to your legs. It's a technique that allows
you to run faster."
Rui's eyes widened. This made sense, twisting your upper body and swinging
your arms required a lot of energy, all of that energy was being wasted in
maintaining balance. Parallel Walk seemed to be a technique where one
moved with their arms moving in the same direction as their legs. This
avoided the immense waste of energy that occurred with the twisting of the
upper half of the body. All the energy that would otherwise be wasted with
twisting the upper half would now be directed into the legs and be converted
into speed, thus allowing the user to run at significantly higher speeds.
"It feels really weird when you learn it, balance is maintained in a totally
different way after all, so it takes a while to get used to it. But once you do
get used it, you move at wayyy faster speeds way easier. I'm telling you, it
was a blessing to my Martial Art." Kane explained.
Rui nodded, it made sense. In truth, this wasn't the first he'd heard of this
concept. Back on Earth there was a Japanese form of walking and running
known as Namba Aruki or Namba Walking. Namba Walking was the running
style of the express runners, during the Edo Period, whose job it was to run
messages quickly and efficiently between Edo and the other provinces.
Usually they would travel in pairs, one having a pole with a box or package
on the end, and another that had a pole with a lantern on it inscribed with the
characters official business.
Needless to say, communication was key to an effective government, so these

express runners had to be very, well, express. They would regularly run from
Edo to Kyoto in six-eight days, a distance of approximately 480 kilometers
on foot. They were highly efficient and wasted lesser energy that could
otherwise be used for more speed or stamina, thanks to this form of
maneuvering.
('I just didn't think it was legit. But it seems that, at the very least, it's legit in
this world.')
"Can you teach it to me?" Rui asked.
"I'm not qualified to. The training process isn't as straightforward as it seems.
I had a Martial Senior monitoring my training, and he put me through a ton of
training that I didn't really understand. Half-assed erroneous training is worse
than no training, trust me." Kane replied, earning a downcast expression from
Rui.
"Don't worry though." He consoled. "I told you this is an Apprentice level
technique for maneuvering, right? That means you absolutely can learn this
in the Academy as long as you reach Apprentice level."
Rui's expression lit up. Yet another reason to look forward to the Academy.
He strongly looked forward to the day he learnt this technique in the
academy.
"How many Apprentice maneuvering techniques are there?"
"Oh, there are tons of Apprentice level techniques. That being said, each field
has a set of basic Apprentice level techniques, these are the easiest techniques
to learn that help a brand-new Martial Apprentice grow accustomed to
Apprentice level techniques. After all, the transition from Foundational
techniques to Apprentice level techniques can be tough, it took me a whole
month before I could even get used to it." Kane sighed, recalling a painful
memory.
"To, answer your question though, as far as pure maneuvering goes, there's
four. Parallel Walk is one of them, meant for physical travel, there's one for
combat speed, combat agility, travel agility etc." Kane explained.
Chapter 39 Shackle
"Are each of the Apprentice level techniques as effective and as powerful as

the techniques you showed me?" Rui asked.
"Just around, yeah." Kane replied.
"Alright then." Rui stood up, taking a position within the ring. "Can you
show me the rest?"
"Sure thing." Kane grinned, taking up a stance.
They clashed with each other for a few hours after, round after round. Kane
demonstrated the prowess of a Martial Apprentice, mopping the floor with
Rui over and over. Not only did he overwhelmingly pummel Rui, but he also
defeated Rui in many different ways.
('So, this what happens when he uses his Foundational and Apprentice level
skill, huh? It's overwhelming.') Rui though as Kane floored him yet another
time. Kane had beaten him many a time by now, but Rui only grew more and
more ecstatic, much to Kane's confusion.
"Let's stop here for today." Kane told Rui, earning a nod of affirmation in
response.
"Yeah, no need to push ourselves too far in a single session." They were both
extraordinarily exhausted.
"You know, you seem like you enjoy losing." Kane told him.
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, I beat you a lot, yet if anybody were to look at us, they'd assume you
were the winner given how much more satisfied you seem."
"That's because I am satisfied. I learnt and experienced a ton of new things.

The losses are trivial in comparison." Rui explained.
"Hmmm... I felt this before, but your passion for Martial Art is... How do I
say it? Pure?"
"Pure?" Rui echoed.
"Yeah, of all the Martial Artists I've known, all of them had one reason or the
other to become a Martial Artist. Power, glory, prestige, status, money and
stuff like that, you know? But your joy for Martial Art feels... clean."
"..." He seemed to have trouble articulating his impression, but Rui didn't
press him despite that. Ultimately, he was merely a thirteen-year-old child,
accurately and precisely enunciating his feelings was not something Rui
expected of him.
"You really enjoy Martial Art, don't you?" Kane asked.
"Yes." Rui replied unhesitatingly.
"That sounds amazing. I've never enjoyed Martial Art. It's always been...
How do I say it? A shackle...? But it's also my only tool to break through that
shackle... I don't know if that makes sense." Kane explained uncomfortably,
Rui could tell he was being candid.
"I think it does." He replied. From what little Rui had seen of Kane's life, it
seemed as though Martial Art shackled Kane, but was indeed also his only
hope breaking through those shackles. Being born as the son of a Martial
Sage, as well gifted with prodigious talent for Martial Art probably put a
huge burden on him. From what Rui had seen of Kane's mother, it was likely
that the entirety of Kane's family had massive expectations of him.
These expectations seemed to be a shackle, his family probably put him

through rigorous Martial Art training from a young age, so much so that he
reached the Martial Apprentice Realm even before entering the Academy,
they didn't allow him to even leave his damn house of his own free will. His
life was basically a prison. Freedom must be something of his wildest
dreams.
"Hm... But you know..." Kane turned to Rui with a mirthful grin. "When I'm
with you, Martial Art doesn't seem all that bad."
Rui smirked. "Well, then why don't I come hang out more often if that's ok
with you?"
"That sounds great! Maybe we can spar and train every day."
That sounded perfect to Rui. He desperately wanted some real combat

practice and training, so far training with Kane was probably the most fruitful
thing he had done in his second life.
"Sure, sounds great." Rui replied.
"Though some days it's best if you don't."
"Oh? Why so?" Rui enquired.
"Because my father will be around." Kane explained. "You saw how my

mother was, my father is far more overbearing and unpleasant."
"I see... You sure have it rough man."
Kane sighed.
"You must be excited for the Martial Academy eh?"
"Oh man, you have no idea. I can't wait to live in a different place. How
excited are you.?"
"Extremely, I've been waiting nearly twelve years for this."
Kane threw him an odd look.
"What?" Rui responded to his reaction.

"You're the same age as me right?"
"Yeah."
"Then how have you been waiting for twelve years?"
"Uhhh..." Rui scratched his head awkwardly. "I probably miscounted, haha."
"Hmm.."
"Anyways, I should probably head home. I'm fucking exhausted and bruised
up." Rui changed the topic.
"Wait, have some potions before you go." Kane offered.
"Oh yeah, it makes sense you have them, but no thanks." Rui declined.
"Wait why not?" Kane furrowed his brows in confusion.
"Potions are valuable one-time products man, they're not cups of tea that you
offer to guests." Rui laughed. "They're far too expensive for me to accept
them."
"Don't worry about stuff like that. We have more potions than we know what
to do with."
"Seriously I'm good."
"No you have to!" Kane insisted.
Rui threw him a helpless glance.
"...Fine."
Kane rattled off some instructions to a servant as they exited a facility.
"You wanna take a shower?" Kane offered.
('They have showers here?') Rui pondered.

"Nah, I'm good. If I leave any later, I'll worry the folks back home."
They bantered until a servant returned with four vials. Two of them were red,
while the other two were blue.
"A healing potion for your bruises, and an energy potion for your stamina."
Kane offered.
Rui grasped them, taking a closer look at them.
"it's always boggled me how amazing potions are. To think they can heal and
rejuvenate you in such a short period of time, truly amazing."
"That's pretty average for potions, you know?" Kane told him.
"Average?" Rui asked, perplexed.
"Yeah, these potions aren't even the best of their types. These are just
standard post-training potions around here. Though they are far better than
what you had at the Academy."
"Damn, so there's even better stuff huh."
"Yeah, I don't know the details but I heard the highest -grade healing potions
can heal extremely lethal injuries, even if the patient is on the verge of
death."
"On the verge of death?? That's insane!"
"That's not all they can do though.. There are potions that can give permanent
enhancements to your body significantly in many ways, albeit rare. There
also potions that can significantly increase your lifespan!"
"What??"
Chapter 40 Potions
Potions that could bring you back from the brink of death, enhance your
abilities permanently, increase your lifespan. These were all truly
unfathomable phenomena to Rui. It really broadened his perspective on the
limits of the esoteric materialistic nature of this world that seemed to have no
limits whatsoever!
"None of those are common though. They are extremely rare, so much so that
they would be considered National Treasures. My father said that even life-
prolonging potions were extremely difficult to obtain even for him,
apparently." Kane told him.
('No, regardless of rarity. A potion that can prolong life should be impossible.
Aging is an inevitable process that occurs due to processes occurring on a
molecular level within our body.')
Aging was primarily caused by the faulty DNA replication during cellular
division and replacement. Every time a new cell in the body is born, the DNA
it inherited from its parent cell contained tiny new flaws and new gaps, this
happened every time cells divided and were replicated. Over a lifetime, these
flaws and gaps accumulate in the DNA across the body before one thing or
the other eventually leads to a fatal cause of death.
('The fact that a potion can stall this inevitable process means that some
esoteric compound within the potion is influencing our body universally on a
molecular level!')
He had to once again re-evaluate the esoteric technology of this world. Basic
healing and stamina recovery were one thing. Healing from the brink of
death, augmentation and longevity were whole other ball-games. He still
found Kane's words incredibly difficult to process.
"That isn't it, potions are used a lot in medicine too you know..." Kane added,
oblivious of the fact that the impact of such an unremarkable statement was
rather paltry in comparison to the thundering revelations he had unleashed
upon Rui prior.
"...Are the permanent body augmenting potions you mentioned prior,

available on the market?"
"Probably not? Otherwise, I would have definitely gotten my hands on them.

But I haven't unfortunately, only temporary-enhancement ones exist. Don't
quote me on that though, I just know general stuff." Kane replied.
"I see, that's a shame." Rui could gain a huge boost if he had one of those.
"Well, potions can help you grow stronger otherwise too, you know?"
"Oh yeah? How so?" Rui asked curiously.
"Well, just the rejuvenation potion and healing potions alone increase your
ability to train like crazy, honestly I can't imagine training without them, I
wouldn't be as strong as I am today." Kane explained.
"True, you could train for far longer, far more intensively with these potions
than without."
"Yeah, you can be damn well sure a major proportion of the freshmen in our
batch also relied on them for training, so that they could grow much stronger
and more skilled than if they didn't."
"No wonder I felt outpowered among them." Rui mused.
"It's also why your performance was quite impressive, when you told me
you've never consumed one, I was genuinely surprised. You must have done
an absurd amount of training from an extremely young age."
('I can't tell him I've basically been training my entire life.') Rui mused. Every
physically intensive activity translated into training as long as it was
measured, structured and disciplined. Even though he began actually training
exercises at the age of five, he still carefully exercised his body in various
physical and performative attributes, he went from barely average in terms of
physical talent to well above average in regards to physical attributes such as
strength, speed and agility, durability, flexibility etc.
The biggest problem was his performative attributes such as balance and
body-eye coordination. The mismatch between the muscle memory of his
previous life and his new body significantly hindered him. Overwriting fifty-
nine years of muscle memory took him an immense amount of time, until he
had finally reached an average standard.
,m "It's probably also why Fae was particularly impressed and interested in
you, you managed to accomplish a lot despite possessing none of the
learning, training and growing resources that almost all other freshmen had,
at the age of thirteen no less.
"I wonder how strong I would be if I had access to rejuvenation and recovery
potions my entire life." Rui sighed. He wasn't one to grow overtly jealous and
envious. As severely diseased person in his previous life, he had long learnt
that it was toxic and unproductive, but even he had to sigh when he realized
what he had missed out on.
"You'd be a monster. Honestly, it's pretty impressive you are where you are,
your body is honed incredibly well all things considered. Your performative
attributes are pretty meh though. I'd suggest ramping up on training them. We
have tons of training equipment meant specifically for those so feel free to
use them."
It was a truly tempting offer, as resourceful Rui was, actual targeted-training

equipment was far more effective and efficient.
"Thanks, I'll consider that. Will we have access to these potions in the
Academy?"
"Yep, you get a supply of them during your stay at the Academy."
"Sweet, I was worried I'd be missing out then."
"Don't underestimate the Academies, they have huge funding, a lot of that
goes into training resources which inevitably include potions. Of course, they
won't be as good as the ones we have here."
"True... Glad to hear that."
Rui looked forward to begin training with the resources of the Academy even
more. He could scarcely imagine how much his rate of growth would
skyrocket once he began training with these resources. He anticipated within
a year his physical body would be honed and refined unlike anything else. He
was just entering puberty too; his body would also be naturally growing to an
incredibly high degree, thanks to testosterone. Muscle mass and bone density
specifically.
"You also get potions that rejuvenate your mind like a good night's sleep,
that's one of the things I regularly use in my training regime." Kane casually
dropped yet another bombshell
"You..! How many hours have you trained daily across your entire life?"
Chapter 41 Rejuvenation
Rui wanted to smack Kane over the head, abstaining only because Kane
would probably dodge. Such a shame.
"On average I train for seventeen hours a day." Kan replied.
"You... what??" Rui questioned him with palpable disbelief.
"I mean it's not that hard with the three potions I mentioned earlier; healing,
physical rejuvenation and mental rejuvenation."
"Physical and mental-rejuvenation potions?"
"Yeah, physical rejuvenation invigorates the body, mental rejuvenation

invigorates the brain so that you don't need sleep. These are the two types of
rejuvenation potions."
"Does that mean if you had limitless mental rejuvenation, you would never
need to sleep?" Rui asked with wonder.
"Yeah right." Kane scoffed. "The potion's effectivity drops with each
consecutive usage. Its effectivity returns to one-hundred percent once I sleep
naturally."
"I see, that's still extremely useful though. It's like buying more time!"
"True."
"How many potions do you take before the potion's effectivity reduces to
zero?"
"Usually, I can go about three to four days before I need to sleep naturally."
That was lower than Rui hoped.
"Don't get carried away, there's known risks to consuming mental

rejuvenation potions on a regular basis."
"Oh?"
"It rejuvenates the brain. But psychologically, staying awake for much longer
periods is detrimental to the mind. Your mind is not designed nor used to
receiving such large amounts of information for so long continuously without
a break. Your brain maybe fine, but your psyche will be strained. There runs
the risk of losing your sanity if you push it, atleast that's what my supervisors
told me." Kane shrugged.
"Damn..." That makes sense. Just like every other part of the body, the mind
had also evolved through natural selection in a particular way. In order for it
to maintain its optimal state, it needed to be carefully subjected to only what
it was evolved to handle, and not beyond that.
"Do you monitor yourself with the mental-rejuvenation potions?
"Heck no." Kane grumbled. "My training-supervisors carefully regulate my

mental-rejuvenation potion intake. They do some check-ups before giving me
the potions I'm allowing to consume while also giving me a schedule for their
consumption."
"Huh, sounds like it may be dangerous to do that stuff by yourself."
"I dunno, but probably yeah. Don't worry though, the Academy also has a
capable and established medical department that handles this kind of stuff.
There are supervisors there that ensure students don't push themselves
beyond their limits. This also comes from the funding I mentioned before."
"I see. You sure know a lot about the Academy huh?"
"Of course, I do!" Kane replied emphatically. "I've been eying the Academy
for almost five years now. You have no idea how badly I'm looking forward
to it. I've done a fuck ton of research on it."
Rui chuckled in response. He could sense Kane's enthusiasm was just as
strong as his, though their motivations differed immensely. He was glad they
shared a strong interest.
"I'm looking forward to training with you in the Academy."
"Same but we probably won't be able to hang out as much initially." Kane
sighed melancholically.
"Why not?"
"Well, I'm already a Martial Apprentice. I'll be directly heading into the
training stages they have planned out for Martial Apprentices to help them
reach Martial Squire. I haven't even been told the criteria needed to become a
Martial Squire. Even Father said it was far too early for that, apparently."
"I see, well, we can hang out in our free times and breaks then." Rui
consoled.
"Sigh, we'll have to stick to that, I guess."
"By the way, the fact that you're a Martial Apprentice Stage means you've
already completed the Foundation and Exploration Stages right?"
"Yeah."
"What's the name of the Stage after one becomes a Martial Apprentice?" Rui
asked out of curiosity.
"It's called the Expansion Stage."
"Hmmm... I see, that's a cool name. What exactly do you do in this stage?"
"Well, once you discover your Martial Path, the only thing left to do is tread
down it. You have to begin expanding your Martial Art, or so I was told."
"Expanding? As in adding more techniques and skills to your Martial Art?"
"Yeah, you gain access to Apprentice-level techniques, from where you can
explore, learn and add those techniques to your Martia Art repository."
"Hmm... Interesting. So, this when the actual construction of your Martial Art
begins, huh? That sounds incredibly fun."
Rui was dying to be able to get his hands on the Apprentice-level techniques
that Kane mentioned. Techniques like Outer Convergence, Parallel Step,
Anti-Cadence were all extremely exciting techniques that were incredibly
effective. It would be a while before he could learn them though,
unfortunately.
"How long did it take for you to complete the Foundation Stage?" Rui asked,
out curiosity.
"Half a year, or so." Kane replied.
"How does that compare to the average?" Rui asked, scratching his head. He
figured it was likely well below average, considering Kane was a genius.
"...I dunno."
"..."
"Hey don't look at me like that!" He reprimanded embarrassedly, as Rui gave

him a blank stare. One moment he sounded extremely knowledgeable, the
next he sounded clueless.
"Is the Foundation Stage difficult?"
"Well, I had to train a fuck ton, it was quite tiring. The foundational
techniques I learnt in the Foundation and Exploration Stage were really easy
though."
"Hmm..." Rui pondered. Were the Foundational techniques actually easy or

was Kane just being too much of a genius here? He wasn't sure. They chatted
for a while after consuming their potions, before Rui decided to take his
leave.
"You sure you don't want to have you dropped off?" Kane asked once more.
"Yeah, I'm good. I'm full of energy anyway, I don't mind getting back home
on foot." Rui reassured. He didn't want to indulge in Kane's hospitality
anymore, although he was growing to really liking the kid, they had only met
thrice. Rui wasn't comfortable feeling so indebted to someone he had met
recently, and only a handful of times.
Rui fell into a deep thought walking back, having bade Kane goodbye. He
had a lot to think about, having learnt and experienced many things. The
Martial Academy, the prowess of potions and most importantly; the prowess
of Apprentice level Martial Art techniques.
"Such a fruitful visit, perhaps I should hang around him more..."

Chapter 42 Final Supper
Rui folded the last of his clothes into a large cloth bag. He had checked and
re-checked making sure he had all the sets of clothes he needed. Five sets of
undergarments, as well as general purpose clothes. He packed in all of his
necessities and belongings carefully, ensuring they would all fit in once he
folded and tied the cloth down. This world did have the equivalent of suit-
cases, but they were a bit on the expensive side.
Rui had declined the offer of being bought one by the Orphanage, he wasn't
profligate by any stretch, what was the point of wasting precious money
when there was a perfectly apt and cheap alternative? Thankfully, for the
same reason, he had few belongings. His luggage ended up being
conveniently light and small.
"The day has finally come..." Rui mused to himself.
Nearly a month had passed since the Induction Ceremony, the long-awaited
and sought start of the Rui's first Academic year was the very next day.
Tomorrow, Rui would leave the Quarrier Orphanage and head to the Mantian
branch of the Kandrian Martial Academy where he would stay until he
became a Martial Squire, or, God forbid, was expelled. Not that Rui had any
intention of getting expelled. In the past month, he had memorized the rules
of the Academy quite well, he was determined to not give them even the
tiniest hole that could be conceived as a violation of the rules.
"Rui, it's dinner time!" Myra called out.
"Yeah, I'll be there in a second." He replied, having tied up his make-shift

cloth bag and put it on his bed. He sauntered into the dining room pausing,
everyone had already gathered at the tables, even the utensils and food was in
place, yet they all waited for Rui to take his place. There were eighteen
children and fourteen adults, far more than usual.
Many former members of the Orphanage during Rui's time, who had moved
out and started their own family, were also present. These were people who
had formed strong bonds with Rui as he'd grown up, having known Rui
practically his entire life. They'd taken time away from their families to be
present to send Rui off.
The sight evoked emotion. It made his inevitable departure much more
painful.
"Oh? Looks like the star of tonight's celebration is here." Nina smirked,
offering him the seat at the head of the table.
"He sure kept us waiting." Farion grumbled, putting on a grumpy façade.
"Now now, he has a big day tomorrow with plenty of preparation, cut him
some slack, will you?" Alice chided.
"Come on Rui." Julian smiled, coaxing Rui. "Let's eat."
The entire room conveyed their love for him in their own way, welcoming
him. He smiled and took his seat without a word; he was choked with
emotion. He didn't trust himself to not burst down sobbing if he opened his
mouth. He didn't want to ruin the mood with sorrow.
The adults began serving, which in itself took a while. Myra had planned a
feast for this day; the last day Rui would live with them for quite a while.
He indulged himself with food and love as dinner proceeded with boisterous
energy. There was many a reunion, the mood was extremely high.
Watching everyone hit him hard. This was what he was forgoing. Was it
really worth it? It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about this before. The answer
was always the same too. Yet, today, of all days, he found it hard to reaffirm
it.
"Don't look so sad Rui." Julian consoled with a serene smile. "I know exactly
how you feel. After all, I felt the same way when I left for the Kandrian
Institute of Sciences."
Julian had spent two years in the Kandrian Institute of Sciences for a higher
education at the age of sixteen, before graduating and being accepted as an
apprentice scholar.
"It's painful to be separated from your family. But your life is your life, Rui.
You need to live it, you owe that to yourself."
"Yeah..."
"Don't worry, we'll be seeing you during the season breaks, and to
congratulate when you graduate successfully graduate as a Martial Artist."
Julian consoled.
"Yeah..."
"Cheer up Rui, don't look so down!" Alice refilled his plate with another
large serving.
He obliged, as much as he could. Alice really did serve him far too much. He
looked down at the large pile of meat and rice that occupied his plate, sighing
in resignation.
('I hope eating this much won't make me ill on the first day of the Academy.')
He hoped the Academy had some potions that could instantly fix indigestion.
It wasn't too much to ask considering the miracles that potions were capable
of.
Still, he appreciated it, even if it were ill-advised on the stomach. The food
was truly extravagant. The Orphanage had pulled all stops for this celebration
and farewell party of his. He ate his food as he engaged with various people
who came to speak with him. As the star of the dinner and the focus of the
night, many people, children and adult alike were interested in conversing
with him.
After a while he excused himself for some fresh air, heading out into the
balcony. He wasn't accustomed to dealing with this much food or people,
certainly not simultaneously.
('It's like they're trying to cram all the home-cooked food and family I'll be
missing in my time in the Academy in one night.') He mused, burping a bit to
free up some space in his bloated belly.
('We haven't even gotten to desert yet...') Thankfully, Rui believed in the
saying that desert went to the heart. He rarely had multiple course meals. It
was something that Orphanage could not afford to do, at least, on even an
occasional basis.
('Well, all said and done, I ought to enjoy it while it lasts.') Rui relented. He
returned to the dining room.
Chapter 43 Freshman
"Alright mom... I think it's time to let me go, or I'll be late." Rui advised.
Lashara ignored him, hugging him tightly, swaying him in her arms. Rui had
an awkward expression on his face, unsure of when he would be released
from her smothering bear hug of motherly love.
She released him before patting his head, apparently satisfied, yet
melancholic.
"Don't push yourself too hard, okay? Make sure you get as much sleep and
food needed to be healthy." She advised. Rui nodded in response, her bidding
was different from the others, who told him they were proud of him, and told
him to work hard. Although Lashara was most certainly proud of him, at this
moment her overprotectiveness was much more dominant. In her eyes,
although Rui was very intelligent, he was still a tender thirteen-year-old with
no experience, living by himself for the first time, being seperated from his
family.
"Don't worry mom, I'll be fine." He reassured. He glanced at all the people
behind her, the adults and children of the Orphanage, bidding all of them
goodbye, before heading towards the town of Hajin.
His nerves were angsty and on-edge. This was much more nerve-wracking
than the Martial Entrance Exam. He inhaled deeply, exhaling slowly in order
to calm his prickly racing heart.
The Orphanage was far from the core of the town, it was quite far away from
the establishment and population of the town. Thus, the journey to the
Martial Academy was close to two hours away, on foot.
Considering he was carrying luggage, travelling there on foot was not
something he wanted to do. He instead opted to walk to the closest district
while catching a rickshaw there to the Martial Academy. Although rickshaws
were not unheard of in the region of the Orphanage, they were exceedingly
rare. What was the point of offering transportation to people in a place with
very few people? No rickshaw-puller was stupid enough to bother going
away from the town's heartland.
"Ah there we are." Rui spotted the district. Even as he entered it, he already
spotted a few rickshaws. He quickly boarded one, after haggling a price. It
wasn't cheap considering the distance, so he ended up shortening the trip a
bit, resolving to walk the remaining distance.
Having boarded the rickshaw, he immersed himself in his thoughts, thinking

about his course of action.
The information guide he received when at the Investiture Ceremony had

already laid out instructions for freshmen in the Academy. Once he reached
the Academy, he was to join the other freshmen in a designated hall. Once all
the freshmen had gathered, the Academy would conduct the Evaluation
Exam. Which would then serve as the basis upon which the individualized
curriculum of the Foundation Stage.
Once that was concluded, the freshmen would be given the rest of the day
off. They would be shown to their dorm rooms where they could spend the
rest of the day as they wished. They could relax and recuperate or mingle
with the other freshmen, they could even train, or visit the Academy Library.
There was even a tour offered by the Academy that day for students who
wanted to explore the Academy.
All in all, it was an extremely exciting day for Rui. Time passed as he grew
absorbed in his day-dreams about what the Academy would be like, until the
rickshaw finally stopped, having reached the destination. Rui broke out of his
stupor, glancing around, realizing where he was.
"We've finally reached huh?" Rui asked, reaching for his coin pouch. He got
off after paying the rickshaw-puller the agreed sum of ten copper coins.
Before heading towards the Martial Academy. He glanced at his timepiece,
thankfully, he wouldn't be late. He would actually be quite early. He had left
well before the Academic day began out of paranoia of being late.
This was the central district of the town of Hajin, it was also adjacent to the
Martial Academy, which was its own huge district, basically. The Martial
Academy was enormous, even its fort walls could be seen from kilometers
away. All Rui had to do was walk in its direction.
The town of Hajin was far busier that than any other. The reason, of course,
was without a doubt the opening of the Martial Academy and the
commencement of a new academic year.
This was a national phenomenon annually. The Martial Academies were one
of a kind. There were only sixteen of them, and all of them were owned by
the Martial Union. It was simply impossible for any other private
organization to set up even semi-decent learning institute of its own. The
Martial Academies were bastions of the knowledge inherited from countless
Martial Artists of the past and the present. How could anybody rival that?
The only entity that could perhaps rival that was Royal Family. As the rulers
of the nation, they had access to wealth and resources surpassing even the
mighty Martial Union. Yet there were no such Royal institutes, for reasons
Rui was completely unaware of. Maybe creating an Academy was
detrimental to their interests?
Rui shook his head, casting away pointless thoughts. He often would find
himself drifting away into all of the supernatural things related to this world,
especially things related to Martial Art. Just as he centered and focused
himself, the gates of the Martial Academy had come into view.
The crowd and traffic in the vicinity of the Martial Academy was extremely
dense and chaotic. This was not unexpected; the huge influx of applicants and
their family/guardians would inevitably escalate the already densely
populated area and district as a whole.
Rui pushed through the crowd reaching for the gates. The security seemed to
be beefed up, with several more guards on patrol. He quickly procured his
student ID provided to him in the Investiture Ceremony, he would not be able
to enter the Academy without it. When the guards halted him as he
approached them;
"Rui Quarrier." He identified himself, holding his ID Card. "I'm a student of

the Martial Academy."
Chapter 44 Evaluation
He stuffed his ID card back into his pouch walking past the gates. If it weren't
for the signs placed at the side of the path, guiding freshmen to the hall, he
wouldn't know where to go. He glanced around looking at his fellow
freshmen. Most of them were carrying rolling suitcases that resembled the
kind that were predominantly used on Earth.
('Rich kids.') Rui mused. There was very few who carried around a simple
cloth makeshift carrybag like he did.
('This must have something to do with the fact that the richer you are, the
more training and growth resources you have access to.') Back on Earth, your
talent and work ethic mattered more than how much money you had when it
came to the combat sports industry. Although funds and resources were no
doubt relevant, above a certain point, they began mattering less and less. As
long as one had good trainers and even a basic gym, there really wasn't too
much money could do beyond that without an exorbitant amount. Your drive
and hard work paid off much more than fancy equipment.
But that wasn't the case in this world, as Kane had enlightened him.
He soon arrived at the designated waiting hall, where other freshmen had
gathered. It took him a less than a minute to find Kane.
"Hey man." Kane greeted.
"Sup." Rui nodded.
,m In the past month Rui had spent nearly every day hanging out with Kane.
They had quickly grown closer to each other.
Rui glanced around as they noticed a ton of eyes on them. The freshmen
around them were clearly wary and conscious of the two of them. It wasn't
until Rui caught one of them stealing a glance at the Arrancar emblem on
Kane's clothes that Rui understood.
('The Arrancar household holds a lot of weight for sure.')
"Ignore em, it's pretty normal." Kane blankly said.
"It is?"
"Yeah, once they realize where I'm from, they either stay away from me or
start kissing my ass." kane helplessly replied.
"Sounds rough."
"It is. You're one of the few people I've met who didn't care. I appreciate
that."
Rui shrugged. "I appreciate you not caring about my eyes and hair." He
replied as he caught someone eying his hair. This was another thing they had
in common. They didn't have to worry about such nonsense when they hung
out with each other.
As they waited, for whatever it is that was supposed to happen after everyone
arrived. Rui took a closer at his surroundings. Firstly, he noticed that most of
the freshmen seemed to be around sixteen to eighteen-years-old. In fact, as
far as he could see, there wasn't a single freshman as young as them. This was
probably another reason for the attention they were drawing.
There were a few guards situated along the perimeter of the hall, likely to
prevent any conflicts that could possibly arise between the freshmen.
"Well hello you two, we meet again." A feminine voice called out to them.
Rui didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.
"Fae." He looked at her with a complicated expression. He wasn't a vindictive

person. He part-took in the second-round knowing full well that there was a
great chance he might have gotten hurt and knocked out, he was young and
he was an attractive, yet weak target. He still took part in the second-round
despite all these risks, he consented to all of this, naturally he would not lose
his mind in resentment and anger if he lost.
What fool participates in a fighting competition fully aware of the risks only
to grow extremely resentful and angry when those risks occur? She did not
violate the rules, furthermore she attacked countless other applicants too, Rui
wasn't unique.
Furthermore, she had revealed that she attacked him knowing he would likely
pass because of how well he did, even if he got knocked out, she wasn't
trying to ruin his chances, or so she claimed.
However, he wasn't fond of her personality. From what little he interacted

with her, she seemed like an unpleasant person. She seemed like a fickle shit-
stirrer whose words and earnestness he couldn't trust, talking to her was a
tiring exercise and he'd rather just avoid it all together.
"Tsk. Go away. Who asked you to go out of your way to bother us?" Kane
had much fewer compunctions with rudeness than Rui did. His background
probably had something to do with that. While Rui was still wary of people
with a lot of power, Kane had just as much as she did.
Rui noticed that they had thoroughly become the center of attention.
"Can I not just greet my fellow freshmen? We're part of the same batch, are
we not? Besides, I didn't necessarily come to speak with you, Kane." She
smiled innocently. "I came despite you, if it weren't for Rui here, who would
bother talking to you? Ah were you hoping I came here for you? You must be
at that age, after all."
Kane gritted his teeth. "You-"
"Alright let's chill guys." Rui interrupted with exasperation. If he did not stop
it here, it would probably be too late. He glared at Fae, he didn't like her
temperament. Just he was about retort, a voice interrupted them.
"Do you enjoy picking on a bunch of brats so much, Fae?" A monotonous

voice called out to her.
A girl called out. She had short blue hair and red eyes, and an expression that
lacked energy.
"My, I'm not picking on-Wah!" The blue hair girl grabbed her by the collar
and pulled her away, interrupting what she knew would be a tiring word salad
of an excuse.
"Sorry for the disturbance." She called out, meeting Rui's eyes for a split
second.
"..." Rui vaguely recognized her. She ranked five in the second round, right
after Kane.
"Good riddance." Kane spat.
"She's annoying, but your dislike for her seems to go beyond irritation." Rui
replied, remembering the investiture ceremony.
"My mother loves her, she's constantly comparing me to her and rubbing
everything she does in my face for literally years now." Kane's eyebrows
knitted in anger. " 'Oh look how dedicated to her family's prestige Fae is' or
'Oh look how responsible and proactive she is to the family, you should be
more like her' and shit like that."
"...I see." That explained it.
Just as Kane recounted his grievances, the doors on the other end of the room
opened and a Martial Senior walked through. Rui could instantly tell what
realm he was in through the weight of his presence.
"Freshmen, I welcome you to the Martial Academy. I am a Martial Senior

Tarrokov, and I will be conducting your evaluation exam. Please leave your
belongings with the support staff, with a name tag that we'll be providing to
you and follow me to the evaluation exam hall."
The students immediately took of their belongings while receiving name tags.
"It's a bit weird that they're doing the evaluation exam as the first thing on the
first day of the Academy." Rui murmured with a confused expression.
"There's a reason for it." Kane replied back with a soft voice.
"Oh? Do tell."
"It's related to our dormitory segregation."
Rui threw him a curious look.
"The Academy has different dormitory sections across the campus." Kane
explained. "We're not all going to be put in the same dormitory just because
we're in the same academic batch. One dormitory section is near the
Apprentice training section of facilities and Apprentice Martial libraries."
"I see." Rui understood. "So those of us at the Martial Apprentice level will
be put in the Apprentice dormitories while those below, like me, will be put
together elsewhere." He said glumly.
They quickly tagged their belongings and handed it over to the support staff,
who duly put them in trolly carriers. Before shifting them away.
"Hm." Senior Tarrokov nodded. "Now that you're ready, follow me to the
evaluation exam center."
He led them through a series off corridors until they reached a giant open
facility. The facility was riddled with familiar looking training equipment,
this was a sight that Rui found comforting.
('Right, this is how a physical evaluation exam should be. The Martial
Entrance Exam was obtuse.') He coaxed himself.
"The evaluation exam has two stages; physical evaluation and performative
evaluation." The Senior informed. "The first stage will begin now. This exam
will impact your curriculum as well as the rest of your time in the Academy."
He stated with a stern voice. "Give it your absolute best."
Rui grinned. He was ready!

Chapter 45 Monster
The physical evaluation began shortly. Senior Tarrokov began with basic
stamina evaluation. Stamina was not only the foundation of Martial Art but
all physically intensive activities. He gathered up all the freshmen and
assigned them to a treadmill and had them all begin simultaneously at an
identical speed. The freshmen were even provided with potions at the start to
eliminate the variable of fatigue from travel and other preparation for the
Martial Academy's first day.
Rui tried minimize his movements and energy expenditure while inhaling and
exhaling at measure intervals, maintaining a constant but low consumption of
energy allowed one to last longer than a higher consumption of energy, this
also minimized the build-up and accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles
which was the cause of muscle pain and soreness that one experienced from
over-stressing.
Behind each freshman was an evaluator that made notes, carefully observing
and scrutinizing the freshmen they were assigned to. The data they provided
would impact the freshmen significantly so they were very careful about their
documentation.
In ninety minutes, most of the freshmen had stepped off due to overwhelming
exhaustion. The pace of the treadmill was not low, it was set at a medium
jogging pace. Soon enough Rui followed suit, laying flat on the ground,
drenched in sweat. Kane followed as well, thirteen minutes later.
It couldn't be helped. They were thirteen. The biggest difference between

eighteen and thirteen-year-olds olds was stamina. Kane compensated for it
with training and growth resources, while Rui had compensated for it with for
a lifetime of training with cutting-edge research on stamina-building. Rui's
performative attributes were hindered initially because of mismatched muscle
memories which took him a long time to overcome, his physical attributes
were well above average.
"Huff... huff..." They panted as they were provided with stamina potions,
which they immediately inhaled.
"Phew..." Rui stretched his invigorated limbs. "It never fails to amaze me
how useful this is both to us and the evaluaters, now we can move on to the
performative stage immediately."
Kane nodded, before shrugging. "Well, not immediately. There's still those
four."
It had been a while since both of them dropped off, many had followed suit
after them. But there were still four students who were going.
"Nel and Fae are too be expected..." Kane continued. "Milliana is also pretty
unsurprising." He said, pointing at the blue-haired girl they'd met earlier.
Rui had recognized her from the second round of the Entrance Exam, but he'd
forgotten her name.
"You know her?" He asked Kane.
"Sure, she's the daughter of a Martial Master. She's pretty good." Kane
replied.
"Hmmm..."
"Dalen is pretty good too." He gestured towards the fourth freshman, another
top-ten ranker that Rui vaguely recognized.
Rui turned to Kane with a hint of dismay.
"...What?" Kane retorted.
"How do you know all of the top rankers from the Exam personally?"
"Through our parents. We generally accompany our parents who are part of
this community-ish group. Occasionally we spar. I don't know those two as
well as I do Fae, though. Sage Dullahan and my father are extremely close."
"I see..." Rui sighed helplessly. This was the power of connections. Just being
the child of a Martial Sage meant Rui would regularly run into bigshots and
titans of the Martial World.
('Then again, his dad is among the biggest of bigshots, maybe Kane even
views them as bootlickers." Rui mused.
Just then, he'd noticed both Fae and Dalen had gotten off too.
"Damn, Fae actually didn't last as long as Nel and Milliana, huh?"
Kane nodded. "It makes sense. Her Martial Art focuses on relentless powerful
offense, designed to pummel her opponent down as quickly as possible. It's
not a Martial Art that is conducive to stamina..."
"She's probably not as accustomed to maintaining a low output of energy

over longer periods of time due to that." Rui agreed.
"Yeah, on the other hand, Milliana's also a Martial Apprentice. But her
Martial Art is stamina oriented. She drags and prolongs the battle immensely.
Her stamina is incredible, the longer the battle goes, the more her opponent is
at a disadvantage." Kane explained.
"Interesting..." Rui's eyes glinted with curiosity and excitement. "I wonder
how she'll do against Fae in the next stage."
"Who knows." Kane shrugged.
"It's a matter of compatibility. She did better than Fae here because this test is
centered around evaluation. She'll most certainly do worser than Fae when
we reach the performative stage based on their performances, and what you
told me." Rui analyzed engrossed in the matter. His background helped him
in this matter. He continued.
"Based on this, it can be hypothesized that Milliana has a low quick-twitch to

slow-twitch muscle fiber ratio whereas Fae likely has a high quick-twitch to
slow-twitch muscle fiber ratio, that would certainly explain the differences in
their metabolisms which wou-"
"Dude." Kane stared at him with confused expression. "What are you even
talking about?"
That broke Rui out of his reverie. "Ahhh, well, you see, it's just some some
random thoughts that hit me." He fumbled, scratching his head.
('Damn I lost awareness of my surroundings thinking about this.') He had a

hard time controlling his curiosity and attention. They were fueled by his
immense love and passion for Martial Art, and the flames just grew stronger
feeding on any topic they could find, this topic was one such thing.
"You really are a weirdo." Kane commented, before turning back to them.
"Haha..." Rui laughed awkwardly.
Time went on as they bantered and chit-chatted for quite some time after.
Until finally, one of the two remaining freshmen jumped off, collapsing to
her knees.
"Huff... Huff..." Milliana turned back, looking at Nel. She couldn't see even a
hint of exhaustion on his face. Here she was, a specialist dedicated to
stamina, exhausted to the point of visual disoreintation, and this boy was
running like it was nothing.
Unfathomable!
"You monster...!" A hint of shock coloured her otherwise impassive

expression and reserved demeanor.
Chapter 46 Shocking Performances
Fae rushed over to Milliana, with a potion already prepared.
"You okay?" She asked, with a rarely visible hint of concern for her friend.
"...Yes." She squeezed out amidst her panting. "Just exhausted."
Fae turned to Nel who was still jogging, she could see palpable boredom in
his demeanor. He hadn't broken the slightest bit of a sweat. It's clear this was
nowhere near his limit.
('Just how many hours has it been?') Fae wondered. She wasn't surprised that
Nel bested her in stamina, it was not her forte, but she didn't think the
difference would be so drastic. Neither the second nor the third round hadn't
been enough to push either of them to the limits of their stamina, so it hadn't
struck her tenacious he was.
Rui and Kane were quite shocked at both their performances, but especially
Nel's.
"Is such a thing even possible? Has he consumed an enhancing potion?" Rui
pondered. He turned to Kane;
"Do you know him? Is he part of a Martial Family?" He asked, looking for a
possible explanation.
Kane shook his head. "Never seen him before the Entrance Exam. He doesn't
seem to be a Martial Apprentice with a stamina-oriented Martial Art either."
Rui nodded. Although he wasn't familiar with Apprentice-level techniques

yet, it didn't seem like Nel was using some advanced technique that
minimized consumption of energy like Milliana seemed to be, his running
form was lazy and sloppy. This really seemed to be a matter of raw stamina.
"He's probably either consumed an enhancement potion like you suggest

or..." Kane murmured.
"Or he was born with a body that surpasses human limits."
Rui's eyes widened. "Is that even possible."
Kane nodded. "I've heard of it, that's all."
Rui turned back to Nel, who had now been coaxed by Senior Tarrokov to get
off the treadmill. It seems Nel's tenacity had surpassed the Martial Senior's
patience. Not that it was a big deal, with the absurd stamina he showed.
Rui observed the Senior's reaction to Nel's performance. He seemed more

exasperated than surprised or shocked.
('Guess even this ridiculous performance isn't a big deal to Martial Seniors.')
There was a small break once the stamina evaluation test ended. Rui and
Kane chit-chatted and bantered while the contestants who passed after them
recuperated with stamina potions. Once all the freshmen gathered having
fully recovered. Senior Tarrokov spoke to them about the upcoming tests.
"The next part of the physical evaluation will be centered around muscular
power. You'll have your weight measured before you perform a series of
muscle-intensive activities with the training equipment in this facility." He
explained. "Your performance will be weighted in regards to your weight,
age and sex for the actual evaluation."
Rui nodded. It made sense to evaluate physical strength in regards to weight,

age and sex, rather than measure muscular power in a vacuum. The former
was a more reliable onlook into whether their muscular power was optimal or
not. The latter was just worthless. In fact, on Earth the norm for empirical
data included far more variables and parameters than just those three.
Hormonal levels, muscle mass to body mass ratio, bone density and other
metabolic variables were accounted for when gathering data. Weight, age and
sex were just the bare minimum.
The following tests went quickly and smoothly. The students were put
through rigorous weight lifting exercises, with and without weights giving the
evaluators a diverse dataset. The following tests of the Physical evaluation
tested a variety of physical parameters and attributes like speed, agility,
reaction time and reflexes, as well as flexibility and durability.
Within an hour, the physical evaluation ended.
"The next stage as mentioned prior, is the performative evaluation." Senior

Tarrokov explained. "This stage has multiple tests entered around body-eye
coordination, a relatively large attribute with many sub-attributes as well as
other parameters like balance, spatial awareness, analysis and judgement etc."
Rui performed worser off in this stage than he did in the prior, relatively
speaking. It couldn't be helped. He started out with a huge handicap of
mismatched muscle-memory, which took many years to correct. If not for
that he would probably have performed as good as Kane did.
('Maybe even better.') He sighed inwardly. All in all, his performance in the
performative evaluation was unremarkable, his designated evaluator
concluded.
That was, until they reached the analysis and judgement test.
...
"He's not even an Apprentice..." Senior Tarrokov murmured to himself with a

surprised expression. He looked at Rui with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Uhm... This is the correct way to do it right?" Rui asked awkwardly.
The test multi-staged test that began with an IQ test, before moving onto
more applied deduction evaluations. The freshmen were put in tests with
certain conditions to be fulfilled in order to pass. However, the conditions
were such that they could not be accomplished by physical or Martial
Prowess. Be it capturing species of bats that were too agile be captured unless
the limitations and weaknesses of echo-location were appropriately exploited,
using the behavioural tendencies of creatures to manipulate them in specified
ways to fulfill the conditions, or deducing the location of required items from
the surroundings.
All of these tests evaluated different aspects of analysis and judgement. This
was a broad performative attribute could not be evaluated with a single test,
after all.
However, Rui aced them all. He even passed the final stage, the only one that
did. The final stage was an almost impossible test meant to ascertain the
limits of even extremely intelligent students who passed all prior tests. The
freshmen were each tossed into a stuffy room with booby traps that would
launch projectiles on you, furthermore, the triggers for the trap was
everything, every step you took triggered the projectiles. That alone was
hellishly difficult, but the actual condition for victory was to kill bouncing
slimes.
It was practically impossible.
"How did you...?" Kane asked, after he witnessed Rui's performance.
Rui glanced at him and shrugged. "I ignored the slime and tanked its damage
initially, it was too difficult to try and brute-force, I instead paid attention to
the booby traps. The projectiles of the trap weren't impossibly fast, I could
probably take a step out of the way narrowly before they hit me. Yet I was
unable to dodge them initially, they hit me even after I moved, almost as if
they knew the direction I was moving in. The question was, how?" Rui asked
them. Before explaining
"The possibility of a separate sensory and targeting system could be

excluded, the traps were unable to account for three-dimensional motion, the
success of ducking and jumping was oddly high, albeit not enough. This
strongly denied the presence of a separate targeting system, it was much more
likely that the targeting system was connected to the triggers." Rui deduced.
"Occam's Razor dictates that the simplest possibility was the likeliest, it was
quite likely that the system extrapolated the direction of evasion through the
direction made by connecting my steps on the ground with a line. Once I
verified this, it was easier to avoid the traps, I could simply walk in a
direction perpendicular to the direction drawn out by my steps. Once I grew
comfortable with it, it was time to kill the slime. Using a combination of my
own attack as well as manipulating the traps by stepping in a certain way
together, I was able to hit the slime with the instated booby traps, took me a
while though." Rui shrugged, ending his explanation.
Kane and others who were listening to his explanation stared at him with
open jaws.
Kane turned to another student who was close to them with a confused
expression.
"Did you understand?"
The poor boy shook his head.

Chapter 47 Interesting
Developments
It took a while for the people around him to overcome their incredulity. Most
of them had felt hopeless in the face of the final test. Not only were the
bouncing slimes of a much higher grade than those of the Entrance Exam
because the average freshman was far more capable than the average
applicant, but the traps in combination were too overwhelming to be
overcome with speed and power, or even technique. It was a test only those at
the pinnacle of the Martial Apprentice Realm could overcome, or those with
high enough analysis and judgement to deduce the only possible strategy that
could help them overcome the test.
The tactical intelligence test was the final test in the performative evaluation
stage. With it, the Evaluation Exam had ended. What surprised Rui was how
quickly the results came and their dormitories were set. The freshmen all
received a key and directions to their dorm rooms.
('Room number 256 huh? And I have a roommate.') This wasn't surprise as
this was covered by the information booklet. He looked at the name.
('Cara Mullion.')
He was surprised that the Academy put male and female students together in
the same room. Were they not afraid of putting a bunch of hormonal
teenagers in the same room as the opposite sex?
('No, if something that simple can distract them, they probably would not
have passed the first stage. And if it does, then what chance do they have to
become a Martial Squire?')
He even suspected the Academy used this to evaluate the work ethic and
motivation of students.
Once he reached his room, he immediately dropped his bag and dived into a
bed. The room was decently spacious. It's lavishness and extravagance were
purposely reduced significantly. The Martial Academy was not a vacation at
a paradise. The rooms were designed modestly to prevent students from
developing the wrong mindset.
Still, the rooms were spacious enough for a decent living standard. Each
room was divided into two sections by a wall connected by a spacious
opening, each side had a decently big bed, a table with two chairs, a shelf, a
cupboard with drawers, and enough windows for healthy air circulation and
sunlight. The décor was, once again, sparse.
Just as he scrutinized the room. A girl with short brown hair walked in,
dropping a suitcase on her side as she made eye-contact with Rui.
"You must be Cara." Rui smiled warmly, trying to start off on a good note for
his roommate. "I'm Rui Quarrier, nice to meet you."
She glanced at him, curtly nodding before going about her business.
('...Not one of many words I see.') He noted, before minding his own
business, if she didn't want to build a relationship, he was perfectly fine with
that. He laid his belongings in the room before heading to the toilet to take a
bath and freshen up. Potions could restore stamina, but they did not get rid of
sweat and dust.
Later that day, he decided to meet up with Kane to explore the Academy, he
didn't bother going with a guide, he'd memorized the general layout and he
was sure Kane remembered every detail. It was much more without a stranger
butting in.
('I believe it was just around the corner here...') as he peeked into a corridor,
looking for the Apprentice dormitory. When suddenly;
"What the FUCK did you say?"

Rui jerked around towards the source of the commotion.
He saw a tall burly boy holding, to his surprise, Nel by the collar. The boy
was about to throw a punch at Nel when a heavy presence suddenly put
pressure on them.
"Aggressing violence is against the rules." An even bigger man caught the
punch with two fingers.
('A Martial Squire.') Rui's eyes twinkled. This presence wasn't as heavy as
Senior Tarrokov's, but the Squire expressed cold disregard for the boy. It was
more distressing then senior Tarrokov's who limited his impact on the
students to not affect their performance.
"He insulted my mother!" The boy complained despite his fear.
"Speech is not regulated by the rules. You can say anything to each other,
however you may not escalate conflicts to violence." the Squire insisted,
putting even more pressure on the hapless boy.
Nel on the other hand disregarded the pressure as his entire face warped into
a provocative contemptuous sneer at the boy, enraging him even further
('Jesus that expression is so nasty, no wonder that boy couldn't resist the urge
to punch him') Rui mused, laughing inwardly. Nel was over the top but Rui
found his antics incredibly amusing.
('He's an even bigger shit-stirrer than Fae is. Good lord I hope those two don't
run into each other. That's chaos that this world is not ready to withstand.')
He could tell Nel had provoked that boy on purpose. Judging from what that
boy said, it was likely that Nel said something incredibly nasty about his
mother, provoking him to grab him by the collar and launch an attack so that
the Martial Squire who was on patrol duty would intervene and reprimand
him.
('So he isn't just an idiot. He clearly knows what he's doing and he's good at
it. That's scary.') Rui shook his head helplessly, resolving to stay away from
the kid, leaving to look for the Apprentice dormitory.
"You wanna fight?" Nel asked after the Squire had left, throwing a wide grin
at the furious boy. "Then challenge me officially if you have the balls. We
can settle whether your cow of a mother should have aborted you or not." He
shrugged exaggeratedly.
Rui stopped as his ears pricked, turning around to look at the scene.
The Martial Academy penalized violence, but did have a system where
students could challenge each other and fight in a more controlled setting.
The Martial Academy wasn't stupid. Gathering students who were resolved to
walk the Martial Path in one place and telling them not to fight was
unrealistic. These kids no doubt had strong personalities and egos, it was just
unhealthy and unconducive to their interests to repress physical conflicts
completely, so they left means by which it could be monitored and controlled
so that it didn't escalate.
"DEAL." The boy screeched, he was so angry he couldn't even articulate

anything else.
('This is interesting...') Rui grinned.

Chapter 48 Tour
"So you're telling me Nel provoked a guy into challenging him?" Kane asked
curiously.
"Yeah, I was looking for the Apprentice dormitory and coincidentally ran
into them." Rui explained.
Soon after the commotion Nel caused, Rui had managed to find Kane in the
Apprentice dormitory. He told Kane about duel he'd heard issued on his way.
"Do you know who the other guy was? What about the details?" Kane asked.
"Nah." Rui shook his head. "They left before I could learn any of that."
"Hm, well we can find out anyway."
"How so?" Rui asked curiously.
"Official duels need to be registered at least one day prior. If they've already
registered it, it will be added to the time table of the Apprentice sparring
facility." Kane explained.
"That's convenient." Rui nodded. As expected of the Academy expert. "Let's

look at it while we visit the sparring facility in our tour."
"Sure thing."
They bantered a bit, before setting out.
The Academy was truly vast. It was comparable to a small town. Rui and
Kane could spend the whole day and would still not be able to tour it in its
entirety. Still, they intended to cover as much ground as they could.
They set out with the information guidebooks the Academy had provided
them in the investiture ceremony, mapping out a quick touring route.
The Academy grouped its facilities and other infrastructure in regards to their
utility to the students. The outermost layer was dedicated to students in the
Foundational and Exploration Stages of the academic curriculum. The inner
layer was dedicated to Martial Apprentices.
Unfortunately, Rui discovered that students like him, colloquially referred to

as novices were not allowed into a majority of the facilities of the inner
section.
"They sure are harsh." Rui sighed as a guard denied him access into a training
facility in the inner section. Kane hadn't been aware of this since the
information wasn't covered in the guidebook for some reason.
"They have a strong lockdown on information that doesn't need to be

disclosed." Kane said. "I'm already a Martial Apprentice and I still don't
know the conditions needed to become a Martial Squire."
"Shame. Well, let's stick to exploring the outer section." Rui resigned.
The outer section was much bigger than the inner section. After all, there a lot
of novices like Ves, far more so than the number of Martial Apprentices.
Thus, the resources and space dedicated to nurturing them was far greater
than the those dedicated to Martial Apprentices.
Rui and Kane first ran into a physical training wing of the outer section. The
physical training wing had a huge number of facilities dedicated to Martial
body-building. The sheer variety in the training equipment, regimes and
exercises was truly amazing. It surpassed even what Kane had access to when
he was in the Foundational Stage.
"Woah..." Kane murmured as they inspected the area. "As expected of the
Academy."
Rui nodded. He wouldn't be surprised if he was told that the facility was had
targeted training for every single muscle and bone in the human body. In fact,
that probably was the case.
The wing was partially populated with students working out. What Rui
noticed quickly however, was that these students weren't part of the freshmen
batch that he was part of. They were their seniors who had joined at least a
year prior, if not more.
They were engaged in various training regimes or exercises in various small

groups. Furthermore, each group was monitored by a supervisor.
"They're not Martial Artists though." Kane noted, there presence was that of
ordinary humans.
"The Academy would not bother wasting the time of Martial Squires on
novices who haven't even crossed the foundational stage." Rui shook his
head. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. Martial Squires made the bulk
of the Martial force of any nation. They were too precious to be wasted
supervising a bunch of brats who hadn't even mastered the basics of basics.
Ultimately, this was a low-skilled, low-output occupation that was better
done by less important personnel
"It's quite likely the Apprentice training facilities will be overseen by Martial
Squires and Martial Seniors." Rui mused, a hint of envy colouring his tone.
Kane shrugged. He merely pointed a curiosity. He had been mentored by a

retired Martial Master. Being mentored by Squires or Seniors wasn't exciting.
On extremely rare occasions, his father had personally overlooked his

training. But that wasn't a pleasant memory for him, instead it was even the
driving force for his desire to escape his home and join the Academy.
They shrugged and moved on to the performative training wing. Which was
much bigger in comparison to the facility prior. It was also much more
interesting to Rui. There were numerous sections dedicated to different
performative attributes. A lot of them resembled things he'd see in Chinese
martial arts movies.
"Interesting stuff." Rui murmured as they took in a balance training facility.

Even performative attributes like balance didn't seem to have a single facility
dedicated to it. Instead, there were multiple facilities dedicated to different
aspects of balance.
"This one should be related to kinetic balance." Rui mused to himself. There
was a difference between maintaining balance during motion, and
maintaining balance while still. Although correlated, these two were not the
same. It was possible to have good static balance, while having bad dynamic
and kinetic balance, and vice versa. Thus, it became necessary to treat
balance as a multi-varied equation rather than a singular attribute where
training and improvement was concerned.
Body-eye coordination training was even vaster than balance, though this was
within Rui's expectations. Atleast balance could be cleanly divided into only
a handful different types. Body-eye coordination, however was much more
complicated. In theory, every muscle's coordination with the brain could be
treated separately, creating a huge number of different subdivisions within
body-eye coordination. This reflected in the sheer variety of training regimes
and exercises that students were put through!
"Amazing!" Rui couldn't contain his excitement. This was what he wanted!
This was what he longed for! The sheer amount of resources and funds that
the Academy would be investing in Rui far surpassed what he could do by
himself. This was why he had joined the Academy.
"I can't wait to begin training!" He exclaimed.

Chapter 49 Core Building
Kane wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as Rui was about the training facilities.
Although his father couldn't singlehandedly match the Academy, the
economic and political capital of a Martial Sage could not be underestimated.
Although the scale of the infrastructure and facilities of the Martial Academy
was much bigger than what he was accustomed to, the quality of the training
was not inferior.
Instead, what truly excited Kane was the very prospect of living
independently from his family. Not being under the shadow of his father, not
being under the pressuring gaze of his mother, the hateful envious eyes of his
siblings, step-siblings and step-parents was far more invigorating and
delightful than he had ever imagined. He was finally free!
This was in sharp contrast to Rui, who still felt a tinge of sadness leaving his
family. Furthermore, Rui himself was not that excited living with a
roommate, this was an all-too-common phenomenon in his previous life.
"Who's your roommate?" Rui asked as they returned from their tour.
"Martial Apprentices have their own lodgings." Kane replied. "So I live
alone. Not that I'm complaining. Being truly alone feels better than I ever
imagined."
Rui smiled as he listened to Kane extoll the greatness of the Apprentice

dormitories.
Before long, they bid each other good evening and went their separate ways.
The day was long but Rui was truly tired mentally, even if not physically. He
bade Cara goodnight only to, once again, receive a curt nod in response,
before decking himself into his bed and falling asleep.
The next day was an exciting one. He excitedly wore the Academy uniform
provided to novices like him before heading to the general assembly hall.
There were several important things due to happen today. The first was the
personalized and customized training curriculum due to be handed out to all
novices. This was the main purpose of the Evaluation Exam. To detect the
strengths and weaknesses of freshmen and to create a training program for
each one of them designed to eliminate their weaknesses and secondarily to
bolster their strengths, to create a strong foundation for their Martial Path.
Rui quickly head to the assembly hall and took his place among the gathered
students, organized in multiple lines. Once the supervisors confirmed that all
the students had gathered, they began calling out names of the students
gathered one by one, before handing out small booklets to each student.
These booklets contained all the details relevant to their training curriculum.
Rui gazed at this little book with intense reverence.
"These will dictate your training regimes of the Foundational Stage of your
curriculum. These booklets contain the training regimes you will be subjected
to as well as the location and time period for each regime. Coordinate with
Academy information guidebook all of you possess and ensure you're never
late. Tardiness will not be tolerated and will be punished. Furthermore..." The
supervisor continued rattling out instructions and guidelines before
dismissing the students.
"...The Foundational Stage is the most important part of your Martial Paths. It
serves as the foundation upon which everything else is built. I hope each and
every one of you will sincerely dedicate yourselves to it. With that said,
you're dismissed." He nodded before leaving the facility.
Rui quickly went through his training regime. As much as he wanted to sit
down and pour through every detail of his training curriculum guide, he
noticed that he had a training session immediately.
"Core building huh?" Rui nodded. "An important aspect of Martial Art,
indeed."
He quickly scurried over to the physical training section.

Inside, many freshmen had gathered already. And the chief supervisor was
keeping a close eye on the wall clock.
"Alright, it's time. Form lines and stand in attention." He instructed.
They quickly adhered to his instructions as he continued.
"Core building is an important part of Martial Art. For those who aren't
aware, the 'core' refers to the set of muscles in you mid and lower abdomen."
He explained, patting his gut and lower back. "There isn't a single Martial Art
in existence that can function without the core, it is absolutely vital. Thus,
core building is considered to be one of the most important aspects of
physical training."
He provided all the students with small pamphlets that provided more
detailed information on the core muscles. Of course, Rui didn't bother delving
much into it. With his background and work, he probably knew more about
the core muscles of the human body than anybody else in the entirety of the
whole planet.
"And with that said, we'll begin right away. We'll start with more elementary
and static exercises such as plank and bridge variations before moving onto
simpler dynamic exercises like deadbugs and sit-ups. Once that's done, we'll
begin with exercises that require equipment. Pallof Presses, landmine
rotations, Renegate Rows, pikes and ab-rollouts, also..." He rattled out more
exercises and details of the sets, durations and methodology.
Rui immediately began following his instructions diligently. Though

inwardly, he had some gripes about the training regime.
p ('This isn't the most optimal means of training, though it's not bad.') Back
on Earth, research had already shown that the relentless 'no pain no gain'
training regimes were not the most optimal and efficient means making gains,
it was a somewhat outdated albeit popular means of training. At the very
least, serious athletes would never train such a haphazard way. It was much
more efficient to first take detailed data of the subject's metabolic parameters
before carefully designing a training regime that would yield the maximum
number of gains for a certain amount of effort.
He put aside those thoughts while he began his planks. These, like most
exercises, needed focus and concentration. It was inefficient to let your mind
wander while exercising and training, not to mention dangerous.
Furthermore, thinking about whether it was optimal or not was useless. After
all, he couldn't change his training regime. He was merely a novice in the
Foundational Stage, he was expected to adhere to all instructions provided by
the Academy.
Chapter 50 Unfathomable
The next several hours were filled with grueling effort. With only thirty-
second break between exercises, Rui was truly pushed to his limits. Core
building required strong perseverance, there was no other field of training
that targeted as many muscles simultaneously as core building did.
Furthermore, the supervisors were unforgivingly relentless and brutal in their

pushing, the presence of healing and energy potions destroyed all excuses
that students attempted to hide behind. It was hellish.
Yet, among all of them, only one of them had a slight tinge of ecstasy on his
face.
('This is great. Although I compensated as much as I could with

resourcefulness and clever tricks, you can't really beat the real deal. The
potions alone make me vastly more productive than I could have been by
myself.')
He enthusiastically engaged in the exercises prescribed by the supervisors.

His schedule was packed with exercises, he had only a bit of free time for
meals, and a few hours to himself by the end of the day.
He only got to take a good look at his curriculum and evaluation during
lunch, he was too busy prior.
('As expected, a significant majority of my training is centered around my

physical performative attributes.') He mused to himself.
His physical attributes were rather impressive, well above average for his
age. He was quite close to Kane as far as raw statistics were concerned.
Although Kane had far superior training and growing resources. Rui largely
compensated for that with a lifetime of training, and much better training
methodology.
His physical performative attributes like balance, body-eye coordination and

spatial awareness weren't as good, if it weren't for his mismatched muscle
memory he might have been as good as Kane even in that regard, but alas. He
couldn't have his cake and eat it.
However, his mental performative attributes like analysis, judgement and

tactical ingenuity were absurd by the Martial Academy standards.
Unbeknownst to him, his performance in this attribute was the single greatest
performance in the century long history of the Martial Academy. His IQ
score was the highest ever recorded in their database, and he was the only one
to have ever passed the final test of the intelligence evaluation test.
Furthermore, he completed ridiculously quickly than the Academy thought
possible for a thirteen-year-old novice.
Geniuses like Nel born with a godly body were truly rare, but not unheard of.
Every decade tended to have someone with Nel's physical prowess. The
Academy was quite impressed, but it still fell within their predictions.
However, Rui broke their model for the limits of the human mind
In their eyes, his mind was unfathomable. And it had reflected in his
curriculum. He was the only student in the history of the Academy to not be
given even the slightest bit of mental performative training. He only had a
monthly evaluation of his intelligence, and even this was a bit outside of their
general policy. The Academy wanted to gather more data on this unheard-of
phenomenon. It had generated a lot of interest and excitement within many
wings of the Academy.
Rui, however, was blissfully unaware of the shock his performance had
generated. He lacked context and vital information. Furthermore, he lacked
an outsider perspective on himself. He was no doubt aware of his
performance being high, even highest among the freshmen who had
participated. However, that was as far he thought it went. He thought he was
just another yearly topper of the mental performative attribute evaluation,
every year had one, so not too shocking.
('The rest of my day is centered around performative training.') Rui nodded.
He was not dismayed by this. He needed physical performative training
badly. Unlike physical training, it was much more difficult to train physical
performative attributes without training resources. The training for these
parameters were much more complicated and nuanced.
He could finally erase his greatest weakness.
"Hey man." Kane interrupted his reverie. "Sorry for being late."
"No problem." Rui responded. "Got caught up in exploring the Martial

Apprentice library?"
Unlike him, Kane was not mandated to engage in training. He spent his days
browsing the Martial Academy's techniques looking for techniques study, and
potentially add to his Martial Art.
Kane nodded. "The library of techniques is far, far larger than what my
household provided to me when I became a Martial Apprentice. There tons of
amazing techniques."
"That sounds incredible." Rui replied with a hint of envy. He couldn't wait to
become a Martial Apprentice. The more Kane extolled his experience, the
stronger Rui's hunger to experience it himself grew.
"As much as I'd tell you all about the techniques I came across in detail, I
can't." Kane told him with an apologetic demeanor. "I had to sign an oath that
I wouldn't disclose this knowledge to anybody else during my stay in the
Academy."
Rui sighed; he had anticipated this would be the case after having witnessed
the Academy's propensity to control information. He would never learn
anything the Academy deemed unnecessary for him to know.
"The only way to learn more, is to grow stronger, huh?" Rui murmured to
himself.
"Hm?"
"Ah, nothing, just thinking about what you told me."
"Hm, by the way, are you ready for today?" Kane grinned.
"Today?"
"Yeah, Nel's duel with Felix is today."
Rui had almost forgotten about the duel, he had been so caught up in his own
matters, he'd filtered out of everything external away. They had discovered
the time and location of the duel during their tour the day before. The boy
who'd challenged Nel was Felix Harakel, someone Kane recognized. His
mother was a retired Martial Master.
Learning that had provided more context to the conflict he'd come across
yesterday. His mother was likely a source of pride to him, whereas her
retirement might have been a touchy subject to him. Nel had viciously
attacked Felix on his possible insecurities with nasty, but successfully
provocative insults, resulting in that violent backlash of a reaction.
"Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to it." Rui couldn't wait to see Nel in
action.
Chapter 51 Rational Or Not
"Fuuuu...." Rui exhaled as he raised his hands and crouched his body,
bending his knees. At a distance there were numerous cylindrical tubes
stacked parallelly pointed at him. This was part of the hand-eye coordination
training he was subject to.
BANG BANG BANG
The machine shot three balls at Rui. He swiftly launched his hands reaching
for the balls, hoping to catch some of them.
"You missed! Repeat!" His supervisor instructed sternly. Rui crouched into a
ready position once again. Heightening his senses and putting his body on
edge.
BANG BANG BANG
He'd already given up on trying to catch all three of them, it was clearly too
much for him. For now, he tried catching just one of them. It was only after
diverting his attention on one of the balls, that he finally succeeded in
catching it, much to his delight.
"Better." His instructor nodded. "Focus on what you can do, with enough
practice and hardwork, you'll grow to be able to do more."
"Yes sir." Rui nodded.
He found the body-eye coordination training the hardest. He was undoubtedly

the worst among all the novices. The combination of him being the youngest
and the most challenged in this regard made his performance in contrast to
his peers.
If it had been any other student his age with his performance, this most
certainly would have affected them negatively, but Rui took it in stride. He
could feel as though he'd grown stronger, this feeling triggered euphoria,
which only pushed him to be train even more intensely.
Of course, this was merely a sensation, not real. It was impossible for a
novice to grow that fast. Rui estimated in ninety days' time, he would be able
to observe significant improvements.
"Once again." His instructor instructed. Rui nodded, getting into his stance,
he was determined to perform just a bit better than before, slow and steady
won the race.
The rest of the day was a series of training sessions one after another, Rui
jumped around different types body-eye coordination training sessions, until
he received a break at the end of the day.
"Phew" Rui sighed as he refreshed himself with a bath washing away the seat
and dirt that a whole day worth of training had accumulated. He quickly dried
himself up before putting on some casual clothing. He intended to hang out
with Kane and watch the duel between Nel and Felix.
('Hm?') Rui's eyes spotted Cara fiddling with what looked like an insignia, as
he headed to the door, which she promptly hid, with a sharp look directed at
Rui.
Rui ignored her gaze with a mild sigh.
('As reserved as ever, I see.') He shrugged inwardly. He would not bother

interacting with someone who clearly had a problem with social interaction.
He quickly headed to the Apprentice dormitory, and tagged Kane along to the
Apprentice sparring center.
"I'm fortunate to be able to witness this match at all." Rui shook his head.
"True." Kane nodded. "If both of them were Martial Apprentices, you would
likely have not been here for this."
Martial Apprentices had a lot of freedom in the Academy, meaning they
could register duel for any time of the day they wanted. Rui only had a small
window of freedom every day where he could travel to the Apprentice
sparring facility to witness duels, he would miss all duels that didn't happen
during his break period.
The reason he was able to catch the duel between Nel and Felix wasn't
because of luck. But because one of the two of them was the same as him; a
novice student.
This wasn't unusual. What surprised Rui was that that student was not Felix,
the novice student was Nel!
"I was really surprised to learn that Nel wasn't a Martial Apprentice." Rui
murmured.
"Yeah, but the condition to become a Martial Apprentice isn't related to

combat prowess. It's related to your Martial foundation and your Martial
Path." Kane explained. "Nel is extremely formidable, but not because of his
Martial Prowess; his skill and technique. Rather, his power comes from his
ridiculous physical prowess."
Rui nodded, he'd seen Nel in several performative training sessions, much to
his and everyone else's shock.
"If he's this strong without even being a Martial Apprentice..." Rui pondered.
"Then he'll probably be the strongest Martial Apprentice when he does

become one." Kane completed.
"We'll be able to learn more about his combat prowess in this duel." Rui
noted. "Do you know how strong Felix is?"
"Yeah, I didn't know he'd become a Martial Apprentice, to be honest." Kane

admitted. "We'd met six months ago, back when I'd just turned into a Martial
Apprentice, and he was still in the Exploration Stage back then."
"So, he must have turned into an Apprentice somewhat recently." Rui

concluded. "Furthermore, if you only knew him in his Exploration Stage,
then he hadn't discovered his Martial Path back then, correct?"
Kane nodded. "Yeah, I'm rather curious about what his Martial Art is about."
They made their way to the Apprentice sparring center bantering lightly.
They immediately noticed a huge crowd once they reached the facility.
Kane whistled "That's a lot of people."
"It is the first duel of our batch, after all. Also, it's a duel with the novice
topper, and a Martial Apprentice. It would be weird if it didn't gather this
kind of interest."
Kane nodded with an intrigued expression. He was quite curious about the
fight himself. Just then;
"My, the two of you are here as well." A voice said to them
Kane's enthuse immediately fell, recognizing that voice instantly. Rui sighed
as well.
"Yeah." He responded lightly.
"Any thoughts on who's going to win?" Fae asked them both, particularly
Kane, since they both were acquaintances of Felix.
Kane shrugged, resigned that she wasn't going anywhere soon. "Unless Felix
experienced a massive growth spike, he probably can't win."
Fae nodded. "But he challenged Nel despite observing his performance in the
Entrance Exam and Evaluation Exam, that likely means he's confident to
some degree."
"It all depends on how rational he was when he challenged Nel." Rui shook
his head in response. "I was there when it happened, trust me, the guy looked
like he was about burst a vein."
"Hmm..." Fae turned to the sparring ring. "Then we'll just have to see how
much of his decision was rational and how much was emotional, I guess."
Chapter 52 Conflict
"Heh, you didn't chicken out." Nel grinned.
"I'm going to beat you to a pulp." Felix retorted with suppressed anger.
"Put your money where your mouth is, motherfucker." Nel emphasized the
barb.
Felix gritted his teeth, choosing to remain silent.
A referee soon had both fighters take their positions, bow and take their
stance.
"Interesting..." Rui murmured as he saw Felix's stance. Felix had brought his
left leg forward and raised hands to shoulder height, squatting low until his
head dipped to chest level.
"He's a wrestler." Rui immediately concluded. This was a very common

wrestling stance, for good reason too. This stance allowed wrestlers to launch
takedowns and shoots to close the distance and turn it into a full-contact
grappling match. The squat allowed them to rush at their opponent's lower
abdomen, this was known as a shoot, and the arms were positioned to be able
to grab their opponents to prevent them from opening up distance or maintain
their balance.
Fae nodded. "If he succeeds in turning the fight into a full contact fight, then
he might win."
Nel's stance was a bit strange, he squatted just a bit and left his arms loose,
dangling above the ground. His demeanor was relaxed, he had an expression
of lazy confidence.
"Ready... And start!" The referee began the match.
Immediately Felix leapt at Nel, with his arms open; a common shoot
maneuver. Just as Felix was about to grab the stationary Nel, he jumped and
landed on Felix's head, balancing on one foot nonchalantly, hands in his
pocket.
Felix immediately lashed at Nel's legs, hoping to throw him down, but not
before Nel effortlessly summersaulted off landing behind him. The force of
that maneuver had pushed Felix to his knees, while Nel glanced at him with
lazy boredom.
"Is that the best you could do?" He yawned.
Felix snarled in rage throwing all his momentum into a fast, powerful lunge.
To his surprise, he actually caught Nel with ease, the latter had not moved.
Merely staring him in the eye with boredom.
('Letting me get a hold on you? I'll make you regret your arrogance.')
Felix vowed, humiliated. He had decided to go all-out. He'd decided to use

the strongest Apprentice level finisher move he'd learnt thus far.
The Reverse Whip.
He grabbed Nel from the back, lifted his body and swung him all the way
behind his back, landing Nel on his head.
BOOM
A huge noise was born from the impact, there was even a gust of wind with
the sheer amount of power Felix had generated.
('That was clean! I got him!') Felix was ecstatic.
The Reverse Whip was a German Suplex, however its power was greatly
amplified. The technique directed, accumulated and converged power from
every muscle in the body. It was quite similar to Outer Convergence; the
technique that Fae had used against Rui. The same principle, different
application.
Felix got up with an elated expression, he had defended his mother's honour!
"Not bad... That hurt way more than I expected, you know." Felix froze as a
voice behind said.
('There's no way...') He turned around with fear in his eyes.
Nel cracked his neck, getting up.
"Yeah..." He continued. "You're way fucking better than I thought you'd be,
not gonna lie."
He got back into his loose squat stance. "Since you showed me that awesome
move, it's only fair that I return that favour" He grinned, growing more
excited. "Wouldn't you agree.?
,m Felix stared at him with a horrified expression. "You-!"
BAM
One moment Nel was three meters away from Felix. The next moment his
arm had already burrowed itself in Felix's abdomen, contorting his guts.
"Fast!" Kane exclaimed. He could achieve that speed himself, but only after
combining Parallel Walk and a few other Apprentice level techniques. Nel on
the other hand just ran to Felix without using any techniques.
Felix crumbled like a broken puppet, unable to breathe. Nel had struck his
diaphragm, momentarily incapacitating him. He gasped for air like a fish out
of water, a trail of blood trickling out of his mouth amidst the saliva.
Nel sighed, his demeanor grew lethargic and he lost all his excitement at the
sight. "We were having so much fun. You just had to go and cut it short, oh
well."
He shrugged, before throwing a glance at the dumbstruck referee, who

immediately ended the match upon the prompt.
Nel walked out of the ring, ignoring the crowd that split to make way for him,
heading to the door.
"Ah... You." He recognized Fae. "You're the one from the Entrance Exam,
you were awesome." His eyes lit up through his long messy silvery hair.
"You wanna continue what we couldn't back then?"
"My, enthusiastic aren't you?" Fae giggled. "I was free back then. I don't have
the time to play around with yet another cocky brat." she said, playfully
rubbing Kane's green hair, which Kane promptly swatted off, glaring at her.
Nel stared at her listlessly, meeting Kane's and Rui's eyes before retorting.
"Hmph, you scared bitch?"
"Bold words from a boy who hasn't even reached Martial Apprentice." She
returned his hostility. "You're not worth my time anymore, I'm the heir of the
Dullahan Family, my time is more important than you realize." Her eyes and
smile turned icier by the second.
The tension was high.
"If you're that busy, then stop harassing us every time you see us!" Kane
grumbled, causing Fae to burst into laughter
Nel watched the two bickering expressionlessly, before leaving wordlessly.

"You and I will fight, whether you like it or not." Before leaving the facility
Rui had been silent the entire time, staring off into space with an intense
expression.
"He's a jerk, isn't he?" Kane poked at him.
Rui didn't respond.
"...You good bro?" Kane jabbed him in the ribs.
"Ow! What is your problem dude?" Rui jerked out of his reverie, glaring at
Kane.
"Are you thinking about what Nel said?" He asked, probing Rui.
"What did Nel say?"
"..." Kane stared at him.
"Wait a second." Rui turned towards the ring in confusion. "Felix and Nel
were just on the ring a moment ago! Where did they go?"
"..."
"Was that also an Apprentice level technique? The fight was amazing, but
this is even moreso!" Rui's expression intensified.
"Were you zoned out this whole time thinking about the fight?" Fae asked
hesitatingly.
"Forget about him, he's a weirdo." Kane shook his head.
"Hey, that's mean." Rui protested. "I was just thinking about it for half a
second!"
Kane facepalmed himself while Fae burst out laughing.
"What just happened?" Rui murmured at that scene, scratching his head.
Chapter 53 Potion Prodigy
"Hm...?" The medical supervisor squinted her eyes as she glanced at the
medical report in front of her.
"Uh... Is there a problem doctor?" Rui asked with a hint of anxiety, seated on
the other side of the table. The doctor's expression was not reassuring.
It had been three days since the duel between Nel and Felix. Life had gone
about as one were to expect since then. As soon as the duel ended, Rui
returned to training neglecting sleep thanks to the effects of the mental
rejuvenation potions; potions that rejuvenated the psyche the way eight hours
of sleep did.
The administration of the potion as well as the monitoring of the student's

condition was an extremely important duty that came along with it, and it was
a duty that the medical department fulfilled. Overdosing on rejuvenation
potions could lead to brain damage and induced mental disorders, it could
potentially be fatal, and the Academy had set up an extremely strict protocol
system to ensure that it did not inadvertently cripple their students, that would
be a catastrophe.
The medical department was to conduct medical tests to decide whether

students were fit to consume rejuvenation potions, as well as the quantity and
potency.
Rui had just completed one of the daily routine of tests and was currently
present before a designated doctor who was evaluating them.
She ignored Rui's question and flipped back and forth between the pages in
confusion, before finally looking up to Rui.
"You have consumed three rejuvenation potions, one per day, continuously,
correct?"
"Yes"
She glanced back at the data with even greater confusion, before shaking her
head. "I'm afraid there's an error in the tests. You'll have to redo the medical
tests immediately."
Rui's apprehension increased upon hearing that, he asked cautiously. "Is there
an issue with my health, doctor?"
"No not an issue with you, it's just that the data suggests that you're fit to
consume more potions successively. However, it is a well-established
medical fact that thirteen-year-olds cannot consume three potions to skip
sleep three times without detrimental and severe symptoms. The purpose of
these daily tests is to verify the limits of each student based on their
individual medical results, so that we can ensure they don't go over these
limits."
She explained as she wrote up the test prescriptions on her prescription bills.
Rui nodded before repeating himself. "So does it say I'm fine, or not fine?"
"The results indicate that you can go on without sleep for a few more days
with a few more rejuvenation potions, however, this is a medical
impossibility." She shook her head. "It's quite likely that a human error was
made somewhere in the medical or documentation process or just a false
positive. It would be dangerous to prescribe another rejuvenation potion to
you, since this data is clearly false. A thirteen-year-old's subconscious mind
is too underdeveloped and immature to possibly withstand more without
severe backlash."
Rui's eyes widened as a realization dawned him. Under normal

circumstances, this was a very reasonable analysis on her part. Mistakes and
errors were not uncommon when it came to medical tests even on Earth, it
was medical practice to re-prescribe tests when an unlikely and improbable
result occurred, just to be safe.
However, he had another explanation.
('What if... The reason I can consume more potions than normal thirteen-
year-olds is because my subconscious mind is not that of a thirteen-year-old,
but that of a seventy-two-year-old?') He pondered in wonder.
The implications were massive. It meant that he could train for far longer
than his peers. He would have no need for sleep, and could spend most of his
life in the Academy training.
His rate of growth would skyrocket compared to his peers!
He could train day and night for many times longer than they could!
Rui grew incredibly excited at that thought, but this was just speculation, he
had no proof, he didn't want to get too ahead of yourself.
He enthusiastically urged the doctor to schedule the test to occur as soon as

possible, much to her surprise. Thankfully the Academy was quick and
efficient, within an hour, the doctor had the results of the new tests in her
hands.
"What..." She ran her eyes over the report, flummoxed, glancing up at Rui
once in a while.
"Are you feeling okay after three days of rejuvenating potions?" She asked
him after a while of silence.
"I'm feeling fine doctor."
She sighed, putting the documents on her table.
"Alright then, as per protocol, you'll be assigned the required amount of

dosage."
"So that means I'm truly able to go on for longer than other my age?"
She nodded reluctantly.

"I don't really understand how, but aberrations are not unheard of though this
is new, it seems your subconscious mind is strong beyond its age. Quite odd."
She looked at him curiously.
"Haha, I wonder why."
Inwardly Rui was joyful beyond words. The greater the number of mental
rejuvenation potions he could take implied the greater the number of hours he
could train every week. He was almost seven times as old as a thirteen-year-
old, if the time period was linearly dependent on mental age, then his night-
time training could also be almost seven times as much! He intended to go
all-out with training with the help of these potions.
"Just how much faster am I going to stronger?" He wondered with giddy

ecstasy. In the short term, it would not be too impactful, after a longer
amount of time, the accumulated extra time would be substantial!
Rui's heart began pumping madly as he thought of catching up to Kane

sooner than he had initially hoped to. Maybe even before they graduate the
Academy! The head start Kane had on him would naturally grow less and
less meaningful and impactful over time. But with the help of the potions, he
could accelerate the process.
His heart began pumping wildly as he felt the urge to dedicate every ounce of
his time awake to training and growing stronger.
('Just you wait...I'm going to grow stronger unlike anything you guys have
ever seen!') He inwardly declared.
Chapter 54 Be Water
Three months had passed since the duel between Nel and Felix. Rui had
already mostly transitioned into basic Martial Art practice from physical and
performative training. The Martial Path could be likened to building a big
tower. A tall tower required extremely strong foundations, otherwise it would
crumble. In this case, the tower had not one, but two layers of foundations.
The first was the physical foundation, this was honing and tempering the
body so that it became fit to perform Martial Art optimally. This was the
training that Rui had undergone since the Academy began.
The second was the Martial Foundation, every Martial Artist had to learn the
basics of all fields. Even a pure striker Martial Artist had to learn the basics
of grappling and wrestling, even a pure wrestler had to learn striking. This
was to give them basic experience in all forms of conventional combat. After
all, you never get to choose your opponent when you're in the field
completing a Martial mission. The Martial Foundation allowed Martial
Artists to gain bare basic proficiency in all fields.
Only after mastering these two fields could the process of constructing and
building one's own Martial Art begin.
Normally, reaching this stage would take years, just the physical training
alone would take a year. But recently, rumors and tales of a boy who was
already into the Martial Foundation stage had spread through the Academy. It
was said that the boy was a demon. He would train for many, many days
continuously with only shortest of mandatory breaks halting his training.
This absurd training schedule allowed him to soar through what would
otherwise be a long arduous process. Allowing him to accomplish progress at
close to record-breaking speeds.
The reasons for Rui completing the physical training stage were numerous,
but the two largest contributing factors was the foundation he had already
built. He had begun honing his body from an extremely young age although
with severely lowered intensity. He had already formed a lot of the physical
foundation needed, furthermore his growth speed spiked astronomically
thanks to rejuvenation and healing potions, putting his productivity at levels
he never even imagined possible.
He had also decided to take the leeway in training in the most efficient way
possible in his extra time as much as he could.
Rui breathed in deeply, taking a stance. He nodded at his opponent, a student

he was paired up against. Sparring sessions were a regular for students who
had reached the Martial Foundation stage. It was the best way to hone what
they had learnt, and know how to apply it. The sparring training system was
rather simple, half of the students in the sparring training would enter a ring
and would be challenged be assigned to fight other students, they would
remain on the mat and constantly fight until they lost, when they would then
be replaved by the student who just defeated them.
The boy took a simple guarded stance, shifting about before launching
himself at Rui, before throwing a kick from mid-range. The kick was rather
quick and sharp, which made it harder to exploit. However, to his surprise;
Rui closed the distance, and caught his thigh in an arm lock, before driving
forward and pushing the boy off-balance, throwing him off his one leg.
BAM
Rui mercilessly threw a full-powered kick to the boy's chin while he was
down, knocking him out.
In his previous life, this would be dangerous and unacceptable for a spar.
However, his instructors encouraged them to go all-out; the presence of
healing potions eliminated all risks. The Martial Academy wanted its students
to experience real, full-on unrestricted combat. Not some highly safe and
restricted exchange. The Martial Academy was grooming its students to one
day fight with their lives on the line, with a real possibility of death, when
they became Martial Squires. In order to shape up, competent Martial Artists,
they would need to get used to the feeling of pain, battering, exhaustion. Only
after experiencing things like these that they would regularly experience in
the field, would they not falter in the field due to inexperience.
Rui exhaled as the paramedics of a medical team quickly moved the

unconscious boy off the platform, preparing himself for the next match.
The girl who succeeded him, kept her distance from him warily. Rui had
already defeated several students quickly.
('Not coming? Well, something needs to happen.') He mused as he started

shifting, slowly closing the distance.
When he reached CQC range; close-quarters-combat range. She threw a jab

at his face, it was quick but light. She was hoping to startle him before
launching a full-powered punch. But Rui had ducked even as she began the
jab, throwing a straight punch to her abdomen, impacting her diaphragm.
She hunched down, gasping for air, but Rui had already launched his knee to
her face.
BAM
She fell back flat on the ground, rolling as she cradled her bleeding nose. The
supervisor signalled the end of the match.
Rui closed his eyes focusing on his breathing, ignoring the attention of his
peers.
Rui had only recently joined the Martial Foundation Stage, how could he be
so good.
The key was in applying some of the research in his past.
In the later half of his life, Rui had already begun dedicating himself into
creating the most optimal fighting style possible. Although many of the
popular styles were all tried and tested, things that had withstood competition
and proved they were viable, Rui was a bit of an idealist at heart.
"Be Water, My Friend.
Empty your mind.
Be formless, shapeless, like water.
You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.
You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now water can flow or it can crash.
Be water, my friend."
These words he'd heard in his childhood from his greatest idol, Bruce Lee,
were once merely awe-inspiring words, yet feeding upon years of successful
research, they had grown and molded into his life's ambition. Was it possible
to develop a viable fighting style that could adapt to all fighting styles? Was
it possible to train someone to use this style? And most importantly, even if
creating such a fictious hypothetical martial art was possible, would it, in
practice, in the cold real world, succeed? Would it surpass the existing mixed
martial arts foundation?
('I have to try, I want to.') John Falken had thought to himself. He had already
begun the process of gathering a research team and acquiring research funds.
He was going to go all-out. It would take a long time to develop such a
fighting style.
But alas, come age fifty-seven, his asthama had escalated, he was forced into
permanent medical supervision and near bed-ridden restrictions. He could not
push his lungs any further. He didn't give up. In the age of 2022,
communication technology made it possible for him to engage in research by
coordinating with his staff from afar. He pushed himself as much as he could,
but that only hastened the inevitable.
At age fifty-nine he passed away, failing to fulfill his ambition, he was close,
there was only one final hurdle left, but fate would not allow it.
Rui exhaled solemnly as he tapped off, walking out of the arena in
exhaustion.
The final obstacle he had left in his previous life was making the Martial Art
viable and practical in real life. Developing a training program that allowed
human beings to learn this incredibly difficult fighting style.
Rui had only applied a handful of principles of the fighting style he'd
developed. He had only applied the very foundations of it.
It was possible to predict what a person would do based on evaluating several

parameters, the earliest prototype algorithm he had developed involved
reading an opponent's center of gravity and range to predict what they would
do.
There were several rules that constrained human fighting;
Firstly, humans subconsciously maintained balance at all time. Their weight

had to be equally divided otherwise they would fall. It was like removing a
card from the bottom of a house of cards, the entire thing would crumble due
to unsupported and unbalanced weight.
Secondly, for an attack to land, it had to be within range. No one ever

launched an attack out of range, this was common sense, thus range could be
used to judge their intentions.
This, in combination with the fact that humans had four limbs meant it was
possible to predict what they would probably do to some degree.
Against his earlier opponent; the boy that Rui had knocked out, the boy had
rushed in immediately, he had paused at kicking range from Rui. This already
told Rui that he was not going to punch, punches were too short to hit him
from kicking distance, that left a kick from one of the legs. Secondly, the boy
had shifted his weight onto his left leg before the attack. Meaning that leg
could not be moved because otherwise balance would blatantly be destroyed
and he would fall, violating the first rule.
This implied he was going to launch a kick with his right leg. Of course, Rui
didn't know whether the kick would be high, mid, low. Or whether it would
be a roundhouse or a straight. But that didn't matter all too much. Knowing
that the boy would be launching a right kick was enough. He immediately
close the distance as the kick was being launched.
Kicks were only dangerous past the knee, they grew much weaker above the
knee. Once Rui reached the thigh, the match was already over.
Against the girl whose nose he'd broken, Rui had noticed that her weight was
evenly distributed as he approached her, meaning the likelihood of a kick was
low, she would lose balance. Thus that only left her arms. In this regard, she
could only really throw a straight punch with her right fist, which was behind
or with her left fist which was the closest. However, in order to throw a
punch with her distant right fist she would need to close the distance, by
shifting her weight, which she wasn't doing.
This left her left fist. But he had no idea what she would do with it. However,
statistically, in his previous life, that fighter rarely threw an upper-cut with
their guarding forearm, thus he immediately crouched to waist level and
dashed while preparing a straight punch to her gut, which ended up allowing
him to win easily after. Thus, by evaluating range and balance, he could act
in a way that was remarkably optimal.
However, this was not a flawless method. In fact, it was quite flawed and
limited. This model could not account for more complicated maneuvering,
furthermore there were several ways to launch attacks with an unbalanced
frame. The model had a hard time accounting for higher level fakes and
feints. Ultimately it would fail in the long run. It was too flawed.
"But it did serve as a foundation for things that came after." Rui muttered
after consuming a physical rejuvenation potion.
He didn't know what his Martial Art would end up looking like, but he
intended to make use of every ounce of research he had engaged in, in his
previous life. Using bits and pieces from his previous life gave him an
advantage over other Martial Artists.
('I can't wait to discover my Martial Path.') He thought for the umpteenth
time.
Chapter 55 Squire
Master Aronian went flipped through a document with keen interest, as a

retired veteran Martial Master, there was very little he hadn't seen. It wasn't
easy to genuinely gather his interest these days. The freshmen every year
often brought him a few intriguing cases, but ultimately it wasn't too new.
Recently though, he'd found something that genuinely elicited surprise from
him. How was it possible for a freshman thirteen-year-old novice to consume
many mental rejuvenation potions days on end without any adverse effects
altogether? He carefully poured through the data on the documents. Rui's
psychological constitution was unreal, he had simply never seen anything
quite like it.
He was truly curious to see how Rui would grow in the future.
Three months had passed by since Rui and Kane had joined the Academy.
Both of them had now turned fourteen-years-old. The former had only just
completed the Foundation Stage in its entirety. Normally, it would take six
months, but thanks to the lifelong targeted training he had engaged in, in
combination with his exception tolerance of the mental rejuvenation potions,
he was able to speed past his peers significantly.
Rui concentrated on the scene before him, seated in the Apprentice sparring
center. There multiple students among the gathered on a ring, and at the
center was an older woman who looked to be in her forties. Just gazing at her
exerted a heavy presence on him.
He glanced around at those who had surrounded her. Among them were
familiar faces; Kane, Fae, Milliana and Felix.
The Martial Apprentices were engaged in some training with a Martial Squire
instructor. She had instructed all of them to attack simultaneously.
The air was tense, yet the woman was entirely calm and composed. The other
students were stiff, in comparison.
"Come." She calmly instructed.
For a heavy moment nothing happened, yet the very next, the Apprentices
lashed at her. Fae was the closest to her, she quickly closed the distance,
before launching a barrage of palm attacks. Each palm was incredibly swift
and heavy, such that blasts of air accompanied her every movement.
Rui gaped at the sight. Each attack reminded Rui of the wall breach
explosives that SWAT teams used in his previous life to enter targeted
building and facilities.
"She really was holding back immensely against me." Rui murmured. If she
had used this against him in the third round, he would have long broken his
arms before he ever had a chance to counter her.
Yet even before the explosive might of her barrage, the Martial Squire was
wholly unperturbed. She raised her hands, and cleanly redirected and blocked
all of Fae' attacks with an almost lethargic expression. Before Fae could even
muster a reaction, the Martial Squire swiftly threw a light but incredibly fast
leg sweep, which cleanly knocked Fae off her feet, and onto her knees.
Suddenly the Martial Squire was surrounded by three more Apprentices. One
of them seemed to have a kicking Martial Art, while the other two seemed to
be grapplers. The two grapplers, locked her limbs in order to allow the third
one to launch his strongest attack onto her. But she merely lifted the two
holding her and used them as a shield to block the kick, before swiftly
kicking him in turn, sending him bouncing away like a beach ball.
Suddenly, a figure swiftly dashed towards her from her blind spot, hoping to
slip past her awareness.
('Kane!') Rui observed.

Yet she turned to meet eyes with him just as he got within striking range,
sending a shiver down his spine.
"Agile, aren't you?" She murmured, almost bored.
What happened next was so fast that even Kane was almost unable to process
it. She grabbed him and flipped him over her shoulder so fast he saw nothing
but the world blur, before hitting the ground.
This made Rui truly gasp.
('Kane got outsped? Kane of all people???')
She dealt with all their attacks individually and simultaneously with relative
ease. An hour later every single Apprentice was flat on the ground. They
were all exhausted and bruised. Yet the Martial Squire only looked like she
had done some light exercise.
This sight made Rui feel small. Even a single one of those Martial
Apprentices would be able to bully him with ease, yet so many of them
together got bullied by a Martial Squire. He had begun to feel just a bit
confident in the power that he had accrued, but that had already deflated
entirely.
Rui sighed.
('How long will it take before I reach that level?') He wondered pensively.
He had taken the time to take a break to observe the group sparring session
between the Apprentices and the Martial Squire that Kane told him was
scheduled to take place. Normally, instructors would not permit novices to
take unscheduled breaks, but every instructor knew that Rui was not a
slacker. The absurd, hellish schedule that Rui put him through left even the
strictest and harshest of instructors absolutely dumbfounded. When Rui told
them the reason, they immediately permitted it. He had already earned the
respect of his instructors; they were confident that someone of his work ethic
would not slack off.
"Hey man, are you okay?" Rui asked Kane after the Squire left the facility,
having finished instructing the students on their shortcomings and flaws.
Kane sighed, stretching his arms. "Yeah, I'm fine." It's not that he hadn't
sparred with Martial Squire before. It's just that they were usually gentle and
respectful out of consideration of his status as the son of a Martial Sage. The
Squire instructors in the Academy didn't care, the Academy was extremely
strict on no blatant partiality. The Martial Academies were not institutions
that could be bullied by a Martial Sage, after all, they were extensions of the
entire Martial Union, and the Grandmaster of all Martial Academies was a
position that was currently occupied by a renowned Martial Sage.
"I'm not used to having the shit kicked out of me all that much, especially
with my fellow peers." Kane muttered.
Chapter 56 The Tale Of Martial Art
Rui had now entered the Exploration Stage! The Foundation stage had honed
his physical, performative and Martial prowess. His body was honed to an
incredibly high degree, his muscles were powerful but still flexible and
mobile, his bones were dense and hardened, his skin and flesh were tough
and rigid. This was in sharp contrast to his leaner, softer and weaker physique
prior to entering the Academy.
He had now obtained a body worthy of taking the first step towards
discovering his Martial Path. His performative capabilities, which were
previously average, had now reached a more than satisfactory stage. His
Martial prowess was quite impressive for a fourteen-year-old who had just
reached the Exploration Stage.
As an Explorer, the colloquial title used to refer to novices of the Exploration

Stage, a lot of changes had occurred to his curriculum. His training schedule
would no longer be mandated by the Academy. He was given access to the
Exploration Martial library for free exploration of novice Martial Art
techniques.
However, what surprised him was that, although physical training was not
mandated, the Academy did mandate a handful of theoretical seminars. This
was not mentioned in the guidebook, so he was caught off-guard. Apparently,
the Academy deemed it necessary to inform and educate the students on
various matters while they were still in the Exploration Stage; not yet having
discovered their Martial Path.
He understood their intentions. It was best to have general cognizance and a

basic awareness of the Martial Realm; the world and industry of Martial Art,
before they chose to join it. This would likely allow them to make more
informed decisions.
Rui skimmed through a textbook on the Martial Union, the information
provided in it was more detailed and specific than the general, vague and
unreliable rumours he was otherwise used to running into.
"...Interesting." He murmured as he digested the information.
The first section the textbook was the history of Martial Artists, as well as the
Kandrian Martial Union all the way upto its current iteration and its socio-
political and economical footing and role in the current state of affairs of the
Kandrian Empire.
Martial Artists as a distinguishable class of warriors could be traced to nearly

500 years ago, as far as credible official records went. The current Martial
Artist realm ranking system did not exist back then, but historians and
anthropologists of the Martial Union estimate that the peak Martial Artists of
that era were no more than Martial Apprentices, at the very most. Though,
again, this wasn't entirely clear due to insufficient data.
What was clear was that the emergence of Martial Artists broke a dent in the
long-established age-old mechanics of power dynamics of the human species.
Prior to the emergence of Martial Artist, the Panama continent was riddled
with strife and war. Large stable countries, as a concept, didn't exist. There
were smaller settlements of humans, typically the size of the average modern
town of the Kandrian Empire. These tiny kingdoms were in constant conflict
to monopolize territory, resources, capital and manpower.
The rulers of these tiny sovereign states monopolized and maintained

political power very differently than the models that existed back then. The
state of technology more than 500 years ago was paltry and rudimentary
compared to how far it had progressed today, Martial Artists did not exist
back then, thus the power and significance of individual people was
negligible.
Rulers maintained political power externally against their enemy sovereign

states by capitalizing greater manpower and raising great armies of great
numbers to deter war, and maintained political power inwardly through a
combination of incentives and detriments.
"Much like Earth." Rui mused to himself. Back on Earth, the impact of a
single person was extremely limited, individual power was inferior to the
power of many, as long as the power of the majority was harnessed and
capitalized by rulers, individuals did not matter. This had also been the case
for most sovereogn states prior to the Age of Martial Art.
However, that changed with the emergence of Martial Artists. At first, it

wasn't overwhelming, it tilted the scales of power just a bit. Martial
Apprentices were powerful, but not enough to take down an entire sovereign
state by themselves.
They weren't entirely too much of a threat, thus it did not evoke extreme
reactions from ruling parties. Instead, rulers grew greedy, and tried to
monopolize and capitalize the emergent power of Martial Art.
Here was a new variable that could change the game and tilt the existing
power dynamics in the favour of sovereign states that attempted to try to own
Martial Artists, per se.
They used incentives and disincentives to manipulate Martial Artists who, as

powerful as they were, in the front of social and economical benefits, were
powerless individually.
Nearly a century had passed by as sovereign states perfected the art of

handling powerful Martial Artists fully, exploiting and manipulating them.
The Martial Apprentices of this era were too strong to be ignored by rulers
and ruling entities, yet too weak to resist them. They could not fully protect
their families or even themselves from the full militaristic and economic
might of an entire state, they were resigned to being nor more than unofficial
slaves of their respective states.
This remained to be the case for almost an entire century; until an incredibly
historically significant event one day occurred.
The first Martial Squire was born.
Martial Squires broke the previously established common sense.

One-man armies, they were.
p Although they couldn't literally annihilate a huge army all by themselves

effortlessly, their destructive power was fearsome, and rulers could not
carelessly earn their ire. Their power was a deterrence.
Perhaps in a vacuum, rulers could potentially muster every ounce of

militaristic, economic and political power and use every dirty trick in the
book to defeat the Martial Squires of their sovereign states, but then what?
If they did that, their country would be incredibly weakened due to the civil
war. Civil wars drained massive funds, resources of all kinds, and worst of
all; they weakened militaries.
The surrounding sovereign states would recognize the opportunity, and

immediately declare war on the now weakened nation and completely annex
and dominate it.
This was even worse!
It was an unacceptable outcome for most rulers, thus new socio-political

systems had to come into existence, and did indeed do so, to account for the
growing individual singular power of Martial Artists.
Of course, it wasn't as straightforward as this. The already chaotic warring

era had turned into an even greater maelstrom as each of the countless nations
tried all kinds of socio-cultural models and solutions to integrate, dominate or
eradicate Martial Artists depending on the culture, the temperament of the
ruling party and other circumstances.
Some succeeded in dominating Martial Artists, some failed and instead were
ursurped by Martial Artists. Yet most sought to aim for cooperation.
Countless nations fell and were consumed by the victors of the Warring Era.
This marked the end of the Warring Era, and gave birth to a new era, the Age
of Martial Art.
This was the story of Martial Art.

Chapter 57 Kandrian Power
Dynamics
It was truly a fascinating tale to Rui. Just from this information alone, he
realized how wise the Martial Union's decision to educate students on the
context of the state of affairs was.
('The best way for history to repeat itself is to have those of the future forget
about the past.') Rui mused. Although he suspected that the relationship
between Martial Artists and the state was likely not pleasant, this made him
realize how much he underestimated the issue.
('Ruling entities probably fear and disdain Martial Artists because of the tilt
in the balance of power that Martial Artists cause, yet they not only cannot do
anything to the Martial Artists because of foreign pressure, but actively need
the power of Martial Artists to deter external enemies.') Rui realized.
('On the other hand, the Martial Artists resent sovereign states for their desire
to suppress them, but need cooperate for the same reasons the ruling entities
do; external pressure.')
Of course, Rui was cognizant that the reality of the matter was likely much
more complicated. His understanding was likely an oversimplification of the
issue. Furthermore, it was obvious that he had incomplete information. There
was no way that the Martial Academy would reveal the true state of affairs
and political machinations of the Union and Royal Family.
He would likely learn more about them if he grew stronger, and ascended to
higher realms.
The next few portions and sections of his theoretical curriculum focused
more on the Kandrian Empire and Kandrian Martial Union rather than
delving deeper into the state of affairs of the Panama Continent.
The Martial Union was founded almost four hundred years ago, although it
had a very different shape and form back then. The Kandrian Empire, like
many surviving sovereign states of the Warring Era decided to opt for a state
of co-existence and cooperation with the Martial Artists.
The Martial Union and the Royal Family forged and signed the Kandrian
Martial Treaty, a declaration of peace, cooperation and an alliance. They also
signed the Kandrian Martial Convenant; a contract that specified the terms
and condition of cooperation.
The conditions and stipulations were explored in the textbook. The

Convenant contained several clauses that meticulously established premises
and context for the terms and conditions, before delving into them. This was
to ensure there was no legal wiggle room or loopholes that either party could
exploit to their advantage at the cost of the other.
The actual terms and conditions were remarkably similar. The first clause
was about National defense. The Royal Family paid a huge sum of money as
an annual commission to the Martial Union, in exchange for assistance with
continuous and routine reinforcement, surveillance and patrolling of borders.
Another clause was related to the terms and conditions the Martial Union and
the Royal Family agreed to in the event of a war or an invasion. Although
there were actually a lot of conditions and premises, what it essentially boiled
down to was that the Martial Union was willing to defend the Kandrian
Empire for a vast amount of money and other resources, while still reserving
the right to withdraw from the war, under certain conditions.
If the situation ever escalated to mass ruin, then the Martial Union did not
want to be dragged down with the Kandrian Empire!
A sovereign state was nothing without a territory, but unions were much
more flexible, if the worst were ever to come, moving house was not an
impossibility.
There were several more clauses that all basically boiled down to the Martial
Union aiding the country in matters of national interest, in exchange for
money, resources and other exclusive privileges and benefits.
It was a very complex exchange dynamic.
This Convenant actually provided the Martial Union with a huge portion of
its net revenue. The sheer wealth that the Royal Family was capable of
splurging made even the mighty Martial Union look modest and humble.
Underneath all this convoluted and complex agreements was a sense of

fragility, or atleast so Rui thought. Just looking at the contract gave him the
feeling that the two parties were unwilling and reluctant to cooperate, but
forced to do so due to numerous circumstances.
Still, just because they did agree to cooperate, doesn't mean there was true
peace between them, at the very least Rui was absolutely certain there was no
way that this could be the case.
If there ever came a day where either the Royal Family or the Martial Union
grew weak or fell for power, he was sure that both parties would have
absolutely no problem exploiting and dominating the other for the maximum
utility they possibly could.
Considering this, the existence of the Martial Academies made more sense.
The most immediate threat to the Martial Union was all around them.
Furthermore, the nature of the Martial Art was such that the Martial Union
would inevitably grow weaker with time gradually. Many Martial Artists died
every year in the field completing missions, meaning, unless the rate of
emergence of new Martial Artists was equal to, or ideally, greater than the
rate of death of Martial Artists and the rate of retirement of Martial Artists,
then the Martial Union would eventually grow weaker and perhaps even be
pushed back by the Kandrian Empire.
Although Martial Artists were strong, the biggest disadvantage was that they
were difficult to produce. Producing even a Martial Squire was very difficult,
only those with talent and drive had the potential to become Martial Squires,
and even then, only a small fraction of these candidates would end up
becoming martial Squires. Furthermore, this would only happen several years
after the process had initially begun.
('The ranks above Martial Squire must be even more difficult and time
consuming.') Rui realized.
In comparison to the Kandrian Empire whose military and technological

might was something that could much easily be replenished and strengthened
with funds and resources.
Facing such an uphill battle when it came to maintaining and sustaining

power, it was no wonder the Martial Union went all out on the Martial
Academies! These institutions were a lifeline that allowed the Martial
Academy to be able to maintain high militaristic strength.
Chapter 58 Additional Nuances
The textbook soon began talking about more practical, down-to-earth matters.
Specifically, the occupation of being a licensed Martial Artist. The Martial
Union was basically a liaison between customers who wanted to hire Martial
Artists, and the Martial Artists themselves. However, not every Martial Artist
could complete every mission.
Either they were too weak, or their Martial Art and skillset didn't match with
the pre-requisites of the mission, etc.
Thus, the Martial Union divided missions by type and difficulty.
There were five ranks to difficulty, and each corresponded with the first five
Realms of Martial Art; Apprentice, Squire, Senior, Master, Sage.
Interestingly enough, the Martial Union didn't have Transcendent ranked
missions, though the reason for this was not specified.
A ranked mission of a particular Realm was a mission whose difficulty was

such that; one or multiple Martial Artists of that Realm could complete the
mission. An Apprentice-ranked Mission was a mission that one or more
Apprentices could complete.
This was to ensure that Martial Artists were assigned mission that was within
their ability. It made no sense to assign a Martial Apprentice a Senior-ranked
Mission, while giving a Senior an Apprentice-ranked mission.
('Makes sense.') Rui nodded.
Missions were also divided by their type because of this reason. The skillsets
needed for different missions all required different skillsets and Martial Art.
Thus, the Martial Union divided missions into the following four classes;
Offense; These were missions that usually required launching an attack on a
person, group of people or location with the goal of capturing, incapacitating
or killing their opponents.
Defense; These were missions that required the protection of a person, group
of people or location with the from harm.
Hunting; A large portion of the Kandrian Empire was uninhabited nature,

furthermore a large portion of the Panama continent was uninhabited and
unexplored. There large amounts of resources within the fauna, flora and the
land of these uninhabited areas. Most mining and resource enterprises hired
commissioned Martial Artists of the Martial Union in procuring high-value
high-difficulty resources, before processing and reselling them to
manufacturers who required said resources. Furthermore, the uninhabited
lands of the Panama Continent contained powerful beast species that often
hunted in human habitats. These were all mission classified within the
Hunting class.
Covert operations; These missions included any missions that were highly
clandestine and furtive in nature. Espionage, reconnaissance, infiltration,
extraction, assassination, sabotage etc. were the most common kinds of
missions within this class of missions.
Miscellaneous; These included somewhat niche missions, or missions with

such low difficulty that any martial Artist could complete them. Things like
tutelage, manual labour, demonstrations etc fell into them.
Generally, licensed Martial Artists stuck to usually one, maybe two, classes
of missions. Martial Artists who mainly engaged in offense-class missions
were called Assaulters, Martial Artists who mainly engaged in defense-class
missions were called Defenders, Martial Artists who mainly completed
Hunting missions were called Hunters and those who completed covert
missions were called Shadows.
('Interesting...') Rui pondered about all this information.
,m This classification of missions was quite practical, it allowed for a

smoother process of mission assignment/choosing for the Martial Union and
Martial Artists.
Being made aware of all of this before discovering his Martial Path made a
lot of sense in hindsight. He could train knowing what he was getting into.
For one, the textbook mentioned the system of parties, which altered his
image of how missions were completed.
The Martial Union graded difficulty of a mission even with the established
ranks between low-grade, mid-grade and high-grade difficulty. Many
missions had a high difficulty even within the realm they were assigned to,
meaning it would be extremely difficult and risk for a single Martial Artist to
complete them. Thus, licensed and registered Martial Artists could form
officially form groups of usually three to five Martial Artists. All one had to
is gather the numbers and sign some paperwork before being officially
recognized as a Martial Party. This was quite a popular tendency among
Martial Artists, as the burden and risk on individual was greatly minimized
and divided between five people, allowing them to complete high-grade
missions with safety, as much safety as the Martial World would normally
have, that is.
This meant that hyper-specializing in a certain field of Martial Art didn't

necessarily mean he couldn't apply for different kinds of missions.
This was also another piece of information that was useful to Explorers like
himself. There was room for all kinds of Martial Art, the Martial Union
wanted Explorers to explore Martial Art knowing the kind of role that Martial
Art played in the kinds of missions they would choose.
Rui suspected that he might be an all-rounder, in fact, he suspected he had

already discovered a hint of his Martial Path during all the sparring sessions
of the Martial Foundation Stage. Though he needed more time to discover
and understand more.
Rui closed the textbook. A few hours had passed since he had absorbed
himself into all the information he had learnt. His worldview had altered
considerably. The new information at hand raised all kinds of new questions.
If Apprentice-level missions existed, and almost all Martial Apprentices were

within the Academy, then how did these missions get completed? Were these
missions completed by students? This was something that the textbook did
not go into. He intended to ask Kane about it when he saw him the next day.
Martial Art could be applied to covert operations in this world? In his

previous life, covert operations were performed by state and federal agents
trained by the intelligence, law-enforcement and security agencies and bureas
of nations. Hand-to-hand combat was a must, but there were many, many
other skillsets that these agents were required to master before they could be
dispatched on these missions.
Yet it seemed in this world, there existed Martial Art that were
singlehandedly suited and capable of performing covert operations.
Rui scratch his head in confusion, was it really possible for a Martial Artist to
be a full-fledged Intelligence agent or a covert operative?
This was just one of the many things in this world that defied his expectations
and sense of normalcy.
Chapter 59 New Techniques
"Yeah, we're scheduled to begin some Academy supervised Apprentice level

missions in a few months." Kane confirmed the next day.
"What kind of missions?" Rui asked out curiosity.
Kane shrugged. "Dunno."
"So they haven't told you..." Rui muttered. "Though since it is the kind of
missions that an Apprentice could complete, the scale of the missions will be
low, I doubt you'd be forced to fight against other Martial Artists."
Kane nodded. "That stage of our Apprentice curriculum won't begin any time
soon though. Maybe you can join me if you discover your Martial Path and
become an apprentice before that."
Rui nodded in return, completing mission with Kane and the others sounded
extremely fun.
They bantered a bit before heading down different paths. Rui soon entered
the Explorer library. The Explorer library contained techniques in all fields
and forms of combat that were far more advanced than the Foundation
techniques.
The Foundation techniques were all techniques that Rui was familiar with,
these were no different from the martial arts on Earth for the most part; things
like kickboxing, wrestling, brazillian jiu-jitsu etc.
The Explorer Stage contained techniques that were more effective; things like
special breathing techniques to increase the energy generated by your cells,
special offensive, defensive and maneuvering techniques that generated far
more force and speed than ordinary techniques.
The techniques and their details were recorded on scrolls. Each technique was
described in a brief manner initially with more detailed explanations
following, there were detailed depictions with various measurements and
indications in these diagrams, as well as detailed explanations and diagrams
on the training method for these techniques.
However, this alone was rather insufficient for mastering these techniques.
Thus, Explorers like Rui could consult the many Apprentice instructors and
guiders that existed in the Explorer training facilities for demonstrations and
basic instructions as well as guidance upon mastering these techniques.
These Apprentice instructors would not enforce or mandate any training, of

course. The Exploration Stage gave a lot of freedom to students.
The techniques in the library were broadly divided into five categories;
offense, defense, supplementary, maneuvering and miscellaneous.
Rui had pick one technique from each section. The offensive technique he
had decided to choose after careful consideration was called Collision
Optmization-I
"Sounds like a course in an engineering degree, rather than the name of a

Martial Art technique." Rui murmured.
In the movies, anime, novels he'd read. Martial Art techniques usually had
flashy names. When he first initially visited the Explorer library, he'd
expected flashy metaphorical flowery names like 'DiVinE gOdkiLler fiSt' or
'DeViL DeStrUctiOn AtTacK', but instead he was greeted with very technical
names that perfectly encapsulated exactly what the technique was comprised
of.
On one hand, this was very down-to-earth and logical. This was a library
meant to organize techniques in a convenient manner, thus such names
helped Explorer students like himself sift through techniques with great ease.
On the other hand, the Martial fanboy in him felt a bit unsatisfied that the
techniques did not have such flashy names.
As much as he would deny it to his colleagues back on Earth, these flashy
names were the best part of Martial Art! He would love to launch a flash
attack while shouting its flashy name!
Rui shook his head, putting aside such silly thoughts.
Collision-Optimization was a broad formless technique that taught him how

to inflict greater damage with each strike by adjusting the precise location he
lands his strikes on.
The human body was neither monolithic nor uniform. Some parts of the body
were extremely durable and hard, while others were extremely vulnerable and
weak.
It wasn't as simple as targeting the throat or the testicles, this technique

illustrated which precisely portions of the body were most susceptible to pain
and damage.
This was outside the standard MMA training that prevailed Earth. Mostly
because fighters were too uneducated and incapable of learning the
information needed to use this technique, they were also largely unwilling to
engage in such training. It was impractical in many ways.
But not in this world!
But this world had potions, allowing students to learn what MMA fighters
couldn't.
This applied even more so to Rui, because of his great tolerance of mental
rejuvenation potions.
Furthermore, Rui had an extremely high affinity with this technique, which
was one of the reasons he picked it. His scientific and academic background
was extremely synergetic with this technique, in fact, with his knowledge, he
suspected he might even able to improve and optimize the technique to some
degree!
Another reason he picked this technique was that it was very broad and
diverse and could universally improve his striking, but the degree of
improvement wasn't high.
He glanced at the remaining three techniques he'd picked.
The defensive technique was Damage Mitigation-I, it was basically an

extremely sophisticated system of rolling and moving with strikes to reduce
their impact. It was like baseballers catching baseballs, no sportsman caught a
ball in one position, they always moved their hand along with the trajectory
of the ball to reduce the impact.
This technique relied on the same principle.
The maneuvering technique he picked was called Balance Direction, it was a

technique that allowed him to move faster by almost falling in the direction
he wanted to move in, the unbalanced weight directed in the direction of
motion rather than towards the ground allowed for greater speed.
The supplementary technique was called Harmonic Respiration, a form of

breathing technique that strengthened metabolism in the middle of the fight to
increase his output.
These were the four initial techniques he picked from the Explorer library
after browsing through the available techniques with careful consideration.
These techniques matched his existing style and also had lower difficulty
compared to the other techniques. He picked only four, one from each field
so that he wouldn't overburden himself. There was no point biting off more
than he could chew, he'd only end up choking. He intended to get a good
measure of how many techniques he could simultaneously study so that he
could pace himself appropriately, to maximize his productivity.
Chapter 60 Bottleneck
Rui immersed himself into mastering these four techniques. He dedicated his
time equally to all four techniques. Thanks to his tolerance of rejuvenation
potions, he was able to dedicate a massive amount of time to mastering them.
Harmonic Respiration was a truly invigorating breathing technique. It

flooded Rui's body with energy and eased his fatigue and stress to some
degree.
Rui had already observed the technique while he performed it. Keenly
observing it's form, mechanics and its effect on him physiologically.
('It increases the amount of oxygen being diffused into my blood by timing
the respiration intervals with the heart rate at that moment.')
This allowed for a larger amount of blood to come into contact with the
maximum amount of oxygen. Amidst combat, this was quite useful. This was
the principle by which supplementary breathing techniques functioned. They
aimed to augment metabolism by increasing the net amount of oxygen
supplied to all the cells in the body through various means and phenomena.
Harmonic Breathing was merely one of the foundational techniques.
It was also the easiest technique out of the four he had picked; he had already
mastered it after two weeks of practice. Yet it was the weakest in terms of its
impact in combat.
He hadn't yet mastered the remaining three techniques, yet even his partial
mastery over them resulted in amazing boosts to his combat prowess.
Collision Optimization improved the impact of his strikes remarkable,

allowing him to inflict much more pain and damage with each attack than he
could without applying this technique.
This technique had a lot of synergy with his superhuman mind and scientific
background, so his rate of mastery over it was the highest among the
remaining three techniques he had chosen to master.
He had even begun experimenting with it and had managed to improve

certain aspects of the comprehensive technique. Optimizing the angling of the
strikes within the technique in certain parts of the body to inflict even more
damage and pain.
He frequently tested his capabilities in sparring sessions with other explorers,

or instructors, or Kane. Leaving each of them bewildered at his rate of
growth.
"I recall telling you that you'd grow faster with potions, but I never expected
it to be this quick!" Kane exclaimed with a hint of envy. "I can't believe
you're learning Balance Direction this quickly!"
Rui shrugged, laughing.
He had consulted Kane a lot when it came to learning the maneuvering

technique he had picked; Balance Direction, Kane was the best maneuvering
expert who was willing to spend a lot of time with Rui. His rate of mastery
had left Kane with mixed feelings. They would regularly spar using primarily
Balance Direction with no other technique, this had allowed to Rui grow
faster than he had expected. It was his next best technique after Collision
Optimization.
The hardest technique to learn was Damage Mitigation. He found it really

hard to move with the impacts, it required precise timing that he simply was
unable to accomplish on a regular basis when he initially started out.
However, as his proficiency with the three techniques improved, so did his
combat prowess. The Explorer techniques weren't as potent as the Apprentice
level techniques that Kane had mastered, but they were still much better than
barest of basics he had learnt during the Martial Foundation Stage.
What astonished him was the sheer variety of techniques. It was far more
diverse than what he had known back on Earth.
Just the breathing techniques alone were vast, their purposes were varied too,
not all of them were as straightforward as Harmonic Breathing was. Their
purposes were also varied. He did not know breathing could actually be used
as part of offense or defense!
There were several systems and principles that extended beyond just the
MMA fighting style back on Earth. Centered around skin, flesh, joints, nails
and even hair! Furthermore, they encompassed a variety of sub-categories
within the four aspects of combat. Within offense laid different types offense
such as incapacitation, killing, paralysis, destruction etc. These sub-categories
were quite different from each other in so far as the goal that the techniques
tried to achieve. Rui had to spend time understanding the general skeletal
structure of the organization of techniques.
Of course, Rui did not have the time to look into each one of them in-depth.
Each technique was extremely info dense and heavy. If he let himself get
absorbed into reading all of them, he would have no time to train.
Dedicating an average of twenty-one hours a day to training, Rui made

visible progress every day. With his work ethic and dedication, it took a little
less than two months for him to have mastered the techniques. His combat
prowess had fundamentally grown enormously. Having picked a technique in
each field had made his fighting style quite balanced.
Collision Optimization, Damage Mitigation, Balance Direction and Harmonic

Respiration each amplified the four fundamental aspects of a Martial Art and
combat.
However even after he mastered them, he was still growing stronger. This
was because his application of the four techniques was still suboptimal.
It couldn't be helped, Rui had very little experience in applying these

techniques in combat. It helped that these were broad techniques meant to be
continuously used, but he still needed a lot of raw experience before his
application reached a satisfactory stage.
He had already begun picking a new set of techniques that he would dive
right into soon.
Rui sighed. "Shame today's my rest day."
Even Rui had to sleep at least once in a while. His tolerance of the potions
was not limitless.
('The techniques made me much stronger... But I don't feel any closer to
discovering my Martial Path.') Rui anxiously thought to himself.
He knew he was being a bit impatient, but his instincts told him just plainly
learning more techniques would not be conducive to his progress towards his
Martial Path.
Something about them felt mundane. He was certain he was going to be an

all-rounder at this stage. But that wasn't the same as discovering his Martial
Path.
The instructors described it as a soul-shaking epiphany, that once you had it,
you know for a fact that you had discovered your Martial Path.
They were also concerned that Rui did not feel anything special while
exploring. Usually, Explorer students were guided by emotions when they
chose the techniques they wanted to learn.
However, Rui didn't feel stirred at all. He had approached the process in a
very rational and logical manner, trying to choose the optimal combination of
techniques that would improve his combat prowess the most.
He instinctively felt repeating this would not yield him the desired outcome.
Just as he wanted to think more, he felt his eyelids growing heavy and his
head strained. His body demanded sleep.
('Fuck it... let's think about this tomorrow.')

Chapter 61 Epiphany
"It is unhealthy to spend this much time working, sir." A nurse chided the
patient laying on the bed, only to receive a careless nod. She sighed at the
sickly man with exasperation. His condition was poor, one need only glance
at the various monitoring devices, tubes and needles attached to his body.
Yet, despite his dismal condition, he was relentless with his work.
He stared at the laptop before him with great intensity, scrolling and typing
occasionally. His expression grew more and more macabre and anxious every
passing second.
Suddenly, his phone beeped with a message, drawing his attention.
[John, it's not working.] It read.
John scowled at that message, closing his phone and ignoring it, before
receiving another message.
[I'm sorry but we've tried everything dude.]
John snorted at his colleague's pessimism.
[You do realize I can see that you've read my texts right? Stop ignoring me.]
[There's only little under the month before the deadline, our results aren't
good enough and inevitably those funds won't be coming through without
results.]
…
[Listen man, I'm sure Combat Sports Research will cancel the contract
entirely.]
John's scowled intensified, but he had to admit there was truth to those words.
He closed his phone and ignored the beeps, sighing melancholically.
"Is there nothing that can be done?"
He glanced at the data that his colleague had sent him that morning, the
results were indeed despairing.
It wasn't pleasant to see a research project he'd been working on for nearly
ten years to meet its demise.
He scrolled down to the report and summary that his colleagues had written
almost fearfully, before braving himself to read it.
[The goal of this study was to verify the viability of the Project Water and the
Variable Objective Inverse Deduction algorithm, VOID algorithm, as an
applicable combat system. The prevailing hypothesis was that the VOID
algorithm was too data intensive for a human to be able to learn and apply to
achieve higher rates of success within a UFC setting. We set out to confirm
or deny this hypothesis by gathering empirical data on the rate of growth of
combat prowess as measured by the rate of growth of the mean number of
victories(X) of a given normal distribution of 100 matches under UFC rules.
We controlled for all metabolic and physical variables and have created a
model for the probability of success of the application of the VOID algorithm
in a UFC setting, after a three-year-period of data gathering, we concluded
the study, compiled and processed the datasets, and have arrived at a
conclusion.
The data is clear. The VOID algorithm is not a viable combat fighting style.
We observed that the rate of growth in combat prowess in training with the
VOID algorithm is inferior to the rate of growth in the average registered
MMA gym, the existing data in the databank of the Combat Sports Research
co. Further verifies our results for all parameters under all settings.
We can safely conclude that Project Water and the VOID algorithm are
failures.]
He already knew what it would say before he even read it, but reading was
excruciatingly painful. He felt his heart rip to shreds as his colleagues
brutally described why his dreams had failed.
He shut the laptop down, unable to bear it any further. The stress and the
despair he felt was triggering his asthma. He gasped for air as he looked at
the picture of his idol; Bruce Lee that he had on the cupboard beside his
table.
"I'm sorry... I guess... I couldn't Be Water after all." He murmured softly.
Project Water was his dream project of creating a systemized fighting style
that embodied Bruce Lee's martial philosophy. He'd wanted to create a
systematic and generalized fighting style that could adapt to any other
fighting style. This was Project Water. This was his dream.
A few years ago, he had even made huge progress and significant
breakthroughs. One of them was the VOID algorithm.
Variable Objective Inverse Deduction algorithm, or VOID algorithm for

short. The VOID algorithm was a systemized approach through which a
fighter could completely adapt to any fighting style and defeat it every time,
in theory.
The algorithm had gone through various iterations and stages. The earliest
application was simply having fighters learn to analyze balance and range to
partially predict his opponent's intentions and moves ahead of time, and then
choose a course of action that was best suited to countering said moves.
This was VOID mark I. A prototype intended to be proof of the concept. The
initial algorithm was a success and was integrated into the UFC and MMA
rather quickly. John Falken had gained a vast amount of prestige thanks to
this groundbreaking breakthrough.
Still, it was not perfect, there were many, many holes and competitors
eventually came up with tactics that could exploit its shortcomings to counter
it.
Yet, the sheer success of the initial iteration and its high viability that allowed
top MMA and UFC fighters to apply it was what gave John the courage and
confidence to dedicate the rest of his life to creating a complete VOID
algorithm that could viably be used by fighters.
The following iterations of the VOID algorithm became more and more
sophisticated, accounting for more and more variables and parameters each
time.
Mark II accounted for breathing.
Mark III accounted for line of sight
Mark IV accounted for and muscle twitches.
By Mark V the algorithm had become extremely complicated and

sophisticated. It even accounted for physiological and movement patterns. It
employed heavy pattern recognitions that allowed the VOID algorithm to
recognize deep and multi-layered patterns to be able to predict the successive
course of actions of the opponent.
The research was funding-intensive, but thankfully his initial success allowed
him to sign a funding contract with the Combat Sports Research co. A world-
renowned UFC and research and data analytics firm.
Thanks to this rich supply of funds, the research team of Project Water
managed to successfully create a finalized version of the VOID algorithm
that truly embodied Bruce Lee's martial philosophy.
There was only one final stage left; viability. The end goal was to allow
humans to fight and win with this style.
Meaning humans would need to learn the VOID algorithm and apply it in a
UFC setting.
This was what killed the project in the end.

The report he'd just read before basically confirmed that his project was
doomed. It was not powerful for ordinary humans with their ordinary
cognitive capacity to be able to master and apply this algorithm. The human
mind was not powerful enough.
John never gave up on the Project, using every ounce his own personal
wealth to sustain the Project until he died two years later due to his health
condition.
Rui woke up with a jerk, gasping for air wildly.
He looked around confused, before remembering where he was.
('Sigh... To think I'd dream that memory.')
It was his second least favourite dream, after the dream of the day he was
diagnosed with asthma.
Thinking back to the ambitions of his previous life made his heart ache. He
also felt complicated, he was reborn in a world without the powerful
information processing technology that existed back on Earth, furthermore he
didn't have access to the sea of data his team had collected.
This meant researching the VOID algorithm the scientific way he did was
impossible. Furthermore, he had already developed a new ambition.
The sight of the Martial Squire destroying a tree trunk with a single strike had
etched itself deep in his heart. He was willing to sacrifice almost anything to
becoming a Martial Artists and walkind down his Martial Path and forging
his Martial Art.
But it didn't feel good living with the memories of the failure of his past life.
"What can I do though?" he pessimistically muttered. "it's not like I can be

both a scientist and a Martial Artist in this world. It's not like I can somehow
focus my life on developing the VOID algorithm and developing my own
Martial Ar-!!!"
His eyes flew wide open in shock as a thundering epiphany struck him. In his
mind he had always separated research and Martial Art in two far away
separate categories. This was the common sense on Earth, after all, it was
impossible for a human on Earth to dedicate his life to combat sports and
research at the same time.
"I cannot do both of those separately... But what if they were one and the
same?" He murmured with wide-eyed shocked expression.
What if his research and Martial Art were the same?
What if the dream of his past life and the dream of his current life were the
same?
What if... his Martial Path was Project Water?
Rui's heart shook as he began breathing heavy. The answer was so simple,
but the strong divide between research and combat sports that his previous
life had created, prevented him from realizing that they could be one and the
same.
What was impossible on Earth may not be so on Gaea!
Rui glanced at his palms, before closing his eyes.
"It fits." He realized.
The sensations of certainty matched those that his instructors had told him
about!
"This... is my Martial Path."

Chapter 62 Congratulations
Over the next few days. An unheard-of phenomenon occurred. The familiar
sight of Rui Quarrier spending almost every ounce of his time training was
nowhere to be seen.
The instructors and the other Explorer students had all grown used to seeing
Rui training somewhere or the other. Thus, when he didn't show up for
almost forty-eight hours, they grew curious. What could possibly cause this
training junkie of an Explorer to ditch training? It's not that he had never
taken breaks, but never two days straight.
"He's just been sitting around with an intense expression, super absorbed into
his thoughts, but he seems fine." Cara, his roommate, told them.
The instructors sighed in relief; they had grown worried that his insane
training schedule in the past five months since he joined the Academy had
finally taken its toll. Of course, this possibility still existed, but at the very
least there was no serious affliction.
Explorers possessed wide latitude in their schedule, so he could not be

officially mandated or reprimanded, but two-day breaks were not good signs.
Usually, this was a classic tell-tale sign that students were losing motivation.
Just as the Academy instructors were wondering how to intervene, the

problem solved itself. Rui walked out one day.
He walked straight to the Explorer sparring arena with his sparring attire on.
The Academy didn't mandate training for Explorers, but it did mandate
certainly sparring session against fellow Explorers. Today was one of those
days.
The sparring supervisor immediately noticed something off about him when
Rui arrived.
Previously, Rui was extremely curious by nature. Part of it came from the
explorative mindset and the uncertainty about his Martial Path.
Suddenly, almost all of that was gone.
The head supervisor sharpened his gaze at the sight. As a Martial Apprentice
himself, he knew a phenomenon that could explain the change in Rui's aura.
('Is he...?') He wasn't sure, but he suspected Rui had crossed the barrier. Still,
the fact that Rui hadn't said anything meant he was either wrong or...
('Or he wants understand how much he's grown by sparring against the
people he's sparred against for months.')
Either way, the head supervisor was content not calling Rui out.
"Alright, divide yourselves equally into two lines. We'll begin now." He
instructed. The sparring sessions had one half of students serve as defenders
and the other half as challengers. The challengers would continuously the
defenders until they won and replaced them.
The head supervisor purposely assigned the group that Rui was part of as
defenders so that Rui would get to fight continuously.
He watched Rui taking the ring before facing his first challenger.
"Begin!" The referee announced.
the two of them shuffled around a bit, feeling each other out, before his
opponent aggressively dashed at Rui.
Rui waited for him stoically.
Bam
Bam
Bam
His opponent threw short jabs that Rui casually blocked. The boy threw a
powerful roundhouse kick which Rui avoided by stepping out of range.
FOOM
The boy quickly dashed towards Rui with the Balance Direction. The rush of
speed allowed him to land a straight punch with his full weight and
momentum behind it.
BAM.
Rui flew back exaggeratedly. Yet he landed on his feet, looking relatively
unfazed.
('Damage Mitigation.') The head supervisor noted.
"What's up? You're passive as fuck today." His opponent poked.
Rui smiled wryly. "Just getting used to this."
The boy tilted his head in confusion.
"But you're right, I should stop playing around."
Those words exerted a faint threat on the boy. It almost reminded him of the
Apprentice instructors when they got mad.
DASH
Rui leapt at him with great speed using Balance Direction.
The boy hurriedly tried to intercept Rui with a punch, only to cleanly miss as
Rui shifted out of the way.
The boy stepped back, wanting to open up the distance when suddenly, the
world turned upside-down.
BAM
Rui had cleanly caught his wrist and converted his momentum into torque to
smoothly execute a hip toss, before throwing a punch just one inch away
from the boy's face.
"You're too careless when it comes to counterattacks, you should focus on

that." Rui calmly advised.
The boy nodded, shocked. He'd fought Rui before, never had he been
overwhelmed so easily.
The head supervisor was now certain of his suspicion. No one ever became
strong enough to casually bully their peers and equals, merely due to a two-
day break. If anything, at their level, such a break would make you a bit rusty
and thus weaker.
But Rui had grown far superior to his peers, such that even little effort was
enough to dominate the other students. This could only be caused by
breakthrough to the Realm of Martial Apprentice. Discovering your Martial
Path allowed you to use techniqies in a manner that are part of your Martial
Art, these are suited to you and thus you apply these techniques better than
you would have without a Path. Your net efficiency spiked thanks to the
Discovery of your Martial Path.
One after another, students challenged him.
And one after another Rui casually defeated them.
What surprised the head supervisor was that Rui didn't seem to have a set
style. His style of combat was fluid, he changed it smoothly. It flowed from
form to form taking on the shape that was better suited to handling particular
opponents.
"This doesn't make sense." The head supervisor murmured. This was usually
the opposite of what happened when one discovered their Martial Path.
Usually, students who discovered their Martial Paths stuck rigidly to a style
of fighting. Whether this style of fighting was centered around a particular
field or a set of techniques or both, this was always happened. Martial
Apprentices were those who discovered their Martial Path, and they stuck to
it.
Yet Rui here defied that pattern.
Another thing that surprised him was how quickly Rui discovered his Martial
Path. It wasn't about his age, in particular. Although fourteen was
undoubtedly impressively young, it was not unheard of. Geniuses like Kane
had discovered their Martial Path at the age of eleven!
What was rather shocking was that he discovered his Martial Path in two
months after beginning the Exploration Stage.
Discovering your Martial path was an elaborate, time-consuming journey in

and of itself. It usually took students at least a year of exploration and
introspection for them to understand their heart's desire. Yet somehow Rui
managed to finish it one-sixth the time.
"How long has this boy been chasing after his Martial Path?" He wondered.
This was the product of two lifetimes of dedicating his life to martial arts and
Martial Art, unbeknownst to him.
When the sparring session a few hours later, Rui went straight to the head
supervisor to inform him of his breakthrough only to realize that the
supervisor was already aware of it.
"How long do you think I've been doing this job, kid?" He chuckled. "I've
seen countless kids discovering their Martial Path in my career as a sparring
supervisor for the Explorer students. Although your case is quite peculiar in
many ways, admittedly."
"So, what now?" Rui asked curiously.
"The breakthrough to Martial Apprentice is verified by head instructors and

supervisors, and we fill in the paperwork with some signatures from your
end. Once the due process is over, you'll receive instructions and a new
guidebook, the same ones that the Apprentices got during the Investiture
Ceremony, and you'll be moved to the Apprentice dormitory." He explained.
"After that the Martial Squire instructors and supervisors of the Apprentice
students will take over."
"I see..." Rui grew absorbed in his thoughts.
"Ah, one last thing."
"Hm?" Rui perked up.
"Congratulations on becoming a Martial Artist. If there's anyone who

deserves it, it's you." He smiled.
"Thank you!" Rui smiled back.

Chapter 63 Rematch
"You're a Martial Apprentice already??" Kane gaped in shock.
Rui laughed at his reaction. "That's an exaggerated reaction."
"No way, you just reached the Exploration Stage in two months! Finding
your Martial Path is tough and tiring. You need to dedicate your everything
to Martial Art for you to have a chance of discovering it. How did you skip
all that?"
('Skip?') Rui mused inwardly. ('I did nothing but that for forty years.')
"Maybe I got lucky." Is what Rui actually replied.
Kane scoffed. "There is no such thing as luck when it comes to discovering

your Martial Path. You either achieve it or you don't."
Rui shrugged. He had no intention of revealing the truth, Kane would have to
settle with having unanswered questions.
"Anyways, I'm happy for you man. I know how much effort and energy
you've dedicated and invested in Martial Art." Kane smiled.
"Congratulations. You've begun your journey down your Martial Path."
"Thanks for that, and also for the help you've given me." Rui replied.
"Don't worry about it." Kane waved. "Ah, do you wanna spar?"
"Actually, I was about to ask you just that." Rui informed. "I'm curious about
how well I stack up against you."
Kane nodded. "You free now?"

"Sure."
Rui hadn't yet transferred to the Apprentice dormitory. He had just finished
the paperwork and had proceeded to head to straight to Kane.
"My paperwork is not yet submitted." Rui noted. "I wonder if we can still
spar in the Apprentice sparring centre."
"It shouldn't be too much of an issue."
When they inquired the Martial Squire instructor in the facility, she
acquiesced.
"I've been notified of your breakthrough, Rui Quarrier." She spoke.

"Although it isn't official, it's not an issue. You can begin using the
Apprentice facilities and resources right away."
"Thank you instructor Kyrie!" Kane exclaimed.
"Thank you, instructor." Rui followed. He recognized her, she was the same
instructor the Apprentices fought against the other day.
She nodded, before walking away.
Rui and Kane warmed up a bit before entering the ring.
"Alright, you ready?" Kane asked with a smirk. "I won't use Apprentice level
techniques unless I'm forced to, to be fair."
Rui nodded, taking his stance. "Let's begin."
As soon as the supervisors began the spar, Rui dashed against Kane with
Balance Direction, hoping to close the distance as much as possible. He knew
exactly how slippery Kane was. He threw several jabs once he reached
striking distance of Kane. Who cleanly avoided them, before throwing a kick
of his own.
To his greatest surprise, Rui cleanly and confidently avoided the kick almost
as Kane had even launched it closing the distance. He was caught off-guard.
FOOM
Kane just barely managed to dodge a powerful straight punch from Rui,
leaping back a few steps.
He glanced at Rui in surprise.
"How did you do that?" Kane asked, surprised. "Is this your Martial Path?"
Rui smirked. He was merely partially applying the range/balance system of

prediction and countering moves. This was the Mark I VOID algorithm.
"Yeah, this is my Martial Path."
Rui dashed at Kane again, determined in getting a clean hit. He used both
Balance Direction and Harmonic Breathing to maximize his speed.
Once he reached striking range, he threw a flurry of jabs with Collision

Optimization. Kane dodged all of those with remarkable agility. He had
grown wary of how Rui casually avoided his strike and almost managed to
land a strike on him. This was a bit of a blow to his pride as an evasive
maneuverer. He decided to stop holding back, and used multiple Exploration
level maneuvering techniques.
Each and every single strike Rui threw missed Kane.
('He's going almost all out asides from the Apprentice level techniques') Rui
marveled as he observed Kane. He had even recognized several of those
techniques, having run into them as he browsed the Apprentice database.
In addition to Balance Direction, Kane was using Feint Shift and Axis
Oscillation. The former was a maneuvering technique that improved the
quality of feints using realistic shifts in center of gravity, while the latter was
a technique that allowed the user to avoid strikes without being pushed back
by shifting the axis of the center of gravity by as little as could be managed to
evade the strike while returning to the original position.
These in combination allowed Kane to cleanly avoid every strike while not
allowing Rui to push him back and corner him.
BAM
Rui grimaced, Kane had managed to exploit an opening in the position and
launched a kick to the gut while evading Rui's strikes
The limitations of the Mark I VOID algorithm were not small, experienced
evaders like Kane could overwhelm his style of fighting by sheer proficiency
and utility of even Exploration techniques, let alone Apprentice level
techniques. Another important thing was that Rui had only known these
techniques for two months, he hadn't been using the Mark I algorithm for
much longer either. He wasn't used to using either sets of techniques, whereas
Kane had been using them for years now. The gap in experience could not be
overcome easily. Not even with his potent Martial Path.
However, the nature of the VOID algorithm was to allow the user adapt and
evolve. Although Rui was rough and inexperienced. He was still able to
improve his timing as he got more and more used to and comfortable against
Kane's fighting style.
BAM
FOOM
THWACK
WOOSH
A flurry of attacks and maneuvers peppered the ring, many bystanders grew
absorbed by the intense eye-drawing battle. The intensity of the fight had
escalated as an hour passed by. Rui's timing, coordination and response time
was improving, while Kane grew more and more serious, using every ounce
of his speed and skill. Neither side was willing to lose.
Strike
Dodge
Kick
Parry
Dodge
For a period of time, it was difficult for onlookers to understand who had the
upper hand. Kane's biggest advantages were his superior speed, agility and
maneuvering. Yet, for some strange reason, despite possessing inferior speed
and mobility; Rui was somehow vaguely keeping up! The onlookers were
unable to put their fingers on it. Even the Martial Squire, Kyrie, frowned at
the sight. The placement and timing of Rui's movements, the accuracy of his
decision and tactical approach were somehow so well chosen to suit the
situation that they largely alleviated the advantage Kane inherently possessed.
('Kane's movements are faster... But Rui's movements are... better placed and
better timed.')
She focused her eyes on Rui. She could see every time Kane moved, Rui
moved almost immediately after Kane moved and moved in manner that
correctly dealt with Kane's movements. If Kane began attack, Rui would
begin to dodge almost immediately after Kane began his attack.
('He's not reacting to the attacks as they come... He's partially predicting them
before Kane launches them, allowing him to react earlier.') She realized.
('But this level of foresight should be impossible in someone who just

reached Apprentice level.') She didn't understand how Rui was able to
execute such high-level decision making.
Furthermore, she could see that his tactical course of actions was changing,
not in sharp intervals, but almost... smoothly. Every minute he would make
slight changes to the manner in which he fought; these changes made his
course of actions more suited to handling Kane. She could almost see his
fighting style smoothly shaping and flowing to a greater and more suited
style of combat to counter Kane.
('Almost like... water.')
The intensity of the fight had peaked. The tension in the air was so taut, one
could almost cut it with a knife. The two boys were intensely focused. Every
ounce of their mind was consumed into their fight. Their fight had cast a spell
on those who beheld it, enrapturing them, they almost wished it would never
end,
Yet, all good things came to an end in this cosmos.
BAM
Kane landed a powerful strike against Rui's diaphragm. He had smoothly

ducked right under Rui's punch and launched his most powerful attack on the
latter's abdomen.
Rui collapsed, gasping for air as his diaphragm froze for a few seconds out of
shock, before returning to normal.
Both of them were sweating and panting. Yet the winner was clear.
"Let's...*pant*... call it a day." Rui panted. "As expected, you're still

ridiculously strong even without Apprentice level techniques." Rui laughed
shakily, still gathering his breath.
Kane shook his head. "Your rate of growth is ridiculous, seriously, you're
amazing. I'm gonna be honest with you, I didn't think you could push me this
far man." Kane sincerely complimented.
"You didn't use any Apprentice level techniques though." Rui chuckled.
"I swear I came damn near close to. I dunno what you did, but you scared the
shit out of me at times."
"Thanks man." Rui valued those words, especially when they came from
Kane.
"Your style of fighting shifted a lot from the start to end... Is this related to
your Martial Path?" Kane asked with great curiosity.
Rui nodded. "Help me up, I'll tell you all about it on the way back."
Chapter 64 Apprentice Intrigues
"Adaptive evolution?" Kane tilted his head in confusion.
"Yeah, my Martial Art adapts and evolves to counter my opponent's Martial

Art." Rui explained.
"A Martial Art that adapts to all other Martial Art? That sounds difficult as
hell, is that even possible?" Kane asked.
Rui remained silent at that question.
"Possible or not, it is my path. I will traverse it as far as I can."
Kane remained silent at those words. He realized how much resolve it must
have taken to fully dedicate himself down a path that may end in a dead-end.
No wonder Rui took two days to think about his Martial Path and his Martial
Art. It was probably the most important decision in his life, and it wasn't
something that could be done lightly.
"Well, good luck."
"Hah, thanks."
They bantered a bit before splitting ways. Rui headed to the administration
room to receive a guidebook and his room number and keys.
"Rui Quarrier? One minute." A staff member reached to grab a box. "Here
you go."
She rattled off some instructions and information before he left. It was only
after he reached his room and sat down to go through the guidebook that he
realized how different things worked for Apprentices.
"Damn, we get our own rooms? That's lit." He'd remarked prior as he looked
around. It was definitely more comfortable than his previous dormitory room.
It wasn't just the lodgings that worked differently. Apprentices trained
differently. For starters, the biggest surprise he received as he went through
the Apprentice guidebook, was that Apprentice level techniques weren't free!
The foundational techniques of the Foundation stage where the absolute bare
basics of basics. To call them techniques was almost an insult. The
Exploration Stage had more valuable techniques, but they were still not too
significant to the Academy or the Martial Union, apparently.
However, the Apprentice level techniques were different. They actually held
value and utility such that a majority required one to amass merits! These
techniques were true Martial Art techniques even if they were of the lowest
Martial Realm. The Martial Academy, and the Martial Union by extension,
was not willing to give them away for free.
The only way an Apprentice could earn merits was make contributions or
complete Apprentice level missions. There were mandatory missions to give
Apprentices experience anyway. However, the mandatory missions did not
yield merits, only by voluntary undertaking and completing missions outside
of curricular activity would yield merits that could then be exchanged for
techniques. Meaning students had to go out of their comfort zone if they
wanted more techniques.
Of course, the Martial Academy wasn't stupid. It realized that brand new
Apprentices would not be able to complete Apprentice level missions without
Apprentice level techniques. Thus, a set of foundational Apprentice level
techniques in all fields were given to Apprentices free of cost.
"These must be the same foundational Apprentice level techniques Kane told
me about when we first sparred." Rui recalled.
According to the guidebook, higher-ranked techniques above the foundations

would require students to complete missions.
Rui could immediately see the multiple reasons for this system. Asides from
Apprentice level techniques being too valuable to give away for free, the
Martial Academy could also complete the many Apprentice-level missions
that it received on a daily basis.
Furthermore, the end goal of the Martial Academy was to produce Martial
Artists that were able to competently complete missions.
Giving the Martial Apprentices of the Academy some real experience and a
glimpse of what the career of a Martial Artist was like would ultimately
greatly aid in this end goal.
It was a policy that killed multiple birds with a single stone.
"Most of these missions are probably going to be really small-scale matters

with low risk." Rui inferred.
The Martial Academy would probably not place students in extremely

important or risky missions. This would be counter-productive in the long
run. He suspected that the missions would likely be insignificant grunt work
type missions.
Furthermore, these missions would probably be the domestic type, as well.

They would likely be missions in the Mantian region.
There were several other interesting things that the guidebook went in-depth
into, as well.
The Martial Union had developed a system of categorizing Martial Art. There
many, many kinds of Martial Art. It was easier to divide Martial Art into
categories, this helped in mission assignment. Ensuring missions were
completed by Martial Artists who actually possessed the relevant and
necessary tools to complete them. A hunting mission would be better suited
to be completed by a Martial Artist with a lot of stealth and sensory
techniques. An offense mission would be better suited to be completed by
Assaulters with an offensive Martial Art. Although it wasn't impossible for
Martial Artists of other types of Martial Art to also complete such missions, it
wasn't optimal, and ultimately reduced the probability of success.
Thus, the Martial Union had developed a system of categorization for Martial
Art;
Type I Martial Art: All-rounder Martial Art fell into this category.
Type II Martial Art: Offense-oriented Martial Art fell into this category.
Type III Martial Art: Defense-oriented Martial Art fell into this category.
Type IV Martial Art: Maneuvering-oriented Martial Art fell into this

category.
Type V Martial Art: Supplementary techniques-oriented Martial Art fell into

this category.
Type VI Martial Art: Martial Art that were largely centered around a
particular physical attribute or parameter like strength, speed, durability,
endurance, stamina etc, fell into this category.
Type VII Martial Art: Martial Art that were centered around one or very few
particular techniques or sets of techniques or principles or systems fell into
this category.
Type VIII Martial Art: Martial Art structured and built for covert operations
and missions.
Type IX Martial Art: Martial Art specifically designed for specific

environments.
Type X Martial Art: Irregular Martial Art that cannot be grouped into any of
the prior groups due to failing to satisfy the conditions to be grouped into
them.
('Interesting...') Rui pondered. ('So my Martial Art would probably be

categorized as Type I?')
These classifications were decided by the Academy, and later the Martial
Union. Which made sense to Rui, after all, it was only useful as long as the
system was used accurately by set standards.
He skimmed a few pages ahead, until he reached something unexpected.
"An inter-academy Martial Games?" Rui read with curiosity.
Apparently, the Martial Academy held an annual Martial Art contest at the
Apprentice level between all sixteen Academies in the entire Empire. The
event held multiple contests for different fields with different structures and
systems.
('What an exciting event!')
Rui grew more and more absorbed into the guidebook and the many intrigues
that it offered.
Chapter 65 Library
A day had passed since Rui had moved to a different dormitory; the process
was smooth since he had very few belongings in the first place. He had
quickly tried to familiarize himself with his environment and some of his
peers to some degree, it didn't hurt to make some friends who could help him
out, like Kane did.
He tightened his sparring attire. It was a two-piece attire, consisting of a light

jacket-like top and a pant that were bound together by a belt.
The attire was knitted out of a very light, yet durable and flexible fabric,
allowing Martial Apprentices to go all-out and fully exert themselves without
having to worry about tearing apart their sparring attire to shreds.
Today would be Rui's first time entering the Apprentice library, he intended
to get his hands on foundational Apprentice level techniques.
One of the things the guidebook explained to him was how techniques were
classified and categorized. Techniques were categorized in three different
ways:
The first system of categorization was by field. Whether a technique is

offensive or defensive, or maneuvering oriented or supplementary. This
system of categorization was for the sake of convenience and clarity. This
was categorization by their function.
The second system of categorization was by Realm pre-requisite. A technique

of a certain Realm meant that it could not be learnt by Martial Artists below
that Realm. Apprentice level techniques were techniques that only Martial
Apprentices and above could use, they could not be mastered by novices.
This was because normal human beings did not possess the focused psyche
needed to learn Apprentice level techniques, which required a superhuman
level of focus and fortitude to learn. Those who had discovered their Martial
Path underwent a subconscious psychological shift, their minds were hyper-
focused on their Martial Path, allowing them to learn power and difficult
Apprentice level techniques. This was categorization by the necessary pre-
requisite condition to even begin to learn these techniques.
The third system of categorization was efficiency. This was related to the
actual quality of a technique. Techniques were a set of actions that produced
a desired physical result. Generally, each technique required physical energy,
for the physical movements, and mental energy for executing them accurately
and precisely. Techniques with greater efficiency produced greater results for
the same amount of effort. The efficiency of techniques were indicated by
grades. Low-grade techniques had low efficiency, mid-grade techniques had
medium efficiency, and high-grade techniques had high efficiency.
An Apprentice-level offensive high-grade technique was a technique whose

utility was offensive in nature, could only be used by Martial Artists of
Apprentice Realm or higher, and whose efficiency was high.
Rui found the categorization to be aptly sophisticated. Back on Earth in his

previous life, martial arts techniques did not have such sophistication in their
categorization. There many reasons for this, for starters, Martial Artists
Realms did not exist. This bluntly cut away the second system of
categorization. Another reason was that techniques did not have vastly
differing levels of efficiency inherently, their effectivity depended on how
they were applied only, as well as a lot of luck.
Although techniques on Earth could be divided by field, there were no

meaningful named techniques for defense or maneuvering. Those were
simply considered skills that needed practice and experience. The concept of
supplementary techniques; techniques that could supplement, aid, or augment
a physical attribute or other techniques, did not exist.
This was why martial arts techniques were uncategorized, there was simply
no point in doing so.
Rui already knew what kind of techniques he was looking for even before he
entered the library.
His first decision was to once again balance the techniques he chose evenly
among all the fields. In order to adapt to his opponents properly, he needed a
good grasp over not just all fields but also all ranges. He also needed
diversity of techniques within each field.
This was a tall task and it would take him a long time before he truly
achieved this.
Another decision he made due to this was to choose flexible techniques that
could be useful in all situations. His Martial Art was adaptation, it was
practically a necessity that at the very least his foundation of techniques
needed to be flexible. He was willing to sacrifice efficiency for flexibility. He
would rather have a foundation of lower efficiency techniques but with great
flexibility and versatility than have a higher efficiency technique but with
very low flexibility, something that could only be used in a handful of ways
and situations.
('I guess I have my work cut out for me.') Rui thought. He intended to work
harder than he ever had in order to build a foundation of Apprentice level
techniques. Currently, although he was indeed an Apprentice, his combat
prowess had yet to touch that level. Apprentice level techniques were far
superior to Exploration level techniques. He remembered the Apprentice
level techniques Kane had showed him, they were truly surpassing the
bounds of human limits! Kane would have utterly mopped the floor with him
had he used Apprentice-level techniques in their spar.
Until he built a foundation of Apprentice level techniques he would feel

uncomfortable calling himself an Apprentice.
What kind of an Apprentice couldn't hold a candle against any other

Apprentice?
He shook his head, putting aside such thoughts having reached the library.
The moment he walked in; he could already see the Apprentice library was
much vaster than the Explorer library. The section dedicated to each field
were larger than those of the Explorer library, further each field section had
many, many sub-sections.
('As expected of the library dedicated to an actual Martial Art Realm, it's
comprehensive and vast.')
He looked around, taking in the sheer size.
('Where do I even begin?') He sighed.
There was just so much. He wasn't sure how to approach all of this in a time-
saving manner.
('Thankfully, a decent proportion of the techniques are marked with a price of

merits.') Rui sighed.
He could avoid these techniques and head straight to the free techniques.
He grasped the first technique he ran into.
('Alright, let's begin.')

Chapter 66 Apprentice Foundation
The process took Rui longer than he had expected. For one, he couldn't help
but browse through a large portion of priced techniques. But for another, the
simple variety of techniques was far greater than what he had imagined. They
were definitely far greater than anything Earth held.
On Earth offensive techniques were limited to striking and grappling.
Here there were was a wide repository of techniques that inflicted damage
outside of these elementary principles.
Force Permeation to target internal organs.
Vitals targeting based techniques.
Vibration based techniques.
Temperature based techniques.
Nerve striking techniques.
Even techniques as ridiculous as poison techniques!
Rui gaped at the sight. He almost wanted to laugh.
"Poison? You can poison people through Martial Art? Hahaha!" He

mirthfully exclaimed. He found the whole notion to be simultaneously absurd
and yet so fascinating.
Even defensive techniques were far vaster than anything he had

conceptualized. Back on Earth, one merely had to practice learning how to
guard against strikes and learning how to get hit to minimize the impact.
Here, there were whole systems of principles and mechanisms by which
techniques amplified defense.
Higher levels of the Damage Mitigation that used even more potent principles
such as impact softening, inelastic recoil and other mechanism beyond just
guarding existed. Rui was surprised by how something that used to be
relatively straightforward and mundane was immensely various in this world.
The same was true for maneuvering and supplementary fields of Martial Art.
After hours of exploring, Rui finally made a decision in regards to all the
techniques he would choose to begin mastering.
He glanced down at the scrolls he had picked. He had picked six of them. The
reason he had chosen a total of six different techniques was because four of
them were Apprentice level versions of the techniques he had already learnt
prior. Harmonic Breathing, Damage Mitigation, Collision Optimization and
Balance Direction each had an Apprentice level version to them, however, he
expected to master them quickly after going through the techniques and their
training sessions. Thus, he had decided to choose an additional four more
technique to begin immediately after.
"The Apprentice level versions of these techniques are quite impressive." Rui
muttered as he went through them, some even had different names
"The Apprentice level versions of Damage Mitigation and Collision

Optimization are Elastic Shift and Vital Pressure. How fitting."
Damage Mitigation and Elastic Shift were techniques that aimed to reduce
the impact of strikes by moving with the strikes, this caused the collision to
be more elastic in nature, a collision where the opponent's attack power was
not converted to damage when the attack struck due to the user moving with
the strikes rather than stopping them, was an elastic collision. It was the same
as when baseball players caught balls by moving their hands with the ball
while catching it to reduce the impact.
Elastic Shift encapsulated the technique's functioning quite well.

Vital Pressure and Collision Optimization-I were techniques that worked by
administering greater damage by striking vitals
[Parallel Walk]
This was the technique Kane had showed him when they sparred together the
first time Rui had gone to his home.
It was a technique that eliminated the wasteful torque caused by swinging

your arms and also rotating your body opposite to the legs, thereby
decreasing the energy wasted and increasing maneuvering speed.
This allowed his travelling speed to increase dramatically.
[Acute Edge]
This was a low-grade defensive technique that focused on mitigating damage

by making the angle between the surface of the body that contacts the
opponent's strike and the opponent's strike to below and acute, turning into a
nick and a slip, rather than a full-on collision.
This allowed the user to avoid enduring the brunt of the force by enduring
only a portion of the power, by getting hit at an angle.
Rui nodded, satisfied with these choices. These were reasonable balanced and
flexible choices and options, which was conducive to Adaptive Evolution.
He intended to grind harder than he ever had. Pushing himself to the limits
with potions to master these techniques.
He wanted to join the other Apprentices in completing missions, he knew

Kane, Fae and the others had already begun doing so, and for good reason.
He looked around him in the library, there were so many techniques that
required merits he could hardly believe it.
('How many missions will it take for me to purchase these techniques?') He

wondered solemnly.
The answer couldn't possibly be a small number.
On one hand he was a bit unhappy about the time it would take for him to
purchase the techniques. The number of techniques he had now were sorely
insufficient for proper adaptive evolution. He needed a vast variety of
techniques of all kinds, the more he had, the better he would be able to adapt
to all kinds of Martial Art.
On the other hand, he was looking forward to completing missions. This was
what it meant to be a Martial Artist! He looked forward to diving into
different kinds of missions and understand what it was like to be a Martial
Artist, as well as what kind of Martial Artists he wanted to be.
He also needed time and techniques to modify expand the VOID algorithm to
be able to account for the Martial Art techniques of this world.
The VOID algorithm was designed to handle the MMA of Earth, it could not
be straightforwardly applied to the Martial Art of the Panama continent. The
vastness and potency of the techniques were much greater than that of Earth,
there were several new parameters and variables that needed to be accounted
for by the Algorithm such as the strange principle and mechanisms of these
techniques and also the efficiency of techniques. Only after expanding it to
include these factors would it perform as well as it did back on Earth.
Furthermore, he still had the final obstacle to overcome. The same obstacle
he failed to overcome back on Earth.
Chapter 67 The Path Ahead
BAM
Rui flew back, groaning in pain, just bare managing to stay on his feet.
"Good, your Elastic Shift was well timed this time." Fae told him.
Today was a sparring session between the Apprentices. Rui and Fae had
taken it upon themselves to spar with each other.
"It's not easy to nail the timing." Rui muttered.
"It usually takes a lot of experience to completely learn it." Fae reassured.
"Actually, it's a bit intimidating you're already at this level of proficiency."
Rui shrugged, before taking his stance. "It's not fast enough, as far as I'm
concerned."
Fae took an open-palmed stance as well. "My, what's the hurry?"
"There is a limited amount of time in this world, I don't want to waste an

ounce of it." He replied, before taking the initiative to dash at her.
He launched a powerful front kick, throwing all his bodyweight and

momentum behind it while using Vital Pressure to inflict more damage. He
wouldn't fight like this against Kane, Kane was too agile for something as
long-winded and slow as full-body kicks, he would effortlessly dodge it and
exploit the opening created by the kick and put Rui down. However, Fae was
not as agile or mobile as Kane was, furthermore her defense was solid, he
would need to use every ounce of his power.
BAM
Yet she handily guarded with a double arm guard, before pushing aside his
leg while launching a powerful palm attack to his abdomen.
Rui just barely managed to evade it with a combination of Parallel Walk and
Balance Direction, yet Fae aggressively dashed after him with equally
powerful maneuvering techniques, not allowing him to catch a break.
This was yet another difference between Fae and Kane, Kane fought
passively and counter-offensively whereas Fae was aggressively offensive.
She quickly caught up to him before launching barrage of palm attacks, that
pummeled him across his upper body.
Rui held on for dear life behind his guard as only a combination of his two
defensive techniques; Elastic Shift and Acute Edge prevented him from
losing consciousness.
But ultimately, they weren't enough.
Fae broke past his guard, stopping a palm attack just an inch away from his
face.
"Good fight." She held out an open hand.
"Yeah, good fight." He grasped her hand standing up.
"It's really remarkable how far you've come with these techniques in merely a
month and a half, or so." Fae shook her head with a rare hint of surprise
flashing her facial features.
"It may be fast compared to others, but my Martial Art has greater needs."
Rui shook his head.
"Your Martial Path is strange, usually, people have somewhat of a defined

fighting style that is rigid to some degree, the core never changes." She
explained, before turning to Rui. "Yet I couldn't sense that with your Martial
Art, your combat style did not have an underlying core like every Martial Art
normally does, it was constantly changing and strangely had no definition to
it. A very odd feeling." She noted, before continuing.
"Even all-rounder Martial Art aren't constantly in flux like yours, being an
all-rounder simply means you use all fields equally in combat, yet even that
was constantly changing for you."
"That is related to the nature of my Martial Art." Rui hinted, he hadn't told
her what his Martial Path was, just yet. He didn't feel the confidence and
security to reveal to people what it was just yet, not until he developed it
more and gained more proof of its viability as a Martial Art.
Fae nodded without pushing any deeper, A Martial Artist's Martial Art was
extremely personal, it wasn't appropriate to push them to open about it.
"You've gotten even stronger." Rui sighed, recalling her fight against the
Martial Squire.
She shrugged. "Everyone has, we're all working hard to get stronger."
Rui nodded. "But with how strong you are, you must be close to reaching
Martial Squire, no?"
"I'm not sure, unfortunately. I haven't been told about the condition to
become a Martial Squire by the Academy or my family yet."
Rui frowned, Kane said something similar too. Both of them were family of
Martial Sages. Their families obviously knew exactly what it took to become
a Martial Artist. So why were they and the Academy so adamant on not
telling the Apprentices about the realms above them?
"Indeed, it is strange." She remarked, noticing his confusion. "But I have a lot
of faith in my grandmother, I do not believe she would withhold such
information unless it was truly to my interests that I do not learn it right
now."
"Hmmm..." It was hard not to trust the judgement of a Martial Sage, not just
one, but two of them, on all Martial matters. Especially when he was no more
than a meagre Apprentice fledgling who had just discovered his Martial Path.
Martial Sages were among the greatest authorities on Martial Art, barring
Martial Transcendents. It was an absurd notion they would be wrong about
the matters of the lower Martial Realms.
He shrugged. He would find out one day, as long as he grew enough and
expanded his Martial Art enough. As long as he did this, he had no doubt
whatsoever that he would become a mighty Martial Squire!
Still, he was quite some ways away from that stage. He had only just
discovered his Martial Path and had begun the Expansion Stage that all
Martial Apprentices underwent in the Martial Academy.
He clenched his fists when he thought about the sheer number of techniques
needed to achieve the versatility that was generally needed for the VOID
algorithm.
In order to be able to adapt to any Martial Art, you had to be able to partially
replicate every Martial Art, because every Martial Art was countered by some
other Martial Art. Although the truth was a bit more complex and nuanced,
the point still remained. The more building tools and ingredients he had
access to, the easier and better he would be able to build a Martial Art that
were adapted to counter his opponent's Martial Art.
Chapter 68 Fae Vs Kane
The Apprentice sparring session worked the same way the Explorer sparring
sessions did. Meaning half the Apprentices were challengers while the
remaining half were defenders. Challengers constantly challenged defenders
to spars until they won, then they would switch roles, the challenger would
become a defender and the defender would become a challenger.
Rui lost to Fae, so he quickly got off the stage for the next challenger.
"You got your ass kicked." Kane chuckled lightly, as he entered the ring.
"Don't worry, I'll avenge you."
"You're going up against her next?" Rui asked, surprised.
"Yep."
"I see, well, good luck."
Rui was quite exhausted. He had initially intended to consume a rejuvenation

potion before resuming the challenger process. But a fight between Kane and
Fae was worth postponing that.
He watched closely as Kane entered the stage.
"My, so you're my next challenger?" Fae smirked. "I was considering

consuming a potion, but if it's just little old you, then there shouldn't be much
of a problem." She mocked.
"Don't worry, by the time I'm done with you, you'll be needing more than a
single measly little rejuvenation to get back on your feet." He retorted.
They both exchanged no more words, quickly taking their stances. Kane's
stance was low, crouched, this allowed him to dash and reach top speed
quicker. His hands were open and sharp, his arms were aligned with his legs.
('That stance allows him to use Parallel Walk without any delay.') Rui keenly
observed. Parallel Walk was a maneuvering technique that relied on arms and
upper body swinging inline, rather opposite to the legs. Keeping his arms and
legs inline meant, he would not have to waste any time when the match
began, and could immediately moving.
('He intends to close the distance quickly.') Rui realized.
On the other hand, Fae adopted a rather unusual stance. Her left leg was
forward, while her right leg was bit further behind, both slightly crouched.
Her left arm was straight, pointing at Kane, with her open palm facing him.
Her right palm was upside down, tucked at her waist like a coiled serpent
waiting to lash out.
Rui could feel the tension escalating as both fighters grew more and more
focused on their opponent.
"Begin!" The supervisor declared, beginning the match.
Kane moved blurringly fast, his figure even briefly disappeared as Rui's eyes
could barely keep up with the abrupt acceleration to Kane's superhuman top
speed.
In an instant Fae and Kane were face-to-face.
Kane launched a blindingly-fast punch, while Fae launched a fearsome palm.
Just as the strikes were about to launch, Kane suddenly cancelled his attack
and avoided Fae's Palm, leaping back.
This drew some murmurs from onlookers. "Looks like Fae is stronger."
Rui shook his head. ('No, he made the right choice.')
,m If Kane had continued the mutual attack, he definitely would have

suffered more damage. As far as power-per-strike went, Fae was almost
unmatched in their batch of Apprentices. On the other hand, Kane's striking
power was not quite as good.
Meaning if they exchanged blows head-on, Kane would undoubtedly take

much more damage.
Kane realized this in the last moment and avoided this undesirable outcome.
('You're an evasive maneuverer Kane, you need to exploit that to the absolute
maximum if want to win this fight.') Rui mused.
Kane dashed at Fae, dodging her attacks narrowly, before leaping back.
He dashed from another angle, dodged her counter and leapt back.
He dashed from yet another angle, and dodged her counter, leaping back.
He dashed, dodged, and leapt back.
Again.
And again.
And again.
He began repeating this course of action over and over.
"Tsk, he's just buzzing around her like a fly. Is he really the son of the
legendary Devil?" A Martial Apprentice mocked, disregarding Kane's status.
His fighting drew scorn from the onlookers, all except one.
Rui eyed those around him, before tutting. ('Tsk, clueless fools.')
He turned back to the fight with a knowing smile. Although to the casual
layman, it may have looked like Kane was too scared to engage Fae, but Rui
had realized what Kane was going for a long time ago.
He nodded. ('It's a rough plan, not the best course of action but it has a solid
chance of working.')
Kane knew that getting into a frontal exchange of blows with Fae would be
bad for him, that was where she was at her strongest. Furthermore, unlike
when he fought Rui, Kane couldn't simply try to squirm past narrow openings
to launch strikes on Fae.
Fae's body was tough, thanks to body conditioning. She could simply ignore
his attack and allow it to hit her. Rather than blocking or dodging, she would
simply strike him.
Although Kane was much faster than her, it was impossible for him to cross
one meter, land a strike and then jump out of range, all before Fae could
launch even a single strike. He would be need to be exponentially faster than
her to achieve such a feat. And Fae was not slow by means.
Thus, Kane decided to try something else.
('He intends to force Fae to launch her formidable palm strikes over and over
until her stamina is drained. Although Parallel Walk, Balance Direction and
his other maneuvering techniques still consume less energy than Fae's
immense explosive power.') Rui analyzed.
The power of Fae's palm attacks was extremely high. Not only did she
regularly use highly power consuming techniques like Outer Convergence,
which she used against him in the Entrance Exam, she used several other
medium-high-grade techniques that allowed her to exert massive amounts of
energy with every strike.
The power consumption was extremely high. Fae's Martial Art was an
offensive Martial Art that was meant to pummel down her opponents quickly,
it was not suited in these kinds of extended battles. She would simply fizz out
of energy.
('Which is exactly what is slowly happening.') Rui noted the profuse sweat on
Fae's face.
Her palm strikes were draining her energy, especially because they all missed
Kane cleanly. Kane was still extraordinarily fast, she had no hope of tagging
him with ordinary attacks.
('At this rate, you'll win this Kane!') Rui cheered him on.
Chapter 69 Shocking Conclusion
WHOOSH
Kane avoided a palm attack, back-flipping out of the way cleanly. He quickly
opened the distance before studying Fae immediately.
"Huff... Huff..." She panted, her sparring attire drenched in sweat.
('Heh, this is actually working. Spending time with that Martial nerd has done
me good, I don't know if I would've thought of this had I not met him.') Kane
mirthfully mused.
Sparring and spending time with Rui had taught Kane the importance of
tactics and strategy. His personal tutors had always hammered the importance
of tactics and strategy, but he had always thought no tactic could overcome a
skill or power gap. He had always beaten those weaker than him, and had
always lost to those stronger than him. He wasn't averse to tactics, but he
believed techniques and physical prowess mattered far, far more.
It was only after he had met Rui had he learn how wrong he was. Rui's mind
was beyond unfathomable to him. Every time he sparred with Rui, it became
more and more difficult to beat him. Even though Rui's techniques or body
hadn't grown stronger, every time they sparred, Kane realized he needed to
spend more and more effort to beat Rui, every single time.
This was part of that 'adaptive evolution' thing Rui told him about; his
Martial Path. Rui said it was essentially 'choosing the right move at the right
time'. To choose the correct specific course of actions and tactics that best
dealt with his opponent.
Mastering powerful techniques was not nearly enough, tactically using these
techniques correctly across the entire battle was just as important!
DASH
Kane closed the distance instantly, forcing Fae to launch a palm strike, which
he cleanly swerved out of the way of simultaneously launching a spinning
kick, Fae was forced yet again to launch a palm attack which Kane quickly
dodged cleanly yet again.
She was almost gasping for air at this point, her stance was slack with
fatigue.
('Close.') Kane huffed. This strategy was not easy for him. Although this
strategy exhausted Fae, it also exhausted him, just to a lesser degree. Even he
could not keep up such a power-consuming tactical approach for too long.
('It's time.')
Kane exhaled, before taking a new stance. He put both hands on the ground
in front of him and stretched out his right leg back, firmly planting it on the
ground. He bent his left leg, tucking it under his chest.
It was an odd stance that resembled the starting crouched position of

hundred-meters sprinters back on Earth.
('This is the final clash.') Rui quickly realized. ('This will decide the outcome
of the fight.')
Fae's defense had grown progressively sloppier and sloppier, her fatigue had
accumulated too much. Not only had Kane drained her stamina almost
entirely. She had already spent a decent portion of her stamina even before
Kane challenged her.
('These two are basically at the same level, even a small gap in stamina will
be decisive.') Rui noted.
Suddenly, the weight of the atmosphere escalated.
"Fuuuu..." Kane exhaled deeply. Ridding every single superfluous thought

from his mind. He sharpened his focus.
Fae realized what was happening, she mustered as much energy as she could,
preparing herself for one final clash.
Kane's body grew taught with power, vibrating with sheer amount of
potential energy he had gathered.
For a moment the entire facility was dead silent.
Every Apprentice, Squire and staff member were frozen silence. Enraptured.
Spellbound.
Suddenly.
"Now." Rui whispered.
BOOM
Kane disappeared.
One moment, there he was.
The next moment, gone.
What was once left in his place was a sonic boom!
Kane had moved so abysmally fast that he had surpassed the speed of sound!
What happened next surpassed Rui's cognition.
His mind was simply not fast enough to keep up.
Kane had simple disappeared from Rui's eyes, and reappeared behind Fae!
"Argh!" Kane fell to down to one knee, clutching his right shoulder in pain.
('She landed a palm strike on him?! In the middle of that blitz?')

"You're a monster alright." Kane laughed, eying Fae behind him.
('Damn! Is Fae gonna win?') Rui cursed.
THUD
Rui looked up in shock.
One moment Fae was standing tall and strong, yet, the very next moment...
"She collapsed..." Rui murmured, shocked.
Fae had fallen unconscious! Her figure had crumpled to the ground like a
puppet whose strings were cut.
The entire facility froze at that sight. Rui sharpened his eyes, taking a closer
look at her.
('He landed a knockout blow to her chin!') He quickly realized, looking at the
deep bruise below her mouth.
"You're a monster alright..." Kane stood up, smirking. "...But I won."
"W-Winner; Kane Arrancar." The supervisor declared, after breaking out of

his enraptured stupor.
A paramedic team came along and placed Fae onto a stretcher, carting her
away.
Rui was still stunned. He glanced at Kane who smirked at him with a thumbs-
up. Rui had to admit, he was truly impressed by Kane's fight. He didn't just
blindly jump in and rely purely on speed, agility and maneuvering to attack
dodge and attack her. He pulled off a clever strategy that allowed him to win
in those circumstances. In the past few months, Kane had grown more and
more flexible, with his fighting style, fighting smarter and cleverer rather
than just banking heavily on his raw speed. Rui approved, of course, he also
couldn't help but feel he was responsible for this change.
Still, what truly shocked him was the final clash. Kane displayed a level of
speed Rui had never seen before. The sheer speed at which moved was
incredible! Rui hadn't known it was physically possible for a human to move
that fast. He was also quite impressed that Fae had managed to throw in a
palm attack in such a brief period. Although she moving slower than Kane,
who moved his entire body across the distance between then in the time she
launched a palm strike, it was still impressive given her condition as well as
the fact that speed wasn't forte.
Both of them performed incredibly, as far as Rui was concerned.

Chapter 70 Resumption
Rui quickly consumed a rejuvenation potion himself. He had wasted enough

time watching Kane's match against Fae, he needed to engage in sparring
others himself. Watching Kane's sparring match against Fae had inspired
him, he felt strongly motivated to reach that level of power himself as soon as
possible.
('Both Fae and Kane are way ahead of me in so far as the expansion and
development of their Martial Art goes.') Rui reminded himself.
Unlike him, who had only just barely learnt six Apprentice-level techniques,
they had learnt enough number of techniques for their Martial Art to be
considered actual Martial Art.
On the other hand, he was still quite far away from this level. He glanced at
the nearest ring, looking for a defender to challenge.
('Milliana, huh?') Rui recalled meeting her several times. She was a stamina-
oriented Martial Artist, fighting her was truly a test of perseverance. Stamina-
oriented Martial Art were a type VI Martial Art; A Martial Art centered
around a physical attribute or parameter.
He immediately chose to challenge her.
There were several reasons for his decision. Firstly, Stamina-oriented Martial
Art did not possess any overwhelming advantage over other Martial Art
asides from the longevity it granted the Martial Artist. Meaning it was quite
likely that Milliana did not possess any overwhelming advantage over her in
regards to any physical attribute or parameter like strength, speed, or
durability, she likely did not possess any overwhelming advantage in so far as
Martial Art techniques went; Be it offensive, defensive or maneuvering.
What this ultimately meant that before Rui tired out, there was a high chance
they would be roughly equal.
Furthermore, he was aware that Milliana's Martial Art was also a Type I
Martial Art in addition to being a Type VI Martial Art. She was an all-
rounder after she was a stamina-oriented Martial Art. This was a valuable
opportunity to Rui, because Rui rarely had a chance to fight a stamina-
oriented Martial Artist like Milliana. After Rui became a Martial Artist, he
quickly learnt that most Martial Art had strong flavor to them that pushed
them away from being well-rounded. Usually most Martial Apprentices had
strong affinity to some field or physical attribute, making a vast majority of
them be of Type II to Type VII Martial Art.
One reason Rui wanted to find an all-rounder was, of course for the
experience, but also because all-rounders were the most challenging to the
VOID algorithm.
The reason was simple; all-rounder Martial Art possessed no obvious

weakness.
The VOID algorithm worked by adapting to the opponent's fighting style.

Naturally, this was easier if the opponent's fighting style had straightforward
and obvious shortcomings
Offense-oriented Martial Art generally weren't as good as good at defense.

Defense-oriented Martial Art generally lacked strong offense. Grappling
Martial Art lacked range, and striking-type Martial Art were not good at full-
contact combat or grappling etc. These usually couldn't be considered a great
weakness, but they were, without a doubt, shortcomings and areas of higher
vulnerability.
The VOID algorithm loved these openings and shortcomings, it made the
adaptive evolutionary process much more straightforward and simpler.
However, all-rounders lacked such obvious and straightforward

shortcomings, thus the adaptive evolutionary process of the VOID algorithm
for such styles was much more complex and long-winded.
This was what Rui wanted. He needed to push his Martial Art to the limit in
order to improve it. The VOID algorithm was a system by which one could
develop a style of fighting statistically most suited to obtain victory.
However, the framework was based on the martial arts of Earth. Martial Art
in Gaea was much more convoluted and far more parameters and variables. It
was not equipped to deal with the fantastical and supernatural Martial Art
techniques of Gaea.
This was one of the two biggest hurdles of developing his Martial Art and
traversing his Martial Path. He could not perform the rigorous empirical
research he did in his previous life, so there really was only way to
completely expand the VOID algorithm to completely suit Gaea as far as Rui
could see;
Sheer, raw experience!
('How much experience will it take for me to complete the upgradation of the
VOID algorithm?') Rui wondered as he got onto the ring.
He looked up at Milliana, who nodded in response, she was a girl of very few
words, she let her Martial Art do the talking.
('And boy can it talk.')
"Take your stance." The supervisor instructed.
Milliana balled her fists and brought her arms close to her abdomen in a
guarded stance, balancing her weight between both legs equally.
('A conservative but ultimately flexible fighting stance.') Rui noted.
He adopted a similar stance, but one that was more committed to attacking.
Left arm and left leg forward, right arm and right leg back. He kept his
weight mostly on his left leg, freeing up his right leg, allowing him to launch
kicks with it.
In this stance the left arm was able to launch speed jabs in quick succession
while the right arm was able to launch powerful blows that could knock a
person down if well-landed.
"Begin!" The supervisor declared the match started.
Rui rapidly shuffled over to Milliana, feeling out her movements and
responses to his weight shifts.
('She's always moving with the intent of reducing energy consumption.') Rui
realized. By constantly maintaining as low an energy consumption possible,
she could outlast her opponent.
('Not on my watch.')
POW POW POW
Rui threw a few quick jabs that she promptly blocked with a stiff guard. She
threw a pushing kick that served as a check, opening up the distance.
Rui decided to go all out and use Vital Pressure, launching a flurry of strikes
to specific points and angles along her joints.
This was one way by which he could apply pressure on her. The continuous
damage which eventually weaken her defense. This was the best utility of
Vital Pressure.
Suddenly, she abruptly shifted her weight to her left leg.
('A kic-!') Rui barely realized, before;
BAM
Her right foot slammed into his side. Rui mitigated the damage with both
Elastic Shift and Acute Edge, having foreseen an attack, but just barely. He
quickly followed up with a high kick
WHOOSH
The powerful attack sweeped through empty air as Milliana crouched to

avoid it.
She attempted a takedown from her position, only to narrowly move out of
the way of an axe kick from Rui. He had foreseen the possibility and forced
her to abandon the attack with a powerful axe-kick. He immediately rushed in
after her.
POW POW POW
Launching a flurry of strikes with Vital Pressure, looking for an opening, but
he never could find one.
Milliana was incredibly good at maintaining a stalemate. She never tried to

make too much progress with her offense, but she never allowed her
opponent to make much progress either.
Block
Parry
Dodge
Shift
Check
These were her mantras.
Rui backed away, putting some distance between her. The VOID algorithm
worked best when there were even the tiniest openings or shortcomings to
exploit. However, when someone turtled up as much as she did, it was hard to
exploit any glaring openings, those were mostly created by attacks or some
offensive maneuver.
('This can't continue.') Rui established. ('I'll just tire myself out and she'll only
begin her offense after I've burnt my primary stamina reserve.')
He needed to find a hole in her stalemating fighting style, but nothing came
to mind.
('There has to be some effective approach that can work here.') The problem
was, he didn't know what that was. ('Her greatest strength is that her defense
pursues minimalistic energy consumption... Not only does it prolong her
stamina, but I'm sure it's easy for her to maintain this mentally. She probably
doesn't need to think much, since there is usually only one or few ways of
movements in any situation to minimize energy-consumpt-!') Rui paused
eyes-wide as an epiphany struck his mind.
In any given situation, there were was really only a few options that truly
minimize energy consumption; the minimum motion needed to block the
attack, the minimum motion needed to dodge the attack, the minimum motion
needed to parry or redirect the attack.
('Since she always aims to minimize energy consumption... that restricts her
options to a few solutions! And if her options are restricted...') Rui directed a
measured gaze at her. ('...Then her choices become more predictable, and that
is a weakness I can exploit.')
It had taken him a while to realize this because combat sports on Earth didn't
really have the concept of "hyper-minimalistic energy consumption". One
either fought hard and won, or fought too passively and got knocked out,
those were the only two outcomes. Milliana's fighting style would have fallen
in the latter back on Earth.
But in Gaea, Martial Art turned what was a losing strategy in his previous
world into a formidable fighting style!
He hadn't fully transitioned to from the mindset of his previous life, it was
hard to, but he had taken another step in the middle of this match.
('I need to move in a manner that creates predictable minimal-energy

counters, and then exploit the tiny brief opening when she's performing the
counter to launch a swift but powerful attack.')
"Fuuuu..." Rui exhaled, adopting a new stance. A new wave of determination

saturated his figure!
Chapter 71 Conclusion
Rui adopted a new stance. He brought his arms up, but positioned them lower
than before, with their fists directed at Milliana. The physical difference
between this stance and his previous one was subtle, but made all the
difference in the world. His new stance was geared towards offense, whereas
his old stance was partially defensive.
He dashed towards Milliana with Parallel Walk and Balance Direction,

crossing the gap between them as quickly as possible.
BOOM
He launched a flying knee kick amped with Vital Pressure straight into her
guard, it was an extremely powerful blow that used the momentum generated
by the Apprentice-level maneuvering techniques to increase the impact.
Milliana managed to mitigate the damage with a few defensive Apprentice

level techniques, but only partially, she had retreated reeling from the blow.
In truth she didn't expect Rui to return with such a violently aggressive
offensive strategy. She was sure he already realized that he would simply
burn his energy with such highly energy-consuming tactics.
Rui launched more and more powerful blows, putting his body weight behind
each of them uncaring for his defense. If Milliana was a defensive or evasive
specialist, she would have been able to deal with the attacks while
maintaining her ground. But she was an all-rounder stamina-specialist. Her
focus on defense wasn't as strong as it would have needed to be to not be
forced for her to open up distance between them.
She was also very much capable of an offensive approach too however.
She launched several jabs at Rui, but Rui blocked them briefly before
continuing his offense unperturbed to her great surprise.
Rui on other hand was inwardly ecstatic.
('Minimalistic energy consumption reduces both your offensive and defensive

options, you cannot launch bombastic offensive attacks like Fae because they
are quite energy-consumptive.') he figured. ('I doubt you can manage such
attacks in the first place.')
He was partially right. The lesser number of offensive options made her
attacks easier to predict and thus easier to defend against by timing his
defense well, but the process was much more taxing and stressful than he had
imagined.
Furthermore, his muscles were starting to sore while Milliana appeared to be

pristine condition asides from some bruises that Rui had given her. This was
surely the result of stamina-supplementary Apprentice-level techniques.
('She can keep this up for a long time while I can't, I need to win quickly.')
He needed to execute his strategy immediately. He kept blasting her, while

she mitigated the damage with minimal motions, however, while doing so she
began reaching the edge of the ring.
('Is this his plan? A ring-out?') Milliana pondered, disappointed. ('If so, he
underestimated me.') She adopted a tougher and stiffer stance, determined not
back down more. She was not new to this strategy; it was one of the many
tactics the other Apprentice students had attempted to defeat her.
One foot away from the ring, and Rui changed his stance abruptly, he opened
his fists into open palms placing them beside him at chest height while
crouching.
('A wrestling stance.') Milliana mused.
His intentions were transparent to her. He intended to shoot; a lunging action

in wrestling aimed to performing a takedown, and push her out of the ring.
This was also not a strategy she had not experienced. But a simple strategy
such as this had an equally simple counter-strategy.
She would merely need to step forward and shift all her weight to the pivotal
front leg, and using the back leg as a force driver was the way to deal with
shoots, then she would turn the battle into full-contact ground-grappling by
shifting both of them off-balance. This was the least stamina-consumptive
way of safely mitigating the risk of a ring out. It was hard to push someone
out of boundaries when both of your bodies were on the ground in a taut
locked stalemate, it would be possible for a grappling specialist, of course,
but she knew Rui was not one. Furthermore, she was certain she had more
experience in wrestling than he did.
Wrestling was inherently a battle of perseverance; it was a very stamina-

intensive battle, where stamina was just as important as technique.
('Challenging a stamina-oriented specialist in a form of combat where

stamina is king, you are more foolish than I expected, Rui Quarrier.') She
earnestly evaluated, as Rui dashed at her, executing the shoot just like she
had predicted.
p She calmly waited for the perfect moment to step forward. If she stepped
forward too early, she would be forced to stop herself once she reached the
desire position, if she stepped forward too late, he would push her out of
boundary. She wanted to shift all her weight abruptly onto the pivotal leg just
as he collided with her so that the momentum of her weight shift would
cancel his momentum out.
The moment came.
She raised her left leg and pushed it forward along with her body, intending
to firmly plant itself in the ground.
"Gotcha." Rui whispered, sending a chill down her body.
SWEEP
Rui swiftly sent a low sweeping kick the very moment she lifted her left foot
from the ground. The kick hooked her foot and swept it away before it could
reach the ground
Suddenly, all of Milliana's weight that was supposed to be supported by that

left foot, no longer could be supported.
Rui grinned as her body inevitably plummeted to the right.
He had never intended an earnest takedown; he knew it probably wouldn't

work. She had a bit more weight than he did, by virtue of the age gap and she
also had more experience with wrestling than he did, who had very little. It
would be easy for her to convert the battle into full-contact ground grappling,
where he stood almost no chance of victory in a head-to-head contest.
Furthermore, it was such an obvious idea that she would not have remained a
challenger for as long as she did if she could not deal with such a simple
tactic
It was precisely because this was not a good idea, in combination with her
energy-minimalistic approach that he could predict her very first counter; the
leg planting and weight shifting was almost guaranteed, any other tactic in
her position would go against her style strongly.
This allowed him to launch a sweeping kick as a counter just in time to knock
out her weight support and throw her colossally off balance.
As she reflexively braced herself for the ground, Rui immediately whipped
his left arm around her neck and pressed her head into the choke-hold.
A rear choke-hold
This was the riskiest part, but he had to take a gamble.
If he failed the maneuver or if she had a technique like Outer Convergence

that could allow her to strike him hard in that position, she could break out.
But he simply could not optimize his chances of victory any further, not in
the middle of a fight anyway.
Back on Earth, there was a popular saying in the combat sports industry; 'If
you get in a rear choke-hold, tap out.'
This was because there was no realistic way to beat the rear choke-hold back
on Earth. It clamped down on the arteries and esophagus like an anaconda
and exert such high pressure, that fighters described it the sensation as 'I felt
my head was going to explode.'
Rui had to simply pray that this earthly wisdom would hold true in this world.
He squeezed down on her neck with his left arm and pushed her neck down
with his right arm.
Yet she never tapped.
He squeezed and squeezed, yet she never resigned.
('What is she trying to do?!')
"Match over!" The supervisor rushed over. It was only then had Rui realized
that she had passed out.
The rear choke-hold cut off the blood supply to the brain almost entirely, it
was not unusual for its targets to pass out. It just hadn't struck Rui in the heat
of the moment, because of his paranoia that she would break out of his rear
choke-hold.
It seems she did not have any techniques that allowed to break out of the hold
in a short amount of time.
Rui immediately released the hold; it would be dangerous to hold her in it

any longer. Even as a paramedical team carried her away on a stretcher, Rui
couldn't help but feel elated.
This was the first time he beat an experienced Martial Apprentice!
All the Martial Apprentices he had beaten were people like him, people who
had recently advanced to the Apprentice Realm. These Apprentices had
shaky foundations and hadn't expanded or developed their Martial Art much
and were even more lacking in experience than he was.
But his rationality quickly established itself as he looked back on the fight.
('She wouldn't have lost in a real fight.') Rui realized.
There were no ring-outs in a real fight, which was a crucial part of his tactic,
Rui did not think he would be able to beat her without this element.
('I've obtained enough basic experience with the six techniques I've already
learnt, I can improve faster with developing more techniques and diversifying
my Martial Art further yet.')
Chapter 72 Foundational Concerns
"Saw you beating Milliana, good job man, she's strong." Kane complimented.
"Thanks." Rui replied, before smirking at Kane. "I heard Fae came back with
a fury and kicked your butt." He playfully teased.
"I was tired!" Kane complained. "I beat her again after I came back having
consumed some potions!"
Rui laughed wholeheartedly. After he left to spar with Milliana, he'd grown
absorbed in his own battles, he had wanted to maintain his defender position
for as long as possible. He'd heard of and caught glimpses of Kane and Fae
sparring with each other for the rest of the sparring session.
Fae had come back with a fury after the initial loss, rejuvenated and healed,
and beat Kane to a pulp. What Rui found amusing was that after Kane came
back, also rejuvenated and healed, he repaid the favour, defeating her again.
This started a petty cycle of rivalry between them, where they would each
come back healed and rejuvenated after a loss and beat the crap out of the
fatigued other.
He shook his head, laughing.('Teenagers.')
He often forgot that the two of them were no more than kids to him, they
were in their immature stage, so he supposed this wasn't unusual, he only
found it amusing and interesting. The fact that they were able to exchange
wins and losses one after the other clearly implied they were truly at the same
level in terms of combat prowess. The reason they lost was because one
usually was more fatigued than the other.
The same could be said for Fae's initial loss, she had already defended her
position against several Apprentices prior to Kane, Rui included.
"So who got more wins?" Rui asked, curiously.
"I had one over her by the end of the session." Kane smirked smugly. "I'm
going to rub this in her annoying face when we run into each other next."
Rui laughed, shaking his head.
"So, what are you gonna do now?" Kane asked. "Any plans?"
"Yeah, I do have some." He nodded. "I need to increase and diversify my

arsenal. The six techniques I have now barely count as a foundation but it still
has gaps. My options in combat are pretty limited. I have only one offensive
technique, Vital Pressure. This largely restricts my means and chances of
victory. Furthermore, it's Vital Pressure is not meant to be a finishing move,
it's just meant to increase the damage of your strikes."
Kan nodded. Vital Pressure was one of the foundational offense-oriented

striking techniques he had mastered too. His raw physical prowess was
subpar, this was due to him training his body for speed, so techniques that
increased the damage he inflicted were truly necessary.
"An all-rounder does need options all-round." He concurred. "I'm heading to

catch some rest. I'm reaching my limit with the rejuvenation potions and we
have an academic mission coming up apparently. So catch you later."
"Sure, get some rest, see ya." Rui nodded, before heading to the Apprentice
library, thinking about what he just told Kane.
"I truly do lack options, I have two maneuvering techniques, two defensive
techniques, one supplementary technique and one offensive technique."
Furthermore, his offense was limited to striking, meaning he could not

grapple against even a half-way decent Apprentice grappler. This was also an
undesirable outcome, the VOID algorithm's effectivity depended on how
versatile the user was, and how proficient the user was across the board.
Which is why he resolved to strengthen his full-contact and grappling combat

prowess with the next round of techniques he was going to learn.
"One offensive grappling technique for sure, one defensive grappling

technique too. What else?" He muttered to himself. "A finisher move would
be nice too, ideally, it should be flexible as well. I doubt such a thing would
be among the free foundational techniques though. The best would be finding
a technique whose value highly depends on its utility."
There were many variables that determined the impact of a Martial Art
technique in battle. Efficiency was definitely one important parameter, but
there were others as well.
Compatibility was just as important, if not even more important many a

times. Compatibility between the user's body and mindset and the technique
could greatly influence the impact the technique had in combat.
A technique best meant for a light and agile body like Kane wouldn't be used
optimally in the hands of a bulky heavy-weight with extremely developed
muscles, and conversely, techniques constructed for heavy-weights would not
do very well in the hands of someone like Kane.
Flexibility of a technique was also important. Flexibility usually came at the

expense of efficiency. The two were inherently at odds with each other to
some degree. Part of how what decided how efficient a technique was
depended on how well-suited the technique was for the circumstances it was
meant to be used it.
If a technique was, from the very start, constructed to excel in one and only
particular situation, then it would most certainly perform extremely well in
that one situation; it would have extremely high efficiency. However, that
technique would not be able to be used very well in any other circumstance if
it was constructed purely for one particular situation; thus, it had low
flexibility.
However, if a technique, from the very start, was constructed to be used any
number of circumstances; then it would have high flexibility. But since it
wasn't constructed to excel in any particular scenario, it won't be extremely
effective if used in any one particular situation and its effect when used in
combat was somewhat limited.
It was like the difference between a general physician and, say, a cardiologist.
For all matters related the heart, the cardiologist would absolutely perform a
better diagnosis and treatment, but for all other medical matters, the general
physician would be more equipped to diagnose them, and thus would do a
better job, even if not as good as specialists in those fields.
This was the difference between efficiency and flexibility.
It was, of course, not impossible for techniques to be extremely efficient and

flexible. Just like how it was not impossible for a prodigious genius to
specialize in many medical fields. But such techniques were rare, and
valuable. It would certainly be difficult to obtain them.
An overwhelming majority of techniques fell in the middle, having a decent

balance efficiency and flexibility, with a decent majority leaning one way or
another
The Academy did grade techniques in flexibility; however, they arranged

techniques via efficiency. After all, the techniques were not stored digitally
where it would be easy to sort them by multiple parameters.
"The VOID algorithm works better with more flexible techniques than more
efficient techniques for sure, though." He murmured to himself.
The VOID algorithm was a manifestation to embody Bruce lee's philosophy

of flexibility. It was definitely more compatible with techniques that were
inherently flexible than techniques were extremely rigid.
Did that mean Rui intended to forget about high efficiency and focus purely
on flexibility.
Rui shook his head. "That would be foolish."
There were scenarios were specialized high-efficiency techniques would

aways accomplish far, far more than any number of flexible techniques.
"Ideally, I want a solid foundation of flexible techniques with several high-

efficiency specialist techniques in every field, range and form of combat."
This was an extremely tall order.
As of right now, Rui had a half-baked foundation that had more holes than it
had substance.
Reaching his ideal would take a long time especially since it was impossible
to accomplish his goal with the techniques that the Academy offered free of
cost.
"Meaning I'll probably have to complete lots of missions before I accomplish

my goal." Rui mused.
Rui intended to begin applying for missions after the next round of
techniques he learnt. By then his foundation would be solid enough that
nobody but the more experienced and talented Apprentices would be able to
beat him, once he completely got used to those techniques.
This was because his rate of learning was far higher than his peers, while his
peers would have to take a lot of rest for as many days as they consumed
potions, he could spend those days grinding like a madman, furthermore his
recovery was also much faster than them.
The sustained training allowed him to immerse himself in the learning of

techniques. The continuous immersion allowed him to learn techniques
faster. This was because the human mind was not a machine that could
instantly enter into the top gear learning, it was only after expending a solid
amount of mental energy would the mind reach its peak as far as learning
speed went. People who spent an hour continuously learning, learnt faster
than those who learnt than those who learnt continuously for in two thirty-
minute sessions, who learnt better than those would learn continuously for six
ten-minute sessions.
Accumulation mattered, the only reason it wasn't recommended to spend too

much time on one task was because of fatigue, but with potions and Rui's
great tolerance, this was no longer true.
He intended to abuse this advantage, after all, he wasn't confident of fulfilling
missions as he was right now.
"After I round up a bit more, I'll definitely head to complete more missions.
Just as he enunciated this thought, he had reached the library.

Chapter 73 New Techniques!
When Rui entered, he immediately headed over to the grappling wing of the
defense-oriented section of the library. He intended to first and foremost
strengthen his grappling and full-contact combat. There were a vast variety of
techniques in there, but unfortunately, most of them were not free of cost.
Throws and flips of different forms and principles.
Locks and holds of different kinds and based on different mechanism.
A variety of takedown and rolling techniques as well.
Just browsing through them evoked a strong sense of greed within him. It
almost clouded his judgement, but thankfully the prohibitive cost prevented
him from acting on his greed.
"I firstly need a flexible technique that allows me to ensure I won't be

defeated too easily in full-contact grappling." He muttered to himself. "This
will serve as my defensive foundation in so far as grappling is concerned, if
someone ever successfully executes a takedown on me, I won't be helpless."
With this in mind, he grasped a particular scroll he had been eying for a
while.
"This will do, for now." He nodded.
[Shifting Silhouette]
This was a defensive grappling technique aimed at preventing successful

takedowns and throws, it also allowed the user to more effectively disengage
and break free from a general full-contact tussle and also to. If used correctly
this could allow Rui to stalemate and eventually break free from full-contact
grapples while also significantly reducing the probability of simpler
grappling offensive techniques from successfully working.
It involved foiling takedown attempts and throwing/flipping maneuvers by

detecting the change in center of gravity that takedown/throws were causing
and cancelling it by reversing the change in the center of gravity in the
opposite trajectory using one's core and legs.
"Not a flashy technique whatsoever, but it's a decent defense against

grappling attacks."
Of course, like most foundational techniques, it was overall of a somewhat

low-grade to mid-grade technique taking into account both efficiency and
flexibility, but it would have to do for now.
Once made his decision, he continued skimming through them, looking for
something that would suit his purposes, before something caught his eye.
[Binding lash]
"A counter-offensive technique, huh?"
A counter-offensive technique was a technique that was both defensive and

offensive in nature.
Rui began carefully reading through the summary, as well as the more
elaborate description.
"It's a technique that intercepts incoming strikes with a body hold?" Rui
thought aloud. "Interesting..."
The technique function by having the user withstand the blow by having the
user move with the strike in a manner similar to Elastic Shift before grasping
the limb with both arms and legs, and using all four limbs as well as the core
to stress the joints and dislocate them.
Rui whistled. This was quite a good technique!
It was a technique that allowed him to turn a striking contest into a grappling
contest where he had a huge initiative advantage!
Although this technique was also not invincible, and also extremely difficult
to nail completely, it was still quite useful and expanded his approach and
options when dealing with an opponent. Even if it failed with the dislocation,
it would still give the user an advantage in the grappling battle.
After he collected the two scrolls from the grappling wing of the defensive
section, he quickly scurried over to the offensive section of the library,
looking for something that could bolster his lacking offense.
('I'll take one grappling offense-oriented technique and another striking

offense-oriented technique.') Rui thought.
Vital Pressure was not enough, he needed something that could end a fight. A
technique that leaned more towards efficiency than flexibility.
"Hm?" Rui frowned as he came across an interesting technique.
[Flowing Canon]
This was a technique that increased the striking power of the user by having
them build up momentum and converting all that built-up momentum into
striking power once they reached the target, allowing the user to momentarily
strike with raw power far surpassing what he would ordinarily be able to
generate.
Rui's eyes lit up, this was the kind of technique he was looking for, Vital
Pressure was extremely flexible and could work in any situation. But it could
not allow him to increase his power-per-strike by much. Flowing Canon on
the other hand didn't have much flexibility, but if he used it in the right time
and place it could be a game finisher.
('Alright, that serves as a good offense-oriented striking technique.') Rui

thought ('Time to look for a grappling offensive technique.')
This one took him a while, he spent nearly an hour browsing through
techniques, looking for one that could benefit him the most. Until;
[Mirage Dive]
This was an Apprentice-level takedown technique. It was a technique that

began at range, had the user bullrush towards the target and, once they were
close-quarters-combat range, feint a takedown on the upper body while
actually performing a takedown on the lower body. This technique used a
sharp feint to trick the opponent into raising his guard to the upper abdomen,
creating a weakness on the lower body that could be exploited for a
successful takedown.
If executed successfully, it would either knock the opponent out or at the very
least give the user a huge advantage in the grappling contest that would
ensue.
Rui nodded, this fit his purposes. This was another low-flexibility technique,
but increased his options and means of victory greatly. It could be a killer
move if he used it wisely.
With this, he was satisfied with the variety he added to his previously lacking
and empty offense and defense.
('Now for just one more technique...') Rui thought to himself.
He wanted to get a supplementary technique that could increase aspects of his

fighting style the others hadn't yet.
"Maybe I should get a stamina-oriented technique and take a page out of

Milliana's book." Rui murmured, pondering the option.
This was a feasible course of action. Increasing his stamina, would take a
weight off his shoulders and fight more cleanly and carefully, taking his time.
"What to do..." He wondered.

Chapter 74 Training Begins!
Rui had already chosen four techniques. An offensive, defensive and a

counter-offensive grappling technique and an offensive striking technique.
He had already decided to pick five techniques, so that left one more. He was
considering a stamina-oriented technique, this was definitely synergetic with
the VOID algorithm. After all, the VOID algorithm could not work
instantaneously, it needed time.
Having a stamina-oriented technique would give him more leeway to conduct

the VOID algorithm.
('Alright.') He nodded. ('Let's go with that.')
There were several stamina-oriented techniques in the supplementary

technique section of the Apprentice library. A lot of them were based on
different principle and mechanisms that either focused on increasing the net
amount of energy stored in the body to increase stamina, or focused on
reducing unnecessary non-combat related energy consumption during
combat.
He ended with two viable candidates screened after half an hour of browsing.
[Helical Breathing]
This technique was an advanced Apprentice-level version of Harmonic

Breathing, not only did it boost general metabolic functions, but also reduced
the energy-consumption significantly below what Harmonic Breathing could
achieve.
[Bone Balance]
This was a balance-oriented technique that allowed the user to stand up
straight purely by positioning their weight under their bones, without help of
muscles. The user would be able to avoid consuming energy by standing,
increasing his stamina in the long run.
This was the kind of technique that made Rui do a double-take, reminding
him yet again how different from Earth Gaea was, for techniques like this to
even exist and be viable and practical.
Both techniques had an equal level of flexibility and efficiency. This resulted
in equal difficulty as well. The greater the sum of efficiency and flexibility,
the greater the overall potency of the technique and thus the higher the
difficulty.
There were no such things as potent techniques that were also super easy to
master.
But despite this equality between them, the choice was clear between them,
the answer was clear.
"Helical Breathing is an extension of Harmonic Breathing" Rui muttered. "It's

the Apprentice level version of the technique."
Harmonic Breathing was not an Apprentice Learning, it was an Exploration

technique he had mastered while he was still in the Exploration Stage. Helical
Breathing was an Apprentice-level extension of it, meaning he would
probably master is quicker than mastering another technique from scratch.
"Alright, that settles the deal then."
He took hold of the five techniques he decided to master. With this, he will
have mastered a total of ten techniques.
Vital Pressure, Elastic Shift, Balance Direction, Acute Edge, Parallel Walk,
Binding Lash, Flowing Canon, Mirage Dive, Shifting Silhouette and Helical
Breathing.
This formed the bare basics of his foundation.

"No, not entirely, I still don't have techniques for all ranges of combat."
Hand-to-hand combat could be divided into several ranges even further;

kicking-range combat, jabbing-range combat, elbow-range combat and full-
contact combat or grappling.
Each of these ranges, despite being separated by tens of centimeters, were

quite different from each other.
"Still, what I have at least ensures I don't have a weakness anywhere."
As far as offense went, Vital Pressure gave him versatility and flexibility at
almost all ranges, but its efficiency was low. Flowing Canon gave him
offensive options at most striking ranges although it needed accumulation of
momentum from a distance each time it was to be used. Mirage Dive and
Binding Lash gave him offensive and counter-offensive options at full-
contact range. Thus, covering the bare basics in most regards.
His defense was better, he had Elastic Shift and Acute Edge, as well Binding
Lash for defense against striking. He could use one or more of these
depending on which was more apt. He also had Shifting Silhouette for full-
contact/grappling offense.
Balance Direction and Parallel Walk improved his mobility and locomotion,
but only in regards to travel speed, they didn't enhance his combat speed.
This was something he aimed to fix in the future.
And Helical Breathing improved his stamina, allowing him to fight a slower
pace and giving him more time to adapt to his opponents.
"Alright, this will have to do for now."
He applied for copies of each of the techniques and immediately head to the
Apprentice respiratory technique facility of the supplementary wing, the
Helical Breathing technique would be the easiest to master, no doubt, the
sooner he mastered and improved his stamina, the better the remaining
training regimes would work out too. What surprised him was that unlike the
Harmonic Breathing technique, the Helical Breathing technique had training
methodologies that specified involved actual respiratory training equipment.
"The Harmonic Breathing technique simply requires you to time inhalation

with pulsing of your blood, so that the maximum amount of air can come into
contact with your blood" The Apprentice supervisors explained to Rui. "The
Helical Breathing technique involves not just maximizing the amount of
blood coming into contact with your air, but also maximizing the amount of
air coming in contact with all that blood.
The lungs inhaled air that would be diffused and mixed into blood,
maximizing the amount of blood and maximizing the amount of air coming
into contact with said blood allowed each cell in the body to obtain more
oxygen allowing the user to generate the same amount of power with less
effort, ultimately prolonging stamina.
"Since you've already mastered Harmonic Breathing, we can skip the first
stage of the training, since it is Harmonic Breathing training. I recommend
starting with the next stage." The supervisor explained.
"Understood." Rui nodded, having already planned that
"We'll start by increasing your lung capacity and strengthening your

respiratory strength."
"Yes sir."
Lung capacity and respiration strength were important parameters of

respiration even on Earth. Lung capacity referred to how open your trachea,
your airway, was and how well your lung could expand. Respiratory strength
was dependent on the diaphragm, the sole muscle that was actually
responsible for breathing; expanding to suck in air into the lungs and
contracting to expel air from the lungs.
Improving these two would significantly improve the Harmonic Breathing

technique in and of themselves.
However, that wasn't all there was to it, the Helical technique was an
Apprentice level technique, meaning only Apprentices and above could
master it, as far as difficulty went. The later stages involved manners of
breathing that further maximized the amount of air that made contact with
blood! The end result was a breathing technique that facilitated much greater
power and stamina.
Such was the prowess of an Apprentice-level technique.

Chapter 75 The Power Of Deception
The exercises involved strengthening the diaphragm, in ways that were very
similar to exercising the rest of the body. Muscles were generally trained and
strengthened by expanding and contracting them against resistance, usually a
weight load. One would shift weights by expanding and contracting particular
muscle groups across the body, leading to them growing stronger over time.
The diaphragm was no different in this regard. Rui spent a lot of time
inhaling and exhaling through a breathing contraption that severely hindered
breathing, this meant the user had to push his diaphragm to the absolute limit
if he or she wanted to breathe normally.
As Rui gasped and wheezed during this exercise, for the very first time in his
second life, he came to hate a training regime.
Up until now he had taken all the different and various training sessions in
stride, even though they were difficult and new to him, he truly enjoyed the
feeling of his proficiency of a technique growing better and better, it was an
addictive feeling.
Yet this training was truly unpleasant, the reason for that was simple.
('This sensation of strained respiration is identical to that of the asthma

attacks I used to suffer back on Earth.') He gasped and wheezed.
Those moments were the worst of his life, and now he had to experience
them continuously for hours.
Still, he realized this training would ultimately improve his breathing and
stamina, so he swallowed the bitter pill and earnestly dedicated himself to the
training.
Once he was done, he quickly bade the supervisor farewell and scurried out
of the facility as fast as he could.
"I can't wait till I've mastered this technique so I don't ever have to do that
training ever again in my life."
Still, that training made normal breathing feel like a luxury, making him
appreciate things he had come to take for granted in his second life.
He shook his head putting aside such thoughts, before heading to the next
training facility to start learning the next of the five new techniques he had
procured. He had already decided which technique he wanted to look at next.
('I'm quite curious about Mirage Dive.')
This was the offensive grappling technique he had decided to learn. It was a
technique in which the user feinted an upper takedown only to exploit the
opening created by the feint to instead go for a lower takedown.
It was one of the measures he taken to improve his offense and expand his
offensive options in combat.
What surprised him was how different the facility for this, and other similar
techniques, was from other facilities. Then again, this was his first time
visiting the training facility for an Apprentice-level grappling training
facility. He had not learnt any Apprentice-level technique prior, after all.
The training equipment was quite different from what he was used to
compared to the other training facilities he had trained in.
"Mirage Dive eh?" The supervisor mused. "Alright, no problem." He nodded.

"Mirage Dive, as a technique, can be divided into three different stages; the
feint, the transition and the actual takedown. The training regime for the
technique involve working on each separately and then all together."
Rui nodded, listening closely.
"The feint is the most difficult part of the technique. In order to create a real
opportunity and opening for the real takedown, the feint needs to be
convincing, a regular faking motion ain't gonna cut it, kid."
"I did go through the recommended training regime for the feint, it is a bit
strange.
The supervisor nodded. "The training regime for the feint requires being
hooked up to a bodysuit that we can manually freeze at any time we want, its
fabric and structure is made from multiple different kinds of esoteric bestial
and floral substances, and it operates on strange principles, but that doesn't
matter. We'll have you practice the perfect upper takedown until you master
the form and trajectory, then we'll have you wear the suit and perform the
upper takedowns, except we'll freeze the suit in the middle of the takedown,
we'll do this over and over and over. This helps your body physically
understand what the perfect upper takedown feint looks and physically feels
like. The perfect upper takedown feint is an incomplete real upper takedown,
a real upper takedown cut in half, this way no one call easily tell it's fake"
Rui nodded. Doing this would teach his body the timing of the feint and the
trajectory of the feint. Mirage Dive was a technique whose feint trajectory
and timing is meant to be indistinguishable from the real deal. That's what
made it effective, that's what made it an Apprentice-level technique. The
sheer convincingness would force his targets to subconsciously raise their
guard to intercept the upper charge, giving the user a huge opening that could
be exploited with a real takedown, but the quality of the feint was made it the
technique Apprentice-level, and what made the technique a finisher.
Furthermore, this technique had a flipside to it. If someone was very familiar
with this technique and predicted an upper takedown feint and prepared for a
lower takedown, then Rui could simply turn the upper takedown feint into an
actual real upper takedown!
In the Mirage Dive technique, the upper takedown and upper takedown feint
were absolutely the same until the halfway point.
Meaning Rui could choose to feint, or actually perform the takedown if he

wanted! Because there was no difference between the feint and the actual
takedown, Rui could choose to do either depending on how his opponent
responded. He could adapt to his opponent's response and reaction!
This was part of the reason he chose this technique, although it had only two
possible scenario applications, because of the fact that he could cater and had
the ability to make the choice after analyzing his opponent, it had more
flexibility than one would expect of a technique with two possibilities.
"But that's not all." The supervisor grinned toothily. "Once you truly and
fully master this technique, your feint becomes so good, that your opponent
sees an illusion!"
Chapter 76 Training The Transition
The training regimes for Mirage Dive were new and alien to him. For almost
all the training he had engaged in prior, there were elements of it that
paralleled the training on Earth, but the training for the feinting maneuvers of
the Mirage Dive technique were truly different, he was no different from a
normal Apprentice learning of the technique for the first time.
On Earth, feints were useful and effective, but the training for them was
nothing beyond repetition and practice.
What truly surprised him was that the supervisor insisted that the feint, when
done correctly, could create illusions in the mind of the target.
Rui frowned "How can a feint technique create illusions like that?"
"Because of how convincing the feint is, I suppose." The supervisor scratched
his head. "If you don't believe me, I can show it to you."
Rui was intrigued. He knew the supervisors of a facility had mastered all the
techniques of the training facility they were charged to supervise, so he
wasn't surprised.
"Sure." He nodded. "I'll take you up on that offer."
The supervisor nodded, putting some distance between them, taking a

standard wrestling stance, Rui in-turn mimicked him.
The supervisor charged, lunging towards Rui's upper abdomen and sure
enough.
WHOOSH
The lunge faded away as Rui tried to intercept it!
The supervisor had not performed an upper takedown, but somehow Rui saw
him doing that.
"See that?" The supervisor grinned.
Rui had requested him for a few more demonstrations before he finally
deciding to begin the training. Illusion techniques were also not a real thing
back on Earth, and it was an incredible experience to actually be subjected to
one.
He also quickly learnt how effective the technique was. He had truly fallen
for the illusion even though he knew it was a feint, it had created a huge
opening which the supervisors could have easily exploited to execute a
powerful real takedown.
The more Rui learnt about this technique the more he was impressed by it!
He could hardly believe that this was a free technique.
He immediately started training, the first stage of training involved the feint,
and he did put on the black bodysuit that the supervisor told him about. It was
remarkably easy to stretch, reminding Rui of the suit the applicants were
required to wear in the second round of the Martial Entrance Exam.
"Ready? Get in position." The supervisor instructed, as he fiddled with a

crystal looking object. "I'll be freezing the suit at the right time so that you
can physically feel the right timing."
This was the part that confused Rui. How exactly would he exert control over
the suit remotely? Did such technology exist? Was it possible to
communicate remotely via technology too?
Rui glanced at the crystal suspiciously, that crystal was probably esoteric
matter with strange exotic effects that allowed for it transmit signals in some
form or the other that triggered some mechanism in the suit that caused it to
freeze up.
"Ah make sure your center of gravity remains balanced, otherwise you'll just
fall down unbalanced when I do activate the freeze." The supervisor advised.
"Will do." Rui affirmed.
"Alright, just execute the normal upper takedown you learnt in your
Foundation technique, it's based on that technique after all."
Rui nodded, before glancing at a wrestling dummy in front of him. He

charged, before lunging at the upper abdomen, before suddenly freezing.
"You feel that? That particular instance in the trajectory, and that particular
moment of body weight shifting? That's the moment. You need to memorize
this timing with your body, otherwise you'll never nail it. This freezing stage
is necessary to only give you a reference point for the right timing and
execution of the technique. Once that's done, you'll get better at it with
repetition of feint, trying to match the timing I showed you." The supervisor
explained.
Rui nodded. "I still haven't memorized the timing and placement yet. But this
training definitely helps, I don't think I would get the hang of the it if I had to
only watch you and train by myself."
"That's what the Academy is for, now, let's try it one more time. You're going
to have to repeat this maneuver many times for you to completely remember
the timing and placement of the transition."
Rui acquiesced, resuming the training. Each time he performed a legitimate

upper takedown, and each time the supervisor stopped him at the moment Rui
was supposed to begin the transition to the real lower takedown.
The best part about this training was how straightforwardly the supervisor
could directly convey to Rui when to stop. Without this strange technology,
Rui would have had to spend a far longer time trying to even understand
when the optimal timing was.
But this training allowed him to bypass extensive tedious training. No

wonder the Academy was so vaunted. He had truly come to realize just how
much for Martial Art and Martial Artists the Academy did.
The training continued for an hour, until the supervisor halted it.
"There's no point in spending all your time engaging in only this stage." He
explained. "It's best if you practice the feint after feeling the timing and
placement of the transition, you'll certainly fail no doubt. But we'll get you
back on the body suit next training session for an hour and then have you try
and replicate it again after that hour. We'll do these over and over until you've
completely mastered the feint."
Rui nodded. This certainly made sense. It was probably better to do side-by-
side comparisons with his attempted timing in the transition and the accurate
timing as dictated by the supervisor when he wore the body suit.
This way he could continuously get an understanding of how far he was each
time as well as his rate of growth of accuracy over time. These are things that
he would otherwise be entirely unable to do.
This in combination with his fearsome rate of growth, and he suspected he

would master this technique much sooner than expected!
Chapter 77 Flowing Canon
Rui spent quite a while training the feint, unfortunately, he didn't make as
much progress as he'd hoped.
"It's to be expected. Usually, this technique takes a long time to fully master."
The supervisor reassured.
Once Rui's training session ended, he consumed several rejuvenation potions

before heading out, gathering his thoughts on the Mirage Dive technique
('It's a powerful technique that is most effective when the target isn't aware of
it.') Rui thought. ('Still, it can be effective even if it is known about as long as
it's used cleverly. In fact, if my opponent is aware and cautious of it, I can use
their caution against them to set traps.')
All in all, Rui was quite satisfied by this technique. It served its purpose as
bolstering his offense and grappling options quite well, better than he'd
initially expected.
"Alright the next thing I should do is head out to check out the training
regimes for the remaining techniques I've picked." He estimated.
The remaining techniques were Shifting Silhouette, Binding Lash and

Flowing Canon.
The technique he was most interested in next was Flowing Canon. This
ability would give him more potent striking options, increasing the power of
his offense. It also gave him a finisher, something he was sorely lacking with
Vital Pressure alone.
"I wouldn't have had to deal with Milliana the way I did if I had these
techniques." His strategy against Milliana was not easy to find or execute, if
he had these techniques against then he would have been able to pull off a
better and less risky strategy.
He made his way to the offensive striking technique training facility. This
was a more familiar environment to him.
"Flowing Canon is indeed a good pick, you've come to the right place." The
supervisor nodded, turning her gaze to Rui. "Alright, let's begin if you're
ready."
Rui nodded in affirmation. "Yes mam."
"I presume you've read up and comprehended the principle and mechanisms
behind the Flowing Canon technique?"
"I have."
"Alright, explain it to me in your own words."
"Flowing Canon requires the user to build up momentum and kinetic energy
by speeding up, then once the user approaches the target, the user converts all
the built-up momentum and kinetic energy into striking power, delivering a
blow much greater than the normal physical limits of the user. The amount of
power of the technique depends on how proficient the user is at the technique
and how much energy and momentum the user built up prior to the usage of
technique."
The supervisor nodded in return. "Good explanation. Before we begin talking

about the training regimes and methodologies, I'll give you a demonstration.
Come"
She took him over to a large punching bag, one that was greater than any he
had ever seen. She nodded, before taking a distance of three meters away
from the bag.
"I could go further behind to deliver a stronger impact, but this should be
enough for a show of effectivity."
She took a wider stance with both hands balled into fists, pointing towards
her target.
"Fuuu..." She exhaled before charging.
BAM
Rui's eyes widened at the sight, the strike was truly powerful.
The large punching swung beyond ninety degrees and almost did a perfect
one-eighty.
"That's how it looks." She explained, using one arm to stop the swinging
punching bag. "That was close, anymore and I might have broken it." She
murmured, glancing at the bag.
The power of the strike resembled one of Fae's palm attacks, what made the
technique much inferior was that each time it was used required the energy to
build-up momentum and energy, whereas Fae could spam this level of attacks
thanks to Outer Convergence.
"That's impressive." Rui murmured with honesty.
"It'll allow you to deliver powerful strikes every time your opponent puts
some distance between the two of you." She explained. "Alright, if there's
nothing else, we can begin with the training methodologies."
Rui nodded. "Please do."
"The technique is relatively straightforward. Building momentum just

requires good old running, so that doesn't require any training. You even use
certain Apprentice-level maneuvering techniques to generate more
momentum and energy so that the Flowing Canons trike ends up being more
powerful." She explained. "What does require training is converting all that
momentum and energy into striking."
Rui nodded, absorbed into her words.
"There isn't a discrete absolute way to learn how to convert travelling

momentum into striking power, it's just something you get better at by
repeating. That's why you'll have noticed the scroll of the technique doesn't
specify any training regimes with any equipment, we haven't devised any
training equipment or technology that can aid with this technique. There are
certain instructions I can give you." She mentioned, before continuing.
"Firstly, you need to get rid of your instinct of slowing down your travelling
speed when you're about to reach someone. This is a normal human instinct.
After all, nobody wants to crash into another person and end up hurting
themselves and their incidental victim. But in this case, that instinct is
detrimental. Slowing down will only kill and get rid of the power you built."
Rui nodded, this made sense. There was no point in killing momentum when
using a technique that used momentum to function.
"The first step is to not slow down with your feet when you're about to hit
your opponent. The second step is to slow down by striking your opponent."
Rui caught onto what she meant. This was a relatively simple matter to
someone who had a background in Physics.
When a person jumped off a wall and landed on their feet, they reduced their
momentum to zero by applying force on the ground when they landed. This
was essentially the principle behind Flowing Canon, you begin moving very
fast, then when you reach your opponent, you apply all the force on them you
can and end up slowing down, by doing this you have converted all your
momentum into striking power that your opponent will have to withstand.
Just like how jumping from the top of higher walls resulted in more powerful
impacts when you hit the ground, moving faster and striking your opponent
with all you have to come to a stop also results in more powerful impacts.
This is how Flowing Canon allowed the user to transcend their limits for a
brief period of time.
Chapter 78 The Remaining
Techniques
"Hmmm... You don't seem confused." The supervisor noted. "Generally, I

have to explain the matter to those learning the technique."
"Do students even care to learn about the mechanisms and principles behind
techniques?" Rui chuckled.
"Generally, no." She shrugged. "But it's necessary. Knowing how your
techniques work is vital to knowing how to use them adequately. In many a
scenario, using a certain technique might not be the right answer in that
scenario due to bad compatibility, but you would never know why unless you
understood your techniques intimately."
Rui nodded. Techniques were like tools; their application was just as
important as their quality and functioning. Even the greatest tools were
worthless in the hands of one who did not know how to use them.
"Alright, now that I've explained the technique more thoroughly. Let's begin
training."
Rui nodded.
"As I'm sure you already know if you've gone through the scroll, the training
for this technique is extremely straightforward. You need to simply keep
trying until you get the hang of it. Start by using the technique on the
punching bag from three meters away. Since you're just starting out, I'd
advise not using any Apprentice-level techniques for the run-up. Also, use a
simple and easy attack to begin with, once you get the hang of those you can
execute more complicated attacks."
Rui nodded. "I'll start with a straight punch then."
Using momentum to amplify a straight punch was actually a popular karate

technique that was frequently used in MMA, it was known as the blitz-punch.
However, the Flowing Canon wasn't limited to punch, furthermore, its
efficiency far exceeded that of the blitz punch technique used in MMA, this
was why it was an Apprentice-level technique.
Rui spent the next few hours performing the same maneuver over and over
again.
"It's better to land the attack earlier in the maneuver than you normally
would." She called out. "Normally, you would land a punch when you've
fully extended your arm, or just a bit before for maximum power, but in this
case, landing a bit before that will prolong the impact allowing you more
time and distance to convert all your momentum into striking power."
Rui nodded, and immediately, his blitz punch Flowing Canon technique was
getting more and more powerful.
"How long will it take me to master?" He asked, once he decided to end his
training session.
She shrugged. "This is one of those techniques that you just keep getting
better and better at. There is no clear line where you can declare you've
mastered the technique like there are for certain other techniques." She
continued. "Still, once you reach a stage where you can smoothly convert
most of your travelling momentum to striking power easily, I suppose you
need not train any longer."
Once his training with Flowing Canon ended. He moved onto the remaining
techniques that he learnt.
Shifting Silhouette and Binding Lash. These two remaining techniques were
grappling oriented techniques Rui had decided to learn to round of his
foundation. Shifting Silhouette was the least flashy technique of his most
recent set of techniques, it was purely defensive that allowed him to be able
to cope and handle grappling attacks and disengage with them.
Binding Lash was another technique lower flexibility but decent efficiency,
allowing him to clinch incoming strikes and lock them with his entire body,
allowing him to potentially dislocate the joints in question or at the very least
gain a huge initiative in the grappling battle.
These two techniques along with Mirage Dive made him quite confident in
his grappling solutions. Shifting Silhouette for defense, Mirage Dive for
offense and Binding Lash for counter-offense.
Furthermore, the training methodologies for the remaining two techniques

was much simpler than the prior techniques. For one, they weren't all that
different from the grappling training that could be found back on Earth in
martial arts like Judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Sambo. Each of these martial
arts were heavily, if not entirely, centered around grappling and wrestling.
For Shifting Silhouette, he simply trained his ability to read the change in the
center of gravity and how to shift his weight in exactly the correct manner
needed to counter the change in the center of gravity.
"This technique does have shortcomings." The supervisor warned. "It is

limited against people in higher weight classes. Furthermore, this technique
cannot counter takedown or throwing Apprentice-level techniques of higher
efficiency by itself."
Rui nodded. He had already grounded his expectations for the effectivity of
this technique. If it could singlehandedly counter all grappling offense, it
wouldn't be free in the first place.
('The more powerful defensive grappling techniques are certainly not free of
cost.') He was sure.
He had already decided to begin completing missions once he mastered the

five techniques he had picked, he was finally confident of completing
missions with ten Apprentice-level techniques.
"Don't get distracted." His supervisor instructed. "Binding Lash is a technique

that requires delicate timing, you ain't gonna nail it if you're staring off into
space like that."
"Yes, supervisor Fayne." Rui put his aside his thoughts and began focusing
on the technique.
He was currently in the first training session of the fifth and final technique.
For the past twenty-four techniques, he had been immersing himself in the
training sessions of each technique, he wanted to get a taste of each technique
as soon as possible.
The reason for this was so that he could plan the most optimal schedule for
himself in the next few months.
"Ready?" Supervisor Fayne asked. "Here I come."
DASH
He blitzed over to Rui, crossing the distance in an instant launching a

straightforward punch to Rui's face.
POW
Rui tried intercepting by wrapping his arms and legs around it, but much to
his chagrin, he failed.
"Hahaha!" His supervisor laughed. "Nah you got it all wrong. You're
supposed to move with the strike young man, not stand in one place. It's
pretty much identical to the Elastic Shift technique in that regard, it's just now
you have to simultaneously cling the attack while executing the Elastic Shift
technique, making it much harder."
Rui got up, rubbing his bruise before taking another stance.
"Once again, please."

Chapter 79 Squire Sparring
"You must be hyped for today, eh?" Kane asked Rui, smirking.
"Well..." Rui smiled wryly. "I would be lying if I said wasn't."
"You better not get your ass whooped."
"Will do."
Rui and Kane bantered as they walked over to the sparring facility. It had
been year since both of them had joined the Academy, both of them had hit
their growth spurts in that period, growing several inches taller, their bodies
had visibly defined muscle tone, uncharacteristic of normal young
adolescents, having long shed a lot of their childish features.
Rui's black hair had grown in the time that he had immersed himself in
training, a testament to how he focused and invested he was. A lot of the
active energy Rui had, had condensed, as if it had a direction to strive
towards. Gone was the Rui that had limitless curious excitement regarding all
matters related to Martial Art, and in its stead was a calm driven young man
with a temperament forged by immense perseverance and hard work.
Kane on the other hand appeared to have grown more comfortable and at
peace. A year of freedom, exploration and growth alongside friends had done
him good. Although he wasn't absolutely free from the formidable influence
of his powerful father, it was still enough for the boy to catch up on a lot of
what he missed his entire life. Yet underneath the nonchalant temperament
was a desire to grow strong enough to protect this freedom, he did not want
to lose his freedom the moment he left the Academy, especially now that he
had truly understood just blissful a life without shackles was like.
"My, look who we have here." A voice called out, instantly earning a sigh
from Kane.
"Fae." He muttered in resigned peace. In the past year, he had given up on

trying to shoo her away. He simply accepted she would be around to pester
them and had moved on.
"Such lethargy." Fae sighed, shrugging. "Rui, to think you would join us only
one year after becoming Apprentice, as expected, your growth is fearsome. It
took us so long to reach that stage, right Milliana?" Fae turned to the girl
accompanying him, earning a quiet nod in return.
"It took me almost two years to reach that point." She murmured softly.
"It's because he's a potion junkie." Kane grumbled.
They bantered some more until they reached the facility.
"Well, here we are." Kane announced. "Oof, she looks ready to go." He
gestured at a female figure standing in the center of the biggest training ring.
Rui stiffened as he felt faint pressure gazing at her.
('Martial Squire Kyrie.')
Today was a routine sparring session between the combat supervisor Squire
Kyrie and the senior Apprentices. The Academy had mandated sparring
sessions not only between Apprentices, but also between more developed
Apprentices and Squires. Martial Apprentices who had built the foundation of
their Martial Art like Rui recently were qualified to spar against Squires. He
had just finished polishing up the five techniques he resolved to learn when
the next Squire sparring session was announced.
('Martial Apprentices who haven't built the foundation of their Martial Art
simply have too little to gain from fighting Martial Squires. They're better off
learning new techniques and developing their foundation like I did rather than
getting into fights so above their level they can't consolidate anything from
it.')
Today was his first time fighting a Martial Squire, that too one of Squire
Kyrie's caliber. From what he knew of her, she was a veteran all-rounder who
served in the field for more than twenty years. Although quantity had its own
quality, there was no way a bunch of kids like them were beating her under
normal circumstances.
"What strategy do you guys normally use?" Rui asked.
"Uh..." Kane threw an awkward look at Rui. "We try basic stuff; you know;
dogpiling her, distracting her and stuff, but it never works."
"If something like that was to work on her, she would have long died in the
field."
"Yeah, but it's better than nothing." Kane shrugged.
"True." Fae concurred. "At our level, any strategy we come up with is
guaranteed to fail."
"Hm..." This was a fair point. There should be little to no way they should be
able to outsmart her. It wasn't a matter of intelligence, the sheer experience
she had was not something young Martial Apprentices like them could
outsmart.
"Still, we should do our best." Rui insisted.
"You have anything in mind?"
"First, who and all are taking part?" Rui wondered, looking around. Before he
could even conceive of a strategy, he needed to gather all the necessary
information at hand."
"There's Felix." Kane pointed him out.
"Ah..." Rui remembered him, he was the kid who fought Nel a year ago.
"And Dalen too." Fae waved at a big burly boy.
"He was a defense-oriented Apprentice, right?" Rui asked, having sparred

with him once.
"Yeah." Kane affirmed. "He's pretty good too."
Rui quickly counted the participating Apprentices, and listed basic

information about them in his head.
"Eleven Martial Apprentices. three speed and maneuvering-oriented

Apprentices, four offense-oriented Martial Apprentices, two defense-oriented
Apprentices, one stamina-oriented Martial Apprentice and one all-rounder."
Rui surmised.
"Yeah, we don't stand a chance." Kane laughed. "But that is the point of
fighting a Squire, I guess."
"If we were united, we'd do much better." Rui sighed. "Unfortunately, it's
unlikely we can rally everybody under a leader and fight in a more united
way."
"Martial Apprentices have too much pride and individuality to submit to

others." Fae shrugged.
"Yeah..." Rui nodded. ('Not only that, the coordination needed to execute
more sophisticated strategies and tactics is too much. We can't expect
strangers to cooperate with each other well. This group is too incapable of
working together.')
"It's almost time." Squire Kyrie called out. "Gather around, we'll begin soon."
He glanced back at Squire.
('The only advantage we have is that she's lax. She's definitely not in a
combative state, nor is she going to go all out.')
"Hey." Kane threw him a puzzled look. "Are you really trying to win? You
know that's basically impossible right."
"Extremely impossible." Rui helped. "Still, if you want to make the most of a
fight, you better fight with determination to win." He turned back to face the
Squire. "It's not every day we get an opportunity like this, after all."
Chapter 80 A Challenge
Rui could feel the other students weren't as driven to win as he was. To them
this was a routine impossible challenge; one that could not be won, and one
that wasn't meant to be won. Rui understood this perspective, but he still
wanted to give it his all.
('How can you improve if you don't push yourself to your limit?') He
wondered. ('And what better way to push yourself to the limit by trying to
accomplish what seems impossible?')
In order to have any chance of winning, he needed as much information as he

could get. This was one of his bigger problems. He wasn't sure what was
necessary to defeat a Martial Squire. In fact, he didn't know what made
Martial Squires special in the first place, or what separated them from Martial
Apprentices. This was something even people like Fae, Kane and Milliana
were not aware of despite their background.
He had observed Martial Squires in action before. He had seen Squire Kyrie
spar against the senior Apprentices before, and it just seemed like she was
inhuman. Her speed, power and durability were ridiculous. Martial
Apprentices like himself had already surpassed conventional human limits by
virtue of having discovered their Martial Paths and having learnt Apprentice-
level techniques. But that still paled in comparison to Squire Kyrie.
Rui remembered the Martial Squire he had come across when he was a little
toddler. This Martial Artist was powerful enough to entirely destroy a rather
large tree trunk with a single attack. A feat Rui found unbelievable to this
day.
('Even with a combination of Vital Pressure and Flowing Canon amplified by

Balance Direction and Parallel Walk, I don't think I could possibly replicate
that feat.') At best, he would be able to inflict cracks, but shattering it to
smithereens was out of question.
"Take your positions." Squire Kyrie calmly ordered. Despite the others taking
their stances, she merely stood there unperturbed, tying up her red hair so that
it didn't obstruct her while she was sparring.
The Apprentices gathered around her, each taking their stance, concentrating
on her. The air grew more and more tense, until finally;
"Begin." she instructed.
In an instant she was lunged at by three Martial Apprentices.
WHOOSH
All three attacks missed her as she gracefully slipped out of their attack
trajectories. Her attackers didn't give up, pursuing her. From the other side,
Fae approached, preparing a barrage of palm attacks.
Squire Kyrie didn't try to evade this time, with nearly four people upon her,
pure evasion was the less optimal choice.
Instead she clasped an incoming punch from one of the offense-oriented

Martial Apprentice, flipping him over her shoulder and straight into the Fae's
palm attack.
"Crap." Fae tried stopping but the throw was too swift and well-timed. It was
practically impossible to stop a full-powered and sped attack point blank.
BAM
The poor boy was blown away by Fae's attack. Kyrie swiftly threw a
roundhouse kick that struck the chins of her two other attackers, while
ducking to avoid Fae's attack. In just a matter of moments, she dismantled
three senior Apprentices with ease.
POW
She checked Fae with a straight kick, opening up the distance.
Just as she began pursuing Fae, blurry shadow in the corner of her eye caught
her attention. Kane had rushed in the moment he spotted an opening.
WHOOSH
Kane launched a swift jab that Kyrie narrowly, yet cleanly avoided. Kane
could normally afford to take bolder risks because he was extremely difficult
to hit or catch, but that did not apply when his opponent was a Martial Squire.
Just as Kyrie turned to punish Kane, Fae, Dalen and Milliana pounced at her
forcing her to pay them attention as Kane managed to evade the half-hearted
strike. Soon enough every Apprentice joined the battle, picking up the slack
when one of their peers was blown away or slammed to the ground by Squire
Kyrie.
All Apprentices except one.
Rui had not moved since the battle began; he hadn't even taken a stance. He
merely stared at Squire Kyrie, as though she was the only thing he could see.
"Hey! Do you want me to give you a written Martial invitation to join the
battle or are you going to actually do something?" Kane snapped as he
approached Rui, having retreated from a throw.
"I'm an all-rounder, rather than haphazardly jumping in and trying to take her
down with my jack-of-all trades fighting style, I can provide more utility if I
observe her more carefully and adapt to her." he calmly explained, not taking
his eye off Kyrie. "My Martial Art works better with more information."
"Uh huh, sure thing." Kane sarcastically replied. "How's that working out for
you so far? Any insights from your Martial Majesty?"
"She's purposely limiting herself, but in very defined manners."
"Right, that's very helpful, isn't it? I feel oh-so confident after hearing you
utter those words." Kane threw a contemptuous glare at Rui.
Rui smiled wryly, meeting Kane's eyes for the first time. "When dealing with
single opponents, if the attacker engages in striking, she responds with
counter-offensive measures eighty-four percent of the time. When dealing
with more than three attackers, she responds with evasive maneuvers ninety-
two percent of the time. Her counter-offensive measures are almost entirely
soft-natured, in that they use her opponent's energy against them, rather than
using her own energy. Her response against kicks are counter-offensive and
her response against jabs are defensive seventy-nine percent and ninety-three
percent of the time, respectively. Her senses are extremely sharp, effectively
functioning as clairvoyance, being able to avoid attacks outside of her vision
extremely well."
"..."
It was simple data science. By simply noting and segregating her many
responses in specific circumstances, he could identify certain quirks and
tendencies. This principle was the foundation for the later iterations of the
VOID algorithm.
"In short, she's relying on her senses, as well as on precision, accuracy,

timing and placement instead of her Squire level power. She's beating us all
with Apprentice-level material." Rui sighed. The fact that Squire Kyrie could
beat them all without using the shocking physical prowess of Martial Squires,
showed just how beyond them she was. A lifetime of real-life combat with
her life on the line had honed her judgement and decision-making.
"But does any of this help?" Kane wondered, unsure.
"I guess we'll find out." Rui replied, before dashing towards Squire Kyrie.
The closer he came, the more his heart tingled.
('I know.') He placed his hand over his chest, feeling the excited pounding
that reverberated across his entire body. ('We've finally reached this stage.')
He thought, as he met eyes with Kyrie.
"Done playing scarecrow?" She poked at him. Rui responded by throwing his
most powerful attack at her.
BAM
A combination of Parallel Walk, Balance Direction amplifying the Flowing

Canon technique paired with Vital Pressure. This was what Rui struck her
with.
But alas, to no effect. She intercepted the attack with her forearm, and
rotated, pushing the attack away from a clean impact.
('She redirected the attack, as expected.') Rui noted, before following up with
a barrage of Vital Pressure strikes.
Kyrie cleanly deflected all of them, before launching an incredibly swift jab
at Rui's diaphragm.
POW
Rui grimaced. Despite mitigating the damage with Elastic Shift and Acute
Edge, his abdomen still stung, bruising from the blow.
Before she could follow up to finish the job, she was attacked by three more
Apprentices, diverting her attention.
"Heh, that worked out well indeed." Kane sneered.
Rui ignored the remark, turning to Kane.
"I have an idea, but I'm gonna need help. You up for a challenge?"
Chapter 81 Gentle Fury
"I mean, sure." Kane shrugged.
"Good, hear me out." Rui moved closer to him and began whispering his
plan, he knew the Squire had sharp senses, so he took all the precautions he
could, to avoid letting her in on the plan.
Meanwhile, Fae launched a flurry of powerful palm attacks, each one with
incredible force. Yet Kyrie managed to parry all of them handily.
WHOOSH
Felix lunged towards her from the other side, looking for a takedown, but she
simply evaded his attack with a summersault, cleanly dodging the shooting
maneuver. This resulted in Fae's and Felix's attacks heading towards each
other.
"Not this time!" Fae narrowly avoided Felix's charge while diverting her
attack away from Felix.
"Looks like the same trick won't work too many times, eh?" Kyrie noted
blankly. Yet four Apprentices attempted to dogpile her from four sides, while
three more were circling around ready to pounce the moment they failed.
All eleven of them couldn't attack her simultaneously. It was almost

physically impossible, there was limited space around a person through
which they could be attacked. Even if it were physically possible, it could
only be achieved through practiced and rehearsed well-timed and well-placed
attacks. Such a thing was, of course, impossible in this sparring session,
which was why no more than five people ever attacked Squire Kyrie.
BOOM
Kyrie blew away the last of her attackers with blitz kick, dusting her attire as
the Apprentices recuperated.
Suddenly a commotion of the other side of the ring grabbed her attention.
"NO NO NO! That's a stupid plan!" Kane shouted at Rui. "That's not gonna
work!"
"HUH?" Rui snarled. "You think you can do better?!"
The two of them started bickering loudly, uncaring for their opponent, who
simply gazed at them blankly before sighing.
('These idiots are arguing in the middle of a fight.') She facepalmed. ('They're
the type to die young in the field. I'll beat some sense into them.')
"Enough." She commanded, earning their attention, interrupting their debate.

"Seems you the two of you have much to learn. I'm going to beat that attitude
right out of you."
Kane responded by resuming the fight. He dashed at her with multiple

Apprentice-level techniques, throwing speedy jabs. She responded by
throwing a long straight kick into his gut, literally kicking the air out of his
lungs.
"Rushing straightforwardly towards an opponent with greater range and

power than you, is a foolish move." She told him as he dropped to the floor.
She turned her gaze towards Rui, who glanced back at her with a fearful
expression, earning her ire.
('If you're afraid of a sparring session, you're not cut out to be a Martial
Artist.')
She dashed over to Rui at incredibly high speeds, throwing a barrage of

punches and kicks. Rui simply tucked his tail between his legs and ran away
from her as fast as he could, nearing the edge of the ring, all while still facing
her, using Elastic Shift and Acute Edge to mitigate the damage, all while
trying to open the distance between them.
This irritated her even more. She forbade blatant escapism in her sparring
sessions. Her sparring sessions were meant to push the Apprentices beyond
their limits, to have them get used to fighting losing battles under extreme
pressure and exhaustion, yet Rui was merely running away.
She chased him with even greater speed, reaching the edge of the ring.
"End of line." She announced, yet Rui immediately turned around with a
grappling stance standing at the very edge of the ring, making his intentions
very clear.
('He wants to use my own momentum to throw me over the ring.') She
mused. It wasn't an original idea, but at the very least it was better than
running away. She intended to beat him up a bit before throwing him back in
the center of the ring.
She twisted her core, generating torque, launching an uppercut to Rui's solar
plexus.
Just then, the slightest hint of a grin could be seen on Rui's face. He rushed in
for an upper takedown simultaneously. The uppercut reached Rui faster than
the takedown reached Squire Kyrie, yet the moment her fist made contact;
WHOOSH
The upper takedown was an illusion, and her uppercut hit empty air.
This was the Mirage Dive technique.
Rui grinned like a madman as he rushed in for the lower takedown, yet just as
he began the shoot, Kyrie halted her missed uppercut, and swung down her
elbow, aiming to crush the lower takedown. The timing was impeccable, she
launched the elbow almost as if she knew that the upper takedown would be a
fake.
('Every Martial Squire is well-versed with all the foundational Apprentice-

level techniques.') She mused. This was the orthodox way one countered the
Mirage Dive technique; to throw counters that could very easily be diverted
to handle real takedown. Yet to her surprise;
CLASP
Rui grabbed onto the incoming elbow hammer with all four limbs, using the
Binding Lash technique, the sudden shifts in center of gravity was dangerous
at the edge of the ring. But she was not impressed.
('A desperate attempt, the force you're using is just barely enough to
destabilize my center of gravity temporarily.') She sighed mentally. ('You
won't be able to throw me out with just tha-!')
Her thoughts were interrupted as her senses detected an attack moving

towards her incredibly fast, in just an instant, it had crossed almost all of the
distance and was about to strike her.
Kane was moving so fast that every Apprentice, including Rui, could not
even see him!
This was the same technique that Kane had used in his fight with Fae! It was
an incredibly high-efficiency Apprentice-level technique with extremely low
flexibility; it could only be used in one way. But in that one scenario, when
used, it was extremely potent, reaching the very pinnacle of what Apprentice-
level techniques could offer.
In the span of several milliseconds, he had crossed the distance.
Yet Kyrie was able to perceive him, such was the prowess of a Martial
Squire. But she had limited herself to peak Apprentice-level speed and
power. Furthermore, Rui had brought her to the very edge of the ring, and
had destabilized her center of gravity with the Binding Lash technique, Kane
had aimed to strike her at that very moment. Under these extenuating
circumstances, she could only do so much while holding back almost all of
her power and speed.
Ordinarily, she would have cleanly redirected him back into the ring, but with
her center of gravity destabilized towards the edge of the ring, she was
remarkably off-balance. It was almost an incredible coincidence that Kane
had chose to strike her at the moment.
('Or it was all planned from the very start.') She realized with a tinge of
shock.
Just as Kane was about to strike her, time slowed down from her perspective,
she glanced at both the boys, realizing they had coordinated this from the
very start.
From the very start, the arguments between them, and Kane's defeat at her
hands immediately after were to take her attention away from Kane and focus
only on Rui. Then Rui went through an elaborate and convoluted course of
actions all with end goal of hampering her defenses by either locker her body
partially, or destabilizing her gravity, all so that Kane could use that
incredibly potent ability to knock both him and the Squire outside the ring.
This was the only strategy Rui had been able to think of that wasn't an utter
failure. Kane's technique was their very best chance, yet it had too many
flaws. It had low flexibility making it extremely predictable, it required
preparatory stances, its rigid linearity meant that Kyrie would normally be
able to easily redirect or knock him out or use his own momentum against
him with delicate finesse.
Rui's one and only goal was to mitigate these shortcomings to give Kane a
better chance of landing that technique successfully. He was fully prepared to
be knocked out with Kyrie if that was what was needed to win.
He knew Kyrie wouldn't knock him out of the ring,l; this was one of her
policies after all. He also knew she would chase after him aggressively, just
as he needed her to, when she saw him blatantly running away. She punished
those who blatantly ran away from all confrontation with a painful beating,
this was to ensure students didn't do that.
All of these were quirks and patterns Rui had observed from her in the initial
part of the battle, as well as her own instruftions and rules. Allowing to create
a plan that wasn't a complete dud.
('You did well to push me this far.') She smiled, closing her eyes. ('Gentle
Fury Style: Whirlwind Tempest.')
WHOOSH
All three of them disappeared for a moment, a huge gust of wind washed over
the bewildered onlookers. They seldom witnessed such raw speed and power!
In the very next moment, Kane and Rui landed in the center of the ring,
unconscious at Kyrie's feet. The other Martial Apprentices looked on with
awe and shock.
"These two won't be getting up any time soon." Kyrie announced. "Let's put
an end to today's session just a little early this time." She turned and walked
away, having ended the sparring session, only confusing everybody even
more.
"Er, what just happened?" Fae couldn't help but ask.
Kyrie halted, turning to meet her eyes.
"...They forced me to use a Squire-level technique from my Martial Art."

Chapter 82 Martial Concerns
"Hm, interesting tale indeed..." Headmaster Aronian stroked his beard, as he

skimmed through the report before him. As the headmaster, he had received a
variety of reports from the various branches, wings and departments of the
Academy. This was one such report he had received from a Squire instructor.
"To think two fourteen-year-old boys would be able to force you, the vaunted
Berserker of Hajin, to use a Squire-level technique..." Headmaster Aronian
glanced up at the figure standing across the table. "Truly a fascinating tale,
isn't it, Kyrie?"
"I was quite shocked myself. Those two boys are truly remarkable." Kyrie
remarked, concurring.
"Kane Arrancar, son of the legendary Devil, is a prodigy who reached

Apprentice at the age of eleven..." Headmaster Aronian continued. "And Rui
Quarrier who became an Apprentice at the age of fourteen... These two have
bright futures ahead of them."
He placed Kyrie's report down, before looking at their profiles and personal
data. Although Kane was quite interesting and promising, Rui was truly
fascinating.
"Explorer in three months and then Martial Apprentice in two months. And
then he proceeds to learn ten techniques in the next seven months and is able
to fight well enough to force you to use a Squire-level technique..."
Headmaster surmised. "Not even his absurd tolerance for mental and physical
rejuvenation potions can explain all of this. Even his extremely high IQ
cannot explain how he discovered his Martial Path this quickly." He set down
the documents.
Discovering one's Martial Path was a long explorative and introspective
journey. It was regarded as the most important and profound of
breakthroughs. It wasn't a matter of talent, no one should be able to discover
their Martial Path as quickly as Rui did. The reason for his breakthrough was
because of his past life, something that unbeknownst to the headmaster.
"Hoho." He chuckled. "These two shine too brightly, the Martial Sects will
not let go of them easily. Particularly the Lightning Sect for young master
Kane. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Kane Arrancar will be approached by
them soon, or perhaps it has happened already..."
Squire Kyrie's eyes sharpened at those words. "Headmaster, surely the

Martial Sects would not violate the clauses set by Grandmaster; His Honour
Sage Damian."
Headmaster Aronian chuckled at her naivette. "Not openly, no, and not
within the Academy premises." He continued. "But I would imagine they
might take covert measures."
Squire Kyrie narrowed her eyes at those words.
"Hm?" Headmaster Aronian caught her reaction. "Do you dislike these
matters?"
"I do." She shook her head. "The students may be Martial Apprentices, but
they're ultimately children. Entreaching them in the politics of the Martial
Union is no different from exploitation."
"Quite the distaste." Headmaster Aronian chuckled. "The Sects would not
look kindly upon those words, you might be accused of slander if word got
out."
"I merely stated the truth."
"Well, you're fortunate that I'm the only one who heard it." Headmaster
smiled. "After all, Martial Masters cannot have been members of a Martial
Sect or a Martial Faction within the prior ten years of their candidacy for
headmaster. I've religiously avoided Martial Sects, which is why I was
anointed as the headmaster of the Mantian branch of the Martial Academy by
His Honour."
Squire Kyrie remained silent.
"However, Kane Arrancar might have a bit of a rough time ahead..."

Headmaster Aronian mused. "As the son of His Honour Sage Arrancar, he
will feel immense pressure to join the Martial Sect of his father; the Fire Sect,
yet as a speed and evasive-maneuvering-oriented Martial Artist, he would
most certainly have the most affinity with the Lightning Sect."
"What about Rui Quarrier, Headmaster?" Kyrie felt the need to ask.
"Hmmm..." Headmaster Aronian pondered. "As an all-rounder, he doesn't

have any strong affinity to any particular Martial Sect." He paused, before
continuing. "Yet, with that prodigious mind and learning speed, as well as the
peculiar Type X nature of his style, I'm sure every Martial Sect would clamor
for him."
"Considering this, would it not be wise to educate them about these matters
immediately so that they can be better prepared?" Kyrie inquired, concerned.
"His Honour the Grandmaster has forbidden such measures." Headmaster

Aronian shook his head. "He is strongly against inculcation of political
education within the Martial Academy. These are no more than stains and
impurities to the purpose of the Martial Academies in His Honour's view. The
Martial Academy is an institution whose one and only purpose is to produce
Martial Apprentices and Martial Squires, nothing more and nothing less."
Squire Kyrie sighed inwardly, biting back a retort. It was one thing to express
distaste to Martial politics. It was another thing to express disrespect to a
legendary Martial Sage. Even Headmaster Aronian alone was a Martial Artist
two whole realms above her, thankfully his easygoing personality made
interactions with him comfortable, otherwise he could apply immense
pressure on her mind through his concentration alone, if he wanted.
"Well, I've received your report, good work, keep an eye on those two and
continue reporting. You may leave." Headmaster Aronian dismissed her.
"Yes headmaster." She bowed before taking her leave.
Headmaster Aronian stroked his beard as the door closed, deep in thought.
The fact that that two Martial Apprentices could force a Squire to use a
Squire-level technique of their Martial Art, particularly a Martial Squire as
powerful and experienced as Squire Kyrie, was not a small matter. The
Martial Sects hungered and lusted for fresh blood. Although His Honour
Grandmaster Sage Damian had forged an accord between the Martial
Academies and the Sects that prohibited inculcation and indoctrination of
Martial students of the Martial Academy into their Martial Sects, this was not
absolute. Although Martial Sage Damian was a powerful and influential
Martial Sage, the dominant Martial Sects were led by equally powerful
Martial Sages.
The almost unprecedented incident of two fourteen-year-old Martial

Apprentices forcing Kyrie to use a Squire-level technique through a
combination of powerful techniques and brilliant tactics was sure to reach
their ears and direct their attention towards his Academy.
"Well, nothing bad should happen. But still... I hope they don't cross any
lines."
Chapter 83 Awakening
Rui opened his eyes, groggy and disoriented. As his vision proceeded to
unblur itself, a white ceiling came into view.
"An unfamiliar ceiling." Rui muttered, taking the opportunity to utter a

common trope he heard in anime, before chuckling. His head throbbed as he
got up, struggling to remember what happened.
('The spar with Squire Kyrie.') He realized. ('The last thing I remember is
Kane using his that Apprentice-level technique...') He closed his eyes, as he
struggled to remember.
('And then I woke up here... I see. We failed, and miserably too.') He

chuckled self-deprecatingly. Although he knew the chances of success were
low, it still wasn't a pleasant outcome.
Rui's eyes caught something to his right, he turned only to be surprised.
"Kane."
Kane was still unconscious, however he looked perfectly fine physically,

lying in a bed not too far away.
"They must have healed us up and allowed us to rest and wake up."
Rui sighed getting back to bed. He immersed himself in his thoughts

peacefully as his headache slowly subsided.
('I wonder what she did to us.') To be able to knock both of them out and
hospitalize them in the circumstances she was in was truly amazing. He just
didn't know whether it was possible with Apprentice-level prowess.
Could any Apprentice really replicate her feat in those circumstances?
('Probably not.') He felt. Sure, both Rui and Kane were young. But Kane's
technique was surely somewhat close to the pinnacle of Apprentice-level as
far as efficiency went. It has a handful of rather severe shortcomings in
general, which Rui had done a pretty decent job of mitigating. Yet for them
to be crushed despite that, Rui wasn't sure it was possible for an Apprentice
to replicate that.
('Which means... She must have used Squire-level battle prowess.') Rui
concluded. That would explain how they got crushed instantly. She must
have used a Squire-level technique of some sort, allowing to dispel the threat
and knock them out.
In a way, Rui felt a bit happy that they were knocked out. If Kyrie knocked
them out, then it must have been necessary for her to do that. She never
knocked out the students in these sparring sessions, only pushing them to
their physical limits. The fact that she knocked them out, meant they had
managed to push her farther than she had in any previous sparring session.
Although a loss was still a loss, knowing this made the loss much more
tolerable. He even felt a measure of pride well up.
"Ugh..." Kane woke up with a disoriented expression.
Rui waited a few seconds for him to process himself and his surroundings,
before calling out to him.
"Hey."
Kane turned towards him with squinted eyes.
"You look like shit." Rui chuckled. "How are you feeling?"
"Where are we?" Kane wondered.
"Medical wing."
"Huh..."
"We were knocked out during the fight with Kyrie." He explained. "Do you
remember what happened?"
"I recall using Flash Burst at the timing you told me to..." He continued,
trying to recall. "...But after that, I dunno."
"Hmmm... She must have knocked both of us nigh-simultaneously then." Rui

surmised. "Definitely a Squire-level technique."
"That's crazy."
"Right?" Rui grinned.
Suddenly, a nurse walked into the medical room they were in, taking note of
their awakening.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier and Apprentice Kane Arrancar. You're awake. Both
of you were rendered unconscious during a sparring session." She dutifully
informed. "You have made almost full recoveries physically, however we'll
be performing a few check-ups and examinations."
"How long have been unconscious?" Rui asked, he still didn't know how long
it had been since the sparring session ended.
"It's been a little over six hours since you were brought to the medical wing."
She replied as she prepared some medical instruments and other items.
She proceeded to wear a stethoscope-like instrument, and placed one end of

the instrument on Kane's chest. "Breathe deeply." She instructed.
A few more checkups and lines of questioning of various sorts followed until
she moved onto Rui, performing them on him as well.
"Both of you are fit to be discharged." She told them. "The headaches will
persist for anywhere between a few hours or a day. Be sure to take rest for a
day until you have recovered fully. If the headache persists beyond a day then
be sure to revisit the medical wing."
After a bit of paperwork, Rui and Kane walked together towards the
Apprentice dormitory.
"Next time we see instructor Kyrie, we should ask her about what actually
happened." Rui said. "It's a shame she isn't always free and available in the
sparring center like the Apprentice Sparring head instructor was."
"She is a Martial Squire after all, and a particularly powerful one." Kane
replied.
"Heh, hearing that just makes getting knocked out by her all the more worth
it." Rui smirked.
"That's a weird fetish, you Martial pervert."
"Shut up." Rui retorted lightly.
They bantered a bit before Kane remembered something. "Oh yeah, I've been
meaning to ask. Are you going back home for the winter break?"
Rui's ears perked when he heard that. "It's that time of the year already?" He
wondered. He'd begun to lose track of time very easily once he had joined the
Academy, especially since rejuvenation potions made it difficult to keep track
of the passage of days.
"Yeah, it's in three days. You going?"
"Absolutely, I haven't seen them in quite a while." Rui had gone back home
once after he had become an Explorer, although it was a brief visit. He didn't
want to miss any chance of seeing his family.
"I thought you intended to get into missions the moment you formed the basic
foundation of your Martial Art." Kane noted.
"Yeah but, missions can be done any time. I can't see my family any time."
He replied. "I can just begin missions when I get back. I won't be able to see
them during the break if I begin doing missions now."
"I see."
"What about you?" Rui asked.
"Psshht, hell no!" Kane exclaimed. "In fact, I'm going to take a longer
mission so I have a good excuse for not going back!" He declared, earning
Rui's laughter.
Chapter 84 Home
"Are you sure you don't wanna come with me?" Rui asked. "I'd love to
introduce you to my family."
"Not this time." Kane shook his head. "I'll be approached and summoned if
my family finds out I returned from the Academy."
"I see, that's a shame." Rui sighed. "Another time then." Earning a nod from
Kane.
"It's a shame I have to return to my family too, otherwise I would have

accepted the offer in his stead." Fae commented.
"He didn't invite you." Kane grumbled, sparking a round of bickering

between them, earning Rui's laughter at the sight.
"Milliana, you're headed back to your town as well, right?" Rui turned to her.
She nodded passively. "It's four hours away from here, so I intend to leave
immediately."
The four of them chatted for a bit longer until it was time for those returning
to disperse.
"See you guys when I get back." Rui exchanged farewells with everyone
before setting out on foot. He didn't have any money on him, but that wasn't a
problem. Even without techniques, with just the physical training from his
foundational stage, the journey was no longer something that could strain his
stamina.
The town of Hajin was a lot less chaotic than he recalled it. One of the
reasons for that was the last time he actually travelled around was during the
start of the new Academic year. What was a bustling, loud and busy place in
his memories had become a much more relaxed environment.
"Man, it's been such a long time since I stepped outside the Academy." Rui
said in delight, taking in the atmosphere as he made his way home. The
Academy had a lot of open space, but it still could not substitute actual
society.
It was a nostalgic feeling, reminding Rui of when his university days. He'd
felt similarly back then, although to a greater degree because the universities
of sciences back on Earth were nowhere near as large as the Martial
Academies.
The further Rui walked away from the core of the town, the more scarce grew
the population and infrastructure. Once he exited the districts on the outskirts
of the town, the atmosphere grew serene quiet. Gone were the markets, and
the commercial hubs and the businesses. Instead, he was greeted with
farmlands and small patches of forests with a handful of small village-like
settlements scattered across. Winters were harsh in the Mantian region,
especially since this region was among the northern most regions of the
Kandrian Empire, which was a country that was already deep into the
northern hemisphere of the planet, making it quite cold in the very first place.
The country had sets of crops that could only be grown during Winter,
currently Rui was walking past these farmlands and settlements.
,m He paused, when a familiar path entered his sights, smiling as a rush of

nostalgia and excitement creeped into his emotions. He picked up the pace
running until a familiar house entered his sights.
"They've made a few renovations since last time" He noted happily. The
Quarrier Orphanage benefitted greatly from its adult caretakers, each taking
contributing to the income of the Orphanage that allowed it to sustain itself.
"This must be courtesy of big brother Julian." He smiled knowingly. Julian

had gotten a well-paying occupation as an apprentice scholar in the research
and development department of the Kandrian Institute of Sciences. Knowing
him, he must have insisted in using generous portions of his income for
maintenance of orphanage.
Rui intended to surprise his family, but even before he reached the gate.
"Rui...?"
He glanced up towards the balcony, recognizing both the voice and the
appearance instantly.
"RUI YOU'RE BACK!" She squealed with joy.
"Alice!" He chuckled, waving at her vigorously. She ran from the balcony
enthusiastically running down the stairs, announcing to the entire orphanage
at the top of her voice that Rui had returned. Even as he reached the gate, the
front door was already open.
"RUIIII" She dove at him with such force and energy he felt like he was hit
by an Apprentice-level technique!
"When d-did you master Flowing Canon?" He muttered gasping for air from
her bear hug.
"Huh?"
"Nothing nothing. Forget it. How have you been Alice? I've missed you so
much." He returned her embrace in earnest.
"Oh you! We've been doing just fine. Come in, everyone's waiting for you"
She let go of him, gesturing him inside, enthusiastically.
He glanced at the door, and several small heads poked through their eyes
sparkling with innocent excitement.
"Big brother Rui!"
"You're back!"
They chirped as they ran towards him with enthuse and excitement, gathering
around him for hugs and lifts.
Rui smiled at the children, trying to return as much affection as he could,
struggling to return fifteen arms with of hugs with his own.
"Alright alright!" He laughed as they swarmed him. "I'll give all of you lifts,
so don't worry!"
"Rui." A soft voice called out to him, instantly wringing his attention away,
towards itself.
"Mom..." Rui squeezed out, feeling sentimental. She walked over, cupping
his face in her hands, ruffling his hair, before pulling him in for a hug.
"You've grown so much taller."
"Yeah..." He replied softly.
"Welcome back home, my child. We've missed you so much." She said,
squeezing him in her embrace. Rui wanted to respond, but didn't trust himself
to not sob. His throat felt choked with emotion upon seeing his mother after
so long.
"Come in, lunch will be ready soon." She said, pulling him by his hand.
Everyone gathered to the large living room, hugging him and embracing him,
remarking about his growth spurt and his long hair. It took a whole twenty
minutes for the excitement to die down, finally allowing him to relax with a
soothing cup of tea.
"Maaan a hot cup of tea in the dead of winter really hits the spot." He relaxed
as the beverage warmed him.
"Congratulations on becoming a Martial Apprentice Rui." Julian gently

congratulated. "You've achieved the first step of your dream."
"Thanks Julian, how's things been going on with you?"
"Better than I could have hoped, I have a lot to talk to you about." He replied,
intriguingly.
"Oh? Let's hear it then."

Julian shook his head. "No no. I'm not the first Martial Artist of the Quarrier
Orphanage. If anybody has a story to tell..." He smiled. "It's you, isn't it?"
Instantly, everybody's eyes turned to Rui, fixating on him like owls.
"Alright alright." Rui chuckled. "Let's see... Where do I begin?"

Chapter 85 Insight Into The Path
Rui recounted his time at the Academy. Describing the various training
regimes and sessions he went through in the physical and Martial foundation
stages that overall constituted the Foundational Stage. He went onto narrate
his times in the Exploration Stage and ultimately went on to talk about his
Martial Apprentice breakthrough and his Martial Path.
"To think you discovered your Martial Path in a dream." Julian commented,
once the excitement died down a bit, leaving them alone. "Quite the fairy
tale-like story, isn't it?"
"It was a magical moment." Rui affirmed.
"The discovery of a Martial Path... I'm not unfamiliar with it." Julian
commented. "In fact, some of the research projects I'm involved in are
actually about the phenomenon of discovering one's Martial Path."
"Oh?" Rui's interest immediately perked. "Are you allowed to tell me that?"
The Kandrian Institute of Sciences were royal institutes, meaning the

research and development that occurred was property of the Kandrian Royal
Family. He didn't think that such research was available in the public domain.
"The projects I'm involved have extremely low confidentiality grades. As

long I don't blatantly sell the actual data collected, I'm not violating my
agreement with the Institute. It's the kind of project that is purely an
intellectual pursuit with no real-world applications you see. Talking about it
in a general sense isn't prolematic."
"I see..." Rui pondered about the information that Julian provided. He
certainly wasn't aware that the research and development department of the
Kandrian Institute of Sciences graded research and development projects in
regards to confidentiality. "What research have you worked on, generally
speaking?"
"Part of it has to do with the psychological and neurological impacts of the

Martial Apprentice breakthrough on the Martial Artist." Julian replied. "This
was also the area of research of my thesis paper in my final year you see."
"Interesting." Rui commented. "So, what exactly did your research yield in so
far as the changes and impacts of the discovery of the Martial Path?"
"We discovered that the discovery of one's Martial Path causes an increase in
cognition, reaction speed, kinetic vision and reflexes, as well as body-eye
coordination, to put it simply." Julian explained.
"Sounds about right." Rui nodded. When he broke through to Martial

Apprentice having discovered his Martial Path, he experienced a great overall
boost in several mental parameters and attributes. "I did grow much stronger
once I became a Martial Apprentice."
"It's not as straightforward to that though." Julian replied. "We made some
very odd discoveries about these enhancements, you see. For one, the data
reveals that the degree of these enhancements is not static and unchanging,
but rather variable. The superhuman boosts you gained are constantly
changing."
"Huh?" Rui squinted in confusion when he heard that. The mental boosts he
gained from becoming a Martial Apprentice were constantly changing? That
sounded like an absurd proposition to Rui at first inspection.
"What do you mean?" He asked, waiting for further clarification.
"We discovered that the superhuman augments provided by the Martial Path
are in flux, they're variables rather than constants." Julian sipped his tea,
before proceeding. "In some situations, Martial Apprentices demonstrate
superhuman mental attributes and parameters, but in others, they're perfectly
normal human beings."
This made more sense to Rui, though he wasn't sure if he observed this in
himself. These were complicated phenomena that were picked up through
proper empirical research, it was impossible for him to discover these things
by himself through introspection.
"Let us take three scenarios, and this is actually a simplified version of some
of the experiments and surveys we conducted." Julian continued. "Let us take
scenario A, where a Martial Apprentice is engaged in combat. Scenario B,
where a Martial Apprentice is engaging in time-pressure manual labor tasks.
Scenario C where a Martial Apprentice is participating in a time-pressure
math exam. Do you think the superhuman reaction and processing time of the
Martial Apprentice will be the same in all three scenarios and activities?"
"Hmmm..." Rui pondered. "Shouldn't it?"
It seemed intuitively obvious to him that this should be the case. Why would
these mental and neurological parameters change? But given what Julian said
earlier, he was probably wrong.
"It does change, that is what our research revealed." Julian answered, meeting
Rui's expectations.
"Interesting." Rui commented.
"The mental processing speed of the Martial Apprentice is Scenario A;

combat, was quite superhuman.
The mental processing speed in Scenario B; time-pressure manual labour

tasks, was also superhuman but less than scenario A, much lesser, in fact."
Julian continued. "As for Scenario C... The time-pressure math exam... We
found something quite surprising."
"Oh?"
"The mental processing time of a Martial Apprentice in scenario C was not

superhuman at all. It was perfectly normal and average. As though these were
normal humans and not Martial Apprentices."
Rui understood the implications of the data immediately, having been an
empirical researcher himself. "So basically, the activity that a Martial
Apprentice is engaging is the influencing factor of how well a Martial
Apprentice performs. Furthermore, it seems that the closer to actual combat
that activity is, the more superhuman a Martial Apprentice is. So the mental
performance parameters increase the closer to combat the activity is, forming
a sort of spectrum, am I right?"
Julian smiled. "You understood immediately, as expected of my little

brother."
Rui grew absorbed as he pondered about the implications of the data. It was
truly fascinating. Martial Apprentices performed best, as far as mental
performance parameters went, when they engaged in combat, sub-optimally
when they engaged in physical tasks, and least optimally when they
performed tasks that had nothing to do with combat.
"Scenario B was a time-pressure physical scenario. Although it was not

combat, it was not too far from combat and probably shared some
similarities. Which is why the Martial Apprentice showed sub-optimal
results, but not zero results." Rui murmured. "But a math test is too far from
combat, hence the Martial Apprentice performed least optimally. This shows
a causation between the closeness of the activity to combat, and a Martial
Apprentice's performance parameters, assuming all other feasible variables
were controlled for."
"They were." Julian assured. "I'm impressed by your insights into this, even
though you have no experience with empirical research, quite remarkable."
He threw Rui an odd look.
Rui was too absorbed by the prior revelations to try and justify this. The
information Julian revealed implied that the neurological phenomenon caused
by the discovery of the Martial Path were dormant when Martial Apprentices
did things that were further away from combat.
As for exactly why and how, Rui was able to come up with a few bare-bones
hypotheses and theories based on his scientific background!
Chapter 86 Warning
The relationship between the brain and the mind was extraordinarily
complicated, and largely not understood. Back on Earth, it was clear the mind
was housed within the brain, and to some degree, the structure of the mind
could be mapped over the structure of the brain. However, it was much more
difficult to make more progress than that. Centuries of research in the fields
of neurology, psychology and philosophy of mind had yet to uncover the
depths of the human mind.
Furthermore, Rui possessed only a shallow understanding of neurology. He

was not equipped to fully understand the phenomena associated with the
discovery of the Martial Path.
However, even the shallow knowledge he came to possess allowed him to

make some conjectures.
The brain could be divided into three sections; The cerebrum, the cerebellum
and the medulla oblongata. The cerebrum could further be divided into the
Frontal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, Occipital Lobe and Parietal Lobe.
Each of the sections and sub-sections of the brain were associated with and
caused different neurological phenomena.
The Frontal Lobe was responsible analysis and judgement, morality,

personality, social regulation, emotional regulation and motor functions.
The Temporal Lobe was responsible for cognition, language, hearing, speech
and memory.
The Parietal Lobe was responsible for recognizing sensation, body position
and objects, sense of time and space, and association between functions of
other Lobes.
The Occipital Lobe was responsible for Vision and the processing of visual
information.
The Cerebellum handled balance and muscular coordination.
The Medulla Oblongata was responsible for the regulation of heartbeat,

respiration, body temperature.
Out of all these functionalities, the Cerebellum, the occipital lobe and parietal
lobe were sections of the brain that had the highest relevance to combat! The
remaining sections were not involved with the general neurological
phenomena associated with combat.
Thus, Rui strongly suspected that the permanent superhuman boosts provided
by discovering the Martial Path must have altered these three portions of the
brain.
A time-pressure math test does not the three lobes as much as combat or a
time-pressure physical activity. Therefore, Martial Apprentices were no
different from normal humans in this particular.
,m In conclusion, Rui strongly suspected that only portions of the human

brain and mind, relevant to combat, evolved when one discovered one's
Martial Path.
Any activities that did not involve these portions of the human brain ended up
being ordinary, activities relevant to these portions of the human brain ended
up being extraordinary performances, depending on how relevant to the three
combat-related portions of the brain.
This would succinctly explain why the performances of Martial Apprentices

were variable and changing!
"I think it's possible that the discovery of the Martial Path, enhances only
some portions of the brain, those portions that are relevant to combat." Rui
conveyed his thoughts to Julian.
"That's one of our leading theories." Julian nodded, with a look of surprise.
"Unfortunately, it is difficult to estimate which portions of the brain are
responsible for which particular mental functions, you see."
Rui nodded. The knowledge of brain structure that he inherited from Earth
was confirmed after countless CT and MRI scans. This was something Rui
suspected the medical researchers of the Kandrian Empire might not be able
to replicate, a suspicion that Julian more or less confirmed.
"Another research project revealed that Martial Apprentices performing two

tasks simultaneously could have drastically differing quality of
performances." Julian informed, continuing. "We performed the equivalent of
having Martial Apprentices perform scenario A and scenario C
simultaneously. And we found out that even when they're performed the tasks
simultaneously, the performances of the two tasks where heaven and earth
apart. This suggests that it is not the brain itself that is changing, just the
portions of the brain relevant to each tasks."
Rui nodded; this further corroborated his theory. It's a shame he couldn't
divulge the information he knew about the human brain, Julius had once
jokingly come very close to discovering Rui's secret. He was incredibly
intelligent. There was no way Rui would be able to fool him.
"The research you're working on, is it all centered around Martial Art?" Rui
asked, curious.
"Not all, no, but a large portion of it." Julian commented. "Another field I
partially specialize in is esoteric technology. Particularly, I'm interested in
potions."
"Potions are fascinating." Rui offered.
"They are. I cannot divulge any data in regards these projects, but my focus
lies on temporary augmentation." Julian explained.
"Interesting..." Rui murmured.
"The reason I brought it up, is because I wanted to warn you." Julian's

expression became more solemn. By this time, they had a bit of privacy as
their nerdy discussion drove away the bored children and the adults returned
to their duties. Julian saw fit to bring up a matter that was clearly touchy,
causing the atmosphere to become tense.
"What do you mean?" Rui asked, expressionless.
"This is something you'll learn eventually, I'm sure. But it's better learnt
sooner than later." Julian continued, turning to look Rui straight in the eyes.
"Rui, potions are not to be underestimated."
"Hm?" Rui threw a confused look at Julian.
"You are aware of the friction between the Royal Family and Kandrian
Martial Union, I presume?" Julian asked, broaching a dangerous topic
without hesitation.
"Somewhat, nothing too specific though." Rui narrows his eyes.
"Have you ever wondered how the Royal Family is able to rival the Martial
Union to some degree, despite having nowhere near as many Martial
Artists?" Julian asked.
Rui remained silent. It was a well-known fact that an overwhelming majority

of Martial Artists of the Kandrian Empire were part of the Martial Union. If
so, how was the Royal Family not inferior to the Martial Union as far as
military power was concerned?
"Numbers... Technology... Other mitigating factors." Rui murmured in

response.
"What technology, specifically?" He asked.
Rui caught on to his implication. "You mean temporary-augmentation

potions?"
Julian nodded. "These potions temporarily amplify physical and mental

abilities to the point of allowing normal humans to fight Martial Apprentices,
Martial Squires and even Seniors from what I am aware of."
Rui's expression grew shocked! Julian straightforwardly dropped a
bombshell.
"I suspect that higher grade augmentation potions can even combat Martial
Masters, or dare I say; Martial Sages." Julian explained. "Unfortunately, I
lack clearance to have access to these research and development projects, so I
cannot confirm this."
Rui stared at Julian, speechless.
"This information is partially confidential. Most certainly not public, once

you reach a higher status economically and politically, you'll naturally learn
about this." Julian explained, expressionless. "But it would take you far too
much time to reach that status."
Rui realized where Julian was going with this. "You wanted me to be aware
and wary of these potions."
Julian nodded. "These potions are one of the ways the Royal Family is able to
stand up shoulder-to-shoulder to the Martial Union. If you choose to join the
Martial Union, you'll inevitably oppose the Royal Family as far as allegiance
goes." He explained. "You need to be aware of the tools of your opponents."
"There is no way you telling me this isn't in some violation of your position
as an apprentice scholar." Rui noted, concerned.
Julian smiled gently. "You're my brother."
Rui felt emotions choking his throat. His brother had violated his oath and
taken a risk, all for his sake.
"Thanks... It means a lot." He managed to squeeze out.
Julian shook his head.
"You would have done the same."

Chapter 87 Winter
The two conversed some more about lighter topics, as they joined the others
for lunch. Julian was particularly interested about the breakthrough.
"So, what exactly does it actually feel like?" Julian asked out of curiosity.
"Like the biggest epiphany possible in the human experience." Rui replied.
"For a moment you no longer care about anything in this world. You
experience true happiness and satisfaction, and your mind has absolute
clarity."
"Hmmm..." Julian hummed, engrossed in Rui's explanation. "Remarkable,

really."
"Hey! Pay attention to your food, you haven't even touched it yet!" Myra, the
head cook of the Orphanage, insisted. She had always been quite strict about
all matters regarding food and meals.
"Yes yes." Rui laughed.
"You're as strict as ever." Julian sighed with a resigned smile.
Rui proceeded to inquire about the Orphanage affairs, wanting to catch up on

having missed a whole year of their lives.
"You must have seen the fully-fixed roof when you came right?" Lashara
asked, while showing an affectionate smile to Julian. "Julian was the one who
paid for all of that."
"It wasn't that big a deal." Julian smiled modestly.
"Not that big a deal? You're too humble." Rui chuckled.

The Orphanage was able to fix the infrastructure that needed the most amount
of maintenance, while also able to expand its housing capacity a bit, being
able to in more children.
"There have been far more children out on the streets these days." Lashara
sighed with resigned melancholy. "I've wanted to do something for these
children ever since."
"How did all these children end up this way?" Rui wondered.
"Part of it is because there naturally aren't enough caretakers. Another part of

it is..." Lashara's voice trailed off.
"...Is?" Rui tilted his head.
"Another part of it is because of a series of child trafficking busts." She

sighed, as an even more macabre expression creeped onto her face.
Rui's eyes widened, before sharpening. He recalled when he was almost

abducted by a random man who spoke about selling him like he was no more
than goods in demand. This was in one of the outer districts of Hajin. Was
Hajin home to an underground black market of trafficking?
"Huff... Let's not talk about such matters while eating." Lashara sighed. "I'm
glad that increased housing capacity has allowed us to take in more children."
Rui nodded. The adolescent children from when he was an infant had all
become full-fledged adults, although a lot of them no longer resided in the
Quarrier Orphanage, several had chosen to stick with the Orphanage,
supporting in whatever way they could. This meant there were hands on
deck, allowing for more children to be taken care of.
The number of children that could be cared for by the orphanage was
constrained by the number of caretakers present, the housing capacity and
funds at hand. Julian singlehandedly increased the latter two with his high-
income occupation.
"By the way Rui." Nina drew his attention. "Will you be staying for the
Winter Festival? It's day after tomorrow, after all."
"Ah..." Rui recalled. "I'll be there for the first day, I'll have to return
unfortunately."
The Kandrian Winter Festival was a nation-wide festival. It was celebrated in

some form or the other across the entirety of the nation, lasting three days.
"Are we going to visit the outer districts this time as well?" Rui asked.
The Orphanage took the luxury of taking the adolescents to the outer districts
where they could visit the festival fares and events.
"We were planning on going on the last day, as usual..." Lashara paused.
"But since you won't be here for the last day, we'll go for the first day."
"Thanks, that works well for me." Rui nodded. "I would hate to miss the
outing."
Going with the family to enjoy the festival was a rare occasion, and one that
Rui cherished the most. He thought back to his memories of the festival. This
was just around the time where the snowfall was at its most pleasant. It was
substantial, yet not overwhelming. Just the perfect amount for it to be
enjoyed, before the citizens prepared for the incoming harsher snowfall and
potentially even blizzards if they misfortunate enough.
"Do we have all out supplies for this winter?" Rui asked, pondering aloud.
The Orphanage was too disconnected from the heartland of the town of
Hajin. Winters could be absolutely deadly if they were not prepared. Every
year for a period of two weeks, roughly, the snowfall peaked, reaching to
incredible heights, and extremely low temperatures. Furthermore, there were
years where it extended beyond the norm or devolved into full-blown
blizzards. In such circumstances, their supply lines would be completely cut
off. It was practically impossible to wade through the snow, the winds and
the freezing temperatures and haul back the heavy supplied the Orphanage
needed.
Thus, it had become customary for the Orphanage to stock up on all
necessities well in advance. Two weeks' worth of different grains, pulses and
dried meat for food, lots of water, firewood, heavy clothing to endure the
freezing-cold temperatures, tools and equipment to clear the massive
accumulation of snow on and around the orphanage, lest they become trapped
within the orphanage!
"We still haven't acquired all the firewood we need." Lashara sighed. "The
deforestation in the closest sources of firewood has made it so that we need to
travel much further to chop it down. This has also inflated prices of firewood,
making it difficult to pay for."
"I'll handle it." Rui reassured.
"Eh?" Lashara glanced at him. "No no, there's no way we can make you do
work that requires eight adults across a week, merely in the span of a few
days."
Rui chuckled at her words. They stemmed from simple ignorance of what an
actual Martial Apprentice was capable. She likely found it hard to imagine
that despite his youth, he was actually extremely strong! Helical Breathing
alone would give him net power and stamina rivalling several healthy adults
combined, Balance Direction and Parallel Walking would allow him to make
trips many times quicker than normal.
"Don't worry about it mom, I'll handle it."

Chapter 88 Kandrian Winter
Festival
"Huff... This should be enough." Rui wiped sweat from his forehead. He
glanced at the firewood in front of him, making a few mental calculations. He
had spent the previous day and today assisting with the winter firewood
stockpile of the Orphanage. Making several round trips to bring back a large
cloth bag of firewood.
"This should be my last round..." Rui estimated. He sat down a for a bit,
taking some rest. He had been using Helical Breathing continuously, but the
Apprentice-level technique was not limitless, even he had begun to feel
exhaustion and fatigue creeping into his muscles and bones.
"It's a shame I don't have any rejuvenation potions..." Rui muttered to

himself. "Those things were incredibly convenient." Rui had pretty much
abused their use since joining the Academy. Only after having left the
Academy had he realized how incredibly useful the rejuvenation potions
were.
"Once I leave the Academy, I'm going to have purchase these potions
myself." Rui sighed, partially depressed. First, he needed to pay back his
debt, until then, he wouldn't be able to splurge of rejuvenation potions the
way he splurged on them in the Academy. He wasn't even sure he would be
able to buy them until his debt was repaid.
He shook his head, putting away such thoughts. That was still quite some
time away, no point in thinking about it too deeply.
He gathered his firewood and tied it up into his cloth, before tying it to
himself.
"Alright, time to head back." He said before using Parallel Walk, Balance
Direction and Helical Breathing. He moved incredibly fast despite his heavy
load.
Within a short period of time, he had already reached home.
"You really gathered all the firewood we needed all by yourself..." Lashara
murmured, dumbfounded as Rui unloaded the firewood.
"This should be the final pile..." Rui informed, wiping away his sweat.
"Unbelievable" Farion muttered. "You're so incredibly strong! So this is what

a Martial Apprentice is capable of."
Rui chuckled, before heading inside. "I'm off to wipe myself down."
During winters, warm baths were far too much of a luxury. Especially for an
Orphanage. During winters, the Orphanage members would heat a small
bucket of water with some fragrant herbs. It was a bit of a scale-down from
Rui who enjoyed hot water perpetually at the Academy.
"Be sure to finish quickly." Lashara called out. "We have a festival to get in
time to."
"Yes mom. I'll be out quickly." He replied.
Rui quickly gathered his clothes and towel heading in and scrubbing himself
down. He knew there were many people who were waiting in line, so he
ended up finishing quickly.
"Ooooo." Nina chuckled as she playfully poked his chiseled abs when he got
out. "Someone must be incredibly popular with the girls."
Rui snorted. "As if. Everybody has abs in the Academy." He said before
heading back to his bed to put on a shirt, leaving her dumbfounded.
"Rui! Can you look after the kids for a while?" Alice called out to him.
"Sure thing." He obliged.

The entire Orphanage was busy in chaotic excitement as everyone prepared
for the festival. Too many children were too young to make the trip and it
was impossible to take the entire orphanage to the outer districts in the
middle of snowfall.
"Big brother Rui!"
"Can you show us how to fight?"
"Big brother is a Martial Apprentice!
"Show us some moves!"
The boys and girls crowded him, pestering him with questions and requests.
"Alright alright." Rui laughed mirthfully. "One at a time, okay?"
The children obediently listened to him.
Over the next hour, Rui proceeded to show them some flashy Martial Art
moves. Most of them looked incredibly impressive and bombastic, but
weren't moves he would use in a real fight.
"OOOOH!"
"WOOAH"
"That's so cool!"
Their eyes sparkled as they cooed every time Rui moved. He laughed at their
exaggerated reactions, but felt a small sense of pride well up in his chest.
Showing off to his family was more validating than he'd expected.
Soon enough it was time to leave, the adults had cleaned up and the
adolescents were ready as well.
"Ah, there's the carriage." Mica announced. "That idiot Farion is late."
"We have the whole day to ourselves." Julian chided. "No hurry."
They boarded the carriage, squeezing in as much as they could within a
single carriage. They could bare afford a horse-drawn carriage, and that too
was a luxury that could be afforded only once in a while, Lashara did not
allow Julian to fund the Orphanage any more than he already did out of guilt.
The outer districts of Hajin weren't that far, and within a span of twenty of
minutes they made it to their location, and boarded off quickly.
"Waaaah." Alice cooed as she saw the festival fair of the district. "They've
gone all out this year!"
"This year the temperature has been quite pleasant, after all." Julian
explained. "More opportunity for smaller businesses and shops.
There were lightings, lamps and sparkling ornaments colouring the entire
fare. The infrastructure of the entire fare itself was a temporary makeshift,
that could be put together quickly and could be dismantled pretty quickly as
well. What was otherwise a large open field in the heart of the district was
now the most populated and energetic part of the district.
There were food stalls of various sorts, selling seasonal Kandrian dishes that
were customary to the Winter Festival. Shops selling festive clothing articles,
ornaments, jewelry, toys and firecrackers were littered around. Many
challenge game booths and stalls that offered various prizes for successful
attempts in whatever events they had.
The Orphanage group toured the fare, getting drawn into the festive
excitement. It was hard not to be infected by the compelling enthusiasm.
They indulged in some spending, at Julian's insistence, who leveraged the
mood to get his way. Soon enough all the adolescents were scattered into the
fare with greedy eyes, as they decided what to spend their allowance on.
"Here, have some." Rui offered a roasted skewered fish. Seafood was
incredibly popular in the Kandrian Empire. Bordering an extremely bountiful
and eternally rich portion of the Namgung Ocean made the Kandrian Empire
the eye of envy to the surrounding small and especially the large nations;
such as the Republic of Gorteau, the Sekigahara Confederate and the
Britannian Empire.
"I'm fine." Julian refused.
"Have some." Rui insisted. "What's the point of coming to a festival if you're
not going to indulge yourself?"
Julian chuckled, accepting that rationale on the face. "Being able to facilitate
the smiles on those children as well as out older brothers and sisters is good
enough for me." He said, before noticing something that caught his eye.
"Hm? What's all that you have by your side?" Julian quizzed.
"Oh this?" Rui glanced at the many toys and other items he had in a bag
beside him. "Just some stuff I won for the kids and adults back home."
Julian threw a proud smile at him, before pausing. "Wait. Martial Artists are
banned from participating."
"It'll be our secret."
Julian burst out into laughter, he really did enjoy talking to Rui. The two of
them ate in silence as they watched the boys and girls of the Orphanage
running around playing cheerfully, without a care in the world.
For a moment, the two of them felt they didn't need anything else in life.
"Part of my motivation to get a high-income job was so I can see this more
often." Julian gestured. "Do you feel the same way?"
Rui nodded in silence. He had already resolved to support the Orphanage

when he began earning for himself. He was never a materialistic person, as
long as his basic Martial Artists necessities were tended to. He had no qualms
about giving away every coin he earned to the Orphanage.
"Big brother Julian! Big brother Rui!" One of the girls of the Orphanage
called out. "Come play with us!"
Julian chuckled, getting up. "It's been a while since I played with the kids like
this." He said before turning to Rui. "Come, you wouldn't want to miss it for
the world, would you?"
Rui smiled. "Not for this world, or any other world out there."
Chapter 89 Return
"Be careful, don't push yourself too hard, okay?" Lashara asked with a
worried expression.
"Don't worry mom, I'll be fine." Rui insisted, yet she didn't appear convinced.
It was a cold morning, as always. Rui had was standing at the entrance door
of the orphanage, facing Lashara and other members of the Orphanage. Three
days had gone by and now it was time for Rui to return to the Academy.
The Academy allowed for short vacations per season for a reason. So that
students didn't lose their disciplined mindset. This was especially true for
students at earlier stages. The Foundation and Exploration Stages, in
particular. Three days was around the sweet spot where there was just enough
time for a break, but not long enough to break the students out of their
mindsets. They all knew they were returning to the Academy in three days so
they psychologically didn't relax too much and adapt to their circumstances,
knowing they would be returning soon.
Rui wasn't too sad either, he loved his family and truly enjoyed catching up
with them. However, three days was a lot of time for chit-chat and banter. He
had conversed with all of them for hours and the all the standard topics of
conversation one would engage in when conversing in family reunions were
already over. Rui had satisfied his homesickness and now his urge to
complete missions grew even stronger!
He couldn't wait to get a taste of what it was like to be a Martial Artist.

Furthermore, he couldn't wait to earn credits so that he could purchase
higher-grade techniques. His Martial Art yearned for greater development!
His Martial Path yearned for more depth!
He felt the itch to begin running towards the Academy even in the middle of
his farewell! Immediately invoking even stronger feelings of guilt. Which he
pressed down, forcefully.
"Alright mom. Everybody. Goodbye." He said. "I'll be back sooner than you
think, so don't miss me too much." he grinned.
He began his journey once he finished exchanging farewells with all those
who were there to see him off.
This time, he focused purely on speed. He didn't care to conserve stamina by

getting a rickshaw like he did when he applied for the Entrance Exam. Back
then he had a difficult exam to give, he needed every ounce of his stamina.
Thinking about that day made him feel nostalgic. More than a year had
passed since that day, and he had gotten vastly stronger since then. The
bloodlust test in round one, the bouncing slimes, the tag stealing game.
In hindsight, those trials were trivial. In his current state he would

comfortably place top five or even top three.
He was considerably stronger than the Kane from back then, who had scored
twice his score and ranked number four.
The only real problems would be Fae and, of course, Nel.
Rui suddenly did a double-take as he realized it had been truly a long time
since he thought of Nel. He had been so engrossed in his Martial Path that he
had long forgotten about the number one freshman of their batch.
"I don't think he's an Apprentice." Rui murmured. He hadn't seen Nel in the
Apprentice sparring sessions, which he would have had he actually
discovered his Martial Path.
"Maybe I should look into him when I get back." Rui shrugged, though he
was curious why someone so talented was being stalled so long. Nel was so
gifted physically, he was able to defeat an Apprentice while still being a
novice. Relying largely on brute strength. Only after Rui became a Martial
Apprentice did he realize how absurd that feat was, even if Felix was much
weaker back then, much weaker than Rui was now.
Rui wasn't sure why he was taking so long to discover his Martial Path.
"Then again, one year isn't abnormal." Rui remembered. He was the freak,
not the norm.
"Once he discovers his Martial Path, he'll be a menace." Rui concluded. The
mental evolutions that discovering the Martial Path provided would
complement his innate physical gifts remarkably. Rui was a bit curious how
strong he would be as a Martial Apprentice, would he able to beat Martial
Squires?
What about Squire Kyrie?
Rui shook his head. Kyrie would mop the floor with him hard with just a
portion of her full combat power even if he became a Martial Apprentice. She
was just ridiculous.
Rui dispelled such superfluous thoughts as he reached the central districts of

Hajin, he could even see the large prominent figure of the Mantian branch of
the Martial Academy standing proudly in the distance.
Thankfully it was still quite early in the morning, since he left well ahead of
the already early reporting time, so the traffic and rush were still low.
He pushed himself to the limit as he used Parallel Walk, Balance Direction

and Helical Breathing to their maximum, zipping through the town as fast as
a sprinting horse.
"Ahhh, we're finally here." Rui sighed in relief. He smoothly grabbed his
student ID, verifying his status as a student of the Academy to the security
before rushing towards the Apprentice dorms.
"Good to be back!" Rui grinned as he opened the room to his dorm. "Maybe
I'll take a rejuvenation potion or two before hitting Kane up and heading to
out to check out some missions."
Just as he knocked on Kane's room after having put his belongings away, he
remembered something important.
"Oh wait. He's out on a long mission." Rui recalled, before sighing. He
shrugged, looks like he would have to do this by himself, it was a shame
Kane wasn't around to show him the ropes.
"Maybe I'll run into Fae and Milliana." He hoped, though he wasn't sure if
they were back yet. He was quite early, after all.
"No no no." He shook his head. "This is my personal endeavor. I can handle
it by myself."
He headed down to the commission department, drawing attention to a staff

member boldly.
"Excuse me. I would like to apply for an Apprentice-level mission please."

Chapter 90 Mission Nuances
Once a staff member heeded Rui's requests and sat him down, he asked.
"This is your first time undertaking a mission, correct?"
"Yes."
"Are you aware of all the due process and procedures needed to undertake a
mission?" She asked.
"I'm afraid not, mam." Rui was aware of some of the processes associated
with undertaking commissions
"Alright, let me begin by explaining some procedures you must complete.

First, every Martial Artist who aims to undertake a mission must be
licensed." She explained. "However, for Martial Apprentices who are still
students within the Academy, you will be provided with a learner's license."
This was something Rui happened to be aware of.
"A license is proof of competence, as well as a declaration of the recognized

right to undertake missions. All Martial Artists who join the Martial Union
obtain one. Along with it come certain exclusive rights and obligations."
Rui nodded. He had read this when he went through the mandatory theory
lessons during the Exploration Stage. The Martial Union obtained several
Royally authorized exclusive rights and privileges, such as partial impunity
from the law and partial tax cuts and access to restricted areas among other
benefits here and there, all listed in the Kandrian Martial Convenant as well
as the employment contract of the Martial Union. The obligations that came
with few mandates from the Martial Union such as mandated missions issued
by the Martial Union.
"A learner's license possesses neither of the many privileges and obligations
that come with a full-fledged license, they're meant to help students like
yourself acclimate to the occupation of Martial Artists of the Martial Union."
She continued, receiving a nod from Rui.
"You will have to fill and sign this application form as well as submit a
statement from the academics department of the Academy that lists out your
Martial Art Type categories, the Martial Art techniques you have learnt, as
well as your performances and competence as a Martial Apprentice." She
explained. "Once you do those, the application will be briefly processed and
accepted as long as you pass the criterias."
Rui nodded. "Is the statement needed to assign missions that fit my profile? I
thought the Academy didn't mandate specific missions to students." He
wondered.
"No." She shook her head. "The Academy does not mandate specific
missions to specific students based on their profile. You may choose missions
of your choice, however, as an inexperienced Martial Apprentice we cannot
allow you to fulfill missions that are outside your skillset." She explained. "If
you do choose certain missions outside your skillset, you will be assigned a
mentor who will assist you in completing the mission. This is a limited option
and service and is merely meant to help you gauge different types of missions
to help you understand them and make more informed choices on what kinds
of missions you would like to apply for in the future."
This was quite the student-friendly policy, something Rui appreciated.
"There are some missions which have bare minimum skillset requirements,
and you will not be allowed to partake in them at all, with or without a
mentor." She added. "Please be mindful of that."
"Understood."
"Once your applications is accepted and your learner's license is issued, you
will initially not be allowed access to the entire pool of commissions. Your
grade as a Martial Apprentice will be objectively evaluated by our
department based on the academic statement and records provided by the
academics department of the Academy." She explained. "In short, a learner's
license does not permit a Martial Apprentice student to take on missions
above his competence, as evaluated by us."
Rui nodded. This made sense and was to be expected. Martial Apprentice
students like himself had only just built the foundation of their Martial Art,
and had spent most of their time cooped up in training. They lacked the
experience, knowledge and perspective to understand the difficulties of
missions based on the provided information, and could not be trusted to make
informed choices.
Many of the missions were actual private commissions made by customers of

the Martial Union. The Martial Academy could not afford to allow clueless
Apprentice students to foolishly undertake missions above their paygrade and
fail the mission!
"Another matter to discuss, is the renumeration. Each mission has a fixed

reward of a certain number of Academy credits instead of Kandrian currency,
which can be used to purchase techniques." She explained.
Rui nodded. He was fine with this arrangement. He didn't particularly need
money whilst he was in the Academy, and money would not allow him to
purchase techniques. The ultimate goal for undertaking missions was so that
he could purchase more techniques with money and expand develop his
Martial Art.
"Finally, we need to go over the process of completing missions, there are a

variety of missions, to I will speak generally. Missions are commissions
submitted by customers of the Martial Union in exchange for completing a
specified criteria or fulfilling a certain objective as well as other parameters
such as specified timeframe and any pre-requisites etc." She established.
"Each mission as provided to Martial Apprentices will be encoded in a
booklet, known as a mission bill. Within it will be specified all relevant
information needed by the Martial Artist to complete said mission. Including
the objective as well as all relevant intel that you have clearance too." She
paused before taking out a sample mission bill to show him.
"All mission bills are kept within the Mission library and are all organized by
different parameters and categories. The first classification is class. All
techniques are initially divided into the five different classes of missions:
Assault missions, defense missions, covert operations, hunting missions and
miscellaneous missions. Then they're further divided by difficulty grade, then
further divided into categories by pre-requisites and locations." She
explained.
Rui nodded. It was a convenient setup that allowed Martial Artists to find
what they're looking for with relative ease. A Martial Artist or a party of
Martial Artists of a certain class could simply walk over to his class of
missions, further navigate to the difficulty grade of his capability or comfort,
then choose focus on missions in a location of convenience and a preferred
timeframe, and finally pick a mission whose pre-requisites he satisfied. A
relatively simple process. If the Martial Academy and Union did not possess
this level of user-friendly organization, then it would simply be one hell of a
mess for Martial Artists to choose missions conforming to their needs and
wants!
Chapter 91 Missions
"Here's the application form." She provided him with set of sheets of paper.
"Do you possess an Academic statement from the academics department?"
"I'm afraid not." he shook his head. "Should I go procure one?"
"Not necessary." She assured. "We can acquire the documents ourselves, it's
just the process can be expedited if provided. Still, it's not an issue."
Rui nodded before heading over to a desk reading through the application
thoroughly. It had several pages, the first page was all about mundane and
basic personal information. Name, age, date of birth, sex and other standard
pieces of information needed by most applications and forms of this nature.
The second page was a bit more interesting. It was centered around his
personal affinities as defined by him. He needed to describe his Martial Art,
list out his techniques and preferences.
The third page asked him to list out preferred mission parameters; distance
from Academy, mission timeframe, class etc.
The final page was a page of certain terms and agreements that he had to
agree to in order to receive a license.
Rui speedily filled out the application form with a provided ink pen before
eagerly returning it to the staff member.
"We'll get back to you within the day." She informed him.
Rui nodded, before a thought occurred to him. "Can I visit the mission
library?" He asked.
"Sure, you can." She assured.
Rui nodded, rejoicing inwardly. He immediately asked for directions before

heading over to the mission library. The mission library belonged to a part of
the Academy that Rui had never been to before, Rui recalled that he wasn't
allowed to enter this portion of the Academy when he initially toured it with
Kane, specifically because he wasn't an Apprentice. Once he had become an
Apprentice he had completely forgotten about it.
"So, this place was the mission library huh?" Rui muttered to himself as he
approached the large facility. The guards didn't bat an eye at him after taking
a look at his Apprentice uniform, as he entered the library. He opened the
large doors and took his first view of the library.
"This is not what I pictured..." He murmured.
The mission library reminded of him a corporate office with immense

paperwork, from his previous life. There was an immense amount of
information squeezed into a tiny place.
The structure of the library was pentagonal, split into five sections each
dedicated to a different class of missions. Each mission bill was placed
vertically in shelves with its information as well as a brief description of the
mission itself.
Each section representing a class was divided into ten layers, each
representing a grade of difficulty of missions. Grade one missions were the
easiest, whereas grade ten missions were the most difficult.
Each mission was coded with a certain set of coordinates, this corresponded
to five copies of a large map of the town of Hajin and surrounding lands. The
map was crisscrossed by numbered latitude and longitude in an elementary
coordinate system. The coordinates on each mission bill indicated in what
region of the map was the mission location, if any, was.
Each mission was also marked with a date of submission, indicating what
date the commission from the customer was accepted by the Martial Union.
This allowed Martial Artists to see whether the mission was recently accepted
or not.
Each mission also had estimated timeframe indicated on it. Rui figured this is
how Kane picked a mission that would last longer than the Winter holidays.
Another thing Rui noted was that were a lot of empty slots for mission bills in
the shelves, in fact, a solid half of all slots were empty at this point in time.
This indicated that a lot of Martial Apprentices, inside or outside the Martial
Academy were constantly accepting missions and that the Martial workforce
at the Apprentice-level was able to cope with the demand for Martial
services.
This was a good thing. Rui didn't think that it would be good for the Martial
Union if the supply of these Martial services far exceeded the demand for
these services, or if the demand for these services far exceeded the supply.
The latter was something he was less certain about. Perhaps Martial Artists
were better off living in a world where demand for Martial services were
astronomically higher than the supply, thus Martial Art would become a
much more coveted skillset, and Martial Artists would enjoy a higher status
in society. However, there would have to be extremely high amounts of
conflict in a society for this to be the case. Rui wasn't sure he wanted himself
and especially his family to live in such extremely dangerous societies.
He was satisfied with the current balance of supply and demand. The demand
for Martial Artists was still quite high in reality. There were several markets
that provided missions; domestic markets, within the country. International
markets from the many much smaller and weaker nations without a strong
united Martial group or association like that of the Kandrian Empire. The
Royal Family by the terms of the Kandrian Martial Convenant was also a
huge regular source of missions that sustained the Martial Union
commercially.
There was no fear of the demand dwindling either. The Panama Continent
contained a vast number of countries, nations, states and smaller settlements
and groups with an inconceivable amount of conflict of interests that bred a
huge amount of the demand for Martial force. Furthermore, significant
swathes of the Panama Continent, particularly towards the continent and
heartland held incredibly powerful monster species that would annihilate all
of human civilization if not for the collective Martial power of humanity.
A large number of missions were bred not by conflict but by greed for natural
resources. Be it fauna, flora or land-borne resources within the depths of the
continent. Most of these resources were housed in incredibly dangerous
environments that only Martial Artists could tread.
The demand for Martial Art would never die, Rui concluded.
Chapter 92 A Closer Look
Rui shook his head, dismissing the irrelevant thoughts flying through his
head. He scanned the library, wondering where to begin.
"Well, I guess I can just start with whatever." Rui shrugged.
He walked over the defense class section, nonchalantly sauntering across the
shelves as he scanned the basic information displayed, eying each mission as
he passed them.
[Defense class: Bodyguard mission
Difficulty grade: 3
Target of protection: Hilla Viona
Specified/estimated Location/range of mission: Within a radius of 20

kilometers of (28.5, 19.8)
Time period of mission: 1 week.
Mission commencement: Immediate
Successful completion renumeration: 80 silver coins/ 208 Martial Credits
Skillset pre-requisites: two Apprentice-level defense-oriented techniques.]
...
[Defense class: Guard mission.
Difficulty grade: 3
Target of security: Residential front gate.
Stated/estimated Location/range of mission: (2.875, 4.978)
Time period of mission: 1 month
Mission commencement date: Winter 28th/ 416
Successful completion renumeration: 192 silver coins/500 Martial credits
Skillset pre-requisites: one Apprentice-level defense-oriented technique]
[Defense class: Transporter mission:
Difficulty grade: 2
Target of transportation: Unspecified box with dimensions 5cm x 3cm x 6cm.

Fragile
Starting/ending point and distance of travel: Town of Hajin to Town of

Gadak; 120 kilometers.
Mission Commencement date: Winter 42nd/416
Successful renumeration: 28 silver coins/72 Martial credits
Skillset pre-requisites: one Apprentice-level defense-oriented technique and

one Apprentice-level maneuvering-oriented technique.]
"Hmmm..." Rui browsed through each mission one-by-one, taking his time.
He was quite fascinated by the organization and structure to the
categorization of missions, allowing for remarkable ease of access of
missions that fell into the preference of Martial Artists looking to complete
missions.
The information displayed alongside the mission bills were merely the most
basic pertinent pieces of information that allowed for a quick judgement of
whether a mission was desirable or not. This allowed for quick assortment
and distribution of missions.
Rui was surprised by the variety of missions within the defense class. The
defense class of missions always sounded like it would be lacking in variety
and diversity. But he was shown to be wrong. There were many types of
defense-oriented missions within the class. Bodyguarding, guarding,
transportation, patrolling and several other types. Even within these types, the
difference in mission variables could lead to vastly differing circumstances of
each particular mission.
This seemed to be true even with bodyguarding. The difference in the target
profile could be huge, causing huge variations in the mission. Some
bodyguard mission had targets who travelled a lot, this usually increased the
graded difficulty of the mission from what Rui could observe. Static missions
where the target of the mission largely remained within a smaller area made it
easier to avoid variables that could not be accounted for.
Guarding missions were much more straightforward. The target was either a
location or an object, usually not discreet. These jobs were generally of lower
difficulty grades as well as lower renumeration.
What fascinated Rui was the transportation and patrolling missions. These
missions were of much higher difficulty grades. Ranging in the layers of the
defense class section that were closer to the center of the pentagon shaped
library. Many of these missions were of much higher grades than what a
newbie Apprentice like himself would be able to access. He wasn't sure how
high or low his grade would end up evaluated to be. But surely it would be
still be on the lower end.
These missions were extravagant because they were the kind of missions that
only the upper echelons of the economy could afford and would afford. Who
the hell would hire a Martial Artist to make deliveries otherwise? The rich
had more than enough wealth to splurge on lower-realm martial Artists and
were the only ones with enough reason to splurge on such ostentatious
services. A lot of the wealthier clients of the Martial Union were in
possession of objects or data and information that was extremely important.
The transportation of highly valuable goods was also not a trivial matter. The
possibility of targeted thefts and robberies were not low in such
circumstances.
Rather than come out more sorry than safe, they reduced the probability of
tragedies with Martial Artists.
Having had his fill with the defense class, Rui quickly made his way to the
offense class of missions with engrossed eyes. He thought he knew what to
expect, but he quickly realized he was wrong!
"Excuse me..." Rui called out to a support staff. "Why are there so few
missions of the offense class?"
Most of the slots were empty! What was going on?
"You must be new here." He calmly replied. "Assault and battery are still
felonies, even for Martial Artists. The Martial Union cannot accept civilian-
commissioned missions of the offense class that are within the borders of
Kandrian Empire."
"Yet there exists an offense class categorization of missions despite this..."

Rui quickly connected the dots with the other information he knew, before
coming to a conclusion. "Which means all offense-class are commissioned
through Royal authorization, by the Royal Family..."
He recalled that the one of the clauses of the Kandrian Martial Covenant
specified the exchange of Martial services, among other things, from the
Martial Union to the Royal Family in exchange for funds, resources and
privileges.
The staff member nodded. "That and foreign missions. But you're still a few
realms too low for that option."
Rui figured as much, he put that aside focusing on the royal commissions. He
knew that a lot of the laws still applied to Martial Artists, they merely gained
partial impunity to the penalties; receiving much more authorized leniency
from the judicial systems as far as sentencing went.
However, this did not necessarily mean that the offense class missions were
lesser in number than the other class of missions. Running a country was
impossible without state-sanctioned violence, the Kandrian Empire likely
pawned off a portion of the less fundamental duties that involved assault like
perhaps the war on the mafia and the black market of the nation.
If this was the case, Rui even thought it was a bit of a smart move on the
Kandrian Empire's end. Both the underworld and the Martial Union were
eyesores to the Royal Family. The best thing to do was to let them handle
each other.
The only thing Rui hoped was that the Martial Union was charging the Royal
Family a bomb of a price for this particular duty!
Chapter 93 Approved
Rui moved on to the remaining three sections, and he found interesting quirks
about each of them.
Hunting missions at the Apprentice-level were all exclusively domestic

missions, despite the fact that most hunting missions in general were beyond
the borders of the Kandrian Empire, since most beast species exist beyond
human settlements. However, those were too far above his paygrade.
The hunting missions he had access to were all domestic in nature. These
included verified sightings of beasts that posed too much of a threat to
civilians, or an overpopulation of certain beast species in certain parts of the
forests and other natural habitats.
The Kandrian Empire hadn't exterminated every single dangerous beast

species, mostly because it was not viable. For better or worse, the beast
species of these natural environments were extremely vital to the balance,
health and the maintenance of these environments.
These species usually played extremely important roles in the fragile

ecosystems and food chains. Haphazardly and carelessly annihilating every
trace of them would be a foolish blunder that could cause such ecological
disasters that could very well bring the entire kingdom to its knees!
This was a much worse problem than the beast species themselves. Beast
species were a much simpler and easier problem to handle than such a
complex ecological catastrophe. Martial Art could handle former, it could not
handle the latter!
The Royal Family even authorized the establishment of a Ministry of

Ecology and Environment. Among the many tasks and duties this executive
entity was responsible for, coordinating with the Martial Union through
Royal authorization to regulate the populations and distributions of beast
species was one of them.
,m A lot of hunting missions were centered around extraction of valuable

resources. This included flora and fauna resources that were dangerous to
obtain, and thus required Martial Artists. However, beyond this, Rui realized
that the hunting class of missions at the Apprentice-level were limited in
variety and diversity.
"There's a limit to the variety of flora and fauna in the true wild natural
environments outside the borders of the Empire, and flora and fauna within
the Empire." Rui murmured. He wasn't sure at what realm would he be
qualified to be able to take hunting missions occurring outside.
He dismissed these thoughts, moving onto the two remaining sections once
he was satisfied with his exploration of the hunting section.
The covert operations section fell within his expectations, for once. The
missions were centered around clandestine and furtive missions. Shadowing,
reconnaissance, tracking, infiltration etc were the kinds of missions that
populated this class of missions.
He was surprised by the fact that these missions were legal, while the offense
class wasn't. But it made more sense when he considered the Kandrian
Empire wasn't Earth. On Earth, the right to privacy and physical and
intellectual property were protected by the state. However, the Kandrian
Empire and most sovereign states he had some awareness about were
culturally and politically centuries behind Earth during his lifetime. These
rights that were fundamental and extremely important back on Earth were not
that important here. Part of it had to do with the lack of communication
technology and information technology, slowing down development and
allowing missions like these to be legal.
Out of the four classes of missions thus far, this was the one class of missions
he was least qualified to undertake. The pre-requisites for these missions
required stealth-oriented maneuvering techniques, of which he had none and
didn't intend to get any.
His interest in this class of missions was the least, after all, he was a martial
arts fanboy, not a spy fanboy!
Having had his fill, he left the section before heading out to the last section.
The miscellaneous class of missions.
This was the class of missions that he was least familiar with, intuitively. He
had of course learnt about it in the theory lessons mandated in the
Exploration Stage. However, since the missions of this class did not share
any common trait, asides from not smoothly falling into the other four classes
of missions, it was hard to even come up with a picture of what the missions
of this class might look like.
"Well, this is just chaos." Rui chuckled as he scanned missions, walking

around in the section.
The missions were all across the board with no common element or pattern
unifying the entire class. The Academy had done its best to lump missions of
a similar kind together. Grouping missions that had some degree of raw
manual labour together, lumping missions that were required services of
Martial Artists that had nothing to with actually using their Martial Art.
"This one wants an interview with a Martial Apprentice." Rui laughed

mirthfully as he skimmed through a particular aisle.
He shook his head. The Martial Union must have created this class because
there were too many weird and strange commissions. Rui wondered why any
Martial Artist would ever come to this strange class of missions instead of the
primary four.
This was, until he noticed why.
"The remuneration proportion of this class is higher than the others..." He

noticed, understanding why Martial Artists ventured into this class.
Money.
Not only was the miscellaneous class of missions, by far, the safest, they
were also quite remunerative in comparison the classes, pound-for-pound.
This attracted just enough Martial Artists to this class of missions to ensure
that supply of Martial Artists matched the number of missions of that class.
Rui was not particularly interested in this class of missions either.
"Guess I will be primarily focusing on offense, defense and hunting

primarily."
As he lurked around gathering his thoughts, he realized how he was surprised

by how different each class of missions was. He'd expected each class to be
relatively similar in all aspects asides from the fundamental differences
between them, but this was not the case.
"They were incongruent from each other in many different ways."
The defense class was the most normal and diverse class of missions. It had
fairly well-distributed client-base, it had a decent amount of variety and
diversity. Furthermore, it was the only class that was not limited in the
Apprentice Realm.
The offense class at the Apprentice Realm was entirely Royally authorized,
making a very singular source of commissions. At the Apprentice Realm it
was also limited to the town that the Apprentices operated in.
Hunting missions were also limited to the Kandrian Empire, and their
difficulty and variety were also largely reduced.
Covert operations had the most troublesome skill pre-requisites among all of
them
As for the miscellaneous class...
"The less said about the better." Rui shook his head, before a voice called out
to him.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier." A support staff member called out to him. "Your
application has been approved and your learner's license has been registered."
She said, handing him an envelope.
"You may now accept a mission."

Chapter 94 Bodyguard
"I can pick a mission as of this very moment?"
"Indeed, as long as the difficulty grade does not exceed our evaluation of
your capability to complete missions."
Rui noted her choice of words. "How does the Academy evaluate our
capability to complete missions and how is it measured?"
"The Academy evaluates mission-completing competence by looking at

academic records, compatibility between Martial Artist and mission,
experience and mission track record. Your evaluation is indicated on a grade
from 1-10, just like missions." She explained.
Rui nodded. "Am I qualified to jump right into missions even if I have never
attempted one before?"
"Yes, however the Martial Academy strongly recommends beginning with

the lowest of difficulty grades of missions for your initial missions,
regardless of your Martial skill, it's best to steadily accumulate experience
with the process of mission completion before undertaking missions of higher
difficulty grade."
"I see." Rui nodded. "I believe I need only pick a mission bill and have it
assigned to me in the commission department, correct?"
"Yes."
"Alright, thank you."
"If you have any additional questions, you can read the mission completion
guide created by the Martial Academy to learn more." She said, handing him
a small booklet. "Or you can approach the Commissions Department for
clarification."
"Got it, thank you." Rui said as he began reading the mission completion
guide.
Thankfully the mission completion guide was not an extremely elaborate

read. It mainly focused on basic mission completion protocol. Pre-
commencement protocols, mission protocols and post-completion/failure
protocols to ensure smooth management. It was only thanks to ever Martial
Artists following these protocols that the Martial Union could smoothly and
speedily function as a whole.
Pre-commencement protocols involved registration as the assigned Martial

Artist to the commission, it involved recording the time of dispatch,
verification with the client, recording the time of commencement.
Mid-mission protocols were more norms rather than rules about how to go
about different kinds of the most common missions among different classes.
Post-completion/failure protocols were report submissions and remuneration

protocols.
"Simple stuff." Rui shut the book, having speedily digested it. "Now time to
pick a mission." he muttered to himself excitedly. After a year of training in
the Academy, he had finally reached the stage where he could complete a
mission!
"I'm graded three, huh?" Rui scratched his head. He wasn't entirely sure what
that meant. He lacked the necessary context and experience to discern what it
meant. Maybe he could ask Kane, Fae and Milliana their evaluated grades so
he can have a frame of reference to understand how much the Academy
actually evaluated him to be.
"Well, I don't intend to pick a grade three mission right off the bat."
For his first mission, he decided to pick the most straightforward mission
possible. He did not grow arrogant and assume that he would be able to nail
the mission because he was oh-so-great.
"Grade one is the way to go." he concluded. "But what class?"
He eyed each section, carefully considering them.
"Covert ops and miscellaneous are a definite no-go." Rui had no intention of
being a shadow or a weirdo for his very important first mission.
"Assault is also a no-go." He didn't want to engage in royally-authorized

missions for his very first mission.
"That leave defense and hunting class." Rui concluded, before making his
decision.
"Hunting class missions are much less straightforward and have more
sophisticated objectives and conditions and pre-requisites." For his very first
mission, he wanted to be down to earth.
"Defense is the way to go." He decided.
He began scanning through the outer-most layer of the defense class section,
the layer with grade one missions.
"Hm?" Rui squinted as he paused upon a mission bill.
Difficulty grade: 1
Target of protection: Bella
Specified/estimated location/range of mission: within 30 kms radius of (2.5,

-1.8)
Time Period of mission: 3 days
Mission commencement: immediate

Successful completion renumeration: 20 silvers / 52 Martial credits
Skillset pre-requisite: one apprentice-level defense-oriented technique]
It caught his eye because its remuneration was higher than most other
missions of its grade, and it was relatively close to the Academy in
comparison.
He picked up the bill from the slot, and flipped through it to learn more.
**********
"We haven't received any word from the Martial Union as of this yet, miss."
A young woman anxiously reported.
The recipient of the report turned to face her handmaid with a grave
expression. "If only I had enough money at hand for the rapid assignment
fee."
There was usually a time period between the submission of the commission
and the acceptance of the mission. This was usually anywhere between zero
and three days. Thus, most clients of the Kandrian Martial Union were
accustomed to placing commissions well ahead in advance and specifying the
date of the mission commencement. Thus, regardless of when it was
accepted, the missions would commence when they wanted.
However, the Martial Union offered to have missions be accepted

immediately in exchange for an extremely expensive fee relative to the
mission to the cost.
"Miss Bella..." The handmaid sullenly responded.
"We even had to undersell the difficulty of the mission just a little to be able
to pay the up-front expense." Bella sighed, hoping the Martial Union would
not notice. "Thankfully we didn't violate the rules of the commission contract
explicitly."
"We will have to wait here until the Martial Artist arrives." She gestured to
the small quarters they were in. A toilet and a single bedroom were all they
were able to afford in the hotel they were in.
"Do you intend to dispatch as soon as the Martial Artist bodyguard is

dispatched?" Her handmaid asked with a worried expression.
"We have to." Bella nodded. "We will inevitably be discovered if remain here
indefinitely. The sooner we leave, the lower our chance of being discovered.
We need to get away the Town of Hajin as soon as possible." She glanced out
the window. "The Lowminers have too much influence in Hajin. We need a
Martial Artist who can stall their pursuers when they inevitably discover us."
She sighed.
"I hope our bodyguard arrives soon."

Chapter 95 Fashionably Late?
Bella Hier was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Her father had moved to
Town of Hajin, decades ago in hopes of making it big, and through many
years of sustained effort and clever business, he had managed to achieve
immense economic success.
The Hier Industries was a premium esoteric material supplier, this trading
company acquired high-grade esoteric matter and resold them in
manufacturers at remarkably high markups, earning huge profits with each
exchange. Its journey to the top of Hajin was textbook execution, it
established robust supply chains that minimized logistical and inventory
burdens while maximizing supply.
It even managed to grasp retired Martial Artists to permanently join the

company, drastically reducing the cost of acquisition of certain high grade
esoteric resources that could only be acquired through Martial Artists, which
would be quite expensive if done through the Martial Union.
The Hier family grew in wealth and commercial prosperity for quite a long
time, even until recently.
Until recently, that was.
When the company began expanding into other esoteric resource industries,
aggressively encroaching onto the space of more accomplished companies. It
had bitten off more than it could chew, the Lowminers esoteric suppliers was
a company that had competed against the Hier family. The entirety of the
market of the Town of Hajin and the surrounding lands were the battle
ground between these two behemoths.
However, their bitter struggle ended when the Lowminers managed to expand
and monopolize certain esoteric markets quicker. The Lowminers managed to
eventually to corner and suffocate the Hier family commercially, and
eventually had enough capital to buy a huge proportion of the shares of the
Hier family through various third-party entities, effectively ripping apart a
chunk of its rival from it.
And that is when Bella Hier's life crumbled.
Her father passed away.
('No, he was murdered.') Bella clenched her fists
Her father died due to blunt force trauma caused by tripping and falling down
staircases, and had died within seconds even before attendants who heard the
noise came to help him. However, Bella was almost certain that this was
staged and that he was assassinated without a doubt. Her father was an
extremely careful man. The idea that he would clumsily trip to such a degree
that he died on the spot as a result was an absurd notion. She was certain that
the Lowminers had a Martial Apprentice, since the Martial Union would
never agree to accept such a commission.
What was beyond her expectations was that her father had long prepared a
will, in the event he was to die. He had passed on all of his ownership of the
Hier Industries to his daughter; Bella Hier.
This was outside the expectation of the Lowminers to some degree. Part of
their goal was to cannibalize the remains of the Hier Industries to achieve
complete dominion over the esoteric matter market of the Town of Hajin.
Now, the problem was no closer to being solved, not as long as Bella Hier
was still alive. She, who had been groomed and raised as the successor of her
father, grew pale when she read her father's will as she understood the
consequences.
On one hand, her father had passed on his legacy to her.
On the other, she bore immense responsibility, and risk.

Especially risk at the current moment. Inheriting her father's dominant shares
of the Hier Industries was effectively putting a target on her back. The
Lowminers would come for her without a doubt.
She fled her home estate immediately. Her fears were confirmed when she
received word that the Lowminers had broken into her estate. She
immediately when into survival mode and began planning for her survival
first and later her return.
('I need to leave Hajin immediately.') She had immediately concluded. The
Lowminers were too powerful within the town of Hajin, if she stayed here,
she would simply be too powerless to accomplish anything, and she would
die quickly.
She had immediately charted out a plan to leave Hajin aiming to use her
connections to the best she could, but the problem was that it was not really
possible by herself, she would almost certainly be caught. Going to law
enforcement wouldn't help, companies with economic might usually had ears
inside the law-enforcement branches and even some degree of influence.
Furthermore, without concrete evidence of threat to her life she would not be
able to obtain protection, the whole endeavor would be no different from
announcing her presence to the Lowminers.
('That leaves the Martial Union.') She sighed inwardly. The Martial Union
was the strongest private association in the Kandrian Empire, a local
behemoth limited to a single town or two had no influence on it. She would
be able to commission a Martial Apprentice bodyguard through a third-
person, her trusted attendant, and that is exactly what she did.
But there was a problem.
('The bodyguard isn't here yet.') Bella gulped. She almost considered shifting,
because staying in her current location for too long was too risky. Because of
her sudden departure, and lack of the elaborate preparation she would have
ideally liked, she had been unable to move in a discrete manner. She knew it
was only a matter of time before the Lowminers narrowed down her possible
locations and completely shut off any escape.
KNOCK KNOCK
Heavy pounding on the door drew her attention. She glanced warily as she
heard a muffled dispute on the other side.
"Sir, you cannot barge into our establishment violating our and our
customer's privacy! We will report you to law enforcement!"
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"Open the door!" Another gruff voice insisted, ignoring the man's
reprimands.
"Miss!" Her attendant urgently insisted. "You need to leave! Go!"
Bella did not hesitate as she opened a window and jumped out. She had
purposely requested for a room on the ground floor with an unbarred
window, so that she would have another escape route. Just as she landed, a
burly voice called out to her.
"Going somewhere?" She turned around in terror as the man caught her,
effortlessly restraining her.
"Let go of me!" She struggled
"Hehe." He chuckled as he dragged her towards the front of the hotel.

"You've given us quite the trou-"
THWACK
p Suddenly, she felt his grip over him loosening, watching as her apprehender
wordlessly collapsed.
"Hm, you're definitely Bella Hier." The voice of a young boy rejoiced.
"Thank god, it would be so embarrassing if I lost my client on my very first
mission!"
She turned around in shock, standing face to face with a masked young boy
who couldn't be older than fifteen, wearing the Martial uniform of the Martial
Union.
"I don't know what kind of mess you've gotten yourself into, young lady." He
said. "But we need to get out of here."
Chapter 96 Leave
"So this is the standard gear of the Martial Union, eh?" Rui glanced over to
the items on the table in the dispatch facility. On the table was a mask, a
uniform and a strange looking device.
The mask was optional, but highly recommended by the Academy to all
Martial Apprentices. Many a times, the Martial Apprentices inevitably earned
the ire and the grudge of powerful third-party organizations during their
missions. Although these organizations had no power to do anything to the
Martial Union as a whole, that wasn't necessarily true for individual Martial
Artists.
Martial Artists were scary and untouchable to most people, but this wasn't
truly the case for the more economically powerful. It was possible for these
organizations to bully individual Martial Artists, especially the younger and
lower Realm Martial Artists.
Thus, a mask was recommended to younger and weaker Martial Artists. The
masks were designed to hide away all facial features without hindering vision
or any of the other senses. In Rui's case, they even provided him a mask with
a hair colour-changing function, specifically meant to hide unique or
unnatural hair colors that would give away their identity.
Rui had accepted, even if this was a lower-graded mission, he did not want to
take the risk. Although he himself might be secure because of his combat
prowess, the same could not be said for his family back in the Orphanage
who were vulnerable in comparison.
The uniform was supposed to be resistant to piercing-weapons, meant

specifically for Apprentices. Apparently higher Realms were naturally
resistant to piercing attacks and generally did not need any aid. The uniform
bore the emblem of the Martial Union as well as the color scheme associated
with Martial Apprentices.
The last object was rather strange. Rui had been told it was a device with
which he could record the moment of dispatch, client verification, mission
commencement and conclusion as well as mission failure or success. Rui
could apparently record and relay the timing of these events through marked
buttons on it. He could even send out SOS signals and request for emergency
aid.
What shocked Rui about this was that this was the first time he had seen
communication technology in this world!
He did not think it existed because he hadn't seen any hint of it during his life
in the Orphanage or even in the bustling town of Hajin. But he was proven
wrong, the fact that this was standard-issue equipment meant that this
technology was much more prevalent than he had thought. It was quite likely
that this technology was based on some esoteric resource or phenomenon, if
the esoteric substances responsible for the communication technology were
somewhat scarce, then it could explain why this technology wasn't
ubiquitous.
The device allowed Rui and other Martial Artists to effectively and easily
communicate with and update the Martial Union on the progress of the
mission.
Once Rui completed all the procedures, it was time for the dispatch. After
recording the timing and signing some paperwork, Rui began jogging to the
location of the specified commencement destination. A little hotel in one of
the outskirt districts of the town of Hajin.
As Rui made his way to the location of the assigned mission, the
infrastructure and population density of the districts dipped progressively.
Within an hour of using Parallel Walk and Balanced Direction tentatively, he
could see the hotel.
('Such an offbeat and remote location, and yet they still want a bodyguard?')
Rui pondered, before dismissing the thought. He was just grateful to have a
mission, he had already made up his mind to make the best out of this
mission no matter what!
He only noticed something strange when he reached the location, pausing at a

distance. A gang of men had gotten into a conflict with who seemed to be the
hotel owner.
('Bandits or robbers maybe?') Rui tilted his head as the men forced their way
in despite the owner's protests. Rui resumed, sprinting towards the hotel. If
these men had bad intentions, then his client was in danger too!
As he reached the hotel, he saw a young blue-haired lade creep out of the
window.
('That hair color matches the account and sketch.') Rui rejoiced, despite being
confused, before panicking as she bumped into one of the men patrolling the
parameter. What shocked Rui was that the man apprehended her and dragged
her away.
THWACK
A Vital Pressure strike to the temple from a blind spot knocked the man out,
giving him a concussion. He sighed in relief as he studied her.
"Hm, you're definitely Bella Hier." Rui nodded sighing relief. "Thank god, it
would be so embarrassing if I lost my client on my very first mission!"
Kane and Fae would never let him hear the end of it!
"I don't know what kind of mess you've gotten yourself into, young lady." He
solemnly added. "But we need to get out of here."
She stared at him with speechless confusion. "You... are my bodyguard?"
"Yes." Rui caught her hand. "No time! Let's g-"
"HEY! I FOUND HER." A man's voice loudly announced.
"Tsk." Rui tutted. "Too late. Guess I'll have to deal with them."
Thankfully Rui didn't sense any Martial Apprentices among them. Martial
Apprentices did not possess an imperceivable aura or pressure that was as
defined as that of a Martial Squire or Senior. But a Martial Apprentice like
Rui could easily distinguish them from normal people.
"Careful! He has the Martial Apprentice uniform on!" The man warned the
others as they huddled banded around.
Rui didn't waste any time. He sprinted over to them faster than they could
effectively react before launching a Flowing Canon and knocking several of
them flying away.
BAM BAM BAM
Rui weaved around, dodging their crude haymakers while cleanly punishing
them Vital Pressure into especially vulnerable and painful areas left them flat
on the ground or reeling completely open for swift strikes to the chin,
knocking them out.
In the span of ten seconds, fifteen men had been taken down by a single
adolescent boy. Bella stared dumbfoundedly at him as he wrapped up and
walked back to her.
She had always been generally aware that Martial Artists were strong, but
knowing that and actually witnessing them in live action were two different
things. She was surprised that someone who appeared to be so young could
already be a Martial Apprentice.
"Are you okay?" Rui stuck out his hand offering help, breaking her out of her
reverie.
"I'm okay." She managed squeeze out, pulling herself up.
"Those men will wake up eventually, we need to get out of here quickly." Rui
insisted. "We'll talk once we've reached a better place."
Chapter 97 Considerations
Bella shook herself out of her reverie and nodded seriously. Just then;
"Miss!" Her attendant called out.
"Puth, are you okay?" Bella asked, concerned, receiving a nod in return.
Thankfully the men had merely had her open the door and snooped around
looking for their target and left when they couldn't find her.
Bella glanced back at Rui. "We need to leave this district immediately. I'm
heading south, towards the outskirts of the town before catching a cargo
carriage towards the neighbouring town of Laxus. We need you to
accompany and protect us within Hajin." She insisted.
Rui nodded. "We can talk later. Right now, we seriously need to go." he said,
before turning to face Puth. "However, you are not under my protection and
having more people will only slow us down."
Bella grimaced, slowly nodding before turning to her attendant. "Puth, I

cannot have you accompany us any further. The journey will be too
dangerous, return back home." Not giving her attendant any choice in the
matter.
She turned back to Rui, before nodding. "Let's leave."
Rui nodded in return. "You're too slow, I'm going to need to carry you until
we reach find a rickshaw or reach a place we can lay low."
"Eh?"
"Time is of the essence."

He swooped in, lifting her in a princess-carry, before activating Balanced
Direction, Parallel Walk and Helical Breathing. Despite the hindrance and
burden, he was still able to sprint at a speed beyond the human limit. In the
meantime, Bella awkwardly held onto him embarrassed as she tried not to let
her grip slip at those immense speeds.
It wasn't that Rui wasn't cognizant of her awkwardness, or even his own. But
it wasn't important. Her life and the mission was at stake, only a fool would
let something like embarrassment get in the way of success.
"Was it okay to not kill those men?" She asked a pertinent question.
"If this was an ordinary bodyguard mission, it wouldn't be a problem." Rui

stated. "Problem is mass murder is extremely high key and will draw far too
much attention. Law enforcement officers will be all over the place and will
be out looking for us and even the Martial Union might be involved, and not
in a good way. Killing them will draw even more attention to us and make a
clean escape much, much harder. It's better to just leave them, and do our best
to reach your destination."
Bella was young, not a fool. "Furthermore, the policing officers would only
take us in, have us make statements before releasing us without protection,
since we cannot produce evidence of ill-intent on my life and well-being.
You're right, killing them has more downsides than upsides."
Rui nodded silently. In truth, there was an even greater reason he had chosen
not to kill them.
He was not prepared to.
He had never killed a single person in his life, he had never felt the urge to,
asides from the instance of kidnapping in his childhood.
He was glad that there was solid rationale to leave them alive, he wasn't sure
he would be able to kill them one-by-one.
He inwardly sighed. ('This is a problem I'll need to fix. The Martial World is
filled with death. There are those who kill, and there are those who will be
killed. I need to fall into the former group, not the latter.')
Thankfully he still had some time before he would be forced to make that
choice. He needed to condition and train a mindset that was willing to kill if
needed. It's not that Rui was an extremely pacifist or kind person, but as a
person who spent fifty-nine years in a world where murder was deeply
abhorrent, it was not easy to become comfortable with killing.
Despite carrying another human, Rui was able to reach the closest district
fairly quickly. He even avoided routes where they would inevitable be seen
and would draw attention.
"You need to cut or hide your hair." Rui insisted. "That drastically lowers the
chances of someone being able identify and remember us if your pursuers
ever investigate in this district."
She nodded, tying up her hair as tightly as she could before covering it with a
cloth garment she had. "You need to get rid of that uniform as well, that will
draw attention since Martial Apprentices are rarely spotted in these remote
districts."
Half an hour later they had checked into a cheap inn. Rui had long taken off
his mask, wearing clothes that Bella had quickly bought from the closest inn,
while covering his hair with a tied cloth like Bella had. His hair was too
attention-drawing and distinct, not to mention the annoying superstitions that
would, no doubt, make this mission harder.
Both of them had ensured that there were no distinct traits that would allow
the Lowminer gangs to be able to identify them and recount information
should they be questioned.
"It's time for us to talk." Rui said, sitting at the other side of the room. "The
more you reveal, the better I'll be able to guarantee your safety."
Bella sighed. "What do you want to know, specifically?"
"The scope, power, influence and a general threat evaluation of your

pursuers." Rui replied. "Your objectives and plans. Remember, the maximum
timeframe of the mission is three days, I can't hang around you forever."
Bella nodded, sighing. "I'm being pursued by a large powerhouse in the

esoteric industry of the town of Hajin. Although unclear, they have
connections to the mafia and often employ gang violence indirectly. Their
objective should ideally be my capture alive, allowing them to coerce me into
handing over my shares one way or another."
Rui nodded, in thought. "That man was definitely trying to apprehend you."
"As for my plans. My father's company has branches in towns where the
Lowminers haven't expanded yet. My greatest likelihood of survival would
be to reach those branches and consolidate safely." She explained.
"I have a few questions, if you don't mind."
"Go ahead."
Chapter 98 Answers
"First, if the Hier family has branches in this town of Hajin as well as outskirt
towns, why bother going to those towns instead of your Hajin branch?" He
asked, unable to make sense of her decision.
"I was in my personal penthouse when I received the news, I had

immediately fled the estate with as much of my immediate personal savings
as I could." Bella explained. "I heard that roughly ten-fifteen minutes later the
estate was that gangs of men had arrived at my personal home. There is no
way they would not account for me going to the Hier Industries branches.
Furthermore, with an ownership of decent number of shares of the company,
they have some degree of authority and influence on its executive operations.
Because of this, it would be easy for them to trap and capture me if I
attempted to visit the Hajin branch."
Rui nodded, this made sense.
"Is that why you were only able to commission a single Martial Apprentice?"
Bella nodded. "I never had access to the immense amounts of wealth of Hier
Industries, I'm only seventeen-years-old after all. My father was always strict
because he believed that spoiling me with great personal wealth would
prevent me from becoming a worthy successor. The wealth I used to
commission a bodyguard from the Martial Union was all wealth of my
earning." Bella sighed. "If I had much more time, I would have been able to
reach the branch and consolidate my position while hiring multiple high-
grade Martial Apprentices. But alas, it was mostly too late."
Rui understood why she appeared to be such a pauper despite being the
daughter of a bigshot, the information provided by the mission bill as well as
what Bella had told him had finally given him a fully understanding of the
situation. "Alright, what branch are you aiming to head for?"
"The Laxus town branch." Bella replied. "It's a town where the Lowminer
Industries haven't expanded to yet, mainly because the market doesn't
conform to their established areas. Their power and influence should be
considerably hampered. Using gangs haphazardly will not be taken well by
the local mafia of Laxus."
Rui nodded, this was probably her best chance of success in her
circumstances. "There's just one issue. The mission range is limited to within
a thirty kilometers radius. I can't exceed that, meaning I can only protect you
a part of the way."
Bella nodded, expecting this. "I'm aware of that, I was cognizant of it when I
commissioned the bodyguard mission. Increasing the range and timeframe of
the mission increases the cost of the mission, I had to choose a good balance
between the timeframe and the range of the mission. There would be no point
in commissioning a mission with a high range but extremely low timeframe,
or a mission with a high timeframe and low radius. Eventually I decided that
three days and thirty kilometers was a good balance. Thirty kilometers is
enough to escort me out of Hajin safely, which is the hardest part. Once I'm
out the Lowminers are constrained and limited. I have a decently solid chance
of succeeding as long as I'm careful."
Rui nodded. "Alright, what route are you planning to take in order to escape
Hajin?" Ordinarily, the bodyguard was supposed to make decisions regarding
the safety of the client of protection. But in this case Rui digressed and left
the decision in her hands, she was clearly much more knowledgeable and
quite clever herself.
,m And hot.
Rui shook his head, sighing inwardly. ('These dumb hormones are fucking
with me.')
The amount of testosterone per unit blood escalated astronomically in boys

between the ages of twelve to twenty-one before gradually reducing over the
rest of their life span resulting in an exaggeratedly high libido. Thankfully,
Rui's mind, by virtue of going through a second round of growth had
strengthened its fortitude and reduced its susceptibility to influences such as
hormones, for the most part. Though he was only resistant, not immune. Boys
will be boys.
Bella brought out a map. "I was considering routes that included going
through both the most populated and the least populated districts."
Rui frowned. "Doesn't it make more sense to stick to the least populated
districts of Hajin due to how few people there are?"
Bella shook her head. "Not necessarily. If our disguises are even halfway
decent. Finding us in high population-density urban districts will be a
nightmare. However, if our identities are compromised then more remote
districts are more advantageous, because it is harder to be hidden in more
remote locations."
Rui nodded, this made sense. "In that case, a perfect disguise in urban
districts where we blend perfectly into the background masses, as long as we
don't have to verify our identities at any point, they should struggle to find
us."
Bella nodded. "Exactly."
"Alright, what about exiting Hajin and reaching Laxus?" Rui asked. "There's
no way you're going to make it by foot."
"I have a strong connection to a local small-scale goods transportation

company, I plan to request the director, a close acquaintance of my father and
mine, to smuggle me outside Hajin and inside Laxus without detection."
Bella explained. "After that, I'll manage myself."
Rui nodded. This had spelled the end of all the doubts he had. The air grew
silent and awkward as they ran out of topics to converse about.
"We should freshen up and eat up a bit before disguising ourselves for the
next journey stretch." Rui said. "I only have three standard low-grade
rejuvenation potions and one healing potion for the bodyguard mission, I
don't have any to share with you unfortunately."
"No need to apologize." Bella sighed. "It's not your fault."
As Bella went to the bathroom to freshen up a little, Rui contemplated about

the mission. The mission difficulty was definitely not a meagre one, that was
for sure. However, this wasn't much of a grievance to Rui for one main
reason; the Martial Union compensated Martial Artists for underpriced
missions!
This meant that as long as Rui was able to show that the mission's difficulty
exceeded the evalution of the Martial Union, he would receive even more
Martial Credits! Allowing him to purchase even better techniques!
Rui grinned like a shark at the thought.

Chapter 99 Danger Standing By
"Damn it!" A curse echoed through the room.
Had Feron Lowminer known the Hier girl was as slippery as she was, he
would have been much more careful than he already was. But he didn't, and
here he was.
He had a bad feeling in his gut when he heard that Bella Hier was not at her
personal home, and that she had hastily departed once she had learnt of her
father's death. It was odd behaviour, what kind of daughter hastily ran away
from home without announcing her destination after learning of her father's
death?
Why wasn't there a period of mourning? Rather than grief, her behavior
indicated fear.
All this strongly suggested that she had already figured out her predicament,
and had taken pre-emptive measures to protect herself.
And she had surpassed his expectations, she managed to escape immediate
capture and had remained hidden well enough and long enough to hire a
Martial Apprentice from the Martial Union, remarkably raising the difficulty
of her capture.
Martial Apprentices could not be defeated by ordinary men, not without a

huge numeric advantage, and even then, it would require truly remarkable
and advantageous circumstances to succeed.
"Only Martial Artists can defeat Martial Artists..." Feron grunted, before
glancing at a dark figure at the corner of the room. "Isn't that right, Azazel?"
The shadowy figure nodded mildly, not saying a word.

"Remain on standby, if and when the girl slips up, I expect you to finish the
job." Feron coldly stated. "Kill her and the pesky Martial Apprentice."
* * * * * * * * * *
Rui tied up his hair tightly, preventing even a strand of his unique hair from
slipping and out. Protecting his identity had become an even greater deal now
that he knew he was dealing with powerful third parties with whom he had a
strong conflict of interest. He was not going to take any chances, a single
blunder may very well come back to bite him in the ass.
His ears pricked as he heard some noises come from the other room.
('Bella?') He turned with a puzzled look as he was about to open the

bathroom, when he froze.
('She's crying.') He realized, as he heard her muffled sobs.
An awkward expression crawled onto his face. He wasn't sure what to do, he
wasn't close to her, he didn't know her whatsoever, he was here to complete a
job and would leave once his time was up, regardless of her situation.
Furthermore, he had never consoled anyone before, on anything, especially a

teenager. Let alone on something as heavy as their father's death.
He shook his head, deciding to avoid it. He made a big fuss as he was about
to open the door, making a lot of noise with something or the other, giving
her enough of a forewarning that he was about to come out, allowing her to
hastily clean herself up.
"Are you ready?" He asked, pretending as if he knew nothing. She nodded

with a steeled expression; an expression Rui inwardly sighed at.
('Seems like she's pulled herself together, that's a good sign.')
Rui had left the core of the planning to her, if her emotional state was too
unreliable, he might decide to take matters into his own hand.
"Once we get to the next district, we'll have to change our clothes once again,
just to be safe." She told him.
Rui nodded. "The next district is district fourteen, I believe?"
Bella nodded. "District fourteen is a disproportionately commercial compared

to other outer districts of Hajin, there's a huge influx and outflux of traders,
merchants, suppliers, transporters and consumers. The two of us won't stand
out in anyway, and as long as we keep our heads low, the Lowminers should
find it almost impossible to track us."
Rui glanced at her in thought. "You mentioned your connection to the

director of a small-scale goods transportation company. Where is he
situated?"
"In district twenty-three, a district in the outermost layer of the town of

Hajin."
,m "Can you trust him?" Rui asked cautiously.
She nodded in response. "I've known him my entire life, my father and him
went way back having known each other for decades."
Rui shrugged mildly, if she thought he was trustworthy, then he could only
follow her lead.
"What about our means of transport?"
"We'll have to travel by foot until we meet with the director of the I
mentioned, after that we can probably get some transportation."
"You think you can make it that far in a few days?" Rui asked.
"I have no choice but to." She sighed, putting an end to their conversation.
The two of them made some final preparations.
Rui was actually wearing his Martial Uniform under his disguise for
protection, while concealing the mask within his baggy clothes. The disguise
hindered his movement just a little, but that little cost of mobility was worth
the benefits. It would be much more of a pain if the Lowminers managed to
track them because of reports of a travelling Martial Apprentice with a
woman with concealed hair.
Their next goal was two districts away, both of them had agreed to not bother
with longer breaks within transit and take shorter breaks and longer stretches
in their journey.
Once they began, it had taken them almost an hour and a half at a brisk
walking pace to reach the next district. Bella had grown far more exhausted
than she had anticipated. Having lived a lifestyle that rarely required her to
push herself to her physical limits.
Eventually she grew so tired that she almost collapsed, and required Rui to
carry her once more. He then had to take a roundabout route through district
fourteen so that they would avoid drawing attention in the densely populated
district.
"Aren't you exhausted?" She panted lightly as she held on to him. "You came
all the way from the Academy on foot prior."
Rui glanced at her with a slight grin. "That's the best part of being an
Apprentice, it takes a lot of for us to get tired!"
Chapter 100 Pay
"Did you take a rejuvenation potion?" She asked, tilting her hair squinting her
brown eyes with curiosity. "You did mention you had some."
Rui shook his head. "Those were for rejuvenating the mind, negating the need
to sleep."
Bella nodded, well familiar with mental rejuvenation potions herself. "How
do you have so much stamina?"
"It comes from honing my stamina through strict intense physical training,
and also from an Apprentice-level Martial Art technique called Helical
Breathing." Rui explained. "It saves increases efficiency of energy
consumption, allowing you to accomplish the same results with less effort."
"Hmmm..." Bella nodded. "Must be nice to be a Martial Artist. You have so

much power, you must feel incredibly secure and confident."
Rui thought about her words. It was true to some degree, unless his opponent
was a Martial Apprentice, there wasn't much that ordinary humans could do.
However, it wasn't something he really thought of. He never began his
voyage down his Martial Path in order to obtain more physical power. His
goal was to practice and develop his Martial Art forever, just that alone gave
him true elation and fulfillment.
The physical security was ultimately just a good bonus, it was not his
motivation or his goal.
Furthermore, having spent most of his time in the Academy since he became
an Apprentice, he hadn't experienced much of the sense of increased security.
Since as soon as he broke through to Martial Apprentice, he was immediately
booted out of the Exploration Stage and shipped to the Apprentice section.
He was immediately surrounded by Martial Apprentices who initially all
much stronger than him.
There were, of course, the Martial Apprentices of his batch, who were all
stronger than him. Then there were Martial Apprentices of the senior batches
who had accumulated more techniques and experience than the Martial
Apprentices of his own batch.
It was not easy to feel physically secure when all of your peers were stronger
than you.
The only time he had spent outside the Academy was when he went home for
the winter break, but that was incredibly brief, he hadn't really had much time
to actually introspect on how the world appeared to him now that he was a
Martial Apprentice.
However, now that he thought more about it, he had become more cognizant
of this feeling. He had a decently strong sense of security in this mission. As
a Martial Apprentice, realistically only another Martial Apprentice could
threaten him, and this mission would be, at the very least, a grade four on the
difficulty scale if there were other Martial Apprentices were involved,
reaching potentially much higher.
Of course, there was always the possibility that a Martial Apprentice, but that
was extremely unlikely given that this a low-grade mission, so he was alert,
but still relaxed.
"The sense of security is good." Rui admitted.
Bella nodded. "I'm a little envious, this catastrophe has shown me how
helpless I am."
"By yourself, you are helpless, like all humans." Rui straightforwardly
affirmed. "But once you consolidate your position within the Hier Industries,
your power would far exceed mine. There is more than one kind of power, I
pursue Martial Art because I love Martial Art, and not because of the power it
gives me."
"Oh?" Bella's eyebrow lifted? "You didn't strike me as the fiery passionate
type."
Rui chuckled. "That's because this is a mission, I'm expected to be

professional."
"Then why are you having this little conversation?" Bella asked, with just the
slightest hint of playfulness creeping onto her face.
Rui shrugged.
He had chatted with her to lift her mood up slightly, but he didn't want to say
that out loud. But Bella had noticed regardless.
"Thanks, I appreciate it." She rested her chin on his shoulder. "The past few
days have been rough."
"No worries." Rui replied briefly.
The remaining journey was silent for the most part. Rui traversed through
obscure routes and paths through district fourteen, a few hours later they had
finally reached district twenty-three.
"Huff... huff... huff..." Rui panted.
Even with his stamina, he was tired. After considering his situation, he
decided to take one of the rejuvenation potions he had at hand.
"I thought you were planning on saving those." Bella noted.
"At this rate, the mission won't last three days." Rui stated. "I think if you had
a more nuanced understanding of what Martial Apprentices were capable of,
you would have reduced the timeframe of the mission while increasing the
difficulty so that you could obtain higher-grade Martial Apprentices, but hey
you lucked out."
"How so?" Bella wondered.
"My evaluation from the Martial Academy was well above the difficulty
grade assigned to the mission, you see."
"Oh?" Bella glanced at him curiously. "Then why did you accept the
mission?"
"It's my first mission, so I planned to take it slow." Rui shrugged, before

pointedly staring at her. "But thanks to a certain someone underselling the
difficulty of the mission, that plan is not happening."
"Well, I didn't lie." Bella shrugged, smirking.
Rui snorted. "The Martial Union penalizes gross under-reporting, that's

specified in the contract."
"Yes but they can't prove I underreported."
"You think that matters?" Rui laughed. "Your intent doesn't matter, as long as
they evaluate you to bear responsibility for the under-reporting, you'll be
penalized. If the Martial Union allowed people to get away with stuff like
this, then everybody would severely undersell the difficulty of all missions,
each mission would be much more difficult than evaluated and the Martial
Union would be getting scammed left and right."
"True." Bella sighed. "But once I consolidate my position in the Hier

Industries, I'll be able to pay off any monetary penalty they impose."
"That must have been part of your plan." Rui chuckled.
"It was." She admitted. "As long as I can gain full control of all the power
and wealth my father has passed down to me, I can fix everything."
"I can pay for what I did and also..." Bella's voice submerged into rage. "I can
make those who caused all of this to pay for what they did!"
Chapter 101 Wern
Fifteen minutes later, Rui and Bella had navigated through district twenty-
three, and found themselves in front of commercial building.
"Is this it?" Rui asked. They'd finally reached the local transport company
that Bella had spoken about. Bella apparently trusted the director enough to
seek help from him despite her vulnerable situation. Rui was quite hopeful
about this, if this man was actually reliable as Bella alluded, then Bella had a
pretty good chance of achieving her objective.
Bella nodded. "Let's go."
She had not only covered her hair, but also obscured her face under a cap-like
garment to ensure no one could possibly identify her features enough to
recognize them if inquired by the Lowminers.
The interior of the reception was hospitable enough, there were seating
arrangements on one side of the room, with an array of receptionists engaging
with each visitor one-by-one. A little behind them was a several corridors that
led to the interior of the building.
"How do you plan to meet the director?" Rui asked. "You'll need to reveal
your identity in order to get an immediate appointment with him, that's
risky."
"I just need him to see me once." Bella replied confidently. "He'll understand
once he sees me. Help me force my way to his office."
Rui nodded.
They walked towards one particular corridor that Bella was aiming for,
hoping they would be able to naturally pass.
"Excuse me, please take your seat in the visitor's bay, I'm afraid we cannot
allow you enter the building without permission and authorization." A
receptionist noticed and insisted.
Bella began running, as Rui followed her example.
"Hey!" A guard blocked their path, attempting to grab Bella.
Thwack
A simple jab to the nose from Rui crumpled the man to his knees, leaving
him in tears. Rui didn't even bother using his full raw physical strength, let
alone using Vital Pressure, that would be overkill and Rui might accidentally
kill him.
Bella hopped over him as she headed straight to the director's office.
"Uncle Wern!" Bella cried as she opened the door to the doctor's office.
The man inside squinted his small eyes through his rimmed spectacles as he
tilted his head, before recognizing her as his eyes adjusted. "Bella?"
"Uncle Wern." Bella repeated, elated. "It's been so long."
"Sir! I'm sorry for the interruption." the receptionist apologized. "We tried to
stop them bu-"
"Enough, good job." Wern interrupted her. "These people are my guests,
please leave us."
The receptionist was visibly confused, but she nodded before closing the door
and returning to her job.
"Bella." Wern was visibly overwhelmed. "Where have you been?? You
weren't even present at your father's funeral!"
Hearing that, Rui realized Wern was probably not aware of the truth behind
her father's death. If anything, in hindsight, Bella took a well-educated guess
more than she made a deduction. However, she was paranoid enough to act
on it, which was the reason she was alive at the moment.
Bella sighed. "I have a lot to tell you, this will take a while."
Wern raised his hand. "Then let me clear my schedule and finish a quick
errand, so that I can listen to your story uninterrupted."
Bella nodded, as he walked out of the room. She sighed as she sunk into the
comfortable sofas, feeling a sense of safety she hadn't experienced in the past
few days. Rui observed her demeanor, she seemed like she really trusted this
person.
Seeing her relief reminded him that she was just a seventeen-year-old girl,
even if quite remarkable. Rui though back to the teenage girls from back on
Earth. Which one of them would have survived if they were in her shoes?
('Pretty much none of them.') Rui shook his head. ('The kids from back on
Earth in the twenty-first century lead relatively simple teenage lives without
too much responsibility and expectations.')
Bella had been groomed for inheriting the company from a young age, her
acumen was remarkably well ahead of most of her peers.
Still, she was pretty much just a kid mentally from his perspective. He would
even console her and comfort her a bit if not for the fact that it would be
extremely patronizing for a fourteen-year-old to do that to a seventeen-year-
old. Especially when teenage girls tended to mature faster than teenage boys
initially.
Just then, Wern returned, interrupting his thoughts.
"Alright, now you can tell me everything that happened without interruption."
Wern said, eyeing her with concern. "What happened? Why did you leave
your home and disappear without a word?"
Bella sighed. "I left because my life is in danger."
Wern frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The Lowminers killed my father, uncle Wern." Bella solemnly stated.
His eyes flew wide open. "What?!"
"Initially, it was just a strong suspicion. The Lowminers wouldn't be able to

take over the company unless they coerced father into selling them the
remaining shares or rescinding them. However, father would rather die than
do that, and they know this. At that rate, the conflict would take decades to
end and the Lowminers would probably never get complete dominance and
monopoly."
Wern's eyes sharpened, catching onto her drift. "Unless... Karl were to die."
He said, referring to her father by his name.
"The laws of ownership are formulated as such, they would gain complete
control of Hier Industries." She said.
Wern nodded "But since that didn't happen and you are the owner of the
dominant majority of shares, that must have been what Karl's will was
about."
Bella nodded. "Father must have prepared it as a contingency after the

Lowminers acquired a portion of Hier Industries, to not allow them to win
even if they managed to kill him."
"I see..." Wern's eyes wandered across the floor as he processed her words.
"But this isn't proof, Bella."
"No, but my personal estate being raided by known affiliate gangs of the
Lowminer Industries is." She formly asserted. "They have tried to kill me
twice in my journey here. I wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for the Martial
Apprentice bodyguard I hired." She said, gesturing to Rui.
"He saved my life."

Chapter 102 Route
Wern glanced at Rui, sizing him up overtly. "A Martial Apprentice from the
Martial Union, eh? You're quite young for a Martial Apprentice."
Rui didn't respond, there was nothing he had to say to those words.
Furthermore, although he grown a little chummy with Bella, he still wanted
to maintain bodyguard etiquette. Bodyguards didn't talk unless absolutely
necessary. This conversation was purely one between Bella and Wern, his job
was to protect Bella no matter what.
Wern eventually turned back to Bella with sorrowful eyes. "I'm sorry for
everything you've been through Bella, it must have been hard."
Bella shook her head. "You have nothing apologize for, uncle Wern."
Wern sighed. "So, what can I help you with Bella? I assume you didn't come
here to just catch up?"
"I need to get to Laxus." Bella explained.
Wern understood her intentions. "You want to consolidate your position in a

town where the Lowminers have no influence eh? Makes sense."
Bella nodded.
"But are you sure about this, Bella?" Wern asked. "Sure about fighting
back?" He completed.
"Of course!" Bella retorted, bristled. "They killed my father!"
Wern sighed. "Yes, but what you're attempting to do isn't going to be easy. In
fact, you're going to be risking your life. Even if you take the ultimate
precaution and arm yourself with Martial Apprentice bodyguards for the rest
of your life, you'll have to life with immense burden."
"I am completely prepared for this." Bella retorted sternly. "I have long made
up my mind."
Wern sighed as Rui silently gauged the conversation. The latter could
definitely see where Wern was coming from. Bella may have been educated
for this all her life, but Rui was highly skeptical of how fit she was to lead
and manage the Hier Industries.
Ultimately, she was merely seventeen-year-old girl. The objectives she aimed
to complete even if she survived this predicament weren't tasks that could be
accomplished without experience.
Rui was relatively sure that she wasn't ready yet. He could sense that Wern
felt the same way.
Wern sighed. "Alright, if that's what you want, then so be it. You are already
an adult. You have the right to take charge of your life and live how you want
to life. I just hope you understand what you're getting yourself into."
Bella shook her head. "Thank you for your concern uncle. But I'm well aware
of the gravity of my choices."
Wern sighed once more. "Alright, if that's the case, I have nothing more to
say on that matter."
"Coming back to the matter of travelling to Laxus..." Bella reminded.
"Yes, I can arrange it for you. There are different routes, however, not all of
them are safe, since they pertain supplies of goods and resources relevant to
the business affairs of the Lowminers." Wern explained.
Bella nodded, deep in thought.
Even if the Lowminers didn't operate in the town of Laxus, didn't mean Bella
could merrily hop onto a carriage in any trade or supply route between the
towns of Laxus and Hajin.
Both the Lowminer and Hier Industries were suppliers, they acquired exotic
resources from elsewhere and sold them to the esoteric technology sector that
would process the supplies and manufacture technological products that
would then be sold to the private and corporate markets of the town.
Meaning both Lowminers and Hier Industries had to import massive supplies
from outside Hajin into it. Although they each had their own transit
capacities, it was extremely difficult to cover all their shipping needs of their
own capabilities.
Thus, both industries partially relied on smaller transportation and shipping

companies that offered transit services, that took care of the remaining
shipping needs.
The Wern Company was one such company. Wern and Karl Hier had initially
met when Karl when Hier Industries had first initially taken off in Hajin, they
had hit it off immediately on a favourable shipping contract and had grown
closer and closer over the years as their companies grew.
Bella had to avoid routes between Hajin and Laxus that would put her closer
to Lowminer influence. If she chose to get into a carriage on a route that the
Lowminers frequently used to transport supplies, then she might get caught.
On the other hand, if the Lowminers were aware of her intentions to get to
Laxus, then they might predict what routes she chooses and intercept her.
As for whether the aware, Rui was relatively certain they had gauged her
general intentions. It was a simple and relatively common-sense plan from
Bella, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what she was doing and why.
Which is why the details of Bella's plan became more and more important.
Rui glanced at Wern and Bella. They had already taken out a map
encompassing Hajin and Laxus, and had begun having an intense discussion,
pointing to different lines of different colours that ran between Hajin and
Laxus. Rui hoped they would make the best choice; the success or failure of
the mission was on the line.
There was a good chance the next time the Lowminers caught them, Rui
wouldn't be able to handle them as easily. The Lowminers must have already
long been informed about the Martial Apprentice bodyguard that Bella
managed to commission from the Martial Union.
This meant the next time there was a confrontation, they would be much
more prepared, the end goal was to capture or kill Bella, meaning they didn't
necessarily have to kill Bella. Ideally, they would want to kill Bella without
killing Rui, in order to avoid poking the Martial Union. Meaning they would
engage Bella and Rui in a manner solely meant to kill Bella. This would
make Rui's job much harder. It was much harder to protect and evacuate
someone else, than just himself.
"The Vorefire Horn supply routes are the shortest." Bella said. "Furthermore,
path hits Laxus closest to the closest Hier branch."
Wern shook his head. "The Lowminers have begun expanding into the
Vorefire Horn market in the past few months, it's no longer safe.
Furthermore, the route ends too closely to other supply routes that the
Lowminers use regularly. It's too risky."
They had yet to come to a decision.

Chapter 103 Not Going Anywhere
After half an hour of back-and-forth, Bella and Wern finally decided on the
best course of action. They had taken into account Lowminer presence,
proximity to other Lowminer suppliers, travel timeframe and distance.
"Cardinal Steel supply route it is then." Wern sat back, sighing tiredly.
Bella nodded. "This is definitely the best choice all things considered. How
soon we can leave?"
Wern considered her question for a second. "The next supply dispatch is in an
hour so."
"That's perfect!" Bella's eyes lit up.
"I suggest waiting for a bit." Rui interjected. "You can hire a few more
Martial Apprentice bodyguards to protect you during the journey." The
mission range limit prevented him from joining her anyway, so Rui didn't
have to worry about sharing credit, he would get paid his share regardless.
Bella nodded. "That's a good idea." She turned to Wern. "Can you help me
with the mission funds Uncle? I'll repay you after I consolidate my position."
Wern smiled warmly. "Don't worry about it. You'll be travelling by yourself
after all. I wouldn't want to repeat you getting almost caught by Lowminer
gangs without a bodyguard in a dingy little inn like last time. I care for you
too much." He said affectionately.
Bella laughed as she dove to hug Wern. "I love you so much uncle! Thank
you."
"Oh careful! I'm an old man you know." Earning more laughter from Bella.
Rui couldn't help but smile at the warm scene.
Yet, suddenly, he felt an ominous chill.
('Wait a minute.') His face froze as he shuddered as though he'd seen a ghost.
"Hm." Bella noticed. "What's wrong?"
Rui's face grew pale as he turned to Wern, sizing him up.
"What's wrong, young man?" Wern asked with sharp eyes.
"How do you know...?" Rui gulped before continuing. "How do you know
Bella was almost caught by the Lowminer gang in an inn before she met
me?"
"Hm? Oh that." Wern replied a little too quickly. "Bella mentioned that at the
start."
"Not she did not." Rui firmly denied. "She only mentioned the number of
times we'd been attacked. She did not mention any other details."
Bella had already caught on to Rui's drift. She turned towards Wern, with
horror and terror in her eyes.
"Calm down." Wern raised his hands. "News of the fifteen men beat up by a
Martial Artist has spread."
Rui glared at him. "That doesn't explain how you knew they were Lowminer
gangs, and that they were after Bella."
Wern glared back, his façade crumbling by the second, before facing her.
"Bella! He doesn't know what he's talking about. I've known you since you
were an infan-"
SLAP
A thundering slap resounded through the room as Bella swung with

everything. Tears streamed down Bella's pained face. "Why?"
Wern had toppled over from the force. "Why? WHY?" He laughed
contemptuously. "Because this company is EVERYTHING to me. You think
I'm going to sacrifice my life's work for the daughter of the man who caused
all this mess?" He spat. "I TOLD Karl to not mess with Lowminers. That he'd
die for it. Did he listen to me? NO. Now look at the mess he got me in!"
Rui's face scrunched in confusion. "Mess?"
"He means the Lowminers." Bella whispered softly.
"The Wern Company has always associated with Hier Industries. When Karl
died, I thought it was too late for me. But they offered me a sweet deal."
Rui understood. "To cooperate with them for the capture of Bella."
"Among other things."
As a company that had large amount of control over supply routes and chains
all over Hajin and between Hajin and Laxus, Wern was in a position that was
of great utility to the Lowminers. Even if the Lowminers didn't predict that
Bella trusted Wern enough to directly and straightforwardly to him, Wern
was still quite useful to them.
"Do they know we're here?" Rui asked urgently.
"..."
"I said..." Rui grabbed him and used Vital Pressure to inflict excruciating
pain.
"AAAAAAGHH"
"...Do they know we're here?"
"I sent them a message when you arrived via a communication device they
gave me, they told me to stall for a bit over half an hour" Wern grinned
despite the pain. "That was half an hour ago."
Rui's eyes flew wide open. He knocked Wern out with a well-placed chop to
the neck. "Fuck!" Rui cursed. He grabbed Bella. "We need to go! NOW."
He lifted her and sprinted out the office, running at top speed.
"What should we do now! Why haven't they done anything to us yet if they
knew we were here all this time?"
"Because sending ordinary men after you will likely lead to failure because of
me." Rui deduced. "If they send a bunch of untrained gang grunts after you,
chances are we'll escape, all they will have done is alert us and given us a
chance to escape and lose track of us yet again. Sending ordinary people is
mostly pointless, the reason they haven't launched an attack yet is because..."
Rui gritted his teeth.
"Because?"
"Because they're sending a Martial Artist. That's the only explanation that
makes sense." Rui explained with a pained face. "The Martial Artist must
have been a district away if Wern was told to stall us for only half an hour.
He or she is already in this town somewhere."
Rui grimaced as he ran away at top speed. He needed to put as much distance
as he possibly could between their previous location and them. He took
obscure roots and stayed away from crowds where they would draw attention
for their speed.
"The best thing we need to do now is to hide unti-!"
WHOOSH
Rui ducked sharply, protectively covering Bella from any harm as they
skidded away. He had, almost instinctively, sensed and avoided something
coming at them with tremendous force through only the sound of the attack
furiously cutting through air.
He got up just in time to throw up a guard to yet another incoming attack.
THWACK
Rui grimaced as he muffed the impact with Acute Edge and Elastic Shift.
However, he didn't stop there. He immediately moved with the strike as he
grasped his opponent's arm with all four limbs, aiming to use Binding Lash to
dislocate or even break his opponent's arm.
But alas, to no avail. The most dangerous part of Binding Lash was well-
avoided as his opponent cleanly maneuvered to counter it. However, Rui still
managed to drag their attacker to the ground, forcing the battle to enter
ground-grappling.
Rui didn't even turn to Bella, his face pale with effort. "GO. RUN. NOW."
Bella got up and ran away without hesitation as Rui turned to look his
opponent in the eye.
"You're not going anywhere." He declared.

Chapter 104 Woe
Rui finally got a good look at his aggressor. Not that it helped much because
his aggressor was masked. However, there were things that could still be
gauged despite this.
('Adult male. His bulky physique probably means he's not a speed or
maneuvering oriented Martial Artist, he's definitely a Martial Apprentice
though') Rui thought as he struggled to restrain him.
Rui's goal in this fight was not to win. He had two goals:
The first was to survive. His survival was the ultimate priority to him.
Although he had gotten closer to Bella during the mission, he was not going
sacrifice his life for her. Rui never fancied himself to be a hero or a saint.
The second, was to stall, not win. He did not intend to expend any extra
energy on killing his opponent or knocking him out, though if he could, that
would be great too. But for the most part, Rui was going to do his best to stall
for Bella.
Stalling was easier than defeating, in most cases. Thankfully, this was one of
those cases.
This was also how Rui planned to compensate for the weight difference. Rui
had grown remarkably physically stronger over the last year, much more so
than almost anybody else. However, at the end of the day he was still only a
fourteen-year-old.
His opponent seemed to be in his twenties, the prime of his life. An adult
Martial Apprentice was stronger than an adolescent Martial Apprentice. Rui
had to capitalize on his advantages as much as he could, stalling instead of
aiming for a win, was part of the plan.
FOOSH
The masked Martial Apprentice finally managed to untangle himself from

Rui's ground grappling.
POW POW POW
Rui immediately began showering him with a barrage of strikes of Vital

Pressure, but his opponent managed to block and redirect almost all of them.
WHOOSH
Rui managed to cleanly crouch out of a high kick while simultaneously

sweeping his pivot leg with a low kick.
BAM
It landed, but the difference in power prevented Rui from knocking him out
of balance. His opponent returned the favour by launching a barrage of
blows.
BAM BAM BAM
Rui was pushed back despite mitigating the force with Acute Edge and
Elastic Shift, he leapt back putting some distance between them. They both
paused for merely half a second, regaining their bearings. However, Martial
Apprentices processed combat so quickly that even half a second in combat
was akin half a dozen seconds. In fact, not even half a minute had passed
since the Martial Apprentice ambushed Rui!
('His Martial Art leans towards power and toughness.') Rui analyzed, while
parsing the data he had collected through the basics of the VOID algorithm.
('The first step is to adapt my fighting approach such that the relevance and
significance of power and durability is as minimal as possible.')
"Fuuuu..." Rui exhaled as he relaxed his muscles, shaking and dangling them,
while crouching his knees relaxedly. Despite this, Rui dashed towards the
masked Martial Apprentice aggressively, much to the latter's surprise.
WHOOSH
Rui abruptly stopped and stepped back avoiding a counter haymaker from his
opponent before circling around and entering his striking range to land a
quick jab.
Pow
WHOOSH
Rui jumped out of range after avoiding a low kick. The masked Martial
Apprentice grimaced in frustration at the abrupt change in fighting styles, Rui
had gone from passive defense to maneuvering and evasive offense,
becoming a much more annoying opponent!
('Float like a butterfly...')
WHOOSH
Rui danced out of a straight punch.
('… Sting like a bee!')
POW
A clean jab to the solar plexus.
This strategy was not exactly pioneering. It was the strategy that the
legendary Muhammad Ali once said he would use if he had to fight Mike
Tyson. This strategy was similar to what Kane used against Fae. A light
offense combined with evasive maneuvering to avoid his opponent's counter.
Land in jabs wherever you could, avoid all attacks through evasive
maneuvering.
But, there was one key difference. Kane accomplished this through speed and
agility, something Rui didn't have.
Rui compensated for his lacking speed and agility with the predictive and
counter-deduction measures of the VOID algorithm.
Range and balance of weight. Using this, Rui was able to deduce the general
attack that his opponent was aiming for, and the VOID algorithm simply
outputted a corresponding move that has the greatest chance for success. Rui
himself had painstakingly worked on the counter-deduction system of the
VOID algorithm that constructed through a mind-numbing amount of data
science.
Watching his work allow him to gain an upper hand, even if small, in a
disadvantaged battle validated Rui to his very core. The Martial Scientist in
him was excited!
BAM
Rui almost flew away as his opponent landed a solid strike on him. He got up
quickly and propped up his stinging arms into a stance, prepared for the next
move.
('Come!') Rui urged. He sharpened his senses awaiting a bullrush, yet a

guttural screech from a distance away broke him out of his reverie. He just
barely managed to recognize the voice.
('Bella!') In a moment of shock, he glanced towards the direction the scream

for just a second.
However, when he turned back...
('He's gone!') Rui cursed. The Martial Apprentice had escaped from the edge
of Rui's vision, and scurried away into background.
('He went away in the opposite direction.') Rui frowned, incredibly confused
as he began moving in the direction from where he heard Bella. ('Does he not
care if I run after her?')
The only reason he would do that is if his job was cancelled.
('Or if his job is complete.') Rui froze in horror. He immediately strained

himself to the absolute maximum, running at a speed that physically hurt his
body.
He sprinted faster than he ever had before, moving at a speed that ordinary
people would find difficult to even follow with their eyes!
('No no no. There's no way.') He tried to calm himself down. ('First I need
fucking fin-')
His thoughts suddenly froze as something entered his vision.
What he saw next wiped every ounce of energy and tension in his muscles.
He just froze without a care, tripping and crashing on the ground hard before
looking up.
And there she was.
What he saw was a sight that burned itself into his memory, forever.
Tears streaming down her face, snot trickling down her nose, eyes rolled
almost entirely up, and a pool of blood splurting from her slit neck.
Face-to-face with the corpse of Bella Hier.

Chapter 105 Aftermath
Despair.
Rage.
Shock.
Guilt.
And even grief.
A maelstrom of emotions swirled within Rui. Emotions he did not

understand. He had only known her for a meagre twenty-four hours. They
were just barely friends as they had grown a little closer over the duration of
their mission. There was a good chance Rui would never even see her again
even if the mission succeeded.
So why?
Why did he feel like his soul was being torn apart was he gazed at her
corpse?
Because she was his responsibility? Because he had ended up becoming

emotionally invested in her well-being and success?
Probably both.
An eternity passed before Rui broke out of his reverie. He pulled out the
communication device handed to him by the Martial Union, hitting one of the
numerous buttons, the one he was supposed to hit when the mission ended.
He hit in a few additional details, indicating the presence of a corpse. The
device would convey his location to the Martial Union, and they would send
post-mission personnel to take over.
Murder was still a crime in the Kandrian Empire. The Martial Union would
cooperate with law-enforcement and begin the judicial process immediately.
He would be required to provide testimony and statements on the matter
eventually.
A hint of determination glinted in his eyes. The Lowminers and that man
Wern. Rui was not going to conceal any of the information he possessed. He
hoped justice would be served.
He had the strong desire to serve it himself. At this very moment he could
easily sprint back and kill Wern in an instant.
"Fuuuu..." He exhaled, restraining himself.
STEP
Rui turned as he heard the arrival of a group of people in uniforms with the
emblem of the Martial Union.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier?" A man at the head of the team inquired, noting
Rui's Apprentice uniform. "I'm inspector Gale." He said, showing Rui a
badge. "I'm here to take proceed with the post-mission protocols. I encourage
you to do the same by returning to the Martial Academy to provide a report
and statement."
Rui nodded listlessly, taking one last look at Bella's corpse even as the sight
of it scorched his lifeless eyes.
He sighed shakily before turning his back on it.
The journey back to the Academy was a few hours in its totality. Giving Rui
enough time to introspect, and sort out his thoughts and emotions.
Why did he fail? How much responsibility did he bear? And most
importantly, how was he supposed to deal with his emotions?
The last part was the hardest. Rui wasn't even sure he had an answer, or if he
would ever find one.
The first two were much more objective, allowing him to analyze them more
fairly.
The reason the mission failed was because they had fallen into their enemy's
trap. They were screwed the moment Wern informed the Lowminers of their
location. This was the reason Bella died.
In hindsight, Rui realized the Lowminers must have mobilized pretty much
all available manpower at hand even before the masked Martial Apprentice
ambushed Rui and Bella. This made sense.
The masked Martial Apprentice was meant to drag Rui away from Bella and
keep him there while the gangs mobilized by Bella must have killed her after,
when she was defenseless and vulnerable.
She must have screamed and struggled in despair as the men held her down
and cut open her throat like livestock.
Just the very thought of that send blood to his head, until he closed his eyes
and crushed the feeling, trying to think rationally.
If Rui had been able to avoid the Martial Apprentice, they would have
survived. Rui would have easily disemboweled the grunts with ease.
In the end, Rui felt like a fool. He had thought that he was the one stalling
and restraining the Martial Apprentice. But in the end, it turned out to be the
exact opposite. The Martial Apprentice turned out to be stalling him!
He had so many regrets. If he had been more careful, he would have kept
Bella hidden and interacted with Wern on her behalf. That would have been a
cautious tale that at the very least would have spared Bella from her fate.
But instead, he offloaded all the responsibility of the decision-making to her,

freeing himself of the burden.
As a Martial Artist, this wasn't exactly wrong. He had a mission to complete

and he had very little incentive or duty to undertake any more responsibility
outside of the commission that Bella commissioned to the Martial Union.
Bodyguards were supposed to protect no matter what their target of
protection did, or where they went, they were not supposed to undertake
responsibility of the decision-making capacity of their adult as long as their
target of protection was mentally well and an adult. In this regard, Rui was
perfectly fine.
However, bodyguards were supposed to protect.
If Rui had been strong enough, he would have been able to defeat their
opponent Martial Apprentice quickly before proceeding to Bella's side to
protect her.
This was a bit unreasonable from an objective point of view. Defeating an

older Martial Apprentice with a huge physique advantage, that too in a short
amount of time was rather unreasonable to demand of any Martial Artist.
Furthermore, this was his very first mission that was much harder than the
Academy evaluation of the mission
All things considered, there were plenty of reasons that one might evaluate
Rui to be free of moral responsibility despite his failure to successfully
complete the mission.
But the question was whether Rui was able to forgive himself. Despite the
fact that he was cognizant enough to be able to look at the situation from an
objective point of view, the memory of Bella's corpse that was deeply etched
in his mind reared its head into the equation, and sent Rui's tumultuous
emotions into a tumble again.
The logic simple didn't matter anymore.
How could he possibly forgive himself knowing that his insufficiency

allowed her to suffer that fate?
Chapter 106 Apology
Rui's dilemma hadn't been resolved even as he reached the Academy, but at
the very least he was finally able to put his thoughts aside for a valid reason
as he underwent the post-mission protocol.
He headed straight to the commission department of the Academy, plucked

out one of the forms that Martial Artists were required to fill. These involved
filling mundane details about himself and the mission. Followed by a detailed
report of the proceedings of the mission, in a chronological manner, with
time stamps.
Filling out the report was painful and strangely therapeutic. It was painful
revisiting everything, especially with twenty-twenty hindsight. Everything he
recounted now felt flawed and mistake-riddled and blunder-filled. He kept
thinking of how he could have done better.
On the other hand, he was able to vent as he wrote down his experiences in
detail. He felt as though a lot of the frustration, guilt and grief were ebbing
out from his stressed heart, flowing out of his body and into the ink of his
pen.
He felt a little calmer and more composed as the longer he wrote. His burden
didn't grow any lighter, but he felt strong enough to carry it.
In that moment, he felt his determination will up.
('Never again.') He vowed. ('I'm going to grow strong enough to ensure that
this something like this won't ever happen again.')
Once he completed the procedures he needed to, submitted the report.
"Mam." He addressed one of the support staff members of the commission

department. "I'm here to receive the minimum guarantee pay of the mission."
Every mission gave the Martial Artist a bare minimum amount of

remuneration, regardless of success or failure as long as the rules and
protocol of the Martial Union weren't violated by the Martial Artist. Martial
Artists staked their lives on the line with every mission, the minimum
guarantee remuneration clause of the licensing agreement between the
Martial Union and Martial Artist was instated to give Martial Artists some
amount of leeway.
This was to ensure that they didn't have to starve just because they narrowly
failed an extremely difficult mission, after spending an immense amount of
time, effort and energy into the mission, undertaking great risks.
It was also way of ensuring that Martial Artist had less of a reason to be
discontent with the Martial Union. After all, the Martial Union was nothing
without Martial Artist that staked their lives every day.
"Just one second." She responded before flipping through some documents,
before looking back up. "Your remuneration has been put on hold..."
Rui frowned. "Excuse me?"
"The issue has been taken up by the headmaster himself, I'm afraid." She
shrugged helplessly. "I would suggest you visit him if you wish to inquire
about it."
"...Okay." Rui turned around and headed towards the headmaster's office,
confused.
Why would the headmaster meddle with his remuneration? Rui didn't
understand at all. As he reached the headmaster's office, he paused,
enraptured by the gate that restricted entry. He wasn't sure what to do. Wasn't
there supposed to be secretaries or some other personnel that monitored who
approached the office?
Should he knock?
('Screw it. Let's knock.')
It opened just as he reached it, allowing him full view of everything inside.
The office was gigantic, filled with a library of neatly arranged and organized
documents and books.
However, what drew his attention was the figure sitting at the center of the
office.
Headmaster Aronian; A mighty Martial Master!
"Headmaster." Rui bowed deeply, partly because of the great awe and respect
he had for vaunted Martial Masters, partly because the sheer weight of
headmaster Aronian's being pushing down on Rui, compelling him to bow.
Rui was once again reminded how deep the Martial Path extended, the fact
that a human being could develop and grow his Martial Art until it became as
mighty as a mountain, capable of crushing everything around it, lifted his
spirits out of the muddle his emotions were.
"Enter." Headmaster Aronian spoke softly, yet Rui could hear nothing else,
almost as if the world went silent when he opened his mouth.
Rui walked in immediately.
On the inside, there were two Martial Squires serving as guards. Under
ordinary circumstances, Rui would have been awed by their formidable
appearance and presence, but this time he hadn't even noticed them until they
entered his field of vision!
The weight of the presence of Martial Squires were drowned out entirely by
that of headmaster Aronian. Stars could only shine at night, when the sun
wasn't around, otherwise they are invisible.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier." He spoke with a casual tone despite the formality
of his words. "I've been wanting to speak to you face-to-face for a while now.
But only today has there been an apt enough opportunity."
"It's an honour, headmaster Aronian." He said respectfully.
Headmaster Aronian chuckled lightly, much to Rui's surprise. "No need to be

too formal with me young man. I appreciate candour."
"I am being honest, headmaster. All of those words could not be truer." Rui
replied earnestly.
Headmaster Aronian simply smiled. "Well, I suppose you're here to inquire

about your remuneration, yes?"
"Yes, headmaster." Rui stated.
"Before I speak about that, I would first like to offer an apology."
Rui's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "An... apology?"
"We have learnt and verified several intel, even outside of your report, that
proves that the mission's difficulty was heinously under-rated on our end." He
said, before continuing. "In light of all the information at hand, this mission is
at the very least a grade five as far as difficulty goes. However, it may even
be raised depending on the results of further investigation from the post-
mission intelligence investigation."
He paused with a hint of sorrow molding into his expression. "There is

absolutely no justification on the Academy's end for a year-old Martial
Apprentice accepting a grade five mission faultily evaluated to be a grade one
mission. This isn't unheard of, or even particularly rare, but this extreme
instance was truly an unacceptable lapse on our end."
He paused, before bowing his head lightly. "On behalf of the Academy, I am
sorry."
Chapter 107 Compensation
Rui was taken aback. He did not expect the headmaster of the Academy to
lower his head so easily. Martial Masters possessed a status that
astronomically dwarfed that of any Martial Apprentice. Furthermore, he
wasn't just any ordinary Martial Master, but the headmaster of the Martial
Academy. For someone of his stature to lower his head to Rui was too much
to take.
"Please raise your head headmaster." Rui quickly replied, raising his hands.
"It isn't your fault."
"Even so." He raised his head. "I bear the responsibility as the headmaster of
the Academy."
Rui remained silent at that. That line hit a little close he himself was feeling
about the mission.
Except Bella was too dead for him to apologize to.
"One of the reasons I called you was to apologize and take responsibility. I've
already gone through your report." He said, before continuing. "I sensed the
deep regret and guilt you feel in your words. That is why I wanted to be
absolutely clear. The mission's difficulty was extremely high, just another
Martial Apprentice being involved alone put the mission's difficulty grade
vastly above what you sought. The completion of this mission would require
atleast two Martial Apprentices, or an experienced high-grade Martial
Apprentice. You do not bear any fault or blame, on any level."
Rui was cognizant enough to realize the logical soundness of the

headmaster's words. From an outsider's perspective, he himself would not put
any blame on an inexperienced child Martial Apprentice's failure in
completing a mission that was faultily severely under-graded by the
Academy.
But he wasn't an outsider, nor a child. Which is why Martial Master's words
didn't truly resonate with him at his core.
"The Martial Union and the Martial Academy possesses a rigorous

commission intelligence department." He said. "This department aims to
verify the information that clients provide us in their commissions as well as
gain as much information about the mission as possible. This collected
information factors into the evaluation of the difficulty-grade of the
commission."
He paused before turning to Rui. "However, it is not perfect, in some cases it

is truly difficult to accurately evaluate the difficulty of the mission of the
mission. In this case in particular, it was not possible with our current
measures to have accurately evaluated the danger of the mission ahead of
time. Ah, I'm not trying to dodge responsibility or justify the lapse in
evaluation accuracy, I'm just providing you with greater context."
Rui nodded, mildly intrigued. "So... regarding the remuneration for the
mission..."
"Ah, I almost forgot." Headmaster Aronian stated. "Normally, we wouldn't

do this, but the failure of the mission is entirely the Martial Academy's
responsibility. Not only is not your fault that the mission failed, but you have
even performed much better than a Martial Apprentice of your grade would
be expected to. In light of all of this, I have taken the initiative to ensure the
Academy remunerates you with not just the minimum guarantee pay, but the
full mission-completion reward as well."
Rui's eyes widened in surprise, this was completely unexpected. To get the
mission-completion reward anyway even though he hadn't even successfully
completed the mission? Furthermore, getting that in addition to the minimum
guarantee meant that he was actually getting more remuneration than the
maximum for a mission he failed to complete.
"Consider it a token of our apology and admiration of your performance

during the mission." Headmaster Aronian. "Furthermore, your Martial Art is
unique and unheard-of, we would like to extend a hand in aiding your
development of it, normally we do not give credits, and by extension,
techniques for free. But you have truly earned them despite not successfully
completing the mission."
Rui's eyes mildly lit up in elation. After his failure, his desire to develop and
expand his Martial Art had also grown remarkable stronger. In addition to his
inherent love for Martial Art and combat, the desire to obtain power had also
germinated within him.
In this world, power was everything, it underlined everything within human

civilization, and human civilization itself. Powerlessness meant suffering.
Although his desire for power did not surpass his love for his Martial Art and
Martial path, he had now become even more cognizant of its value. He had
grown just a little content with the remarkable power he had obtained after
forming the foundation of his Martial Art, especially after his performance
against Squire Kyrie. He had thought he was doing pretty well for his age,
and he merrily immersed himself in his boundless love for the purer aspects
of Martial Art and combat. But now he had also developed a desire to obtain
power for the sake of power.
His desire to obtain the priced techniques had grown even stronger.
"With the total amount you will receive from the Martial Academy as
remuneration, you can't purchase any decent technique." Headmaster Aronian
commented. "I would suggest stocking up some more. I hope you choose
well. I am quite interested in how your Martial Art will shape up to be, and
what direction your Martial Path will lead you."
Rui nodded. "Thank you, headmaster. I am truly grateful to you and the
Academy for the compensation, as well as your kind words. I will do my best
to live up to your expectations."
Headmaster Aronian nodded. "You do that, young man. Now then, I suppose
that brings this meeting to an end. I look forward to your endeavors, as well
as our next meeting."
"Thank you, headmaster." Rui bowed, before turning to exit the office.
He heaved a sigh of relief once he left the room and put some distance
between them. Headmaster Aronian was truly kind to him, however the sheer
passive pressure that Martial Master exerted on all sentient life was not to be
underestimated. Rui felt like he had taken off some heavy training weights
after a long day of physical exercise.
('What to do now?') Rui wondered. As much as he wanted to dive right into

the Apprentice Library, he felt the need to check up on his friends, he hadn't
seen them since they all parted ways for the Winter holidays.
Chapter 108 Slam Dunk
"You look rough." Kane noted.
p "I've had a rough a day." Rui replied. "My mission was hard, and I failed."
Kane glanced back at Rui. "Oof, that must be rough. But hey, it happens to
everyone. Chin up." He put an arm around Rui's shoulder. "What mission did
you choose?"
"Bodyguard." Rui replied with a single word.
Kane's eyes widened as he realized why Rui had been looking so down, and
why the failure had hit him so hard. "...Damn."
"Yeah, it was rough." Rui sighed. "I had chosen a bodyguard mission of
grade one, looking to take things slow with an easy mission to break the ice.
Turns out the mission was actually a grade five mission, at the very least."
Rui paused.
Kane jerked his head back in shock. "Grade five?? Those are only for
missions that are able to threaten the lives of Martial Apprentices. You and I
shouldn't even be allowed to take missions of that grade."
"Yeah, the mission's difficulty was severely underestimated by the Martial

Academy, apparently." Rui sighed helplessly. "My target of protection was
being hunted down by a huge local behemoth of an esoteric supplier, we were
being pursued by gangs and even a Martial Apprentice."
"That's actually insane, what the fuck?" Kane was entirely in disbelief. "I'm
impressed you survived."
"I only managed because their prime target wasn't me, they managed to hold
me back with a Martial Apprentice who pulled me away from my target, and
my target was killed after she was eperated from me."
"That's messed up."
"Yeah."
They both sat around in silence, before Rui broke it with a question.
"What mission did you undertake?" Rui asked. "You were gone for four
days."
"I took a hunting mission." Kane shrugged. "Had to hunt some highly elusive
species of deer."
"Deer?"
"Yeah, the mission had a high pre-requisite as far as maneuvering techniques

went. So I chose the mission because it was right up my alley."
"What grade mission was it?" Rui asked out of curiosity.
"Only a grade two. Requires a lot of time and sustained effort, but of no
threat to life." Kane replied. "The perfect mission to ensure I didn't have to go
home, you see. That alone was worth the mission, even if there was no
remuneration."
Rui chuckled mirthfully at Kane's words. Talking with Kane really did put
him to ease.
"So you're planning to do more missions right?" Kane asked. "Since you must
not have gotten any significant amount of Martial Credits from this mission."
"No, I did."
"Eh?" Kane tilted his head.
"The headmaster told me that the Martial Academy took full responsibility
for the failure of the mission, and would be remunerating me with the
mission-success reward in addition to the minimum guarantee payroll as a
token of apology."
"That's actually awesome. How many Martial Credits is that in total?" Kane
inquired.
"A total of fifty-seven Martial Credits."
"Hmmm. That's not bad, you should be able to purchase a somewhat not-bad
technique with that." Kane politely offered.
"And I wanted to set out to grow stronger immediately too." Rui sighed.
"I'd suggest not doing that." Kane told Rui. "I'd suggest amassing some more
credits as well as mission experience before jumping into a training period."
"Hmmm..." Rui pondered. Perhaps his desire to develop his Martial Art as
well as to grow stronger had made him a tad too impatient. He had really
only been a Martial Apprentice for less than half a year, and had joined the
Academy only a year ago.
If he put aside his emotions for a second, he was sure his growth trajectory
was extremely optimistic. What he needed was a well-founded, stable
growth. Rashly picking some technique with a constrained budget was not
the best choice at hand.
Kane said that fifty-seven Martial Credits were enough to get a 'somewhat
not-bad' technique with that, which was a polite of way of saying a bad
technique.
Although paid techniques were above foundational free techniques, that

didn't mean they were good. In fact, Rui was largely as strong as he was not
because his techniques were super powerful, but because he used them much
better than Martial Apprentices of his age and growth level. A large portion
of his strength came from the predictive and counter-deductive systems of the
VOID algorithm and the resourceful tactics he applied in combat.
What Rui needed not was to comprehensively build upon the foundation of
his Martial Art in a less constrained way. This meant accumulating enough
martial credits to be able to buy higher grade techniques that were suited to
his Martial Art.
Maybe even spend the next month or two just grinding and speed-running
low-grade missions to gather Martial Credits easily and without much
pressure and risk.
"You're right." Rui muttered. "I do like immersing myself in training with a
lot of techniques. I don't want to jump back and forth between training and
missions too frequently either, those abrupt changes in mindsets are
annoying."
Kane nodded. "Also, you do learn techniques way faster than the others, so if
you train yourself to learn one technique, you would be out too quick."
Rui nodded.
"Also." Kane added. "You should experience some successes before you
close yourself in your little Martial mancave for training."
"Experience some successes?" Rui asked.
"Yeah. Like just the satisfaction of completing a tiring mission is good. I

don't think you should go right into training after a devastating failure, you'll
just end up being depressed or cynical." Kane shurgged. "But that's what I
think."
He brought up a good point, Rui realized. His mental state was far, far from
healthy. This was to be expected since it hadn't even been half a day since
Bella died. But he realized that Kane was wise to suggest avoiding holing
himself up in this mental state.
Rui had simply not thought of this because he used to hole himself up
practically his entire life in his last life, mostly because of his asthama.
"You're right." Rui smiled. "I should go slam dunk some missions."
"What's a slam dunk?"

"Er, nothing."
Chapter 109 No Matter What
"Hey guys." A voice called out to them. "It has been a while. How's it
going?"
Kane grumbled while Rui smiled. "Hey Fae, Milliana."
Milliana nodded, while Fae vigorously waved her hand, the latter had truly
begun to be more expressive of her emotions during her time in the
Academy.
"How was your first mission Rui?" Fae asked.
"Terrible, I failed to complete it." Rui shook his head, straightforwardly

answering.
"My." Fae frowned. "Don't worry, you'll get it next time." She patted his
shoulder, before continuing. "Speaking of which, l actually have an
interesting proposal for all of you."
"Hm?" Rui looked at her curiously while Kane looked at her with skepticism.
"A grade six defense-class party mission with a five-member pre-requisite."

Fae explained. "It's a mission to protect a travelling batch of supply caravans
through a shady region known for being an ambush location for a bandit
group. Our job is to protect the dispatched batch of supply carriages from
potential bandit groups."
"Hmmm..." Rui was intrigued by the matter. "A grade six mission is going to
be risky, since grade five and above can threaten the life of a Martial
Apprentice, right?"
"A single Martial Apprentice, yes. A mission of a certain grade can either be
taken on by a Martial Apprentice of an equal grade or even higher. Or
multiple Martial Apprentices of a low grade." Fae reminded.
Rui nodded, recalling that fact. "So that's why you want to form a party. We
fall into the latter category."
Fae nodded. "Kane, Milliana, Dalen and I are grade four. What grade are you
Rui?"
"Three." He sighed.
"Don't look so down, I started out with grade three too." Fae revealed.
"Milliana here started with grade two." Earning a blank nod from Milliana.
"Why do you want to go out of your way to get this mission?" Kane eyed her
suspiciously.
"Ah, that's because it has a really sweet bonus reward." Fae chuckled.
Customers had the option to incentivize their commissions above the

standard exchange rate if they wanted to, to make their commissions more
alluring to Martial Artists of higher grades, since the Martial Union usually
deferred a commission that was being contested over by two different Martial
Artists to the higher-grade Martial Artist.
"What does the total amount to, per person?" Rui asked curiously.
"Hehe, a total of 500 Martial Credits!" Fae declared.
Rui's eyes sparkled with a hint of greed. That was almost ten times what he
received from his first bodyguard mission.
"I'm in." Rui immediately said.
"No takebacks, ok?" Fae pressed. "You're definitely going to commit to this
right?"
"Sure thing."
"Are you absolutely sure?" Fae pressed.
"It's a promise." Rui nodded. "Who's the client?"
"The Lowminer Industries." Fae answered simply. "Isn't that great?"
Rui stared at her with a frozen face. "...I'd like to take that promise back."
"Too late, you already committed."
"..."
"What's the big deal? You get a ton of cash."
Rui sighed, shaking his head
"Has Dalen already confirmed?" Kane asked suspiciously.
"Of course he has." Fae said with an inscrutable expression that didn't crack
no matter how sharply Kane tried to peer past it.
"You planning on coming Kane?" Rui turned, asking him.
Kane sighed. "Fine, let's go. When does it start?"
"Next week." Fae replied. "So we still have some time."
"I can get to squeeze in some missions in between maybe." Rui murmured.
"How many martial Credits do I get in order to purchase five high-grade
techniques?"
"Hmmm... You should get around a thousand bare minimum." Fae said,
before throwing an odd look at Rui. "You really plan to get five techniques at
once?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Rui asked, tilting his head.
"Nothing." Fae replied. "It's just so strange because most people only get one
or two techniques at a time."
"Huh?" Rui frowned. "That's so slow."
"That's normal dude." Kane shook his head. "You're the only one walking
around learning four to five techniques at once, you potion junkie."
"Wait how many techniques have you guys learnt since joining the
Academy?"
"Five." Fae replied quickly.
"Four." Milliana blankly said.
He had learnt twice as many Apprentice-level techniques in half the time.

Even though his net amount of training time was not multiple time greater
than theirs, the reason he was able to accomplish more was because the
mental rejuvenation potion complimented his enhanced mind and cognition
extremely well.
Concentration and learning were not linearly dependent on time spent

learning. Longer periods of learning were better than multiple shorter periods
of learning, as far as learning speed went. The reason people didn't learn for
countless hours straight was because of exhaustion. It was only because of
exhaustion that people resolved to shorter timeframes.
However, with mental rejuvenation potion, that rationale was no longer true.
Mental and physical exhaustion could be dispelled. Thus, making Rui's
training remarkably effective. He felt like a gamer who discovered a glitch in
the game, using it to grind and level up relentlessly.
He turned to Kane, who hadn't responded yet.
"...Three." He looked away, embarrassed. Rui simply stared at him without a

word.
"Hey don't look at me that way!" Kane complained. "My third technique was
peak grade, ok? It took me forever to learn it!"
"Peak grade?" Rui asked, curiously. "Which technique was that?"

"You know." Kane continued. "The one I beat Fae with and the one I used
when we fought against Kyrie."
"Ah..." Rui recalled. That technique was indeed absurdly powerful. He had to
admit Kane's low number of techniques was justified indeed.
"Alright, good talk." Rui got up. "If we're doing this in a week then I have
even more of a reason to go complete a solid mission before that, so I'll see
you guys later. Bye"
He left after exchanging farewells with his friends. He couldn't help feeling a
tinge of nervousness as he walked over to the mission library. He exhaled
deeply as he reached the mission library, steeling his nerves before walking
in.
He intended to complete a handful of missions over the next week no matter

what!
Chapter 110 Just Enough Peace
"A bodyguard?" A young man glanced at the adolescent boy with the unusual
hair and eyes with a mocking skeptical grin, before turning back to the
scrawny frail man in front of him.
"Haha, you were so scared you got a boy younger than you as a bodyguard
than you??" A rough voice contemptuously spat, sparking a bout of laughter.
Six young adult men had surrounded a frail-looking man and the boy behind
him in a remote part of an outer district of Hajin.
"I didn't think it was possible Miguel, but you've become even more pathetic,
you fucking wimp." One of the men turned to the boy. "Run home your
mommy little boy."
Rui sighed, turning to Miguel. "See, this is why I told you wearing my
uniform was a good idea."
Then six men toying with Miguel were not amused. "Hm? Did you not hear
me?" One of them towered over the adolescent boy, trying to intimidate him.
"I said scra-"
"I'll give you one chance." Rui cut him off. "Leave now and you won't get
hurt."
The man sighed dramatically. "Kids these days think they're hot shit." He
shoved his hands forward, aiming to push the boy down.
THUD
Before the man realized it, he found himself flat on his back on the ground.
"What the fuck?" The others rushed forward towards Miguel and Rui. Rui
stepped forward nonchalantly as Miguel tripped as he stumbled back.
THWACK
BAM
POW
THUD
Over the span of five minutes, Rui pummeled all of them over and over,
inflicting immense pain without inflicting permanent damage.
Significant permanent damage, that was.
"Pweash Schtawp!" One of the men, with a face more swollen than a melon
managed to spit out.
"You idiots don't understand." Rui walked over to him, squatting to look him
straight in the eyes. "It doesn't matter how many of you there are. If I ever
catch so much as a peep of you grunts scratching so much as a hair on
Miguel's head, I'll leave your legs intact but break what's in between them,
got it?" He glared.
The man shivered as the passive mental pressure and intimidation of a

Martial Apprentice weighed on him from. He nodded his head vigorously as
tears streamed down his eyes.
"Good." Rui got up, walking over to Miguel. "Let's continue. We've wasted
enough time already."
They walked side-by-side in silence, until Miguel nervously broke it.
"You know..." His voice trailed off as he scratched his head awkwardly. "I'm
envious of you. You took them down so quickly. Part of me was scared but
another part of me wished I could do that. Maybe then they would stop
picking on me."
Rui wasn't sure what to say to that, he had never been good with pep talks.
"You flatter me." Rui said.
"No no. I'm being honest here. You're so young yet you've already become a
Martial Artist." He insisted. "Compared to you, I feel worthless."
"You should hold more pride in yourself." Rui stated. "Getting accepted into
the Kandrian Institute of Sciences, with merit that too, is a remarkable feat.
Don't concern yourself over those low lives. Once the Academic term of the
Kandrian Institute begins tomorrow, you'll move into the dormitory provided
by the Academy, far and away from those morons who waste theirs and
others' time tormenting people weaker than them to get an ego boost. You'll
be surrounded by like-minded peers and will be able to engage in the pursuit
of science unhindered."
Miguel was the son of a wealthy landlord, who had been living independently
for a year, taking the entrance exam while also preparing for the new
Academic term. Recently he had become victim to a local group of
troublemakers who would pick on him when they learnt he was loaded, in the
end the bullying had gotten so bad that Miguel had decided to hire a Martial
Apprentice bodyguard. Only now did he realize how wise a choice he had
made.
Miguel nodded, laughing awkwardly. "You're four years younger than me,
but it doesn't feel like I'm talking to a child."
Rui shrugged silently, not knowing what to say to that. Not that he wanted to
engage in any further conversation with his client. He had learnt the hard way
that getting emotionally invested in your clients and targets could lead to
disastrous outcomes. At the end of the day, this was a job that paid the bills
and the techniques.
He did not want to get invested in each and every client. Detaching his
emotions to a certain degree from the mission would do him well, and allow
him to remain objective.
Still, he could empathize with Miguel's situation quite well. Due to his
asthma, he was unable to engage in friendship much at all. By the time he
was in high school, he had long turned into a socially awkward loner, albeit
bright kid. The type the boys and girls would call lame or nerdy. This, of
course, led to bullying. Except Rui wasn't able to hire a Martial Apprentice
for a bodyguard back on Earth.
The rest of the walk back home was a peaceful quiet. That day was the last
day of the mission and Rui was practically done. This was what a grade one
mission looked like, Rui had come to learn. Only now that he possessed a
frame of reference did he realize just how ridiculously under-graded his first
mission was.
Grade one missions were like walks in the park, but they paid less than his
first mission. Bella had beefed up the bonus reward to ensure the mission gets
picked sooner.
Rui had to admit, Kane was right. Even if they were insignificant compared
to his first mission, completing missions like these and earning the gratitude
of an alive client was worth it.
After despair and grief being what he last saw on his first client's face, these
missions were like a soothing healing potion, slowly healing his wound.
Tomorrow was the team party mission, he had had just enough peace in the
past week to dip his toes into his second high-grade mission.
Chapter 111 Reason
Rui returned to the Academy once his bodyguard mission with Miguel ended.
In the past week he had completed three missions, having earned up to a sum
of ninety-six martial credits. In addition to the reward from his first mission,
he had earned up to a total of one hundred and fifty-three martial credits.
Today was the dispatch and commencement of the party mission

commissioned by Lowminer Industries.
Rui knew that as a service provider, clients were clients. As a Martial Artist,
it wasn't particularly wise to get fixated on who the client was as long as the
mission was legal.
Still, he couldn't help but feel sour. Working for the Lowminer Industry right
after what his first mission was a hard pill to swallow. But it was a pill he had
already committed himself to swallow, inadvertently.
At the very least, he could take solace in the fact that he wasn't doing this
alone. Fae had already officially registered the five of them as a party,
allowing them to take missions together. Rui found the whole concept of
parties to be interesting.
For one they allowed lower grade Martial Artists to get a taste of what high-
grade missions were like without bearing the full burden and risk. Even if
they couldn't complete the mission by themselves, with the help of many,
they were able to compensate for their personal weakness.
Fae taken it upon herself to the name the party 'The Quintuple Martial
Apprentices'.
Rui simply burst out laughing while Milliana stared at her with a blank
expression, and Kane complained and vehemently refused to be part of a
party with such an embarrassing name.
Eventually, she managed to get them to agree to the name 'Martial Quint'.
Only because no one could be bothered to come up with something better.
But otherwise, the Martial Quint was a well-balanced party. Rui was an all-
rounder, while Fae was an offense-oriented Martial Artist, while Kane was
speed and maneuverability-oriented, Milliana was stamina-oriented and
Dalen was defense-oriented.
The one Rui was least familiar with was Dalen, who was more of a mutual
acquaintance of the other three. They had only sparred a few times, and had
barely hung out. However, he had grown quite close to the other three, so all
in all, their team dynamics were fine.
Rui found all of them waiting for him in the dispatch facility.
"You're almost late." Kane told him.
"That's a dick way of saying I'm on time." Rui retorted.
They had all worn different colour and style masks. The Martial Union
provided a unique mask to every Martial Artist, allowing them to be
distinguished in and even out the field while still protecting their identities.
This was mainly to protect lower-Realm Martial Artists and in particular:
Martial Apprentices.
Since Martial Apprentices comprised of ninety-percent of the Martial Artist

population.
"Where's the commencement location?" Rui asked
"At the main branch of the Lowminer Industries." Fae replied. "Apparently
the branch manager would like to meet with us once before the mission
commences."
"Alright." Rui sighed.

Once they finished some paperwork and protocol, they set out immediately
by foot. All of them activated a one or two maneuvering Martial Apprentice
abilities.
Rui immediately noticed that Dalen and Milliana were the slowest, Rui and
Fae were somewhat equal, while Kane had to actively reduce his speed
drastically just to ensure he didn't leave them all behind.
This made sense, Milliana was a conservative stamina fighter, there wasn't
much of an incentive for her to waste time learning more than one
maneuvering-oriented Apprentice-level technique. Dalen on the other hand
was a defensive-oriented Martial Artist but also a tank as far as his physique
went, he had bulging muscles all over his body. Rui knew that hurting him
was extremely difficult, but in turn all that muscle mass made it difficult for
him to accelerate to higher speeds.
They'd reached the designated location in half an hour.
"Alright, we're here." Fae punched in the button on the record device that
recorded the time at which they'd arrived at the commencement location.
Once they arrived, they walked into the huge premises that comprised
Lowminer branch, making their way to the main office.
"Ah, welcome team Martial Quint. Allow me to escord you to the branch
manager's office, the official client is present there and has been anticipating
your arrival." A receptionist greeted them before guiding them across the
gaudy building.
Rui couldn't help but feel a bit stuffy as he walked around the place. He
wondered what Bella would think of him if she knew that he had
inadvertently stumbled into accepting a Lowminer mission immediately
following his death. Would she get angry? He didn't know.
And it didn't really matter. A remuneration of five hundred martial credits

was huge, it was a whopping half of the designated amount of merits he
decided he would earn before purchasing new Apprentice-level techniques
and devoting himself to training.
He wanted to take another step down his Martial path, and secondarily, he
wanted to grow stronger.
Compared to these two intense desires, the sentiments of the dead did not
matter.
Once they reached the office, the staff member knocked on the door, walked
in as it was opened by guards inside.
"Ah, you're here." A man in his late forties sat at the center of the ostentatious
room. "Welcome, Martial Quint, I am the branch manager Savin Felun, the
head of this branch of the Lowminer Industries. I'm grateful to you for having
accepted the request filed by Lowminer Industries."
Rui took a good long deep look at the man. A salt and pepper hair and beard
adorned his face, neatly groomed. He wore a perfectly fit extravagant
business attire. He possessed a commanding domineering demeanor that
erased all doubts about his position.
"Thank you for your hospitality." Fae responded, with her usual carefully
measured tone.
"The reason I called here was to speak more deeply about the mission." The
man responded. "Although I'm sure the Martial Union has done a good job."
Chapter 112 True Objective
He waved his hand and an assistant staff member in the room provided him
with a map of Hajin and several surrounding towns.
"As I'm sure you're all aware of the commission objective; It's to protect our
outgoing supplies dispatch batch enroute the Shadow Trails, a valley in the
Basara mountains to the East of Hajin, all the way to the mission destination;
the town of Gallagar." He said, pointing to a town far east of Hajin past a
mountain range.
Rui nodded, familiar with the mission details. There was a small mountain
range in between Hajin and Gallagar known as the Basara mountains. Their
job was to protect esoteric supplies dispatch travelling from Hajin to
Gallagar, through the Shadow Trails a valley in the Basara mountain range
that was going to be traversed to reach their destination.
p "This route has been the go-to route for shipping and transport between
Hajin and Gallagar for nearly all matters, since it is the only practical means
of travelling from Hajin to Gallagar without inflating the time, difficulty or
cost."
Mountains were extremely unconducive as a topography for regular and

reliable means of transport and shipping due to their structure alone.
Furthermore, the greater one deviated from known trails and paths in
mountain ranges, the more one strayed into wild territory, which housed
many best species that were part of an intricate ecosystem largely
uninfluenced by humans. The risks of happening upon predators was not
insignificant.
This is what made the Shadow Trails in the Basara Mountains of such vital
importance. It was a lifeline for a lot of markets, industries and sectors in
several towns in the geographic vicinity of the Basara Mountains. The
Shadow Trails valley was what allowed for a sustainable supply and transit
between all these towns.
Which is why the presence of a new bandit group that threatened safe
exchanges was extremely detrimental to several economies. The new bandit
had been operating for little under two months, they slaughtered their victims
before extracting everything of value that could be found.
Even though this bandit group attacked occasionally, this was more than
enough cause significant negative impacts. For one, the moment transport
and shipping companies heard about the bandits, the prices of transport and
shipping services had been increasing over time, inflating well above the
norm.
This was because the risks these companies were undertaking was huge.
Furthermore, a lot of employees and personnel who managed the travelling
process, who were directly at risk, had either quite their jobs or demanded
higher pay or a guarantee.
This was how the bandit group caused several problems beyond just the loss
of life and goods.
"We have been attacked by them once before as well. This time we have
decided to hire the five of you as bodyguards to protect this particular
dispatch among other dispatches." Savin explained.
"Why this dispatch among others?" Dalen duly asked.
"A pertinent question, I was just about getting to that." Savin explained with
a smile. "Before I answer that, allow me to talk about the objective of this
particular supply dispatch that you're guarding."
Those words earned a frown from the Martial Artists. There was more to their
target of protection than merely shipping esoteric supplies?
"The objective of the current dispatch is to take down the bandit group, one
way or another, simply put. We have noticed that this bandit group has not
been indiscriminate in their targeting. They largely aim for higher-grade
esoteric material supplies from esoteric suppliers such as ourselves rather
than any random travelling group." He explained. "The supply dispatch you
will be bodyguarding is quite valuable, furthermore we have subtly caused a
minor intel leak regarding the contents of this particular exotic supply
dispatch in the right circles. This dramatically increases the probability of you
being attacked. However, with your presence, we'll be able to kill all of them
or at the very least highly cripple them."
This made a lot more sense. Rui finally understood why the Lowminer
Industries picked five Martial Artists for a simple routine supply dispatch. It
seemed far too extravagant and a highly unsustainable security measure. This
could only have meant that the target of their protection was valuable and
special.
"If the bandits are in the Shadow Trails, how will they have access to this
intel?" Rui asked.
"Most organized bandit groups have sources of intel one way or another,
usually through some elementary communication device that allows them to
transmit some basic signals." Savin explained. "Furthermore, a lot of their
attacks are too unlikely to be coincidences."
He paused, before continuing.
"The five of you are meant to be a guarantee for this operation to succeed.
This actually a bit of a joint endeavor between several industries, who have
aided us with intel spreading and some funding. Furthermore, two of our own
personally employed Martial Apprentices will be aiding you in this mission."
A total of seven Martial Apprentices was an extremely solid defense team, at

the Martial Apprentice Realm, at the very least.
"Are such significant measures really necessary?" Fae wondered aloud.
"For normal bandit groups, no. But this bandit group almost certainly has
Martial Apprentices in it. Inspecting the scenes of massacres has allowed us
to confirm this." Savin explained. "Furthermore, they implement these attacks
deep in the Shadow Trails. Which makes it highly likely they base
themselves in the Basara Mountains permanently. Which is extremely
dangerous and cannot be done without Martial Apprentices."
This made sense. Furthermore, there was a lot at stake for the client. Valuable
Martial Apprentices, high-value esoteric supplies that was going to be used to
bait out the bandits and the stability that the bandits had caused to crumble.
"The reason I wished to speak to you personally was to inform you of our
plan so that you would be aware and to ensure you wouldn't be caught off-
guard when the attack happens." Savin explained. "If this operation is a
complete success on our end, I will reward you all with a solid bonus."
Chapter 113 Priorities
The meeting did not last much longer once Savin got across the vital
information he was trying to convey. Furthermore, the time for the mission
commencement was due as well.
"If there is nothing else, can you lead us to the target objective?" Fae asked.
Savin nodded. "The dispatch team is actually situated at a separate facility not
too far away from here, the reason I called you here was to speak to you. And
also ensure you join the dispatch team carriage in a furtive manner, to ensure
that there is no way that intel of your participation in this dispatch can be
leaked."
This made sense. If the bandit group did have ears in Hajin and the Lowminer
Industries, then walking over to that particular dispatch would be the same as
announcing to the bandits that there were five Martial Apprentices protecting
the supplies. It was better to pretend that the Martial Apprentices were called
over for entirely unrelated matters and then sneak them into the Martial
Apprentices.
"We'll have the five of you publicly leave this branch and then secretly
reroute you back to the dispatch team in a pre-scheduled carriage." Savin
explained.
They were being quite careful.
Fae simply nodded. "Where do we rendezvous with this carriage?"
Savin didn't say a word as his secretary took out a card with the Lowminer
stamp on one side and an address specified on the other side of the card,
handing it over to Fae.
Fae nodded. "We'll take our leave then."
"Yes, thank you for your services." Savin replied.
As they left, Rui grew absorbed in his thoughts. There was a lot that
happened that he had to think about. For one, his impression of the
Lowminers was different than what he had constructed in his mind. But he
was cognizant enough to realize that his initial impression of them was, in no
way, reflective of their true nature. A little bit of hospitality and respect was
not indicative of a good-nature. Just a smart enough nature.
But he had also come to realize that his first mission did indeed colour his
impressions of the Lowminer Industries a little too badly.
Did they do some genuinely reprehensible things? No doubt.
Were they unique in that regard compared to their peers?
Probably not.
Rui wondered about Karl Hier, Bella's father. This man singlehandedly shot
to the top of the esoteric material supply industry in a decade and spent the
next few decades expanding to other towns. Was that really possible without
some genuinely dirty and low measures?
Probably not. Rui did not think it was possible to shoot to the top of the
business game by being a kind-hearted soft angel.
Karl Hier may have been even worse than the Lowminer Industries.
Ultimately, the world was ruthless, and power and victory were everything.
Only a fool would hesitate to step on other to reach the top.
This was true even in the twenty-first century of Earth, why would it not be
true in a world that was much harsher and more ruthless?
Coming to terms with this washed away the final set of compunctions he had
regarding this mission, though it did also make him more cynical in his
worldview.
Fae broke the silence and his reverie once they had moved away from the
population of the town and away from prying ears. "We'll have to stay on our
toes every second of the mission, this actually a matter of life and death."
Dalen nodded curtly. "We're guaranteed to be attacked, but atleast this time
we were fortunate enough to be informed well in advance. Many Martial
Artist die because they're caught off-guard."
"We'll set up a shift rotation for surveillance to ensure there's someone to

keep an eye out at some point or the other. We need maximum alertness on
this mission." Fae instructed, earning a nod from everyone.
"Furthermore, it also helps we know that most of their attacks don't stray too
far from the center of the Shadow Trails valley." Rui further added. "Meaning
we know which parts of the journey have the highest likelihood of being the
moment they choose to ambush us."
"That is true, that hadn't hit me yet." Kane said. "This means we can time
when we're most alert as well to ensure we don't miss anything."
Fae nodded. "We also should come up with a simple set of steps to follow
when the attack does occur."
"The actual commission made to the Martial Union takes priority." Rui
stated. "I don't mind if their little bandit-elimination operation fails as a
result. Their operation is not our mission, it's their voluntary prerogative, we
just need to what we came her to do; Protect them. That is the protocol of
defense-class missions."
"Agreed." Milliana spoke for the first time, as the other nodded. Rui's words
made the most sense.
"Still." He continued. "It's likely they have accounted for this. That is why
they sent three extra Martial Apprentices. Those three Martial Artists have
likely received orders to take ambush, surround and take down as many
Martial Apprentice bandits possible."
"You mean they won't be focusing on protecting the dispatch like us?" Kane
frowned.
"Probably not." Rui conjectured. "That's why they hired five Martial
Apprentice bodyguards. The reason they sent three extra Martial Apprentices
is probably to ensure the enemy Martial Apprentices can't escape us. They'll
probably try to box them, forcing them to fight all seven of us."
"Why would the bandits even try to escape immediately after ambushing us
though?" Kane pressed.
"Because they wouldn't have been aware the dispatch carries eight Martial
Artists, assuming these secretive measures work and they don't find out." Rui
replied. "Bandits are driven by gains, attacking a travelling group protected
by eight Martial Apprentices is simple not worth it. But since they aren't
aware of that fact, they will attack only to be horrified they see the five of us
jump out to protect the men and the goods. Unless they're unreasonable,
they'll escape, it's not worth attacking us as I said."
Kane finally understood. "So the three Martial Apprentices are to ensure they
won't be able to escape once we box them. And then they'll be forced to fight
the eight of us on all sides."
Rui nodded. "Considering all these factors, if all goes smoothly, this
operation of theirs has a decent chance of succeeding."
Chapter 114 Clean
The carriage arranged for them was some ways away from bustling parts of
the district within a warehouse.
"Welcome, Martial Artists of the Martial Union." The coachmen of their

carriage greeted as he bowed to them. "We apologize for the inconvenience,
but this is your designated carriage." He gestured to the carriage behind him.
The carriage was designed as a storage carriage, it had window panels that
were opaque from the outside but transparent from the inside, allowing the
Martial Apprentices to eye their surroundings without anybody else from the
outside being able to spy or observe them. This was probably done on
purpose.
They quickly boarded the carriage and it dispatched right away. Arriving at
the branch that they were just at prior, entering as an inconspicuous import
supply. Soon, after some detours and due procedures, it joined the dispatch
team that they were hired to protect.
The mission bill already covered all the details that needed to be covered, the
entire team was already aware of everything regarding their target of
protection. Including all the details like number of people and carriages, and
the important carriages with the esoteric matter supplies that were being
coveted by the bandits.
The Martial Apprentices relaxed in the carriage, taking their masks off, as
comfortable and unrestrictive as they were designed to be, it was still a pain
in the ass.
"Initially, I thought five Martial Artists was overkill." Kane sighed. "But with
their little operation at play, it makes sense. But as bodyguards, as long as we
focus on pure defense, we're fulfilling our duties right?"
"The role of a bodyguard, atleast as defined by the Martial Union, extends

beyond purely reactive protective measures." Rui stated. "Proactive measures
are also a vital part of our duties, perhaps even more important. For example,
if your target of protection was in the way of a canon about to fire, would you
move them after the canon was fired or before?"
"You make a good point." Kane admitted. "So that means as long as enemy
bandits are even near our targets, we're more or less duty-bound to eliminate
the threat?"
Rui nodded. "That's probably also what that man Savin is banking on. He's
planned this well, I have to say, he's minimized the risk that he's imposing on
his personally employed Martial Apprentices. Since he cannot hire Martial
Artists like us to proactively hunt humans, he's still managed to work away
around this restriction and effectively have us fight to kill the bandits."
"This will be all of our first time fighting other hostile Martial Apprentices in
a life-or-death battle." Dalen noted
"Not all of ours." Kane corrected. "Rui got the jump on us with in that
regard."
Fae turned to Rui in surprised disbelief. "No way, you're a grade three
Martial Apprentice with only a single mission under your belt."
Rui sighed as the other two also turned to him in interest at those words. "The
mission was under-graded in regards to difficulty. But it wasn't that big a
deal, I only tussled with a Martial Apprentice for a bit before he retreated."
He explained with as few words as he could.
This only caused them to get a bit more excited, pestering Rui with questions.
"Not now guys, we're in the middle of a mission remember?" Rui placated.
"Don't let your guards down."
The carriage quietened down as the supply dispatch made its way. As time
passed by, the tension in the air began escalating. Sooner or later, it would
exit Hajin and make its way to the Shadow Trails in the Basara Mountains
where they could be ambushed at any given moment.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
BEEP BEEP
A red-haired woman looked down at the communication device tucked in her

belt, picking it up and reading it with a bored expression. Yet the contents of
the message twitched a smile on her face.
"Boss." She turned her head to the right, facing a short grey-haired man with
a demure stature. "Just got word that the Lowminer supply dispatch with the
thirteen Sky Crystals was just dispatched. No unusual occurences."
The man simply opened his eyes slowly. "Make preparations, Feilin."
She nodded in response.
"Heh!" A rough male voice far to the left grunted. "Those fools keep sending
us juicy rewards. You'd think they'd have learnt their lessons by now."
"They can't help it, Vale." Feilin shrugged at the man. "They can't halt their
business. That's what makes this plan the best." She grinned.
"This could be a trap you know~" A voice with a lazy drawl called out. "Do
you really think the Lowminers would send not one, two or even three, but
thirteen Sky Crystals?"
Feilin glanced at the man napping on a tree branch with contempt. "Hmph, I
knew you weren't paying attention yesterday Han. We already covered this,
our men in Gallagar have already confirmed that the supply is a legitimate
supply to an order made by several clients in the crystal technology sector of
Gallagar, there's no realistic way this could be a trap, not unless multiple
towns are literally in active collaboration with each other against us."
Her tone made it clear she did not think this was the case
"That's not impossible Feilin." The boss interjected. His words were soft, but
they commanded attention. "I wish to take some precautions before we
commence the ambush."
Feilin shrugged with a resigned look. "Alright boss, as you say."
"Hmph, even if it's a trap so what?" Vale barked. "We've got five Apprentices
and hundreds of men to boot. That's more than the Lowminers have in their
entirety as far as Apprentices go. We can just straight up run into their trap,
crush it along with them and steal the Sky Crystals they're kind enough to
donate to us and get outta here!"
"Enough." The boss glanced at Vale with just the slightest hint of irritation.
"Are you questioning my orders, Vale?"
"...Tsk okay okay!" He retracted immediately. Vale was an imposing man

with a powerful physique, and an aggressive temperament.
Yet there was a reason the boss was the boss.
"We'll proceed carefully." He reiterated himself with a measured tone. "I

want this to be clean."
Chapter 115 Ominous
The supply dispatch had exited borders of the town of Hajin just under two
hours. The Apprentices in the carriage had already perked up, growing more
and more alert. They had decided that at the very least a minimum of three of
them ought to keep a lookout at any given point in time.
Although the dispatch naturally had guards on horses forming something of a

perimeter around the dispatch team, surveilling their surroundings, Martial
Apprentices were still better. The Foundational Stage of the Academy
carefully trained sensory awareness as well as their kinetic vision well
beyond the norm. And the discovery of the Martial Path further raised those
attributes and parameters above the conventional limit.
Three Martial Apprentices keeping an eye from within a carriage were better
sources of surveillance than all the guards on horses outside.
Rui was currently off-surveillance duty along with Dalen. He used this time
to gather his thoughts.
('According to the intel provided by the Martial Union, the bandits likely
operate by incapacitating the dispatch convoy by crippling their means of
transport.') Rui mused. ('In most cases that involves damaging the carriages
sufficiently enough and slaughtering the horses.')
The reason the bandits did this was because the chances of survival of any
travelling convoy was minimal if they could not maintain a high mode of
transport.
Thus, even in the unlikely situation that a travelling transport or supplies

dispatch convoy had the means to counter them, they would not be able to
escape their predicament easily at all. The bandits could simply retreat and
wait until for the right moment to launch an ambush.
Of course, thus far not a single travelling convoy had been able to
successfully resist the bandit ambushes.
('Yet despite this, they continue with the norms of crippling the means of
transportation in their initial strike.') Rui thought. ('That sounds
uncharacteristically careful for bandits.')
Bandits were usually chaotic unorganized groups of low lives who banded
together to rob travellers. They were not careful and methodic like an
organized strike force. Yet all the data that Rui had gone through indicated
that this bandit group was more akin to the latter than the former.
('That makes them more dangerous.') Rui did not want to fight with a
disciplined group of criminals, that was much scarier than messing with a
random group of thugs who simply used a braindead numbers advantage to
edge out a victory.
('I find it highly unlikely that this bandit group was formed in a normal way.')
Rui felt like the probability of the bandit group being involved with some
entity in the black market was much more likely, this would explain the sense
of order that Rui got from them. Perhaps they were formed by some
behemoth in the black market, or something to that effect?
Rui shook his head. It wasn't relevant. The point was that if they were
targeting means of transport then the group would have a hard time.
Unfortunately for Rui and the others, knowing about their modus operandi
did not mean they would be able to counter it. In their current circumstances,
knowing this did not particularly allow them to improve their counters.
The best thing they could do at the end of the day was to defend, protect and
eliminate threats. That did not change regardless of what intel they possessed.
At most they could finetune their measures to be suited to handling their
necessities.
For example, Rui had already concluded it would be extremely difficult to
entirely and completely prevent them from damaging their means of transport
at all. Largely because of the nature of an ambush. The element of surprise in
the hands of the enemy Martial Apprentices could not be mitigated easily,
and some loss of life as well as material loss was inevitable.
The question was what were the measure they could take to mitigate the
damage inflicted, thankfully. They had already known the answer.
p The answer was to abandon the outer ring of the convoy and focus on the
most important and vital parts of the dispatch, as specified by the client.
The outer layers of the convoy were mostly there to act as a shield for the
inner portion of the convoy, where the valuable high-grade esoteric supplies
were stored.
Once the ambush commenced, Rui and the others of the Martial Quint would
immediately focus on ensuring the inner circles endured as little harm as
possible. The outer circles were pretty much intended to be doomed as a
sacrifice.
An hour passed as they distanced themselves from the town of Hajin, and the
mountains that were on the horizon at the distance had grown larger in their
field of view.
"We've reached the base, it seems." Dalen noted. "The Shadow Trails is only
half an hour away from here I believe."
"It's been a long time since I came here." Fae chirped.
"You've come here before?" Rui turned in surprise.
"Hasn't everyone?" Kane asked.
"Yeah, it's a mountain range. The outskirts are pretty safe, and it's a tourist
attraction." Fae agreed.
Rui did a double-take, remembering that his companions were a bunch of rich
kids with a Martial pedigree.
Forget touring the mountains, this was the first time that Rui had actually left
the town of Hajin. Although the Quarrier Orphanage was technically outside
the town of Hajin. That wouldn't count, would it?
('Wait, focus! This is important and dangerous.') He shook his head, trying to
shake away the silly thoughts.
Were it any other occasion, Rui would have definitely leisurely enjoyed the
sights and taken in the new topography and environment in. It had been a
long time since he'd even seen mountains.
But in this mission, with the information he was aware of, the Basara
Mountains had an ominous impression to them. Like the harbinger of danger
and risk. Crossing these mountains was estimated to take twelve hours.
Rui prepared himself mentally. For within the next twelve hours, he would
probably be in the most danger he had ever been.
Chapter 116 Something Is Wrong
The Shadow Trails valley was wider than Rui expected, and also not as dark
as the name suggested. It had been several hours since they entered the
valley. For some reason Rui pictured a super narrow path perpetually bathed
in darkness when he heard the name 'Shadow Trails'.
However, this was not a good thing, ultimately. The valley being very wide
allowed for a much larger area over which the bandits could base and hide in.
Especially since the valley was covered in a dense forest, yet the there was
enough space for bandits to maneuver comfortably. Furthermore, the ground
inclined upwards up both sides of the travelling convoy, giving the bandits
huge stealth and surveillance advantage.
This was bad news, because ambushers already had the advantage of the
element of surprise, even if the Martial Apprentices knew the attack was
coming, not knowing when was a significant handicap. Because they were
expending a lot of mental energy with their tense alertness over the span of
half of a day.
Thankfully they had rejuvenation potions. Otherwise, they would be

exhausted by the time the ambush actually commenced, fighting against fully
prepared Martial Apprentices.
The only advantage their convoy had was the fact that they had eight Martial
Apprentices.
('Well, whether that remains to be an advantage or not remains to be seen.')

Rui thought to himself. It entirely depended on how many martial
Apprentices the bandits had.
The best-case scenario was one Martial Apprentice, in which case Rui was
absolutely relatively certain they would be able to annihilate all the bandits.
As the numbers grew, the harder it was evaluate as a greater number of

variable and parameters all influencing the outcome of the conflict arose.
For example, the grade of the bandit Martial Apprentices, their Martial Art,
the synergy between them and their opponents and the quality of teamwork
on both sides.
As Rui grew absorbed into his analysis, his reverie was abruptly broken by
Milliana.
"They're here." She whispered.
Rui's eyebrows knitted in confusion.
"Already?" He grew more tense and alert as he glanced through the

unidirectional window. In the distance, he was able to detect many dozens of
humans swarming from the forest onto the path ahead of them from a
distance, triggering panic in the guard team of the convoy.
What shocked him was the fact that they weren't making much of an effort to
act stealthily. They weren't even attacking under the cover of the forest, they
were straightforwardly charging against the convoy from the opposite
direction of their travel, out in the open.
He grew even more shocked as the leader of the charging bandits made a war
cry.
"CHARGE! DON'T GIVE THEM TIME TO PREPARE!"
('Then why announce your presence to us from that far away?')
"They're here." Dalen got up with a fierce expression. "Let us complete our
mission."
"Wait." Rui raised his hand, causing the others to frown. Protecting the
carriage from bandits was literally their job, why was Rui holding them back.
This did not match the data he had been given.
The bandits were typically exploited the element of surprise to cleanly launch
a full-on ambush on their hapless and very off-guard victims, using a numeric
advantage as well as a Martial Apprentice advantage to crush their opponents
swiftly.
Then why were these bandits doing exactly the opposite thing?
Rui couldn't detect the presence of any Martial Apprentice either.
"Something is... wrong." He said to the others, as he analyzed their current

situation with the eyes of a hawk.
"Dude, we need to fight." Kane insisted. "This is what we're hired for,
remember?"
"The mission bill specified that the actual target of protection were primarily
the goods." Rui stated. "We're not obligated to protect the security team."
The others frowned at Rui's logic. They couldn't argue against it, but that
didn't mean they liked it either.
"If they manage to break through, then Kane, you can go defend the carriage
containing the goods." Rui said.
He sighed, shrugging. "Alright, if you insist, but you better explain why."
"Something is wrong."
* * * * * * * * * *
"Oho, they're going at it alright." Feiling chuckled as she watched the

skirmish from afar.
"Hmph, this is pointless." Vale grunted, leaning against a tree some distance
away. "What's the point of sending only a half our raid force from afar? That
too without us?"
"Well." Han said, sitting atop a tree. "The boss came up with this." He said
before glancing at the golden-haired man, who stood at the forefront of a
cliff, eying the battle. "There must be something to it."
"Boss?" Feilin sighed. "You wanna explain why you sent half our raid-force
in without the other half, and without us? Furthermore, what's the point of
having them charge from the front?"
"Something..." He softly murmured.
"Hm?" Feilin tilted her head in confusion.
"...Something is wrong." His golden eyes sharpened as he scanned the

battlefield.
"I dunno boss." Feilin glanced at the battlefield away at a distance. "It seems
like a normal battle to me."
"That's because you're not looking close enough. Look closer at the security
team, what do you see?"
"Uh, they're... doing exactly what they're supposed to do? Defending the
inner section of the convoy from our men?" Feilin replied with an
exasperated expression.
"Yes." He said. "Do you think they're doing a good job?"
She glanced back with knitted eyebrows. "Well, much better than security
teams of the Lowminers normally do. Not a single one has abandoned the
battle yet despite their numerical disadvantage." She said as she observed
how all of them had a rock-solid confidence and composure. They were calm
and composed, fought steadily and did not panic, they even dragged the battle
on, fighting a little passively.
This was not the norm. When faced with significant disadvantages, morale
and performance both usually plummeted unless the guards were veterans.
Atleast a quarter of the security team retreating against orders and protocols
was not unusual either, these personnel were not battle-hardened veterans,
they were barely more qualified than unskilled labour. Feilin became more
cognizant of this odd behaviour the more she observed.
"I guess the Lowminers have been training their security personnel better?
They're doing a good job I'll give them that. It's almost like these men are
fighting like they don't think they can lose."
At those words, the golden-haired man stirred. "Yes... Exactly. The question
is; Why is that?"
Feilin shrugged, unsure of where he was going with this random tangent.
"Either they're brilliant veterans, all of them, or..." He continued. "They have
strong reason to believe that they won't lose...." He paused, before
continuing. "...Reasons like the presence of Martial Apprentices."
Feilin, Vale and Han's eyes shot wide open, as understanding dawned upon
them. Now all of their boss' antics were starting come full circle.
"That's why you sent an ambush-force that was just twenty-percent larger
than their security team." Feiling realized. "You wanted to gauge and test the
convoy's general reaction to numerically disadvantaged ambushes."
He didn't respond, completely absorbed in the battle.
"But why not just ambush them instead of openly charging them, then?"
Feilin asked with a hint of confusion. "Wouldn't it make more sense to push
them further?"
"...An ambush triggers subconscious reflexive and primal fear and panic
natural to all humans." He replied softly, never taking his eyes off the battle.
"I wanted to test their conscious response after giving them time to evaluate
their enemies, that is much more reflective of their sense of security."
Feilin finally understood the simplicity yet the brilliance of the boss' plan. If
all the personnel of the convoy acted exactly how they expected them to, then
there was little to be suspicious about. Then they themselves could just join
with the remaining men of their bandit group and finish the job quickly.
But if there was something strange, they would be able to detect it
beforehand.
It was a simple plan that cleanly allowed them to evaluate risk with very little
cost.
She sighed inwardly, remembering why the four Martial Apprentices of their
group had willingly bowed their head to him. His position was not unearned.
He ignored her, growing more and more engrossed in the battle.
"Something is wrong."
Chapter 117 Pawns
The security team of the Lowminer convoy defended well against the
incoming flux of bandits. Although they were outnumbered, they fought
smartly, with remarkable calm and composure.
Rui, on the other hand, was not quite as calm.
('Think.') Rui urged. ('Why would they discard the element of surprise, attack
us head on and that too without the Martial Apprentices?')
Rui had thoroughly memorized the intel provided by the Martial Union in the
mission bill, the presence of Martial Apprentices as well as their well-
executed ambushes that exploited the element of surprise had been the two
major reasons they cleanly succeeded in their strikes.
What was to be inferred from their intentions if they did not use either of
these two main elements that was responsible for their victories?
('It means they have no intention of winning through this particular battle.
But then why even send them at all then?') Rui wondered.
All decisions were driven by incentives and disincentives, gains and loss,
reward and risk. By simply applying this principle, one could gain insights
into the minds of others. As far as Rui could see, there was either something
to be gained through this battle, or something they could avoid losing.
('Intel.') Rui quickly realized. ('They're trying to learn more about the risk
associated with attacking us.')
This was not only plausible, it was the only realistic possibility. Rui knew
that the convoy was aware of the hidden operation of the Lowminer
Industries as well as their presence, although they had not conveyed this to
anyone, this knowledge would be reflected in their demeanor, as well as their
responses in times of crises.
('They're not acting like they would if we weren't there.')
Rui's shot wide open at this. If this was truly the goal of the bandits, to
evaluate the risk of attacking the convoy by gauging their response and sense
of security. Even if their initial goal to draw out all the security measures set
up by the Lowminers, they still gained valuable information about the convoy
even if Rui and his friends stayed in their carriage.
('This is bad.') Rui grimaced.
The bandits were much smarter and sharper than he'd expected. These guys
were definitely not ordinary grunts!
('More specifically, they must have an incredibly intelligent leader.') Rui

mused. ('Now then, what to do?')
* * * * * * * * * * *
"There's one thing I don't understand boss." Feilin said.
The blonde-haired man continued gazing at the battle.
"Why aren't the Martial Apprentices acting, if they're even there in the first
place?" She asked with a dubious expression.
"What do you think they normally would do if they were present in the
convoy?" He asked. "Commissioned for a regular bodyguard mission, let's
say."
"Well, they would have joined the battle and defended the convoy from our
men, right?" She replied with a confused expression.
"And if they were there, the fact that they didn't do this tells us what?"
"..."
"...It tells us that this isn't a regular bodyguard commission, otherwise they
would have done exactly what you said earlier." He told her. "But why would
it not be a regular commission?"
"..."
"Commissions made to the Martial Union are aimed at fulfilling an objective

that can be fulfilled via Martial force. Different commissions fulfill different
objectives." He briefly explained. "Thus, from this premise it can be inferred
that if their commission is different from the norm... Then their objective is
also different from the norm."
Feilin grew more confused. "A different objective?"
"An additional objective, to be more precise." He said. "Normally the

objective would be to simply protect the convoy, or the important goods,
atleast. What additional objective do you think there could be?"
"..."
He sighed. "An objective that the Lowminers would logically want. An

objective that involves Martial force and conflict. An objective that requires
Martial Apprentices. An objective that is to be fulfilled in the Shadow
Trails."
He glanced at her, meeting her eyes. "What objective fulfills all those
conditions?"
Realization dawned upon Feilin. "The objective of dealing with us, once and
for all."
"Something to that effect." He turned back to the battlefield. "From the

response of the convoy, the probability of Martial Apprentices somewhere
within the convoy, or at a distance is not low. It could also be that they have
certain powerful esoteric technological solutions at hand as well, though this
is unlikely, because the logistical measures needed to for such solutions
would be too noticeable."
He paused before continuing. "Martial Apprentices are equally powerful, but
with zero logistical and inventory constraints."
"So what do we do?" She asked.
"We wait." He replied. "If they are there, they'll act sooner or later. One is at
their most vulnerable at the moment of victory."
Down at the battlefield, the bandit force had just shown signs of managing to
break through the perimeter and headed straight for the storage carriages.
"It's time." Rui stated. "Dalen, Kane and Fae. I suggest the three of you go."
Rui instructed. "Milliana and I should stay."
"You're just trying to dodge some work, aren't you? You Martial Shirker." He
grumbled, even as he followed Rui's words
His instructions didn't receive much resistance from the remaining Martial
Artists either. Rui could be scarily sharp, everybody knew this. His absurd
performance on the mental attributes of the evaluation exam a year ago had
not been forgotten.
"Why did you make only the two of us stay?" Milliana asked out of curiosity,
once the three of their teammates had left and had begun reinforcing the
perimeter.
"They're a balanced team." He stated. "Defense, offense and maneuvering.

They give the impression that they're a single team all by themselves."
"...So what does that have to do with us staying back."
"I want the hidden bandits to believe that those three are the only Martial
Apprentices hired by the Lowminers."
"Hidden bandits?" Milliana tilted her head in confusion.
('Ah I forgot she's an airhead.')
"This mission wouldn't be graded six if the bandit group was that small and
weak. These are merely pawns." He explained. "In Chess, the pawns are the
weakest."
"Chess?"
"Er, never mind."

Chapter 118 Not Unsurprised.
Fae, Kane and Dalen made a huge impact on the battlefield.
Fae went berserk, sending bandits flying with every strike, sprinting around
the battlefield, infiltrating the ranks of the bandits, and causing general
mayhem as she chopped down their numbers. She instantly tripled the rate at
which the bandits were falling.
Dalen and Kane stayed closer to the inner sections of the convoy. Preventing
any of the bandits from being able to cripple the means of transport.
Dalen's Martial Art defensive in nature, allowing him to ensure not a single
bandit or could pass through him. His imposing developed physique easily
withstood anything the bandits mustered up with ease, he was like an
invulnerable tank.
Kane on the other hand, zipped around the inner sections of the convoy,
taking out the bandits who circled around Dalen and tried avoid him entirely.
He bolted faster than most of them could react, cleanly dismantling their
attacks and knocking them out.
The three of them flipped the flow of the battle a perfect one-eighty degrees
almost instantly.
"Oho, look what the cat dragged out." Feilin chuckled as she watched the trio
of Fae, Kane and Dalen clean up the battlefield. "Good call boss. If we
simply ambushed them like we normally do, we might have been the one to
get ambushed instead!"
"Hm..." The golden-haired man frowned, as his golden eyes sharpened.
"Hmph!" Vale snorted. "They're just three brats! We should just jump in and
annihilate them."
"They're decent." Han yawned. "But we have a numeric advantage."
"What's wrong boss?" Feilin asked. "They have three Martial Artists, isn't
that the end of the problem?"
"Just a thought..." He murmured.
"Thought?"
"If you were the Lowminers transporting thirteen Sky Crystals through a
dangerous valley with a known bandit group that has a record of targeting
Sky Crystals, with a minimum of one Martial Apprentice, possibly more." He
paused glancing at Feilin before continuing. "Would you hire only three
Martial Apprentices?"
"The Lowminers are careful and cautious but decisive when they have the
means to obtain their objectives. So why hire only three Martial Apprentice
bodyguards?" He squinted his eyes in suspicion.
"You're overthinking this, boss." She sighed with exasperation.
"...Possible." He admitted. "It just occurred to me that if this was indeed the
case... Then Lowminers have hired someone with great intelligence and
insight."
"Regardless, we'll proceed through immediately." He said. "We have

gathered enough information on them. Vale, Feilin and Han, you guys jump
in. I'll lay in wait and ambush one of them while they're fighting you, then we
crush them four-on-two."
"Four-on-two. Where's 'he' anyway?" Feilin asked.
"...Late." The man sighed. "Now go."
The three of them nodded, before leaping off the cliff and sprinting down.
For a moment, the golden-haired man was alone, before calling out.
"How long do you plan to hide?" He said, to seemingly no one.
"How rude." A voice from the shadows replied, before walking out. "I was
busy, you know."
"What are you here for?" The golden-haired man asked.
"Our patron expects you to succeed. The thirteen Sky Crystals must be
procured at all costs."
He glanced at the masked figure with his sharp golden eyes. "You're
supposed to be of help to this operation and to me. Instead, you're running
around prancing accomplishing nothing."
The masked figure chuckled. "Doesn't look like you need much help." He
replied, gesturing at the three Martial Apprentices from the Martial Union.
"Don't worry, I'll save you if things go sideways... Prince Rajak Di Kandria."
The masked man whispered, before melting into the shadows once more.
Rajak snorted lightly, before turning to the battle.
"One small step at a time... and eventually this country will be mine." He
whispered, with a flash of determination across his face.
* * * * * * * * * *
Rui watched as his friends cleaned up the battlefield, admiring their prowess.
All three of them had gotten stronger.
('Good.') Rui nodded. ('With this, level of power, we should be fin-')
Suddenly his senses caught onto something.
A figure jumped out of the woods slamming into Dalen at incredibly high
speeds.
BOOM
"Dalen!" Rui and Milliana immediately head out, but in that exact moment,
two more figure flew out of the forest, attacking Kane and Fae.
In just a moment, three Martial Artists had attacked his friends!
Thankfully, the ambush hadn't resulted in any casualties. Dalen was tough
enough to withstand the ambush, Kane narrowly managed to avoid the attack
entirely while Fae simply countered with a palm attack.
"Awwww, the ambush failed!" Feilin groaned exaggeratedly, smiling

savagely, as she leapt back from Fae. "Guess we'll have to do this the hard
way!"
Suddenly she sensed something at her back.
A fourth Martial Artist had appeared out of the blue!
Rui had charged up at top speed with Flowing Canon, launching his most
powerful strike. He had timed the attack perfectly, getting her just as she
disengaged from Fae, completely focused on the latter.
WHOOSH
Rui executed the technique perfectly, but where there was supposed to be his
target, now was empty air.
She had disappeared, in a moment.
"You're careless Feilin." Rajak said to her as he put her on the ground. "We
need to retreat, for now."
Rui's eyes shot wide open as a random golden-haired and golden-eyed man
appeared out of nowhere, extricating his target to safety.
('He's fast! Only Kane could pull something like that.')
Just as Rajak, Vale, Han and Feilin began distancing themselves from their
targets.
BOOM
They narrowly avoided being stomped as their escape route was cut-off by
three huge impacts.
Feilin, Vale and Han stared on in shock as three more masked Martial Artists
almost crushed them to the ground, cutting off their escape routes, even
Rajak couldn't help but feel shocked.
Rui, Kane, Fae, Dalen and Milliana quickly took their spots around the
important carriages of the convoy, forming a wide perimeter protective arc
between the inner convoy and the four bandit Martial Artists.
The three Lowminer bodyguards were on the opposite end, boxing them in.
And in the center were the four bandit Martial Apprentices.
In the span of little over ten seconds, the number of Martial Apprentices on
the field had risen from three to eleven!
Not a single one among them was unsurprised.

Chapter 119 Final Chance
There was a moment of silence on the battlefield. All Martial Apprentices

focused full on their opponents, sizing them up, evaluating the situation and
what course of action to take.
That moment ended quickly.
And all hell broke loose.
FOOM
The three Martial Apprentices of the Lowminer Industries shot towards the
bandits. They fired a storm of attacks forcing the bandits to diver their
attention towards them.
That's when Fae, Kane and Rui jumped in. The three of them sandwiched the
bandits against the Martial Apprentices, punishing them through sheer
numbers.
Dalen and Milliana circled a little further back, attacking and pushing them
back any time one of them tried to squiggle their way through. Their Martial
Art were not suited to belligerent attacks like the ones their peers were
conducting.
Furthermore, trying to prevent someone from escaping was much harder than
trying to not get beaten, which is why the bandits were proving to be a
handful.
Yet, despite six-to-four disadvantage, they somehow were just barely

managing to not get instantly overwhelmed.
('This blondie is strong.') Rui had recognized that long ago.

He was able to fight Rui and Kane at the same time, something Rui didn't
think was possible within the Martial Apprentice Realm, but evidently, he
was wrong.
The man had distractingly golden hair and eyes, almost as if they were
emitting light rather than reflecting it. Yet his hair and eyes were only the
second most attention drawing trait about him.
His Martial Art was remarkable, he had a wide wealth of Apprentice-level

techniques, even more so than Rui and Kane combined.
What Rui found interesting was that he was an all-rounder. He had no distinct
shortcoming and he was truly strong in all categories.
WHOOSH
He avoided a kick from Rui while blocking an attack from Kane. Rui shifted
as he threw a barrage of a Vital Pressure strikes, which the man calmly
proceeded to parry with a single arm, swinging his other arm with remarkable
speed and power towards Rui.
WHOOSH
Rui bent backwards narrowly avoiding the strike, however that left him wide
open for a follow up, which the man promptly launched.
BAM
Kane managed to throw him off by blasting him with swift kicks, forcing him
to divert his attention. What shocked Rui was that he wasn't much slower
than Kane, despite having a well-built frame. He used a variety of
Apprentice-level maneuvering and speed techniques allowing him to keep up
with Kane despite that.
Rui came to have more and more admiration for the man. An Apprentice-
level technique for everything, a solution for everything.
This is what Rui strived to obtain. This is what Rui strived to become!
Why had he gone through the pain of putting himself in such dangerous
missions? So that he could obtain techniques of higher grades to develop and
expand his Martial Art!
He grew more and more driven as the fight proceeded, fighting with greater
vigour than before.
BOOM
Dalen pushed him back as he tried evacuating.
"Tsk." He tutted before dodging a kick from Rui and blocking jabs from
Kane.
BAM
He slammed Rui away with a powerful spinning kick technique, Rui felt a
huge impact despite having used both Elastic Shift and Acute Edge.
('This battle would have been over long ago if it was just me.') Rui
recognized that. He had been saved by kane multiple times, and he had bailed
Kane out multiple times. They both did their best to prevent him from
focusing too much on one of them.
They both knew that if he did manage to focus on them for long enough, they
were dead.
Speed just a level below Kane.
Striking power just a level below Fae.
Defense just a level below Dalen.
They both felt insignificant. The pressure he emitted as a result of his power
was greater than any Apprentice Rui had ever seen, including the Apprentice
instructors at the Academy.
What made Rui feel worse was that all-rounders were the worst type of style
for the VOID algorithm. Because they had no straightforward shortcomings
that could be exploited. The VOID algorithm loved shortcomings; it loved
gobbling these weaknesses.
Strikers generally had a wrestling shortcoming.
Wrestlers generally had a striking shortcoming.
Speedsters generally had a power shortcoming.
Tankers generally had a mobility shortcoming.
But all-rounders had no such thing. Meaning the VOID algorithm had to go
through greater pains to develop a counter-style. Furthermore, Rui hadn't
fully adapted the more advanced version of the VOID algorithm to suit the
Martial Art of Gaea.
These were the impediments that stood in Rui's way this time.
BAM
The man managed to knock Kane down, and was about to pummel on him
when Rui just barely managed to draw his attention with Flowing Canon.
WHOOSH
He spun out of the way of the strike, generating enough torque for a powerful
strike.
BOOM
Rui just barely managed to block, reeling from the impact.
For a moment there, the man was free of both the pests holding him back. Yet
just as he dashed away for an escape.
BLAM
Dalen charged into him, pushing him back into the fray where Kane
showered him with a flurry of swift strikes.
And back to step one again he was. His frustration was growing more and
more palpable the longer this dragged on.
He had long given up on the Sky Crystals, they hadn't even crossed his mind
ever since the three Martial Apprentices of the Lowminer Industries popped
out.
He had one, and only one, objective.
Survive!
The Sky Crystals, his patron, his subordinates.
None of those mattered to him at this very moment. He would gladly

sacrifice all of them on a silver platter if that meant he would be able to
escape this predicament.
('I will not die a dog's death on this battlefield.') He swore in his heart. ('I am
destined for much greater things.')
He demeanor became more and more desperate as he began fighting far more
ferociously. The longer the battle went, the lower his chances of escaping and
surviving.
This was his final chance.

Chapter 120 Three-On-One
The battlefield had escalated in violence astronomically. Martial Apprentices

were those who were able to exceed the limits of their physicality via their
Martial Art and their Martial Path. This meant that the scales of power in a
fight with eleven Martial Apprentices would far surpass what ordinary
humans could do.
If someone from Earth heard the battle from afar, they would no doubt
assume they were near a live warzone and immediately flee. If they were to
see the battleground of the Martial Apprentices, they would assume a rogue
demolition vehicle had gone nuts in the area.
Broken trees, cracked rocks, cratered land, broken carriages, mangled bodies.
It was not conceivable that mere humans were responsible for such
devastation.
The outer section of the convoy was damn near entirely destroyed and
scattered, the men from the security team had huddled at the center of the
behind the Martial Apprentices of the Martial Union. Ordinarily they would
have long escaped while the bandit Martial Artist were held back, but they
were to remain in the battlefield so that the Martial Artists of the Martial
Union would be able to remain there to fight the bandit Martial Artists along
with their own Martial Artists.
The remaining security and other non-combat personnel quickly huddled in

the carriages and prayed for the best.
BOOM
Fae slammed Vale with a flurry of palm attacks, peppering with powerful
blows as he guarded against them with furious tenacity.
The man's physicality was greater than even that of Dalen, so Fae had
adjusted her fighting style just a little. Reducing the number of blows she
fired in her barrage in exchange for increasing the power of each blow. This
was because, a large number of weaker blows would not do as much damage
as lower number of stronger blows.
Damage did not work like that; it wasn't linear and additive in nature in that
way.
"RAAAGH." He swung at her with great power.
FWHAP
Fae deflected the attack to the side with a powerful palm attack. This was one
of the latest techniques she had mastered; Spiral Palm; By twisting her core
to generate torque, she could use her palm attacks not just in a linear fashion
to attack, but also to deflect all incoming linear blows. It had high efficiency,
although its flexibility was a little low.
The reason for that was because it really only worked on linearly incoming
attacks, and not strikes with a non-linear trajectory.
BOOM
She managed to land another strike clean on his abdomen through his guard
by altering her trajectory mid-strike with the help of yet another Apprentice-
level technique; Curling Convergence. Since her fight Kane, she had done her
best to increase her versatility. She had realized she was too limited, limited
to throwing straight palms.
This wasn't particularly her fault; she had broken through to Martial
Apprentice just a little after she turned fourteen. Although three years was not
a short time. Learning and mastering Martial Apprentice techniques took an
extremely long time, unless you were Rui, it had taken her a long time to
develop the basics of her Martial Art.
The strike she'd landed on Vale had struck his diaphragm much to her fortune
disorienting and incapacitating him.
BAM BAM BAM
She peppered him with more strikes, trying her best to ensure she didn't allow
him to recover.
A well-placed impact to the diaphragm hindered breathing significantly, since

it was the sole muscle responsible for the process of respiration.
BAM
POW
THWACk
BOOM
FWACK
POW
As she went on, it became clearer and clearer to everyone that the fight was
going worser and worser for Vale. Following his brief mild, yet vital
incapacitation, Fae exploited the opening to land a flurry of strikes on his
vitals.
Throat.
Liver.
Solar Plexus.
Lower jaw.
Philtrum.
Glabella.
BAM BAM BAM
p She launched a final combo. A straight palm into the diaphragm, an

uppercut palm attack to the jaw, and a final palm strike into his throat.
Vale staggered for half a second, before collapsing to his knees and then flat
onto his face.
What happened next drew the attention of every Martial Artist.
BAM
She launched a final palm strike pumped up with power straight down onto
the skull of the unconscious man.
CRACK
Without any Apprentice-level techniques, the human body would simply be

crushed by Fae's sheer raw power.
For moment, all the fights paused as the Martial Artists glanced at Vale's
mangled skull atop a pool of blood and cranial fluid.
Martial Artists of the Martial Union and the Lowminer Industries inwardly
rejoiced, while the bandits felt their heart sinking as cold terror and despair
had begun to engulf them.
Everybody knew that the outcome for the first fight would decide the
outcome of all fights. The reason was rather simple. The victor of that battle
would go on to aid their comrades, adding another force that they would have
to deal with.
If Vale had managed to kill Fae, then he would have been able to supplement
his comrades. The battle would have gone from eight against four, to seven
against four. Making life much easier for the bandits.
"That idiot...!" Feilin cursed.
Now that Fae had won, she would be coming to reinforce one of the three
ongoing fights.
The bandits were already having a hard time fighting their opponents,
especially with Milliana and Dalen regularly chipping in to either kill away
any brief advantage they gained or put them in a worser position.
With someone as strong as her coming into one of their fights, another one of
them was guaranteed to die.
Feilin, Han and Rajak kept an eye on her, looking to see which fight she
would join.
Her decision was quick.
STEP
She leapt towards Rajak at top speed.
BAM
She slammed him with her most powerful attack, expecting atleast significant
damage.
Alas, Rajak was not a trivial man. He slammed her attack while also partially
dodging, a combination of both ensured her attack missed cleanly.
BAM
He struck her with immense force, sending her flying away despite her block.
She quickly repositioned herself, forming a triangle with Rui and Kane.
It was now three-on-one.

Chapter 121 Replaced With
Uncertainty
BAM
Rajak smacked Rui away with a swift kick. But he was immediately rushed
by Fae and Kane. One launched an immensely powerful palm attack, the
other riddled him with incredibly speedy strikes.
He turtled up, crouching with his arms in front of him as he retreated trying
to put some space between them.
POW
"Argh!" He grimaced as Rui landed a kick straight on his head. Just as he

turned to swing at Rui;
BAM
THWACK
Fae and Kane resumed their offense forcing him to just barely defend against
them. The three of them bombarded him with attacks from three directions,
giving him no time or space to consolidate his defense.
All three of them were menaces for three different reasons.
Fae had the greatest firepower among three of them, surpassing even his own.
Every attack chipped away at his defense, inflicting some amount of damage.
She was a relentless canon, who fired with the intention of taking him down
with every strike. As far as game-ending attacks went, she was the strongest
of the three. He paid an immense of attention to her, because he knew that of
the three of his opponents, she was the likeliest to actually take him down if
he made a mistake.
However, the one who truly irritated him was Kane. The boy's speed and
agility were a level above his, furthermore, he was far more nimble, smaller,
and mobile than Rajak himself was. He danced around, squiggling his way
through narrow spaces and landing a flurry of attacks from everywhere.
Landing an attack was practically impossible, especially with the other two.
He frustrated Rajak the most.
However, the one that unsettled Rajak the most was the third one. As far as
only Martial Art techniques went, he was the weakest of the three. Rajak
could tell he had only barely formed the foundation of his Martial Art.
Yet for some reason, there was something about the kid that was eerie. As the
fight went on, the kid fought better and better, and grew harder and harder
fight against. The boy stared at him with pitch-black eyes, and Rajak felt
naked in front of his gaze. He felt transparent, as though the boy could see
thought everything. Every though, action, decision.
There were moments where he fought incredibly smoothly against Rajak,

almost as though he knew what Rajak would do before he even did it, and
even knew exactly what needed to be done in order to punish Rajak the most.
In the beginning, the boy struck him as an all-rounder, but his fighting style
kept changing and altering growing strangely more and more difficult to deal
with.
WHOOSH
BAM
Rui flipped out of the way of a low sweeping kick from Rajak, landing a
bicycle kick on his head. Rajak grimaced, stunned. At that moment, Rui had
begun the jump even before Rajak began the kick!
Fae and Kane appeared on the opposite sides of him, sandwiching him ins a
storm of attacks; swift and numerous on one side and powerful and
devastating on the other.
Rajak back away, grimacing in pain. His condition was bad, the addition of
Fae had contributed to the deterioration of his condition significantly. He was
at the stage where he was coughing blood. His mental faculties had taken a
hit from the damage and fatigue from combating the constant bombardment
from three of them.
His chances of escape were becoming more and more remote.
('I still have a chance. If I sacrifice defense to some extent, I'll be able to use
some offensive techniques open up some distance between all of us, I'll be in
a bad condition but I will have a clean chance to escape.') He began planning.
('Once I hide even for a brief few seconds, I should be able to partially
consume a healing potion, escape will become much more feasible.')
Just then, a large sound broke him out of his reverie.
BAM
"ARGH" Han grimaced as collapsed to the ground.
Rajak's cursed when he saw Han's leg broken in a horrible manner. The
Martial Artists of the Lowminer Industries had managed to cleanly break it.
Everyone knew in that moment, that he was as good as dead. He would never
be able to escape from this scenario alive.
The only bandits left fighting were Rajak and Feilin.
Rajak glanced at his second-in-command with hopelessness. She was bloody,

and battered with wounds all over her body. She had even lost her left eye.
It was over for them, Feilin had already collapsed to a knee, she would last
one exchange and would die immediately after.
The battle had gone from eight-on-four to now effectively eight-on-one.
Rajak was strong, but against eight Martial Apprentices, he stood no chance
in hell whatsoever. Only the pinnacle of Martial Apprentices had a chance of
surviving this predicament.
BOOM
Fae managed to cleanly land a palm attack into his solar plexus. He leapt
back, grimacing in pain. He looked around, the Martial Apprentices circled
around him like wolves ready to make the final strike.
He glanced at Han and Feilin, they were already dead.
They attacked, aiming to end this in one go.
Just as eight Apprentice-level attacks were about to mangle his mangle alive.
BOOM
An impact far greater than any on the battlefield blew them away, forcing
them to leap back. The impact reverberated through the land, shaking the
earth.
"Hahaha!" A voice pierced through the dust. "What a disagrace, you've really
fallen."
As the dust cleared, an unknown masked man, supporting the golden-haired

man appeared.
Rajak coughed blood. "Took you... cough cough... long enough."
The Martial Artists had no idea who this intruder was, but they all leaped at
him with determination.
WHOOSH
Just as their attacks were about to strike the duo, they cleanly passed through
them, as thought they were just an illusion.
The bandits had disappeared into thin air.

The Martial Apprentices were shocked. The fact that the man managed to
insert himself in the middle of eight hostile Martial Apprentices and evacuate
with a comrade, unharmed, was an unbelievable notion.
The atmosphere, which was previously filled with assurance and confidence,
had been replaced with that of uncertainty.
A strange silence spread through the air, as none of the Martial Apprentices
were able to muster up anything to say.
And they very well couldn't be blamed for that. They had the final bandit
exactly where they wanted him. And just as they were about to finish the job,
a fifth bandit came in stopped the, grabbed the man and jumped out of there.
What could they even say? What were they supposed to say?
Rui sighed. "Well, atleast the mission succeeded." He said, turning around to
inspect the inner section of the travelling convoy. Thankfully, the carriages
and the horses hadn't suffered much damage and the loss of life to the non-
combat personnel was minimal. Milliana and Dalen staying back to ensure
that their primary mission would be fulfilled was a life-saver.
The outer section was now almost entirely non-existent, however. The battle
with the bandit troops and later the battle between eleven Martial Apprentices
had wrecked all that battle chariots that carried the security personnel.
Their primary mission was well fulfilled. All the goods were safe, and the
Martial Quint fought with everything they had to ensure the goods would be
safe. So, Rui was relatively certain that he would be fully remunerated for his
services.
Furthermore, the covert operation of the Lowminer Industries was also a

decent success. Although two Martial Apprentice bandits managed to escape,
they had annihilated most of the bandits, including three Martial Apprentices.
This was a solid accomplishment that could not be downplayed.
All in all, Rui felt quite satisfied with what they accomplished. The
fulfillment of nearly nailing a mission perfectly was quite high, especially
when the mission was important and had high stakes. It far surpassed the
trivial missions he had completed in the past week.
"Let's wrap things up and resume our journey." Rui suggested. "I highly
doubt those two will be returning any time soon, but I think it's best if we
make haste in our journey and get out of the Shadow Trails as soon as
possible."
No one argued with that. The Martial Apprentices of the Lowminer Industries
aided in sorting out the chaotic convoy while the Martial Quint returned to
their carriage, exhausted.
"Man that was actually insane!" Kane exclaimed. "We fought and killed three
Martial Apprentices. I bet our grades are all gonna shift up."
He was probably correct. Rui did not think his evaluation would remain at
three. But what he was most interested in were the martial credits from the
mission. Once he received the pay, he would have a total of six hundred and
fifty-three martial credits. Furthermore, there was the additional bonus that
the branch manager Savin had promised them.
Rui hoped the man would pay up, after all, it was merely a verbal promise, he
wasn't obligated to pay up.
Soon, the convoy finally managed to wrap up and pull itself together. The
Martial Apprentices had already long revealed themselves so they kept an eye
out from the outside where it was easier to conduct surveillance.
Hours passed as the sun started going down, the clouds gathered, barricading
its light. At one point, it even began snowing heavily. After all, Kandria was
about to enter the most extreme phase of Winter.
And just like that, half a day passed.
No more ambushes, or attacks, the convoy passed through the Shadow Trails
uneventfully. This was largely expected, but the Martial Apprentices kept an
eye out for the two Martial Artists who escaped, especially the masked one.
That one was truly formidable, although they did not think the eight of them
would lose. If he chose to fight, there would probably be some casualties.
No one wanted to die.
They soon exited the Shadow Trails, and an hour later, had left the Basara
Mountain range in the distance on the horizon.
The convoy finally relaxed; they settled down as the town of Gallagar was
entering their field of view.
This was Rui's first time visiting a town aside from that of Hajin, he reveled
in the experience. The town of Gallagar had a different feel to it than that of
Hajin. For one, it was nearly as well-developed or commercial as the town of
Hajin was. The infrastructure wasn't as good as that of Hajin, and the
population was less dense in comparison.
There were a lot more residential areas across the entire town, and even at the
heartland of the town. Unlike in Hajin, where the further you went to the
center of the town the more commercial it became.
Soon they arrived at their destination in Gallagar. The convoy stopped as it

arrived at a branch of the Lowminer Industries.
What followed was relatively quick and simple, the convoy was received and
adequately handled. It was getting late, the snowfall had accelerated too, so
the Martial Quint decided to postpone their journey back to Hajin. The
Lowminer Industries graciously offered to take care of their housing and their
return trip back to Hajin. Apparently, the actual client, the branch manager of
the Lowminer Industries wished to speak to them privately.
"Hopefully for something good too." Kane yawned. "Well, at the very least
they're willing to pay for our inn. We should go the most expensive hotel in
town and dump the bill on the Lowminers."
"Let's not do that, the branch manager promised us an additional bonus

reward, credits are way more important to me than a luxurious night out."
"Tsk tsk. You need to learn how to live."
"I agree with Rui." Fae said, throwing a disapproving look at Kane. "You're
the heir of the Arrancar family, show some class. Rui here has far more grace
than you do."
"Oh shut up, you're just a little girl who got spoilt by her grandmother." Kane
retorted.
Rui sighed as that sparked the umpteenth bout of conflict between them, he
had long given up on trying to mediate it. It was just a fact that those two
didn't get along.
Chapter 123 The Next Step
The five of them treated the rest of the day as a holiday, peacefully relaxing
after a stressful mission. They'd wandered around the town of Gallagar
indulging themselves to a little fun.
"Man, I wonder who that masked dude was." Dalen thought aloud. "He was
ridiculously strong."
"I wonder if he'll reform the bandit group and continue." Fae wondered.
"Unlikely." Rui pitched in. "Not any time soon, anyway. His men were
slaughtered and he lost his Martial Apprentice subordinates, bar the masked
Martial Artist. Rebuilding the bandit group to its former size and strength is
going to take a while."
"I doubt he even wants to, in the first place." Kane said. "He kinda got his ass
whooped."
They headed back to the inn after a while, heading to sleep.
The next morning, they cleaned up. Taking the opportunity to head to the
Lowminer Industries branch of Gallagar. They quickly boarded the transport
provided by the Lowminers, and headed straight back home. Rui used this
time to gather his thoughts on the mission.
Although he was feeling pretty proud and content with his performance,
looking at it more objectively he had to admit that things were pretty stacked
in their favour in hindsight. They had eight Martial Apprentices against the
five Martial Apprentices. It would be embarrassing if more than two
managed to get away.
Still, this did not take away his sense of achievement.

Sometimes, things just went your way, and sometimes they didn't. In his first
mission, things were ridiculously stacked against him. This was a bit of a
compensation, in a way.
All he could do was be grateful and move on.
Half a day passed uneventfully, and they reached Hajin, and eventually, the
main Lowminer Industries branch in Hajin.
"Should we really visit him before we complete post-mission protocol?" Rui

wondered.
"Well, he did handle our housing and transport." Fae said. "Let's just pay him
a quick visit before heading back."
Rui shrugged. He wasn't particularly in any hurry, and he was a little curious
about what the man had to say.
"Welcome!" Savin said once they entered his office. "I've already been given
a detailed report by the Martial Apprentices of our company. Allow me to
begin by expressing my gratitude, I am thoroughly grateful for your services
and performance. I was quite pleased to hear that all but two bandits were
eliminated, this is more than good enough to achieve the desired result."
"We were just completing our mission." Fae responded. "We are appreciative
of your gratitude."
She left the floor open to him.
"As a token of our gratitude, we have decided to double the bonus reward."
Savin smiled charmingly. "We hope we have not burdened you in an
untoward manner during this mission."
Rui immediately understood what was going on. ('He's currying favour with
the Martial Union.')
There were several reasons he would do this. Firstly, the Martial Union was
an entity that basically ruled the Kandrian Empire after the Royal Family.
Kissing its ass was always a good thing to do. Secondly, Rui was cognizant
enough to realize that the Lowminer Industries were probably worried they
had annoyed the Martial Union.
They had clashed with the Martial Union's mission very directly during the
events of Rui's first mission, directly causing its failure, that too with a
private Martial Apprentice. Although there was no straightforward concrete
evidence asides from Wern's words, the truth was the truth and the Martial
Union was not stupid. They knew who was responsible for Bella's death, the
Lowminers knew the Martial Union knew, and the Martial Union knew the
Lowminers knew.
Furthermore, this particular mission was somewhat unorthodox as well. It

wasn't deviant as the first mission which was a whole four ranks under-
graded. But the Lowminers did in fact exploit the Martial Union to some
degree with their hidden operation.
Although the Martial Union would not directly retaliate over such a trivial
matter, it was still in their best interests to mend their shaky relationship with
the Martial Union. Even the tiniest bit of effort from the Martial Union's end
could utterly annihilate every trace of the Lowminer Industries from the face
of the country.
The Lowminers were top dogs, however that was limited to a handful of
sectors and industries across a handful of towns. They could not compare to
nation-wide companies or even region-wide companies.
This was the only reason Rui could think for the Lowminers to go as far as
doubling the bonus reward.
Not that Rui was complaining. Double the reward would result in a total of
one thousand martial credits!
This when summed up with Rui's existing balance, resulted in 1153 martial
credits!
This sum was above Rui's set bar to reach for purchasing new techniques and
immersing himself in training.
Rui was so excited that he could barely control himself from shivering and
jumping in ecstasy.
With such a solid budget, the techniques he could purchase would be just as
reliable. The foundational techniques he had obtained for free weren't too
bad, however they were just barely enough to allow Martial Apprentices to
complete simple missions. The Martial Academy had carefully made a select
set of techniques free so that the Apprentices would just be strong enough to
be able to earn credits to purchase more techniques.
To be honest, the shortcomings of his techniques were already starting to

become apparent. He had begun to feel that during his first mission with
Bella, but had really noticed this during this mission in the Shadow Trails. He
could sense that he was probably the most under-developed Martial
Apprentice in that entire battle.
He was able to compensate for this with the predictive and counter-deductive
capacity of the VOID algorithm, but this was not a long-term solution. This
wasn't particularly his fault, he had barely been a Martial Apprentice for half
a year and was much stronger than any Martial Apprentice that
inexperienced.
But now that would change, once he finished with this round of training, he
estimated he would reach a whole new level of capability.
Chapter 124 Priorities
,m Author note: Hey priv readers. Yesterday I uploaded the wrong chapters
by mistake. I fixed it within an hour of uploading, so you may not have
noticed. However I urge you to reread those chapters just in case.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
**********
Rui stopped listening after the extra bonus was mentioned. He frankly didn't
care all that much about anything else the Lowminers had to say. The rest of
the meeting passed in a daze as the branch manager tried to make as good an
impression in the limited amount of time they had left.
Soon enough, Fae promptly excused all of them and left the branch, heading
to the Martial Union. Once they arrived at the Martial Union, Rui raced to
complete the post-mission protocols as fast as he possible could.
"What's he all excited about?" Dalen asked with confusion. "We just got back
after a tiring mission."
Kane and Fae sighed.
"Forget about it." Fae shook her head.
"Nerds spend time in the library." Kane said. "That's exactly what he wants to
do."
Rui couldn't even be bothered retorting to the barbs. Once he filled up the
forms and signed the what needed to be signed. He rushed to the Apprentice
library the second his work was finished.
"See you guys later!" He yelled as the figure of his friends grew smaller in
the distance.
Seeing that Kane got up, stretching. "Well, I should probably train too, I can't
have him surpassing that easily."
Fae agreed with Kane, as she rarely did. "It would be embarrassing if the runt
I smacked in the Entrance Exam one-upped me in just a year."
Saying this the two of them proceeded to bid Dalen and Milliana goodbye.
Once Rui entered the Apprentice library, he was so excited he felt jittery.
Like a child who had entered a gigantic toy store after saving up his or her
allowance for a whole year.
What techniques should he learn? In what direction should evolve or develop

his Martial Art in? There were so many options he simply didn't know where
to begin.
The foundational techniques were not only limited in grade, they were also
limited in variety. The premium techniques consisted of a much more diverse
set of types of techniques that relied on different mechanics and principles.
Before Rui could even dive in. He first calmed himself down, inhaling and
exhaling deeply, regaining his composure. There was no point in getting too
excited and making stupid decisions about how to spend his martial credits,
these were hard-earned credits. He needed to spend them wisely.
Firstly, what was he here for?
To develop and expand his Martial Art.
In what manner did he want that to happen? What were the constraints to the
development trajectory of his Martial Art?
This was a bit more complicated and nuanced. First, he was an all-rounder.
This meant he could not allow his Martial Art to develop disproportionately
higher in any one field.
Another constraint at this point in time, would be to fill in the holes in his
Martial, and avoid filling what is already well-filled.
What were the relative strengths and weaknesses of his Martial Art?
('My offense is still lacking in general lethality.') Rui immediately surmised.
In his last training session, he had tried to bolster his offensive arsenal with
Flowing Canon and Mirage Dive, a striking and grappling offense move
respectively. However, both of these techniques lacked flexibility. They
could only be used in a handful of all the circumstances that Rui normally
found himself in.
Flowing Canon was a technique that required a run-up to accumulate

momentum. This turned out to be much more limiting than Rui had hoped.
After all, it wasn't possible to run back and forth every time you wanted to
strike your opponent.
Most of the times, he was limited to using Vital pressure, a technique system
that targeted vitals in the most effective way with every strike by optimizing
hand form, location as well as angle of impact.
However, this was nowhere near a lethally threatening move, all it did was
allow his strikes to inflict damage greater than he normally would.
That wasn't enough.
Thus, Rui decided to fundamentally improve his offense on a general level.

What else?
('Another lacking aspect of my combat is combat speed.') Rui mused.
Although he had mastered maneuvering techniques like Parallel Walk and

Balance Direction, those helped only in more locomotive speed, allowing
him easily increase or shorten the distance between his opponent and him,
allowing to engage in guerilla tactics well enough. But the fundamental speed
of his combat was still too low.
Thus, he quickly added combat speed to the list.

Those were the two most glaring holes in his Martial Art. Everything else
didn't have any overwhelming insufficiency.
His defense wasn't all too outdated, surprisingly. Though that was partially
due to the fact that the defensive techniques he had mastered; Acute Edge and
Elastic Shift were dependent on timing and placement of the techniques. The
better Rui's timing and placement was, the more effective these techniques
were.
The VOID algorithm loved such techniques, since it provided Rui with as
close to the optimal timing and placement of these techniques adapted against
specific opponents. Which is why Rui didn't particularly notice a deficiency.
('Still, bolstering my defense with a technique will help regardless.') Rui

mused. Defense was what protected his life. He did not want to be dismissal
of it.
('I can't think of any other critical shortcoming...') Rui scratched his head. All
of the fields of his Martial Art and attributes were not unsatisfactory.
('Well, we'll see.') He shrugged. He could always decide what to do with the
leftover reserve of martial credits once he finished handling the most
important aspects of his Martial Art.
He could add trump cards with high efficiency that would allow him to
vanquish his opponents instantly, or he could add more esoteric techniques
that are difficult to counter, making him much more of a menace to deal with.
Or he could be conservative and add a technique that increased his chances of
survival and avoiding severe damage in battle. He wasn't sure.
Having decided what exactly he was looking for, he finally dove into the
offense section of the Apprentice library.
Chapter 125 Choices
In truth, he did not need to spend much time searching for the perfect
technique for his Martial Art that fit the criteria he had set. He had already
long set his eye on a technique.
[Outer Convergence]
This technique was one of the core techniques of Fae's Martial Art.
It was a technique that allowed the user to strike with the power of all muscle
groups in the body. Normally, this was possible to do in only a handful of
positions. But Outer Convergence took it a step further and made it universal.
The technique was based on the principle of additive torques.
A bullet shot by a normal gun moved around the speed of sound.
However, what if the man firing the gun was sitting in a bus also moving at
the speed of sound?
Then the speed of the bullet to someone outside would be the speed of the
bullet plus the speed of the bus. The total speed of the bullet would be twice
the speed of sound.
However, what if the bus itself was standing on top of a plan moving at the
speed of sound? Following the same logic, the net speed of the bullet would
be thrice the speed of sound. The bullet essentially got boosted by the added
speeds of the bus and the plane.
The Outer Convergence was a technique that boosted speed and power
equally, that functioned similarly to the bullet analogy.
The fist was the bullet in this case, and the various muscle groups were akin
to the bus and the plane.
By moving in a manner that ensured the force and acceleration generated by

each muscle group would cleanly sum up and funnel into the strike ensured
that the power of the strike was vastly higher than if the strike was thrown
merely with a portion of the muscle groups across the entire body.
Fae had partially mastered this technique during the Entrance Exam, and had
gone on to fully master it once she entered the Academy, allowing for her
power and speed to have surged remarkably.
This was a technique that would kill two birds with one stone, fixing his two
biggest shortcomings.
He winced when he glanced at the price. ('four hundred martial credits, oof.')
Thankfully, the technique was justifiably powerful, furthermore, he truly

needed the technique to increase the foundational formidability of his Martial
Art. So, he put aside his compunctions about the matter
He also had seven hundred and fifty-three martial credits left.
He walked over to the defense section of the Apprentice library, skimming

through the technique scrolls slotted in the shelves.
[Elastic Dispersion]
A successor to both Acute Edge and Elastic Shift. It added muscle relaxing
techniques that further made collisions elastic, dramatically decreasing the
damage inflicted on the user.
('It effectively makes the user a bouncy ball, hard to actually damage with
blunt force.') Rui mused. This was a solid candidate, furthermore as a
successor to techniques he had already learnt, he would be able to get a hang
of it much quicker than other techniques of the same difficulty.
But the price was a deal cutter for Rui.

('Four hundred and twenty martial credits.') He flinched. ('I'm good, for
now.')
He did not intend to overcompensate for his defense. He glanced around,

eying the closest techniques with interest.
[Adamantium Flex]
The extreme opposite of Elastic dispersion in principle, it aimed to make the

user harder than the opponent's attack for a brief moment by executing an
extreme momentary blood-rushed flex of the muscles, thereby inflicting
damage onto the attacker rather than the user. It was effectively like trying to
punch a steel wall, no matter how hard you hit, your fist will always break
before the steel wall, every time.
Still, it was an extremely high-grade technique, with immensely high

efficiency and flexibility. This meant it was extremely expensive
proportionately.
He moved onto some of the lower-graded techniques which were much less
exaggerated in their effectivity and of a lower grade too.
[Axis Fortress]
This was a technique that allowed the user to defend against attacks much
more effectively by ensuring the impact travels parallel from one end of the
bone straight down to the other end.
Bones were much easier to damage and break if force was applied at the mid-
point of the bone from outside, they were much more difficult to damage and
break if the force was applied through the bone from one end to the other, by
an entire order of magnitude!
Rui recalled reading research that bones could be sixteen times more durable
through the bone end-to-end vs against the bone at the mid-point.
However, he had never thought that that fact could be applied such a manner!
[Raging Reforge]
This was a technique the focused on general all-round body conditioning.
Improving the toughness of epithelial tissue; skin and flesh, as well as the
durability of the skeletal and the muscle systems using very specific recurring
patterns of strenuous micro-damaging and healing procedures.
[Chain Clash]
This technique was a technique that strengthened the joints through rigorous
conditioning. The joints were just as important as the bones. In clashes, an
immense amount of stress was put on the joints. The one with stronger joints,
experienced less damage, ultimately allowing their durability to increase
significantly.
('Hmmm...') Rui was quite impressed by these techniques. They were simple
and effective, and got the job done.
He was quite impressed by his creative some of these techniques were. They
applied simple biological and physical phenomena and facts of the human
body and nature in resourceful ways to achieve significant results. Rui hadn't
even considered many of these, despite being well aware of these facts and
phenomena.
Not that it was due to his lackluster imagination or creativity, but many of
these would straightforwardly be entirely impossible for normal humans. It
was only due to the cognitive boosts provided by the discovery of the Martial
Path that allowed for Martial Apprentices to master such potent techniques.
Chapter 126 Have It Now
He had yet to choose a technique, he had grown far too engrossed in the
creativity these techniques displayed.
He wasn't entirely sure what technique to pick, he didn't want to go all out on
defense and pick an extravagant technique since his defense was sturdy
enough. He skimmed through the section a bit more as his eyes landed on
something interesting.
[Inner Divergence]
This technique was a defensive technique that dispersed the impact of strikes
across the entire body by positioning the area of impact as close to the center
of the body as possible. By conducting the impact across the entire body and
not just the area of impact, the impact would be diluted and not inflict any
damage.
It was similar to how a weight placed on top of a pyramid would be burdened

by every block in the pyramid. By dispersing the impact cross the body, it
was easier to withstand than if a single portion of the body withstood it.
The technique was extremely high-grade, however for some reason it was not
priced very high, a meagre two hundred martial credits
As Rui skimmed through the scroll, he quickly realized why.
('It has a disproportionately high degree of difficulty of mastery.')
The more difficult a technique was to master and execute, the less its value
was. Two high grade techniques with different difficulties of mastery had
different value.
It turned out that Inner Convergence was such an obtuse technique that its
effectivity of application was one hundred-percent dependent on the timing
and judgement of the user, it's effectivity could potentially be worser than
Exploration techniques. It required remarkable judgement, timing and
placement, far more so than most other techniques.
If timed well, it could apparently surpass its grade, but if timed poorly it
could even get one killed in the worst-case scenario.
The technique specifically warned the reader of the high requirements of

mental faculties, and advised the reader to not purchase the technique if the
reader's mental attributes were not significantly above average.
Rui's twinkled as he felt an uncontrollable laugh boil from his stomach. It

took superhuman effort to restrain himself, but he did not want to look like a
weirdo to the other Martial Artists and staff in the library. Above average
mental attributes? That was all Rui had going for him! He put his hand on the
scroll without much hesitation.
Outer Convergence for offense and combat speed.
Inner Divergence for defense.
('With the power of Convergence and Divergence, I will elevate myself to the
next level.') Rui mused to himself.
He still had a total of five hundred and fifty-three martial credits left. He
wanted to expand his Martial Art's general capability beyond just offense,
defense, maneuvering and supplementary measures.
The last ten days had taught him that missions were much, much more about
just hand-to-hand combat. Missions were not official duels where the only
thing that mattered was one's combat prowess. In fact, he had come to realize
that pure straightforward combat prowess was at most half of what was
necessary to complete missions more optimally.
Having additional useful skills that would help him out in the field. They
would not only increase the probability of success, but could also save his
life.
This was one of the reasons he was reluctant on splurging on defense. His
defense wasn't nearly weak enough for him spend that kind of money.
He walked over to the miscellaneous section of the Apprentice library,

skimming through the techniques that they offered.
"Wow." Rui raised his eyebrows. The section was divided further into several
sub-sections;
Stealth
Sensory
Environment-centric
Beast-centric
Labour-centric
Weapons-mastery
And several other niche fields. These sub-sections were too small to form
their own major sections like offense, defense or maneuvering, but also too
big to not be categorized in some way or the other.
Rui was immediately interested in the sensory sub-section. This sub-section

broadly encompassed techniques that in one way or another allowed the user
to perceive or gain more information about the environment and surroundings
or specific phenomena or targets.
[All-Seeing Eye]
This technique trained all five senses using techniques that exploited the
cognitive boosts of the Martial Path to exponentially increase the range of all
senses, allowing the user to cleanly perceive all objects within a range far
greater than the normal human limit, allowing the user to form a detailed
three-dimensional model of everything within said range. Furthermore, it was
more of a technique than a passive state, meaning the user could deactivate it
when unnecessary.
This was the highest graded techniques in the entire section, costing a
whopping four hundred martial credits. This technique almost entirely
guaranteed that all covert operations within a certain range of the user would
not go undetected.
It was useful in every single scenario.
Rui was extremely temped to purchase this technique, but he did not need
something this extravagant. The sheer prowess of this technique was meant
for Martial Artists who routinely performed in extremely dangerous
environments and situations rife with immediate risk.
Rui definitely wanted to purchase a sensory technique, but he wanted to

purchase something a little less extravagant that would still serve its purpose.
[Sixth Sense]
A technique that trained the danger evaluation intuition of the user, allowing
them to subconsciously detect dangerous phenomena within a certain range.
,m This was also quite the high-grade technique, but a bit more manageable
as far pricing went.
Just as he was about to reach for it, another technique caught his eyes.
[Seismic mapping]
This was a systematic training system rather than a technique that put the user
through a series of training sessions using highly specialized training
facilities in the Martial Academy that allowed the user to map out general
topography as well as moving objects in contact with the ground. It did this
by sensitizing the user enough to be able to detect vibrations in the ground.
Different topographies and physical properties of the ground would result in

different micro-vibrations, allowing the user to reliably detect their
surroundings.
Rui sighed. If he had had this technique during his first mission, there was a
pretty good chance that Bella might've been alive. He would have detected
the gangs being mobilized by the Lowminers in all likelihood, as well as the
racing Martial Artist who was sent to separate him from Bella.
Alas, there was no way he could have gotten his hands on the technique
before the mission.
('But I have it now.') He thought, gripping the scroll.

Chapter 127 Decisions
Outer Convergence and inner Divergence handled the pure combat-oriented

aspects of his Martial Art. Seismic Mapping increased his competence in
mission solving.
He had three hundred and fifty-three martial credits left. He wanted to

splurge all of it on one more technique in order to get something that would
benefit him all-round.
He wasn't sure where to go with this. A condition like that was too vague to
allow him to narrow down his search.
He began by dismissing environmental techniques, that was too specific.

Labour-centric techniques were also instantly disqualified.
Beast-centric techniques were interesting, but he did not intend on deep

diving into hunting class missions just quite yet, he also wanted something a
bit more fundamental before expanding to esoteric fields and applications.
Weapons-mastery was certainly interesting, but he felt it was far too much of
an initiative. Mastering even a single weapon was no joke, and usually
required many years of hard training.
He also wasn't particularly interested or attracted to them. He was a hand-to-

hand purist fanboy. Though dealing with weapons was something he would
eventually have to do. Upgrading the VOID algorithm to deal with weapon
users was part of the long process of adapting the VOID algorithm to the
world of Martial Art.
He also hadn't seen much of hand-held weapons either, he wasn't sure why,
perhaps he ought to ask one of their squire instructors when he got around to
it.
('That leaves...') He glanced at the final section he left untouched. ('Stealth.')
Stealth techniques were mainly useful for covert operations, but being
capable of some degree of stealth was probably generally useful.
('If I had stealth capabilities, I might have been able to hide Bella to safety.')
He thought. But again, there was no way he could have.
He skimmed through the sub-section, unsure of what to expect. What he saw

blew his mind.
[Void Step]
A technique that employed the highest degree of misdirection to completely

escape the target's cognition, bypassing all manual surveillance and
perception. At the highest level of mastery, a user could effectively move
around a room filled with Martial Apprentices and not be noticed at all.
Six hundred and sixty martial credits.
Grade ten difficulty.
('What???') Rui was flabbergasted. He did not think such ridiculous feats
were possible via Martial Art techniques. It was truly a ridiculously beyond
what he thought would be the norm. He glanced through some more
techniques, ascertaining their prowess.
[Blank Melt]
Avoid detection by travelling outside the peripheral vision of observers with

a combination of light misdirection.
[Dead Step]
Avoid the production of noise in the air by manipulating air via a

coordinating breathing technique that cancels out the sound waves in the air.
('You're kidding me.') Rui wouldn't have been surprised if someone told him
he was being trolled. ('There's no way this is possible.)
But alas, it was. Rui set aside his disbelief and skimmed through them. If the
previous sections had intrigued him, it was nothing compared to the
fascination he felt as he shuffled through the stealth techniques.
He had already decided to pick one of them for his final technique, he just
wasn't entirely sure which one to go with.
Void Step was the highest graded technique in the entire sub-section, and this
was despite the it's extremely high difficulty of mastery. Rui, for one, did not
think it was over-graded or overpriced, the stated capabilities of the
techniques professed by the technique summary was utterly nonsensical.
Rui was almost grateful that the technique extraordinarily difficult to master,
he would be scared to leave the house if every Apprentice had mastered that
technique!
Still, he hadn't yet decided which of them to purchase. Just as he began

skimming through, a particular technique caught his eye.
[Blink]
This was a relatively simple technique. It was a technique that trained the
user to be able to act during an observer's blink, partially bypassing their
vision. It was a technique that could be used to bypass ordinary observers and
even had some utility in combat, allowing them to catch their opponents by
surprise by initiating attacks during blinks. It was useful in pretty much all
fields and classes of missions, including the hunting and assault class
missions.
It was a beautifully simple technique, that could be incredibly powerful

depending on how well it was timed and how the user exploited it. Another
technique with good compatibility with the VOID algorithm.
Furthermore, it costed three hundred and twenty martial credits, falling well
within his budget, unlike the highest-grade techniques.
And that put an end to his shopping spree.
Four techniques; Outer Convergence for power and speed, Inner Divergence
for defense, Seismic Mapping for sensory and Blink for stealth.
Rui was satisfied to with his choices. He had only gone for four techniques,
prioritizing quality over quantity.
Once he mastered these four techniques, he was confident he would be able

to hold his own even in higher grade techniques.
Perhaps soloing missions at grade six and above would still end up being too
much, but grade five and below would be completely fair game.
"Made your choices?" A voice called out to him, breaking him from his
reverie. "That was quick."
Rui didn't even need to turn around to recognize him. "Kane, what's up?"
"Not much, same as you." He said. "Looking to get some techniques to bump
up my fluidity in maneuvering."
He paused, before looking around. "But still, you're getting a stealth

technique huh? That's a bit unexpected. I thought you weren't too interested
in covert stuff."
"Not particularly." Rui admitted. "But it's dawned me that some degree of
covert capacity is needed. Have you made your choices?"
"Not yet." Kane said. "I just arrived. I think I'll pick two techniques this
time."
Those words earned a wince from Rui. "You better master them quickly my
friend, otherwise I'll be leaving you in the dust when I'm done training." He
playfully said in a challenging tone.
"Heh, don't get ahead of yourself." Kane smirked. "I'll run circles around you
when I'm done."
Chapter 128 Excited Yet
Rui left the Apprentice library, leaving Kane to figure what techniques he
wanted to purchase. He wanted to begin the training session immediately.
The first training facility he headed over to was the designated training center
for the technique.
"Instructor Dylon." Rui greeted the head instructor of the Apprentice facility,
a Martial Squire.
Generally, the Apprentice students were mentored and trained by veteran

Martial Squires with deep expertise and experience with whatever field they
were assigned to.
Squire Kyrie was the head instructor of combat training. Squire Dylon was
assigned to offensive striking.
"Hm?" He glanced over, focusing on Rui. Just this gesture alone, generated a
bit of mental weight on Rui. "Ahhh, kid. What brings you here today? Here to
learn six techniques in one month this time?" He teased with a nonchalant
smile.
"Only four." Rui replied, sincerity.
"..."
"I just purchased this technique." Rui said, waving the technique scroll of
Outer Divergence. "I wanted to begin the training right away."
"Ah, that one." He said. "Good technique, I used it all the time in the field
even after I became a Squire."
Rui's eyes widened at those words. "Wait what? I thought Apprentice-level

techniques were too weak for Martial Squires."
The man made a complicated expression. "Well yes and no. Actually, I'm not
supposed to talk muc-"
He paused as he felt Rui's intense stare burning holes in him.
"Alright alright." he made an exasperated sigh. "The Realm of a technique is

not related to the power of the technique. It's related to the pre-requisites and
the compatibility between technique and Martial Artist."
Rui tilted his head, confused.
"There is a very qualitative and fundamental difference between Martial

Squires and Martial Apprentices, it's not just a matter of strength, speed and
durability." He explained. "The quintessential foundation of our material
bodies is different."
"Huh??" Rui made an incredibly confused expression at the cryptic nonsense

the man spouted. ('Is he for real?')
"Because we are fundamentally different, our techniques function

mechanically different." he continued, ignoring Rui's confusion. "An
Apprentice-level Martial Art technique simply cannot utilize our full power
because it is not meant to handle our power. Squire-level techniques are
simply techniques that can handle the power of Martial Squires, and can only
be used by Martial Squires."
p "So, they're just designed to be compatible with the power of a Martial

Squire?" Rui asked, still frowning.
"Yes, and it's harder than it sounds." He directed a pointed look at Rui "The
difference between us exceeds your imagination."
"But... what is this difference? Why can't you just... use Apprentice level
techniques?" He pressed, the man was not telling him the key detail.
He simply shook his head. "There's a reason we don't tell Martial Apprentices
about the path to Martial Squires, kid. And it isn't just to sound mysterious
and cool." He chuckled. "There's a very practical reason for avoiding spilling
the secret to every little runt who discovered their Martial Path."
"And why is that?"
"Because we've discovered that revealing the breakthrough to Martial Squire

before one's Martial Art has matured and one's Martial Path has deepened...
reduces their chances of breaking through." He explained. "Kids are too
immature; the knowledge simply has an adverse effect on most of you. It's
kind of the same reason we don't allow children to drink alcohol or have sex.
You're just not ready, it will have an adverse effect on you and end up ruining
an entire generation of children if normalized."
"What?" Rui frowned.
"And that's about all I'll say." He shook his head.
"Well, then at the very least tell me how you continued using Outer
Convergence even after you became a Squire?" Rui asked. This was a valid
question, how did Dylon use an Apprentice-level technique as a Squire if
Apprentice-level techniques were too inadequate for Martial Squires?
"Ah, Apprentice-level techniques can be evolved and adapted to suit Martial

Squires through training and experience. The moment the user has
completely evolved it to suit his or her body, they're no longer Apprentice-
level, but now Squire level." He said. "The Martial Union has Squire-level
versions of all the Apprentice-level techniques which can be purchased in
order to hasten up the process."
"I see..."
"..."
"..."
"You're here to train right?" He sighed. "Quit tryna learn what you're not
supposed to. Instead focus on learning what you came here to learn."
Rui was so engrossed in thought that he'd actually forgotten why he had
originally even made his way here.
"Right..." Rui pulled himself together. "I'm here to master the Outer
Convergence technique." He said with a hint sullen pout.
"Don't look so down." He chuckled as he took a boxing stance. He threw a

straight punch, the strike flew with such ferocity and power that it whipped
through the air, causing a powerful blast of air to slam against Rui, pushing
him back a little. He looked on at Dylon, shocked at the display of power.
"That was Outer Convergence at peak Apprentice-level, I reduced my power

to pinnacle Apprentice-level show you what you yourself can eventually
achieve." He said, leaving Rui speechless.
The display of power was beyond almost anything he had ever seen. The only
thing that was comparable was the mysterious masked Martial Apprentice
bandit who saved his comrade and evacuated.
"...And this." He took a stance as his expression grew more serious, and his
concentration intensified, his muscles growing taut. "Is what Outer
Convergence can do that at the Squire-level..."
Rui felt every hair on his body stand up as he instinctively leapt back.
BAM
Just the very motion caused a huge shockwave far more powerful than before
that pushed him back. Dylon disappeared, Rui only saw his starting stance
and ending stance. Everything in between was too fast for Rui perceive.
"See?" He said, exhaling. "Outer Convergence is an incredible technique. It's

saved my life many a time, and reaped those of my adversaries in the Martial
World many a time."
"Well?" He glanced at Rui. "Feeling excited to learn it yet?"
A wild grin crept onto Rui's face.

Chapter 129 Training Begins!
"Let's begin immediately." Rui said with a determined expression.
"That's the spirit." Dylon said, chuckling. "I assume you've gone through the
scroll completely, right?"
Rui nodded. "I remember it perfectly."
"Good." He said as he gestured Rui to follow him. "Then you know exactly
what's waiting for you in store, correct?"
Rui nodded.
The devised and recommended training regime for Outer Convergence was
quite interesting.
The first stage was some elementary form training, that had the user go
through a set of motions that involved all muscle groups simultaneously.
These were intensive dynamic workouts that focused on priming the user's
mind to get used to delicately coordinated muscle group expansion and
contraction rhythms.
This was the very first step to eventually paving the way to converging the
power generated by all those muscle groups, the end goal. There was a total
of thirteen elaborate dynamic exercises in total. Which Rui noted was equal
to the number of broad muscle groups in the human body.
The second stage of training was sparring with equipment that restricted the
motion of certain muscle groups. The user would have to rely on muscle
groups that would normally not be used to a high extent. Rui had instantly
realized this was to ensure that the process of regularly and routinely drawing
power from each muscle group would become part of muscle memory. The
more one rigorously trained each muscle group individually, the more
smoothly and timely one would be able to use it.
The final training stage was actually wearing a suit that heavily resisted the
motion of the body. The suit was carefully configured to ensure that the user's
raw strength was not enough. This was done by conducting a series of
weight-lifting tests to measure the physical strength of the user, and the suit
was configured accordingly. The user was then supposed to utilize the gains
made from the previous training stages simultaneously to be able to move
past their physical limit.
Rui immediately realized that the purpose of this training stage was meant to
force the user to consolidate the gains made from the previous stages and use
them not only simultaneously, but as one. Draw immense amount of power
from each muscle group using the muscle memory inherited in the second
stage, and then constructively funnel it across the body using the coordinative
muscle memory built from the first stage.
He figured the more and more the user was able to accomplish this, the closer
the user would be to mastering Outer Convergence. The fact that the user was
supposed to be able to move normally despite the suit was an indication that
principle of Outer Convergence had been mastered.
The final step was to get used to applying it to strikes, which could be
accomplished through rigorous sparring.
Rui fell in love with the entire training process. It was such a novel means of
mastering a powerful technique. He couldn't help but want to devote all of his
time purely to Outer Convergence.
"Alright, let's begin." Dylon said. "You've memorized all the workouts, you
said? Then begin with the first one."
Rui immediately picked up some training weight bands, wearing them in the
specified location. Then he began the strange set of exercising routines,
performing what resembled a twisting or a spiralling squat. It may have
looked comical from the outside. But Rui's background in training regimes
for combat sports allowed him to realize what was happening.
This training regime forces his mind to coordinate five muscle groups
simultaneously and cooperatively in order to perform this exercise under the
burden of the heavy training weights on his limbs. If the muscle groups did
not cooperate and coordinate, then the body would simply be unable to
perform this exercise.
The exercise was grueling and painful, it reminded him of when he had just
started out more than a year ago.
That thought brought back immense nostalgia. Back then he was a nameless
runt among more than a thousand other nameless runts, who had managed to
pass the Entrance Exam among a million other nameless runts.
And now here he was being personally guided by none other than a Martial
Squire.
Truly, it was surreal looking at how far he'd come.
"Focus." Dylon warned. "Your form is crude. Don't hasten the squat up, and
don't bounce as you come down. This stage is extremely important. If you
don't do this well, you can kiss your chances of mastering this technique
goodbye, young man."
Rui wordlessly nodded, huffing as he felt his muscles burning as he squatted

up and down.
The burn was excruciating yet immensely satisfying. It was a strange

experience, to feel such contradictory emotions simultaneously.
Soon, Dylon had him move on to the other workouts.
Each of them focused on the coordination of a particular muscles group with

other muscle groups.
The Latissimus Dorsi, Rhomboid, Trapezius, Teres Muscle, erector Spinae

muscle groups that constitute the back muscles were all individually
coordinated with other the other muscle groups across the body. These
exercises often involved the simultaneously bending or twisting back and
forth of the spine in conjunction with some other movement that put pressure
on the upper skeletal system.
If the coordination of the muscles weren't perfect, then there would be

damage to the back muscles. This is why such exercises were strongly
recommended against on Earth as opposed to safer workouts. But on Gaea,
damage in training often meant very little. This allowed Rui to engage in
training regimes he would have never even dreamed of recommending, let
alone doing himself. And the gains were worth it.
Each and every muscle group was moving in ways that it seldom did,
strengthening those movements and refining them.
Even though this was his very first day, he could feel that he had made
satisfactory progress. These movements that he had never felt the need to
focus on would now become the foundation for a new technique that would
bolster his Martial Art!
Chapter 130 Inner Divergence
Rui spent a few hours on the first stage of Outer Convergence training. It was
more draining than he'd expected. He had to consume two potions before he
was good enough to continue training.
Though much to Squire Dylon's surprise, he halted his training and left the
facility after biding him farewell.
Rui had purchased four techniques, not one. He wanted to begin training in
all of them. Once he got an idea for how difficult or easy the training regimes
for each technique was then he could formulate an efficient plan and schedule
as for how to go about it.
Dedicating an equal amount of time for techniques that were unequally

difficult to master was not an efficient allocation of time.
"Alright..." Rui stretched as he left the striking training facility. "What to do

next?"
He shrugged before heading over to the defense training facility. He wanted

to begin training Inner Divergence as soon as possible.
"Squire Fare." Rui greeted, bowing to the head instructor of the defense
training facility with respect. "I'm here to begin training with the Inner
Divergence."
A muscular women built like a tank turned around, glancing at Rui. "Training
a third defensive technique? Acute Edge and Elastic Shift are falling short
already?" A flash of surprise crept onto her chiseled face. "I would have
thought you would go longer without purchasing a defensive technique, with
how well you mastered them."
"Me too." Rui shrugged. "But I decided to take a cautionary measure anyway,
after having run into two dangerous missions twice in a week."
She snorted in response. "Good choice, defense is the most important part of
combat, it is literally the only thing that separates you from death. Too many
people don't develop their defense enough, and what happens as a result?
They die." She glanced at Rui with an approving look. "I'm glad you aren't
foolish like them. Come, I'll train your defense so that it never cracks!"
Rui smiled wryly as he nodded.
"Inner Convergence huh?" She glanced at the scroll. "Interesting choice. It's a
technique capable of much, but it has high demands of the user. Fail to fulfill
them and the technique will fail you. Are you sure you want to learn such a
technique?"
"Well, I've already purchased it and refunds aren't allowed." Rui said. "But
also, this technique has a high synergy with my Martial Art."
"Hmmm... True." she admitted.
Rui's strange Martial Art was not a secret within the Apprentice circles in the
Academy. A powerful, yet bizarre all-rounder style, but not really because it
would change shape depending on the fight and his opponent. All the Martial
Squires had long become acquainted with it and its capabilities.
"Alright, let's begin." She said. "Inner Divergence is a technique that diverges
and dissipates the power of all impacts across the entire body, diluting the
effect over a great space thus negating the attack." She reiterated to begin.
"The core means by which one does this is by ensuring the attack's trajectory
is aligned to the center of mass of the human body. That in combination with
flexing each muscle group to support the area of impact will disperse the
impact across all muscle groups."
Rui nodded. The concept was simple in theory. By having each muscle group
rigid enough, they would be no different from how the shock absorption
springs in vehicles work; each muscle group absorbing the shock of impacts.
Technically it wasn't impossible for humans to perform this technique, but
the reasons humans couldn't master it was because the mental faculties
required to accurately and precisely execute it were superhuman.
That was why it was an Apprentice-level technique; Only Martial

Apprentices could perform it.
The Inner Divergence had two three training stages. The first training stage
was to simply train the user to shift when attacked to ensure all attack
trajectories would be aimed at the center of mass of the human body.
This was because the center of mass was the middle point of the body, the
only point that was close enough to all muscle groups to be supported by
them like shock absorption springs.
This was a difficult stage of training, no doubt. Rui was simply

unaccustomed to the thought process and the mindset needed. He was starting
to see why the technique warned the user of the potential risks and mishaps.
If one messed up the initial set up for ensuring the attack lines up at or close
enough to the center of mass, then the technique would simple be ineffective.
The user will simply be left defenseless in this case.
Still, if Rui managed to master this part, it would become an extremely

valuable tool. One of the reasons for this was that Acute Edge and Elastic
Shift were perfectly compatible with Inner Divergence.
Each technique operated by entirely different principles and mechanics that

were mutually exclusive with each other, meaning there was no friction
between them and they cooperated perfectly.
Acute Edge operated by making the angle extremely sharp instead of direct,
this reduced the impact. A bullet that just nicked sharply a wall would do less
damage than a bullet that hit a wall straight and head-on.
Elastic Shift worked by increasing the distance and timeframe of the impact,
making the impact more elastic. It was like effectively putting a thick bouncy
mattress in between the target and the strike, making the strike hurt less.
And Inner Divergence reduced the impact of the strike from within, by using
all the muscle groups as shock absorbers, sharing the dispersed impact.
Acute Edge and Elastic Shift mitigated the impact by focus on external
factors like angle, distance and time frame of the impact, thus there was no
overlap of their focus.
These three techniques cooperated very well. Rui anticipated he might

become extremely sturdy once he mastered Inner Divergence.
Over the next few months, he intended to burn the Inner Divergence
technique into his muscle memory, no matter what it took.
Chapter 131 Seismic Mapping
The Inner Divergence training regime was less elaborate than the Outer
Convergence training session, but it was even more difficult.
Rui found it quite hard to fundamentally change how he deals with incoming
attacks; this training required him to get rid of some of his muscle memory
and built new muscle memory.
Furthermore, every time he failed, he would effectively be taking an attack

head-on without any defense whatsoever. Since Squire Fare did not allow
him to use Acute Edge or Elastic Shift during the training regime.
By the time a few hours passed and his first training session with Inner
Divergence ended, Rui had completely lose count of the number of healing
potions he had consumed in that one session alone.
('Thank fucking god the Academy doesn't charge the students for every
potion we consume, otherwise I would be bankrupted to hell and back. Even
becoming a Martial Master would not free me of the sheer amount of debt!')
This, of course, was an extreme exaggeration and Rui knew it. He didn't
know any details, but he was sure that Martial Masters could earn such
ridiculous money that even the amount Rui fretted over was too insignificant
to even register in their awareness.
Rui sighed as he exited the defense training facility, scratching his head.
('Two down, two more to go.') He mused.
He headed over to the sensory training facility, a facility he had never visited
before, since this ws the first time he was taking an Apprentice-level sensory
technique.
,m He was quite curious and he wasn't sure what to expect. Once he entered
the facility, he took a small tour of it before immediately jumping into
training.
The facility was quite different from the others, it was larger and had many
sub-sections and division within it. As he walked around, he would see
training rooms with a single Apprentice within. Occasionally they were
blind-folded, yet completely unperturbed the lack of vision. Other times they
would have other sense restricted.
Rui figured these were part and parcel for improving sensory capabilities.
After all, the best way to test whether a particular sensory technique was
functioning well and as intended was to restrict the other senses and test one's
capabilities despite that handicap.
The training for Seismic Mapping did include that to an extent. Though
Seismic Mapping was meant to detect and sense things that couldn't be
detected and sensed by normal senses in the first place.
"Squire Instructor Maxime." Rui greeted with a respectable bow for the third
out of an estimated four times. "My name is Rui Quarrier, I'm a Martial
Apprentice, here to learn the Seismic Mapping technique."
The man glanced at Rui for a second, then at the scroll in his hands, before
nodding quietly.
"Come." he said quietly.
He directed Rui to a particular facility. "Do you know to do?"
"...Yes."
Seems the instructor wasn't particularly interactive. He didn't even bother

explaining the technique or the training regime to Rui.
Not that Rui particularly needed them.
Seismic Mapping was a technique that trained the user's body to be able to
interpret seismic vibrations and map a general topography and map of objects
in contact with the ground.
The human brain frequently received a huge influx of information. However,

it disposes of most of the information it receives without processing it
rigorously. A lot of the time it mainly focused on what the eyes saw and not
what the other senses perceived. This was true even for Martial Apprentices
like himself.
After all this was a cognitive bias that was deeply ingrained in humans. Not
even martial Apprentices could break apart the shackles of human flaws.
But training could.
That what the Seismic Mapping training regime aimed to accomplish. By

restricting different senses in different ways in different circumstances, it
aimed to force the brain to dig up the deeply buried information about
vibrations that it mildly perceived, but had long subconsciously ignored
because of focusing on vision.
Of course, only Martial Apprentices had the mental faculties to do that,

which is why the technique was Apprentice-level; only Apprentices could
master it.
There was only one stage of training. That stage focused on having the mind
pay more attention to subconsciously dismissed micro-vibrations and then by
sheer experience learn to slowly decipher those techniques.
There was no other way to learn it, Rui supposed. Only by trial and error and
learning to correlate micro-vibrations with phenomena and understand what
they meant, would he be able to master this technique.
This was easily the most difficult technique Rui had ever tried learning. At
the very least with the other techniques, the training was relatively
straightforward and as long as he persevered, he would be able to make
visible progress.
But this was the first technique he had come across where he got the feeling
that no matter how much time he poured into training it, he may very well
just never make any progress, let alone fully mastering it.
It was incredibly challenging, especially when his knowledge and experience

with combat sports did not help him whatsoever this time. There was simply
no equivalent of this kind of training back on Earth, after all.
Blinded, initially he couldn't sense anything. He was just smacked around by

dolls.
The worst part was the uncertainty.
Atleast when he was training Inner Divergence, he could see when he was
going to get hit with perfect clarity.
Here, he couldn't even know that. He had a paranoia of being struck in the
testicles more than anything else, so that also drained away from being purely
focused on what he ought to have been focused on.
For a few hours, he did nothing but get struck in the darkness.
Never had he been more grateful and enthusiastic leaving a training session
before. Never had he felt as depressed leaving a training session before.
('This is going to take genuine perseverance.') He sighed. Once he got back to

his room he needed to figure what the heck he was going to about this
technique.
Chapter 132 Your Turn
Although Rui had immense difficulty with Seismic Mapping, he was quite
excited to eventually master it. The technique had an immense amount of
utility. If he had possessed the technique when undertaking missions there
was a good chance he would have been able to save Bella Hier and a good
chance he would have been able to ensure the bandit operation in the Shadow
Trails would have gone more smoothly.
Furthermore, just being able to sense his surroundings to this degree would
give him a lot of security and confidence. Only a Martial Artist with
incredible stealth techniques and covert capabilities would be able to sneak
past his senses once he mastered Seismic Mapping.
"Alright, enough about that." he said as he stood before the stealth training
facility.
It was finally time for Rui get acquainted with the final technique he had
purchased; Blink.
The stealth training facility was also unexpectedly large. Despite the fact that
stealth technique was merely a sub-section in the miscellaneous section of the
Apprentice library.
In many a way the stealth training facility was similar to the sensory training
facility. There were specialized environments that he could see Martial
Apprentices training in, and specialized forms of training for each technique.
"Squire Helen." Rui bowed respectfully for the fourth time in a day. "I am
Martial Apprentice Rui Quarrier. I've come here to learn the Blink
technique."
She was a short middle-aged woman with a demure stature, she turned
around, glancing at him.
"Blink huh?" She sized him up. "Good choice." She said. "I hope you
understand what the technique is capable of. Most people who purchase this
technique have exaggerated ideas of how powerful the technique is."
"I believe I understand the technique well enough."
"Do you?" She threw a skeptical expression at him.
"It's a technique that exploits the opening created by blinking to achieve more
than what they would otherwise."
"Correct, 'more', not everything." She replied. "This technique cannot end a
fight in most cases. Nor is it something that is meant to be abused in a fight.
Most Martial Artists aren't morons, if you abuse it too much they'll figure it
out and will not only counter it but also use it to set up traps. In combat, this
is a trump card, understand?"
Rui nodded. He was already aware that this technique would not make him
invincible or allow him to end the fight instantly unless his opponent was a
human or a careless Martial Artist. After all, the technique was priced at only
three hundred and fifty
She relaxed a bit when she saw he didn't have any fancy considerations about
the technique.
"The technique works best against humans. Humans blink for a longer period
of time in combat than Martial Artists because of their slower cognition.
Against humans, this technique is extremely effective and can allow you to
effectively cross even a hoard of people unnoticed if you time it well." She
said. "Against Martial Apprentices, it's more difficult and limited. Martial
Apprentices have enhanced cognition in combat, they blink at a similar rate
as you do."
Rui nodded in response.

"Against Martial Apprentices, you can only use it as a way to surprise them.
In order to understand how this happens, you first need to understand how
Martial Artists think in combat."
"Humans in general, but especially Martial Artists don't identify and react to
an attack purely after it has been launched. In most cases, Martial Artists
subconsciously analyze movements to partially gauge and partially predict
what the opponent is about to do."
Rui nodded. This was a well-documented phenomenon in neurology. Even in

the twentieth-century, it was well shown that the human brain was constantly
in a predictive mode, trying to infer outcomes from phenomena.
This could be demonstrated with simple experiments. Why most humans

flinch when an object approached them at high speed even at a distance.
Because the human brain has already evaluated the motion of the object and
plotted out its trajectory and inferred that there is a high chance the object
would collide with the body.
"The brain subconsciously looks at the early signs of an attack and partially
makes the decision to avoid the strike based on the early evaluation." She
said. "When using Blink in combat, your aim should not be to attack when
your Martial Apprentice blinks, but to hide the early signs of attack when
your opponent blinks."
She paused, before continuing. "This way, when your opponent opens their
eyes, they will not be able to rely on the partial prediction their mind makes
subconsciously. This will hinder their reaction and in most cases you should
be able to perform far better with the attack, at least."
"Hiding the initial signs of the attack during the blink is better than moving
during the blink?" Rui asked.
"It's not about choosing which is better." She corrected. "You don't have a
choice at all. You cannot begin, move and complete an attack in the middle
of a blink of a Martial Apprentice" She said. "Martial Apprentices blink too
quickly and you're not fast enough, as a Martial Apprentice yourself. Only a
Martial Squire could do that, and maybe some extraordinary peak Martial
Apprentices with a maneuvering style Martial Art."
"I see..." Rui nodded, engrossed.
"In the middle of combat, the technique should be used an opening-creator.

Outside of combat, it is best used as a surveillance-escaper. Against a human,
the Blink technique, like all Martial Apprentice techniques, is invincible."
She said as she put some distance between them.
"This what a well-executed Blink technique looks like."
Rui focused as he maximized his alertness. She stared at him for nearly ten
seconds, motionless.
Then it came.
BLINK
One moment she was ten meters away, the next moment she landed right in
front of him.
The abruptness of it all was so shocking that Rui tripped and fell backwards.
"Woah..." He murmured in amazement.
"Now." She said with a serious expression. "Your turn."

Chapter 133 Momentary
Limitlessness
The feat she accomplished was amazing. The idea that Rui would be able to
perform that feat on any normal human was great! He would be able to travel
without any detection as long as he timed the technique perfectly well.
He would be able to appear and disappear, just like a ninja!
Rui did have a soft spot for ninjas, not as much as he did for martial artists,
but definitely close.
He got up with a barely constrained grin.
"The training for Blink is rather straightforward." She said. "You train until
you've mastered the execution, timing and placement of the technique. This
facility has training resources that significantly make easier what is otherwise
a significantly difficult technique to learn at the Martial Apprentice Realm."
Rui nodded, aware of everything in detail. He still listened to her

explanations out of respect, she was far better than Squire Maxime who
uttered only a total of five words to Rui across the entirety of five hours of
training.
"The combat application of Blink is quite different from the stealth

application of Blink, so we train those separately in two training stages that
you will engage in simultaneously." She explained.
The first stage of the training was centered around mechanics dolls that
blinked for periods longer than that of even an average human being. Rui was
effectively supposed to play tag with these mechanical dolls, except he wasn't
allowed to move except for when they blinked.
This did two things.
First, it forced him to be more conscious of the timing of the mechanical

blinks, and secondly it forced his body to learn how to exploit the blinks
properly. Since the training stage required him to not use any Apprentice-
level techniques or even any of the techniques from the Exploration Stage, he
was only allowed to maneuver using his raw physicality during the Blink.
The training stage would progress once he completely mastered the tag game
at a certain blinking speed of the dolls. Then the blinking speed would
progressively increase, just a tiny bit at a time, no more than a two-percent
increase. Once the user adapted to it and managed to perform optimally, the
blinking speed would be increased by two percent once more, and it would
progress so and so forth.
It was predicted that in a handful of months of continuous dedicated single-

minded training, the user should eventually be able to reach the desired level
of mastery over the blink exploitation principle.
After that the training would drastically spike as the blinking speed surpasses
human limits and reaches the Apprentice Realm, at this point the user would
be allowed to use Apprentice-level techniques, and fight at his or her
strongest.
This would allow the user to get used to exploiting blink timing in Apprentice
level battles, which was the most important and also the ultimate goal. An
Apprentice level technique that could not be used in Apprentice level combat
was just a failure of a technique.
And once the Martial Apprentice got used to exploiting the blink timing
optimally in conjunction with Apprentice-level techniques, then the training
regime was complete.
This was normally supposed to take several months on average.
Every two-percent boost in blinking speed usually took at the very least a day
or two, maybe even longer depending on the mental faculties of the user. This
was something Squire Helen knew quite well.
('So why...?') She wondered. ('Why has this boy adapted to a four-percent
increase in the matter of two hours???')
Rui had immediately grown quite interested and excited by the training
regime, so he jumped right into it to get a taste of it.
She stared at Rui with amazement and shocked as he handled the training
stage like it was a breeze.
('What is going on??')
Rui on the other hand was grinning with all the ecstasy he felt missing during
the Seismic Mapping training.
('If this is how every stealth technique training regime is like, then I might
just convert to a stealth-oriented Martial Art!') Rui thought to himself.
He had an incredible amount of fun adapting to the timing needed for Blink
maneuvers for every increased blinking speeds.
A large part of his joy came from the fact that he was incredibly could at it,
making for an astonishing growth rate.
It had taken him a while to realize why he was as good at this as he was.
There were two reasons, as far as he could tell.
Firstly, his enhanced mental faculties due to the inherited mind from his
previous life was greatly useful here, allowing his cognition to absorb
experience and grow much more from it than any other individual at his
biological age would.
Secondly, the cognitive processes needed to grow and adapt to the timing of
the blink maneuvers were extremely similar to the principles and mechanics
of the VOID algorithm used. It turns out that adapting to a Martial Art was
quite similar to the learning process of adapting to Blink timings.
In fact, maybe he could expand the VOID algorithm to include blinks and
Blink maneuvers in its counter-deduction system!
This was something he hadn't considered before. On Earth, blinks were

inconsequential, thus the VOID algorithm had not been developed to process
blinks as a variable. Why would something that could not be used in combat
be relevant to the VOID algorithm?
This epiphany strongly motivated Rui even more.
He truly immersed himself in training to a degree far, far higher than ever
before. Every cell in his body stood together aiding Rui in his pursuit, he
could feel himself growing every second.
What truly shook him was that he felt as if he'd grown not just in regards to
the BLink technique, but as a Martial Artist too!
He felt as if he'd traversed deeper into his Martial Path, exploring parts of his
Martial Art and his mind he never had before.
He was in a state of momentary limitlessness, he felt as if anything could

happen as he was now!
Rui had only intended to break the ice with each of the four techniques on the
first day, before returning back to his room and figuring out how he's going to
divide his time and energy. He didn't intend to extend beyond what was
necessary.
But he had completely forgotten about that as he immersed himself into the
training regime. He loved the sheer progress as he grew better and better at
timing blink maneuvers. In the end, he lost track of time completely all the
way until his stamina was drained.
"Twelve hours?" Rui couldn't believe it, it passed so quickly he wouldn't have
been surprised if Squire Helen was pulling his leg.
She nodded in response. "You just kept going on and on, I thought you were
aware of the time." She shrugged. "Apprentice training schedules are largely
self-regulated, after all."
Rui nodded, still dazed in disbelief.
"How did you do it?" She asked out of curiosity. "How did you get so good at
the technique so quickly? Your rate of growth is unheard of!"
Rui scratched his head awkwardly, unsure of what to say.
"Dunno" He shrugged. "Glad it's working out this well though."
He quickly bade her goodbye before she could inquire any further, and left
the stealth-training facility as he headed back to the Apprentice dorms.
He nonchalantly strolled back as he grew absorbed in thought at the training

sessions that he had undergone in the past twenty-four hours.
Just based off of the training sessions alone, he had come to realize that the
priced techniques were not overpriced in any way. Each of the techniques he
purchased were qualitatively superior to the techniques he procured out of the
foundational reserve that the Academy offered to Martial Apprentices.
He knew that he wouldn't really be able to go back to learning foundational

techniques from this point on. In fact, he planned to replace some of the
Foundation techniques with either successors or superior techniques
operating on the same principle in the future to strengthen the quality of his
Martial Foundation.
Still, that was for a distant future.
His mind delved onto the four techniques he had picked up and the difficulty
of their training.
"The hardest technique was definitely Seismic Mapping." He murmured to

himself, sighing. It was quite the unpleasant training session, but he really
wanted to master the Seismic Mapping technique, its sheer practical utility
was too alluring.
He decided to maximize the amount of time he dedicated to training the

technique. He didn't want to be held back from completing missions because
he took forever to master Seismic Mapping. Other Apprentices might be used
to it but Rui did not want to endure that.
Furthermore, he felt it was probably to have longer training sessions in one

go. The mind retained experience the longer it experienced a particular
phenomenon or process, after all.
Rui even seriously considered dedicating entire days of continuous training to

purely Seismic Mapping training. He could simply make every alternate day
a Seismic Mapping training day while leaving the other days for the
remaining three techniques.
The easiest technique to train for was Blink. Just the very thought of the
training put Rui in a good mood. This was the first technique whose training
was so enjoyable that Rui almost wished it never ended.
"Maybe I can continue to train Blink to refine proficiency above just ordinary
mastery." He thought aloud. He even thought he could make it a hobby! Just
to feel better whenever he was down or maybe bored.
He shook his head, trying to focus. With how well his Blink training
proceeded, he didn't need to spend too much time to it. Thus, he decided to
allot it the least amount of training timing. He suspected that Blink might end
up being the first technique he fully mastered despite this allocation.
That left two techniques.
Outer Convergence and Inner Divergence.
"Of the two, Inner Divergence was definitely harder." He noted. "So, it gets
more training timing allocated to it."
That concluded the initial planning session in a nutshell. Of course, he would

have to chink out the details and be more thorough to be as efficient as
possible, but the overall trend had been set.
He was quite grateful that he had chosen to pick only four techniques this
time. Had he tried to pick five he would have quickly realized that it was
probably too much. Premium techniques were not as light of a burden as the
foundational techniques were.
He didn't think he would be able to complete five premium techniques as

quickly as he would have liked.
"In fact, from here on out, I might have to purchase fewer and fewer
techniques as times goes by and the quality and grade of my techniques grow
higher." he realized.
He recalled thinking about many of the higher-grade techniques he saw in the

Apprentice library, many of them had such high grades and difficulty grades
that he didn't think he could learn more than one technique at a time!
He sighed with a sullen look as he realized his rate of technique learning

would probably significantly reduce from here on out.
Still, quality was worth the sacrifice in quantity.
He began further thinking about how he could quicken his mastery of these
techniques. He couldn't always hang out with the Squire instructors, they
were not exclusive to him and there were many Apprentices they had to
mentor, from his batch and batches below.
In order to train optimally, he thought about sparring with Fae with both of
them using only Outer Convergence after he got past the initial training.
She'd mastered it a while ago and she was a good enough mentor too.
Maybe he could gather Apprentices who had already mastered the other three
techniques he had learnt.
('But that wouldn't work for Seismic Mapping.') He realized. Just his luck that
the hardest technique to learn would also be one he couldn't train together
with others.
He sighed.
Chapter 135 Leave You Behind
Kane shuffled through the maneuvering section of the Apprentice library,

with a lethargic expression on his face. In the fight against the golden-haired
bandit in the mission he had just completed, he had noticed that he wasn't
able to maintain his top speed while performing non-linear maneuvers or
attacks, which hindered his non-linear evasiveness and offense.
He had already resolved to purchase a high-grade fluidity maneuvering

technique that would allow him to maintain his top speed even in really sharp
curves or turns for attacks or maneuvering.
"Sigh..." He huffed a large puff of air as he nonchalantly sauntered across the

section. All of the techniques that suited his needs had high difficulty grades,
his head fell back as he stared at the ceiling, he couldn't be bothered.
"Hah. What happened to 'I can't let him let him surpass me that easily'?" A
voice asked him from behind.
His expression contorted with disdain as he turned to meet Fae's eyes. "What
are you doing here?"
"I said I was going to train too, no?" She shrugged.
"What are you doing in this section, the maneuvering section?" He asked.
"Go take your muscle-brain Martial Art to the offense section of the library."
"Hmph, juvenile as always, aren't you? You could learn a thing or two from
Rui, you know?" She said. "If you had his work ethic, you might even grow
faster than he does."
Kane's sheer raw affinity with Martial Art was unparalleled, it was what had
led him to discover his Martial Path at the tender age of eleven, and what
allowed him to absorb techniques remarkably quickly.
"Hmph, he and I aren't the same. I don't love Martial Art. It's a pain in the ass
that allows jerks who are good at it to do whatever they want, and the only
way to avoid becoming a victim is to pursue Martial Art yourself." he spat
contemptuously. "It causes immense suffering and many problems whose
only solution is itself. Has there ever been a more hateful thing? I pursue
Martial Art only so that I can be freed of its shackles."
He put his hand on a technique scroll just as he finished, having decided

which technique he wanted to learn.
[Axis Earthing]
It was a technique that allowed the user to maintain top speed during curving
maneuvers by shifting the user's balance in the direction of the curve at
extreme degrees, the acceleration due to gravity provided by the lopsided
balance aided in the curve without the user having to sacrifice speed.
He turned to glance at her. "It's not like you love Martial Art either. You and
I are both in this for Martial Art can do for us." He said with a knowing tone.
She had a sympathetic expression on her face.
In many a way, Fae's circumstances were the exact opposite to that of Kane's.
Despite being born in a Martial family like Kane, she grew up in very
different circumstances.
Her grandmother was Her Honour Martial Sage Leila Dullahan, her family
was extremely prestigious, just like the Arrancar Martial family.
Unlike Kane, Fae loved her family, and everything it stood for. Her family
was not a large polygamous family like his was' a family that was created by
his father's desire to find a worthy heir. It was a rather normal family in
comparison. With the love and pride that she had been raised with by her
grandparents and parents, her family had come to mean everything to her.
She desired to bring glorious honour to her Martial family, that had
contributed to the sovereignity of the Kandrian Empire for nearly a century,
with many historical Martial Artists with immense power.
Her desire to obtain power was to do her family justice, and to maintain its
prestige.
Because her family was small, she was the only heir to her family. Her
mother had turned away from her Martial Path despite being the daughter of a
Martial Sage and chose not to become a Martial Artist, and her father was a
civilian.
She had voluntarily accepted the burden of being the future pillar of the
Dullahan Martial family.
Martial Art was everything to her. But she did not love it, to her it was no
more than a tool for fulfilling her goal.
Alas, not everybody born to Martial families was a Martial prodigy. She had
to work like a madman to obtain the power she currently had. Sweating blood
and crying tears, she persevered to be worth of her heritage.
She was the exact opposite of Kane in many ways. The differences between
them had been the true cause of friction between them.
Kane, a genius boy longing for freedom whose talent shackled him to the fate
of being the Arrancar heir. And Fae, a free yet driven girl longing for the
power to be worthy of being the Dullahan heir.
Everything about them was so polarized, that they could never stand each
other when they met. Their parents were part of the Fire Sect within the
Martial Union, and were close informally. Kane and Fae had known each
other since they were three.
Fae sighed. "Love or hate Martial Art. We are born in the circumstances
we're born in, and we can only make the best of them."
"Hmph." He said. "Spoken like someone born in the right circumstances."
She threw an irritated look at him. "Don't act like you're only growing
stronger for the sake of breaking away from the Arrancar family. Do you
even remember your own words?"
Kane eyes lit up. ('I can't him surpass me too easily.')
"You're just afraid Rui will leave you behind at the rate he's growing." She
said as her expression turned melancholic at her own words.
Kane didn't respond.
But that was answer enough.
He had grown more attached to Rui than he had ever expected he would have
when they first met. Rui was his first true friend. Someone he truly enjoyed
spending time with. The only other children he knew in his age group were
his many half-brothers and half-sisters who hated him with venomous
intensity, and other children from other Martial families who either kissed his
ass treated him like a stepping stone.
Then he met Rui. At first, he was ordinary outside of his weird eyes and hair.
Kane didn't think much of him, just hoping he wouldn't be too annoying
when he reached out to Rui.
It was the first time someone was unaware of his family.
It was the first time he felt like a normal person.
When Rui looked at him with those dark eyes of his, he did not see the genius
heir of the Arrancar family.
He saw Kane, his friend.
"He makes even Martial Art fun." Kane murmured softly. "I didn't think that
was even possible."
He did not want to be left behind as Rui pursued his Martial Path.
He turned around and walked away.

"Where are you going?" Fae asked.
"Training."
A hint of determination flashed through his eyes.

Chapter 136 Martial Matters
POW POW POW
Rui threw a flurry of Vital Pressure strikes as they struck Dalen. Yet, the
damage they did was minimal. Dalen returned the favour by throwing landing
a power kick.
BOOM
Rui skidded back, grimacing in pain.
Normally, he would have chosen to avoid the kicks rather than block it. Kicks
were generally slower than jabs, and travelled along a greater distance and
left the user in a bit more vulnerable position which made dodging and
charging in the most optimal solution. Furthermore, kicks had far more power
than jabs in exchange for its shortcomings, making blocking them a sub-
optimal solution in most cases.
But Rui had chosen to block the strike anyway. The reason for that was
because they weren't having a normal sparring session, but an Inner
Divergence training session.
They had restricted attacks to Vital Pressure and defense to Inner Divergence.
No other Apprentice-level technique and no maneuvering or evasion.
Rui had approached Dalen a month ago, requesting him for routine training
sessions to help Rui improve and refine his rough timing with the Inner
Divergence technique.
Dalen had agreed, and ever since then they had been sparring together.
Rui had significantly improved in that time, experience had helped burning
the movements and motions into his muscle memory bit by bit.
Still, there was a big gap between him and Dalen. The latter had mastered
Inner Divergence to a solid degree and had a body that was developed for
defense. Even if he used only Inner Divergence, he also had a conditioned
body that was inherently tougher than Rui's body.
BAM
Rui collapsed as Dalen bested him once more, panting as he laid flat on the
ground.
"Let's take a break." He suggested, reaching for a bottle of water.
There was a reason neither of them immediately resorted to rejuvenation

potions. Although rejuvenation potions would immediately invigorate and
energize them, there was value in fighting while exhausted.
In the field, in the Martial World, fatigue and exhaustion were inevitable.
Sometimes you were in situations where you could not afford to consume
potions, such as limited stock or being in the middle of a fight. In these
situations, you wouldn't be able to luxuriously consume multiple potions to
reinvigorate yourself.
It was a policy and a recommendation of the Academy to not consume

potions unles extremely exhausted. Learning how to cope with general
fatigue was important. If the Martial Apprentices grew too cozy because of
their potion abuse, then they would die by the droves once they were thrust
into the Martial World.
Rui more than others understood the importance of coping with fatigue and
exhaustion, and the sheer impact it could make on combat prowess so he
religiously abided by this norm, not relying on potions until he was truly
exhausted to his core.
"Here." Dalen offered him some water and a towel.
"Thanks." Rui accepted.

There was a bit of an awkward silence, as Rui realized he didn't really have
much to talk to Dalen. He was a mutual acquaintance initially, as Rui got to
know him better in the mission albeit barely.
"How long ago did you master Inner Divergence?" he asked casually.
"Just a little before I entered the Academy this year." He replied.
"How long had it taken you to master?"
"Just a little less than half a year, I think." He said.
"How long have you been a Martial Apprentice?" Rui asked, surprised.
"Two years." He said. "I broke through when I was fifteen."
"That's pretty good." Rui offered.
"By Academy standards, maybe. But by the standards of the Martial

community, it's not as impressive."
"Really?" Rui asked, surprised.
Dalen nodded. "Fifteen is alright, fourteen even more so, which is when Fae
broke through." He revealed. "But breaking through at eleven is considered
truly special, like Kane did. He's well-known in the Martial community."
"When you say 'Martial community' you mean the Martial families in
Kandria?"
Dalen nodded. "There are many Martial Artists, many of them end up being
wealthy due to their Martial prowess and form families under their name and
many a times their descendants end up following in their path. A lot of the
prominent Martial families that have a lot of Martial Artists or aspiring
Martial Artists were formed by prominent Martial Artists of the past;
Legendary Martial Sages and Martial Masters, and even Seniors. The Martial
community is comprised of such families."
Rui nodded, growing interested. He was aware that Dalen was from a Martial
family. "It seems the community has higher standards of Martial Artist
aspirants and Martial Artists."
"You bet." He sighed. "It's brutal, families compete with each other for
prestige and glory through their heirs and descendants. They train
descendants If you ask me, it's just a dick-measuring contest."
Rui nodded, sympathizing. He loved Martial Art, but he would hate if his
family treated him like a racing horse that could win for them rather than a
family member they loved.
"That sound rough." He nodded. He often looked at his friends from martial
families with envy because of all the resources and training they had access
to their entire life. He often wondered how strong he would be if he was the
son of a Martial Sage.
It was only now that he realized that he realized that he was romanticizing it
too much. He knew Kane hated his family with venomous intensity, and
having run into his mom had made it very clear as to why. Still, he thought it
was worth the payoff.
Now he wasn't too sure.
('The grass is always greener on the other side.') He thought, as he mulled

over Dalen's words.
"You said the families compete with each other." Rui curiously noted. "What
do you mean?"
"There's Realm of course." He said. "Having your descendant break through

to higher Realms it a big a plus point. There's grade, mission record and
accomplishments." He paused before adding; "Also, there is Kandrian
Martial Festival."
Rui's ears perked at those words.

Chapter 137 Kandrian Martial
Festival
Rui was not unfamiliar with the Kandrian Martial Festival. The Kandrian
Martial Festival was a month-long festival dedicated to Martial Art.
However, this festival was quite unlike normal festivals. For one, there were
no celebrations of the normal kind. The festival was a dedicated event to
exhibiting and demonstrating the Martial prowess of the entire nation. The
festival was characterized by innumerable Martial tournaments of all scales
and sizes, making for a bombastic and exciting one month for the Kandrian
Empire.
However, it was a festival that was held once every five years.
This was a decision that the Royal Family and the Martial union for multiple
reasons. Firstly, Martial Artist work force was extremely important to the
Royal Family and especially to the Martial Union. The completion of
missions was an extremely necessary economically and politically. The
Martial Artists not just sustained the Martial Union, but contributed to
holding the very empire as a whole together.
It was not possible for the Royal Family and the Martial Union to allow the
Martial workforce to stop working for a whole month every year, on many
levels.
The nation as a system would start breaking apart at the seams, and the
Martial Union would experience a noticeable plummet in income.
Thus, they had chosen to limit it to five years. Five years was just long
enough for the benefits to outweigh the detriments.
The positivity associated with the Kandrian Martial Festival was one of the
means by which the Royal Family and the Martial Union ensured that Martial
Artists as a class of society wouldn't grow too disconnected from the Empire
and its people. It was a means by which it aimed to tether Martial Artists not
through incentives, or benefits or practicality, but through some degree of
patriotic sentiment.
Of course, this was almost entirely ineffective against mature experiences

Martial Artists of the higher Realms. The same, however, could not be said
for younger Martial Artists of lower Realm, especially Martial Apprentices.
Martial Apprentices accounted for close to ninety-percent of the Martial

Artist population. Due to how large a proportion of the Martial Artist they
comprised they were the most important Realm of martial Artists in many
ways. The Martial Festival was a way just one way of ensuring cultural
integration between the more malleable youth of the Martial Artist population
with the Empire.
It was also a way to reduce any class conflicts between the civilian
population and the Martial Artists. After all, Martial Artists were
undoubtedly privileged and blessed to possess the sheer power that they did.
It was not uncommon or particularly unlikely for anti-Martial sentiment born
out of envy, jealousy and resentment to fester.
It was no different from how the poor felt about the rich.
By celebrating their accomplishments and emphasizing the need for Martial

Art, they could keep the friction to a minimum. It did also help that the
Martial Union did not accept privately commissioned offense class missions
within the boundaries of the Kandrian Empire. Meaning that Martial Artists
did not run around hurting and killing the citizens of the Kandrian Empire.
The ordinary average citizen mostly saw Martial Artists protecting people in
defense-class missions and protecting people via hunting class missions.
Or enforcing the law during Royal commissions.
"The Martial families compete with each other in the Kandrian Martial
Festival?" Rui asked. "That makes sense. It's just not something that occurred
to me."
"It isn't publicly announced, I wouldn't expect someone outside the Martial
community to know about it." Dalen explained. "Martial Families often train
their descendants with the goal of performing highly."
"Huh, that sounds like it sucks." Rui commented. "The Kandrian Martial
Festival has always been fun the two times I experienced it, but being trained
for it from five years in advance would ruin the experience."
"Kane hates the Martial Festival you know." Dalen laughed. "He's one of the
favourites for wins among the current descendants in the Martial
Community."
"I see." Rui murmured. "Kane hasn't ever told me about all of this."
"He genuinely hates it, and hates talking about it, more so than most of us."
Dalen sighed. "The Festival isn't that far away too, he would do anything
needed to avoid participating."
Rui, for one, couldn't wait. The Kandrian Martial Festival had occurred only
twice in his entire life, once when he was and the other when he was five and
the other when he was ten. Both times he had been too young to join the
adults and adolescents as they visited Hajin to take part in the local festival.
He had never expected his first time to experience the Martial Festival would
be after he became a Martial Artist himself.
Just the thought of potentially competing with Martial Artists across not just
the town, or even the region, but perhaps the entire nation bred an extremely
romanticized picture in Rui's head.
"The Kandrian Martial Festival is in less than a year, right?" Rui asked,
excitedly.
"Yeah." Dalen turned to glance at him. "Do you intend to participate?"
"Of course!" Rui strongly affirmed. "Why wouldn't I?"

"You don't strike me as someone who cares for glory." Dalen noted. "Or are
you interested in the monetary rewards that winning would yield?"
Rui snorted. He didn't care if they glorified it to hell and back or not at all or
if they made him a millionare or not. The idea of being able to compete with
the best of the best was simply too alluring for Rui to not get excited by.
He needed to get as strong as possible as quickly as possible so that he would

be able to fight against stronger Martial Artists, to do that he needed to
master these four techniques he had purchased recently as soon as possible.
"Come on, let's continue training." Rui said, brimming with energy.
"Weren't you exhausted just a minute ago?" Dalen asked with confused
skepticism.
"Exhaustion is for the weak." Rui declared. "We need to train to get
stronger."
"Uh huh." Dalen sighed.

Chapter 138 Excited
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Rui and Fae exchanged powerful blows with each other. Fae pummeled at
him with palms while Rui returned the offense with fists.
Rui had spent a lot of time sparring with Martial Apprentices who had
mastered the techniques he was training with currently. While he did have
trouble initially with Blink because there was no one in his immediate friend
circle or acquaintances was a stealth-oriented Martial Artist, he had no
trouble with finding someone to train his Outer Convergence technique with.
Fae had grown to be a close friend of his in the past year, and she had even
helped him with training offense-class Apprentice-level techniques before, so
going to her was a no-brainer decision.
Unlike the sparring training with Dalen, their combat was a lot less restricted.
They only limited offense to Outer Convergence, while using only one
technique for the other aspects of combat.
This was because Outer Convergence could be dodged in real fights and Rui
needed to forge experience in dealing with evasive defense and counters to
Outer Convergence in real fights.
Of course, they had decided to limit the number of techniques they used for
defense and maneuvering because otherwise Rui had too much of an
advantage.
Limiting striking offense to Outer Convergence hurt Fae far more than it hurt
Rui since a little over half of Fae's Martial Art was comprised of striking
oriented techniques, while Rui had only three, including his rough partially-
learnt Outer Convergence.
WHOOSH
He sidestepped a weighted palm from Fae, before launching a right hook to

her jaw. Fae unhesitatingly deflected the strike with an elbow, redirecting
Rui's hook while simultaneously launching a hand jab technique with her
finger tips.
BAM
Rui grimaced as he skidded back.
"That's new." He glanced at her with a curious look. "Elbows? Hand jabs
instead of out ward palm attacks"
It wasn't the usage of elbows that was surprising. After all, Earth had martial
arts where elbows were dominant features. Martial arts such as Muay Thai, a
traditional martial art from Thailand, and Silat, a traditional martial art from
Myanmar, used elbows more than they used the hands.
Muay Thai in particular used elbows offensively while Silat used them
defensively and counter-offensively.
"Surprised?" Fae smirked. "I'm trying to solidify my striking combat prowess

at all ranges in close quarters combat. Palm attacks are powerful but they
have narrow flexibility as far as range goes. So, I decided to learn the
Hooking Elbow technique. It's a mid-grade counter-offensive elbow centric
technique that allows me to keep up with opponents even at dangerously
close ranges."
Rui understood. "I see, and palm jabs have a longer range than outwardly
open palm attacks, allowing you to handle somewhat longer-range close
quarters combat better."
Fae nodded, in response, before taking her usual open-palm stance before
charging.
('Tsk, no chill.') Rui tutted inwardly, as he launched several Outer

Convergence kicks.
POW POW POW
Kicks were a good tool against someone who exclusively used her arms for
offense, since legs had longer range than arms, he could effectively
continuously attack her while she was unable to attack him.
Unfortunately, his Outer Convergence was still too flawed as she cleanly
neutralized his attacks with her own.
Another problem he was suffering was that kicks made it difficult to

maneuver, since one leg was often mid-air, meaning if Fae was able to handle
his kicks, she would be able close the distance faster than Rui was able to
maneuver top maintain it.
BAM BAM BAM
She did just that, managing to close in, landing a flurry of palm attacks.
Rui tried matching them with his own Outer Convergence, but it was too
weak in comparison.
BOOM
She managed to land a clean strike, as Rui fell backwards.
"Huff..." She exhaled. "That was not bad, it's actually quite remarkable
considering you've only been training for a little under two months along
with other techniques." She complimented.
"Thanks."
"But, it's still too rough." She critiqued. "There are two elements to Outer
Convergence; Drawing power from each muscle group individually, and then
accumulating and converging that power in your strike by having all your
muscles cooperate in perfect sync. You're lacking in both those departments."
"Yeah, I know." Rui replied, sighing. "It's hard for me to get used to the
increased mental load of synchronizing and managing each of the muscles."
"It took me four months to fully get a hand of it." She said. "So don't be
discouraged, as I said, your progress is pretty good."
Rui nodded. "I hope I can master it as soon as possible; I want to get finish
some more missions and purchase a few more techniques as soon as
possible."
"What's the hurry?" Fae asked, curiously.
"I want to be as strong as possible when the Kandrian Martial Festival rolls
around."
"Ah, yes, the Martial Festival." She murmured with mixed emotions.
"Do you dislike it too?" He guessed.
"It's not particularly pleasant." She shrugged. "But it is an opportunity for me

to bring prestige to my family."
"So you do intend to participate after all."
"Yes, in both the Martial Academic Contest and other prestigious contests
that are hosted every Festival."
"Wait the Academies also hosts tournaments during the festival?"
"Of course, they do." She threw an odd look at Rui. "There are thirteen
branches of the across the thirty-nine states of the Kandrian Empire. The
Academies conduct an inter-Academy tournament. Each Academy elects
representatives in a manner of their own discretion and the representatives
compete against each other in a large tournament. The winners usually get a
huge credit prize among other things you see."
Rui's eyes glimmered as he reveled in the idea of participating and competing

against the best of the best.
"Do the other Academies have prominent and powerful descendants of the
Martial Community?" Rui asked excitedly.
"Yes, our batch and the batch before and after ours in total have a large
number of Martial descendents now that I think about it. This tournament is
bound to be a contentious one."
Rui imploded with excitement at those words.
He couldn't wait for the Festival to arrive already!

Chapter 139 Martial Contest
"I heard Kane was a favourite." Rui said. "Does that mean the other
favourites among the descendants of the Martial community are also at his
level?"
Fae nodded. "Talen-wise Kane is considered a top three among all the
descendants of the Martial community. Though he isn't the most talented."
Rui's eyes flew wide open at those words. "You're telling me there's a
prodigy even more talented than Kane??"
Rui found that hard to believe. Kane broke through at the age of eleven, and
was so talented that he was easily on par with Rui, despite all of Rui's huge
advantages. Up until, recently, Kane was comfortably stronger than him too.
Rui was certain that if Kane loved Martial Art as much as he did, he might
have gone to even greater heights.
Fae nodded. "Her name is Fiona. Fiona Roschem. The granddaughter of His
Honour Grandmaster Sage Damian."
The granddaughter of His Honour Sage Damian, who was the Grandmaster
of all the Academies in the Kandrian Martial Union, lived up to her pedigree.
"How strong is she?" Rui asked with sparkling eyes.
"I haven't seen her in almost two years, I don't know how strong she currently
is." Fae replied. "But she's strong. I haven't beaten her a single time in any of
our spars, despite being two years older than her. She's the strongest Martial
Apprentice of our generation, probably."
"Damn, you're killing me." Rui complained. The more Fae went on and on
about this girl, the more he felt impatient for the Kandrian Martial Festival to
arrive.
"Don't be so hasty, get a hold of yourself." Fae threw a disapproving look.

"It's still some time away, and as you are right now, you probably won't be
able to beat her. Forget fighting her, you can't be sure you'll be elected as a
representative."
"What is her Martial Art like?" Rui asked curiously.
"She's a perfect all-rounder." Fae stated.
"Ah, a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none." Rui mused.
"No." Fae shook her head. "She's more of a jack of all trades and a master of
all."
Rui had another outburst of excitement, as Fae shook her head at the sight.
('If Fae is speaking so highly of her, she must be something else.') Rui
thought.
A master of all fields? If that really was the case, then Rui had quickly
surmised he stood no chance as he was now. He knew that he was far from a
master of any one particular field, he had barely managed to become above
average in all fields, which wasn't unimpressive, because most Martial
Apprentices could manage becoming average in one or two particular fields.
But thanks to his potion tolerance cheat code, he had managed to grind and
get stronger at an incredible pace, yet he wasn't even near being a master of
all trades. He wondered how long it had taken for her to reach her level.
"How long has she been a Martial Apprentice for?" Rui asked curiously.
"Five years." Fae replied.
Rui's eyes flew wide open. "Wait, you said you were two years older than
her. Doesn't that mean...?"
"Yeah, she broke through at the age of nine." Fae confirmed with a
complicated sigh.
"???"
"There's only a handful of people who have broken that young in the history
of the Kandrian Empire." She paused, turning to Rui. "All of them became
Martial Masters and some even Martial Sages."
Her implication was clear. Fiona Roschem was pretty much a confirmed
future high Realm Martial Artist.
Rui grew engrossed in thought as he attempted to evaluate his chances of

winning the contest and fighting her at all.
In order to be elected as a representative of the Mantian Martial Academy, he

needed to grow to be the strongest of the Martial Apprentices of the Martial
Academy, he did not think he was there just quite yet.
He did think that mastering the four techniques he'd set out to master gave
him a decent chance, by then his wealth of techniques would probably be
higher than most Martial Apprentices.
Most Martial Apprentices in the Martial Academy had broken through after a
few years of training in the Foundation Stage and Exploration Stage, and then
needed to a few more years to build the foundation of their Martial Art.
The descendants of Martial families like Milliana, Dalen and especially Fae
and Kane were quite different from these Apprentices. The latter four were
talented and had broken much earlier than the norm and had spent more time
as Martial Apprentices, thus their Martial Art were much more developed and
mature than the norm, especially Fae and Kane
Rui had also broken through early and had also possessed a Martial Art much
more developed than the norm.
Still, that didn't mean his election was guaranteed, he had lost plenty of times
against some of the more Senior Apprentices of older batches.
A little less than one year was usually nowhere near enough to become
significantly stronger, but the same couldn't be said for Rui.
('Just you watch.') Rui thought to himself. ('I'll be so strong by the time the
tournament roles by that not a single person will recognize me.')
Only then he would have a chance of fighting the best Martial Artists of his
generation in the Empire.
Just the thought of it pumped him up to the brim with energy like no
rejuvenation potion ever could.
If he could develop his Martial Art as strong as he hoped to by the

tournament rolled by, then he might be able to win.
Unfortunately, he lacked too much information about his opponents. He

could only speculate. Still, there were a few things that could be established.
As always, he had the VOID algorithm, a powerful advantage that allowed
him vastly superior predictive and counter-deductive capabilities, altering his
fighting style to be most suited to his opponent's fighting style.
Rui winced when he recalled she was an all-rounder. Just his luck, all-
rounder were the hardest to predict and counter-deduce.
Rui would need to go above and beyond to be able to win.

Chapter 140 Results
A little over four months passed by quickly. Time was often a blur to those
who had immersed themselves in training. Especially to someone like Rui,
who truly lost track of day and night thanks to his relentless training and
immersion. Furthermore, his tolerance of potions made it even more difficult
to keep track since he didn't have daily sleep cycles.
Rui launched a tremendous attack at Kane. The sheer force the attack
contained blasted the air in its path apart, causing abrupt gusts of wind. The
Outer Convergence technique once mastered had fundamentally upgraded his
offensive force to a higher level.
WHOOSH
Kane evaded the attack, swerving to Rui's open side almost instantaneously.
POW
He managed a get in a solid jab before Rui could guard, and leapt back
unsatisfied. The jab had done nothing, it hadn't even fazed Rui.
"Tsk." Kane tutted.
Rui took the initiative to charge in, chasing after Kane, trying to cut off as
much room for escape as he could. One disadvantage that evasive
maneuverer fighters had was that they needed space, they were crippled
significantly if they were boxed in a small space.
Still, this was not an easy strategy against someone like Kane, who had
enough speed and mobility to bypass Rui's attempts to block him.
WHOOSH
Kane dodged yet another strike as he managed to sneak in yet another strike
past Rui's guard, a strike that, once again, didn't do any damage.
('Thank god for the fact that I have mastered three defensive Apprentice-level
techniques. Kane's general offense is too weak to bypass my solid defense,
he'll need to use higher-efficiency techniques like what he used against Fae.')
Rui mused.
Ever since he had mastered Inner Divergence, he had become quite confident
and secure in his defense. The three techniques he had purchased were all
quite compatible with the VOID algorithm. Rui resumed his tactic of trying
cut off Kane's evasiveness, but his approach to combat had begun to change.
No longer did he try running after Kane to land an attack, ever since Kane
had mastered Axis Earthing, his ability to maintain his top speed despite
making really sharp turns and curves had risen immensely. Meaning he could
almost instantly switch directions extremely acutely without needing to slow
down at all.
Pursuing him trying to hit him was impossible as long as Kane was focused
on evading was utterly impossible. Even though Rui was quite swift himself
having mastered Outer Convergence and Parallel Walk and Balance
Direction himself, it was still far below Kane.
Instead, he altered and adapted his approach to be as well-suited to Kane as

he could. He continued to attempt boxing Kane, but instead of going for the
attack, he took an extremely defensive posture with very few openings worth
attacking.
"Hah. Given up on attacking me?" He smiled playfully. "That just makes you
a harmless punching bag you know."
This wasn't false, it was difficult to launch a swift attack from an extremely
defensive position. On open offensive stance was launched attacks quicker
than super defensive stances.
Against Kane, who was extremely swift and mobile, it just seemed like an
incredibly bad idea.
Kane wasn't sure what Rui was thinking, but he shrugged, before dashing in.
His confidence in his speed and evasive mobility was extremely high and he
did not think Rui would be able to out-speed him, especially from that
position.
POW POW POW
He closed in, and landed heavier blows, which hit harder than the speedy
light jabs that he thrown earlier throughout the match with the few low-grade
of the Apprentice-level offensive techniques he had.
When he saw Rui didn't bother counter-attacking, he threw a weight blow

through a small chink in Rui's guard, aimed for his neck, trying to finish Rui
off with a single strike, unlike his normal fighting style. The reason he did
this was because he knew Rui got stronger as the fight went on, he would
alter his placement, timing and application of techniques, as well as general
course of actions and tactics throughout the entire fight to better deal with his
opponents. He did not want to prolong the fight too much out of wary caution
against Rui's adaptive evolution.
BANG
He cleanly landed the strike onto Rui's neck, slamming him back. It seemed
almost entirely clear that Rui had chosen the wrong course of action.
One moment, he felt elated for having won, giving him major bragging
points.
The next moment, he saw a grin on Rui's face.
And the moment after that, Rui's arms and legs had already latched onto
Kane's arm, using the Binding Lash technique
('What??') Kane was shocked that Rui had managed to use that technique
against him successfully. He was long aware of the fact that Rui had
mastered the technique but did not fear it because his speed was too high for
Rui to time that technique perfectly. It was a technique that involved the
entire body, meaning that it was slow. Against extremely fast opponents like
Kane, it was practically impossible to use unless one had timed the execution
with miraculous accuracy.
('How did he get me?') Kane wondered as he struggled to get out of the lock.
But it was of no avail, Rui was a much better grappler than he was. He used
Shifting Silhouette, his only defensive grappling technique to crush all of
Kane's attempt at trying to attack Rui, while applying an immense amount of
pressure on Kane's joints.
"Alright alright you win." Kane tapped the ground. Rui heaved a breath of
relief as he let Kane go.
"Hehe. Looks like I managed to squeeze out a win." Rui chuckled. "Good
fight."
"How did you even get me?" Kane complained. "I know you're not an expert
grappler to be able time that technique that well regularly."
"You're right." Rui nodded. "I timed it because I had predicted what you were
gonna do by limiting your striking options."
Kane tilted his head in confusion.
"A closed defensive stance has fewer openings and holes than an open
offensive stance." Rui said. "Your options to land a clean strike were much
more limited and fewer in number, making it easier to guess which one you
would pick. It's like the difference between flipping a coin and rolling a
dice."
The probability of predicting a coin flip was fifty-percent, but the probability
of predicting a rice doll was only one-sixth.
This was because there were more options with the dice roll than the coin
flip, thus making it much harder to predict dice rolls than coin flips.
Rui had applied this exact principle to his stance, by giving Kane fewer
opening to land clean strikes in, he was able to make it easier to predict
which option Kane would go for.
Kane grumbled while Rui chuckled at his expense.
This was one Rui's first serious spar after his training session ended. He was
quite satisfied with his performance, though he still yearned to be stronger.
The most recent techniques he had mastered
The mastery of Inner Divergence had bolstered his defense to the point that
Kane couldn't even hurt him unless he went all out with his offense instead of
his usual stinging jabs. Outer Convergence had increased his power to the
point that fighting Rui head-on was a losing battle, Rui would always hurt
and damage Kane faster than Kane could do take down Rui.
Seismic Mapping had gotten rid of his blind spots, he was able to track
Kane's movements, maneuvering and position even when Kane escaped his
peripheral vision quite accurately.
These three techniques successfully bolstered his foundation making him a

solid Martial Apprentice even without the aid of the VOID algorithm.
Still, despite all that Kane was able to keep up with Rui despite all this. His
speed, agility and maneuvering were always ridiculously high but after he
learnt to maintain his top speed constantly, he had truly become incredibly
difficult to deal with.
Furthermore, the tactic he had used to beat Kane this time was not a tactic
that could be abused. If they fought a second time, Kane would not fall for
the same trick, all he had to do was avoid a belligerent attack when Rui
entered a closed defensive stance, and the battle would just end up being a
stalemate.
In truth, Rui did possess a way to win even without the tactic he used.
The fourth technique he had learnt; Blink. His trump card.
There were several moments in the fight where Blink would have allowed
Rui to get a hold of Kane, which would probably have ended with Rui as the
victor most of the time since Rui was the better grappler between them.
However, Rui had decided to not use the technique ultimately. The capability
of the technique was at its highest when his opponents weren't aware of it.
Using it in the open in the Apprentice sparring facility was unwise, the
facility wasn't exclusively being used by the two of them, after all. There
were many Martial Artists in the facility that had kept an eye on their spar.
Maybe it didn't make much of a difference at all. After all, Blink wasn't
overtly flashy. Perhaps not a single one of them would notice.
Still, Rui didn't want to take the risk. So he decided to opt out of using the
technique at all.
The spar had given him idea what he could do to further improve his
versatility. All this time he had primarily focused on primarily the
fundamental aspects of combat; Offense, defense, maneuvering stamina,
striking, grappling etc. Now that he had truly bolstered all of these areas with
twelve Apprentice-level techniques, he could focus on expanding the
versatility of his Martial Art beyond these basic fields.
On Earth, there wasn't much more to MMA combat sports beyond striking,
grappling, defensive guarding as well as evasive and offensive maneuvering.
But this wasn't the same for Martial Art in the world of Gaia.
There were many more exotic systems of techniques and esoteric techniques
based on principles and mechanisms that would be no more than pure fiction
back on Earth.
Now that Rui had truly cemented the foundation of his Martial Art to be rock
hard and solid, he could focus on expanding his Martial Art to these more
exciting fields. The idea was extremely alluring by itself, but there were
strong concrete reasons for doing so.
The biggest reason was the refinement process of the VOID algorithm, which
was designed for the limited martial arts off Earth and not the near magical
Martial Art of Gaia.
This would not be possible without incorporating an effective counter-

deductive system, which could not be done with intimate understanding of
these techniques, and without mastery of these techniques and fields.
Of course, he had already taken the first step in this regard. When he
purchased and mastered Seismic Mapping and Blink; a sensory and stealth
technique, he had already taken a step in widening the versatility of his
Martial Art in fields outside of the fundamental fields of combat.
He intended to continue that trend. Of course, doing this wouldn't be easy.

The further away he got from the fundamental fields of combat, the more
useless his MMA and combat sports research background was. He might end
up taking longer to master these techniques due to this. Furthermore, a lot of
these techniques were not cheap, he recalled how expensive many of the
techniques in the stealth and sensory sections were. Purchasing them would
take an immense amount of time and successfully completed missions.
Since the tournament was a bit over half a year away, he had already decided
to grind like crazy with the missions and undergo one last time before
undergoing a final training session just before the Kandrian Martial Festival
rolled up.
"Huff." Rui got up. "You wanna go another round?"
"Sure, but are you sure?" Kane asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Did you forget what was there today?" Kane asked. "The Squire combat
exhibition."
Rui's eyes lit up in elation as he recalled. He'd been so engrossed in the four
techniques he had been training until just recently, as well as the matter of the
Martial Festival he had totally forgotten about the event scheduled today.
A Martial Squire combat session between the Squire instructors of the
Martial Academy. Rui had seen Martial Squires use their Martial Art before,
heck he'd even fought Squire Kyrie before, but this was different.
Unlike when she fought them, she wasn't going to be holding back most of
her power. He would finally get to witness the true power of a Martial Squire
with his own two eyes!
Of course, the Squires wouldn't be going all-out, but just seeing them spar
seriously was enticing enough of an event to Rui, who dreamed of obtaining
that otherworldly power.
Chapter 142 The Might Of Martial
Squires
Martial Squires possessed power that was a whole realm above that of
Martial Apprentices, literally. Rui had never gotten a chance to witness two
Squires fighting each other, so he was as excited as a child would be in their
first theatre experience.
There were many Martial Apprentices who had come to witness this, having
all been seated at a considerably great distance from the arena.
This was done on purpose. Martial Squires were so ridiculously powerful that
just being near them was incredibly dangerous. Furthermore, they were so
superhumanly fast that if the Martial Apprentices were too close, their eyes
would be entirely unable to follow the fight on any level whatsoever.
It was easier to perceive speedy objects from a distance rather than up close.
Rockets moved at dozens of times the speed of sound yet human had no
problem keeping track of them with the naked eye from a distance.
There was a general sense of excitement in the air, when suddenly multiple
heavy presences pushed on the atmosphere.
Squire Kyrie and Dylon walked into the facility with their Martial uniforms
on, they were Squire instructors Rui was familiar with, having trained by
them until quite recently. The Squire uniforms were quite different from the
ones Rui was accustomed to as a Martial Apprentice. They made their way to
the center of the Squire facility, ignoring the students. This wasn't an
academic event, and the students were free to watch or leave if they wanted
to.
Of course, an overwhelming majority of students were interested in observing
Squires fight seriously, only a few of them, even from Martial families had
experienced this before.
Squires Kyrie and Dylon took their positions on the arena first, putting five
meters of distance between them.
"It's been a while since we sparred, Kyrie." Dylon chuckled. "Since this is a
special occasion, let's make a bet. If I win, you have to go out on a date with
me."
That earned a bit of a commotion from the students.
Kyrie merely snorted wordlessly, taking a neutral stance with an open-

palmed arm extended forward and a closed-fist arm tucked a bit behind.
Dylon on the other hand, chose an aggressive offensive stance with one fist at
his waist, coiled with power ready to lash out and the other fist a bit in front
of him at chest height, pointing straight at Kyrie's face.
Their stances reflected their styles, Dylon was naturally an offense-oriented

Martial Artist as the head instructor of the offense training facility, while
Kyrie was an all-rounder, being the head instructor of the combat training
facility.
As their concentration and alertness heightened, the atmosphere grew heavier

by the second, weighing on the minds of the Martial Apprentices.
The fight did not begin bombastically. Squire Dylon shuffled as he slowly
closed the distance between them, while Kyrie remained stationary,
unconcerned.
POW
Blasts of wind erupted as he threw a light jab, which Kyrie promptly blocked
with ease. He threw several light jabs against Kyrie's guard, just checking
her.
And then the real fight began.

Dylon threw a kick with tremendous force.
SWISH
Kyrie withstood while rotating to deflect the strike off her body.
POW POW POW
She threw a flurry of strikes of different forms.
Fist.
Knuckle.
Palm.
Chop.
Her striking was incredibly diverse.
However, although she had great versatility, Dylon seemed to have even
more. He launched an even greater barrage of attacks, leveraging his stronger
physicality to gain an edge against her in striking.
"Squire Dylon is amazing, he's gaining an edge against Squire Kyrie." Kane
murmured.
"I dunno Kane." Rui replied, with an engrossed expression. "The fact that
Kyrie can still hold parity against him despite being an all-rounder while he's
an offense specialist is even more incredible."
All-rounders often had to spread themselves thin, it was generally not

possible to be extremely good at any one field. Rui himself knew this all too
well.
The power and speed of their techniques was truly amazing. Their clashes
shook the earth, sending mild reverberations and shockwaves as far as the
Martial Apprentices, earning their shock and awe.
Yet Kyrie performing as well as she did in a contest of blows was rather
amazing.
But, as close as she was, she was still inferior in that regard.
Eventually she disengaged, leaping back exhaling.
"I suppose I can't best you in contest of offense." She admitted.
"Hehe." Dylon chuckled. "It's only natural."
"Still, I don't intend to lose the fight." She adopted a different stance, relaxing
her arms in a lower stance in front of her with her legs centered closer to her
body.
('That stance sacrifices offensive potential for mobility and evasion.') Rui
noted. ('She's planning to change her approach a bit.')
She dived in with lightning swiftness, escaping the eyes of the Martial
Apprentices despite the distance between them, leaving nothing but a
shockwave behind.
She appeared right behind Dylon.
BAM
Dylon barely managed to guard the impact in time, grimacing from her power
nonetheless. She launched a flurry of strikes, however this time, she used
different Squire-level techniques this time. These techniques placed more
weight on swiftness than power, unlike before. She continuously pecked and
stung at him.
Dylon tutted, growing more frustrated as he launched a powerful side kick

hoping to send her flying. She quickly stepped out of range to avoid it and
simply resumed her offense. Dylon launched a barrage of blows hoping to
inflict damage on her.
She either dodged, deflected and redirected or did a combination of all three,
as opposed to blocking like she did before.
Very few strikes had managed to cleanly land on her.
If they exchanged strikes straightforwardly, Dylon's offense would

overwhelm Kyrie's defenses faster than Kyrie's offense would overwhelm his
defense, such was the offensive prowess of an offensive specialist.
Instead, she made the battle asymmetrical by using her mobility, redirection
and speed to dramatically reduce the number of hits that Dylon managed to
land on her.
Slowly, she managed to gain the advantage.

Chapter 143 Unclear
WHOOSH
Kyrie evaded a blow from Dylon, while striking soft and sensitive areas at
specific angles with differing hand forms to inflict the maximum amount of
pain and damage, earning grimaces from Dylon.
POW POW POW
"Isn't that Vital Pressure?" Rui asked, just barely managing to recognize the
familiar characteristics of the offensive striking technique after a few hours
into the fight. Kyrie was so blindingly fast that he truly struggled to make out
anything about her impacts at all! He would have instantly recognized had he
seen a Martial Apprentice.
However, Kyrie's attacks were indistinguishably fast.
"I can't say for sure. But I think it is." Kane admitted as he squinted his eyes,
ducking his head forward trying to keep up with Kyrie's onslaught.
('Not even Kane is able to perceive her attacks cleanly.') Rui thought. Kane
was by far the fastest among his friends, if even Kane was this inferior, it
spoke volumes to the prowess of Martial Squires.
He wouldn't be too surprised if Kyrie was using Vital Pressure. It was an

extremely useful and fundamental technique; it was the type of technique that
wouldn't lose its relevance even at higher Realms of Martial Art combat.
Every living being possessed soft, weak and sensitive spots. As long as these
vital spots existed universally, they could be pressured in various ways to
inflict higher amounts of pain and damage. This was the principle that Vital
Pressure was based. It truly was a foundational technique. Nearly every
Martial Artist he had seen that used striking to some degree, used Vital
Pressure.
('Maybe I can integrate that fact into the VOID algorithm.') Rui realized. ('If
Vital Pressure is this universal, then developing a counter-deductive system
specifically built for that technique might be quite useful.')
He could apply the tactic he used against Kane earlier to the Vital Pressure
technique. Vital Pressure did reduce the number of strike locations because
the number of weak and sensitive striking locations on the body was a
minority of all the striking locations on the body, making it easier to predict
his opponent's moves in advance and adapt his counter to those attacks more
optimally.
He shook his head putting aside such thoughts and focused on the battle, he
could think more deeply about this later.
He began to notice that Squire Dylon's movements were starting to grow

more and more sluggish and lethargic. Compared to the start of the fight,
where his movements were sharp and energetic, he had undoubtedly grown
slower.
His face was covered in sweat and his breathing was strained, whereas Kyrie
on the other hand appeared much less fatigued.
Rui immediately connected the dots together.
('As an all-rounder, she probably has better stamina than someone like Squire
Dylon.') Rui mused. As far as he could tell, she had adopted an approach to
combat that maximized her all of her distributed strengths as an all-rounder
while diminishing the significance of offensive power.
('Huh, what do you know.') Rui thought to himself. ('She's basically doing
something similar to the most elementary tier of the VOID algorithm.')
He wasn't too surprised. The VOID algorithm at its simplest iteration was just
a systemized data-drive protocol form of common sense, in a way. He didn't
think the VOID algorithm was something invincible that higher Realms of
Martial Art couldn't replicate. Higher Realms of Martial Artists had traversed
their Martial Path far, far deeper than Rui had, which almost certainly mean
their minds were much superior in combat than his own mind, likely even
with his reincarnation double-growth advantage.
In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if higher Realm Martial Artists possessed

such superior cognition that they were capable of producing results that were
superior to his algorithm.
p As it currently was, the VOID algorithm was a relic that was special back
on Earth, however Earth was astronomically inferior to Gaea as far Martial
Art went. He was not arrogant enough to believe it was unsurpassable.
However, it didn't mean he was resigned to let it be that way. Project Water
and the VOID algorithm were at the core of his Martial Art. The more he
developed the VOID algorithm and upgraded and evolved it to encompass
Martial Art in Gaea, the more his Martial Art would grow stronger.
Even if his Martial Art and VOID algorithm, as they were now, may just
happen to be obsolete at the highest levels of Martial Art, he didn't they
would remain that way by the time he reached the peak of Martial Art.
GRASP
A sudden shift in the fight's monotonous flow broke Rui out of his reverie.
Squire Dylon had purposefully tanked an attack from Kyrie in order to get his
hands on her, in order to turn the fight into a grappling contest.
He had managed to get his hands on her shoulder and refused to let go. His
intent was clear to Rui, he wanted to get rid of Kyrie's maneuvering
advantage by dragging her into an all-out grappling contest. As far as Rui
could tell, it was working.
The two wrangled on the ground fiercely, consequentially cracking the hard
tiles that were especially built to withstand the power of Martial Apprentices
without a single scratch!
Squire Dylon had a physicality advantage, he had a stronger body, by virtue

of being of a higher weight-class and also having a Martial Art in which raw
power was important.
Grappling was a field where physicality mattered much more than in striking.
In a striking contest, it was possible for an inferior striker to defeat a superior

striker thanks to a single well-times and well-placed strike due to dumb luck.
There were no flukes in grappling, there was only inevitability.
('However, inevitability could swing both ways.') Rui noted. ('His stamina is
much more depleted than Kyrie's stamina, and her stamina consumption is
lower than his because of her higher conservation of energy, likely due to a
Squire-level breathing technique.')
The fight had entered its final stage, and the conclusion was anything but
clear!
Chapter 144 Insights
Squire Dylon's goal was quite simple; to exploit his superior raw power to the
absolute maximum in order to win as quickly as possible. He knew he was on
a time limit, especially since attempting an offense in grappling was much
more energy-consuming than attacking via striking.
Squire Kyrie's goal was also equally simple, to stall the fight for as long as
possible and drain Squire Dylon's stamina as much as possible. She knew she
had a stamina edge, once her opponent was exhausted, she could begin her
offense and win due to a lack of sufficient energy from her opponent. She had
an edge in grappling defense since Dylon was largely offensive as a Martial
Artist, so she was confident that she could hold on.
The wrangled for quite some time, even spending a lot of time just immobile.
Some of the Martial Apprentices grew a bit bored, since the fight had become
less exciting than it had been prior. But Rui only grew more and more
engrossed.
And after a while of shifting and rolling, the moment came.
Squire Dylon's grip lost its firmness or just a split second as he felt just a mild
wave of light-headeness.
But it was enough.
WHIP
Kyrie broke out and whipped her arm around his neck.
A chokehold!
That too, a sleeper chokehold. An extremely dangerous and nigh-unbeatable

lock that put an unfathomable amount of pressure on the neck, the throat and
the arteries. Rui gulped at the sight, with how strong Squires were, he was
sure that if he was in Squire Dylon's place, his neck would have long been
crushed to a pulp by her the sheer force of her hold.
Dylon struggled to the best of his ability, hitting Kyrie as hard as he could
with Outer Convergence but in that position, with his exhaustion as well as
Kyrie's formidable defense, he wasn't able to break out.
Eventually he tapped her arm thrice, indicating his resignation and defeat.
Kyrie exhaled a deep breath of relief as she let him go, while Dylon gasped
for breath as he inhaled as deep as he could.
Both of them were quite exhausted.
Immediately, several assistant staff members brought them several

rejuvenation and healing potions.
"Shame I won't be getting my date." Dylon shrugged with emphasized

melancholy, merely earning a snort from Squire Kyrie.
"My, I didn't think Instructor Dylon was someone who attacked women to get
them to go out with him." Fae teased with her classic sophistry. The Martial
Apprentices had already moved to their instructors once the fight had ended.
"Hey, you make it sound like I was committing a crime!" Dylon complained,
receiving a bout of laughter from the students, and even a smirk from Kyrie.
"That was an amazing fight Instructor Kyrie, Instructor Dylon." Rui

complimented. "Seeing your combat prowess makes me want to return to
training even though I just finish it."
"Don't be so hasty my boy" Dylon waved. "With how dedicated you are,
you'll surely surpass me as long as you dedicate yourself to your path. This is
true for all of you." He said directing a glance to all the students. "Do not be
discouraged by our performance, it is meant to inspire you. Each and every
single one of you can obtain the power you have witnessed."
Squire Kyrie nodded. "Talent matters less and less the further down your
Martial Path your traverse, many of the most powerful and prominent Martial
Artists of the past and present were not extraordinary geniuses who broke
through to Martial Apprentice at an extremely young age, and many Martial
prodigies did not make it past Martial Squire, and in some cases, even Martial
Apprentice."
"What matters most is how far down your Martial Path you walk, it requires
perseverance, dedication, determination, suffering and sacrifice." Squire
Dylon added. "You can be the most talented Martial prodigy on the entirety
of the planet of Gaea, but if you lack the will to walk down your Martial
Path, you may never even become a Martial Apprentice."
Those words were quite surprising to a lot of the Martial Apprentices

gathered. They had all believed talent was the most important determining
factor, or at the very least one of, despite the denial of others. But being told
so in such a manner really made them think about what they ought to be
focused on.
Rui understood this well, this was true even on Earth.
Talent allowed people a head start, but if they didn't run, they would lose the
race one hundred times out of one hundred. Whereas someone who may even
be set back, would win as long as they ran with everything they had, one
hundred times out of one hundred.
Rui knew this, but right now he was too engrossed in the fight he had
witnessed to think about that. He had no objective proof, but he could sense
that Martial Squires were fundamentally different. It wasn't just a matter of
being stronger, faster and durable, or having a greater evolved mind.
It was as if their bodies were constructed different, as if underneath their skin,

they were robots running on motors and pumps powered by a powerful
engine and energy supply.
He recalled Squire Dylon's words, that the 'quintessential foundation of their

material bodies was different'.
It sounded like utter rubbish the man had conjured up to confound and
confuse Rui, but perhaps the truth was more literal than Rui had initially
thought it would be.
Rui had always had vague suspicions, but only after witnessing two Martial
Squires fighting seriously had he actually come to notice differences between
Martial Squires and Martial Apprentices. Their mass and weight, the
distribution of mass across their body and center of mass, the elasticity of
their flesh and their muscular power to body mass ratio.
There were many physical discrepancies that Rui had come to notice.
('Could it be...') Rui conjectured as an explanation came to mind. ('Could it be

that the breakthrough to Martial Squires alters the body deeply on a cellular
level?')
Chapter 145 Different Level
Rui wasn't sure, yet he didn't bother asking for clarification, it had already
been made quite clear to him that nobody who knew the truth would reveal it
so easily. Fae and Kane had both not been told about the breakthrough to
Martial Squire, and Squire Dylon himself had refused Rui the truth, being
purposefully vague and unspecific.
Still, Rui wasn't too bothered by this, he knew he would learn about the truth
and even experience it himself as long as he traversed down his own Martial
Path.
Once the event ended, Rui remained in the facility, looking for others to spar
against.
Although he had tentatively mastered each individual technique alone, he

hadn't fully gotten used to using all of them in combat. He'd decided he
wanted to get more experience with them, it was better to refine it in the same
environment of the Academy where he could afford to make mistakes than do
so in the middle of a dangerous mission and lose his life as a result.
Especially so since the Academy had upgraded his Martial Apprentice grade
from grade three to grade five. Meaning, from now on he could routinely take
on missions that posed some degree of a threat, albeit not much, all by
himself.
He would have only himself to rely upon.
The first course of action he wanted to do was test himself against different
Types of Martial Artists, with different specialties. This gave him a wider
dataset for him to evaluate how well he used his newly mastered techniques
He had already tested himself against an evasive maneuverer of Kane, and
had been reasonably satisfied with his performance. Now he just needed to
fight as many different types as he could. He could fight Fae for an offensive
striker, Dalen for a defense-oriented Martial Art, Milliana for a stamina-
oriented Martial Art. Felix for a grappling-oriented Martial Art.
He didn't particularly have anyone else he was acquainted with.
He shrugged, approaching other Martial Apprentices who had also stayed

behind looking for anyone who was interested in a spar.
The sparing match he had gotten into now was just that.
"Take your stances." The supervisor instructed.
"Huff..." Rui exhaled as he put a foot forward, while extending his left arm
open-palmed towards his opponent, while tucking his right fist at his ribs. It
was a fairly neutral stance that didn't put too much weight on offense, defense
or maneuvering.
His opponent, a girl named Karura, folded both arms to the absolute limit, as
though she was trying to crush something in between her forearm and bicep,
while raising her elbows, while crouching with bent knees
The stance undoubtedly drew attention to her elbows. This alone suggested to
Rui that her Martial Art was a super close range Martial Art centered around
elbows. It reminded him of the elbow centric technique that Fae had learnt
half a year ago.
"Begin!" The supervisor began the match.
Karura immediately closed the gap between them, something that was within
his expectations. She wouldn't be much of a super-close-range fighter if she
didn't close the gap between them.
Naturally Rui did not intend to cooperate peacefully, he immediately dashed

backwards, maintaining the distance between them.
What surprised him was that she was actually faster than he was, which
meant she had invested a lot into mastering maneuvering techniques to
bolster her speed and mobility.
('She's thought her Martial Art and repertoire remarkably well.') Rui thought.
He could understand why she had built up her maneuvering foundation.
As a super-close-range fighter, her very obvious weakness was people with

greater range who could attack her from outside her range while she couldn't.
The
The most common-sense strategy against her was for one to keep her distance
outside of her striking range, any moron could come up with this strategy as
long as they thought hard enough. Rui was relatively certain that she had
encountered this strategy many times until she chose to significantly bolster
her maneuvering prowess so that she could close the distance every time they
tried to open it, and force them to fight on her terms.
Rui suspected that in terms of raw techniques, he was probably inferior to her
in super-close-range combat. Still, he didn't feel any threat or fear, his sense
of security had risen tremendously after his latest training session
Just as she reached three meters away, Rui calmly stopped running away and
instead ran straight into her.
A look of surprise flashed across her face, as this was the last thing she'd
expected him to do.
BOOM
A tremendous impact let loose a huge gust of wind and that drew the
attention of everybody within visible range of their spar.
What they saw when they glanced at the source of the explosive noise was
Rui standing nonchalantly with an fist extended midair.
And a girl flat at his feet, coughing blood.
Their eyes flew wide open as they realized what had happened. Those who
had already been watching the fight gaped with dropped jaws.
A single strike! Rui devastated her with a single attack
When Rui switched direction and ran towards her, he had accelerated to his
top speed with Parallel Walk and Balanced Direction in her direction
Just as they were a meter away, he all three of his striking Apprentice-level
techniques; Flowing Canon, Vital Pressure and Outer Convergence.
Flowing Canon used the accumulated momentum of his acceleration via

Parallel Walk and Balanced Direction to ensure the power of his strike
surpassed that of his normal strikes.
Outer Convergence drew power from all his muscle groups.
And Vital pressure finished the job by ensuring the strike landed in a way the
maximized as much pain and damage.
It was an attack that was fueled by the power of a whopping five Apprentice-
level techniques and was the single most powerful strike Rui could possibly
launch.
Karura had tried to defend with an Apprentice-level technique, but it was

nowhere near enough. She had tried counter-attacking as well, but having
been caught off-guard with an already shorter range than Rui ensured that
Rui's attack landed first.
And whence the attack landed, the fight ended.
Nay, it was over before it had even begun.
Rui had achieved a different level of power.

Chapter 146 Resumption
"You feeling better?" Rui asked.
Karura nodded as she finished consuming her rejuvenation potion. When she
had collapsed, the match had ended and a team of paramedics had
immediately rushed to the ring and had administered a healing potion to her.
"Glad to hear that." Rui replied.
He said as he extended an open hand out to her, which she promptly

accepted, standing up. "Good fight, you're incredibly strong."
"You're quite good yourself." Rui replied.
"Hmph." She snorted mildly. "That's not very convincing coming from
someone who defeated me with a single attack."
p "I mean it." Rui scratched his cheek awkwardly. "I won because I exploited
a weakness in your battle approach."
"Weakness?" She squinted her eyes with curiosity.
Rui nodded. "In exchange for being formidable at super-close-range combat,

the natural and obvious weakness that your fighting style has is that you
cannot fight well outside super-close-combat."
"Wait." She frowned. "I never told you that I was close-range fighter, how
did you figure that."
He looked at her like she was dumb. "Because it was obvious after analyzing
your stance."
"..."
"Anyway." He continued. "I could tell that your tried to compensate for this
weakness by boosting your maneuvering capabilities so that you could chase
down your opponents outside your striking range."
"..."
"That's not a bad solution, but is insufficient and doesn't truly address your
shortcoming. It can be dealt with the way I dealt with it. Instead of running
away, I turned and charged straight at you, we both attacked at the same time,
yet my attack landed first." He paused, before asking. "Why is that?"
"Because you have greater range." She finally understood.
"That's right." Rui nodded. "As long as my attacks have greater range, I can
always ensure you are unable to attack me, by attacking you before you are
close enough to strike me. That is why chasing people is not a real solution.
You'll just be barricaded and restricted to a distance by attacks with greater
range than yours."
"Then what do I do?" She sighed with frustration. Rui could tell this was
problem that had been bugging her for a while.
"I cannot tell you what to do, though I could give you some suggestions."
She nodded vigorously. "Please do."
"Not all strikes can be used to keep you at a distance." Rui said. "Only attacks
with significantly greater range than your attacks can be effectively used to
keep you at a distance. Things like hooks or short jabs are too short, your
opponents can only really keep you out of range with straight punches and
kicks. This can be exploited."
"How does that help me?" She frowned, not understanding.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the maneuvering section of the library has

Apprentice-level techniques that allow the user to evade straight attacks and
close the distance between the user and their opponent." Rui mentioned. "If
you can find techniques like that, you better purchase and master them. Also,
I wouldn't be surprised if the offense section of the Apprentice library has
techniques that are specifically meant to inflict damage on strikes and attacks
optimally. Thus, every time they attack you to push you out of range, their
limbs endure damage. Something like that could also work." He said.
She grew engrossed as she realized the solutions he considered 'suggestions'

could be the key to erasing the range weakness of her Martial Art. "Thank
you for your suggestion! I'll take that into consideration." She said as she
rushed to the Apprentice library.
Rui chuckled at her retreating form.
* * * * * * * * * *
A week had passed by, Rui had finally accrued enough experience with the
technique he had recently learnt. He had spent the entire week testing the
techniques against different types of Martial Art with different ranges,
different specializations in regards to fields, Martial Art centered around
different principles, mechanics and systems.
He had gone onto make several adjustments to the way he used certain
techniques. He had optimized the way he used Outer Convergence and Inner
Divergence, though those were the easy parts. What he had trouble with was
optimizing his application of Blink.
For one, he had already resolved not to reveal his mastery of this technique to
the students of the Academy. Which meant he could not test his application
of the technique against his peers and competitors in the Martial Festival.
Fortunately, he had managed to find a solution. He had trained with his

former Apprentice supervisors from back when he was merely a student in
the Explorer Stage.
He could have chosen to train with the Martial Squires, but had ultimately
decided against that. As helpful, knowledgeable and experienced as they
were, they were simply far too strong on a fundamental level to be of use and
to be able to provide what he was looking for.
Martial Squires seemed to live and view the world on a fundamentally
different level of speed and time. Blink was an Apprentice-level technique
that was wholly ineffective against Martial Squires no matter how much they
held back. At the very least his remaining Apprentice-level techniques were
such that as long as the Martial Squires held back most of their power and
reduced their combat prowess to the Apprentice Realm. But the same was not
true for Blink, it simply would not work against them no matter what they
did.
In comparison, the Martial Apprentice instructors were susceptible to the

technique. All of the instructors he had approached had readily agreed to help
him out even though mentoring and sparring with Martial Apprentice
students was well outside their purview. Rui had an extremely good
reputation among the staff of the education department, and was what many
would consider the ideal student.
After long periods of training with them, he had finally reached a satisfactory
level of comfort and practical real-world proficiency with techniques he had
learnt.
With that out of the way. He had completed all the agendas that were holding
him back from the next stage of mission completion.
Chapter 147 Unknown
Rui had two goals with the next phase of mission completion.
The first was to diversify his experience with different classes and types of
missions. He intended to sign up for different missions outside of the
standard bodyguard or protection missions. He had long grown bored of these
kinds of missions and wanted to at the very least try out different kinds of
missions before returning to a bodyguard mission.
The second goal was to accumulate an even larger number of merits and
purchase powerful trump cards that he would hopefully be able to master
before the Kandrian Martial Festival would roll around. His foundation was
not truly solid as Outer Convergence bolstered his offense and Inner
Divergence that solidified his defense, perhaps he ought to strengthen his
grappling since it had been neglected a bit, but that wasn't a big issue.
The best way forward was to purchase the most powerful techniques within
the library with the highest compatibility with the VOID algorithm that he
possible could purchase. This would most definitely cost him a bomb of
martial credits. So, he needed to complete as many high-grade missions as he
possibly could to stack as much martial cash as he could.
With these two goals in mind. He strode into the Martial library with a
determined expression. He pointedly ignored defense-class of missions that
called out to him, instead glancing at the other four sections of the library,
considering all of them carefully
The first class of missions he immediately crossed out was the Shadow class.
This was the class of covert and furtive missions; the requirements of these
missions were almost certainly beyond him. Most of the non-trivial mission
would likely require multiple stealth-oriented techniques and multiple
sensory oriented techniques for surveillance, reconnaissance and espionage.
He had initially sworn off covert operation missions because he wasn't

particularly interested them, but since then he had come to realize that if he
truly wanted to be able to adapt to any Martial Art, any foe and any threat, he
needed to obtain some degree of proficiency in all fields. There would always
be certain
But for now, he felt no urge to take up any Shadow Class missions, nor was
he particularly qualified.
And with that, he added the shadow class of missions to no-go club where it
gave the lonely defense-class of missions some company.
Rui's attention turned to remaining three classes of missions that had yet to be
striked out.
Hunter class.
Offense class.
Miscellaneous class.
Miscellaneous class was also not something he was particularly interested in,
perhaps even less so than his interest in the Shadow class of missions. The
entire class was just a storage place for a bunch of missions that didn't fall
into the other four big categories of missions.
That left the hunter and offense class of missions.
The offense class of missions while quite desirable did not offer anything to
him from the private sector within the Kandrian Empire. Since Martial
Apprentices did not receive international missions, asides from highest
grades of Martial Apprentices. If he wanted an offense class mission, it
would have to be a Kandrian-authorized mission, which he would have to
directly apply for at the commissions department of the Academy.
The hunter-class of missions was much more accessible.

He shrugged, walking towards the hunting-class section of the Martial
library.
He had always been interested in hunting-class missions and had wanted to

give them a go, but had lacked confidence in his foundation. But now he was
quite confident, and now was good as any a time to apply for a hunting
mission.
The hunter-class section of the library was further divided into multiple
subclasses and sub-sections.
Extermination-subclass; Missions centered around the extermination of non-

human organisms.
Procurement-subclass; Missions centered around procurement of a specified

non-human living or non-living target located within a sufficiently
uncolonized natural environment.
Reconnaissance-subclass; Missions centered around the procurement of

information related to or involved operating within a sufficiently uncolonized
natural environment.
Extraneous-subclass; Missions that involved operating within a sufficiently

uncolonized environment that did not fall into the former three categories.
Rui noticed that all of them specified 'sufficiently uncolonized natural

environment' as a condition for the mission to fall into the sub-class. This was
because this was the defining feature of the hunting class of missions. If they
did not involve natural environments that weren't colonized by humans, then
they simply weren't in the hunter-class of missions.
He didn't have any particular preference for any of the sub-class of missions,
so he walked right into the reconnaissance-subclass.
A lot of the missions were centered around overgrowth or over-population of

a certain species of flora or fauna in certain parts in the regions in the
geographic vicinity of the town of Hajin. Many of them were missions
centered around dangerous beasts that had wandered and inhabited areas to
close to dense human population.
They were quite intriguing and compelling; it had taken Rui a while to let it
sink how different from defense-class missions these missions were. The
mindset and the protocols were quite different as well.
Just as he was skimming through the mission bills, one particular mission
caught his eye.
[Hunter-class: Reconnaissance-extermination nested-mission
Mission description: 1) To investigate and deliver a report on a

single(suspected) unknown beast responsible for the destabilization of the
ecosystem of the Shaia plains via mass hunting and 2) to eliminate said
unknown beast(s) if difficulty grade as evaluated by the Martial Academy is
within the evaluated difficulty grade of mission
Difficulty Grade: 5
Target location range estimate: Within 10-kilometer radius of (48.5, 39.7)
Initial mission time period: 30 days
Mission commencement: Immediate
Skillset pre-requisites: 1 mid-grade sensory technique, 3 offense-oriented

techniques, 3 defense-oriented techniques, 2-maneuvering oriented
techniques.
Successful Completion Renumeration: 17 gold coins and 3 silver coins/450

martial credits.]
The reward had drawn him to the mission. He was quite intrigued by the
mission as whole as well. Apparently, a myste beast or a group of beasts were
responsible for destabilizing the ecosystem dramatically, however the species
of the beast was unknown. Thus, the first part of the mission was merely
reconnaissance, where he had to observe and gather as much information and
intelligence on the beast. The second part of the mission was to exterminate it
if the Martial Academy evaluated the difficulty of the mission to be within
grade five.
Rui picked up the mission bill, he definitely wanted to know more about this
mission.
Chapter 148 Detail
Nested missions were missions with multiple objectives and goals. These
were typically objectives that could not be separated from the other or were
related closely enough that it was more efficient to lump them together in a
nested mission.
Rui had noticed that the client of the mission was the Ministry of Ecology
and Environment. A ministry established by the Royal Family to maintain
and regulate the exotic and esoteric fauna and flora of the Kandrian Empire.
Rui had been initially quite surprised that a society as scientifically primitive
as the Kandrian Empire had established a serious environmental government
organization aimed at regulating the ecology and environment of the
Kandrian Empire when he'd first learned of it long ago, but it had come to
make more sense the more he learnt about this world.
,m The natural environments of Gaia, the Panama continent and the Kandrian
Empire were far more dangerous than that of Earth's. Furthermore, they were
far more economically important than that of Earth's. These natural
ecological environments were the source of the many miraculous esoteric and
exotic resources of many kinda that served as the foundation of the
technological capabilities of not just the Kandrian Empire, but also all of
human civilization.
If the environment was not regulated properly, and were to collapse, then
human civilization would collapse immediately after as well. The natural
environment needed to be protected strictly because of this.
The environment also needed to be limited. Because the many species that
inhabited this land were extremely powerful and could only be stopped by
Martial Artists or through the proprietary technological solutions of the Royal
Family. If not limited, they were capable of inflicting untold suffering and
death upon humans. But they could not be fully exterminated either, because
they were part of a delicate ecosystem that needed them.
There needed to be a delicate balance between protection and oppression,

which is why the Ministry of Ecology and Environment existed. They
ensured the ecological and environmental parameters did not go below a
certain level and ensured it did not exceed a particular level.
When the ecological and environmental parameters threatened to exceed the

established thresholds, they would usually commission the Martial Union and
cooperate with them via the terms and protocols established in the Kandrian
Martial Convenant; the contract between the Martial Union and the Royal
Family.
This nested mission was one such example. An unknown beast had
destabilized the ecosystem of the Shaia Plains, a rich fertile plainland outside
of the town of Hajin, and the Ministry had taken action by cooperating with
the Martial Union to send a grade-five Martial Apprentice to investigate and
potentially eliminate the dangerous beast.
Rui noticed he fulfilled the skillset pre-requisite of the mission, which was
not small. He even satisfied the mid-grade sensory technique requirement
thanks to having mastered Seismic Mapping. This condition probably existed
because the necessity for environmental awareness was much higher in the
hunter-class of missions than in the defense-class of missions.
Unfortunately, Rui couldn't gain more information without accepting the

mission. This was because of the protection of personal information policy
that the Martial Union guaranteed to their clients. A lot of the details of
commissions were quite sensitive and confidential. A lot of clienteles simply
wouldn't commission Martial Artists from the Martial Union if the Martial
union hadn't taken such measures to prevent data leaks. The information that
was on public display was merely information that the clients had consented
to displaying.
('I guess I'll just accept the mission then.') He shrugged. He had already
resolved to take a hunter-class mission. This mission was as good as any to
start with in order to diversify his experience. It was even better because the
mission sounded quite interesting.
He quickly took the mission bill to the application registrar, and immediately
took a seat in the library to read more about the mission.
First traces of ecological destabilization in the Shaia plains had been noted
about three weeks ago. The population of the dominant herbivorous species
like the six-legged deer and the triple-tailed Gazelles native to the Shaia
plains had been decreasing rather abruptly. The sightings had begun
sporadically since then as a number of native residents who survived an
encounter reported a strange multi-legged creature that had been seen coming
and leaving out of apparently nowhere at a distance.
The description of the creature was rather bizarre, it had a mouse like main
body, covered in scales instead of fur, with allegedly twelve limbs and a long
tail and had a very odd-shaped bite pattern based on elementary surveys
conducted by the Ministry. This information alone was insufficient for the
Ministry to identify its species.
Thankfully, the combat prowess of the creature was estimated to be at a low-

mid grade Martial Apprentice Realm, since it was verifiably unable to hunt
certain native apex predators of mid-grade Apprentice Realm combat
prowess.
Thus came the mission, the mission was to procure as much intel and relevant
information as possible, including but not limited to; Appearance, primary
habitat, caloric consumption, travelling patterns, means of travel and diet etc.
At first, Rui found it absurd that a Martial Artist could be expected to

perform all these tasks, but the mission specified that the Ministry would
provide the Martial Artist with user-friendly tools that made it elementarily
simply to record the required information. He merely needed to press the
right buttons at the right time for a particular recording function. Meaning he
didn't need to actually mentally engage in any boring ecological procedures.
If the combat prowess of the beast was at the expected level, then he was
expected to proceed with exterminating the beast as a part of the second
objective his mission.
The rest of the mission bill went into the protocols that the Martial Artist
needed to abide by, as well as some additional information.
"Alright." Rui shut mission bill. "Let's go for this."
He immediately headed towards the Commission department to begin the

pre-mission protocols.
Chapter 149 Guidelines And
Protocols
"Sign here one last time and you're good to go." A staff member in the
dispatch facility informed him. "Good luck on your mission."
"Thank you." Rui nodded as he collected the assigned standard gear. In

addition to the mission recording-device he was expected to use to update the
Martial Academy, he was also issued an eco-survey device by apparently the
commission department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment meant
to be the tool with which he could procure the information and intelligence
required by the ministry.
He left behind his mask this time, he was dealing with a beast, not a human
that could track him down via his identity. There was no risk associated with
not concealing his appearance. He was grateful, as well-made and comfy as
the masks were, they were still a pain in the ass.
The Shaia Plains were a good three hours outside Hajin, by carriage. He,
however, simply needed to jog and he would reach the place in an hour.
Leaving Hajin would require around an hour as well, since it was both big
and a dense and populated.
Once he left Hajin, he heaved a sigh of relief.
This was the second time he had stepped out of Hajin for a mission, he had to
admit that the less developed uncolonized areas were truly scenic and
picturesque natural environments. Last time, he had been too tense to
appreciate it well, especially since they were guaranteed to be ambushed by a
bandit force led by Martial Apprentices.
This time, however, he was much more relaxed and calmer. He was far
stronger than he was before and this mission wasn't nearly as dangerous as
his last one.
The endlessly extending greenery across the smooth topography, coupled

with the cool breeze of fresh air pierced by the gentle warmth of the rising
sun.
Truly a peaceful sensation that did the concept of paradise justice. Especially
to someone from Earth. Humans had ruined Earth's atmosphere with smoke
and greenhouse gases. Rui was quite grateful that the Panama continent had
yet to follow suit. He didn't anticipate they ever would, given that fossil fuels
were worthless garbage in front of the miraculous esoteric and exotic
resources of the planet of Gaea.
His pleasant surroundings had made the mission seem less of a chore and
more of a vacation, and he quickly reached the Shaia Plains, looking down
upon the vast plains from atop of a cliff.
It was an endless flat expanse of endless varieties of grass with dense

distribution of wide-branched trees that spanned across the plains. In the
distance he could see a lot of fauna, herds of six-legged deers, birds and other
smaller mammals. The plains were vast enough to expand past the horizon,
making for a potentially huge area over which the target of his mission could
be located over. Furthermore, the intelligence provided by the Martial
Academy and the Ministry indicated that the beast or beasts in question were
quite elusive in nature.
There were guidelines for surveillance missions that were created by the
Martial Union and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment such as this, to
help Martial Artists complete their missions with greater ease. There was
even a corresponding protocol system that helped Martial Artists decide what
courses of action where most apt for certain situations. Furthermore, in a lot
of the missions they provided more direct guidelines so that Martial Artists
didn't have to make decision regarding a field they had no expertise in
One of the recommended surveillance methods was static surveillance for this
particular mission was; permanent employment of large-scale sensory
techniques during the period of highest activity. The Ministry of Ecology and
Environment had stated in the mission bill that the evidence they had
gathered suggested that the organism in question was primarily nocturnal.
By evaluating past known locations of hunting prey, the Ministry could

correspond those locations with the known habitat cycle of the herbivorous
species of the Shaia Plains, the Ministry could roughly estimate the time of
these hunting incidents. Then after further corroborating the evidence with
timings from eyewitnesses, they could generally infer that the beast was most
active during the middle of the night.
This was good news for Rui because animals weren't nocturnal and would be
at rest at night, it was much easier for his Seismic Mapping technique to
allow him to detect movement across much greater distances. This meant that
if the target of his mission was extremely active during the night, then its
seismic signature would be much more ever-changing than the seismic
signature of animal resting stationarily. This meant that the target would be
much more identifiable.
Grid searching was another common way of covering land to find the
primary habitat of animals. During the day, when the probability of the beast
of beasts resting and sleeping was the highest, Rui would scale the Shaia
Plains, grid by grid until his sensory technique detected the presence of the
wanted beast.
Grid searching was a common method by which forest surveying teams

would map and scale forests back on Earth, it was an efficient way of
mapping and scaling any piece of area and reduced the margin of error
significantly. By focusing thoroughly on one grid at a time, it prevented
haphazardous and unstructured surveillance.
These two surveillance methods covered Rui for the day and night.
Thankfully, he had brought many rejuvenation potions along with him
allowing him to persist over longer expanses of time to increase the speed at
which he completed this mission.
The grid search would only be useful during the day when the target of the
mission was stationary and resting. If it was active like all the other animals,
then grid searching would be utterly useless because the target of the mission
would likely not only not be present at its primary hunting spot but also be
travelling across the entirety of the Shaia Plains, hunting or doing whatever
apex predators did when they weren't hunting.

Chapter 150 Time For Action?
Rui pressed a button his standard-issue mission-tracking device that

indicating arrival at the mission location, and another one right beside it,
indicating the commencement of the mission. The reconnaissance part of the
mission was rather simple, albeit long and tiring.
He had already begun the grid search as per mission guidelines. He divided
the Shaia Plains into one-acre squares. One acre was the largest area over
which he had confidence of detecting the target of his mission, any larger and
the input was too undecipherable. There was too much activity during the
day, he would probably be able to expand that range significantly, during the
night.
Using some convenient standard-issue tools for hunter-class missions, he was

able to begin his grid searching process rather seamlessly.
He closed his eyes, trying his best to focus on the input of Seismic data and
deciphering its meaning. Seismic Mapping gave him a rough picture of the
topography, as well as objects in the environment. What it couldn't do
however, give him an exact picture of the object radiating seismic vibrations.
Of course, he could indirectly infer the source of certain seismic radiation,
through the number of contact points on the ground as well as their weight.
Humans walked with two legs, with two feet touching the ground, that along
with the fact that he could estimate their weight, as well as the shape of their
feet allowed him to instantly judge that they're humans. To some degree he
could extend this identification process to animals as well, but he needed to
be familiar with their seismic signature.
So, before Rui even began the actual grid search, he first spent as much time
needed in order to be able to identify and distinguish seismic signatures of the
most common types of animal species that could potentially throw his
identification off by confusing him.
In order to be able to detect the target of his mission, he needed to know what
it definitely wasn't, only then could detect it when it did enter his Seismic
sense.
He took his time as he memorized the seismic signatures of the six-legged

deer and the triple-pronged gazelles so that he could instantly dismiss them
when he detected their seismic signature.
As time passed, he grew more and more familiar with the seismic radiation of
the Shaia Plains. Before what was an inscrutable influx of Seismic data was
not slowly starting to turn into a clearer and clearer picture.
It had taken a long time before he was finally at a stage where he could
proceed with the mission with confidence. He opened his eyes in exhaustion,
reaching for a rejuvenation potion.
"Oh shit." He cursed when he saw the sun going down. Seismic Mapping did
not tell him the time of the day nor could it tell him that the sun was going on
because the sun did not produce any seismic radiation.
He had grown so engrossed that he had completely lost track of time.
"Oh well, I guess I can just start the grid search tomorrow." He sighed. For
now, it looked like he would have to begin the static surveillance first.
He brought out the mission bill as he glanced at the local-migration patterns

of herbivorous herds in the Shaia Plains. If the target of his mission were to
begin a hunting spree, then he would be close to the likeliest locations he
would likely run into the creature, or creatures.
He activated Seismic Mapping, and extended his range as far as possible.

Seismic Mapping as a sensory technique did not have any hard fixed defined
limit as for how far it could allow him to sense seismic radiation. However,
the further away the source of seismic radiation, the more muffled and less
clear it was. It was, in a way, similar to the auditory sense.
However, Rui was not looking for something detailed or clear. He wanted to
locate the biggest gathering of resting herds of herbivores before they went to
rest and stopped producing as much seismic radiation, making them harder to
detect.
He had already managed to narrow down the directions he conducted the

search in thanks to the intel provided by the commission department of the
Ministry of Ecology and Environment, now all he had to was find the biggest
source of general seismic radiation and he could be relatively certain that
herds of herbivores were responsible for that. That was because the largest
groups of animals of a single species were those of herbivores.
Predators generally were either lonesome or part of a very small pack or

pride.
This was Rui's strategy of finding the location of the herbivore herds before
the target of his mission did.
"There they are." He said with knitted eyebrows, trying to sense the precise
direction of the source of the seismic radiation he hoped was the target of his
target.
He immediately began sprinting at top speed, activating both his Apprentice-

level techniques to the absolute maximum while also using Outer
Convergence to boost his travel speed, sprinting at incredibly fast speeds.
He could sense the jolting seismic radiation that doing this caused. He could
feel the earth trembling at every step of his.
Soon, he could more clearly sense multiple sources of seismic radiation in

different directions. The closer he got, what he thought was the result of a
single source was actually multiple sources. It was just that the seismic
radiation had interfered with each other too much over a great distance,
making it seem it was coming from a single source.
He stopped running as hard once he was at a distance of five hundred meters

from the herd, and stopped using any Apprentice-level techniques whatsoever
at three hundred meters away. They would draw too much attention, there
was no point in pursuing them if they simply ran away from him.
He crouched, taking cover under the tall grass ubiquitous in the Shaia Plains.
('Alright, it's time for action.') He thought to himself. His heartrate

accelerated as his tension and alertness grew.
Chapter 151 Exploring Possibilities
The herd began relaxing as they settled down, resting as the sun had almost
completely dipped under the horizon. Rui observed carefully, waiting and
hoping for the target of his mission to show up. As the night grew darker, he
couldn't help but wonder how the target of his mission had managed to hunt
so voraciously and yet be so elusive.
The Shaia Plains were gigantic, meaning the herbivore population was
immense. In order for a single or even a handful of beasts to hunt so
excessively that they significantly impacted the herbivore species and be still
be so elusive that the Ministry had a hard time learning more about it, he
couldn't even imagine how such a thing came to be.
It didn't matter how powerful one was, hunting a huge number of herbivorous
animals everyday was not something that could be done very secretively. If it
was just one or two animals, it would be one thing, but as many as would be
needed to affect the ecosystem?
Was it really possible to do such a thing uncaught?
Rui intended to find out. Out of all the herds he had detected, he had chosen
the largest herd. Chances were that the target of his mission would go for
larger groups of prey because of the greater amount of food it could eat.
Thus, increasing Rui's chances of being able to ambush the predator.
Of course, it was entirely possible that the predator roamed around the Shaia
Plains in a much more random fashion, hoping to get lucky enough to
stumble into a small heard that he could then completely devour.
If that was the case, perhaps Rui's strategy would not necessarily increase his
odds.
('Can't be helped.') He shrugged. The Shaia Plains were enormous, there was
a limit to what could be done by him. There was even a chance he would fail
this mission and the Martial Union would dispatch a team of Martial
Apprentices to aid with the reconnaissance and extermination of the target or
targets of the mission.
Or he would get lucky.
He laid in wait the entire night, staying up using a rejuvenation potion to

erase his drowsiness. He waited patiently.
And waited some more.
And some more.
And just a little bit more.
And soon he had waited so long that the sun began rising out of its slumber.
"Dammit." Rui cursed. "I knew this would take patience and perseverance.
But I may have underestimated the psychological fortitude required for such
missions."
Now that dawn had come, he ceased the static surveillance and returned to
grid searching.
Using some handy small portable tools that came with the standard gear for
reconnaissance hunting missions, he was easily able to divide the Shaia
Plains into squares, positioning himself at the center of the squares and began
applying Seismic Mapping to scan the area thoroughly.
Trees, shrubs, grass, insects, smaller mammals and even some larger ones
entered his senses. He could even sense an ecosystem within the land.
Seismic Mapping did have subterranean sensing capabilities to a high extent.
The problem was that it became harder to form a clear image of distances
deep unground than it was to form on land, because the human mind found it
harder to parse information about an environment it did not live in.
The goal of the grid searching was to locate the habitat of the target of the
mission via direct surveillance, so he especially kept a look out for any
seismic signatures that were either unknown, unusual or could match the
estimated appearance of the target of his mission.
It was only a few hours later that he ran into something.
"A six-legged deer corpse." Rui muttered as he approached the corpse. It

could barely be called corpse, since almost only the bones had been left
behind. Yet the remnant flesh had not rotted much at all, despite this. There
were barely any flies circling the corpse either.
('All of this indicates that the corpse is still fresh as far as time since death
goes.') Rui thought to himself, he was no forensic expert. But he could be
reasonably certain that the deer was hunted very recently.
('Last night.') Rui realized.
This meant that the beast had ran into different herds than the one Rui had
been trailing. His luck mst have sucked.
At a distance, several more deer corpses could be seen, all in a very similar
condition. This was very odd to Rui for several reasons.
"Why are there these many corpses in such a small geographic area?" He
pondered out aloud.
Normally, when a predator hunted an animal from a herd, the herd would
evacuate from the area of the predator immediately, getting far away before
finally stopping. Meaning, by the time the predator consumed the food he had
caught, there would be no more prey anywhere within its range of vision.
Which is why having numerous corpses so close to each other was rather
strange. It was almost as if the herd of animals simply stood around patiently
watching the predator fill its belly until it was to be there turn.
"Something is off here." He murmured. He was no zoology or ecology

scholar, but it didn't take a genius to understand that there was something
strange going on here.
"Either the predator consumes its food at extraordinary speeds, such that it
has finished consuming its prey before the rest of the herd can escape..." He
voiced out on possibility. This was a terrifying possibility. What kind of a
beast could instantly the sizeable carcass of a six-legged deer to such a degree
that little more than bones were left with such speed?
"...Or the predator simply killed as many deer in rapid succession as it could
before proceeding to consume them after rather than before, in order to
maximize the amount of food it got from a single hunt."
This possibility was potentially even worse. This implied the beast had a
decent degree of awareness, intelligence and self-restraint.
Just the thought of that made the atmosphere heavy.

Chapter 152 Discrepancies
Generally, predators were too hungry to bother in doing anything else asides
from consuming their meal once they hunted their prey. These beasts were
already entirely lacking in any significant self-awareness and self-restraint to
be able to resist their hedonistic urges. In a state of heightened hunger, it was
almost certain that consuming their prey to satiate their hunger would be their
priority.
Apparently, the target of his mission disagreed. He knew the carcasses were
likely the remnant of the target of his mission. They did match the
intelligence provided to him.
The intelligence provided by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment stated

clearly that the target devoured almost every ounce of flesh of the carcasses
of its prey. The pictures provided by them matched the sight of the carcasses
he saw.
Rui sniffed the air. There was a faint acidic odour in the air, this also matched
the traces of a corrosive acid detected on the carcass and the soil beneath. The
Ministry of Ecology and Environment had concluded that the beast target of
the mission likely had an acidic saliva that it used to aid in the digestion of
the carcasses of its prey.
If that was the case, then Rui had genuinely begun to give more credibility to
his first conjecture that the beast was able to consume the carcasses of its
prey at an incredibly rapid speed. Acidic substances were able to degenerate
and decompose organic matter incredibly fast and thoroughly.
Still, there were many more oddities at the scene.
Rui looked around the environment and the corpses, frowning.

There were several things of note.
First, this was a section of the Shaia plains with very few trees and only short
grass. Meaning it was an open part of the plains. It was basically impossible
to hide.
The second thing Rui was paying attention to was the ground. It was
comprised of clayey-mud with high-silt saturation, the type that would retain
foot prints quite well.
He could see hoof-prints that matched what one would expect from six-
legged deer. But what surprised him was that there weren't any footprints of
the predator in the distance that led to the carcasses.
So how did the predator reach them in the middle of this open field without
leaving any footprints on the way?
('So, it hunted the deer in the middle of this open field where every step left a
footprint, even moreso when you're moving faster and stepping harder,
without leaving any trail of footprints?') Rui frowned.
Rui closed his eyes as he processed through all the information available.
There were several straightforward conjectures to be made with the

intelligence provided by the Ministry of Environment and Ecology as well as
his own observations and deductions.
The fact that there were no footprints visible entering and exiting open plain
mean that either they were never there, or they had been erased.
The latter seemed too absurd, a predator beast erasing its own tracks?
Furthermore, even if it erased its own tracks, how did un-crush the grass that
something of its size and power would doubtlessly crush on its way in?
Furthermore, why didn't it erase its footprints from when it rested and
consumed its prey?
Rui shook his head; it was far too unlikely in the face of the other option.
The other option was that the tracks had never been made at all.
This directly followed with two of the least absurd options; The first option
was that it had the ability to fly, glide or float, to some extent.
The second was that it was deceptively light, and thus did not create a trail of
trampled grass and footprints.
He had considered whether this place just happened to be the primary habitat
and home of the animal and the deer had unwittingly stumbled upon it, which
seemed to be the most plausible and reasonable option at first, but how did it
leave without leaving any footprints?
It's not as though the other options were without issues. If it was light? Why
did set footprints after entering? Rui wondered about this as he stared at a
stange footprint he had seen among the hoof-prints of the deer that matched
the descriptions of the creature, and probably belonged to the target of the
mission.
That left flight, which wasn't inherently weird as a possibility, wings were
extremely common in the animal kingdom, after all. But none of the eye-
witness accounts mentioned any wings. Furthermore, the beast was
immensely elusive to ordinary forest surveyors of the Ministry of Ecology
and Environment apparently.
How could a big beast that travelled by flying in the air possibly be elusive?
Travelling birds in an open sky were among the easiest things to spot, and
birds were far smaller and inconspicuous than an apex predator flying around
in the sky.
"Something's not adding up." Rui muttered. He wasn't able to figure out what.
It could be that the beast just had some esoteric capabilities that gave it some
abnormal and unconventional degree of stealth. Maybe intangibility, though
that would beg the question why it was ever sighted at all.
Or why the deer clearly showed a running pattern that indicated they could
see their pursuer.
Rui documented his findings using the eco-survey device that the Ministry of
Ecology and Environment had given him for situations just like this.
As he continued his grid searching, he ran into multiple odd instances where
traces of a hunt occurred or a trace of the predator could be seen.
He also ran into corpses left behind by the native predators of the Shaia
Plains, species of the big cats, that normally hunted the herbivorous species
of the Shaia Plains. In these cases, he was able to deduce what had happened
from the environment around the corpse, fairly straightforwardly with no
logical discrepancies.
As time passed, he managed to grid search a decent portion of the land,

which he could conclude were not the primary home to the beast.
Soon, dusk came, and he prepared for a night of dynamic surveillance.

Hopefully he would run into the beast tonight.
Chapter 153 The Key To The
Mystery!
Rui used Seismic Mapping to search for the largest source of seismic
radiation and began heading towards it as fast he could. After some time, he
ran into a herd of deer numbering hundreds, which was quite large. And he
tailed them at a distance, careful not to alert them of his presence, which was
easy enough when one considered that they were resting.
Now he just had to pray that this herd would be targeted so that he could get a
close look at it for once.
As time passed by, his hoped grew more and more dull. He waited, but
nothing happened. His patience wore off and he felt tired from simply
waiting and doing nothing.
In a way, he had come to develop respect and admiration for predators.

Predators often had to endure agonizingly long waits before a realistic
possibility of a successful hunt occurred. That respect extended to hunters as
well. These Martial Artists that regularly took hunter-class missions were
definitely not to be trifled with.
('Well, even bodyguard missions can be long period of patience-draining

waiting.') Rui realized. Though he had never gone through a rigorous long-
term bodyguard mission quite yet. His only two major bodyguard missions
were quite short compared to the norm.
As Rui began to delve into his thoughts a bit, a sudden abrupt shift in the
seismic radiation he was sensing with Seismic Mapping drew his attention.
He sensed what appeared to be a lot of seismic radiation from one particular

source away in the distance, he was too far away to be able to assess exactly
what the source of all this seismic radiation was, but he could not ignore it.
It didn't make sense for such seismic turmoil to occur normally. Most animals
were resting, furthermore the only species that were had enough weight and
numbers to produce the seismic noise he was sensing were the herbivores.
('A herd of deer or gazelles are running.') Rui realized in excited anticipation
that he might actually be detecting an ongoing attack by the target of his
mission.
Of course, this wasn't necessarily the case. There were other predatory
animals that hunted at night what he detected might be an ongoing hunt by
another native predator species of the local ecosystem of the Shaia Plains.
Still, he couldn't let it go. He immediately got up and began sprinting towards
the source of the seismic radiation he had detected; his abrupt speedy
movements had shocked the living daylights out of the large herd of deer that
had had no idea that Rui had been stalking them for pretty much the entire
night.
Rui sprinted excitedly, getting closer and closer. He thanked the fact that the
target of the mission was largely nocturnal, this was truly beneficial to the
Seismic Mapping technique. Nights were quieter, and generally had less
seismic radiation and noise running through the land than during the day,
making it easier for Rui distinguish the noise quite well.
It was the equivalent of the difference between standing in a hall saturated

with people talking and a hall with only two people.
In the former, it would be a miracle if anything could be properly heard and

distinguished across the room, in the latter one would be able to hear even
soft sounds from across the room.
As Rui sprinted and got closer and closer however, he noticed that the
seismic noise was reducing.
p ('Wait, why is it reducing?') Rui panicked. ('Is the hunt ending?')

That was terrible news. He began sprinting at even higher speeds, pushing
himself to the absolute limit. Using the conjunction of Parallel Walk,
Balanced Direction and Outer Convergence, exceeding his speed limits, this
was a bit haphazardous on his part since Outer Convergence was not a
technique optimized for maneuvering, and it's not like he had massive
amounts of experience with it either.
Each step sent him flying meters at a time almost causing him to fall at times,
but the speed boost was definitely worth it.
As he got closer, he began to panic even more. This was because he was able
to sense the source of the seismic radiation with much greater clarity than
before.
BOOM
He landed hard, stopping abruptly as he skidded across the mud and grass. He
quickly scanned his surroundings carefully.
A large herd of gazelles fleeing away.
Corpses of gazelles.
But nothing resembling his target, or even any predator at all, really.
('Damn!') Rui cursed. ('Where the fuck is it?')
Rui had so many questions.
There was something hunting the gazelles just minutes ago, and now he
couldn't sense any animal resembling it on land at all?
What were the odds that it escaped at the precisely last moment?
Rui felt truly frustrated, it was genuinely horrendous luck.
He quickly got up and began scanning the area for any clues that might give
him greater insight into the target of his mission.
He glanced over at the skeleton carcasses, there was still fresh acidic saliva
over some of the leftover flesh, sizzling as it rapidly melted the flesh and skin
into a gooey sludge that dripped into the ground. This confirmed that it could
eat at incredibly rapid speeds, something he and the Ministry of Ecology and
Environment had already suspected.
He looked around at the ground. The soil was indented with the footprints
from the hooves of gazelles, pairs of footprints with three long claws, which
was identical to the previous footprints he had seen as well as the information
provided by the Ministry.
Yet once again, the footprint trail of the herd of deer as well as his own,
could be seen coming and going and there was no incoming or outgoing trail
of footprints that indicated the creature came and went by land.
He stomped the ground in frustration, using Outer Convergence to vent. A

tiny reverberation spread through the ground, just enough to shift the closest
carcass by half a foot.
Rui briefly glanced at it, and just as he was about leave, something caught his
eye.
A strange indentation in the ground just under where the corpse had been a
second ago.
Rui kicked the skeleton carcass away, as he crouched to get a closer look.
The mud was uneven and grass had been disheveled and thoroughly crushed
and uprooted.
Rui frowned as he sifted through the mud, digging deeper and deeper as
recognition struck him like a lightning bolt.
"This place... has been dug up and refilled extremely recently!" Rui
exclaimed. The mud was at an unnaturally uneven height, it was wetter and
darker and the mud was easier to dig up, with no resistance.
These were all classic tell-tale signs of very recently dug up and hastily
refilled mud!
"Wait..." Rui realized immediately. "Don't tell me..."
Rui realized he just might have figured out the ley to the mystery!
Chapter 154 Course Of Action
A huge bombshell had exploded in Rui's mind. Suddenly, everything from

before was starting to make sense if what Rui was beginning to suspect was
true. It was all starting to click.
The lack of footprint trails incoming and exiting the area of the hunt despite
the fact that smaller and lighter creatures had footprints incoming and
outgoing out of the area. Then the presence of its footprints around the
carcasses. It's impressive elusiveness, being able to appear and disappear in
and out of an environment far too easily and inscrutably.
All of this could be explained if the creature was primarily subterranean or is

primary mode of transport was subterranean fundamentally!
This wasn't an absurd notion. Even on Earth, subterranean fauna was found
worldwide and included representatives of many animal groups, mostly
arthropods and other invertebrates. However, there was a number of
vertebrates, although they were less common.
This paradigm was not necessarily true in the world of Gaea, however. The
world of Gaea was filled with many strange and exotic species that were
capable of far more than the fauna on Earth was. Although travelling through
subterranean means of transport to accomplish what the target of his mission
had accomplished and shown to be capable of was not possible by any Earth-
based fauna, the same could not be said of fauna of the world of Gaea.
By travelling underground, the target creature would be able to travel to and

from locations without ever leaving a trail of footprints. However, it may
need to come above ground to actually hunt and eat its prey, which would
explain why its footprints were there at the site of the skeleton carcasses.
Everything seemed to fit.
('Almost everything.') Rui corrected. (There's the question of how my

Seismic Mapping didn't sense it.')
Seismic Mapping allowed the user to understand the shape of the topography
as well as position of objects on the land via sensing and understanding
seismic radiation. If the creature was moving underground incredibly fast,
wouldn't it generate immense amount of seismic vibrations and radiation?
('Maybe not.') Rui conjectured. ('Maybe its body is optimized for geodynamic
subterranean to such a degree that it could travel through the ground at
incredibly high speeds without producing much disturbance through the land.
This wasn't uncommon in other modes of transport. Birds could fly through
air an incredible speeds without ever producing a single sound ever.
Same for many aquatic creatures, that zipped through water at vigorous
speeds.
If the target of his mission was similar in that nature, then Rui could
understand why he had difficulty perceiving it, especially when he had never
been within a hundred meters of it. Who knows, perhaps he would actually
sense it clearly if he were closer.
The problem was, the creature was gone just as he arrived.
('That's another issue.') Rui frowned. ('Was it just dumb luck that it left just a
little before I arrived?)
Upon this revelation, Rui wasn't sure anymore. There were a few more odd
things with his subterranean travel hypothesis.
('How does it detect its prey or the direction it wants to travel in or general
topography underground?') Rui wondered.
There's no way it could see or smell prey underground. Light did not travel
underground and neither did odour. There was no air underground either, so
how could it hear sound waves through the air?
('It might have a seismic sense similar to Seismic Mapping.') Rui realized. It
was a bit of an obvious conclusion once one asked the question how the
creature could perceive information while being surrounded by mud, gravel
and rocks.
In that case even more things made sense. His horrible luck was no longer
luck but an outcome of his target's sensing of his approaching. That begged
the question, why did run away the moment it sensed him? It was an apex
predator with prowess at the Apprentice Realm. It shouldn't necessarily be
afraid of a single Martial Apprentice.
Yet it left the scene the second it sensed, assuming it did sense him.
('Was it because of how hard and fast I was running.') Rui wondered. He had
used Parallel Walk and Balanced Direction while also using Outer
Convergence to boost his speed and stepping power. Having used Seismic
Mapping at the same time, he knew for a fact that every step he had taken
generated enormous amounts of seismic radiation.
If the creature could hear through the land, it would have heard a creature
causing explosions with every step it took. Every step had enough power to
hurt even itself.
In this case, fleeing away was not a strange choice, Rui realized. He had
given the creature an exaggerated impression of himself, causing it to simply
flee evacuating the area before this new apex predator reached its location,
rather than risking a fight to death with a creature that seemed extremely
physically powerful.
('That would also explain why it never went after the largest herd in the Shaia
Plains.') Rui realized. ('It must have sensed me using my Apprentice-level
techniques to chase after the deer, and assumed that I was another apex
predator native to the land hunting after that particular herd of six-legged
deer, so it avoided conflict by hunting other herds of deer of gazelles that
were scattered around the Shaia Plains.
Rui sighed in helpless resignation as he realized the measures he had taken to

increase his chances of running into the beast had thoroughly killed any
chance of him running into the beast even in a million years.
Rui exhaled, reminding himself that this was all deductive conjecture, rather
an irrefutable proof. He had applied deductive and inductive logic to the data
available and had made some basic presumptions of the target and
constructed a well-thought-out possibility that had the highest likelihood of
being true than any other hypothesis or theory that wone could conceive.
However, he was not a zoological or ecological scholar, so his opinion didn't
hold much credibility, even to himself.
('I need convey all of this to the Martial Union and the Ministry.') Rui
realized. ('And I need to find some damn proof.')
Chapter 155 Consideration
The first thing Rui did was begin documenting the entire scene, he used the
eco-survey device that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment provided to
him and carefully used it to collect pictures. He especially documented the
refilled hole, extensively documenting it so that it couldn't possibly under-
considered when the Ministry went over his reports.
Once he was done, he began considering his options.
The first option was to simply routinely continue his mission according to
recommended guidelines, and hope for the best. Ultimately, neither the
Martial union and Ministry expected a Martial Apprentice to solve the entire
mystery of the mysterious creature all by himself, as long as he fulfilled his
duties, he wouldn't receive any backlash.
However, this route reduced the probability of Rui succeeding in completing

the mission objectives. Which meant that Rui would not receive the full
mission reward if he went down this route, most likely at the very least.
The second option was to take a more proactive reconnaissance approach to

the matter as a whole and begin verifying and gathering evidence of his
hypothesis, or gather evidence that ends up disproving his hypothesis one
way or another.
And eventually use this hypothesis to actually fulfill the first objective of his
nested mission, which was to collect swathes of data regarding the beast so
that the Ministry new exactly what they were dealing with.
He had already resolved to go for the latter, he just wanted to make sure he
wasn't missing anything and had considered his available courses of action.
('Alright then.') Rui exhaled, sitting down on a rock after he finished
documenting all that needed to be documented. ('Time to make a plan.')
He grew engrossed, completely forgetting about the grid searching that he

was supposed to engage in. He didn't particular care either, if his hypothesis
was even partially true, then the on-land grid searching was frankly entirely
useless and unreliable.
('The first primary goal is to finish the first objective of the mission.') Rui
established. ('To do that I primarily need to document its appearance as well
as its habitat and home, and ideally tag it with one of the tags that I've been
provided with.')
He though as he glanced at one of the small devices the commission

department of the Ministry Ecology and Environment, it was meant to serve
as a rough tracker that Rui could use to tag the target of the mission. Though
he wasn't sure it would stick to the target of his mission if he used it, if his
theory was true.
As for the other objectives, Rui could use his constructed hypothesis of the
beast to fulfill the first objective of his mission. If his theory was true, then he
would be able to predict or manipulate the beast to some extent. Using this,
he would be able to gather the information about the creature he needed to
fulfill the first objective.
If that plan succeeded, it would serve as proof that his theory was, in fact,
accurate. Since if the theory or hypothesis wasn't accurate enough, any plan
based on the theory would simply fail. Thus, succeeding would be the ideal
outcome.
If the plan failed, then it was a strong indicator that his theory was partially or
entirely wrong, or incomplete. Which meant he needed to change his
approach.
Either way, he gained new information.
('Alright, what plan do I enact, that relies on my conjecture to manipulate the

target of my mission?') Rui wondered.
The plan needed to rely on predictions that Rui could make if the beast was
indeed a subterranean traveler with seismic sensing.
The first fact of the matter was that it likely hunted in the direction that it
detected the seismic radiation characteristic of hooves of herbivorous
animals. This was the most straightforward manner in which it could reach its
prey.
Another fact of the matter was that it could travel extremely fast, at the very
least as fast Rui, perhaps even faster. This was based on the fact that the
creature was already out of Rui's Seismic Mapping range by the time Rui had
reached its hunting site, this was definitely an incredible feat.
One more fact, if Rui could even call it that, was that it seemed to have an
aversion to powerful animals that could potentially kill it. This would explain
why it scurried away the moment it sensed Rui, and also why it didn't hunt
for the largest herd of animals that Rui had been surveilling two days ago.
This also indicated that the beast was certainly cautious and had some degree
of rationality, despite its immense hunger that had caused the problem in the
first place.
It acted within a certain limit and perhaps that could be used against it in the
first place.
He glanced at the carcasses in the vicinity, recalling that it consumed food at

incredible speeds. Rui wondered if that trait was something that could be
used against it. Maybe by knowing the timeframe would allow him to predict
it...?
p Rui shook his head, he wasn't able to conceive of a way that he could catch
and document its appearance using that, if anything, that trait just made it
irreconcilably harder to catch it, atleast other predators needed to slow down
after they hunted.
Rui skimmed through the other pieces of information of his theory in his
head, looking at each one individually and holistically, wondering how he
could exploit them.
It was difficult because there were too many variables to account for, and far
too many constraints that got in the way of every plan.
('One of my biggest issues is size of the Shaia Plains, it's too huge, making it
difficult for me to come up with a plan, especially a plan that somehow
prevented the beast easily evading me at every turn.') Rui sighed. ('It's not
like I can use that against it eith-.')
Rui froze as an epiphany struck him.
"Wait a minute, there's one option I haven't considered yet..."

Chapter 156 This Time
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier." A woman sitting at a desk said. "We have gone
over your request and have accepted it, as we informed you. The items you
requested will arrive soon enough."
Rui merely nodded on the other side. "Thank you."
It had been a week since he had accepted the Shaia Plains nested mission. He
had filed a request to the commission department of the Ministry of Ecology
and Environment for certain items when he had finally come up with a plan
to tackle the beast.
Normally, requesting the client for help was considered unprofessional.

However, the ministry was not an ordinary client, but much more of a
collaborator. This was thanks to the Kandrian Martial Convenant that
specified the terms of cooperation between the Ministry of Ecology and
Environment and the Martial Union and its Martial Artists.
Thus, he was able to request aid from the ministry without any compunctions.
Thankfully, his request was accepted. That was the reason he had visited the
closest branch of the ministry; to receive the items he had requested.
"May I know what the evaluation of the intelligence that I documented was?"
Rui inquired. "It would be quite helpful to understand what actual experts
think of the data I documented and the hypothesis I provided."
"It was quite surprising for us to find such a nuanced take and analysis in
your personal statement, considering you're not an expert on the field." She
replied with an intrigued expression. "Yet your analysis was quite valid and
sound although rough around the edges, the evidence is well documented and
supportive of the overall narrative."
Rui nodded. As long as the Ministry of Ecology and Environment was
receptive of the hypothesis, then he likely hadn't made any glaring errors
when formulating it. Now the only thing he had left to do was execute his
plan.
"We're quite interested in the outcome of your strategy, it is a rather novel

way of going about reconnaissance." She said. "We wish you good luck."
"Thank you." Rui stated as he collected the items he had requested. "Well, I'll
take my leave."
He left the office of the ministry official as he set out to return to the Shaia
Plains. He was feeling pretty good about this plan in his gut and couldn't wait
to try it out this night.
He glanced at the bag, holding it carefully, wary of what were inside.
Explosives.
This was his ingenious plan. Within the big box in has arms were a large
number of timed explosives that he had requested from the Ministry of
Ecology and Environment, around thirty small-grade explsoives.
How these explosives worked? Rui didn't know, and frankly didn't care. He
only cared about how he could use this to his advantage.
When thinking about how good the target of his mission was at evading him,
he realized that he might be able to use this to his advantage. He recalled that
just force from his running alone had caused enough seismic radiation to
scare the beast off immediately.
This had been an incredible curse at this point, now he intended to turn into a
blessing, by exploiting this trait to fulfill his objectives.
The idea was simple; If intense seismic radiation made the beast stay away,
then he could use this fact to restrict its hunting locations and targets. He
could use this to manipulate it into going after the hunting target that Rui
wanted it to go towards.
He could do this by rigging these explosives in different locations across the
Shaia Plains and timing them to explode one-by-one just as dusk came.
The positioning was what mattered the most. Rui would have to place them
cross the Shaia Plain in such a manner that all hunting locations except for
the one he would be waiting in ambush for would have explosives embedded
in the land.
Just as the hunting time period of the target of his mission was likely to
begin, the explosives would all detonate in rapid fashion. This would create
immense seismic radiation from a lot of directions. However, the beast
wouldn't be able to know the seismic radiation was caused by explosives. It
was extremely likely that the beast would interpret the heavy seismic
radiation as the presence of other predators, that had occupied all locations
except one.
The only hunting location without a single explosive was the location Rui
would be waiting at. To the beast's seismic sense, this would be the only
location with herds of herbivores grazing on grass that didn't have a single
predator in the area.
Given its tendency to avoid competition, Rui was quite certain, that if his
hypothesis was true, the beast was sure to travel there to hunt for deer and
gazelles.
Rui was quite confident in this plan. Even if it didn't work, it would
concretely give him new information by disproving his theory regarding the
target of his mission. However, Rui found it quite incomprehensible that the
plan would be an utter failure. He predicted that a partial success at the very
least was guaranteed.
He had intended to run around the Shaia Plains, burying the explosives about
a meter deep. He couldn't bury it too shallow, otherwise far too much energy
of the explosives would be wasted into the air. He couldn't bury it too deep
otherwise the beast's seismic sense would easily detect that the source of the
seismic radiation wasn't from a predator above ground.
One meter felt just deep enough to retain enough energy to alarm the beast
while still shallow enough for other predators to not be ruled out as a cause.
Of course, Rui had just estimated this intuitively, but he didn't think it was far
off from the optimal height.
Just as he pondered about the chinks of his plan, he had already arrived at the
Shaia Plains. He gazed at the beautiful expanse of the plains as they extended
over the horizon.
"This time..." His eyes narrowed. "This time I'll get you."
Chapter 157 Time Had Come
Rui had spent the next few hours placing the explosives in the right locations.
He had to be very precise and accurate in his placing.
,m If he threw them around haphazardly, then the beast might simply not take
the risk to come hunting at all. He placed all the explosives on the other side
of the hunting areas away from the heartland of the Shaia Plains, lining them
inwards.
This would make it seem like very distant predators were approaching each
hunting zone from the other side. These explosives were all placed extremely
far away from the hunting zone that Rui wanted to guide the beast too, to
ensure that they wouldn't prevent the beast from going where he wanted it to.
This plan did require a bit of luck. Rui needed a herd of deer or gazelle of
significant number to graze in the grazing lands where he hadn't placed any
explosives, where he intended to hide, lure and ambush the target of his
mission.
Once he had placed the explosives, he had three hours before it was time. He
went over his plan once more.
('First, I need to find a herd of deer and gazelle in the area I haven't placed
any explosives before dusk arrives.')
He couldn't do this after dusk arrived like he did before, because by then the
creature would undoubtedly be awake and active. If he used any Apprentice-
level techniques after the creature was awake and alert, then it would
immediately detect him and avoid the general area he was in. And he couldn't
possibly travel far without any Apprentice-level techniques.
Thus, he ideally should have found at the very least one herd of deer in the
location he was planning to lure the beast in. If there were more than one,
then he should probably round them up or monitor the largest herd out of all
of them.
He had initially intended to merely gain intelligence; however, the Martial

Union and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment had already confirmed
that the difficulty of the second objective; the beast's extermination was
within the difficulty grade initially set by the Martial Union. After reviewing
all the evidence at hand, they had come to the conclusion that even if a grade-
five Martial Artist may not be able to succeed in exterminating the beast
before it escaped, they were likely strong enough to at the very least escape
with their life in a fight against Martial Artists.
And if they wrong, well, that was the life of a Martial Artist. Every Martial
Artist knew that traversing their Martial Path in the Martial World meant a
life of peril, they were expected to endure all of it.
Once Rui had received word of this decision, he had to alter his plan a little
and prepare himself for potential combat.
('Still, the first objective takes priority.')
Rui got up, there wasn't much time before dusk, he needed to find a herd, the
largest herd before the sun dipped and begin trailing them before the beast
grew active.
It hadn't taken him a particularly long time before this happened. Over the
past week his familiarity with the seismic radiation of the Shaia Plains had
risen immensely, and he had become more proficient with tracking down
herds of herbivores. He immediately began running towards the herd, but
abstained from using any Apprentice-level techniques, although it was still
some time before the beast likely grew active, Rui didn't want to take any
chances at all. He didn't think the Ministry would take kindly to a request for
yet another set of explosives.
He slowed down once he ran into a big enough herd, and thankfully the only
large herd of gazelles in the area, perfect for his plan.
This time, instead of laying on the ground, he sat atop a humongous boulder
the size of a small skyscraper and watched the herd from above. Against
normal predators that relied on normal senses, this may have been a bad
decision, but against a beast with a seismic sense, this was the best option.
The seismic radiation he produced would have to travel through the gigantic
boulder and only then through the ground, muffling and distorting the
readings to a good degree. Even though the seismic radiation and the location
of the source would very much be sensed, it became much harder to interpret
the data accurately, this was one of the shortcomings of his Seismic Mapping
as well.
Now, everything was finally in place, and dusk had come, the beast was on
the hunt.
Rui grew taut with alertness and he dismissed all of his senses to focus his
mind utmost on the beast. He didn't want to miss anything.
He glanced at his pocket watch. ('Any time now....')
Suddenly, his seismic sensing picked up a bunch of impacts in the ground

across the Shaia Plains.
Rui grinned. The explosives had gone off exactly when he had timed them to.
He had timed the outermost explosives to go off before the inner explosives.
To his Seismic Mapping, it seemed as though giant creatures were taking big
burly steps one-by-one, as they walked towards the various grazing areas of
the Shaia Plains.
This was exactly what Rui had intended, he had placed and timed the
explosives in such a way, that any seismic sense would think that the seismic
sounds were caused by big scary giants.
Furthermore, in all direction except one. The direction Rui was in. The
creature would have no choice but to go to the location Rui was at if it
wanted to avoid these giant creatures making these huge explosions.
Just as the explosives all finished exploding, Rui detected a sharp seismic
signature roughly moving towards his location at incredibly high speeds from
somewhere in the center of the Shaia Plains.
Rui laughed out loud with immense ecstasy and excitement, to think this
would work out as well as it seemed to be.
He calmed down, regaining his composure, as he got up and prepared

himself.
The time had come.

Chapter 158 Hunt Has Begun
Five hundred meters.
Two hundred meters.
One hundred meters.
Fifty meters.
Ten meters.
Just when it was ten meters away from the herd, Rui was already in crouched
tensed position, waiting for the right moment to use Balanced Direction,
Parallel Walk and Outer Convergence to leap towards it.
And there it was.
The ground trembled, and a meter away from herd, a huge bump emerged.
Five meters in length, five pairs of limbs, scales covering its entire body. But
that was not the most eye-drawing part of the beast.
It had a single big eye, and a circular mouth that expanded immensely to
reveal jagged razor-sharp teeth within as multiple tentacle-like tongues
protruded out.
It looked like a monster created by a character design department of a horror

film that were allocated far too much time and money to make the monster
look as grotesque and terrifying as possible.
It was the first time that Rui had seen such a grotesque creature in either of
his lives.
Rui immediately began recording from the eco-survey device, relieved that
he had effectively fulfilled the first objective of the mission. The eco-survey
device was strapped onto his body, a feature that made it convenient to carry
around and use immediately when needed, allowing it to witness everything
that Rui did.
Rui waited for it to consume, at the very least, one beast. He wanted to
document its consumption to verify that this beast was in fact the beast
responsible for the mass-hunting of the herbivorous population of the Shaia
Plains.
('Nice, nailed it.') Rui thought ecstatically as he watched the beast consume a
gazelle in seconds, as its acidic saliva decomposed the deer's flesh into a
gooey sap which was sucked in immediately.
A living gazelle was reduced to a skeletal carcass in less than a second.
This was when Rui decided to jump in. He clutched the standard-issue
tracking device and leapt towards the beast with Apprentice-level techniques.
The beast in turn froze as it detected powerful seismic radiation from very
close by. It tilted its head in the direction of the source of the seismic
radiation.
BOOM
Rui landed ten meters away from it, grinning in ecstasy and flinching in
disgust at the beast's appearance.
The beast on the other hand, did not look pleased, if it was capable of making
expressions in the first place. It was an apex predator as well, even if it
avoided other predators, that was to minimize risk, not because it was
incapable of winning. There were very few predators in the Shaia Plains more
dangerous than itself.
But Rui was a Martial Apprentice, and was entirely focused on the beast in
front of him. The weight of his mind pushed on the beast's mind, making it
wary.
Every sentient living being had a nascent instinctual sixth sense, if it could be
called that, as a result of evolution. This sixth sense was a result of
subconscious analysis and evaluation of the risk and danger.
Right now, the beast's instincts were warning it that as tiny as the little pup of
a creature Rui was, it was dangerous.
The beast struggled to make a decision. One on hand, the gazelles had
already fled away and its meal had been interrupted, evoking its primal rage
and unsated hunger, on the other, fighting someone as strong as Rui in its
current hungered state was even more dangerous.
('It's more rational than I expected.') Rui noted. The beast had simple stared at
him with its giant wide eye.
Suddenly, the beast retreated, as it faced Rui.
('It's really gonna run away? That is incredibly rational.') Rui cursed, he'd
hoped the beast would attack him.
Still, Rui had anticipated this, and prepared a contingency.
The beast dug mud at an immense speed, using its saliva to break down the
resistance in order to speed up the process.
But Rui was even faster.
He pressed a button on a device he had obtained with the explosives from the
Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
It was a detonator, a detonator that detonated all the explosives he had

obtained from the Ministry of Ecology and Environement.
Of course, most of the explosives he had obtained had long been detonated
before to guide the beast into coming here, but there were a set of explosives
Rui had not yet detonated.
These explosives were placed ten meters deeps outside the grazing they were
in.
The detonator was triggered, the beast froze.
Rui grinned. "That's right... Don't go there, there's danger there, come here
instead."
The objective of the detonated explosives was to prevent the beast from
retreating by placing the explosives in such a way that would fool the seismic
sense and the beast's limited intelligence that there were threats underground
capable of producing such seismic radiation.
The beast dug itself out of the ground, a faint look of fear could be seen on its
face. When did so many predators enter the Shaia Plains? It didn't
understand. Its limited intelligence associated all intense seismic radiation
with threats.
The only safe way out of the Shaia Plains were on land, in its mind.
And this was all part of Rui's big plan.
FWHOOSH
Rui dashed towards the beast at incredibly high speeds with all of his
Apprentice-level techniques, and as he anticipated, the beast turned away,
moving remarkably fast even on land.
But not as fast it was underground, and not as fast as Rui was.
He immediately caught up and tagged the beast with the standard-issue

reconnaissance tracker that the Martial Union and the ministry had provided
him.
The reason he hadn't done it earlier was because he wasn't sure the tracker
would remain intact when the beast attempted to escape when it began
digging, since he assumed the tracker was almost certainly not built for high-
intensity subterranean rigour.
But now that the beast was escaping on land out of fear of the strange
subterranean predators that had surrounded the land there was no problem
placing the tracker.
"The hunt has begun." Rui grinned, as he chased after the beast.
Chapter 159 Rui Vs The Beast
The hunt had indeed begun.
Rui sprinted after the beast as it evacuated, reaching it immediately. Atop

land, he was faster. He circled to the side of the beast.
BOOM
He launched a powerful strike to its side.
"ROOOAAAAR" The beast screeched in anger, as it turned to lash out at Rui

with its mouth and limbs. Rui had no choice but to evade. There were several
reasons for that.
The acidic saliva of the beast was too potent. None of his Apprentice-level
techniques were enough to be able to withstand it, they were entirely far too
removed from defending against corrosive attacks like that. He focused with
all of his concentration as he evaded bites and tongue lashes of the creature,
and claw swings
Thankfully, its offense was not complicated or convoluted. It had elementary

attack patterns that it repeated over and over again. It never used any tactics
or strategy, and was not flexible and versatile in its offense at all.
This was to be expected. It was, at the end of the day, a carnivorous beast
with a voracious apetite. As cautious as it seemed at times, it was not an
intelligent being, and was slave to its shortcoming and urges. Furthermore,
right now, it was in a bad psychological state. Hunger, anger and fear clouded
its already primitive judgement.
As far Rui, he fought cautiously despite this. This was because the VOID
algorithm was not functioning to its normal level of effectivity in so far as
predictive and counter-deductive capabilities.
The reason, of course, was no mystery. The VOID algorithm was built for
humans, beasts were outside its intended utility and purview. Of course, it
wasn't like there was no overlap. It was just that the further apart the target of
the VOID algorithm was from being human, the less effective it was.
Right now, the VOID algorithm was functioning at about thirty-nine percent
effectivity. This was because the most elementary level of predictive and
counter-deductive measures were quite universal. Distance and center of
gravity were universal variables that undoubtedly tied back to combat for
pretty much all lifeforms. But the higher levels that employed systems based
on the more sophisticated data science research into humans specifically that
Rui had conducted into the past, were not applicable.
These higher parts of the VOID algorithm were much harder for Rui to apply
to combat, he was usually unable to apply it most of the times.
Still, Rui did have some advantages.
BLINK
BAM
He launched a combination of Flowing Canon and Outer Convergence. This

was one of his most powerful attacks. The blow contained so much forced
that it broke a set of scales on the creature, and struck the exposed flesh
beneath.
"ROOOAAAR" the beast screeched in pain and anger, lashing out at Rui
with an attack only to miss fully.
The creature had one big eye, which led to Rui to suspect that it largely relied
on vision outside of seismic sensing. Meaning on land, it could only rely on
vision.
Which further meant that Blink was its mortal enemy.
Furthermore, due to its primitive intelligence, it didn't even understand what

was happening. And even if it did, it was simply incapable of setting up traps
using blinking.
Rui even doubted if it had any awareness of blinking, beasts lacked a lot of
self-awareness, compared to humans.
Which meant Rui could fearlessly abuse and exploit Blink to the absolute
maximum.
He had begun to grow more and more used to the beast's combative
tendencies, and was quite confident that he could take down the beast,
something he wasn't prior. He had placed the tracker on the beast, so that
even if the beast was too strong for Rui, he could at the very least fulfill the
first objective of its mission, but now he could take it one step further.
('Assuming I can force it to remain here.') Rui noted. Eventually, the beast's
caution from the explosives that Rui had used to trick it would wear off,
meaning it would undoubtedly escape via subterranean travel.
That was why Rui had to somehow force it to not go underground, and he
had figured out the perfect way to go about it.
The scales
Rui had already suspected that the scales were meant to allow the beast to
withstand the immense tearing force of high sub-terranean travel.
Under the scales, as he had just seen, was a much softer exposed hide and
flesh. Rui had felt it and damaged it, so he was relatively certain that the
exposed flesh would not be able to withstand high sub-terranean travel at all.
In fact, it was quite likely that the scales it had were evolved to withstand
high sub-terranean travel.
It also explained why the creature was so cautious despite having such
uncontrollable anger. If it were a normal predator, some damage here and
there would not be that big a deal. But this was not the case for this beast. If
this beast endured significant damage to its scales, then its ability to travel
underground was highly compromised. If it tried travelling underground with
exposed flesh, then that flesh would be ripped and torn apart if travelled
underground.
Its scales were also not something that would heal in a short time, if at all.
Thus, Rui's plan to prevent it from travelling underground was simple;

Expose more flesh, and attack already exposed flesh damaging it further.
BLINK
BOOM
BLINK
BAM
BLINK
POW POW POW
...
BLINK
WHAM
Time passed as the beast endured more and more damage.
The two had long moved away from the original location, the beast had been
fighting back while continuously running away at top speed.
And Rui had been attacking while also running at top speed.
BLINK
JAB
"Yes!" Rui exclaimed as he managed to jab the creature's eye with a heavy
jab amped with Flowing Canon and Outer Convergence, used in combination
with Blink. Unfortunately, the eye was rather, large and he had failed to rob it
of its vision entirely.
This was the final straw.
"ROOOOOAAAAAAAAAR!" The creature had lost its mind as it

abandoned escape and rushed towards Rui at top speed.
This was the final clash.
*****
Author's note: Shoutout to Ethan and Jyork for the many golden tickets.
Thanks to you two the novel is in the top 200 for golden ticket rankings.
Chapter 160 Final Moment
Quite some time had passed since the hunt had begun. The creature had
finally come to realize that its life was truly at stake this time. Whoever this
predator was, it was determined to hunt and eat it. Previously, its encounters
with other predators had been brief, and it was able to disengage and escape.
But not this time, this time it was truly in danger.
It abandoned all hope for outrunning and escaping its opponent on land, the
human boy was too fast, and its flesh was too damaged and exposed to dig
underground. It threw itself at the boy, hoping to take its life.
Rui on the other hand, felt much more pressured once this happened. It was
much scarier to fight a beast that used every ounce of its mind and body
dedicated solely killing you than it was to running away and fighting back in
self-defense.
The two scenarios were on two different levels of difficulty, even if the latter
was easy to handle, the former wasn't.
('That's if I choose to fight it head on.') Rui thought as he leaped back.
There was a very simple strategy Rui was employing in response.
Just stay away.
The creature was slower than Rui was, and was already damaged and
bleeding. Being faster, Rui could easily ensure the beast was always too far
from him to damage him.
Chase him with all its might it did, and yet it fell short of Rui.
Such was the brutality of nature, of survival of the fittest. It wasn't even able
to go down fighting, it would go down struggling to even lay a claw on Rui.
Or so Rui thought, atleast.
SCRUNCH
Against all odds, the creature began digging once more. It dug and swallowed
mud, excreting it speedily allowing it reach underground extremely fast.
('What?!') Rui grew alarmed. Why was it going underground? At this point,
Rui had hurt it so much that it shouldn't be able to withstand any long
distance sub-terranean travel at all.
Rui grew prepared as he full-fledgedly activated Seismic Mapping and

prepared his maneuvering Apprentice-level techniques to track and chase
after the beast.
Yet what he sensed next made him sweat beads.
The creature was not running away.
It was moving straight towards him!
Rui's face grew pale as he understood what the creature was doing. Travelling
underground in its current state was extremely dangerous, indeed.
But fighting the boy as it was, was even worse! It was guaranteed death.
It was unable to travel far underground without bleeding to death. Escaping

was out of question. But what if it didn't need to travel far?
The boy was only five meters away. If it could use sub-terranean travel to
reach him and reduce his flesh to goo, then maybe it would be able to survive
in the long run!
('Fuck.') Rui cursed. This was a resourceful plan on its end. It had already
resolved to kill him using everything it had, not it was willing to sacrifice
everything it had to kill him, including its health.
This was bad, because now Rui had lost his biggest advantage; his superior
speed. This was an advantage that allowed him to force the creature to fight
on his terms, he could choose when to engage the creature, and he could
choose when to disengage.
Well, not anymore. Rui braced himself for a rough fight as Seismic Mapping
sensed a huge mass of angry sub-terranean flesh rushing to kill him!
LEAP
BOOM
Rui managed to leap out of the way just barely in time as the beast erupted
from the ground. The beast could attack him underground and that meant he
needed to be extremely careful with his timing! If he dodged too early by
jumping away, then the beast would simply reach his landing location before
he did, being faster, and would attack him just as he reached the ground, and
that would game over. He could not dodge mid-air.
Thus, he knew quite well that he needed to dodge the attacks just a beat
before it was too late. He had a very thin of error, and a very thing range of
success. Leap too early and he would get eaten, leap too late and he would
definitely get eaten.
He had only had one advantage here; his health. He was almost entirely
unharmed, asides from some acid that had hit his skin from the last attack.
But the creature's condition was truly starting to fall apart, it had already been
harmed significantly by Rui's targeted striking, and using sub-terranean
travelling, even if shortly, had accelerated its damage. It was starting to bleed
excessively and Rui had sensed its movements growing more sluggish, its
reactions dull and its attacks, weaker.
('It doesn't have much time left.') Rui realized. ('I need to stall like my life
depends on it.')
And it did, quite literally. A single bite would kill him without a question.
But now that the creature had more pronounced weaknesses due to its
deteriorating condition, Rui had regained a lost advantage that he normally
had; the VOID algorithm.
This algorithm loved weaknesses and mercilessly exploited and abused them.
The algorithm ran at full speed as Rui did everything he could to stall the
battle and make life harder for the beast. He even climbed trees and began
leaping from tree to tree. Yet, the beast, being underground was able to
uproot trees, to his surprise.
The battle went on, Rui made inaccuracies and mistakes. Each time he was
splashed with a little acid, flinching as it corroded his skin. Thankfully, it
didn't damage his body to the point of effecting his combat capability.
"ROOOOAAAAR." The beast screeched, as it erupted from the ground.
WHOOSH
Rui avoided the jaws of death once more, never taking his eyes from the
creature even once. He could feel its desperation, fear and hatred. In some
ways, he even felt some degree of sympathy, but he crushed those feelings.
It was truly the final moment, Rui could feel it. He needed to do everything
he could to win. That was all that mattered.
Chapter 161 Outcome
Most fights ended anti-climactically. In most cases, there wasn't a last-minute

powerup, a last-minute turn-around, a last-minute victory. In most cases,
fights ended exactly how one would expect it to. There was no flashy clash,
high-risk decisions from both sides or high stakes. The winner simply won,
and the loser simply lost.
This was the cold unromantic reality of Martial conflict, of the martial World.
Yet every once in a while, this truth was broken.
Fights where one combatant was clearly losing, ends up winning. Despite all
odds, despite all the damage one had suffered, one occasionally managed to
win. These were rare and marvelous moments, where the losing fighter
managed to defy all odds and deny his or her fate.
Unfortunately for the beast, this wasn't one of those times.
The beast was covered in blood, as multiple orifices gushed it out. It had
begun losing its balance, speed and even the ability to dig underground.
Rui had splendidly managed to avoid any lethal attacks, even if just barely at
times. In the end, he had managed to pull through the worst of it.
BLAP
"ROOOOOAAAAAAR!" Its roars had lost all anger, leaving only despair
and fear.
Rui had timed a Flowing Canon and an Outer Convergence attack perfectly
well with a Blink, and had managed to damage its eye almost entirely. The
beast had lost most of its vision, and now was flailing around wildly.
BOOM
BAM
POW POW POW
WHAM
Rui peppered it with strikes over and over, for nearly an hour.
And an hour later, the beast had died.
Rui even took the precaution of observing it with Seismic Mapping for
another ten minutes, just to ensure that there was no chance whatsoever that
this creature was still alive. At a distance of five meters, he would be able to
hear its heart beating.
Once he was finally convinced that there was no life left. He heaved a deep
sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground.
He was truly exhausted, even the continuous usage of Helical Breathing was
not enough to preserve even a decent amount of his energy.
He reached for his belt, opening the pouch and taking out a healing potion.
The first healing potion he'd needed in the entirety of the mission. The beast
had left many acid burns throughout their long, drawn-out fight. Each time it
had burned immensely, but Rui expressionlessly bore the pain, since he
knew, he didn't have to worry about flesh injuries since they could be healed
easily with healing potions.
What he had to avoid were lethal injuries, since the low-grade standard-issue
healing potions would not heal that. He deeply inhaled the gas that had been
stored as a pressurized liquid, allowing it to reach the deepest parts of his
lungs via Helical Breathing so that as much blood as possible would come
into contact with it, to hasten the healing process.
Ten seconds later, his skin was back to normal.
But he felt even greater exhaustion.

Healing potions hastened the natural healing speed of the human body,
meaning the nutrients, compounds, substances and stamina for the newly
regenerated tissue came from himself, draining his energy even more.
He quickly proceeded to consume a mental and physical rejuvenation potion,

to invigorate and energize his body.
After that, it was just a simple matter of following post-mission protocols for
Hunter missions. First, he turned off the eco-survey device, he had been told
that it saved data automatically so he didn't need to bother with manual
operation of it too much. Part of the data would be sent to the ministry
apparently, while the vast majority of it would need be to handed in, a
limitation Rui found interesting.
He then indicated the successful completion of both objectives of the nested

mission through the standard mission-tracking device given to him by the
Martial Union.
Aaaaand he was done!
A deep sense of accomplishment and relief had filled his body.
"Phew." Rui sighed, as he gathered his many tumultuous thoughts. It had

been one hell of a mission, but he felt quite accomplished. His first hunting
mission was a dashing success. It was an eye-opening experience as well in
many ways. He had come to realize that he quite liked the adventurous spirit
of hunting missions. It felt open-ended and free, he had never experienced a
mission with as much as freedom as the one he had just undergone.
('Well, that's only because I've undergone stuffy defense-class missions all
this time.') Rui mused. Bodyguard missions were the most restrictive class of
missions among all, in many ways.
Rui ended up enjoying the experience of hunting missions so much that he

realized he might want to shift to hunting-class missions entirely.
('No.') Rui shook his head. He was unprepared and undeveloped for hunting-
class missions and he knew it. This mission had shown his Martial Art was
still not as broad and wide as he would have liked it to be, from the
compatibility of his techniques with beasts and the natural environments to
the compatibility of the VOID algorithm and non-human targets.
('I have a long way to go.') Rui sighed, getting up. He had sat around for long
enough, and the rejuvenation potions had made him quite energetic.
('Maybe I should go for another mission, or maybe I should get some sleep.')
Rui shrugged. The effectivity of mental rejuvenation potions would wear off
soon and it had indeed been a while since he'd gotten some sleep.
Just then
BEEP BEEP
The mission-tracker device had received an notification.
('Urgent summon back to the Martial Academy?') He frowned as he read the

message. What could be so urgent that they summoned him back right after a
successful completion of the mission? Had he waited too long after the
completion of the mission?
He shrugged, mystified as he hurriedly began jogging towards Hajin. He took

one last glance at the Shaia Plains, before turning his back and heading back
as fast he could.
He didn't think the urgent summon would occur for trivial reasons.
Chapter 162 Stake
What could the Martial Union want from him so urgently? Rui wasn't sure,
but there were several general possibilities. They wanted something from him
obviously, the only rea possibilities were his Apprentice Realm combat
prowess and his knowledge.
Why would they want his Apprentice Realm combat prowess urgently? There
was no shortage of Martial Artists in the Academy, unless the town of Hajin
had suddenly been attacked by a horde of monsters or something, it was
impossible for them to want his Martial prowess this desperately.
That left information, what information did he possess that the Martial Union
didn't? Well, there was his scientific and combat knowledge and research
from Earth, but obviously that was not why they were calling him. There was
something that they knew he knew, they wanted.
Information about the latest mission? This was the only real possibility as far
as Rui could think of. There was something about this mission that the
Martial Union needed him for.
But he had already sent the Ministry of Ecology and Environment extensive
data via the eco-survey device.
Furthermore, even if they didn't urgently summon him, he was naturally

going to make his way to the Martial Union. So why the rush?
('It means there's something of such importance and magnitude, that every
second matters.') Rui realized as he sprinted towards the town of Hajin.
Something to do with his mission.
Something that was extremely urgent.

Some need of theirs that only he could fulfill.
('Information about my mission definitely fits the first and third condition,
but why would information about a completed mission be so urgent?') Rui
frowned, when suddenly a horrifying possibility crossed his mind.
"Could it be that the beast is still alive?" Rui gasped, before calming down
and shaking his head. ('That's impossible.')
He had taken extreme precautions to ensure the beast was dead, there was
almost no way whatsoever that the beast could possibly be alive, unless it
was immortal.
Of course, since this was a fantasy world, there were no limits. But if the
beast was immortal it wouldn't have been so afraid of death and risks, yet it
clearly was.
"It must be something else." Rui concluded. From his analysis, it was quite
likely that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment had identified the
species of the beast and had consequently discovered something about the
beast that was quite alarming and required his intelligence immediately.
Maybe the beast's body self-destructed in a gigantic explosion ten minutes

after its death. Thus, the Martial Union had sent him an urgent summon to
save his life? The mission-tracker was not capable of facilitating two-way
conversations, after all.
It was hard to say.
Rui shook his head, putting aside these superfluous thoughts, the best thing
he could do right now was rush back to the town of Hajin.
As he sprinted back, the dawn had begun to crack through the veil of
darkness and night, illuminating the Earth. It was only then that Rui had
realized how long the fight against the beast had taken. As a beast its
endurance was otherworldly, its size also allowed it to take damage from
Rui's smaller attacks that didn't penetrate it too deeply.
Rui had had to pepper it with an unbelievable amount of strikes, not even
Dalen would have been able to survive that onslaught if he did nothing but
stand and take it.
As time passed, Rui eventually reached the town of Hajin. He had to slow
down once he reached the commercial districts of the town. The morning
rush was truly insufferable, making Rui glad that he spent most of his life far
away from it. He wouldn't be able to deal with it on a daily basis.
Soon enough, he reached the Martial Academy.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier."
"Miss Helga." Rui frowned, recognizing the official from the Ministry of
Ecology and Environment that was in charge of his mission.
Each commission filed by the ministry to the Martial Union was handled by
an individual official that kept tabs on the mission and ensured due process
and protocols was being followed.
"Your arrival is timely." She informed. "Please submit the eco-survey device
and proceed with the post-mission protocols immediately, we don't have
much time."
"Can you inform me about the reason for the urgent summon?" Rui frowned
as he handed the eco-survey device to the Martial Union staff.
She paused for a moment before replying. "I suppose we can tell you,
especially since it may yield some useful results to us."
Rui's eyes sharpened at those words.
"I'll explain as we head to the commission department, we are truly short of

time." She said, continuing only after they had entered an empty office in the
commission department of the Martial union.
"After you fulfilled the first objective and recorded the appearance of the
target of your mission, we compared the image with our database of the
animal kingdom, eventually, we got a hit for its species. Unfortunately, the
result was problematic."
She pulled out a device, fiddling with it until it projected and image on the
table.
('Woah.') Rui careful scanned the image. It was an image of the beast he had
fought.
('No not quite right. A different beast of the same species.') He realized as his
eyes widened.
"This is an extremely rare species known as the earthen basilisk." She

explained. "It's a species non-native to the Kandrian Empire, or any other
human colony as far as we are aware. The only spotting of a creature of this
species was far west of the Kandrian Empire well into the Beast Domain. We
suspect that the target earthen basilisk of your mission must have migrated
into the Kandrian Empire through our Mantian region, recently."
('Interesting.') Rui couldn't help but think. "So, what exactly is the problem
here? What does this have to with my urgent summon?"
She hadn't yet divulged this.
"I was getting there." She replied, before continuing. "One of the few known
facts about the earthen basilisk is that they're asexual hermaphrodite
reproducers, meaning they reproduce without mating. The reason we
summoned you urgently was because we need every ounce of information
you can provide us... because this creature's reproduction rate is proportional
to its diet and food consumption rate."
Rui's eyes flew wide open at that statement. The creature's reproduction rate
was directly proportional to its food consumption rate? Meaning the more it
ate, the more it reproduced?
"But it has done nothing but eat like a monster for the past month." he said
with a pale face.
"Exactly." Helga nodded with a grim expression. "We require you to tell us
everything, there is a lot at stake here. More than you can imagine."
Chapter 163 Elaborations
Rui recalled jokingly thinking that the reason he was urgently summoned was
because the town of Hajin was under attack.
Now, after what Helga had told him, it didn't seem as funny as before.
"I don't understand." He replied, shaking his head. "How could this be true?
The earthen basilisk had been consuming deer and gazelles voraciously for
nearly a month now. If it had been reproducing every time it went on a
hunting spree, then the Shaia Plains would noticeably be flooded with many
earthen basilisks."
How could this revelation possibly be true. Rui would absolutely have
noticed if there were hundreds of earthen basilisks running around beneath
the ground.
"It reproduces by laying eggs." She stated. "The eggs have a gestation period
that is unknown unfortunately. It could be a day, a week or even a month.
Furthermore, the earthen basilisk hatchlings don't immediately turn into full
grown adults either. The immediate danger here is not their current
destructive potential, but their future destructive potential as well as their
extreme elusiveness and migrative capacity."
Rui understood, nodding. The limitations in his understanding in the field of

ecology were starting to show. He had compensated for this gap during the
mission with his intelligent deductive and inductive reasoning, but in front of
an actual professional in the field, he was no more than a rookie, an
inexperienced rookie
"Fortunately, the sightings of the earthen basilisk have been those of the
target of your mission, and they were limited to the Shaia Plains." She said.
"This strongly suggests that the migration of the earthen basilisks is
extremely limited, if not entirely non-existant."
This made sense. If the earthen basilisks had already disseminated across the
Mantian region, then there would damn well be more than the sighting of just
one earthen basilisk in the Shaia Plains.
"Furthermore, sub-terranean travel is not limitless and flawless, there are

certain topographies and land structures within and through which sub-
terranean travel is utterly impossible. Mountainous and hill regions are an
absolute no-go zone for them due to the land composition being saturated
with layers of rock, granite and marble and other dense compounds." She
explained. "Still, these are merely silver linings. Even with these caveats,
they can spread extremely wide across the Mantian region."
"So what is the solution? Surely you don't expect a single or even a handful
Martial Apprentices alone to deal with these?" Rui asked.
She snorted. "The danger and risk associated with this operation is far above
what we can entrust Apprentices with. Especially Apprentices like yourself
who aren't specialized in hunting, let alone sub-terranean hunting operations."
She shook her head. "We will be sending multiple squads consisting of a
dozen Martial Artists in total, each with sub-terranean environment-oriented
Martial Art, led by Martial Squires."
Rui's eyes widened at those words. If he was worried about how the Ministry
of Ecology and Environment were going to deal with this, he no longer was.
Martial Squires were not to be messed with. He knew the power of an adult
earthen basilisk, and he knew the power of a Martial Squire. If dozens of
Martial Apprentices specialized in sub-terranean environments led by Martial
Squires with similar specializations were to hunt the earthen basilisks, then
they stood no chance whatever!
Especially not in direct conflict, but even in general. If he with his singular
Seismic Mapping could detect the earthen basilisk, then these sub-terranean
specialists would most certainly be able to much, much more than just that!
"Even a single Martial Squire would be enough to annihilate an army of
earthen basilisks." Rui said with a bit of restored confidence.
"Don't be so certain." Helga reprimanded. "If an army of earthen basilisks all

attacked a MartiaL Squire, then yes, the Martial Squire is almost guaranteed
to succeed. But the problem with these creatures isn't their offensive
capability. It's their survivability and elusiveness as I mentioned earlier. Their
high sub-terranean travel allowed them to survive even the extraordinarily
dangerous environments of the Beast Domain, despite their extreme
weakness."
" 'Despite their extreme weakness?' " Rui echoed, looking at her with
skepticism. The earthen basilisk was not extremely weak, it had come close
to killing him multiple times in their fight, and Rui had relied on preparation
and some external help to create a scheme meant to take it down. It had given
Rui a hell of a fight despite this and was very difficult and tiring to take
down.
She simply snorted in the face of his skepticism. "The Beast Domain are the
uncolonized lands that exist in outside human civilization, towards the
heartland and core of the continent. Part of the reason it is uncolonized is
because of how dangerous it is. The power and threat level of the fauna in the
Beast Domain is so high that even the earthen basilisk that had given you a
lot of trouble is no more than an insect in the Beast Domain, struggling to
survive."
Rui's eyes widened at those words.
"In fact, one of the reasons it likely migrated was that the Beast Domain was
simply too dangerous and risky for it to live in. Predators far beyond anything
you have ever tangled with, live and exist within the devastating
environments of the Beast Domain. Someone like yourself wouldn't last more
than a few days, if you're very lucky within that realm." She ruthless said.
"For the earthen basilisks to have survived there for millennia as a species,
shows how difficult they are to exterminate. That is why we are going all out
and procuring the most suited and qualified Martial Squires and Martial
Apprentices."
She said, before leaning forward. "And that is why we urgently summoned
you, we need every ounce of your experience with the basilisk and mission. I
did not provide you with all of this information to give you an educational
lesson. I'm telling you this so you understand the importance of out demand.
You will submit a scrupulously detailed report covering the entirety of your
time spent in the Shaia Plains, minute by minute. You will include every
scrap and ounce of information you can possibly conjure from your
memories, regardless of how relevant and or irrelevant you deem,
understood?"
Rui nodded vigorously. If all he had to was write a report, then a report he
would write!
Chapter 164 One Step At A Time
Rui had taken his time. It was their one demand, after all, to take his time and
ensure the report was immaculate. He mentioned every detail in his report
and statement, every single detail he could think of. He assumed the Ministry
of Ecology and Environment would have experts pour over every word in his
report and extract every ounce of potentially useful information from his
words and supply it to the sub-terranean Martial Artists they were hiring from
the Martial Union.
Once he was done, he submitted his final report and his duties ended.
Helga nodded as she scanned his report. "It was a pleasure working with you,
Apprentice Rui Quarrier." She said, glancing at him. "We are quite impressed
by your deductive insight and your resourceful tactical approach; we would
be interested in having you retain us as one of your primary clienteles, via the
Martial Union."
Rui smiled wryly. "You flatter me, I'm just an inexperienced Martial Artist
exploring my Martial Path in this wide world."
Helga raised an eyebrow, at those words. "I am not flattering you,

Apprentice. Had this mission been undertaken by almost any other Martial
Artist of your Realm and grade, it most certainly would have stalled and
persisted for at the very least the entirety of the one month allocated to the
mission, and perhaps even longer, this is the norm. The consequences of that
would have undoubtedly been disastrous."
p Rui had to admit she had a point. He didn't like tooting his own horn too
much, but it was an objective fact that completing the mission in eight days
was not just an impressive feat but an extremely fortunate feat for the
Ministry. Had the mission taken a month or more, like she said, the odds that
the offspring of earthen basilisk would have either wreaked havoc in the
Shaia Plains, or migrated outside to other habitats in the Mantian Region, or
both in succession, were quite high.
"Thank you." Rui nodded, accepting her praise. "But for now, I don't want to
commit to any one field. I'm still exploring the world. Furthermore, I'm an
all-rounder, thus I do not want to get too entrenched down a single path." He
said, rejecting her subtle offer.
She nodded, uninterested in pushing further. Rui was definitely a good

Martial Artist, but he was just one asset out of many assets that existed in the
Empire.
"Well then, that brings about an end to our meeting." She said, getting up.
"Thank you for your services."
"Thank you for your commission." Rui replied.
After having bade her farewell, Rui heaved a sigh of relief. His job was over,
he had completely washed his hands of the incident. All he could do now was
place his trust in the capable hands of the sub-terranean-oriented Martial
Artists of the Martial Union that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment
would no doubt commission to take care of this matter.
He thought back to all the information she had divulged to him during their
conversation. She had definitely revealed many important things during their
conversation to contextualize how important any and all information he could
provide to the Ministry through his report was. Although all of them were
interesting, one particular topic had intrigued him more than most.
The Beast Domain.
It was vaguely common knowledge that the Beast Domain referred to the
natural environments of the Panama Continent that were uncolonized by
humans. What Rui did not know was the exact danger level associated with
them.
This was why Helga's words had shocked him as much as they did. He
obviously knew that Beast Domain was dangerous, but for even scary apex
predators like the earthen basilisk to be no more than insects, that was a
shocking statement to make. The way she made it sound seemed like the
Beast Domain, by and large, was a domain exclusive to the Realm of Martial
Squires and higher.
He did not expect that the Beast Domain, which constituted a solid chunk of
the entire continent, would be more dangerous than he could handle!
As a Martial Apprentices, his recent string of successes and growth had given
him a stronger and stronger sense of confidence, but when someone bluntly
told him that he was too weak to survive outside human civilization, that just
humbled him and made him realize that no matter how strong he had grown
as a Martial Apprentice, he was still a Martial Apprentice, the lowest Realm
of Martial Art.
He had a long, long path ahead of him.
However, this did not discourage him. If anything, it encouraged him.

Knowing that there was an almost endless path he could walk down was
exciting. His love for Martial Art, and his Martial Art; Project Water
stemmed not from the power or utility it gave him. He truly loved the very
concept at its very core for what it was.
This was why where others might have grown sullen and disappointed with
their lacking power, but where other saw a shortcoming, Rui merely saw
potential. His desire for power was not low, but his desire to indulge in the
growth and development of his Martial Art was far, far stronger.
In fact, he would be far sadder and more devastated than happy if he ever
reached the pinnacle of power where he was unable to grow any stronger than
he already was, this would mean the day had come where he would no longer
be able to develop his Martial Art. What would he do if he ran into this
hurdle?
He shook his head, clearing out such silly thoughts. Reaching the pinnacle of
power? That was such an arrogant thing to assume that even he felt silly.
He was incredibly far away from this stage. He was far away from even
understanding how far away he was.
"All I can do is traverse my Martial Path." he murmured to himself with a

hint of determination and clarity. "One step a time."
Rui had gotten a good long sleep that night, resting his weary mind and spirit.
He slept rare, so when he did sleep, he slept for a good nine hours of deep
sleep. Feeling rejuvenated, he was already prepared for the next mission.
He did not feel the need to take a break or unwind, he was determined to
gather as many martial credits he could six months before the Kandrian
Martial Festival. That meant pushing himself to the absolute maximum.
The reason he limited himself to at most six months before the Kandrian
Martial Festival was because he needed time not just to master the individual
techniques, but become familiar with using these new techniques with the
rest of his Martial Art, he knew that the next round of training would also
require the most amount of adjustment time.
The larger his Martial Art grew, the harder it was and longer it took to fully
integrate new techniques. This was because having more options made it
harder to choose. If one had to make a choice between two options, and two
hundred options, one would obviously have a much harder time with the
latter than the former.
This was an exaggerated version of what Rui was going through as he grew
stronger. He had undergone three rounds of training ever since he became a
Martial Apprentice.
The first round he had learnt very foundational techniques; Vital Pressure,
Elastic Shift, Parallel Walk and Acute Edge and Helical Breathing. There was
absolutely no large variety of options here. He barely had one technique for
one field, and there were many fields his Martial Art needed to have had zero
fields.
Making choices were extremely easy when you had only one choice.
The second round involved filling the gaping holes in his Martial Art; with
techniques like Flowing Canon, Binding Lash, Shifting Silhouette and
Mirage Dive.
These still weren't problematic because they only filled in the shortcomings,
at the end of the day he still barely had one or two choices, at most three
choices.
The third round, the last round of Apprentice-level training he had undergone
was a bit different. Now his Martial Art had a total of fourteen techniques.
This was a surplus compared to before, he had plenty of choices,
permutations and combinations to choose from and that made decision
making process harder than before.
More choices always meant more time to process, he needed to be able to

master these techniques not just individually but also in conjunction with
each other, He needed to treat them as part of one single Martial Art and
individuals within a single group.
However, this could not be done through merely words. Last time it had
taken merely a week to grow comfortable with all techniques, since Outer
Convergence and Inner Divergence were passive and constant, as was
Seismic Sensing. Blink had been the only issue.
However, Rui was quite certain that the next round of would be different. If
he did in fact learn four to five techniques in totality, then he would have a
total of eighteen to nineteen techniques in total. This was no trivial matter, he
wouldn't be able to optimize his swiftness and comfort with using these
techniques with each other in a week.
This is why he had set himself a time limit for missions such that he would
have just enough time after the technique training to ensure that his fluidity
and comfort in using these techniques in conjugation with each other and in
rapid succession with each other.
Only then would he be able to participate in the Martial Festival with his
Martial Art at its peak form. He would rather forgo mastering more
techniques in order to truly master a few number of techniques. It meant
nothing if he had all these powerful techniques if he did not know how to
apply them optimally and apply them with other techniques optimally. His
Martial Art would simply be no more than a haphazardous cluster of
techniques that he wasn't able to use as well as he could have.
In many ways, techniques were like tools. Mastering a technique was like
having a very high-quality tool, but if you did not know how to use these
tools properly because your purchased too many too quickly, then you were
inferior to someone who knew when and where to apply which tools and
why.
Rui would always choose to be the latter than the former, he believed in
control above all. And he would never forsake it for anything, no matter how
powerful the technique or power in question was.
He did not intend to cross his limit, he would go all out in earning martial
credits, and then ensure he spent them wisely.
For now, he could forget about the future techniques he intended to master,
for he had yet to accumulate the martial credits he intended to accrue. It was
for this very reason he was walking towards the mission library, after having
taken a good long rest, he was already ready for his next mission. He
intended to scan the library for the most profitable mission with a difficulty
grade at or below his grade as a Martial Apprentice and complete as soon as
he could.
He entered the familiar pentagonal library, immediately running his gaze

across the entire library.
Last time he had picked a hunting-class mission, he wasn't sure if he wanted

to go for yet another hunting-class mission right off the bat. He did intend to
widen and diversify his experience.
There were three classes of missions he hadn't experienced yet.
The offense-class, the covert-class and the miscellaneous class. He had

already ruled out two of them in his last visit, but he didn't feel as close-
minded as he used to. Maybe he would end up enjoying all three of these
classes of missions more so than he did his hunting mission.
"Decisions, decisions." he murmured, as he walked deeper into the library.

Chapter 166 Offense
As he was thinking about the classes of missions he immediately crossed out

covert operations. The skill pre-requisite for the covert operations missions
was much more niche and extensive than the other classes. One needed
stealth, sensory, infiltration and espionage capabilities that Rui just frankly
lacked.
While it was true that Rui had mastered Blink, Blink was not good enough all
by itself. Blink had weaknesses, for example, it's timing and usage was
largely out of Rui's hands. He could not use Blink whenever he wanted
because he needed his opponent to Blink.
Furthermore, the greater the number target numbers, the exponentially harder
to became to apply Blink. Because people didn't blink at the same time
usually. These two rather big shortcomings made it harder for Rui to apply
Blink the way covert operations required him to. Things like espionage and
infiltration required timing, accuracy and precision control. Blink was simply
not a technique whose timing could be controlled; this was simply a fact
about the fundamental nature of the technique.
Perhaps in the next round of training he would learn some more stealth-
oriented techniques.
('No...') He shook his head. ('The next round will be focused purely on head-
to-head combat, because of the Martial Festival.')
Most of the competition in the Martial Festival was head-to-head one-on-one

fights, stealth was largely unnecessary for the most part. He did not want to
waste one his technique slots on learning stealth techniques that he almost
certainly wouldn't use.
Although he intended to diversify his Martial Art to other classes, that would
have to wait until after the Kandrian Martial Festival.
He turned away from the covert operations missions. Some day he would
undertake one of them, today was not that day, however.
He really didn't want to go for a defense-class mission just yet.
"That leaves..." He turned to the offense-class section and the miscellaneous-

class section of the library.
He immediately walked into the offense-class section. It was no contest

between assault-centric missions and a messy hotchpotch of odd missions
that had no place in the other classes of missions.
There was one thing about the offense-class section of missions that stood out
from the other sections of the library.
A large majority of the mission bills, slotted in the shelves of the library had
a special insignia inscribed on them.
('The Royal Insignia.') Rui mused. Assault was still largely outlawed within
the Kandrian Empire, although most domestic physical disputes did not reach
the stage of prosecution, the Kandrian government and the Royal Family
would not tolerate the commercialization of violence within the borders of
the country. That would simply give rise to tyranny on large scales as those
with the greatest amount of wealth would be able to monopolize the greatest
amount of violence.
Of course, like all illegal services and goods, there was an underworld with
black market and mafia that provided such services. One less extreme
example would be the local gangs that that the Lowminers had effectively
paid to handle their dirty business.
Therefore, an overwhelming amount of the commissions for unaggressed

violence that the Martial Union received were from the Royal Family, via the
law-enforcement branches of the Kandrian government.
These commissions had all received Royal authorization and were perfectly
legal.
As Rui sauntered through the section he could see a variety of types of

missions. Capture missions centered around known felons that were too
dangerous for ordinary law-enforcement officers to arrest. Execution-
missions where the mission objective was the death of a particular target or
targets. There were missions centered around royally authorized destruction
of property too. A lot of the missions were related to the criminal activities.
Even among them, a lot of them were connected with objectives concerned
with the underworld and the mafia. It seemed as though the Royal Family
was off-loading all this work to the Martial Union.
Which in a way made sense. The Martial Union and the underworld were
probably eyesores to the Royal Family, that no doubt wanted to retain as
much power and control over the Kandrian Empire as possible. These two
goliaths stood in the way of its ambition and there wasn't much meaningful
that the Royal Family could do.
Especially against the Martial Union, which was sorely vital and important to
the Kandrian Empire.
The underworld, however, not so much. The Royal Family had effectively
managed to get both of its eyesores to fight against each other by dumping a
lot of the workload centered around the suppression of the underworld via the
Martial Union. Rui was able to sense that much, atleast.
The underworld was too pesky of a problem and almost impossible to fight
head-on against. This had much less to do with the Royal Family itself and
more to do with human nature.
If Rui had learnt anything during his time on Earth was that you can't wage
war against the underworld and win, for one very simple reason;
Where there was demand, there would also be supply. This was almost a law
of humanity.
The government of the United States had waged war against illegal supply of
alcohol and lost horribly. It was still waging war against drugs and was losing
hilariously yet again.
Online piracy despite copyright laws was rampant. Pirates managed to supply
movies, TV shows, novels and games and not a single damn person could
stop it.
This was why the Royal Family had simply washed their hands of this matter
to the Martial Union in exchange for an unfathomable amount of funds,
resources and privileges.
Not that the Martial Union was having an easier time, but the commissions
were useful because it kept the Martial Artists busy and allowed the Martial
Union and its Martial Artists to be sustained.
Rui had decided.
It was time for him to undertake an offense-class mission.
Out of all the classes of missions, the offense class guaranteed combat much
more than the other classes of missions did. It was literally a class of mission
that revolved around attacking people!
This would be good experience for the Martial Festival. That alone was good
enough reason for this decision.
Chapter 167 Imperative
Ever since Rui had been promoted to grade-five as a Martial Apprentice, he

did not want to take any missions below his grade. Grade five missions were
missions that posed some non-insignificant threat to Martial Apprentices.
Either because a hostile Martial Apprentice was likely involved, because of
extremely harsh environments, or because of powerful fauna.
The reason he had avoided missions with grades that were too low was
because they did not push him as a Martial Artist. Grades one-to-four were
trivially easy ninety-nine percent of the time, and none of them could make
him feel endangered or draw out his survival instinct.
They were simply inconducive to his growth.
Thus, he had simply walked past the four outermost racks and shelves of
missions graded one-to-four, they were not worth his time.
He also avoided missions that were graded at five because of dangerous

environments. Although he intended to eventually be able to adapt to any
environment, that was not an immediate goal. His immediate goal was to gain
more combat experience.
He looked for missions that involved Martial Apprentices.
Just as he was nonchalantly browsing through the section when he came

across something that caught his eye.
[Offense-class mission: Capture-Execution mission
Mission description: Objective of the mission is to eliminate a child-

trafficking ring situated in Hajin and capture the ring leader.
Difficulty Grade: 5
Target location: (13.4765, 7.8967)
Mission Commencement: Immediate
Mission time period: 12 hours.
Successful Completion Remuneration: 4 gold coins and 9 silver coins / 130

martial credits.]
Rui's eyes sharpened when he saw that the target of the mission was child-
trafficking ring. He did not like people who inflicted suffering and pain
against innocent people for no good reason, but he genuinely hated it when
children suffered knowingly because of human greed and lust.
This was especially so because he had been the victim of kidnapping by a

child trafficker as a kid. Although that event had fortunately not left any real
trauma on him, it did make him more sensitive to the issue. Child-
exploitation as an industry earned his unadultered hatred.
Especially because his family in the Quarrier Orphanage was largely

comprised of children, the very thought of them ever having to undergo what
he did made his blood boil.
He had managed to come out largely unscathed because he was already an

adult and because of the inspiring words of the Martial Artist who had saved
his life, he couldn't say the same about the many children who fell prey to
these disgusting human beings. No, to even call them humans was an insult.
Already, he was feeling quite motivated to undertake this mission.
He glanced at the location coordinates, noting something very odd.
('Four digits after the decimal?') He frowned. ('This means they almost know
the exact location of the child-trafficking ring's base.')
,m The coordinate system was applied over the entirety of the town of Hajin,
as well a large portion of surrounding lands. This mission having four digits
likely meant they had narrowed down the location to within a handful of
town blocks, at the very least. The fact that they hadn't completed the
operation yet and had instead commissioned a Martial Artist from the Martial
Union yet meant that the presence of a Martial Apprentice was needed.
Which likely meant that the child-trafficking ring was extremely large and
were armed to the teeth with weapons.
Or that there was a Martial Artist involved.
Or both.
He wasn't particularly surprised that a Martial Artist was involved, there were
many low lives that used their Martial prowess to earn tons of money. The
underworld was quite lucrative and there were many Martial Artists that
delved into it. Martial power was quite valuable in the underworld, since
most Martial Artists were monopolized by the Martial Union, and almost all
of the remaining by the Royal Family. The few remaining Martial Artists
were heavily sought after in the underworld.
Rui turned towards the gigantic map on the wall to see exactly what part of
the Hajin map these coordinates corresponded to when his eyes widened with
shock.
('This district...') He gazed with shock at the map. ('It's the district closest to
the Quarrier Orphanage!')
Immediately, this mission was no longer just a matter of martial credits, or

even his strong grudge against those that made children suffer.
Now it was his absolute imperative! He did not want to entrust this mission to
anybody else. There was too much at stake here for him to be nonchalant.
Maybe the probability of the Orphanage wasn't super high, but the
Orphanage, a gathering of children being safe under these circumstances?
Hell no.
If anything ever happened the Quarrier Orphanage because of these bastards,

Rui would never be able to forgive himself, especially now that he knew of
this particular risk, he simply couldn't proceed about his day like nothing ever
happened.
Rui even recalled something Lashara had told him when he had returned
home during the Winter holidays.
She had told him that there had been some child-trafficking busts on the
outskirts of Hajin, and the number of homeless children in Hajin had
increased as an inevitable result. The Quarrier Orphanage had adopted some
of the children to the Orphanage, Lashara was too kind to let these kids suffer
without shelter and food.
Rui immediately picked the mission bill from the slot and headed over to the
registrar to have it registered to him. He had decided he needed to fulfill this
mission no matter what.
Hell, he would complete this mission even if the reward was nothing more
than peanuts. No, he would complete this mission even if he had to pay
money himself! When it came to his family, Rui no longer cared about the
material benefits the missions anymore, he needed to complete this mission
no matter what.
Once he registered himself as the applicant for the mission he sat down and
opened the mission bill, intending to pour over every ounce of information
that existed about this mission.
Chapter 168 Operation
Author's note: Hey priv readers, sorry for the mistake, please reread this
chapter, uploaded an old one by mistake. Thank you for your continued
support.
******
Rui spent quite some time pouring through the data available to him. He
wanted to make sure he knew this case inside out and backward front. The
more familiar he was with this case, the better he would handle this mission.
The mission bill first provided a general background of the case to ensure that
the Martial Artist accepting the commission would have context as to what
the mission was about.
The child-trafficking centered in Hajin wasn't small or old. Hajin was a huge
commercial trade hub in addition to being residential town, there were many
huge industries for a huge market and an unfathomable amount of good and
services were exchanged every day.
Not all of those goods and services were legal, of course. Drugs, forbidden
esoteric resources, illegal services and other more nefarious goods and
services were offered.
Among the more heinous of them, was the child-trafficking industry. There
were plenty of sick disgusting people with money and power that had an
extremely perverted nature. These people were regular clienteles of the child-
trafficking industry, and their patronage was what sustained this horrible
industry.
This mission was commissioned by the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation, as

per the protocols established in the Kandrian Martial Convenant. When the
difficulty of any operation exceeded a certain threshold, the Kandrian Bureau
of Investigation need merely commission the Martial Union and within a
stipulated time period, they would have a Martial Artist aiding their
operations.
In this case, the intelligence that the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had
obtained over this particular investigation was that the ringleader of this
particular child-trafficking gang was likely a Martial Apprentice and, in turn,
they had immediately commissioned the Martial union for a Martial
Apprentice, as well.
The intelligence that they had over the child-trafficking ring came from
previous operations centered around the child-trafficking underworld industry
based in the town of Hajin. In the past there had been many busts, but the
Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had failed to capture the ringleader because
of his Martial Prowess.
The reason they had commissioned for a Martial Apprentices ahead of time
this time was because they had strong reason to suspect that the ringleader of
the particular child-trafficking ring that was the target of the operation, was
likely the same ringleader of the previous child-trafficking operations that
had existed in the past in the town of Hajin.
The mission bill even elaborated on why this was the case.
The child-trafficking ring had first been detected when the Kandrian Bureau
of Investigation had received intelligence from their infiltrated spies in
certain high-profile companies that certain wealthy merchants in the town of
Hajin were likely holding children in capivity. Soon after, the Kandrian
Bureau of Investigation had obtained a warrant and upon conducting a raid,
they had successfully rescued multiple children held in captivity. The wealthy
merchants inquestion had been arrested on six accounts of child abuse.
Upon a strict thorough investigation and interrogation, the criminals

confessed and disclosed the means by which they acquired these children.
That was when the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had noticed patterns
very similar to what they had seen in the past from this particular wanted
felon.
The delivery of the children, the means of payment, the means of

communication and other parameters of the entirety of the modus operandi
from the intelligence they had obtained from the confession of the convicted
child offenders strongly matched the operations they had dealt with this
particular child trafficking ring in the past.
This immediately led them to strongly suspect that the ringleader in question
was the same Martial Artist felon who had evaded capture in the past.
Although there were strong differences in the modus operands of their current
target and the child-trafficking rings of the past, these fell within the
expectations of the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation of someone who was
clearly switching his or her game up to shake the scent off them, but the
intelligence department strongly suspected that this known child trafficking
criminal was connected to the case.
The mission bill then proceeded to expound upon the suspected identity of
the ringleader.
[Known aliases: Martha Myers, Jenna Jill, Ciara Carter
Sex: Female
Estimated age: 30-35
Martial Art Realm: Apprentice
Known felonies: 136 accounts of child trafficking, 81 accounts of kidnapping

and 28 accounts of child abuse.
Bounty: 100 gold coin
... ]
Rui actually widened his eyes in shock when went through her criminal
record which was more extensively documented in the next few pages. This
bitch was an actual predator of children unlike anything he had ever seen.
She would give even a certain American financer whose name rhymed with
Heffrey Jepstein a run for his money.
She was a veteran in the child-exploitation industry in the underworld, from

what Rui could see, capturing her would save many potential victims in the
future. Who knew how many children would end up falling prey to her in the
future?
The mission bill then spoke about the operation itself. The Kandrian Bureau
of Investigation had managed to narrow down the range of locations that
potentially were the child-trafficking bases of the child-trafficking ring via
evaluating the known information of their operations and applying logistical
constraints and the high need for covertness, they were able to shortlist the
set of potential locations and over time managed to obtain a key set of
locations that would be the target of their operation.
What surprised Rui was that the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation actually
had an internal Martial Artist from the Bureau that would also be
participating.
He had forgotten that the Martial Union wasn't the only entity to have Martial
Artists working for them, but this mission had reminded him of this fact.
After all, this operation involved a Martial Artist from the Martial Union, a
Martial Artist from the Kandrian government and a Martial Artist from the
underworld.
Rui grew more and more engrossed into the planned operation of the
Kandrian Bureau of Investigation, he hoped they knew what they were doing!
Chapter 169 To The End
Author's note: There was a big error in chapter 168. It has been fixed, but
please reread it again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
******
Rui was initially surprised that the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had
deigned to commission a Martial Artist from the Martial Academy for this
operation despite the fact that they already had a Martial Artist from the
bureau taking part in the operation. Capturing a Martial Artist who was doing
everything to avoid capture was much harder than defeating a Martial Artist
in a head-on one-on-one fight.
This wasn't limited to Martial Artists either, it applied to people in general.

Beating someone in a fight was easier than catching and single-handedly
restraining them despite their resistance. If a person one was trying to capture
simply ran away in the opposite direction with a ten-meter head start, the
odds that one would close the gap, catch the person, be able to blatantly
overpower them and endure any resistance they made and drag them to jail
was extremely low.
In most cases, you would not catch up to them. Even if you somehow did,
you would not be able to maintain hold were them, because it was unlikely
you would get the right hold that would be able to restrict them, you would
likely catch a pinch of their clothes, but that wasn't solid enough.
Even if you managed to get a strong hold of them, they could easily hinder
you by dragging you to the ground, trying to wrestle their way out of this.
The moment this happened, the odds that you would succeed in arresting
them by yourself was very low, because now your advantage would be gone
the moment it hits the ground.
Which is why the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had commissioned an
extra Martial Artist for the operation, only then did they have a realistic
chance of capturing the ringleader. Ideally, a squad of Martial Artists would
have been best since it would have guaranteed victory, but they couldn't
afford to spent such resources for a single Martial Artist target and that too,
only a strongly suspected Martial Artist target, not confirmed.
The Kandrian Bureau of Investigation did not have the luxury of limitless
funds and intel. They simply had to make do with what they had and try to
make the best of it.
The actual operation was quite simple in and of itself. The Kandrian Bureau
of Investigation simply intended to surround the area and cut off any escapes
and exits, then they would break into every location and cleanly search the
entire area for the targets of the mission, eliminating the one by one. They
would also free and rescue any captive children and immediately extract them
to safety, and ideally, they would be able to capture the ringleader.
Rui and the Martial Artist of the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation would be
along with infiltration squad and were to remain on high alert employing
sensory techniques to ensure that the ringleader of the child-trafficking ring
would not be able to somehow escape by evading detection.
Rui was confident he would be able to immediately detect the usage of any
Apprentice-level maneuvering technique that allowed a Martial Artist travel
at speeds exceeding the human limit via the Seismic mapping technique. The
seismic radiation from these techniques definitely exceeded what normal
humans produced and were capable of producing.
The moment he detected the ringleader, he would immediately dash towards

the ringleader along with the Martial Artist of the Kandrian Bureau of
Investigation. Together, they should be able to capture her. Rui didn't think
she would be able to break out of the encampment and the two of them and
escape safely all by herself.
The operation would begin after Rui was arrived and briefed. Although all
relevant information already existed in the mission bill, it was still better to
establish a mutual understanding of everybody's role in the operation.
The number of officers taking part in the mission was a total of eighty-nine,
not including Rui and the Martial Artist of the Bureau.
The rest of the mission bill went more into the standard protocols Rui had to
abide by.
The first impression he got was that he had very little freedom in Royal
authorized missions such as this particular mission. The protocols and
guidelines had made it clear that the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had
full control over all operations and could effectively order Rui specifically in
regards to his contribution within the mission, the moment he accepted the
mission.
This was the polar opposite of his hunting-class mission where he had an
immense amount of freedom on how to fulfill the mission, to the point where
he could try out wacky novel ways of fulfilling the mission based on hastily
constructed hypotheses and evaluations.
Here, the Kandrian Burea of Investigation would retain all decision-making

power. Rui was to simply assist with the mission however they deemed fit.
It's not that he didn't understand the reason for these protocols. Ultimately
this was quite a serious matter that was exclusively the jurisdiction and
responsibility of the Kandrian government. Allowing the Martial Union to
have control over such operations gave the Martial Union a dangerous
amount of power and authority that could allow them to easily cause massive
problems to the Kandrian governemnt and the Royal Family.
It was far too great of a risk for the Royal Family to undertake, and so the
jurisdiction and authority of these missions was something the Martial Union
had to inevitably concede to the Royal Family, as per the terms of the
Kandrian Martial Convenant.
Of course, in exchange the Martial Union got tons of funds, resources and
privileges for making such concessions to the Royal Family. Compared to the
soft power of having authority over these operations, the Martial Union was
plenty comfortable settling for the concrete benefits that these material
exchanges provided.
It was ultimately a win-win for both parties. But Martial Artists like Rui had
to suffer being a subordinate for the Kandrian government specifically in
regards to their participation in the operation, so he wasn't feeling all too
happy about it.
Still, the success of this mission was personally important to him, and having
a diverse experience would always do more good than harm.
Thus, Rui intended to see this mission to the end.

Chapter 170 Introduction
AN: Celebrating hitting 400 power stones for the first time! So here's an extra
chapter :) Thanks a lot for all the power stones.
*******
Rui closed the mission bill, having learnt everything he wanted to learn. He
immediately headed to the commissions department to finish the application.
The paperwork for a royal mission was actually much more extensive than
those of missions from other classes, this was because he had to sign many
more acknowledgements, non-compete agreements, non-disclosure
agreements with the Kandrian government before he was allowed to
undertake these missions officially.
Once he completed the exhausting amount of due process, he immediately

headed towards the dispatch facility as the commissions department informed
the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation that their commission had been
accepted.
Even the dispatch procedures were different.
For one, in addition to the standard gear that Rui obtained, he was also given
a badge with the Royal Insignia. After all, he would be acting on behalf of the
Kandrian government and by extension and the Royal Family by extension.
He possessed a greater amount of authority over civilians just by being a
government authorized agent.
Furthermore, the consequences of attacking him or hurting him were much

more severe than if he was undertaking a private commission from civilian
clienteles. After all, when he undertook commissions civilian clienteles, he
was officially just a service provider accepting commissions via a private
union, although assaulting people was a crime in the Kandrian Empire, he
wasn't any more special than any other civilian, officially, anyway.
But whilst operating in a royal commission, he was temporarily now a

royally-authorized agent. Assaulting him was a far more severe a crime under
these circumstances.
Rui was beginning to understand the allure of royal commissions. Initially, he

didn't understand why Martial Artists would undertake such stuffy missions
outside of having a Martial Art suited to offense-class missions. But the perks
of royal commissions were much stronger than those private commissions.
Having such a deterence on your side must be quite reassuring, Rui realized.
He quickly donned his gear, the royal badge and his mask. He absolutely did
not want to let his identity slip up so he even procured a full-head mask that
did not allow even a hint of his facial features to let slip. He even wore super-
thin contact lenses that distorted his unique eye-colour.
And he set off as soon as he finished the dispatch protocols.
The Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had a branch in most towns in the

country. The Hajin branch was actually quite close to the Martial Academy,
which was near the center of the town itself. Rui reached it within ten
minutes.
The Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had a rather huge headquarters, not as

unreasonably large as the Martial Academy, but quite extravagant
nonetheless.
When Rui entered the gates and front door, he immediately walked into what
looked like a security checkpoint and a reception.
It was a rather large hall with a wide table with at the opposite end, occupied
by many receptionists.
"Are you here for a bureau commission, sir?" A receptionist asked him when
he approached the desk.
"Yes." He nodded.
"Please provide the verification token tell me your mission code." She
requested.
"HJN03486" Rui replied, as he reached for the token that contained the
verification code that proved that Rui was indeed the Martial Artist assigned
to the stated mission and not some random imposter.
"Alright. You have been verified." She stated, as she stamped his token with
the royal insignia with strange coloured ink. "Please proceed to the
commission department of the Bureau and provide this token to them, you
will be guided to your assigned supervisor."
Rui nodded, he'd expected the process to not be as simple as bodyguard or

hunting mission due processes were.
"Office number 28, third floor." The attendant at the commission department
told him. "Your supervisor is special agent Effels Muhil
Rui sighed as he went on yet another journey in the elaborate facility, the
levels of due process reminded him of airline industry back on Earth.
"Ah, Martial Artist." A woman in her thirties sitting at a desk said. She
glanced at him with her judging green eyes. "I am Effels Muhil. Please
provide me with your token."
Thankfully she only took a glance at it before returning it. "I am your
supervisor for this mission. Follow me, we will meet up with the rest of the
members partaking in the operation your mission is centered around."
('Finally.')
"Have you memorized the intel in we provided to you via the Martial union?"
She asked him sharply.
"I have." Rui said, before proceeding to paraphrase all important and relevant
information.
"Good." She threw him an approving look.
Soon they entered a dispatch facility with dozens of men in Kandrian combat
gear had been occupying. Among them, an older man with black and white
hair and a scarred face, noticed them approaching.
"Effels." He said simply. "That him?" He asked throwing a skeptical glance

at Rui.
"Special agent Barnard." She addressed with formality. "This is the

commissioned Martial Artist from the Martial Union."
Instantly, the atmosphere changed.
Rui could feel the eyes of all the agents gathered staring at him. He could
even the amusement, skepticism and even the confusion of all the agents that
were supposedly part of the operation.
"He looks like a kid." One of the murmured.
"Can he do shit?" Another asked.
"This ain't a picnic lil boy." Another grumbled.
Rui sighed, he was about to focus his mind to pressure them and trigger their
subconscious sense of danger with a little bloodlust when suddenly.
"He's the real deal alright." He heard the soft voice of a woman.
Rui didn't even turn around to understand who she was.
('Martial Apprentice.') He glanced at the newcomer.
She was a short woman, even shorter than he was despite being an adult. She
had long brown hair and eyes, and subtle aura that emanated a faint danger.
He wasn't able to identify the Type of her Martial Art from just observing
her, which was unusual for him
"Sorry I'm late everyone." She smiled, before turning towards Rui. "I am
Neira Falual, pleasure to meet you!"
Chapter 171 Breakdown
"Pleasure to meet you too." Rui replied. He said, not taking his eyes off her.
"Well." Barnard shrugged. "If Neira is vouching for him, that's good
enough." He turned to Rui. "Do you wish to reveal your identity?"
Rui shook his head. "I'd like to stay anonymous, thank you."
The Martial Union had reserved the right, on behalf of its Martial Artists, for
its Martial Artists to conceal their identities and personal information while
engaging in Royal commissions. This was a right that the Royal Family had
conceded very reluctantly.
The reason the Martial Union had pushed for retaining this right was because
it was far too dangerous to allow the Kandrian government and the Royal
Family access to such data. Once the Royal Family learnt of their identity, the
Martial Artists of the Martial Union could forget retaining any privacy. The
Martial Union was simply unwilling to tolerate such a leak in information.
Barnard snorted, not saying another word about the matter, before asking.
"How do you want us to address you?"
Rui thought for a second, before replying. "You can call me John."
He told them his name on Earth in his previous life.
"Well John." Barnard continued. "Have you memorized all relevant

information?"
Rui nodded, before Barnard fired a series of questions that Rui cleanly
answered, earning Barnard's grudging approval.
"We've been told you're an all-rounder with some degree of sensory and
stealth capabilities." Neira said to him.
Rui nodded. "I have mastered Seismic Mapping and Blink."
"Good." Neira nodded. "Your Seismic Mapping together with my Thermal

Eye, and we'll surely be able to ensure that the ringleader won't escape
detection.
Rui raised his eyes at those words. Thermal Eye was a sensory technique he
had seen in the Apprentice Library, it was quite pricey and difficult to master,
this technique would surely be quite an asset for the operation.
"Alright gather around. We have two hours before the operation dispatch,
we'll be going over the plan one last time." Barnard declared. The men
immediately gathered, forming a circle around their leader, who had drawn
out a map and had placed it on the table.
"The goal of this operation elimination, capture and rescue. The target
locations of the raid operation range from the third block to the fifth block in
the nineteenth district." Barnard said. "The participant squads of this
operation are squads A28, D13, C34, D21, E62, F16, B02 and K23."
He paused before continuing. "Squad A28 will cover the first half of the third
block." he said, indicating the area on map with a pen.
"Squad D13 the second half of the third block."
"Squad C34 the first half of the fourth block."
...
He continued reciting the target locations assigned to each participating

squad. He went into many more details such as the infiltration means, the
assigned gear, the protocol hierarchy and the many courses of actions that
they were supposed to undertake under different possible scenarios.
Rui listened on with a vague interest in regards to how much planning and
organization that even a relatively simple and straightforward operation such
as this one required. It wasn't enough to say "let's jump in, defeat the bad
guys, catch the villain and save the good guys". In any given operation, there
were many things that could go wrong, and many things that could happen,
the planning, organization and protocols existed to minimize the probability
that something went wrong or unexpected that could disrupt the operation
and lead to failure.
Soon, Barnard turned his attention to Rui and Neira.
"The two of you have only one objective in this mission: Preventing the
escape of the ringleader or any Martial Artist." He said. "Scenario A: If there
are no Martial Artists involved then you will aid the operation as parts squads
A28 and D13."
"Scenario B: If there is a single Martial Apprentice, you will both focus your
efforts on capturing them."
"Scenario C: If there are more than one Martial Apprentices, you will both
cooperate on apprehending the closest Martial Apprentice to you."
"Scenario D: If there are multiple Martial Apprentices and one of them is the
ringleader, you will focus your efforts on capturing the ringleader." He
concluded. "At all times, maintain your sensory techniques and ensure
nothing slips pass your detection. Neira, you will be in charge in relaying
your reports once separated from the squads. The two of you will infiltrate
the target locations ahead of time and be prepared for the emergence of
hostile Martial Artists."
He added one final thing. "Above all else, do not let the ringleader escape. Do
whatever needs to be done, we would rather her dead than alive and free."
Neira nodded, throwing a side smile at Rui. "Looking forward to working

with you."
"Looking forward to working with you too." Rui glanced at her with interest.
"Our of curiosity, what type of Martial Art do you practice?"
"I'm a close-range counter-offense specialist." She replied. "Generally I

specialize in attacking while defending and using my opponent's power,
speed and movements against them rather than my own."
"Interesting..." Rui murmured. The description of her style reminded Rui of

certain martial arts fighting styles from Earth. Aikido from Japan and Krav
Maga from Israel, specifically. These two martial arts specialized in using the
opponent's power, and movements against them. Aikido placed a special
focus on attacking the opponent's balance while Krav Maga focus on
attacking the vital and vulnerable areas of the body that were exposed by the
opponent's movements.
However, on Earth Aikido was not a very practical martial art as it was
practiced in the modern era and Krav Maga was just dirty fighting systemized
to some degree, it was illegal in most sports.
Still, the Martial Art in Gaea was far superior that on Earth, and was no
meagre sport. So, he expected that she was quite formidable despite having a
Martial Art that would have been quite dubious back on Earth.
He looked forward to seeing her in action.

Chapter 172 True Mission
Rui observed as the teams prepared for the operation, the sheer amount of
gear that they had access to made the standard gear that the Martial Union
offered look like toys in comparison.
Granted, Martial Artists didn't need a wealth of tools and devices as much as
ordinary humans did.
But even Neira was equipped with a much more sophisticated combat
uniform with visibly greater functionality than his own, making him look
humble in turn.
Soon it was time for the operation to commence. Neira and Rui were
supposed to be dispatched separately from the agents, and would infiltrate the
area and hide in a particular spot until the operation begun.
The reason for this was that it was quite likely that the ring likely had scouts
conducting surveillance, Neira and Rui had a much likelier chance of running
into hostile Martial Artists as long as they didn't appear with the main raid
force. They would join the main force once the latter had infiltrated the area.
"Alright, the operation has commenced." Special agent Barnard told Neira
and Rui. "Execute phase one immediately."
The two of them nodded and entered a stationed supply carriage in the
dispatch facility immediately. This horse-drawn carriage would take them to
the center of the district and a staged 'breakdown' of the carriage would
occur, stranding them in the center.
An hour after they were dispatched, and the breakdown occurred, Neira
pressed a button on one of the devices she had. She nodded to Rui, indicating
she had completed their role. Now, they would wait for the main raid force to
come.
The carriage was a supply carriage and had no windows, so Rui couldn't even
look outside to inspect the surroundings, furthermore, conversing was against
protocol as well. Although the chances were slim, it could jeopardize the
mission, there did exist techniques that could allow Martial Artists to listen in
on conversations from a great distance away.
The two of them had already activated their sensory techniques. Neira
narrowed her eyes as she perceived the infrared radiation influx and
deciphered it to be able to perceive heat signatures of across the entire area.
While Rui closed his eyes and mapped out the topography of the area via
Seismic Sensing.
They both sensed an equal distribution of people across the entire area, and it
was hard to say where the base was.
Then Neira's eyes narrowed, she glanced at Rui and mouthed the word
'children' to Rui, before taking her device and punching in some more
buttons. Rui realized she must have sensed captive children in the area at
some point. This was the confirmation that all the intel they had on the
situation was accurate. Neira had relayed the information to the main raid
team, and the two of the Martial Artists would coordinate with the raid team
through already established plans and courses of actions.
Soon, the time had come.
Rui could feel the atmosphere growing more and more tense. Part of it was
because of himself, of course. This mission wasn't just another mission, the
personal importance it had to him made him takt this much more seriously
than he ever would any other mission with the remuneration that this mission
had.
Rui perceived the automatic carriages that the main raid team was supposed
to use, from a great distance away via his Seismic Mapping. He opened his
eyes, briefly nodding to Neira and showed four fingers to Neira, earning a
nod of understanding from her.
They were four minutes away. The main raid would commence the moment
they arrived. Rui's Seismic Mapping had a much greater range than Neira's
Thermal Eye, he was in charge of keeping an eye on the activation of
Apprentice-level techniques and the arrival of the main raid force.
Soon, motorized vehicles could be heard, Rui could feel them circling the
target areas and one-by-one, they all got out.
The actual infiltration of the main raid force wasn't supposed to be a covert
operation. They came in from the front, surrounded the area with a great
number of men and vehicles.
They quickly brought explosives that they rigged to the front doors of their
target infiltration locations.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
The second the explosives went off, Neira and Rui jumped out of the carriage
and immediately infiltrated the area along with the main raid force. They
ignored ordinary men, the trained professionals of the Kandrian Bureau of
Investigation were more than enough to handle the low-lives, and they were
armed with all kinds of weapons, including muskets!
Instead, they focused their senses on anything resembling a Martial

Apprentice. A hostile Martial Apprentice likely would not know that there
were two Martial Artists within the raid force. After all, the two of them had
been careful not to use any Apprentice-level techniques.
As they kept a sharp eye open for Martial Artists, Rui could sense that the
rest of the operation was going well, the raid force had yet to suffer a single
casualty as they swiftly brought down the traffickers with projectiles and
hand-held weapons.
Every once in a while, Rui and Neira ran into a musket wielding trafficker
who shot projectiles at them, but it was hopeless. Martial Apprentices
possessed heightened superhuman kinetic vision and reflexes, by the time
their human opponents managed to pull the trigger, Neira and Rui were
already long out of the way of the projectiles. Human movements appeared in
slow-motion to them, they didn't even need Apprentice-level maneuvering
techniques to avoid the projectiles.
BOOM
Both Neira and Rui froze as the latter sensed one particular individual in the
center of the targeted area began giving out intense seismic radiation that no
human ought to be able to produce!
They exchanged glances, nodding at each other.
('Martial Apprentice.') Rui thought to himself, as he steeled his gaze. They

both sprinted away as Neira punched some buttons on her device to indicate
that they had located their target and were in pursuit.
The true mission had begun.

Chapter 173 End Of The Continent
Rui closed his eyes as he ran, relying purely on Seismic Mapping. He wasn't
afraid of the criminals of the facility hurting him, even with Seismic Mapping
alone, he was too good to be hit by them. Rui and Neira had abstained from
using Apprentice-level techniques because they wanted to make sure the
Martial Artist couldn't possibly realize they were Martial Apprentices.
"She's wiped-out squad C34." Neira cursed, accelerating. They were almost
there.
BANG
They kicked open the door at the end of the corridor.
For a moment, everyone was speechless. Rui needed a few seconds to

process what he was seeing.
But once he did, his blood boiled.
Thirteen girls, seven boys, shackled in cages, like animals. Bruises, cuts,
wounds. Clear abuse and malnourishment. This alone made him feel
murderous emotions, but that wasn't the worst of it.
What truly made snap was when he saw semen on one of the girls.
"You..."
His rage shook the air.
Never before had he felt such fury in his life.
His veins popped, struggling to contain the raging blood pulsing and coursing
through them. His eyes were bloodshot, reddening with red cracks passing
through them. He had clenched his fist so hard that his nails had dug into his
skin, blood ebbing out of them.
His face was crumpled with rage. Every cell in his body wanted to kill the
people in front of him. His bloodlust was so strong that even Neira flinched.
Out of then ten people that Neira and Rui had opened the door to, only one of
them was standing still, unharmed by Rui's intense Apprentice-Realm
bloodlust, the remaining nine had already plummeted to their knees.
The woman at the opposite end of the dock undeniably was the target of their
mission. Her appearance was a little different from the sketch and the
description of her features, but Rui was relatively certain they had gotten a
match. She had long blond hair that sashayed down to her waist, past a rather
revealing outfit.
She had frozen in shock as she recognized the Apprentice-Realm auras of the
two intruders, before immediately turning around and sprinting away.
Rui and Neira sprinted after her immediately. She was the very reason the
two of them were even involved the mission in the first place. They
absolutely could not allow her to escape under any circumstances
whatsoever!
There was just one big problem, as they had soon come to realize.
"She's fast!" Rui cursed as he was unable to close the gap between them. Rui
was using Parallel Walk, Helical Breathing, Balanced Direction and even
Outer Convergence to move as fast as he possibly could. Yet she was even
faster.
('Is she a maneuvering-oriented Martial Apprentice?') Rui couldn't help but

wonder. She must have learnt many Apprentice-level maneuvering
techniques in order to obtain the speed she was demonstrating.
Neira was slower than both of them, as she fell behind both Rui and the
woman. It couldn't be helped; she was a close-range counter-offensive
specialist, she was not accustomed to long drawn-out chases such as this.
The gap between Rui and the woman wasn't too much, she was marginally
faster than him, but that didn't matter to Rui as much it would to normal
human beings. Rui had already memorized her Seismic Signature. As long as
the distance between them didn't exceed one hundred meters, Rui would
precisely know her exact location at all times. There was no way he could
possibly lose track of the heavy seismic radiation she was giving off with her
many maneuvering techniques.
They sprinted through streets, alleys, over roof tops and in drainage tunnels.
Rui didn't slip up a single time, although he couldn't prevent her from slowly
opening the gap, he ensured that he didn't fall back significantly at any stage.
He replicated every maneuver and direction she took and ensured he never
faltered.
Rui didn't let her out of his vision even a single time. As time passed, just by
observing her, he was able to make some inductions about her.
First, she wasn't really a Martial Artist. She was a Martial Artist, technically.
But not really.
She had a layer of fat over her body, and her untoned physique told Rui she
likely didn't train frequently and probably hadn't truly trained in a long time.
According to the intel, she ran away from every bust of her operation, which
had struck him odd.
A Martial Apprentice had very little to fear from ordinary humans. Rui could
understand eventually retreating, but running away at the first instance of
discovery? If he was in her place, he would have wiped out the raid forces
and ensured that he would be able to escape with his goods and valuables, but
she abandoned the scene immediately this time and in prior instances.
This told Rui that she was barely a fighter with very little experience. It was
quite likely that if he ever managed to get his hands on her, she wouldn't
stand even the slightest chance of victory against him. she had probably
mastered the maneuvering techniques she was displaying so that she would
be able to escape in situations like these.
This just made Rui want to catch her even more.
Neira had already fallen quite behind and had stopped her pursuit, having
realized it was hopeless. Her Thermal Eye had a much short range than Rui's
Seismic Mapping, which meant she would inevitably lose track of Rui and
their target. She could only pray that Rui would somehow capture her, though
the chances of that were too low. She had instead taken it upon herself to
brief special agent Barnard of what had occurred.
Rui on the other hand didn't stop. He simply ran and ran and ran, and then ran
some more.
He didn't how he was going to stop her. He didn't have any strategy, for once.
He only knew one thing.
"I don't care if I have to chase you to the end of the continent, I won't let you
escape!" He swore.
Chapter 174 You'll Wish
Being a Martial Artist was not always easy. A lot of people who found their
Martial Path were unable to tread deeply down it because they simply lacked
the perseverance and dedication needed. Completing missions was not so
easy when you were on the lower spectrum of the Martial Apprentice grade
scale, you earned a decent amount, but that was about it.
That was a why a lot of Martial Artists turned to the underworld, there were
many alluring fruits within reach, poisoned as they may be.
Kate Kole remembered the first time she sold a child. She had earned more
than ten time's what she would normally earn as a low-grade Martial
Apprentice of the Martial Union. And it was trivially easy too, capturing a
single child from the backwaters of the Empire and shipping them to the
commercial hub of the town of Hajin and selling them in the thriving
underworld of the town required very little physical effort from her,
compared to completing the often long, difficult and tiring missions of the
Martial Union.
It was addicting. The first time she had kidnapped and trafficked a child, the
sheer ease with which she was earning a larger sum of money had pulled her
into the Underworld. She would never be able to go back to being regular
Martial Artist. She went around changing her name time and time again,
Martha Myers, Jenna Jill, Ciara Carter and so on and so forth. She had
amassed an immense amount of wealth.
Of course, the Underworld came with its own fair share of detriments. There
was a saying that there were only ten people in the Underworld who weren't
exploited by someone else, the ten most powerful people in the Underworld.
Everybody else below them served someone or the other and was at the
mercy of someone or the other.
The moment she stepped foot into the Underworld, she was unable to escape.
The demand for her goods was strong, and those that she had provided for
would not let her go so easily. She was coerced to continue her child-
trafficking business. Lest the Underworld sold her to the government once
she was no longer of use, they had too much dirt on her.
Life in the Underworld was one of fear, fear of the Underworld, fear of the
overworld. She could not stop trafficking children; she was not allowed to.
She was constantly afraid that the Underworld she had stepped foot in would
consume her, or spit her out into the open where the Empire would consume
her instead.
Eventually, she had reached a stage where she was willing to give away all of
the wealth she had built upon the heinous suffering of innocent children just
to be able to sleep at night without wondering 'When are they going to come
for me?'.
Today, she realized, just very well might be that day.
She turned around in fear as she saw Rui pursuing her relentlessly. This
wasn't her first time being pursued by a Martial Apprentice. She was
normally too fast for them to even keep up, she had managed to acquire many
Apprentice-level maneuvering techniques in fear of being caught and
mastered them to give her some sense of security. That in combination with
her intimate familiarity with the town of Hajin allowed her to escape all her
previous pursuers.
But not Rui. She didn't quite understand why he was so unshaken in his
pursuit, when he was trying so hard. He was a Martial Artist of the Martial
Union, not the government, this must have been a commission from the
Bureau, so why was he expending so much effort when the mission clearly
was not worth it?
She didn't know, but she didn't care. All she knew was that she had to get
away from him. As long as she kept running, eventually she would leave him
in the dust.
Or so she thought.
No matter how much she opened up the distance between them, he was still
somehow able to keep pursuit of her! Even if she went through confounding
paths, he always found his at her back.
('He has a sensory technique!') She cursed.
She would need to accelerate even further in order to get of his sensory range.
This would take a long time.
A long time she didn't know if she could last.
She hadn't trained her body rigorously in seven years, and had let her body go
with material indulgences. Her body had grown rusty, and her physical
parameters had plummeted in the time that she had stopped training, more so
than she had imagined. Her body had ached all over from stressing itself, her
stamina was depleting already. Her lungs felt like they were on fire. Her
joints felt like they were about to break apart and her bones felt like they
were going to break. Her muscles were shaking with pain.
Rui on the other hand was unperturbed. His entire life, he had trained
immensely, even prior to the Academy. Furthermore, once he entered the
Academy, he had honed his body like a madman with his extreme potion
tolerance.
He kept running, running and running some more, without ever faltering or
slowing down.
Their physical foundations were in two entirely different Realms.
Kate had maintained hope that eventually Rui would give up but he didn't. He
just ran like there was nothing holding him back.
Soon, a quarter of a day passed, and the two of them had already crisscrossed
and circled around the town of Hajin multiple times.
Soon, the moment had arrived.
CRASH
In her fatigued and strained state, Kate had stumbled on a rock and crashed
hard into the ground, painfully.
Yet the fear she experienced far surpassed the pain.
She didn't even need to turn around. She could feel the weight of his mind
pressuring her instinctive and primal sense of danger.
"Aargh!" She screamed as Rui grasped her hair before she could even turn
around. He didn't utter a word, the glare in his eyes spoke for itself.
"LET ME GO!" She screamed. "HELP! SAVE ME!" She cried to the
onlooking passersby.
CRACK
"AAAAARRRGH!" She screeched as excruciating pain shot up from her leg.

She turned around and saw her shin broken cleanly, bent at a grotesque angle.
"LET ME GO PLEASE!" She grasped his knees.
CRACK
"AAAAAAHHHRRHH!" She screeched even more loudly as Rui cleanly

crushed her second leg.
She no longer had any escape.
"HAVE MERCY." She half-wailed, half-screeched. "LET ME GO!!" She

banged her hands against him with some feeble offense-oriented techniques
as he dragged her by the hair.
"I'm sure those children said the same thing to you." Rui whispered, turning
to glance at her.
The glare in his eye shook her.
"I may not be able to kill you, but it's a long way to the Bureau headquarters.
By the time we reach it, you'll wish you were dead."
Chapter 175 Make The Best Of It
That day, word of a strange sight spread around the town of Hajin that day. A
Martial Artist of the Martial Union bearing the Royal Insignia had dragged a
woman by her hair all the way from the outskirts of the town of Hajin to the
central district. It was a sight that reinstated the fear in the civilians had in the
Martial Artists of the Empire.
Considering the Martial Artist seemed to be from the Martial Union and the
Kandrian government, it probably meant that that woman had fucked up big
time. If that treatment of the woman was unjustified, it would not have been
done so publicly. The fact that she was being treated so horribly out in the
open meant that she was being used an example by the Kandrian government
and the Martial Union, this was the conclusion people came to.
Of course, they couldn't be more wrong. Rui honestly just didn't care for the
optics. He didn't want to start sprinting with her already mangled body. There
was a chance she might aactually die if he was too rough, as much as he
would have loved to kill her, giving her to the Kandrian Bureau of
Investigation would probably save more lives.
She had valuable intelligence to offer regarding the child-trafficking industry,

without a doubt. Suppliers, traffickers, purchasers and consumers. The hidden
identities of these people that had lurked around in the shadows could
potentially be exposed and uprooted by the Bureau and the Martial Union
based on her intelligence.
He had covered her face in a mask, and wrapped up most of her body in
cloth, even her hair. He did this because he did not want anyone identifying
her.
Of course, common citizens would have no clue who she was, but those in
the know would realize that she'd been caught, and they might get exposed.
He had been exceedingly meticulous and had ensured that there was almost
no chance of that happening.
The only thing that could be inferred about her was that she was a female
adult, given the size of her voluptuous breasts.
Soon enough Rui had reached the Bureau headquarters. It had taken him a
while to get past the general bewilderment of the front reception staff and
guards, but eventually he was greeted by several members of the team he was
assigned.
"You son of a musket." Barnard revealed a grudging smirk. "You actually did
it, you madman."
Several others chipped in as well.
"We knew you had it in you!"
"I knew he was capable the second I laid eyes on him."
"As expected of a Martial Artist."
"Why do I recall you saying the exact opposite when we first met?" Rui
grumbled, but inwardly he couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit validated.
"Great job." Neira beamed at him. "You singlehandedly fulfilled one of the
main objectives of the mission." She said before sighing. "In comparison, I
was rather useless."
"It's just a matter of compatibility." Rui consoled. "It would be unreasonable

to expect someone with your specialty to accomplish much more than what
you did."
He turned to Barnard. "How are the children?"
His face turned grim. "Physically? Just fine. We rejuvenated and healed them
up in a jiffy. Those with infections and other conditions were promptly given
immediate medical attention and will make a full recovery." he said, pausing
before continuing. "But mentally..."
He shook his head.
Rui nodded. It would be rather strange if the children's mental health was
perfect. He expected pretty much all of them would bear these wounds and
scars for pretty much their entire lives. It would permanently alter and shape
who they grow up to be. He couldn't have expected the horrors the endured,
and the even more horrifying effects it had on their psyche.
He could only hope they would heal, a slim, feeble hope.
He had succeeded in fulfilling the main objective. Taking down the bitch
would undoubtedly save many, many more children out there, and her
intelligence and information would also do the same.
But the damage had already been inflicted. He found it hard to be too happy
about the mission, not after what he'd witnessed. But there was the silver
lining that his goal of eliminating the risk the Quarrier Orphanage was under,
had been completed.
"Good work, your job is almost done." Effels, his supervisor stated. "Now
you just have to complete some post-mission protocols here." She said,
handing over a stack of papers that he needed to sign. Rui sighed as he got to
work.
('That took forever.') He thought, once he finished.
He bade goodbye to them once he was done, returning to the Martial Union.
On the way back, he gathered his thoughts on the mission. He had chosen to
get into an offense-oriented mission because he wanted to gain some
experience with active hostile conflict with other Martial Apprentices, but
this mission was anything but that.
He had experienced more head-on conflicts in his bodyguard missions and

his sole hunting mission. Which was definitely not what he was expecting. So
to some degree, he was a bit disappointed.
('Well atleast the mission ended in less than half a day.') Rui shrugged. He
had gotten a decent number of credits for it too.
('Now what...?') He wondered. He was still quite energized after having taken
a rejuvenation potion, he didn't feel like taking a break or rest. He had already
slept for nine hours the previous night.
('Another mission it is...') Rui shrugged. He had little over seven months
before the Kandrian Martial Festival arrived. The preliminaries were
scheduled one month before the actual interschool contest. Which meant he
really only had six months, he had already scheduled one month after his
training for adjusting and refining his usage of the new technique he had
learnt into his Martial Art.
That left five months.
He needed four months for training, generally.
That left one month.
One month of missions, four months of training, one month of refinement.
And the preliminaries would begin.
('The next one month is crucial, I have to make the best of it.')
Chapter 176 No Stone Unturned
And just like that, a month had passed.
Rui had taken up several missions, aiming for missions of the higher
remuneration in the shortest amount of time within his difficulty grade. He
had taken up a total of six missions in the past month. Five bodyguard
missions, two hunting-class missions and one offense-class mission.
He had racked up a total of six hundred and forty martial credits, that in
addition to the martial credits he had earned from the earthen basilisk mission
as well as the royal mission immediately after yielded to a total of one
thousand two hundred and twenty martial credits!
Rui was happy that he had managed to hit four digits by the end of the month.
This means he had access to a lot of the good stuff!
You couldn't buy multiple high-grade techniques with just a measly hundred
or two hundred martial credits. He was satisfied with his reserve, especially
since he couldn't acquire anymore. He had run out of time.
The next five months would fully be dedicated to getting stronger. After that,
the long-awaited Kandrian Martial Festival will have finally arrived.
But, he was experiencing a problem he hadn't ever experienced before.
He had absolutely no idea what techniques to purchase!
Of course, even normally when he was about to purchase technique, he

usually didn't have a precise idea of exactly what techniques in the
Apprentice library he wanted to purchase. But, he knew what kind of
techniques he wanted to purchase, and what conditions they had to satisfy for
him to purchase them.
For his very first training round, he needed to procure foundational
Apprentice-level techniques in all basic fields. At that point, he had no
Apprentice-level techniques at all. It was embarrassing to even call himself a
proper Martial Apprentice. He had been desperately trying to take the first
step in forming the basic foundation.
The second training round had been centered around filling the large gaping
holes in his variety and diversity. By purchasing some grappling and
wrestling techniques, as well as a finishing strike and some defensive and
counter-offensive moves. He had expanded the limits of his options from
merely Vital Pressure striking to many ways through which he could take his
opponent down.
The third round had bolstered the potency of his Martial Art. Outer
Convergence had given it a foundational and fundamental boost in power and
speed, while Inner Divergence had given him the ability to endure. Blink
gave him the option of exploiting opening that he previously could not
exploit while Seismic Sensing closed off many opening that his opponents
would normally be able to exploit, but now couldn't. This round had
generally increased his overall formidability quite well, and in a well
distributed fashion, too.
He had entered each round of training with a clear specific defined goal.
So what was the problem here?
('The problem is...') Rui thought to himself. ('I don't have any specific
criterion for the individual techniques I want to purchase.')
He knew he wanted to master the techniques that would allow him to win the
Martial Academic Contest in the Kandrian Martial Festival, but he didn't
know what those techniques were.
Should he purchase some more power-boosting techniques like Outer

Convergence? Hoping that the immense power he would generate would win
him the contest?
Or perhaps, he should purchase some more maneuvering-oriented techniques

like Parallel Walk and instead hope that his evasiveness will ensure his defeat
doesn't occur?
Maybe he should go down the Dalen path and boost his already solid defense
even further?
Or perhaps the Milliana path and ensure he could fight for long period of
time? The VOID algorithm did like time, after all.
He wasn't sure. They were all alluring options, in all honesty. He simply
didn't know which of the many paths he ought to go down. Hell, he could
even partially travel down multiple paths.
Part of the reason he was so indecisive about which path to go down was
because he didn't know which path was most suited for the Martial Academy
Contest that would be hosted together by all sixteen Martial Academies
across the entirety of the Kandrian Empire.
It was a national-level tournament!
The winner of the contest would be crowned the strongest Martial Apprentice
of their generation!
Yet as much as Rui had been looking forward to this, he realized he didn't
know too much about the details. Part of it was because it felt so distant, just
a while back it was a year away, and now suddenly Rui had only five months
of training and refinement left.
Another part of it was that he had simply been too busy. Every hour mattered
to Rui. He grinded, rested appropriately and then grinded some more
missions. It had always been at the back of his mind, but now that the time to
begin his fourth training stage had come, it had immediately and abruptly
come to the front of his mind now.
"I suppose I can come back to this decision once I learn more about the
tournament." Rui shrugged. "No point in breaking my head over and over."
He wasn't able to come to a decision right away, and he would hate to waste
his precious martial credits on a technique he would end up regretting buying.
Martial credits were precious and had to be earned through clood, sweat and
tears.
"The Academy doesn't offer refunds either."
He made up his mind, he would immerse himself in the happenings of the

Martial Academic Contest before making his mind up, perhaps he would ask
his instructors or friends too.
He already knew the format and general rules and facts, but surely people
with much more experience with the Contest would have more insight and
information to offer. Maybe not game changing, but insightful enough.
Even the tiniest bit of a hint would be enough to make up his mind and
choices that he would go through with confidence.
He wished to have left no stone unturned.

Chapter 177 Clarity
"The Martial Contest?" Squire Kyrie echoed, glancing at Rui.
"That's right." Rui said, nodding. "I'm about enter training for the Martial
Contest. But, I'm not sure what kind of techniques to purchase. I was
wondering if you had any advice for me?"
In the past day he had spoken to multiple people. His friends, some
instructors, some old instructors, he had received a diverse array of opinions.
Kane had told him he should improve his evasive maneuvering. Fae had told
he should consider improving his striking. Dalen and Milliana had
respectively told him to consider improving his defense and stamina.
He wasn't sure. He had hoped that consulting others would give him some
clarity, but frankly, it only made him more conflicted.
There were many good arguments for each of the options he had been
presented.
"What does the Martial Contest have to with the development of your Martial
Art?" Kyrie asked.
"Huh?" Rui tilted his head in confusion. "What does it have to with the
development of my Martial Art? I want to compete in and win the Martial
Contest. For that, I have to grow stronger."
He replied with a confused expression.
Squire Kyrie didn't respond immediately, taking her time to ponder about his
words. "You know... I won the Martial Contest back when I was still in the
Academy and was crowned the Martial Princess."
"What??" Rui turned to her in shock and surprise. "I did not know that."
"It was a long time ago." Kyrie smiled wryly. "So long ago, that it doesn't
even matter now. It's insignificant, even though I was crowned champion."
She said, throwing pointed look at Rui
He frowned at those words. He was cognizant enough to sense that her words
had meaning, she was trying to convey something.
"Insignificant? The Martial Contest?" He murmured with a skeptical look.
The Kandrian Martial Festival was held once every five years. Its infrequency
ensured that whenever the Festival did eventually roll around, it had a lot of
weight. It drew in attention from not just the entire Empire, but even
surrounding nations as well!
The Sekigahara Confederate, the Britannia Empire and the Republic of

Gorteau all sent delegates to the Kandrian Empire during the Festival, to
engage in some diplomatic show of goodwill.
At the center of the Kandrian Martial Festival lied the inter-academic Martial
Contest held by the sixteen Martial Academies across the Kandrian Empire.
Sixteen representatives, four rounds, one champion. Glory. Prestige. Wealth.
How could such an event be insignificant?
"What's more important to you?" She asked. "Reaching Martial Squire, or

winning the Martial Contest?"
"Reaching Martial Squire." Rui replied unhesitantly. As much as he wanted

to win the Martial Contest, reaching Martial Squire was far stronger a desire
for Rui than anything else. His ultimate goal was to pursue his Martial Art
and traverse his Martial Path forever, he did not want to ever want to die
constrained ever again. The first time was bad enough.
If he could not reach Martial Squire, then it meant he had hit a dead end in
his Martial Path and Martial Art.
That was not something he was willing to tolerate, in comparison, the Martial
Contest was indeed inconsequential.
"Can't I pursue both?" Rui frowned, becoming a Martial Squire didn't mean
he couldn't participate in the Martial Contest, and participating in the Martial
Contest didn't mean he couldn't become a Martial Squire. So why did it sound
like Squire Kyrie was insinuating this?
"Can you?" She asked.
"Can't I?"
"Tell me. How would you have gone on training if the Martial Contest did
not exist?" She asked, in turn.
Rui remained silent at that question.
"At the very least, would your normal training be different from that of your
Martial Contest training?" She asked.
"Probably."
"How do you think you'll reach Martial Squire if you allow something like
the Martial Contest to dictate your Martial Path?" Squire Kyrie asked him.
Rui's eyes flew wide open at those words. He understood what she was trying
to convey.
"Training shapes your Martial Art and Martial Path." She said. "The
influence your training has on your Martial Art and your Martial Path cannot
be changed too easily. With that in mind, do you think altering training for
the sake of the Martial Contest is conducive to your goal?"
Rui shook his head. It wasn't. She definitely had a point. The Martial Contest
was not his end goal, he should not bend his Martial Path towards it, as that
would inevitably mean it is bending away from its original path. What was
the point of training for the Martial Contest specifically?
The Martial Contest occurred once every five years. He would really only to
get to participate in it once. After that, it was no longer relevant. It was not
worth altering his original Martial Path.
Instead, he should simply train for the sake of his Martial Art itself, and not
for anything or anybody else.
"Thank you for your guidance, instructor Kyrie." Rui was grateful. He had
gotten bit too fixated on the Contest itself. He was still excited for the Martial
Contest, and still intended to grow stronger. But the difference was he was
not willing to influence his Martial Path for the sake of the Contest.
He could still train for the Martial Contest to a lower level, within his Martial
Path, but he wasn't willing to change his course. Even if the techniques he
chose weren't precisely the best for the Martial Contest, he would still choose
to master them if he believed that these techniques were faithful to his
Martial Path.
Kyrie nodded with a hint of approval. "Good luck. I look forward to your
performance in the Martial Contest and the Festival. But never forget, your
Path goes far beyond them."
Rui nodded. "Thank you." Before bading her farewell and heading to the
Apprentice Library.
His mind was no longer consumed by the incessant thoughts of the Martial
Festival.
"My Martial Art is the VOID algorithm. And my Martial Path is Project
Water." He whispered to himself. "I'll do whatever it takes to achieve my
dreams."
He stopped, having reached the gates to the Apprentice Library.

Chapter 178 First Choice
Had he instantly figured out what kind of techniques he wanted to purchase at

this point in time?
No.
But at the very least he knew what he didn't want to do.
He didn't want to focus exclusively on any one field, he was an all-rounder

and that didn't change. He was previously considering taking the suggestions
of his friends and dialing down and focusing on the fields that may be the
most useful in the Martial Contest setting, but he decided against that.
"That is not my Martial path." He shook his head, as he entered the

Apprentice Library.
It was time to make his choices.
('What is something I would really like my Martial Art to obtain in this round
of training?') Rui asked himself.
Well, this question was harder to answer than before because his Martial Art
did not have very obvious needs anymore, being well-rounded enough with
fourteen Apprentice-level techniques.
He put aside logical deduction for one second. What was it that he truly
wanted to for his Martial Art? He looked inside, trying to gauge his emotions.
Staying true to himself was the key to staying faithful to his Martial Path.
It had taken him a while, but he had come to a realization.
('I wish my Martial Art had more lethality.') He realized, recalling his
dissatisfaction during the hunting-class mission being unable to take the
earthen basilisk down in a shorter period of time.
His offense was limited to Outer Convergence, Flowing Canon, Binding lash
and Mirage Dive.
This made for a decent amount of variety, for sure. But it lacked the level of
lethality he wished he had. The kind of attack that could do serious damage to
his opponent if well-landed.
Usually, these techniques had a high difficulty of mastery or were extremely

high-grade and thus super pricy.
But now, atleast he had an objective. Was it the best course of action for the
Martial Contest? Probably not, the Martial Contest had a non-killing or
crippling rule, which restricted how much lethality he could use. Was he
going to change his choice even if it wasn't the most optimal choice?
No.
This was his Martial Path, not that of the Martial Contest.
He set out to the offense-oriented section, looking for various techniques. The
only place he could possibly find lethal techniques would be in the offense-
oriented section, after all.
There he once again came to marvel at how diverse the Martial techniques on
Gaea were.
[Hypnotic Claw]
A technique where one condition the tip of one's fingers and nails to produce
to be saturated with a potent venom that caused drowsiness. This was a
technique that first required the user to spend months building up a strong
tolerance to this venom by controlled administration of doses of the poison.
Only then could the finger tips and nails be conditioned to produce this
venom. Over the course of a fight, constant exposure of the venom to the
user's opponent via the Hypnotic Claw would cause induced hypnosis unless
the opponent's poison resistance is quite high.
Rui shook his head in disbelief. He still had vaguely mixed feelings about
using poison to fight, but clearly, in this world, Martial Art had a much
broader scope than the martial arts of Earth.
He might have been tempted to train in the technique anyway if not for the
fact that it had downsides to it. He would be unable to train in any other
technique whilst training this technique and he would need to wear gloves
permanently for the rest of his life, because this technique would make put
people to sleep whether he liked it or not.
He put it aside, skimming through some other choices.
He ran into many techniques that were capable of inflicting serious damage to
their opponent or seriously incapacitating them leaving them vulnerable.
Techniques centered around friction, body temperature manipulation, force
permeation, nerve striking, flesh tearing, artery targeting, oxygen deprivation
and many other absurd techniques.
Many of these techniques were extremely pricey, and were far too niche or
had too much of a difficulty grade.
This was to be expected, the power to instantly defeat or kill Martial

Apprentices could not be easy to obtain!
If these techniques were not super-difficult to master, then Martial

Apprentices would be dropping like flies!
One particular technique was especially absurd, its very existence shocked
him.
[Heart Permeation]
A jabbing technique that manipulated the impact of the jab such that the
impact did not do damage to the skin, flesh, muscles or bone in the chest
area, but permeated all the way inside from the outside to the heart. The
impact would cause an instant cardiac arrest and would kill the target of the
technique within seconds if well-executed.
"What???" Rui exclaimed. A single jab that could kill a Martial Apprentice
instantly??? He had not thought it was possible. He hadn't ever gone through
the higher-graded techniques in the Apprentice Library this extensively
before. After all, he was still solidifying his foundation in the prior training
stages, so he hadn't ever seen this technique.
This technique costed one thousand martial credits, and had a grade ten
difficulty. Which corresponded to a one-percent successful mastery rate.
Only one percent of Martial Apprentices who purchased this technique had
mastered it!
Even the Martial Academy didn't have that many martial Apprentices at that
moment!
Rui was sure whoever mastered that technique would instantly be the most
dangerous Martial Artist in the Academy.
Thankfully, it was absurdly difficult to master. He was definitely not

purchasing it at this juncture.
Just as he was inspecting the other techniques, something interesting caught

his eye.
[Stinger]
This was a kicking-based piercing technique that involved conditioning the

first toe of the foot from merely a toe to weapon meant to blast holes in the
target of the technique. The toe would be rigorously conditioned on a
skeletal, flesh and epithelial level. It would effectively be re-engineered into
an unstoppable bullet.
When fully completed and mastered. The Stinger allowed the user to launch
swift front kicks that left a four-centimeter-long hole as wide as a toe in
everything it touched!
This one move could singlehandedly win him a fight and turn the tables in
losing battles.
Furthermore, this technique had a rather relatively reasonable price compared

to the others because of its high difficulty. The difficulty of the technique
stemming from the long, painful conditioning process of the training. It had a
high potency grade despite its price for this reason. It required to
perseverance.
If Rui purchased this technique, he will have gotten a huge boost in lethality
while still retaining enough martial credits to purchase a few more
techniques.
"Alright, I've decided." Rui's eyes narrowed with determination. "This will be
my first choice."
Chapter 179 Phantom Step
He picked the scroll for the technique out of the slot, examining it happily.
He was quite satisfied with the significant improvement to his lethality.
The technique costed around four hundred martial credits, despite the fact
that it could cause more damage. The reason for this was because the Stinger
had very low flexibility. It could be executed as a straight kick, or side kicks,
to varying heights. But the fact of the matter was it required a leg, and unless
the user trained the large toes of both feet for the technique, it could only be
used with one leg.
Outer Convergence was less devastating with every attack, but fundamentally
boosted the power and speed of nearly all Martial maneuvers in general. It
wasn't limited to one leg or one type of attack and could even boost other
fields if used cleverly. But it lacked the lethality, in turn.
The two techniques were equally high-grade with high-difficulty of mastery

that made them more affordable, and had different strengths and weaknesses.
With this, Rui's offense was not to be messed with, he was probably still
inferior to Fae in this regard, but he should still be comparable enough to her
in this regard once he mastered this technique.
He moved on, stepping out of the offense-oriented section. He had no

intention of purchasing any more pure offensive techniques.
When he walked out, he paused.
('Now what?') Rui wondered. He wasn't sure. He sauntered around a bit,

eying the different sections in the Apprentice Library, as they eventually
settled on one.
The maneuvering section.
('It's been a while since I've visited that section.') Rui mused. He hadn't
purchased a maneuvering-oriented technique since he purchased Parallel
Walk two training sessions ago.
('That was a long ass time ago.') Rui felt nostalgic.
It actually was less than a year ago, but so much had happened since then,
that Rui felt it was truly a long time ago.
He shrugged. It was as good a choice as any. He didn't even necessarily have

to pick a maneuvering technique either. If he didn't like what he was seeing,
he could just move on. There was no reason to pick something he didn't want
to pick.
He came across the many techniques held in the maneuvering section, many
of which he had seen before.
[Godspeed]
A technique that allows the user to momentarily surpass the speed of sound
by accumulating power in the form of muscular potential energy, allowing
them to surpass the reaction time of most Martial Apprentices, launching a
clean knockout blow that was almost impossible to avoid.
It was one of the few techniques of the entire library technique that had grade
ten difficulty, just like Heart Permeation, Void Step and All-Seeing Eye.
Rui was aware of the technique, this was the technique with which Kane had
beaten Fae singlehandedly, and the technique that had forced Kyrie to stop
holding back and limiting herself. It was an incredible technique with highest
of efficiencies. If successfully well-executed, Rui doubted there was a single
Martial Apprentice that could avoid being defeated. Even Fae, who was
among the strongest offense specialists in the Academy could barely launch a
failed counter before she got knocked out.
The technique had some significant conditions and drawbacks, otherwise

Kane would just go around one-shotting Martial Apprentices like he was a
Martial Squire!
Still, the fact that Kane mastered it in half a year was impressive, because this
was the kind of technique that took several years of unhindered dedicated
training to master.
When it came to mastering maneuvering techniques, Kane was unrivalled.

Not even Rui with his reincarnated-enhanced mind and reincarnated-
enhanced potion tolerance was above him in this particular regard. He could
just drink up maneuvering techniques like they were juice.
The reason he was still slower than Rui on average was because he was
average at learning techniques from other fields.
Still, Rui didn't think he could master Godspeed, nor did he feel the urge to so
he left it at that.
He went through the many techniques, many of which he had seen before,
many of which were new, until he stumbled upon something interesting.
[Phantom Step]
A technique centered around creating illusions with extremely high-quality

convincing feints based on accurate and precise trajectories as well as
appropriate shifts in center of gravity.
It was a technique with equal amounts of flexibility and high-efficiency,

which resulted in an overall high-quality technique, it was quite reasonably
priced too.
This wasn't the first time Rui had seen techniques with the concept of feinting
incorporated into them. In fact, he had mastered one himself.
Mirage Dive was a technique that he had mastered two training stages ago. It
used a feint grappling attack to create an opening for a takedown.
"Hmm..." Rui pondered. This technique was a variable that would allow him
to create variables to end the battle or turn around a losing battle by
exploiting an opening created by the technique. Furthermore, this technique's
surprise effects could be used synergistically with the surprise effects of
Blink, and also could be used as a tool to successfully land the Stinger kick.
He could increase the likelihood of all his techniques working better directly
or indirectly thanks to Phantom Step!
All in all, it had good compatibility and synergy with his existing techniques
and Martial Art.
"Alright then." Rui plopped the scroll out of the slot and walked away from
the maneuvering section.
The technique had costed around three hundred and eighty martial credits.
Not unreasonable given what it was touted to be capable of. Along with the
Stinger technique, his total expenditure was seven hundred and eighty martial
credits.
Leaving him a remaining of four hundred and forty martial credits.
"Enough for one high-grade technique, or two mediocre techniques." He

mused. He didn't even consider purchasing mediocre techniques, if he wanted
those, he could go back to the foundational techniques and pick four or five
techniques from there.
His Martial Art had already developed to a point where it needed high-quality
techniques to grow significantly stronger!
"That leaves one last technique."

Chapter 180 Final Technique
One technique to go.
Rui truly had no idea this time. He had picked one offense-class technique,
one maneuvering technique, following this pattern, wouldn't it make sense to
pick a defense-class technique?
Rui glanced at the defense-class section, before shaking his head.
('My defense is solid enough.') He had already mastered three defensive

techniques that were extremely synergetic with the VOID algorithm. He
didn't feel the need to beef up his defense just yet, at the very least he didn't
need to add another endurance technique, maybe he could consider adding
some other form of defense?
But for now, he didn't intend to going into the defense-class section, instead,
he was quite interested in another section in particular.
The miscellaneous section.
The miscellaneous section was the largest of all sections in the library
because it contained many sizable sub-sections across it.
Environment-class techniques, beast-class techniques, labour-class

techniques, weapon-class techniques, stealth-class techniques, sensory-class
techniques. It contained many interesting techniques of various sorts.
He didn't care to go through many of these classes of techniques, half of these

were far too early for him, he felt. Especially, the weapon-class techniques.
Further, not all of these techniques were super-useful to him either. The
miscellaneous section had some rather funny techniques as well.
[Mind Palace]
This technique effectively gave the user a perfect memory. It was a technique
developed for Martial Artists who had trouble remembering the vast amounts
of information that mission bills often had. It also allowed martial Artists to
remember many other important pieces of information like the protocols and
guidelines of different classes of information as well. Meant for Martial
Apprentices who were mentally challenged to some degree.
Difficulty grade: Five.
Cost: Free
Rui almost burst out laughing. The Martial Union actually added an
Apprentice-level technique for incompetent Martial Apprentices who had
difficulty memorizing information that needed to be memorized for
completing missions. Just how many instances of incompetency did they
have, before they decided to add this technique?
They even made the technique free of cost so that Martial Apprentices would
have no qualms purchasing it!
He shook his head, chuckling. He began skimming through some classes of

techniques he had already visited prior in his previous visit to the Apprentice
Library.
The Sensory-Class.
He had recalled some particularly interesting techniques in this section when

he saw it in the Miscellaneous section. Just as he skimmed through the
section, something interesting caught his eye.
[Primordial Instinct]
A technique that trained the danger evaluation intuition of the user, allowing
them to subconsciously detect dangerous phenomena within a certain range.
"This..."
This was a technique he recalled seeing back when he picked out Seismic
Mapping. He'd been pretty intrigued by it at the time, but eventually picked
Seismic Mapping because Seismic Mapping had far greater range, whereas
Primordial Instinct was a combat-oriented technique.
('That was a such a great decision, in hindsight.') Rui realized.
Had he picked Primordial Instinct instead of Seismic Mapping, he wouldn't

have been able to complete the earthen basilisk mission, or the child-
trafficking mission either. Mostly because Primordial Instinct wouldn't be of
much use in those particular situation
However, Primordial Instinct shined in combat, in turn. While Seismic

Mapping, in combat, could only be used to ascertain his opponent's position
and general movements, Primordial Instinct could accomplish far more.
This was a technique that trained the human subconscious danger sensing and
evaluation capability as well as the human subconscious precognition. It
basically evolved his mind's capacity to sense danger and predict future
instinctively and subconsciously.
Ordinarily, these mental parameters were fixed and static, and had very little
room for intrinsic improvement. But this wasn't true for Martial Apprentices.
Martial Apprentices possessed superhuman neurology as a result of the
evolution and enhancement provided by the breakthrough to Martial
Apprentice and the discovery of the Martial Path.
Unlike normal humans, the subconscious danger and predictive instinct could
be improved, and had the potential to be much greater. It need only be trained
in the appropriate manner.
Once mastered, the description of the technique professed that one could be
able to predict their opponent's much deeper than before, and would be able
to instinctively sense and evaluate danger across their surroundings in all
directions to a far higher degree than before. It became drastically much
harder for the user to be caught off-guard.
Rui had begun to strongly suspect that the Primordial Instinct technique had a
strong compatibility with the VOID algorithm. The reason for this was
because the predictive mechanism of the VOID algorithm was different from
the predictive mechanism of the Primordial Instinct technique.
The VOID algorithm predicted the user's opponents by in putting variables

into an algorithmic system that outputted the opponent's future moves as well
as the ideal ways to counter depending on what the user wanted to
accomplish. It was fundamentally founded on data science and a deep
understanding about the fundamental nature of physical conflict.
The Primordial Instinct's predictive prowess instead was founded on the

mind's subconscious inexplicable ability to extrapolate the future from the
present.
If the two had no overlap, then they could cooperate with no friction of any
kind. Rui would be able to combine the predictive prowess of the Primordial
Instinct technique with that of the VOID algorithm to truly peer into the
future!
Furthermore, the danger sensing ability of the Primordial Instinct technique

was quite impressive as well.
If Rui wasn't wrong, the danger sensing aspect of this technique could be
integrated into the VOID algorithm as an extra variable to input. With even
greater amounts of information available, the VOID algorithm's results would
surely be even more refined, precise and accurate!
"This could serve as the first step to adapting the VOID algorithm to the
world of Gaea!" Rui exclaimed with ecstasy; he was quite pleased with this
epiphany.
With all of these considerations, the Primordial Instinct technique might

actually have the greatest compatibility with his Martial Art compared to the
other two techniques he had chosen!
Furthermore, almost as if it was telling him something, the price of the

technique was just barely within his remaining budget.
He nodded, plucking the scroll out of its slow. Adding it to pouch along with
the other two.
The Stinger.
Phantom Step.
Primordial Instinct.
These would be the three techniques he intended to master. With these

techniques, he intended to reach another level of power!
Chapter 181 Training Regimes
He quickly exchanged all of his hard-earned martial credits for the

techniques, before sitting down at the Apprentice Library to memorize their
training methods.
Out of all the three, The Stinger's training was the most painful and least
pleasant by far. The training of the technique involved the repeated damaging
of the toe to cause micro-fractures that when healed via healing potions
would strengthen the bone structure to stronger than it ever was, while also
reshaping the bone and the flesh to become more conducive to piercing.
This was not something Rui was unfamiliar with as a concept. It was a well-
documented fact that pressure and the reconstruction of microfractures
strengthened the bone. There were several traditional martial arts on Earth
that used this kind of conditioning to strengthen bones. The most popular
ones being Karate, Kung Fu and Muay Thai. Each applied this principle in
different way to varying degrees.
But the Stinger technique's training took it to a whole other level.
It was a long and painful process that was nothing short of pure torture. This
was one of the reasons it had an abnormally high difficulty grade. Too many
students who had undertaken this training had simply quit. Only ten-percent
of the Martial Apprentices who had purchased this technique had the
determination to see it to the very end.
The excruciating pain was simply too much for most of them, the power of
the technique was simply not worth the agony that the technique's training
regime entailed, only a handful of Martial Apprentices possessed the fortitude
needed to complete the training.
Rui intended to see it through to the very end as well, the lethality of the
technique was extremely attractive, it would benefit him not just in the
Martial Contest, but it would help him in all future missions as well. He
would be able to end fights much quicker than he ever was able to before.
Had he had this technique in his very first mission, he would have been able
to hinder the enemy Martial Apprentice and rejoin with Bella before she was
found and killed. He might have been able to prevent the bandits from
escaping and the earthen basilisk would have gone down far sooner than it
did.
In comparison, the remaining two techniques had training regimes that were
far easier.
The Phantom Step technique had a training regime very similar to that of the
Binding Lash technique. It involved memorizing the timings of feints by
wearing suits that froze motion at the right moment so that Rui would
understand the timing for feints of each maneuver. The training involved Rui
learning to replicate that timing so as to be able to replicate the feint
perfectly.
Rui was certain he would handle this training regime quite well, he had
already undergone it once and was quite familiar with how the Academy
trained feinting maneuvering techniques. Thus, he would likely master this
technique the quickest because he wouldn't need to go through the adjustment
phase of the training regime.
This was also one of the reasons he was comfortable choosing it. With how
brutal the Stinger's training regime was going to be, he would like it if, at the
very least one of the other two training regimes was something he was
confident of nailing smoothly, that would put less stress on him during the
entire training stage, without a doubt.
The more at ease he was mentally, the easier he would be able to make it past
the painful Stinger technique.
The most interesting training regime however, was the Primordial Instinct
technique. This technique exploited the fact that the danger and precognitive
instinct of the human mind could be exercised and developed, like any other
muscle.
In fact, it treated the subconscious instinct of the human as a muscle, and

trained it like one.
How were muscle trained? By straining them with weight against their
motion. A similar principle was applied to the subconscious instinct of the
human mind. It was restricted by restricting senses and then thrust into
situations where its danger sensing capabilities would inevitably be strained.
This was also another training regime he wasn't entirely unaccustomed to. He
had gone through similar training for the Seismic Mapping technique. There
were of course, several key differences.
The first was that the Seismic Mapping technique almost completely sealed
off all senses so that Rui's mind would be forced to subconsciously rely more
and more on sensing the seismic radiation to be able to perceive the
environment and objects in the surroundings as well as the movements of
these objects, as long as they were touching the ground, of course.
Primordial Instinct instead restricted all senses, including techniques like

Seismic Mapping, to a high degree, but not completely. This was because the
Primordial Instinct of the mind operated via the subconscious processing of
the senses. Restricting the senses completely was not a good idea because it
simply meant that the Primordial Instinct of the subconscious mind would
simply not be able to operate at all.
Thus, the training regime involved almost complete sealing og the

techniques, but not entirely, and the user would be forced to rely on his
instinct more and more. As months passed, the senses would be restricted
more and more as the user improved, until they were almost completely
restricted and the user was still able to operate via the subconscious instinct
alone.
This was because as time passed, the instinctual sense would grow stronger
and sharper until it was able to significantly boost the reaction time of the
user, especially to blindside attacks as well as the subconscious precognitive
capability of the user.
"Alright then." Rui got up, dropping his scrolls into his pouch. "Time to get
to training."
He walked out of the Apprentice Library, heading towards the Apprentice

offense training facility of the Martial Academy, headed by Squire Instructor
Dylon. For the first time in his life, Rui was not excited for a training regime
even before he had begun it.
Chapter 182 Conditioning
"Instructor Dylon." Rui bowed.
"Hm?" Squire turned away from supervising some training of other students,
recognizing him on the spot. "Oh, Quarrier. Is it four techniques this time?"
"Only three." Rui corrected him modestly.
"..."
"I'm here to learn this." Rui waved the Stinger technique scroll. "Care to help
me out?"
Dylon winced when he saw the name. "I hope you're prepared. This is going
to be rough, not to mention messy.
"Thanks a lot for that, truly helpful." Rui replied.
"Not at all, I'm just here to help after al- Wait, is that sarcasm? That's
sarcasm, isn't it?"
"Can we begin immediately?" Rui asked, ignoring him. "I have a busy
schedule."
"Of course, you do." Dylon replied, snorting. "Your life is a busy schedule,
you're never gonna lose your virginity, you know. Why not forget about
learning this technique and instead learn how to pick up girls, or boys, if you
swing that way."
"If the Martial Academy ever did have such a teaching post, you wouldn't be
hired for it." Rui assured. "Don't think I forgot how Instructor Kyrie rejected
your ass by publicly beating you up in front of all your students." Rui
ruthlessly reminded.
"Guh!" Instructor Dylon collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest in pain.
"With this kind of offense, you don't need to master any other technique."
Rui sighed, exasperated. "Stop fooling around, let's get to work."
"No fun, are you?" He sighed, disappointed. "You've memorized the training
regime, haven't you?"
"Every word." Rui confirmed.
"Of course, you have." He nodded, unsurprised. "Well, then you know you
don't really need me very much. The Stinger technique merely requires the
right training methodology and resources, and you're set."
He gestured to some unused equipment at one end of the training facility.
It was a kicking dummy, meant to be kicked. Asides from some unusual

features, nothing about its appearance was too different from ordinary target
dummies.
Yet, Rui winced at the sight. Because it was not an ordinary kicking target
dummy. It was a special training equipment created by the Martial Academy
specifically for the training of the Stinger technique. This training-dummy
shaped the toe in the desire manner for the Stinger technique every time the
user kicked at it with his or her toe.
Its exterior was made up of a jelly like substance, a semi-solid substance

through with one could insert fingers and toes like ordinary jelly. It was not
rigid, and allowed objects to pass through it. Rui was supposed to kick at it
with his toe, ensuring his toe passed through it each time
This jelly was actually an esoteric substance that had a special property. It
was engineered such that it would absorb the energy of the impact and use
the same energy of Rui's own kick to press against the toe sideways. Every
time the toe made contact, it would pass through it, like jelly, and the jelly
would pressure it sideways immensely with the power of Rui's own kick!
The esoteric jelly was use immense amount of energy attempting to reshape,
restructure and strengthen Rui's toe. Where did this energy come from? From
Rui's own attack that would be absorbed by the esoteric jelly.
It was an extremely efficient substance that would use the user's own energy
to continuously pressure and damage the toe, flesh and skin, accomplishing
two things by doing this.
Firstly, it ensured that when Rui's toe healed from the micro-injuries, it would
be ever so slightly stronger, and its shape would be ever so slightly closer to
what was required for the Stinger technique. Of course, this was a very
gradual change, it would require many, many months of training to complete
the transformation.
"Was it one million kicks?" Dylon scratched his head, trying to recall. "One
million kicks against the jelly dummy for the conditioning Stage to be over?"
However, once the training ended, the many tiny minute reshapes caused by
the micro-injuries would eventually culminate to ensure that the toe's bone
structure resembled a bullet, while the skin and flesh would become
extremely rough like sand paper and as rigid as rock. This was to ensure that
the skin of the target would tear apart with ease when the Stinger made
contact with the flesh of the target.
Rui couldn't even begin to imagine how painful it was, but he didn't need to.
He was about to find out himself.
He took a stance, preparing his right leg for a kick, while sticking out his
thumb-toe.
BAM
"FUCK!" He felt like a truck had run over his toe, the jelly absorbed the
energy of his impact and used it to grind his toe, like it was sharpening a
sword or a knife.
He collapsed as he looked at his bruised toe, gasping.

"Get up." Dylon instructed, with a serious tone. "You can't stop right after
you start, you know that."
Rui could only consume an extremely-low-grade healing potion meant for the
training only after a hundred kicks.
"Steel your will kiddo." He instructed. "As you steel your toe."
BAM
BAM
BAM
BAM
BAM
...
BAM
One hundred kicks later, Rui's toe was swollen, bruised, broken all the
medically different ways a toe could possibly be injured. The pain was
beyond painful, it agonizing and excruciating and all the synonyms of the
pain combined. Rui could barely even hear himself thinking over its intensity.
"Here." Dylon tossed him a healing potion, which Rui inhaled like a fish back
in water, he even used Helical Breathing to speed up the process.
Only when his toe finally healed, had he regained his senses.
"What the fuck." He finally said.
"Yeah, it's messed up." Dylon nodded. "Most conditioning technique are.
Pain is the part of the game."
"This better be worth it." Rui groaned.

"Heh." Dylon smirked. "You can be the judge of that."
He casually launched an incredibly swift kick towards the closest striking

target dummy.
BOOM
Rui's mouth dropped as he saw Dylon extricating his toe out of a gigantic
hole in dummy's head, with cracks emanating from it.
"You should be capable of that once you master it."
Rui's gaping mouth morphed into a smirk.

Chapter 183 Perseverance
"But you're a Martial Squire." Rui frowned.
"I held back to match your physical power." He shrugged. "As long as you
master it perfectly, the result shouldn't deviate much from this."
Rui was quite excited at the prospect of obtaining that kind of lethality, that
he resumed the torture training immediately. This time, he even stopped
screaming. Bearing the pain and putting his toe through utter hell with each
kick.
A little over an hour passed, and he had just completed a thousand kicks!
He glanced at his toe, after he healed it for the tenth time. It didn't look any
different at all. But, that obviously to be expected, if the process would be
completed over the span of a million kicks, then there would be no visible
progress over merely just a thousand kicks, which was 0.1% of the total
progress.
The bone reconstruction process was a well-understood one. Bone had an

incredible ability to adapt to mechanical loads or pressure we place upon it.
According to Wolff's Law, a bone's internal framework, known as trabeculae
is initially weakened when strained and micro-fractured by mechanical stress,
thereby triggering a rebuilding process that eventually made the bone denser.
The hard outer shell of the bone also became a little thicker with time. This
was how bone could become stronger.
It was a long process that required prolonged period of just the right amount
of stress and strain to the bones. It was not a process that could be sped up
too much, even with healing potions.
Rui sighed, before proceeding to continue. He usually spent many hours on a
single technique, and as painful as the Stinger technique was, he did not want
to skip out on it.
If he left after only an hour, he would feel like he was admitting defeat! Thus
he continued and persevered until several hours later, he finally managed to
complete a total of three thousand kicks!
Every time he consumed a potion, the pain reset. As dozens of these rounds
went by, he grew more and more accustomed to the excruciating pain. He
wasn't sure how the hell he was going to get to one million, but he knew he
had to damn well try.
Still, this was just the first session. He put a halt to it after he hit the
satisfying number of three thousand.
When he walked out, his toe was perfectly healed and functional, but it still
hurt in his mind.
"Next." He sighed wearily before heading to the maneuvering training

facility. The next technique he intended to break the ice with was the
Phantom Step technique.
He looked forward to this training session after the dreadful training session
of the Stinger technique. He knew the training regime quite well, and was
quite comfortable with it as well.
Once he reached, he searched for the head supervisor.
"Squire Instructor Veena." He bowed once more, before explaining that he'd
arrived to train for the Phantom Step technique.
What proceeded was a relatively smooth training session with no hiccups.

Rui donned the body suit that was required for the prescribed training regime
of the Phantom Step technique.
Across the entirety of the training regime, Rui would perform a wide variety
of maneuvers that he would normally perform in a fight. Punches, kicks, jabs,
dives, dodges, blocks, shuffles and things of that nature. The bodysuit was
actually a piece of equipment that could be frozen at a particular spot
remotely by a device in possession of the supervising instructor. As Rui
shadow-fought, his instructor would freeze the suit at the correct timing for a
feint in any given motion.
This would allow Rui to learn the exact position in all of these common
motions he made, at which stopping abruptly would produce the most
effective feint. By being stopped exactly the right timing and placement, Rui
would be able to memorize the exact position and timing for feints in each of
these maneuvers with his body.
This training applied the principle of learning with your body to the absolute
highest degree. It exploited the kinesthetic and dynamic learning capability of
the brain to learn via the body to the highest degree.
The training would focus on a handful of maneuvers at a time, each

maneuver, Rui would need to practice thousands of times before he finally
got the grasp of how to feint a particular motion. He needed to repeat this
process for each motion. Different kinds of punches and kicks all required
extensive practice before he could finally have some degree of confidence in
them.
Rui had already suspected it, but he had come to truly confirm that this
technique would likely be the most straightforward and easiest training
regime for him out of the three training regimes he would be subjecting
himself to for the next few months.
He had incredibly high hopes for this technique. It added a universal element
of deception across the entirety of his Martial Art. In hindsight, he had come
to realize that while Blink also did this, Blink was partially out of his control
and also not something that he could time. Meaning he could never become
too dependent on it. Blink exploited the blind spot of blinks to surprise his
opponents, it was most fit to be a trump card, not a regular attack.
Phantom Step was much more universal than Blink, albeit a little less
powerful, but Rui enjoyed the stability and control he would obtain with the
Phantom Step technique.
As he daydreamed more and more about what he would accomplish with this
technique, he grew more and more excited and engrossed into his training.
He trained every second because he couldn't help but ache for the day he
would master this technique.
('This is what training should be like!') Rui thought ecstatically. The Phantom
Step training was like a soothing balm to the psychological wear and tear that
the Stinger technique had inflicted on him. Nothing like an easy coperative
training regime to heal his spirits!
Chapter 184 Prospects
He left the maneuvering training facility with a smile on his face. He had
decided, every training session of the Stinger technique needed to be
followed up with Phantom Step training!
This was the key to making this training phase a success!
Only by coupling the tormenting training of the Stinger technique with the
ecstatic and soothing one of the Phantom Step would he be able to endure the
former in the long run.
"Alright then." Rui sighed. "Time for the final training session."
Out of all the techniques he was learning this time, he was actually most
excited for the Primordial Instinct technique. He knew the technique had the
highest amount of compatibility with his Martial Art and could be the first
through he adapts the VOID algorithm to the world of Gaea.
"Squire Instructor Maxime." Rui greeted with a respectful bow for the third
time. "I've returned to learn the Primordial Instinct technique."
The man stared at him before making the faintest of head movements that Rui
could barely identify as a nod, before walking away.
('?') Rui tilted his head. ('Er. Should I follow him?')
He sighed as he trailed the man's back. Rui had forgotten that he didn't speak
often. Once they reached a certain training room, he paused, gesturing Rui to
enter.
"..." Had Rui not had a thorough understanding of what the training regime
entailed, he would have had the worst time with this Squire instructor.
The training was specially designed to restrict as much sensory input as
possible, though it would only be a partial restriction of senses. Rui wasn't
even sure how it managed to accomplish this; this was something that even
the technology of Earth was not capable of. But he had long come to accept
that the esoteric and exotic material resources of the Panama Continent were
capable of some crazy things.
Once all the preparations were made, Rui could feel his perception of his
surroundings dimming. His vision had plummeted, as had his hearing and
smell. It was like he had entered a void.
Suddenly he perceived a faint shadow in front of him despite his heavily

restricted vision, he instinctively put a guard up.
BAM
He felt an impact, even before he could regain his senses, he felt a slight
tingle of the nerves.
BAM
Another impact struck him from behind, this time, he hadn't been able to
block it.
Rui grimaced in pain. The impacts were not light, especially when he was
having a tough time timing his defensive techniques.
This was on purpose, of course. If the attacks weren't painful, then his sense
of danger would not be activated, the attacks needed to be dangerous, only
then would Rui's subconscious mind push itself, and only then would his
instinct increase.
BAM
BAM
BAM
The impacts came from all directions, and were equally distributed across the
entire body, so Rui wasn't able to come up with a useful model of pattern
recognition that he could apply here to be able to more
Before every impact, Rui felt a tingle in his nerves.
This sensation was something every human experienced, there was a very
simply way of understanding what this felt like.
Take a finger, and point it in between your eyes, with the tip just a millimeter
away from your skin and keep it there for several seconds. Ninety-percent of
the time, one would feel an uncomfortable tingling sensation. This was
because one's subconscious mind and brain were freaking out at the presence
of an object that close to a vital spot.
The effect was even stronger if it was someone else pointed their finger doing
the point-blank pointing. This was because the brain didn't know that it was
safe like it did with one's own finger.
And Martial Apprentices were capable of having much more sensitive and
stronger reactions to stimuli naturally, even more so when they trained this
instinct like Rui currently was
Rui never knew that his instinct generated this tingling sensation before. The
reason for that was because he was too accustomed to relying on all senses to
perceive his surroundings, his instincts rarely played a role, especially when
Rui's fighting style was logically and rationally driven, he rarely moved on
instinct or his senses alone, he usually applied the system of the VOID
algorithm and made his decisions inculcating that and other rationality-driven
thought processes.
Thus, the entire experience was quite new to him.
But he was starting to understand the value of the Primordial Instinct

technique. It was not only supplementary, but also capable of helping Rui in
areas where the VOID algorithm had trouble and difficulty operating. This
made incorporating the Primordial Instinct technique as a variable into the
VOID system much more alluring!
This revelation was quite motivating to Rui, as it was the first true step that
Rui had taken to perfecting and evolving the VOID algorithm to the world of
Gaea and coming one step closer to fulfilling his dream.
Still, that was a while away, Rui had still not gotten the hang of relying on
pure instinct to dodge attacks. As a scientist and a researcher, the very idea of
not thinking was unthinkable, he wasn't used to relying on instinct, even after
he became a Martial Artist in this world, all his battles were conscious
rationality driven.
Only now did he realize the untapped power of the subconscious mind!
This was a power he hadn't yet harnessed, but if he could harness it and
combine it with the power of conscious mind, just how strong would he
become? Just how much more developed would his Martial Art become? Just
how much deeper down his Martial Path would that alone take him?
BAM
He successfully managed to block another impact.
He didn't know what the end outcome would be, but he sure as hell couldn't
wait to see what lied in store for him.
"Unlimited possibilities." He murmured to himself with giddy excitement.

"This is why Martial Art is beautiful."
Chapter 185 Leave It To Me
WHOOSH
Rui launched a strike at Kane, only for the strike to pass through him like he
was an illusion. Kane returned strike, only for it to pass through Rui cleanly
as well.
The two continued exchanging strikes that passed through illusions of each
other, until;
POW
Rui grimaced, stepping back. "Damn, you got me."
"Your timing with the Phantom Step is still off." Kane informed. "It needs to
flow smoothly."
As an evasive maneuverer, Kane had already mastered the Phantom Step

technique, it was extremely useful to his Martial Art. Rui had been training
with Kane to refine his Phantom Step, it was easier to do this with an equal
like Kane, who was in the same Realm as Rui.
They had restricted all other techniques, focusing only on Phantom Step
alone and nothing else, this way it became clearer to analyze shortcomings
and for Rui to compare his performance with the real deal.
"Part of the technique is the psychological part." Kane said, tapping at the
side of his head. "If you wanna sell it, you gotta own it." He said.
Rui could understand that. It wasn't possible to truly fake something unless
you believed it on some level, if you could believe it in superficially, then
you would most likely do a better job at convincing others of it as well. Rui
was treating the feint aspect of the Phantom Step to mechanically. He needed
to immerse himself in the feint.
Problem was the fact this was a mindset he wasn't used to, at all. It was not
easy for someone with an empirical and rational mindset such as himself to
be able to engage in high levels of self-deception.
He also felt it was a bit scary and dangerous. Self-deceit could escalate and
once it did, it would be very difficult to break out of it since you were
deceiving yourself continuously, leading to severe cognitive dissonance and
coping.
('Still, as long as I exercise discipline and self-control, I should be fine.') Rui

thought to himself.
"Again." He said to Kane, before taking a neutral stance.
"Alright." Kane took a non-committal stance that allowed him to maneuver

the easiest.
DASH
Rui feinted a straight punch, but alas Kane saw right through it.
POW
He ignored the imperfect feint and landed a clean jab. Rui grimaced, rubbing
his abdomen.
He tried again.
And again.
And yet again.
But Kane was seeing through almost all of them.
POW POW POW

He smoothly punished Rui's imperfect feints.
"Tsk tsk." He tutted. "Remember, you gotta own it to sell it."
"Easier said than done." Rui replied. Before taking a moment to center
himself.
He pictured the maneuver he was going to do. A dash punch, where he would
launch the strike as he dashed towards Kane. He immersed himself in the
image, picturing the details, making it more and more vivid.
He opened his eyes.
DASH
He dashed towards Kane at high speeds, and a punch was thrown.
WHOOSH
Kane blocked only to realize it was a feint.
POW
Rui managed to land a clean low kick on him.
"Yeah nice." Kane complimented. "That was probably your best feint up until
now, you're getting the hang of it."
Seems like as long as Rui exercised his imagination enough and immersed
himself in it, the quality of the feints increased
They spent a whole hour sparring with each other, as Rui took small baby
steps with the technique, getting just a bit better across the entire sparring
session.
"Phew." Rui exhaled, once their session ended. "Can't wait to master this
technique and unveil it in the Martial Contest and the Martial Festival."
"You sure are hyped for it." Kane muttered. "Is it really that exciting?"
"Of course!" Rui replied. "I get to test my Martial Art against the best of my
generation."
Kane snorted. "It's just a platform for the rate race of clout chasing that
perpetually occurs within the Martial community in the Kandrian Empire. I
don't want any part of it,"
"You're not participating?" Rui asked, surprised.
"No, I'll have to participate." Kane said. "I can't even purposely get
eliminated by fucking around, my family will learn of it and that will be even
worse."
"I see, that does suck." Rui said.
"That's why I'm counting on you Rui." Kane said, putting an arm on Rui's
shoulder.
"What for?" Rui said, raising an eyebrow.
"To beat me in the prelims." Kane said. "Each Academy sends only one
representative, for a total of sixteen representatives in the Martial Contest. If
you beat me, then it means I'm pretty much guaranteed not to go. So you have
to win the preliminary contest that decides the respresentative of our
Academy."
Rui chuckled melancholically. "So, you won't be able to hold back, but you
still want me to beat you?"
Kane nodded. "Basically. You should be able to do it, more than anybody
else."
Rui shrugged. "Alright. It doesn't change what I have to do to participate."
"It's not gonna be easy." Kane said. "I don't know what other techniques
you've been training recently, or even the technique you mastered a few
months ago, but you better be prepared. I've grown stronger."
"Oh?" Rui eyed him with interest. "How much stronger?"

"I will have mastered the Void Step technique somewhat soon enough." He
said, dropping a bombshell. "I've been doing nothing but training this
technique for a bit over half a year now."
Rui's eyes flew wide open at those words. "You what...?"
The Void Step technique was one of the highest graded techniques in the
Apprentice Library, it was primarily a stealth technique but also overlapped
with evasive maneuvering. It was extremely powerful and extremely difficult
to master.
"It's an important technique for me." Kane said. "One day I'm going to escape
from the shackles of my status, when that day comes, this technique is going
to be a lifeline."
"And you're telling me this because..."
"Because it improves the chances of you beating me." Kane said. "Seriously,
you gotta beat me. And I genuinely can't help you this time. If I slack off, my
family will find out without a doubt and in the worst-case scenario they might
take me out of the Academy."
The graveness in his voice revealed the helplessness of his situation.
Rui nodded seriously. "Don't worry, you can leave it to me."

Chapter 186 Martial Musings
Five months passed away quickly, quicker than Rui had noticed. With his
potion tolerance, once he immersed himself into training, time passed way far
too quickly. It got so bad sometimes that he wasn't able to tell the difference
between hours and days sometimes!
Rui had spent the five months doing nothing but training the Stinger,
Primordial Sense and the Phantom Step techniques. His estimates had been
remarkably on point, he had wisely set apart one month after the initial four
months of training to ensure he had properly integrated the three techniques
he had mastered into his Martial Art and fighting style smoothly.
He had done this with the Apprentice and Squire instructors of the Martial
Academy, rather than his peers. He didn't want to reveal his cards too early,
since he knew that anything he showed would become common knowledge to
the descendants from the Martial Community if he won the preliminary
contest and became the representative of the Hajin Martial Academy, giving
them an unfair advantage in turn.
Rui had thoroughly familiarized himself with the way the Martial Contest
held by the sixteen martial Academies functioned.
Across the span of an entire month, each Academy would put their Martial
Apprentices through a battle against every other Martial Apprentice in their
entire Academy. The Martial Apprentice with the best score would be chosen
as the representative of the entire branch.
The possibility of the top score being achieved by Martial Apprentices

existed, however this would be resolved by looking at the outcome of the
matchup between the two Martial Apprentices, since all Martial Apprentices
would face off against all others, this matchup would undoubtedly occur. The
outcome of this fight would decide which one of them would be chosen as
the representative of their branch. In the worst case, if the top scorers with
equal scores tied against each other in a matchup then the Martial Apprentice
with the upper hand would be chosen as the representative.
,m The Martial Academy had laid out an elaborate set of rules for deciding
the representative, to make sure there were no issues at all.
One of the things he had learnt that had initially surprised him was the
combat arena in which the battles would occur.
It wasn't the straightforward big square or circular arena that one would
expect for these kinds of events. It was actually a multi-environmental arena,
meant to cater to all kinds of Martial Artists.
The Martial Academies weren't stupid. Having a wide-open arena would

obviously benefit certain types of Martial Art more than others. Stealth-
oriented Martial Art, environmental Martial Art and more niche Martial Art
would be quite unfairly disadvantaged in such a setting.
Thus, the Martial Academies had constructed a giant multi-environmental

colosseum that catered to a large variety of Martial Art, such that not a single
Martial Apprentice was unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged.
This system existed in the Martial Academy sparring sessions as well,

Martial Apprentices were allowed to fight on platforms that catered equally
to both Martial Artists contending with each other. It was just that for Rui and
most Martial Apprentices this meant they would fight on ordinary rings, since
that was neutral for most Martial Artists.
The Martial Colosseum, as it was known, contained multiple environments

and topographies cramped within it, making it look very bizarre and oddly
beautiful at the same time. It had many other features as well, like devices
that recorded the fight and displayed it such that normal humans would be
able to perceive them with, at the very least much better clarity than if they
were watching with their naked eyes. They could enjoy the high excitement
of some of the strongest Martial Apprentices fighting while still being able to
understand what was happening.
The Martial Contest was a national event and one of the highlights of the
Kandrian Martial Festival. The winner would gain many benefits. The sheer
amount of exposure would mean that winning the Martial Contest or even
performing well would result in a huge number of clienteles making
exclusive offers to either retain the winner as their own personal Martial
Artist, or as regular customer. The Martial Union allowed for clienteles to
direct commissions to specific Martial Artists within the Martial Union for an
extra fee, though the acceptance and refusal of those missions was upto the
Martial Artist question
This meant that the winner would be flooded with highly profitable missions
and remuneration pays from many, many interested clienteles! Even if one-
percent of the regular clienteles of the Martial Union decided to try and have
the Martial Champion retain them as a regular clientele, that would result in
hundreds of lucrative offers of all kinds!
It would be a permanent boost to their careers for the rest of their lives.
This was because the tiny proportion of the populate that comprised of the
wealthy and influential clientele had enough capital to start caring more about
the quality of the undertakers of their precious commissions, so much so that
they didn't mind splurging an immense amount of cash to get the best of
Martial Apprentices to undertake their commissions.
If Rui won the Martial Contest, he would probably be able to clear his student
loan debt with the martial Academy with a single mission or two, that's how
incredibly lucrative it would likely have ended up being.
Still, he wasn't too concerned about the money. He simply wanted to fight
against the best of his generation of Martial Artists. The fact that the
Kandrian Martial Festival occurred once every five years meant that the
sixteen representatives from the sixteen academies would truly be among
those who have reached a certain peak in their Martial Path and among their
peers.
Whoever won the Martial Contest would undoubtedly be the best of the best,
the undisputed number one.
Reaching that height would validate every ounce of his being. It would
validate his ambition of two lifetimes and the dream that he gave everything
and more to achieve!
Chapter 187 Tomorrow
The Kandrian Martial Festival was merely a month away. The entirety of the
Kandrian Empire had begun to stir. The infrequency of the festival as well as
the sheer novelty of how it was celebrated made it one hell of an experience
for the average citizen.
The general sentiment in the Kandrian Martial Empire was positive, mostly
because the image of Martial Artists was positive in the eyes of the average
citizen of the Kandrian Empire. Most of the visible missions that occurred
within the Kandrian Empire consisted of defense-class, hunting-class, royal
missions and miscellaneous missions.
None of these missions were the type that would leave a bad image in the
minds of the average citizen. Essentially, all they saw was Martial Artists
protecting and helping others. They did not see the assault that Martial Artists
committed outside the country where a large influx of offense-class missions
from the many surrounding smaller sovereign state without their own unified
Martial association that could supply the Martial services in demand.
Nor did they see the covert operations that occurred in the shadows and the
darkness of society.
When only the positive was ushered into the light and negatives being pushed
out of sight, it was only natural the Kandrian Martial Festival generated an
immense amount of bustling excitement.
The Martial Contest would be held in the capital of the Kandrian Empire, the
town of Vargard. The sixteen representatives would be escorted to the capital
once the preliminaries were over by the Martial Academies.
That concluded all the primary information surrounding the Martial Contest
that Rui had managed to easily dig up. However, there were still many issues
that he had gone out of his way to clarify.
"I've heard that many of the descendants of the Martial community

participate in the Martial Contest, descendants of powerful Martial families."
Rui once told Headmaster Aronian. "What is the risk of being a victim of
their family's retribution if I happen to defeat them publicly?"
"That is a valid concern, just not very sound." Headmaster Aronian. "Unless
you kill them, or dehumanizingly humiliate them so much that it cannot be
interpreted as anything other than a personal attack on that of their Martial
family, you will be fine."
"Really?" Rui questioned, skeptically.
"Really. There are several reasons for this." Headmaster Aronian nodded.
"Firstly, you need to understand that as important as their heirs and
descendants are to the Martial community, ultimately, the Martial World
respects only strength. These Martial Families are led by Martial Artists who
have vast experience in the Martial World. Every Martial Artist who has
survived the Martial World knows that strength is the only thing that matters.
Victory is everything and nothing less. They are very cognizant of this fact,
they have to be, they would have died a long time ago if they hadn't. These
people are sober to the reality of the world, if their descendants fail, they have
only themselves to blame."
Rui wasn't convinced, visibly so.
"The Martial Artists of the Martial Community of the Kandrian Empire have
experienced many things, boy." Headmaster Aronian shook his head. "They
have gone through things that you cannot even begin to imagine. Do you
think it is possible for them to have reached the higher Realms they have with
a delusional mindset about their social status?"
Problem was, Rui wasn't convinced. Part of it was because there was too
much risk, this kind of reassurance by word wasn't very reassuring.
Headmaster Aronian sighed. "The more concrete reason why you have
nothing to fear are the Martial Academies, myself and His Honour
Grandmaster Sage Damian Roschem."
"How so?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"The Martial Academies do not tolerate the harassment or bullying of their

students. We're extremely strict about this." Headmaster Aronian informed.
"In the past few decades, there hasn't been even a single incident during the
Kandrian Martial Festival. The price of making an enemy of the Martial
Academies that is responsible for grooming their students to become Martial
Artists simply isn't worth it."
Now this was much more reassuring.
"I can promise you as the Headmaster of the Martial Academy, you have
nothing to fear." Headmaster Aronian confidently informed. "Still, you're
getting a bit ahead of yourself, you haven't been chosen as the representative
yet, are you that confident?"
"No." Rui replied. "But I am determined to give it my best, no matter what. I

wanted to clarify this issue so that I can go all out without any problems."
"That's a healthy attitude." Headmaster Aronian nodded, approvingly. "I wish

you good luck young man. I am quite looking forward to your performance in
the preliminaries." He said, before continuing.
"You've mastered a variety of interesting and powerful techniques in the near

two years you've been in the Academy, use them well." Master Aronian said.
"Thank you, Headmaster." Rui replied.
"Well, if there's nothing else, you may leave." Headmaster Aronian said, with
a ton of finality.
Rui had bade farewell back then, and had returned to his dormitory room
deep in thought. These were the among the many doubts and clarifications he
had obtained when he was going through the final refining stage of his
Martial Art, before he was finally clear on everything he wanted to be clear
on.
"Now there's only the prelims left." Rui said, after he finished going through
his notebook where he had noted all the important information regarding the
Martial Contest.
The prelims began tomorrow. One month of fighting every single other
Martial Apprentice in the entirety of the Academy, this included juniors who
had broken through pretty recently as well as seniors who had been part of
the Academy for years. They would all be competing against each other
fairly, and by the end of the month, the strongest Martial Apprentice of the
entire Academy would go onto compete with fifteen other peers.
,m Rui was so excited he had trouble falling asleep, even though he had
purposefully avoided using potions so he could start off at his peak.
('I can't wait!')

Chapter 188 Commencement
It was time. Rui had gotten a good eight hours of sleep, instead of using a
potion. Across the entire month, all of the Martial Apprentice participants
would be given enough time to get a good organic sleep every night. So that
they could be at their absolute best the next and also so that the students that
did decide to use potions regardless didn't have to worry about the days their
sleep overlapped with any scheduled fight of their own.
He had already donned his Martial uniform and was about ready to gather at
the Apprentice sparring center.
"You ready?" Kane asked. "Let's go."
Rui nodded. As they headed to the Apprentice sparring center, neither of

them exchanged a word. Kane merely had his hand behind his head, walking
with an aura of lethargy and displeasure. Rui, on the other hand, was barely
able to contain his excitement
They had already said everything that needed to be said. A tacit

understanding already existed between them.
And soon, they reached, walking over to the group of Fae, Milliana and
Dalen.
"You're here." Fae said, with an air of focused composure. "Ready?"
"No." Kane replied.
"Yes." Rui nodded.
Fae sighed, not saying more. Kane's dislike of the Martial Contest was well-
known, she didn't want to distract herself with it at this important point in
time. Soon, all the Martial Apprentices had gathered.
There was an air of tension among all of them, all of them knew they would
have to fight each other, and that only one of them would be chosen as the
representatives. What would normally have been a light atmosphere with
plenty of banter going around was dead quiet and frozen.
Suddenly, a heavy presence weighed on all of their minds. They saw

Headmaster Aronian enter the facility with his Martial Squire bodyguards.
These bodyguards merely existed to ensure that the Headmaster never had to
waste energy dealing with fools who tried to get too close to him, they
couldn't truly protect his life given his Martial Prowess existed two Realms
above theirs.
"My students." He addressed. "Martial Artists of the Martial Academy. All of

you have gathered here for a reason. A reason that drives you. A reason that
drives you down your Martial Path. Perhaps it is glory, or perhaps it is
wealth. Perhaps it is prestige, or perhaps it is power. Regardless of what it is,
it drives you. And here you are. Standing before me. Standing before each
other on this special day. Today is no ordinary day. Today is the day you aim
to prove yourself. Today is the day you aim to foge yourselves. Today is the
day you aim to soar high into the sky. Today is the day you will reap the
fruits of your perseverance. Today is a day you confront not just your
opponents, but yourselves. Some of you will win, and some of you will lose.
Some of you will retain the hope of being the chosen one, while some of you
will won't. Each of the seventy-nine of you that have gathered before me
today, will face the remaining seventy-eight of your peers, and when every
last battle to be fought has been fought and the winner has won and the losers
have lost. We will choose one of you to carry the burden of all those you
defeated."
He stroked his long flowing beard. "The only question is... Which one of you
will it be?"
He eyed all of the Martial Apprentices gathered before him, feeling their
growing determination with a glint of satisfaction. It seems he was able to
draw out their will adequately. Good.
"Only time will tell. And that time will soon come." He said. "I hereby
declare the commencement of the twenty-seventh preliminary contest of the
Hajin branch of the Martial Academies!"
He roared, shaking the earth with his powerful voice, along with the hearts of
those who heard him.
"I will return when the verdict has been made, until then; good luck and
farewell."
He bade with a tone of finality, before leaving with his bodyguards.
('He's one hell of an orator.') Rui grinned, clenching his quivering fists in
excitement. How on Gaea could Rui possible remain composed after hearing
that?
He simply couldn't!
He couldn't wait to start, he had been itching for this for many months now!
"Still." He said with a frown. "Seventy-nine huh? Last I checked we had

seventy-eight." He'd fought most of the Martial Apprentices in the Academy
and had always known the student count was at seventy-eight even a few
months ago.
"You get too immersed into training." Kane said.
Rui smiled wryly. In the past two months, he had trained almost exclusively
with the Apprentice-instructors, and hadn't interacted with anybody all that
much. He was sure to have missed it if one of the Explorer students had
broken through.
Kane gestured to one of the Martial Apprentices in the crowd, directing his
attention to him.
"He-!" Rui's eyes flew wide open as he instantly recognized the boy. Messy
silver hair. Startling red eyes. A demeanor that oozed arrogance and a battle-
lust that surpassed even Rui's.
"Nel...!" Rui was shocked. It had been nearly two years since their batch had
entered the Academy, and Nel had finally become a Martial Apprentice!
Rui had once wondered how absurdly strong the boy would become once he
"Well, I guess we'll find out how much he's improved." Rui murmured.
"He's only been a Martial Apprentice for two months, not enough time have
mastered any Apprentice-level techniques." Fae said. "That's a disadvantage
that will drag him down."
Rui wasn't sure about that. Nel had defeated a Martial Apprentice nearly two
years ago, even if that Martial Apprentice was extremely low-grade at the
time.
However, since then Nel had undergone the Foundational Stages and the
Exploration Stage, and had also discovered his Martil Path, and had naturally
grown stronger as a result of age.
This meant that Nel with without a doubt incomparably stronger to his
previous self that was already capable of beating Martial Apprentices with
ease.
"He just might be the strongest of us all." Rui realized.
The difficulty of being chosen as the representative of the Academy had risen
tremendously!
Chapter 189 Incredible Feat
Still, Rui wasn't afraid. He had grown tremendously stronger in the nearly
two years he had joined that Academy as well. It was a universal fact that Rui
had gained the most amount of power since in the nearly two years since they
joined. Not a single student of the Martial Academy could match his growth
rate! Especially not Nel, who had taken a whole two years to accomplish
what Rui had accomplished in two months.
Did this necessarily mean that Nel was weaker?
No, it did not.
Nel had started out far stronger than anybody else, even if Rui grew stronger
much, much faster, he had started out from a much, much weaker place. It
would depend on whether or not Rui's astronomical growth was enough to
close the astronomical gap.
Rui shook his head.
,m Speculation didn't matter. Neither did theorizing and conjecture.
Reality would soon demonstrate the truth, and Rui would be able to find out
for himself whether he was stronger than Nel, or weaker.
Currently, his three biggest threats were Nel, Kane and Fae. Although there
were other strong Martial Artists, like the seniors from the batch before them.
Rui had sparred against them, and did not think they were in the top three
threats, still he did not dismiss them either.
Soon the matchups were announced. Since there were seventy-nine, one
student would be left out every time. But this didn't matter, because every
student will have faced every other student by the time the month ended.
Rui skimmed through the matchups, barely able to contain his excitement,
looking for his matchup.
He looked.
Looked some more.
And a little more.
But he couldn't find it.
('Wait, don't tell me...') Rui's eyes flew wide open. Could it be that his luck
was so horrible, that he would be the seventy-ninth person who didn't have an
opponent in the first person.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" He cursed, drawing attention.
Now he would have to contain his energy and sit watching while the others
fought!
"Wait." He paused. "Maybe that's not such a bad thing."
He got to observe the strongest Martial Artists, especially the top three that
he was wary of. Giving him a chance to grasp their prowess, and understand
how strong they had grown, maybe even gain data for the VOID algorithm.
He wasn't sure that it would make a meaningful difference, but it was better
than nothing. The others had already dispersed as their matchups and
assigned sparring rings had already been decided. He walked over taking a
seat at a place where he could observe Kane, Fae and Nel with equal amount
of ease.
('Maybe I should sit closer to Nel.') Rui though, reconsidering his decision.
He knew a lot about Fae and Kane, he even knew most of their techniques,
having spent two years with them. He also knew which technique Kane had
mastered in recent times. As for Fae, her mastery speed wasn't as high as his
own, in the span of four months she at most could have mastered one
powerful technique or maybe two low-grade techniques.
Regardless of which of the two it was, it was unlikely to make too much of a
difference.
In comparison to those two, he basically knew nothing about Nel. He had

seen Nel fight only once since he joined the Academy. That fight was so long
ago, any specific piece of information from back then was utterly irrelevant
to his current self.
He walked over to Nel's fight, keeping a close eye on their fight.
Nel had a savage aggressive aura. Ever since Rui had mastered Primordial
Instinct, he had been able to do more than just subconsciously evaluate
danger. Before, strong creatures and Martial Artists left an invisible pressure
on him. But now that he had mastered this technique, it was no longer
invisible.
He was able to see it, read it, interpret it. Nel very much gave him the
impression of a savage wild animal. He didn't know how a normal human
could possibly come to develop to have such a temperament, but it was truly
unlike anything else he had ever seen.
"Take your stance!" the supervisor of their match announced, drawing Rui's
attention.
Nel simply crouched, letting his arms dangle down, swaying loosely, an
expression of lazy arrogance covering his face. Rui frowned; this was the
same stance he had taken in his fight against Felix nearly two years ago, how
was it possible for his stance to remain unchanged?
Rui glanced at his opponent, the girl kept both of her hands low, as they
curved to the other side, all of her weight was on her left leg, which was in
front of her right leg.
('Kicking specialist.') Rui immediately concluded. Her positioning of the

arms were for generating as much torque for kicks. She'd placed all her
weight on one leg so that her other leg would always be free to launch kicks
immediately.
Rui also immediately concluded she was going to loose. Primordial Instinct
combined with a lifetime of experience and research into combat psychology
allowed him to evaluate his opponents far more accurately and precisely than
anybody else in his generation. Perhaps even in his Realm.
She was too weak to pose a threat to either Rui or Nel.
('Alright, let's see how overwhelmingly he beats her.') Rui narrowed his eyes
as he concentrated on their fight, he didn't want to miss anything.
"BEGIN." The supervisor commenced the fight.
The girl dashed towards Nel with a fierce expression. He body contorted as
she tried her best to put as much weight on the very first kick of the fight.
BAM
...
('Interesting...')
Nel had caught the attack with his bare hand. Such a feat required incredible
toughness and muscular strength, especially when done without an
Apprentice-level technique.
He grinned, lifting her by her leg over his head.
BOOM
He slammed her down into the ground from above with incredible force!
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
...
DROP
She had already fallen unconscious, and was bleeding profusely. Nel's
grinned had already faded, as bored lethargy overtook his demeanor. He
sighed, leaving the ring. His performance had left most onlookers stunned; he
had crushed a Martial Apprentice!
Even if his opponent was mediocre, it was still an incredible feat!
Rui couldn't help but a feel a grin cracking on his excited face at that sight.
Chapter 190 Fight Had Begun
It wasn't much, but it was enough.
"Strong..." Rui uttered, grinning with raised eyebrows. His power was just a
notch below Fae, his speed was a notch below Kane and his durability was a
notch below Dalen.
('He's this strong without even having mastered any Apprentice-level

techniques.') Rui was shocked. His physical body possessed such high natural
attributes that it was like he was using Apprentice-level techniques
permanently.
Rui realized he probably hadn't spent much time in the physical foundation
stage at all. His physicals were as solid as anyone could ever hope they would
be. He likely spent a lot of time in the Exploration Stage looking for his
Martial Path.
Rui wasn't sure he could beat him. He could try to compare his evaluation of
himself, but frankly, he didn't believe anyone's evaluation of themselves
could be trusted when the answer wasn't obvious.
He glanced back at Nel's retreating form before getting up and walking away.
The fight was over, he might as well go observe other fighters.
Just as Rui was about head to Kane's fight, a voice beckoned him;
"Apprentice Quarrier." A staff member called out to him. "Your first fight
has been scheduled. Please come this way."
Rui did his best to contain his smirk, as he followed the staff as they guided
him to his first fight. Rui glanced at his opponent once they reached the
sparring ring.
('Gale Minskow.') He mused with a raised eyebrow.
Gale was the oldest Martial Apprentice of the Academy, and had spent one of
the longest periods training in the Academy. He was a senior Martial
Apprentice that everybody knew.
He was also one of the strongest Martial Apprentices before Rui's batch had
joined the Academy. There was no doubt that he was in the upper echelons of
the Martial Apprentices of the Academy.
"Rui Quarrier." He said addressed Rui once he had gotten onto the ring. "Let
me give you a piece of advice. Resign now and you won't suffer much pain."
He was also very arrogant. His sense of superiority came from the fact that he
had been in the Martial Apprentice Realm for far longer than Rui had.
Although Rui's meteoric growth was well-known in the Martial Academy, he
believed Rui was far too young and immature to challenge him.
"Your talent has earned my admiration and envy." Gale said solemnly. "But
unfortunately, you are still far too young to challenge me. Perhaps if you had
another two years. No no, if you had another three years would be able to
beat me as I am right now. But currently I am certainly destined to be the
representative of our Academy. So therefore I strongly advise you to-"
"Shut up."
Gale froze instinctively.
His eyes widened as he looked into Rui's eyes.
And they looked back into his.
They were pitch-black, sucking the very light out of the world greedily.
He felt naked.
Transparent.
Invisible.
They weren't looking at him.
No.
They were looking far beyond him.
A stone. A stepping stone. That was all he was reduced to.
All his years of dedication, discipline and perseverance. A stepping stone in

the Martial Path of Rui Quarrier.
"Take your stances!" The supervisor broke Gale out of his reverie.
"Y-You..." Gale stuttered.
In just a few moments.
With just a few words.
With nothing but his gaze, Rui had crushed his confidence. Gale gritted his
teeth as he felt boundless weight pressing down on him from Rui's singular
concentration.
"Just how strong are you?"
Gale didn't understand. What separated him from the boy before him? Why
wasn't he also... special?
"How strong am I?" Rui echoed softly, as the gentlest of smiles arose from
his mouth as he pondered for a moment.
"Well, hopefully a little less weak than I used to be."
There wasn't a shred of arrogance in his voice. Only sincere earnesty. Gale
could feel it. He truly believed every single one of those words.
Had one stared at those words written on a piece of paper, one would
conclude they were ordinary.
Yet, they struck Gale harder than any attack from Rui ever could.
One moment, Rui had driven his mind into turmoil.
And yet, the very next moment Rui pulled him out of it.
A little less weak than he used to be.
Gale felt a sense of peace he hadn't experienced in a long time. He had long
grown insecure about his paltry growth rate compared to his peers, most of
whom had surpassed him by leaps and bounds. He had always wondered why
he was weak, why he had to struggle for six years to obtain what other had in
less than two. The arrogance and ego he projected were merely to hide this
vulnerability in his psyche.
Yet here came this boy who shattered it in an instant.
"Yes... I see." He adopted his stance.
A little less weak than he used to be.
"That's right. I hope I'm a little less weak than I used to be too!"
It didn't matter if he was slower than his peers. It didn't matter if they raced
ahead while he traversed forward step-by-step. Nothing mattered.
Not as long as he kept pushing forward. Not as long as he continued growing

less and less weak than he used to be, to the best of his ability.
If this young man who raced down his Martial Path faster than everybody
else could abandon sight of everybody else's Path and experience genuine
satisfaction at being less weak than he used to be.
Then so could Gale.
('Yes, I can.')
In that very moment, after what felt like an eternity, he felt he had gotten
stronger. Breaking past a shackle he didn't even know was chaining him
down!
He exhaled, opening his eyes to meet Rui's, shining with gratitude.
Rui's head tilted slightly, intrigued at the change in his demeanor. "Well then,
let's both continue growing less and less weak than we used to be." He said,
chuckling.
The two solidified their stances, waiting for the fight to commence.
"Begin!" The supervisor commenced the fight.
WHOOSH
The two of them dashed towards each other.
The fight had begun.

Chapter 191 Less And Less
The two dashed towards each other.
('I'm faster.') Rui realized.
Yet despite this, Gale's strike reached first.
WHOOSH
Rui dodged the strike.
Gale continued dishing an onslaught of strikes and Rui avoided all of them
cleanly. Ever since he mastered Primordial Instinct, his timing had grown
much sharper and more accurate. Its synergy with the VOID algorithm was
truly impressive.
Gale didn't stop, his strikes were straight forward and had a huge range. He
launched all of them from outside Rui's striking range, so Rui wasn't able to
do much.
('He's a long-range striking specialist.') Rui realized. Each strike had a huge
reach, and he launched them in a way that deliberately prevented Rui from
reaching close enough to launch his own attacks.
Rui keenly observed this before making a decision, he stopped avoiding Gale
and instead dashed against him once more.
A flash of surprise morphed into Gale's expression as he quickly launched a

straight jab at Rui, growing even more surprised when he saw Rui didn't
avoid them, and instead ran into it even faster. Just as the strike was about to
hit Rui
WHOOSH
Rui disappeared.
('A feint!') Gale realized.
BAM
A meteoric impact struck him!
Rui had feinted with Phantom Step to draw his strike away while
simultaneously using Flowing Canon once he reached striking range.
The combined power of Flowing Canon, Outer Convergence, Parallel Walk

and Balanced Direction had crashed into Gale, leaving him reeling. He just
barely managed to throw up a guard as Rui pummeled him with short range
blows boosted with the power of Outer Convergence and Vital Pressure.
Gale leaped back, grimacing.
Yet Rui wasn't kind enough to let him recuperate and regain his bearings, he
rushed in. Gale panicked when he saw Rui dashing in, feeling an immense
amount of mental pressure from Rui's Martial Path.
He threw a cautious strike at Rui, expecting another feint. This time he was a
bit more prepared, he didn't want to be caught off-guard yet again.
Yet Rui didn't dodge or feint.
CLASP
He let the strike hit him, moving with it to reduce the impact while
simultaneously grasping Gale's arm with all four limbs.
The Binding Lash technique.
In this situation, the VOID algorithm outputted a grapple counter as the most
apt way of defeating Gale, dragging outside the realm of striking which is
where his specialty lied. In the domain of grappling, Rui had a clear
undeniable advantage.
CRACK
"ARGH!" Gale grimaced in pain as Rui managed to cleanly dislocate his arm.
The Binding Lash technique allowed the user to dislocate and break arms as
long as the timing was perfect and the physicality gap wasn't too much.
Both of these conditions were satisfied.
The Primordial Instinct technique had improved not just his defense but
counter-offense as well, allowing him to increase the accuracy of his timing
immensely. The VOID algorithm allowed him to consciously and actively
analyze, evaluate and make a decision, while the Primordial Instinct
technique allowed him to execute the decision with great accuracy.
Gale was physically stronger by virtue of being much older, but Rui had
nailed the timing too well, that shoulder's fate was already sealed.
Despite the excruciating pain he felt, Gale did give up, struggling with
everything he had. Despite the advantageous position Rui had, he didn't give
up and ruthless pressed and twisted the already dislocated joint, causing
unimaginable agony to Gale.
He had no qualms about inflicting pain and damage to Gale, had this been on
Earth, this might have been a career ending injury, but in the world of Gaea,
within the Martial Art, this wasn't much of a big deal. Healing potions
ensured that Gale would make a fully recovery.
Gale tapped Rui's arm three times, indicating his resignation. The pain was
far too excruciating and even if Gale somehow broke through, he had no
chance of winning with a mangled shoulder joint.
Rui immediately loosened his grip with a sigh of relief. He did not enjoy the
act of inflicting pain on others. He carefully let go of Gale's arm, not wanting
hurt him any further.
"Fuuu..." Gale exhaled deeply, getting up slowly, before throwing a bitter

smile at Rui. "You're truly strong."
He meant it.
Between the shackling pressure that Rui was putting on him mentally the
entire fight along with the perfect fight that he'd displayed from start to
finish. Rui had shown him just how big the gap between them was. Gale had
spent a long time in the Academy, and even with his mediocre growth, he had
come to accumulate more power than most Apprentices in the Academy
currently. But Rui still beat him cleanly, while holding back too, Gale was
sure.
"Good fight man." Rui offered a hand to Gale's good hand. "You're strong
too."
"Good luck." Gale said, now that he had lost to Rui this cleanly, even if he
won every other fight, he almost would not be chosen as the representative of
the Academy. "I haven't given up yet though. On becoming the
representative, or becoming stronger."
Rui smiled. "That makes two of us."
Rui bade him good luck and farewell as he left him to get medical treatment
for his injury.
"Good fight." Kane said to him. "Pretty clean sweep."
"Thanks." Rui replied. "How did your first fight go?"
"Easy win." Kane replied simply. Rui wasn't surprised, at this point there
were two or three people at the very most who could possibly pull off a win
against Kane in his current state.
BOOM
A minor tremor reverberated across the entirety of the facility
Rui and Kane immediately glanced over at the source of the impact.
Fae.
She was standing at the center of the ring with an outstretched arm with an
open palm.
A dozen meters away in the direction her palm was facing was her opponent,
knocked unconscious with a palm shaped crater in his chest.
A single attack with untold power.
"He's not dead, is he?" Rui asked as he looked at her poor opponent in worry,
before glancing back at Fae with a wry smile. "Seems like everybody is
getting less and less weak than they used to be."
He couldn't wait to fight everyone!

Chapter 192 Spectation
Fae had grown immensely in power in the time that she had joined the
Academy. Rui did not forget that even two years ago she was able to compete
with Nel on roughly equal footing. She had grown vastly stronger than she
was two years ago. That fact along with the ridiculous power she had
demonstrated just then truly made Rui excited to fight her once more.
Part of the reason was that he had never actually beaten her in a fight yet.
Thought that was also further because they hadn't had a serious proper spar in
recent times. After Rui's third training stage, where he had mastered Outer
Convergence, he had immediately begun under taking missions and when he
returned, he had immediately jumped back into training for the Kandrian
Martial Festival and the Martial Contest.
He simply didn't have an opportunity to spar against her.
('I'll get my first win against her this time.') Rui was determined to win
whenever they fought against each other in the preliminary contest, whenever
that happened.
"Let's watch Dalen's fight with Milliana." Kane said, drawing his attention.
"Oh?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "They got paired against each other? What
odds."
"Yeah."
Dalen was a heavy defensive type, he was capable of enduring an immense

amount of onslaught, and was one of the very few Martial Apprentices in the
Academy that could endure Fae's onslaught head-on.
In comparison, Milliana was a stamina-oriented Martial Artist, whose

fighting style was centered around outlasting her opponent.
('Not a good matchup.') Rui mused to himself.
They were both passive fighters for the most part, this would usually lead to
a slow long fight.
As they reached the ring, what Rui had predicted came to pass. The two of
tehm were having a staring contest instead of an actual fight.
"As expected." Rui sighed.
He couldn't blame them for this, they were only being true to their Martial
Art. And neither of them launched belligerent attacks.
Eventually Dalen shuffled and began throwing a few jabs. The problem was,
he needed to take initiative because if they just kept staring at each other, she
would win simply by outlasting him, even when standing.
Someone who dedicated themselves to stamina would be able to complete

every action with the least amount of energy needed.
This is why Dalen had to break character and attack. Even if he was a
defensive Martial Artist, he needed to attack. With his sheer size, it was
guaranteed he would tire faster than she did, he needed to exercise some
flexibility. Even if he didn't launch a belligerent offensive attack like Fae did,
he at the very least could not allow a standstill stalemate.
He constantly engaged in an exchange of blows, forcing Milliana to atleast

engage with him, giving him an opportunity to potentially win the fight.
"This is going to take a long time." Rui sighed. The matches of the
preliminary contest didn't have a time limit. This was because time limits
affected certain Martial Art more than others, and negatively affected several
Martial Artists.
Milliana alone was a good example.
Victory would be nigh-impossible for her in a tournament with a half-an-hour

time limit. She would be able to beat no one asides from the weakest of
Martial Apprentices. This was extremely unfair towards her, and thus the
rules would not restrict the time period of fights.
Rui estimated that Dalen's fight against her would take at the very least
quarter of a day to end. As for who would win, he found it hard to say. They
were both close enough that the probability for either side winning wasn't
extremely high or low. It would come down to the specifics and how the fight
actually unfolded.
As he observed them clash, he could see both of them had improved.
Dalen had diversified his Martial Art a little, he had always been exclusive
defense. Up until recently, he had had only one foundational technique for
the other fields such as offense, maneuvering, supplementary and grappling
etc.
His offense being the weakest, up until very recently he had nothing going
for offense asides from Vital Pressure. The most foundational striking
technique in the entire library
This wasn't particularly his fault. Only Rui was a freak who could master a
whopping seventeen techniques in eighteen months. Everyone else would
only be able be able to master four-to-five mid-grade techniques on average
in that same timeframe.
It had taken him a few years build his foundation, to have a defense technique
for a large variety of attacks, to ensure that he would be able to defend
against as many possible types of attacks and increase the probability he
would be able to cope with them just fine.
Only after he built this foundation had he decided to dedicate some time and
energy mastering techniques of other fields and classes.
Milliana on the hand was the exact opposite. She was already diverse from
the very beginning, as far as her weightage on the different aspects of
combat. She did not place any extra weight on offense, defense or
maneuvering. She placed all her weight on supplementary techniques,
specifically; stamina supplementary techniques.
While Rui only had one stamina supplementary technique in Helical

Breathing, she had seven. Seven techniques that all boosted her energy
reserves, efficiency and longevity as much as possible. When it came to
stamina, she was utter unmatched by any other Martial Apprentice in the
Academy, probably even Nel, at this point in time.
Nel did not have a single stamina-oriented Apprentice-level technique, and

even though his stamina was initially superior and had likely grown due to
age, the astronomical boost that Apprentice-level techniques caused could not
be underestimated.
Her energy reserves, efficiency and minimalization had long caused her
overall stamina to surpass the human limit by leaps and bounds.
Ultimately, whichever one was able to leverage their strengths to the best of
their abilities, while mitigating their shortcomings to the best of their abilities
would win the fight.
Chapter 193 Good Fight
POW POW POW
Dalen threw a flurry of jabs at Milliana, which she simply blocked by putting
together guard.
WHOOSH
She dodged an incoming kick, before once again blocking a few more jabs.
POW POW POW
She didn't attack much, a decision Rui approved.
Dalen's defensive prowess was in the top three within the Academy.
With a six-foot tall gargantuan frame, with heavy bones and muscles, along
with eight defense-oriented techniques, he was a sheer tank. Hurting him was
an incredibly difficult task. As far as purely the ability to withstand offense
went, only Fae and maybe a few others could inflict meaningful damage on
him head-on via ordinary attacks.
Someone like Milliana whose offensive measures weren't particularly

impressive, would not be able to inflict so much as a scratch on him unless
she somehow managed to land her strongest attack on his eyes or another
spot that was equally vulnerable.
She had a much higher chance of winning if she simply chose to wait for him
to burn himself out.
What Rui found interesting was the manner in which she handled his attacks.
Each defense she chose was the most apt as far as efficiency went.
She blocked quick swift jabs because their speed and number made them
harder to dodge, she would need to expend more energy. Furthermore, jabs
lacked power in exchange for their swiftness.
She dodged more powerful strikes like kicks and heavy swings. These
usually required a higher timeframe to land compared to speedy jabs.
This was because they usually were thrown from a greater distance away in
order to build up momentum and torque.
She had to find the right balance between what amount of damage was worth
spending the energy to dodge instead of block.
She needed to find the exact threshold in order to maximize efficiency to last
as long as possible. He wasn't sure if she was entirely accurate, but she
seemed to be doing a good job for the most part. It was an ambitious goal,
after all. Being one hundred-percent accurate was a tall order and one that
Rui was certain he wouldn't be able to fulfill.
WHOOSH
Dalen lunged for takedown which Milliana chose to avoid.
This was another decision that Rui approved from both of them. As a male
and particularly big and strong one, Dalen had a significant physicality
advantage against Milliana. Physicality mattered much more in grappling
than it did in striking.
Furthermore, grappling was extremely energy intensive. It depleted stamina

much more quickly than striking did and was aligned against Milliana's
Martial Art of stamina conservation.
If she did choose to grapple, there was no doubt she would be severely
disadvantaged.
Furthermore, Dalen's grappling defense was no doubt going to be impressive.

Milliana's chances of being able to grapple a victory was just extremely low.
She would probably lose every quickly if the battle went to the ground and
turned into a grappling contest
Which is why it was a good deal for Dalen to try and grapple.
WHOOSH
He tried for another takedown, which Milliana avoided yet again.
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
Kane frowned. "Why is he trying so hard when she's clearly too careful?"
"A grapple is his best way to win." Rui replied.
"Only if it lands, right?" Kane asked.
"Yes, but it also forces Milliana to expend serious energy to avoid him." Rui
explained. "She knows the fight will end if the battle turns into a grapple. She
needs to avoid it at all costs, but one of those costs is being more energy
intensive."
Kane nodded as he observed her evasion technique. As an evasive

maneuverer specialist, he could see that she was expending a lot of energy as
she avoided the shoots from Dalen. "Her evasion definitely is energy
intensive. I can tell she doesn't have much experience in high-energy evasion
at all. She also hasn't mastered any Apprentice-level techniques specialized in
that regard."
"Makes sense." Rui nodded. Kane's insight in regards to the analysis of her
evasion was definitely helpful as an expert in that regard. "What do you think
she could be doing better?"
"She's moving too early, her timing is off." Kane explained. "That doesn't
help, because if you move too early, then your opponent would just delay the
attack, that's why I always move at the earliest moment when it's too late for
my opponent to cancel the attack. Still, her timing is honestly awful."
"She's paranoid." Rui explained, observing her with Primordial Instinct.

"She's overcompensating, but that isn't the worst part."
"Then what is?" Kane raised an eye.
"At this rate, she'll end up burning more energy than Dalen is." Rui answered.
"Hmmm.." Kane narrowed his eyes as he observed their movements. "You

would think she would have a countermeasure for grappling."
"Evasion is her countermeasure." Rui noted. "Problem is, Dalen has a huge
wingspan because of how big he is. He doesn't need to expend much energy
to reach her, but she does need to expend energy to avoid it. Her paranoia
plus Dalen's huge reach are what's screwing over her game plan."
They both continued observing the fight.
Dalen had also realized that his only way to win was through grappling.
Milliana began sweating more and more. Dalen needed only to employ his
size and wingspan to threaten cornering and grappling her, whereas she
needed to spend energy retreating and circling away from him.
Although she had many stamina-oriented techniques, they were meant for
different situations. A good portion of her stamina-oriented techniques were
for offense, another good chunk were for parrying, one of them was for a
different environment and that left only a few for maneuvering. Meaning a lot
of her techniques weren't doing her much help in this particular regard.
They were both burning a lot of energy, but eventually, she made a mistake.
CLASP
Dalen managed to get just the slightest grip on her, and that was enough.
They wrangled on the ground, while Dalen exploited his physicality

advantage to the maximum while also employing his grappling defense
techniques to counter locks and holds.
And within five minutes, she tapped.
Rui had already expected this result, and was only waited for the inevitable to
occur.
"Good fight." Rui nodded.

Chapter 194 Kane
"Cheer up." Fae said. "You did a good job."
Dalen nodded. "It was a hard fight. If I hadn't gotten you by the end, you had
a solid chance of winning."
Milliana sighed mildly, nodding slightly. She wasn't very expressive, but
everyone could see she was dejected by her very first match resulting in a
loss.
"The best part is that you can make improvements rather easily, just by
shifting your tactics a little." Rui told her, trying to encourage her.
The fight had ended, and all five of them had gathered after their first fight.
Just as Kane was about to try and console her, a voice interrupted him.
"Apprentice Kane Arrancar." A staff member addressed. "Your second

official match is ready."
Kane's expression drooped, as he nodded wordlessly. "I'll catch you guys

after."
They all bade him good luck, before heading to his ring. Kane had finished
his fight earlier than all of them, thus it made sense that he was assigned a
fight sooner than all of them, especially, he was assigned his first fight the
latest.
"His opponent..." Rui glanced at the boy, recognizing him instantly. "Gale!"
What odds. What was probability that Gale would get matched up with Kane
immediately after Rui?
('What terrible luck, too.') Rui thought. He knew Gale's strength as well as
Kane's prowess well enough to know Gale had almost no chance of beating
Kane.
"Looking forward to a good fight." Gale took his stance, as stance that
allowed him to launch ranged blows with the greatest of ease.
"Yeah." Kane impassively replied, before taking an even balanced stance that
allowed him maneuver with the greatest of ease.
"Begin!" The supervisor commenced the match.
And that was when it happened.
Kane disappeared.
He didn't run.
He didn't bob and weave.
He didn't dance around his opponent like he normally would.
He simply and irreconcilably, disappeared.
Fae, Milliana and Dalen were shocked.
"Where did he go?!"
"What kind of technique allows for such absurdity?!"
"...!!" Even the impassive Milliana expressed visible incredulity.
Rui on the other hand, wasn't even watching.
Or to be more precise, he wasn't watching with his eyes. He had wordlessly

closed his eyes the second Kane disappeared from his vision.
He had immediately maximized Primordial Instinct and Seismic Mapping.
The Void Step technique applied psychological tricks to minimize one's

presence, as well as maneuvering-based misdirection techniques to draw the
target's attention away from the user subconsciously whenever the user began
moving.
It was truly absurdly powerful technique when mastered since it meant you
were effectively invisible when you moved, and it was an absurdly difficult
technique that made you extremely difficult to deal with when mastered.
The reason Rui shut off his vision was because he knew he would not be able
to sense Kane at all with his normal senses, the misdirection was too strong
and Rui had not trained in any anti-misdirection defensive measures, nor his
normal senses to a superhuman level with sensory techniques.
But he had honed two new senses in the form of Seismic Mapping and
Primordial Instinct.
He had primarily wanted to test how effective they were at combating the
Primordial Instinct technique.
Up in the ring, ten seconds had passed since the fight had begun. To the
ordinary observer, Gale was merely getting pummeled by an invisible force.
One could only see Kane momentarily appear when he paused briefly after
smoothly evading Gale's haymakers.
His friends continued gaping at the sight.
Rui on the other hand, was still motionless with his eyes closed.
"Incredible..." He finally muttered.
He wasn't able to precisely sense Kane's attacks.
He wasn't even able to precisely sense Kane's exact position.
The only thing he could properly sense was the direction Kane was in, and an
extremely vague and unclear sense of distance.
That was all.
It was like watching a censored video. Asides from direction, everything else
was almost entirely unclear!
He was truly shocked that Void Step were able to obfuscate Kane to such an
incredible degree against two roughly high-grade sensory techniques. Seismic
Mapping was above average, while Primordial Instinct was a thorough and
unshakably high-grade technique. Seismic Mapping had huge range,
environmental mapping capabilities as well as object detection while
Primordial Instinct had given him extremely heightened instinctual senses
and evaluation as well as predictive measures. Together these two techniques
should have ensured nothing could possibly obfuscate his senses.
Yet both of these techniques combined were barely able to make a dent
against the Void Step technique!
('Thank god I mastered these two techniques.') Rui mused. He would have
been utterly screwed had he not mastered them. Kane would have thoroughly
bullied him from start to finish.
BAM
Gale collapsed to a swift kick to the chin, shaking his brain enough to cause
enough brain trauma to knock him unconscious.
Only half a minute had passed since the fight had begun, and it was already
over.
Rui opened his eyes with a wry smile only to find Kane throwing a pointed
meaningful look at him, before exiting the stage.
Even before Kane had actually exited the stage and reached them, they had
begun pestering him with question.
"What was that??"
"How did you do that!"

"Hey!" Calm down." Kane raised his arms, exasperated. "It's just a peak
grade technique, that's all."
Contrary to calming them down, it caused an even greater commotion.
"Congratulations Kane." Rui wished earnestly. Even though he knew Kane

didn't care for his victories in the contest and would rather lose, Rui still
believed he ought to be proud of his accomplishments.
"Thanks." Kane replied, before returning to pacifying his over-excited

friends.
Meanwhile Rui simply smiled wryly as he pondered to himself.
('Alright now...') He thought to himself.
('How the fuck am I going to deal with that?')
He wasn't entirely sure about how he was going to deal with Kane's
newfound prowess. But, he did have a few ideas.
('We'll see if they're good enough when the time comes.') He mused.
Chapter 195 Right In Front Of You
Rui needed to create some concrete countermeasures against the Void Step
technique, but so far all he had were scraps of ideas.
('The biggest threat of the Void Step technique comes from its ability to
bypass defense first, allowing the user to launch lethal attacks, and the second
most annoying part about is the fact that it's exceedingly difficult to harm the
user because they cannot be perceived.')
Rui needed a solution for both of these problems.
('Thankfully, Kane's offense is mediocre at best.') Rui sighed in relief. Kane

spent most of his time on maneuvering techniques centered around evasion,
agility and speed. His offense was nowhere near as solid as his evasive
maneuvering. He also didn't have any high-grade lethal techniques like the
Stinger, nor did he have any high-grade potent offensive techniques like
Outer Convergence.
He had a much harder time mastering techniques that were not maneuvering
or evasive in nature, since that was where his talent and affinity lied. This
was also proven by how long he took to beat Gale, if he had a technique like
Stinger, the match would have ended in seconds.
What this actually meant was that even if he could make it much more
difficult for Rui to defend, it would still take him some amount of time to
beat Rui, especially when Rui's defense was as solid as it was.
"What are you so engrossed about?" Kane asked, noticing Rui had zoned out
of their discussion.
"Just thinking about how I'm going to fight you." Rui replied. "You've grown
incredibly strong Kane."
"You'll figure it out." Kane shrugged, before smirking. "Probably. Maybe.

Well, we'll see."
"You sure have faith in me." Rui grumbled grumpily, earning a mischievious
chuckle from Kane.
"Don't worry." Fae interjected. "Even if Rui fails, I'll be sure to pummel you
to the ground. You can thank me later."
Rui sighed as the two of them immediately began arguing and trash-talking
each other again. Just as he was about to resume his brainstorming session on
how to beat Kane, a voice drew his attention.
"Fae Dullahan." A staff member called to her. "You second match has been
scheduled."
"My, it's that time already." Fae mused, before nodding. "Catch you later."
The four of them immediately head to witness her match. Fae was a real
contender and candidate for the representative position, and everyone wanted
to see how strong she'd grown.
"Her opponent..." Rui murmured recognizing her.
"Tarah Meinfold." Dalen supplied. "She's a senior Martial Apprentice of the

Academy, a strong counter-offensive specialist."
Rui immediately thought about Neira, who was also a counter-offensive

specialist.
('She'd probably do well in this setting.') Rui mused.
Fae took her standard stance, with one upside-down palm at her waist and her
other palm pointed straight at Tarah, with her legs spread and crouched.
Farah brought both palms in front of her at chest-level, with one foot forward
and the other back.
"A non-offensive stance." Rui noted. "She can't easily launch a single attack
worth anything in that stance. That's stance meant to intercept incoming
attacks."
"Makes sense." Dalen nodded.
"Will she be able to intercept Fae's attacks though?" Kane wondered out
aloud.
All of them could feel the coiling power in Fae's frame, especially Rui. The
sheer amount of potential energy in her muscles was tingling and prickling
Rui's Primordial Instinct.
"We'll see." Rui said open-mindedly. He didn't think it was really possible,
but decided to reserve his judgement.
Counter-offensive specialists could be quite tricky, because their battles were

inherently asymmetric and soft.
What this meant was that they used a combination of their own energy as
well as their opponent's energy against them.
BOOM
Fae dashed at Tarah, the force of her leap, sent a mild reverberation across
the ring. Just as she reached Tarah, the coiled palm tucked at her waist lashed
out like a viper. It was an incredibly powerful blow that even Rui did not
think he would be able to endure very well even with all three of his
techniques.
FHWOOP
Tarah's arms stretched, reaching for Fae's palm. But she did not strike or push
against it, nor did she try to block or stop it. Instead, she pulled it in,
manipulating the trajectory of her palm while also partially side-stepping.
WHOOSH
Fae's body twisted midair, rotating as she summersaulted, landing on the

other side of the ring.
"Woah." Kane raised an eyebrow. "What the hell was that."
"Redirection." Rui replied, as he scrutinized Tarah's form. "Counter-offensive

redirection, specifically."
"What does that even mean?" Kane tilted his head confused.
"She used Fae's momentum against her." Rui explained. "She redirected a bit
of her momentum and energy and used it to try and throw Fae to flip and
throw Fae down to the ground in a grappling maneuver. But she failed, she
underestimated Fae's sense of balance as well as her exquisite control over
her power."
"Hmmm..." Kane narrowed his eyes as he digested what Rui told him.
"Fae's improved. A lot" Rui nodded. "When she joined the Academy, her
style was still full of holes. But she's improved all round. Furthermore, she's
mastered some high-grade offensive techniques and her power has since
skyrocketed. She's going to be a menace to beat. But..."
"But?" Kane asked.
"But Tarah is extremely compatible with her." Rui sighed. "A bit unfortunate
for Fae, but Tarah is probably one of three or four Martial Apprentices in the
Academy who can handle Fae's power head-on. She specializes in using her
opponents' power against her after all."
"Do you think Fae will win?" Kane asked.
"She can if she chooses the right course of action." Rui replied. "For now, all
we can do is watch and see whether she does.
Their attention returned to the fight. Fae had not yet resumed her attack. She
was merely shuffling around, testing Tarah's reactions to feints.
('She's calm and composed.') Rui nodded approvingly. ('She's taking her time
to think this through because she knows she can. Tarah is a counter-offensive
specialist, which means Fae inherently has the initiative.')
('The answer is right in front of you, I'm sure you can find it.')
*****
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Chapter 196 Cards
Fae resumed her offense, launching yet another heavy blow.
FWHOOSH
Tarah redirected her energy yet again, flipping her with. Thankfully, Fae's
sense of balance and control over her power always allowed her to ensure she
landed on her feet each time.
('My most powerful attacks take too long to land.') Fae realized. ('It seems her
counter-offense needs great timing, which is easier to achieve with slower
attacks.')
Fae intuitively figured out one of the answers Rui was hoping she would. She
immediately stopped launching fearsome singular attacks and instead
launched a swift barrage of shorter palm attacks. These attacks contained less
power than her strongest full-body palm strikes, but they were much quicker
and she could launch a greater number of them than her most powerful
attacks.
Immediately, she noticed a difference.
Tarah resorted to redirecting them away, but she wasn't able to use Fae's
energy against her like she had.
"She's switched to defensive redirection." Rui said, having anticipated it.

"Redirection is delicate and requires a lot of precision, it won't be easy for her
to be able to redirect all of Fae's power when there's so many different attacks
all coming at her extremely swiftly."
"Doesn't seem like a capable technique." Kane commented. "She should stop
relying on it."
"Redirection can be quite powerful when mastered." Rui disagreed. "But the
problem is Fae's offense is just too strong. The greater the amount of power,
speed and number, the harder it is to defend via redirection alone."
Rui was sure that Tarah would be able to redirect most of his attacks head-on.
His offense was inferior to Fae's and she should have a much easier time than
she was having against Fae.
Of course, Rui wouldn't fight her the way Fae did head-on. Analyzing and
evaluating Tarah with the VOID algorithm yielded a pretty interesting
solution. The anti-Tarah fighting style that the VOID algorithm developed
relied on Rui abusing his Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction, Blink and
Phantom Step together to launch tricky attacks, through holes in her defense
that Rui had picked up via the VOID algorithm, that she would have trouble
intercepting.
Counter-offensive required the user to intercept offense at the right timing, to

perform whatever counter-offensive maneuver the user would perform, but
the interception was the most important part of counter-offensive Martial Art
techniques.
Drastically raising the difficulty to intercept was the greatest way Rui could
hinder her.
He would launch a large number of weaker but quicker attacks like Fae did,
but he wouldn't launch them head-on but instead would use his maneuvering
and stealth to launch unpredictable and difficult tricky attacks.
He would eventually end the battle with a takedown via Mirage Dive or
pierce her with the Stinger.
That was just him, of course. Furthermore, he had already resolved to hold
back his more potent trump cards for important fights, and preferably win
without them so that the surprise affect was maximized whenever he faced
future opponents within the Academy.
Fae launched a curling palm strike.

FLICK
Tarah failed to redirect a strike fully for the time, the palm bypassed her
interceptions and struck her cheek, bruising it.
POW POW POW
Fae pressed upon the opening launching a flurry of strikes.
Tarah grew more and more flustered as never-ending waves of powerful

blows washed over her.
Although Fae considered these shorter swifter blows to be weak, that was by
her standards.
By everyone else's standards, they were still incredibly strong.
BOOM
Just the slightest of slip-ups from Tarah and Fae exploited the opening to
launch a heavy blow, the sheer impact blew the air out of Tarah's lungs,
leaving her even more open.
BAM BAM BAM
Fae abused the gaping holes in Tara's defense, pounding her as much as she
could.
BOOM
CRASH
A final close-range wound-up strike landed against Tarah's hastily construed

guard, sending her crashing out of the ring.
Fae sighed.
"She won." Rui grinned.

"And she sent her opponent flying out again." Kane grumbled. "Can she just
not win in a sane way?"
"It's part of her Martial Art." Rui shrugged laughing. "You can't hold that
against her."
"Hold what against me?" Fae's voice suddenly appeared behind them.
"Holy fuck!" Kane jumped away. "Stop creeping on people woman!"
"My, that exaggerated reaction." Fae said with a hint of suspicion creeping
into her tone. "What did you say to Rui?"
"Nothing at all." He shrugged nonchalantly.
He played it cool as she stared at him with sharp eyes. Rui shook his head
with a wry smile.
"Congratulations." Dalen said. "Your offense is as absurd as always. I look

forward to testing my defense against it."
"Nice win." Milliana nodded.
"Good tactic you employed there." Rui offered. "Your fighting approach has
grown a lot more flexible since before."
"I realized I was too rigid a year ago." Fae replied. "Ever since then I've put a
lot of weight into improving my flexibility and versatility."
Rui nodded. Fae was definitely in the top three threats, this was reaffirmed.
Now that he had seen all three of the Martial Apprentices he considered to be
the hardest to beat fight, he needed to start thinking about how he was going
to deal with them.
Although he would have liked to have obtained more data, it was best to have
some plans anyway. After all, he may not have that luxury.
It was very possible he would get paired up against one of them in the next
few rounds, he didn't want to be unprepared for when that happened.
('I don't think I can hold back against any of them.') He sighed inwardly. His
plan was to hide Blink and Stinger as his trump cards for as long as possible.
But the strength these three had displayed was now causing him second
thoughts. These two trump cards might be the only way he could possibly
beat them, holding back was extremely risky. If he ran into them, he would
use them whenever necessary.
Although he would be revealing all his cards, that was still better than losing.
Chapter 197 Second Match
As Rui pondered about the solutions he would need to develop against Fae,
Kane and Nel, a voice called out to him.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier." A staff member addressed. "Your second match

has been arranged. Please follow me."
Rui nodded, turning to the others. "Catch you guys later."
They bade him farewell and good luck, before heading to his match to
spectate. Rui was on their list of greatest threats in the Academy, and none of
them wanted to miss seeing how strong he'd gotten. Only Kane had caught
the latter half of his first fight having finished early, the rest were still
fighting.
Rui glanced at his opponent, recognizing him. "Gheelain Marckle, it's been a
while."
"Rui Quarrier." He nodded. "Today is the day I beat you."
Gheelain was a senior Martial Apprentice that Rui had run into many times.
He was a grappling specialist, specifically, a strangling specialist.
He excelled at restricting the blood flow and breathing of his opponents when
grappling with them. Rui immediately applied the VOID algorithm and
subsequently began thinking about how to adapt to and defeat him. The
answer of course, was the same as in the past.
The first principle his adaptatively evolved fighting style would need to have
was maintaining distance. The intrinsic weakness of grapplers were that they
had a short range outside of which they were unable to attack their opponent
with grappling.
Thus, the first trait that the adapted fighting style that the VOID algorithm
would create was being a long-range fighting style.
The second trait it needed to possess was difficulty in intercepting. As a

grappler, Gheelain possessed anti-striking countermeasures without a doubt.
The most common countermeasures were intercepting and grasping strikes
forcibly turning the battle into a grappling contest.
Thus, Rui needed to increase the swiftness and agility of the strikes to make it
harder for it to be intercepted, at the cost of power.
This strategy was what Fae had used, the difference here was that Tarah was
purely counter-offensive whereas Gheelain was an aggressive offensive
grappler, making it much harder to avoid playing onto his opponent's playing
field.
The third trait his adapted style needed to have was evasive maneuvering
capabilities. Gheelain was prone to chasing after him and try and use
shooting maneuvers to take him down. Shooting maneuvers were essentially
charging bullrushes aimed at grabbing one's target for a takedown or a throw.
His adapted style would need to use Primordial Instinct, Balanced Direction,
Parallel Walk and Phantom Step to avoid pursuit and ensure that Gheelain
wouldn't be able to get a hold of him.
The fourth trait his adapted style needed to have was a stamina advantage. If
the fight would turn into a cat and mouse chase, then having a stamina
advantage was vital. Since Gheelain was a grappler, he could forgo some of
his striking defenses in order to conserve energy.
He could also reduce energy-intensive attacks, and focus on simpler low-risk

low-energy Vital Pressure attacks that would eventually allow him to win. He
ought to drastically cut down on Outer Convergence which was extremely
energy-intensive as well, and use it only when an opening presented itself.
Helical Breathing needed to be used continuously as well.
"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled as he constructed a fighting style that possessed all of

the traits that he and the VOID algorithm had created.
He adopted a new stance. Feet centered and shifting, heels off the ground and
hands close to the body. This was a stance that best catered to the four traits
his adapted style needed to possess.
Gheelain on the other, crouched with both elbows at his ribs and open-handed
arms that were looking an opportunity to grab and choke Rui. He intended to
dash after Rui the moment the match began.
DASH
WHOOSH
Gheelain executed a shoot maneuver, launching himself at Rui reaching out

to grab him, only to clutch at air. The Primordial Instinct technique ensured
that such simplistic maneuvers would never ever be able to tag him in a
million years.
DASH
He chased after Rui yet again, not willing to give up.
WHOOSH
Rui feinted him into grasping thin air.
POW POW
The briefest and quickest combo jabs with Vital Pressure, exploiting the
opening the failed shoot maneuver created, irritating Gheelain.
"He's not fighting like he normally does." Dalen noted, watching Rui. "It's
remarkable how often his fighting style changes, almost like he doesn't have a
fixed Martial Art or a Martial Path."
"That is his Martial Art and Path." Kane corrected. "He adapts and evolves
his fighting style to suit his opponent. We stick to a single style the moment
we become Martial Apprentices because that style is our greatest affinity, and
we would be extremely weak if we fought with a drastically different style.
But what is our weakness, is his strength. Being able to change styles
smoothly like flowing water is his greatest strength."
Kane gazed at Rui with intensely with sense of hope in his eyes. Rui had
already begun bullying a senior Martial Apprentice while holding back. Only
someone of this caliber could beat him as it currently stood.
WHOOSH
POW POW POW
WHOOSH
BAM
"Fuck!" Gheelain cursed in frustration, he raced in as fast as he could at Rui's

retreating sight.
That was his final mistake.
Rui's retreat itself had been a feint, he was actually standing still. But
Gheelain had timed the shoot for the feint, meaning his timing was off far too
early.
The last Gheelain remembered was sense of absolute dread as an immense

amount of pressure from Rui pressed down on his mind.
"Got you." Rui whispered.
BOOM
A combination of Flowing Canon, Vital Pressure and Outer COnvergence

crashed against Gheelain's solar plexus. Gheelain had timed the shoot
maneuver too late because he thought Rui was further away due to the feint.
And Rui had ruthlessly exploited the opening and blasted him with his most
powerful technique.
The combination of using Phantom Step to feint in a way that threw off the
timing of his opponent's attack while then exploiting that mis-timing to finish
the match with a pre-planned attack was a combo that Rui had created in that
very moment with the processes of the VOID algorithm.
Gheelain collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
"Winner; Rui Quarrier!" The supervisor declared.

Chapter 198 Musings
"Good fight man." Kane complimented. "That was clean."
"Thanks." Rui replied.
"Good application of Phantom Step." Kane noted. "I never thought about
using it like that."
"It was the fastest way to end the fight." Rui lied. If he truly wanted, he could
have ended the fight in ten seconds with either Blink or Stinger. But Gheelain
was too weak to force him to use it. He didn't mind taking longer to win,
what was three minutes versus ten seconds? It didn't make any significant
difference. In exchange, his trump cards weren't revealed.
As time passed, they all got assigned their third fight one-by-one. Dalen and
Milliana had fought only once, and they went onto fight two more times.
At the end of the day, out of all of them, only Rui, Kane and Fae got perfect
scores with three clean victories. Milliana won only once out of three times
and Dalen won two out of three in total.
The scoreboard was revealed by the end of the day, with all seventy-nine
contestants' scores ranked.
Out of seventy-nine contestants, only nineteen contestants had three wins and
zero losses, and about as many had three losses and zero wins.
The former nineteen roughly constituted the top twenty-five percent of the
Martial Apprentices of the Academy as far as combat prowess went, of
course there were some discrepancies where strong Martial Apprentices had
run into just a notch stronger Martial Apprentices in the very first round or
extremely incompatible Martial Apprentices against whom they had a
disadvantage against.
Most of the Martial Apprentices fell in the middle with both wins and losses.
p Rui glanced at the scoreboard and at the Martial Apprentices with three
wins and zero losses. He was quite sure that the victor of the preliminary
contest would go on to be elected. Whoever the victor was, this person could
not afford to lose a single battle.
As the days passed on, each Martial Apprentice fought roughly three battles a
day. The number of matches per day would reduce until it hit one match a
day by roughly around the end of month, by when most matches will have
been over.
As the days passed, Rui noticed a peculiar trend. Despite many days passing,
he hadn't faced any of the top-twenty contenders asides from Gale. In fact,
neither did Fae or Kane. They consistently faced the proportion of martial
Apprentices that had much more losses than wins. Rui hadn't run into Nel,
Fae and Kane yet.
('Could it be... they're trying to maximize suspense and energy of the event by
ensuring the most likely candidates don't battle it out from the get-go?') Rui
wondered.
The battle between the most likely candidates would likely decide which one
of them would become the representative of the Hajin branch. This was true
regardless of whether the Martial Artists fought in the beginning of the
preliminary contest or the end. Thus, postponing those battle to the very end
would undoubtedly create a much more tense and suspenseful preliminary
contest.
This wouldn't affect the end outcome either. At the end of the day, regardless
of the order, all martial Apprentices would fight against all other Martial
Apprentices. It did not matter who fought who when, at the end of the month,
the one with the highest score would be selected as the representative of their
Academy
He almost wanted to laugh. Headmaster Aronian sure knew how to keep

himself entertained. How else was the old man going to stave away his
boredom? He was a Martial Master who had experienced things that none of
the Apprentices could even begin to imagine!
Rui would simply have to wait for his time to come. In any case, this was
good news for him. The more time he had, the more data he would be able to
gather. And the better he'll be able to create counter adapted styles.
He found Fae to be the least difficult. Not because she was the weakest, it
was just that she was a much more conventional Martial Artist than Kane and
Nel were. Her strength came from having an immense number of potent
techniques that she could apply extremely well. She had more defined and
conventional weaknesses and strengths. She was generally average in all
regards, but her offense was astronomical. Even the weakest of her attacks
were stronger than Rui's strongest attacks, barring Stinger, and the sheer
amount of force she was able to output was the single greatest that Rui had
ever seen.
Nel on the other hand was this powerful because of his absurd physical
ability. He had always believed that humans were not capable of superhuman
feats without Martial Art, but Nel had shown him how wrong he was. He still
didn't understand how he was as strong as he was. Was it just a mutation?
Was he just one of the handful of humans who were born with broken limits?
He didn't know. And it didn't matter. His physical prowess was off the charts
and Rui needed to contend with that with techniques alone. Thankfully, the
lack of techniques meant that the VOID algorithm was actually quite
compatible with him, since his fighting style was actually the closest to what
humans on Earth would do.
He didn't have maneuvering techniques, he just ran.
He didn't have defensive techniques, he just blocked.
He didn't have offensive techniques, he just swung.
Rui might actually be the most compatible person against him in the entire
Academy. The problem was Nel was stronger than him in every regard aside
from stealth and perhaps sensory. Being decisively superior to Rui in all
major aspects of combat was a huge advantage. Whether or not Rui could
compensate and cope with that remains to be seen.
As for Kane...
Kane was actually the most confounding, because he was the most deviant of
them all. Rui just wasn't sure how to even begin going about beating him with
such a perverse and overpowered ability. Furthermore, as powerful as Void
Step was, Kane had also mastered another Grade ten Apprentice-level
technique; the Godspeed technique. This technique when executed
successfully had knocked out Fae instantly and forced Squire Kyrie to use a
Squire-level technique to beat it.
He was an absolute menace.
All three of them were.
Yet, despite this, Rui still found himself grinning uncontrollably when he
thought about fighting them.
Chapter 199 Victory
BAM BAM BAM
Rui released an onslaught of heavy blows, each bolstered by Vital Pressure

and Outer Convergence. Dalen simply guarded against each of them. He was
one of the few people in the entire Academy who could straightforwardly
withstand Rui's full power.
Although Rui didn't hit as hard as Fae or Nel, there weren't many people who
hit harder than him. Outer Convergence was an incredibly difficult and
powerful techniques that was just a few grades short of being grade ten, only
senior striking specialists could over power in a contest of blows.
POW
Rui's strike found itself wiggling through his guard and striking his throat,
earning a grimace for him. Dalen was just too rock solid, it would take him
forever, if ever at all, to wear him down with ordinary strikes.
That's why Rui had aimed for vulnerable and vital areas with Vital Pressure,
and tried his best to harm them with Outer Convergence.
Throat.
Solar Plexus.
Testicles.
Eyes.
Even the nose, for momentary incapacitation.

Rui didn't even bother trying to strike his honed muscles or his rock-solid
bones. Only through these vital areas could Rui possibly hurt him.
POW
Dalen returned the favour, trying to take Rui down with blows. To his
surprise, Rui didn't even bother trying to block his attacks!
Dalen had only mastered Vital Pressure for offense, and that was simply far
too meagre to defeat Rui. Rui didn't even bother blocking them, he simply
used Inner Divergence, Acute Edge and Elastic Shift to completely negate
their impacts.
Rui blasted forward launching waves of attacks on Dalen, who did his best to
withstand all of them while also trying to inflict as much damage on Rui as
he could, albeit in vain.
A battle could not be fought only via defense, Dalen was very cognizant of
this fact. But his offense bounced off Rui like a beach ball.
In comparison, Rui was making meaningful progress. His ability to land

heavy blows on vital areas was truly troubling. Although Dalen had
heightened his defense, vulnerable areas remained vulnerable areas.
It was almost impossible to train the throat to be able to withstand the power
of Outer Convergence nor were there any techniques barring a grade ten
technique peak Apprentice-level technique that allowed the throat to
withstand such immense absurd power.
Usually when vulnerable areas were targeted, the only realistic solutions that
existed was avoid or block.
Had Kane been the one fighting him, he would have avoided. But Dalen was
accustomed to blocking and parrying.
Problem was Rui was faster. Much faster. Not only was he quicker because
he was lighter, but his movement speed had increased significantly thanks to
Outer Convergence. Furthermore, with maneuvering techniques, Rui was
able to reposition himself to exploit holes in the defense very quickly.
This alone was very difficult to cope with for Dalen, especially when Rui had
extremely impressive and inhumanly perfect timing with the VOID algorithm
and Primordial Instinct.
On top of that, Rui made a fool out of him with Phantom Step. Dalen simply
couldn't cope with numerous techniques, many of which were very especially
powerful.
Eventually, Rui had become so unstoppably dominant that Dalen simply

could do no more than turtle up and simply guard against the incoming
onslaught. But that had weaknesses as well, weaknesses Rui immediately
exploited.
FLICK
He tripped Dalen by intercepting one of his steps with a well-timed sweeping

kick. Rui had become so sharp at predicting Dalen with the VOID algorithm
boosted by Primordial Instinct that he was able to intercept things that
normally would be impossible to intercept.
Dalen's weight fell sideways as he had no crutch supporting it.
BOOM
Rui launched him flying with a double palmed push, amplified with Outer
Convergence. With merely one foot on the ground, Dalen simply couldn't
prevent being launched. Since Rui pushed instead of colliding a strike against
him, all of his defensive techniques were completely useless, since they were
meant to work against collisions.
This was what Rui had been aiming for.
THUD
Dalen landed hard outside the ring, skidding some distance away, before
finally stopping. Although this was a win by rules, since Rui knocked him out
of the ring. He knew Rui could have pummeled him to the ground until he
eventually managed to beat him black-and-blue or manage to wiggle in a
lethal attack on a vital area causing immense suffering to Dalen. But he chose
to win by a ring-out.
The least painful way for Dalen to lose.
Rui was not someone who enjoyed needless tormenting, he chose to defeat
Dalen in the most humane way possible, especially since they were friends.
"Winner: Rui Quarrier." The supervisor declared as Rui cleared the ring for
the next scheduled fight.
"You won." Dalen sighed. "Good fight."
"Good fight. You were a difficult opponent to beat." Rui smiled at him. "Let's
spar again some time."
Dalen nodded, accepting his good will.
"That double-palm push." Fae noted. "That was well-executed. It surprised

me because you don't normally use palm attacks."
Rui shrugged. "I used it because it was the soundest solution in those
circumstances and parameters."
"You make it sound like a math equation." Kane grumbled.
('That's actually closest to the truth.') Rui mused.
The VOID algorithm was created with cutting-edge data science, statistics,
probability, linear algebra and geometry in the twenty-first century of Earth.
It was forged out of more math and numbers than Kane, or anybody else
could possibly fathom in his entire life. The sheer amount of information
contained in the techniques was one of the biggest reasons that it was
unviable in his previous life. No MMA fighter could possibly memorize all
the information needed to utilize the VOID algorithm, even if they managed
to memorize the entire algorithm, they were unable to memorize all the
information about their opponent mid-fight that the VOID algorithm required
them to memorize. Rui could only partially use the VOID algorithm even
with his reincarnated-boosted conscious mind, he only used the earlier and
more elementary iterations and versions of the VOID algorithm.
If the VOID algorithm were a technique, it's difficulty would likely very well
surpass grade ten!
Chapter 200 Scheduled
In the past two weeks and more, Rui had beaten all the small and medium
fries with ease. The theory he had come up with had turned out to be
remarkably accurate. He hadn't run into a single top-level Martial Apprentice
at all in the past two weeks. But he suspected that to change soon, the number
of mid-level Martial Apprentices were almost running out, any time now he
would begin being pit against the top tier Martial Apprentices.
His prediction had come to be true.
Suddenly, the doors to the facility opened, drawing the attention of the
contestants and staff members.
What drew their attention was the force of mind that they'd felt. Squire Kyrie,
who was the head supervisor of the preliminary contest walked in. Behind
her, a team of support staff members pushed in a rolling notice board.
"Martial Apprentices." She addressed all of them. "Gather around."
Everyone wordlessly heeded, curious as to what was going on.
"The preliminary contest has reached its final stretch." She remarked. "A
representative needs to be chosen soon. Thus, the Martial Academy has
expedited the scheduling and has pre-scheduled all the remaining matches of
the preliminary contest."
She waved her hand, gesturing at the notice board as the staff unveiled it.
"All remaining matches have been scheduled. We will provide all of you with
a timetable containing the schedules of your own battles. You will be
expected to appear ten minutes before your match. Failing to appear at the
scheduled time will result in an automatic loss, so do not be tardy. You will
have access to healing and rejuvenation potions, so do not be tardy, there will
be no second chances."
The announcement caused a wave of tension to spread through the crowd.

The staff member immediately began handing the Martial Apprentices their
timetables, it was far too inconvenient to skim through the dozens of
matchups scheduled every day looking for one's own each day.
"This..." Rui subconsciously murmured as he glanced at his own timetable.
From that day forth, he was scheduled to have only one fight per day. But
that wasn't the eye-drawing part.
Each of his opponents were people who had perfect scores!
All wins and zero losses.
This was explicit confirmation of his observation. This would not have been
possible if these Martial Apprentices had faced each other at some point.
They, like him, had probably built the perfect record mopping up the lower
and mid-tier Martial Apprentices of the Academy.
At the very beginning of the preliminary contest, there were nineteen Martial
Apprentices with perfect scores. However, since then seven of them had lost
atleast one match breaking their win streak. These Martial Apprentices
weren't weak, but were clearly one notch below those that had managed to
remain unbeaten from the very start.
Rui grew excited, as a grin crept onto his face.
This was where the true battle for the representative would begin!
Everybody knew that the first twenty days of the preliminary contest was
merely to filter out the losers who never had a chance in the first place. The
scoreboard after twenty days would reveal the elite few that had a realistic
chance of being chosen as a representative.
Rui skimmed through the list of names he would be fighting.

Feela Garron.
Jane Francis.
Avi Seth.
Sahar Kal.
Fae Dullahan.
Hever Mendelieve.
Sarron Malcolm.
Vivian Dufresne.
Lala Sec.
Nel.
Kane Arrancar.
Eleven fights in eleven days.
These were the strongest of the strongest. Most of them came from illustrious
Martial families in the Martial communities. Nel and Rui being one of the
few exceptions.
What he found curious was that his very last match was scheduled against
Kane.
And his second-to-last match was scheduled against Nel.
He was scheduled to fight Fae six days from then.
These three were the most threatening to him all out of all of the eleven.
He was curious about when these three would be fighting against each other.
He skimmed through the notice board, looking for fights that had two of
these three. Quickly noting them and their order.
Fae vs Nel.
Fae vs Kane.
Kane vs Nel.
Kane's battle with Nel was just one day prior to his. Rui was glad that two of
his three most difficult opponents were as further away as possible, allowing
him to gather all the data he could possibly want. In the past nineteen days,
he had carefully observed as many fights of all of them as he could,
especially Kane and Nel, since these two freaks deviated too much from
conventional.
He had keenly observed their tactics, approach, tendencies and quirks,

reactions and responses, strengths and weaknesses. Growing more and more
prepared to fight them.
The reason he had focused on Kane and Nel in particular more than Fae was
because his previous knowledge on Fae not as outdated as his previous
knowledge on Kane and Nel.
He never had any information on Nel in the first place, thus it became much
more imperative to gather information on him.
As for Kane, a lot of the old information Rui did have was now simply
outdated, or at the very least needed some updating. This was the power of
the Void Step technique. This technique singlehandedly changed the entire
equation and the entire game! Now, all of a sudden he needed to be extremely
careful fighting him, not just because of the Void Step technique, because old
information might end up causing his downfall. At the very least, until he was
able to account for the Void Step technique, he would need to forget
everything he knew about Kane.
All in all, he had a tough time ahead of him.
"Our match is scheduled last huh?" Kane frowned. "That's funny."

"The remaining matches are not going to be easy." Fae noted. "These Martial
Apprentices are no jokes, even if I'm confident of victory."
Rui nodded. If he was not careful, one of these might just pull a victory from
under his feet!
Chapter 201 Matchups
Rui and Kane had already arrived at the sparring facility at the reporting time
and had signed the attendance register. Now they simply waited for their
friends and scheduled matches to arrive.
Rui glanced at the scoreboard.
There were twelve people tied for rank one. These Martial Apprentices were
consisted of the eleven that Rui was scheduled to fight across the span of
eleven days as well as himself counting for the twelfth contestants.
Rui glanced around the facility, he could feel attention on Kane and himself.
And it wasn't just because of his black features or Kane's status. The two of
them both had sixty-seven wins and no losses. Everyone paid extra attention
to all those who tied for rank one.
Rui's eyes skimmed through the rankings, taking note of how everyone else
performed.
"Oh...?" He murmured.
"Hm?" Kane glanced at him.
"Gale's at rank number nine." Rui said. "Impressive."
"Well, he's strong." Kane said. "Even if we did beat him up easily."
He had had fifty-three wins and fourteen losses, meaning he only lost to two
people outside of the top eleven tied for rank one. Outside of the top eleven,
it could be said that he was very close to the next best.
"Dalen's at rank fifteen." Kane noted. "That's not bad at all either."
"As far as pure defensive prowess goes, he should be in the top three." Rui
agreed.
The two of them sparked up a discussion about the rankings, eventually

talking about the top eleven, the most interesting and also the most relevant
of them all.
"Who are you most worried about in the top eleven?" Rui asked, out of
curiosity.
"Hmph, I'm not worried about losing to anybody. I'm actually worried about
not losing." Kane snorted.
Rui chuckled at that response. "Alright, who are you least worried about
then?"
"Hmmm..." Kane scratched his chin. "Fae, as much as I hate to admit it, is
one of the few who I'm least worried about. Her offensive power is absurd. I
might actually die if she manages to get a clean hit on me."
His body frame was built for speed, agility and mobility. It was not trained
for defense in mind. If she struck him with a full-powered blow...
Kane gulped at the very thought of such a thing happening.
Fae's power was so high that she shook the very air and ground with nearly
every movement. Even Nel, who was blessed with superhuman power, was
not nearly as strong as Fae. She was almost in a league of her own.
He turned to Rui with a sharp gaze. "Don't tell her I said that though."
Rui burst out into laughter, his relationship with Fae was truly entertaining
and amusing.
"So, who else?" He asked. "You said one of the few."
"There's that Martial Psycho guy Nel." Kane said. "I dunno how he's that
strong two months after becoming a Martial Apprentice, but he's really
tough."
"And yeah that's about it." Kane shrugged.
"Nobody else?"
"Nope."
"You sure?"
"Yep. I can't think of any other Martial Apprentice who is strong enough to
beat me asides from Nel and Fae." He shrugged exaggeratedly, before turning
to Rui. "Why, you have someone else in mind?"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny." Rui grumbled, earning mischievous laughter from
Kane.
The two of them bantered back and forth until Fae, Milliana and Dalen
arrived, immediately grouping with them.
"The three of you prepared?" Fae asked. "It's the final run and it's going to be
the toughest for the three of us."
Kane shrugged. "It is what it is. No big deal."
"As prepared as can be." Rui replied.
Today Rui was scheduled to fight Feela Garron. A powerful ranged fighter,
and a senior Apprentice at the Martial Academy. She was the strongest
ranged fighter in the entire Academy, because she had pursued range to an
absurd degree. It was truly mind-boggling to see the sheer amount of range
this woman had come to possess.
She could strike people ten meters away!
She did this by devoting herself to an extremely high-grade technique that

allowed for the clean dislocation of limbs, via conditioning of the ligament as
well as well-timed simultaneous expansion of the biceps and the triceps and
other skeletal muscle groups.
This not only gave her extra range, but also greater power and speed.
This was because the strike accelerated over a greater amount of distance.
Her impacts were extremely quick and devastating. Although they weren't at
Fae levels of power, she wasn't too much less threatening than Fae.
Especially considering Fae had a range weakness while range was Feela's
greatest strength.
After Fae, Nel and Kane, she was one of the people Rui was wariest about. In
certain scenarios, she was likely even more dangerous than them.
He would be fighting her today. And if he lost, he would certainly be thrown

out of any realistic chance of winning the preliminary contest.
Fae was to fight Avi Seth, a poison-oriented Martial Artist. Rui had seen him
fight before, and he was curious about poison-oriented Martial Artist would
handle a conventional Martial Artist of Fae's calibre. It was quite intriguing
because this fighting style was one of those fighting styles that his previous
life's knowledge as least useful against.
Kane was scheduled to fight Sahar Kal, a strong all-rounder. Now this match
Rui was interested in, he wanted to see how a strong all-rounder dealt with
Kane. This would give him a lot of useful data on what worked and what
didn't against Kane and help him make the final set of preparations before
their fight.
Nel on the other hand was bound to face Hever Mendelieve. A rare balance
centric specialist. He fought in an incredibly novel way that relied on an
extraordinary sense of balance combined with supreme flexibility. Rui was
curious about how the two would fight each other.
Thankfully none of the fights of the rank one Martial Artists were
simultaneous, so Rui could take his time observing all of them.
Chapter 202 Ranged Combat
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier." A staff member called out to him, breaking him
out of his reverie. "Your scheduled fight is soon to commence, please wait by
the assigned ring."
"Sure." Rui nodded. "Alright, see you guys later."
Rui left after they bade him good luck. Once he reached the ring, he saw
Feela Garron waiting at the ring.
She was a tall and lean woman with brown hair and eyes. She had a heavy
aura, and was one of the few Martial Apprentices that could make his
Primordial Sense tingle with alarm.
"Sorry for the wait." He said with a friendly smile.
"No problem." She replied calmly.
Feela proceeded to take the most bizarre stance Rui had ever seen in his life.
Her right arm went back, with her hand hanging behind her. Her left arm
went to the right side under her right armpit, as though she was trying to hug
herself. She shifted all her weight onto her left leg, and her right leg was
behind her with heels lifted off the ground, merely touching the ground at the
toes.
It was a bizarre stance, but it made sense when one knew what her Martial
Art was.
The arms were positioned the way they were because her attacks were
extended swings, and chops that required a large amount of swinging
distance, thus she was merely coiling up her arms and giving them as much
room as possible. It was like stretching rubber band as far as possible so that
it would hit back as hard as possible.
She had shifted all her weight onto one leg because she was an immobile
fighter. She generally planted herself at the extremes of the ring and sniped
her opponents with ranged swings from the corner of the ring. It was easier to
launch strikes with one leg quicker if that leg didn't have any weight it was
forced to support.
"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled. He had already begun constructing an adapted Martial

Art in his mind.
She was a ranged Martial Artist and Rui's range was significantly shorter. He
would be unable to strike her if he fights her at range.
Thus, the first trait his adapted fighting style would need to have was being
able to close the distance between them. This way, he would be at a range
where he could actually do damage to her. Another reason this train was
important was because ranged strikes were useless in close quarters. What
was the point of striking ten meters away if your opponent was one meter
away?
She would be forced to exchange normal arm-length and leg-length close

quarters blows with Rui which he could certainly win.
Why?
Because assuming she spent most of her resources into becoming the best at
ranged combat and beating people at range, it logically followed that she was
weak at close range quarters. Rui excelled at that range.
Thus, this first condition he had set for the adapted fighting style was the
most important.
Rui adopted his stance.
Feet close to each other, weight equally distributed and constantly shifting,
arms close to the body propped up defensively.
It was a defensive maneuvering stance. Aimed at ease maneuvering and

defending against attacks. Since Rui could not attack, he did not need to take
up a stance that catered to ease of offense. His primary goal was closing in on
her.
"Begin!" the supervisor commenced the match.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, Feela's arm blurred.
And all hell broke loose.
BOOM
Rui narrowly avoided an impact where he was standing a tenth of a second

prior. Just as he paused, his instincts tingled as he felt danger swinging down
on him.
BOOM
He narrowly avoided yet another impact.
('Damn! She would have knocked me out if I hadn't mastered Primordial

Instinct!') Rui cursed.
The speed of her whips was absurdly fast, far faster than Rui was. The reason
he was able to dodge them despite that was because they had to travel a
longer distance than Rui had to avoid them. But as far as raw speed went,
they were nearly as fast as Kane was although much less fluid and flexible.
Furthermore, when they stretched, they became thinner, making it harder to
follow them with the naked eye.
BOOM
Rui spun to the side as a gust of disheveled his hair. She'd almost got him that
time.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
Every time he tried closing in, she launched swift and powerful blow, cutting
off his path. Her timing and placement were spectacular. Rui could tell she'd
had an immense amount of experience at keeping people from entering close
quarters range against her.
Rui could see how she'd managed to come this far with zero losses. Most
Martial Apprentices would not be able to beat her.
He leapt away, increasing the distance between them before pausing.
She didn't attack him.
('So she has a range limit.') Rui noted. He took the opportunity to reconfigure
his adapted fighting style.
Another trait his Martial Art needed to have was to be able to close the
distance despite her restrictive attacks. This either meant avoiding them, or
enduring them.
Both methods were feasible, the question was which was the least risky and
had the highest chance of victory?
He could for evasive infiltration with Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction,

Phantom Step and Primordial Instinct.
Or he could for the enduring infiltration with Parallel Walk, Balanced

Direction, Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute Edge.
He inputted the variables and parameters into the VOID algorithm, before
adopting his stance.
"Both it is." he murmured, before gearing himself for the infiltration.

He inhaled, and exhaled. Breathing in deeply as he calmed his body down,
and focused his mind.
His concentration grew deeper and deeper.
Until everything disappeared.
The only thing he could see was his target.
Feela gritted her teeth as the pressure Rui was generating began skyrocketing.
She didn't understand how someone much younger, who had only been a
Martial Apprentice for less than two years could possibly generate such
weight.
She mirrored Rui, taking up her stance, as the two faced off once more.
The second stage of the battle was about to begin.

Chapter 203 Outcome
"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled.
The next moment his muscles grew taut as he gathered as much energy as he
could, preparing for the charge.
DASH
He dashed towards her. Yet, the moment he was close enough;
BOOM
WHOOSH
A powerful whip landed onto him, only for him to disappear!
('A feint.') Feela realized.
He had been using feints to mislead her attacks, allowing him to avoid them.
This was a particularly effective solution as Feela needed rely on predictive

measures in order to strike her targets from such a distance. Meaning feints
were particular effective against her.
She immediately escalated the attacks.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Rui barely managed to avoid getting hit as three impacts struck around him.
He glanced at her with surprise.
('Damn, she's using both arms and her leg simultaneously.') Rui realized.
Meaning the number of attacks had tripled.
By using all three limbs at once, she was dishing out three separate ranged-
attacks at any point in time. Thus, even if the first whip missed him because
of a feint, the second or the third would undoubtedly strike him.
BOOM BOOM POW
The third whip landed square on Rui, pushing him back.
The strategy was effective, but it was not without caveats. By increasing the
number of strikes, she was forced to reduce the lethality of each strike.
Making withstanding them a much more practical solution.
Rui dashed towards her once more.
BOOM BOOM
He feinted out of the first two strikes, but the third was set to hit him!
POW
He used Inner Divergence, Acute Edge and Elastic Shift to negate the impact,
before pushing forward.
BOOM BOOM
WHOOSH
POW
He got past yet another set of whips, making even more progress. By
carefully choosing when to feint and when to endure, he was able to make
use of a combination of both of these approaches to close the distance
between him and Feela.
BOOM BOOM
WHOOSH
POW
He timed his defensive techniques perfectly this time, enduring no pain or

damage whatsoever.
He was just five meters away.
She had only one last chance!
If Rui crossed the last barrage, the range would be too short for her whips to
gain the speed and momentum they normally had.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Rui feinted, throwing two of the whips off target while throwing up his guard
and charging through the last whip with all of his defensive techniques.
('Shit-') She didn't even have time to curse.
BAM
Rui charged at her with his maneuvering techniques, accumulating

momentum and striking her with Flowing Canon.
Although having her back face the corner meant no one could ever take her
back and attack her from a blind spot, it also meant that the probability of her
getting knocked out of the ring was much higher. The ease of doing so was
greater than if she were at the center of the ring.
As predicted, her capabilities at close quarters were limited and she simply
did not possess the techniques needed to deal with one of Rui's most powerful
attacks.
WHOOSH
The attack launched her flying, as she skidded across the ground.
('Winner; Rui Quarrier.') The supervisor immediately declared.

"Fuuu..." He exhaled in relief. ('Ten more battles to go.')
He was quite comforted by the fact that he was able to beat Feela handily,
especially without needing to use his trump cards. It gave him greater
confidence that if he went all out and used all the techniques that he had at
his disposal he would be able to combat those he was most worried about.
"Good fight." Rui had offered her a handshake after he exited the ring. "You
were quite strong."
"As were you." She returned his gesture. "Now that you beat me, my chances
of being chosen as representative are all but gone. You better win."
"I intend to." Rui smiled.
He exchanged farewells with her before returning to his friends.
"Good fight." Kane said.
"That was clean." Fae agreed.
"Thanks." Rui replied, consuming a rejuvenation and healing potion, before

glancing at Fae. "You're up next right?"
She nodded. "My match will begin soon, so I should probably get going."
Rui nodded. She was scheduled to face another rank one fighter; Avi Seth.
The reason Rui was particularly interested in the outcome of this fight was
because Avi Seth was a Martial Artist with a Martial Art centered around
poison.
It's not that he hadn't seen poison based Martial Art, it's just that he hadn't
seen it at higher levels. He didn't think Fae would lose unless she was
careless, so he was curious to see how Avi fought and what he would do
against someone of Fae's caliber.
Rui and the others reached her assigned ring as they spectated. Avi had long
red hair, his stature was not particularly large nor too lean, he was perfectly
neutral.
What drew Rui's attention were his hands. They were bizarre, to say the very
least. His nails were grotesque and purple, as though they were undergoing
necrosis.
('Some special conditioning.') Rui realized. There was no doubt in his mind
that Avi had undergone some special conditioning training to that led to the
strange physical features he had, there was no doubt that this was connected
his specialty either.
The human body did not naturally produce poison. In order for poison-
oriented Martial Art to exist there needed to be some degree of human
modification that had to be made to the Martial Artist or one simply would
not be able to make use of poison oriented Martial Art.
Rui suspected that his hands had been modified to either produce poison or
store it. The purple pigmentation was likely due to the presence of poison
itself.
Which meant Fae should avoid it at all costs. He glanced at her, sensing
certain level of caution from her towards his hands. She could not be too
rash, lest she be taken down with a potent form of poison!
The match was about to commence.

Chapter 204 Poison
Fae took her classic stance. Her right palm tucked at her waist, upside down.
Her left palm faced her opponent, her legs crouched, evenly supporting her
weight.
Avi took an open-palmed stance with his fingers facing Fae. It resembled a
Wing Chun stance from Earth.
Avi immediately dashed towards Fae, launching a palm jab. Fae simply
stepped back, avoiding any contact with his hands.
WHOOSH
She avoided a palm jab by sidestepping.
"She's being uncharacteristically passive." Dalen remarked.
"She's cautious of his poison. She doesn't want to make contact with him
easily." Rui said.
"She sucks at evading though." Kane noted. "She's just running away and
avoiding it by ceding space. Eventually she'll run out of room."
Fae was cognizant of this, and before long, she changed her approach.
POW
She launched a light jab after avoiding a palm jab from Avi. He skidded
back, barely putting together a guard.
Fae had purposely made the jab as short and quick as possible. She wanted to
minimize the amount of contact she had with Avi's body, even it came at the
cost of power.
WHOOSH
He simply tried jabbing at her with his palm
POW
She managed slammed him with a palm attack, as he just barely managed to
throw together a guard in time.
WHOOSH
POW
WHOOSH
POW
WHOOSH
POW POW POW
Fae grew more and more comfortable and smooth as she grew accustomed to
this fighting style. She had been apprehensive at first, but the fight was
starting to go smoothly.
('Too smoothly.') Rui frowned. Was this man really a rank one Martial Artist?
His attacks were simple enough to avoid, and his defense was meagre. He
would not be able to withstand Fae's palm attacks.
He didn't understand how Avi managed to not lose a single time in the past
nineteen days.
Just as he was wondering what he was missing, he noticed something strange

with Fae.
"What's with her arms?" Kane asked aloud, frowning. "They're faltering...?"
Rui's flew wide open as he paid more attention. Fae's expression had
morphed into alarm and confusion too, she had to exert serious effort to keep
her arms up in her stance.
"Don't tell me..." Rui realized. "It wasn't just his fingertips. His entire arms is
covered in poison!"
Fae had consistently struck his guard with each strike, this was on purpose.
This explained why he always put up a guard even if there were better
options.
Although it looked like Fae was the one attacking him, in reality he was
attacking Fae each time he defended himself!
Rui hadn't yet adopted the right mindset when it came to poison due to his
inexperience and ignorance in regards to this field of Martial Art and
techniques. But he did in fact realize, that this application was quite
overpowered.
If his entire arms were covered in poison, that meant he had an incredibly
vast attacking area. He only needed to make contact with his opponent in
order to poison them.
Furthermore, this poison didn't need to be ingested or be injected into the

body, Fae had only made contact with his skin. Yet the poison was starting to
affect the entirety of her arm. This meant the poison had high penetration and
a short timeframe within which it would start affecting peformance
parameters.
"The finger tips drew our attention and subconsciously made us assume that
it was the only poisoned area." Kane understood.
"Right." Rui agreed. "It doesn't even matter if his nails are or aren't poisoned
or not. Their true purpose is a red herring."
Suddenly their attention was drawn as Fae dashed at Avi.

BOOM BOOM BOOM
Kane narrowed his eyes in alarm. "Why the fuck is she blasting him with
powerful attacks? Has she not realized what is going on?"
"She surely has." Rui had no doubt about that. Fae was an intelligent fighter.
"It's the right move."
"How so? Won't this just accelerate the poisoning?" Kane frowned.
"Yes, but..." Rui continued. "It's her only choice. The poison had just kicked
in, meaning it wasn't done yet in all likelihood, as time passes, it will likely
have incapacitated her even more. A race agains time is a race she would
have lost."
"I see." Kane murmured as he realized. "So she wanted to pummel him as
hard as she could to end the fight as fast as she could?"
Rui nodded.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to attack parts of his body that aren't guarded
by his arms?"
"Not really." Rui shook his head. "He's carefully guarding the easiest and
closest parts of his body to attack. All other parts of his body would require
Fae to launch longer attacks and require her to alter the trajectories of her
attack to land clean hits on. The difficulty of it is high given her arms are
partial incapacitated, furthermore, greater distance means greater timeframe
which allows Avi enough to poison her anyway. Either with his arms or his
nails. Furtermore, the rest of his body might be poisoned too. Perhaps if she
wasn't poisoned already, this plan might have been more feasible, but in her
current state, she needs to end this fight quickly."
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Rui could sense her desperation and determination. Seeing how far Avi was
able to push someone of her caliber, he no longer had any doubts about his
competence, Rui could easily see how he could have beaten small fries with
that ridiculous poison.
However, it didn't mean he was having it easy.
Avi gritted his teeth as he guarded for dear life. Although his plan was
working, he had underestimated how absurdly powerful Fae's full-powered
blows were. Even the light jabs she had struck him with at the beginning
were more powerful than anything he had been hit with in the entire contest!
These full-powered blows were devastating.
BOOM
CRACK
His arms were already filled with hairline fractures and even some clean
cracks. She made a complete mess of his wrist and his entire arms were
purple, and it wasn't because of his poison!
Chapter 205 Outcome
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Fae unloaded an unbelievable onslaught of attacks onto Avi as the latter

struggled to stay on his feet. His arms were broken already and the damage
was no longer being restricted to them. Because his arms were broken, they
were no longer able to guard the rest of his body effectively.
His ribs, joints and muscles were all reeling from the impact. He had already
begun to cough blood due to some internal bleeding in his body.
He wouldn't be able to last much longer!
('Just how much power does she have?') He cursed. Praying she would be
done soon.
His prayers were answered.
Suddenly her onslaught stopped, and her arms dropped, dangling freely. Her
fair skin had taken on a sickly darker hue.
Time was up.
It was over.
Her mighty feared palms had failed.
Failed her, when she needed them the most.
Avi's eyes twinkled. Yet just as he launched himself at her;
BAM!
"ARGH!" He coughed blood as her kick cratered into his ravaged body.
POW
A high kick struck his jaw, rattling his brain.
The human mind was funny, it often failed to make the most elementary
inferences. This was often caused by a variety of factors outside of
intelligence. Conditioned inertia, when something abnormal becomes so
normal that people forget that it was ever abnormal in the first place. Intense
emotions in the heat of suspenseful moments also created psychological blind
spots.
For Avi, and perhaps for a lot of onlookers, it was the both of them.
In the past two years, not a single soul had seen Fae kick. It was an unheard-
of phenomenon and one that most people wouldn't even conceive of. In that
high-intensity situation, when Fae's formidable palms and arms collapsed, he
had immediately felt incredible ecstasy and confidence.
In that moment, he had just simply failed to realize that 'hey, maybe she can
use those perfectly functional legs of hers to kick me.'
If it was anybody else, he likely would not have dropped his guard and
rushed in like he did. But Fae's weakness, or what he considered to be her
weakness, turned out to be his.
His ravaged condition, and the final high kick to the jaw rattled his brain,
causing immediate brain trauma.
THUD
He hit the ground like a bag of rocks, unconscious.
Avi Seth had lost.
Not just the match, but also his chances of being chosen as the representative.
For several seconds, there was silence.

"W-Winner; Fae Dullahan!" The supervisor shook his head, breaking out of
his reverie. He had been so engrossed he had forgotten he had a job to do!
Fae was breathing laboriously. Even the skin near her neck had gone from
fairer to the darker hue her arms were completely coloured in. The poison
was taking its toll, and she had come in contact with it countless times after
she had begun her final assault on Avi.
She didn't even return to her friends. The medical team immediately rushed
her to the temporary section and gave her many potions of different colours.
The Academy, of course, knew of all the techniques that the students
purchase, since they were the ones who sold them to them in the first place.
They were well-prepared for all outcomes, including the poison techniques of
Avi Seth.
Soon, her skin retained its original colour, and she was back on her feet
feeling invigorated after a rejuvenation potion.
"Great fight Fae." Rui complimented her.
"That was intense." Kane offered. He couldn't help but admit she had a great
fight.
"That was close too." Dalen noted.
Fae nodded. "Thankfully I managed to get in that last kick, which along with
the earlier damage I inflicted was enough to put him out of commission."
"How are your arms." Milliana asked out of concern.
"Ah." Fae glanced at them. "They're fine. The medical team fed me detox
potions that cleared out the poison from my system. "I'm perfectly okay
now."
"Good to hear." Rui nodded. He would have been really dismayed if she was
not at her peak in her succeeding matches. He would take no please in
beating her when she was in a weakened state. With this, he could put aside
any worry and go all-out against her when they would eventually fight in the
coming days.
They chatted a bit, before it was Kane's turn for the day.
"Apprentice Kane Arrancar." A staff member addressed him. "Your

scheduled fight for the day will commence soon. Please wait at the assigned
ring immediately."
"Yeah. Will do." Kane nodded. "Alright guys see you later."
He left after having been bade good luck.
The four of them quickly made their way to the ring as Kane's fight was
about to begin. Both he and his opponent were already on the ring.
"Who do you guys think will win?" Fae asked as she glanced at Sahar Kal.
"Kane." Rui replied unhesitatingly
"It's hard to imagine Kane losing." Dalen agreed as Milliana nodded.
His shocking performance at the beginning of the preliminary contest had left
a deep impression on all of them.
Dalen and Milliana had already fought him and lost miserably. Fae and Rui
on the other hand had yet to, and did not think victory would be anything
short of extremely difficult.
Sahar Kal was a strong senior Martial Apprentice with an all-rounder Martial
Art. She adopted a neutral stance, positioning her arms equally defensively
and offensively while balancing her weight equally between both legs with a
foot of distance between them. The quintessential neutral stance. It was a
stance that Rui himself often used when he lacked information on his
opponent.
Kane instead nonchalantly relaxed his body and arms, lightly hopping
between both feet. It was a stance that catered much more to maneuvering
more than a rigid stance like hers. In this stance he would be able to enter top
speed in any direction extremely quickly.
"Begin!" The supervisor waved his hand, commencing the match.

Chapter 206 Potential Solution
Everyone tensed when match commenced.
No one could get used to it.
Kane exhaled a puff of air and sashayed out of reality.
It was as though he had ceased to exist.
Could one fight someone who may as well no exist?
That the herculean task Sahar Kal was faced with.
('Now then...') Rui mused as he closed his eyes. ('What does she plan to do?')
By now the entire Academy was aware of the magician that Kane had come
to be. Surely Sahar must have had some plan against him.
"RAAARGH!" She swung at empty air all around her.
"..."
"HYAAAH!" She drop-kicked empty air.
"..."
BAM
She body-slammed empty air.
Rui could sense with Seismic Mapping and Primordial instinct that Kane
hadn't landed a single attack at all since the match began. He was merely
circling around her.
('He's probably laughing his fucking ass off right now.') Rui couldn't help but
chuckle at the thought. He sighed; a bit depressed. He was hoping he could
get some useful data, but it seemed that this was merely unrealistic optimism
on his part.
Suddenly, Rui vaguely sensed Kane had begun moving towards her while she
continued swinging empty air.
Whether by some sixth sense, or sheer luck. She coincidentally launched a

sweeping kick just where Kane was about to attack from.
WHOOSH
The attack missed, of course. Kane would never get hit by such a kick.
But he was visible the instant he paused, before becoming imperceivable

again.
('This...') A realization dawned Rui. The Void Step technique was a technique
that misdirected attention and cognition of observers via maneuvering-based
misdirection techniques. It employed the same tricks that magicians used in
order to perform magic. Once someone was paying attention on the user, the
user would move while misdirecting their opponent's attention away from
them and the direction they were moving in. Meaning in order to actually
execute the misdirection, he needed to maneuver; to be in motion.
That also meant if he ever had to inadvertently pause or stop in order to avoid
an incoming attack, the technique would also cease to function for the brief
moment of time.
He needed to constantly be in motion for the technique to constantly be in

effect, it seemed. That one brief moment of Kane appearing had given Rui
some hints about potential shortcomings in the technique's mechanics that
could potentially be exploited.
Although this wasn't the first time Kane had become visible in a battle, it was
the first time Rui was able to associate a cause with the phenomenon. Since
he hadn't purchased the technique, he wasn't familiar with all its mechanics.
POW POW POW
Kane had begun his onslaught. Peppering his opponent with a volley of
strikes.
Ever since he had mastered the Void Step technique, he had inadvertently
become more offensive in his fighting style.
This wasn't because of any changes to his Martial Path.
It was simply because he was too strong, he didn't need bother using his real
Martial Art against most Martial Apprentices.
What was the point of being super evasive if his opponent couldn't even sense
him, let alone come close to touching him?
If he did run into a Martial Apprentice who could counter the Void Step
technique and sense him despite it, he would immediately revert back to his
evasive style, since his opponent could now land strikes on him.
But if they couldn't even sense him?
There was simply no point in wasting time. Victory could only be won
through offense.
He launched many strikes across her entire body. Targeting not just her
vitals. He was cautious but not worried, he didn't think there was anything
she could really do against him.
POW POW POW
He jabbed at her throat before casually evading a wild haymaker with ease.
Sahar Kal had grown more and more frustrated, swinging around more and
more wildly as she endured more and more damage.
BAM
He launched a strong kick to her solar plexus that left her grimacing.
POW
A swift kick to her jaw caused brain trauma, knocking her out immediately.
She collapsed immediately, as Kane came to be perceivable again.
"Winner; Kane Arrancar!" The supervisor declared as Kane walked off.
"You must have laughed your ass off at the start." Rui chuckled.
"You goddamn bet I did." Kane laughed. He had laughed so hard that he
almost deactivated the Void Step technique by mistake!
Perhaps if Rui wanted a sure-shot way of taking Kane down he ought to

arrive to their battle with stand-up comedy prepared.
"Clean win Kane." Fae nodded warily.
"As ridiculous as always." Dalen agreed.
Rui had grown engrossed on his thoughts from early on in the battle. Could
there be a way to exploit the fact that the Void Step technique could only be
operated when in motion? Perhaps, but Rui didn't think it was that simple.
For him to be able to exploit this trait would mean that he was somehow able
to exploit the fact that Kane would be visible for a brief instant.
But how was that exploitable exactly? A brief instant was just that; A brief
instant. He did not think it would be easy to exploit. Even if Kane was visible
briefly, there wasn't too much that could be done. Even if it was a bit more
than just a brief instant it would not be easy. Kane was quite strong even
without the Void Step technique. Just because it was inactive for a moment
didn't mean he was suddenly extremely weak.
Even without the Void Step technique, Kane could probably beat most of the
Martial Apprentices. Admittedly he would need to go all out and there might
even be several close calls, he should be able to make it to the top unbeaten,
though there he would likely be defeated by one of the rank-one candidates.
The Void Step technique greatly enhanced an already strong Martial

Apprentice. Rui did not think he would have an easy fight even if countered
it.
Chapter 207 No Longer Denied
"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled as he calmed his pounding heart.
He didn't want to get too excited.
He had been waiting for this day for quite some time. If he screwed things up
because he was too excited he wouldn't forgive himself
He glanced at his personal schedule for the preliminary contest.
[Fae Dullahan vs Rui Quarrier]
It had been five days since the Academy pre-scheduled the remaining
matches. In the following days after his fight with Feela Garron, he went onto
fight Jane Francis; A powerful grappling specialist, as well as Avi Seth and
Sahar Kal.
In his fight against Jane Francis, he had adapted his fighting style into that of
a distant ranged striker with elements of evasive maneuvering. This was one
of the best solutions against an aggressive grappler, range to exploit their
weakness, and evasiveness to counter their only means of compensating for
their weakness. He had eventually won the battle with a well-timed Flowing
Canon which knocked his opponent out.
Against Avi Seth, he was truly tempted to use the Stinger. The Stinger was
one of his trump cards that would have been extremely effective against Avi
Seth because it inflicted critical damage while minimizing contact with
poison skin. Allowing him to take Avi Seth out far faster than the poison
would incapacitate him. It would have been trivially easy for Rui one-shot
Avi had he gone all out. But he decided to preserve the trump card for when
it was truly needed.
Instead, he took Avi down by abusing his maneuvering techniques and
Phantom Step, carefully avoiding his palm jabs while also avoiding his arm
guard. This turned out to not be as challenging as he expected, he came to
realize that Avi had potent poison that he employed in tricky ways, but once
Rui figured out the trick, the VOID algorithm chewed his Martial Art and
spat out a counter-adapted fighting style which Rui used to dominate him
start to finish.
He ended the battle with a clean ring out.
It definitely helped that he had spectated Fae's fight with him.
His third fight against Sahar Kal was the most dominant of all three fights.
Despite being an all-rounder, she had poor adaptability and fought very
straightforwardly. This is why Rui was able to cleanly handle her despite the
fact that all-rounders were harder for the VOID algorithm to adapt to. He
exploited the holes in her style without missing a beat and eventually
defeated her with a chokehold, forcing her to tap out.
In the past four days, the top twelve Martial Apprentices of the Academy
who were tied for rank one had been whittled down having faced each other.
At the current moment, of the original twelve that had a zero loss win streak,
only five managed to maintain their win streak.
Rui Quarrier.
Fae Dullahan.
Nel.
Kane Arrancar.
Hever Mendelieve.
And now the day had come for him to fight Fae.
He headed to the sparring facility immediately, there wasn't much time left
for his match.
He ran into all four of his friends on the way to the ring.
"Oh, he's here." Kane remarked.
"Hey guys." Rui said, before turning to Fae. "Hey Fae, are you ready?"
She nodded. "I am. Win or lose, no hard feelings, I won't hold back."
And Rui could sense that. She was pumped up to go all-out.
"I couldn't ask for anything more." Rui grinned. "May the best Martial Artist
win."
Soon, the match was to be commenced.
There was an immense amount attention on this fight.
All Martial Apprentices who weren't participating in a match themselves had

chosen to spectate this particular match. This was important. This was a
match that would likely eliminate one of the top five candidates from the
position of rank one.
Furthermore, everybody was curious to see who would win between Fae and
Rui. The two of them were both incredibly remarkable and had reached the
very best of all the Martial Apprentices of the Martial Academy!
Regardless of the outcome, they were in for one hell of a fight.
These official preliminary matches were very different from the routine
mandatory spars the Martial Academy held between Martial Apprentices. The
spars were spars, most people did not go all-out during them, but rather used
them to train certain parts of their Martial Art, certain techniques, certain
tactics and strategies. They were much more training than they were
competition.
The preliminary contest was different. Every single Martial Apprentice was
absolutely serious and did everything they could to in order to win. Each
Martial Apprentice had grown stronger in the past few years having
accumulated a lot of power. The preliminary contest was the one place where
all of this growth and power would be used to the absolute maximum.
This fight would truly show them which one of the two titans were the
strongest.
Fae coiled her right arm to the side, tucking her taut open-palm upside down
at her waist. That arm was a serpent waiting to last out at its prey. Her left
palm faced Rui. This palm was positioned in manner that allowed her to
launch quicker and lighter jabs, and also aid her right palm into landing
powerful attacks successfully.
She exhaled, spreading her feet and dividing her weight between them.
She stared at Rui with narrowed eyes. In this fight, she would not treat him as
a friend. She valued her relationships. But she was absolutely clear about
dividing them from Martial matters. She was far too driven to allow herself to
be moved by such matters. Her muscles shook with restrained power, she
would hound him the second the fight began and mercilessly pound him to
the ground.
Rui grinned.
Even as Primordial Instinct screamed at him about the sheer power in Fae's
frame.
He grinned.
Even as the weight of the attention of all Martial Apprentices and even
Squires fell upon him.
He grinned.
He had been waiting for this for a long time. He would no longer be denied!
Chapter 208 Slugfest
Rui had already created an anti-Fae style in all the time he had known her.
This was one of the best parts of the VOID algorithm, the growths he made
against a particular fighter would accumulate. He would come closer and
closer to victory the more he fought against one particular fighter as the
adaptive evolution of the VOID algorithm grew more and more refined and
accurate.
But he yet never beaten her. This wasn't because he was too weak, they
simply hadn't had a chance to fight seriously in recent times, The last time
they had a serious spar was nearly a year ago, more than two of his training
phases ago, a little before the winter holidays.
Although they had sparred when Rui was training the Outer Convergence
technique, that was far from a real fight with many restrictions, furthermore
Rui hadn't mastered Outer Convergence back then. Thus, the results of those
training spars were entirely irrelevant.
After that Rui had been on a non-stop back-and-forth between training and
mission phases, and he simply never fought her seriously. The two hadn't
tested their recent capabilities against each other.
p ('Today, that changes.')
He adopted a kick-boxing stance with an emphasis on leg room and kicking

mobility. The first trait his adapted style needed to have against Fae was
greater range. Fae's Martial Art was centered around open palm attacks. Palm
attacks had shorter range than fists and much shorter range than legs. By
adopting a stance that catered to launching long-range attacks quickly and
swiftly, he would be able to hurt Fae while she would be unable to land
strikes on him as easily.
However, by the estimation of the VOID algorithm, she would be able to
launch a greater number of attacks, meaning he wouldn't be able to prevent
her from penetrating past his range-restrictive defense.
Thus, Rui estimated, via the VOID algorithm, that his Martial Art would also
need a focus on evasive maneuvering.
The end-result outcome as a ranged-striking evasive Martial Art that would

pepper Fae with strikes from outside her Martial Art while also evading any
advances on her part to get into palm-striking range.
All of this was done in the span of a few seconds.
When Rui focused, time almost slowed down to him. Catering to him.
He could feel every cell in his body cooperating as they gathered energy at
the core of his body.
He could feel his concentration accumulating.
He could feel his focus honing.
When he opened his eyes, he saw but one thing.
His opponent. His target. His objective.
Fae narrowed her eyes as she felt a faint pressure from Rui's stance.
The two of them grew increasingly engrossed, the sheer pressure they
emanated could be felt even by distant onlookers.
"Begin!" The supervisor commenced the match!
BAM!
Fae pushed down on the ground with her feet with such force that it shook!
She blasted forward towards Rui, launching a tremendous palm attack at him.
The sheer momentum she had generated caused the generation of air cones
around her attack.
WHOOSH
Rui was no fool. He avoided her attack with his maneuvering techniques,
ceding ground. But she had no intention of letting him run away.
DASH
She charged at him, launching yet another fearsome blow!
WHOOSH
The palm crashed into a feint; missing Rui cleanly as he launched a speed
high kick.
POW
She cleanly deflected Rui's attack out of her way with a smooth palm attack.
Yet just as she tried to close the gap.
POW
The kick she deflected pulled back and struck her in the back of her head,
curbing her progress.
The first clean hit of the battle had finally been landed.
DASH
She charged again, launching a flurry of palm strikes!
This was where the wisdom of the VOID algorithm had begun to show its
true formidability. Rui avoided almost every single palm strike with a
combination of evasive retreatment with his maneuvering techniques as well
as counter-evasion with feints from the Phantom Step technique, throwing
her attacks off.
Fae was slower than he was, and had a hard time staying on him, and even
harder time punishing him with palm attacks because of the constant gap
between them.
Furthermore, she had to deal with longer-ranged jabs and kicks that came
from outside her striking range.
It was frustrating. She had known about Rui's adaptive evolution for quite
some time and had seen it in action as well. But Rui's ability to adapt to his
opponent and fight in precisely the manner that would make it most difficult
for them to win was truly annoying!
She didn't truly understand just by spectating. It was impossible to.
The sheer prowess of the VOID algorithm in the field of combat

optimization.
Only when one experienced the suppression firsthand, did one comprehend.
At this rate, she would lose, she could feel it. Something needed to change.
His style hard-countered hers. And she had to exert much more effort than he
did in order to inflict much less damage. She barely landed a few strikes on
him, the few that he was unable to avoid despite inhumanly perfect timing of
the VOID algorithm supported by the Primordial Instinct technique.
He avoided ninety-percent of his blows, while she could deflect only fifty-
percent of his blows. Even if her offense was much stronger, she could not
compensate for the gap in their striking rate. The odds were stacked against
her.
But she was far from resigned!
The air and the earth shook as she generated more power than she had up
until now. She abandoned defense and launched waves and waves of attacks.
"Guh!" Rui grimaced as the onslaught increased. It became twice as hard to

avoid her ferocious blows. With such a high number of attacks, the effectivity
of Phantom Step reduced tremendously. He couldn't mislead such a large
number of blows with Phantom Step.
The decrease in the effectivity of Phantom Step meant that an even greater
number of blows landed on him.
The battle had devolved into a slugfest as both of them volleyed weach other
countless attacks!
Chapter 209 Tables And Palms
The Martial Apprentices spectating gaped at the sheer power that Rui and Fae
displayed. They were shocked at the display of Martial prowess, and for good
reason. Even among the upper echelons of the Martial Apprentice population
of the Academy, Rui and Fae were special. They were genuine realistic
candidates for the position representative of their Academy, and now,
everyone could see why.
BAM BAM BAM
Fae drew every ounce of power from deep within her. Her body vibrated with
unbridled power as she poured everything into the avalanche of earth-shaking
palm blows.
Yet;
WHOOSH WHOOSH BAM
Two out of every three attacks landed into feints! Rui was abusing the
Phantom Step technique to avoid her attacks. He did his best mitigate the
damage of the attacks that landed with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and
Acute Edge. However, Fae's offense was too strong, he could only partially
mitigate the damage she inflicted.
POW POW POW
Fae gritted his teeth as she endured his powerful blows. Even though his
striking power was much weaker than hers, it was also true that her defense
was weaker than his. He compensated for the remaining disparity with
evasive tactics and that unbelievable timing of his.
The end outcome?

Despite the maelstrom of offensive power that she unloaded onto him, she
was hurting more than he did!
It was unbelievable, yet painfully evident. The difference wasn't large, or

even significant. But it existed, and it existed in Rui's favour.
Rui was one of the few people who could fight her head-on and gain an
advantage against her.
She, who was nigh invincible in close-quarters combat, was being pushed
back?
Her expression steeled as boundless determination welled up from within her.
('Not on my watch!') She swore as her eyes burned with defiance.
She had come too far. She yet far to go.
She could not afford to fall here!
('I wanted to save this trump card against Kane and Nel but...') Her
expression grew grave.
But she had no choice.
It was now or never.
She coiled her right arm, twisting it to the highest degree she could
accumulating enormous amount of power.
He muscles strained.
Her bones creaked.
Her veins popped struggling to contain her raging blood!
Rui's hair stood up as he felt a shiver going down his back. Primordial
Instinct was screaming at him to retreat.
But before he could even decide...
BOOM!
A twisting impact burrowed itself his gut, blasting him back.
"Fuck!" Rui grimaced. The sheer power of the blow was above anything she
had him with thus far. He could only mitigate a portion of the impact, it had
still inflicted considerable damage on his body.
DRIP DRIP
Rui's eyes flew wide open as he glanced down.
"...Blood?" He stared at a large open wound where the skin of his abdomen
ought to have been, dripping blood.
What?
What had happened?
How on Gaea did she skin his abdomen?!
Before he could even process what had happened, his nerves and instincts
tingled as Primordial Attack warned him of an incoming palm attack.
WHOOSH
He managed to avoid it in the last second. The wound had hindered his
physical parameters, slowing him down.
This was what Fae had hoped for.
This was her trump card.
Outer Convergence: Whirlpool
One of the most powerful and highest applications of the Outer Convergence
that required a mastery of the Outer Convergence that was well above even
that of Rui's. This technique gathered power from all muscle groups just like
the ordinary Outer Convergence technique. However, through incredibly
precise and accurate muscle control, it allowed the user to gather and convey
the power in the form of rotational energy and torque, rather than kinetic
energy.
The rotation allowed the impact to damage flesh more thoroughly and
effectively than just a straightforward blow.
However, that was not the extent of the lethality of Fae's attack. She had
added an extra element. She had gone so far as to condition her palm to be
extremely rough.
The sheer power of the rotational impact in addition to Fae's conditioned

rough palm scraping against Rui's skin had cleanly sheared off not just his
skin and the outermost layer of flesh with a single blow!
This was the trump card she had prepared.
She had persevered immensely to keep this trump card hidden. The nature of
this move was such that it would have the greatest impact if her opponent did
not know about it. She didn't think she could defeat the likes of Kane and Nel
without it, and it turned out she wouldn't be able to defeat Rui without it.
She had almost used it against Avi Seth, but ultimately decided against it.
The poison had brilliant compatibility against the Whirlpool variant of the
Outer Convergence, and singlehandedly crippled the technique. It took her
everything to perform the attack, and she would not be able to in her
poisoned state.
However, in this fight, she had decided she would no longer hold back.
Perhaps against other she would have tried to outwit her opponent with
tactics and strategies, but not against Rui. Everyone knew that nobody
outwitted Rui, it was a fool's errand to even try.
Having truly been backed into a corner, she had no other choice.
BOOM
Rui leapt back as he avoided her Whirlpool impact. He had gone into full
evasive mode, abandoning his attack temporarily. In his eyes, Fae's lethality
had skyrocketed.
Even being near her was too dangerous!
Fae, on the other hand, was ecstatic. Her trump card had fulfilled her
expectations, which brought an immense amount of relief to her. With the
wound she had inflicted, there was no doubt she possessed an advantage now.
She lashed forward, pushing herself to the limit as she launched a flurry of
attacks while preparing to use the Whirlpool impact.
Rui paused, he had reached the corner of the ring. He could no longer run.
His wound had already bled profusely, he didn't have much time, he didn't
have much space either with his back facing the corner.
He had no choice.
He steeled his will and dashed towards Fae.
This would be the final clash!

Chapter 210 Outcome
The Martial Apprentices that had gathered around the ring spectating this
important fight were gaping with their jaws dropped. The sight of Fae
unveiling a powerful trump card no one had seen before was rather shocking.
At this stage, almost all of them had fought Fae at some point or the other,
and all of them had lost. However, when they realized that she could have
shaved their flesh off at any point during their fight, they all gulped, sweating
inwardly. A few of them even felt a bit relieved that they weren't strong
enough to force her to use this terrifying trump card.
At the same time, they felt powerless in comparison. She swept past all of
them cleanly and smoothly without even using her strongest weapons? It was
a humbling realization, albeit unpleasant. Even the former rank one Martial
Apprentices of the top twelve Martial Artists couldn't help but grow a bit
bitter. Many of them had fought her and believed to be not too inferior to her,
despite losing.
But she had showed them how misguided their notions were.
Even Avi Seth, who had pushed her the most asides from Rui, realized they if
they had a rematch now, she would almost certainly crush him if she went
all-out from the start.
The reason she didn't use this move against him was probably because she
had already been too poisoned to employ the sheer amount of force the attack
probably required. If they fought against, she would just use it from the get-
go and skin him alive!
His expression sank as he watched Fae and Rui dash at each other.
Rui had been bleeding due to the gaping wound, especially because he had
subjected himself to high-speed maneuvering, exacerbating the issue.
He didn't have much time.
If this continued, his condition would fall below the tolerable threshold and
he would lose any realistic chances of winning.
WHOOSH
Rui carefully avoided a Whirlpool impact from Fae with his maneuvering
techniques and Primordial Instinct.
BOOM
The attack struck the ground, cracking and grinding the ground.
('I need to time it perfectly.') Rui's alertness skyrocketed.
This was it.
If he waited any longer, it would be too late.
He subtly shifted all his weight to his left leg, completely freeing up his right
leg for a swift attack without any warning, as he flexed the muscles in the big
toe of his right foot, turning the toe into a rigid bullet.
Fae launched herself at him.
Just one more Whirlpool impact.
If she could just land a single impact, the fight would be over. Rui's condition
would have degenerated to the point where he simply couldn't sustain optimal
fighting condition.
Just one.
Just one!
('Just one!')
Fae's determination skyrocketed. She would do anything to land one last

Whirlpool impact. She rejoiced when she saw Rui standing stationary as she
approached him.
('He made up his mind.') Fae realized. He was no longer running away, that
strategy had already failed.
That was good enough.
The ground shook as Fae gathered every ounce of force from ever strand of
muscle fiber!
She coiled her left arm, launching herself at Rui. Her left palm rotated with
such force that even the very air helplessly followed suit, forming a miniature
tornado!
Rui stood his ground as the attack approached, even as Primordial Instinct
begged him to run.
WHOOSH
The Whirlpool had arrived.
He ducked to avoid the attack.
('Too late!') She thrust her attack forward, abandoning defense.
She was willing to endure whatever Rui threw at her!
As long as the impact landed, she would win!
The attack swiftly soared forward, chasing after Rui.
Half a meter.
Quarter.
Ten centimeters.
('It's over!') Fae rejoiced as the attack was centimeters away from Rui's face.
It was too close!
Too close.
Yet, too far.
CRACK!
Fae froze. Excruciating pain assailed her mind.
The attack was almost there. Just a single centimeter away!
Yet she froze.
Victory was almost there.
Yet, she froze.
"It's over." Rui whispered.
Fae glanced down at the source of her pain. Her eyes widened as she beheld a
bewildering sight.
His toe!
His toe was in her chest!
It was only then.
It was only then she understood.
The crack she heard was not from Whirlpool landing on Rui.
Not at all.
It was from her very own sternum breaking.

She was still frozen.
And she wasn't alone.
For the briefest of moments, everyone was frozen. It was such a wildly abrupt
outcome that their minds struggled to keep up!
SPLAT
Rui extricated his toe as he retreated. Blood gushed out immediately.
It was a success.
The sternum guarded important blood vessels, such as the Superior Vena
Cava and the aorta. The fragments of her sternum as well as the Stinger had
puncture multiple blood vessels.
('I just need to stop the bleeding!')
Fae pressed her hands against her chest, desperately trying to stop the
bleeding with pressure. Rui had bled much more than her. As long as she
contained the bleeding, she was still in the fight!
Yet, her focus was on the wrong thing.
The most dangerous thing wasn't her wound.
No.
The most dangerous thing was the one who had inflicted that wound.
The pain, the shock and the panic had eluded this simple fact from
registering, causing her to divert too much of her attention to her plummeting
condition.
That was all Rui needed.
He launched the swiftest swing he could, exploiting her delayed reactions.

POW
A clean uppercut slammed into Fae's jaw, rocking her head wildly. The
abrupt and intense oscillations shook her brain, triggering blunt force trauma
and causing her consciousness to shut down.
THUD
She collapsed.
A pool of blood had begun to enlargen immediately, from her collapsed

body.
THUD
Rui fell to his knees. The entire front half of his Martial uniform was
drenched in blood. If not for Helical Breathing supplying increased levels of
oxygen, he would have fallen unconscious during the battle.
He glanced at her as a team of medics worked furiously to heal her. Her

condition was not light. Neither was his.
Rui's vision blurred as the world spun.
THUD
The world went dark as his head hit the earth.

Chapter 211 Rui
Rui opened his eyes. A bright blue sky assaulted his vision.
That didn't make sense.
Shouldn't he have been in the hospital?
He got up to his feet, taking in his surroundings.
He was in the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of nowhere.
"Where am I?" He frowned.
He didn't know.
He turned around.
And what he saw shook him.
He saw a path.
A path he was standing on.
It extended far beyond the depths of his vision.
Who knew who far it went?
It was a path that elevated towards the heavens above, growing in height the
further it extended.
It was a path no one else was on.
Yet it wasn't the path itself that drew his attention.

It was the that what the path went through!
Ferocious beasts of various shapes and sizes.
Earthquakes.
Volcanoes.
Tsunamis.
Meteorites.
The path winded right about treacherous monsters and calamities!
Who in their right mind would travel down this path?
Yet, as terrifying as it was.
It was equally beautiful.
It inspired fear.
Yet.
It also inspired awe.
The path called out to him. Lulling him. Whispering to him.
It was a path he wanted to walk down.
Yet the moment he took his first step...
The world cracked and shattered!
His eyes opened as he rose up abruptly, gasping for air.
He glanced around him as his eyes ran into a set of familiar faces.
"You guys..." Rui murmured as he gazed at Kane, Dalen and Milliana. His
eyes danced around as he recognized the familiar visage of the medical wing.
('...A dream.') He realized, almost in disbelief.
It was so real.
Vivid.
What was that dream?
"You okay?" Kane asked with a concerned tone, as he noticed Rui's

disorientation.
"...Feeling fine, actually." Rui replied as his senses grew more comfortable
with reality. He shook his head, putting aside the dream. A dream was a
dream.
He glanced to his side.
"Fae..." She was still unconscious.
"The doctors said both of you recovered fully and will be in perfect shape for
tomorrow." Kane said.
Rui nodded as the fight between them flashed back to him.
He had revealed one of his trump cards. The Stinger. Now all of the elites of
the Academy that he was to fight knew of this trump card and would be wary
of it.
In the worst case, word of it might leak out to the fifteen candidates of the
Martial Academies through certain channels in the Martial community.
('I'm getting too ahead of myself.') Rui shook his head. He hadn't even won
the preliminary contest yet.
Thankfully, he had managed to preserve his final trump card; Blink.
He hadn't needed to use it. He simply lured Fae too close. He did this by
ducking to and leaning back to avoid her Whirlpool impact, forcing her to
enter extremely close quarters. By then, his foot was outside her peripheral
vision, and all her attention was directed towards landing the Whirlpool
attack on him.
Furthermore, he had shifted all of his weight on his left leg prior, meaning his
right leg was free to move without any trouble at any time without any
warning.
These three factors had allowed him to land the Stinger technique without her
awareness. The technique was so swift she hadn't even realized it had struck
her until it did, and she only comprehended what had happened a few
moments later.
Then the pain, the fear and the shock had completely thrown her mind off-
track and Rui was able to exploit a timely opening in her spatial awareness to
land the final blow at the last moment.
Her Whirlpool attack stopped just a centimeter away from his face, it was
truly too close. Thankfully the much greater range of the Stinger meant he
could land the attack even if he was tilting away from her, which is why the
Stinger had landed first. She was moving towards the Stinger, but he was
moving away from her attack.
However, he hadn't been sure of his victory until he landed the final blow on
her. Even if he managed to land a lethal and critical wound on her, so had
she. He had even been bleeding longer, if she had simply kept her calm and
composure, she might very well have been able to win the fight. At the very
least he would have been forced to use Blink.
But that was not what had happened. Ultimately, she was not a robot. Intense
emotions and sensations had clouded her judgement and caused a single poor
decision which Rui had ruthlessly exploited.
All of this resulted in his victory.
"I guess I really did win." He murmured to himself as a feeling of elation rose
in him. He had finally defeated Fae in a serious fight for the very first time.
This was a goal he had had ever since she beat him in the Martial entrance
exam.
He had an immense amount of respect for her. Defeating her was definitely a
milestone he was proud of.
"Mmmmhh..." She groaned as her eyes opened. She blinked a few times,
glancing around as realization dawned upon her.
"You okay...?" Milliana asked, concerned.
"Who won?"
"..."
"I see." She sighed. The fact that she could not remember anything after Rui
had struck her was not a good sign, but she'd still hoped she hadn't lost.
She sighed, closing her eyes, trying to processing her loss.
With this, her chances of being chosen as representative were all but very
low. Kane, Nel and Hever Mendelieve would need to lose atleast once. Rui
would need to lose at the very least two times in his remaining matches for
her to get back into the competition. If he lost only once, she would not be
chosen, even if she won her remaining match, since if their scores were tied,
he would be chosen because he beat her.
She open her eyes, exhaling. Turning to Rui, she smiled despite her
disappointment.
"Great fight." She said, extending an arm. "You've truly come a long way."
"Thanks." Rui smiled. "You were incredibly strong, so much so that I could
have easily lost that match."
Chapter 212 Banter
The five of them bantered a bit more, touching more into several aspects and
parts of the fight, going deep into them and offering their thoughts and
opinions.
"Outer Convergence: Whirlpool huh?" Rui murmured. "That's amazing. If its

difficulty is above Outer Convergence then my talent and affinity for
offensive techniques is probably not good enough. Still, it was very creative
of you adding a conditioning element to it to create that unique attack Fae."
"Thanks." She replied appreciatively. "I had mastered the technique for the
Martial Festival and the Martial Contest, but it was too optimistic to not lose
without using it. In the end I lost despite using it."
"You came too close." Rui said, shaking his head. "Just the tiniest difference
could have been game over for me. In the end, I was forced to reveal my
trump card."
"What was that technique?" Fae frowned, glancing at his toe.
"It's a technique known as the Stinger." Rui explained. "Through intense

conditioning, the toe is transformed into an extremely durable hard piercing
instrument. That along with a kick amplified with Apprentice level
techniques allows me to kick with piercing power significantly surpassing
even musket bullets."
The four of them were impressed.
"That's a lethal trump card." Dalen sighed. Out of all of them, the revelation
that both Rui and Kane had power and lethal trump cards that they had
hidden had hit him the hardest. He had lost against both Rui and Fae, but he
believed that the gap was not gigantic, if he learnt two or three techniques, he
would be on par with them.
This fight had shown him how misguided that notion was.
This was particularly disheartening because he was a defensive Martial

Artist. He had endured Rui's and Fae's attacks better than almost anybody
else. But now he had learnt that both Rui and Fae could have pretty much
easily put him into a critical state with just a few attacks with their trump
cards.
Most people would be downed with one or at most two Stingers and
Whirlpools. Dalen estimated he could take four-to-five Stingers and
Whirlpools. Furthermore, if Rui and Fae truly fought him with intent of
killing him, he would last lot less.
He sighed. He still had a long way to go.
The only one who was rather unmoved was Kane. The trump cards were less
effective against him because they didn't solve the fundamental that he posed
to everyone else.
The biggest issue fighting Kane wasn't being unable to take him down with
any attack that they landed on him. The biggest issue was landing attacks on
him at all. In that regard, the Stinger and the Whirlpool attacks were not any
better than normal attacks. If anything, those attacks may be at an even
greater disadvantage than normal attacks against him since he would be
extraordinarily careful against them especially compared to normal attacks.
"They're powerful trump cards." he noted. "Are you two going to continue
using them now that everybody already knows about them?"
"Yes, it doesn't make sense to hide it after it's already be revealed." Fae
replied.
"I'll use them if it is optimal to use them, and won't if it isn't optimal." Rui
shrugged. He made his decisions after analyzing his opponent and the
circumstances via thinking it through the algorithmic analytic procedures of
the VOID algorithm and general circumstantial evaluation.
Kane threw a meaningful look at Rui. He had known from the very start that
Rui had hidden trump cards. It wasn't a particularly genius deduction on his
part. He knew Rui had learnt three techniques in his last training phase, and
four techniques in the training phase before that.
Our of those seven techniques, he was only aware of Phantom Step, Inner
Divergence, Outer Convergence and Stinger.
That left three unknown techniques he hadn't seen Rui use.
He still had hopes that whatever those three techniques were, they would be
useful against himself.
Little did he know, that his hopes were largely true.
Seismic Mapping and Primordial Instinct were quite useful against him. They
were more than just useful. They were Rui's lifeline against Kane. With these
two techniques combined. Rui was able to sense which direction Kane was at
all times, and also his position vaguely at all times. He could sense Kane's
attacks or motions, but beggars couldn't be choosers. He could only thank his
good fortune for having chosen techniques that would be useful against Kane.
"Oh right." Rui suddenly remembered. "Nel's fight isn't over yet, is it?"
"Nope." Kane replied. "It's scheduled today."
"Who's he fighting against again?" Dalen scratched his head.
"Hever Mendelieve." Fae replied. "I'm looking forward to that fight."
Hever Mendelieve was now among the only four undefeated Martial
Apprentices in the Academy along with Rui, Kane and Nel.
Hever Mendelieve was one of the most unique Martial Artists in the Martial
Academy. He was the only elite Martial apprentice who had mastered one
and only one technique.
Of course, there were freaks like Nel who hadn't mastered a single technique,
but this was rather different. Nel was gifted with godly physical prowess.
Hever was a normal man.
Yet, he had made it to the top undefeated having mastered a single technique.
Meteor Swing
This was a technique that was graded nine in regards to both potency and
difficulty. It was a counter offensive technique that intercepted attacks with a
grasp and used his opponent's attacks energy in addition to their own energy
in a swing that was executed with the principles of redirection, center of
gravity and balance manipulation.
He was a senior Martial Apprentice from the same generation of Gale, but
had long since widened the gap between them.
For the past six years, this Martial Artist had dedicated his everything to the
singular mastery of this one technique. And elevated his mastery of
application far beyond the general mastery. His timing, placement, body-eye
coordination, precision and accuracy with this technique were leagues above
any other Martial Apprentices mastery of their techniques.
He was not a rank one Martial Apprentice for no reason.

Chapter 213 Alike
Techniques were like weapons themselves. They allowed Martial Artists to

achieve things that they would ordinarily not be able to. They allowed for
greater prowess in combat. Lower-grade techniques had a marginal effect
whereas higher-grade techniques could change the tide of battle.
Usually, the one with more of these weapons, and better-quality weapons
won. They would usually overwhelm with a quantity or a quality advantage.
However, there was a variable that was often left unseen.
Mastery of these weapons. Mastery of these techniques.
Someone who had higher mastery of a technique would defeat someone with
a lower mastery. Mastery was an important variable that had significant
impact on the outcome of a clash.
Yet, there was a reason people moved on to another technique after mastering
one to a satisfactory level. Learning new techniques was easier than
increasing an already high mastery.
The higher the mastery, the more energy and time it took to raise that
mastery. It became an inefficient exchange and the effort and energy it costed
to raise the mastery even a bit simply wasn't worth it. Why spend all that time
and energy for marginal gains when one could simply start mastering a new
technique and make much greater progress?
This was the rationale that drove ninety-nine percent of Martial Artists to
mastering multiple techniques.
Even Rui was part of this group. Perhaps he was even at the forefront of that
group with sheer number of techniques he had mastered in a short amount of
time.
But not Hever Mendelieve. Born in a prestigious Martial Family, he had

reached Martial Apprentice even before he had joined the Academy.
In all his time in the Martial Academy, he was the only Martial Apprentice to
have never entered the Apprentice Library.
He had chosen the Meteor Swing technique the day he broken through to
Martial Apprentice, and had dedicated everything to this counter-offensive
technique.
Within a year of entering the Academy. He had mastered the technique to a

general level. He had mastered it to a level that other Martial Apprentices
would have stopped training it and begun training new techniques.
But Hever wasn't satisfied with his mastery of the technique.
No matter how much better he got, there was always something missing.
In fact, his sense of inadequacy only grew stronger and stronger.
He grew more and more unsatisfied with his mastery of this technique.
The Squire instructors had encouraged him to attempt learning other

techniques, but he had deigned to reject their suggestions. He would move
onto other techniques after he was satisfied with his mastery of Meteor
Swing, despite their unspoken disapproval.
Only Headmaster Aronian had encouraged his decision wholeheartedly.
"Every technique is a limitless well of potential and possibilities. This is true

even for the lowest of techniques, as well as the highest." Headmaster
Aronian told him. "Yet most never realize this until much later in their
Martial Path, many have heard this, yet very few truly understand it."
He paused before, continuing. "Your sense of inadequacy grows because

your subconscious awareness of the infinite potential of your technique
grows as well."
"However, just because your awareness of the limitless potential of your
technique grows, doesn't necessarily mean you have to realize that potential."
Headmaster Aronian told him as he stroked his flowing white beard. "You
don't have to do anything. Anything at all."
"What does that mean?" Hever had asked, confused.
Headmaster Aronian chuckled at his confusion. "Your voyage down your

Martial Path isn't an obligation. It's a choice, it's a will, it's a desire." He said.
"You only need to do what you want to, if you wish to keep travelling down
this Path. So what is it that you want to do? Continue mastering this
technique despite it yielding lower short-term growth or... abandon your
training of this technique and pursue new techniques?"
More than five years later, Hever Mandelieve stood before Nel in one of his
final few matches in the twenty-seventh preliminary contest of the Hajin
branch of the Martial Academies.
And he had yet to master more than one technique.
No.
If asked, he would say he hasn't mastered a single technique yet.
"That's crazy story, to be honest." Rui muttered excitedly as they waited for
the match between Hever and Nel to commence.
They had long since migrated to the sparring facility waiting for the matchup
between Nel and Mendelieve. Neither Rui, Kane nor Fa had faced either one
of the, so that alone was enough reason to spectate their match. Furthermore,
this was a fight between two undefeated top rankers, the outcome mattered a
lot and would significantly affect who would eventually become the
representative of their Martial Academy.
"It is a remarkable story." Fae agreed.
"We're quite alike." Rui blurted, earning stares of confusion.
,m "You're nothing alike." Kane grumbled. "He remained faithful and loyal to
a single technique whereas you mastered seventeen techniques in eighteen
months, you Martial Whore."
Rui threw a sharp glare at Kane.
"Putting his phrasing aside." Fae said throwing a disapproving glance at

Kane. "He does have a point, you're the exact opposite of Hever in every
way."
Rui shook his head wordlessly. He didn't bother defending himself against
Kane's rebuts. They wouldn't understand.
But what Fae had told him about Hever resonated with him. He felt the exact
same way with the VOID algorithm. The more he used it in this world, the
more he realized that there was an immense amount of potential in his master
of the VOID algorithm and the algorithm itself.
Although he mastered other techniques, he only mastered them because they

were necessary for his Martial Art and Martial Path; the VOID algorithm and
Project Water.
In way, he could relate to the one-track mindedness of Hever, and could even
appreciate it.
This made him all the more excited for his fight against Nel. He wasn't sure
who would win because he lacked too much information, but he hoped for an
amazing fight more than anything.
Chapter 214 Come Then
Nel took his usual bizarre stance. Crouching and letting his arms dangle
lazily, it was a stance that would have oozed lethargy if anybody else had
taken it.
But not Nel.
No one would have called him lethargic.
Not with the savage beastly aura he radiated. The sheer pressure he exerted
on everyone with just a flash of focus was immense, it was as though one was
staring into the eyes of a tiger face-to-face.
Yet when one turned to glance at Hever, one could only see an unmoving
mountain. He had a sturdy aura that gave one the impression that he was
unmovable. He simply gazed abck at Nel, ignoring his strange antic as he
took his stance.
It was a modest stance.
Distributed feats, and open hands ready for interception.
The stance was modest.
But the danger that Primordial Instinct felt going near it was not.
"This is going to be one hell of a fight." Rui grinned.

WHOOSH
Nel dashed, reaching Hever in an instant. He swung a wild haymaker at his

face with immense speed and force.
BOOM!
A heavy impact resounded through the air and the earth of the sparring
facility. The outcome of the clash shook not just the ground, but also the
minds of those who were watching.
Nel had been the one to attack first.
Yet, the very next moment, he was flat on the ground.
A milestone had been crossed.
For the first time since the commencement of the preliminary contest... Nel
had been downed.
"This..." Rui's eyes flew wide open. What had occurred had unfolded so fast
that it was a blur even to Rui's eyes. From the looks of it, even Nel was
unable to combat it in time!
However, what had happened was clear. Hever had intercepted Nel's attack
and swung him across his shoulder using not just the energy gathered from
across his body, but also the energy of Nel's own attack.
The resulting outcome was a throwing maneuver with such absurd power,
that even Nel was unable to mitigate the damage!
"Unbelievably fast intercepts, remarkably smooth and fluid transition and an

incredible impact fueled by his opponent and himself." Rui muttered.
Rui realized that out of all the former twelve top rankers, Hever Mendelieve
was a cut above the lower half. No wonder he had managed to go undefeated
even at the top ranker began being pit against each other. He was a
powerhouse and a contender for the position of representative of the Martial
Academy in the Martial Contest.
Yet Rui knew the match was far from over.
Nel got up to his feet, grinning as he patted his uniform. He wasn't bothered
that his attack completely failed and was used against him overwhelmingly
slam him into the ground.
No.
He simply grinned like a boy who had been gifted the toys he wanted for
christmas.
He turned to Hever, stancelessly.
"Heber Menleave." Nel addressed.
"You-" "-It's Hever Mendelieve." Hever cut him off calmly, correcting him.
"Ah.." Nel scratched his head awkwardly. "I'm not good with names. But I'll
remember yours." He promised.
Suddenly, there was a change.
It could be felt.
The air grew heavier.
It grew graver.
The expressions of the onlookers tightened.
A maelstrom of pressure pushed down on all of them as Nel's grin grew

wider.
"You're strong." His focus and concentration skyrocketed.
His eyes burrowed into Hever. "Stronger than I could have hoped for."
He took his signature stance.

Yet, it was completely different.
What had changed?
"The strongest I've faced so far."
Nel had changed.
"Please."
Only sincerity could be heard in his tone.
"Try not to lose too quickly."
Hever simply gazed at him.
He sighed.
"Come then."
His words cut through the heavy atmosphere.
There was nothing left to be said.
WHOOSH
('...Fast!') Rui's eyes widened ('Only Kane is faster!')
p Yet, what occurred was even faster.
BOOM!
Nel slammed the floor. Yet before Rui could even marvel at Hever's
technique, he was already up!
WHOOSH
Nel blurred as he appeared in front of Hever. His fist was merely inches away
from the latter's face.
And yet,
BOOM!
He was already on the ground, skidding away.
WHOOSH
BOOM!
WHOOSH
BOOM!
...
WHOOSH
BOOM!
The Martial Apprentices gaped. Hever Mendelieve threw him over and over!
Nel's speed was immense. Only Kane would overwhelm it, almost everyone
else would simply lose. The few that didn't would need to be extremely
careful.
Yet Hever Mendelieve was intercepting these speedy attacks and throwing
Nel to thr ground before the latter could even do anything about it?
"He's incredibly fast." Dalen murmured.
"No." Kane shook his head. "The speed of his motion isn't special, he's not
bad, but he's not particularly good either."
"Then how is he accomplishing such speed?" Fae asked.
"Not sure." Kane admitted, scratching his head. "It's like there's no delay in
his motions or something. It's hard to explain."
"It's a result of an unbelievable amount of muscle memory. It has to be." Rui
realized, observing Hever with his keen eyes.
"I thought memory resided in the head not in the muscles." Milliana tapped
her temple.
"Muscle memory is the subconscious memory of movements and

coordination." Rui explained. "It resides in a special part of the brain that is
responsible for motion, coordination, balance and equilibrium."
"What does that have to do with Hever?" Dalen asked curiously.
"Normally, all movements require conscious processing and guidance from

the conscious mind." Rui explained. "Even as we move, our conscious minds
are perceiving, thinking, making a decision and executing the decision
regarding what movement we should make next."
Everyone nodded. This made sense.
"But." Rui added. "This takes time. Not too much time, of course, but enough
time to slow down the execution of movements, especially complicated
movements, especially complicated movements like Martial Art techniques."
"Hever is skipping all of that through sheer muscle memory." Rui explained.
"Rather than consciously perceiving, processing and thinking, and finally
making a decision. He simply skips all of that because he subconsciously
remembers what movements to make in any given circumstance."
This was the secret to Hever's strength!

Chapter 215 Dangerous
Normally, conscious reaction functioned like so;
Perception -> Processing -> Decision making -> Reaction.
But Hever's mastery of Meteor Swing functioned like so;
Perception -> Muscle memory -> Reaction.
Of course, this was extremely difficult to accomplish. It took a long time to

build such immense amount of muscle memory. Merely general mastery of a
technique was not enough.
This was the fruit of five continuous unhalted rigorous years of training with
the Meteor Swing technique. The Meteor Swing was a counter-offensive
technique, it was meant to be used when the user was attacked.
By practicing the Meteor Swing over and over and over against countless
kinds of attacks, he had burned those motions into his muscle memory.
If someone threw a punch at his face, he no longer needed to think and react,
his muscle memory remembered what to do when someone threw a punch at
his face. The speed of subconscious sensory recollection and muscle memory
was far superior to the speed of conscious cognition. Thus, he reacted earlier
and there was no delay in his maneuvers caused by conscious reactive
processing, because it had been replaced by the quicker muscle memory.
This was why, even though his motion and movement speed were limited, he
was still able to perform extraordinarily quick maneuvers because his
reactions and motions were not hindered by the tedious process of conscious
cognition.
This was why he was able to keep up with Nel.
"That's unbelievable." Fae murmured, impressed.
"But why doesn't everybody do this?" Kane asked, frowning. "If muscle
memory is this useful, why don't more Martial Artists take his route? Won't it
make more sense to go down this route."
Rui shook his head. "In most cases, dedicating yourself to a single technique
will lead to lower growth than mastering multiple techniques. The reason it's
worked out so well has to do with the fact that the technique he picked covers
everything; defense, offense and can handle a lot of styles as far as
compatibility goes. Furthermore, it's a grade-nine technique as far potency
and difficulty go. And finally... It has to do with Hever himself. His affinity
and talent with that technique and counter-offensive grappling must be
extremely high. All of these factor into why it worked out for him."
"I see..." Fae muttered as she turned back to the battle.
BOOM!
Hever threw slammed Nel onto the ground after intercepting yet another
charge and swing.
BOOM!
BOOM!
None of the fighters could take their eyes off the battle. This battle was such a
bizarre battle that they were sure they would never see anything quite like it
ever again.
"Hever is tossing him like a ragdoll over and over." Kane said. "There's no
way Nel can possibly win right?"
"I wouldn't necessarily say that." Rui disagreed, glancing back at the fight.
It was true that Hever was intercepting, defending and countering every
attack while landing successful throws each time...
"Nel keeps getting up faster and faster. Rui noted. "His constitution is strong.
The damage he takes with each strike is not significant."
Nel wasn't getting faster, he was getting more and more used to the timing.
This wasn't the same as the VOID algorithm, which would have adapted than
he did, but it was a result of the natural optimization capabilities of the
human mind.
"At this rate..." Rui hesitated.
At this rate, Hever Mendelieve would likely become more and more
disadvantaged. This wasn't his fault, usually someone with this level of
durability and speed seldom existed. Nel was exhibiting a level of toughness
that only Dalen could match while showing off speed that only Kane would
surpass. Both of those were quite unconducive to Hever's Martial Art.
Usually people did not last long enough to adapt to his Martial Art. Prior to
fighting Nel, no one lasted for more than three throws.
But here came Nel, with the durability to endure many strikes and the speed
to potentially overwhelm the Meteor Swing technique once he grew
completely used to the timing of the technique.
Suddenly, there was just the slightest change in the ring.
Just the slightest.
Yet because of the monotony of the match, not a single onlooker missed it.
"Mmrrg." Hever grimaced as he took a step back!
BOOM!
He still managed to successfully execute the throw.
But no one missed it
BOOM!
He had ceded even more ground.

Nel's grin widened at the sight as he threw more and more attacks in one
direction, each forcing him to cede more and more ground in on direction!
Hever slammed him more and more, but his breathing had grown strained.
"His stamina is lacking." Kane shook his head. "He's going to lose this match,
it's a matter of time." Earning approval from the others.
Only Rui and Milliana frowned.
"This doesn't make sense." Milliana commented. "It's too sudden."
Rui nodded, sharpening his eyes. "He went from pristine condition to tired in
the span of twenty seconds? That's now how exhaustion works, it's linear
with time, especially when consumption rate of energy is constant like in this
fight. If he's this exhausted right now, we would have seen signs of it five
minutes ago."
Milliana nodded in agreement. "Also, his Meteor Swing is a technique uses

the opponent's energy as well."
"Yeah, it's just a bit bizarre that he's already this exhausted despite that in
such an abrupt timeframe." Rui nodded. "Either he was born with strangely
poor stamina or..."
"Or?" Kane echoed.
"Or he's doing it on purpose." Rui's eyes sharpened, even he found that hard
to believe. What he didn't understand was why he would bother. After,
weren't there only demerits?
He was only ceding space, losing control of the center of the ring and
reducing his own freedom. He was dragging himself to edge of the court for
no reason. It would only increase the chances of a ring-out.
Suddenly Rui's eyes. "No way..."
If what he had come to suspect was true, then Hever Mendelieve was even
more dangerous than he had expected!
Chapter 216 Shocking Outcome
Hever collapsed to a knee near the corner of the court. To everyone but Rui,
Hever's defeat was certain.
"It's over."
"Well, he put a good fight."
"Nel's gonna knock him out."
Nel didn't even hesitate, he blasted forward faster than he ever had. But Rui
didn't pay attention to him. He was staring at Hever intensely, wondering if
he was right.
It was then.
Just the smallest of smiles crept onto Hever's expression.
CLASP
He intercepted Nel's attack, and fell back as he got up to his feet, using that
momentum to throw Nel flying behind him. This was a launching maneuver
that could only be performed starting from one knee.
This was his goal. He wanted to get onto to his single knee stance near the
corner of the ring. However, he could not simply walk to the edge, and get
down on knee. Even the most simple-minded fool would realize that this was
a trap.
Therefore, he had begun working ahead of time. Feigning fatigue. Ceding

ground as if he was starting to weaken. He redirected and threw Nel exactly
where he wanted him. And at the end, he collapsed to his knee like he was at
his very limit.
All so that he could executed a maneuver that would launch Nel outside the
ring.
('I fucking KNEW it.') Rui mused excitedly when he saw Hever successfully
intercept Nel's haymaker. He fell back as he got up, using the upward motion
to lift Nel and the backward motion to launch Nel flying behind him outside
the ring. This was why he had let himself get pushed to the edge.
It was smooth. Nel was airborne!
The plan had succeeded!
And then, it failed.
CLASP
In the final hour. No, the final moment.
Nel found a way to salvage his fight.
Nel's reflexes were superhuman. This, in addition to the enhancement given

by the breakthrough to the Martial Apprentice Realm, was truly immense. In
this one particular area, his reflexes were on par with Kane despite not being
a speed-oriented Martial Artist.
Despite being launched at incredible speeds, he still managed to catch a hold

of Hever's arm before it was too late!
He threw Hever a shit-eating grin.
Hever's eyes flew wide open as Nel dragged him along with him!
He had no holding leverage, furthermore, he was truly caught off. He was

simply unable to resist the incredible momentum that he himself had
generated!
WHOOSH
Both Martial Artists took to the air as Nel guffawed out loud midair with
mischievous ecstasy while Hever was simply shocked into an incredulous
silence.
BOOM
They both landed outside the ring as the same time.
For a moment...
No, for several seconds even;
Everybody was shocked. The only noise that broke what would have been
absolute silence was Nel uncontrollably laughing.
"Maaaan, that was awesome!" Nel grinned, turning to Hever. "Hey, let's do
that again some time."
...
Hever sighed resigned. "Sure."
A commotion broke amongst the Martial Apprentices and onlookers.
The outcome was truly shocking. Never had they ever expected that the fight
would end in this manner. Rui was speechless beyond words. He was
extremely impressed with both of them. Nel's physical prowess had yet again
shown why he was truly one of the top rankers of the Academy.
Hever, on the other hand, had a level of mastery that made Rui envious, this
sheer mastery had allowed him to compete with Nel. He had crushed all of
Nel's offense and initiative and landed every single attack smoothly. Nel was
truly blessed he had a strong constitution and sharp reflexes, otherwise Hever
would have defeated him without a doubt.
His tactical capabilities impressed Rui as well, that tactic was resourceful and
well-planned. Rui was relatively certain that he was the only one who had
figured it out ahead of time given how everyone had written the match off.
Hever Mendelieve was a powerful Martial Artist with a sharp tactical and
resourceful fighting style.
"On account of simultaneous ringout, this match is a tie!" The supervisor

declared.
This meant that both Hever and Nel's win-streak had been stopped, by none
other than each other.
This also meant they were now below rank one, since they no longer had all
wins like Rui and Kane did.
Rui should have been elated about the fact that he was one of the two only
top rankers, but frankly, he wasn't. Hever Mendelieve was much stronger
than Rui had hoped. He was now another addition to the top three threats Rui
had to defeat.
In fact, he might even be more dangerous than Kane or Nel!
Rui grinned. He was excited to take on all of them.
But he was clear about its difficulty. Defeating all of them would be a
herculean task. He had already come up with countermeasures against Nel
and Kane to a partial extent. It seems he would need to do the same for
Hever.
Thankfully, as strong as he was Hever was not as much of a deviant as Nel

and Kane were. Although he was certainly quite unique, his strength was less
anomalous to Rui than Kane or Nel.
The biggest problem with him was dealing with his immense muscle
memory, and Rui also had to be careful of Hever's tactical capabilities. He
was the only fighter in entire Martial Academy whose tactical capacity Rui
was a little wary of.
As for techniques... There was only one. But the problem was that it was
grade nine and was highly efficient as well as versatile and flexible. It gave
Rui perspective on the benefits of mastering techniques beyond just general
mastery. Of course, the technique itself mattered a lot too. Rui did not think it
was worth mastering techniques like Mind Palace technique that would allow
him to remember information better.
But perhaps in the future he might find a technique worth dedicating himself
to a higher degree.
Rui shook his head. This was a matter for the future. Right now, he should be
focusing his all on the preliminary contest. There were only a few days until
the preliminary contest was over.
He was determined to win.

Chapter 217 Inevitable.
WHOOSH
POW POW POW
Rui avoided kick as he fired of three strikes at Sarron Malcolm, one of the
eleven he was scheduled to fight.
Sarron grimaced as he stepped back, trying to open up some distance between

them. But Rui was not merciful enough to allow that to happen. Rui dashed
forward with Parallel Walk and Balanced Direction before;
BAM!
Rui successfully burrows Flowing Canon into Sarron's solar plexus. The
sheer impact was too powerful. The boy crumbled like a house of cards, but
Rui was not done.
POW
A single kick to the jaw knocked him out on the way down. Rui wanted to
ensure he wouldn't get up.
The onlookers sighed. Rui was brutal, there was a reason he had gone
undefeated.
"Winner; Apprentice Rui Quarrier!" The supervisor declared.
He walked off the stage, unperturbed.
"Good fight." Kane complimented.

"Thanks." Rui replied. "I finished it especially quickly because I didn't want
to miss the next one."
He glanced at the preliminary schedule on the notice board.
[Fae Dullahan vs Kane]
This was something Rui did not dare miss. They were both close friends of
his, and even without that, they were top contenders of the Martial Academy.
Rui would pay Martial credits to watch this fight.
It's not that the two of them had never fought. If one were to include verbal
spats, these two fought every single day. About all kinds of things too. If
there was something that could be argued about, there was at the very least a
fifty-percent chance Fae and Kane would fight over it.
But as far as physical fights went, these two hadn't fought in a while. They
had both grown stronger ever since then, having learnt new powerful
techniques.
But if he had to choose who was stronger...
('...It would have to be Kane.') Rui sighed.
It wasn't a matter of overall prowess at all. It wasn't that Kane operated on a

higher level of combat prowess.
It was a matter of compatibility. Kane had a stylistic compatibility advantage

against Fae, this would tilt the battle in his favour.
Unless Kane somehow blundered or Fae pulled a brilliant tactic, there was
very little chance Kane would lose.
They'd reached. Fae, Milliana and Dalen were already waiting for them.
The atmosphere was tense, especially because these two irked each other to
no end on a regular basis.
Yet this time, they exchanged no words, merely exchanging stares.

"Hey guys..." Rui tried breaking the stiff atmosphere. "Looking forward to a
great fight. No hard feelings regardless of who wins."
The two of them didn't respond, merely making their way to the ring.
"Do you think they'll be fine?" Rui muttered.
"They should be." Dalen stated, earning a nod from Milliana.
Up on the ring, the two of them took their positions.
The atmosphere grew taut.
"Take your stance." The supervisor instructed.
Fae reverted to her usual stance, tucking her right palm upside-down at her
waist while her left palm pointed straight at Kane. "I'm intend to win."
She spoke calmly.
Kane snorted, as he lightly hopped between his feet. "Be my guest."
That was the signal.
WHOOSH
Fae raced forward as she threw a palm attack right onto him.
WHOOSH
And where Kane should have been, there was but naught.
Kane sauntered out of all perception, having activated the Void Step
technique.
Fae stayed stationary, waiting.

POW
Her body jerked at a strike from behind her landed on her. She swiftly turned,
launching swift palm attack.
WHOOSH
Despite her sacrificing power to obtain speed, she had missed. But this was
not outside her expectations.
Rui had observed the fight with Primordial Instinct and Seismic Mapping.
Kane was currently circling around her in order to maintain the stealth given
to him by the Void Step technique.
POW POW POW
WHOOSH
He landed a combo before evading her attack.
This continued.
And continued some more.
And some more.
This unfolded from start to finish. Kane abused his advantage and continued
pummeling Fae up. She slowly but surely built up more and more damage as
the fight went on. Fae's defense was quite solid and Kane's offense was
unremarkable. Even if he did possess an advantage, he certainly would not be
able to end the fight quickly, he was an evasive maneuverer at his core, his
offense would never be special.
Not every fight was flashy.
Not every fight was suspenseful.
And most certainly, not every fight was unpredictable.

Sometimes, there were just predictable fight.
Sometimes, there simply were inevitable outcomes.
This fight, Rui had come to realize, was probably going to be one of them.
Fae was just too incompatible with the Void Step technique. Her techniques
and her Martial Art were not conducive to it, and it showed.
In the end, she grew more and more desperate, taking a gamble.
She stood at the very corner of the ring, cutting out any access to attacks from
behind or even from her side. While waiting for an attack to land on her.
Her idea was to land a strike as soon as she felt Kane's attack.
Rui shook his head. It may have seemed like a good idea, but it simple
wasn't. The risk was far, far too high. Kane's offense was not special, but it
wasn't weak either, he had two mid-grade striking offensive techniques that
amplified the power of his regular strikes and with the Void Step technique,
he could easily build up momentum. She would fall off before she could land
a single strike.
Even if she had the defensive prowess of Dalen, she would still not be able to
land a strike on him probably. His evasiveness was too good, and he could
easily land strikes while avoid strikes unperturbed.
And, he was invisible. To Fae, atleast.
That strategy was too risky even for Rui, who could actually sense his
position vaguely. He would merely be trading out one disadvantage for
another.
The fundamental issue was not solved.
BAM
Fae was firmly ringed out.

And the battle ended.
Chapter 218 Charge
Hever shifted as he took his modest stance. He distributed his weight equally
between both feet, putting his left foot forward and his right foot back as a
support. His hands were open, placed at a height precisely in between his
chest and waist. They were in interception position, ready to intercept all
attacks that Rui threw at him.
"I'm looking forward to fighting you." Rui said as he hopped lightly between
his feet, with both hands in front of him perfectly positioned for speedy jabs.
This stance sacrificed power for speed and mobility. Rui had seen that Hever
was comfortably able to handle even the power of Nel without any problems
for an extended period of time. There was no point in trying to overpower
Hever. The only person who had chance of accomplishing that in the entire
Academy was Fae, everybody else could only lower their head to his obtuse
counter-offensive mastery.
"As am I." Hever calmly replied. Rui was not the only one paying attention to
his rivals and contenders. Hever had long since identified Rui as one of the
biggest obstacles in the entire Academy for the preliminary contest.
Especially since Rui was also ranked higher than he was at the moment.
Rui shuffled as he drew closer to Hever.
Hever simply waited.
Rui threw a jab only for Hever calmly intercept it.

WHOOSH
A feint. The Phantom Step technique.
Rui exploited the opening to throw the quickest jab he could!
Yet, the very next moment;
BAM!
Rui grimaced in pain as he skidded away. Even with the application of Inner
Divergence and Elastic Shift. The throw hurt like hell. Even with Primordial
Instinct, his reactions were inferior to Hever's!
He quickly got up, launching himself at Hever throwing a jab.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui skidded away groaning in pain.
('As expected. I cannot beat him with such an easy tactic.') Rui mused as he
got up. If Hever was not aware of the Phantom Step technique, then Rui was
certain he would be able to use it at the right moment and at the right place to
create an opening he could successfully exploit.
However, Rui had used the Phantom Step technique many times in this
preliminary contest, and Hever was clearly prepared for it, anticipating that
Rui would use this technique in this manner.
Not that this surprised Rui. If he were in Hever's place, he would have made
this realization the second he saw himself using the Phantom Step technique.
He had anticipated that this would not work against the careful Hever.
However, just being careful was not enough to foil a high-grade technique
like Phantom Step. The biggest reason had to do with the Hever's muscle
memory quickness, it was so quick, that even after falling for a feint, he was
still quick enough to respond to Rui's real attack in time!
Rui couldn't help but admire his sheer mastery of a single technique, that
allowed him to crush so many powerful techniques and attacks.
He stopped attacking. Having already cleanly failed twice, he did not expect
anything to change even if he continued, it was a fool's errand. He was not
going to fight foolhardily like Nel and continue attacking over and over.
He dropped his guard, circling around Hever at a distance. The best part
about fighting Hever was that Rui did not have to worry about being
voluntarily attacked. Hever had mastered only one technique, and it purely
counter-offensive, he had no pure offensive potential. This meant that Rui
had fully grasped the initiative in this fight. He could leisurely do whatever
he wanted and Hever would not press him.
Thus, he took his time, thinking and analyzing.
,m Hever continuously shifted; rotating to ensure Rui was always directly in

front of him at all times.
('So the technique works best when he's facing his opponent.') Rui
conjectured. ('Or perhaps it works worst or not at all when his back is facing
his opponent.')
Rui thought of ways he could exploit this, but eventually shook his head, it
was too difficult.
"Do I really have to use that?" Rui murmured.
He had inputted Dalen's capabilities as well as his own into the VOID
algorithm, and had long begun analyzing their fight with algorithmic
procedures of the VOID algorithm. It wasn't that he hadn't obtained any
solutions, it's just that Rui was rather reluctant of using the solutions he had
deduced through the algorithm.
('Sigh, no choice.') He shook his head. At the very least, Dalen was easily in
the top five, if not top three in the entire Academy.
He took solace that he wouldn't be wasting his final trump card against
someone who was unworthy or could be defeated through other ways.
"Fuuu..." Rui focused.
He suspected he had one chance. If this failed, the odds of it succeeding again
were lower than the first time. Such was the nature of all trump cards.
Especially for this one.
He could not afford to fail.
But what was new?
Hever narrowed his eyes as the burden on his mind escalated. His muscles
grew tauter and his alertness heightened. His instinctual sense of danger
heightened with the sheer amount of physical and mental energy Rui was
gathering. He knew Rui was an intelligent fighter, he would not simply try to
replicate completely failed attempts with more effort and hope they would
magically succeed, whatever he was trying was certainly going to be new.
Rui shuffled closer and closer, controlling every single movement carefully.
He paused at a distance of one meter away.
The pressure was immense. The air was taut.
Hever could vaguely sense Rui was waiting for something.
But for what?
He didn't know.
Whatever was coming was big.
Yet, what he didn't expect was...
He would never see it coming in the first place.
BLINK
Suddenly, Rui was right in front of his face!
It was a takedown charge!

Chapter 219 Hell Of A Fight
Hever's muscle memory flashed as he just barely managed to reach Rui's

attack in time.
WHOOSH
It was a feint.
Where did he go?
THUD
Rui had crashed into his lower abdomen before Hever could even realize!
The force of the takedown had toppled Hever onto the ground flat. Hever
wrangled like a serpent, but to no avail.
CLASP
Rui used Shifting Silhouette, his only grappling defense technique to

suppress all of Hever's grappling activity, and successfully mounted Hever.
BAM BAM BAM!
Rui mercilessly pounded on Hever like a gorilla, using the full power of
Outer Convergence and Vital Pressure.
Hever had begun bleeding immensely. He did not have any defensive
techniques like Inner Divergence, even if he did, they would not work very
well, if at all in such a scenario. Inner Divergence required the user shifting
the area of impact as close to the center of the body as possible, whereas Rui
had mounted him, preventing such a defense.
Ultimately, the human body would not withstand the power of a Martial
Apprentice. Rui even ended up holding back a bit, avoiding his head. One
wrong mistake and Rui might have ended up even killing him.
Soon, Hever's condition had degraded immensely, but he never gave up. Rui
couldn't really knock him out via blunt force trauma because his head would
not rock because of the ground.
The solution was simply.
He quickly maneuvered across Hever's body, getting him in a chokehold.

Hever's weaknesses and shortcoming were starting to show.
The brain would automatically shut down after seven seconds of limited
blood or no blood supply.
And seven seconds later, Rui demonstrated this.
"Winner; Apprentice Rui Quarrier!" The supervisor announced.
The fight ended quickly.
The onlookers gaped in shock!
They expected Hever to win after that intimidating performance against Nel,
but instead Rui almost crushed him.
Was Rui this abysmally strong?
Everyone couldn't help but wonder.
Rui shook his head. He wished he was, but the truth was a lot more sober. He
was extremely compatible against Hever.
Although Hever was extremely strong thanks to his astronomical mastery of

Meteor Throw, everyone knew that he had many, many gaping holes and
vulnerabilities on paper. However, his absurd counter-offensive prowess
shined too bright, dominating his weaknesses and even overcompensating for
them. No one had figured out how to successfully exploit his weaknesses.
Except for Rui, and the VOID algorithm.
The VOID algorithm loved weaknesses. When Rui gave had inputted the
parameters of Hever, it had squealed in ecstasy and gulped it up before
excreting the desire results.
Metaphorically, of course.
Rui had deduced many solutions that devastated Hever, but they all required
the Blink technique one way or another.
Only with the combination of Blink and Phantom Step, two high-grade
techniques, could Rui be able to finally crack a hole in Hever's invincibility.
With those two technique Rui had generated many solutions to take Hever
down. The solution he chose was Blink plus Mirage Dive, a grappling feint
technique very similar to Phantom Step. This combination allowed Rui to
permanently turn the battle into ground grappling, where Meteor Swing could
not be used.
This was the power of compatibility. It was one of the most important
variables in battle. Hever was decently compatible against Nel, allowing him
to crush every single initiative Nel took and even coming close to winning.
But Rui was extremely compatible against Hever. The VOID algorithm along
with Phantom Step and Blink were the perfect tools to defeat Hever in a short
amount of time!
Rui's biggest regret was that he was unable to win without Blink. But he
couldn't have his cake and eat it, too. But now all of his trump cards had been
exposed.
If there was one consolation, it's that he had only three more people to defeat.
Nel.
Lala Sec.
And finally, Kane.

At the very least, he managed to preserve his trump card until he had only
three contenders left. But on the flip side, he would need to win despite the
exposure of his trump card.
However, Blink was not a very identifiable technique. It was not flashy and
attention drawing like the Stinger. Hopefully, people would not have
identified it."
"Great fight." Kane said with a thumbs-up.
"Thanks."
"That surprise takedown." Kane brought up. "That wasn't just feinting right?"
Kane being a master of the Phantom Step movement himself knew what
feints were capable of, he had also grown familiar with Hever's speed and
had realized that feinting alone didn't explain how Rui managed to cleanly
bypass Hever's muscle memory counters.
He quickly tied the oddity with the many unknown techniques Rui had
mastered.
"Hehe." Rui chuckled, realizing Kane hadn't figured out the mechanics of
Blink from just that one instance. "Do you want me tell you about it?"
"No." Kane replied. The more he knew, the likelier he was to defeat Rui, this
was against his desires, thus he avoided the knowledge. He couldn't
purposely hold back either, his family had channels in the Academy, and if
there were any signs of self-sabotage, then the Martial Squires observing the
fight would no doubt relay this and eventually the information would fall into
the hands of his family.
"Sure." Rui replied, aware of this consideration. "You ready for your next
fight?"
"As ready as ever." Kane shrugged.
Rui glanced at the fight schedule on the notice board.

[Kane vs Nel]
Rui couldn't begin to describe how incredibly hyped he was for this fight.
Kane and Nel were the two greatest hurdles he had left. They were both
perversely strong, to a shocking degree.
Frankly, Rui wasn't sure how the battle would go down.
He lacked too much information. At the higher levels, it had become rare for
him to be unable to predict the fight to some degree. Yet here was a fight
between two of the strongest Martial Apprentices, and he couldn't help but be
even more excited than he was for his own fights!
"This is going to be one hell of a fight..."

Chapter 220 Unsure
The two boys stared at each other. One had a wild, excited grin. While the
other had a detached lethargic expression. The difference in their demeanors
was great.
But not the difference in their Martial prowess.
At the very least, no difference could be spotted in the mental pressure they
exerted on all sentient life around them.
"Hehe..." Nel took crouched, letting his arms dangle down. "You're not
escaping me, vanish boy."
"Hmph." Kane snorted. "Catch me if you can."
The two concentrated, tying up the atmosphere in knots.
Many had gathered to spectate this fight. As two titans of the Academy, both
Nel and Kane had drawn an immense amount of attention.
Every single person in the facility was curious.
Not a single person even blinked.
Nobody wanted to miss this fight.
WHOOSH
Nel soared forward at an incredibly high speed!
"HYAAH!" He swung a haymaker at Kane.
WHOOSH
The attack collided with empty air where Kane was once standing.
As for Kane?
He had already disappeared
Yet, by now, people had grown accustomed to this. There was only one
thought in everyone's mind.
What was Nel going to do?
Rui observed the battle not just with his eyes, but with Primordial instinct and
Seismic Mapping as well. He was more curious than anybody else.
He was standing at the center of the ring, while Kane circled around him.
Suddenly, Kane rushed in. Launching an attack at his back.
And that was when it happened.
"HAH!" Nel snarled as Kane approached throwing back swing at Kane.
WHOOSH
Kane stepped back, shocked!
This was the first time!
For the first time in the preliminary contest, Kane had been seen through!
Kane genuinely did not expect this to happen.
What was worse was that he inevitably needed to pause before moving back
to avoid the attack, causing the Void Step technique to be inactive for a
second, confirming Kane's position to Nel for just a second.
Nel's grin grew wider as he launched himself where he just sensed Kane.
Down outside, Rui equally shocked. Nel hadn't even mastered a single
Apprentice-level technique, how the hell was he sensing Kane?
('Wait.') He realized. ('Could it be he's born with more than just superhuman
physical prowess?')
If Nel was born with extraordinary senses, then that would explain why he's
able to vaguely sense Kane.
Rui was able to judge the direction Kane was in at all times, and was just able
to sense an impression of the distance Kane was at.
This was due to him mastering Primordial Instinct and Seismic Mapping, as
well as a boost from Rui's reincarned mind.
If Nel's senses were as superhuman as his physical prowess, then he might be

able to sense Kane vaguely.
Up in the ring, Nel glanced around. His sharp instinct told him Kane was
somewhere in front of him, every time his nerves tingled, he simply launched
the widest swing he could to cover as much area as he could.
POW POW POW
Nel's body jerked from invisible impacts.
Kane was an evasive maneuverer. Dodging attacks while simultaneously

launching his own was child's play at his current level
He was merely caught off-guard earlier.
('But there's caveats to that.') Rui realized. Kane's offense was mediocre. By
Nel's standards, it was downright garbage. Even if he pummeled Nel's body
for hours, it was doubtful whether he could take him down.
Furthermore, his body was built for speed, agility and mobility. He was not
built for defense. If even a single attack from Nel landed on Kane, it would
do considerable damage, it would also lower his performance parameters,
significantly increasing the probability of getting hit again.
Meaning, he could not afford to get hit even once.
The conditions of this battle reminded Rui of Kane's fight with Fae. But there
were a few important differences.
Nel could sense Kane. His compatibility against Kane was far higher than
Fae's compatibility against Kane.
WHOOSH
Nel swung at empty air.
('Close.') Rui noted.
BAM
His upper body jerked, he stepped back, rubbing his throat.
('Kane is focusing purely on the most vulnerable parts of the body.') Rui
realized, nodding in approval. This was a good way to maximize damage.
This was normally not a good idea, since focusing on only three or four
specific spots greatly reduced their options and made them much more
predictable.
However, this caveat no longer existed for Kane. Nel was just barely vaguely
sensing him, he was far removed from normal conditions.
Rui gazed at the fight with intense concentration.
To others, this fight may not have been as engaging since no one knew what
the hell was happening. But to Rui, this was incredibly suspenseful.
WHOOSH
He swung, and wasn't too far off.
POW
A slight impact on Nel's jaw wobbled his head.
"RAAH!" Nel swung again in the direction the attack came from.
WHOOSH
Kane appeared as he paused for the briefest of moments.
BAM
Nel launched himself towards him with him in an instant.
WHOOSH
And, as expected, he hit air.
So far, every single attack he had launched had missed. But Rui didn't think
Kane was dominating. All it took was one blow. As far as he knew, Kane had
only mastered Elastic Shift. This technique was basically paper in front of
Nel's physical prowess. In the worst-case scenario, a single attack from Nel
could put Kane in a critical state!
Rui sensed Kane knew this. Not through Primordial Instinct or Seismic
Mapping, but by the fact that Kane's movements were far more cautious than
usual. This was probably the first time in the preliminary contest he was
feeling a sense of danger.
The strange stalemate between the two of them continued. Nel struggled to
get a hold of Kane while Kane struggled to damage Nel to a significant
degree. Currently, it was shaping out to be more of a race than a fight.
Rui wasn't sure how this battle would unfold.

Chapter 221 Outcome
WHOOSH
POW POW POW
A hint of frustration flashed on Nel's face. He was struggling to tag Kane, and
thus far he hadn't laid a single finger on Kane. He had spent quite some time,
swinging every time his nerves and senses tingled, but that strategy had
failed.
The problem was simply sheer inadequacy.
Nel was slower than Kane.
He was less mobile than Kane.
He was less efficient than Kane in his movements.
Kane was an evasive specialist, and Kane had the Void Step technique on top
of that.
Nel just had too many tables stacked against him. If not for his constitution,
Kane would have already begun dominating him.
His only possible path to victory was outlasting Kane. However, Rui did not
think this was realistic. There were several reasons for this as well.
While using the Void Step technique, Kane didn't need to go as hard on
maneuvering. In fact, he didn't even need to use normal maneuvering
technique, he could just take a casual stroll, and dodge every time Nel
manages to get a strike somewhat close to him thanks to his sharp senses.
This way, he could conserve an immense amount of energy.
On the other hand, Nel fought like a maniac and burnt energy like there was
too much. Every single movement was made with maximum effort regardless
of whether it was necessary or optimal or not.
Furthermore, Nel hadn't mastered any Apprentice-level techniques yet, he

was compensating by consuming far greater power than Apprentices did.
For example, if Nel and Rui launched a strike with equal amounts of power,
Nel was able to consume several times more energy than Rui did for the same
strike.
All of these variables meant that even if Nel had a greater energy reserve, his
energy consumption was similarly greater. The two largely cancelled out
each other.
Even if he did possess an advantage in stamina, it would not be a gigantic one

due to these factors.
But, Kane had yet to find a win condition himself.
Just as Rui had though that, a change occurred.
Kane decided to take a risk and dashed in straight towards Nel.
WHOOSH
Nel threw a strike, but Kane effortlessly dodged as he focused on Nel's eyes.
This was the most vulnerable vital area that was susceptible to Kane's power.
Everywhere else was rock solid compared to Kane's measly offensive
potential. Furthermore, if Ne's eyes were incapacitated, it would be game
over. He would be unable to sense Kane even with his enhanced sense and
Kane would have won.
Normally, it wasn't easy to jab someone's eyes since they could see you
coming. But thing was,
Nel couldn't. Not properly. As long as Kane maximized speed and precision,
he estimated it was worth a try.
This was Kane's plan.
Kane forked his index and middle finger, and jabbed them into Nel's eyes!
CRUNCH
Blood spilled as Nel's head jerked back.
Kane's eyes flew wide as he felt a sharp piercing pain from his index finger.
He had paused for a moment, inadvertently stopping the Void Step technique.
"He... He bit the flesh off Kane's finger tips off!" Rui exclaimed.
Nel's head returned forward with a gleeful grin, with Kane's flesh and blood
on his tongue. He immediately jabbed his palm straight at Kane.
FLICK
The jab bruised Kane's cheek as he barely avoided it, going Void Step
immediately.
"Hehehe..." Nel spat out the flesh, grinning. "Again!"
When Kane had jabbed at Nel's eyes, the latter had felt an incredibly
heightened senses of danger, furthermore his sharp vision had picked faint
traces of Kane's attack at close range. The eyes were extremely delicate, even
for Nel, and he ducked back, while biting where his eyes used to be as hard
as he could.
He got quite lucky.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to use bleeding to identify Kane, not a
single drop hit the ground after.
Kane complete retreated, after his best shot, and eye attack, was not only a
complete failure but also caused him harm in turn. He simply gave up on
voluntarily offense.
The remaining fight was intense as Nel grew energized by the success of his
first successful damage inflicted on Kane, however, it was not enough.
With Kane in almost complete retreat mode, there was nothing Nel could do.
They fought fiercely for hours, neither side being able to inflict any further
damage on the other.
The fought.
And fought.
And fought some more.
Eventually, after a long time, Rui was one of the few people still watching the
fight. Although the Martial Apprentices were interested in the outcome, no
one wanted to watch Nel kick air for hours. None of them were able to sense
Kane like Rui and Nel could.
And this is how, one of the most anticipated fights in the preliminary contest
received the most anti-climactic ending ever.
"Draw due to timeout." The supervisor waved his hand, ending the match.
Both sides were simply unable to make any meaningful progress in time.
"Tsk." Nel tutted. "You sure vanish hard, vanish boy."
"Not as hard as you bite, you Martial Maniac." Kane grumbled.
"Thank you." Nel smiled smugly, raising his head with pride.
"It wasn't a compliment!" Kane complained.
"Well, mine was." Nel replied earnestly. "Kane right? Let's fight again!"
"I'm good." Kane turned around as he walked over to Rui.

"Great fight." Rui handed him a healing and rejuvenation potion.
"Thanks." Kane consumed them immediately, sighing in relief as his finger

healed. "That was rough."
"You underestimated his reflexes, they're frankly close to as good as your

own." Kane chuckled as he glanced at Nel. "You should bolster your
offense."
"Later." Kane waved.
With this, Rui was the only one at rank one. Kane had broken his unbroken
win streak. He could feel the burning gazes of his fellow Martial Apprentice
contenders.
It was a result he should have been happy about, but he was concerned.
Neither Hever nor Kane could do better than drawing against Nel. The same
could be said Kane, perhaps even moreso since he didn't think Hever had a
chance against Kane.
These two were frankly undefeated even after facing each other, the two
greatest threats.
Confident of victory was one thing Rui was not, at this very moment.
Regardless, everything would end tomorrow and the day after.
Chapter 222 Without Them
Both Hever and Kane took their regular stances.
Immediately, Hever leaped, reaching the very corner of the ring.
This was the strategy that Fae had used. It had failed miserably when she
tried it, however, Rui suspected Hever was different.
For one, Hever was a counter-offensive specialist, he would be able to handle

invisible impacts much better than Fae did since he was quicker with his
muscle memory.
Of course, this did not mean he could effectively counter Kane completely,
but it was likely better than standing in the middle of the ring.
Still, Rui did not think highly of Hever's chances. His compatibility against
Kane was horrible. One of the worst, in fact.
Because his prowess came solely from the Meteor Swing technique, anything
that threatened to bypass the technique as a whole threatened him immensely.
Which is exactly what the Void Step technique did. However, Hever likely
had some muscle memory countermeasure for strikes after they impact, so he
had some minor hope of throwing Kane out the ring as long as he managed to
grab onto Kane after he landed the strike. As long as he fought cleverly,
which he was capable of, he might be able to pull a draw.
However, that still wasn't the biggest reason Rui didn't think highly of his
chances.
Up on the ring, Kane was stationary. For the first time, he hadn't immediately
activated the Void Step technique. It was a bit risky, and he did not want to
give Hever's muscle memory a chance.
Instead, he put his right foot behind, and put his hands on the ground in front.
Taking a stance resembling sprinter's starting position.
Rui smiled, excited. He was going to witness something he rarely did.
The Godspeed technique.
Through a build-up of energy in the muscles, the Godspeed technique

allowed Martial Apprentices to obtain speeds on par with Martial Squires.
It was a technique that allowed Kane to ascend to a higher Realm for just a
moment.
Its biggest weakness was that it required a vulnerable starting position,

leaving Kane open to attacks that he could do nothing about while in that
stance prior to activating the technique. But once that was accounted for,
almost no Martial Apprentice could possibly handle that technique. The
weakness was the reason the technique was only at grade ten potency, if
Kane could reach Martial Squires of speed any time he wanted with no
caveat, then grade ten would be too low!
Against Squire Kyrie, Rui had managed to mitigate the shortcoming. The
technique was so powerful that even Squire Kyrie had to stop momentarily
stop holding back to use a squire-level counter-offensive technique to defeat
both of them.
As for Hever...
Rui shook his head.
Unless a miracle happened, the outcome was almost already decided.
Suddenly, the pressure escalated!

Everybody froze, wide-eyed.
Even Hever was stunned.
Both Rui and Nel simply grinned.
It had been more than a year since the former had seen Kane use the
technique. Primordial Instinct was blaring loud emergency sound alarms in
his head.
Kane opened his eyes and time slowed, even more than it normally did for
He launched himself.
The sheer velocity with which he did, cracked the barrier of the speed of
sound, breaking it.
BOOM!
He disappeared, leaving a shockwave where he stood.
BOOM!
Kane stopped at the corner of the ring.
Hever had been launched flying, he bounced and skidded over to the other
end of the facility, knocking over several people.
The fight had ended. It was over in an instant.
Everyone had frozen in shock.
They slowly turned with incredulity towards Rui.
"Hey." He said.
"Great fight." Rui smirked. "Good idea using Godspeed instead of Void
Step."
"Thanks." Kane said. "Your fight is scheduled soon, right?"
Rui nodded, glancing at Nel.
He had had only two opponents left; Nel and Kane. His two biggest hurdles.
If he could win these, he would go on to win the preliminary contest and be

chosen as representative. Although his track record was a touch better than
Kane's and Nel's, it was not enough to overset a loss against either of them.
Thankfully, at the very least he was able to make the best preparations he
could. He had gotten his hands against an immense amount of data.
('If this doesn't work, I can rest knowing I gave it my very all.') He mused.
He had no intention of letting it not work, though.
They bantered for a bit before Rui was called.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier, your scheduled fight is soon to commence." The

staff member informed. "Please wait at the assigned ring."
"Sure thing." Rui nodded. "Alright, bye."
"Good luck." Kane wished him.
Soon, it was time for the match.
Rui had been waiting for this for a long time. Nel got up on the ring, with a
wild grin and a savage aura to boot, staring hard at Rui.
"You're strong." He grinned. "I'm strong too. This is gonna be great!"
Rui smirked. He couldn't agree more.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" Rui interjected.
"Hm?" He tilted his head.

"In this entire contest, you didn't use a single Apprentice-level technique.
Understandable, since it's only been two months since you discovered your
Martial Path..." He paused, before continuing. "But even if you don't have
any Apprentice-level techniques... Why aren't you using exploration-stage
techniques?"
This was something Rui had been curious about for quite some time. Nel
clearly broke through to the Apprentice Realm, which meant he undoubtedly
passed through the exploration Stage. Why wasn't he using any of the
Exploration-stage techniques?
Although these techniques weren't as good as Apprentice-level techniques,

they were still better than fighting without techniques.
Rui remembered that until he mastered his first few Apprentice-level

techniques, he used exploration-stage techniques as well.
He glanced at Nel with great curiosity.
"Ah..." Nel scratched his head.
He then met Rui's gaze and said with a perfectly sincere voice;
"I discovered my Martial Path without them."

Chapter 223 All Hell
"..."
"..."
Rui stared at him.
Nel stared back at him.
"You... what?"
"Broke through without em."
"No, surely..."
"Nope."
Rui tilted his head with incredulous confusion.
Broke through to Martial Apprentice without learning a single technique?

What sort of nonsense was that?
Rui wasn't even sure what to say to that.
He wasn't even sure he believed him.
Was he lying to get Rui to lower his guard so he could later unveil them?
Looking at his sincere clueless expression, Rui shook his head, this guy was
serious.
But wasn't that even more absurd?

"You... What is your Martial Path?"
"Take your stances." The supervisor had arrived, and quickly told them to be
ready.
"Heh." Nel chuckled as he crouched, letting his arms dangle freely.
"My Martial Path is to beat everyone up using my body alone." He declared,

his aura growing more feral by the second.
"..."
Rui's eyes flew wide open at those words.
For the very first time, he had run into someone with a Martial Path even
more obtuse than his own!
"Take your stance." The supervisor insisted to Rui.
"I see..." Rui ignored him, staring straight at Nel with a boundless fascination
and excitement.
He just couldn't wait!
"...My Martial Path is to beat everyone up with my VOID alone."
Rui adopted a neutral all-rounder stance, dividing his weight perfectly,

positioning his arms and legs to be equally conducive to offense, defense and
maneuvering.
"Fuuu..." He exhaled.
His mind went blank.
There was nothing.
And slowly...
He focused.
Gathering the vast mental energy his mind had bloomed across two lives.
He focused.
Gathering every ounce of physical energy his body could muster.
Nel grinned in amazement despite the weight.
He felt immense amounts of pressure from Rui's sheer focus. It grew by the
second, pouring onto him from a boundless abyss. It was almost suffocating.
Just how strong was he?
Nel wanted to know.
"Let's see whose Martial Path is stronger void boy!" He grinned as the savage
weight of an apex predator oozed out of every cell in his body.
The maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys generated burdened every
onlooker.
Yet, no one could look away.
Not a single person could draw their eyes away.
"B-Begin!" the supervisor commenced the match.
RUMBLE
The sheer force with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across the
ring!
"RYAH!" He snarled as he launched a wild haymaker.
WHOOSH
The powerful swing crashed into a feint, hitting empty air.
BAM!
Rui threw a powerful kick at his ribs from the side, but Nel simply blocked it,
pushing the strike away.
POW POW POW
He threw a series of swift jabs. Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the
strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute Edge.
As strong as Nel was, even he couldn't overcome the combination of two

mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade defensive
technique with ordinary jabs alone.
He grinned.
So what if ordinary jabs didn't work?
Nel was capable of much more!
WHOOSH
He burst forth with shocking explosive speed, launching a flying kick.
BAM
Rui grimaced as he bruised his arm visibly despite his defensive techniques.
He had long suspected it, but only now had he confirmed that he could not
take too many of Nel's more charged attacks.
He launched another loaded strike.
But Rui wasn't going to try and tank it this time.
WHOOSH
Rui cleanly avoided it with a feint. He used Balanced Direction and Parallel
Walk, to circle around him.
BAM BAM BAM

He launched a flurry of attacks!
Each strike was powered with Outer Convergence and Vital Pressure.
Yet, it was not enough.
It collided against Nel's guard. His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to
land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended, his defense was too solid.
"Tsk." Rui retreated.
('As expected, ordinary attacks aren't doing the trick.') He verified.
WHOOSH
He avoided a kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back
to open up some distance between them
Or so everyone thought.
Yet, when Nel charged at him with a punch, Rui charged right back with an
attack.
BOOM!!
Their clash shook the earth!
Everyone gaped at the sheer display of raw power.
Nel had launched his most weighted strike, while Rui had charged up his
momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and
launched a Flowing Canon attack amplified with Outer Convergence and
Vital Pressure.
Yet Nel's fist hadn't backed down!
He matched the power of five Apprentice-level techniques with his sheer

physique!
The boys furiously fought.
Fists were exchanged.
Kicks were dodged.
Attacks were endured.
And defenses were sieged!
Rui knew his average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A
symmetric battle was not in his favour.
He switched things up with Phantom Step and Primordial Instinct
These allowed him to avoid more strikes than his speed did, and allowed him
to land more attacks than his speed did.
But, even then.
It wasn't enough.
Slowly.
Step-by-step.
Nay, perhaps inch-by-inch.
Nel gained the advantage.
"HAHAHA!" He guffawed with ecstasy. "IS THIS THE BEST YOUR

'VOID' CAN DO?!"
BAM!
Nel gasped, choking as a powerful impact landed on his throat.
He couldn't even breathe for a moment.

BAM!
He barely managed to guard as a sharp sense of danger caused him to leap a

great distance away.
But it was too late.
FLICK
The Stinger found its mark.
However, Rui had still underestimated Nel's instincts, he managed to avoid it

at the right moment, preventing the Stinger from turning lethal, reducing it to
a superficial flesh wound.
"Oh..." Rui sighed disappointedly. "So close."
He quickly took his stance once more.
"No matter..." His unyielding concentration fixated on Nel.
His dark eyes widened.
They were pitch black.
As if they sucked the very light out of this world.
All anyone could see in them was eternal darkness.
They saw the void...
And the VOID
And they trembled.
"...I'll get you this time." Rui whispered.
WHOOSH
He sped away to finish the job.
BAM
A powerful impact landed on him!
Rui grimaced as he leapt back.
"What was that you said?" Nel tilted his head with wide feral eyes. "'Get me
next time?'"
A surge of ferocity blasted out from his body. "I'm right here."
For a moment, their eyes collided.
And the very next?
All hell broke loose.

Chapter 224 What Was He
Thinking?
BAM!!
The ground rumbled as Rui's Flowing Canon struck Nel's weighted

haymaker.
BAM
A combination of Blink and Phantom Step allowed Rui to barely get in a

speedy jab.
The two of the unleashed avalanches of attacks. Rui abused almost all of his
techniques to their very limit to keep up with Nel.
The ferocity escalated!
They lashed out at each other.
Nel's senses and senses were so sharp that combos of Blink and Phantom
Step that would normally be game-enders against almost anybody were
reduced to defense bypassers
But Nel was able to handle even that to a certain extent. Blink was only
partially effective because he was capable of fighting via his other senses
alone, however not as well, and his mind still relied on vision the most.
Phantom Step allowed Rui to confuse him even further, allowing Rui to land
in jabs.
The problem was, landing kicks were much harder because they were easier
to identify than jabs, and were slower than jabs. This is why Rui had trouble
landing the Stinger. It was quite problematic because the combination of
Stinger landed with the help of Blink and Phantom Step was easily Rui's
greatest trump card attack. But against Nel, this trump card unable to end the
fight.
This technique-combo was not compatible with Nel, Rui had come to
belatedly realize.
Still, Rui had one last trick up his sleeve that he hadn't used yet.
BOOM!
A powerful impact landed on Nel's body, launching him away.
He glanced up, looking at Rui with a hint of surprise.
Up until now, Rui had only managed to land strikes with his tricky feints.
But this time, Rui just straightforwardly landed a clean strike!
What had changed?
Something had changed.
He felt a faint hint of danger evolving from Rui.
"...It took me a while." Rui exhaled. "But it's ready."
Rui's stance shifted, flowing from his neutral stance to an offensive and
maneuvering stance. He brought his legs closer to his center of gravity and
positioned his arms to land strikes more easily.
It was time.
WHOOSH
Rui leapt at Nel, launching a powerful Flowing Canon.

BOOM!
Nel guarded, using all of his body to aid in defense before launching a flurry
of weighted haymakers at Rui.
WHOOSH
Rui dodged all of them.
POW
He landed a jab on Nel's abdomen, yet again cleanly landing strikes on him
without even using feints.
"RYAAH!" Nel launched an incredibly swift kick at Rui.
WHOOSH
It crashed into a feint, much to his chagrin
POW POW POW
Rui surprising managed to land three clean jabs to the solar plexus.
WHOOSH
POW
A jab to the nose dodging a haymaker from Nel.
WHOOSH
BAM
Landed a low kick after avoiding a charge.
As this continued, the onlookers realized something!
The tides of the battles were turning!

Rui had been on a losing end initially, barely coping with blinked feints, but
now he was landing more strikes than he was taking.
"It's kicked in." Kane grinned.
"What has?" Fae asked.
"His adaptive evolution thingy."
"Doesn't he do that from start?"
"He said it's harder against all-rounders." Kane shrugged. "Maybe that's
why."
This was true, all-rounders had no pronounced weakness or shortcoming,

although they didn't have pronounced strengths either. This made it harder for
the VOID algorithm to adapt.
However, there was another variable than was unique to this battle.
One of the VOID algorithm's biggest shortcomings were that it was less
equipped to handle the super Martial Art techniques that were ubiquitous.
This is why Rui was unable to make use of several aspects of the original
VOID algorithm, and several were obsolete on Gaea.
However...
What if his opponent was not using any techniques?
What if one of the main the reasons the VOID algorithm was less effective
was gone?
The answer was obvious.
BAM BAM BAM
Rui cleanly landed a powerful combo on Nel's face.
Rui grinned with ecstasy. For the first time in a very, very long time, he was
able to use a much significant portion of the VOID algorithm against in a
fight!
WHOOSH
BAM BAM BAM!
Despite being a truly deviant monster among Martial Artists, his fundamental
fighting structure was closest to what the VOID algorithm was originally
built for!
WHOOSH!
BAM!
Nel hadn't even landed a single strike in over a minute. The only reason he
was still contending was because asides from Flowing Canon, none of Rui's
punches or kicks were hurting Nel all too much. His constitution was truly
remarkable. Only when Rui managed strike his throat and other vulnerable
places was he able to damage Nel with his normal strikes.
To the audience it seemed like Rui was dominating, but Rui knew that his
simply wasn't the case.
Unlike with Kane, Rui couldn't afford to peacefully conserve his stamina
walking around. He needed to push his energy reserves to the absolute limit if
he wanted just to fight against Nel.
In the long run, he would grow tired before he took Nel down.
The only way he could inflict critical damage was through the Stinger, but he
had already attempted this. Nel's natural danger sense and instinct was close
to as good as Primordial Instinct and his senses were able to pierce the veil of
Kane's Void Step technique, even if very slightly.
Landing the Stinger, especially when Nel knew about it, was not easy.
But there wasn't any other way to win.

POW
Rui's fist slammed into his abdomen, but Nel just barely jerked.
"WEAK!" He shouted swinging another powerful haymaker.
WHOOSH
Rui calmly dodged it.
He needed to make a decision soon, his power and speed would slowly start
decreasing from this point forth, Helical Breathing was far from omnipotent.
Rui wasn't sure how to go about it, but his likeliest win condition would be a
lethal Stinger. The second-best win condition was a ring-out.
"Hmmm." Rui's eyes narrowed as a third idea popped into his head.
He grinned. "Why not?"
Suddenly, he launched the Stinger at Nel.
WHOOSH
It missed, Nel simply evaded the technique cleanly, incredibly cautious of it.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH
To everyone's surprise, Rui simply began spamming Nel with failed Stinger
attempts.
What was he thinking?

Chapter 225 What A World
Everyone was confused.
Why was Rui launching Stingers so unreservedly?
Furthermore, why was he launching them when they all failed to land time
and time again?
Nel was incredibly focused on avoiding each of them too.
He stared at Rui's toe every time there was even the slightest hint of the
attack. Every ounce of his focus was dedicated to avoiding the Stinger, this
was Rui's most lethal attack. As long as this could be avoided, Nel was quite
confident he would in the long run.
Nel easily avoided the swift attacks.
POW POW
He even managed to land in some attacks as he dodged them.
Yet Rui didn't cease.
Every single person could sense he was extremely difficult to land the
Stinger.
"He sure is betting everything on that technique." Fae mused.
Kane frowned.
He vaguely sensed something was off. Rui should have known that landing a
lethal Stinger when Nel was paying full attention to it was impossible.
Nel was much faster and had incredibly sharp reflexes, senses and instincts.
Furthermore, the Stinger was not a particular quick attack like speed jabs
were.
As an evasive maneuverer, Kane could sense that the odds of the technique
successfully landing were low. Even when Rui caught him very off-guard by
exposing his Blink technique to him for the first time, he had only managed
to get a surface wound, since then the effectivity of Blink had reduced as a
trump card once Nel was aware of it.
Kane didn't understand what Rui was trying to do here.
WHOOSH
BAM
Nel avoided the Stinger while landing his own strike, still mindful of Rui's
toe.
WHOOSH
POW
….
WHOOSH
POW POW POW
Everyone frowned as Rui ceded more and more space, reeling from Nel's
impacts. He was previously using Phantom Step and Blink to avoid attacks,
but for some reason he was simply tanking Nel's attacks, getting pushed back
a result.
"HAHAHA." Nel guffawed as he eyed Rui's Stinger sharply, avoiding it.

"I'MMA SEND YOU FLYING OUT."
BAM!
He managed to send Rui skidding away.
One meter away from the edge of the ring.
A hint of desperation flashed across Rui's face.
But Nel had arrived, Rui charged at him furiously.
The atmosphere contracted.
The sheer pressure from the concentration of the two boys wrung the very
air!
This was the climax!
Rui launched the Stinger with Blink and Phantom Step one last time!
He drew every ounce of speed and power.
Every muscle.
Every cell.
They roared!
They roared, pushing forward.
Pushing forward towards victory.
And yet.
WHOOSH
Nel grinned.
He grinned like a madman.

He grinned, his body tilted as he watched the Stinger just fly past him.
Close.
Close!
Yet, far.
Too far.
It was in vain.
The attack had missed.
Nel narrowly dodged it, having focused all his attention into avoiding it.
Not even the mighty prowess of the Blink and Phantom Step could reach Nel
It was over.
Rui was at the edge, standing on one leg as Nel charged at him with immense
momentum.
A ring-out was almost inevitable.
Despair, was inevitable.
BAM!
!!!
A powerful Flowing Canon impact landed cleanly on Nel's jaw from the far
left, rocking his head wildly.
He staggered back, shocked!
Where had it come from?
Everybody was shocked.

Where did the attack come from?
The answer was simple.
It came from Rui. It was a simple Flowing Canon attack.
Nel simply failed to see it.
The attack soared past his awareness, striking his jaw from the left.
But why?
Why did Nel fail to perceive such a clear attack?
No one knew.
No one moved.
They simple bore witness.
The attack shook his brain. Nel was durable, but not even he could
completely withstand the power of five Apprentice-level techniques crashing
into his jaw unguarded and unprepared.
And yet.
He stood.
His brain shook.
Yet, he stood.
His vision blurred.
And yet. He. Stood.
He would not go down so easily!
He would win!
And yet...
Just as he charged forward.
PEW!
DRIP DRIP
"Huh...?" Nel murmured.
A sharp pain shot up from his neck as blood spurged out.
The Stinger had soared through the air once more, landing into his neck!
In his disarrayed state, the bridge had finally been gapped.
The Stinger reached Nel.
Rui... reached Nel.
"It's over..." Rui whispered.
BANG
The third unguarded strike to the jaw.
Brains weren't meant to be tanks.
Turned out, this applied to Nel as well.
THUD
He collapsed to the ground as his brain shut down due to blunt force trauma.
He was down.
Unmoving.
And he stayed that way.
"W-Winner; Apprentice Rui Quarrier!" The supervisor declared.
Rui fell to his knees, exhausted.
He glanced at Nel.
His plan had paid out.
But just barely.
('That was close...') He smiled bitterly as he thought back to his plan.
p Inattentive Blindness Syndrome and psychological inertia.
The former was a psychological syndrome that was well-documented in field

of psychological cognitive studies on Earth. It was the tendency of the brain's
attention to be focused on one phenomenon causing the mind to be
significantly less attentive of surrounding phenomenon.
The latter was a psychological phenomenon of the mind to continue with

already established psychological patterns.
Rui had drawn Nel's attention to his toe because of the Stinger time and time
again. Nel's attention had gradually grown more and more fixated on his toe
as the Stinger was spammed increasingly. Furthermore, when Rui got pushed
to the edge of the ring, his attention was further consumed by his own ring-
out attack.
The Inattentive Blindness Syndrome had caused Nel to be much less aware of
his surroundings, far more than was normal.
This tendency continued thanks to psychological inertia.
When Rui launched the Flowing Canon immediately after the Stinger, he
launched it from the far right.
Nel barely dodged.

At that very moment, almost the entirety of his awareness and focus was on
the Stinger.
It was then.
It was then that Rui launched a modest Flowing Canon from the far left, the
exact opposite direction.
A simple follow-up attack.
Yet, the deadliest of them all.
It soared unhindered as the Inattentive Blindness Syndrome opened up a

clean path forward.
It crashed into Nel's jaw, rocking his brain, stunning him for a few precious
moments.
But this was enough.
It was now or never.
Rui had chosen now.
He had generated so much power he could feel his blood vessels almost
bursting. Launching the attack least likely to be detected according to the
VOID algorithm.
If this had failed, it would have been over.
But it hadn't.
"To think that research paper I published so long ago would end up saving
the day." He laughed weakly.
The very first research paper he published in the field of combat sports was a
modest amateurish research paper that aimed to demonstrate the positive
correlation between higher knock-out success rates and the presence of the
Inattentive Blindness Syndrome.
Almost fifty years later, this modest research paper had gone on to become
the foundation of victory in his fight against Nel.
Who else could ever have the privilege to make such a statement?
"What a world..."
What a world indeed.

Chapter 226 Suspense
Rui was exhausted.
Truly exhausted.
He glanced at Nel, who was already being treated by the medical staff on site.
His blood loss was immense, Rui had struck the carotid artery in advertently.
He quickly got off the ring after having consumed a rejuvenation and healing
potion.
"That was an insane fight." Kane grinned.
"Congratulations Rui." Fae said. "That was incredibly close."
They all congratulated him before getting to the elephant in the room.
"How did you land that last Flowing Canon?" Fae asked curiously, it was one
of the many offensive techniques she had mastered and thus she had
recognized it immediately.
"I was wondering the same thing too." Kane nodded. He was already familiar
with Nel's incredible speed and reflexes. He was quite curious too.
"Just some psychological tricks." Rui smiled. "I distracted him with the
Stinger so that his reactions to other attacks would be much lower. And then I
just to find the perfect timing and placement of the Flowing Canon with my
adaptive evolution."
"Was it really that simple?" Kane scratched his head. "To think that's how
you managed to create such a huge turn around."
Rui shrugged. "It was that simple. The human mind is more flawed than you
we tend to think of it. As long as you learn how to exploit these flaws, you
can do things that would normally be impossible."
This was something he sincerely believed. Research in neuroscience and

psychology had shown that the human brain and mind were filled with a
myriad of flaws and shortcomings, many of the elements of the VOID
algorithm were derived from and centered around these phenomena.
Of course, several of these elements were also in effective on Gaea against

Martial Artists and beasts because they were too different from baseline
human. Which was, of course, one of the many reasons the VOID algorithm
needed updating and upgrading.
They bantered for a bit, before a staff member interrupted them.
"Apprentice Fae Dullahan? Your scheduled match is soon to commence." He

said. "Please be sure to wait by the assigned ring."
Fae nodded, turning to her friends. "I'll see you guys after."
She left for her match after being bade good luck.
"She's fighting Hever, right?" Kane scratched his head.
"Yeah."
Rui was interested in the outcome of that fight. He suspected there were too
possibilities. If Fae's firepower was within the limit of capability of the
Meteor Swing technique, then Fae was guaranteed to lose.
However, if her power exceeded the limits of the technique's capabilities,

then she was certainly primed to win.
As for which scenario was the actual case of the matter, Rui was unable to
gauge it. She had immense raw power however Meteor Swing was a grade
nine as far as potency and difficulty went, furthermore Hever had mastered it
to a high degree.
It was quite likely that her regular strikes would not be able to overwhelm
him.
However, that was for her regular strikes alone.
He couldn't necessarily say the same for her peak power. Her peak power
would probably be using Whirlpool in addition all the power striking power
techniques she had mastered, such as Flowing Canon. The power of that
strike would be on a whole other level.
As far as her peak power went, it must have be on another level.
Normally, she would likely only be able to exert such power momentarily
and in some situations, and in many cases her opponents wouldn't let her
build up the power to launch the very best of her best.
However, this condition was not necessarily true with Hever.
Hever had no voluntary capabilities. He had no maneuvering techniques and

offensive technique he could pressure Fae with, his fighting style gave all the
initiative to his opponent.
Meaning Hever was probably the only person she could take her time to land
her most powerful strike against.
This was why Rui was unclear and quite curious about the outcome of the
fight.
Eventually, they reached the ring.
Fae and Hever were already facing each other.
"It's about to start." Rui said excitedly, gazing at the two of them in
anticipation.
"Out of all the people in the Academy..." Hever said to Fae. "I have looked
forward to fighting you more than anybody else."
"My." Fae raised an eyebrow. "You flatter me."

"No, I don't." Hever calmly stated. "You are the only Martial Apprentice in
the Academy who could show me the limits of my techniques, even when
facing it at its strongest."
"Come..." hever took his modest stance. "Let us not waste time. Show me the
peak of what you can achieve."
His concentration was as imposing as a mountain.
"Let me see whether your peak exceeds mine."
"...Alright then." Fae replied as she took her stance. "This was my intention
from the very start."
Hever didn't reply.
There was nothing more he had left to say.
"Begin!"
For once, Fae didn't lash out at her opponent, swiftly pummeling them with
her incredible power.
Instead, she walked to the opposite end of the ring, standing at the edge.
Facing Hever, she closed her eyes, exhaling.
She slowly moved in her stance, matching her movements with her
inhalation.
She focused as boundless power erupted from deep within her.
Her muscles stiffened, growing more and more taut by the second. They
turned from tissue into bundles of steel brimming with power.
She opened her eyes.
Rui shivered as Primordial Instinct screeched at him about the incoming

danger Fae was about to unleash.
The outcome of the fight was likely going to be decided by a single strike. If
she failed, it meant she wouldn't ever be able to bypass Meteor Swing, if she
succeeded, the match would end right there.
And it was then.
BOOM!
RUMBLE
The very force she struck the ground with reverberated across the facility!
She flew at Hever with rocketing momentum.
And the moment had come.
BANG
Just the shockwave generated by sheer force shoved against Rui, shocking
him!
Her palm propelled forward.
BOOM!!!
What happened, happened so quickly Rui was unable to even ascertain the
outcome!
*****
Hey guys, in case you didn't see the announcement. I'll be reducing my
chapter release rate to 1 chapter a day for the next three days. Details in
chapter 221. I've already released several extra chapters this month for this
reason and will release more on 31st to compensate, hope you guys
understand. Thanks for all the support, you guys rock.
Chapter 227 Interested
Fae's palm rotated ferociously as it pummeled forward, the sheer torque she
generated with the Whirlpool create a mini-tornado around her attack!
The moment her attack entered Hever's interception range, his hands lashed
out in muscle memory, clasping her arm.
This was the deciding moment.
CLASP
"Hrng!" Hever gritted his teeth as he felt unbelievable force, pushing against
him. The attack threatened to twist him along with it if he wasn't careful. He
exerted every ounce of his grip strength to maintain hold of it.
And yet;
BOOM!!
('Shit-')
The attack slammed into his gut, churning his flesh.
The rotational force increased the amount of time he needed to successfully

intercept, redirect and swing her.
He wasn't able to adjust the trajectory quick enough.
Fae's power in that moment had reached close to the limit a Martial
Apprentice could achieve. Not a single person could remain calm in the face
of such a display.
DRIP DRIP
"Huff... huff..." Hever exhaled as he ignored the flesh wound the Whirlpool
had inflicted on him.
Fae simply watched him.
The match was as good as decided.
"What are you waiting for?" Hever calmly asked as he took his stance. "The
fight isn't over until the supervisor declares it over. Come, I still stand."
The solemness of his unwillingness to admit defeat, no matter, what earned

the admiration of the spectators as well as his opponent.
"You're correct." Fae took her stance. "It appears I was the one lacking."
What ensued was a long series of devastating blows, until eventually Hever
collapsed.
"Winner; Apprentice Fae Dullahan." The supervisor declared.
The match earned a loud round of applause as both fighters shook hands.
"What a great fight." Rui told Fae as soon as they met up. "Good job, both of
you." He said, turning to Hever.
"Thank you." Hever calmly replied, having joined them.
They all conversed as they talked about the fight, the matchups, the
preliminary contest. As among the best of Martial Apprentices of their
generation in the Academy, they had much to talk about.
"Only one more day." Fae huffed. "Even if I win my next match, my chances
are all but over unfortunately."
"The same is true for me." Hever agreed. "Furthermore, your next match is
not going to be easy to win."
"Indeed." Fae said, as she glanced at Nel, who was walking towards them
after having been fully healed. Blood loss was a bit more complicated to heal
and not something that happened quickly, not with low-grade potions.
"Nel." Rui addressed. "How are you?"
"Good." Nel shrugged, before throwing a competitive grin at Rui. "Next time
I won't lose."
Rui smiled wordlessly.
Nel turned, grinning at Hever. "Hehe, you lost to palm girl. Don't worry, I'll
avenge you tomorrow."
Hever and Fae simply stared at him as he laughed to himself.
"It's been a long time." Nel said, facing Fae with a mischievous grin. "You
refused to fight me back then. because I wasn't an Apprentice back then.
Well... I am now."
"And we'll be fighting tomorrow." Fae smiled wryly.
"I am interested in the outcome of that fight." Hever remarked. "However, the
main act of the show tomorrow is surely..."
He glanced at Rui and Kane wordlessly.
Rui was ranked number one and Kane was ranked number two. They had the
two highest scores and were scheduled to fight tomorrow.
Their fight would decide the outcome of the preliminary contest.
Whoever won would go on to become the representative of the Hajin branch

of the Martial Academy.
One would expect to see restrained tension between them.
Yet where it was supposed to be, there was none.

The two interacted along with each other as if there was nothing to be said
regarding the matter.
Unbeknownst to him, the two had already long come to an agreement on the
issue.
There was nothing more that needed to be said.
Rui shrugged at his remark. "Personally, I'm quite interested in their fight as
well." He said gesturing to Nel and Fae.
This wasn't a lie.
Two years ago, they had fought each other in the Martial Entrance Exam,
securing first and second in the third round of the Martial Entrance Exam.
However, their battle never reached a conclusion in the end. Rui had always
wondered who would have won if they got fight till the very end.
Now, he would get to witness both of them going all out. Even if their
chances of becoming representative were zero, they would not hold back and
go all-out nonetheless.
This was another matchup Rui wasn't entirely sure about.
There wasn't an obvious compatibility advantage either side had. Fae

definitely had much more offensive power than Nel did. Than anybody else
did. Her speed and defense were quite respectable too.
On the other hand, Nel was much faster, more agile and more durable than
she was.
Considering their personalities, temperaments and fighting styles the fight

was likely to turn into a slugfest. This was the norm for both of them, and he
didn't think either one of them would deviate from this established pattern.
If so, the fight would boil down to who was able inflict more damage to the
other quicker.
Nel was an absolute beast that could launch extremely powerful attacks
extremely quickly. The sheer rate at which he could inflict damage was
extremely. In a head-on slugfest, there were very few that were in the same
league as him.
Fae was one of them.
Every time he thought about her explosive palms, he found it difficult to bet
against them. Especially when he thought about her Whirlpool attack. She
had elevated her pinnacle lethal power to a much higher realm than Nel did.
However, Nel's defensive and evasive measure were far greater than Fae's.
Rui shook his head. He could go round and round about the matter with
endless analysis and conjecture.
In the end, he would find out. The fight would unfold and outcome would tell
him what he wanted to know.
Chapter 228 Clash
"Who do you think is gonna win?" Rui asked.
Kane shrugged. "They're both freaks."
"You're one to talk." Rui grumbled.
"Fae will win." Milliana confidently added.
"I found Fae to be much harder to fight." Dalen said.
"As did I." Hever calmly added.
"Hmmm…" Rui turned. He didn't necessarily think that meant Fae was
stronger than Nel.
Fae possessed a pretty decent compatibility advantage against both Dalen and
Hever. Against Hever, although her regular attacks were incompatible and
disadvantaged against him, her trump cards were perfectly suited to taking
him down. His passive and counter-offensive fighting style were both perfect
for her to leverage her trump card.
Dalen on the other hand was a defensive fighter, he had no choice but to tank
Fae's attacks. Her offense inflicted most damage on his defense than his
offense did against her. It was a completely symmetric battle where she had a
strong advantage compared to someone like Nel, who's offense Dalen could
likely endure longer.
Up on the ring, the fight was soon to commence.

"Hehe…" Nel grinned. "Today's the day we decide who the stronger one is."
"Indeed." Fae took her stance. She tucked her right palm upside-down at her
waist, coiled like a viper waiting to lash out. Her left palm faced Nel as she
crouched.
Almost every single onlooking Martial Apprentice sweated inwardly at that

sight as unpleasant memories welled up. At this stage, almost all of them had
fought Fae, with Nel being her final opponent, and all of them had faced her
fearsome offense.
Nel's grin grew wider and feral. He crouched, letting his arms dangle freely.
"Begin!" The suoervisor commenced the match.
BOOM!
The two of them leapt at each other with unadultered ferocity!
They unleashed a maelstrom of explosive blows.
BOOM!!!
RUMBLE
Their clashes shook the very ground as an unprecedented amount of power

was unleashed!
"Hm?" Rui's eyes flew wide open in shock as the heavy seismic vibrations
rocked him, resembling an earthquake threatening to disrupt his balance!
Every single one of their attacks blasted through the air with explosive
momentum. The unyielding blasts of wind shoved against the Martial
Apprentice wave after wave. Even breathing was starting to take more effort!
Every single Martial Apprentice gaped with unfiltered shock. Not a single
one of them was unperturbed.
The absurd power that the two were outputing was too unnerving. One could
scarcely believe that Martial Apprentices were capable of such offensive
prowess.
Fae launched few attacks, yet every single attack was immensely charged.
While Nel had much less striking power but threw more attacks.
The Martial Apprentices spectating this fight braced their seatbelts in

excitement, enjoying an amazing display of power.
Yet, the balance had already begun to shift.
BAM!
Nel propped up a double-armed guard as Fae's palm thrust crashed into it.
BAM BAM BAM!
Fae relentlessly threw a flurry of attacks as Nel was pushed back into a
defensive position. Even with his rock solid defense, a nunber if bruises had
begun accumulating on his arms.
Everyone stirred at that sight!
Fae was starting to dominate the slugfest!
Nel's pure offensive and defensive prowess as failed against Fae's

unparalleled power on-by-one!
The meaning of this was undoubtedly clear.
Fae was the unparalleled strongest in a head-on striking contest!
BOOM!
A powerful impact pushed Nel away. He leapt back, disengaging.
"Hahaha…" He laughed. "I lost the punching battle. No one's ever beaten me
and pushed me back head-on before!"
Fae remained silent as she charged at him, not intending on giving him time.
"I may have lost the battle…" He said as his grin grew more severe. "But I
won't lose the war."
Fae's attack charged at him just in time.
WHOOSH
Only to strike empty air.
Nel cleanly dodged as landed clean strike on her abdomen through a hole in
her stance.
The two began exchanging strike again. However, there was something
different.
Nel began employing his remarkable speed not just offensively but also
defensively.
"That's a sharp change from before." Dalen frowned.
"His evasive maneuvering is sharp." Kane noted
"He's given up on trying to outstrike her head-on." Rui mused. "There was no
way in which he could best her anyway. In that regard, I wouldn't be
surprised if she was the strongest in our entire generation frankly."
"I would." Hever said.
Rui raised his eyebrow at that statement. Hever should a very thorough
understanding as a counter-offensive specialist strong Fae was. Why would
he be surprised at that statement?
"Ah…" Kane realized what Hever meant. "Yeah, true I guess."
Rui scrunched his face in confusion. "What do you guys mean?"
They exchanged meaningful glances.

"Not much." Kane said. "Just that it's hard to take the title of best of anything
in our generation. Not as long as Fiona Roschem is part of it."
Rui's eyes sharpened at that name. He had heard that name before. Fae herself
had mentioned her as well.
Fiona Roschem. The strongest.
The three of the strongest Martial Apprentices he knew had mentioned her
name, and her prowess.
Rui turned back, facing Fae.
Every single strike was stronger than his strongest Flowing Canon.
If he had to fight Fae without his evasive tactics and the VOID algorithm,
how long would he last?
('Maybe a minute, if I'm lucky.') Rui mused. Even if he did managed not get
knocked out in that time or lesser, he would certainly be a mangled mess at
the end of the ordeal.
Yet, despite this, she was not the strongest?
Furthermore, Fiona was supposed to be an all-rounder. Just how abyssmally

strong was she to be able match or surpass Fae in offensive striking despite
being an all-rounder?
What kind of a monster was she?
Rui shook his head, putting asides such thoughts. He would find out
eventuslly, if he won. For now, he turned his attention to the ongoing fight.
Nel and Fae were caught in an intense clash, however, Fae was no longer
dominating, Nel had become remarkably harder to deal with now that he
dodged a large proportion of her attacks.
Chapter 229 No Second Chances
WHOOSH
BAM!
Nel swerved out of a palm attack, as he launched wild haymaker at Fae. She
grimaced, proceeding to launch a flurry of attacks.
WHOOSH WHOOSH POW
Out of three, only one found its mark.
Although Nel didn't have the effective feints of the Phantom Step technique,
he did have his immense speed and agility. He was much faster than Fae
without a doubt.
POW POW POW
Suddenly Fae managed to land three hits square.
"She sacrificed power for speed." Rui nodded, having expected this. This was
a common tactic she employed against slippery opponents. She'd used it
against himself and Kane as well.
Powerful weighted attacks usually needed greater distance to be accelerated

over, they were more obvious and were easier to detect and predict, all of
these factors made them easier to avoid. Speedy jabs however usually
travelled a much shorter distance, they were much harder to detect and
predict.
"Why isn't she using that lethal attack she used against you and Hever?"
Dalen frowned.
"Probably because she can't really land it." Rui replied. "That attack isn't easy
to land and is easy to detect because how much she needs to twist and curl
her arm. It also takes longer to land than her other palm attacks. Although she
is able to land these speedy jabs, that doesn't mean she can land her
Whirlpool palm."
He paused, turning to face the fight, before continuing. "Though if she does
land it...."
She would gain a very decisive advantage. The lethality of that attack far
surpassed the lethality of Nel's offense. This was the downside of his Martial
Path, he couldn't use any techniques that would increase the lethality of his
attacks beyond what his body could normally offer.
The question was how was she going to accomplish this?
The situation was quite similar to Rui's fight with Nel. He needed to land the
Stinger as well. Eventually, he managed to land it cleanly with a long and
elaborate strategy as well as several techniques, the VOID algorithm and
most significantly; some psychological tricks.
Fae would likely be unable to replicate Rui's methods.
She lacked far too many things. She lacked the techniques he needed for the
strategy to succeed; The Phantom Step technique and the Blink. She certainly
lacked the VOID algorithm.
And sacrificing false modesty, Rui knew she lacked his cognitive capabilities
by virtue of not having a double-reincarnated mind.
WHOOSH
POW POW POW
Nel cleanly avoided a palm thrust, smoothly throwing three jabs at her. He
had begun to get the hang of using his evasiveness against her. This was not
something he was accustomed to, in the entire preliminary contest, Fae was
the only one who had forced him to back down and fight evasively pretty
much entirely.
Even Rui only managed that by spamming the Stinger, which would have
been foolish and reckless if not for his resourceful tactic.
He launched a weighted strike at her.
BAM!
To his surprise, she didn't defend against it.
BAM!!
A powerful weighted blow landed on him, pushing him back.
She abandoned her defense, ignoring the damage he caused in exchange for
landing an even stronger attack on him.
"That's a good strategy." Rui nodded in approval. "Frankly, she's not getting
anywhere even with her speedy jabs. She decided to gamble and go all-in.
She tossed aside her defense and dedicated everything to offense."
"Would that really help all that much?" Kane wondered.
"It certainly would." Dalen nodded. "Defense takes physical and mental
capital. It restricts your movements, consumes your attention and energy. If
you forget about it, you've removed yourself of a lot of shackles."
Rui nodded. "The downside is that you're going to be punished with

damage."
Her conditioned had worsened already, each attack from Nel left a bruise on
her fair skin, inflicting pain and damage on her unguarded abdomen.
WHOOSH
POW
Nel avoided a strike, landing haymaker on her.

WHOOSH
He ducked sharply as a palm attack almost crashed into him. Ever since she
abandoned her defense and went all-out, dodging attacks had become much
harder. He was only able to dodge half of them as the other half landed
square on him.
POW POW
He leapt back after Fae smacked him twice, chasing after him immediately.
WHOOSH
He spun about a palm attack from her, infiltrating her stance.
However, Fae was prepared. Her right arm twisted and curled as she
launched a Whirlpool attack straight at him.
Rui was impressed. She had waited for a moment when he was super close to
her to launch her Whirlpool attack. It was only at this range could she
possibly have had chance at landing her Whirlpool at him.
Her palm spun as it shot forward.
But.
Not before Nel's foot crashed into her jaw.
BAM!
Having abandoned defense for the most part, the unadultered power of Nel
rocked her head, disorienting her.
Nel didn't let the go of the opening!
BAM BAM BAM!
He threw a flurry of weighted strikes against her.

POW!
A wild haymaker crashed into her head.
The damage done in her already disoriented state was too much.
THUD
She collapsed.
It was over
"Winner: Apprentice Nel!" The supervisor declared, after verifying she was
knocked out.
Rui shook his head melancholically. The fight truly could have gone either
way. If Nel had gone for that kick just a moment later, or for another attack
Fae would have successfully landed the Whirlpool attack in all likelihood.
Once she landed the attack, the match would have been over, Nel's condition
would have deteriorated quickly, like Rui's had back then and within five
minutes, his condition would have been too desolate to possibly defeat Fae.
Fae would have continued landing strikes, at an even greater rate than she
had before thanks to his plummeting condition and eventually she would
have pressed for a win and gone onto knock him out either by a palm strike
or had him bleeding until he was unconscious.
But no.
There were no second chances.

Chapter 230 Commence
"Shame." Rui shook his head. "But at the end of the day, it is what it is."
Nel met up with them once he got off the ring, grinning ecstatically. He was
immediately bombarded with biddings of congratulations.
"Great fight." Rui told him.
"It was awesome." He grinned. "Wish we could fight more, but this thing
ends today right?"
"Yeah." Rui said. "One way or another. But you can fight us even in the
future."
"Hehe... I sure will." He said as he each of them. "All of you."
Soon, Fae joined them, after being healed up, with a dismayed expression.
"Why the long face?" Kane asked teasingly.
"Shut up." She glared at him.
"You came pretty close." Rui consoled her.
"Indeed." Hever agreed. "Just the slightest difference and the match could
very well have gone down a different path."
"Yes, but it didn't go down that way." She sighed. "The fact that it went the
way it did was mainly my fault. I still have many shortcomings to fill up
before I can be satisfied with myself."
"Heh." Nel smirked. "We can fight again when you're satisfied. No, there is
no need to wait that long, we can fight today again!"
Everyone ignored the battle maniac.
"On the bright side, dissatisfaction pushes you to grow stronger." Rui smiled.
"You're probably more motivated than you would be if you'd won. It's the
same with me too."
They all bantered for quite some time, shifting from place to place every time
one of them had a match.
Rui's fight with Kane had been rescheduled to be the last match of the day
due to 'logistical issues'. An excuse that Rui found to be total nonsense, of
course. The Academy was overflowing with logistical support, the idea they
would be unable to hold the Rui's match with Kane was just silly.
Headmaster Aronian was unilaterally the cause for this. Rui could almost
picture the old man stroking his beard with a mischievous grin as he
rescheduled their match to be the last for the sake of suspense, tension and
entertainment.
Rui shook his head with resigned amusement. It wasn't particularly a big
deal, so it didn't really matter when the match happened today as long as it
did happen today.
And soon, it came.
"Apprentices Rui Quarrier and Kane Arrancar. Your final match is soon to
commence, please be at the assigned ring." A staff member told them.
They nodded solemnly.
"Good luck to both of you." Fae wished.
"Looking forward to a good fight." Hever calmly told them.
"Fight hard." Nel instructed.
They left after accepting the well-wishes of their friends.

Rui didn't even need to look around.
Everybody was there.
Everybody.
The Squire instructors, the staff, every single Martial Apprentice, even the
Explorer students had gathered to witness this momentous fight.
This fight would decide which of the two of them would represent all of them
in one of the most prestigious Martial contests in the entire Martial Festival!
How could they not be there?
How could they not want to be there?
Their emotions trickled into the air, saturating the atmosphere.
Excitement. Uncertainty. Anticipation.
The very air tingled with the various emotions floating about. Even breathing
it became harder, as everyone held their breaths as the two Martial
Apprentices boarded the ring and faced each other.
They didn't say a word.
They didn't exchange well-wishes, or trash-talk.
They simply stared at each other.
Even though Kane's expression was neutral, Rui could see a meaningful look
in his eyes.
A meaning that only he understood.
A meaning that only he was supposed to understand.
And understand, he did.

A silent pressure built-up.
The lack of emotion. The lack of aggression. The lack of exchange.
These did not ease the atmosphere.
No.
They hardened it.
The two of them weighed upon everyone else pushing down everything else.
Even the Martial Squires weren't drawing attentions to themselves, they too
had gathered to bear witness to this battle.
"Take your stances." The supervisor instructed. His voice cutting through the
frozen taut atmosphere.
Kane began lightly hopping between his feet. A dynamic stance that allowed
him to shift to max speed in any given direction as quickly as possible. His
hands were loosely brought in front of him to abdominal height, allowing for
speedy jabs.
A silent, sharp pressure could be felt when one looked at his eyes. Some even
shivered.
In the past month, out of all the Martial Apprentices that had partaken in the
preliminary contest, none had left a greater impact and impression on
everybody than Kane Arrancar.
All of them had faced him.
And all of them had felt helpless against his perverse formidability. All of
them distinctly remembered the experience of being relentlessly harassed and
bullied by an invisible shadow, putting up futile and meaningless resistance.
How could anyone compete with that?
And yet.
"Fuuu..." Rui closed his eyes.
Black.
There was darkness.
There was a void.
And VOID.
Even when his eyes were closed, he could see his Martial Path. He could
endlessly stare deep into its depths, deep into its void unfalteringly
He yearned to walk down its path every second.
Step by step.
Yes, step by step.
This fight was just that.
Another step.
His concentration trickled, gathering bit by bit.
His concentration sharpened.
His mind converged.
He was ready.
He opened his eyes, throwing a simple glance at Kane.
The simplest of gestures.
And yet.
Everyone's eyes widened.
They widened in shock as they felt boundless weight erupt from within him.
Even the Martial Squires raised an eyebrow, surprised.
Just how much depth did this young boy possess?
His pitch-black eyes greedily consumed the very light around them, seeing
through everything, seeing through everyone. Those eyes made one feel as
transparent as glass.
Kane's mouth cracked into an almost indiscernible smile.
Rui brought his guard up, as he centered his legs, crouching them.
It was a stance that emphasized defense, balance and stability.
He was ready. It was time.
The final battle was about to commence.

Chapter 231 Miracle
"B-Begin!" The supervisor commenced the battle.
And like clockwork, Kane sashayed out of reality with the Void Step
technique.
The battle had begun.
Rui pushed his mind to the very limit as Primordial Instinct and Seismic
Mapping worked overtime as they did their best to pick anything they could
on Kane's movements.
This time, however, he didn't close his eyes. His eyes darted around.
Rui could sense Kane was circling around him at a distance of roughly five
meters.
He simply waited.
Kane rushed in towards him.
Yet, Rui didn't react.
He had reached.
Yet, Rui didn't move.
POW POW POW
Kane threw several jabs at Rui from the side.

WHOOSH
Rui finally made a move, but only after he was struck. He threw a heavy
haymaker in the direction of the attacks, but they merely hit empty air.
BAM
A jab struck his face from the other side.
WHOOSH
Rui once again swung only after Kane had struck him.
He refused to attack before Kane attacked him, attacking only after Kane had
struck him.
In the eyes of everyone spectating, Rui was helpless. He was merely trying to
fight Kane the same way they had all already tried.
The sighed in disappointment.
This was the final match.
This was also the match that would decide who would be chosen as
representative of the Academy in the Martial Contest in the Martial Festival.
And yet, the outcome seemed to be already decided.
Rui was trying to hit Kane immediately as Kane hit him, since Kane would
be close to him the moment he struck Rui.
However, this wasn't a genius strategy. All of them had tried the exact same
strategy, and all of them failed.
Kane's evasiveness was simply too damn good. He could easily avoid their
desperate measure to strike him, especially when they couldn't even see him.
Rui was clearly trying the same thing in their eyes, meaning that he was
unable to sense Kane either, correct?
Wrong.
None of them knew Rui had mastered Primordial Instinct and Seismic
Mapping. Or the fact that these two techniques together were able to crack a
dent in the invincible armour of the Void Step technique.
Rui hadn't told any of them.
Furthermore, these techniques were not visually flashy. It was almost

impossible to directly infer that a person had mastered Primordial instinct and
Seismic Mapping simply by looking at them.
Not even Kane knew that he had mastered these techniques.
Nor did he know that Rui could constantly sense the direction he was in and
get a vague sense of how far he was from himself.
Rui did not intend to haphazardly reveal this like Nel did. Unlike Nel, he was
a resourceful, tactical and intelligent fighter who made use of everything he
had.
He played the role of the blindsided victim who had fallen prey to the miracle
of the Void Step technique like many others in this preliminary contest.
He endured all the punishment that Kane dished out. Taking all of them.
He was biding his time.
For the right time.
The right place.
He truly had one chance, and one chance only.
If he failed, his task would become immeasurably harder. Furthermore, with

how much he had put to stake, if he failed, he would be far too lost to be able
to turn the tables around.
Down outside the ring, their friends spectated the match with great
concentration.
"Awww." Nel grumbled. "Void boy's getting pushed around by vanish boy."
The rest of them sighed, feeling a bit depressed. Kane had pushed around all
of them dominantly as well, and it seemed the same was inevitably
happening.
Only Nel had managed to not to lose against him.
"Shame." Fae sighed. "I hoped the match would be more competitive but..."
"Seems like Kane is set for the win." Hever noted. "Not a surprising outcome.
As brilliant of a fighter as Rui Quarrier is, there are hurdles that simply
cannot be bypassed by purely tactics alone. At this rate, he will be knocked
down or ringed-out."
"Tsk." Nel tutted grumpily. "If I were in his shoes, I would have kicked his
ass!"
People threw a strange look at Nel at those words.
"You already tried..." Fae glanced at him with a frown. "And failed to kick
his ass."
"Hmph." He snorted. "That was a long time ago. A man grows."
"That was a few days ago." Hever corrected. "And you're still a minor."
"Shut up!" Nel barked, sparking a commotion.
Fae simply shook her head, turning back to the fight, staring at Rui. There
was nothing else to look at. Fights with Kane were fascinating, yet they grew
boring to most spectaters after some time because no one had any idea what
was happening.
"Which one do you think will win?" Squire Dylon asked as his sharp eyes
followed Kane's movements effortlessly.
The Apprentice-level version of the Void Step technique was an almost
invincible technique in the Apprentice Realm. Yet the powerful minds of the
Martial Squires could resist Kane's misdirection entirely.
"Hard to say." Squire Kyrie replied passively.
"Oh come on." Dlyon complained. "Don't be a spoilsport. I put ten coins on
Kane winning."
"As do I." Squire Helen chirped, sparking several more Martial Squires to
follow suit.
"Hmph..." Squire Kyrie. "Then I'll bet on Rui."
"Huh?" Dylon tilted his head in confusion. "Really? Rui? Have you grown
dull over the years?"
"I guess we'll find out." Squire Kyrie replied unperturbed as she gazed
straight at Rui.
His eyes held an unyielding determination beneath his faÃ§ade. This was not
stubborn perseverance, nor resigned resistance.
Those were the eyes of one who believed they could win. Those were the
eyes of one who was willing to do anything to do anything to win.
She did not want to bet against those eyes. Her instincts told her that the fight
was not over, and that the outcome was far from settled.
Although she bet on him, she was curious as to why she felt that way, and
how the battle would unfold.
What kind of miracle would that boy conjure up this time?

Chapter 232 Exploit
POW POW POW
WHOOSH
Kane peppered Rui with many strikes, evading a wild haymaker smoothly.
On the outside, it seemed as though Kane was furiously punishing Rui,
determined to win.
Yet unbeknownst to anybody, perhaps even Rui himself, Kane was rather
melancholic. He truly hoped Rui had a way to defeat him, but it seemed this
wasn't the case. It had been quite some time since the match had begun, yet as
time passed by, the odds of victory of Rui seemed to grow dimmer and
dimmer.
Rui soon abandoned offense and focused purely on defense, being pushed to
the edge bit by bit. Although his defense was solid, not being able to engage
in any proactive defense because he couldn't see Kane's attacks meant that
even Kane's meagre offense was able to push him back and secure more and
more space over time.
BAM!
Kane hit Rui with a powerful pushing kick, shoving him to the edge of the
ring.
Kane sighed to himself.
It was time.
He rushed towards Rui from an unconventional angle with a charged attack

and a heavy attack.
Every detail of this fight would reach the ears of his family, one way or
another, they had too much influence.
How could he possibly justify not taking this juicy opportunity?
He couldn't, especially when he exploited such opportunities in all his

previous matches, and the fact that it was, frankly, common sense.
He sighed inwardly. It was a shame. But he didn't intend to blame Rui. He

had done his best and it was unfair to expect more than that.
Suddenly, a chill went up his spine as he reached Rui. Kane's eyes widened
as he saw the briefest of grins crack from Rui's mouth.
Suddenly Rui crouched launching an incredibly swift sweeping kick towards

Kane, aiming to trip Kane.
Kane immediately understood. He was moving so fast that losing his balance
while moving towards at the edge of the ring would instantly mean he would
fly out of the ring. Rui's crouching sweeping kick seemed to be aimed at
ringing out Kane or at least a simultaneous ring-out with both of them for a
draw.
But how did Rui know when and where to land this attack?
He didn't know.
But it didn't matter.
Kane leapt high into the air, dodging the attack cleanly. The easiest way to
avoid a committed sweeping kick.
Yet what happened next shocked him.
WHOOSH
The attack disappeared.
It was a feint!
Rui hadn't moved much, just enough for a feint.
Kane's eyes flew wide open as his he stared at Rui, who stared right back at
him with an ecstatic grin.
PEW!
Rui's right toe soared, cutting through the air as Rui propelled forward as fast
as he could.
This was his goal!
Even if Rui was vaguely aware of Kane's position at all times, it wasn't
enough. Kane's evasive skill and capability was so high he could easily avoid
Rui's attacks even if Rui knew where he vaguely was at. This was obviously
true, Kane was capable of avoiding Rui quite well even when Rui could see
him, there was no contest when Rui couldn't see him.
So, what could Rui do?
The answer was simple, either outmaneuver Kane's evasiveness with brute
speed or restrict Kane's evasiveness.
The former was frankly impossible. Perhaps if Rui could see Kane he might
have managed with a well-timed combination of Blink and Phantom Step, but
if he could not see Kane, then Blink was completely useless.
One of the few solutions he had managed to think about via the VOID
algorithm was the very solution he had employed.
If Kane was mid-air, then his evasiveness was almost entirely useless. He had
feinted a committed sweeping kick, where he threw everything into it,
meaning it would be hard to do anything else. This gave Kane the confidence
to leap to avoid it, especially when he was under the impression that Rui
couldn't locate him.
This was his blunder.
He was mid-air. He couldn't really avoid attacks.

The Stinger was normally not a threat to Kane. Even Nel had avoided them,
Kane could avoid them comfortably.
But, that was when his feet where on the ground.
His eyes widened as he realized that this must have been part of Rui's plan
from the very start. Everything that had happened so far had happened
because Rui was waiting for this very moment!
Kane threw up his guard
POW!
The Stinger plunged into his bicep, digging deep. Rui, of course, had no idea
where the Stinger had landed on Kane's body. He simply struck in a way that
would cause as much damage as possible.
Unfortunately, the bicep was not a vital.
Kane immediately retreated, but the damage was already done. Even if the
bicep wasn't a vital, the damage done was quite significant.
The pain and shock the Kane experienced broke his Void Step technique,
which required delicate execution. Rui refused to let go of the opportunity.
BAM!
He managed to get in at the very least one more jab, before regaining his
bearings and reusing the Void Step technique.
But the damage was done.
His movements weren't as easy as before. His right arm was largely
incapacitated, making it harder to use it help with balancing his weight which
was very necessary in maneuvering. Furthermore, there was the blood loss.
Perhaps if he had time to minimize the blood loss and tie up the wound with a
piece of his uniform, he might have been able to minimize the loss to his
combat prowess.
However, Rui did not let up.
He threw the charade up in the air, and hounded after Kane. Now that he had
already revealed that he could sense Kane, there was no point in playing
dumb, furthermore, now was not the time to be passive, he needed to exploit
the opportunity he had finally generated. Constantly chasing after him
prevented Kane from having time to gather his bearings and consolidate what
could still consolidated.
Only if he fully exploited the potential he had created, could he possible win!
Chapter 233 Outcome
Not a single person spectating was unperturbed.
One moment, Rui was on the verge of defeat.
The very next moment he successfully lands his trump card on Kane,
inflicting serious damage with Stinger!
They all gaped in amazement.
How did Rui land that attack on Kane at all?
No one understood.
The sheer manner in which he landed the attack made it absolutely clear it
wasn't dumb luck. That was absolutely impossible.
Furthermore, with the way Rui was running around the ring aggressively, it
was clear that he was chasing Kane.
What had changed?
Did he develop a new way to sense Kane in the middle of the fight?
"No... That's impossible." Fae murmured. "But... that means he was able to
sense Kane... from the very start?"
Her eyes flew wide open in amazement.
This revelation was unbelievable!
But what amazed her even more was that instead of using this from the very
start and hounding after Kane, he held it in as a trump card and used it at the
very right moment and place. If Fae was able to sense Kane she would not
have used it in such a manner, she would likely have abused it from the very
start and tried her very best to get a hit in on Kane.
This is what most of them would have done. None of them would have
allowed themselves to get bullied by Kane ever if they could avoid it.
Yet Rui not only allowed himself to get bullied by Kane, but even used to his
advantage to create an opening against Kane and gain a huge advantage.
The blood drops scattered across the entire floor was testament to Rui's to
this!
The only person to inflict a wound on Kane was Nel, and that was a minor
wound that was born largely out of raw physical prowess and luck rather than
the quality of his decision making.
Now, Rui was winning!
He chased and chased and chased.
He wasn't particularly bothered by the fact that his attacks still missed and he
hadn't touched Kane since the Stinger and blow immediately after.
He knew that as long as he didn't blunder, it was only a matter of time. Kane
was no Milliana who would have been able to drag on the fight even in his
condition forever until Rui ran out of gas.
Kane began flickering in and out of everyone's vision.
The wound was taking its toll.
Rui was also taking his toll by forcing him to go all-out with his speed. It was
not easy maintaining top speed along with the Void Step. And it had become
ten-fold harder with pain and blood loss.
Soon, the odds snowballed against Kane.

Pain, incapacitation and exhaustion had begun exacting their toll.
POW
Rui landed his third strike on Kane as he slipped up on Void Step technique.
The jab struck his nose just barely, but the immediate pain and disorientation
that came from it collapsed his concentration on the Void Step technique
complete.
BOOM!
Moment later, a powerful Flowing Canon crashed into his wound, causing
him excruciating pain. Kane was not a defensive fighter, the Flowing Canon
attack ravaged his arm.
Rui had used Blink and Phantom Step to land the strike in his disoriented
state. This caused even more disorientation, especially when he wasn't a
defensive fighter.
It had snowballed too much.
BAM BAM BAM
It was over.
Kane collapsed, unconscious.
He didn't move.
Everyone was shocked. Many people had already written Kane as the
representative of the Academy. His ability was simply too perverse.
Yet Rui overcame him with a brilliant tactic as well as formidable sensory
prowess!
This outcome made one thing very clear to all of them.
Rui Quarrier now held the position of the strongest!

Although there were several close shaves, ultimately, he had a perfect win
streak.
Seventy-eight victories.
Zero draws.
Zero losses.
Not a single person could avoid losing to him!
"Winner; Apprentice Rui Quarrier!" The supervisor declared loudly, his voice
echoing across the silent facility.
Rui closed his eyes, exhaling.
He had arrived.
The profound weight of the realization reverberated through his entire being.
He absorbed the impact, the waves of ecstasy and relief, as well as the
excitement of participating in the Martial Contest.
He would represent the Hajin branch of the Martial Academy in one of the
highest levels of contest. He would go on to face fifteen of the best Martial
Apprentices in his entire generation!
He quivered slightly. He was unable to contain his excitement!
The other fifteen representatives of the remaining Martial Academies were

also among the very best of their Academies.
What kind of monsters would Rui run into? What kind of Martial Art would
these Martial Artists practice?
Would he be able to win?
He wanted to know.
He wanted to find out.

He clenched his fist, controlling himself.
"Fuuu..." He exhaled, calming down. He waited patiently as the medical team

healed Kane. He didn't want to leave without his friend.
"Hmm..." He groaned as his eyes opened, disoriented. "Wha...?"
"Hey." Rui drew his attention to himself.
"Rui...?" Kane's eyes flashed as he immediately recalled what had happened.
"Ah..." An expression of relief and gratitude flashed across his face.

"Congratulations, and thanks."
"Don't mention it." Rui dismissed. "How are you feeling?"
"Groggy." He said, getting up. "Man, that last combo hurt like hell."
"Heh, thanks." Rui smirked. "I enjoyed finally punishing you after you
bullied me the entire fight."
"Jerk." Kane grumbled, but his smile betrayed his emotions. He was truly
happy, and truly proud. For the first time, he was actually excited for the
Martial Contest.
The two bantered as they met up with their friends.
Rui was immediately bombarded with a flurry of earnest congratulating

wishes.
"Thanks guys." Rui smiled. "Much appreciated, really."
Suddenly, a voice called out to him.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier?" A staff member called out to him.
"Hm?" Rui turned to her.
"The headmaster has summoned you." She informed him. "Please head to the
Headmaster's office immediately."
Chapter 234 Names And Sects
p "I wonder what Headmaster Aronian wants from you..." Fae pondered out
aloud. "Probably not going to be as simple as superficial congratulations and
pep talk."
"I'll find out soon enough." He shrugged. "I'll catch you guys later."
He left after they bade him goodbye, heading towards the Headmaster's
office.
It had been a month since Rui had spoken to him, he had consulted him once
before the preliminary contest had begun and now, he was visiting him as the
representative of the entire Academy.
He had arrived.
The large doors to the Headmaster's office opened.
A large office came into his view as he gazed at the figure seated at the
headmaster's table.
"Headmaster." Rui bowed deeply, partly because of the great awe and respect
he had for vaunted Martial Masters, partly because the sheer weight of
Headmaster Aronian's mind pushing down on Rui, compelling him to bow.
Every time Rui encountered him, he was reminded about how deep the
Martial Path extended, and how shallow his own depths were. Any arrogance
one might have incurred as a result of winning the preliminary contest would
certainly been thoroughly dispelled.
"Rui Quarrier." He spoke, stroking his flowing beard. "Come in."

Rui walked in as the doors closed behind him.
"First." He said, flashing Rui a smile. "Allow me to congratulate you on your

victory in the preliminary contest. Congratulations on being chosen as the
representative of the Hajin branch of the Martial Academies in the Martial
Contest."
"Thank you, Headmaster." Rui bowed once more.
"Not at all, young man." He said dismissively. "You have truly earned it."
Rui simply smiled at those words.
"The reasons I summoned you, however..." Headmaster Aronian continued.

"...are more than just merely congratulating you."
Rui simply listened, waiting for Headmaster Aronian to elaborate.
"There is some paperwork that goes into being the representative, nothing
burdensome rest assured. However, there are several personal details that
need to be submitted. The one I want to bring to your attention is the fact that
every representative generally submits the name of their Martial Art."
Headmaster Aronian. "We will be requesting one from you, as well."
Rui's eyes flashed at those words. He knew that Martial Artists named their
Martial Art at some point. However, he had never paid too much attention to
it. The VOID algorithm had always been his Martial Art in his mind.
"As I'm sure you're aware..." Headmaster Aronian told him. "We generally
don't hasten this process, which is why it's never brought up in the Martial
Academy by your instructors. The process of naming one's Martial Art is
rather profound, important and even sacred. The name you name it must truly
resonate with you on a fundamental level. After all, the name of your Martial
Art affects not just how others perceive your Martial Art, but also how you
yourself perceive it. Such is the nature of the human mind. Names have
power."
Rui nodded, engrossed.

The name of his Martial Art.
Could he just call it the VOID algorithm? Perhaps.
"There exist naming conventions in the Martial Community." Headmaster

Aronian informed him. "Generally, the names of Martial Art begin with the
actual core name of your Martial Art, followed by nouns that encapsulate
how you view your Martial Art. Many view their Martial Art as an Art, and
call it as such. Many view their Martial Art as styles of combat, and thus
name it as such. Many wish to emphasize on particular elements of their
Martial Art and thus name it as such. So on and so forth."
Rui nodded. "I understand.
"I wished to inform you before you filled the paperwork." Headmaster
Aronian told him. "Lest you be caught off-guard and hastily choose a name,
and you'll likely end up regretting it in the future."
"Thank you for your consideration."
"Not at all." Headmaster Aronian.
Rui thought to himself.
The name of his Martial Art.
From the way Headmaster Aronian spoke about the matter, it certainly wasn't
going to be a light issue. He wanted to be careful about the matter. If names
affected the way in which one viewed one's Martial Art, then it wouldn't be a
stretch to say that an unsatisfactory name may even negatively affect one's
journey down their Martial Path.
Which meant this wasn't a light decision to be made.
"Do I have to decide now?" He scratched his head.
"Oh no, not at all." Headmaster Aronian denied. "Frankly, you have the right
to refuse if you really want to. Refusing is a much better outcome than just
hastily coming up with a name and regreting your choice later. Anything but
the latter is fine."
Rui nodded. "Then I will take time and make a decision on the matter."
"That you should." Headmaster Aronian stroked his beard. "Make sure you're
truly satisfied with the name, and if you aren't satisfied, then there's no need
to rush it. But your Martial Art has matured to the point where you may
already possess a name you're satisfied with. I get the sense that you've tread
deeper than most of your peers in your generation."
"You flatter me."
"Hoho... Am I?" He threw a knowing glance at Rui.
Rui didn't reply, simply wryly smiling. Frankly, he wasn't sure what to name
his Martial Art. He would need to engage in deeper introspection before he
could possible even come close to making a decision.
"There are some more matters..." Headmaster Aronian said. "But one of them
sticks out."
Rui raised an eyebrow. "What matter is that, Headmaster?"
"The Martial Union is not monolithic." The Headmaster seemingly randomly

stated. "Like all human entities, it is subject to tribalism driven by differing
mutual interests between different people within the upper echelons of the
Martial Union. These different groups band together and work together and
strive to fulfill the common interests they all hold."
Rui tilted his head, confused. Why did the Headmaster randomly delve into
such a topic?
"Normally, it's not something I would have taken upon myself to inform you
of... But now that you have taken the position of representative, I do believe
this is the best course of action." He said, before taking a deep look into Rui."
"Tell me, what do you know of the Martial Sects?"

Chapter 235 Elaboration
"Martial Sects?" Rui tilted his head in confusion.
What were those? Certainly not something he was familiar with.
"Hmm." Headmaster Aronian nodded. "Well, take a seat. This might take a
while to explain."
Rui sat down opposite to Headmaster Aronian, waiting for him to explain.
"The Martial Union is a commercial organization; this is one of its core

functions." The headmaster revised. "There is an enormous market for
Martial services from countless consumers and clienteles willing to pay for
hiring Martial Artists for various services. The Martial Union serves as
liaison between these consumers and the Martial Artists themselves, allowing
for an incredibly smooth and regulated exchange of commissions and Martial
services between the two sides."
Rui nodded, being quite familiar with the way the Martial Union functioned.
"As you know the Martial Union takes a fifty-percent cut of Martial
commissions." Headmaster Aronian. "The reason for it being entitled half of
the commission is because the services it provides to Martial Artists and
clienteles and consumer is indispensable. Without the Martial Union, there
would be no avenue for Martial Artists to easily be able to easily access
countless commissions that the Martial Union receives, processes, stores and
organizes in an extremely user-friendly manner. This would be utterly
impossible without a highly bureaucratic organization handling the immense
documentation processing as quickly and smoothly as the Martial Union
does. Furthermore, the intelligence and difficulty grades that are also
indispensable to Martial Artists all require immense amount of funding."
Rui nodded, agreeing. The Martial Union made life very convenient for
Martial Artists. Without the Martial Union. Martial Apprentices would
struggle to be able to access the commissions from clienteles and consumers
of Martial services, there would be no extensive way for either side to contact
the other. Furthermore, although not perfect, the intelligence and difficulty
grade evaluations of the Martial Union were extremely useful, it minimized
risk and maximized efficiency. Rui did not think that the Martial Union
taking a hefty cut was particularly unfair, the services it was offering in return
were quite substantial.
"Naturally, acquiring such a hefty cut from all commissions inevitably means
that the Martial Union accumulates an enormous sum of money every year."
The Headmaster continued. "The question is... what do we do with all that
money?"
Rui began understanding the direction this was going. "Paying the work and
labour force of the Martial Union, the many staff members and the many
other employees the Martial Union has hired. I imagine a sizable chunk of
funds goes into the maintenance and repair of infrastructure too, stocking of
supplies and other essential things that are needed to maintain the functioning
of the Martial Union."
"Correct." The headmaster nodded. "Running the Martial Union is more

fund-intensive than you can possibly imagine, no doubt more than half of all
funds are expended into the necessities that you mentioned."
"The questions is..." He continued. "What do we do with the remaining

funds?"
Rui could feel the attention he was paying him, evidently the old man was
finally getting around to the point after rambling on like old men generally
liked to.
Rui wasn't sure, there were a number of obvious answers, he just wasn't sure
which on headmaster Aronian was looking for.
"Do we primarily store all those funds in a treasury?" Headmaster Aronian

asked. "Do we primarily invest those funds in side businesses? or perhaps we
primarily invest those funds in territorial expansion?" He paused, throwing
Rui an inquisitive look. "Do Martial Artists care for such things? What do
Martial Artists care about the most?"
Rui didn't need to even think about this answer. "Power."
"Correct." The headmaster nodded approvingly. "Martial Artists are

generally not money mongers. We respect one thing between each other;
power."
Power was the very foundation of a Martial Artist, without it they were no
different from normal humans. No, without it they were even worse. A
Martial Artist without power was incompetent fool unworthy of the title of
Martial Artist.
"Power is what we seek." The headmaster continued. "Money cannot buy

everything, but it can usually help with most things."
"So the Martial Union spends its remaining funds on acquiring more power?"
Rui asked. This made sense. The Martial Union was fundamentally drive by
Martial Artists, who were driven by power. Power was indeed one of the
most important pillars and interests of the Martial Union.
"Indeed. And Martial power, specifically." He continued. "We invest a

tremendous sum of funds every year into acquiring Martial power. In the
form of research and development of Martial Art and combat."
Rui's eyes widened at those words. To think that his career in his previous life
was in such high demand to the Martial Union.
"All those countless Apprentice-level techniques that exist in the Apprentice

library of the Martial Academy today." He said. "Did you think they fell from
the sky or grew on trees? No, each one of those technique and trainings have
been rigorously researched and developed by the research and development
department of the Martial Union after many, many years and funds. The
Martial Union places a great amount of importance in this avenue. Only by
investing a large amount of funds and research manpower into developing
Martial power can the fundamental and foundational level of Martial Artists
improve."
This made a lot of sense to Rui. If not for this initiative, Martial Art would
not grow stronger as generations passed. It was extremely difficult for this to
occur naturally, because unlike technology, development of Martial Art was
purely individualistic. One could not gather a bunch of Martial Artists and
have them all collectively focus on developing one Martial Art. No, each
Martial Artist developed their own Martial Art. This meant the development
of Martial Art in the hands of Martial Artists alone was quite slow.
"However, research and development is an extremely wide field in and of

itself." Headmaster Aronian remarked. "There are many large avenues even
within the field of Martial Art that can be researched. However, not
everything can be researched, and some things are clearly more important. So
how does the Martial Union conduct the decision-making process for the
research and development fund allocation? How do we decide which avenue
of research gets how much money?" The headmaster paused, before
continuing. "This is where the Martial Sects come in..."
Rui's eyes narrowed. The old man had finally gotten to the point!
Chapter 236 Lot To Think About.
"Not everyone agrees on how to allocate the budget for research and
development." Headmaster Aronian continued. "Different Martial Artists in
the Martial Union have different ideas on how these valuable funds ought to
be allocated. Whether it be based on what they believe is best for Martial Art
as a whole, or whether they desire a specific allocation because it benefits
their Martial Art the most in the long run. Regardless of their intentions, not
everyone agrees."
p Rui nodded, understanding. An offense-oriented Martial Artist would want

a disproportionate amount of research funding to be allocated to the research
and development of offense-oriented techniques. A defensive Martial Artist
would want the same for defense-oriented techniques and so on and so forth.
This was quite a natural outcome. Human beings were naturally self-centered.
"The fund allocation is decided after immense deliberations and a voting

session on the matter by the highest echelons of the Martial Union. Now, if
you were one of them and you wanted to push for a specific allocation in
these meetings, what would you do?" The headmaster asked.
This reminded Rui an awful lot of political discourse and engagement that
occurred in governmental structures. Politicians often engaged in a lot of
measures to try and push for certain direction policy making.
Following that route of analogy...
"I would find like-minded others who agree with me and band together to
fulfill our mutual interests in regards to the allocation of funds." Rui
answered.
"Exactly." The headmaster nodded approvingly. "That is what has already

long happened. Those groups have already been formed long ago, and
continue to exist to further their own mutual interests in regards to the
allocation of budgets. These groups are known as the Martial Sects."
Finally, Rui understood. Martial Sects were no more than lobbying groups
banded together to cooperate to ensure the fulfillment of their mutual
interests in regards to the allocation of research funds.
Rui grumbled inwardly, although he appreciated the contextual breakdown,

couldn't the old man have plainly said that?
"These Martial Sects are informal groups formed by Martial Artists with a
similar mind and, usually, similar Martial Art, or atleast Martial Art of the
same field." The headmaster continued, unaware of Rui's complaints. "The
Fire Sect is the Martial Sect that advocates for offense-oriented Martial Art
research, The Lightning Sect is the Martial Sect that advocates for speed and
maneuvering-oriented Martial Art research, the Earth sect is the Martial Sect
that advocates for defense-oriented Martial Art research. These three are the
largest of Martial Sects for obvious reasons. They cover the most important
broadest of aspects of Martial combat."
Rui grew engrossed into his explanations, the entire matter was extremely
interesting and yet quite foreign to him. When he was a researcher, getting
funds for combat research was quite difficult. But the combat researchers of
this world were quite fortunate in comparison, the Martial Union dumped
tons and tons of research funding onto them every year.
Rui felt a hint of envy. If he received such luxury in his previous life, he
might have successfully perfected the VOID algorithm.
"There are other Martial Sects, of course. The Sun Sect is a Martial Sect
centered around supplementary techniques. The Wind Sect specifically
focuses on a smaller subset of maneuvering techniques centered around
evasion. The Breathing Sect focuses on breathing-oriented techniques, the
Poison Sect focuses on poison techniques and so and so forth." The
headmaster explained. "These Martial Sects engage in various activities to
fulfill their mutual interests."
He paused before throwing a pointed glance at Rui. "One of those activities is
roping in unaffiliated Martial Artists, particularly the newer and younger
Martial Artists."
He paused. "Particularly the talented and promising Martial Artists of the

newer and younger generations."
Rui's eyes narrowed as he understood why headmaster Aronian had even

brought this topic to him in the first place.
"The reason they do this is to increase the population of the Martial Artists of
their Martial Sect. They offer Martial Art techniques of their Sect at
discounted prices, attracting unaffiliated Martial Artists to informally join
their sects and learn and use their techniques. The reason they do this is to
increase the number of Martial Artists using the techniques of their Sect. By
doing this, they can demonstrate a greater need for research and development
of the techniques of their Sect. After all, would you rather research Martial
Art techniques that only a hundred Martial Artists use, or Martial Art
techniques that ten thousand Martial Artists use?" He asked rhetorically.
Rui nodded. This made sense. The greater the number of Martial Artists there
using a certain type or field of techniques, then the greater the benefits of
researching that particular type or field of techniques, since a greater number
of Martial Artists would grow stronger by successful research and
development, in turn increasing the strength of the average Martial Artist
more.
"This is where you come in. Having more powerful Martial Artists would
increase the political weight and capital of their respective Sects, and thus
they sought out young talents like yourself, hoping to rope you in." The
headmaster explained. "Especially now that you've been chosen as the
representative of the Hajin branch, you have already entered the eyes of the
Martial Sects."
"I see..."
Rui wasn't sure how he felt about that. On one hand he was flattered and
interested, on the other hand he was wary as well.
"They will likely approach you, one way or another. And make rather
tempting offers to you." The headmaster told him. "I would advise you to not
offend them, but at the same time, be extremely careful with whatever
decision you make. There is no need for haste or panic, the decision is
important cannot be easily undone, therefore it must be made with immense
scrutiny."
"I understand." Rui nodded. "Thank you for your advice, I won't be off-guard
as much thanks to your warnings."
Headmaster Aronian nodded. "You have much to think about. I'd suggest you
take some time to give all of what I've told you some thought. You may go."
He told Rui.
Rui nodded, bowing deeply, before leaving.
He did indeed have a lot to think about.

Chapter 237 Something To Look
Forward To
Rui headed back engrossed in thought. There was a lot consuming his focus
and attention. There was a lot on his mind.
Naming his Martial Art?
What name ought he give it? Several generic names popped into his head but
none of them really stood out to him. Headmaster Aronian had told him not
to hastily pick one, and to only pick one that really satisfied him.
Rui shook his head. He wasn't feeling particularly inspired right now, so he
put it off. He could spend more time on the matter later on.
Then there was the issue of the Martial Sects, this was quite the interesting
issue. Frankly, Rui would not mind joining a powerful Sect as long as they
gave him a good enough deal. Otherwise, he would rather steer clear of the
issue. However, easier access to techniques of a particular Sect was quite
attractive.
However, he ran into a dilemma. He was an all-rounder; wouldn't that mean it

wasn't particularly a good idea to practice the techniques of one particular
Sect?
Perhaps he should have asked headmaster Aronian to refer him to an all-

rounder Sect, though he highly doubted such a Sect existed.
Or whether it was even possible to join without a voluntary invitation from

the Sect's end.
Ultimately, he lacked too much information. But that wasn't necessarily a

problem. Headmaster Aronian was simply informing Rui to help him stay
aware of the issue. So that he could be prepared mentally to some extent if he
ever did run into one of the Martial Sects.
But asides from that, this wasn't an issue that required his attention any
further. He would cross that bridge as and when it came.
More importantly, there was the issue of the Martial Contest. Rui needed to
get his shit together for it, otherwise he would lose. He could not afford to be
distracted.
Not that it was easy to get distracted.
He was going to fight the strongest fifteen Martial Artists of his generation!
How could his mind possibly wander to other things?
What could possibly drown out his enthusiastic excitement for the event?
However, even if he focused on it, there wasn't much he could do about it at

this stage. The Martial Contest was in the middle of the Martial Festival, he
had no time to improve by any meaningful measure at all. The stage for
growth was over, now he could only make the best of whatever he had. His
confidence wasn't as high as he would have liked it to be. The fact that there
were four people in roughly the same tier of strength; Kane, Nel, Fae and
Hever, was not particularly reassuring. It meant that his current strength level,
while in the upper echelons of his generation was still some ways away from
the peak.
The other representatives in the Martial Contest would no doubt at the very
least of a similar level to himself, to potentially much stronger.
He would likely have as hard of a time against them as he did against the
likes of his friends.
The question was, what could he do in the two weeks before the arrival of the
Martial Contest?
There wasn't much point in training, but at the very least he could condition
his mind to be at its absolute peak.
Over the next two weeks, the very least he could do is sharpen his focus and
concentration to their absolute limits onto the Martial Contest.
Clear out all distractions.
Clear out everything else.
Focus only and only on bringing out his very best.
"Hey." Kane waved at him. "You're back, that was quicker than I expected."
He had been waiting for him.
"Yeah." Rui told him. "There wasn't much to it anyway."
Kane nodded, not asking the details.
"So." He continued. "What's the plan? You need a sparring partner?"
Rui wondered about that. "If I feel like it. I'll think about it. I'm definitely
shutting myself out from all other activities. I want to immerse myself and
bring myself to my peak before it's time for the Martial Contest."
Kane nodded. "Sure thing. I won't be taking any missions in that time. So,
you can just call me for anything you need okay?"
Rui nodded. "Thanks."
"Don't worry about it." Kane waved his hand. He had been hating the arrival
of the Martial Contest, but the moment Rui had been chosen as the
representative of the Hajin branch, his attitude took a one-hundred-and-
eighty-degree turn. He knew Rui had been aiming for this from the very start
and wanted to see his friend do well. He was excited to see Rui's
performance.
"The others told me tell you the same thing too." Kane added, remembering.
"You beat us, and are now going to represent us, none of us mind helping you
going all the way and becoming the Martial Champion."
Rui smiled. He was blessed to have good friends.
"I'll give them my gratitude when I see them."
"So when do you plan to start your isolated training?"
"Now." Rui replied. He had nothing better to do. Nor anything more
important to do.
"Are you planning on abusing potions again?" Kane sighed.
"I'll get a good night of sleep before the commencement of the Martial
Union." Rui said.
"Gotcha." Kane replied. "Alright see ya. Let me know when you need
anything."
"Sure."
* * * * * *
"Young miss."
"Hm?" A short petit girl turned, facing her attendant. She had short brown
hair and silver eyes that sparkled with vibrant curiosity.
"The results of the chosen representatives of the other Martial Academies

were just sent by Master." The butler informed, holding a letter up.
"Oh, finally!" She said, delighted, reaching her hand out for the letter.
She immediately began pouring over the letter, mumbling as she read the
letter. "Ohh.. Hm Hm. Ferlicia was chosen as the representative of the Ferlos
branch eh? I get to see her after so long then~ Ah Ian was also chosen as a
representative, tsk, expected but still annoying. Most of this is going as
predicte- Hm?"
Her eyebrows knitted in surprise as she read the final name. "Wait, Kane isn't
the representative of the Hajin branch? Who's this Rui Quarrier?"
"He's a young commoner Martial Apprentice who defeated young master

Kane in the preliminary contest." The butler replied.
"Heh~ Kane lost to a commoner boy?" A mischievous smile lit up her face.
"Hehe, more ammunition to tease him with. I wonder how strong this boy is
though, to defeat Kane. In the Hajin branch, only Fae and Hever were at the
level where they could have defeated him."
"His record is a perfect win streak, he is undefeated." The butler added.
"Something to look forward to then."

Chapter 238 True Festivity
The Kandrian Martial Festival had arrived!
The festive atmosphere in the entire nation had built-up for nearly a month
prior until it erupted in full splendor. The streets were littered with
decorations of various kinds as the emblem of the Martial Union; the face of
Martial Art in the Kandrian Empire.
There a huge number of events being held in all major towns, and Hajin was
certainly no exception. As a populated urban trade hub of a town, as well as
home to one of then sixteen Martial Academies in the Kandrian Empire, an
immense number of festive activities had commenced throughout the entire
town.
The Martial Academies had all held demonstrations of Martial Art in public,
demonstrations of feats that Martial Apprentices were capable of, flashy
entertaining spars and other demonstrations that appealed to the average
citizen.
The local businesses also took full advantage of the Festival, setting up large
fairs with Martial Art festive ornaments and other domestic products of
various kinds. These attracted an enormous number of people who attended
them every day.
"Hiyaah!" Fae threw a palm attack at a boulder with an exaggerated yell.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
Several visible cracks spread across the entire boulder.
The crowd watching merrily erupted into cheers and applauses. It wasn't
everyday ordinary citizens got to witness what Martial Apprentices were
actually capable of. The ordinary citizen rarely ran into Martial Apprentices
on a day-to-day basis.
Asides from manual labour, Martial commissions were far too expensive for
most of them! The only reason they could hire lower Realm Martial Artists
for manual labour was because those commissions were rather cheap because
most Martial Artists completed them rather quickly, and the value of labour
was quite low to begin with.
Otherwise, it was a rare sight. Most citizens lacked a nuanced understanding

of what Martial Artists were capable of, the Martial Festival would, of
course, renew their memories, but because of its infrequency, the awareness
of the matter never stuck.
"Woooaah!" A child in the crowd squealed in awe and amazement. "Martial

Artists are awesome! Is big brother Rui also like that?"
"Indeed." Julian smiled. "Your big brother is also a strong Martial Artist."
He turned back to the demonstration with a wistful look. "It's a shame he isn't
able to join us yet, however."
Rui had already long informed the orphanage of the fact that he was chosen
as a representative of the Hajin branch of the Martial Academies. He had
expressed his need to immerse himself in training and mental conditioning
for the Martial Contest that would be held in Vargard, the capital town of the
Kandrian Empire, in two weeks
The Orphanage was quite ecstatic. Julian even promised to bring as many as
he could to the town of Vargard as possible, although it wouldn't be easy.
However, none of them had wanted to miss this event.
Rui would be participating in a national level event!
Jus the very thought of it made all of them very excited.
Furthermore, they would be travelling outside of Hajin and the Mantian

region for the very first time in their entire lives! Most of them were born in
Hajin and had been taken in by Lashara at a very young age, settling just
outside the town of Hajin in the Quarrier Orphanage. Visiting the very capital
of the Kandrian Empire, the town that housed the Royal Kandrian Palace was
something they would normally not even be able to dream of.
Julian had already begun making preparations for the lengthy four-day
journey. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to bring as many people as he would
have liked. The recent expansion of the Orphanage he himself had funded
meant that the current functioning of the Orphanage was rather tight.
Only he Farion and Myra among the adults could go, that also limited the
number of children they could take, since there only so many children three
adults could manage. They had decided to bring as many adolescents as they
could.
Unfortunately, they couldn't bring the younger children, it would simply be

too much. Furthermore, the journey would be too burdensome and difficult
for the children.
Julian's only regret was that Rui wasn't able to join them today, but he
understood how important this event was to Rui. Now there wasn't much that
could be done about it either, Julian would have to settle with spending time
with Rui in the latter half of the month.
There were numerous events going on, and Julian would have liked to visit
them with Rui. Thankfully, it was likely this wish would still be fulfilled even
in the latter half of the month. The Martial Families went all out with these
kinds of events throughout the entire month. The demonstration they were
watching was actually organized by the Dullahan Family, a prestigious and
powerful Martial Family in the Mantian region of the Kandrian Empire.
Later today, an open Martial Apprentice tournament was being held by the
Arrancar Family, another prestigious Martial Family that was actually based
in their very own town of Hajin.
The entirety of the Martial Community as a whole had been very proactive
about their presence in the Martial Community. As the biggest proportion of
the Martial Artist population of the Kandrian Empire, this Festival was
literally centered around them, how could they sit around quietly?
An immense amount proactive initiative was taken by these Martial Families

to increase the favourability and impression of Martial Art to the population
of the entire Kandrian Empire. In a way, the Kandrian Martial Festival was
an avenue to advertise the power of Martial Art. Ultimately, Martial Artists
were service providers, demonstrating the degree to which they were capable
of providing the service. The influx of Martial Art commissions always
increased substantially after every Martial Festival.
The Martial Festival was a complex web of emotions and interests that
interconnected in deep manners. No one knew the depth of it in its entirety,
that was the true festivity of it to many.
Chapter 239 Naming Revelation
Rui breathed in and out deeply.
('Focus.') He told himself.
He had been meditating for the past hour, after having finished a long
sparring session with Nel. He taken time to recenter himself rather than relax.
Inevitably his thoughts turned to his Martial Art and his Martial path.
Ever since Headmaster Aronian told him about the part about naming his
Martial Art, he had inevitably thought about it more frequently.
He had never thought about it much since it wasn't really something he was
accustomed to. On Earth, although everybody did fight differently and
uniquely, the variation was never big enough to have a special name for each
unique fighting style.
Yet this wasn't necessarily the case in Gaia.
The variance of Martial Art in this world was far greater than the variance of
martial arts in his previous life, so the emergence of each unique and personal
names for Martial Art was to be expected. But it never did click much for
Rui.
And now he often found himself stuck in regards to what he ought to name
his Martial Art. There were several names that sprouted to mind.
All-Devouring Water Style.
Art of Black Water Style.

Wet Void Style.
These weren't bad, except for the last one which even made him cringe. But
none of them really struck him. They didn't resonate with him like they
should have.
He even consulted his friends on the matter. He wanted to know how they
had dealt with the naming of their Martial Art.
"Dunno yet." Kane had simply shrugged. He hadn't made much progress on
that front and didn't seem particularly eager to or overly concerned either.
"I haven't decided the name of my Martial Art yet." Fae had told him. "I wish
to choose something I'm truly satisfied with."
Surprisingly Hever and Nel had already chosen the names of their Martial
Art. Hever wasn't as much of a surprise, but Nel had only been a Martial
Artist for a little over two months.
However, one of the most insightful answers he received was when he

consulted Headmaster Aronian more deeply on the matter.
"One of the reasons we aren't told to choose the name of our Martial Art
earlier is because of its impact on ourselves, but also it becomes difficult to
find the name of your Martial Art so long as your Martial Art lacks
originality and uniqueness." Headmaster Aronian calmly explained.
"Originality?" Rui tilted his head.
"That's right." Headmaster Aronian nodded. "A Martial Art that is no more
than techniques built by others, is such a Martial Art truly original and
unique?"
Rui understood what he meant. So far, all the techniques of all the Martial
Apprentice's Martial Art had come from the Martial Academy, there was very
little room for originality and uniqueness.
"If you are unable to come up with a name that truly satisfies you, then it is a
sign that your Martial Art isn't uniquely personal, not enough, atleast. That is
also the reason why I did not want to rush you, and told you that you had the
right to refuse. If you are not ready, then it is what it is." Headmaster Aronian
explained, pausing before continuing further. "Although you discovered your
Martial Path relatively recently, you've developed it an incredible pace so I
suppose I can tell you more."
Rui listened attentively.
"Every Martial Path is unique. Unique in the sense that they have unique
starting points. However, if one's Martial Art is not developed uniquely, then
eventually your Martial Path will not long follow a unique trajectory. It will
follow on paths that have been paved for you by others." He explained. "You
will not grow stronger, and you will not be able to tread down your Martial
Path any longer, for it will no longer be your own Path."
"What are the negative consequences of this, specifically?" Rui asked.

Although headmaster Aronian sounded compelling, he was talking rather
vaguely and flowerily.
"Hehe..." Headmaster Aronian chuckled. "Not an easy one to be convinced,

are you?"
Rui didn't reply.
"I'm sure you're aware of the fact that the breakthrough to Martial Apprentice
causes changes in the brain; permanent enhancements, correct?" Headmaster
Aronian asked.
Rui nodded, recalling his conversation with Julian during his Winter
holidays. Back then he had conjectured that the enhancements affected the
Cerebellum, the occipital lobe and the parietal lobe.
"Do you think that this enhancement remains constant throughout the life of a
Martial Apprentice? Or does it increase?" Headmaster Aronian.
"I would imagine it increases." Rui replied.
"It does, but not because of time spent, or the number of techniques
explored." Headmaster Aronian explained. "Your brain becomes more and
more enhanced the more uniquely original your Martial Art is. The greater
the personal and original development your Martial Art goes, the deeper
down your Martial Path you tread, and the greater your brain is enhanced."
Rui's eyes flew wide open at this shocking revelation. In that case,
developing your Martial Art with unique originality was much more
beneficial than learning techniques from the Martial Academy!
"The benefits of greater cognitive boosts, of course, cannot be overstated."

Headmaster Aronian continued. "Greater reaction speed, greater mental
fortitude and resistance, greater reflexes and senses and so and so forth."
Rui wondered why the Squire instructors didn't tell the Martial Apprentices
such an important detail. But given enough thought he could figure it out.
Most Martial Apprentices were too immature, inexperienced and incapable of

developing their Martial Art uniquely the moment they discover their Martial
Path.
How could a bunch of teenagers create something truly personally unique the
moment they become Martial Artists?
It was impossible.
Informing these kids that they had to develop their Martial Art uniquely
would likely yield negative results rather than positive. They would all be
consumed with futilely trying to accomplish something they simply could
not.
Rui suspected that the Martial Academy let them hit their limits, by then they
will have likely gained the maturity and experience necessary to take their
own steps forward.
Chapter 240 Squire Candidate
They were like newborn infants. They could not walk on their own the
moment they were born, but many months later they would finally be ready.
Furthermore, there were more concrete reasons to be secretive about this fact.
If finding a true name for one's Martial Art was a measure of how uniquely
original one's Martial Art was, which would in turn indicated how cognitively
boosted your brain was, then the young brash fools would hastily name their
Martial Art in the hopes that this was a sign they had made a lot of progress!
They would be putting the cart before the horse.
If naming one's Martial Art was a profound and important act, and it certainly
was, then young hasty and greedy Martial Apprentices would certainly screw
things up for themselves.
Rui's eyes widened as he recalled something Squire Dylon had told him.
Squire Dylon had told him that they did not inform Martial Apprentices of
the breakthrough process to Martial Squire because it ruined their
development because they didn't handle the important information maturely.
That information Squire Dylon had inadvertently revealed back then was
oddly similar to the revelation he had just had right now.
The similarities between the two strongly suggested that the breakthrough to
Martial Squire was linked to the originality and uniqueness of one's Martial
Art.
Rui felt he had reached something significant. He glanced up at headmaster

Aronian, who had simply been watching him intrigued.
"But why tell me this if you do not tell the others?" Rui frowned. "Aren't you
afraid that I might simply not be ready."
"No." Headmaster Aronian simply answered.
"..."
"..."
"No?"
"No."
"Why not?" Rui asked.
Headmaster Aronian glanced at Rui with intrigued eyes. "You don't know?"
"I wouldn't be asking if I did." Rui sighed exasperatedly.
"Hoho, I see I see." Headmaster Aronian laughed. "It's rather odd you don't
know. How could you possibly be unaware of this fact I wonder."
"What fact?"
"...The fact that your Martial Art is one of the most uniquely developed
Martial Art I have ever seen in the hands of a Martial Apprentice."
Headmaster Aronian grew a bit more serious. "It's truly a wonder. Your case
is unheard of. How did you give your Martial Art such a high degree of
personal uniqueness in the span of a year and a half?"
Rui tilted his head, incredibly confused. "I've only developed my Martial Art
with the techniques of the Martial Academy. I don't know wha-!"
His eyes flew wide open as he understood.
The VOID algorithm!
The VOID algorithm was something he himself had created over the span of
more than a decade!
He had brought it over to this world with himself in his mind and had made it
the core of his Martial Art.
From the very start, his Martial Art was extremely uniquely personalized!
The VOID algorithm had been the solution to Project Water, his personal
ambition. He had been by far the largest contributor to the project and had
been the brains of the entire research project. His researcher colleagues were
much younger and were mainly executive researchers, executing his
directives on the matter, handling the documentation, data processing and
documentation and the more technical aspects of the research project.
The VOID algorithm was truly a child of his own, that he molded into shape
after years and years of dedication.
Never had he realized that this would be counted as unique development of

Martial Art in his second life!
He simply hadn't realized it. He knew his mind was cognitively superior to
everybody else's, however he had assumed that this was only because of the
double-growth it had undergone, now he realized that there was another
minor factor contributing to it!
"Ah, so you've realized it." The headmaster noted. "The fact that you realized
it only now just makes you an even more bizarre case. Truly, I cannot even
begin to imagine the ridiculous circumstances that led to this outcome,
though I am curious."
Rui shook his head. He could not tell the headmaster about his past life.
More like, there wasn't any point. No one would believe such a nonsensical
story. Hell, even Rui himself had wondered once or twice whether it was real.
"...No matter." The headmaster stated. "The Martial Union and Academy
have a habit of respecting the right to personal privacy. However, it is a fact
that your personal Martial Art has been immensely uniquely developed. That
is why I brought the issue of naming your Martial Art in the first place and
why I revealed all of this to you."
Rui pondered a bit. "Does the uniqueness of one's Martial Art have
something to do with the breakthrough to Martial Squire?"
"..." Headmaster Aronian merely gazed at him. "Hmm. I suppose you're privy
to this information at your current level. Yes, yes it does. Your Martial Art
needs to be uniquely developed to a high enough degree for you to even be a
candidate for Martial Squire. It is one of two pre-requisites needed to be a
Martial Squire candidate."
"Candidate?" Rui asked in surprise. "All this and one more additional
condition all to be merely a Martial Squire candidate?"
"Hohoho..." He chuckled. "The breakthrough to Martial Squire is not as

simple as the breakthrough to Martial Apprentice is, young man. I cannot tell
you the breakthrough process to Martial Squire just yet, but I can tell you the
second condition needed to be fulfilled in order to become a Squire
candidate, you are eligible to hear it."
"Please do." Rui requested.
"There are two things needed to become a Squire candidate; Uniqueness and
Martial Maturity." Headmaster Aronian told him.
"Martial Maturity?" Rui tilted his head in confusion. "What's that?"
"Every Martial Art has a shape and a form. What it ends up looking like. Its
parameters and attributes. Its strength and weaknesses. Its distribution of
resources as far as techniques go." Headmaster Aronian. "A Martial Art is
said to have reached Martial Maturity when the 'shape' of their Martial Art is
no longer in flux and is no longer shaping. You can think of it as after the
Martial Art has undergone puberty and becomes an adult."
Chapter 241 Their Names
"I see..." Rui murmured engrossed in thought. "Once my Martial Art has
achieved Martial Maturity, then would I become a Squire candidate?"
Headmaster Aronian nodded. "As long as you fulfill both those conditions,
yes, you will be considered a Squire candidate and we will begin the
process."
"We will begin the process?" Rui frowned. "It's not a self-induced naturally
occurring phenomenon like the breakthrough to Martial Apprentice?"
Headmaster Aronian smiled mysteriously. "Hoho... I'll answer that question

once you come a Squire candidate."
"...Alright then." Rui slowly replied.
They were incredibly stubborn on this matter. Fae and Kane hadn't heard so
much as a peep about the breakthrough process to Martial Squire,
furthermore none of the Squire instructors yielded so much as an inch of
information regarding the matter at all.
Rui sighed inwardly; he would just have to wait until he fulfilled both
conditions. He suspected the first condition may have already been fulfilled,
based on Master Aronian's choice of words. In that case, it was best that
moving forward he focus on fulfilling the second condition as well.
But frankly, that wouldn't change what he was doing.
His Martial Art had most certainly not yet reached Martial maturity, he could
feel it.
He knew it.
It was still changing immensely and was in its flux state, it had also not
reached where he wanted it to reach. It was still incomplete.
Furthermore, Rui suspected that although he basically got a free pass for
originality and uniqueness, he might have an extra hard time with reaching
Martial maturity.
This was because he needed to go a long distance before his Martial Art
could be considered complete. With the limited number of techniques that he
had it was impossible for him to be able to adapt to all Martial Art. His
Martial Art would change shape a lot until it became equally well-rounded in
all aspects.
"Is there anything else you would like to talk about?" Headmaster Aronian
asked, stroking his beard.
"Nothing in particular." Rui said, before pausing. "How much information

about the other representatives can I find out at this stage?"
"I can give you a list of names." The headmaster shrugged. "But I'm afraid I
cannot give you strategic information regarding them, I'm afraid. I do not
have much of such information, nor would I give it to you even if I did. I can
ensure that your information won't get leaked too, as much as I can. Although
details and general information of your Martial Art and combat will
undoubtedly disseminate, nothing too specific and important will likely
spread."
"I'll take the list of names then. And thank you for the aid." Rui bowed.
"Not at all. I would be a worthless headmaster if I couldn't accomplish this

much atleast." He chuckled, as he began scribbling down on a piece of paper,
before handing it to Rui. "There you go. If there's nothing else, you may go."
Rui simply bowed before exiting the office.
He sighed as he put some distance between them. Even the passive pressure
that Headmaster Aronian put on him was unnerving. Rui could tell he was
doing something to suppress the effect of that, and he was grateful.
He glanced at the list, scrutinizing the names carefully, character-by-
character.
Representative Ferlicia Ernand of the Fritzer branch.
Representative Ian Nepomniachtchi of the Farund branch.
Representative Arjun Erigaisi of the Hrava branch.
Representative Mia Marnt of the Fellen branch.
Representative Byron Harth of the Brillix branch.
Representative Vyoming Hurin of the Narfinius branch.
Representative Esfand Hanax of the Sicillia branch.
Representative Freund Garmor of the Villimaine branch.
Representative Ana Mariane of the Hyulflum branch.
Representative Surman Marliak of the Verlain branch.
Representative Derk Sermont of the Brandar branch.
Representative Servil Bisha of the Gragol branch.
Representative Askin Nodt of the Fervor branch.
Representative Kaerts Omegde of the Sarkar branch.
Representative Fiona Roschem of the Vargard branch.
His name paused at the last one.
Fiona Roschem.
Indeed, she was chosen as a representative like he had suspected.
As for the other names, none of them struck out to him. However, he
suspected that most, if not all, of them were from the Martial community.
The descendants of Martial families simply had too many advantages

compared to commoners like himself. Guided training from, at the very least,
Martial Squires from a very young age. Access to an immense amount of
valuable learning, training and growth resources of various kinds. Even if
their talent was below average, their pedigree gave them a strong advantage.
Those among these descendants who possessed immense talent as well,

ended up being the top of the top. Kane, Fae and Hever were such examples.
Frankly, Nel and himself were just absurd freaks with ridiculous
circumstances. They were far from the norm.
He would not be surprised at all if all the representatives were members of

Martial Families.
He knew for a fact Fiona Roschem was.
He immediately went back to the dormitory and gathered his friends.
"So, these are the representatives of the other branches, huh?" Kane frowned
as he read the list. "Well, can't say this is particularly surprising."
"Indeed." Fae nodded as she glanced over the list. "Some of these names
were essentially locked for the win."
"Like Fiona Roschem?" Rui inquired.
"And Ian Nepomniachtchi." Fae nodded.
"Who's that?" Rui asked.
"Remember I told you quite a while back that there were three prodigious
geniuses of our generation in the Martial Community?" Fae asked.
"Fiona and Kane were two of them, I recalled." Rui nodded.
"Ian Nepomniachtchi is the third one among them." Fae said.

"I see..." Rui's eyes narrowed.
So he was a monster, was basically what Fae was telling him.
"So he's as strong as Kane?" Rui raised an eyebrow, as Kane snorted.
"He's an insecure punk is what he is." Kane grumbled. "He's a few years
older than Fiona and I. When the two of us came along, he was always hostile
towards us. Neither of us can stand his arrogant ass."
"So how did you fare against him?"
"I don't remember." Kane shrugged.
"He got defeated 10-0." Fae offered.
"No, I didn't! It was 7-3!" Kane barked.
"My... so you do remember." A hint of mischievous smugness flashed across

her face.
Rui sighed as the two of them got into one of their routine arguments.
Chapter 242 Information
"Alright alright, that's enough." He broke the two apart. "Are all of them
descendants of Martial families?"
"Yep." Kane replied.
"Figured." Rui sighed. "Atleast, that makes reconnaissance easier. What can
you tell me about them?"
"Honestly, not much." Fae sighed. "It's been two years, the information we
have is extremely outdated. Look how much all of us have grown in two
years, after all."
Rui nodded. "I understand that. Just tell me what type of Martial Art they
have."
"Sure." Fae agreed. "I know Fiona and Ian the best, so I'll begin with them.
Fiona as I told you is an extreme all-rounder with immense mastery in all
aspects of combat with her sheer talent and affinity for all fields. Ian on the
other hand is much more specialized."
"Specialized in what?"
"He specializes in breathing techniques."
"Interesting..." Rui's face flashed with intrigue. He hadn't heard of a breathing

technique specialist before, there certainly wasn't one in the Academy.
"He had mastered breathing techniques incredibly quickly at a young age. I

have no idea how strong he is now." Fae said. "But given his talent and his
age, he should have an incredibly solid Martial Art. I would suggest being
careful with him."
"Will remember that." Rui said. "Anybody else?"
"Ferlicia was a heat technique user, if I remember correctly..." Kane

pondered aloud.
"Right, though she had only mastered two techniques when we'd last met."
Fae said.
Heat techniques. Yet another type of Martial Art Rui hadn't seen before. He
had seen temperature-based techniques in the Apprentice library, of course,
but he wasn't familiar with them. He wondered Ferlicia Ernand would be
capable of.
"Arjun Erigaisi is an extremely strong defensive fighter. He's unbelievably

tough." Kane pointed out.
"Even I had trouble hurting him back then." Fae agreed. "Mia is a sound-
based fighter, by the way. I don't know her personally but I've heard plenty of
her."
"Oh, you have to be wary of Byron." Kane said as he went down the list.
"He's a nerve striking Martial Artist. When he hits your nerves, they really
fucking hurt and he can do all kinds of things."
"A nerve striking Martial Art." Rui
"Vyoming fights with vibrations." Fae said, earning a confused look from
Rui.
"Vibrations huh?" He said with interest. "I'll have to look further into that,
what else?"
"Well, Esfand if I recall correctly..." Fae and Kane went on to divulge

everything they knew on all the other representatives.
In the end, it didn't amount to much. However, what little he had learnt was
extremely interesting and exciting.
Every single one of them was colourful and special.

Poison, heat, breathing, vibrations, nerves friction, sound and many other
techniques of esoteric nature.
In some ways, Rui should have expected this, how could they possibly reach
at the peak of their respective Academies if they were ordinary and normal.
It simply wasn't possible. Out of the five people in the Hajin Academy who
all had a chance of being chosen as the representative, none of them were
ordinary!
They were all deviants in their own ways.
The question was how well Rui would do against the other representatives.
That was a difficult question to answer. These Martial Artists had Martial Art
that deviated from the norm quite significantly. He had no experience against
many of these Martial Art and techniques at all before. Furthermore, he
wasn't sure he had the tools to defeat many of these Martial Art.
Furthermore, the VOID algorithm was certainly ill-equipped to face many of

these Martial Art techniques, even if he was being generous to it.
This had to do with the fact that the VOID algorithm was not adapted to
Gaea-based Martial Art yet, making it less affective. Rui had already long
recognized this shortcoming, but he had yet to overcome it, though he had
taken a few steps.
Unfortunately, the further he went, the more he realized how difficult this
ambition was!
How was he supposed to incorporate solutions for such almost magical

Martial Art techniques? IT was truly confounding problem. Furthermore, it
wasn't one or two or even handful of difficult techniques, there many of them.
Although many of the fundamentals and the core of the algorithmic system
were still entirely useful, it still became quite difficult to use the secondary
portions of the algorithm. Then there was the fact that Rui still hadn't fixed
the viability problem of the VOID algorithm.
Originally the algorithm simply wasn't possible to master, it was too
complex, too difficult. Too mentally intensive. It essentially only worked
when it was run on a literal high-speed computer.
Thanks to the cognitive boosts he had received from his second cognitive
growth stage and the breakthrough to Martial Apprentice, he was able to
master a portion of it, but he still had some ways to go in that regard.
Perhaps his Martial Art would reach Martial maturity only when he overcome
this problem somehow. That was the worst-case scenario.
He had many hurdles before him.
Regardless, his fights against the representatives were not going to be easy.
He lacked to much information to make judgements on how his fights with
them would unfold, or whether or not he would win or lose. But the one thing
he could confidently be sure of that his fights with the representatives of all
the branches of the Martial Academies was going to be extremely tough and
rigorous.
Even against the average representative, he would probably be unable to hold

back. Against titans like Fiona and Ian, he wasn't sure he would be able to
win even if he used every ounce of power he had and every resource he had.
And yet...
He couldn't help but smile.
He would be testing his Martial Art against the best of the best.
How exciting!
Rui grinned when he read through his notes. He was so excited he could
barely even wait for the Martial Contest.
He immediately got up, walking out.
"Where are you going?" Kane asked.

"Back to training."
He said, leaving the two behind.

He reached an isolated training hall that he had reserved for himself in

advance.
He wanted solitude.
He sat down, meditating. He had begun mentally training his application of

the VOID algorithm. Since the VOID algorithm was a system of information
protocols, he didn't need to move in order to use it. He could hone it even if
he was mediating.
His goal was to refine his application of the VOID algorithm. He went back
through his previous fights in the preliminary contest. He had reviewed each
of them mentally, taking notes on how he could have done things better.
And yet, when he closed his eyes...
He saw darkness.
He saw the void.
Ever since he had begun training, he had been trying visualize his Martial Art
as an entity.
What would it look like?
What would it be?
What would it do?
He closed his eyes and looked inward. Looked at himself. Looked at his
Martial Path. Looked his Martial Art.
p He saw a universe.
Littered with stars. Littered with bright life.
However, at the center of it was a void of darkness.
It moved.
No, it poured. It ebbed. It flowed.
It warped, changing its form as it consumed the light in the universe. Stars
disappeared one by one as the void flowed altering its form as it enveloped as
smoothly possible.
It was a psychedellic vision. One that beggared the imagination.
But he understood what these strange sights were.
This were his Martial Art.
A flowing void that consumed all.
"A flowing void..." He whispered. "Hm..."
That didn't sound bad...
In fact, he quite liked the sound of that.
He shook his head, returning back to training.
* * * * *
A week passed, and it was time. Only two days were left for the Martial
Contest. The Martial Academy had arranged for secure transport that would
escort him from Hajin to Vargard, the capital of the Kandrian Empire, where
the Martial Contest would be held.
This would be the first time he had left the Mantian region that housed his
town of Hajin. But he wasn't all too bothered with that at the moment. He had
sat with his eyes most of the journey, trying to retain as much of his
concentration and focus on the upcoming Martial Contest.
He went over everything he knew about the Martial Contest.
Sixteen representatives.
Four rounds.
One champion.
The Martial Colosseum that the Martial Contest was being held in was a large
multi-environmental field that ensured no one Martial Art would gain an
unfair advantage over the other due to a singular environment.
The tournament was an elimination style tournament where half the

contestants would be knocked out and eliminated from the contest every
round, until there was only one person remaining. That person would be
crowned the Martial Champion.
His opponents were distinguished warriors with unique and powerful Martial
Art. Over the past week, Rui had often visited the Apprentice library. The
reason he did was not because he wanted to purchase any techniques for
himself, but rather to go through the techniques of the styles that he knew his
opponents had.
He did this to get a deeper understanding of how they might approach the
fight and what their combat style might end up looking like.
Of course, it was still quite shallow since he didn't know what techniques
they had, nor did he know the techniques themselves very well.
Unless he purchased the techniques, he would not be able to read all the data
the Martial Academy had on the techniques. The very best he would be able
to do is avoid blunders and make more targeted precautionary measures
against each of them, as much help that would be.
Of course, since he didn't have much time, these measures were also
simplistic and elementary. He would be able to build upon them as the
Martial Contest progressed.
The best part was that he would get to see almost all fighters fight at the very
least once before he ran into them himself. The difference being his opponent
in the very first round, who he would have to fight blind.
However, for all the other rounds he would be able to construct a more
thorough adapted style via the VOID algorithm. This effectively meant he
would become a more and more difficult opponent to fight as time passed on.
This format benefitted him while it disadvantaged normal fighters.
His opponents would become easier to deal with because they would be
forced to reveal more of their Martial Art as time passed on, and although this
was also true for him. He had his adaptive evolution that mitigated that
downside and compensated for it.
In a way, the first round had a chance of being the most difficult hurdle of
them all. Because he was walking in almost blind with no information. He
needed to be extremely careful, otherwise he might end up getting defeated
by a trump card before he even got a chance to adapt to his opponent.
However, this was unlikely. Revealing a trump card of that sort in the first
round was not a good idea. Since it meant your future opponents would be
quite prepared for it. Rui estimated that his opponents would try to use as
little as possible in the first round.
This was his plan as well.
He would definitely not use Stinger and Blink unless he genuinely had to. He
would also try to keep the Phantom Step technique a secret if he could get
away with doing so.
However, that might too greedy.
All in all, he wanted to stay on the side of caution while still trying to get
away with whatever he could. It was a thin line to walk. Too greedy and he
might lose, too cautious and he might not be able to win the contest because
he revealed too much to the other representatives.
All these consideration were flashing through his head despite his composed
demeanor.
Chapter 244 She
He had arrived much quicker than he had expected. However, he had been
transported in a much faster vehicle than a normal horse-pulled carriage. He
assumed it was something powered by some esoteric technology, but he
didn't have time to think about it. He didn't want to be distracted.
Yet even he couldn't help but marvel at Vargard, the capital of the Kandrian
Empire. It was truly spectacular. The core of Hajin was an impressive trade
hub but Vargard looked like some futuristic-fantasy utopia. It really sold the
image as the capital of the Kandrian Empire.
"How far is the designated housing dormitory, instructor Kyrie?" Rui asked.
"Not too far in distance." Squire Kyrie replied. "But I'm afraid it will take
some time."
Each representative was supported by Squire staff from the Academy, Rui
had been assigned Kyrie and Dylon.
"Relax kid." Squire Dylon told him, waving his hands. "No need to be in a
hurry or worry. The housing arrangements will be quite luxurious, I can tell
you that."
The Martial Contest was not an event that would end in a single day. Each
round was designated to take at least a day. Thus, the entire contest would
extend over four days.
"Will I be in the same dorm as the other representatives?" Rui wondered.
Dylon sneered at him. "What else? Did you expect the Academies to give you
different luxury rooms in different parts of the town?"
"No..."
"The dormitory housing is quite close to the Martial Colosseum, you're all
gonna be kept close by so that it's convenient and there're no complications."
Dylon shrugged.
"Isn't it weird to be living in the same block as your competitors?" Rui asked,
amused.
"It's how things were even when I was the representative of the Hajin
branch." She replied.
"I see." He shrugged; it wasn't a big deal.
As time passed, they finally arrived.
The Martial Colosseum was gigantic. It stood tall and mighty and could be
seen from kilometers away. Its architecture reminded Rui a lot of ancient
Roman architecture back on Earth.
At a location not geographically far from the Colosseum was a facility that
had the emblem of the Martial Academy.
"Is that it?" Rui asked.
"Yep." Dylon nodded. "It has everything you could want. All training
facilities you could need if you want to practice and warm up. That's why it's
so big."
"That's good to hear." Rui replied. But he didn't think he would be training
for the Martial Contest at all. There was less than twenty-four hours for the
contest to begin. He knew there was absolutely nothing more additional that
he possibly could have done at this stage. Now he could only calmly do his
very best.
Once they arrived, they quickly got off and headed towards the facility.
"Welcome, your housing accommodations have already been arranged." A

staff member greeted. "Please allow us to guide you to your respective
accomodations."
"Catch you later Rui." Squire Dylon said. "Try to catch some rest and freshen
up."
Rui nodded, before they splitting ways with the instructors.
"Have the other representatives arrived yet?" Rui asked.
"One of them has." The attendant replied. "The representative of Vargard

arrived yesterday, ahead of schedule."
The representative of Vargard was...
('Fiona Roschem.') Rui recalled. "I see."
Perhaps he would run into her.
Soon they reached his room.
"These will be your accommodations for your stay during in this facility."
The staff attendant informed. "If you have any needs, please do not hesitate to
seek our aid."
"Thank you." Rui replied before walking in.
The room was rather large and luxurious. The bag of clothes he had packed
had already arrived ahead of time.
"Good service." he nodded.
The representatives were probably given such comfort so that there would be
no doubt there was nothing discomforting that could detract from their prime
condition for their matches.
"The bathroom is gigantic too, geez." He muttered. Not that he was

complaining, of course.
He quickly fixed himself a tub bath before relaxing in it. He felt his weariness
and fatigue melt away. He had to admit, they did a good job ensuring the
representatives would be comfortable.
He absolutely wouldn't mind spending four days here.
"Once I'm finished, I should get something to eat. I'm famished." Rui
muttered.
He expected the food to be great too. It'd been quite some time before he had
indulged in a luxurious meal.
"I ought to meet up with instructors Kyrie and Dylon too." He recalled.
A good half an hour relaxed him quite well, though he was still constantly
shifting his thoughts and concentration to the Martial Contest as much as
wanted.
Once he got out, dried and dressed up.
He heard a knock at the door.
He frowned.
Who was at the door? The Squire instructors?
"Hm?" When he opened the door, he saw nobody. Then he looked down a bit
and his vision landed on a short petite girl with brown hair and silver eyes.
Her appearance was not intimidating.
What was intimidating was her passive mental pressure.
"Hi." She said. "So you're Rui Quarrier."
She murmured, studying him top to bottom.
"Uh..." He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. "I presume you're the
representative of the Vargard branch?"
"Ye." She turned up, meeting his eyes. "My name is Fiona Roschem."
"..."
"..."
They simply stared at each other.
"So... do you want something?" Rui asked.
Fiona shrugged. "Nothing at all. Why do you ask?"
She tilted her head, genuinely confused and curious. Rui looked at her like
she was an idiot.
"Why are you here?" Rui frowned. "Are you lost?"
"No." She replied. "I just wanted to see the commoner boy who beat Kane. It
found it quite hard to believe when I first read about it. How did you do it?"
Well, she suddenly went from circular to straightforward.
Yet strangely, when he gazed into her silver eyes, he only saw curiosity.
Rui shrugged. "Fought hard. Fought smart."
"I see." She said. "Anyways, bye-bye."
She pranced away before Rui could even reply, leaving him standing at the
doorway staring at her retreating form.
Chapter 245 Interactions
Rui didn't even know what to say. His image of her was shattered. He
expected a cold, detached and arrogant temperament, but she came off as a
scatterbrain girl with a lot of curiosity.
But one thing he did get right was that she was strong.
Incredibly strong.
Her passive mental pressure was deep, she was strong without even trying.
Without even wanting.
Just her very curiosity alone exerted weight on his mind.
Rui suspected she might have even been a Squire candidate, though he wasn't
sure.
Soon, he headed to the cafeteria. To his surprise, the other representatives had
not only arrived but had also gathered around the same table. Only then had
recalled that they were all acquaintances with each other for the most part,
since they were all part of the Martial community.
They exchanged glances.
Rui could feel their scrutinizing gazes even as he scrutinized them.
('They're strong.') He smiled just a little.
"Rui." Squire Kyrie called out to him.
"Instructor." Rui turned, facing her.

"Eat quick. Also, feel free to join them." She gestured. "Although you are
competitors, you are all the best of your generation."
"I don't particularly care to interact with them over dinne-" "Hey RUI!" The
voice of a girl called to him.
He recognized it instantly.
He wordlessly turned, facing Fiona.
She gestured to an empty seat at the table they were all seated at.
Squire Kyrie smiled wryly.
Rui stared at her for a moment before shrugging.
There was no harm to be done. Although he didn't care enough to go out of

his way to reach out to them, he would not refuse a direct invitation. He was
curious about them.
Even as he walked over, one of them men in the group threw looks of disdain
at her.
"Going out of your way to invite a mongrel commoner to your table." He

grumbled. "Fiona, you haven't changed at all in the past two years."
"Is it that big a deal?" She threw him an inquisiting look. "You're the only
one complaining. Aren't you curious about the commoner boy who beat
Kane, Fae and Hever?"
"No." He coldly retorted. "Even if I did, I wouldn't invite him to eat at my

table. You're as careless of your status as always."
Rui was more amused than offended. Generic insults weren't really a big
deal, and he had frankly anticipated snobby behavior from some of the
representatives
She shrugged, unperturbed. "I care for what I care for. He's interesting, so I'm
interested. I'm interested so I invited him."
He snorted wordlessly, turning towards Rui, scrutinizing him
condescendingly before sighing. "To think Kane lost to a commoner with
dirty hair and eyes like yourself. Why the Martial Community thinks his
talent is on par with mine is beyond me."
Rui tilted his head as a realization flashed in him. "Ah, you must be Ian
Nepomniachtchi."
"Oh?" Ian chuckled. "Did Kane mention me?"
"He did." Rui nodded. "He described your insecurity and inferiority complex
quite well, I have to say."
Ian's eyes narrowed at those words. "Bold words coming from a commoner.
You dare insult me?"
Rui shrugged with a wry smile. "Only an insult if you want it to be."
"And what if I do?" The mental pressure he exerted on Rui increased. The
other representatives at the table watched silently in interest.
"Well..." Rui scratched his chin. "Then the Martial Contest is truly
conveniently timed, isn't it?" He said with a playful smile.
Ian stared at him as a mild smirk cracked on his cold face. "Finally, we can
agree on something. I'll educate you in front of the entire empire. Free of
cost, of course." He chuckled. "I know your poor plebeian ass doesn't have
the funds to pay me."
"Don't worry, I have a habit of returning favours." He shrugged. "With

interest."
The tension at the table escalated.
"If you want, I can give you that free lesson right here and now." He said
coldly. "No need to wait for the Martial Contest."
"That's not allowed." Fiona chirped. "You'd get disqualified, you know? Ah
maybe that's for the best. Please continue, don't mind me."
She said, breaking the tension. She was entirely unbothered by the mounting
irritated pressure the Ian exerted on her.
"Hmph." He snorted, closing his eyes and getting up. "We'll continue this in
the Martial Contest." He said. "I'll have to educate both of you, it seems."
He walked away.
"Well." A girl broke the silence. "He hasn't changed in the past two years
either."
"Indeed." A boy with orange hair said. "He's as arrogant and domineering as
always."
Rui recognized his features, and also the insignia on his clothes. They
belonged to the Garmor Martial Family.
Which made him representative Freund Garmor of the Villimaine branch. He

had a heavy pressure to him, he was strong without a doubt.
"He's boring, let's stop talking about him." Fiona said. "What I'm more
interested in is..."
She turned to face Rui with curious eyes. "You. Seriously, how did you beat
Kane, Fae and Hever? That's so much more interesting."
"Do you really think he'd tell you?" A girl besides her asked. "He's a
competitor, he's not going to reveal anything meaningful about his combat."
Rui identified her as well. Representative Ferlicia Ernand of the Fritzer

branch. She had a calm demeanor that painted a picture of confident power.
"Yeah, but aren't you curious?" Fiona asked.
"To say I'm not... would be a lie." Her eyes turned towards Rui with some
interest.
"Is it really that hard to believe?" Rui smiled wryly.

"Very." Another man among them replied. He was gigantic, his presence was
like an imposing mountain. "Kane is prodigiously talented, and is also part of
one of the most powerful Martial Families in the Kandrian Empire. Yet here
comes along a commoner who beat him despite having broken through only
after he joined the Academy. It's an almost absurd tale."
Rui identified him immediately. Arjun Erigaisi, the defensive powerhouse.
Rui smiled. He did agree that it was an absurd tale. Frankly, the reason he
was able to grow strong enough to beat Kane was due to truly otherworldly
circumstances.
Literally.
Chapter 246 It Was Time.
But how he was supposed to explain that to them?
He shook his head in resignation. "I happen to be blessed with special

circumstances."
A girl among them snorted. "Anybody can tell that. You do not overcome
large disadvantages in talent, resources and time without extraordinary
circumstances."
Rui glanced at her, recognizing the emblem of her family.
Representative Ana Mariane of the Hyuflum branch.
Rui shrugged, not deigning to continue the conversation.
Eventually, the conversation grew strained even as the food arrived. At the
end of the day, they were only interacting with each other because most of
them were long-time acquaintances of each other. However, they had not
gathered here today for a reunion.
They were competitors in one of the most important and prestigious events in
the entire Martial Festival.
,m Rui quickly took his leave once he finished his meals, meeting up with his
instructors.
"So? How did it go?" Squire Dylon asked. "Made some new friends?"
Rui snorted. "As if. Anybody who can make friends under these
circumstances deserves and an award."
"Tsk tsk." Squire Dylon tutted. "You're still young, you should make friends.
When I was your age, I had friends gallore. Ask Kyrie."
She snorted. "You were just a fool who ran around getting along with
everything that breathed."
"The two of you were in the same batch?" Rui asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." She sighed.
They bantered a bit before reaching the split in the corridor.
"Be sure to get some good rest Rui." Squire Kyrie told him. "Don't rely on
potions if you can. Save them. Tomorrow, you need to be at your peak form."
Rui nodded. "Good night."
He bade them goodnight before returning to his dorm room.
He had a lot to think about. He thought about his interactions with the other
representatives. He had tried to gauge them but, of course, couldn't possibly
obtain any meaningful tactical intelligence.
All he could tell was each one of them was incredibly strong. However, even
among them, there were clearly stronger ones.
There was, of course, Ian Nepomniachtchi.
His attitude and personality may have been rotten, but his power was real.
Rui could tell he was incredibly strong. He exerted an immense amount of
pressure on Rui in his attempts to push Rui back.
And then there was Fiona.
Her temperament was not what he expected. But her strength was.
A master of all.
He wouldn't be surprised. She was not domineering, arrogant or haughty.

She didn't need to be.
She exerted a gravity on everybody despite her carefree and curious

temperament. She didn't need to put on airs to emphasize her strength, her
strength emphasized itself.
Rui smiled. He couldn't wait to run into her in the Martial Contest. He wished
he could have fought all of them, unfortunately he would get to fight only
four of them. And that was only if he made it to the very finals.
It was a shame.
He shook his head, thinking about tomorrow.
Tomorrow the first round of the Martial Contest would commence. The
matchups would be decided shortly before the round began. So, Rui would
have no idea who he was fighting until sometime before he fought.
Not that it mattered. He simply needed to his best, and hopefully win.
There wasn't much more to it than that.
The next morning, he got up early, brimming with vitality. He had somehow
managed to get a good night of sleep despite his excitement.
The day had arrived. He could scarcely believe it. He clenched his quivering
fist with anticipation, regaining his composure.
He fixed himself a tub bath, not because of luxury but because it helped him
calm down and focus. He wanted to be in peak mental condition by the time
he was ready.
Once he got out, he quickly dried and dressed up, heading for the main hall.
He was supposed to be present there at precisely the stipulated time, he did
not want to be late.
The others had also arrived.
Everyone was there.

Soon, a heavy mental pressure weighed down upon them.
Rui's eyes narrowed as he recognized this sensation.
('Martial Master.')
"Gather around." The voice of an elderly woman reverberated as she walked

into the facility, followed by the Martial Squire instructors of all the branches
of the Martial Academies.
Although she had the appearance of an old woman, not a single person in the
room doubted that she would be able to solo all of them combined.
"I am Master Firilia." She said. "I am the Contest Master, I will be overseeing
the twenty-seventh Martial Contest. Each of you is here today after
overcoming a tremendous amount of hurdles and obstacles to reach where
you are today. The feat of being chosen as the representative of the Martial
Academy is an impressive feat without a doubt. Each of you has the right to
be proud of your accomplishment."
She paused, before continuing. "However, each of you has the opportunity to
be more. To be more than just a representative. Each of you has the
opportunity and potential to be crowned the Martial Champion. An
accomplishment of boundless prestige that will change your life forever.
Your name will go down in history, as it should. Should each of you
overcome your opponents, this honour will be yours. I expect a lot of each of
you, do not disappoint me."
She said bluntly. Yet it was not the words, but the person saying them that
mattered the most. The representatives felt burdened by such a blunt
declaration of her expectations.
However, Rui only felt excited. He clenched his fist again, suppressing his
tingling nerves as best he can before regaining his calm and composure.
This was it.
It was time.
"It is time." She said. "Each of you will be taken to the Martial Colosseum.
Come."
Outside there were dozens of carriages designated to the representatives and

their Squire instructors as well as the Martial Master herself and other staff
members.
It was time.
Chapter 247 Matchups
Even as they travelled the to the colosseum, Rui could feel the tension and
energy in the air. The population density as they travelled to the Martial
Colosseum had been increasing.
It peaked once they arrived.
There were countless rickshaws and carriages parked near the Martial
Colosseum and a huge number of people from, not just Vargard, but also
from other towns had arrived. The crowd was noisy and chaotic as they
funneled into a huge line that was trickling into the Martial Colosseum.
The Martial Colosseum itself was gigantic. Its architecture was grand. It was
elaborate yet detailed. It inspired a sense of majesty in its bearers. Rui
couldn't help but feel he was privileged to have the honour of fighting in it in
the Martial Contest.
The carriages of the contestants and staff accompanying them did not join the
crowd of spectatprs bust instead stopped on another side of the Martial
Colosseum, reserved for authorized personnel and individuals only
thankfully. Rui was glad he didn't have to join that painfully long line to
attend his own event.
Soon each of the contestants were escorted to their own temporary quarters,
separated from their Squire instructors.
In his quarters, he found his Martial uniform. It had undergone thorough

checking to ensure there was no modification and alteration of foul play. He
found it initially surprising when they were so strict but he knew that foul
play was probably was easier and far more deadly in this world than back on
Earth due to esoteric technology.
Once he donned it, his Squire instructors had arrived.
"Ready?" Squire Dylon asked.
"Quite." He replied.
Thanks to the continuous priming and conditioning of his mind for the
Martial Contest over the past two weeks, he was able to enter into a focused
and composed state easier.
"The opening ceremony will begin in an hour." Squire Kyrie said.
Rui nodded. He simply sat cross-legged and began meditating, conditioning

himself even more.
An hour rolled by quickly.
He was escorted by his instructors as they made their way to the lower levels,
walking towards an opening into the arena of the Martial Contest.
"... And now, we invite sixteen representatives of the Martial Contest to the
stage!"
Rui heard a loud projected voice say.
"From the Fellen branch, representative Mia Marnt!"
Rui saw Fiona enter the Colosseum arena, walking quickly as she reached the
stage.
The host called upon all of them one-by-one.
When it was Rui's turn, he felt a huge wave of emotional energy hit into him
when he walked out in the open in front of God-knew-how-many people. The
crowd cheered for him loudly much to his surprise, it seems his
accomplishments and position overshadowed his odd and ominous hair and
eyes.
"Ladies and gentlemen, there they are! The sixteen greatest Martial Artists of
their generation! We look forward to witnessing which one of them takes the
title of Martial Champion. Who will win? If you're confident in your eyes
then put your money where your mouth is!"
The crowd roared in approval!
Rui suppressed an expression of amusement.
He had momentarily forgotten that the Martial Contest was part of a festival.
And festivals were fun. And were supposed to have fun activities.
Gambling was one of them.
He shook his head inwardly.
"... And without further ado, let us decide the matchups! As you all know,
this is an elimiantion tournament where half the contestants will be knocked
out every round! We will decide the matchups that will knock over every
contest via random draws.
Soon a board with a typical elimination tournament structure with sixteen

numbered slots and eight matchups in the first round was brought. Along
with it came a box with a hole in it.
"Representatives!" he addressed the sixteen of them energetically. "Within

the concealed box lies numbers from one to sixteen. Reach into the hole and
pick a chit. The number on the chit will be the slot that you will be partaking
in!"
It was structured such that number one slot was to fight the number two slot,
the number three slot was to fight the number four slot and so on and so forth
till the sixteenth slot.
He gestured to the box. "In the order that you were called please.
Representative Mia Marnt! Please step forward and pick a number!"
Mia stepped forward, walking towards the box. She picked a chit, unfolding
it.
"Eleven." She said, holding the chit up.
"Eleven it is!" The representative cried as a support staff member wrote Mia's
name in the slot numbered three.
One-by-one they all went up, picked a chit and got slotted accordingly.
The results were interesting, to say the least.
Match one: Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Vyoming Hurin
Match two: Esfand Hanax vs Freund Gamor
Match three: Arjun Erigaisi vs Servil Bisha
Match Four: Rui Quarrier vs Surman Marliak
Match five: Ferlicia Ernand vs Askin Nodt
Match six: Mia Marnt vs Ana Mariane
Match seven: Bryson Harth vs Kaerts Omegde
Match eight: Fiona Roschem vs Derk Sermont
Rui had been drawn number seven and had been paired against Surman
Marliak, who had drawn eight. They were to fight in the fourth match.
He glanced over at the other matchups, noting ones he was interested in. The
very first match featured Ian Nepomniachtchi. If Rui and Ian both won twice,
they would face each other in the quarterfinals.
The one he was most interested in was Fiona. She was way over on the other
block. They would both need to win thrice to face each other in the finals.
"...And with that the opening ceremony has concluded!" The host rambled
on. "The first match of the first round will begin soon! Be sure to be at your
seats with your snacks and drinks shortly or you'll miss it! Representatives,
please head back to your quarters and be prepared."
They dispersed back to the entrances. Rui immediately ran into Squire Kyrie
and Dylon.
"Your first matchup is interesting."
"Interesting Indeed." Rui replied with a barely contained smirk.

Chapter 248 Impressive Sight
Mental manipulation.
That was Surman Marliak's specialty, according to Fae. His Martial Art and
techniques were centered around affecting his opponents' minds adversely
and apparently, he was quite good at it too.
This included things like misdirection, hypnosis, impression imprinting and

other psychological-oriented skills. Rui had done some research into the
matter in order to understand how Surman might end up fighting against him.
He looked forward to the fight. It wasn't everyday he got to fight against

someone this unusual.
He made his way to the observer balcony reserved to for participants.
What he did not expect was the presence of the other representatives!
He glanced around at the several martial Squire guards inside and outside the
balcony.
('Easier to protect us if we're in the same place?') He wondered. It seemed

that the Martial Academies did not want to take any risks. He simply ignored
them as he leaned onto the railing, ignoring them. He would pay them
attention when their matches rolled up, until then, they were not important.
Thankfully the balcony was incredibly wide and there was plenty of distance
between each of them.
He glanced at an observation balcony on the other side of the Colosseum, his

sharp eyes distinguishing the headmasters of the sixteen Academies along
with the Contest Master and some other VIPs, before an announcement
caught his ears.
"Aaaand we will not commence the first match of the first round right away!"
"On one hand we have Representative Ian Nepomniachtchi of the Breathing

Mountain style representing Farund branch! Touted as one of the greatest
prodigies of this generation, he is known as the Breathing Goliath in the
Martial Community! Join me in welcoming him!"
The crowd cheered loudly as Ian entered the arena, stopping at the center. He
simply folded his arms, waiting.
Rui cringed slightly. "Epithets? They actually have titles."
"They're not uncommon." Squire Dylon explained. "Prominent Martial

Artists generally tend to gain one. It's a tradition primarily in the Martial
Community that ended up bleeding into culture as time passed. Kyrie here
was known as the Berzerker of Hajin during her prime."
"Focus." Kyrie replied.
"On the other hand, we have representative Vyoming Hurin of the Weaving
Lightning style representing the Narfinius branch! Known as the Flashing
Drift for his incredible speed! Give him a round of applause!"
Vyoming entered the arena, stopping some distance away from Ian.
"Representatives." The referee of the fight addressed both of them. "I'll be

going over the rules one last time. No killing and no leaving the boundaries
of the arena, either of those will result in a disqualification and a loss
respectively. If you wish to forfeit, you may merely will it and the special
device attached to your Martial uniform will alert us of your resignation,
knowingly attacking after the fight ends will also result in a disqualification.
Do you agree to abide by these rules?"
"I do." Ian replied.
"I do." Vyoming echoed.
"Then without further ado, begin!" He commenced the first match.

"Aaand the first match is underway!" the host announced.
WHOOSH
Vyoming blurred as he instantly crossed the distance between himself and

Ian.
POW POW
He landed a double combo within the briefest of moments!
WHOOSH
Ian swung at him, only for him to hit empty air as Vyoming effortlessly
dodged.
Vyoming relentlessly flashed around charging at Ian repeatedly aggressively

in an impressive display of speed.
Rui's eyebrows raised at the sight. "He's comparable to Kane. He's faster in
linear motion but Kane is much more agile and fluid in curvilinear motion. I
see, he's an offensive maneuverer."
Rui found that to be quite interesting. The differences in their styles were
quite apparent, despite both of them being maneuvering-oriented. Vyoming
was much more aggressing and proactive with his offense conventionally,
whereas Kane's Martial Art evasive and counteroffensive.
"Indeed." Squire Kyrie nodded. "His greatest strength is his impressive

offensive combat speed."
Rui nodded. "And yet..."
Rui glanced at Ian. "He's unharmed."
Not only was he unharmed, he was also unmoved. Literally, Vyoming was
unable to even shift his position.
WHOOSH
Vyoming charged at him throwing an incredibly swift attack.
CLASP
Rui's eyes widened at what he saw.
Ian who was struggling and failing to keep up, suddenly caught Vyoming's
fist easily.
What had changed?
"Is this the best you can do?" He asked Vyoming as cold pressure flushed
from him pressing on Vyoming even as the he struggled to break free. "Too
bad, it's not enough."
BAM!!
He delivered an incredibly powerful attack Vyoming's gut.
The sheer force he struck the latter with caused the former spit out blood.
THUD
Vyoming collapsed to his knees in pain and shock.
BAM!
Ian kicked him across the arena with a slow but powerful kick. His speed had
suddenly dropped immensely from when he intercepted Vyoming's fist, but
his power had risen tremendously.
The sheer impact had caused the very ground to shiver!
It was truly impressive, yet...
Rui narrowed his eyes in confusion. He could immediately tell something

was off.
How did his speed suddenly spike mid-fight allowing him to intercept
Vyoming with ease when he couldn't do so before?
How did his power increase so much? His striking power was just a notch
below that of Fae's!
And why did his speed decrease so much again?
There were unnatural fluctuations in his parameters that Rui was unable to
explain. It was then that Rui recalled that he was a breathing technique
specialist.
"This must be because of a breathing technique then." Rui realized.
"Yep." Squire Dylon nodded. "Multiple breathing techniques to be more

precise."
"Multiple?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"There are breathing techniques above basic foundational techniques like the
Helical Breathing you've mastered. He seems to have mastered the Fire
Breathing, Earth Breathing and Lightning Breathing breathing techniques to
quite a high degree." Squire Kyrie explained. "They boost strength, durability
and speed respectively to an immensely high degree. However, they cannot
be used fully simultaneously. Hence, he switches between them as and when
he wants or uses multiple partially. That's why his parameters fluctuate
unnaturally."
Rui's eyes flew wide open at that statement. That was extremely formidable,
if that was indeed the case. Ian'd power and speed were shockingly
impressive. Rui assumed the Earth Breathing would also be similarly
impressive.
It was truly an impressive sight, indeed.

Chapter 249 Outcome
He could switch instantly between striking power very close to that of Fae's
to combat speed on par or perhaps even greater with Vyoming. Furthermore,
it was practically guaranteed that he had several other techniques at bare
minimum!
In which case, Ian was a menace!
Rui grinned, gaping in amazement. His personality was rotten, but his power
was the real deal. He truly deserved to be placed in the same realm as Kane
as far as talent went.
In fact, without the Void Step technique, Kane stood very little chance of
defeating him.
Rui watched on with great interest as Ian Nepomniachtchi went onto

dominate Vyoming, carefully observing his breathing noting its traits and
forms.
The breathing he used to amplify power; Fire Breathing was rather slower in
frequency but much deeper and larger. Rui suspected the surge of a large
amount oxygen in a short amount of time allowed for the maximization of
power.
The Lightning Breathing was a high-frequency breathing technique that

supplied continuous oxygen boosting speed continuously.
The different forms of respiration in the different breathing techniques caused

Rui to realize that he had perhaps underestimated the power of breathing
techniques. If Rui had such breathing techniques he would be able to adapt
much better than he currently was able to.
('Maybe I ought to take a look at techniques like those when I get back.')
"Aaaand we have a winner!" The host declared. "Ian Nepomniachtchi moves

onto the second round after a stunning victory against Vyoming Hurin!"
Ian snorted, turning his back on the mangled body of Vyoming.
"He's going to be to be an extremely rough opponent for you." Squire Kyrie

noted.
"Indeed." Rui nodded. Ian's fluctuating physical parameters made evolving to

him a truly difficult endeavor; Rui would need to be careful not to make a
single mistake.
"And coming up next we have Representative Esfand Hanax of the Grip

Scraping Style, representing the Sicillia branch!" The commentator
announced, as Esfand walked into the arena.
"His opponent is Freund Gamor of the Dreamy Poison Style! He is here

representing the Villimaine branch! Known as the Toxinmonger in the
Martial Community, he is one of the favoured representatives of the Martial
Contest!"
The crowd erupted in cheers as Fruend entered the arena.
Freund had sickly-looking skin that had a shade of purple to it. Not a single
person had any doubt that his entire skin was poisonous and that touching it
would be a disaster.
What Rui found suspicious was that he was wearing a mouth mask.
The fact that he was wearing it meant that the mask was thoroughly
scrutinized by the security staff of the Martial Contest, meaning it was not
something that unfairly gave him an advantage atleast.
But generally, when someone covered something, it meant they had

something to hide. Rui assumed the mouth mask wasn't a fashion choice,
atleast.
"Take your stances." The referee instructed.
Rui raised an eyebrow as both of them took aggressive stances against each
other that prioritized offense.
"And begin!" The referee commenced the match.
They dashed towards each other.
SPLAT
Rui's eyes flew wide open at what unfolded.
Freund came out of the exchange bleeding while Esfand came out seemingly
unharmed, with slight bruises at the very most.
Rui glanced at Esfand, who was grinning.
('Wow, he's rough just like Fae told me.')
Esfand was a Martial Artist centered around friction. He had taken skin
conditioning to the most extreme level and his skin was beyond what mere
'rough' could encapsulate. His skin had so much friction that simply pressing
and rubbing one's skin against it caused bleeding!
In combat, he applied his impressive offensive power through his dangerous

skin allowing to unleash frightening damage and lethality!
Rui raised an eye brow, he was quite impressed. Frankly, if Esfand had been
part of the Hajin branch, he would have been able to stand in the top five
atleast, in all likelihood. Rui could easily see how he managed to get chosen
as the representative of his branch.
SCRAP
POW
The two exchanged blows after blows, however the battle had begun to shift
decisively in favour of Esfand. He was able to deal immediate damage, and
had already dealt immense amount of damage.
WOBBLE
Suddenly, Esfand staggered.
His vision blurred and as he began losing all power in his muscles at an
alarming rate!
WHOOSH!
He threw a haymaker that Freund easily avoided.
POW POW POW
Freund began pummeling him with blow after blow.
The battle had suddenly turned tides!
"His poison kicked in in time." Rui noted.
Squire Kyrie nodded. "From the very start, both sides were aware that this
fight was a race. They were both offensive type Martial Artists with high
lethality. It seems it was a race that Esfand is losing and Fruend is winning."
THUD
Esfand hit the ground, the referee kneeled in closer to him before waving his
hand.
"Aaaand we have a winner ladies and gentlemen!" The commentator

declared. "Emerging victorious out of representative Esfand Hanax's
relentless assault; Representative Freund Gamor will be moving on to the
next round! He will be facing Ian Nepomniachtchi in round two!"
Rui stared at Freund
"His poison kicked in quicker and neutralized its victim quicker than that of
Avi Seth." He noted.
"Freund's poison is much more powerful than that of Avi Seth's." Squire
Kyrie noted. "Poison-based Martial Art's potency is largely based on the
poisons that they can wield, Talen in this field is decided by the most
powerful poison that one can become immune to and then integrate into one's
body. In that regard, Freund is well above Avi."
Rui nodded, agreeing with her judgement.
Esfand was quickly extracted and treated by a team of medics while Freund
consumed several healing potions while he was escorted by staff out of the
arena.
"Aaaand we now move on to the third match of the first round!" The
commentator declared.
Rui's eyes narrowed. He was particularly interested in this matchup because

if he won, he would be facing the winner of this matchup in the next round.
Chapter 250 Unconditioned
"On one hand we have representative Arjun Erigaisi and his Adamant
Boulder style representing the Hrava branch! He's touted as the Adamant
Boulder in the Martial Community for his impregnable defense! Join me in
welcoming him!" The commentator declared.
The crowd burst into cheers and an applause.
Arjun Erigaisi entered the arena, immediately drawing all attention to him.
His stature and physique were enormous, he was nearly seven-feet tall. He
had the presence of a looming mountain towering over everybody that laid
eyes on him!
"On the other hand, we have representative Servil Bisha and her Flickering
Core style representing the Gragol branch. Known as the Flickering Ghoul in
the Martial Community, none of you will want to miss out on this fight!"
Servil looked like she hadn't slept in a while. She had bags under her eyes.
Yet she exuded an aura of peril. Primordial Sense did not even want to touch
her.
She was one of the few Martial Artists that none of his friends new much
about.
Arjun adopted an incredibly defensive stance, as Rui expected. He divided

his legs, stabilizing his balance and planting himself in one place firmly. His
arms were in front of him, guarding him. It was a stance that was at the
epitome of defense.
Servil instead adopted a rather neutral stance. Yet Primordial Sense still
indicated to him that something was wrong. Her stance was quite tame, yet
the danger she exuded was most certainly not.
"Begin!" The referee commenced the match.
Servil dashed towards Arjun as he remained stationary. She launched

powerful several attacks at him.
POW POW POW
All of them bounced of his guard seemingly harmlessly. He didn't even seem
to use any techniques.
"Conditioning?" Rui wondered.
"Not just any conditioning." Kyrie said. "He's conditioned the toughness of
his body on every level. Skin, flesh, muscles and bones. He's tough inside-
out."
Rui raised an eye, he had to admit that it was truly impressive. His defense
put even Dalen to shame. At the rate the current battle was going on, he
would win quite dominantly.
Yet Rui had learned to trust his instincts. He didn't think Servil was weak.
Soon, a changed occurred.
BAM!
Arjun's eyes flew open as he felt an immense amount of pain from that blow,
he staggered back.
Rui's eyes narrowed. "What was that?"
BAM BAM BAM
Arjun threw together a guard as her blows began hurting more! He began
backing down more and more as each blow was staggering him!
"Ah." Squire Dylon realized. "I see. Most interesting."
"What is it, instructor Dylon?" Rui asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Vibration." Dylon replied. "She's managing to penetrate the impact beyond

his enteriors to do damage to vital interiors. It's novel form of damage
infliction that permeates impacts using vibrations. Thus, she's able inflict
greater damage with each blow. It's a powerful offensive field, very difficult
to master, of course."
Rui's eyes widened as he glanced back at her. He used Seismic Mapping as

he tried focusing on the seismic radiation.
('He's right.') Rui realized. ('Her entire body is vibrating.')
Vibrations were commonly used in technology in for penetrative and

permeating effects. They were used in drills to for greater penetrative effect,
they were even used in medical technology for treatment of kidney stones
where vibrations were used to break kidney stones done from the outside
without the need of an invasive procedure.
Servil was using those very principles to inflict far greater damage on Arjun
Erigaisi than she normally would!
BAM BAM BAM
She was relentless in her pressurizing.
Yet, she had underestimated Arjun's fortitude and endurance.
He weathered her every attack once he realized she could hurt him. He turtled
up, going into full defensive and damage mitigation mode. This made Servil's
task harder and harder.
Rui got the feeling that she wasn't accustomed to someone withstanding her
blows for as long as Arjun was. It was her misfortune that Arjun's body was
conditioned so extensively and deeply, that even the permeation of her
impacts deeper into his body were not enough to take him down in a short
amount of time.
That didn't mean Arjun was doing fine and dandy. He felt pain in places deep
within his body. His internal organs were sore, and there was a limit to how
much he could toughen the vulnerable core of the human body, her powerful
Apprentice-level power impacting him inside out was truly testing his
defense and endurance unlike anything he had been subjected to asides from
the torturous conditioning training regimes.
('Let's see what is greater, your power, or my constitution!') He took it up as a

challenge. As a competitive man who took immense pride in his durability,
he felt the need to prove himself in this tribulation.
This fight was special in that regard.
If he won this fight, he would be reaffirming his Martial Path, diverging it

from external influences and traversing deeper down his own Martial Path.
Perhaps this fight would be the most important for him in the entire Martial
Contest!
He grew more and more driven and fanatic about winning.
And yet...
WHAM!
A powerful jab crashed onto his throat. The throat was one of the most
vulnerable areas of the human body, even with Arjun's powerful
conditioning, it was not as incredibly tough as the rest of his body.
Yet.
He persevered.
The pain was incredible, but he refused to fall.
BAM
A second strike slipped past an opening in his guard, slamming against his
head. The permeative nature of Servil's strike rattled his brain, crossing a line.
The brain could not be conditioned, any attempt to do so would be met with
permanent brain damage.
THUD
He collapsed to the ground as the shaking had caused blunt force brain
trauma, causing his conscious mind to shut down.
For a moment, everyone was silent.
"Aaaand we have a winner folks!" The commentator immediately resumed.

"Servil Bisha has passed the first round, breaking through Arjun Erigaisi's
incredible defense!"
Chapter 251 No Matter What
"WOOOOAAH" An adolescent cooed in excitement.
"Look at them fight!" Another kid beside exclaimed.
"They're so cool!"
"I wanna be a Martial Artist too!"
"Alright alright." Julian chided. "Settle down for now."
He got them to calm down, before glancing back at the ongoing matchup in
amazement. It wasn't that he had never seen a Martial Apprentice, he had
Rui, and he had also worked with several Martial Apprentices in studies,
surveys and experiments conducted by the Kandrian Insitute of Sciences.
But he had never seen them in action going all out. Their performances were
usually controlled and regulated for the sake of research.
This was truly the first time he had seen Martial Apprentices going all out.
And the sight had left him speechless.
Furthermore, these Martial Artists were not ordinary run-of-the-mill Martial

Apprentices he had interacted with in his time as an assistant scholar, they
were the very best of their entire generation. They would likely go on to
become the best of their Realm one day.
The sheer prowess the first six Martial Apprentice representatives had shown
him had truly opened his eyes into the power of Martial Art.
"Big brother Julian." One of the adolescents called out. "When will Rui
fight?"
"The fourth match is about to commence, which means he'll be fighting very
soon." He replied. He inwardly grew tense. He had no idea how strong Rui
was, he just hoped he would be fine holding his own in this group of
monsters.
Somewhere else in the Martial Colosseum in the 1 st class seats of the

Martial Colosseum.
"Man, this is more intense than I expected." Kane sighed. "I'm so glad I don't
have to deal with this.
"They've all grown incomparably stronger than when I knew them." Fae
remarked. "Especially Ian. Truth be told, I didn't think he was this strong. His
talent as well as his age and the many years he's spent as a Martial Apprentice
have led him to grow much stronger than I expected. Rui will have a an
extraordinarily difficult time defeating him in the semi-finals, if he makes it
that far."
"Indeed." Hever said. "Frankly, I would probably lose a majority of my fights

against Ian Nepomaniachtchi. I wonder how Rui will fare against him."
"There's a chance he'll lose." Fae sighed.
Kane snorted. "Are you doubting him?"
"My, just being level-headed." Fae replied perfunctorily. "Besides, forget

about the third round, he still has his first round to clear. His first opponent is
not weak." Fae's eyes narrowed.
Kane nodded. "He would have been called a prodigy if he was just a little
more talented than he is."
"I am rather interested in seeing how far Surman Marliak has come in the
development of his niche Martial Art." Hever replied. "He will be formidable
without a doubt."
The three of them had purchased 1 st class seats to be able to inspect the
Martial Contest up close. With the wealth of their families, the cost of this
luxury was nothing.
The fourth match was to begin soon.
"Aaaaand onto the next match we go!" The host announced. "In the fourth
match, we have representative Surman Marliak and his Enchanting Willow
Style representing the Verlain branch. A fearsome Martial Artist known as
the Mindbender! Keep your eyes open for this fight folks!"
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause as Surman entered the arena of the
Colosseum.
Surman was a nimble man in stature, there was nothing physically

aesthetically threatening about him. Yet anybody who spent too long looking
at him felt like they were going dizzy. His aura exuded a strange effect on
people's minds.
"His opponent is representative Rui Quarrier of the Hajin branch." The

commentator declared. "A dark-horse entry into the ranks of the
reprentatives, how far will he go? How far will his Flowing Void Style go?
Stick aound to find out!"
Up in the first-class seats, Fae frowned. "Flowing Void Style? I didn't know
he named it that. It's such an abstract name."
"It's perfect." Kane grinned. "I bet the name symbolized the fact that his
Martial Art and fighting style lack a form, they're constantly and smoothly
evolving and adapting to his opponent. It lacks an inherent fixed style or
affinity for a style. Hence the Void."
Kane was incredibly confident his interpretation was quite accurate. His logic
was quite sound indeed, after all.
Yet he was completely wrong.
In reality, Rui realized that there was no way he could incorporate the full-
form of the VOID algorithm; the Variable Objective Inverse Deductive
algorithm into the name so he used the phonetic word of the short form; Void
and then used the Kandrian dialect version of the word Void instead.
Thus, came about the Flowing Void style.
Even before the commentator could finish, people had noticed Rui.
Not because he stepped out earlier, no.
Not at all.
The sheer mental pressure that radiated from the weight of his concentration
alone drew eyes to him even before he made he was visible.
"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled as he appeared. His eyes were narrow and lock onto his
opponent.
He saw nothing else.
The extended period of time he had invested into honing his focus had paid
off. He was able to enter into a focused state of mind he had been cultivating
rather easily and quickly.
And it reflected.
Surman Marliak eyebrow raised at the sight.
He had initially wondered if Rui was truly qualified to be among them.
Now any question about that matter had been put to rest. Rui's unadultered
focus on him was heavy. Surman had seldom experienced such pressure from
a Martial Apprentice.
Just gazing into those black eyes that sucked in the light of the world greedily
made him feel almost transparent.
Almost.
He was not a light man.

His mentality was backed by the confidence that came with true power, true
success and having overcome true failure. He had come along way, he did not
intend to stop now.
No matter what.
Chapter 252 Let Me Thank You
Surman Marliak took a strange stance. He lifted his left leg, positioning his
left foot at right knee. One arm was raised over his head while the other was
raised towards Rui.
Rui wasn't sure what to make of this stance. It looked strange and silly, but
the fact that Rui didn't understand the significance and reason for it simply
meant his understanding of mental techniques was limited. He had tried to do
some research, but he was limited.
In the face of the unknown, he simply chose a simple neutral stance while
activating pushing his sensory techniques to their limit.
"Begin!" The supervisor declared!
WHOOSH
Surman Marliak disappeared in everyone's eye, drawing a gasp from the

crowd.
POW
He appeared next to Rui throwing a powerful strike, but to his surprise Rui
had managed to block him easily.
POW!
Surman retreated in surprise. He didn't expect his misdirection to fail so

spectacularly. What he didn't know was that Rui was able to see through
misdirection far greater than what he had used. After all, Rui had been able to
detect Kane's position despite the Void Step technique; A technique with
grade ten potency and difficulty.
Rui chased after him, refusing to let him go too easily. Surman paused at the
sight, taking his strange stance yet again, he moved his arms legs in slow
wavy patterns even as Rui approached him. It was then, Rui's eyes flew wide
open as he suddenly Surman Marliak's figure cloned into two!
Suddenly he saw two Surman Marliaks!
What was this sorcery?
POW!
Both Surman Marliaks threw a strike, pushing him back.
Rui frowned, calming down. There was no way the clone was real, Martial
Art was not that absurd, not yet. Furthermore, Surman's specialty was mental
techniques, so this was some kind of trick that Rui wasn't quite
understanding.
The two images of Surman he saw were identical, their positioning, and their
movements were all identical.
Rui's eyes widened as he realized what was happening.
The brain received visual inputs from both eyes, however, both eyes were
positioned seperately, meaning the visual input they supplied to the brain
were different. The reason people had a singular vision despite two eyes was
because the brain merged those two images. Diplopia was the condition of
having double images due to the brain not fusing the two separate feeds from
the eyes properly.
Rui strongly suspected that that was why he was seeing two Surman
Marliaks. The strange movements that Surman had performed shortly before
his vision had doubled was likely some kind of hypnotic or mental technique.
He knew that vision and other sensory input could affect the brain and mind
in various ways. He also suspected that this was the principle on which
mental manipulation techniques worked.
WHOOSH
Surman dashed at him, hoping to take advantage of Rui's disorientation, yet

once again.
WHAM!
Rui not only didn't get his but also batted Surman away with a swift kick.
Surman frowned as landed back, realizing Rui was mentally remarkably
resillient for him be this unaffected.
A combination of Rui's supernaturally powerful mind and the Primordial

Instinct allowed Rui to fight almost unperturbed despite his disorientation.
Rui's mental fortitude was quite remarkable, to the point that Surman
suspected he was employing anti-mental manipulation techniques.
He began employing even more strange stances. His body moved and
contorted in bizarre ways bewitching the eyes of onlookers.
Rui rushed forward attempting to stop what he was doing. He went for a
swing when he suddenly froze. A sharp sense of pain rushed across his entire
body!
But nothing had physically changed!
Why did he suddenly feel pain?
POW POW POW
Surman took advantage of Rui's openings launching a flurry of strikes. He

began some more strange movements.
Rui struggled to defend as he turtled up.
('He can induce pain?') Rui wondered, shocked!
He did not think such a thing was possible!

Suddenly, he felt his mind blurring as Surman struck his temple before
performing some more strange maneuvers.
The result was that the very world around Rui had begun bending and
morphing, more and more so by the second.
('He's affecting my spatial awareness too?!')
BAM!
Surman's fist crashed into Rui, driving him back. He ruthlessly exploited
Rui's openings to the very limit, trying to end the fight as soon as he could.
Rui on the other hand was still shocked.
And excited!
Every time he thought he understood Martial Art, some new technique came
along and broke his world view!
Surman Marliak had been the latest of them. A Martial Art who could affect
the sense of pain, spatial awareness and attention remotely and continuously
with almost no pre-conditions or significant caveats.
It was extremely overpowered.
Rui had fully come to see exactly why Surman was chosen as the
representative of his Martial Academy branch.
He was at a disadvantage. He was in pain. He was disoriented.
Yet he felt only one emotion.
Unbridled ecstasy.
"Huhuhu..."
Surman Marliak's eyes widened as he heard a restrained chuckle from Rui.

He saw a grin crack at the edges of his mouth.
Rui began laughing uncontrollably. He couldn't help himself. How could he
not? He was just shown that there was yet another direction of Martial Art
beyond his imagination that he never even knew had existed before!
Everyone onlooking grew confused.
Why was he laughing like a mad man?
Was this also a mental manipulation Martial Art technique? Did Surman
Marliak force his opponents to laugh as he beat them down? If so, how
brutally sadistic.
Surman himself had knitted eyebrows in confusion. When had he learnt such
a technique? Did he not read the data of his technique scrolls properly?
BAM BAM BAM!
He didn't stop pummeling. No, he was forcefully stopped.
CLASP
Rui suddenly caught one of his incoming fists smoothly. He turned to Surman
Marliak wordlessly. He didn't speak but his expression conveyed gratitude.
('Thank you for showing me what is possible.') He though as he launched a

powerful weighted strike at Surman. ('Let me thank you by defeating you.')
BAM!
Chapter 253 Depth
"Do you think that's part of a technique?" Fae had asked with concern when
she saw Rui laughing like a mad man.
Kane had gazed at him even as he was being pummeled before replying with
a smile. "No, he's just having fun."
Fae was about to reply when suddenly, Rui had caught Surman's Marliak fist
cleanly, surprising both of them.
BAM!
He immediately launched a powerful blow, releasing his grip on Surman,

sending him flying back.
Not a single person was unsurprised.
How did Rui go from being utterly dominated one second, to suddenly
turning the tables around forcefully the very next?
Such things did not happen!
Up in the VIP viewing balcony, the headmaster of the Verlain branch raise an
eyebrow, turning to headmaster Aronian.
"I do not understand Aronian." She said. "He clearly is not employing
countermeasures against mental techniques, they affect him yet he breaks
them too quickly."
"Hohoho..." Headmaster Aronian chuckled at her confusion. "Impressive

little pup, isn't he?"
"Does this have something to do with his mental tolerance of extended usage
of mental rejuvenation potions that have been recorded in the database?" She
wondered.
"Partially." Headmaster Aronian replied a bit more solemnly. "Frankly his

case isn't entirely clear. However, with all the circumstantial evidence at
hand. I have come to the conclusion that he's an unfathomable genius of the
mind hitherto unheard of in the history of the Academy. This much is quite
clear when you consider the nearly unparalleled IQ scores and from his
entrance exam, the fact that he is also the only student in history to pass the
final stage of the mental evaluation exam and the numerous other feats such
as that."
He paused, before continuing. "Also, the depth of his Martial Path has
reached the Squire Realm, perhaps even deeper. I cannot say for sure, it's
incredible."
All of the headmasters reacted with visible surprise.
"That's impossible." She said. "He hasn't even been a Martial Apprentice for
two years!"
"It's unbelievable, but it is the truth." Headmaster Aronian confirmed.

"Somehow, he has already long fulfilled the first condition to becoming a
Squire candidate. That is also why he's doing well against your Surman
Marliak, see?"
She nodded with a confused yet enlightened expression. If his Martial Path
was truly that deep, if Rui Quarrier had truly walked such a great length
down his Martial Path, then she could understand what was happening, it
indeed was the perfect explanation.
"The depth of his Martial Path, along with his monstrous mind has made for
an incredible sturdy mind." Headmaster Aronian said. "In fact, I'm actually
quite impressed that your Surman Marliak was able to affect and incapacitate
him to the degree that he did for as long as he did. Ordinary mental
techniques would have just bounced off of Rui. Even the extraordinary Void
Step technique was only partially effective against his sensory techniques and
his mind. The fact that Surman did as well as he did proves he is extremely
talented. He just had the poor fortune of running into Rui."
POW POW POW!
Each strike devastated Surman. Most of his techniques were mental

techniques, his defense was not all that impressive. He had had a dominant
undefeated win streak in the preliminary contest of the Verlain branch simply
by incapacitating his opponents with his mental manipulation techniques
immediately and winning straightforwardly.
It had been a very long time since he had been punished this much!
POW!
A powerful swing to the jaw rattled his brain.
THUD
He collapsed to the ground.
"Aaand we have a winner ladies and gentlemen! Rui Quarrier successfully

advances to the second round after a last-minute comeback against Surman
Marliak! What an unexpected victory as the gambling bets revealed! It seems
that those who bet on the formidable Flowing Void style have received their
money's worth!"
The crowd cheered excitedly!
"Hey." Rui approached Surman who had just finished consuming a healing
potion. "Great fight. You're incredibly strong."
Surman gazed at him for a moment, before cracking a resigned smile. "Thank
you, you're stronger than I expected and hoped. I've never felt that helpless
before."
"Thank you for that wonderful fight, you've shown me an additional

dimension of what Martial Art can do. I will be looking into them when we
get back after the Martial Contest." He said, smiling.
"I'm always up for a spar, if we can meet that is." Surman chuckled. "Good
luck with the Martial Contest, I'm rooting for you."
"Thanks, appreciate that."
They shook hands before heading back to their exits.
The crowd cheered in approval of the sportsmanship that both representatives

had shown.
"Congratulations on passing the first round, Rui." Squire Kyrie told him
when he returned to them. "You did quite well
"Great job." Squire Dylon threw a thumbs up. "You beat him well. You
should have seen the looks on their faces hehe." he subtly gestured to his
competitors in the contest viewing balcony. He notices several of them
looked at him differently after his fight.
He shrugged, turning back to the arena. He may have won, but he wasn't
going to call it a day and head back to his luxurious quarters. He still needed
to observe his opponents fighting in order to be able to fight as optimally as
he could against them.
He had already watched his next opponent, Servil Bisha, fight in the third
match and had begun thinking about that matchup.
"That was an amazing fight without a doubt! However, the next fight is not
any less exciting at all! On one hand we have representative Ferlicia Ernand
of the Fritzer branch and her Blazing Fury Style. On the other hand, we have
Askin Nodt and his Drunken Fever Style of the Fervor Branch!"
Two contestants walked in.
Ferlicia looked like a dignified heir of a Martial Family, as she was. But
Askin looked like a drunk man, because he was one. He sauntered
nochalantly, with a dreamy lost expression on his face, hiccuping every now
and then.
Rui smiled at that sight. He was interested in this fight.

Chapter 254 Amazed
Rui recalled what Fae and Kane had told him about these two.
Heat and alcohol.
These two Martial Artists employed these two phenomena in their Martial
Art.
This was something Rui truly looked forward to. How could a Martial Artist
fight with heat and alcohol? He didn't even know that this was possible!
There were some techniques, but to make it your entire Martial Art?
The Martial Contest opened his eyes to so much that he hadn't seen before, it
was truly shocking. Yet it incredibly exciting nonetheless.
Ferlicia crouched, placing her open-handed arms in front of her.
('Grappling stance eh?') He mused.
Askin on the other hand, just shifted around in one place, imbalanced.
"Begin!" The referee commenced.
Ferlicia's skin grew incredibly red, as if she was blushing madly across every
inch of her body, before dashing at Askin.
It was a sight that amazed Rui. She was increasing the temperature of her
own body to an incredibly high degree!
The human body was actually capable of increasing body temperature to a

high degree. It was capable of this and even did increase temperature in times
of fevers. Through engogenous and exogenous pyrogens, it could cause a
high elevation in the body's thermoregulatory set-point. However, the reason
that it did not increase temperature beyond a small degree was because the
brain simply couldn't handle extremely high temperatures.
Normal human brains, that is.
Martial Apprentices possessed enhanced brains on a neurochemical level.
Rui would not be surprised if this dramatically increased the ceiling of the
temperature that she could withstand, that along with some conditioning
meant that this was legitimately a powerful weaponizable phenomenon!
Rui suspected that he had stumbled upon the core of her Martial Art
technique.
In this case, it made sense that she was a grappler! Is her body temperature
was extremely high, then grappling was a field of combat that was extremely
compatible with her. It would exploit her strengths and give her far greater
gains than striking would, in all actuality.
He wondered how Askin would deal with it.
Ferlicia shot towards Askin, charging to get into contact with him.
WHOOSH
He ducked so incredibly low that he would be fine even if a car ran over him!
Rui's eyes narrowed. It was a simple maneuver, but the reflexes he displayed
were extremely quick. He dodged the strike at basically the very last second!
Ferlicia tutted, turning around as she lashed out at Askin who stumbled out of
her strike, rolling out of the way.
She continued chasing him around, but she literally couldn't even get close.
"Hue hue." he laughed. "Can't catch me baby."

He wiggled.
Rui smiled amused. "He's drunk, isn't he?"
"Indeed he is." Squire Dylon nodded. "You can trust me, I know drunk when
I see it."
"Uh huh." Rui threw a resigned look at him. "How is being drunk a Martial
Art technique."
"Well Rui, I can tell you that being drunk allows you to do things that you
would otherwise never be able to do. Like choosing to walk in on Kyrie while
she was bathi-!"
"Shut up." Squire Kyrie's unadultered aura seeped out as she coldly cut him
off, causing Rui to feel violent dreadful chills climb up his spine. The sheer
force of her mind far exceeded anything he had ever sensed from an
Apprentice.
"Alright alright." Squire Dylon chuckled mischievously raising his hands,

completely unbothered by her fearsome aura.
They hadn't even noticed it.
Rui wiped away some sweat, shaking his head inwardly. ('I have far to go.')
He turned back to the battle, pondering about Askin, who had still gone on
untouched by Ferlicia.
Alcohol impaired conscious cognition, but at the same it also consquentially

ceded control of the body to the subconscious reflexive mind. Reflexes far
surpassed conscious reaction speed.
Furthermore, the enhanced Apprentice brain would likely be able to mitigate

the downsides of being drunk that would normally severely impair normal
drunk humans.
Rui's eyes widened with interest. This meant that alcohol was potentiall more
beneficial to Martial Apprentices with some rigorous training!
But did this mean the Martial Artists with alcohol had to get drunk before
every fight started?
Wasn't this incredibly impractical?
"I wonder if he underwent conditioning."
"It's quite likely he did." Squire Dylon said. "There are a few niche alcohol-
oriented conditioning techniques that allow the users to permanently retain a
large amount of alcohol in their bodies and blood."
"What?" Rui turned to Squire Dylon, surprised.
"They condition their body to not filter out alcohol quickly." He elaborated.
"Therefore they can maintain being drunk for rather incredibly longer periods
of times. Just by possessing alcohol in their system, they can gain extremely
high reflexes."
Rui nodded, turning back. Not even Nel had such incredible reflexes as what
Askin was demonstrating, it was almost like there was no gap between
stimulus and reaction. Only Kane could replicate that feat.
Eventually, Ferlicia grew frustrated. The very air was sizzling at times due to
her heat, and frankly Rui felt that temperature of the Colosseum might have
even increased a bit by now all due to Ferlicia alone, but she was struggling
to tag Askin.
She brought her palm together. She folded all finger except for her index and
middle finger, leaving a small gap between them and bringing them to her
lips.
When she got as close to Askin as she could, she inhaled deeply before
exhaling as hard as she could.
What Rui saw next shocked him!
She did not exhale air like any normal human did!
She breathed fire!

The flames erupted from the tiny hole of her fingers, spreading out and
covering wider area than any single human normally could with their body.
This time even Askin's great reflexes could not entirely save him. He
emerged from flames, with first and second-degree burns.
Rui gaped at the sight. He had thought Surman was incredible, but Ferlicia
just very well might have taken that spot!
Chapter 255 Outcome
Rui felt this time and time again for each of the representatives, but they were
truly worthy of the position of representative.
Even with her body-heating technique alone, she would easily be in the top
five in the Hajin branch of the Martial Academies. Her compatibility against
basically everyone was great since merely touching her caused damage.
In fact, Rui would even go so far as to say that she would even beat Hever
and at the very least stalemate Kane. Hever needed to firm interception and
physical contact, Ferlicia would dominate him because he would not be able
to maintain contact with her.
Kane may not lose against her, but he really would not be able to win against
her either. Kane's offense and defense was already limited. If he could not
even realistically touch her, then there was basically nothing he could even
do.
And then there was her spectacular fire attack. Rui did not think she was
actually expelling fire from within her lungs. If he had to guess, she was
using the extreme temperature of her body to ignite the air. She blowed air as
hard as she could through a thing gap in her red-fingers, the combination of
the high temperature and the high pressure likely reached a level that was
enough to ignite the air that she was exhaling.
It was an incredible technique that had a remarkably wide area than one
would expect, it was not a technique that could be mastered without
dedicating one's everything to heat.
However, Askin wasn't weak either.

POW!
He managed to land a strike on her minimizing damage by striking with

footwear in obscure strange angles that were hard to defend from.
POW POW POW!
He launched a barrage of backward kicks on Ferlicia while upside down

hand-standing with his back faced against her. It was an incredibly comical
scene, yet it allowed him to attack her without suffering any damage.
WHOOSH
He avoided her with a strange spinning flip onto his feet. Rui found his
moves quite difficult to predict, it was not easy and he had an a rather
unpredictable, unlimited and unconstrained fighting style. He deviated from
orthodoxy.
In the Martial Academy, there were several principles taught to students in

the Foundational stage regarding combat, these principles were also taught on
Earth. They were basic guidelines to fight optimally. Martial Artists had long
grown accustomed to taking them for granted and fighting as if those
guidelines would mostly be followed.
And they were, because those guidelines and norms were generally good
time-tested advice that actually worked.
Yet it seemed that because of the peculiarities of his Martial Art, a lot of the
foundational norms of orthodox combat simply didn't apply to him!
He broke every rule, but somehow he kept getting away with it.
Frankly, he was so divergent, even the VOID algorithm would need to take
its time in order to adapt and evolve to him.
Many of the Martial Artists spectating the match felt a headache just trying to
process his bizarre motions!
Ferlicia was also among them. She had grown more and more irritated at her
inability to even properly touch him. He was bizarrely slippery and somehow
always escaped her clutches.
Furthermore, he launched bizarre unorthodox attacks that she found it hard to

defend against.
POW POW POW!
He managed to launch a swift combination of odd attacks that slipped right

past her guard.
Irritation flashed across her face. So far, the only attack that had successfully
hurt him or even hit him was her fire breath attack. However, she did not
think she would be able to land it any time soon again.
Shockingly, it didn't seem like he was so lose. Then, something changed.
POW
FSSHHH!
"Argh!" Askin grimaced as he retreated. He had burnt his leg badly. He had
trouble understanding what had happened. He launched a kick but ended up
getting burnt quite significantly.
"She was unable to avoid getting hit, so she shifted so that an exposed part of
his leg would hit her instead of more less vulnerable areas." Rui nodded. It
wasn't the best strategy she could have employed that Rui could see, but it
showed that Ferlicia was a clever fighter.
The damage was done. Askin was too reliant on his unorthodox maneuvering,
thus the severe burns on his leg weren't good.
Furthermore, Rui realized he probably had it worse if his body maintained a

high level of alcohol at all times. Alcohol was very flammable and Ferlicia
was extremely hot. It was quite likely that every attack did more damage than
it would normally do so.
Furthermore, his maneuverability had decreased quite a bit due to the injury.
FLICK
FSSH
Ferlicia managed to nick him with yet another attack. Her offense was finally
starting finally land on him. However, she was unable to grapple him,
grappling charges were still much slower than jabs, after all.
FLICK FLICK POW!
She managed to land her first clean strike. Askin had already been burnt quite
a bit by then. In comparison, she hadn't any meaningful damage. Askin hadn't
landed too many heavy blows on her.
His condition deteriorated more and more until eventually she managed to
charge and grapple him.
FSSHH!
Asking grimaced. Just as Ferlicia was about to grapple and burn him even
more.
"I resign."
She froze. Letting go of him immediately.
"Did I hear that right?" She asked him, evidently in disbelief.
"Match over!" The referee declared. "Winner; Representative Ferlicia

Ernand!"
Askin shrugged clumsily. "I'm not unreasonably stubborn. I know when to

take a step back *hic*"
She simply gazed at him wordlessly as he was supplied potions, before

turning around and walking away.
"Hmmm.." Rui pondered. "Well, atleast he saved himself some pain."

"Indeed." Squire Dylon agreed. "I would have done the same if I was in his
position. Nobody has time for prolonging torture futilely."
Rui wasn't sure he agreed with that entirely. "Regardless, she's going to be
incredibly strong."
Chapter 256 Amazement
"Aaand we have a winner! Representative Ferlicia Ernand makes it to the

second round after a spectacular victory against representative Askin Nodt!
Onto our next fight. We have Representative Mia Marnt and her Echo Blast
tyle representing ther Fellen branch. On the other hand, we have
Representative Ana Mariane of the Hyulflum branch and her Belial Claw
Style!"
The crowd cheered loudly as the two women walked into the arena, facing
each other.
Mia took a balanced stance, however her hands were positioned oddly close
to her face. Rui wasn't entirely sure what to make of that.
He did, of course, recall some the bare basic information Fae had told him
about her.
She wielded sound.
Rui wasn't sure what to make of that. But he had grown used to that feeling
now. He had already long accepted that basically anything and everything
could become a Martial Art in this world, that's just how things were.
Her opponent on the other hand was equally interesting. Fae and Kane didn't
know much about her, but they said her Martial Art had something to do with
wind.
That's right, wind. Rui had already given up on trying to understand.
Ana took a bizarre stance. She placed one foot ahead of the other and then
placed her arms to her side with her palms facing the ground.
Rui shook his head. He genuinely had no idea what the fuck she was doing,
but he assumed she did. He looked forward to seeing how both sides fought.
Mia inhaled deeply, bring her hands to her mouth.
What came out of her mouth was not a shout.
But a roar.
Rui couldn't see the attack, sound was invisible. But Primordial Instinct
detected a small yet strong mass of kinetic energy.
His eyes flew wide open in shock!
She was shouting sound attacks!
Ana Mariane avoided the attack not by moving to the side or ducking.
No.
She leapt to the air, reaching a good height to avoid the attack.
Rui frowned. Being midair made escaping impossible, Mia would simply
target her midair. She had blundered in his view.
And exactly that happened. Mia didn't let go of the opportunity and sent more
sound projectiles at her.
WHOOSH
Rui felt a flash of shock for the second time in ten seconds as Ana Mariane
avoid the attack midair!
"Is she... stepping on air?!" Rui was flabbergasted as he saw her gaining
altitude continuously as she continued her stepping motion.
Even Squire Kyrie frowned. "This shouldn't be possible at the Apprentice
Realm."
"At the Apprentice Realm?" Rui turned, facing her in surprise. "What does
that mean."
"The technique she's using is known as Sky Walking. It works by kicking air
down hard enough to stay hovering. Essentially an air version of swimming,
in a way. Martial Apprentices are too weak to do this however, only Martial
Squires and above can use it. Which is why it's impressive she's able to."
Squire Dylon pitched in.
Rui's eyes flew wide open. He glanced back at the incredible scene.
He was starting to get tired of being surprised over and over again in such a
short timeframe. But the scene unfolding before his eyes was truly incredible.
Mia launched invisible sound bullets and Ana moved out of her aim ever so
slightly before the attacks were launched.
It did not look like a battle between Martial Artists!
He focused on Mia first. From what he could tell, she was building an
enormous amount of air and pressure and using that generate extremely
intense sound waves focused in an incredibly small area. He figured she
likely conditioned to a large degree to be able to convert the energy of her
body to sound in that manner.
However, he recognized the potency of her offense. She was able to spam
reasonably powerful attacks from quite range, giving her a huge range
advantage over most Martial Apprentices.
Secondly, her attacks were invisible, it made countering them much harder
than if they could be seen. This contributed to the formidability of her offense
immensely.
Thirdly, her attacks were incredibly fast, they moved at the speed of sound!
After all, she was literally attacking with sound. This meant her offensive
speed surpassed all martial Apprentices. Martial Apprentices could not break
the sound barrier unless is specific exceptional circumstances.
Rui shook his head, with an impressed expression. Yet again, he was
convinced that the representatives were truly worthy of their positions.
The same could be said for Ana Mariane. She danced around the air, avoiding
the sound bullets incredibly well.
His curiosity was in full throttle and his sharp senses had already begun
uncovering the secret of her ability.
"She's using a breathing technique." Rui murmured, as he glanced at her

breathing motions.
The two Squires glanced at him.
"She's using a breathing technique to momentarily create high-pressure and

high-density air pockets and then steps on them." He explained.
Breathing rapidly pushed air from one location to another and back and forth,
this momentarily created high density/pressure zones of air. At extremely
high density of air, it behaved more like liquid or a solid.
Rui strongly suspected that she was using her breathing and her dance-like
motions to momentarily create high density air regions and then stepped on
those high-density air regions like they were solid.
In this way, she was literally creating momentary steps of semi-solid air to
move around in the sky.
And that wasn't all!
WHOOSH
She kicked the air and a heavy blast of air flew down towards Mia
BANG!
It collided with the ground as Mia avoided it, launching her own attacks. Rui
narrowed his eyes at that sight. She was using the same principle that she was
Sky Walking with to launch attacks! She created high-pressure and high-
density projectiles and batted them against her opponent.
What an incredibly novel way of fighting!
In the sky, she was extremely secure, after all, how would prople even hurt
her if they could not touch her?
Chapter 257 Result
ROAR!
Mia launched a barrage of sound bullets in one go.
WHOOSH!
Ana barely managed to prance between them midair as she swirled, kicking
the air and launching a powerful wind blast.
BANG!
ROAR!
It slammed into the ground as Mia summersaulted out of the way, launching
even more sound bullets at Ana even mid-flip upside down.
The two danced in a strange harmony, enrapturing every onlooker into their
elegant and profound duet.
Not a single person could avert their eyes.
How could they?
Rui was extremely absorbed into their strange fight. Watching their every
movement with wide eyes, it had been truly a long time since he had been
this shook by a fight.
His powerful mind furiously processed the data his senses and techniques
were supplying as he created mental profiles of each of the two women.
Mia Marnt was a threat. There were three elements that contributed most to
her formiable combat prowess; her incredibly long range, invisible attacks
and the fact that they moved at the speed of sound. This meant she could
badger her opponents with attacks that could not be avoided after they were
launched from a range.
Furthermore, this wasn't the only problem with her offense. Her sound didn't
just do physical damage, it also affected the brain. Since it struck the
eardrums incredibly hard, causing pain and disorientation. Furthermore, at
close ranges Rui had no doubt whatsoever that she could burst her opponents'
ear drums.
Her only limitations and drawbacks were the fact that it was easier to predict
the timing and direction of her attacks than conventional offenses, her options
were limited and the linear trajectory of the attacks and the preparatory
motions needed to launch her sound bullets made it easier to predict their
timing.
Of course, very few people would be able to actually practically apply this to
mitigate the enormous advantages she held against an overwhelming majority
of Martial Artists.
Thankfully, Rui was one of them. The VOID algorithm was perfect for using
these drawbacks and limitations to predict and fight in a manner most apt.
Ana Mariane was also remarkably formidable, but not without her limitations
either.
Her greatest strengths and advantages were her range, as well as the fact that
she could stay out of range of an overwhelming majority of offensive
techniques thanks to her flight. Her maneuvering was not limited to the
terrain or two dimensions, giving her a boost in her evasiveness, it was why
she was doing a remarkable job at avoiding Mia's attacks.
However, her attack suffered. Air was not an efficient medium to try an
accelerate. Mia overcome this by focusing and narrowing the direction of
sound with her mouth so that the energy remained clamped and was
conserved to a much higher degree. However, Ana was not using sound, she
was using wind. She created a powerful wind blast via launching high-
density air created by her breathing technique and physical movements.
However, by the time the attack reached Mia, a large amount of the
momentum of the travelling wind had already been bled off by the
atmosphere. Thus, her offensive power was unremarkable.
They were both extremely strong and would easily be top-five in the Hajin
Academy, but they were thankfully not without flaws.
Just as he mused about them, there was a change in the battle.
POW!
Ana stumbled mid-air, plummeting a bit as a sound bullet hit her, causing
pain and disorientation to her and disrupting her Sky Walking partially.
Mia Marnt eyes narrowed as she pushed her offense to full throttle to unleash
a barrage of sound bullets at Ana. She was not going to let this opportunity
go!
Ana was already pushing herself to the limit dodging each sound bullet
impeccably, but in her state, it was impossible. One thing had led to another
as several more sound bullets struck her.
This caused even more pain and disorientation and led to a chain reaction that
swiftly tilted the battle in Mia's favour.
POW POW POW!
THUD
Ana grimaced as she plummeted to the ground. Her face morphed into fear as
Mia rushed in, closing the distance between them.
BANG!
A singular potent sound bullet struck Ana's jaw.
The blunt force trauma to her brain atop the disorientation she had already
been inflicted with was too much.
THUD
She collapsed flat on the ground, unmoving.
"Winner; Representative Mia Marnt!" The referee declared.
The crowd erupted in excited cheers as the spectacular fight ended.
"Aaaand we have a winner folks! Representative Mia will be moving onto

round two after her solid victory against representative Ana!"
Rui exhaled, a little tired from his own excitement. He shook his head.
In reality, Ana could have won against Mia, perhaps even dominantly, had
she fought more aptly.
Her breathing technique could create high-density air regions. She could have
used this to create currents that would alter the direction of the sound bullets
by shifting the medium by which the sound was travelling by for a rather low
effort.
But it was unreasonable to expect her to apply a principle he studied in fluid

mechanics in his bachelor's degree. However, this realization alone showed
him the value of his scientific background in this world. It showed him that
there was likely massive untapped potential in Martial Art that nobody had
yet uncovered. Nobody was qualified to uncover.
This world did not have the scientific foundation needed to uncover and tap
into this potential.
In all of heaven and Gaia, he alone was qualified!
How strong would he be if he realized this potential and employed its power
in his Martial Art? Just how powerful would he be with the power of science
and fantasy on his side?
Just the very thought of it made him extraordinarily excited. Once the Martial
Contest ended one way or another, he had a lot of considerations to explore
and think about.
There was simply too much he had too accomplish, too much he wanted to
accomplish.
Yet this did not discourage him.
No.
It did the exact opposite.

Chapter 258 Outcome
"Moving onto our next battle! On one hand we have Representative Byron
Harth and his Gentle Sting Style representing the Brillix branch. And on the
other hand, we have Kaerts Omegde and his Soul Reader Style! Let's
welcome them with a round of applause."
The two men entered the arena, earning an eruption of cheers from the
audience.
Rui raised an eyebrow at their heavy presence.
They were strong.
Byron Harth extended his left leg forward as he crouched his right leg. His
arms positioned themselves in front of him, with all fingers except the index
and middle fingers bent.
Rui recalled that Fae and Kane had told him that Byron's Martial Path and
Martial Art were centered around nerve targeting.
The nervous system of the human body was responsible for the functioning
of the human body in many ways, Rui wasn't even sure what Byron was
capable of. He intended to pay close attention to his combat style and make a
profile centered around him as well.
As for Kaerts, he wasn't sure what to make of that strange name. Neither of
his friends knew much about him either. They only knew that he was the son
of a Martial Master.
He simply took a simple neutral stance, making him all the more mysterious
in Rui's eyes.
Byron immediately dashed towards Kaerts, launching several finger poking

attacks.
WHOOSH
Kaerts evaded the attack incredibly cleanly, he moved almost the very bare
minimum needed to avoid the attack. What struck Rui as interesting was that
he didn't strike Rui as an evasive type, yet he possessed high evasive
capabilities.
Perhaps this had something to do with his Martial Art.
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
As time passed, he continued avoiding each of Byron's finger jabs with

unbelievable timing. Rui's eyes knitted with confusion and amazement as a
certain realization dawned on Rui.
('This man... He's not dodging the jabs as or even after they come.') Rui
noted. ('His evasive motion begins as or just before Byron begins his
movements.')
There were very few people who were able to regularly do that at the
Apprentice Realm. Kane was one of them, with his excellent reflexes and
agility, he was able to often evade as early as possible. Rui was also one of
them, with the VOID algorithm supported with Primordial Instinct, he
possessed an incredibly high amount of foresight, and his prediction allowed
him to move at among the earliest of intervals in the fight.
However, Kaerts was certainly not an evasive-type like Kane was, and he
absolutely certainly did not possess the VOID algorithm.
"Hmmm..." Rui frowned. "There's something strange here."
"You noticed quite quickly." Squire Kyrie raised an eyebrow. "I was going to
tell you after the match ended."
"The fac that he's evading this early... As well as the name of the Martial
Art..." Rui's eyes narrowed. "Is it a sensory technique?"
"Quite likely." Kyrie nodded.
If that was the case, then it could perhaps explain his remarkable Martial Art.
('But what is he sensing if that is the case?') Rui wondered. ('And how is he
sensing it in the first place?')
Rui paid a lot of attention to his movements, trying to understand what

exactly was happening.
Suddenly, a strange event occurred. Byron actually skidded just a bit under a
particularly slippery part of the arena when setting up a kick, disbalancing
him as he launched the kick. Normally, this was a blunder and would be
exploited by an experienced Martial Artist.
Yet, not only did it not fail, the kick mysteriously landed straight on Kaerts'
face.
POW
Rui raised an eyebrow at that sight in surprise, he would have been able to
dodge that thanks to the center of gravity evaluation system of the VOID
algorithm, yet for some reason, it completely bypassed Kaerts' sensory.
It very well could have been a fluke, of course.
('Or perhaps...') Rui narrowed his eyes as an idea formed in his head.
Byron managed to land in a strike by fluke, but it worked in his favour. All
he had needed was one element to give him an opening. The fluke strike had
landed square on Kaerts' nose causing pain and disorientation.
POW POW POW
He landed three speedy close-range finger jabs that had very little power in
them. He had sacrificed weight and momentum for speed, allowing him to
cleanly land them.
Yet despite being weak jabs, they strangely affected Kaerts negatively.
THUD
He collapsed to one knee all of a sudden, seemingly unvoluntarily.
BAM!
Byron managed to land a powerful kick to the face this time.
Kaerts managed to get back up, retreating.
Rui had watched the scene carefully with eagle eyes.
('Temporary partial Paralysis.') Rui thought with incredulity. With just a

single tap, he could temporarily hinder or incapacitate a body part. It was an
almost magical ability. The average Martial Apprentice stood no chance of
defeating that ability. Byron would go very far in the prelimianry contest of
the Hajin branch.
In a way Kaerts was extremely compatible against him. However, that did not
mean that Byron was necessarily weak.
Against the right opponents, he would dominate incredibly hard. For

example, Rui suspected that Nel would likely be helpless against Byron. The
reason for that being that Nel relied on his durability toughness too much.
Byron would paralyze him quickly and just eternally punish him.
However, his opponent was not Nel, it was Kaerts. He had managed to gain a
temporary advantage, but the compatibility was not good.
BANG!
Kaerts landed a powerful blow as he sneaked past Byron's finger pokes
smoothly.
He had managed to regain his bearing and began avoiding Byron properly yet
again.
Once he began going all out, there was too much of a gap.
POW!
A powerful blow to the jaw rattled Byron's brain, knocking him out.
THUD
"Aaaaand we have a winner folks! Representative Kaerts Omegde has earned

his spot in the second round after a solid victory against Representative
Byron Harth!"
Chapter 259 Fiona
"Good fight." Rui nodded. They were both strong, however, Kaerts was a cut
better. That along with compatibility advantage gave him very low chances of
losing against someone like Byron.
Although they were all chosen as representatives of their respective branches

of the Academies, that did not mean they were all on the same level.
The next match may even serve as proof of that.
"What an incredible first round we've had folks. Now we have only one more
fight left! On one hand we have Representative Derk Sermont!"
Derk walked in, expressionless. Yet Rui could almost feel the fear from him.
"And on the other hand, we have Representative Fiona Roschem representing

the Vargard branch! Renowned as the Chosen Incarnate in the Martial
Community. She is the representative with the highest gambling odds!"
The crowd erupted in cheers louder than any other Representative had
received. This was to be expected, since they were in the town of Vargard,
the branch that she was representing.
However, Rui noticed something odd.
('He didn't mention the name of her Martial Art...') Rui's eyes widened. Could
it be that she hadn't even named her Martial Art yet? As strong as she was,
her Martial Art did not possess enough individuality and originality?
This came as a shock to Rui. He had completely suspected her to be a Squire

candidate. But it turned out he was wrong.
(How stra-!') He froze as Fiona entered.
She didn't make any gestures out of the ordinary. She didn't put on any airs.
She was expressionless.
Yet the sense of danger that her focus invoked in all those within her Realm
was profound.
In that moment, Rui instinctively felt certain of one thing.
She was the strongest Martial Apprentice he had ever met.
She was stronger than his old Apprentice instructors. Stronger than his
friends. Stronger than the golden-haired bandit. Even stronger than the
masked bandit who saved the former from eight Martial Apprentices.
A strange tension took over the arena.
Things were tense before, but Rui felt a faint whiff of fear had tainted the
atmosphere.
Derk Sermont adopted a grappling stance as a bead of sweat trickled down

his face. Yet he held a resolute expresion nonetheless.
Fiona didn't move.
The referee raised an eyebrow, before commencing the match.
"Begin!"
Rui watched with hawk eyes.
Yet, he couldn't believe what had unfolded.
BANG!
RUMBLE
She pushed the ground under her backwards with such ferocity that faint
tremors travelled across the entire arena.
In an instant, she had arrived in front of Derk.
BOOM!
A powerful impact crumpled into his gut, as he spat out blood. The impact
launched flying across the entire arena.
BANG!
He finally stopped as he collided against the wall.
THUD
...
"W-Winner; Representative Fiona Roschem!" The referee declared.
For a moment, no one moved.
"Aaaaand we have a winner folks! Representative Fiona Roschem soundly

moves onto the second round with a dominant victory against Representative
Derk Sermont!"
Rui jerked as he finally unfroze.
"Haha..." he laughed, before sighing.
"Well..." Squire Dylon scratched his head. "You might as well resign."
Both Rui and Squire Kyrie turned to him, glaring at him.
"You're supposed to be on my side." Rui shook his head.
"Hey, I am on your side." Squire Dylon smirked. "I'm saving you a lot of
time, energy and dignity. Only a true friend would do that."
Rui ignored him. "This is going to be rough." he glanced at the other

Representatives, they were mostly expressionless, but he realized that they
were all thinking the same thing.
"She's reached the very pinnacle that Martial Apprentices can possibly reach,
generally." Squire Kyrie said. "She would even be able to survive a brief
period of time against weak Martial Squires, frankly."
Rui's eyes widened at those words.
"The gap between Martial Realms isn't exponential." Squire Kyrie explained,
noticing his reaction. "The strongest of Martial Apprentices born with
monstrous talent after enough time and resources, like her, are not too
inferior to the weakest of Martial Squires who just barely managed to survive
the breakthrough and haven't fully adapted to the power yet."
Her words were casual, but the information she revealed was not.
First, she had inadvertently revealed that the breakthrough process to Martial
Squire was life-threatening. This added one more piece of the puzzle to the
mystery that was the breakthrough process to the Martial Squire Realm.
Secondly, he learnt that Realms were closer to each other than he suspected.
"Is she really the peak of the Martial Apprentice Realm?" Rui asked.
Squire Kyrie thought about the question for a moment. "Strictly speaking,
no."
Rui tilted his head, confused.
"Headmaster Aronian informed me you have been informed of the two

conditions needed to become a Squire candidate, so I suppose I can reveal
some information to you." She paused, before continuing. "The Realms of
Martial Artists are common checkpoints along all Martial Paths, in a way.
They do not directly correlate with combat prowess, not directly anyway.
They correlate to how much progress you've made in the direction of your
ideal perfect Martial Art at the end of the journey of the Martial Path."
That was incredibly vague, especially that last part. But he didn't complain,
he had already received a lot of information.
"So that means theoretically there isn't a defined known limit on the power of
Martial Artists of a certain Realm?" Ru asked.
Squire Kyrie nodded. "Each generation of Martial Artists is stronger than the
previous Martial Artists in general, that should tell you there isn't defined
power scales and limits purely theoretically."
Rui's thoughts turned back to Fiona. This meant that she wasn't the very limit
a Martial Apprentice could achieve. Perhaps someone even more talented
would be stronger. She would probably surpass herself as she got older.
But even if she wasn't at the peak, it didn't matter. She was absurdly strong,
and Rui would have to defeat her to win.
Chapter 260 Analysis
The first round had come to an end. The matchups of the next round were
automatically decided.
The first match of the second round was Ian Nepomniachtchi versus Freund
Gamor.
The second match was Servil Bisha versus Rui Quarrier.
The third match was Ferlicia Ernand vs Mia Marnt.
And the final match of the round was Kaerts Omegde vs Fiona Roschem.
The winners of the round would go onto the semi-finals of the tournament.
"Aaaand with that we have come to an end to the first round ladies and
gentlemen!" The host announced. "It was a spectacular round with amazing
fights featuring the best of the youngest generation of Martial Artists! The
next round will be commenced tomorrow at the same time, be sure not to
miss it!"
Soon all the representatives dispersed from the viewing balcony back to their
luxurious living quarters. Squire Kyrie and Dylon followed Rui back to his,
they intended to have a thorough discussion of what had happened, and what
was to happen.
"That was one hell of a first round." Rui sighed as he crashed into his bed.
"My worldview of Martial Art widened more in the span of those several
hours than it has in many months now."
Squire Kyrie smiled at those words. "And yet there is much more, as you'll
slowly come to learn."
Rui smiled wordlessly at those words. "Now then, back to important matters.
My next opponent is representative Servil Bisha."
"Hmm..." Squire Dylon hummed. "She's strong alright. You'll have to watch
out for hee offense, her mastery over vibration-based permeation of impact is
truly remarkable. It increases the lethality of her attacks to a very high level.
If you take too many of those, you'll be coughing out your organs in no time."
Dylon told him. Rui took his words quite seriously, as the head Squire
instructor of the offense department, his words on offensive techniques could
effectively be treated as fact.
"Still." Dylon continued. "It's not that there aren't caveats to her fighting
style."
Rui nodded in agreement. "The fact that the actual kinetic energy of her
strikes isn't the reason they're lethal means they're easier to redirect."
Powerful attacks contained too much momentum and energy to be redirected

easily. It would require a significant amount of power or extraordinary skill
to redirect attacks like that.
But for Servil, this wasn't true. Her attacks did not contain an incredible
amount of energy, the reason they were lethal despite that had to do with the
fact that she permeated that energy deeper into the body.
Thus, her offense was not resistant towards redirective defensive measures.
"Indeed, you figured that out already huh?" Squire Dylon smiled helplessly.
"Kind of makes our presence here a little pointless, no? Kyrie, you want to
spend the night in my room?"
Squire Kyrie glared at him, though his words held a kernel of truth. The
reason representatives were accompanied with two Squire instructors was
because they would better allow the representative to fight at their best.
Yet Rui frankly did not need such aid. His knowledge, intellect in
combination with his experience with the VOID algorithm made it so that he
was more than capable of fighting optimally.
This condition frankly hurt him more than it helped him because his
advantage against the other representatives were diminished due to this
policy.
Rui had already thought about Servil a lot. Soon his thoughts strayed to the
other representatives. He tried predicting and modelling their fights based on
the data he had gathered from the fights of the first round.
('Ian is likely to win against Freund.') Rui surmised quickly.
Freund was a fearsome Martial Artist without a doubt. Frankly, Rui did not
want to be on the receiving end of his poison at all if he could avoid it.
Yet Ian was just too much. His breathing techniques were incredibly
powerful, allowing him have extremely high values in different parameters
depending on what he wanted. Although he couldn't have it all
simultaneously, the fact that he could switch back and forth made it quite
difficult to deal with him. It made inherently tricky and confounding.
The third round's outcome was the most interesting to him.
Ferlicia Ernand vs Mia Marnt.
He wasn't sure which one of them would win. Ferlicia was a powerful heat-
oriented fighter while Mia was centered versus sound. Part of his difficulty in
modelling this fight came from the fact that his experience and understanding
of heat and sound-based techniques were quite limited compared to more
conventional techniques.
And when he had to try and extrapolate a fight between Martial Art centered
around techniques he had never seen anything even remotely like prior, he
was definitely confident of being super accurate as a result.
Still, he could make more basic inferences.
Being a close-range fighter primarily, Ferlicia would likely to everything in

her power to close the distance, while Mia would do her best that never
happened. After all, Mia was at her strongest at a distance.
Rui simply lacked the data to deduce a probability of victory for either side
beyond that point. All he could say is if they succeeded with getting in their
desired ranges and keeping it that way then they had a pretty solid chance of
victory.
He imagined that their Martial Squire instructors were with them at this very
moment telling them basically the exact same thing.
As for the final match, that was the fight he was most certain of. As
impressive of Kaerts was, his odds of winning against Fiona were simply too
low. He suspected Kaerts would liekly be able to hold on for long since his
evasiveness was quite impressive, but asides from that, there likely wasn't
much he could do. Fiona truly lived up to everything he heard. If her other
attributes were even comparably powerful to the speed and power she had
demonstrated, then kaerts could take pride even if he lasted several minutes.
He put the issue aside as he took some rest.

Chapter 261 First Match
Time passed quickly. Frankly, there wasn't much for him to do at his
quarters. He generally immersed himself in meditation as he thought about
his upcoming fight with Servil Bisha, constructing an adapted fighting style
for him.
So far, he had only come with a few elements that the adapted style needed to
have in order to be suited to fighting Servil Bisha.
Evasiveness and anti-striking counter-offensive were at the core of the style.

As long as Rui could negate the lethality that came from the permeation of
the impact due to the vibrations, he stood a pretty good chance of negating
the threat.
Another means by which he could reduce the formidability of Servil's Martial

Art was through grappling. Ground grappling was also another by which he
could negate Servil's permeation since Servil needed to inflict impacts to
permeate them. He would not be able to land even a handful, if at all any
strikes in super-close-range grappling.
Establishing these two elements in his adapted Martial Art was the first step.
Now he only needed to finetune it to suit Servil's Martial Art's traits.
This was where he had an advantage compared to the other representatives.

They're combat prowess would not change at all between rounds, but he
would become more formidable with each round with the greater amount of
data and time he had to thoroughly create the most suited Martial Art for
taking each of them down.
This was normally something he would have to do mid-fight, but he would

achieve better results if he had more time to flesh it out.
Soon, the day passed. He hadn't left his quarters for anything asides from his
meals, occasionally running into the other representatives, only half of the
original sixteen were present. Yet Fiona was the only one who bothered
interacting with him. She remained as eccentric as she was the day prior,
asking him all kinds of random questions as she satisfied her curiosity.
"How are you so strong?"
"What's your favourite colour?"
"Did you dye your hair black?"
Rui simply answered those questions as shortly as he could.
Soon, a day had passed and it was time for round two. Rui went through the
same procedures until he found himself in the contest viewing balcony yet
again.
"Welcome back to the Martial Contest ladies and gentlemen! We will soon be
commencing the highly-awaited second round of the contest! Today's
matchups are..."
His voice faded into the background as Rui closed his eyes, zoning out. Prior
to the start of the Martial Contest, he always thought the festive nature of the
contest was a good thing, but now he couldn't help but disagree with his
initial notions.
Thankfully, the nonsense ended quickly and the first match was announced.
"In the first match of the second round, we have Ian Nepomniachtchi and his
Breathing Mountain Style of the Farund branch facing off against
Representative Freund Gamor and his Dreamy Poison Style of the Villimaine
branch. The Breathing Goliath faces off against the Toxinmonger!"
The two contestants entered the arena, their powerful minds weighed on the
onlookers as tension bwas bred in the atmosphere.
"Take you stances." The referee instructed.

Ian took a neutral stance while Freund's stance leaned more towards offense
and speed.
One thing Rui found curious was that Freund took down his mouth mask this
fight. He wondered if tehre was any significance to that.
"Grown stronger, have you?" Ian asked coldly. "Unfortunately, it's not going
to be good enough. This fight is going to end the same as last time."
"Hmph." Freund snorted. "You talk too much. I'll show you how things have
changed since last time!"
There appeared to be a deeper history between them, though it wasn't entirely

clear.
"Begin!" The referee commenced the fight.
WHOOSH
Freund blitzed out at Ian with his hand reached out. His intentions were clear.
His entire skin was poisonous, but he needed to make contact to apply it
against his opponents. He had other kinds of poison too, but they all generally
had the same condition.
WHOOSH
Ian avoided Freund cleanly. The sheer speed at which he dodged told Rui that
he was using Lightning Breathing to amplify speed. Rui paid close attention
to his breathing. He had to face Ian in the next round if he won his match in
this round, he hoped to gather as much as information as he possibly could.
Ian was continuously avoiding Freund's attacks. To the untrained eye, it

merely seemed like he was being passive as he avoided. But Rui actually
approved of his decision. With Freund's poison being as potent as it was, it
was best not to touch him unless the gains outweighed the losses. If his
poison was like Avi's then even clothing wouldn't be too effective as a
defense.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Ian dodged a strike as landed a fearsome kick on Freund's neck, staggering

him in pain. It was only strikes to the vitals like this one that were worth
coming into physical contact with Freund for. Only with attacks that did
meaningful damage could Ian always ensure that he was inflicting more
damage on Freund than the latter was on Ian with his poisoned skin.
In this way, Ian could take his time and slowly weather Freund down for a
guaranteed win.
Or so he, and even Rui, thought.
Ian's vision blurred just for the tiniest moment. His eyebrows knitted in
confusion.
('Is his poison affecting me already?') Ian wondered incredulously. ('But that
makes no sense! His poison wasn't this strong and quick last round. There is
no way he upgraded it within twenty-four hours.
He staggered mildly as he realized that even his sense of balance was very
slowly starting to get affected.
Rui didn't miss that, realizing what had happened. He too was surprised.
('It has to be another poison, but how is Freund applying it?') Rui wondered
as he closely watched their interactions.
There was very minimal contact, and in fact zero contact since Ian discovered
he was being affected. So what exactly was happening?
Chapter 262 Outcome
And that's when Rui noticed something odd.
Freund was continuously breathing with his mouth open. Not just a little
open, he looked like he was trying to pump out air as much as possible. If he
was exhausted, Rui would not have minded, but he shouldn't have been that
exhausted that quickly. Furthermore, there weren't any other signs of
exhaustion that accompanied heavy breathing.
Rui's eyes widened as he realized what was happening.
('He's exhaling poison!') He mused with absolute incredulity.
Rui couldn't even begin to fathom the kind of body conditioning Freund
Gamor had put himself through to obtain that kind of technique. It also
explained why he removed his mouth mask. Everything fit.
Furthermore, this technique was especially effective against Ian. Ian was
abusing breathing techniques the entire fight, taking in an impossible amount
of air every second.
A technique that poisoned the very air was a technique that was extremely
well-suited to taking Ian down!
Down there, Ian had immediately shifted tactics when he realized that he was
being poisoned even though he avoided Freund like the plague.
If that was the case, then he simply had no choice.
He lashed out at Freund with Lightning Breathing, and began an onslaught

with Fire Breathing. If he could not avoid or even minimize the rate at which
he was being poisoned, then there was only one thing left to do.
To ensure that rate at which Freund was being damaged was even higher.
He peppered Freund with an enormous amount of power! Only Fae and Fiona
could match his offensive prowess.
Freund fought back valiantly, yet he was enduring damage at an astronomical

rate. Wounds appeared on his body every second. After just fifteen seconds,
he was already bleeding from multiple places, and half his body had been
bruised badly.
Yet he fought.
As long as he could come maximize the amount of poison that entered Ian's
system, he had a realistic chance of victory.
BAM!
A swift kick crashed against his jaw, rattling his brain.
THUD
He fell to the ground, unmoving.
Several moments passed as the referee check up on him.
"Winner; Representative Ian Nepomniachtchi!" The referee declared.
"Aaaand we have a winner folks! Representative Ian Nepomniachtchi

managed to snatch victory from the jaws of loss! He will be moving onto the
third round of the Martial Contest!" The commentator announced
Immediately after, Ian fell to one knee as he was unable to maintain his
balance very well for any longer. His vision was blurring too much to. He
knew more than anyone how incredibly close that fight was.
Rui, on the other hand, was very impressed.
Freund was quite strong. Furthermore, he had a solid compatibility advantage

against Ian too. Yet, Ian managed to win despite that.
He was strong, there was no doubt about that.
"Rui." Squire Kyrie called to him. "It's time."
"Mmm." Rui nodded. He turned around, heading towards the exit. Servil
Bisha had done the same, taking a different route that would lead to the
entrance on the other side of the arena.
Rui was already prepared.
He quickly gathered his concentration, honing his mind.
His attention gathered.
Bit by bit.
Drop by drop.
He had been finding it easier to enter states of absolute concentration

recently. His command over his own mind had been growing rather well.
"Aaaand for the next match we have representative Servil Bisha, the
Flickering Ghoul, and her Flickering Core style representing the Gragol
branch! On the other hand, we have representative Rui Quarrier and his
Flowing Void style representing the Hajin branch!"
The two of them entered the arena, stopping at a distance from each other.
The atmosphere tightened as the two fighters stared at each other without
breaking eye-contact.
Servil brought both her fists in front of her, with her center of gravity leaning
forward and her legs closed and centered. It was a stance that focused on
offense and mobility.
Rui immediately understood her intentions.

They were within his predictions.
He centered his legs, crouching while bring his open-handed palms to his
chest.
A stance that had a strong grappling affinity to it. But it also had a lot of
mobility.
"Begin!" The referee instructed.
WHOOSH
Servil shot straight at Rui, launching a fist. But Rui had simply cleanly
avoided it. At his current level, his reaction and reflexes were extremely
quick. His reincarnated-enhanced mind, the depth of his Martial Path, the
VOID algorithm and the Primordial Instinct technique ensured his reflexes
were far above what most Martial Apprentices could possibly have.
Nel was his equal because he had superhuman reflexes even before he broke
through, while only Kane was his superior because of his affinity for speed,
as well as the reaction speed-oriented techniques.
Landing a strike when he was going his best to avoid it, was a difficult task as
Servil was coming to learn.
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
Rui simply avoided the initial flurry of blows. He wanted to win, but he also
wanted to hold back his trump cards. It wasn't a pleasant feeling to try and
balance between the two.
Suddenly Servil paused, she was getting nowhere, she realized. Rui was as
slippery as an eel. The best she was able to was land some imprecise angled
strikes, that too only if she significantly sacrificed accumulating power for
quickness. She wouldn't be able to win this way.
Her stance changed as she stomped one foot in front of her.
RUMBLE
Rui's eyes widened as the entire arena started vibrating sharply. He had to
focus just to maintain his balance.
Servil short forward, maintaining the vibrations with every step.
Rui understood her plan. It was clear was extremely accustomed to vibrating
surfaces, most likely thanks to extended training. She was using the fact that
her opponent was not comfortable under such circumstances to increase their
vulnerability.
Rui felt a sharp sense of danger as Servil rushed towards him. He needed to
be extremely careful with how he dealt with this.
Chapter 263 Clashes
WHOOSH
Rui avoided the first strike, barely.
BAM!
The second strike, however, crashed into his guard. It was only then that Rui
understood the threat that Servil Bisha posed.
The impact freely permeated past his guard, through the skin and flesh of his
abdomen. It penetrated all the way to his diaphragm, stunning the muscle and
stunting his breathing a bit.
It was almost like his defenses did not matter at all. Rui was shocked, he had
never experienced an attack like this.
Even though his raw power was not quite remarkable, the sense of threat his
offense was no different from what Rui felt against Nel. If Rui did not have
Inner Divergence that dispersed impacts across the entirety of his body
uniformly, he would have suffered critical damage. He might have even
gotten knocked out if his diaphragm suffered too much.
He could not afford to take many of those attacks. If anything, he felt a lot of
respect for Arjun Erigaisi, who withstood countless such blows for a long
time in the first round.
Rui was only able to avoid a portion of the blows, the remaining struck him,
inflicting damage even though he did his very best with Elastic Shift, Acute
Edge and Inner Divergence.
He was waiting.
Waiting for the right moment.
Servil threw a weight blow at Rui's face, hoping to knock him out.
('Now!') Rui rolled with the strike, as he fell backwards.
CLASP
His four limbs wrapped around Servil's arm, tightly coiling around it.
Before she could even mount an attack;
CRACK
"Aargh!" She grimaced collapsing to the ground as Rui dislocated her elbow
cleanly, bending it at an unnatural angle.
But he wasn't done.
He slowly maneuvered to her back, lashing out at her neck the right timing.
With his right arm wrapped tightly around it and his left hand on the back of
her head pushing her into the chokehold. There wasn't much she could do.
She struggled as she used her vibration permeation as she attacked with
blows over and over. But soon her vision blurred as she struggled to breathe.
A proper chokehold severely restricted or completely blocked blood blow to

the brain. She had several seconds before she lost consciousness.
Rui endured all of her attacks as excruciating as some of them were.
"Winner; Representative Rui Quarrier!"
The referee announced after he confirmed Servil had momentarily passed out.
That was enough for Rui to fulfill the win conditions.
He let go of her as got up, struggling. Even in a brief period of time, she had
managed to damage the joints of his lower body with her permeation
technique.
She was strong. But unfortunately for her the VOID algorithm was
remarkably compatible with her Martial Art.
"Aaaand we have a winner folks! Representative Rui Quarrier also secures

his spot in the third round of the Martial Contest after a brutal victory against
representative Servil Bisha!"
The crowd cheered loudly at those words amidst the applause.
On his way back, he pondered about his fight.
Servil was strong, but he had pronounced strengths and pronounced

weaknesses. That made him very incompatible against someone like Rui.
Someone who was very good at negating pronounced strength and exploiting
pronounced weakness.
His next opponent was not going to be that simple, however. Ian
Nepomniactchi was extremely strong, and he hadn't probably even shown all
his cards yet.
That made Rui wary of him since he did not know what else Ian had.
However, even if he had somehow revealed everything he could do, he was
still an incredibly strong menace.
Rui shook his head, dismissing the matter. He had enough time to consider
the matter later.
He returned the viewing balcony.
"Well done." Squire Kyrie congratulated.
"You nailed that quite well." Dylon threw a thumbs up. "No doubt thanks to
my brilliant guidance, of course."
Rui ignored his remark as he focused on the arena. The next match was just
about to be commenced. The outcome of this match was most interesting to
him.
"Moving onto the next fight. We have representative Ferlicia Ernand of the
Frtizer branch and her Blazing Fury Style. On the hand we have
representative Mia Marnt and her Echo Blast Style representing the Fellen
branch!"
The two women stepped into the arena, walking in and facing each other.
They were incredibly determined and it reflected, not just on their face but in
the heavy aura they exerted on the atmosphere.
Ferlicia reverted to her offensive grappling stance while Mia also reverted to
her odd stance that focused on facilitating her sound attacks.
WHOOSH
Ferlicia dashed towards Mia as her skin reddened with heat.
Mia immediately cupped around her mouth and roared as invisible sound
bullets as she leapt back trying to maintain distance.
They both were already aware of the fighting style of their opponent, and
were also aware of the win conditions to the fight, one way or another.
If Ferlicia managed to close the gap and get a hold of Mia, it was over. If Mia
managed to keep Ferlicia at a distance, then she would be able to win the
fight.
Ferlicia's toughness wasn't great. It wasn't bad, of course. But most of her
defense came from the fact that nobody could touch her. However, Mia didn't
need to touch her in order to damage her. She only needed to pepper her with
sound bullets from a distance.
They both had little to no defenses against other. This battle had become a
race. Ferlicia needed to close the gap and get a hold of Mia before she
sustained enough damage from Mia's offenses, while Mia had to avoid ever
getting into contact with Ferlicia. As a grappler she would undoubtedly get a
hold of her and roast her alive, literally, if that ever happened.
Rui was quite curious about seeing how the two of them would go about this,
it would also likely force them to use everything they had. Which was good
for him.
Chapter 264 The Fourth Outcome
WHOOSH
Ferlicia leaped away as Mia launched a sound bullet in her direction. But the
attack forced her put some distance between her and Mia, much to her
chagrin.
She summersaulted away as sound bullets struck the ground where she was
just a moment prior. The battle had gotten stuck in a deadlock, having been
prolonged for some time by then.
POW!
Ferlicia grimaced as she got hit by a sound bullet. But it happened, and
sooner than Rui had predicted. Ana was able to dodge Mia's attacks for as
long as she did because she had three dimensions worth of maneuvering and
was not restricted to terrain, but Ferlicia did not have that advantage.
She had managed to last a while because she was quick herself, as a
consequence of developing a style meant to outmaneuver her opponents who
try to maintain distance from her. But in the end it wasn't nearly good
enough.
Mia's eyes narrowed as she launched several more sound bullets in her
direction.
It should have been game over, yet suddenly;
WHOOSH!
A wall of flames erupted from her mouth, intercepting the bullets. Even
though flames weren't solid and couldn't impede the path of the sound bullets,
somehow the sound projectiles were largely dispelled by her flames.
Rui watched the sight with great intrigue. Her flames had raised the
temperature of the air as a medium, disrupting the sound wave largely. He
hadn't been sure whether Ferlicia's flames would be capable of feat prior, but
it seemed like her flames were indeed potent enough. Even if sound was
particularly vulnerable to disruptions of its medium, he was quite impressed
by her feat.
She rushed in having finally found a way to break through, and was quite
close.
She released another wall of flames when Mia tried to spam more sound
bullets at her in attempt to prevent Ferlicia from enclosing in.
Yet it was in vain, Ferlicia emerged from her flames after they dispersed the
sound bullets. She bullrushed towards Mia, charging for a takedown.
To her surprise, Mia didn't try to evade or escape, she instead rushed in
herself throwing a haymaker at Ferlicia, seemingly hoping knock her out.
WHOOSH
Ferlicia calmly shifted her head, avoiding the blow. Just as she reached her;
BANG!
A loud sound echoed through the colosseum, hurting everyone's ears.
Down at the arena, Ferlicia was frozen, inches away from Mia.
Mia's right hand was besides Ferlicia's ear. Her fingers in a snapping position.
THUD
Ferlicia fell to the ground as right ear began bleeding.
Rui's eyes widened, having witnessed exactly what happened.

After Ferlicia evaded the strike, Mia unballed her fists and snapped her finger
right next to Ferlicia's ear. Rui guessed she must have used a technique
generate an extraordinary amount of sound with a snap.
The sound burst Ferlicia's eardrum and had also subsequently caused blunt
force trauma, knocking her out.
THUD
Mia fell to her knees as her arms cupped her ears.
('It seems it's a technique she's not entirely immune to, either.') He noted as
he saw blood dripping from her ears. Regardless, it won her the match, and
the fact that she would be healed fully was more than enough justification for
her choice.
It was a strategy he approved of. He would need to be very careful fighting

her, she had proven herself to be clever.
"Aaaand we have a winner folks!" The commentator announced after the

referee declared Mia the winner. "Representative Mia Marnt has earned her
spot in the third round after a smashing victory against Representative
Ferlicia Ernand!"
Rui had already updated her Mia's profile with the information he had
obtained from this fight. He would create an adapted style later when he had
more time. Besides, he wasn't sure he would even fight her even if he won his
next match. She still had to fight the winner of the next match.
('That's not going to be easy to do.') Rui mused.
"Aaaand for the next match we representative Kaerts Omegde and his Soul
Reader Style versus representative Fiona Roschem!"
Rui raised an eyebrow at that announcement, once more reminded that

Fiona's Martial Art didn't even possess enough individuality to have a name.
Which he still found incredibly surprising.

Kaerts took a neutral stance, while Fiona didn't bother taking a stance at all,
once again. Yet Rui could feel that she wasn't putting on airs, nor was she
being condescending.
WHOOSH
Fiona dashed at Kaerts with fearsome speed, launching an incredibly

powerful attack. Yet the fight didn't go as smoothly as it did last time.
Kaerts dodged her blow cleanly, much to everyone's surprise.
Not to Rui's, of course. He had already identified Kaerts' predictive prowess

from the very start. It was quite compatible against Fiona's speed.
He even launched a speedy jab, but she calmly evaded the attack and began
her own offense.
Kaerts responded with a desperate combination of evasion and defense. He

used his insight to react to her attacks as early as possible, beginning the
evasion maneuver even as she began her movements to get out of the
trajectory of her attacks. But his physical ability was lacking. It seems his
incredible predictive prowess that even Rui found respectable had carried him
thus far.
The match did not end immediately, but it did not prolong for too long either.
BANG!
A powerful blow crashed into his solar plexus. The sheer impact sent him
fling even as he coughed out blood.
He crashed into the arena walls, before collapsing to the ground,

unconscious.
Rui shook his head, sighing. The sheer amount of force she was outputting
could frankly give even Fae a good run for her money. Rui had understood
what Kane and Hever had said back then about Fae maybe not being the
strongest striker in their generation. He had ran into not just Fiona, but also
Ian, who was a contender for that position.
Chapter 265 Third Round
"Winner; representative Fiona Roschem!"
"And there you have it folks! Representative Fion Roschem makes it to the
third round as well! This brings us to an end to the second round. Be sure to
be here at the Martial Colosseum same time tomorrow to catch it in time!"
The crowd cheered loudly in response.
Rui sighed as he left the viewing balcony along with squires Kyrie and
Dylon, deep in thought.
The following matches of the third round were;
Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Rui Quarrier.
Mia Marnt vs Fiona Roschem.
The winners of those would go onto fight each other in the finals.
"Freshen up a bit." Squire Kyrie told him before parting ways. "We'll meet in
an hour."
Rui nodded as he headed his own way.
He had a lot to think about.
His next opponent was Ian Nepomniachtchi. He definitely had a lot to think
about.
He had already gathered two round worth of data on Ian. Not idea, but not
bad, and definitely better than nothing.
Yet he couldn't help but feel a smirk come on his face at the prospect of
fighting him. Ian was incredibly strong, Rui would probably test his limits
with his ability and Martial Art in that fight.
He immediately fixed himself a tub bath, soaking in, relaxing as the warmth
permeated his ability.
He skimmed through all the information he had on Ian. A breathing technique

specialist that generally fought by amplifying his parameters by using
specific breathing techniques.
There were generally two traits that made him quite a formidable opponent.
The first was that the degree to which he could amplify certain parameters by
was incredibly high, matching and even surpassing dedicated Martial Artists
to those parameters and fields.
The second was the fact that his parameters kept changing, making it
incredibly tricky to fight him, far more so than any of the other contestants.
One moment he was a speedster, the next moment he could be an offensive
striker, the next moment he could be a defensive fighter.
In a way, he countered Rui extremely hard in a way. The fact that he was
ever-changing meant that Rui couldn't just create a single adapted fighting
style, he needed to create multiple adapted fighting styles. Furthermore, he
needed a way to account for the rapid shifts and changes in Ian's parameters.
He sighed. If he was able to use the higher-end pattern recognition systems of

the complete VOID algorithm, it wouldn't be a problem, but he couldn't. It
was too difficult. He would need to analyze and memorize immense amounts
of data in the middle of the fight and process them through the VOID
algorithm.
This was also the main reason the VOID algorithm was not a viable fighting
style in his previous life. It was simply too data-intensive in its entirety. That
problem had not yet been solved in this life either, he had been able to
mitigate the problem to a certain degree with his powerful mind, but that was
not good enough by itself.
He needed to find a way to overcome this barrier, otherwise he wouldn't be
able to travel his Martial path for too long.
He shook his head, putting asides such nebulous thoughts. They weren't
relevant to the issue at hand.
Another thing he wasn't sure about was whether he had the leeway to hold
back. So far, he had just barely managed to hold back Phantom Step, Blink
and the Stinger.
Rui was absolutely certain he would need the Phantom Step to fight Ian, bare
minimum. The worst-case scenario was that he would end up using all his
trump cards and still end up losing. If he could do it, he would likely to keep
the Blink plus Stinger combo hidden until he fought Fiona.
Time passed, eventually he met up with his instructors.
"Just do you best and hope for the best." Squire Dylon told him.
"You need to be wary of his everchanging flexibility." Squire Kyrie had told
him. "In a way, his fighting style is not too dissimilar to yours."
Rui nodded at those words. He agreed. Ian was also able to change to fight
his opponent. Of course, he did this in a different way than Rui did, only time
would tell who did it better.
Soon the day passed and the third round was ready to commence.
"Welcome to the third round, ladies and gentlemen!" The commentator

welcomed. "In the first match of the third round, we have representative Rui
Quarrier and his Flowing Void Style representing the Hajin branch facing off
against representative Ian Nepomniachtchi and his Breathing Mountain Style
representing the Farund branch!"
The crowd cheered loudly, hyped for this anticipated matchup.
Rui and Ian entered the arena simultaneously as they walked up towards each
other, never breaking eye contact.
"The promised time has come." Ian coldly stated. "I'll show you your place."
Rui stared at him wordlessly. He didn't care to engage in a juvenile exchange

of insults.
Instead, he closed his eyes, emptying his thoughts.
There was nothing.
Soon, he focused every ounce of attention. Gathering every iota of

concentration he could get his hands on.
The escalating focus could be felt. The very weight of his mind pushed down
on all onlookers.
"Take your stances." the referee instructed.
Ian took a neutral stance, which Rui chose to mirror.
Ian immediately crossed the distance in an instant, throwing a mighty blow at

Rui.
WHOOSH
The attack crashed into Rui, yet it was only after the image of Rui dispersed
had he realized it was a feint.
Rui had immediately employed Phantom Step right off the bat. Ian could
effectively move nearly as fast as Kane dide while throwing blows only Fae
could overwhelm. He was not arrogant to enough to hold back that many
techniques.
POW POW POW
Rui threw a powerful combo of strikes, yet they merely banged on Ian's
guard.
('Earth Breathing.') Rui mused. He had employed his defensive breathing
technique.
Chapter 266 Eventually
Ian's defensive breathing technique was incredibly strong by itself. Rui was
sure that it was stronger than all three of his defensive techniques combined.
POW!
An incredibly swift blow slammed into Rui's guard. Rui gritted his teeth as he
used Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute Edge to mitigate as much of
the impact as he could.
WHOOSH
Rui cleanly dodged the next attack with a well-timed feint, throwing a swift
lower kick.
POW!
Ian merely threw an arrogant look at him. As if trying to say the blow didn't
hurt him at all. The worst part was that it was probably true.
('Okay, let's try something else.')
Rui opened up some space between them, leaping back. Yet Ian immediately
pursued, shifting to Lightning Breathing to increase his speed.
Yet rather than trying to retreat faster, Rui immediately paused and rushed
back at Ian.
BAM!
A powerful impact crashed into Ian as Rui threw his most powerful blow; a
Flowing Canon boosted with Outer Convergence, Vital Pressure, Parallel
Walk and Balanced Direction. The sheer momentum and power of this attack
was the highest of all of his attacks.
Not even Ian could shrug it off. He turtled behind his guard, even skidding
back a meter from the impact.
It looked great, but Rui knew that the attack wasn't truly meaningful. Sure, it
probably hurt and bruised him a bit, but in the long run that meant nothing.
He needed to defeat Ian, not just hurt him.
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
Rui evaded several strikes from Ian. His evasiveness was quite high, and he
was confident of evading most of Ian's strikes.
Problem was that he was finding it really hard to develop a thorough adapted
style. It was without a doubt the most difficult fighting style that Rui had ever
had to try and adapt to. The sheer complexity of the issue at hand made it
even worse than fighting all-rounders.
Rui had to cleanly navigate the issue with an incredible amount of

thoroughness and care.
WHOOSH
POW POW POW!
Rui evaded a strike from him as he threw a flurry of strikes.
He made some observations about Ian based on all the data at hand. Most of
it was centered on how he employed the breathing techniques.
He used the Lightning Breathing any time he wasn't defending or attacking.

Every time he did attack, he coupled it with Fire Breathing when he was
about to launch an attack and completely shifted to Fire Breathing when he
was sure the attack would land.
BAM!
Ian managed to get him with a powerful haymaker. Rui grimaced as he

retreated. Ian's offense was not not something Rui could afford to be hit with
too often. His defense was good, no doubt, but Ian was at t a level where he
could hit above what Rui could consistently take.
Normally Rui dealt with this issue by adapting a complete style suit to taking
Ian down, but he didn't have that here.
POW POW POW!
Ian managed to land a flurry of weighted jabs yet again. He was almost
adapting Rui in his own way. This was the problem with someone with such
an unnatural level of flexibility.
WHOOSH
Rui feinted avoiding a strike as he tried to land a Flowing Canon, but alas.
POW!
Ian intercepted him with Lightning Breathing.
The fight prolonged for a bit, yet the scales only ever tipped in his favour.
BAM!
A powerful kick sent Rui flying away.
('Guess I have no choice.') Rui sighed. He could not really win as things
continued. The need for using atleast another trump card was starting to get
unbearable. He would lose at this rate, without a doubt.
But Rui had to wait, a trump card was most powerful and effective when it
was unknown.
Ian chased after him launching a powerful weight straight punch.
Rui waited as much as he could, ducking only when the punch was incredibly
close. The punch extended closer and closer as Ian drew in closer and close.
Yet before it could hit Rui;
PEW!
Rui's right toe went flying as it burrowed itself in Ian's gut.
Rui had waited until the moment Ian switched from Lightning Breathing to
Fire Breathing to launch a more powerful attack when he saw Rui unmoving
initially.
This was effectively the same way he unleashed the Stinger on Fae. The
difference was that this was even more effective because Ian had already
transitioned from Lightning Breathing to Fire Breathing, meaning this had
occurred after his speed had dropped.
He had extended too much with trying to land that strike on Rui that Rui's toe
had already long exited his perifoveal vision.
Furthermore, he had been not using any Lightning Breathing doing the end of
that strike, focusing purely on Fire Breathing trying to launch a powerful
attack on Rui's face, trying to knock him out.
This was exactly what Rui was aiming for.
Only when Ian was not using his Lightning Breathing could this tactic work,
and so Rui waited for a moment where he had a high probability of not using
Lightning Breathing. He had to time it carefully because otherwise he simply
would not be able to apply the Stinger that effectively.
Ian's Lightning Breathing and Earth Breathing were both quite powerful and
would have foiled this attack after all.
The wound was deep in his abdomen. Rui had aimed for the diaphragm, the
muscle that was the source of his breathing techniques.
"You bastard...!" Ian cursed in pain as he retreated. The diaphragm was quite
deep and thus Rui was not able to mortally wound the muscle, however just
inflicting a wide enough open wound on him was probably good enough to
cripple his breathing techniques partially, if not entirely.
It would all depend on how good Ian's endurance was. In the worst case
scenario, the difference wouldn't be significant enough, and Rui would
effectively need to beat only a slightly weaker Ian who was also now aware
of the Stinger.
He would find out eventually.

Chapter 267 Clashes
BAM!
Rui's eyes flew wide open as Ian struck him with a more powerful blow than
ever before. Rui skidded away as he gazed at Ian with a surprised expression.
Why was he suddenly stronger than before despite the wound?
Ian had a furious expression on his face. "You bastard...!"
He coughed up a little blood.
('He's pushing himself to the absolute limit.') Rui realized. Ian was essentially
pushing himself to his peak at the cost of accelerating the deterioration of his
condition.
WHOOSH
Ian abused Lightning Breathing even as blood splurted out of his wound, to
move faster than he ever had, reaching Rui in an instant.
BOOM!
Rui grimaced as an immensely powerful blow crashed against his guard. His
body shook with the impact as he leapt back. Even the combination of his
three defensive techniques weren't able to mitigate the impact.
Rui's senses heightened as he realized they had entered the final phase of the
battle.
He abandoned all offense and shifted all of his focus on evasion and defense.
Whatever happened, he could not afford to make a mistake! A single mistake
was all Ian needed to turn the tables around for himself.
WHOOSH
Rui carefully evaded a strike with a feint as he immediately activated his

maneuvering techniques to open up distance between them.
However, Ian was relentless.
"RAARGH!" he snarled as he shook the very ground with the sheer force he
was accelerating towards with Rui with.
WHOOSH
Rui ducked sharply as he evaded yet another strike from Ian.
BOOM!
He spun out of the path of a drop kick that cracked the ground Rui was upon
a moment earlier.
The entire colosseum was absorbed into the battle, frozen.
Everyone understood that they were witnessing the decisive part of the battle.
And yet, the clinch came suddenly.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Ian's blow crashed into a feint as Rui sneaked past his guard, launching a
FLowing Canon on his wound.
"ARGH!" Ian snarled in pain as he crouched clasping his wound.
BAM!
A powerful kick landed on his jaw, disorienting him. He ignored his

condition, lashing out a flurry of wild attacks, but his condition had
deteriorated too much, he was barely able to use breathing techniques.
POW!
A simple uppercut to the jaw pushed his blunt force trauma beyond the
threshold.
THUD
Ian collapsed to the ground as he bled out, unmoving.
"Winner; representative Rui Quarrier!" The referee declared.
For a moment, nothing happened.
And then the crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
"And there you have it folks! The winner of this fight is representative Rui
Quarrier! Against all odds he managed to overcome one of the favourites
with a stunning victory! He moves onto the finals of the Martial Contest!"
The commentator cried.
Rui exhaled, as he calmed his beating heart. He threw a deep look at Ian, who
was being treated. He did not respect his character, but he respected his
power, his perseverance and his determination. He never gave up until the
very end, despite his condition.
He left the arena immediately after.
"Nicely done my boy." Squire Dylon smirked, throwing him a thumbs up.
"You have managed to reach the finals, win or lose this is an achievement
you have every right to take pride in." Squire Kyrie told him.
"Thanks." Rui smiled wryly. He was not blind to why she was saying that. He
was relatively certain she though he had a high chance of losing in the finals.
She was just being more tactful about it. Squire Dylon on the other hand was
very candid about that.
Frankly, Rui appreciated when people were blunt in such circumstances,

Dylon even managed to be funny about it. Though he did appreciate her
sentiment.
"Aaand onto the final fight of the third-round folks." the commentator
announced. "One on hand, we have representative Mia Marnt and her Echo
Blast Style representing the Fellen branch. On the other we have
representative Fiona Roschem representing the Vargard branch!"
The crowd erupted in cheers as the atmosphere lit up with excitement.
The two representatives entered the arena, facing each other. Rui could
merely be surprised at the contrast between the two representatives. Mia was
in her early twenties while Fiona was fifteen, like himself, furthermore she
was short and petite for someone her age. It really did look like an adult was
trying to bully a child.
Yet no one in the colosseum entertained that notion for even a second. If
there was a bully at all, it would certainly not be Mia Marnt.
Fiona simply gazed at her, yet she exerted pressure on those who beheld her.
Mia adopted her usual neutral stance with her hands in position to
immediately begin attacking with her sound bullets. Rui approved of this
decision when considering how fast Fiona was, she needed to maximize her
chances of being able to keep Fiona at a distance.
Fiona on the other hand, yet again, did not adopt a stance.
WHOOSH
Fiona crossed the distance between them in an instance.
Yet, for once, things didn't particularly go her way.
BANG!
A powerful sound bullet collided into her, pushing her back.
Rui raised an eyebrow, impressed. Mia had launched an extremely potent

singular sound bullet, instead of a barrage of sound bullets. Rui approved of
that decision. Stopping Fiona should be her greatest priority since Mia would
not be able to withstand even a single attack from her.
Knowing that she would lash out and bull-charge like she normally did, a
single sound bullet with high power had better chances than a barrage of
sound bullets. Since the energy was more focused, rather than spread out.
However, it didn't deter Fiona for too long. She simply lashed out once more,
this time even harder.
BANG!
The sound bullets had the power to blow her back but not enough to hurt her
much, seemingly.
What ensued was a ferocious battle between the two of them.

Chapter 268 What Else?
Fiona threw herself at Mia multiple times, being blown away each time. She
could have chosen a route where she used evasive maneuvering to dodge
Mia's aim, but instead she thrusted herself headfirst into Mia's super-powered
attacks.
Yet each time, she managed to reach further and further.
FLICK
She managed to touch Mia's face, earning Mia's shock, before the sound
bullet touched her.
BAM!
She swiftly landed a blow before the attack could push her away
Mia skidded back despite guarding it, immediately setting up a sound attack.
Yet it was too late.
POW!
A swift kick to the jaw sent her flying across the arena. Fiona didn't even wait
for her to gain her bearing.
BAM BAM BAM!
She pummeled Mia ruthlessly.
POW!
The second strike to the jaw.
THUD
Mia collapsed as she lost consciousness.
"Winner; representative Fiona Roschem." The referee declared.
"And there you have it folks! Representative Fiona Roschem will be taking
her spot in the finals against Representative Rui Quarrier! The finals will be
conducted here tomorrow at the same time. Be sure not to miss it!"
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
Rui exhaled at that sight, deep in thought. He had expected as much, so he

wasn't too surprised.
What he found interesting was that Fiona had had to exert herself more each
round. In her last fight, Mia was actually competitive to a certain degree.
Thankfully, Rui had gotten three rounds worth of data on her. He would be
able to construct a better style.
However, Fiona was an all-rounder. The type that the VOID algorithm dealt
with the worst. In order to adapt to her to the degree Rui wished he could, he
would need to employ the higher-end data science-driven pattern recognition
systems of the VOID algorithm. But he was currently unable to use it because
it was too difficult, the amount of data he had to memorize and process on the
spot was just too much even for his enhanced cognition.
Rui sighed inwardly. He was truly beginning to experience his limitations. So

far, even his incomplete and partial mastery of an insufficient VOID
algorithm had always been enough, but in this tournament, he had been
shown his limits.
Ian Nepomiachtchi first and now Fiona Roschem. This tournament had
exposed him to a new tier of power than showed him the VOID algorithm's
inadequacies.
His urge to perfect the VOID algorithm had grown much deeper than it was
before. He had always been driven, but only now was he truly impatient.
Unfortunately, the finals were in twenty-four hours, and he could only give it
his best shot.
But he vowed to tackle the problem of the VOID algorithm more seriously
once the tournament ended.
For now, he had to find some way to defeat Fiona.
He left the viewing balcony, exiting the colosseum accompanied by his

instructors as they headed towards the living quarters.
"We'll have to talk once you get some rest." Squire Kyrie told him once more,
as the they split ways.
Rui simply nodded as he headed down towards the cafeteria to get something
to eat. He was lost in thought, he didn't even notice Fiona until he almost
bumped into her.
"Woah." He paused abruptly, startled.
"Hi." She said. "Going to grab a bite?"
"...Yeah." Rui replied.
"Great! I was headed there myself." She said. "Let's go together, there's
nobody else left here except for the two of us."
Rui simply stared at her, before shrugging. "Sure."
As they headed down, Rui simply walked in silence, unsure of what to say to
her. They weren't friends, after all. Hell, they were going to be fighting
against each other in the finals of the Martial Contest. He didn't know
anything about her, though he was curious about her.
"You know..." He began. "I was surprised that you haven't named your
Martial Art yet."
"Really? Why so?" She asked, curiosity flashing across her silver eyes.
Rui wasn't sure what to say, Headmaster Aronian did say that the significance
of naming Martial Art was not something they revealed to Martial
Apprentices, so he did not know if she knew. He did not want to meddle and
make things inadvertently harder for her by telling her the importance of it.
"Because you're so strong." He said. "Not to mention you've been a Martial

Apprentice for a long time, I thought you would have named it by now."
She shrugged. "Never felt the urge to name it. Martial Art are no more than
collections of techniques anyway, what's the point of naming such a thing?"
Her words essentially confirmed that her Martial Art definitely did not have
much, if at all any, originality and individuality at all.
So basically, she had gotten this far through some combination of sheer
talent, resources and mundane albeit hard work.
"Do you enjoy Martial Art?" Rui asked.
"No." She said.
"Do you enjoy fighting?" Rui asked.
"No." She replied.
"Do you enjoy power?"
"It's helpful, but I don't particularly enjoy it, no."
Rui had partial expected her answers. He had sensed it when she fought. She
showed more life and energy in her talks with him than in her fights in the
Martial Contest.
"Then why do you fight? Why do you traverse your Martial Path? Why do
you practice your Martial Art?"
"Because I'm good at it." She shrugged. "A bit too good at it, in fact. What
else am I going to if not this?"
Rui was speechless at her answer. It was not something he ran into often, if at
all. All of his friends had a core motivation, goal or interest.
Fae fought for her family.
Kane fought for freedom.
Nel fought because he loved fighting.
Hever fought because he wanted to pursue his Martial Path.
Even Milliana and Dalen fought for similar reasons as well.
Yet, he realized he shouldn't be all too surprised. Even back on Earth, people
often did things because they were extremely good at it.
So, her logic wasn't all that surprising with that consideration in mind. Talent
was often an opportunity, and it was an opportunity she had taken.
"What about you?" She asked, curiosity flashing through her eyes. "Do you
enjoy Martial Art?"
"With every fiber of my heart." Rui unhesitatingly replied. Normally, he

would not say something that cheesy, but he did genuinely believe what he
said. It was the unadultered truth.
He would not have dedicated half his life to Project Water had he not truly
wanted to fulfill his dream. Dying, reincarnating and being given an even
greater opportunity to fulfill not just that dream, but also his original dream
of wanting to become a Martial Artist, had only made his desire far stronger
than they were.
Back on Earth, he was constrained by all kinds of limits. Not just personal
limits such as his health and other personal circumstances, but also the limits
of the importance and capability of martial arts.
On the other hand, Gaea was a miraculous world that often felt like it had
been hand-crafted specifically for his sake.
"Hmmm..." She hummed at his words. "Is it really that fun? What are you
trying to accomplish?"
Rui paused, he wasn't sure he should tell her, frankly it could help her against
him in the finals tomorrow.
But he supposed it didn't matter, by now the bare basics of his Martial Art
would have undoubtedly been leakes, just like how he easily got his hands on
the bare basics of the Martial Art of the other representatives.
"My Martial path is perfect adaptive evolution. I wish to create a Martial Art
that allows me to perfectly adapt and evolve to not just all Martial Art and
Martial Artists, but all entities that can engage in physical conflict." He said,
confidently.
Fiona's eyes widened at those words.
What an incredibly ambitious Martial Path! The sheer difficulty of creating

and mastering such a nigh-omnipotent Martial Art could not possibly be
stated!
She couldn't even begin to imagine what such a Martial Art would even look
like!
"..."
She was speechless.
"... I see." She had managed to squeeze out. Her instructors had told her that
Rui's Martial Art was fluid and formless and took on a shape that was more
optimal at dealing with his opponent, but hearing it from Rui was completely
different. She hadn't realized just how far it went, and far he intended to go
with it.
"Is such a thing even possible?" Fiona asked earnestly, curiosity brimming in
her eyes.
Rui suppressed the urge to confidently say yes.
But the truth simply was... he could not possibly know. He was a scientist
after a Martial Artist, and a scientist, he didn't make claims that were not only
lacking in evidence but perhaps had evidence to the contrary.
He had already failed in achieving his dream once, and when he was given a
second chance, the difficulty of success had risen astronomically. He just
could not in good faith say that it was definitely possible.
"... I would like to believe it's possible." Rui said slowly, after a brief silence.
"But I don't know."
"What if it isn't possible?" Fiona asked, as her curiosity intensified.
"I can never know that." He replied. "It's only truly impossible when one
gives up. If it isn't possible, then I'll just die trying till my last breath."
"I see... In comparison to you, I feel a bit shallow to be honest." She said.
"Power is something I'm good at, it's also very helpful and useful. But beyond
that..." she shrugged.
"Power is a tool." Rui said. "A tool to achieve what one wishes to achieve.
What do you want to use this tool for?"
"I'm not sure, making a living?" She pondered.
Rui laughed at those words. "Well, you already have more than enough
power to make a living. So why do you pursue power?"
She shrugged helplessly.
Evidently, she wasn't too sure herself. It seemed she was merely going with
the flow.
Frankly, Rui could even understand. She was a prodigious genius with
unbelievable talent. She discovered her Martial Path at the age of nine. She
had instantly been thrust into Martial World at an incredibly young age, with
the hopes that she would become a renowned Martial Artist.
Rui vaguely guessed her family was much lighter about the matter. Perhaps if
her family had been as oppressive as Kane's family, she would have also
developed s desire to break free of her shackles. Perhaps if the Arrancar
Family was like the Roschem Family, Kane would have also been less driven
than he is today.
He couldn't say.
"Well, nothing wrong with that." Rui said, shrugging. You didn't necessarily
have to have a singular goal or ambition. Plenty of people lived perfectly fine
lives in this manner.
Though Rui suspected she wouldn't be able to break through to higher

Martial Realms with that sort of attitude. To merely become a Martial Squire
candidate, one needed their Martial Art to have a certain degree of
individuality and originality.
Rui didn't think she would fulfill that condition with that kind of outlook,
perhaps she would simply never become a Squire candidate.
Frankly, it was quite shocking to Rui. When he first heard about her, he had
pictured someone who stood at the peak of the Apprentice Realm and was on
the verge of a breakthrough to the Squire Realm. However, since then, his
understanding of the Martial Realms and the Martial Path had deepened
significantly.
He kept these thoughts to himself however. The two of them spoke more
freely, delving into all kinds of topics as they had dinner together.
"You're telling me Kane's epithet is the 'Elusive Wind'?" Rui laughed as

Fiona recounted a tale from the past. She had told him a lot of interesting
things about his friends, showing him a side of their lives that he hadn't
known of. "He never told me that! That's hilarious."
"He hates it." She giggled. "Every significant Martial Artist gets an unofficial
epithet, I imagine you'll also get an epithet, you made it to the finals, after
all."
Chapter 270 Ready
Rui did a double-take at those words. It was unexpected. Yet the idea of
being called something incredibly corny or cheesy or flashy made him cringe.
"Uh. Can they not?" He asked.
"Sorry, they can't not. The Martial community of this Empire loves doing
that." She smirked.
They bantered a bit more, until Rui realized how much time had passed. He
had trult gotten absorbed into the conversation.
"Good talk." He said, getting up. "But I should return now."
She nodded at his words. "This was fun."
Rui simply stared at her for a second.
"I look forward to fighting you tomorrow." He said, with a serious edge to his
voice. "May the best fighter win."
She simply shrugged. "They always do."
Rui simply smiled at those words before taking his leave.
He thought about his conversation with her, having gotten a stronger grasp of
her character and personality.
And then his thoughts soon proceeded to how to defeat her. Ultimately, that
was what he would be setting out to accomplish.
His instructors came to his room shortly after, discussing the matter about
her.
"Well." Squire Dylon put a hand on Rui's shoulder. "Do your best, we'll
console you after."
Squire Kyrie glared at him. But frankly, she didn't have anything more
meaningful to add. Although she was a Martial Squire and had vastly more
experience than Rui, knowing how to fight specific opponents optimally was
quite literally Rui's entire Martial Path. And he had shown everyone time and
time again that he was exceptionally brilliant at it.
"There's a high chance she'll begin the fight lashing out with a bullrush." Rui
said. "Thus far she began every fight in that manner and didn't stop even
when it was clear that her opponents were quite prepared for that approach.
Nor did she stop even if it was the sub-optimal solution, she's demonstrated
remarkable rigidity and lack of flexibility in her tactical approach."
Squire Kyrie nodded at that. "She's quite arrogant in her fighting style in that
sense, only someone who doesn't believe they will lose, fights like that."
('Or someone who doesn't care too much if they lose.') He thought inwardly.
He too had thought her carelessly rigid fighting style stemmed from deep
arrogance, but after talking with her for a while, he had started to realize she
simply wasn't as invested in the fight as he was. She did her best, but only
physically.
The two instructors tried giving Rui several suggestions and tips. Some he
agreed with and some he didn't. Ultimately, it was up to him. He was the one
fighting, after all.
Soon, time passed, a lot.
"Fuuu..." He exhaled, as he closed his eyes.
He emptied his thoughts, one by one. He could hear nothing except for his
heartbeat and his breathing.
And then the image of Fiona manifested in his mind.

His concentration accumulated.
His focus sharpened.
His mind gathered.
It weighed on its environment, pushing down on it as it exerted incredible

pressure.
An unknown amount of time passed as Rui remained in that state of mind.
"Rui." Squire Kyrie knocked on the door.
Even she raised an eyebrow, surprised at how well Rui had focused himself.
She had been worried he would have been to anxious or demoralized to win.
But witnessing the determination in his eyes reassured her.
"Good." Squire Dylon said. "You're at your peak, maintain that."
Rui wordlessly walked past them, he simply did not want to waste even the
slightest bit of energy on anything not useful. Even in the short journey to the
Martial Colosseum, he merely closed his eyes. Shutting off as much input as
he could.
His mental state was powerful, but it was also delicate, it could easily
crumble if his attention was drawn away even slightly. Doing so would not
weaken much at all, but being at his peak mental state would always ensure
that he brought out his very best.
He immediately walked towards the arena once they arrived at the Martial
Colosseum.
"It's here folks!" The commentator cried. "The fight we've all been awaiting!
The finale of the 27th Martial Contest!!"
The crowd erupted in volatile cheers and applause as chaotic excitement

sizzled the atmosphere.
"On one hand we have the highly anticipated Fiona Roschem, known as the
mighty Chosen Incarnate, she is the representative with the highest estimated
odds of victory according to the gambling pool! She will representing the
Vargard branch!"
Fiona walked into the arena, taking her spot.
"On the other hand, we have the dark horse of this tournament! Securing
victory after victory, he made it to the very finals where he'll be fighting with
everything he has for the title of Martial Champion!" The commentator cried.
Earning deafening cheers and applause from the crowd. "Representing the
Hajin branch with his Flowing Void Style. His unique yet potent, fluid and
everchanging style has earned him the title of the Voidbringer in the Martial
Community!"
Rui froze even as he walked in, Fiona merely threw him a short smug smirk.
Rui could almost hear her saying 'I told you so.'
He sighed, shaking his head slightly. He hadn't planned on getting distracted

but he couldn't ignore such a ridiculous epithet.
The Voidbringer?
Rui wanted to crawl under his bed and hide forever every time he thought of
calling himself the 'Voidbringer.'
Who was the idiot who named him that? He would not spare him!
And immediately, all of his emotions on the matter melted away as his mind
immediately recentered itself at those words. His subconscious mind had
cooperated, realizing the significance of the upcoming fight.
Immediately, the atmosphere grew taut.
His raw focus cut through through the shallow excitement and chaos in the
atmosphere. Its sharpness drew attention of every person.
It pressed on them, threatening them.

The full weight of his focus and concentration driven by unfathomable
emotions triggered an instinctual sense of danger in nearly all those who
beheld him. They felt fear merely gazing upon his form.
He was ready.
Chapter 271 Not Going Down
A drop of sweat trickled down Julian's face as he watched Rui and Fiona
facing off at each other with anxious tensions. All of the children were silent
for once, staring at the two representatives facing each other off, not blinking.
Julian had seen wonders in the time that they had spectated the Martial
Contest. He had witnessed the Martial Artists accomplish magical things one
after the other. It shaken his worldview. Although he had worked with
research teams that conducted research on Martial Art, he hadn't quite seen
anything remotely comparable to this.
However, what truly caught his attention was seeing a side of his brother that
he hadn't seen. Rui was normally very pleasant, but when he stepped on the
ring, he had become incredibly intimidating and scary. He was also very
strong, having made it to the finals.
Yet even Julian couldn't help but feel quite anxious when he saw that Rui had
to face that monster girl who thrashed everyone she fought against.
He hoped Rui would be fine.
He was not the only one who felt that way.
"How do you think it's going to go?" Fae asked in a different section of
audience stands.
"He has an uphill battle." Hever said calmly.
Kane didn't reply. He hated to admit it, but Fiona was stronger than he'd
imagined. They were of the same age, but he didn't think he could beat her. In
fact, the only reason they could even have a competitive match was because
Kane had the Void Step technique.
He simply ignored Fae and stared at the duo.
"Take your stances." The referee instructed, down at the arena.
Fiona didn't move. However, Rui did expect this. He raised his heels of the
ground, lightly hopping. It was a stance that facilitated agility.
"Begin!"
WHOOSH
Fiona crossed the distance in an instant, launching a powerful blow at Rui.
WHOOSH
Her fist crashed into a feint as Rui smoothly evaded her blow. The mildest
flash of surprise flicked onto her face. She hadn't expected Rui to be able to
handle her first blow that well.
Rui not only evaded her attack but spun as he threw a speedy jab at her face.
BAM!
He felt a heavy blow crash into him quicker than his own attack. He grimaced
as he just barely managed to disperse a portion of the impact with Inner
Divergence, shocked at her power. Only Fae could surpass her force, the fact
that she could bypass his defense with ordinary strikes was ridiculous, not
even Nel could do that.
POW POW POW!
She launched a flurry of strikes against him. Rui turtled up as he retreated,

trying to mitigate the impacts as much as he could and open up some distance
between them. Yet she launched herself at him, throwing a wild haymaker at
his head, hoping to knock him out.
WHOOSH
Rui evaded the strike thanks to a combination of the VOID algorithm,

Primordial Instinct and the Phantom Step. However, the importance of the
role his enhanced mind could not be downplayed either. All of these together
resulted in extremely quick reactions that could give even Kane a run for his
money.
Not even Fiona was fast enough to overwhelm his reactions in close quarters
like she did nearly everyone else.
A mild frown flashed across her face as she sensed that.
Yet, his mind could not make his defenses stronger. Her offense power was
overwhelming. Every single one of her strikes was on par with his Flowing
Canon.
BAM!
Rui grimaced as a powerful blow landed on his guard, launching him a

distance away. Trying to evade every single strike threw was pointless, it as
impossible. Her raw speed was extremely high, surpassing his. He was able
to compensate with his special circumstances, but not to the degree where he
could evade even half her strikes, let alone all. Only Kane could possibly
accomplish that incredibly difficult feat.
POW POW POW!
She lashed out against him, throwing a barrage of strikes at him. Each strike
was extremely painful, bruising him visibly. His arm had become a mess in a
just short period of time.
Yet he was not resigned.
WHOOSH
BAM!
He rushed in misdirecting her incoming strike with Phantom Step, he charged

with every ounce of his power, as he threw the strongest Flowing Canon he
mustered.
BAM!
She skidded away a bit as she blocked the strike.
Ultimately, it didn't make too big a difference. But it was the first strike he
had cleanly landed on her. It was a symbol of his competitiveness, in a way.
She simply lashed out at him, yet to her surprise.
WHOOSH
He cleanly evaded her yet again.
POW!
A second strike landed on her. She barely managed to block it in time, much
to her surprise. She lashed out, throwing powerful blows one after the other.
Yet to everyone's surprise.
Rui began dodging better and better. His timing grew more and more refined
as the accuracy of his motions increased in real time.
Adapting to all-rounders was never easy, so how was Rui accomplishing it?
('Your tactical flexibility is non-existent.') Rui mused. ('That makes you

easier to predict.')
Because she was so extraordinarily strong, especially for her age, she had
become accustomed to winning via the application of her techniques alone.
She nearly needed to exert herself and her techniques in the most
straightforward manner possible. Very few people could stand up to her when
she went all out, and the few that could never last long.
That had always been enough, especially for her character.
This was her greatest strength.

Yet, it was also her greatest weakness, perhaps her only weakness. Yet it was
a weakness that one had to be strong enough to exploit.
Rui, however, wasn't flawless.
BAM!
She landed a powerful kick on his guard, propelling him away. She felt a
strange sense of defiance welling up in her. The idea of losing to someone as
old as her didn't feel nice.
"I'm not going down that easily."

Chapter 272 Surpassed
Rui smiled mildly when he heard that. Yet his smile froze when he she lashed
out an even greater speed than before.
BOOM!
He grimaced in pain as he skidded away.
('Just how much power do you have?') He wondered, shocked. He could see a
strained expression on her face, contrasting to the calm blank expression
from prior.
His eyes widened.
Had she only truly began to push herself?
The notion was terrifying.
Yet Rui's mouth cracked into a grin as he sensed determination in her

demeanor.
She was the strongest.
And yet, he grinned.
He could feel her body tensing up as she drew boundless energy from within
her petite physique. It shook him unlike any fight he had been in before,
pushing him beyond his limits.
His eyes widened.
His pupils dilated.

In that instant, time slowed down.
The world disappeared.
Everything disappeared.
And yet, she was there.
The only thing he saw was her.
Her everything.
From the tiniest strands of her brown hair to the furthest inch of her fair light
skin.
From her soft beautiful features to the ferocious power hidden beneath.
He saw everything.
His mind converged into one as he entered a state of absolute awareness and
focus.
In that instant, he could feel it.
He was stronger than he had ever been.
"Come." He beckoned. Like a lover would.
Yet it was not her he loved; it was the VOID she had drawn about from
within him.
RUMBLE
She stepped. The sheer power of the simple motion shook the very ground.
WHOOSH
She disappeared in the eyes of audience, and yet.

WHOOSH
Rui avoided her blow with motions as smooth as the gentle ebbs of a soft
flowing stream. Yet, his powerful attacks resembled a tumultuous violent
river!
BAM!
She blocked his strike as she struck him with an immensely powerful blow.
Rui spun out of it as he did his very best to mitigate his damage.
What followed was a brutal exchange of attacks as Rui did his best to
mitigate the damage from her extraordinary power.
But the odds were stacked against him. He had endured a large number of
blows from her at that point, his condition had already deteriorated from his
physical peak.
Every inch of his body ached.
Every movement hurt.
His skin was a bruised mess. He was bleeding from more places than he
realized.
On the other hand, Fiona was nearly unscratched. The only attack that left a
bruise on her was his Flowing Canon.
The only attack in his arsenal that could truly hurt her was the Stinger.
And she knew it.
And he knew she knew it. And she knew he knew she knew it.
That's why he hadn't used it yet. She was being careful of it, yet she wasn't as
easy to manipulate as Nel was. If he tried launching the Stinger, she would
intercept his leg with ease, being much faster, and probably even break it on
the spot before he could do anything with it.
There was only one trump card he had left.
Yet, this was even harder to use.
But because her movements were so explosively agile and fast, he was not
able to get hold of a decent opportunity to use his final trump card.
BAM!
A powerful side kick slammed into his guard as skidded away. Yet, in the
fraction of a moment she had already crossed the distance to him, and threw a
combo of strikes.
WHOOSH
Rui ducked, avoiding them as he threw a sharp spinning kick empowered

with all the Outer Convergence and Vital Pressure he could manage.
BAM
His attack stopped dead at her ankle.
He couldn't even budge it.
BOOM!
Rui barely managed to roll out of the way as a drop kick impacted onto the
very location he was at just a moment prior.
She immediately spun, dashing at him aggressively, as she launched a

shooting maneuver, trying to tackle him wand then crush him on the ground
with her greater power.
But he was wise enough to decline her wrestling offer. His biggest advantage
relating to his evasive reactions would be diminished, while her greatest
advantage; her power would be highly emphasized.
He would be an utter disgrace to his Martial Path if he chose to grapple

Fiona.
WHOOSH
,m He managed to dodge yet another attack as he wiped some blood

streaming down his face from a wound on his head.
He didn't have much time.
And almost as if recognizing that, his entire body cooperated as it did its very
best to prevent his condition from collapsing.
Yet, the end was near. Even Fiona had sensed that as she intensified her
attacks.
POW POW POW!
Rui launched a barrage of weight blows, yet Fiona effortlessly blocked them.
BAM!!
A powerful impact collided against him, launching him away as he grimaced

in pain. He gritted his teeth as he entered his evasive maneuvering stance. He
felt an extraordinarily strong urge to start abusing the Blink technique to
mitigate his dire situation. Yet her managed to impose self-control,
restraining his urges.
The reason was simple. Frankly, she was so much superior to him that even
the Blink technique could not allow him to start winning. It was just not
enough. it was a strong technique, yes. But she had many strong techniques
as well. Blink by itself could not turn the tides.
The only thing that could turn possibly the tides was timing Blink with a
Phantom Step and a Stinger attack with more than ninety-nine percent
accuracy and precision, to inflict critical and vital damage on her.
That was it.
He had nothing else.
Yet Fiona had no intentions of making life easy for him.

She crouched as her leg muscles tensed until they were tauter than contorted
steel wire bundles, brimming with an unimaginable amount of power. Even
her veins bulged, unable to contain the energy she had gathered as her face
trembled with effort.
Every single person stirred at what was happening.
And also...
What was about to happen.
BOOM!!!
Rui's instincts screamed as she launched herself charging towards Rui

unleashing a swing of untold power.
For just the briefest of moments, her power surpassed the Apprentice Realm.
BOOM!!!
Chapter 273 The Final Outcome
The attack crashed into Rui's vulnerable abdomen, a gigantic impact wave
rippling through his body. He did his best as he tried to mitigate as much of
the impact as he could with Elastic Shift, Acute Edge and Inner Divergence.
Yet it was sorely insufficient. Rui closed his eyes as he experienced a level of
suffering that he hadn't since the conditioning training of the Stinger
technique. Every cell in his body ached as he was launched across the arena.
Large swathes of his skin were sheared off by the rough ground as he landed
into a tree in the arena.
Yet what he did next shook those who beheld his mangled bloody form.
He grinned.
"...Gotcha." He stared into Fiona's eyes with a hauntingly ecstatic smile that
cut through his mangled bloody face.
Fiona felt a shiver climb up her spine as she gazed into his intense bloodshot
eyes.
Then, and only then, did the pain follow.
SPLURT SPLURT SPLURT!
Blood pissed out of her neck, shocking everyone who witnessed it.
What had happened??
"...Huh?" Fiona murmured, not understanding. Her body was saturated with
pain-suppressing endorphins that the human body naturally released in states
of extreme excitement.
But reality soon took a grip of her.
She immediately pressed her hand to her neck, suppressing the blood flow as
her eyes widened in shock at what she felt.
A hole!
A hole in her neck!
She glanced at Rui in shock.
"...Ha... Haha..." He laughed unsteadily.
THUD
He put one foot on the ground.
THUD
The other foot soon followed.
He grabbed onto the tree, pulling himself up.
He struggled to stand. His body was a mess. No one would be surprised if he

simply collapsed that very moment.
And yet.
He took his stance, grinning weakly.
He was exactly where he wanted to be.
"Come..." He squeezed out. "The fight only ends when one of us falls."
She stared at him in disbelief and shock.
Had Fiona known that launching that attack then would have resulted in a
toe-sized hole in her neck, she would not have done it.
But she did do it, and consequently, it did.
Rui had thrown her caution of his Stinger off by feinting a weight shift onto
his right leg, making her think he was not going to move it and eliminating it
as a threat in her mind. And only when the timely blink during the attack
came, did he launch the Stinger.
A person's defense was most vulnerable at the moment of their attack. Rui
had taken the role a patient hunter, waiting for the right moment to strike.
And yet, even the combination of a never-before seen trump card, along with
her own mental blind spot was not enough by itself.
No.
It needed a sacrifice, a sacrifice Rui had to provide. A sacrifice he did

provide. He sacrificed defense as he abandoned his guard to land the Stinger
quicker, harder and deeper.
That was the price of landing his critical Blink Stinger successfully.
It was a costly price.
He was certain he had broken, a the very least, a few ribs. His bleeding had
accelerated. His skin had been torn in multiple areas. His body was bruised
essentially all over, even his balls hurt.
Yet, it was not in vain.
The carotid arteries and the jugular veins transported an enormous amount of
blood. Furthermore, they carried blood not to any ordinary organ, but to the
very brain itself, among all organs.
And Rui had severed nearly half of them in her neck.
So what if he broke a few ribs? So what if his skin tore? So what if he was
bleeding from open wounds?
Did it hurt?
Yes, it hurt more than words could describe.
Yet he was more than willing to endure it.
Now he had brought her down to the same level. She no longer had ample
time to crush him slowly.
Rui just needed to outlast her!
As long as he could do this, he could win!
Everything rested on whether he could succeed!
"That's right..." He said unsteadily as he wobbled as he began losing his sense

of balance. "I just need to... last."
"Last..." His breathing grew more laboured. "...long enough."
His vision blurred, darkening.
"The fi..ght.. Isn't..."
His hands fell limp, as they dangled helplessly.
"...over."
THUD
He collapsed in a pool of his own blood.
...
He didn't get up.
Not a single person moved. Countless people had gathered in the colosseum
with immense excitement and anticipation.
Yet, they all froze.

An eternity passed, seemingly, as everyone waited.
Waited for Rui Quarrier to get up.
And yet.
"Winner; Representative Fiona Roschem!" The referee declared.
"...And there you have it folks! Fiona Roschem persevered through the finals,
defeating Representative Rui Quarrier to become the Martial Champion of
the twenty-seventh Martial Contest!"
His excited voice cut through the silence, as bands and celebratory crackers
lit up, drawing people outside of their reverie.
Medics had long since rushed towards Rui and Fiona, and had long begun
treatment after rushing the former to the medical quarters after initial
stabilization. Fiona had been supplied with a single healing potion as medics
took over the task of applying pressure over her wound.
Rui on the hand was surrounded by medics, that worked furiously to contain
his bleeding as they administered depressurized gaseous potions were
forcibly pumped into his lungs via medical breathing-aid instruments that
resembled masks.
Soon, his skin and flesh healed, followed by his ribs, bones and muscles.
Eventually they completed the regeneration of blood as well. It was only then
had his skin regained its healthy complexion.
Yet he didn't open his eyes until much later. The potions may have healed
him, but he was exhausted on a much deeper level. His body and mind
needed to rest organically after being stressed and strained to such a degree
during the Martial Contest. Potions restored the body, but they also pushed it.
Nobody wanted to push Rui Quarrier after witnessing what he had gone
through.
Rui opened his eyes slowly. An clear sky entered his field of vision.
He frowned.
Where was he?
He got up to his feet as he gazed forward, squinting as his eyes adjusted. A

beautiful landscape extended as far as the eye could see as he gazed down at
the breathtaking sight, appreciating its beauty.
But he was still confused.
He turned around, glancing at what was behind him, yet what he saw shook
him to his very core.
He saw a path.
A path with profound depth.
A path he was on.
Yet what shook him wasn't the path itself.
No.
What truly shook him was treacherous calamities the path winded through.
Monsters.
Earthquakes.
Meteorites.
Land-breaks.
A torrent of devastating catastrophes littered his path.
It was a horrifying sight that inspired primal terror.
And yet, it inspired awe.
Through his terror, he could see profound boundless beauty in that path.
The path enchanted him, mesmerizing him, whispering to him.
And yet, when he took his first step, the world shattered into countless pieces
fading away.
He woke up a shock, jerking upright as he gasped for breath.
He glanced around spotting his squire instructors immediately.
He squinted, dazed, completely confused. It took him a few moments to

remember what had happened.
('The same dream again...') He thought to himself.
"Wait, what happened to my match?" His eyes widened as he glanced at

them.
They were both silent for a moment.
"You lost." Squire Kyrie straightforwardly told him impassively. "You

managed to get her with the Stinger, inflicting a critical wound. But the
damage you took from her last strike had crossed the threshold, you fell
unconscious not fifteen seconds later."
"...I see." Rui sighed, closing his eyes.

He was expressionless, but inwardly he concealed immense disappointment
and frustration. He had given that fight his everything, but not even his
everything was enough.
He took a deep breath as he exhaled deeply, shaking his head.
"If it's of any consolation." Squire Dylon said. "Your performance surpassed
my every expectation. You're not even a two-year-old Martial Apprentice and
you went against a monstrous prodigy that has been cultivating techniques for
six years. The odds were stacked against you in every way, in every possible
parameter, yet you managed to not only push her going all-out but inflicted a
critical wound that threatened to lose her the match. Frankly, she also got a
little lucky there at the end."
Squire Kyrie nodded at his words. "Remember what I told you before the
preliminary contest. Your Martial Path extends far beyond the Martial
Contest, this is merely a checkpoint in your life. Do not let this halt or hinder
your journey. You will one day achieve power that beggars the imagination."
Squire Kyrie spoke those words with certainty. Yet, she wasn't lying. The fact
that Rui was already half-way to being a Squire Candidate at the age of
fourteen was truly astonishing. Furthermore, he had fulfilled the harder and
more important condition of Squire candidacy at his tender age.
She was touted as a genius back in her era, yet even she couldn't begin to
even fathom his depths.
('The Voidbringer...') She mused. ('How fitting.')
"Thank you, both of you. However, I do not intend to let this failure hold me
back." he said solemnly. "Instead, this failure will make me stronger, stronger
than I ever was."
He stared at his hands, as a slight smile cracked past his gloom.
The Martial Contest had shattered and reforged his world view of what was
possible and what wasn't. It expanded his view of Martial Art was capable of.
His grinned widened as he thought of all the various techniques he would
master in his next training stage.
His dark eyes had already left the past, greedily eying the future.
* * * * * * * * * *
Fiona sat on a chair as she gazed outside the window of her room, as she
beheld the lively bustling town of Vargard.
A magnificent sparkling cup sat atop a table some distance away, drawing her
attention.
It was supposed to be an honour and a matter of boundless prestige, yet she

didn't fell much.
She was in a pensive mood, unsure of what she felt.
No, she knew what she felt. She wasn't sure about how she felt of what she
felt.
Shortly after the match ended, she was declared the Martial Champion and
given that cup as the crowd went berserk with cheers and applause.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Come in~" She absentmindedly said.
"Miss." Her butler bowed.
"What is it?"
"The Master has summoned you." He said, solemnly.
Fiona simply nodded, having expected that.
She dismissed him as she walked towards the center of the Roschem Family
mansion.
,m Towards the center, where the study of Sage Damian Roschem was.
She breathed deeply as she steeled her mind, before knocking.
KNOCK KNOCK
Nothing happened.
Until it did.
The doors opened slowly. Ominously.
Immediately, she gritted her teeth slightly as immense pressure weighed on

her, threatening to crush her if she wasn't strong enough.
She walked in as her eyes fell on the figure seated at the center of the room.
"Fiona."
He murmured a single word.
Fiona's eyes fluttered unstably, as she struggled to stay conscious.
A single word.
And she felt limitless, boundless pressure crush down onto her.
A single word.
And she felt as though the very sky itself had converged onto her.
A single word.
And she felt the very core of her consciousness crumbling.
A single word.
"Dad...!" She just barely managed to squeeze out as her vision began blurring
"Hm?" The figure glanced at her. "Ah, I am quite sorry."

Soon the weight on her mind disappeared as she fell to her knees gasping for
air.
"I'm sorry, my precious baby." He softly murmured sorrowfully, careful of

exerting himself. "It is difficult to contain every ounce of my mind. Every
once in a while, I let slip of just a tiny bit of it, like now."
She got up, glaring at him. "Hmph! You say that all the time but it happens
every time!"
Chapter 275 Return
"Oh dear." Damian sighed softly. "Daddy really is sorry, come, why don't
you give me a make-up hug?"
"Stop treating me like a child, I'm fifteen-years-old!" She complained as she

pouted.
A soft smile emerged on his face, as he got up, approaching his daughter.
"Congratulations on winning the Martial Contest." He smiled affectionately

as he caressed her brown hair, patting her softly. "I'm proud of you."
Fiona didn't respond to those words.
"Unsatisfied?" He asked with a knowing smile.
"...Maybe." She replied.
"What do you feel?"
"I want to know..." She said.
He waited for her as he continued caressing her head.
"...I want to know what drives him and his kind down their Martial Paths."
She closed her eyes as she recalled the intense determination that sparkled his
bloodshot eyes even as he lost consciousness.
"Is it really worth a path walking down?" She asked, as her intense curiosity
coloured her eyes.
"Who knows?" He smiled. "Is it?"
Her eyes knitted in surprise and confusion.
"Isn't it?" She asked.
"Is that upto me?" He asked, amused. "Can you truly know unless you travel
down that path yourself?"
She remained silent at that question.
* * * * * * * * * *
Rui returned back to the Martial Academy immediately. The first thing he did
was reunite with all of his friends.
"Welcome back." Fae said. "You did amazing."
"Nice job smacking Ian." Kane threw him a thumbs up.
"Your performance was admirable." Hever calmly told him.
"Let's fight!" Nel grinned excitedly.
"The last round was quite close." Dalen told him. "Good job pushing Fiona
that far."
He spent quite some time interacting with them, catching up and bantering
back and forth.
"Hehe, good job 'Voidbringer'." Kane sneered.
Rui glared at him. "Thanks, 'Elusive Wind'."
"Wait, who told him?!" Kane's eyes widened as he dismayed.
"Yeah, you thought you could keep it hidden from me huh?" Rui laughed.
Just then, a staff member called out to him.

"Apprentice Rui Quarrier?" She addressed. "The headmaster wishes to speak
to you."
Rui nodded as he got up to leave. "I'll catch you guys later."
He left after they bade him goodbye, heading to the headmaster's office. He
quickly reached the giant doors, waiting for them to open and entering after.
"Headmaster." Rui bowed deeply as he expressed respect for a man who had
reached a certain height of Martial power. The immense weight he felt on his
mind only made that gesture easier to make.
"Congratulations, Rui Quarrier." Headmaster Aronian smiled. "Your

performance was admirable. You have done not only yourself a favour but
this branch of the Martial Academy as well."
"Thank you, headmaster." Rui replied.
"How do you feel coming back?" The headmaster asked.
"...Invigorated." Rui replied after some thought. "I may have lost, but I've
never been someone who chases after victory first. Victory and loss are
consequences of my pursuit of my Martial Path. And I intend to continue
doing that. The Martial Contest has expanded my vision of Martial Art. I
intend on expanding my Flowing Void Style until it has matured and reached
a shape resembling what my ideal vision of it is. In doing so, I will have
become a Squire Candidate, and I will have travelled deeper down my
Martial Path."
Headmaster Aronian smiled at those words. Rui's single-minded focus and

fixation on his Martial Art and Martial Path was even more pure than he had
expected. He had summoned Rui, expecting him to be in a gloomy and
depressed state, but instead Rui had already picked himself and had begun
moving forward.
('Truly, it is hard to believe he is only fifteen-years-old.') He thought to

himself. Rui was not showing the maturity one would expect of his age after
such a loss. The Martial Contest held an extremely high amount of
significance of the Apprentice students, a loss at the final round of the
Martial Contest that forever denied them the opportunity to achieve
extraordinary fame and prestige would usually atleast deal a heavy blow on
someone his age.
But Rui seemed to understand what was important and what wasn't, what
could be gained from the experience and what had to be done, without any
guidance.
In that moment, Headmaster Aronian had a premonition.
This child would step into the higher Realm.
He bore no doubts.
"That's a relief to hear." He replied, smiling. "What do you plan to do now

that you're back?"
"Ideally, I'd like to begin training." Rui replied. "But I do not possess any
martial credits whatsoever, thus I will undertake more missions and gather a
large sum of credits for my next round of training."
"I see. I do approve. Missions broaden your understanding of the Martial

World, gaining more and more practical experience at your age will nourish
you as a Martial Apprentice. Furthermore, your evaluated grade as a Martial
Artist has been upgraded from grade five to grade seven." Headmaster
Aronian informed. "You will be able to undertake missions that will give you
valuable real combat experience. At this stage, you may begin undertaking
missions outside the Mantian region and experience a higher level of danger
in missions."
Rui's eyebrows raised in interest. "What about international and foreign

missions?"
Headmaster Aronian paused for a moment as he pondered. "Generally,

international missions are usually grade eight to grade ten. But it's not
impossible at your current grade."
"I see..."
"I would recommend abstaining from international and foreign missions."

Headmaster Aronian told him with a pointed look.
"Why so? If I may ask." Rui replied curiously. He had already mostly
estimated why, but still, he wanted to make sure he understood.
"Well, international missions are more dangerous." He replied. "Within the

Kandrian Empire, the Kandrian Martial Union had an extreme amount of soft
and hard power, meaning to some degree you have a certain amount of
indirect protection and support. However, once you leave the Kandrian
Empire, the power of the Martial Union decreases significantly. You're taking
on a larger burden."
Chapter 276 Personal Comissions
"Because we charge higher rates and fees for missions whose operation
requires fielding Martial Artists outside the border of the Kandrian Empire,
most of the international and foreign missions we get are not from small-time
bodyguard missions by singular individuals with an average occupation or
anything such as that." Headmaster Aronian said. "No, most of them are
missions from wealthy individuals with high socio-economic status, powerful
cooperations, landowners, political or governmental figures, a large variety of
Beast Domain missions and things of that sort."
"I see..."
"Your bodyguard mission in the Basara Mountains is a good example of what

foreign missions are like, at bare minimum mind you. Foreign missions are
regularly fraught with such danger because there are no limits to what can
happen in a foreign mission whatosever. You can run into Martial Artists of
higher Realms from different nations who will unhesitatingly slaughter you
in an instant. Anything can happen and you're absolutely all on your own,
there's no safety net of any kind, you just die from a single mistake."
Headmaster Aronian ended up convincing Rui. At the end of the day, Rui
was not a daredevil who enjoyed staking his life for tasks he wasn't qualified
for just yet. He didn't mind waiting half a year or so until he was much
stronger after mastering even more techniques and diversifying his Martial
Art.
"Furthermore..." Headmaster Aronian continued as he stroked his beard.

"Although you did not win the Martial Contest, you reached the finals and
you put up one hell of a fight. You have already received many commissions
from specific clienteles who are interested in commissioning you for
missions." Headmaster Aronian told him.
Rui's eyes lit up in interest at those words.
He had expected this beforehand, to some degree. Even if he did lose, and
even he was not happy about it, the status of a Martial Contest finalist was
not low. He was basically the publicly crowned number two of the Martial
Artists of his generation.
Considering that the Martial Contest was extremely prestigious, there was no
doubt that there would be many clienteles interested in many things.
"How many have I received since the Martial Contest began?" He asked,
excited.
"Fourteen." Headmaster Aronian replied with a complicated expression.

"Much lower than a finalist would receive, in all honesty."
Rui frowned at those words. "Why so?"
"Well, I can't say for sure." Headmaster Aronian shrugged. "But it probably
has to do with the nature of your Martial Art. You're not just a Type I all-
rounder Martial Art, your fighting style fluctuates completely depending on
your opponent. It's optimized for pure head-on physical conflict. The reason
elite and wealthy clienteles send commissions to the Martial Contest
representatives is because they have proven their competence to be at the elite
level. However, missions are generally specialized, while you're an adaptive
all-rounder. Do you understand?"
Rui nodded, immediately deducing the headmaster's message. "So basically,

because I'm a fluid all-rounder, I'm never the best at any one particular field.
Dalen and Arjun will probably always be better than me at defense-class
missions, Fae will always be better than me at offense-class missions, Kane
will always excel better than me at Shadow-class missions and so on and so
forth."
"Exactly." Headmaster nodded. "You excel at adapting and evolving to any

opponent. Yet exactly how useful is that to missions? It's probably useful, no
doubt. But is it more useful than the specialists? Can you surpass offensive
Martial Artists at offensive class missions? Can you surpass defensive
Martial Artists at defensive missions? Is there any class, type or even a
particular mission that your Martial Art will fulfill better than any other kind
of Martial Art?"
Rui narrowed his eyes at those words. He didn't like what headmaster
Aronian was telling him, but there was truth to his words.
There were five classes of missions in the Martial Union.
Offense, defense, hunter, shadow and miscellaneous. Four of these classes

had dedicated specialists to them, and Rui knew that he could not compete
with the specialists in their specialized fields.
The Flowing Void style did not have any particular class of missions it could
do much better than any other Martial Art would. His style excelled at
adapting to his opponents and fighting them in the most optimal manner
needed to take them down.
However, taking down singular opponents in the best manner possible, in a

head-on conflict was certainly not most desired or important quality looked
for in these four different clashes.
In defensive-class missions, your ability to protect your target of protections

was the most valued trait. In offensive-class missions your ability to inflict
harm of varying degrees on your target was the most values trait. In the
hunter and shadow class missions there were so many different most valued
qualities based on the sub-category, however Rui did not excel at any of
those fields.
Of course, because of how many techniques he had mastered and how potent
his combat ability was, he would always be relevant, but at the elite levels of
the four classes, that wasn't enough. If he wanted to gain more personal
commissions from upper-class clienteles, he needed to show them he could
complete missions of a certain kind better than his peers. And that was an
area where he had failed.
Of course, his performance was incredible and so he drew more than a dozen
personal commissions anyway. But as spectacular and entertaining he was,
all the upper-class clienteles went to Arjun for defensive-class commissions.
They went to Mia, Vyoming, Servil and Ana for all the other classes. They
were just more specialized and more suited.
Rui bet that even Ian and Fiona got far more commissions than he did despite
effectively being all-rounders. Fiona was just so abysmally strong that she
could compete with and surpass specialists in their own fields. Ian could also
do that, albeit to a lesser extent.
He shook his head; it was what it was.
"Well, what are the commissions I received?"

Chapter 277 Defensive Missions
"They are... well, interesting, I suppose." Headmaster Aronian smiled wryly

as he plucked out a file from a drawer and handed it to Rui. "Go over them in
your own time."
Rui nodded as he received the file.
"And with that, I have conveyed all that I wished to. You may go if you have
nothing you wish to convey." Headmaster Aronian told him.
Rui nodded. "Thank you, Headmaster." He said, bowing deeply, before

turning around and leaving.
Once he reached his dorm room, he immediately locked himself inside as he

sat down, opening the file. The file had copies of commission applications
that the clienteles who commissioned him had submitted as well as mission
bills created for each of them.
He skimmed through them, reading them each briefly. His facial expressions
morphed rapidly as he skimmed through.
Many of the personal commissions in the file were the norm; what one would
expect. Bodyguard missions of different types. A hunter-class mission or two
here and there.
Yet what surprised him was the sheer number of miscellaneous commissions
there were for him. Many of them were bizarre.
A few sought to commission him for representing them in unofficial

underground and upper-class Apprentice-level fighting contests.
A connoisseur and collector of unique Martial Artists had commissioned him

for his Martial Art.
Prominent Martial Families had commissioned him as a sparring partner for

their Martial Apprentice descendents.
A news outlet in the town of Vargard had commissioned him for an

interview.
A prominent Martial Family holding an event later on in the Martial Festival

had commissioned him to participate in their event.
The Kandrian Institute of Sciences had commissioned him as a research

subject, to study his Martial Art. This one was a shocking notion to him.
A Martial Art gear and uniform development corporation had commissioned

him for an advertisement and endorsement of their brand!
Rui couldn't help but be surprised when he saw these strange and abnormal
commissions as he read into them in more detail. These were not the kind of
commissions he was expecting when he opened the file.
He shook his head as he decided focus on one mission at a time.
He grabbed the first mission bill, glancing at the summary of the mission
printed on the cover.
It was a bodyguard mission.
Difficulty grade: 4
Target of protection: Bent Silihillas
Specified/estimated location/range of mission: Town of Vargard, Fastar

Convention, 17th main, 15th cross.
Time period of mission: Twelve hours.

Mission commencement period: 39 th Winter.
Successful completion remuneration: 500 martial credits.
Commission clientele: Silihilas Corporation]
Rui raised an eyebrow at that reward. He couldn't help but be surprised at that
reward. The man was willing to pay a lot just have Rui be his bodyguard.
What struck Rui as odd was the fact that the mission difficulty was a grade
four. Meaning the evaluated probability of threat to his life was very low.
Five hundred credits for a grade four mission? That was severely overpriced.
What was the point of hiring a grade seven Martial Apprentice like Rui for a
grade four mission?
Rui was beginning to suspect that he was being hired only to flex.
The mission location was a convention of conglomerate leaders, Rui had no

experience with such gathering, however it did seem like he was merely
being hired to show off. Perhaps the convention was a snobby little rich
people-meeting, where they all tried to out-flex each other.
This was especially the case when one of the conditions of the mission was
performing the mission without his mask.
Rui immediately shook his head.
It was one thing to go maskless in a Martial competition event of peers who

consented to a fair competition between each other that was being regulated
by the Martial Academies, but he refused to reveal his identity to during a
solo mission that could potentially make him new enemies who did not care
about fairness and consent. That was just too dangerous.
Furthermore, the mission did not offer him any valuable experience that
could help him grow as a Martial Artist. Anything below grade five was
frankly too paltry for his current level of power. He wanted a mission that
could stimulate him, and this simply wasn't it.
He immediately tossed the mission bill aside.

The other bodyguard missions were also of a similar nature, where he was
clearly being treated as a trophy to be showed off to others of a certain
community or class, rather than as a Martial Artist who was being paid to
protect them.
His status as the finalist in the prestigious Martial Contest would earn them a
lot of social points, he imagined. The other representatives of the Martial
Contest probably didn't receive such offers since they were already part of
their own Martial Family and would not affiliate with an external entity, but
he could sense that people were trying to rope him in to some degree because
he had no real ties with any individual or entity in the upper echelons of
society.
He immediately tossed all of those aside, he had no interest in indulging their

vanity. Frankly, there wasn't much that they could offer him that genuinely
interested him.
Money? Becoming rich was not his goal.
Resources for growing stronger? The Martial Union far surpassed them in
regards to the resources they offered to Martial Artists. Only the Royal
Kandrian Family could rival them in that regard.
Social status? Again, he didn't care.
He only wanted to develop his Martial Art and traverse his Martial path.
He skimmed through the hunter missions, intrigued. They were different.

Half of them were from private individuals and other half was from the
Ministry of Environment and Ecology. They were centered around a variety
of different types of missions; reconnaissance, procurement of resources,
extermination etc.
He decided to accept all of them, they were more lowkey and gave him real
valuable experience that the vanity missions did not.
Putting them aside, he glanced at the set of mission bills of miscellaneous

missions.
Chapter 278 Sorting
Rui opened the first one.
[Miscellaneous class mission: Commissioned representative fighter.
Commissioning clientele: Freier Ester Inc.
Mission objective: To fight and win in schedules matches against Martial

Apprentices representing Freier Oil inc.
Frequency: Twice a week (Negotiable)
Minimum remuneration: 100 Martial credits/ 3 gold coins, 8silver coins and 4
bronze coins (Negotiable)
Successful completion remuneration: 1000 Martial credits/ 31 gold coins. 6

silver coins and 8 bronze coins (Negotiable)
Location: Town of Harrifel]
Rui's eyes narrowed as he skimmed through the details provided by the

mission bill. The location of the fight was apparently an arena in a town in
the Mantian region about three hours away from the town of Hajin.
The mission bill expounds upon the background a bit more.
In the upper-class of society, Martial Artists were hired to fight against other
hired Martial Artists in a competitive setting. It was treated as a competitive
and gambling sport within the circles of the upper echelons.
According to the mission bill, these circles were distinct from that of the
Martial Community, although they did intersect with each other to a certain
degree as Martial Families would send in heirs and descendants to face off
against each other as well as the champions of other individuals who partook
in the sport.
Freier Ester Inc was a large supplier of Ester in the Kandrian Empire, and
esoteric compound that was most widely used for lighting products and
devices according to the information provided by the mission bill. They were
a major supplier in the northern parts of the Kandrian Empire, encompassing
several different regions of the Kandrian Empire.
The scale of Freier Ester Inc was far greater than the Hier Industries or the
Lowminer Industries, both which were corporations he had worked with
prior. These two corporations were limited to a handful of towns across the
Mantian regions, and thus were much smaller than Freier Ester Inc which was
a national giant in the Ester supplies industries.
Rui could feel the newfound socio-economic status thanks to his performance
in the Martial Contest. He would have never received such interest from a
conglomerate titan such as the Freier Ester Inc.
He glanced through the few other similar offers he received for being a
commissioned fighter, although none of those clienteles were quite as
distinguished as the Freier Ester Inc.
He decided not to make a decision on the matter until he met up with his
client, to learn more about him and the commission itself.
The commission also specified the required signature of his on a non-

compete agreement that was valid for as long as the contract was active.
Meaning he wouldn't be able to become the commissioned fighter of any
other clientele who sought to commission him.
Which made it all the more important to be careful while making a decision
on the matter.
Having made up his mind on that, he put the commissioned representative

fighting mission bills aside as he picked up the mission bill of another
commission.
[Miscellaneous mission: Sparring partner mission
Commissioning client: The Distar Family.
Mission objective: To serve as a sparring partner for Martial Apprentices.
Remuneration rate: 9 silver coins and 7 bronze coins/25 Martial credits per
hour of sparring (Negotiable).
Mission commencement duration: Indefinite.
Commissioned time period: 7 hours a week (Negotiable).]
There were other missions like this as well. Two others, to be precise. The
Frial Family and the Shamik Family.
All three of the Martial Families were led by prominent Martial Masters.
Rui understood why he had received three such commissions from Martial
Families. Frankly, his Martial Art was quite suited for the role of a sparring
partner for Martial Apprentices.
The reason for this was quite straightforward. Sparring with him on a regular
basis would force them to fight a Martial Art adapted to them. His adapted
Martial Art exploited any and all weaknesses in their style that it could.
Meaning, his Martial Art was the single greatest way to train weaknesses!
Rui had never truly considered this application of the Flowing Void Style and
the VOID algorithm. Back on Earth, this would not have really worked as
well, and it was never intended to be the purpose of Project Water. Years of
that had prevented Rui from realizing all the possible applications in this new
world.
By adapting to a Martial Artist, and having them spar against him over and
over, they would learn what their weaknesses were and also how to
compensate for their weaknesses through experience. This kind of weakness
training probably surpassed anything the Martial Academies could provide,
Rui dared to say.
The Martial Academies did have experienced Squires for teachers, but Rui
did not think their insights could compare to the results obtained by the mind-
numbing amount of data science that was used to forge the VOID algorithm.
It seems that the prestigious and insightful Martial Masters that had
commissioned him as a sparring partner had come to realize this, and had
chosen to capitalize on it.
Rui was inclined to accept this mission as well. This mission would not give
him the real-life combat experience; however, he ultimately could not refuse
commissions that his Martial Art was perfectly specialized to fulfill unlike
any Martial Art in existence!
He immediately made it a point to accept the commission. Funnily enough,

each of the Martial Masters had appointed a meeting with him if he accepted
the commission. Rui couldn't help but wonder if there was a reason for that
beyond just the commission.
He put the three mission bills aside as he shifted his attention to the rest.
He immediately dismissed the commission of the connoisseur of unique

Martial Art who wanted Rui to document and pass on his Martial Art to him.
He was not interested in sharing his Martial Art for money. Perhaps in the
distant future he would entertain the idea of passing on his Martial Art, or
atleast the core of it. But that would be of his own volition in his own time
and place.
Chapter 279 New Goal
He tossed aside the commission that wanted him to participate in one of the
events of the Martial Festival. He had had more than just enough of
participating in competitive Martial events for now, he would rather focus on
other endeavors.
He also tossed aside the mission bills of the interview commission and the
brand endorsement and advertisement commission. He was not interested in
fame and exposure; they were utterly meaningless to him.
That left the final mission.
The Kandrian Institute of Sciences had commissioned him to research his

Martial Art.
Rui wasn't sure what to make of it. However, he suspected that his unique
Martial Art had aroused interest in the scholars of the Institute of Sciences.
He knew from his conversation with Julian during the Kandrian Winter
holidays that the Kandrian Institute of Sciences researched Martial Art and
Martial Artists.
[Miscellaneous mission: Research subject
Mission objective: Serve as a research subject for Kandrian Institute of

Sciences.
Remuneration rate: 20 Martial Credits/ 7 silver and 6 gold coins per hour.
Mission duration: 2 months.
Mission time period rate: 3 hours a day (Negotiable)]

Rui wasn't sure whether or not to accept the commission. There were pros
and cons to the accepting the mission.
The cons were that he would be divulging the research of a lifetime from his
previous life as scholars collected data, studying it and probably even
evaluating the feasibility of reverse engineering it and stealing his algorithm.
He felt extremely repelled by that.
However, it could be what helps him overcome certain obstacles that

genuinely may require empirical research to overcome. It might end up being
the key to progressing his Martial Art.
He was extremely conflicted. Thankfully there was no commencement date,

which meant it was likely an open-ended offer that would remain as long as
he didn't straight up refuse it.
Furthermore, his brother Julian worked in the Kandrian Institute of Sciences

as a scholar. Rui knew he had even worked on projects related to Martial Art.
Perhaps they would end up working together.
For now, he put the matter aside. He already accepted a whole slew of
missions, he did not need anymore, nor did he have time for anymore. He
could take his time and consider it very thoroughly.
,m He was also going to get into a thorough long training stage after this set
of missions.
In his last training stage, he felt a bit rushed and constrained since he needed
to scramble to obtain power in order to be ready in time for the Martial
Contest. That due date had constrained his training options a lot.
But now he felt no burdens on him. He had finally come to realize how much
pressure and how many shackles the Martial Contest had put on him.
He could finally enjoy being free!
The things he could do without any worries or cares.

Just developing his Martial Art, traversing his Martial Path with blissful
peace.
As peaceful as a Martial Artist's life was, anyway.
His ultimate goal was to develop his Martial Art as high as was possible, to
travel his Martial Art as deep as was possible.
He had already set a new forseeable goal in sight; To fulfill the second
condition required for Squire candidacy.
And eventually, to step into a higher Realm of power.
To become a Martial Squire himself.
His body quivered.
The very thought of becoming a vaunted and mighty Martial Squire was
unimaginably exciting!
To do that, he would need to undergo the breakthrough process. To do that,

he would need to fulfill the second condition to Squire candidacy. He needed
his Martial Art to mature and stabilize in its shape.
He had suspected that this condition would be much harder for him than it
was for others. His Martial Art needed to be able to do everything, no matter
how slight, in order to be able to adapt to everything. That meant he needed
to step foot into many different fields.
He quickly jotted down all the aspects his Martial Art would need boost up in
before it could be said to have matured.
He needed range. There were plenty of techniques he had seen that could
allow his opponent to be able to counter him from range. There were also
opponents he himself needed to keep at range in order to defeat soundly. One
way or another, he needed to extend his range beyond the normal limits of the
human body.
He also needed lethality that bypassed conventional durability. He would run

into opponents whom he would struggle to hurt. He did not want to become
extremely reliant on Stinger every time he fought a tough opponent. He
needed more diverse ways of taking down his opponents. The Martial
Contest had shown him that there were several options and possibilities to
choose from.
He needed defensive countermeasures against these diverse offensive

solutions. Currently his defense consisted of Acute Edge, Elastic Shift and
Inner Divergence for strikes, and Shifting Silhouette. He had always knew
this wasn't entirely sufficient, but only after the Martial Contest did he realize
just how insufficient it was. He had zero direct countermeasures for high tier
of poison, heat, sound, vibrations, permeation and nerve striking. He would
struggle to adapt against these without atleast a core countermeasure.
Lastly, he also needed to take a serious step in overcoming the problems of

the VOID algorithm. He had always been determined to do so, but only after
the Martial Contest has he become impatient to fix them.
Currently, there were still two main issues with the VOID algorithm. The first
issue was an issue that existed on Earth as well. He needed to fix the viability
problem of the VOID algorithm. It was almost impossible to master the
VOID algorithm in its entirety. Which is why it was not viable on Earth.
The second problem was, of course the new world problem. Adapting the
VOID algorithm to the new world of his second life was something he
intended on working on in the next training stage.
He had chalked out his objectives. Now it was time to get around to fulfilling
them.
Chapter 280 Meeting
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier, Missus Nartha Freier is ready to receive you." A

staff member addressed him bowing deeply as a sign of respect. "Please
follow me."
"Alright, thank you." Rui nodded as he got up, and trailed after her.
Today was the day of his appointment with the chairwoman of Freier Ester
Inc who had commissioned to him to be a representative champion for Freir
Ester Inc. They would likely engage in negotiations over several details of the
commission contract.
This was one thing that separated personal commission contracts from
regular commission contracts. Since the client had approached Rui and
specifically desired him, Rui had obtained some amount of bargaining power.
The Martial Union had very little active control over the contract asides from
the standard conditions and rules.
Soon they reached an office. The staff member stepped aside, bowing as she
gestured to the door.
"Thank you." Rui said as he entered the office.
"Ah my." A feminine voice remarked. "It's a pleasure to meet the finalist of
the Martial Contest, Apprentice Rui Quarrier. I am Nartha Freier, the founder
and chairwoman of the Freier Ester Corporation."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Chairwoman Nartha." Rui replied bowing a little
as she performed the smallest of curtsies. "Thank you for commissioning me,
and thank you for the invite."
Nartha Freier was a beautiful older woman, with long flowing blonde hair.
Yet her sharp eyes caught his attention more than her aesthetics did. She was
a powerful woman; he did not feel particularly comfortable under her gaze.
"Not at all, young man." She laughed dismissably. "I've been looking forward
to meeting you ever since I personally witnessed your performance in the
tournament. Come, let's have a seat."
The office was extravagantly luxurious, with posh sofas of remarkable

comfort. Rui had already figured this was the office she used to greet guests
she wanted to impress, hence the impractical architecture and décor that
facilitated aesthetics at the cost of practicality.
"Would you like to have a drink?" She asked courteously.
"Water, please." Rui smiled, as Nartha immediately signaled to an attendant

in her office to heed Rui's request.
"I have to say, I'm quite surprised that someone of your age made it to the
finals." Nartha remarked. "Even more surprising is that someone your age
managed to win the Martial Contest. Usually, the Martial Contest is won by
an extremely senior student past the age of twenty or something of the sort."
"You flatter me" Rui smiled.
"Am I? I do believe in your potential and prowess, young man." Nartha told
him. "What considerations do you have of my commissions? We can
negotiate on the price, however I do believe it's a reasonable price."
"I'm satisfied with the price." Rui remarked. "However, I do have some
questions and conditions."
"Go ahead." Nartha replied.
"First, I wanted to inquire about the level of the Martial Artists that I will
generally be facing." Rui told him.
In reality, Rui already knew the level of the Martial Artists he would be
facing. The Martial Academy provided him with reasonably detailed
information on the matter that the intelligence department had managed to
procure. But he deliberately pretended not to know because he wanted to
gauge how sincere and honest Nartha was, it would tell him how careful he
had to be.
"I'm not an expert on Martial Artists." She replied thoughtfully. "But I do

believe your prowess should be most, if not all, of the representative fighters
that participate. There are a few here and there that are powerful enough to be
a threat to you, but for the most part, I do believe you would be a force to
reckon with."
"I see." Rui replied. This largely matched with what he's learnt from the
Martial Academy through the mission bill. "What are the odds that by being
your representative, I won't earn the ire and hatred of your competitors and
enemies? I may be a Martial Artist, but I cannot make powerful enemies."
Frankly, if he was by himself, he would be less concerned. But he had the

Quarrier Orphanage that was extremely vulnerable. He was not powerful
enough to protect himself and his family. If he made powerful enemies, the
Quarrier Orphanage could possibly come under danger in the worst-case
scenario. He was not a naïve fool.
"You do not need to worry about such things." Nartha told him, reassuringly.
"It is merely a sport with low stakes. There's some amount of money involved
in gambling to make things more exciting, but asides from that, there isn't
such a large conflict of interests between yourself and members of the circle
whose commissioned fighters you will be fighting. Any conflict of interests
will come about between myself and the others."
"I see." He replied. ('Hmph, lies.')
In reality, things were not this peaceful. There was not only money at stake
but prestige as well. Commissioned fighters were not excluded from being
targeted simply because they won the wrong fight and earned the ire of some
arrogant haughty wealthy and power individual.
Of course, it wasn't as though these people would immediately resort to

something as extreme assassination, since such things would be more
counter-productive to themselves within their circle and in general, and they
would become pariahs. The Martial Union would investigate the
disappearances and deaths of Martial Artists as well and nobody wanted to
earn its ire.
Still, Rui wanted to be careful.
"I have two conditions." He said. "First, I will take several measures to
conceal my identity and any trace of it. Second, I will require you to sign a
non-disclosure agreement regarding the details of my identity."
Nartha fell into thought as she twirled her long hair, before sighed and
nodding. "I accept those conditions."
"The non-disclosure agreement will need to be officiated by the Martial

Union." Rui added. The officiation of the agreement by the Martial Union
effectively meant the Martial union would be undertaking some responsibility
for ensuring the agreement is fulfilled by both sides. This was a measure Rui
had taken to ensure that Nartha would not blab about his identity to show off.
With the threat of the Martial Union, she would have no choice but to strictly
abide by the agreement.
Chapter 281 Home
"Is there a need to go that far?" Nartha raised an eyebrow.
"I'm just being careful." Rui replied.
"I see... careful indeed. It's a shame personally, but I accept these conditions."
Nartha replied. "Anything else?"
Rui pondered for a bit. "There is the matter of the frequency of the fights."
Rui said. "I do not wish to fight daily. However, I am unsure of the exact
precise frequency of fights that I'm willing to fight in as of this moment."
Rui had yet to finalize when he was going to do his other missions. He did
not want to accept a high frequency of fights, otherwise he would not be able
to complete his other missions.
"I'll have to consider the matter for quite a bit." He said. "I'll get back to you
on that issue shortly at a later date."
"That's not a problem at all. You can just send me a letter or a crystal
message." She replied, referring to the crystal esoteric technology that was
used to was popularly used to communicate remotely in the middle and upper
echelons of society.
"Will do." Rui replied.
"Well then, it was a pleasure talking to you." Nartha said, smiling as she got
up, performing a mild curtsy. "Unfortunately, I have some matters to attend
to soon, so I must put an end to our conversation, regrettably."
"I'm sorry for imposing on you." Rui said smiling, bowing briefly. "I'll take
my leave then."
They bade farewell to each other as Rui headed back. The meeting had taken
place in the town of Hajin, so he wasn't too far from home. He had planned to
head back straight home so that he could spend time with his family at the
Orphanage.
"RUUIIIIII!" Alice screeched when she saw him approaching the Orphanage
from within.
Alice ran out, giving him a big hug.
"You're crushing me." Rui squeezed out.
"Welcome back!" She beamed with a smile. She dragged him in as he was
swarmed by the children who all pestered him for attention.
"Big brother Rui, teach me Martial Art!" Max, one of the children who
adored Rui the most, said.
"Me too me too!" Mana, another girl who had been enraptured by Rui's
Martial Art chimed in.
Rui chuckled as he patted their heads. "Alright alright, not now though."
They pouted as Rui walked in, greeting the others.
"You had an amazing run in the Martial Contest." Horatio told him smiling.
"It felt like just yesterday we were helping you with balance training in
winter on the frozen lake." Mica sighed.
"He's come a long way." Farion greed.
Rui smiled at those words. "I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for
all of you."
"Rui..." Lashara appeared.
"Mom."
She immediately pulled Rui in a hug.
"My precious baby..."
Rui smiled awkwardly as she held him there for several seconds. "Are you
feeling okay? You got hurt in that contest didn't you?"
"I'm fine mom." He laughed. "Those wounds healed a long time ago."
It took him a while before he was able to placate her, however.
"Welcome back Rui." Julian smiled. "Congratulations on your performance

in the Martial Contest. It was truly amazing to see how far you've come in the
past two years."
"Thanks." Rui smiled.
Soon things died down as Rui settled back, relaxing. He spent some time with
his family. It was always refreshing to be able to relax in their presence
without any worries.
"I've wanted to talk to you for some time now." Rui told him.
Julian threw him a knowing smile. "I know."
Rui raised an eyebrow at that. "You do, do you?"
"Of course." Julian said as he sipped tea. "I've been assigned the head
researcher of the research project if you accept the research commission."
Rui was surprised by that. "Wow, you've reached the position of head
researcher this early? That's impressive."
"It's not all that much." Julian smiled modestly. "So what are your thoughts
on the matter? For the record, you can speak freely. I'm not obligated to
reveal anything to them. The project wasn't proposed by me either, I don't
have that kind of authority yet."
Julian was a brilliant scholar who had managed to reach the position of a full-
fledged scholar from apprentice scholar in the span of merely two years.
"I see... I'm not sure yet." Rui spoke hesitantly. "Frankly, as of right now
there are more detriments to benefits at my current stage. Even if I do accept,
no amount of money is enough by itself."
Julian seemed intrigued at that. "What do you mean specifically?"
"I need to benefit from the research as much as the Institute does. The exact
avenue of research needs to receive my approval, and I want access to all data
collected."
Julian's eyes widened as he understood. "I see, that's thoughtful of you... Hm.
That goes against the Institute's norms, but nothing is impossible, I suppose. I
don't have anywhere nearly enough authority to take the matter into my own
hands so I can accommodate your needs unfortunately."
"That's fine." Rui had replied. "I don't plan on accepting it any time soon
anyways. I have far too many matters that require immediate attention."
"Busy as always." Julian smiled. "Why not take it a bit slow? You've just
finished the Martial Contest, after all."
"It's because I finally finished the Martial Contest that I'm rushing." Rui
replied. "All of the things that I would have done if it hadn't been there have
been postponed because of it, it's time get on it and finish it. I urge to take a
step forward and reach higher Realms."
A hint of surprise flashed across his face as he understood what Rui was
referring to immediately. "...Already? Most Martial Apprentices do not reach
this stage until much later." He noted.
"I've been blessed with fortunate circumstances in that regard." Rui said,
sipping his tea.
Julian could immediately sense that Rui did not want to divulge anything
specific. He did not push the matter out of consideration for his brother's
privacy. But he could not help but be curious regardless.
Chapter 282 Offer
Rui had spent a few days at the Orphanage. Spending time with his family
and catching up with all of them. He even spent time playfully training Max
and Mana for Martial Art. Surprisingly, he found that perhaps their desire to
be Martial Artists weren't too outlandish.
Max was quite strong and tough for his age; his muscles were remarkably
developed for someone of his age and he clearly spent a lot of time on
physically intensive activities. He had potential to be quite remarkable.
Mana on the other hand was remarkably agile and fast. She was remarkably
nimble and light on her feet, capable mobile maneuvers.
Frankly, if they underwent rigorous and thorough training, they had a decent
chance to eventually crack the Martial Entrance Exam when they were older.
Perhaps they wouldn't crack it at the age of thirteen like Rui did, but atleast
when they were older, it wasn't unrealistic.
Rui recalled how the most powerful candidates after the Martial Apprentices
were the older students who were nearing the age limit of the Martial
Entrance Exam. Their physicality and age, along with rigorous long-term
training meant that they were among the best of the candidates.
Furthermore, with Rui training them, their growth should be greater than the
growth of other future candidates of their age. Decades of studying, learning,
research and development on the most optimal physical and combat training
had sharpened his training senses extremely high. He was sure he could
optimize the growth of their bodies and their combat sense with a customized
targeted training plan.
Furthermore, he could prime their mindsets and attitude to be more

conducive to discovering their Martial Art. Have them develop the tendency
to introspect on themselves and their combat. He was sure the Martial
Families did something similar, in perhaps a more thorough way. This would
explain why the breakthrough rate to Martial Apprentices was higher in the
Martial Community. The children of these Martial Families had been raised
in a way that facilitated breakthrough to the Martial Apprentice Realm and
discoveries of their Martial Paths.
After spending a several days with his family in a variety of ways, Rui
eventually returned back to the Martial Academy. He had far too much to do
to take an extended vacation.
First, he had set-up an appointment for each of the three Martial Families that
had commissioned him for being a sparring partner for Martial Apprentices
of their families.
Today, he was visiting the Frial Family to iron out the details of the
commission contract.
Once he had reached the gigantic mansion, he was immediately tended to and
guided by an attendant.
"Welcome, Apprentice Quarrier." She said. "Master is awaiting you."
"Thank you." Rui said as he followed her.
Soon they reached a section of the giant mansion as they winded about the
giant premises. Just the size and extravagancy alone showed Rui how much
of a bigshot this family was.
However, what shocked him was when he felt a dull yet heavy presence as he
opened this door. His eyes widened as he recognized the feeling.
Martial Master!
"Are you alright, sir?" The attendant asked as she noticed his expression.
('Does she not feel that?') He wondered. "Uh.. No, I'm good."
She gestured to the sliding door. "Please."
"Thank you." He entered the room.
('I was right.') He thought as he laid his eyes on the sole figure in the room.
Martial Master Rana Frial. The patriarch of the Frial Family.
"Master Frial." Rui bowed deeply. "I'm honoured to meet you. I did not
expect to be meeting you today for this trivial matter."
Master Frial was a middle-aged man, on the older side. He gazed at Rui with
his powerful eyes as an ancient voice escaped his mouth.
"So you were able to sense me." He noted, ignoring Rui's words. "I had
restricted my presence so as to not cause distress to the people around me, yet
you have a sharp mind to have been able to detect me anyway. I see, so this is
how you overcame the Void Step technique."
Rui did not reply, still bowing. He could feel the difference between Master
Frial and headmaster Aronian. For one, headmaster Aronian had grown fond
of him and thus was more friendly, he had an easy-going and grounded
personality.
Yet, the vaunted Martial Artist before him was different.
Rui could sensed a hint of deep pride and a sharper temperament. This was a
man who held no particular goodwill to him, nor any obligations. Rui
instinctively felt a deep sense of danger.
He definitely needed to be careful with what he did and said.
"Sit." Master Frial said.
No, he ordered.
His tone was overbearing.
As a being who crossed into the upper Martial Realms, he fully expected Rui
to heed him.
Despite the extravagance of the mansion, the quarters of the Martial Master
were remarkably simple. Despite his immense pride and his overbearing
temperament, he seemed to lead a simplistic and pious lifestyle.
Rui sat on the ground at the table with folded knees, opposite to the Martial
Master.
"Mmm... It seems Aronian was right. You are special." He remarked.
"You flatter me." Rui bowed his head slightly.
"I do not flatter anyone." He pointedly retorted with narrow eyes. "My
evaluation of you is accurate and merited."
Rui didn't reply. He was confused.
"Regarding the contract..." Rui began. "I don't mind the seven hours a week
rate, however I wish to complete in a single day of the week rather than a
daily one-hour training session."
"I accept." He replied dismissively.
"Thank you, Master." Rui replied, before going silent.
"With that trivial matter out of the way..." Master Frial said. "I have a
proposal for you, young man."
He stared right into Rui's eyes with a heavy powerful gaze that sent a shiver
up Rui's spine. "Join the Fire Sect. You are worthy of being invited
personally by myself to join our ranks, and I can swear in the name of the
Frial Family that we will make it worth your time."
Rui had partially expected this to some extent. Thankfully, Master Aronian
had already filled him in with regards to the matter of the Martial Sects
"I believe Headmaster Aronian has already informed you of the matter of the
Martial Sects, correct?" He asked bluntly.
"Indeed, he has." Rui replied. "Unfortunately, I still do not think I possess

possess a thorough understanding of the entire matter as a whole."
In reality, Rui had more or less completely understood the matter. But there
was no harm in fishing for more information to gain a greater understanding.
"A little more than half of all Martial Art techniques and training regimes
come from the research and development department of the Martial Union."
he straightforwardly explained. "The allocation of the funds and resources
within the avenue of research and development is decided by the Union
Council in moderated caucuses followed by a voting session where the
Council passes the budget bill draft if it gains more than seventy-five percent
of the votes of the Martial Councilors of the Council. The budget draft bill
itself is proposed before being extensively modified and refined, based on
what allocations will be most optimal for the Martial Union, in the moderated
caucuses held in Union Council until it reaches the bare minimum number of
votes to be passed. The Sects are semi-formal groups of those with like-
minded views and interests on the allocation of budget that work together in a
variety of ways to gain the budget allocations they desire. Such as increasing
the number of Martial Artists that use the kinds and types of techniques they
wish to be researched more, roping in more powerful Martial Artists to
increase their political capital, etc. The Fire Sect does precisely this for
greater budget allocations for offensive techniques and training."
He paused before glancing at Rui. "Is there anything you failed to
comprehend?"
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, as if almost challenging Rui to say yes.
Rui gulped. "No, Master."
Rui found the difference between headmaster Aronian and Master Frial to be
rather large. Headmaster Aronian was an easy-going retired old Martial
Master that enjoyed to ramble on in conversations. While Master Frial was
still an active Martial Master in the field, he had little patience for Rui and
compressed all the information he wished to convey as much as he wanted to.
"Good. That's everything a Martial Apprentice like yourself needs to know."

He bluntly told. "What is your answer?"
"Answer?" Rui tilted his head.
"To our invitation." He said expressionlessly.
Rui's eyes widened. ('Does he expect me to make a decision at this very

moment?!')
"Er... I'm afraid I can't possibly make a decision immediately, Master." Rui
squeezed out. "Please do give me some time to consider it."
"Hmph, fine then."
"May I know what joining the Fire Sect will entail for me, precisely? What
will I be expected to do, and what benefits will I receive in return?"
"You will be expected to make learn offensive techniques, however in

exchange, you will receive offensive techniques at a vastly discounted price."
He replied. "You will gain access to certain offensive techniques that cannot
be normally obtained easily and you will gain access to tutelage from
specialists you normally would be able to learn from."
"I see..." Rui replied, this was very tempting, he couldn't lie.
Still, there were some concerns. "You mentioned I will be expected to learn
offensive techniques... What if the degree to which I am expected to learn
offensive techniques clashes with my Martial Path?"
He was an all-rounder. He would not let his Martial Art lean too much in the
direction of offense.
"If it diverges too much, you will be excluded from the Sect. The Fire Sect is
for offensive Martial Artists, after all. If you do not increase the weight you
place on offense, then there would be no point in inviting you in the first
place."
Rui had suspected this would be the case. Sects increased the population of
Martial Artists using their techniques. A greater population would mean a
greater amount of people would be benefitted by research in that particular
field, and this would translate to a higher allocation of capital to research in
the annual budget allocation bill.
However, if Rui did not increase the number of offensive techniques he used,
then he was not contributing to the population using offensive techniques by
specifically joining them. Which meant he would be gaining all the benefits
of being in the Sect without actually contributing anything. The Sects would
not allow him to join if that were the case. He would likely need to warp his
Martial Art to suit the Sect.
The very idea of altering his Martial Art for the sake of a Martial Sect
disgusted him to his core. He would rather die than taint his Martial Art and
Martial Path in such a manner.
Still, the benefits were attractive. If he could find some way around it, then it
would be incredibly perfect.
For now, he put the matter aside, He still had a lot of considerations. He also
wasn't done talking to Master Frial.
"Master, you mentioned more than half of the techniques and training come
from the research and development department of Martial Union." Rui told
him "Where do the remaining techniques come from?"
"From Martial Artists, of course." Master Frial replied. "Martial Art requires
individuality and originality. Uniqueness to set it apart. Only then can you
walk down your own path instead of a path paved by someone else. Martial
Artists who create their own techniques take huge steps in regards to the
individuality of their Martial Art and often sell a license for distributing their
original techniques to the Martial Union in exchange for a huge sum of
credits and other benefits and privileges. These techniques are then added to
the library of existing techniques that can be purchased by other Martial
Artists like yourself to be mastered. Often times, Martial Artists cooperate
with the research and development department of the Martial Union to for the
creation of the techniques and such."
*****
Will probably slow down chapters tomorrow and day after. I'll release extra
chapters on the days after, so don't worry.
Chapter 284 Learnings
Rui's eyes raised his eyes in interest. It was possible for him to exchange
lesser version of the VOID algorithm to the Martial Union for things he truly
needed in the future. As far as potency went, the VOID algorithm was very
easily a grade ten level technique as far as difficulty and power went. Rui
wondered what he would get in turn for lesser versions of the VOID
algorithm.
"Train my daughter well." Master Frial. "The head butler of the family will
handle the matter of the contract."
Rui nodded.
"Our time ends here." Master Frial bluntly told him. "Leave."
Rui got up, bowing before leaving the room.
He had a lot to think about. He quickly signed the contract before leaving. He
would begin the weekly training immediately.
What he found interesting was that his daughter attended the Hrava Martial
Academy branch. This was a bit bizarre to him. But technically, Rui
supposed he could enter other Martial Academies if it was for the sake of a
mission. This made him feel a bit strange, sparring in other Martial
Academies as a sparring partner while he was a student of the Hajin branch.
"Also... If she's in the Hrava branch..." Rui pondered. "I might run into Arjun
Erigaisi."
Arjun Erigaisi had been the representative of the Hrava branch in the Martial
Contest. Rui had only met him once before the commencement of the first
round of the contest.
Furthermore, the same was likely to occur with the other Martial Apprentices
he was supposed to serve as a sparring partner to. He wondered which
branches of the Martial Academies they belonged to.
Having concluded his business with the Frial Family, he left for the
Academy. He still had two more sparring partner personal commissions from
the Distak and Shamik Families. He intended to visit both of the to iron out
his details.
And so he did.
Over the next few days, he visited them both. Almost unsurprisingly, the
Masters of both Martial Families extended him an offer to join the Earth and
the Lightning Sects respectively. Although they went about it differently than
Master Frial did, what they offered effectively boiled down to be the same.
"In exchange for some higher commitment to defensive techniques." Master

Gillian Distak had told him. "We offer you a greater amount of techniques,
resources, benefits and privileges for a lesser amount of cost. Your defense
will undoubtedly grow should you accept our offer, becoming your strongest
parameter. Saving your life. Join the Earth Sect."
"Furthermore, you're a rare talent with a unique and powerful Martial Art."
Master Verlen Shamik had told him at a separate occasion when he had
visited the Shamik Family. "We are willing to extend a certain amount
privilege to you in particular. The Lightning Sect will undoubtedly facilitate
your speed and maneuvering to rise significantly, you have much to gain and
very little to lose
Both Masters expressed a degree of sincerity, however they did not fret at all
when Rui did not seem to keen on accepting their requests. They simply
wished Rui to take care of the Martial Apprentices he would be training, and
did not push him further.
Of course, Rui understood their perspective well enough. While he was

probably promising potential asset in their eyes. At the end of the day, he was
but one Martial Apprentice. The Fire, Earth and Lightning Sects were the
three largest Martial Sects of the Martial Union, since they encompassed
offense, defense and motion in combat.
Regardless, Rui learnt a lot about the politics of the Martial Sects from the
explanations of the Martial Masters. For starters, the relationships between
Martial Sects wasn't exactly straightforward. It wasn't even necessarily
competitive, it all depended on the relation between fields the Sects
advocated research for.
Apparently, there were smaller sub-sects that advocated for smaller fields that
fell within the big fields. Field such as the Fist Sect that advocated for
research on fist-striking techniques. The Palm Sect was a sub-sect of the Fire
Sect that advocated for palm centric techniques.
Apparently, these Sects came together under the Fire Sect for securing budget
allocations for offensive techniques, however once budget allocation for the
offensive techniques was secured, they immediately competed with each
other for which sub-sect gets the bigger share for the new offensive-technique
allocations.
Apparently, a similar thing happened across all of the broad and larger Sects.
Then there were Sects that weren't mutually exclusive. The Fire Sect and the
Grappling Sect overlapped a bit with offensive grappling techniques, for
example.
There were numerous power struggles that were in deadlocks for such
reasons. It was a messy and complicated relationship.
Frankly, to some extent Rui just wished to stay away from Martial Sects
entirely. It seemed like a tiring matter to be involved with the Martial Sects at
all. This was especially the case when there was no definitive need to be
involved. Even if he wasn't a part of them, he could still work hard and
purchase techniques from the Martial Union the good old-fashioned way.
The only thing he would be missing was the prospect of many benefits and
convenience, which could help accelerate his growth.
Then there was the matter of the conflict of interest between his neutral path
and the Sects requirement of him to put a greater weight and emphasis of the
techniques of their Sect above others.
Rui shook his head; he would not do that.
Another thing he confirmed was that there was no all-rounder Sect.
Of course, this made sense and he had predicted it, after all, a Sect that
advocated for the research of all fields and techniques was a meaningless and
pointless Sect. Sects advocated for research allocations in specific fields over
others, an all-rounder Sect would advocate for all fields, rather than one field
over another.
"Maybe I can create my own Sect to suit my needs some day." He muttered
out aloud, thinking to himself, before chuckling mirthfully and shaking his
head at the notion.
Rui creating his own Sect? There was no way such a thing would ever
happen.
Chapter 285 Mission Begins
PEW!
The Stinger sliced through the air, whistling as it plunged into the vitals of
six-armed gorilla.
The gorilla howled as it wildly swung at Rui.
WHOOSH
Rui casually evaded the blow as he closed the distanced between them.
BOOM!
A powerful Flowing Canon attack crashed into the gorilla's wound.
The gorilla screamed in pain as it scurried away in fear and pain.
Rui walked forward as he happened upon a transparent tree. Rui raised an

eyebrow as scrutinized its strange features; the tree looked like it was made
up of glass.
His eyes turned to one of the fruits hanging, he immediately reached to pluck
all of them, placing it in a special container.
"Mission accomplished; I guess." He muttered as he took out the mission

tracker device and hit the mission completion button before placing it back
and heading back.
This was one of the hunting commissions that he had received and decided to
accept. A procurement mission of the Glass Apples, a valuable esoteric
resource that existed in the Jalvan Forest far south of the town Of Hajin, in
the Mantian Region.
The Glass Apples were an esoteric resource that were used in the production
of premium high-grade healing potions apparently. The commissions had
come from a potion company that had wanted to hire him to procure the
Glass Apples since the danger level of the heart of the Jalvan Forest was at
the Apprentice Realm.
He headed back towards the town of Hajin. Five days had passed since his
signing of the sparring partner contracts with the three Martial Families.
Today was going to be the first day of this mission. He would be heading
over to the Hrava Martial Academy branch to begin a lengthy period of
sparring training.
The name of his training partner was Siera Frial, daughter of Martial Master
Rana Frial. He hadn't been given any additional information on her for some
reason.
He shrugged, it didn't matter at all, frankly.
Within two hours, he had reached the town of Hajin. And in half an hour, he
had arrived at the designated drop-off location; one of the branches of the
company.
"Apprentice Quarrier." An assistant bowed deeply. "Thank you for the

successful completion."
"Express my regards to chairman William." Rui nodded before getting up to

leave.
"Ah, the chairman wished to speak to you about a partnership agreement."

The assistant told him.
"Unfortunately, I am busy for the rest of the day. Please convey my regret to
him." Rui immediately turned around as he left like the wind, activating both
his maneuvering techniques. It hadn't taken him long to reach the Martial
Academy at the core districts of the town.
"Apprentice Quarrier." An inspection officer greeted him as he returned. "We
have verified the mission completion with the client. Please proceed to
complete the post-mission protocols."
"Will do." Rui nodded as he headed up to fill the necessary report and
paperwork. It was the one part of missions that he disliked the most. But
unfortunately, it was very necessary.
Once he finished that, he immediately headed to his dormitory. Stripping

nude as he tossed his sweaty uniform onto the bed. He couldn't wait to take a
bath. He was going to be heading to another branch of the Martial Academy.
He, the representative of the Hajin branch in the Martial Contest. In the eyes
of the Martial Community, it was bad enough that he was a commoner. He
bet that appearing sweaty and dirty would make his job much worse. Seeing
how much prestige and pride the Frial Family had, he wouldn't be surprised if
the Siera Frial was an egotistical, haughty and arrogant girl.
Still, a job was a job. The pay was very solid and he was curious to test the
efficiency of the VOID algorithm as a good training and sparring method for
others.
Soon he made all the arrangements as he set out for the Hrava branch of the
Martial Academy. He couldn't very well walk to the branch, it was much too
far, instead he partook in the transportation provided by the Martial
Academy.
The Hrava branch was a considerable distance away, outside of the Mantian
region. The transportation made the travel more convenient. It was a semi
horse-drawn carriage and a semi-motorized vehicle that was remarkably fast.
Rui was impressed that the esoteric technology of this world allowed for
motorized technology. He recalled that for the royal capture and rescue
mission, the Kandrian Investigation Bureau had made use of wholly
motorized vehicles. At the time he was too focused on a personally important
life-or-death mission to consider the matter fully.
It seemed that it wasn't ubiquitous, however. For the most part, man-pulled
rickshaws were the norm at the lower strata of society, while horse-pulled
carriages were the norm for upper classes of society. And it seemed that
motorized technology was either too impractical or unviable to mass-
produce, or was proprietary technology of the Royal Family and to some
extent, the Martial Union.
Regardless, it was quite fast, and in the span of a few hours, he had already
arrived at the Hrava branch in the Frixtal region of the Kandrian Empire.
Rui immediately got off, gazing at the gigantic Academy before his eyes. The
Hrava branch was no less impressive than the Hajib branch, it seemed.
"Purpose of visitation?" The guards demanded.
"Mission." Rui simply answered as he brought out his signed and stamped
mission bill as well as his learner's license, handing it over to the guards for
inspection and verification.
"All clear." The guard nodded, handing back the bill after he verified and
confirmed the legitimacy of the document and the mission. "Please enter,
Apprentice Quarrier."
Rui wordlessly retrieved the mission bill as he entered.
('The structure seems more or less the same.') he mused as he gazed at a map
conveniently placed upon entry. The alignment and designation details was a
bit different, but otherwise the organizational structure was identical.
"Alright then... time to begin the mission." He sighed as he entered the

building.
Chapter 286 Spar
"Please wait here a moment, Apprentice Quarrier." An assistance staff told

him. "I will inform Apprentice Sierra Frial that you have arrived."
"Please do." Rui nodded, as took a seat in the reception of the Martial
Academy.
Five minutes later, he felt the presence of a tall and burly Martial Apprentice
enter the room, recognizing her immediately, the Frial Family had provided
him with a picture of her.
"Apprentice Frial." He began. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm-"
"I know who you are." She rudely cut him as she folded her arms. "Follow
me to the sparring facility immediately. I want to see what you're made up
of."
Her tone had more than just a little hint of challenging hostility.
Rui stared at her for a second, before wordlessly getting up. They both
headed towards the Apprentice sparring facility of the Martial Academy. Rui
felt like a celebrity as everyone he walked past. Staff, foundational and
explorer students, Martial Apprentices etc all recognized him as their eyes
widened. It got even worse once he actually entered the sparring facility. It
turned out there was an ongoing regular Apprentice sparring session. Nothing
odd about that, his Academy had held plenty of those as well.
He just felt countless eyes widened with surprise as each and every single one
of them recognized him.
To be fair, he understood their emotions. He would be surprised as well if

someone like Fiona walked into his Academy one day wearing her Martial
uniform. He just ignored all of them as Siera Frial dragged him to an empty
ring.
Yet before they could even reach it. Siera had been flooded with Martial
Apprentices who all pestered her with questions.
"What's going on here?!" One of them asked in a barely concealed whisper.
"Why's he here?"
"My Family hired him as a sparring partner." Sierra huffed with a hint of
pride. "He's mine for the next seven hours."
A flash of surprise made its way through the small crowd as the Martial
Apprentices glanced at him with expressions of curiosity and admiration.
"Enough." A powerful voice drew everyone's attention as all of them

experienced a familiar pressure.
"Get back to your places and leave them alone." The Martial Squire instructor
of the facility ordered, much to Rui's relief.
Yet just as they were about to enter the ring;
"Hey Quarrier, it's been some time." A deep voice called out to him.
Rui turned around, recognizing the towering, imposing man. "Arjun Erigaisi.
I expected to run into you."
"Well, I didn't." He smiled friendlily. "What brings you here?"
"Sparring partner mission." Rui gestured to Siera Frial.
"I see... that's pretty interesting heh."
"Hey!" Siera complained. "Don't waste time, let's go!"
Rui sighed as he turned around. He quickly put his standard gear and kit
aside the ring, before entering the ring.
"Take your stances." The referee said.
To Rui's surprise, Siera adopted a closed defensive stance. She brought up

her arms up and close to her in a solid guarding position. She even planted
her feet apart, a position unconducive maneuvering.
The reason he was surprised was because Master Rana Frial was part of the
Fire Sect, which meant he was an offense-oriented Martial Artist. Yet Siera
was a defense-oruented Martial Artist. It seems that her Family had not
influenced her Martial Path.
Rui adopted an offensive maneuvering stance. Positioning his arms in a way

that made it easy to launch both quick and powerful strikes while remaining
light on his feet.
Rui immediately dashed towards her swiftly. As the only fighter with an
offensive fighting style at all, the initiative of the fight was in his hands.
POW POW!
He threw two short speedy jabs, yet they harmlessly bounced off of her hefty
guard.
('Solid.') He mused.
POW POW!
He swiftly shifted to her side, launching another swift combo. Siera turned
trying to block in time, yet she was too slow.
However, he was impressed when his strikes still failed to do any meaningful
damage. He wasn't accumulating momentum or using his weight, but it was
still a proper strike empowered with Outer Convergence and Vital Pressure.
('That alone is not enough at the higher echelons of the Apprentice Realm, it
seems.') He mused. ('How well will she handle a proper swing?')
He swung his fist from behind him as he threw his weight behind it.
BAM!
It crashed into her guard, yet she remained steady even if she had to exert
herself.
Rui retreated before accelerating towards her.
BOOM!
A powerful Flowing Canon crashed into her guard.
She gritted her teeth yet she stood her ground, expressionless throughout.
"Is that the best you can do?" She taunted.
Rui's expression broke into an amused smile. He wordlessly rushed in,

launching another strike, she quickly shifted to block it.
WHOOSH
The attack disappeared.
It was a feint.
BAM!
She gasped in pain and shock as a powerful Flowing Canon crashed into her
gut, the impact overwhelmed her.
She fell to her knees as he head hit the ground. She grimaced as she cradled
her wounded gut.
"Your defense isn't dynamic enough." Rui sighed. "It's tough, but it's like a
heavy shield that can barely be moved. I can easily circumvent it."
In terms of toughness and durability, she was quite impressive. She just had a
gaping weakness that made her easy to take down. Rui could easily see why
she was not able to become the representative of her branch.
"There are two straightforward solutions." He told her. "You either improve
your dynamic defensive prowess. Or you improve your foundational defense,
you need to be as solid as a rock everywhere. Much like Arjun Erigaisi.
Although his defense is also more dynamic than yours."
Her eyebrows knitted as she got up. "Shut up!" She shouted defiantly. "You
beat me only once! Don't get too cocky you hear me? Let's go another
round!"
Rui sighed. "Well, atleast you're not a pussy."
She had the defiance needed to grow stronger, as long as she directed her
energy in the right direction.
Chapter 287 Introspection
POW POW POW!
Siera grimaced as Rui's attacks found themselves on her vitals, cleanly

dodging her guard. He usually used a combination of the algorithm's
predictive prowess in conjugation with his superior speed, agility.
Phantom Step made it overwhelming.
He didn't even think about using Blink or the Stinger. That would just be
bullying, at that point. He didn't enjoy tormenting his opponents beyond what
was necessary or warranted.
He only went so far as to push her to her limit, allowing her opportunities and
avenues to fight back and limiting himself to a portion of his techniques so
that the spar would beneficial to her.
Frankly, Rui could already see small improvements across the fight.
Compared to their first round to their final round, she had grown to be able to
last much longer. Her raw combat ability, of course, did not improve in the
span of merely several hours. However, a shift in her mind-set caused her to
take more solid and apt approaches to her predicament. That alone was worth
the sparring session.
BOOM!
Rui flipped her flat to the ground from a grappling position.
"Let's put an end to the sparring session for today, I've filled my weekly
quota." He sighed before consuming a rejuvenation potion. "Goodbye."
He left her as he gathered his belongings before making his way out of the
sparring facility. Yet, just before he could;
"Umm, excuse me!" He heard a girl call out to him.
He paused, turning around wordlessly. A bunch of girls had approached him,

waiting for when he was done.
"Can you spar with us as well?" One of them asked.
Rui shook his head. "I was commissioned to spar her specifically, my time is
up."
"Th-then if my family commissions you, will you spend time with me as

well?" She blushed, averting her eyes.
Rui paused, staring at her until he finally understood why she was behaving
strangely.
('Ah, I see...') He scratched his head awakwardly, Rui had been so far
detached from anything resembling popular in his school days that he almost
failed to understand that the girls were probably interested in him.
Or he could just be misreading them, he was no player.
Rui shook his head. "I'm afraid I won't be accepting anymore commissions
for the timebeing."
He turned around immediately, leaving the facility.
Still, the incident made him think. He realized that he couldn't even
remember the last time he seriously thought about romance. It was almost a
shocking realization.
('How long has it been? Decades? In this life I had been extremely focused on
cracking the Martial Entrance Exam with everything I had. After I did, I was
then focused on discovering my Martial Path, and now I'm eternally focused
on traversing it deeper.')
And in his previous life, he had long given up on romance. He had given a
shot at looking for a partner when he was a younger and more energetic man,
but as he grew older, he grew increasingly consumed with his work.
Furthermore, his health declined increasingly. He had completely given up on
relationships, blocking them away from his mind. Not just with women, but
he grew increasingly isolated from any meaningful relationships at all. He
had had 'friends' among his fellow research team twho would coax him to
join them in the occasional meal at the local steakhouse, and he would often
oblige, pleased with the many research successes that Project Water got
initially.
However even those relations cooled down once the research team had hit a
hard dead-end with the viability issue of the VOID algorithm. He died
without it ever changing.
In his new life, the sheer positivity he felt as well as all the affection and
support he had received had warmed him up again, but he hadn't thought
about romance.
He was too young for it most of his life of course. But he was already fifteen
now, and his body was undergoing through the familiar process of puberty,
and annoying hormones were increasingly starting to plague his brain with
annoying urges. Of course, his conscious mind was not weak to them,
specially since he was an old man mentally with a mind that had grown
twice.
Still, they were there. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to engage in

relationships some day.
The circumstances of his second life were far better than of his first life. He
was perfectly healthy, maybe even a tad bit attractive. Who knew, maybe he
would one day enter into a long-term relationship with a woman he would
come to love.
He shook his head. He didn't think it was likely. He was far too single-
minded in nature for this to be realistic. He spent all of his energy on his
Martial Art and his Martial Path. Relationships required a lot of time, energy
and investment into, and they were yet very fragile with no guaranteed
success.
Rui just didn't feel the need to get into one in a spectacular world such as this.
Even if he did, he would likely end up neglecting her and the relationship,
which was genuinely a bad thing to do.
Or his relationship would end up in a conflict of interest with his Martial

Path. And that would not be a pretty conflict. Especially when he would
never forsake his Martial Path for his relationship, or anything.
Ultimately the Martial Path was an extremely personal and lonely inherently.
It was a path that only one person could walk on. That very nature made it
difficult for a committed relationship. Even if his partner was a Martial Artist.
Hell, his partner being a Martial Artist could perhaps make things even
worse.
Since both of them would be walking their own individual lonely Martial
Paths. Or maybe that shared experience would make it easier?
Rui shrugged, he didn't know. He was neither experienced nor an expert at

all. He was just having random thoughts about the matter as he went back
home.
Chapter 288 DiVilier
"Apprentice Quarrier, here is the item you requested." A staff member said to
him, while handing an object.
It was a mask.
Rui studied the mask thoroughly.
"And this will reliably ensure my identity won't be leaked through normal
means?" He asked.
"Yes. The mask is a proprietary product of the Martial Union developed

specifically for the purpose of reliable identity protection for sensitive and
risky mission." She explained.
"I see." Rui nodded with relief as he put on the mask. "Thank you."
He walked out of the dispatch facility, as he began jogging towards the

location. Fortunately, the town of Harrifel was close enough to travel to on
foot.
Today was his first mission representing Freier Ester Inc in a fight. Rui had
signed a contract for a single fight for a test, if all went well, Rui wouldn't
mind signing up for additional fights.
Strictly speaking, he hadn't signed up for a single fight, more of a single day.
The fights were semi-formal. There were some fights scheduled and sine
were spontaneously scheduled on the spot. It was ultimately for entertainment
and sport.
Soon, he arrived.
"Apprentice Quarrier." A butler bowed to greet him. "Please follow me this
way. Madame will join you shortly."
Rui nodded as he worldlessly followed the butler inside.
"What is this?" Rui paused as a the butlet led him to what looked like a
conjoined luxurious bathing and changing room with several maids waiting
inside.
"The madam has tasked me with providing bathing and grooming services
and aid as well as appropriate clothing." The butler explained.
"And the maids…?" Rui tilted his head.
"They will aid you with bathing and clothing your body." The butler
explained plainly, as if there was nothing unusual with the arrangement.
"I can bathe and clothe myself, thank you very much."
"But-"
"I insist." Rui pointedly said as his powerful mind exerted some weight on
the butler.
"Understood sir." The butler gulped.
"Also, what is this about 'appropriate clothes?'" Rui asked.
"The madam wishes you won't fight in your Martial uniform." He explained.
"Thus she has prepared clothes for you."
The butler gestured to a pair of pants.
"…"
"…"
"…Is the top missing or on its way?"

"There is no top." The butler crushed his hopes.
"She wants me to fight in just pair of pants"
"Correct, sir." The butler reaffirmed.
Rui stared at him hard looking for any hint of this being a big joke or prank.
But the butler's expression was inscrutable, alhough he was sweating hard
due to the pressure Rui's mind was exerting was hi.
Rui picked up the shockingly small pair of pants. "There is no way this'll fit
me."
"They're a special product meant to stretch to accommodate your body size

and shape. The cloth will contract to accentuate the shape of your posterior
for the spectators." The butler explained.
Rui grew pale at those words. "Do I have to wear these?"
"The madam has insisted." The butler explained.
Rui sighed. ('I'm an underage minor. If it's this bad for me, I can't imagine
how gross it must be for female Martial Artists. Seems rich people are
universally degenerates be it Gaia or Earth.')
His eyes knitted in irritation as he pictured a bunch if gross old men leering at
Fae, Milliana and Fiona.
"Alright, I'll handle myself. All of you leave." Rui insisted.
The butler bowed as he took the maids away with him.
Rui shook his head as he sighed. Yet the luxurious bathing area made his
eyes raise.
"This isn't so bad." He admitted. He relaxed himself in a tub bath for quite a
bit before getting out and drying up.
His eyes hurt whenever he looked at the clothes she had prepared. It took him
a while but he got it on, and remarkably, it was comfortable, even if he felt
awkward wearing it. The design seemed to be intended for combat, because it
didn't hinder his movements at all.
When he entered, the butler was waiting for him.
"The madam awaits, please come this way."
He guided Rui to a spacious office where Nartha awaited him.
"Looking good." She spoke informally. "Are you sure you don't want to show
your face? With your accomplishment and your rare features, I'm sure there
will be several women who will have an interest in you.
"Firstly, I look ridiculous." He corrected. "And what you said is the very
reason I want to hide my identity."
She merely smiled at those words as though he were a cute little toddler who
amused her as she donned a luxurious fur coat atop a loose one piece dress.
"Shall we be on our way?"
Once they boarded the carriage, it took no more than fifteen minutes to reach.
The location of the event was a large multi-floored luxury gathering hall.
Outside thete were a number of extravagant catriages each with their own
emblems and insignias signifying which family or corporation the carriage
belonged to.
The main entrance to hall had its own ostentatious emblem on it, claiming the
entire hall. The emblem
"This is the private property of the DiViliers family." Nartha said as she
noticed his gaze. "Today's Martial games, as we call it, is being hosted by the
DiViliers Family. They're a bigshot in the Martial Industry of the entire
Kandrian Empire. The DiVilier Martial Corporation is one of the leading
Martial Art esoteric technology producers. They're good at what they do, so
much so that the Martial Union and the Royal Family have both
independently signed partnership contracts with the DiVilier Corporation. I
imagine a lot of the training and mission equipment have been produced in
partnership with them. Charles DiVilier is a well-known lover and
connoisseur of Martial Art."
Rui's eyes widened as he realized why the name DiVilier sounded so familiar.
This was the same family that commissioned him for his Martial Art! The
mission bill had listed how Charles Divilier roped in Martial Artists with
unique and exotic Martial Art and Martial Paths with lucrative personal
commissions initially before eventually dragging then away from the Martial
Union entirely.
Chapter 289 Games
Rui was shocked that such a bigshot had reached out to him, even if
indirectly. Still, he did not regret his decision, the mission itself gave him
absolutely nothing of value that could enrich his experience and help his
Martial Art and his Martial Path at all. He would only be fattening his ego
while being reduced him to a trophy for display. Such vanity might even
regress his Martial Path.
The Flowing Void Style was more than a trophy for display. It was the
crystallization of decades of research, decades of relentless, maddening
blood, sweat and tears, decades of searching. Searching for the pinnacle of
martial arts and, now, Martial Art.
Just the thought of it being treated as one of many trophies made Rui bristle,
though he wisely hid his indignant range.
The carriage paused as it reached the main entrance of the hall, and the doors
opened as butlers of the DiViliers family helped Nartha out, Rui sooned
followed suit.
The scene he saw helped him understand what he was in for. Each of the
invited guests were accompanied Martial Apprentices.
There were even a few Martial Squires!
They had a sharp and heavy feel them, yet they restricted their emotion,
dampening their aura. They did do a good job, none of the ordinary humans
seemed to notice them. Yet, all the Martial Apprentices could clear feel
power in a higher Realm.
Rui could do much more, he could even gauge which among them was the
greatest threat.
"Mr DiViliers, it's been far too long." Nartha's pleasant voice drew him out of
his reverie.
Rui sharply turned as his eyes fell on an old man with an extremely groomed
appearance. His clothes and skin were practically glowing with a lustre of
their own.
He long flowing white hair that extended to his neck. A thick white beard
garnished his neck, beginning where his hair ended. He gave one the
impression of a majestic lion, with a presence that demanded attention.
"Mrs Freier." A deep melodic voice escaped his mouth, as he smiled. "I'm so
happy you could be here."
He turned to Rui. "And this is..."
"He's my representative fighter today." She smiled. "He goes by Thalken."
Thalken was the alias he had decided to go with while his identity remained
hidden.
"I see." A hint of interest lit up in his eyes, before he turned back to Nartha.
"Enjoy your time here today, if you need anything, I'm happy to help
anyhow."
"Thank you for your hospitality." Nartha curtsied as Charles DiViliers

smiled, before proceeding to welcome other guests.
Nartha and Rui proceeded inside, as Nartha joined a circle of women, each of
them accompanied by their own Martial Apprentices
"My, miss Freier." One of them greeted. "Glad you make it. Hm? Where's
Apprentice Gregory?"
"I let Gregory go. I got my hands on someone even better. Meet Apprentice
Falken." She introduced Rui.
"Better?" Her eyebrows rose. "Impressive. He seems quite young too." She
said, blatantly eying his body head-to-toe openly.
The women bantered until a booming voice gathered all their attention.
"Ladies and gentlemen." The booming voice of Charles DiVillier resonated

across the hall. "Allow me to express my sincerest gratitude to all of you for
joining me as I host our customary Martial games. I'm pleased to inform you
that our guest count has peaked in light of the Martial Festival. I hope all of
you have a wonderful time today." He said with a pausing tone as he was
showered with a round of applause. "Now without any further ado. Let us
begin!"
As he said so. The gigantic doors at the end of the hall opened as they
exposed a wide circular viewing platform with a large arena visible down
below.
The guests seemed accustomed to the phenomenon. They distributed across

the ring viewing platform, indulging in the luxurious seating arrangements as
butlers and maids tended to them.
"Ladies and gentlemen." A different voice took over. He immediately began

hosting the event. "As scheduled; the first match is between Mr Hoerken's
defending champion; Apprentice Frillix Hafbor versus Mrs Fellington's
challenger Apprentice Havier. Betting officiants are present at every location
of the viewing platform, please place you bets."
Two men walked into the arena.
"Take your stances!" The arbiter told them.
Apprentice Hafbor took a stance that prioritized static defense. He planted his
legs firmly to the ground away from his center of gravity as if he had no
intention of moving from that spot.
Apprentice Havier, instead, adopted a strange stance, his fingers curled as he

brandished his hands at Havier, as if they were claws.
Yet they were.
Rui's eyes widened as Havier's's nails grew in length. what were originally
nails morphed into claws as he brandished his centimetre long claws.
('That must have taken an enormous amount of conditioning.') Rui mused,

surprised. Rui couldn't even imagine what Havier put himself through to get
nails like those.
"You may begin." The arbiter stated.
Havier launched himself towards Hafbor with remarkable swiftness, crossing

the distance between them in the briefest moments.
He swung heavily, launching his claws at Hafborn with remarkable swiftness.
And yet.
FRAP
The claws tore through Hafbor's cloth effortlessly.
Yet they failed to pierce his skin.
Hafbor took a moment to look down on Havier, staring him down as the latter
tried his best to atleast inflict a wound.
Yet to no avail.
POW!
Hafborn hit with a jab as Havier opened up the distance, before lashing out at
Hafbor with an even more powerful swing.
And yet,
THWACK
His attack never reached Havier as Hafbor skillfully deflected it.

THWACH THWACK THWACK
Havier kept swinging, and Hafbor casually redirected them out of his way.
What surprised Rui was that his body was barely moving at all. Meaning he
wasn't exerting himself as he calmly Havier's powerful swings.
('He's applying just a few ounces of weight on the strikes.') Rui's eyes
widened with surprise. ('He's not pushing them out of his way with brute
force, he's destabilizing their flow of power by applying the bare minimum
weight on Havier's motions at the right time and place, causing them to
destabilize and go off-trajectory.')
Chapter 290 Defense
The body constantly had to maintain balance. This was easy to do if one was
merely standing in one place. However, it was not as simple when launching
a powerful attack. A large amount of mass of the body shifted very rapidly
when attacks were launched, it was not easy to maintain balance when it was
being disrupted so much and so quickly.
It may seem easy to launch a strong punch, but that was only because the
sub-conscious mind worked very hard and fast to ensure balance was always
maintained at all times. In reality, everyone's balance was always one step
away from being lost.
Hafbor's redirection was centered around that fact.
Rather than pushing Havier's strikes out of the way like normal parries
worked. He was pushing Havier's body just enough off balance in just the
correct way that the strike would inevitably go off-trajectory due to the
body's imbalance.
So how did the mind handle that?
It countered the imbalance he caused by shifting and moving the body in the
right way to restore balance. And that was what Hafbor used.
The strike's trajectory would be ruined because the sub-conscious mind was
altering the trajectory in the correct way to restore the balance that Hafbor
had ruined.
Thus, he purposefully shifted all of Havier's strikes off-trajectory by

imbalancing his flow of power precisely such that the strikes would need to
go off-trajectory for balance to be restored.
The imbalancing wasn't the impressive part, what Rui found impressive was
that Hafbor knew exactly how, where and when to imbalance the body and
the flow of power such that the strikes would inevitably miss him.
Furthermore, he did this in extremely brief periods of time. Havier was very
fast and Hafborn only had a short window before he could do this.
('What a powerful dynamic defense.') Rui couldn't help but praise him. This
defense allowed Hafborn to parry powerful and lethal attacks for very little
cost. Imbalancing the body and the delicate and fragile flow of power did not
require a large amount of energy or power. Even ordinary humans were more
than capable of doing that.
What was superhuman was Hafbor's understanding of balance and the flow of
power. His intuitive understanding of it surpassed even Rui's who had studied
the subjects for decades. Rui's understanding of it was scientific and
technical, although the VOID algorithm did employ the science to a certain
extent.
In comparison, Hafbor's understanding was purely intuitive, drawn from

heightened observation and a large wealth of experience. The understanding
was embedded in his bones, in his eyes. He could almost see the flow of
power every time he saw someone move at all.
THUD
Havier landed flat on the ground as he completely lost his balance entirely,
completely wide open and vulnerable.
Hafbor did not let the opening go to waste.
BOOM!
He mercilessly dropped a powerful drop-kick on Havier's face.
CRACK
Havier's nose broke as it began bleeding profusely.

THWACK
A soccer kick to the jaw sealed the deal.
"And the winner is; defending champion Apprentice Frillix Hafbor." The
butler announced.
Medics lifted Havier off the ground as they carted him away for immediate
medical treatment.
Nartha turned towards Rui. "What do you think?"
Rui paused for a moment as he considered the question.
"He's incredibly strong." Rui nodded as he thought back to the entire fight.
Hafbor's defense was remarkable. His invulnerable passive defense from
conditioning that allowed him to endure a lethal attack with very little to no
damage, and his active defense from his surgical redirection that allowed him
to crush all initiatives. Anybody who could even hurt him had every right to
be proud of themselves.
He was the bane of head-on offense.
"He's your opponent for today." Nartha smirked. "How do you feel? Scared?"
"Not particularly." Rui replied.
"Are you confident?"
"..." Rui shook his head. "Not confident, no. Not against someone of his
calibre."
"What do you think the probability of victory is?" She asked.
"Fifty-fifty." Rui replied curtly.
He was a specialist, which meant the VOID algorithm was comfortable

forming the optimal adapted style to take him down with the techniques Rui
had. However, even then it would not be easy. From the way he withstood a
lethal piercing attack from Havier, Rui doubted the Stinger could do much to
him. Bone was stronger than nail, however nails were sharper, which of the
two performed better would depend on the specific circumstances.
However, Rui more or less assumed the Stinger wouldn't be able to pierce his
flesh significantly. He suspected the only two place the Stinger would be able
to hurt Hafbor meaningfully were his eyes and his balls. Rui estimated that
only if he managed to land a solid strike to either of these organs, could he
possibly manage to win. He had set that as his win condition and, using the
VOID algorithm, had already begun to create an adapted fighting style meant
to accomplish that win condition.
Thankfully, Rui got access to lots of data. The coming fighters were diverse
and reasonably strong. However, Hafbor endured everything they dished out
with his incredibly passive and active defense before exploiting a gaps and
holes in their defense.
Although he wasn't an offensive Martial Artist, his offense wasn't necessarily

weak either. He was quite remarkable in that regard, as his conditioning often
benefitted both offense and defense. Strong bones and flesh did indeed allow
him to endure, however it also allowed him to hit harder. Each of his strikes
were heavy and hard, albeit slow.
He was a solid threat. Rui estimated he would have done very well in the
Martial Contest. He would have made it to the semi-finals, Rui suspected.
Seeing yet another of Martial Artist of that caliber humbled Rui to a certain
extent. Although he was the Martial Contest finalist, and arguably the
second-best Martial Artist of his generation. That was limited to his
generatiion and age group. There were Martial Artists from previous
generation who were at a similar as him, and above as well.
Chapter 291 Clash
Rui did not forget that despite all his strength, the Academy counted him as a
grade seven Martial Artist, three levels below grade ten. Even Fiona was
probably at grade eight or nine at most. She had mastered a lot of techniques,
but her Martial Art lacked individuality. Her prowess came from her
techniques, not the depth of her Martial Path.
One of the reasons he was able to cope as well as he did in their fight despite
the large gap was because his mind had reached a higher level in the
Apprentice Realm than hers did. His raw cognitive and neural enhancements
were greater, it's just that she more than made up for that gap with a bunch of
powerful and incredibly difficult techniques.
Hafborn was the example of someone who was incredibly powerful due to a
lifetime of accumulation of techniques and experience. He was not a man
who had been a Martial Apprentice for merely six or seven years. Rui
wouldn't be surprised if Hafborn had been a Martial Apprentice for far more
than just that.
Even if Rui was a monster who could swallow up techniques at a rate of one
per month, it was not possible overwhelm such a huge age and experience
gap that easily.
It was for this reason that Rui truly looked forward to fighting him. An
excited grin broke under his mask as he thought of the idea of testing his
Flowing Void Style against Hafbor's Martial Art.
Soon, his wish was granted.
"And yet another win for Apprentice Frillix Hafbor. A remarkable

performance, will his streak end?" The butler elegantly spoke. "Coming up
next, we have the representative fighter of Lady Nartha Freier. This is
Apprentice Falken's debut in the Martial games. How well will he perform
against the defending champion?"
Immediately, a mild wave of interest fluttered through the guests. New

fighters were always interesting.
Rui walked down the stair leading to the small arena below, as he felt many
gazes pouring down onto him. The fact that he concealed his identity made
him even more mysterious and exciting to them.
"Lady Freier." One of the women Nartha was accompanied by addressed her.
"What is his identity?"
She shook her head, sighing. "I cannot divulge that I'm afraid."
"My." She woman raised an eyebrow, before looking down back at the arena.
The air had already changed by the time Rui even reached Hafbor and the
arbiter. He wasn't as immersed into his opponent as he was during the Martial
Contest, yet the pressure his mind radiated clashed with Hafborn as the two
fighters stared at each other wordlessly, silently regarding each other.
Rui stopped as he reached Hafborn.
"Take your stances." The arbiter instructed.
Hafbor adopted his rock-solid stance once more.
Rui instead went for a stance that focused on offensive maneuvering. He

didn't bother trying to focus on raw power, his raw power was insufficient to
hurt Hafbor. With maneuvering instead, he could exploit holes in his Hafbor's
defense to land the Stinger onto his eyes or balls. Rui had no problem in
attacking his testicles, Martial Artists staked more than just those when they
accepted life-threatening missions.
Furthermore, with potions, any damage to them could be undone, leaving him
with no compunctions.
However, Hafbor was not stupid. While it was true that his eyes and balls
were his greatest weaknesses, it didn't take a genius to figure this out. It was
clear to Rui that he was aware of this. The position of his arms and legs
relative to Rui were such that it would be pretty hard for Rui to land a strike
on either of those locations.
Normally, Rui's greater speed would allow him to jab those locations before
Hafbor could defend, but because his arms are legs were positioned to
obstruct attacks to those locations.
"Begin." the arbiter commenced the fight.
Rui shuffled around a bit, before smoothly dashing in abruptly, hoping to

throw Hafbor off.
Yet he was unfazed.
POW POW POW!
Rui threw a flurry of jabs at him using Vital Pressure and Outer Convergence
WOBBLE
The strikes were cleanly redirected as Rui felt his balance briefly disrupted.
This sensation was rather bizarre, but it also felt unsafe, Rui couldn't really
launch follow-up attacks worth launching in that state. He understood
immediately that he had underestimated Hafbor's active redirection defense.
Not only could Hafbor redirect strikes away from himself with little amount
of energy, but he could also raise the difficulty of throwing follow-up strikes.
What this meant for Rui was that it was much more difficult even
maintaining a constant flow of attacks against him.
"Tsk." Rui tutted as he retreated for a second, regaining his bearings. He

dashed in again, launching a weighted strike.
Hafbor shifted his guard to block.
Yet;
WHOOSH
It was a feint!
Rui swirled, crouching as he launched a low strike to Hafbor's crouch.
POW
Hafbor shifted his body ever so slightly before the attack landed, causing it to
strike his pelvis bone. Rui immediately retreated.
Normally, when people evaded strikes, they tried shifting their entire body
out of the way of a strike, otherwise there wasn't much point in dodging.
However, this wasn't really the case for Hafbor. He didn't need to move his
whole body out of the way, he only needed to shift his vulnerable areas out of
the way and that was good enough. His body was so tough that as long as he
shifted the weakest parts of his body out of the way, he was not worried.
Rui's attacks could hit him basically anywhere, he would not move away
unless his eyes and groin were being targeted, and because they were smaller
than other places normally aimed for, he only needed to shift his body to a
limited degree to move them out of the way of attacks.
This made evasion far easier for him than it was for everyone else.
Rui would need to find a way to land a critical attack despite this, one way or
another.
Chapter 292 Outcome
Rui gained a more thorough understanding of Hafbor's formidability through

their exchanges. The man was probably the best defense-oriented Martial
Artist he had come across. Arjun was strong as well, but his Martial Art was
mostly passive, since his Martial Path was body conditioning.
Rui was of the opinion that well-balanced defenses such as Hafbor's were the
hardest to deal with.
Still, one good thing about the fight was that Rui could be as aggressive as he
wanted. Hafbor's offensive and counter-offensive initiative was not all that
threatening to Rui. In most cases, he was too slow to land a clean strike on
Rui, and even if he weren't his offense was not impressive. It wasn't weak,
either, Rui couldn't withstand it with zero damage, but it would truly take a
long time before the damage could actually hinder Rui.
Thus, Rui increasingly hit the pedal harder as he began pushing his
maneuvering to the max. Hafbor increasingly grew strained as it became
more and more difficult to redirect all of Rui's attacks. He began relying more
on his passive defense, his conditioning, than his redirection.
Although redirection was not physically taxing, it was mentally taxing.

Although Hafbor was good at it, estimating the correct timing and placement
for applying force to correctly redirect strikes away was difficult. This was
especially true for speedy motions like the one Rui was exhibiting. This was
the adapted style that Rui had created with the VOID algorithm.
POW POW POW
Rui launched a powerful flurry of attacks that Hafbor redirected smoothly.

Suddenly, Rui lashed out an attack for his groin, Hafbor shifted.
Yet;
WHOOSH
It was a feint.
('Now!')
PEW!
His right toe cut through the air.
"Aaargh!" Hafbor grimaced as the toe plunged into his right eye, blinding
him.
A wave of surprise fluttered across the guests.
Rui retreated as Hafbor cradled his bleeding eye. He tried to regain his
bearings as he entered a mild state of shock. He hadn't even seen the kick
coming, he felt the pain before he even realized.
Rui had been waiting for the timely blink. The problem with the Blink
technique was that Rui had no control over when they occurred. Furthermore,
Hafbor was very careful, his eyes and groin were always guarded.
Rui needed a bit of luck for him to pull off a successful Blink-plus-Stinger
combination. He needed to divert Hafbor's guard and also hope for a blink to
happen that he could then use to exploit and land a Stinger to his vitals.
The best thing for Rui to do was simply creating opportunities that he could
exploit and hope for a timely blink.
It had taken a while, but it finally happened. And Rui didn't hesitate to abuse
the opening and inflict a critical injury on Hafbor.
Hafbor had managed to lessen the severity of the injury, despite being caught
off-guard by the Blink. Yet, with half of his vision effectively gone, he didn't
have much leeway.
Rui had also managed to cripple his active defense because perception was
necessary for his delicate redirection.
What followed was one-sided domination. Rui abused the blind spot he had
created to pepper Hafbor with powerful strikes. With one side of his vision
gone, Rui was able to land the Stinger a few more times.
Eventually, Hafbor collapsed.
"And what a shocking outcome!" The butler cried. "Apprentice Falken is the
new defending champion of the Martial games!"
A round of applause erupted from the guests.
"Seriously." One of the women around Nartha said. "Who is he?"
"He looks young. I bet he's a real hottie under that mask." Another chimed in.
"Congratulations Lady Freier, seems like you caught a big fish."
"My." Nartha smiled. "It seems I did indeed get a good one."
As the guests bantered, Rui couldn't help but think back to the fight. He felt
uncomfortable by how few options he had had in his fight with Hafbor. The
Stinger was supposed to be a trump card, but it had ended up his only path to
victory.
This wasn't the first time either. The same thing had had happened in the
Martial Contest. He wouldn't have been able to beat Ian without it, and he
would have been able to hurt Fiona without it. Even in some of his hardest
fights in preliminary contest. He needed the Stinger to win several of them.
That wasn't necessarily bad, however, he was coming to realize that at the
highest levels of the Martial Apprentice Realm, his techniques were starting
to grow obsolete.
A lot of the times, he chose to incorporate the Stinger technique into his
adapted fighting style not because it was the best possible technique for the
job, but it was the best technique that he had. If he had a more diverse set of
higher-end techniques, he would not be forced to be so over reliant on the
Stinger.
The same could be said of Blink.
Blink, at the highest echelons of the Apprentice Realm, was no longer

enough by itself. It required Rui to go out of his way to create special
circumstances and hope that his opponent blinked, and only when they did
could he actually use Blink confidently.
Both of these techniques lost a lot of their power once his opponent knew
about them. By now everyone knew about these, or atleast the Martial Artists
did. In a way, this made him weaker than he was before the preliminary
contest.
Rui was not pleased about that. He had felt a certain degree of confidence in
his prowess, but he soon realized that he needed to get stronger fast. He
needed to be able to defeat the strongest of Martial Apprentices without
going through a huge amount of strategic effort. Although his tactics and
adaptive evolution were powerful, his techniques needed to support the
VOID algorithm, not hold it back.
('The next training stage...') He clenched his fist as a wave of determination

flashed through him. He stared at his next opponent with sharp eyes.
Chapter 293 Skip
Two months passed.
Rui continued his mission grind. Day-after-day, hour-by-hour. He relentlessly

exposed himself to a wide variety of missions of different kinds.
Occasionally he would form a party with his friends and complete some
grade-nine missions, but otherwise he was mostly operating solo.
In these two months, he had gotten an immense amount of experience with

mission completion. He had also consecutively gathered six thousand Martial
credits in merely the span of two months. This was nearly thrice his previous
rate, on average.
Part of the reason for this was because personal commissions were generally
much more lucrative, and he had received a lot of them across the span of
two months. Most of them were miscellaneous missions, but he did get
enough missions of defense, offense and hunting classes to keep him going.
He had also continued with the sparring partner missions as well as his
representative fighter commission with Nartha Freier.
Both of those missions had yielded him outcomes that he was quite pleased
with. All of those missions were remarkably well-suited to his Flowing Void
Style.
He had confirmed that the Martial Apprentices he had sparred with had
grown much better in the span of two months. All of them had become
remarkably more solid. Their Martial Art itself had not grown stronger, nor
had the quantity or quality of techniques increased thanks to him specifically.
However, the quality of the application of their techniques had indeed risen
significantly.
They began applying their techniques more efficiently, and more mindful of
their shortcomings and weaknesses. No longer could Rui effortlessly exploit
and abuse their weaknesses the way he did on day-one. Of course, he still
defeated them even without Blink and the Stinger, however by the end of
sixty days he needed to fight quite seriously, barring his trump cards.
That was not an insignificant boost, especially not in the span of two months.
Usually, this kind of boost required years of experience. Yet, Rui had
confirmed that the Flowing Void Style was able to shorten the process
significantly. He highly doubted any other form of training could possibly
result in such a drastic increase in efficiency and effectiveness. Perhaps the
Martial Union could rival him if it invested a lot in esoteric technology,
however, the difficult and the cost of such an endeavor would surely be
astronomical. He, in turn, could do it at no special cost.
Of course, he didn't necessarily intend to turn this into his main career, of
course not. However, it was nice to see the fruits of a two lifetimes of labour
result in such an unexpected boon. Perhaps he could reduce the frequency at
which he accepted such commissions but still keep doing it once in a while
for all the validation it gave him.
There were no worries that he wouldn't be able to either. The effectivity of

his sparring training was not gone unnoticed. He had received many sparring
partner commissions in the span of two months, not that he had accepted any,
of course. Three was already pushing it. But having received all these
commissions allowed him the luxury of variety of choice.
His representative fighter commission had gone even better. Two months
later, he was still the defending champion. He had been knocked off his
throne a few times by newer exceptionally powerful Martial Apprentices.
There were Martial Apprentices far older than he was, with much greater
experience and accumulation.
However, he always managed to knock them back and take back his spot
eventually. The Flowing Void Style and the VOID algorithm was more
effective the more data they had. However, it still usually took him a few tries
and even then, it was quite close. Furthermore, it didn't mean they could
never defeat him again, there were several who were strong enough to win
even after his adaptive evolution. These were Martial Artists with greater
physicality, greater number of techniques and experience.
Furthermore, Rui had truly begun to feel his limitations in the past two
months of fighting in the Martial games. Blink, Stinger and Phantom Step
were now all well-known by all of those who came to fight him. It became
far harder to execute these techniques in a fight. He needed to go through
herculean effort in order to apply them the way he wanted, and it only kept
getting harder and harder.
Not only had it grown harder, it had actually grown dangerous. People had
learnt to be extremely careful, but also had learnt to set traps and be prepared
for both of those techniques. Although most Martial Artists weren't as
intelligent, strategic and tactical as he was, they were not morons either. Once
Blink had become largely common knowledge, setting traps with some basic
prediction and some powerful attacks while they purposely blinked had
started to become more and more common.
This made Blink increasingly risky. Stinger was still a threat, but he still
needed to be careful. He had broken his knee once because someone had
predicted and prepared to intercept the Stinger. He had grown extremely wary
ever since.
He had accumulated more than enough Credits for a set of new techniques,
he just kept going to gain more experience. Experience was just as important
as technique.
However, he had grown more than satisfied with the two months of mission
grinding he had engaged in, he had broadened his worldview and enriched his
understanding of the Martial world. Now it was time to take a step forward,
down his Martial Path. He felt his Martial Art would stagnate if he postponed
this any longer.
He intended to immerse himself in a long training period where he

comprehensively took one step towards becoming a Squire candidate. He
hadn't forgotten the new goals he had set for himself to immediately focus on;
becoming a squire candidate and, eventually, a Martial Squire.
('It's time.') He mused as he paused before the large doors to the Apprentice
library. He breathed deeply as he pushed forward.

Chapter 294 Caught His Eyes
It wasn't as though Rui hadn't thought about what kind of techniques he

wanted to purchase; it was just that the choice grew harder every time he
returned to the library.
When he first entered the library looking for the very first Martial Art
techniques he wanted to learn, the choices were almost no-brainers. However,
once he finished his fundamental needs, then it became a matter of
optimization, which was much harder.
Still, he had a good idea of what he wanted. He needed some degree of

boosting his foundational parameters such as offense, defense and
maneuvering. After that, he needed to increase the variety of his higher-level
solutions. He needed become an all-rounder even in his trump cards. Firstly,
because that was part of his Martial Path. Secondly, there was no point in
learning another technique that was very similar to Stinger, he would quickly
run into the same problem. The existing solutions that people found for the
Stinger and Blink would apply quickly to similar techniques.
However, if he had a significantly differing solutions, then he could avoid

falling victim to existing solutions and tactics.
Another important goal of the upcoming training stage was fixing the VOID
algorithm's faults. The first being difficult of application, and the second
being adapting it to the Martial Art of Gaia.
Frankly, Rui had already thought about potential solutions. It was possible
that there were mental techniques that could aid in the process, and he
intended to verify that. Mental techniques that could aid him in the
processing that using the VOID algorithm required. This could potentially
solve the difficulty problem of the VOID algorithm, or at the very least,
alleviate it to some degree.
As for adapting it to the Martial Art that existed in Gaia, that was a bit
complicated. However, diversifying his Martial Art techniques and solutions
should alleviate this problem. The Martial Contest and even the preliminary
contest had shown him the sheer variety of fields of Martial Art that existed
in this world. He had seen poison, heat, sound, nerves, shockwaves, friction,
alcohol etc. as the basis for Martial Art techniques.
Perhaps there were Martial Art that could be best countered by one of these
fields. In that case, Rui would only be able to effectively adapt to counter that
Martial Art by possessing techniques in that field. And assuming there was
no such thing as a field that had no weaknesses, barring all-rounders, then
there should theoretically be no Martial Art Rui would be unable to adapt to.
With all of these thoughts occupying his head, he walked into the library.
('First, the basics.') He mused. ('Let's just begin by picking techniques that
boost my basic combat parameters; offense, defense and maneuvering.')
In truth, he had already had ideas for what he wanted to pick.
As much as he disliked Ian Nepomniachtchi's personality and character, he

had to admit he was extremely attracted to Ian's Martial Art techniques; the
breathing techniques.
He had a foundational breathing technique that improved his stamina; Helical

Breathing, however Ian's Martial Art was on a whole other level. The Fire,
Lightning and Earth Breathing techniques he had used in the Martial Contest
were incredibly strong.
However, they were more than just strong. They actually fit Rui's needs to an
incredibly high degree. The Fire, Lightning and Earth breathing techniques
amplified power, speed and durability respectively. Ian had mastered all of
them and could switch between any at any given point in time, furthermore
he could even use multiple techniques simultaneously, albeit partially.
What this meant is that he could effective manipulate and customize his
physical parameters to suit his needs. Manipulating his physical parameters to
specifically adapt to his opponent, it was practically made for the Flowing
Void Style.
With this, Rui could elevate his adaptive evolution to a level he hadn't even
imagined. Before he could only alter the techniques, strategy and tactics he
used to suit his opponents, now he could alter the physical parameters his
body had as well!
He grinned, excited at the prospect.
Who wouldn't be?
He immediately headed over to the breathing technique sub-section within

the supplementary section, and immediately began deep diving into the
techniques.
He hadn't ever dug this deep into the breathing technique section, and he was
surprised at how many things breathing could accomplish, it was truly
remarkable.
Eventually, he stumbled into what he was looking for.
[Fire Breathing]
To increase the output of power of attacks by increasing the amount of air

supplied to cells during the launching of attacks rather than a constant
unchanging supply of air.
[Lightning Breathing]
To increase speed of certain maneuvers by supplying a large amount of air to

cells during acceleration to top speed, allowing for top speed to be achieved
sooner.
[Earth Breathing]
To increase durability by countering impacts with increase muscle rigidity

caused by an increase in air supplied to cells.
The scrolls mentioned air instead of oxygen because Rui suspected that they
weren't aware of the compound present in air that humans actually needed for
survival. Still, the techniques worked equally well regardless.
The only problem was that each technique was a grade nine technique, much
to Rui's surprise. But it made sense the more he thought about it. These
techniques allowed Ian to hugely amplify his physical parameters. To the
point where they allowed him to give specialists like Fae, Kane and Arjun a
run for their money in their own fields.
Grade-nine techniques were extremely difficult to master. Usually, only

people who a strong affinity towards the field the techniques were present in
were able to master them.
Maybe if Rui spent a truly long time on one of them, he might be able to,
althought that was quite unlikely, but three? That was hopeless. He didn't
want to pick only one either, since that would shift the balance of his Martial
Art significantly, he would no longer be an all-rounder.
Just as he tried to think of a solution, something caught his eyes...

Chapter 295 Revelation
[Flame Breathing]
A less potent and less difficult version of Fire Breathing.
Rui raised his eyebrows in interest as he stepped in closer for a better look.
To his pleasant surprise, he found that the difficulty was grade-seven, which
was far more manageable and achievably. In fact, he found similar techniques
for Lightning Breathing and Earth Breathing.
[Wind Breathing]
[Rock Breathing]
All of the names were tacky, they were each downgraded versions of the
grade-nine breathing techniques.
Rui immediately picked the Flame Breathing and Wind Breathing techniques.
However, just as he reached for the Rock Breathing technique, he hesitated.
The Rock Breathing technique was a form of active defense. Which meant
defense that required active initiative and activation of the defenses from the
user. It was different from passive defense which existed regardless of what
the user did, like body conditioning.
The reason Rui was reluctant to choose this technique was because he already
had three active defense techniques; Acute Edge, Elastic Shift and Inner
Divergence. He didn't have a single passive defensive technique.
This was a problem because he had learnt the usefulness and even the
necessity of passive defensive techniques. Passive defense would not reduce
if he made a mistake in timing because they were perennial. It gave him
greater leeway than active defenses did.
Of course, this didn't mean passive defenses were better than active defenses,
not at all. There were just as many scenarios where active defenses did much
better than passive defenses. Arjun Erigaisi had lost in the very first round
because he did not have any active defenses to counter Servil's vibrations,
while Rui defeated Servil with active measures.
It all depended on the circumstances, and Rui wanted eliminate

circumstances where his Martial Art was entirely inadequate.
He shook his head, breaking his gaze from the Rock Breathing scroll.
('Maybe next time.')
As for passive defenses, he already knew what he wanted.
He quickly headed for the defensive section and began looking for an
appropriate defensive conditioning training technique. There were plenty,
each for different purposes. He, however, was looking for something more
general.
And he found it soon enough.
[Adamant reforging]
A conditioning technique that generally increased the durability and

toughness of flesh for a variety of all kinds of damage, including blunt force,
piercing, heat and elastic strain.
It was a grade-seven technique as far as potency and difficulty of the

techniques went.
He nodded; this did indeed suit his purposes. With this, his combat prowess
would reach the upper echelons of the Apprentice Realm without his trump
cards at all.
This left him with three or four more techniques, depending on their
difficulty, that he was willing to purchase. He did not want to push himself
too far nor stay immersed in training for too long, after all. The next thing he
wanted to verify was whether mental techniques could alleviate the difficulty
of using the VOID algorithm.
Yet, he was disappointed, surprisingly.
The mental techniques were not as powerful or game changing as he hoped.

Furthermore, most of them were related to the manipulation of other minds,
rather than his own. It was rather unfortunate. There were some self-hypnosis
techniques that increased his focus and allowed him to manipulate his
mindset, but they weren't nearly enough. He needed something ground-
breaking.
('Is there no technique that can increase brainpower by a factor of three or

four or something?') Rui cursed.
Yet he realized how unreasonable that demand was, that would be absolutely
revolutionary, and even if a technique such as that did exist, Rui highly
doubted its difficulty would be below grade-ten. Such a boost to the brain
was not too far from the neural enhancements that the breakthrough to the
Apprentice Realm provided to the brain, it was simply too overpowered.
At the end of the day, the more powerful systems within the VOID algorithm
required immense amount of nigh-instantaneous pattern identification and
recognition. His mind was incredible, but it was not a computer. It could not
engage in such a level of data storage and processing.
Rui sighed in frustration.
He was just about to leave, when a familiar technique caught his eyes.
[Mind Palace]
A technique that allowed the user to memorize the mission bills of missions
perfectly so that Martial Apprentices could complete missions without any
problem. It did this by arranging pieces of information inside an imagined
location inside the mind that the user was extremely familiar with in real life.
The user merely needed to imagine the mind palace and access information
that they had previously placed in certain places inside that location, and they
would gain perfect recall if the technique was mastered. It was a foundational
technique and was entirely free.
Rui chuckled; he had always found this particular technique amusing. The
fact that the Martial union went out of its way to develop this technique
because there were Martial Apprentices who couldn't memorize basic
information was funny to him. He could imagine the Martial Councilors of
the Martial Union passing a budget bill draft that specifically allocated a
significant budget to a technique that improved memory.
There was no way he needed such a technique.
Just as he turned around, he froze, as a realization thundered across his mind.
The Mind Palace technique was indeed meant to allow the user to store and
memorize mission data... But what if he used it to store and memorize other
data?
What if instead of mission bill data, he used the Mind Palace technique to
memorize the immense amount of pattern identification data that was needed
to use the higher-levels of the VOID algorithm that he was unable to use
before?
After all, the biggest reason he could not use it was because he was not able
to store such a large amount of information perfectly in the middle of combat
at all.
Rui turned slowly as he gazed at the scroll of the technique with eyes filled
with wonder and greed. To think that the one technique he denigrated the
most would end up being perhaps the only technique that could save him
from his predicament!
Chapter 296 Six
Rui should have seen it earlier but his amusement at the purpose of the
technique had created a blind spot around it. If he had treated it as a normal
technique, he would have seen this application of it instantly, but because he
looked down on it subconsciously, he wasn't able to.
The potential of this technique, to him at the very least, was extraordinary. As
long as he could master it and perhaps tweak it slightly to suit his needs, it
should not yield poor results. This was especially taking into account the fact
that this technique had an extremely high affinity with his enhanced
cognition.
('Stupid.') He cursed himself. ('It was almost obvious, yet I missed it because
I was being cocky.')
Still, he was glad he saw it now in such a timely manner. He picked up the
scroll without any hesitation as he added it to his pouch.
Four techniques down, two more to go.
('The next two-to-three techniques need to enhance my versatility and

variety.')
The first four techniques strengthened his foundation and aimed to mitigate
the VOID algorithm's weakness. Now, he needed to expand his capabilities to
give him more options and choices in combat. He had several ideas of what
he would have liked.
"I could really use a boost in range." He muttered to himself. If he gained the
ability to hurt his opponent from a distance, life would be a hell of a lot
easier.
Also, among all the fields his Martial Art didn't possess, a longer range was
the most optimal counter for the greatest number of Martial Art and combat
styles. Meaning, by giving his Martial Art long-range capability, he would
increase the number of Martial Art he could adapt to more than he could if he
mastered some other technique or some other field. Long range was vital, and
remarkably powerful in many scenarios.
He even knew what technique he would have liked to master.
He immediately went to the offensive section and began browsing through

the techniques in a particular section.
"Aha." His eyes lit up. "Found it."
[Tempestuous Ripple]
An offensive long-range technique that projected shockwave attacks from a

distance. The user used a combination a breathing technique as well as body
movements to create a small localized region of high-density solid-like air,
and then struck said air with a powerful strike launching a wind attack.
He reached for the scroll, picking it up.
This was the technique he wanted to acquire. It was the technique that
representative Ana Marianne had showcased in the Martial Contest, he had
been quite impressed by her techniques, even if she did lose in the first round.
Rui did not fault her techniques for that. Her opponent in the first round was
Mia Marnt, who was remarkably powerful and managed to reach the semi-
finals of the Martial Contest, losing to Fiona of all people.
Furthermore, he did think Ana could have beaten Mia if she used her
techniques more effectively to counter Mia's sound attacks.
Still, this was indeed was he sought for. If he mastered this technique, he
would gain a huge boost in the number of potential solutions he could apply.
Furthermore, the quality of his adaptive evolutions against close-quarters
fighters would increase substantially.
"That's five techniques, one or two more to go."
He scratched his head. He really wasn't sure what else he ought to get.
Perhaps he ought to bolster up his grappling to ensure that he wasn't lagging
too far behind in that regard.
He shrugged, that was a good idea, and with the Stinger his striking had over-
taken his grappling, enhancing his grappling so that he would be able to adapt
to Martial Art that could be countered by grappling was useful. Furthermore,
with the Adamant Reforging training technique, Rui's security in grappling
combat will have increased a lot.
He immediately walked over to the grappling section as he strolled around,

looking for techniques he could learn as he stumbled into something quite
interesting and familiar.
[Flow Flux]
A counter-offensive technique that destabilized balanced through intercepting

and applying targeted force on incoming strikes in specific angles and
directions.
Rui's eyes twinkled as he recognized the technique, or at the very least the
principle behind it. This was the core of Hafbor's active defense. The
difference was that Hafbor's technique applied this principle purely
defensively, while Flow Flux aimed to create vulnerabilities and openings for
the user to exploit.
Rui didn't want to learn the defensive version of the technique anyway, not in
this training stage atleast. Flow Flux was attractive to him because it had the
ability to create vulnerabilities, this was a trait that was extremely compatible
with the VOID algorithm. It would allow for him to have a higher probability
of being able to squeeze out victories in fights where he was completely
losing.
It was a grade-seven technique too, which meant that it was powerful, but not
overwhelmingly so. As long as Rui used to efficiently and effectively, it
should serve as a valuable trump card for a quite some time to come.
Rui picked the scroll out of the slot, before nodding.
"This should be enough for this training stage."
None of the techniques he had chosen were particularly easy to master, all of
them were grade seven, which was around the grade where the difficulty was
just low enough that it was worth Rui to engage in mastering. At higher
grades, it was often the case that hard work alone was not enough. Many a
times, techniques that fell from grade eight to grade ten required affinities
and talent.
Rui did not want to waste time on a technique only to discover he lacked the
needed talent and affinity needed to master the technique in a needed amount
of time.
Rui glanced at all the techniques he intended to purchase.
Flame Breathing.
Wind Breathing.
Adamant Reforging.
Mind Palace.
Tempestuous Ripple.
Flow Flux.
He wasn't even sure how long it would take, but he intended to master all of
them.
Chapter 297 Regimes
He wasn't entirely sure how strong he would become once he mastered these
techniques but he genuinely couldn't wait. He also didn't know if his Martial
Art would reach maturity once he finished this training stage. It was possible,
but he couldn't be sure, he could only hope.
He took his six scrolls to the payment registrar. He didn't care about the cost;
he had earned an immense number of Martial credits and could easily afford
many more techniques. He appreciated the system that the Martial Academy
had set up. He had even long understood the reason it as the way it was and
why it was so good.
The Martial Academies were meant to pump out qualified Martial Artists,
this was their top priority. He was relatively certain the Martial Academy
didn't give two hoots of the money it earned from the students of the
Academy completing missions.
So why did it charge Martial credits that could only be earned from missions?
Wouldn't just giving all the techniques to the students for free allow them to
not waste time on missions and quickly master more techniques?
The answer was yes, but doing this would reduce the quality of Martial
Artists produced in the long run. Being given everything they need on a silver
platter without any cost would simply produce Martial Apprentices who were
not worthy of the techniques they were given. Once these over-privileged
Martial Artists left the Academy and suddenly run into a much harder system
as far as purchasing technique and completing missions went, they would
simply collapse under the difficulty because they had not developed the
experience as well as the perseverance needed.
Yet at the same time, Martial Academies could not make the difficulty too
high. It didn't make sense to force Martial Apprentices to spend years
grinding missions just to earn a handful of techniques. That was a waste of
valuable time. The human mind and body's ability to learn was at its highest
until the age of twenty-five, this was also the age at which the brain would
complete its development. After this age, the ability to learn and grow would
slowly reduce, bit-by-bit.
Forcing these Martial Apprentices to work when it was best to learn and,
afterwards, learn when it was best to work would be utterly inefficient.
Thus, the Martial Academy had aimed to sought the best balance. After a
month of mission grinding, Martial Apprentices could generally buy a
handful of techniques. This was a good balance because it just enough that it
would force Martial Apprentices to go through several months of mission
grinding across their time in the Martial Academy without hindering their
training too much.
Once he bought the techniques, he sat down at a table in the library. He could
only read the techniques in detail only after he bought them, after all. He
soon began opening each scroll, taking his time as he went through all the
data.
As always, the training regimes for the techniques were interesting.
Flame Breathing and Wind Breathing required the usage of a training

breathing apparatus that aided in helping the user master the timing and
degree of inhalation and exhalation. To Rui's surprise, there was also a light
amount of conditioning required for the master of the techniques.
It required the user to increase the flexibility and the strength of the
diaphragm allowing for greater amount of inhalation at a much faster rate.
"Interesting stuff." Rui muttered as he brought up the other scrolls.
Adamant Reforging had a rather straightforward training regime. It was a

combination of torture of the skin combined with healing potions. Healing
potions merely sped up the human body's natural healing and regenerative
properties. It only preponed the process in most cases, as long as a
sufficiently low-enough graded potion was used during the process, the
healing potion would not undo the effects of the conditioning training.
This had been the case for the Stinger technique's conditioning training as
well.
The Mind Palace technique was surprising, because it was surprisingly

grounded the least fantastical out of all them. Part of the reason for this was
because a similar technique existed on Earth, known as the memory palace.
Essentially, it was a technique that trained the user to be able to easily

imagine a certain location, such as a building or a street perhaps, any location
that the user was very familiar with. Once the user was consistently able to
imagine said location with great accuracy and detail after practice, then they
could begin to store information in different parts of that location. Such as
storing certain facts inside a cupboard inside the house that the user chose as
their memory palace.
The next time the user imagined the house and went to the location inside
their imagination where they had previously stored information, they would
be able to perfectly remember whatever information they stored their
perfectly, as long as they had mastered and executed the information
perfectly.
This was also how the Mind Palace Martial Art technique worked as well.
The reason this technique worked so well was because it stored memory via
conscious association rather than subconscious associations.
Normal recollection worked by relying on the automatic subconscious

associations created between thoughts and memories. If a student writing a
physics exam was trying to memorize a simply equation of motion such as
V = u + at
Then they would repeat the equation over and over. The next time they would
even think 'v...' the remaining part of the equation '= u + at' would appear in
their head because of the association created by saying the equation over and
over again. This was due to the subconscious association mechanism that
recollection worked on.
But this was flawed and limited. It often failed, which is why students failed
exams, and had limitations to the amount of information that could be
recollected. These two reasons were also part of why Rui was unable to
master the higher-levels of the VOID algorithm.
Chapter 298 Perseverance
The Mind Palace technique did not have these limitations.
The Mind Palace technique relied on conscious associations rather than

subconscious associations. The imagined location that served as the mind
palace was the association between memories and thought. It made the mind
palace a mental databank and database of sorts that hosted all kinds of
information that could very systematically be accessed.
The Mind Palace technique made the user's mind closer to that of a computer!
It was exactly what Rui needed.
The training regime focused on largely ensuring the mind palace that the user
imagined inside their minds was absolutely perfect. There could be absolutely
no room for ambiguity, vagueness, imprecision and inconsistency. The user
had to be able to quickly imagine it in high-definition, and it had to exactly
the same each time otherwise the technique simply wouldn't work.
Rui nodded. It wasn't easy, but this technique was right up his alley, it was
literally built for his enhanced cognition.
He put the Mind Palace technique aside as he read through the Tempestuous
Ripple technique scroll. This was definitely the wildest technique in his roster
thus far, he was quite curious to see what the training was like.
"Oh, it seems I'm lucky." His eyes lit up.
The first part of the training regime largely overlapped with a part of the
training of the Flame Breathing technique, increasing the power of his
respiration. The second part however, required him to master the body
motions needed in conjunction with powerful exhalations and inhalations to
create pockets of high-density solid-like air that could be launched with
strikes.
He glanced at the Flow Flux technique after he poured over the Tempestuous
Ripple technique.
He quickly realized that this technique might actually have been the hardest
to master of them all. There were several training stages that involved
growing familiar with balance and learning how to manipulate balance by
applying the right amount of force at the right time, place and direction.
,m Once he finished reading up on all of them, he immediately headed to the

training facilities to get a taste for the training regimes.
The first training facility he went to was the offensive training facility, he
looked forward to training with Squire instructor Dylon after a long time.
Yet he wasn't exactly the most ecstatic to see Rui.
"How many techniques is it this time kid? Spit it out." He said with a
disdainful look.
"...Six."
"You-" He facepalmed, sighing. "It would be insane if it came from anyone

else."
"I'm here to learn the Tempestuous Ripple and the Flow Flux techniques."
Rui waved the two scrolls.
Squire Dylon whistled. "Good techniques. Good choices, especially for your
Martial Art, it makes sense."
Rui nodded.
"Let's begin with Flow Flux." He said. "It is the harder one of the two. I
presume you're familiar with the training regime?"
Rui nodded. "Yes sir."

"Flow Flux training requires you to develop an intuitive understand of the
fragility of balance. Unfortunately, there's no singular trick to doing this.
You'll have to start with the basics, understanding the best ways to imbalance
your opponent via interceptions in the most basic positions, and master them.
You should be able to execute the basic misbalancing interceptions
maneuvers with zero delay, you'll have to engrave them in your very bones."
Rui nodded, already familiar with it.
The training regime forcibly hastened the process of developing up a strong

intuition on how to imbalance one's opponents when intercepting attacks. To
some degree, it was compatible with the maniacal manner in which Rui
trained.
The training regime soon began and Squire Dylon had him training in basic
misbalancing maneuvers. A lot of these maneuvers resembled a fusion
between Aikido and Krav Maga techniques from Earth. It had taken him a
while to be able to get the hang of the interception maneuvering forms.
Furthermore, he was still too slow in his identification of what manner he
needed to imbalance his opponents.
"It's going to take you a while to be able to develop the reflexes in the
execution of this technique." He said. "A few months atleast, I imagine.
Actually, considering you're training six different techniques, maybe even
half a year. Your potions tolerance can only help you so much. You're in for
the long grind."
"I know." Rui squeezed out between his huffs, having completed hours of
training. "I knew that when I chose six techniques, I've set the second
condition of Squire candidacy as my most immediate and important goal.
Developing my Martial Art is what I'm prioritizing now."
Squire Dylon shrugged. "You do you. Anyways, four hours are up. Are you
ready to move onto the Tempestuous Ripple technique?"
Rui had given each technique an equal amount of training timing across a
day; four hours.
He nodded as he consumed a rejuvenation potion quickly.
Squire Dylon tossed him a breathing apparatus.
"Wear that and breathe." He told Rui. "Try not to pass out."
The breathing apparatus hindered breathing to a rather large degree, even

more than it did when he trained for the Helical Breathing technique long
ago.
Rui could feel his diaphragm straining as it struggled to push air or in and out
of his lungs.
This feeling reminded him of when he used to have severe asthma attacks
back on Earth, it was truly an unpleasant training regime that brought back
unpleasant memories.
"You're not going to be able to master the Tempestuous Ripple technique

unless you're breathing returns to normal despite having the apparatus on."
Squire Dylon told him. "Keep pushing yourself, the harder you push, the less
time it will take for your breathing to be strengthened to the point where you
can even begin mastering the actual Tempestuous Ripple attack."
Rui could barely hear him as he struggled to breathe in the necessary amount
of air his body needed to sustain himself. He felt as though if he stopped for
even a handful of seconds, he would simply lose consciousness and pass out.
('This is going to be one hell of a training stage.')

Chapter 299 Experiences
In the span of twenty-four hours, Rui experienced the training regimes of all
six techniques. Once he finished training with Squire Dylon for the
Tempestuous Ripple and Flow Flux training, he had immediately headed for
the training sessions of the remaining four techniques.
He immediately headed to the mental technique training facility to begin

training the Mind Palace technique. He was fascinated by the process.
"Your mind palace needs to be based on locations from your memories that
you know quite intimately." A squire instructor of the mind technique
training facilities told him. "You need to be able to visualize them with
extreme precision and accuracy consistently. That is why it is best to use
locations you are most familiar with. The most common kinds of mind
palaces involve using your home, the Academy, since you've spent years
living here. Your hometown maybe, whatever works. The more mind palaces
you have, the better."
Rui nodded.
Thankfully, he wasn't short on such locations. In this life alone, the Quarrier
orphanage and the Academy could serve as viable mind palaces. In his
previous life, he had his parents' home, his home, the research institute he
worked at, and even the hospital he spent a lot of time in, later in his life.
Those were six locations that he could begin polishing his imagination of to
serve as six mind palaces eventually.
What he discovered, however, was that the Mind Palace technique was more
compatible with him than he had ever imagined. One's visualization
capabilities was the most important ability needed to master the Mind Palace
technique. It was the one area where his mind, that had undergone two
lifetimes of development, could shine the most, showing off its cognitive
capabilities.
Rui had begun making frightening progress as he began dedicating himself to

the technique. In merely the span of four hours, he accomplished what most
Martial Apprentices accomplished in an entire month. He had never
experienced such affinity with any Martial Art technique.
The Squire instructor who was guiding him even refused to believe this was
the first he was learning the technique!
He merely shrugged, letting him believe what he wanted. Merely being smart
would not explain his progress with the technique and he did not want to be
asked sensitive questions that he did not want to answer.
Besides, he was genuinely elated at the results of his training of the Mind
Palace technique and was far too distracted with the matter. Although he had
initially been optimistic when he had the revelation that the technique could
solve the problem of the VOID algorithm's viability, he did not get ahead of
himself and considered the possibility that it wasn't sufficient.
However, his high affinity and his rate of mastery of the Mind Palace
technique allowed him a greater degree of confidence and optimism than
before. At this rate of mastery, the probability of atleast partially solving the
VOID algorithm's problems was not low.
They key was to ingrain the activation and usage into muscle memory and
into his reflexes, only then would it become viable to use it mid-battle. He
would need to restructure the way he stored data amidst battles, and that
wouldn't be possible until he ensured that using the Mind Palace in this
manner became as easy and natural as breathing.
He had come out with an immense degree of satisfaction and elation once he
exited the training session at the end of four hours. Although he would have
loved nothing more than to continue with the Mind Palace technique forever,
the other techniques were also quite important.
Just not quite as fun.

"Aargh!" Rui grimaced as he finished a rep of the Adamant Reforging
training.
"Here." The Squire instructor tossed him a low-grade healing potion. Rui
immediately consumed the potion as an indescribably sense of relief filled his
body as his body healed the wounds on his flesh, but only enough to ensure
that the conditioning effects of the training would not disappear. High-grade
potions would undo everything and return his flesh back to how it was
before. Only after his conditioned flesh became the normal state of his flesh
could he use high-grade potions.
The conditioning training began with his torso. It involved inflicting damage
onto his torso with a combination of blunt force, piercing and heat. The
healed skin after he consumed a healing potion would have greater and
denser layers of epithelial tissue each time. At the end of the training regime
for the technique, his flesh would be far harder to inflict damage on.
The training would be deemed complete only after the conditioning training
was no longer able to inflict meaningful damage on him.
Rui left that training session having completely lost the enthusiasm he had
from the Mind Palace technique training.
As much as he loved growing stronger. He had no masochistic tendencies,

and that training was pure torture, even the Stinger technique's training
couldn't compare to it.
The last two training regimes of the Flame Breathing and Wind Breathing
techniques were fairly normal, they also overlapped with the training of the
Tempestuous Ripple technique, so he was also making progress on that front.
He was effectively going through the training regimes of five-and-a-half
techniques instead of six thanks to a significant overlap in diaphragm
training.
He was also certain that the first three techniques to be mastered would be
those three due to this reason.
At the end of twenty-four hours, he returned back to the dorm. It had been a
while since he had organically slept. He had been far too busy with missions
prior.
"Hey, where've you been?" A familiar voice called out to him.
"Just began my training." Rui replied. "What about you Kane?"
"I just came out of training." He told Rui. "I've actually just completed the
maturity condition of Squire Candidacy."
Rui's eyes lit up. "Congratulations! As expected."
Kane had been working hard in training, filling up the holes in his Martial
Art. The fact that he had elevated his Martial Art to that level this quickly
was something Rui found amazing.
Chapter 300 Sparring
BAM!!!
A powerful Flowing Canon crashed into Nel's guard. His eyes widened in
shock as the sheer power of the technique launched him skidding away. Rui
immediately chased after him, moving blurringly fast as he reached Nel in the
briefest moments.
He launched yet another Flowing Canon. The very air trembled as a strike
amplified by Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction, Wind Breathing, Outer
Convergence, Vital Pressure and Flame Breathing.
BOOM!!
The two clashed as they exchanged their most powerful strikes. The sheer
power from their clash sent reverberations across the sparring arena.
The Martial Apprentices who were also occupying the facility were all
frozen, gaping at the ridiculous prowess that Rui and Nel displayed.
It was hard for them to believe the two were even in the same Martial Realm
as them!
POW POW POW!
Nel basted Rui with a combo of strikes, pushing him back. Yet when he tried
to follow up with a strike;
WHOOSH
Rui cleanly swiveled out of the way with remarkable speed and agility.
BAM!
He landed a powerful blow on his ribs, pushing him back.
Nel endured the damage as he threw a sharp kick even before Rui had
finished his own attack.
WHAM!
Rui blocked, twirling away as he launched for an upper takedown maneuver.
And yet;
WHOOSH
It was a feint.
Rui coiled his arms around Nel's legs as he successfully used Mirage Dive to
topple him to the ground. The two boys wrangled on the ground furiously as
they tried to get an advantageous position.
POW!
Nel managed to break free with a timely strike just as Rui aimed for a
chokehold.
Eventually the two boys seperated, getting to their feet.
Yet, they wasted no time.
The two spuriously exchanged blows with each other. Every once in a while,
one of them would gain a momentary advantage, yet the battle stalled to a
rough stalemate.
The spar went for some time until the two exhausted enough stamina to call
for a break.
Rui smiled in elation as he drank some water. Just four months had passed,
and he had gone from being significantly inferior to Nel in all physical
parameters, to be able to rival and even overwhelm him in head-on combat.
"You've gotten stronger!" Nel laughed. "Let's do that one more time!"
"Sure thing." Rui replied.
Rui had recently gained satisfactory mastery Flame and Wind Breathing. He
had begun sparring with Nel, who was also an all-rounder, to refine his
application of the techniques in combat. He left out the VOID algorithm, and
his other trump cards to gain a more objective understanding of his growth,
and he was remarkably pleased with the results.
His offensive power had risen to a level that perhaps only Fae could
overwhelm, and speed had risen to a level that only Kane and Vyoming could
outpace. He couldn't ask for more from the two techniques.
Of course, it wasn't solely because of these two techniques that he had grown
this strong, but he had come to have accumulated this power thanks to
multiple techniques.
Vital Pressure was the first technique he had learnt, and it was a foundational
technique almost every Martial Apprentice learnt. However, Rui had
mastered Outer Convergence and Flame Breathing, two powerful techniques
that boosted the raw power to extremely high degrees. Each of these
techniques were in the upper echelons of techniques that boosted raw power,
and the only people in his generation who could match him were specialists
in this particular field.
Similar things were true for other fields as well. Rui's agility, speed and
maneuvering had also reached another level. With Parallel Walk, Balanced
Direction, Wind Breathing and Phantom Step. Rui could quite literally run
circles around more than ninety-five percent of his peers!
His defense would soon follow suit. Although the Adamant Reforging
conditioning training was not yet over, it would take serious power and
lethality to inflict meaningful damage on him. He would probably be able to
walk through normal attacks like they were nothing at that point. The average
Martial Apprentice had zero chance of overwhelming a defense of four
Apprentice-level techniques.
For an all-rounder like himself, these were incredible feats. There was a
reason he had asked Nel to be his sparring partner. One was, of course, that
he was an all-rounder. But the other reason was that Nel was one of the very
few Martial Apprentices in the Academy who could stand up to him. He was
literally the only all-rounder Martial Apprentice who could allow Rui to test
all aspects of his newly empowered Martial Art equally. Rui was only one
step away from straight up fighting with a Martial Squire because almost no
one else was qualified.
He no longer needed to adapt, nor construct complex strategies with his

trump cards to be a powerhouse. Even if just used his existing techniques in
the most straightforward manner, he would easily be almost unbeaten in the
Academy. He could not even imagine how strong he would go on to become
once he completely finished this training session.
And he couldn't wait to experience that power.
He couldn't wait to launch powerful air blasts!
He couldn't wait to flip fools off-balance!
And most of all, he couldn't wait to apply the Mind Palace technique to apply
the pattern recognition data science-based systems of the VOID algorithm.
Just how powerful would his Flowing Void Style become?
It was hard to even predict. The six new techniques wouldn't just add to his
technique straightforwardly, the boost they would produce was greater. Each
of the six new techniques had great synergies with some of the others, as well
as the existing techniques in his Martial Art. These would result in a large
number of permutations and combinations of techniques that could be applied
in combat.
Even he couldn't accurately compute all that data to land at the right answer.
He would need to find out by actually experiencing it.

He turned to Nel.
"Let's go another round."

Chapter 301 Mastered
Deep inside the mental technique training facility in an isolated room, Rui sat
with crossed legs and closed eyes
He was stoic, unmoving.
The walls of the isolated room were padded tiled with an esoteric substance
found in the caves of the Basara Mountain range far west of the town of
Hajin, that insulated sound to an extremely high degree. Not a single decibel
managed to escape its grasp.
It was so silent that Rui could nothing but his own heartbeat and his own
breathing.
Yet, they did not distract him.
No.
They guided him in the void.
The guided him as he traversed through his own vast mind palace.
His body was in the Academy.
His consciousness was also in the Academy.
Yet, they were not in the same place.
One was in a real physical location, and the other was in a figment of his
imagination thoroughly reconstructed inside his own mind.
He walked across his mind palace leisurely. Nonchalantly. Every location of

his mind palace had documents and files neatly stacked on top of each other.
Normally, it would be irresponsible to stack them that way, instead of in a
drawer or file cabinet.
What if they fell over? They would certainly get dusty as time passed.
But Rui didn't mind.
This was within his mind, his imagination. He was effectively an omnipotent
god inside his mind palace, gravity existed to help feel comfortable as he
navigated his mind palace.
And dust simply did not exist.
He would occasionally pick up a document. He would carefully open it up,

scroll through its content with interest before closing it and putting it back
exactly where it was before.
Eventually he made his way to the Apprentice dormitory, accessing his room.
Yet it was quite different from its real-life counterpart.
The furniture was all gone.
In the center was a book.
On its cover was;
[Project Water and the VOID algorithm
By John Falken]
It was the publication he had published after the final iteration of the VOID
algorithm was created. He picked up the book carefully, affectionately.
He skimmed to the final chapter, reading through a specific excerpt.
[...And so, although the VOID algorithm is complete and functioning, Project
Water is not yet complete. The next phase of our research is aimed at
verifying whether or not the VOID algorithm is viable. If it is, then the
Project will end on the spot, but if not, we will continue working for as long
as it takes to realize this project and succeed. We here at Combat Spots
Research Co. Will aim to fulfill our dream to create the ultimate combat
style!...]
A tinge of melancholy flashed through his eyes. He recalled the confidence

and enthuse he had written that bit with. And yet, many years later, he had
ultimately failed and later died.
Then he had woken up in a strange new world, with strange new phenomena.
He was shown a new path, and he chose to walk it. And after much blood,
sweat and tears, he had finally come to take a step further in the direction he
never could in his previous life.
He was going to take that step now.
He shut the book with force, and instantly, his mind palace disappeared.
He opened his eyes.
"I have arrived."
A total of seven months had passed since he originally began his training.
The techniques themselves had been mastered nearly a month ago. The
problem was getting used to them and learning how to apply them in combat,
building comfort and some amount of muscle memory so that he would fight
fluidly.
For the Mind Palace technique, however, required more than just basic
mastery. Rui had found that even if he was able to use the technique, it was
too slow. He needed to become so adept with it that he could enter it and exit
swiftly with the slightest bit of effort.
And so, he had locked himself in a room, dedicating himself to the technique
thoroughly.
There were times where he felt he was losing his sanity, unsure of what was
real and what wasn't. It got especially bad because the mental rejuvenation
potions and the lack of a sleep cycle made him lose track of time. He'd felt
like an eternity had passed in that isolated room and in his mind palace, and
time didn't pass the same inside his mind palace as it did in reality.
But he gritted his teeth and continued until his proficiency grew
tremendously. To a certain degree, he did with the technique what Hever had
done with the Meteoric Swing technique, going far beyond basic mastery.
He had reduced the lag time until it reached a level where it no longer
hindered him.
He consumed a rejuvenation potion as he opened the door to his isolated

room, he simply walked out as he headed to the exit of the facility.
He needed to test his current power level and more.
He hadn't used the Mind Palace technique because his proficiency with it was
too low, and too slow. But now that he had mastered it to the degree where he
could actually use it in combat, he no longer knew what he was capable of.
He needed a strong, powerful opponent, preferably an all-rounder, preferably

someone he didn't have much information on prior. The reason for these were
simple. All-rounders were the best to test the Mind Palace solution for the
viability problem, because they had no inherent weakness and so several of
the lower systems of the VOID algorithm weren't effective, thus any success
he had would mostly come from the pattern recognition systems he was
going to employ.
It also had to be an opponent he didn't have much information on so that his

analysis of the Mind Palace technique would not be skewed and biased. He
had fought against Nel too many times and had gained a good intuitive
understanding for his rather simplistic fighting style, so fighting against Nel
would not give him a clear idea for how effective the Mind Palace technique
was.
If he could not rely on Nel, then who could he rely on?

"Squire Kyrie." Rui called out as he reached the sparring facility.
She turned, meeting his unfathomably deep eyes.
"It's time." He told her.

"It's that time, is it?" She asked him as she took note of the depth of the
weight of his mind. She wasn't sure what it was, but she had the faintest sense
he had grown stronger than just the number of techniques he had.
Rui had already requested her for a match ahead of time when he began
refining his mastery of the Mind Palace technique.
The sparring facility was littered with Martial Apprentices. A routine sparring
session with the Martial Apprentices was ongoing, yet they were surprised to
see Rui. He hadn't shown up to one of these in a long time.
"Yes, I'm ready." He told her.
"Alright, come along." She told Rui as one of the assistant instructors took
over her duties.
"I recall long ago that you and Kane managed to push me to use a Squire-
level technique against the two of you." She said as they hopped onto a large
sparring ring. "You've come a long way since then."
"I hadn't understood how much you were holding back then." Rui replied.
"The fact that I've grown vastly stronger since then and am yet so far away
from you is truly astounding."
"You're not as far away as you might think." She said with a pointed tone.
"Perhaps we'll find out just how close you are in this fight."
"That is what I wish to know as well."
"I can limit my power, defense and movement speed to the general peak of
the Apprentice Realm." She told him. "However, my reflexes and reactions
will remain at the Squire Realm. I cannot change that."
"I understand." He said.
"Good." She said as her eyes narrowed. "Then I don't have to worry."
A powerful wave of pressure fluctuated across the sparring facility as every

Apprentice's attention inadvertently shifted towards its source.
Kyrie took a neutral stance, catering equally to offense, defense and

maneuvering.
Rui simply closed his eyes.
He was fighting a Martial Squire. If he did not atleast draw out the best from
within himself, he was not worthy of this opportunity.
The gravity of the air around intensified.
His mind converged as he gathered every ounce of focus.
This fight meant a lot to him. It was even more significant to him than the
Martial Contest. He felt an unprecedented amount of energy saturate his
muscles. His body quivered with power.
When he opened his eyes, he had already taken his stance.
"Are you ready?" She asked.
"As ever."
Kyrie didn't even hesitate.
WHOOSH
RUMBLE
The very step she took threatened to tear the earth as she pushed it behind,
launching herself at frightening speeds. In just the briefest of moments, she
had entirely crossed the distance between them, swinging a swift and
powerful strike the aimed for his head.
WHOOSH
Rui calmly evaded the blow as he swerved past it. Kyrie immediately
followed up with blinding speed as she launched a barrage of swift yet
powerful attacks.
Rui bobbed and weaved as he evaded the strikes narrowly.
BAM!!!
He rolled out of the way of a heavy drop kick the shook the very facility!
She immediately dashed after him. Rui's instincts screamed as she unleashed
an avalanche of attacks with untold power.
And yet.
Not a single blow managed to land on him cleanly.
He just barely dodged, barely redirected and barely guarded.
Yet, even that explosive offense did not inflict any meaningful damage on
him.
Kyrie frowned.
Her parameters surpassed his, she should have been stronger and faster, yet
Rui still somehow managed to defend just well.
He was slower but he moved early.
As if he knew what she was going to do ahead of time.
Her eyes widened at that thought.

Kyrie felt her pride a bit affronted. Even if she was holding back, she was
still using enough power to be above him on paper. The fact that she was not
able to overwhelm him meant that he was applying himself better than she
was!
A kid who hadn't even been a Martial Apprentice, was fighting better than
herself? A veteran Martial Squire who was the best of her generation?
She wasn't necessarily an overbearingly proud person. In fact, she was quite
down-to-earth despite her success.
But still.
She was a Martial Squire.
She narrowed her eyes as she began moving more sharply. She wasn't
breaking her word and using her power beyond what she promised, but she
was moving accurately and precisely.
BAM!
Rui skidded away from an impact as he noticed it had become harder to keep
up with her.
('She's starting exert herself.') He noted. It was easier for the VOID algorithm
to work against a more static opponent, but now that she was fighting more
dynamically, things would grow harder.
He didn't mind, he needed to be pushed if he wanted to test the prowess of his

Mind Palace technique.
He felt a wave of excitement. He had waited for a long time for what was
about to happen.
It was time.
His preparations were complete. Everything was in place.
It was time.
Time to find out whether his efforts with the Mind Palace technique were in
vain, or not.
She stepped forward, shifting her weight onto her left foot as she launched
jab with her right arm.
Rui's eyes widened as his mind flashed into the Mind Palace.
('Probability of right-left-right combo; ninety-two percent.')
And almost like magic, his prediction unfolded.
Kyrie threw a right jab followed by a left and another right jab in rapid
succession. She had completely expected it to land on him.
Yet;
He cleanly weaved past her strikes with his maneuvering techniques, boosted
by Wind Breathing and Primordial Instinct as he threw a weighted speedy jab
at her.
BAM!
It crashed into a hasty guard, she had just barely managed to intercept the
strike. She retreated, surprised. She had managed to completely close the
distance between when she launched that speedy combo, it should have been
impossible for him evade it in those circumstances, let alone land an attack
while evading.
Yet he danced passed her attacks and launched a powerful strike before her
attack was even over.
Rui's fixated on her as he watched her every movement like a hawk. Her
every shift, twitch and movement.
Her body shifted weight, yet her arms were steady.

('Side kick; ninety-four-percent.) He computed as he flashed through the data
in his Mind Palace.
He launched a crouching sweeping kick cleanly avoiding her side kick as his
kick crashed into her ankle.
Yet again.
He dodged both attacks as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Kyrie got the impression he wasn't even reacting, it was as though he already
knew what move was the best to make. She launched a swift jab, hoping to
tag him.
WHOOSH
Rui yet again, casually evaded her blow as he completely invaded her space
with ease, launching a speedy jab of his own
WHOOSH
She swerved, evading the attack, yet before she could even counter, another
attack from Rui had already arrived to the location she had moved to.
BAM!
The attack crashed into a hastily conjured guard.
She summersaulted away, opening up some distance.
('He knew exactly where I was going to be even before I did!') She realized,
shocked.
Chapter 303 What It Said
Everything had patterns. Everything was made up of patterns.
People, animals, plants, rocks, dirt, all of them had patterns in their very
being, one way or another. Whether it was behavioral, psychological, cellular
or even molecular and atomic.
Even the universe itself had patterns. These were codified in the laws of
physics.
Martial Artists were no different.
The pattern recognition systems of the VOID algorithm collected data on the
movements of the opponent of the user, organized them into an ordered data
set and then conducted a statistical analysis on them to create a predictive
model of the movements of the opponent based on the data gathered.
This predictive model allowed the user to predict the movements of their
opponent based on certain parameters such as; position, center of gravity,
distance, speed and acceleration. The greater the amount of data collected, the
more accurate and precise the predictions of the predictive model were.
However, that was only half the work. After all, the VOID algorithm was an
algorithm to adapt and evolve to your opponent, not an algorithm to merely
predict your opponent.
Once the predictive model was completed, the user would input the
predictions into the adaptive evolution model of the VOID algorithm that
would output the move needed to counter the inputted move. The adaptive
evolution model was created after many years of empirical research by Rui
on what the best counter to every move was. It outputted the best counter for
every move.
For example, the objectively best counter to a crouching sweeping kick was a
flying knee kick. A flying knee kick cleanly would avoid the sweeping kick
since the user jumped, while the knee kick would land perfectly into the face
of the crouched person that was executing the sweeping kick.
If one inputted the crouching sweeping kick into the adaptive evolution
model, it would output the best counter to the inputted move; the flying knee
kick.
Thus, pattern recognition systems of the VOID algorithm had the user predict
the movements of their opponents using the predictive model, then they
would figure out the best counter to the predicted moves by inputting those
predicted moves into the adaptive evolution model. The adaptive evolution
model would output the counter to the predicted move, and then the user
would execute said counter moves, once the prediction came true.
This allowed the user to fight in a manner that was completely adapted and
evolved to their opponent. Such was the prowess of the VOID algorithm, yet
the difficulty of executing this was inhuman. Which was why Rui had failed
to make it viable in his previous life.
'In his previous life', being the key phrase.
He grinned with excitement.
He was succeeding!
It took another lifetime, but he had experienced the first taste of success!
His dream was possible!
He felt like a parched traveler taking the first sip of water after days of being
stranded in the desert.
('Hahaha... HAHAHA!') he felt ecstatic excitement course through his body.

('I can do this! I can-')
POW!
"Gugh!" He grimaced as Kyrie's fist crashed into his face, knocking him
down like a bowling pin.
Kyrie's head tilted in confusion. His movements had suddenly become

clumsy despite being pristine the moment prior.
Rui grimaced as he retreated. ('...Everyone has a plan until they get punched
in the face.') He mused.
The predictive model of the VOID algorithm was not absolute. The user
needed to always be ready if the predictions didn't come out to be true. Of
course, Rui had momentarily forgotten this because no one had even been
able to reach a stage where he could warn them of this before.
He was the first person to get this far with the VOID algorithm.
Squire Kyrie narrowed her eyes as she dashed towards him, unaware of the
sheer complexity of the mystery of Rui's incredibly accurate and well-timed
movements.
WHOOSH
Rui cleanly leaned out of a hook as he simultaneously launched an upper cut

that perfectly exploited the gap in her defense created by the hook.
Yet;
WHOOSH
She avoided it cleanly.
He wasn't surprised.
Her power, defense and speed were limited to the peak Apprentice Realm,
but her reflexes were much harder to limit, reflexes were subconscious and
she could not consciously reduce it.
This was even though she was holding back, they were still there. Rui was
fighting against someone with Squire-level reflexes.
And he wasn't losing.
"Squire Kyrie." Rui said to her. "Please use as much power as is needed to
defeat me. There is no point in holding back for my sake if you cannot force
me to go all out."
Her eyes widened at those words.
He was telling her she wasn't strong enough.
He spoke those words seriously, yet he didn't realize how shocking it was for
a Martial Apprentice to utter those words to a Martial Squire.
"...I see." She eventually replied. "I don't know what happened to you, but it
seems I underestimated you."
Rui stiffened up as the pressure she exuded grew perilous. His sense of
survival was triggered by the weight of mind she exerted onto him.
WHOOSH
The VOID algorithm barely predicted her movements in time as he just

barely managed to throw a guard together before her attack crashed onto him
with a power that exceeded what Martial Apprentices were normally capable
of.
BAM!!!
Even with the four techniques of defense he had, his arms were bruised. His
focus deepened as he drew everything he had, preparing for onslaught she
was about to unleash.
And, onslaught it was.
Her every movement reverberated the ground and the shook the air violently.
Their fight was no longer localized as it drew attention from everyone within
the facility.
The spectating Martial Apprentices and staff all froze, gaping in disbelief at
what unfolded before their very eyes.
In their eyes, Kyrie was no longer operating within the Apprentice Realm.
What did that say about the Martial Apprentice that was able to keep up?
Chapter 304 Outcome
What it said was crystal clear;
Rui's combat prowess was no longer even in the same Realm as them.
He hadn't even been a Martial Apprentice for three years, yet he had
somehow skyrocketed past all of them. Not a single person would show
disbelief if they were told that Rui was the strongest Martial Apprentice of
WHOOSH
Rui just barely managed to avoid a strike with frightening power. Kyrie was
showcasing a level of power and speed he had never faced off against before.
Not even Fiona had been this overwhelming.
FLICK
He felt a sharp pain on his cheek as he avoid a strike.
DRIP DRIP
His eyes widened as he felt his cheek bleeding. ('She used a piercing
technique.')
Her bodyweight shifted.
('Straight jab.')
The jab was almost blindingly fast to him, yet he managed to intercept it
thanks to having predicted beforehand. He immediately activated Flow Flux,
boosting it with Outer Convergence and Flame Breathing.
WOBBLE
She had limited herself greatly, and Rui had used a lot of power to destabilize
her. Her balance was unstable for merely the briefest of moments.
Yet that was enough.
He launched the Stinger straight at her eyes. It was empowered with Outer
Convergence and Flame Breathing.
Kyrie's eyes flashed, she had expected that. It was his trump card, after all.
Yet when she tried to catch his foot.
WHOOSH
Her eyes widened.
It was a feint.
The Phantom Step technique would not have worked, ordinarily. But
unfortunately for Kyrie, the technique had shown her exactly what she had
wanted to see, what she had anticipated seeing.
BAM!!
A powerful kick crashed into her gut. The sheer force of his attack launched
her several meters into the air despite her remarkable defenses. Rui had
purposely aimed the strike upwards so as to launch her up.
POW POW POW!
Rui launched several Tempestuous Ripples that struck her midair. The
Tempestuous Ripple attacks blew her away even while she was midair,
propelling her further and further away until she was headed well outside the
ring!
This had been his strategy.

All those spectating widened their eyes in disbelief.
Rui was going to win!
Yet.
"Gentle Fury Style: Sky Stepping." Kyrie whispered.
Rui felt a shiver down his spine as his hair stood up.
BOOM
The very air itself shook.
A maelstrom of wind assaulted all those spectating.
Rui widened his eyes.
Kyrie had exerted a tremendous amount of power on the entire atmosphere,

she stepped on the very air itself, stopping her plummet instantly with the
might she possessed by virtue of being a Martial Squire. She walked down
from the air as though she were walking down a staircase, returning back to
the ring.
Martial Squires were capable of such power that even the atmosphere could
be treated like solid ground!
"Oh yeah..." Rui scratched his head, feeling stupid. He had totally forgotten
that Martial Squires were capable of walking on the atmosphere itself. He
only recalled that Kyrie had mentioned it to him in the first round of the
Martial Contest when Ana had demonstrated the Sky Walking technique. But
nine months had passed since then that he almost forgotten.
He sighed at the sight of Kyrie returning in front of him, taking his stance
once more. His plan had ended in a failure, he would need to create a new
one.
Yet Squire Kyrie shook her head. "I told you Martial Squires could Sky Step,
and that is true. I wasn't holding back in order to, breaking my word in the
process. Thus, the win is yours."
Rui scratched his head. "Is that how it works?"
"This is the second time you've forced me to use my Martial Art." She said,
as a rare smile broke onto her face. "The first when you were at the bottom of
the Apprentice Realm, and now when you are at the peak."
"I look forward to seeing how far you will go, Rui Quarrier." She said with a
profound tone as she turned around walking away, returning to her duties as
the head instructor and supervisor of the combat training facility.
Rui bowed at her departing figure, as he himself left the ring deep in thought.
He had mostly gained what he came for.
The Mind Palace was indeed a viable solution for the viability problem of the
VOID algorithm. Although he wasn't nearly as adept with it as he would have
liked, as was optimal, he was not saddened. The fact that he was able to use it
at all meant that it absolutely was viable! As long as he worked hard and
grew as a Martial Artist, he would one day be able to use the VOID algorithm
to absolute perfection.
In his current state, his usage of the Mind Palace technique to store and sort
patterns was still clunky, inefficient and slow. It had taken him quite some
time and some preparation until he was ready to apply the pattern recognition
systems of the VOID algorithm, and he was still not quite where he wanted to
be.
Yet he did not mind. In fact, he was quite ecstatic. He felt a huge burden
lifted off of his shoulders.
For a long time, he had gone to sleep thinking about the viability issue of the
VOID algorithm. If he included his previous life, it would sum up to almost
thirty years.
Thirty years of god-only-knew how much emotional investment in the matter.

Words couldn't describe the relief he felt on finally gaining the certainty and
confidence he had been looking for, for all this time.
Now, as long as he maintained an upward trajectory the problem would
eventually be solved.
The only big problem left would be the VOID algorithm's inadequacy for the
world of Gaia. Yet that was not a problem that could be solved in a short
amount of time. Nor did it have a singular solution like the viability problem.
Still, he intended to solve that as well, one way or another.

The goal of his spar with Squire Kyrie was to verify whether the Mind Palace
could serve as solution to make the application of the VOID algorithm viable.
And now that he had acquired what he wanted, he left the sparring facility.
He had zero interest in fighting any of the Martial Apprentices of the

Academy, they were simply far too weak to be able to even stand up to him.
At this point only Nel and Fae could give him a challenge and only Kane had
any real chance of defeating him because of the two grade-ten techniques he
had mastered.
At this point, he needed to build experience with his current Martial Art.
At this point in time, he had twenty-three techniques in his Martial Art,

furthermore with the Mind Palace technique, the way he went about the
VOID algorithm had completely changed. He would be changing a very
fundamental way of his combat style and he needed to build experience
around it in a variety of situations.
"Missions it is." He mused.
The safe and controlled environment and atmosphere of the Martial Academy
no longer provided him with any stimulation. The lack of stakes made it a
very dull atmosphere to him, making it hard to draw any real tension from
him. That along with the fact that almost none of his peers were his equals
anymore made staying the Martial Academy lose its allure to him.
('Honestly, there isn't too much point in staying anymore.') He had reached a
stage where he was more than ready to be able to sustain himself
independently, if needed. He also didn't want to incur a greater debt with the
Academy than he already had.
He hadn't forgotten about the debt scholarship he had undertaken when he
joined the Academy. The Martial Academy was expensive. It provided him
with housing accommodations and other necessities as well as expensive
learning and growing resources, as well as combat resources.
The countless facilities and resources such as potions and equipment he had
used in the near three years he had spent in the Academy did not come cheap,
not at all. Nor were the highly-experienced instructors that had guided him.
Everything he had indulged in as he walked his Martial Path had costed
something, and every extra day he stayed, the more it costed.
His existing debt alone was quite substantial in and of itself.
He wasn't miffed about that. He would not be where he was today, and he had
a lot of goodwill to the Academy for that. But soon it would be better if he
left.
He reached for his communication device that he had purchased to keep in

touch with Nartha during his previous missions, sending her a short message,
informing her of his openness to undertake representative fighter
commissions.
The next thing he intended to do was open himself for personal commission.
Before he went into training, he had closed his profile for personal
commissions since he knew he would be in training for quite some time. Now
he intended to open it so that people could send personal commissions to
him.
He headed to the commissions department asking them to do as much before

he left for the mission library. Even if he opened his personal profile to
personal commissions, they weren't going to flood in the very second he
opened them. For now, he would need to rely on the standard missions made
to the Martial Union.
"I'm a Grade-ten Martial Apprentice?" He asked, with raised eyes.
"Correct, Apprentice Quarrier." A staff member informed him. "The update

was extremely recent. Just four minutes ago, in fact, this is why we didn't
have time to inform you."
Rui's eyebrows knitted at those words. It wasn't a coincidence his grade was
updated just as he finished his spar with Squire Kyrie. "I see."
Squire Kyrie must have sent over the information of his newfound prowess to
the Commissions department immediately. He was surprised at how quickly
they processed his data and evaluated his prowess.
Regardless, this worked out to him. Now he didn't need to worry about taking
missions that were too tame. He wanted to increase the intensity of the
missions so that they could push him and his Martial Art. This meant he
could skip boring low-level missions and immediately head for more difficult
missions
Soon, he entered the mission library, pondering what class of missions to

undertake.
Defense-class missions often lacked conflict. Thus, he was reluctant to go for

that class of missions. The miscellaneous class of missions were similar, they
also didn't feel pressuring because of how odd many of them were. He was
looking for a good old-fashioned classic mission that involved genuine
conflict.
The remaining three classes of missions guaranteed genuine conflict much

more, to some degree; Offense-class, hunting-class and the shadow-class
missions.
Of these three, he was the least qualified for Shadow-class missions. The
only Stealth technique he possessed was Blink, which was not enough by
itself. He did intend to one day be qualified for Shadow-class missions, but
for today, he would have to settle for one of the other two.
He immediately headed to the offense-class section of missions. It had been

quite some time since he had taken an offense-class mission.
He scrolled through the section, browsing through the missions. As always,

there were many Royal missions. Usually, law enforcement missions all
kinds. There were only a few non-Royal missions, all of them were
international.
Rui had previously abstained from taking international missions because of

the difficulty and risks, but now, he had no more qualms.
Besides, he was curious. He was nearly sixteen, and he would be stepping

outside the Kandrian Empire for the first time. Although the Kandrian Empire
itself was quite exotic compared to Earth, he had still largely experienced a
tamer life, compared to what this continent offered.
What was the rest of this crazy magical world like? What kinds fantasies and
tribulations were out there? He wanted to experience all of it with his own
two eyes.
And for the first time in his life, he had the power to.
He skimmed through international missions in the Academy, looking for

something that met his needs.
There were many that did.

Chapter 306 International
The Kandrian Empire was large. Especially when compared to the many
small sovereign states in its immediate geographic neighborhood.
Most of these small states lacked a strong Martial foundation. They were
unable to sustain or retain many of the Martial Artists that did end up
breaking through from their populations.
The reason was brutally simple; Large nations were more attractive to Martial
Artists than smaller nations. Many of them moved to the larger nations such
as the Kandrian Empire, the Sekigahara Confederate, the Britannian Empire
and the Republic of Gorteau.
These nations were able to facilitate their growth as Martial Artists to a much
higher degree than smaller nations could. Due to a greater availability of
better learning and growth resources.
These nations were also one of the few that had a strong centralized Martial
Artist organization, such as the Martial Union of the Kandrian Empire. This
was also an additional incentive to the Martial Artists of smaller states to join
the larger nations, as these Martial Artist organizations often offered a
plethora of useful benefits to joining them.
The larger nations did not make it too difficult for these Martial Artists to
integrate into their states either. After all, Martial Artists were precious assets
to all nations. They were of strategic importance and were absolutely vital to
all nations in order to maintain their militaristic power.
Thus, no nations would refuse gaining more of them.
As a consequence, the smaller nations were much more depleted of Martial

Artists in comparison to the larger nations. The fewer Martial Artists of each
of these nations were unable to fulfill the consumer demand for Martial Art
services.
Furthermore, without a strong and large bureaucratic organization such as the

Martial Union that could quickly process all commissions for Martial Art
services in a standardized manner and convert them into mission bills that
could swiftly be delivered to all Martial Artists, it impossible for the Martial
Artists of these smaller nations to be able to fulfill the large demand of the
market for Martial Art services in their own nations.
So what did the consumer market do when the Martial Artists of their own
nations could not fulfill their demands?
They turned to the larger nations.
The Martial organizations of larger nations like the Kandrian Martial Union
were in no shortage of capable Martial Artists, thus they happily catered to
the demand for Martial services. Each of the large nations had commission
offices across the territories of the smaller nations, allowing them to access a
wide international market outside of their own borders, receiving a vast
number of commissions from across all these nations.
The missions Rui was browsing through were among these commissions
from nations within the large international market that the Kandrian Martial
Union.
[Offense-class mission: Elimination mission.
Clientele: Dashaian Temple. Mosca, Minnivaille Kingdom.
Target of elimination; Inhabitants of Mosca Church of Woyeh.
Location of target; Mosca, Minnivaille Kingdom.
Difficulty: Grade 8
Mission commencement: Immediate.

Successful completion remuneration: 30 gold coins, 7 silver coins and 5
bronze coins/ 800 Martial credits.
Mission summary: Eliminate as many inhabitants of the Mosca Church of

Woyeh once the mission commences. Averaging with a population 150 at
any given point and confirmed presence of one Martial Apprentice.]
"Woah." Rui's eyes widened.
A temple commissioning a grade-eight mission to massacre a church in the

same town as itself?
"That's wild."
The Kandrian Empire was secular and didn't have a particularly dominant
religion. However, it seemed that the Minnivaille Kingdom had to have
severe religious conflicts if a temple was willing to massacre a church!
Rui shook his head. He had no interest in doing something as distasteful as

massacring a church.
The other offensive missions weren't necessarily better. All of them made Rui
feel fortunate to be born in the Kandrian Empire where there was a certain
degree of stability. He did not have to feel worried about international Martial
Artists being commissioned by citizens to harm others citizens within the
same nation, because such things were unprecedented, as far as he knew.
"Hm?" Another mission bill caught his eye.
[Offense-class mission: Elimination/Capture mission
Clientele: Fria
Target of mission: Ruyloken Gang
Difficulty: Grade 9
Mission commencement: Immediate.

Successful remuneration completion: 38 gold coins, 4 silver coins
Mission execution location: [23.3285, 26.4523] Hefermaine Village, outside

the Kingdom of Grahal
Mission summary: Eliminate or capture the Ruyloken Gang that has seized
control of the Hefermaine Village alive.]
This one didn't seem as distasteful as the rest. He picked up the mission,
shugging. It was definitely the best out of the existing international missions
that he saw.
He took it to the Registrar, officially accepting the mission before sitting

down at a table in the library. After all, one couldn't gain access to the full
information in the mission bill until one accepted the mission. Mission bills
often contained sensitive and confidential data that only the Martial Artists
accepting the commission had access to, according to the commission
contract that the clientele signed with the Martial Union.
He immediately opened it, as he began reading the details of the mission

thoroughly.
The Hefermaine village was a tributary of the Kingdom of Grahal, a small

kingdom south-west of the Kingdom of Grahal. it was a small settlement as
far as population went. The villagers made a living by engaging in
agriculture, they occupied rich plains with highly arable land and sold all the
excess crop harvest to the Kingdom of Grahal.
Although their lifestyle was rather simple, it was a peaceful village.
Until a gang known as the Ruyloken Gang took over the village and robbed
all of the village's wealth earned from the harvest sold to the Kingdom of
Grahal and other surrounding states. The village had very little security,
being as remote as it was. Furthermore, the gang was lead by an experienced
Martial Apprentice. The village had no way to resist.
The gang simply occupied village and barred anyone from leaving, they
simply had the villagers work relentlessly and took the gold when the pay
came.
Chapter 307 Undertaking
The clientele was a young woman named Fria. She was a villager of the
Hefermaine Village who had managed to escape during the hostile takeover
nearly eight months ago. She had recently commissioned a mission to free the
Hefermaine Village from the grasp of the Ruyloken Gang.
And Rui had just picked up the mission bill of the mission.
He skimmed through the data provided by the Martial Union.
The Ruyloken Gang was a known criminal gang of the Grahal Kingdom.
They were rather small for a gang, with a member count of only twenty-four.
But their size meant that each member got more of each plunder.
Furthermore, the gang was led by a middled-aged Martial Apprentice known

as Vranil Fra. The intel the Martial Academy had managed to gather on him
was not scant. However, as far as his combat prowess went, the only the
mission bill told Rui was that he was an extremely strong Martial Apprentice.
Confirmed to, at the very least, be in the upper echelons of the Apprentice
Realm without a doubt. He once fought off and killed three mid-grade
Martial Apprentices, and that was before he reached his physical prime. The
other piece of information the Martial Academy had been able to provide him
was the fact that he was an offense-class Martial Artist.
He was the reason the mission was graded nine. For a singular Martial
Apprentice, this mission was close to about as dangerous as Apprentice-level
missions got. Furthermore, the fact that the mission was occurring well
outside the Kandrian Empire made it that much more dangerous.
There was a lot more information included, but they were more mundane
details. Rui quickly inputted and stored all the data in his Mind Palace as he
began sorting it out.
There were several things that he didn't quite understand. But he intended to
resolve them after meeting up with Fria, the clientele who had commissioned
him. She had made the commission from the Kingdom of Grahal, through
one of the commission offices of the Kandrian Martial Union in the Kingdom
of Grahal, and was currently residing in the Kingdom of Grahal.
She had even requested a meeting with the Martial Artist that accepted the
commission prior to the commencement of the mission in the Kindgom of
Grahal, which Rui found odd. The commission costs included the travel,
shelter accommodations and food costs, among other things. She was making
the mission more expensive by requesting a meeting with-in the Kingdom of
Grahal.
Regardless, Rui had no choice but to oblige. He did want to ask her some
questions as well, if he could.
He got up heading back to his dorm room to get prepared. He really didn't
have much to do at the moment, so there was no problem beginning his
journey immediately. The mission was meant to be commenced immediately
according to the mission bill, and he also had to meet Fria before he actually
began the mission.
He quickly bathed, freshening up before he tidied up and put on his Martial

garb. He immediately headed to the commissions department, completing the
paperwork needed before he headed down to the dispatch facility where he
collected his toolkit and gear.
Once he finished the final bit of paperwork, he immediately dispatched. The

Kingdom of Grahal was located well away from the Kandrian Empire. About
a little under three hundred kilometers south-west of the Kandrian Empire.
Rui was travelling by foot, at his current level, even the effort that transport
saved him was not worth the lower speed. The costs of travel in this case
would be the rejuvenation potions that the Martial Academy had equipped
him with to last the entire journey.
His route required him to cross a few regions of the Kandrian Empire before
he exited it. He largely travelled by foot. At his current level it only took two
hours to cross entire regions
Which was actually very little, a bit surprisingly. His physical parameters
were extremely high in the Apprentice Realm, he could run a huge amount of
distance at high speeds before he felt the need of using a potion.
Rui followed a main route that directly connected the Kandrian Empire and
the Kingdom of Grahal, and thus the terrain was suited to maintaining what
was a decent speed for him.
In less than three hours, he had already reached.
The environment and weather were considerably more different than he was
accustomed to in the Mantian Region. The temperature was warm and the air
was quite humid, the sun shone bright, unleashing its fury onto the plainlands
of the Kindgom of Grahal. The Mantian Region was generally quite cold
most of the time, barring two months of the year.
An abundance of fauna and flora saturated his surroundings, different from

what he was accustommed to seeing on the outskirts of the town of Hajin
where the Quarrier Orphanage was. Lush bold green leaves littered all the
trees and shrubs, painting a picture of an environment filled with vitality.
This was the first time he had journeyed outside the Kandrian Empire, and
the experience was refreshing. Different people and different environments
assailed his deep senses, he genuinely did feel like a tourist. Yet, his alertness
had also heightened.
He had been pushing Primordial Instinct and Seismic Mapping to the

maximum. Everything was a potential threat. The safety net of the Martial
Union and Kandrian Empire was gone and he was truly all by himself. If
anything happened, he had only himself to rely on and nobody else,
unfortunately.
His immediate destination inside the Kinggdom of Grahal was to rendezvous

with Fria at a Martial Union commissions office where he could actually
interact with her directly.
As for getting into the country. He didn't care to get in via legal channels, the
Kingdom of Grahal was a weak and small nation that had not managed to
obtain an extradition agreement from the Kandrian Empire. Meaning, no
matter what crimes he committed in the Kingdom of Grahal, the Kandrian
Empire would not cooperate with the Kingdom of Grahal to enforce their
laws onto him, and there was nothing the Kingdom of Grahal could do about
it.
The Martial Union did not have any protocols requiring him to enter legally
and maintaining the secrecy of his identity was recommended by it.
He himself didn't want to reveal his identity under any circumstances,

something that entering through legal channels, being the Martial Artist that
he was, would undoubtedly happen.
Chapter 308 Arrival
('What they don't know won't hurt them.') Rui casually leaped past the fence
that had marked the territory of the Kingdom of Grahal. The security was
pitifully weak, but then again, he had expected this.
Even back on Earth in the twenty-first century with all the civil engineering
capabilities of the technologically advanced first-world countries, perfect
border security had not been accomplished and was quite difficult.
Even superpowers like the US had not achieved even satisfactory border
control as illegal immigrants, smugglers and traffickers routinely burrowed
into its territories.
It wasn't that these nations in both Gaia or Earth were doing a particularly
bad job, the problem was not with the administration or initiative.
The problem simply was that nations were absolutely enormous. The sheer
distance that was covered by the borders and circumferences of these nations
was huge, it was an incredibly difficult task to try and achieve high security
across every inch of one's borders.
This was especially true for smaller and more impoverished nations.
Although their borders were also smaller, the inadequacy of the number of
Martial Artists due to emigration, the lacklustre technological development
meant that achieving security across borders was far more difficult despite
being smaller.
Larger nations like the Kandrian Empire were much better, although not
perfect. More powerful nations had an abundance of Martial Artists; thus,
these nations could afford deploy a certain number of Martial Artists with
sensory capabilities patrolling the borders as well as a sophisticated anti-
infiltration system in place thanks to their highly developed esoteric
surveillance technology.
Although it was certainly not impossible infiltrate the Kandrian Empire. One
had to be far more careful, equipped, specialized and prepared in order to
infiltrate the Kandrian Empire. This was in sharp contrast to Rui who
infiltrated the Kingdom of Grahal with ease.
The Kingdom of Grahal had a different air to it than the Kandrian Empire
did. It exuded a gloomy and desolate vibe.
Rui couldn't put his finger on a single element, it was a combination of things
that made him feel that way.
He could see it in the energy of the people that he walked past. He could see
it in their eyes; tired resignation. He could see it in the poorly maintain
infrastructure, the number of homeless people who slept on the streets, these
were people who were just trying to get by day-to-day without much of an
eye on the distant future.
The Kandrian Empire, on the other hand, was generally a more vibrant
nation. Especially commercial hubs like the town of Hajin. He walked
through the steets, having covered himself in a robe that hid his affiliation
with the Kandrian Martial Union.
Soon, he reached a commissions office of the Kandrian Martial Union.
"Purpose of visit?" One of the Martial Apprentice guards asked him as he

approached the building.
"Mission." He replied as he showed them his mission bill and learner's

license. The guard frowned when he saw Rui's grade, before nodding after
having verified the legitimacy of the documents and the mission.
"Okay, clear."
They let him in without any problem.
('I guess it's odd for a grade-ten Martial Artist to still have only a learner's
license.') He guessed as he reached the reception.
"Excuse me." He approached one of the receptionists.
"Hi! How may I help you." She cheerily replied.
"I'm a Martial Artist of the Martial Union here to meet with a client." He told
the receptionist. "She lives in another city, I was hoping to contact her via the
Martial Union."
"Alright, I need your license and mission bill please."
He duly handed her the documents as she fiddled with a device on her table.
Rui guessed that the Martial Union employed a certain degree of information
technology in order to manage its data. However, he suspected that the
information technology was highly limited and also not viable for mass
production due to relying on uncommon or highly valuable esoteric
resources.
The same was true for all the esoteric technology he had seen in this world.
They were capable of replicating a lot of Earth's most common technology,
yet they relied on scarcer wondrous esoteric resources instead of science to
accomplish it, making it impossible for it to be mass-produced and fully
integrated into the structure of society because of scarcity and value of the
esoteric resources used.
"Your client is miss Fria, correct?" The receptionist asked.
"Yes."
"She resides in the town of Frungeur, which is about a little over two hours
from here on carriage." The receptionist. "I can give you her address."
"Isn't there any issue with disclosing her personal details in that manner?"
"Not at all, the commission contract indicates consents to it in order to meet

the Martial Artist who undertook the commission."
"I see, then please do."

She scribbled down an address on a piece of paper before folding it and
giving it to Rui. "That's the address. You can visit the commissions office of
the Martial Union in the town of Freunger for guidance if you want."
"Will do. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Rui immediately set out for the town of Freunder.
The receptionist had told him it would a little over two hours on carriage,
which meant he could easily reach in under an hour as long as he exerted
himself a little.
He took the off-beat path away from the public to avoid as many prying eyes,
and in about half an hour, he had reached the town of Freunger.
It took him a longer time to actually reach the location in the address, since
he needed to ask around. Thankfully there enough people who spoke
Sanskrit, the international language of the Panama continent. Julian had
helped Rui become proficient in the language when he was growing up.
Eventually, Rui found himself in a rather slummy area. The infrastructure of

this part of town was particularly bad, and the people were much poorer too.
Rui was a bit confused. His remuneration pay was thirty gold coins, which
meant the mission must have costed sixty gold coins. How could someone
who could afford to pay for such a mission live in such an area?
Chapter 309 Fria
"This should be it."
He murmured as his eyebrow raised at the poor small hut in front of him. The
structured looked so frail that Rui wouldn't even need to use an Apprentice-
level technique to completely demolish it.
He knocked on the door lightly.
"I haven't finished preparing myself, the night hasn't begun yet, please wait."
Rui hadn't even the faintest idea what those words meant, they were literally
in a different language. "I'm the Martial Artist from the Kandrian Martial
Union who has accepted your commi-"
The door clicked, instantly swinging wide open.
Rui found himself staring at a young beautiful woman, who stared right back
at him with disbelief and elation.
"Miss Fria?" Rui asked.
Rui's eyebrows rose as he saw a tear flowing down from her eye, she seemed
choked with emotion.
"Are you okay?" He asked, seeing that she clearly wasn't.
"No. I mean yes, but no. Oh god I can't believe you're here. I ca-" She choked
once as again as she pressed her lips together suppressing her emotions.
Rui felt awkward. He had zero experience with comforting emotional young
women. He was quite happy that she spoke Sanskrit, however. For now, he
just tried to move things along as smoothly as he could
"Calm down miss." Rui said. "Take things slowly. I believe you wished to
speak to me before the mission was commenced?"
She seemed to pull herself together at those words. "Yes, please come in."
Rui crouched as he bent to fit into the small doorway. His growth spurt in the
past three years had done wonders for his height. But it was more of a
hinderance in situations like this, but he was surprised she was able to live in
such small accommodations.
"Please take a seat." She gestured at a disheveled torn sofa that looked like it
had been extracted from a land dump. "Would you like something to drink?"
"No thank you." He was thirsty, but he didn't want to get sick on an
international mission, and he didn't trust anything in the entire district to be
hygienic.
She took a seat opposite to him, staring him in the eyes. "Sorry for my
outburst earlier... It's just that I've been through a lot, all for this very day."
"It does seem that way, it's not a matter to apologize about." Rui placated her.
"Thank you. Unfortunately, I had been informed that my commission had

been accepted although they refused to share any details about you to me
asides from your grade." She said.
"I'm afraid I cannot share any details about myself either." Rui told her. He
hadn't taken off his mask even once the moment he left the Martial Academy.
"Are you really a grade-ten Martial Artist?" She asked, concerned. "You
seem very young."
Rui had consciously maintained extreme composure, this was a technique

every Martial Artist naturally learned as they grew stronger and stronger, in
order to suppress and limit their aura and pressure. Martial Artists were so
powerful that there very presence could trigger the subconscious sense of
danger in normal humans, and could exert a lot of pressure on them that way.
Restricting emotional expression was one way they could limit the pressure
they exerted on others.
The light grew a shade darker as the air grew tauter and perilous for just the
briefest of moments, before returning to normal.
Rui had loosened his control on his emotions just a little. However even that
tiny bit inspired an immense amount of terror in Fria as she understood the
Martial Artist before her was anything but ordinary
"I've earned my grade." He told her. "Rest assured that I'm more than
qualified to undertake this mission."
Fria's expression molded into relieved elation, before her emotions gripped
her once more. "Please. Please save my family, my people, my village. I
cannot imagine how much they've suffered in the past eight months. I had
just barely managed to escape that night, migrating to the Kingdom of
Grahal. And it took eight months of working as a maid by day and a
prostitute by night, living in this filth to cut down expenses until I had finally
saved enough money to commission you."
Her voice cracked at the end as she choked as she stared into his eyes. "You
have to. You have to save them. Our village is not poor, that's why those
Royluken bastards targeted us. If you succeed, we'll give you a lot of money!
I'll give you everything I have, even my bod-"
"I cannot promise you of my success." Rui cut her off before she could finish
her words, crushing a pang of lust his hormonal teenage body felt. "What I
can promise you is that I'll do my absolute best. This, I can absolutely
guarantee. My grade is a bit higher than the difficulty grade of the mission,
which means the Kandrian Martial Union believes I'm more than qualified to
undertake this mission, therefore the probability of success should not be
low."
Rui's words inspired confidence in her, lighting up hope in her eyes.
Rui on the hand, understood why she went out of her way to request a
meeting with him even though it would have increased the cost of the
mission, being that this was an international mission.
She wanted to incentivize and motivate him to succeed by offering him

money and sex, so that he would take the mission very seriously and do
everything he could to succeed.
He also understood how she managed to afford such an expensive

commission. The last eight months must have been a living hell for her as she
did everything she could to amass the money needed to commission a
powerful Martial Artist who was capable of fulfilling her wishes.
Her story earned his sympathy, as well as his respect and admiration for her
dedication and perseverance for the sake of her people.
"If there's nothing else." He said, getting up. "I'll be setting out to fulfill your
wish."
Chapter 310 Observation
"Thank you, and good luck." She got up, bowing. Yet, just as Rui was about
to leave, she stopped him.
"Wait. I have something to give you."
Rui tilted his head as she reached for her neck, taking off a string necklace
with what looked like a claw attached to it.
"This is the claw of a skyfringe eagle." She told him. "It protects the crops by
hunting the pests and critters that destroy the crops. In our village we wear it
around our necks for good fortune."
Rui wordlessly accepted it as she put it around his neck.
"Good luck." She wished him.
"Thank you, goodbye" Rui nodded as he left her humble abode.
The Hefermaine village was located a little south of the Kingdom of Grahal.
Rui thought about how he was going to do this.
The first thing he needed was information. Information on the exact number
of gang members in the village. The tendencies and habits; things like where
they spent most of their time, what they did with most of their time and how
alert they were.
He would also have liked to get as much information about Vranil Fra as he
could, although he didn't expect to get much as much as he would have liked.
After all, he would need to see Vranil fight in order to gain any meaningful
information.
"Maybe I can get him to fight." Rui murmured as a few ideas popped into his
head.
A few hours later, he reached the edge of the Kingdom of Grahal on the
western side, quickly jumping past the border as he sprinted away at top
speed. He never lost track of the path that would take him most of the way to
the Hefermaine village, but he never stayed close either.
It was possible that the Ruyloken gang had kept lookouts on the path to the
Hefermaine village that would inform them of the arrival of a new Martial
Artist, thus Rui chose to travel parallelly to it deep in the forest, he kept track
of the path from afar with Seismic Mapping, which allowed him to map the
environment and anything that had seismic radiation.
This way, there was absolutely no way the Ruyloken Gang could possibly
know that there was a Martial Artist out for them. Rui had not given his
identity entering or exiting the Kingdom of Grahal and now was keeping
himself remote as he travelled to the Hefermaine village.
Thankfully, it wasn't more than three hours away by carriage, he managed to

reach it in an hour.
He was quite paranoid about being found; thus, he took his precautions.
When he was ten kilometers from the village, he stopped using Apprentice-
level techniques. If Vranil had sensory techniques, he might have been able
to sense Rui's approach, after all.
When he was one kilometer away, he stopped. He jumped to the top of a tall
tree, pulled out a portable monocular as he used it to get a good look at the
Hefermaine village.
Unfortunately, he didn't see much.
The Hefermaine village was large, because there were a lot of wide and large
crop fields across the entire village. Meaning the village was as large as a
small town, or multiple districts because of the size of the crop fields, despite
the population of the village being low.
This made things harder for Rui.
However, he didn't want to take a risk and try infiltrating the village, if Vranil
was a good sensor and detected him, then there would be problems.
The reason Rui was averse to just walking in wreaking havoc was because it
was possible that the Ruyloken Gang would use the villagers as hostages,
which inevitably would mean that they would die if he didn't surrender
himself or something of the sort.
And there was no way he was surrendering himself, that was as good as
signing his death warrant.
Although he didn't think the probability of Vranil being a powerful strong

sensor was high, because otherwise, Fria would not have been able to escape
the Ruyloken Gang, he still wanted to be careful. It was possible that Vranil
simply didn't care that a single girl managed to escape.
If that was the case, that would make Vranil a bit careless and stupid, because
that very well could lead to a bounty being placed on his head.
Like it basically did, with Rui aiming to take him down.
Rui began circling around the village from a kilometer away, occasionally
jumping a tree and taking a good look with his monocular. He soon saw his
first gang member.
('They're armed quite heavily.') Rui noted. They had muskets, knives and
other blades as well.
It had taken him quite some time to circle around the village, gathering as
much information as he could piece-by-piece, until he got a general gist of
what was going on.
The villagers outnumbered the gang immensely. However, the gang members
being armed as well as the presence of a powerful Martial Apprentice was
more than enough to crush any hope of resistance.
The conditions of the villagers was not great, they looked a little
malnourished, but were still healthy enough to keep working, which they had
been doing non-stop.
('They're feeding them just enough so that they can keep working and tending
to the yield and so that the money keeps rolling in.') Rui sighed.
Furthermore, he sensed groups of villagers holed in buildings with guards on

the outside, preventing anyone from leaving. Rui's seismic sense was too far
away to get him a clear picture of the people inside, but he already had had
his suspicions.
('They're holding the elderly and young children hostage so that the working
adults don't even dream about trying something. I bet they've killed a few of
them as an example.')
This was the reason Rui didn't see too many patrollers from the gang, they
already had a pretty good way of guaranteeing cooperation from the villagers.
If the villagers were even half of what Fria was, they wouldn't do anything
that put their families at jeopardy.
Chapter 311 Observations
In summary, the able adult farmers worked relentlessly while the elderly and
the children who couldn't work were used as leverage. The presence of arms
as well as the powerful Martial Apprentice made their situation absolutely
hopeless.
Rui only counted a little less than half of the gang members from the known
number of members of the gang in his reconnaissance, which meant they
were hidden in the village. He wasn't able to pin-point which seismic
signatures he was sensing via Seismic Mapping were the unseen gang
members, but they were likely cooped up in the building.
Now that Rui had completed the initial reconnaissance surveillance of the
village. He wanted to take his time gathering more information of the
movements and activities of the villagers and the gang members before
making a plan of how to complete the mission.
He had already ruled out running into the village at this very moment at
attacking the gang. Although the human gang members with muskets weren't
a threat by themselves, they were a threat if he was fighting another powerful
Martial Apprentice.
Although musket bullets were faster than he was to some degree, the humans
firing them most certainly were not. By the time normal humans would shift,
take aim and pull the trigger, Martial Apprentices could easily have killed all
of them thanks to their enhanced battle cognition and superhuman speed,
especially one as good as Rui. Even if some stray bullets hit Martial Artists,
most of them had defensive techniques that could mitigate their damage.
The problem was that even though Rui could easily deal with the gang if they
were by themselves, they weren't by themselves. Rui would be distracted
with fighting Vranil and they could pepper him with bullets or even take
hostages.
Although Rui could probably still fight and even win under those extenuating
circumstances, it would be far riskier and would certainly end up with a lot of
dead villagers. One of the conditional constraints of the commission was that
the loss of life to the villagers needed to be minimized, and he could certainly
be violating that condition with this tactic.
Thus, this idea was immediately tossed out. Taking a head-on brute-force
approach was not really viable. That left more covert measures.
He would need to ensure that the conflict between himself and the gang
occurred asymmetrically and non-confrontally. Meaning, he attacked them in
ways, timings and places that mitigated their advantages and increased the
significance of their disadvantages.
He had hatched up several potential plans, but intended to gather more

information to gauge their probabilities of success and flesh out the ones with
the highest probability of desired success while tossing out the ideas that
probably weren't going to cut it.
Night was just an hour away, and Rui intended to see what their
arrangements for the night were. That was a crucial piece of information that
would be required before he decided on how to proceed.
Once it was night, he began circling the village while carefully observing
what he saw. When it was night, the gang members who had patrolled
throughout the day actually changed with a different set of guards who took
their places.
('A day and night shift system.') Rui observed. The working farmers stayed in
the fields for quite some time more until they were finally allowed to sleep.
('They're basically slaves.')
One of his plans was to ambush them during the night, however he realized
that might not be as easy as he had hoped. The night shift guards and
patrollers were actually quite alert and sharp, to their credit. Rui could see
they were highly aware of their surroundings at all times. Despite the night, it
would be difficult to ambush them without being instantly noticed. It seems
they were extremely wary of being attacked at night
If he had more stealth techniques it would have been manageable. Rui sighed.
Even though this hadn't meant to be a covert mission, it kind of was turning
into one inadvertently because Rui wanted to optimize his approach.
He had Blink
Still, it was one of his best plans regardless. Unless something better popped
up somehow, he would probably be sticking to this plan.
The night passed away boringly and statically. But in the morning, there was
a change.
Early in the morning, a group of five of the gang members headed off into the
forest, carrying muskets, ropes, a large bag among other things.
('They're hunting.') Rui mused. He had expected that. He decided to follow

them at a distance, making sure he was never closer than two-hundred-and-
fifty meters to them. With Seismic Mapping, he didn't need to be particularly
close to them. Furthermore, they didn't seem to speak Sanskrit, so there was
no intel he could gain from following them around.
In the span of four hours, they managed to catch four large boars as well as a
deer. They hauled back their catch merrily, heading back to the village. The
gang members feasted on the meal, even giving some to the villagers, albeit
not much. What annoyed Rui was that he still hadn't even gotten a glimpse of
Vranil Fra yet. The man refused to come out of wherever the hell he was.
The rest of the day passed the same as the previous day, and Rui got a
complete picture of all the activities of all the members of the village, gang or
otherwise.
He already had a plan at hand, but the problem was his lack of information on
Vranil. Ultimately, the information he had on Vranil was not as updated nor
detailed as he would have liked. If he could see Vranil fight for even a bit, he
would understand the man's physical parameters, approach to conflict and
even his combat mentality. These things could make the difference between
life and death. It was possible that Vranil had grown much stronger since his
last recorded fight.
In which case, Rui would be saving his own life by finding that out ahead of
time.
Chapter 312 Bear Chasing
The good news was that Rui had more-or-less figured out Vranil's location
through analyzing the seismic radiation readings his Seismic mapping
technique had picked up. Vranil's location was likely in the most luxurious
accommodations that the village had to offer; the village chief's home. Rui
deduced his position based on the frequent incoming and outgoing traffic of
the gang members in and out the building, compared to all other buildings.
That along with the fact that there was only one presence of only one Seismic
signature within the building, despite its size, gave him away.
"But how can I get him to fight?" Rui wondered. "The only reason he himself
would fight instead of his gang members is if they cannot handle an issue
without casualties."
Just then, Rui's eyes widened as an interesting idea flashed through his head.
"Hehe." He chuckled. "This might actually work."
He immediately turned around heading back to the Kingdom of Grahal,

moving swiftly through the forest. Within an hour, he had entered the
Kingdom of Grahal. He quickly made his way to the closest commissions
office of Kandrian Martial Union.
"Excuse me." He addressed a staff member, having entered the building after
the legitimacy of his documents were verified.
"How may I help you?" The staff member smiled at him.
"I wish to purchase information on all known Apprentice-level fauna within a

hundred-kilometer radius of the Hefermaine village."
Martial Artists could purchase information from the Martial Union not
included in the Mission bill, however extra information outside the mission
bill was not free and had to be paid for.
"Alright, please give me your license."
Rui provided it to her as she verified it, returning it back to him.
"It will be prepared shortly." She told him. "It will cost around one-hundred-
and-fifteen silver coins."
"Can it be deducted from my Martial Academy account?"
"Yes, of course. Give me a second."
Soon the process was completed as the woman handed him a box of files.
"Here you go, Apprentice Quarrier. The information you requested for."
"Thank you."
Rui immediately took the box over to a couch and table on the waiting room.
He immediately started skimming through the files, absorbing the
information at an incredible rate. Normally, even the Mind Palace technique
did not allow for such speedy storage of information, but Rui's enhanced
mind as well as the extreme effort he had put into heightening his master of
the technique had allowed him to reach a level with it that broke the ordinary
limits of the technique.
In merely ten minutes, he had read through all the files, and had completely
memorized all the data provided in it.
"Thank you. I'll be taking my leave." He put the box on the table.
"You've purchased the information, not rented it. It's yours." She said.
"I've memorized it, I don't need it anymore, I can't carry it around for my
mission either." Rui said, turning around and leaving in a hurry as she stared
at his back, dumbfounded.
There were many more Apprentice-level beasts within the the geographic
vicinity of the Hefermaine village, more than he had expected. But, in
hindsight, it was to be expected. The Kingdom of Grahal was poorer and
couldn't afford the high amount of environmental and ecological control that
the Ministry of Environment and Ecology of the Kandrian Empire had.
Thus, the fauna was more unadultered. Rui quickly sorted through the
information in his mind palace, as he found what he was looking for.
"The Frowning Bear... Mid-grade Apprentice-level beast. Thick-headed but

also has a strong sense of survival and is also easy to aggravate. Not to
mention, just strong enough to force him to show a bit of his strength. Just
perfect for my needs." He murmured.
That was his plan.
If he wanted to see Vranil fight, then he merely needed to give him a reason.
A rampaging Apprentice-grade wild bear that threatened to sabotage his

whole operation was just perfect.
Thankfully, the bear wasn't too far either, merely forty-two kilometers away
from the Hefermaine village. Furthermore, it was a territorial creature that
spent most of its time in its cave, this made it easier for Rui to find it.
Within an hour, he reached the location of its known territory. Rui uncaringly
sprinted in as he used Seismic Mapping to look for it.
Thankfully, a big bear with Apprentice-grade power was hard to miss. Its
seismic radiation was loud and Rui could perceive I from quite a distance
away.
Half a minute later, it was already within his field of vision.
"Intimidating." he murmured.
The bear was quite large. Its eyes were blood-red and it had razor sharp teeth
that adorned a huge jaw.
But despite this, Rui didn't feel even a pang of fear.

The bear was too weak, Rui could kill it quite quickly if he wanted to. At his
current level, anything below the highest echelons of the Apprentice Realm
could not even make him feel threatened.
"ROOOOOAAAAR" The bear spotted him.
Rui wordlessly watched it as it rampaged towards him, angered at having its

territory invaded
"ROAAA-" "Shut up."
His voice was soft, but the peril he emitted was not.
The bear froze as the air grew cold and sharp, stretching taut. A maelstrom of
pressure crashed onto the bear's mind as Rui glared at it, releasing the
shackles he had placed on his aura earlier to reduce his presence for the sake
of stealth.
Suddenly, Rui dashed towards it at a high speed. The bear didn't even dare to
try and fight back, as it turned around, running way at top speed.
"Good." Rui had predicted this. Its strong survival sense was one of the
reasons Rui had chosen it. This way he could lead it wherever he wanted by
threatening it, especially since it was slower than it. Rui slowly began forcing
it to run in the direction he wanted.
He did this by barricading its path every time it ran in a direction that he
didn't want it to. This involved a lot of circling around to ensure the bear
followed a path he wanted it to.
They had a long way to go, especially since Rui couldn't just chase the bear
to the village through the shortest direction, he had more or less figured out
the general location of Vranil, he wanted the bear to enter the village at a
location Vranil was closest to.
Chapter 313 Plan
The task turned out more difficult than Rui expected, the bear was quite
erratic and chaotic, causing Rui to spend literally every alternate second
redirecting the bear in the direction he wanted to. He needed to use a
combination of fear and pain with the Stinger to redirect it each time.
It took half a day until they were finally close to the village.
('Finally!') Rui was ecstatic. He was actually quite exhausted, but he focused.
The crucial part was soon to come. He had redirected the bear where he
wanted, through great difficulty. Now he needed to send the bear rampaging
straight into the part of the village where Vranil was closest.
As they reached closer, Rui glared at the bear, exposing his hostility. He
wanted to inspire even greater terror to cause the bear to speed up.
"ROOOAAARR." The bear roared as it picked up the pace in terror. Rui

kicked it in the ass with the Stinger once more before stopping and diving
straight to the ground. He had already reached quite close to the village and
he could not go much further without revealing his presence.
But what he had done was already enough.
In the distance, nearly half a minute later he heard the bear roaring once
more. However, this time, he heard the humans screaming in alarm as well.
He heard several gunshots firing over and over again, followed by painful
screeches drowning out grunts from the bear.
And then there was silence.
Rui jumped up to the top of a tree swiftly. Hiding behind the trunk as he
stood on a branch. He pulled out a monocular not wanting to miss anything
further. Thankfully, dusk had already long come and the darkness gave him
cover.
The bear had run into a group of gang members patrolling the village, and
had immediately attacked them in a frenzy.
This was part of Rui's predictions as well as his plan. Having been forced to
run for half a day had caused it to develop an extreme sense of hunger. It had
avoided Rui because its survival instinct was even stronger, but ordinary
humans could not threaten it, even with weapons. It had immediately lunged
at them even as they futilely shot at it, and killed them all, before beginning
to eat silently and greedily.
But the deed was done, and it had already drawn the attention of the second
of the two living beings that could kill it.
"There it is." one of the gang members shouted from a distance pointing at a
distance. "It's already killed three of us."
Rui's eyes sharpened as he felt the atmosphere grow heavy.
The humans and the bear froze in terror.
"Strong." Rui evaluated, raising an eye.
Vranil Fra was a gargantuan man, he had an aggressive and savage aura.
With unkept hair and beard, he looked like someone who had resided in the
wilderness for the past eight months, than luxurious quarters.
He ran to the bear with wide open arms.
"Not that fast at all, still not bad, especially for his size." Rui murmured.
The bear immediately turned around, running away. But it was too late.
SPLAT
He swung his open hand at the bear and five long finger-deep gashes
appeared on its back.
"ROOOOAAAAR!" The bear roared in pain as it tried getting away despite
the pain and the profuse blood loss. Yet Vranil held in place with fingers still
in the wound.
Rui's eyes widened at that sight.
He was holding the bear back with just a single arm!
Even Rui would need to use his entire body to accomplish something like
that. As far as sheer raw physical power went, Vranil was in the same league
as Fae, probably even higher, being a male.
The bear turned around, biting him. It had realized escape was futile, its sense
of survival forced it to fight back.
Yet, it couldn't even hurt him, another feat that impressed Rui immensely.
SPLAT
Five deep gashes emerged on bear's neck, spurting out blood like an open tap.
It was already too late at that point.
The bear perished, quickly.
Vranil Fra had an ugly expression on his face. "Where did this bear come
from? There were supposed to be no Apprentice-grade animals in the near
vicinity of the Hefermaine village, nor has this bear been spotted in the past
eight months. Why did this bear travel such a large distance away from its
natural habitat?"
The men scratched their head in confusion. They hadn't even considered the
matter; they had been too busy trying to stay alive.
"There's a chance it was driven here by a predator. A predator powerful

enough to chase it. Look at these wounds on its body." He pointed at wounds
inflicted by Rui's Stinger. "I did not give it those, and they're quite fresh as
well." The man gruffly spoke. "Be careful when you head out for tomorrow's
hunting, take more men."
The men gulped in fear at those words.
Vranil turned back to the corpse of the bear. "Drain and skin the corpse. Its
meat can be of use."
He turned around at those words, heading back to his quarters.
"Yes sir!"
If Rui had been able to hear and understand their conversation, he would
have been grinning ear-to-ear.
Everything was proceeding as he had forseen. All of it.
Rui's plan to chase the bear was not just to see Vranil fight, it was also part of
his plan to eventually take down the gang, all without a single casualty to the
village. He intended to complete this mission as cleanly as possible.
If the gang members came to believe that there potentially was a predator in
the forests powerful enough to hunt even mid-grade Apprentice-level bear,
then would they suspect a Martial Artist when Rui killed all their hunting
gang members in the forest tomorrow?
Furthermore, once all those hunting gang members did die in his hands
tomorrow, would they foolishly send more ordinary humans? Or would they
send in a Martial Artist instead?
Into the forest, misbelieving he was fighting a dumb beast instead of a

superhumanly smart Martial Artist.
Chapter 314 Macabre
The answers to those questions were exactly what Rui wanted them to be.
Rui had already made up his mind on how to complete the mission. He would
no intentions of fighting them in the village where they were most
comfortable, not immediately at least. He would draw them out to the forest
and finish them before they ever even knew that their enemy was a human.
At the very least, he absolutely had to fight Vranil away from the villagers
and the rest of the Ruyloken gang. That was a bare minimum condition he
had created for whatever plan he would enact to complete the mission.
He had computed seventeen potential plans. Out of which only four had a
reasonably high probability of success. Drawing Vranil out into the woods
under the pretense of Apprentice-level beast had one of the highest
probabilities of success.
Furthermore, these created the best and most advantageous circumstances for
Rui to fight Vranil as well. The mentality one adopted was very different
from the mentality needed to fight humans. This would work against him in
their fight.
"Still, he's strong." Rui murmured. "It's been a while since the difficulty
grade of my mission was inaccurate."
He thought back to his very first mission nearly two years ago.
Still, this wasn't nearly as bad as that was. The mission should have been a
grade-ten mission as far as difficulty went, in Rui's opinion. Vranil was
almost quite likely a grade-ten Martial Artist, instead of the grade-nine that
was the estimated difficulty of the mission.
Vranil was strong. His offense was even greater than was advertised. His
piercing offense was lethal.
"No, it was closer to ripping than it was piercing." Rui murmured to himself.
The man had not conditioned his nails to be particularly sharp or anything of
the sort. He had incredibly powerful hands and grip strength. He sheared the
flesh off of the bear, which was an even more impressive feat as far as Rui
was concerned.
"His defense was extremely impressive too." Rui murmured. The fact that the
bear was unable to hurt his hand with its bite was quite problematic, even if
the bear was already weakened and damaged immensely. Rui would not be
able to win the battle with a single Stinger, most likely.
His speed, however, was unflattering. Rui definitely held a significant edge in
this regard and that would most certainly turn out to be a huge boon in the
fight. It was an advantage Rui intended to abuse.
For now, he had done everything he needed to. Rui merely needed to wait
until the next morning,
And waited he did. He consumed a few rejuvenation potions. He had been

quite exhausted from the bear chase, and he also did intend to stay up until
the next day until the men went out for hunting. Falling asleep would be an
absolute blunder, even if he had been trained to sleep very lightly in the
Martial foundation stage.
The night passed as Rui observed the gang members on guard and patrol duty
than night. It seemed as though word of a potential Apprentice-level predator
in the forest had spread among the men of the Ruyloken gang, as they were
all extremely tensed and alert as they patrolled the village, far more so than
usual.
Soon, dawn came.
And as expected, the hunting team was loaded.
Nine heavily armed men set out cautiously, early in the morning just as dawn
cracked in the sky.
It was a beautiful day that inspired positivity.
Yet the men looked terrified.
"Ssshh." One of them whispered to the other. "You're making too much
noise!"
"I can't help it!" The other replied. "It's literally a pouch of metal bullets!"
"Why the fuck did you bring that along with you?"
"It can save our lives! More bullets mean more firepower!"
"Idiot!" He cursed. "You won't have time to reload that many times if we do
find the Apprentice-level predator!"
"Oh." Realization dawned on his face.
If Rui could understand their words, he might have burst out laughing, giving
away his hidden position.
Once the men were one-hundred meters into the forest;
THACK
A sudden sound behind them drew their attention, as they instantly turned
around with terrified expressions on their faces.
"It was just a stone that fell." One sighed, before his expression turned
confused. "Fell from where?"
Suddenly, the air grew extraordinarily peril.
Yet, before they could even begin to process it.
THWACK
POW
BAM
...
In the span of two seconds, Rui had whizzed in and broke all the limbs of all
the men.
They began screeching in pain even before they hit the ground, and Rui
watched as they did.
CRACK
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHH!" One man screamed as Rui

crumbled an already bone with a single step.
('I need to finish this now.')
He grabbed one of the knives, walking over to the men.
Raw terror coursed through their body as they understood what he was about
to do.
Rui understood what he was about to do.
How could he not?
He could feel a part of his heart holding him back, begging him to stop as it
moaned what he was about to do.
What he had to do
Every step he took forward felt heavier and heavier.
Yet, he didn't stop.
"NO! PLEA-!"
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT
The man choked in pain as Rui hacked at his body thrice swiftly, leaving
deep gashes that killed him on the spot.
Rui could feel it.
He could feel the very moment the light escaped the man's eyes, sending a
shudder down to his very heart.
He forcefully turned his eyes away from the corpse's eyes that still contained
horror in them.
The remaining men all screamed in terror.
They screamed at the top of their voices in despair.
And then, they didn't.
Their voices died down.
One-by-one.
It happened quickly.
Yet, it took forever.
When it ended, he was surrounded by corpses. His eyes were cold, and his
lips were pursed.
The worst part was that he didn't quite feel as bad as he wanted to.
In less than a second, Rui had already made deep gashes across all their
bodies, killing them on the spot. He ensured that the length and depth as well
as the distance between the gashes was consistent and equal across all bodies.
All of this was to reinforce the idea that a beast had killed them instead of a
Martial Artist. If Rui had killed them with his techniques, then it would be
quite difficult to believe that a carnivore was responsible for his deaths.
Vranil might come to suspect that it was a human.
Suddenly, Rui turned around sharply as Seismic Mapping picked up a

powerful seismic signature in the village moving towards his direction at an
incredible speed.
('It's time') He grabbed one of the corpses, slit its throat and sprinting away
deeper into the forest an incredible speed, dragging the corpse with him by
the arm.
The corpse left a large trail of blood as Rui dragged it along, indicating the
path Rui had taken.
Just two seconds later, Vranil arrived at the location of the corpses.
As Rui had predicted.
Rui had ensured that all nine men were screaming as loud as possible,
screeching to their absolute limits.
There was no way the Ruyloken Gang failed to hear them, the men must have
quickly informed Vranil of the screams and he must have dispatched
immediately. That was the reason Rui tortured them before killing them.
All to draw Vranil out from the village.
Hunting a predator in a vast forest was difficult, not just because predators
were strong, but because they were also difficult to locate in such a vast
amount of area.
However, in this scenario, the predator's location was largely known. The
men walked the same path and hunted in the same area every day. This was a
rare chance for Vranil to be able to easily locate and confront the beast
immediately.
In Vranil's mind, if the beast wasn't dealt with immediately, there would only
be more and more casualties as time passed. He intended to kill the beast that
threatened to sabotage his operation as soon as possible, he couldn't let it
wander around freely.
Thus, he had immediately sprinted into the forest at top speed when his men
informed him of the screams. There was no doubt in his mind that the same
beast that had hunted the bear into the village was definitely responsible for
killing his men. They were armed to the teeth and would have easily dealt
with the ordinary predators of the forest. He was also relatively certain that
the beast would not leave the area immediately as it fed on the corpses of his
men.
It was the perfect timing.
When he had arrived, his expression rotted as he beheld the corpses of his
men with deep gashes that looked like they were mauled by the claws of a big
cat predator.
He frowned. ('Why did it not eat them? Did it kill them for fun?')
Then he noticed one of them was missing, and soon the trail of blood that Rui
had left entered his vision.
Vranil's eyes widened as he made a deduction. ('It didn't eat my men, but it
took one of the corpses away with it. The only reason it would do that is if it
had cubs or offspring that it wanted to feed!')
In his mind, this was an excellent and brilliant inference.
('I can't let them survive! If its offspring grow up and populate the forest,
we're fucking screwed!')
If Rui had been able to hear his thoughts, he would have smirked. Rui had
evaluated the probability of Vranil infering the existence of offpsring as
around seventy-five percent. Unfortunately, he couldn't be sure, it would all
depend on exactly how smart the man really was. Rui could not know such a
thing, but he truly did not think Vranil was stupid.
Thankfully, Vranil was actually quite smart. Smart enough to be completely

fooled by Rui.
Vranil did not even hesitate as he followed the trail of blood at top speed. He
was confident he could catch up, the fact that the bear managed to escape the
beast meant that the beast wasn't very fast, as long as Vranil chased after the
blood as fast as he could, he believed that he should have been able to catch
up.
Just as Rui predicted he would.
Everything was going as he had forseen.
"He didn't react." Rui murmured, running, as he watched Vranil chasing after
him, with Seismic Mapping.
He glanced at the corpse he was dragging.
There was no head.
Where did the head go?
Rui had tossed the head into a large bush five meters side of the trail of blood
he was making.
Why did he do that?
He wanted to test Vranil's sensory capabilities. If Vranil had even decent

sensory capabilities, he would have been able to detect the head inside the
bush instantly, and most certainly would have atleast reacted differently.
After all, why would the predator put the head into a bush?
In order to test distinguish whether one had good senses or not, he nearly
needed to create circumstances where someone with good senses would react
quite different than someone with bad senses. Then he would be able to tell
whether one has good or bad senses based on their reactions.
Rui had done exactly that.
However, Rui could not detect even a single hint of any reaction from Vranil
based on the seismic radiation he was giving off. He had not even turned his
head, as far as Rui could tell.
"He didn't react, I guess that means his senses are probably shit." Rui
murmured to himself softly. "Regardless, plan D it is."
He dragged the corpse into deep a cave that he had scouted earlier and tossed
it deep inside.
Vranil arrived ten seconds later, yet he paused as he saw the trail enter into a
cave.
"Tsk." he tutted with irritation as he gritted his teeth.

Chapter 316 Clash
Rui watched his reaction carefully. In Rui's mind, there was a forty-five-
percent chance he would head straight into the cave, a forty-five-percent
chance he would go back to the village to get his hands on some lighting so
he could see, and only a ten-percent chance he would forget about hunting
the beast.
Vranil turned around and sprinted away in the direction of the village.
"Hm, cautious." Rui muttered unhappily. He had hoped Vranil would enter
the cave blind. That would have made his life much easier. Had he done that,
it would have been game over.
Darkness did not matter to Rui. The combination of Seismic Mapping and
Primordial Instinct was more than enough to comfortably fight even with his
eyes closed. Vranil on the other hand clearly did not possess great sensory
capabilities. The test from earlier as well as the fact that Fria managed to
escape was enough evidence in favour of that matter. The fact that he chose
not to enter the cave blindly proved this as well.
Rui truly wanted to fight him head-on. He was quite confident in his ability to
win. Vranil had defined weaknesses, meaning the VOID algorithm would eat
them up, especially now that he had acquired the ability to use the pattern
recognition system of the VOID algorithm.
However, he wasn't stupid.
This wasn't a training spar in the Academy. Nor was this a contest like that of
the Martial Contest.
This was a real fight. This was life and death.

If he lost, it would be game over and the lives of those villagers would be at
stake. There were plenty of powerful Martial Artists who he could fight in a
fair setting. But when it came real fights where his life was at stake. He was
not going to pull his punches by not using unfair tactics that gave him unfair
advantages.
Everything was fair game in war.
"Get me torchs, lamps, matches and a rope!" Vranil snarled at his men when
he reached the village.
His men had no idea why he wanted those items, but they did not dare
question him as several of them scurried about to procure the items he
wanted.
Vranil quickly tied the smallest of lamps to the belt loops in his lower
garments. He quickly grabbed the matches and the torch and immediately
sprinted back into the forest at top speed.
He had no intention of letting the beast go. The beast had already killed
twelve of his men, and more importantly, if it did have cubs, then the
situation was much worse than he thought and he would need to kill them as
soon as possible otherwise they would become a threat even he would not be
able to handle.
Soon, he reached the cave. He lit the torch quickly before tucking the
matches in his clothes and immediately walked in.
The multiple sources of light he had with him gave him the confidence to
jump straight into the cave. But the deeper he travelled, the more he felt
something was wrong. He could not hear anything; it was almost as if the
cave was entirely deserted. If there were indeed carnivore offspring feeding
on the corpse of one of his men, then there wouldn't be such silence at all.
He was already quite deep into the cave and the light from the entrance was
already dim.
Suddenly, he stepped on something soft.

His eyes widened when he recognized the headless corpse as that of one of
his men. His confusion turned into fear when he realized that he already
reached the end of the cave.
("Something's wrong here.') He could feel it. Something was very wrong.
Yet the realization came too late.
POW POW POW.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, several wind blasts came out of nowhere, striking
blasting against his body. They did not do much damage to him. But the same
could not be said for the sources of light he had brought along.
The wind blasts shattered the torches and the lamps into pieces, completely
dispelling flames.
"Fuck!" Vranil had no idea what was happening, but his sense of danger was
tingling. Yet before he could even turn away to leave.
PEW
"AAARRGHH!" Vranil snarled as he felt an excruciating piercing pain on his

neck. He abandoned the plan of running back to the entrance.
He needed to leave immediately.
BOOM!!!
An explosion blasted a hole in a clump of rocks in the forest, reverberating

across the entirety of the forest.
From the dust, Vranil's body emerged as he leaped out of the cave.
He glanced at his left shoulder.
His neck was bleeding profusely. He squeezed his neck muscles and bleeding
stopped. He had applied an endurance technique that mitigated the impact
wounds had on his combat prowess, it was a technique that had saved his life
multiple times.
Vranil turned back to the hole he had made. He had come to realize what had
happened.
"You...!" He said to the masked figure that emerged from the dust. "You did
this! You did all of this!"
His eyes were bloodshot with rage.
Rui did not say a word to him. He didn't understand the language, but he
more or less understood what the man was trying to say.
He raised his closed fist, and a single finger stood up, drawing attention.
The middle-finger.
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU." The man rushed towards Rui. Just as Rui
hoped. Rui's only regret was that he wasn't able to inflict a critical-enough
wound to the man, as the detrimental effects of the Stinger to the neck weren't
enough. Furthermore, the man's flesh was quite tough.
Still, Rui was unperturbed. He took a neutral stance with an eager expression
as the man lashed out at him. He was secretly and guiltily relived that his
Stinger ambush hadn't done much damage. He intended to test his new-found
prowess against someone at the peak of the Apprentice Realm, who was
rushing towards him to kill him.
Chapter 317 No Longer Of Earth
He lashed at Rui, swinging his clawed hand at him wildly.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui somersaulted out of the attack, landed a powerful drop kick on the man's
head. Vranil grimaced as he swung at Rui once more.
Rui intercepted strike at the middle of his forearm, careful to avoid his hand.
FLIP
Vranil's eyes flew wide open as the world turned upside-down. Rui had
cleanly flipped him using Flow Flux. Under ordinary circumstances, Rui
would not have been able to but Vranil's state of mind was not conducive to
stability.
PEW
Rui's toe flew, whistling as it cut through the air and buried itself in his
throat.
"ARGH!" He choked as he landed on his head.
BAM!!
Rui soccer-kicked him to the head, sending his body flying across the forest,
breaking past some trees. Even if the man was strong, Rui's raw power was
immense.
Having mastered two highly-powerful high-grade techniques; Outer
Convergence and Flame Breathing, as well as Adamant Reforging which also
significantly increased the impact his fists were able to deliver had reached a
whole different level. With four techniques in total amplifying his power,
every strike of his was remarkably heavy. As far as he knew, only Fae, Ian
and Fiona surpassed him in raw power.
Well, Vranil did as well. But his defense wasn't nearly as good. Even he
couldn't shrug off such a powerful impact to the head.
He got up groggily.
BLINK
PEW!
Rui used Blink to pierce him yet again. Vranil stumbled unsteadily as he
breathed heavily as he closed the new wound Rui had just inflicted on him.
He tried to gather his bearings, but Rui was just overwhelming. Had he been
in peak physical and mental condition, he would have performed much better.
But he was psychologically and physically far away from his peak. Rui's
schemes and plans had affected him negatively in many ways, physically and
psychologically.
Furthermore, he noticed Rui had changed. The pressure he exerted on Vranil

had been rising, bit-by-bit. His fighting style slowly and gradually morphed
as it flowed, changing forms.
And Vranil felt weaker and weaker.
Rui's timing and placement grew sharper and sharper. He had begun shutting
down everything Vranil did, bit-by-bit.
Every attack.
Every defense.
Every evasion.
All of it crumbled. Rui mercilessly crushed all of it.
Vranil didn't understand. It was as though every movement Rui made was
made to defeat him. Every step, ever shift, every swing and thrust, even the
tiniest of twitches. Each movement Rui made was as though it was made to
defeat him.
Vranil's eyes widened as he met the boy's sharp gaze.
He felt transparent.
He felt naked.
He felt as though Rui saw through him.
Saw through his Martial Art.
Saw through the depths of his Martial Path.
Saw through, and denied.
Denied his success.
Denied his accomplishments.
Denied his pride as a Martial Artist.
Denied his Martial Art, and even his very Martial Path.
In his eyes, Rui had become the Antithesis; He who Denied.
Rui's fighting style took on a new light in Vranil's eyes. It was as though his
Martial Art had been created to destroy his.
With every movement Rui made, countering every move his foe made, Vranil
felt like his Martial Art itself was breaking.
He felt as though his very Martial Path was crumbling.

He felt despair.
A Martial Art that countered his own Martial Art to the very depths of his
core, of who he was.
He felt as though Rui was denying his very being!
Every flaw. Every Imperfection. Every trace of weakness. Every trace of

inadequacy.
They came to life.
It was as though Rui had given them life. They came to life and began eating
away at his Martial Art. They ate away at his Martial Art as Rui's adaptive
evolution exploited the void where Vranil's Martial Art was.
Vranil felt his power leaving him. He hadn't felt this weak since he was a
human, before he discovered his Martial Path.
A Martial Path he could no longer see.
It was gone.
All that was left was a void.
All he could see was the Antithesis that had destroyed it.
His eyes lost their vitality as he went limp.
BAM!!
A powerful Flowing Canon crashed into his gut, sending him flying away at
tremendous speeds, breaking past a few trees until one finally stopped him.
THUD
He felt to the ground, coughing blood.
He didn't care anymore.

He had lost more than just the fight and his operation.
He had lost his Martial Path.
Every time he thought about his Martial Art, he could only see the antithesis
that had destroyed it. Every ounce of power in his body dissipated at the
sight. He didn't want to be a Martial Artist in a world where that Martial Art
existed.
"Kill me." He said the object of his despair as walked towards him.
He didn't respond.
He simply stared at him with his dark eyes.
"Kill me!" The man snarled in anger. "I said kill m-"
BOOM!!
CRACK
An incredibly heavy drop-kick landed on his head. The sheer power it

contained shook the very land.
A pool of blood and cerebral fluid emerged on the ground from his head.
Rui simply watched, waiting.
He only left after he sensed that Vranil's heart stopped beating completely.
No healing potion of any kind would save him.
"I wonder why he gave up at the end there." He murmured. "He should have
felt he still could have won or definitely escaped alive if he had continued
fighting. It's annoying to chase people after all."
Rui took one last look at the corpse in front of him, before sighing and
shaking his head.
What shook him more than killing was how little he was shook by killing. He
had been prepared to feel traumatized, prepared to feel horrible.
But no.
He didn't feel all too much.
Part of it was because these men had enslaved the innocent villagers of the
Hefermaine village no doubt. He still felt angry when he thought about how
much they must have suffered. But another part of it was, without a doubt,
himself.
He had changed. Nearly sixteen years in a world where death was far more
frequent and normal had altered his mentality, sixteen years of aiming for a
profession that involved killing and risking being killed had changed him. It
had changed him more than he had realized.
"I guess I'm truly no longer of Earth." He sighed.

Chapter 318 Conclusion
Rui circled around the village in the forest. All of the remaining gang
members' attention was focused on the direction that Vranil had gone in. Rui
circled around where the security and surveillance had been reduced
drastically. The death of twelve of their members and now the deathly silence
of the forest after all the noise that had come earlier had caused a lot of panic
and anxiety.
Rui intended to exploit the chaos to take them down swiftly and quickly
without giving them any chance to properly fight back. He reached the edge
of the village, arriving at a field barricaded by a fence.
Two men immediately spotted him. But it was too late.
POW POW
Two Tempestuous Ripples blasted at their heads, breaking their skulls and
killing them on the spot.
CLASP
He caught both before they could hit the ground.
There were two other men at some distance.
POW POW
They collapsed.
Four down.
Rui used the tall crops as cover as he crouched beneath them, sprinting at top
speed. There were guards patrolling the street, their eyes widened as they
spotted him racing in at speeds that well-exceeded even that of cheetahs.
POW POW POW POW
Rui blasted them with swift Tempestuous Ripples instantly, ravaging their
bodies.
At this point, the rest of the gang patrolling the village noticed the
commotion.
Rui could hear their shouts as they raised the alert to the rest of the gang and
soon the rest of the gang had become alert.
POW POW POW!
Rui never let anyone who caught an eye live, bombarding them with
Tempestuous Ripples. The crops were a great place to hide as it gave him
great cover across a great amount of area. He engaged in guerilla warfare
from the very beginning, taking them down one-by-one using the element of
surprise and deception and confusion.
The problem for the gang members was they had no idea what was
happening. None of the remaining surviving gang member had gotten even a
glimpse of Rui, which is why they weren't dead, yet. Furthermore, with the
fear and paranoia of the fictional predator beast that Rui had created, at the
very least half of them thought the beast had killed their boss and come for
them.
Had they known it was a Martial Artist from the start, they would have used
the villagers as hostages, which inevitably would have led to their deaths.
The villagers absolutely would have died if Vranil was here since the gang
members would have begun killing them when Rui refused to listen to their
demands of surrender.
But this way, he could get rid of them without a single villager being so much
as hurt.
BAM BAM BAM!
One by one, they all began dropping like flies until the final group huddled
together with their backs facing each other.
BOOM!
Multiple overlapping Tempestuous Ripples converged on the entire group

straight down from the sky. Flattening them to death.
Rui landed right in between the corpses.
He sighed.
It was over. Suddenly, the door to one of the buildings opened on the street.
"Don't move!" A Ruyloken gang member yelled. In front of him was a child,
and to her head was a musket.
Rui simply stared at him, waiting. There was a chance he could rush over
extremely swiftlyand kill him before the man could even react, but he didn't
want to risk it. The man had wisely kept quite a lot of distance between them.
"Get on the ground!"
Rui didn't listen to him, he simply waited.
"I said, GET ON THE GROU-"
BLINK
BAM!
He died before he could even process it.
His corpse flew across the village, his head had been mangled to a bag of
flesh pulp by the Flowing Canon that Rui had hit him with.
The little girl broke down shivering as she began crying at the top of her
voice. The villagers who had been rounded and housed when Vranil left all
came out in shock and bewilderment. Their eyes widened in horror at the
gory and bloody scene.
They were far too shocked to understand that they had been freed.
Furthermore, the trauma of seeing such blood and gore had been too much
for many, they began puking on the side of the road. Several even fainted.
It had taken them a brief while of acclimatization, before one of them walked
over to him with grateful eyes, asking him a question in another language.
He shook his head. "I don't understand."
The woman widened her eyes, switching languages. "I see, so you're not from
the Kingdom of Grahal."
"No, I'm not." He told them. "I am a Martial Artist of the Kandrian Martial
Union. I was commissioned to eliminate the Royluken Gang."
A wave of surprise rippled through the villagers at those words. Their

reactions varied. Some were just overwhelmed and completely broke down.
Some just stared at him in disbelief. Most expressed genuine gratitude to him
through their tears.
"Who commissioned you to save us?" One asked incredulously.
"A girl named Fria." He replied. This drew an even stronger reaction to them.
"She's alive!" An elderly woman fell to her knees as she sobbed in relief as a
man teary-eyed man comforted her. "I told you she was, she's strong."
The woman turned to Rui. "Where is she? Where is my daughter? Is she

safe?"
Rui nodded. "She's in the kingdom of Grahal. I have already notified the
Kandrian Martial Union of the successful completion of mission, which in
turn will have likely already notified her. I imagine she's on her way here
already."
"Thank you. Thank you for saving us." She held his hands in hers.
"Not at all." Rui replied. "I was just doing what I was paid to do. Your
daughter is the who is truly to be praised."
He took the necklace Fria had given him, returning it to her mother. "Please
give that back to Fria when you see her. Goodbye."
He turned around and sprinted away heading in the direction of the Kandrian
Empire.
Chapter 319 Thoughts
Rui had to admit, nailing a difficult mission was one of the best feelings ever.
An immense wave of satisfaction washed over him as he thought about the
fact that not a single villager died. Although, one did come close.
Thankfully, there was only one hidden gang member inside the building. Rui
had no idea what he was doing in there instead of joining his gang-mates, but
thankfully there had only been one. If there were several and each had taken a
hostage, then there would have been a bit of an issue.
For now, he was fine, but he really felt the need to improve his covert
abilities. There were many missions just like this one where he felt his
lacking stealth. Missions where, if he had been stealthier, he would have been
able to complete them with much greater ease and simplicity.
This mission was an example. If he had a technique that at the very least
allowed him to completely evade normal human senses, then life would have
been far easier.
('I'll put it on the list for next time.') He mused. At the end of the day,
missions were literally his livelihood. It made sense to purchase techniques
that would make the completion of missions easier in that regard. Even if his
missions weren't of the covert-class, that did not mean he did not require
covert capabilities. Generally, it was best if one possessed some amount of
capability in all general and common fields. There were just too many
reasons to not invest further into his stealth
But he didn't intend to do that immediately. He had recently come out of a

seven-month-long training stage, he had no intention of jumping back into
training. He intended to go for various, different kinds of missions that would
enrich his experience and expand his worldview. He had lived in this world
for nearly sixteen years, yet he had experienced too little of everything it had
to offer. He wanted more, he wanted to do more.
He even had ideas on what he wanted to do.
('The Beast Domain...') His eyes lit up with wonder.
The Panama Continent was absolutely gigantic and a majority of it was

colonized by humans. However, a little over a third of the continent's land
was uncolonized natural environments that were occupied by diverse fauna.
A large proportion of this land was at the heart of the Continent.
The heartland of the continent was entirely uncolonized, it was an extremely

perilous environment where Martial Apprentices like himself were only
qualified to enter the outskirts of the outer-most layer, going any deeper
would be absolutely suicide for him.
When Rui had learnt of that, it had made sense to him that the Beast Domain
was uncolonized and left alone by the human nations. The difficulty of
colonizing and conquering the Beast Domain was so extraordinarily high that
the nations simply could not afford to undertake such a herculean task.
Furthermore, it wasn't just a matter of difficulty, perhaps if humanity as a
species came together as one, it could take over the Beast Domain in a
conflict that could shake the very continent.
However, the fact of the matter was that humanity was so astronomically far
away from any semblance of united that it was genuinely hilarious, yet also
incredibly sad. Humans fought with each other to a degree beyond what
imagination could beggar. Conflicts on all scales were nearly omnipresent,
these prevented the humans from coming even close to uniting.
It would take an absolute miracle for them to join hands, short of a global
extinction-level threat, there was probably nothing that could unite the
species.
Regardless, the Beast Domain was not going anywhere. And while it was a
source of danger, it was also a source of great opportunity. Untold esoteric
resources lay within the fauna, flora and the land of the Beast Domain. Many
of the missions of the hunting-class were related to resource extraction and
procurement.
These high-grade esoteric resources could be used to accomplish wonders.

This was why the human species held a great amount of interest in the Beast
Domain.
Because of its perilous environment, Martial Artists were really the only ones
capable of surviving in the Beast Domain. As wondrous as esoteric
technology was, it was extremely difficult and untenable to use it to allow
normal humans to survive in the environment. It was far easier to dispatch
Hunter-class Martial Artists who would complete their missions remarkably
well and efficiently.
And thus, they did.
Rui wanted to experience the Beast Domain with his own two eyes at some
point. Perhaps his next mission ought to be a Beast Domain mission?
Rui shook his head. If the Beast Domain was as dangerous as advertised, then
he was not quite as ready yet.
His very first hunting mission with the Earthen Basilisk had shown him how
inadequate his Martial Art really was when it came to non-human entities.
Many hunting-class missions after that had reflected that as well.
The predictive model system of the pattern recognition system was not
particularly bothered by the differences between humans and non-humans.
However, the adaptive evolution model was designed for humans.
Now that Rui had largely found the main solution for the viability problem of
the VOID algorithm, he needed to find solutions for the incompatibility
problems. This was something he intended to target in his next training stage,
It didn't matter that he was a grade-ten Martial Artist. That was very general
grade given to him by the Martial Academy in evaluation of his combat
prowess. What mattered was his compatibility. He was not compatible with
them as much a he'd liked.
Rui shook his head, putting aside such nebulous thoughts.
He still had time.
The world wasn't going anywhere.
What kinds of Martial Art would he fight?
What kind of places would he see?
What kind of people would he meet?
A whole world of opportunity awaited him, and he had a lifetime to explore

it.
Chapter 320 Return
Rui returned to the Kandrian Empire in the span of few hours. He didn't feel
the urge to travel back too quickly. The scenery was unique and beautiful.
The fauna and flora were different from Earth thus it gave an exotic and alien
feel to someone like Rui.
Eventually, he reached the Kandrian Empire, it took him a few more hours to
eventually reach the Mantian Region and finally, the Town of Hajin.
"Ahhhh..." Rui sighed comfortably as he took in the cool weather. "There's

no place like home!"
He immediately headed back to the Martial Academy. Swiftly completing the

annoying post-mission protocols before heading to his dorm.
He took his time as he relaxed a hot water tub, looking into what he'd missed.
"Oh?" His eyes lit up. "Nartha got back to me."
The next Martial Games was going to be held at the DiViliers Hall, where it
was held the very first time had attended it.
He couldn't wait. The Martial Games would allow him to test the pattern
recognition system of the VOID algorithm against diverse set of Martial Art.
Several days passed as Rui simply sparred with his friends to pass time, and
the day had finally come. This time, Nartha had finally resigned to his request
and allowed him to wear a normal sparring garb.
"Ready?" She asked him.
"Absolutely." he replied.
"Still not willing to take that mask off?" She probed.
"Absolutely not." He replied.
She shrugged, sighing. It was worth a try.
"It's been quite some time since you last participated." She told him. "And the
grade on your profile has gone from eight to ten." She said with raised
eyebrows. "Gotten stronger this quickly?"
"Just a bit." He said cryptically.
Soon they arrived at the resplendent DiVilliers Hall. Rui got off the carriage
first, as he escorted Nartha down. They were surrounded by guests and their
fighters, and all of them recognized Rui's mask.
"Lady Nartha." The chairman of the Gregolion Company told her. "I see your
champion has returned. Today's Martial Games are going to be most
interesting haha!"
"Indeed, I'm looking forward to him whipping up a storm." Another said.
"Apprentice Falken, I can see you've grown stronger." The matriarch of a

small Martial Family greeted him.
Watching all these elite members of society express goodwill to him made
him realize that he had inadvertently engaged in a lot of connection-building
by simply doing what he did best. Although this was never his intention when
he signed up with Nartha Freier, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps
one of these connections could help him in the future. Besides, earning their
goodwill was vastly better than earning their bad will.
In the two months that Rui had served as the representative fighter of Nartha,
he had gained a lot of respect and goodwill from many of the guests of this
elite social circle. Although many of the more serious competitors who
treated it as a competitive sport disliked him because of how annoying he
was. The large majority of the more casual guests who simply attended the
Martial Games for recreation or networking had come to appreciate him.
His fights were incredibly interesting and entertaining to watch, largely
because they were never the same. With almost all other Martial Artists, their
combat style rarely fluctuated much and eventually their fights grew
monotonous and boring. There were only so many times one could remain
entertained watching the same thing over and over again.
Yet with Rui, they soon came to discover that this wasn't the case. The more
he fought, the more entertaining he became!
Every fight, it was as though he had become a different person.
They were mesmerized.
Normally, participating guests never kept one fighter for more than too long,
largely because things got boring. For them as participants and for the
audience. But even at the end of two months, no one was tired of Rui. When
he left the Martial Games for training, they had all been disappointed.
But now, he was back!
A small crowd formed around Nartha and Rui as many came to speak to the
two.
Yet suddenly, the crowd parted as a man walked by. He had long flowing
white hair that reached his neck, while a thick white beard adorned his face.
He had the bearing of majestic lion.
"Lady Freier, Welcome." Charles DiVilier smiled, as he bowed mildly at

Nartha's curtsy. "I'm so happy you could join us today." He said before
turning to Rui with a twinkle in his eyes. "And with an old face, no less, or an
old mask I should say."
"Lord DiVIlier." Rui bowed to greet him.
"How do you do? Apprentice Falken." He emphasized Rui's alias with a

knowing smile.
"Just fine, thank you."

"I'm happy you could join us today. Today's Martial Games will be
interesting indeed." He chuckled. "Come, let us not stand outside any longer."
Charles led his guests into the circular hall within the building that
overlooked the fighting arena down below. The guests settled in their
luxurious seating accommodations as the maids and butlers of the DiVillier
Family tended to them.
"Ladies and gentlement." Charles DiVillier's voice boomed across the hall,
drawing everyone's attention. "I hope you're all feeling good today. We have
an exciting session of games ahead of us."
He turned towards Rui. "I'm sure everyone recognizes our old friend
Apprentice Falken. He has graced us today with his attendance, we look
forward to his interesting and entertaining fights."
Rui's eyebrows knitted. Even if he was liked, wasn't Charles going too far
putting him on the spotlight in front of all these guests?
Rui could suddenly feel the intense gazes and pressures of all the Martial
Artists in the hall on him. Unfortunately, he didn't recognize most of them. It
had been seven months since he last participated in the Martial Games. Most
of the old fighters had been cycled out, only a few mainstays were still
present after that long a period.
Chapter 321 Shocking
"And in our first fight, we have the current defending champion; Lord
Graham's representative fighter Apprentice Fernan Melver versus Lady
Farnu's representative fighter Apprentice Jivia" The head butler took over as
he announced the first fight.
Rui watched as the two fighters entered the arena, stopping at a distance from
each other.
Apprentice Jivia took a generic defensive stance. While Fernan Melver

simply stood. What Rui found strange was that he was cloaked quite heavily.
That was a black cloak that covered his entire body, with only his neck and
head exposed.
Rui felt a primal sense of danger with Primordial Instinct, as if he was

looking at somebody that wasn't entirely human.
Then, Fernan shed the cloak.
What Rui saw shocked him to his core.
No Martial Art had ever shaken him as much he was beholding at that very
moment.
A pair of wings unfolded from Fernan's back!
There were an extra set of arms above his normal arms!
Rui's eyes widened in shock.

He blinked, hard, wondering if he had overused potions recently.
('I need to be careful, I can't believe I'm seeing hallucinations.')
When he opened his eyes, the wings and the extra arms were still there!
He turned towards Nartha. "Did you put something in that tea you gave me
earlier?"
One of her companions burst out laughing. "It seems you're unfamiliar with
symbiotic Martial Art despite being a Martial Artist. Understandable, they are
so rare and there are so few Martial Artists with such techniques."
"Symbiotic Martial Art?" he turned towards Fernan, extremely confused.

"What the fuck is that?"
"Martial Art techniques that involve the implantation and cooperation with a
living symbiote for combat for extra utility. The extra arms and wings come
from implanted larva of certain special species of symbiotes that integrate
into the host's body and growing larger until they turn into those." She
gestured at Fernan's extra limbs and wings.
Rui's eyes widened as his jaw dropped with shock. "How do you know that?"
Doubting her information.
"He's my fighter, silly." Lady Farnu chuckled. "I know everything about him.
Symbiotic Martial Art techniques involve putting symbiotes with special
utility that the human body cannot ordinarily possess." She turned towards
him. "I was very excited when Nartha here told me you were returning. We
have a bet on which one of our fighters will win."
"No pressure, of course." Nartha smiled at him with a smile that didn't reach
her eyes.
Rui didn't care. He was too stunned by the revelation of symbiotic Martial
Art.
How did it work? How was something like this even possible in the first
place???
Symbiotes didn't have super special powers!
('No, wait.') He corrected himself. ('That's true only for Earth's symbiotes.
Gaia is a whole different beast. If fauna and flora can be fantastically absurd,
then is it impossible that to apply to symbiotic life-forms?')
Given the wonders he had already witnessed in this world, it did not seem
impossible for symbiotes to be capable of incredible things.
Giving its host extra utility in combat would theoretically viable.
In fact, Rui was reminded of several creatures from Earth that in reality
weren't too different in principle from what the symbiotic Martial Art he was
witnessing. Cymothoa exigua was an underwater tongue-eating louse from
Earth that consumed the tongue of its host and latched itself onto the blood
vessels and the muscles of the newly severed tongue, and then became the
new tongue of the fish!
This creature aided in the digestion of the food of the fish in exchange for
sustaining itself on the host fish's blood.
What Rui was witnessing was essentially an infinitely more complex and
fantastical version of the same principle.
('But still...') Rui gaped. ('This is absurd!')
It also seemed absurdly overpowered. Rui couldn't believe that Fernan

possessed an extra pair of arms and a pair of wings!
How was a normal human supposed to defeat something like that?
('There have to be drawbacks.') Rui said, almost trying to convince himself.

('There is no way it's that easy.')
He could ready think of several.
Symbiotes were organisms that existed in a mutually beneficial relationship

with host bodies. If the symbiotes gave the host such wondrous abilities, then
surely, they benefitted from being bonded to their host. The first thing Rui
thought of instantly was the huge nutritional and energy needs that the
additional biological systems that the symbiote brought about. Maintaining
their body must be extremely difficult and demanding.
Furthermore, there was the matter of getting used to new limbs. Rui couldn't
even begin to imagine how difficult it was to build brand new muscle
memory for brand new limbs, it must have abysmally torturous and intensive.
And then what about the wings? At the very least, Fernan had some
familiarity with arms, but no human had any experience of using wings. How
difficult must it have been to not only learn to use the wings, but also achieve
such high mastery of them that they could become a Martial Art? How
difficult must it have been for Fernan to go through the Martial Foundation
Stage essentially all over again to achieve high proficiency with them by
Martial Art standards?
And after all that, he still probably needed to master Apprentice-level

techniques with them.
After considering all these disadvantages, Rui reconsidered his evaluation of

the allure of symbiotic Martial Art techniques.
A surge of respect and admiration for Fernan grew within Rui.
The only emotion that surpassed that was his excitement and desire to fight
Fernan. He wondered how the VOID algorithm would fare against the man.
He would eventually find out, of course. He had no intention of leaving the
place until he fought Fernan, no matter what happened. Thankfully, it seemed
like a done deal based on lady Farnu's words.
Rui intended to observe Fernan as carefully as he could. Collecting as much

data as he could on the man to begin creating the predictive model for him.
Rui strongly suspected that he would need to improvise the adaptive
evolution model, since it would certainly be quite inaccurate against someone
like Fernan, without a doubt.
Chapter 322 Exotic
Fernan had a beautiful face aesthetically, many would say. His soft features
were calming and pleasant.
This was in sharp contrast to the rest of the body. Two extra arms stuck from
an opening on a bump on his shoulder while a huge black-feathered pair of
wings grew from his mid-back section.
One pair of arms folded into closed defensive guards while the remaining two
took an aggressive stance.
Rui nodded, this made sense. With four arms, he could maintain the perfect
offense and defense at all times!
His wings lifted into the air, stretching back as much as they could.
His intentions were clear. He intended to get into flight the moment the match
began.
"Begin." The arbiter began the match.
WHOOSH
A huge gust of wind was released as Fernan took the air immediately.
Apprentice Jivia had tried to intercept him before he could reach the air, but
the distance was too great and Fernan was not slow.
Rui was amazed at how stable Fernan's flight was, his trajectories were
smooth and uniform, he didn't wobble or stumble midair or do anything of
the sort.
He was even able to hover midair in a stable manner, which truly impressed
Rui. Most birds weren't able to hover stationarily. There were only a handful
of birds that could that, like the hummingbird. It flapped its wings with high
frequency to generate a constant thrust upwards that canceled its weight.
Fernan was doing a similar thing with his pair of wings. He simply hovered
as he looked down at his opponent. The initiative of the battle was thoroughly
in his hands.
Finally, he made a move.
BOOM!!
He flapped his wings with incredible swiftness.
A tremendous wind blast emerged from his wings. The sheer force and speed
of the wind attack greatly surpassed Rui's Tempestuous Ripple! Objectively,
his power was not particularly above Rui's own power since Tempestuous
Ripple's power was much below his normal power and lethality. However, it
shocked Rui that he could output from such a distance. Not even Ana's
Martial Art allowed her to output such levels of power from a distance.
Just this one symbiote had resulted in wings that basically allowed him to
surpass Ana's Martial Art.
BAM!
Apprentice Jivia grimaced as she failed to evade the swift wind blast. Its
powerful impact inflicted some amount of damage on her abdomen.
She leaped into the air, launching herself at him.
Rui shook his head, sighing.
BOOM!!
A powerful wind blast drove her into ground with such force that it broke her
ribs.
"Argh!" She grimaced as she coughed blood. She tried getting up one last
time.
BOOM!!
The third wind attack crushed her to the ground and put her in a critical state.
"The match ends there!" The arbiter declared the match over as Jivia had lost
consciousness and was bleeding profusely. "Winner; Apprentice Fernan
Melver."
Rui smiled.
Fernan was strong. He would have swept everybody in the Martial Contest
with ease asides from maybe Fiona, who would have put up a fearsome fight.
Rui wondered how that matchup would go.
Fighter after fighter arrived, yet none of them could put so much as even a
scratch on him. Several Martial Artists with long-range techniques were able
to attack him but he managed to beat them soundly with much greater
physical parameters.
Rui completely understood why he was the reigning champion. He was truly
worthy of the position.
"Up next, we have Lady Freier's Apprentice Falken." The butler announced.
Instantly, a wave of excitement fluttered through the crowd of guests. Two

defending champions facing off against each other. And the two most
exciting ones as well.
"Good luck." Nartha cheered.
"Thanks."
Rui made his way to the arena, stopping at the starting position.
Fernan took the same stance that he normally did.

Yet his eyes suddenly narrowed as a wave of pressure washed over him.
"Fuuuuh..." Rui exhaled deeply as he finished preparing himself mentally as

he hopped lightly between his feet, his hands loosely held at chest level.
It was a stance that prioritized maneuvering.
The weight his concentration mounted onto Fernan's mind escalated by the
second as the very air itself was wrung by the powerful Martial Apprentices.
"Begin!" The arbiter commenced the fight.
WHOOSH!
Fernan instantly took to the air swiftly, gaining altitude swiftly. Rui didn't
bother moving from his spot or trying to stop Fernan from taking flight with a
Tempestuous Ripple, the probability of success was too low.
BOOM!
Fernan launched a powerful wind blast at Rui.
BAM!
The attack missed Rui narrowly as it struck the ground next to him.
Rui merely stepped aside.
People frowned. Wasn't this the same attack that everyone else had failed to
dodge for any extended time? Why did it suddenly look so easy.
BOOM!
STEP
Rui hopped out of the way once more.
Fernan frowned.
Something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
as he launched more attacks, yet Rui dodged them all with casual ease.
('He's not extraordinarily fast...') Fernan frowned. He could see Rui's

movements quite clearly. Speed wasn't the issue here.
Fernan narrowed his eyes as he launched another attack, yet Rui moved a
beat before his attack even launched.
Fernan's eyes widened as realization dawned him. ('He's not reacting or

moving fast, he's reacting and moving earlier.')
Fernan simply didn't understand. His wings were incredibly swift agile and
smooth, how on Earth was Rui able to time his movements so well? He was
already halfway out of the way of Fernan's attacks by the time the attack was
launched. Even if his movements were slower, he needed to move a very
small distance to get out of the way while Fernan's attack needed to travel a
large distance before it could reach and hurt Rui.
Rui could sense his confusion. ('It doesn't matter if I can't reach you very
well. As long as you can't reach me, I'll eventually win.')
Chapter 323 Clash
Where others saw invincibility, Rui saw shortcomings.
First, while it was true that Fernan was able to output a huge amount of
power from a huge distance away, the way he applied that power was highly
inflexible.
The trajectory of the attack was linear. Linear attacks were easier to predict
than attacks with a curving trajectory, this was a universal fact. The fact that
Rui could effortlessly predict the trajectory of the attack well ahead of time
mean that as long as he tweaked his predictive model just a little bit to
Fernan's unique situation, it was almost comically easy to predict Fernan to
the T
Specifically, Rui looked at his altitude rather than the wings itself. Whenever
Fernan prepared an attack, he would stop the rapid flapping of his wings to
maintain altitude and stretch them back to launch a powerful wind attack.
This caused his altitude to drop just a bit since he wasn't flapping them to
maintain his altitude. That was what Rui paid attention to.
The mistake his previous opponents made were trying to keep with his
speedy flapping in order to react to his attacks. However, Rui merely kept an
eye on his altitude and timed his movements with respect to fluctuations in
that.
Because his predictions were pristine, he was able to spend a very little
amount of energy for evasion. The guests were mesmerized as Rui danced
away from Fernan's attacks with ease.
This was another flaw in Fernan's long-range strategy. Generating wind blasts
cost a lot of energy, Rui knew this for a fact with his own Tempestuous
Ripple technique. Neither side was hurting the other side, yet Fernan was
expending far more energy than Rui was. Astronomically more.
Rui merely needed to exert himself mildly while Fernan need to execute one
of those mighty swings each time he wanted to launch his attack.
This was the elementary adapted fighting style that Rui had created to counter
Fernan's long-range style.
Not every adapted style was flashy. Not every adapted style needed to be
flashy. Sometimes the most effective path to victory was the quietest and the
most passive.
Besides, Rui didn't think he was quite on the path to victory yet. He
absolutely confident that Fernan was capable of much more than just being a
static flying air canon.
('Those arms aren't just for decoration, are they?') Rui mused.
"Tsk." Fernan tutted. He had given up on trying to harm Rui from a distance.
Still, he wasn't particularly pessimistic.
What nobody asides from his clientele knew was that Fernan was actually
strongest at mid-to-close range quarters.
WHOOSH
Rui widened as Fernan dashed towards him with blinding speed.
BAM BAM!!
Rui guarded as two powerful impacts landed on him. Fernan hit him with two
straight right attacks at the same time!
WHOOSH!
Rui avoided the next duo of strikes carefully as he got accustomed to the
abrupt change.
He evaded Fernan's strikes pristinely as the speed and maneuvering

techniques as well as Primordial Instinct and Phantom Step had made him an
absolute menace to even try and touch.
Yet, Fernan had a gigantic mobility advantage as he rapidly shifted around

with unbelievable speed and agility. Furthermore, he could freely maneuver
across all three dimensions while Rui was constricted to two.
Rui had great combat speed, but Fernan's travelling and maneuvering speed
were something else entirely, only Kane could match it, and even Kane
couldn't move in three dimensions.
Even if Rui's arms moved faster because he was more nimble and agile,
Fernan had four of them, this more than made up for the gap in speed.
And yet.
WHOOSH
Fernan frowned.
Rui evaded him yet again.
A barrage of swift blows landed on Rui as Fernan used all four of his arms to
hurt Rui.
Yet to his greatest amazement, not a single one of the landed cleanly!
Rui grinned like a madman under his mask.
('Having extra limbs may allow you to launch more attacks, but they also
reduce the freedom of each limb!')
There was a limited amount of space around a person. Twice the number of
arms drastically reduced the area of mobility that each arm had access to. If
their mobility was constrained due to the presence of arms, then Rui could
use that to predict which way the arms wouldn't move because they couldn't!
This stacked on top of the predictive model that Rui had begun developing
for Fernan compensated for the increased number of attacks he had.
Everybody watched on, absolutely enamored as Rui cleanly dealt with every
single attack Fernan threw at him. It didn't seem to matter which way and
where Fernan twisted and turned, Rui mitigated the entirety of his offense
immediately.
Rui, however, wasn't entirely pleased with the outcome. The adaptive
evolution model was only forty percent effective against Fernan. Fernan
fundamentally differed from a human too much. Currently Rui was merely
relying on it in conjugation with the Primordial Instinct to try and mitigate its
shortcomings, but there was a limit to what it could do.
"RAH!" Fernan snarled as he swung both his left arms at Rui, frustrated at his
inability to cleanly hurt Rui despite his advantages. It was as though Rui was
somehow moved in exactly the right way at the right time to mitigate all of
his advantages.
His feet hit the ground, a sight at which Rui's eyes widened. ('Wind blast
incoming!')
Rui dove to the side desperately he narrowly managed to dodged Fernan's

attack despite being at point-blank range.
Fernan felt more frustration against Rui than he had felt in his entire career.
Dodging a point-blank wind blast from his wings should have been
absolutely impossible, yet this annoying weasel of a Martial Artist kept
managing to avoid his clutches by jus the slightest margin. Watching him get
away every single time was starting to piss Fernan off.
He dashed through the air, lashing out towards Rui, when suddenly.
BLINK
Rui appeared in front of his face.

Chapter 324 Outcome
PEW!
Rui punctured a hole in his left wing.
"Argh!" Fernan grimaced.
Rui's eyes widened at that sight. ('The symbiote sends pain signals to his
brain in response to painful stimuli.')
This was another disadvantage that Rui hadn't predicted.
Fernan's flight destabilized as he struggled to gain a bearing in the air. Rui

had punctured a muscle, making it difficult for him to flap his wings equally.
Furthermore, Rui exacerbated the issue with Tempestuous Ripple.
POW POW POW!
He landed three Tempestuous Ripples on Fernan's injured wing. The attacks

did hurt Fernan as evident by the grimace on his face, yet the main reason
Rui launched those attacks was not to hurt him but to destabilize him.
Launching the gusts of at only one wing and not the other caused his
trajectory to be even more unstable.
THUD
He landed on the ground, stumbling. He tried to regain his bearings, but Rui
had no intention of allowing him to.
BAM!!!
A powerful Flowing Canon amplified by eight techniques crashed onto his

guard. Fernan gritted his teeth as he tried to mitigate the damage, yet even the
combined defenses of four arms weren't enough to stop Rui's overwhelming
strike.
BOOM!
Fernan was launched across the arena as he crashed into the walls of the
arena
He turned around in fear.
BAM!
A powerful blow crashed onto his face. He tried fighting, back, returning a
powerful strike right back at Rui, when;
CLASP
Rui caught on to his strike and flipped him upside down with Flow Flux.
('Your extra apendages have destabilized your balance, all it takes is the
slightest push at the right time and place.
BAM!!
A tremendous kick landed on Fernan's jaw even as he was upside down.
It was the second impact to the head.
The threshold had been crossed.
THUD
He hit the ground, unmoving.
Fernan lost consciousness as his brain was overwhelmed by the blunt force
trauma.
"Winner; Apprentice Falken!"

Rui ignored the applause he received as he studied Fernan's body. There
several bumps on his body where his wings and extra arms came from.
('So the symbiote even generates hard bone in his body before generating a
limb.') Rui scrutinized Fernan with interest. ('Furthermore, the features of the
extra set of arms are the same as his original arms. This means that Symbiote
used his DNA to create the arms.')
Rui's mind furiously analyzed the situation even as he found the entire notion
thoroughly amazing. ('Lady Farun said that the symbiote is implanted into
their body as larva, the symbiote likely extracts the DNA of the host to
recreate whatever parts that particular species of symbiote recreates.')
His eyes turned to Fernan's wings. ('But that doesn't explain the wings.')
Human DNA didn't have any information on wings, so how did the Symbiote
acquire those?
('They must have used another animal, a bird with a wingspan that suited
humans.') Rui concluded. ('I wonder if Symbiotic Martial Art can do other
things.')
He was sure that there were other species of symbiotes that operated
differently.
('If the symbiotes are connected to the brain, then there probably is a
constraint of mental capacity.') Rui mused.
The subconscious human brain was not meant to accommodate more limbs
and organs. More organs meant more information the subconscious brain had
to process and act on.
Suddenly, his eyes widened as the realization of an incredible possibility

dawned on his mind. ('If mental capacity is a constraint on symbiotic Martial
Art... Then what if someone with superhuman mental capacity tried
mastering a symbiotic Martial Art?')
Rui's body was well within human constraints that applied even to Martial
Apprentices. However, his brain and specifically mind had undergone growth
to a degree beyond human parameters. His subconscious mind had a much
greater mental capacity that ordinary humans.
Greed creeped into Rui's eyes.
It was entirely possible that Rui was extremely compatible with symbiotic
Martial Art techniques. If that was the case, Rui would be a fool to not, at the
very least, look into the matter.
Rui added symbiotic techniques into the long list of things he wanted to look
into for his next training stage. Yet as much as the very idea of gaining
additional biological utility appealed to him.
Was it truly worth it?
Rui glanced back at Fernan who was being carried away before shaking his
head. Sure, Fernan was incredible. His Martial Art had shocked Rui unlike
anything. But he was not without glaring flaws.
('In pursuit of superhuman power, he neglected human power.') Rui mused.
Humans were strong. Humans had their own bottomless potential. Fernan had
abandoned human power and potential when he gave himself extra arms and
wings. Not realizing that he hadn't even explored the full power and potential
of his existing limbs.
Now, did this mean that symbiotic Martial Art was inherently bad or weak or
sub-optimal?
No, Rui was not naÃ¯ve enough to think that either. Fernan was absolutely
proof that it was not a sub-optimal field. Before Rui, he had crushed all
opposition with all kinds of Martial Art with a fraction of his full power.
At the end of the day, results spoke the loudest. And Fernan's results were
deafeningly loud.
('They key is balance.') Rui realized. ('Obtaining extra-human power like

symbiotic Martial Art must not come at the cost of abandoning human
power.')
Rui came to believe the key was finding that very thin but sharp line where
the symbiotic power added to the human body did not dampen human power
or potential. But perhaps even enhanced it and cooperated with it.
If Rui's suspicions about his compatibility with symbiotic Martial Art was
true, then Rui would like to try and think about aiming to achieve where he
added just enough symbiotic techniques to his Martial Art where it didn't
dampen his potential. He wondered if he could achieve the best of both
worlds. He was firmly of the belief that someone like Fernan was of neither
world. He had no intention of adding extra limbs or giving himself wings.
But perhaps symbiotic Martial Art possessed a solution for the many
problems he was plagued with. Perhaps a single symbiotic technique could
become the key.
Anything was possible.

Chapter 325 Clash
The Martial Games soon proceeded as Fernan was carried away. Rui was the
new defending champion of the Martial Games and he sent challenger after
challenger.
Yet, none of them prevailed.
One after the other, Rui overwhelmingly crushed them all with adapted styles
that wrecked them in combat. The rest of the participating representative
fighters weren't quite as deviant as Fernan was. The adaptive-evolution model
was far more effective against them than it was against Fernan. His victories
against them were smooth, clean and elegant unlike his messy battle against
Fernan.
However, Rui had begun to notice something strange.
Every once in a while, some of his opponents would simply give up even
when the fight wasn't quite over. Their bodies went limp as their eyes lost life
as if someone had drained them of it. And he would win easily once they
stopped resisting. They would collapse as if they no longer cared for
anything.
Rui didn't understand what was happening. He only a found it a little strange
because he experienced something similar with Vranil. But he simply
shrugged, maybe they just knew went to stop?
There were Martial Artists that fought bitterly to the very end and gave Rui
one hell of a run till the very end. Their eyes burned with determination and
perseverance even as Rui knocked them out.
At the end of the day. He was still the defending champion and had defeated
every single fighter who had participated.
All of the guests were shocked as they witnessed Rui upending the Martial
Games!
"Winner; Apprentice Falken. He is the current undefeated reigning

champion!" The butler announced. "There are no more challengers!"
The guests applauded loudly at Rui's performance. Suddenly, a voice boomed

from the crowd.
"No, not quite."
Charles DiVilier smiled as he drew everybody's attention to him. "Normally,

I don't participate as one of major hosts of the Martial Games. But today is a
special day, an old champion has come back to reclaim his rightful title and
has done so undefeated. It would be interesting is he was met with a
challenger qualified to fight him."
Rui's eyebrow rose at those words.
"My representative fight will be participating today." He said.
Suddenly a wave of silence overtook the guests, before they erupted in

enthusiasm. They seemed familiar with the fighter.
Soon, Rui sensed a heavy presence entering the ring.
The man was tall, his body was chiseled like he had been sculpted by hand.
What surprised Rui was that the man was also masked, just like himself.
He paused at a distance from Rui, at the starting position.
"Take your stances." The arbiter said.
The masked man took a neutral stance, and Rui followed suit.
There was an air of anticipation unlike any of his previous matches.

"Begin." The arbiter commenced the match.
Rui widened his eyes as the man appeared in front of him in an instant.
BOOM!
A powerful blow crashed into Rui as he hastily threw together a guard in

time. The sheer impact of the blow sent him skidding away. He was shocked.
The masked man was stronger than Kyrie was when she had held back,
limiting herself.
An avalanche of pressure crashed onto Rui as the man had already appeared
in front of him.
WHOOSH
Rui managed to evade his strike narrowly as he furiously started building the
predictive model for this man.
('Who the fuck is this guy?') Rui gritted his teeth. ('Is he a Squire pretending
to be a Martial Apprentice??')
The biggest problem with the pattern recognition systems of the VOID
algorithm was that it required data, unlike the other systems in the VOID
algorithm. Which meant it required time, which meant that he could not use it
right off the bat. Which meant he was not at as strong as his peak.
POW POW POW!
Rui through a combo of strikes, but the masked man casually blocked them
as he threw another strike at Rui.
BAM!
Rui skidded away.
What ensued was a dominant display of power. Just when the crowd thought
Rui was a goner.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui cleanly evaded a strike, while he landed a powerful Flowing Canon on

the man's gut, pushing him back.
Yet he didn't relent. He lashed after Rui once more, yet to his surprise, Rui
calmly dealt with his attack rather well.
The two exchanged blow furiously as Rui began gaining perfect parity with
the masked man. The crowd's eyes lit up in elation as they realized that Rui's
fighting style had changed once more.
Rui had managed to perfect the prediction model just in time. Confidence
filled every cell in his body as went all-out trying to defeat his opponent. His
opponent had superior parameters, but Rui's prediction and adaptive
evolution allowed him to mitigate the advantage to a large degree.
However, his opponent was extremely efficient. He was also a tricky and
tactical fighter that impressed Rui. He didn't fight head-on like a brute but
instead fought cleverly, making the best of what he had.
POW!
Rui grimaced as he stepped back. ('He can extend his range!')
WHOOSH
Rui stepped back as he avoided another extended strike that stopped at a

certain distance, failing to reach Rui. ('But there's a limit to his range
extension.')
Yet when Rui stepped out of his range, trying to launcha ttacks from a
distance with Tempestuous Ripple.
POW!
A powerful strike landed on him, despite the range, throwing him off-
balance.
WHOOSH
The man instantly crossed the distance, launching a barrage of attacks on Rui,
exploiting the opening created.
('He tricked me') Rui gritted his teeth. ('He fought with a shorter range
because he knew I would make the wrong inference. He must have watched
me fight all this time!')
BAM!
Rui leapt away from a strike as he opened up the distance between them,
before winding up a strike. They both charged at each other, racing to land a
strike first.
BAM!!!
Their attacks landed on the other's head.
THUD
They knocked each other away turning to face each other, only to realize that
they had broken each other's masks.
Chapter 326 Revelation
The masks that Martial Artists wore were not meant to protect their face or
head, it was meant to protect their identity. Of course, Martial Apprentices
got hit in the face and the head regularly thus the masks that Martial
Apprentices wore were designed to survive the rigor of Apprentice-Realm
combat. Of course, most masks needed heavy maintenance after rigorous
extended combat.
Ordinary substances that couldn't withstand the rigors of Apprentice-Realm

combat while the esoteric resources with the tensile strength to be able to
completely endure Apprentice-Realm combat were strategic resources that
also too scarce to be wasted on masks.
Thus, as well as masks were designed to survive and at the very least stay
intact, when faced power and onslaught at effectively the pinnacle of the
Apprentice Realm, they simply couldn't stay intact.
Rui hadn't even realized that his mask had fallen off until he felt the warm air
make contact with his face.
Yet before he could even process his situation, his eyes fell on his opponent,
who was in the same predicament.
Golden hair and golden eyes. Perfect, beautiful features.
The man looked like a prince.
Yet it wasn't his aesthetics that shocked Rui.
"You...!" He murmured in shock. Rui's mind flashed back nearly two years
ago, back to his bodyguard mission in the Basara Mountains. He had fought a
bandit group that was routinely ambushing and plundering supply convoys
for high-grade esoteric resources.
The leader of the bandit group back then who had managed to escape was the
very man before him.
Rui quickly contained his shock as much as he could, pretending it was his
own mask slip he was shocked about. He didn't want the golden man to figure
out he recognized his identity.
Meanwhile the crowd had grown extremely excited. The identity of not just
one, but two of the strongest Martial Artists of the Martial Games had been
revealed in one go.
Rui's features had instantly given him away. The crowd immediately his
identity to the finalist of the Martial Contest.
"Hey, that black hair and eyes. That's that Apprentice Rui Quarrier fellow!"
"Wait, Lady Freier managed to rope in the finalist of the Martial Contest??"
Rui sighed. There was nothing he could do at this point. He had done his
reasonable best hiding his identity.
At the very least, he wasn't nearly as concerned as he was when he first

accepted the representative fighter commission from Nartha. Since then, his
goodwill with the members of the Martial Games community had risen, if he
was in bad blood with all of them, he would have been extremely concerned.
Furthermore, in the two months he had spent initially in the Martial Games,
he had come to realize that basically nothing happened to the fighters
commissioned for the Martial Games. Part of this was because no Martial
Artist would ever participate in it if there was serious adverse risk to
participating in the Martial Games.
Part of the reason was Charles DiVilier. Everyone knew the man loved
Martial Art, he went out of his way to ensure that there were no disincentives
and incentives. Nobody wanted to make any enemy of a man with the wealth,
power and influence that he had.
So why was it this man's representative fighter was a bandit?
This raised huge red flags in Rui's mind. But for now, he kept things under a
lid. He was enjoying the fight prior, but not he just felt wary. He glanced at
Charles and saw the man was staring at him with a knowing a smile. He
didn't seem surprised at Rui's identity.
Both fighters immediately got their feet as they immediately took their
stances against each other.
"It's very unfortunate that the fighters' masks have broken." Charles' voice
boomed. "It would be unfair to expect them to continue when they were
unable to conceal their identities the way they originally wanted to." He
continued. "Here at the Martial Games we accommodate Martial Artists when
and where we can. This match will be called off for today."
A wave of disappointment washed over the guests, but none of them dared
raise an objection to his words.
Rui's eyebrows knitted at those words. His identity was already revealed, the
mask or not, it didn't matter. Yet the fact that Charles insisted likely meant
that the reason he wanted had nothing to do with Rui's identity.
Rui turned back to the blond man, scrutinizing him in suspicion.
Did Charles know who he was? Is that why he was stopping the match? He
didn't want even the slightest chance of it being leaked that his representative
was a prolific bandit that disrupted economy of the town of Hajin and no
doubted affected several of the guests and members of the Martial Games?
Rui didn't know for sure. He turned back to the blond man, who was turning
around to leave.
"Hey." Rui called out.
The man paused. Meeting Rui's gaze from the edge of the field of his vision.
"I'm Rui Quarrier." Rui told him. "May I have the honour of knowing your
name?"
He stared at Rui for a few seconds before turning around wordlessly and
leaving.
('So he won't bite.') Rui mused.
He sighed. There wasn't anything he could do about it frankly. And at the end
of the day, he wasn't sure he wanted to do anything about it.
He was quite shocked to see the man here, and he was wary and suspicious of
Charles. But that was it. The culture of the Martial Games had become a lot
more transparent to Rui and this event didn't really matter all that much.
He would still participate in the Martial Contest every time he wanted to test
his prowess against a diverse set of Martial Artists in a serious competitive
match.
Soon the matches had ended since there weren't any fighters left challenge
Rui. And the guests mingled with each other freely.
Rui had been bombarded with praises and admiration from many of the
guests who had personally taken an interest in the Martial Contest. The
reputation that Apprentice Falken had built from scratch in the Martial
Games community overlapped with the fame that Rui had acquired in the
Martial Contest. His image rose in their minds as many of the guests cozied
up to him, trying to get him retain them as clienteles.
Rui sighed.
Chapter 327 Disadvantages
"Apprentice Quarrier." Charles DiVillier addressed him at one point.
"Lord Divilier." Rui bowed, expressing goodwill.
"It is truly unfortunate that your identity was revealed in the manner that it
was." Charles DiVilier sighed, shaking his head. "Unfortunately, these things
happen. Though I daresay this hasn't yielded any negative consequences."
"It seems that way." Rui replied perfunctorily.
"By the way." Charles smiled. "I recall commissioning you for your unique
Martial Art, in vain unfortunately. However, after witnessing your
remarkable growth since the Martial Contest, I wish to extend my offer to
you. Join the DiVillier Family." He said. "You will find it to be worth your
time"
The guests who were listening to the conversation widened their eyes at his
words.
However, Rui shook his head at those words. "I already have a family. I'm
afraid I will have to decline your offer."
"It's a pity I cannot acquire you." Charles DiVilier sighed, almost speaking of
Rui as an object. "However, if you ever do reconsider, I'll always be more
than willing to accommodate a Martial Artist of your calbre."
"Thank you." Rui replied, ending their conversation. He didn't want to

interact with Charles, especially after he learnt of the identity of his fighter.
The guests interacted and socialized with themselves, while the fighters
interacted with each other. Rui walked over to the Martial Apprentices
present in the room after he managed to pry himself from the guest members.
He wasn't particularly interested in befriending them or anything of the
matter. It was just that Martial Artists were more interesting to interact with.
Furthermore, he was only really interested in interacting with a single Martial

Artist at the moment.
"Hey." Rui said to Fernan, having approached him. "Hope you're doing fine."
"Potions healed me up just fine." Fernan didn't seem to mind talking to him
despite having lost his position as defending champion to Rui just a few
hours prior.
"Your Martial Art is really interesting, I wanted to learn more about it." Rui
admitted. "What is the name of your Martial Art?"
"I call it the Bestial Rage Style." Fernan replied.
"Interesting..." Rui eyes lit up with interest. ('So it has enough individuality to
be named.')
"Your Martial Art is fascinating to me." Rui told him. "I'd never heard or
even seen of symbiotic Martial Art techniques before, they're truly powerful.
Can you tell me more about them?"
Fernan seemed to appreciate the interest in his Martial Art. "Most people are
disgusted by them, not to mention afraid."
Rui shrugged. "Anything that can help me walk down my Martial Path by
strengthening my Martial Art as it is, is worth my interest. Aesthetics or other
sensibilities don't matter."
Ferna's eyes lit up at that response. "That's the right attitude to have. I
commend you for being this mature despite your youth."
"Thank you."
"As for Symbiotic Martial Art techniques..." he began. "They're quite the
niche field. However, it is my Martial Path. When I first learnt of these
techniques in the Exploration Stage and tested my affinity with them. I just
knew I had to master them, that was when I discovered my Martial Path."
"How did you test your affinity with them?"
"That can be measured with how well you're able to engage in symbiosis."
Fernan replied. "The implantation of the symbiotes are not the techniques
themselves. The Martial Art techniques one performs with symbiosis with an
implanted symbiote are what're known as Symbiosis Martial Art techniques."
"I see..." Rui grew engrossed.
"Are you interested in learning symbiosis techniques?" Fernan asked

hopefully.
Rui nodded. "I suspect I may have a decent amount of compatibility with
them, to the point where it would be foolish of me to ignore them. Thus, I
wanted to learn more about them. What kinds of Symbiosis techniques
exist?"
"Oh, all kinds." Fernan said. "There are different species of symbiotes
capable of doing different things. They're generally categorized by whether
the utility they provide is extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic symbiotes usually
manifest something on the body, much like these arms and wins of mine.
While intrinsic symbiotes manifest inside the body. They usually boost
existing metabolic function or provide for metabolic functions that the user
didn't have prior."
"Symbiosis techniques come after implanting a symbiote." He continued.

"The quality of your techniques depends on the symbiotes available. Higher-
grade symbiotes will generally have more powerful techniques for the same
amount of difficulty."
"Wait." Rui frowned. "Symbiotes have grades?"
"Of course, they do." Fernan replied. "My dark eagle symbiote is a grade
eight Symbiote, my arm-raiser symbiote is a grade-seven symbiote. I even
have a few lower-grade intrinsic symbiotes."
Rui's eyes lit up in interest. He was much more interested in intrinsic
symbiotes than he was extrinsic symbiotes. He didn't want any physiological
growth of appendages on his body like extra arms or wings. He wanted
something complimented his current power and potential, not something that
aimed to usurp it.
"What are the shortcomings and drawbacks of symbiotic Martial Art?" Rui
asked. He had already figured a lot of the answer but he wanted to confirm it
with an actual expert.
"There's risks, conditions and constraints." He sighed. "That's one of the

reasons symbiosis Martial Art techniques haven't taken off, there's so many
disadvantages that other fields of Martial Art simply do not have. The risks
include possibility of brain damage if you overburden your mental capacity
since most symbiotes used in Symbiosis Martial Art techniques form neural
pinks with the brain, weakness due to overburdening your stamina.
Furthermore, each symbiote has their own additional risks specific to them
that need to be accounted for. The difficulty of mastery is also greater
because you need to develop basic proficiency and coordination with
symbiotes."
Rui nodded. With all these disadvantages along with the instinctive fear
disgust of putting a strange disgusting creature inside your body and
connected with your mind was likely the reason that symbiosis Martial Art
had not taken off.
"What are the advantages of symbiosis techniques?"
Fernan smirked. "I'm glad you asked."

Chapter 328 Martial Commission
"There are solid advantages to symbiotic Martial Art." Fernan explained.

"For one, it's easier to master powerful techniques once you obtain basic
mastery of the symbiote."
Rui raised an eyebrow at those words, waiting for him to continue.
"There are symbiotic techniques with grade-ten potency but only grade-nine
or sometimes even grade-eight difficulty!" He said, grinning smugly.
Rui's eyes widened at those words. Grade-ten potency techniques like God
Speed, Void Step, All-Seeing Eye and Heart Permeation were all
extraordinarily potent techniques with extraordinary difficulty. They could
not be mastered without extreme talent, high affinity and immense amount
effort. All of the grade-ten potency techniques that Rui had come across in
the Apprentice library also had grade-ten difficulty. All grade-ten techniques
were grade-ten in both power and difficulty
However, Fernan just told him that it was possible to obtain grade-ten
potency techniques with lower difficult grades in symbiosis Martial Art!
Meaning it was possible to obtain that absurd power with significantly lower
difficulty.
"That's... impressive." Rui admitted.
"Indeed." Fernan replied. "There're also other advantages like a greater

diversity of utility. Surpassing your biological limits gives you options to do
things that would be unfathomable otherwise."
Rui nodded. Flying with wings was one of them. He wondered how fast
Fernan would become if he ever became a Squire, Martial Squires had all
reached a level where they could propel themselves by simply stepping on
air. Surely someone with wings would be able to do far more.
These two advantages alone were worth looking into symbiosis Martial Art
when he had the time.
('Next training session for sure.') He noted, excited.
He didn't know what kind of symbiotic Martial Art technique he would pick,
if he would even end up choosing one in the first place.
The two chatted for some time more until the event finally ended and guests
and their representative fighters dispersed and returned.
Rui returned the Martial Academy that day, deep in thought. He had many
things to consider. His most immediate goal was fulfilling the conditions of
Squire candidacy. Missions helped him stabilize his growth so that he could
bolster the new techniques he learnt with real combat experience rather than
mediocre sparring experience he would have if cooped himself in the Martial
Academy. It was also one of the reasons the Martial Academy had the
learner's license provision.
It was so that Martial Apprentices could go out in the real world and
understand where their true combat prowess and competence laid.
Rui could feel that he had grown just a bit stronger in the span of a week
since he came out of training. Purely because he had grown more and more
comfortable and familiar with his own strength. He wouldn't mind continuing
missions until he felt himself stagnating.
However, he had an instinctive feeling that he was close to achieving Squire

candidacy, just one last step away. When he had come out of training, he
wasn't sure whether his Martial Art had achieved maturity or not. He was told
he would be certain of it one day, but after the recent bit of experience he had
accumulated, he could feel his Flowing Void Style only needed a bit more of
growth before it reached maturity.
('Probably just one last training stage.') Rui mused to himself.

That was why he needed to have serious considerations about the notion of
mastering symbiosis techniques in his next training stage. It would be quite
crucial. Was it wise to try and delve into an exotic field like symbiotic
Martial Art?
Rui wasn't sure.
Thankfully, he still had some time. He wanted to enrich his experience and
ensure his master over his current power had peaked. Not just in a sparring
scenario, but in real combat as well.
When he returned, he had wanted immediately to jump into another mission,

when he suddenly found Kane running up to him.
"Hey Rui, where you've been?" He asked hurriedly.
"Just came back from a mission, about pick another, why?"
"Well, you don't need to pick another." Kane shook his head. "It's been
picked for you.
Rui's eyebrow lifted. "A mandatory mission from the Royal Kandrian
government?"
Kane shook his head. "Not the government, the Martial Union itself."
"How do you know of this?" Rui frowned.
"Because you're not the only one who was picked." Kane replied.
"You too?"
"And Fae, Nel and Hever."
Rui frowned. "A mission involving the top five Martial Apprentices of the
Martial Academy? What kind of mission is it?"
"Don't know yet." Kane sighed. "The mission breakdown will apparently
occur at the Martial Union headquarters by an official Martial
commissioner."
Rui's eyes widened at those words. The fact that the mission was being
personally delivered at the Martial Union by a Martial commissioner meant
that it was likely quite a lot more important to the Kandrian Martial Union
than just standard mission. That also reflected in the Martial Artists that were
chosen to undertake the mission.
"Well, let's go then." Rui urged.
The two boys immediately met up with the other five and they all dispersed
for the Martial Union Hajin branch headquarters.
"What do you think the mission is about?" Fae wondered.
"Hard to say." Hever replied. "I've never been commissioned by the Martial
Union itself."
"It's definitely a mission that affects the interests of the Martial Union itself."
Rui murmured thoughtfully. "However, they commissioned Martial
Apprentices. Even if it's distinguished Martial Apprentices like us, it means
that the difficulty of the mission does not exceed the Apprentice-Realm, that's
for sure."
He paused before continuing. "The fact they're hiring Martial Artists at all
means that there's a conflict of interests that is affecting the interests of the
Martial Union. That actually limits the possibilities by a lot. For starters, it's
not a hunting mission, those are commissioned by the Ministry of
Environment and Ecology. It's not primarily a covert mission, only Kane here
is suited for high-grade shadow-class missions. That leaves offense-class and
defense-class missions, maybe some weird miscellaneous mission. As well."
"So basically, we're going to be protecting somebody or attacking

somebody." Kane concluded.
Chapter 329 Commissioned
The Martial Academy gave an impression of wealth and prestige, it was quite
ostentatious and large. Yet it stood in sharp to the Martial Union
headquarters. The Martial Union headquarters had a no-nonsense militaristic
approach to its structure. Rui could feel that it was designed for absolutely
efficiency without even the slightest care for aesthetics.
All major and semi-major towns had a branch of the Martial Union in them,
and the town of Hajin was no different. It wasn't even all too far from the
Martial Academy, thankfully.
They'd soon arrived and immediately headed inside towards the commission
department of the Martial Union.
"Please wait in office Three-twelve." The staff member said. "Commissioner

Frelmaunt will join you and begin the briefing as soon as possible."
The briefing room was a lot more earthlike than Rui had more expected, then
again there were only so many ways to make a briefing room.
"Booooring!" Nel sunk in a chair. "This is boring! I'm going back."
"That's a bad idea." Kane told him. "The royalty contract we signed specified
an agreement to mandatorily accepting at a certain frequency annually."
"Screw that!" Nel spat, standing up. "I'm going back to the Academy and
fighting strong Apprentices."
"There are no Martial Apprentices left that are strong enough to fight you
either." Rui pointed out. "The only ones from the Academy who can are all
sitting in this room. Do you want to fight weak Martial Apprentice you
already beat?"
"Tsk!" He tutted as he slumped back into his chair. "UuuUurrgh! Hurry up
already."
"Be patient you child." Kane glared at him.
Fae through him an amused look as she scoffed.
Kane turned towards her. "What?"
"My, nothing at all." She shrugged.
Kane knitted his eyebrows. "That didn't feel like nothing at all."
"You're overthinking."
"Am I?"
"You are."
Rui sighed, exasperated as the exchange continued. Fae's and Kane's ability
to bicker over literally nothing was truly something to marvel at.
('We're so far away from anything resembling a team.') Rui sighed inwardly.
('Let's hope this mission isn't too demanding on coordination and
cooperation.')
Finally, the door opened.
A man in a suit-like garb with the emblem of the Martial Union walked in.
"Sorry for the delay." He said as he walked into the room with a box files.
"Apprentices Rui Quarrier, Fae Dullahan, Kane Arrancar, Nel, and Hever
Mendelieve?"
"Yes sir." They all affirmed.
He nodded, taking the files and distributing them to each of the Martial
Union.
"The mission that you're all going to be commissioned to complete is an
offense-class mission." He told them "Naturally, this means it's an
international mission. The target of the mission is a research facility in the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfarna. One of the smallest sovereign states that
orbits the Kandrian Empire. Your goal is to kill all of the researchers of the
research facility and extract all the research data that of the research facility
and bring it back to the Kandrian Empire."
Rui frowned. He didn't expect a research facility in a foreign nation to be the

target of the mission.
"The research facility's existence is classified information of the

Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfarna. It's built and located far and away from
the populace and even underground in order to conceal its existence."
Commissioner Frelmaunt told them. "The intelligence provided by the
Martial Union covers rather extensive data on the research facility. Our spies
have managed to acquire general intel on its structure, security measures as
well as the location of the desired target. After carefully evaluating all this
information, the difficulty of this mission has been evaluated as among the
highest even in the grade-ten range, requiring atleast one grade-ten Martial
Apprentice and four other Martial Apprentices above grade-eight."
He paused before continuing. "Of those four, we have evaluated the need of
atleast one Martial Apprentice with high offensive power and one Martial
Apprentice with high stealth capabilities. The sensory prowess of the team
cannot dip below a certain threshold as well."
"To reiterate, your mission has two objectives. The first objective is to ensure
the deaths of all researchers of the underground facility. All of them. Not a
single one may leave. This is of absolute paramount importance. Failure to
complete this objective will be considered a complete failure for the mission.
The second objective is to acquire all the research data of the facility. The
means of which is detailed in the mission bill." He spoke. "The mission
commences immediately, once you're done being briefed, you'll immediately
head to the dispatch facility where you'll immediately travel to Vinfarna on
foot. The successful remuneration is a six hundred gold in total."
Rui's eyes widened. That was twenty times his remuneration from his
Ruyloken Gang mission. The sheer amount of money the Martial Union was
willing to fork over for this one mission was astounding.
"That covers the most significant parts of the mission. The less significant but
important details are all thoroughly detailed in the mission bill. Be sure to
memorize it." The man told them.
"Ah." He suddenly remembered something. "The native language and script

of the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana is Vinfranese. The mission
includes a length list of Vinfranese words and phrases that need to be
memorized."
"Ideally, all of you ought to memorize it." He told them. "But at the very
least, one of you needs to memorize it."
Rui skimmed through the mission bill as he quickly inputted and stored them
in his mind palace.
"Ah, one more thing." He said, turning to Rui. "You, Apprentice Quarrier,
will lead the mission, clear?"
None of them were surprised by that. Rui was more or less the strongest, and
he was absolutely the smartest.
Rui nodded in response. "Yes sir."
"Good. Memorize the mission bill inside out and once you're done, proceed
with the necessary protocols and head out. If you need any further
clarification, you may consult me in the commissioner department."
"Excuse me." Rui interrupted his departure. "Is it possible to know why the
mission is being commissioned?"
The man stared at Rui thoughtfully. "Well, if you have to know, it's because
the research facility has engaged in gross violation of human rights. The
Martial Union cannot tolerate it, simple as that."
He said, leaving.
Chapter 330 Speculation
Rui's eyes narrowed at those words. ('Does he think we're idiots? That's
absolute nonsense and everyone knows it.')
The part of the human rights violation was actually true. It was even detailed
in the mission bill. The research facility was mass experimenting on human
beings relentlessly. The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfarna used prisoners as
test subjects for research and development and the mission detailed how
hundreds of bodies were disposed by the research facility every month.
Still, Rui wasn't a fool.
The Martial Union was not a humanitarian or a philanthropic organization. It

was an organization that thrived and flourished on human conflict and
suffering.
Would such an organization give even the slightest bit of a fuck of human
rights violations in another sovereign nation? That too a small nation with no
bargaining power with the Kandrian Empire?
('The answer is obvious not.') Rui mused.
The true goal of the mission likely was the research data. Rui had figured this
out the very instant Frelmaunt had laid out the objectives of the mission.
What Rui didn't understand was why Frelmaunt stressed on the first objective
of eliminating all inhabitants of the Martial Union instead of research data
acquisition.
In fact, wasn't eliminating all researchers a bad idea?
If the Martial union secretly stole all the data and allowed the research to
continue, wouldn't it gain even more research data in the future that it could
steal once more.
Wasn't that ultimately more productive?
('If they had decided to send someone like Kane once a year to use Void Step
to secretly infiltrate the research facility, steal all the data, then they would
end up with much more research data in the long run.') Rui noted. ('Why not
go for something like that?')
There was only one conclusion.
The Martial Union strongly wanted the research to not continue.
('Which means the disincentives and detriments of letting the research

continue surpass the benefits of letting it continue.') Rui concluded. ('But why
would that be?')
Information by itself did not hurt anybody.
('It's not the information, it's who has it.') Rui realized.
The Martial Union did not want the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfarna to
possess the data obtained from the research projects being conducted in the
research facility.
This was understandable, of course. Research and development were the

cornerstones of civilization and could singlehandedly benefit a country
enormously. It was understandable for the Martial Union to want to prevent
other nations on getting their hands on a lot of it.
('The fact that the Martial Union is involved means that it's related to Martial
Art and not conventional technology.') Rui mused.
The Martial Union did not engage in research of conventional esoteric

technology, as far as he knew. If the Vinfarna research facility was engaging
in normal esoteric technology research, the Martial Union would likely not
bother. The Royal Family would be the one to interfere if that was the case.
This was also supported by the fact that they were experimenting on humans.
('It's quite likely that this research is something that threatens the
overwhelming power dynamic advantage that the Kandrian Empire possess
over the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.') Rui mused.
However, he couldn't understand what that could be. It was unlikely that this
research wasn't something that the Martial Union had already possessed. Rui
was aware of how much the Martial Union invested in the research of Martial
Art. The research budgets were large enough for the entire organization to
form Martial factions on how the gigantic research budget ought to be
allocated.
Rui highly doubted that the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana could match
the Martial Union's frightening Martial Art research.
('If the Martial Union already possesses the research data that the Vinfrana
research facility has, then it means that the research data is important enough
that the Martial Union simply cannot tolerate the state of Vinfrana gaining
access it.') Rui deduced.
That made the chances that the research was based on techniques alone to be
quite low. A handful of techniques alone would not matter to the Martial
Union. All nations developed Martial Art techniques, the cost it took to
prevent that was not worth the benefits gained.
If it wasn't techniques that were being researched, then what was it?
Rui was quite curious. Unfortunately, the mission bill did not specify the
research that was actually being conducted in the research facility. Which
likely meant that Martial Apprentices like themselves had too low of a
clearance level to have access to information of this sort.
Still Rui had several of his own suspicions that he put aside for now. The
mission was more important. He began scrolling through the data on the
research facility provided by the mission bill.
The research facility wasn't small, it was circular and had a diameter of more
than a kilometer. The general area of the secret entrances was known;
however, the exact locations weren't deduced. Rui immediately realized that
this was one of the reasons he was picked for this mission. With Seismic
Mapping, he had the ability to detect underground anomalies within a certain
depth limit. Unless he was way too far, he should be able to detect one of the
entrances of the research facility.
Funnily enough, the mission bill had intel on the general structure of the
research facility but not on the location of the entrances.
Thankfully, the security measures weren't beyond their ability. It wasn't that
the research facility wasn't important enough to be given higher security, it's
just that the Vinfranan government couldn't afford to provide it more
security.
Among all the smaller nations, the Commonwealth Duchy of the Vinfrana
was most deprived of Martial Artists due to the larger nations. It had had a
weaker Martial Art foundation than even a state for its size, and Kandrian
Empire had ruthlessly stripped away all of its Martial Artists by attracting
them over with the rich and immense learning and growth resources that it
had to offer.
It was to the point that the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was left with
nothing but Martial Apprentices!
Chapter 331 Plan
The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was a direct bordering nation of the

Kandrian Empire thankfully, so the journey back and forth from the town of
Hajin to the location of the research facility wasn't all that long.
"Have you guys memorized it?" Rui asked, closing the mission bill, after
quickly storing all the data in his mind palace.
"No." Kane yawned. "But we have you. So, it's all good."
Rui rolled his eyes.
"I've memorized everything but the finer details." Fae replied.
"As have I." Hever calmly replied.
Rui glanced over at snoring Nel, sighing.
"Hey, wake up!"
"Hm?" His eyes flashed open. "Is it time to go?"
"Yes."
He stood up abruptly. "What are you wasting time sitting here for? Let's get
going!"
Rui simply gave up, as they all proceeded to the dispatch facility, completing
the required protocols before they could finally be dispatched.
The journey took longer than if Rui alone had set out. Partially because the
group was as slow as the slowest person; Hever.
The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was almost in the opposite direction
of the Kingdom of Grahal. They had to travel north past the Mantian region
and even cross a tiny mountain range reach the border.
Unlike the Kingdom of Grahal, the weather and climate were cold and dry
too. They ran in the cold until they finally reached the border.
Much to Rui's amazement, the border security of the Commonwealth Duchy

of Vinfrana was much worse than even that of the Kingdom of Grahal.
Atleast the Kingdom of Grahal had something resembling a wall protecting
the border.
Vinfrana had no more than a paltry fence marking its border. Even ordinary
humans could casually cross it.
"How much further from here?" Nel complained.
"Three hours at our current pace to reach the Frujmel forest." Rui replied.
The general location of the research facility was in the north of the Frujmel
forest, though its exact location was unknown. The intelligence was not
gathered through direct surveillance, clearly.
Rui could see why the research facility was built in the forest. It was large
and far away from population according to the mission bill. The only thing
that surprised Rui was how they were able to build and underground research
facility.
The more sophisticated civil engineering of Gaia, like all forms of technology
in this world, was based on esoteric technology which was far more
expensive than the civil engineering technology of Earth due to the scarcity
of the esoteric resources used and also because of their value.
Building underground facilities even on Earth was not easy, he could not
imagine how difficult and expensive it was in this world.
Furthermore, the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was a poor sovereign

nation. Meaning projects like this were highly extravagant and ostentatious
for it.
Yet, it invested this much into the facility.
('My suspicions likely aren't wrong.') Rui thought as analyzed the data
available. ('The research facility is researching something important,
something related to Martial Art. Something it doesn't have and something
the Martial Union does. Something significant enough that the Martial Union
is willing to raid and annihilate all research on the matter so that the state
doesn't gain the results it is looking for.')
('The fact that they've gone this overboard with the secrecy likely means
they're aware that the research taking place is not something the Martial
Union is willing to allow. If this was merely ordinary research, they would
not go this out of their way to hide it.') Rui conjectured.
He grew more and more curious about what exactly was being researched in
the facility.
Time passed.
They eventually ran into a sea of trees in the forest.
"We've arrived." Rui declared. "The forest does have Apprentice-level

creatures. So, keep an eye out everybody."
"How do we find the location of the research facility again?" Kane asked.
"Leave that to me." Rui told them. "My Seismic Mapping is perfect for
locating it. I'll scan... well, the entire forest I guess."
Rui sighed.
"Will you be able to locate the facility."
"Given enough time, yes." Rui replied. "I don't even need to directly locate
the facility even."
"What do you mean?" Fae asked.

"A research facility of this size absolutely gets shipments of supplies no
matter how self-dependent it is. Basic human sustenance supplies because
they are this far away from the populace, energy supplies, esoteric supplies
and human test subject supplies as well." Rui replied. "In fact, this is
probably how the Martial Union discovered of the research facility's
existence in the first place. Even if the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana
did a good job concealing the physical location, it's not good enough. One
needs to conceal all exchanges with the research facility to truly hide it."
Rui suspected the Martial Union learnt of the existence of the research
facility via the expenditure of funds and resources of all kinds needed to build
the facility. Such expenditure was hard to hide, and the Martial Union's
intelligence department likely picked up signs of it early on.
Of course, the Martial Union would not bulldoze any and all research
facilities of all small nations around it. That was a worthless endeavor that
yielded no meaningful benefits. It was quite likely the Martial Union then
narrowed down the general location to the northern portion of the Frujmel
Forest looking at the flow of funds and resources.
Resources needed to be shipped physically, it was easier to catch a shipment

travelling through the forest than it was for Rui to scan the entire forest with
Seismic mapping looking for a facility that was God-knew how deep. The
deeper it was, the closer he needed to be to be able to detect it.
Furthermore, the topography of the Frujmel Forest was uneven, which make
it more annoying to use Seismic Mapping to accurately map out the
environment.
"Hopefully we hit some luck" Rui muttered, sighing. "The sooner we locate
the exact entrance, the sooner we can end this mission.
**********
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Chapter 332 Next Step
Rui knew one of the reasons he had been picked was the Seismic Mapping
technique. It was the best technique to locate a hidden underground research
facility. Although there were sub-terranean specialists, the difficulty of the
mission mean they needed to be extremely strong.
Furthermore, since the conflict wouldn't actually be taking inside land or the
actual ground itself, they were useless beyond detection. Thus, it was more
efficient to send someone who had the sensory techniques needed but also the
power needed for the mission.
How many grade-ten Martial Apprentices were there that had also
coincidentally mastered the Seismic Mapping technique, that also weren't on
a mission?
Not many, Rui suspected.
Still, it wasn't fun to be the only one working while his teammates were
effectively doing nothing.
Rui opened his eyes, lifting his palm from the ground sighing. ('Nothing here
as well.')
Rui had long begun grid-search across the northern part of the forest. It
would take him a full day of non-stop work to be able to map the entire area
with his speed and sensory range.
The problem was figuring out the sizes of the grid boxes because he didn't the
depth at which the facility was built at. The deeper it was, the smaller his grid
boxes would need to be and the more grid boxes he would need to have.
Because the deeper it was, the closer he needed to be in order to be able to
detect it. If his grid boxes were large, the probability that he would be close
enough reduced the few grid boxes he had.
Most people would simply try to be thorough and careful, and leave it at that.
That was the normal and even reasonable thing to do
But not Rui.
He was careful and thorough. But he also decided to mathematically

construct a probability function of the likelihood of the research facility being
missed by his Seismic Mapping at certain depths.
Thus, Rui had decided to create a probability function that inputted a possible
depth of the research facility underground as well as the size of the grid
boxes he was scanning the forest through, box-by-box, that outputted the
probability of him missing it.
As for trying to gauge the maximum depth the facility could possibly be, he
had conducted a small quick survey where he quickly dug holes into the
ground as deep as he could to see where he would hard rock. That would
likely be the hard limit where he could safely assume that the research facility
would not be below.
Inputting that into the function, he could estimate the minimum amount of
effort he would need to exert with his grid searching to be absolutely certain
that he would not miss the research facility with his Seismic Mapping sense.
With the Mind Palace technique, parsing through the data was easy, too.
This was how a man of science operated.
Just as Rui felt he needed to take a break, he froze.
('Hm?') His eyebrows knitted as he sensed something odd deep within the
land at a certain distance ahead of him.
His eyes widened as he felt a flat continuous hard structure.

A structure that could not be naturally formed.
('This is it!') He turned towards Kane, who was accompanying him. "I think I
found it."
"Brilliant." Kane replied, relieved. "Let's storm in and wipe them all out."
"We don't know the exact entrance location yet." Rui told him. "Besides..."
"Besides?"
"There's a reason this is a grade-ten mission with a minimum requirement of

five members." Rui told him, narrowing his eyes.
There were six Martial Apprentices in charge of the security of the research
facility.
Among those six was a grade-ten Martial Apprentice while the remaining
five were estimated to be mid-to-high grade Martial Apprentices at most.
For the Kandrian Empire and the Martial Union, this was trivial. However,
Rui suspected that for the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana, this was not a
small amount. Its Martial Artist-per-capita, the number of Martial
Apprentices for the entire population, was much lower than that of the
Kandrian Empire.
Furthermore, because it hadn't had higher Realm Martial Artists in a long,

long time. So, every Martial Apprentice was treated as a highly-valuable
strategic asset. It wasn't easy for the sovereign state to dispatch these many
Martial Apprentices to sit idle in a research facility when there were so many
other urgent needs for Martial Artists.
Rui intended to gather as much information as he possible could before he

would launch an assault. The current information available was too scarce.
Where was the entrance? How was it accessed? Could they access it the same
way? Could the exit it the same way once the mission was complete?
The information that the Martial Union had gathered had allowed them to
understand a very general broad structure of the research facility, the Martial
Union entrusted them with figuring out all the details.
"What do you suggest we do now?" Kane asked, scratching his head. "Search
for the entrance by scouring the area?"
Rui shook his head. "That's too direct, there's a chance they have basic
surveillance near the entrance. If we go walking about, there's a pretty decent
chance we'll be discovered immediately."
"Then what do we do?" Kane asked.
"Thorough extended surveillance." Rui replied. "You all have monoculars.

The four of you will surveil the patch of land below which the research
facility is below. You'll look for any opening using the monoculars from an
elevated height with an eagle view of the entire area."
"What about you?" Kane asked.
"I'll keep track of activity with Seismic Mapping." Rui said. "You guys keep
aerial vision. There's no way we can miss something if something does
happen."
He turned to Kane. "Also, once we do discover the entrance and obtain an

opportunity to enter. You're going in alone."
"Hey! Why single out me?" Kane complained.
"You have the Void Step technique; reconnaissance is your last name."
"My last name is Arr-" He paused, recalling he hated that name. "Alright
fine."
Chapter 333 Discovery
Rui smirked. "Get going then, tell the others what I've told you and begin
executing the plan immediately. If any of you see something, send a beep to
the rest of us."
"Got it." Kane disappeared as he Void Stepped away.
Rui turned back, continuing his surveillance of the research facility with
Seismic Mapping.
He could sense part of the structure of the facility. Now he planned to circle
around it and see if he could stumble into something resembling a secret
opening.
At the very least, they could not launch the attack without having a clear
means to enter and exit. That would be incredibly foolish and short-sighted
and would probably doom the mission. The research facility would probably
detect them and would inform the government which would probably send
reinforcements. The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana would also become
aware that the Kandrian Empire was aware of the existence of the secret
research facility.
Rui suspected that even if they themselves could not actively find the
entrance to the research facility, they could, at the very least, detect the flow
of resources into the research facility. A research facility of this sort
absolutely required regular supply shipments to continue operating smoothly.
There were way no way Rui could miss any exchanges in and out of the
facility, he had deliberately repositioned himself to the shortest route between
the closest urban town that would likely be the location from which the
research facility received supply shipments from. If something came, he
would see it in a heartbeat
There were other ways to narrow down the location of the entrance as well.
In all likelihood the entrance was some sort opening concealed by earth and
some vegetation over it. It was simple and effective. And there really wasn't
any other straightforward manner in which they could hide the entrance
without leaving anything visible that could distinguish it as a location.
If that were the case, then there actually was a limited amount of area
throughout the entire forest that the opening actually could be. The Frujmel
forest was a dense forest with thick trees whose roots burrowed deep. The
area the opening was constructed in could not be an area highly populated
with the trees, the roots would likely be far too deep and widespread,
furthermore the soil would also be quite tightly held. The most convenient
locations to build a secret concealed underground entrance would be under
light vegetation like grass or shrubs.
This remarkably cut down the proportion of the area of the forest that the
entrance could be at, making their job easier.
Soon, time passed as Rui continued maintaining his surveillance. It wasn't as

though there wasn't any human activity whatsoever. There were travelling
convoys and carriages of humans across the entire forest, but Rui had deemed
them to be unrelated as they continued through the forest without ever
stopping in a human that cut through the forest at a much distant point.
Until one of the convoys detoured.
('Hm?') Rui's eyes knitted as he sensed a convoy approaching the general

geographic area. ('Could it be?')
The convoy moved slowly and discreetly without drawing much of any
attention at all, from what he could tell from such a great distance away. This
was a good sign.
Half an hour later, they stopped at a location nearly a kilometer away from
his location.
His eyes lit up as he felt a substantial increase in seismic activity from
underground. He moved in closer discreetly, looking to get a better seismic
view of the situation. At this point, he was relatively certain he had found
what he was looking for.
('I see.') He realized as he got a better understanding of the underground

layout Seismic Mapping. ('The opening does not directly lead to the facility.
It leads to an initial layer for logistics and security before leading to the actual
research facility deeper underground. That makes sense. It's also consistent
with the general structure of the research facility that the mission bill
provided us.')
He even felt the faint sensation of the Void Step technique from a distance.
('Kane's on the move, good.')
He nodded as he felt Kane approaching the area, circling to keep the Void
Step technique as he waited for entrance to open. He likely wouldn't be able
to return immediately, but when he did, he should be able give them valuable
intelligence. Then, they could formulate a more thorough plan once they
actually executed the assault.
The convoy waited as a large hatch in the ground open. Two Martial
Apprentice and six armed men emerged from it, poised for battle.
('Strong.') He evaluated. ('But definitely not grade-ten.')
The Martial Apprentice walked over to the convoy, visibly alert and wary as
they exchanged words with its occupants and verified documents handed to
them before nodding and relaxing.
('Strict security.') Rui noted. ('This should be routine to some extent, yet they
don't let their guards down.')
Soon, men from the convoy got off as they extracted boxes and other goods,
walking into the entrance and down the steps as the Martial Artists and
human guards inspected and guarded the area. Rui ensured he was far enough
to not be detected but close enough to get a clear view of the situation with
Seismic Mapping.
('Supply shipment, as I'd predicted.') Rui mused.
The men worked quickly and urgently. Quickly and hastily finishing the
unloading and dropping before getting back into their carriages, while the
Martial Apprentices and armed guards returned back into the facility and the
hatch closed. And there were no signs of it anymore to the naked eye.
('Alright, time to catchup with the others') Rui decided as he sent a vibration
message to his teammates, a standardized message that was a call to regroup.
Rui turned around and stealthily returned to their temporary make-shift base.
Rui had immediately computed several plans in his head with varying
degrees of probabilities of success, already. He intended to flesh them out
with his teammates and with Kane later once he returned.
Chapter 334 Plans
They had chosen a small cave as a temporary base to retreat to at any time.
So, once Rui sent the message out to his teammates, he simply returned the
cave to find them there.
"Hey." Fae greeted him. "What's the plan now?"
"We wait for Kane to return." Rui replied. "Nothing more until then. But we
can talk about what happens after that."
"We kick their asses after that!" Nel declared. "Vanish boy doesn't get to
have all the fun!"
"He's not having fun." Rui sighed exasperated. "He's probably having a
miserable time."
"He gets to fight the enemies while we sit in this cave!" Nel scowled at him.
"He's not fighting."
"Then why did he go in???" Nel frowned, confused.
"I told him to observe everything inside and tell us what's going on." Rui
said. "He will simply look around and tell us everything."
Rui wasn't sure Nel was even familiar with reconnaissance as a concept, so
he had to spell it out.
"So he's only looking at the enemy but doesn't get to fight them?" Nel's eyes
widened.
"Correct. Now then, moving on." Rui quickly shifted away from the mindless
conversation. "Kane's information will help us optimize our plan, but the
choices at hand fundamentally remains the same. We have a handful of
options which can roughly be divided into three broad categories."
"The first..." He continued, raising a finger. "Is the direct, straightforward and
brute force method. We effectively walk upto the hatch and break it open
forcefully and go on a rampage killing everything in sight."
"The second is the covert option. We infiltrate the research facility

undetected or disguised and then launch a secret ambush once we're inside
with a dominant element of surprise."
"The third is the semi-covert/direct approach. Where we ambush them at an

opportune time with a decent element of surprise but then transition to a
head-on approach after the initial ambush. This is the most practical approach
in my opinion." Rui concluded.
"Why do you say that?" Hever asked.
"The head-on approach is probably not good. It's almost guaranteed that the
research facility is able to communicate the with the government of the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana. No matter how strong we are, we cannot
possibly break open the secret entrance, kill all the Martial Apprentices, and
then also kill all the personnel in the research facility before they manage to
inform their government, and before the government sends some serious
reinforcements."
"Even if they inform the government of the attack, can't we complete the
mission before the reinforcements travel all the way and arrive here?" Hever
asked.
"If they fought normally, we could." Rui replied. "But they won't. Not if they
know that reinforcements are arriving."
"What do you mean?" Fae asked.
"If they know that there are reinforcements coming, then they'll fight to stall."
Rui explained. "Not losing is easier than winning, much easier. If they spend
every resource on prolonging our operation as much as possible, we're
screwed. It will take an enormous amount of energy and time to complete it
and it probably won't happen before the reinforcements occur."
"I see." Hever replied calmly. "That does make sense. What about the covert
approach then, doesn't that approach completely solve the problem with the
element of surprise and a huge head start?"
"It does." Rui admitted. "The problem is it's too unviable as far as probability
of successful implementation goes. Only Kane could employ that strategy,
realistically. There's no way we can sneak past the security via stealth or
disguise, it was quite tight. If we attempt to, we'll probably get caught and be
in an even worse version of the problems of the direct approach."
"That indeed does make sense." Fae admitted. "What about the third option?
The semi-covert/direct option?"
"It's the best option as far as probability of successful implementation goes."

Rui explained. "We use a minimal amount of stealth to ambush with a decent
element of surprise and snowball that advantage with a quick devastating
attack." Rui explained.
"Hmmm..." Hever pondered the matter. "There's one thing I don't understand.
Can't the research facility contact the Vinfranian Duchy government even in
this scenario?"
"That's only if all of us attack from the outside." Rui grinned. "But we have
someone who can infiltrate the research facility and remain there undetected."
"Kane is your solution to the problem?"
Rui nodded. "The best role for Kane is to destroy communication devices and
infrastructure and kill the department and security leaders from the inside.
This prevents them from communicating with the outside and also prevents
the security department and team from organizing efficiently. The more the
chaos there is, the smoother our operation will be."
"You plan for Kane to not join us with the external attack, but be present
inside the facility when we attack and coordinate the destruction of
communications and leadership? That's..." Hever couldn't help but be quite
impressed. "...Quite a brilliant plan. I cannot think of anything better, in fact."
"Kane can infiltrate a day before whenever the entrance is opened for a
supply shipment and simply wait for the time of the attack." Rui explained.
"We can simply beep him when we commence the attack and he can begin
his operation. Once we meet inside, we can proceed with the clean-up."
"That is indeed a really solid strategy." Fae nodded. "How are we going to
enter the research facility semi-covertly though?"
"There are several possibilities, but the best one is definitely intercepting and
hijacking the supply shipment enroute to the research facility, when the hatch
opens up and the documents are verified and they relax a bit, then we bust out
and ambush them all." Rui explained. "We just need to kill them, asides from
the driver perhaps and then compel him to proceed as if everything is normal.
Jumping them at this point in time is quite high in the probability to succeed.
In my opinion, this is definitely the best plan that can be employed in a short
period of time."
Chapter 335 Shocking Conjecture
"So, to reiterate the plan." Rui continued. "We have Kane infiltrate the
research facility sometime prior the day of the assault and have him keep a
close eye on the location of the comms and the leaders of the facility."
"Then, when the next supply shipment is enroute, we attack it and kill most
of its occupants. Either we keep the driver alive or replace him with one of
ourselves. Then show them the documents and once they go to the back to
check up on the supply goods, we ambush them." Rui explained. "During the
shipment unloading and docking, there were only two Martial Apprentices
who stood guard during the entire process. If we gang up on them and
overwhelm them quickly with a numbers advantage and the element of
surprise, we're doing very well."
He turned to Fae. "The element of surprise is especially important and

powerful. With the element of surprise, you should successfully be able to
land your Whirlpool attack on one of them and I should be able to land my
Stinger successfully. Once that's done, their hope of survival is absolutely
zero. Taking them out early means we get to fight the remaining four Martial
Apprentices with a five-on-four advantage, that should be quite solidly in our
favour as well."
"While we're launching an ambush from the outside, Kane sabotages

communications and leadership which shouldn't take more than a minute
given his prowess. He can also stall the four Martial Apprentices from
entering, although that can be dangerous. However, as long as it's merely
stalling and distracting, and he's careful, he should be able to manage. The
Void Step technique is overpowered, and he's grown stronger since mastering
it."
"Once we enter, we regroup with Kane and fight the remaining the four
Martial Apprentices while securing the secret entrance to the research facility
so that none of them leave and begin our clean-up operation thoroughly and
finish up the job as fast as possible, secure the data and leave."
Rui inhaled lightly at the end of the lecture. "This will be the general gist of
the plan, any suggestions? Critiques? Questions? Note that the plan is
tentative, until we scour through the intelligence Kane brings back, we can't
be as certain as we'd like."
"Even if we sabotage the communications, won't the fact that the convoy
shipping the supplies to the research facility did not return to wherever it was
dispatched from raise alarms?" Hever asked. "They would certainly try to
track the location of the convoy if it doesn't return."
"That's definitely true, however, we are geographically far away from even
the closest population center, which means the convoy is expected to take
several hours to return back to the dispatch location. By the time the time any
measures are taken due to the convoy being late, we will have long
completed the mission and left the research facility." Rui told them. "It's quite
likely there's a verification report sent by the facility to whatever executive
branch is responsible for the supply shipments. We need to begin our ambush
after the report is sent or send the fake report ourselves. The details of which
will be ironed out once Kane returns."
The four, no, three of them discussed the plan and thought it through
thoroughly. A few days passed as another shipment of supplies arrived and
Kane was able to escape once they opened up the secret entrance once more.
Soon, he regrouped with the rest of his team, collapsing when he was finally
in safety.
"Kan-." "Later! I'm sleeping first!" Kane barked at Rui.
"Ah..." Rui forgot he hadn't slept in a while and had also been keeping the
Void Step technique active for extended period of time.
It was only after ten hours of sleep that Kane finally awoke from his slumber.
"Oh man... That was horrific, I never want to do that ever again."
"You've mastered the Void Step technique; you'll be expected to do that by
people who commission you and the Martial Union as well." Rui scoffed.
"Why do you think you were assigned to this mission? Your stealth is the
strongest reason why."
Rui chuckled as Kane groaned loudly, earning chides from Fae.
"Alright, now give us a detailed report first." Rui told Kane.
"Okay." Kane took a deep breath as he began narrating the entire story.
When he had first entered, he saw a large and wide room with security
personnel that inspected the supply goods before sending the goods down a
heavily guarded elevator. The two Martial Apprentices who had overseen the
unloading and docking of the supply shipments were permanent security in
the security floor.
The remaining four Martial Apprentices were guarding down in the actual
research facility below. Out of which Kane only ever saw three.
"Only three?" Rui asked. "Was the grade-ten Martial Apprentice among
them?"
"No." Kane shook his head. "I never saw the grade-ten Apprentice. He was
probably in the core wing of the research facility that I never got visit."
"Why not?"
"Because it never opened, not even once."
"Hmmm..." Rui's eyes narrowed. "The simplest explanation is that the most
important and vital research is ongoing within that core wing. Which is why
he's permanently guarding it at all times."
"That's what I though too." Kane nodded.
"Tell me more about the research ongoing." Rui said.
Kane winced at those words. "Yeah. The research. It was bad. Hundreds of
humans, locked in sealed glass rooms. Strapped in beds as test subjects. They
would make them consume some kind of potion, subject them to some kind
of torture or the other and the test subjects would all become brain-dead.
They would never wake up and eventually die."
Rui frowned. That sounded remarkably bizarre.
"But their bodies were different, almost as if that procedure changed

something."
"Different?"
"Yeah, improved, I guess. Whatever they did to them, basically killed them
but also made their bodies stronger. Afterwards hey would conduct tests on
things like toughness of the body and a bunch of other things I simply didn't
understand, but basically, something was always different about the body in a
measurable way compared to before. From everything I could gather..."
His eyes narrowed. "It felt like they, the entire facility, all the researchers and
everybody weren't just testing the human body... I think they..."
He paused, hesitating. "I think they are trying to enhance the human body. I
think that is the ultimate goal of the entire research facility."
Chapter 336 Fleshed
Rui's eyes widened at his words as he pondered about them. It didn't seem
implausible given what Kane described, but it didn't match his earlier
deductions. The research facility was absolutely researching something
related to Martial Art. Rui was quite certain about that. Either Martial Art
techniques or trainings or something like that, or something that was a threat
to Martial Art fundamentally.
('Human enhancement isn't exactly that much of a threat to Martial Art

directly.') Rui mused. This was especially true because there already were
extremely rare and high-grade esoteric resources that could be used to create
a permanent enhancement potion. This was a generally a field that the Martial
Union would not involve itself in, this was more the Royal Family's business.
So, what exactly did all the mass experimentation on humans that Kane saw
have to with Martial Art?
Rui sighed, shaking his head. He had far too little information. Furthermore,
he was just trying to satisfy his curiosity to some extent, knowing the purpose
of the research facility was not something that was necessary for the
completion of the mission.
"Tell us more about the security floor." Rui told him.
"Right." Kane nodded as he began explaining his observations.
The security floor served as the gateway to the actual research facility, the
only way down was through an elevator stand. As Rui had suspected, there
was indeed a communication terminal on that floor through which
verification messages for shipments were sent.
"When I entered the security floor initially after the hatch was open, the
comms guy operated it to send a message after the documents were verified."
Kane explained.
"Hm." Rui nodded. "Then we cannot begin our operation until after the
shipment verification message is sent. However, as soon as it is sent. The
device needs to be destroyed by you, Kane. Which means that you'll need to
be at the security floor when we launch our ambush."
"What about the communications of the research facility down below? Kane
cannot be two places at once." Hever told him.
"Hmmm..." This was indeed a problem.
He turned to Kane. "Does sound from the security floor reach the research
facility easily? Could they hear a commotion from all the way down below?"
"No way." Kane shook his head. "There's too much of a distance of pure solid
ground between the security floor and the research facility."
"Good." Rui nodded. "Then we'll have you wait in the security floor when the
ambush happens."
Rui explained the plan of hijacking the shipment supplies and launching an
ambush after the documents were verified to Kane.
"I see, so you want to wait for the message to be sent to launch the attack so
that no suspicion will be raised." Kane nodded. "That means I have to destroy
the communication terminal and the operators immediately after the message
is sent?"
"That's right." Rui replied. "We'll hijack the shipment convoy, show them the
documents that the shipment convoy original had once we arrive, as soon as
the verification is done and the verification confirmation message is sent by
the operator, you need to destroy them and then we launch an ambush
immediately. We cannot launch an ambush before they send the confirmation
message because if the confirmation message is not sent, an investigation will
be launched at some point. It's too risky."
"Got it. That's a pretty solid plan. What happens after the message is sent and
we launch the ambush and successfully take the security floor?" Kane asked.
"You said that no commotion on the security floor could be detected from the
research facility directly." Rui reminded. "That means even if we slaughter
the security floor, the research facility would not immediately learn of it on
the spot at that very moment. Which means we can straightforwardly take the
elevator down and conduct a second ambush. The fact that the security floor
and the research facility are this isolated was a design decision that will
ultimately bite them in the ass."
"So after we ambush and take the security floor, we just straightforwardly
take the elevator down?" Kane asked, scratching his head.
"Do you know of any other entrance?"
"No." Kane admitted. "It just seemed like a pretty simple plan."
"Simplest plans have the highest likelihood of succeeding." Rui told him.
"Ok, so what happens when we take the elevator down and actually reach the
research facility?" Fae asked.
"After that the plan is straightforward." Rui admitted. "We just take out as
many people as possible as fast as possible. Though Kane, you need to
disable communications and kill the leaders. Once you do that, their inability
to call for help and the chaos will work in our favour."
"What about the Martial Apprentices?" Fae asked.
"You, Hever and Nel will take down the three Martial Apprentices who will
run into us. We know that their grade isn't particularly high so the three you
of should be able to win handily, in the worst-case scenario, I'll come to help
though that almost certainly won't happen." Rui reassured.
"And the grade-ten Martial Artist?" Kane asked.
"I'll take him on for sure." Rui nodded. "In which case, you keep an eye on
the other fights. Cleaning up comms and a few ordinary humans won't take
much time with your speed. In the worst case, you might need to back me up
if the grade-ten Martial Artist is too much for me."
None of them believed that Rui would need help, but Rui wanted to be sure
anyway. Just a single mistake could be the difference between life and death.
They began fleshing the plan out. Considering different possibilities and
outcomes, creating contingencies while optimizing the plan to suit all of the
information that Kane had managed to gather from his reconnaissance
infiltration into the research facility. Thankfully, the Void Step technique was
perfect for reconnaissance and Kane had managed thoroughly gather all the
information that was needed thanks to it. Thus, they were able to create the
best plan they possibly could.
Soon, only the execution of the assault was left.

Chapter 337 First Phase
"When are they coming?" Nel groaned impatiently.
Rui sighed. "They should be here soon."
"You said that three minutes ago!" Nel retorted.
"Then stop asking every three minutes!" Rui glared at him. "Listen here
young ma-"
Rui suddenly froze as he turned around, narrowing his eyes. "They're coming.
Everyone scram. Fae, do the honours."
Fae immediately rushed to two large, tall trees.
BAM BAM!
With two powerful blows, the trees collapsed, blocking the usual path the
shipment convoy would usually travel through.
They all immediately scattered to the sides as they hid some distance away.
Two minutes later, a few loaded carriages arrived at that spot, stopping at the
collapsed broken tree trunks blocking their path.
Soon, the men emerged from the carriages, talking exasperatedly and loudly
in vinfranese and sanskrit.
BAM BAM BAM BAM!
Four large Tempestuous Ripple attacks crashed onto almost all of them men,
killing all those it touched.
Only four survived.
THUD
Rui landed heavily on his feet from the sky, sighing at the corpses. Killing
was a dirty sensation, but it was one he endured. He could, at the very least,
take solace in the fact that they didn't suffer. He launched a solid, heavy
attack that killed them the very instant it crashed on their heads.
He turned to the only four men he had spared. "You're going to take us to the
secret research facility. You will cooperate with us. Is that clear?"
They simply stared at his masked face in shock, their legs had long given in,
and they were shivering in fear.
They furiously nodded. Rui had heard them speak Sanskrit so he wasn't too
concerned that they didn't understand him.
The plan he had come up with had worked just fine. He wanted to draw them
all out of the carriage and away from it so that the carriage would not even
need to be forced into in a way that could damage it. He also killed them
extremely quickly in a way that wouldn't agitate the horses too much. Both
carriages and horses were perfectly fine and the entire hijacking took only ten
seconds in total.
This was much better than conventionally attacking them, forcing their way
in and damaging the carriage, losing the horses that would get far too agitated
with all the screaming that would inevitably ensue. It was too messy and
lowered the probability of success of the mission, which Rui wanted to avoid
at all costs.
Soon the Martial Apprentices gathered and quickly boarded the convoy after
they cleared the trees out of the way. Fortunately, because Rui finished the
job that quickly, they would still be quite on schedule for the scheduled
shipment.
That along with the fact that that there no visual elements that would give
away that the convoy had been hijacked by them, Rui did not see any way
they could possibly be given away.
An hour later, they reached the secret entrance of the research facility. All of
them tensed, yet maintained their calm and composure. They did not want to
give their presence away because of a failure to keep their composure.
The hatch opened.
Like clockwork, the Martial Artists and the armed men emerged from within
and approached the leading carriage.
The man immediately gave him the documents without saying a word,
exactly as Rui had instructed him to. The Martial Apprentices skimmed
through the document briefly, nodded, heading to the back.
Just as he reached;
BAM!
"AAARGH!"
A loud sound and screech from within the security floor startled the two
Apprentices just as they were about open the door to the storage convoys.
Yet, before they could even move.
BAM BAM!
The doors of the two carriages they were close exploded open as Rui and Fae
launched themselves at the two Martial Apprentices with ferocious speeds
Had the two Martial Apprentices been alert, focused and prepared, they might
have been able to react optimally.
But they weren't.
And so, they didn't.
PEW
BAM!!!
The Stinger and the Whirlpool landed on them hard as the two attacks
inflicted critical injuries. Rui didn't have time to aim, precision and accuracy
usually came at the cost of speed and haste, and in this scenario the latter two
were more important. As long as the Stinger landed somewhere, that was
satisfactory.
"Argh!" The two Martial Apprentices grimaced as they leaped backwards in

shock and pain.
Rui turned in the opposite direction towards the guards while Nel and Hever
ran towards the wounded Martial Apprentices.
The reason for this was simple, it was a matter of compatibility. Hever was
strongest in a one-on-one scenario; thus, he joined Hever. Rui was better at
dealing with numbers than Nel thanks to Tempestuous Ripple, thus he let Nel
take on the Martial Apprentice while he launched Tempestuous Ripples that
killed the men who fired at them.
When he turned around to inspect the progress of his friends, he was

impressed. It was overwhelming.
Hever and Nel had killed their Martial Apprentice before he had even
realized while Fae was almost done.
WHOOSH
She pulled her hand back, and suddenly her opponent fell forward towards
her as if being pulled by an invisible force.
BAM!
His skull cracked under the force of Fae's powerful blow, killing him.
('She created a vacuum between her opponent and herself with a combination
of movements and breathing.') Rui's eyes lit up in interest. The vacuum
pulled her opponents to her, increasing the probability of her landing her
ferocious offense. Rui recognized it because it had mechanics similar to
Tempestuous Ripple, just the opposite at its core.
He turned to the corpse Hever and Nel were standing over. The head was
almost completely flattened, and its body was bruised gravel.
('Their lethality has increased.')
"They've grown stronger." Rui murmured as he turned back to the security

floor. Primordial Instinct and Seismic mapping told him all but one was dead.
"You've grown stronger too Kane." He said to nobody visible. "You're

getting harder to sense."
"And yet you sensed me anyway." Kane grumbled, appearing out of thin air.
Rui chuckled as he inspected the scene, nodding. The first phase was a
crushing success.
Chapter 338 Clean-Up
"Let's get going quickly." Rui said as they all entered the security floor.
It was wide with different compartments and sections. And they were all
littered with corpses.
"You memorized the means of operating the elevator, correct?" Rui asked as
he glanced at the closed doors at the end of the security floor.
"Of course." Kane replied.
He walked over to the elevator. Hitting a few buttons and pulling a lever and
then rotating it until the doors finally opened leading to a spacious platform
meant to accommodate many.
Kane spun a lever on the inside, closing the doors and the elevator
automatically began descending.
The tension in the air rose. None of them were particular fond of what was
about follow.
Except for Nel, who was grinning at the prospect to a fight to the death with
hopefully strong Martial Apprentices. If they were weak, Nel intended to
crush them and fight the grade-ten Martial Apprentice. However, he didn't
reveal this to Rui in a rare moment of logical analysis. He knew Rui would
probably not allow it.
He was right.
But what he didn't know was that Rui was already well aware of his
intentions. He simply decided to personally ensure that the mission wasn't
screwed up due to Nel's desire to fight strong people. He did not think he
could control him.
THUD
The elevator touched the ground.
"Here we go." Kane said as he opened up the elevator doors. They all took
their stances as he opened it. Rui merely executed the breathing technique
needed for the Tempestuous Ripple.
One moment before he launched it, he saw a bustling energetic research

facility with all kinds of men and women hurrying around vibrantly, busy
with something or the other.
He sighed.
Not a single one cared to look towards the elevator, asides from stationed
guards whose eyes widened at their sight.
Yet before they could even do anything;
BOOM!
Rui launched a fully charged and powerful Tempestuous Ripple that blasted
away expanding in front of him.
It instantly killed all humans within fifteen meters of him and went on to
inflict varying degrees of critical damage to most humans in their section of
the research facility. Kane immediately disappeared as he raced through the
facility at incredibly high speeds, sabotaging communications and killing
Only two people were unharmed to Rui's senses.
"Two Martial Apprentices, approaching us at high speeds, gang up on them."

Rui instructed. He had no qualms of using a number advantage against them.
Primordial Instinct told him that they weren't particularly strong.
Rui ran forward as he saw the two Martial Apprentices rushing towards him.
WHOOSH
He avoided their attacks as he feinted behind them.
POW POW!
He sent them flying towards the trio, who quickly pounced on the hapless
Martial Apprentices. He turned around, employing Seismic Mapping and
Primordial Instinct to locate the hiding and fleeing survivors, killing them
swiftly and painlessly.
Once he entered the main research and development infrastructure and area,
he paused. Taking a look around.
There were tons of test subject humans who were being subjected to all kinds
of things. Rui felt a less horrible about his actions when he thought about the
suffering they went through. This was one of the most horrific things that a
human being could be put through. Rui would rather die than be put in
through this, yet the researchers of this research facility did not even give
them even that.
All of them were medically alive upon closer inspection, but their eyes were
lifeless and rolled over. Rui's instincts told him that there was no
consciousness or mind left.
('Brain death.') He recalled Kane's descriptions as he noticed that all the test
subjects possessed the same trait. Medically alive, but brain dead.
All of this seemed to support Kane's theory of the goal of the facility being
human evolution. But Rui's gut instinct as well as certain logical rationales
told him this was not true, or atleast incomplete.
He shook his head. He had a mission to complete. The grade-ten Martial

Apprentice and the remaining Martial Apprentice were the only things that
could obstruct the mission anymore.
('Speak of the devil.') He turned as he felt faint weight on his mind from a
distance, locating the source with Seismic Mapping. ('He's not grade-ten, but
he's strong for sure.')
Rui dashed towards the Martial Apprentice, finding him quickly.
The man attacked him immediately, throwing a swift and heavy punch.
WHOOSH
Rui simply feinted as he shifted past the attack and launching a strike with
ferocious power and speed.
BAM!!
The attack crashed into the man's neck, creating a devastating impact. Rui
could even feel something cracking from the strike. After all, it was a strike
strengthened with four Apprentice-level techniques, three of which were
grade-seven.
THUD
The man crashed into a thick wall, falling down.
BOOM!!
A Powerful dropkick from Rui crushed his skull, denting it.
At his current level of power, even Martial Apprentices of high-grade were

no longer even worthy of being subjected the VOID algorithm. It would
simply be a waste of time. They would all die before the predictive model
was even completed.
('Now there's only the grade-ten Martial Apprentice.') Rui mused. ('But where
the fuck is she?')
Grade-ten Martial Apprentices were certainly strong without a doubt. But Rui
had already killed a Martial Artist who was, at the very least, at the lower-end
of grade-ten. Even if this grade-ten Martial Apprentice was as strong as Rui,
he did not see himself losing. He had four powerful Martial Apprentices in
his team and that was an overwhelming numeric advantage that nobody in
their Realm should be capable of overwhelming.
The quality of those Martial Apprentices was high as well.
Fae, Kane, Hever and Nel had grown significantly stronger in the past nine
months since the preliminary contest, they had all been promoted to grade-
nine since then. Rui had absolute confidence in all of them.
('Unless something absolutely crazy happens, this mission is a complete

success.') He thought confidently.
Chapter 339 Understanding
Rui was beginning to think this team was perhaps a little overqualified for the
mission. So far it had been overwhelming success, the Martial Union had
chosen a team with a decisive advantage over the security of the research
facility. Out of the six Martial Apprentices assigned to security for the
research facility, four of them were mid-grade, one of them was roughly
grade-seven and only one was a grade-ten Martial Apprentice.
They had sent a grade-ten Martial Apprentice who had experience taking
down grade-ten Martial Apprentices in response.
The human security was insignificant. Even low-grade Martial Apprentices

could deal with a large number of guards easily, they were mostly a token
and were there to enforce order in the research facility.
('Now the only thing left is the grade-ten Martial Apprentice.') Rui mused.
('I'll round up the others and we'll go together.')
The original plan was that Rui handled the grade-ten Martial Apprentices
alone while the remaining four handled the remaining three Martial
Apprentices. However, things had evolved a bit unpredictably and all the
remaining Martial Apprentices were handled before the grade-ten Martial
Apprentice had even appeared.
However, this was in their favour. Now, they got to fight with a huge
dominant upper-hand. The moment the grade-ten Martial Apprentice showed
up, it would be game over for her.
('Speaking of which, seriously, where the fuck is she?') Rui wondered as he

finished off a few more researchers. The only thing he knew about her was
whatever the mission bill had told him; that she was female and a defensive
Martial Artist. Which made sense given that she was assigned to a bodyguard
mission from the Vinfranian government.
A section of the research facility had been massacred, God knew how many
researchers had died, all the other Martial Apprentices were also dead. Yet
this grade-ten Martial Apprentice had refused to leave the deepest section of
the research facility that Kane hadn't manage to infiltrate before.
"You guys are done?" Rui asked as the three of his teammates appeared.
"Just sweeping up some survivors." Fae replied.
"Where's the grade-ten?" Nel excitedly asked.
"I'm heading there right now." Rui said.
Kane appeared out of thin air. "Count me in."
Rui nodded. "Let's get going then, we'll finish off all survivors on the way
there."
In the deepest section of the research facility, a commotion that didn't escape
past the confines ensued.
"Wait doctor!" One researcher said. "Subject SQ007 is not yet fully ready for
deployment! The project has only succeeded the day before yesterday! This is
against protocols!"
"IDIOT!" The head researcher snapped. "WE'RE GOING TO DIE YOU

MORON! NO ONE GIVES A FUCK ABOUT PROTOCOLS. The Martial
Apprentice guards are all dead!"
"But still!" Another researcher. "We shouldn't-!"
"Move!" The head researcher pushed his way past her as gazed at a giant
transparent cylinder with a woman inside. "She's our only hope!"
He walked over to a terminal before operating a few controls. "We'll show

those bastards that coming here was the worst mistake of their lives."
The man looked up, grinning when he saw the woman's eyes opening slowly.
Quite some distance away, Fae broke into the sealed section of the facility.
The five of them entered the research area through the hole in barrier.
Inside was a wide spacious facility with many sections across it. Inside were
many containment rooms with even more test subjects in the same state as the
test subjects in the rest of the facility, though far fewer in number, only in the
single digits.
However, Rui suspected this part of the research facility was special. The
technological infrastructure was larger and more extravagant.
Furthermore, there was something strange about the few test subjects. Each
of them had their own large sub-section. Clearly, they were special.
Rui walked in closer towards them as his senses told him something was
wrong. Their eyes were rolled up and they were barely medically alive. But
still, something told him these weren't ordinary humans in the first place.
"Rui?" Kane asked, pausing as he looked back at him.
('Are they test subjects that managed to endure the experiments?') Rui
wondered, shaking his head. ('No, they're in the same state. That's unlikely.')
Primordial Instinct could almost feel something. Rui closed his eyes, homing
in on a particular sensation. It grew clearer and clearer by the second.
Until he recognized it.
His eyes widened in shock!
"Martial Apprentices!" He exclaimed. "These are Martial Apprentices!"
"Are you sure?" The four of them glanced over at the test subjects.
"No doubt." Rui had become surer of it.
The research facility was ultimately trying to successfully apply their human
augmentation procedures to Martial Apprentices. Rui had become more and
more certain that this was the core goal of the research facility.
"They are trying to elevate Martial Apprentices to a higher leve-" Rui froze
as another realization hit him. "...No. Not to a higher level. To a higher
Realm."
This research facility was researching the breakthrough to the Squire Realm.
The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana had long lost all of its higher Realm
Martial Artists, who taken away the secret to the Squire Realm with them,
leaving them with a weak Martial Art foundation that was unable to elevate
their remaining Martial Apprentices to the Squire Realm.
Finally, all of it made sense to Rui. This was why the Martial Union wanted
to destroy the facility and slaughter all the researchers. Once the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana obtained Martial Squires they would
probably eventually obtain Martial Seniors and then maybe even Martial
Masters in a more distant future. It wouldn't be enough to defy the Kandrian
Empire, but it would be enough to share a significant portion of the market in
the Duchy that the Kandrian Empire had a monopoly over.
It would create and upward and elevating trend in the growth of Martial
power in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.
Yet, before Rui could ponder about the issue more;
BOOM!!
A loud explosion in the distance shook the very facility, drawing their
attention.
"The grade-ten is here." Rui warned. "Get ready."

Chapter 340 Confrontation
They all got into position, even if Nel urged rush forward and attack.
In the distance, a silhouette could be seen through the dust, walking in their
direction.
STEP
STEP
STEP
It took its time.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Yet, their eyes widened.
The air grew taut as an unimaginable amount of pressure crashed onto them.
The air froze, and they haplessly followed suit.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
They felt primal fear arise from within their depths, crippling their body.
It was as though time itself had slowed down.
STEP
She emerged from the dust.

Completely naked.
Not a single shred of cloth covered her ample breasts or her pelvis. Yet the
sight of her generated nothing but unparalleled fear in all of them.
Rui's eyes widened as he recognized the sensation Primordial Instinct was

sensing.
This wasn't just fear.
This wasn't just danger.
Nay.
This was a sensation that only those in a higher Realm of existence could
exert onto one.
This was a sensation that only those at a far deeper depth of their path could
exert onto one.
"Martial Squire...!" Rui whispered, shocked.
The research facility had succeeded. They had managed to discover the secret
to the Squire Realm just in time.
The woman examined them expressionlessly. Raw hostility emerged from

her, crashing onto them. Rui was the only one who was able to maintain
some semblance of composure. He adopted a stance in defiance. Yet, he was
the only one.
The woman adopted a bull-rushing stance, aiming at them.
Rui snapped out of his reverie. "Shit. DODGE!"
Yet he was the only one who dove to the side. The other four were frozen,
not even Nel had been able to move.
"NOOOOOO!!!" he bellowed with terror as the woman launched herself at

the four of them.
BOOM!!!
The woman launched herself at a with an astronomic speed that far exceeded
even that of Kane's!
Her body tore the very atmosphere apart!
The sheer titanic power she had launched herself with would absolutely have
killed the four of them on the spot.
Would have.
Yet, it didn't.
She went flying far over their heads crashing through a part of the wall many
meters above the ground, crashing through more obstacles until her
tremendous momentum had finally been killed, landing a great distance away
from them
She... missed?
('...Huh?????') Rui was so mind-boggled he just stared at her with an

expression that was saturated with confusion.
Even the four of them who had been paralyzed turned over in shocked
confusion. The woman got up, unharmed. Yet she wasn't pleased, she glanced
at her own palms in irritation.
It was then that Rui understood. His mind flashed back to a conversation he'd
had with Squire Dylon a long time ago.
"Because we are fundamentally different, our techniques function

mechanically different." Squire Dylon had once told him long ago when Rui
had asked him about the difference between Apprentice and Squire level
techniques. "An Apprentice-level Martial Art technique simply cannot utilize
our full power because it is not meant to handle our power. Squire-level
techniques are simply techniques that can handle the power of Martial
Squires, and can only be used by Martial Squires."
"So, they're just designed to be compatible with the power of a Martial
Squire?" Rui had asked him back then.
"Yes, and it's harder than it sounds." He had directed a pointed look at Rui
back then. "The difference between us exceeds your imagination."
Rui's eyes widened in elation as tinge of hope entered his eyes. It was quite
clear she was a test subject in this facility, which meant it was extremely
likely that she had only very recently broken through to the Squire Realm.
Which meant she had not mastered any Squire-level techniques! It was
especially impossible since Rui highly doubted the Commonwealth Duchy of
Vinfrana even had any Squire-level techniques in the first place.
('No, forget Squire-level techniques!') Rui realized. ('She hasn't even gotten
used to her own power, clearly.')
Meaning she could not be considered a full-fledged Squire. She would be

crushed by the likes of Squire Kyrie or Dylon. The combination of her
unaccustomed demeanor and her lack of Squire-level techniques meant that
she was well below the Squire-Realm as far as overall combat power went.
('It's more accurate to think of her as a quasi-Squire.')
The woman took her time leisurely, trying to analyze and rectify her
whopping inaccuracy. She didn't immediately rush over and resume killing
the Martial Apprentices.
In her mind, they were already dead.
She was a Martial Squire. They were going nowhere.
A new-found arrogance had already taken her mindset, but this worked in
Rui's favour. If they had any chance of not dying. It would only be if all of
them worked together.
Rui glared at all four of them, focusing all of his mind on them. The sheer
pressure he exerted drew their attention in an instant.
"Is this how you want to die?" He asked. "Is this how you want to go down?
Frozen in fear like pathetic cowards? Dying at the hands of a Martial Artist
that hasn't even mastered her power?"
He insulted them on purpose. They all had their well-earned pride, such an
insult would surely evoke defiance.
Nel was the first to crack.
"SHUT UP! I'm going to fucking CRUSH her! You'll see!" He snarled at Rui,
turning to face the woman with determined eyes.
That shook them all out of their reveries as determination crept into all of
their faces. They turned around.
"That being said..." Rui said. "We need to run away."
He immediately dashed off in the direction of the security floor at top speed.
"What was that about cowardice?" Kane caught up to him, grumbling.
"This is a strategic retreat." Rui insisted. "If I have to choose between

fighting a Martial Squire and running away from a Martial Squire, I'll choose
the latter in a heartbeat."
"I thought we were going to fight her!" Nel complained.
"You'll get to fight Martial Squires when you break through." Rui retorted.
"So shut up and train when we get back!"
The elevator could be seen in the distance.
Yet;
WHOOSH
She arrived in front of them.
"Did you really think I would let you escape?" She spoke in Sanskrit
Rui narrowed his eyes. "You can either let us go, or die trying to stop us."
"Bravado." She chuckled. "Come, young one, I will show you the power of a
higher Realm. I will show you power that you will die too young to achieve."
One moment, there was a deathly silence.
The next?
All hell broke loose.

Chapter 341 Clash
"I think... we might not die today." The head researcher shook his head.
Subject SQ007 had been woken up, briefed and dispatched. There was a set
of loud terrifying explosions later before silence reigned again.
The surviving researchers were too terrified to leave the confined of their
little hideout, but they had begun to suspect that perhaps the job was done.
After all, she was a Martial Squire. There was no way she would lose to
Martial Apprentices. The researchers were well aware of her shortcomings
and drawbacks. She did not possess a single Squire-level Martial Art
technique, only the Apprentice-level techniques that were no longer
compatible with her. Furthermore, she had only very recently completed her
breakthrough and wasn't too familiar with the power of a Martial Squire.
Still.
She was a Martial Squire.
There was no way she would not win easily.
Right?
"Not unless there's an extraordinary grade-ten Martial Apprentice with an

unbelievable Martial Art..." He pondered, before shaking his head.
There was no way that could happen.
Suddenly;
RUMBLE!
"Woah!"
The very facility began shaking as the researchers fell to the ground losing
their balance, scrambling fear.
"What is happening?!"
On the other end of the facility, a horrifying conflict had commenced.
BOOM!
WHOOSH
She had crossed the distance between her and Rui in the smallest of
instances. Her body twisted as she generated unprecedented power into an
attack.
The very air shivered in fear as she launched a devastating attack.
Yet, to her surprise;
WHOOSH
Rui managed to evade her attack.
A combination of prediction based on center of gravity and distance analysis,

Primordial Instinct, four maneuvering techniques and one breathing
technique just barely allowed him to avoid the attack cleanly.
Yet, she wasn't done.
BAM!
A swift speedy kick swung at him.
BOOM!
He grimaced as he skidded backwards, barely managing to guard in time. She

immediately lashed out after him, swinging yet another attack when;
POW!
An invisible attack landed on her face, affecting her fragile balance.
Kane had tried to throw her off.
Her eyes immediately shifted to Kane despite the Void Step technique. Yet
before she could even land an attack;
BAM!
Nel had caught up, landing a kick on her.
Soon Fae and Hever immediately arrived, trying to prevent her from focusing
on Rui.
Every single one of the Martial Artists were clear on one thing; Rui was the
key to the battle.
The Martial Squire thought so merely because he was clearly the strongest
among them. That was true, certainly, yet the Martial Apprentices knew
something about him that she didn't.
Rui grew stronger the longer a fight prolonged.
The more data he had access to, the more accurate and precise the predictive
model was. The stronger his adaptive evolution was.
Whatever happened, they needed to prolong the battle for as long as possible
and ensure Rui was as good a shape as possible.
They had an immense amount of faith in his prowess.
WHOOSH
Rui barely managed to avoid yet another attack, yet he was left wide open.
The Martial Squire lashed out to exploit the opportunity, aiming to kill him
with a powerful blow in that moment.
Yet;
POW!
BAM!
Kane and Nel had just barely managed to intervene in time, launching
powerful and swift blows at her vitals.
She blocked both of them, irritated.
Her expression alone sent shivers down their spine.
"RARGH!" She snarled as she flung them away, yet before she could even
turn back to Rui.
BAM!!!
A tremendous blow landed on her arm.
Her eyes widened as Fae's single most powerful attack had just barely
managed to bruise her flesh, pushing her away as she skidded away.
CLASP
Hever caught her arm. His extreme muscle memory activated as it furiously
executed the improved Meteor Swing technique.
BOOM!!
The facility shook as he did his best to swing the Squire with as much power
as he could.
"Insignificant."
The gravitas of her voice shook him as he felt boundless pressure paralyzing
him.
She was unharmed.

BAM!!
He grimaced, coughing blood, as a swift kick propelled him across the

facility.
She glared at Fae as she lashed out at her. Yet before her strike could reach;
CLASP
Rui had caught her shoulder.
WOBBLE
Her body stumbled as Rui activated Flow Flux at the last moment.
WHOOSH
The strike she threw missed Fae due to Rui's sabotage.
Her balance was more fragile than it normally would be because she wasn't
accustomed to it. She had not developed the muscle memory of active
balance maintenance for her new body. Thus, Flow Flux was especially
effective on her.
She turned to Rui with a murderous glare as she charged him, looking for a
takedown. She would be able to crush him in ground grappling.
Rui's eyes widened in fear as she reached him.
POW!
BAM!
Extremely swift and powerful strikes aimed at her vitals from Nel and Kane
intercepted her yet again. They had managed to recover and return back just
in time, yet they were far from okay. Even if her power was far below that of
a normal Squire, she was still devastatingly powerful.
BAM!
Nel coughed blood as her elbow crashed into his ribs, he collapsed, losing
consciousness.
WHOOSH
Kane barely evaded an attack as he escaped with his powerful evasive

maneuvering.
BOOM!!
Fae landed another powerful attack on her. Yet the Squire simply withstood
the attack as she swiftly turned around and blasted Fae with a powerful
swing.
BAM!
Fae crashed into a wall, falling down unconscious. A single strike had taken
her out of commission.
Only Rui and Kane were left.
It was a despairing outcome.
Rui closed his eyes.
"Don't wish to look death in the eyes?" She asked. "Understandable."
She lashed out, launching a straightforward strike.
Yet in that moment, a profound change had occurred.
One that wasn't beyond her senses.
But certainly beyond her understanding.
WHOOSH
BAM!
She gasped as he cleanly danced past her attack, landing a powerful Flowing
Canon into her chest.
His attack collided into her bare chest as their combined power fueled the
collision.
She leapt away, retreating for the first time as she glanced at Rui warily.
('...Something is wrong.')
Rui finally opened his eyes. His dark eyes locked with hers as she felt a
strange profound pressure from his gaze.
His eyes pierced passed her body, as though she were transparent.
She felt naked, even more so than she already was.
"You... You need to die." She murmured. She instinctively felt she could not
allow him to stay alive any longer.
Chapter 342 Couldn't
Throughout the fight, Rui had wondered.
How hadn't they lost yet?
She was a Martial Squire, was she not?
What exactly was happening?
Based on the power and speed she had displayed the first time when she had
missed, she should have been able to mangle them with just a few attacks, if
not one.
Yet when she fought the second time, she was noticeably inferior.
Rui had been able to dodge her attack, as had Kane. Nel had been able to
withstand her attack without losing consciousness the first time, although he
did the second time.
It was only after a few exchanges that Rui understood.
('She's given up on using techniques entirely.')
Her proficiency with her body was sub-optimal, adding on top of that
incompatible Apprentice-level techniques and these two elements sabotaged
her accuracy too much.
She could not fix the proficiency with her body on the spot, that would
require a lot of time, experience, and training. But she could get rid of the
incompatible techniques sabotaging her accuracy.
But only if she stopped using them entirely.

It was a tough choice. But ultimately, she chose control over raw power, as a
good Martial Artist would.
Once she stopped using incompatible techniques, her power dipped well
below the Squire Realm, but her accuracy and precision had risen.
Once Rui realized this, he realized that maybe, just maybe, victory wasn't too
far-fetched.
But only if they used everything they had. Throughout the fight, he watched
her like a hawk. He documented everything about her.
Every twitch.
Every shift.
Every attack.
Every block.
All of it.
Large volumes of information entered his Mind Palace as he watched her

toying with his friends with gritted teeth.
Watching his friends suffer to prolong the battle for his sake made him feel
unparalleled rage.
He was almost there.
So close.
He closed his eyes.
"Don't wish to look death in the eyes?" She had asked. "Understandable."
Just then, he heard a click in his mind.
The final piece had finally fallen in place.

He was ready.
('Straight right blitz punch; 100%')
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui executed the most accurate and perfect counter to the maneuver as he
adapted to her attack with the help of the adaptive evolution model.
She was struck with effectively both of their power combined, yet she didn't
suffer more than a graze.
It was then that Rui recalled she was a defensive Martial Artist. The reason
she was fighting aggressively was that there was a huge gap in physical
parameters between her and them individually. If she was fighting against an
equal, she would likely revert to her defensive style.
On paper, it should have been easy for her to win.
Yet, some time had passed since the fight began and for some reason, none of
them were dead yet.
Rui could feel that Nel, Fae, and Hever were still alive through their seismic
signatures. Yet their conditions angered him.
He intended to vent it out on her.
"You... You need to die." She glowered at him.
Rui didn't even bother exchanging words.
The very air contorted under the weight of his bloodlust. It was almost as if
his desire to kill her was warping the environment itself. She widened her
eyes as she experienced a mental pressure that exceeded that of anything she
had ever felt of a Martial Apprentice.
She felt fear for the first time since stepping into the Squire Realm.
And then she felt shame.
How dare a mere Martial Apprentice humiliate her?
"You... You will die."
The very land beneath them shook as she mangled it, pushing it back as she
propelled herself forward at a speed that beggared the imagination.
The atmosphere wailed woefully as she tore it apart with every movement.
Yet.
WHOOSH
Rui avoided.
It took a combination of the prediction and adaptive models the VOID

algorithm, Primordial Instinct, and five Apprentice-level techniques.
But he avoided it nonetheless.
BAM!!
His elbow crashed into her chest with a titanic collision fueled by both their
power.
Yet, she didn't so much as blink. She unfurled a flurry of strikes at him, the
power of each strike was beyond even Fae, even what Squire Kyrie had
struck him with, even beyond what the blond bandit had hit him with.
Yet, they crashed into empty air as Rui feinted away.
He could tell that an aggressive offense was not something she was
comfortable with. On top of that, she was still not accustomed to her new
body.
Her movements had flaws and inefficiencies you would not normally see in a
Martial Artist. These flaws made it easier for Rui to predict her. It was part of
the reason he was coping well.
Yet he was doing merely just that; coping.
Winning was still a herculean task with abysmal difficulty. His attacks did
not faze her, she was a defensive Martial Artist. Even Fae's Whirlpool attack
had only managed to bruise her, despite the fact that the Squire wasn't using
any techniques. Her raw durability and constitution were above Fae's
lethality.
That alone meant none of Rui's attacks could really hurt her. He doubted even
the Stinger would put more than a scratch on her flesh.
Even a Stinger to the eyes likely wouldn't threaten her life.
He alone couldn't defeat her.
He could feel it.
The VOID algorithm wasn't omnipotent. It allowed him to cope by predicting

his opponent beforehand instead of reacting after and allowed him to respond
with just the counter that increased his probability of winning the most.
The VOID algorithm allowed him to cope, but it could not do more for him.
Its existing shortcomings and flaws in addition to Rui's own limitations were
too shackling.
Time passed as the disadvantages snowballed. His inferior speed, power,

stamina as well as health. They all worked against him.
Every attack she occasionally managed to land hurt him significantly. Every
attack he landed bounced off of her. A quasi-Squire level defense was beyond
even his capabilities, he was an all-rounder, not an offensive specialist.
THUD
He fell to one knee.

He was bleeding profusely.
The world spun as he felt momentary dizziness.
STEP
She arrived, pausing.
She savored the moment. She stretched her right arm back, drawing vast
amounts of power from her core.
Rui knew he wouldn't be able to survive that attack.
He couldn't defeat her.
"Goodbye, little Apprentice."
Her eyes narrowed.
It was time.
The very world mourned as she unleashed her attack.
BOOM!
Chapter 343 Profound
He couldn't defeat her, not by himself, at the very least.
But he didn't need to.
He wasn't fighting alone.
BOOM!
A powerful invisible collision crashed into her head, rocking her body. It
threw her attack off-course, missing Rui by just a few millimeters.
Fae and Nel appeared out of nowhere, latching onto her arms in arm-bars
with their whole bodies, doing their best to restrain her movements.
Her reactions were heavily delayed due to her surprise and confusion.
She felt an invisible force grabbing her shoulder and chest; Hever.
Rui grinned at the sight. ('Kane, you mad lad, you actually succeeded.')
Kane had healed all of them with the healing potions that they each carried
while Rui kept the Squire busy. He then carried them over while using the
Void Step technique. Theoretically, Void Step wasn't limited hard to a single
person. However, in practice, it was extremely difficult to expand it beyond
one's self.
Yet, Kane's mastery and fortitude allowed him to succeed in doing just that
for three people. He appeared out of thin air a few moments later, collapsing
to the ground, exhausted. He would not be able to fight anymore for the time
being.
Yet he had already done more than enough. He had dispelled defeat and
given them another chance, it was more than Rui could expect from him.
Not even a moment had passed since they appeared. Hever's extreme muscle
memory flashed as it activated the improved Meteor Swing technique in the
briefest of moments. He elevated her over his head before plummeting her
down headfirst at incredible speeds. Fae and Nel coiled on her as though their
lives depended on it. In a way, it did depend on it. Their legs coiled around
her neck and head, holding both in place.
Yet, even as she plummeted headfirst, she wasn't afraid. She had already
withstood this attack unharmed earlier. The other two Martial Apprentices
were not hurting her, just momentarily restraining her.
She was vulnerable momentarily, yes. But she did not think it could be
exploited, Hever's motions were too fast for any kind of coordinated attack.
She had already decided to kill them all the second she landed.
That was when she heard it.
PEW!
A whistling sound, as if something sharp were cutting through the air at high
speeds.
It was only after that she realized what it was.
Her eyes widened as the world turned in her vision and she saw a foot flying
straight toward her head, its thumb-toe aiming straight up at her eye as she
plummeted toward it.
Neither the chaos, his tumultuous emotions, nor his physical condition.
None of it.
None of it had been able to prevent Rui Quarrier from ceasing the dimmest
light of hope that had appeared in front of him.
The Squire wouldn't have believed Rui had he told her that none of this was
coordinated beforehand.
Fae and Nel simply used their power to hinder her. They were too weak to
fight her head-on, as much as Nel hated to admit that.
As for Hever?
He didn't even need to think.
He literally had only one technique in his arsenal. In all that time, he hadn't
mastered a single other technique.
At the very moment they'd appeared, there was chaos in Rui's mind. He did
not know what he ought to have done.
If he did nothing, they would all die.
If he did what he had already done, they would all die.
What should he do?
If only there was a way to figure out the best decisio-
"...!"
A thundering realization flashed in his mind.
Rui's dark pupils dilated.
Time itself slowed down to a drawl.
His eyes widened.
The best part about the Mind Palace technique was that it never forgot.
No matter what he put in it, no matter how long ago.
('I have a predictive model for all of them in Mind Palace at this very
moment.') He had realized, looking at the four Martial Artists before him.
What if he used four predictive models instead of one? What if accurately
used all four models to peer into the future?
To gaze deeper and sharper into the future than he ever had?
And input that into the adaptive model to figure out the best move for that
particular moment?
Predicting all of their movements would be no different from seeing the very
future itself!
At that moment, his mind had violently rampaged into a frenzy through his
Mind Palace. The Mind Palace shook as he had extracted the predictive
model, inputting the parameters like a madman as he had watched Fae and
Nel latch onto the Squire's arms, as he had watched Hever grab her shoulder
and chest.
His eyes narrowed as he predicted the future with the power of four
predictive models. The adaptive model of the VOID algorithm hastily
swallowed the data up and instantly, the result was out.
It was objectively the best move possible in that scenario. Nothing else could
give Rui a higher likelihood of victory.
Yet the likelihood of victory was still small.
It was up to him.
Their fate, their future, their lives. He bore the burden.
It was heavy.
It was painful.
It was fearful
Yet, he strived forward.
Eyes closed.
The mildest of smiles cracked on his face.
Despite the pressure.
Despite the fear.
Despite the pain.
He smiled.
PEW!
The Stinger whistled as it cut through the air!
Rui delicately maintained the trajectory, correcting and refining it as it flew

upwards.
If it was off by even the slightest millimeter and the slightest millisecond, the
plan would fail and they were all as good as dead.
Yet, even if it was inhumanly accurate, victory was not assured. He could
only do his best and pray.
But pray to whom?
Fate?
Science?
His idol Bruce Lee?
The God that had reincarnated him in a different world?
Rui prayed to all of them.
Who knew? Maybe that would be the difference between life and death.
PEW!
He would soon find out.
Chapter 344 Outcome
The Frontal Lobe of the brain, as the name suggested, was the foremost part
of the brain. It was responsible for conscious cognition as a whole.
It also happened to be the part of the brain that was closest to the eyeball and
the eye sockets.
The distance between the opening of the eye socket and the Frontal Lobe of
the brain was shorter than Rui's big toe. In a hypothetical scenario, if his toe
were to enter a human eye socket at precisely the right angle and location, it
would pierce the brain.
That had always been the most lethal option Rui had, from the very start. Yet
he lost the first time despite possessing it.
What made this time all that different?
For one, her incredible active and passive defenses were no longer all that
invulnerable.
Fae and Nel were using their tremendous power to seal her arms and shackle
her neck and head in place.
As for her passive defense, her remarkable constitution wasn't particularly all
that relevant here.
The only thing in between the Stinger and her brain was her eyeball and her
eyelid.
Yet, previously, even this had been demonstrably enough. Rui could barely
hurt her flesh. He did not think the Stinger alone could penetrate to her brain.
Yet, what was different this time was that the Stinger wasn't alone this time.
Although it propelled forward with the same power and speed it usually did,
the difference was that its target was propelling towards it at remarkably high
speeds and momentum.
Hever had grown far stronger in the past nine months since the Martial
Contest.
He had added minor elements of other techniques to the Meteor Swing

technique. Elements of breathing and muscle techniques to amplify power
and speed. Elements of mental techniques to amplify his mind in a few
different ways, conditioning techniques to amplify his grip.
It had taken him a long time to incorporate these elements into the Meteor
Swing technique. But once he succeeded, the grade of the technique as a
whole had risen.
It was no longer merely a grade-nine technique. It had stepped above the

ninth grade and had slowly begun to approach grade ten.
It was a quasi-grade-ten technique.
That was the difference.
She struggled, but Fae and Nel coiled tighter and tighter. As strong as she
was, she had no Squire-level techniques and was unaccustomed to her power.
Not even a Martial Squire could overwhelm the many high-grade techniques
that Fae used across her entire body to shackle her. It didn't help that Nel was
outputting a power that wasn't too far off either. Even if she was slowly
overwhelming them, she wouldn't make it in time.
Every time she shifted, Rui almost reflexively readjusted the Stinger's
trajectory, refining the aim with Primordial Instinct.
Time was up.
She closed her eye, hoping her Squire-level constitution would hold.
The Stinger crashed into her eyelid.
The verdict would soon be delivered.
The sheer net power of the quasi-grade-ten Meteor Swing in combination

with the Stinger, Flame Breathing, Outer Convergence, and Adamant
Reforging pushed against her eyelid through the sharp toe.
...
SPLAT!!!
All that pressure.
All that fear.
All that pain.
All of it melted away as he saw a splurt of blood erupt from her eye. Her
eyelid hadn't even withstood the attack for more than a millisecond. The
sheer combined power it had been subjected to far exceeded the Apprentice
Realm.
Had she possessed even a single Squire-level defensive technique, her eyelid
would have emerged unscathed.
But she didn't.
And thus, it hadn't.
His elation erupted as his toe pushed deeper and deeper into her skull. But he
controlled his emotion as he heightened his senses. If the trajectory was off
by even a bit, the damage would not be critical.
The Martial Squire would quickly crush them all. A single missing eye would
not be enough to give them a win.
BAM!
The toe had gone as deep as it could, and his foot had banged into her head.
BOOM!
The Meteor Swing had been completed.
Fae, Nel, and Hever widened their eyes, they had only just seen Rui after the
attack had ended. Without techniques like Primordial instinct and the VOID
algorithm, they simply had been completely unaware of what Rui had done.
Yet Rui ignored their reactions.
He didn't know the outcome.
Yet, he didn't care.
"RARGH!"
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
He snarled as he began slamming her head over and over with drop-kicks and
soccer kicks.
If the plan had failed, then he at least needed to inflict as much damage as he
could. Blunt force trauma, increased blood loss, and hopefully even a
concussion.
He could feel her powerful heart still beating through Seismic Mapping. He
didn't give a fuck whether the plan had succeeded or not anymore.
He was not going to stop until either she died or she got up and they died.
His friends had absolutely no idea what just happened. In their eyes, Rui had
just somehow appeared out of nowhere.
Yet they realized the gravity of the situation and joined in.
Seconds passed.
BOOM!
BOOM!
...
BOOM!
Minutes passed.
BOOM!
THUD
Rui stumbled back and fell.
His vision was blurring, his muscles lost power.
He lost too much blood.
"Huff... Huff... Huff..." He got back up weakly, raising his leg to kick.
"Rui." Kane called out to him.
BOOM!
"Rui!" Kane insisted.
He paused glancing at him.
He turned straight to the ground.
He followed his gaze.
A large pool of blood and cerebral fluid had formed from the head of the
unmoving body of the Martial Squire.
"It's over." He said. "We won."
He knew that.
But the sheer paranoia coupled with his disoriented mind propelled him
forward.
Now that reality had been forced onto him, he fell to the ground exhausted.
"...Holy fuck."
He cursed.
He still found it extraordinarily hard to believe.
It was surreal.
To think that despite how horrendous the odds were, they still somehow
managed to pull through.
He shook his head. "What a world."

Chapter 345 Completion
They were all silent for a while, trying to process the fact that they were still
alive. Rui appeared calm and relaxed but in reality, his mind was a maelstrom
of chaos.
('Holy shit, we beat a Martial Squire.') His eyes widened as the full gravity of
their situation dawned on him. ('The Martial Union is going to go nuts when
they learn about this.')
Still, the context made the situation less absurd. The Martial Squire they were
facing was nerfed and shackled in several ways.
If she had been given even a month of training and even a single Squire-level
technique of the weakest grade, she would have crushed them.
Rui recalled how weak he was when he first broke into the Apprentice
Realm. Back then, he hadn't mastered even a single Apprentice-level
technique. Any Martial Apprentice could casually toy with him with
Apprentice-level techniques.
The Martial Squire was in a similar situation with the Squire Realm.
('No, her predicament was even worse.') Rui shook his head. ('At least I didn't
have a new body to get accustomed to.')
If she didn't have those handicaps...
Rui sighed. "We have a mission to complete. Let's get going."
The others stirred, before nodding.
"Where's the grade-ten Martial Apprentice?" Nel asked, scratching his head.
Rui turned towards him. "That was the grade-ten Martial Apprentice."
Nel's eyes widened. "She broke through to the Squire Realm?!"
"Yeah." Rui nodded. "Thanks to this facility. It was almost certainly set up to
research the breakthrough to the Squire Realm and they very recently
succeeded. She must have been a Squire candidate." Rui said. "That's why the
Martial Union sent us to destroy it and the researchers. They must have
learned of its existence and location fairly recently."
He turned towards the other end of the facility. "There are a few more
researchers alive, we'll extract the research data from them as planned, kill
them, and set out. We don't have too much more time."
They all nodded, before heading in deeper.
Finding the hidden researchers didn't take any time at all. Their seismic
signatures were loud and clear to Rui.
"I know you speak the international dialect." He told them. "Where are the
research logs? I want all of them."
The researchers simply stared at them in shock, before one of them managed
to choke out a question. "What happened to the Martial Squire?"
"The logs. Now." He exerted some mental pressure on them. They quickly
scurried before procuring two sets of large boxes.
"Is this truly all there is?"
"Y-Yes!" The head researcher gulped. "That's everything from the inception
of the research facility till today!"
Primordial Instinct could sense earnestness hidden beneath all the fear.
Rui opened the boxes as he began skimming through all the documents,
hastily storing the precious research data in his Mind Palace.
"What are you doing?" Kane asked in the Kandrian dialect.

"Verifying the research data." He lied.
"Really?" Kane peered at him suspiciously. "Even though you can't read
Vinfranese?"
"There are other ways to verify whether these are, in fact, legitimate
documents or just some nonsense," Rui replied. "You wouldn't want to return
home with a bunch of documents about the sanitation logistics of the research
facility instead of the research data we seek, right?"
"No." Kane admitted.
"It won't take long." Rui told them.
Rui intended to memorize all the data. He was truly curious about the
research that the facility had engaged in. For now, as Kane said, he couldn't
under a word of what was written. But if he learned to read Vinfranese, then
he would have access to all this research data on the breakthrough to the
Squire Realm!
This would surely be beneficial to him in the long run.
Normal Martial Artists did not possess the background in mathematics and
science to understand even a single page of the research documents but that
was not true for Rui. Rui had come from a world with a far superior scientific
and research foundation. He himself possessed an extremely rich background
in research. As long as he could understand the language, he should be able
to make some significant gains from all the research.
The only problem was his lack of understanding of esoteric technology based
on all the wondrous esoteric phenomena in this world.
('I can get Julian to help me out.') Rui smirked. As long as Julian aided him
with the more fantastical parts of the research that were unique to the world
of Gaia, he would have no problem understanding the core of what was
happening and what exactly Martial Squires were in the first place.
Ten minutes later. He had skimmed through all the documents, having
memorized everything.
BAM!
He gave them a painless death.
"They're legit." He said, nodding. "Let's get going."
"Finally!" Nel exclaimed, elated. "This was getting boring!"
They grabbed the boxes, heading towards the elevator.
"We're taking that as well." Rui gestured to the corpse of the Martial Squire.
"Why?" Fae frowned.
"There's a chance that our story sounds too hard to believe." Rui told them.
"The part where five Martial Apprentices from the Academy defeating a
Martial Squire, that is. Even if they believe that the research facility managed
to crack the secret to the Squire Realm based on the data we are procuring, it
may not be enough to corroborate our story of how we took the Squire down.
They may suspect a number of other circumstances outside of our merits.
Taking her body is absolute irrefutable proof of our story."
Rui took off the outer garments of his uniform, clothing the naked corpse
before lifting it and tying it to his back. "There."
Soon, they set out.
Rui grabbed the mission tracking device before hitting the button that
indicated the successful completion of the mission. The Martial Union would
now be aware of the success of their operation. All they had to was return.
A grin broke out on Rui's face. He couldn't wait to see their faces when they
realized what they had accomplished.
Chapter 346 Spread
The post-mission wing of Martial Union headquarters was large. It had to be,
after all. Many, many missions were completed every day and each mission
had post-mission protocols that needed to be completed. The Martial Union
needed to procure reports and statements from the Martial Artists before
official confirmation could be provided.
A lot of Martial Artists returning from missions usually gathered in the wide
wing as they handled the final protocols after the mission ended.
The wing was divided into different sections for different Martial Realms,
each Realm of Martial Artists had its own dedicated post-mission facility.
That was why all the Martial Apprentices in the Apprentice post-mission
facility were surprised when they felt the faintest Squire-level aura in the
facility.
That was strange.
They all frowned.
Squire-level Martial Artists were not supposed to be in the Apprentice post-

mission facility.
What was even more strange was that it was muffled. As though someone
had snuffed it. Yet, they could sense it. It was unmistakable, every Martial
Apprentice knew the aura of a Martial Squire quite well, after all.
Yet, when they turned around to see what was happening, they only saw five
Martial Apprentices walking towards them. None of them were emanating
the faint Squire-level. No. Instead, the Squire-level aura came from a
bandaged corpse that one of the Martial Apprentices dragged along the floor.
It took them a few seconds to process.
Corpse. Squire-level aura. Martial Apprentices.
The entire facility froze. Every Martial Apprentice stared at them with
bewildered shock and confusion.
The one carrying the corpse had strange hair and strange eyes. They were
pitch black. It was what allowed him to be recognized.
"Excuse me." Rui said to one of the support staff. "I need to deliver the target
of the mission." he pointed to the boxes they had procured.
"Right here..." She managed to reply, before glancing at the corpse, unable to
recognize the aura. "I'm afraid that trophies such as that are not allowed into
the facility."
"It's not a trophy." He replied. "It's evidence. I would like to enter it into
evidence."
"Evidence of...?"
"Of the fact that we killed a Martial Squire."
Rui ignored the commotion that his words sparked as they all quickly
finished up their reports and statements and signatures.
"I'm done." Rui got up. "Catch you guys later."
Once Rui had completed the post-mission protocols, he moved on after

bidding them goodbye.
He had a lot of thinking to do.
"What should I do now?" He wondered aloud.
It actually had only been ten or so days since he came out of training. Yet, it
felt a lot longer.
He shook his head a bit. ('I don't want to jump into training immediately.')
He wasn't entirely done garnering experience with his current skillset. He

also wasn't as smooth and comfortable using his skillset as perhaps he would
like to be.
Solidifying his power with experience was just as important as learning new
techniques. If he went on learning techniques without the minimal amount of
experience supplementing them, his awareness and control of his power
would slip. He would be ineffective and even unstable. Just like the Martial
Squire that they fought was.
Besides he also had other things he wanted to do.
('I need to learn to read Vinfranese.') Rui mused. He absolutely intended to

get to the bottom of the research data. He was even willing to go as far as to
transcribe all of it into the Kandrian dialect so that Julian could help him
understand the esoteric science unique to the world of Gaia. It would give
him an idea of what was in store for him immediately after once he fulfilled
the Squire candidacy condition.
It was also possible that Rui could optimize his breakthrough using the
scientific foundation that he had inherited from Earth. If that were the case,
he would be a fool not to look deeper into the research data procured from the
facility.
It was especially valuable because the truth of the breakthrough to the Squire
Realm was still something that was concealed from him by the Martial
Union.
That more or less decided the path he would immediately take. Continuing
his mission and understanding the research data that he had procured from
the research facility would be the two things he would immediately focus on.
Once that was done, he would go into training with the knowledge of the
Squire Realm.
"After that..." Rui muttered. "I'll probably leave the Martial Academy."
As time passed, the Martial Academy mattered less and less to him. Even if
he left at this very moment, he would be able to manage just perfectly fine.
The only reason he didn't immediately leave was that it was convenient and
also, he would be faced with a large amount of debt that he would need to
pay off.
Still, that debt was growing by the day, and he didn't want to prolong it for
much longer, especially since it no longer offered him anything he wouldn't
be able to get once he became a full-fledged Martial Artist. He would gain
more freedom once his license upgraded to that of a full-fledged Martial
license rather than the learner's license he currently had at the moment due to
still being a student.
"I have much to do." He mused.
That day, a small rumor spread across circles. Certain circles in the town of
Hajin, the Mantian Region, and even across the Kandrian Empire. Circles of
the high upper-class elite, circles in the Kandrian Government, and even
circles in the Martial Community.
The rumor was outrageous.
Five Martial Apprentices of the Academy defeated a Martial Squire.
Many of them had managed to get their hands on the names, recognizing the
prominent heirs of the Martial Community, as well as the finalist of the
Martial Contest.
Many scoffed at the notion. Yet even they choked when they heard the body
had been retrieved.
It sparked more than ripples once the legitimacy of the news was verified. It
sparked waves.
The legend of Rui Quarrier spread.

Chapter 347 Understanding
Three weeks passed. Yet Rui hadn't undertaken another mission. In fact, not a
single person had seen so much of a shadow of him after he locked himself in
his dorm room with a box of books.
No one knew what he was up to.
Yet everyone was admittedly curious. The feat that he and the other
performed in their previous mission had only spread more and more. It was
practically impossible to hide such astounding news, especially since it had
been heard by a large number of people in the Apprentice post-mission
facility who technically were not bound by any rules to keep what they'd
heard a secret.
And even if they were, the word would have leaked regardless.
Not a single person in the Academy or the other Academies was unsurprised.
Rui had gone from being one of the strongest Martial Apprentices of his
generation to performing a feat that was unthinkable for the Apprentice-
Realm.
Of course, they did not possess the necessary contest to understand that the
feat was exaggerated and completely blown out of proportion and was far
more grounded in reality than it sounded. However, not only did they not
know, they did not care.
The remaining four Martial Apprentices had been harassed to no short extent.
It had reached the point that Kane, Fae, and Hever had taken medium-term
missions away from the Academy because they weren't being left alone.
Nel, on the other hand, simply attacked every single person that wouldn't
leave him alone, resulting in him being penalized, since conflict outside the
ring was not allowed.
Rui inadvertently avoided it by locking himself in his dorm room, he didn't

know what was going on in the outside world, and he didn't care in the
slightest.
THUD
He closed the book in his hand.
[Learning Vinfranese for the Advanced]
"Ok." He said. "I'm finally ready to begin."
In the past month, he had dedicated himself to learning Vinfranese. He had

bought several learning books with the funds from his previous mission as
well as a Vinfranese dictionary. He began obsessively learning the language
soaking in the vast information and pouring it into his mind palace. It had
taken him a while, but with his powerful mind and the Mind Palace
technique, he had mastered the language in its entirety in under a month.
He closed his eyes, sitting in a meditative posture.
Yet he didn't see darkness, the mind palace he had built in his mind appeared.
He immediately briskly walked over to a part of it where he had stored the
research data of the research facility.
He opened the box, taking out the first log journal and opening it.
To his elation, the words were fully understandable. The document was
structured quite similarly to how a research paper on Earth would be
syntaxed. A section titled 'abstract' gave context and background followed by
an introduction section that spoke more about the research project
straightforwardly and then the body of the actual paper containing the actual
data and research.
He immediately jumped in.

[45th autumn, year 406ME
Project Apotheosis
Abstract: The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana is a nation with a weak

Martial Foundation. Due to the mass migration of Martial Artists of higher
Realms to other nations, the secret to the breakthrough to the Squire Realm
that was monopolized by those of higher Realms was also lost. Since then,
none of the Martial Apprentices of the Duchy have broken through. Among
the few scarce pieces of information on the breakthrough to the Squire Realm
that has been confirmed is the fact that the breakthrough to the Martial Squire
is man-made and man-induced...]
Rui paused as his eyes knitted in deep thought at the last sentence. In truth, he
had come to realize that by himself. He recalled the way the breakthrough to
the Apprentice Realm was talked about when he was in the Explorer Stage.
It was talked about as a spontaneous epiphany that could occur at any

moment. It was a natural process that the brain underwent that could not be
triggered consciously by one's self or others.
Then he compared that to the way that the breakthrough to the Squire Realm
was talked about. Every time it was spoken about, it was treated as something
that was... controllable. That was something Rui had caught sharply. It was
spoken off as a process or a procedure of sorts, rather than a singular
spontaneous event.
The document said that it had been confirmed that the breakthrough was
man-made. In research, this was not a term that was used lightly. It meant
there was conclusive proof that all pointed to the fact that the breakthrough to
the Squire Realm was not a natural event but was something engineered and
developed by humans to a certain extent.
That was something Rui found exciting.
How exactly did this work?
It almost certainly required esoteric technology, Rui was certain of that. But
how exactly did whatever fantastical technology used allow Martial
Apprentices to step into a higher Realm of Martial Art?
He couldn't wait to find out.
He dived right back into the document.
[Among the few scarce pieces of information on the breakthrough to the

Squire Realm that has been confirmed is the fact that the breakthrough to the
Martial Squire is man-made and man-induced. The breakthrough is not
something that will naturally occur without human intervention. This is the
reason that none of the existing Martial Apprentices and Squire candidates
have broken through to the Squire Realm since the mass migration of Martial
Artists of the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana. This is the fundamental
reason the Duke has invested a tremendous amount of funds into the
construction of the research facility and Project Apotheosis.
Another piece of information confirmed is that Martial Squires possess

physical parameters that biologically far exceed conventional human
parameters. Martial Apprentices possess brains with superhuman parameters
while Martial Squires exceed the bounds of humanity in nearly every
measurable attribute.
If such an outcome can unfold due to human intervention, then the first
hypothesis that comes to mind is a form of human augmentation, or perhaps
more aptly; human evolution.
That is the foundation for the research approach of Project Apotheosis...]

Chapter 348 Approach
"Interesting." Rui murmured. "It does make sense to turn to human

augmentation or evolution if the superior physical parameters of Martial
Squires were human engineered. Furthermore, it's clearly a procedure that
only Martial Apprentices can go through, that should serve as a rather
important clue when researching the breakthrough to the Squire Realm."
Rui resumed reading, moving on to the next section.
[Introduction: The goal of project Apotheosis is to discover or create a stable

and consistent means of breaking through to the Squire Realm. As discussed
in the previous section, the primary approach to fulfilling this goal is through
a brute force attempt to naturally discover the process by engaging in
research in all feasible means of human augmentation.
Although at first glance it seems to be far too large of scope to attempt, there
are several constraints that reduce the number of possibilities from near-
infinite to a much more manageable, albeit still extremely difficult, number.
The first condition is that it's a process that can successfully work only on
Martial Apprentices, and only Squire Candidates, due to unknown reasons. It
is clear that this means physical augmentation is not something that can be
applied to humans or even most Martial Apprentices for that matter. That
filters out several potential possibilities. The only physiological difference
between Martial Apprentices and humans lies in the brain, thus we've decided
to prioritize potential methods that aim to augment humans to those
especially related to the brain in any way whatsoever.
The second condition is that it is unlikely to be a process that is highly

financially taxing. We can be relatively certain of this. If the Squire
breakthrough is purely the result of one or more extremely valuable and
scarce esoteric resources or technologies, then we would not observe the
sheer population of Martial Squires universally distributed across the Panama
Continent and human civilization. It is clear that the difficulty of the
breakthrough does not come from economic constraints.
The third condition is that the process is singular, it is not a collection of

fundamentally different enhancement methods, but one enhancement method
at the core that fundamentally enhances the body in its entirety. Thus, we can
ignore methods that exclusively are completely limited to one portion of the
body.]
"Interesting." Rui murmured. He did think this was the most reasonable path
forward. He couldn't even begin to imagine how difficult stumbling onto the
breakthrough of the Squire Realm was, but they certainly were being
pragmatic about their approach to the matter.
He resumed reading.
[Down below are certain avenues of research that are under consideration;
Varnardium Blood Refining Spongification.
Infire Leech detoxification.
Cranial Grecardian Bleoplast Infection.
Drilliomint Intoxication.
...
Brunhild Spore Bone Marrow saturation.]
"Wow." Rui muttered. He didn't understand even a single one of the

mentioned avenues of research. He felt as though he was back in high school
and college.
It was effectively the same. The potential candidates of the breakthrough

method to the Squire Realm were all based on the esoteric phenomena of the
world of Gaia.
"I'm going to have to get Julian's help on this." Rui sighed. He didn't want to
just skim on without, at the very least, gaining an understanding of the core
of the methodologies involved. Otherwise, there would be no point in having
memorized the information at hand.
"I should also purchase information on the methodologies involved." Rui

noted. "That way even if Julian is unfamiliar with something in the research
data, I can provide the information needed on the matter."
Rui got up, immediately leaving his dorm room. He headed over to the
student affairs department and applied for a leave. He wished to head back
home so he could talk to Julian immediately, now was the time he would
have returned from the Kandrian Institute of Sciences.
To his surprise, the application was accepted on the spot.
"Aren't these things supposed to take time?" He asked, curious.
"Normally, they do." The staff member replied, smiling. "But your profile is
marked with the permission to leave the Academy any time you want."
"I see..."
It seemed even the Academy did not see the need for Rui to remain in it, at
this point. It had no problem with him leaving whenever he wanted. All of
this supported the notion that his time at the Martial Academy was coming to
an end.
Rui left the Academy as he headed straight home. At his current speed, it
only took him twenty minutes to reach the Quarrier Orphanage.
"RRUUUIIIII" Alice greeted him loudly with a smile when he arrived.

"Surprise visit!"
"Hehehe." Rui smiled. "I had some free time and some stuff to do."
"Come in!"
The adults and children all greeted Rui.

"Big brother, teach us Martial Art!"
"Yeah! Teach us Martial Art!"
Rui's Martial Art had fascinated all the children in the Orphanage, but of
them all, it had truly struck Max and Mana the most. They had dedicated
themselves to the training regimes that Rui had told them to practice and it
reflected.
Rui could see that their muscle tone had visibly grown since he last saw them
nine months ago, which meant they were most certainly training very hard,
just as hard as he did.
('I should put them through even more kick-boxing and Brazillian jiu-jitsu
training like what I went through.') Rui mused. He had used the physical and
combat training methodologies from Earth back when he had been training
for the Martial Exam becoming remarkably proficient at them by the time, he
reached the age of thirteen. It certainly had helped him last in the Martial
Exam and staved off the huge disadvantage he was at to a certain degree as
far as the age gap went.
It certainly would give them an edge. At the very least Rui was sure they
would eventually manage to get in before they cross the age limit for the
Martial Exam.
"Welcome back Rui." Julian smiled. "What brings you back on this surprise
visit?"
Rui turned to Julian. "I need your help with something, I think you'll find it
interesting."
"Oh?" Julian raised an eyebrow. "I already am interested."

Chapter 349 Proposal
"Recently, I completed an international mission." Rui said, sipping tea after

they had settled alone in a room. "I happened to get my hands on research
data of great importance to my Martial Path."
Julian stared at him silently, waiting for him to finish.
"Research data on the breakthrough to the Squire Realm." Rui added. "It's
legitimate and successful."
Julian's eyes widened. "Are you absolutely sure?"
"We fought a Martial Squire who broke through to the Squire Realm through
the method developed by the research I obtained."
Julian almost spat out his tea as he burst into a bout of coughs, taking a few
minutes to regain his composure. "Surely, you jest."
Rui shook his head. "You know I'm not."
"There's no way you fought a Martial Squire. You would be dead."
"She was only a quasi-Martial Squire as far combat prowess went." Rui
clarified. "She had very recently broken through and was not only entirely
unaccustomed to her power but also lacking in Squire-level techniques."
"But even then..." Julian continued.
"I didn't beat her alone. We were a team of five. One grade-ten Martial
Apprentice." He pointed to himself. "And four grade-nine Martial
Apprentices."
"Still..." Julian murmured uncertainly. "It's incredibly hard to believe."
"It definitely happened." Rui shook his head. "I'd show you the body, but I
submitted it to the Martial Union as evidence."
Julian's eyes widened at those words. "That's... unbelievable. How strong

have you become?"
"Quite." Rui admitted. "But that's beside the point. The point is, the research
data is legitimate."
Julian regained his composure as he understood what Rui wanted from him.
"You want help with understanding the research data from me, correct?"
Rui nodded. "I know you're busy, but I hope you'll help me out. Besides, you
do stand to gain much if I'm not wrong."
Julian nodded. "The breakthrough to the Squire Realm is not easily revealed.
I haven't been given access to that information despite becoming a full-
fledged scholar of the Kandrian Institute of Sciences. I'm quite interested in
what you have procured. But what I'm curious about is why are you so
strongly interested in this?"
"What do you mean?"
"The Martial Union will give you the opportunity to attempt the breakthrough
once you're ready." Julian told him. "Whatever information you managed to
procure from outside the nation is certainly paltry compared to the highly-
advanced and highly-refined breakthrough process and procedure the Martial
Union has developed. At your absurdly high rate of growth, you'll almost
certainly receive this opportunity. When that time comes, you'll gain access
to not only the information you procured from your mission but also much
more and more complete and reliable information that you surely couldn't get
your hands on."
This was true. Julian had keenly noted this point as Rui had expected. But he
could not explain the truth. The truth was that there was the possibility that
his scientific foundation from Earth could potentially allow him to optimize
his journey to the Squire Realm. It all depended on the mechanics of the
breakthrough to the Squire Realm.
If this was the case, then he would rather find out sooner rather than later. He
would like to know if there was something he could do during the next
training stage that could either lessen the risk of the procedure or maximize
his gains during the breakthrough.
"That's true." Rui admitted. "Still, I cannot share the Martial Union's
information, they will surely have me sign a non-disclosure agreement of
sorts regarding that. However, I can share this information with you and gain
a more in-depth and thorough understanding of the breakthrough to the
Squire Realm as well as how it was developed."
"I see..." Julian tentatively accepted that information. "Alright then, I'm more
than willing to help you out with understanding the research data. When do
we start?"
"As soon as I finish transcribing it myself." Rui replied.
"Yourself?" Julian frowned. "Just get it transcribed by a translator."
"No can do." Rui shook his head. "All of the data is in my mind. I memorized
it perfectly from start to finish."
"What?" Julian's expression morphed into one of surprise. "But how?"
"An Apprentice-level mental technique." Rui replied nonchalantly.
"I see." Julian sighed. "I can't say I'm not envious."
"Hehe." Rui smirked playfully. "Anyways, I'll get back to you when I'm
done."
"Alright." Julian nodded. "Message me when you're done."
"Will do."
Rui spent the rest of the day at the Orphanage. He always found it refreshing
to return home and spent some time with his family. It usually took his mind
off matters that otherwise perpetually consume his attention whether he liked
it or not.
He'd spent some time training Max and Mana, giving them even more
training regimes and routines and sparring methodologies while humoring
them in some matches to satisfy their battle lust. There was only over a year
left before they were old enough to undertake the Martial Exam. Rui wasn't
entirely sure how he felt about that.
The Martial Exam was dangerous. There was a small risk of death and a few
applicants died every year participating in it and many were left crippled,
traumatized, and injured.
Still, he respected their determination. Once he left the Martial Academy, he

would focus on training them a bit more before their first attempt.
Once the day ended, he returned to the Martial Academy.
"What's that you've got there?" Kane frowned when he saw Rui returning to
the dorm with a bunch of boxes.
"A typewriter, ink, and paper supplies." Rui replied. "See you in however
long whatever I'm about to do takes me."
He shut entered his room, shutting himself in before Kane could even ask
what he was talking about.
Rui intended to finish the transcription process as soon as he could. The

longer he delayed it, the longer he was delaying his own plans. He wanted to
gain access to the information he wanted as soon as possible. Once he got it,
it was time to take the next step toward Squire candidacy and eventually; the
Squire Realm.
Chapter 350 Secret
"Are you sure the security is adequate?" A bald bearded man asked, glancing
at the Martial Apprentice sitting opposite to him in the carriage.
"Do not worry, My lord." The Martial Apprentice replied. "Our Earthen
Shieldforger party is one of the most reputed bodyguard parties in the
Karjakin Confederate. We have a well-balanced team of Martial Artists, and
most importantly, me, the most powerful defensive Martial Apprentice in the
entire region as well as an excellent sensory Martial Apprentice here." He
said, patting the Martial Apprentice sitting beside him.
"Hm." The man nodded. "That's good to hear."
"Still, I have to say. It's an honor to be assigned as the guard of a feudal lord
like yourself, lord Faishon." The defensive Martial Apprentice smiled.
"Mm. It is an important and consequently risky occasion. I am enroute to

declare war. There are those who oppose war. The pacificists will no doubt
attempt to kill me, if they know about this journey. Fortunately, I have all of
you. They should be unable to successfully take my life en route to the
Haraul Region." He replied.
Feudal lord Faishon Durant was a feudal lord of the Karjakin Confederate, a
tiny sovereign state some distance away from the Kandrian Empire. The
Karjakin Confederate was a state rife with internal conflict. Due to its nature
as a confederate state, its political power was divided among many
militaristic leaders known as feudal lords.
The state was always on the brink of civil war over the issue of monopoly
and distribution of resources.
Recently, it was pushed over the brink when an irreconcilable disagreement
caused one of the feudal leaders to decide to declare war.
Feudal lord Faishon Durant. He was currently en route to the Region ruled by
another like-minded feudal lord.
However, he wasn't a fool. The pacifist faction formed by feudal lords with
the goal of settling disagreements through peaceful means would do
everything in their power to prevent him from sparking war.
Including ambushing and killing him.
He'd hired the most powerful and largest bodyguard party in his region.
A team of nine elite Martial Apprentices led by a vaunted defensive Martial

Apprentice that the Martial Union had evaluated as the equivalent of grade-
nine.
Nothing should have possibly gone wrong.
Should, being the keyword.
The sensory Martial Apprentice sitting beside the defensive Martial

Apprentice froze. "Something is coming!"
The defensive Martial Apprentice immediately heightened his alertness as he

turned to the sensory Martial Apprentice. "Which direction?"
The sensory Martial Apprentice closed his eyes before his opening them with
a pale face, turning to the ceiling of the carriage. "UP!"
BOOM!
The carriage exploded the very next moment as a fearsome wind blast
crushed it. The sensory Martial Apprentice was knocked out. The defensive
Martial Apprentice was unharmed, yet he quickly turned back in alarm and
panic.
His eyes widened when he saw the crushed corpse of feudal lord Faishon in
front of him.
Rage pulsed through his body as he looked around, looking for the killer.
"WHERE IS HE?!"
The entire guard force scanned their surroundings yet none of them had been
able to find so much as a peep of the culprit.
A kilometer away;
BOOM!
"Mmm." Rui sighed as he walked out of the crater. "I still suck at aerial
maneuvering."
He had used Tempestuous Ripple to elevate himself to a great height by

firing downwards and using it as a propeller system, similar to a rocket, to
reach directly above the carriage of the target of his mission and launched
Tempestuous Ripples down once he reached close enough.
It was the most efficient and effective way to kill the feudal lord Faishon
through the heavy-duty bodyguards the man had hired.
Unfortunately, his aerial maneuvering through Tempestuous Ripple was

crude and embarrassing. He was still heads and shoulders below Ana
Mariane, who had mastered aerial maneuvering through a similar method to
an extremely high degree. She could dance elegantly and smoothly in the air
whereas Rui resembled a drunk caveman, in comparison.
"Well, at least it allowed me to complete the mission quickly." Rui shrugged,

consoling himself. He pulled out the mission tracker device and hit the
successful mission completion button, before setting off in the direction of
He was especially impatient to reach back home because of a message he had

gotten from Julian.
[I've finished.]
Rui's eyes had twinkled at that message. It had been a little over a month
since Rui handed over the completed transcripts of the research data he had
procured from the research facility to Julian to read, understand and help Rui
understand all the heavy esoteric science and technology that the research
logs he had procured from the research facility used.
And now, Julian had finally finished and would help Rui completely
understand the secret to the Squire Realm.
His eyes flashed with greed.
It had been far too long a time, but Rui had managed to patiently endure the
entire time.
But now, he was ready.
He had originally planned to take his time with the assassination mission that
the pacifist faction had commissioned, to be absolutely careful and execute
the mission with surgical precision. But once he saw the message from Julian
in the middle of the mission, he decided to go all-out and complete it as soon
as possible.
He sprinted back to the Kandrian Empire with speeds that far exceeded that
of even the fastest of cheetahs on Earth.
It took him only an hour to reach the Kandrian Empire. And merely another
two hours to reach the town of Hajin.
He rushed to the Martial Academy before racing through all the post-mission
protocols with a frenzied vigour.
It had taken him only five minutes to reach the Quarrier Orphanage once he
sprinted back to the Quarrier Orphanage.
The sheer amount of energy he'd burnt in total was tremendous even for a
Martial Apprentice of his caliber. He'd arrived a sweating wheezing mess
when he walked into the Quarrier Orphanage.
"Julian!" He urged. "Tell me. What's the secret!?"

Chapter 351 Report
Julian sighed. "Calm down. Also, take off that mask."
Rui had completely forgotten to take off his mask all this time. It was a mask
that disguised his hair and eyes. "Ah, my bad."
However, before he could pester Julian again, the rest of the Orphanage had
noticed his arrival and fawned over him yet again. As he drowned in a crowd
of adults and children, Julian took his time laughing heartily at Rui's plight.
"Finally!" Rui exclaimed as he sat down opposite to Julian. "Alright, no more

delays. Spit it out!"
"Calm down." Julian told him. "I've prepared a short summary and a more
elaborate and detailed summary depending on how much you want to know."
He told Rui before extracting two documents of varying sizes, and handing
them to Rui.
Rui's eyes widened as held the documents delicately, as though they were
priceless artifacts made of glass. "This..."
"I have to say, it was truly an incredible read." Julian told Rui. "I learned far
more than I ever imagined, and I'm still digesting all my gains. I have so
many ideas that I would like to research derived from the research provided
to me."
"I can imagine how beneficial it must have been," Rui told him. He knew the
feeling, having been a researcher himself.
Julian nodded. "Even though their technology is much inferior to that of the
Kandrian Empire, the knowledge and capabilities of the researchers involved
surpass mine. The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana truly went all out with
Project Apotheosis, in all regards."
Rui nodded. "I can't wait to dig into it. Thanks a lot, Julian. Seriously, I can't
express how grateful I am."
Julian smiled. "
Rui spent some more time at the Orphanage, having dinner before leaving for
the Martial Academy.
Once he returned, he immediately locked himself in his room and began

reading the quick brief report that Julian gave him. Once he finished that, he
would move on to the more detailed report that explained the research
"Alright, let's see..." Rui murmured as he opened up the document.
[Introduction; The entirety of the research logs that you provided to me

documented the inception of Project Apotheosis all the until the recent initial
success of the project with subject SQ007. It documents nearly two years of
reports and I'll be broadly summarizing the core of the research in a manner
that is easy to understand for someone without a background in esoteric
science.]
Rui nodded. This was indeed what he was looking for.
[The research begins with the inductive deduction that the breakthrough to
the Squire Realm is something that is a) engineered manually b) Something
that only Martial Apprentices viably undergo. Thus, the hypothesis emerges
that the breakthrough to the Squire Realm is something with severe
constraints that only some Martial Apprentices can endure.
A further deduction can be made that the constraint of the Squire

breakthrough procedure is likely related to the brain. The reason this can be
deduced is that the only physiological difference between Martial
Apprentices and normal humans is in the brain. Thus, if there is a reason that
the Squire breakthrough can be applied only to Martial Apprentices and not
to ordinary humans would be because of the brain.
The final deduction made about the Squire Realm was that the breakthrough
process was some form of human augmentation based on the fact that unlike
Martial Apprentices, Martial Squires are augmented physically as well.
The fundamental research approach began by attempting to find the

augmentation procedure via a brute force attempt.
For context, the avenue of human augmentation is not at all a new avenue of
research by any means at all. The first recorded attempt at augmenting
humans via the many fantastical esoteric resources in this world precedes the
Age of Martial Art.
However, although many have tried, there hasn't yet been a successful
attempt at mass production of augmented humans. The only successes have
been extremely risky and fatal procedures with astronomically high mortality
rates, or procedures with extremely high costs and needs. Many extremely
large obstacles prevent the faint success of human augmentation from being
even remotely mass-viable.
The research looked at a large variety of such existing means of human

augmentation in hopes that Martial Apprentices could somehow overcome
the large flaws and shortcomings that these methods had. Below are the
methods that are primarily under the consideration of the research facility:
Varnardium Blood Refining Spongification: This is a method that purifies

and energizes blood using a liquid esoteric known as Varnardium. The
energized blood delivers its excess energy to all cells across the body,
causing enhanced metabolic output. It's one of the earliest attempts at human
augmentation. The following is an extremely oversimplified explanation,
however, it should suffice for now. The procedure leads to a very temporary
state of human augmentation; however, degeneration follows suit
immediately after. The process causes the nervous system to degenerate until
the connection between the brain and body no longer exists and the subject
dies on the spot.
It's an inevitable outcome that the researchers hoped that Martial Apprentices
would be able to overcome...]
"Interesting." Rui's eyes twinkled with interest.
He had already learned a lot even before delving into the report.
For starters, he had had no idea that the human augmentation field of research
even existed. Let alone the fact that it existed for this long and was this
widespread. He appreciated Julian providing him with the necessary contest
that someone without a background in esoteric science did not possess. It
helped him understand more about why certain decisions were made and how
things came to be the way they were.
"Varnardium Blood refining spongification," Rui murmured. "Not an element

that exists in the periodic table that's for sure."
The idea that a certain substance could 'purify' blood, whatever that meant on
a bio-chemical level, and energize it to then distribute to all other cells across
the body was truly fascinating. Rui even had a few ideas of what exactly was
occurring thanks to his scientific background.
Chapter 352 Almost There
"Probably something to do with ATP," Rui muttered.
ATP was the short form for Adenosine Triphosphate. It was the organic
compound that provided energy for muscle movements, nerve impulse
propagation, and several other important metabolic processes that required
and consumed energy.
If a process was able to energize cells, then that likely meant it was somehow
increasing the supply of ATP to the cells to increase the production of
energy. As for how that was happening, Rui wasn't sure at all.
He turned back to the document, proceeding down to the list of means of

human augmentation one by one. They each relied different mechanisms to
try and augment the human body. They each had their own flaws and
shortcomings.
And at the end of each method, Julian spoke about why each method
eventually could not be the breakthrough to the Squire Realm.
He finally reached the final means of human augmentation;
[This brings us to the final potential candidate for the Squire breakthrough.
I've gone into the other avenues of research and summed up why the head
researcher dismissed all other avenues of research as the candidate for the
Squire Realm. There's a reason I left this one for the last, I think you'll be
quite fascinated by it, Rui.
The Flux Mutation procedure. To understand this process, I must provide

some contextual scientific background.
Specifically, on how life evolves.

There is a theory on the natural development of life in this world; The Theory
of Evolution.
The reason why species of animals, including humans, have evolved the way
they have in this world is explained by this theory. The offspring of a
generation of members of a species of creatures are never genetically
identical to that of their parent generation. There are always small changes
caused in the genetic information that defines all of the phenomena that occur
within each organism from generation to generation due to inaccurate
copying of information from the parent to the offspring and even external
influences at times.
These changes are called mutations.
These mutations are not identical even across the members of the same
generation. Different members of the same generation end up having
different changes in their genetic information. However, not all of the
mutations in the genetic information of an organism are good. Many a time
these changes are bad, and reduce the probability of the organism surviving
and thus, reproducing.
Those organisms with good mutations that increase the probability of

survival and reproduction end up surviving and reproducing more than the
organisms with bad mutations. Over time, this inevitably means that the next
generation of the species ends up inheriting the good mutations rather than
the bad mutations because the animals with the bad mutations died and
reproduced much less.
The same process happens with the next generation, resulting in the
generation after, having inherited better mutations. Over a long period of
time, these inherited mutations snowball into a large difference. So much so
that any given generation of a certain species greatly differs from its ancestral
generations in the distant past.
And are much superior as well. This is how species evolve. This is how all
species of life have evolved.
The Flux Mutation method aims to enhance the human body through a
similar principle.
Although the human being is considered to be a single organism, what it

really is, is a gigantic system of invisibly small organisms we call 'cells' that
all work together in extraordinarily complex and numerous ways that beggar
the imagination.
However, if it can, for the sake of the experiment, be considered as a group of

organisms. Then the mechanism of the Theory of Evolution can be applied to
the human being on a cellular level.
In theory, The Flux Method aimed to subject the body to harsh conditions via
technological setups. These harsh conditions caused mass cell death across a
particular region of the body. However, amidst the mass cell death, a small
proportion of cells would survive. The body would then be fed high-grade
healing potions so that the only remaining surviving cells of the body would
quickly reproduce and new tissue formed with the new cells would be able to
withstand the harsh conditions that they were initially subjected to.
The biggest drawback was that the probability of death was one hundred
percent. This was expected. After all, killing off most of the cells was no
different from killing off most of the body of the organism, which absolutely
caused death. Even if there were few remaining living cells, the initial mass
death immediately caused death, the healing potions thus could not heal the
body.
The research facility tried a known method of reducing the intensity of the
harsh conditions subjected to the human body. This way, a greater number of
cells survived the filter. However, this had its own drawbacks. In order for
there to be a high-enough probability of survival, one needed to ensure more
than ninety-nine percent of cells survived.
However, this also inevitably meant that the quality of the augmentation,
once the cell count was restored through replenishment via healing potions,
was insignificant. There was no meaningful augmentation observable in even
the slightest observable degree by any means whatsoever.
The research facility aimed to overcome this obstacle by subjecting the

human body to an invisible form of energy we call 'radiation', This invisible
form of energy is extremely similar to light, they're both of the same kind of
energy.
This radiation when subjected to the cells of the body would affect the
genetic information of the cells, causing mild changes at a much higher rate
than normal. This would effectively speed up the rate at which the body
evolved. Across several rounds of cell death and regeneration, the cells had
undergone a significant amount of evolution.
Radiation, however, is dangerous. It could cause painful deaths and

disastrous mutations if even the slightest amount was excess or if the subject
was not healthy and a variety of other conditions. It took years for them to
nearly perfect the process such that the radiation would merely increase the
rate and degree of mutations occurring without causing nearly any other side-
effect.
Nearly, being the key word...]

Chapter 353 There
[… The only, yet the biggest flaw of the augmentation method; Brain death.
The brain was the by far the single most fragile organ of the body. What
other organs could survive; even the heart and the lungs, it could not even
come close to surviving. Even this near-perfect solution when subjected to
subjects caused brain death. The combination of mass brain-cell death and
radiation was simply too lethal.
If the brain was left unenhanced while the rest of the body was evolved via
this method, then the brain would die of extreme seizures anyway due to
being stressed with metabolic processes that it was not evolved to withstand.
It was not possible to evolve the rest of the body but not the brain.
No solution worked; it was absolutely not a viable form of human

augmentation. This is why it's a dead-end for ordinary humans.
Ordinary humans, being the keyword. The goal of Project Apotheosis was to
discover the breakthrough process to the Squire Realm.
The research team did not give up on their final candidate. The final
possibility was that even if human brains could not survive the process, it was
possible that the superhumanly augmented brains of Martial Apprentices
could.
This was put to the test with test subject SQ001. He was a hostile foreign
Martial Apprentice caught infiltrating the Commonwealth Duchy of
Vinfrana.
The result was a failure. However, this result was illuminating. The test
subject's brain came far closer to the threshold of survival.
This gave the research team hope that the Flux Mutation method was the key
to the Squire Realm. Each time they refined the process heavily before
bringing in another test subject; SQ002.
Because of the extreme scarcity of Martial Apprentice test subjects, each

experiment was conducted after a large amount of refining. Months went by
between each test subject.
However, all of them were failures. Six Martial Apprentices died. But the
research team was still optimistic. They reached closer and closer each time,
fueled by the data of their failures.
Then, they succeeded.
Test subject SQ007; Caella Feeria; female. The equivalent of a grade-ten

defensive Martial Artist. She was a volunteer test subject that was 'officially'
sent as a guard but in actuality was a test subject. She was subjected to the
latest and most refined Flux Mutation method.
She survived.
Her brain was powerful enough to withstand the procedure without dying or
losing her consciousness due to brain death.
She had broken through to the Squire Realm; successfully becoming a

Martial Squire.
This is the secret to the Squire Realm; Human evolution.
The features you described of her entire body matched that of the ones
recorded in research logs. I do believe that you fought and defeated Squire
test subject SQ007 in your mission.
And that is the end of the brief report on the research conducted in the
research facility. The elaborate report contains all the nitty gritty details that I
have entirely omitted or oversimplified in this report so that it remains easy
for laymen without a background in esoteric science.
Hope that helped, feel free to come over and ask any questions you have.
~Julian.]
…..
Rui dropped the document as he stared off into space.
He was looking at walls, physically. But really, he was looking at nothing.
His mind was still in a state of shock as he struggled to even process what he
had read.
"Evolution..." He murmured in wonder. "To think literal Darwinian Evolution

would be the key to the Squire Realm."
He was beyond bewildered. Yet so many things made sense to him. It all fell
into place. Like pieces of a puzzle. The many pieces he had picked up over a
long period, one by one, falling into place.
"That's why only Squire candidates are allowed to attempt the breakthrough."
Rui's eyes widened. "Normal Martial Apprentices would die."
Squire candidates needed to achieve a substantial degree of individuality.

This was one of the two conditions of Squire candidacy.
Rui finally understood why.
('It's in order to ensure the brain can survive and withstand the process.') He
realized. ('In order for the brain of the Martial Apprentice to survive, it has to
be augmented enough. It has to be augmented far above human parameters.
In order for it to be augmented enough, the Martial Apprentice has to walk
deeper down one's Martial Path!')
Rui recalled something he had once been told by Headmaster Aronian.
"Your brain becomes more and more enhanced the more uniquely original
and individualistic your Martial Art is. The greater the personal and original
development your Martial Art goes, the deeper down your Martial Path you
tread, and the greater your brain is enhanced as a consequence." Headmaster
Aronian had told him, back then.
This meant the only way for a Martial Apprentice to have a powerful enough
brain to survive the breakthrough was to tread deeper down one's Martial
Path, which, in turn, requires one's Martial Art to have individuality.
"That's why it's the condition to be considered a candidate for the Squire
Realm!" Rui exclaimed, growing more and more excited.
He had already fulfilled that condition.
Which meant that he could attempt and even survive the breakthrough to the
Squire Realm!
What was the other condition for?
He didn't know. But, at the very least, as far as Martial matters went, the
Martial Union was one hundred percent credible as an expert. He was sure
that there was a valid and sound reason why Rui wasn't yet a Squire
candidate despite being able to survive the breakthrough to the Squire Realm.
Rui had far too many questions asides from just that. Why couldn't this
process be applied over and over again for infinite evolution? What were the
'harsh conditions' subjected to the human body for evolution to begin? How
much radiation did they subject the body with? How did they regulate it?
He turned towards the more elaborate report that Julian had given him with
gleaming eyes. He would surely find answers to those questions there.
Chapter 354 Further Insights
Once Julian provided context on all of the esoteric science that the research
logs referenced, Rui had a far easier time understanding all of it. But he
mostly focused on the Flux Evolution method, as it had been renamed by the
end of the research logs.
"I see." Rui murmured as he read through the elaborate explanation report
that Julian provided him. "The reason that the evolution procedure cannot just
be performed infinitely is that there is a time limit before the radiation
administered becomes lethal due to overdosage. On Earth, this would be
considered to be an Acute Radiation Syndrome."
Julian's report mentioned prolonged exposure to radiation was lethal. What he

was surprised by was the fact that they didn't know why. Both Julian and the
researchers treated radiation as a dangerous but largely unknown and
inscrutable form of energy similar to that of light.
"So, they haven't yet come up with Maxwell's Electromagnetic Theory or the
Quantum Theory of light, huh?" Rui surmised. "They also haven't discovered
DNA or a detailed structure and function of cells. It also doesn't seem like
they have an accurately completed theory of the atom."
The research logs gave him a lot of insight into the scientific limitations of
this world. While they possessed a large sum of knowledge on the many
supernatural phenomena of this world, they did not develop deep scientific
theories that explained the phenomena in this world.
Part of this was because esoteric sciences were largely sufficient and a proven
field. Most of the research and development in this world was targeted
around the esoteric and supernatural phenomena in this world. This neglected
research into ordinary fields that looked at the more mundane and ordinary
phenomena such as that of gravity.
Rui didn't necessarily fault them for this. In front of the many fantastical
esoteric phenomena in this world capable of wonders, the ordinary
phenomena weren't really as alluring in comparison.
('interesting.') Rui mused. ('The harsh conditions that they subjected the body
to are varied depending on which biological system they are evolving. To
evolve the muscular system, they subjected the muscular cells to a substance
via a potion that would force the muscular cells to consume a greater amount
of energy to produce greater amounts of muscular force. The muscular cells
that couldn't keep up due to being too weak would perish while the
genetically best cells would survive. The new cells reproduced from these
surviving cells thanks to the healing potions will have mutated even more
than normal thanks to the dosage of radiation that causes more mutations
from generation to generation to speed up the evolution process. The process
repeats over and over again such that each generation of mutated muscular
cells is much superior to the previous generation. By the end of the
procedure, the newest of muscle cells will have evolved far past normal
human parameters.')
Rui was fascinated by this process. Similar processes had been developed for
all biological systems in the body. These processes were such that only the
genetically superior proportion of the cells of a particular biological system
or organ would survive. The next generation of cells would inherit the
superior genes with some amount of mutations caused by the radiation. The
best mutations would survive in the next round while the worst would die.
The end result was cells snowballed with the most superior genetic mutations
over countless rounds of evolution.
This ended up with all biological systems and all types of cells being
genetically far superior to the originals.
However, there were constraints. Not only was there a maximum amount of
radiation the body could be subjected to before it became dangerous and
lethal, but there were also internal constraints to the body. Increasing the
metabolic power and capability of each cell increased the energy
consumption of each cell. This was dangerous because if the energy
consumption was too high then the stamina of the body would decrease.
Of course, the energy reserves also increased during the Squire breakthrough
evolution process. The aim was to ensure that the balance suited the Martial
Artist.
For some Martial Artists like Fae, increased power at the cost of stamina was
desirable. It suited her style. She was a hyper-aggressive offensive fighter
who went all-out to defeat her opponent with overwhelming offense in a
short amount of time.
On the other hand, sacrificing stamina for greater raw muscular power was
absolutely catastrophic for a Martial Artist like Milliana.
"Different Martial Artists need customized Squire breakthroughs." Rui

realized. "You cannot universally apply the exact same identical procedure to
different kinds of Martial Artists. It would ruin their Martial Path. Each
Squire evolution needs to be surgically customized to fit the target Martial
Artist."
"That is also why the Martial Squire we fought, Caella Freelia, was so
unstable." He muttered. "Her body was not only completely different that it
used to be. But the evolution 'configuration' she underwent was probably not
customized for her. That's also why her control was so unstable. We would
probably be dead if she underwent perfect evolution."
Rui wiped some sweat off his forehead. The fact that Caella had dominated
them despite being nerfed in so many different ways went to show how much
stronger true Martial Squires were.
"I bet this is the reason for the second condition of Squire candidacy." His
eyes widened as he made another realization. "Assuming the Squire evolution
is permanent, then getting the correct evolution configuration of physical
parameters is absolutely vital. If your Martial Art changes drastically at its
core after you undergo Squire evolution, you're fucked!"
In that case, it made sense to wait for a Martial Apprentice's Martial Art to
mature so that it would not undergo any drastic fundamental changes.
Otherwise, the irreversible Squire evolution would not be suited to the drastic
changes.
Rui finally understood the reasons for Squire candidacy. The individuality
condition was to ensure that the brain was augmented enough so that the
Martial Apprentice's brain would survive the breakthrough. The maturity
condition was to ensure that the Martial Art would not change drastically
later on after the breakthrough to become incompatible with the Martial
Artist's evolved body.

Rui closed the report document. He burnt both of them since he had already
committed them to memory, he didn't want this document to be leaked.
('Wow...') He sat back, pondering all the information he had digested. He had
wondered about the breakthrough to the Squire Realm for years. And now, he
had finally learned about it.
('The question now is... How do I use this to my advantage?') He wondered.
The whole goal of pursuing this knowledge was to somehow exploit it to give
himself an advantage by relying on his background and other unique
circumstances.
He had already begun to think hard about the matter.
('There are only three ways this can benefit me. I gain an advantage that no
other Martial Artist normally has, or I mitigate an advantage no other Martial
Artist is able to, or I bolster existing benefits to a degree that no other Martial
Artist is able to.') He quickly surmised. ('Or some combination of the three as
well, I suppose. I should jot down the avenues where the is potential for
benefit.')
The existing benefits of the Squire evolution breakthrough were, of course,

obvious and straightforward. Vastly improved genetics for superhuman
metabolic parameters. Though Rui wasn't entirely sure how he could
maximize his benefits.
Create better cell-straining processes that are used to filter out the genetically
most superior cells?
Rui shook his head. All of the cell-straining processes that were used to filter
out the genetically inferior cells were based on esoteric technology. Rui could
not really use his scientific background to replace them. He would need to
either develop conventional technology in his world or familiarize himself
intimately with esoteric technology which could not be done in a short
amount of time. There was no point in wasting time chasing down that path
with no guaranteed returns.
('What about mitigating the drawbacks and constraints or giving myself

benefits in other avenues?') He wondered.
This wasn't as unfeasible.
The drawbacks and constraints of the Squire evolution process were the
radiation dosage limit and the stamina constraints. If he could somehow
mitigate these two drawbacks, then his evolution should boost him to a
significantly higher degree than what would normally be expected.
His eyes lit up as a few ideas entered his mind. "Hehehe... This is going to be
interesting."
He spent the rest of the day in his room refining his plans for the Squire
evolution breakthrough.
A few days passed.
It had been nearly a month since the mission in the Commonwealth Duchy of
Vinfrana ended. At that time, the information regarding the shocking mission
had been disseminated to a much larger extent. A large number of people
with any ears in the general intelligence networks of the Empire had learned
of the feat of the five Martial Apprentices.
Many wondered if this feat would set new standards for Martial Apprentices.
Everybody knew that each generation of Martial Apprentices was stronger

than the previous generation of Martial Apprentices. This was because of the
higher quantity and quality of techniques and trainings. This would inevitably
cause the average level of Martial Apprentices to rise. Across a few
generations, the difference would become noticeable.
When Martial Artists grew too powerful, the Martial Union would have to set
new standards. The Martial Artist grades would be readjusted to account for
the increase in power. The grades would all jump up one step. Grade-ten
Martial Artists would become Grade-nine Martial Artists and so on and so
forth.
Historically, this change would be made only when it became painfully

evident that the Martial Artist grades were painfully outdated. This usually
happened when an era-defining genius performed a feat so ridiculously
impressive that it became extremely clear that the Martial Artist grades
needed to be readjusted.
Many suspected that Rui and his feat of leading a victory against a Martial
Squire would be the trigger or at the very least a significant contributor to that
trigger.
This only made him that much more alluring as a Martial Artist to the many
clienteles of the Martial Union. Rui's inbox had been flooded with more than
a hundred different personal commissions! He even received personal
commissions from international clientele.
The commissions were as diverse as they were many. Ranging from more
standard missions to odder and more unusual missions.
There was even a commission for a vial of his semen!
A commission that Rui had promptly refused on the spot.
Many in the Kandrian Empire had taken notice of him much more seriously
than they did when he was merely the finalist in the Martial Contest.
The same could be said for the Martial Union. It was even more interested in
him than anybody else. The Martial Sects dropped all pretenses and sent open
invitations to him.
He got commissions from Martial Sects he didn't even know existed!
The Poison Sect, the Weapons Sect, and the Subterranean Sect.
Rui refused all the invitations, albeit with highly courteous and gratifying
responses. He didn't want to piss off the Martial Sects.
He refused all but one.
The Symbiotic Sect.
He hadn't forgotten his interest in Symbiotic Martial Art techniques.

Especially the fact that he likely had a high affinity with these techniques. He
wanted to explore the possibility of him being able to benefit
disproportionately due to a potential compatibility with these techniques.
Problem was that he knew far too little about the techniques.
Although the Martial Academy did have symbiotic techniques, it wasn't

nearly as extensive as he'd have hoped it would have been.
Thus, he had reached out to the individual who had invited him to Symbiotic
Sect; Squire Grillogan.
If he expressed interest in symbiotic techniques, there was a pretty decent

chance that Squire Grillogan would at the very least cooperate with him and
help him out to increase the probability of Rui joining the Symbiotic Sect. It
was practically a necessity if he had any hopes of Rui joining their Sect over
any other larger Martial Sect in the Martial Union.
Chapter 356 Meeting
Rui entered the Martial Union Hajin branch after showing his learner's
license and an invitation letter to the security.
The Martial Union was incredibly large, one could easily get lost in its
vastness while navigating through its large structure. Thankfully, there were
maps frequently placed across the entire complex. Otherwise, Rui would
have gotten lost even with the Seismic Mapping technique.
CLACK
Rui opened the door to an office, having reached his destination. Inside was a
Martial Squire in a business attire, which took Rui by surprise. He had done a
remarkably good job at restraining his mental pressure, even if Rui's powerful
senses and mind were able to detect it.
"Squire Grillogan, a pleasure to meet you." Rui greeted him respectfully.
"The pleasure is mine, Apprentice Quarrier." The Squire replied with a smile.
"Have a seat."
Squire Grillogan was a rather old man and a clearly retired Martial Artist.
Rui took a seat at the table, as he scrutinized the room briefly. His eyes
immediately fell on the name on the placard placed on the table as well as the
photos of the Martial Squire and what appeared to be his family on the table.
"I must confess, I am surprised." Rui told him candidly. "I did not know that
Martial Artists also occupied bureaucratic and management positions within
the Martial Union. I was under the impression that these posts were occupied
by non-Martial Artists."
"That is mostly true." Squire Grillogan confirmed. "More than ninety-five
percent of the bureaucratic and management posts are actually occupied by
normal humans. However, there are posts with a certain amount of autonomy
and power that are a bit sensitive. For positions like these, the upper echelons
wish these posts be occupied by retired Martial Artists like myself. Important
posts with power and authority should be in the hands of Martial Artists
because it is less likely that the power would be exploited against the class
interests of Martial Artists and the Martial Union as a whole."
Rui nodded. That made sense. By ensuring that all the important positions
were in the hands of Martial Artists, the loyalties of the people occupying
these posts could be much more assured than if all these posts were occupied
by normal humans. "I would imagine that all of the executive posts with no
autonomous power are given to humans then."
"Indeed." Squire Grillogan nodded. "These posts are much lesser in

significance in comparison to posts like my own. Of course, with the sheer
number of such posts, they do possess a soft amount of power in total. Rest
assured; the Martial Union has many fail-safes, deterrents, and
contingencies."
He waved his hand. "Regardless, that's not particularly important or worth

getting into. You have gone out of your way to set up a meeting with me. I
presume you came here to make more than just light talk."
"Indeed." Rui nodded. "Let me be straightforward, I cannot accept the

invitation of the Symbiotic Sect at this particular moment. I do not yet
possess a single Symbiotic technique, after all. The reason I wished to speak
to you was that I am interested in learning more about Symbiotic techniques.
I do believe that I might have a high degree of compatibility with them and
thus want to work on at least one technique if that is the case. I was hoping
you could help me out with this."
"I see..." The Squire responded thoughtfully. "I appreciate your honesty, as
well as your interest in our Sect's techniques. I am more than willing to help
you out, to a certain degree. However, you'll have to be a bit more specific
with your interests. If all you want is a basic guide to help you understand the
more esoteric nature of our techniques, then such a thing can easily be
handled by the staff that I can have help you, it's not something that warrants
me helping you out personally."
Rui nodded. "That would also be appreciated. However, I also do have a

general idea of what I want from a symbiotic Martial Art technique."
"Go on." Squire Grigollan told him.
"I do not want the Symbiotic Martial Art technique to usurp or hinder the
inherent and intrinsic human capability for the sake of additional capabilities.
I do not want a symbiotic Martial Art that replaces human capability or
potential in any way. What I seek from a symbiotic Martial Art is to enhance
my strengths, or mitigate my shortcomings."
"I see..." The Squire murmured. "Unfortunately, that does cut away a large
proportion of symbiotic Martial Art techniques. Most of the techniques of our
Sect do replace human capability with the capabilities provided by
symbiotes."
Rui nodded. He'd suspected as much when he saw how Fernan fought.
"Well, no matter." The Squire replied. "For what it's worth, I do think that the
choice is indeed most fit for you. You're clearly an all-rounder. A technique
that changes the configuration of your body unevenly like how most
Symbiotic techniques do will likely not coincide with your Martial Art."
"Although this does reduce the number of techniques that can give you what
you're looking for. It's not too much of a problem. For a single Martial Artist,
we still have plenty of techniques that match what you're looking for. I'm sure
that amidst all these techniques, there will be something that suits you." He
finished.
"Thank you, Squire Grigollan." Rui bowed his head. "I appreciate your help."
"Not at all, young man." The Squire waved his hand. "I shall personally
ensure a list of techniques that match the conditions you have laid out will be
sent to you in the Martial Academy. The list will contain all the general
information about the techniques that are normally displayed free of cost like
in the technique scrolls of the Martial Academy. Once you find something
you're interested in learning more about or purchasing some techniques, you
can just purchase it from the Martial Union straightforwardly."
Rui smiled. "Thank you, much appreciated."

Chapter 357 Techniques
Rui had begun making preparations for his next training stage and for the
eventual breakthrough to the Squire Realm. Of course, he wasn't even a
Squire candidate yet. He had hoped that the next training stage would lead to
the maturity of his Martial Art as a whole.
Maturity was partially a nebulous concept, to begin with. Although Rui knew
his Martial Art had not yet reached maturity, he had been told that when it
did, he would feel instinctive certainty regarding the matter.
So far, he had felt no instinctive certainty of any kind yet.
Regardless, he could ensure that whenever the second condition would be

fulfilled and the Squire evolution breakthrough would come around, he
would be prepared.
"Alright now..." Rui murmured as he opened a document with the emblem of

the Martial Union. "Let's see..."
The list of symbiotic techniques that abided by the conditions Rui had laid
out had arrived. Once Rui made his decision regarding this matter one way or
another, he would immediately delve into his next training stage.
The first page inside the document was an index page. The techniques were
divided into intrinsic and extrinsic techniques as well as by offense, defense,
maneuvering, or supplementary. Each section was further divided into sub-
categories.
Rui whistled. This made things convenient.
He started skimming through the extrinsic section, pausing every time he

came across a cool technique.
The techniques were grouped together under the core symbiote species with
which the techniques could be performed.
[Silverstreak Winged Louse
Grade: 8
Difficulty grade: 7
The Silverstreak Winged louse is a parasite that can be found in rare portions
of the mountain ranges in the north of the Kandrian Empire. This symbiote
enters the bloodstream and makes its way to the cervical spine of a vertebrae
creature. Once at the cervical spine, the creature burrows itself into the
vertebrae of the host. After an initial period of gestation and gathering of the
genetic information of the host, it begins the growth of wings outside of flesh.
Within the span of two weeks, the pair of wings are fully grown and
connected to the spinal cord and brain.
It placed a significant mental and nutritional burden on the body and mind.
Techniques associated with it include;
Tempestuous Whirlwind Sword: A wind projectile technique generated by

the wings and a breathing technique performed by the user to manipulate the
air density of the air around the wings to match that of the solids. The wings
then generate a powerful flap that projects powerful wind blasts with great
range and power.
Silverstreak Tautfirm Conditioning: A special kind of training designed for

the Silverstreak Winged Louse. Increases tensile strength and rigidity of the
flesh of the Silverstreak Winged Louse.
Aerial Flickering...]
A variety of techniques were listed under the Silverstreak Winged Louse.
('This is quite similar to Fernan's wings and techniques.') Rui noted, recalling
the techniques he had seen when facing off against Fernan.
Fernan used techniques not too dissimilar to the techniques of the
Silverstreak Winged Louse.
As for whether Rui was willing to insert the symbiote into his body, the
answer was most certainly a resounding no.
Although wings were certainly useful. They ruined the balance of his Martial
Art. Reducing his close-quarters combat flexibility and nimbleness in
exchange for long-range aerial maneuvering. This would reduce his ability to
adapt to Martial Artists whose prime weakness was close-quarters combat.
He had long disqualified symbiotes such as this one as potential candidates

for the symbiote he was willing to insert into his body.
The other extrinsic techniques were all similar. Extra limbs, extra
appendages, and all sorts of external growths would all ruin his balance and
dampen his inherent potential.
He shook his head, dismissing all of them. He had more or less expected it,
but indeed he would not be choosing even a single extrinsic technique.
('Hopefully, the intrinsic symbiotes and techniques will be better.') Rui

sighed.
Once he opened them, however, he was surprised.
"Wow." His eyes lit up in interest.
Intrinsic symbiotes were certainly more along the lines of what he was
looking for.
[Freshwater Skincreeper Symbiote
Grade: 7
Difficulty grade: 6
The Freshwater Skincreeper Symbiote is a symbiote that burrows itself into

the outer flesh of its host and grows, spreading outwards, becoming a layer in
the outer flesh of its host. It increases the resilience of the outer flesh of the
host and increases the durability of the host as a whole. It is a static symbiote
and does not have much of a scope for techniques beyond concentration and
density adjustment and some amount of conditioning.]
"Not bad." Rui nodded. This symbiote increased his defense significantly.
The best part was that its difficulty grade was below potency grade. Which
meant he would get even more power from it than he would from a normal
technique with the same amount of difficulty.
"But it's not what I'm looking for." Rui shook his head.
He wanted a symbiote that could do more than just provide him with
mundane boosts. What he wanted was a symbiote that could provide him
with special utility that normal techniques could not. Perhaps it could
mitigate some of the drawbacks of his Martial Art or empower its strengths.
There was no point in going out of his way to get a symbiote that merely
boosted his offense or defense. Those were things that even ordinary
techniques could provide him. What he was looking for was a unique exotic
solution that ordinary techniques couldn't provide him.
Ideally, it would be a symbiote that could enhance the viability or effectivity

of the VOID algorithm. But he did not know whether such a symbiote
existed.
He skimmed through the list with hopeful eyes, speeding past the offense,
defense, and maneuvering pages, until he reached the supplementary section.
"This seems more promising." He murmured as he carefully went down each

technique one by one.
That was when he came across something rather interesting to him.
"The Mindmirror Worm?" He frowned. "What the heck is that?"

Chapter 358 Weighing
[Mindmirror Worm
Grade: 10
Difficulty grade: 10
The Mindmirror Worm is an extremely rare worm that inhabits the Beast
Domain. It infiltrates a potential host's system via ingestion or inhalation
while it is still in the spore form before entering the bloodstream. It is one of
the only symbiotes that aids the most vital organ in the human body: The
brain...]
Rui's eyes widened at those words. The brain was an extraordinarily fragile
organ, and Rui didn't understand how an invasive symbiote could not only
not damage it but also somehow benefit it.
He continued reading on interest.
[The spore attaches itself to the bottom of the temporal lobe and the frontal
lobe before it gathers the genetic information of the host through the blood
and begins reproducing the brain cells known as 'neurons' in the gap between
the brain and the skull plates below the brain. It saturates the gap, forming a
small organ made up of neurons that are intimately connected to the host's
brain.
It effectively forms a secondary brain that serves as an additional lobe for the
brain. This secondary lobe is capable of boosting reactions and aids with
mentally strenuous and time-consuming processes. It's an incredible boost
that greatly enhances mental faculties.
Its downsides are that it increases nutritional expenditure and mentally

burdens the brain to an extremely high degree, increasing the need for sleep,
and causing the brain to need to sleep for an extra fifty percent without
potions. It exceeds ordinary human parameters in so far as the mental stress it
puts on the brain. The symbiote is also sentient and inherently power-hungry
and does attempt to take over the brain of the host. Often succeeding in the
cases of Martial Apprentices without powerful enough brains and minds.
All of these heavy drawbacks are the reason that the difficulty grade of the
technique is grade ten. It is estimated that only someone with extraordinary
mental parameters can possibly master the Mindmirror Symbiote.]
He was completely blown away by the symbiote. The drawbacks sounded

incredibly scary, but the benefits were almost irresistible. Martial Apprentices
were significantly above baseline human parameters because of their cerebral
augmentations. This symbiote was effectively providing a boost that was not
too far from the boost that Martial Apprentices gained thanks to the discovery
of the Martial Path.
"No wonder the potency of the technique is grade ten." Rui sighed. "But the
difficulty is equally high. Just the fact that there are high stakes at risk, for
failure to master the technique alone means that it's game over. An easily
grade-ten technique."
Normally, Rui ignored grade-ten techniques. They required extraordinary

talent and extreme affinity for there to even be a reasonably-high possibility
of mastery. Rui wasn't conventionally talented; one of his biggest advantages
came over from inheriting an already-developed mind and the consequences
of it undergoing a second round of cognitive growth.
However, he had come to realize that in the context of this technique, he

might actually possess the 'talent' needed for it; extremely high mental
parameters. He also had an affinity with it because the core of his Martial Art
was a mentally intensive system of fighting; the VOID algorithm.
"Is this the reason this is literally at the very top of the list?" Rui wondered.
He most certainly had not missed the glaring oddity it was to place a grade-
ten technique at the very top of a list for someone who had merely expressed
interest in symbiotic techniques. That was a conscious decision made for a
very clear reason.
"Is the Symbiotic Sect thinking what I'm thinking?" He wondered out loud.
It was far from a secret that Rui's mental parameters were far above baseline
Martial Apprentices with the same amount of experience and time in the
Apprentice Realm as him. The Martial Academy had carefully recorded and
documented his feats and oddities.
If Squire Grillogan had the authority to look into the data the Martial
Academy had on him, then Rui could see why this particular Symbiote had
been put to his attention.
If it really took someone like Rui to succeed in mastering the Mindmirror

Symbiote then there were probably no Martial Apprentices in the Kandrian
Empire who had mastered the Mindmirror Symbiote.
Rui pondered the matter carefully. The benefits and demerits were extremely
clear.
If he mastered the symbiote, the viability issue of the VOID algorithm would
not only be completely and entirely gone, but his mastery of it would
skyrocket. The sheer amount of information he would be able to promise
would be far greater than he currently was able to.
His current usage of the VOID algorithm was just barely satisfactory as far as
proficiency went. The Mind Palace technique allowed him to store and
process data at a far higher rate than would normally, especially with his
mastery of it. But now, he could become incredibly masterful in his execution
of the VOID algorithm. His overall combat prowess would skyrocket.
If he mastered this technique, he could very well become the strongest

Martial Apprentice in the entirety of the Kandrian Empire.
The downsides were that his mind would be taxed more, understandably so.
It would be receiving a constant influx of neuron impulses from the
secondary lobe of the Mindmirror Symbiote and would need to process that.
"My rate of mastery of techniques would reduce," Rui murmured unhappily.
The brain needed an increased amount of sleep due to the burden that the
symbiote placed on it. Even if that wasn't the case for Rui due to his brain's
superhumanly high mental capacity, he strongly suspected that he wouldn't be
able to use potions to gain an extraordinary amount of training time.
His brain could either handle the symbiote, or the strain of no sleep for long
periods.
But even his incredible brain and mind likely would not be able to handle
both burdens at the same time. Which meant he would only be able to choose
one of the two.
If he chose the symbiote, his training speed would no longer be

extraordinary. If he wanted to retain his training speed, then he would not be
able to obtain the symbiote.
Chapter 359 Options
He put aside the matter for now. He didn't need to make the decision
immediately. It was not an easy choice and it was one he needed to make
after careful consideration of the consequences. For now, he wanted to
proceed with going through the rest of the intrinsic Martial Art techniques.
[Opticorb Symbiote
Grade: 9
Difficulty grade: 8
The Opticorb Symbiote is a symbiote that enters the body through the air as a
larva before entering the bloodstream. Once in the body, it travels to one of
the eyeballs and begins consuming it in a slow process, breaking down the
cells and tissues into nutrients and building blocks for a new eyeball. The
new eyeball, when completed, connects to the optical nerve and serves as the
new eye for the host. The new eye has extreme physical parameters. It is able
to cleanly perceive phenomena kilometers away as well as microscopic
phenomena. Its field of vision is a perfect 360 degrees. It also provides the
user with heat sense as well as numerous newer forms of perceptions that
allow the user to gain an extremely thorough understanding of the
environment.
Its downsides are that it produces a much higher mental burden not only due
to the additional link to the brain but due to the far higher influx of sensory
information from the symbiotic eye into the brain. The incapability of
withstanding the burden will eventually lead to strokes and seizures.]
Rui's eyes widened in interest. This was certainly a remarkably alluring

symbiote as a potential option to explore. Powerful sensory prowess would
certainly benefit him on his missions, that was certainly true. Although
Seismic Mapping and Primordial Instinct were just fine, having the symbiote
would boost his environmental awareness by leaps and bounds.
His reconnaissance capabilities would skyrocket significantly. If he had had

this ability in his missions, most of them would have succeeded with far
greater ease and simplicity.
He kept a note of it as he skimmed through a few more.
[Grinwich Nervesprouter Louse
Grade: 9
Difficulty grade: 8
The Grinwich Nervesprouter Louse was a symbiote that consumed and

replaced the entire nervous system of the host with a far superior nervous
system with a much greater amount of speed and control than ordinary
nervous systems of vertebrae creatures. Downsides include a standard
amount of mental and physical strain.]
Rui nodded, considering it. It was certainly alluring but it didn't really
provide him with something that would truly be of use to his Martial Path or
his Martial Art.
He skimmed through all of them one by one. Although there were many
alluring and compelling options, none of them truly uniquely benefitted his
Martial Art with great compatibility.
He sighed.
By the time he reached the end of the list, none had struck him quite as the
Mindmirror Symbiote did. Yet it was also one of the most treacherous
options at hand.
Furthermore, it was yet another either or option in this scenario as well. He

would not be able to take any other symbiote if he chose the Mindmirror
Symbiote. He would not be able to choose the Mindmirror Symbiote if he
chose any other Symbiote.
The reason for this was rather simple, the Mindmirror Symbiote would likely
be far too mentally strenuous for his mind to possibly accommodate any
other symbiote. This assumed his mind could even handle the Mindmirror
Symbiote in the first place. If it couldn't, then there was no conversation to be
had at all.
"I need to learn more about the Mindmirror Symbiote." Rui murmured. He
was on the cusp of entering his next training stage. He did not want to be
delayed too much longer, he already had ideas of what he wanted for the
other techniques he would be mastering.
He immediately pulled out his communication device and sent a message to

Squire Grillogan requesting more elaborate information on the technique.
He wasn't surprised that the information had arrived within the day.
He opened the document that had been sent to him by Squire Grillogan. The
document was actually a compilation of research data on the effects of the
Mindmirror Symbiote. The document detailed the exact consequences
thoroughly, demonstrating the consequences of the Mindmirror Symbiote on
ordinary test subjects.
It had even documented the failures of the Martial Apprentices who had
chosen to try and tame the symbiote.
Rui had to admit, the data was intimidating. However, he was surprised to
find out that there was one recorded success of mastery over the techniques.
A Martial Apprentice called Valem Deen had once successfully mastered the
symbiote. Valem was a prodigious genius with an extraordinary mind. With
an extremely high recorded IQ and several other feats, his success had
demonstrated that only a host with remarkable mental parameters and a high
affinity could possibly master the technique.
Rui understood why the Symbiotic Sect had shown him the Mindmirror
Symbiote. Rui's enhanced mind had gone far from unnoticed; they had not
only noticed it but also found a powerful symbiote that only someone like
himself would likely have a reasonable chance of mastering.
Of course, Rui was not foolish enough to believe that they were doing this
out of philanthropy. He could see their motivations and intentions as clearly
as day. By having a Martial Apprentice of his caliber master a grade-ten
symbiote, it would likely increase the political capital the Symbiotic Sect had.
Especially if Rui began dominating his peers if he mastered the symbiote. It
would also be the most powerful technique in his Martial Art and, in their
eyes, increased the probability of Rui joining the Symbiotic Sect.
If he failed, then at the very least the other Martial Sects would not gain a
powerful Martial Apprentice who clearly had a bright future ahead of him.
Perhaps, this was a tad bit too pessimistic and paranoid, but Rui did not
believe the truth was too different.
Still, as long as the information was legitimate, playing along may very well
be his best choice.
Chapter 360 Unorthodox
He wanted to get the perspective of someone reliable before he made a

decision on the information. He would feel far more confident if someone
reliable and trustworthy reaffirmed the information. There was a very high
chance that the decision he made would, at the very least in part, shape the
rest of his Martial Path. He could not afford to take any chances.
"And that's the reason I wanted to consult you, headmaster Aronian." Rui told
him.
Rui had visited headmaster Aronian.
"Hmmmm..." he stroked his beard as he held the document that Rui had
shown him. "There's nothing wrong or misleading here."
"I see, thank you." Rui nodded.
"But still, the Symbiotic Sect. It seems that even the unorthodox Sects have
gone out of their way to seek you after the staggering results you produced a
month ago." The headmaster mused with a knowing tone.
Rui wasn't surprised he had found out. It was clear that the news was not
something that could be hidden, given the number of people who seemed to
have found out. He was more curious about the phrase that headmaster
Aronian used.
"Unorthodox Sects?" Rui asked, curious. "What are those?"
"That's just a colloquial and informal phrase used to refer to Sects centered
around Martial Art techniques that are unusual, strange, or esoteric in some
manner." The headmaster explained. "Martial Sects like the Poison Sect, the
Symbiotic Sect, and even the Weapon Sect fall under this broad category."
"Even the Weapon Sect is considered unorthodox?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"Of course." Headmaster Aronian nodded. "How many Martial Artists

wielding weapons do you see?"
"Very few." Rui admitted. He had seen a handful here and there and some in
the Martial Festival nearly a year ago. "Why is that there are so few weapon-
oriented Martial Artists?"
This was an oddity about the world that Rui had shrugged off but never dug
too much deeper into. However, since then he had come to learn a lot more
about the world and also much more about Martial Art from an
anthropological perspective.
The oddity of the high scarcity of weapons was much more confusing than it
was before.
"It's due to a combination of factors." Headmaster Aronian replied. "One of

the biggest reasons is simply because there are far fewer Martial Artists
whose Martial Path is weapon-centric. That's also partly why the Sect falls
under the category of Unorthodox Sects. There are simply fewer Martial
Artists whose Martial Path involves weapons."
"But why is that the case?" Rui asked. "Is it because of the overwhelmingly
greater number of conventional unarmed techniques compared to armed
techniques?"
"No, not quite." The headmaster shook his head. "The availability of
techniques at the juncture of the Exploration Stage does not influence the
Martial Path. The Martial Path is already set by that point, one needs to only
discover it to become a Martial Apprentice. The reason there are so few
weapon-centric Martial Artists is not because of the availability of
techniques, but rather because weapon mastery is fundamentally and
inherently deviant from the natural application of human prowess."
"Huh?" Rui tilted his head in confusion.
"Let me explain." The headmaster told him. "The frequency of occurrence of

a certain type of Martial Art centered around a field depends on how much of
inherent human capability the field primarily makes use of. Fields that make
use of natural human capability primarily are more common Martial Paths
than those that don't. Take, for example, a simple striking Martial Art. This
Martial Path is strongly centered around natural human capability; the
infliction of damage via the swinging of one's limbs. It's a very primal
application of the human body in combat. Then look at Martial Paths
centered around more esoteric fields like symbiotes, weapons, and poison. Do
you see the difference?"
"I see..." Rui pondered aloud. "Because the convention unarmed Martial Art
are closer to the natural application of the human body, they're more common
consequently."
"That's right." Headmaster Aronian. "It isn't exactly clear why, but there is a
clear difference in the frequencies of occurrence of certain fields as Martial
Paths depend on how close they are to the most natural application of the
human body. That's why offensive, defensive, and maneuvering are the most
common Martial Paths. They're absolutely fundamental to the natural
application of the human body. Poison is quite unnatural and artificial in that
it requires the introduction of foreign substances into the human body to
function. The same is even more true for symbiotic Martial Art. Weapon-
centric Martial Art are also in the same predicament, albeit to a lesser degree.
If the form of combat is too deviated"
"I see..." Rui nodded. This did indeed match up with his own observations of
the Martial Paths he had come across. All-rounders, offensive, defensive, and
maneuvering Martial Artists were certainly the most common types of
Martial Art he had run into. "What about the other reasons?"
"There are economical and logistical constraints to weapon-oriented Martial

Art that most other Martial Art generally do not suffer from." Headmaster
Aronian replied. "For example, the weapons in question need to be able to
bear the entirety of the power of the Martial Apprentice. You understand how
tall an order that is, correct?"
Rui nodded in response. Martial Apprentices generated a tremendous amount

of power. For weapons to be viable, they needed to be able to withstand that
power for extended periods of time without breaking. For bladed weapons
such as swords and knives, all of that power would be focused through an
extraordinarily tiny segment of the sword. The material needed to be durable
enough such that even a small portion of it needed to be able to withstand the
power without breaking or deforming in even the slightest.
In other words, the material's tensile strength needed to exceed the

Apprentice Realm significantly.
"There certainly are esoteric metals, compounds, and ores that can withstand
the power of a Martial Apprentice. However, the supply cannot meet the
demands to supply all or even most Martial Apprentices with weapons. At
higher Martial Realms, the supply only grows scarcer and scarcer relative to
the population of Martial Artists." Headmaster Aronian replied.
"Perhaps it is more viable at the Apprentice Realm, but it becomes

increasingly difficult for Martial Artists of higher Realms." Headmaster
Aronian explained. "Martial Squires exert an enormous amount of force. Yet
even they are akin to children before the might of Martial Seniors. The gap in
power between the two Realms is as large as that of the gap between the
Apprentice Realm. And above that Realm lies the Martial Master Realm.
Martial Masters such as myself are capable of exerting titanic amounts of
force far beyond anything you could even close to beginning to fathom."
He paused. "Of course, I am merely a retired old man who is far weaker than
I was in my prime. Who knows? perhaps even you can defeat me, hohoho."
He chuckled mirthfully.
Rui's eyebrow twitched at those words. Even though headmaster Aronian

restricted the pressure his mind exerted, even the tiniest shreds of the weight
of his mind were enough to strain Rui. There wasn't the faintest doubt in the
latter's mind that headmaster Aronian could erase every trace of his existence
with the slightest bit of exertion.
"But you get the point." Headaster Aronian continued. "It's highly resource-
intensive. Not only that but forging a weapon of enough quality to be worthy
of a Martial Artist requires among the most skilled blacksmiths. However, the
incredible toughness of the materials needed to forge the weapons is
incredibly high. This means that the forging process is extremely difficult.
Forging even a single weapon requires a massive amount of heat and
powerful esoteric technology. The same is true for maintenance. It's an
extremely expensive endeavor."
"I see..." Rui nodded. This made a lot of sense, it perfectly explained why
weapon usage was common among humans, but not among Martial Artists.
"Thank you for your explanations, Headmaster Aronian."
"Hoho, not at all." Headmaster Aronian. "Is there anything else you came to
see me for?"
"No, this was all. Sorry for taking your time. I'll take my leave then." Rui
said, bowing deeply.
"Mmm." He nodded. "You're at a crucial stage in your Martial Path. Soon,

this Academy will no longer be able to be worthy of you, you will begin your
life as an independent Martial Artist. You have important decisions ahead of
you. More than anything, make sure you stay true to your Martial Path at the
end of the day."
"Yes headmaster," Rui affirmed. "Thank you."
He turned around and left the office.
The doors closed behind him as he headed towards the Apprentice library.
('Stay true to your Martial Path.') He repeated in his mind.
Which of the two choices was truer to his Martial Path? A path of speedy
mastery of techniques, or a path that empowered the very core of his Martial
Art that he had spent two lives working on?
In reality, the answer was always obvious. He was just extremely reluctant to
part with the remarkable advantages that his training speed had due to his
extreme tolerance for sleeplessness.
But anything pertaining to the VOID algorithm was more important to him.
Especially a technique that could potentially allow him to use it with absolute
perfection and excellence.
Its difficulty was certainly extremely high, but he demonstrably had the tools
to overcome it. As long as he did everything he could, the probability that
something would go wrong wasn't too high.
He brought out his communication device, sending a message to Squire

Grillogan, informing him of his decision.
"This will be the last training stage where I retain my growth speed
advantage." Rui murmured with a tinge of resignation. "I really have to make
the most of it."
It was the same mindset one had when stocking up as much discounted food
as possible before the prices went back to normal.
Just then, he reached the Apprentice Library, sighing.
('This will probably be the last time enter the Apprentice library of the
Martial Academy.') He mused. He was pretty certain about this. Regardless
of whether he became a Squire Candidate from this training stage or not, he
would be leaving the Academy. It had begun to feel like a dull shackle that
no longer provided him with much more utility. He yearned to be
independent once more after getting rid of the debt he had incurred from his
time at the Academy.
"Time for my final training stage at the Martial Academy." Rui murmured,
walking in. The Apprentice library was now an extremely familiar place to
him.
('Now then.') He wondered. ('What to pick?')
He hadn't entirely made his mind up. Though he was sure about the avenues
of his Martial Art that he most certainly did not want to train.
('My physical parameters are quite solid from the last training stage.') He
mused. ('I gain more from broadening my Martial Art allowing me to
increase the number of Martial Art I can adapt to. That is my Martial Path,
after all.')
Rui knew that there were still Martial Art out there that he was not fully
capable of adapting to. He was more interested in targeting those than ones
he was already fully capable of adapting to. That would mean he would need
to diversify his capabilities to a certain extent.
To a certain extent, he was quite excited about this training stage, he would
be gaining a large sum of new capabilities, or at the very least, that was what
he would be aiming for.
('Now then.') He wondered. ('Where should I start?')
He glanced over to a particular section in the library.
The mental technique section. It was the same section where he had gotten
the Mind Palace technique, which was the single most revolutionary
technique that he had ever mastered in his entire life.
('If I'm going to start somewhere, why don't I go with techniques that I'm
quite compatible with?') His eyes lit up in eagerness. The mental section had
given him a gem last time, perhaps it would give him another this time as
well.
('Doesn't hurt to look.') He shrugged.

Chapter 362 Mental
If he could diversify his Martial Art while also learning techniques he had an
incredible amount of compatibility with. This would allow him to master
higher-quality techniques with much less effort compared to normal
techniques of the same amount of power.
Once he reached the mental section, he took a good long look at the
techniques. He recalled running into many of the techniques he was seeing.
In his previous training stage, he had given all of them a glance, however,
dismissed them because he was looking for something very specific. Back
then, he was looking for a mental technique that could help him use the
pattern adaptation system of the VOID algorithm revolving around the
predictive and adaptive evolution models.
Now, he had approached them with a significantly different mindset. He

wanted something that give him additional capability rather than augmenting
existing capabilities. It was the exact opposite mindset to the one had last
time.
He began seeing techniques he didn't pay much attention to before.
His eyes fell on something interesting.
[Mind Mask]
('Interesting...') He thought to himself.
According to the description, the Mind Mask technique allowed the user to
alter the danger that sentient life instinctively perceived from the user by an
application of self-hypnosis. This could be used to increase the amount of
danger felt or also to decrease the amount of danger felt by the user. It could
be used as a strategic deterrence via a bluff of being even stronger than one
actually was to lower one's guard by appearing harmless despite being a
Martial Apprentice.
At higher levels, it could be used to hinder an opponent by inducing an

immense amount of fear and paranoia, causing one's opponent to perform
sub-optimally. Mastering it to this degree was anywhere between a grade
eight or nine as far as difficulty went.
The difficulty the user would experience with this technique was entirely
dependent on the prowess of their visual imagination. It was not
recommended to those Martial Apprentices with poor visual imagination, for
the proficiency likely to be attained would be quite poor.
It was a strange technique where both the potency and difficulty grades of the
technique were in flux and were entirely dependent on the mental prowess of
the user.
Rui sighed.
The technique was almost calling out to him. How could he possibly toss out
a technique of that kind with his circumstances?
"Alright fine." He picked up the scroll, putting it in his pouch.
He had to admit, he was eager to see how potent the technique would end up
being in his hands. If his estimations weren't wrong, he would get to witness
something truly amazing by the time he came around to mastering the
technique.
He walked around, looking for something interesting and new. Mental

techniques were so compatible with him that he was willing to train another
one as long as it was worth it.
"Hm?" His eyes fell on something interesting.
[Mind Switch]
This was a grade-three training technique that would condition the mind and
brain to trigger certain mental and neurological phenomena when the user
took certain physical stances by creating associations between the targeted
neurological phenomena.
This training technique could allow the user to enter into a calm and rational
state of mind when the user performed the trigger stance that the desired calm
and rational state of mind is strongly associated with the particular stance.
The user could program multiple trigger stances for multiple different states
of mind. This would allow the user to operate under a desired state of mind at
any point.
"This is association therapy." His eyes lit up with interest.
Association in the psychology of Earth referred to a mental connection

between concepts, events, or mental states that usually stems from specific
experiences. Association therapy was a form of treatment that applied this
mental trait to treat and often even cure mental disorders.
"To think it could be elevated to an Apprentice-level technique that could be

applied in combat." He murmured, before glancing back at the technique and
shaking his head. It was a nice technique with practical utility but he had no
real need of it as far as he was concerned. It was a very low-grade technique
and something meant to help newbie Martial Apprentices retain their
calmness and rationality instead of being hindered and shackled with fear. It
wasn't really something that offered him something new. He had always
managed to retain his wits even in despairing scenarios
Just as he walked away, he froze, before slowly turning back to the

technique. "Wait... it can trigger any neurological phenomenon?"
He grabbed the technique reading the description again as his eyes lit up in
interest. An incredible idea popped into his head.
"If I use this technique correctly... It could help me mitigate some of the
constraints of the Squire Realm!" He realized.
Triggering neurological phenomena at will was something that could be

abused and exploited to produce significant results.
('The Kandrian Empire does not know as much about human anatomy as I
do.') He realized. ('That's why they didn't come up with the idea that I just
did.')
He realized he had made a discovery of potentially incredible significance. If

he was not wrong, this technique could make his journey to the Squire Realm
a lot smoother and beneficial!
He glanced back at the technique. In its current state, it wasn't useful to him,
therefore he didn't need to waste a slot of his final accelerated training stage
on it. It would only be useful at a much later date.
He turned around walking away from the mental techniques section with a
wide grin on his face.
He had one more reason to look forward to the day he became a Squire
candidate.
But for now, he needed to get some techniques to master in the immediate
training stage. He had already chosen the Mindmirror Symbiote as well as the
Mind Mask technique. He had already reserved a spot for yet another mental
technique in the future.
He intended to purchase some physical techniques for the remaining slots.

Chapter 363 Choices
"I should purchase techniques that will allow me to deal with things I
currently can't deal with." He murmured. As far as missions went, he was
incompetent at shadow-class missions and sub-par as far as hunter-class
missions went.
He had long wanted to do something about that, but each time a training stage
came around, there was always something or the other of greater importance.
Finally, he was at a stage where he could pursue it straightforwardly.
"Alright, time to nail these two issues," Rui murmured as he walked over to
the stealth section of the Apprentice Library. It wasn't his first time going for
a stealth technique, he had purchased Blink, after all. The problem was that
Blink was highly limited.
For starters, it was beginning to become obsolete at the higher echelons of the
Apprentice Realm as Martial Apprentices tended to have naturally strong
senses and many of them did have sensory techniques as well. He needed to
use it extremely carefully else it could actually turn out to be detrimental to
him.
Furthermore, as a stealth technique, it only worked to evade human evasion

when there were few humans. It was impossible to use Blink to bypass even
decent surveillance.
He didn't hold it against the technique, of course. The technique had served
him well and had saved him in truly desperate situations, but it was no longer
adequate.
"Alright then," He murmured. "Let's see what we have here."

There were plenty of techniques that boosted stealth, but what he was looking
for was a high-grade technique that wholistically gave him stealth. He
glanced over at a technique that caught his eye.
[Dead Step]
A technique that allowed the user to avoid the production of noise in the air
by manipulating air via a coordinated breathing technique that cancels out the
sound waves in the air.
He recalled seeing this technique a year and a half ago when he had
purchased the Blink technique. However, back then he hadn't cared all that
much about the technique.
Although it was more alluring now, he still shook his head.
('I need something more potent.') He noted.
His quality standards had risen with each training stage. He wasn't interested
in learning lower-grade techniques unless there were specific reasons for it.
He skimmed through other techniques until he ran into something familiar.
[Void Step]
He sighed. Unlike with the Mindmirror Symbiote, he had almost zero talent
or compatibility with the technique, so purchasing it would be a waste of
money. It was a shame, of course. He deeply desired the prowess the
technique gave the user.
He moved on, shaking his head.
Yet, it wasn't long before another technique lit his eyes up with interest.
[Shadow Step]
A downgraded version of the Void Step technique that used maneuvering-

based misdirection to conceal and obscure one's presence to a partial degree.
It could only completely evade the senses of ordinary humans the way Void
Step did with Martial Apprentices. It was only partially effective against
Martial Apprentices under several conditions. It was less effective the closer
the surveilling Martial Apprentice target was to him, and only worked if he
was in the far peripheral ends of the target's vision. Furthermore, the
technique's effectiveness decreased the greater the sensory capabilities of the
target were.
"Nice." Rui nodded. A technique that made all human surveillance ineffective
and allowed him to bypass even Martial Artist surveillance with some
amount of effort. This technique covered his basic needs perfectly well. His
biggest issue wasn't that he didn't have extreme stealth capabilities that
allowed him to bamboozle Martial Artists the way Kane could. His biggest
problem was that he almost no viable stealth capabilities whatsoever.
The missions in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana and the Hefermaine

Village would have gone far smoother and easier if he had had this technique
back then.
Thankfully, it was a grade-seven technique. Which meant he could guarantee

that he would master it as long as he put in enough effort.
Furthermore, although the potency of the technique was grade seven, Rui
suspected his stealth would end up being greater than just what the technique
would provide him. The Mind Mask technique could allow him to
significantly lower his presence, which worked very synergically with the
Shadow Step technique that misdirected attention away from his presence.
This was especially so since Rui suspected he likely had an extremely high
compatibility with the Mind Mask technique.
He plucked the technique scroll out of the slot, inspecting it before nodding.
"Three down. Three more to go?"
He wanted to go with six techniques like last time since this would be the last
time that he would be able to train a large number of techniques at once.
"What else?" He asked himself. He had solved his stealth problem.

"That leaves the hunter-class missions." He murmured. He hadn't forgotten
about his desire to visit the Beast Domain. He had abstained from doing so
because his compatibility with hunter-class missions was much lower than it
was with missions involving humans.
However, with this training stage, his stealth would skyrocket, giving him the
qualifications to travel the dangerous ecosystems of the Beast Domain. As
long as he added solutions that were effective against Flora and Fauna, he
would be qualified to enter the Beast Domain.
"I need to be able to hurt them for sure," Rui murmured.
As far as defense went, humans were often very different from Apprentice-
level creatures. One of the biggest differences was size. Because they were
usually larger, their vitals were tucked much deeper within their body.
Vertebrae mammals had a huge amount of flesh, fat, and fur on them that
ordinary human attacks would simply not penetrate deep enough and would
be dispersed.
He could punch them over and over, but the impact would be much more
dispersed.
"I need a way to inflict damage on mammalian creatures despite that,

otherwise taking them down will be a bloody pain in the ass." He murmured.
He had already computed several potential solutions from all the Martial Art
techniques he had ever known off.
"Poison, piercing, heat, friction, and permeation are the prime candidates."
He murmured.
Poison was attractive, it inflicted damage in a manner that completely

bypassed the physical durability of the target. It didn't matter how tough one's
muscles or bones were. Poison would inflict damage all the same. However,
it was less effective the larger the target was. This was because a greater
amount of mass meant a greater number of cells that the poison had to attack.
Piercing was a solid candidate as well, but he already had the Stinger.
Although the Stinger had piercing depth limits that made it less lethal against
larger targets, Rui wasn't sure it was worth getting another technique of the
same kind. He was looking to expand the diversity of the fields his Martial
Art covered, not build up more on a single field.
Heat was certainly a potent field. Ferlicia had gone incredibly far in the
Martial Contest thanks to it. However, it had its problems. It was not a light
field to delve into and would require an immense amount before it would
become lethal to larger creatures. The size problem worked against it as well.
Friction was also a lethal field. Byron Harth had been chosen as the
representative of his Martial Academy in the Martial Contest. However, it
wasn't lethal enough to deal critical damage to mammalian creatures that had
an incredibly thick amount of flesh and fur.
"That leaves permeation," Rui noted.

Permeation was a powerful field. Rui had personally fought against Servil
Bisha who had given a long run for his money. Permeation was a field of
striking techniques that allowed an impact to permeate deeper into the body
of a target via vibrations. This allowed the power of a strike to bypass the
strong flesh, bones, and muscles of the target to a large degree and inflict on
the more vulnerable inners of the target.
It was quite perfectly suited for larger creatures. It allowed him to hurt them
with every strike and even knock them out the same way he could knock out
Martial Artists. It was perfect and especially suited to handling them. It
lacked the same level of lethality as some of the other options but gave him
more stability in his ability to hurt them.
It didn't even take him long to find a technique that suited his needs.
[Reverberating Lance]
A general formless technique that used high-level vibrations to permeate the

impact of a strike deeper into the body to inflict damage more so onto the
internal organs of the body rather than the tougher exteriors of the body.
It was a grade-seven technique, which was right at the sweet spot balance of
potency and difficulty where Rui could absolutely guarantee that he could
master it. Once he mastered that, his offensive prowess would probably
approach the level of Fae.
He grinned, eager to master the technique.
"Four down. Two more to go." He noted. "Alright then. What else should I
get?"
The past four techniques had strengthened his ability to adapt to a greater
number of opponents and also handle shadow and hunter-class missions.
"Since I'm going to be embarking on the most difficult of missions, the

danger will also be proportionally higher. I should get an endurance
technique that will increase my survivability." He realized.
He hadn't purchased even a single endurance technique to date. Part of this
was because he always had a healing potion at hand. However, not only were
his missions getting increasingly dangerous, he was undertaking a lot of
foreign missions. This meant that he was far and away from the safety nets
that the Kandrian Empire and the Martial Union gave him.
Out there, there was often no support. This was especially true in places like
the Beast Domain. Out there, he was truly on his own.
Getting a supplementary technique that could empower his endurance and

survivability could be the key difference between life and death.
"Better safe than sorry." He concluded.
He skimmed through the supplementary techniques until he ran into

something that met his needs.
[Final Breathing]
"What an ominous name." He raised an eyebrow.
It was a breathing technique that eased the pain by triggering an increased

release of hormones that allowed for the pain to be less hindering than it
normally was. It also accelerated the clotting of wounds, preventing the user
from losing much blood. It was a breathing technique that minimized the
shackles of damage as much as humanly possible and allowed the user to
operate with the best they possibly could.
It was a grade-five technique, which meant it would be quite easy to master.
"This is pretty good." Rui nodded. He plucked the technique out of the slot
and placed it in his pouch.
"One last technique." He mused. "What should I get?"
He had no idea. He strolled around the miscellaneous section aimlessly until

he ran into a rather bizarre Martial Art technique. In all the time he had spent
in the Academy, it certainly was one of the most unique techniques.
[Fauna Flow]
This was a technique that allowed Martial Apprentices to be able to

communicate with the more intelligent creatures of the animal kingdom!
Rui raised his eyes in wonder.
Intelligent creatures often communicated via a form of non-verbal language

since they certainly hadn't learned any human language. This allowed humans
to be able to engage in the same kind of non-verbal language, effectively
allowing humans to communicate with these creatures.
Rui found this technique fascinating. Yet at the same time, it wasn't as absurd
as it initially came off. Research on Earth in the field of human behavioral
science had shown that more than half of communication was inherently non-
verbal. If that was the case, Rui could certainly see how that could inherently
become the single form of communication between intelligent species who
didn't have any other means of high-level communication with each other.
Chapter 365 Trainings
Rui was highly curious about what communication with intelligent creatures
of other species was like.
But he was conflicted. It wasn't a combat-oriented technique, which meant it

wouldn't make him stronger in combat or even increase his ability to
complete missions. The only thing it would do was allow him to
communicate with animals.
Yet, despite this, he really felt the urge to master the technique.
"Hmmm..." He had a complicated expression on his face.
After a bit, he finally decided to go on with it.
"Screw it. It's my Martial Art, I get to do with it what I want." He

rationalized, trying to make himself feel better about his decision. "I bet there
are some missions centered around the ability with the ability to
communicate with the more intelligent life forms."
He grabbed the scroll for the technique before plopping it into his pouch.
With this, he had selected all six techniques for his next training stage;
Mindmirror Symbiote.
Mind Mask.
Shadow Step.
Reverberating Lance.
Final Breathing.
Fauna Flow.
These would be the six techniques that he had chosen to master. Each of the
six techniques expanded his capabilities significantly, which had been the
general goal of the upcoming training stage. The most immediate goal was to
reach Squire candidacy, which could only be done once his Martial Art
matured, fulfilling the second condition of Squire candidacy.
This was the reason he had gone on to expand his capabilities. He knew his
Martial Art wouldn't reach a certain degree of maturity until he expanded its
capabilities to a certain extent. Since it was meant to be an all-encompassing
broad Martial Art in its ideal state.
He quickly headed over to the registrar of the library before purchasing all
five of the scrolls. The sixth technique was something that he would be
getting from the Martial Union directly. The Martial Academy was not
equipped with the means to handle the Mindmirror Symbiote implantation.
Even if it was, he would rather get the procedure managed by the Symbiotic
Sect in the Martial Union who were the specialists surrounding the matter.
Once he purchased all five techniques, he took a seat at one of the tables
before going through the training regime of each technique with great
interest.
The Mind Mask technique had a training system that was quite interesting,
yet it didn't deviate much from his expectations. It was training centered
around meditation and thought processes that allowed the conscious mind to
influence the subconscious mind to a certain degree. Initially, the process of
self-hypnosis was quite long.
It would take hours for the user to first prime his own mind and set it in the
right state via meditation. Once that occurred, the user needed to exercise
imagination to create an image of themselves that diverged from reality as far
as dangerousness and presence went. The technique worked by using well-
defined imagination to substitute reality such that the subconscious mind
responded to the imagination as though it were reality.
This raised the sense of danger that one could perceive from the user of the
technique. The effectiveness and difficulty of the technique depended on the
prowess of the imagination of the user and the amount of concentration the
user could gather. It was a mentally demanding and taxing technique.
Perfect for Rui. The best part about the technique was that the technique had
no upper limits inherently. Its only upper limits were the limits of the mind of
the user of the technique.
It took a greater amount of imagination to construct an image the more the

image deviated from reality. Since the user would have to rely more and more
on imagination and less and less on the experience of what was real and
actual.
Rui looked forward to the training of the technique.
He quickly opened up the other scrolls, going through them one by one.
"Interesting." He murmured.
The Shadow Step technique was certainly different and difficult. The
technique definitely had a mental aspect to it as it required the understanding
of how attention and awareness functioned, but beyond that, it was a rather
brute-force technique with repetitive practice on the right forms and the right
timing and placement of movements to engage in misdirection.
But at the core of the technique, the technique function by swiftly moving in
the opposite direction that the attention of the user was being misdirected.
The misdirection was integrated into the movements and had the same
elements that people's movements had when their attention truly was on
something in the opposite direction of their movements, like something
chasing them.
The difference was when a Martial Apprentice with a superhuman brain and
mind performed the same technique, it was much more effective because of
the higher precision and accuracy of the maneuvers needed to draw attention
away.
"It's not going to be easy to master this." He shook his head, before moving
on to the other techniques.
The Reverberating Lance was an even more straightforward technique. The

frequency at which a human being could vibrate their limbs was limited due
to a neurological limit to the speed at which the human brain processed
information and made decisions.
Because that limit was far higher for Martial Apprentices, the limit of the
speed at which muscles could be vibrated was also much higher. However,
that limit could not simply be attained, it could only be attained after
immense practice.
The Reverberating Lance applied that to train the Martial Apprentice to

vibrate their muscles at extremely high speeds and used that permeate an
impact beyond just the outer skin, flesh, and muscles to the weaker and more
vital organs within mammalian creatures.
Since it was a grade-seven technique, he wouldn't be pushed to the very

absolute limit of vibration he could physiologically dish out, but he certainly
would be pushed quite far along the way. Furthermore, he would have to train
it for every muscle group so that he could engage in the permeation of an
impact regardless of how it was dished out.
Chapter 366 Regimes
The technique whose training he found quite interesting was that of the Fauna
Flow technique. It required him to master non-verbal communication. It was
like learning a new language, except it had universal rules that could be
reverse-engineered and followed. What really helped about the language was
that the Mind Palace technique could greatly aid in the learning of the
technique.
Once Rui was done understanding the training procedures of each of the
techniques, he immediately headed out to the training facilities for each
technique.
"How many techniques is it this time?" Squire Dylon asked, before pausing.
"No, wait, let me guess. Five? Six?"
"Six." Rui confirmed.
"Of course it's six." He snorted. "Well, what technique is it this time?"
"Reverberating Lance." Rui raised the scroll.
"Good pick." He admitted. "Good technique. Allows you to take down things
far bigger and tougher than you. You've memorized the training regime,
right?"
"Yep."
"Alright. Let's get started then."
The training regime designed by the Martial Academy for the training of the
vibrational capabilities needed for the technique was quite fascinating. It
relied on a body suit that covered every inch of the body except for the head.
The body suit was actually a piece of technology with the ability to vibrate
any and all parts of the body suit in any direction, as controlled by a remote
device. The Martial Artist needed to wear the body suit with the aim of
negating and canceling the vibrations produced by the suit with the
oscillations of one's own movements. Thus, if the suit vibrated the hand, the
Martial Artist was to vibrate their arm in the opposite directions such that
there were no net vibrations left because the two vibrations canceled each
other.
The difficulty of the exercise rose when the frequency and speed of the
vibrations also increased, requiring even greater vibrations from the user.
Every time the user grew fully comfortable with a certain frequency and
speed, the difficulty would be increased by one percent. Over the span of a
few months, the net growth in the speed and frequency would grow well past
human limitations.
Then the next phase of the training stage would teach the Martial Artist how
to apply the vibration in the correct manner to permeate the impacts of strikes
deeper into the body. It required accurate timing and placement of the
vibrations, otherwise, the impact would simply not permeate well.
"Alright, the suit is adjusted." Squire Dylon remarked. "Let's get started with
some basic arm vibrations at low setting."
Dylon fiddled with a device to get the suit vibrating. Rui quickly reacted
before vibrating in the opposite direction, canceling out the vibrations and
causing his arm to go still.
The difficulty increased progressively until Rui was no longer able to cancel
them out.
"Alright, this is your limit, we'll stop here until you're able to cancel
vibrations of this level."
A few hours quickly passed by.
"Damn." Rui muttered, rubbing his sore arm. "I couldn't get any higher."
"It's your first day." Squire Dylon replied, shrugging. "It's to be expected."
Once he was done with experiencing the training regime for the
Reverberating Lance technique, he quickly moved to the training facilities for
all the remaining techniques.
At the end of twenty hours, he was finally done with five of the techniques he
had purchased.
"Maaan that was exhausting." He fell back into bed.
Part of it was because these techniques were all quite different from what he
was normally accustomed to. Since he had gone out of his way to train with
techniques that gave him brand-new capabilities that he didn't really possess
before. Of course, some were easier while others were harder. Even though
three of the five techniques were of the same difficulty grade, it didn't mean
they were identical. The difficulty grades were a bit broad after all,
furthermore, the compatibility of the techniques with the user mattered a lot.
Rui had a lot of fun with the Mind Mask technique. He had actually raced
through the initial stage of the training at an incredible pace. Completing days
worth of progress in the span of a single session. It didn't even feel like
training. The way in which he was able to exercise his imagination to create
the necessary images with the necessary amount of detail and consistency
was something that had fascinated the Squire Instructor of the mental
techniques training facility.
Still, it wasn't necessarily unexpected, Rui had shown incredible

compatibility with mental techniques before when he mastered the Mind
Palace technique to a basic mastery level in record time and then went on to
elevate his mastery of the technique to a level that had simply never been
reached before.
The Mind Mask training didn't even feel like training, it was just fun. He left
the training stage regretful that he couldn't remain any longer.
He had other techniques to attend to, unfortunately.

"The Shadow Step was also smooth, much easier than I expected." He noted.
The technique was mentally demanding after it was maneuvering-demanding.
To an extent, Rui was also compatible with the technique.
The third easiest technique was Flow Fauna, which also required high
cognitive capabilities to an extent. "It's just like learning another language."
He remarked.
Final Breathing was the second hardest technique of the five after the
Reverberating Lance technique. Even though its difficulty grade was lower,
he had no special compatibility with the technique, which meant he had to
slog it out the hard way.
"But the most difficult of them all is yet to come." Rui murmured.
He had yet to begin with the Mindmirror Symbiote implantation. It was a

grade-ten Symbiote as far as difficulty went, and the only reason he had the
courage to take on the Symbiote was that he had proof that he was qualified
to at least attempt undertaking the Symbiote. If it wasn't for his high
compatibility with it, trying to master the technique was pure suicide.
Literally. And despite his compatibility, he would need to be extremely
careful with the technique.
Chapter 367 Final Technique
"Purpose of visit?" The guard at the main gate of the Martial Union asked,
inspecting his learner's Martial license.
"Purchase of technique," Rui replied, before proceeding to fill in a bit of

paperwork needed to enter the building.
Once he was in, he immediately headed for the symbiotic facility.
The Martial Union was even larger than the Martial Academy as it catered to
not just far more missions, but also far more Martial Artists. Furthermore, the
needs of Martial Artists were often greater than that of Martial Apprentices,
thus a greater amount of space was inevitably required.
It took him a while until he reached the facility he was looking for.
"Ah, Apprentice Quarrier." A staff member nodded. "You do have an

appointment scheduled for a symbiotic procedure. Please make your way to
operating room fifty-one."
She handed him a receipt for the purchase of the Mindmirror Symbiote as
well as its procedure. It was much more expensive than Rui had expected, but
thankfully he had earned a heft amount in the last month as well as the
months prior. He was able to afford it.
"Apprentice Quarrier." A medical staff approached him after a bit of waiting

in the designated room. "The procedure is ready. Please come this way, sir."
There were a few nurses and as well as a doctor, who welcomed him with a
smile. "I am doctor Heela, I will be leading and overseeing the procedure. I
believe you have been briefed on the procedure you will undergoing today?"
"I have." Rui nodded. He had taken the liberty to completely familiarize
himself with the process.
The implantation of the Mindmirror Symbiote was not a simple quick

procedure, much to Rui's chagrin. Most Symbiotes normally took an
extended period of time to fully grow and develop to maturity from the time
of the implantation into the host. That process was normally highly
accelerated with esoteric biotechnology such as potions made from esoteric
substances and compounds that accelerated the growth of the symbiote as
well as rejuvenating and nutritional potions that quickly supplied the
symbiotes with a large amount of sustenance needed to sustain the
accelerated growth of the symbiote.
However, that unfortunately could only be done to a highly limited degree

with the Mindmirror Symbiote as an extremely accelerated process was too
harsh on the brain of the host, and would likely cause brain damage.
Furthermore, the development of the Mindmirror Symbiote was not simple
inherently, and thus prolonging it more than normal to a certain degree was a
cautious measure.
The symbiote larva would first be injected into the bloodstream at a particular
point in the circulatory system and would enter the brain. This part was the
first procedure that required thorough medical supervision and potential
intervention during the bonding between the symbiote larva and the brain.
Once the symbiote successfully formed the initial bond with the brain, it
would latch onto the occipitotemporal artery and vein to gain access to fresh
blood in order to obtain the oxygen and other nutrients it needed to survive
while also extracting the genetic information of the host. It would then
undergo the growth phase, slowly expanding in volume, forming a small
mass of interconnected human neurons underneath the brain and above the
internal skull plates.
It would take a few days for the symbiotic brain mass to fully grow. The
symbiote would need to slowly siphon energy nutrients and other compounds
needed to reproduce more neurons.
When the secondary brain was developed was when the grade-ten difficulty
of the technique would occur. The symbiote would begin the secondary
bonding process between the secondary brain and the host's brain. Neurons of
the secondary brain would branch out and latch onto open-ended neurons,
forming connections with the host's brain.
And that was when the initial takeover process would begin while the bond
was still in flux and not yet stabilized. It was akin to a virus; it was capable of
corrupting the host's brain despite not being conscious or sentient. If the
symbiote succeeded in taking over the brain, the host consciousness would be
usurped. However, the host merely needed to resist until the secondary bond
matured. Once that happened, the symbiote will have fully matured and its
relationship with the host would be permanently unchangeable.
Only then would the implantation of the symbiote be considered a success.

However, that was just the beginning as far as mastery of the symbiote went.
The mental strain wouldn't begin immediately, it would begin once the
secondary bond deepened and greater exchanges of information occurred that
the brain was not supposed to deal with, putting an unnatural strain on it.
After that, it would take some time before the user obtained basic proficiency
of the symbiote. The symbiote functioned like an extra-connected processor.
It would not boost general cognitive phenomena and processes or massively
boost his IQ, but it could process massive amounts of information in ways
that he wanted to after a certain amount of training.
The secondary brain was like a high-speed processor hooked up to the brain.
It was a blank slate that could be 'programmed' to process different kinds of
information in different ways as per the user's wish via certain techniques.
This allowed the user to pawn off time-consuming thought processes and
calculations to the secondary brain which would process it much quicker than
he would because it didn't have any other cognitive processes ongoing inside.
It truly functioned more akin to a computer rather than a conscious organ.
Rui could program heightened reflexes, speedy calculations, and other

neurological phenomena that his consciousness would be forced to do by
itself. The secondary brain could process the information parallelly with his
own consciousness once it had been trained to, allowing the speed at which
he completed mental tasks to skyrocket significantly!
Rui wondered how much faster his processing of the VOID algorithm would
grow. He was sure he would become so much superior with it that he would
utterly crush anything he was currently capable of with it. He needed to
contain his excitement; he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of the
medical team that would be overseeing the procedure.
Chapter 368 Time
"Good, you've understood the procedure." The doctor nodded as Rui

explained the procedure perfectly. "Have you made sure to satisfy the
conditions for being viable for the procedure? Have you consumed alcohol in
the past week?"
"No, I haven't." Rui confirmed.
"Have you consumed psychedelic drugs in the past forty days?" The doctor
asked.
"Not at all."
"Did you get two nights of natural normal sleep without having consumed
any mental rejuvenation potions?"
"I did." Rui assured.
The medical procedure required him to be awake till the procedure ended.
Being asleep increased the probability that a complication would occur. The
medical team would also be using rejuvenation potions before the secondary
bonding occurred in order to ensure he was at his peak, mentally. However,
an abuse of mental rejuvenation potions before the procedure began would
reduce the effectiveness of the mental rejuvenation potions administered to
him during the procedure, increasing the probability of failure of the
procedure.
"Good. We'll be verifying this anyway with a few quick blood tests, of
course." She smiled at him.
They quickly drew some blood with a special syringe that was able to pierce
his conditioned skin. Thankfully, the results came within an hour.
"Good news, you're fit to undergo the procedure." Doctor Heela told him.
"We'll begin shortly. We need to inject a few serums before you're ready for
the implantation."
The medical team prepared all the devices and instruments. Soon he was
injected with a few serums as promised.
"These serums are meant to ensure the initial bonding of the symbiote with
the brain goes as smoothly as possible." Doctor Leela informed him as she
injected the final one, explaining their purposes. A few minutes later, the
procedure was finally ready to begin.
A strange-looking syringe was brought and provided to doctor Heela. A spot

on his wrist was rubbed with an antibacterial as a strap was tightened to his
forearm.
"We will begin the implantation of the Mindmirror symbiote." The doctor
told him.
The thick needle of the syringe plunged past his conditioned skin painfully.
"Implantation complete. Heal the wound." Doctor Heela instructed as a nurse

duly administered a healing potion to him, to stop the bleeding and close the
wound.
They all immediately turned their attention to the projections on the screens
behind him, carefully watching it without missing a beat.
"Symbiote has entered the bonding site." Doctor Leela remarked.
Rui had no idea how they knew that, but he suspected it was likely esoteric
technology that allowed them to keep track of the symbiote via some physical
trait that made its location apparent.
Some more time passed, as Rui simply lay unmoving patiently. He had
already known it was going to be a long process and had long prepared
himself psychologically.
"Bonding process has begun." Doctor Heela noted. "Prepare the RP-154 and
HP-C16 potions."
She rattled off a few more instructions that Rui failed to comprehend. The
nurses however swiftly prepared certain potions, ready to administer them to
him the moment they were instructed to."
Rui on the other hand didn't feel a thing despite the fact that the Mindmirror
Symbiote had already bonded with his brain according to doctor Heela's
remarks. That was even scarier than if he had been able to notice it himself,
he felt.
An hour passed before he got an update on it.
"Bonding process has succeeded." The doctor nodded. "The development

phase has begun. Begin the potion administration.
They began administering Rui with potions periodically. The potions were
physical rejuvenating potions and nutrient potions, but he didn't feel all that
rejuvenated. The reason was, of course, known. All of the energy and
nutrition supplied to his body was inevitably consumed by the Mindmirror
Symbiote as it began growing in mass and volume.
"Let us know anything that you feel." Doctor Heela told him.
Rui simply nodded briefly. He found it rather amazing that he still wasn't able
to feel anything quite yet. Yet there was a technical explanation for that as
well, of course. The brain didn't have any sensory nerve endings as most
organs did, thus it could not experience the sensation of touch or pain.
Furthermore, at this stage, the Mindmirror Symbiote still had a very shallow
connection with his brain. It would take quite some time before the secondary
brain of the Mindmirror Symbiote was fully developed.
Hours passed, and the nurses and the doctor kept a thorough track of the
development stage of the Mindmirror Symbiote. The entire procedure was
supposed to take a few days. The best thing Rui could do was simply stay
awake.
Twelve hours later, the nurses rotated shifts with others, however, doctor
Heela remained as the head of the medical team responsible for his case.
A few days later, the time had come.
"Development of the secondary brain is estimated at ninety-five percent."

Doctor Heela remarked. "Place the locks and shackles.
The nurses cuffed him to the bars of the bed. They meticulously cuffed each
limb and joint at various places with thick rigid cuffs that prevented any
escape. Even his head and neck were locked tightly in place. Rui had been
informed about this detail ahead of time, so he didn't react to it. Once the
secondary brain was developed, the brain takeover process from the
Mindmirror Symbiote would begin. During that process, there was a chance
of his body going out of control wildly, hurting the people around him and
screwing the procedure.
"Ordinary steel won't be able to hold me." He told doctor Heela.
"I know." She smiled. "That's made up of peak Apprentice-level alloys. It is

able to restrain you based on the data of your physical parameters. So do not
worry."
Rui had mostly figured as much, he just wanted to make sure. A few hours
passed by and the development of the secondary brain had finally been
completed. Rui still couldn't feel a thing, but that would soon change.
"Administer the mental rejuvenation potion." The doctor instructed, before

turning towards Rui.
"This is it. Stay strong and hold on until the bond stabilizes. Good luck." The
doctor told him with a solemn tone.
Chapter 369 Clash
Rui wasn't sure what to expect, but what he went through was beyond his
expectations.
The worst part about the Mindmirror Symbiote was that the information on
the experience of having your mind invaded was scarce. The doctors could
explain the process technically, but no one could tell him what he was going
to experience inside his mind. No one could tell him that. Because no one
alive had undergone the process and survived it.
The only information was records of the recounting of Apprentice Valem

Deen, the only other confirmed and recorded Martial Apprentice to ever
master the Mindmirror Symbiote in the Kandrian Empire. His recountings of
the mental takeover phase were incoherent. He used vague flowery language
to describe it and wasn't very informative.
He had described the process as a loss of everything, including himself as he

fought a battle against the shadow of the symbiote until he finally woke up to
realize he was still alive.
Rui wasn't sure what he meant but he tried to prepare himself by at the very
least not being surprised and flustered regardless of what happened.
But he failed.
It happened out of nowhere.
His vision blackened and the world disappeared. His remaining senses were
still functioning, but he had lost his vision. Thankfully, he could still perceive
his environment perfectly with the help of his remaining senses.
But soon they dimmed quickly too.

Sense of hearing.
Sense of smell.
Touch.
He tried moving his body, but he couldn't even feel it. It was as though he
had become a ghost floating in empty darkness.
Even more passive senses like his sense of balance and time were fading as
well, bit by bit. Rui tried not to panic, his state of mind was relevant to
whether or not the process would be a success, and he knew that. Yet before
he could even fully regain his composure.
He felt something.
It was strange because all he could sense was darkness.
Yet, there was something in the darkness.
He could feel it.
Suddenly, a pair of eyes opened in front of him in the darkness.
They were inhuman. Mindless. But they stared, nonetheless.
('Is that... the symbiote?') Rui wondered with fear.
Before he could even ponder the matter, the darkness converged and gathered
around the eyes, forming a pitch-black silhouette that resembled Rui.
Rui was finally able to see with the darkness around them having suddenly
gathered into the silhouette. His eyes widened as he saw vision around him.
What shocked him was that he recognized all of the visions around him.
They were visions of when he was first diagnosed with asthama, when he
watched his first Bruce Lee movie, when he finished his degree when he
began research on combat sports and of Project Water and the VOID
algorithm, and when he died and was reborn in this world and when he
('These are my memories!') His eyes widened in shock.
Wait.
Eyes?
He glanced down in relief. His body had returned!
The shadow Rui, which had now fully formed, did not give him any time to
process his situation. It lashed out against him moving and sprinting towards
him as it launched a powerful blow.
The shock of the event hit him greater as he recognized the technique the
shadow Rui used against him.
('Flowing Canon!') He gaped, grimacing in pain.
The very last thing he came into this procedure expecting was a physical
fight. But that didn't mean he wasn't prepared for one. What shocked him,
even more, was the fact that the shadow clone of himself was using his
techniques.
He didn't understand the details of what was happening, but it was clear that
he was experiencing a dream or a psychedelic illusion of sorts.
Still. He wasn't going to not fight back. If his state of mind was vital to the
success of the procedure, then he had to go all out and fight back with
everything he had. If he could do that, he would at the very least not be
reducing the probability of the procedure being a success.
The worst part was that he had no idea how much time was left. Not only was
the time period of the mental takeover phase undetermined and variable, but
also, his sense of time was warped. He had no idea how much time had
passed since he blacked out.
This was a psychological impediment, to some degree. If he knew exactly

how long he needed to last then he would be able to mentally prepare himself
for it and build up his resolve. But this was harder to do when he didn't know
how long he needed to last. The sheer uncertainty regarding how long the
ordeal would last could drive a man insane.
He felt a little pissed off at Apprentice Valem Deen, the only recorded
Martial Apprentice of the Mindmirror Symbiote.
Couldn't he have been more clear and specific that there literally would be a
very physical fight inside the mind? Rui swore he would have beaten the man
black and blue if he was still alive. He intended to look into the man after the
procedure regardless.
All these thoughts and considerations flashed across his mind instantly as the
shadow clone of himself rushed at him with remarkable swiftness. Rui
recognized the maneuvering techniques it used; Parallel Walk, Wind
Breathing, and Balanced Direction.
Rui had no idea how the Symbiote got a hand of his techniques, but he didn't
particularly have time to consider it.
The shadow clone rushed towards him launching yet another Flowing Canon.
WHOOSH
Rui dodged it this time, spiraling out of the way as he threw a flurry of
strikes. The shadow Rui dodged all of the attacks with great agility and
maneuvering before. It threw a swift kick at Rui, which Rui cleanly dodged.
Yet;
BAM!
Another strike landed immediately after on him, having already reached the
location he had dodged to!
Rui's eyes widened as he barely blocked the attack.
('It knew where I was going to move before I did!') He realized. ('Don't tell
me it can use the VOID algorithm as well?!')
Chapter 370 Balance
Rui wasn't sure what was happening. He didn't understand how this was
possible.
How was the symbiote, assuming that's what the shadow clone of himself
was a manifestation of, able to gain access to his techniques? Not just his
Martial Art techniques, but also the VOID algorithm. The movements that his
shadow clone-self had displayed were without a doubt the VOID algorithm,
the movement used was the perfect counter to his movement and it had been
initiated even before his own.
That was the classic tell-tale sign of a perfectly executed VOID algorithm
adaptation via the pattern adaptation system of the VOID algorithm. The
shadow clone was clearly using it, as well as other techniques.
Rui had already computed two broad plausible hypotheses. The first
hypothesis was that the visions he was experiencing were not actually from
the Mindmirror Symbiote. He had just assumed that it shadow clone of
himself was how his subconscious mind was processing the symbiote, but
that's all that was; an assumption. It was entirely possible that the visions he
was seeing now were no different from a dream or some other psychedelic
illusion that his mind was generating as a result of trying to process the
neurological and mental conflict with the Symbiote.
The explanation for the shadow clone of his being able to use his Flowing
Void Style Martial Art was that the shadow clone was being generated by his
subconscious mind which did, in fact, possess an intimate understanding of
the Flowing Void Style. This would explain how the shadow clone was able
to use the Flowing Void Style.
The second hypothesis was that the Mindmirror Symbiote had access to his
memories and knowledge. And was able to extract information that would be
useful against the host. It was possible that he was simply partly imagining
the shadow clone using the Flowing Void style because those were the
memories the Symbiote was accessing and triggering in some way.
There were other hypotheses, of course, but they all fell into the same
category as the two hypotheses he had come up with. Either the Symbiote
was genuinely accessing his memories and knowledge and Martial Art amidst
the mental invasion, or he was simply imagining it due to an attempt of his
mind to process the conflict in an understandable way.
However, there was one common trait that both hypotheses shared.
Regardless of which hypothesis was true, it was a bad idea if he lost the fight.
If the fight really was merely his mind attempting to process the mental
conflict, then losing the imaginary physical fight would mean he was losing
the mental conflict since the former would merely be a visual representation
of the latter according to the theory. If the imaginary physical fight was
genuinely the core of the actual mental clash between his mind and the
mental invasion of the Mindmirror Symbiote, then losing was absolutely a
bad idea.
('I have to win no matter what, then.') Rui reaffirmed.
He turtled up, defending as he gathered his concentration and focus.
Perhaps it was the peril of the situation he was in.
Perhaps it was because of what was at stake.
Perhaps it was because he was fighting a clone of himself.
Perhaps it was because he was inside his own mind.
Regardless of what it was, he was able to enter a highly focused state almost
instantaneously. The shadow clone paused as Rui stared at it with his pitch-
black pupils.
WHOOSH
Rui dashed off towards his dark clone, throwing speedy jabs.
WHOOSH
The clone swerved out of the way, but in vain;
BOOM!
A colossal attack crashed into his clone as it was launched away.
Rui grinned. ('It worked!')
If the shadow clone fought identically to him, then wasn't there a good
chance that it used the same movement patterns as he did?
If that was indeed the case then he very well could just create a predictive
model on himself and apply it to the clone, couldn't he?
Rui and his clone rushed at each other with immense speed. What followed
was a marvel that would likely never reoccur.
Two identical Martial Artists.
Two VOID algorithms.
They clashed against each other in a furious exchange of attacks. They were
both using the VOID algorithm, they were both using the same predictive
model and the same adaptive evolution model. They were equal in nearly
every way.
Except for longevity.
The worst part about losing his sense of time was that it became harder to
compute stamina. He had energy constraints, yet it seemed as though the
shadow clone didn't have any restriction on that front.
Time passed, more than he knew. He grew increasingly mentally fatigued.

The psychological stress of not knowing how and when this nightmare was
going to end was also starting to gnaw at him, he was generally quite
composed, but under such circumstances even he was starting to feel the
strain. It took an immense amount of mental fortitude to maintain his calm
and not panic. And it was only growing harder and harder as an
immeasurable amount of time passed.
Physical stamina wasn't a thing, but mental stamina was indeed a thing, at the
end of the day.
POW!
Rui grimaced as a strike landed square on his jaw. He had fallen behind on
his reactions by just a beat and the shadow clone, which had not yet ceased to
be pitcher perfect, overwhelmed him in that regard. The strike had created an
opening that the shadow clone brutally exploited with an avalanche of
attacks, just as he would have if he were in its place. It was the best option.
That was bad news for him. He went all-out with defense and evasion as he
tried to regain his bearings and restore the balance of initiative.
WHOOSH
He avoided a strike, leaping backward. Yet;
BAM!
The clone followed through immediately, predicting his retreat and landing a
Tempestuous Ripple on Rui.
('Damn it!') He cursed. ('At this rate, the disadvantages will simply
snowball!')
Chapter 371 Solution
Rui racked his brain as he thought of a solution. He couldn't rely on the

VOID algorithm. He couldn't really rely on his techniques alone. Their
physical parameters were identical.
WHOOSH
Rui barely managed to evade a strike. ('The only difference lies in mind that
is controlling the mental bodies if the second hypothesis is correct.')
If that was the case, then Rui very well might have a tactical advantage. If
not, then he could reasonably be assured that the first hypothesis was true.
After all, what were the odds that the symbiote that was not supposed to be
genuinely intelligent or actually sentient had the same degree of tactical
intelligence as him?
He highly doubted that it was able to gain somehow gain access to his tactical
capability either. That would require a degree of supernatural absurdity that
was too ridiculous even by the standards of this world. His tactical capability
was a product of his consciousness operating on his memories and senses. If
the symbiote was able to access that, then it would no doubt have already
won by now.
BAM!
Rui reeled from a powerful Flowing Canon crashing into his guard as he was
marginally outmaneuvered by the shadow clone. ('But how can I possibly
out-strategize a superior version of myself?')
It didn't help that he was truly not accustomed to the VOID algorithm being
this ineffective in battle. Because the VOID algorithms being used by both
sides were identical, they more or less canceled each other out and their effect
was not really felt. This meant that this was a fight where Rui was practically
fighting without any help from the VOID algorithm.
When was the last time that genuinely happened? He couldn't even
remember. He had always used the VOID algorithm in at least a minor
capacity ever since he discovered his Martial Path nearly three years ago.
The psychological discomfort and inexperience with such a situation were

also hindering him. At this rate, the disadvantages would snowball and he
would most certainly lose.
('Tsk.') He tutted mentally. ('This is even worse than when the VOID
algorithm is incompatible with my oppon-')
Rui's eyes widened as an idea flashed across his mind, taking root as he
began fleshing it out. ('Interesting, this might work.')
He leaped backward, immediately chased by the shadow clone. Then he

paused before rushing straightforwardly at the shadow clone. Rui threw a
targeted sweeping kick at his shadow clone.
The shadow clone stepped back, avoiding it.
Yet;
BAM!
An invisible Tempestuous Ripple slammed into it, flinging it far away. It

swiftly got up, yet Rui had immediately arrived. He launched a low sweeping
kick, which the clone leaped to avoid.
Yet the sweeping kick disappeared.
It was a feint.
BAM!!
A powerful blow from Rui crashed into the symbiote midair, flinging it into
the distance.
All of a sudden, the tables had turned!
('I was right!') Rui grinned. ('It can borrow my Martial Art. But it cannot
borrow the intelligence or the tactics that I use to compensate for the flaws in
my Martial Art!')
Rui's Martial Art had not yet achieved maturity. Despite having mastered
twenty-three techniques, it was still not yet mature. Furthermore, there was
the matter of the VOID algorithm. Although he had made significant progress
with the VOID algorithm's viability thanks to his extreme mastery of the
Mind Palace technique, he had yet to make significant progress in the other
major problem of the VOID algorithm.
Its incompatibility with the fantastical Martial Art of the world of Gaia. He
had yet to fix the issue. There were times when the VOID algorithm was
largely helpless. In those times, he compensated for its shortcomings with
improvised corrections in the calculations and estimations that were roughly
accurate enough to work decently enough, albeit still far from what the VOID
algorithm was supposed to be capable of ideally.
Using the VOID algorithm blindly could potentially be dangerous. Rui never
mindlessly accepted the results spat out by the adaptive evolution model. He
relied on quick thinking and instincts, Primordial Instinct, to judge how
compatible the VOID algorithm was and how accurate the adapted style it
outputted was.
This was not something that could be copied or stolen by the Mindmirror
Symbiote, in all likelihood. And he was being proven right by the second.
If that was indeed the case, then it could be exploited. Rui knew the VOID
algorithm inside-out, and upside-down. He knew exactly where all of its
shortcomings were, and what all the risks due to those shortcomings were.
The shadow clone of himself did not compensate for the shortcomings the
way Rui did when he fought with it.
That meant as long Rui used the right moves at the right time, he would be
able to cause a disadvantage to the shadow clone.
The key was to use techniques that were the most supernatural and
impossible by Earth's standards. The more it diverged from anything Earth
had, the less accurate the counters the shadow clone used were, as far as
being the most suited to countering and adapting to his moves.
Moves like Tempestuous Ripple, Phantom Step, and Stinger were most
effective because they diverged significantly from anything on Earth. There
was no such thing as a wind blast caused by launching a dense pocket of air
that was caused by a combination of breathing techniques and body
movements in the combat sports of Earth.
Likewise, Phantom Step and Stinger were also absolutely otherworldly by

MMA standards. His other offensive techniques were much closer in concept
to MMA techniques, unfortunately. Techniques like Blink were also absurd
by Earth standards, but it wasn't useful against the shadow clone. Neither of
them had blinked in the battle.
Still, these three techniques gave him a fighting chance. He had already taken
significant damage and his mental fatigue and strain were only snowballing.
These three techniques were the only thing between him and inevitable
defeat. He would need to apply them to the very best he could.
Chapter 372 Climax
Rui did his very best to exploit the flaws and shortcomings in the VOID
algorithm. Exchange after exchange, he abused them to the best he could.
The disadvantage he had accumulated prior was slowly starting to get
mitigated.
The biggest problem was that his shadow clone self didn't really seem to be
capable of taking damage. Even if Rui pounded it with a barrage of powerful
attacks, it would get up, walk it off and continue as if nothing happened.
Whereas any damage Rui took didn't magically disappear, he retained all of
it. Even if his new tactic allowed him to outplay his opponent, the lack of
damage and fatigue on his opponent's part meant that none of it ever stuck.
Rui had to work harder and harder each time he wanted to overwhelm his
opponent.
But what did it matter? His opponent simply got back up and continued
fighting with the same ferocity as before. Rui's combat kept getting duller and
duller.
It only snowballed even further as time passed.
BOOM!!
Rui grimaced as a powerful Flowing Canon flung him away. He crashed into
his immediate surroundings, getting up quickly.
An eternity had passed. He felt as though he was going insane with all this
endless fighting. He was bleeding profusely and panting heavily in
exhaustion. He felt his mental body going limp with fatigue.
Yet, he didn't give up.

He grabbed the incoming attack from his shadow clone, using Flow Flux to
throw him off. He launched a Tempestuous Ripple, blasting the shadow clone
of his with a wind blast. His shadow clone swiftly recovered launching
another attack.
BAM!
Rui grimaced as the attack crashed into his abdomen, unguarded.
PEW!
The Stinger slammed into his clone's head. Yet, Rui wasn't done. He
launched a barrage of attacks that bypassed the VOID algorithm via its flaws
and shortcomings.
BOOM!
A final attack landed on the shadow clone, flinging him away.
Rui collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Every ounce of his mental body was
in pain, he could barely move as he gasped for air.
WHOOSH
The shadow clone had arrived, launching a powerful attack at Rui.
('Shit... Is this how it ends?') He struggled to put up a guard.
The attack warped the very world around them with the sheer power it had.
Rui could feel the tiniest hint of haste and panic from the shadow clone.
As though it didn't have any time left.
The attack was just about to crash into him.
Rui had gritted his teeth with his head tucked, bracing for the impact.
...
Nothing happened.
"Huh?" His eyebrows knitted in confusion. He raised his head as he leaped

back.
There was nothing.
He looked around in suspicion. ('Where did he go?')
Then, the illusory work crumbled as darkness enveloped his senses yet again.
He opened his eyes. An expression of shock molded onto his face as the
familiar white ceiling of the operating room entered his field of vision along
with doctor Heela and a set of nurses tending to him.
"Apprentice Quarrier?" She asked as she flashed his eyes with a flashlight
device. "Pupils are reactive. Apprentice Quarrier? Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm back!" He exclaimed with elation and ecstasy.
"Congratulations." Doctor Heela said to him. "The procedure was a success.

You successfully resisted the mental takeover phase."
Rui felt exhausted beyond anything he ever had.
"We'll be conducting a few tests just to make su-" She paused when she heard
a snoring sound.
He had fallen asleep on the spot. His eyelids were too heavy and his mind
was too tired to even try staying awake after it had confirmed it was safe. He
didn't even experience a single dream as his mind tucked away silently,
taking some much-needed rest.
He woke up later feeling fresher than he ever had. Not even potions were this
invigorating. He got up in his bed slowly, before looking around.
('I've been moved to a different room.') He mused as a nurse popped into his
room, noticing he was awake.
"Apprentice Quarrier, how are you feeling?" She asked.
"Great." He replied. "How long was I asleep?"
"Fourteen hours." She replied. "Your mind needed an immense amount of

rest after the incredibly strenuous ten minutes. We've steadily injected highly
nourishing and healing potions into your body that would allow your brain
and mind to naturally recover."
"I see..." He murmured before perking up at something she said. "Wait, ten
minutes? You mean the bonding procedure lasted ten minutes?"
"Correct." She replied.
Rui squinted in confusion. His sense of time must have been extremely
messed up. That fight had lasted many days, at the very least.
To think that all of that had actually happened in ten minutes tops.
"Doctor Heela has been notified of your awakening. She'll be here shortly."
The nurse informed. "Would you like anything? A glass of water?"
Rui nodded absentmindedly, absorbed in thought. "Please do."
Soon, doctor Heela entered his room with a smile. "I heard you had woken
up. Feeling good?"
"Much better than I expected, yes."
"That's good news." She nodded. "We conducted a few tests, and there is no
abnormality. The secondary brain is still dormant, acclimatizing to its
circumstances. Soon, it will become active and you will be able to feel it. It is
recommended you do not begin training with it for at least a few days. Your
mind is still not done recovering and the once you begin training and the flux
of information exchange between the brains increases it will strain your brain
more than it normally would be."
Rui nodded. "Will do."

Soon the conversation ended after the doctor rattled off some instructions and
answered some questions.
"You'll be discharged tomorrow after some more supervision. Be sure to rest

as much as possible, do not strain your mind in any way."
Rui nodded, bidding her goodbye as she left the room.
He closed his eyes, turning his attention inside himself. He flinched when he
felt the presence of a dormant entity connected to his own.
"This... is the secondary brain?" He murmured in wonder.

Chapter 373 Embed
He simply observed it, trying to get a better feel for it.
('It doesn't feel like it's conscious in the same way my brain is.') He mused.
Even its mental takeover was not something that the Symbiote was
consciously doing, but rather something that was part of its biological
programming. This matched the information that he had learned about it.
As time passed, the dormant brain began showing more and more activity. He
felt excited at the prospect of mastering the extra brain capacity. However,
that was not something that could be done quickly. The symbiote had grade-
ten difficulty for a reason, and that reason wasn't purely due to the risk of
being mentally taken over by the symbiote.
Currently, the brain was an empty slate. Neurons alone weren't enough for
them to be of immediate use. It was like a computer without an operating
system. There were training techniques that he would need to undergo, and
planned to undergo in this training session.
There was only one training technique that was associated with the
Mindmirror Symbiote. It was called the Mental Embed training technique.
Even though it was only one, it alone was versatile enough to allow the user
to accomplish a multitude of things.
It allowed the user to embed thought patterns into the secondary brain. These
thoughts did not need to be limited to conscious thoughts; they could also be
subconscious neurological patterns as well.
It essentially allowed the user to program the Mindmirror Symbiote like it

was a computer. In order to get the Mindmirror Symbiote to aid the user in
combat, one needed to embed all of one's combat thought patterns into the
secondary brain using the Mental Embed training technique.
Once that was completed successfully, the secondary brain would then be
able to function identically to Rui's main brain as far as combat processing
went. It would be able to aid Rui in combat by doing so. With two brains
processing data, his combat mental processing would boost tremendously.
Essentially, the secondary brain's primary purpose was to function as a

parallel processor to the main brain, aiding all cognitive and neurological
processes. This would boost all mental parameters such as battle cognition,
spatial awareness, reaction speed, reflexive speed, kinetic vision, and other
such phenomena vital to combat.
This boost would put Rui's mental parameters far beyond the limits of the
Apprentice Realm!
He strongly suspected that he might even reach quasi-Squire level as far all
mental parameters went with just this basic application alone!
There were even further ways it could be applied. After all, the Mental
Embed technique was a technique that allowed the user to embed conscious
thought patterns as well.
('This means I can embed the VOID algorithm and my Mind Palace into the
secondary brain as well!') Rui grinned, eager to start training. Yet, at the
same time, he didn't want to complete it too soon. The mental burden of the
Mindmirror Symbiote only came after a successfully completed mental
embed into the secondary brain.
After all, until then, the Mindmirror Symbiote didn't particularly interact with
the main brain. That's why it wouldn't interfere with his training growth
speed until after the mental embed was fully completed, which would only
happen by the end of the training stage.
Once he embedded the VOID algorithm and Mind Palace, his utility of those
would skyrocket. The best part about that was that he didn't need to
constantly update the embedded thoughts, the secondary brain's cognitive
capabilities were high enough to ensure that it was capable of growing based
on the growth of the corresponding original thought patterns of the main
brain.
He wanted to test the training technique right away but the doctor had
instructed him to take it easy as far as straining the mind went, thus he had to
abstain. The technique was important, but his literal mental health was even
more so.
A day passed by and he was finally discharged.
"All your tests have come back fine." The doctor informed him as she
skimmed through medical reports that had come back from the tests. "Again,
make sure you get enough rest when get back, got it? No mental rejuvenation
potions, make sure you get normal sleep, alright?"
"Will do." Rui nodded. "Thank you, doctor."
Once he bade her goodbye and finished a bit of paperwork, he immediately

set back for the Martial Union, thinking back to the last few days he had
spent in the Martial Union.
At the end of the day, he had never figured out which of the two hypotheses
regarding the shadow clone was true. Was it really just a dream his mind had
conjured up representing the state of the mental battle between the symbiote
and his brain or was it genuinely the actual conflict itself?
He didn't know, but regardless, he had made a lot of gains from the conflict,
unexpectedly. What he hadn't experienced, and didn't ever expect to
experience, was fighting against the VOID algorithm. He hadn't realized how
much of a blessing it was at the time, because of the things that were at stake
at the time.
Fighting against the VOID algorithm gave him a perspective about it that he
had never had before. He was able to appreciate and admire its prowess with
pride, but he also gained a clearer perspective on its flaws and shortcomings.
He understood them much more intimately than he had before. If it weren't
for this experience, it would have taken him a long time to gain the
understanding that the experience had yielded to him.
Rui had gotten several new ideas on how to partially solve the
incompatibility issue of the VOID algorithm with the Martial Art of Gaia.
Ideas that he likely would not have considered this early had he not fought
against his clone. It was a rich and an unexpected gain that had come from
the mental battle, and that alone justified the purchasing of the Mindmirror
Symbiote.
"All in good time."

Chapter 374 Difficulty
WHOOSH
Rui dashed from one point to another, before pausing and looking at Kane.
"How was that?"
"You're messing up the maneuvering part." Kane shook his head. "The
misdirection needs to be in precisely the opposite direction you're going,
otherwise it won't work."
"Yeah, true." Rui sighed. "I know that in theory, it's not easy to get the hang
of it in practice."
"It does take a while to learn." Kane agreed. "You need to burn the technique
into your bones with repeated practice. Or at least that's how I did it."
Several months had passed since Rui began his sixth training stage. He had
made significant progress with all techniques and was in the final phase of
getting rid of all of his flaws and shortcomings. He had reached out to Kane
for help with the Shadow Step technique. Although he hadn't mastered that
technique, he had mastered the Void Step technique which was the original
technique that the Shadow Step technique was an inferior version of.
Kane merely needed a few tries to get the hang of it since he had mastered the
Void Step technique. He only needed to understand to what degree it was
inferior before he could use it masterfully, making Rui green with envy.
"Man, it's crazy how good you are at this." Rui sighed.
"I mean." He shrugged. "One can say the same thing with you and a number
of things. The most recent being the second brain you got."
Rui smiled, he couldn't argue with that.
He hadn't finished mentally embedding his combat thought patterns or the

VOID algorithm and the Mind Palace technique into the secondary brain yet.
The best part about the Mental Embed technique was the fact that he could
use it while training physically as well. In fact, the Mental Embed technique
worked most efficiently when the combat information that the user of the
technique was actually being used in combat.
The secondary brain learned the information faster when there was actual
execution of the movements that were being learned by the secondary brain.
Thus, he could embed the five other techniques he was learning into the
secondary brain while he was training them. Thankfully, he wouldn't need to
go through another training stage just for that alone, that would have been
incredibly wasteful.
Once he wrapped up his Shadow Step training with Kane, he returned back to
the Mindmirror training session. He had only very recently gotten
accustomed to the feeling of the active secondary brain. It felt like a force
with untapped potential. He could constantly feel that he wasn't able to use it
to its full potential, which was frustrating.
He continued the Mental Embed training technique process, which was

harder and more mentally taxing than he had expected it to be. But in
hindsight, he should have expected that would be the case. He was trying to
copy and transfer all the data centered around his combat, every speck of it,
into the secondary brain.
The size of the data and information that had to be embedded into the
secondary brain was gigantic! Although the Mental Embed technique was not
weak by any means, it still took an immense amount of time and effort.
The good news was that he was extraordinarily compatible with the technique
unlike anything before. It was actually quite surprising initially, but it made
sense. His enhanced mind as well as the accumulated concentration that came
from days of using the technique straight without any breaks thanks to the
mental rejuvenation potions allowed him to use the Mental Embed technique
with extraordinary proficiency.
This allowed him to speed up what would otherwise become an ordeal of

years into just a few months. Rui was glad he had chosen to master the
technique sooner rather than later because mastering it sooner allowed him to
automatically transfer future information via the Mental Embed technique
into the secondary brain.
This was because of the phenomenon of neuron plasticity. A phenomenon

that was responsible for memory and associations. Neuron connections, that
corresponded to particular though, that were activated time and time again
would grow closer and be bonded stronger. The same thing was happening
when the Mental Embed was used to transfer particular information from his
brain to the secondary brain, the act formed strong neuron connections
between the brain and the secondary brain that allowed the automatic transfer
of newer information from his brain to the secondary brain in the future.
By mastering it sooner, he was reducing the amount of information that

needed to be manually transferred. After the initial manual transfer, the
secondary brain would naturally and automatically learn newer combat
information. By executing the initial manual transfer as soon as possible in
his life, he was ensuring most of the combat information and thought
processes transferred across his life would be learned automatically and not
manually.
This was the reason he had chosen to master the Mindmirror Symbiote
sooner rather than later. As time passed on, the difficulty of mastering the
Mindmirror Symbiote would simply rise continuously, far beyond the already
peak grade-ten difficulty.
As painful as it was parting ways with his enhanced growth speed, he

ultimately found that the benefits outweighed the losses. He did not want to
deal with a technique whose difficulty of mastery was extraordinarily high, at
something like grade eleven or grade twelve.
It was especially desirable that he made the transfer of the VOID algorithm as
soon as possible before he adapted and expanded it. The VOID algorithm was
already a giant system with many sub-systems within it. If he dumped all the
information into the Secondary Brain, then any complicated changes made to
the VOID algorithm needed to be done only once as the Secondary Brain
would follow suit automatically.
Still, the process was extremely tiring and difficult despite his extreme
affinity with the techniques involved. This along with the mental invasion of
the technique as well as the mental burden that would be incoming once the
mental embed was complete made the entire process truly worthy of having
its difficulty being graded ten.
Chapter 375 Improvement
Six months passed. Rui worked day and night, literally, mastering his new
techniques. The first technique he had mastered among the six was the Mind
Mask technique. His mastery of the technique was immense and he could
either amplify or reduce his presence and the sense of danger he evoked in
sentient minds depending on what kind of image he projected on himself.
The second technique that he had completely mastered was the Fauna Flow
technique, it was a rather unique technique the learning process of which he
had enjoyed thoroughly. The technique was rather bizarre but he enjoyed the
process of it. His growth speed and cognition allowed him to master it rather
swiftly. He embedded the language into the secondary brain as well, using
the Mental Embed technique.
The remaining techniques followed suit quickly. He attained mastery in the

Reverberating Lance, the Final Breathing, and Shadow Step techniques one
by one.
The final technique that followed was the Mindmirror Symbiote technique. It
took a whole extra month after the remaining five techniques until he was
finally ready.
CLICK
Rui gasped in disbelief after he finally embedded the last bit of combat
information into the secondary brain. The embed was complete and the
secondary brain was finally ready to be used in combat. He closed his eyes as
he felt the secondary brain exchanging a massive flux of information with his
mind.
Time slowed down as the world became sharper. It was as though someone
had lowered the playing speed of a video. The secondary brain had been
embedded with the sensory processing neurological protocols. It processed
the information parallelly alongside his own mind, producing much better
results much sooner.
"So, this is what the Mindmirror Symbiote does?" Rui muttered aloud as he
brought his hands up to his face.
His eyes widened in shock as he realized he was both hearing his own voice
and seeing his own hands in slow motion.
('I see, because my cognition speed has risen while my physical speed has
declined, even my own body appears slower to me.') He realized.
He closed his eyes as he applied the Primordial Instinct and the Seismic
Mapping techniques. Seismic Mapping had also slowed down in his mind,
the incoming seismic radiation had a lower frequency. This was within his
prediction.
What was a little outside his prediction was how Primordial Instinct
interacted with the secondary brain. Primordial Instinct was merely the
instinctual subconscious sense of danger and risk trained to an extremely high
degree. It worked better out than he had ever expected.
The Primordial Instinct sense had become more accurate and precise. Or at
least, that's what Rui felt like. Before, it was merely limited to vague feelings,
but now Rui could feel it was more tangible and concrete information
regarding the dangers and risks.
"Man, I wonder what the VOID algorithm is like now?" He muttered with an
excited grin. "I need to test it immediately!"
The problem was, he needed an opponent in order to test out the VOID
algorithm against. But this had already become a major problem at this stage.
"I'm too strong." He murmured. He was already considerably stronger than

his friends, who were extremely powerful Martial Artists themselves even
before his last training stage. At his current level, even other grade-ten
Martial Artists were no longer much of a threat to him.
"Squire Kyrie again then?" He wondered, before shaking his head. "I already
have a predictive model for Squire Kyrie."
One of the reasons he had chosen to master the Mindmirror Symbiote in the
first place was because it was a symbiote that allowed him to speed up the
process of forming the predictive model. If he wanted to test the actual
increase at the speed at which he formed the predictive model thanks to the
secondary brain, then he would need to fight someone he didn't have a
predictive model on.
He had already formed one when he fought against Kyrie, so he couldn't fight
for his purposes.
"If not Squire Kyrie then... I guess I'll have to make do with Squire Dylon."
Rui murmured. Ideally, he would liked to have fought an all-rounder since
those were the hardest for the VOID algorithm, but alas, Kyrie was the only
all-rounder Martial Artist in the Academy as the combat training Squire
instructor.
He didn't waste any time, choosing to immediately head towards the

offensive training facility. He quickly consumed a few potions on the way.
He wanted to be at his peak when he fought Squire Dylon. He spotted Squire
Dylon mentoring several Martial Apprentices practicing techniques when he
arrived.
Yet the moment he stepped in, he drew everybody's attention.
The sheer pressure he exerted was eye-drawing. Not a single person could
avoid throwing a glance his way. One thing was clear to all of them.
He had grown stronger.
"Well well well." Squire Dylon said, addressing him. "Lookie who we have
here."
"Squire Dylon." Rui replied.

"You know, there's a reason we Squire instructors put a tight lid on our minds
when we're in facilities training." He said. "It's to ensure we don't disturb the
Martial Apprentices training. Although you're not a Martial Squire, you're no
ordinary Martial Apprentice either. Turn down the pressure a bit, will you?
You're disturbing the other students."
"Ah." Rui glanced around before nodding. "Alright, my bad."
He closed his mind before activating the Mind Mask technique, completely
concealing every ounce of mental pressure. The people around him grew
startled as all the suffocating pressure disappeared into thin air instantly as
Rui appeared to be no more than an ordinary sixteen-year-old boy.
Squire Dylon's eyebrow raised at the sight. "Huh. You've mastered some
interesting Martial Art techniques. Speaking of which, why are you here?
You'd already mastered the Reverberating Lance technique a month ago.
Don't tell me you've already purchased more techniques?"
"No." Rui shook his head. "I've come here because I wish to spar with you."
"Ah..." Squire Dylon pondered the matter as he scratched his chin, before
shrugging. "Sure."
Chapter 376 Clash
"But." He said. "Not now. As you can see, I got Martial Apprentices to
instruct over there."
He gestured over to some Martial Apprentices who were listening.
"No no sir, no need to bother with us."
"That's right, we can practice on our own for a while."
"You should also help other students out, not only us."
They quickly chimed in, insisting Squire Dylon spar with Rui then and there.
Dylon sighed as Rui smirked. In the three years that he had been in the
Martial Academy, he had earned a large fanbase among the newer batches of
Martial Apprentices that had come along.
Furthermore, everyone could see that he had gotten much stronger than he
was before. They were all curious to see how much stronger, and how far he
could push Squire Dylon. It was a very rare event that they probably wouldn't
get to see again. And they got to take a break.
"Hmph." He snorted as Rui smirked. "Popular, aren't you? Been here for only
three years and you're more popular than I am."
Rui shrugged. He didn't give a damn about such things, never had and never
would. "So, can we spar now?"
"Sure." He shrugged. With the other Martial Apprentices agreeing to put off
their training to witness the spar, he had no reason not to agree.
Suddenly, a heavy pressure mounted onto Rui.

"Be warned though. I'm not nearly as gentle as Kyrie is." A small grin
cracked on his face.
Rui smiled wryly. "I couldn't ask for more."
It wasn't long before they stood facing each other.
The sparring facility slowly morphed into a spectator stand as all the Martial
Apprentices mysteriously took breaks at that moment together, and
mysteriously gathered around the ring that Squire Dylon and Rui were in.
"Take your stances." A referee instructed with a much softer tone,

considering he was instructing the head instructor, his superior.
Squire Dylon took an aggressive offensive stance with no care for defense. "I
suppose limiting myself to grade-ten Apprentice level is good enough?"
"No." Rui replied, shaking his head.
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "Well, we'll see. I'll just keep hitting the pedal
until you can't take it anymore."
Rui nodded. "That works for me too."
He exhaled, closing his eyes.
His concentration accumulated as his mind converged. The secondary brain

revved up as a flux of information flowed between both brains. He dispelled
the mask he had placed earlier, it consumed mental energy that he couldn't
afford to waste.
The Martial Apprentices shivered as a horrifying avalanche of mental

pressure washed over them, suffocating them.
"This..." One of them muttered. "Isn't something that belongs solely to the
Apprentice Realm."
"Huh..." Squire Dylon paused, his eyebrow rose as a grin cracked onto his
face. "I guess you weren't exaggerating."
He said as Rui took a defensive and evasive stance. He did not want to
engage with Squire Dylon's offense head-on if he could.
"Begin!" The referee commenced the battle.
The hairs on every Martial Apprentice's body stood as Squire Dylon shot
forward. The sheer force with which he pushed forward, churned the ground
beneath him.
BOOM!
He zoomed forward with a single step. He launched a powerful blow at Rui's

face.
WHOOSH
The blow crashed into an empty illusion.
It was a feint.
BAM!
Dylon barely blocked an attack to his vitals, skidding backward. He rushed

forward instantly, unleashing a wave of attacks.
Yet he could only widen his eyes in surprise as every single attack missed.
And it wasn't even close.
Just a few centimeters.
That was it.
That was all Rui moved to avoid each blow. His graceful soft movements
contrasted with Squire Dylon's aggressive and loud movements.
Yet none of them touched so much as a hair on his body.
It was effortless.
('I see...') Rui noted. ('Even peak Apprentice grade offensive specialists are
obsolete against me?')
The secondary brain in combination with the Primordial Instinct technique

was so potent that Dylon's movements were comfortably easy to keep track
of. He had plenty of time to consciously track, process, decide and then act
on that decision and still evade every strike.
He wasn't even using feints!
WHOOSH
('What about the speed of the predictive model construction?') He wondered

as he smoothly evaded yet another strike.
The Mind Palace had been firing at an extremely smooth speed as both his
mind and the secondary brain processed and inputted data into it at an
incredible speed.
('I'm a little over twice as before!') Rui gaped. A more than one-hundred-
percent increase thanks to one technique was a ridiculous improvement.
Yet before he could look deeper into the matter.
BAM!!
A tremendous blow landed on him, flinging him backward as he grimaced in

pain.
The atmosphere grew taut as an oppressive aura flared across the facility.
"Focus." His voice was soft, yet it drowned out the world. Forcefully drawing
Rui's attention towards him. "I'm not someone who can be defeated by a
distracted boy."
Rui got up, heightening his alertness and awareness as he took a stance.
WHOOSH
Squire Dylon shot towards him in the briefest of moments, throwing a blow
with untold power. His fist shredded the very atmosphere as plummeted
towards Rui.
Rui swerved to avoid it, like he had been doing, yet;
WHOOSH
BAM!!
He grimaced in shock as an invisible force pulled him back toward the attack,
preventing him from dodging it.
He gritted his teeth as the powerful attack crashed into a hastily construed
guard, launching him backward.
('He used a wind-manipulation technique to pull me back towards his attack

and prevent me from dodging. It's a more refined version of what Fae has!')
He immediately realized as he scrambled, regaining his bearings
Squire Dylon had already arrived, but this time Rui was prepared.
What followed next shook the entire facility. The Martial Apprentices
watched with expressions of awe as the two Martial Artists engage in a
furious exchange of attacks with each other.
PUNCH
KICK
PARRY
DODGE
A wave of exchanges decorated the arena as the conflict obtained a

momentary balance.
Chapter 377 Proceedings
WHOOSH
Rui avoided a strike successfully.
Squire Dylon had been using some a wind-manipulation technique that

pushed Rui back into the way of his attack every time he tried to dodge it.
But Rui had already found a solution.
Fight fire with fire.
Fight wind-manipulation technique with wind-manipulation techniques.
He used Tempestuous Ripple to counter the wind-manipulation technique

that Squire Dylon was using to obstruct his evasion.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui smoothly dodged an attack he cleanly landed a powerful attack on Squire

Dylon. Squire Dylon lashed out once more, yet, the same outcome recurred.
Rui countered every single move he made, almost as if he knew it was

coming.
Rui grinned. The initial predictive model had been completed sooner than he
had expected. Furthermore, the increase in effectiveness had been
remarkable. He could obtain much more accurate and precise results much
more quicker.
WHOOSH
BAM!!
He comfortably evaded yet another jab as he simultaneously landed a

powerful hook at a vulnerable hole in Squire Dylon's defense that he had
exposed during his attack.
It was the perfect counter.
('This is amazing. The VOID algorithm's execution is perfect!') He grew

excited once more. He was able to see more than just one move into the
future, something that was actually beyond his expectations.
But by processing the data much more than he ever would be able to in that
brief period of time, he was able to statistical evaluations of the likelihood of
the target of the predictive model making a certain move.
Yet the battle didn't return to the previous domineering advantage that Rui
had held.
Squire Dylon wasn't done yet.
Rui felt a sharp sense of danger through the empowered sense of danger and
risk of the Primordial Instinct.
BAM!
An incredibly swift and powerful straight punch crashed into his guard.
He skidded away, as he glanced over to Squire Dylon. ('He's no longer

limiting himself to the conventional Martial Apprentice Realm.')
Squire Dylon had come to recognize the truth in Rui's words. Limiting
himself to grade ten wasn't enough. He would need to exceed the Apprentice
Realm.
And exceed it he did.
The pressure he exuded wasn't extremely far from that of a genuine Squire-
level aura.
Rui's expression broke into a grin as he heightened his reactions, awaiting yet
another attack.
He didn't have to wait at all.
WHOOSH
Dylon had crossed the distance between them at a speed that exceeded the
perception capabilities of most Martial Apprentices spectating.
WHOOSH
Rui avoided a flying knee kick empowered with the full momentum of his
charge, as he swiveled around, launching a swift high-kick at Dylon's head.
POW!
He blocked the attack before launching a flurry of attacks at Rui. Rui's

extreme mental processing along with the Primordial Instinct and the VOID
algorithm allowed him to counter every strike accurately and precisely.
High kicks were met with perfectly-timed spinning sweeping kicks.
Strikes were met with other strikes that dodged the attack naturally as a part
of its form. Every move had its perfect counter.
This was until Squire Dylon began demonstrating the reason he was hired.
FLICK
A stinging sensation extended across Rui's hand from a nick from one of his
strikes.
DRIP DRIP
A few drops of blood hit the ground as Rui's eyes widened. ('He has piercing
techniques too!')
This meant Rui had to dedicate even more resources to be careful.

Yet he wasn't careful enough.
His vision blurred for just a tiny bit, confusing him. He glanced at Squire
Dylon's nails, they had not only extended into razor-sharp claws but also had
a sickly purple color to them.
('Poison!') Rui's eyes widened.
He had fused both a piercing and a poison technique so that the poison could
be injected directly into his bloodstream!
"There is a reason they made me the head instructor of the offensive-training

facility, you know." He smirked.
Squire Dylon began unleashing his versatility, hindering Rui's predictions of

him. Rui needed to continuously update his prediction model with every new
technique that Dylon used. Thankfully, with the help of the secondary brain,
he was able to perform these data-intensive calculations and estimations
rather swiftly.
Still, the sheer diversity that Squire Dylon dished out was truly impressive.
He seemed to have techniques in nearly every offensive field that Rui had
ever come across!
Furthermore, his physical parameters had risen ever since he decided he

couldn't afford to hold back. His parameters had long since risen beyond the
general limits of the modern Apprentice Realm.
They were in the quasi-Squire Realm.
Yet, Rui did not falter. Move after move, exchange after exchange, he
incorporated all the data into the VOID algorithm and began forming even
more accurate and precise predictions of Squire Dylon. The Martial
Apprentices were struggling to even visually keep up.
Yet the tidbits that they could perceive and comprehend properly were so
shocking that they almost wished they couldn't.
How could a Martial Apprentice operate at such a level of power?

How could a Martial Apprentice react to speed far above the general limits of
the Apprentice Realm?
How could a Martial Apprentice force someone with a durability of a mighty

mountain to block his attacks?
They didn't understand.
They simply took the liberty of being beheld to the magnificent battle
between the two Martial Artists as they watched a Martial Apprentice attain
power that perhaps no single Martial Apprentice had ever obtained prior.
BAM!
Squire Dylon blocked a powerful uppercut empowered with Vital Pressure,

Outer Convergence, Flame Breathing, Adamant Reforging but also the
Reverberating Lance technique. Many powerful Apprentice-level techniques
had pushed the sheer force of the collision with the attack beyond bare basic
human parameters.
Yet his opponent was one of a higher Realm. Even if the defensive
techniques he used were not truly Squire-level, his evolved body alone meant
he could withstand an immense amount of punishment. The strike ultimately
didn't inflict any meaningful damage.
('Damn, I can't win using ordinary attacks.') Rui cursed. ('I'm going to have to
create an opportunity where my trump cards may be able to take him down.
Chapter 378 Unshackled
BAM BAM BAM!
Rui somersaulted away as he evaded wind blast attacks from Squire Dylon.
The speed at which they were launched and propelled as well as their power
all exceeded the conventional limit of the Apprentice Realm. Yet Rui had
been able to predict and react to all of them with the help of the combination
of the secondary brain, the VOID algorithm, and Primordial Instinct allowing
him to cleanly evade a majority of Squire Dylon's attacks.
CLASP
Dylon grabbed his arms holding them in place, yet instead of grappling, he
simply took in a deep breath.
Rui's eyes widened as he ducked sharply while executing Flux Flow to

destabilize Dylon. Dylon staggered a bit as he spat out a blazing fireball that
just narrowly missed Rui thanks to the sabotage.
WHOOSH
The flames dispelled harmlessly as Rui broke out of his grip and leaped
backward, wiping off sweat from his forehead, as he glanced up at Squire
Dylon warily. His offense was genuinely diverse and versatile. Despite the
fact that it was easier to adapt to specialized Martial Artists, Dylon couldn't
be considered a specialist with how many various offensive options he had.
WHOOSH
Rui cleanly evaded a powerful haymaker swing, as he carefully maintained

his distance. Even though Dylon was operating with a speed and power that
was at a quasi-Squire level. He was unable to gain a sustained advantage
against Rui!
He knew Rui was special, but this was genuinely surprising to him. He
couldn't believe how powerful he had become. His reactions were almost
closer to what one might expect from a Squire than what one would expect
from a mere Martial Apprentice. There were moments where it felt as though
he had seen right through completely, these were times when Rui began
moving before Dylon to counter moves that came after.
It was thoroughly bewildering.
BAM BAM BAM!
He guarded as Rui pummeled over and over with body blows empowered
with the various offensive techniques he had mastered over the years. The
power of his offense was staggering. The combined power of Vital Pressure,
Outer Convergence, Flame Breathing, Adamant Reforging, and
Reverberating Lance boosted the impact of every single one of his strikes.
Squire Dylon had a flash of nostalgia as recalled having trained Rui with
every single one of these techniques, as the head of the offensive techniques
training facility.
('He's come far.') He noted. ('But it's right about time to begin ending this.')
BAM!!
Dylon managed to land a swift and powerful haymaker, as he held back by

one less degree.
Squire Dylon lashed out as he began launching an avalanche of attacks

against Rui. The sheer speed gap between them was not small. Rui pushed
the secondary brain as it furiously aided him with the VOID algorithm and
the Primordial Instinct heightening his reaction speed to the absolute limit
that was possible.
Yet, even it had limits.
Squire Dylon was operating at a tier of power that would have killed any
other Martial Apprentice within three seconds, and all of the Martial
Apprentices that were spectating were extremely aware of this fact. They
even spectated from a distance out of fear.
The ring that was bolstered with esoteric technology meant to withstand
battle even at the peak of the Apprentice level had begun to be quite damaged
by the battle.
Rui grimaced as he did his best to mitigate the speed gap between them. Yet,
the odds were truly stacked against him. The damage he had suffered
throughout the battle had begun to adversely affect his combat parameters.
Every attack of Dylon that landed on Rui left lasting damage. But, in turn,
Rui's attacks didn't inflict nearly as much damage against Dylon's hyper-
evolved body and constitution. Even with Reverberating Lance permeating
the impact through Squire Dylon's body, the effect was minimal.
Still, Rui wasn't done yet.
('I still haven't used my trump card yet!') Rui gritted his teeth as he struggled
to maximize the number of blows that he successfully evaded while preparing
the Stinger. If he could pull off a Stinger as he did against Squire Freelia
Caela, he might be able to at least inflict some damage on Squire Dylon.
The biggest problem was that Squire Dylon was operating at a level even
above what she had when he and his friends had fought her in the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.
He had only one chance, he needed to use it wisely.
He evaded and endured Squire Dylon's onslaught.
Blow after blow.
Technique after technique.
('Now!') Rui's eyes sharpened as the moment arrived.
He swiveled to the right of Squire Dylon, launching a powerful blow. Dylon

promptly responded by riddling him with attacks.
WHOOSH
Rui's image disappeared.
Dylon's eyes widened in surprise.
It was a feint.
His awareness spread as his sharp senses immediately located Rui behind
him. Yet, a shiver ran down his spine as he felt immense danger.
A Squire-level aura.
In the briefest of moments, as he turned, a heavy Squire-level aura descended

onto the facility as every Martial Apprentice, froze at their spot, shivering in
fear.
Squire Dylon's long-buried instincts awakened as the reflexes of a veteran

who had killed many a Squire lashed out in a heightened sense of danger. For
a moment, he forgot he was fighting a mere Martial Apprentice.
The sensation of ceding his back to a Martial Squire generated a fear that
bypassed all reason, instinctively taking over his body. It was this instinctive
fear that had saved his life in the Martial World. Rui had reawakened one of
the most powerful Martial Squires of his generation.
His speed and power surged as he broke all restraints on them. The might of a
Martial Squire had bared its fangs against Rui.
The very land beneath them shook as the air boiled. The sheer power of a
Martial Squire warped the world around them.
And yet;
PEW!!
The Stinger soared through the air, unperturbed, striking Squire Dylon's eye.
In exchange?
The unshackled might of a Martial Squire crashed into Rui.
BOOM!!!
Chapter 379 Outcome
It wasn't often that Rui's plans went wrong. But not even he was omniscient,
anything could happen. His plan had been straightforward. He had feinted a
swivel to the side using Phantom Step, but that wasn't what he had limited
himself to. He had also used Shadow Step in conjugation with the Mind
Mask technique to misdirect Squire Dylon's attention to the feint while his
own presence was heavily reduced thanks to the Mind Mask technique.
Furthermore, he had used the VOID algorithm to predict the moment when
he would be in Dylon's far-end peripheral vision where the Shadow Step
technique was at its most effective.
Neither technique would have been effective against Squire Dylon

individually. But together when used at the perfect moment with the help of
the VOID algorithm, he was able to successfully elude Squire Dylon's
attention.
He had circled back behind and aimed a Stinger for when Squire Dylon
exposed his eye. Normally, this alone wouldn't be enough to successfully
land the Stinger on his eye when Dylon turned to prevent his back from being
exposed.
That was where the Mind Mask technique had come in. It was a technique
that generally allowed a Martial Apprentice to be perceived and sensed as
much more or less dangerous and attention-drawing than they really were
using self-hypnosis. In this case, Rui had used it to startle Squire Dylon and
impede his reactions with shock, which would decrease the probability that
Squire Dylon would defend accurately against the Stinger.
Rui's mastery of the Mind Mask technique had been extraordinary. This was
especially true even after he had embedded it into the secondary brain. He
had been able to project an image of danger and presence far above that of
reality even before the mental embed had finished.
It had been a good plan, quite effective.
There was only one problem with it.
He had underestimated how much stronger he had gotten thanks to the

Mental Embed and the activation of the secondary brain. Of course, part of
the point of the fight was to discover exactly how strong he was. But he
hadn't expected he would have grossly underestimated the boost the Mind
Mask technique would get thanks to the secondary brain.
He had simply tried to create the strongest Mind Mask he could.
How could have known it would end up becoming a Squire-level mask that
made him indistinguishable from a Martial Squire?
He couldn't!
What was worse was that he had completely failed to predict the effect it
would have on Squire Dylon. When Squire Dylon had felt the sudden Squire-
level mental pressure flare from behind him, it had completely bypassed his
conscious mind and triggered his survival instincts, he simply reflexively
lashed out backward with a Squire-level attack.
It was only after the attack had landed had he realized what he had done.
Rui's enhanced Primordial Instinct had felt a terrifying amount of danger

from Squire-Dylon, informing him that Dylon had become serious and a
Squire-level was incoming. The Stinger was already too far gone and couldn't
be stopped. Instead, an instant before Squire Dylon's attack had begun, he had
brought his guard up and dipped backward swiftly, hoping that the backward
and downward motion would reduce the damage inflicted.
The VOID algorithm went into overwork as Rui predicted the exact trajectory
of the attack, doing everything he could to minimize the damage.
BOOM!!!
Rui had thought he knew what it was like to be hit hard, but he had realized
how naÃ¯ve he had been. A Squire-level haymaker had landed on his guard.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
The sheer initial impact had mangled his arms as Squire Dylon launched him
flying. Rui blasted past the walls of the facility violently as he flew past it,
crashing and breaking multiple trees until his momentum had finally been
bled out.
The last thing he felt before he lost consciousness was excruciating pain.
And somewhere within all that pain was immense awe. He was in awe of the
power of a higher Realm. ('Damn... I'll obtain that power someday...')
His eyes closed as he lost consciousness due to the blunt force trauma, still
managing to use Final Breathing.
Squire Dylon flew out of the facility as he Sky Walked in the air, looking for
Rui with one eye. His other one had been bleeding due to the attack, but he
didn't seem to care in even the slightest. He spotted Rui in an instant as he
instantly reached him.
"What have I done?!" He gritted his teeth as he immediately pulled out a

healing potion, allowing Rui to consume it.
This was against medical protocols for serious injuries since there could be
complications at times, but Dylon didn't care. Everything could be fixed as
long as Rui was alive, but everything was lost if he died from profuse blood
loss or some internal organ rupture. The potion healed the wounds, but the
bones in his arm were still bent unnaturally. The sheer force of the blow had
completely broken them immediately. In fact, Dylon was surprised it didn't
do more damage. Rui wasn't even a defensive Martial Apprentice, he
wondered if he really had grown weaker over the years.
Once he had stabilized Rui's condition, he finally exhaled in relief as he

studied Rui in confusion and surprise.
('What the fuck was that thing he did?') He wondered. ('It's as if he became a
Martial Squire magically.')
He shook his head after thinking about it for a while, sighing. "I'm probably
going to get fired."
Not that he was particularly resentful of it, he knew the gravity of what he
had done. If he had done it against almost any other Martial Apprentice
student in the Academy, they would have died on the spot and that would
have been absolutely catastrophic for the Martial Academy.
He glanced back at Rui with a look of admiration and pride.
"Hehehe, the world isn't ready for when this kid climbs up the Realms." He
chuckled.
Funnily enough, this hadn't been the first time Rui had been defeated by a
Squire-level technique. He, along with Kane, had been knocked by Squire
Kyrie with a Squire-level technique. Although, she had done it in an
extremely safe manner with the precision of a surgeon while Squire Dylon
had done it in the most extreme way possible.
Of course, their circumstances had been extremely different.
Rui had woken in the medical wing of the Academy later. The first thing he
did was glance at his arms.
"All healed up." He sighed with relief. They had been crushed by a single
attack from a Martial Squire. "Man, he's so strong."
Rui muttered, sighing as he tried to squash his increasingly intense desire to

break through into the Squire Realm. But alas, it wasn't time yet.
He closed his eyes as he directed his thoughts toward his Martial Art. He
didn't quite feel the instinctive certainty about the maturity of his Martial Art
that he had been told he would feel once his Martial Art reached maturity.
He shook his head. "Perhaps it will come once I cement my current level of
power with experience."
It wasn't impossible after all.
He put those thoughts aside as he considered his situation at the moment.

('What to do from here?')
His immediate goals were, of course, still Squire candidacy and the Squire
Realm, but he still had to plan and take steps to reach that level.
"For now... it's time to leave the Martial Academy." Rui murmured.
He had long anticipated the arrival of this milestone; his graduation from the
Academy. It had been nearly a perfect three years since he first joined the
Martial Academy. He had already become sixteen years old. "So much has
happened since I joined."
He thought back to his journey within the Martial Academy. From the time
he had joined, entering the Foundation Stage that had honed his body and
bare basic hand-to-hand capabilities. The Exploration Stage had given him a
taste of what Martial Art really was like and soon after he had discovered his
Martial Path with Project Water.
What followed was an exciting journey of training and growing stronger

while experiencing the world through his many missions. The Martial
Contest had been a highlight, allowing him to compare himself with his many
peers across the Kandrian Empire. He had stepped outside the Kandrian
Empire for the first time only when he had accepted his very first
international commission, learning more about the world outside the
Kandrian Empire.
And now he had come to the stage where the Martial Academy could no
longer provide him any meaningful value. He did not want to continue being
a student if that was the case.
"Apprentice Quarrier?" A nurse noticed him awake. "I see you're awake.
How are you feeling?"
"Perfectly fine actually." Rui replied. "My arms are fixed."
"Indeed." The nurse replied. "We've completely treated and healed all your
wounds. We'll just conduct a final check-up, and then you'll be discharged
immediately."
It wasn't long before Rui left the medical wing in his sparring uniform,
heading straight to the offensive technique training facility.
"You're back!" Squire Dylon exclaimed when he saw Rui walking in.
Rui smiled in response. "Instructor Dylon."
"I'm really sorry for what I did, my boy." Dylon sighed as he apologized. "I
lost control there for a second."
Rui shrugged. "No worries, sir. In hindsight, it gave me a much better

understanding of what Martial Squires actually are capable of. Squire Kyrie
has always held back and the Martial Squire my friends and I defeated could
not be considered a genuine Martial Squire. In hindsight, I'm glad that you
did what you did."
Rui nodded, consoling Dylon.
"I'm glad you feel that way." Dylon sighed in relief. "Though I wouldn't hold
it against you if you were resentful. A direct hit with a Squire-level attack
would kill most Martial Apprentices."
Rui shook his head, chuckling. The two bantered some more as Rui revealed
that he was going to be leaving the Martial Academy very soon.
"Is that so..." Squire Dylon sighed, with a mixed smile. "I might be joining
you very soon."
"Did you plan to retire as an instructor?" Rui knitted his eyebrows in

confusion.
"No." He shook his head. "But, the accident in our spar might lose me my
job."
Rui's eyes narrowed at those words. "I see... Don't worry, I'm sure that the
Martial Academy will recognize that this isn't something worth losing a
Martial Squire instructor of your caliber. I have learned a lot from you, and
I'm grateful for all of it. I'm sure there are many Martial Apprentices who feel
the same way."
"You're going to bring tears to the eyes of this old man." Squire Dylon
chuckled, before gesturing Rui away. "Good luck, and goodbye."
Rui left the training facility after bidding him goodbye before immediately
heading to the reception of the Martial Academy.
"Excuse me?" Rui asked one of the support staff.
"Yes? How may I help you?" She asked.
"May I have a sheer of paper and a pen?" He asked, promptly accepting them
from her.
He sat down at one of the tables and began writing a letter. It took him nearly
ten minutes before he was done. He walked over to the receptionist before
handing her the piece of paper. "Could I request you to please pass on that
letter to headmaster Aronian?"
"Of course, Apprentice Quarrier." The receptionist bowed towards him,

carefully accepting the folded letter.
"Thank you." Rui turned around as he made his way back to his dormitory
room. He had plenty to think about now that he had finished some smaller
matters. Yet immediately, a staff member come to inform him that the
headmaster had summoned him.
"Right now?" Rui asked.
"Yes." The staff member replied.
"Alright." Rui nodded. ('That was quick.')
It took him a while, but he reached the headmaster's office shortly.
"Headmaster Aronian." Rui bowed deeply as he expressed the respect earned

by a Martial Artist of the upper Realms.
Chapter 381 Discussion
"Hm." Headmaster Aronian nodded. "Interesting letter. You don't want

Squire Dylon to be penalized for his actions?"
"Yes sir." Rui nodded, affirming. "He certainly didn't mean any harm and the
accident wasn't truly his fault. I'm certain I could force a similar reaction out
of every Martial Squire that wasn't aware of that capability of mine."
"You can, can you?" Headmaster Aronian chuckled.
"I'm certain that I can." Rui reaffirmed, projecting confidence.
In truth, he didn't truly know that for a fact. But he wanted to make sure to
convey that Dylon wasn't particularly at any fault.
"Your statement will be taken into consideration. However, not only can I not
promise anything, I cannot divulge any information on the matter to a mere
student." Headmaster Aronian firmly said.
"I see, thank you for hearing me out regardless, headmaster." Rui sighed. He
couldn't really do anything beyond appealing for Squire Dylon.
"As for the other matter mentioned in the letter." Headmaster Aronian
glanced back at it.
"I believe it's time for me to leave the Academy. I just wanted to consult you
on the matter." Rui confirmed.
"Hoho." He chuckled in response. "I do not have any input to offer outside of
encouraging you to do what you feel is best."
"I see..." Rui murmured. "In that case, I would like to graduate as soon as
possible."
"Alright then." Headmaster Aronian nodded. "That can be arranged. Your

learner's license will be updated to a full-fledged Martial license once you do
graduate and the debt you undertook when you enrolled in the Acadamy will
be in effect in the new contract you sign with the Martial Union. You do
recall the terms and conditions of the contract, yes?"
"A quarter of my earnings of the fifty-fifty split goes to the Martial Union
until the debt is repaid" Rui nodded, sighing.
This meant he would receive only thirty-seven-point-five percent of the total

commission paid for every mission he successfully completed. The silver
lining of the matter was that the Martial Union did not charge any interest
over debt. As long as Rui paid back the exact amount he had borrowed, the
debt was considered settled.
This was an odd policy on the surface, but Rui understood the reason for it.
The fundamental and most important goal of the Martial Academy was to
produce as many competent Martial Artists as possible, not to make as much
money as possible. Crippling young graduates with a brutal interest rate that
would compound over the years and suffocate them for more than a decade
was not the intention of the Martial Union.
Enacting such a policy would only reduce the power of these young Martial
Artists due to their inability to purchase techniques and training resources due
to being crippled by debt. It would also result in an increase in the mortality
rate of young graduates while completing missions due to hindered capability
to purchase necessary and vital tools needed for completing missions, like
potions.
This was a disastrous outcome for the Martial Union. Thus, the debt did not
compound interest. Nor was there a time limit to the debt. It did not shackle
the young graduates, merely put pressure on them to complete missions at a
higher rate.
"It's a good thing you have accumulated a lump sum of Martial credits."
Headmaster Aronian chimed in. "Credits can be exchanged with the Kandrian
currency, and you're going to need funds immediately after you graduate."
Rui nodded. Once he graduated, he could no longer mooch off of the Martial
Academy for providing the resources needed for completing missions. He
would need to purchase every tool, potion, mask, and other item mandated
and recommended to be carried by the Martial Union.
All this time, the Martial Academy had funded the supplies for those
resources, and the debt he had incurred included the cost of three years' worth
of supplies of needed resources. It would take him a long time of sustained
missions to repay all of the debt he owed the Martial Academy and the
Martial Union by extension.
"Have you decided what classes of missions you are most interested in?"
Headmaster Aronian asked.
Generally, Martial Artists used their time in the Martial Academies to get a
good understanding of each class of missions before sticking to one,
sometimes two classes of missions. Generally, offense-oriented Martial
Artists stick with offense-oriented missions, and occasionally hunter-class
missions. Defense-oriented Martial Artists did the same with defense-class
missions and hunter-class as well. However, the situation was usually more
complicated for non-specialists, especially non-specialists like Rui who was
an all-rounder.
He had no particular affinity to any of the classes of missions in particular.

Since his last training stage, he had mastered techniques that would allow
him to be competent at even shadow-class missions.
"I'm afraid I haven't decided yet." Rui said. "I think I'll just stick to all
classes, I don't have any particular affinities within them and I do think I
would be better off if I periodically completed missions from all of them. I
was especially surprised at how well a lot of miscellaneous missions suited
me." Rui noted.
The representative missions with Nartha gave him a chance to test himself
against a wide variety of Martial Artists. He had served as her representative
fighter many a time.
"I see." Headmaster Aronian nodded. "That is a model that most all-rounders
like yourself adopt, however that needn't be the case with you."
"Why do you say that?" Rui asked inquisitively.
"Because you have garnered a large number of personal commissions."

Headmaster Aronian replied simply. "Thanks to that you have gained access
to commission opportunities that most Martial Artists won't."
"Ah..." Rui scratched his head awkwardly.
His commission inbox had blown up with commissions from many elite and
wealthy clienteles across the nation. There were a number of reasons for this.
His fame as the Martial Contest finalist, his fame in the Martial Games, and
the fame he acquired thanks to killing Squire Freelia Caella. He had become a
bit of a celebrity in the Martial circles of the Kandrian Empire.
Chapter 382 Inspection
"It's true," Rui admitted. "Personal commissions are quite interesting and
unique many a time."
"Indeed. They're generally quite lucrative." The headmaster added. "Though

their difficulty is usually higher too."
"Although I enjoy personal commissions, I prefer international missions

more." Rui chimed.
"Oh?" Headmaster Aronian raised an eyebrow in interest. "Why is that?"
"Well. I learn more about this world through them." Rui replied. "It's a big
wide world out there, I don't want to limit myself to the Kandrian Empire. I
also want to visit the Beast Domain on a mission this if possible."
"Adventurous, aren't you?" The headmaster smiled, amused. "The Beast

Domain is quite dangerous. Be prepared, or else you will die."
"I will, headmaster." Rui nodded.
The jovial headmaster humored Rui for some time before their conversation
came to a halt. They discussed a few more things of greater note, such as
Rui's graduation, before the headmaster concluded their talk, bidding Rui
farewell.
"Thank you for all your help not just with these matters, but also for
everything in the past three years." Rui bowed deeply with sincere respect
and gratitude.
"Hoho, not at all." Headmaster Aronian. "Be careful and never forget; always
be true to your Martial Path."
"Yes sir." Rui nodded. "Goodbye."
He turned around, leaving the headmaster's office as he sighed in relief,

massaging his head. Headmaster Aronian was a pleasant person, but as a
Martial Master, the pressure he exerted on Rui was not small. Rui felt like a
weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.
"What now?" He wondered aloud.
He strolled around the Academy aimlessly as he immersed himself in his

thoughts. "Hm..."
His mind fell back to the spar with Squire Dylon. He had learned a lot about
his new combat prowess in that sparring match thanks to facing an opponent
who could actually take him on and defeat him soundly, although he was
defeated more soundly than he had hoped for.
Still, there were plenty of conclusions that could be drawn from it. "The
Mindmirror brain really is something else. It was an absolutely perfect move
on my part to purchase that technique."
He didn't normally toot his own horn, but the Mindmirror Symbiote had
turned out to be such an extraordinarily powerful and compatible technique
that purchasing it was probably the second most important purchase of a
technique he had ever made. The top spot, of course, went to the Mind Palace
technique which was the only reason the VOID algorithm was viable in the
first place.
He had cleared most of the difficulty of the grade-ten difficulty of the

technique as well. The only existing negative impact was his sleeplessness
tolerance. He sighed as he painfully recollected that this would be the last
time he could purchase and master six techniques in six months.
He could quite clearly feel the strain that the Secondary Brain permanently
exerted on his brain from the moment he finished his Mind Embed fully.
Normally, the host of the symbiote would need to sleep for an extra few
hours so that the brain could use that rest time to recover from the fatigue
caused by the strain that the Mindmirror Symbiote exerted on his brain.
However, his mind was capable of bearing the strain without needing extra
sleep. However, he would no longer be able to go for long periods without
sleep now.
"Still, it was worth it." Rui shook his head. The sheer boost in the perfection
with which he used the VOID algorithm alone was worth it. But the general
overall boost to his combat prowess was not small. With his current prowess,
Rui was truly a cut apart from his peers.
However, the Mindmirror Symbiote wasn't the only thing he had mastered in
his training stage. Although it had certainly stolen the spotlight, it wasn't the
only technique he had mastered.
The Mind Mask technique was also a spectacular success. It was a shocking
success. At the very least, he had come prepared with what to expect with the
Mindmirror Symbiote, but he had been absolutely shocked by the results of
the Mind Mask technique.
How on Earth could he have known he would have projected Squire-level

danger and pressure? He had simply done his best. The interaction between
the Mindmirror Symbiote and the Mind Mask techniques was almost unfairly
effective.
"Putting those two freaks aside, the other techniques were also quite solid."
Rui nodded.
The Shadow Step techniques was a very good technique by itself, however,
when he paired it up with the Mind Mask technique, its effectivity rose
significantly. Together they were on par with grade-nine techniques rather
than the grade-seven technique that it originally was. Furthermore, if used in
combination with Blink, then it was truly a force to be reckoned with.
Although it still felt short of Kane's Void Step technique, Rui could take
pride in his stealth capabilities.
"The Final Breathing technique was also effective." Rui nodded. He had used
it when Squire Dylon had walloped him away with a Squire-level attack, it
had mitigated the damage significantly even after he lost consciousness. It
was a technique that could be used even when unconscious.
"The Reverberating Lance was certainly good... But unfortunately, Martial
Squires aren't the right opponents to get a good understanding of it." Rui
murmured.
Martial Squires were essentially hyper-evolved human beings as far as

physique went. Unlike Martial Apprentices, their inner body wasn't weak and
easy to hurt as a Martial Apprentice. Therefore the Reverberating Lance
technique did not have too much relevance when he, a Martial Apprentice,
used it against a Martial Squire, it simply wasn't as effective as it was. Thus,
he didn't get too good of a grasp of how strong the technique was.
"Should I hit Nartha up?" He wondered, before shaking his head.
The Martial Apprentices of the Martial Games weren't weak in general, but
they certainly weren't a threat to him at his current level.
"People are either too strong or too weak." He sighed. He wondered if there
were other Martial Apprentices out there who were also perhaps quasi-Squire
level like he was.
Chapter 383 Graduation
"Maybe there are beasts in the Beast Domain who can suit my needs." Rui
pondered aloud. If Martial Artists weren't able to cut it, then maybe powerful
Apprentice-level beasts could.
After all, wasn't the whole purpose of purchasing the Reverberating Lance
technique to be able to harm beasts with great body mass?
Rui shrugged. "Alright, why not?"
He put that on his checklist. He had planned to enter the Beast Domain before
he entered his last training stage.
"But there's still something left to do before that..." Rui murmured.
A week passed.
The many Martial Apprentices of the Martial Academy had gathered at the
main hall of the Martial Academy before the elevated podium. Upon the
podium was Headmaster Aronian. He gazed at all the Martial Apprentices
before him, before addressing them.
"Today we gather to celebrate the graduation of a peer of all of you. A fellow

peer who joined the Academy and is now ready to step out and move forward
with his life." He began, before continuing. "The Martial Academy is a haven
for Martial Art. It fosters the foundations needed for Martial Art in the
Foundation Stage while also creating an environment within which all of you
could immerse yourselves within yourselves and Martial Art before
discovering your Martial Path."
He paused, before continuing. "Yet there comes a time when your Martial
Path grows too deep for a mere academy to contain. Someday all of you will
depart this place that has sustained your growth, as you follow your Martial
Path. Someday this place will cease to be a haven and turn more into a
shackle. When that day comes, you will leave, as you must. Today is that day
for Apprentice Rui Quarrier. He joined this Academy three years ago, and
today is that day. The day he departs this Academy and becomes a true full-
fledged and independent Martial Artist. Please welcome Apprentice Rui
Quarrier for his farewell with a round of applause."
Headmaster Aronian gestured at Rui as he walked on stage, drowned by a

wave of loud applause. It took more than just several seconds for the
applause to die down. The Martial Apprentices of the Martial Academy had
come to develop an immense amount of respect and admiration for him, and
it reflected. He was a source of inspiration for many who had witnessed his
astronomical rise in the span of three years in the Academy. There were more
than just a few Martial Apprentices in the crowd who were part of his batch
of students of the Martial Academy, although that fact did not matter once
students reached the Explorer Stage.
"Ahem." Rui cleared his throat as the applause finally died down. "I won't
bore all of you with a super long boring speech, especially since this will
probably be the last time I see many of you. In the past three years, I have
shared countless spars with all of you. We have all forged ourselves with the
heat of our peers and we have all grown stronger as a result. I do believe that
I would not be here today if not for you, my peers, and especially those of
you that I truly consider friends."
He said as he grinned at the beaming faces of his Kane, Fae, Nel, Hever,
Milliana, and Dalen down at the crowd.
"I would like to thank all of you, not just my peers and friends, but also all of
the Squire instructors of our Academy for all the tutelage and guidance you
have showered me with as I pursued my Martial Path and developed my
Martial Art. I would like to extend a special thanks to instructor Kyrie and
instructor Dylon for the aid they have provided me with in my time in the
Academy." Rui mentioned both of them. "I would like to thank headmaster
Aronian who has aided me with his wisdom whenever I was in need of it. I
would like to thank all of the staff of the Martial Academy for ensuring this
gigantic and complex institute is always running smoothly. Thank you all for
all you've done for me. I will now be taking the next step into the next phase
of my life and I hope that all of you succeed in the pursuit of your Martial
Path. Thank you, and farewell."
He bowed deeply as not only the Martial Apprentices but all those who had
attended the convocation began clapping loudly. A thunderous applause
resonated across the hall as Rui rose before making his way off the podium
and into the crowd.
He interacted with all of them, accepting their congratulations and well

wishes until he reached his friends.
"So." Kane sighed. "You're leaving already huh?"
"You're supposed to say 'congratulations Rui' there." Fae threw a

disapproving look at him.
"Wait till I graduate!" Nel grinned. "I'll be even stronger than you!"
"Good luck with your further endeavors." Hever calmly wished him,
nodding.
"It feels quite surreal to think that you'll be leaving the Academy," Dalen
muttered.
"Congratulations." even the normally mute Milliana wished him.
"Thanks." Rui laughed, before reassuring all of them. "Nothing much

changes, if you ask me. We can still hang out and even complete missions
together regardless."
They bantered a bit before he bade them an emotional farewell before

heading back to his dorm room with Kane.
On his bed lay the same old cloth back that he had brought with him when he
first joined the Martial Academy three years ago. The sight of it still brought
back waves of nostalgia from back then. He felt wistful about leaving the
Martial Academy, yet his eagerness of being an independent full-fledged
Martial Artist was even greater.
"So you're really leaving huh?" Kane sighed.
Rui turned to face him. "Hey man, cheer up. You're still my best friend. We
can still hang out and do missions together."
"Yeah, it's just going to get duller without you here anymore." Kane sighed.
"Maybe I ought to leave the Martial Academy too."
Chapter 384 Return
"Are you ready to leave the Academy?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
Generally, students graduated when the Academy no longer provided much

utility to them, or when they were no longer merited to remain in the Martial
Academy. In either case, the Martial Academy would graduate them and they
would go on to operate as full-fledged Martial Artists.
"No," Kane admitted, sighing. "I need to grow stronger if I want to be able to
forcefully gain my independence from Arrancar Family. Furthermore, if I
leave now I'll just end up under their clutches."
"Right." Rui nodded, sighing. "Do what's best for your future Kane, that's
what's most important at the end of the day."
"Yeah, I know, it's just a shame we won't be able to hang out anymore," Kane
remarked.
"Like I said, we can still take missions together," Rui told him. "So cheer up,
it's not all that bad."
"Yeah, I know." Kane sighed gloomily.
Soon it was time for Rui to depart the Martial Academy. He took his time
bidding farewell to the many acquaintances he had made in his time in the
Martial Academy. His close friends, peers, instructors, and other staff. Finally
he stood at the gate, ready to leave.
"Man." Rui muttered. "I'm going to miss this place."
He turned around and walked past the gates of the Martial Academy, no
longer a student.
From now on, he was a full-fledged independent Martial Artist. And now the
burden of debt that he had incurred over the past few years would not
actually be placed on his shoulders. The net sum had been calculated and
given to him before he departed, and the sheer amount was not something
that could be repaid in any short amount of time.
"For now, I should forget about staying independent." Rui shook his head.
He immediately began jogging towards the Quarrier Orphanage. This is

where he would be staying until he repaid all his debt, at the very least.
It didn't take long for Rui to reach the Quarrier Orphanage. He was greeted
the second he reached the gates.
"RUIIII!" Alice squealed energetically when he reached the Orphanage, as

she pulled him for a hug. "You've grown so tall!"
"Thanks." Rui squeezed. "Good to see you too, Alice. You're choking me you
know."
"Ahhh~ my bad my bad." She laughed as she let go of Rui. "Come in. I'm so
glad you're back!"
Rui let her drag her in with an amused smile as the other members of the
Orphanage. The children and the adults of the Quarrier Orphanage quickly
swarmed him as they greeted him.
"Congratulations on graduating from the Academy." Farion smiled as he

hugged Rui.
"Hehe, so you've become a full-fledged Martial Artist now, eh?" Nina smiled.
"Congratulations Rui." Julian smiled welcomingly. "You've truly come a long

way."
"Big brother!" Max and Mana greeted him as the children followed suit.
"You're back, teach us Martial Art."
"Alright alright." Rui laughed. "Good to finally be back with all of you."
"Rui." Lashara called out to him.
"Mom." Rui walked towards her.
"My precious baby." She pulled him for a hug.
He remained lowered until she was finally satisfied, letting go. "You'll be
staying here?"
"For the foreseeable future, surely." Rui confirmed.
The orphanage fawned over him some more before finally letting him be.
"Phew." He collapsed into a couch.
"So." Julian sat across from him. "What do you plan to do from here on?"
"Nothing much has changed really." Rui shrugged. "I don't believe I'm too far
from the Squire Realm, and that is my immediate goal."
"I see." Julian sipped some tea. "Will the debt hinder you too much?"
"Hmmm..." Rui pondered. "It will impede me to a certain extent I would

imagine, but it doesn't change too much. At the end of the day, I still plan on
completing missions and that doesn't change regardless if I'm in debt or not."
"What about the cost of training and growth resources?" Julian asked.
Previously, the cost of the training and growth resources were all covered by
the Martial Academy outside of the cost of gaining access to techniques. Rui
could simply walk in and purchase the techniques that he wanted and
immediately begin training with the training equipment and resources that he
needed while being guided by a veteran Martial Squire with a large amount
of experience in guiding Martial Apprentices with the training and mastery of
those particular techniques. He could use all the rejuvenation potions he
wanted in the world without a care.
"Well..." Rui scratched his head awkwardly. "That's going to be much harder
than it used to be."
The Martial union offered essentially the exact same resources the Martial
Academy did, but all of them cost the Martial Apprentices. These resources
weren't cheap.
"Thankfully, my training and growth resources needs have reduced

tremendously." He told Julian.
"Oh?" Julian frowned. "Why is that?"
Rui proceeded to tell Julian everything about the Mindmirror Symbiote.
"Fascinating." Julian's eyes lit up with interest. "That's quite remarkable. I

know of symbiotic Martial Art, but I've never heard about the Mindmirror
Symbiote before. It's genuinely shocking to know that such extreme
symbiotes exist."
"Yeah." Rui nodded. "I was pretty shocked too."
"In that case, the reduced training and mastery speed might actually be
perfectly timed." Julian speculated. "Since you no longer have the ability to
train for free, it's quite likely that the debt you're enduring will also prevent
you from training at your previous speed. So your financial constraints match
your mental constraints."
Rui nodded. "True, this is one of the considerations I had when I picked the
Mindmirror Symbiote for my previous training stage. I knew I would be
leaving the Martial Academy once the training stage ended. Thus, it would
coincide very well with my debt constraints and I would avoid wasting
potential that could have been used to grow stronger faster."
"That's quite wise of you." Julian nodded.
The two of them conversed for quite some time before it was time for lunch."
Chapter 385 Purchase
Rui spent a few days with the Quarrier Orphanage as he took his time to
settle in. The Quarrier Orphanage had grown a lot thanks to the number of
adults working in the orphanage that had grown since Rui was a child as well
as Julian's funding and support. Rui got his own room in the Quarrier
Orphanage, which was certainly something he needed. Although he loved his
family dearly, he had become extremely accustomed to privacy in the Martial
Academy and was not willing to go back to the dormitory halls if he could
have avoided it.
Even in his previous life on Earth, he had valued his privacy immensely. In
the early years of his second life, he had willingly tolerated the dormitory hall
because of the fact that he was still a child. But now he was a contributing
adult and he had the right to his own room. His being a Martial Artist was
also quite helpful in that Martial Artists had a special status in human
societies.
After a few days of getting acclimatized to living in the Quarrier Orphanage,

he had decided it was time to resume his mission undertaking. He headed
over to the Martial Union headquarters early in the morning that day, looking
for missions.
"Excuse me." Rui addressed a staff member after having reached the
commissions' department. "May I gain access to my inbox of personal
commissions?"
"Of course." She replied. "Is there something wrong with your accounter?"
"My accounter?" Rui frowned. "What's that?"
"Ah, you aren't aware." She surmised. "An accounter is a device that allows
you to access your account at the Martial Union that allows you to access the
information pertaining to you in the Martial Union such as your profile, data
on the missions you've completed, your inbox, and other aspects of you as a
Martial Artist. It also allows for easier communication between you and
others to contact you whether it be from within the Martial Union or clientele
interested in contacting you. It's not mandatory or necessary, but generally,
Martial Artists with a need to have quick and easy access to this information
purchase one."
"I see." Rui's eyes lit up. "Where can I purchase one?"
"You can purchase them at the commercial wing of the Martial Union." She
replied.
"Thank you."
Rui immediately headed to the commercial wing. It was an entire chunk of

the Martial Union, extending over a wide area. There were various sections
within the commercial wing selling all kinds of products for Martial Artists
including potions, garbs, masks, monoculars, and other tools Martial Artists
generally carried or used when completing missions.
"Wow." Rui murmured. He felt as though he had entered one of the gigantic
shopping mall complexes from Earth. "Guess this won't be the last time I
come here."
From this point on, he would need to purchase his own supplies by himself
from the shopping wing. No longer would things be handed to him on a silver
platter.
"Excuse me." He addressed one of the support staff members in the digital
device section of the commercial wing. "I'm looking for an accounter."
"Of course." She replied. "What kind of an accounter are you looking for?"
"My knowledge of the devices is extremely shallow, but I would like one
with longevity and high functionality in the basic features of an accounter.
Meaning I can reliably access my profile and inbox and contact people
reliably at all times. However, I do not require any additional features."
"Understood, in that case, I would recommend the SM-16 to you." She

brought out a box with a product in it. "It's part of the standard model series
developed by the Martial Union itself specifically meant for its reliability in
the basic features that it has. It's one of the most common no-nonsense type
digital accounters that allow you to rely on it at any time."
Rui nodded. "How much does it cost?"
"About ninety-three gold coins and seven silver coins." She replied. "About
two thousand four hundred and forty Martial credits."
Rui winced at the price, before slightly shaking his head. This largely
confirmed what he had always suspected about digital technology based on
esoteric resources. Fifty-three gold coins were an immense sum for a single
digital device. A single gold coin was worth ten silver coins and a silver coin
was worth a hundred bronze coins.
The lower echelons of the Kandrian Empire earned and spent bronze and
silver coins. Middle-class citizens earned and spent silver and gold coins
whereas only the upper class of society could really afford to splurge ninety-
three gold coins on a single digital device such as an accounter of this sort.
This reinforced the fact that the cost of production of digital currency was
high, too high for it to be viable for mass production. It was quite likely the
cost of the esoteric compounds that allowed for the digital device to function
were valuable and uncommon. This was really the only plausible reason why
it cost nearly a hundred gold coins for a digital device that, on Earth, wouldn't
have cost him more than fifty dollars.
Once he made the purchase, she quickly set up the device and registered him
into his account, and showed him how to use it.
The display technology was not nearly as refined as the display technology of
Earth, but it served its purpose. It was a little choppy and rough compared to
high definition display technology of Earth.
"...And this is how you view your inbox." She finished her explanation. "It
runs of energy cells that need to periodically be replaced. It is recommended
that you purchase an extra cell and keep it on your person at all times so that
you can easily replace it if the cell dies during an important time. It has a
warranty of three months so be mindful of that as well."
"How much does the cell cost?" Rui inquired.
"About twenty-five gold coins." She replied straightforwardly.
"..."
Chapter 386 Interesting
Rui took a seat after he purchased his accounter. He scrolled through his
profile in interest.
"Grade ten." He murmured. He felt the grade was no longer apt for his
current level of power. He was a grade-ten Martial Apprentice even before he
grew significantly stronger thanks to the previous training stage.
He scrolled through his profile, glancing over all the details it specified
before going over his inbox. He had opened his inbox for commissions a
while back when he came out of training.
"Woah." His eyes widened. "Three hundred and twelve personal

commissions?!"
Rui's fame had pierced into the right circles in the Kandrian Empire. There
were many with more than enough wealth to commission him, who were
willing to splurge in order to gain the services of one of the best Martial
Apprentices in the Kandrian Empire.
Of course, the only reason not every single clientele in the Kandrian Empire
coveted him was because there often was a thin line between peak Martial
Apprentices and Martial Squires in so far as whether wealthy clientele wished
to hire the former or the latter. If a mission was difficult even by grade-ten
standards, then many wealthy clientele would rather not take any chances and
hire a Martial Squire who is guaranteed to succeed.
Rui sat down as he took his time browsing through the many personal
commissions made for him. They were, as always, diverse and varied.
The sheer number of personal commissions he had received were not

something he would be able to finish in a short period of time. He quickly
began screening them one by one.
"Man." He muttered. "There are so many personal commissions for a

personal fighter."
Ever since his identity got revealed in the Martial Games he had eternally
been flooded by commissions to represent the clientele as their representative
fighter in events similar to the Martial Games across the Kandrian Empire.
The many elite participants of the Martial Games had finally learned of his
true identity and sought to commission him with hefty bonuses, hoping to
rope him in.
Of course, Rui wasn't all that interested in permanently participating in the

Martial Games. The Martial Games was perfect for him a year ago, but at his
current level of power, he was too strong for any Martial Apprentice he had
ever faced.
He ignored all representative fighter commissions for the time period.
He also threw away all defense-class missions. Frankly, they weren't worth
the time in his opinion. These missions despite their difficulty never fully
guaranteed conflict that would give him the real combat experience that he
was looking for. Unless he was absolutely certain he would see action, he
would rather avoid bodyguard missions if he could.
"There is a surprising amount of shadow class missions." His eyes lit up in

interest. "Maybe I'll take one of them this time around."
He didn't expect to be personally commissioned with shadow class missions

because they were usually the most divergent and demanding class of
missions as far as the skillset necessary. One needed to have good stealth and
information-gathering capabilities. Rui had no history or experience with
stealth, nor was it indicated in his profile that he had such capabilities, thus
he was a bit curious as to why anyone would commission him for a shadow
class mission.
"Espionage, eh?" He mused as he read through the information volunteered

by a clientele.
[Shadow class mission: Espionage
Clienetele: Hruvalian Inc.
The target of Mission: Freefel limited.
Difficulty grade: 7
Mission commencement: immediate.
Successful remuneration completion: 60 gold coins.
Mission execution location: Freefel limited branch office, the town of Kining,
Kingdom of Verlis.
Mission summary: To gather classified and confidential information on the

research and development projects of the Freefel limited corporation.]
"Interesting." Rui murmured. "The clientele is based within the Kandrian

Empire, but the target is in a different country."
Rui shook his head. Although he was interested in undertaking shadow class
missions, he did not want to engage in something as boring as corporate
espionage. It was one of the most boring kinds of missions that only
exercised stealth and information-gathering capabilities. It wasn't a field that
would give him the real combat experience he was looking for.
It was also the type of mission that required an immense amount of patience.
He was simply unwilling to engage in non-combat-oriented commissions
unless he really needed to.
His need for direct head-on conflict conflicted with how shadow-class
missions worked, fundamentally. The defining condition for a mission to fall
into the shadow class was the necessarily covert nature of the mission. The
missions needed to be furtive and clandestine. This usually meant head-on
open conflict was automatically not an option unless absolutely necessary.
He kept scrolling until he ran into an interesting mission.
[Hunter class mission: Surveillance
Clientele: Ministry of Environment and Ecology
The target of mission: The Serevian Plateau, Beast Domain
Difficulty grade: 9
Mission summary: A variety of mysterious and unnatural environmental and

ecological changes have occurred within the Serevian Plateau. These changes
include changes in migration patterns of fauna, changes in flora density and
distribution, unnatural seismic radiation, and other phenomena. The cause is
suspected to be singular and thus simpler to identify. The mission goal is to
primarily identify the cause and eliminate it if possible.]
"Interesting..." Rui murmured. This was the first mission pertaining to the
Beast Domain that he had ever come across before. What was interesting was
that this wasn't a personal commission but rather a mission recommendation
from the Martial Union as far as compatibility went.
"I suppose the mission does suit me to some extent," Rui admitted. A
phenomenon that required sensory capability, specifically when seismic
radiation was involved was one that he possessed the skill to handle.
Furthermore, the Beast Domain was dangerous even for Martial Apprentices
and only the upper echelons were qualified to enter even the outskirt regions
such as the designated mission location of the mission at hand. Rui stared at it
contemplatively, it was certainly an attractive choice.
Chapter 387 Comprehension
"Well, let me look at some other options before I decide." he shrugged.
He skimmed through his inbox, carefully going through the other missions.
The kinds of missions in his inbox were diverse. The most common class of
missions he got was the defense-class missions followed by the hunter-class
and finally; the offense-class missions. The offense-class missions were the
fewest due to the restriction of offense-class missions
Eventually, he stopped, shaking his head.
"It's not that these missions aren't good, they're just not new or interesting to
me." Rui murmured.
It had been nearly two years since he had begun completing missions, and he
had gained plenty of experience in the offense, defense, hunter, and
miscellaneous classes of missions. The only missions truly outside of his
experience were the Beast Domain and the shadow-class missions.
Although he certainly intended to try his hand at shadow-class missions, for

now, he wanted missions that would put him in head-on straightforward
conflict. This way he could bolster his current Martial Art with experience.
Even if the Beast Domain mission was a surveillance mission, the fact that it
was the Beast Domain and was a grade nine mission meant that the mission
was certainly going to put him to the test. Normally, grade nine missions
were too easy for someone of his caliber, but that applied to human missions.
The VOID algorithm's incompatibility with non-human conflict meant that he
would have a harder time with this mission than he would for any other
human mission of the same grade.
That on top of the fact that he would be visiting the Beast Domain for the
first time made it the most alluring mission in his inbox at the moment.
"Alright. Screw it, let's go ahead with it." He shrugged. It wasn't like he
wouldn't get a chance to undergo the other kinds of missions. He was one of
the most sought-after Martial Apprentices in the Kandrian Empire.
Commissions would flood him regardless of whether he wanted them or not.
Furthermore, the Martial union received a huge influx of commissions from
across the country and from a large number of foreign nations surrounding
the Kandrian Empire in the geographic vicinity.
He headed back to the commissions' department, approaching the support

staff.
"Excuse me." Rui addressed them. "I wish to officially accept a commission
that was recommended to me by the Martial Union."
He said as he showed them the commission that he wanted to accept, as well

as all the details.
"Just one moment." She said taking down the details before operating her
digital terminal. "Please provide me with your Martial license."
Rui reached for his pouch as he procured the shiny glistening license card and
passed it over to her. His learner's Martial license had already been upgraded
to a full-fledged Martial license when he graduated from the Martial
Academy.
"It'll require you to sign some paperwork, sir." She told him as she passed
him a thin stack of paper.
Rui sped through as he sped through the forms filling up the details that
needed to be filled while signing the places that needed to be signed.
"Everything is in order." She nodded after verifying the papers that he

returned, before stamping all of them with the seal of the Martial Union.
"You are now the registered Martial Artist designated to this commission.
Kindly wait as the mission bill is procured by our staff."
Rui nodded. It wasn't long before he was seated at one of the tables engrossed
in the missions bill of the commission.
"Alright now," Rui muttered. "Let's get a closer look at this baby."
The mission bill gave him the context behind the commission after the basic
details.
The Serevian Plateau was a part of the outermost layer of the Beast Domain
that made contact with and even infiltrated into human civilization. It was a
flat plain that extended tens of thousands of square kilometers. It was sort of
a pocket of uninhabited natural land that had penetrated into the human
domain and was somewhat far from the Kandrian Empire geographically, to
the point that it was equally close to the other three first-world nations
geographically.
This meant that if Rui accepted this mission, he would be traveling further
away from the Kandrian Empire than he ever had. This was an exciting
notion for him, he looked forward to being so distant from the Kandrian
Empire for the very first time.
He turned back to the mission bill as he continued reading.
The Serevian Plateau was topographically flat and even, as plateaus always
were. The minimum combat prowess capability required to survive in the
Serevian Plateau was grade seven, as evaluated by the Martial union and the
Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the clientele of the commission.
Rui raised his eyes at those words. ('Grade seven is the bare minimum needed
to survive?')
He frowned. In ordinary natural habitats that weren't considered part of the

Beast Domain, grade-seven Martial Apprentices would be usually at the very
top of the food chain. Yet even in the outermost and safest parts of the Beast
Domain, they were just marginally able to survive in the Beast Domain?
Rui recalled when he was a grade-seven Martial Apprentice, he had been

quite impressive by general standards back then and had been able to reach
the finals of the Martial Contest.
('The Beast Domain must be built different.') He noted while his eyes lit up
with eagerness. He moved on after absorbing the general information on the
Serevian Plateau, reaching the actual point of the commissions.
The Serevian Plateau had very recently experienced a rather bizarre and
abrupt change in several ecological and environmental parameters including
migration patterns, seismic radiation, temperature, and even weather.
Drastic changes in these parameters in a rather brief period of time were quite
confusing and puzzling to the Ministry of Environment and Ecology which
also overlooked the uninhabited natural habitats and environments anywhere
even remotely within the geographic vicinity of the Kandrian Empire.
Chapter 388 Details
The Ministry of Environment and Ecology strongly suspects that the cause
for all the environmental and ecological changes lies at the core of the
Serevian Plateau based on the triangulation of seismic radiation, and
extrapolating from the measurements of the intensity of changes across the
entire region.
That was where Rui came in. The core of the Serevian Plateau was too
dangerous to even grade-nine Martial Apprentices. Only grade-ten Martial
Apprentices were capable of completing the missions. Furthermore, the
number of grade-ten Martial Apprentices who had mastered something like
Seismic Mapping was extremely low. However, that wasn't the only reason
Rui was ideal for the mission.
"Fauna Flow must have been a deciding factor as well," Rui murmured.
Fauna Flow allowed him to communicate with fauna species. The effectivity
of which depended on the intelligence of the creature, in particular, he was
trying to converse with using the technique. This technique likely played a
role in his suitability for the mission. Being able to gather information from
the fauna creatures in the Serevian Plateau likely increased his compatibility
with the mission.
The actual objective of the mission was primarily to gather information about
the phenomenon responsible for the change. To detect, observe, and
rigorously document said phenomenon and potentially eliminate the target if
needed.
The Martial Union and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology provided
him with the devices he would need in order to document the phenomenon
with the required rigor that the Ministry of Environment and Ecology needed.
He would need to operate the surveillance technology after he reached the
core of the Serevian Plateau.
The mission bill specified that he was required to memorize the protocols as
well as the means by which the surveillance and recording device provided to
him was operated. He quickly inputted the data into his mind palace before
quickly absorbing all the data on the functioning of the device.
"Interesting," Rui remarked.
This wasn't the first time a hunter-class mission required him to make use of
surveillance technology to document his findings so that they could be
referenced once the mission concluded. In fact, his very first hunter-class
mission two years ago with the earthen basilisk required him to make use of
similar surveillance technology.
Of course, the surveillance device that he would be required to use in this

mission was much more capable than the surveillance device he had used
back then. The surveillance device back then was no more than a head cam
that took basic photographic evidence of what needed to be documented.
Back then, the Ministry of Environment and Ecology only wanted to figure
out the identity of the earthen basilisk that had been wreaking havoc across
the Shaia Plains.
This time, it wanted to know the cause of a set of high abrupt and complex
ecological and environmental changes to the Serevian Plateau.
This meant that Rui's job would also be considerably more complex. He had
already confirmed that the operation of the surveillance device was not
simple and it would require much more than just straightforwardly pushing a
button.
Still, he had memorized the protocols perfectly and it wouldn't be a problem

for him.
The secondary objective of getting rid of the cause of the environmental and
ecological changes wasn't absolute. The Ministry of Environment and
Ecology would inform him of whether it even had to be fulfilled or not.
This was different from the attitude they took during the earthen basilisk
mission where the elimination of the cause was non-negotiable and the only
thing in question was whether Rui was qualified to undertake that mission.
However, here, there wasn't necessarily as much of an imperative. For one,

the Serevian Plateau was far outside the Kandrian Empire. The large
geographical distinction between the locations of the two meant that it was
extremely unlikely that the events occurring within the Serevian Plateau
could ever affect the Kandrian Empire.
This was quite different from the situation of the Shaia Plains which was
inside the Kandrian Empire. The Ministry of Environment and Ecology kept
a tight leash over the environment and ecological state of the uninhabited
natural habitats within the Kandrian Empire.
In comparison, the situation with the Serevian Plateau was more due to the
professional interest that the Ministry of Environment and Ecology held.
('No, not entirely.') Rui shook his head. ('Although the probability of the
Kandrian Empire being affected by the events of the Serevian Plateau, it's
still not impossible. The earthen basilisk was originally from the Beast
Domain. Yet, it migrated a gigantic distance and became a big problem,
almost catastrophic.')
He hadn't ever heard back from the Ministry on whether the earthen basilisk
hatchlings had been successfully contained by the subterranean Martial
Artists that had been gathered to hunt and exterminate all of them. However,
considering there wasn't an epidemic of earthen basilisks in the Kandrian
Empire, he could be relatively assured they had soundly succeeded.
He wasn't surprised of course; the operation was allegedly led by Martial

Squires. He knew first-hand how strong Martial Squires were. Those earthen
basilisk brats never stood a chance.
However, the earthen basilisks had allegedly migrated due to being too weak
to survive in the Beast Domain. Whatever was affecting the Serevian Plateau
was clearly not weak. If whatever was causing it, being it living or non-
living, were to affect the Kandrian Empire, the results would not be pretty. It
was quite likely that Martial Artists from Realms even above the Squire
Realm may need to be involved.
Rui shook his head, dispelling his pointless speculations. "The mission was to
be commenced immediately. So I guess they won't have a problem if I travel
there immediately."
The journey would take a while, even for him. "I'm going to need several
potions."
He paused at his own words. "Speaking of which, I'll need to start paying for
all of them starting with this mission."
He sighed. Potions weren't cheap and he was going to need more than a few
when entering the Beast Domain. He just hoped his accumulated credit was
good enough.
Chapter 389 Instinct
"Twenty-two gold coins for the recommended number of potions for this
mission?" Rui winced. He was truly starting to feel the absence of the boons
that the Martial Academy granted its students. Back when he was a student,
he didn't need to care about the price of potions of missions. Although the
cost of potions was usually covered in the post-successful completion
commission fee, if he didn't have the money to purchase it ahead of time then
he would not be able to commence the mission.
Furthermore, he used to receive the complete amount Martial Artists were

normally entitled to without actually having to purchase them in the Martial
Academy.
Rui reluctantly coughed up the funds as he placed the potion vials in his
pouch as prepared all the other things necessary. The final necessary piece of
equipment for this mission would be supplied in the dispatch facility.
"Apprentice Quarrier." A staff member bowed before gesturing him to a

device on the table. "This is the bio-recon ES-263 device that you will be
operating in your mission. The mission bill should cover all the information
regarding this device but I shall still provide you with an explanation and
demonstration. The device was designed by the Martial Union and the
Ministry of Environment and Ecology in partnership to make the device user-
friendly enough for Martial Artists who do not possess a background in
Environmental technology."
Rui nodded politely, letting her do her thing. He had found that staff
members tended to waste their time less when he simply let them do as they
pleased. Even when he had shown in the past that he mastered the Mind
Palace technique, the staff members would pester him like he was a child
who could be trusted.
('They must have been scarred by plenty of incompetent yet overconfident
Martial Artists, surely.') He mused.
Thankfully, it didn't take long.
"Any questions?" She asked.
"Just one, can you show me the..." He proceeded to ask a random question to
convince her he was paying attention.
Soon, it was time to depart.
The Serevian Plateau lay straightforwardly far west of the Kandrian Empire.
It was a long journey on foot, even by Martial Artist standards. Rui would
need around five hours to reach the location even if he sprinted the entire
time.
It would take him quite a while and he would require himself to exert himself
to a high degree. He immediately employed his maneuvering techniques as
well as Wind Breathing as he zoomed across the Mantian Region, and
eventually the Kandrian Empire. At his current level, it only took three hours
to exist the Kandrian Empire and head in the direction he wanted.
He had momentarily paused as his departure was recorded by the gate

security. Although he could violate the immigration policies of other nations,
he could not do so for the Kandrian Empire.
However, once he stepped outside the Kandrian Empire, he picked up speed.

It was always fascinating to leave the Kandrian Empire and witness the world
outside the Empire to Rui. Back on Earth, the world was thoroughly
connected with an extremely dense and strong bond of information exchange
thanks to the internet.
However, the same couldn't be said for the Panama Continent. When he
stepped outside the Kandrian Empire, he would come across truly isolated
and disassociated people. People are disassociated with his knowledge and
experience. There truly was a sense of novelty in his travels, a true sense of
exploration, curiosity, and uncertainty. It was truly a euphoric experience.
The temperature did not deviate as much as one would expect, however it
was clear that the other environmental parameters varied greatly. As Rui
traveled, he experienced a wide variety of weather, atmospheres, and
environments.
As time passed. Human civilization grew sparser and scarcer. The touches of
human colonialization and inhabitation began reducing, bit by bit. It was only
some time before he was running through what was effectively a forest
before he even realized.
Five hours passed until he finally reached it.
"Huff... huff..." Rui crouched using his knees as a crutch as he quickly

consumed a physical rejuvenation potion.
He glanced forward, walking slowly toward the edge of a sharp cliff ahead of
him. The cliff sharply descended for hundreds of feet before hitting an even
greater expanse of trees and other vegetation and topography constituting the
jungle down below.
"So this is the Serevian Plateau," Rui mumbled. It was an extended piece of
the Beast Domain that had infiltrated human civilization and had
disconnected a bit from the mainland of the Beast Domain. It was the most
dilute of what the Beast Domain had to offer, yet it was not something that
Rui could dismiss very easily.
"This place..." Rui's eyes narrowed. His augmented Primordial Instinct told
him it wasn't anywhere nearly as simple as it was.
"It gives off a faint sense of peril." He murmured.
He did feel a subtle danger from the Serevian Plateau. He was extremely
trustful of his instincts, especially since he got the Mindmirror Symbiote
technique which had evolved the technique to another level of insight.
Furthermore, it wasn't only that, there was indeed strange seismic radiation
that simply did not occur naturally in normal environments. What was
strange, however, was that Rui was actually having a hard time processing
what the seismic radiation meant. Usually, he could interpret it the way he
interpreted light. But in this particular case, he felt he had never quite
perceived anything quite like it prior.
It was as if it was just meaningless noise and gibberish.
"Coming from deep within the Serevian Plateau." He murmured. He would

need to reach the core in order to learn what the source of the strange seismic
radiation was. Ultimately, that didn't deviate much from his plan in the first
place at all. His goal was always to make it to the core of the Serevian
Plateau, gather as much information as possible, and report back to the
Kandrian Empire and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology.
Chapter 390 Entry
WHOOSH
Rui leaped off the cliff and dived straight down the cliff, plummeting
hundreds of feet from above the ground. He inhaled deeply as he prepared a
Tempestuous Ripple as he reached the ground.
WHOOSH
He released a Tempestuous Ripple downwards as he canceled his

momentum, landing perfectly on the ground. It wasn't that falling from such a
great height would kill him with his defensive techniques, but it certainly
would hurt. He was far away from the Kandrian Empire and it was best he
avoided anything that would affect his condition.
He pulled out a compass as he began jogging in the direction of the core of

the Serevian Plateau. He had memorized the map of the Serevian Plateau that
the mission bill had provided, thankfully. He couldn't afford to get distracted
from his surroundings while travelling in an environment as dangerous as the
Serevian Plateau.
"SCREEEEEETCH." A painful high-pitch screeching roar drew his attention

as a large figure dashed at him with remarkable speed.
WHOOSH
Rui dodged it as he tried to get a better look at the creature that had suddenly
attacked him.
('A darkhide lizard.') Rui recognized the creature. He had memorized all of
the known native fauna species that inhabited the Serevian Plateau. It was a
dangerous predator with an incredibly powerful bite force and potent acid for
saliva that allowed it cut through its prey's body effortlessly.
What surprised Rui was how incredibly swift it was. It could keep up with
him despite the four Apprentice-level techniques he was using to evade it. It
was not a low Apprentice-level beast.
Rui evaded it time after time as it lashed out after him.
BOOM!!
He landed a powerful Flowing Canon, amplified by Flame Breathing, Outer

Convergence, Vital Pressure as well as the momentum generated by his three
maneuvering techniques. It was his most powerful attack as far as impact
went.
Furthermore, Rui used Reverberating Lance to permeate the devastating

impact on the inside of the lizard's body. The impact permeated past the hard
scaly exterior, and tough flesh and crushed the weak and vulnerable inners.
"SCREEEETCH!" The lizard roared as it staggered around in pain, spitting

some green blood.
BOOM!!
The second impact downed it. The beast dropped to the ground, lifeless.
('Reverberating Lance is capable of fulfilling the purpose I bought it for.') Rui

nodded, relieved. If he didn't have the Reverberating Lance technique, he
would have had to pound at the lizard for God knew how long. But the
Reverberating Lance technique was able to expedite the process significantly,
allowing him to take the lizard down much earlier than he would have before.
He immediately turned around and began moving towards the center of the
Serevian Plain, keeping Seismic mapping on high alert as well. He also used
the Mind Mask technique to minimize his presence while using the Shadow
Step technique to misdirect any attention away from him. What surprised him
was how dense the fauna was in the Serevian Plateau. He ran into hordes of
animals as he traveled. Thankfully, he usually avoided them cleanly with the
help of Shadow Step, however, it wasn't an absolutely perfect solution.
Occasionally, he would be detected and would usually be involved in a
scuffle.
Wild dogs. Bears. Wild cats etc. He also ran into a bunch of fantastical
creatures that were exclusive to the world of Gaia and didn't exist in the
world of Earth.
Leucrocutas. Perytons. Catoblepas. Hippogriffs and a variety of other beasts

were pure fiction in the world of Earth but were nothing short of actual in the
world of Gaia.
('I see. So this is why only a grade-seven Martial Artist is the pre-requisite for
survival in the Serevian Plateau.') He mused.
He had detected countless fauna creatures even within the first hour of his
stay in the Serevian Plateau with the help of Seismic Mapping. What he
found was shocking. The average power level of the fauna in the Serevial
Plateau seemed to be extreme low-end of the Apprentice Realm.
This was absolutely stunning to Rui. This meant that Apprentice-level

creatures were the norm, not the outlier. In more normal uncolonized natural
habitats, Apprentice-level creatures were usually the apex predators, like in
the Shaia Plains. But in the Serevial Plateau, they were extremely common, at
least low-grade Apprentice-level creatures were.
The fauna wasn't the only thing extraordinary about the Serevial Plateau. The
Flora was quite astounding as well. The size of the fauna life was much larger
than one would normally expect. These trees and plants were huge, growing
up great heights and widths. What Rui was spooked by despite having read
about was the carnivorous plant species that were common across the
Serevial Plateau. These were huge plants that were otherwise ordinary but
could lash out the hidden fangs and consume large animals that came too
close with swift and powerful lashes.
This was one of the ways the fauna population didn't destroy the forest
despite being so dense. It was because the forest consumed the animals as
well. Truthfully, Rui would have been unable to avoid them all had he not
had his enhanced Primordial Instinct. The two brains processing the
technique allowed him to concretely evade ambushes from carnivorous flora
species.
('I would have at least been injured multiple times without Primordial Instinct
and the Mindmirror Symbiote.') Rui mused. The fact that it took a grade-
seven and grade-ten technique working together for Rui to be able to
guarantee to sense and evade the attacks was rather mind-boggling.
Even the average mid-grade Martial Apprentice would be in extreme danger

in this place. Only higher-grade Martial Apprentices could possibly navigate
the Serevial Plateau confidently.
The forest grew denser and denser as he traversed deeper and deeper into the
Serevial Plateau. The same could be said about the fauna. This was
something Rui found odd. There was no real reason for such a bizarre
population density distribution. It was extremely unnatural and not something
Rui could find an explanation for.
Chapter 391 Gathering
"It's odd that they're grouping up so much the deeper you go into the forest,"
Rui murmured.
What was driving the migration of fauna toward the center of the Serevian
Plateau? The mission bill had mentioned changes in the migration patterns of
the fauna in the Serevian Plateau. Rui wondered if they were referring to this.
"Anyways, is it about time I begin?" Rui murmured to himself as he glanced

to the right gazing down at a lake.
He was required to use the bio-recon surveillance device at eight points

equally distanced from each other and the center of the Serevian Plateau to
gather data on various environmental parameters. Furthermore, he had to do
this multiple times at different distances from the center of the Serevian
Plateau. Essentially, he would be taking environmental data along effectively
all portions of the Serevian Plateau at a certain distance from a certain point
onwards.
As for how he knew whether he was at the required distance to conduct the
eight-point empirical surveillance, he would refer to topological features on
the map and get a roughly accurate estimate of the distance from the center of
the Serevian Plateau. Once that happened, even if he was roughly off, he
would more or less obtain the data he wanted to obtain.
Since there was no such thing as GPS or satellites that would allow him to
reach the exact position, such practices were common and really the only
norm.
He navigated a bit relative to the lake until he stopped.

"Right about here should be fine." He nodded. He plucked out his bio-recon
device and planted it into the ground as per protocols, before hitting a few
buttons.
The device immediately buzzed and whirred. Rui watched on with interest as
he felt the insertion of a thin needle dig into the soil and the extraction of soil
with Seismic mapping. The bio-recon device had taken an incredibly thin but
deep soil sample. The next step involved some more button pressing and
different positioning. It took him several minutes until he had collected the
required data at that particular point. He moved on to the other points, using
the same practice of moving relative to topographical features to find his
spot.
It wasn't easy, as he constantly ran into other beasts and creatures. He

promptly fought them away testing his prowess against different types of
creatures.
The diversity in fauna gave him a lot of data on how the Flowing Void Style
performed against vastly differing species. There were several conclusions he
had been able to draw.
First, the predictive model was surprisingly effective against the various
creatures that he squared off against. It seemed that he was able to eventually
predict their motions with close to the same degree that he predicted humans.
It was surprising, but in hindsight, he should have expected it. The predictive
model was merely just applying statistics and probability to motions and
inferring the probabilities of possible moves based on existing patterns of
motions.
Thus, it could effectively be applied to any dataset of motions within a closed

system. This was a relief to Rui, it meant he would not need to change the
predictive model all that much in order to adapt to the world of Gaia.
However, the same couldn't be said for the adaptive evolution model. The
model that outputted the correct counter move to the predicted move by the
prediction model. This model was incompatible with non-human animals.
However, it was more complicated than that, Rui learned. The adaptive
evolution model was varyingly incompatible with non-human opponents. For
example, it retained a portion of effectivity against four-limbed mammalian
vertebrae creatures with two legs and two arms. This was because there were
surprisingly enough common grounds between these creatures and human
opponents that the adaptive evolution model wasn't entirely obsolete.
However, when the opponent diverged from humans genetically, the adaptive
evolution model grew increasingly obsolete. Once the opponents were non-
vertebrae or had a different number of limbs, then Rui simply tossed it away,
it couldn't even be used at all.
It showed him the scope of the problem in so far as it was related to non-
human creatures.
('This won't be easy.') Rui sighed as he glanced back at an animal that had
approached him threateningly. At this point, Rui was tired of testing the
VOID algorithm against the fauna of the forest.
He used the Mind Mask technique to project a powerful image of himself as

he viably could. The Mindmirror secondary brain chugged alongside as it
aided with the technique parallel to Rui's mind.
He opened his eyes as a Squire-level aura descended onto the area.
The wolf-like creature whimpered in fear as it turned around and fled for its
life, intimidated by the sudden spike in danger that Rui had emanated.
Rui dropped the stealth strategy and went for the intimidation strategy when
gathering data with the bio-recon device, mostly because he was stationary
and couldn't use the Shadow Step technique when stationary. Mind Mask was
powerful but it could not provide him with stealth all by itself.
Instead, using it to fool all the creatures that he was in the Squire Realm was
a much more effective strategy. It was attention-drawing, of course, but
effective nonetheless. It was a bit dangerous in so far as if he ran into a
Martial Artist who approached him despite the Squire-level aura. Which is
why he would rather keep a low profile. He wasn't going engage in flashy
showing off in the middle of a dangerous mission if he could avoid it.
It took him a few hours, but he finally covered all the points he was required
to by protocols.
"Finally done." He huffed before setting back the bio-recon device, before
turning to face front. "Now for some more personal investigation into the
heart of the matter."
He eagerly began traveling towards the heart of the Serevian Plateau as the
explorer within him woke up. He wanted to find out the mystery that lay at
the heart of the continent.
Chapter 392 Discoveries
He dashed forward towards the heart of the Serevian Plateau. His Seismic
Mapping technique picked up unnaturally high and yet fluctuating seismic
radiation incoming from the very direction he was headed at the very
moment. He shed his squire-level mind mask before adopting his stealth
mind mask and activating the Shadow Step technique, becoming incredibly
stealthy and hard to register.
It took him some time but eventually, he reached the heart of the Serevian
Plateau.
"What the..." Rui's eyes widened as he beheld the strange sight in front of
him. "What in the world is this?"
It was so bizarre he couldn't even put it into words.
In front of him was an elevated landmass. The landmass extended beyond

what the eye could see on both sides. It was as though a piece of the tectonic
plate had been elevated by dozens of meters, randomly. It was as though the
landmass had been transported over and dropped onto the center of the
Serevian Plateau.
"What the fuck is this?" He wondered aloud. "How can such a ridiculous
elevation even occur naturally?"
He was no geologist, but he racked his brains, both of them, searching for an
answer.
"Earthquake?" He quickly wondered.
Earthquakes were caused due to shifts of tectonic plates bordering each other.
The shift led to the release of a massive wave of seismic radiation. On the
surface, this seemed to be a logical explanation for why the land was elevated
and what the cause for the seismic radiation he was sensing was.
"No, that makes no fucking sense." He shook his head.
The seismic radiation released by earthquakes was non-uniform and constant

over long periods of time. They were destructive, but acute and didn't last too
long. They certainly didn't last four days without ever once reducing in
intensity.
"Furthermore, if it was an earthquake, I refuse to believe that the Ministry of

Environment and Ecology is incompetent enough to not recognize an
earthquake when they see it." He shook his head. "That's not the only
problem with that option either. This place is too clean to be the epicenter of
an Earthquake."
Earthquakes were destructive. It was absolutely impossible for the structures

atop and around the epicenter to be intact. Yet the surroundings were
remarkably unkempt. Although a few trees at the very edge had been
uprooted due to the split, the surrounding trees were untouched. Even the
nests of birds atop the trees had not fallen off.
"Then what else could it be?" Rui wondered as he turned back to face the
elevated landmass.
He began investigating it deeply with Seismic Mapping. The results were

illuminating.
His eyes widened in shock as a realization hit him. "The roots... The roots of
the trees atop that part of the land have grown so much that they have
elevated the landmass above its normal level!"
He could clearly sense that the roots were enormously thick, thicker than
those of the other trees around him, and had extended far deeper than even
his Seismic Mapping could follow!
Because these roots took up so much space underground, that landmass itself
shifted up due to an increasing lack of space!
"What the fuck kind of trees and roots are those?" He wondered as he used
Seismic Mapping to investigate the structure of the elevated landmass. Due to
being displaced in such a manner, a lot of cracks, breaks, and collapses
occurred within its structure. This resulted in the creation of many natural
caves throughout the landmass. These caves wound about the internal
structure of the elevated section of the landmass, interconnecting with each
other and the surface of the landmass as well, forming a vast underground
cave network.
He also sensed a vast amount of fauna within.
"What's the surface look like? What species are those trees?" He wondered
curiously. He leaped, launching himself to an extremely high height with the
combination of Flame Breathing, and Outer Convergence. He used
Tempestuous Ripple to propel him forward by firing it backward.
STEP
He landed on the surface of the elevated landmass, and his eyes widened,
startled, once more.
"What...?" He squinted, rubbing his eyes before looking back up.
He shook his head. "No no. This isn't really possible..."
He took some more measures before he finally gave and accepted his vision
wasn't faulty.
Before him, was a vast sea of trees.
Except they weren't.
'They' were a single tree!
All of the tree trunks rooted into the ground that looked like they were
separate, were actually all part of the same tree! Their branches were all
connected!
Rui gasped as he walked deeper and deeper. Every single 'tree' was connected
by a branch. The branches were covered in leaves. The sheer number of
branches meant that the leaves covered the entirety of the elevated landmass,
forming some resembling a canopy.
Suddenly, Primordial Instinct sensed danger behind him.
WHOOSH
He somersaulted he evaded an attack.
('A tree branch?') His eyes widened as a terrifying thought entered his mind.
('Is this entire tree a carnivorous species?')
He evaded a few branch attacks as he moved forward. He glanced around

curiously as he stumbled across something quite interesting.
"Fruit?" He glanced at the strange exotic glowing round objects hanging from
branches.
They glowed and vibrated. Rui instinctively felt with Primordial Instinct that
these were no ordinary fruits, they were extremely powerful and energetic.
He reached for one when he sensed something to his right. He turned, coming
face to face with an Apprentice-level monkey-like creature hanging on the
trees.
"AAahh!" The monkey chattered.
Yet, the meaning it wished to convey magically entered his mind.
[Don't touch those. Those are mine.]
The Fauna Flow technique allowed him to understand the meaning the
monkey was trying to convey to him.
Rui snorted. It was merely a high-grade monkey. Rui narrowed his eyes as he
activated the Squire-level Mind Mask to scare the monkey off. Yet the very
instant he did, he felt a terrifying fear himself through the Primordial instinct
technique.
DRIP DRIP
Sharp pain spiked through his body.
"Huh?" Rui glanced down, as his eyes widened.
A branch had attacked and impaled him from the back.

Chapter 393 Realization
DRIP DRIP DRIP
Blood started spurting out of his guts as the branches extricated themselves
from his body. He coughed blood as fell to the ground. The shock had
initially left him frozen, but he immediately activated Final Breathing which
immediately accelerated the clotting process, slowing down the profuse
bleeding. He weakly reached for his pouch, pulling out a healing potion.
He gasped as the healing potion diffused into his lungs in gas form and
dissolved into his blood, aided by the Final Breathing technique. It quickly
reached his wounds, healing them at a remarkable pace.
He gasped in relief as the pain disappeared along with the wound, before
getting up abruptly stressing Primordial Instinct to the absolute limit on his
immediate surroundings. He eyed the branch with his blood on it.
('What the fuck was that?') He narrowed his eyes.
A branch of the tree randomly attacked him and then went back without
doing anything else? At the very least, if it was a carnivorous plant that
attacked him in order to consume him, that would make more sense. But why
attack him without doing anything else other than injuring him?
Rui immediately dashed out of the forest at a high speed, leaping off of the
elevated landmass and landing back in the ordinary forest. The branch that
attacked him wasn't visibly different from any of the other branches in the
forest, it was just the closest.
Yet it landed an extremely fast and potent attack that allowed it wound him
critically. If he didn't have Final Breathing or the healing potion, he would
have died on the spot. The fact that it wasn't visibly different from the other
branches likely meant that it simply wasn't. This led to the scary conclusion
that every branch in the forest was likely capable of the same feat.
"If that's the case, that makes the forest, or the tree itself, extremely
dangerous." He noted.
He had no doubt by now that the forest-tree was probably responsible for the
environmental and ecological anomalies of the Serevian Plateau. But he
wasn't satisfied with just that.
"Why did it attack me?" Rui wondered. "If it was going to attack me, why
didn't attack me the second I entered the forest?"
If it was a carnivore tree species, then would it really need to wait that long to
attack him?
"It's not impossible, but what are the other possibilities?" He pondered.
It could be that his initial presumption of the branch that attacked him was no
different from any other was wrong. Perhaps there were certain parts of the
tree that were capable of attacking and hunting prey to consume them.
"But that still runs into the problem of it leaving me after attacking me."
That seemed to indicate that it likely wasn't trying to consume him. Then
there was likely another reason why the tree attacked him in the first place.
"It attacked me after I saw the monkey." He recalled as realization dawned

upon him. "It attacked me the instant I used the Mind Mask technique."
If that was the trigger, then there was a logical explanation as to why the tree
reacted so adversely to him.
"The mind mask I had used back then was the Squire-level mind mask. If that
was the trigger then I likely triggered its sense of danger." Rui realized.
Fortunately, there was a way to verify it. He could do it again, except this
time under less dangerous circumstances.
He stood at a good distance away from the branches of the tree on the
elevated landmass, before taking a deep breath and heightening his alertness
and Primordial instinct with the help of the Mindirror secondary brain.
('Here goes nothing.') Rui inhaled deeply.
He activated the Mind Mask technique as a Squire-level aura descended upon

the surroundings.
RUMBLE
The very ground, both the plateau and the elevated landmass, shook
violently.
Rui's eyes widened in excitement and fear as waves of branches lashed out
from atop elevated landmass, stretching unnaturally as they attacked him at a
frightening speed.
Yet this time, he was prepared.
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
Rui weaved away from the attacks as he began retreating at a swift pace. The
branches kept following him down at a rapid pace unperturbed. Rui was
surprised at the ridiculous amount of range these branches had. They
continued following him despite him moving further and further away from
the elevated landmass.
The branches weren't originally that long, which meant they were likely
being extended further by the tree.
('Which means the wood mass of the tree is not fixed and can be shifted and
moved.')
WHOOSH
BAM!
The branches crashed into the ground where Rui was just a moment prior.
The leaves and stems got shredded in the process, yet the branch continued
attacking him unperturbed.
('This defense mechanism, if that is what it is, is quite self-destructive.') Rui

noted. These branches were doing more damage to themselves than they were
going so to him.
He continued evading them, getting better and better at it as time went by. He
had already begun forming predictive models for the branch attacks with each
passing move. The tree quite likely lacked consciousness for its movements
were as static and unchanging as a robot. It took Rui just a brief period of
time to develop predictive models for all of them.
Suddenly the branches froze as Rui retreated once more.
"Hm? Not coming?" He tilted his head in confusion. The branches simply
froze in front of him.
However, when he shifted to the right, they shifted to the right. The same was
true regardless of what direction he moved in.
"Ah, range limits perhaps?"
He released the Mind Mask technique as the danger he plummeted from the
Squire Realm. The branches swiftly retreated. He stepped forward a few
meters before reactivating the technique. The branches immediately returned,
lashing out against him.
WHOOSH
He stepped out of their range once more, before releasing the technique and
watching those branches retreat once more.
Chapter 394 Documentation
"Alright then." Rui stroked his chin. "Time to summarize everything I've
learned thus far."
He quickly parsed through all the facts in his Mind Palace, arranging them
neatly.
The core of the Serevian Plateau was an elevated landmass that had been
displaced due to the vast number of roots that began consuming more space
under the ground due to their expansion, in all likelihood. This caused the
landmass to elevate above ground level. It was also the source of the
abnormal seismic radiation and certainly the source of other anomalies like
migration patterns and other environmental parameters.
The elevated landmass had a high population density upon its surface and
inside the vast underground tunnel network beneath the ground. Rui
suspected the shift of a large number of animals into the elevated landmass
was likely what caused the changes in the migration patterns. He was sure
there was a logical explanation and mechanism demonstrating how the
elevated landmass affected the Serevian Plateau in different ways.
The flora atop the elevated landmass was all part of a single organism, a
single tree that somehow had countless trunks all connected by different
branches that all embedded roots so deep into the land that even Seismic
Mapping lost track of them beneath the ground.
The tree gave off glowing fruits of different colors, each of which made his
Primordial Instinct feel quite uneasy.
The tree also had a defense-mechanism system seemingly. It would attack

creatures with a sense of danger in the Squire Realm with branches
relentlessly and even self-destructively. Its range was quite high, most likely
due to shifting off wood to facilitate its extension.
Rui nodded after organizing all the facts in his head, opening his eyes. He
immediately began traveling towards the elevated landmass. He wasn't done
with his reconnaissance just yet. Admittedly, he was more curious than he
was motivated for completing the mission. How could he not be? Earth
simply lacked such fascinating phenomena.
He got back onto the elevated landmass without the Squire-level Mind Mask.
As expected, there was no reaction. He navigated back to where was last
time.
"Hm?" Rui's eyes narrowed in surprise.
The monkey he had seen then was dead, on the ground. A bitten fruit lay a
few steps away from its corpse.
What was even more shocking was that roots had risen from the ground,
pulling the corpse deeper into the ground bit by bit.
Rui's eyes widened as he realized what was happening before him.
"The fruit is poisonous!" He exclaimed with shock. The monkey likely had
died after consuming a single bite of the fruit.
Furthermore, the roots were clearly going to consume the ground beneath the
ground. The tree was a carnivore after all.
"It doesn't fail to surprise," Rui murmured as he updated his Mind Palace
with the new facts regarding the tree.
"Now I need to record all these facts and send them back to the Martial Union
and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology without any further delay." Rui
nodded.
He quickly returned, jumping off the elevated landmass. He ran some

distance away before climbing tall trees and rock structures that allowed him
to capture images of the elevated landmass with the bio-recon device that he
had been provided by the Martial union and the Ministry of Environment and
Ecology.
Still, he wasn't able to get a good image encompassing the entire landmass.
Mostly because it was as wide as a small city and he couldn't fit it all within
the frame. Regardless, he took images of the landmass from various angles
around it.
He also documented images that demonstrated that all the flora atop the
elevated landmass was all part of a single organism. He couldn't really
demonstrate that the roots were causing the elevation in the landmass because
he couldn't share his Seismic Mapping with others, but he was sure that just
reporting his findings that he had gotten through the technique would be
enough.
He also documented the effect the squire-level Mind Mask had on the tree.
Showing its reaction to the activation and deactivation of the Mind Mask
technique, demonstrating causality between the two events. He also
demonstrated the astounding range of the branches of the tree.
He finally ended the report by demonstrating the poisonous nature of the fruit
and the corpse of the monkey that was already almost entirely dragged
underground by the roots at that point.
"Alright, that's done." He hit the send button, sending all the data he had
collected to the Martial Union and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology.
"Now time to wait for the orders." Rui shrugged. He had mostly completed
his job, which was to gather information on the environmental and ecological
anomalies in the Serevian Plateau. Now he just had to sit tight.
"Well, I can explore the elevated landmass a bit more." Rui shrugged. It
wasn't like he had anything to do, and it wasn't like it would hurt the mission.
He leaped up back to the top of the elevated landmass before traveling deeper
into it. On his way there, he ran into many creatures that had consumed a
portion of the fruits and had died, resulting in roots emerging from the
ground and dragging the corpses down slowly.
('Woah, there's another one.') Rui watched a monkey bite into the fruit.
In just a moment, it collapsed to the ground, spasming as it tried to crawl

away, yet it was paralyzed. Slowly, its breathing and heartbeat slowed down
until it finally passed away. Not even a second later, roots slowly emerged
from the ground as they latched onto the corpse.
"The roots didn't emerge until the very moment the monkey had died," Rui
noted keenly. "Either that's coincidence or the tree is able to sense the
difference between a living and a dead creature, and only goes after the
former with its roots. Could it be that all of this is so that it can poison
animals and consume their corpses?" Rui wondered curiously.
Chapter 395 Summon
Rui knew that there was a reason why all of this had occurred, but he simply
wasn't qualified to figure it out. Thankfully, it wasn't his job to figure it out
either. That was something best left to the Ministry of Environment and
Ecology. He only needed to do his job.
He chose to travel deeper into the elevated landmass. The deeper he traveled
the greater the density of fruits. And the greater the density of corpses that
had been poisoned after consuming it and died. Each and every single one of
the corpses was being slowly pulled underground by the roots. Rui could
believe that these corpses were the reason the tree had grown in this strange
fashion. Such was the sheer count of the corpses that lay on the ground.
Furthermore, the deeper he got, the taller the tree trunks were, elevating in
height as he continued traveling.
It took a while, but Rui soon reached the core of the elevated landmass.
"Woahhh..."
Before him lay a gigantic tree trunk that dwarfed all other tree trunks.
"Is this the main tree trunk of this large tree?" Rui wondered. It certainly
seemed to be the case. The tree trunk was tall and wide and had many large
branches branching off from it. Each of the branches from the main tree had
secondary tree trunks attached to them. Those secondary tree trunks had even
more branches that had even more tree trunks attached to them.
"Could it be that each of these tree trunks is actually branches that simply
extended downwards before reaching the ground and taking root?" Rui
wondered.
In that case, it was more accurate to call all the tree trunks in the forest tree
branches.
Just as he was about to ponder more, he got a beep on his mission tracker
device, indicating a message from the Martial Union.
Rui frowned as he read the message. "An urgent summon back to the
headquarters?"
Rui tilted his head in confusion. Why was he being urgently summoned
home?
He didn't know for sure but...
"It has something to do with this tree, doesn't it?" Rui glanced back at the
main trunk suspiciously, before setting off back in the direction he had come
from. He couldn't afford to waste any time at all.
He immediately began running back at a high pace, using all his maneuvering
techniques to nearly their limit.
('Could it be that the tree is actually extremely dangerous to human

civilization and I just discovered a big threat?') A random thought entered his
head before his logic and reason quashed the idea.
('No, there's no way that tree is a threat.') Rui shook his head. ('If I can avoid
its attacks then that means that Martial Squires can handle it with ease.')
If it was a threat that Martial Squires could handle, then there was no way it
was a threat in the grand scheme of things.
('Though that may not entirely be true. The earthen basilisk ould get crushed
by any Martial Squire, but they were still viewed as a threat by the Ministry
of Environment and Ecology.') Rui recalled. This was because the earthen
basilisks were very difficult to exterminate and were capable of wreaking
havoc across human settlements.
('If it's not because of a threat pertaining to the tree, then it probably has
something to do with opportunity.') Rui's eyes lit up in interest. If the urgency
was not negative then it was likely positive, which meant that there was
something that could be gained and Rui could help with it in all likelihood.
He didn't know which one was the case. Of course, there was the possibility
that the urgent summons had nothing to do with his mission and some other
emergency had occurred that required all hands on deck.
He would find out regardless.
Five hours later, he had arrived at the headquarters of the Martial Union,
panting heavily. He quickly consumed a physical rejuvenation potion before
entering the Martial Union, after showing his license to the security.
"Excuse me." Rui addressed a staff member. "I received an urgent summon
from the Martial Union. Can you please tell me what to do?"
"Ah give me a moment." She fiddled with her terminal. "Office number two
hundred and thirty-seven."
"Thank you," Rui replied before turning around and navigating his way to the
designated room.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Come in." A male voice instructed him.
"Excuse me." Rui entered. "I was told to come to this office regarding my
urgent summon back from my mission."
"Indeed." The man nodded. "Have a seat."
He gave off the air of an intellectual with authority, with a well-groomed

attire and a confident demeanor. "I am Zhrekes Shrul." He introduced
himself. "I'm an office from the Ministry of Environment and Ecology."
He showed Rui a badge before continuing. "I require an immediate report

from you regarding every moment of your stay at the Serevian Plateau. You
must include every single detail without fail."
"That's not a problem, of course." Rui nodded. "I was hoping I could be
informed as to why I was urgently summoned in the middle of my mission."
"Your mission is over, Apprentice Quarrier." He told him. "Nonetheless, you

will be informed."
Rui waited for him to continue.
"The target of your mission that you were required to identify as the cause for
the environmental and ecological anomalies that occurred in the Serevian
Plateau is not ordinary." He stated. "It is a rare, yet well-known and well-
documented phenomenon that occurs in the Beast Domain. You're not the
first to find it and you won't be the last. It is a source of great opportunity, yet
we won't be the only ones in pursuit of it. There will be great competition
from our rivals."
"Uh..." Rui's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "I'm afraid I have no idea what
any of that is supposed to mean, unfortunately."
Officer Zhrekes chuckled a bit before nodding. "Don't worry, I'll explain all
of it right away."
Chapter 396 Explanation
"The data you brought back was most interesting. We identified what we
were dealing with in a moment before urgently summoning you back."
Officer Zhrekes explained. "The tree responsible for the anomalies is actually
not of a species that normally engages in such biological developments."
"What?" Rui frowned. "The species of the tree doesn't grow and develop this
way?"
Officer Zherkes nodded. "Correct."
"Then... Are there some specific circumstances under which the tree develops
and grows this way?" Rui asked.
This was the first possibility that came to mind. However, he had no idea
what circumstances those were.
"Also correct." Officer Zherkes nodded. "In fact, this species isn't the only
species that engages in such growth and development. There are many
species that engage in similar growth developments under a specific set of
circumstances."
"What are these circumstances?" Rui asked curiously.
"Many tree species in the Beast Domain have a high root development
capacity." He continued. "Their roots have the capability to grow to an
extremely deep depth. The net root volume ends up providing an immense
amount of sustenance to the tree in question. However, every once in a while,
these roots run into something more than just ordinary soil, water, and
nutrients."
"They run into high-energy esoteric ores." He continued. "Most species do

not possess roots powerful enough to drain the esoteric ores and turn them
into sustenance for accelerated growths. But what if a species that was
capable of absorbing high-energy esoteric ores and compounds?"
Rui's eyes lit up with interest and curiosity. These circumstances had not even
entered his mind when he thought about it himself. Largely because this
required an understanding of the geology of Gaia, something he was sorely
lacking. But he could see the direction his explanation was going down.
"If there was such a species... Then it would likely gain access to a large
amount of energy?" Rui scratched his head. His understanding of esoteric
matter and other esoteric resources was very shallow. He could not possibly
provide a well-thought explanation.
"Correct." Agent Zhrekes nodded before continuing. "And what happens

when the tree gains access to extreme energy sources that it can viably
provide energy to? What happens is that the tree is able to grow and develop
to a much greater degree than it normally can under normal circumstances.
The excess energy is channeled into the expansion of the tree. However, that
expansion does not occur in the vertical elevation of the tree, it occurs in the
lateral expansion of the tree."
"Wow," Rui remarked. "Is that why the tree was that ridiculously wide in
regards to the area it covered?"
"Correct." Agent Zherkes nodded. "The branches reach down to the ground
and burrow into the soil before sprouting even more roots that will dig deeper
towards the esoteric ore reservoirs to siphon more of the high-energy matter.
Based on the data you have provided, it's quite clear that the tree that was the
target of your mission has run into a rather large reservoir of esoteric
compounds, considering that it has expanded into the size of a town."
"I see..." Rui digested the information officer Zherkes provided him.
"The reactive defense mechanism of the branches is also not uncommon. The
tree does not allow lifeforms that are too dangerous to it to approach it.
Which is why it attacked you when you displayed a Squire-level aura with
the Mind Mask technique. Only Martial Apprentices that are, of course,
below the Squire Realm are able to enter the forest unobstructed." Officer
Zherkes mentioned.
"And the opportunity you mentioned earlier..." Rui continued. "You're

referring to the esoteric ore reserves beneath the ground?"
"In part." Officer Zherkes nodded. "However, the tree itself is valuable. The
fruits that you remarked on are actually biological products with processed
and purified esoteric matter within them, hence their strange traits, including
their high toxicity. The tree allows creatures weak enough to be a threat to
itself to be lured in by the fruit's allure so that they consume it, only to die
and be absorbed by the tree."
"The fruits are valuable themselves, then?" Rui asked.
"Quite." Officer Zherkes nodded. "They process ores in ways that we often
do not understand nor can replicate. They're often used in the purification and
processing of the ores."
"So all we need to do is swoop in and take the fruits and mind the esoteric
ores?" Rui asked.
If that was the case, he could certainly understand the Martial Union's and the
ministry's interest in the tree. But what was the urgency?
"Ideally, it would be as simple as that." Agent Zherkes nodded. "But alas,

reality is rarely that ideal. Do you know the geography of the Serevian
Plateau and its placement in human civilization? Specifically, the nations
closest to it?"
Rui nodded. "The immediate surroundings are those of small human

settlements and states. Further away lie the super-nations such as the
Kandrian Empire, the Republic of Gorteau, and the Sekigahara Confederate."
Rui's eyes widened as he understood. "We can't claim the esoteric reservoirs
and the trees easily, can we?"
"Not at all." He shook his head. "The super nations will have realized the
significance of the anomalies of the Serevian Plateau sooner or later. Once
that happens..."
He locked eyes with Rui. "It's war. A mine of valuable esoteric ores the size
of a large town is not something that the super nations can or are willing to
afford to just give away to their competitors for free, especially when they are
all equally distanced from the Serevian plateau, roughly speaking."
Rui gulped. "So that's why I was urgently summoned back... My information
is highly valuable in a way that will involve the Martial Artists of higher
Realms even..."
"No." Agent Zherkes shook his head. "That is unlikely to happen. The war
will actually be restricted to the Apprentice Realm, in all likelihood."
"What?" Rui's eyes scrunched up in confusion. "What do you mean by that?

Why would such an important conflict be restricted to the Apprentice
Realm?"
Chapter 397 Elaboration
"Because of practical reasons." Officer Zherkes told him. "As you know, the
tree attacks Martial Artists at or above the Squire Realm."
"But surely those attacks mean nothing to Martial Squires." He insisted. "I
know they don't. I was able to avoid them when alert. Those attacks are
nothing to a Martial Squire."
"They may be nothing to a Martial Squire, but they're everything to the tree
itself." Officer Zherkes replied. "Martial Squires would be able to crush the
attacks that the tree launches, but the reactive defense mechanism of trees
that undergo banyanification, the broad colloquial term of the expansive
growth process, is too self-destructive. Although Martial Squires would come
out unharmed, the tree itself would not. The fruits would all be crushed and
destroyed rendering them extremely difficult to process into potions, if not
impossible. The fruits are just as valuable as the actual ore itself, if not more
due to their pure constitution. Therefore, generally, nations do not dispatch
Martial Artists at or above the level of power that would result in the
triggering of the reactive defense mechanism."
"'Generally'?" Rui asked, catching the implication of the word. "This has
happened enough times before for there to be a trend?"
"Indeed." Officer Zherkes nodded. "There is an unspoken, and sometimes

even spoken and written agreement between relevant human nations to
restrict the conflict to the necessary Realms, so that the conflict would not
result in a waste of resources. Nations would rather get their hands on such
processed bio-resources that are much easier to employ in technological
solutions, rather than come back home empty-handed."
"I see..." Rui murmured. "So in this case..."

"That's right." Officer Zherkes replied immediately. "In this case, it is quite
likely that Martial Apprentices like yourself will engage in the dungeon
wars."
"'Dungeon Wars'?" Rui frowned.
"That's what they're referred to colloquially." Officer Zherkes chuckled.

"Because there is a three-dimensional environment including the
underground cave network, the surface and the branch networks that are more
or less closed off, the environment of the banyanified forest are called
dungeons."
"I see..." Rui muttered. "This has happened more than a few times, I'm
guessing."
"Much more yes." Officer Zherkes nodded. "So much so that there are
official protocols and systems in place designed to address the emergence of
a banyanified forest. One of those protocols is urgently summoning the
Martial Artist or individual in question who discovered the banyanified tree
and extracting a report from them." Officer Zherkes explained. "That is why
you and I are both here. Now then, time is of the essence. Please provide a
detailed report of your mission. Do not dismiss any piece of information as
insignificant or unnecessary, is that clear?"
Rui nodded. "Understood."
Rui set aside his curiosity and interest and began typing on a typewriter that
officer Zherkes had provided him. Because of the detail that he needed to go
into. It had taken him quite a while to write the report.
"Done." Rui huffed after he finally finished. "Here you go."
Zherkes looked up, having been reading the finished pages of the report.
"Good job Apprentice Quarrier. Your completion of the mission was nearly
flawless and you have accelerated a process that would have otherwise taken
much longer than usual, giving us a crucial time advantage. Now then, do
you have any questions before I leave?"
"Yes." Rui nodded. "How would the other nations even find out about this?"
"The other nations aren't incompetent." Officer Zherkes snorted. "Nations

have various information networks that would allow them to learn of it given
enough time. Furthermore, the seismic radiation projected by the tree when it
attacked you is not insignificant and will have no doubt earned the scrutiny of
the nations that aren't too far away from the Serevian Plateau."
Rui nodded, having figured that out by himself, he just wanted to verify that
he had the right idea on the issue. "So, if only Martial Apprentices will be
involved in the conflict to monopolize the banyanified tree, can I expect a
mission soon?"
"The Martial Union will certainly take some effort into commissioning its
Martial Artists into participating..." Officer Zherkes nodded. "As for what
measures, I can't say."
He turned back to Rui. "Though it is almost assured that you will be

incorporated into the war effort."
"Oh?" Rui raised an eye. "Why is that?"
Officer Zherkes snorted. "Playing modest, are we? You're a grade-ten Martial
Apprentice with a skillset highly useful in dungeons. That alone is more than
enough. Now then, I must get going, pleasure meeting you, Apprentice
Quarrier."
Rui fell into thought after he bid officer Zherkes goodbye, as he walked back
home.
A conflict between Martial Artists over the monopoly of esoteric resources.
He grinned, excited. Just when he was getting a little bored, he gets presented
with a brilliant opportunity to participate in a conflict much bigger than
himself.
Just how many Martial Artists would be participating? How many of the elite
Martial Artists of the geographic surroundings would he be fighting against?
"The sheer number of highly elite Martial Artists even among the tenth grade
will be staggering!" Rui exclaimed, excited.
The proportion of Martial Apprentices in the tenth grade was a very minute
proportion of the Martial Apprentice population. There were extremely few
Martial Apprentices in the Kandrian Empire that could truly give Rui a run
for his money.
However, that was only when the conversation was limited to a single nation.
When many nations were involved, the sheer number of even pinnacle
Martial Apprentices was not low!
"This is a god-sent opportunity," Rui remarked.
It was very difficult for him to find a perfectly equal opponent. Although
Martial Squires could restrict themselves, it wasn't the same. They could only
hold back so much. It was physically impossible form to slow down their
mental processing and reflexes as well as the toughness of their constitution.
While it was challenging, it was not perfect.
But with this, he would truly be able to fight against Martial Apprentices who
were genuinely his equal, perhaps even greater!
Chapter 398 Await
A few days passed, and Rui refused to take any missions out of fear that he
would be missing out on whenever the Kandrian Empire decided to take
action in whatever it decided to handle the matter of the dungeon war.
Frankly, Rui wasn't sure how things would pan out. Would the Martial Union
be involved alone? Would the Kandrian Government or the Royal Family be
involved or take control? He didn't know. He couldn't be sure about how the
two hegemons of the Kandrian Empire would act.
His understanding of politics was still very vague and broad. He didn't
understand the nuances that were involved in such matters that would
ultimately decide the manner in which the Kandrian Empire would participate
in the dungeon wars. It wasn't just a matter of intelligence or smartness; he
just wasn't informed enough on international dynamics and foreign policy or
the domestic decision-making protocols that the Martial Union and the
Kandrian government engaged in when they processed the matter.
Eventually, an announcement was made. However, it wasn't the one Rui was
waiting for or anticipating.
"A change in the Martial Apprentice grading system?" Rui frowned. "Really?
At this time? But why? Wasn't it working just fine? What caused this
change?"
He hadn't yet realized that he was the leading trigger to the updation of the
existing ten-point grading system of Martial prowess evaluation.
Thankfully, the announcement that he had gotten both through his accounter
and through a letter explained the reasons behind the change.
Each generation of Martial Artists was stronger than the previous generation
of Martial Artists. This was due to higher-quality techniques and higher-
quality growth and training resources that younger and newer generations had
access to. Several of the techniques and training and growth resources that
Rui had used over the years were actually recently developed products that
the previous generation never had access to.
Over time, those differences accumulated too much such that the strongest of
Martial Apprentices exceeded the limits of the ten-point grading system set
by the Martial Union. At such times, the Martial union would scale most
Martial Apprentices down by one point while the strongest of Martial
Apprentices would become the new peak.
The message informed him that his new grade would remain the same as his
old grade.
"Hm. Odd." He shrugged, tossing the letter away. It changed nothing for him,
so it didn't matter all that much.
However, he could not help but wonder if this had something to do with the
upcoming dungeon wars that had been forecasted for him. Were they
readjusting the Martial Apprentice grading system in order to ensure only the
most qualified Martial Artists participated in the war?
Rui strongly suspected that was close to the truth. He had contacted his
friends via his accounter, asking them about their grading points.
"I remained at grade nine," Kane confirmed. "But Hever, Fae, and Nel fell to
grade eight. Dalen fell to grade seven, while Milliana fell to grade six."
"I see... That's a shame for them." Rui admitted. "Good on you for staying at
grade nine. You must be really strong right now, on the verge of reaching the
previous grade ten, probably."
"Been working hard. Can't remain in the Academy forever." Kane replied.
They chatted a bit more before hanging up.

"I wonder at what grade Fiona and Ian are at." Rui wondered. They were also
two of the strongest Martial Artists of his generation. He was curious as to
what level they currently were at. It had been more than a year since the
Martial Contest had ended, after all.
Particularly, he was curious about Fiona, she had an incredible rate of

mastery that probably surpassed even his, now that his own rate of mastery
had reduced significantly.
"I'll probably meet them for the dungeon wars then." He realized. If they
were powerful enough, and they almost certainly were, he absolutely would
run into them when the Martial Union and the Kandrian government came to
a conclusion as to how to proceed with the dungeon conflict.
"Why are you so restless?" Julian asked with a suspicious look in his eye.
"I'm not restless," Rui replied blankly.
"You've been oscillating back and forth on the sofa for the past few days
instead of going out there and completing some missions or training a new
technique like you normally would. You constantly look at your accounter
with eagerness, as if you're expecting something, likely an announcement of
some sort." Julian told him. "Am I wrong?"
"Tsk." Rui tutted. "Alright, you got me."
"What is it that you are waiting so impatiently?" Julian asked, curiously.
"I received word of a conflict involving a large number of nations that will
likely be limited to the Apprentice Realm," Rui told him, without revealing
anything specific. "It's the perfect opportunity for me to test my prowess
against the most powerful of Martial Apprentices across a tiny chunk of the
Panama Continent!"
Julian's eyes widened at his words. "Are you absolutely certain of that? If that
is the case, that's huge news!"
"Very sure." Rui nodded. "I'm just waiting for it because I don't want to be
away on a mission when the announcement comes. If the announcement
doesn't come within a week, then I'm going to take low-grade quick missions
that can be finished in no time until it does come!"
"Are you sure you want to participate?" Julian asked with a worried
expression. "It sounds extremely dangerous. You'll be competing against
some of the most powerful Martial Apprentices and be risking your life
against them."
"I know." Rui nodded. "It's not that I'm being overconfident. But not only is
fighting other Martial Artists a core part of being a Martial Artist but also, I
do need to become stronger at this point. I need experience against truly
powerful Martial Artists in order to make forward progress on the road to
Squire."
Julian felt a bit more reassured seeing the determination and confidence. "If
that's how you feel, then I can only wish you good luck."
Chapter 399 Negotiations
"Delegates of the many sovereign states you represent, as the delegate of the
Kandrian Empire. I thank all of the participating nations for your acceptance
of our invitation as well as your willingness to enter negotiation regarding the
matter of the Serevian Dungeon."
In a large extravagant hall in the Royal Palace in the town of Vargard was a
round table with many figures seated at it. Yet, among all of them, only one
was physically present. The remaining figures were projected three-
dimensional images projected using esoteric three-dimensional projection
technology. Before the only physically present individual, the delegate of the
Kandrian Empire was a device that tracked his movements and relayed the
information to several locations in different countries that would project a
three-dimensional image of the Kandrian delegate.
This was a high-level form of communication that allowed individuals to

communicate with each other as though they were present in the same room.
"As all of you are surely aware. The Serevian Plateau has become home to a
dungeon at its very core. The purpose of this meeting is to cooperate or come
to a compromise on the matter regarding the claims on the Serevian Dungeon
and the resources that lay within; the vast amount of Featherblood Mercury
and the Nereneal Flintstone detected to be present in the fruits of the Serevian
Dungeon." The delegate of the Kandrian Empire continued. "We shall
commence the deliberations and negotiations immediately. The first proposal
I would like to offer to all the representatives and delegates present is the
collective denial of the acknowledgment of any claims to the Serevian
Dungeon made by sovereign states more than one sovereign state away from
the Serevian Plateau. The Kandrian Empire is firm in the belief that sovereign
states separated from the Serevian Platea by more than a sovereign state do
not have any right to stake a claim on the territory occupied by the Serevian
Dungeon. All in favor?"
Immediately, all the delegates in the room raised a hand, indicating their
agreement with the proposal made by the Kandrian delegate. The proposal
effectively prevented sovereign states from very far away from trying to
infringe on the Serevian Dungeon. The sovereign nations, the delegates of
which were present in the currently ongoing summit hosted by the Kandrian
Empire were all those nations who weren't too far away enough to not have a
valid claim onto the territory of the Serevian Dungeon.
All of them were more than willing to not acknowledge the claims of even
further nations on the Serevian Dungeon as valid. The fewer the sovereign
states they had to acknowledge as legitimate contenders for the Serevian
Dungeon, the few the people they would be forced to share the pie with.
"A unanimous agreement." The delegate of the Kandrian Empire nodded.

"With that out of the way, the floor is open to any delegate that wishes to
make a proposal or a statement."
Immediately, one of the figures raised two fingers, indicating their desire to
speak.
"King Jurrian Fil Nochus." The delegate of the Kandrian Empire

acknowledged.
"As the ruler of the Kingdom of Nochus, I would like to declare the Serevian
Dungeon as the property of the Kingdom of Nochus. As the nation closest to
the Serevian Plateau, to the point that the border of the Kingdom of Nochus
overlaps that of the Serevian Plateau at several points. The validity of our
claim is the strongest and the only truly valid claim to the Serevian Dungeon.
I point to the way claims over neighboring uncolonized lands to states are
treated. Uncolonized land is generally treated as belonging to and the
responsibility of the closest bordering sovereign state. Following this
rationale and international custom, the Serevian Plateau and the Serevian
Dungeon belong to the Kingdom of Nochus." he concluded.
Several delegates raised their hands.

"Delegate of the Sekigahara Confederate." The Kandrian delegate nodded at
the closest individual to him.
"The Sekigahara Confederate does not acknowledge the validity of King

Jurrian Fil Nochus' statement or claim over the Serevian Plateau and
Dungeon."
"The Republic of Gortea seconds the Sekigahara Confederate." Another

delegate chimed in.
"The Britannian Empire also seconds the Sekigahara Confederate."
One by one, all of the delegates followed suit as they supported the
Sekigahara Confederate delegate in the refusal to acknowledge the claim over
the Serevian Plateau and Dungeon.
It didn't matter whether King Jurrian had a point or not. No one gave a damn
about that. None of them were willing to completely fork over a city-wide
mine of featherblood mercury or nereneal flintstone over something like
international customs.
"The Kandrian Empire also seconds the Sekigahara Confederate in its stance
against King Jurrian's claim over the Serevian Plateau and Dungeon. The
Kandrian Empire would further like to point out that the Kingdom of Nochus
has neglected the responsibilities that generally come with being
internationally recognized as the bona fide owner of Serevian Plateau." The
Kandrian delegate added. "Thus, the legitimacy of such a conveniently timed
claim over the Serevian Plateau is highly questionable and not acceptable."
The Kandrian delegate turned back to face all the other delegates. "The
Kandrian Empire proposes a division of the territory of the Serevian Dungeon
among all the sovereign nations present in this summit. This proposal aims to
eliminate the waste of Martial Art resources that would undoubtedly ensue in
a conflict in the Serevian Dungeon over the Serevian Dungeon itself."
This was a more controversial proposal from the Kandrian Empire. The
proposal favored those sovereign nations that were among the smallest and
weakest of nations that were doubtful to even be able to successfully seize
and keep a portion of the Serevian Dungeon if there was a war over it. On the
other hand, it was a proposal that did not necessarily favor the larger and
more powerful nations that were present at the summit.
"The Britannian Empire strongly refuses the proposal offered by the

Kandrian Empire." the delegate of the Britannian Empire sternly replied. "We
are more than capable of seizing what's ours."
Chapter 400 Proposal
The atmosphere grew tense at the heavy-handed declaration of the delegate of

the Britannian Empire. It didn't help that the delegate had broken the norms
of addressal by referring to the Britannian Empire in first-person rather than
third-person when he wasn't the ruler of the kingdom.
Still, none of the other delegates piped up immediately against the rude
gesture. The arrogance of the delegate of the Britannian Empire was not all
that unfounded. Everybody knew that the Britannian Empire was the most
powerful sovereign nation in the summit hosted by the Kandrian Empire. All
of them were wary about butting heads with the titan.
"Bold words, delegate." The delegate of the Republic of Gorteau replied.

"The Republic of Gorteau also refuses the Kandrian Empire's proposal
regarding the division of the territory of the Serevian Plateau."
"The Sekigahara Confederate is willing to participate in the division of

territory between the present sovereign states provided that the division of the
territory is done so in accordance with economic parameters such as GDP."
The delegate of the Sekigahara Confederate.
The Kandrian delegate nodded as he turned back to the delegates of the

Republic of Gorteau and the Britannian Empire.
The delegates of the four nations began deliberating with each other as the
remaining delegates simply watched along. Most of them were delegates of
small sovereign nations with very little negotiation power and had only just
barely qualified to have a seat at the summit.
Instead, they simply watched as the four most powerful nations, the Kandrian
Empire, the Sekigahara Confederate, the Republic of Gorteau, and the
Britannian Empire, duke it out amongst themselves. The best they could
really do was secure the best terms and conditions in whatever agreement
these four nations chalked up.
"It seems as though we are unable to come to a resolution, regretfully." The

Kandrian delegate stated. "If the Britannian Empire and the Republic of
Gorteau are unwilling to agree to the division of territory, then allow the
Kandrian Empire to make another proposal instead."
The delegates waited in silence.
"Instead of a division of territory, allow the Kandrian Empire to propose an

assignment of a minute amount of territory to each of the present nations as a
guaranteed territory. The remaining vast majority of the Serevian Plateau and
the dungeon is up for free colonization by any of the present sovereign states"
The Kandrian delegate concluded.
All of the delegates considered the proposal as they realized the significance
of the proposal.
Because of the nature of dungeons, enacting a scorched earth policy was

quite easy for any of the present nations, small or large. Because of the self-
destructive defense mechanism of the Serevian Dungeon, all one needed to
do was send over several Martial Squires to attack the Serevian Dungeon and
the Dungeon would suffer an immense amount of damage quite quickly. The
process could be accelerated with Martial Artists of higher Realms that would
allow any of the nations present to completely annihilate the Serevian
Dungeon.
Of course, no sovereign nation would want the Serevian Dungeon to be

annihilated, not when it was as much of a rich resource-high location. The
problem was, if some of the nations were bullied out of gaining even a
portion of the Serevian Dungeon, then there was a logical incentive to destroy
the dungeon for these countries since it would minimize the gains made by
the other nations.
The proposal made by the delegate of the Kandrian Empire addressed that
issue by providing all the present sovereign nations a minute but core
territory that all nations would agree not to infringe upon. This way, none of
the other sovereign nations would be pushed to choose to go for the scorched
earth policy.
"The Kingdom of Grahal seconds the proposal made by the Kandrian

Empire."
"The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana also seconds the proposal made by

the Kandrian Empire."
...
One by one each of the delegates recognized the usefulness of the proposal
that the Kandrian delegate had made.
"Delegate of the Britannian Empire." The Kandrian delegate turned to face

him. "The Britannian Empire the only member in this summit which has yet
to convey its stance on the matter."
The delegate of the Britannian Empire remained silent for a few seconds
before the mildest of sighs escaped his mouth. "... The Britannian Empire
seconds the proposal made by the Kandrian Empire."
The proposal made too much sense, not even the Britannian Empire could
guarantee that nations that had been bullied out would not resort to such
measures. Even if it could, the measures needed to be in place would be too
much. It would require a large number of Martial Artists to remain under
surveillance in the Serevian Plateau such that the number would make the
Serevian Dungeon become a liability.
Instead, the proposal of the Kandrian Empire guaranteed, to a certain extent,

that no scorched earth policy would be enacted by any of the sovereign
nations present.
"Then there is a unanimous agreement." The Kandrian delegate nodded. "Let

us begin fleshing out the details of the distribution then."
What followed was an intense debate about how much of the land ought to be
guaranteed to the participating states. There was an immense amount of
controversy and conflict over this issue. The amount of land assigned couldn't
be too much or too little. It had to be just the right amount.
If it was too much, then the smaller and weaker nations would be unfairly
advantaged by gaining access to an amount of territory that they normally
would not be able to retain. Yet if the amount was too little, then it would not
serve as a viable deterrence to prevent any of the present nations from
enacting a scorched earth policy, because the gains would be too minute to be
enough of an incentive to not destroy the Serevian Plateau.
The nations had to be careful and find the right balance to ensure that nothing
went wrong that could lead to the destruction of the Serevian Dungeon.
Chapter 401 Announcement
The news came all of a sudden. Twelve countries announced the existence of
the Serevian Dungeon as they got together to sign the Serevian Pact which
specified the terms and conditions that the signing countries agreed to operate
under when colonizing the Serevian Dungeon.
Soon after, the Martial Union and the Kandrian Royal Family published an
announcement regarding the participation of the Kandrian Empire in the
Serevian Dungeon wars as well as the cooperation of the Royal Family and
the Martial Union in the colonization of the Serevian Dungeon.
"Finally!" Rui sat up in ecstasy as he browsed through his accounter.
[Announcement:
The Martial Union is commissioning Martial Apprentices above grade seven

to participate in the Serevian Dungeon mission. The details of the
commission are as follows;
Mission objective: The aim of the mission is to aid the Kandrian Empire in
the colonization of the Serevian Dungeon. This includes protecting assets and
territories but also the invasion of territories of other colonizers of the
Serevian Dungeon.
Commission clientele: The Martial Union and the Kandrian Royal family.
The difficulty of the mission: grade ten.
Time period of the mission: Indefinite
Remuneration: Five hundred Martial credits per hour or nineteen gold and
two silver coins per hour for grade-eight Martial Apprentices.
One thousand Martial credits or thirty-eight gold and four silver coins per
hour for grade-nine Martial Apprentices.
Two thousand Martial credits or seventy-six gold and eight silver per hour for
grade-ten Martial Apprentices.
Mission commencement: twenty-third of winter.]
"Woah." Rui's eyes widened at the remuneration. "That's insane."
Two thousand Martial Credits per hour was an extreme remuneration pay that
Rui seldom ever saw in any mission.
"The Martial Union must really want its Martial Apprentices to go all out on
this mission," Rui murmured.
That was clearly the reason the Martial Union was incentivizing the mission
to Martial Apprentices. It was going to be facing off against powerful Martial
Apprentices from other nations, all of whom were going to be the cream of
the crop. If the Martial Union held back, it would simply lose thoroughly.
"Damn," Rui muttered excitedly. "This is going to be insane. Twelve

countries?! Just how many powerful Martial Apprentices will I run into?"
"Many," Julian answered his rhetorical question. "It seems this Serevian
Dungeon was what you were referring to earlier when you spoke of a big
conflict between Martial Apprentices. How did you even find out about it?"
Julian asked curiously.
"Mission." Rui waved his hand. "Do you know what featherblood mercury
and nereneal flintstone are?"
"They're too esoteric compounds." Julian nodded.
"Yeah. I know that. I meant what are they used for."
"Featherblood mercury is used for higher-grade healing potions, while

nereneal flintstone is used for communication technology like you accounter,
for example," Julian explained.
"Interesting..." Rui muttered.
Both healing potions and communication technology were extremely vital for
human societies to function in their current state.
"No wonder the nations are taking this so seriously." Rui nodded. A city-wide
dungeon nearly filled to the brim with purified featherblood mercury and
nereneal flintstone.
The mission commenced in forty-eight hours. Still, Rui intended to get

himself accepted to handle the mission. He had no doubt that the Martial
Union would accept him with open arms. Why wouldn't they? Rui was the
one who had discovered the Serevian Dungeon and had already proven his
capability in the Serevian Dungeon.
Even if it weren't for that, he was a grade-ten Martial Apprentices. This held
even more significance since the difficulty of becoming a grade-ten Martial
Apprentice had risen significantly and the Martial Apprentices who were still
grade ten even after the updation of the Martial Apprentice evaluation
grading system were very few.
Furthermore, several of the techniques he had mastered were suited to the

mission in question. His enhanced stealth capability as well as his sensory
compatibility all bolstered by the Mindmirror secondary brain.
If he was not qualified, then no one was!
Rui immediately began hurrying up as he put on his Martial Uniform and

mask, immediately heading for the Martial Union after having bid goodbye to
his family. He didn't know when he was returning, after all.
Once he had reached the Martial Union there already was a huge rush at the
headquarters. Among the crowd was a large variety of Martial Artists who
had most certainly come to inquire regarding the Serevian Dungeon mission.
Rui managed to squeeze his way through the crowd. He immediately headed
towards the commission's department.
"Excuse me." Rui reached out to one of the staff members. "I would like to
accept the Serevian Dungeon mission."
"Will do, Apprentice." She smiled briefly. "Age?" She asked immediately.
"Sixteen."
"Martial Artist grade?" She asked.
"Grade ten," Rui muttered.
"Name?"
"Rui Quarrier."
"And finally, usually there needs to be proof of identity." She nodded.

"Please provide your Martial license please."
"Ah Apprentice Rui Quarrier." Her expression changed. "You have already
been marked as priority recruitment in your profile. There will be no delay in
the acceptance of the mission then. Please fill these forms and sign in the
required places."
"Done." Rui drew her attention as she went through all of the pages.
"Thank you, Apprentice Quarrier." She replied. "Here's the mission bill for
the mission you have accepted."
Rui beheld the mission bill of the Serevian Dungeon mission with
excitement. In his eyes, the otherwise normal booklet had been glowing and
sparkling as it developed its own halo.
Without any further delay, he ripped open the booklet, breaking the seal in
the process.
"Interesting." He immediately murmured as his eyes lit up in eagerness. The

mission bill began delving into the means by which the Serevian Dungeon
had been discovered providing context to the Martial Artist who had chosen
to undertake the mission so they understood as much as was generally
possible about exactly what they were getting themselves into.
"Woah." He remarked. "They're even using some of the documented images

that I had collected as a part of my mission, that's cool." He shrugged, as he
read on.
The Martial Union and the Royal Family had chosen an interesting strategy
for expansion and colonization. The twelve nations participating in the raid of
the Serevian Dungeon had all agreed that each nation was entitled to one
percent of the territory of the Serevian Dungeon. This one percent of the
territory was recognized as unassailable and uninfringeable by each of the
twelve nations participating in the raid of the Serevian Dungeon.
The Martial Union and the Royal Family had chosen a territory-expansive
strategy that chose to continue expanding their territory until they ran into the
first hostile colonizing force. In such a case, the assault team was to
immediately begin attacking the hostile colonizing force with the aim of
seizing as much land as possible. General conditions established were to
minimize the number of nations with which the Kandrian Dungeon team
picked a fight.
Restricting the number of nations with which they picked a fight with was to
ensure that the dungeon team did not stretch themselves thin as far as defense
and resources went. There was no point in picking a fight against ten people
and losing all ten than picking a fight against only five people but winning
three. The biggest issue was balancing ambition with the constraints of the
dungeon team.
Another rule of thumb they had to follow was to target the weaker nation
over the stronger ones, if possible. Ideally, they would want to take on
smaller and weaker nations because they were easier to bully. It was
inefficient and ineffective to try and take any of the other three super-nations;
The Sekigahara Confederate, the Republic of Gorteau, and most importantly;
The Britannian Empire.
The initial assault and defense squads that would be accompanying the
dungeon team were only part of the total amount of Martial Apprentices that
would eventually partake in the colonization of the Serevian Dungeon.
This was because not even the Martial Union could magically gather every
single Martial Apprentice on the spot in an instant, most of them were
deployed on missions and could only be deployed to the Serevian Dungeon
after their existing missions were over.
The Martial Artists that got to be part of the initial assault squad would end
up seeing most of the action in the Serevian Dungeon.
This was why Rui was eager to be part of the initial dispatch.
"Purpose of visit, name, and ID please." He was told when he reached

security.
"I'm here to partake in the commencement of a mission I'm commissioned

for, I'm Rui Quarrier, and here's my Martial license."
In no time, he was inside the building. He immediately headed over to the

commissions' department.
"Excuse me." Rui addressed a staff member. "Where can I find the dispatch
for mission KEMU-3142?"
"Give me a moment." She said as she verified his documents, before finally
providing him with the information he was looking for.
Rui immediately headed to the dispatch facility of his mission.
Before he even stepped into the facility, he could feel the mountain pressure
on him. He slowly opened the door and stepped in to be greeted by many
silent stares that all exerted pressure on him.
They were all high-grade Martial Apprentices. Rui could feel that every
single one of the was without a doubt no lower than grade eight with a good
chunk of them being grade-nine and some even grade ten.
"I knew you'd come." A familiar voice of a girl addressed him. "It's been a
while, Rui Quarrier."
"Fiona," Rui muttered as he smiled, amused. "It has been a while indeed, I
never got to congratulate you on winning the Martial Contest.
Congratulations on that. A bit late, but better than never."
She shrugged, waving the matter off.
"What did you mean you knew I'd come?" Rui asked curiously.
"Well, I found out that you were the one who discovered the Serevian Plateau
in the first place, so expected that you would be here since you definitely
know more about it than we do."
"Everything I know is listed in the mission bill for the most part." Rui shook
his head. "I only spent several hours in the place, it's not like I have a great
amount of experience on the matter."
"By the way, are you going to be part of the assault squad or the defense
squad?" She asked, her eyes lit with curiosity.
"Assault squad," Rui replied unhesitatingly. "I'm interested in active battle

with the best of the Martial Artists the other nations have to offer."
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "Are the Martial Apprentices of the Kandrian
Empire too weak for you?"
Her tone was jovial, especially since she was the one who defeated Rui in the
Martial Contest.
Rui smiled wryly at her comment. "Yes, unfortunately."
Her eyes widened at those words. "Well, given the feats you achieved, I
suppose that's not particularly hard to believe."
She was clearly referring to him leading four other Martial Apprentices to
victory against a Martial Squire. That was a shocking feat that still buzzed the
Kandrian Empire every now and then more than seven months after it had
already happened.
Rui simply smiled at those words. Yet he frowned when he felt a pang of
hostility emerge from the crowd of Martial Apprentices in the dispatch
facility. He turned in the direction of its source as his eyes widened in
surprise.
"Ian Nepomniachtchi." He murmured,
He had completely forgotten about the obnoxious arrogant Martial

Apprentice that he had defeated in the third round of the Martial Contest.
But evidently, Ian had not forgotten about that. Rui could feel an
unadulterated hatred brewing in his eyes as he stared Rui down with a well-
concealed but ultimately oozing glare that had specks of bloodlust. Rui could
already tell that the man hadn't taken his loss gracefully, accepted he was
wrong, and moved on. Instead, the man had clearly nursed a vendetta and
grudge against Rui that had been smoldering in him for more than a year.
Rui sighed. "I hope this idiot doesn't do something stupid."

Chapter 403 Converse
"Oh Ian?" Fiona laughed. "Ignore him, but be careful, he's really mad at you
for beating him in the Martial Contest last year."
"I can tell." Rui sighed.
"By the way." Fiona turned to him."You're much stronger than you were a
year ago, but you feel very weak, like a normal human, what's that about?"
"Ah… That's a mental technique I use to reduce my presence and danger so

that normal humans don't get affected by me even if I don't maintain my
emotions perfectly." Rui explained.
"Oh? Fiona's eyes flashed with curiosity. "How does that work?"
The two bantered for a bit before another individual entered the dispatch
facility.
"Martial Apprentices, gather around."All of you are those who have, both
applied for one of the two two squads of the dungeon team and all of you
have been accepted for the respective roles."
"I am commissioner Feristen of the Martial Union in charge of the

commission. I will be breaking down the mission for all of you once more."
He projected an image on a wall before gesturing at it. "The initial one

percent core sovereign territory that every nation posses that cannot be
infringed via mutual agreement is something that can be done with choice.
Rest assured, the choice will be made by experts who will be part of the
dungeon team who will carefully make the decision based off of the positions
chosen by the smaller and weaker states as well as the largest and most
powerful states that will make life easier for all of you."
Rui nodded. It made no sense to leave such a strategic militaristic decision in
the hands of laymen like Martial Artists. Rui was not arrogant enough to
believe that his previous life's memories and other cognitive advantages
would somehow magically make him an expert in the field of militaristic
strategy.
"Once you safely escort the dungeon team into and through the Serevian
Plateau until you reach the Serevian Dungeon, you will escort and protect the
dungeon team to the coordinates of the location chosen by the strategic
department. Then you will form an perimeter around the dungeon team on
hih alert as they begin the base formation." He paused.
"Once that occurs, the defensive squad will engage in standard location
protection missions protective protocols, while the assault squad will begin
engaging in expansion and seizing of territory. The variables will vary and
you will be expected to consult the strategic department on the assaults
conducted." The commissioner nodded. "The nature of the mission is such
that very little can be concretely said beyond what I already have. The
mission will commence in eighteen hours, be sure to be at this dispatch
facility by then. It is recommended you finish all your paperwork well before
then. You'll be meeting up with the dungeon team as soon as the mission
commences. And with that, I bid all of you good luck. Perform well, and you
may earn some extra bonuses."
He nodded before promptly exiting the dispatch facility.
The Martial Apprentices followed the commissioner's words as they filled in

the paperwork before leaving.
"You're not planning on going back to Hajin right?" Fiona asked.
"No. It would be pointless to go back only to come back half a day later." Rui
shook his head.
"Then do you want to come over to my place?" Fiona asked she threw a side
eye at him.
Rui met her gaze as he contemplated her offer, before shrugging. "Alright,
thanks for the offer."
"Yay." She grinned before dragging him by the arm, much to his surprise.
Once they exited the office of the Martial Union, she waved to an extravagant
horse-pulled carriage with the emblem of the Roschem Family stopped right
before them.
"Er…miss , who might this be?" A maid from within asked once she saw the
hand of a young man in hers.
"He's now a guest of the Roschem Manor." She declared.
"…Very well, miss." The maid relented.
"Get in." She told him as she hopped in herself, patting the seat next to her.
"Are you sure this is ok?" Rui asked, scratching his head.
"It will be fine, let's go." Fiona insisted, giggling.
Rui sighed as he got in, sitting beside her. Soon, the carriage began moving.
"You know…" She began. "That last fight we had was unlike any other fight
I've ever had in my life."
"Oh?" Rui asked, raising an eye. "Why do you say that?"
"I never had too much of a strong ambition for any one particular thing. But
after seeing how far you're willing to persevere for the sake of pursuing your
Martial Art… I got a little curious, you see." She continued, as she turned to
face him. "I wonder what pursuing your Martial Path really feels like."
In that moment, Rui felt as though she had actually matured a lot since he last
spoke with her when they ate dinner together.
"That's good to hear." Rui nodded. "Have you named your Martial Art yet?"
"No. Why?" Fiona asked.

"Just curious." Rui replied. ('So she hasn't yet made much progress on the
individuality of her Martial Art.')
This wasn't particularly unexpected after all. She was still only a somewhat
carefree sixteen-year-old. Even Kane hadn't named his Martial Art yet
because he hadn't developed enough individuality yet. Although he did fulfill
the other condition of Squire Candidacy; maturity.
"Well, you have enough time. Just make sure you remain true to your Martial
Path, always." Rui added.
"That sounds like something an old man would say." Fiona noted.
"It's just your imagination."
"Is it?"
"It's actually something the headmaster of my Martial Academy branch,

Headmaster Aronian had told me. His wise words had truly helped me
through some trying and difficult times."
"Really?" She peered at him suspiciously.
"Really." He laughed awkwardly.
The two bantered until they finally reached the Roschem Residence.
"And this is my home." She waved at her home.
"Wow." Rui cooed. This is going to be good."

Chapter 404 Spar
The Roschem Manor welcomed Rui as a guest and he was given his own
guest room to stay at. This was a luxury beyond Rui's expectations. Fiona
chattered with him a lot as they waited for the commencement of the mission.
He'd learned a lot more about Fiona by that point. She was a grade-ten
Martial Apprentice, even after the update of the Martial Artist grade system.
Which meant her prowess was the real deal.
"By the way." She said at one point. "Do you want to spar?"
Rui's eyes lit up in interest as he considered her offer.
"Sure." He nodded. He had considered the same thing, but he wasn't sure if it
was wise to challenge her in her own home after she had invited him. "I've
been wanting a rematch for more than a while."
"Alright." She grinned. "Let's get started then."
She took him to a sparring facility inside the Roschem Residence., making
him sigh at how rich and loaded her family was. He had visited the Arrancar
Manor before and had seen something similar there as well, but that was
more than three years ago. Back then he lacked the contextual understanding
as to how ridiculous it was, unlike his current self.
"This is meant to withstand the power of Martial Apprentices." She told him.
"We can go all out here without a worry."
"Honestly..." Rui scratched his head. "It's gonna need to do more than just
withstand the power of Martial Apprentices for us to truly be unworried."
She smiled at those words. "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

"Alright, if you say so." Rui shrugged.
"Take your positions." One of the servants served as a referee.
Both Fiona and Rui took neutral stances against each other. They were both
all-rounders, it was one of the reasons Rui wanted to face her. She was an all-
rounder Martial Apprentice who was capable of going toe-to-toe with him.
She was the perfect opponent to exercise his capability with the VOID
algorithm.
The atmosphere grew heavy as the two began focusing.
"Begin!"
WHOOSH
Fiona lashed out as she crossed the distance between them in the briefest
instance. She didn't hesitate to launch a barrage of powerful yet swift attacks.
She had a much better understanding of his Martial Art since the last time
they fought. She knew that he grew stronger as time passed, and she wanted
to prevent from him growing to a stage where she would no longer have an
advantage against him in combat.
She knew that his true strength did not come from overwhelming physical
parameters but the freakish way he was able to adapt and evolve to his
opponent with accurately timed and placed movements with high precision.
Thus, prior to his change was the one time he was most vulnerable.
Yet to her surprise, overwhelming him was much harder than it seemed.
Rui bobbed and weaved as he evaded every single one of her attacks. His
reactions were incredibly sharp.
('No, they're too fast!') She realized. It was as though his brain was simply
functioning faster than what was possible in the Apprentice Realm. He
reached with almost no delay, in the briefest of flashes.
She didn't understand. She knew that he was capable of ridiculous reactions
after he did his so-called adaptive evolution thingy. But she was pretty sure it
was far too early for that to have already kicked in.
And she was right.
What she was dealing with was not the VOID algorithm. Rui was still
building the predictive model of her. What she was facing was just the raw
battle cognition upgrade that he had gained from the Mindmirror symbiote
brain. His reactions and reflexes had all improved significantly thanks to
programming the secondary brain with those neurological patterns with the
Mental Embed technique so that the secondary brain could parallelly process
identically alongside Rui's own mind.
His reaction and processing speed had increased by more than one hundred
percent. Despite possessing greater movement speed than Rui, she simply
struggled to land a proper attack on him.
Of course, she was far from done.
CLAP!
She released a loud sound that disoriented Rui on the spot.
('High-density infrasonic sound waves?') Rui cursed as he identified the

principle of the technique she had used. Infrasonic sound waves were sound
waves at a frequency below the audible range of the human ears. Greater
amounts of this frequency of sound caused disorientation, sea sickness, and
nausea.
She used a technique that generated high-density infrasonic sound that would
disorient the target if the technique.
BAM!!
She managed land in her very first jab on him and the very first damage
inflicted on an opponent in the duel.
Rui grimaced as he used all four of his Apprentice-level techniques; Adamant

Reforge, Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift, and Acute Edge to mitigate the
damage done by her attack, yet it was only partially effective, he couldn't
negate everything.
('Damn, she hits like a truck, as always.') Rui grimaced. He had always
known that she hit hard, but she had become even stronger than she was
before. Her single strike throbbed through his body.
Yet, Fiona wasn't done. She lashed out after him again, refusing to let him
catch his bearings and awareness. She continued to whale out an onslaught of
attacks, hoping she would get in more attacks by exploiting his openings.
Yet;
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui evaded attacks as he slipped in a clean strike that neatly squeezed

through an obscure hole in her defense.
It was a Flowing Canon with enough power to push even her back.
She glanced back at him with a wary expression. He, in turn, had a confident
expression as he met her eyes with a new stance. He hopped lightly as his
arms were aggressively placed. His new stance was offense and speed-
oriented stance which placed less weight on defense.
The statement it made was clear. He didn't need to focus on defense when
fighting against her.
Chapter 405 Outcome
Rui calmly took his new stance as he met Fiona's probing gaze.
The initial predictive model had been completed. Rui had managed to hold on
for long enough for himself and the Mindmirror Symbiote brain to work
together.
This time, it was his turn to go on the offensive.
POW POW POW!
He began with a flurry of jabs at her, testing her out and feeling her reactions
as he continued refining his predictive model.
It wasn't enough to be called a flaw, but one shortcoming of the VOID

algorithm was that he needed data in the same areas as the things he was
trying to predict by creating a predictive model.
Because of the fact that she had been on the offensive the entire time and he
had been on the defensive, he didn't have much data on her defensive
patterns. Although he could still predict her with parameters that were
unchanging across offense or defense, the predictive model was at its most
effective when it had adequate data.
WHOOSH WHOOSH
BAM BAM!
He casually evaded her, having predicted her movements with the predictive
model, while launching perfectly placed and timed uppercuts into openings
created by her own attacks.
She grimaced as she leaped back, throwing a concerned glance at Rui who
chased after her, refusing to let her get her bearings in the fight.
With every attack he threw, success or failure, the prediction model gained
access to more and more data that allowed the predictions to become more
and more refined.
She knew that she had already failed in trying to defeat him before he
evolved to her. The best she could do at that point was trying to win
regardless of the evolution.
Yet she didn't have any viably means to do so
CLASP
Rui caught one of her arms having predicted her attempt at using the
infrasonic sound attack to disorient him to try and exploit the opportunity to
land a powerful blow on him then and there.
Yet, Rui mercilessly used Flow Flux bolstered with Flame Breathing and
Outer Convergence.
She stumbled, yet before she could even try to regain her balance;
BAM BAM!
Two Tempestuous Ripples hit her from below as they launched her airborne
as they carried her well outside the boundaries of the ring.
THUD
She landed heavily, out of bounds.
She sighed. "That's your win, I guess."
"Hehehe." Rui chuckled as he smirked. "Looks like I win this time."
"You've truly gotten ridiculously strong." She admitted. "Since when was
your evolution thingy that strong?"
"For a while now," Rui admitted.
Back when he had fought her in the Martial Contest, he had not yet mastered
the predictive model at that time. He had fought Fiona purely with the more
primitive stylistic adaptation systems of the VOID algorithm back then.
Although it wasn't entirely obsolete, it was obsolete compared to what he was
capable of now.
It wasn't as though Rui had created something brand new in the time since the
Martial Contest. The only difference was that he had mastered the Mind
Palace and the Mindmirror Symbiote which allowed him to use the VOID
algorithm himself in combat not just viably but also perfectly and sometimes
even excellently.
Yet the VOID algorithm itself was the outcome of a project, Project Water
that had taken him a lifetime to achieve.
So the power he had obtained in the last year wasn't just something he had
obtained in the last year. But something he had finally crystalized after
decades of effort.
"How did you get this fast and this strong?" She asked curiously.
"Hard work, talent, calculated risks, and a lot of luck." He replied

dismissively.
He'd rather have kept the secret as down on the low as possible.
"Besides, you've gotten a lot stronger too," Rui added, consolingly.
"I just mastered a few stronger Martial Art techniques." She said.
"That's more or less what I did, really." Rui shrugged.
The two bantered some more as time passed. Rui enjoyed the extreme
hospitality that the Roschem Family provided him. He had basically never
experienced such luxury since he wasn't rich enough to afford such luxuries.
He partook in everything they had to offer until the time for the
commencement of the mission took place.
"Finally." Fiona muttered as they set out for the Martial Union. "This took far
longer than it should have. What was the point of having to wait eighteen
hours when we could have started immediately back then?"
"We may have been ready, but the civilian parts of our Serevian Dungeon
team may not necessarily have been ready. These include miners and mining
equipment as well as research scholars and other extraction teams for
resource acquisition." Rui explained.
"But why not?" Fiona asked.
"Because there is more than just manpower that goes into these teams," Rui
answered. "You need the necessary equipment and machinery, you need
supplies; both personal and industrial as well as means of transportation that
needs to come together for our Serevian Dungeon team to be ready."
"Ah, makes sense." Fiona nodded. "I'm just glad I'm not stuck with defending
and protecting these nerds instead."
"You're also in the offensive squad by that you mean?" Rui asked, raising an
eyebrow at the girl.
"Yes, of course." She nodded. "I would get bored just sitting around waiting
for attacks. I accepted the Serevian Dungeon mission because I was quite
curious about what the Serevian Dungeon was like and whether it was as
exotic as people say or not."
Rui nodded as an interesting point took his attention.
"I wonder what Squad Ian Nepomniachtchi, is going to be a part of," Rui
asked out aloud.
"Who knows, we'll find out." She shrugged.
"He struck me as an aggressive person, hard to imagine him coming all the
way to the Serevian Dungeon unless he wants to actively seek out fight
himself." Rui noted.
"That is true." Fiona laughed at his words mirthfully.
The two of them got out of their carriage once they arrived, immediately
heading inside.
Chapter 406 Arrival
The two of them quickly headed over to the designated dispatch facility.
Plenty of Martial Artists had already gathered at the dispatch facility. They
all prepared as they gathered the necessary gear and equipment. Thankfully
for the Martial Artists, the Martial Union had provided them with the
necessary potions free of cost.
This was one of the incentives that the Martial Union had offered to
incentivize the mission and attract even more powerful Martial Artists to
undertake the mission.
Rui and Fiona immediately began preparing their kits with the recommended
and necessary gear.
Soon it was time for being dispatched. However, they weren't going to be
dispatched to the Serevian Plateau immediately. They first needed to
intercept the dungeon team that would be dispatched from the Kandrian
Government.
The Martial Union's role in the dungeon wars was purely Martial and
militaristic. The Kandrian Government would be solely shouldering the
burden of gathering the team that would be in charge of mining and resource
acquisition. Specifically, the Ministry of Mining and the Ministry of
Environment and Ecology would be joining hands in the endeavor.
The Kandrian Royal Army would be dispatching several defensive corps to

aid the dungeon team. The army would be bearing the heaviest weight as far
as defensive measures went. This was natural, as although manual
bodyguarding and surveillance from the Martial Artists of the Martial Union
in the defensive squad was certainly quite necessary, it was not enough by
itself. Setting up defensive barricades and defensive technological solutions
were also equally necessary.
The army would contribute to the core defense while the defensive squad of
the Martial Union would focus on repelling attacks on their territory.
They would be joining the convoy before it was dispatched from an army
base.
Rui counted the Martial Artists using Seismic Mapping.
('Forty-eight Martial Apprentices on the very first dispatch?') Rui raised an

eyebrow. ('The Martial Union isn't holding back it seems.')
Furthermore, each of these Martial Apprentices was high-grade Martial

Apprentices of the Martial Union. Both the quality and quantity of the
Martial Artists being assigned to a single mission far exceeded anything he
had ever participated in.
Soon, commissioner Feristen entered the dispatch facility. The Martial Artists
had all prepared themselves in time. They would soon need to be dispatched.
"Apprentices. The time has come. The dungeon team is currently in military
base KEM-423 right outside the town of Vargard. All of you have the
coordinates in your mission bills. It's time to dispatch. Get going."
The Martial Artists left the facility as they headed towards the designated
military base outside the town.
The sight of forty-eight Martial Apprentices zipping through the town of

Vargard spurred waves of excitement among the common public. It was very
rare to see such an exorbitant number of Martial Apprentices traveling
together. Such a sight inspired awe and amazement as each of these mighty
beings individually was far beyond what normal humans could ever be.
Soon, they arrived at the designated military base. It was large and heavily
fortified, with large spiked walls that barricaded any entry.
The security was not light, and guards armed with weapons and other devices
Rui could not even identify.
"Purpose of visit?" The security guards asked with a straight face and a stern
expression.
"Mission KEMU-3142." One of the Martial Apprentices at the front of the

crowd chirped up.
The security team began inspecting each and every mission bill and Martial
license with heavy scrutiny. The Martial Apprentices were heavily scanned as
were their belongings before they were finally allowed in.
"Barrack number 7." Rui was told as he was returned his belongings.
The Martial Apprentices made their way to the designated barrack. The
barracks housed many large motorized vehicles of different kinds.
"Martial Apprentices of the Martial Union." A man in an adorned militaristic

uniform addressed them. "I am colonel Carnes. I am the acting leader of the
Kandrian Serevian dungeon team, as I'm sure you're already informed. The
Kandrian Serevian will soon depart now that you have arrived as per
protocol."
Soon, the many motorized carriages emerged out of the barrack in a

particular formation. The motorized carriages on the outermost layer were
heavy, large, and highly armored. They were part of the defensive
deployment to protect the dungeon team.
The inner circle was comprised of supplies and storage carriages that
contained necessary supplies and resources that were absolutely vital for
maintaining a fortified mining endeavor.
The Martial Apprentices already knew what to do. They would be traveling
by foot, forming a perimeter protecting the dungeon team convoy.
Soon, the voyage to the Serevian Dungeon commenced. The journey was
estimated to take a whole day. After all, a large traveling convoy couldn't
move as fast as Rui did when he ran to the Serevian Dungeon. The journey
would be agonizingly slow.
Both the offense and the defense squads partook in the perimeter. The many
Martial Apprentices with sensory techniques kept an eye out on their
surroundings as they traveled alongside the dungeon team.
Nearly a whole day had passed until they finally reached the Serevian
Plateau. They paused some distance away from the cliff that led down to a
forest.
It was impossible for them to travel down the cliff, of course. Fortunately, the
Ministry of Environment and Ecology had already chartered a viable route
down to the Serevian Plateau safely. The convoy veered as they evaded the
cliff safely. Traveling parallel to the cliff. As time passed, the elevation of the
cliff declined slowly as the convoy traveled downhill.
Soon, the cliff melted into a straightforward pass.
The convoy took their very first step into the Serevian Plateau. Many of the
Martial Artists tensed up as they continued traveling. The mission bill
stressed the dangers of the Serevian Plateau. The fact that one needed to be a
grade seven Martial Artists just to be barely qualified to travel the Serevian
Plateau hadn't escaped their memories. Even if they were all powerful Martial
Apprentices chosen for this very reason, it didn't ease their burdens.
Part of the reason for this was the size of the convoy. It was one thing for a
nimble, flexible, and fast Martial Apprentices to travel the Serevian Plateau.
It was entirely another thing for large convoys such as the Kandrian Empire's
Serevian Dungeon team to travel the Serevian Plateau.
The biggest difference was the size which made them extremely loud and
conspicuous. On top of their conspicuity, their inability to easily and swiftly
retreat and disengage from any conflict that may arise made their position
that much more vulnerable. Martial Apprentices often simply retreated or
escaped in the face of grave danger.
But in this case, they couldn't.
Rui was also a bit worried. He did not think he himself was in any particular
danger of dying. But he certainly did worry about the convoy. The Serevian
Plateau had a large amount of Apprentice-level fauna and flora. The
individual prowess of the creatures was not a problem, the problem was the
sheer number of the creatures that the Serevian Plateau held. They were at a
numbers disadvantage.
Of course, the Ministry of Environment and Ecology as well as the military

weren't stupid. They were aware of the same problem as well. In addition to
the forty-eight high-grade Martial Apprentices that were protecting the
dungeon team convoy, there were the defensive carriages that were capable
of pulling their own weight. The many defensive carriages that formed their
own parameters protecting the core of the dungeon team inside all began
buzzing and humming. From atop the large and heavy defensive armored
carriages emerged large long structures that eerily resembled a railgun or a
canon. Rui felt a sense of danger from the structures that were clearly
weapons.
Yet he felt more confident. The sheer prowess of their convoy was quite high.
Even if they were attacked, whoever attacked them would be quite sorry for
ever having done so.
Even if a large wave of Apprentice-level creatures happened upon them, they

would certainly be able to repel them away with ease.
Another major problem for the dungeon team convoy was traveling itself.
The Serevian Plateau didn't have the wide space needed for a wide convoy of
this nature to be able to travel unperturbed while still maintaining the
necessary formation.
However, this had also been accounted for. The carriages at the very forefront
of the convoy were equipped with path-clearing devices and technology that
cleared away any trees that obstructed the path of the convoy, swiftly.
Yet, this also hindered their path considerably. They needed extra time
because of all the delays that the clearing of the path was causing.
Their journey was not unhindered, either.
"Pack of eight Frost Wolves coming from nine o clock!" Rui shouted as his
Seismic Mapping recognized the signature of the seismic radiation.
The Martial Artists around Rui immediately turned toward the direction that
Rui had indicated their arrival to be from. The canons of the armored defense
carriages turned in the direction that Rui had announced they were coming
from.
Soon, they came.
Seven wolves appeared, sprinting toward them at an incredible pace.
Rui, Fiona, and several other Martial Apprentices launched long-range

attacks toward the wolves as the canons fired.
BAM BAM BAM!
Multiple attacks crashed into the wolves as they whimpered in pain. The
attacks of high-grade Martial Apprentices and the many canons atop the
armored carriages were overwhelming.
Most of the wolves died while the remaining ran away, in fear for their life.
Rui sighed in relief as he glanced at the canons atop the defensive armored
carriages with an impressed expression. This was his first time witnessing
esoteric technology in combat. As expected, it was not weak. The sheer speed
and power of the projectiles launched were quite impressive and dangerous
even to Martial Apprentices. Only Martial Apprentices of the high grades
could deal with them. Martial Apprentices of the low grades would likely be
unable to dodge it due to the speed and unable to withstand it due to the
power.
Rui could only think of the conflict between Martial Artists and sovereign
states when he saw what the canons were capable of. He hadn't forgotten that
the only way the Kandrian Royal Family was competitive with the Martial
Union was through their esoteric technology. The Royal Family invested in
esoteric technology to the same degree the Martial Union invested in Martial
Art. Its technological capabilities were supposed to allow it to be a threat to
the Martial Union, and Rui was starting to see how. If the Royal Family and
the Royal army possessed weapons of such power and much greater, then that
alone would be a threat to the Martial Union.
Thankfully, canons like these weren't nimble and flexible like Martial
Apprentices were. They were also a permanent money drain proportional to
the firepower they outputted whereas Martial Artists were not nearly as
expensive to maintain.
However, the Kandrian Royal Family wasn't just limited to weapons such as
these. They had various other technological solutions that allowed them to be
quite competitive with Martial Artists. This included other weapon
technologies outside of mere canons.
Rui recalled what Julian had told him a long time ago. One of the main ways
the Kandrian Royal Army kept up with the Martial Union was through
temporary augmentation potions. These were potions that could temporarily
augment the consumer of the potion significantly, granting them superhuman
physical and mental parameters. These potions allowed ordinary humans to
fight Martial Artists on an even footing, at least until the effects of the
potions wore off. This way, even though the Royal Family had far fewer
Martial Artists than the Martial Union, they had ways of allowing ordinary
soldiers to fight with Martial Artists.
('I wonder if we'll see any of those in this dungeon team.') Rui wondered. It
was quite plausible that they would. After all, if it was one of the core ways
by which the Royal Family and the Royal Army stayed relevant, then there
was a pretty good chance he would see it, one way or another.
Chapter 408 Core
Rui put his thoughts aside as they were attacked multiple times after the first
attack. Sometimes it was hippogriffs, other times it was larger wild cats, and
sometimes it was aerial beasts.
Yet each time they were attacked, the Martial Apprentices and the canons
fired, warding off beasts before they could even come closer to the convoy.
Most creatures that attacked them either died or got hurt enough to simply
run away. Ultimately. Most creatures in the animal kingdom had a strong
sense of survival that prevented them from fighting highly dangerous battles
that would likely result in them getting butchered.
After many hours of agonizingly slow travel, they finally reached the core of
the Serevian Plateau.
The land had suddenly and sharply elevated highly at a particular point, just
as Rui had remembered it.
The only question was how the carriages of the dungeon team were going to
travel up all the way to the surface of the elevated land.
That had also been planned by the Ministry. The convoy veered to the side as
they traveled parallelly to the Serevian Dungeon before they happened upon a
particularly large cave that was much larger than any of the ones that they
had run into prior. The cave had been located prior to the commencement of
the mission when searching for a cave that would allow the dungeon team
convoy to reach the surface of the Serevian Dungeon.
The convoy temporarily broke formation as the carriages proceeded one by

one through the large cave, following a particular path that brought them to
the surface. The Martial Apprentices had secured the entrance and exit of the
cave and had also scouted the path ahead of time to make sure that there
weren't any hostile Apprentice-level animals that would pose a threat to the
particularly more vulnerable carriages of the convoy.
"That's the last of it." Rui nodded as the final armored carriage finally pushed
itself up to the surface of the Serevian Dungeon.
He turned back, facing the Serevian Dungeon for the first time since his last
mission. "This place hasn't changed much." He nodded.
Soon the carriages huddled together in their formation. However, this time,
some of the inner carriages buzzed and hummed as the top of these large
carriages began to change as certain devices began growing out of it. Several
devices resembling satellites had formed atop these carriages. They were
positioned such that they faced the entirety of the Serevian Dungeon in all
three hundred and sixty degrees of vision.
Rui knew what they were for. Not only because the mission bill had spoken
about them, but also because they resembled the technology of Earth a bit too
much.
According to established protocols, the dungeon team was supposed to gather

environmental data before that data would be set back to the higher-ups back
home.
The Ministry and the government back home would process the data and
choose the location of their core territory.
The location of the core territory of a sovereign nation in the Serevian

Dungeon was extremely important. According to the Serevian Pact that the
twelve countries that laid claim to the territory of the Serevian Dungeon, the
territory that each sovereign nation declared as its core territory would be, as
sworn by all nations, uninfringeable and unseizable by any other nation.
Thus, the location of such territory was an extremely important and strategic
decision that needed to be made. The choice was important enough that it
would permanently impact the outcome of the nation's participation in the
Serevian Dungeon war.
Thus, it would likely take some time before the relevant militaristic and
strategic experts in the headquarters of the operation back home in the
Kandrian Empire, figure out the most optimal spot for declaring as territory.
Important decisions like this took into account logistical and inventory
constraints, the risk of getting attacked by other nations, risk of getting
attacked by Apprentice-level beasts. It also needed to take into account the
distance from the edge and the cost and difficulty of restocking.
It also needed to take into account the evaluation of mining viability and
resource availability.
For now, the dungeon team convoy set up a temporary base and other
temporary defensive measures. A simple fortification fencing was erected for
basic protection as the defensive squad and the armed and armored carriages
also formed a perimeter around the dungeon team.
It was only after several defensive and surveillance measures were taken
before the inhabitants of the Serevian Dungeon finally exited the carriages. It
was quite clear that the many individuals who emerged from the inner
carriages were mix of intellectuals and manual laborers, particularly miners.
They contained people of the intellectual professions such as
environmentalist scholars as well as ecologist scholars for very obvious
reasons.
Both of these professions were quite needed in the Servian Dungeon, of

course, but they weren't the only needed professions. The Ministry of Mining
had deployed miners and specific mining technological solutions that would
aid in the process of the extraction of some of the vast reserves of
featherblood mercury and Nereneal Flintstone.
They immediately began looking busy as they began acquiring samples of

literally everything that could even be sampled. In comparison, the offensive
squad was mostly jobless. It wasn't their fault of course, their turn would only
come after the Kandrian Empire chose their core territory and only after they
stabilized their base in their core territory.
Thankfully, the decision came within a few hours.

To everyone's delight, the decision of the core territory of the Kandrian
Empire within the Serevian Dungeon had overlapped with their existing
position. Meaning they didn't need to move places in order to begin
colonizing their core base in their core territory at the edge of the Serevian
Dungeon.
Rui had partially expected that the core territory would be placed at the edge
of the Serevian Dungeon. After all, it was a smart move from his point of
view. There were several clear advantages to doing so.
The benefits of choosing the core territory at the edge of the Serevian
Dungeon were clear. For one, the restocking and resupplying of necessary
goods and supplies for the Serevian dungeon team became a lot more
convenient for the Kandrian Empire. Otherwise, the routine supply shipments
sent by Kandrian Empire would need to enter the Serevian Dungeon. Once it
entered the Serevian Dungeon it was vulnerable to attack from hostile Martial
Apprentices who had no qualms about attacking supply shipments in order to
hind the Kandrian Empire.
Protecting the supply shipments heavily enough to deter the attacks from
other competing nations would require an immense amount of Martial Art
resources that would make the already expensive expenditure of the entire
endeavor far greater than it already was.
However, making the core territory of the Kandrian Empire at the edge of the
Serevian Dungeon meant that the supply shipments never needed to enter any
hostile territory in the Serevian Dungeon. Furthermore, it restricted the area
over which their territory could be attacked from. Doing so reduced the threat
they would be subjected to, while also bolstering their defenses due to a
much lesser area over which an attack could occur.
Part of the reason that choosing territory at the edge of the Serevian Dungeon
was a wise choice was because of the fact that the twelve nations had agreed
to never engage in combat in the Serevian Plateau outside the Serevian
Dungeon. This was to prevent the escalation of the conflict of the Serevian
Dungeon outside it into full-blown war.
The Serevian Dungeon's limit of the Apprentice Realm functioned as a hard

ceiling for the limit to the degree to which the conflict could escalate to; to
never above the Apprentice Realm.
However, once the conflict moved outside the Serevian Dungeon, then
Martial Artists of higher Realms would no longer be limited by the defense
mechanism of the Serevian Dungeon. The conflict could freely escalate to the
Squire and the Senior Realm rather quickly.
Once that happened, it wasn't just about the featherblood mercury and
nereneal flint stone. Martial Artists of the higher Realms were extremely
valuable. The losses suffered by all participating sovereign nations in such a
conflict would be tremendous and would likely even the net profit being
made.
Thus, out of consideration for themselves and others. The twelve nations
agreed to the terms and conditions in order to limit the losses suffered by the
Serevian Dungeon wars.
Thus, choosing one's core territory at the edge of the Serevian Dungeon
effectively meant that their backs were covered. Of course, the Kandrian
Empire still took defensive measures in case one of the twelve countries
chose to violate the Serevian Pact. However, the probability of this occurring
was quite low as the Pact specified that the violators of the Serevian Pact may
have their territories infringed upon by all the other eleven states participating
in the Serevian dungeon wars.
The work had begun immediately. The many non-combat carriages were
soon unloaded and docked as the civil engineers began building quick
accommodations for the entire team to be able to live in the Serevian
Dungeon.
They began employing esoteric civil engineering technology to build small

but efficiently spaced huts that were viable housing accommodations for the
members of the dungeon team. The military began deploying the more
sophisticated defensive and counter-offensive solutions that it had come
prepared with, bolstering the defenses of its base.
These included multiple lines of fortification, and an army of live canons

pointed in all directions that an invasion could come from.
What drew Rui's attention the most was when the soldiers of the Royal Army
finally got out of their military carriages.
What surprised Rui was the lacking of Martial Apprentices, even when
considering the Kandrian Empire's lacking Martial Artists. The remaining
soldiers seemed like normal human beings. Yet many of them had strange
contraptions on their arm and other gizmo that Rui had no idea what was.
He shrugged, before turning his back to the actual martial Apprentices.
They weren't many, but they were quite strong. What interested Rui was that
two of the Martial Apprentices actually wielded weapons. This was quite a
rare coincidence. Rui studied the weapons of these Martial Apprentices
carefully.
One of the wielded a gigantic sword, tied to his back. It was actually quite
shocking to see such a ridiculously large blade on his back that was almost as
tall as its owner! It was a longsword that hyper-emphasized power rather than
speed and durability differences.
('Still, does he actually manage to successfully land hits on his opponent with
something that unwieldy) Rui wondered with curiosity and intrigue.
He turned his attention to the other one. Her weapon was a trident, a three-
pronged spear. This was not a weapon he had any familiarity with it. He had
never seen the concept of such a weapon in his life. Yet he conducted a quick
mental analysis on the object.
The lethality of the weapons had a lot going for it. It became far easier to land
critical attacks with the extra piercing prongs. However, it didn't mean there
were no shortcomings at all. The pressure it exerted through each tip was
reduced by one-third because of the amount of area through which the force
was being exerted onto him.
Furthermore, it also likely reduced the flexibility of offense of the weapon. It

was much more difficult to be able to attack with the triple-prong spear head
which made it more difficult to actually land the damage it ought to have.
Of course, this was just the price to pay for being able to inflict the three
wounds with a single attack that normal spears would be unable to do. At the
end of the day, he would likely have still chosen the spear as the most
superior weapon, but he wondered whether that would be the case for her.
The existence of the Martial Path that created hyper affinities for certain
forms of combat often meant that what was objectively the best did not
matter.
Chapter 410 Coordination
A day passed as the Kandrian military speedily worked on the fortification of

their core territory. Walls were erected, simple lodging were constructed at
incredibly high paces. One of the many things that the army had to take care
of was sealing the many caves that littered the territory beneath them that led
onto the surface. It served as a hole in the defense and security and could be
exploited by hostile Martial Apprentices to infiltrate into the territory.
Of course, this would violate the Serevian Pact and it was unlikely that any
nation would cross the line, the military was not taking any chances. There
was also the psychological pressure of living with such a security hole. So
much so that there were a few Martial Apprentices of the defensive squad
who had been chosen because of their mastery of the Seismic Mapping
technique.
It took a few days for the base camp to fully stabilize as the most important
issues had been taken care of and the secondary and tertiary tasks were being
handled by the dungeon team dispatched by the Ministry of Environment and
Ecology and the Ministry of Mining.
Rui was starting to get a little bored until finally the offensive squad was
ready to be dispatched.
"Martial Apprentices of the offensive squad." Colonel Carnes addressed the

offensive squad. "The first phase of the colonization of the Serevian Dungeon
is complete. The Serevian Dungeon team will begin an aggressive expansion
deeper into the Serevian Dungeon henceforth with continuous supply
shipments from the Kandrian Empire. As per protocol, the offensive team
may commence the offensive attacks on any foreign settlements that aren't
part of the core territories of other nations. As all of you are surely aware,
you cannot attack the core territories of the Serevian Dungeon. This would
violate the Serevian Pact on behalf of the Kandrian Empire."
Rui nodded. None of the Martial Apprentices were foolish enough to do

something that stupid, when the mission bill as well as the commissioner of
the mission and the colonel leading the mission had all drilled it into their
heads that infringing on the core territories was absolutely unacceptable.
"The maps that you will be provided contain clear and defined illustration
that detail the core territories of the foreign nations in high accuracy and
precision." Colonel Carnes informed them as a soldier hauled a box. "Each of
these maps also details the territories of a few nations that have already begun
expanding territory. As all of you are aware, your goal is to hinder and
obstruct the colonization of our competitors to the highest degree possible.
Ensure that our competitors cannot take a single step outside of their core
bases!"
The Martial Apprentices simply stared at him blankly. They were

unaccustomed to such pep talks, being from the Martial Union. The Martial
Union was very much practical and business-oriented. Martial Apprentices
were not motivated with pep talks, but with money and other more concrete
benefits.
Regardless, the Martial Apprentices were motivated.
"Colonel Carnes is correct." Commissioner Feristen nodded. "The higher-ups

at HQ have already messaged relayed all of you your offensive missions on
your accounters regarding the targets that you will be attacking. Refer to the
map and commence the attacks at the given timeframe."
The Martial Apprentices were immediately given the maps with the territories
of their competitors.
"Red marks the core territories while blue marks the extended territories,
huh?" Rui red the map along with its legends.
The closest territories to the Kandrian Empire's territories were several small
nations. The Kingdom of Nochus, the Republic Jerefin and the State of
Hreefeal were the among the three nations closest to the Serevian Plateau,
directly touching it at certain points. This allowed the three nations to get a
head start in the exploration and colonization of the Serevian Dungeon.
Rui glanced at his accounter as he read the message.
"My target is... the Kingdom of Nochus huh?" Rui mused as he read the
orders of the message that the Martial Union had sent him.
The Martial Artists of the Martial Union were different from the soldiers of
the army that had a high amount of cohesion and coordination. The Martial
Artists of the Martial Union had no such thing unless it was with members of
a party.
It wasn't possible to foster such kind of coordination with Martial Artists who
were effectively no different from freelancers. The individualistic freelancer
mindset was what gave the Martial Apprentices its greatest strengths, but it
also gave them their greatest shortcomings. The Martial Union was inferior to
the Kandrian Royal Army as far as coordination of its forces went.
This problem was the reason why the Martial Union included training of
large-scale coordination guidelines in the Martial Academy. The training
wouldn't magically make all teamwork absolutely perfect, but it would ensure
that at the very least the coordination wasn't a negative.
It included simple principles that allowed Martial Apprentices to not get in

each other's way.
That training would be put to use in this mission since the Martial
Apprentices that would be working together to assault a certain base had no
basis for coordination.
In fact, Rui didn't even know who his fellow teammates were that would be
attacking the Kingdom of Nochus!
The Martial Union was taking full control, moving each Martial Apprentice
like pieces on a chessboard so that the pieces didn't need to try teaming up
together only to make a mess. In comparison, colonel Carnes had full
authority over the Kandrian Dungeon team and the garrisons of the Royal
Army. He would be making a lot of decisions and would be held accountable
for them.
Rui shook his head as he began preparing for the assault on the territory of
the Kingdom of Nochus. Each nation would be bringing out their best, which
meant that their defenses would be significantly stiff.
Regardless, Rui was quite excited for his first battle of the Serevian Dungeon
wars. Just what kind of Martial Artists would he run into?
Chapter 411 Conflict
"Which territory were you assigned to?" Rui asked Fiona.
"The State Hreefal." She replied. "You?"
"Kingdom of Nochus."
Rui found it a shame that they weren't working together, but the decision
wasn't in their hands.
"Martial Apprentices assigned to the Kingdom of Nochus." Commissioner

Carnes addressed all of them at one point. "The data regarding the defenses
of the territory of the Kingdom of Nochus are present in the mission bill each
of you was provided, but I'll be breaking it down once more."
He projected some images onto the wall of the room they were all in.
"The Kingdom of Nochus has opted for a rather straightforward standard

fortification structure. The territory is protected by a rather straightforward
large spiked wall that prevents entry. The wall has openings through which
heavy artillery can be mounted and fired. The twenty-four of you are best off
simply bypassing the wall from the top. With your capabilities, it cannot
prevent your entry indefinitely." Commissioner Carnes explained.
"Remember, your goal isn't necessarily to conquer but to hinder and obstruct
their expansion capabilities."
The Martial Artists nodded, well aware of their role. Rui glanced around him,
counting the number of Martial Apprentices that were assigned to the
Kingdom of Nochus. A total of twenty-four Martial Apprentices were
assigned to the mission. It was a rather formidable offensive force that would
be no doubt extremely difficult to counter. Especially considering that each of
the Martial Apprentices was high ranking Martial Apprentices.
Rui sighed as he sensed the hostility of Ian Nepomniachtchi from the crowd.
It was rather unfortunate that he was paired with the hostile Martial
Apprentice, Rui would rather have been assigned a different target.
Soon, it was time for dispatch. The Martial Apprentices all prepared
themselves as the time for the commencement of the assaults began.
They all set out in the direction of their respective targets immediately. The
Serevian Dungeon was as large as a small city, however, that wasn't too big a
problem for the Martial Apprentices. It didn't take more than twenty minutes
for the Martial Apprentices to arrive at the target territories that they were
supposed to assault.
Suddenly, Rui's Primordial Instinct warned him about a barrage of attacks

from the enemy base.
Rui avoided cannon balls that narrowly missed their targets as each of the
Martial Apprentices dealt with them in their own way. Each of them was
high-grade Martial Apprentices that had been chosen by the Martial Union to
partake in the Serevian Dungeon wars and the assault on the territories of the
Kingdom of Nochus.
BAM!
One of them blasted the canon balls into tiny smithereens with a fist. Another
simply rampaged forward through the attacks that barely fazed them. Rui
merely shifted slightly as he moved the bare minimum needed to evade them.
BOOM!!!
One of the Martial Apprentices, a burly large man, landed a staggering blow
to the fortified wall. The sheer force with which he struck the barrier was
tremendous.
CRACK CRACK
A deep web of cracks formed on the fortified walls. The materials with which
the walls were constructed were certainly not average as they managed to not
instantly get utterly annihilated by the devastating attack that the Martial
Apprentices had unleashed.
BAM BAM BAM!
The other Martial Apprentices took that as a cue as they launched a barrage
of attacks on the damaged wall.
BOOM!
RUMBLE
An entire section of the fortified wall collapsed as the weight of the attacks of
the Martial Apprentices was simply too much. The Martial Apprentices
rushed in immediately, yet they were immediately met by enemy Martial
Apprentices.
A battle ensued as Martial Apprentices clashed with each other.
Rui simply walked in as he looked for the most powerful Martial Apprentice.
Primordial Instinct precisely gave him the danger evaluations of every
Martial Apprentice in the vicinity, thus he could tell that the Martial
Apprentices of the Kandrian Empire were stronger.
It likely had to do with the fact that the Martial Union went above and
beyond in investing in the growth and development of Martial Artists and
Martial Art. A small country like the Kingdom of Nochus simply couldn't
compete with the Kandrian Martial Union as far as the growth of Martial Art
and Martial Artists went. This clearly reflected in the difference in the quality
of Martial Artists.
Rui didn't feel much threat despite being in the middle of a war between
Martial Apprentices. His sense of security was simply too high, at this point.
"Him." Rui muttered as he fixated on one individual who was casually

defending from the attacks of two grade-nine Martial Apprentices of the
Martial Union.
Rui dashed towards him at an incredibly swift pace.
BOOM!!
He exploited a momentary pause in the battle between the three Martial

Apprentices as he rammed into his target with a heavy Flowing Canon,
separating him from the Martial Apprentices that he had been taking on.
"I'll take this guy on," Rui told them.
He didn't even bother listening to their response as he began unleashing an

onslaught of attacks on his opponent with extreme power and speed.
Yet, much to his joy, his opponent cleanly redirected every attack with
surprising accuracy, precision and success.
('Hehehe. I'm going enjoy this one.') Rui grinned behind his mask.
His opponent was a defense-oriented Martial Artist. He had a clear focus and
slant toward active defense.
Active defenses were defenses that required the conscious cognition of the
user to function. The Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift, and Acute Edge
techniques were all dynamic. These techniques required the user to process
and time them correctly, otherwise, they were simply ineffective. The
advantage of active defenses was that they were much more flexible their
effectiveness didn't usually have a hard upper limit and often depended on the
skill of the user and the accuracy of the timing of the user.
Rui enjoyed fighting against active defenses, they were a better exercise for
the VOID algorithm and allowed him to thoroughly test the offensive
prowess of his opponent.
Chapter 412 Initial
POW!
Rui swung a hook only for his opponent to step towards the strike, blocking it
with an armed guard. Rui seamlessly hurled an already-wound straight punch
to the man's face.
BAM!
Once again, the man stepped forward in the direction of the attack, blocking
it with a forward guard. He was incredibly swift for a defensive Martial
Apprentice, being able to keep up with Rui's every attack. Rui launched a
barrage of blows, yet time after time, the man somehow continued blocking
all of Rui's attacks casually.
('He's ruining the timing of my attacks.') Rui quickly realized. ('He's using a
technique where he steps forward in the direction of the attack and blocks it
prematurely before the attack has charged enough to reach its peak.')
It was a simple yet fascinating principle. Every attack had a peak as speed
and power went. Martial Artists swung their fists and legs and spaced
themselves such that the attack would land on their target when the attack
was at peak power in order to deliver the maximum possible impact.
Rui's opponent instead, rapidly stepped forward in the briefest of moments

before the attack had reached its peak and intercepted it when it was weak.
This way he could prevent his opponent from showing their best striking
power in a fight. Of course, he used other techniques to mitigate the impact,
including some passive defense that came from conditioning.
Yet, it was this mistiming technique that drew Rui's interest.

This technique also foiled Reverberating Lance since Rui always timed the
technique for the normal collision of the attack. But that was only if Rui
continued to fail.
BOOM!
The man grimaced for the first time as a powerful body blow slammed into
his guards
Rui kept a careful eye on his movements with Primordial Instinct boosted by
the Mindmirror secondary brain, carefully readjusting the timing of the
Reverberating lance to suit the sabotages of his opponent. Rui continued
whaling away at him as he began inputting data about his opponent into his
mind palace.
BAM!
Rui cleanly bypassed his guard as a powerful blow crashed into the man's
guard launching him some distance away.
The biggest problem with the mistiming technique was that it made him
predictable and easy to read. If he approached attacks o through them off-
timing, then Rui knew exactly what he would do to each attack.
The actual predictive model of each attack was not even complete, yet at this
stage, Rui wasn't even sure if he actually needed it.
Rui launched a powerful hook aimed at the man's jaw. The man, like
clockwork, prematurely moves to mis-time the attack. Yet;
WHOOSH
It was an illusion.
BAM!
Before he could even process it, a sudden attack appeared and crashed into
his jaw. The sheer impact of Rui's true, unhindered power crashed into his
jaw. The impact shook his brain, immediately triggering brain trauma.
THUD
He collapsed on the ground.
Yet, Rui wasn't done.
('This lart sucks.') Rui sighed with a solemn expression.
BAM!!
A powerful drop kick to the head was the end. A pool of blood began
forming from the man's head. His skull had been shattered and his brain had
already been damaged.
BAM!
Rui immediately turned over as the deed was complete.
The mission bill had been extremely clear. There was to be no mercy shown
to hostile competitors' Martial Apprentices. The participating Martial
Apprentices were not allowed to let the vanquished Martial Artists survive.
Rui began attacking the Martial Apprentices one by one.
The tide of the battle had begun to overwhelmingly devolve in the favor of
the Kandrian Empire. The reason for that was that the Kingdom of Nochus
was a small and weak country that simply was unable to compensate for the
large disparity in quality and quantity of Martial Apprentices.
Rui was the biggest problem, as everyone soon came to realize.
He was a menace. An incredible all-rounder who was highly capable. On top

of that, the VOID algorithm was particularly brutal. Yet what was even more
brutal was how none of them were Martial Apprentices where Rui genuinely
would be unable to win without it.
BAM!
Rui landed stray attacks on other hostile foreign Martial Apprentices. He

pranced around the battlefield looking for especially powerful Martial
Apprentices, yet he couldn't find them.
He sighed, disappointed mid-battle. Although he knew the Kingdom of

Nochus was small and weak he hadn't expected how much weaker it actually
would be. The lackluster Martial Apprentice all reflected the inferiority of the
Kingdom of Nochus.
Rui sighed as he evaded a canon attack. Primordial Instinct kept a focus on

the battle yet his mind was preoccupied. He had no competition in the little
place.
Rui was certain that the large nations would be different. These were nations
that were more or fewer supernations that were on par with the Kandrian
Empire. Rui was sure that at the very least one of the supernations had
enough Martial Apprentices who were powerful enough to take him on. What
were the odds that he was genuinely unmatched even with such a drastically
wide and large ample size? What were the odds that not a single Martial
Apprentice across so many countless Martial Apprentices was simply
insufficient to take him on and truly test his powers against a genuine equal
who could push him to his absolute limit?
Before he could even ponder the manner:
Suddenly.
WHOOSH
Rui side-stepped as he cleanly and smoothly evaded the attack, glancing back
at the direction it come from.
His eyes widened as he clearly beheld two Martial Apprentices in the room.
One of which was Ian Nepomniachtchi, who had been eying him in
hindsight.
('No way...') Rui thought to himself. ('No way he just fired an attack at me?')
Rui felt several conflicting thoughts as he analyzed the situation and many
different possible explanations as to why the other Martial Apprentice was
the one to have fired the attack. Yet his gut told him that he was wrong.
Chapter 413 Return
Rui wanted to walk over immediately and smack some sense into the
treacherous moron. But his rationality quashed that urge quickly.
They were in the middle of a battle. The most important matter was the
successful completion of the assault on the expanded territory of the
Kingdom of Nochus. Rui would be doing himself harm by being the one to
escalate the matter in the middle of battle. He could not prove Ian had
deliberately aimed at him, but Ian would be able to prove that Rui escalated
the matter in the middle of combat.
He would be playing into his hands if he simply acted on his emotions,

thankfully Rui was quite rational regarding the matter
But Rui realized he needed to be careful of Ian, the man's grudge was
stronger than Rui had expected if he was willing to backstab a fellow
Kandrian Martial Artist in a battle against other nations.
BAM BAM BAM!
Rui took down another Martial Apprentice as he glanced at the state of the
base of the Kingdom of Nochus. The base had been evacuated, and the sheer
environmental damage caused by many dozens of high-ranking Martial
Apprentices was immense.
"Hm?" Rui's Seismic Mapping sensed the seismic radiation of motorized

carriages heading towards them at incredibly high speeds.
"Reinforcements!" He shouted, announcing the Kandrian Martial Artists.
It seemed that the Kingdom of Nochus had gone as far as to forsake a part of
the defense of the core territory to reinforce the Martial Apprentice assets that
were still defending the expanded territories.
The motorized vehicles rushed towards the battlefield even as the Kandrian
Martial Artists were whittling down the Martial Artists of the Kingdom of
Nochus.
The carriages spread out as several uniformed soldiers leaped out of them.
They were part of the military of the Kingdom of Nochus, distinct from the
Martial Artists that Kandrian Martial Artists had been fighting up until then.
Rui frowned as he felt a strange sensation from all of them. They emitted a
faint threat to the Martial Apprentices yet they didn't feel like Martial
Apprentices. Rui noticed strange devices across their arms, recalling seeing
something similar on many soldiers of the Kandrian Royal Family.
('Potions!') Rui's eyes widened.
The soldiers dashed at the Kandrian Martial Apprentices with fearsome speed
and power.
"Retreat!" Rui bellowed as he maximized Primordial Instinct and the

Mindmirror brain. Time slowed down from his perspective as he took in the
whole situation. The Martial Artists had begun retreating at the sight of the
motorized vehicles, thankfully. Rui launched several Tempestuous Ripples as
he himself backed away from the battlefield, slowing down his pursuers.
Yet, he wasn't worried that they wouldn't let them retreat. As defensive
reinforcements, they weren't meant to pursue. Furthermore, potions had time
limits. They couldn't afford to engage in a lengthy, time-consuming chase.
The Martial Artists were hurt and damaged by the overwhelming offense
from the Kandrian Martial Artists.
The operation was successful.
"Ian." Rui sternly addressed him. "Why did you attack me? Your action is a
violation of the oaths you swore not only to become a Martial Apprentice but
also the ones you undertook when accepting this mission."
Martial Artists were required to sign statements that they would be held to in
order to obtain their Martial licenses. Among these statements was the pledge
to good faith, to never act detrimentally to the Martial Union or a mission.
"It was a mistake." Ian coldly replied without even bothering to look at Rui.
"I was locked in combat with a Martial Apprentice and he avoided an attack
of mine, which then traveled on to find you in its path. I did not have any ill
will against you."
He was lying. Rui could feel it with his Primordial Instinct.
"I see." Rui instead replied. "Take care to ensure that it never happens again.
Surely you wouldn't want to hurt a fellow Martial Apprentice in a conflict
against foreign nations."
"Surely I wouldn't." Ian echoed.
('This is going to be a pain in the ass to deal with.') Rui sighed inwardly.
He was sure this wasn't going to be the last attempt by the man to try and
harm Rui. The circumstances were anything but convenient. He would need
to find a proper way to deal with Ian or this would likely be a long-term
problem.
He couldn't just attack him without proof. The ramifications of such actions
would not be light. There was very little to no point in complaining to
commissioner Feristen or HQ. Without concrete evidence, there wasn't
anything that either would to him. Still, Rui could at least request to be not
assigned to the same missions as Ian. That would solve most of the problems.
Rui shook his head as he put aside the matter. However, he decided he would
keep Primordial Instinct active the entire time he was at the Serevian
Dungeon. He couldn't trust Ian to not try something when they were at the
base.
"Woah." His eyes widened as the Kandrian Empire's territory emerged in his
field of vision.
What surprised him was that the territory had more than doubled in the time
that he had been away.
('They weren't kidding when they said 'aggressive expansion'.') Rui mused.
In fact, the Kandrian Empire would simply have colonized a gigantic portion
of the Serevian Dungeon, however, the underground cave network that
created many security issues meant that they couldn't simply place gigantic
barriers over a large territory. Any territory they seized had to be quickly
secured before expansion could begin. It appeared that the security process
had been fully completed and thus the Kandrian Empire had chosen to
expand further outside the core territory.
('At this rate, the Kandrian Empire's expansion of territory will lead it to
eventually have a direct border and territorial conflict with the other nations
in no time at all.') Rui estimated.
These would be where the actual conflicts would take place, the inevitable
conflicts. The assault mission he had undergone was merely a proactive
measure that the Kandrian Empire had taken to suppress its direct
competitors.
Chapter 414 Musings
"You're saying Apprentice Ian Nepomniachtchi attacked you amidst the

mission?" Commissioner Feristen asked him, frowning.
"Yes, commissioner Feristen." Rui nodded. "He insisted it was an accident,

but the explanation he provided was implausible. I also sensed his lie as a
master of the Primordial Instinct technique and Mindmirror Symbiote. He
also has the motive to do something like this."
"And what motive might that be?" Commissioner Feristen asked him.
"I defeated him in the Martial Contest last year, he did not take it well and
has maintained a grudge by all accounts," Rui explained.
"Is that all you have?" Commissioner Feristen asked. "I'm afraid you've
offered nothing but your word."
"I can't be expected to provide more," Rui replied. "I'm not asking for an
investigation or even for justice. However, it would be appreciated if you
could place us in different missions."
"I do not make the decision of assigning Martial Apprentices their particular
missions. Those are made back home by the higher-ups. Nevertheless, I can
put the word of your complaint back to the higher-ups, though I can't
guarantee that your wish will get fulfilled."
"I see, then please do that." Rui nodded. "Thank you."
He bade commissioner Feristen goodbye before leaving the office, sighing.

This was about as far as he could go in regard to relying on his superiors to
solve the problem. The Martial Apprentices had just returned and filled in a
report, submitting it. Rui had decided to take the time of contacting
commissioner Feristen and informing him about Ian.
For now, he put the matter aside.
The Kandrian Empire's territorial expansion was going remarkably well. Rui
had heard rumors that another team of Martial Apprentices had been brought
in to bolster the defenses of the expanded area. The Kandrian Empire had set
a minimum Martial Artist per unit area ratio in order to ensure that the
territory could be adequately defended.
Rui's face lit up in elation when he ran into a friendly face.
"Hever!" Rui called out to him. "It's been a while!"
"Indeed it has." Hever calmly replied.
"You're part of the defensive squad, I'm guessing?" Rui asked him.
"Indeed."
"Figured." Rui nodded.
Hever's Martial Art was fundamentally counter-offensive, he didn't have a

single actively offensive bone in his body. His being part of the offensive
squad would be a brain-dead decision on the part of the higher-ups.
"I heard your assault mission was successful," Hever told him. "How did it
go? What were the Martial Artists of the foreign nation like?"
"It went well," Rui replied. "The Martial Artists of the Kingdom of Nochus
were frankly several notches below than the Martial Apprentices of the
Kandrian Empire. Their Martial Art were much more generic and grounded,
and they didn't possess counters for a lot of the more exotic Martial Art
techniques that the Martial Apprentices of the Kandrian Empire showed."
"Seems like the Martial Apprentices of large nations are more than just a little
favored by virtue of being born in more powerful nations," Hever noted.
Rui nodded. "The quality of the techniques of Martial Art is very important,
the visible power gap between the Martial Artists could be entirely explained
by the difference in the quality of the Martial foundations between the
nations. I don't think the defensive squad has much to worry about, there are
only smaller nations in our vicinity. None of the super nations' core territories
are even remotely close to ours, relatively speaking."
"Still, we need to be careful. Eventually, the territory of the Kandrian Empire

will expand significantly until it covers swathes of the Serevian Dungeon."
Hever noted. "When that time comes, direct conflict at the very border of the
Kandrian Empire will be inevitable. The defensive squad's merit will be truly
tested when that happens."
"True." Rui nodded. "None of the smaller nations will attack the Kandrian
Empire's territory unless absolutely necessary. Only the other three fellow
super-nations such as the Sekigahara Confederate, the Republic of Gorteau
and the Britannian Empire have the power to do something like that, but the
territories of these nations were not particularly close to each other.
In fact, the core territories of the four nations were nearly as far away from
each other as possible. This wasn't done by accident, there was a very strong
reason that the four nations each placed their core territories at the most
distant part of the Serevian Dungeon.
The closer the core territories of the super-nations were with each other, the
greater the conflict the nations would have to be subjected to for otherwise
the same number of resources. There was no point in having the nations close
to each other only for the nations to immediately engage in tumultuous
conflict.
By giving each other the wide distance that they would each like, each nation
could freely expand in the Serevian Dungeon with only the weaker nations
and the many fauna life forms in the Serevian Dungeon impeding their
progress. Neither could compete with the super-nations.
The Kandrian Empire's plan was to expand aggressively and comfortably as

fast as possible while being restricted by the necessity of closing all the
underground cave networks in their new territory while also eliminating the
many low-level Apprentice-level lifeforms that existed in the Serevian
Dungeon in their newly seized territory every time they expanded it.
The problems would begin when the territory of the Kandrian Empire would
eventually hit the territories of the other super-nations despite the massive
distance between them, simply due to the sheer expansion that all the super-
nations would eventually complete.
When that happened, the only land that would remain uncolonized would be
the core of the Serevian Dungeon. None of the twelve nations had placed
their core territory in the center of the Serevian Dungeon, there were simply
too many disadvantages to such a decision. The territory would face stiff
competition from every direction. Furthermore, the territory would be boxed
out of the border of the Serevian Dungeon making it impossible to receive
supply shipments from their home states.
Chapter 415 Happenings
The Kandrian Empire's initial plan in regard to the Serevian Dungeon was
simple;
Expand aggressively and fast.
Prevent the closest competitors from expanding.
The former was, of course, to capitalize and colonize as much land and as
many resources as possible. The latter was to ensure that none of the
Kandrian Empire's closest competitors could colonize land and drain it of
resources.
It wasn't good enough to seize land already seized by the competitors of the
Kandrian Empire. If the Kandrian Empire seized lands from other nations,
those lands will likely have already been completely drained of their fruit.
The fruit extraction process was rather easy and quick, after all. Even if the
Kandrian Empire invaded and conquered territory only a few days after they
had been initially colonized, it was entirely possible that all the fruits will
have been entirely plundered by the colonizing group that the Kandrian
Empire conquered the land from.
That was why, in the context of the Kandrian Empire, prevention of

colonization was more important than stealing colonized lands. That was why
the second objective of the constant assault on the territories of the closest
competitors was there at all.
By having the offense team constantly assaulting the territories of the small
nations, the Kandrian Empire could significantly slow down if not entirely
impede the expansion of the small nations outside their core territories. This
was why the offensive team comprised the best of the best that the Martial
Union was able to gather in a short amount of time.
Days flew by as the Martial Apprentices of the offensive squad continued

conducting an increasing number of assaults into the expanded territories of
the Kingdom of Nochus, the State of Hreefal, and the Republic of Jerefin.
BOOM!!!
A large section of the fortified wall barricading the territory of the Republic
of Jerefin in the Serevian Dungeon collapsed.
Dozens of Martial Apprentices of the Kandrian Martial Union leaped in.
The very atmosphere contorted and wrung under the combined weight of
mind of all the powerful Martial Apprentices.
Yet, among all of them, a single Martial Apprentices stood out.
All of the Martial Apprentices of the Republic of Jerefin were drawn to him
as they gazed at him with fear.
He met their eyes.
What was a meaningless gesture to him sent chills down their spines as they
found themselves unable to break eye contact? His eyes froze their gaze, as
they greedily sucked out the light from the air.
It was as though they were naked before his gaze.
The titanic pressure he exerted on them was almost crippling. But not nearly
as crippling as the onslaught he unleashed upon all of them.
It wasn't as though he had godly physical power. It wasn't as though he

moved as fast as lightning. It wasn't as though he was as tough as a mountain.
Yet, Martial Apprentices collapsed like bowling pins before his rampage.
Later on, when the Martial Apprentices of the Republic of Jerefin were asked
to fill in their reports, it was discovered none of them could quite describe it.
None of them could quite describe the reason for the sheer dominance that
Rui displayed on the battlefield. When the intelligence department pressed
them for an answer that was vital for understanding the prowess of the
Martial Artist combat asset that had wreaked havoc, the explanations
provided were so ridiculous that the intelligence officers felt embarrassed
typing them out into the profile created for the extremely dangerous Martial
Artist in their database.
"It was... magic." One Martial Apprentice described with a whisper.
"I felt like a puppet. My movements were pre-ordained, known, and seen
through. He was no Martial Artist, he was a prophet." Another murmured.
Yet, to the horror of the higher-ups of the Republic of Jerefin, confusion was
not the worst symptom of fighting the powerful Martial Apprentice.
No.
"I can't see it." The hands of a Martial Apprentice shivered as she held her
held.
"See what?" The intelligence officer asked, confused.
"I can't see my path... I-I can't see my path." Her sense of balance
deteriorated. She held her arms out as though she were balancing on a ledge.
"I can't... Path. I can't. Where Wait, I can't..." She began mumbling
incoherently.
"I'm going need to medical aid here." the intelligence officer spoke through a
communication device. "Apprentice Ferlin is showing signs of disorientation
and incoherence."
"I'M NOT SICK." She screeched. "HE DESTROYED MY MARTIAL

PATH."
She wasn't the only victim.
"What do you mean you're retiring?" A staff member asked politely,

confused.
"Knowing that... thing... exists in the Martial World..." The Martial
Apprentice whispered. "I don't want to fight in a world where that Martial
Artist exists. I think I'll just inherit my father's farm and lead a peaceful life. I
do not ever wish to see that void ever again."
"You're in the middle of a grade-ten mission!"
The Republic of Jerefin was far from the only sovereign state that had
experienced such bizarre anomalies. The State of Hreefal and the Kingdom of
Nochus had experienced similar happenings. Martial Artists that survived an
extended battle against the menace Martial Artist were all psychologically
impacted.
Confusion and incomprehension were the most basic symptoms. Not a single
Martial Apprentice understood what was happening. As time went on in their
fights against him, it was as though a mystical force was warping fate in his
favor.
Why did every attack, every defense, every maneuver, all of them magically
work? Why did each of their fights feel like a scripted fight from a cheap
action play where the hero magically defeated the villain impeccably?
They didn't know. Their ignorance was a void, it ate away at them the more
time passed. Many went to sleepless nights as they struggled to understand.
Yet try as they might, they were unable to fathom.
Very quickly, an urban legend spread through the dungeon teams of the three
nations. The Voideater, The Antithesis, The Scourge. The intelligence
agencies tagged the profile of this anonymous Martial Artist with many a
title.
The legend of Rui Quarrier spread through the Serevian Dungeon.

Chapter 416 Progress
The Kandrian's offensive initiative was incredibly effective. The goal of the
offensive initiative was to hinder the expansion efforts of the State of Hreefal,
Republic of Jerefin, and the Kingdon of Nochus.
Thus far, the efforts had been more than just successful. The Kingdom of
Nochus had been more than just merely impeded, they had been pushed back.
The constant assaults from the Kandrian Empire had forced the Kingdom of
Nochus to seriously consider and eventually go through with the plan of
reducing their expanded territory to tighten their defense and be able to
withstand the destruction the Kandrian Empire left behind each time.
All three of the small nations gritted their teeth as they did their best to
withstand the onslaught from the Kandrian Empire. The performance of the
Kandrian Empire had exceeded the expectations of the spectating nation. The
fact that the Kandrian Empire was displaying such dominance despite
fighting against three nations while also spending a lot of resources towards
the expansion of its own territory indicated that the Martial Apprentices were
incredibly remarkable.
Even the other three super-nations had taken notice. It was not something that
could be ignored. Even if Martial Apprentices were of the lowest Martial
Artist Realm, the Martial Apprentices of today were the higher-Realm
Martial Artists of tomorrow. It was evidently clear that the Kandrian Empire,
and the Kandrian Martial Union, in particular, were not going away any time
soon.
The nations had also noticed the performances of one particular Martial Artist
that seemed nearly invincible in the Apprentice Realm.
He wasn't extraordinarily strong, fast, or resilient, yet somehow his motions

were such that he could defeat people who were much superior to him.
Furthermore, there was strange vague news that went around regarding the
curse of the masked Martial Artist. It was said that those that fought against
him one-on-one for any meaningful period of time experienced things that
left them traumatized. The super nations' formidable intelligence-gathering
capabilities had gathered a lot of information regarding the details.
From confusion to depression, to hysteria and delusion. Many of the Martial

Apprentices who fought him experienced and displayed lasting psychological
effects. However, not all Martial Apprentices collapsed against him. It was
discovered that Squire candidates were mentally strong enough to not
experience any psychological distress.
Many nations took the threat seriously and had begun treating it as an
advanced grade-ten Martial Apprentice technique.
This was a response Rui could only laugh at. As long as the very basic
premise of their research into the matter was just hilariously wrong, he didn't
expect them to make any progress.
A month flew by as the three states of the Kingdom of Hreefal, the Republic
of Jerefin, and the Kingdom of Nochus got utterly dominated by the Martial
Apprentices of the Kandrian Empire. The three nations had gotten so bullied
that they even made their own alliance!
The Serevian Fringe Alliance was an alliance between the Kingdom of

Nochus, the State of Hreefal, and the Republic of Jerefin. It's an official
charter was a statement where the governments of the alliance pledge to
never attack each other so long as the contract is valid. Its stated goal was
merely a front, everyone knew that the alliance was to help the three nations
cope with the Kandrian Empire's aggression.
It was an imperfect solution and helped mitigate the damage that the
Kandrian Empire left in its onslaught. The Kandrian Empire would need to
apply more pressure and force if it wanted to silence these weak and small
sovereign nations.
Yet, for now, there were bigger fish.
A month went by in a similar monotony as the nations engaged in long-

established patterns of war between each other. However, soon, the Serevian
Dungeon wars were beginning to reach the meat of the entire saga.
The four super-nations had enjoyed a dominant display against the many
smaller and weaker nations that suffered at the hands of the larger nations.
They had been aggressively expanding each, and eventually, they were bound
to run into each other.
Each of them was aware of this.
No longer would the Kandrian Empire experience casual dominance with

greater quantity and quality of Martial Apprentices against its victims.
The final phase of the Kandrian Empire involved direct head-on conflict over
the remaining territory of the Serevian Dungeon. The Kandrian Empire had
long since prepared for this since the very discovery of the Serevian
Dungeon. A huge number of defensive and offensive Martial Artists had
come a long way to partake in the conflict to monopolize as many resources
as possible.
The sheer scale of these conflicts would far exceed what Rui had partaken in
thus far. Thus far, he had mostly participated in assaults on the smaller
nations. These missions that Rui had been much smaller. Most of them were
relatively simple and straightforward for assaulting bases that merely fought
to protect and defend.
Furthermore, Rui had the ability to retreat easily and be relatively safe despite
being the aggressor as well as being a trespasser on enemy territory.
However, in active reciprocated war, there were no such guarantees of safety.

Rui would be fighting against the genuinely powerful grade-ten Martial
Apprentices that were powerful enough to ensure that even someone as
strong as himself couldn't just effortlessly walk over them.
Yet this didn't discourage him, it only made him feel more eager to
participate in a battle of the pinnacle of the Martial Apprentice Realm. The
best of the best, it was an opportunity he would never be able to get in nearly
any other setting. He was quite grateful to the Serevian Dungeon in many
ways.
The very concept of dungeons increased the importance of each Realm much
more so than would normally be the case. Because only Martial Apprentices
could participate in the Serevian Dungeon, that made each high-ranking
Martial Apprentice was an extremely important asset. Furthermore, it created
settings that catered remarkably well to what Rui was looking for at this stage
in his Martial Path.
Chapter 417 Summon
The game had shifted as the four super-nations expanded aggressively

towards the center of the Serevian Dungeon. The smaller nations had been
drowned out of the competition as they sat tight struggling hard to maintain
their territory. The four super-nations continued funneling more Martial
Apprentices and other resources into the Serevian Dungeon as the tension
between the nations began escalating.
The amount of territory left for grabs was decreasing every day.
The Kandrian Empire welcomed a new influx of Martial Apprentices in

response to the growing potential for larger scale conflict.
"Kane, Fae, Nel!" Rui's eyes lit up in elation. "You guys are here already."
The three of them had informed Rui prior that they would be accepting the
Serevian Dungeon mission. They were previously tied up with other
missions, but quickly made haste for the Serevian Dungeon when they
completed their prior engagements.
"Just in time too!" Nel grinned.
"I happened to hear things were spicing up in the Serevian Dungeon." Fae
offered. "Now is the most crucial phase of the mission."
"Can't let you have all the fun." Kane smirked.
The four of them didn't even catch any respite as their accounters received
notifications for the very next mission.
"A new assault mission..." Rui murmured. "And the target is the Sekigahara
Confederate. Wow."
This was the first time the Kandrian Empire had ordered an assault on one of
the three other super nations. Rui glanced at his friends; it wasn't a
coincidence that the Kandrian Empire had chosen to attack its competitors
head-on, the last surge of Martial Apprentices was likely chosen for the sake
of gathering enough Martial Artist assets that would be required to launch a
viable attack on one of the super-nations.
The defense measures that the other three super nations had enacted weren't
nearly as paltry as those of the smaller nations. From higher-grade
technological measures to more powerful defensive Martial Artists.
Successfully assaulting the territories of the super nations was no small joke.
"You guys got the notification too?" Rui asked as they all checked their
accounters.
"Yep, seems that way." Kane affirmed.
All of them were part of the offensive squad. Fae was naturally a given, being
an offensive striking Martial Artist. Kane would also do better in an offensive
setting thanks to his stealth.
Nel was neutral in so far as his affinity went, but his temperament was suited
towards assault.
Rui read through the information detailed with greater scrutiny. The assault
mission was scheduled in six hours. The territory they were supposed to siege
was actually remarkably close to the Kandrian Empire. The reason for this
was because the distance between the territories was no longer as large as it
used to be due to the continuous expansion of the super nations in the
Serevian Dungeon.
Suddenly, their accounters buzzed once more as they received a summon to

the Martial Union branch office in the Serevian Dungeon territory.
"Figured." Rui had anticipated it.
This was standard practice. The commissioner would take the liberty of
breaking down the operation in more detail and addressing any concerns that
the Martial Artists may have. Normal missions that featured a single Martial
Artist or a single party didn't normally require the commissioner to
breakdown the mission in such a fashion, but high-grade missions such as
this that required a large number of exceptionally powerful Martial Artists
required this additional step.
Soon the Martial Apprentices gathered at the Martial Union's office.
"Apprentices." Commissioner Feristen addressed them. "I'm sure all of you

have realized the significance of this mission. This will be the first conflict
that the Kandrian Empire will be having with the Sekigahara Confederate.
The mission objective, as always, is to inflict enough damage to their
territory, assets and Martial Artists. However, this time, there are several
things that will be different."
He paused, before fiddling with a device that projected an image onto a

screen.
"The Kandrian Royal Army will be partaking in this assault mission as well.
The Sekigahara Confederate's defensive measures will be extremely difficult
to overcome. The fortified wall protecting their territory is a meter thick wall
made up of tempered Ferendil Iron, an esoteric substance which is capable of
withstanding a lot more punishment in the Apprentice Realm. Based on
reports from the Kandrian Intelligence agency and the intelligence
department of the Martial Union, the Sekigahara Confederate has gathered
more than a hundred powerful high-grade Martial Apprentices."
Commissioner Feristen paused, letting the number sit. "A half-hearted attack
will simply be crushed by the sheer defensive fortress they have created.
Thus, you will the Kandrian Royal Army will be aiding this assault mission.
The Kandrian Army will be deploying thirty Falcon-class siege tanks that
will be aiding you in the assault of the fortress walls. However, the most
important matter to be discussed is the Sekigahara Confederate's response."
He projected another image onto the screen.
"Unlike the Kingdom of Nochus, State of Hreefal, and the Republic of

Jerefin, the Sekigahara Confederate's surveillance capabilities are quite
impressive. With the former nations, they become aware of an impending
attack far too late, due to inferior surveillance technology as well as lesser
number of Martial Artists with sensory techniques. However, the same
cannot be said for any of the four super nations in the Serevian Dungeon. Just
as we have elaborate surveillance and reconnaissance measures that would
allow us to almost immediately realize the existence of an impending attack
the second any of the other three nations make large moves, the same can be
said for them."
He paused, before continuing. "It is highly likely that the other three nations
have already obtained intelligence on the high influx Martial Apprentices that
our base has welcomes very recently. It is inevitable that they will detect the
attack the second our assault team leaves our base and they will likely have
prepared well in advance. The strategic and intelligence departments of the
Serevian Dungeon team have evaluated the measures and strategies that the
Sekigahara Confederate may enact, and I will be presenting them to all of
you."
Chapter 418 Time
"The immediate goal of the Sekigahara Confederate upon any such invasion
would be to ensure that no conflict occurs within their territory." Commission
Feristen explained. "After all, ideally our goal would be to ensure the conflict
occurs within their border, this would inflict the most amount of damage to
their base and would ensure that their expansion is hindered the most. Their
goal is the exact opposite. They'll want to minimize the amount of damage
we inflict, while also maximizing our losses."
Rui nodded. This was common sense. It was impossible to prevent any
damage from being inflicted in such a conflict, but at the very least the
damage could be significantly minimized depending on their strategy and
tactics.
"If they want to minimize the damage done to their territory, it logically
follows that not letting the conflict take place within their territory is ideal.
There are only two ways of doing this." he paused, before continuing. "Either
their defensive measures prevent us from entering their territory, which is
certainly a tall order. Or they intercept out force away from their territory
with their own counter-offense striking force."
He projected another image detailing the known information regarding the

defensive measures of the base Sekigahara territory.
"The probability of a powerful force not inflicting at least some damage to

their territory once the assault team reaches their territory is low. This is
because their territory is large and their defensive resources are spread across
a wide area whereas our offensive resources are going to be very focused on
a single part of the border. Once we reach the border of their territory, it will
become untenable to ensure that no damage is inflicted on their territory.
Therefore, the second option is evaluated to be much more likely."
He pressed a button on his projector that switched to a map featuring the
Kandrian Empire's and the Sekigahara Confederate's territories in the
Serevian Dungeon.
"Our analysts predict that once our assault team is dispatched from our
territory the Sekigahara Confederate will quickly mobilize their Martial
Artists and military to intercept our assault team a little away from their
border." Commissioner Feristen continued. "This is expected because our
protocols entail something similar as well."
"Thus, it is quite likely that all of you on the assault team will be intercepted
a little earlier by their military. Regardless, you will have to fight, the only
variable is where. That depends purely on their response." Commissioner
Feristen explained. "If the battle occurs at the border, then you may retreat
only after you have compromised the security and stability of that portion of
their territory, which will be evaluated by the strategic department in live
time. You will receive a specific number of beeps from your mission tracker
devices that correspond to different orders."
He paused before continuing. "In the case of being intercepted by the forces
of the Sekigahara Confederate, you will have to ensure that the damage and
loss of assets inflicted on the opposing force exceed the loss of assets endured
by the Kandrian Empire. This will also be evaluated by the strategic
department, and orders will be relayed mid-battle via a certain number of
beeps that will each correspond to a different order."
He dove deeper into certain finer details of the mission before the mission
breakdown finally ended, and would soon be commenced in a few hours.
"Nervous?" Rui asked his friends.
"Hell no!" Nel grinned.
"A little," Fae admitted.
"Not nearly as much as I should be." Kane shrugged.
Rui could definitely understand why Kane was more nonchalant. It was
extremely difficult to hurt him at all even when people knew of his abilities
and had time to prepare against him. In a chaotic scenario like the conflict
they were going to be engaged in, as long as he was careful, he was going to
be quite safe for the most part. Although it wasn't too unlikely that there
would be Martial Apprentices with enough sensory prowess to at the very
least sense him, there was likely almost nobody that could sense him well
enough to pose enough of a threat to him.
Even Rui, who had actually beaten Kane and the Void Step technique before,
wouldn't be able to do much in such a chaotic scenario. He was simply too
slippery and Rui had needed to use a niche tactic in order to defeat him in
combat.
Nel being a battle-loving freak meant that it was very difficult to intimidate
him. It had taken the bloodlust of a Martial Squire to scare him, anything
below that was simply too weak. He would dive head-on recklessly. Rui
made a mental note to keep an eye on him to ensure he doesn't get killed.
Fae was the most balanced out of them, her striking prowess was quite
extraordinary, and she had even become a grade-nine Martial Apprentice in
the past month, which meant she was an extremely powerful Martial
Apprentice.
However, she was fighting in a huge war where everybody was exceptionally
powerful. In this context, she was merely above average. It was not strange to
feel a certain amount of nervousness, this was a new yet incredibly dangerous
circumstance.
The same could be said for most of the Martial Apprentices of any of the
nations participating in the dungeon wars. War on this scale was something
most Martial Apprentices were unaccustomed to. There weren't too many
wars of this nature. Although there was a conflict between nations, none were
nearly on this scale, they were limited to smaller-scale scuffles that were par
for the course between nations regardless of whether they were allies or
enemies.
These Apprentices had all gone through war for the very first time, and it was
visible to all of the nations. There were inadequacies and shortcomings in
their performances that were sub-optimal.
A few hours passed, and eventually, it was time for the mission to be
commenced. The military had taken their time ensuring all the preparations
were done carefully.
"It's time."
Chapter 419 Clash
The Martial Artists were ready to leave at any given time, but the military
wasn't nearly as flexible. This was because of the differences in the logistics
of the two groups. Martial Artists had very low logistics in general. They
merely needed to prepare their uniforms and masks and other necessities such
as potions, before getting ready to dispatch.
And soon, they did.
The Martial Artists immediately rushed out as they sprinted toward the
Sekigahara Confederate, they were each on extremely high alert. After all, the
Sekigahara Confederate's territory was just around the corner. Although it
wasn't a long time away by carriage or horse, that meant nothing to Martial
Apprentices, especially to Martial Apprentices of as high a grade as they
were.
The tension in the crowd was high. This was their very first time fighting an
even battle. No longer would they be able to secure a dominant advantage
thanks to the quality and quantity of Martial Apprentices.
No.
This time, they were fighting against equals.
Death was inevitable. It was absolutely impossible for them to get away with
very few to potentially zero casualties.
That fact weighed on the air, burdening it.
Yet it wasn't the only thing that was.
Rui's concentration was so fierce that it distracted other Martial Apprentices

around him. He focused his mind into a sharp lance, as he gazed forward.
"Their Martial Apprentices have been dispatched." Rui declared loudly as he

counted them with Seismic Mapping. "There's sixty-three of them."
This was a grim number. Sixty-two high-grade Martial Apprentices were

more or less the same as the size of the Martial Apprentices in their assault
group.
It seemed that the predictions of the strategic department were spot on. The
Sekigahara Confederate would indeed rather avoid war in their territory.
They had more to lose. Not only would their territory take damage even if
they successfully repelled the assault team of the Kandrian Empire, but also
the closer to their territory they fought in the
"The siege tanks of the Kandrian Royal Army are trailing behind us at a
distance" Rui further announced.
The siege tanks were much slower than the Martial Apprentices, especially in
an environment like the Serevian Dungeon.
Although it seemed counter-productive to begin a battle without them, it was

much more detrimental to reduce their speed to travel along with them. It
simply gave the Sekigahara Confederate more time to prepare a more
concrete response to the assault team heading their way.
"There they are," Rui whispered as they entered everybody's field of vision,
bringing along with them a grave sense of danger that one would naturally
expect from dozens of highly powerful Martial Apprentices.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Many Martial Apprentices from both sides, including Rui, launched long-
range attacks. The many attacks collided against each other in the middle
point between the forces, the sheer energy in those attacks shook the very air.
Soon, they made contact.
BAM BAM BAM!

The Martial Apprentices began exchanging waves of attacks at each other.
RUMBLE
It was as though the very dungeon was shaking under the onslaught of the
sheer power that the Martial Apprentices outputted.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui casually dodged a swift and powerful round-house kick as he rushed in.
BAM!!
A tremendous Flowing Canon crashed into an opening that was inherent to

the roundhouse kick. Rui had used the perfect counter while launching his
most powerful strike. The sheer power of the strike was far beyond that of
any of his normal strikes. It was boosted with the power of Outer
Convergence, Flame Breathing, Vital Pressure, and Adamant Reforging that
had strengthened the flesh of his fist. His momentum was also driven by
Parallel Walk, Wind Breathing, and Balanced Direction.
"ARGH!" The man grimaced as the strike propelled him into the air and into
the distance.
BOOM!
Before Rui could even launch Tempestuous Ripples, a powerful projectile

with an incredibly high momentum crashed into his opponent, launching him
further away.
Rui didn't even need to turn back to figure out what that was. The siege tanks
had arrived, making haste. Yet they didn't fire down at the Martial
Apprentices fighting because they weren't able to selectively hit only hostile
Martial Apprentices when they were all mixed together.
However, they weren't aiming to.

The only true goal of the assault team was the loss of assets on the side of the
Sekigahara Confederate.
And that was what they would do.
The elevation of the canons atop the siege weapons raised higher.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
They fired cannonballs with incredible momentum. Each cannonball whizzed

through the air at speeds that made it hard to even perceive for normal
humans.
They fired not at the enemy Martial Apprentices, but at the fortified wall of
the Sekigahara Confederate in the distance.
The best part about the siege weapons was the sheer distance over which they
could project attacks of immense power with very little loss in power due to
the drag of air that would dampen their power. Their design was highly
aerodynamic and cut through the air with remarkable speed.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Despite the distance away, the sound of the cannon balls slamming into the
highly durable fortifications was loud and clear. Rui rejoiced inwardly as he
heard debris falling with his Seismic Mapping. The attacks from the siege
tanks were at least effective.
What he hadn't expected was an even greater number of cannon balls to come
flying back from within the territory of the Sekigahara Confederate. The
barrage of cannon balls crashed into the many siege tanks that had
accompanied the Martial Apprentices. Like the siege tanks of the Kandrian
Empire, none of the cannon balls struck the Martial Artists. The siege
weapons couldn't specifically target only Kandrian Martial Apprentices just
like the siege cannons of the Kandrian Empire couldn't, they lacked the
accuracy and the precision to accomplish such a feat.
But instead, they could attack the greatest threat to their security, which
weren't the Martial Apprentices, but the tanks that were chipping away at
their fortification.
Chapter 420 Forced
WHOOSH
Rui's image faded as his opponent was flummoxed at her attack hitting what
seemed like an illusion.
POW POW POW!
Rui assaulted her with a violent flurry of jabs to her rib. Yet even before she
jerked down due to the impact of the attacks, his right foot lashed out toward
her shoulder
PEW!
"Argh!" She grimaced as the Stinger cleaved through the air, whistling as it
made its way to its target and burying itself in the flesh of her shoulder.
THWACK!
Rui immediately retracted his leg as he seamlessly transitioned into a low

sweeping kick that struck her ankles with remarkable force, knocking her
over.
BAM!
A soccer kick to the head ravaged her as it mangled her, knocking her out.
Just as he was about to kill her, Primordial Instinct warned him of an
impending attack on his back.
WHOOSH
CLASP
He ducked as he evaded the jab, clasping his opponent's hand as he activated
Flow Flux, using his own momentum as Rui threw him over his shoulder
onto his previous enemy with the power of Outer Convergence and Flame
Breathing.
BAM!
The man landed flat on the ground atop his comrade.
BAM!
Yet another soccer kick knocked his opponent out.
Yet just as Rui launched yet another killing blow, Primordial Instinct
detected yet another attack incoming.
WHOOSH
"Tsk." Rui tutted, irritated as he cleanly evaded a wind attack from behind
him. This particular battle was far more chaotic than any of the previous
ones. He was unable to even spend time on a single enemy, every time he
defeated one, he would be confronted.
He glanced at his attacker with a raised eyebrow.
('Strong.') Rui's eyes twinkled with interest.
The man had a heavy weight to his presence that matched his giant size. He
was one who would truly be classified as grade-ten even by the updated
grading standards of the Kandrian Empire.
He immediately forgot about his unconscious targets as he dashed toward the

Martial Apprentice. Yet despite all of the fierce pressure that Rui exerted on
him, he was unperturbed.
He raised his open palm as he pushed it forward straight in Rui's direction.
BOOM!
A huge and wide wind blast attack crashed into Rui remarkably swiftly and
impactfully. Rui guarded as he was pushed back by the sheer force of the
wind blast despite his resistance. Rui was surprised by the sheer net power
that the man had outputted with a single attack.
('The attack is incredibly wide and large, making it really hard to sidestep it.
Yet despite its size, it was still ridiculously fast and strong.') Rui swiftly
analyzed he managed to stop his motion.
This was the most powerful wind manipulation user that Rui had come
across. He put the likes of Ana Mariane, one of the sixteen representatives of
the Martial Contest, and even Fernan, who was a defending champion in the
Martial Games. None of them could compete with the powerful Martial
Apprentice before him.
Rui grinned behind his mask.
This was why he had joined the Serevian Dungeon mission. Precisely so that
he could fight strong Martial Artists such as the man in front of him with his
Flowing Void Style.
He dashed once more at the man with extreme speed, yet the distance
between them was too great for Rui to reach him in time.
The man's arms swayed as he breathed powerfully, using a breathing

technique to gather a vast amount of air as he used his arms and body to
channel the powerful air currents being generated by the breathing technique
into a pocket of extraordinarily dense air. Even the optical density of the air
pocket had changed as light passing through it had begun being diffracted
like it would in a drop of water.
BOOM!
The man palmed the sphere forward as an enormous power as the attack
propelled forward with an incredible amount of momentum as it expanded in
size.
BAM!
Rui had launched a Tempestuous Ripple as the attack feebly collided with the
wind attack that his opponent had launched, being snuffed by an attack much
more powerful than it.
Yet it had served its purpose. Rui hadn't used the Tempestuous Ripple as an
attack that was supposed to pierce through the gale that his opponent
unleashed. Instead, it was a shield that lessened the power of the portion of
the wind blast that had hit him.
And it worked.
Rui merely skidded back instead of literally being launched airborne.
He dashed forward again and yet, as expected, the wind blast came as Rui
himself launched a Tempestuous Ripple to reduce the impact of the attack on
himself. Yet he wasn't able to nearly nullify the main problem of range
restriction when he was being pushed back despite all his strength resisting it.
His master was a master at the long-range onslaught. Unfortunately, Rui's

means to deal with long-range Martial Arts weren't nearly as developed as his
solutions against close-range Martial Apprentices.
Ideally, he would cross the distance between his opponent and himself and
engage them in close-range combat where he certainly was at an advantage.
But he couldn't do that this time as easily. The wide and large attack made
dodging and sneaking past it extremely difficult, even if he somehow moved
several steps to the side before the swift attack reached him, it would still not
be enough to dodge the attack, that was how wide it was.
Furthermore, this largely negated one of the most impactful advantages of

having the Mindmirror brain. The processing advantages he had gained from
the brain were largely useless in trying to cross the distance between them. It
did not matter if he could react extremely fast if there was no way he could
outspeed a wide attack that was that fast with his own feet.
Rui grinned in eagerness and elation as he processed his current

circumstances. It had been a long time since he fought against a Martial
Apprentice that was strong enough to force him to strategize. The last two
Martial Artists that had forced him to strategize were both Martial Squires,
after all.
Chapter 421 Outcome
Rui felt nostalgic about his current circumstances, it had been a long time
since he had faced a Martial Artists genuinely capable of forcing him to
pause and think. Before he mastered the pattern recognition system of the
VOID algorithm, he had always been forced to fight with creativity and
tactics in order to win.
However, the previous two training sessions had simply made him too strong.
It took literal Martial Squires to force him to strategize and rely on tactics.
Against other Martial Apprentices, he was usually too strong. He didn't need
to strategize to win against them.
He was glad that there were still Martial Apprentices out there strong enough
to force him out of his comfort zone.
('Alright, think, how do I get past this wall of wind?') He pondered as he

blocked yet another wind blast from his opponent.
He couldn't outmaneuver it because it was simply too large and swift. He

couldn't force his way past the wind attack with brute force alone. The wind
that his opponent generated was incredibly powerful, overwhelming the
friction between Rui and the ground. It wasn't a matter of strength, Rui
simply lacked the leverage needed to apply his strength against the wind
attacks.
WHOOSH
Rui dashed towards him with remarkable swiftness.
BAM!
He put together a guard as he skidded away some distance away from the
wind attack. He glanced up at his opponent, after finally having paused.
He stopped attacking, as he took a moment to process his circumstances. The

predictive model had been completed, but unfortunately, it wasn't nearly of
much use. Sometimes, even predicting your opponent wasn't enough to
counter them.
Even if Rui predicted his opponent accurately, he wouldn't gain some

massive advantage. He still had no way to close the distance.
('My feet aren't fast enough.') Rui mused. ('It's hard to picture me outpacing
the attack with my speed alone.')
Suddenly his eyes lit up with interest as a crazy yet plausible solution hit him.
He took a few moments as he fleshed out a plan.
('If my feet aren't fast enough, then I ought to use more than just my feet.')
Rui realized.
It seemed like an extremely silly thing to think, but Rui saw potential in it.
('However, I need to ensure that my accuracy and precision are high enough,
otherwise, I'm screwed.')
One thing Rui was grateful for was the fact that even though he was having
difficulty getting to his opponent, his opponent was also having difficulty
hurting Rui. Although the size of the attack made it very difficult to evade, it
also reduced the potency of the attack because the power was diluted over a
large area. Furthermore, Rui bled off a lot of the power of the attack with the
help of the Tempestuous Ripple attack.
He was in no danger of going down to the attack any time soon.
However, something needed to change and Rui intended on doing just that.
('Alright, here goes nothing.') Rui crouched as he prepared himself for yet
another attack.
His opponent stiffened as he saw that Rui was about to attack once more,
prepared to immediately use his wind blast attack at a moment's notice.
WHOOSH
Rui dashed diagonally forward at a tremendous speed. The Martial

Apprentice immediately launched the wind blast attack toward Rui.
Yet;
WHOOSH
Rui's image disappeared, evoking shock from the Martial Apprentice.
It was a feint.
Rui was on the other side. He had feinted using Phantom Step while
misdirecting his opponent's attention toward the feint, causing it to be even
more effective. He ran in the opposite direction with more than just his feet.
He propelled himself forward by launching Tempestuous Ripples in the
opposite direction. Using Newton's third law of motion to exceed his normal
limits. He moved at a staggering speed as he rushed forward toward his
opponent.
His opponent's eyes widened in shock as he hastily tried to launch a second

wind blast in time, yet Rui had no intention of letting him succeed.
BAM!!
A powerful Flowing Canon crashed into his opponent's guard, slamming him
backward as he grimaced in pain.
Rui immediately chased after him, ensuring that he simply lacked the space
or the time to launch a wind blast attack.
POW POW POW!
He threw a flurry of straight body blows that struck his opponent's guard. Rui
discovered that despite being a long-range specialist, his opponent was quite
tough even in close-range quarters. His defense was tough enough to
withstand the onslaught Rui unleashed.
('As expected of a genuine grade-ten Martial Apprentice.') Rui mused.
WHOOSH
He avoided a blow with tremendous power. His opponent had extremely high
striking power, close to that of Fae's, from what Rui could tell. This made
sense since the immense power of the wind blast attacks came from his
striking, after all.
Yet, despite his surprising competence in close-quarters combat, he was still

a far cry from being able to defeat Rui.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui casually evaded a strike he saw coming from a mile away as he landed
his own., the VOID algorithm and the Mindmirror Brain were simply too
much together.
His opponent fell to his knees as he grimaced in pain. Rui hadn't thrown an
ordinary attack, it was an attack that permeated the impact with
Reverberating Lance. The attack had struck his liver, as Reverberating Lance
exacerbated the effect.
BAM!
A swift and powerful kick struck his opponent's gut, the impact permeating
all the way to the diaphragm, stunning it.
He was unable to breathe.
POW!
A final kick to the jaw rattled his brain enough, triggering enough blunt-force
trauma.
THUD
He collapsed flat to the ground, unconscious.
Rui paused a moment before saying out aloud to apparently nobody;
"I appreciate you not intervening," Rui said.
Kane appeared out of thin air, shrugging. "I knew you'd be fine, there was no
need to intervene."
Kane had been running around the field, helping out his fellow Martial
Apprentices in battle. Yet he had abstained from doing so with Rui's fight.
Chapter 422 Outcome
He had complete faith in Rui winning his fight. After seeing how strong Rui
had become, he had almost no doubt that Rui was the strongest Martial
Apprentice in the modern era. Furthermore, he knew Rui would not have
appreciated his intervention.
"How's the rest of the battle going?" Rui asked as he turned back.
It was impossible to confine a large number of Martial Apprentice battles

over a small volume of space. It was too dangerous for each one of them, and
a single attack from their blind spot could critically injure or kill them, and
none of them were willing to take that risk.
Thus, the battle had spread out over a large area.
"Hard to say when there's so much happening," Kane replied. "Anyways, let's
return to the battle immediately."
"Sure thing."
The two immediately dashed back.
Rui immediately saw a Martial Apprentice of the Kandrian Empire getting

overwhelmed by an enemy Martial Artist. He quickly dashed over, looking to
intervene.
He threw a flurry of strikes, which his opponent successfully dodged cleanly.
('Evasive maneuverer. But not nearly as good as Kane.') Rui mused.

BAM!
Rui managed to land a strike on him after faking him out with Phantom Step.
His opponent grimaced, struggling to endure even a single attack. Defense
wasn't his strong suit, clearly.
He tried retreating, being painfully aware that he couldn't defeat Rui. Yet Rui
had no intention of letting him go.
BAM!
Rui intercepted him with Tempestuous Ripple at a distance, causing him to

collapse. He turned around in fear and Rui was already there.
POW!
A swift strike to the jaw triggered blunt force trauma that caused him to
collapse unconscious on the spot.
Rui sighed.
BOOM!
He launched a blow with tremendous power at the unconscious Martial

Apprentice's temple.
CRACK
He immediately turned back to the Kandrian Martial Apprentice.
"You alright?" Rui asked him.
He nodded, looking at Rui with awe. "Thanks."
Rui turned back towards the direction of the main battle. "Alright, time to get
back."
From that point on, Rui wreaked havoc on the battlefield. Very few
opponents could last long against him. Regardless of whether they were
offensive, defensive, or maneuvering-oriented Martial Artists. Rui simply
disemboweled all of them with casual ease.
It was to the point where he was single-handedly making a visible impact on

the battle all by himself. Yet to his surprise, he wasn't the biggest impact on
the battlefield.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Kane instantly took down an enemy Martial Apprentice with the Godspeed
technique.
Rui's eyes widened at that sight. ('He chained the Godspeed technique with
the Void Step technique!')
One of the biggest weaknesses of the Godspeed technique was the fact that it
required preparation in advance which left the user vulnerable to being
attacked. However, by completing that preparation while using the Void Step
technique, he had reduced the probability that he would be attacked during
the preparation significantly. After all, an overwhelming majority of Martial
Apprentices were unable to sense Kane when he was using the Void Step
technique.
This meant that Kane could now use the Godspeed technique much more
freely than he normally would ever be able to use. This made him far more
dangerous than ever before.
('If I'm not careful, he might even be able to defeat me.') Rui realized. He was
quite impressed with Kane's newfound prowess.
It was no wonder that he had remained in grade nine even after the Martial
Apprentice grading system had gotten updated. It meant that he was very
close to the previous grade ten. Rui wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't too far
from reaching the current grade ten.
Kane was a bigger impact on the battlefield despite being weaker than Rui in
general simply because he was far more compatible with their current
circumstances than Rui was. Rui was at his best when facing off against a
single opponent, whereas Kane was best suited in chaotic circumstances with
distracted targets.
The two of them began sweeping through the battlefield, taking one Martial
Apprentice down after the other. Soon enough, the Sekigahara Confederate
couldn't tolerate the losses they were suffering
Rui picked up a new influx of Martial Apprentices heading towards the

battlefield from the Sekigahara Confederate base with Seismic Mapping.
('They're sending in their defensive Martial Apprentices as well huh?') Rui

mused.
Immediately, his mission tracker beeped a single time.
('Retreat.')
That was what a single beep meant.
Immediately, all the other Kandrian Martial Apprentices merrily retreated

from the battleground. None of them wanted to face the influx of
reinforcements.
Rui sighed. He begged to differ, but orders were orders. It was just a shame
for him since he would rather have continued fighting against the new
Martial Apprentices. But of course, he understood why they were being
ordered to retreat. They had fulfilled their mission successfully, the
Sekigahara Confederate had lost far more Martial Artists than the Kandrian
Empire did. Retreating now was for the best.
The Kandrian Martial Apprentices all ran back towards the Kandrian Empire
territory as fast as they could.
"Disappointed?" Kane asked him.
"You know me so well." Rui chuckled. "By the way, did anything happen to
the others?"
"They're all alive, although Nel got seriously injured at one point," Kane
replied.
"Well, as long as they're alive, it's all good." Rui nodded.
He valued the core friends that he had made in the Academy. He would be
riddled with grief if this battle had claimed their lives. They were strong, but
as this battle had shown him, large-scale conflicts were extremely chaotic and
anything could happen. Even if they were strong, they could be outnumbered,
run into someone even stronger, or be hit with an attack from their blind spot.
It was no longer a matter of whether they were strong or weak.
Soon, they reached the Kandrian Empire's territory. Most of the Martial
Apprentices sighed in relief as they finally reached a safe space. The constant
battle in a large and chaotic battlefield under raining cannon balls was more
unnerving than anyone had expected it to be.
One of the perks of the missions in the Serevian Dungeon was the fact that
Martial Artists did not need to write reports on their missions like they would
normally be required to. The reason for that was the Martial Union and the
Kandrian Royal Army were surveilling the battle with the surveilling
facilities that had been erected within their territory. The Serevian Dungeon
colonization team already had accurate information on exactly how the battle
proceeded.
"The mission was a brilliant success." Commissioner Feristen announced

with a smile. "Frankly, all of you have exceeded even our most optimistic
projections. The Sekigahara Confederate has suffered disproportionately high
losses and the military has successfully inflicted significant damage on the
fortifications that they had erected. I have been authorized to bonus all of you
for your meritorious efforts..."
Rui listened to his words carefully as he scrutinized the man.
('He's painting a very positive spin to this.') Rui noted. ('What about the
Martial Apprentices that died?')
Around nine Martial Artists of the Martial Union had died. Not too
devastating in the big picture, but not insignificant. Yet their sacrifices didn't
seem to be as impactful as he had initially expected.
Each of those Martial Apprentices had fought for the Kandrian Empire and
died in the process.
Of course, Rui understood the mindset behind the response of the Martial
Union to this. While it certainly was true that Martial Artists dying was a
pretty undesirable outcome, it couldn't be avoided.
It was inevitable.
Conflict killed, regardless of whether it was between ordinary humans or

Martial Artists.
Martial Art was a field centered around conflict. If conflict was synonymous
with death, then it wasn't too much of an exaggeration to say Martial Art was
a field centered around death. Every Martial Apprentice that had come here
had come of their own free will knowing full well the dangers and potential
for death in this mission, especially with the entirely accurate intelligence that
the Martial Union had gathered for them.
Furthermore, the Martial Union had beefed up the payments on the mission to
a ridiculous degree to justify the difficulty and had also waived off the
expenses of potions and other expenditures that the Martial Apprentices
would normally need for their missions.
With all of this in mind, Rui couldn't really say the mission was not worth
attempting.
It was also not to be forgotten that only under the threat of real death could
Martial Apprentices genuinely improve. The most powerful Martial
Apprentices in the world almost always ended up being the ones that had
persevered through the most. It was physically impossible to nurture truly
strong Martial Artists if one only coddled them like they were precious vases.
Soon, they dispersed once commissioner Feristen had finished his address to
the Martial Artists.
"Hey, heard you guys were doing alright." Rui nodded as he met up with all
his friends.
"It was hella fun!" Nel grinned.
"I heard you got seriously hurt." Rui threw a resigned look at him.
"Whoever told you that lied."
Rui didn't even bother engaging with him any further as he turned to the rest.
"I was made aware of several shortcomings in my combat style in the
circumstances of the battlefield," Fae replied. "I've made improvements that
have generally focused on one-on-one battles, but I have soon come to realize
that my ability to cope under circumstances as chaotic as the battlefield has
reduced. I have focused and invested a lot in my vacuum palm techniques
that increased the rate at which I successfully connected my attacks on my
opponent. But in turn, it's a technique that doesn't work too well against
multiple opponents."
Rui nodded. He recalled her demonstrating her vacuum palms during the
assault attack on the Squire breakthrough research facility. She used a
breathing technique as well as synchronized movements to create a vacuum
in the atmosphere between her and her opponent. This created a suction force
that pulled her opponents towards her and made it easier for her to land
strikes on them.
The problem with the technique was that it forced her to invest too much in a
single opponent. If she used this tactic in a scenario against multiple
opponents she would be leaving herself wide open to an attack from the other
Martial Apprentices. That was why she couldn't operate her tactic in
circumstances with more than one opponent with the same amount of
efficiency that she could against single opponents.
"You should try investing in some passive defensive Martial Art techniques
that will reduce the risk of being hurt in combat," Rui told her. "This way you
have more leeway even in scenarios where your active defense is
compromised due to focusing on one opponent at a time. I know you're an
offensive Martial Apprentice, however, it is impossible for Martial
Apprentices to not rely on defensive techniques. That's why it's known as a
core field."
Fae nodded, considering her options. "That does indeed sense. I'll consider
that option once I'm done gaining enough experience with my current
Technique base. I've also considered getting evasive maneuvering skills. Can
you help me out with that, Kane?"
"Of course, not. Go figure it out by yourself." Kane scoffed with a sneer,
earning her ire.
Rui sighed as the two began bickering.
"They've always been like that, for as long as I remember." Fiona giggled.
"Same here." Rui sighed. "How did you fare in the battle?"
"Oh, it was not nearly as hard as expected, honestly." She shrugged,

nonchalantly. "I was quite curious because my dad told me this mission
overall was harder than most grade nine and grade ten missions, but I am a
bit disappointed."
"Curious, eh?" Rui chuckled. "I have never seen anyone walk into a mission
that is ranked as one of the hardest among all because they were curious."
"Well, not anymore I'm not." She replied. "But what I'm curious about is the
fact that we won so dominantly. Was that because of you?" She asked with a
hint of interest in her eyes.
Chapter 424 Chain Reactions
"Well..." Rui scratched his head. "I can't take full credit for that. Kane
actually played a pretty important role as well."
"Really?" Fiona raised an eyebrow at Kane.
"My man doesn't lie." Kane smirked, turning to Fiona. "We haven't met in
like, what, three or four years?"
"We would have met a year ago if you'd won the preliminary contest." She
retorted.
"Boo. No thanks, I'm good." Kane waved her away.
"Alright alright." Rui intervened. "Let's all go catch some rest. We shouldn't
rely on potions when we don't have to because that reduces the probability
that we'll be able to use potions when we need to."
It was the norm to have sleep taken care of as soon as a mission was
completed since that was the only it could be guaranteed that a sleep cycle
wouldn't clash with the deployment of the Martial Apprentices on a mission.
Rui had learned to become more aware of his sleep cycles since he could no
longer merrily stay awake for extended periods of time.
The rest of them concurred, participating in the war wasn't something that
could be considered light work, regardless of one's prowess.
The five of them returned back to their lodges, looking to get as much rest as
they could for the day before their next mission.
Which, much to their surprise didn't come too quickly.

The attack launched by the Kandrian Empire was more than just a simple
attack. Or at least, it ended up growing to be much more than that.
The Kandrian Empire's attack on the Sekigahara Confederate left it in a

position of vulnerability and weakness as far as border security and military
assets went. However, this position of vulnerability wouldn't last long and all
the countries knew it.
The Britannian Empire, which was also adjacent to the Sekigahara

Confederate, had chosen to exploit this moment of weakness created by the
Kandrian Empire to launch its own devastating attack on the momentarily
exposed territory of the Sekigahara Confederate.
Many Martial Apprentices, potion users, and siege tanks marched toward the
Sekigahara Confederate as fast as they could. This was a far more dedicated
and invested war effort. It could not even be called an assault team. This was
a marching legion. It was an open brazen declaration of war.
The Sekigahara Confederate hastily stopped the reconstruction process that

they had begun just a day prior, having been forced to invest even more
militaristic capital into mustering a defensive and counter-offensive war
effort.
The clash lasted for days. It dwarfed the Kandrian Empire's operation on the
Sekigahara Confederate by a large margin.
However, things became even more chaotic when the Republic of Gorteau
launched an attack on the Britannian Empire. Something that had not been
foreseen by anybody.
Even the Britannian Empire couldn't fight a war on two sides. The army that
had been sent to chip away even further at the Sekigahara Confederate had
been ordered to retreat immediately and return to the base territory of the
Britannian Empire to aid in repelling the attack from the Republic of Gorteau.
However, once the Britannian army returned back to the Britannian territory,
the army from the Republic of Gorteau also immediately retreated as soon as
the reinforcements arrived.
And finally, there was silence.
The Kandrian Empire simply spectated the chain reaction that its actions had
caused with amused intrigue. It took a while for the intelligence departments
of all the countries to gather all the information needed to have a good
understanding of why what unfolded actually unfolded the way it did.
"The Republic of Gorteau has formed an alliance with the Sekigahara

Confederate?" Commissioner Feristen frowned as he read some reports.
"Indeed." Colonel Carnes nodded. "Of course, this is far from a philanthropic
move. The strategic department has already established why."
"The Republic of Gorteau stands the most to lose if the Britannian Empire
and the Kandrian Empire gang up on the Sekigahara Confederate."
Commissioner Feristen noted.
"Indeed." Colonel Carnes affirmed. "The Republic of Gorteau is the furthest

away from the Sekigahara Confederate compared to the Britannian Empire
and the Kandrian Empire within the Serevian Dungeon, geographically."
The four nations' territories had slowed down at the core of the Serevian
Dungeon which was still up for grabs. The Kandrian Empire's territory faced
the Britannian Empire's territory which was the most distant to it, and the
Sekigahara Confederate faced the Republic of Gorteau, which was also the
most distant to it.
The Sekigahara Confederate was adjacent to the Kandrian Empire and the
Britannian Empire, the latter two were much closer to the Sekigahara
Confederate than the Republic of Gorteau was.
What this ultimately meant was that if the Sekigahara Confederate was forced
to yield some territory or halt expansion activities in order to stabilize, then
only the Kandrian Empire and the Britannian Empire would monopolize the
yielded territory. The Republic of Gorteau would be too far to be able to
claim and the Kandrian Empire and the Britannian Empire would not tolerate
its claim on the new territory.
Once the two empires gained more territory in the core of the Serevian
Dungeons, it was quite likely they would end up being the 'winners' of the
Serevian Dungeon while the Republic of Gorteau and the Sekigahara
Confederate would end up being the losers.
This was not something that either the Sekigahara Confederate or the
Republic of Gorteau were willing to tolerate. An alliance had already formed
after the Kandrian Empire's initial attack.
The Republic of Gorteau forced the Britannian Empire to retreat, giving the
Sekigahara Confederate respite it needed to restore its border security and
replenish its militaristic capital.
There was temporary silence once that particular chain of events ended.
However, the ice had already been broken. The four super nations had finally
clashed with each other. It was inevitable, but its timing was unclear.
The Sekigahara Confederate and the Republic of Gorteau had predicted the
Britannian Empire would draw first, yet to everyone's surprise, it had been
Chapter 425 Abyss
It was quite uncharacteristic for the Kandrian Empire to be hyper-aggressive

and brazen as it did. It was a dangerous decision that somehow managed to
work out in their favor.
"How was our interception force routed so soundly?" A man in military garb
gritted his teeth as he walked into a crowded room. "Their Martial
Apprentices can't possibly be stronger than ours on average!"
"Sergeant Mindow, according to the analyst department, it seemed that the

cause of the defeat of the interception force was actually mainly caused by
two Martial Apprentices."
"WHAT?!" Segreant Mindow. "You're telling me two Martial Apprentices

caused all of this!?"
"That's correct, sir." The intelligence officer gulped. "The analyst department
hasn't yet compiled a report, but even based on partial analysis, it's clear that
two particular Martial Apprentices caused the disproportionate losses that our
interception force suffered."
"Bring me all the details immediately." The man bellowed in response.
The intelligence agent rushed out of the office, and within an hour, there was
a report on the sergeant's table.
The report was more than illuminating.
"An extreme stealth maneuverer that has mastered the pinnacle of evasive
misdirection." He spat. "We needed high-grade sensory Martial Apprentices
to contain this menace. Ideally, they're going to also need long-range and
wide-scale offensive capability, in order to deal with the speed of the Martial
Apprentice, codenamed Ghost."
This was a viable and effective solution. By bringing in Martial Apprentices

equipped to handle the dangerous elements of the Martial Apprentice that
needed to be contained, they could create sound solutions to ensure they
would never again suffer such losses against the Kandrian Empire.
Yet, the sergeant's eyes squinted in confusion as he turned the page. "Hm?"
"That's the intelligence on the second Martial Apprentice for the

disproportionate losses that our interception team suffered, sir."
"I can see that." He gritted his teeth. "But where's the damn analysis on his
Martial Art!? The strengths? Weaknesses? That section is basically empty!"
"Unfortunately, the analyst department was unable to comprehend the nature

of the Martial Path of the Martial Apprentice in question." The intelligence
agent gulped.
"What? What did you just tell me?"
"The analyst team wasn't able to successfully grasp the core of the Martial
Art of the Martial Apprentice in question." He squeezed out.
"INCOMPETENT FOOLS." The sergeant roared as he slammed the

document into the ground. "A single Martial Art of a Martial Apprentice
confounds the team of analysts that were chosen to be deployed to the
Serevian Dungeon?! The height of uselessness!"
"Forgive me for saying so, sir." The intelligence meekly interjected. "But it
isn't that the analysts aren't competent, it's that the Martial Art we are dealing
with isn't something ordinary, in fact, its traits are something we've frankly
never seen before. It's a genuine anomaly."
The sergeant calmed down a bit at those words and frowned at the prospect.
"A Martial Art so obtuse and deviant that even analysts can't crack?"
He glanced back at the document, combing through the observations and

inferences made by the analyst department.
The Martial Artist, codenamed Abyss, in question didn't seem to have any
core style, any affinity towards techniques or fields. This was the biggest
stumbling block in trying to accurately and precisely identify the actual
combat style of the codename Abyss. His fighting style changed too
drastically from opponent to opponent.
It was far different from the all-rounder style that used many fields to
relatively equal degrees regardless of the opponent. His style changed from
fight to fight, from circumstance to circumstance.
It was formless, almost like it was water.
The analyst department commented that his fighting style did not seem to
change at random but in a fashion that seemed extremely efficient and
effective against his opponents.
However, that wasn't the most shocking part. The most shocking part about
the Martial Apprentice, the main reason why he was incredibly dominant
against nearly any Martial Apprentice he ran into was his extraordinary
accuracy and precision in so far as the placement and timing of his every
move. According to a preliminary analysis conducted by the Martial
Consortium of the Sekigahara Confederate, the placements and timings for
each of his movements were extremely effective. Allowing him to produce
extremely effective results with every movement, far more so than was
normally possible.
The Martial Consortium had not yet formulated a viable and sound solution
against codename Abyss, although the task was being prioritized.
"Even the Sekigaharan Martial Consortium couldn't tell us how to take him
down immediately?" His eyes widened.
The Sekigaharan Martial Consortium was a private organization formed by

the Martial Artists of the Sekigahara Confederate. It was similar to the
Martial Union, yet there were a few key differences. The Consortium was
looser and far more flexible than the Martial Union, yet it also provided far
fewer benefits to the members of the Consortium than the Martial Union did.
Kandrian Martial Union was just one of the many Martial Artist
organizations that existed on the Panama Continent. There were many shapes
and forms such organizations took, in some cases, they didn't at all, Martial
Artists were completely dissolved by the state. Though such states were
uncommon.
In some cases, the Martial Artist organization took over the state and became
the ruling entity, imposing Martial Law and Regime. Though neither the
Kandrian Empire nor the Sekigahara Confederate were nearly as extreme as
either side.
"For now." The sergeant just gritted his teeth. "Just gather a bunch of strong
Martial Apprentices of different kinds of Martial Art the next time we engage
in conflict with the Kandrian Empire. That should be enough. They'll see that
one Martial Apprentice can never truly be enough to influence a war all by
himself."
This was the only option they had for now. If quality was lacking, then the
very best they could do was simply compensate with quantity and hope that it
did the job well enough
"Yes sir." The intelligence officer bowed before raising his head and
scurrying out of the room.
Chapter 426 Bolexeuen Hill
The flames of war that the Kandrian Empire had lit could not be snuffed out.
As the four nations began expanding their territory bit by bit. There were all
kinds of scuffles that began occurring as a result. The core was the only part
of the Serevian Dungeon that was yet to be colonized. However, as the four
super nations expanded, not even that was going to remain uncolonized for
too much longer.
The scarcity of the remaining resources made them even more valuable. This
caused the conflict to become more frequent, causing the Martial Apprentices
to be deployed more often than before.
Today was another such day for the Martial Apprentices of the Martial
Union. The offensive team, for the first time since the previous clash, would
be clashing with the Sekigahara Confederate over a territorial dispute.
"The mission today will not be quite the same as the one nearly a month ago."
Commissioner Feristen informed them. "Back then, we attacked the fortified
core territory of the Sekigahara Confederate with a powerful assault team to
inflict as much damage and force them to stall their expansion endeavors. Of
course, they have more than recuperated and have eagerly begun expanding
once more to make up for the lost time. This has predictably led to a clash of
interests as far as expansion interests go."
Commissioner Feristen pressed a button on a device, projecting the image of

a marked map on a screen.
It was a map of the core of the Serevian Dungeon, highlighting certain

territories in different colors that were relevant.
"As you can see." Commissioner Feristen continued. "The territories in red
are the territories that the Sekigahara Confederate have demonstrated interest
in, in the past month. The territories in blue are the territories that the
Kandrian Empire aims to colonize. The territories in purple are the territories
that both Sekigahara Confederate and the Kandrian Empire have
demonstrated interest in."
The way that all of the nations within the Serevian Dungeon expanded wasn't
by simply blindly expanding from their core territory outwards in a singular
circle. That was wasteful and inefficient because the distribution of esoteric
resources was not even, obviously. The net territory of each nation was
divided across multiple settlements in the more rich and lush parts of the
Serevian Dungeon, including the guaranteed core territories that all of the
participating nations had.
"One of the purple territories is actually the Bolexeuen Hills." He said,

projecting another image. "A Sekigahara Confederate convoy has been
spotted heading towards the Bolexeuen Hill. The intelligence makes it clear
that the Sekigahara Confederate intends to colonize the Bolexeuex Hill, based
on this and other things. Your mission is not merely to sabotage or damage
the colonization endeavors of the Sekigahara Confederate, but to completely
drive them away from the Bolexeuen Hill. Even though the defensive
measures of a convoy are most certainly not equal to the defensive measures
of one of the main territories of the Sekigahara Confederate that the offensive
team launched an attack on last month, the actual objective of the mission
isn't as easy as it was before."
In short, they were no longer merely going to be fighting over trying to inflict
damage to slow their opponents down, the Kandrian Empire wanted to boot
the Sekigahara Confederate from one of the prime locations for esoteric
resources that they both had had an eye on.
The Kandrian Intelligence Agency and Intelligence department of the Martial

Union hadn't been able to gain an accurate understanding of the Martial Artist
assets that had been deployed to protect the convoy as it began colonizing the
Bolexeuen Hill.
Regardless, dozens of Martial Apprentices had been mobilized to partake in

the mission. Among them were, of course, Rui, Kane, Fae, Nel, and Fiona.
And much to Rui's chagrin, Ian.
He shook his head putting him aside for the moment.
Commissioner Feristen continued in greater detail regarding the topographic

features while explaining the route that the strategic department had charted
out for the operation. He went into several other things before nodding.
"Alright, that brings us to the end of the mission breakdown seminar. Be
prepared until it is time to commence the mission."
The Martial Apprentices went their ways, needing to prepare for the
upcoming battle.
"Do you reckon this is going to be easier or harder than the initial clash with
the Sekigahara Confederate?" Kane asked.
"Harder." Rui replied. "In the previous mission, we simply assaulted one of
their main territories with the intent of hurting. And more importantly, our
win condition was quite shallow and light. We did not need to force our
opponents back, this is not true in this case. This time we'll need to
overwhelm them completely otherwise we won't be able to displace their
convoy from the Bolexeuen Hill. That's a much taller task to impose on us
than just inflicting a lot of damage."
"Makes sense." Kane nodded. "Still, if this battle goes anything like it did the
first time, dominating them shouldn't be much of an issue."
"That's if it goes as it did in the first attack," Rui replied to him.
"You don't think it will?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"Hard to say." Rui sighed, shrugging in response. "But it is best to proceed

under the assumption that it won't. The Serevian Dungeon is such that the
nations can surveil the battles directly in real-time, meaning they have an
intimate understanding of why they lost. And part of why they lost is because
the two of us took down a disproportionate number of Martial Apprentices.
Unless the Sekigahara Confederate is incompetent they will likely have
solutions to ensure that at the very least something like that won't happen
again."
"But how?" Kane asked, frowning.
"I can't say for sure, but regardless, be wary and careful. Don't just bombard
around the battlefield without any caveats or caution." Rui advised.
"I'm an evasive maneuverer." Kane shrugged. "Caution is my last name."
"No, your last name is-"
"Shut up."
Chapter 427 New Conflict
The Martial Apprentices quickly prepared themselves for the upcoming

conflict that they were going to be participating in. In a few hours, the
mission was soon enough ready to commence, and it did. The Martial
Apprentices all dispatched as they rushed together towards the Bolexeuen
Hill via the recommended path in their mission bills.
The distance was genuinely not all that great for a Martial Apprentice
because it was already only a small portion of the core of the Serevian
Dungeon which itself was a minority of the Serevian Dungeon. This meant
that it didn't take much time for them to run into action from the moment they
had left.
The focus of the Martial Apprentices weighed on the atmosphere, growing in

weight once the two became aware of each other.
The Sekigahara convoy immediately deployed a few defensive measures,

including having their many defensive Martial Apprentices deployed to
intercept the incoming assault force and protect the settlement convoy of the
Sekigahara Confederate.
When the assault team of the Kandrian Empire reached the general location
of Bolexeuen Hill. Many cannonballs had already been fired in their general
direction. Yet, the Martial Apprentices competently dealt with them. Some
destroyed or overpowered them with attacks, others defended against them,
and many simply evaded them.
Although cannon balls weren't slow. The sheer distance that they were
coming gave the Martial Apprentices plenty of time to react and deal with
them however they felt most comfortable.
Soon, the Martial Apprentices had reached the convoy of the Sekigahara
Confederate. The groups of Martial Apprentices immediately clashed.
A large number of attacks were exchanged in the briefest of moments. The

Martial Apprentices all began spreading out from each other to ensure that
their battles with each other didn't hurt themselves and their comrades.
Rui evaded a flurry of sharp jabs from a conditioned piercing attack of the
Martial Apprentices that had first attacked him.
His opponent seemed to be someone who had dedicated an immense of

conditioning training to his nails. Rui recalled seeing the techniques long ago
in the Martial Contest.
WHOOSH
BAM!
He evaded a swing while launching a powerful low-sweeping kick,

staggering his opponent into an unstable position.
POW POW POW!
He threw speedy jabs to his opponent's gut, Reverberating Lance permeated

the impact deeper, yet the man managed to remain conscious despite the fact
that his diaphragm was no doubt immobilized due to the attack to the gut.
He took a moment to build up momentum to launch a powerful Flowing

Canon at his opponent. Yet suddenly
WHOOSH
His opponent suddenly moved away from the attack unnaturally, as if being
protect from harm's way.
Suddenly, three new powerful Martial Apprentices between him and Rui. The
three of them exchanged a word with Rui's previous opponent, as the latter
nodded and scurried away.
('They're strong.') Rui could tell. The pressure they exerted was immense. Yet
what drew his attention, even more, was that they chose to intervene in his
battle, all three of them.
Rui immediately inferred that these three were sent to deal with him. There
was no other reason that he would randomly be targeted by three Martial
Apprentices.
The atmosphere contorted under the weight of his mind as he grew more
serious. The sheer pressure he exuded was not something any Martial
Apprentice should have been capable of exuding, and his three opponents
could clearly feel it.
Yet, they didn't hesitate.
Two of them dashed backward, and one of them dashed forward toward him.
His arm curled backward as he wound up a powerful strike.
WHOOSH
Rui casually evaded the strike with a feint via Phantom Step, entering his
space.
POW!
His elbow landed on his opponent's face, staggering him back. Yet when Rui
went throw a front kick, he merely ducked, exposing a wind blast attack from
behind him.
BAM!
Rui blocked as an immensely powerful and focused wind blast attack

slammed into him. He glanced back at the source of the attack.
('So they were ranged experts? And the one before me is a close quarters
Martial Artist.') Rui noted. ('So they wanted to create a synergistic team of
Martial Apprentices specifically to take me down?')
The close-quarters Martial Artist rushed back at Rui with renewed vigor,
throwing a flurry of jabs at Rui. Rui evaded all of them cleanly. He felt a bit
impatient, which was uncharacteristic for him. He knew that they were being
sent to stall him and ensure he doesn't go off on a rampage like he did last
time, which made him not want to allow that to happen, yet he needed to be
careful despite that.
WHOOSH
BAM
Rui evaded a strike cleanly and landed a powerful uppercut on his opponent
pushing him back, when suddenly;
POW POW!
Two wind bullets slammed into him with a lot of power.
('They only attack me when their teammate isn't in my immediate vicinity.')

Rui keenly noted.
There was no point in putting together a team of three Martial Apprentices if

they attacked one at a time instead of simultaneously, yet here they were.
They were either an incompetent team, or there was some real reason why.
('It's quite likely that their precision isn't high enough to not affect their
teammate from such a distance away if we're too close.') He sharply realized.
Rui grinned at that realization.
WHOOSH
He dodged another wind bullet as the close-quarters Martial Apprentice

charged back at Rui. Yet this time, instead of cautiously avoiding him, he
charged forward as well.
His opponent threw a powerful swing, yet;
WHOOSH
It hit empty air as Rui carried out a lower takedown after having feinted an
upper takedown.
This was the Mirage Dive technique.
Rui successfully leveraged his power and momentum to topple his opponent.
He expertly used Flow Flux and Shifting Silhouette to gain an advantageous
position until he quickly coiled his arm around his opponent's neck from
behind.
As Rui had predicted, his opponents did not fire any attacks.
Chapter 428 Envy
The close-quarters Martial Apprentices wrangled in Rui's grip with an

immense amount of ferocity and power. Yet Rui stayed strong, refusing to let
go. He used Outer Convergence, Flame Breathing, and Helical Breathing to
squeeze with as much power as he possibly could.
Thankfully, he didn't need to squeeze for too long.
The human brain would lose consciousness after seven seconds of a lack of
oxygen. Rui was squeezing hard on his carotid artery and ensuring that there
was no blood flow. Although Martial Apprentice could last longer, they too
had a limit.
His resistance rapidly grew weaker and eventually, his body went limp.
He was unconscious.
THUD
Rui tossed his body aside as he immediately turned towards the two distant
long-range specialists. They had already begun firing against him. But Rui
had no intention of being hit by them at all this time.
WHOOSH WHOOSH
The two attacks hit an illusion of Rui, as Rui misdirected their potent attacks
with Phantom Step. He immediately began running toward them with an
immense amount of speed and agility. It took just a few moments to reach
there as he evaded all their attacks.
They even began retreating panicked, as Rui approached them.

BAM!
Rui launched a powerful Flowing Cannon that launched one of them into the
air, while the second had gotten stung.
PEW!
The Stinger burrowed itself in his back as he ran away, triggering a profuse
wound.
BANG!
CRACK
A powerful hammer kick on the man cracked his skull.
('It's going to take more than that if you want to suppress me.') Rui mused. He
knew that the Sekigahara Confederate would certainly try even harder than
before, but that was. He had no intention of backing down or losing. He was
curious to see the kinds of things that the Sekigahara Confederate would try
to do in order to stop him.
Kane on the other hand wasn't nearly as lucky. His opponent wasn't
somebody that he could defeat with casual ease, or even in a small amount of
time.
His opponent was the only one on the entire battleground asides from Rui
who could sense him quite clearly, a sensory Martial Apprentice. The
Sekigahara Confederate had deployed him to be able to deal with Kane so as
to ensure that Kane also doesn't go around taking down a large number of
In addition to possessing sensory techniques that were required to be able to

sense Kane despite the Void Step technique and a few other stealth
techniques Kane had taken to improve his overall stealth prowess, his
opponent also possessed incredible speed.
With their speed, it was basically like two speedy cars were running around.
Kane tried to get away from him as fast he could, but it was simply too much
even for someone with Kane's sheer velocity.
BAM!
THUD
Kane paused in surprise as his opponent just collapsed to the ground

unconscious.
"Had some trouble?" Rui asked, chuckling.
"More than just a little." Kane sighed. "This guy was meant to handle me, to
ensure that I can't do what I did back then."
"Yeah." Rui nodded. "I went through something quite similar just now."
"How strong was he?" Kane asked in return.
"They, you mean." Rui chuckled. "One of them was a pretty good close-
quarters Martial Artists while the others were long-range Martial Artists."
Kane's eyes widened. "They sent three Martial Apprentices to merely keep
you at bay?"
"Yep."
"That's hilarious, they have actually significantly underestimated you a lot

huh?" Kane laughed out loud. "They're going to need much more than if they
want to keep you in check."
"Anyways, enough chitchat," Rui told him. "Let's get back into the battle.
The two of them returned back to the battle and returned to what they were
doing in the previous battle against the Sekigahara Battle.
Wreaking havoc.
Now that there wasn't a single enemy Martial Apprentice who could sense
him, Kane freely went back to sabotaging his opponent. He zipped through
and across the entire battlefield, helping the Kandrian Martial Apprentices
and making the life of the Sekigaharan Martial Apprentices miserable in
battle was his general modus operandi. This immediately resulted in a visible
impact on the state of the conflict. Martial Apprentices of the Kandrian
Empire began winning more often, while Martial Apprentices of the
Sekigahara Confederate simply lost, more and more.
Rui on the other hand began taking on the most powerful Martial Apprentices
that the Skigahara Confederate had to offer. It wasn't as though the
Sekigahara Confederate's Martial Apprentices were incompetent. Not at all.
It was just that Rui was simply far too strong.
He had come to the war hoping to run into people just as strong as he was,
yet thus far, he hadn't run into someone who was genuinely as strong as him.
Yet that hadn't just yet. He had run into interesting challenges like the wind
manipulator Martial Artist that he had fought the very first time that the
Kandrian Empire had launched an attack on the Sekigahara Confederate.
Yet he had not yet found something nearly as powerful as he had hoped for.
Someone who could force him to use his Flowing Void Style to its absolute
most.
Even to this day, he still didn't even know what that looked like.
To a certain extent, he envied all the Martial Apprentices he saw running

around and beating each other up. At least they were still in a position where
any one of them could be defeated by their peers at the same level as
themselves.
He recalled how fulfilling the preliminary Martial Contest had been to him. It
was one of the best parts of his time in the Martial Academy. Back then, he
still had peers who were genuinely his equals and were more than capable of
defeating him. It gave him good experience in using his Martial Art and the
VOID algorithm. He'd needed to strategize nearly every fight and would have
straight up lost several fights if not for his creativity.
Chapter 429 Outcome
Now that Kane and Rui were freed up, they were unstoppable together, they
quickly began taking down Martial Apprentices one by one.
Kane was like a fish in water, abusing his stealth to the most to launch the
Godspeed technique that allowed him to take down Martial Apprentices
almost with a single attack. Rui took Martial Apprentices the hard way, yet
very few managed to last longer than a short amount of time against him.
While his physical parameters were certainly extremely impressive, they
weren't beyond all fathoming. There were all-rounder Martial Apprentices
that, as far as raw technical parameters went, were comparable to him.
But because of the Mindmirror Brain and the VOID algorithm, none of them
managed to last more than a brief amount of time against him.
Rui glanced around the battlefield, spotting his friends.
Fiona was holding her own against two Martial Apprentices just fine.
Although the level of dominance wasn't anywhere near to that of Kane's
despite being of a higher grade than him. Kane just had a ridiculous amount
of affinity with the circumstances they were in.
Fiona was fighting against a long-range Martial Apprentices, applying her

Vacuum Palm technique to cut down on the distance between them, hoping to
strike him with one of her devastating lethal attacks and win the fight on the
spot.
Nel was fighting against three Martial Apprentices with a rabid grin> This
was despite getting pushed back by all of his opponents.
('Idiot.') Rui sighed. Rui was certain that he had gone out of his way to
provoke himself into those circumstances. He immediately headed over to
relieve his friend.
Soon the defensive team assigned to the colonizing convoy of the Sekigahara
Confederate was slowly getting overwhelmed. The Martial Apprentices
slowly retreated until the numbers' disparity had grown so much by this point
that they could no longer even cope.
The defensive convoy had long followed suit, leaving the Bolexeuen Hill.
The mission was a success.
The Kandrian Empire had successfully booted out the Sekigahara

Confederate convoy from colonizing the most lucrative parts of the land.
He could already sense from a distance that there was a convoy being
dispatched by the Kandrian Empire to colonize and build a defended base in
this location. They had not yet been instructed to retreat from the Boloxeuen
Hill, most likely to serve as additional protection for the convoy of the
Kandrian Government.
A few Martial Apprentices on the side of the Kandrian Empire had died away
in the middle of that heated battle. Their bodies had already begun being
consumed by the roots of the forest that surfaced and began wrapping around
their corpses and dragging them deeper into the ground. A process that Rui
still found creepy.
Thankfully, his friends were all safe again once more. Though Rui swore that
Nel might have even died had Rui not helped him out at that point.
Once the convoy arrived, it immediately began laying down heavy

fortifications around the territory to begin securing it. The convoy had been
supplied with its own defensive team that had tagged along with for security.
With the defensive and offensive teams together, there was a security force
protecting the territory until it stabilized.
It took forty-eight hours for the initial fortifications to be built. By then, the
base had obtained enough stability for the offensive team to return to their
previous territory. Their mission was complete, after all.
They would no doubt receive praise for their strong victory as well as a fat
bonus from the Martial Union. On the other hand, the Sekigahara
Confederate grew even more frustrated.
"Our defensive measures didn't work! That Martial Apprentice tore past our
trio team meant to keep him preoccupied like it was easy. Then he proceeded
to free up his comrade from his harasser. The two of them began
accumulating damage onto our force until it became too much!"
The analyst department scratched their heads as they took even graver
measures to handle them.
"Five high-rank Martial Apprentices." A sergeant said. "That's how much

we'll deploy next time against codename Abyss. It doesn't matter how strong
he is. No one in the Apprentice Realm can possibly fight high-ranking
Martial Apprentices simultaneously. As for the stealth one, double the
number of powerful sensory Martial Artists. He was unable to break past one
of them all by himself. Two of them will be more than enough to finally take
him down once and for all."
Their subordinates immediately bowed before heading out to make the

preparations of executing the orders of their superiors.
He sighed. "Where did such a monster come from? Is he really even in the
Apprentice Realm at all? They didn't find a way to smuggle inside the
territory a Martial Squire, did they?"
That's how impressive Rui was. The predictions he made were high accuracy,
furthermore, the counter-adaptive model of the VOID algorithm was
abysmal. It was a style that allowed Rui to squeeze out literally drops of
water from a stone.
They hadn't yet figured out his actual identity yet, as of this point. They had
heard of similar corresponding pieces of information from the small nations
that the Kandrian Empire has squared off against; The Republic of Jerefin,
the State of Hreefal and the Kingdom of Nochus. Putting together an even
more elaborate profile together.
"I found a lead on the identity of codename Abyss." Sekigaharan intelligence

officer noted. "The fluidity and lack of uniformity in his fighting styles
resemble that of Contest Rui Quarrier of the Martial Contest in the Kandrian
Empire."
"What is the likelihood of this being the case?" The head of the intelligence
department asked. "Regardless, continue investigating the Martial Apprentice
codename Abyss. We need to look at all possibilities and from the looks of it,
this very well might be the case. Gather all of the information on the matter in
any way you reasonably can. There's a very good chance we can use it to
formulate a way to defeat that monster."
Chapter 430 Plan
There was a limit to the amount of militaristic capital that each of the nations
was willing to spend on the expansion endeavors in the Serevian Dungeon.
This limit had to do with the loss of the assets suffered by nations in conflicts
with other nations weighed against the profits made by the extraction of the
esoteric resources from the territories in the Serevian Dungeon.
Although Martial Apprentices were meant to be deployed in conflicts, no

nation was willing to stake too much. The number of Martial Apprentices that
were qualified to be deployed in the Serevian Dungeon was not too high.
After all, only the Martial Apprentices above grade seven were qualified to
be deployed in the Serevian Dungeon. Otherwise, they were simply too weak.
These Martial Apprentices were valuable in and of themselves, after all, it

took time, energy, dedication, and resources to train a Martial Apprentice to
become grade seven. Each Martial Apprentice was valuable, they certainly
weren't disposable or replaceable.
That was why every nation didn't harbor grand plans of trying to dominate
the Serevian Dungeon territorially. Not that they didn't want all territory, but
the cost of even attempting to fulfill such an extravagant ambition was simply
not worth the reward. The losses would far outweigh the gains.
This was why Commissioner Feristen and Colonel Carnes grew shocked
when Rui had informed them he knew of a way to defeat a large number of
Martial Apprentices and other enemy militaristic assets rather swiftly all by
himself without needing their forces to suffer any losses.
They didn't believe him at first.
How could they? It was too ridiculous to believe, even though they knew of
Rui's accomplishments. But as Rui began explaining his plan to them, their
eyes widened in shock as they realized, he just might be onto something!
"How sure are you of this?" Commissioner Feristen asked with a stern voice.
"Quite," Rui confirmed. "I had confirmed this when I first discovered the
Serevian Dungeon in a mission. I have documented it as well using the eco-
survey device that the Ministry of Environment and Ecology had given me so
you can verify it through that as well."
"Are you able to exert as much control as you profess?" Colonel Carnes
asked.
"Yes, I have mastered the technique quite well. I haven't used it in a while,
for obvious reasons, but there is no problem in that regard."
"It's extremely risky." Commissioner Feristen told him. "You could die so
fast that no potion could possibly save you!"
Rui thought about his words for a moment. "It's not impossible. But I have
reason to be confident. Because of my mastery of the Mindmirror Symbiote,
my reaction and processing speed greatly surpass what it would normally be.
Furthermore, in my initial mission, I applied my Martial Art to become very
familiar with them so that I can predict them very well. I am more than
equipped to successfully undertake and complete this task."
The two leaders paused at those words, deep in thought. The plan that Rui
proposed was bold and risky, yet if succeeded it would allow a single Martial
Apprentice to annihilate an entire army!
The best part was that there were no chances that the losses would extend
beyond a single Martial Apprentices regardless of whether it succeeded or
failed.
"This is a great plan." Colonel Carnes nodded. "I have heard tales of your
brilliance, it seems they were not exaggerated. We will, of course, pass this
through with the joint strategic department of the Kandrian Empire and the
Kandrian Martial Union just to be sure, of course."
Commissioner Feristen was not as enthusiastic.
Their positions were different. The Kandrian Royal Army did not lose
anything even if Rui died. He was not a member of the Royal Army, after all.
Commissioner Feristen wasn't in the same situation. The Martial Union

valued Rui immensely. They did not want to lose him if possible. He was
their most powerful Martial Apprentice and that had become evidently clear
even before his current proposal was put forward. Now, the value of him as a
Martial Artist in the Serevian Dungeon wars had risen once more.
But the risk of the plan he had proposed was not light.
"...I'll pass on your plan to the higher-ups. If they approve it, then we can
deploy it to implement your plan, otherwise, I cannot allow it." He explained.
"I understand." Rui nodded. "It was just an idea that hit me when I tried to
think about what I could be doing better, and this is the plan I quickly created
in response."
"You have a brilliant mind." Commissioner Feristen sighed. "Not even the
strategic department had thought about this despite having access to this
information. You're quite the Martial Artist, young man."
"Thank you, commissioner Feristen. But you flatter me." He smiled

awkwardly. "Well, I've come to convey what I wanted to. If there's nothing
else, I'll get going."
He bade the two men farewell as walked out of the building.
"What do you think?" Commissioner Feristen asked colonel Carnes.
"It seems like a viable plan." Colonel Carnes nodded, revealing a hint of
eagerness. "If executed well, it could allow us to demolish all three of the
other nations and monopolize all of the remaining territories. The Serevian
Dungeon will soon be fully colonized for the most part. Only the core is left
uncolonized, but not for long. This could allow us to win the scramble for the
Serevian Dungeon."
"He's going to be facing the three armies of the three nations all by himself."
Commissioner Feristen replied. "The risk is too high."
"His accomplishments are high. We've both gone through his file. He's
accomplished things that would be dismissed as a fairy tale if he hadn't
brought back irrefutable proof."
Commissioner Feristen remained silent. The body of the Martial Squire

Caella Freelia had raised waves of shock as they absolutely corroborated the
testimonies surrounding that mission. Testimonies at the center of which was
Apprentice Rui Quarrier.
Chapter 431 Single
"I wonder if I should have done that." He scratched his head awkwardly. It
was a dangerous plan, and it was a plan that only he could execute. He would
be putting himself in a ton of harm, and for what? The Kandrian Empire?
He didn't even feel such a terribly strong loyalty to the Kandrian Empire. The
Kandrian Empire was doing very fine in the first place, it didn't need a
massive boost.
He shrugged. What was done was done. Besides, although it was risky, he
somewhat welcomed it. Even the wars with the other nations were starting to
grow a bit dull to him.
He was just too strong.
"At least this way, I can challenge myself with something extremely
dangerous." Rui shrugged as he returned back to his lodgings.
It didn't even take a single day for the Martial Union to summon Rui back.
"Commissioner Feristen?" Rui asked as he returned back to the Martial

Union office. "You called?"
"Yes." he nodded. "The strategic department has analyzed the plan you have
provided and has evaluated it favorably. You have already expressed your
personal consent in the execution of the plan, correct?"
"Yes, I'm willing to execute it if the Martial Union requires me to," Rui
replied simply.
"Well, that's good to hear." Commissioner Feristen replied. "Then be ready,

you'll need to go over the strategy to iron out the details with the strategic
department."
"If all goes well, we can try it out against the other nations over the dispute of
certain territories in the center of the Serevian Dungeon." Commissioner
Feristen told Rui.
Over the next few days, Rui ironed out the plan that he had proposed to the
strategic department of the Kandrian Empire, honing out all the details to
maximize the effectiveness of the plan and minimize the risk.
Soon, it was time for Rui to actually apply the plan in combat.
The four super nations were rapidly grabbing up all the remaining territories.
However, the more they did that, the closer they came to the center of the
Serevian Dungeon, and the territories began involving more than just one
nation.
Before, each nation was contested by only the two closest nations, but now
most remaining territories were being contested by three nations because the
three nations were equally close to the territory.
This was predicted by all the nations of course, and it was only primed to get
worse. Soon, at the very center of the core of the Serevian Dungeons were
territories that were equally close to all four super nations, which would
involve a conflict involving all four nations.
The Kandrian Empire reserved Rui's strategy for the right time. It would
become less effective once it was known about by the other nations.
As the four nations began gobbling territory up, the only territory left was the
territory that was equally distant from all of them.
The heart of the Serevian Dungeon was soon the sole remaining territory left
that could be colonized by the four nations. Whoever gained control over the
last and the largest piece of resource rich territory would likely win the
Serevian Dungeon Wars.
Of the four nations, the Sekigahara Confederate, the Republic of Gortea, and
the Britannian Empire each mobilized their armies of not just Martial
Apprentices but also potion users.
Yet, the Kandrian Empire did none of that, much to the shock of the other
nations. Each of the nations had a power information gather capability that
allowed them to gain insights into the preparations and mobilizations of the
forces of the Kandrian Empire.
Yet, to their surprise, the Kandrian Empire was not mobilizing all that much.
The offensive team seemed to be on standby, but that was nothing. Where
were all the large preparations and mobilizations that the resource-intensive
military would be eating?
How could the Kandrian Empire not be engaging in heavy mobilizations like
the rest of them? Did it plan on conceding the heart of the Serevian Dungeon
to the remaining nations?
None of the other three nations thought that was a reasonable or likely
position for the Kandrian Empire to have.
It was evidently clear that the Kandrian Empire was plotting something.
Yet none of them were sure what.
It was mindboggling. It was definitely not some high-end technological

solution that exceeded the Squire Realm because the tree branch reacted to
both Martial Artists and technological solutions that exceeded the limit it set.
This meant reducing the number of possibilities it could be.
It was possible that the Kandrian Empire had learned something that reduced
the value of the core territory of the Serevian Dungeon. This was speculation
that the other nations went through even as their armies mobilized and were
on the verge of being set out to wage war over the territories.
Many countries thought that the Kandrian Empire was biding time to let the
other three nations fight it out amongst themselves and then charge in with an
army afterward. In this case, the wisdom of fighting a war with the other two
nations was raised into question.
However, at the end of the day, the possibility was dismissed because the
fortifications would be erected by the winning party as soon as the wars were
over, making it even more difficult to boot the winner out of the territory.
Furthermore, the spoils of war would all be claimed by the winner part alone.
Regardless, the three nations did not stop mobilizing their armies. The final
war was inevitable and approaching. The three nations deployed their armies.
Later, the Kandrian Empire's gates opened as Rui walked out.
Alone.
He immediately began sprinting toward the heart of the core of the Serevian
Dungeon. The three nations were incredibly confused when their surveillance
channels caught a single Martial Apprentice being deployed by the Kandrian
Empire.
This was much more confusing than if the Kandrian Empire had deployed
nobody at all. What was the point of deploying a single Martial Artist?
Chapter 432 Clash
The nations recognized Rui even with his mask on. Martial Artists were
distinct and Rui was very infamous at this stage. Every nation had had a hard
time containing him in war. He was simply a menace and no individual
Martial Artist lasted very long against him.
However, he by himself could not compensate for an entire army. The

nations felt more confused than offended. What were they trying to do? Were
they just sending a single Martial Apprentice to speculate the war and gather
intelligence from a distance?
However, the Kandrian Empire did not need to engage in such tactics for
surveillance. It was also quite clear that Rui wasn't primarily or even
significantly a sensory-oriented Martial Apprentice. Thus, there was no way
that Rui was being deployed due to a need for surveillance, there were many
more fit Martial Apprentices that could be deployed for this particular role.
So why send their ace Martial Apprentice all alone in the middle of a war?
He shouldn't have been able to accomplish anything meaningful on a

battlefield with three armies, yet the nations paid attention to his movements,
if only because they were curious as to what his purpose on the battlefield
could possibly be.
Rui didn't need to travel much to reach the battlefield. It was literally the final
piece of valuable territory left and it wasn't far away at all.
Once he reached it, he was immediately attacked by many Martial

Apprentices. These were powerful high-grade Martial Apprentices of each
nation that had been assigned to stall and potentially defeat him. It was an
overkill force but that was merely because they were the combined force of
three opinions that each wanted to hold him off or ideally kill him.
All of them wished to do the latter, after being chewed out by their superiors
for being unable to defeat a singular Martial Apprentice.
The atmosphere grew taut as Rui's brains both went into top gear mode. Time
slowed down as he analyzed his circumstances. He needed to break past and
reach the center of the war.
That was his goal at the moment, reaching the center of the war being waged
at the center of the Serevian Dungeon.
BOOM!
Rui somersaulted out of the way as he evaded a powerful long-range attack

from one of them narrowly, immediately behind was a speedy Martial
Apprentice.
POW POW POW!
Despite being caught off-guard, Rui reacted to all of his strikes perfectly,
blocking them perfectly well, much to his opponent's surprise. His opponent
had been hoping to land clean strikes that would draw blood.
Yet Rui's reaction speed was something that was outside the Apprentice
Realm. The Mindmirror Secondary brain worked parallelly with his main
brain thanks to the Mind Embed technique allowing it to amplify his
Primordial Instinct technique as well. His reactions and reflexes were almost
impossible to assail for even the fastest of Martial Apprentices to assail.
WHOOSH
Rui evaded yet another attack as he hoped to squeeze through his opposition
hoping to get to the center of the Serevian Dungeon.
Yet, he had no such luck.
Three Martial Apprentices appear before him before, targeting him

specifically. They boxed him, looking to simply dogpile him with sheer
numbers.
They all rushed at him at the same time. Yet they simply underestimated how
difficult Rui was to suppress.
Even while facing all three of them, he managed to keep up. He feinted and
dodged, bobbed and weaved, and used his high-grade power, speed and
durability to keep up with opponents. Furthermore, the predictive models
were being constructed as rapidly as Rui could manage.
However, even without the predictive model, Rui's engagement with his
opponents was phenomenal. It was impossible to dodge and block every
single attack three Martial Apprentices dogpiling him, however, he could
time and place his dodges and blocks correctly such that he could mitigate
every single attack. Even if he did not have the ability to also simultaneously
launch his own attacks while dealing with the onslaught of the opponents that
outnumbered him, simultaneously.
That was until the initial predictive models were built.
WHOOSH
BAM!
Rui dodged a right as he ducked with impeccable timing and launch an

uppercut that perfectly fit into the counter-vulnerable gap that was created by
the hooking maneuver. The powerful blow crashed into his opponent's head,
empowered with Outer Convergence, Flame Breathing, and Adamant
Reforging. Furthermore, the Reverberating Lance technique permeated the
impact deeper into his head.
The sheer impact shook the brain enough to trigger enough brain trauma
causing his brain to shut down on the spot.
He fell unconscious from a single strike from Rui. Even though he was a
powerful Martial Apprentice with techniques that weren't weaker than that of
Rui, a combination of the right timing made all the difference in the world.
WHOOSH
Another Martial Apprentice tried to get Rui, not willing to loosen the
pressure that they were exerting on him, yet Rui saw that attack coming a
mile away with the help of the predictive model and his reaction speed and
the attack crashed into a feint.
Rui leaped away backward as he launched a barrage of Tempestuous Ripples,

slamming into his opponents, yet the second he distanced himself from the
close-quarters combat, the long-range specialists launched all kinds of attacks
toward Rui.
Yet to their frustration, despite the sharpness and timing of their swift attacks,
Rui was simply too good at somehow mitigating all the attacks that were
unleashed against him. It was ridiculous to watch. A team of Martial
Apprentices fighting him simultaneously in close-quarters combat wasn't
good enough to beat him in close-quarters combat and long-range Martial
Apprentices also struggled to take down Rui with their extended long-range
targeted attacking.
Rui lashed out towards the long-range Martial Apprentices, yet to his
annoyance, the close-quarters jumped in, intercepting him. Both the long-
range and close-quarters teams realized that they genuinely needed to work
together to have any chance of taking down Rui Quarrier.
Chapter 433 Epiphany
This was the single riskiest mission Rui have ever partaken in, not even the
mission in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana that featured an enemy
Martial Squire had been so threatening. Each of the three nations had sent its
own team of Martial Apprentices that was meant to suppress him.
Of course, none of the nations had expected that he himself would be

deployed alone with no backup. But the Martial Apprentices that were
specifically deployed to target him were immediately informed of his arrival.
Rui pushed to his absolute maximum. He used nearly every technique at his
disposal as he fought violently, trying to break past the many Martial
Apprentices that had been targeting him. What surprised him was that
although the Martial Apprentices targeting him from different nations did not
actively cooperate with each other, they did not fight against each other
either.
They were completely focused on taking down Rui.
He was forced to fight nine powerful Martial Apprentices that were

specifically meant to take him down. Yet, to everyone's surprise. Rui
managed to hold on, even if barely.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
Rui managed to cleanly evade the powerful attacks of a close-range Martial

Apprentice.
BAM!
He was immediately struck with a wide-range projectile, pushing him away.

('I can't separate from the close-range Martial Apprentices.') Rui immediately
concluded. The long-range Martial Apprentices had to restrain themselves
when he was in close-range proximity to their close-quarters teammates.
He immediately rushed forward to meet the close-range Martial Apprentices

as they aimed to take him down in hand-to-hand combat.
Despite being surrounded by Martial Apprentices, he managed to keep up.

His heightened awareness and reactions were an absolute godsend, the
combination of the Mindmirror brain and Primordial Instinct was incredibly
powerful even at the highest of echelons of the Apprentice Realm.
He blocked some attacks while simultaneously contorting his body to avoid

an equal number of strikes. He abused his maneuvering and speed technique
to the maximum, using Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction, and Wind
Breathing to allow him to evade position himself at the right time and place
accurately. He further used Phantom Step to feint to misdirect their attacks
and aim. He used Flow Flux to intercept and destabilize his opponents while
using Blink to land as many surprise attacks as he could.
PEW!
WHOOSH
He managed to land the Stinger on one of his opponents while evading a

haymaker from behind.
POW POW POW!
An offensive speed-oriented Martial Apprentice managed to tag Rui with a

barrage of strikes cleanly, hurting him in the process.
BAM!
Another powerful swing slammed into Rui, flinging him away.
POW POW POW!
The long-range Martial Apprentices peppered him with different kinds of

attacks from varying distances.
He grimaced as he quickly regained his bearing, yet he was immediately

beset by three more Martial Apprentices who unleashed an onslaught of
attacks on him.
Rui pushed himself as he fought back. He used Inner Divergence, Acute

Edge, Elastic Shift, and Adamant Reforging to deal with the attacks of two of
his opponents as he targeted the remaining Martial Apprentice.
BAM BAM BAM!
Rui launched a barrage of swift and powerful attacks, using Reverberating

Lance to permeate the impact of his attacks to his vital organs, leaving him
reeling.
The brief respite allowed Rui to focus on the remaining two Martial
Apprentices, he positioned himself between them and waited for the right
moment.
WHOOSH
BAM!
POW!
Their attacks crashed into an empty image, passing through it and striking
each other off-guard.
Rui raced through the field as he evaded the attacks from the long-range
Martial Apprentices and unleashed an avalanche of strikes, trying to tag him.
He threw them off with a combination of Phantom Step and Shadow Step and
the Mind Mask technique that reduced his presence and sense of danger to
the absolute maximum.
Rui disappeared into the chaotic battlefield as the Martial Apprentices chased
after him, using the environment to his favor.
The atmosphere grew tense as the Martial Apprentices saw flashes of him in
the chaotic environment. The other nations had already built an extensive
profile on Rui and the way he fought. He was extremely resourceful and
tactical, when he fought, the environment fought alongside him.
None of them wanted to get caught up in his spell.
Yet none of them had realized it was too late.
BAM!
He caught the group in their blind spot with Shadow Step and the Mind Mask
technique, slamming the offensive speed-oriented Martial Apprentice with a
power Flowing Canon. At his current level, the attack's sheer power was
beyond what something a speed-oriented Martial Apprentice could withstand
when caught off-guard.
The attack launched him into the distance, as Rui reduced one of the Martial
Apprentices meant to target him.
His enemies felt a shiver down their spine as they realized their roles had
changed.
They were no longer targeting him.
No.
He was targeting them.
He let go of the Mind Mask restraining presence as the weight of his mind
was unleashed. The sheer pressure of the concentration of one of the singled
greatest Martial Apprentices of the modern era crashed onto them, jolting
them
It was then that it hit them.
They might actually lose. Despite all the odds.
That was how fearsome Rui was in their eyes

What ensued was a devastating battle. Rui fought like a demon, expressing
combat prowess they had never felt before. The difference between now and
before was that Rui had finally completed the predictive models for all of
them. He was no longer on the back foot.
The remaining seven Martial Apprentices weren't weak, they were among the
cream of the Martial Apprentices deployed by their respective nations.
Attacks emerged from three different directions of the Martial Apprentices of

the three different nations.
Time slowed down in Rui's perspective as his pupils dilated.
He knew exactly what he needed to do in a moment of incredible clarity and

peace.
('I've arrived at the higher Realm.') He realized.

Chapter 434 Execution
Rui rode a wave of euphoria as he felt his Martial Art maturing, it was a
feeling of unmistakable clarity. He lashed forward as he acted on the
predictive models that he had created for each of the over the span of the
fight while deriving the best counter to their impending actions with the
adaptive evolution model.
WHOOSH
BAM!
He avoided a predicted low kick by leaping forward with a flying knee kick,
striking his opponent's diaphragm with a powerful impact. It was especially
worse because Reverberating Lance permeated the impact deeper into the
body, shocking the diaphragm and impeding his opponent's breathing. The
woman collapsed, writhing on the ground.
Six more Martial Apprentices to go.
WHOOSH
POW POW POW!
He evaded a roundhouse kick as he threw a combo of strikes at his opponent,

disorienting him with the powerful impacts of his strikes permeating deeper.
The remaining two immediately ganged up on him.
BLINK
PEW!
He managed to land a Stinger on his opponent's neck veiled through a Blink.
He immediately grimaced, retreating as he cradled his bleeding neck.
The final remaining close-range Martial Apprentice threw a swing that Rui
saw coming from a mile away thanks to the predictive model.
CLASP
He intercepted the swing with Flow Flux immediately, destabilizing balance

and leaving him wide open in the balance.
BAM!
A powerful kick to the jaw rattled his head violently, causing enough blunt-
force trauma to cause the brain to shut down. Rui didn't bother trying to kill
them as the long-range Martial Apprentices immediately unleashed an
onslaught, yet it was too late.
Rui avoid them as he confused them with feints and misdirection along with
his swift maneuvering. He ran straight toward them as he launched multiple
Tempestuous Ripples to block and neutralize as many of their attacks as he
could while he relied on maneuvering to evade all of them.
The long-range Martial Apprentices furious launched as many long-range

attacks as they could, whether it meant extended flexibility, wind attacks,
launching land, or other sorts of attacks, yet Rui dealt with all of them, much
to their dismay.
BOOM!!
A powerful Flowing Canon crashed into the necks of one of the long-range
specialists.
He died on the spot.
It didn't take him long to swiftly take down the remaining Martial
Apprentices.
He only took a moment of respite after he had defeated all of them. All of the
Martial Apprentices were part of the anti-Rui strike forces that the various
nations had created. He had defeated a total of nine powerful high-grade
All by himself.
In front of the entire world, he had forged himself a new feat. At some point
in time, the mask he had put on had broken before he had even noticed. The
various nations immediately verified his identity as they learned more about
the foe that had foiled every response that had ever been thrown against him
by any of them.
Yet despite their shock and anger at his feats, there wasn't much fear in all of
them.
A single Martial Apprentices could not singlehandedly affect an entire large-

scale war all by himself, no matter how brilliant he was.
Or so they thought.
Rui immediately began sprinting to the very center of the chaotic war. He
used Mind Mask and Shadow Step to avoid gathering the attention of the
many Martial Apprentices and potion users that were wrangling with each
other in his vicinity and the many siege tanks and other large-scale weapons
in the distance.
And soon he arrived.
He immediately knelt on the ground.
The time to execute the plan that he had proposed to the Kandrian Empire
had come.
He closed his eyes, while still wary of his surroundings.
He crushed every stray thought that flashed through his mind as he began
gathering his concentration and focus like he had done so many times. Yet
this time, they were especially important, they would be playing a very
significant role in the upcoming plan. He knew that there was no way he
would be able to execute the plan successfully.
In his mind, he began using his imagination in the Mind Mask technique to
construct the most powerful mind mask he ever had. He pictured himself as
invincible, invulnerable, and omnipotent. He pictured himself embodying the
very concept of power, and everything that it meant to be strong. This was
the most Mind Mask he had ever created.
He opened his eyes as he prepared his reflexes and alertness. He knew that if
he didn't react appropriately and timely, he would die in an extremely painful
way and no number of potions would be able to save his life.
('It's time.') He whispered. The weight about what he was going to hit him, if
he succeeded, most of the people on the battlefield would die. It was a heavy
burden.
He sighed. ("Here goes nothing.')
He donned the mind mask he had created.
Suddenly, the battlefield froze as a Squire-level aura weighed across the

entire battlefield, every Martial Apprentice recognized that feeling, the
pressure of mind of a being that was very well a higher life form than
themselves. They felt weak and primitive before such might like they were
insects.
Rui had also chosen to channel his bloodlust, the bloodlust of a Squire sent
shivers down everybody's spine as they barely had time to wonder what a
Martial Squire was doing in the Serevian Dungeon.
Yet, that was when it happened.
The branches of the singular tree that had formed the Serevian Dungeon had
activated.
Rui had already documented that these branches had evolved to instantly
attack any threat perceived to be in the Squire Realm by the tree.
However, the battlefield was specifically chosen because it was barren, with
no vegetation. The closest ring of branches was outside the battlefield.
This was the plan that Rui had cooked up.
He deliberately put himself at the center of the war, so that when the tree
branches attacked, they would be forced to attack from outside the battlefield.
And in reaching him, they would run through everybody else first.
That was why he had positioned himself in the center of the battlefield.
Everybody would become targets along with himself.
Chapter 435 Outcome
The branches of the trees of the Serevian Dungeon had incredible penetrative
power. Rui recalled when he had first entered the Serevian Dungeon, he had
been penetrated by a branch that easily impaled him with no difficulty,
despite the Adamant Reforging technique making him extremely tough and
durable. It had also moved fast enough to bypass his reflexes when he wasn't
alert and focused.
This meant that it was extremely likely to be quite lethal to most Martial
Apprentices. However, this never mattered because the branches weren't a
threat to Martial Apprentices they were only a threat to threats perceived to
be in the Squire Realm.
This was the very core of the plan that Rui had come up with. If he used the
Squire-level mask, he would be triggering the tree and the branches would be
unleashed toward him.
He also knew from experience when testing them that the branches didn't
give a shit what was in between them and their target, they simply moved
through the shortest path between themselves and their target; a straight line.
They didn't care what blocked their path, they simply blasted past any and all
obstacles between them and their target.
Rui had wondered, what if there was an army between him and them?
In this case, the branches would blast through the army in order to reach him.
What if that army was an army of the enemy?
Wouldn't that have meant that Rui could vanquish an entire enemy army in a
blink of an eye as long as he and the army and the trees were positioned
correctly?
It was then that Rui realized that the squire-level Mind Mask technique was
extremely powerful because it had the power to manipulate the Serevian
Dungeon to its favor.
In the Serevian Dungeon, Rui was the only being who commands the
Serevian Dungeon, indirectly. When Rui realized the devastating potential of
his plan, he immediately submitted it to Commissioner Feristen and Colonel
Carnes. The two of them were initially skeptical of such a plan, but as Rui
explained they grew increasingly shocked as they realized the viability of the
plan wasn't low.
The other nations had initially thought that Kandrian Empire had lost its mind
when they deployed a single Martial Apprentice instead of an army.
But Rui wasn't alone.
He was fighting with the entirety of the Serevian Dungeon on his side. The
others had an army, he didn't need more than himself.
What followed was one of the most shocking occurrences that any of the
nations had seen since they stepped foot in the Serevian Dungeon.
The entirety of the part of forest surrounding the battlefield warped as the
branches shot outwards at staggering speeds and power. Branches from all
directions from outside the forest shot inwards with ferocious momentum.
The tanks were hit first.
The branches blasted through the tanks, spurring countless holes in them as
they shot forward. Instantly, all the personnel that was operating the siege
tanks died in an instant. They were merely normal human beings who were
impaled by an avalanche of branches.
A tsunami of razor-sharp branches shot through the battlefield at

extraordinary speeds and power.
It was blindingly fast.

Most Martial Apprentices were impaled across multiple locations.
Most of them died.
Of course, not all of them died.
The Martial Apprentices with extraordinary passive defense managed to get

away unscathed.
The best and also the most fortunate of speed-oriented Martial Apprentices
were fast enough to somehow evade the branches as they were lucky enough
to be in a position to react rather than too consumed with their opponent or
the war to react.
All of the Martial Apprentices on the battlefield were not incompetent. They
were high-grade Martial Apprentices who were qualified to be on the
battlefield of the Serevian Dungeon.
Had they been alert, focused, and prepared for the branches, most would have
at least managed to survive.
However, they were all extremely distracted by the war and their opponents.
Their lack of awareness and the surprise and shock that followed greatly
hindered their movements. The initial pain also messed with their response,
causing them to make suboptimal responses. All of these factors caused them
to fall prey to the flood of branches.
The branches spiked across the battlefield as they lashed out towards the
center of the battlefield, towards their target.
Fifty meters.
Ten meters.
One meter.
It was only when they were ten centimeters away from him did they stop.
Rui had managed to deactivate the Mind Mask technique in time, just in time.
This was the riskiest part of the operation.
If he stopped the Mind Mask technique too early, then it would not have done
its job and the operation would only be a partial success, but if he stopped the
technique too late, then he would simply die after the branches impaled him
from all directions.
Still, he had managed to cut it close.
"Too close." He whispered as the branches retracted once the Squire-level

aura had subsided. The branches quickly retracted as they returned to their
original position.
They left behind carnage, unlike anything Rui had ever seen.
In just a few moments, countless people had died.
The few that survived looked around with the rawest, unadulterated
bewilderment and shock that they had ever seen. They looked at the countless
littered corpses, completely dumbfounded and speechless.
They didn't even know what to do.
What should they have ought to do in such a situation?
There was nothing in the protocols on what to do if you survived a freak

branch catastrophe that annihilated your entire army.
However, the Kandrian Empire did not mess around. They had been waiting
in anticipation and tension. They had bet everything on this plan succeeding,
going so far as to allow the three countries to fight over it. The Kandrian
Empire immediately opened its gates and they deployed the offensive team
immediately. The team soon arrived at the scene, since it was that close.
All of the nations had been surveilling the war at the heart of the Serevian
Dungeon closely. It was an important war over the richest of territories with
the highest esoteric resources yield. Whichever nation of the four nations
won that war would likely 'win' the war of the Serevian Dungeon as a whole.
The Sekigahara Confederate, Republic of Gorteau, and the Britannian Empire

had thought the Kandrian Empire had simply thrown in the tower as it chose
not to send a powerful army, but instead a single Martial Apprentice. A single
Martial Apprentice who, while no doubt extremely impressive, could not
accomplish anything meaningful in a war of this scale all by himself.
Thus, one could imagine their sheer shock and bewilderment when a huge
tide of branches swept across the warzone wiping out almost all of the
military and Martial Artist assets from the entire battlefield.
Initially, they were shocked as such a catastrophe was completely outside of

any predictions of any of the nations. However, the nations weren't stupid, it
didn't take too long for the intelligence departments to gain an understanding
of what happened.
Or what they thought happened.
"The Kandrian Empire violated the Serevian Pact by bringing in a Martial

Squire!" The delegate of the Britannian Empire snapped, barely containing
his rage.
"The Sekigahara Confederate strongly supports the Britannian Empire in its

allegations of the Kandrian Empire." The delegate of the Sekigahara
Confederate coldly supported the delegate of the Britannian Empire.
"The Republic of Gorteau also chastises the Kandrian Empire for this
violation of the Serevian Pact." The delegate of the Republic of Gorteau
chipped in.
The three nations were infuriated, and an emergency diplomatic Summit had
been called for by all three of them as they applied pressure on the Kandrian
Empire.
"The Kandrian Empire vehemently denies the accusations levied by the

Sekighara Confederate, the Republic of Gorteau, and the Britannian Empire."
The delegate of the Kandrian Empire calmly stated. "The Kandrian Empire
has not violated a single clause of the Serevian Pact. The Kandrian EMpire
advises the three nations to not make defamatory allegations."
"There is irrefutable proof that the Kandrian Empire deployed a Squire-level

asset. Multiple surviving Martial Apprentices from different nations have
corroborated that the bloodlust and pressure they had experienced were in the
Squire Realm." The delegate of the Britannian Empire.
"The Kandrian Empire employed a Martial Apprentice, we do not believe

that the three nations are unfamiliar with the Martial Apprentice deployed."
The delegate of the Kandrian Empire said. "We have documented proof that
the Martial Artist deployed is a Martial Apprentice. The Kandrian Empire is
even willing to allow the other nations to verify this, under the supervision of
the Kandrian Empire, of course."
"The testimonies of the surviving Martial Apprentices of the three nations

cannot be explained by a Martial Apprentice." The delegate of the Britannian
Empire coldly retorted.
"Sure they can." The delegate of the Kandrian Empire replied casually. "The
Martial Apprentice in question is a Martial Apprentice that has mastered a
mental technique that allows the user to manipulate the pressure and danger
exuded by the user. The Martial Apprentice in question can use the technique
to exert Squire-level aura and danger. This explains why the surviving
Martial Apprentices of the battlefield report experiencing a Squire-level aura.
We have documented proof of this as well.
The delegates of the three nations remained silent at that as they furiously
thought about a valid counter to the explanation that the delegate of the
Kandrian Empire.
In reality, none of the three nations gave a damn about whether the Kandrian
Empire did or didn't break the Serevian Pact. All they wanted was an excuse
to diplomatically justify the extra retaliation from the three nations. They
were enraged by the losses they suffered and were simply looking for the best
excuse that could justify the three nations taking measures to make the
Kandrian Empire pay for their losses.
Yet, to their surprise, the Kandrian EMpire had an airtight excuse. The
nations could not simply trigger a war outside the bounds of the Serevian
Dungeon because each of the three nations had publically agreed to the
Serevian Pact that prevented them from escalating the conflict outside the
Serevian Dungeon.
If they did not have just cause in any measures for retribution they took, they
would not be able to justify even the slightest bit of retribution outside the
Serevian Dungeon.
It would violate their credibility and reputation in the international

geopolitical market. It would affect alliances, partnerships, agreements, and
trade as well. Nations would not want to engage in trade with a nation that
violated written agreements with such ease. It would jeopardize trade and
supply chains and channels that were vital to the economies of their nations.
If only the Kandrian Empire had violated the Serevian Pact, then their
responses would be justified. However, it had become exceedingly clear as
the delegate of the Kandrian Empire provided irrefutable proof in favor of its
claims, that there was no possibility of that being the case.
The Kandrian Empire had prepared extremely carefully, the strategic

department had predicted the need for proof and had already conducted
several demonstrations of several kinds that proved the truth.
"Thus, we can say with absolute certainty that the operation was carried out
by a Martial Apprentice." The delegate of the Kandrian Empire concluded,
switching off the projection. "There was no violation of the Serevian Pact, all
MArtial and military assets that the Kandrian Empire has ever deployed have
been limited to the Apprentice Realm. If there's nothing else, then this
emergency diplomatic meeting comes to an end."
The delegates of the three nations were silent, there was nothing more to be
said.
"Good day to you, ladies and gentlemen." The delegate of the Kandrian
Empire chuckled as he logged out of the call, causing them to leave silently
one by one as well.
Back in the Serevian Dungeon, the Kandrian Empire claimed the heart of the
Serevian Dungeon as it rapidly began erecting powerful fortifications around
the entire area, claiming it for itself.
Chapter 437 Next Step
The Kandrian Empire had timed the application of this strategy quite well. It
had used this tactic for the final and the most important territory in the
Serevian Dungeon so that the element of surprise would be at the highest for
the most important territory to be claimed.
The three nations did not mount a retaliatory force against the Kandrian
Empire within the Serevian Dungeon in order to reclaim the core of the
Serevian Dungeon.
Not because they chose not to, but because they couldn't, it wasn't viable.
Each of the three nations had lost a large sum of assets to the branch attack
that Rui had triggered. Their bases in the Serevian Dungeon were simply too
lacking in the military and especially Martial Artist assets needed to siege and
overrun the fortifications that the Kandrian Empire had erected around the
core of the Serevian Dungeon that they had now claimed as Kandrian
territory.
Martial Apprentices did not grow on trees. Each nation had a limited number
of Martial Apprentices. This naturally meant that each nation had a limited
number of Martial Apprentices that could be deployed to the Serevian
Dungeon.
The nations couldn't possibly deploy every single Martial Apprentice in their
Martial Artist population to the Serevian Dungeon. Each nation had estimates
of required Martial Apprentices based on different scenarios and
circumstances to fulfill different goals, as well as a thorough analysis on the
costs vs benefits of varying degrees of ambition in their Serevian Dungeon
endeavors. All of these together created hard limits to the number of Martial
Apprentices that they were willing to deploy to the Serevian Dungeon.
In order for the three nations to challenge the Kandrian Empire, they would
need to exceed the hard limit of Martial Apprentices that they were willing to
deploy in the Serevian Dungeon.
As much as they hated the Kandrian Empire for the moment, they were
unwilling to cross their limits. If they deployed any more Martial Apprentices
to the Serevian Dungeon for yet another battle, they would cross the
threshold where the net losses incurred would exceed the benefits of the
resources extracted from the core of the Serevian Dungeon.
This was how the Kandrian Empire annihilated three armies without a single
casualty and proceeded to claim the territory over which the three armies
were waging war.
Leaks of the happening leaked into international media as many people in the
local geo-political sphere that encompassed the nations in question gaped at
the shocking result.
The details were unclear and the media outlets that reported on the issue
merely reported that the Kandrian Empire had pushed back three nations over
a territorial dispute with some operation that allegedly featured a single
Martial Apprentice.
The public went wild at that report as many speculations regarding what the
operation was or who the Martial Apprentice were spurred wildly. Of course,
there were a large number of people who expressed heavy skepticism over
the news. After all, it was simply too wacky and wild to believe.
The Serevian Dungeon Wars came to an end as almost all of the resource-rich
territory had been colonized by some nation or the other. The nations
deployed enough number of defensive Martial Apprentices, while the rest of
the Martial Apprentices would be sent back home and their mission in the
Serevian Dungeon would be complete.
"Allow me to congratulate and thank you on behalf of the Kandrian Empire."

Commissioner Feristen told him. "Your contributions to this mission have
been disproportionately higher than what we would expect from a
participating Martial Apprentice. We had high expectations of you in the field
given your track record and other accomplishments. You not only exceeded
those by making a visible impact on the battlefield in every battle despite
facing active and targetted suppression, but you also brainstormed and
singlehandedly executed an operation that allowed us to annihilate all
opposition in a war over territory without a single casualty."
He took a pause. "The Martial Union is very pleased with your performance
and has decided to double your already immense earnings, as a token of our
appreciation. Should you need anything, you may turn to the Martial Union
for aid, and you will find that we are willing to make accommodations and
offer assistance that we would not extend to anybody else in your position.
We hope to see you go far down your Martial Path."
"Thank you, commissioner Feristen." Rui bowed lightly. "I'm afraid the
Martial Union has overestimated me."
"Not at all." He replied. "We're quite sincere in our appreciation of you."
The conversation proceeded blandly for a bit until commissioner Feristen

asked an important question.
"What do you plan to do from here on out?" Commissioner Feristen asked

curiously.
Rui paused for a moment as he contemplated his answer. "... I think I have
achieved Squire candidacy. The clarity I feel about the current state of my
Martial Art... Seems the last battle finally pushed me far enough to the point
that I could reach this stage."
Commissioner Feristen's eyes lit up in elation. "Incredible! That's absolutely

amazing to hear. The Martial Union will gladly aid you in the breakthrough
to the higher Realm. Have you had any thoughts on whether you want to
begin preparations for the breakthrough to the Squire Realm immediately?"
"I do want to begin them immediately." Rui nodded at his words. "I have
waited long enough. Are you aware of what the preparation entails?"
"I'm not authorized to reveal it, unfortunately." He shook his head. "The
Martial Union will first verify whether you have indeed achieved Squire
candidacy when you apply for it. Once your status as a Squire Candidate is
verified, you will be offered the Squire breakthrough process."
"How much does it cost?" Rui asked.
"Do not worry, the cost is incurred as a loan without interest even if you are
unable to pay for it." Commissioner Feristen assured. "However, with the
income you have accumulated from the Serevian Dungeon, I can't imagine
you being forced to go down that route."
Chapter 438 Plans
A large number of Martial Apprentices left the Serevian Dungeon as the cope
for conflict in that territory had gone almost completely. Each of these
Martial Apprentices was simply no longer necessary.
"What do all of you plan to do when you get back?" Rui asked.
"I plan on increasing my ability to cope against a greater number of Martial

Apprentices," Fae replied. "The Serevian Dungeon has shown me that I'm ill-
prepared to handle such circumstances, and that is quite concerning. In the
real world, it's not impossible to run into such scenarios. I might end up
perishing due to my inability to handle it."
"That's a good initiative." Rui nodded. Fae was a powerful close-quarters

palm striker. Increasing her ability to handle multiple opponents was
something she had mentioned before.
"I think I might leave the Academy," Kane replied.
Rui raised an eyebrow in surprise. Not because he didn't think Kane was
ready. Kane was incredibly powerful as he was right now, stronger than he
might have been able to deal with prior to his last training session.
However, if Kane left the Academy, he would have to return back to his
family, in all likelihood, something Kane would despise having to do.
"Are you sure?" He asked cautiously.
"I'm seriously considering it." Kane sighed. "The Academy is becoming

stuffy and suffocating, I don't want to hide in there forever."
Kane had initially entered the Martial Academy to get away from his family.
It would have been the first time he would be living outside their grasp.
However, now he was no longer satisfied by that enough for him to force
himself to remain there.
"I understand that feeling, the Martial Academy had begun to feel small and
shackling to me as well." Rui nodded. "But it's a big decision your you,
leaving the Martial Academy. Have you thought about what you want to do?"
"Well, I've become an adult legally." Kane sighed. "That alone isn't enough
for me to break away from the grasp of my family as easily, but I have also
joined the Wind Sect which is opposed to the Fire Sect that my dad and
several other prominent Martial Artists of the Arrancar family belong to."
"Wind Sect, eh? Makes sense." Rui nodded.
The Lightning Sect was the Martial Sect that was surrounded by speed and
maneuvering-oriented techniques. However, Rui wasn't surprised that Kane
had chosen to join the Wind Sect, a sub-sect of the Lightning that focused on
evasive maneuvering specifically.
"Can the Wind Sect help you?" Rui asked.
"If I'm valuable enough, it certainly can." Kane nodded in response. "But
only if I'm worth the expenditure of the political capital."
"Fortunately for you, you're a genius with a high affinity for maneuvering,
speed, and specifically evasive maneuvering techniques and stealth as well,"
Rui noted. "Which means they'll probably be willing to go far for you. Is that
your plan?"
Kane nodded. "The more I accomplish, the greater the value I am of to the
Lightning Sect, and the more and longer they will be willing to accommodate
my needs for political protection from my family."
Rui nodded. "That's a realistic and pragmatic plan. You're in no position to

resist your family as a Martial Apprentice who just barely is an adult. Your
plan gives you a reasonable way to resist."
"Yeah, that's the plan, for now." Kane sighed.
"You've thought it through, have faith in yourself." Rui nodded. "Besides,

you've got me, for what little it may be worth. I'd suggest frequently taking
long-term missions outside the Kandrian Empire."
"That makes sense. The more time I spend away from the Kandrian Empire,
the less I'm incurring from the Lightning Sect, and the less pressure I'm in.
Ironically enough, I might actually be able to more relax on foreign missions
than I might be able to in the Kandrian Empire." Kane sighed.
"You should also move to the other side of the Empire, just put as much
ground between you and your family," Rui noted.
"That won't help all that much to be honest." Kane shrugged. "Distances don't
matter to them."
"I suppose that's true."
In truth, Kane just did not want to move away because he wouldn't be able to
interact with Rui if he did. Communicating through their communicators or
accounters was just not the same, he would feel quite dull if he could not
interact with his friends physically.
Even Fae, as much as he would not admit it out loud, had grown on him in
the past three years.
"This was an incredible mission." Fiona sighed. "I'm going to be going back
to Vargard though, no big changes."
"Same here." Hever calmly replied.
"I want even bigger missions!" Nel grinned.
"Are there even bigger missions of the Apprentice grade?" Kane wondered.
"Most certainly not," Fae added. "The Serevian Dungeon mission is an

extremely rare kind of mission in so far as the scale and the difficulty went.
Even grade eight Martial Apprentice were merely barely above average in
such circumstances."
Many of the high-grade Martial Apprentices that had participated in the

Serevian Dungeon wars had forgotten that they were high-grade Martial
Apprentices that stood far above the average Martial Apprentice. It was
difficult for them to hold the opinion that they were special after having
fought in wars in the Serevian Dungeon. The mission had shown Martial
Apprentices from not just the Kandrian Empire but all nations just how small
and insignificant they were in the grand scheme of things.
There was only one Martial Apprentice that had the right to disagree with
that. Yet he didn't care about such things. He had already forgotten all about
the Serevian Dungeon as he laid his eyes on the Realm above him. He could
almost feel it await his arrival.
The time had finally come. He was quite certain that his Martial Art had
achieved a certain degree of maturity. It would not change in its shape all that
much even if he mastered several more powerful techniques.
Chapter 439 Verify
The six of them eventually split ways when they returned to the Kandrian
Empire. Fiona broke off from them first when she returned to Vargard instead
of Hajin. Rui broke off from the remaining four of them as he returned home
instead of the Martial Academy.
"RUIIII!" Alice tackled him with a hug when she saw him. "You're back!"
"Alright alright." Rui squeezed out after getting choked by her.
"You went away for more than a month!" She chided him.
"That's not unusual for missions, you know." He sighed.
He was soon swarmed by children and adults alike who inquired about him
and his mission. The Orphanage was always excited to hear about Rui's
unique experiences as a Martial Artist.
"I'd expected to see you soon when the news of the war in the Serevian
Dungeon dying down spread." Julian smiled. "I also heard the most
ridiculous tale of a single Martial Apprentice in the Kandrian Empire
singlehandedly defeating three armies all by themselves."
Rui chuckled. "Technically true, but overblown and misrepresented."
Julian's eyes widened in shock. He had expected Rui to deny the alleged
report.
"But who...?"
"Yours truly," Rui smirked playfully, yet Julian's reactions were even more
exaggerated. He knew that Rui was not someone that lied for the sake of an
ego boost. It meant that he was quite serious.
"You're picturing the wrong image." Rui waved his hand dismissively. "It's
not nearly as impressive as you think it is."
Julian's eyes scrunched in confusion at those words. "I see... You've certainly
had a colorful experience in the Serevian Dungeon, it seems."
"Indeed," Rui affirmed. "The drastic experiences I underwent in the Serevian

Dungeon have helped push my Martial Art above the threshold."
"Threshold... Surely you don't mean...?" Julian probed.
"I mean exactly that." Rui nodded. "I'm ready to break through to a higher
Realm of Martial Art."
Julian was amazed at those words. "That's incredible! Congratulations."
"Thanks, but save it for when I actually reach it." Rui chuckled. "The
breakthrough process is anything but easy and simple, as you know."
Julian cooled down at those words. "Indeed. I imagine they won't just plop
you into the breakthrough procedure when you announce your Squire
candidacy. I'm actually curious about the system that they have created for
new Squire candidates."
"As am I." Rui nodded.
"When do you intend to apply for the procedure?" Julian asked.
"As soon as I'm done with lunch," Rui replied. "Besides, I have some things
to do in preparation for the procedure as well."
"Oh? What's that?" Julian asked, curious.
"I have a technique to master," Rui said as he recalled the Mind Switch
technique.
It was a mental technique he had spotted in his last training session that he
had identified as a technique that could potentially help him in the higher
Realm. Rui had considered taking a look at that technique if and when he got
the time.
('I'll make a decision on that after the Martial Union is completely done
debriefing me regarding the Squire breakthrough process.') He noted.
He hadn't grown conceited, believing that he didn't require briefing from the
Martial union regarding the breakthrough process to the Squire Realm. After
all, although he had figured out the secret to the Squire Realm, he had only
figured out the general mechanics and principles of the process, he may as
well have been illiterate on the details.
Furthermore, the Squire breakthrough process that the Commonwealth Duchy

of Vinfrana had discovered was the most primitive and unrefined version of
the process that Rui would likely ever come across. The Kandrian Empire's
breakthrough process was likely far more refined, efficient, and effective.
He had no doubt that the Martial Union had likely dumped an obscene
amount of funding into the research and development of even marginally
better breakthrough processes that were just a touch safer than before, or just
a notch more efficient and effective. The current iteration of the breakthrough
process was something that had likely undergone decades of refinement and
improvement.
Rui was curious to learn more, it was quite likely that the process would be
dumbed down immensely to cater to Martial Artists, still, Rui hoped he could
ask questions.
He didn't want to waste any more time. That day, he immediately headed
towards the Hajin branch office of the Martial Union.
"Purpose of visit?" The security team asked him as they verified his Martial
license.
"Purchasing of growth resources," Rui replied, and soon he was on his way to
the reception.
"Hello." Rui greeted a receptionist. "I wish to apply for the breakthrough
process to the Squire Realm."
"Of course." The receptionist nodded as she punched some buttons into her
terminal device. "Name and ID please."
"Rui Quarrier." He replied as she provided her with the necessary documents.
"Before you can actually purchase the Squire breakthrough procedure, the
Martial Union will need to verify the fact that you actually are a genuine
Squire candidate. Once the fact of the matter is verified, you will gain access
to actually purchasing the breakthrough procedure or incur its cost as debt
with no interest..."
Rui simply nodded to her explanation before signing some paperwork.
"Office number forty-three in the training facility." She told him.
It hadn't taken him long to reach there.
KNOCK KNOCK
Rui knocked on the door.
"Come in." A clear and strong voice instructed him.
He hadn't even needed to enter the room in order to understand who he was
dealing with.
('Martial Squire.') He mused as he entered the room, making eye contact with
a Martial Squire that had been waiting for him.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier. I've heard a lot about you." She admitted. "Your
prowess and feats are powerful and undeniable. However, that is entirely
separate from the matter of whether or not you have fulfilled the two
conditions of Squire candidacy. I am Squire Deria, and I will be verifying
whether or not you have genuinely achieved complete Squire candidacy and
are eligible to undergo the breakthrough to the Squire Realm."
Chapter 440 Test
Rui already knew this was coming, but he didn't know the process could be
conducted by a Martial Squire.
"We will conduct an examination of you to ensure that you have indeed
fulfilled both conditions of Squire candidacy." She explained. "Once that's
happened, you will be briefed on the breakthrough to the Squire Realm and
everything about it. The mechanics and principles that allow a Martial
Apprentice to become a Martial Squire, and what it even means to be a
Martial Squire. Once the briefing is done, we'll move to the preparatory
phase, and only then will you undergo the actual breakthrough to the Squire
Realm."
"What exactly does the preparatory phase entail?" Rui asked, curious.
Squire Diera shook her head in response. "The preparatory phase will be
explained thoroughly if you have indeed fulfilled the conditions to the Squire
Realm."
"I understand." Rui nodded. "Will the examination begin immediately?"
"It will, I require you to sign this consent form before that." She explained.
"Consent form?" Rui frowned. "What for?"
"The verification examination can be mentally distressing if you are not a

Squire candidate." She explained in response.
"Distressing?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"Only if you aren't a Squire candidate." She explained. "It's not too late to
turn around. There's no shame in admitting you aren't ready, it is nothing to
be ashamed about."
"I'm quite ready." Rui signed the form after having read it.
"Good, then follow me to the examination room." She gestured to him to

follow her. "The examination requires me to test your mental fortitude by
applying a tremendous amount of mental pressure on you."
Rui's eyes lit up in interest at those words, as he processed them.
('I see.') He realized. ('The procedure allows the Martial Union to test the
mental fortitude of the Martial Apprentice in question, Squire candidates
naturally have a stronger mental fortitude thanks to the breakthroughs in the
individuality of the Martial Art in question.')
Thus, the Martial Squire would be able to weed out the wannabes from the
real deal by subjecting an immense amount of mental pressure and seeing
who cracks and who doesn't. However, that by itself did not verify that those
who didn't break under her pressure were in fact Squire candidates.
('There's probably a specific mental threshold for that as well.') Rui mused.
Mental and neurological fortitude was required to survive the breakthrough

process to the Squire Realm, as Rui had learned from the research data he had
brought back from the mission to the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.
The Martial Squire could probably test him to see if he had the required
amount of mental fortitude required to survive the process by exerting mental
pressure on him.
They traveled for a bit before they reached a separate facility. Rui was made
to sit on a chair with several contraptions and a helmet-like device wired to it,
which reminded Rui of Professor X from the X-Men series.
In the facility were several screens with images projected on him.
"Prep him for the Squire breakthrough verification process." She told a team
of a doctor and his assistants.
They made Rui sit down on the chair as various devices were hooked up to
him. If Rui had to guess, they allowed the team to gain a lot of data on his
metabolic data. Rui guessed this would aid in the verification of whether he
had fulfilled the first condition of Squire candidacy.
"Bite down on this at all times." One of the assistants instructed him as she
placed a bite guard in his mouth.
('They're taking some precautions alright.') Rui frowned. He was even

strapped to the seat tightly, which were some ridiculous measures for a
simple verification examination.
"Is all of this really necessary?" He asked Squire Deria through his bide
guard.
"As I said earlier." She replied. "The examination can cause distress in the
applicants of the examination."
Rui raised his eyebrow in surprise. This was one of the most rigorous
verifications he had been through. Soon, the medical team left the entire
facility, leaving him and the Martial Squire alone.
Rui felt awkward.
But the emotion went away as a profound sense of danger erupted within him
with Primordial Instinct. The sensation rippled through him as he recognized
the feeling.
('This is similar to when Squire Dylon was serious against me for a moment.')
Rui felt his nerves tingling sharply. Primordial Instinct screamed in fear as it
gnawed at Rui's self-control wanting to force the body into a panicked state
of fight or flight mode.
Her eyebrows narrowed as the pressure mounted increasingly on him. Yet to

her surprise, he didn't grimace or wince or break down in fear. He maintained
his calm and composure despite the heavy pressure that she exerted on him.
He met her gaze with a measured gaze.
('Interesting...') She mused. It certainly proved he was not simply lying about
the first condition to Squire candidacy, otherwise, he would not have lasted
this long. Yet it was the manner in which he prevailed against the pressure
that she was exerting on her. She had never seen a Martial Apprentice
withstand the degree of pressure that she was currently extending, she had
already exceeded the bounds of pressure that any normal Martial Apprentice
could possibly exert.
Barring Rui, of course.
She grew absorbed as she tried to gain an accurate and precise measure of his
mental fortitude. The pressure she mounted on him would have incapacitated
him by now. Rui had already previously witnessed an aura in the Squire
Realm freezing his friends in shock and fear, he didn't think he would be
nearly that easy. Yet, he was able to withstand it. At some point she even
began exerting tinges of her bloodlust in the weight that she exerted onto Rui,
however, she was unable to push him over the limit. Rui had grimaced from
time to time as he withstood everything she threw him with and more. He
relied purely on mental fortitude, not even certain mental techniques that may
have aided him on the matter after all.
Chapter 441 Interrogation
In the middle of that ordeal, she threw him a simple question.
"Have you fulfilled the two conditions of Squire candidacy?" She asked him
straightforwardly.
"I have," Rui truthfully answered. She peered at his reactions with her sharp
eyes, discerning every detail. Rui felt transparent, for the first time.
"Tell me about your Martial Art and your Martial Path."
Rui paused for a moment as he contemplated his answer.
What could he even say on the spot to such a request?
"My Martial Path is adaptive evolution. My Martial Art allows me to adapt

my combat style and all of my movements to suit my opponent's, Martial
Art." He replied, pausing before continuing. "In its most ideal state, I would
be able to adapt to any form of opposition of any kind in combat. However,
unfortunately, I'm far away from achieving that goal. I have yet to develop
solutions against many fields of Martial Art, several domains and different
kinds of opponents as well."
"An ambitious goal, no doubt." She commented. "How do you hope to go

about it?"
Rui paused. This alone was more than he would tell most people, but this was
clearly part of the test. "By expanding the diversity of my capabilities. Every
Martial Art has a unique solution, the greater the diversity of my capability,
the greater the number of Martial Art I can adapt to."
He didn't mention adapting the VOID algorithm to the world of Gaia,

although it was relevant. It was difficult to explain the VOID algorithm to
people of this world, let alone explain its flaws. He couldn't very well tell her
that the VOID algorithm was a relic from a different world that was limited to
the previous and needed to be adapted adequately to suit this world.
"I see..." She appeared deep in thought. "That will take a long time to
achieve."
"Most likely," Rui admitted. "Yet, I intend to see it through to the very end."
"That's quite admirable of you." She replied. "Do you remember the moment
you felt the maturation of your Martial Art?"
"Vividly." Rui nodded. "It was like time slowed down, and an immense wave
of clarity washed over me. I felt ready to step into a higher Realm of power."
"When did the moment happen?" She asked.
"Very recently, a few days ago," Rui replied. "It happened in the middle of
combat. I had been beset by targeted attacks from ten Martial Artists across
three nations on the battlefield. The situation was dire and I had been pushed
to my very limit. For a moment there I had been forced to use all of my
Martial Art, every maneuvering technique, every supplementary technique,
every offensive, and defensive technique. It was at that moment that I had an
epiphany."
"Are you ready for a higher Realm of power?" She asked him.
Rui paused for a moment. "As ready as I'll ever be."
She stared at him.
Suddenly, the pressure she exerted on him was gone.
"Okay, that concludes the test." She nodded. "In my evaluation as a mind-
sensory Martial Squire, you are indeed qualified to undergo the breakthrough
to the Squire Realm."
"'Mind sensory Martial Squire?'" Rui echoed with raised eyes.

"It's a very niche field, an overlap of the sensory Martial Art techniques and
mental techniques." She explained. "It allows me to peer into the mind of my
target to a certain degree. Most applications of my Martial Art are purely
combat-oriented. But it is quite useful in circumstances like these, where the
state of a Martial Apprentices mind is required to be verified by a credible
and reliable source."
"So you verified that I am a Squire candidate through those techniques?" Rui
asked, incredulous.
She nodded. "Indeed. I verified that you have the mental fortitude to at the
very least not be guaranteed to die to the procedure due to being too weak.
Furthermore, I have verified the stability of your Martial Path as well as the
sincerity of your recounts."
Rui's eyes rose up in interest. He had never seen a mind-sensory Martial

Squire before. It was a fascinating concept to him.
He wondered if he could master some mind-sensory techniques. Although he

had no affinity for sensory techniques, he certainly did have some affinity for
mental techniques. Surely that meant he would have a certain degree of
affinity to an overlap of mental techniques and sensory techniques, right?
Squire Deria had mentioned most of the applications of her Martial Art were
meant for combat. He wondered what that would actually look like in
practice. He wasn't entirely sure, but he had a few guesses regarding what she
meant.
For example, he would be quite surprised if there weren't techniques that

allowed the user to sense the intentions of their opponent, one way or
another. Although such a technique would undoubtedly be extremely high-
grade. He would expect there to be a technique that allowed the user to sense
the weaknesses of their opponent via a mind-sensing technique. There
probably were techniques that allowed the user to sense the kind of Martial
Art their opponent had.
Of course, this was all merely conjecture, but these were the kinds of
techniques he pictured when he thought about mental sensory techniques.
('I'll definitely have to look into this intersecting specialty when I become a
Martial Squire.') Rui mused.
He instinctively felt that there probably was something that would aid his
Martial Art significantly. After all, the mental sensory technique was a niche
field that allowed the user to gain information about their opponent in a very
unique and special way. Considering the fact that his Martial Art heavily
relied upon gathering information about his opponent, it was quite likely
there was something that could at the very least supplement his information-
gathering ability on his opponent. He would be quite surprised if there wasn't
a technique that could aid in the creation of the predictive model or the
execution of the predictive model to predict the movements of his opponent.
Chapter 442 Briefing
"So, is the examination complete?" Rui asked.
"The analyst team will be cross-referencing my results with the data gathered
by all the sensors." She replied. "They aren't just for show. However, those
are only extra precautions that the Martial Union is taking to make sure
beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are a Squire candidate."
"What follows from here?" Rui asked.
"Once they have verified your status as a Squire candidate, the actual briefing
on the process will begin." She explained. "Once that's done, you will need to
go through a few procedures that are necessary for the breakthrough to the
Squire Realm."
"How long will the verification of my status as a Squire candidate take?" Rui
wondered, curious.
"Should be done within a day." She replied. "I need to file a report regarding
my examination of you, the analytics department will verify my evaluation
along with the data the sensors gathered on you. Together, the truth will
become irrefutably clear. The Martial Union will contact you when the results
have been evaluated."
"Alright." Rui nodded.
He bade her farewell and returned to the Quarrier Orphanage, waiting

patiently with high expectations. Sure enough, as Squire Deira told him, the
Martial Union messaged him several hours within the day.
[Apprentice Rui Quarrier,

We write to inform you that the evaluation of your Squire candidacy
examination has been completed. You have successfully passed and are now
officially acknowledged as a Squire candidate. Your application for the
breakthrough procedure to the Squire Realm has been processed and
accepted. You may debrief yourself at the Hajin branch office of the Martial
Union by an official at a time of your convenience.
Regards,
The Martial Union]
Rui didn't even hesitate.
He immediately returned to the Martial Union.
"Excuse me." He addressed one of the receptionists. "I received a message

from the Martial Union stating that I was evaluated as a Squire candidate, and
thus I could apply for being debriefed on the breakthrough process to the
Squire Realm. I would like to proceed with that."
"That is correct." She said. "You can undergo a briefing session if you have
been accepted as a Squire candidate and have applied for the breakthrough
process to the Squire Realm. May I have your Martial license?"
She plucked the card from Rui as she ran the details through her terminal.
"You have indeed been evaluated to be a Squire candidate. Please wait while
I make the arrangements for the briefing session."
Rui nodded.
Surprisingly, it didn't take them long at all.
"Apprentice Quarrier? The preparations for the briefing session have been
made. Please head to presentation room thirty-eight. You will be met with a
support staff member who will explain the process to you."
Thankfully, it didn't take much time until he got there, despite the size of the
branch office of the Martial Union.
What he didn't expect was a Martial Squire waiting for him instead of the
promised support staff member when he entered the room.
His presence was loud and eye-drawing. He did his best to restrict and halt
his aura, yet Rui's keen senses and powerful mind instantly discerned his
identity.
"Apprentice Quarrier." He said. "You have arrived. Let us begin

immediately. I am Squire Gunther, and I have taken the liberty of handling
your briefing myself when I received the notification that you were to be
briefed on the breakthrough procedure to the Squire Realm."
Soon, Rui found himself seated at the front row of a desk as the Martial
Squire finished loading up the projector.
Rui wasn't a fool. The fact that a Martial Squire had shown up for a simple
briefing session was not random. It was a sign that demonstrated the value
that the Martial Union put in Rui. Otherwise, it was inconceivable that a
Martial Squire would go out of their way to provide a service that would
otherwise be handled by ordinary support staff.
Still, he almost wished that he had gotten ordinary treatment, it was a little
burdening and shackling having a Martial Squire to do this.
"The breakthrough to the Squire Realm, as you have realized by now, is not a
natural spontaneous phenomenon that occurs to a Martial Apprentice. Unlike
the discovery of the Martial Path, the breakthrough to the Squire Realm is
entirely man-made." He explained.
Rui nodded, acting surprised and intrigued. He had expected to hear a lot of
the same old stuff, yet he added something that made him knit his eyes in
confusion.
"The breakthrough to each Realm requires the discovery of an important part

of every Martial Path. The breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm requires the
discovery of the Martial Path." She told him. "However, the breakthrough to
the Squire Realm requires the discovery of the Martial body."
Rui's eyes lit up in interest at those words. ('The discovery of the Martial
body... So that's how they've chosen to frame it?')
"The discovery of the Martial body...?" He probed.
"The Martial body is the body that Martial Squires acquire from the
breakthrough process. It is effectively a brand-new body with superhuman
physical prowess. One that is catered to suit your Martial Art and your
Martial Path."
He began explaining the mechanisms and principles of the breakthrough to

the Squire Realm.
Rui oohed and aahed as he did his best to appear surprised and shocked. He
also threw in a fair bit of confusion, after all, he was supposed to be a Martial
Artist in a world with an already poor scientific background.
"The details, frankly, don't matter." He waved his hand. "No Martial Artist
truly understands the core of the science behind the breakthrough."
"Truly fascinating." Rui nodded. He probably understood the principles

behind the breakthrough better than anyone else in the world did.
"All you truly need to know is that the procedure evolves your body, but
there will still be a possibility of death, and a guaranteed tremendous amount
of suffering." He explained. "The effectivity of pain-reliving medication and
drugs is non-existent. You will need to bear the pain."
Chapter 443 Configuration
"How high of a risk is death?" Rui asked.
He had previously been under the impression that becoming a Squire

candidate got rid of all the risks of the procedure.
"Not insignificant, that's for sure." He sighed.
"I thought the point of the first condition of Squire candidacy was to ensure
that the subject survived the procedure." Rui probed.
"The first condition of Squire candidacy is the bare minimum to ensure you
won't automatically die due to brain death due to the procedure." He
explained. "There is no way to guarantee the absolute success of the
procedure, not without extraordinarily high-grade potions and things of that
nature. Certainly things beyond your reach as a Martial Apprentice."
"I see..." Rui pondered deep in thought.
"Each Martial body is usually perfectly tailored to suit the Martial Apprentice
and their Martial Art and Martial Path of the Martial Apprentice in question."
He told Rui. "We do this by allowing the user to experience a taste of what
the Squire Realm is like through certain hallucinogens and hypnosis
techniques."
"What?" Rui's eyes widened in surprise. "I need to be drugged and

hypnotized in order for me to discover my Martial body?"
Squire Gunther nodded. "The goal is to figure out exactly what kind of
Martial Art body is best suited to your Martial Art and your Martial Path.
There is an endless kind of bodies that can be forged by adjusting the process
and changing several parts of it. It is possible to obtain a heavy body with
high muscular and bone mass relative to net body mass. It is possible to
obtain a light nimble body that places weight on speed, agility, and mobility
at the expense of power and durability. It is possible for the procedure to be
adjusted such that the Martial body obtained is a perfect all-rounder."
The biggest problem in such a case was figuring out the most optimal
configuration and balance for each particular Squire candidate in question. If
the wrong configuration was applied, then the Martial Path of the Martial
Artist in question would forever be ruined by a Martial body that conflicts
with their Martial Path.
That was why the Martial Union had invested an immense amount of
research and development funding into this matter so that Martial Artists had
a more reliable and less risky route of breaking into the Squire Realm.
The most effective solution in the modern era was the process of mental
induction by a combination of hallucinogens and hypnosis.
It wasn't easy to hypnotize a Martial Apprentice, least of all Rui. The

hallucinogens reduced the resistance and made it easier to exercise
imagination, all it did was require a powerful suggestion to allow the user to
imagine exactly what it was like to possess a different body.
It was this out-of-world experience that worried the authorities of most

nations had resulted in the plan to simply ban all of the relevant
hallucinogens.
However, it was quite useful in allowing the Martial Apprentices to

experience the hallucinogen with realistic Martial bodies before the actual
breakthrough procedure. This was effectively highly altered experiences of
reality that were often bad, but often could be useful when used correctly.
"Are the effects of the drugs and hypnosis harmless and temporary?" Rui
asked sternly.
His mind was extraordinarily important to him, more so than any other part
of his body, he would watch his own body get annihilated before he allowed
something to happen to his mind.
"The procedure is harmless with no permanent influence on the body." He
reassured.
Rui stared at him with stern eyes. "I have the Mindmirror Symbiote in my
head, does that change anything at all?"
"Not at all." Squire Gunther replied "The procedure is verifiably for all kinds
of Martial Art and Martial Path. It is a perfectly harmless procedure that does
not negatively impact symbiotes in the body."
Rui looked unconvinced. "So what exactly are my tasks to do in this

maelstrom of drugs and hypnosis?"
"Your goal is to experience the hallucinogenated state as well as the highly

accurate and precise images and sensations of a completely different body"
he explained. "Once you have locked down a general type of Martial body
that you are looking for, your job is to narrow down the precise and exact
kind of Martial body that clicks with you and your Martial Art. Once you
have done that, your initial goal will be quite complete."
"So... I'm just going to have to take some amount of drugs and be hypnotized
in order to discover my Martial Art?" Rui asked.
"Well, not just some, but a fair amount is." He replied. "The worst part is not
having as much agency as you'd like, it can be pushy on them. The drugs and
hypnosis are absolutely necessary, furthermore, the value they provide
exceeds any potential demerit that comes with them."
"So, how do I figure out whether a particular configuration is my particular

Martial body or not?" Rui asked, testing him.
"Mostly by gaining experience with that particular configuration of physical

parameters." He replied. "You'll know when you've run into the perfect body
that suits you to the T."
"What happens if I don't find the ideal physical parametric configuration?"

Rui asked.
"There exists a unique configuration of unique parameters for every Martial
Apprentice." He reassured him. "All it takes is some amount of time and
energy and dedication. However, when you hit the unique configurations of
physical, you'll know for sure, and personally, it is an incredibly eye-opening
experience."
"Once I've discovered my Martial body," Rui added. "How much time will it
take before I'm ready for the actual procedure?"
"That depends on how complicated the kind of Martial body in question is, A
strange and more exotic kind of Martial body to suit rare techniques is quite
unusual, and is usually much harder to be able to replicate in reality.
Depending on how strange or esoteric that is, it is something that can take
some time for the Martial Union to fully figure out.
Chapter 444 Fortunate
"Hallucinogens and hypnosis, huh?" Rui murmured.
It seemed extreme at first, however, it made sense. It was very difficult to

figure out the most optimal Martial body as far as the configuration of
physical parameters went without something like this. How else could Rui
personally experience a particular kind of Martial body?
The only other viable possibility was some kind of temporary-enhancement

potion that enhanced his body in one particular kind of way that would allow
him to experience a particular kind of body for him to decide whether or not
he was compatible with that kind of body or not.
However, this was an incredibly expensive and wasteful solution.

Temporary-enhancement potions were military assets that allowed ordinary
trained humans to keep up with Martial Artists. They were not resources that
could be splurged on training.
Hallucinogens and hypnosis techniques were much more pragmatic solutions

to the problem.
They allowed Rui to experience various configurations of physical

parameters inside a hypnotized hallucination. If he wanted, he could try out a
power-defense configuration where his body was extremely big and muscular
possessing great power and defense at the cost of speed. Or a speed-mobility
configuration where his body was light and nimble, sacrificing power and
durability for speed, agility, and mobility.
All inside his head.
"Alright." Rui nodded. "I understand."

"The discovery of the Martial body requires experiencing all kinds of Martial
bodies, but the Martial Union has perfected the way of narrowing down on
the ideal body for you. We begin by subjecting you to the configurations
suited for every primary field. You will experience a Martial body suited for
power, defense, speed, striking, grappling, and so on and so forth. Of the
many basic templates, you can zero in on the types of body that suited you
the most when you experienced them in the hallucination. From there will
begin a process of adjustment. The bodies that you expressed compatibility
with will be continuously adjusted with repeated refining until we hit the
most optimal configuration suited for you." He explained.
"And that would bring us to the final procedure?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
Squire Gunther nodded in response. "The Martial Union will document the
particular body that you experienced optimal compatibility with and will then
devise a procedure in order to create an identical Martial body when you
undergo the breakthrough to the Squire Realm."
"The procedure needs to be devised from scratch?" Rui asked.
Squire Gunther nodded in response. "Because the Martial body of each

Martial Squire is unique, a unique procedure is required to achieve each of
them. The procedure needs to be customized perfectly for you so that when
you become a Martial Squire after the evolution procedure, your Martial
body will be perfectly suited to you."
As Rui had expected, the Martial Union's breakthrough procedure to the

Squire Realm was much more elaborate than the Commonwealth Duchy of
Vinfrana.
The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana hadn't yet even conceived of the

concept of customized evolution processes.
These processes were alterable and customizable because the evolution

procedure worked by subjecting the Martial Apprentice to various procedures
that caused cell death, round after round. The surviving cells would pass on
the genes that allowed them to survive the procedure in the first place and the
next generation of cells would be superior. That was how the evolution
process functioned.
However, the degree to which the filtration processes caused cell death could
be manipulated. A particular process that caused evolution to the toughness
of the body could be reduced in exchange for increasing a particular process
that increased speed, resulting in a faster, but more fragile body. A particular
process that evolved agility could be reduced for a particular process that
evolved power, resulting in a slower but stronger body.
By increasing and reducing the timeframe of these procedures, different kinds

of Martial bodies could be produced.
The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana had only just very recently stumbled
upon the secret to the Squire Realm. They had not yet devised a system that
allowed each Martial Apprentice to obtain the perfect body when they broke
through to the Squire Realm.
('Man, I'm so glad I'm born in the Kandrian Empire.') Rui sighed in relief.
Had he been born in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana, he would have

had to deal with inferior Squire breakthrough processes, however, that wasn't
the worst part. The worst part was he would have had to deal with being
given a body that doesn't align with his Martial Art and Martial Path.
Squire Caella Freelia, the successful Squire subject that the research facility
had created, was supposed to be a defensive Martial Artist, yet her body was
not aligned with that because the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana had not
yet conceived of the idea of customized and personalized Martial bodies.
Her Martial Path was inadvertently ruined because of the inadequacy of the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana. In comparison, The Kandrian Martial
Union had a strong foundation in that regard. Going so far as to develop
procedures centered around hallucinogens and hypnosis techniques in order
to make the very absolute best of the breakthrough to the Squire Realm. He
was absolutely certain that the filtration processes that caused the evolution to
occur over time were also likely to be far more effective and efficient, given
the fact that the Martial Union had doubtlessly invested an immense amount
of research into the matter.
After all, the quality of the breakthrough procedure to the Squire Realm
decided the quality of not just Martial Squires but also the quality of Martial
Artists of the higher Realms. It had already been made clear that the
breakthrough to the Squire Realm was not something that could be undone or
reversed, any flaws and shortcomings would bear down on the Martial Artist
for the rest of their life. In a way, he had done a favor to Squire Caella, he
would rather die than live with a ruined Martial Path.
Rui glanced at Squire Gunther.
"When can we begin the process?"

"Immediately, if you so wish." He replied. "Finding the right Martial body is

something that requires time and exploration."
"How much time?" Rui asked, curious.
"Oh, it can vary wildly." He replied simply. "I think the minimum it has ever
taken was a few days, and the maximum it took was a few months."
"A few months?" Rui frowned.
"Yes, we were dealing with a very fussy and indecisive Martial Apprentice."
Squire Gunther nodded. "Lot of it depends on how much clarity you have
with how you want your Martial Art to look at the end of your Martial Path.
Usually, Squire candidates have very high clarity on exactly what is needed."
"I see." Rui absorbed the information he provided. "Can we begin the process
right now then? I do not wish to waste any time before heading to the
matter."
"Alright." He nodded. "The preparations have already been made. I won't be

conducting the procedure, of course. It's a mostly medical procedure."
"A team is already prepared?" Rui's eyebrow rose. "That was remarkably
quick. Wouldn't these things need to be booked days in advance?"
"It was." Squire Gunther sheepishly admitted. "The Martial Union expedited
the process so that there would be as few delays as possible, back when you
informed commissioner Feristen of your status as a Squire candidate."
Rui's eyebrow rose even higher. To think the Martial Union had gone this far
the second he had off-handedly made that comment to commissioner Feristen
after the Serevian Dungeon mission ended.
It was yet another reflection of how valuable he was to the Martial Union.
Of course, in hindsight, it was to be expected.
Rui's contributions to the Serevian Dungeon mission were beyond ridiculous.

Furthermore, he had made major contributions to a mission that was of great
importance to the Martial Union, making his feat all the more impactful on
the relationship between himself and the Martial Union.
Commissioner Feristen had already informed him that he could basically ask
for a favor from the Martial Union and they would help him out, within
reason, of course. Rui still hadn't figured out what he would use the favor for.
But frankly, there was no real hurry.
It was a valuable one-time opportunity, he ought to use it for something

important, significant, and something only the Martial Union could do.
That instantly disqualified all of his ideas. He had initially considered

requesting the Martial Union for waiving his loan, however, he quickly
dismissed it as a stupid idea. His income was tremendous as a Martial
Apprentice, and although his loan was by no means little, it was static
because there was no interest.
Meaning, he would absolutely repay his loan. There was no doubt about that.
In that case, there was no point in wasting the favor on something that he was
very confident of being able to accomplish by himself.
Was it worth using it on obtaining techniques?
Rui shook his head. Techniques could be purchased, unless it was some
confidential technique, there was no point in wasting something that could
straightforwardly be purchased.
('Besides, if I'm not wrong, from this point on, techniques are going to be
increasingly less purchased and increasingly more developed instead.') Rui
mused.
Although there were Squire-level techniques, things weren't nearly the same
as it currently was with Apprentice-level techniques.
For one, every Martial Squire had a unique body. Meaning it was impossible
for Squire-level techniques to be able to be universally applicable to each
Martial Squire.
Furthermore, it was quite likely that no Squire-level technique as they were

sold was completely compatible with every Martial Squire.
He recalled when Squire Dylon had told him there existed Squire-level
versions of Apprentice-level techniques. He had taken it at face value back
then, but of course, there was likely much more nuance to it than he had
expected back then. Nuance Squire Dylon had chosen not to reveal because
the breakthrough to the Squire Realm was still a secret from him back then.
The deeper down one's Martial Path one went down, the greater the
individuality the Martial Art would possess, and the greater the individuality
needed to make any progress down one's Martial Path. That was the reason
that Rui
However, if it was true that purchasing and mastering Squire-level techniques

was far more difficult and less viable, then it was even more unlikely that he
would waste the favor on a technique.
He certainly didn't need it for the breakthrough to the Squire Realm either,
since he could freely purchase it.
He couldn't really think of any favor he wanted that was important and also
something that could only be completed with the help of the Martial Union.
Thus far, he had led a relatively simple and normal life as far as Martial
Artists went.
('Whatever.') He shook his head. ('I'll leave the matter for another day.')
It was best left for a rainy day when he would genuinely need the Martial
Union's help over a matter with high stakes. He did not want to lose
something important because he had already squandered his one-time favor
on something unimportant.
"The preparations for the explorative process are complete." Squire Gunther
nodded, interrupting Rui's reverie. "You will be notified and guided to the
procedure room when it is time, which should be soon."
He turned to face Rui. "That brings us to the end of the briefing session.
Goodbye, Apprentice Quarrier. I bid you a successful breakthrough to the
Squire Realm."
"Thank you, Squire Gunther." Rui bowed as he expressed gratitude and

respect to a Martial Artist of a higher Realm. A Realm that he hoped to be a
part of soon.
Rui simply waited in the presentation room once Squire Gunther had left,
waiting for the promised explorative process that would allow him to figure
out the most optimal Martial body suited to him.
Before long, as promised, he received a message on his accounter as he was

instructed to go to a particular operating room in question.
"Apprentice Quarrier." A doctor greeted him when he reached the designated

room for the procedure to occur. "We've been expecting you. I am Doctor
Herin. I will be overlooking the administration of the hallucinogens that you
will be undergoing during the procedure."
"Pleasure to meet you, doctor. Will you be overlooking the procedure as a

whole?" Rui asked.
"That would be me." A voice addressed him from behind, entering the room.
Rui didn't even need to turn to recognize the presence of the Martial Squire.
"I am Squire Luna." The old woman told him. "I will be overlooking the
actual explorative procedure."
Accompanied her was a Martial Apprentice. Rui wasn't sure what his
presence here was for, but he didn't question it.
"Pleasure to meet you." Rui greeted. "When can we begin the procedure?"
"Immediately." She replied, gesturing at a medical bed. "Lie down there."
"A few tests will be conducted to make sure you are fit for the procedure."
Doctor Herin explained. "We will be subjecting you to hallucinogens, after
all. It won't take much time at all, however."
"I understand," Rui nodded, as an interesting thought came to mind. "Do

Martial Apprentices require an increased dosage of hallucinogens for them to
be effective?"
He hadn't considered the possibility before, however, it was quite plausible.

The brains of a Martial Apprentice were quite resilient in many ways, it was
quite reasonable that this resilience extended to resistance influence of drugs
such as hallucinogens.
"They do, actually." He replied. "We're giving you an increased dosage to

achieve the desired level of influence, compared to normal humans."
This made sense, raising the dosage would definitely be needed if Martial
Apprentices were indeed more resilient towards it.
"How do you know the exact dosage needed for me, in particular?" Rui
asked.
Even if Martial Apprentices were more resilient, surely different Martial

Apprentices had different degrees of resilience, which would then lead to
different dosages needed for each of them.
"We have prepared the correct amount of dosage from the reports of your
verification examination." The doctor explained patiently. "The data from the
reports of your verification examination give us all the necessary information
to accurately and precisely estimate the necessary amount of hallucinogens."
Rui's eyes lit up in interest as he pondered the implications of those words.

This meant that from the data that verified that he had fulfilled both
conditions of Squire candidacy, his resilience towards these drugs could be
accurately estimated.
Squire Deira's report was likely to be too vague to provide them with
something that specific. This led Rui to suspect that the metabolic data on
him that had been acquired during the procedure was likely what allowed
them to estimate the correct dosages.
He found it quite unlikely that the maturity of his Martial Art, which did not
have a bearing on the state and nature of his mind, would be correlated with
resilience. Thus, that meant that they must have used the data they had on
him from the verification of the completion of the first condition of Squire
candidacy.
The doctor proceeded to draw some blood, something that hadn't been done
in the verification exam.
"It will take just a little time before the tests will be completed, you may, of
course, leave and return, however, It is advised you wait," he explained
friendlily.
Fortunately, the doctor was true to his word. The results of the test came back
remarkably swiftly.
"There are no problems with the result, we are free to begin." The doctor
confirmed as several nurses, as well as the Martial Squire and Apprentice
gathered around.
Rui's limbs, neck, and head were locked in place.
"Are there any issues by having a Mindmirror Symbiote in this procedure?"

Rui asked.
The Mindmirror Symbiote did not amplify his general base intelligence or
capacities in any natural way. It could only aid the user in any way if the
Mindmirror Symbiote is mentally embedded with the neurological processes
of the particular task that the user wants augmented.
However, that only included neurological phenomena. Resistance to

hallucinogens was not something that fell under neurological phenomena.
"The Mindmirror brain will come in contact with the hallucinogen, naturally,
through your bloodstream. However, it's not conscious and cannot be a victim
of hallucinogens, it simply is utterly incapable of falling for the hallucinogens
and hypnosis." He explained. "After all, it does not possess a consciousness
of its own."
"I see..." Rui digested the information. "Does the presence of the Mindmirror
Symbiote interfere with the process?"
"Not at all, thankfully." The doctor sighed. "Alright, we will begin this
process soon."
At those words, the Martial Apprentice arrived in front of him.
A breathing apparatus was immediately adjusted to his face, as the nurses

strapped it to his head from behind.
"Once the hallucinogens are administered, the hypnosis will be immediately

administered as well. Hypnosis is the means by which we control what you
see in your hallucinations, allowing us to allow you to exist in several
different bodies." The doctor explained.
Once that happened, Rui would get to experience different kinds of Martial
bodies that he could potentially have. At his current stage, he was merely
supposed to test and experiment with different bodies.
"Ah, you probably have been told prior, but remember." The doctor
explained. "The flow of time inside your hallucinations under the influence of
hallucinogens and hypnosis will be significantly slower than it normally is in
real life. Meaning, you'll have plenty of time inside your own world to seek
the Martial body that will become the body you'll have as a Martial Squire
and for the higher Realms as well above."
"Above all." The Martial Squire interjected. "Be sure to be true to your true
to your Martial Path, as long as you do this, Apprentice Rui Quarrier, you
cannot go astray."
"Thank you for your encouragement." Rui nodded. "I'm ready. Please begin
the process."
Suddenly, the sound of gas releasing hit them as Rui inhaled the
hallucinogens.
The world went dark.

Chapter 447 Clash
"The hallucinogens have been administered." Doctor Herin nodded. "Subject

is under the influence of the drugs."
"Begin." Squire Luna turned to the Martial Apprentice who had accompanied
her.
"Yes, Squire Luna." He nodded as he walked over to beside Rui, kneeling

down. He brought his mouth close to Rui's ear as he began whispering
inaudibly.
It was an auditory hypnotic technique that manipulated the target's mind to

alter their perception to a certain degree. Normally, it was something that was
very partial in nature, however, due to the fact that Rui was already in a drug-
induced hallucination, the technique worked entirely, allowing the Martial
Apprentice to manipulate Rui's perception of not just the world, but himself.
('Woah.') The pitch-black world turned white as Rui fell to hard ground.
As Rui tried to get up, he noticed something extremely strange.
('I'm heavy...') He glanced at his arms. His eyes widened as he realized he

was extremely muscular. His muscles bulged exaggeratedly, as though they
were trying to break out of his body.
('Huh...') He tried getting up, almost falling over due to a lack of familiarity
with his body. Yet, he realized it didn't feel as alien as he had expected.
('Partly because this is inside my imagination, but also because it is still based
on my memory of my body.') He mused.
It was the perfect way to test his compatibility with various kinds of bodies.
('As planned, the first Martial body configuration is a heavy-weight power
and durability oriented Martial body that sacrifices speed.') He noted as he
tried moving his arm around.
('I'm so ridiculously slow.') He groaned mentally, as he swung a few strikes,

trying to gauge how the body actually performed.
His agility and speed were painful. He felt like a lumbering sloth compared to
his actual body.
('Man, how the fuck do heavier Martial Artists deal with being this slow?')
He groaned inwardly. ('This is criminal!')
Suddenly, a figure appeared before him.
It was a spitting image of his actual self.
This was something that Rui had been informed about ahead of time, so he
wasn't too surprised. However, he undeniably felt a sense of deja-vu.
('Didn't I go through something similar during the Mindmirror implantation

procedure?') He recalled fighting himself back then, during that procedure as
well.
Suddenly, his figure rushed towards himself with remarkable speed and
agility. Yet Rui had expected that as well. He had already been informed
about the details in the briefing session. The point of the procedure was to
test how compatible a given Martial body was with his Martial Art compared
to his current body.
Of course, Rui did not actually have any expectations that he would perform
well with a heavy power-oriented and durability-oriented body. Yet, this was
part of the standard procedure so he couldn't help but bear it.
He was already sure that his Martial body would be some configuration that
would fall into the all-rounder category, however, he was required to test out
Martial bodies of various kinds regardless, just to be sure.
BAM!
Rui barely managed to move his slow heavy body as he conjured up a guard,
blocking the straight punch that his clone had thrown at him.
His clone had attacked with one of its most powerful attacks; the Flowing
Canon. The attack was further boosted with Outer Convergence and Flame
Breathing as far as power went, furthermore, the blow had been empowered
by the momentum built up with Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction, and Wind
Breathing. Furthermore, the impact had been permeated with the help of
It was a devastating attack that when landed was extremely difficult to defend
against.
Ordinarily, had Rui faced such an attack himself, he would have chosen to
evade it rather than withstand it head-on. However, in his heavy and slow
body, it was impossible for him to evade anything. He gritted his teeth as he
used Inner Divergence, Acute Edge, and Elastic Shift to mitigate the damage
of the attack. The Adamant Reforging seemed to have been retained even in
the new Martial body that he currently had.
He skidded back a bit, surprised. The damage had been far less than he had
expected. The raw durability was far greater than that of his actual body,
allowing him to withstand an immense amount of punishment.
His clone began aggressively pummeling him with attacks. Rui immediately
had to adjust his strategy, he aimed for a tight defense that required minimal
movement in order to counter fake Rui's attacks.
However, that crippled his offense and gave fake Rui an immense amount of
leeway, the latter's combat style grew more and more offensive as there was
less the latter had to fear. Rui was at a disadvantage since his maneuvering
techniques were basically useless, he had to try and stick with his offensive
and defensive techniques whereas fake Rui was using everything in his
arsenal.
('Almost everything.') Rui suddenly noted as he made an astute observation.

('He's not using the VOID algorithm... Not the predictive or the adaptive-
evolution model.')
This told him a lot about the nature of the hallucination and the hypnosis. The
fake Rui was clearly using his techniques, which meant that the hallucination
being generated did tap into his mind for information on his Martial Art to a
certain extent. However, the fact that his clone was not using the VOID
algorithm, meant that the hallucination could not replicate the mental
processes he engaged in when he fought.
The VOID algorithm was one such thing. Its requirement to actively gather
and process information likely made it impossible for it to be replicated in a
hallucination. This was quite distinct from the Mindmirror implantation
process where the clone he faced mentally was able to replicate the VOID
algorithm in combat against him.
('I'm at a disadvantage in so far as the compatibility of my body with my

Martial Art is, but the fact that I can use the VOID algorithm and my
hallucinated clone can't is more than enough of an advantage.') Rui grinned.
Chapter 448 Outcome
POW POW POW!
Fake Rui launched a barrage of swift jabs at Rui. The latter merely blocked
them with a guard. With his current unnecessarily high defensive prowess, he
needed much less effort in order to defend against other attacks effectively.
This made defense more convenient, however, Rui still hated every moment
of it.
He hated his lack of flexibility, both physically and tactically. He had no

leeway to evade, he needed to defend every strike even though they weren't
always the optimal move had he still had his all-rounder body.
He began relying increasingly more on his passive defense and natural

defense rather than active defense. In his actual body, his raw durability
wasn't high enough to rely more on it than more active defensive techniques
like Inner Divergence. But in this body, its innate toughness meant that he
had to worry less about getting hurt.
He had already begun gathering and processing fake Rui's data as the
construction of the predictive model was already underway. It helped that he
was quite familiar with his own move set, which hastened the construction of
the predictive model.
POW!
BAM!
Rui gritted his teeth as he withstood an attack from fake Rui in exchange for
launching his own. They both mutually bypassed the other's defense, yet the
outcomes were different. Rui's strike was heavier because his hallucinated
body was much more suited towards offense than fake Rui, while his body
was more suited towards withstanding fake Rui's attack.
Although fake Rui was much faster, more mobile, and more agile than real
Rui, it didn't seem to make too much of a difference. This was because Rui's
timing and placement were more effective and efficient than fake Rui's. This
was the difference that the VOID algorithm caused. Even a large speed and
mobility gap caused by a difference in frames were still smaller than the
advantage that the VOID algorithm granted Rui.
('Low kick, 92%.') His mind flashed as he planted his legs firmly and
stabilized his balance. Ordinarily, he would have met low attacks with attacks
that evaded them while also hitting his opponent, like flying knee kicks.
However, he wasn't as nimble as his actual self that would have been able to
smoothly execute that attack. Instead, he relied on his power and defense in
order to anchor himself strongly to the spot.
POW!
Fake Rui's kick stopped in its tracks, unable to so much as budge against
Rui's body.
WHOOSH
Rui tried landing a strike on fake Rui, however, the latter was too swift for
his slow self.
Rui found the experience more illuminating than he had expected it to be.
The VOID algorithm was designed for an all-rounder body. A lot of the
solutions provided by the adaptive evolution model were solutions that could
only rely on the well-rounded nature of an all-rounder. This was the biggest
incompatibility between his Martial Art and his body at this point in time.
Rui had to improvise. Because of his intimate understanding of the adaptive

evolution model, he was able to understand which counters could be
performed by his current Martial body and which ones couldn't Every time
the optimal counter to fake Rui's predicted move involved a lot of movement,
speed, and agility, he simply replaced it with something that achieved as
close to the effect as the original counter.
Normally, this was not something the VOID algorithm could handle, but with
Rui's extreme understanding of the algorithm as the actual creator of the
VOID algorithm, he knew exactly what wasn't the best counter-move for his
current Martial body.
However, actually applying this knowledge in combat showed him the limits
of the compatibility of any Martial body that wasn't an all-rounder. The
VOID algorithm assumed competence in all basic fields of combat on Earth,
at least.
BAM!
Rui managed to land a devastating uppercut on fake Rui despite the speed
gap between them. Exploiting a mistake as well as perfect counters from the
VOID algorithm allowed him to ensure that he was able to land a blow with
great power on fake Rui.
THUD
Fake Rui collapsed to his knees, before falling down entirely, losing
consciousness due to blunt-force brain trauma.
('Tsk.') Rui was displeased despite his victory. ('I would not have lost against
me if I had been the fighting against myself with my actual body.')
The point of the procedure was to test the compatibility of different body
types with that of the Martial Art of the user in comparison to the actual body
of the user. However, if the fake version of himself was not even using the
VOID algorithm, which was the core of his Martial Art, then the
effectiveness of the procedure was at least halved.
He sighed, shaking his head. He had already long known that he would not be
going for a heavyweight kind of body frame, so it didn't really matter.
All of a sudden, the world dissolved and he opened his eyes.

"How do you feel?" Doctor Herin asked as he flashed light on his eyes.
"Alright." Rui stretched a bit as he got up. "It was a strange experience,
however, I confidently say that the heavyweight body type is certainly not
suited for me."
"That is expected." Squire Luna nodded. "However, there are Martial

Apprentices who have said something similar but ultimately found
themselves to be wrong when they actually experienced the Martial body in
the hallucinated hypnosis. The reason these are mandatory is that it is not
uncommon for Martial Apprentices to have wrong conceptualizations on the
compatibility of certain body types and their Martial Art."
"I understand." Rui sighed. He couldn't wait to reach the all-rounder part, he
was pretty sure he would stick with an all-rounder body type, the question
was the details of the physical parameters of his body. He wasn't sure if he
would place absolutely equal weight on all physical parameters or perhaps
lean a little more in the favor of certain kinds of Martial Art. He couldn't wait
to find out.
Chapter 449 Second Round
"Your resistance towards mental techniques is quite remarkable, even for a

Squire candidate." Squire Luna informed him. "Apprentice Frix here alone
wasn't able to maintain the hypnosis because you were developing too much
of a resistance, I had to step in personally."
"Ah..." Rui recalled that he was able to resist offensive mental techniques. He
recalled the first round of the Martial Contest where he had fought against a
mental technique Martial Artist. He had been able to dominantly resist the
influence of mental techniques back then.
The reason he'd forgotten about it here was that he thought he needed to
actively resist the mental technique for it to affect the procedure. However, it
turned out that he was wrong, his passive mental defenses alone were enough
to hinder the Martial Apprentice, to the point that a Martial Squire had to
intervene for the hypnosis to still be effective on him.
"My bad," Rui added apologetically.
"It's not your fault." She waved her hand dismissively.
"Your condition is remarkably well." Doctor Herin added. "We can begin the
next session immediately if you so wish."
Rui nodded in response. "Please do."
Preparations were made and Rui closed his eyes as the hallucinogens entered
his system, affecting him.
When he opened his eyes, he had returned to the white world that seemed to
expand infinitely.
('Woah.') He got up with a jump. He glanced at his thin arms, unsurprised.
This time, he was hallucinating a lightweight body. The abrupt shift from
heavyweight to lightweight had caused him to use too much force.
He hopped on his feet lightly, amazed at how nimble he was.
Suddenly, fake Rui appeared at a distance before him.
Rui grinned, dashing towards him. He moved with a speed and agility he
could scarcely fathom, crossing the distance between them in just a moment.
POW POW POW!
He had launched a flurry of strikes at fake Rui with blinding speed and
impeccable fluidity. Yet, fake Rui didn't even bother blocking them. Rui
frowned as he realized his attacks were too weak.
Even when he used Outer Convergence, Flame Breathing, and Reverberating

Lance, they were unable to overwhelm fake Rui's Inner Divergence, Elastic
Shift, Acute Edge, and Adamant Reforging. They weren't even able to come
close. Fake Rui's defensive prowess was extremely high, not only because he
had four potent techniques defending him at any time, but because three of
the techniques were techniques whose effectivity depended on the timing and
accuracy of the user.
Rui was able to apply these techniques with far greater timing and placement
than almost any Martial Apprentice he knew, and fake Rui had inherited his
prowess.
Rui had no hope of ever taking him down with ordinary blows.
Ordinary blows, that was. He still had solutions against fake Rui if he used
his trump cards.
WHOOSH
Rui evaded a hook with remarkable ease. The predictive model he had made
in his previous mental fight was still effective, after all, fake Rui was not
changing like he himself was.
PEW!
The Stinger flew swifter than it ever had before, whistling as it cut through
the air, burying itself in fake Rui's neck.
He grimaced as he retreated, covering his wound. Rui immediately pursued

him, not willing to give him any respite. He launched a Flowing Canon
amplified with many techniques at fake Rui. Although ordinary blows could
not even faze fake Rui, the same could not be said for Flowing Canon, Rui's
most powerful blow.
BAM!
Fake Rui blocked the attack, being forced to let go of his wound. The
bleeding immediately resumed, just as Rui had aimed for. He launched an
avalanche of attacks that were nigh unblockable.
He was a ghost.
His maneuvering techniques which were stifled in the previous fight in the
heavyweight body, took center stage as they shined brightly. Parallel Walk,
Balanced Direction, Wind Breathing, and Phantom Step. These techniques
combined with the VOID algorithm allowed Rui to express a degree of speed,
agility, and maneuvering that far surpassed anything he would ever be
capable of as a Martial Apprentice in his actual body.
However, his staggering lack of power was painful to watch. He launched

many an attack, yet they all mostly bounced off fake Rui's powerful defensive
prowess. Only the attacks that landed on extremely vulnerable and vital
locations had any effect at all. However, they were unable to make any
meaningful impact by themselves.
('Can I only inflict any significant damage through the Stinger?') Rui cursed.
Although his speed and maneuvering allowed him to move around like the
wind, he only felt more shackled. His offensive potential was so pathetic that
it disgusted him.
Furthermore, he could forget about trying to withstand even a single attack
from fake Rui. In his current state, every single blow that struck his body
would blast him inside out. Each blow would be devastating, he needed to
run away from all of them even if there were better responses had he been
durable enough to execute them.
PEW!
Rui managed to launch a devastatingly swift Stinger for a second time, once
again towards fake Rui's neck. This time he had managed to pierce an artery.
Blood spurted from fake Rui's neck as he tried covering it. Fake Rui had
already activated Final Breathing to mitigate the damage done and reduce the
impact it had on his combat prowess. However, too much damage had been
done.
Rui simply continued to abuse his speed and maneuvering to continuously

pepper fake Rui with well-timed Stingers, until eventually, too much damage
had accumulated for Fake Rui to maintain his original combat prowess.
BAM!
Rui mustered all of his might as he landed a Flowing Cannon on his

opponent's jaw. In his condition, the attack shook his opponent's head,
triggering enough brain trauma to knock him out.
THUD
He collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Yet Rui wasn't too pleased with his victory.
('This body type may suit someone like Kane, but it certainly doesn't suit
someone like me.') Rui sighed.
Chapter 450 Balance
Although Rui wished he could have skipped all the hallucinations based
around body types he didn't care about because he knew they weren't going to
be the ones that would be most compatible with his Martial Art, he did gain
some unique experience that he would probably never gain again.
The procedure was extended for days as he was made to experience a variety
of body types. He was supposed to experience the body suited to each of the
fields he had mastered a technique for. This included power, speed, defense,
grappling, and supplementation, among other fields. Thankfully, he didn't
have to experience Martial bodies centered around fields he had never even
touched.
He never lost against the hallucinated version of himself. This was a

surprising outcome to Squire Luna, it was the norm that the hallucinated
mirror version of the subject won against the subject due to a lack of
familiarity and comfort with one's new body in the hallucination.
Rui, of course, had already figured out the reason. Because the hallucination
lacked the core of his Martial Art. Without it, it could express only a portion
of his true power. Meanwhile, even if he had a new body, he could still use
the VOID algorithm to a high degree. The disadvantage he had from having a
drastically different body type was not enough to dampen the advantage the
VOID algorithm provided him. Furthermore, he could use the same
predictive model each time, which meant he didn't need to adapt or evolve to
his hallucinated clone all over again each time.
The predictive model only grew increasingly accurate and precise the more
they fought.
The biggest problem was that he always lacked the body that was able to
execute all of the adapted counters provided by the adaptive evolution model.
He usually made do with his own improvised counters that while perhaps not
the best in his current body, was still good enough.
Soon time passed and eventually, they had finally reached the all-rounder-
oriented Martial body.
"This is the final body type on our checklist." Squire Luna informed him.
"This Martial body is oriented around placing an equal amount of weight on
power, speed, defense, and endurance. With a muscle mass to body mass
ratio that perfectly caters to all primary fields equally as well as a mildly
augmented healing capability."
"That's possible?" Rui wondered in glee. "An increased healing factor?"
"Indeed. Martial Squires with Martial Art focused around endurance often
have a heavy focus on regeneration, at the cost of power and speed." Squire
Luna explained.
"At the cost of them?" Rui asked, intrigued. "Why would the increased
healing capability come at the cost of power and speed?"
"The reason for that is the fact that an increased healing factor creates an
increased consumption of energy and nutrients. This reduces the available
energy and nutrients needed for power and speed." Doctor Herin chimed in,
explaining it to Rui.
"Ah," Rui nodded. "That does make sense. After all, there are constraints to
how much stamina can be augmented by the evolution process."
"Correct." Doctor Herin nodded. "We improve stamina to the necessary

amount without compromising the other physical parameters more important
to the Martial Art in question. Endurance-oriented Martial Artists usually
improve stamina and healing capability along with toughness to the
maximum extent. However, this is not really possible in an all-rounder-
oriented Martial body."
Rui nodded, as several considerations flew through his mind. He had come
across a potential solution to bypass or at least mitigate the stamina solution.
But he needed to verify it before he could attempt them. For now, he decided
to stick to figuring out his optimal Martial body.
The medical team was subjected to hallucinogens once more as he entered a

trance-like state. Squire Luna quickly began executing the hypnosis
technique, causing him to return to the white world.
('Wow.') He glanced down at his own body. His current body had been the
closest to his original body. Yet it still felt mildly different from anything he
had ever experienced before. Considering this body was a body that was a
perfect all-rounder, it meant his previous body was not perfectly an all-
rounder.
This was to be expected, to some degree. Although he had consciously

trained to ensure that his body catered equally to all fields of combat, it was
impossible to make it perfectly so. If he had had the technology of his
previous world, reaching something close to perfectly all-rounding was
perhaps not impossible, but in this world with the lack of the technology he
was familiar with, with only the resources he had at the Academy, it was
impossible to gain perfect balance.
Fake Rui immediately dashed towards Rui after he appeared.
BAM!
He gasped as Rui perfectly evaded a swinging blow from fake Rui as landed
his own blow in the latter's gut. Rui immediately followed up with a barrage
of perfectly-timed swings.
POW POW POW!
Each bypassed the guard of his opponent, relying on impeccable timing and
placement.
BAM!!
Rui followed up with a Flowing Canon, successfully landing the attack and
flinging him away in the distance with a devastating blow.
His performance against his hallucinated clone was domineering, more so

than any of their previous fights. Rui had been previously burdened with an
unfamiliar and incompatible body in each of his fights that had partially
dampened his advantage of being the sole VOID algorithm user. Now,
however, there was no incompatibility between his body and his Martial Art.
The gap between himself and his hallucinated self was large. He didn't even
need to exert himself. Fake Rui couldn't even be considered a modern grade
ten Martial Apprentice due to an inability to use the VOID algorithm. He
stood no chance against Rui alone.
Alone, that was.
Suddenly, a second hallucinated clone of Rui appeared in Rui's perception.
('Two of them against one?') Rui was amused at the improvisation on the part
of Squire Luna in the procedure.
('Very well then.') Rui nodded. ('It will allow me to test this body even
more.')
Chapter 451 Decision
The two fake Ruis faced off against him, quickly launching themselves at
him. They, together, launched a wave of attacks that would have ordinarily
been annoying to deal with, but his current state of having predictive models
on both of them allowed him to not only deal with the situation but do so
with even a certain amount of leeway.
WHOOSH
POW!
Rui evaded the attack of one of his opponents as he simultaneously launched

a low sweeping kick against the other, staggering them. Rui quickly rushed
forward, performing a throwing takedown on his opponent. He used his
imbalance to simply take him down at that moment with less resistance. His
opponent crumbled backward quickly. However, he didn't have any leeway to
turn the battle into a ground grappling match.
WHOOSH
Rui somersaulted away as his other opponent intervened attempting to throw

another strike at him. He quickly unleashed several Tempestuous Ripples
toward his opponent disallowing them to gather their bearings too easily. As
soon as they dealt with the attacks, they realized that Rui simply used it as a
means to escape from their attention for just a bit.
BLINK
BAM!
Rui managed to catch one of his opponents off-guard with a combination of

Blink, Phantom, and Shadow Step, hitting them with a powerful Flowing
Canon and flinging him that way.
Rui used the temporary one-on-one he had with the other fake Rui. He
immediately began dishing out several waves of attacks against his hapless
opponent. Although they weren't all that different in physical prowess, Rui
was still able to dominate them despite this. He was simply strong.
Eventually, Rui managed to take both of them out, relying on some clever
tricks, but he took them out eventually.
THUD
When the final fake Rui fell to his knees collapsing to the ground, the fight
had been completed. Rui felt amazing in his current body, it was able to
execute the counters of the VOID algorithm more accurately than his actual
body would. Yet before he could even bask in his victory, time was up. Rui
woke up, opening his eyes to be greeted by the familiar ceiling of the
procedure room he was in.
"The data suggests that there was a high degree of compatibility with your
own body." Doctor Herin said once Rui regained his bearings. "Seems we
have hit close to the optimal bullseye."
"This is where the hard part begins." Squire Luna added. "You'll have to
discover the optimal configuration by brute force trial and error until we run
into the optimal configuration of the parameters of the all-rounder Martial
body."
All-rounders were generally on a spectrum; an all-rounder was still

considered an all-rounder even if they placed a bit more weight on one
particular field than the others. As long as there wasn't an overwhelming
dominance in the emphasis on one particular field in comparison to the
others, they would still be considered all-rounders.
"No..." Rui shook his head. "Frankly, this configuration is perfect."
Squire Luna raised an eyebrow at those words. "A perfect distribution

between all physical parameters just so happens to suit your Martial Art the
best?"
Rui paused for a moment as he considered his response. "My Martial Path is
adaptive evolution. I aim to adapt to all. I cannot place more weight on any
one field as it would hinder my ability to adapt to some other Martial Art in
question. Therefore, I think it is best if I proceed with this Martial body."
Rui glanced down at his hands at those words.
He could feel the mild incompatibility between his current body and his
Martial Art in comparison to a perfectly-balanced all-rounder Martial Art.
His current body was a tad too heavy to perfectly execute some of the
counters to his opponent's predicted moves. He used the VOID algorithm
more effectively and efficiently despite not having the familiarity with the
hallucinated body than he did with his actual real body.
His Martial Art would be able to grow smoother once he had a body that
catered to it perfectly. A speed and maneuvering-oriented Martial Artist
would never be able to go further down their Martial Path with a heavyweight
body. A power-oriented Martial Apprentice would never be able to go down
their Martial Path with a lightweight body.
"If that is the case, then you can move on to the next preparatory step of the
Squire breakthrough process." Squire Luna informed him.
"The measurements?" Rui asked, recalling if from the briefing he underwent

with Squire Gunther.
In order for the Squire breakthrough procedure to be perfectly tailored and

customized to every Squire candidate, there were two things that were
necessary. The first was knowing the end goal of the evolution process, this
was the Martial body configuration. The second was knowing where the
starting point was, this was equally necessary.
The procedure could not get a Martial Apprentice from a particular starting
point to a particular destination if the starting point was unknown. Thus, Rui's
physical parameters would need to be documented thoroughly from the very
top to the bottom and everything in between. Once his physical parameters
were measured, then the evolution process would quickly be created,
perfectly suited to take him from his current body to his Martial body in the
Squire Realm.
Thankfully, it was a mundane process, there was no difficulty in successfully

passing it.
"I shall inform the Martial Union of the success of the Martial body
procedure, and the arrangements for the measurement process will be
arranged rather swiftly, by today, even." Squire Luna told Rui.
"Actually..." Rui interjected sheepishly. "I would rather not undergo the
measurement procedure immediately. I have some personal matters that I
would like to before proceeding forward with the preparations for the
breakthrough to the Squire Realm if that's alright."
Squire Luna simply stared at him. "That is your prerogative, of course. If you
wish to delay the breakthrough to the Squire Realm, then you do have that
choice."
"Thank you." Rui bowed down. He had some personal preparations to make
for the breakthrough to the Squire Realm.
Chapter 452 Benefits
As impatient Rui was to undergo the breakthrough to the Squire Realm as

soon as possible, he managed to retain self-control. Optimizing his
breakthrough to the Squire Realm was much more important than ensuring it
happened as soon as possible.
In his last training session, he had come across the Mind Switch mental
technique. It was a grade-three mental training technique that would
condition the mind and the brain to trigger certain mental and neurological
phenomena when the user took certain physical stances or performed certain
actions by creating associations between the desired neurological phenomena
and the trigger actions.
This was generally a training technique that was used to allow the user to
enter a calm and rational state of mind when the user performed the trigger
stance that the calmness and rationality were associated with.
It was an Apprentice-level version of association therapy that existed on

Earth. Association in the field of psychology of Earth referred to a mental
connection between concepts, events, or mental states that usually stemmed
from specific experiences. Association therapy was a form of treatment that
applied this mental trait to treat and often even cure mental disorders.
In the world of Gaea, it had been elevated to an Apprentice-level technique

that could be applied in combat in order to optimize the state of mind that the
user of the technique. Rui had seen this technique more than half a year ago
when he had scoured the Apprentice library for a technique for his previous
training session.
Back then, he had an idea of how he could apply the technique to make the
most of his breakthrough to the Squire Realm and optimize his Martial body
as much as possible.
He intended to verify whether his application of the technique was possible

or not, if it was, then he intended to master it before undergoing the
measurement procedure and the breakthrough procedure to the Squire Realm.
('If it does work like I think it does... then I might be able to harness the
power of autophagy.') He noted.
Autophagy was the natural, conserved degradation of the cell that removes
unnecessary or dysfunctional components. It allowed for the orderly
degradation and recycling of cellular components for the continued
sustenance of other living cells. In the case of extreme starvation, the process
of autophagy was highly accelerated and maximized in order to maintain
energy and nutrition for surviving cells.
In other words, it was a metabolic phenomenon that naturally increased

stamina. Something that was a constraint to the configurations of the Martial
body, after all, you couldn't give too much power and speed, otherwise,
energy consumption would rise resulting in very low stamina.
However, autophagy was a phenomenon that could potentially aid in

mitigating the issue. However, extreme autophagy only occurred in cases of
high starvation, it was not something that the body normally did,
unfortunately.
('That is where the Mind Switch technique comes in.')
The Mind Switch technique allowed him to associate any neurological

phenomenon with a trigger and, thus, trigger said neurological phenomenon
whenever he wanted. When Rui had first seen that technique, he had thought
of the possibility of using the Mind Switch technique to be able to trigger the
neurological phenomenon associated with starvation, which would then go on
to trigger accelerated autophagy.
Thus, he would be able to tap into the power of autophagy in order to

enhance stamina in a very natural way. With greater stamina, the constraint
over his speed, power, and healing would also be lessened. After all, the
greater the amount of stamina, the greater the availability of energy for
various purposes such as strength, speed, and healing.
If possible, it would likely allow him to obtain a Martial body that was a cut
above the norm. He still planned to choose an all-rounder Martial body, of
course. But each of his raw physical parameters would be above what
someone of his natural physical prowess undergoing the evolution process
would have thanks to his naturally higher energy reserves.
('However, that holds true only if the Mind Switch technique works the way I
think it does.') Rui mused.
After all, if the technique didn't work like Rui had hoped it would, then it
would all be in vain. The worst part of it all was that due to their primitive
understanding of cellular biology and biochemistry, he highly doubted that
the Martial Union could provide him with an actual answer on the matter.
Not even he was sure whether it would help despite his scientific background
on Earth.
('I guess I'll just have to try it anyway and hope for the best.') Rui sighed.
Although this would result in a slight delay in his breakthrough to the Squire
Realm, it was worth it if he could obtain a more powerful Martial body. After
all, that would be an advantage that he would retain for the rest of his life.
He reached the Apprentice library of the Martial Union, entering it for the
first time.
('It's bigger than that of the Martial Academy.') Rui realized.
There were many more Martial Apprentices browsing the library than there
were in the Martial Academy, which made sense given the population
disparity of the groups of Martial Apprentices that the two libraries catered
to.
He didn't even bother browsing through the techniques, after all, he knew
exactly what he was looking for. He could simply request one of the
librarians to procure the techniques for him. He didn't plan to purchase and
master any other techniques. He didn't want to delay his Squire breakthrough
evolution procedure by any more than he had to.
He could focus on expanding his Martial Art after he becomes a Martial

Squire, until then, everything was about breaking through to a higher Realm
of power. If it weren't for the fact that the potential benefits were immense,
he absolutely would not have detoured to master a mental technique just
before the procedure.
('This shit better be worth it.') He groaned inwardly.

Chapter 453 Technique
"Excuse me." Rui addressed one of the support staff members of the library.
"Yes? How may I help you?" She replied.
"I'm looking for the Mind Switch technique; a mental training technique,"
Rui told her. "I was hoping I could request for it to be procured."
"Of course." She nodded. "Please wait here a moment."
She took off as Rui took a seat on one of the benches in the library. Rui
waited patiently as he scrutinized the library.
('It has more techniques than the Apprentice library of the Martial Academy
did.') He noted as he looked at the endless shelves of techniques across the
entire library. The reason for this wasn't too difficult to think about. The
Martial Academy had lower quality Martial Apprentices than the real world,
thus it wasn't hard to see that the Apprentice library was also a little smaller
in so far as the sheer number of techniques it offered.
Rui suspected that the Martial Art techniques of the higher grades were a
little scarcer in the Apprentice library of the Martial Academy than they were
in the Apprentice library of the Martial Union.
Just as he pondered on the matter, his thoughts were interrupted.
"Apprentice Quarrier, here is the Mind Switch technique you requested for."
A support staff member told him, handing him a scroll.
"Thank you." Rui got up, nodding as he accepted the scroll.
He immediately walked over to the registrar of the library and quickly

purchased the technique.
"The costs of the training facilities and guidance needed to master the
techniques are charged separately," Rui murmured, recalling that fact.
In the Martial Academy, the training and growth resources were all part of
the fees paid to the Martial Academy, however, the Martial Union operated
with an upfront charge for the usage of such facilities at an hourly rate.
The technique was more expensive than it was in the Martial Academy,
which didn't surprise him. The Martial Academy had managed the price of
the techniques to ensure that the prices of techniques were just in the price
range such that the students of the Martial Academy would have to work hard
in order to earn the Martial credits needed to purchase the technique, but still
not too expensive that each student would need to waste too much time
completing missions just to earn the Martial credits needed to purchase a
single technique.
However, the Martial Union didn't coddle its Martial Artists the way the
martial Academy coddled its students, thus the Martial Art techniques of the
Martial Union had been priced purely according to their actual value and the
resources invested by the Martial Union into acquiring those techniques be it
the large research and development project budgets that went into developing
the techniques or the cost of purchasing the original techniques developed by
the Martial Artists of the Martial Union.
Still, Rui unhesitatingly bought the technique and the required training hours
for an initial introduction to the technique.
He sat down at one of the benches as he opened the scroll and began reading
the detailed breakdown of the technique as well as the training methodology
needed to obtain basic mastery of the technique. He carefully read the more
detailed explanation in regards to the actual functioning of the technique,
looking for any information that would confirm that his goal and hope for the
technique were possible, but he didn't receive any concrete confirmation of
the technique.
Because of the seemingly lacking understanding of the field of neurology of

the world of Gaea, the technique breakdown did not get too very far in so far
as the technical explanation of the functioning of the technique. Rui was
unable to derive anything that could confirm or deny that the Mind Switch
technique was something that could trigger the autophagy process.
He sighed. ('At least, thanks to my high affinity to mental techniques as well

as the low difficulty grade of the technique, I won't be wasting too much time
trying to master this technique.')
Even if it was a failure, he wouldn't have wasted too much time trying to
master the technique due to this very reason. This was part of the reason he
had gone out of his way to train in the Mind Switch technique. There wasn't
much to be lost beyond some time. If this were a grade-eight technique, Rui
would not have been as enthusiastic and energetic about mastering the
technique, for the most part.
It would have been a much harder decision if the decision would have bled
away months of hard work and time. But with the sheer ease with which the
technique could be mastered as well as his own affinity for it, he had weighed
the potential benefits against the investment of time and energy and
eventually gave in to his desire to obtain even greater power at a slightly
slower pace.
He moved on to the training regime of the Martial Art technique.
"Interesting..." Rui murmured as he read through it in detail.
The training session was not beyond his expectations.
"As expected, it's brute force association therapy." Rui nodded.
The training involved a constant and simultaneous execution of the trigger

position or movement with the activation of whatever neurological
phenomenon was to be triggered by the triggering stance or movement.
The mind would begin developing a strong association between the two,
eventually triggering one with the other, allowing the Martial Apprentice a
certain degree of control over the involuntary phenomena that continuously
occurred in the subconscious part of the mind and the brain.
The desired neurological phenomenon that was the target of being triggered
would be artificially induced in response to the trigger, convincing and
hammering into the mind that there was a causal relationship between them.
This was the same principle by which several disorders such as addiction
were handled, by associating negative experiences with things they were
addicted to using association therapy. Of course, what Rui was about to
undergo was far worse than anything any psychiatrist on Earth could conjure
up.
Chapter 454 Pain
"You want to use the Mind Switch technique to trigger everything associated
with extreme starvation?" A Martial Squire frowned at Rui.
Rui had opted for the guidance of a mind-oriented Martial Squire to guide
him in the mastery of the Mind Switch technique. Squire Juvier's face had
scrunched in confusion when he learned of Rui's objective of trying to trigger
the sensation of extreme starvation using the Mind Switch technique.
Normally, people learned this technique to retain calmness and composure in

the middle of combat. There were many Martial Artists that found it difficult
to retain calmness and composure in highly dangerous situations. In such
situations, fear and panic could cause them to act in sub-optimal ways,
increasing their probability that they would make mistakes.
The Mind Switch technique was created to give Martial Artists a way to
reduce the probability of such things happening to them. It allowed them to
hone their mind and impact it favorably.
Thus, Squire Juvier's surprise was quite understandable when Rui approached
him, asking if it was possible to trigger the mental processes that came along
with extreme starvation.
"I suppose it's theoretically possible, maybe" Squire Juvier frowned

scratching his head. "I can't be sure because I'm positive that nobody has ever
tried to use the technique in this manner. Why do you want to in the first
place?"
He peered at Rui curiously, wondering why he would want something that

odd.
"Ah..." Rui smiled awkwardly. "Just something I wanted to try. If it doesn't
work out, it can be scraped, but I have to give it a shot."
"Huh." He frowned, confused. "Well, that's your choice, I guess. Have you
read the technique scroll?"
"I have." Rui nodded. "I've understood and memorized all of it, I just hope to
gain your guidance when undergoing the training for the technique."
"Well, you did pay for Squire guidance." He shrugged. "So that's perfectly
fine. Hope you don't regret your decision though."
"Me too." Rui sighed. Even if it turned out that he was wrong, the technique
could be reversed by hypnosis from a Martial Apprentice. The only risk he
was taking was wasting time, but the very real and likely possibility of him
being able to become a stronger Martial Squire was too much to pass. With
his affinity for mental techniques, he wouldn't be wasting much time
mastering it.
Furthermore, it was a grade-three technique. The single lowest-grade

technique he had ever chosen to master. The lower the grade of the technique,
the lesser time it took to master it, generally. Even though the Mindmirror
brain had gotten rid of his superior training speed, he was still quite the sharp
learner.
"Well." Squire Juvier shrugged. "We can begin whenever you want. If you've
memorized the training regime, then you know that it is exceedingly simple.
You'll be induced into a state of mind where you're open to suggestions to be
implanted into your mind. Then, the mental state you desire will be
artificially induced while you perform the trigger. Due to the state of mind,
your mind will more easily form a connection between the trigger and the
mental state you're in, allowing you to trigger the mental state with the trigger
after extended periods of this kind of association training."
Rui nodded.
"The only problem is I don't think we have a way of artificially inducing

starvation." He murmured thoughtfully.
"That's fine," Rui replied. "I can induce it by simply reducing my
consumption of food."
"You won't be able to train for too long, though." Squire Juvier noted.
"I have physical rejuvenation potions." Rui reminded. "They don't directly
get rid of hunger, they simply directly supply the energy and nutrients needed
to the body."
"Smart." He admitted. "You can get started then, as long as you know what
you want as the trigger and the mental state you want to trigger."
Rui was already starting to feel a tad bit of hunger, but it wasn't intense
enough. He wanted to reach a stage of starvation, otherwise, he couldn't be
sure that the Mind Switch technique would make maximized autophagy as
the targeted phenomenon that he wanted to trigger.
There was another problem, however.
('What should I make as the trigger?') Rui wondered.
The trigger was something he needed to be able to effortlessly use to trigger

autophagy. Ideally, it would be something that he did constantly and
involuntarily so that he would need to consciously trigger his autophagy.
Ideally, something like blinking or breathing would be the trigger for

autophagy, but the problem with trying to make those the trigger was that the
trigger had to be something Rui was conscious of all the time for it to actively
serve as the trigger.
Most of the time, breathing and blinking was done subconsciously.

Therefore, if he ever got too focused in a fight where he wasn't conscious of
his breathing or blinking as a trigger, then he would not be able to trigger the
autophagy.
('What if I associated the autophagy with a sensation like pain?') Rui

wondered.
The only problem was that it wasn't as much of a voluntary trigger unless he
was willing to hurt himself every time he needed to trigger autophagy.
('Is that a problem considering every time I am hurt I could benefit from
enhanced healing that would require energy and nutrients?')
One of the benefits that came from the all-rounder Martial body was that it
gave him enhanced healing thanks to the evolution of his endurance and
survivability. Healing required energy and nutrients, that could be swiftly
provided by autophagy.
Furthermore, any instances where he would genuinely require healing would

be instances where he was injured. If he was injured, then he would certainly
experience significant pain.
('In that case, making pain the trigger to autophagy might actually be the
ideal trigger.') Rui realized.
He took his time pondering the idea, making sure he was not mistaking
anything wrong in regards to his already scant knowledge of neurobiology.
Chapter 455 Painful
"Pain?" Squire Juvier looked at Rui with disbelief. "You want to make pain
the trigger to extreme starvation? Have you lost your goddamn mind?!"
"Trust me." Rui sighed. "I know what I'm doing."
Squire Juvier facepalmed himself as he shook his head. "Well, you're the one
who's going to be responsible for it, so go for it. It's a crazy stupid idea that
serves no purpose, but I've already warned you of that. My responsibility as a
guide and aid ends there."
"Then let us begin the moment I am beset by starvation." Rui nodded. He

went on to solidify details of the procedure with Squire Juvier. Matters such
as the kinds of pain to be inflicted as well as the frequency of infliction of
pain and the order.
Squire Juvier had never been asked to torture a Martial Apprentice in order to
form a pain trigger. Therefore, he had absolutely no input to offer from his
previous experience, he merely shrugged and accepted whatever Rui told him
on the matter. He had long given up on trying to make sense of the strange
and crazy Martial Apprentice.
It didn't take long, he was already quite hungry after the continuous
hypnotized hallucinations that he had undergone in order to be able to
experience and identify the idea Martial body type that would become the
template for his body as a Martial Squire.
They shifted to an isolated training room for the training technique.
"It's time." Rui nodded, as his stomach growled and he was beset by famished
hunger.
Squire Juvier sighed, before suddenly clapping swiftly before Rui's face,
startling him.
Squire Juvier swiftly subjected Rui to a few quick whispers, before slowly
edging back to speaking normally.
"You feel open, transparent, shapeable." He told Rui softly.
Hypnosis was a verifiably real field even back on Earth. It was a form of
indirect manipulation of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind was
normally to external information that the mind processed by virtue of the fact
that it was subconscious, external influx of information could and did
influence it, but only if it bypassed the conscious mind. The conscious mind
served as a guard between the external influx of information and the
subconscious mind, preventing the former from influencing the latter as much
as possible, by processing the information itself.
That was why, back on Earth, hypnosis didn't work if the subject didn't allow
the hypnosis to be effective by allowing it to influence the mind by
immersing one's self into the hypnotic treatment. It was impossible to
forcefully hypnotize someone against their will back on Earth.
The same couldn't be said for the hypnosis in Martial Art of Gaea.
Martial Artists weren't limited to the same degree as ordinary people when it
came to the application of hypnotists.
Martial Artists had developed techniques that allowed them to directly

influence the subconscious mind by misdirecting the attention of the
conscious mind before proceeding to hypnotize the subconscious mind
swiftly in the moment of the misdirected attention of the conscious mind.
Or they would engage in highly stealthy and subtle manipulation that was
sneaky enough to bypass the recognition of the conscious mind as an attempt
to manipulate the subconscious mind.
Squire Juvier had applied a hypnosis technique that relied on the former
principle. All he needed was the momentary misdirection that a gesture as
simple as abrupt and loud clapping caused in order to exploit the momentary
distraction to influence Rui's subconscious mind to induce his subconscious
mind into a state where he would more easily form associations between the
trigger and the triggered.
As powerful as Rui's mind was, he could not inherently resist and negate the
mental techniques of a Martial Squire the way he did the mental techniques
of a Martial Apprentice. He opened his eyes once Squire Juvier had finished.
His eyes were different, they were blank than they normally were.
"We'll begin soon then." Squire Juvier told him.
Rui simply nodded wordlessly.
Squire Juvier sighed.
THWACK
His arm struck Rui's skin, making a loud sound. Rui winced, silently
grimacing. Squire Juvier had used just enough power to whip Rui to cause
him significant pain, but not too intense to be overwhelming. Rui wanted the
pain threshold for the trigger to be not too high. If he subjected himself to too
much pain during the training session then he would not be able to
necessarily trigger autophagy when he was wounded.
Thus, he needed to ensure the pain was just significant enough, and nothing
too overwhelming.
That was why the pain caused by a simple whip with his arm was chosen as
the preferred means to cause pain. It was easy enough to inflict enough pain
using this method, and the need for healing potions was also minimal in
comparison.
Squire Juvier could continue whipping Rui's skin for a long time before the
need for a healing potion emerged.
Rui gritted his teeth as he endured the suffering, while also focusing on his
hunger. Focusing on the mental state/phenomenon that was to be triggered
was necessary to ensure an associative bond formed between the trigger and
the triggered phenomenon.
Otherwise, he would just needlessly suffer. There was no point in simply

subjecting himself to torture if he didn't ensure it was as effective as it could
be. He would simply be increasing the amount of time he would be
subjecting himself to torture.
The procedure continued for hours. Rui gritted his teeth as he bore the pain.
The combined mental torment that came from both starvation, as well as the
physical pain he felt, was overwhelming together. The fortitude and strength
he had built after the torturous training regimes of the Stinger and the
Adamant Forging were faltering as starvation drained him of his strength and
his willpower.
Despite the pain not being worse than that of the training regimes of the
Stinger and Adamant Forging, he still felt a greater amount of torment from
the Mind Switch technique training.
Chapter 456 Outcome
Rui gritted his teeth day in and day out as he continuously experienced
starvation and torture. He had underestimated the sheer mental fortitude
required to master the Mind Switch that he had aimed to master.
The technique was grade-three as far as the difficulty of mastery went, the
problem was that it was rated as a technique with low difficulty of mastery
because most applications of the technique were to be able to trigger
calmness and composure in the Martial Artist aspiring to master the
technique. The best part about the technique, when applied this way, was the
fact that it was relatively straightforward and didn't need any severe exertion
from the Martial Apprentice.
However, Rui had gone far off the normal path and used it to try to trigger the
neurological phenomena associated with hunger with pain.
This was something Squire Juvier still found absurd and stupid.
"What do you hope to accomplish?" Squire Juvier asked one day, unable to
contain his curiosity any longer. "Why subject yourself to this madness? Why
do you want to trigger hunger in the middle of battle? That will only get you
killed, take it from someone with extensive experience in the Martial World."
"That's not how it works." Rui sighed. "Hunger is a physical sensation

primarily. The Mind Switch technique cannot trigger physical sensations, it
can only trigger mental phenomena."
It wasn't that Squire Juvier didn't understand how the technique worked, he
just didn't have as thorough an understanding of the difference between
sensations and mental phenomena as Rui had, thanks to his background.
"If hunger cannot be triggered, then isn't this even more pointless? Why
chase after hunger?" Squire Juvier sighed exasperatedly.
"What I desire are the neurological phenomena associated with hunger," Rui
informed him.
"But why?" Squire Juvier asked, curiously.
"Because they'll help me obtain a more powerful Martial body when I

become a Martial Squire," Rui replied to him.
"There's no way of that possibly being true." Squire Juvier shook his head,
sighing. "The Martial Union would definitely know of such a thing and they
would have made it part of the standard procedure if this was worth it. They
absolutely would have told me about it, someone who mastered the Mind
Switch technique when I was a Squire Candidate."
Rui simply shook his head but kept quiet. There was no need for him to
debate with the Martial Squire, it didn't matter one bit whatsoever whether
the Martial Squire approved or disapproved of his idea. All he needed was his
guidance and help.
And Squire Juvier had obliged dutifully.
In merely a little over a month, Rui had mastered the Mind Switch technique.
Even if he had made it more difficult due to his crazy modifications, it was, at
its core, a straightforward technique that required zero talent. Furthermore,
Rui had a strong affinity for mental techniques due to his enhanced mind.
"Time for a test." He murmured.
There was a straightforward way to verify the degree of success, if any at all,
of the technique in achieving the objective with which he had mastered it. If
the technique did in fact trigger maximized autophagy that naturally
increased the energy and nutrients available to the body, then his stamina
would rise tremendously.
All he had to do was test his stamina.

He turned to Squire Juvier with a smile that gave the former a headache.
"What is it now? You've mastered the technique, go away!"
"I need you to do the whipping part to me again," Rui informed him
"But why?" Squire Juvier cajoled him.
"To verify whether the technique does in fact function like I want it to," Rui
replied.
After some back and forth, Rui finally managed to convince him to heed his
words.
"The things I do for Martial Apprentices in the name of guidance." He

sighed.
"Alright, begin," Rui instructed him.
And so began a long session of pain infliction. Rui knew his body quite well,
he knew how much stamina he normally had. Thus, he would be able to
detect any improvements to his stamina sharply. He engaged in physically
strenuous exercise amidst the infliction of pain, using Outer Convergence and
Flame Breathing to consume vast amounts of power.
At the end of a few hours, the answer became clear.
"Amazing!" Rui's eyes flashed in excitement.
He had retained his energy levels remarkably well. He knew himself, he

knew that without Helical Breathing, a technique that aided in preserving
stamina, he would not be able to last this long and this well, yet his current
condition was better than it would have been had he used Helical Breathing!
"This is beyond my expectations," Rui murmured. The effects of the Mind

Switch were the equivalent of consuming multiple physical rejuvenation
potions!
This was a luxury because every martial Apprentice knew they could not
afford to have it. Consuming a potion could not be done immediately. It took
a deep, slow inhalation and then some extra time for the aerosolized potion to
be completely diffused into the blood in the lungs. It usually took around ten
seconds for a single potion to be consumed.
This was not something that could be done in the middle of physical conflict,
especially so since Martial Apprentices experienced time far slower than
normal humans. What were ten seconds to normal humans was over a
hundred seconds to Martial Apprentices!
Was there any enemy that was patiently willing to wait a hundred seconds for
their opponent to rejuvenate themselves? The answer was clearly no. This
was even more true for Martial Artists of higher Realms. It was simply too
impractical.
That was why Rui was thrilled to discover the sheer effectiveness of
maximized autophagy. All his old, dying, and dead cells and other organic
components within his body were being broken down and turned into fuel
and nutrients for new cells. It was an incredibly efficient and conservative
process that truly made the best of everything the human body had.
"Now then..." Rui murmured. "Time to break through to a higher Realm."

Chapter 457 Shock
Not a day after he informed the Martial Union that he wanted to proceed with
the measurement process, an appointment for the procedure was promptly
arranged for the very next day. The very next day after he mastered the Mind
Switch technique and verified its success.
Rui peeked into a large room with many machines and equipment. There was
a team of men and women, who glanced up at him.
"I'm Apprentice Rui Quarrier." He told them holding his Martial license up.
"I was informed that my measurement process would be conducted in this
facility."
"Indeed, welcome. I'm the supervisor who will overlook the process. My
name is Fylic."
They exchanged pleasantries as the final preparations were made, discussing

the process.
"We will be taking static measurements first," Fylic informed him. "This
includes things like, but not limited to, your weight, height, proportions, and
lengths of your figure, your muscle and bone mass, cardiac and other
metabolic parameters among other things."
Rui nodded. It made sense they would start with static measurements; those
were always the easiest, simplest and quickest measurements to be made.
Even when he was constructing the VOID algorithm, he would start with
static measurements of his test subjects.
"Once that's done, we'll move on to active parameters. We'll measure the
maximum force generated by every muscle group, reaction time and reflex
time, balance, body-eye coordination, and stamina among other things." He
informed Rui. "Once that's done, the data will be transmitted to the relevant
department that will begin carefully customize the evolution process to
ensure that the evolution process will evolve your current parameters to the
parameters of the desired Martial body that you have chosen."
He turned to Rui. "Ah, I am to inform you. Once the measurement process is

completed, you need to begin the evolution process as soon as possible. You
also must abstain from mastering any new Apprentice-level technique after
the measurement process today is completed until you break through to the
Apprentice Realm."
"Why so?" Rui asked, curious. He had no intention of going out of his way to
master yet another technique before he broke through to the Squire Realm,
but he was curious about Fylic's statement.
"The data we collect in the measurement process is delicate, in a sense." He

replied. "It needs to be accurate otherwise the evolution process that was
created based on that data will not yield the desired body and could
potentially lead to death in the worst-case scenario."
"I see..." Rui immediately realized. "The static and dynamic parameters can
and do change over time, leading to inaccurate data that can be gravely
problematic."
"Correct." Fylic nodded.
They conversed a bit more, warming to each other until it was time to begin
the measurement process. Rui was subjected to test after test as they began
testing his static parameters. Thankfully, the boring measurements were
completed quickly, within reason. Yet there were so many measurements that
despite the quickness of each one, it stretched on longer than he had
imagined. Only a few hours later did they move to the dynamic
measurements.
Rui was a little more interested in this one. He felt a little childish as he
longed for the stamina test. He was prohibited from using active techniques
during the tests and there were even devices that he had to wear that could
apparently detect the activation of techniques by a Martial Apprentice.
Thankfully, the Mind Switch technique was not an active technique. It was
largely passive and did not require any specific voluntary actions that
activated the autophagy, all he needed to was experience enough pain.
And sure enough, when the stamina test began, the device didn't pick up on
the autophagy when he triggered it by crushing his tongue and the insides of
his cheek just hard enough to trigger the autophagy.
"This..." Fylic's eyebrows knitted in confusion and amazement as he

witnessed Rui maintaining peak human exertion without the application of
Apprentice-level techniques. Rui should have displayed physical parameters
that were perhaps at the peak of normal humans, but to his shock, Rui last
well past what would be considered normal human limits!
"Did he consume a physical rejuvenation potion somehow?" He frowned.
The question was rhetorical, of course. He was being carefully monitored by

the assistants, the device he was wearing on his head would have detected the
activation of an Apprentice-level technique that allowed them to exert
themselves beyond human limits using the technique actively.
Yet it hadn't detected anything of the sort.
"Has he mastered some rare passive stamina conditioning technique?" Fylic

frowned as he read through Rui's profile, scouring through all the techniques
present in his file.
There were some passive training techniques that permanently improved

stamina, but Fylic had already gone through Rui's mastered techniques prior,
and there was nothing, as far as he could see, that would give Rui enhanced
superhuman stamina.
Rui had mastered a total of thirty Apprentice-level techniques since becoming

a Martial Apprentice, however, he could not see a single passive stamina-
boosting Apprentice-level technique.
He turned back to Rui with complete confusion. Hours flew by until Rui
finally collapsed, unable to maintain the continuous high-effort exertion.
Even autophagy had limits. However, he was quite pleased with the result.
This would undoubtedly help him obtain a more powerful Martial body once
he broke into the Squire Realm.
"You skyrocketed past human limits despite not using an Apprentice-level

technique!" Fylic told him energetically. "How did you do that?"
"Well..." Rui scratched his head as he caught his breath.
He looked Fylic straight in the eye. "A wise and powerful man once
recommended a powerful training regime that would help me become
stronger."
"What training regime?" Fylic asked with curious eyes.
"One hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten-
kilometer run," Rui told him with a dead-serious expression as his strong
mind exerted pressure on Fylic. "Also, you can't use any air-conditioning
esoteric technology when you're done. Only then can you forge such stamina
and endurance."
Chapter 458 Arrived
Fylic gave up trying to pry into the source behind Rui's supreme stamina after
multiple failed attempts. Rui simply deflected all of them skillfully.
Once the dynamic measurements resumed, it didn't take long after that, the
stamina test was the most time-consuming of them all. The rest of the
dynamic measurements were taken rather quickly, and the process came to an
end.
"How long will the Martial Union take to create the customized and
personalized Squire breakthrough evolution process?" Rui asked Fylic.
"It usually takes about two to three days," Fylic replied.
This wasn't beyond Rui's expectations. He certainly didn't expect that the
breakthrough to the Squire Realm would happen then and there, or even
within the day.
After all, a vast amount of information needed to be processed for the exact
conditions of the personalized evolution breakthrough process to the Squire
Realm to be done.
Rui simply bade the team farewell as he returned back home. He had done
everything he needed to do, and now the only thing left was the breakthrough
to the Squire Realm.
He returned back home peacefully and all he had to do now was wait.
"Have you prepared yourself mentally?" Julian asked him, at some point.
"For how awesome becoming a Martial Squire is going to be?" Rui asked
blandly.
"For the risks associated with the breakthrough to the Squire Realm." Julian
sighed replying.
"Ah..." Rui pondered the matter. "Generally, yes."
Despite the fact that the Kandrian Empire had developed an immense number
of safeguards and fail-safes, it was impossible to guarantee that there was no
possibility of failure. Although the rate of death was low, the rate of failure
was a little higher.
The most extreme outcome was, of course, death. However, there were other
ways for the breakthrough to the Squire Realm to fail. For instance, it was
possible that the process would go horribly wrong in so far as the mutations
developed that it would permanently cripple him in some horrible way that
would almost certainly destroy his career as a Martial Artist.
One of the reasons that few Martial Apprentices went on to become Martial
Squires wasn't just because of the difficulty of achieving enough
individuality, or the difficulty of also achieving Martial maturity.
It was because some Martial Apprentices failed to successfully break through

to the Squire Realm. Furthermore, there were Squire candidates who were
unwilling to take the risk to become a Martial Squire.
After all, not all Martial Artists were as ambitious as Rui was. There were
some Martial Apprentices who were unwilling to risk everything in order to
become Martial Squires. To them, being a Martial Apprentice was more of a
profession than it was an integral part of their identity.
It earned them money.
It brought them a status over most of the population.
They were able to remain lowkey in order to avoid the attention of powerful
and dangerous people while still reaping enough benefits.
Furthermore, the missions were also a lot safer and easier. Most domestic
missions within the Kandrian Empire were Apprentice-level missions. Of
course, there was room for missions within the Empire for Martial Squires,
and perhaps even Martial Seniors.
However, the three upper Realms had no place engaging in conflict anywhere
near settlements. Their power was simply too destructive.
The higher the Realm that a Martial Artist was, the more their missions were
perennially outside the borders of the kandrian Empire. Foreign missions
were much more dangerous than domestic missions, on average.
There were Martial Apprentices that did not want to take on the amplified
risk that came with foreign missions. Even if they made it smoothly to the
Squire Realm through the breakthrough. They would largely be forced to
abandon the safety blanket that came with the domestic Apprentice-level
missions within the Kandrian Empire. The psychological safety that came
from knowing that the Martial Union was always just around the corner was
valuable to Martial Apprentices that weren't too driven.
Not Rui, however.
"It is scary," Rui admitted. "But not enough to try and get me to stop,
nowhere near enough. If that's even possible to do in the first place."
Of course, he wasn't immune to fear like some stone-hearted unfeeling rock.

But his desire and ambition to elevate the Flowing Void style and the VOID
algorithm to as high as possible was too strong.
At the end of the day, the process was beyond his control. He had already
done his best. Autophagy would increase the healing rate of the cells during
the procedure. And it most certainly would be triggered by all the pain he
would inevitably suffer.
That was the scariest part of the procedure.
The pain.
He had already gotten a good understanding of what the procedure was going
to look like from both the Martial Union and the data from the
It wasn't possible to use anesthesia because of the sheer amount of cell death
and regeneration that would be occurring in the breakthrough to the Squire
realm. This meant he would have to feel every ounce of pain that procedure
would cause him for however, long the procedure would take.
This was another reason why some Martial Apprentices simply opted out.
The breakthrough was sheer unadulterated torture. There weren't many
Martial Apprentices who were willing to endure horrific amounts of pain and
all the risks that came with the procedure.
Not Rui, however.
"I can't wait until they're done." Rui grinned excitedly. "This is going to be
absolutely unbelievable."
It had been three years since he had become a Martial Apprentice, and very
soon, he would be elevating himself to a higher Realm of power.
('Ah, I haven't told my friends yet.') Rui realized. He immediately got up,
sending messages to each of them.
Time passed in the Orphanage, too slowly for Rui's taste. The more he longed
for the message to come, the slower time ticked, but it did tick, slowly and
steadily. And sure enough, the day had finally arrived.
Chapter 459 Time
He made his way to the Martial Union with a pounding heart. He was going
to be crossing one of the most important checkpoints of his life and his
Martial Path. He was understandably a little tense, especially because he had
very little agency and control over the success of the procedure beyond this
point. Everything that could be done had been done.
Rui considered everything even as he passed security, showing them his

Martial license. He couldn't think of a single thing he could do while still a
Martial Apprentice that would aid him in the evolution process to the Squire
Realm.
"Excuse me." Rui addressed one of the staff members. "I have an
appointment for my breakthrough process to the Squire Realm."
He handed over his Martial license.
"Apprentice Rui Quarrier, you do indeed have an appointment scheduled

today, soon." She nodded. "Facility SRB-001 in the west wing, the maps will
help direct you to your location."
"Thank you." Rui nodded before making his way to the designated room.
It took him longer than he had expected, after all, the Martial Union was
huge, Rui had to refer to the various maps that were planted at multiple
locations across the Martial Union.
"Excuse me?" Rui voiced out, drawing attention to himself as he entered the
designated facility. "I believe I was told the procedure to my breakthrough to
the Squire Realm would be taking place in this facility."
The room inside was large, it gave Rui the impression of a futuristic medical
facility. There were strange contraptions and machines. Among them was a
small chamber that was large enough to accommodate a man in it.
There was also a medical team within. Several nurses and assistants and a
few elderly doctors.
"Welcome." One of them said. "I am doctor Menun. May I see your Martial
license for verification?"
Rui duly handed over his Martial license, which was promptly verified by
one of the assistants.
"Welcome Apprentice Rui Quarrier." Doctor Menun said, smiling

courteously. "I will be the doctor overseeing the evolution breakthrough
procedure to the Squire Realm."
"Pleasure to meet all of you." Rui offered a bright smile, eager to earn some
goodwill from the people who he would be placing his life in the hands of.
"The final preparations for the Squire evolution breakthrough procedure are
being completed." Doctor Menun explained. "There are certain measures that
need to be taken before you are ready for the procedure. We will begin them
shortly, please take a seat at the table."
She gestured for Rui to sit opposite to her at her table.
"Now then, time for a few standard procedure questions." Doctor Menun
informed him. "Have you consumed alcoholic beverages since your
measurement process?"
"Not at all." Rui shook his head.
Forget since the measurement process, Rui had yet to put even a drop of
alcohol into his mouth in his second life. But he had no real intention of
doing that. He wasn't a drinker in his previous life, and he had no intention of
starting the habit in his second life.
"Have you consumed any hallucinogens since the measurement process?"

She asked, after scribling on her notepad.
"No."
"Have you undergone as much natural sleep since the measurement process
till now, as we advised you?"
"Yes."
Sleep was a good way to burn time so that the agonizingly long wait for the
evolution process to the Squire Realm. He could cut more than a dozen hours
out of his waiting time that he would have had to sit through if he had used
potions to keep himself awake.
He was delighted when, among the guidelines to follow for the breakthrough
to the Squire Realm, was the necessity for natural and organic sleep.
"Have you suffered any injuries since the measurement process?" She asked.
"No."
It was hard to get injured when he simply sat around in the Quarrier
Orphanage, doing nothing asides from training Mana and Max to while away
time.
"Have you engaged in the training or mastery of a technique since the

measurement process ended?" She asked with a flat tone.
Obviously, the answer to this was no. It was absolutely impossible to master
any technique in the span of a few days, even if it was the lowest of grades of
difficulty.
"And lastly..." She paused, before bringing out a printed sheet of paper with
writing on it. "Do you consent to partake in a procedure that is inherently
quite painful, strenuous, and risky and agree that the Martial Union holds no
liability in the outcome of the procedure?"
Rui glanced down at the sheet of paper that she had placed in front of him, as
well as the pen.
He would need to sign it to express written consent. This was something he
had expected and been informed of. He signed it without hesitation.
"We'll need to take some blood in order to ensure that your answers to some
of these questions are indeed accurate." Doctor Menun explained.
"Sometimes it is possible that there are issues without the Martial
Apprentice's awareness."
Rui readily offered his arm to the nurse who had a syringe prepared. Soon
enough blood was drawn and was taken away for testing. Fortunately, blood
testing was remarkably quick in this world. It usually took a few days on
Earth. Here, the process was highly expedited when it came to Martial Artists
in order to ensure the timely delivery of the necessary data and information.
And sure enough, it took a little over an hour for the results to come.
"Good news." Doctor Menun told him as she studied his results. "You're
suitable to undergo the breakthrough process to the Squire Realm."
She turned towards him. "All preparations are complete now. Strip all your
clothes down."
She stared at him, almost as if expecting a protest. Yet Rui obliged

wordlessly, handing his clothes to an assistant who collected them. Although
the hormones of his youthful body were annoying in such situations, he was
too old and strong mentally for any embarrassing 'mishaps' to occur.
Not a single individual changed even a shade at the sight of his naked figure,
displaying perfect professionalism.
"The assistants will help you occupy and strap into the apotheosis chamber."
Doctor Menun told him, gesturing towards the machine. It looked like a bed
perfectly meant to encompass a whole human body head to toe. Atop was a
lid that looked like it would absolutely smother him when the chamber
closed. It was the machine within which he would be undergoing
He made his way toward the Apotheosis chamber, sliding on top of it as he

entered the chamber. The assistants and nurses strapped him down firmly,
restricting his movements severely. Soon, they moved away, and the elevated
lid to the chamber came down, shutting the chamber closed.
Immediately, after, two small tubes extended from above him. Attaching
itself to his nose and mouth, and sealing the connection shut. Instantly, a
supply of fresh air came from the tubes, allowing him to breathe peacefully.
The chamber was pitch black, but Rui could still sense the physical layout
quite well thanks to Primordial Instinct and Seismic Mapping. That was why
he immediately sensed when a strange liquid entered the chamber, filling it
up to the very brim.
His body rose to the center of the chamber under the buoyancy force the
liquid generated. Instantly Rui ran some calculations in his mind. Given the
fact that he could sense how much he rose before he stopped, he could
calculate the density of the liquid using the fluid dynamics that he had studied
in his bachelor's of science degree.
('About one thousand eight hundred kilograms per meter cube.') Rui
estimated. ('Definitely not water. I wonder what the point of this liquid is.')
Suddenly, he heard a voice, the sound traveled through the liquid. Yet it was
clear that he was being communicated through using some submerged
speaker.
"Apprentice Quarrier." Doctor Menun's voice rang in his ears. "Do you feel
any nausea, discomfort, or anything else of the sort?"
"Not at all," Rui replied within the mask sealed around his mouth. "I'm
feeling fine."
"Good." Doctor Menun replied. "The process will begin soon enough."
Rui was left in silence as he got to experience absolute solitude, the kind that
provoked introspection and contemplation.
('I've come a long way.') Rui realized.
His mind flashed back to a long time ago. The day he first laid eyes upon
Martial Art. An old retired Martial Squire who had humbly limited himself to
trivial manual labor had accepted a cheap commission from the Quarrier
Orphanage to clear a fallen tree that urgently needed to be moved because it
had been covering the back exit to the Quarrier Orphanage.
Since that very moment, he had been enraptured by the concept of Martial
Art. He had begun doing everything in his power to crack the entrance exam
of the Martial Academy. Subjecting himself to years of fitness and MMA
training. He had trained himself on kickboxing, Brazillian Jiu-jitsu, Judo,
Muay Thai and some Tae-Kwon do. These were a variation of the bread-and-
butter martial arts that UFC fighters strived to master in order to gain
competence and experience in all fields of hand-to-hand combat. These skills
helped him somehow crack the entrance exam and be accepted as a student,
despite the age gap.
He raced through the physical and Martial foundation stages thanks to his
pre-existing martial arts foundation, before being thrust into exploration.
Then, he became a Martial Apprentice after having discovered his Martial
Art, and then a long period of growth; six stages of training thirty techniques.
He had proven himself as a Martial Artist in the many missions he had
undertaken, and now he was ready to take the next step.
('It's been a hell of a journey so far.') Rui mused to himself. ('I can't wait for
the journey that is to come.')
"Apprentice Quarrier." Doctor Menun's voice reverberated through the liquid

he was submerged in. "All preparations have been completed. Are you ready
to begin?"
Rui took a deep breath.
"Yes, please begin."
"Alright, the procedure will begin three... two... one..."
Rui's eyes widened as a surge of pure agony welled up within him.
The sheer intensity, the sheer scope was beyond anything he had ever felt in
his entire life.
"AAAAARRGHHHGRRHRGHRG!" He bellowed into his mask.
He didn't even know what part of his body was actually experiencing pain!
It was as though his very soul was being torn to shreds.
The pain came from everywhere. It was omnipresent.
He had lost all sense of physical self. It was as though his body had
disappeared and his brain and nerves were kept alive, being subjected to the
most horrific artificially manufactured sensations of pain.
Pain radiated across his entire being. As though he was being burnt alive, torn
to shreds, broken to pieces, and flattened down all at once.
It was such a nonsensical amount of pain it almost felt like somewhat that
could only happen in a nightmare, the kind the details of which would be
forgotten once he woke up.
Soon, the pain began eroding everything.
His situational awareness had dropped to zero. The liquid whose density he
had deduced cleverly had all but disappeared. His sense organs were still
functioning but his brain and mind were beset with so much pain that they
temporarily forgot about the senses feeding them information about the
external world.
The sheer amount of pain input his brain was receiving forced it to abandon a
lot of other preoccupations otherwise it would short-circuit and he would
experience a seizure.
The worst was that he could do nothing about it. He couldn't even be in a
position to think about it, because his ability to form conscious thoughts had
been highly nerfed and impeded. Yet that was not the worst of his problems
by a long shot.
He could feel that even his mind was beginning to slip. His consciousness,
chipped away minute bit by bit. It was as though he was drowning, drowning
in an ocean of pain.
Yet, the worst had yet to come.

Chapter 461 Shift
Pain was all he could feel, and his sense of surroundings began disappearing,
however, that wasn't all.
He didn't know how much time had passed within the apotheosis chamber.
Any number of seconds, minutes hours, or even days could have passed.
There was no source of light within the apotheosis chamber, after all. There
was nothing that moved that could indicate the passage of time.
He had earlier relied on his own heartbeat, but now he was consumed in too
much pain for him to be able to focus on his sense of hearing.
Suddenly, a change occurred.
His pain localized to his skin and flesh, the portions of his body that it was
spread across had reduced, but the intensity of the pain had risen.
"AAAARRRRRGHGHRGRHRGR!!" Rui screeched in pain as his brain and

mind reeled at the sheer intensity of the influx of pain that was hitting him.
The pain this procedure was inflicting on him was hitting the limits of the
possible amount of pain that could be felt from a single organ.
He soon realized he had underestimated the sheer amount of agony this

procedure would be subjected to.
Of course, this might have sounded stupid in hindsight. He already knew full
well how the evolution process worked. It should have been obvious to him
that he would feel this kind of pain. But it was difficult to understand
beforehand just how much pain the process would inflict on him. It was one
thing to understand theoretically that he would feel excruciating pain he had
never felt before, it was another thing to be able to actually understand how
much the pain was and how it would feel.
He felt like his nervous system was burning. Each of his nerves was firing an
enormous amount of pain signals all the way to his brain. He felt as though
they were being overburdened by the sheer amount of nervous signals that
were firing back and forth.
An unknown amount of time passed, and eventually, the pain began shifting
inwards.
Amidst all the pain, Rui still managed to comprehend what was happening.
He knew that the evolution process did not happen to all cells all at once.
Instead, the evolution process focused on one system of cells and organs
within the body at a time.
From what Rui was able to piece together despite all the pain, they were
definitely focusing the evolution process on his skin and outer flesh, and now
they were focusing on inner organs.
"AAAARRRGHR!" He screamed in pain, as his muscles stiffened,

experiencing a wave of agony. Every single muscle group felt like they were
on fire. Rui struggled continuously, yet the apotheosis chamber withstood
every ounce of his power without so much as budging. It was a chamber
meant to contain Squire candidates after all.
His muscles burned endlessly. Rui could almost feel muscle fibers in each
muscle dying as the surviving muscle fibers began reproducing and new
muscle fibers took the places of the old ones.
Despite all the pain, he felt a surge of power, unlike anything he had ever felt
before. His muscles were brimming with energy beyond his limits!
With every second, his muscles left human limits as they slowly and steadily
ascended to the Squire Realm, step by step.
Despite the agony, he was submerged in. He could instinctively feel him
stepping away from ordinary humanity as he, for the very first time, ascended
to a higher level.
The pain was horrific, yet he could also feel it filtering out the weaker and
sub-optimal flesh of his body. Anything that remained was among the best of
the best, and it only get better and better thanks to the radiation he was being
subjected to that caused mild mutations in every new generation of cells,
some good and some bad.
The bad ones perished quickly while the good ones survived and reproduced.
Rui could almost feel this process happening as the waves of pain he was
suffering indicated the timing of the filtration processes that were being
subjected to his muscle groups that filtered out genetically superior cells. He
knew that each time he felt a wave of pain, his muscle groups had grown a bit
stronger.
After a long time, the pain shifted away from his muscles as they moved to
his bones.
"AAAAAARRRGRGRRGRH!" He screamed in pain, as sharp and piercing

pains afflicted every ounce of his bone. Although the actual calcium of the
bones was not living, the many nerves that dug around in the bone made it
feel like the bone itself could experience pain.
He felt as though his bones were melting away. He could feel clear alterations
to their mass, abrupt reductions, and increments in their structure.
He could feel them growing denser and heavier with every wave of pain.
Bones were comprised of soft bone which was quite porous and hard bone
which was completely solid, his bones were gaining more of the latter.
The evolution of bones was a bit more complicated than that of cells. The
cells that produced bone were undergoing evolution, however, that wasn't
enough. The existing bones were formed by normal skeletal stem cells, they
were too weak. Thus, the procedure involved breaking down the old bone and
replacing it with bone formed from the evolved skeletal stem cells. The bone
formed by the evolved skeletal stem cells was much denser and harder,
allowing it to withstand a tremendous amount of stress. Without this, the
power exerted by the evolved muscle groups would be too much for the
bones and they would break down under the stress of his own evolved power.
With the evolved bones, he would be able to all out, as far as exertion went,
without having to worry about his skeletal structure crumbling under the
burden of his power.
Time passed. Just as he was finally getting used to the pain in his bones, it
shifted once more, causing immense agony in another part of his body.
Chapter 462 Final Step
An eternity of agony passed on. Rui had no idea how much time had passed
since the commencement of the evolution procedure. His internal clock had
completely been shot thanks to all the pain, and even metabolic phenomena
were no longer reliable because of how much his body was rapidly changing.
Due to that, things like hunger and thirst were no longer reliable indicators of
how much time had passed since he had consumed any food.
The procedure didn't have a defined time limit. This was because everybody
had different physiologies and metabolisms that caused the procedure to
require different amounts of time to complete successfully.
The psychological effect this had on him along with the pain was not light. It
placed an immense burden on his psyche. It wasn't easy maintaining absolute
mental fortitude in the face of an unknown amount of agony. This was
despite his superhuman mental fortitude by virtue of his mind growing twice
and him being a Martial Apprentice. He felt as though if he was an ordinary
person he would have lost his mind by now, or at the very least be afflicted
with severe PTSD
He gritted his teeth as the pain shifted to different parts of his body within
him over long periods of time. He could even vaguely sense which parts of
his body were undergoing the evolution process. After the evolution process
was done with his bones, they moved on toward his abdomen.
('My digestive system?') He wondered, through the pain.
He knew that the process acted system by system. If the pain was inside his
abdomen, then there were a limited number of options it could be. By
narrowing down all the possibilities, by eliminating possible systems that
didn't match up with the place he was experiencing pain in, he could more or
less figure out which parts of his body were undergoing the evolution process
at any given time.
He gasped as his throat felt like it was burning. He felt like he had gotten the
worst sinus infection that could possibly afflict a human body. Every second,
he was in absolute agony, struggling to breathe as he felt like he drunk a glass
full of concentrated acid.
Thankfully, his lungs and trachea were perfectly functional, otherwise, he

would be completely unable to breathe at all.
Time passed on and on, as he gritted his teeth, keeping track of the pain as it
shifted after long periods of evolution.
From the digestive system to the circulatory system. His very veins and
arteries underwent slow and delicate evolution. The process had to be
deliberately slow, otherwise, the system would take too much damage and he
would die. Blood supplied oxygen and the necessary nutrients to every cell,
without which cells would begin dying within a minute.
The pain didn't spread across all veins and arteries at once. Instead, it focused
on one section of the circulatory system at a time. This made it easier to
lower the risk of death during the procedure. The circulatory system was one
of the most vital systems of the human body.
The pain traveled across his body step by step. Despite being focused, the net
agony he experienced wasn't less. If anything, it was even worse. The fact
that it was hyper-focused merely meant that the pain was hyper intense.
He would rather have a little less intense agony spread across his body than
an abysmal amount of pain coming from a singular location.
An unknown amount of time passed and the pain shifted from his circulatory
system to the left side of his chest.
"AAAAAAAAAARRGGHRGRH!" He bellowed in pain as he felt his heart

melting. He didn't even need to employ any amount of deductive reasoning to
know exactly what part of his body was undergoing the evolution process.
His heart.
Or more accurately, his cardiovascular system.
Had Rui not been under a tremendous amount of pain, he would have
wondered whether the filtration processes for the circulatory system were the
same as the ones for the cardiovascular system. After all, the two systems
were so intricately connected. He had no idea whether the two were even
considered to be distinct in the field of biology of Gaea.
An enormous amount of time passed as the remaining systems also evolved

over a long period. The renal system, the endocrine system, the lymphatic
system, and the exocrine systems quickly followed suit.
One by one, they all evolved one after the other.
Until only one organ was left.
The brain.
Or in Rui's case, the brains.
Rui certainly pondered how the process of evolution would be affected by the
fact that he has the Mindmirror Symbiote inside his skull. Thankfully, Squire
Gunther had touched up on it. Symbiotes had an extreme amount of
survivability, thus they were rarely in danger of dying due to the evolution
process, which would affect the DNA of the Mindmirror Symbiote.
Thankfully, the Martial Union had made it a rule to develop the evolution
process for each of the symbiotes that it offered to its Martial Apprentices,
based on its DNA.
Thus, each of the symbiotes had its own customized evolution process. This
included the Mindmirror Symbiote. Rui would be the first Martial Apprentice
to be undergoing the procedure of the evolution of the Mindmirror Symbiote.
This had been a little scary but at the end of the day. There was nothing he
could do about it. All he had to was wait and have faith in the high
competence of the researchers and doctors of the Martial Union.
However, he had counted down and kept track of all the bodily systems that
had evolved, and he knew that the most difficult part of the procedure was
here.
The evolution of the brain.
This part of the procedure was the reason that normal humans couldn't be
evolved. Only the brain of a Squire candidate could possibly survive the
procedure and ascend to a higher form of life. And he would be taking that
final step now.
Chapter 463 Path
It came sooner than he had expected. Yet, the transition took its time.
The pain disappeared.
Rui gasped in relief. He had almost forgotten what it was like to not feel pain.
Pain had been his only reality for extensive periods of time, more time than
he knew. He clenched his fist as raw power coursed through his muscles. He
felt invincible.
Yet, he grimaced.
('My brain... My mind... This body is too much for them as they are right
now.') He winced as flashes of pain coursed through his head.
This pain was not from the evolution procedure, it was pain from his brain
straining.
The human brain had limits to the amount of information it could receive an
influx of from the senses. Normally, the human body did not exceed the limit,
thus the brain was never strained. However, due to the evolved nervous
system and the evolved sensory organs, the influx of information that his
brain was receiving had risen tremendously, beyond its ordinary limits.
That was what was causing his momentary pain.
This was the reason that it was impossible for normal humans to simply avoid
brain evolution. It was not possible to evolve the rest of the body without
evolving the brain. The brain would quickly be overwhelmed.
In fact, Rui was certain that had he not been a Martial Apprentice or
reincarnated man, his brain would have already begun suffering seizures and
strokes due to the overwhelming influx of information.
Just as he tried exploring the new sensations of his new body. The world
disappeared once more.
He could feel nothing.
All that was there was an infinite void.
Soon, even that void was swept away as he reached a familiar place.
('These are my memories...') He looked around as strange visions of

memories of two lifetimes flashed before his eyes. He recalled going through
something similar in the implantation process of the Mindmirror Symbiote.
It was peaceful and blissful, especially in comparison to what he had gone

through prior.
Just as he was beginning to forget that this part of the procedure was
supposed to be the hardest, he was reminded of it.
The world inside his mind shook. A strange force struck it, causing it to
rumble.
Yet, it wasn't done.
He watched in horror as his memories began crumbling bit by bit. Breaking

down to bits as they were destroyed by a mysterious outside force.
A wave of destruction spread through his mind world, destroying everything

in sight. He watched helplessly as the countless memories and experiences he
had forged across two lifetimes began crumbling to dust.
('NO!') His eyes widened as he watched his Mind Palace break down in the
distance. It held strong initially, resisting the destruction. The Mind Palace
was a technique that had been enhanced by the Mindmirror brain, giving it
greater resilience.
Yet in the face of evolution breakthrough, it eventually crumbled as well.

Everything broke down.
Too much had broken down.
His anguish was replaced by confusion as his memories were scattered.
('Who... am I?') He wondered, uncertain. He knew nothing anymore. Nothing

of who he was, where and when he was, or why and how he was.
He looked around. ('Everything... is gone.')
The wave of destruction had rippled through the entirety of his Mind world.
Suddenly, his eyes caught something in the distance. Something that was
resisting destruction. It held strong. Waves of destruction crashed into it over
and over again, yet it remained unfazed. It was the only thing so far that had
successfully survived the assault of destruction.
('What... is that?')
It was a path.
To his shock, it was a path he was standing on.
It extended far beyond the depths of his perception. A path that elevated
towards the heavens above growing in height the further it extended.
It was a path that no one else was on.
It was a calamitous path that wound through all kinds of disasters and
dangers.
Ferocious beasts of various shapes and sizes.
Earthquakes
Volcanoes.
Tsunamis.
Meteorites.
It was a terrifying path.
Yet as terrifying as it was, it was even more beautiful.
It inspired fear.
Yet, it also inspired awe.
The path called out to him. Lulling him. Whispering to him.
The waves of destruction crashed harmlessly against the path, unable to put
so much as a dent in it.
It protected Rui from the destruction, it was the sole reason that he, his
consciousness, had not been annihilated by the waves of destruction.
He had lost almost all of his memories. He was beset by fear, anguish, and
confusion.
Yet despite everything, an epiphany thundered in his mind.
('This... is my Martial Path...') He realized.
It was his consciousness's interpretation of it. A beautiful path that he wanted,

but fraught with danger and risk.
At that moment, the wave of destruction retreated.
To his surprise, the fragmented memories pieced themselves back together,

one by one. With each step the wave took back, a memory was restored.
His eyes widened as he regained the tiniest of motes of his memories every
moment.
('John Falken... Rui Quarrier...') He remembered.

Recognition dawned on his every moment.
It was only after what seemed like an eternity, the wave of destruction had
completely retreated. Everything had returned to how it was previously.
('No... That's not quite right.') He realized. ('It's... stronger. Greater. Larger.')
His mind had grown sturdier. Almost as if what didn't kill him only made him
stronger.
('Was all of this my subconscious mind's interpretation of the evolution

process to the Squire Realm?') He wondered.
If that were the case, then it could only mean one thing.
He opened his eyes as he regained his physical senses.
Raw energy coursed through his veins. Raw power brimmed in his muscles.
An otherworldly amount of awareness and clarity consumed his mind.
He didn't even need the doctors to verify it.
He knew it from the bottom of his heart.
He had ascended to a higher Realm of power.

Chapter 464 Next
Rui suppressed the urge to break out of the apotheosis chamber with his
newfound power. He wondered if the chamber was built to withstand the kind
of power he would unleash when he used Outer Convergence and Flame
Breathing.
Even if his current body was out of sync with the Apprentice-level bodies,
the sheer amount of power he was capable of unleashing was beyond
anything he had ever been capable of in the past. However, he didn't want to
damage the property of the Martial Union needlessly, of course. Besides, he
did not know if the procedure was medically completed.
He sat put for some time, in the darkness of the apotheosis chamber, until
eventually, he heard Doctor Menun's voice through the fluid.
"Squire Quarrier." She addressed him. "I'm pleased to inform you that the
procedure has been completed. Congratulations."
Suddenly, the liquid in the apotheosis began draining. His body slowly
lowered as he eventually hit the base.
The breathing masks detached from his face as they retreated back into the
hatch they came from.
Soon, the top of the apotheosis chamber opened. Rui squinted in pain as the
light from the outside blinded him. Having spent a long time in pure
darkness, the sudden exposure to light was overwhelming. Thankfully, his
other senses were sharp enough to allow him to perceive his environment. He
perceived the team of medical staff that had been overseeing his procedure.
"Squire Quarrier." Doctor Menun approached him. "How do you feel?"

"Amazing," Rui replied, before frowning.
His body had changed so much that even talking felt incredibly strange.
However, his words were true.
He felt like he was in paradise. Not because his condition was particularly
comfortable normally. But because he was no longer in physical pain. This
alone made his current physical state feel like heaven.
"The procedure has been completed successfully. An extraction team is

already en route here, they will aid you in exiting the apotheosis chamber."
Doctor Menun told him.
The reason he couldn't be released then and there was because his control
over his body was highly impeded, one wrong move and he could
unintentionally massacre all of the medical staff in the vicinity. That was why
the protocols involved a separate team that was qualified to handle newly
ascended Martial Squires safely.
Rui nodded. "Thank you, doctor. Thank all of you."
He offered his gratitude to the entire team of medical professionals.
"Not at all, young man." Doctor Menun replied. "We'll be extracting some
blood in order to verify that there aren't any unseen anomalies."
A syringe pierced his arm, extracting blood.
The medical team soon bade him goodbye as they left the facility. Soon, two
people entered, made their way toward him.
They didn't even bother hiding their Squire-level auras.
"Squire Quarrier." One of them addressed him. "I'm Squire Ferin and this is
Squire Gerd. I will be aiding you to your assigned quarters. I will also be
aiding you in the rehabilitation process along with my colleagues."
Rui turned towards them. The two of them were old, with black and white
hair and wrinkles on their skin. They had an edge to their aura, the type that
could only come with a vast amount of experience in conflict. Yet they were
also very clearly retired.
Rui suspected that many retired Martial Squires were recruited to fulfill
positions like these that were best occupied by Martial Squires.
He also hadn't gotten used to being addressed by the Squire title. It felt
surreal, like all of this was some kind of dream. He almost expected to be
woken up.
"Squire Quarrier?" Squire Ferin echoes, raising an eyebrow at the sight of

Rui wordlessly staring at them.
"Ah... My bad." Rui managed to squeeze out. "I honestly still haven't quite
processed everything yet."
"That's quite understandable." Squire Ferin nodded. "The breakthrough to the

Squire Realm is not a light breakthrough and it isn't uncommon for such an
immense internal change to negatively affect mental health if not handled
appropriately. That is what we're here for."
"And what exactly are you supposed to do incidentally?" Rui asked.
"We will be aiding you to your lodgings, and we will be responsible for your
acclimatization process with the power of the Squire Realm." Squire Ferin
replied. "The Martial Union cannot allow a Martial Squire who hasn't yet
mastered their power to return back to the public. The sheer power that
Martial Squires can unleash even without the use of techniques is too much,
the slightest slip can cause a lot of suffering."
"I understand." Rui nodded. This was part of the documents that he had
signed in order to undergo the breakthrough process to the Squire Realm, so
he had no issues with his arrangements.
"Be careful as you get up." Squire Fernin told him as he fiddled with some
keys over at the terminal that controlled the chamber.
The straps restraining Rui's motions unshackled him as they retreated back
into the openings that they came from.
Rui took a deep breath. He would be taking his first real movement as a
Martial Squire at this moment. It was an incredible milestone.
He got up with mild exertion.
BAM!
Rui grimaced as he slammed the ceiling with much speed and power, having
launched his entire body up with just the slightest bit of exertion.
THUD
He fell flat to the ground.
"You exerted yourself too much." Squire Fernin informed him blandly. "Of
course, no need to get worried. This is very normal as the very first
movements as a Martial Squire are the most difficult to be able to control. As
you undergo your acclimatization process, this will change, of course. Once
you've retained control over your body, your time in the acclimatization
phase will end and you will be allowed to return to your normal daily life."
"I understand, Squire Fernin." Rui nodded.
He tried getting up again, yet instead, he launched himself up, spinning

simultaneously. Squire Gerd caught him with an arm, stopping his motion.
Chapter 465 Habilitation
It was only after he had become a Martial Squire that he understood how
nerfed Squire Caella Freelia was against him in their fight. Although they
hadn't fought her the very moment after she became a Martial Squire, it was
still soon enough after her breakthrough when she was still out of sync to be
able to express all of the power of her new body.
Just as he tried to take another step, Squire Fernin stopped him.
"Relax, no need to move right now." He told Rui. "It's best that all of this be
done once we're in a controlled environment. For now, you will be taken to
the Squire habilitation facility in a wheelchair."
They gestured to one in the room, having brought it over.
Rui sighed. He was not too fond of wheelchairs; they reminded him of the
worst part of his life when his health deteriorated to the point that he was
unable to move around on his own. It was one of the worst parts of his life
not only due to his health but also due to the continuous failures he suffered
in trying to make the VOID algorithm viable.
Still, he obliged as they strolled him to the Squire habilitation facility, which
was connected to the breakthrough facility, side by side for convenience.
Once they arrived at the facility, they immediately entered a particular section
of the facility.
"What's this place for?" Rui asked as he looked around. It appeared to be a

storage facility for a strange kind of body suit, of sorts.
"The bodysuits you see here are the core of the habilitation training stage that
you will be undergoing." Squire Fernin told Rui. "These suits are highly
resistive to all movement, and generally limit the power and speed of all
movements by ninety-nine percent."
Rui's eyes lit up in interest as he immediately comprehended the reasoning

for such a form of training. "Steady acclimatization."
"Correct." Squire Fernin nodded. "You will be wearing this suit for the
entirety of your habilitation phase in this facility. We will progressively
lessen the resistance the suit offers to your movements, roughly one-percent a
day. After a hundred days, you will be discharged as long as your control,
accuracy, and precision aren't below the bare minimum standards for you to
not be a threat to civilians and Martial Apprentices around you."
This was new. Rui had never had to exhibit extreme caution to normal
humans around him as a Martial Apprentice because Martial Apprentices
were physically human, only their brains were superhuman.
The way Martial Apprentices generated superhuman power despite having a

normal human body with normal human muscles was thanks to efficiency. It
had taken Rui a while to piece this together since the science in this world
had not developed why having superhuman brains enabled superhuman
physical power. Of course, the principles and mechanics of each technique
were well-known. But the precise neurological reason as to why exactly
superhuman brains enabled Martial Apprentices to use Apprentice-level
techniques was not known.
To anyone except Rui, as far as he knew, thanks to his strong scientific

background.
The answer was simple; efficiency.
Research back on Earth had indicated that human beings generated several
hundreds of joules of energy with every strike. Technically, this was enough
energy to crack and break rocks and boulders.
Yet no human was able to crack and break rocks. Not even the mightiest of
heavyweight fighters who held the world record for the most powerful punch
ever thrown; Francis Zavier Ngannou, could possibly crack and break a rock.
The reason for this was simple, due to the many mechanical inefficiencies
and structural inadequacies of the human body, only a small portion of that
great energy were actually transferred to their striking targets.
Due to this, no human was capable of cracking and breaking rocks with a
strike. Very few animals were capable of such a feat, despite generating far
more than the necessary power to do so.
All of this was due to inefficiency in movements, and inadequacies in

structure.
When a Martial Apprentice discovered their Martial Path, the brain evolved
in battle cognition, and along with it, the potential to be superhumanly
efficient with their motions in combat.
Apprentice-level techniques such as Flame Breathing, Outer Convergence,

and Flowing Canon allowed Martial Apprentices to be extremely efficient
with the energy that their body generated, maximizing both the energy
generated and the amount of the energy generated that actually did damage to
their target.
However, this was a conscious and voluntary phenomenon.
This meant that he could not hurt normal humans unless he used Apprentice-
level techniques. There was never a worry of accidentally bumping into a
human and killing them because he exerted too much force.
However, now that he obtained his Martial body, this was no longer the case.
His natural raw power had been elevated far beyond natural human limits. He
could mangle humans with just a wave of his arm if he wasn't careful.
"You're going to also need to develop a psychological awareness of the sheer

damage you inflict upon humans." Squire Fernin told him. "It's not enough to
just gain control, accuracy, and precision. Your psychology needs to adapt to
your body as well."
"How will we be going about that?"

"Hypnotic therapy." Squire Gerd spoke up for the first time.
Rui turned towards her. "What exactly will that entail."
"We will be subjecting you to a suggestion that will, over time, along with
other measures such as reflexive correction will help you develop the
necessary psychological habits that will ensure that you aren't a threat to the
people you know and care about." Squire Gerd explained. "It's not just
humans you have to worry about, it's also Martial Apprentices. They're now
to you what humans are to them. I am in charge of the psychological
conditioning while Fernin will handle physical habilitation."
Rui now understood why there were two Martial Squires instead of one.
"I look forward to your guidance."

Chapter 466 Rest
The suit was easily worn, thankfully. It slipped on Rui and the assistant staff
members fastened it quickly.
"Woah," Rui murmured. "It's so light, it doesn't even feel like I'm wearing a
suit at all. Can this really impede my motions that much?"
"It's made up of special esoteric substances that are capable of exerting a

tremendous amount of force on your movements." Squire Fernin explained.
"Try getting up normally."
Rui cautiously got up in a normal fashion. He was pleased to see that he

didn't over-exert and send himself flying. His motions were dulled by his suit
just enough that he ended up exerting human-level force.
"Huh, this actually feels quite normal," Rui said appreciatively.
"That's to be expected." Squire Fernin said. "The biggest problem with the
rehabilitation is getting used to how little force you need to apply for daily
mundane tasks."
Rui nodded, this made sense. As a Martial Apprentice with a mostly normal
human body, he normally applied a small, but a decent chunk of his strength
when he performed mundane tasks like walking or eating. However, now he
had to learn to apply the tiniest of motions for these same tasks. Consciously,
this was possible to do, however, it wasn't enough for this to become a
conscious measure. This needed to become part of his subconscious
tendencies and traits, it needed to become as natural as breathing. Such that
he could be assured it would happen even if he wasn't paying any attention to
himself.
"Alright, get some rest for today in your room. You've spent three weeks in a
horrifying procedure, after all." Squire Fernin casually threw that out there.
Rui turned to him in shock. "Three weeks??"
"Yes." Suire Fernin nodded. "Your procedure took a little longer than average
due to the delicate nature of your brains."
"I see..." Rui pondered deeply. Thankfully, he had already informed the
Orphanage that he would be leaving for some time.
"The staff members will help you with your room and other matters." He told
Rui. "For now, get some rest. We'll begin tomorrow. Goodbye."
Rui bade him goodbye as he turned to the staff members for aid. Now that he
had the body suit impeding his extra power immensely, he could more or less
move around normally. He was quickly assigned a room in the facility.
"Ohhh mannnn..." Rui groaned in comfort as he crashed into a comfortable

bed in his room. He reveled in its comfort, having been forced to deal with
the torture and general discomfort of the Apotheosis chamber.
He retrieved his communicator from the bag filled with his belongings,
sending a message to Julian, the only one in the Orphanage with a
communicator. He also sent messages to each of his six friends, informing
them of his breakthrough to the Squire Realm, before tossing his phone aside.
He was tired. Although the procedure had rejuvenated him with mental and
physical rejuvenation potions, the former had long lost effectivity.
Furthermore, the exhaustion he felt was more psychological than anything

else. He just wanted to rest a bit before he set out on the next phase of his
Martial journey.
On the other hand, he was also excited about the fact that he was a Martial
Squire. Having stepped into the Squire Realm, he had still not gotten over it.
Generally, he was level-headed and calm regarding other matters, but when it
came to Martial matters, he could be immature.
At this very moment, he was in a way no different from a child that had
received the toy that they desired the most for Christmas.
('I wonder what the habilitation training will be like.')
He suspected that it wouldn't be too different from the physical and Martial
foundations of the Martial Academy. These phases focused on the core of
Martial Art. They focused on the most important and fundamental aspects of
any physical conflict.
Things like accuracy, precision, timing, coordination, and balance were all
aspects of his motion that would require training from scratch.
('In a way, this isn't too different from the mismatched muscle memory
between my body of Earth and the new body I got in Gaea.') He realized.
He had taken truly a long time to overcome the incompatible muscle memory
that he had retained from Earth. It had taken many years despite working
hard. Thankfully, the Martial Union could speed up the process thanks to
hypnotic mental manipulation techniques.
What otherwise took many years to fully overcome would hopefully take
much lesser time thanks to the mental manipulation.
('This is just the beginning though.') Rui noted. ("I still have the Squire-level
equivalent of Apprentice-level techniques to master.')
That wasn't something he would be able to master any time soon. He had
mastered thirty Apprentice-level techniques at this point, even if mastering
the Squire-level equivalent took only a month per technique. That would still
take two and a half years to complete in its totality.
('It's like becoming a Martial Apprentice all over again.') Rui couldn't help
but think so. He was starting off with effectively no techniques whatsoever,
just like he did when he became a Martial Apprentice. It was almost a fresh
start in many ways.
Of course, he didn't plan on re-mastering all of his old techniques. Not all of
them needed to be re-mastered, and some were simply no longer worth it.
Techniques like Stinger and Adamant Reforging were passive and did not
disappear entirely due to the transition, however, techniques such as Blink
were entirely obsolete at the Squire Realm. Lack of vision was a meaningless
hindrance that accomplished absolutely nothing against a Martial Squire with
superhuman senses that allowed them to map their environment with their
remaining senses. Furthermore, most Martial Squires had at least one sensory
technique.
Thus, his Martial Art was likely not going to be identical to what it was when
he was a Martial Apprentice.
His attention wandered between many topics, yet eventually, exhaustion took
over his excitement and he began to nod off, falling asleep.
Chapter 467 Heights
The habilitation training began immediately the next day.
Rui was immediately thrust into training regiments that honed his accuracy
and precision. Despite the suit reducing most of the power he generated so
that it resembled his old body, he was still unaccustomed to his new body.
The differences between his old and new body were greater than he had
expected. The relationship between how much power, speed, and durability
he had had fundamentally changed. His power decreased slightly while his
speed had increased slightly compared to his old body.
This was not an enormous difference, but it was enough to throw off all of his
movements. What had fundamentally changed was the ratio between the
power output of his muscles and the mass of his body. The raw speed of a
Martial Artist depended on how much power their muscles generated with
respect to how much they weighed. It was this ratio that mattered.
Someone capable of generating a vast amount of power would still be

average in speed if they also weighed a lot.
Currently, his body had evolved in precisely the manner needed to ensure that
there was an equal weightage between power, speed, and durability. His old
body had placed a little bit more weight on power and durability compared to
speed.
Due to this, he had found that his timing for all complicated maneuvers was
too late. Since his movements were proportionally quicker, he was still acting
on his old speed where he was slower.
This was one of the biggest errors in his muscle memory that messed up his
accuracy a lot. He had to throw himself into extensive repetitive training all
over again. Getting rid of the muscle memory from his previous life fully had
taken a long time of extensive training. Thankfully, it wasn't the same case
for his current muscle memory. Squire Gerd subjected him to a light hypnotic
suggestion that allowed him to replace old muscle memory with new muscle
memory quicker far quicker than was humanly possible.
"This technique 'convinces' the subconscious mind to let go of the past and
accept the future." Squire Gerd explained. "Thanks to this you're able to
unlearn the tendencies from your old human body and create new ones for
your Martial body."
Rui nodded. Of course, from a scientific perspective, this explanation made

very little sense and was inadequate. However, Rui had hypotheses on the
mechanics of the technique.
('Enhanced neural plasticity is probably the answer.') Rui mused.
Memory as a neurological phenomenon was the result of a biochemical trait

of neurons known as neural plasticity.
Neural plasticity was the ability of the neural networks of the brain to change
through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function
in some way that differs from how it previously functioned. These changes
range from individual neuron pathways making new connections to
systematic adjustments like cortical remapping.
From what Rui could see, Squire Gerd had somehow enhanced the neural
plasticity of the part of his cerebellum that was responsible for muscle
memory. A fascinating technique that allowed its target to unlearn past habits
and gain new habits quicker as a result.
('It's also why Squire Fernin is extremely strict during training.') Rui mused.
Although this technique was a boon to Rui, it was also risky. Mistakes and
flaws were costlier because he replaced old tendencies with new tendencies,
all new tendencies, including the flawed ones with mistakes. If the flaws were
allowed in, then he would not be able to get rid of them, not without
undergoing the whole procedure all over again.
Thus, the standards he was held to were extremely high.
"Part of the reason I was chosen as a Squire habilitator was because of

extraordinary vision, allowing me to assess the accuracy and precision of
your movements on a microscopic level." Squire Fernin told him. "I can see
every mistake, flaw, and shortcoming in every single one of your movements
thanks to that and my experience and training in this matter. Currently, your
maneuvers are infested with mistakes, as is to be expected. I will be
correcting each and every single one of them during your habilitation phase."
Many of Rui's training sessions were consumed simply by Squire Fernin

fixating on merely a handful of Rui's mistakes. Only after Rui performed with
accuracy and precision that satisfied him, was he allowed to even begin the
repetitive training to burn the accurate movements into his muscle memory.
One of the particularly annoying obstacles in his way was the difference in
the center of gravity between his old and new body. His body was heavier,
but the mass was not distributed in the exact same way as with his old body.
His bones and muscles were disproportionately denser, causing a change in
the center of gravity of his body as a whole.
This affected his dynamic balance; the ability to maintain balance during
curvilinear motion.
He would often trip and lose balance every time he performed complicated
whole-body maneuvers due to this.
In fact, in the first couple of days of his training, he wasn't even able to
perfectly somersault consistently. An embarrassing thing for a Martial Artist
of his caliber to accept. Yet it only fueled his motivation to grow and regain
his motor capabilities.
"Calm down." Squire Fernin told him. "Your current state is frustrating,
however, it is entirely normal. Your rate of growth is fascinating. Your brain
and mind are soaking up your training at a speed I have never seen before."
Rui didn't even bother trying to explain it. He couldn't.
"In fact, that isn't the only oddity about you." Squire Fernin stroked his white
beard. "Your raw physical parameters are greater than what should be
possible. You're stronger and faster than someone who underwent the all-
rounder evolution process should be. It's truly bizarre, I have never seen a
Martial Squire start off from such a high starting point. You do live up to the
rumors, Rui Quarrier. Who knows to what height you'll rise if this is where
you begin."
Chapter 468 Consequences
Days passed.
Half his time went into physical training while the other half went into
psychological training. To his surprise, the psychological training was just as
hard as the physical training.
"Your reflexes must become more defensive." Squire Gerd told him. "You
cannot flail around with that kind of power, it needs to be controlled and
safe."
They were in a room, meditating. Rui absorbed her words, taking them in.
This was one of the therapeutic training sessions that he was made to
undergo. It lasted a few hours until they were done.
"Does the Martial Union go this far for non-Martial Artists?" Rui asked
afterward. "Ultimately, it's an organization for Martial Artists, not everybody
else, right?"
It's not that Rui didn't understand the point of the rule, it made sense, but it
was also quite restrictive to Martial Artists. Although he was personally
doing well with the training, he could imagine others having a hard time with
the training. Was the Martial Union really the kind of organization that would
hamper Martial Artists for the sake of civilians?
"Martial Artists need to integrate into society." Squire Gerd told him. "Part of
that entails not being a permanent threat and risk to all people around us.
We'll be detached from society if we are unable to not hurt people by
mistake. That increases the probability of a civil war between the state and
Martial Artists."
"Is the Martial Union that concerned with the coexistence of Martial Artists
and normal human civilization?" Rui asked, probing a bit more.
"..." She pondered his question. "Those that are in power care enough, yes.
Although there are those of political factions within the Martial Union that
disagree."
"Factions within the Martial Union?" Rui asked, curious. "That are separate
from the Martial Sects?"
"The Martial Sects are centered around a very specific matter; the budget
allocation of research and development funds." She explained. "They do not
concern themselves with any other matters outside of the political advocacy,
campaigning, and lobbying for the research budget allocated to the research
of the techniques that each Martial Sect is centered around. The political
factions concern themselves with much bigger matters."
"Matters like what?"
"Matters like the one you brought up." Squire Gerd replied. "The matter
about the role and place for Martial Artists in society is not a simple matter,
most certainly not something that everybody agrees upon."
"There are political factions centered around the role that Martial Artists
ought to play in society?" Rui asked.
"Of course, several of them." Squire Gerda answered him. "There are Martial
supremacists that believe that Martial Artists are superior beings that ought to
rule humanity by virtue of our power. Of course, they aren't the majority. The
majority are normal Martial Artists that believe that Martial Artists while
superior in combat, ought to be part of normal human civilization in some
form of coexistence."
"I presume that faction is much larger and also in power now?" Rui asked.
"You can say that." Squire Gerd nodded. "That's why a large number of the
policies and conditions that the Martial Union has are conducive towards
ensuring that Martial Artists are able to integrate into the Kandrian Empire as
seamlessly as possible."
"Does that include the Martial Festival, as well as the fact that offense-class
missions are not permitted within the boundaries of the Kandrian Empire?"
Rui asked.
"Indeed, they are among the more prominent measures." Squire Gerd nodded.
The Martial Festival was a large festival that celebrated Martial Art and
Martial Artists. It was a festival that attributed positive energy to Martial Art
and Martial Artists. Rui had no doubt in his mind that it played an important
and significant role in ensuring that Martial Artists were as well integrated
into modern society as they currently were.
Festivals were a vital and core aspect of cultures, and clearly, the Martial
Union knew about this, which is why they made a gigantic fussy festival
every five years, in order to ensure that culture and values would always
remain on the side of the Martial Artists.
The fact that offense class missions did not occur within the boundaries of the
Kandrian Empire also greatly helped in this matter. If the citizens of the
Kandrian Empire had to live every day worried that Martial Artists of the
Martial Union would assault them or even kill them due to a simple private
commission, then Martial Artists would certainly be hated.
However, because no offense-class missions were allowed in the Kandrian

Empire, all the citizens of the Kandrian Empire ever saw were Martial Artists
protecting normal humans in defense-class missions and hunting dangerous
animals and keeping them at bay, risking their lives all the time. This greatly
aided in the process of creating a positive image of Martial Artists in the
mind of the citizens of the Kandrian Empire.
Furthermore, the Martial Union also tolerated odd and quirky commissions
that went straight into the miscellaneous class of missions, these earned the
Martial Union the reputation of being tolerant and flexible.
"What happens to Martial Squires that aren't able to achieve an adequate

degree of control?" Rui asked.
"The Martial Union infringes on their freedom to a certain degree if the
degree of control is too low. Low to the point that unintentional mass murder
is guaranteed. If it's not a severe lack of control, then the punishments and
penalties of different kinds." Squire Gerda told him straightforwardly. "This
is part of the agreement that you signed before you were allowed to undergo
the Squire evolution breakthrough process. Martial Squires are far too much
of a threat to those around them. We can exert Apprentice-level power with
just our raw physicality alone."
Rui raised an eyebrow at those words. "So if I fail the habilitation phase
completely, I may be restricted from leaving and forced to continue training?
Will the Martial Union actually go that far?"
"Of course." Squire Gerd. "I've seen it happen before. I, along with Squire
Fernin, will be judging you by the end of your habilitation phase."
Of course, Rui was merely curious. There was basically no chance of him
failing the Squire habilitation phase. Part of this was due to the fact that he
was most certainly a fast learner thanks to the enhanced nature of his brain
and mind.
A little over three months passed. Extensive and difficult training regimens
allowed him to finally completely adapt to his new body.
By day hundred, the suit was off and his accuracy and precision were
incredibly high despite using the full power of his Martial body.
BAM!!
A tremendous strike crashed against a wall. The full unshackled might of a

Martial Squire crashed into the barrier.
"Fuuuu..." Rui exhaled.
"A perfect strike." Squire Fernin told him. "You've mastered your Martial
body. How does it feel to finally be a full-fledged Martial Squire?"
"Incredible," Rui admitted.
He felt like a god.
Without any technique, with just the slightest exertion of his body, he was
already able to output power that far exceeded most Martial Apprentices. The
fact that he could defeat his previous self without a single Squire-level
technique was something that boggled his mind.
"You have far exceeded the necessary level of control needed to successfully
pass the Squire habilitation phase." Squire Fernin informed him.
"Congratulations."
"Can I begin undertaking Squire-level missions immediately?" Rui asked out

of the blue.
"Yes, but it is highly recommended against." Squire Gerd chimed in. "As you
are now, you would lose handily to any Martial Squire. Undertaking any
mission as you are right now is risky. It is recommended you master a few
Squire-level techniques, be they Squire-level versions of techniques you
mastered in the past or new Squire-level techniques that are more suited to
your Martial Art."
"People do that?" Rui frowned. "Abandon old techniques for new

techniques?"
"It is common." Squire Fernin told him. "Squire-level versions of Apprentice-

level techniques are often not as good as techniques that were created for the
Squire Realm. At the end of the day, techniques created for a purpose will
generally be better than techniques that were created for another purpose
originally, but are adapted for yet another purpose."
"That makes sense." Rui nodded. "At the end of the day, the only reason
Apprentice-level techniques are adapted to Squire-level is to allow Martial
Squires to retain the progress that they made in a lower Realm."
"Correct." Squire Fernin nodded. "Most Martial Squires find a balance

between old and new. There is no shortage of techniques that can't be applied
to Martial Squires."
Rui nodded, thinking of Blink. The technique was not only useless but also
detrimental in Squire-level combat.
"Furthermore, each Martial body is unique due to the starting point of each
body being unique. The necessity for originality and individuality in your
techniques rises a lot now that you have become a Martial Squire. You will
need to become truly separate your Martial Art from that anything that exists
or has existed. Remember, every Martial Path is unique, and that needs to
reflect in your Martial Art as well." He told Rui.
Rui nodded. He had heard this before as well. In order to walk down a
Martial Path that was unique, the individuality in his Martial Art needed to
reflect, otherwise, he could not ascend to a higher Realm.
Of course, this was easier said than done. There was a reason the population
of Martial Artists of higher Realms was exponentially lower than those of
Realms lower. Martial Apprentices accounted for an overwhelming majority
of the population of Martial Artists. Part of this was because most Martial
Apprentices of previous generations simply failed to imbue their Martial Art
with the necessary amount of individuality needed to elevate it to a higher
Realm.
It was an incredibly difficult task to create one's own technique, after all.
"It is worth it in more ways than one, however." Squire Fernin informed him.
"Techniques successfully created by Martial Artists generally have an
extreme amount of compatibility with one's self than other techniques."
Rui turned towards Squire Fernin, deeper in thought.
"The physical variation among bodies of Martial Squires is far greater than
the variation among Martial Apprentices. Martial Apprentices are normal
humans as far as physicality goes. There is variation among normal humans,
of course, but ultimately, they are within certain limits. Humans on a broad
scale are quite similar to each other."
"The same cannot be said for Martial Squires, I presume?" Rui asked,
understanding the point Squire Fernin was trying to make.
Squire Fernin shook his head. "At least, not to the same degree. Martial
Squires deviate from humanity on a fundamental level, there is greater
variation among us. This ends up affecting Squire-level techniques as well."
"I see." Rui quickly pieced it together. "Because Squire-level techniques have
to cater to a wider variety of Martial bodies, it is more difficult to find
techniques with satisfactory compatibility with yourself in particular."
The further away Rui was from the Martial body type that a particular
technique had complete compatibility with, the lesser the compatibility he
had with that technique.
"That's right." Squire Fernin nodded. "Most Squire-level techniques are

created with some combination of the Martial Union and a Martial Squire.
The larger pool of types of Martial bodies has caused more techniques to be
too incompatible with a lot of Martial Artists."
"The best solution would be to create your technique, but that's too difficult
for an overwhelming majority of Martial Artists. Perhaps it is feasible for a
few techniques, but no more than that, surely?" Rui wondered.
"What matters is individuality." Squire Fernin told him. "It is very rare that a
new technique is conjured from thin air. Gaining inspiration from other
techniques, from the world around you, and creating techniques that borrow
from already existing phenomena is the norm. Even simply modifying a
technique to suit your needs involves individuality. You will find that
inevitably, you will need to engage in individuality as a matter of
inevitability, not just necessity."
Rui frowned at those words.

Chapter 470 Next
Once the two Squire habilitators officially declared his success at undergoing
Squire habilitation, Rui no longer had anything else that needed to be done.
"Thank you for all your help." Rui shook the hands of the two Martial
Squires.
"Not at all." Squire Fernin waved his hand dismissively.
"You accomplished it through your own hard work." Squire Gerd told him.
He bade them farewell, leaving the Martial Union.
"Ah, freedom." Rui inhaled deeply.
He had spent a lot of time with his freedom shackled to a certain extent in the
past three months. Be it the Squire breakthrough process, or the Squire
habilitation process. Both were necessary, but both certainly were
suffocating.
He reveled in the sense of freedom he got from finally having left the Martial
Union.
"Time to go home." He immediately began jogging in the direction of the

Quarrier Orphanage.
As much as he wanted to begin obtaining some Squire-level techniques

immediately, he decided to go back home and connect with his family for
some time. He hadn't seen them in quite some time, after all.
He began sprinting in the direction of the Quarrier Orphanage. Each step

shook the Earth, he sped through the districts at a speed that he had never
moved before in his entire life. He had surpassed all limits and peaks that
held him back as a Martial Apprentice.
Soon, he had arrived, opening the gate and making his way inside.
"RUIIIII!" Alice squealed when she saw him.
"How are you always the first to notice me?" Rui wondered aloud as he
exchanged a hug with her.
"Hehe... I can sense when family is close by." She beamed at him.
"That's a neat trick," Rui admitted.
Soon he was greeted by the others. It had taken him quite some time to pacify
their curiosity regarding his status as a Martial Squire.
He had informed all of them about the success of his breakthrough to the
Squire Realm through Julian, but they still wanted to know the difference.
"Wow." Farion frowned. "Each of your steps feels like a rock dropped to the
floor."
"I have put on weight due to becoming a Martial Squire," Rui admitted. "It
makes things inconvenient. I'm honestly not sure if my bed can hold my
weight anymore."
"Rui..." Lashara emerged into the hall where everyone had gathered.
"Mom." He walked forward, exchanging a hug with her.
"My precious baby." She addressed him, stroking his head. "You seem very
different."
"Yeah well, the breakthrough to the Squire Realm has caused a lot of changes
to my body you see." Rui shrugged.
"Are you okay?" Lashara asked, worried.

"Never felt better, actually." Rui smiled.
"To think that kid who was obsessed with Martial Art since forever ago went
and actually became a martial Squire."
"I remember when you used to pester us to help you train, dragging us to the
frozen river every winter and practicing your balance on the ice."
"We get at least half the credit for you becoming a Martial Squire. The
Martial Union should give us honorary Martial licenses."
They teased him a bit, before eventually letting him settle down. He found
himself sitting opposite to Julian in the study.
"So, was it as excruciatingly painful as advertised?" Julian asked.
"More than you can possibly fathom." Rui sighed. "It truly is a procedure that
only Squire candidates can survive."
"The suffering was inevitable. Thankfully, there were no further health

complications." Julian sighed
Rui nodded. Shortly after the doctor had extracted his blood after the
procedure ended, he received word that there were no health complications
with his breakthrough to the Squire Realm.
Rui was more afraid of that than anything else. The pain was no doubt the
single most torturous experience of both of his lives, but at least the pain
wasn't a threat to his life or health. It was the price of undergoing the
breakthrough evolution to the Squire Realm, but the pain did not cause any
impediments to his Martial Path.
Had the procedure failed in some way, that would be a terrible outcome.
Fixing the mistake would be extremely difficult, potentially impossible, and
certainly painful as all hell. This was the outcome that Rui feared the most.
"Congratulations on your successful breakthrough to the Squire Realm, Rui."

Julian smiled. "You've truly come far, and you're set to go further."
"Thanks, Julian." Rui smiled back. "I'm genuinely indebted to you for helping
me with the Vinfranian research, the information those filed provided me
helped me become stronger as a Martial Squire."
He was referring to the Mind Switch technique. That technique had allowed
him to obtain physical prowess greater than what he would normally have
obtained had he not learned that technique.
"Is that so?" Julian asked with a curious expression on his face. "How so?"
"I mastered a technique that increased my energy reserve in a very organic

and natural way," Rui explained. "This allowed me to go for a stronger and
more energy-intensive Martial body than I would have normally been able to
acquire. So, I'm quite grateful to you."
"That's what brothers are for." Julian smiled. "I'm glad to hear that you
benefitted from my reports of the Vinfranian research data. It certainly did
benefit me."
"It's a win-win." Rui pointed out.
"Indeed. What do you plan to do from here on out?" Julian asked, curious.
"Well, I need to get my hands on Squire-level techniques." Rui sighed.

"Otherwise, there is nothing else that can be done. I'm in an awkward
position where I'm overqualified for Apprentice-level missions and
underqualified for Squire-level missions."
He didn't plan to immediately focus on remastering all thirty of the

techniques he had mastered as an Apprentice, in one go. That would take too
much time. Furthermore, as Squire Fernin pointed out, compatibility was a
much bigger issue for Squires than it was for Martial Apprentices. Squire-
level versions of techniques he was compatible with as a Martial Apprentice
may not be compatible with him in the Squire Realm.
He would need to be careful.

Chapter 471 Training
The time he spent with his family was healing and soothing. Helping them
out with manual labor, and stockpiling enough firewood for the coming
winter. Due to the distance between the Orphanage and even the closest
district of the town of Hajin, it wasn't very practical to try and rely on it for
resources once winter came in full force. The Orphanage stored up as much
as they could on all essential supplies so that they would become self-
sustaining for at least the harshest parts of winter.
Aside from that, he spent his time training Max and Mana too. Of all the
children in the Orphanage, they were among the most inspired and motivated
to follow in his footsteps and become Martial Apprentices. Their resolve had
managed to withstand the test of time, and the difficulty of the training
regimes that Rui had made them undergo.
They were both twelve. This meant that, soon, they would become eligible
for the Martial Exam.
Rui had mixed feelings about letting thirteen-year-olds undergo the Martial
Exam. Of course, he himself underwent it at the age of thirteen, but he was
mentally an adult and he knew what he was getting into. Mana and Max were
still kids, both physically and mentally.
Of course, in this world, people weren't coddled nearly as much as first-world

kids back on Earth. The world was harsher and more dangerous. This forced
them to mature faster.
Still, the Martial Exam guaranteed injury, and the possibility of death existed
as well. The Martial Exam was made just tough enough that at least one
applicant would die every year in each of the sixteen Martial Academies.
Part of this was no doubt to deter a large chunk of highly unfit Martial Artist
aspirants that would have undoubtedly applied for the exam had the exam not
been at least this dangerous.
Another reason he had some compunctions against letting them participate

was that they would be younger and weaker than an overwhelming majority
of the applicants partaking in the Martial Exam. Of course, failure was not
bad. It would give them some experience with the difficulty and ruthlessness
of the Martial Exam.
Still, that meant that they had a higher chance of suffering grave injury or, in
the worst possible scenario; death.
Of course, it would be double standards considering that Rui had attempted

and successfully cleared the Martial Exam at the age of thirteen.
Still, he had gotten a pass from everybody else because he demonstrated a

genius-level intellect, having learned language and academics at an
extraordinarily young age. He also had a generally calm and composed
temperament from a very young age. So much so that after thirteen years of
observation of him, Julian had hit the truth, even if jokingly, about Rui, about
his reincarnation.
All of that atop his severe determination had led the adults of the Orphanage
to allow him to undertake the exam.
The same could not necessarily be said for Mana or Max. They were driven,
however, they had an immature temperament; lacking in patience and
composure.
"What are we training today?" Max asked, interrupting his thoughts.
Rui turned to face the two of them. He found their determination and
eagerness adorable and worrisome at the same time.
"Mental fortitude," Rui replied.
"Why are we so far from home?" Mana wondered aloud.

"This training can trouble others, unfortunately," Rui explained. "That's why I
wanted to do it away from the others."
"Trouble?" Max frowned. "What even is mental fortitude anyway?"
"Endurance. Not of the body, but of the mind." Rui tapped his head.
"How do you even train such a thing?" Mana asked.
"The same way you train anything else," Rui replied. "Perseverance. Now,
stand before me."
They obediently obeyed, curious at what was going on.
"Alright then, let's begin. From this point forth, you need to do your best to
remain standing where you are to the best of your abilities, ok?" Rui asked.
They nodded, firmly planting their feet on the ground.
Rui breathed deeply, as he very mildly opened up a bit of the Mind Mask
technique that had been covering up his Squire-level aura.
Mental techniques were easier to adapt to the Squire Realm because the
evolution the brain underwent did not have a gigantic variation as far as
mental parameters went. They were purely normal human brains scaled up
through evolution. Thus, Apprentice-level mental techniques could more
straightforwardly be used in the Squire Realm.
This was especially true for Rui, who had an affinity for mental techniques.
In the past three months of his Squire habilitation phase, he had managed to
retain most of the effectivity of the Mind Mask technique. Enough to seal off
his Squire-level aura when interacting with his family. A Squire-level threat
evoked too much passive fear in ordinary humans. He would be tormenting
his family if he let his ablaze strongly.
The Mind Mask technique allowed him to appear no different from an

ordinary person.
He had peeled off just the tiniest bit of the mask. He wanted to make sure he
started at almost rock bottom before escalating the pressure bit by bit. If he
started too high, he might trigger shock.
Max and Mana stiffened as they felt significant pressure mounting upon
them. What was almost entirely insignificant to Rui at this point, was more
pressure than the two of them had ever endured.
Yet, they gritted their teeth and stood strong against the pressure they were
being put under. They did their best to fight away the fear with determination.
Yet Rui merely increased the pressure he exerted on them, slowly and
exceedingly carefully of course, but he increased it nonetheless.
Soon his pressure had reached the Apprentice Realm and they had reached
their limits. They bother took a step back, unable to bear it any longer.
"Not bad." Rui nodded as he extinguished the pressure. "Considering that you
haven't had any training for it yet. However, this alone won't allow you to
pass the first round of the Martial entrance exam."
Their mental fortitude wasn't quite there yet. At the level they currently were
at, they wouldn't be able to pass the first stage. Building up the necessary
mental fortitude would take months. Thankfully, months, they had.
The only problem was that Rui wasn't always going to be around. In fact, he
planned to leave once the Quarrier Orphanage had completed all the required
preparations for winter. He had stalled long enough and had taken enough of
a break. The best he could do was commission a Martial Apprentice to
continue their mental fortitude training.
And soon enough, the time had come. Rui bade his family farewell before he
set out for the Martial Union. The time to strengthen and elevate his Martial
Art to the Squire level had come. He could barely suppress his grin as he ran
at an incredible pace to the Martial Union, reaching them in no time at all.
The more time he spent on his Martial Path, the further he walked down it,
and the lesser time it took for him to cross to travel to the heart of the town of
Hajin from the orphanage. He recalled a time when it took him around an
hour, now, he crossed it in a minute, without any exertion at all.
Soon enough, he had reached the heart of the town of Hajin. He quickly
provided his license to the security check-in before they allowed him in.
Before he knew it, he had already reached the Squire Library, finally pausing.
It's not that he hadn't considered what he wanted to re-master first, it just
wasn't an easy consideration. He had mastered thirty techniques as a Martial
Apprentice, he most certainly wouldn't be able to master all thirty in a single
training phase.
He needed to pick and choose wisely.

The only real condition there was to the choices he made was that his Martial
Art needed to be as well-balanced as possible as far as the techniques he
would be mastering and the weightage they added to his Martial Art.
('Since I have effectively zero techniques at this moment, let's go for the
maximum and purchase six. Can't really be trusted to go on Squire-level
missions with fewer.') Rui noted.
He opened up his Mind Palace, another mental technique that worked exactly
like it did when he was a Martial Apprentice. He skimmed through all the
techniques he had ever mastered.
In the first training phase that he had ever undergone:
Vital Pressure, Elastic Shift, Helical Breathing, Acute Edge, and Balanced
Direction. One offensive technique, two defensive techniques, one offensive,
and one maneuvering technique. They were foundational techniques that,
individually, were relatively weak, but were a force to reckon with when used
alongside the many other techniques he had mastered over the years.
He quickly sorted all the techniques into groups.
Offensive techniques:
Vital Pressure (striking), Flowing Canon (striking), Mirage Dive (grappling),

Stinger (striking), Reverberating Lance (Striking), Tempestuous Ripple
(Projectile launching)
Defensive techniques:
Elastic Shift, Inner Divergence, Acute Edge, Adamant Reforging, Shifting

Silhouette/
Maneuvering techniques:
Balanced Direction, Parallel Walk, Blink (also stealth), Phantom Step,

Shadow Step.
Supplementary techniques: Outer Convergence (offensive enhancement),

Flame Breathing, WInd Breathing, Helical Breathing, and Final Breathing.
Counter-offensive techniques;
Binding Lash, Flow Flux.
He discounted the mental techniques for obvious reasons. The same could be
said for sensory techniques, which did not require re-mastering.
Now, he had to choose just the right and strongest combination of techniques
while also ensuring that they constituted a well-balanced Martial Art that was
just right for him.
That was the hard part. A satisfactory outcome was easy enough, all he
needed to was pick a reasonable selection of diverse techniques. But that
wasn't satisfactory to Rui, he was aiming for the best choice, the most optimal
choice.
('The first thing I can do is rule out the foundational and lower-grade
techniques unless necessary.') Rui noted.
The only reason he had ever chosen foundational techniques was that he had
no choice in the very beginning. After all, he didn't have the capital to
purchase any worthwhile technique at the time, he had to choose among the
foundation techniques that were free of charge.
Considering he had only six slots or so, he was going to fill them up with
high-grade techniques.
('My Martial Art needs to have offense, defense, and maneuvering equally,
for now, everything else comes later.') He nodded.
That left two techniques for each of them.
('Outer Convergence for offense is surely the first choice.') Rui nodded.
It was a powerful technique that allowed Rui to bolster his offensive prowess
with power from every muscle group in the body.
This technique was powerful, and highly versatile and could be used in a lot
of situations and scenarios. It had saved Rui's life many a time in the field,
and he had grown too attached to the technique as well.
That was one down.
('I'll have to go with Reverberating Lance for the second option.') Rui
decided. It was a powerful technique that permeated the impact of his strikes
deeper into more vulnerable and vital areas to cause more damage. It
increased the damage he inflicted with every strike.
Of course, there were other candidates. Flowing Canon had been with him for
a long time, and he did intend to remaster it someday. As for the Stinger, it
had lost some of its value at the Squire Realm. Having experienced other
types of Martial bodies, he knew that the danger of the smaller punctures in
the flesh that the Stinger technique inflicted were no longer as effective as
they were against Martial Apprentices. The endurance of Martial Squires
towards flesh wounds and blood loss had evolved to a higher level, unless he
pierced an extremely vital spot, it was not going to be nearly as effective.
Another strong candidate was the Tempestuous Ripple technique, of course.

A powerful technique that gave him long-range damaging capabilities. But he
wanted to ground his fundamentals before he retained his other capabilities.
If he ever chose to re-master all his other techniques in the first place.
Chapter 473 Individuality
He had made his choices for offense, the next was defense. This was a
remarkably easy choice for Ves.
('Inner Divergence and Adamant Reforging it is.') he nodded.
These were his two most powerful defensive techniques. Inner Divergence
was an active defensive technique that worked by spreading the impact of the
strike across all muscle groups. Effectively the muscles of the body acted as a
shock absorbent for the entire body. The impact was safely dispersed instead
of inflicting damage on the area of the collision.
Adamant Reforging was a training technique that strengthened the flesh of

the user. Flesh would grow more reinforced across many rounds of
restorative healing from wounds inflicted in just the right manner, allowing
for a tougher exterior. This would result in a passive defense for the user in
question.
A good balance between passive and active defenses.
That left two maneuvering techniques.
One of them was definitely the Phantom Step technique. The technique was
incredibly useful and had helped Rui immensely since the very day that he
mastered it. However, none of the other techniques were all too alluring at
this point in time. Out of the remaining four, two of them were foundational
techniques that automatically ruled them out in his head.
That left Blink and Shadow Step. However, one was obsolete in the Squire
Realm while the other was not combat-oriented. It was suited for infiltration
and other operations that required genuine stealth. He didn't have another
technique.
('I guess I can go for Wind Breathing?') Rui wondered, scratching his head.
Technically, it was a supplementary technique, not a maneuvering technique,
but it boosted his agility and speed. Still, it suited his needs.
That was his technique roster;
Outer Convergence.
Wind Breathing.
Phantom Step.
Inner Divergence.
Adamant Reforging.
He quickly picked the scrolls of the techniques he was looking for. However,
what he wasn't prepared for was the price of the techniques.
"Sheesh," Rui muttered aloud.
Squire-level techniques were far more expensive than Apprentice-level

techniques. The total sum was nearly an order of magnitude more expensive
than even his most expensive training phases in the Martial Academy.
If not for the fact that the mission in the Serevian Dungeon had yielded him a
tremendous amount of income, he would not have been able to
Of course, this wasn't greed. Squire-level techniques were far more precious
than Apprentice-level techniques, that was for sure.
('Furthermore, I have to pay for guidance and equipment, unlike when I was
in the Martial Academy.') Rui groaned inwardly.
Thankfully, he was very familiar with these techniques. He didn't need any
guidance from an experienced Martial Squire, or even a Martial Senior to
help him train with the techniques. All he needed was some basic aid in
operating some of the equipment.
Once he purchased the techniques, he sat down at one of the tables in the
library with his scrolls, skimming through all of them and inputting all the
data into his Mind Palace.
('Interesting.') Rui noted as he processed all of it.
The techniques were not entirely the same as their Apprentice-level versions.
It seems they weren't scaled identically all the way to the Squire Realm.
('The Squire-level version of Outer Convergence is most suited to Martial

bodies with high muscle mass to body mass ratios.') He quickly realized,
studying the details of the technique.
The technique was more compatible with users with larger muscles, which
allowed for a greater amount of energy transfer across the body. Of course,
this did not mean that Rui couldn't use it, however, it meant that it would not
nearly do him as much good as it would do a heavyweight power-oriented
Martial body.
As Rui went through the other techniques. He quickly realized that each
technique wasn't nearly as apt to him as their Apprentice-level versions were
to him. Because Martial bodies could have all kinds of wacky configurations
and quirks compared to normal humans, the variety and diversity of Martial
bodies of Martial Squires were much larger. There were all kinds of
configurations that led to unnatural types of bodies. Techniques needed to
cater to a significant portion of the Martial Artist population, otherwise, they
were useless. If a technique could only be used by a handful of Martial
Artists due to its incompatibility with other Martial Artists, then its impact
and contribution to Martial Art were minimal.
Thus, each technique was generally catered to be compatible with a larger

proportion of the Martial Artist, which meant that it could not be too
compatible with any one particular Martial Artist, otherwise, its compatibility
with a lot of other Martial Artists reduced drastically. It needed to be more
generalized.
This was the issue that Rui was undergoing right now. A lot of the techniques
he had chosen to learn were in a similar spot. Of course, it wasn't as though
this would be a hindrance, just a bit of a bigger shortcoming that he had
realized it would be when he was informed about this by his Squire
habilitators.
('This must be one of the driving incentives for creating your own techniques.
Or at least personalizing and altering all the techniques you do use, to some
degree.') Rui mused.
The abundance of techniques in the higher Realms was much lower and only
grew progressively lower and lower with each Realm. This was because of
the scarcity of Martial Artists in higher Realms, but also because of how
difficult it was to conduct research and development of techniques in the
higher Realms.
Martial Artists were inevitably forced to develop their own techniques if they
wished to reach higher Realms. What Rui was experiencing was likely just
the beginning. As time passed on, purchasing techniques to master them the
way he already had all this time, would become more and more unfeasible.
It was both scary and exciting. On one hand, the difficulty of growing
stronger would increase, without a doubt, on the other hand, it was that much
bigger a canvas to express himself.
Thankfully, the training regimens for all of the techniques weren't all that
different from the Apprentice-level versions of them.
Outer Convergence had three training stages, just like it did in the
Apprentice-level version.
The first stage was some elementary form of training, that had the user go
through a set of motions that involved all muscle groups simultaneously.
These were intensive dynamic workouts that focused on priming the user's
mind to get used to delicately coordinated muscle group expansion and
contraction rhythms.
This was the very first step to eventually paving the way to converging the
power generated by all those muscle groups, the end goal. There were a total
of thirteen elaborate dynamic exercises in total. Which Rui noted was equal
to the number of broad muscle groups in the human body.
The second stage of training was sparring with equipment that restricted the
motion of certain muscle groups. The user would have to rely on muscle
groups that would normally not be used to a high extent. Rui had instantly
realized this was to ensure that the process of regularly and routinely drawing
power from each muscle group would become part of muscle memory. The
more rigorously trained each muscle group individually, the more smoothly
and timely one would be able to use it.
The final training stage was actually wearing a suit that heavily resisted the
motion of the body. The suit was carefully configured to ensure that the user's
raw strength was not enough. This was done by conducting a series of
weight-lifting tests to measure the physical strength of the user, and the suit
was configured accordingly. The user was then supposed to utilize the gains
made from the previous training stages simultaneously to be able to move
past their physical limit.
Inner Divergence had two training stages. The technique required that attacks
be landed as close to the center of the body as possible, otherwise, it wasn't
possible for all muscle groups to absorb the impact as shock absorbers did.
The first training session was dedicated to learning how to intercept strikes
closest to the center of mass of the body.
The second stage involved learning how to time the gradual stiffening and
tensing of the muscles to be able to absorb the impact. If the muscles were
stiffened taut to slow, then the technique would be ineffective. If the muscles
were stiffened too fast, then the impact wouldn't be absorbed very well and
the body would suffer harm.
Wind Breathing required increasing the intake of air first. The first stage of
the technique was a demanding regime of breathing exercises that would
increase lung capacity and strengthen the diaphragm. The second stage of the
training regime for the technique was mastering the timing for Wind
Breathing. The rush of oxygen that all the cells received from deeper breaths
needed to be timed with the initial acceleration of the body. This ensures that
the body has all the energy it needs when accelerating at speed. Since the
oxygen from inhalation does not instantly reach the cells upon inhalation and
takes a brief amount of time to travel to the various cells across the body, it
needed to be done ahead of time.
Mastering the timing of the deep inhalations such as that the incoming surge
of energy matched the acceleration of the body was the key part of Wind
Breathing.
Adamant Reforging was the simplest for Rui to undergo, he merely needed to
resume the conditioning process for his new body and he would eventually
obtain flesh that was tough even for Martial Squires.
The final technique was reverberating Lance. The training regime of this
technique was centered around learning to vibrate and then learning to apply
the vibrations to permeate the impact deeper into the body. The Squire-level
version of this technique was the closest to its Apprentice-level version,
which is one of the reasons he picked it. All he needed to get used to was the
differences that his new center of gravity and other physical parameters that
had changed in him would cause in his execution of the technique, and he
will have mastered it as well as new.
Once he completed the training regimes of these techniques, he will have

obtained six new techniques. Of course, this didn't mean he only had six
techniques, after all, he retained his mental and sensory techniques.
This meant that he still had his Mind Palace, Mind Switch and Mind Mask
techniques, as well as his Seismic Mapping and Primordial Instinct
techniques. This meant that he was going to start off with eleven Squire-level
techniques.
('Can't wait.') Rui grinned. He felt like it had been a long time since had seen
any real action, he couldn't wait to master these techniques so that he could
go ahead and undertake Squire-level missions. He couldn't wait to test his
combat prowess against another Martial Squire once he got out.
('All of that comes after.')
He intended on finishing the training regimes as soon as he humanly could.

Normally, six techniques weren't something that he could finish in a short
amount of time, especially ever since he got the Mindmirror brain, however,
his immense familiarity with these techniques and the fact that he had already
mastered the Apprentice-level versions of these techniques made the task a
lot easier. He would be able to speed through the training a lot quicker than
he would have otherwise. What would otherwise have taken a year could be
finished in six months, perhaps even less if he worked particularly hard and
efficiently.
He immediately headed to training. The Martial Union had training facilities

that he had already paid to use. He had only paid for some basic aid from
assistant staff members who would be aiding him with anything that required
more than one person. There were training regimes that required the remote
operation of training equipment by another person such as the Outer
Convergence and Reverberating Lance techniques.
He had reached the training facility just as he wrapped his thoughts.

The training sessions went smoothly, due to the fact that he already knew
how they went. Of course, there were varying degrees of difficulty. The
easiest among them was the Adamant Reforging technique. His tolerance of
pain had risen tremendously thanks due to the breakthrough to the Squire
Realm. The sheer amount of agony and suffering the procedure put him
through was shocking.
The pain hadn't reduced, but his tolerance of it was high enough that the
training phase for the Adamant Reforging training technique was both easy
and simple.
The more difficult techniques were the techniques that had the highest
demand for accuracy and precision. The most difficult of them all was the
Phantom Step technique which required extremely accurate and precise
timing and placements.
The Phantom Step technique allowed extremely convincing feints that were
so effective that the target of the technique momentarily experienced a brief
illusion of the projected motion of the feint. This involved actually beginning
the motion but freezing it at just the right moment for the feint to be
convincing enough.
It was the most mentally challenging training phase of them all.
However, it was only a matter of time before he mastered it.
And as enough time passed, he did.
Half a year later, Rui had completed his training.
"Fuuu..." He exhaled deeply.

Unadulterated energy coursed through his body. A full-fledged Squire-level
aura descended upon the world, declaring his presence.
Rui's clenched fist tightened as he adopted a striking stance, opening his eyes.
He was in an uninhabited natural environment. A lush forest surrounded him,

peaceful just a moment ago until his power scared the fauna in the vicinity.
Yet his eyes were fixed on what was before him.
A boulder. One the size of a building.
"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled once more, before inhaling. A surge of power flowed
through his body as oxygen rushed across all his cells.
It was then.
With the sharpest abruptness, his wound fist launched forward with
tremendous speed and momentum. The atmosphere recoiled away in shock as
he produced a sonic boom with just the sheer velocity of his motion,
exceeding even the sound barrier.
Yet, that wasn't the only barrier that he broke.
BOOM!!!
The sheer power of the blow was tremendous, with Outer Convergence
drawing power from every muscle and directing it into his fist. The power of
the impact spread across the entirety of the boulder due to the Reverberating
Lance technique.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
The boulder cracked, shattered, and crumbled into chunks and pieces that
were launched some distance away.
Thorough destruction.
"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled as he took it upon himself to inspect his handiwork.

"How many full-powered attacks would it have taken me to do that when I
was a Martial Apprentice?" Rui murmured as he scrutinized the debris.
Dozens, realistically.
"And despite just beginning my climb in the Squire Realm, I can already
exceed anything I was capable of before with the simplest of ease," Rui
murmured.
He glanced down at his palms with incredulity. He had become so much

stronger that it was hard to believe, he half-expected to wake up, realizing all
of this was just a dream and he was still a Martial Apprentice.
He glanced at his pocket watch, noting the time. "I should get going now, I
don't want to be late to my next rendezvous."
Ever since he became a Martial Squire, his perspective of time had changed.
He was capable of accomplishing a lot, especially mentally, in a shorter
amount of time. His evolved and accelerated metabolism was to blame of
course.
Thus, he was more wary of the passage of normal time.
He immediately began sprinting back towards the town of Hajin. Right now,
he was well outside the town of Hajin in the Drunfil Forest, testing himself in
isolation. He had only just finished his training and had left the artificial and
engineered environment of the training facilities of the Martial Union to test
his own power.
Thankfully, Drunfil Forest was only four hours away by carriage.
Or about five minutes on foot with exertion for a Martial Squire. The power
he gained was certainly the highlight, but the ease of traveling to distant
destinations and back was quite amazing. The entire nation was well within
his reach with a minor amount of exertion.
Though, he didn't return to the town of Hajin. He instead made his way to a
remote but barren flat plain. It was one of the farmlands that were not being
used for the season.
Soon, he sensed a presence approaching his location, reaching it swiftly.
"Rui." Squire Kyrie addressed him. "Congratulations on becoming a Martial

Squire. It's truly hard to believe that a little under five years ago you were
merely a novice student among hundreds of others."
"Squire Kyrie..." Rui smiled. "Thank you for accepting the commission."
"It is a commission." She replied blankly. "You are paying me to be here."
"Yes, but I know you don't accept commissions anymore, so thank you for
humoring me."
"It's not that big of a deal, really." Squire Kyrie dismissed his words lightly.
"I can't say I am not curious. I wouldn't be human if I wasn't."
Rui smiled at those words.
This would be the third time he would be fighting Kyrie. The first time felt
like a lifetime ago, he had just entered the Apprentice Realm and had
mastered some weak foundational techniques. The second time occurred after
he had obtained a significant amount of power, and after he had mastered the
pattern recognition viability problem of the VOID algorithm.
And this would be the third time after he ascended to the Squire Realm. He
was still a newbie Martial Squire, as far as techniques went, but he was by no
means particularly weak. His Martial body was boosted by the Mind Switch
technique that boosted his stamina and allowed him to expend greater energy
and power. Furthermore, he still retained other advantages like the
Mindmirror brain that aided battle cognition and of course; the VOID
algorithm.
Chapter 476 Mitigate
He had chosen that locations because the two of them could go all out and not
worry about causing destruction to people and infrastructure. There wasn't
any of either within a decently large radius.
"Let's begin then." kyrie adopted a simple balanced stance. "I have a training
session to head, soon after this."
Her stance placed an equal weight on power, mobility, and defense. A

neutral, all-rounder stance.
Rui simply adopted a similar stance.
The two of them simply maintained a deadlock, staring at each other. The
sheer weight of their focus and concentration yielded a pressure that exerted
itself on the scant sentient life that was anywhere even remotely close to them
in any capacity.
Birds took flight, and pests and other small critters evacuated as they scurried
for their lives. Their battlefield grew truly barren of any sentient lifeform.
And then, Rui made the first move. He cautiously stepped forward shifting
his weight back and forth, making his movements less apparent through their
center of gravity. Kyrie simply waited, unfazed, as Rui approached her step
by step.
They were only a few steps away from each other.
And the first move came soon enough.
The atmosphere shook as a sonic boom emerged from Rui's flying hook. He
launched a simple attack, testing her.
WHOOSH
Kyrie smoothly evaded the strike, ducking while launching one of her own
with the opposite arm.
POW!
He defended her attack by stepping forward and intercepting the blow at the
forearm and the wrist. This was a common tactic that was used even on Earth
to deal with strikes like the hook. Punches dealt damage via the fist,
generally, this could be circumvented by intercepting and blocking strikes at
parts of their body asides from the fist but was just as vital to the generation
of power.
He threw a flurry of swift jabs at her, having blocked her attack.
WHOOSH
His attacks were quick but she demonstrated remarkable agility and
nimbleness as she swiftly evaded all of them.
He launched a powerful frontal kick, yet she merely somersaulted away

backward in time, avoiding the attack entirely.
The sheer speed of Martial Squires was such that, in real-time, the amount of
time commenced since the start of the battle was no more than a single
moment or two. Yet the Martial Artists had already launched and dealt with
several attacks. Their metabolism and cognition were so far beyond human
limits and even the Apprentice Realm, it was as though they existed in a
different level of time and speed.
Yet, the battle continued. Neither side was nearly going all out. Rui simply
observed her Martial Art and combat style as he inputted its properties. He
had come to notice details about her Martial Art and combat style that he
hadn't noticed before.
Back when he fought her in the Apprentice Realm, she hadn't used her true
prowess, not even close. However, how she had begun using her Squire-level
prowess, it had become quite clear that she was not a perfect all-rounder.
('She places a greater weightage on speed and maneuvering compared to

offense and defense.') He realized.
Her Martial body leaned more towards speed than power, and this reflected in
her techniques as well. However, it wasn't significant enough to make her a
maneuvering-oriented Martial Artist.
POW POW POW!
Kyrie managed to cleanly bypass his guard as she landed a flurry of jabs on
Rui's abdomen, much to his surprise. With the Mindmirror Symbiote and
Primordial Instinct, bypassing his active defense was extremely difficult. Yet,
she managed to do so with ease.
Her power and strike began escalating as he did his best to cope. He could
sense that she wasn't anywhere near going all out, yet her combat parameters
had already reached a stage where he was struggling to hold on.
WHOOSH
Kyrie cleanly evaded a blow from Rui as she moved in, launching a blow
with tremendous power and speed toward him. Yet, to her surprise, the blow
crashed into an empty image.
BAM!
A strong kick landed on the back of her head, causing her to stagger forward.
She immediately turned back, a flash of surprise rippling across her face.
She immediately leaped forward, attempting to land another blow on him.

Yet, Rui shifted his head ever so slightly, and the attack completely missed
him.
She launched a flurry of strikes with great speed, yet none of them landed.
Rui's evasive capabilities had suddenly spiked.
('I see. This is the same as last time.') She noted. She recalled that in their
previous fight, Rui's fighting style had changed drastically as the accuracy of
his movements in their capacity to counter her own had risen astronomically.
It was clear that the same thing was occurring at the moment.
"I suppose I should stop holding back." She murmured.
It was a murmur, yet it hadn't escaped Rui's enhanced senses. Primordial

Instinct felt a tremendous amount of danger as Kyrie's aura spiked.
WHOOSH
Suddenly, she disappeared in his field of vision.
BAM!
An attack of hers crashed into Rui's gut with tremendous speed and
momentum. He grimaced in pain as he did his best to mitigate the damage
with Inner Divergence. Yet Kyrie didn't stop. With newfound speed and
power, she launched an avalanche of Squire-level attacks against him. Had
Rui not had the VOID algorithm, he would have been mangled from head to
toe even before he lost consciousness. However, the predictive and adaptive-
evolutionary models saved his life. He managed to move at exactly the right
time and in the right manner to avoid the brunt of her power. What he hadn't
expected was the fact that the gap between them was still so large. However,
in hindsight, it wasn't particularly unusual. She was a veteran with many
years of training and battle experience in the Squire Realm.
Even with the VOID algorithm, he couldn't overcome such a huge gap in
techniques and experience. The best he could do was mitigate it to the best of
his abilities.
Chapter 477 Outcome
She had mastered several dozens of techniques, techniques Rui had never
heard of or seen before. She was constantly using several techniques at once,
at a minimum and that number could rise to double digits very often.
Her speed was blurringly fast, and it took Rui everything with the VOID
algorithm, Primordial instinct, and the Mindmirror Symbiote to be able to
keep up. Had he lacked even a single one of those elements, he would not
have been able to keep up with her, even in a passive position.
However, he was no quitter. He racked his brain for a path to victory as he

desperately defended and evaded her onslaught. The problem with all-
rounders was that they didn't have an obvious weakness. Thus, there wasn't a
particularly obvious or straightforward avenue that he could exploit in order
to gain an advantage against her.
('I need to turn the battle into a grappling one.') Rui knew. The VOID
algorithm agreed with him. A grappling battle mitigated the effectiveness of
her speed advantage. Of course, as an all-rounder, grappling as far from her
weakness, however, would likely end up being a better outcome than
allowing her to capitalize on her best asset.
The only problem was that he hadn't mastered any Squire-level grappling
techniques.
POW POW POW!
Rui guarded against a flurry of jabs.
('I'll have to go for basic grapples but apply Outer Convergence and hope for
the best.')
He waited patiently as the optimal moment showed itself. In the meantime,
his body had already begun aching immensely as her staggering blows and
soon enough it did.
WHOOSH
Rui evaded a hook as he crouched, dashing for her hip, using Outer
Convergence for power and Wind Breathing for speed.
BAM!!
A tremendous and blindingly fast elbow crashed onto his head.
The sheer impact rattled his head and his brain. Despite all the evolution that
he had undergone, he was still very much susceptible to blunt-force trauma.
He staggered, disoriented, yet before he could regain his bearings:
POW!
A swift kick landed on his chin, sealing the deal.
THUD
Rui collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
When he woke up, he found himself staring at a white ceiling.
('An unfamiliar ceiling.') he thought, jokingly, before getting up and looking

around. He was in a medical bay, occupied by several other nurses and
patients.
"Squire Quarrier." A voice addressed him. A doctor walked towards him.

"Glad to see you've woken up."
"Where exactly am I?" Rui scratched his head.
"Within the medical wing of the Hajin branch of the Martial Union, of
course." The doctor replied. "I'm pleased to inform you that you've made a
complete recovery. You have an unnaturally high healing capability for your
particular Martial body, by the time you were brought to the hospital, all your
physical wounds had completely healed. We didn't even need to administer
any healing potions."
Of course, Rui was not surprised by this. The Mind Switch technique that he
had mastered triggered autophagy, which supplied the energy for the higher
rate of healing his Martial body had evolved to have.
"You have access to the data of my Martial body, doctor?" Rui asked.
"Of course." The doctor replied casually. "Medical treatment of Martial

Squires is more complicated than that of medical treatment of normal humans
due to your evolved and inhuman parameters. We require your personal data
in order to ensure you receive personalized medication and treatment."
Martial Squires had evolved genes, which meant that the field of medicine
had to develop an additional branch that allowed them to treat different kinds
of Martial bodies. Changes in genes produced changes in the metabolism of
the Martial Squire. Ordinary medicine that was not personalized to suit
Martial Squires was not only effective but also dangerous and risky.
"You said I've fully healed up, correct? Does that mean I can be discharged
immediately?" Rui asked.
"Of course, you just need to sign some paperwork and you're set to go." He
informed Rui.
Rui obliged, and soon he found himself leaving the Martial Union, heading
home.
"I got my ass beat." Rui sighed. He wasn't surprised, of course. Squire Kyrie
may have been retired for quite some time, but physically, she was still in
great shape. Furthermore, she was an extremely strong Martial Squire who
had been dubbed the Berserker of Hajin. She had also won the Martial
Contest when she was a Martial Apprentice of the Martial Academy.
If the Squire Realm was as large and wide as the Apprentice Realm, then it
made perfect sense. He had only just begun his journey in the Squire Realm,
he was still at the bottom of the ladder. It was no different from when he first
broke through into the Apprentice Realm. Any grade-ten Martial Apprentice
would have annihilated him with ease. The same could certainly be said for
Martial Squires.
"Her speed and power were ridiculous." Rui sighed. "She didn't use an
enormous number of techniques, but the techniques she did use were
extremely potent. Either she mastered some crazy grade eight and nine
techniques or..."
Or she had developed her own personal techniques. Personal techniques that
made the best of her own particular Martial body and its unique parameters
and quirks. Allowing her to exhibit a level of efficiency that techniques
created by the Martial Union, which weren't customized for her, simply
couldn't.
('Maybe I should prioritize individuality a little more than I did before.') Rui
sighed.
This partly gave him a bit of a goal to aspire to as he continued his training.
The primary goal, of course, was to elevate his Flowing Void Style and the
VOID algorithm to absolute perfection, if such a thing was even possible, and
master it. He would need to pursue his Martial Path deeper.
He glanced up to the sky, closing his eyes. He could see his elevating Martial
Path overlapping with the blue sky, illuminated by the brilliant blinding sun.
"Step by step... and eventually I'll get there."

Chapter 478 Missions
Of course, the question was; what was the next step, precisely? This was
something he had wondered the entire day later, even after he returned to the
Orphanage.
Normally, after a training stage, he would undergo some missions to gain

more experience with the techniques that he had just mastered and solidify
his foundation of those techniques in combat with missions.
This time, however, it wasn't strictly necessary. Each of these was a

technique that he previously used for a long time. Although they were less
comfortable by virtue of not being nearly as well suited to him as they were
when he was a Martial Apprentice, it wasn't as though he needed experience
using them in battle. That imperative was missing this time.
Still, he was in favor of completing some Squire-level missions. After all, he

hadn't yet completed a mission since he broke through, and it had been nearly
nine months since he broke through. Although Rui still retain a great chunk
of all of his earnings from the Serevian Dungeon, he still needed to earn
money.
A mission it was.
Rui scrolled through his accounter he scrolled through his mission inbox. He
had recently indicated that he was accepting commissions again, and he had
received some within a reasonable timeframe. However, the rush for him
wasn't nearly as strong as it was when he was a Martial Apprentice.
Of course, he wasn't surprised. The answer was obvious.
He was the most powerful Martial Apprentice of the Kandrian Empire when
he had been a Martial Apprentice, however, after becoming a Martial Squire,
he had once again reached the bottom of the ladder.
The Squire Realm was a different league altogether.
There were an overwhelming number of Martial Squires who were more

powerful than him, more experienced, and more reliable than him. This was a
fact that he needed to accept. In fact, newbie Martial Squires like himself
didn't generally receive personal commissions. However, his fame and
reputation as a Martial Apprentice were great enough that some of it managed
to rub off into the Squire Realm.
He skimmed past them, examining them.
[Hunter class mission: procurement
Clientele: Ferena Fillisburg
Target of the mission: One kilogram of herpious limestone.
Location of the target: Fatanuy Hills. [876.5, 60.76] +- 10 kilometers
Difficulty grade: two
Mission summary: This mission is a hunter–class mission that requires the

Martial Artist to procure a kilogram of herpious limestone; a solid esoteric
crystalline substance. Fatanuy Hills is home to many dangerous creatures that
are at the peak of the Apprentice Realm and several active and aggressive
beasts that are quasi-Squire-level as far as combat prowess goes, raising the
difficulty of the mission to the base of the Squire Realm. The target of the
mission is a substance that is relatively abundant across the forest, procuring
the desired amount will require the continuous collection of smaller amounts
of herpious limestone, increasing the probability of encountering a quasi-
Squire-level creature significantly. The procurement of the target can be done
via special storage devices that need to be rented for the mission,
"Hm..." Rui read through the mission summary.
A hunting mission wasn't bad to kick him off. It was relatively

straightforward and as long as he was careful there was effectively nothing to
be feared. A proper Martial Squire would most certainly not lose to a quasi-
Squire-level creature.
This mission was the kind of mission that was too weak to threaten Martial
Squires but was far too dangerous for nearly any Martial Apprentice. Thus, it
had been classified as a Squire-level mission. Many of the very low-grade
Squire-level missions were only evaluated as Squire-level because Martial
Apprentices were too inadequate to handle them.
It was a good candidate for a mission, still, Rui wanted to take a closer look
at some others. He scrolled to the next one.
[Defense-class mission: bodyguard mission.
Clientele: Vintar Industries.
Target of protection: Supply shipment.
Location of mission: Trade route from the town of Frentoy to the Kingdom of
Farjen. [123.45, 764.3] to [224.6, 564.88]
Difficulty grade: One.
Mission summary: Clientele Vinta Industries has commissioned a Martial

Squire bodyguard to escort and protect a supply shipment convoy traveling
from the town of Frentoy to the Kingdom of Farjen. The supply route the
convoy will be traveling through is the shortest and the quickest by distance,
however, it is fraught with danger. The route is home to many bandit gangs
that consist of many Martial Apprentices. They often ambush and attack
convoys with insufficient protection and deterrence.]
This mission was different in so far as the fact that it could be completed by a
large group of Martial Apprentices. However, Rui could see why it had
instead been evaluated to be a Squire-level mission. Even he would not be
able to successfully complete this mission as a Martial Apprentice. Protecting
something else, especially something as large as a convoy, was much harder
than surviving by himself, which he was confident of even as a Martial
Apprentice.
However, rather than diverting a large number of Martial Apprentices on a

singular mission such as this, it was better to evaluate it as a Squire-level
mission and leave it to a single newbie Martial Squire. It avoided forcing a
large number of Martial Apprentices to go off on a risky mission where a lot
of valuable Martial Apprentices would be lost, or waste time if an attack
didn't occur. Instead, it gave a newbie Martial Squire some experience with
missions at the bottom of the barrel of Squire-level missions.
However, Rui wasn't particularly interested in this mission. No Martial

Apprentice in their right mind would attack a Martial Squire, a single attack
would mean death or excruciating and incapacitating suffering if they
managed to survive. Rui's arms had been mangled and broken all over due to
a single strike, a quick reflexive one rather than a proper attack that too, and
he had lost consciousness after being launched away by the impact through
numerous walls of the facility and through several trees.
It was a particularly painful memory, second only to the Squire breakthrough

procedure.
Chapter 479 Tame
Rui skimmed through some other of his personal commissions but ultimately
shook his head in dismay. What he was looking for wasn't there at all. None
of these were particularly stimulating missions. Ideally, he would have liked
to have had a mission that would pit him against another Martial Squire. But
he wasn't quite yet eligible for such a mission just yet.
He was evaluated to be a grade three Martial Artist in his current state. He

was inexperienced with combat in the Squire Realm and had only just re-
mastered six techniques. Normally, such a Martial Squire would be graded at
grade one, but not Rui.
For one, he had the VOID algorithm. This technique allowed him to keep up
with those with combat parameters much higher than his and even defeat
them. Furthermore, he had naturally retained his mental and sensory
techniques as well, increasing his formidability thanks to it. Thirdly, his body
was above that of a baseline all-rounder Martial Squire. He was stronger,
faster and healed faster, and had greater stamina.
All these factors allowed him to operate several grades above grade one,
which he would be without those factors. He didn't think he would lose even
if he were pitted against another Martial Squire, as long as they weren't too
much of a much higher grade than his own.
Unfortunately, none of his personal commissions could provide him with

that.
That was why he found himself standing in the mission library of the Martial
Union, the Squire-level one. If he could find a mission that pit him against
another Martial Squire, he would most certainly take it. It wasn't as though he
wanted to fight a Martial Squire because there wasn't another way that he
would be able to fight one, he most certainly could commission a sparring
partner if he wanted to.
However, there was always a large difference between a sparring partner and
someone who was genuinely hostile against you in a fight in the real world.
The latter was a much greater experience than the former. The former usually
operated within a certain limit, otherwise, death was plausible and that was
something no sparring partner would want.
It simply wasn't real.
He glanced around the mission library.
Even at the Squire level, missions were divided similarly to the way they
were divided in the Apprentice Realm; Offense, defense, hunter, shadow, and
miscellaneous classes.
The best class to guarantee combat in a mission among all of the classes
was...
('The offensive class, without a doubt.') Rui glanced at it, walking over to it.
Ideal missions in the defense, hunter, shadow, and miscellaneous missions

were those missions that didn't entail combat and conflict. However, the same
could not be said for missions of the offense class.
The offense-class mission necessarily entailed conflict. Which meant that Rui
could ensure that he was participating in some form of conflict. All he needed
to do was find one that allowed him to fight against a Martial Squire.
He began skimming through some of the lower-grade missions.
[Offense-class mission: elimination mission
Clientele: Frilin Marnen
Targets of elimination: Apprentice Jurver, Apprentice Gernin, Apprentice

Har, Apprentice Vundeg, Apprentice Kernil, Apprentice Seren, Apprentice
Axel, Apprentice Meren, Apprentice Kolun, Apprentice Hilos, Apprentice
Gringar.
Location of targets: Kingdom of Gunir, town of Hatchel (65.34, 54.2)
Mission summary: The clientele seeks to commission a Martial Squire to

eliminate eleven Martial Apprentices who, on average, are high-grade. The
difficulty of the mission arises not from the physical difficulty of killing
Martial Apprentices, which is trivial, but from complications of even a single
or two of the target Martial Apprentices escaping the assault in time that most
are killed. Or complications arising from the Martial Apprentices learning of
their impending fate and going into hiding.]
"Hmmm..." Rui winced at the mission. He was not interested in mass-

murdering Martial Apprentices. It was distasteful, not to mention pointless
and boring.
He skimmed through a few more mission bills at the lower grade, but
unfortunately, they were not too dissimilar.
A lot of the lower-grade missions involved an enormously large number of

normal humans, requiring him to mass murder many thousands of humans, if
not tens of thousands without letting a single one escape alive, or mass-
murder a large number Martial Apprentices, or in many cases, capture them
instead.
In hindsight, Rui should have expected this. The lower-grade missions were
missions that were not supposed to threaten the life of the Martial Artist
undertaking them. The moment a mission involved other hostile Martial
Squires, his life would be at threat and the difficulty grade would likely
exceed his own grade as a Martial Apprentice.
Something similar was also the case with Apprentice-level missions,

missions at lower grades of the Apprentice level were centered around larger
groups of humans that no single ordinary human could defeat. It was only at
grade four and above that missions could threaten his life, and involve other
Martial Artists of the same Realm as the Martial Artist undertaking the
mission.
('I guess for now I should just level up until I reach a point where I can
undertake a mission that involves fighting against other Martial Squires.') Rui
shrugged.
As long as he gained more experience and demonstrated his abnormal and

unnatural combat prowess, he was bound to be upgraded to a higher grade as
a Martial Artist.
The Martial Union by default placed newbie Martial Artists at extremely low
grades regardless of their capabilities. The lack of experience was the main
issue. While it wasn't as though the experience of the Apprentice Realm was
useless or obsolete, Martial Squires differed too much from Martial
Apprentices, allowing brand-new Martial Squires to fight against experienced
Martial Squires was too risky. Rui would need to prove his combat
capabilities and gain some experience with combat in the Squire Realm
before he could be eligible to fight other Martial Squires.
Just as he finished his thoughts, he happened upon an interesting mission bill

that caught his eye. A familiar name from the past...
Chapter 480 Old Receipts
[Offense class mission: Capture mission
Clientele: Kandrian Bureau of Investigation
The target of the mission: Faraday Lowminer
Location of the target: Kingdom of Violis, a town of Garten
Remuneration: 15,000 Martial credits
Mission summary: Faraday Lowminer is the founder and former president of

Lowminer Industries, a once-reputed and large esoteric resource supplier in
several towns in the Mantian Region. In the past five years, the target of the
mission; Faraday Lowminer has been implicated in a variety of crimes,
including fraud, tax evasion, blackmail and bribery, assault, and murder
conspiracy. The litigation was delayed and stalled due to a lack of evidence,
however, when the evidence of his crimes came to light, Faraday Lowminer
had already left the country illegally, migrating to an orbiter state; the
Kingdom of Violis, along with his bodyguard team of Martial Apprentices.
The mission objective is to capture and retrieve the target alive.]
Rui's eyes rose.
Lowminer Industries.
He had not forgotten that name. His very first mission was a mission to
protect a girl named Bella Hier. He had ultimately failed that mission because
he was unable to protect her from the gangs affiliated with the Lowminer
Industries, while he held off an assassin sent to kill her.
Furthermore, in a twisted turn of events he was roped into a mission for the
Lowminer Industries by committing to a mission whose client he hadn't
known was them ahead of the time.
While Rui was far too consumed with Martial Art to be self-absorbed in the
failures of the past, he had never forgotten his very first mission. It was
ironically the one mission he remembered the most vividly like he could
close his eyes and replay it from the moment he first saw Bella to the last
time he did.
Especially the last time. It was an image seared into his memory.
"...Fate must be smiling upon me." A hint of darkness dampened his

expression, as the tiniest of smiles cracked at his cheek. "To think I would get
a chance to get revenge this quick."
Rui had felt the urge to storm into the main branch of the Lowminer
industries and wreak havoc and kill the man responsible for Bella's death, but
the risks were too high. If he had done that, the Martial Union would
eventually dig up something or the other implicating him, just like it did with
the Lowminers.
It wasn't a matter of him making mistake, or not executing it properly. He

could conjure up the best plan to murder and get away with it, but his
knowledge of the forensic and investigative capabilities of the Kandrian
Empire was unreliable. He effectively knew nothing about the kind of
esoteric technology that the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation employed. It
could be that they could narrow down the possibility of techniques that were
used in killing a victim, or perhaps even the exact technique.
Then they could further narrow it down to possible Martial Apprentices and
eventually he would likely end up being the prime suspect. Or they could
perhaps employ the mental sensory techniques that he was exposed to more
than half a year ago to verify that he was truly a Squire candidate. Perhaps
they could forcefully verify his honesty and sincerity if they ever managed to
pin him as a suspect.
There was simply too much to risk, and the outcome wasn't worth the risk.
Sure, he was mad that he failed to protect Bella, he was mad that she died the
way she did under his protection, and he was mad that the very first mission
he had ever undertaken was his single worst mission to this date by far. But
that was it, he wasn't super attached to Bella on a personal level, and he didn't
even know her.
He didn't want to ruin his life by committing a crime. Although Martial

Artists were not punished as hard, it was undoubtedly true that it would halt
his progression. Especially at a time when his growth was extremely
important.
But this time, this was different. The clientele was the Kandrian Burea of
Investigation, and the mission was accepted and approved. Meaning both, the
Kandrian Empire and the Martial Union were on his side.
Meaning he didn't have to worry about anything.
He looked at the commission date and time, the exact time the Kandrian
Burea of Investigation commissioned this mission.
"Three hours ago. Wow," Rui muttered.
It was an extremely fresh mission. One that came rather quickly. Usually,
missions like these would be put out in the library, free to be accepted by any
Martial Artist that is eligible to accept the commission and undertake the
mission. However, if it sat out unaccepted for too long, then it would
mandatorily be assigned to a Martial Apprentice.
The Martial Union could assign Martial Apprentices missions that they were
obligated to complete, this was one of the terms of the licensing contract. It
was used for important missions that needed to be completed quickly. One
such mission was the offense-class mission that Rui and his friends were
assigned in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.
Rui immediately plucked the mission bill out of the slot of the shelf before
immediately heading over to the registrar, quickly accepting the mission
officially before opening the bill in a corner of the library at a desk.
"Alright then," Rui murmured to himself. "Let's see what this is all about."
He began reading the details of the mission in greater depth. The intelligence
network had managed to gain information on the location of the base
operations that the former president of Lowminer Industries was operating at.
It appeared that he had managed to escape by simply escaping with the
immediate liquid and transportable assets of his company that he had
managed to gather before escaping just before the warrant for his arrest was
released.
Rui found it rather surprising that he managed to make it out of the country
and successfully migrate to another country, but it could be inferred that
Faraday Lowminer had been preparing for this for a long time, most likely.
Chapter 481 Border
Rui found it a shame that he couldn't kill the man himself, but the fact that
there was a Martial commission to capture and retrieve him from a foreign
nation using force meant that whatever his fate was, it was not pretty. He was
definitely doomed.
Rui quickly memorized the intelligence that the Martial Union had gathered.
He was particularly impressed that they had obtained the location of the
target of the mission this quickly, as expected, the intelligence network of the
Martial Union was not to be underestimated.
There was no doubt in his mind that the intelligence department of the
Martial Union had Shadows stationed in every nation that were extremely
specialized in sensory and stealth-oriented techniques in addition to a more
conventional spy network. These spies' ability to obtain information was
sharp and swift.
"In the southern region of the town of Garten in the Kingdom of Violis?" Rui
remarked.
The Kingdom of Violis was an orbiter sovereign state of the Kandrian

Empire, close enough to fall within the primary sphere of influence of the
Kandrian Empire.
The precision of the location wasn't high, Rui would need to engage in a bit
of surveillance and detection in order to find the precise location of his target.
The mission bill had specified that the Martial Artist needed to have wide-
range sensory techniques that would allow them to detect the precise location
of the target of his mission.
That was why Rui was eligible for the technique. With the Mindmirror brain
amplifying the Seismic Mapping technique as well as his own enhanced
senses as a Martial Squire, his sensory prowess had risen tremendously. As
long as the intel wasn't wrong, he would definitely find them.
Rui quickly inputted all the data in the mission scroll into his Mind Palace for
convenience before heading to the dispatch facility.
He quickly purchased the basic gear that he needed. The mission was
straightforward and the risks were minimal. The only potential problem that
could arise was the fact that the Kingdom of Violis did possess Martial
Squires. Thankfully, they didn't possess Martial Seniors, which would make
an infiltration of the kingdom much more of a pain and riskier.
Martial Squires were bad enough, of course, but that was much more
manageable. The chances that he would be caught for infiltration were far
lower, furthermore, his ability to cope was not low. He merely needed to be
careful and the mission ought to proceed smoothly.
It wasn't long before nearly everything was done and he could freely dispatch
and head off for the mission.
"One last signature here, Squire." A staff bowed to him.
Rui quickly obliged before putting on a mask and setting off.
The sheer speed at which he could travel was extraordinary, however, within
the dense and bustling population of the town of Hajin. If he ran forward at
top speed without care he wouldn't merely shove them aside, he would leave
a slew of mangled corpses in his path due to the sheer amount of momentum
his body had.
That is why he chose to Sky Walk instead of sprint on the ground.
Rui had familiarized himself with the natural ability of Sky Walking that
came with obtaining a Martial body.
His foot pressed into the air as he stepped on seemingly nothing.

WHOOSH
His body elevated as he continuously pushed down in a periodic motion

rising continuously higher and higher.
This was one benefit of breaking into the Squire Realm that he did not expect
he would enjoy so much. Every single muscle was able to exert an
extraordinary amount of force even without a single technique. Once he
employed Outer Convergence, he could easily 'step' on the atmosphere like it
was solid, he could swim through it like it was a liquid.
He decelerated as he hovered in midair, exerting just enough force with his

motions to float midair and take in the full view of the town of Hajin.
He felt incredible, almost like a god.
"This is lit." He nodded, breathing deeply and setting off.
He employed Outer Convergence and Wind Breathing as he speedily dashed

off into the air with severe speed. While it was less restricting and freer, it
was slower as far as absolute top speed went. It was easier to travel with solid
land under your feet than on air. However, it did help bypass traffic.
The kingdom of Violis was south of the Kandrian Empire, Rui had to cross
the entire Empire to exit the Kandrian Empire facing south, it was the shortest
and straightest route to the Kingdom of Violis.
It took him five hours to reach the border of the Kandrian Empire. Yet just as
he came close to crossing it, he felt a sharp sense of danger. He froze on the
spot in midair as a figure appeared before him with tremendous speed from
below, hovering in midair before him.
The woman wore militaristic armor, something that Rui was unaccustomed to
seeing. Her armor bore the insignia of the Kandrian Empire.
Yet what drew his attention the most was the sharp Squire-level aura she
exuded.
"I am Squire Ranger Vera of the Kandrian Border Patrol Force." She
introduced herself with an icy tone. "Your attempt to exit the Kandrian
Empire through Sky Walking bypasses departure regulations. This is your
first warning, abide by the protocols at all times. We will require you to
provide valid identification to us as well."
Rui sighed at the consequences of his own rash actions as he pulled out his
Martial license. Normally, the identification of a document from a non-
governmental department was not considered a valid ID, but the Martial
Union was different.
She nodded as she studied the card, before returning it to him.
WHOOSH
A thick gust of air smoothly and cleanly carried the ID card over to Rui.
('She's a master of wind manipulation techniques!') Rui inwardly gaped at the

precision, accuracy, and control over the atmosphere that she had
demonstrated.
Chapter 482 Arrived
Rui kept a blank face as he retrieved his ID card, but inwardly he was
fanboying over her and her mastery of the wind manipulation techniques.
('She's like an airbender!') He exclaimed inwardly.
He immediately wished he had wind manipulation prowess as good as hers,

but she had surely spent more than a decade as a Martial Artist obtaining her
current level of skill. As an allrounder, he couldn't imagine how long it would
take him to obtain that kind of prowess.
She escorted him to the Kandrian transit port leaving only after he had been
admitted into the building. A while later he exited the Kandrian Empire.
Thankfully, the due process needed to leave a country wasn't nearly as
extensive and annoying as the process was on Earth, where effectively half a
day could be gone into merely trying to leave a country.
DASH
He immediately began running south towards the Kingdom of Violis at top

speed. He chose to stick to the ground, it was too dangerous to Sky Walk
outside the Kandrian Empire. It drew too much attention and left him too
vulnerable and open. Within the Martial Empire, this wasn't a problem, the
probability of anything happening was too little.
BOOM!
He accelerated, picking up the pace, as a sonic boom rippled across the air.
He was sprinting so fast that a sonic cone formed around him, facing the
direction he was moving in. The Kingdom of Violis was only roughly five
hundred kilometers away from the Kandrian Empire. It took him a little less
than half an hour to reach the Kingdom of Violis.
He stopped some distance away from the border, scoping out the area with
Seismic Mapping. Ever since he broke through to the Squire Realm, the same
sensory techniques that he had carried along to the Squire Realm had all
grown in all parameters. Even from a distance, he could accurately gain an
understanding of what it was like on the other side of the wall.
('There's too many people in the vicinity of this section of the border.') Rui
muttered inwardly, unhappy.
He had no intention of entering the country legitimately. Faraday Lowminer

had demonstrated that he was a careful man, considering the fact that he
successfully managed to leave the Kandrian Empire and run away from the
consequences of his crimes. The possibility that he had a way to be alerted
when a Martial Squire from the Kandrian Empire entered the Kingdom of
Violis was not low.
The border was barricaded by a simple wall, as the intelligence provided by

the Martial Union told him. Unlike the Kandrian Empire, the Kingdom of
Violis couldn't afford to dedicate too many resources to border security due
to its poverty and lack of necessary resources.
The Kandrian Empire was rich and loaded enough to have a much more
secure border barricade, resembling a fortress than the mere wall the
Kingdom of Violis had to make do with. The Kandrian Empire had the
Kandrian Border Patrol Force that Rui had run into, which maintained border
security, capable of detecting and stopping a Martial Squire from leaving the
country unauthorized. The Kingdom of Violis only had small lookouts
stationed at distant intervals.
Rui could easily escape their surveillance with his speed alone, that wasn't a
concern. He just needed to make sure he was infiltrating a part of the country
that didn't have too many witnesses.
('Found it,') Rui eventually stumbled across what he wanted after he circled
around for a bit.
WHOOSH
In the blink of an eye, he had already closed the distance and leaped over the
wall, maintaining extreme caution.
He had long put on a Mind Mask that suppressed all sense of threat and
pressure that he, as a Martial Squire exerted on sentient life, reducing him to
a normal seventeen-year-old boy. He had already memorized the map of the
Kingdom of Violis, so he knew exactly where he needed to go.
He didn't draw any attention to himself by running at superhuman speeds, he

quickly cloaked himself with a large cloak, so that his Martial Union would
not be visible while wearing a large hat, tipped over to reduce the exposure of
his appearance. His mask would give away his status as a Martial Artist, after
all.
The Kingdom of Violis was warmer and had more humidity than the
Kandrian Empire, which was colder, having been higher up north.
The towns of the Kingdom were reflective of the economic standing of the
Kingdom itself. The infrastructure was more elementary, less sophisticated,
and less well-maintained compared to the town of Hajin.
Despite his desire to mesh in, he inevitably drew attention. It was clear that
he was a foreigner.
Of course, Rui didn't expect anything else, nor did he care. It was enough that
he wasn't identified as a Martial Artist. The Mind Mask technique was a
lifesaver in times like these.
Because the pace of his traveling had slowed down, traveling to the town of
Garten, the town where Faraday Lowminer was supposed to be basing his
operations, was taking time. Rui needed to travel for a longer period of time
to reach where he wanted to.
Of course, when traveling through remote routes with no human presence, he

could simply sprint and pick up the pace.
It took him a whole day before he finally reached the town of Garten.
"Alright then," Rui muttered. "Time to get to work."
The town was a bustling one, full of energy and vigor. It made it easier for
him to move around without drawing attention, something he was grateful
for.
He knew the base of operations of Faraday Lowminer was in the southern

part of the town, he needed to figure out a way to sniff the man out, capture
him and, ideally, his band of Martial Apprentices as well, and drag them to
Rui closed his eyes as he computed a list of courses of action he could take to
dig out his target.
The simplest and most straightforward method was a direct and head-on
approach of manually interrogating the townsfolks, asking them about the
men he was pursuing.
Of course, he immediately scratched that course of action out of his mind. It

had a low probability of succeeding and a high probability of alerting
Faraday Lowminer of his presence. If he realized that someone was in town
looking for him, then he would simply vanish like the wind, in all likelihood.
Thus, Rui had to take a more indirect approach to capture.
('First, what would lead me to him in the first place?') He asked himself.
He could either obtain the information directly by extracting the information

from someone who did know his exact location or indirectly by following a
trail that would lead him to Faraday. No matter how well he hid, as long as he
was running an operation of any kind that made him money of any kind, he
was inevitably connected to arrows that pointed in his direction.
Even if he distanced himself from everything, he would need people

managing his operations on his behalf. These people would most certainly be
required to be physically at the site of the base of operations, overseeing
inventory, schedule, supplies, processing, and shipments. The base of
operations could be tracked via the influx and outflux of funds, and the influx
and outflux of goods.
However, this was the avenue of intelligence gathering that the intelligence
department of the Martial Union was responsible for.
And so far, they had done a good job with the intelligence that they had
managed to obtain.
Faraday Lowminer had already long set up the foundation for a base of
operations in another state even before he escaped the Kandrian Empire,
according to the intelligence that the Martial Union had provided to Rui.
The man had not hurriedly set up a new base of operation but simply went
all-out with an existing base of operations.
The intelligence that the Martial Union managed to dig up was more specific,
of course. The man had set up a drug trafficking and selling business. The
esoteric kind, the kind that was illegal and heavily penalized.
It made sense, he was once in the esoteric resources-supplying industry, the

legitimate one. He had no choice but to delve into the underworld once he
was ousted by the Kandrian Empire.
The Kandrian Empire had an extradition treaty with almost all states in the
geographic surroundings of the country. Meaning he couldn't just travel to
another state and set up shop and continue with a legitimate business. He
would either need to travel extremely far to do that, in nations he had very
little exposure to and understanding of. Or choose to remain in a part of the
Panama Continent he was more familiar with.
The Martial Union had done a good job trying to narrow his location down
soon after his escape, meaning his plan had come close to failing. The
intelligence department could easily narrow down his location by tracking
exchanges in funds and tracking down the movement of the illegal esoteric
drugs that he was receiving and supplying.
However, that only worked as far as narrowing down the general location of
his base of operations. It took more time to pinpoint it.
Rui did not intend to try and aid the intelligence gathering by following in
their footsteps. While analyzing the flow of money and drugs was certainly
useful, he wouldn't be able to add much value as dedicated experts and
specialists were already on the job.
Sure, he wouldn't be useless, but was it really his most effective and efficient
way to find his target?
('The intelligence analysts can do what they do best, I intend to do the same.')
His operations weren't the only way he could be traced.
The fact that he had a band of Martial Apprentices was another opening
through which Rui could trace his location. Rui could easily detect whether a
person was a Martial Apprentice or not. Furthermore, the Kingdom of Violis
most certainly did not have anywhere near as many Martial Apprentices as
The town of Garten was unlikely to contain a large number of Martial

Apprentices. As long as he latched on to each of them one by one, he would
inevitably have found himself on a trail back to his target.
Rui intended to go down the list of all Martial Apprentices in town that he
detected and verify whether they were one of Faraday's men. If it was true
that Faraday's base of operations was based in the town of Garten, then it was
quite likely the case that all of the Martial Apprentices were also inhabiting
the town of Garten.
It wouldn't be quick or easy, but it was quite a reliable plan. He had computed
several other plans as well, of course, but given his circumstances and
capabilities, none of them were nearly as reliable as this one.
Furthermore, it was a plan that extremely few Martial Squires, including Rui,
could complete. The plan would require the ability to sense Martial
Apprentices within a reasonably wide area, otherwise, it would take far too
long and was far too unreliable. Rui was able to sense Martial Apprentices
within a wide area thanks to the presence of both Primordial Instinct and the
Mindmirror brain augmenting it. There were very few who could accurately
detect Martial Apprentices over a wider area the way Rui could.
Even if some of the Martial Apprentices that Faraday was employing had
high stealth capabilities, it wouldn't matter because there were several others
who Rui could use to lead him back to Faraday. There were very few things
that could go wrong with the plan as long as Rui was careful and cautious.
He immediately began solidifying the details of his approach as he fleshed

out the plan. Details such as how would he come to eventually verify whether
a Martial Apprentice he was tracking was a target or not, or how far he
should track them from, and other important details.
Chapter 484 Profile
Rui immediately got to work. He hit the mission commencement button on

his mission tracker device as he traveled across town.
The town of Garten was a highly commercial location. However, unlike

Hajin, commerce did not come from larger corporations conducting
organized business. Most of the market was comprised of smaller-scale
businesses and entrepreneurs of various kinds.
There were a lot of flea markets of various kinds and different areas for
different kinds of goods. The population and energy were high, resulting in a
lot of chaos.
('An ideal place to run an illegal drug distribution operation.') Rui noted.
Illegal activities illicit less attention in chaotic circumstances. The fact that
there was so much happening at all times was the perfect cover for an
operation like the one Faraday Lowminer was engaging in. Isolated and
shady hideouts were unreliable because they couldn't do a good job hiding
the base of operation of a certain drug distribution operation.
Martial Artists would sniff out the location of the base of operations in a
heartbeat with no difficulty if the base of operations occurred in a distant but
isolated and shady location.
On Earth, there were no sensory techniques, and although there was sensor
technology that allowed investigators and law enforcement to pinpoint
location to a surprisingly high degree, it wasn't as effective as Rui's sensory
capabilities, for example.
Thus, a better solution than hiding was actually disguising. Hiding could be
overcome in a straightforward and brute force fashion because they could be
directly sniffed out, but disguising bypassed that because you didn't where
what you were looking for was actually amidst the things you were searching.
Considering how much of a wide area the chaotic nature of the small business
and entrepreneur commercial part of the town spread, Rui could easily see
why the Martial Union had had a little troubling it down any further.
He had already begun looking for Martial Apprentices within the area just as
he had planned. Furthermore, he had already formed a system by which he
either confirmed that a particular Martial Apprentice was or wasn't a
Lowminer.
If Faraday was as careful as Rui suspected him to be, then it was quite likely
that each of the Martial Apprentices maintained a very low profile even when
they were in traveling the commercial part of the town, especially when they
were traveling outside their base of operations.
That meant it was unlikely that they would talk loudly or make noise, it was
quite likely that they had something obstructing their appearance, and it was
quite likely they would avoid picking fights or engaging in any kind of
conflict.
This already was a pretty decent way to focus on the Martial Apprentices that
were more likely to have a connection to the Lowminers. Of course, this was
necessarily absolute, but there was quite a high probability that they would be
instructed to minimize the amount of attention they drew. Of course, as a
Martial Apprentice, the people immediately near them would be able to pick
it up, but by minimizing his emotional expression, he was able to reduce the
attention he drew.
Unlike Rui, of course. Even as a Martial Squire, he could only reduce his
presence all the way down to an ordinary seventeen-year-old boy, he could
even go further beyond and truly minimize the attention he drew. He had
taken the initiative to do so.
It was especially ideal in a scenario where the chaos in the environment made
it so that he was effectively invisible.
He had already dialed Primordial Instinct and Seismic Mapping to the
absolute maximum. The former sense quickly gave him the threat level of
each person even in his general area. An overwhelming majority of people
gave him zero sense of danger.
The entire town could gang up on him and he would still feel unperturbed.
Even as a Martial Apprentice, humans were entirely obsolete unless they
were amped up on potions or were using some kind of technology.
Suddenly, his senses perked as he felt a greater, but ultimately still

insignificant, amount of weight from one particular individual that entered his
sensory range as he kept walking forward.
('Martial Apprentice.') Rui rejoiced as he walked toward the source of the

pressure subtly.
The man was drunk, causing a bit of a scene before everybody.
"You messing with me punk?" He slobbered, holding a young man up by his

collar.
The Martial Apprentice had loud and ostentatious clothes, he had companions
who looked more like servants than acquaintances or friends. The food and
beer he had consumed were also not little, furthermore, they each had their
own saddled horses.
('Rich kid who somehow managed to discover his Martial Path.') He sighed.
Partly because the probability that the Martial Apprentice was of the
Lowminers was quite low. If the Lowminers were stupid enough to have
someone this unreliable as a part of their drug operation then they would have
long been caught.
Furthermore, Rui quickly deduced that he was most likely the heir of a
wealthy and influential family. His garments were of much higher quality
than what Rui had observed in the market, and the fact that he had servants
and a horse was also indicative of his status, yet their light belongings and
lack of other goods indicated short-distance traveling. That coupled with the
fact that he was being an insufferable prick for no reason was also consistent
with the profile that he would expect from someone with that background.
Rui made sure that there were no prying eyes that could be watching with
Primordial Instinct and Seismic Mapping, before returning his attention to the
drunk idiot before him.
Time slowed down in his perspective as he leaped forward with extreme

speed.
WHOOSH
TAP
He simply jabbed lightly with a karate chop at the neck of the Martial
Apprentice as he crossed to the other side.
THUD
The man collapsed like a puppet cut from its strings, earning the surprise of
the crowd. Rui had moved so fast that even a crowd was far too slow to
perceive him and catch an image of him.
Chapter 485 Decision
Even as a Martial Apprentice, he was blindingly fast to normal humans, as a

Martial Squire, normal humans were so slow in his eyes that they were no
different from statues. It was as though he gained the ability to slow down
and freeze time. Knocking him out without anyone noticing was an extremely
simple and easy task.
The crowd didn't even suspect a thing.
"He drank himself out."
"The young master is a wretched drunkard who abuses his power."
"Well, at least he didn't hurt anybody this time."
Those words affirmed Rui's deductions about the man. He was clearly a local
and a resident of the area, most certainly not a newcomer Martial Apprentice
associated with the Lowminers. It seemed even his drinking and harassment
weren't uncommon.
It was an odd sight to Rui. Yet it showed him how much better the Kandrian
Empire was. Martial Artists weren't allowed to run around hurting people
with impunity. While it was true that the sentencing penalties for violence
were light, this wasn't because of class privilege, but it was because Martial
Artists were a crucial part of the state and were too important and valuable to
be wasted rotting behind bars for a decade.
Of course, this didn't mean they got away scot-free. They usually signed an
agreement with the Martial Union or the Kandrian government where they
worked free of cost for certain degrees of limited freedom, depending on how
severe their crime was.
This was the way that the Kandrian government and the Martial Union
punished Martial Artists that crossed the line while also exploiting them for
free Martial labor. It was a ruthless but clever system that squeezed Martial
Artists of their value. Not only were no resources wasted in imprisoning
Martial Artists in special prisons meant to withstand even the massively
superhuman power that Martial Artists were capable of exerting, but positive
utility was obtained from such an arrangement.
The only reason Martial Artists didn't complain was that the deal was still
much better than being imprisoned. Thus, it was ultimately a win-win for
everybody involved.
The Kingdom of Violis was much different in that regard, it seemed. For half
a second, Rui considered killing the Martial Apprentice, yet quickly reigned
in that thought. It drew too much attention, especially as the young Martial
Artist appeared to be the son of someone important. It might also alert his
target.
He immediately walked away from the scene inconspicuously, before

resuming his search.
The good thing was that there wasn't a large population of Martial
Apprentices for him to have to work with. Of course, this was to be expected.
The rate of breakthroughs of human beings into the Apprentice Realm was
one in a thousand, roughly speaking. Only 0.001% of the population of a
country was a Martial Artist, after all.
In time, he ran into yet another.
This time, the chances were much more optimistic. He maintained a decently
low profile, did not employ his power recklessly, and did not draw attention
unnecessarily through any other means.
('This seems like a good shot,') Rui thought optimistically. He memorized the
man's seismic signature and began tailing him from a distance. Thankfully, he
could tail him even with a large distance between them thanks to Seismic
Mapping. There was absolutely no risk of being caught for tailing him due to
the sheer distance between them.
The man took his time, slowly navigating through the bustling crowd. Yet to
Rui's surprise, he was heading away from the commercial areas of the town,
heading closer up north. To Rui's dismay, this reduced the probability of him
being associated with the Lowminers.
And he was proven right.
The man entered a residential area and eventually walked into a house. He
was greeted by a woman carrying a child. Rui sighed as they exchanged
embraces, walking back down to the south of the town. The man was clearly
a local, and not someone who had migrated to the country extremely recently.
He ran into a lot of duds, far more than he had expected.
Some of these Martial Apprentices were earnestly shopping, others were

commissioned to act as a bodyguard by a client, escorting her around as she
shopped.
Rui had almost given up hope when he detected one more Martial Apprentice
just up ahead in the distance.
It was only after he made he got a glimpse of his face did his eyes widen.
A masked man, one that looked nearly identical to the one that had separated
Rui from Bella on his first mission many years ago.
('That bastard...') Rui's eyes narrowed.
He hadn't expected that he would verify a member of the Lowminer gang this
fast after detecting a Martial Apprentice.
('I've hit the lottery. I just need to follow this guy back to wherever he goes
and I'll find the base of operations of the Lowminers.')
Rui had no intention of letting him go. He would lead him to the base of
operations, and he would pay for making Rui fail to protect Bella Hier.
Rui was on max alert as he made sure to follow the Martial Apprentice from
a distance as inconspicuously as he possibly could. He wound about through
the alleys of the bustling marketplace before he entered the flowering district.
A large group of shops with flowers and bouquets set up on the top.
('This is it.') Rui nodded.
This place was it. Not just because the Martial Apprentice had entered it, but
also because Rui could sense an underground layout with activity coming
from under through Seismic Mapping.
He was about seventy-percent certain that this place was the actual base of
operations or one of the bases of operations. It had a limited underground
layout that probably served as the inventory for drugs
But Rui wasn't primarily interested in the base of operations as much as he

was interested in the ringleader, who actually was the target of his mission.
('Alright then...') Rui wondered. ('What exactly to do now?')

Chapter 486 Interrogate
There were several courses of action that he could take. The first one was, of
course, the most straightforward course of action. He could just storm in and
start interrogating the people running the show.
But the odds were high that that would alert the target of his mission before
Rui actually reached him. First, he would be assuming that the people there
were actually aware of the location of their ringleader. Second, even if they
were aware, he needed to be careful of how he extracted the data from
Faraday's men. It was risky.
Even if he killed all of them after interrogating them, there was a high chance
that Faraday would find out about the leak and would immediately scram,
making Rui's job even harder.
The probability that the target of his mission was waiting at this location was,
of course, unlikely. Rui was relatively certain this was merely the location
where the drugs were sold and distributed. The actual location where they
were received and processed was likely not at this particular location, which
was clearly just a commercial outpost.
('Barging in is risky.') Rui noted. ('I should nab a Martial Apprentice and
interrogate him separately.')
It didn't take long for the masked Martial Apprentice to leave the flower
shop. Rui waited for the right moment.
WHOOSH
One moment the Martial Apprentice was simply walking minding his own
business, and the next moment he was gone.
A few random people who were near him turned, and glanced at the spot he
was just at in confusion, before shrugging and going on about their day.
In a distant remote alley away from the commercial district, Rui dropped the
man to the ground. Although Rui had moved extremely quickly, the Martial
Apprentice had still struggled to break free from his grip while they were
moving. Too bad that in front of him, even a grade ten martial Apprentice
was no different from a child compared to a sports athlete.
The Martial Apprentice dashed away the second he was dropped to the
ground, yet Rui simply tore off his Mind Mask.
"Freeze." He said calmly.
The masked Martial Apprentice froze on the spot as if forcefully halted by a

powerful force.
Fear was a powerful force.
The grand aura and force of a Martial Squire descended upon the area as the
masked Martial Apprentice shivered in his spot.
He knew that Rui could kill him with the slightest exertion of effort.
"You," Rui spoke in Kandrian. "You're of the Lowminers, aren't you?"
The Martial Apprentice stiffened as he realized what all this was about.
"I know you're not sticking with the Lowminers out of sheer loyalty. Faraday
Lowminer must be paying you heftily to earn your services. The question is
whether whatever he's giving you is worth your life." Rui told him.
The Martial Apprentice didn't reply, but he understood where Rui was going
with this.
"I have an ability that can allow me to detect whether you're lying or being
honest," Rui told him. "I can accurately determine what is true and what
isn't."
In reality, it wasn't that convenient. With Primordial Instinct, Rui could gauge
emotion and intention in normal people to a certain degree. He could tell the
difference between the sincere truth and a complete lie, but when things were
a mix of both, he had no idea what was the truth and what wasn't.
"You will answer my questions truthfully. If you lie, I will inflict horrific
suffering on you. I won't let you die. You will suffer at my hands and at the
hands of the Kandrian martial Union until you spit out the truth. This doesn't
need to happen if you speak the truth. Is that clear?"
He nodded nervously.
"Alright then." Rui calmly asked him. "Where is Faraday Lowminer?"
There was a moment of silence before the Martial Apprentice opened his
mouth to answer Rui.
"He's at our main base of operations, in an underground base that poses as a

homeless shelter on the surface."
Rui processed the information that the Martial Apprentice gave him as he
carefully studied the man with Primordial Instinct.
('Sincere... Hm,') Rui noted. "Where is this homeless shelter?"
"A little south of the commercial districts." The man quickly ratted out.
('So it was even further south than we suspected, while he certainly did use
the chaotic commercial districts as a way to distribute drugs without
attracting much attention, I suppose it's not feasible to have their main base in
such a populated area.') Rui realized.
"Give me an address, be as precise and accurate as you can," Rui told him
calmly.
He carefully eyed the man as the latter spat out an address, as well as some
landmarks.
"You're lying. Trying to throw me off?" Rui snorted.

"I'm telling the truth!" He exclaimed, repeating the address again, being more
descriptive this time. Rui kept pushing him despite that.
SNAP
"AAARRRGH!" The Martial Apprentice cried out loud as Rui casually broke
his arm with a single hand. "I'm not lying!"
"Hm..." Rui stared at him.
In actuality, Rui sensed a lot of desperate sincerity from the man, he just
wanted to make sure there was absolutely no avenue for him to lie
whatsoever.
"Last question," Rui told him. "Do you remember the assassination of Bella
Hier?"
His eyebrows scrunched in confusion, wondering why Rui randomly brought

up something of that sort.
He nodded slowly, nervous.
"Do you remember the Martial Apprentice you fought?" Rui asked with an
icy tone. "The one you attacked, fought, and separated from Bella Hier?"
More confusion, more nodding.
"That Martial Apprentice had been too weak to fight and protect his target
back then, hadn't he?" Rui said, looking at the sky, before turning back to
him. "What do you think he would do to you if you were standing before him
after all that time?"
More confusion followed until the Martial Apprentice had a scary realization.
He turned towards Rui in fear, but a jittery shiver flew down his spine.
Chapter 487 Infiltration
He stared at Rui with fearful eyes. Rui calmly returned his stare with an icy
one of his own.
"ACK!" He choked as Rui grabbed him by the neck.
"I know it was no more than an assignment for you." Rui strengthened his
grip. "I know it wasn't personal for you."
He brought the man's face closer.
"But honestly?" Rui asked. "I don't give a damn."
"...!" The Martial Apprentice's face grew red. He felt as though his head was
going to burst. He struggled desperately, trying to pry Rui's hands off his
neck while kicking Rui with all the Apprentice-level technique he could.
In vain, of course.
His measly attacks couldn't even budge Rui even when he wasn't using any
Squire-level defensive techniques.
The Martial Apprentice's eyelids fluctuated as his vision blurred.
The brain tended to automatically shut down when blood flow to it was shut
down for more than seven seconds.
Rui clenched his grip, squeezing down hard.
SNAP
A Martial Apprentice's body was fundamentally human, barring the brain.

Rui didn't even need to use Outer Convergence to snap his neck with ease,
killing him on the spot.
THUD
He dropped his body to the ground, sighing.
('Not the most rational decision.') He had enough self-awareness to realize

that wasn't the best decision he could have made. Maybe the Martial
Apprentice had mastered some mental technique that allowed him to fool
Rui's Primordial Instinct. Maybe the location that he had given Rui was
wrong and fake, and he successfully fooled Rui using that technique.
In that case, Rui should have kept him alive in case the location was wrong
so that he could extract the real location from him.
Of course, it wasn't likely, but Rui was normally quite careful on missions.
This time, however, he had acted irrationally.
He sighed, shaking his head. He quickly scoured the man's body, finding
some cash and a communication device, both of which he took. There was
nothing else of value on the corpse.
He raised one foot up in the air.
THUD!!
His foot struck the ground, cratering past the soil. In an instant, he had
created a crater several meters deep, tossing the corpse in it. Within five
minutes, he had buried the body in soil and had completely covered it, and
flattened the ground.
"Alright then." He clapped his hands, dusting them off. "Time to set off."
First, he updated the Martial Union on the intel he had acquired, through the
communication device. It was necessary to keep them in the loop as soon as
he got access to new intel, a policy that ensured that Martial Artists did not
die before conveying valuable intelligence to the Martial Union.
He turned, facing south. That was where the location of the homeless shelter
was.
RUMBLE!
The very ground shook as he dashed away at incredible speeds. The air
recoiled as a sonic boom blasted through it.
Twenty seconds, that's how long it took him to reach the location that the
Martial Apprentice had given him.
The homeless shelter part appeared to be accurate, this was a good sign. Rui
could sense a large number of people within the warehouse, huddled together.
It was a cramped location. Seismic Mapping detected an underground layout
as well, whose only entrance was at the center of the shelter.
There was no reason to hesitate.
He ignored the odd stares that the people inside gave him. He was clearly not
one of them. There appeared to be helpers who aided the needy, they too
threw confused looks at him. Rui simply ignored all of them as he headed
toward the entrance to the underground facility.
"Hey." A man stopped him. "Who are you and where the fuck do you think
you're going?"
A bunch of armed guards stopped him.
"I'm here to kill Faraday Lowminer." Rui simply replied.
He studied the looks of shock and anger that emerged on their faces. Their
reactions supported the claim that the target of his mission was here.
THWACK
Rui simply waved his hand across the two guards, killing them instantly.
All hell broke loose as the commotion attracted the attention of the rest of the
security team.
He simply tore off his Mind Mask and watched them all freeze in fear,
studying their reactions. He was trying to gauge how confident they were in
their defenses.
"Hm..." He dashed forward, running through them like they were light
curtains. Deeper inside the facility was what appeared to be a locked section.
Rui could sense the tunnel leading underground behind the gates.
BAM!
He broke through, shocking the many people within.
Inside was a large opening into the ground that inclined downwards. There
were storage vehicles that entered and exited the tunnel. There were many
men loading and unloading boxes, filled with drugs no doubt.
The guards immediately raised their muskets and other projectile weapons,
yet they never had a chance to fire them.
Rui simply disappeared from their vision.
He was already running down the tunnel.
"Deep." He murmured.
A security block soon entered his vision, they manually checked all the
incoming vehicles, before letting them pass. Amongst them was a man in
what appeared to be a suit, overseeing the security team.
POW POW POW!
Rui killed all the security guards in the briefest of moments. It happened so
man that the security head hadn't even realized what had happened until after
Rui killed all of them.
"You're the head of security?" Rui asked him in international language.
He tried pulling out a musket, pointing it towards Rui. Yet he shivered his
knees buckled. Rui took off his Mind Mask, drawing out his primal fear.
"Where is Faraday Lowminer?" Rui coldly asked.
The man pointed with a shivering finger down the block.
('Good, he's here.') Rui nodded. "How many Martial Apprentices does he
have?"
"S-Seventeen." The man gulped.
Not a small number.
"How many Martial Squires?"
"N-None."
"You're lying." Rui scoffed.
CRACK
"AAARGH! It's the truth!" The man sobbed, caressing his broken arm.
Chapter 488 Drag
In actuality, he wasn't lying. Rui just wanted to make sure.
"Where is he exactly?" Rui growled.
"H-He's in his office, at the very end of the underground warehouse." He

managed to squeeze out.
Just then, the armed guards from above that he had simply zoomed past had
finally caught up, having rushed downhill at top speed.
Rui tossed the man outside, but he couldn't be bothered dealing with them.
Why waste time killing people that he could simply avoid? It's not like they
could do anything in the first place. His goal was primarily to capture and
bring back Faraday Lowminer, and secondarily to bring back the Martial
Apprentices alive, if possible.
Of course, he had killed one of them already, but he didn't care too much. He
didn't mind not perfectly completing the mission in order to regain some
revenge.
They fired at him, but the various bullets and arrows were too slow to be able
to tag him. Or hurt him if they did hit him. He just disappeared from their
field of vision as he headed further down.
"Hm?" His senses pricked as he faintly felt a heavy presence at the edge of
his field of senses. The type that only Martial Apprentices could dish out.
He immediately happened upon a storage facility where men were unloading

and docking boxes into the storage room. It was immediately evident that his
place served as the inventory for the drug operation. However, his attention
was most fixated on the two Martial Apprentices he had happened upon.
They immediately lashed out against him, yet they simply froze when he
unleashed his Squire-level aura. To a Martial Apprentice, Martial Squire's
bloodlust aura was no different from a Martial Apprentice's aura to normal
people.
In fact, when Squire Caella Freelia unleashed her aura upon Rui and his
friends in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana, only Rui had broken out of
the fear it generated while his friends were still paralyzed.
Rui didn't even need to bother anymore with interrogations, he had already
gotten close enough. Furthermore, there were plenty of Martial Apprentices
that were huddled around in a somewhat small area and a single human.
('There he is') Rui sighed in relief.
POW POW!
He knocked the two Martial Apprentices out, before administering to them a

potent drug that would leave them knocked out for twenty-four hours. He
ignored all the human workers, they didn't even register to him.
Even an army of ordinary humans had a perfect zero chance of defeating him.
He headed towards the area where he could sense the many Martial
Apprentices huddled.
BANG!
He kicked open the door.
Nine people turned their attention to him.
Of the nine of them, six were Martial Apprentices, they were frozen, having
sensed that their opponent was a Martial Squire.
The other three were normal humans, two of them were clearly natives of the
Kingdom of Violis judging by their facial features which were generally
distinct from that of Kandrian natives.
And the man at the center, who was hurriedly packing up a suitcase with
money and some files, simply stared at him with a grim expression.
It was him.
Faraday Lowminer.
He looked a little different from the image that the Martial Union had
provided him. He looked wearier and older. But there was no doubt in Rui's
mind that this was the man he was looking for. The man who had gotten
Bella killed and had caused Rui to fail his first mission.
"Faraday Lowminer." He addressed the man with a calm voice despite his
emotions. "As authorized by the Kandrian central government, I'm here to
escort you back to the Kandrian Empire where you will undergo a trial for the
charges levied against you by the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation."
The man gritted his teeth. "I'm going nowhere! Attack him!"
Only one of the six Martial Apprentices managed to break free from the
oppressive fear that Rui generated in all of them. He was a particularly
powerful Martial Apprentice, judging by the weight of his mind and the fact
that he broke through.
Yet before he could even take one step forward.
POW POW POW POW POW POW!
Rui flashed past all of them, and a single strike knocked all of them out.
STEP
He was just before Faraday Lowminer, staring deeply into the man's eyes.
"You're going to pay for your many crimes."
Before the man could even open his mouth, Rui had already stuck the syringe
needly into him, injecting him with a drug. The man collapsed on the spot.
Rui wanted to ensure he didn't get provoked to kill him by mistake, so he

quickly dosed the man so that there was no chance of that.
He quickly drugged the Martial Apprentices. Before using the highly portable
bags to tie the drugged Martial Artists and the target of his mission into them.
He turned back to the two other humans that had remained frozen since the
very start. They weren't Kandrian citizens and while they were guilty of
crimes, they had not violated the law of the Kandrian Empire within the
territory of the Kandrian Empire.
He simply ignored them.
When he was walking up, he didn't receive any resistance. In fact, he hardly
ran into anybody. However, he wasn't surprised. The guards and workers here
weren't extremely loyal, once Rui had shown how formidable he was and
they had finally understood he was a Martial Squire, they ran away like the
wind, knowing that this drug operation was doomed.
Not that Rui cared. He had obtained what he came for and didn't really care
much for the small-time crooks that were involved in this operation. It just
made his job easier, he would rather not mass murder if he didn't need to.
He dragged his targets out, this was the boring part of the mission. Hauling
the targets of his mission to the nearest Martial Union office. Thankfully, he
did not need to manually drag them back to the Martial Union, handing them
over to the Martial Union office would seal the deal.
Chapter 489 Charged
"We have successfully acquired the targets of your mission, Squire Quarrier."
A woman wearing a uniform with the emblem of the Kandrian Martial Union
told Rui, bowing. "Thank you for completing your mission."
Rui nodded. "Will there be any problems with handling the Martial
Apprentices and getting them back to the Kandrian Empire?"
"Not at all." She politely responded. "The Martial Apprentices will be

carefully monitored by a team of experts who will ensure they remain
sedated. We have an extradition treaty with the Kingdom of Violis and there
are many channels that the Martial Union has established for smuggling
larger goods in and out of the Kingdom of Violis."
Rui nodded in response.
"Is there anything else, Squire?" She asked politely.
"Not at all, I'll be taking my leave then." Rui nodded.
"I bid you farewell then." She wished him.
He left the branch office of the Martial Union soon after, breathing a sigh of
relief. He had finally gotten something off his shoulders after this long, he
felt like a weight had gotten lifted off of him, leaving him more refreshed and
at peace.
On the way back, he pondered the mission he had just completed.
('Certainly one of my smoother missions.') Rui noted.
He had an incredible success rate as a Martial Apprentice, failure was

extremely rare. Of course, this didn't mean that the mission itself was too
easy, it was just about right for its grade. The actual arrest was the easy part,
the investigation and location of the target of the mission were the harder
part. The mission deployed a Martial Squire to extract and return an escaping
charged criminal back to the Kandrian Empire the moment his location was
determined.
Of course, normally, the intelligence gathering was done by the intelligence

department of the Martial Union. But Rui took the matters into his own hands
and made more progress in a few hours than they had made in a week, thanks
to the resourceful and effective means of acquiring intelligence that he had
come up with.
He didn't expect anything other than a perfect evaluation from the Martial
Union.
THUD
He landed after jumping over the wall that ran along the perimeter of the
country, before running back towards the Kandrian Empire casually. Just like
when he set out for the Kingdom of Violis from the Kandrian Empire, it took
him only half an hour to reach the Kandrian Empire.
He quickly entered the Kandrian transit port before undergoing the brief
protocols that returning Martial Artist citizens needed to go through before
finally setting foot into the Kandrian Empire.
Once in the Kandrian Empire, he could sky-walk without any problems at all.
It was only when he was outside the Empire that the risk of taking to the
skies and making yourself an open target was a risky move.
"Ahhhh..." He sighed as he treaded through the atmosphere. He couldn't get

over just how pleasant it was to freely traverse the skies. One of the most
primal desires of man was to fly, after all. It was that desire for freedom that
led to the birth of the plane.
The ability of Martial Squires and Martial Artists of higher Realms to be able
to accomplish that with raw physicality alone dampened the marvel of that
feat in this world. However, there did indeed exist means of traveling through
the sky via esoteric technology. Of course, he had never seen such means of
transport himself. What were the principles and mechanics by which this
technology operated?
Such thoughts centering topics that intrigued him flashed around in his mind
all throughout his return to the Mantian Region and the town of Hajin.
Eventually, he reached, descending to the Quarrier Orphanage. There were

several figures in the garden.
"Max, Mana." He called out. "How's it going?"
"Big brother!" They cooed when they saw him descending from the air. "You
can fly?!"
Rui chuckled, recalling he hadn't yet told them that Martial Squires could
sky-walk. "Just a trick."
"Why don't you teach us how to do that?" Max asked innocently.
"Maybe when you're older," Rui suggested with a wry smile.
"Are you going to overlook our training?" Mana asked.
"While I am here, of course." Rui turned to the third figure in the backyard. "I
trust their training has gone well?"
"Yes, of course, Squire Quarrier." The Martial Apprentice bowed, expressing

respect. "They certainly have potential, as well as the drive."
Rui had commissioned a Martial Apprentice with training experience to

overlook their training while he was gone. The entrance exam for the Martial
Academy was half a year away and he wanted to increase the intensity and
quality of their training. It was especially necessary to hone their mental
fortitude which required a Martial Artist.
That was one of the core responsibilities that the Apprentice trainer was
burdened with. She was to train and build the mental fortitude of the siblings
by exposing them to greater mental strain as time passed, among other things.
Rui quickly scanned their bodies, observing the changes they had undergone
in the past few months. Their muscle tone had increased to what Rui would
consider an optimal level. It wasn't too little where the power they generated
as well as their durability were both too low, nor too much where their
flexibility and agility suffered too much.
They had the bodies of fighters.
"Hm..." Rui nodded.
Of course, this was just the bare minimum.
"Let's see how much progress you've made," Rui told them. "Come."
The two children grew excited as they adopted their stances. Mana adopted a
lighter stance with her center of gravity localized and close, hopping and
bobbing on her feet. Max, on the other hand, planted himself on the ground,
positioning his legs to maximize the amount of power they could generate.
Rui smiled. "How scary. Looks like I might not be able to hold back."
"We're going to make you fight hard, big brother!"
They charged at him together.

Chapter 490 Reunion
Mana was an agile and flexible fighter while Max leaned more toward power
and durability. Their approaches in combat reflected that. Mana reached Rui
the quickest before throwing a flurry of quick and light jabs, testing Rui's
reaction to them.
Rui lightly blocked them, redirecting them away. He was planning on

limiting himself to human-level power, about what one would expect from an
ordinary seventeen-year-old boy.
Max followed through quickly, throwing a powerful blow.
WHOOSH
Rui simply avoided the blow as he sidestepped, spiraling out of the way.
The two of the lashed out after Rui, attacking together. What impressed Rui
was the fact that the two of them could not only attack him simultaneously
but do so in a manner that did not detract from each of them individually.
They either utilized as much space as they needed around Rui to be able to
simultaneously attack without getting in the way of the other to any degree.
Other times, they would attack from the same direction but time their attacks
rapidly after each other's, making it more difficult to defend against the
relentless onslaught that they generated.
They had developed a respectable degree of coordination, just as Rui had

hoped.
One of the things Rui had hoped was that by developing a good degree of
coordination with each other, they would have a higher chance of cracking
the entrance exam of the Martial Academy. Individually, they would have a
very hard time, it was very rare that someone their age applied for the Martial
Exam and even rarer that they would successfully pass.
The only thirteen-year-olds who had passed in their batch were Kane, who
was already a Martial Apprentice by then, and Rui, who was... well, Rui.
Both of them were far from the norm without a doubt.
Rui carefully analyzed their combined combat strength as they tried their best
to take him down. While it was true that they had good teamwork, that alone
wasn't particularly special. It wasn't like teaming up to crack the entrance
exam was unheard of. Hell, Rui himself had teamed up with Kane in the
second round of the entrance exam.
He intended to harden their training as time passed. Particularly, he wanted to

ensure that their defensive and evasive prowess was solid, it would lower
their chances of suffering grave injury or, in the worst-case scenario, death.
He didn't particularly care too much if they didn't manage to crack the
entrance exam, they had five more attempts as they progressively grew older
and stronger.
A few hours later, the two of them were flat on the ground, entirely exhausted
and drained.
"Man, in the end, we couldn't even properly attack a single attack on him!"
Max complained.
"It was to be expected, he's a Martial Squire." Mana sighed.
"The two of you did quite well for your age," Rui told them. "Keep training
hard, you two."
He turned to the Apprentice trainer that had been spectating the training spar.
"Please look after their training."
"Of course, Squire Quarrier." She bowed respectfully.
He nodded before heading back in.
"RUIII!" Alice greeted him first, as always, yet this time she wasn't too
happy. "You've been home for hours yet you didn't come to greet us! Hmph!"
Rui smiled wryly as he scratched his head awkwardly. "My bad. I'll greet all
of you immediately next time."
"As you should!"
He spent a few days hanging about with his family. It was always a good
break mentally when he could spend time with them, a natural soother and
relaxer. If not for his family, he would have no speed breaks that forced him
to slow down and appreciate the finer aspects of life.
A few days later, he returned to the town of Hajin. However, it wasn't to pick
another mission, not immediately, at least.
"Show off," Kane grumbled as Rui sky walked down to them.
"Sky Walking is always a sight to see." Fae sighed, earning a nod from the
others. Hever, Dalen, Milliana, and Nel were present as well.
Rui smiled at his friends. "It's been quite some time all of you, nearly a year."
It wasn't easy meeting them because everybody was busy, consumed in

training or completing missions. Right after he broke through to the Squire
Realm, he needed to immediately dive into Squire habilitation to get
accustomed to his power. He hadn't been able to meet his friends after due to
conflicting schedules. Most of them had been away on a mission while the
rest had been in the middle of training.
Immediately after that, Rui spent half a year in training and had undertaken
his first Squire-level mission soon after. He was grateful that they had finally
gotten together after that long.
"So, how's it all been going?" He asked.
Kane shrugged. "It's been going good. Good enough, honestly."
"How's living truly independently been working out for you?" Rui asked. He
had, of course, been exchanging messages with Kane, so he knew that his
plan had been successful enough. Joining the Wind Sect within the Lightning
Sect had given him the power to be able to live independently. With the sheer
talent that he undoubtedly possessed, he was quite a valuable asset to any
Martial Sect. He had leveraged his value to be able to resist the Arrancar
Family's claim over him.
The Arrancar Family was led by a vaunted Martial Sage, leader of the Fire
Sect. It was no longer as simple a matter for the family to reclaim him, and
the Lightning Sect was a Martial Sect of equal power and influence as that of
the Fire Sect. It could not allow the Fire Sect to blatantly steal one of its most
valuable Martial Apprentice assets not only because it would violate the only
condition that Kane had provided to them, but it would also make them look
weak, hurting their prestige and their ability to recruit Martial Artists.
"Better than I expected." Kane grinned. "The Martial Academy was alright,
but this is way better!"
"Of course," Kan added. "It still makes me dependent on the Lightning Sect
for protection against being coerced against my will to rejoin my family, but
hey, we're getting there."
"Indeed." Fae nodded. "I am particularly impressed that your plan actually
succeeded."
"It won't be that easy breaking out of the Arrancar Family's grasp, you
know," Dalen told him.
"I know," Kane replied. "But there's a limit to how far they are willing to go."
"Perhaps," Hever replied calmly. "But that limit is likely much higher for
someone like yourself. You're no ordinary Martial Artist. With your talent,
you're a precious boon that any Martial Family would kill to have."
Kane sighed. He was aware of that, it would be much easier to cut ties with
his family if they didn't give a shit about him.
"You should just fight them if they try holding you back." Nel snorted.
Kane snorted, ignoring him as he turned back to Rui. "Well, putting that
aside..."
He studied Rui from head to toe. "So this is you as a Martial Squire, huh?
You don't look or feel any different."
Rui chuckled. He had sealed the pressure that they would experience with the
help of the Mind Mask, he didn't want them to change their behavior with
him now that he was a whole Realm of power above them. "I've taken some
measures."
"What was the experience of breaking through like, I've wondered." She
stared at him with interest and curiosity in her eyes.
"Painful," Rui replied immediately.
Silence befell the group as they processed his simple yet scary answer.
"Like... breaking bones painful? Stubbing your tow painful? Or worse? Like
stepping on lego painful?" Kane asked blankly.
"No no, it's not nearly as bad as stepping on lego, obviously." Rui shook his
head. "But it was pretty bad."
The two of them exchanged a chuckle as Fae rolled her eyes. "I'm serious,
you have to tell us more about the experience."
Rui scratched his head awkwardly. The information regarding the

breakthrough to the Squire Realm was classified and not something Martial
Apprentices were privy to until they fulfilled the conditions for Squire
candidates.
Partly because the actual information itself was strategic intelligence that was
highly relevant to the Martial power of a nation. Rui was vaguely aware that
the discovery of the Martial body set the foundation for the higher Realms of
Martial Art, though he wasn't aware of any details.
He sighed. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's because I can't."
There was also the fact that if their Martial Art hadn't reached maturity, then
there was a chance that their lust for the power that the breakthrough to the
Squire Realm would grant them would warp their Martial Art. Instead of their
Martial body catering to their Martial Art, their Martial Art might cater to the
ideal Martial body that they may desire.
Fae sighed. "I expected as much. Every Martial Artist of the higher Realms
has unilaterally refused to tell me any meaningful information about the
breakthrough to the Squire Realm, and what it is that actually separates
Martial Squires from Martial Apprentices."
She turned back to face Rui. "It's because we aren't Squire candidates,
correct?"
Rui sighed in relief, if they were aware of the concept, then it was easier to
refuse them. "Correct."
"Would you tell us if we became Squire candidates?" Hever asked

thoughtfully.
"If you became Squire candidates then you would be informed by qualified
experts trained to explain to Martial Apprentices like yourselves about the
breakthrough condition to the Squire Realm, you won't need to hear it from
me," Rui explained.
"Don't care about that." Nel snorted, interjecting abruptly. "How strong have
you become?"
Rui smiled at the hint of battle lust that flashed through his eyes. "Stronger
than I ever thought I would be."
"Show me." Nel grinned.
Rui sighed. "In time. You should focus on attaining that power rather than
challenging those that already have it before acquiring it yourself. How much
stronger have you gotten."
"Way stronger." He grinned. "I would crush the old you!"
"That's quite remarkable." Rui smiled, amused. "You must be close to Squire
candidacy, right?"
He shrugged silently.
"Each of us has fulfilled at least one of the conditions of Squire candidacy,"

Fae told him.
"That's good to hear." Rui nodded, before pausing. "Ah, I need each of you to
contact me when you reach Squire candidacy."
"Why's that?" Kane asked curiously.
"I have an Apprentice-level technique to give to each of you," Rui told them.
They all threw confused expressions at him.
"It's complicated." Rui sighed.
He wanted to get all of them to master the Mind Switch technique.

Specifically, the version of the technique that he had mastered. Triggering the
neurological and metabolic phenomenon associated with hunger via pain.
This would increase their stamina very naturally and organically, allowing
them to ultimately obtain a stronger Martial body.
"You said 'give' us a technique." Fae frowned at his odd wording. "As in, a
technique of yours and not something in the Martial Academy."
"Sort of." Rui scratched his head awkwardly. "It's a personal modification of
a technique that exists in the Apprentice library."
"Why not give it to us now instead of after we become Squire candidates,"

Dalen asked thoughtfully.
"Mmm..." Rui wasn't sure how much to tell them. "Let's just say it has
something to do with the breakthrough to the Squire realm."
"I don't do techniques." Nel snorted.
"You do training techniques, however." Rui pointed out. Nel was not averse
to any training technique that naturally made his body's natural physicality
greater. He had no problem with conditioning techniques that increased his
body's natural toughness. Autophagy was a very normal and natural
phenomenon, thus it wouldn't clash with his Martial Path.
"Will it make us stronger?" Nel asked.
Rui smiled. "Much."
"So you're telling me..." Kane summed up Rui's instructions. "...that you have
an Apprentice-level technique that you modified to make you much stronger
as a Martial Squire. A technique that the Martial Union and other Martial
Squires don't have?"
Chapter 492 Selfish
"Is that skepticism I hear in your tone?" Rui chuckled.
The rest of them just stared at him with mixed emotions. If anybody else
from their batch of students in the Martial Academy had told them that they
had altered an Apprentice-level technique at the age of seventeen and created
a technique that allowed them to become much stronger as a Martial Squire,
through means that even the Martial Union did not know, they would have
called him a conman and walked away.
But not when that person telling them this was Rui Quarrier.
While Rui's Martial prowess was one of his most impressive assets, they
knew that at the core of all of his uniqueness and absurdity was his
exceptional mind. By his accounts, he had learned to speak, read and write at
astonishingly young ages. His performance in the evaluation of his mental
parameters of the evaluation exam they had undergone after joining was the
single highest recorded performance in the history of the Martial Academies.
Each of them had many anecdotes about his mind. Be it his impeccable
analyses and deductions, or his ridiculously accurate predictions and
decision-making. The most absurd feat was the one he performed time and
time against, the most frequently, that was the creation of a combat style
designed to have the highest probability of victory against his opponent.
None of them could even begin to fathom how such a feat was even possible,
yet it was bread and butter for Rui.
Thus, despite how scam-ish the claim sounded, it could not be dismissed
when the one uttering it was Rui.
"Look." Rui placated them. "If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out for
you. It can be undone so there's no issue. Of course, I guarantee you it works,
but there is very little to be lost if it doesn't. I took that risk because the
benefits were too good, and it paid out extremely well."
"Alright, I'll do as you say." Kane shrugged nonchalantly. He was the closest
to Rui among all of them and knew him better than any of the others.
"Count me in!" Nel grinned.
The others soon followed suit. Rui's intentions and credibility were
trustworthy enough.
"Still, why not give it to us now." Kane wondered.
"I might be able to give it to some of you, depending on whether the time is
right." Rui scratched his chin.
He was afraid that by giving them a technique outside of their Martial Path
before their Martial Art reached maturity, he might mess up their Martial Art
and hinder their progression to obtaining Martial maturity.
Of course, some of them had achieved Martial maturity like Kane, and he had
already left the Martial Academy so the others wouldn't find out even if he
mastered it.
"I might be able to give it to you right away Kane... and also..." He turned to
the silent Milliana. "You as well."
This surprised all of them. They had assumed that the reason he couldn't give
it to them was that they weren't strong enough yet. Yet he had also given it to
Milliana, who was the weakest of all of them.
"Me?" She asked with a surprised expression.
"Yes, you."
"Why me?"
"Because you're suited for it," Rui replied.
Her Martial Path was centered around stamina, thus regardless of whether her
Martial Art had achieved maturity or not, giving her the technique would not
cause any problems. Although it was a mental technique at its core, it was
quite low-grade. With Rui's modifications, it was a stamina training
technique more than anything else.
As long as she had the perseverance needed to get past the torture that the
training entailed, she would receive a significant boost to her stamina.
Furthermore, there was another benefit to giving to Milliana. He wanted to

avoid making the others think he was showing some kind of favoritism by
teaching it only to Kane, who was his best friend. By choosing Milliana, who
he wasn't very close to at all, he was indirectly proving to them that he wasn't
being driven by personal bias.
"You have to keep it a secret for now, however," Rui told them. "It would be
a pain in the ass if others found out."
"The Martial Union has access to the techniques that we master, I ought to
remind you." Fae pointed out. "They would certainly find out about the
technique, isn't it better to tell them about the technique and gain some
special benefits and credits in return?"
Rui smiled. It was not easy to explain his motivations. The problem was that
the principles of the technique stemmed from the human anatomy of his
previous life. While Martial Artists did create new techniques, it would be
nearly impossible to convince them that the mechanics of the technique are
legitimate. After all, how could a seventeen-year-old Martial Squire know
more about the human body than even the top experts of the Martial Union?
He needed proof that the technique was effective, and for that, he needed
empirical data. He needed to establish a correlation and causation between his
personalized Mind-Switch technique and superior Martial bodies.
That was perhaps the more selfish reason he was giving the Mind Switch
technique to his six friends. Once they mastered the technique, and if they
reached the Squire Realm, then they would be the proof that Rui needed to
substantiate his claims.
Once he proved to the Martial Union that his technique was indeed
revolutionary, then the benefits he would gain in return for submitting the
principles, mechanics, and a refined training regime for mastering the
technique would be enormous. After all, he would be responsible for making
the new generation of Martial Squires of the Kandrian Empire superior to
those who came before.
Of course, while he was using them to his benefit to a certain degree, the
primary reason he was giving them the technique was for their sakes,
especially Kane, who needed power more than the rest of them.
Chapter 493 Mission
The seven of them conversed for nearly an hour before they needed to
disperse, after all, they were all preoccupied with their own matters.
Everyone but Rui and Kane had returned to the Martial Academy.
"Keep in touch, Kane," Rui told him. "I'll send you the details of the
technique soon."
"I already have a bunch of techniques I've chosen to work on at the moment."
Kane shook his head. "I'll let you know when I'm open to learning it."
"Sure, will do." Rui nodded. "See ya."
"Bye." They exchanged a handshake and a hug before setting out in their own
directions.
Rui set out for the Martial Union. He had taken enough of a break in the past
few days and intended to get back into grinding through missions. He needed
to build up experience in the Squire Realm, experience that he was sorely
lacking.
He was especially keen because he didn't yet have any genuine combat
experience in the Squire Realm. He had sparred against some Martial
Squires, but he did not have any experience engaging in actual combat
against a hostile Martial Squire or a Squire-level beast. Something he
intended to fix as soon as possible. However, missions involving other
Martial Squires came at and above grade four, thus he had to upgrade so that
he ran into missions of a higher grade.
Soon enough he found himself standing in the Mission library of the Martial
Union. He immediately walked to the offense-class section of missions in the
library. Out of all classes of missions asides from perhaps the hunter class,
the offense class of missions was the class of missions that had the highest
likelihood of actual combat. The mission involved actively attacking the
target or targets of the mission.
As long as he ground and cleared the missions with impeccable perfection,

the Martial Union would have no choice but to raise his grade as a Martial
Artist. It was a simple but straightforward plan.
He immediately began browsing through the missions, running into a few

interesting ones.
[Offense class mission: Elimination mission.
Clientele: Frindul Sentar
Target of the mission: King Fujilin Verine
Location of the target: Royal Palace of the Dermile Kingdom
Difficulty grade: 3
Mission Summary: The client seeks to commission a Martial Squire to

eliminate King Fujilin Verine, the King of the Kingdom of Dermile. King
Fujilin Verine is perpetually guarded by an elaborate security detail
consisting of more than a dozen of the most competent Martial Apprentices
of the Kingdom Dermile, each being no lesser than grade ten, causing the
difficulty of the mission to reach grade three.
Mission commencement: Immediate]
"Wow." Rui's eyebrows arched. "I'm holding the mission bill for a
commission to assassinate a king?"
He immediately plucked the mission bill out of its slot, smiling widely.
('This must be the first time I've chosen a mission this quickly.') Rui smirked.
He immediately proceeded to the register counter, duly filling up the

paperwork needed to officially accept the mission. Soon enough, he was
seated at a table with the mission bill in his hands. He had already gotten the
gist of the mission, he wanted to process the background and all the details.
The first thing he learned was that the clientele was merely an ordinary butler
that served in the government of the Kingdom of Dermile. According to the
intelligence provided by the Martial Union, the butler was merely a personal
servant of Minister Riunge Hurut. She was the Finance Minister of the
Kingdom of Dermile, and also the true clientele that had commissioned the
mission.
"Interesting..." Rui murmured, absorbed in thought.
The fact that she had her butler commission the mission under the latter's
name instead of her own suggested a degree of caution and prudence. It was a
sign that she did not trust the Kandrian Martial Union's data security. After
all, if the official details of the commission contract were leaked somehow,
she would be implicated.
Furthermore, the, albeit few, restrictions of the contract would not necessarily
bear down on her since she was not the contractor, officially. Of course, the
Martial Union would not let such technicalities slide, officially or not, it was
still cleaner than being officially involved.
Of course, this wasn't a particularly unusual occurrence, but usually, these

means were employed by criminals and other shady figures that had reason to
hide from the Martial Union while still requiring the services of Martial
Artists that the Martial Union liaised for.
There were risks to such a method, making someone else the official
contractor meant handing over a lot of power and authority in regard to the
matter. If the official contractor wanted, they could cancel the mission against
the real client's wishes and the Martial Union would unhesitatingly cancel it.
The fact that the finance minister sent a personal butler meant that this wasn't
an ordinary employee of hers, meant that this was someone whose loyalty
could be trusted.
('Or someone whose loyalty is coerced.') Rui noted, before moving on. While
he liked knowing as much about his client as possible, it wasn't the most
important information.
The mission bill went a bit into the target of the mission as well. King Fujilin
Verine was a greedy tyrant who had been draining the capital and resources
of the already small and impoverished Kingdom of Dermile for his own
personal greed. So much so that the GDP, the gross domestic product, had
actually reduced noticeably due to his reckless and selfish expenditure of the
capital he drained from his citizens.
His death would end that, and that was likely the motivation of the mission.
('Great.') Rui nodded. If he had to get his hands dirty, he would rather do it
for a better cause rather than a bad one.
He quickly moved on to the details regarding the security and protection

assigned to the king, which was actually the most important detail of the
entire mission bill. While he was confident of winning regardless of what the
Martial Apprentices were like, he still wanted it to be as clean as possible.
Chapter 494 Meeting
The Kingdom of Dermile, like the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana, did

not possess any Martial Squire or Martial Artists of higher Realms, thus the
strongest Martial Artists in the kingdom were Martial Apprentices. The
twelve Martial Apprentices assigned to the king's immediate security and
protection were elite. They were almost all grade ten Martial Apprentices by
the Martial Union's evaluation, barring two grade nine sensory Martial
Apprentices.
Furthermore, their specialties were well-picked. There were three mid-range

specialists, five close-range defense class Martial Apprentices, and two close-
range offense specialists. A reasonable balance between protection and
counter-offense to eliminate any threat to the king.
Meaning it was absolutely impossible for a Martial Apprentice to complete

the mission. Frankly, Rui didn't think even back when he was a Martial
Apprentice could succeed in attacking and killing the king in a direct head-on
attempt. If he was still a Martial Apprentice, he most likely would not be able
to crack the sheer amount of defense and counter-offense that the king
possessed.
('This would be much harder than when I was ganged up on by the anti-me
teams that the three super-nations had put together in the Serevian Dungeon.')
Rui mused.
Back then, he had been attacked by ten Martial Apprentices, and he had won
using the chaos of the war. He had also spent a huge amount of time just
trying to survive, whereas this time he would need to actively break through
and directly overwhelm twelve powerful Martial Apprentices.
Of course, it wasn't impossible, but it didn't particularly matter.

('Because I'm no longer a Martial Apprentice, I'm a Martial Squire.') Rui
smiled.
Martial Apprentices were simply not a threat to him unless he was beset by
many dozens of the strongest Martial Apprentices with perfect coordination
and teamwork and well-balanced Martial Art.
He quickly brushed up on all the other details that he needed to know, adding
all of them to his Mind Palace. There wasn't anything left to do, the mission
was supposed to be commenced immediately, and the clientele had requested
a meeting with him prior to the commencement of the mission.
He quickly headed down to the utility department of the Martial Union. This
was the place where Martial Artists purchased the necessary gear and
equipment needed for their missions. Rui had grown accustomed to
purchasing stocks of the standard regular necessities.
"One Skydrop healing potion and four Sunspark rejuvenation potions please,"
Rui told one of the attending staff of one of the potion stores.
Unlike the Martial Art library, this department wasn't filled with products that
were developed and owned by the Martial Union and Martial Artists. The
Martial Union was not involved in the industries and sectors surrounding the
gear and equipment that Martial Artists generally used. After all, almost all of
them had no exclusive connection with Martial Art.
Anyone could use a potion, anyone could use a compass, a monocular, rope,
etc. In fact, a vast majority of the consumer market for these items were not
Martial Artists, which were only a small portion of the consumer market.
Thus, the Martial Artists purchased the things they needed, as recommended
and mandated by the Martial Union from other private and public
manufacturers.
The Martial Union allowed the largest and the most popular companies and
brands to set up a branch outlet inside the utility department of each Martial
Union branch., allowing Martial Artists to be able to purchase the equipage
they needed for their mission out of reach of prying eyes that could use the
potentially sensitive information maliciously.
Rui even wore his mask for good measure when procuring cheap but useful
potions from a popular brand.
And soon enough, it was time to be dispatched. Rui filled up some of the
registration and checkout paperwork before setting out in the direction of the
Kingdom of Dermile.
The Dermile Kingdom was three hundred kilometers northwest of the

Kandrian Empire. It was a great distance for ordinary humans, a significant
distance for Martial Apprentices.
But for a Martial Squire like himself, it wasn't more than a warmup.
Fortunately, the border of the Kandrian Empire through the shortest route to
the Kingdom of Dermile was also quite close.
He immediately took to the air, escalating as he stepped higher and higher,

basking in the euphoric sensation that sky walking gave him. The only
disadvantage of sky walking was that it was slower than walking on solid
land, far slower. He could not travel massive distances in a very short amount
of time like he did when he was on the ground.
Still, considering the fact that the Kandrian Empire was too populated to run
too fast without committing mass murder and that he really enjoyed sky
walking, he didn't mind the delay. King Fujilin was certainly going nowhere,
not until Rui killed him himself.
It was only after he passed the transit port, wisely not sky-walking past the
border to run into the Kandrian Border Patrol Force, that he landed on hard
ground.
BOOM!
The very atmosphere recoiled as a sonic boom rippled past it. He sped at such
a rapid speed that the ground, along with the sound barrier, broke with every
step.
A little under fifteen minutes.
That's how long it took him to reach the Kingdom of Dermile.
He saw the paltry fence that ran along the perimeter of the Kingdom of
Dermile. It was a pitiful and sorry excuse for border security, even a child
could infiltrate the country. He simply walked past it, not even bothering to
avoid breaking it as he simply trampled it under his feet.
If the Kingdom itself didn't give a fuck, which should he?
He quickly infiltrated and put on his mind mask, reducing his presence to that
of an ordinary seventeen-year-old boy. Before traveling to the location where
the clientele had requested a meeting at. Although the request had come from
the official client, Rui had no doubt that he would be meeting his true client
in this meeting.
Chapter 495 Ignorant
As Rui had expected the location of the meeting was not the personal
residence of the finance minister. He looked around when he arrived, noting
how remote the location was. There was not a single soul anywhere within
his senses to be able to pry on their meeting.
('No one except...')
He turned to his right. Seismic Mapping had picked up a rather large horse-
pulled carriage traveling in his direction. As it got closer, Primordial Instinct
picked up the presence of Martial Apprentices within the carriage.
Rui walked over towards it as the door opened and a man walked out.
He was the official client, the butler of finance minister Riunge Hurut. He
walked towards Rui cautiously as he sized him up.
"Mister Frindul Sentar." Rui addressed him. "I am the Martial Squire who
accepted your commission. What is it you wish to discuss with me in this
meeting?"
"Please provide me with the verification code for the mission." The man
cautiously asked.
Since Martial Artists did not directly accept commissions face-to-face with
the client and immediately commence the mission then and there, there was a
necessity to verify that Martial Artists were the registered Martial Artists of
certain missions that they had accepted. Thus, the Martial Union had a
verification system where a random verification code would be supplied to
both the client and the Martial Artist.
Rui simply pulled out a card and handed it over to the man, who carefully
studied it for some time before nodding. "The Madame is awaiting you
inside."
He escorted Rui to the carriage gesturing to him inside the carriage. Within
the spacious cabin of the carriage were two Martial Apprentices who stared
holes into as he walked in, taking his seat opposite to the three figures inside.
"Pleasure to meet you, Squire Falken." She told him, initiating the
conversation.
In order to protect the identity of all Martial Artists, they had the option of
choosing an alias to be conveyed as the identity of the Martial Artist
accepting a particular Martial commission. Of course, this only applied to
public Martial commissions, the ones that were placed in the mission
libraries. It did not apply to personal Martial commissions from clients who
knew his identity and wanted to commission him because of his identity.
"Pleasure to meet you, Minister Riunge," Rui told her as he studied her. She
was quite beautiful, but her sharp and fierce dark eyes drew away any
attention from her aesthetics. She was intimidating, and Rui felt that it was
best to not earn her ire if possible. "You wanted to speak to me?"
"Yes." She nodded. "There are very few things I wanted to clarify."
Rui simply waited for her to continue.
"It pertains to the means by which you will complete the mission." She
paused, before continuing. "I wish to confirm the means by which you will go
about it."
"It's rather simple," Rui told her. "I will simply straightforwardly infiltrate,
either through land or through the sky, and kill the target and those who stand
between me and him."
She had a remarkable poker face, but Rui could sense surprise, confusion,
and skepticism with the help of Primordial Instinct. Her two companions
were much less subtle about it.
"Hmph." The one on the right snorted.
"You plan to straightforwardly attack?" The one on the left questioned him
with a raised eyebrow. "Did the Kandrian Martial Union not provide you with
information on the security measures surrounding King Fujilin Verine?"
It was Rui's turn to feel confused. Were they trying to insult him? Or were
they really ignorant of how much stronger a Martial Squire was than a
Martial Apprentice?
('Oh wait... They actually might be that ignorant.') Rui realized. Unlike the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana, the Kingdom of Dermile did not ever
have any history of ever having birthed a Martial Squire. The Commonwealth
Duchy of Vinfrana had retained extensive documentation on the capabilities
of Martial Squires, but even that was missing here.
Of course, they knew Martial Squires were stronger, but they did not entirely
understand just how ridiculously superior Martial Squires were to Martial
Apprentices.
('Wow... Fucking country bumpkins.') He stifled a chuckle, feeling a little bad

for finding their ignorance a little funny.
"The twelve Royal guards that are always within immediate reach are
extremely wrong." She told him with a neutral-enough tone, maintaining a
cordial atmosphere.
"I'm a Martial Squire." He simply said. "I'm quite strong."
This further irritated her aids. They seemed personally invested in this
operation, rather than employed Martial Artist bodyguards. They were also
clearly envious of his status as a Martial Squire and felt insulted when he
treated Martial Apprentices as insignificant.
"If you infiltrate straightforwardly you will have to deal with the palace
guards who are also quite elite, all by yourself." She told him. "You might
want to consider another course of option. I have some sugges-"
"With all due respect, minister." Rui cut her off, losing patience. "I don't tell
you how to manage the national treasury of your nation, I would appreciate it
if you didn't tell me how to do my job."
Her eyes narrowed but the two Martial Apprentices lost control and stepped
up.
"What did you say punk?"
"Apologize to her excellency for your rudeness."
Suddenly they choked as the atmosphere grew perilously taut. A maelstrom

of mind-bending pressure erupted from Rui as he ripped off his Mind Mask.
The full might of the fear he generated in all those of a lower Realm crashed
into them.
A terrified expression appeared on minister Riunge's face as her poker face

disappeared. The carriage rocked as the horses panicked.
The very next moment, the pressure disappeared.
The two Martial Apprentices collapsed to the ground, sweating bullets as

they realized that the Martial Artist before them could extinguish their lives
with a wave of his hand.
To her credit, minister Rinuge regained her composure quite quickly, even
quicker than the Martial Apprentices. The very next second, her poker face
had already taken its rightful place as her expression while the Martial
Apprentices tried to pull themselves together.
Chapter 496 Accelerate
She had regained her composure rapidly, earlier than her Martial Apprentice
aids. Her fortitude earned Rui's respect, she was quite impressive for
regaining her calm.
"My apologies," She told him.
While she did not possess the sensitivity to understand exactly what the
pressure Rui exerted on her meant about his power, she could make indirect
inferences about how strong he was by looking at the state that her
subordinates were in.
Her subordinates were not weak or ordinary Martial Apprentices by any

means. The fact that they had such exaggerated reactions to his aura meant
that he was likely more than just heads and shoulders above them. That put
her at ease that he was indeed qualified to complete the mission.
"No worries," Rui replied. "Is that all you wished to talk to me about?"
"I wanted to make a request," She told him. "I want you to kill him publicly."
Rui raised an eyebrow under his mask. It was an odd request since most
assassination commissions were requested to be done covertly normally,
rather than publicly. But Rui now understood the reason why this mission
wasn't in the shadow class section. All shadow class missions needed to be
covert in nature, and any mission that didn't fulfill this condition, no matter
what, was immediately excluded.
Thus, she had likely specified that she did not want a covert mission where
the death would be silent and swift. As for why she wanted a public death,
Rui could think of several reasons, but it didn't matter.
"...That can be done." Rui straightforwardly said. "How public do you want
his death to be?"
"As public as possible." She told him.
"Hm... Alright." Rui eventually agreed. "Is there anything else?"
"No, that will be all." She told him. "When do you plan to complete the
commission?"
"Well, my plan was to begin immediately," Rui told her. "But your condition
complicates it a little bit, but I intend to end it at the soonest no matter what."
She nodded. "Understood. If you need any help of any sort, please let me
know and I will do my best to aid you."
Rui nodded. "Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?"
"No, that was everything I wanted to cover." She told him.
"Alright then, I'll take my leave." Rui got up. "Goodbye."
He left after having exchanged farewells with her.
"What do you think Surn, Azazel?" She asked the two of her subordinates
once he had left.
"He is... very strong," Surn admitted. "This is my first time seeing a Martial
Squire's aura, and they are much stronger than I had ever expected."
"I agree..." Azazel sighed. "Had I known he was that much stronger than us, I
would not have been nearly as cocky as I was with him."
"Hm..." She nodded. "What do you think are the odds that he will smoothly
complete the assassination?"
She was worried about what would happen if there was a failure. If Rui
failed, then she would no longer have any chance of doing it again. The king
would take extreme measures to protect himself, and the cost of killing him
would rise drastically.
This would be especially rough because the Kingdom of Dermile was poor,
hiring Martial Squires from the Kandrian Martial Union, that too with
international taxes, was not cheap. Services tended to be exponentially more
expensive in richer countries compared to poorer countries, the commission
fee for even a low-grade Martial Squire was absurdly expensive by the
standards of the Kingdom of Dermile.
This was why she was incredibly paranoid about whether Rui was qualified
to handle the mission, and whether the seemingly hazardous strategy of just
running inside and killing him was going to work or not. But after
experiencing the momentary horrific fear that Rui generated in her and her
subordinates, she realized that the Martial Union wasn't messing around when
it said it guaranteed that Martial Artists who happened to accept commissions
were not unqualified.
"Well, let's wait and hope." She said. "The preparations for both success and
failure have already been established."
"How long will it take him to actually complete the mission?" Azazel
wondered.
"Well, I assume that he has to gain a good understanding of the king's

schedule and find a good time for when the king is exposed to enough eyes
and ears that his death cannot be concealed." Surn voiced a reasonable
inference.
"Indeed." She nodded. "Which means he should likely take at least a day."
They spent a lot of time trying to figure out how he would go about it as they
traveled back to her mansion.
It also depended on how much information he had been provided by the

Martial Union. They were aware that the Kandrian Martial Union provided
Martial Artists with intelligence. Perhaps he didn't need to spend too much
time engaging in reconnaissance.
Just as she was absorbed in her thoughts, she received a message on her
communicator. Her heart skipped a beat as she read the message with a
shocked expression.
"The king is dead!" She exclaimed. "He was murdered!"
One of her informants had sent her a message regarding credible information
he had just heard come across.
"What?!" Surn and Azazel simultaneously exclaimed.
She wondered whether Rui botched it up by killing regardless of the

circumstances.
What were the odds that the king was in the public eye the very moment
Squire Falken reached him? Very low, to say the very least.
She grew worried that the king's death would be hidden. It was not enough to
remove him, he needed to die in specific circumstances, otherwise, it could
be covered up and the rest of her plans would be put on halt due to that.
('How did Squire Falken even get there this quickly??') She wondered,
gritting her teeth. ('Are Martial Squires that absurd?')
"New destination!" She snapped at the coachman. "We're heading to the

Royal palace!"
The carriage accelerated as it corrected its course, heading towards the new
destination.
Chapter 497 Proactive
Rui immediately took off once he had exited the carriage.
('Alrighty, how do I deal with this?') He wondered.
The very first thought he had was engaging in recon to figure out what part of
his daily schedule had the highest exposure to the public eye whenever Rui
killed him.
It was then that he realized something.
('What if I just kidnap him and drag him into the public eye?') Rui wondered.
The condition he had been given to fulfill was the assassination of King
Fujilin with as much exposure as possible. Wasn't it better to drag him out
into the public eye and then kill him rather than wait for him to go into the
public eye naturally?
Who knew how long it would take before the man would step out of his
castle and actually make his way into a place with enough exposure?
Rui didn't want to waste all that time doing nothing. Ideally, he would have
liked to complete the mission as early as possible.
('Will she get mad if I drag the king out to a busy area and kill him there?')
He wondered before a mischievous grin cracked on his face. ('Even if she
gets mad, what she can do?')
Her request was unofficial and something Rui was willing to humor because
it wasn't that big a deal. Meaning, she couldn't complain to the Martial Union
about the way Rui went about it. He technically will not have violated the
contract and will have fulfilled the mission as quickly as possible, which was
a performance parameter that the Martial Union cared about, and one that
went into the rating evaluation of a Martial Artist. This was another reason to
go all out and kill him quickly, he wanted to upgrade to a higher grade as
soon as possible.
('Well, she should have been careful what she wished for.') He sped through
the Kingdom of Dermile, arriving at a bustling and surprisingly urban town.
The town of Bulgare was a rather posh town that was occupied by the rich of
the Empire, by the looks of it. It was also not too far from the Royal Palace.
He nodded as he walked around, looking for a good spot, it took him a while
to spot what he was looking for.
('Perfect.')
He stopped as he happened upon the town center, where a large podium in

the middle of a bustling area was present. Anybody that died atop that in
front of the crowd could not possibly have their death exposed to a greater
degree.
('Alrighty.') He turned in the direction that the Royal Palace was in,
geographically, before immediately heading towards it. It only took him a
minute to arrive at his speed.
Thanks to the information provided to him by the Martial Union, he knew the
structure of the Royal Palace and the location of the king's personal
chambers. All he had to do was verify that the king was there, and he could
immediately swoop in and pluck him out and run with him to the town of
Bulgare and off him on the podium.
He sneaked up as close as he could before extending his Seismic Mapping as

far as he could. Its range had risen significantly compared to before he had
the Mindmirror brain and before he obtained his Martial body.
('Hm...') He discerned through all the seismic radiation that he picked up on

forming a decently crisp view of the Royal Palace. ('There are multiple
presences in the king's personal chambers.')
According to the intelligence that the Martial Union had provided, the king's
chambers were off-limits unless one had the king's authorization. Which
meant that the people in there were almost certainly the king and others that
had been authorized to be in his personal chambers. The Martial Apprentices,
and the servants perhaps?
Primordial Instinct did pick up the presence of Martial Apprentices near the
same location.
('Good enough.') Rui shrugged.
He crouched, as his legs tensed up, the very air quaked as his muscles built
up power. His eyes narrowed as he estimated the distance, angle, and force
for his launch.
BOOM!
He launched himself like a bullet as he crossed a great distance with a single

leap.
BOOM!
He landed right in front of the entrance, shaking the ground and the entire
palace with the sheer impact.
The Martial Apprentices guarding the doors took a moment to overcome their
shock as they charged at him. Yet he simply ignored it as time slowed down
from his perspective. He activated Wind Breathing as he hurried past them,
still moving in slow motion to him, heading towards the king's personal
chambers.
He ran into several Martial Apprentices, but he simply ran past them like they
were crash test dummies.
POW POW POW!
Several Apprentice-level attacks landed on his body as he reached the king's

personal chambers.
('Oh? Not bad.') He nodded. The Royal Guards certainly appeared to be the
best of the best of those Martial Apprentices assigned to the castle.
Yet he didn't care to kill Martial Apprentices that he didn't need to. He simply
blitzed past them inside, where he found the target he was looking for.
The defensive Royal guards were already in position, forming a defensive

boundary around the target of their protection. Within their circle of
protection was a nude, obese man surrounded by several nude women,
cowering in fear at the sudden thunderous quakes.
Rui sighed. He fit the stereotype of a lecherous greedy ruler so well that it
was almost funny. Rui simply brushed aside the meager defensive attempts
that the Martial Apprentices attempted before grabbing the king and his
garments and simply leaving.
The Martial Apprentices sounded the alarm for the kidnapping of the king,
but it was far too late. Rui had long left the palace by then as he literally ran
with the king above his head to the podium in the town of Bulgare, reaching
there rather quickly.
THUD!
He dropped the man atop the podium as the two of them began drawing
attention from the crowd.
Chapter 498 Next
The death of King Fujilin was a shock to the entire nation, yet a pleasant one.
Rui was actually quite shocked at the positive reception he received from
completing his mission.
('He must have been a real scumbag.') He mused.
He escaped wondering if he would get an angry message from Minister

Riunge, before shrugging. What was done was done, there's nothing about it
that could be changed. He simply hit mission completed button on his
mission tracker before bolting out of the nation at top speed.
Of course, it wasn't as though he was particularly in trouble. The Kingdom of

Dermile did not possess Martial Squires, so even if he was caught, there
wasn't anything they could do about it.
He simply crossed the border and ran back to the Kandrian Empire.
"This has got to be my shortest mission so far." Rui thought out loud.
Travelling between the Kandrian Empire and the Kingdom of Dermile was
rather trivial, trivially quick. The mission itself was wrapped up in around an
hour.
"A little under two hours." Rui affirmed. "It's honestly not even worth going
back home, might as well grind another mission."
He usually took a small break with his family in between missions, but it
hadn't even been a quarter of a day since he last spoke with them.
He underwent the border transit process once he reached the Kandrian

Empire, before entering and heading towards the Mantian Region and the
town of Hajin.
The Kandrian Empire covered an area of thousands of several millions of

square kilometers, it actually took him longer to travel through the country
than it took him to travel to destinations in the geographical orbit for
whenever he had foreign missions.
Once he arrived, he immediately headed right back to the mission library,

pondering what class of missions he should pick this time. The default was
offense-class, but it wasn't the only class that had a high propensity for
conflict.
He glanced at the hunter class section.
It had been quite a while since he picked a hunter class mission. There was a
degree of simplicity that came from tackling missions surrounding beasts. Of
course, that didn't mean hunter class missions were particularly easy, they
simply required a different skillset and mindset.
Offense class missions dealt with humans. Humans who were intelligent,
relatively speaking, compared to most of the animal kingdom and thus
needed to be tackled differently. While there were animals who possessed
intelligence on par or perhaps even greater than that of normal humans, they
were far scarcer.
This didn't necessarily make animals easier targets, because most hunting
class missions operated in the wild and the natural environment. An
environment that humans were quite unaccustomed to, compared to normal
human civilization where most offense-class missions took place.
Understanding the best way to operate in these environments when dealing

with beasts that were in their home court was an art in and of itself and one
that took many years of experience to master. They were a challenge that was
entirely different from that of the offense-class missions.
Rui shrugged. ('Why not?')
He was an all-rounder, limiting himself to offense-class missions may not be

conducive to maintaining even proficiency across the board.
('Besides, I have a technique that's useful in this class of missions.') Rui

mused.
The Fauna Flow technique was a technique that allowed him to engage in
non-verbal communication with animals. Thus far, he hadn't yet used it to its
greatest potential because he hadn't been in a position where he could employ
the technique.
The only time he had used was when he communicated with a monkey like
creature in the Serevian Dungeon. After that, he had immediately gone on to
master a mental technique before undergoing the Squire evolution
breakthrough process, Squire habilitation and the mastery of six more
techniques. He obviously hadn't gotten to use the technique during this time
period.
He nodded, having made up his mind.
He took his time scrolling through the several missions that the library had,
noting how much lesser there were.
This wasn't particularly unique to hunter class missions, Squire-level

missions were fewer than Apprentice-level missions simply because these
missions were nearly an order of magnitude more expensive than Apprentice-
level missions due to how much stronger Martial Squires were and how much
more difficult Squire-level missions were. There were fewer Martial Squires
than Martial Apprentices too, increasing the value of the supply of Martial
Squires.
Rui saw some interesting missions in the library, taking his time to scour
through all of them. His eyes ran into something interesting
[Hunter class mission: Capture mission
Client: Ministry of Environment and Ecology
Grade: 3
Elimination target: A frost hypogriff
Target location: Cravitz Mountain [2.1, 3.45]
Remuneration: 10,000 Martial credits
Mission summary: The elimination target is an adult frost hypogriff. The

target is a quasi-Squire-level threat that is verging on Squire-level, with a
remarkable top speed, powerful beaks and limbs. It's a normally passive
species of the hypogriff family that can engage in rampages that are
destructive to the environment and life surrounding it when they experience
emotional distress. The target of the mission has destabilized the ecosystem
and has terrorized a large proportion of the fauna population into migrating
away from their habitat, causing them to encroach on human settlements and
towns. The mission is to capture the target and deliver it to the Ministry of
Environment and Ecology with as little damage to the target as possible.
...]
"Interesting..." Rui's eyes lit up in interest. A capture mission instead of an

elimination mission meant that Rui had to exercise a certain degree of
finesse. He couldn't just mindlessly go all out against it, otherwise it would
just die at his hand, since this particular creature was below the Squire-
Realm. It made for a much more interesting mission since he needed to
exercise control over his power.
"Alright." Rui nodded. "I'll take it. Sounds like a fun challenge."
He immediately plucked the mission bill out of the slot before heading to
read more about it.
Chapter 499 Bait
He registered the mission to his name, before sitting down at a table by

himself and reading through it, inputting them into his mind palace before
analyzing them.
"Interesting..." Rui murmured as he sorted through all the information.
Mount Cravitz was a mountain at the very north of the Kandrian Empire,
amidst the Faravali range. The temperatures dipped tremendously at those
elevations, making it much more difficult to conduct missions. It wasn't as
though the cold could kill him with his evolved body, but navigation and
fighting were harder, and surveillance was harder as well.
Hippogriffs were winged creatures with the front half of an eagle and the
back half of a horse. They were fast and powerful, nearly reaching the Squire
Realm in those parameters, but their body was not particularly tough and
their flesh was vulnerable to attacks in the Squire Realm. This meant that
they could dish out more powerful than their body could necessarily
withstand, which is why they generally weren't threats to Martial Squires,
especially those of Rui's caliber
However, this also made it trickier to try and fight and capture aggressive
rampaging hippogriffs with minimal harm. If he was not careful both he and
the creature could get hurt.
Thankfully, he didn't need to immobilize and capture it with his bare hands,
manually dragging the struggling creature back to the Ministry of
Environment and Ecology was also implausible and difficult to do. The
mission bill did have recommended tools and gear to rent or purchase that
would aid in the capture of the hippogriff.
('Increasing the bill to even complete the mission.') He grumbled inwardly.
Thankfully, the pay for the mission was solid and justified the extra
expenditure he would need to make. He glanced at the list quickly
memorizing their names
[Sedative: Tier 2 Refined Xhrenos Dew]
A potent tranquilizer that would subdue the creature. And an automatic

syringe that would automatically inject the drug into the body of the
hippogriff upon penetration.
Rui immediately got up before heading to the utility department, finding a

drug store, and purchasing the necessary amount. It wasn't long before he had
everything he needed. He had purchased several rejuvenation potions and
food pills, consuming one of each to revitalize himself from his previous
missions. While his previous mission wasn't particularly difficult, it did
consume stamina to a certain degree.
"One last signature here, Squire Quarrier."
Rui nodded, obliging before wearing his mask and dispatching from the
dispatch facility. He took to the air, rising to great heights and taking in the
picturesque view.
WHOOSH
It wasn't long before he paddled his way forward at remarkable speeds. He

wasn't nearly as fast as he was on land, but he was faster than his previous
peak on land when he was a Martial Apprentice. It never ceased to amaze
him just how much of a raw boost he had received ever since he discovered
his Martial Body.
It took him a few hours to travel to the north of the Kandrian Empire. The
weather and climate had changed dramatically, the temperatures plummeted,
and the winds pushed harder and sharper. The air grew more opaque as time
passed, hindering his vision.
THUD
He landed heavily on dense snow, gazing at the mountain before him.
"Here we are," Rui murmured. "Mount Cravitz."
He had already scanned the skies, hoping to catch a sight of the hippogriff
flying around so that he wouldn't have to search for it, but alas, he wasn't
nearly as lucky.
Hippogriffs only flew around when they were hunting. Unlike eagles, their
bodies weren't entirely suited for sustained flight. The fact that the back half
of their body was that of a horse, a land-bound animal, meant there was more
of a limit to their flight capabilities. Their body was nowhere near as
aerodynamic as that of a bird's, nowhere near as proportionally light either.
Of course, as a Squire-level creature, flight was no issue. It was just that, by
nature, it would spend most of its time on land.
He would most likely run into it whenever he chose to hunt. All he needed to
was wait for it. Of course, he didn't intend to do anything. He had already
chalked out the most effective and efficient means of finding the hippogriff.
He took to the air again, this time slowly escalating. He distanced himself
from the mountain such that he was maximizing how much attention he drew
to himself. Too close to the face of the mountain and only a small section
would be able to spot him in their field of vision, too far and he would be too
small and insignificant to draw any meaningful attention. He was intuitively
adjusting himself to the contours of the mountain to ensure he was
maximizing his noticeability.
That wasn't all he did, of course, he was also adjusting his presence. The
'aura' and 'pressure' that powerful beings emanated was something that
existed in the eye of the beholder, rather than an actual phenomenon in
physical reality. Powerful beings generated subconscious fear and a sense of
danger from the subconscious evaluation of danger and risk that all creatures
evolved with. The conscious mind simply perceived and interpreted this
sense of fear and danger in the form of an 'aura'. It was an important element
in the cognition creatures had of each other.
Rui was able to control this through the Mind Mask technique. He chose to
reduce his aura and pressure to the peak of the Apprentice Realm. This was
strong enough to draw even more attention as he triggered the sense of
danger of the creatures inhabiting the environment of Mount Cravitz, while
still being weak enough to appear as juicy prey to the target of his mission.
With this strategy, he could increase the probability of him running into the
hippogriff better than any other plan he was able to come up with at the
moment. He quickly set everything up just as it needed to be. He had laid the
bait, now he needed to wait for the target to take it.
Chapter 500 Clash
It wasn't long before his plan came to fruition. Primordial Instinct rang alarm
bells in his mind as he sensed danger approaching from below him at an
astonishing speed.
WHOOSH
Rui evaded the creature narrowly as it zoomed past him at incredible speeds.
It flew close to as fast as he was on the ground, meaning it was incredibly
difficult to evade. He only managed to do so this time due to how far away it
had approached him; from the ground.
The hippogriff opened its beaks, releasing a powerful eagle chirp. It locked
eyes with Rui for a moment, as they stared at each other.
Rui could only see fury in its eyes, anger at having missed its prey.
[Why do you rage?] Rui asked it with Fauna Flow. He conveyed the question
using a combination of body gestures, breathing, and growls. The hippogriff's
eyes widened as it understood what he was trying to convey.
[FOOD] It chirped defiantly as it launched itself against him once more at a

tremendous speed.
BAM!
It rammed into him with its full momentum, trying to haze him before
finishing him off. Rui hadn't been able to avoid it in time because it was too
fast and much more comfortable in the air than he was. He was fighting in its
terrain. However, Rui had already predicted this would be the case.
He wasn't a moron. A creature with large wings was most certainly going to
be more equipped in aerial combat than he was. He didn't intend to capture
the beast midair amidst aerial combat. That was not his plan.
It turned once more facing him as it charged towards him with full force
towards him again, this time, it raised its forelimbs towards him; its talons.
POW POW!
Rui smacked the two talons away with both arms as he evaded the attack.
Eagles were generally ambush predators that swooped in, latched onto their
prey, and pecked and tore apart at its prey until it was no longer moving
before then feasting on it. He would be in for a world of hurt if he allowed it
to reach that stage.
The hippogriff chirped before launching itself at him.
BAM!
It stumbled backward with a hint of surprise on its face.
Rui had negated the damage largely with the help of Adamant Reforging and
Inner Divergence. He wasn't particularly concerned about the damage he
suffered. In the past, he would have needed to take this into account. Damage
could accrue fast, and he could be in trouble quicker than he realized.
Bruises could accumulate and he could suffer damage to a vital area, or his
performance would decline too much leading to critical injuries that most
certainly would threaten his life. There were all kinds of slippery slopes that
could easily end up being very bad if he wasn't careful.
but this was no longer the case, thanks to his evolved healing. His enhanced
healing factor healed lesser wounds quite quickly. Although he most certainly
was no Wolverine, lesser and more superficial wounds effectively
disappeared in a matter of minutes. Larger wounds couldn't be healed so
easily, but his healing factor could do just enough to ensure that even major
wounds wouldn't hinder his performance too much.
Thanks to this, his endurance had risen tremendously. He could withstand a

lot.
But, he wasn't necessarily limited to simply enduring.
BAM!
He landed a blow on the hippogriff as it rammed into him. The creature

chirped in pain as what appeared to be a grimace flashed across its face. Rui
had not forgotten that this particular species was vulnerable as far as its
durability went. Its muscles and bones were tough, but its flesh wasn't able to
protect its inner vitals from damage very well.
This was especially true when Rui had mastered Reverberating Lance, which
allowed him to permeate an impact deeper causing greater damage than he
would have been able to with his raw power alone.
In fact, he needed to restrain himself. If he truly launched his most powerful

attacks, the creature would probably end up hemorrhaging as a result of his
attack. He wanted to avoid killing it at all costs.
He had briefly considered mortally wounding it and then feeding it a healing

potion after drugging it, but that was too risky. The potions he had bought
were meant for humans, he didn't know if they would work on the hippogriff.
If they were incompatible or inadequate, then the creature would die. He
couldn't possibly know how hard to hit it for this plan to work thus he
avoided it.
BAM!
He landed another strike on the creature. He hadn't made up his mind on

whether he ought to try administering the tranquilizer in aerial combat or on
land. It was extremely difficult to do it midair when the creature was as
mobile, fast, and agile as it was, and had as much of an advantage over him
as it did. The three dimensions worth of maneuvering space made it difficult
as well.
It wasn't just a matter of hitting the creature with the syringe, he needed to hit
within certain locations and hold it there for a few seconds which made it
difficult. He also needed to ensure it didn't break, which could happen given
how fast the creature moved.
All of these considerations flew through his head, causing him to prefer to
administer the drug on land than in the sky. He would need to wait until the
creature was done with him.
Thankfully, it wasn't long before that happened. The hippogriff had come to
realize that Rui was not something that could be taken down easily, if at all.
Every time it clashed with him, it came away reeling in pain inside its body
whereas he shrugged off everything it threw at him in the long run.
The creature chirped loudly before taking off back towards Mount Cravitz.
('Now, I can take the next step towards completing this mission.')
Chapter 501 Cub
Catching up with the hippogriff proved to be more difficult than he had

anticipated. The creature was faster in the air than he was. He would probably
lose track of it if he tried chasing it in the air with Sky Walking.
THUD
He landed on the mountain hard before sprinting off in the direction that the
hippogriff had taken off. The atmosphere recoiled as he shot forward at
tremendous speeds. He kept his eyes on the hippogriff at all times, using
Seismic Mapping to make sure he was keeping track of his immediate
surroundings. Seismic Mapping couldn't keep track of things that were in
contact with the ground.
Rui had already predicted that Seismic Mapping would become increasingly
inadequate in the Squire Realm. Aerial maneuvering and combat were much
more common in the battles of the Squire Realm. It became much more
important to develop sensory skills that were equipped for the atmosphere.
There was an issue to be handled later. For now, he needed to drug this
hippogriff.
Rui continued chasing through the snowy environment keeping track of the
creature in the air, minimizing his presence to the absolute most that he could
with the help of Mind Mask. Suddenly the hippogriff dove towards a
mountainside.
('It's hunting another creature.') Rui realized as he sensed a mountain ram

scaling the mountain where the hippogriff had dived.
"BAAAA!" The creature shrieked as the hippogriff clasped it with its talons
and dragged it away into the air. Rui maintained a safe distance chasing after
it while carefully observing it. Its prey struggled to break free from its talons,
but it was already far too late, its fate was sealed.
After a few seconds, the hippogriff slowed down as it appeared to have

finally landed on the ground. Rui slowed down quietly and simply observed
it. The hippogriff quickly killed its prey with a simple attack with its beak.
It dragged the corpse into a cave out of his vision. He quickly closed his eyes
as he focused on Seismic Mapping to continue his surveillance of it. In his
seismic vision, he saw that there were more figures inside the cave, but much
smaller.
('Cubs?') He opened his eyes, surprised. ('It has cubs?')
They were, without a doubt, smaller hippogriffs.
('Is that the reason that the hippogriff has been terrorizing other animals?')
Rui wondered.
The mission bill mentioned that this species of hippogriffs tended to become
exceedingly aggressive when in emotional distress. He hadn't bothered
considering the cause for the emotional distress of the target of his mission,
but now that he knew that the hippogriff was a mother, there was a pretty
high chance that they were related to the cause of the emotional distress that
caused the hippogriff to go berserk and destabilize the ecosystem of the
Mount Cravitz.
('Hm.') Rui scratched his chin. ('I should inform the Ministry of Environment
and Ecology.')
He sent a message to the commissioner that was assigned to handling his

mission, informing them of the offspring of the hippogriff.
It wasn't long before he received an answer.
[We have duly noted and evaluated the information you have provided us.
Please proceed with the mission normally. Do not attempt to apprehend or
capture the cubs, a qualified team will be dispatched to safely acquire both
the target of the mission and the cubs.]
Rui nodded. Thankfully, his discovery didn't complicate his mission. He was
happy to know that the hippogriffs would be handled safely. He wouldn't be
able to sleep right if the cubs were going to end up being hunted or killed.
Which made him feel odd about his meta-ethics. He normally didn't care to
think about his core ethics, it was a waste of time, and he usually just stuck to
what felt right. But he found himself more unwilling to kill baby hippogriffs
than the many humans he had already killed.
Of course, this wasn't exactly a fair comparison. Most of the people he had
killed were either people involved in crime or enemies who were trying to
kill him. There was a limit to the amount of empathy he could feel for people
belonging to either group, especially in the heat of battle. It was an entirely
different thing to kill innocent, harmless, and probably adorable hippogriffs
cubs.
He shook his head, putting aside such superfluous thoughts before quietly sky
walking toward the entrance of the cave. He had already minimized his
presence to the absolute limit, as he sneaked in the air.
The hippogriffs were close to the entrance of the cave, feasting away on the
corpse of the mountain ram when suddenly the mother hippogriff froze as its
pupils dilated.
WHOOSH
It immediately adopted a defensive position with its cubs behind it as it

glared at Rui, who looked like a thief who had been caught from afar. He
sighed before dashing in with the syringe in his hand. Now was the time to
use the tranquilizer drug. He was quite confident it wouldn't take to the air to
fight him, not when it had to protect its cubs. He was using the fact that it
wanted to protect its cubs to restrain its maneuvering. Without a maneuvering
advantage, the hippogriff couldn't really batter him around the way it did in
their previous fight.
[GET AWAY!] It chirped aggressively and menacingly, spreading its wings,
appearing as big and threatening as it could.
Rui simply ignored it before lashing forward at it, yet just before he was
actually about to clash with the creature, he swerved, aiming for the cubs.
The hippogriff lashed out at him with its beak preventing him from doing
that.
('Gotcha.')
CLASP
He wrapped himself around the beast's neck, just under its beak where neither
the beak nor the talons could reach him. The hippogriff screamed in pain as
he drove the syringe deep into the side of its neck, injecting the tranquilizer
into the creature.
THUD
The hippogriff quickly collapsed to the ground heavily, unconscious.

Chapter 502 Hlorn
Rui sighed to himself in relief, he was quite happy that he didn't need to
injure the hippogriff while completing his mission. Thankfully, he nailed the
timing and was able to latch onto it in a position where it was unable to do
anything about him. The timing he had managed to nail with a predictive
model he had created for it. He had exclusively used the predictive model
alone without the adaptive model since the latter was not very reliable against
non-human opponents.
Something he had yet to fix.
('It's not like I've been using the VOID algorithm much recently.') He sighed.
The last time he had used it was against Kyrie in their spar, but it had been
quite a while since he used it on a mission. It couldn't be helped, after all, his
opponents were too weak for him to employ his strongest weapon. So far, he
had only fought groups of high-tier Martial Apprentices.
He sighed. Only once he got to a higher grade would he undertake missions

that featured actual Squire-level combat assets. Whether it be Martial Squires,
potion-amped humans, or war weapons that could threaten even Martial
Squires. All of it would come with grade four missions and above. That's why
he was grinding through the easy missions quickly and perfectly, he would
get to where he wanted to quicker that way.
He heard light chirps as the little hippogriffs tried waking their mother up,
distressed. Rui sighed, putting on a mind mask of positivity as he approached
them.
"Hey, who do we have here?" He cooed at them as warmly and non-

threateningly as he could, trying to calm them down.
He only needed to keep them there until the team arrived. Thankfully, it
wasn't long before the team from the Ministry of Environment and Ecology
arrived. Eight men had trudged traveled up the mountain in motorized
carriages, carrying some equipment with them.
"Squire Falken?"
"That's me." Rui nodded. "What's going to happen to the hippogriffs?"
"Oh, they'll be nursed, taken care of, and then habituated when deemed
ready." The officer told him as they began strapping up the hippogriff and
putting the cubs into crates. Rui was satisfied with the care they were
handling the hippogriffs with, so he hit the mission completion button before
finally leaving.
He was quite satisfied with the way he had completed the mission. The
hippogriffs were safe and unscathed, thus the evaluation of the completion of
his mission should be quite high.
He sighed.
While completing a good mission was satisfying, he was starting to grow

quite unsatisfied with the lack of real stimulating combat. The aerial clash
with the hippogriff was the closest thing to a challenge ever since he had
begun his streak of missions. Grade three missions simply weren't stimulating
enough. He couldn't wait to engage in actual Squire-level combat.
So far, he had finished three grade-three missions exceedingly well. He

estimated there weren't too many more he would need to finish before he got
upgraded to grade four as a Martial Artist. He intended to grind past them to
reach higher grades as soon as he could.
It was a little tiring, without a doubt. Sometimes he wondered if sparring

against other Martial Squires as he did with Kyrie was a better alternative
than trying to seek real-life combat but he already knew it wasn't. No matter
how intense sparring got, it could not replace actual combat in the field
against hostile forces.
There was a different kind of pressure that one experienced when one fought
a battle with high stakes, if he didn't routinely expose himself to that pressure
and temper his mind under that weight, he would become increasingly rustier
as time passed, and his actual combat ability would decrease.
There were several things that he wasn't willing to compromise on, and his
actual effectiveness in real combat was one of them. However, it wasn't just
about combat effectiveness, it was also about his Martial Path. He would not
be able to go much deeper down his Martial Path if he did not have real
combat experience.
He sighed. ('Just need to keep grinding.')
He traveled through the air as fast as he could towards the Mantian region
and the town of Hajin. He intended to reach the town immediately and
undertake another mission as soon as he could. A few hours passed and he
soon enough reached the Martial Union branch.
He quickly passed the security after showing them his ID and mission bill
before completing the post-mission protocols such as writing statements and
a report. Once he was done with the annoying paperwork, he headed straight
over to the mission library.
('I still have one more mission in me before I'll need to head home and catch
some rest.') He sighed. ('Better make it good.')
He went right in towards the offense class section, skimming through the
available missions. He ran into an interesting mission rather early on.
[Offense class mission: Destruction
Client: Fushin Hunfer
Grade: three
Destruction target: Hlorn: Squire-grade siege weapon.
Target location: Fort Zurtun

Remuneration: 16,000 Martial credits / six hundred and eight gold coins
Mission summary: The target of destruction is the Hlorn, a Squire-grade

siege weapon that is capable of unleashing as much damage on a human
settlement or group as a higher-grade Martial Squire can. The client of the
mission would like to commission the destruction of the weapon, under
specific circumstances. The degree of destruction must be to ensure that light
repairs cannot repair the functionality of the weapon. ]
('Interesting...') Rui's eyes lit up with interest. Destruction of an object owned

or possessed by another individual counted as an offense-class mission as
opposed to manual labor as it was an act of aggression to the owner of said
possession. If the Hlorn weapon did not belong to anybody, then the mission
would not have been classified under the offense class.
Rui immediately took the mission bill to the register counter to register it to
his name.
Chapter 503 Fort
503 Fort
He had never taken a mission centered around the destruction of property

before. Not that such missions were rare, but they just usually weren't the
kind of missions that Rui was interested in. However, this particular mission
was interesting since it would involve breaking into a fort. Something he had
never done prior.
He sat down at a table in the library he quickly read and memorized the
information, adding all of it to his mind palace.
('Interesting...')
Fort Zurtun was a large fort surrounding the Town of Zurtun a small city-
state colony of the Britannian Empire that was quite southwest of the
Kandrian Empire. The fort was situated on a mountain, giving the location
with strategic value as far as defense and security went. Attempting to
overrun the fort would require scaling the mountain and facing the military
forces of the fort uphill against Zurtun military on their home turf.
The military even consisted of Martial Apprentices, albeit no Martial Squires.

They were a small force that was unable to produce their own Martial Squires
because they lacked the scientific foundation to do so.
On top of that, the fort was armed with a Squire-grade weapon capable of
unleashing vast amounts of destruction on a significant scale. Despite its
great potential for destruction, the weapon was small compared to what it
could unleash, this was possible thanks to the esoteric technology that went
into it, making it easier to shift around and position appropriately in times of
need. It was recently acquired by Fort Zurtun and it served as a deterrence to
all those that wished to attempt a siege on Fort Zurtun.
Of course, climbing a mountain was a breeze for Martial Apprentices. The

problem came from fighting other Martial Apprentices uphill. The terrain and
location advantage made it untenable unless the invading force had a
significant numerical advantage or much more powerful Martial Apprentices.
Fort Zurtun was previously an independent sovereign state until it was

invaded by the Britannian Empire and colonized. The Britannian Empire had
seized control of the fort after defeating the military forces of Fort Zurtun and
ruling over the population. The previously sovereign city-state turned into no
more than a
The client was Fushin Hunfer. According to the intelligence provided by the
Martial Union, this man was the leader of a rebellion group that aimed to
seize control of Fort Zurtun. The group consisted of the remnants of the
military that used to protect the Fort, and according to the Martial Union, had
plans of trying to size the fort and the town from the hands of the Britannian
Empire.
Rui skimmed through the backstory lightly, he didn't care all that much about
the motivation and intentions of the client as long as it didn't pertain to his
mission directly. He focused more on the intelligence the security of the fort
and the location of the weapon.
The weapon being small and easily portable meant that its position wasn't
static nor evidently determinable at any given point in time. It could be
shifted around wherever it needed to be at any given point in time.
Thankfully, that didn't make it harder to track. According to the information

provided by the Martial Union, the weapon was mobilized every time the
rebel group tried to seize Fort Zurtun. Which meant that as long as he posed
enough of a threat, the weapon would be employed against any invaders.
('The threshold for how much of a threat depends on the security level of the
fort.') Rui realized as he revisited the fort's military details.
The fact that not a single Martial Artist exceeded the Apprentice Realm was
strange to him at first, but he realized why this was the case later on. The fort
was extremely far from the Britannian Empire, it was not pragmatic to devote
any military or Martial assets above the Apprentice Realm to the security of a
fort that far away. Thus, they had resolved to dedicate only some Apprentice-
level assets to maintain their control over the fort and the town within.
It also had to do with the fact that there were states that were competing over
the control of the town in the vicinity that was above the Apprentice Realm.
Thus, there was no real need for Martial Squires. They had supplied a single
Squire-level weapon that was extremely effective in the terrain.
The rebel group had suffered massive casualties years ago during an attempt
to climb the mountain and seize the fort back. In an attempt to eliminate the
weapon, they had amassed as much wealth in the span of several years until
they could finally commission a Martial Squire from the Kandrian Empire to
destroy a single weapon.
('So, I just need need to make enough of a ruckus to draw out their Martial
Apprentices, and force them to use the weapon. Then the second I see the
weapon, I destroy it.') Rui thought. It was a straightforward plan.
The weapon was made out of Squire-grade alloys that could withstand the
force of even powerful Martial Squires, so destroying it was not something
that could be done quickly.
('I don't have to destroy it then and there. I could seize it and escape with it
and destroy it elsewhere I guess.') Rui shrugged. That wouldn't violate the
conditions or the objective of the mission.
He skimmed through the details of the mission until he was satisfied.
"Alright then." He got up. "Time to pay the utility department another visit."
Trying to destroy a weapon with Squire-grade alloys with his bare hands was
foolish, there were some recommended tools in the mission bill from the
Martial Union to aid with that part of the mission. An object that looked like
a hammer with a pointy edge was one of them, it also happened to be the
cheapest.
('Good enough for me.') He shrugged before heading over. Thankfully, he
didn't need to purchase it since the Martial Union offered Martial Artists the
option of renting the recommended utility gear and equipment.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed that.

Chapter 504 Meet
"How much does the Grintle-edged hammer cost for renting?" Rui asked the
storekeeper.
"A gold coin for every twenty-four hours sir." She replied. "This doesn't
include charges for damaging, destroying, or losing the tool either. Any
amount of wear and tear will be charged based on the charges for
restoration."
Rui nodded while sighing inwardly. A gold coin a day was enough for one
person to lead a good life. Paying that much for a hammer seemed obscene.
However, he did understand the rationale. The hammer was not ordinary, not
at all. It was made from esoteric alloys that were not easy to procure and were
quite valuable. Materials that could withstand Squire-level power were far
from abundant and were highly in demand.
With that consideration in mind, the price for even renting it was actually
quite understandable.
He purchased a rejuvenation potion before heading to the dispatch facility to

sign out and head for Fort Zurtun. It wasn't long before he took to the air,
heading towards the south of the country. It was the shortest path to the
destination of his mission.
He also needed to meet the client before beginning the mission as requested
by the client in the mission bill.
('He probably wants to coordinate a siege on the fort right after the mission is
completed and the siege weapon is gone.') Rui figured.
In order to destroy the weapon, he would need to cause enough damage to

their military or to the fort itself to prove that he was worth employing the
weapon on. Meaning once he destroyed the weapon the damaged fort would
be at its weakest it had ever been likely since the Britannian Empire had
taken over and turned it into a colony.
This was the perfect timing for them to attempt seizing the fort back into their
hands.
('If that is the intention of my client, then he is a smart one that's for sure.')
Rui nodded.
If he were in the man's place, he would have prepared his forces for an attack
on the fort so that they could immediately move out and begin an assault on
the fort. It was best to not give them any time to recover from the damage
that they would sustain from the attack of a martial Squire. The chaos
wouldn't last long, and the damage and loss would be repaired and
replenished.
Rui shook his head, putting aside such thoughts, he would find out soon
enough once he reached.
It took him several hours to reach the border at the south of the Kandrian
Empire. He stopped skywalking after he left the Empire, after having gone
through the due process, and began running on the ground.
BOOM!
A shockwave rippled across the atmosphere as he sprinted at a tremendous

speed.
Fort Zurtun was more than a thousand kilometers south of the Kandrian
Empire. Even with his tremendous speed, he needed a little more than an
hour to reach his destination while maintaining his high speed.
The rebel group had a base in a forest surrounding the mountain that hoisted
the fort.
('It should be around here.') Rui glanced at his pocket watch, before looking
around. He had been instructed to arrive at a hill near the mountain, serving
as a landmark for them to intercept him. The Martial Union should have
already informed them about his dispatch and the estimated timing of his
arrival. It was a whole ten minutes before he finally detected human presence
with Seismic Mapping.
A group of five people arrived at the location soon enough.
('Four Martial Apprentices, one normal human.') He surmised with a single

glance. The four Martial Apprentices guarded the man, clearly distrustful of
Rui.
They covered their faces with masks, just like Rui, out of caution. The
Martial Apprentices were in combat garbs while the man they were
protecting wore something resembling a business or formal outfit.
They approached him cautiously before the man addressed him. "May I know
your name?"
"I am Squire Falken." Rui responded simply, confirming his identity.
"Let us exchange verification codes." The man reached inside his jacket as
Rui reached for his pouch. They quickly verified that they weren't dealing
with imposters, before proceeding with business.
The Martial Apprentices didn't say anything, but Rui could vaguely sense that
they were confused by his presence, probably due to the fact that he felt like a
normal human being
"Thank you for accepting our commission and coming this far to humor our
request to meet you, Squire Falken." He bowed, expressing the respect that a
Martial Squire deserved.
"No problem." Rui nodded. "Where is the client? I was under the impression
that I was going to meet him."
"Ah, he's at our base." The man clarified. "He didn't want to come here
personally due to security reasons. Please allow me to escort you there."
Rui nodded, before following them through the forest. The Martial
Apprentices were clearly on edge due to the fact that Rui didn't feel like a
Martial Squire did, at all.
('Maybe I should drop the mind mask from here on out." Rui wondered. He
used it because he didn't like drawing attention, but having to confirm that he
is a Martial Squire each and every time was a pain in the ass. Besides, it's not
like he could just suddenly drop the mask now. If he randomly dropped the
mask while he was behind them, he would scare them into thinking he was
going to kill them or something.
He sighed inwardly, it didn't really matter too much. If they were concerned
about whether he was a Martial Squire or whether he was qualified for the
mission, then he could simply prove it rather easily.
It wasn't long before they happened upon the base of the rebel group. It was a
group of tents and other simple structures that were hidden under a canopy in
the forest, hiding them quite well from the lookouts stationed on the fortress
walls. It allowed them to mount attacks on the fortress easier than if their
base was much further away.
Chapter 505 Conversation
The camp was clearly prepared for his visit. They all gazed at him with
varying emotions. Joy. Relief. Expectation. Confusion. Skepticism.
The men guided him to the largest tent, gesturing him inside. Inside were
several more Martial Apprentices that stood guard. Rui recognized the only
non-Martial Artist within the tent as his client, Fushin Hunfer.
His eyes narrowed as he felt a faint sense of pressure from the man that he
shouldn't have. He was old, his body was covered in scars and his skin was
wrinkled and what was left of his hair was white. Despite his visage being
that of an old man, Rui didn't dare to think of him as one. The man almost
had a heavier presence in Rui's mind than the Martial Apprentices in the
room.
Rui recalled the details of his background from his mind palace, provided by
the mission bill.
Fushin Hunfer was the fifteenth general of Fort Zurtun. When the Britannian
Empire attacked, he personally led the military of Fort Zurtun against the
forces of the Britannian army. When they inevitably lost, the man didn't
resign to his fate, nor did he throw himself into the jaws of death in some
banal sense of honor.
No.
He gathered the surviving forces of his military that would have either died or
been imprisoned and escaped with them. He was the progenitor of the rebel
group. And many years later, his will to win and free his land had not
withered in the slightest, Rui could sense a smoldering fire in his calm eyes.
Instantly, Rui felt a measure of respect for the man, and it reflected in his
demeanor.
"Squire Falken." The former general addressed him. "I'm grateful to you for
humoring my request."
"Not at all." Rui politely replied.
The man silently extended a hand, refusing to say another word until Rui
shook it.
"That being said..." The former general said. "I'm afraid I have another
request of you."
He gestured towards a seat opposite his own as he took his own.
"I would like for you to time the execution of our commission with or slightly
prior to our own assault on Fort Zurtun." He told Rui once the latter took his
seat.
('As expected...') Rui nodded inwardly. He had suspected that this would be
the case. The general had shrewdly realized that getting rid of the weapon had
the most impact only if the opportunities it provided were capitalized
immediately.
"No problem," Rui told him. "I don't mind you coordinating the timing of
your commission as long as you don't alter the pre-established conditions of
the mission itself or if there are other reasons that work against my interest.
You have commissioned me to destroy the weapon, and I will destroy the
weapon and everything needed for me to do so. However, that is it, nothing
more and nothing less. I will not play any other role in this war."
Rui sternly drew a line in the ground early on in their conversation. He

needed to express this stance strongly and make it clear that he would not do
anything he wasn't commissioned to do. The old man before him would
exploit anything and everything he could for the sake of his goals, and Rui
needed to ensure that he wasn't one of them.
"I did not intend to request or tell you to do more than what you have been
commissioned to do." He blankly stated without any shift in his expression.
"Once you have completed your mission, you may leave."
That sounded all well and fine, but Rui felt he needed to be careful. Even if
the old man didn't request Rui to participate in the war straightforwardly,
there were ways in which he could coerce Rui to take part in the war or
contribute to it.
If Rui's exit was somehow restricted or if his well-being was threatened, he

would need to employ force to force his way out of this predicament. This
would result in Rui contributing to their cause even if he didn't intend or want
to.
If the old man decided the timing and the coordination of Rui's attack, then
there was a chance that he could forcefully put Rui in such a situation where
he would be able to exploit Rui further than just the commission. Perhaps this
wasn't likely, but the man had already proven himself to be quite shrewd.
"That's good to hear." Rui blankly stated. "Give me a timeframe for when you
intended to execute your plan."
"Within a day or two." The old man replied. "I'll present the general plan to
you by then."
Rui paused for a moment. That timeframe was just the maximum delay he
was willing to tolerate, he didn't want to delay the mission any further.
"I'll add a bonus of ten percent." The old man offered, keenly noting from the
slight hints in his body language that he wasn't too inclined to accept the
offer. "In writing."
Rui sighed. Since the man was clearly expressing his goodwill and charity, he
ultimately decided to accept the offer. "Alright then, please finish all your
preparations as soon as possible. I will not tolerate too much of a delay."
The old man cracked a smile for the first time. "An overwhelming majority of
our preparations are complete, all we need are some very final steps, and we
can begin the assault any time after. We have prepared some quarters for you
to rest and reside until the time is ready."
"That's good to hear." Rui nodded. "Chalk up the contract for the bonus and
have it sent it to me as soon as possible."
The two discussed some other details and technical matters, confirming the
basics of what preparations were still incomplete and the kind of role Rui
would be playing.
"Alright then." Rui nodded, getting up. "That brings us to the end of our
conversation."
"Indeed." The old man replied. "Please get some rest, you have traveled far
after all."
Chapter 506 Challenge
Just as Rui was about to leave, the man who had guided him here interjected.
"Excuse me..." He sheepishly said, drawing attention. "I do not mean to be

rude, but the Martial Apprentices of our group have informed me of some
troubling observations surrounding you..."
Rui sighed, having expected this. "I don't feel like a Martial Squire?"
"Yes." The man replied. "It's not that we're distrusting the Kandrian martial
Union's credibility by any means, but it would be of great relief if you could
provide us with some form of demonstration of your power or status as a
Martial Squire."
Rui sighed, yet before he could even respond, the old man interjected.
"That won't be necessary." A grin cracked at the edge of his mouth. "This
man is the real deal."
An amused smile cracked underneath Rui's mask. "Are you sure about that?"
"Do I look uncertain?"
"But sir.." The man tried to appeal to him
"Forget about it." The old man snorted before turning to Rui. "Please, forgive
the indiscretion."
Rui nodded, before turning to the bowing servants who offered to escort him
to his quarters. As he was escorted out towards a tent that had been prepared
just for him, he was deep in thought about his conversation with the old man.
Everything about him made him feel wary about the mission. He realized he
needed to pay careful attention to this mission. Once he entered the tent, he
immediately used Seismic Mapping and Primordial Instinct to surveil the
entire camp, gathering as much information as he could.
He had counted a total of twenty-seven Martial Apprentices, not a bad

number for a group of this size. There seemed to be many thousands of men
in the camp that was well-hidden in the densest region of the canopy of the
forest. This roughly matched the intelligence that the Martial Union had
provided him with. A decent force, but it was questionable whether this was
enough.
After all, the fore occupying the fort was not small either. According to the
Martial Union, Fort Zurtun was occupied and controlled by a five-thousand-
strong military battalion of the Royal Britannian Army with more than two
dozen Martial Apprentices.
While the Britannian battalion that occupied Fort Zurtun was a little smaller
than the rebel force, they had other advantages that more than made up for
the gap in numbers with superior Martial Artists and soldiers, superior
militaristic technological assets and weapons, as well as terrain advantage as
the rebel group would be fighting against the Britannian battalion uphill
while the latter was protected by a fort.
Furthermore, Fort Zurtun had the Hlorn canon as well. Fighting against them
in a head-on symmetrical war was practically suicide, it was a wonder they
hadn't all been wiped out.
('It must be thanks to the old man.') Rui hazarded a guess. He couldn't be sure
since the mission bill didn't cover that information but based on what he had
gathered about Fushin Hunfer, the former general of Fort Zurtun and the
leader of the Zurtun rebels, it was clear that the old man was the reason this
rebel group was even together at this point.
He surveilled the rest of the camp, observing what the rebel soldiers did with
their time. Most of them were tending to logistical matters. Preparing
weapons and armor, a large number of horse-pulled carriages. Many of them
were stocking up the final bits of food supplies that would be necessary for
their climb to the fort. It did seem as though they were nearly ready to begin
the assault on the fort at any given time.
A person carrying a tray made her way to his tent.
"Excuse me, sir..." She addressed him from the outside.
"Come in."
A young woman carrying a tray with a bottle of water and some light edibles
walked in. "Some water and food for you, sir."
Rui nodded as she placed the tray on a table in the tent. "Thank you."
She bowed before scurrying outside.
He glanced at the tray, noting the small little balls on a disposable plate that
was supposed to be his food. "Food pills."
It was to be expected. The rebels were not leading a particularly luxurious life
such that they could provide guests with lavish meals at any given point in
time. Rui suspected that for the most part, food pills were consumed for two
out of three meals.
It made too much sense, they were cheap, portable, and had a long shelf life.
They weren't appetizing, but they were nutritious and gave the human body
everything it needed. They were perfect for the circumstances under which
they were in.
Eventually, a few hours passed and the sun had gone down.
"Sir?" The lady addressed him. "It's time for dinner, please join us."
"I'll be there soon enough." Rui nodded.
He was looking forward to the meal considering he already knew that they
had gone hunting. What he was surprised by when he came out was the
intensity of the lamps that they used, they were rather dim.
('Ah, it's to avoid drawing much attention.') Rui immediately realized.

The intensity of the lamps was low because even if they were some ways
away from the fort, brighter light would draw attention and reveal their
location.
He glanced towards the many animals they had caught, ranging from rabbits
all the way to bears. Feeding a small army was no joke. He sauntered
steadily, ignoring the many eyes he felt on him. Yet, it seemed that not all of
them were going to ignore him.
"Hey, you!" A Martial Apprentice approached him, sizing him up

exaggeratedly. "So you're the Martial Artist they hired to help us eh? You
sure don't feel like one!"
('This shit again.') He sighed. He realized he needed to drop the mind mask
before he met clients, otherwise, it created too many problems. That was two
times in a row now, as far as human-related missions went anyway.
Chapter 507 Course
Even as the young Martial Apprentice brazenly blabbed on, Rui's mind had
tuned out. In his perception, the Martial Apprentices were talking in slow
motion. He pondered how he ought to go about this.
('Should I just flex again?') Rui wondered. He very well could drop the mind
mask and unleash the bloodlust of a Martial Squire.
('No.') He decided against it. ('These aren't the same circumstances as last
time.')
He wasn't isolated like he was with the two Martial Apprentices and the
finance minister two missions ago. He was in a densely populated area with a
small army that was on edge because of an upcoming battle. Unleashing the
bloodlust of a Martial Squire at this point in time would have negative
consequences that he would rather avoid taking the responsibility for.
At the bare minimum, he would be hurting morale and terrifying the already
anxious and nervous soldiers of the rebel group. The bloodlust of a Martial
Squire would spread far and wide, unlike that of a Martial Squire, and would
impact the entire army. It might even delay the operation as the old man
would likely decide that the army was in an insufficient state for the war.
That was something Rui definitely wanted to avoid.
He pondered even as the young man threw taunts at him in extremely slow
motion.
('Should I just ignore him?') Rui wondered. He could just walk around and
avoid the man, that option was always there.
('No...') He quickly glanced at the Martial Apprentices in the vicinity, the

look in their eyes indicated this most likely wasn't something spontaneous.
Knowing how cocky Martial Apprentices could get, it probably wouldn't
work. Besides, running away from them also would be bad for morale, since
he was someone that they had paid an enormous sum of money to hire for
one specific purpose, that too. In the
('Hm, I guess I ought to handle this head-on?') He wondered before his eyes
narrowed. ('Did the old man put them up to this?')
From his observations of the camp across the day, the camp was exceedingly
well-run, like an oiled machine. There was a lot of order and discipline in the
way things worked around here, clearly. The man knew how to run an army
efficiently, as one would expect from his position.
The fact that the Martial Apprentices were seemingly running around free
didn't exactly sit right with him in that case. He glanced at some of the
Martial Apprentices and their clothes, noting that several of them weren't
even supposed to be in this part of the base given what unit they seemed to be
a part of.
('Was he lying when he expressed I was qualified to be here?') He wondered,

he couldn't be sure. This could be some sort of test on his part.
That still left him with what he ought to do.
('I ought to ensure that this confrontation does not alter anything significant
firstly.') Rui noted. That meant no seriously injuring the Martial Apprentices
or killing them obviously. But it also meant that there could be no collateral
damage whatsoever, he could not destroy their storage and inventory or other
essentials that would slow down their preparations and extend the time he
spent on this mission.
He also ought to prove his strength in a constructive manner, maybe he could

help the Martial Apprentices out. He could take off his mind mask slowly
amidst combat while avoiding an extreme emotion that would make his aura
scarier than it needed to be. As long as he warmed them up to it in the right
manner, there ought not to be any problem.
He finally turned his attention back to the Martial Apprentice in front of him.
"-like a normal person. Is that Martial Art uniform even yours?" He snorted,
putting his hand on Rui's shoulder, feeling the fabric.
THUD
He fell to the ground with a resounding impact, having hit the ground before
he realized what had even happened.
The man grimaced lightly, glaring at Rui.
"You talk too much," Rui murmured softly, yet everyone heard him clearly as
the weight of his presence slowly escalated, bit by bit.
"What the fuck did you say?" Another joined in, as they walked in closer.
"He was just talking to you. No reason to flip him!"
Rui snorted, ignoring his words. "Come."
They rushed at him, throwing a volley of attacks from all directions. Rui
didn't bother employing any Squire-level force, as planned. He carefully
grabbed their attacks, forcefully redirecting them to the ground or against
each other, ensuring that the destructive power they possessed as Martial
Apprentices didn't do any real harm to anybody or anything else.
"You!" The Martial Apprentice who had first picked a fight with him had
lashed out at him. He threw a powerful right kick straight to Rui's jaw.
POW
His eyes flew wide open as Rui didn't so much as budge under the weight of
his attack, despite it hitting his jaw! He couldn't believe that he wasn't able to
move his head in the slightest. The resistance was so hard that he actually
ended up falling backward.
A shiver went down his spine as Rui finally removed the entirety of his mind
mask after having slowly removed it across the little clash. He, and everyone
around him, had begun to realize how tremendously strong Rui actually was.
"I will be risking my life to protect you, all of you, from a Squire-level
threat." He sternly announced. "I do not believe I am overstepping my bounds
when I expect a certain degree of respect and courtesy."
When the onlookers remembered that this powerhouse would be fighting on

their side soon enough, a surge of confidence sprung within them. A smile
broke on their faces as they imagined the sheer devastation that the bastards
that had seized their hometown would be experiencing when this menace
would be unleashed upon their foes soon enough.
Rui nodded inwardly at their reaction, it had proceeded more or less as

planned. He glanced back at the Martial Apprentice before him, extending an
arm to help him up.
Chapter 508 Conversation
The man accepted Rui's hand, pulling himself up before lowering his head to
Rui.
"I'm sorry... I did think you would be strong, but to be this strong was beyond
my expectations." He sighed. The others quickly followed through issuing
quick apologies.
"It's alright, as long as you understand." Rui nodded before walking away
towards the food gathering. He didn't want to interact with anybody beyond
what was necessary. He simply procured a meal while ignoring the attention
that he was still receiving.
The mood had gotten better because the spat had ended amicably and also
because of the confidence boost they had received thanks to him.
"Mind if I sit here?"
Rui glanced at the woman who had approached him, recognizing her. She
was one of the few Martial Artists who had not attacked him back then.
"Feel free." Rui shrugged.
She smiled, taking a seat beside him, holding a plate of meat, rice, and some
greens. "I appreciate you holding back against those hot-headed fools earlier.
It might have gotten bad if things had escalated."
"It's nothing at all." Rui dismissed.
"I'm Vemy, by the way." She told him. "What's your name?"
"Falken." He replied straightforwardly, using his official alias.

"Earlier, you took a kick from Deny to the face without moving even an
inch." She noted, before peering at him with curiosity. "That was
unbelievable, can all Martial Squires do that?"
"Most, I suppose," Rui replied. He hadn't even used Inner Divergence to

dispel the impact, his inherent toughness was enough to withstand the impact
of the blow. Meaning most Martial Squires should be able to replicate the
feat asides from perhaps the most fragile Martial Squires whose Martial
bodies had an extremely strange configuration with weak durability.
There was also the fact that he was better than Martial Squires with Martial
bodies of a similar configuration due to the fact that all of his performance
parameters were better thanks to autophagy supplying him with energy and
other sustenance that one could get only from multiple high-grade potions
mid-fight.
"That's truly incredible. It makes me want to become a Martial Squire even

more." She laughed. "It's the reason why I wanted to talk to you."
('Well, at least she's honest.') He didn't particularly think less of her for it. He
hadn't been much different when he was a Martial Apprentices, after all. The
secret to the Squire Realm was something that he had tried to pry out of
Martial Squires himself, thinking back fondly to all the times he had spoken
to Squire Dylon and Kyrie on the matter.
"We... don't have Martial Squires, not even when we were at our prime
before the Britannian Army had invaded." She sighed. "I keep thinking to
myself if we Martial Apprentices had been stronger, if I had been a Martial
Squire, we would not have lost. We would not have needed to spend years
accruing the funds needed to commission you."
Rui didn't respond to her, though he did understand her perspective. Martial
Apprentices were physically human, there was a limit to what they could do.
In fact, prior to the age of Martial Art, Martial Apprentices were controlled
via force or coercion because they alone weren't enough to turn the tide. That
changed when the first Martial Squire was born. Martial Squires truly defied
logic in a way that Martial Apprentices couldn't.
"I know that you have no obligation to fulfill it... but I did have a request."
She told him, turning towards him, meeting his eyes with a pleading gaze.
"Can you please divulge to me the way to become a Martial Squire? I'll do
anything in return."
Rui stared at her, before sighing. "I cannot."
Squire candidates needed to sign oaths swearing they would not divulge the
information that the martial Union provided to them regarding the Squire
Realm before they could be briefed about the whole matter.
Of course, technically, Rui knew about the secret of the Squire Realm before
the Martial Union briefed him about it thanks to Julian explaining the
research data that Rui had provided him. However, that didn't matter, he
would still be considered to be violating his oath if divulged the secret to the
Squire Realm.
"Why... not?" Vemy asked with a dejected tone.
"Because it would get me in trouble."
"I won't tell anyone else!"
"I cannot trust you. Even if your intentions are genuine, this is an extremely
sensitive and important matter to the Martial Union and they aren't half-assed
about their efforts to keep the information you're asking for a secret. I cannot
take that risk." Rui told her.
"I see..."
"That being said, the information is useless to you even if I did tell you," Rui
explained. "There's nothing you can do about it, trust me. Rather than
wanting to know exactly how Martial Apprentices break through to the
Squire Realm, you should be more concerned with even being qualified to
undergo the breakthrough.
"Qualified?" She frowned. "Meaning only some Martial Apprentices can

breakthrough?"
('Well, no shit.') "Correct."
"I see." She pondered his words deeply. "What decides whether a Martial
Apprentices is qualified?"
Rui stared at her before his gaze wandered across her entire body
unapologetically, intensifying as he stared at all her beautiful features.
('A well-toned body. She exudes a decent amount of pressure even when she
tries to hide it. Grade seven or so. I suppose I can answer her questi-')
"Pervert!"
His thoughts were interrupted by her words. She covered her chest and crotch
with her arms with a disapproving glare on her face, yet her cheeks were
tinted red.
"...Huh?" Rui tilted his head, confused.
"You may be a Martial Squire, but don't even think of trying anything, OK?"
She huffed.
"You-" "-But you know," She interrupted him. "If you could, do answer my
question, please. Hehe."
Rui just stared at her, before bursting out laughing, much to her surprise.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing." He shook his head, chuckling. "But to answer your earlier

question..."
He raised two fingers. "Individuality and maturity. That is what you must
seek to achieve."
Chapter 509 Individuality
"Individuality... and maturity?" She frowned.
"That's right." Rui nodded. "Individuality and maturity. Your Martial Art
needs to obtain enough of both, otherwise, you won't be able to even survive
the breakthrough process to the Squire Realm."
"What exactly do both of those terms even mean?"
"I was getting there." He nodded. "Individuality is a measure of how much

your Martial Path diverges from others, and how much of its depth comes
from you."
She wordlessly stared at him with a skeptical expression.
"Your techniques and the way you apply them, that is what need to possess
individuality. They need to possess a measure of uniqueness and originality."
"So... I need to create my own techniques?" She frowned. "That's super

difficult!"
"If it were easy, everyone would be a Martial Squire." Rui snorted. "But you
don't specifically need to create a technique from scratch, and all kinds of
viable modifications and alterations to suit yourself, newer applications of an
existing technique, combinations that you yourself derived from existing
techniques, and really anything that originated from you that sets you apart
from the others will be one step deeper into your Martial Path."
"I see..." She hummed as she processed her words. "So that means your
Martial Art is much more unique than any other kind of Martial Art that
exists out there?"
"You can say that." Rui nodded.
In reality, one could say much more than that. The fact that he inherited the
VOID algorithm from his past alone meant that his individuality was on
another level. He wasn't even sure how much of it he had, in all honesty. He
knew he had more of it than any other Martial Artist his age, without a doubt.
It would be rather shocking if there was.
"So, my Martial Art just needs to gain enough individuality, hm." She
nodded. "Will do. But why is that necessary?"
Rui paused for a moment, considering whether he could answer her question,
before shrugging. "To survive the procedure."
"Hm?" She frowned.
"The greater your individuality, the deeper your Martial Path, and the greater
your mind can withstand," Rui told her, arriving dangerously close to the
limit of what he could tell her.
"How much individuality do you think I have?" She asked him.
He once ran his gaze across her.
"Hey!" She complained, covering her chest and crotch again.
"I'm just observing you." Rui sighed, shrugging helplessly.
There was an awkward pause before she finally relented.
"Alright then." Uncovering herself, she even puffed her chest out a bit, as if
that would somehow make his job easier.
It didn't.
"No, I'm good." Rui turned away. He felt too self-conscious, especially with
all the attention on him. Furthermore, while his mind was pure, his
seventeen-year-old hormonal body had other thoughts as blood gushed to his
groin, awakening little Rui from its slumber down below.
"Hey! This is beneficial to my Martial Path. Just... get it over with." She
looked away with a miffed expression, yet her blushed expression revealed
her embarrassment.
Rui turned back to meet her eyes.
('She's hot.')
She looked to be in her early twenties. He wasn't even able to look at her
body without his cursed hormonal teenage body revving up, ever since she
perverted the conversation.
"Forget it, this method isn't all that reliable anyway." He sighed. "It relies on
my instincts, which are unfortunately clouded right now."
"Clouded?"
"Forget about it." He growled.
"Well, how do I know how close I am to fulfil the individuality condition to

be able to survive the breakthrough to the Squire Realm?" She asked him.
Rui shrugged, before freezing.
He recalled when he went through the evaluation examination where a

Martial Squire evaluated whether he had indeed fulfilled both conditions for
Squire candidacy. The way she had verified whether or not he had fulfilled
the individuality condition for Squire candidacy was by stressing him with
her mental pressure and noting how much he was able to withstand.
If a Martial Apprentice was able to withstand pressure above a certain degree,

then that Martial Apprentice would at the very least not die due to being too
mentally weak.
He even recalled how much pressure she exerted on him, and since he was
also a Martial Squire, he was capable of generating that mental pressure and
more.
He looked around, recalling the dense population of normal humans around

him. He couldn't perform that here, not in front of all these normal people,
they would be too disaffected by the psychological stress.
"What happened?" Vemy asked him, noticing his demeanor.
"I have a way of answering your question, but I can't do it here." He told her.
"You need to come to my personal quarters, it's detached enough from the
main camp that others won't be affected."
She threw a skeptical glare at him.
"What?" Rui raised an eyebrow, confused.
"You know what."
"I haven't the faintest clue."
"You're just making all of this up so you can lure me to your personal
quarters where nobody can see us and where you can try to do something to
me, aren't you?"
Rui just stared at her wordlessly, speechless.
"Never mind." He turned away, a hint of exasperation creeping into his tone.
"I'm kidding. Kidding!" She laughed. "Come, let's go."
She got up, trying to pull him up, unable to even budge him.
"I said I'm good." He grumbled lightly.
"I said it was a joke, I'm serious!"
He turned towards her with skeptical eyes.
"This is really important to me, okay?" Her tone grew soft, yet serious.
Rui sighed, relenting. The two of them scurried to his personal quarters
quietly.
"Alright then." She turned towards him once they entered.
"Why did you zip it close?"
"I don't want anybody else knowing what you're going to do to me." She
innocently replied.
Rui narrowed his eyes at her wording, shaking his head. "Sit opposite to me."
"Sit?"
"Yeah. Sit." His voice grew heavier, as she sat opposite him.
The air grew taut. The world shivered ever so slightly. Vemy gasped as a
profound amount of weight crashed onto her mind.
Chapter 510 Graduation
She winced at the sheer force her mind experienced from Rui exerting a bit of
charged pressure against her. She steeled her expression, trying to withstand
the pressure.
Rui narrowed his eyes as the atmosphere grew chillier.
Had any normal human being been present there, they might have already
fallen to the ground and lost control of their bladders. Yet her fortitude as a
Martial Apprentice was far beyond the limits of the human mind. She
grimaced, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth.
Huff...
Huff...
She executed a basic breathing technique, trying to center herself.
Huff...
Huff...
She felt her heartbeat returning to normal soon enough.
The pressure hadn't reduced even by the slightest, but she managed to pull
herself together.
Rui could see a profound resilience as she met her soft, yet steely brown doe-
like eyes.
A small grin cracked at his mouth.

His eyes widened as he directed all-out bloodlust at her, a tsunami of pressure
washed over her as she gasped, overwhelmed.
Her eyelids fluttered as her body went limp, falling backward.
The pressure disappeared as Rui rushed forward to catch her, laying her body
on the bed immediately.
"Urgh..." She woke up immediately.
"You okay?" Rui asked, concerned.
"Fine, surprisingly" she smiled at him. "By the way..."
"Hm?"
"How long do you intend to hold me like that?" She stared at him with a
teasing expression.
Rui quickly let go of her, realizing how close he was to her, with an
"Well, what did you learn?" She asked, amused. "You didn't do that just to
bully me, right?"
"Ah, right." Rui shook his head as he ignored his hormonal body. "You're far
from ready. You'll need several years of working on your individuality before
you might be ready."
She got up, leaning forward towards him with a disappointed sigh. "As
expected."
There was an awkward silence for a bit.
Rui coughed. "Well, I should get some rest."
"Are you actually tired?" She raised an eyebrow with a sarcastic tone. "Or are
you just trying to kick me out?"
"Take a guess." Rui sighed. He had had enough of her cheeky and frankly
immature attitude.
His youthful body begged to defer.
He had leaned forward trying to hide his groin.
"Well, if I don't, then I won't have to leave, right?" She smirked, running her
hand across his arm.
Rui groaned inwardly as he felt his body revving up in excitement.
"Just go before something we do something that probably violates the rules

that such a disciplined and well-run base has." Rui sighed.
"Hehe, too bad that won't work." She giggled before a hint of melancholy
crept into her tone. "Gramps is extremely strict when people are on duty.
Even the slightest mistake gets harshly punished. That's how difficult our
predicament is, not even the slightest mistake can occur for us to win. So
when we're on duty, he's extraordinarily strict, but when we're off-duty, he
allows us to do whatever we want..."
She turned towards him. "...With whoever we want. Otherwise, even the
remaining spirit we have will break."
Rui felt the emotion she tried to hide from him with his sharp senses. He
could feel his reluctance disappearing, which alarmed him.
('Stop it you horny pig! You're on! a fucking! mission!') He groaned inwardly
but clearly, his body didn't care.
"Well, what if I don't want to do whatever with whoever?" He used the Mind
Mask technique to try and sell indifference and apathy.
"Hehehe." She walked her two fingers up his leg until they bumped into
something rock-hard.
She didn't even need to say more. The gesture alone was so erotic that he lost
the last shred of self-control that he had. He popped off his mask against his
better judgment.
"Oooooo." She cooed as she studied his appearance, leaning in closer.

"You're cute."
She kissed him softly and slowly as he reciprocated her energy, she placed a
hand on his face as their bodies leaned closer. They kissed passionately,
falling onto the bed as they began stripping their clothes off one by one.
Rui ran his arms across her nude body, drowning in lust and arousal as he
indulged in feeling every curve and bump on her body. She moaned lightly as
she gently stroked him, kissing him aggressively and sloppily as she pushed
him deep into the right place.
Rui gasped in shock as he entered. It had been literally decades since he last
experienced the intoxicating feeling, the surrounding warm and wet
sensation. He shuddered as he felt waves of pleasure flow across his entire
body.
"It's a safe day."
His last shred of self-control melted away at those words as he thrust in and
out vigorously, almost completely consumed by the raw pleasure he was
experiencing.
"Mmmmm." She moaned lightly, grinning excitedly as she saw how

completely overwhelmed he was by the experience. Rui slowed down
periodically, trying not to finish too early, he didn't want to lose the pleasure
he was experiencing. At that moment, he wouldn't mind if he could continue
forever. Yet soon enough that moment came. He accelerated energetically as
a tremendous build-up of pressure in his groin accrued.
Until he finally couldn't hold it in any longer.
For several seconds he was completely consumed with infinite pleasure,

frozen stiff as his muscles were as taut as iron in a response to the sheer
stimulus the experience of ejaculating inside gave him.
He finally gasped for air desperately once it ended. Falling on top of her,
powerless for a moment.
"Hehe... That was intense." She grinned, her face flushed red, and she leaned
in to whisper in his ear. "You... wanna keep going?"
He groaned inwardly as he grew hard again.
Outside in the camp, someone had finally taken notice of their disappearance.
"Hey, have you seen the martial Squire?" The man who first picked a fight
with Rui appeared. "I last saw him together with Vemy."
"I dunno, haven't seen them in a while."
"Hm..." The man turned around wistfully. "I wanted to know more about the
breakthrough to the Squire Realm."
The next morning Rui woke up peacefully, feeling quite serene. He could
hear birds chirping outside and the light of dawn cracking through the fabric
of the tent. He felt a warm sensation on the right side of his body. He looked
down to his right, Vemy was peacefully asleep on his chest clinging to his
body, looking equally serene. Rui sighed, embarrassed. It was more than a
little embarrassing for him to have given in to the urge of his hormonal
teenage body.
He'd forgotten how good sexual intercourse felt, especially since he had lost
all of his libido for decades due to his failing health. But now that he had
returned to a youthful healthy body, he was beginning to recall how
frightening the power of lust could be.
He sighed, shaking his head as he recalled last night. Thankfully, he had

managed to gain a better hold of himself after his initial shot, taking into
account her experience as well. It had been so long that he was effectively no
different from a virgin.
Yet a part of him wished he hadn't had the experience because he was better
off not remembering what it was like to experience it, not just the intercourse,
but all of the intoxicating and blissful physical intimacy he had with her after
as well. He realized life would be a lot more pleasant if he could have that
with someone he truly cared for.
He sighed, shaking his head. He did not intend to spend energy and detour
from his path especially, for chasing opportunities for it. If they came, he
would take them, if not, then that was that. His determination to elevate his
Martial Art to its peak was a dream that had survived the rigors of an entire
lifetime and even carried over to his next one.
He would never forsake chasing after it in exchange for chasing after another
childish dreamlike love. He was far too driven. He could only hope they
could coincide somehow. As for how that could be? Now was not the time to
think about it.
('I'm on a fucking mission. I need to get my head back into the game.') He
exhaled deeply, closing his eyes and tempering his mental state.
"Mmmmrgh." He heard a soft moan as Vemy woke up.
She turned up towards him before smiling. "Hehe good morning."
"Morning. I should get up now. I'm here on a mission you know." Rui sighed,
as he gently placed her head on the pillow as got off from under her.
He pulled a new set of Martial Art clothes from his utility belt and began
clothing himself.
"Woah, where did that come from?" She asked.
"They're made from a rare esoteric fiber that shrinks tremendously under
pressure, allowing me to travel with a spare change of clothes" He sighed
before putting his old clothes into a pouch that shrunk tremendously.
"Wow." She looked impressed. "Wish I had one of those. The Kandrian
Martial Union sure is impressive."
"You should get going too," Rui told her. "And try not to let anyone know
what happened, I don't want people to think I'm unprofessional."
"Oh relax, we've commissioned Martial Apprentices before. This isn't

particularly strange or common." She glanced at her pocket watch. "But I am
due to be on standby soon, so I really should go."
She hurriedly put on her clothes.
"Bye-bye, I had fun. Let's do that again if we can." She left sneakily before
blowing a kiss at him.
Rui shook his head, trying to get his head back into the game. Once he was
fully clothed, he stepped out of his tent, heading towards the main camp. The
air was noticeably tenser than it was the day prior and almost all the
preparations were completed. Soon, he reached the large tent that served as
the headquarters.
"Squire Falken." Fushin Hunfer addressed him without even looking up from
all the paperwork he was working on. "I trust you've rested and rejuvenated
in the past day? I hope you had a good night."
There was nothing in his tone or words that implied anything beyond what
his words conveyed, but Rui could tell the man knew about his nightly affair.
"Just fine, thank you." He said with a straight tone.
"Good to hear." The old man nodded, facing him for the first time. "Have a
seat. We have important matters to discuss."
"The attack will commence at dusk." He straightforwardly informed Rui as

Rui took a seat opposite to the latter, he pointed at a section of the mountain
on a map that he had before him. "We aim to climb the mountain from the
south, where the mountain's inclination is gradual. The attack should
commence around three hours after commencement."
"Hm." Rui nodded. An attack in the night favored the ambushing force. The
ability to surveil and gather information on hostile third parties in the vicinity
was hampered due to the darkness, for all parties. Not only did the ability to
gather intelligence generally decrease, but the risks in attempting to do so
also increased. Thus even attempting proactive intelligence gathering was no
longer as easy and simple.
Even though this also affected the rebels, they possessed an intelligence
advantage due to their extreme familiarity with the mountain and the fort,
their familiarity with the protocols of the battalion of the Britannian Empire
stationed at the fort from previous conflicts, as well as the fact that the
location of their enemy being very well known, made it easier to gather
information.
Attacking during the day when both sides would be able to detect the other
was far more beneficial to the Britannian battalion than it was to the Zurtun
rebel group. Thus, it simply made more sense to eliminate that factor by
operating at the night.
"Tell me about the details, and specifically where and when you wish for me
to time my mission and remember, I have the right to refuse if I want to."
Chapter 512 Amiss
"Of course." The old man nodded, seemingly having expected that. "You will
disguise yourself amongst our soldiers at the vanguard of our formation and
only act when the Hlorn weapon is brought out, which according to our
predictions based on previous assaults is presumed to be anywhere between
five and seven minutes depending on multiple factors such as preparation,
alertness, and, of course, luck."
Rui nodded memorizing those details, they made perfect sense.
"The assault will begin as soon as we approach the boundary of guaranteed

detection." The old man stated. "This is the boundary beyond which, no
matter what, we are unable to avoid detection from the surveillance of the
Britannian battalion occupying the fort. The Martial Apprentice engaging in
surveillance in this section of the fort will detect us about one hundred meters
from the fort, and from there we will immediately accelerate while the long-
range squads of our army will begin launching explosive arrows once we
reach fifty meters away from the fort in order cause as many casualties in the
Britannian battalion as possible as well as much as chaos as possible and
slow down their preparation."
He paused before continuing. "Once we reach the fort, our offensive Martial
Apprentices will immediately begin launching coordinated attacks on the fort
wall and work to pierce through it and form an opening for the army to
infiltrate the castle. We've tried variants of similar strategies before, however,
we incur too much damage for us to continue, due to the Hlorn being fully
operational at this point in time. This is where you come in."
"I see..." Rui nodded.
It was a rational plan that had a clear goal and made the best of the resources
available to them. Using the darkness in this particular circumstance made
sense, and the change in their approach once surveillance once they were
inevitably detected also made perfect sense, the goal of wanting to infiltrate
the fort was also quite logical as seizing back the fort would be an impossible
task otherwise. However, there were certain holes that made Rui concerned.
"If your goal in approaching the fort is to infiltrate it, then why not go for the
actual transit entrance gate instead of trying to forcefully create an opening in
the middle of the fort wall?" Rui asked. "Doesn't it make more sense to go for
a strategy that creates an asymmetrical warfare where you focus on gaining
control over the gate covertly or forcefully one way or another and then
simply opening it when the time comes?"
"Your proposal is what we would ideally desire, but there are issues with
trying to accomplish that." The old man sighed. "The gate is actually the most
secure point of the entire fort. Furthermore, it is extensively locked with
multiple fail-safes when dusk arrives, meaning gaining control and opening it
for when we launch an attack will be a time-consuming task. Combining the
power of ten offensive Martial Artists who have trained specifically for this
task to coordinate their attacks efficiently to blast a hole in the fort is actually
less time-consuming. Ten Martial Apprentices when combining their power
can effectively yield an output that surpasses the Apprentice Realm greatly."
Rui nodded. "It is a simpler plan, that is for sure."
"Simplicity is ideal. Trying to open the gates would require a degree of

complexity that increases the likelihood of a mistake being committed or
some other variable going wrong or unexpected which can botch our whole
plan. If we do not get into the fort in time, then we have to immediately
retreat down the steeper and quicker side of the mountain lest we get blown
to hell by the Hlorn weapon."
Rui nodded. It was true that the greater the complexity and sophistication of a
plan, the greater the likelihood of a mistake or unexpected outcome occurring
and the greater the likelihood that said mistakes and outcomes would cause
too much of a deviation from the projected plan.
Simpler plans had fewer variables, meaning there were fewer things that
could go wrong. In the case of this plan, unless one of the offensive Martial
Apprentices got taken out very early, or continuously blundered, there wasn't
much that could go genuinely wrong conceptually.
In the heat of battle, it was best to keep things simple. Although it was
tempting to pull off incredibly sophisticated and complicated operations as
one might see in the Mission Impossible franchise, anyone who had ever
been in a large-scale battle knew that it was best to keep things simple.
"Once I destroy the Hlorn, I will immediately leave, I will have completed
my mission, and I'll immediately leave, clear?" Rui glanced at him, observing
his reactions carefully.
"Of course."
His tone, expressions, micro-expressions, and demeanor were impeccable,

yet something told Rui he was missing something.
('The Hlorn is not a recently transferred weapon to the Britannian battalion.')

Rui noted. ('Yet the old man never commissioned a Martial Squire. Even
though the weapon's power is immense, it is a somewhat large unwieldy
cannon that is quite inflexible, and slow with limited effective range,
accuracy, and precision. It also cannot be used if the army is inside the fort or
too close. The window for which the Hlorn is at its most devastating is in the
time period between their detection a hundred meters away and reaching the
fort walls, once they stick to the walls, there isn't too much the Hlorn can do
otherwise the fort walls will also take damage from the cannon.')
Rui's sharp mind furiously computed and analyzed the motive behind his
commission both from an empirical standpoint with the data he had available
as well a personal evaluation of the former general of the Zurtun Fort. The
man was not a fool, if the Hlorn had been around for years and the rebel army
was still not only alive and kicking but also in a position to launch attacks
with a reasonable chance of victory, then spending funds accumulated across
years to commission destroying the Hlorn weapon was clearly not something
worth doing.
His eyes narrowed as he eyed the man. ('Just what are you up to old man?')
Chapter 513 Confirmation
"Ah, one thing to remember." The old man said, turning to face Rui. "This is
a premium guarantee mission. Meaning you will face more severe
consequences in failing to complete your mission within the stipulated
mission."
The atmosphere froze as the others inside the tent felt shudders climbing up
their spines, as their knees buckled, collapsing under their own weight. The
world creaked to a halt as waves of pressure emanated from Rui.
"...Is that a threat?" He asked with narrowed eyes.
"It's a warning made in good faith." The old man calmly replied. "Now then,
if you have any other questions, please do go ahead."
Rui stared at him until the pressure in the room subsided. He was actually
quite impressed that the old man was unfazed. That kind of mental pressure
wasn't something that could be shaken off easily, the old man either
underwent some kind of mental training that improved his fortitude or had
undergone extraordinary experiences that tempered his mind to be able to
keep its composure under the flux of pressure of Rui's hostility.
"Why commission me to destroy the Hlorn weapon if it was unable to stop

you from launching assaults year after year?" Rui asked straightforwardly. He
had already inferred and deduced all the information he could through
deductive and inductive logic. The only way he could learn more was by
creating scenarios where he would gain more information.
Of course, he didn't expect old Fushin to answer him honestly, but there was
still information to be gleaned, directly and indirectly.
Fushin threw a flawless confused expression at him. "I... I didn't suppose I
had to explain that. The Hlorn weapon outputs power in the Squire Realm
while we are compromised almost entirely of ordinary humans barring the
two dozen Martial Apprentices we have. The reason should be obvious
unless, of course, you're saying the Squire-level power means nothing here."
That was an extremely well-constructed evasion of Rui's question. The way

he framed it threw out all the nuance for why Hlorn was not as obviously
devastating as he was making it clearly seem. It completely skimmed over the
many disadvantages that all canons possessed, but especially the Hlorn in
these circumstances.
Furthermore, he also hampered Rui's ability to push back with his last
statement, making it seem as though Rui was implicitly stating that Squire-
level power was useless.
Rui could try and dissect his statements and his reasoning in a debate, but that
was tedious and long-drawn, and ultimately pointless, he would simply be
wasting everyone's time and patience. It was better not to bother with
something like that.
('And that's why he said that because he knows that I know that there is no
point in doing anything of the sort.') Rui noted. ('Sly bastard. I'm even more
certain that something is a little off here.')
However, Rui never intended to extract information from the old man
himself, he was too careful. Rui had already observed that he held an
incredible amount of sway about the information he conveyed through verbal
and non-verbal communication. It would take Rui extended long-term effort
to be able to extract information from him.
('But the same cannot be said for your subordinates, old man.') A slight smile
cracked under his mask.
Their reaction to his question was not something that someone would have to
an extremely stupid question with an obvious answer. When he studied them
with his senses and techniques, he couldn't really make out much obvious
emotion on their faces at all.
('And that's what gives it away.') Rui mused.
Their emotional expression was controlled to hide whatever they were

feeling. And the only reason they would feel the need to do that is if there
was something to hide at all in the first place. In the context of these
particular circumstances, Rui could safely rule out whatever it was they were
hiding as most certainly not benign or unimportant.
Besides, he could sense they were nervous inside. But unfortunately, that
didn't mean too much. There was a war incoming within twenty-four hours,
nervousness was rife. Furthermore, his little flex earlier had affected them as
well, so he truly could not say that their nervousness was indicative of
anything. If anything, it could be said that he could learn more from their
desire to control their reactions.
"Well then. It appears my worries were misplaced." Rui simply stated. "I
suppose I'll be seeing you later at war, gentlemen."
He turned away, leaving. There wasn't much else for him to do here.
"Ah one last thing, Squire Falken." Old Fushin called out to him.
Rui paused, turning his head back to meet the old man's gaze with the edge of
his eye.
"Our Martial Apprentices, do you mind serving as their training and sparring
partner?" He requested. "I'm sure they'd be thrilled to receive the rare
opportunity to do so. Of course, only if you're willing. But it's not like you
have anything else to do the rest of the day, correct?"
Rui stared at him for a while, before simply nodding his head and turning
back to walk out.
An entire minute passed before a Martial Apprentice broke the silence. "He's
far away enough."
"Close the tent," Fushin ordered.
The inner layer of the tent had been layered with a sound-insulating esoteric
fabric that prevented any sound from entering or escaping.
"That was terrifying." One of the men fell back to his knees. "I think this is a
big mistake. Who knows what he'll do to us when he finds out the truth."
"How did he even catch any wind of it at all?" Another one complained.
"He's highly intelligent... Just our luck." Fushin stroked his beard, sighing.
"There should have been nothing. Nothing but the tiniest of scraps of clues,
yet he noticed all of them and managed to deduce and infer much of the truth,
considering what he worked with. Not only that, he took prudent steps to
verify his suspicions and then confirmed them to be true... Are all Martial
Squires like this? Did I underestimate these breeds of superhumans?
Hmmm..."
Chapter 514 Opportunity
"He was going find out anyway eventually... But his blame would have fallen
on the Martial Union ordinarily. But now that he seems to understand there is
more to this than meets the eye, the blame will likely fall on us when the time
comes." He sighed. "It's inconvenient that he is so sharp."
They discussed the matter to a greater extent. Rui on the other hand thought
about the matter by himself.
('At the very least, I can be certain it's not malicious.') Rui nodded. It would
violate the terms of the contract and would be interpreted as an open
declaration of war against the Kandrian Martial Union. A team of Martial
Squires would be immediately dispatched and the entirety of the Zurtun rebel
group would be massacred indiscriminately.
Despite all the deception at hand, the rebel group was fundamentally driven
to claim back their homeland and return back to their families. There was no
mistaking this. This meant that whatever deception was going on at hand
likely was not malicious against him, but more so exploitative in nature.
('Seeing how shrewd that cunning old fox is, I bet it's technically not a
violation of the contract either.') Rui sighed. He didn't think the old man
would do anything that could be proven to violate the contract since that
would invite a severe penalty from the Martial Union.
('It's also something he can't reveal without giving me legitimate grounds and
incentives to call off the mission in a justified manner according to the
contracts.')
If whatever he was hiding, which had to pertain to the true reason for the
mission, was benign and harmless, then Fushin would have revealed it to Rui.
It would have even been mentioned in the contract. But clearly revealing it
was problematic, thus it was being hidden.
That gave Rui further clues.
('I cannot attack the client at any given point in time unless my life is at
stake.') Rui noted. ('This means he's not worried for his life, the consequences
of revealing the information he is hiding are more so to do with the mission
being voided if he does reveal it.')
('But what information could void my mission and cancel it if I learned about
it?') Rui wondered.
There were several possibilities that came to mind. Yet before he could
consider them deeper, a spike of seismic radiation in the distance drew his
attention.
('Hm, the Martial Apprentices are training.') He realized as he focused his

senses in that direction. Rui recalled Fushin's request regarding sparring with
them, sighing. He wasn't in the mood to be charitable with the man, but it was
true that he genuinely had nothing else to do for another twelve hours.
The twenty-seven Martial Apprentices of the Zurtun rebel group were

collectively sparring a great distance away from the base camp and the
mountain so that they wouldn't give their presence away to the Britannian
Battalion occupying the fort.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Ten Martial Apprentices were launching attacks at a gigantic boulder in

groups of three, forming a wide and deep crater that grew deeper with each
group of attacks the Martial Artists threw.
('This must be the offensive team that will work on breaking through the
thick and dense wall of the fort wall.') Rui thought inwardly, nodding. The
coordinated offensive power of ten Martial Apprentices would make short
work of the fort walls in a reasonably short period of time. Once the fort wall
was penetrated, the army could quickly swarm inside and the Hlorn weapon
would be rendered useless. It couldn't be used inside the fort, it would cause
too much damage to themselves.
He smiled slightly as he saw Vemy among them. She seemed to be an

offensive Martial Artist with a kicking-oriented Martial Art. What was
distinct about her style is that it seemed to put more weight on singular power
above all else. She launched long-winded spinning kicks that generated
tremendous amounts of torque that she transferred to her target in a
devastating blow.
It was a style that distinctly resembled Taekwondo in several ways.
Just as he analyzed her movements deeper, he was interrupted.
"Come out." One of the Martial Apprentices suddenly looked in his direction,
in the forest, calling him out.
('A Martial Apprentice with a sensory technique.') Rui mused. He wasn't

particularly alarmed. He was not especially trying to hide and he had nothing
to hide. He was simply taking liberty in observing them train.
"I won't say it again, come out." He said, walking towards the forest.
Rui sighed, revealing himself in the distance. The Martial Apprentices looked
at him in surprise, wondering why a mighty Martial Squire would bother
spying on them, meager Martial Apprentices.
"Uh..." The man scratched his head, loosening his tone a bit. "Do you need
something, sir?"
"Not particularly," Rui replied, approaching them. "General Hunfer requested

me to train and spar with all of you, but I didn't want to barge in and disturb
you when you were preoccupied, you have my apologies."
Their eyes lit up with interest. Almost none of them had met a Martial Squire
prior, let alone be trained by one!
The best they had ever been trained by were the old surviving veteran Martial
Apprentices of the Zurtun town. However, while they were experienced and
knowledgeable, not even they were aware of what it took to become a Martial
Squire.
The same could not be said for someone who had managed to elevate himself
to a higher Realm. This was the only person within their reach who could tell
them more about the road to a higher Realm. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact
that they had something even more important, they would have long swarmed
him to learn more from him.
"Please guide us." They requested sincerely.
Rui nodded. "Alright, will do. While there's nothing that I can do to make
you stronger for tonight's operation, what I can offer will be helpful in the
long run."
Chapter 515 Teams
"We understand." The man addressing Rui said. "We'll make the best of your
teachings."
They nodded vigorously. Vemy threw him a brief mischievous smile sneakily
that the others didn't notice.
('So she didn't tell them, phew.') He sighed inwardly.
"How do you propose we go about this?" The man asked.
"Hm..." Rui thought about it. His mind flashed back to the days when martial
Apprentices all ganged up to fight Kyrie, once the sparring session was over,
she would round them all up and instruct them on their shortcomings, flaws,
and weaknesses as well as offer suggestions on how to mitigate or get rid of
them.
"We don't have much time," Rui told them. "A third of you come at me at
once first, followed by the remaining third."
It was not practical to try and spar with twenty-seven people at once. Not
because Rui could not accomplish it, but if he wanted, he could slaughter all
of them with relative ease. But sparring twenty-seven people at once wasn't
really practical for a meaningful form of training because there was a
physical logistical limit to the number of people who could attack him at
once, and a limit to the number of Martial Apprentice he could focus on
grilling at once.
Meaning, sparring twenty-seven at the same time would make all of them feel
left out for longer periods of time. It was better to spar with fewer people at
once and ensure that each of those people could have a proper sparring
session where they were intensely involved with the fight.
They nodded at that proposal, having similar thoughts.
"You three." Rui pointed to three random Martial Apprentices out of the
crowd. "What are your names?"
"Cern."
"Gerard."
"Mina."
"The three of you are the strongest of all of you, aren't you?" Rui could
clearly sense that those three were the only full-fledged higher-grade Martial
Apprentices in their group.
The three of them nodded with surprised expressions, wondering how Rui
was able to discern it so easily. Was this one of the abilities of Martial
Squires?
"Form three teams that each of you will lead, and decide who will go first,"
Rui told them as he sat on a rock, observing them.
Rui observed them intermingling with each other carefully. What they didn't
know was that Rui was already testing them. Depending on how smoothly
their team formation went, it would tell them much about themselves. If they
scrambled to obtain all the strongest Martial Apprentices for their own team
at the cost of the other teams, then it would generally reflect poorly on their
sense of unity and teamwork. If they were truly united in their goal to make
the best of this opportunity for all of them, it would reflect in their choices
and actions.
('So far it's already going well.') Rui nodded inwardly.
Cern, Gerard, and Mina were discussing amongst themselves rather than
trying to compete with each other by trying to attract the other Martial
Apprentices to their team. In little over ten minutes, they had already formed
their teams.
"We're ready, Squire Falken." The three of them told him with three groups
of Martial Artists behind them.
Rui swept his eyes across the three groups, analyzing them. He was satisfied
when he saw that the teams were broadly equally strong. Although it was
impossible to create three perfectly equally strong teams, he was pleased that
they had gone or an approach that made each team equally strong that
allowed all of them to experience a similar level of power from Rui.
He also noticed that each team had roughly three of the ten offense-oriented
Martial Apprentices that he had seen practicing coordinating their attacks to
blasting a large opening in walls to allow the army to pass through smoothly.
Meaning each team had a similar level of offensive capabilities. This meant
that they had tried to create teams that not only were equally strong but also
equally balanced.
"Good." Rui nodded. "Let me begin by explaining how I'm going to go about
this. I will be restricting my power and speed to the peak of the Apprentice
Realm, though I may decide to use even lesser if I can, barring my toughness
and reaction speed, both of which I cannot truly restrict or change in any
other way, got it?"
They all nodded. It made sense, there was no point in him going all out as
that would simply kill them or defeat them so fast that there was nothing of
value to be learned in their loss. They would gain no valuable experience.
"So which group will be going first?" Rui asked.
"I'll be going first, Squire." He smiled confidently. He was a large man with a
towering well-built physique, and also the strongest offensive fighter
amongst all of them.
The nine of them surrounded him quickly while the other two groups
retreated to an adequate distance to give both sides enough room to fight all
out.
They all took their stances, waiting for Rui to send the signal.
"Alright then..." Rui cracked his knuckles. "Come."
WHOOSH
In an instant, two Martial Apprentices were at his sides while another was
above him. Two more emerged, attacking him from the front and behind.
('Three maneuvering-oriented Martial Apprentices and two offense-oriented

Martial Apprentices.') Rui casually noted while he studied their movements
that were in slow motion in his eyes. He had no intention of flexing his power
and blasting them all away, which he could even with his stated restriction.
Instead, he caught the attacks of all the two Martial Apprentices attacking
from his sides and slowly shifted them to the Martial Apprentices that were
front and behind him, pulling them in those directions. His twisting motion
also deflected the attacks of the Martial Apprentices front and behind him
that was about to touch his back and front, redirecting them to the Martial
Apprentices to his side.
Their attacks were redirected such that it looked like they were attacking each
other in a chain!
Chapter 516 Spar
He simply pulled the Martial Apprentice who was kicking down, launching
himself as he somersaulted out of his position, replacing himself with him.
POW POW POW POW!
BAM!
The four Martial Apprentices who attacked him on land grimaced as they not
only hilariously missed their target but also ended up hitting their teammates.
The one Martial apprentice who launched a flying kick found himself
standing where Rui was, while Rui was standing outside their circle.
Everyone looked at him with amazement. This is what he was capable of

when he restricted and limited himself to the Apprentice Realm.
Team Gerard quickly gathered itself, regrouping before they came at him
again, two maneuvering-oriented Martial Apprentices dashed out at him with
tremendous speeds, launching swift and short barrages of jabs.
Rui never let his inherently high toughness do the job for him. He cleanly
parried away every single strike with as little movement and effort as he
could, just barely applying the necessary force to ensure that they don't
connect with him properly. He considered constructing predictive models to
try and minimize the effort he needed to expend to take them down, but he
decided not to. That was far too overkill, they wouldn't even comprehend
what happened to them and would gain the misunderstanding that all Martial
Squires could replicate the feat. He did not want to give them an inaccurate
view of the Squire realm.
('These two aren't bad.') Rui mused. ('But their top speed is much greater than
their agility, creating unnecessarily high amounts of inertia, making it
difficult for them to decelerate and reach zero. They're fast at their peak but
they're not quick to switch.')
They were almost like trains. Bullet trains had a very high top speed, but
these massive transportation vehicles took their time to reach their top speed
and to get back to zero from top speed. Of course, this could be due to their
Martial Art being highly centered around speed, but that didn't necessarily
mean everything had to be sacrificed to obtain speed at all costs, everything
was needed to create a viable Martial Artist.
He had already identified numerous shortcomings and flaws
WHOOSH
He avoided a powerful blow from one of the Martial Apprentices, crouching.

The powerful kick blasted across empty air.
CLASP
Rui caught his leg, swinging him down to the ground.
BAM!
The man grimaced.
('This is the second time you're launching an attack off the ground.') Rui
smiled behind his mask, amused. ('Don't take your feet off the ground so
often if you're helpless midair.')
He sensed a powerful wind projectile being launched at him from behind.
('Oh?') Rui raised an eyebrow. As it lashed out toward Rui, he simply

watched as it arrived.
STEP
He jumped, landing on the wind!

The other Martial Apprentices gaped as Rui rode the wind!
He even balanced upon it like he was surfing a wave, which he effectively

was.
"Woah" He landed on the ground once the energy of the attack fizzled out.
"That was fun."
He turned to face Gerard who had launched the powerful attack, nodding in
approval. ('He waited for me to deal with the maneuvering-oriented Martial
Apprentice who launched an airborne attack so that he wouldn't hurt them,
yet the attack was launched before he was out of the way, meaning he
predicted I would deal with him quick enough.')
This showed that Gerard had a respectable degree of foresight, something

none of the other Martial Apprentices had demonstrated thus far.
('But you were too presumptuous.') Rui disapproved, as he casually evaded a

few more attacks from those around him. ('If I chose to dodge instead of slam
him to the ground, your attack would have hit him instead, inflicting critical
damage.')
He returned his attention to the remaining Martial Apprentices.
There were four of them who had tried to dogpile him with attacks again, yet
this time they were a bit more clever about it.
CLASP
Two Martial Apprentices grabbed him in mirror body holds, from behind
while the two offense-oriented Martial Apprentices threw their most powerful
strikes straight toward his face.
WHOOSH
Rui evaded them ever so slightly as he bent forward.
BAM!
He chained that maneuver into an over-body flip, throwing the two Martial
Apprentices that tried to restrain him straight to the ground with a powerful
impact.
POW POW!
A lean roundhouse kick swept across their faces, striking them hard. The two
of them leaped back, grimacing. The Martial Apprentices took a moment to
re-position themselves.
('When he said he would be restraining himself to Apprentice-level output, I

thought it would be a difficult fight for both sides.') Gerard gritted his teeth.
('Since the reason why he's stronger than us; the power of a Martial Squire
would no longer be in play. But he's toying with us even though he's
outputting power and speed that is not too different from us.')
Gerard paid close attention to him as the battle resumed. ('What is it that
makes us different? Theoretically, all of us should be physically capable of
this level of power.')
Gerard studied all of Rui's movements carefully, ceasing his attack briefly.
He watched Rui dismantle all opposition while making it look entirely easy.
Every move he made seemed measured and planned, causing a cascade of
events that perfectly played well for him.
('He's using his power like a surgeon uses a scalpel.') Gerard realized. (Each
of his moves is precise and accurate. They're always at the right time and
place, ultimately, it's playing a much greater role than it does when we wield
that same power!')
Gerard had always thought he was a sophisticated and refined fighter, but
before the elegant brilliance of Rui, he felt like a caveman swinging around a
club trying to fight a fencer.
"I have a long way to go." He sighed.
Just this battle alone had given him a lot of inspiration and motivation. He
felt determination growing within him, the determination to win the
upcoming battle, and the determination to grow stronger after.
Chapter 517 Guidance
Of course, while he was motivated and determined to accomplish what Rui

was demonstrating, he did not realize it was futile. Martial Squire's brains
possessed a far greater degree of the same cognitive and mental
enhancements that Martial Apprentices possessed.
The reason Martial Apprentices were so strong with Apprentice-level

techniques was that Martial Apprentices were able to fight with a high degree
of efficiency, they were able to use all of the energy generated by the cells of
the human body extremely efficiently unlike normal humans, allowing them
to exhibit an extraordinary amount of output, much of which would otherwise
go to waste.
This was even more true for Martial Squires, who was able to exhibit a
degree of efficiency that far exceeded even that of Martial Apprentices. That
was one of the reasons Rui was able to school the Martial Apprentices even
though he didn't use the formidable power of the body of a Martial Squire. He
used his power with a degree of efficiency and effectivity that was physically
impossible for a Martial Apprentice.
('Still, he doesn't know that.') Rui mused. ('As long as he doesn't know that
and believes it is possible, then the motivation and determination to obtain
that power will drive him further down his Martial Path.')
Rui had no intention of correcting his ill-conceived notions, not as long as

they were beneficial to him. He simply proceeded to beat up not just team
Gerard, but also team Mina and team Cern for nearly half a day. At the end of
a long and extensive sparring session, all the Martial Apprentices collapsed to
the ground exhausted while Rui hummed to himself admiring the pleasant
weather and climate that was less common in the cold Kandrian Empire.
"How are you completely fine after fighting for that long? Is it some special
Squire-level stamina-oriented technique?" Gerard asked, panting.
"Martial Squires have inherently superior stamina." Rui sighed, wishing he

could take his mask off and enjoy the cool breeze. "No need for a technique."
"That's not possible! How can Martial Squires have superior stamina even
when they aren't employing any Squire-level techniques?" The man asked,
surprised. "Are Martial Squires even humans?"
Rui didn't respond to that, that came too close to the truth that he couldn't
really reveal and get away with. But it was an interesting question. He tried
not to think too much about it, but technically, he wasn't a human anymore.
At the very least, he wouldn't be classified as a homo sapien according to the
biological nomenclature that existed on Earth.
He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that. But regardless, he didn't have
any strong feelings about it. He looked human, he was able to function in
society as a normal human, he was human at heart and he was still able to
pursue his Martial Art and Martial Path.
It was a technicality that didn't truly change anything. It didn't even change
the fact that his children would be genetically human instead of whatever he
was. The evolution process was isolated from the reproduction system
because it was too harsh and ended up resulting in turning the subject sterile.
Thus, in order to retain one's reproductive capabilities, certain parts of the
reproduction system had to be excluded from the procedure. Doing so would
allow the Martial Squire to reproduce normal human beings.
This was another interesting avenue for thought that was interesting to
ponder.
Gerard sighed, drawing Rui's attention. "The more I learn about the strength
of a Martial Squire, the more I want to step into that Realm of power..."
Rui didn't even need to hear the rest to know where this was going. "So, you
want me to help you out with what it takes to become a Martial Squire,
correct?"
Gerard sheepishly nodded.
Rui sighed. "I cannot divulge anything about the actual breakthrough to the
Squire Realm, I am bound by oath. But I can divulge what it takes to become
qualified to undergo the breakthrough to the Squire Realm to some of you."
"Some of us?" Gerard frowned.
"Yes, the rest of you aren't nearly ready yet, learning about it will be harmful
to your progression to the higher Realm," Rui informed them.
"Who among us qualified and why?" Gerard asked with a hint of anxiety, he
would be disheartened if he wasn't qualified to learn even about what it took
to just be ready to attempt breaking through to a higher Realm.
"Generally, it's based on power and experience," Rui informed. "Among all
of you, I sense only nine individuals are qualified to learn about the
conditions to becoming a Squire candidate. The three team leaders, followed
by you, you, you, you, you, and you."
He pointed at the nine individuals.
"Then can you tell us?" Gerard.
"I expected that I would be asked this at some point, so I wrote it down on a
sheet of paper." Rui pulled out a folded piece of paper and flicked it to
Gerard. "Show it only to those who are qualified, but only after the battle, it
is best not to be distracted and underperform. You might end up costing
everybody the war."
Rui got up. "With that, we're done. Good luck to all of you, rejuvenate
yourselves, and prepare for the war."
"Thank you for your guidance." Gerard thanked him as they all bowed to his
retreating figure.
Rui had taken his time sparring and guiding them thoroughly. Part of it was
because he enjoyed the process, he had taken up missions where he boosted
the growth of Martial Apprentices by sparring with them regularly. Using the
predictive and adaptive evolution model to detect all the flaws and
shortcomings and then sparring with them in a manner that forced them to get
used to their opponent trying to exploit flaws and shortcomings for them to
learn how to compensate for them in the long run, was incredibly satisfying.
Besides, he had nothing else to do the entire day, so it was a good way to
while away time.
Chapter 518 For Home
The time had arrived.
Rui had spent the remaining quarter of the day in contemplation of what
Fushin Hunfer and his lackeys were hiding, but eventually, he stopped. He
had already inferred a lot of information through deductive and inductive
reasoning, but there was a limit to how much he could learn through that
route. The more he tried to deduce further, the less reliable and baseless his
conjectures would become. It was ultimately a wasteful mental exercise. He
could not conjure up new information out of thin air.
('I need to be careful though.') Rui sighed.
He had already concluded that whatever they were hiding was not malicious
against him, it was at most convenient exploitation that would aid in their
goal. Rui was quite certain that their conviction to reclaim their hometown
that had been colonized by the Britannian Empire was very real. He could
feel it in most of them to a strong degree, and it made sense.
These were all former soldiers that defended their fort and hometown, they
all had some family or the other that was currently being ruled by the
Britannian Battalion and exploited to provide value to the Britannian Empire.
One reason he wasn't too alarmed and paranoid was that he had relatively
high assurance regarding the magnitude of the matter. For example, it
certainly couldn't be something that would definitively get Rui killed or
defeated but would spare them all, that was inconceivable even if Rui
entertained wild possibilities.
Anything that was guaranteed to kill Rui would absolutely be guaranteed to

annihilate all of them, it would be foolish to put him and themselves in that
situation. Perhaps if it were done by the average person, Rui wouldn't put it
past then, but Fushin Hunfer was too shrewd to do something that foolish. At
most this was a calculated risk.
"Besides, this might actually turn out to be good, ironically," Rui chuckled.
There were certain possibilities that he had come up with that was actually
favorable to him. He wouldn't mind those possibilities coming true.
He whiled away his time considering these thoughts, even while he was in his
room, having dinner; food pills. Hours passed until the time was nigh.
"Squire Falken." A person called out to him from the outside. "It's soon time.
Please be on standby."
"Will do," Rui replied back.
He got up, heading out of the tent as he made his way to the core of the main
camp. He could feel the air growing tenser the closer he headed toward it.
The atmosphere was taut as everybody was stiff with nervousness and
determination.
Rui made his way to the camp headquarters.
"Squire Falken, it's time, we will dispatch in about half an hour once the very
final step is undertaken. You recall your position and all the details of the
plan, correct?" The old man asked with a respectful tone.
"Every word." Rui shortly replied.
Rui would be stationed at the vanguard of the army as they approached the
fort, as they had previously agreed.
"But I have another idea." Rui suddenly spouted.
Everybody paused as they looked at him nervously, last-minute changes were

rarely a good thing.
"The night is dark, I think I should sky-walk to the fort at a certain elevation
and attack from the sky when the Hlorn weapon is brought out. It gives me an
eagle-eyed view of the entire fort and allows me to know exactly when it is
brought out. I could even relay information to you if you need it. And it has a
better element of surprise and would increase the likelihood of the operation."
To his surprise, Fushin agreed with that course of action.
"If that is what you want, then that works too." He simply responded to Rui,
earning the surprise of everybody.
In reality, Rui did not care much about which approach he took. This was
simply a clever plan he had undertaken to gain more information from the
man. He wanted to see Fushin's reaction to a last-minute change in the plan.
If he objected hard to the plan even though the end result of the plan would
be the same, then Rui could be certain that whatever he was hiding had
something to do with the position he had given Rui in his strategy of
attacking the fort.
But the fact that he had no problem with Rui detaching far away from the
army and going his own way showed that it wasn't particularly important to
him where Rui was prior to the actual commencement of the assault.
Meaning whatever he was hiding didn't have anything to do with anything
before the actual conflict itself.
Of course, with how shrewd the old man was, there was a possibility that he
figured out Rui trying to gauge more information from him, meaning it was
entirely possible he had said that simply to throw Rui off.
"On second thoughts, I think I'll stick to the original plan," Rui commented.
"That works too."
Rui did not want to separate from the army because if he was with them,
anything bad that happened to him would also happen to all of them, by
sticking with him as tightly as he could for as long as he could, he was
binding his fate to theirs. If he was hit by a nuke, then they would also be hit
by a said nuke. There was almost no way he could exclusively become the
victim of something for the time period that they were all together.
Time passed and eventually, every single final preparation was made. The
entire camp had been neatly divided into their respective units and everybody
was exactly where they were, with everything they needed and knew
everything they needed to know.
"Zurtuns," Fushin addressed them, just before they were all about to be
dispatched. "Today is the day. Today is the day we reclaim our home and our
people. Today is the day we reclaim what they have taken from us! Today is
the day we win this war! FOR VICTORY!"
"FOR VICTORY!!!"
"FOR HOME!"
"FOR HOME!!!" The army echoed.

Chapter 519 Unsurprised
Very swiftly he pumped the morale and the energy of the army to a decent
degree. Soon enough, the order had been delivered and the army began
dispersing. The general himself would not be taking part in the operation, he
was far too old and losing him would likely be even more devastating than
losing some Martial Apprentices. In the time that Rui had spent in the camp,
it was very clear to see that Fushin played an important role in the Zurtun
Rebel group. He was the core, in many ways.
Rui turned, looking at the old man as they left. He felt a chill run down his
spine as he saw the man staring straight at him with a smile on his face. Rui
had to take a moment, breathing deeply to compose himself. He steeled his
heart as he forged on with the army. They were on foot because the horses
would draw too much attention, furthermore, they were wearing sound-
insulant footwear to reduce the amount of noise they made.
Rui's standard Martial Union uniform consisted of footwear that did the same
thing to a higher degree. They soon reached the mountain summit, where four
guards game into view. Yet before they could even process what was
happening.
POW POW POW POW
All four of them were killed by the Martial Apprentices that scouted ahead.
The scout squad was supposed to eliminate the guards that were posted along
the way to the fort. They did so just narrowly before the army came into their
field of vision so that they could quickly be replaced by rebels of the rebel
group who would pass off as the guards, even wearing the necessary armour
and other attire.
The army quickly delved into the forest, keeping away from the standard path
that led straight to the fort gates. They would easily be detected, they wanted
the cover of the trees in the already dark night that would obfuscate their
approach for as long as possible, as long as they didn't make any mistakes.
This part of the operation was slow and rigorous and truly tested the
perseverance of the army. They would need to climb up a mountain carrying
all the gear that they were carrying without making too much noise. They
couldn't collectively pant or stomp their feet, they needed to be careful and
soft while still exerting themselves significantly.
Hours passed, Rui casually strolled up while the men around him were doing
their best to maintain their pace and ensure they didn't generate any noise.
They breathed hard, trying to mitigate their exhaustion and fatigue.
Rui turned his gaze forward as he realized they were close to the boundary of
inevitable detection. The scout Martial Apprentices signaled as much to the
army, causing them to all stop as they passed on the signal to the people
behind them in a wave until every last man knew it was time.
They all crouched, slowly pulling out a rejuvenation potion out of their
pouches and inhaling it.
They each consumed rejuvenation potions, invigorating themselves. If they

attacked in their current state, they would do so poorly that they would all die
very quickly. Thus, the plan was to complete energize them so that they were
all in peak condition. Even the Martial Apprentices consumed some potions.
The only one who didn't bother was Rui. Slowly climbing up a portion of the
way up a small mountain was a walk in the park for a Martial Squire.
Five minutes later, every single last soldier in the rebel army had consumed a
potion.
The unit captains signaled the charge phase, and soon the entire army
accelerated towards the fort that was clearly visible in the distance.
Rui sensed turmoil in the fort as seismic radiation originating from the fort
had increased exponentially.
('They know and they're making haste.') Rui noted as he sharpened his senses,
preparing for anything. Whatever the old man was hiding, would most likely
be revealed within a short period of time. He kept an eye across all directions
with his senses as they charged towards the fort.
The long-range units soon began firing explosive arrows towards the fort
once they reached the necessary range. However, arrows rained back on them
as well.
"SHIELDS!" The captains yelled.
Soon each soldier raised their shield above them as they continued running.
They managed to mostly get away unscathed but there were some who had
been hit by the small explosions in unshielded areas, causing them to fall.
Rui ignored the arrows entirely as he paid attention to the fort with Seismic
Mapping, gaining reasonably sharp view of what was going on inside.
('There it is.') Rui concluded. As both Seismic Mapping and Primordial

Instinct told him about the weapon. Rui could feel the sheer amount of
energy packed in the cannon. If he got hit by a round from that, he would not
get away unscathed or with minor wounds. If not for its significant strategic
inconvenience in these particular circumstances, they would have gotten utter
annihilated by the weapon in their previous encounters. It had a strong
Squire-level sense of threat in his mind, his subconscious sense of danger
evaluated it as a threat.
"PENETRATION SQUAD GO!" The captain yelled once they reached the
fort walls.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The offensive Martial Apprentices immediately fired away attacks rapidly

with flawless coordination as they together made huge a huge crater that only
grew bigger by the second.
Rui focused on his target, which was making its way to the fort wall.
('Now!') Rui shot up, launching himself above the wall in an instant as he
flew a great distance inside, straight towards the canon.
Yet just before he reached it, he froze, before leaping away.
BOOM!!
A massive crater formed where he had been standing just prior.
Time slowed down profusely as Rui's senses were in overdrive as his

awareness hit unprecedented peaks, trying to comprehend the situation he
was in.
Yet, the answer was self-evident.
Rui could feel it in his bones.
At the center of the crater was a single silhouette behind the dust.
STEP STEP STEP
The figure walked out nonchalantly despite time being almost frozen in Rui's
perception. Whoever this was, it was someone who existed in the same realm
of cognition as Rui himself.
And the inevitable soon followed, confirming what he already knew with
sheer instinct.
A squire-level aura descended upon the entire area as the very air froze,
growing taut. The war itself creaked to a halt as the aura bathed the
battlefield, inspiring fear in all those it graced.
Not a single person was unsurprised.

Chapter 520 Clash
The atmosphere was perilous. Before such oppressive pressure, even Martial
Apprentices were scared stiff.
A second Squire-level aura bathed the battlefield as Rui stripped away his
mind mask. The two Martial Squires made their presence known. The fate of
the battle rested upon the conclusion of the battle between them. Even if the
human and the Martial Apprentice forces of one side won, if the Martial
Squire of the opposing side lost, then they would still lose. They could not
defeat a Martial Squire who had mastered his power.
The dust cleared as the two Martial Squires got a close look at each other.
The man who stood at a distance from Rui was a surprisingly young man,
perhaps several years older than Rui. Rui could sense that he was similar to
himself, someone who had somewhat recently begun his journey in the
Squire Realm. At the very least he wasn't as strong as someone like Squire
Kyrie who had mopped the floor with Rui even after he became a Martial
Squire.
It was not going to be an easy battle if Rui chose to fight it in the first place.
"Heh..." Rui grinned at the sight of the man.
Rui had already suspected this scenario was a possibility. He didn't how it
was possible. How did the Martial Union not know this ahead of time? This
was almost certainly something that the old general knew, clearly. This was
what he was hiding, there was no doubt about that in Rui's mind.
He didn't know how or why this happened, but frankly, he cared even less.
This was one of the possibilities he had suspected, but it was also one he
wished occurred rather than hoping against. Why had he been yearning to
undertake higher-grade missions? It was all so that he could fight full-fledged
Squire-level threats!
Now that he had been prematurely blessed with the opportunity to fulfill his
wish, he was not going to let it go. This was very evident in the frightening
bloodlust in his aura that drove chills down the spines of all those who
experienced it.
Rui had no intention of running away. He was going to fight and defeat that
Martial Squire, no matter what!
The two Martial Squires didn't even bother exchanging words with each
other. They had already communicated everything worth communicating.
All that was left was the battle.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Every soul was still.
Something had to give.
And something did.
BOOM!!!
The very ground beneath them crumbled as the two Martial Squires pushed at
it, propelling forward. The very atmosphere recoiled in terror as their every
movement generated enormous wind currents that blew everybody away.
BAM!
The two collided fists, causing a devastating shockwave to emerge from their
clash. It expanded outwards, launching humans into the air. Only the Martial
Apprentices were unperturbed by the force.
"RARGH!" The Martial Squire threw a heavy attack toward Rui, aiming for
his face.
WHOOSH
Rui ducked as he launched a swift and sharp straight kick with his right leg,
aiming straight for the jaw of his Martial Squire.
POW!
The attack connected, much to Rui's surprise. Yet what surprised him, even
more, is that he shook it off relatively easily despite flying high into the air.
He didn't seem particularly shaken or damaged at all. There wasn't the
slightest bruise on his jaw despite eating a kick to it head-on.
WHOOSH
Rui took to the air and launched himself after the man.
POW POW POW
The man didn't even bother defending himself as he simply took Rui's strikes
head-on. Rui frowned, confused, it was a bizarre sensation. Rui was going his
best to inflict as much damage on his opponent as possible, it felt distinctly
ineffective. As though the impact of his strike were being muffled in some
strange way.
This was especially hard to comprehend when he was constantly using

Reverberating Lance to permeate the damage as deep as possible. It was a
powerful technique that increased the lethality of his strikes significantly, yet
for some reason, even this technique didn't do too much to him.
POW!
Rui drove his fist into his opponent's abdomen, trying to burrow it as deep as
he could.
BOING
('Hm.') Rui knitted his eyebrows as he stepped away from his opponent,
momentarily leaving them at an impasse. ('What was that?')
He felt as though he had hit a bouncy beach ball, it was a bizarre sensation.
('His skin and flesh...') Rui realized with wide eyes. ('They're like extremely
elastic rubber!')
He clearly recognized that there was something off about the man's body
based on the sensation that the man's skin and flesh gave him. He was
cognizant enough to realize that while he was indeed using a Squire-level
technique that contributed to his defense, it was not the cause for the
strangeness of his skin and flesh.
('It must be a feature of his Martial body.') Rui realized.
The Martial Union had developed many evolution procedures that gave the
body many different and strange features. The only reason Rui didn't
experience any of them in the discovery of his Martial Body was that he was
an all-rounder and thus had undergone an evolution process that gave his
body general features.
However, it was clear that this was not the case for the young man. Not only
had he gained highly elastic flesh, but he also had a technique that allowed
him to maximize that feature of his Martial body. This likely meant that there
was enormous compatibility between his defensive technique and his
physique. This was something Rui still lacked at this point, and the difference
showed. Even when he combined Outer Convergence and Reverberating
Lance, he was unable to inflict almost any damage whatsoever on his
opponent!
('This is going to be a really rough battle.') Rui sighed inwardly as the two
Martial Squires circled each other.
Yet, despite that, he grinned. Despite the difficulty of the challenge before
him, he could only feel excitement and enthusiasm.
Chapter 521 Engage
It was incredible that even his most powerful strikes were almost entirely
ineffective against the Martial Squire's defensive prowess. Rui put all the
effort and power into trying to damage his opponent, yet they all were almost
entirely in vain as the man before him was entirely unharmed.
('This is the power of compatibility.') Rui sighed with a hint of envy, even as
the two Martial Squires shuffled around each other.
Frankly, the Martial Squire before him did not strike Rui as a particularly
powerful Martial Squire in the grand scheme of things. Rui broke through at
an age that was uncharacteristically young, far below average. The Squire
before him was just a few years older at most, thus it was unlikely that he had
much experience in the Squire Realm, the fact that he was assigned to
defending a very secure fort that did not have any Squire-level threats against
it prior also likely meant that this Martial Squire was quite low on the totem
pole.
The fact that he was still able to make a fool out of Rui's striking prowess
showed that the power of compatibility was not something that could be
underestimated. A Martial Artist with grade five techniques that they were
extremely compatible with was probably much stronger than a Martial Artist
with grade seven techniques that they were not much compatible with.
This added a whole new variable that was not prominent when he was a
Martial Apprentice. Rui had received his first reality check upon discovering
just how much compatibility mattered in the higher Realms.
('I'll have to ponder the matter deeply later on.') Rui sighed. ('For now, let's
win.')
Despite the vain attempts at trying to pummel his way to victory, Rui was not
intimidated. He had steadily been gathering as much data on the man as he
could from the moment he laid eyes on him. That data was deposited into his
Mind Palace, as he swiftly processed them through the systems of the VOID
algorithm.
He had already come up with a partial prediction model based on many

subconscious patterns in the movements of his opponent.
Less than a single second had passed since their last exchange, however, in
the perception of time of the Martial Squires, it had been several minutes
since their last exchange.
Evidently, his opponent lost patience with Rui, as he charged forward

aggressively despite clearly being a defensive Martial Artists.
"RARGH!" He threw a powerful left hook at Rui.
WHOOSH
Rui seamlessly avoided it as he launched a swift elbow to the man's groin.
"ARGH!"
('You have a pattern of overcommitting every time you land a blow.') Rui
mused.
This was a pattern he had identified with the predictive model and had
correctly chosen the right response, to inflict as much damage as he could on
his opponent.
It was evident that the man's testicles were not nearly as invincible as the rest
o the body given how much he appeared to be in pain.
POW POW POW!
Rui bludgeoned him with more strikes as he collected more data on the man,
trying to compute a way to take him down. His foremost means of offense
had already been shown to be useless, he could not take them down the way
he normally would strive to.
WHOOSH
Rui swiveled out of his path as he attacked several more times, taking his
time. The battle between them was reaching a bit of an impasse since neither
side could effectively damage the other for different reasons. Rui because he
couldn't damage him meaningfully with his strikes, and his opponent because
Rui's evasive maneuvering was too effective thanks to a combination of the
VOID algorithm and Primordial Instinct. The accelerated autophagy also
boosted his speed and agility to a certain degree.
Rui thought he could take his time to methodically and perfectly take him
down in a manner that completely overwhelmed him and minimized the
probability of his own defeat. It was exciting to finally exercise all of his
capabilities against a worthy opponent.
Yet all of that changed when the Martial Squire snorted, before suddenly
plummeting down back to the fort where the fierce battle between the two
armies had commenced.
('Well shit, turns out he isn't a moron!') Rui cursed as he accelerated

downwards at top speed.
It turns out his opponent wasn't a fool. He wasn't going to waste all of his
energy pointlessly flailing around when it was entirely clear that Rui's
evasive maneuvering was too impressive for him to overcome. The man had
managed to remember that his duty was to protect the fort and the Britannian
Battalion, not chase after an elusive Martial Squire who drew him away from
his post.
Rui could not let him return to his position. He would immediately begin
hunting the biggest threats of the rebel army; the Martial Apprentices. Even if
Rui could easily evade him, they didn't stand a chance. Rui even felt a tinge
of fury at the thought of Vemy dying at his hands due to Rui's negligence.
('This isn't going to happen. Not on my watch!') He accelerated at top speed

plummeting downwards at a speed that far exceeded his opponent.
BAM!!
He managed a tremendous spinning kick fueled by his momentum that

pushed him away from his original direction.
Yet the man had already realized that this was the only productive way to go
about this. If Rui didn't let him go, then Rui would be forced to engage with
him, and if Rui did let him then he would reign destruction on the Rebel
army. If Rui decided to attack the fort, then he would surely defend against
the attack. Regardless of which of these happened, it was better than flailing
around and trying to get a hit in on Rui.
The two began engaging in a furious back and forth as Rui intercepted every
single attempt of his opponent to return back to the fort. Loud clashes could
be heard on the ground as two figures clashed against each other in the sky.
Chapter 522 Strange
POW POW POW
The two of them clashed against each other midair, yet the directions they
were facing were strange. The Britannian Martial Squire was lashing
downwards towards the fort while Rui was facing him upwards in the exact
opposite direction, with his back against the fort. The two of them slammed
against each other, exchanging strikes. This was a particularly pleasant
development to the Britannian Martial Squire since it meant that Rui could no
longer evade him since he needed to clash with his opponent to prevent him
from joining the battleground down below.
His opponent grinned, recognizing the benefits of this arrangement. He had

finally managed to overcome the difficulty of landing a blow on Rui.
Yet, his smile disappeared very fast.
BOOM!!!
A tremendous impact blasted against him as they clashed with each other.
Rui's elbow dug incredibly deep into his body.
"ACK!" The man grimaced in pain as he lumbered backward, pain and shock
flashing across his face. He didn't understand, how did Rui overcome his
tremendous defenses. He lashed downward again, preparing a strike as Rui
intercepted him.
BAM!!!
His entire body trembled as the impact reverberated across him, causing him
waves of pain across his body.
BANG!!
THWACK!!!
BOOM!!!
After the fifth exchange, Rui finally managed to drill past his stubborn
mindset, causing him to stop.
"Hmph." Rui snorted. ('You really thought it would be that easy to out-
strategize me?')
Rui quickly turned around the tables as he conjured up a way to hurt his
opponent despite his solid defenses. Earlier, Rui had used all of his power to
try and inflict as much damage on his opponent as he could, yet he was too
weak to do so.
But, what if the impacts of his strikes were powered by not just one Martial
Squire but two of them?
Both of them generated a significant amount of momentum every time they

charged each for a strike. Rui simply placed and timed his attacks such that
the impact would be empowered by both his own power as well as that of his
opponent.
His opponent was effectively running headfirst into a punch with all his
power each time, causing himself damage alongside the inherent power of the
punch.
Of course, this required perfect timing and placement from Rui. He needed to
ensure that the vectors of their bullrushes were perfectly aligned with the
vector of his own attack to maximize the impact of the strike landing on his
opponent.
Ordinarily, this was an extremely difficult task, especially in three-

dimensional combat, a form of combat that Rui had almost zero experience
with!
To perform the necessary calculations within the span of milliseconds to

achieve the correct timing and placement of his movements in aerial combat
was something that could generally only be accomplished with experience.
Or much more rarely; brilliance.
Rui rushed to launch another attack, yet even before he could reach his
opponent, Primordial Instinct warned him of an attack, much to his
confusion.
BAM!!
Rui grimaced in pain and shock as he beheld his opponent's arm stretching far
beyond its limits. He quickly centered himself as he took note of what was
happening. This wasn't the first time he had seen such an attack. He had run
into it once in the preliminary contest of the Martial Academy more than two
years ago.
It turned out his opponent was holding back such a trump card!
('Why didn't he use this earlier?') Rui wondered, suddenly his eyes widened
as he saw something that shocked him. His opponent launched several more
whip attacks, yet this time Rui was more prepared.
Rui watched in amazement as he made a shocking discovery.
('It's not just his skin and flesh that are stretching, his bones are stretching
too!') Rui gasped. ('His entire body is elastic in nature.')
Rui watched with amazement as he witnessed the most bizarre Martial body
that he had ever come across at this point. To think it was possible to evolve
the body of the human body in such a bizarre direction, Rui's worldview of
what was possible had broadened in light of what he had just come across.
His opponent on the other hand was infuriated. He seemed especially angry
that Rui had managed to thrash his defenses to such a degree. His arms and
legs turned into whips that lashed across the air within a certain range. His
striking range was ten meters, they whipped around forming an unassailable
sphere with a radius of twenty meters within which any unsuspecting
objecting would turn into a merciless target.
The whips managed to gain so much tangential velocity that the end of his
limbs would have been blurringly fast even for a Martial Squire. The sheer
wind currents all of his whips created were tremendous, he was affecting the
environmental parameters of the local atmosphere with all of his movements!
Yet despite all of that, Rui grinned.
WHOOSH
He dove towards him as he cleanly evaded all the whips, much to his
opponent's shock. Thanks to his enhanced cognition due to the Mindmirror
brain as well as Primordial Instinct and the increasingly growing predictive
model on his whips, Rui accomplished a feat that should have been beyond a
Martial Squire of his power and inexperience. He wasn't able to avoid all of
them, but even the ones that did strike him were adequately defended against,
he didn't get away unscathed, but the damage was well within tolerable
limits.
He rushed towards the martial Squire's body, doing everything he could to get
close.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Rui grimaced as powerful whips struck him in the gap. But-
('I've got you now.') he latched onto the man's body, wrangling him in the
sky. The whips were long-range attacks, they were ineffective in full-contact
combat! Rui forced himself to withstand attacks that he ordinarily could have
stepped away from in order to continue getting as close to his opponent as
possible
The man's limbs returned to normal as the two of them tumbled across the air
together.
Chapter 523 Rough
CLASP
Rui managed to get hold of his opponent from the back. The two were
flailing around in the air as Rui desperately tried to get a chokehold on his
opponent. His opponent, on the other hand, recognized the gravity of the
situation.
His rubbery physique and corresponding defensive techniques were only

useful against striking-based attacks and other collisions. They were not
useful against strangling-based attacks. Furthermore, at this range, his whip
attacks were also not able to serve as a viable defense. He realized that Rui
had purposely endured raw damage from his attacks that he normally would
have dodged in order to ensure that he would not have to deter from his path.
Yet his panic set in only once Rui successfully maneuvered behind him and
managed to latch his arms around his opponent's neck and head. Rui gritted
his teeth as he exerted a tremendous amount of force on his opponent with
Outer Convergence. His left arm was wrapped around his opponent's neck
while his right arm pushed down on his opponent's head. He squeezed as
though his life depended on it.
His opponent struggled like a madman. He turned away, facing Rui who was
on his back to the ground, and charged straight downwards. The two of them
were fighting in what was effectively in the troposphere, several kilometers
above the ground. His opponent continuously used Sky Walking to push the
both of them increasingly faster straight downwards.
('Shit, this is going to be rough.') Rui gritted his teeth.
Considering the altitude that they were at, the impact, when they hit the
ground, would be tremendous!
('Furthermore, I'm going to be the one to take all the damage!')
His opponent was highly resistant to collisions. Even if he crashed into the
ground plummeting downwards at top speed from the clouds, he would most
likely be fine enough. Especially since Rui would be the one hitting the
ground and serving as a cushion for his opponent since he was the one facing
the ground with his opponent above him.
('Just faint already!') Rui urged.
Unfortunately, things weren't that easy. The normal human body could
maintain consciousness for several seconds to minutes depending on how
perfectly executed the chokehold was. This was even longer for a Martial
Squire thanks to their evolved constitution. Meaning Rui was going to have
to hold him for quite some time in real-time.
Furthermore, Martial Squires perceived time to be flowing much slower

thanks to their superhuman cognition and speed, they were effectively
slowing down time from their perspective. One second was a few minutes.
Meaning, Rui would have to hold out for a long time from both of their
perspective of time!
Rui gritted his teeth as he prepared Inner Divergence for the incoming
impact. They were just a few seconds from crashing into the ground.
BOOM!!!
RUMBLE
The very earth beneath them shook as a crater of unparalleled proportions

was formed from the impact. The sheer energy in the collision was so great
that a minor Richter-one Earthquake reverberated through the ground into the
forest, disrupting the natural wildlife that existed in the environment.
"ARGH!" Rui grimaced as he gritted his teeth, never once easing up on his
grip. The moment he let go, all of his progress would be undone while the
damage his opponent exerted would not be going anywhere for a while. Even
though Rui had a respectable healing factor, the damage would very likely be
just enough to turn the tables around.
His opponent continued thrashing on the ground, his arms stretched back as
he did everything he could. He ripped at Rui's hair, clawed at his skin, and
even tried gauging his eyes. Yet Rui mitigated all of his attempts as best as he
could while still maintaining a tremendously strong hold on his opponent.
Both Martial Squires grew extremely desperate as the critical decisive point
of the match was soon going to arrive. If his opponent could break free of the
stranglehold, then Rui could most likely forget about winning. Although Rui
was still confident of surviving, he will likely have lost too much to be able
to guarantee to win against his opponent, who was almost entirely unharmed,
unlikely Rui.
The Zurtun Rebel Group was as good as dead if that happened, the Martial
Squire would return once Rui would inevitably be forced to retreat. He could
clearly imagine the onslaught that would occur. The Martial Squire would
have zero difficulties whatsoever in annihilating the Zurtun Rebel army. Rui
would also face the blemish of having failed his first Squire-level mission,
which would break any hopes of having a perfect record in the Squire Realm.
Yet, even as these thoughts faintly passed away, he didn't immediately notice
the increasingly weakening resistance from his opponent. His attempts to pull
Rui's arm away grew softer, and his attempts to inflict upon Rui as much
damage as he could grew feebler.
Until they finally ceased.
THUD
His limbs collapsed as his body buckled and fell loose, weight down on Rui's
body. Yet Rui didn't let go, he didn't dare to even take that risk. He could
sense that his heart was still beating, he had merely lost consciousness
because his brain finally shut down due to the lack of supply of oxygen.
It was nearly two minutes later that even his heart decided to call it a day and
stopped beating as well. Only then did Rui have the certainty of his victory,
letting him go.
"Huff... Huff... Huff..." He panted heavily as he evaluated his own condition.
He was hemorrhaging somewhere inside, having coughed up blood. He had

also probably broken a rib in that earlier collision that produced a deep crater
a dozen meters wide. Even his body could not take such a devastating impact
without significant damage.
Rui quickly consumed a potion as he sighed under the tremendous relief that
spread through his body. It was a rough battle, yet he couldn't help but feel a
great sense of accomplishment after having won it.
Chapter 524 Clarity
His first genuine battle in the Squire Realm.
His first victory in the Squire Realm.
His spar against Squire Kyrie did not even remotely count as a proper battle,
that was so elementary that Kyrie had even withheld from sky-walking in
combat which would have allowed her to dominate Rui with her superior
experience. She held back to allow Rui to express and test himself against her
and gain a better understanding of what he had and what he was missing
before mopping the floor with him.
The training spars against his two Squire habilitators were even more
meaningless. He had still been mastering his power back then and hadn't
mastered a single technique at that point.
He felt like he had finally gotten a good grasp of what he could achieve in
combat and what he couldn't. He was no longer as dominating in combat as
he used to be in the Apprentice Realm. Of course, he had grown far stronger
than when he was a Martial Apprentice, but his competition had grown even
fiercer.
This battle had shown him he shouldn't be as satisfied with himself as he was.
He had run into an opponent in the same age group as him who possessed a
defense that made a fool of his offensive techniques and possessed combat
speed with his whip techniques that also significantly surpassed that of Rui.
All of this came with the power of synergy and compatibility. His Martial
body and techniques must have been born for each other. Or at the very least,
that was the impression that Rui got.
Ultimately, Rui did manage to win. But this victory cleared his head of the
fog that had recently been occupying his vision. Now that he had successfully
become a Martial Squire, he lacked clarity on the path forward. Before
breaking through to the Squire Realm, he had extremely concrete and clear
goals that made it exceedingly simple to know what he ought to do, he had
lost some of that when he became a Martial Squire.
Of course, he still had very long-term goals such as fixing the incompatibility
of the VOID algorithm with the Martial Art of this world. But that was
exactly that; a long-term goal, something that may very well take his entire
life to fix considering how difficult it was. It was a goal whose path to
achieving was not very clear, at this point in time.
Another long-term goal was to become a Martial Senior. This was yet another
goal that he naturally looked at now that he successfully became a Martial
Squire, but again, the path to Martial Senior was not something that was very
clear to him. He hadn't even met one thus far.
But now that he actually fought against another Marital Squire, he could see
one path forward.
"To align my Martial Art with myself, and against everything else."
It sounded like a meaningless statement, but it succinctly encompassed the

truth. He needed to harness the power of synergy between Martial Art and
Martial Body to move forward, while also increasing the synergy of the
VOID algorithm against all opponents. He decided he was going to dedicate
his all to these two goals and go all out into accomplishing them.
These were two conditions he could be certain would help in progressing his
Martial Art to a higher level.
When he opened his eyes, they were no longer searching. They were fixated
on the future, and on his goals. His approach to training and growth would
have to fundamentally change from when he was a Martial Apprentice.
"Huff..." He sighed, getting up as he stretched his body, glancing at that of

his opponent.
('You were strong.') Rui thought to himself sincerely. ('Thank you for what
you have given me. Sorry, but I won't be able to give your body a burial. I'm
sure the Martial Union will be pleased to obtain your body and gauge its
secrets.')
It was possible that the Kandrian Martial Union would be able to obtain
intelligence on the Britannian Empire from the objects that he was carrying,
as well as his Martial Body. After all, the nations did not necessarily have
identical evolution processes. His body would serve as a valuable avenue for
research for the Martial Union.
('But first, I need to finish my mission.')
Rui glanced over to the right where Mt Zurtun was situated. Rui was grateful
that the battlefield was such an unmissable landmark because without it he
would have no clue where he was. They had migrated pretty far from the
battlefield by sky-walking.
Rui picked left the corpse at that location, they were in a rather remote
location in the forest and it was unlikely that anybody would take it. He did
take the liberty of covering it up with soil lest it is consumed by some
creature.
('Alright then, let's get back.') Rui pulled out his accounter to verify how
much time he had left for the mission.
"Huh???" He froze as he read a new message on his accounter.
[Your ongoing mission, mission code number HJN23SPR40053, has been

canceled by the client Fushin Hunfer. Please terminate your operation and
fulfill the relevant post-mission protocols.]
"But the Hlorn hasn't been destro-" His eyes widened as he finally realized
what was happening.
"That bastard..." Rui murmured. "His goal was for me to fight the Martial
Squire, not the weapon. The reason he canceled the mission must be because
the battle is going well."
His goal was never to destroy the weapon, he wanted to commandeer it and
make it his own! That was the only logical explanation for why he would
cancel the mission. The destruction of the weapon was now against his
interests.
"As for why he commissioned the mission in the first place. He must have
gotten the intelligence of a Martial Squire being deployed by the Britannian
Empire to reinforce Fort Zurtun extremely recently from some proprietary
source from within the fort itself, likely some secret spy that had managed to
squiggle into a place where they could learn classified intel and pass it on to
Fushin remotely." Rui realized.
Chapter 525 Bizarre
The spy, or whatever the source of the leak was, was probably a native of the
Zurtun town who probably managed to squiggle his way into a place where
he could learn important information and relay it back to Fushin.
This would explain why the Kandrian Martial Union did not possess any
intelligence on the Britannian Martial Squire that Rui ended up facing and
killing. While the Kandrian Martial Union no doubt had a powerful
intelligence department that had plenty of means of gathering information
with a gigantic network of intelligence sources over a large geographic area,
it probably didn't have access to more information about Fort Zurtun than
Fushin himself did due to his unique position and sources and intimate
familiarity with the fort.
As much as Rui wanted to, he couldn't fault the Martial Union too much here.
It was a bit unreasonable to expect them to know about a Martial Squire who
had covertly been deployed to the fort extremely recently. The Martial
royalty contract that Martial Artists signed with the Martial Union stated that
intelligence could not be guaranteed to be entirely accurate always. That was
not how the intelligence sector worked, and he was cognizant of that fact.
But frankly, he didn't feel as though he had been done wrong.
('If anything...') Rui grinned. ('This was the perfect set of events for me.')
He got to fight a Martial Squire well ahead of when he would normally have
gotten to do so had it been a normal grade three mission, after all.
Furthermore, he beat his opponent. This would effectively force the Martial
Union to concede what was already obvious that he was ready for missions of
a higher grade because of his qualifications, accelerating what would
otherwise have taken longer.
Everything was fine, except...
('I got outplayed by the old man.') Rui sighed, with a resigned expression. He
had mixed feelings on the issue. On one hand, the general's actions had
inadvertently done a lot of good for Rui, on the other hand, he got played.
Perhaps others would have been able to shake this off considering all the
benefits, but not Rui.
Perhaps that was a little vain of him, but Rui took pride in his mind and
intelligence. His mind was extraordinary, and his intelligence was easily in
the genius-level territory. That was why he felt affronted having been
outplayed by the old man in their little mind game that the two played against
each other. He did not like the idea of being outwitted. He was a sore loser
when it came to this.
Of course, they weren't exactly competing on a level field. The old man was
intelligent, no doubt, but more importantly, he was extremely experienced.
He had served a lifetime in the field of strategies and tactics in conflicts of all
sorts, according to his background. Rui was intelligent but had zero
meaningful experience in this field, he was effectively competing against the
old man's wit and vast experience with sheer deductive intelligence alone.
Furthermore, he was clearly at an information disadvantage, making it

difficult for him to not be exploited when he didn't even know that such a
thing was a possibility at all. Furthermore, he was constrained by the mission
rules and guidelines as well, since he was in the middle of a mission.
Reneging on an accepted mission for unjustifiable reasons was an ugly stain
on his record that would be publicly visible. Ensuring that didn't happen was
more important than trying to win a mind game against an old fox, even Rui
was rational enough to recognize that.
('My only consolation is that the Martial Union does not refund, and
canceling a mission without justification requires a fee, and also reduced the
trustworthiness of Fushin as a client, meaning missions will be more
expensive for him because of this.') Rui mused.
The Martial Union was cognizant of the loopholes that came with the ability
to cancel a mission at any time. Thus, several rules, conditions, and penalties
had been placed to discourage frivolous or malicious usage of the mission
cancellation facility.
('Anyways, putting that matter aside, I guess my business here is done.') Rui
sighed, as he grabbed a hold of the corpse of his opponent before skywalking
away. He had no intention of returning to Fort Zurtun now that the mission
had been canceled. He simply wished the rebels good luck in his heart.
He felt a little bad at the prospect of not seeing Vemy again but didn't have
any emotional connection to her. They were just strangers that spent the night
together. He wasn't going to delay his return to the Kandrian Empire to bid
her an awkward goodbye or delay his return to the Kandrian Empire to spend
another night with her. At most he could bid her and the Martial Apprentices
good luck on the battle and their Martial Paths.
('Maybe I should pay the old man a visit before I leave.') Rui pondered the
thought, before shaking his head. ('Nah, fuck it. I'm in a good mood, why
needlessly irk myself over the old man?')
He simply pedaled away into the sky with the corpse in his hand as he headed
back in the direction of the Kandrian Empire carrying the corpse with him.
He had already extracted a healing and rejuvenation potion from it, among
some other things.
('What a strange physiology.') Rui thought to himself as he could feel that his
body did not have the rigidity to structure that clearly came with having solid
bones and rigid flesh bound together by fascia, the connective tissue within
the body that ensured everything stayed in place.
This opened his eyes to the possibilities of other kinds of bizarre Martial
bodies. As time passed, he might come across similarly absurd things. He had
a feeling his reaction to these various Martial bodies was going to be no
different from his initial incredulous reactions to the many bizarre
Apprentice-level techniques he had come across in his life.

Chapter 526 Grade
"And you're saying as you headed to destroy the objective of the mission, you
were confronted with a hostile Martial Squire?"
"Yes, commissioner," Rui replied. "I straightforwardly headed for the target
of the mission because I wanted to get it over with, but unfortunately the
Martial Squire landed in front of me as I dashed towards it, blocking my path.
At that point, it had become evidently clear to me that I would not be able to
get away with a fight."
"I see. And prior to your victory over your opponent, your client canceled the
mission at some point in the middle of the combat."
"Yes." Rui nodded.
"I see." The man before him nodded simply. "It is all a rather unfortunate turn
of events, but you made the best of them. Not only did you defeat your very
first Martial Squire opponent in combat, but you also brought his body back
in a remarkable condition. Congratulations, Squire Quarrier, it appears your
tendency to overachieve has persisted."
Rui had long since returned to the Martial Union and handed over the body of
the Martial Squire to the Martial Union once he finished all the post-mission
protocols. However, he had been summoned for a meeting by the Martial
Union once they processed his report.
"Thank you," Rui replied simply. "Is there anything else that needs to be
discussed?"
"Just a few small matters." The commissioner smiled. "For one, the Martial
Union is quite pleased with what you have brought back. You made the right
choice, in exchange for your gift, we have decided to triple your commission
payments. As a token of gratitude as well as an apology for the inaccurate
difficulty evaluation of the mission."
Rui raised an eyebrow, that was not a light concession. It was more likely
that the Martial Union was trying to get rid of any negative impression he had
of them.
"I see," Rui replied with a brief smile. "I appreciate that."
"You're welcome. Another matter that we've wanted to inform you was that
your Martial Apprentice grade has been upgraded to grade four." The
commissioner informed him. "The Martial Union fully recognizes that any
concerns of your youth in the Squire Realm are unwarranted, you have
proven you are capable of undertaking a mission that poses a threat to even
Martial Squires like yourself. Congratulations, you are actually the quickest
Martial Squire to reach grade four after having broken through to the Squire
Realm."
Rui raised an eyebrow. It had been nine months since he broke through to the
Squire Realm and he had already reached grade four. That was quite fast all
things considered.
Rui shrugged. "I'm just progressing with my Martial Art."
"Yes, you're progressing a remarkably powerful high-grade Martial Art

remarkably quickly." The man noted, smiling.
Rui's eyes narrowed as he latched onto part of the statement. "High-grade

Martial Art?"
Martial Art had grades?
He was aware that Martial Artists had grades based on their power, but he
had never heard of Martial Art being graded.
"Yes, one of the highest we have ever seen." The commissioner replied.
"Martial Art are graded by their potency, which is defined as the strength that
Martial Art inherently possesses, outside of techniques."
"As in, the intrinsic strength that a Martial Art would possess if one were to
strip away its techniques, or equalize the technique with other Martial Art?"
Rui asked, curious.
"Correct." The man nodded. "It is an extraordinarily rare sight for a Martial
Art to possess the kind of power that yours does. It is almost unheard of for a
Martial Squire to be as strong as you currently are for the techniques that you
possess."
"I see..." Rui knitted his eyebrows as he pondered the matter. "Why have I
never heard about the concept before?"
"Martial Apprentices are generally too immature. Informing them about the
concepts of grades of Martial Art may influence them, especially negatively."
The commissioner explained. "Only once a Martial Apprentice accomplishes
Squire candidacy are they qualified to learn about the Martial Art grading
system. Even then, we don't bring it necessarily have to bring it up, it is not
important for the personal development of a Martial Artist, it is merely an
attribute that the Martial Union keeps a track of for the purpose of research
and development."
"How does the Martial Union evaluate how much inherent power a Martial
Art possesses? The only time that Martial Squires do not possess any
techniques is during the Squire habilitation phase." Rui noted. "Does the
martial Union compile empirical data on the combat prowess of a Martial
Artist during this phase and evaluates the Martial Art grade based on that? Or
does the Martial Union perform a comparison of the Martial Artist's combat
prowess relative to the predicted combat prowess based on the techniques
mastered?"
The man's eyebrows rose, he was evidently impressed. "You really are as
shrewd as they say. To answer your question, the Martial Union does both.
I'm surprised you hit the mark without any prompting."
"Mmm..." Rui nodded absentmindedly as he considered the matter. In reality,

it was a rather trivial matter to predict given his background in statistics.
"We have evaluated your Martial Art grade on the basis of the data obtained
during your Squire habilitation phase as well as your most recent mission.
Defeating a rising star Martial Squire of the Britannian Empire, who is older
than you and possesses more techniques not to mention a remarkable Martial
Art himself, is quite impressive."
"The Martial Union has identified him, has it?" Rui inquired.
"We have. The Martial Union keeps track of the Martial Artists of other
nations, especially the super-nations. The higher the Realm, the more
attention we dedicate. Your opponent was a distinguished scion of a family of
the Britannian Empire. His Martial Path was elastic dynamics, a Martial Art
that used elasticity in offensive but especially defensive measures. Certainly
not a trivial Martial Art."
"I see..." Rui digested that information as he gave it some more thought.
"The Martial Union is interested in seeing you develop your Martial Art for
more than one reason, Squire, we hope you elevate your Martial Art as high
as possible."
Chapter 527 Offer
"I see. Well, the Martial Union doesn't have anything to worry about." Rui
told the commissioner. "Almost everything I do, I do to progress my Martial
Art. I am extremely motivated and recently have gained clarity on how I want
to proceed with that."
"That is great to hear, Squire Quarrier." The man nodded. "The Martial Art
has a vested interest in your Martial Art for more than just strengthening the
Martial Union with another Martial Artist. One of our interests is actually
analyzing what makes your Martial Art and opening up the opportunity for
the next generation of Martial Artists to obtain a piece of that power in the
form of techniques."
Rui's eyebrows rose at the commissioner's statement. "Hmmm... I don't know

how I feel about that."
"Of course, the Martial Union never coerces its Martial Artists to divulge
anything." The commissioner chuckled. "We cannot claim to be a haven for
Martial Artists if we're constantly attempting to rob a Martial Artist of their
Martial Art. The Martial Union offers much in return for valuable
contributions. These include unpublicized techniques, resources, appropriate
aid and advice from Martial Artists much stronger and elder than yourself,
power and influence."
"Hm..." Rui considered the matter, before shaking his head. "I do not like
relying on others unless I genuinely have an absolute necessity to.
Unfortunately, I'm not particularly attracted to what the Martial Union offers
in return at this point in time. Techniques would have been an attractive offer
had I been a Martial Apprentice, but as a Martial Squire I have recently
resolved to pursue a path where I develop my Martial Art with individuality
to progress it and make it stronger through the intrinsic synergy that comes
with techniques customized for myself."
Rui wasn't particularly interested much in the other things that the
commissioner offered in return. Power and influence? He had never given a
damn about such things, in this life or his previous one. As long as he had the
power to do what he wanted, he didn't care. Resources were also not too
attractive, although they could be useless. Rui didn't have a burning need or
desire to acquire any particular kind of resource.
One thing that did somewhat interest him was the aid from elder Martial
Artists. That was certainly valuable and useful, but not necessary. Ultimately
Rui was an extremely pure Martial Artist. He pursued Martial Art truly and
purely for his love of Martial Art. Much to his surprise, this wasn't a
particularly common sentiment based on his experience as a Martial Artist
among other Martial Artists. When he first joined the Martial Academy, he
had a very pure and idealistic image of Martial Artists, one where Martial
Artists immersed themselves in their Martial Art purely and entirely out of
love for it.
But reality had shown him otherwise. Most Martial Artists were far from
purists like himself. Kane pursued Martial Art to be free of his shackles with
his own power. Fae pursued Martial Art for the prestige that it brought her
Martial Family. Even people like Nel pursued Martial Art out of their love for
fighting and battle, rather than his Martial Art itself. Fiona was just
mundanely going with the flow that came with being a prodigious genius.
Every Martial Artists he had come across had motivations and goals outside
Martial Art.
This was a little disappointing, but it was realistic. The kind of Martial Artists
he had seen in fiction was just that; fiction. In reality, Martial Art was simply
power. That too truly individualistic and personal power held by Martial Art
that originated from themselves. People chased after power, and thus people
chased after Martial Art and the many other things it brought to those who
succeeded in pursuing it to a certain extent.
"An admirable resolution." the commissioner smiled. "You have correctly

identified an important element in the progression of one's Martial Art. Still,
the Martial Union is also most certainly aware of this. There are ways in
which we can aid you in the personal development of your Martial Art."
"Perhaps," Rui admitted. "However, as I said, I do not like developing a

reliance on others. Perhaps if I come across a barrier that is difficult to
surmount, I may consider this option, but I certainly do not need to rely on
others when it comes to progressing my Martial Art otherwise."
He doubted the degree to which the Martial Union could aid him in the
further development of the VOID algorithm. It would be nearly impossible
for the organization to aid him with something they do not understand. When
it came to developing individualized techniques, it was almost even more
fruitless. If he relied too much on others to develop his own techniques, then
could they truly be said to from him? Accepting too much aid was also
counterproductive in his opinion.
Of course, that didn't mean any and all aid or cooperation was bad. If there
was a time when he wanted more reliable data or measurements while
developing a technique, there was no harm in accepting the help of the
Martial Union to perform the measurements and convey the data to him. It
would be purely acting in an assistant role, and nothing more.
However, these services could be procured by Martial Squires in exchange

for Martial credits, he did not need to sell the VOID algorithm to obtain such
services.
The Martial commissioner smiled, as though approving Rui's statement. "We

understand, Squire Quarrier. Please feel free to contact us if you're interested
in engaging in an exchange with us. We always welcome contributions and
innovations."
"Will do." Rui nodded. "I fully appreciate the offer of the Martial Union and
am grateful for the privilege. The reason I reject it today is due to who I am
as a Martial Artist. That being said, if there ever comes a day when I do
decide to accept your offer, I will let the Union know immediately."
"We appreciate your sincerity, Squire Quarrier." The commissioner smiled.

Chapter 528 Joy
"For an important conversation, it sure felt trivial," Rui muttered as he headed

back home.
After the revelations and clarity that he had obtained from his last mission, he
no longer felt a burning drive to immediately jump into another mission, even
if it was a grade-four mission that would actually pose some danger to him.
Of course, he would definitely dive into a grade four mission in due time, he
had just finished speedrunning four missions back-to-back, and he was
willing to slow down a bit and process his gains.
For now, he was focused on the conversation he had just had with a
commissioner from the Martial Union.
('They were quite friendly even when I rejected them straightforwardly. He

didn't even try to apply pressure on me.') Rui frowned.
Was that truly how the Martial Union operated?
Rui had the feeling that part of why he was receiving such good treatment
was because the Martial Union did not want him to develop even a hint of a
bad or hostile impression of them. That would explain why the commissioner
was remarkably polite and pleasant. Even the compensation of tripling his
reward as a token of gratitude and regret was a bit unnecessary, as far as rules
and agreements went.
('They weren't being overboard with showering goodwill, that would be

counterproductive. They maintained their dignity as the Martial overlord
while also giving me my due.') Rui noted. ('This must mean they value me
more than I had expected.')
Rui expected that the Martial Union might be a bit more heavy-handed if he
was just another Martial Squire, at the very least, they wouldn't be treating
him as an honored guest.
('At least they were straightforward with their intentions.') He shrugged as he

pondered about what the commissioner had told him.
('Wanting to analyze and dissect the core of my Martial Art and disseminate
it to other Martial Artists in the form of techniques huh...?') Rui pondered.
('What a fascinating objective.')
It's not that Rui was particularly averse to others inheriting a part of the
VOID algorithm, it's just he couldn't explain how he came up with it. Talent
alone couldn't justify it, he wasn't sure if the Martial Union would buy him
developing it because he was oh-so-smart.
Furthermore, he didn't think the Martial union could succeed in disseminating

his Martial Art to others, even if partially. The only reason his usage of the
VOID algorithm was viable and proficient was because of his mind, his
absolute familiarity and understanding of it, the Mind Palace technique, and
the Mindmirror brain.
Without any of these, he would not be able to apply the VOID algorithm the
way he did. Even if the Martial Union did manage to derive the VOID
algorithm through some kind of reverse engineering, he did not think they
would be able to make it mass-viable for Martial Artists.
As fascinating as the sight of many different Martial Artists applying the

VOID algorithm, partially or entirely, was, it was just too unlikely. He had
spent his entire previous life trying to make it viable for normal people and
he had failed.
He had succeeded in making it viable for himself, but he was far removed
from any semblance of ordinary. He was satisfied with making it viable for
only himself in this life.
He shook his head. ('The Martial Union's goal is not relevant to me, it's
interesting, but it doesn't matter.')
His thoughts immediately returned to his own Martial Path.
('I have some ideas...') Rui's eyes lit up in interest.
He had been considering the way to make progress forward, and he had
already conceived of some ideas on how to go forward with developing his
Martial Art.
('My techniques need to be compatible with both my Marial body and the
VOID algorithm. Furthermore, these techniques need to be individualistic;
they need to originate significantly from me and have significantly unique.')
These were the conditions that Rui would need to fulfill when developing his
Martial Art. They were significantly stricter than the conditions for growing
stronger back when he was a Martial Apprentice. Back then he simply needed
to find something that would make him stronger and had decent compatibility
with him.
Now he needed to derive a technique or create one entirely from scratch that
possessed extreme synergy with his Martial Art and body that also deviated
from the existing base of techniques. The ones that he knew of, at least.
Yet despite the difficulty of this challenge, Rui grinned. He had to control
himself from acting stupid out of excitement, but it was entirely evident
regardless.
He would be truly forging his Martial Art from this point forth!
Prior he had been taking existing blocks and building his Martial Art from
them, barring a handful of exceptions here and there. But now, he needed to
construct even the blocks that he would use to further develop his Martial Art
himself!
He truly looked forward to this immensely personal process. Just the thought
of developing his own solutions to further his Martial Art was so exciting he
could hardly wait to begin. He was no longer satisfied with the dull process
of walking into the Squire-level library and mundanely picking whatever
techniques sounded good. That had already grown mind-numbingly boring
and dreary, and it was also weaker than creating one's own techniques.
Someone who did the latter would be able to perform better due to
compatible synergetic techniques that made much better use of the Martial
Artist and were better used by the Martial Artist. Furthermore, their
individuality would bring them closer to the higher Realm in the long run. It
was superior in every single way possible.
('A new chapter in my journey down my Martial Path begins.') Rui breathed
deeply as he opened his eyes to the world around him. Even the air felt
refreshing and invigorating. The Sun's shine was beautiful while its warmth
was gentle. The wind danced as though rejoicing. It was almost as if the
world was rejoicing alongside him.
Chapter 529 Idea
Rui found himself meditating on a large rock in the forests near the Quarrier
Orphanage, absorbed deep in thought. He had recently obtained clarity about
his path forward in the Squire Realm and had even fleshed out some of the
conditions that he would need to keep in mind when developing his Martial
Art from this point forth.
All he had to do was take the first step concretely.
('What are my most immediate needs?') Rui asked himself.
Although developing the VOID algorithm to be able to counter all Martial

Art in the world was certainly important, it was much more of a lifelong
ambition than an immediate objective. He thought back to his battle against
the Britannian Martial Squire, analyzing his shortcomings, weaknesses, and
faults.
('My lack of ability to hurt him was a pain in the ass.') Rui sighed
emphatically.
Rui had been able to react to, outmaneuver, predict, and counter his opponent
just fine. The only reason the fight had extended for as long as it did was that
he had trouble inflicting any meaningful damage on his opponent.
('My higher-end lethality is shit.') Rui sighed.
His offense was mostly centered around Outer Convergence, which allowed
him to employ power from all muscle groups at any given point in time as
well as Reverberating Lance, which employed vibrations to permeate the
impact of his strike deeper into the body of his target allowing him to inflict
damage in the more vulnerable parts of the human body.
However, against Martial Artists that were highly resistant to impacts, he
may as well have no offensive capabilities at all. He didn't always have this
problem, when he was a Martial Apprentice he had a versatile offense that
allowed him to inflict all forms of damage against his opponent.
However, while he was vastly stronger as a Martial Squire than he was a

Martial Apprentice, he did not possess the same kind of versatility that he did
back then.
('That is something I need to fix.') Rui sighed.
His Flowing Void style needed to possess a wide array of tools in order to
counter a wide array of Martial Art and opponents.
('I should note down all the primary avenues that my Martial Art is lacking
the most.')
He needed to increase his lethality. This was especially needed against

defensive opponents with a tendency to be able to resist ordinary attacks to a
significant degree, such as the opponent he fought against at Fort Zurtun.
('The simplest way to increase my lethality is to obtain piercing attacks.')
In the past, as a Martial Apprentice, he had faced a similar issue, his solution
back then was to obtain a piercing attack that allowed him to inflict flesh
wounds on his opponent. Purchasing the Stinger technique had increased his
lethality to a satisfactory degree.
Ordinarily, he would have been satisfied with remastering the technique as a

Martial Squire, but that no longer was the case.
('The technique isn't as compatible with me as I'd like. Furthermore, it has

zero individuality since it isn't something I created.') Rui sighed.
The Stinger was useful, but it wasn't nearly as flexible as Rui would have
liked. While it was true that his toe had effectively become a bullet that he
could puncture his opponent with, it was also true that it required a
tremendous amount of momentum to do so. Every time he needed to use it,
he needed to use all his offense-supplementary techniques, and strike as hard
as he could with as powerful a kick as he could.
This added all kinds of limitations and restrictions on the number of scenarios
he could comfortably use it in.
('Furthermore, the Stinger is a bit obsolete in the Squire Realm,') Rui sighed.
The reason for this was that Martial bodies were vastly superhuman in their
ability to withstand pressure and their ability to cope with wounds. The
Stinger could potentially land critical wounds on his opponent if Rui aimed
well or got lucky and hit a blood vessel, but the same could not be said for
Martial Squires. Puncturing them was disproportionately harder, and
punctures were no longer that critical of a wound unless in vital areas. Martial
bodies bled less to flesh wounds and were hampered to a lesser degree by
such wounds.
('Unless I try to aim for a grade-eight or higher technique, it's not going to be
nearly as effective as I'd like. But I do not possess the compatibility with
extreme piercing-oriented techniques, thus I'd rather avoid going more
powerful and extreme techniques that I probably would not be able to master
as much as I'd like.') Rui analyzed. ('Thus, the solution is not piercing, or at
the very least, it is not piercing alone.')
Maybe he could derive or create a technique that possesses more than just
piercing, or two separate lethal techniques based on two different
mechanisms that worked well together.
('It would be nice to add another element to a piercing technique. Something

that is synergetic with piercing and can work well together with it.') Rui
pondered the different possibilities. ('Heat maybe?')
Heat was a very niche and esoteric field in Martial Art, but it would certainly
go well with a piercing technique and increase the degree to which the attack
damages his opponent.
('But heat also cauterizes wounds.') Rui sighed as he shrewdly detected a

drawback of this idea. If heat cauterized the wound, it would bleed less,
removing one of the primary lethal elements of piercing attacks. ('Also, heat
is no doubt extremely difficult to master. Probably more so than a powerful
piercing attack. I need something with greater synergy and less impedance.')
His mind scoured through several problems as he finally came up with a

potential solution.
('Should I... include a poison element?') Rui wondered as he opened his eyes.
Incorporating poison into the technique would most certainly increase its
lethality as poison was especially effective when administered directly into
the body as it would in the case of a piercing attack.
Chapter 530 Ambitious
It was an intriguing idea, one that was definitely worth seriously considering.
Poison would allow him to capitalize the most on an open wound, more than
almost any other offensive field. He pictured something such as conditioning
the part of his body that would be piercing into his target with a powerful
toxin. Doing so would allow him to incapacitate, hamper, or even kill his
opponent depending on what kind of poison he chose and how potent it was.
('The only problem is the matter of how compatible I am with poison.') Rui
sighed.
Poison was a niche field, perhaps not to the same extent as something like
heat was, but it certainly was very much divorced from the mainstream fields
of techniques that Martial Artists most dabbled in.
Rui recalled a conversation he had with headmaster Aronian regarding the

Unorthodox Sect and why they had been dubbed as such. Fields such as
poison and heat were not inherent natural applications of the human body.
The proportion of Martial Art and Martial Paths centered around these fields
was low due to this very reason. The same applied to compatibility, the
compatibility of the average martial Artist with these fields was low.
That was Rui was somewhat unsure of whether he was qualified to

incorporate any potent poison into his technique.
('But it doesn't necessarily need to be potent.') Rui noted.
As long as the poison accomplished some meaningful difference, it was

worth pursuing. Furthermore, unless Rui was, for some reason, especially
horribly incompatible with poison, it was unlikely that he would be unable to
obtain something of some utility.
('This would have been an easy decision had I still been in the Apprentice
Realm, but it gets more complicated now that I'm in the Squire Realm.') Rui
sighed.
Squires were not easily susceptible to poison. Martial Apprentices were

physically human, unless they had gone out of their way to master some
defensive resistance training techniques against poison, they were as
vulnerable to poison as other normal humans were.
The same could not be said for Martial Squires, Martial Squires possessed far
more resistance to invasive substances that were detrimental to the human
body. What would kill even the most resistant Martial Apprentices was
something that most Martial Squires would be able to resist. The question
was whether Rui would be able to master Squire-level poison techniques that
were required to affect Martial Squires to a meaningful degree.
('Hm...') Rui narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. ('I might need to learn more
about the poison-oriented techniques from the Martial Union before I can
make a decision on this matter. It is always best to be informed about the
subjects that are important to you.')
It was in these avenues that Rui was willing to obtain some help from the
Martial Union; purely distant aid that did not overreach.
('Well, until I get to that, I have to consider my other options as well. Another
option that comes to mind is friction-oriented elements.')
He recalled that one of the Martial representatives of the Martial Contest had
a Martial Path that was centered around friction. The man's very touch
wrenched and ground against the flesh, causing excruciating flesh wounds.
('What if I incorporate friction into the sides of whatever part of my body

pierces into my opponent?') Rui wondered with intrigue in his eyes. ('Then,
as I penetrate my opponent, I will be inflicted damage to the sides of the
wound due to sheer friction.')
It could be likened to a knife with a blade with many tiny spikes on its blade
surfaces. If someone was stabbed with a knife, both the actual sharp blade
and the tiny spikes on its side would cause tremendous amounts of damage
and pain to its target.
('Wait... What if I combine piercing, friction, and poison?') Rui's eyes

widened.
What if the knife that had many tiny spikes on its side was also covered in
poison?
Such a technique would have devastating lethality. Any technique that

incorporated meaningful amounts of each of the three fields would be no
different from a lethal assassination technique that could potentially kill its
opponent with a single attack!
('Is such a thing even possible?') Rui began to wonder with excitement.
He didn't know. To be more precise, he didn't know if he possessed the

qualifications to master such a technique.
('I need to learn more about this.') Rui nodded, seriously. ('Oh, I should also
consult Julian. He definitely knows a lot about the scientific side of the
Martial Art in this world.')
In a way, so did Rui. The difference between them was that Rui had gone to
extremely far lengths in his previous life in the martial arts and combat sports
of Earth while the scientists of this world tapped into the more supernatural
side of Martial Art.
Sometimes Rui felt the need to learn more about the esoteric sciences of the
world of Gaia. It was in times like these, as well as the time when he obtained
the research data of the Squire breakthrough process from the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana. Thankfully, in both this and that
situation, he had his reliable older brother who was always willing to help
him out.
('I just don't have enough time.') Rui shook his head.
Even though Earth's understanding and application of natural reality were far
greater than that of the human civilization on the Panama continent, he did
not underestimate how difficult learning esoteric in-depth most likely was.
Mastering it was probably extremely difficult all things considered. If Julian
needed many years of education and experience to be qualified to become a
full-fledged scholar, Rui did not think he would be able to complete it in a
flash.
('Well, that wraps my thoughts on one project.') Rui opened his eyes. ('I'll
have to do more research when I get back, but I don't think I need to limit
myself to only a single Martial Art technique development project if I can
help it.')
Chapter 531 Range
('Well, what else is my Martial Art lacking at the moment, as far as

fundamentals go?') Rui wondered.
Well, that was an easy question to answer. This wasn't quite like the later
days of his Apprentice times when he had so many Martial Art techniques
that it was exceedingly difficult to find a technique that wasn't redundant.
Now he had returned back to stage one, in a way, where he once more needed
to fill the gaps in his Martial Art like he already had once upon a time.
('The only difference is the difficulty of this task is exponentially more

difficult than it was before.') Rui sighed, yet he couldn't suppress the mild
grin on his face no matter how hard he tried.
His attention returned back to the matter at hand as he pondered through what
his Martial Art needed and could use.
('Lack of range is definitely one thing to consider.') Rui nodded.
When he was a Martial Apprentice, he had mastered the Tempestual Ripple

technique, which allowed him to launch attacks a good distance away by
manipulating the air into a dense ball which he then launched with a strike.
('How on Earth am I going to create a long-range technique from scratch?')

Rui sighed.
The sheer difficulty of the task made it amply clear why the population of
Martial Artists decreased across higher Realms.
('If it was easy, everybody would do it.') Rui chuckled cynically.

In this particular case, Rui suspected that it was probably better to modify
existing techniques to suit him and his Martial Art better. It wasn't an
absolute necessity that every technique he ended up mastering in the Squire
Realm was something entirely brand-new that was purely constructed out of
thin air without borrowing from any existing foundation. That was an
extremely rare occurrence and a pointlessly impractical condition.
Rui estimated that less than one percent of techniques fell into that category.
He didn't need to feel too self-conscious about borrowing from existing
foundations as long as whatever he ended up creating satisfied the conditions
he had already created for himself; synergetic, original, and unique, all to a
certain degree.
('What would it mean for a long-range attack to be synergetic with me and

my Martial Art?') Rui asked himself. If he wanted to make one that was
synergetic with his Martial Art, he needed to understand what that statement
or idea actually meant in a practical sense.
('It would be one that is most effective when paired with my strengths and
one that isn't hampered by my shortcomings.') Rui noted.
Of course, this was still merely a very general statement, he needed to derive
more specific conditions that the technique would need to fulfill.
('My timing and placement are excellent thanks to the VOID algorithm,
Primordial Instinct, and the Mindmirror brain. This what makes my Martial
Art powerful and high-grade') Rui noted. ('That means a technique with a
great amount of power in exchange for an extremely high requirement for
accurate and precise timing and placement would be the ideal.')
This was still a somewhat general statement, but it was something much more
concrete to work on. He could take his time deriving more specific conditions
until he eventually came up with a technique that suited those conditions
perfectly.
('What kind of long-range technique would have an extremely high

requirement for accuracy and precision?') Rui wondered.
However, the answer struck him the very instant he finished parsing that
thought.
('The super-dee-duper long-range type.')
It sounded like a silly thought, but in reality, there was truth to be found in
his words. He thought back to every action movie that featured snipers back
on Earth. Sniping from a large distance was always portrayed as an extremely
difficult feat that required nearly superhuman levels of accuracy and
precision as well as a lot of aid from instruments that measured all kinds of
environmental parameters.
Of course, Rui wasn't a moron, far from it. He was aware that action movies
were nothing short of fiction. However, whatever he knew about
marksmanship and sniping, it was at least close to the truth. The details didn't
matter.
If one further extended that thought, there were even more extreme examples
like an intercontinental ballistic missile. The sheer calculations that were
performed by the launch and propulsion systems were so incredibly much
that they surpassed human cognition. Not even Rui dared to think that he
could perform the necessary calculations in the necessary amount of time in
order for a successful launch and hit.
Not yet, at least.
('My technique is going to be closer to the sniper analogy than an

intercontinental ballistic missile.') Rui chuckled. At the Squire Realm, at
least, he had no fathomable way of creating a technique rivaling missiles.
If he could find a way to tremendously increase the accuracy and longevity of

his long-range attack at the cost of extremely high demand for accuracy and
precision, then it would be worth considering without any shred of a doubt.
('Just how unbelievable will my long-range attacks become if I actually

succeed?') Rui wondered as he clenched his fist, trying to contain the sheer
amount of excitement he felt at the prospect. He began envisioning grand
visions of him sniping away targets from unbelievably great distances.
He chalked out the plan a bit more as he considered various possibilities. He
still hadn't decided on the nature of the long-range technique. It could be
based on shockwaves, but it could also be based on other projectile systems.
Hell, even lifting up a rock and throwing it could technically be considered a
technique.
('I should probably stick to wind-based techniques. I already have a pretty

good understanding of them thanks to all my experience with Tempestual
Ripple. I ought to adapt it to the squire Realm while also modifying it so that
it suits all of my needs.
The Tempestual Ripple was a somewhat generic, albeit powerful, technique

centered around wind-based principles. What he intended to create, on the
other hand, was something that wasn't necessarily more powerful in general,
but something that was more powerful if it was in the hands of Rui.
Chapter 532 Defense
After Rui fleshed out the requirements and objectives of his second technique
development project, he put it aside for the time being. He would need to do
more research before he could flesh out both of his projects any further.
('I should give the projects names if I'm going to have more than one.') Rui
shrugged. ('For the piercing technique, I should call it the... the Severer
Project. The long-range technique project will be called... the Sniper Project.')
Rui nodded. ('Both of these technique projects are centered around offensive
techniques, I should probably develop a defensive project as well.')
However, deriving a defensive project was easier said than done. He needed
to come up with a concept of a technique that was extremely potent with the
cost of being very demanding on the accuracy of timing and placement of the
execution of said technique.
('Well, for starters, it would have to be an active defense.') Rui noted.
Only active defense techniques were contingent on the execution of said

technique, a passive technique was not particularly executable and thus
would not improve based on parameters such as accuracy of execution.
('Inner Divergence is contingent on timing and placement.') Rui remembered.

It was part of why his defense was that good. However, Rui wondered
whether he could develop a technique even better and more synergetic with
him than that.
('What kind of principles and mechanisms would end up requiring such a

high degree of accuracy in timing and placement?') Rui wondered.
He could think of a few.

('What if I seek to create a defensive technique that... aims to completely
negate any and all impacts?') Rui wondered, absorbed in his train of thought.
Such a technique would be demonstrably overpowered. The only question

was whether it was realistic or even plausible in the first place.
('Let me dig into the fundamentals. What is an impact and why does it inflict
damage?') He asked himself, rehashing basic collision mechanics and
kinematics.
An impact was simply a collision between two objects where an exchange of

energy occurs. The kinetic energies of the two objects get converted into
damage or kinetic energy.
('My goal is to avoid the former; letting the kinetic energy of an object
colliding with me get turned into damage.') Rui reiterated.
Instead of letting the kinetic energy of an object hitting him get converted
into damage, he would rather the second option occur; where it gets
converted into kinetic energy. In classical mechanics, this was known as an
elastic collision, a collision where two objects clashing into each other do not
inflict damage, and the kinetic energy does not get converted into damage but
remains as kinetic energy.
An example of this would be two bouncy balls hitting each other. They did
not damage each other, instead, they simply bounced away from each other.
This was very different from two balls made out of glass that would simply
break each other into pieces.
('Following that analogy, won't get sent flying away if I try to essentially turn
myself into a bouncy ball?') Rui wondered with a confused expression.
Bouncy rubber balls were notorious for being extremely crazy and hard to
control. Just the slightest clash against them would launch them into a frenzy.
('It's similar to my previous opponent, except he was quite literally a bouncy

ball, where I am trying to figuratively or effectively be one.')
Rui did not want to create a technique that would send him flying far away
every time he blocked an attack, like a bouncy ball. This was the issue with
trying to convert the kinetic energy that hit him into the kinetic energy of his
own body rather than damage. Kinetic energy meant movement. Too much
movement. He would not be able to even stand in one place if he got hit. It
was too impractical.
('What if I try to get rid of my kinetic energy as soon as I receive it from my

opponent?') Rui wondered. If he could get rid of the kinetic energy in his
body, that was gained from an attack, immediately after his body gains it,
then he would be able to stay in one place.
('So basically. My opponent hits me, I convert his attack's kinetic energy into
the kinetic energy of my own in an elastic collision like a bouncy rubber ball
with zero damage to me, and immediately after that I get rid of the kinetic
energy, and then I'm safe?') Rui scratched his head.
Even he had to admit, this sounded like an absolutely crazy technique. He

wasn't even sure if it was physically possible.
For example, how would he be able to make all collisions perfectly elastic?
This alone was a difficult conundrum. In fact, back on Earth, absolutely
perfect elastic collisions with one hundred percent elasticity were said to be
practically impossible. Even if he didn't need to be one hundred percent, it
was still something that would be extraordinarily hard to accomplish.
Furthermore, the second challenge to his proposed technique was how on

Earth was he supposed to magically get rid of the absorbed kinetic energy in
his body instantly on the spot? That was also something that seemed like it
defied the principles of kinematics.
"Hmmm..." Rui pondered the idea a bit as he considered the possibilities

available at hand. The second part of the problem was definitely more
difficult than the first problem. For the first problem, he already had a
potential solution.
('Elastic Shift... might help.') Rui recalled his very first Apprentice-level
defense technique that he had mastered many years ago. It was an active
defensive technique that allowed him to hamper impacts by increasing the
distance over which the impact occurred. It was similar to how baseball
players caught baseballs by moving their hands along with the ball while
catching them. It also made collisions more elastic, and thus there was
potential that the technique could end up solving part of the problems that
stood in Rui's way in the construction of his ambitious project.
"To think that paltry foundational technique I learned a long time ago would
end up helping me create what will probably be the most impressive
defensive technique I've learned this far."
Chapter 533 Correlation
"Project Bounce." Rui nodded. It was as good a name as any.
While Rui had other ideas, he decided to stop at three projects. In fact, three
was pushing it, but Rui wanted to gauge how difficult the process of
developing his own techniques was. He could learn more about the
challenges of developing his own techniques if he had a larger sample base to
judge that from.
Besides, he didn't think that he would be necessarily finishing these projects

soon. He didn't think it would be that easy. Martial Squires didn't normally
break through to the Senior Realm in the span of a few years. Rui was
prepared to persevere for as long as needed, though he wished to speed
through the journey as much as possible.
('Project Severer, Project Sniper, and Project Bounce.') Rui nodded.
He got up, stretching before skywalking back to the Orphanage. The sun was
setting, after all.
('Julian will have been back by now.')
He intended to inquire about the viability of his projects to Julian. While he

didn't think his brother would be able to magically provide him with the
solutions to his problem, there was a good chance that he would at least be
able to point him in the right, or at least helpful, directions.
Once he arrived at the Orphanage, he spotted Mana and Max sparring with
their Apprentice instructor. He quietly avoided their field of vision, not
wanting to interrupt their training. Still, he could see that they were making
an impressive amount of progress on that front.
('As for whether it will be enough to pass the entrance exam...') Rui sighed.
He couldn't say. For one, asides from the first round, the Martial entrance
exam was ever-changing so that no specific targeted training could be used to
allow students to pass the test even if they were otherwise undesirable.
They would have to rely purely on their own prowess if they wanted to pass
the entrance exam.
Rui put the matter aside once he entered the Orphanage.
"Big brother Rui!"
"You're back!"
Several children flooded him once he returned, putting a smile on his face.
Rui was a bit of a celebrity to them as the only Martial Artist in the
Orphanage. He especially earned a lot of appreciation from the Orphanage
ever since he generously donated substantial chunks of income to help with
the maintenance and expansion of the Orphanage.
The Orphanage had welcomed some more young toddlers into the family
who had also developed a strong attachment to him. Thankfully, it wasn't
long before they returned back to their meals at the insistence of the
caretakers who were ensuring they ate their meals.
Ever since he had been living in the Orphanage, his returning was no longer a
fuss like it was when he visited the Orphanage only once in a while when he
lived in the Martial Academy.
[You free? Got something to talk about.]
Rui sent Julian a message.
Julian did not like being disturbed when he was working, that was difficult
for him to fulfill in a noisy home filled with boisterous children. However, he
also hadn't wanted to move out of the house into his own home, leaving his
family, thus he had personally funded the construction of an extra wide room
with everything he needed at the south end of the Orphanage. He even went
as far as to pad the room with sound insulant layers that ensured that the
perennial noise in the Orphanage did not affect him when he was working at
home.
[I'm not preoccupied, come in.]
Rui read the message, nodding as he headed toward the room.
"Sorry to disturb you." Rui apologized pre-emptively as he entered the room,

closing the door behind them. "Hope you weren't working."
"Just finished for the day, actually." Julian smiled, taking off his spectacles.
"Good to hear, because you sure look busy," Rui noted the room filled with
all kinds of files and documents stacked and arranged in shelves and
cupboards, feeling nostalgic. His office used to look like that before the
digital revolution in the twenty-first century.
"Well," Julian sighed. "I have been consumed with several research and
development projects. It has been getting busy recently."
"Have you been working on anything interesting?" Rui inquired with a raised
eyebrow.
"Everything I'm working on is quite interesting." Julian smiled. "I can't reveal
some of them because they're classified military-funded projects. But I can
tell you about some of the rest if you're interested. I think you will definitely
find some of these as fascinating as I do."
"Oh go on." Rui nodded, intrigued. While he was a Martial Artist to his core
without a doubt, he had also retained some of the curiosity he had as a
scientist in his previous life.
"One of the more innocuous projects I'm working on is related to Martial Art.
More specifically, it aims to discover all the factors influencing the field of
the Martial Path of any given Martial Apprentice." Julian explained. "We've
been analyzing the correlation between parameters such as age, sex,
physicality, temperament/personality, and that of the field of the Martial Path.
We've found some interesting results."
Rui's eyes lit up with intrigue. "Interesting, go on, surely you've found some
worthwhile discoveries."
"The research project is still ongoing, but yes, we certainly have. We've
observed that, of the aforementioned parameters, all of them have some
degree of correlation with what field the Martial Path of a Martial Apprentice
is, in different ways." He paused, letting Rui digest that for a moment, before
continuing. "Let's begin with age. Age is observed to have a correlation with
the sophistication of the Martial Path field. We observe that the older the
Martial Apprentice is when they break through, the more sophisticated their
Martial Path is."
Rui raised an eyebrow. Julian was right, he most certainly did find this
fascinating. The older the Martial Artist was when they broke through, the
more sophisticated their Martial Art was. That seemed to indicate that
maturity played a great role in shaping what their Martial Path was.
"Interesting..."
"That is really interesting." Rui absorbed the information. "It certainly makes
sense intuitively. How exactly are you measuring 'sophistication'? I'm
interested in the measuring system you have developed to measure a concept
that isn't as straightforward as physical parameters."
Chapter 534 Revelations
"You've correctly identified one of the problems that plagued us the most."
Julian nodded, evidently impressed. "Sophistication of Martial Path is indeed
a bit of a nebulous concept that is hard to measure. However, we have
developed a measurement system centered around several parameters such as
how narrow and specific their field is, the complexity of the Martial Path, and
frequency of the Martial Path in the Martial Artist population among other
things."
"Interesting." Rui nodded. "That isn't necessarily in line with the

conventional definition of 'sophistication' though, is it?"
"Perhaps not," Julian admitted. "The conventional definition is a very broad

ambiguous term that encompasses a lot of meanings in different contexts.
When we use the term, we're referring to how the word is used in the context
of Martial Art."
Rui nodded. Although he could argue that even in the context of Martial Art
it wasn't a very rigorously defined word, at that point, it was just pointless
semantics. What mattered was what the data revealed.
"Anyways, to continue with what I was saying earlier. The studies we

conducted revealed that the older the Martial Artist was when they
discovered their Martial Path, the more sophisticated their Martial Path was.
The prevailing hypothesis is that with age, comes experience, perspective,
and maturity, allowing for the maturity of the Martial Path into something
beyond a simplistic broad field." Julian told Rui. "We haven't verified this
hypothesis yet, unfortunately."
"Interesting." Rui thought deeply. "The most straightforward way to verify

this hypothesis would be to create a measurement system for maturity and
measure it in a sample base of Martial Artists while controlling for all other
factors except for the sophistication of Martial Path. This way you could
isolate the correlation between maturity and sophistication."
"Correct." Julian smiled, impressed at Rui's deep understanding of how

empirical research functioned. "We're having trouble verifying this
hypothesis. After all, it isn't particularly simple to measure the maturity of a
Martial Artist. It's hard to even define maturity objectively, and it's even
harder to measure it empirically."
Rui nodded. Research in the field of psychology had developed extremely

rigorous means of measuring temperament after decades of refining. He
didn't think the researchers of the Kandrian Empire were quite there yet, from
what he could see.
"Furthermore, Martial Artist psychology cannot necessarily be treated the

same as that of normal humans." Rui also added.
"Exactly. Due to that and other reasons, further research has stalled." Julian
sighed with resignation.
"No matter. Tell me more about what your research has yielded." Rui coaxed.
"Well, the next variable is actually sex," Julian explained. "Sex does play a
role in predicting certain parameters of the Martial Path of the Martial Artist.
Firstly, female Martial Artists on average are likelier to have Martial Path
revolving around more than one field, while male Martial Artists' Martial
Path is likelier to fixate on a single field."
"Interesting..." Rui thought about his own personal experience and

observations. "Doesn't seem right, intuitively. A lot of my female Martial
Artist friends have fixated on a single field, while several of my male Martial
Artist friends focus on multiple fields."
Fae, Milliana, Nel, and Hever were certainly examples of this. Rui was an
example of this as well. Rui's Martial Path was meant to encompass every
field, theoretically.
"Of course, this is just a very broad trend, far from an absolute rule. There are
plenty of male and female Martial Artists who no doubt stray away from the
trend." Julian explained.
Rui nodded, he was quite familiar with this concept.
"Several other discoveries we made are more niche things such as the
frequency of sensory techniques is higher among female Martial Artists while
male Martial Artists tend to have a higher trend towards offensive techniques.
Women are also likelier to master and excel at techniques that demand fine
motor skills, accuracy, and precision while men are likelier to master and
excel at more physically strenuous techniques."
"These make more sense, I guess." Rui nodded. Men had a higher propensity
for aggressing violence due to testosterone, while women demonstrated
higher sensitivity towards stimuli. Men had greater physicality while women
exhibited better hand-eye coordination and delicacy. Men and women had
different strengths and affinities biologically which seemed to manifest in the
demographics of their Martial Paths.
"A lot of our results were intuitively satisfying and predictable, though they
are a bit more mundane," Julian added. "One of our more fascinating findings
is actually the correlation between exposure to a field throughout the years of
development and the probability that their Martial Path will be relevant to
said field."
Rui raised an eyebrow at that, waiting for him to continue.
"One of the more fascinating case studies we conducted is actually the Garath
Tribe in the Crimel Forest south of the Kandrian Empire." Julian smiled.
"This is a Martial Artist tribe that lives a very primitive lifestyle that
characterized our species eons ago, barring the Martial Art part. What is most
fascinating is that a huge proportion of the Martial Artists of this tribe have
Martial Paths centered around weapons."
"What?" Rui couldn't help but be genuinely surprised at this revelation. "How
much, exactly?"
"Around half." Julian chuckled, enjoying Rui's reaction. "Around half had
Martial Paths centered around spears, bows, and arrows, elementary blades,
etc."
"Half? Half of them were weapon-wielding Martial Artists?"
"Indeed."
"But how...?" Rui recalled his conversation with headmaster Aronian a few
years ago. He had told Rui that the reason for the low occurrence of weapon-
oriented Martial Paths was that weapons were inherently deviant from the
natural application of the human body in combat.
('Was he wrong?') Rui wondered for a moment, before shaking his head.
('No, it makes sense. The reason for the Garath tribe having a higher
frequency must be, as Julian said, due to the exposure.')
"So, people's experiences can cause drastically different Martial Paths," Rui
concluded.
"That does seem to be the case."
"That raises a lot of questions." Rui hesitantly said as he considered the ways
this could be exploited to produce more desirable Martial Paths, as well as
the ethics of doing such a thing.
Chapter 535 Incompatibility
"The Martial Path seems to be a product of one's mentality and experiences,"

Julian explained. "It makes sense that a lifelong exposure to a certain field of
conflict would influence the Martial Path of a person."
"I see..." Rui was absorbed in thought. "I bet the Martial community of the
Kandrian Empire employs several means to condition their offspring to be
likelier to have a Martial Path that is more desired."
"They do." Julian nodded.
"But, it doesn't necessarily always work," Rui concluded, as he thought about

Kane. Kane was the heir of the Arrancar family, he no doubt underwent a
similar process if such a thing is a common practice in the Martial
community. Yet despite that, his Martial Path was the polar opposite of that
of his father. Instead of a fearsome aggressive offense, his Martial Path was
centered around evasive maneuvering.
"Indeed, it doesn't." Julian nodded agreeing. "Ultimately, there are many

variables and factors that influence the Martial Path prior to its discovery. It
is most likely impossible to absolutely control what one's Martial Path will
be. At most, one can influence across a long period of time."
"Incredible..." Rui murmured as he considered the various matters that

instantly came to mind.
Was it possible to employ hypnosis to manipulate one's Martial Path? He

wasn't sure if that worked. However, the fact that he had never come across
anything of that sort whatsoever in the Martial Academy prior to the
discovery of his Martial Path likely suggested that such a practice was not the
norm.
Julian smiled, seeing Rui deep in thought. "By the way, you said you wanted
to speak to me about something. I didn't intend to hijack the conversation to
turn it about myself."
"Ah, right." Rui shook his head. He's almost forgotten why he'd wanted to
talk to Julian in the first place. "I wanted to get your thoughts on something."
"Go on."
"Well, I recently came up with a few technique development projects.

Projects where I focus on developing techniques that are highly suited to me,
unlike the techniques of the Martial Union." Rui explained.
"Interesting," Julian muttered in response. "I had heard that this was a
common tendency amongst Martial Artists in the higher Realms, though I
don't know much about it."
Rui nodded. "It's a necessary measure to continue developing your Martial

Art and also to progress to higher Realms."
"So, what exactly do you have in mind?" Julian asked with a hint of interest.
"One of the techniques I seek to develop is a piercing technique that

incorporates friction and poison into the technique to maximize lethality,"
Rui told him. "I was wondering what you think about the viability of such a
technique, and how I ought to go about it."
"Well, it's an ambitious technique without a doubt." Julian frowned mildly as

he considered the matter. "Perhaps a bit too ambitious."
"All of them are." Rui nodded.
"Have you mastered any poison techniques prior to this?" Julian asked.
"No, I haven't."
"What about friction-based techniques?"
"Haven't touched that one either."

"Hm. But you have mastered a piercing technique before, correct?"
"Yep. The Stinger served me well while I was a Martial Apprentice."
"Then I'd suggest beginning to assess the viability of your technique by

checking how much affinity you have with those two fields. There's no point
in proceeding any further until you verify that." Julian explained.
"Statistically, Martial Art techniques tend to be more difficult when they
incorporate multiple different fields like the kind of technique you're aiming
to create. Once you have that down, then you can proceed to flesh out the
technique such that they fit within what you can realistically master."
"Those were my thoughts as well." Rui was glad that Julian affirmed his
concerns.
"Asides from that, be careful with poison. You have a symbiote, which does
not inherit whatever poison resistance you possess." Julian warned. "Even if
you are compatible with it, your symbiote necessarily isn't. There's a bit of a
clash between symbiotic techniques and poison techniques."
"Damn, I hadn't considered that." Rui nodded appreciatively. This made his
technique that much more difficult. He didn't want to jeopardize the
Mindmirror Brain because it was valuable. He never 'used' it, but it was
constantly helping him in the background very silently.
This made for more complications. In fact, it made this project somewhat
dangerous. If something went wrong, then he would be screwed big time.
"I'd suggest taking it slow and easy, as well as consulting experts on the
matter," Julian told him.
"Will do." Rui nodded as he added that to his list of to-do things. "Any other
inputs?"
Julian shrugged softly. "No, unfortunately. I'm not familiar enough with the
fields you've specified to be able to offer anymore."
"It's all good." Rui nodded. "You've helped plenty already. Let me tell you
more about the remaining two projects I'm working on. Project Sniper is the
project centered around developing a long-range offensive technique that
uses my strengths to deliver accurate and precise attacks from a great distance
away without sacrificing too much power."
"Interesting," Julian murmured. "You're going to have to tell me more than

that if you want meaningful input from me, I'm afraid. Have you fleshed it
out more?"
"To a certain degree, yes." Rui nodded. "There are roughly three problems
that primarily stand in the way of creating a viable technique that fulfills my
conditions for the Sniper Project. The first is the most obvious one; firing an
attack over such a large distance requires a lot of accuracy, beyond what
should be possible for my affinity and Realm. The second is that
environmental factors cause greater deviance across a greater amount of
distance, meaning even if I aim correctly, my attack could still veer off
course. The third is that at such great distances, moving targets are absolutely
hell because the projectile takes longer due to the distance between me and
my target. So even if I aim correctly and I account for environmental factors,
I could still miss if my target is moving even a little!"
Chapter 536 Issues
The two men stared at each other for a few seconds.
"You laid that out better than I could," Julian sighed. "I hadn't realized your
project was that ambitious. Is there a particular reason you have confidence
that fulfilling such a project is realistic? I don't mean to be discouraging, but
setting extremely unrealistic goals is usually not only a waste of time and
energy but also actively counterproductive."
"You're right." Rui nodded. "And to answer your question, yes, I do have a
reason."
"Well, let's hear it then."
"The difficulty of overcoming the three problems I just laid out for you lies in
the difficulty of processing available accurately and quickly enough to aim in
exactly the right direction, to account for environmental factors, to account
for the target's movements." Rui diligently explained, before pointing to
himself. "I, however, possess a much greater ability to process information
systematically in the manner needed to obtain accurate answers quickly,
putting aside false modesty."
"I'm not sure I entirely agree with your characterization of the difficulties you
just illustrated." Julian frowned. "Accuracy of aim is generally not a mental
exercise in the manner that you describe it so much as it is a pure skill.
Skilled marksmen do not solve complicated projectile mechanics equations
when they fire accurate shots, they simply launch their attacks in exactly the
right matter through judgment born out of a combination of talent and a vast
amount of experience."
"You're completely right about that." Rui grinned. "However, just because
that is the norm, doesn't mean it is a paradigm I need to abide by, especially
when I'm better of not doing so."
"So, you're telling me..." Julian looked at him with a hint of skepticism.
"You're telling me that you've created a new and superior paradigm for the
very concept of long-range accuracy?"
Julian knew that his brother was quite strong, special, and brilliant. But as a
scholar with a background in the study of Martial Art, he understood the
sheer magnitude of claims that Rui was making at the moment. What he was
talking about was nothing short of revolutionary.
"Hear me out, Julian." Rui smiled. "We already know that there are rather
simple equations defining the motion of projectiles that are quite easy to
understand, correct?"
"To you and me, perhaps, but neither of us is particularly average, are we?"
Julian sighed. He wasn't tooting their horns, it was merely an objective fact.
"Projectile mechanics is cutting-edge theoretical science, Rui. How did you
even come about learning about them when you didn't go to a science
university?"
Rui suppressed a snort. Projectile mechanics was extremely elementary

physics back on Earth. He had studied it in middle school and more
extensively in high school. However, Julian's words allowed him to discover
the actual limit of understanding of theoretical physics of the Kandrian
Empire. "Oh, you know, I read some of your old books when you were away
living at the university."
Julian looked at him with skeptical eyes.
"I'm not lying, okay!"
"If you say so..." Julian shook his head with resignation. "Anyways, you were
saying."
"So, as I was saying," Rui explained. "I understand projectile mechanics

extremely well, and I'm also capable of systematically and objectively
processing information quickly and accurately in the middle of combat. With
these two traits, I should be able effectively to calculate my aim, making my
accuracy objective rather than relying on skill."
"Even if that was possible, you may not necessarily be able to execute your
calculations accurately. It's one thing to calculate exactly with how much
force, and at what angle you must launch your attack, it's another thing
entirely for your body to precisely and accurately execute those results."
Julian astutely pointed out.
"True, that is where the true challenge lies, honestly. I might need to train my
hand-eye coordination if I want this technique to work the way it does. But
my hand-eye coordination is not a weakness of mine or something, not by
any means. As long as I work hard and train my body to execute my
calculations accurately, there is a decent chance that my vision for this
project will be entirely realized." Rui explained with an excited grin.
"Hm." Julian considered his argument for a moment. "Well, there is a chance,
of course. Provided your assumptions about your mental faculties are not
inaccurate. I can't think of anything else to offer about this project, I'm afraid.
My background doesn't really overlap with this field."
"No worries." Rui friendlily replied. "The fact that it has, at least tentatively,
earned your approval is quite a encouraging news. It's a good affirmation that
I'm not crazy."
"Oh, I don't know about that." Julian chuckled.
Rui was far removed from normal in many ways that it was sometimes hard
to consider him sane. Even if he wasn't insane, he certainly wasn't normal in
the head. There were just too many abnormalities that when considered
individually, could be written off with his genius-level intellect, talent, or
hard work, but when one zoomed out and looked at the big picture, it was
truly mind-boggling.
Julian knew this because he had done exactly that, he had even jokingly
insinuated that Rui was an adult in a child's body, a long time ago. As time
passed, the more accurate that joke seemed to be.
Julian shook his head mildly. A joke was a joke.
"What about the final project?" He asked.
"Ah, it's a development project centered around an active defense technique,"

Rui explained. "I'm trying to create a technique where I transfer all the kinetic
energy of an attack to me while ensuring none of it damages me, then I
disperse that energy instantaneously, ideally."
"...That's it?"
"So far, yeah."
"That's not a goal, that sounds more like a pipe dream." Julian chuckled.
"You need to have a more concrete way of accomplishing what you want
instead of just stating as much."
"I know, but it's difficult to form a concrete plan for this one, that's why I
wanted you to help me out," Rui explained.
Chapter 537 Purchase
"I can't really help you with that so spontaneously. Besides, if I'm not wrong,
the core of your plan probably ought to originate from you to satisfy the
condition of individuality." Julian conjectured.
"Hm, true." Rui nodded. "You've given me a lot of food for thought thus far
that has been quite illuminating. I suppose that's enough for a single
conversation."
"Well, I'm glad I was of some help." Julian smiled. "You should work on
fleshing out the plan by doing research on the relevant topics. If one of your
projects is unviable for some reason, then it is best to know that as early as
possible. You don't want to realize that after having spent six months on the
project, do you?"
"Most certainly not, will keep note of that." Rui nodded.
The two of them discussed the matter more in-depth as they visited a variety
of topics before their long discussion was finally concluded, or rather
interrupted by the calls from dinner by Lashara.
"Well, that has been pretty fulfilling. Thanks again for hearing me out." Rui
thanked him as he got up.
"Anytime." Julian smiled.
The two headed towards the dinner table together, spending time together
with their family for the rest of the night.
The next day, Rui headed towards the Martial Union to purchase the
necessary reading material he wanted. Particularly, he was most concerned
with learning poison techniques when he possessed a particularly delicate
symbiote inside his head.
In comparison, the Sniper and Bounce Projects were much more within Rui's
background and understanding. The core mechanics for these two projects
were centered around classical mechanics which Rui was intimately familiar
with. He needed to look within to figure these two projects out, for the most
part.
The same could not be said about the Severer Project.
Perhaps if it was an external symbiote like the kind Apprentice Fernan had,
he wouldn't be nearly as concerned, after all those had to be tough, otherwise,
they would get destroyed quite easily. Brains, on the other hand, were fragile
in every sense possible.
He headed straight toward the Martial support counter. It was a department

dedicated to exchanging or selling goods, services, or information that the
Martial Union directly owned. This was separate from the utility department
which had outlets for various esoteric technology companies. The Martial
Union effectively served as a safe reliable middleman that ensured that the
Martial Artists weren't exposed or exploited.
"Yes?" A staff member smiled. "How may I help you?"
"I wanted to purchase information regarding the compatibility between

poison techniques and symbiotic techniques. Furthermore, I also specifically
want all data surrounding the compatibility between the Mindmirror
Symbiote and various poisons used in offensive poison techniques." Rui
quickly surmised.
"Please provide your license for verification of security clearance." The staff
member requested.
The Martial Union did sell information, however, only if the customer in
question had the security clearance to access and purchase said information.
This was done so that valuable intelligence didn't find itself in the hands of
those who simply could not be trusted, or were ineligible for other reasons,
with whatever information said customer lacked the security clearance to
purchase.
For example, a Martial Apprentice couldn't simply purchase any information

surrounding the breakthrough to the Squire Realm because they were
ineligible to acquire that information.
"Alright Squire Quarrier, we have verified that you possess the necessary
security clearance to purchase the information you seek. Please give us some
time to collect all the information you seek before we can quote you a price."
She requested. "You can take a seat while you wait."
Rui nodded as he took his seat, observing the staff members as they hurriedly
left to procure his purchase. Thankfully, it did not take too long.
"Squire Quarrier." She called out to him. "We have procured the information
you wished to purchase. The price for all the details adds up to about 5780
Martial credits."
Rui raised an eyebrow at that price as he winced inwardly. That was a little
over half the price of a low-grade Squire-level mission. The Martial Union
was squeezing him dry!
"You also need to acknowledge and accept certain terms and conditions
stipulated by the Martial Union." She said as she pushed forward an
acknowledgment form along with a pen toward Rui.
Rui quickly skimmed through it, disinterested.
It was relatively strict, but nothing too extreme. He wasn't allowed to

distribute the information he purchased from the Martial Union's
authorization and would be held liable for any unauthorized distribution and
will be penalized.
Rui felt it was understandable that the Martial Union was as restrictive of the
information it sold. All of the information that it sold to its customers was
acquired via means that required a lot of funding and resources. All technical
scientific information was information that had been painstakingly obtained
after years of research. Information outside of science was also acquired
through the intelligence department which required a massive amount of
funding and resources to function adequately.
If the Martial Union allowed its customers to resell information at cheaper

prices than the Martial Union, then it would make it an entirely losing
business. It at the very least had to break even, otherwise, it was a liability.
Rui simply signed the acknowledgment form as he glanced at the sheer

volume of books and documents that the staff had procured.
"Would you like it delivered to a location or would you rather take it on your
person?" She asked, smiling.
"I'll take it with me, thanks."
Thankfully, they were neatly packed together making it less inconvenient to

carry in person. But still an important task for a normal human.
Rui whistled as he skywalked home with two giant bags filled with scientific
literature centered around Martial Art.
"If the answer isn't in here, then it probably isn't anywhere." Rui sighed as he
looked down at the books and documents that he was carrying home with
hope.
All he could do was pray.

Chapter 538 Poison
"Damn, this isn't looking so optimistic." Rui cursed as he read through a

research journal.
He had spent the past week pouring through all the literature on the topic,
occasionally consulting Julian when the esoteric scientific jargon went over
his head. Turns out Julian was entirely correct when he told Rui that there
was a large degree of incompatibility between the field of poison and
symbiotes.
One thing he did appreciate was the fact that there was an abundance of
research on the topic. This was because a lot of the test subjects that were
used to conduct the necessary experiments were actually animals. Since a lot
of these symbiotes were able to take root in other animals, the effects of
poison-based techniques were easy to observe.
One of the biggest problems Rui had come across was that almost all poison-
oriented techniques required the user to actually develop complete immunity
to said poison. Such a requirement was almost inevitable, all things
considered. After all, how could one integrate poison into the body to use on
others if said poison would end up killing them in the first place?
The Mindmirror symbiote was particularly vulnerable since most of its body
was brain tissue comprised of neurons that certainly weren't resistant to
poison. The only poisons that it was able to develop immunity to were low-
grade poisons that weren't lethal.
This meant that whatever poison Rui planned to integrate into his Severer
Project had to be a minor poison that couldn't really do active damage to his
opponent. He was limited to minor neurotoxins that negatively affected motor
control or poisons that affected certain parts of the body. He couldn't for the
big shots that could kill even Martial Squires with just the slightest bit of
exposure.
('Though that doesn't necessarily too bad.') Rui thought to himself. ('I highly
doubt I would have the affinity and the talent to be able to master such
poisons in the first place. Poison is supposed to be one of three elements that
make the Severer Project a powerful lethal attack. There was also the piercing
attack and the friction element to batter the wound.')
He quickly went through each poison that was viable as he made a mental
note of all of them in the mind palace. Each of the poisons that were viable
had to be such that they did not negatively affect brain tissue directly or
indirectly, which most poisons did, which is why they were incompatible
with the Mindmirror Brain. He then further shortlisted them as far as actual
utility went.
[Hurndrum Nectar]
This was a poison derived from a special plant that caused a tremendous
burning sensation to the applied area of the body that was indistinguishable
from the actual sensation of burning. However, it did not actually cause any
actual impediments to the functioning of the body. Thus, if the target was
able to endure the pain, the poison would not cause any meaningful
difference in combat.
The reason that this was considered a low-grade poison was that most Martial
Squires had a disproportionately high amount of pain tolerance. After all,
every Martial Squire had undergone the mind-crushing hellish torture that
was the breakthrough to the Squire Realm. Once one underwent that, almost
all other forms of conventional pain were rather trivial in comparison.
[Gangaer drop]
This was another potential candidate that caused necrosis to affected flesh,
however, the rate at which it caused necrosis was exceedingly slow, to the
degree that it was very unlikely to make much of a difference before the fight
ended, and even then, it was not immediately debilitating and healing potions
could further slow it down tremendously.
[Serinflow powder]
This was a poison created from the grain of the Serinflow crop. It functioned
as an anti-coagulant that prevented wounds from slowing down blood flow
through the coagulation of blood. If administered to an open wound, it would
cause said wound to continue bleeding without pause. However, pressure on
the wound effectively could replace the natural coagulation of the body, thus
it wasn't particularly lethal.
This was a poison Rui had the most hope for. This poison would pair really
well with the technique he had in mind, the piercing and the friction in his
attack would certainly cause a wound that was quite open and exposed, if he
could master the Serinflow powder, then every time he successfully landed
an attack, he could be certain it would be difficult for his opponent to endure
the bleeding wound he had created.
There were a few other candidates as well, and Rui intended to verify his
compatibility with all of them before he could have a much clearer idea of
how realistic Project Severer was.
He sighed, putting aside the matter for now. "I should work on the other
projects as well."
The remaining two projects weren't easy, but he was more comfortable with
them since they did not require the comprehension of fields that he did not
have a good understanding of. This was especially true for the Sniper Project.
Out of all of the three of his projects, the Sniper Project was, in his
estimation, the likeliest to succeed. He had fleshed out the technique almost
entirely on a conceptual level.
He accessed the model for the technique from his mind palace, going over it
once more. The goal of the project was a technique that allowed him
accurately extreme long-range attacks that would ordinarily be impossible for
a Martial Squire by relying on his ability to process information
systematically, swiftly, and accurately.
The three main obstacles to the viability of the technique were the large
distance over which he would need to aim accurately, the atmospheric and
environmental factors that would influence the trajectory of the attack over
such a long distance, and the movements of his target that, over such a large
distance, could end up causing a complete miss.
He actually had reasonably viable solutions for all of these problems, and he
intended to test them out as soon as he could.
Chapter 539 Technique Candidates
There was only one issue.
('Testing these solutions will require me to master and modify some

techniques; new and old.') Rui shook his head with resignation.
It couldn't be helped. The originality of Project Sniper came from its

revolutionary concept of relying on a data science approach to improve aim
and accuracy instead of pure skill. However, that didn't necessarily mean that
every ounce of the technique across all aspects was completely original and
something Rui had developed from scratch.
For example, Project Sniper required a projectile firing mechanism to fire

projectiles of some sort from a long distance away. However, Rui was not
going to create from scratch a brand-new projectile-firing mechanism that the
Martial world has never ever seen before. He was going to look at existing
super long-range offensive techniques and choose one that was most fit for
his needs. Once he mastered said technique, he intended to modify the
projectile firing mechanism of the technique to suit Project Sniper.
He had no intention of re-inventing the wheel, he was only going to modify

existing wheels to suit his needs.
He also needed to master a technique that gave him much more thorough
long-range sensory capabilities. After all, how could he possibly snipe a
target away from a great distance away if he could not sense them from a
great distance away?
Of course, he did have Seismic Mapping, but Seismic Mapping did not have
the detail and precision he was looking for. Furthermore, its accuracy grew
worse the further above the ground any given object or person was.
Furthermore, it had grown a bit obsolete in the Squire Realm because Martial
Squires did not need to touch the ground thanks to Sky Walking.
He intended to pick up an aerial sensory technique that would allow him to

accurately evaluate atmospheric conditions which he could use to process and
make more objective deductions and conclusions. He could only proceed
with the rest of the development of the technique after he obtained the
necessary sensory prowess needed. After all, any question of whether he
could possibly snip people accurately from a great distance away came was
meaningless if he could not even perceive his targets properly.
"I can purchase the technique and begin mastering them when I go to the
Martial Union to verify my compatibility and tolerance for the poisons I hope
to master." Rui nodded. Until that happened, no further progress with the
Severer and Sniper Projects could be made.
That left only one project; Project Bounce.
He sighed. This project was the least developed, even on a conceptual level.
While he had a somewhat clear idea of how to go about the other two
projects, Project Bounce was more difficult.
"Converting incoming attacks into kinetic energy of my own body is not the
most difficult part, even if it is difficult. But it's definitely plausible. On the
other hand, getting rid of that kinetic energy on the spot instantaneously and
completely is quite difficult, I'm not sure how to even go about that." He
sighed.
Well, he intended to tackle the first part with suited techniques while he
brainstormed a way to handle the second part. He had already given the
matter some thought but he could not think of a realistic way to do so at the
moment.
Rui shook his head, he would cross that bridge when he came across it, he
was not going to unnecessarily waste too much time when it was clear that he
simply couldn't come up with a solution at the moment.
"Alright, no time to waste." Rui immediately left the Orphanage and headed
straight to the Martial Union, arriving within five minutes. He quickly headed
towards the Martial support counter.
"Excuse me."
"How may I help you?" The staff member smiled.
"I wish to book poison compatibility tests for these poison-oriented Martial
Art techniques." Rui handed her a list with the names of the poisons.
"This... will take a while to arrange, please wait while we arrange the tests
you seek." She informed him.
"I also wish to visit the Squire-level library," Rui explained. "Please do
inform me through the accounter when the process is done."
"Alright, we will be sure to do that."
He immediately headed to the Squire-level library while the Martial Union

arranged the tests he was looking for.
"Alrighty then," Rui murmured once he reached. "Where to begin?"
He intended on purchasing a suitable long-range technique, a wide-range

aerial sensory technique, a technique that allowed him to intercept attacks
elastically if such a thing existed.
He sauntered over to the offense-oriented section of the library, walking over

to the long-range portion. Thankfully, the techniques in the library were
organized very systematically, making it rather simple and easy to find any
particular kind of technique that one was looking for.
He skimmed through them as he happened across several interesting

techniques.
[Fireball]
This technique was a head-oriented long-range technique that ignited the air
through intense pressure while exhaling, causing one to blow out fire.
Rui had seen this technique before, once in the Martial Contest. One of the
representatives was a Martial Apprentice with a heat-oriented Martial Art.
Her dangerous heat-based techniques had made her a force to be reckoned
with.
('This won't work for my purposes, however.') He shook his head.
The requirements he had for his sniping technique was the fact that it needed
to be precise and discrete, while also being able to sustain itself over great
distances. This technique did the exact opposite. The Fireball technique was
not precise or discrete, it affected a broader area before the user, and it most
certainly did not have the kind of range that Rui was looking for. While it
was an extremely iconic attack across all of fiction, it was not something that
Rui could even consider purchasing for the Sniper Project.
He ran across a very familiar technique.
[Tempestual Ripple]
"Hmm..." Rui pondered whether this old technique of his would work or not.
Chapter 540 Choices
It was definitely much more pragmatic and alluring than the previous
technique, without a doubt. One of the greatest allures of the technique was
the fact that Rui was already intimately familiar with the technique. So much
so that he could probably adapt the Apprentice-level version of the technique
to the Squire Realm by himself if he wanted.
Furthermore, theoretically, it could have the range he was looking for

depending on the shape of the wind attack. If he made a smaller but
concentrated attack, it would last much longer than it normally would.
"Hm, I'll consider it." Rui plucked the scroll off the shelf as he continued on
with his inspection. There were numerous techniques of all sorts. He saw
several techniques that he had run into in the past, such as the arm extension
attack. There were many techniques that were also compatible with one
particular kind of Martial body.
[Elastic Whip]
This was a technique that compatible with only the rubber body Martial body.
Rui was surprised to see this here considering the last time he saw it was in
the hands of a Britannian Martial Squire.
('Then again, I guess most super-nations probably have similar variants of the
same technique.') Rui guessed.
He walked past it, there was no point in even considering the technique,
considering that he didn't have the right Martial body for it.
He continued examining the existing techniques one by one until he ran into
something that drew his attention.
[Sonic Bullets]
This was a technique that generated discrete pulses of high-intensity sound

that traveled forth at the speed of sound. The sound was generated by a
combination of conditioning of the larynx and a specific breathing technique.
Rui's eyebrows rose with interest.
Sound was very persistent in the atmosphere compared to gusts of wind. The
reason was simply, while techniques like Tempestual Ripple launched
pockets of condensed air through space, sound traveled using the atmosphere
as a medium. Techniques like Tempestual Ripple experienced immense
resistance from the atmosphere, however, the same wasn't true for sound.
The reason sound had a range limit was only due to a dilution and loss of
energy in the ever-expanding wavefront.
('However, in a concentrated sound pocket like the Sonic Bullet technique,

the dilution of energy would be significantly lesser than a normal sound
wave.') Rui realized.
He recalled that another representative in the Martial Contest had employed

sound attacks. Her attacks did not have extremely limiting ranges, from what
he could tell.
('Furthermore, sound is much harder to detect than wind-based techniques

like Tempestuous Ripple.') Rui noted.
This was because sound did not generate any phenomena that could be used
to detect its arrival. It was hard to 'perceive' sound before it arrived. It was not
the same as physical objects or living organisms that could be detected via
light and sound. Sound was used to detect others, but detecting sound itself
before it arrived was an extremely difficult task. Rui suspected nothing short
of specialized aerial sensory Martial Artists would be able to detect the
launching of highly concentrated and compact sound bullets.
This meant that his Sniper Project technique had inadvertently gained an
element of stealth to it if he did choose this technique to function as the
projectile-firing mechanism of his technique.
('This might just work out perfectly.') Rui felt a surge of excitement.
Of course, he had no doubt that he would need to modify the technique

before it could truly work out the way he hoped it would. But that was
already part of the plan, a necessary inevitability even.
('Alright, I'm going to master this technique even if it kills me!') Rui was
extremely determined. He didn't think it would be easy, given that it was a
grade-seven technique. He didn't know how good his compatibility with
sound-based techniques was. However, as long as he had even decent
compatibility with it, enough effort would allow him to obtain sufficient
proficiency with the technique.
This was unlike poison where Rui was decisively quite incompatible with
them because of the Mindmirror Brain. He had no hard impediments of the
sort when it came to mastering sound-oriented techniques.
He plucked the scroll from the shelf as he set back the Tempestuous Ripple
scroll. He found it a shame that he wouldn't be remastering an old technique
which would certainly occur much quicker than mastering a new technique
from scratch.
('Alright, I need to get a long-range aerial sensory technique.') Rui nodded as

he immediately headed to the sensory technique section.
This wasn't the first time he had visited this technique, he even recognized
many of the techniques, having seen their Apprentice-level equivalents when
he shopped to purchase the Seismic Mapping and Primordial Instinct.
[All-Seeing Eye]
Rui sighed, recalling the grade-ten sensory technique. It was an extraordinary

technique that functioned by the same mechanism that radar did and more. It
allowed the user to not only map the environment to a far greater range and
quality than his Seismic Mapping did, but it also allowed them to observe
their opponent even on a microscopic level. It was a technique in the same
tier as Godspeed and Void Step, one that could only be mastered if one had
immense affinity and talent.
He shook his head, moving on. He came across several more techniques of
various kinds.
[Heat Vision]
This was a technique that functioned through the perception of infrared

radiation, allowing the user to perceive through barriers via the heat
signatures on the other side of the barriers.
Rui considered it. It could bypass physical barriers which was definitely a
desirable trait. He wasn't sure that he could possibly sense targets over a large
range very accurately, but it was worth considering. He simply moved on, for
now.
[Tempestuous Feel]
This was a technique that functioned by sensitizing the user to sound and
fluctuations in air pressure, allowing them to map all objects that came in
contact with the atmosphere within a certain range.
('This might work out.') Rui's eyes twinkled with interest as he plucked the
scroll from its shelf.
Chapter 541 From Scratch
Tempestuous Feel checked all the boxes he was looking for in an aerial
sensory technique that could allow Rui to sense his targets better while also
allowing him to sense the atmospheric conditions that could influence the
trajectory of the sound bullet. When the technique was paired together with
Seismic Mapping, it could allow Rui to sense his opponent with even greater
detail and precision.
With this technique, Rui will have obtained two of the three techniques he set
out to obtain. This was already a pleasant development, for him to have found
what he was looking for this quickly.
Both of the techniques he had chosen to master so far were part of the Sniper
Project, which was in line with Rui's suspicions that the Sniper Project was
the most likely to succeed out of the three projects. It couldn't be helped, it
was just far more viable than the other two projects, one of which he hadn't
yet even conceptually fleshed out, and the other; he didn't even know if they
were conceptually possible.
('Alright, time to get the final technique I'm looking for.') Rui noted as he
headed toward the defensive-technique section.
He was looking for techniques that could potentially be modified to allow

him to elastically convert the kinetic energy of incoming attacks into his own
kinetic energy, and then dispel that kinetic energy rapidly before it sent him
flying away.
Of course, he had considered more ambitious plans as to what to do with the

kinetic energy once his body was obtained, but they were astronomically
more different. He could potentially consider them if Project Bounce ended
up succeeding.
He went through the many techniques in the defensive section. There were
many kinds of active and passive defensive techniques across the section.
Many of them catered to a broad type of Martial body, mostly the ones that
were defensive in nature. If Rui chose to master them, he would not be able
to utilize the technique to their full potential. He automatically disqualified
those techniques in his mind. If they were specifically created with the pre-
condition of having a specific kind of Martial body, then there was no point
in even thinking about purchasing these techniques.
He paused as he came across an old familiar technique.
[Elastic Shift]
This technique mitigated an impact by extending the distance and time over
which the impact occurred by shifting along with the attack. It was the same
principle that baseball players used when they moved their hands along with
the ball when catching it.
He had already considered the technique, but he didn't think it was

particularly viable. This technique fundamentally differed from what he
needed even though it also employed elasticity.
('Shame.') Rui shook his head as he continued scanning through all of the
remaining techniques.
At the end of an hour, he found that his worst fears had come true.
('There aren't any pre-existing techniques that are close enough to what I
want.') Rui sighed. The ones that did cater to a different Martial body. There
unfortunately were generalized techniques that he could use as the basis for
the technique he truly needed.
This meant that he would need to create his own technique from scratch,
drastically increasing the difficulty of Project Bounce.
Still, he intended to give it his all. Besides, if he succeeded then that would
be a signal that even developing the core technique purely from scratch for
any given project was not too implausible. He didn't want to be restricted to
only having to rely on the Martial Union's technique
Shortly after, he received a message on his accounter.
[Squire Quarrier, your requested testing procedures are ready. Please arrive at
the allocated locations listed down below as soon as possible.]
('Alright, let's hope these tests give me better news.') Rui sighed.
Having already finished his agendas in the Squire-level library. He

immediately headed over to the designated procedure rooms.
He already had an idea of what to expect thanks to have already familiarized

himself with the scientific literature surrounding the topic. The way
compatibility with poison was measured was by administering non-lethal
dosages of various poisons into the Martial Artist's body, and observing the
symptoms that the Martial Apprentices experience. Based on the symptoms
and the general effect of the poison on the Martial Artist's body, the degree of
compatibility of the Martial Artist with said poison could be gauged.
This system was developed after observing the effect of poisons across
people of all degrees of compatibility with poison. They gathered the
necessary data to know exactly how people of various degrees of
compatibility reacted to said poison, such that they could easily identify the
degree of compatibility of a Martial Artist with said poison, based on the
symptoms he showed.
"Excuse me?" Rui peered into the room he had been told to go to. "I'm Squire
Quarrier. I was informed that this was where my poison compatibility tests
would occur."
"Ah yes." A doctor greeted him. "Welcome, Squire Quarrier. Please provide
your license for verification."
Rui obliged as he inspected the procedure room. It was spacious with all
kinds of instruments in the room. Within the room was another more isolated
chamber with an operation table with restraints and cuffs at its side.
Of course, Rui understood that that was where he would be undergoing the
test in. Since he would be subjected to the poison which could cause him to
lash out, he needed to be restrained by what were probably Squire-grade
esoteric alloys.
This was understandable. As a Martial Squire, even the shockwaves and wind
gusts generated by his power could kill humans. It was simply too dangerous
for these medical professionals to be in the same room as him when he was
going to be subjected to poison.
"All done, we're good to go." The doctor smiled as he returned Rui's Martial
license back to him. "Please take off upper garments."
Rui sighed with relief inwardly. At least it was only his upper garments,
unlike his last procedure with the Martial Union.
Chapter 542 Burning
"...And that is how we'll be measuring your compatibility with each of the
poisons you've applied for." The doctor explained as Rui was being prepped.
"Any questions?"
"None at all," Rui replied. The doctor had just explained what he had already
come to learn from his own research into poison, he didn't even need it in the
first place, but the doctor was mandated to explain the procedure.
The doctor smiled wryly at his words, no questions meant that either nothing
was understood, or everything was. He did not even need to wonder which of
the two it was considering Rui was a Martial Artist. But it did not matter
much to him, he had already done his duty.
"We will be taking blood samples and conducting brief preliminary tests to
ensure that you're not particularly vulnerable to any of these poisons." The
doctor explained as the nurses around him drew blood with specialized
syringes that were capable of piercing even his flesh. "There are certain
conditions that are benign but are such that certain poisons are extremely
lethal to said Martial Artist, and even the minor dosages that we subject them
to will end up causing extreme damage and potentially death."
Rui nodded, it was a good measure in place to prevent any accidents.

Thankfully, he didn't need to wait long for the results of the tests to come in.
"Good news, you don't have any particular vulnerabilities towards any of the
poisons you wish to test your compatibility of." The doctor informed Rui as
he read through the test results. "We can proceed with the tests immediately."
Rui was taken into the chamber where he was strapped and cuffed into the
bed. He had correctly guessed that the cuffs and straps could restrain even
Martial Squires like himself. The nurses began attaching all kinds of
instruments and devices across his body, a lot of them resembled those of
Earth, and it even seemed that they were meant for the same purpose; to
collect physiological and metabolic data.
After all, in order to verify the symptoms that Rui would experience due to
the poisons, they would need to be able to measure them objectively. A bit of
time passed as the medical team overseeing the procedure collected enough
data on his normal state, which would serve as the control dataset for the
evaluation of his compatibility with the various poisons.
"Alright, Squire Quarrier." The doctor's voice was projected into the
chamber. "We will now begin the procedure. A remotely controlled syringe
will inject the appropriate doses of the particular poisons in your blood, you
may experience varying degrees of discomfort or pain, please try to remain as
composed as possible."
"Good, the poison will be administered now. We will begin with Hurndrum
Nectar."
Rui glanced down at the two tubes sticking into his arms as a teaspoon of an
ominous dark purple fluid passed through it into his body. Rui gritted his
teeth because he knew what he was in for. The Hurndrm Nectar poison was
the poison that caused an intense and lifelike sensation of burning.
"RRRGHH!" Rui gritted his teeth with a restrained scream as he felt his
entire body igniting on fire instantly. It was his very first time experiencing a
burning sensation to such an enormous degree. He felt as though someone
had dunked him in kerosene before igniting him on fire.
He did his best to restrain his urge to lash out. Thankfully, his pain tolerance
had reached a much higher level thanks to the boundless agony that was the
breakthrough process of the Squire Realm, compared to that, this was a lot
easier.
He closed his eyes as he focused on his breathing. The pain never ceased to
go away but Rui managed to bear it much better rapidly as time passed, even
his heart rate returned to normal despite the enormous pain. This poison was
a high-grade poison in the Apprentice Realm but its effectivity as it passed
through higher Realms decreased significantly.
('As expected, this poison will only cause surprise in my opponent at most,
that too only once.') Rui sighed. Having finally experienced the Hurndrum
Nectar, he was confident that it was not as useful as he had hoped it would
be. While it was certainly startling and even shocking to his opponents when
they felt an inexplicable burning sensation, they would probably quickly get
over it without any meaningful difference in their combat ability.
Of course, startling one's opponent could cause openings in combat that could
be exploited, but that benefit was not worth learning a whole separate poison
technique for, especially when there were other more suitable poisons at
hand. He was pretty sure he could already shock his opponents with his Mind
Mask technique in the first place, thus he didn't have any particular need for
this poison even if the other poisons didn't work out.
He opened his eyes only after the pain dissipated.
"You endured that very well, Squire Quarrier." The doctor told him. "We will
now be administering the next poison; Gangaer drop."
The Gangaer Drop poison was a poison that caused slow and steady necrosis;
cellular death and breakdown. Such a technique would ordinarily be
considered an extremely dangerous poison, however, its rate of affection was
quite slow, and only in extremely long and drawn-out battles could its
effectivity be maximized.
A few more instruments were remotely manipulated as made their way over
to his hands, wrapping around his wrists and squeezing hard, so much so that
his hands began feeling numb with the strange itchy feeling that came along
with suppressed blood flow to any particular part of his flesh.
('This is probably to ensure that the necrosis is contained within a specific

area rather than to have it spread across the entire body.') Rui noted. It was
much easier to deal with a localized necrotic spread rather than one that was
occurring across the entire body.
A syringe was pricked into the center of his palm and a strange translucent
liquid was injected into his skin.
Chapter 543 Commonality
He actually didn't feel any changes in his body for a decent amount of time
after the Gangaer Drop poison was injected into his flesh, which was
revealing the flaw that made it a low-grade poison.
('This is stupid.') Rui sighed. He would need to land the attack half an hour
before the first signs of it affecting his opponent could be seen.
It was only after quite some time could he notice some dark purple patches
on his palms. The poison had begun taking effect and had begun causing cell
death on his palm. It was an alarming sensation as even the itchy feeling
across his palm caused by the low blood circulation had disappeared from the
affected areas, but he knew that there was no reason to worry. This was a
relatively standard procedure and when it came to Martial Art-related
procedures, he was quite certain that the Martial Union surpassed even the
Kandrian Ministry of Martial Art.
None of the other poisons had too much of a visible impact on him, they
pretty much blurred as time passed, Rui was quite thoroughly bored when the
final compatibility test ended.
The restraints and cuffs came off automatically,
"All of the compatibility tests you've scheduled are completed, Squire

Quarrier." The doctor informed him as Rui got up, rubbing his arms.
"How much time before the results come?" Rui asked as he put on his
garments.
"Oh, it shouldn't take too long." The doctor told Rui with a smile. "Probably
around a few hours depending on how much of a rush the medical analytics
department is under. You don't need to wait here, of course, the data will be
forwarded to you on your accounter."
"Understood." Rui nodded.
Rui thanked him before leaving the procedure room and heading for the
training wing of the branch. His business with the Martial Union wasn't quite
over yet. He still had the two techniques that he had purchased from the
Martial Union that he needed to begin training.
"Excuse me." Rui addressed one of the staff members at the Martial support
counter.
"How may I help you?" The staff member asked him with a courteous smile.
"I'd like to purchase the training resources for Tempestuous Feel and the
Sonic Bullet techniques." Rui quickly told her.
"Yes sir, may I see your Martial license?" She asked, before verifying his
identity as a Martial Artist and member of the Martial Union.
"Would you also like to purchase the tutoring services of a Martial Artist
guide?" She asked.
"No." Rui shook his head. "Just the training resources will do for now."
He had spent a lot of money in a very short period of time, he needed to be

mindful of his budget. Furthermore, he was quite confident in his
comprehension and digestion of techniques. The two techniques weren't even
that complicated, all things considered.
Hiring the few retired Martial Squires that served as training guides were
quite expensive, he recalled from when he hired one for the Mind Switch
technique. Back then, he had directly been modifying an existing technique,
thus he had felt it was prudent. Furthermore, that was an Apprentice-level
technique, it was much more expensive to hire Martial Squires for Squire-
level techniques.
"Here are the training passes." She handed him two slips of paper that
allowed Rui to make use of the necessary facilities for training in the two
techniques he wanted to master.
The first technique Rui wanted to begin mastering was the Tempestuous Feel
technique. It was quite important in more than one way. It not only would
give him the means to sense his targets at range, boosting the Seismic
Mapping technique, but it also would allow him to sense targets that were in
the air more accurately. Furthermore, it also would give him the means to
thoroughly sense the atmospheric factors that would end up affecting the
trajectory of the sonic bullet.
It was a remarkable technique that fit his needs quite well.
Once he entered the sensory technique facility of the Martial Union with his
training pass, he immediately sat down at a bench in the main lounge, pulling
out the scroll of the Tempestuous Feel technique and unraveling it.
He didn't even bother trying to comprehend it as he quickly dumped all the

information into his mind palace, before closing the scroll and his eyes as he
was in deep thought.
"Interesting." He murmured as he finished reading through all of it soon

enough.
The training for the technique relied on the premise that the body and mind
possessed the capabilities to not only deeply detect atmospheric fluctuations,
but to also learn to interpret them with enough continuous exposure and
experience.
Thus the training regiment involved sealing off all of the senses of the
Martial Artist forcefully while leaving only their sense of touch to
atmospheric fluctuations unhampered. A tremendous amount of time would
need to be spent by the Martial Artist in such a state in an environment with
moving objects
('This is very similar to the training regiments for the Seismic Mapping and
the Primordial Instinct.') Rui realized.
For those techniques, Rui had been required to seal off all senses but one so
that he could focus on mastering and building the one sense that he was
trying to master.
('Considering this a recurring theme across three techniques of different kinds

and even different Realms, it is probably the case that this training method is
a core training method for probably a majority of all sensory techniques.')
Rui wondered if they could even seal off all of his senses considering he had
mastered Seismic Mapping and Primordial Instinct. The scroll insisted that
the Martial Union could seal off all senses, including the techniques that one
had mastered, but Rui felt an immense amount of skepticism towards that
claim, he felt that such a thing should be impossible even when his rationality
reminded him that the Martial Union was vastly more powerful than a measly
little Martial Squire.
Chapter 544 Training Begins
When he inquired about the matter to the assistant staff in the facility, they
confirmed as much.
"These facilities are designed to be able to seal most kinds of sensory

techniques that the Martial Union possesses." One assistant informed him.
"There are other measures in place used to seal the remaining kinds."
"Good to know." Rui nodded. This meant that his Seismic Mapping and
Primordial Instinct wouldn't hamper his training in a new sensory technique.
"I wish to begin immediately. Make all the preparations immediately."
The assistant bowed. "Yes, Squire Quarrier."
There were several training regimes that were such that they could not be
operated without third-party aid that was capable of operating the machines,
instruments, and facilities that they would be training with. This aid was
included in the standard training package that Rui had bought.
When the two assistants arrived, they arrived with a large black body suit, as
well as an old man with an aura of power.
"Squire Quarrier, this Squire Firinun, he will be aiding you in the preparation
for the training for the Tempestuous Feel technique." The assistant informed
him.
"I didn't purchase the guidance of a Martial Squire though." Rui frowned.
The Martial Squire snorted at those words. "This is part of the standard aid
that you've purchased, boy. There is no other way to seal your Primordial
Instinct asides from a hypnotic technique that locks away your instincts.
Without locking away the Primordial Instinct technique, you cannot train on
your Tempestuous Feel technique since your mind can and will still rely on
the former to sense your environment. I won't be offering you any aid beyond
this necessity, rest assured."
"I see..." Rui nodded. ('So that's how they plan to seal the Primordial Instinct
sensory technique, through hypnosis. How incredible, I have got to delve
deeper into the mental manipulation field.')
Once Rui donned the black suit and entered the training chamber, the Martial
Squire followed him in.
"When are we going to be-!"
BAM!
A loud noise surprised him when suddenly, the old man's voice reverberated
inside his head.
('You feel your instincts dulling by the second, slowly, slowly. Every second,
they grow weaker, smaller, softer....')
Rui felt a degree of alarm but realized that this was part of the hypnosis that
would seal his Primordial instinct for the duration of the training period. He
immersed himself in the man's voice, allowing it to influence him. Time
passed as the man continued with his hypnosis. Much to his surprise, Rui's
inherent mental fortitude was incredibly tough. If not for the fact that Rui was
actively cooperating, he wasn't even sure if he was strong enough to
hypnotize Rui!
An hour later, Rui finally snapped out of it, breathing deeply.
He turned around, meeting the stare of the Martial Squire.
"Is it done?" Rui asked.
"Yes." He snorted. "Finally."
"Will we have to do that every time I want to train?"

"No, I've planted a suggestion and a trigger in your subconscious mind."
Squire Firinun informed him. "Next time, it will be a lot simpler to get you
into this state."
"I see..." Rui was quite curious about the hypnotic technique that the Martial
Squire used.
He closed his eyes as he tried to employ Primordial instinct to test whether it

was truly sealed or not, before opening his eyes in shock. He couldn't sense a
thing!
('Wow.') Rui was impressed. ('The technique is actually completely sealed.')
He felt a stronger desire to look into mental manipulation techniques

whenever he could in the future.
"Thank you." Rui bowed, expressing respect.
The Martial Squire snorted before leaving the chamber and closed shut
behind him.
"Squire Rui, we can begin whenever." The assistant told him.
"Begin immediately," Rui instructed.
"Yes sir."
Rui waited for ten seconds before suddenly everything went dark. Rui felt
alarmed as he very rarely felt this blindsided. Ever since he broke through to
the Squire Realm, his senses had grown immensely powerful over the years.
He had become tremendously aware of his surroundings even without his
sensory techniques.
Now suddenly, all of that disappeared. It was quite the jarring switch, he
wasn't accustomed to this.
('There's almost no seismic radiation either.')
The chamber was clearly constructed such that no vibrations would pass
through the floor, certainly none that could allow him to make much out of
his environment.
The only thing he could feel was air bouncing on his skin energetically.
('This is the second function of the suit.') Rui recalled the training regiment
from the scroll. In order to slowly get him accustomed to interpreting
atmospheric fluctuations to map out his environment, the suit amplified
atmospheric fluctuations, making it easier for him to analyze and interpret
them. Once he learned to perceive his environment, the amplification would
be continuously yet steadily decreased until it reached standard atmospheric
conditions.
Once Rui would be able to demonstrate his combat ability in standard

atmospheric conditions, he will have attained satisfactory mastery of the
Tempestuous Feel sensory technique.
"Squire Quarrier, we can begin low-grade evasion training anytime." the

assistant informed him.
"Alright, start at the lowest level, I haven't yet gotten accustomed to this," Rui
informed. He could barely hear his voice externally due to the noise
suppression, but he knew that the assistant staff managing the facilities of the
chamber could hear him.
"Will do, sir."
Soon enough, Rui felt some exaggerated fluctuations on his back. He wasn't
sure what that meant, but before he could even begin to understand what it
meant.
POW!
He felt a light ball-like object strike him on his back.
('Is that how it works?') Rui wondered, as he quickly made some quick
inferences. He felt a similar fluctuation on his front.
POW!
This time as well, a ball hit him in the chest.
This time on his arm.
POW!
Leg.
POW!
Rui simply kept observing for a while as he recorded and measured several
parameters about the sensations and the projectiles that hit him later. He
wasn't in a hurry to begin dodging them, he just wanted to collect more data
for now.
Chapter 545 Speed
The assistant standing outside felt a bit strange. Rui had not moved at all in
the past half an hour since the training began. Although he was merely
trained to be able to operate the machines that could not be operated by the
person using them to be trained, such as the chamber that he was operating
now, he had been doing this job for years, serving alongside the head and
side Squire instructors of the facility that had trained many a Martial Artist to
master many sensory techniques, it had given him a degree of expertise on
how Martial Artists ought to go about the training and what worked best
while what didn't.
It was why he was confident that Rui was simply wasting time standing in
one place instead of gaining enough experience in evading the projectiles.
Rui even made bizarre requests such as adjusting the speed of the projectiles,
size of the projectiles and weight of the projectiles.
('But what is the point of doing this if you're not going to even begin
dodging?') He shook his head. Of course, he did not dare voice out his
thoughts. Rui was a Martial Squire, someone who possessed an exalted status
in not only society but especially in the Martial Union compared to a
relatively low-level employee like him.
CLASP
Rui caught one of the projectiles aimed for his face.
The assistant shrugged, somewhat impressed, in his experience, it was

somewhat unusual for a Martial Artist to gain the accuracy in timing and
placement of movements to catch the projectiles, but considering he was still
at a relatively low level, it wasn't anything crazy.
"Alright, time to put my preliminary understanding and preparations to the

test. Begin increasing the difficulty of the exercise slowly as time passes."
Rui instructed.
"Yes sir, will do." The assistant promptly replied, sighing inwardly.
He increased the difficulty level by a bit, increasing the speed, and frequency
and diversifying the size a bit.
CLASP
Rui caught a projectile the size of a baseball aimed at his shoulder, tossing it
away. Technically, this was supposed to be evasion, but catching it had
greater sensory requirements, thus Rui had chosen to focus on cleanly
intercepting all of them.
One by one, he caught all incoming projectiles regardless of their direction

and size.
('Interesting, maybe he is particularly talented.') The assistant staff member

watched with interest. ('Let's step up the difficulty a bit.')
Once again, all the parameters were increased. Yet, Rui easily kept up with
all of them. The speed and power of the projectiles weren't at the Squire
Realm, not at all. The lowest level of the training as Rui requested was at the
human level, thus it wasn't physically difficult to catch the projectiles for a
Martial Squire, not at all. The difficulty of this training exercise was the fact
that Martial Squires were unable to sense them at the beginning, thus no
amount of strength or speed would allow them to catch or evade the projectile
until they could.
An hour later, the assistant's demeanor had long gone from calm and
composed to shocked.
CLASP
Rui caught a thin ball the size of a ping pong ball, before moving his head to
evade another projectile aimed at his head, while simultaneously catching a
third projectile dashing for his knee. He was dealing with multiple projectiles
simultaneously quite smoothly. What was especially shocking to the assistant
staff member was that the speed and momentum of the projectiles had
escalated from human level to quasi-Squire level!
This was unheard of in all his time serving as an assistant helper in this
facility in the Martial Union, he had never heard of someone reaching the
quasi-Squire level stage in evasive combat exercises after a single hour!
Rui had made more progress in one hour than some Martial Artists did in
weeks!
Even now, he was dodging the projectiles smoothly, catching them whenever
possible.
('He's an unparalleled prodigious genius in the field of sensory Martial Art!')

The assistant gasped in excitement.
Of course, this wasn't exactly true. The way Rui had gone about it was very
simple, yet very different from all other Martial Artists.
He made the obvious deduction that the strange sensations he was

experiencing were generated by the projectiles. However, while most people
would stop there, Rui went much further,
In the beginning, Rui had simply spent quite some time observing and
collecting data. He had begun by measuring the time difference between the
inception of the sensation, and the actual clash between the projectile, while
also measuring the momentum of the projectile based on the impact, and also
measuring the weight and size of the projectile. These three measurements
over a period of time allowed him to understand the correlation between these
physical parameters and the sensations that they caused.
('Higher momentum seems to linearly correlate to a more intense sensation,

as does density.')
('Higher speed seems to linearly correlate to the abruptness of the inception

of sensation of increased fluctuations.')
('The sine of the angle of incidence is directly proportional to the intensity of

the sensation, while also causing a similar angle in the pressure causing the
sensation.')
There were several correlations between what he felt and what they told him
about the incoming projectile. Using these rules, Rui could infer the speed,
weight, size, momentum, and even direction of the projectile, allowing him to
effectively 'see' these projectiles at any given moment using these
calculations.
Unfortunately, it was still far from perfect.
POW
Rui was smacked in the face by a football-sized projectile.
('Hm, I was too slow in my estimations.') Rui noted. He wasn't particularly

displeased. He knew that this would take time, he needed to be able to read
these sensations subconsciously, unlike the conscious calculations he was
making at the moment.
Conscious calculations were far slower than reflex, the moment the assistant
reached even the very base of the Squire Realm as far as the speed of the
projectiles went, Rui knew he wouldn't be able to keep up.
Chapter 546 Lagging
Rui decided to call it a day for the training of the Tempestuous Feel. While
had made remarkable progress in a single day, he had quickly discovered the
hard limit that no number of tricks would help him overcome, from here on
out it would be grueling sustained hard work over a long period of time. Once
Rui was done with the technique, he got out of the sweaty suit, feeling the
satisfaction of all his senses returning, including the Primordial Instinct
technique.
"Incredible work sir!" The assistant came to his aid. "I look forward to your
next training session!"
"Hm?" Rui threw an odd look at him. "Ah, er, yes, thanks."
He ignored the strange assistant before heading towards the long-range

offense training facility. It was one of the largest facilities in the entirety of
the Martial Union branch, for obvious reasons. In fact, Rui was partly
worried whether it would be able to facilitate his needs considering the kind
of technique that he sought to develop.
Once he entered the facility, he took the time to sit in the corner as he
unraveled the scroll for the Sonic Bullet technique, before reading through it
as quickly as he could, inputting all the data into his mind palace before
closing the scroll and keeping it away.
It took him a while to process all the data he had come across.
('Interesting.')
The technique first required conditioning of the larynx by applying stress to

it, causing it to grow thicker over time. This was the very first step taken that
was necessary to generate powerful sound waves that could be concentrated
into a bullet.
After that, Rui would be subjected to a vocalizing strengthening stage where

his ability to generate sound would be exercised with breathing apparatuses
that were mechanically designed such that one could not exhale through it
unless one generated a certain degree of sound. The difficulty of the
apparatus would be continuously increased over time as Rui improved,
strengthening his larynx and his diaphragm.
The final stage of the technique involved learning how to efficiently convert
the power potential energy in one's diaphragm when fully inhaled into sound
energy and learning how to direct that sound energy.
It was definitely going to be different from the techniques he had learned

prior.
"Ah, the Sonic Bullet technique, is it?" An assistant helper nodded. "I will
fetch the conditioning device for the first phase."
"Please do." Rui nodded.
Rui put on the device, resembling an oxygen mask, on his face as the
assistant aided him with the functioning of the device.
"RRGH!" Rui gritted his teeth once the conditioning process began. A
tremendous amount of pressure was exerted onto his larynx. He felt as though
he was choking. He couldn't even scream due to the fact that his larynx
couldn't even contort under the pressure causing him to lose his voice while
he was under training.
He wasn't even sure with what mechanism with which the device was
exerting pressure on his larynx, but he didn't particularly care at the moment.
He quickly gathered his composure as he breathed through his nose.
The exposure of his larynx to pressure on its tissue over time would cause it
to become stronger, allowing it to be able to project the intensity of the sound
he needed for the sake of the technique. Tissue tended to develop a greater
degree of toughness due to long-term exposure to pressure. This was one of
the ways that the human body could adapt to its external circumstances.
A few hours passed before Rui could finally take off the wretched device,
drinking a healing potion as soon as he could. The moment he was done, he
left the facility without a moment's waste.
He did not enjoy the training for the Sonic Bullet technique one bit,
especially when compared to the highly pleasant training that he had
experienced with his previous technique's training. Hell, it was almost as
though they balanced each other out. One was quite fun, while the other was
straight torture.
"That was rough." Rui sighed as he skywalked back home.
He had already completed all of his remaining business in the martial Union,
all he left to do was go home and go through the results of the poison
compatibility tests.
('And also begin developing the core techniques for the Bounce Project.') He
sighed.
Out of all three projects, Project Bounce was the one technique that he had
yet to make any progress with. He needed to immediately start developing
techniques for the core principles of Project Bounce, until he did that, he
would not be able to take a single step towards successfully realizing the
project.
('But how am I going to do that?') Rui wondered.
He needed to figure out a way to actually at least get his foot in the door. The
progress of one project could not lag too far behind the others, otherwise, he
would be more inclined to abandon it. However, the ambition of Project
Bounce was certainly something that was still alluring to him to, he would
rather it succeed in any way he could.
('Even the simpler of the two problems, elastically observing all her kinetic
energy and converting it to my body's own kinetic energy is quite hard.') Rui
sighed. ('I would literally need to be made out of rubber or springs for such a
thing to be poss-!')
His thoughts paused as an idea flashed through his mind.
('Made out of springs, huh?') Rui considered that thought.
It was, of course, impossible for him to be made out of springs, but that didn't
mean he couldn't get the next best thing.
('Springs are coiled wires that exert a restoring force on themselves, when
stretched or pressed, that is directly proportional to the degree of their
stretching or pressing.') Rui recalled the basics about springs.
('If I can replicate the functionality of a spring with my own body by

mimicking their mechanics with my body.') Rui glanced down at his hands.
('I might just have a fair chance.')
Chapter 547 Severed
"Ah, shit." Rui sighed.
The moment he had gone home, he had gone through the results of the poison
compatibility tests that he had undertaken. More than enough time had passed
since he undertook the test, thus the results would have undoubtedly been
processed and sent to him.
Unfortunately, the results weren't what he was looking for at all.
('My compatibility with the Serinflow Powder is too low.')
Serinflow Powder was the poison Rui most hoped to master out of all of the
other low-grade poisons that the Mindmirror Symbiote wasn't incompatible
with. However, based on the results of his test with the poison, it became
evidently clear that he wasn't compatible with the poison.
('Shitty luck.') Rui shook his head.
There was nothing he could do about it. The problem at hand was the fact
that compatibility wasn't something he could alter, it was innate. With poison,
it was a bit different because compatibility was marked by the degree to
which the body was able to tolerate and flourish despite the introduction of a
new poison, rather than it being a mental problem like it was for other fields,
where compatibility related to the affinity one had with the field.
He could not change the degree to which his body was able to inherently
tolerate the Serinflow Powder poison, so he could forget about trying to
master the poison. At best, he could look at the poisons he was compatible
with to at least a decent degree and consider them as candidates to employ in
Project Severer.
('Problem is...') Rui glanced down at the list. ('They aren't particularly
optimistic either.')
Gangaer Drop, Hurndrum Nectar... These were the poisons that he didn't see
as much value in mastering. Should he try to forcefully incorporate them into
the technique and try to make it work? Or perhaps, should he try to reinvent
the concept of the technique?
He wasn't sure.
The whole point of the technique was to help him increase his lethality,
perhaps as long as it solved that problem, it didn't matter what form it took.
('That sounds wrong.') Rui frowned. Was a technique truly synergetic with
him like he had decided he wanted his to be if it didn't have any other
conditions asides from them being lethal?
In that regard, perhaps he had been wrong about how he went about Project
Severer in the first place. While it was true that the concept he had come up
with was not weak, how synergetic was it with his Martial Art and Martial
body?
...
('...Not at all.') Rui realized.
After all, he was struggling to find a poison compatible with him that was
also quite useful. All the ones that he truly desired were incompatible with
him. It wasn't synergetic with his body, and Rui was starting to see that it
wasn't synergetic with the core of his Martial Art either.
Unlike Project Sniper that concretely made use of his strengths in systematic
analysis and calculation in order to potentially result in revolutionary long-
range accuracy, Project Severer did not offer anything of the sort. It was just
a powerful tool that would no doubt be put to good use in Rui's hand, but it
didn't use his strength to become even greater as a technique.
Individuality was important, but he needed to make sure that the techniques
born out of that were also synergetic with his Martial Art and Martial body,
taking his strengths and using them to produce even greater outputs than just
the sum of the parts.
With that condition in mind, Project Severer was lacking. It did not
particularly resonate with the VOID algorithm with Rui's personal strengths
or his Martial body.
('If that is the case, then Project Severer was a failure from the start.') Rui
sighed. He had simply gotten excited with the technique, but now that he had
realized its greatest flaw, he no longer felt any desire to develop it.
At least, he made this realization somewhat earlier than later. It would have
been best to realize that now than months later after he had already made a lot
of progress in developing the technique.
('Should I... try to create a replacement project?') Rui wondered, before

shaking his head. Ensuring the success of the two ongoing projects was more
important than creating a new third project. As long as he completed those
two projects, it would give him a measure of understanding of the difficulties
of creating one's own techniques.
('In that case, I need to do everything I can in my power to ensure that Project
Sniper and Project Bounce succeed.') Rui was determined.
Project Bounce's lack of progress was worrying him a little. He had gotten a
bit of an idea prior, an idea that he may be able to convert into actual
progress.
('I'm going to need to test my ideas out in some way.') Rui realized. ('Should I
go back to the Martial Union?')
He could purchase Squire sparring services and get one of the Martial Squires
of the Martial Union to help him flesh his technique out.
('Nah.') Rui shook his head.
It was too expensive, and although he certainly had funds, he could not spend
them too ostentatiously.
('It's cheaper to commission a low-grade Squire to be my training partner.')
This was because purchasing Squire sparring services from the Martial Union
required purchasing their sparring facilities as well in addition to the price of
commissioning a Squire. While it would be nice to train in a training facility,
he didn't particularly need it this time, and as such would rather save his
money.
('Well back to the Martial Union anyway.') Rui sighed as he headed back to
the Martial Union to make a commission himself. He intended even add a
small fee that would speed up the process as much as possible. Thankfully, he
didn't need a high-grade mission either, the mission would be a grade-one
mission that would allow him to pick up a newbie the rates for whom would
be cheap.
Chapter 548 Test
A day later, a Martial Squire stopped by the Orphanage. He immediately

found another Martial Squire waiting for him at the gate.
"Squire Casen." Rui greeted him. "You're here."
"Squire Quarrier." The woman replied. She looked several years older than
Rui, with brown eyes and green hair extending to her waist.
"Let's go," Rui told her, as he began sky walking.
"Where to?" She frowned, as she followed along.
"To where we'll be training," Rui told her as he led her deep into the forest
near the Orphanage, towards a hill.
Rui had cleared himself a lot of land, suspecting that he'd need the space for
what he was planning.
"You do have a striking technique, right?" Rui asked for confirmation. He

had made that one of the conditions of the commission. He was going to be
testing the idea he had come up with for the Bounce Project. He needed his
training partner to possess at least one striking Martial Art technique.
"Of course." She replied.
"Good." Rui nodded.
"What kind of training do you wish for me to aid you in?" She asked.
Rui hadn't been specific in the commission, he had simply mentioned that he
simply needed a training partner that could strike.
"It's a defensive technique that I'm currently working on," Rui told her. "All I
need you to do I launch straight punches when I tell you to."
"Okay." She nodded, shrugging. This was a simple enough matter.
Rui walked up to her before taking a forward-leaning stance with his left arm
reaching, facing her.
She frowned at the bizarre stance, before proceeding to wind up a right punch
and swinging it.
POW!
Her fist struck his open palm, pushing it aside as it shot forward, striking his
chest.
('Tsk, that was a failure.') "Again, this time aim for my palm."
She nodded, before striking him again.
POW!
Once again, the strike flew past his palm, landing on his chest.
"Again."
POW!
"Again!"
POW!
...
Only after the tenth time did Rui take pause.
What he was trying to achieve was effectively trying to turn his arm into a
spring that would intercept strikes in the same manner that springs would.
The spring needed to be positioned between himself and his opponent for it to
be effective. An incoming strike's power would push against the 'spring'
causing it to contract and in turn push his entire body backward, sending him
flying.
This way, instead of the strike hitting him and causing damage, it would hit
him and launch his body into motion. The spring would act as the middleman
between the strike and Rui, ensuring that no damage would be inflicted on
Rui and that he would only be launched into a motion.
However, in order for this to be possible, his arm needed to function in the
same way a spring did. Springs linearly increased the force they exerted the
more they were contracted. Which was a fancy way of saying that springs
became harder to press the more they were pressed.
His arm would need to intercept the incoming strike and mimic that
mechanism.
('The problem is that it's hard for me to properly intercept an attack with my
palm.') Rui sighed. ('I need to intercept it at the base of my palm that is
reinforced by arm and ensure it stays there.')
"Alright, let's get back to it," Rui told her.
She nodded before they both took their respective stances.
As she threw a straight punch, Rui adjusted his palm ever so slightly.
POW
FSSS...
Rui's eyes widened in elation as he realized he had skidded a few meters

away from her. ('A hint of success!')
The fact that he had managed to push himself away meant that he had at least
partially managed to convert a portion of her attack into kinetic energy
instead of damage. ('But it's still really rough, an overwhelming majority of
her strike hurt my hand.')
That was fine, of course. It was commendable progress considering he had
just begun!
"Again."
The two got into position again, before she once more pulled back her right
fist, winding up for a punch. Rui's sharp eyes were fixed on her fist.
POW!
FSSS...
"Tsk." He tutted. This time, he had only skidded a single meter. ('Inefficient,
my angle was wrong.')
"Again."
POW!
This time, he completely failed as his palm was pushed aside, striking his
face.
A few hours of practice went into this singular exercise. Rui had managed to
make very minor general improvements as he figured out some flaws in his
maneuver that were causing his arm to be flung out of the way.
The biggest change he had to make was offering no resistance to the strike
with his palm to the strike as it arrived. He needed to flow with the strike and
only after ten centimeters begin slowly offering increasing resistance like
springs being pressed would. This would cause his whole body to move
backward, converting the attack's power into harmless kinetic energy.
('It feels like pushing a wall to go backward on roller skates.') Rui likened the
sensation to a memory from his previous life. ('A wall that is moving towards
you. You can either let it hit you and get hurt or slowly push it as it
approaches you and roll backwards away from the wall on your skates.')
That was the best analogy he could come up with, and it helped him get a
better idea of how he ought to treat incoming strikes.
By the end of the allocated daily training sessions, he had managed to reach a
stage where he shifted by about a few meters at least. His record was five
meters, which was pretty respectable progress for the very first session.
More importantly, he had received confirmation that it was most likely

viable, considering the rate of progress he was making. He had found the
answer to converting his opponent's attack into harmless kinetic energy.
Now, if he could find a viable way to get rid of all the kinetic energy
instantaneously, then he would be very satisfied!
Chapter 549 Trainer
While he was quite satisfied with his progress, there was one issue.
"This is going to take longer than I expected," He muttered, turning to the

distant figure of Squire Casen in the sky. "And even if she is a low-grade
Martial Squire, it's not easy to commission Martial Squires constantly. I don't
have that kind of money."
This obviously meant only one thing.
"I need to do missions if I am to continue commissioning her." Rui scratched

his head.
He had considered buying a Squire-grade punching machine, before tossing

the idea out the window.
"This technique needs to apply to more than just a punch. I need a Martial
Squire training partner."
Project Bounce needed to work on all manners of striking attacks, it would be

actually detrimental if he limited his training to mechanical and inorganic
strikes.
"This will also be the first time I'm working on mastering techniques while
also completing missions," Rui noted. "It's going to be a messy schedule."
While he could organize his training sessions well, it became harder to

regulate the amount of time on missions, the types of missions he chose
generally didn't allow him to predict the amount of time it would take to
complete them.
"In which case, I should probably choose missions with defined time
periods," Rui noted. "Ideally, long-term missions with defined timings would
be perfect."
Though, those missions tended to have very low pay, unless he managed to
get a real big shot to hire him as a bodyguard. In those cases, he would
usually be doing nothing while earning really well.
('Do I really want that kind of a mission though?') Rui frowned.
Time was precious and even if it was a mission, Rui felt it was a waste to
burn that many hours a day. Missions that gave him some kind of experience
somehow, were the best.
('Oh wait...') An idea lit up in Rui's head. ('I wonder...')
He plucked his accounter, going through his personal missions. He had

opened up his profile and inbox for commissions recently, and he had
received more than just a few.
[Defense class commission: Bodyguard
Client: Savil Vengard
Grade: Two
Remuneration proposal: Fifty gold coins per hour.
Daily time: 84 hours a week.]
Rui raised an eyebrow at the mission. Just based on the rate alone, he could
tell that this was one of the richer clientele of the martial Union. Fifty gold
coins an hour was an outrageous income that an overwhelming majority of
Martial Squires, especially at his current grade, would not hesitate in
accepting the commission.
But not Rui.
('eighty-four hours a week?') Rui shook his head. His time was vastly more
valuable than the time that would be burnt away standing around doing
nothing. There was no amount of money that could purchase eighty-four
hours a week from Rui.
He moved on to several others. They weren't too unfamiliar; standard

defense-class commissions, as well as those from the hunter-class.
However, those weren't the ones that Rui was interested in at the moment.
"Ah..." A smile broke out on Rui's face. "Found it."
[Miscellaneous class commission: Sparring trainer
Client: Hestia Beauregard
Remuneration (negotiable): twenty gold coins per hour minimum
Mission timings (negotiable): fifty hours a week.]
He had been known as a highly effective sparring partner in the Martial

Community and had received commissions to spar with other Martial
Apprentices to help them grow. They had been enjoyable commissions,
although they did not contribute to the growth of his Martial Art in any
particular way, it felt good to apply his Martial Art in other ways.
Seems that people still remembered him for that quality.
He looked for the commission for the highest pay and negotiable timings,
before accepting the commission.
[Miscellaneous class commission: Sparring Trainer
Client: Jeane Viermont
Remuneration(negotiable): Thirty-five gold coins per hour
Mission timing: sixty hours a week.]
Although this mission didn't give him any meaningful combat experience
unless the target of the training was a Martial Squire, it did bring him
satisfaction, so Rui was willing to allow the lack of high productivity.
Training someone via the VOID algorithm wasn't really an application of the
VOID algorithm that Rui had thought about in his previous life. After all, the
VOID algorithm was designed to win against any and all opponents. Rui had
not even entertained such notions back then. But now he was starting to see
how this could be the same. The VOID algorithm forced all Martial Artists to
confront their flaws, shortcomings and imperfections.
There was no other form of training that forced Martial Artists to work on
their lacking Martial Art and combat the way the VOID algorithm did.
Furthermore, it did in the midst of combat, rather than through targeted
training and exercises for any and all of their flaws like was normally the
case. What Rui had learnt that demonstrating exactly in what manner their
flaws, shortcomings and imperfections could be exploited against them
allowed them to learn how to deal with those that would exploit their
weaknesses.
It allowed Rui to see patterns in their Martial Art and combat style that they
themselves would have never ever noticed without him. It was simply too
difficult for them to introspect that deeply into their own Martial Art. They
would need to get researchers of Martial Art to study their Martial Art
extensively with all kinds of devices while processing the data they received
before obtaining such results.
Rui just needed to observe them, and he would end up extrapolating even
more information than any team of Martial Art scholars of the Kandrian
Empire ever could.
He had applied this to Max and Mana when he trained with them, showing
them their flaws and weaknesses. He was never too overbearing in his
instructions, he did not want to have an undue effect on their Martial Path and
end up causing them to become something that they weren't. It was possible
that using the VOID algorithm to train potential Martial Artists was
dangerous, and had thus acted very conservatively.
Chapter 550 Client
Rui arrived before a giant manor, escalating down from the sky.
"Huh..." He frowned.
He had accepted the most well-paying sparring trainer mission in his inbox
and had arrived at the client's residence, but the residence was more
extravagant than he had expected. However, what surprised him was the
insignia of the Kandrian Empire outside the gates.
('Did I misunderstand who my client is?') Rui frowned. ('Or am I in the

wrong place?')
Furthermore, the guards below also had armor and weapons with the
Kandrian Empire's insignia on them. They were spear-wielding Martial
Apprentices, who immediately took a stance once they saw a Martial Squire
stepping down from the sky before them.
"Purpose of visit?" They asked, noticing his garb from the Martial Union.
"Commission."
One of them pulled out a comms device, reading a message on it. "Name?"
"Rui Quarrier," Rui replied.
This commission was made directly to his actual identity, so he did not use
his official alias to protect it. He also didn't bother bringing his mask for this
mission, anyone who commissioned him had access to his public profile in
the Martial Union.
"Mission verification code?" They asked.

"8b49ebJ87" Rui replied, recalling from memory.
"You may enter." They nodded, evidently also possessing the mission
verification code. "We will escort you to the Master."
Rui quietly followed them about, noticing the various Martial Apprentices
stationed at various locations guarding the mansion. They too were armored
and armed with various weapons that also possessed the insignia of the
Kandrian Empire.
('None of these Martial Apprentices are of the Martial Union.') Rui concluded
the obvious. The fact that their armor and weapons possessed the insignia of
the Kandrian Empire alone implied that they were part of some governmental
or Royal branch. That combined with the fact that the gates of the mansion
had the insignia of the Kandrian Empire implied that the client was an
authority high up in the heirarchy of the government or the military. No
ordinary employee of the government possessed this much power.
Rui frowned, the information on the client that the Martial Union had
provided him did not match the inferences he had just made.
('Did the client use a personal servant to commission this mission?') Rui
wondered.
Still, wouldn't the Martial Union have easily detected this? After all, it was
able to figure out the true client of a mission he had completed a while back
that did exactly the same thing. Furthermore, this was in a foreign country,
while this was within the Mantian Region of the Kandrian Empire.
The guard led Rui inside the mansion, where Rui froze for a second.
"Hm?" The guard noticed.
"This..." Rui frowned. ('This pressure... isn't just a Martial Squire, is it?')
His senses were remarkably sharp, with Primordial Instinct, he could easily
sense Martial Artists who were suppressing their presence to an extent. The
moment he actually reached the mansion, he had come across a presence with
a sense of danger that far exceeded what someone within the Squire Realm
ought to be able to produce.
"What happened? The master is waiting, come." The guard insisted, coaxing
Rui.
Rui nodded as he continued following him inside, growing curious about who
his true client was.
They walked in deeper and the presence drew closer to Rui until it was just a
rock's throw away.
"Hm." Rui heard a strong deep voice acknowledging his arrival.
"You've arrived." He walked towards Rui rigidly.
The man was seven feet tall, standing a foot taller than Rui. Rui could sense
that his body was coursing with power, the sheer amount of power that
coursed through the man's body was intimidating was unnerving. Yet he
didn't give Rui the profound sense of pressure that people like Master
Aronian did, who could make Rui bow with sheer mental pressure alone.
"I am Martial Colonel Geringan Jenken." The man addressed Rui. "I've heard
much about you, Rui Quarrier.
Rui's eyes widened at the man's introduction. "Pleasure to meet you too,
colonel."
The man curtly nodded before gesturing to his lavish sofa, never taking an
eye off Rui. "Have a seat."
It sounded more like an order, Rui suppressed the urge to salute with a 'sir,
yes sir!' as he took his seat.
"I take it you are the real client of the commission?" Rui asked, breaking the
ice.
Geringan didn't respond, he simply waved his hand. A few seconds later, a
butler appeared. Rui wasn't surprised when he recognized the man as the
actual client of the commission. What he was surprised by was why the
Martial Union didn't inform him of it. Unless the colonel had gone through
extensive means to hide it, he didn't think there was any possibility that the
Martial Union wasn't aware of it.
Rui remained silent. He was dealing with an individual with far more power
than himself in every measurable parameter. Although he was curious and
cautious about why a person from the Royal Kandrian Army had
commissioned a Martial Artist from the Martial Union, he didn't want to be
too forward in his inquisition.
"You must be wondering why I went through such a degree of obfuscation to

commission you, correct?"
"Perhaps." Rui remained ambiguous.
"Hmph, fret not. I'm not going to do anything to you." He replied. "The
Martial Union will not tolerate a Martial Senior of the Royal Army bullying
one of their Martial Squires even if I did have any malicious intentions. It
does violate the commission contract too."
"You are powerful and of high rank," Rui replied, with a little bit of
straightforward honesty.
"Exactly." He nodded. "It is because of my status and my rank in the Royal

Kandrian Army that the Martial Union cannot tolerate the affront, it would
affect their prestige within the Kandrian Empire. Besides, they're not afraid of
a Martial Senior in the first place."
He met Rui's gaze. "Besides, as I said, I don't have any ill intentions. I simply
feared the possibility that you might reject my personal commission because I
was from the army, hence the deception."
Chapter 551 Merger
This made more sense. It was a publicly known fact that the Martial Union
and Royal Kandrian Family were not on the best of terms. Although Martial
Artists rebelling against states and organizations of various kinds was a
universal phenomenon that led to the birth of the Age of Martial Art, it still
inevitably created some degree of friction in the Kandrian Empire between
the Royal Family that directed the government and the Martial Union.
The Martial Union was a congregation of Martial Artists that was powerful
enough to rival the Kandrian Empire through the power of Martial Art,
exclusively. It was cautious and resentful of the Royal Family that once
dominated Martial Artists before the breakthrough of Martial Squires, and no
doubt would do so if it was viably possible. The Royal Family, on the other
hand, no doubt disdained the Martial Union as it was an entity within the
Kandrian Empire that it could not control, and that faintly had the potential to
overthrow the Royal Family.
Of course, this was very ambiguous, however, it did create a sense of

aversion and wariness within the Martial Artists of the Martial Union to the
Royal Family and the Kandrian government. Rui wasn't sure he would have
accepted the personal commission from the colonel had he known that he was
the true client.
Of course, he could cancel choose to cancel it even now. It's just that this
would penalize him since he did not have a just cause, and he wasn't so sure
if it was warranted now that he had actually met the man.
"However, you don't seem to be the emotional type." He pointed. "I wouldn't
have gone to such degrees if I could be sure that you would not refuse my
commission, but alas, I can't be sure of that since we're not of the same
faction."
The last sentence he uttered caused confusion in Rui.
"You and I? Part of the same faction?" Rui frowned.
"Did I stutter?" He asked, impassively.
"We're not even part of the same organization or movement or group of any
kind." Rui threw a puzzled look at him. "How could we possibly be part of
the same faction?"
"Your understanding of the political landscape of the Kandrian Empire is

woefully inadequate." He shook his head. "The faction I am of in the Royal
Army and the Kandrian government broadly shares the exact same goal and
ideal as that of a political faction within the Martial Union. We cooperate
distantly to try and achieve our common goal. We are effectively part of the
same faction."
Rui's eyes rose a little, in interest. It was an intriguing concept and one that he
hadn't considered prior. Of course, he didn't deny the colonel's statement
about his political acumen, because it was indeed true. What little he knew
were things he had heard, read, or inferred. He had not studied political
history to any meaningful degree.
He simply didn't care to dive deep into the field, and intelligence alone wasn't
enough to somehow make him not ignorant.
"What faction is this?" Rui asked out of curiosity.
"The Merger Faction." Senior Geringan replied.
Rui's eyes narrowed, he could instantly infer what the faction was about
based on the name and what he had told Rui about his faction prior. A faction
that extended across the government, army, and the Martial Union, known as
the 'Merger' faction.
"Is the political objective of this faction the union of the Martial Union and
the Kandrian Government?" Rui's narrowed.
This sounded like an absurd goal, it was absolutely impossible for the Martial
Union and Kandrian governments to merge into one entity. The clash of
interests between the entities was real, after all.
"Correct." The man nodded. "We strive every day to influence legislation that
increasingly pushes us in this direction until we hope to unite the Kandrian
government and the Martial Union with an equal division of power between
the constituents of the groups within a new ruling power.."
"That seems unfeasible given the friction between the two entities." Rui
voiced his thoughts as he considered the colonel's thoughts. "After all, the
head of state and the head of government both are the Royal Emperor. In
order to form a government where legislative, executive, and judicial power
is equally divided between the two groups, the Royal Emperor would at the
very least need to change, and a more neutral head representing the interests
of the two former entities would need to come in place. Unless the Royal
Emperor himself is part of the Merger Faction, there is no way he would
concede his power for such an arrangement."
While Rui wasn't an expert, he knew that the Royal Emperor represented the
legislative branch of the government singlehandedly, the rest of the
government generally served as the executive of the legislation that he
passed. Meaning he was the only one who possessed the authority to facilitate
any fusion between the Kandrian Government and the Martial Union, which
he would be disincentivized to do if it involved sharing his absolute
legislative power with the Martial Council, the highest governing committee
of the Martial Union in some form or the other.
"You have very correctly identified one of the biggest stumbling blocks on
our way to accomplishing our objective." The colonel nodded, impressed. "It
is one of the reasons our faction has existed for as long as it has without
succeeding. It is highly disadvantageous to those in power to share one's own
authority for the sake of the nation. However, the need of the nation is greater
than one man's selfish desire, wouldn't you agree?"
"I would, but unfortunately, it's extremely unlikely to happen from what I
understand," Rui replied sardonically. "Merging the Martial Union and the
Kandrian Government would not just mean merging our forces, it would be
changing the very identity of the nation. After all, Martial Artists possessing
legislative power by virtue of being Martial Artists would turn the very
nature of the Kandrian Empire as a sovereign state into a militaristic nation or
a Martial state."
Chapter 552 Compelling
"That is also true." The colonel nodded. "There is a great debate within our
faction regarding the nature of the union, after all, we need a clear and precise
objective. It would be foolish of us to chase after the ambiguous principle
'united we stand, divided we fall'. There are a lot of issues that need to be
resolved and ironed out that we still aren't as united as we wished we were."
He sighed. "Frankly, a lot of the more technical issues are beyond my
understanding and area of expertise, I am a Martial Artist and a military man,
after all. But the principle alone is strong enough that we are able to come
under one banner, a banner I am willing to lend my power and influence to."
Rui was clearly unconvinced. There was an argument to be made that the
checks and balances that the Martial Union and the Royal Family placed on
each other kept the nation stable. Neither side could be domineering as it
would inevitably clash against the interests of the other, which meant that the
former would not be allowed to go too far before the latter began exercising
its power to contain the former.
For instance, the Royal Emperor could not be as exploitative of Martial

Artists as perhaps a ruler would like to have been due to the Martial Union's
powerful presence. Going too far against the Martial Union was not good, for
if it decided to employ its vast Martial might, resources, and intelligence, the
Kandrian government would not be able to remain stable. It could not afford
to push the Martial Union too far lest the latter decide enough was enough
and threaten civil war.
Furthermore, the Martial Union could not be as overbearing in its influence

over society as it may have liked to be due to the Kandrian Empire curbing its
influence. It still had to abide by the laws of the nation that it wasn't
specifically exempt from in the Kandrian Martial Covenant.
This impasse was much more trustworthy than unlimited and unchecked
power poured into the hands of a single entity.
He turned towards Rui, noticing his reaction. "Perhaps it is because you're

still a young Martial Squire and haven't obtained enough power and authority
within the Martial Union yet, which is why you may find the principle and
objective to be naÃ¯ve, however, it is certainly the case that a merger would
strengthen this nation tremendously."
Rui raised an eyebrow in doubt. "I don't think the difference would be that
tremendous. The net resources haven't increased, after all."
The man shook his head. "The Kandrian government and Martial Union
waste a tremendous amount of capital of various sorts due to each other.
Although it may appear that the impasse between the Kandrian government
and the Martial Union isn't, it truly is taxing on both entities."
"How so?" Rui's eyes furrowed.
"Although both sides know that the other side is quite unlikely to provoke a
civil war, the possibility exists and thus both sides employ a lot of measures
and countermeasures to account for the possibility of a civil war provoked by
their enemy." The colonel explained. "If such an outcome occurs, the most
desirable wish in this scenario would be to know that it is coming. To know
when it is coming, to know how it is coming. Both sides employ a large
number of funds and resources in intelligence and information gathering. The
Martial Union keeps a track of the movement of the military, it keeps track of
existing siege weapons, their deployment, movements as well as the
manufacturing of such siege weapons, it keeps track of the manufacturing
and existing inventory of temporary augmentation potions, its most powerful
Martial Artists, etc. The intelligence gathered from such activities allows
them to evaluate whether the Kandrian Empire is gearing up for war or not."
Rui nodded. This was definitely a prudent measure and one that he approved
of, it was important to be able to detect the earliest signs of civil war and
prepare for it accordingly.
"The Kandrian Empire also does something very similar, obviously." The
man explained. "It keeps track of the most powerful Martial assets of the
Martial Union; its Martial Sages and Martial Masters as much as possible.
There are entire departments within the Kandrian Intelligence Agency that
are solely dedicated to keeping track of a single Martial Artist. If you become
powerful enough, you can assume you'll have your own department as well.
It also keeps track of the rate of acceptance of commissions of the Martial
Union, the number of Martial Artists outside the country at any given
moment, and the influx and outflux of Martial Artists through the borders as
well as within the nation itself. All of these parameters allow the Kandrian
Empire to evaluate whether the Martial Union is gearing up for war or not."
Rui nodded, this made a lot of sense. Just the sheer amount of funds and
resources expended in the intelligence war that, no doubt, was constantly
occurring between the Martial Union and the Kandrian Empire drained their
capital a lot. Espionage, tapping, surveillance, tracking, infiltration, and other
covert intelligence-gathering missions were no doubt quite expensive. Yet
both sides could not afford to not engage in them.
Furthermore, if Rui wasn't wrong, there were probably other measures that
both sides took that were taxing as well.
"It isn't limited to just intelligence gathering, either." He sighed. "Neither the
Martial Union nor the Kandrian Empire can ever weaken their militaristic and
Martial power within the Kandrian Empire beyond a certain degree because
of the fear of inviting an attack from the other side. The martial Union cannot
afford to allow its Martial Artists to accept more than a certain number of
foreign commissions at any given point, because it cannot afford to have too
many Martial Artists leave the Kandrian Empire, weakening their base power
at any given time. The same also applies to the Kandrian Empire."
He sighed. "Don't you see? We are both holding each other back so much, the
Kandrian Empire could be so much more if we truly made the best of every
ounce of our power."

Chapter 553 Crea
With the considerations in mind that the colonel had just laid out, Rui had to
admit that perhaps the Merger Faction wasn't silly, it was true that the
Kandrian Empire would become a greater force to be reckoned with if the
power of the Martial Union merged with that of the Royal Family.
He shook his head, while that may be true, the likelihood of a union between
the Kandrian Government and the Martial Union was too unlikely that it was
not even worth pursuing in his opinion.
"This has been very interesting and illuminating," Rui interjected. "However,
it isn't particularly relevant here at this moment."
"You're right." A small smile curled on his face. "The conversation just
strangely went in this direction."
('Yeah right.') Rui snorted inwardly. He wasn't a naÃ¯ve fool, it was clear
that the colonel brought up his faction for a reason. ('He's probably trying to
steer my perspective and impression of the Merger Faction in hopes that I'll
join the faction.')
Of course, Rui had no interest in delving into politics, it wasn't particularly

relevant to him. As long as he could peacefully train, complete missions and
get stronger, he didn't care about the political scene of the Kandrian Empire.
"Anyways coming back to what's relevant at hand here..."
"Ah yes, the commission." The colonel nodded. "I had one of my friends high
up in the Merger Faction, prevent your mission bill from divulging the truth
about the true client of the commission. I apologize for the deception, truly. I
really wanted to commission you, after all."
The man lowered his head slightly.
"To introduce me to your faction?" Rui asked plainly, not reacting outwardly
to the man's admission.
"That was part of the reason." He nodded. "But I truly do want to commission
your training capabilities as well. You are known for your ability to train."
"Oh?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "And who exactly have you commissioned my
services for, colonel?"
"My daughter." He told her. "She's going to be attempting the Martial

entrance exam this year."
Rui raised an eyebrow as many thoughts flew through his head, the child of a
Martial colonel of the Royal Army joining the Martial Academy seemed odd,
but not nearly as much when he put it into perspective with the Colonel's
political beliefs. In fact, if she joined the Martial Union as a Martial Artist, it
might even increase the political leverage of the Merger Faction.
Furthermore, he would be helping a competitor of Max and Mana train, he

wasn't sure how he felt about that. At the very least, he ought to ensure that
he trained them even better.
"I see." Rui nodded. "Alright, we can begin immediately."
The colonel nodded with a smile, before gesturing to one of his servants.
"Bring my daughter here immediately."
Within a minute, the servant returned with a girl who looked to be around the
same age as Max and Mana. She had a slender physique, with startling blue
hair and pink eyes. Yet more than her aesthetics, what caught his eye was her
demeanor.
She had a fierce look in her eye with a hint of pride, as well as a hint of
admiration towards Rui.
"This is the Squire Rui Quarrier that I told you about, your new sparring
trainer for the upcoming Martial Entrance Exam in a few months." The
colonel told her with a smile. "He is extremely renowned for his incredible
ability to train and facilitate the growth of his mentees. Introduce yourself to
him."
"Yes, father." She respectfully replied before turning and bowing to Rui
Quarrier. "I am Crea Jenken, I look forward to training under your guidance."
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to facilitating your growth and
your Martial Journey." Rui courteously replied, before turning towards the
colonel. "We have whiled away enough time colonel, we ought to begin the
training as soon as possible."
The colonel nodded. "Please do begin immediately, my daughter will guide

you to her training grounds."
Rui got up nodding at the man. "It's been a good discussion, colonel."
"Indeed." He nodded. "I hope to continue it with you someday."
Rui nodded lightly before following Crea as he pondered his words. They
made it clear that he was interested in pulling Rui into their circle.
He shook his head as he put the matter aside, as he focused on the girl as she
led him to an open training hall. It was rather wide, with a large array of
physical training equipment forming a gym in one section of the hall and
sparring training equipment in another section of the room. There were
several servants in the training hall, ready to cater to their needs.
"We're here." She turned around, facing him.
Rui nodded, as he looked around. "You have a good set-up here for you."
"I heard that you managed to crack the Martial Entrance exam on your first
try at my age." She suddenly said as she looked at him with intense eyes.
"...That's right. It seems you've learned a little about me."
"How did you do it?" She asked.

Rui simply raised an eyebrow, before chuckling. "A combination of skill and
tactics, I suppose. I was physically weaker than almost all of my competitors
back then, I had to fight hard, but more importantly, I had to fight smart."
He turned, facing her. "As will you, if you intend on cracking it."
"I will join the Martial Academy!" She expressed with a vigorous tone.
Rui smiled a little at her determination, before asking her a question. "Why
do you wish to join the Martial Academy?"
"To become a Martial Artist, obviously." Her eyebrows furrowed.
"It's not as though you have to go to the Martial Academy to become a

Martial Artist," Rui told her, as he gestured to the training hall. "Look at this
place, your father has arranged a wonderful place for you to train and grow
stronger. He's able to hire Martial Squires like me to help you train. Why do
you want to go to the Martial Academy when you have all of this?"
Chapter 554 Sparring
"It's not the same." She shook her head. "The Martial Academy has other
strong students and Martial Apprentices from my generation, I want to test
my strength against them, I also want to complete a lot of missions."
"Don't you want to enter the army and join your father?" Rui asked, curious.
She snorted at his words. "The army is boring. Also, I hate following a ton of
orders."
Rui chuckled.
"Are we going to start training or what?" She folded her arms.
"I was just getting to know you better." Rui calmly replied. "But yes, we can
train."
"Good, let's begin right away." She nodded. "What do we do first?"
"Well, for starters. Let us spar, I wish to experience your strength before we
can begin training." Rui told her as he gestured to the sparring area.
She nodded as she followed him. "By the way, I had a question."
"Hm?"
"Why don't you feel like a Martial Artist?" She raised an eyebrow. "Martial
Artists feel scary, but you feel like a normal person."
"Ah, that was for your sake." He replied.
"Hmph! I don't need your help."

"Alright then." Rui smiled as he took off the Mind Mask, and the passive aura
of a Martial Squire washed over her.
She stiffened but didn't say a word. Rui nodded, if she couldn't even handle
the passive fear he generated in normal humans, she had no chance of
cracking the first phase of the Entrance Exam which filtered out most of the
applicant population with the heavy bloodlust tests that were administered to
applicants.
She managed to take it well enough, though he would need to verify the
extent to which her mental fortitude had been trained, it was quite clear that
this aspect wouldn't be neglected by the colonel.
"Come." Rui calmly stated.
She charged forward, launching a swift powerful kick to his face. Rui stepped
back slightly, and the attack missed narrowly, a gust of wind ruffled his hair.
He observed her form midair as she was almost a statue in his vision, as most
humans were to him in combat.
('Her form is efficient.') Rui nodded inwardly. Just from that attack alone, Rui
surmised that she was well past the Martial Foundation stage which corrected
an error one had one's fundamentals.
"Tsk." She launched herself after him, throwing a flurry of shorter, lighter
jabs that were quicker, in hopes of tagging him.
Rui calmly redirected them as he noted her rapid striking form ('Her balance
is a little off, she's a bit too aggressive.')
POW
He deflected her strike and landed a palm into her little abdomen, pushing her
away. At all times, he restricted himself to human parameters, barring his
durability, which he could not change. He even delayed his reactions to
match human parameters.
She landed on her feet a meter back, grimacing lightly.

"Is that all you've got?" Rui calmly taunted her. "I'm barely breaking a sweat
here."
"Tsk." Her eyebrows furrowed in irritation as she launched herself against

him.
An hour later, she was slammed into the ground with an over-shouldered
Judo throw, exhausted.
"Let's take a break for now," Rui suggested as he sat beside her.
"How did I do?" She asked, in between her pants.
"Not bad. Not bad at all." Rui calmly replied.
Her eyebrows furrowed at his less-than-stellar evaluation of her capabilities.

However, Rui simply ignored her reaction. While it was true that given her
age, she was quite impressive, it was also true that given what she wanted to
accomplish, she wasn't nearly as strong as she needed to be. If she gave the
Martial entrance exam currently, she most likely would not be able to pass.
At least Max and Mana had each other to rely on, she would be fighting
alone.
"I'm going to be whipping you into shape in the upcoming months."
"I'm not out of shape, ok!" She insisted. "First of all, I-..."
Her voice faded in the background as he considered how he ought to go about

training her. Just simply sparring and giving her combat training wasn't going
to be particularly helpful, it was nothing that others couldn't give her.
Instead, he was going to leverage his specialty to help her grow stronger.
The VOID algorithm allowed him to create a fighting style that countered his
opponents, he needed to create that style, but rather than just
straightforwardly leveraging it against her, he ought to train her to become
aware of her weaknesses, flaws, and shortcomings. He could help her gain a
greater degree of self-awareness of her own fighting style in combat with the
help of highly specialized training, he could even copy her style to a certain
degree and use it against her, helping her get a third person perspective on it.
All of this would no doubt increase her rate of growth beyond what almost
any other trainer in the Kandrian Empire could help her with. Shoring up her
weaknesses would definitely do her good in the long run. He could also train
her to develop a tactical mindset that would no doubt be just as important to
her when she attempted to crack the Martial entrance exam, but also in the
future beyond that when she sparred and fought against the other students of
the martial Academy.
Of course, Rui wasn't sure how useful that would be to her if she didn't
discover her Martial Path and break through to the Apprentice Realm, but it
certainly wouldn't hurt. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could do to
help her become a Martial Apprentice. The best he could possibly do was
ensure that her development trajectory was constantly facing upward. It was
also paramount to instill into her an inquisitive mindset that would be useful
when she enters the explorative phase in the hopes of discovering her Martial
Path.
"Hey! Are you listening?" She folded her arms as she peered at Rui
suspiciously.
"Of course, I am," Rui replied calmly.
"Then what did I just say?"
"..."
Chapter 555 Difficulty
Rui headed back home once the training session with Crea ended. Today was
the first session between them, thus he didn't engage in any deeper training.
He simply sparred with her to get a preliminary evaluation of her prowess, he
spent the rest of his time getting to know her.
Her desire to become a Martial Artist was strong, however, it was different
from the determination he saw in Max and Mana. The two of them were truly
fascinated by Martial Art and thus chased after it. They enjoyed training and
especially sparring as well, he could see that their motivation was true.
With Crea, it wasn't quite as simple. She yearned to become a Martial Artist,
even more so than Max and Mana, but she didn't enjoy sparring or fighting,
even if she was quite fierce during training. Rui could sense that she had a
deep sense of reverence and admiration for her father, as a Martial Artist. She
even displayed that towards Rui to a lesser degree, though less so because
Rui hit his presence unless he needed not to. That along with his informal
interactions with her had caused her to become a lot more informal and
casual with him.
From what he could tell, her desire to become a Martial Artist wasn't a
calculated objective or goal. He could sense it was a deep desire of hers. It
seemed that simply becoming a Martial Artist, in and of itself was probably
something she desired extremely. Not for the things that Martial Art seemed
to bring, she didn't display much of a desire to make money, to obtain
tremendous power, or prestige and social status. It didn't seem it be any of
those, or perhaps it was all of those.
It was as though she simply couldn't stand not being a Martial Artist, more
than anything.
Even if he didn't expect to figure her out on the first day he met her, it was
clear that she was inscrutable and complex.
Still, that didn't particularly matter. Her motivation and determination were
real, and that was all that mattered to him as a trainer. Everything else came
after.
Once he reached home, he put the matters regarding her aside. He had plenty
of work to do. His schedule was jam-packed. He had two techniques to learn
for Project Sniper in the Martial Union that ate away at a significant chunk of
his time, he also had to work on building up Project Bounce from scratch and
all from the ground up, which was no doubt a daunting task that also ate
away at his funds, that were needed to hire his sparring partner.
He also needed to continue with relatively regular training of Crea to earn the
money needed to fund the training required for Project Bounce. Furthermore,
he also felt the need to train with Max and Mana more extensively out of
guilt of spending that much time training Crea, their competitor.
He truly had no breathing space at all, and every second mattered.
"I'm going to be busy as all hell for the next few months." Rui sighed.
And he was right.
For the next three months, Rui slogged away.
He painstakingly made progress with Project Bounce, one small step at a

time. He had been increasing the distance over which he was propelled by a
straight right punch from a Martial Squire significantly, which was good
progress to be made. However, it was far from enough.
A straight right punch was just one of many strikes that one could launch, if
Rui wanted Project Bounce to succeed, he would need to ensure that he could
harmlessly convert all attacks into kinetic energy that would launch him
flying rather than hurt him, for all strikes.
This was truly one of the most difficult and frustrating parts of Project
Bounce. It was the sheer number of types of attacks that he needed to learn to
elastically defend against to ensure they harmlessly launched him in an
elastic collision, that was too many. Countless different kinds of punches,
jabs, kicks, swings, and other striking attack variations, and he needed to
train his elastic collision against each and every single one of them the hard
way.
That alone raised the difficulty to ridiculous degrees, however, it wasn't the
only difficult part. Part of the problem was that he had discovered that it
wasn't so simple to apply what he had been training in real-life combat.
Part of the reason that he was able to elastically defend against the straight
right punch was that he knew ahead of time that a straight right punch was
coming. He was able to defend against it because he knew that that attack
specifically was coming, and he was prepared for it. This was something that
did not normally happen in real-life combat.
Normally, that was.
Rui was different, with the VOID algorithm, Rui would be able to predict
whenever his opponent was coming, allowing him to overcome the
impediment. This was the difference between Project Bounce and Project
Severer. The former was a project that was to yield great power by
overcoming barriers by synergizing extremely with Rui's Martial Art, and
strengths. Employing and leveraging the predictive prowess of the pattern
recognition system of the VOID algorithm gave Rui active defensive prowess
that he would not have been able from the technique normally.
This meant that only Rui could use this technique, this was the peak of
synergy.
In comparison, Project Severer was just a hotchpotch of elements thrown into

one technique with the hopes that they would work together to form a lethal
attack, it did not make use of Rui's strengths to reach even greater heights,
nor could the Flowing Void style make use of its strength in a special
manner. It was a highly impersonal and distant technique in hindsight.
While he did feel sorrow for having to abandon a project that he was initially
passionate and excited about, the lessons he extracted from this failure
benefited him even more.
Chapter 556 Progress
Squire Casen wound her arm back all the way behind her, before swinging
with a tremendous amount of power, her fist generated shockwaves every
inch as it coursed through the atmosphere.
POW!
It collided against Rui's hand, yet his hand rapidly drew back along with the
strike, increasing resistance against her fist the closer it got to Rui, pushing
him away from the strike harmlessly.
WHOOSH
Rui was consequently launched a great distance away, out of a normal field
of vision.
THUD!
He landed with a significant impact on the ground, maintaining his balance,

before grinning excitedly.
"That's my best one yet! That's got to be like more than seventy percent
conversion efficiency, surely." Rui guesstimated.
This was the first time he had managed to harmlessly convert such a high
proportion of an incoming attack into pure kinetic energy of his body. Kinetic
energy was the energy of motion, to possess kinetic energy meant that one
was in motion. That was why when Rui elastically converted his opponent's
attack's power into kinetic energy through spring mechanics, his body would
inevitably be sent flying through the power of the strike.
The fact that he was launched a great distance away meant that he managed
to absorb most of the power of the strike of his opponent. He was quite
satisfied that he had made so much progress. Of course, he was most familiar
with applying this principle to a straight right punch, which is why he was
further accomplished with dealing with that attack more than any other
striking attack.
This was the progress that he had made in three months. He was well beyond
halfway through the first phase of two phases of Project Bounce. Considering
that this was a Project that he was developing entirely from the ground up
that was completely natural, it was incredible to have gotten this far in just
three months.
He had been worried that the progress would stall, but now he was
reasonably certain that phase one of Project Bounce would be over within a
month or two. In totality, that would mean half of Project Bounce would end
in five months tops. Although this may seem like a long time for half of a
project in a vacuum, considering the sheer number of matters he was
juggling, it was even more impressive with that in context.
"This is especially the case considering I'm far more than halfway done with
mastering the Tempestuous Feel and Sonic Bullet techniques," Rui muttered.
He had gone all out with dedicating himself to those two techniques,
especially since they were truly contributing to his expenses. Between the
monthly expenses of the training resources of the Martial Union, the cost of
hiring an Apprentice trainer for Max and Mana when he wasn't training them
himself, the cost of hiring Squire Casen to help him with the development of
Project Bounce, the expenses of Squire-grade rejuvenation potions and the
financial aid he gave to the Orphanage, Rui's income was considerably taxed.
If not for the fact that Martial Colonel Geringan had truly given him an
extravagant remuneration for his services, he highly doubted that he would be
able to sustain his expenses.
"Well, that is the furthest you've been launched." Squire Casen commented as
she sky-walked to him.
She had been quite stumped three months ago at Rui's bizarre training but had
gotten over it since then. She had no idea why he was putting himself through
something like that, but she generally understood that Rui was trying to get
launched as far away by her strikes as possible.
Rui, of course, had never disclosed the details of Project Bounce, he treated it
like unpatented research that was dangerous to disclose before it was
published under his name or patented in his name, as was the norm in the
community of research and development back on Earth.
"Yeah, it's great!" Rui nodded.
He continued the rest of the training session with heightened vigor, and it
yielded heightened results, even if barely.
"My average is up by five percent compared to yesterday." He was quite

pleased, a five percent jump in a single day was an incredible jump. He just
needed to take some time to process his gains and made sure he retained that
progress.
"Well, that brings us to an end to this session." Squire Casen noted as she
looked at her pocket watch.
"Shame." He sighed. "Well, see you next time."
He bade her goodbye, before taking off after consuming a rejuvenation

potion, feeling physically and mentally invigorated.
However, the direction he had taken off wasn't the Orphanage or even the
Martial Union. He immediately headed off to the Jenken residence. It was
just about time for his training sessions with Crea.
In the past three months, the growth that she had made was truly impressive,
earning Colonel Geringan's respect and approval. She had very subtle yet
core shortcomings that maybe only the most extreme and thorough data
analysis from Martial Art researchers would have revealed.
Or, Rui.
With the predictive model that Rui had created and refined, he was able to
identify core patterns in her style that were problematic. Not all patterns were
bad, of course. The patterns in one's movements were a product of the
experiences and fundamental nature of a person, in a way. Changing them
would require suppressing the very identity of the person in question.
Someone who was naturally aggressive would have aggressive attack
patterns, while this could be forcibly changed with extremely oppressive
training, it would no longer be a reflection of one's true self, and thus would
be sub-optimal in performance. What Rui did was aid in optimizing her
patterns to get rid of ineffective inefficiencies and help them truly reflect her
core self.
In the past three months, he had exposed her patterns to herself, by

mimicking them in front of her and also countering themselves before her.
The combination of those two had not only allowed Crea to get rid of
shortcomings in her patterns that she was able and willing to optimize, but
they also gave her an increasingly deeper amount of self-awareness about her
fighting style.
Self-awareness that one could not normally obtain prior to the discovery of
the Martial Path.
Chapter 557 Preparation
"You're late!" Crea huffed
"I'm actually exactly on time." Rui retorted.
"If you arrive just on time, then training begins late, so you're late!"
"Training begins after I arrive and I arrived on time, thus training begins on
time as well."
"The entrance exam is in a week. We don't have time for delays!"
"Well, you're the one delaying it now with your little tantrum, you know."
Rui chuckled as she glared at him, doing her best to intimidate him, in vain of
course.
"Colonel Jenken." Rui bowed lightly, happening to run into the man on the
way to the training grounds.
"Squire Quarrier, I'm glad to see you've arrived on time." He nodded stiffly,
ignoring his daughter's reaction to his words. "The entrance exam is just
around the corner, and we're in the final stretch for preparation. She's made
incredible improvements at your hand, validating my decision to commission
you. Good job and good luck."
He turned towards his daughter, bending to her as his military posture relaxed
a little as he smiled. "You've already made me proud. Do your best. I love
you."
She nodded, a little embarrassed.

He got up, turning back to Rui. "Alright then, I've got to head to work, as you
can see."
He gestured to his military garb and adornments. It was an ostentatious

uniform with badged, medals, and several stars. None of which were
adornments that would decorate the uniform of an ordinary Martial colonel,
Rui was sure.
Rui and Crea quickly reached the training grounds after bidding him
goodbye.
"Alright, let's begin!"
Rui smiled, nodding, as he walked back and forth. "We've already reached
the climax of your training under me. There is no time to start anything new,
the only thing we can do is polish what has already been built, and more
importantly..."
He turned towards her. "... Condition your mind and body to be at their
absolute peak. Understand?"
She nodded.
"All the training you've done in the past few months, and perhaps even the
past few years will be utterly meaningless if you do not take appropriate care
of your mind and body for when the time comes," Rui warned her. "In fact,
an intense workout will coincide the day before the exam where you will be
denied rejuvenation potions so that you can get a real organic night of sleep
to time it right so that you will wake up completely refreshed for the exam,
and your tolerance for rejuvenation potions will be refreshed."
"Ok Ok." She impatiently nodded. "Let's begin training."
"Alright, as usual, let us begin with mental fortitude training." Rui nodded.
Her eyes narrowed as she exhaled.
Rui wordlessly exerted a little bit of pressure on her as he removed his mind
mask slightly. Currently, he was exerting just a little above what he had
experienced from the Martial Apprentices in the first round of the exam. This
was the only round of the entrance exam that didn't change because of how
important and useful it was. Thus, Rui paid an immense amount of attention
to it.
She handled it well, of course. Otherwise, Rui would be very pessimistic

about her chances of cracking the entrance exam.
She gritted her teeth as she stared him dead in the eye. She had a brave face
on, but Rui could tell she was under significant pressure.
Ten seconds later, he eased up. "Well done."
She exhaled deeply, massaging her sweaty forehead.
"This is another reason why you should ensure you're at your mental peak,"
Rui advised. "It takes the entirety of your focus to muster up the mental
fortitude needed to resist the pressure you will experience in round one, if
your emotional state or concentration is sub-optimal, you will fail."
"I know that." She grumbled. "I did just fine this time and many other times,
didn't I?"
"No harm in reminders." Rui smiled.
He hadn't informed her that he was actually exerting more pressure on her
than what she would be subjected to in the entrance exam. This was to
increase her chances of nothing going wrong in the entrance exam. He didn't
want to tell her this for fear of her letting her guard down and making a
blunder causing her to fail the round.
An hour of continuous mental resistance training later, she was quite

exhausted.
"You're doing good." Rui lightly complimented her. "Here."
He handed her a mental rejuvenation potion.
Half a minute later, she was on her feet, ready for more.
"Let's go for some dynamic omnidirectional sparring, as usual." Rui casually
said. Yet she stiffened at those words.
"What's with that face? This is quite important, you know."
She took a light stance with arms close to her body.
Rui smiled as he walked towards her.
POW!
He threw a quick, by human standards, a jab at her. She blocked, yet Rui had
already disappeared. Her eyes widened as she sensed him behind her.
POW!
She just barely managed to block yet another attack from him with an
incomplete turn.
POW!
This time, Rui had appeared on her left, throwing a straight kick at her.
POW!
POW!
POW!
Rui continuously appeared and disappeared around her, launching attacks

from all directions. Crea gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep up, barely
blocking or evading his attacks. She didn't even know how Rui was
teleporting around, was teleportation an ability that all Martial Squires had?
In reality, Rui was just moving very fast. Even with a tiny portion of his
speed, he could easily surpass her vision, becoming invisible to her every
time he shifted, creating the illusion that he had teleported. However, Rui was
quite careful to ensure that his attacks didn't exceed her limits. Even though
he shifted very quickly, he made sure to wait around two hundred
milliseconds which was just around human reaction time, before initiating a
human-level attack. This gave her the chance to react and defend against each
attack.
He made sure that she was pushed to her limits constantly, allowing her to
exercise herself to the peak.
Chapter 558 Ponder
The point of this training was to maximize her ability to cope with
omnidirectional attacks from multiple opponents around her. He knew from
experience that the Martial entrance exam did not necessarily have its
students fight one on one in fair bouts. Rui recalled how much of a target he
had been in the third round of the Martial entrance exam from multiple
opponents that he struggled to keep at bay.
Coping was an important skill for all applicants of the Martial entrance exam.
Crea didn't need to decisively win, she needed to decisively not lose. She
needed to hang on till the very end and only then was there a chance that she
would be selected as a student of the Martial Academy.
And one important avenue to know how to cope with was learning to deal
with attacks that could from anywhere. In the past three months, this form of
combat training was one that Rui had ground her through. She had been quite
miserable at coping with Rui's attacks, but in the span of three months, she
had developed a truly respectable amount of cope.
She would most likely not go down easily even against multiple opponents
who were most likely older.
One thing Rui respected about the girl was her tenacity. He truly hoped that
she would somehow make it through, even if her odds were quite low.
A few hours later, the training session came to an end.
"Alright, that's all for today." Rui nodded.
"Wait, that's it?" She frowned. "Mental fortitude training and omnidirectional
defense training? No standard sparring, no maneuvering training? No
offensive training?"
Rui shook his head. "Those are nowhere near as important as your mental
fortitude and your cope. At this point, I'm merely polishing your most
important assets. Unfortunately, I cannot train what I would consider the
single most important asset that all Martial Artists ought to have like I train
other things."
"And what is that?" She asked.
"I've told you, haven't I?" Rui shook his head. "It's your mind."
"I'm already training my mind." She huffed.
"I'm not talking about your fortitude." He sighed. "I'm talking about your
intellect. The decisions you make are going to affect your attempt to the
entrance exam more than any other parameter."
"Martial Art isn't like studies, being smart is not more important than being
strong." She furrowed her eyebrows.
Rui snorted, resigned to shaking his head. "Being smart is part of being
strong. And isn't intelligence that is the most important parameter, but your
rationality."
He crouched down to her. "An intelligent irrational person will always lose to
a dumb rational person. You don't have to be smart, you just have to use the
smarts you have up here..." He tapped her temple. "...to their absolute most.
This is relevant not just to the entrance exam, but also to your Martial Path."
"It is?" She grew confused.
"Martial Art, in a way, teaches you how to walk," Rui told her. "But what is
just as important as knowing how to walk is knowing which direction to walk
in."
"Ah, that makes sense." She nodded. "Does this direction have something to
do with the Martial Path?"
"Er, in a way?" Rui scratched his head. This was where his analogy started
becoming strange, but it was more or less on track.
"Anyways, I have delayed my leave enough. This will be our last class before
the entrance exam. You've worked hard, you've put in almost every
conceivable effort to maximize your chances in the entrance exam. Now you
just have to go all out and not worry about the outcome." Rui calmly
encouraged her. "I believe in you."
Well, that last part wasn't strictly true. He did believe she would do her best
and perform excellently, but statistically, she was too unlikely to crack the
exam. Of course, nothing was impossible. But Rui only believed in science
and himself.
"I'll make you proud, teacher!" She bowed deeply. "Thank you for all your
guidance."
"Good luck, and goodbye." He smiled at her as he sky-walked away, sighing

inwardly.
He had mixed feelings because as much as he had come to care about the
little shrimp, he cared for Max and Mana even more. The two had followed
and admired him for a long time and had even made great progress in Martial
Art over the many years through his guidance. And they would be
competitors with Crea unless she applied to a different branch for some
strange reason.
Though, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he had to. She was stronger
than Max or Mana individually. She had much richer foundations than the
two. While the two had only truly taken their training seriously after Rui got
into the Martial Academy, that was only five years of meaningful training.
He had taught them basic mixed martial art while letting them personalize
their comforts and strengths in a very natural and organic way.
However, Crea had clearly been training longer than them, even if not Martial
Art, she had access to vastly better training and growth resources that the
siblings most certainly didn't have access to. In fact, they had only recently
gotten access to what Crea had her entire life. While Crea did turn out to be
more of a spoiled brat than those two, she had also tempered herself with
extreme determination.
('If those two run into her in the Martial entrance exam, it would be
interesting to see the outcome, at least.') Rui pondered the matter deeply.
('She can beat them individually, but she would lose if she fought them both,
which is likelier to happen than fighting them alone.')
He had trained up their teamwork, and together, they were able to cope much
better than in the more chaotic rounds of the entrance exam because they
could cover each other's backs and blind spots. Rui didn't intend to tell any of
them about each other, if they all passed and found out anyway, then that was
that.
Chapter 559 First Phase
"Good luck." Rui wished them with a gentle expression. "Do your best and
look out for each other. Good luck."
"We'll make you proud, big brother."
"Yeah, we'll definitely get in, just you watch!"
Rui smiled with pride and affection, hoping he did a good job hiding his
anxiety.
"Off you go, then." He sent them towards the long busy line of applicants,
inspecting their competition. As predicted, they were all taller and bigger.
His senses swept through the area examining them carefully. ('Any Martial
Apprentice applicants...?')
His eyes narrowed after a moment. ('Just one.')
When he applied, there were five.
Well.
Technically four, since Nel wasn't a Martial Apprentice, but he was as strong
as one without a doubt. This made the difficulty of the entrance exam much
lower, something Rui was relieved about. In his senses across the entire area,
he had sensed several Martial Artists of various Realms, including a Martial
Senior.
"So." Colonel Geringan's voice came from behind him. "You're seeing your
siblings off, are you?"
"Same as you." Rui calmly replied. "You don't seem too surprised."
"Of course not." He circled around with measured strides in his military garb.
"I knew that there was a high chance that you would enroll those two kids for
the Martial entrance exam."
Rui wasn't surprised by this revelation. Colonel Geringan had already

divulged that he had friends in the Martial Union, from his faction
presumably, who could get things done for him that would otherwise not be
possible.
He probably found out that Rui was commissioning a Martial Apprentice

instructor, and why, through his sources within the Martial Union.
"You know, I'm surprised you commissioned me despite that," Rui

commented lightly, meeting his gaze.
"Well, you have a reputation, and the commission was about more than just
Crea, anyway." He replied straightforwardly. "And in my judgment, you
haven't attempted to sabotage Crea or hold back in your training of her."
"Did you think I would?"
"It was always possible, I didn't know you very well, of course." He shook
his head.
"..." Rui sighed as he watched Max and Mana finally enter. "Does Crea
know?"
"Of course not." He snorted. "I'm not a fool to reveal something that could
affect her performance. I don't intend to tell her, and neither should you."
"That sounds about right," Rui replied before turning and sky-walking away.
He exhaled heavily, trying to relax. He didn't care about Max and Mana
failing to get in, it was always a long shot and they were aware of that. They
had five more attempts each with an additional year of training and growth.
He was sure that under his training, they could crack through it.
The failure would probably be good for tempering their psychological
fortitude
He was more concerned with them getting hurt, but that too was not a
problem in the long run.
But the worst outcome; death, was something that scared him a lot for Max
and Mana.
Applicants died, it was part of the deterrence of the entrance exam, to prevent
people who would be scared away by even a statistically low probability of
death from applying. A lot more people flood the entrance exams if not for
that.
He shook his head. "I've done everything I can, I need to trust them."
While he was out comforting himself.
Crea, Max, and Mana had already entered the Martial Academy and were
guided to the first phase of the entrance exam. It was in a large hall, they had
entered at one end of the hall, with the exit indicated at the very opposite end.
In between the two exits was a line of Martial Artists in the uniform of the
Martial Union, with tables with boxes on them, filled with something they
couldn't see. Time passed until the hall grew jam-packed with thousands of
applicants and finally, something changed.
An old man emerged from the other side with a long flowing beard and
mustache. Even his eyebrows extended, curling down. He was escorted by
two Martial Artist bodyguards that intimidated anybody from approaching
too close to him.
Yet, neither the row of Martial Artists forming a barrier to the other side nor
the bodyguards drew, nay, wrenched their attention away. The old man
singlehandedly outshined all of the other Martial Artists in the room.
"Applicants." He addressed them.
It was a simple word, yet it exerted profound pressure on each of them. They
weren't able to fathom even a portion of it, yet they could sense, instinctually,
that the man possessed godly power. They were no more than ants.
The atmosphere chilled, by just a degree, as none of them dared to interfere.
"Today you have gathered here for a reason. You have come from close and
far to overcome the barriers and obstacles that stand between you and the
Martial Academy, the greatest haven for the growth of Martial Art in the
Kandrian Empire." He paused. "Most of you will fail."
The atmosphere stiffened as he very clearly iterated what they all knew.
"Some of you will succeed. Only those that have displayed the necessary
mental fortitude born out of determination and perseverance, only those
whose desire to walk their Martial Path is extraordinarily strong can become
a Martial Artist." He paused once more, letting them digest his words.
"Steel your hearts, applicants." He continued. "I am headmaster Aronian, and

I look forward to seeing you traverse your Martial Paths."
"The first phase of the exam is rather simple." He explained. "The Martial
Apprentices you see before you will be handing out passes to the second
phase of the exam. You need only collect the pass from the Martial
Apprentices successfully. If you do obtain a pass from them, then you may
proceed to the second phase of the exam. Good luck."
And just like that, he turned around and walked away.
Many of the applicants had confounded expressions on their faces. Yet, there
were many that were completely unperturbed among them.
Crea, Max, and Mana calmly walked toward the Martial Apprentices.
Chapter 560 Second Phase
Most of the applicants didn't understand what was happening. Only the
applicants from the Martial community or applicants with a connection to a
Martial Artist or repeat applicants knew what was going on. The first phase
was unchanging, but that wasn't public knowledge, not exactly.
Yet people soon understood as they tried approaching the Martial

Apprentices.
"Waaah!" One boy squealed in terror as he stumbled back, away from the
Martial Apprentice holding a pass in his hands.
The Martial Apprentices glared at him with a fierce expression, terrifying him
even more, while eying all the applicants, daring any of them to step forward
and grab the pass.
The applicants froze as waves of bloodlust came from the Martial

Apprentices. It exerted a terrifying pressure inside their minds as their
subconscious danger and risk evaluation systems evaluated them to be
terrifyingly strong, posing a huge threat to their life. A tremendous amount of
pressure was generated in a lot of them.
"Damn...!" Another girl gritted her teeth as she did her absolute best to push
herself towards the Martial Apprentice. "Not again!"
Just because one knew about the test did not mean that one could pass it. Just
knowing about an obstacle did not mean that they could overcome it, and a
good chunk of the applicants of the Martial community and of those who
attempted the entrance last year was realizing this the same way. Mental
fortitude was much harder to train than physical fortitude because the rate of
success was low, there was no guarantee that the training would yield
success.
"Applicant 538; Crea jenken, pass!"
"Thank you." Crea plucked the pass out of the Martial Apprentice's hand
before walking past him to exit the hall.
"Woah," Max mumbled. "She was so cool."
"We can do it too." Mana reminded him. "Just remember what big brother
Rui taught us."
Max nodded. "Concentration."
The two exhaled deeply before recentering their focus and walking towards
the Marital Apprentices.
Each step was harder than the last.
As they approached the Martial Apprentices, the fear generated within them
grew more intense. Their steps become labored as they walked on, as though
they were wading through a river. The deeper they crossed through it, the
more resistance the currents threw their way.
STEP
The two of them were panting by the time they reached their Martial
Apprentices.
"Applicant 878; Mana Quarrier, pass!"
"Applicant 877; Max Quarrier, pass!"
The two of them quickly took their passes before quickly passing through the
exit.
"We did it!" Max rejoiced.
"We sure did." Mana grinned.

"But, I dunno, is it just me, or was that easier than the training we did big
brother Quarrier?" Max wondered with a curious expression.
"Now that you mention it..." Mana grew a little absorbed in thought. "Big
brother does get us much more winded much quicker."
The two pondered a bit before shrugging. It didn't really matter since they
had already passed it. They simply followed the directions to the second
phase of the exam. They were eventually led to an open ground. It was an
artificial multi-environment ground with various different kinds of
topographies and vegetation.
When Mana and Max arrived they found a much smaller group of applicants
that had passed through the first round. The two could vaguely feel that this
group of applicants was much stronger. It was par for course, no one could
pass the first round with weakness.
The two of them silently waited as an increasing number of applicants poured

in, each having passed the first phase until the flow stopped.
Max and Mana looked around, getting an estimate of the number of

applicants that had made it through the first phase. The sheer number of
applicants that didn't make it through was astonishing to them.
Rui had never given them great confidence in their capabilities, he had
always made the first phase sound basic and fundamental. They had assumed
that most of the applicants would be able to pass it. To their utter surprise, it
was the exact opposite. Most people failed it.
They wouldn't be surprised if only less than ten percent of the original
population made it through.
"Wow..." Max whispered to Mana. "So few..."
"Yeah..." Mana nodded.
Soon, the next phase began. A Martial Apprentice appeared from the
entrance, gazing at them all.
"Applicants, I am the proctor of the second round of the entrance exam. The
second phase of the exam will commence here." He told them. "You will all
be provided badges with your application number on them. Your objective
for the second round is simple. The average application number of this group,
that is when all your application numbers are summed and divided by the
number of applicants, is 1026. Your objective and the condition for passing
this round is to ensure that the sum of your application badges at the end of
the round exceeds 1500. Meaning, you can take the badges of other
candidates and wear them. As long as the sum of all the badges you're
wearing exceeds 1500, you will have passed."
He paused, letting them digest the second phase of the entrance exam.
"The rules are few. You made procure the badges you need in any way you
wish. Any badge in your position must be pinned on your chest at all times.
You may not conceal your badge or the number on it in any way. The second
phase begins the very moment the doors close behind me. The second phase
lasts exactly an hour."
He informed them as he walked out of there.
Instantly all the applicants put a huge distance from each other, they had
barely gotten any time to consider the second round of the entrance exam at
all and it was already about begin. Each of them was highly tense as they
looked at their badges, doing some quick math and figuring out who among
their opponents they ought to target.
They scouted their opponents' badges, looking for a suitable number and also
a suitable opponent.
STEP STEP STEP
THUD
Chapter 561 Clash
Had Rui been there, he would have made deeper insights into the second
round of the entrance exam. He would have immediately mentally plotted
distribution graphs with classes of badge number, with a certain range, and
the proportion of badges that fell within each of those classes, based on his
observations, allowing him to figure out exactly how many applicants would
need to be disqualified for the winners to win.
And he would have more or less correctly come to the conclusion that only
twenty percent of the applicants could possibly pass the second round of the
entrance exam. That was why the number 1500 was chosen when the average
was 1026.
Max and Mana immediately had each other's back as the applicants around
them increasingly began getting broiled in more intense conflict.
They were cognizant of the fact that their badge numbers were decisively
below the required net number to pass the second round.
"What should we do?" Max asked urgently.
"We should target one applicant together," Mana responded.
Max nodded. "You're right! Big brother said that we should work together,
just like we do in training!"
The two of them scoured their surroundings as they looked for a suitable
target. They did not have any foolish thoughts of chivalry or honor, they
knew that they were the underdogs and that were disadvantaged individually
against pretty much all the applicants. Rui had drilled teamwork into their
heads.
"There." Max pointed at a girl. "She looks about our age and although her
badge number 538 isn't enough by itself, it's our best shot."
Mana followed his gaze, before nodding. "Good thinking."
The two of them watched their target, Crea.
She had been laying low as she herself had been looking for a target, yet
suddenly she felt something approaching her. She turned, just barely in time
to react to Max and Mana rushing towards her.
POW POW POW!
Max and Mana bull-rushed her with a quick flurry of jabs. Crea gritted her
teeth as she just barely managed to square a guard up in time to defend
against the siblings' attacks.
('Two on one...!') She cursed. Max and Mana had surrounded her as they
began circling her, throwing attacks in her blind spot.
Yet to Max's and Mana's surprise, she was able to cope quite well. She
managed to partially evade or block almost all of their attacks despite them
leveraging their numeric advantage against her. They could even feel that her
skill was better than theirs.
POW!
Max launched a right kick to her thigh, retreating his leg that she almost
managed to catch and would have no doubt kneed to oblivion had she
succeeded.
THWACK
A second kick landed on her shin, causing her spike of pain.
"RARGH!" Crea turned and swung her leg towards Mana swiftly, yet Mana
had seen the attack coming from a mile away, avoiding it cleanly
POW!
BAM!
THWACK!
Crea kept defending against the external attacks, yet the light of
determination never once faded from her eyes. A faint memory resurfaced
even as she withstood all the attacks that her opponents bombarded her with,
as she defended her badge.
"I can't avoid getting hit?" Crea asked Rui.
"No, you cannot." Rui shook his head. "The sheer chaos, the sheer numbers,
not to mention your disadvantages, it is impossible to avoid taking a lot of
punishment unless you're extremely lucky."
"Then can I just defend against all of them, right?"
"That's just as hard, I'm afraid," Rui replied, shaking his head. "At most, you
can guard, but it won't help much in those circumstances
"Well, then what can I do?" She scratched her head.
"What you can do... is make it count." Rui grinned.
"Make it count?" She tilted her head in confusion.
"Yep, make it count." Rui nodded. "Suppress your futile urge to evade or
defend every attack, instead, take it and use the opportunity created by you
not wasting your physical resources into futile defense and the opening
created by an attack to launch a counterattack. If you're going to get hit, then
make sure every strike they land on you is costly. That is the best way to
prevent becoming a punching bag when you're at a disadvantage."
"Ohhh..." Crea nodded as she understood what Rui was trying to convey. "I
see. I just have to make it count. I feel like I really like that tactic, for some
reason."
POW!
A blow flew towards her shoulder, yet Crea hadn't bothered with trying to
guard. Her arms lashed out toward his elbow and shoulder even as a painful
impact assailed her right shoulder with pain. Yet she ignored it as she clasped
him, before swiftly sweeping him off his feet and over her shoulder flat onto
the ground.
BAM!
She immediately tried reaching for his badge, yet;
POW!
Crea blocked a powerful kick to the face, gritted her teeth as she ignored the
pain in her guard.
"URGH!" Crea rushed in throwing a combo of blows toward Mana.
Mana stepped back as she managed to evade Crea's attacks. She was always
the more mobile one out of the siblings. Yet it wasn't too long before Crea
managed to gain an edge. Every time Mana attacked, she got hurt.
She threw a swift strike at Crea, yet the latter ignored the threat of damage as
her elbow fell and her knee rose, crushing her forearm in between them
mercilessly.
"ARGH!" Mana muffled a scream as she felt a sharp pain in her arm, as
though it was broken.
"Sis!" Max rushed in as he rushed towards Crea, colliding with her.
BAM!
"URGH!" Crea gritted her teeth as she turned towards Max with a murderous
expression.
Max threw a jab at her, yet Crea didn't even bother dodging or guarding, she
opened her mouth, biting down hard at what was supposed to be a strike to
the jaw.
"AH!" Max leaped back as he stared at his bleeding fist.
Crea spat out his blood, before turning towards him. "I made it count."
Chapter 562 Surprise
The three of them came to a momentary stand-off as Max quickly tended to

his wound, while Crea and Mana caught their breaths and gathered their
bearings. Despite being pounded by the two siblings, she felt amazing. The
way of fighting that she had just engaged in was incredibly satisfying and
fun. A strange feeling came from within her, she didn't really understand
what it meant.
Attack to defend. Make it count.
These principles that Rui had imparted to her really resonated with her.
Why that was the case, she didn't know, but she decided to ride the wave.
Making it her only principal way to engage with her opponent.
She had a fierce expression as Max and Mana regrouped, preparing another
volley of attacks. Yet just as they leaped at her.
WHOOSH
"Waaaaah!" A boy went flying just between the siblings and Crea, surprising
them. He landed a few meters away, groaning in pain. The three of them
couldn't help but look in the opposite direction, wondering what launched
him flying.
Their eyes widened as a faint aura crept over them, pressuring their minds.
They stiffened as they gritted their teeth, their attentions had already been
drawn away from each other.
The boy walked towards the three of them with a lazy grin, assessing them as
they did him.
"Martial Apprentice..." Crea clenched her jaw as she whispered.
Just her luck, before she could even obtain the necessary badges, she was
ambushed by two punks and now even a Martial Apprentice had taken note
of them.
What was especially eye-drawing was the number of badges pinned across
his clothes. There were many badges across his upper garbs. It was clear that
he had accumulated more badges than he needed. The man was no longer just
fighting to pass the second round, he was fighting for fun.
Crea would have ordinarily evaded him, but it was too late, his eyes were
locked on them. Max and Mana could sense the same, as they faced him
instead of each other.
He smiled, wordlessly, there was nothing to say at all, after all.
The three of them took their stances. Crea still held hope, she knew who the
boy was. He was a talented heir in the Martial community who was part of
the rare group of adolescents who had broken through to the Apprentice
Realm prior to entering the Martial Academy or becoming an adult.
However, he had broken through very recently, and Crea was sure that he
hadn't mastered any Apprentice-level techniques either. She could see a
bruise or two on his face, which would be impossible if he had mastered even
a single Apprentice-level technique.
The atmosphere tensed as the three of them faced him waiting.
But evidently, he was done waiting.
WHOOSH
POW!
In what seemed like an instant, he had crossed the gap between them, and
launched a kick at Max, launching him several meters backward.
"Max!" Mana cried out, yet she made the blunder of losing track of her
opponent in the middle of combat.
POW!
A single strike across the jaw caused her to crumple down like a puppet with
cut strings.
Crea growled as she adopted a highly closed stance. Her eyes were
bloodshot, she loosened her jaw a bit, ready to use her brand-new bite
intercept attack.
POW!
"RRGH!"
A low kick to the ankle brought her down to one knee. It was too fast for and
too difficult otherwise to be able to counterattack upon. The boy scoffed
lightly, before launching a swift kick to her face.
POW!
Crea spun backward, collapsing to the ground.
DRIP DRIP DRIP
A sharp pain flew up his foot, startling him as he looked down.
"ARGH!" He kneeled down cradling his bleeding toe.
"Heh.... hehe..." Crea stood up like a zombie as she chuckled unsteadily.
Something had snapped inside her. A switch had turned on, a door had
opened. Inside her head. It was a path that extended deep beyond her
fathoming. A path that she had taken a single step down.
"PTHOO!"
She spat before him, amidst her saliva was a human toenail.
"You fucking bitch!" He got up, ignoring the pain and bleeding as he charged
at her at full speed. He threw his full weight behind a strike. Yet what she did
shocked him.
Instead of moving away, she charged toward him and his attack.
POW!
BAM!
His strike struck her shoulder, clearly dislocating it, yet her elbow buried
itself in his throat, forming a deep indentation.
"ACK!" His eyes watered as he fell flat to the ground, cradling his throat,
trying to breathe.
BAM!
Crea soccer kicked him in the head, but he managed to mitigate the impact by
shifting just enough, getting up to his feet.
"YOU'RE DEAD!" He screeched. "FUCKING DEAD. DEAD! YOU HEAR

M-" "Shut up."
He froze as he felt a tremendous amount of pressure on him. Crea was a

mess, she was bruised up and bloody. Yet her piercing eyes made him shiver.
There was no way a normal human could make him feel like that.
('That's right!') He gritted his teeth. ('She's still weak. Only way I could feel
this threatened is if she was a...')
His eyes widened.
He took a good look at her, growing more shocked by the second.
('She discovered her Martial Path... She's a fucking Martial Apprentice.') He

gaped.
She walked towards him with a fierce expression, completely unperturbed.

He clenched his jaw with a tense expression.
The two Martial Apprentices exerted a tremendous amount of pressure on the

other applicants, the rest of them had already moved away from them,
flinching. The two of them exerted a maelstrom of pressure on everybody
else, together it was above the pressure that the applicants faced in the first
round.
Everybody stayed as far away from them, returning back to combat only after
they were confident they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire.
The two of them lashed out at each other, charging at top speed without any
restraint.
Chapter 563 Outcome
"Ack...!" The boy crawled away bleeding profusely from his mouth. "Rrgh."
He puked out some more blood.
STEP
Crea stepped over him.
"Get away from me!" He cried in fear.
Crea looked like something out of a low-budget horror film.
She turned him over.
"S-Stop!"
She plucked a badge out of his garb, pinning it on hers, before walking away.
Soon after, an announcement drew everybody's attention.
"The second round of the entrance exam has come to an end." The proctor
announced.
All the applicants paused. Some sighed in relief, some broke out in
celebration. But most were disappointed.
"Huff..." Mana exhaled, trying to compose herself as she tended to her broken
jaw.
"Fuck!" Max cursed as he gently caressed his broken ribs. "We're

disqualified."
His expression grew more severe as he thought about Rui. "He's gonna be
disappointed in us."
Mana shook her head. "Not unless we didn't give it our best. The ones who
are truly disappointed should be... us."
"Big brother is kind." Max choked up a little before stifling his urge to break
down in tears before his sister. "Next year."
His expression grew fiercer. "Next year. We'll definitely get through next
year."
Mana nodded as she furrowed her eyebrows, wiping away a single tear,
ignoring her throbbing jaw. She turned towards the distant figure of Crea,
healed up after drinking a healing potion. She was surrounded by many
proctors and other individuals wearing garbs with the emblem of the Martial
Academy.
"She became a Martial Apprentice in the middle of the exam." Mana gasped
in disbelief. "That's impossible."
"Whoever she is, she's fucking amazing," Max grunted. "Damn, I wish I
broke through in the middle of the exam in a moment of hopeless despair!
Urgh."
He grimaced in pain, caressing his ribs.
"Careful." Mana chided him.
A team of nurses came over to them, examining them.
"Here." One of them handed them potions. "This should heal everything,
we'll give you stronger potions if not."
Thankfully, although their injuries had been too debilitating to allow them to
pass the round, a potion had been enough to heal them each. The two of them
thanked the nurses before leaving the Martial Academy.
Mana sighed after messaging Rui to come to pick them up, having retained
their belongings. She didn't need to mention whether they had passed or
failed. Rui instantly guessed that they had failed, they came out far too early
to have passed.
The two of them simply stared at the Martial Academy, yet, only a minute
later, the ground rumbled and the air danced.
STEP
Rui appeared out of thin air, stepping down gracefully before them. He took a
good look at them. For a moment, none of them said anything.
"Big brother..." Max squeezed out.
"The future is more important than the past." Rui blankly stated. "What's
happened has happened."
He looked at both of them. "That being said, only the past can teach you how
to forge the future you want. Do not let this failure drag you down, instead,
turn it into fuel that will propel you to even greater heights."
"Don't worry, brother," Mana told him with serene, yet sharp, piercing eyes.
"I'll get into the Martial Academy next year even if it fucking kills me."
Max's eyes blazed with barely restrained determination.
The two of them were consumed in their own thoughts, they didn't notice the
smallest of smiles crack at Rui's mouth.
('Perfect.') Rui nodded inwardly. ('I'm glad they lost, in hindsight.')
It's not that Rui wished ill on them, of course not. It was the exact opposite.
Prior to the exam, Max and Mana had been passionate, curious, excited, and a
whole other slew of generally positive emotions. There was nothing wrong
with this, of course.
('But it's not enough.') Rui sighed inwardly.
He didn't sense a fire in them. Burning willpower that would drive them
forward no matter what. That was the difference between them and Crea in
his mind. Her determination and perseverance were strong beyond her years.
In comparison, Max and Mana were much tamer.
('This is different from the first round of the entrance exam.') Rui noted.
('That test can be trained for, prepared for, because ultimately it is a highly
controlled and superficial impediment to the mind, and the mind knows that.
Over time, it can be taught to power through the subconscious fear generated
by the immense sense of danger and risk that it knows aren't truly real.')
However, when that certainty of safety and superficiality disappeared, that

was when the heart was truly tested. If Max and Mana had fragile hearts
before, they didn't anymore. This outcome alone made the failure
inconsequential in his mind. He grew even more certain, instinctually, that
they would not only crack the entrance exam but also open the door to their
Martial Paths.
Of course, he still put on a solemn demeanor. He didn't want them to feel this
way, it was their failure, and they needed to feel the frustration.
He nodded. "It seems I wasted my breath. Hah. Truly, I'm proud of you."
"How do you want to get home?" Rui asked. "Rickshaw? Sky walking? Or-"
"Let's just... walk... slowly," Mana suggested softly, interjecting, earning a

nod from Max.
"Well. Walking it is, then." He turned around, sauntering in the direction of

the Quarrier Orphanage.
The three of them trudged quietly to the Quarrier Orphanage, wordlessly. Rui
didn't try to start a conversation forcefully, he could see that the two of them
needed and wanted solitude for a bit. They knew that they wouldn't get quiet
for a while when they returned home. Alice would undoubtedly leap at them
and smother them to death.
Once they left the town of Hajin, their surroundings grew quiet, having left
the bustling commercial and industrial districts of the town of the Hajin.
Max sighed exaggeratedly as he inhaled deeply.
"Feeling better?" Rui quizzed lightly.
"Yeah... Much better, honestly." Max was surprised.
Rui nodded, that was a good sign, it meant that they weren't holding on too
strongly to the past.
Chapter 564 Shock
"Don't you want to know what happened, big brother?" Mana raised an
eyebrow.
"The details don't matter as much, but yes." Rui nodded. "Whenever you
want to."
Mana paused for a moment, before sighing. "We ran into a Martial
Apprentice. He broke my jaw and Max's ribs."
That was about as strong as any justification for a loss one could have. Of
course, that didn't make things better, a loss was still a loss.
"By the time we could even gather ourselves, it was already over." Max
gritted his teeth. "That girl, Crea Jenken? She broke through to the
Apprentice Realm and wiped the floor with that other Martial Apprentice.
Damn, I wish I was li-"
"Wait." Rui paused abruptly, trying to conceal his shock with a mind mask.
"You're telling me a girl broke through?"
"Yeah." Max nodded.
"Her name was Crea Jenken? You're sure?" He asked in an unassuming tone.
"Pretty sure that's what they called her when they passed her." Max scratched
his head.
The two would have noticed something odd in his demeanor had they been in
a normal state of mind, but they were too consumed by themselves to do so.
"Mmm..." Rui nonchalantly nodded.

Inside, though...
('What the fuck...?') Rui was truly shocked. ('No, what the actual fuck??')
He had no idea how Crea broke through to the Apprentice Realm so soon and
in the middle of the entrance exam. He was sure that she was still very far
away from becoming a Martial Apprentice, yet she threw his consideration
out of the window and began traversing her Martial Path.
('But how?? Nothing has changed since three months ago in her life
except...')
His eyes widened a bit. ('...Me.')
He considered the implications that could potentially be inferred.
('The discovery of the Martial Path is fundamentally about self-awareness...')

Rui noted as he came to a realization. ('In the past three months, I have been
systematically increasing her awareness and cognizance of her patterns, her
strengths and weaknesses, and other things dramatically... Could it be
that...?')
Could it be that the VOID algorithm could be applied to aid with the self-
exploration process needed to gain the degree of self-awareness to discover
one's Martial Path?
('Have I discovered a way to increase the rate at which people break

through?')
A shiver crept down his spine.
"Are you ok, big brother?" Mana asked, noticing it.
"Haha, it's just a little cold today."
"But you're sweating."
"It's humid, after all."

('If the Martial Union finds out...')
He didn't even want to consider what would happen if they found out about
his strong suspicions. He would be the golden goose that could accelerate the
journey to breaking through to the Apprentice Realm.
Such a capability was game-changing, it was revolutionary. It could change

the standstill political struggle between the Martial Union and the Royal
Family. It could allow Martial Art to truly overrun the world and become the
most powerful force on the continent.
Of course, these were highly fanciful extrapolations, and the situation was
infinitely more complex and nuanced than that. However, there were many
more considerations that flew into his head that were perhaps more relevant
to him.
The various Martial Sects and factions would very well wage a civil war to
get their hands on the method of facilitating breakthroughs at a higher rate. If
any stakeholder got their hands on him, they would force him to spit out the
method to increase the rate of breakthroughs of Martial Artists and get him to
pass it on. Naturally, this would be difficult because not anyone can learn the
VOID algorithm and apply it as well as he does.
He would forever be embroiled in all kinds of entities interested in harnessing

such a capability.
Such a future was highly undesirable. The logical decision to be made from
such a conclusion would be to never divulge it and never let anyone figure
out the truth.
('Wait.') He sighed inwardly, pausing his overexcited self. ('I don't know for
sure that my suspicions are true. I have only one test subject, meaning only
one data point to observe, that is far from enough objective evidence to be
confident that there is a correlation between my training and the probability
of breakthrough.')
His inner scientist quickly restored his rationality that had been momentarily
dispelled by paranoia and shock. He needed more data to make sure he wasn't
dreaming up something out of thin air. It would be really embarrassing if all
of this was just wrong, and Crea broke through because of her own latent
talent and some good luck.
But he had a very strong feeling that he was onto something here. He just
needed more empirical data.
He glanced at the crestfallen Max and Mana with a glint of interest. Unlike
Crea, he knew these two very well, he had known them their entire lives
practically, which meant that the effects of long-term VOID algorithm
training were something that he could verify more thoroughly in the cases of
these two. There would be less uncertainty whether he made a meaningful
concrete impact on their breakthrough than there currently was with Crea.
('I'll have to spend more time with them.') Rui noted.
Thankfully, Crea had broken through and gone to the Martial Academy,
meaning he didn't need to train her anymore since the objective had been
fulfilled.
He originally wanted to relax his schedule a bit, but it was clear that he
needed to get to the bottom of this, thus it seemed that his busy life in the past
three months wouldn't get any easier in the meantime.
('Should I consult Julian about this?') Rui wondered.
It was extremely tempting, Julian had studied breakthrough to the Apprentice

Realm extensively and, given his sharp insight, would certainly be able to
help Rui out in some way or the other. But, given the sensitivity of the topic,
he decided to abstain from revealing it to him for the time being. He could
revisit the decision if he had any trouble regarding the matter.
Chapter 565 Meet
STEP
Rui landed before the Jenken residence gently, facing the guards. Though his
commission from Colonel Geringan had ended, the guards opened the gate
for him immediately.
"Hahaha! Look who's here!" Colonel Geringan's voice was

uncharacteristically boisterous. "If it isn't the man who helped my daughter
become a Martial Artist!"
He shook Rui's hand vigorously with a wide grin.
"I merely offered guidance." Rui smiled modestly. "She is ultimately

responsible for breaking through her limits, that too in the middle of a crisis,
from what I hear."
Rui played down his contribution and impact on her growth. He didn't want
to accept credit that could land him in hot water that he was not equipped to
handle. If he truly did contribute to her breaking through, then he did not
want people to know that.
Funnily enough, if he was sure that he didn't actually contribute anything,

then taking credit looked more attractive.
"Have a seat." Colonel Geringan told Rui as he sat down himself. "Crea will
be here soon enough, she's just preoccupied with a few matters."
"It seems to breaking through has put a lot on her plate." Rui chuckled.
"You have no idea." Geringan laughed. "Just entertaining our various

acquaintances, in the Martial community and otherwise, who called in to
congratulate us alone has taken up hours of her free time, she has been quite
cranky because of that."
"That does sound like a pain." Rui smiled wryly. "When I broke through, I
only had to deal with my family, thankfully."
"It was actually the same for me." Colonel Geringan nodded. "What little I
had of a family back then, anyways."
That implied he wasn't part of the Martial community when he broke through.
Rui did recall reading that the Jenken family wasn't part of the Martial
community, or even a Martial family before Colonel Geringan.
What that meant was that all of the success, power, money, and prestige that
Colonel Geringan had today was earned by Colonel Geringan himself. Rui's
respect for him had grown knowing that. The fact that he was a Martial
Colonel despite only being a Martial Senior was rather impressive, for the
rank was normally given only to Martial Masters, from Rui's understanding.
It was among the special rank hierarchy of the army given to Martial Artists.
It conveyed authority without much of the management and leadership
responsibilities and duties that normally came along with the normal
equivalent of those ranks in the regular Kandrian military hierarchy.
Martial Apprentices were usually promoted to the Martial corporal rank.
Martial Squires were usually promoted to the Martial sergeant rank.
Martial Seniors were usually promoted to the Martial major rank.
Martial Masters were usually promoted to the Martial colonel rank.
The fact that Geringan Jenken was a Martial colonel despite only being a
Martial Senior meant that he had likely accrued a large number of merits in
his time in the military allowing him to be promoted to a higher rank.
Just then, another individual entered the room.
"Teacher Rui!" Crea exclaimed as she arrived, rushing towards him.

"Alright, take it easy." Rui laughed as he caught her dive at him.
"Congratulations on becoming a Martial Artist, Crea."
"It's all thanks to your training," Crea replied with a grateful tone.
Rui shook his head. "I may have helped, but that is what I was brought here
to do. The actual effort, among other things, that one needs to put to break
through is something only could have put."
"Hehe..." Crea accepted his praise with a beaming smile.
"So, tell me about your Martial Path." Rui casually said. He hadn't yet gotten
any details from colonel Geringan, probably because he wanted to let his
daughter be the one to explain it to Rui.
Crea nodded. "My Martial Path is counter-offensive deterrence. My greatest

defense is sacrificing defense but using that opportunity to inflict more pain
and harm than my opponents do on me."
She explained the details with a sadistic smile.
"Interesting..." Rui replied with a measured tone once she finished explaining
the details.
He had come across counter-offensive Martial Artists before, many of them.

In his time serving as a representative fighter, in other missions, and also in
the preliminary tournament of the Martial Academy. Yet he was relatively
certain he had never seen a counter-offensive Martial Art this extreme. This
Martial Art truly took counter-offense to its most extreme interpretation.
A Martial Art that abandoned defense and scared away attacks with even
more lethal attacks that made use of the spontaneous holes in opponent's
defenses when the latter attacked? That was verging on insanity.
In fact, Rui could see the anxiety hidden behind colonel Geringan's joyful
expression. Such a Martial Art was very mutually destructive and was such
that she was guaranteed to get really hurt every time she fought.
Frankly, Rui was worried too, for the same reason. Although this was just a
job, he had grown to have attachments to Crea in the past three months. He
did not want any harm befalling her.
('Maybe... I can get her to learn the Autophagy Mind Switch technique that I
created.') Rui noted inwardly. It would be particularly useful to her when the
time came, though he didn't need to take that measure for now.
He also wanted some more empirical data on that technique as well, so that
he could extract maximum value with all the proof he gained of its
effectiveness from the Martial Artists that were going to master it. Though
for now, she didn't need it.
"Well, I'm looking forward to how you're going to develop your Martial Art."
Rui had many thoughts, but he kept them to himself, it seemed that colonel
Geringan was also doing the same, the man clearly withheld the many
thoughts he had regarding what he believed she ought to do.
This was because Martial Artists of higher Realms ought not to interfere with
the Martial journeys of lower Realms, this was a philosophy that was well
upheld in the Martial Academy.
Chapter 566 Matters
In the Martial Academy, Martial Apprentices were given an immense amount

of freedom on how they wanted to spend their time and what and how they
wanted to train. The Squire instructors merely took the roles of guides, rather
than teachers. This had done the Martial Apprentices well, and without it,
they likely would not make as much progress with the individuality and
maturity of their Martial Art, thereby reducing the number of Martial
Apprentices that achieved Squire candidacy.
If Rui were her, he would immediately begin arming himself with many
lethal offensive techniques that could inflict greater damage with every
attack. Of course, this alone was going to be a long and difficult journey that
would likely take Crea several years to truly complete. In his opinion, she
ought to also increase her passive defense and endurance.
If she was going to abandon active defense and go all out on offense every
time her opponent attacked, then she needed to ensure that her skin, flesh,
muscles, and bones were all tough. Otherwise, she might very well lose the
fight in one exchange.
He also felt that she ought to purchase endurance techniques that allow her to
mitigate the damage she ended up suffering.
But he didn't mention any of these recommendations, he was pretty sure

colonel Geringan would not be pleased even if he did try.
They conversed for some more time before another matter interrupted them.
"Young miss Crea." An employee of the family addressed her, bowing.
"Hm?" She turned towards him, knitting her eyebrows.

"I'm afraid you need to begin preparing for your evening appointment now,
or else you will not be able to make it in time."
Her expression drooped. "Later."
"Crea." Geringan gave her a measured look.
"Tsk. Fine." She rolled her eyes before looking back at Rui. "Bye-bye
teacher. Thanks for everything. I will never forget how much you helped
me."
She turned around and ran before Rui could even respond. "Well, there she
goes."
"Indeed." Rui sighed. "Well, then I ought to take my leave."
He got up, prompting Geringan to do the same.
"Ah, one more thing." Geringan paused. "I'm holding a party to celebrate
Crea breaking through. I'm inviting you to it, as her trainer."
Rui caught his intentions, he was pretty sure that there would be a heavy
presence of members of the Merger faction.
"Ah... Unfortunately, I'm extremely busy actually." Rui smiled

apologetically. "And I also have to look after the training of my two siblings
as well, they didn't manage to clear the exam, unfortunately."
The colonel was actually aware of this, which is why he avoided asking about
it. "That's a shame, but it can't be helped. Once again, thank you for your
phenomenal service. If you ever need anything, be sure to give me a call."
"Thank you, that's generous of you." Rui smiled.
The two bade each other goodbye, as Rui left the residence. However, he
didn't head in the direction of the Orphanage when he took off into the air. He
headed straight for the Martial Union.
('Time to grind through and finish those two techniques as soon as possible.')
Rui noted.
He felt a sense of urgency because his source of income; training Crea was
now gone. Of course, colonel Geringan had been more than generous with
the proposed hourly remuneration rate, allowing Rui to accumulate enough
wealth to sustain his expenditure for some time without needing another
source of income. He intended to finish the two techniques that he had
purchased from the Martial Union before that happened, which would get rid
of one of his biggest liabilities and would allow him to develop Project
Bounce and Project Sniper peacefully.
Once he learned the two techniques, he didn't need the Martial Union
anymore. He could do most of the work by himself just like he was currently
doing with Project Bounce.
('Everything is going well.') Rui nodded.
He was pleased with the progress he made with both projects, especially
Project Bounce. Soon, he would be able to almost entirely absorb the power
of the incoming attack and turn it into kinetic energy of his entire body
harmlessly.
Once that occurred, he would immediately move on to the second phase;

Getting rid of all the accumulated kinetic energy harmlessly.
He had given this part a lot of thought, and he had come up with potential
solutions.
('I need to somehow discharge the inherited kinetic energy into the
environment; either the land or the air. There is no realistic way of getting rid
of it otherwise.') Rui sighed.
He had considered harnessing that power and using it to empower his own
attacks, but that was no longer an objective as much as it was a magical pipe
dream. He wasn't even sure if such a thing was physically possible at all. For
now, he discarded the idea.
The most straightforward way to get rid of energy and impart it to the ground
was through friction. That was how most people got rid of their kinetic
energy when they wanted to slow down or stop. There was only one problem
with that.
('Friction has limits, it cannot bleed away all my power before I have already
moved more than a hundred meters from my original position.')
The friction of an object experienced on any given surface was entirely

dependent on the roughness of the surface and object, measured by the
coefficient of friction, and the weight of the object pushing down on said
surface. The product of these two quantities determined the maximum
amount of frictional force that there could be between the object and the
surface.
Thus, friction was not a viable solution.
('Another potential solution is through an inelastic collision with the ground.')

Rui noted. ('If I can somehow channel that energy and ground it, or release it
into the atmosphere through a hard enough collision where I pass on the
kinetic energy in the same that my opponent's power was passed onto me,
then I might be able to harmlessly get rid of all that energy on the spot.')
Chapter 567 ODA
Rui inhaled deeply, closing his eyes. His skin tingled as he carefully felt
atmospheric fluctuations pressing against his senses. He could feel the air
currents and shifts in the atmosphere all around him like watching the surface
of the ocean fluctuating about.
However, he wasn't just limited to that, he could do much more once he 'read'
the atmospheric fluctuations. Instantly, a three-dimensional omnidirectional
image of the world around him appeared in his mind. He could perceive the
fauna and flora in the natural environment around him in the forest through
their atmospheric signatures and sonic radiation. He could perceive them with
great detail, right down to the last bit of fur on the back of a squirrel dozens
of meters away.
This was the world perceived through the Tempestuous Feel technique when
fully mastered
Rui then focused on Seismic Mapping as well, overlapping the sensory

information both techniques supplied him. Together, the two techniques
provided a more holistic, accurate, and precise image of the world to Rui.
And a greater sensory range that went beyond just the sum of the parts. Rui
could sense truly far with these two techniques combined.
Rui inhaled deeply, before opening his mouth.
WHOOM!
A potent sonic bullet escaped his mouth, traveling incredibly fast and far,
knocking down many dozens of trees before its momentum had finally bled
out.
Rui exhaled, nodding. "Finally, it's time, to begin with the actual
development of Project Sniper."
Two months had passed since the Martial entrance exam, and Rui had very
recently mastered both the techniques that he had bought from the Martial
Union. Mastering Tempestuous Feel and Sonic Bullet were merely Rui
procuring the necessary tools to fulfill Project Sniper. Now that he had
obtained those tools, he intended to go all out and succeed.
He looked at a tree dozens of meters away, before launching a Sonic Bullet at

it.
WHOOM!
The sound bullet flew before striking the tree accurately. He repeated the
exercise, but this time, with a tree more than a hundred meters away.
WHOOM!
"Tsk. Missed." Rui tutted.
He had already known that his accuracy was nowhere near adequate. There
were two reasons.
The first, of course, was his own imperfect aim. Beyond a certain distance, it
was clearly evident that his aim was shit.
However, he had already come up with a potential solution.
('Marksmanship skill isn't my forte. So I just need to rely on what I am good

at rather than what I am not good at.')
He intended to create a systematic way to aim the Sonic Bullet techniques at

any given target. This was the first mini-phase of Project Sniper; increasing
his accuracy.
The question was how he ought to go about it.
('The underlying condition for perfect aim is ensuring the trajectory of the
attack overlaps with the target. What are the further underlying conditions to
achieving that in the context of the Sonic Bullet?') Rui wondered as he gave it
deep thought, before arriving at an answer.
In order to systematically and scientifically aim at a target accurately, he

needed to figure out what the launch conditions for hitting the target
accurately were. Launch conditions were the parameters of the launch of the
projectile that decided its trajectory; like the angle of his head, the intensity of
the sound bullet etc.
In order to find out the necessary launch condition to hit a particular target
properly, he needed to know the equations of the trajectory of the wavefront.
If he knew the necessary equations that described the trajectory that would hit
the target, he could figure out the launch conditions needed to get a perfect
hit.
In order to figure out the equations describing the trajectory that would hit the
target, he needed to know the distance between himself and the target, the
direction of gravity relative to them, and the inclination and angle of his body
relative to the target.
And that was where Tempestuous Feel and Seismic Mapping came in.
These two techniques could provide him with those variables, which would
allow him to calculate the equation of the trajectory of the Sonic Bullet
needed to hit his target, which would allow him to calculate the launch
conditions, which would allow him to know exactly how he should launch his
attack to get a perfect hit.
It was a complicated and tedious set of steps, however, if he could master this
system, then he could achieve using science to aim instead of pure skill.
Of course, it would still require very accurate hand-eye coordination. Even if

he figured out, in his head, how exactly he ought to launch the Sonic Bullet to
get a perfect hit, he also needed to actually execute a completely accurate and
perfect replication of the image that he had developed in his mind or on
paper.
This would most likely require sustained practice over a long period of time.
Until he managed to execute the outputs from his systemized aiming system,
he would not be able to make much use of the many innovations that would
be going into this project.
('I also should come up with a name for this new system.') Rui thought
inwardly. ('Hm... How about the Objectively Derived Accuracy system, or
the ODA System? Has a nice ring to it.')
Developing and mastering the ODA system was the most important step he
had to take, but he was confident he could do it. ('The VOID algorithm is far
more complex and more difficult to master than the ODA system, but I
managed to pull that off.')
Of course, he spent more than one lifetime on the former before he

succeeded, be he conveniently left that part out.
('The ODA system also needs to take into account atmospheric factors that
could influence the trajectory of the Sonic Bullet and throw it off.') Rui
recalled. ('Otherwise, the bullet will miss the target over truly long distances,
which does increase the complexity and difficulty of the task, although still
nowhere near that of the VOID algorithm.')
He immediately began working on it, he had his work cut out for him.
Chapter 568 Concept
The basic ODA system that focused purely on aim was complicated enough
already, but taking into account the influence of air currents, winds and
breeze, temperature, and drag on the trajectory of his attack among other
things to ensure an absolutely accurate hit on the target made things much
more difficult.
He had yet to come up with a way to account for that. This was perhaps even
more difficult than the base ODA system.
('I only need to account for the atmospheric condition whenever and
wherever the Sonic Bullet is along its trajectory.') Rui noted.
Only the atmospheric pocket immediately outside of the Sonic bullet could
influence the sound pulse projectile at any given time, anything that was
never going to come into contact with the Sonic Bullet would not be able to
directly influence it.
('In order to fully account for the impact of the atmospheric conditions on the
Sound Bullet, I need to know the precise atmospheric conditions that the
bullet will face after it leaves my mouth.') Rui noted. ('However, how can I
know the precise atmospheric conditions that my attack will face in the future
after it leaves my mouth, before they happen?')
He would effectively need to predict the future to accomplish such a feat.

This was a nigh-impossible task for any Martial Artist, they were not
prophets, after all.
However, this didn't necessarily affect Rui.
('Temperature for any given area is a constant gradient within short intervals
of time, that's not the issue.')
The issue was accounting for the forces of drag, pressure, and currents that
would influence the trajectory of the projectile. Predicting that was much
harder.
Thankfully, it wasn't impossible.
('All of these factors obey the laws of physics, particularly, they are
completely predictable through the classical wave equation and the equations
of superposition and resonance.')
All he needed was ample enough data on the initial conditions, and he could
predict the manner and way in which the system of waves in the atmosphere
would evolve. If he knew how it would evolve, then he could predict the
influence that it would have on the particular trajectory involved, then he
could account for those influences and alter the trajectory and his launch
appropriately.
The equations were the easy part, although it had been a long time since he
had finished his degree in physics, he still recalled the core of each of the
subjects that he had studied, especially when his mind had grown more
powerful in his second life.
The hard part was inputting all the relevant data from the Tempestuous Feel
and the Seismic Mapping techniques into the relevant equations and
computing the results in the briefest of moments. This was an incredibly
difficult task even for Rui who was very confident in his mental math.
('That is where the Mental Embed technique will save my ass.') Rui sighed.
This was the technique that involved embedding the mental and cognitive
processes that occurred in the brain when executing a technique, into the
Mindmirror Brain, allowing the latter to aid the former in a parallel
processing fashion. Even to this day, the Mindmirror Brain aided Rui with
the processing of the VOID algorithm primarily, and the other techniques
secondarily.
His confidence in mastering the ODA system to the point where it become
practical to apply it in long-range battles and long-range attacks was high
thanks to the Mental Embed technique and the Mindmirror Brain.
And with that, the conceptual basis of the accuracy issue of the Sniper Project
was completely solved. All he needed to do was begin executing the concept
and bringing it to life.
The first step was optimizing the ODA system's algorithmic protocols. The
protocols would decide the manner in which Rui would obtain the desired
outputs. Optimizing this was necessary because Rui didn't want to work with
an inefficient process that would increase the time period and effort needed
for him to ultimately obtain the desired results. Thus he needed to simplify
the equations, and find as many functional shortcuts as possible in the math
to ensure that the process was as simple as possible.
This approach was very common in engineering. Referring to the purely

theoretical basis of any given field that they were trying to apply was
something that was tedious and inefficient. Engineers cut away all the useless
redundancies that the theoretical physics nerds came up with, and extracted
the very distilled essence of theoretical science that was needed to apply the
science in practical applications. This left them with much simpler practical
equations that would become the basis of their algorithms and programs of
their development projects.
Rui was effectively doing the exact same thing, but with Martial Art instead.
He spent several hours developing the relevant and necessary simplified

algorithmic protocols for the ODA System, he had been very careful and
thorough, checking and rechecking his work over and over. The end product
was two-phase which was still quite complicated despite his best efforts. The
first phase focused purely on accuracy disregarding the effects of the
atmosphere, and the second part dealt with atmospheric conditions. The
second phase of protocols was completed in his mind, he needed to execute
them.
After all, he couldn't predict that deep into the future, in fact, it was very
limited. He could only calculate a few seconds at the very most. This meant
that the sonic bullet could only travel for a handful of seconds before it
crossed the degree to which Rui could predict it.
Of course, a few seconds was still a lot considering that the Sonic Bullet
could cover a kilometer in that distance.
Meaning, if everything went according to plan, then Rui could accurately

snipe his opponents or targets from an enormous distance away!
Most long-range techniques did no go anywhere near as far as Rui suspected

Project Sniper could, largely due to range and accuracy constraints, but Rui
had ways of bypassing both. As long as everything went according to plan, of
course.
Chapter 569 Attempt
Although there were always more ways he could increase the accuracy of the
technique, he ultimately gave up on it. The problem was that the principle of
diminishing returns made it simply not worth the investment. He would have
to spend an incredible amount of effort in overcoming many obstacles for
benefits that were simply too insignificant to justify the efforts.
In fact, the second phase of the ODA System was almost verging over the
limit, however, it was because Rui was quite keen on extending his maximum
distance at which his aim was fully accurate well beyond the norm. After all,
the first phase of the ODA System would merely give him accuracy of the
best marksman.
Of course, this was still a great boon and an incredible development,

however, Rui was not satisfied with this alone knowing he could go much
further, thus he had resolved himself to push himself further to obtain even
more extraordinary results.
If he was not wrong, then it was quite likely that no Martial Squire possessed
the long-range accuracy that he did!
Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if this extended even to the Martial Senior

Realm, though he didn't dare to have confidence in that possibility.
Time passed as he worked on the Sniper Project, refining the ODA system
and field testing the protocols to gain some data. The best way to test whether
something was functioning as desired was to simply physically test and gain
data that would clearly indicate if it was functioning as desired or not.
Rui spent time in various kinds of environments, testing whether his

predictions and extrapolations of atmospheric conditions were accurate to
reality or not. Each time he noticed certain deviations, he identified the
problem and corrected it, trying it over and over until the result was
satisfactory.
In the meantime, Project Bounce had made a lot of progress as well.
Some great distance away from the Quarrier Orphanage in an uninhabited

part of the Mantian Region, Squire Casen wound her right arm all the way
back, clenching her fist rock hard. A tremendous amount of potential energy
had gathered, brimming in her taught muscles.
Standing right before her was Rui, with arms in an extended stance, waiting
to intercept the strike.
Casen swung her fist as her upper body twisted. The very atmosphere rippled,
and the ground rumbled in shock as the unadulterated might of a Martial
Squire crashed into his palm.
Yet Rui was ready.
His eyes narrowed as his palm intercepted the strike, moving with it as it
increased its resonance the further it was pushed back, just like a spring. By
the time Squire Casen had finished the strike, Rui had already been launched
into the air.
The sheer velocity at which Rui had been launched far surpassed the speed of
sound as his body cleaved through the air, leaving numerous sonic booms
behind.
BOOM!!
In just an instant, he had landed more than a kilometer away from his original
position!
"...Holy fuck!" Rui laughed. "That's the tenth one hundred percent elastic
collision in a row!"
Ten in a row with different kinds of attacks was definitely a sign that he had
mastered it to a satisfactory extent. It would be more productive to move on
with the next phase rather than become caught up with trying to refine the
first phase even more, the issue with diminishing returns would certainly
apply here as well.
"Another round?" Squire Casen asked as she sky-walked to his location.
In the past five months, she had helped Rui perfect and refine the first phase
extensively and had grown accustomed to their training sessions.
"Yes, though you'll have to scale down your strikes back to how elementary
they were when we first began, you can't go all out like you have been doing
recently. I'm going to be trying something new."
Her eyebrows rose in surprise. It seemed that Rui was finally satisfied with
what he had been trying to accomplish for quite some time now. She was
curious about what he would be trying to do next. Rui still hadn't told her
about the point of the technique, or what he was trying to accomplish at the
end of the day. She had her own guesses, of course.
Her biggest suspicion was that Rui was trying to create an escape technique
that was fueled by his opponent's power. Perhaps the point of the technique
was that it allowed you instantly get away right in the middle of combat.
In which case Rui will have already mastered that technique, but he evidently
hadn't thus she could only conclude that her suspicions were incomplete or
straight up wrong.
"Alright," Rui took his stance. "Let's go, keep it nice and easy. We can
increase the difficulty as time passes."
"Ok..."
She didn't even wind her attack back, she intended to begin with a jab.
Rui on the other hand, increased his concentration to the max. He was going
to be trying something new that he hadn't developed the muscle memory for,
after all. His conscious mind needed to pull all the weight.
She threw a solid jab at him.

Rui tried not only converting the power to kinetic energy, but this time also
tried directing it downwards into the Earth.
POW
THUD!
He failed as he instead was sent tumbling across the ground in a spectacular

failure.
"Tsk." He tutted as he dusted himself.
He didn't experience much pain at all thanks to the Adamant Reforging

conditioning training that made his skin and flesh quite resilient.
He was trying to test out one of the possible solutions to accomplishing phase
two of the Bounce Project, which was getting rid of the inherited kinetic
energy. He had tried directing it to the ground in an inelastic collision where
all of it would get converted into damage into the ground, but his timing was
terrible, and he mostly lost control of the kinetic energy.
Of course, he didn't expect to succeed on the first try in the first place.
He planned to see how viable grounding the kinetic energy that he absorbed
from his opponent's attack to get rid of it, the same way one did electricity,
was. However, his initial failure wasn't an indication that the option was not
viable. He just messed up the execution of the plan.
"Again."
Once again, she threw a solid jab at him. This time, he managed to absorb
and channel more of it downwards than before.
SKRRRRR...
He skidded heavily, and deeply into the ground. By the time he stopped, he
was a hundred meters away and waist-deep into the ground.
"That was better." Rui's eyes glinted with interest. "However, there might a
problem I hadn't foreseen."
When he tried to direct his kinetic energy downwards, he was essentially

trying to make himself move downwards instead of flying away like he
normally did. He hoped that by directing the inherited momentum and kinetic
energy down, he could dispel it into the land without any issue.
However, he now realizes that there were likely issues with that plan as well.
When he directed his inherited momentum and kinetic energy downwards, it
meant that his body was moving fast down, which meant that he was
essentially crashing into the ground.
('That's why my body dug in so deeply.') Rui frowned as he looked at how

below the surface he had dug into as he skidded across the ground.
Furthermore, this was just with partial success, if he did succeed in diverting
all of his momentum down, how deep would he go?
('Shit.') Rui felt a pang of anxiety. ('This issue isn't light, it might make the
project unviable if I don't find a solution.')
He spent most of the rest of the session trying to divert one hundred percent
of the inherited energy downwards, yet when he did succeed, he was quite
displeased.
"Are you okay?" Squire Casen asked as she gazed down the deep hole that
Rui had created and pushed himself down.
The hole extended down more than a hundred meters. Yet Rui easily sky-
walked out of it without any issue.
"Just fine." Rui sighed. "Let's take a break."
She nodded. "What exactly is it that you're trying to achieve with all of this?"
This was the first time she had asked so straightforwardly. They had grown
more familiar with each other over five months. She felt comfortable asking a
direct question.
"I'm trying to efficiently pass on my momentum to my surroundings without

getting hurt." He turned towards the deep hole he made. "And without that
happening."
She threw a confused look at him.
"It's like when you strike, say, a rock," Rui explained. "Your fist inevitably
digs in, right?"
She nodded.
"That's what's happening here, I'm digging into the ground because I'm
effectively striking it with my body," Rui explained, before sighing.
"So you're looking for a way to strike the ground without digging into it,
while still passing the energy on to the ground?" She wondered. "If there's no
difference between you striking the ground with a body or a fist, then doesn't
that make it very similar to a striking technique?"
"Sort of." Rui shrugged half-heartedly. "I want to strike without causing
surface damage like digging in, it's a shame that it seems impossi-')
Rui suddenly froze as his eyes widened.
Striking without causing surface-level damage?
Didn't he have a technique just like that?
('What if I use Reverberating Lance to dispel all the energy to the ground?')
Rui grew excited. ('This way I can permeate the energy deeper into the
ground without causing myself to dig into it!')
Reverberating Lance used vibration to permeate the damage of the impact of

a collision deeper into the target, past the surface. This principle was the
same principle that was used in modern medicine back on Earth to deal with
kidney stones.
His current issue was that he was causing too much damage to the ground,
the surface of the land when he tried to impact against it with his body to pass
on energy.
What if instead of straightforwardly directing his inherited kinetic energy to

the ground with an impact, he used the Reverberating Lance technique to
permeate the impact beyond the surface? If the energy was permeated deeper
into the land through vibrations rather than through the surface, then Rui
could theoretically avoid digging deeper into the ground!
Just like how the Reverberating Lance allowed Rui to hurt his opponent on
the inside without necessarily damaging the outside, he could pass on the
inherited kinetic energy of Project Bounce deeper into the land without
necessarily digging through the surface as he did before!
He grew giddy with excitement as he stood up abruptly, startling Squire

Casen, who looked at him strangely.
"Alright, break's over, we need to get back to practice right now."
It had only been fifteen seconds since the break began, yet she obliged, she
was being paid, after all. She was also curious about what Rui wanted to try
since it was quite evident that he had just gotten a new idea.
"Alright, same as before, no changes, okay?"
She nodded, before throwing an identical straight right jab. Rui intercepted,
carefully absorbing the energy of the attack as it automatically converted into
harmless kinetic energy, he strained himself as he pushed down, crouching
and bracing for the impact.
RUMBLE
The ground shook as Rui immediately applied Reverberating Lance

downwards to its absolute maximum. The shaking continued for a moment,
before subsiding.
"...This is great!" Rui exclaimed.
He had only gone down knee-deep, standing in the same spot. When he did
the same thing prior, he had gone a hundred meters deep. The difference
made by the Reverberating Lance was tremendous, getting rid of almost all of
the piercing and digging through the ground. However, considering that this
was his very first attempt at the technique, it was very promising!
"This is the solution!" Rui exclaimed. "This has to be it."
He intended to grind it out until Project Bounce was effectively a complete

success!
Chapter 571 Success
It was a windy day.
Rui squinted from atop a tall hill as he stared at a distant small tree that was
no more than a collection of dots in even his superhuman vision. He couldn't
make out too many details of it due to the distance between him and the tree.
He closed his eyes, relying instead on his two long-range sensory techniques,
Tempestuous Feel and Seismic Mapping. He overlapped both images
together, forming one image with remarkable detail and clarity despite the
distance between them.
He had been training hard to gauge distance accurately through Tempestuous

Feel and Seismic Mapping. This had taken him a while as he tried various
methods of obtaining an objective evaluation of distance. He tried using his
body in his own senses as a measuring tape, he tried comparing it to the max
range of his sensory techniques, among other things. The problem was none
of these were truly objective since his height certainly wasn't constant, and
the maximum range of his sensory techniques also wasn't necessarily
constant.
Instead, he carried a small rigid ruler on his person at all times. This allowed
Rui to gain an objective measure of the distances of things that he senses by
referring to his ruler and scaling the actual distance from that. It was not
convenient, but he was willing to tolerate it. As a Martial Squire with a
superhuman physique, the weight of a single ruler was beyond negligible and
didn't hamper him in any way at all.
"Five hundred and eight point two meters, forty-three point one degrees of
inclination below principle axis," Rui noted before plugging the data into the
latest iteration of the first phase of the ODA System. He quickly computed
the outputs, gathering the relevant launch data that told him how to launch his
Sonic Bullets for a perfectly accurate aim.
However, this didn't take into account atmospheric conditions. That was what
the second phase was for. He closed his eyes once more, diving deep into the
Tempestuous Feel technique. He felt the air currents, the pressure shifts, the
temperature, and other environmental parameters. He inhaled and exhaled
deeply, sharpening his focus, gathering his mind, and refining his
concentration.
Had a human been there, they may have already fainted from the tremendous
amount of pressure that he was generating.
When he was ready he immediately took the sensory readings of the

Tempestuous Feel technique before throwing them into the second phase of
the ODA system, processing them as quickly as possible. Unlike with the
first phase, he was on a restrictive time limit. If he was even a moment too
late, then it would be too late as the data would have grown outdated by then.
Just when he finished, his expression dropped. "Tsk! Too late, I'm not as used
to this yet."
Thankfully, he didn't need to begin with the first phase, which didn't have a
relevancy lifespan, not a short one anyway. He immediately began with the
second phase once again, furiously completing the already highly simplified
calculations.
Suddenly he swiftly positioned himself appropriately before lightly opening

his mouth.
THWOOM
A sound projectile flew out of his mouth, traveling forward with a certain
inclination down. Less than two seconds later.
POW!
The little tree's stump exploded in the middle, as several baseball-ball-sized

holes and a deep hole in the ground appeared in the trees behind it.
A perfect shot.
"YES!" Rui leaped hundreds of meters into the air in unrestrained

celebration. "It only took more than half a year for the very first successful
execution of Project Sniper!"
Even as he tried to compose himself, he couldn't stop a wide grin from

appearing on his face. It couldn't be helped, the sheer satisfaction and pure
joy that came with succeeding with a project after nearly seven months of
work was immense.
This marked a new chapter in his Martial Path, a new milestone. This was his
first truly original Martial Art technique as a Martial Artist. While it was true
that there were other instances of individuality and
"Ok ok... Calm down, it's just one success amidst a lot of failed tries. I still
need to reach a point where I succeed one hundred percent of the time, only
then is this project an absolute and true success in every sense of the word."
Rui sky-walked over to the target site, wanting to get a closer look. Now that
he got over the joy of success, he was fully cognizant of just how incredible
the feat he just performed was!
Almost half a kilometer under windy conditions and he launched a sound

bullet that traveled and struck the target accurately.
The sheer difficulty of such a feat could not be overstated!
Rui was extremely certain that extremely few, if not zero, Martial Squires in
the Kandrian Empire were capable of such accuracy at such a large distance
away from the target. His feat would likely shock even Martial Squires whose
Martial Paths were centered around long-range accuracy! Regardless of
which system of technique they relied on.
('This is the power of synergy and individuality.') Rui's eyes glinted with a
deeper understanding.
Project Sniper and the ODA system that he had created were extremely
synergetic with him, they were born out of his understanding of science, and
were only viable because of his monstrous ability to process a large amount
of data necessary in a short amount of time.
Its very existence was born out of his strengths and its very functioning
required his strengths. Strengths that no Martial Squire in the entire Empire
possessed!
In return, it gave him frightening long-range accuracy!
Now, Rui could fight enemies from an extreme distance, sniping them with
accurate Sonic Bullets while his enemies would have no way of fighting
back! This was a broken strategy that not many could viably overcome.
However, its greatest strengths showed up when its targets were unaware that
they were being targeted but were still highly protected and secure.
Chapter 572 Implications
The Martial Union received a flood of all kinds of commissions every day.
Among these were those of the antagonistic kind, the kind that fell into the
offense class or the shadow class of missions. The offense class dealt with
head-on missions that involved aggressing straightforward conflict. The
shadow class dealt, in part, with missions with the same goal, but done
covertly and secretively.
That was the key difference between the offense and shadow class of
missions. Killing someone straightforwardly in front of anyone after rushing
towards them directly, or killing someone extremely covertly, secretively,
and concealingly.
Rui had completed missions of the former, like when he dragged and
murdered King Fujilin in public in front of everyone. However, he had never
had the opportunity to undertake missions of the latter kind. Mostly because
he never had the necessary skillset.
Now, however, that was no longer true. He had the skillset to kill covertly
and concealingly, thanks to Project Sniper.
As the title of the Project explicitly said, it allowed him to snipe his targets
from a great distance away. It allowed him to kill his targets from an
exceedingly high distance away. Higher than would trigger the alarms of
sensory bodyguard Martial Artists keeping a watchful eye around their target
of protection.
"That's not all," Rui muttered as he recalled another trait that made it highly
suited for sniping assassinations.
The projectile he was launching was the Sonic Bullet technique. The
advantage of this technique was that concentrated sound pockets like the
Sonic Bullet technique were difficult to detect directly and ahead of time. The
reason for this was that a sound wave or pulse did not produce any of its own
sound that could be used to detect it ahead of time. Sound could be used to
detect and sense other objects and phenomena that produced sound, sounds in
and of themselves could not be detected through that same method.
Similar to how light could be used to perceive other objects that reflected or
gave off light, light itself was not something that could be perceived in the
same manner because it did not give off light itself.
This meant that detecting the Sound Bullet technique after it had already been
launched was difficult. The disadvantage of the technique was that its launch
was very easy to detect even without sensory techniques. As long as it
happened close enough, the breathing and generation of the sound were
detectable phenomena as long as they happened close enough. The process to
generate such a concentrated sound pulse was very intense and simply could
not be missed even by normal humans.
This was the reason that the Sonic Bullet was normally unfit for
assassinations. Normally, it drew too much attention within a certain range.
Normally, that is.
"That doesn't apply to me." Rui grinned.
The reason Rui was exempt from this drawback was that he was launching
from extraordinary distances away!
It was not possible to distinguish the launch of the technique in the

background of meaningless sensory input or 'white noise', because it blended
and melted entirely! This was what happened over extremely long distances.
Thus, Rui's strengths allowed him to overcome the greatest obstacle

preventing the Sonic Bullet from becoming a force to reckon with in the
assassination industry.
This meant that Rui could potentially get away with assassinating people that
no Martial Squire could possibly assassinate!
Although he didn't enjoy the act of murder, he did enjoy exercising the results
of his hard work and making a concrete impact in the world with it.
('There's still some time before I can reach a stage where I can use it in
missions, however.') Rui sighed.
He needed to build the muscle memory of executing the ODA system's

protocols as fast as possible, otherwise, he would not be able to guarantee
that he would get an accurate shot one hundred percent of the time.
('Well, I've worked enough on this for today.') Rui noted as he looked down
at his pocket watch. ('It's about time for her to arrive soon enough, I
suppose.')
And he was right, soon enough, Squire Casen had arrived.
"Squire Quarrier." She told him as she landed from the sky. "I got your
message about your training commission to me ending soon."
"That's right." Rui nodded. "As I'm sure you've realized, I've come quite close
to mastering the technique that I've been training with you. Once I've
obtained the satisfactory degree of mastery that I'm looking to achieve, the
commission will end then."
"I appreciate you informing me about this in advance." She told him. "How
long do you suspect it will be before the commission finally ends, precisely?"
"Well, we can find out today," Rui replied nonchalantly as he took his stance.
"Very well."
She too took her own stance. The air froze under the pressure that the two
Martial Squires emanated, Rui had recently requested her to go increasingly
all out with her striking offense with each session. Today she didn't intend to
hold back at all to help Rui gauge how far away he was from obtaining the
degree of mastering that he hoped to achieve.
Suddenly, she lashed out toward him with remarkable velocity, leaving
behind shockwaves in her path. She threw a powerful straight right at Rui.
Rui's eyes narrowed as he intercepted the attack with his palm, going with the
attack, while simultaneously executing the Reverberating Lance technique
with his back leg. As her attack moved forward, pushing his increasingly
resistant palm, Rui pushed himself downwards with her attack.
RUMBLE
The ground shook as Rui's back leg successfully permeated all of the impact
deep into the ground.
Squire Casen's eyes widened as she felt the energy and impact of her strike
being harmlessly dispelled away. It was a bizarre sensation, she threw all her
power into the strike, yet from the moment Rui touched it, she felt her attack
becoming weaker and weaker.
It was only now that she understood what Rui had been working on for more
than half a year!
Chapter 573 Test
She grew more serious as she threw swift yet powerful jabs. Her Martial Path
was centered around agile momentum. She placed equal weight on speed and
power, allowing her to land a great deal of solid strikes quite quickly. The
reason she had chosen to accept this mission in the first place was that her
Martial Path suited the needs of the mission quite well.
She was quite curious to see what Rui had actually accomplished after
training with her for so long. She decided to use the entirety of her arsenal to
test his current prowess.
POW POW POW
Rui intercepted all of the strikes with palms while effectively spamming
Reverberating Lance with his back leg, while also pushing himself down
every time she intercepted a strike.
Squire Casen twisted her core as she landed a devastating roundhouse kick.
CLASP
To her surprise, Rui managed to intercept and dispel the momentum that she
had painstakingly gathered with the torque of her body.
RUMBLE
The very land shook under the sheer amount of power that Rui was
permeating across its depths. Of course, this didn't even hamper either of the
Martial Squires, the vibrations were occurring so slowly in their perception
that it may as well have not been occurring at all.
As Rui put himself on max alert and focus to dispel the energy of all her
attacks, he purposely avoided using the VOID algorithm to build a predictive
model and adapt to her entire Martial Art. The point of this training, and of
this particular exchange was to test how well he had mastered Project
Bounce.
Bringing in the VOID algorithm would ruin that because it would take the
burden off him and make it too easy to defend against her attacks. Even if he
was imperfect with Project Bounce, the VOID algorithm was simply too
powerful, he would be able to counter her so easily that he would not notice
any imperfections in the master of the technique.
Thus, for the time being, he consciously avoided building a predictive model
on her.
Of course, once he verified that he was doing just fine as far as proficiency
went, he would not hesitate to use it with the VOID algorithm. After all,
using it with the VOID algorithm was how he would be fighting against his
opponents and enemies normally.
Rui almost wanted to abandon his abstinence and immediately begin using
the VOID algorithm to see just how incredibly powerful his defense had no
doubt grown thanks to the synergy between the VOID algorithm and Project
Bounce.
He could feel it in his bones that the sheer amount of defensive prowess he
would no doubt gain due to the synergy between the VOID algorithm would
be far beyond anything he would obtain through an of the defensive
techniques in the library.
Yet he managed to reign in his urge.
('This... is ridiculous!') Squire Casen, on the other hand, was incredibly

impressed by his current prowess. ('It's like I'm fighting a defensive Martial
Squire of a higher grade!')
BAM
She landed what should have been a devastatingly impactful dropkick right
on top of his head she found that even such an attack was entirely dispelled.
It was utterly confounding to her.
Although she had been watching Rui for nearly half a year, the level of
understanding she had managed to develop about his intentions wasn't
actually that deep. Part of it was because she lacked the scientific background
to understand exactly what Rui was doing.
In her eyes, Rui had simply gone from sending himself flying with each
strike to sending himself digging into the ground with each strike to suddenly
magically dispelling all of the power of her attack into thin air!
It was an utterly ridiculous transition from her perspective. Where was the
power of her strike going? How could it vanish so easily?
('Something like this might very well be a grade nine defensive technique!')
She did not speak vainly. Her biggest nemesis was the solid active defensive
technique.
Rui immediately sky-walked into the sky. "Come. I wish to test my defensive
prowess in the air."
She nodded, lashing out toward him high in the air.
Rui grew even more serious. Dispelling the energy of the attacks in the sky
was harder because the air was not as much of a conductor of impacts the
way the ground was.
She ran towards him, throwing a powerful kick.
VMMM!
Both of their faces morphed, surprised. When Rui dispelled the attack into
the air, a strange sound was produced.
('I see. My vibrations are partially turning into air currents, but also sound
when I use Reverberating Lance to dispel the impact in the air.') Rui realized.
It made sense, sound was nothing but vibrations in the air, thus Reverberating
Lance, which generated vibrations, also generated sound when used to dispel
attacks in the air!
He didn't normally notice this effect because he only used Reverberating

Lance at the moment of impact with another body, thus sound was never
generated because the attack permeated into the body of his opponent, rather
than into the air.
VMMM!
BRMMM!
RNNNN!
What Rui found most interesting was that the pitch of the sound seemed to be
proportional to the pitch of the sound generated. The stronger the attack, the
higher the pitch and frequency of the sound generated.
EEEEEEEE!
Rui winced as he felt a shiver go down his spine. The sound was particularly
high-pitched which was extremely irritating and painful, like chalk on a
board.
('I need to keep that in mind.')
WHOOSH
Rui chose to evade another attack as he returned to the ground. Squire Casen
chased immediately after him from a height above. She sprinted downwards
at absolute top speed, gaining a tremendous amount of speed and momentum
as several sonic booms recoiled across the sky. As she approached the
ground, her leg stretched all the way, before striking downwards with
incredible power.
This drop kick combined one of her most powerful strikes that were greatly
empowered by the immense momentum she had generated!
Chapter 574 End
RUMBLE
The land around them rocked violently under the devastating power of the
strike of the Martial Squire. Rui gritted his teeth as he did his best to
successfully dispel the power of the strike entirely.
THUD
Squire Casen landed aside heavily, shocked at how Rui, yet again, managed
to somehow make all the power she generated disappear into thin air.
Rui, on the other hand, was thoroughly pleased with the prowess of the
technique he had created. The fact that a single technique was able to
accomplish this much was already incredibly impressive. It would definitely
become the mainstay defensive technique of his Martial Art.
In fact, he could thoroughly forget about Inner Divergence in one-on-one

fights, at least. Only if his arms were extremely preoccupied with other
matters would he be in a position where he was forced to use Inner
Divergence instead of his new technique.
They continued sparring for a few hours, as Rui tested the performance of his
new technique in the heat of battle. Thankfully, it seemed that she was quite
the diverse offensive striker capable of all kinds of both simple and complex
striking attacks. Furthermore, when used with each other back-to-back, they
were much different than when they were used individually and isolated.
It allowed him to ensure that there weren't any chinks in the defense provided
by his new technique. For instance, he got to test the technique against a
double-blow combo where the two attacks were launched in opposite
directions.
He also discovered that he could dispel multiple attacks at once as long as he

made sure that the vector of the inherited momentum always faced
downwards.
He realized that against piercing attacks that he couldn't afford to take head-
on, it was best to catch the attack by the wrist and apply the technique that
way, which worked just fine.
By the end of the training session, he had ironed out all the foundations and
the basics, satisfied with the degree of proficiency and effectiveness the
technique had.
"Alright, that brings us to an end for today's session." Rui glanced at his
pocket watch. "Thank you for all the aid that you've provided over the past
half year, you've helped me finally reach where I've wanted to reach."
Squire Casen stirred, understanding his message. "Does that mean...?"
"Yes, I think today will be the last training session. Frankly, I thought it
might take a little longer, but I've arrived where I've wanted to be." Rui
gently replied.
"I see..." She sighed. "Well, I guess this is it."
"I guess it is."
"Before I leave..." She hesitated. "I'd like to thank you."
"What for?" Rui's eyebrow rose.
"For inspiring me to take the initiative to walk my own path." She replied.
"Watching you build such a remarkable technique from absolutely nothing
has been enlightening. You are truly the ideal Martial Artist, and all of us
pursuing our Martial Paths should take after your example. I, for one, intend
to."
"Thank you, I'm glad to hear I made a positive impact doing what I love
most." Rui smiled. "Good luck, and goodbye."
"Goodbye." She nodded, before skywalking away.
Rui's thoughts immediately turned back to Project Bounce.
('I need to stop calling it that.') Rui mused. ('Project Bounce has succeeded,
and the technique that I will be using from now on has also been created. It
needs its own name.')
Rui wanted to pick a name that did the technique justice, one that had just
enough dignity to do a technique that powerful justice, while also ensuring
that it was an accurate representation of the technique.
"Flux Earther."
It was a simple name, not the most straightforward, certainly, but Rui liked
how it sounded. The former half of the name came from the fact that Rui
essentially absorbed an influx of kinetic energy before transmitting it out to
the environment as an outflux of energy. The latter half came from the
earthing systems used to ground electric charges and current to get rid of
them. It wasn't too dissimilar to what Rui did with the attacks of his
opponents.
Thus, Flux Earther was what he chose to dub the name.
Now that he had successfully completed the technique to the point that it was
deployable in combat, he felt an immense wave of satisfaction. A part of him
immediately wanted to pick out a mission where he could test the technique
against a real opponent that was trying to kill him.
Yet his better sense stopped him.
He still hadn't fully completed Project Sniper. It would be extremely

detrimental to abandon the project when it was just one step away from
completion, all he needed to do now was refine the final stages of the
technique before he could achieve the degree of proficiency with that
technique that he desired.
Unfortunately, he was at the stage where he couldn't shorten the process with
ingenuity. He was at the stage where he needed to burn the ODA System into
his mind and muscles with repetitive hard work and practice. There was a
limit to how much of the conventional path to accuracy he could replace with
accuracy.
The ODA System, specifically the second half of the technique, was
something that had a very small window of operation. Even just one beat late
would mean that his work was futile, he would need to start over. In the
middle of combat, or even when assassinating a target, he could not afford to
fail, thus he could not ever afford to be even a beat late.
It could mean giving his opponent just the window they needed to leap in
from the great distance between them and turn it into a close-quarter fight
where Project Sniper was almost entirely useless. The ODA System was
useless when the target was within a certain range since Rui's inherent
accuracy was good enough to be able to hit them right even without the ODA
System.
"Once I'm done mastering Project Sniper, I can finally go out into the field
and apply what I've painstakingly built!" A glint of excitement appeared in
his eyes.
Chapter 575 Pathfinder
Rui narrowed his eyes as he followed the movements of a Hermitian Squirrel.

This species of squirrel, which was known for its remarkable senses and
illusive agility and speed made for the perfect sniping practice target. It was
an Apprentice-level creature in a forest in the Mantian region
It sniffed around, winding about a tree, it was never static for more than a
second. This would normally make it practically impossible to snipe for more
than half a kilometer away.
Yet Rui was attempting to do just that.
He kept track of the squirrel with the help of Tempestuous Feel and Seismic
Mapping, of course. He had also already built a predictive model of its
movements, having observed it for a while. It was difficult to build predictive
models of targets outside of combat, especially erratic creatures like
Hermitian Squirrels, but as long as Rui had enough time and data, he could
pull it off, it just wouldn't be as effective as ones made out of and for combat.
Suddenly, his eyes widened as he executed the ODA System with the
predictions of the VOID algorithm. Just a moment later, his mouth opened,
and a dense sound projectile escaped from it, flying straight towards his
target.
THWOOM!
The projectile coursed forward at the speed of sound, before nailing the target
in the head.
SPLAT
Even though the energy of the projectile had undoubtedly decreased over the
large distance that it had traveled across, it still was more than strong enough
to crush the bodies of Apprentice-level creatures. The head of the squirrel
exploded into a confetti of blood and tissue.
"YES!" Rui exclaimed, rejoicing as he managed to execute an exceedingly

difficult snipe. It was more than just a little difficult to snipe hermitian
squirrels from that distance, any Martial Squire would laugh and call him a
liar if he claimed that he was capable of such a feat.
"It's finally done!" Rui pumped his fist. "Seven months is all it took!"
That was partially sarcastic and partially genuine. Seven months for
developing a technique, or two techniques, was much longer than it took to
master two techniques of the Martial Union that had been refined, and had a
well-constructed training regiment as well as the necessary training resources
to master it. Yet, it was also an incredibly short amount of time considering
he created a potent brand-new technique out of nothing.
Rui had to suppress the urge, once more, to sprint to the Martial Union, and
immediately pick out a mission.
"Wait, hold on." He stopped himself "I still have shit to do."
He needed to name this technique as well. He was quite satisfied with his
previous name, and thus wanted to come up with something just as good.
"Pathfinder."
It was a simple name that bore allusions to the purpose of the technique.
Ultimately it was one that satisfied Rui, and that was all that mattered.
After seven months of effort, he had finally created the Flux Earther and the
Pathfinder techniques, the two latest additions to his Martial Art,
strengthening it tremendously.
"Alright, now that I've finished training, I have to go pick some missions that
will allow me to use these techniques in the field."
Finding missions that would allow him to use the Pathfinder technique was
easy, all he had to was go pick some assassination missions and that would
most likely allow him to exercise the technique.
As for Flux Earther, ideally, he would be on a bodyguard mission when a

striking-oriented Martial Artist tried to assassinate his target of protection,
and he would be able to exercise the Flux Earther technique.
However, the most ideal circumstance would be a striking-oriented Martial

Artist trying to kill him. If he was protecting someone, he couldn't fool
around and prolong the battle because he wanted to test the limits of his
techniques. That would be unethical and also a violation of the agreements
that every Martial Artist had with the Martial Union.
It wasn't as easy to be able to perfectly choose a mission that would

specifically allow him to test the Flux Earther technique or any other single
technique in his Martial Art. Especially one that technique addressed only
one aspect of combat when combat will naturally include all aspects unless
both Martial Artists were extreme specialists. But even then, even the most
extreme defensive Martial Artists needed to attack, some way or the other, to
win, and even the most extreme offensive Martial Artists needed some way to
defend or evade to not lose.
In comparison, the Pathfinder technique could be used outside confrontations,

giving it greater versatility in utility. In comparison, the Flux Earther
technique could only be used for defense against strikes and absolutely
nothing else.
"Not that that's a bad thing," Rui noted.
The Flux Earther did the one thing it was supposed to do extremely well. The
defensive prowess that this technique gave him was much greater than
Adamant Reforging and Inner Divergence combined. Normally, his limit
with the difficulty and potency of techniques was grade seven, at least, as far
as techniques offered by the Martial Union went.
However, because of the synergy this technique had with his capabilities, it
effectively performed at much higher grades of potency. Its difficulty was not
low either, if anybody else tried to master the Flux Earther technique, they
were almost guaranteed to fail.
Because they lacked Rui's unique strengths that allowed him to master and
execute the technique with admirable proficiency. That was why his
defensive prowess had suddenly become on par with a defensive Martial
Artist despite being an all-rounder in every sense. It was much more difficult
to bridge the gap between all-rounders and specialists in the Squire Realm
because the gap between their bodies was enormous in addition to techniques
that were synergetic with their bodies and capabilities.
If not for the fact that Rui had created a truly impressive defensive technique,
it would have been impossible for him to match the defensive prowess of a
defensive Martial Squire.
Chapter 576 Also
There was a very concrete example of this. In his previous mission at Mt

Zurtun, he had run into a powerful defensive Martial Artist who could
entirely negate the entirety of Rui's offensive arsenal. He had, to some
degree, turned into the motivation and inspiration for Project Bounce.
The man's defensive prowess came from techniques that were synergetic
enough with his rubberized Martial body. Together, his defensive prowess
was far greater than that of an all-rounder Martial Squire like Rui, than it
would have been had both of them been Martial Apprentices.
Yet, now that Rui had created the Flux Earther technique, he didn't think
there was a significant gap between their defensive prowess at all. Rui was
very confident that the Flux Earther technique could replicate all of the feats
that the defensive Martial Squire had accomplished in their fight.
One disadvantage that he had was that the defensive technique was an active
defensive technique that required his judgment to function while it seemed as
though the defensive Martial Squire that he had fought operated with passive
techniques.
Still, this could also work out in his favor, since excellent judgment would
yield excellent outcomes in the case of active techniques. The same could not
be said for passive techniques which were static and largely unchanging
generally.
"We'll just have to see whether that will happen or not." Rui shook his head,
before turning away and taking off.
Yet he didn't intend to go back to the Quarrier Orphanage. He headed straight

toward the town of Hajin. It had been far too long since he had undertaken a
mission. Seven months of no real-life action that could make his nerves tingle
and his heart pound made him feel like his instincts were dulling. No amount
of training could replace the genuine fear of death and uncertainty.
It stimulated a Martial Artist's potential better than any training could

possibly do so. Nothing pushed Martial Artists beyond their limits than the
possibility of losing the most important thing to them all.
"Yet before that, I have an appointment to be at." Rui smiled, as he looked at

his pocket watch.
Soon.
He immediately sped up, heading towards the town of Hajin, before arriving
and landing outside a little cafÃ©, of sorts.
He was early, but he didn't mind waiting.
After all, it had been a while since.
"Hey, you're early." Kane greeted him as he descended from the air,
skywalking.
Rui wordlessly smiled as he scrutinized Kane's new form.
The first thing that he noted was the low-end Squire-level sense of threat that
Rui felt from Kane with the help of Primordial Instinct.
"You've arrived." Rui grinned, replying with a measured tone. It was intended
to be a double entendre. Kane certainly had arrived at their rendezvous, but
he had also arrived at the Squire Realm.
"I have," Kane smirked.
He exerted a faint sense of danger to Rui, yet it was unlike anything he had
sensed from a Martial Squire. It was the kind of pressure that one felt when
one noticed a viper camouflaged in plain sight. OR the kind of pressure that
one felt when one noticed the scales of a croc at the edge of the lake that one
was standing too close to.
Kane had called Rui several months ago, informing him of the fact that he
had become a Squire candidate, and would be undergoing the breakthrough
to the Squire Realm.
He had also mastered the modified Mind-Switch technique that Rui had given
him, realizing its use after he had mastered it. However, he only learned of its
genuine value after he underwent the seminar explaining the process of
breaking through to the Squire Realm.
Several months later, he finally contacted Rui again, informing him he had
successfully broken through and had become a Martial Squire who was also
in control of his power.
"How was the Squire habilitation process?" Rui asked.
"Tedious and tiring." Kane sighed wearily. "I cannot tell you how fucking
relieved I am to actually be without that suffocating restrictive suit every
second of the day. Hell, that was my single best motivation to finish the
Squire habilitation phase as soon as possible. More than anything else."
"I felt the same way, though I did enjoy regaining the feeling of control over
my power and my body once more so it was worth it." Rui nodded. "Though
it was still nothing compared to the suffering of the breakthrough to the
Squire Realm."
Kane winced at the very mention of it. "That was mind-shattering."
"How long had it lasted?"
"About a week." Kane sighed. "I cannot believe yours lasted for almost a
month, how is your sanity not utterly destroyed from suffering and enduring
that pain?"
"I think Martial Artists have a much higher fortitude when it comes to
mastering these techniques. After all, ordinary people cannot learn even
Apprentice-level conditioning techniques because the strain of the pain
erodes their mind, but our Martial Path protects us from that." Rui mused out
loud.
"Well, I'm sure your Martial Path did you a big favor with that one," Kane
grumbled. "You might just have suffered less if it hadn't."
"Are you saying I was better off dying in that procedure?"
"Hey, those are your words, not mine."
"What do you plan on doing now?" Rui asked with an amused expression.
"I need to relearn the core of my Martial Art," Kane replied, shrugging.
"Can't do without certain techniques."
"Do you plan on re-mastering Void Step?" Rui asked, interested in Kane's
decisions. He was in a bit of a different spot than Rui for whom almost no
single technique of the Martial Union was of vital importance to his Martial
Art. The same couldn't necessarily be said for Kane who possessed numerous
techniques that defined the core of his very approach in combat.
"Definitely." Kane nodded. "That and a few others, but I don't think I'll be
mastering everything. I've learned that there are reasons not to fall back into
the same learning patterns that I had as a Martial Apprentice."
Chapter 577 Realms
"Synergy matters a lot, or so I've been told." Kane shrugged. "Also more
individuality is needed apparently, more so than when we were Martial
Apprentices. Yay, that's fun. Just what I was hoping when I reached the
Squire Realm."
Rui chuckled at the oozing sarcasm from his tone. "Trust me, you want to
have both of those. I recently got a successful taste of both, it's actually
startling how important both of them are, and how much value they can
impart to you."
Kane raised an eyebrow. "You've already developed your techniques from

scratch? I guess that shouldn't be surprising considering that you've already
done that even before you became a Martial Squire."
"That was a modification." Rui reminded him. Of course, Rui had definitely
created techniques from scratch when he created the VOID algorithm, but
that took a ridiculous amount of time to fully accomplish.
Besides, he wasn't even sure if the VOID algorithm would count as a Martial
Art technique. It felt more accurate to say that it was his Martial Path.
"So?" Kane asked expectantly. "What did you come up with?"
"A long-range technique and defensive technique," Rui replied simply.
"Knowing you, I bet neither of them is anywhere near normal techniques, are
they? Go on, spit it out. I bet that long-range technique can kill people across
the country while that defensive technique can allow you to withstand attacks
from Martial Seniors, correct?" Kane smirked, amused.
"Stop." Rui's glare was half mirthful and half real. "You just make what they
actually are sound unimpressive when you make such exaggerated guesses.
Not the two techniques don't feel like much in comparison to your guesses.
Do you have any idea how difficult creating them was? Stop taking away my
sense of accomplishment."
"That's hilarious." Kane laughed. "I'm sure they were mind-breakingly

difficult to create, knowing you."
"You have no idea." Rui sighed. "No wonder only a small proportion of
Martial Squires break through to the Senior Realm. If it's this difficult to take
a single step towards that higher Realm, most Martial Squires simply won't
be able to reach that distant Realm within their lifetimes."
"Stop." Kane sighed exasperated. "I haven't even started yet and you've
already made me dread it. Can't I just enjoy being in the Squire Realm
without having to worry about yet another climb from one Realm to another?
Does it ever even end?"
Rui could sense a hint of real frustration behind the flippant tone. He found it
hard to sympathize, on a personal level, with it. This was one avenue where
Kane and Rui differed significantly, more than any other area. The long
Martial Path that each Martial Artist had to walk, climbing Realm after
Realm was a delight to Rui.
Back on Earth, there was a very hard limit to both power and skill that every
human had. There was no seemingly endless path that one could walk as far
as individual and personal power went. As the biggest fan of martial arts and
unarmed combat, this was always a shame to Rui, but he could not change
reality.
That was why he was exhilarated and excited when he arrived in this world
and discovered that only the sky was the limit for individual power. To Rui,
this was something to celebrate and be grateful for. He loved the idea that he
could pursue his Martial Art to brand-new and greater heights for a lifetime.
As for Kane's last question, he didn't know whether the journey ever ended.
The information regarding Martial Artists of higher Realms grew
increasingly scarce and vague. For example, when he was a Martial
Apprentice, he found it very difficult to obtain any specific information on
Martial Squires. He had to literally memorize foreign research data on the
breakthrough to the Squire Realm of a different language, then master said
language, then translate the research data before getting Julian to study them,
and finally tell him the secret.
Those were the lengths he had to go to in order to obtain what he was looking
for. And now, he hadn't the faintest idea what the actual breakthrough to
Senior Realm was. No clue whatsoever. Colonel Geringan had always been
very careful to make sure that he wasn't revealing something inadvertently in
their conversations.
As for the higher Realms, they were even more inscrutable. Rui had no doubt
that any information on Martial Masters and Martial Sages was highly
strategic confidential information.
And then, of course, came the highly illusive Martial Transcendent Realm.
This Realm was so far removed from Rui that he didn't even dare to make
guesses about what these legendary beings were capable of. He had no
reliable way to find out. The Panama Continent was not like Earth where vast
amounts of information that beggared the imagination flowed throughout the
planet that could be accessed instantly. There was no internet on the Panama
Continent where Rui could Google what all these Martial Art ranks were and
could do.
He didn't even know of the existence of even a single Martial Transcendent.

He had never heard anyone credible utter anything meaningful or insightful
about them. Rui could only assume that these Martial Artists had reached
such titanic heights that they were no different from gods that were far
removed from mortal squabbles and civilization that there were very few
channels to obtain reliable information on them.
Rui's glazed over as he wondered what all the Martial Artists of higher
Realms were capable of. If the difference in power of Martial Artists between
successive Realms was the same as that of the difference of those between
the Apprentice Realm and the Squire Realm, then the Martial Master and
Sages, as combat assets, were no different from tactical nuclear missiles and
bombs.
Rui could scarcely imagine what these exalted beings could do. Master
Aronian strongly withheld his mental pressure when interacting with lesser
Martial Artists, yet even the tiny portion of his mental pressure that leaked
out was tremendous, he could probably easily annihilate every single Martial
Apprentice in the Martial Academy simultaneously with minimal effort.
Chapter 578 Leave
"Hey!" Kane snapped his finger in front of Rui, drawing his attention. "Are
you even listening?"
"Ah." Rui jerked back lightly. "My bad, I zoned out a little. You were
saying?"
"I was saying that I was considering leaving the Empire someday." Kane
sighed.
Rui's eyes widened. "But why?"
"To get away from all of this," Kane replied with a tired tone. "My family,
the politics, all of it."
"I thought you had more or less resolved the matter regarding your family?"
Rui raised an eyebrow. "By joining the Lightning Sect."
"I thought so too, but I realized that the Wind and Lightning Sects were just
as suffocating as my family." He sighed. "They protect me from my family,
but that gives them lots of leverage over me. Put that on top of the fact that
they naturally have very high expectations from the start due to my potential
and talent, it makes it hard to live the way I want."
"Damn..." Rui's eyes narrowed slightly.
Now, this was an issue that Rui could completely understand and sympathize
with. Rui absolutely valued his autonomy, without a doubt, he would not
tolerate being beheld by another group with interests that weren't entirely in
line with his.
Kane had worked really hard to obtain power that he could use to leverage to
obtain the freedom he sought. But he realized that merely breaking through to
the Squire Realm was not enough. While was true that the breakthrough to
the Squire Realm was an important milestone in his Martial Path and journey,
it was not enough to grant him the freedom he sought.
Perhaps if he was alive half a millennium ago, this would have been enough.
After all, the birth of Martial Squires a millennium ago was what allowed
Martial Artists to break free of the power of the state and the power of many.
Furthermore, there were no refined Squire-level techniques considering
Squires hadn't been around for a very long time. Furthermore, the evolution
process probably would have been much weaker and far more incomplete
than it is today.
Kane, even with his current prowess, would have undoubtedly been the most
powerful human in that era and could have easily earned the freedom he
sought.
But in the modern world, where Martial Squires were just on the second rung
of a ladder that had six steps, there was a limit to how much he could
accomplish with his own individual power.
He had realized that he either needed to get much, much stronger and obtain
the power needed to take the freedom he wanted, or he simply needed to
leave the wide ecosystem in which his interests were threatened.
It was no wonder that he considered leaving the Empire. That was probably
much easier and far more straightforward than becoming strong enough to
defy his family without the help of the Lightning Sect.
"It's not going to be as easy as you might be thinking." Rui sighed.
"How not? I just leave and that's that." Kane folded his arms.
"Leaving only means that you're forfeiting your protection from the
Lightning Sect. But it doesn't really mean much because your family is
powerful and has influence within the Martial Union. You shouldn't
underestimate the intelligence-gathering capability of the Martial Union
particularly in regards to matters that are directly tied to its own interests,
such as one of the most promising Martial Squires of our generation leaving
the Union." Rui explained.
"But, I have the Void Step technique." Kane reminded him. "They cannot
trace me that easily using regular tracking means."
"That is true," Rui admitted. "While the Martial Union does have sensory
Martial Artists that are capable of detecting you, it's questionable whether
they'll be deployed to catch you. Most of them will probably be of the higher
Realms. The only Martial Squire I know that that can sense you is..."
He turned towards Kane. "Me."
Kane's expression grew more severe. He understood the underlying message,

there was a chance Rui would be deployed to track Kane if there ever came a
day when the martial Union wanted to track him.
"You'll either have to run extremely far away or use the Void Step technique
a lot of the time if you're just going to hide in one of the small satellite states
of the Kandrian Empire. You can also forget about revealing your Martial
Artist status wherever you choose to reside."
"Why's that?" Kane asked curiously.
"Because it will instantly draw attention to you," Rui replied. "Martial

Squires are fundamentally different from Martial Apprentices, Kane. I don't
mean just physically. Martial Apprentices can and do appear out of the
population somewhat naturally. But no Martial Squire has ever appeared
naturally, we are all man-made products. Every Martial Squire was born out
of some state or entity that possesses the means to break through to the
Squire Realm. That combined with the fact that Martial Squires are far
scarcer than Martial Apprentices and draw more attention to themselves than
Martial Apprentices means that they are far easier to track and keep track of."
"How does that work in a practical sense?" Kane asked him, absorbed.
"I would not be surprised in the least if it were the case that the Martial Union
had a grasp of the general location and identities of almost all Martial Squires
in the surrounding states within a large range. It is very likely that this is the
case," Rui recalled what he had learned when he brought back the corpse of
his Martial Squire opponent and the martial Union identified him in a jiffy.
"What do you think the Martial Union would conclude that a brand-new
unknown Martial Squire has appeared in a somewhat distant state who
possesses remarkable agility and speed, right after you left the country?"
Kane's face paled a little as he finally understood what Rui was getting at.
"That Martial Artist would be pegged as a suspect and would be investigated.

The only way you can avoid the situation I just described is if you never ever
use your Martial Art, and distance yourself from all civilization."
Chapter 579 Choice
In an age of Martial Art, Martial Artists were undoubtedly given a lot of

attention and importance. In the eyes of sovereign states, Martial Artists were
walking strategic weapons. They were no different from living tanks, jets,
bombs, and missiles that had their own interests and agendas.
Martial Squires, among them, held a somewhat unique place. They were
strong enough to be important and of great strategic importance, while also
just enough that their numbers made them formidable, but not too many that
they could not be individually treated as valued assets.
And only irresponsible fools treated valued assets without care and caution. It
was impossible for a Martial Squire to up and leave the nation without some
repercussions or measures being employed by states. Rui was smart enough
to know that Kane's hopes of leaving the country, cutting all ties, and living a
peaceful and blissful life were far-fetched, and the price to be paid for success
was high.
"I'm curious though," Rui asked while Kane considered his words. "All this
talk about the feasibility of fleeing and hiding made me think of an obvious
solution; Why do you still need to be protected from your family? Your
Martial Path is not suited for the Fire Sect, but now even your Martial body
isn't suitable for the Fire Sect. It isn't like your family will kill you now, or
destroy your future, so why not try to reconcile?"
Kane snorted. "The Fire Sect isn't the one that is after me. It's my family.
Yes, it's true that my father leads the Fire Sect, but he isn't employing the
power and the influence of the Fire Sect to try and reign me in, he's
employing his own personal influence and power and that of the Arrancar
Family. The reason the Lightning Sect treats it as the Fire Sect infringing on
me, even though this isn't the case, is because that's how it looks like to
everyone else."
Rui quickly understood all the nuances of what Kane was trying to convey.
"The Arrancar Family isn't strictly associated with the Fire Sect, then?"
"Not exclusively, no. Ultimately, while Martial Paths can be subtly and
indirectly influenced over a lifetime of the most gentle and subtle
conditioning, it cannot be controlled and there is always a perfectly plausible
possibility that the child of a certain Martial Family may end up having a
Martial Path that is very different from that of what the family desired." Kane
explained. "This is something that the Martial community has long learned
and accepted. Thus, my having an evasive maneuvering-oriented Martial Path
isn't enough for my family to forget about me. This is not an uncommon
occurrence, and no Martial Family is willing to let go of a genius Martial
Squire who discovered his Martial Path at the age of eleven just because their
Martial Path diverges from that of the Family head."
"I see, that makes sense." Rui nodded.
His interaction and exposure to the Martial community were limited. At most,
he got glimpses of it in the Martial Games held by the DiVilier Family. This
caused him to have a limited understanding of how things worked in the
Martial community, as opposed to Kane who spent his whole life in the
ecosystem, no doubt.
"Well, then maybe you should consider running away." Rui thought out
aloud.
"Didn't you just advise against it?" Kane frowned.
"I just warned you of the difficulty and the price that you need to pay, most
likely, to succeed." Rui shook his head. "I never said it was a bad choice.
Who knows, you might end up enjoying the solitude that comes from
suppressing your Martial Artist status forever and leaving a simple life in a
remote place."
Kane's expression fell upon hearing that. "This shit is rough."

"That it is." Rui nodded.
"Sometimes I'm really quite envious of you, you know?" Kane sighed. "Your
life sounds awesome."
"It definitely has been thus far." Rui nodded. "Though what you disdain, I
envy as well. I wonder how early I might have broken through had I the
training and growth resources that you had, growing up."
Potions and other training resources were a huge boon in getting stronger.
While Rui made do with what he could, it wasn't the same. He didn't even
have proper training and sparring partners. The adults had always been too
busy to play around with him for too long, while the other kids in the
Quarrier Orphanage were nowhere near what Kane had. They could at best
take elementary roles in aiding his development and growth.
He couldn't even properly train in boxing and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and other
martial arts that went into training MMA, because he didn't have the time to
train them on how to help him train!
Rui estimated that he very well could have discovered his Martial Path much
earlier, perhaps not as early as Kane, but certainly earlier than he did.
Definitely, before he entered the Martial Academy.
Of course, it was true that the suffocating and unpleasant environment of the
Arrancar Family was probably nightmarish and torturous to children, but Rui
wasn't a child.
However, despite that, he would probably choose to be reborn in the Quarrier

Orphanage even if he did have a chance to change that. That's because they
had already long solidified their place in his heart as family. It was hard to
imagine a world where that wasn't the case.
Even if it wasn't particularly conducive to maximizing the rate of his growth,

no matter how important his Martial Art was to him, he didn't want to forsake
them. The memories that he had formed in his childhood would stay with him
forever.
"What do you plan to do from here on out?" Rui asked.
He wanted to know what Kane would do in the short-term timeframe, and

also in the long term. There was probably nothing he could afford to change
in the meantime, he was simply too weak. He had just become a Martial
Squire and was sorely unqualified to execute any radical plans.
Chapter 580 Class
"Honestly, I'm just going to have to get stronger, forging my own path and
completing missions to gather more experience," Kane replied, sighing.
"There isn't much else to do besides that, for now at least."
Rui nodded. "That's level-headed and prudent. For now, your situation is
stable, albeit far from what you desire. It'll be a while before you have a
chance to change that. Getting stronger by creating techniques that are
synergetic with you is definitely a good initiative."
Kane nodded, before asking. "How do you even create techniques from
scratch?"
"It's difficult," Rui replied honestly. "But you don't have to make it from
scratch. For example, both my techniques use other techniques as building
blocks. The long-range technique which I named Pathfinder required me to
master two techniques from the Martial Union before I could incorporate
them into the Pathfinder technique. My defensive technique also relies on
Reverberating Lance, a striking supplementary technique that I learned as a
Martial Apprentice."
"Wait." Kane jerked his head back lightly. "You constructed a defensive
technique out of a striking technique? How is that even possible, that makes
no sense."
"Be creative, Kane." Rui chuckled. "An offensive technique doesn't

necessarily only have to be used to inflict damage on your opponents, how
you use techniques matters just as much as the techniques themselves."
"Hm..." Kane's eyes narrowed as he processed what Rui told him. "What was
the thought process for creating the technique like? Did you just think
'alright, I'm going to create this technique like this' or what?"
"I identified my needs and my strengths, and then aimed to create a technique
that fulfilled my needs to a great degree by relying on my strengths to do so,"
Rui told him as he looked up in thought. "That was how I conceived of the
conceptual basis of the two techniques that I created. One addressed my long-
range inability and the other addressed my defensive needs. Both of them rely
on my unique strengths to do so, and wouldn't be able to do it without them,
that is true synergy."
"That actually makes a lot of sense, now that I think of it." Kane nodded.
"My current needs are... frankly everything because I only have a few
techniques right now. My strengths are my speed, agility, and evasive
mobility."
"Also your affinity for techniques centered around those combat attributes."
Rui pointed.
"But that isn't relevant if I'm trying to create a new technique rather than learn
already constructed techniques, right?" Kane frowned.
"As I said, you can incorporate existing techniques into your new technique
partially, or even wholly." Rui reminded. "As long as the concept of your
technique truly stems from you, it will be individualistic enough to help you
take a step towards the Senior Realm."
"Interesting..." Kane began to grow a little more interested in the matter. "It's
incredible how you are probably the only person who can make me enjoy
Martial Art. Talking to you is rather refreshing after the torment that I've
gone through in the past few months."
"Any time." Rui nodded.
The two conversed for some more time before it was time to split up. After
all, Rui had other plans and Kane had other things to attend to.
"Anyways, I'm glad to have spoken to you after I got out." Kane clasped
Rui's hand in a partial hug.
"Me too, it's remarkable that you finished your Squire habilitation phase just
before I picked my first mission in a while." Rui nodded. "Take care, Kane.
And congratulations on reaching the Squire Realm. I've been waiting to
congratulate you in person."
The two of them exchanged farewells as they went their separate ways. Rui
headed straight toward the Martial Union. He could barely suppress his
excitement as he swiftly made his over to the Hajin branch office of the
Martial Union. He would not be delayed in the undertaking of a mission that
would allow him to employ and exercise his new techniques in the field.
He swiftly completed the security check-in before immediately heading to the

mission library.
Once he entered, he was plagued with the age-old dilemma of which class of
missions he ought to go for. Thankfully, the fact that he had a more specific
goal that he hoped to fulfill with whatever mission he ended up choosing.
('It is probably impossible to rigorously use both techniques in one mission.')

Rui had already realized this.
The scenarios and circumstances in which the techniques would feasibly be

used were almost entirely mutually exclusive from each other. The Pathfinder
technique could only be thoroughly tested in circumstances where there was a
great distance between him and his target or opponent. How could he
exercise the Flux Earther technique in such a situation? It was practically
unfeasible.
('I'll need to begin with a mission that allows me to thoroughly test one over
the other.') Rui sighed. It was unfortunate.
Furthermore, one technique was easier to find missions very well suited than
the other. The Pathfinder technique was born for sniper assassin missions and
hunting missions. It would be quite effective and would shine in both of these
circumstances.
On the other hand, the Flux Earther technique would work best in a
bodyguard mission. However, that was only if the target of protection was
actually under attack. Most bodyguard missions did not have intense life-
threatening combat. Rui knew this from experience.
Bodyguards served as a deterrence more than anything. They severely

disincentivized attacking the target of protection of the bodyguards because
those bodyguards ensured that there were consequences for trying to attack
their client. Rui wasn't sure he would actually get to use the technique all that
often. In fact, he was more likely to use the Flux Earther technique in an
offense class mission than he was to use it in a defense class mission.
After all, offense class missions guaranteed combat while defense class
missions didn't necessarily do so. Rui would rather go for a guaranteed
general combat application of the Flux Earther technique than the possibility
of a specialized application of it.
Chapter 581 Approve
The hunting class of missions sounded just fine for the Pathfinder technique,
but the shadow class of missions sounded even better.
('The problem is that these classes of missions have a higher barrier of entry
than other classes of missions.') Rui noted.
For most other classes, having a few extra techniques of a certain kind was
good enough to be more or less eligible to undertake missions of those
classes. However, the same could not be said for the shadow class of
missions. It was most divergent from standard combat, and thus, it wasn't as
simple for Martial Artists to get into this field.
One needed a foundation in stealth, sensory capabilities, and assassination

capabilities to enter this field.
('Thankfully, I should be just barely passable.') Rui noted.
While he didn't have stealth, he had the ability to disguise himself as a normal
human being even to the senses of other Martial Artists. This gave him the
ability to infiltrate places under the guise of being a normal human, it wasn't
something an overwhelming majority of Martial Squires could do. Even
people who had mastered the Mind Mask technique couldn't use it as well as
Rui because their imaginations weren't as powerful as he was.
He had pretty good sensory abilities thanks to his three sensory techniques.
Primordial instinct was mainly a combat-oriented sensory technique whereas
the rest of his sensory techniques were broadly applicable and had a wider
range.
As for assassination, he certainly did have the tool to do so with his newly
developed Pathfinder. Furthermore, with how far he could assassinate targets,
he didn't particularly need stealth capabilities. Stealth was more relevant
when he needed to be in the vicinity of his target or within a surveilled area.
He went to the shadow class of missions, having chosen to take a mission

from there.
('Come to think of it, this is the first time I'm taking a shadow class mission.')
Rui mused.
It couldn't be helped; the high barrier of entry prevented him from entering
this field when he was a Martial Apprentice. Furthermore, assassinations
didn't guarantee having to engage in combat against Martial Artists of the
same class, thus Rui, who had always been in pursuit of real combat
experience, never felt driven to go for this particular class of missions.
He sauntered across as he skimmed through the many mission bills that were
placed there, before running into something that caught his eye.
[Shadow class mission: Assassination mission.
Client: Fauche Viril
Target of assassination: Hergusen Meine
Target location: Republic of Menrea
Difficulty grade: 4
Remuneration: 7000 Martial credits.
Mission summary: The target is one of the directors of the board of directors
that the client is the vice president of. The target is guarded by two low-grade
bodyguard Martial Squires at all times, estimated to be adept sensors and
defensive Martial Artists. The client has special conditions for the
assassination.]
"Interesting," Rui murmured. "Two defensive Martial Squires with sensory

capabilities is actually an excellent opportunity to try out Pathfinder in the
field. Furthermore, it will help me gain some credibility as a Martial Artist
entering the Shadow class of missions for the first time once I succeed."
Rui was not unaware that even if he was truly capable of some incredible
feats, it was difficult to gain recognition for those feats right off the bat.
Ultimately, the best proof of his ability to assassinate in the field was a good
track record, and nothing could truly replace a good track record. He needed
to start from scratch and build up a good reputation as he piled up
achievement after achievement.
Only then would he truly be able to get his hands on missions and
commissions that truly tested his limits that effectively no other Martial
Squire could possibly complete?
('This is a good start.') Rui nodded.
He plucked the mission bill out of the slot as he headed over to the
registration counter.
"Excuse me, I'd like to accept this mission please." Rui offered her the
mission bill along with his Martial license.
"One moment please." The staff member took both of them before tapping on
her terminal.
"I'm afraid the client has applied for a conditional-approval commission; he

would like to meet with the Martial Artist who seeks to accept the
commission before allowing them to accept it." The staff member smiled
apologetically. "I'm afraid you can only accept this mission after the approval
of the client."
Rui frowned. "That's a thing? I didn't know clients could do that."
"It costs an extra fee as it delays the rate of completion of missions, hence
clients of missions in the Apprentice Realm generally don't apply for them,
however, this is not an uncommon sight for many Squire-level missions." The
staff member informed him.
"I see..."
Rui had only completed four Squire-level missions, he didn't have much
experience with dealing with Squire-level missions. However, he could see
how clients who were wealthy enough to afford Squire-level missions on a
regular cared about the Martial Artist fulfilling their commissions that they
did the fee needed to obtain that benefit.
"Alright then," Rui nodded. "I don't mind meeting with the client. How does
this normally work?"
"The client applies and pays for a timeframe after a Martial Artist seeks to
accept a commission before which they approve of the Martial Artist or reject
them." The staff member explained. "The client of the mission you've applied
for has set a time limit of twenty-four hours. They will most likely contact
you privately, or they can also choose to immediately accept or reject you
based on the information available in your alias profile."
"I see..." Rui murmured. "So I just have to sit doing nothing until the client
chooses to accept or reject me?"
"That's correct, if the Martial Artist does choose to reject you, then half of the
fee paid for the conditional-approval contract will be deposited in your
account to compensate for the loss of time."
It seemed that the Martial Union did understand that Martial Artists didn't
enjoy having their time wasted. Even if Rui wasted time only to be rejected,
at the very least he would earn money doing so.
Chapter 582 Client
"And they'll contact me through my accounter, I presume?" Rui wondered.
"They can." The staff member nodded, "But they can also choose to
communicate with you through other ways, such as arranging a personal
meeting with you. It all depends on the client. It is recommended to get two
separate accounters for your two separate profiles on the Martial Union
database. On the other hand, you may also take the initiative to communicate
with them as the client has chosen to divulge a means of contact through their
comms. You will receive a verification code that can be used to verify your
identity."
"I see..." Rui muttered. "Thank you."
He walked away as he considered the matter. The client, Fauche Virgil, had
chosen to approve the Martial Artist who applied to accept the mission, in
spite of the extra fee. That alone told Rui much.
('It seems like he has conditions for the Martial Artist who will be attempting
to complete the mission.') Rui thought to himself. ('Conditions that the
profiles and the information about the Martial Artist offered by the Martial
Union aren't enough for him to know whether the Martial Artist actually
fulfills those conditions.')
Rui was pretty certain that the public profiles offered a general understanding
of the Martial Artist's capabilities without getting too specific. There were
probably plenty of clients who wanted to get a much more precise
understanding of the commissioned Martial Artist's capabilities personally.
('Or he could simply be the paranoid type in general.') Rui shrugged.

Rui wasn't sure which one it was, but there was definitely a high chance that
it was one of the two.
Just as he walked out of the branch office, his accounter beeped.
[This is Fauche Viril. Be there at a restaurant called Grill Feast in the town of
Vermeen within the next three hours.]
('Well, he seems rather blunt.') Rui mused as he closed off his accounter.
He knew the town that Fauche was talking about, albeit not the restaurant.
Not that was a particularly problematic roadblock. The town was within the
Mantian Region, so Rui didn't even need to travel very far.
Rui took to the air as he sky-walked towards the town of Vermeen as he

donned his mask. All he needed to do was spot the path that led from Hajin to
the town and follow it while in the air.
Although he was slower in the air than on the ground, it didn't take more than
ten minutes to reach his destination. He found himself standing before the
designated restaurant after having asked for directions from the locals.
The town of Vermeen was not a commercial hub like the town of Hajin was,
it was a much more down-to-earth residential area of sorts. Rui found it
strange that the man would choose this town instead of the town of Hajin.
It wasn't long before Rui spotted him, either. Fauche had consented to have
his appearance disclosed to the Martial Artist that applied for his
commission. The man was rather young for someone who occupied the
position of vice president in a company that was large enough to have a board
of directors. He had a certain degree of gravitas about him, well-groomed,
and smoked a cigar, which was the tell-tale sign that a person was a gangster,
or wanted to appear as a gangster.
He was accompanied by two Martial Apprentices, who stood behind him,

alert.
"Fauche Viril?" Rui approached him, speaking in the international dialect. "I
am Squire Falken, the Martial Artist who applied for your commission."
The man didn't respond, as he glanced Rui over, clearly trying to get an
impression of him. Rui pulled a chair opposite to him, taking a seat. He
couldn't be bothered by the man's antics.
"You wanted to arrange a meeting? Well, here I am." Rui told him.
The man puffed a cloud of smoke before leaning forward to Rui, opening his
mouth to utter a single word with his gravelly voice. "Code."
"HJN91u287bh39." Rui replied, having memorized it on his way there.
The man nodded, before finally uttering more than a word. "So, Squire
Falken..."
He paused, running his gaze across Rui once more. "I hear you've applied to
accept my commission."
"Indeed," Rui replied.
"Why?"
Rui considered the question for a moment, he could just give some generic
reply to that question, but he didn't particularly feel the need to obfuscate
much.
"I wanted to test my capability, having grown stronger recently," Rui replied,
refusing to be specific.
"Stronger how?"
"That's none of your business, I'm afraid."
"What if I choose to reject you because you refuse to answer my question?"

Fauche asked with a hint of curiosity in his eyes.
"Your loss, not mine. You'll be paying me regardless." Rui shrugged. It was
true, Rui didn't particularly need this mission. It was a nice opportunity to test
the Pathfinder technique, but it was hardly the only opportunity for him to do
so.
"Hm." The man chuckled lazily at Rui's words. "Here's the deal. I want you
to kill the target at a particular time, as specified in the contract. You do that
successfully, I'll give you a bonus, hm?"
He nodded upwards inquisitively at Rui, wanting to know his response.
"I don't mind." Rui shrugged. "Mind you, I only know some generic details
about the commission contract. I have not obtained full access to it until after
you approve my application to accept the commission."
"Hm." The man's expression grew a tad bit perplexed. "Did not know that."
He tossed his cigar out as he waved to the waiter. "Two whiskeys, please."
"Then you and I have a lot to talk about." The man said, turning back to Rui.
Rui didn't particularly have anything against that, it seemed the man wasn't
particularly averse to accepting Rui's application. Rui wasn't even sure why
he went out of his way to want to meet Rui prior to approving him. Given
how strange he seemed, Rui chalked it up to personality issues.
"I don't drink," Rui replied simply.

Chapter 583 Sub-Optimal
"They weren't for you." Fauche shrugged.
Rui didn't bother responding as he waited for the man to elaborate.
"This is specified in the contract, but I need you to kill the target Hergusen
Meine at a specific time and place." Fauche elaborated. "Specifically, in the
middle of a hearing with the Senate that is going to be held in..."
He pulled out a pocket watch, referring to the time. "In a little over seventy-
two hours."
He turned back to Rui. "The Senate hearing is going to be held where it

usually is, the Congress Capitol block in the capital of the Republic of
Mernea; Rjavoi."
He pulled out a small map before opening it on the table.
It depicted the capitol block, which seemed about as large as a big city block,
as well as the surrounding districts of the town of Rjavoi. On the map were
several marks and symbols that corresponded to a map legend that explained
what each of the symbols represented.
Some represented vehicles, others represented Martial Squires, some

represented security stations, roadblocks, and a variety of other things.
"This is the planned layout according to protocols for Senate hearings." The
man explained, before tracing a circle on the map with his finger. "This is the
area beyond which authorized personnel are no longer allowed. So someone
like yourself cannot get past this area through ordinary means."
He pointed at several locations on the map. "These are all stationed Martial
Artists, all Martial Squires, of course. The Republic of Mernea does not
possess more than low-grade Martial Squires."
"They're divided into two layers." He continued. "The outer layer is

responsible for detecting and stopping the unauthorized entry of anyone or
thing."
His finger shifted inwards, tracing a smaller circle. "This is the inner layer of
security. They are tasked with protecting and ensuring no harm befalls the
senators and other authorized witnesses."
"Here..." He tapped a specific point on the map "is where the target will be
when you have to conduct the assassination."
"And when is that?" Rui asked him.
"When I give you the signal." He replied.
Rui wordlessly considered his response. He was gaining a bit of an

understanding of why he wanted to meet all Martial Artists that wished to
apply for the commission. This mission required active coordination with the
client, it wasn't as straightforward as most missions when it came to the
degree of cooperation needed between the client and the Martial Artist.
If Fauche wanted the assassination to occur at a particular point of his own

choice, then he needed to that he had a good understanding with the
commissioned Martial Artist.
"I read that you can disguise as a normal person, and that you have long-
range capabilities." The man revealed. "The capitol block is six hundred
meters wide, this makes it quite difficult to snipe the target with a long-range
attack. The difficulty of achieving the necessary accuracy is high.
Furthermore, the outer layer of Martial Squires will no doubt jump intercept
the attack and prevent it from reaching the target. Therefore, I propose..."
He pulled out what seemed like an ID card. "Infiltration."
Rui stirred, considering the idea.

"I have prepared a slot for you to be an authorized staff member of the
Capitol block in the senate building. This will allow you to bypass the outer
layer and reach an area where you can take out the target of my commission,
Herguson Meine." The man explained.
"The inner team of Martial Squires isn't going to be just sitting around, I'd
imagine," Rui replied. "How do you propose I actually kill the target? The
basic information I was given informed me that the target was protected by
two defensive sensory Martial Artists."
"Good question." The man nodded. "I have prepared a distraction. An

explosive at the edge of the Capitol block, it will go off three seconds after I
give you the signal, that will give you the opportunity to kill the target, hm?"
"I see..." Rui replied, before asking. "Why do you want the target killed?"
The man's eyes narrowed. "That's not a very professional question in your
line of work."
"I'm not very professional in this line of work, not yet," Rui replied calmly.
"But I don't take commissions that I do not wish to execute. You don't have to
reveal anything confidential, but I am curious about the core motivations of
your commission."
"And what if I refuse?" His eyebrow rose.
"Then I might refuse."
"I'm the one who's in the position to refuse you."
"True, then I suppose I'll have to settle to make you refuse by making you
refuse," Rui replied flatly, unperturbed.
The man stared at Rui, before snorting into a brief chuckle. He laid back,
lighting up a new cigar before taking a puff.
"Ambition." He replied, exhaling smoke. "The target of assassination is a

director in the board of directors of the company that I am vice-president in.
However, my true target is the president of the same company."
"How does that work?" Rui asked curiously.
The man stared at Rui silently. "This falls under confidential information
between you and me as mandated by the Kandrian Martial Union, I hope
you're aware."
"I'm aware." Rui shrugged. "I don't care to violate that agreement."
"The assassination, especially with how I intend to time it, will be blamed on
the president due to their well-known, hatred for each other and the sensitive
nature of the senate hearing that conflicts with the interests of the president.
He will be under immense heat, and it will allow me to discredit him enough
to win over enough shareholders and stakeholders of the company that I can
dethrone him and regain my position as president of the company."
"Regain?" Rui tilted his head.
"Yes, regain." The man nodded. "Regain it from the man who took it from
me. That is the second motivation; revenge against him, for that and plenty of
other things he has done to me."
"I see," Rui looked up, considering the matter. "Alright, I accept."
"Hm, then I sha-" "But your plan is sub-optimal. Leave everything to me, and
I'll get him killed."
Chapter 584 Agreement
"What did you just say?" The man growled.
"I said..." Rui leaned in closer, "Your plan is sub-optimal. My specialty does
not lie in infiltration. I can hide my identity as a Martial Squire very well,
yes, but there's more to infiltration than that. I would effectively be no
different from a normal human trying to infiltrate the Senate building of the
Capitol block. The intelligence and security agencies or departments or
whatever they are will instantly sniff out someone of my caliber.
Furthermore, my unnatural features draw attention to me, so there will be
eyes on me."
Rui sharply and aptly highlighted the problems with the plans that the man
had laid out. He was sure that the man was somewhat aware of these
considerations, he didn't come across as a fool. Yet the fact that he proposed
such a plan meant that he had some reason to.
('He's likely constrained by resources and funds.') Rui mused. ('The Republic
of Mernea doesn't have Martial Artist above the Squire Realm it seems.')
This wasn't particularly surprising considering how difficult the path to

Martial Senior seemed. There were other clues that Rui had picked up to gain
a clearer understanding of the limits of the security at hand.
('I'd learned that they were very low-grade Martial Squires protecting the
target,') Rui thought to himself. ('The fact that low-grade Martial Squires are
the best the nation can muster to protect the senators of the Republic is very
telling...')
Rui speculated that the Republic of Mernea probably discovered or obtained

the secret to the Squire Realm very recently, historically speaking.
('Definitely no more than five years ago, purely based on the grade of the
Martial Squires at hand.') He mused.
Had it been more than ten years ago, then he highly doubted that the best they
could muster would be low-grade Martial Squires, they would have at least
developed some mid-grade Martial Squires in that timeframe.
Because of this, Rui considered a straightforward assault from the outside

considering he was definitely much stronger than any individual Martial
Squire. Though he ultimately tossed the idea away.
('If they have sensors, they will see me coming from a mile away.') He
sighed.
He was confident in his strength, but there was a limit to the number of
Martial Squires he could fight at once. He was not confident of taking on the
entire outer team, winning, and killing the target before the target would
undoubtedly have been swiftly evacuated by the security. He was not at the
peak of the Squire Realm, to accomplish a feat like that.
The man considered Rui's words, stirring a bit before finally looking back at
Rui. "You said you have a better plan?"
"Yes." Rui nodded. "It's simple. I snipe him from outside the Capitol block."
The man's expression darkened as his jaw grew tauter.
"That's a moronic plan." He huffed. "I already laid out why. There is no way
you can possibly make that shot with the distance and the windy conditions
that are common in the town of Rjavoi."
Rui smiled underneath his mask. "Trust me, I can make it."
"And why should I trust you?" He leaned forward. "When you, a grade-four
Martial Squire who doesn't even specialize in long-range accuracy, make
outlandish statements about your long-range accuracy?"
"I'll sign a conditional contract." Rui shrugged. "If I fail, I'll do you ten
commissions for free."
The man's eyes widened, as he wordlessly stared at Rui.
Rui had already made certain inferences regarding the man's situation.
Firstly, the commission was only about exploiting a ripe opportunity, it was
not a desperate last resort of sorts, based on the information he had at hand.
Furthermore, the consequences of Rui's failure probably weren't even that
severe, Rui speculated. Hell, a failed assassination was probably not that bad
either as far as fulfilling the purpose of the commission, though the man
probably had incentives to want the assassination to succeed. It clearly wasn't
the case that the man's career or life was at stake with the nonchalance and
the core motivations for the commission that he gave Rui.
Both of these meant that the costs of Rui's failure were not too high.
Thus, Rui simply had to give the man a payment, if he failed, which exceeded
the costs of failure.
Based on the information regarding the wealth and Martial prowess of the
Republic of Mernea, Rui was relatively certain that ten free commissions
from a Martial Squire himself was a highly attractive deal.
"You're willing to sign that right now?" The man asked with a serious face as
he put aside the cigar.
"Well, I don't trust your words, I'll sign it after I've obtained all the
information from the Martial Union to verify that the information you just
provided is accurate." Rui shrugged.
"But you will have accepted the mission by then." He growled. "How can I
trust you'll sign the contract after?"
"I'll sign an agreement that if the information you provided is accurate then
I'll sign the failure-conditional contract."
"And who decides whether the information I provided is accurate?" The man
asked with a skeptical expression.
"The Martial Union, of course." Rui shrugged. "The Martial Union can judge
whether the information you provided me here today, something we both
agree upon, is accurate. There is nothing to be afraid of, the Martial Union
works hard to maintain its fair position."
"Unless, of course..." Rui continued as his eyes met his gaze. "...the
information you provided to me was inaccurate."
"Hmph. I did no such thing of the sort." The man snorted. "I'm going to hold
you to your word. Let's chalk out all the information I've provided here
before I have you sign a declaration promising what you promised me." The
man stared at Rui with furrowed eyebrows. "I presume that sounds fine?"
"No problem on my end." Rui smiled.
The two of them quickly whipped out a statement that contained all the
elements that they had agreed upon before Rui signed it.
Chapter 585 Accepted
Rui had long gotten the impression that the system of commissions worked
differently now from when he was a Martial Apprentice. The role that the
Martial Union took when he was a Martial Apprentice was much more
significant than when he was a Martial Squire. The Martial Union was like a
manager and a boss to Martial Apprentices when they undertook missions.
However, when he was a Martial Squire, the Martial Union took a few steps
back and instead shifted to the role of a somewhat distant moderator and a
rule enforcer.
He had already felt this in the few Squire-level missions he undertook, but he
could really feel it in this particular commission.
Conditional-approval contracts, personally negotiated failure penalties, and

declarations that the Martial Union would enforce without having any hand in
were much different than it was when he was a Martial Apprentice.
He had much more freedom and liberty in the arrangements he could have
with his client. It was as though the martial Union was giving him more
autonomy now that he was a bit more mature as a Martial Artist.
Of course, he didn't mind. It made his job much more enjoyable. But he also
had to make important decisions.
Like the one he just made.
In all honesty, from an objective perspective, he knew that he was being risky
and foolish. Not only was there a natural chance for failure from an objective
perspective, but perhaps his own client may try to cause him to fail.
Of course, this was extremely difficult as the agreement meant that all the
information he gave him prior needed to be true, or else it would violate the
contract and Rui would not be prohibited from aggressing violence on
Fauche.
However, Rui was quite confident that he would succeed. He also wanted to
put himself in a situation where he was under pressure. The true test of his
capability would not be under light circumstances, but under circumstances
where there were stakes.
That is why he decided to take the risk, ultimately. Granted, he was more
than smart enough to know that he probably wasn't being the most rational he
could be.
"Alright, done." Fauche looked up at Rui as he put his comms device away.
"I've officially accepted your application to accept my commission. I imagine
you should already have access to the information you need."
Rui wordlessly took out his accounter as he accessed his account, finding a
digital version of the mission bill.
He quickly read through it as he inputted the information into his Mind

Palace.
To his relief, the information that Fauche had provided seemed accurate. The
details regarding the locations of security specifically were on point. The
broader details surrounding the event were also quite accurate.
In fact, the Martial Union provided him with even greater insight regarding
the desired outcomes of the assassination. The director of the board of
directors was answering to the Senate on the potential for treason in the form
of facilitating espionage into classified military intelligence, that the company
had access to and was capable of in its current state.
Caruntel Corp was a weapons developer that had been contracted by the
military of the Republic of Mernea, according to the mission bill. Rui could
gauge the objective of the assassination on a deeper level, though he wasn't if
it would even work.
"You must really be convinced that the president will automatically be under
a lot of suspicions just because this particular director happens to be
assassinated," Rui murmured. "Because based on this, there's nothing
strongly
"That's because you're highly ignorant on the matter," Fauche puffed some
smoke. "When the director about to utter testimony in a senate, that will be
detrimental to your publicly-stated stance on governmental intervention on
the information that you as a president has, dies before he can finish the
sentence, you will be the first person everyone will look at. Especially when
the two of you have had a history of severe conflict of interest. That's
enough."
"Hm." Rui didn't deign to bother replying to that. It wasn't particularly

relevant to him and the mission, it was just a point of curiosity.
"Lots of sensory Martial Artists, I can see," Rui noted.
"Indeed." Fauche nodded. "That's why your plan is screwed. Don't say I
didn't warn you. I did it twice."
"Mhm." Rui didn't bother to retort.
The probability that a nation with little to no Squire-level martial Art

foundation had developed sensory techniques that would be able to develop a
technique that allowed Martial Artists to sense potent sound bullets that were
naturally invisible and difficult to perceive was very low.
Rui didn't think they would be able to perceive the activation of the
technique, either. That was too difficult for a bunch of low-grade Martial
Squires. Of course, Rui didn't care to inform this rationale to his client. He
would just have to be content with watching a flash of shock on the man's
face when Rui succeeded.
He would still take precautions around the matter, he would fire off a sonic
bullet in the air in the same general direction as the shot he would take to test
their reactions to it. It would tell him whether by some miracle it was
somehow sensed, or whether he was right.
Now he needed to find a spot where he could perch himself before the Senate
hearing so that he could take care of the technical stuff. That would require
Rui to scout the areas around the Capitol block to find a good spot to take out
the target of the mission.
He wanted the best altitude and the best cover he could get. While he could
shoot under much less ideal circumstances, he did have much on stake, thus
he wanted to make sure he wasn't missing a single thing. It was one thing to
be confident enough to make raise the stakes, it was another to be careless
and arrogant and end up goofing on the job.
Chapter 586 Arrival
"That will be two thousand Martial credits."
"You can debit it from my account," Rui replied as he picked up the product
he just purchased.
[VXL-100 Monocular]
This was a rather high-quality monocular that Rui had purchased just in case
he needed it. Although he was quite confident that he wouldn't, he still
decided to err on the side of caution.
That wasn't the only thing he had chosen to purchase. He had also purchased
several clothes that were native to the Republic of Menrea and part of their
ethnic wear. Although he certainly would stand out, it was better than
outright being detected as a Martial Artist of the Kandrian Empire.
He immediately headed down to the dispatch facility after changing into

those clothes, finishing the pre-mission protocols before heading out.
His destination? The Republic of Menrea.
It had been only two hours since his conversation with Fauche Vigil had
concluded. The Senate hearing was a little under three days away, he had
plenty of time. Had it been an ordinary mission, he might have even deigned
to leave later rather than waste precious time doing nothing.
However, this wasn't an ordinary mission.
This was his first Shadow-class mission. It was also the first mission where
he would be testing the pathfinder technique in the field for the first time.
Furthermore, he had staked a lot on the success of the mission. He couldn't
help but feel just a tad little tingly inside.
('I'm going to have to be extra careful.') Rui noted.
There were several things on his agenda that he needed to complete before
the time for the actual assassination came through. First, he needed to find an
appropriate spot where he wouldn't be noticed, but from where he would also
have a clear shot of the target of assassination.
Ideally, he would like to have a spot that has the same amount of elevation as
the target, as differences in elevation increase the distance between him and
the target and forced him to shoot at an angle. Not that he couldn't do the
latter and still succeed, but he didn't want to take chances.
Thankfully, the senate hearing was actually at ground level, thus he didn't
have to worry much about finding a good spot.
Once that was done, he needed to consider his escape route. He wasn't too
concerned, the Martial Squires of the Republic of Menrea, according to the
intelligence provided by the Martial Union was not a threat to him
individually.
Not only was the evolution breakthrough process of the Republic of Menrea
inferior to that of the Kandrian Empire, which was what Rui underwent, but
their techniques were shit in comparison to that of the Kandrian Empire as
well.
Furthermore, Rui was especially tough thanks to the new techniques he had
developed and the VOID algorithm. He also had a symbiote empowering his
cognition.
Although the impact it produced was no longer as significant as it was before

as the Symbiote did not undergo as immense of an evolution as he did at all,
and thus was only a grade-ten technique by Apprentice standards, it was still
useful and gave him an edge over the Martial Squires of the Republic of
Menrea.
Furthermore, Rui had also obtained a superior Martial body thanks to the
Mind Switch technique. He could probably crush any individual martial
Squire of the Republic of Menrea in a head-on fight. The issue was if he got
surrounded by a large number of them. That would complicate issues
significantly and he couldn't be truly confident that he would be able to
escape in such circumstances.
Still, he wasn't too worried about this issue. He was most likely faster than
almost all of the Martial Squires assigned to protect the target, and there
would be a significant gap between them since he would be sniping his target
from a long distance away and would begin running away the second he
succeeded. There was surely no way that any of them would be able to catch
him with him getting such a head start.
Even if one of them was that fast, Rui wasn't concerned with a single Martial
Squire.
Another potential hindrance to the escape route would be law enforcement

departments enforcing a shutdown of transit in and out of the country, and
perhaps a strengthened border control, but that wasn't something Rui was too
concerned about.
Although the Republic of Menrea was a small nation, its borders were still far
too large to be thoroughly guarded, and even if Rui encountered a stationed
garrison, they were unlikely to be able to stop him even if they contained a
Martial Squire.
Still, he needed to scout a path first, just to be careful. He didn't want to take
chances.
As he pondered these issues, he finally arrived.
As he had suspected, the border wasn't particularly secure. Though he had to

admit, it was better than a lot of the other nations that he had been to. It was a
rather tall fence that would make it difficult for a normal person to get in,
though Martial Artists would surely have no problem.
And he didn't. He had already sensed that there were no people on the other
side, so he peacefully jumped over before taking off his mask. He had
covered his hair with common garb worn on the head in the Republic while
wearing contacts to ensure that his abnormal features did not draw too much
attention.
"Alright," He murmured. "Time to head to the site of the deed.
He didn't rush through the country at the speed of sound as he might have had
he not been on a mission, but it was hard to control himself at those speeds,
and he would draw far too much attention from everybody if he recklessly
revealed his status as a Martial Squires that was clearly not from this nation.
He peacefully walked into the street of the nearest town, having already worn
a solid Mind Mask that made his vibe feel diminutive.
It took him a while to reach the town of Rjavoi, he took the shortest route to
the town that he could find in the maps of the entire country and the regions
that he inputted into his mind palace. The first thing he did was head to the
Capitol block which was located at the center of the town.
('Hm, they could also choose to lock down the town once the assassination
happens.') Rui noted, before shaking his head. ('They can try, but I'll be long
gone before they can.')
He didn't think that the officials could lock down the town before he escaped,
but it would take him escaping at top speeds on land.
Both means had their merits.
The only issue he hadn't resolved was whether he should prioritize speed or
stealth while escaping. If he simply ran for the closest border at top speed, he
would draw a lot of attention but he would make the quickest progress. There
was very little chance that they could possibly obstruct him, the problem was
that if they did succeed in obstructing him, then he could be in deep trouble.
A stealthy escape had its own merits as well. With the sheer distance between
the Senate hearing and Rui, if he quietly mixed into the town, they would
almost certainly never find him. Then he could quietly leave the country from
another point and it would be over.
This method took longer, but it didn't have the risk of revealing his position
and even his tentative appearance to the martial Squires who would no doubt
notice him otherwise. That being said, spending more time in the country
came with its own risks. Perhaps a clean speedy getaway was desirable, Rui
didn't think the Martial Squires would be able to stay on his tail for very long.
Thanks to the Mind Switch technique, he was fast, but he also had a ton of
stamina. He also had the Phantom Step technique that allowed him to juke his
trackers if they did manage to stay on his tail.
('What if I try a combination of both?') Rui wondered. ('I can get out of the
immediate area when the assassination is complete at relatively high speeds,
then choose the stealth option once I've gotten enough distance.
Another advantage he had was the element of surprise and uncertainty. It

wasn't as though the Martial Squires would be released into pursuit the very
instant the shot succeeded, they would be obligated to at the very least ensure
the Senate was safe, and only after several seconds of chaos in doing that
would a team of Martial Squires be dispatched.
Rui, on the other hand, would be dashing away the very second that he
confirmed the assassination operation was a success.
Furthermore, their searches would be restricted since they wouldn't know that
Rui would be sniping from tremendous distances away. Thus, their
preconceived notions would prevent them from taking the apt measures that
would be required for them to capture Rui. In fact, depending on how
primitive their techniques were, they might even suspect that the culprit was
within the Capitol block or just outside. Instead of a great distance away from
it.
('Hm.') Rui nodded.
He pulled a comms device from his utility pouch. Fauche had given it to him
before they parted ways, it would serve as the way for him to signal to Rui
the timing of the assassination. He would have to be very conscious of both
the target and the timing.
He put it back into his pocket as he began circling the Capitol block at a
distance of nine hundred meters. Although there were windows, Rui didn't
need them thanks to his sensory techniques and also the penetrative power of
his attack. A measly wall was no different from wet paper before the might of
a Martial Squire like himself.
('This works.') Rui paused as he looked around. He was in a residential area,
with buildings that were each only one story tall, across the entire area.
Operating in an environment with great uniformity was a good idea, it made

it more difficult for the trackers to estimate where the shot actually came
from, as opposed to if he shot from the highest height in the area.
He got quietly jumped upon the flat roof of a wider house.
('This is ideal,') Rui nodded as he noted the short fencing at the border of the
room that would ensure that nobody on the street would see him.
He only needed to make sure that the occupants of the house would not
inadvertently walk onto the roof when he was occupying it.
('I can just lock it from the outside,')
He jumped on, lying flat on the ground, facing the Capitol block. He
immediately activated the combination of Seismic Mapping and
Tempestuous Feel. Together the two techniques synergized with each other,
in a way, and allowed his senses to extend a great distance in the direction of
Capitol block, occupying the Senate Hall.
He could sense the structure of the hall with remarkable precision and
accuracy. When the Hearing would be held, the room would be filled with the
many senators, the other dignitaries, and the target; Herguson Meine, a
director on the board of directors of Caruntel Co.
('Alright, location of sniping; check.') Rui nodded, getting up. ('Exit strategy;
check. I just need to make sure that I have several contingencies down for the
possible measures they may take.')
The mission bill covered the protocols that would be undertaken in such a
scenario, though they weren't as certain of the outcome as Rui would have
liked, thus he decided to take extra measures in any case.
('Also... I have to observe the target and formulate a predictive model of

him.') Rui noted.
It was much more difficult to form predictive models of people outside of
combat, for there was more data to be taken in and the results weren't as
reliable as combat predictive models. However, this was also another
precaution Rui had decided to take.
Chapter 588 Fire
A little under three days passed.
Rui spent most of the time in the Republic of Menrea, fleshing out his
contingencies as he spent his time observing the target Herguson Meine from
a good distance away with the help of his two sensory techniques. He had
identified the man's tics and other movements that could be used to predict
his movements ahead of time.
All the preparations had been completed.
It was time.
There were only a few hours to go before the estimated time of assassination
provided by Fauche.
"That'll do." Rui quickly locked the door to the roof of the house he had
chosen to reside on.
He lay flat on the ground as he observed the Senate Hearing commencing.
The security measures were quite accurate to the information provided by the
Martial union and by Fauche. Rui had committed all of them to memory.
The outer layer patrolled the Capitol block, scanning the area with their
senses. The senses of a Martial Squire were sharp even if one did not learn
sensory techniques. They could all be used to ensure that there were no
unauthorized intruders within the Capitol block.
Rui could sense that, as informed, there were multiple security check-ins and
verifications at multiple levels before access to the Senate Hall.
There were even Martial Squires sky-walking in the air to get a bird-eyed
view of the area surrounding the Senate Hall.
('The measures are definitely strict,') Rui mused.
Unfortunately for them, none of those measures were going to be effective.
('Oh, it's starting.') Rui peered with interest as all the senators and other
dignitaries had taken their place and the chairperson had opened the hearing.
Unfortunately for him, the hearing was being conducted in the national
language of the nation. Rui didn't really have any clue about what was going
on. It was a shame because the commission had given him some interest in
the contents of the hearing, to gain a deeper understanding of why Fauche
chose to commission him.
Still, it was probably better that there was an avenue for him to grow
distracted. He hadn't developed the assassination mindset that centered
around absolute mental perseverance in the field, nor did he intend to.
Still, he managed to stay focused. Focused on the target, while conscious of

the comms device that Fauche had given him.
Hours passed, and soon the fated time approached.
Rui's demeanor grew more severe and solemn as the estimated time for the
assassination was nearly there. If not for the Mind Mask straining to control
his mighty aura, the surrounding humans in the area would have long
collapsed unconscious. Civilians, who didn't receive training to resist mental
pressure, did not have any way of not succumbing to it.
('Ok, he's getting up and walking to the speaker's platform.') Rui's eyes
sharpened.
That was the cue for Rui to be ready to fire at any time. The assassination
would occur during the address and opening statement of the target to the
Senate. The whole point of the operation was to kill him at a time in his
speech that would inevitably throw suspicion on the president. Rui had
already informed Fauche that the shot would land only after nearly three
seconds after the message was sent.
After all, sound could travel nine hundred meters in less than three seconds,
but Rui also had to account for the execution of the ODA system and the time
taken to physically launch the attack.
Of course, Rui had long finished the first phase of the ODA system for the
speaker's podium, because he knew that that would be where the target for his
platform would be standing. Thus, all of the calculations of the distance
between them, the equations of propagation of the wave trajectory, and the
launch conditions had long been well figured out.
The only part left was the second phase of the ODA system that tackled
atmospheric conditions. He could not complete that part until after he got the
signal. He had already begun paying deep attention to all the atmospheric
conditions ready to input them into the protocols of the second phase of the
ODA system any second.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
The comms device that Fauche had given him began beeping in his pocket.
The moment had arrived.
Rui's pupils dilated as time slowed down to nearly a halt, it was as though his
consciousness had ascended to a higher dimension of time. His mind fired
through the Mind Palace as remarkable amounts of information flushed
through the calculations entailed by the ODA system.
An image formed in his mind.
This was the necessary trajectory that he needed to launch the Sonic Bullet.
Rui's mouth widened as he shifted himself in order to fulfill the launch
conditions needed for the fated trajectory.
THWOOM
A sonic boom rippled into the air as the sound bullet sprung forth as it shot
forward at a remarkable speed. Even Rui could not really sense it once it left
his vicinity. Only Primordial Instinct made him feel danger, albeit nothing
specific.
His perception of time returned to normal, by Martial Squire standards, as the

Sonic Bullet crossed the great distance between Rui and his target
BANG!
By the time the Martial Squires could overcome their shock at the sight of the
wall breaking open to apparently nothing. The speedy projectile had already
moved on.
SPLAT
The head of Herguson Meine blasted as a wave of blood, cerebral fluid, and
human tissue splattered across the entire room, dousing everyone in gore.
The heightened shock in the room was almost physically tangible. The
civilians in the room were frozen in horror in the moments after the hit. The
Martial Squires, however, dashed in as their training kicked in. Both layers of
security shielded the various dignitaries in the Senate Hall as they were
swiftly evacuated.
The entire town erupted in chaos as the town was put in lockdown as the
mayor of the town took the most extreme option to catch the culprit that
dared to assassinate a dignitary in the Senate Hall!
Chapter 589 Shock
Fauche Viril was having a good day.
He had found himself in the middle of a good deal, with only two possible
outcomes, and both outcomes were just fine by him.
If Squire Falken ended up succeeding, then he would have successfully

destabilized the loyalty of the shareholders and stakeholders towards the
president significantly. It didn't matter if there was no proof, the timing of the
attempt given the friction between the president and Herguson Meine would,
at the very least, sprout significant doubts and distrust toward the president.
If Rui failed, then the situation would be less ideal, albeit more volatile since
the director would still be alive and would also suspect the president above
all else.
No one would dare suspect Fauche, one of the staunchest supporters of the
director and a close friend of his.
Furthermore, if Rui failed, then Fauche would gain ten free commissions
from Rui. That was not a small amount!
Although Fauche was wealthy, commissioning Martial Squires from the

Kandrian Martial Union was not a light matter. There were taxes on any
transactions and exchange of services that he had to pay to both the Kandrian
Empire and the Kandrian Martial Union, on top of the actual commission fee
for the mission.
Furthermore, the Kandrian currency was a heavyweight compared to the

paltry currency of his nation. A single Kandrian copper coin was equivalent
to a hundred and twenty-seven crolls! The latter could get you three meals a
day in the Republic of Mernea.
Commissioning Rui had cost him over a dozen million crolls! Even for a
multi-millionaire, within the Republic of Mernea, this was not a trivial sum.
That was why he found it hard to believe that Rui promised ten free
commissions. He had gone through all the paperwork exceedingly
thoroughly, trying to find a loophole that Rui was perhaps thinking of
exploiting in order to get out of doing the ten free commissions that he
promised, but he found nothing.
It seemed that Rui was actually serious and earnest.
A small part of Fauche prayed that Rui would fail. That's effectively how
alluring the fortune Rui was offering was worth.
He didn't understand why the clearly young man made such a rash deal, but
he chalked it up to youthful recklessness. He surmised that Rui was likely a
young, but talented, Martial Artist who had recently broken through to the
Squire Realm. It was rather clear that he had let his newborn power and status
get to his head and inflate his ego.
Fauche was not intimately clear with the power of a Martial Squires, after all,
the Republic of Mernea had only obtained the secret to the breakthrough less
than ten years ago. However, he was relatively certain that Martial Squires
were not capable of the feat that Rui claimed he would accomplish. In his
perspective, it was possible that extremely high-grade long-range accuracy
Martial Squire veterans would be able to accurately snipe targets from nearly
a kilometer away, despite highly unfavorable atmospheric conditions.
However, for a meager grade-four all-rounder Martial Squire to be capable of
this feat?
('It's impossible.') Fauche shook his head lightly.
"Next, I call upon the chairman Herguson Meine to the speaker's podium." A
senator invited him, to which Herguson deftly made his way to it.
Fauche moved his hand atop his pocket within which the button of the
comms device, when pressed, would send the signal to Rui to assassinate
Herguson. Rui had already informed him of the time delay, so Fauche had to
judge the timing ahead of time.
He listened to the man's words carefully as he droned on with an official

statement.
"Last but certainly not least, I would like to bring up the issue regarding the
current president of Caruntel Company, Herguson Meine..."
Fauche had already pressed the button the moment the man began to utter the
president's name.
"... poor judgment and igno-"
BANG
The wall blasted open.
The Martial Squires in the vicinity jerked back, startled. They began moving
as per protocol once they saw that something had somehow managed to
bypass their senses and break in.
Yet, it was too little too late. Even though they could reach the speed of
sound themselves, that was at top speed, not when they were stationary.
Not that they even knew that an invisible projectile was moving at the speed
of sound.
SPLAT
Herguson's head, which was still in the middle of making a passionate point
against the president, blasted.
Gore violently sprayed across the hall, covering every single dignitary in the
room.
"AAAAAAAAH!"
"OH MY GOD!
"WHAT THE FUCK!"
At that moment, the sheer shock and panic that beset these highly important
individuals caused their otherwise trained demeanor to crumble. These were
people who were used to feeling personally safe due to the security measures
in place to protect them. Exploding heads were not something that they were
accustomed to.
The Martial Squires of both layers immediately formed a sort of physical

barrier between the direction the shot came from and the dignitaries they
were obligated to protect. Until their charges were safely evacuated, they
could not afford to move.
Easier said than done, with the sheer chaos in the Hall. The only person who
wasn't scrambling around or panicking was Fauche. His face was covered
with shock, and blood, but mostly shock.
('He succeeded!') Fauche was frozen. ('Nearly a kilometer! Strong winds!

Dozens of Martial Squires!')
He felt a deep surge of regret, in hindsight. He strongly wished that Rui

failed, he would have gotten himself ten commissions out of this
unfathomable Martial Squire!
('DAMMIT!') he cursed inside. ('Ten free commissions from him could give
me a tremendous amount of power! Nothing could possibly get in my way
had he failed!')
"SIR! GET DOWN!"
Fauche jerked back as a Martial Squire shouted at him in his face.
"I know you're in shock! But your life is at risk!"
The Martial Squire had a strong urge to shove the man to the ground, but he
wasn't sure if he would be able to get away with it.
Chapter 590 Value
The town of Rjavoi erupted in hysteria as word of an attack on the Senate

Hall spread through the town. None of the citizens had managed to gather
anything specific, but that alone was shocking enough. The mayor even went
so far as to put the entire town on lockdown!
"Too little, too late." Rui shrugged as he crossed the border of the Republic of
Mernea by the time any meaningful and coordinated investigative measures
were taken once the dignitaries were secured. He had left the town of Mernea
stealthily, before heading to a more remote region, he then shot off at top
speed towards the shortest route without intersecting with any towns or other
settlements.
While there were, no doubt, some people here and there who noticed a noisy
blur in the distance, they were inconsequential.
Once he crossed the border and left it in the dust behind him, he finally
loosened up a bit before indulging in his exhilaration of having succeeded.
"YES!" He jumped high into the sky. "That was perfect! Oh, how I wish I
could have seen the look on Fauche's face when the assassination succeeded."
Unfortunately, that was impossible. Rui would have to be content with

imagining it.
More importantly, the sheer satisfaction of actually employing the Pathfinder

technique in the field and successfully completing missions in ways that
would have been utterly impossible for him prior, was truly immense. He
could be happy for days at how well it worked out. It was an addicting
feeling, almost. Although he didn't face any combat against Martial Squires,
he wasn't too dissatisfied, which was very strange for him.
"I wonder what the Martial Union is going to say to this," Rui laughed out
loud as he tried imagining how shocked the Martial Union would be when
they learned about what Rui had accomplished.
He was sure that their very first reaction would be skepticism. The Martial
Union had, no doubt, seen its fair share of lies and exaggerations when it
came to reports of Martial Squires regarding the events that occurred during
missions. Although Rui had a pretty good track record of proving his
unbelievable reports, such as the time he killed a Martial Squire as a Martial
Apprentice.
He was sure that the Martial Union would not have believed that had he not
brought the corpse of the Martial Squire with him.
The same could be said this time as well. He wouldn't be surprised if the
martial Union took extra measures to verify the veracity of the report that he
submitted.
After all, the Martial Union doubtlessly had an intelligence network based in
the Republic of Menrea that would give them as much information as they
could procure. In fact, given that the Martial Union already knew that an
assassination attempt would be taking place at a given time and place, they
probably had spies that were watching the Senate Hearing from any and all
angles.
That should provide some degree of confirmation that his account was quite
truthful. Furthermore, Fauche would also vouch for the veracity of Rui's
report, if needed.
"The question is what they'll do after," Rui murmured.
It was possible that they would do nothing. Perhaps they would simply be
impressed, but shrug and leave Rui alone. Rui's understanding of how the
Martial Union worked was not intimate, he did not think he understood all
the nuances of how the association treated such feats.
After all, they did not do anything even though he killed a Martial Squire.
"Oh, that's not true." Rui stroked his chin. "They did update the Martial Artist
grading system."
He had heard over the years that that was done most likely in response to the
shocking feat that he and his friends had managed to accomplish. Although
he had help, the reports, especially those of his friends, made it clear that Rui
was the core reason that they were not as hopelessly screwed as they ought to
be.
"This time is a bit different than that time though," Rui frowned.
It was one thing for his Martial Art and Martial Path to be so potent that it
allowed him to exploit an opportunity that allowed him to kill an
inexperienced and unhabilitated Squire, it was another to have a singular
technique that could allow him to surpass even specialists in their field.
The former was not something that could be easily obtained and replicated. A
Martial Path was deeply personal and individualistic. It was impossible to
universalize it completely, or even partially. At most, certain elements could
be turned into universal techniques.
But a technique could be passed on much more easily than a Martial Path.
Rui would be truly surprised if the Martial Union did not take any measures
to obtain the technique that Rui had created. As an organization that
prioritized the interests of the Martial Artist group as a whole, collecting
techniques that could be used by others was an extremely important part of
the process.
Rui recalled hearing from a headmaster Aronian that roughly half of all
Martial Art techniques that the Martial Union collected came from Martial
Artists coming up with them. It would be rather irresponsible for them to
ignore techniques like the one Rui had demonstrated in this battle.
"The question is what to do then." Rui scratched his head.
Frankly, he wasn't all that averse to sharing the technique with the Martial
Union if he had an opportunity to. Unlike the VOID algorithm, the ODA
system wasn't as fundamental to his Martial Path and Martial Art. He didn't
feel the burning sense of possessiveness like he did with the VOID algorithm
due to this reason.
As long as the Martial Union evaluated the value of the technique accurately
and gave him fair compensation for his valuable contribution, he had no
qualms about selling them the Pathfinder technique. He wasn't too concerned
about a bunch of copycats arising from the Martial Squire population of the
Martial Union. The conditions for using the technique successfully were
anything but easy.
Chapter 591 Invitation
The difficulty of mastering the Pathfinder technique could not be overstated.

While the data processing needed to use the Pathfinder was still not as
extreme as that of the VOID algorithm, it was far from something a Martial
Squire could accomplish.
In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that Rui had mastered the technique, it could
probably be considered a Senior-level technique!
After all, by definition, Senior-level techniques were techniques that only

Martial Seniors and above could master. If not for Rui, it would most likely
be the case that Martial Squires simply didn't have what it took to master the
technique.
Of course, he had no idea what Martial Seniors were actually capable of, so
he couldn't be sure that Martial Seniors were actually capable of using it
either. But he didn't even dare to assume that Martial Seniors were incapable
of mastering the technique. If the gap between Martial Squires and Martial
Seniors was even remotely as large as the gap between Martial Apprentices
and Martial Squires, then such a technique would most likely not be too
problematic.
However, within the Squire Realm, the technique was probably a grade-nine
or a grade-ten long-range accuracy technique.
('This is the power of synergy.') Rui reminded himself.
Mastering an ordinary grade-ten long-range accuracy technique was beyond

him in ordinary circumstances, but thanks to the synergy between the
technique and himself, he could overcome this barrier and take that step.
He let his thoughts as he finally reached the Hajin branch, quickly heading in
to complete the post-mission protocols. He needed to fill up a report and
write down statements.
Rui made sure to give just enough information about the technique to inspire
the greed from the Martial Union. An alternative method and system of
aiming in the form of the ODA system was nothing short of revolutionary,
after all.
('I wonder what the Martial Sect centered around long-range techniques
thinks about this.') Rui wondered, realizing he had almost forgotten about
them.
He was certain that there was a Martial sect centered around long-range
techniques. After all, if something as obscure as symbiotes could have their
own sects, then surely long-range techniques, which were much more
common, would also have their own sect.
Furthermore, it was probably large enough that it wouldn't be considered an

unorthodox sect like the Symbiotic Sect. Though it would certainly be
smaller than the Fire, Earth, and Lightning Sects.
Once he finished up his paperwork, he quickly left the Martial Union after
confirming his pay. He had earned some money from the commission and
intended to spend it on himself and his family. He also wanted to take some
time off and stick around for whatever the Martial Union's response to his
report would be, as much as he wanted to go on another mission.
He didn't think that the Martial Union would show up at his door
immediately. He had submitted the report normally, which meant that it
would undergo a normal process. There was probably some evaluation team
that evaluated the degree of accuracy and honesty of the report based on the
intelligence supplied by the intelligence department.
Perhaps the parts regarding the description of the technique would be

highlighted and passed on to the relevant experts; such as the long-range
Martial Artists that were either retired or simply partaking as a consultant in
an issue that required their expertise.
Once the long-range Martial Artist read Rui's report and verified the existing
intelligence on the matter themselves, that was when Rui's technique would
truly catch the notice of the right eyes.
After all, what long-range Martial Artist competent enough to partake in

confidential consultants wouldn't be part of the long-range technique Martial
Sect?
This individual would most likely alert the Martial Sect of the technique that
Rui described compellingly in his report. The Martial Sect would verify the
report and the intelligence once over itself before digging more into Rui in
their database.
Once they learned the various things that Rui had accomplished even as a
Martial Apprentice, the veracity of his claims became a lot less questionable.
Only then would they look at his personality and character evaluation. They
would most likely run into the fact that Rui had rejected the invitations of
Martial Sects much more powerful than themselves. This meant that they
would naturally come to the conclusion that there was most likely nothing
that they could do to convince him to join their sect.
Rui had made it clear that he didn't want to forsake his desire to be an all-
rounder in order to join a Martial Sect.
Beyond this point, Rui had a harder time predicting their actions. It all
depended on variables that he had no way of accounting for. Either they
would lessen the conditions that deterred Rui from joining a Martial Sect, or
they would focus purely on obtaining the Pathfinder technique more than
anything else.
In the case of the former, he wasn't sure what he ought to do. He was not
averse to making favorable deals that benefitted him, but he wanted to make
sure that he wouldn't be forced to do things he didn't want to. The Fire Sect
required him to place greater weight on offense than other fields, which was
instantly an impossibility for Rui.
The second possibility was a lot less demanding. Selling the technique for
something worthwhile in return was definitely worth it. Though he lacked far
too much cognizance in regard to what could be offered and what was good
and what wasn't. Value was one thing, but he wasn't sure how far he could
push.
('Meh, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.') Rui shrugged. ('Besides,
technically, this is all still speculation.')
He didn't even know if the chain of events that Rui had predicted would
occur, would actually occur.
Just then, his accounter beeped.
He pulled it out, scrolling through the message inbox.
[Squire Rui Quarrier, this is an official invitation to the Hajin branch of the
Martial Union regarding matters surrounding the latest mission that you have
completed. Please be sure to come at 16:00 on the 40th spring.]
Chapter 592 Ceeran Deriol
"Well, that was quick," Rui murmured out loud as he sipped some tea.
It hadn't been that long since he submitted his report, just a few hours. He had
barely gotten any time to relax, in reality.
"Do they really process through reports this quick?" Rui scratched his head.
He didn't think this was the norm. Unless the Martial Union had a
ridiculously loaded administration and staff, it shouldn't take lesser than a
day, at least, for all of the procedures and due process to be completed.
"Assuming that's true, then would that mean my reports underwent a different
stream of processing?" Rui wondered aloud.
It wasn't impossible.
For the Martial Union to have finished processing his report quickly made
him suspect that perhaps his profile was flagged for priority, though he
couldn't be sure about that.
('Not that it matters.') Rui sighed.
Time passed until the time for his meeting had arrived. Rui quickly sky-
walked to the Hajin branch of the Martial Union.
"Excuse me," Rui addressed a staff member on the Martial support counter.
"How can I help you?" She offered a courteous smile.
"I actually have a meeting scheduled with the Martial Union," Rui replied,
showing her the message.
"May I see your Martial license, please?" She requested as she accessed her
terminal.
Once Rui obliged, she began fiddling with her terminal, before finally
looking up at Rui.
"You have an appointment with Senior Ceeran Deriol," She informed him.
"He's a Martial deputy director of the long-range development department of
the Martial Union. The appointment is scheduled in his office."
"Which is where exactly?" Rui asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Here." She gave him a sheet of paper with the address of the large branch of
the Martial Union and a map with the route indicated on it.
"Thank you.," Rui walked away as he studied the sheer of paper.
('Martial deputy director of the long-range development department, eh?') Rui

scratched his head.
Unfortunately, his lack of familiarity with the hierarchy of positions within

the research and development department of the Martial Union impeded his
understanding of exactly how high up the totem pole a Martial deputy
director was.
However, the fact that he was a 'Martial' deputy director gave him some
clues. If the logic behind its presence in the title of the occupation was the
same as that of the military ranks, then it would mean that Senior Ceeran had
the power and authority that came with being a Martial deputy director, but
none of the nominal management, administrative and research-oriented
responsibilities that came with a deputy director of a rather significant
research department.
This made sense as Martial Artists were not usually trained and equipped to
handle administrative duties. Furthermore, it was a waste of their time and
energy. A Martial Artist's greatest asset and avenue for contribution was in
their Martial prowess.
The best thing that a Martial Artist could generally do for themself and the
people they were an asset to, was become stronger. This was the rationale
behind the emergence of a separate equivalent hierarchy of positions without
the duties and responsibilities that came with said positions despite retaining
the authority that the position nominally held.
Thus, Rui was sure that most Martial Artists that were retained by the Martial
Union did not really engage in ordinary work that other employees of their
equivalent position would be expected to.
Just as he finished that train of thought, he arrived at the office. Outside were
two guards Martial Apprentice guards that blocked his path, despite them
being a Realm below him. Though Rui d
"I have an appointment with Senior Ceeran," Rui simply explained.
"Please provide us with the authorized invitation," They simply replied.
Only once Rui showed them the digital invitation did they open the door to
his office.
"Ah, you're here." A tall dark-skinned man greeted him with a courteous
smile, reaching out for a handshake. "Squire Rui Quarrier, It's a pleasure to
meet one of the most promising young Martial Squires of the Empire. You're
more than just a little well-known in the Union and even in the Martial
community, you know."
"So I've come to realize," Rui smiled wryly. The fact that a Martial Senior,
who was also a Martial colonel, had chosen to commission him to train his
daughter had given Rui an inkling that he was probably more well-known
than he might have previously suspected. Colonel Geringan should have had
the capital and the connections to commission even experienced Martial
Seniors to train his daughter.
However, he had ruled all of his plentiful options to instead commission Rui,
a rather new Martial Squire with no accomplishments in the Squire Realm at
the time.
This was far from ordinary.
"Come," The man gestured to the lavish couches adorning his ostentatious
office. "Let us have a seat."
Rui inspected the room as he took a seat. Immediately, he made several

observations, concluding that his previous understanding of Senior Ceeran's
role as a Martial deputy director was not inaccurate.
It wasn't hard for Rui to deduce that this office was sparingly used. It was
well-maintained, but it lacked the signs that would indicate regular prolonged
usage and occupation of it.
His table was devoid of anything suggesting regular usage or that he spent
much time at it. There wasn't even a digital terminal, so what kind of work
would someone as high up as Senior Ceeran even accomplish at such an
empty table?
Furthermore, he could feel that Senior Ceeran was out of place and
unaccustomed to the office despite it being his.
"So, Squire Quarrier. We have much to talk about." He began. "Almost don't
know where to begin."
"The invitation mentioned my most recent mission," Rui helpfully replied.
"I suppose that is set this into motion," The man replied with an amused
smile. "Your report was more than just a little surprising. When I was alerted
to some excerpts of your account, I was naturally more than just a little
surprised."
"I can imagine," Rui smiled wryly.

Chapter 593 Carrot
"I'm not in the habit of beating around the bush too much, Squire Quarrier."
Senior Ceeran eyes narrowed a little as his demeanor grew more solemn. "So
I will ask you directly. Is your account of the execution of the mission
accurate? Did you truly, with a technique of your own creation, accurately hit
the target of the mission from nearly a kilometer away?"
Rui remained silent for a moment, before nodding. "My report is the whole
and complete truth. I stand by every word written in it."
The man stared at Rui for a few seconds, trying to assess how sincere Rui
was being.
"Your claims are more than just a little surprising. They're frankly shocking.
What you claim to accomplish shatters known and established paradigms
when it comes to long-range accuracy." He explained to Rui. "If true, they are
a cause for celebration. Just discovering a new path to accomplishing high
degrees of accuracy is a great contribution to the Martial World. It proves that
there are other paths forward for us to pursue in the field of accuracy."
"Assuming, of course, that you're telling the truth." He added. "If you aren't...
You will find our implementation of the penalties of deceit in reports and
such to be fierce. So, having cleared that, do you still maintain your claims?"
The air grew frostier. The mighty Martial Senior did not even attempt to exert
any pressure on Rui. Just the sheer latent sense of danger that Rui felt from
him due to his sharp senses alone was greater than even his most powerful
Mind Mask!
Rui sighed. "Director Ceeran, I am not a fool. Why would I blatantly make up
fairy tales and serve them to the Martial Union when I know I would not be
able to escape its consequences? I assure you, my report is the whole and
complete truth."
"For one, please address me by my Martial Artist rank if you will, rather than
my position within the Martial Union. I identify with my identity as a Martial
Artist more than anything else." He smiled, lightening the atmosphere a notch
or two. "Secondly, I am of the personal opinion that you are sincere. My
warning was more of an expression of the official stance of the Martial
Union, more than anything."
"And, if I may ask, what is your stance?" Rui asked, curious.
"That you're a prodigious genius who has made an extraordinary

breakthrough." Senior Ceeran's eyes lit up with greed. "Tell me everything.
How does this technique work? What are the principles and mechanisms of
this technique? How does it allow you to accomplish what you did?"
Rui paused for a moment, considering his reply. "This is a bit abrupt. I
thought the Martial Union respected the autonomy and right to privacy of the
Martial Artists, Senior Ceeran."
Senior Ceeran's enthusiasm dampened a bit as he studied Rui with a

measured look. "Are you unwilling to share the development of your
technique with the Martial Union?"
"I haven't really given it much thought." Rui lied. "But I am open to it, I was
just a little overwhelmed."
"It is true that the Martial Union does not force its Martial Artists to divulge
their techniques and Martial Art." Senior Ceeran. "We obtain their techniques
through the carrot, rather than the stick."
Rui had already figured out why. While the Martial Union was, no doubt,
powerful enough to bully nearly every Martial Artist and extract their secrets
from them, this would be highly detrimental in the long run. The most
negative consequences would involve a mass migration of Martial Artists
from the Kandrian Empire to other sovereign states that were more pliable
and less tyrannical.
Especially other super-nations like the Britannian Empire, the Republic of
Gorteau, and the Sekigahara Confederation. These nations would more than
happily accept the influx of Martial Artists, growing stronger while the
Kandrian Empire and the Kandrian Martial Union both would grow weaker.
No Martial Artist would stay in an organization that proclaimed to be for

Martial Artists but had no qualms about employing violence against the
Martial Artist class to obtain what it wanted. This would reduce the rate at
which it obtained techniques quickly and would severely weaken the
foundations that the organization had worked hard to build.
There was nearly no technique that was worth officially breaking this
important norm and setting a dangerous precedent that would break the trust
that it had earned from Martial Artists.
Of course, Rui was not a naÃ¯ve fool. He was relatively certain that as long
the incentive was great enough, the Martial Union would shatter this norm
without any hesitation to obtain whatever they wanted.
Like, for example, a way to significantly increase the rate at which Martial
Artists emerged from the population would massively increase the number of
Martial Artist population in the long run. Such a training technique would
hold the strategic equivalence of a tactical intercontinental ballistic missile.
Obtaining it was paramount. That was why Rui didn't dare reveal the
possibility of the VOID algorithm accomplishing this to the Martial Union.
Of course, he was much less concerned about revealing his Pathfinder

technique. That technique was valuable, no doubt, but it wasn't enough to get
the Martial Union to take unscrupulous measures to obtain it. Especially if
Rui already intended to share it in exchange for benefits.
"I'm aware," Rui nodded. "I am willing to share the Pathfinder technique with
the Martial Union. However, only if the Martial Union fully appreciates the
value of my Pathfinder technique, and that reflects in the remuneration and
the recompense that the Martial Union is willing to trade."
"Pathfinder..." He murmured. "Interesting name, though it also sounds like a

sensory technique to a certain extent."
He paused for a few moments. "No need to fret, young Squire. The Martial
Union's evaluation of the value of a technique is fair and objective. We
evaluate the value of a technique based on its individuality, potency,
difficulty, and dissemination viability. In practice, it depends on how
impactful your technique is on the Martial World."
Chapter 594 Impact
"Impact... is it?" Rui considered his words, understanding what he meant.
"Impact," Senior Ceeran nodded. "Allow me to briefly explain the four

parameters, that I just described, deciding the 'impact' of a technique.
Individuality is one you should be familiar with, considering you're
overflowing with it. Individuality is considered an attribute that encompasses
both uniqueness and originality. A technique that has zero individuality is not
that valuable, because it adds no value. Anything a technique with no
individuality has to offer, we can already be certain is already ubiquitous,
almost by definition."
Rui nodded, this was rather straightforward.
Why would the Martial Union try to acquire something that is neither unique
nor original? Such a thing would not be able to offer anything that everything
else didn't. This was an important parameter to consider when evaluating the
value that a technique had, perhaps even the most important and foremost
parameter to consider.
In this regard, Rui was quite confident that his technique would blow the
minds of the Martial Union. The ODA system was probably nothing short of
game-changing as far as its uniqueness and originality went. It literally stood
for the Objectively Deduced Accuracy system, a means of obtaining accuracy
outside of intuitive judgment and muscle memory, which was the only known
paradigm for accuracy, Rui was sure.
"The next is potency," The man explained. "Potency is just as important as

individuality when evaluating the value of a technique. It's all fine and dandy
for a technique to be unique and original, but it would still be worthless if it
was extremely weak and had no potential to be potent. It is simply a measure
of how much a technique is actually able to accomplish."
Rui nodded. He was rather confident that the Pathfinder technique would do
well in this parameter as well. After all, the potency of the technique was
what drew the Martial Union's attention and interest in the first place.
A technique that allowed one to snipe targets accurately from nearly a

kilometer away was far too potent.
"The last two are related to each other to some degree," He explained.
"Difficulty and dissemination viability are two parameters that decide how
much the potency of the technique can be propagated. A technique that
cannot, to any degree whatsoever, be passed on to others or even modified to
facilitate other applications from it is not a particularly valuable technique.
After all, these two parameters are ultimately what decide the actual impact
that degree will have for its potency and individuality."
Rui nodded unhappily.
A technique with grade ten difficulty was something an extremely minute

proportion of the Martial Artist population could possibly master. Thus, the
impact it had was limited. One thing Rui knew for a fact was that the
technique was extremely difficult to master. The ODA system was extremely
taxing and demanding of its user for it to be useful. Most Martial Artists
stood no chance of conquering the sheer number of calculations that needed
to be made.
Dissemination viability looked at the factors influencing how easy

propagation of the technique was. Really harsh conditions such as requiring
the Mindmirror Symbiote to perform it drastically reduced its viability.
Of course, Rui's dependence on the Mindmirror Symbiote had reduced

significantly since he ascended to a higher Realm of power. His own brain
had evolved to a large degree compared to the much meager boosts that the
symbiote had received.
Still, he was different, he did not think that the average Martial Squire could
come even close to mastering the ODA system without some kind of mental
processing boost, at the very least. Mastering the Mind Palace technique was
the bare minimum to achieve this. Even Rui would not be able to use the
ODA system without the Mind Palace technique.
"Having explained all of them, we can proceed to actually talk about the
evaluation of your technique," The man explained. "Only once we have done
this can we actually talk about the remuneration and recompense that we will
trade to you in exchange for an exclusive license to use, distribute and adapt
your technique and use it however we may deem fit."
"So it will be treated as intellectual property?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, at least all the information about the technique will be considered
intellectual property that is owned by you, and only you," He nodded.
"Does that mean I will earn a cut every time this technique is sold?" Rui
asked, curious.
"Of course, about fifty percent in general. The technique may be yours, but
ultimately the Martial Union is the one that engages in lots of research and
development to increase its dissemination viability by making the technique
easier or developing highly effective training regimes. All of this costs
money, which is why we take at least fifty percent. Though if the technique is
adapted to something that is very different from what was originally
purchased, then we will be obliged to take an even higher cut."
Rui found the system to be interesting, though he didn't particularly care all
that much about the money being earned through the commission cut.
"If you have no further questions, then let us proceed to the evaluation
process of the technique." Senior Ceeran impatiently coaxed him.
"How does the process work, exactly?" Rui asked.
"You will begin by giving a scrupulously detailed report about the

development period of the technique; the manner in which you came up with
it, before finally divulging every ounce of information on the technique, even
if it is just remotely relevant. Once that is done, you will be subjected to a
bunch of tests that will gather the data which, in conjugation with the
aforementioned reports, will allow us to have a clear idea of exactly how
valuable the technique is. Once that is done, the Martial Union will be sure to
offer recompense that is commensurate with said value. The details can be
negotiated as there are plenty of exclusive techniques, goods and services,
opportunities and avenues that the Martial Union can provide in return."
Rui's eyes lit up in interest at those words.

Chapter 595 Excited
The Martial Union was an immensely powerful organization in more than

just one way. Its most powerful asset was, of course, its tremendous Martial
power. As an organization that retained almost eighty percent of all Martial
Artists in the nation, the Martial Union was unmatched when it came to
individual power. To the point where it could match and perhaps even
surpass the military power of the Royal Kandrian Family in some
circumstances.
However, that wasn't the sole extent of its power. It had a large and extensive
intelligence network and had unique intelligence-gathering methods through
Martial Art that only an organization as Martial Art-centric could possibly
have. Information ranging from mundane reports on the state of affairs to
extremely significant information that would cost a small fortune to purchase.
These were also part of the goods and services that it was capable of offering.
Beyond that, it could offer many highly useful and attractive benefits that
would certainly appeal to Martial Artists. The tutelage and wisdom of high-
ranking Martial Artists, reserved confidential techniques that were not
publicly available, extremely effective and valuable yet rare training and
growth resources.
Furthermore, as an organization with a tremendous amount of influence over

society, it was also capable of offering power and authority. Martial Artists
already passively possessed such influence, but with a high-ranking position
inside the Martial Union, the entire nation was within your reach.
That was why Rui didn't underestimate the potential recompense that the
Martial Union could offer him in return for the Pathfinder technique.
The two of them chatted a bit more before Rui was guided to another facility
and made to sit at a table as he was given a typewriter to document the
development process of the Pathfinder technique.
Yet before he could begin, he felt a Squire-level presence approaching him.
"Hm?" Rui glanced up as his eyebrows furrowed.
"Squire Quarrier, this is Squire Friedrich." An assistant staff member. "He

will be ensuring that the development procedure and the information
surrounding the technique is sincerely being documented."
"A mental sensory technique?"
"More than one, actually." Squire Friedrich replied casually. "Ensure you're
conveying the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, else I will find
out, I assure you."
The man issued a warning in a blank tone to Rui.
Rui even believed him. The man was concealing his mental pressure, but Rui
could still sense that he was still not someone Rui wanted to make an enemy
of.
Funnily enough, that made him want to fight him even more, to test his
Martial Art against him.
Instead, Rui wordlessly turned back to his work and began describing the
development process of the Pathfinder technique as well as all the
information associated with the mechanism of the technique.
Within an hour, he finished, having managed to pump out a large amount of

information thanks to his super speed.
Squire Friedrich had not voiced out a single complaint the entire time, which
Rui found interesting. It appeared that the 'whole truth' was not necessarily a
strict demand. The Oda system was partially inspired by the way that he
developed the VOID algorithm, though Rui did not mention that, yet Squire
Friedrich either did not notice or did notice but didn't deem it significant
enough to reprimand him for.
It was half an hour before he met Senior Ceeran.
His demeanor was a lot less restrained than in their first meeting.
"I have gone through your report and I just feel the need to say, if even half
of what you have described is accurate, then your mind must work in ways
that I cannot even fathom. To be able to obtain such a high degree of
accuracy not through intuition and muscle memory as nearly everybody else
does, but through mathematical calculations is unheard of! There is no
Martial Artist on the damn continent that I know of that can replicate your
feat!" He excitedly exclaimed.
"I'm glad you recognize its value, I would have been a lot more concerned if
you didn't seem to," Rui smiled.
"How could I not?!" he exclaimed. "In fact, I can't wait to try mastering this
technique and incorporating its principles into my own original techniques!"
Rui raised an eyebrow at those words. "I take it you have a long-range
centered Martial Path?"
"Correct," He nodded. "My Martial Path is long-range trajectory

manipulation. It's a very niche subset of long-range offense, making me one
of the few of my kind."
"Interesting," Rui furrowed his eyebrow. "What exactly does your Martial
Path and Art actually entail, in practice?"
"My Martial Art is centered around a style of fighting where I manipulate the
trajectory of my attacks once they've been launched to suit the situation. I
accomplish this using various mechanisms and principles, some of which I
myself have developed." He stated with more than just a hint of pride.
Rui's eyes widened. "Manipulating the trajectories of long-range attacks after

they're already launched? Is such a thing even possible?"
"Of course it is!" He laughed good-heartedly. "There are a few means to do

so. Manipulating the atmosphere is the most common way. Things like heat,
air currents, and such can be used to alter the trajectory after release to
dramatically increase the probability of the attack hitting the intended moving
target."
"I see..." Rui furrowed his eyebrows as he considered the implication of the
man's words.
The man was probably a medium to long-range fighter and fighting him was
probably a pain in the ass. Avoiding attacks was extremely difficult, and with
the knowledge that he had the ability to land his attacks thanks to this homing
feature, he probably had several lethal long-range attacks that made
defending against them very difficult!
"Truly incredible... Considering that this is your Martial Path and the fact that
you're the Martial deputy-director of the long-range research department...
You must surely be part of the Martial Sect surrounding long-range
techniques. Am I right?"
"Of course," The man nodded, before turning to Rui. "I am most certainly
part of the Longranger Sect."
Chapter 596 Sect
"The Longranger sect... is it?" Rui considered the name, not having heard it
before.
The Martial Sects were not public knowledge, one only learned about them if
one reached a certain level of political or economic status, or if one was a
Martial Artist. Furthermore, learning more about any one of them required
actually entering a Martial Sect, or being approached by that Martial Sect.
Rui didn't fulfill those conditions until now, explaining his ignorance of what
was surely an important Martial Sect.
"That's right." Senior Ceeran. "We Longrangers fight for an increased

weightage on long-range techniques than they are currently given. Long-
range techniques have very simple but potent advantages and benefits that
ought to be more capitalized. Our techniques are simply superior to short-
range striking."
Rui raised an eyebrow at those words. "Both ranges have their strengths and
disadvantages, as I'm sure you'd agree."
"This is not false, of course," He nodded. "But the more accurate truth is that
long-range techniques have better advantages to offer and lesser
disadvantages to hinder the Martial Artist from using them. If you are in a
sparring match or a duel where you and your opponent start meters away
from each other, things may seem more equal, but in practice, such
circumstances are quite rare. Especially in circumstances of war, having long-
range offense has been shown to be dramatically more successful than
engaging in close-quarter brawls."
Rui wanted to retort, but he paused, considering the matter.

It was not easy to refute the man's words. Especially when Rui had lived an
entire lifetime in a world where projectile weapons with range were
demonstrably more impactful in combat than close-quarter weapons.
This was especially true in larger-scale conflicts where there were no rules of
any sort. Even bows and arrows and spears were historically more potent in
warfare and became a main staple in conflicts. Most genuine conflicts began
at a distant range, thus long-range offensive measures always gained the
advantage of inflicting damage before shorter-range weapons could. Many a
time, this was the difference between life and death.
Still, Rui rejected the notion that long-range offenses needed to be given
higher priority relative to short-range offensive measures. For once, the
distance shortened, long-range offensive Martial Artists would find
themselves at a disadvantage!
For Rui, maintaining a good balance between both was key. Increasing both
his long-range and short-range offensive capability was a prudent measure to
take.
('Maybe I should look into the trajectory manipulation techniques that he

specializes in,') Rui considered.
The synergy between the ODA system and such a technique was incredible,
maybe he could expand the Pathfinder technique to include a long-range
manipulation technique to turn the Sonic Bullets into homing projectiles!
('Then the technique would truly live up to its name!') Rui's eyes widened.
The pathfinder's effectiveness would increase substantially. Rui had to admit

that Senior Ceeran was on to something with trying to integrate the ODA
system with his Martial Art.
"Reading the development process of the Pathfinder was even more

interesting than the actual technique itself," The man noted. "Truly, you'd just
fine in the Longrangers."
"Are you attempting to recruit me, Senior?" Rui smiled wryly.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested, but..." He shook his head. "We've
gone through your profile. You've already rejected the invitations to Martial
Sects much more alluring and powerful than that of the Longranger Sect, like
the Fire Sect, for example. Yet after all this time you still haven't joined a
Martial Sect. We can safely conclude that you have qualms with the
fundamental idea of joining a Martial Sect and everything it entails."
Rui nodded, they had hit the nail right on the head. "That is true. It's a shame
that there isn't an all-rounder Sect."
"The focus of such a Sect is almost contradictory to the point of Martial Sects
in the first place." The man replied. "That's why there are none. It doesn't
make sense to advocate for all fields equally, that doesn't impact the budget
spending in any way."
"True..."
"That being said, even if we don't invite you straightforwardly, we can still
engage in transactions. Like the one we're engaging in right now." The
Martial Senior smiled. "I promise you that the Longranger Sect will not be
ungrateful for your technique, especially once we verify that the technique
actually works the way you claim it does in the tests we are about to
commence."
"I am intrigued at what you have to offer, truly." Rui raised an eyebrow.
"In good time." The man smiled, before gesturing forward. "We've arrived."
Rui turned, facing a large facility before him.
Inside was a sight that made even his eyebrows rise. Extensively long tracks
over with all kinds of targets on the other end. Even the ceiling was
remarkably high, meant to accommodate larger and wide area techniques.
Rui nodded in appreciation. "This is remarkable."
"It's something our Sect funded to facilitate the most thorough and rigorous
research and development of long-range techniques in all parameters to the
extreme. Now then, let's begin, shall we?"
He gestured as he walked forward.
At a particular station in the vast facility was a team of researchers, engaging

in some technical work with various devices and machines of all kinds.
"Ah, Senior Ceeran, we just finished all the preparations for the testing
experiments that you ordered us to." An elderly greeted him, bowing deeply
when they reached her. "We can begin any time."
"Great, we'll begin immediately!" The man smiled excitedly., before turning
to Rui. "This is it, be sure to give it your best."
"What do I need to do precisely?" Rui asked.
"You simply need to hit the targets we instruct you to hit. We will be testing
the range, frequency, and precision limits of your static and dynamic
accuracy while controlling for factors such as target size, position, and
inclination of the target as well as atmospheric and sensory conditions..."
As they conversed back and forth, Senior Ceeran was incredibly impressed
that Rui was not only capable of keeping up with the concepts employed in
empirical research but was able to demonstrate an understanding of it that
surpassed even his!
Chapter 597 Test
This gave Senior Ceeran an even greater impression of Rui. He watched,

impressed, as Rui spoke with the researchers of the Longranger Sect directly
as Senior Ceeran was no longer able to keep up with him in the conversation,
deferring to the experts of the process.
Once the doubts were resolved, the tests began immediately.
"Test RQst5s100 will commence soon." One of the researchers spoke into a
recording device. "This test entails testing static accuracy of the Pathfinder
technique of the subject at a range of hundred meters with a target of size
five."
He turned towards Rui, nodding.
Rui turned, looking at the target a hundred meters, quickly executing the
ODA system effortlessly before firing a Sonic Bullet in the distance.
THWOOM
BANG!
In less than a second, the bullet struck the red center of the target.
A perfectly accurate shot.
No one was surprised, hundred meters may be extremely difficult for Martial
Apprentices, but Martial Squires and their evolved brains atop the boosts
provided by the advancement of their Martial Paths allowed them to achieve
this degree of accuracy fairly handily.
However, the expressions of the team and Senior Ceeran grew increasingly
more excited as the experiments progressed.
By the time Rui reached five hundred meters, Senior Ceeran already had a
smirk on his face. It was quite evident that he liked what he was seeing. He
paid close attention to Rui as Rui fired each shot, especially his demeanor. He
noted that Rui's exhibited the kind of behavior one would exhibit when one
was engaging in mental math, which is what Rui was actually doing, as
opposed to someone hyper-focused on the target.
At seven hundred meters, even the voice of the researcher narrating the
outcomes and the proceedings was starting to get disaffected as he became
increasingly impatient and excited.
At nine hundred meters, Senior Ceeran had a small outburst of energy as Rui
succeeded in striking the target from that distance. The same distance he
proclaimed to kill Herguson Meine from. This was irrefutable proof that
everything he uttered was the truth and that this was truly and wholly the real
deal!
At one thousand meters, a bead of sweat trickled down Rui's forehead as he

just barely managed to get the shot on target, clenching his jaws as he
strained himself to the limit.
It was only at one thousand and one meters that his expression fell as he
finally missed the target entirely.
"Tsk, seems that this is my limit, for now," Rui sighed.
"You should be ecstatic, jumping in the air with pride," Senior Ceeran
chuckled at Rui's disappointment.
"Perhaps, it's just a little irksome because I know that this isn't my absolute
limit, I can do better as time goes on," He sighed.
"The fact that you're starting off this well is an extremely good sign, young
man. I don't think there's a single eighteen-year-old Martial Artist out there
who can even dream of accomplishing what you just did!" He exclaimed.
"Your future is bright, and your potential is limitless!"
"Thank you," Rui nodded.
The remaining tests progressed smoothly. Rui's Pathfinder technique was

tested in ways that even he hadn't tried prior. By the end of the evaluation,
Rui had walked out with a much greater understanding of his own technique
than ever before.
There were some things offered by a systematic scientific approach that he

simply could not replace with his sharp observation, no matter how shrewd
he was. The power of the Pathfinder technique was undeniable. Senior
Ceeran had lost the dignity that a Martial deputy director was supposed to
maintain as he lost himself immersing himself in the study of Rui's
techniques.
"Just watching you has given me tremendous amounts of inspiration, more

than I know what to do with it." The man had a hard time restraining his
excitement. "I just need one more step to the Master Realm and you may
have provided me with a solution!"
Rui raised an eyebrow. "One step away from the Master Realm?"
"I am a Master candidate." The man nodded absentmindedly. "I've been at the
zenith for nearly two decades, trying to figure out how I ought to take a step
to the higher Realm!"
Rui jerked back in surprise as he took a good look at the man. He looked
remarkably young, most certainly not as old as a man who had spent more
than ten years stagnating at the peak of the Senior Realm.
Rui narrowed his eyes. ('Has he consumed a longevity potion?')
Rui was aware that entering the Squire Realm prolonged life to a certain
extent, but it would not justify the youth the man seemed to display. Was
there perhaps a similar effect when one entered the Senior Realm? The
information surrounding the details of Martial Artists of higher Realms was
so inscrutable that many such details were entirely out of reach of someone
like Rui.
The man however continued mumbling to himself, pacing back and forth,
unaware of Rui's confusion.
"Uh, sir?" Rui cautiously coaxed.
"Hm?" He looked up.
"The various tests are over." Rui reminded him. "Is there anything else that
needs to be done before we can negotiate the recompense and remuneration?"
"Oh, silly me. I almost forgot about that part, having been so absorbed in my
own thoughts." He shook his head. "Of course not, let us head back to my
office immediately, we have much to discuss, young man."
Rui suspected that the Martial Union, or rather the Longranger Sect, would
not be insincere with their recompense. The terms of this deal would
singlehandedly decide whether Rui would ever be willing to sell his
techniques to them ever again. If Rui felt cheated, they would never ever
benefit from his brilliance ever again, and they probably knew it.
Hell, Rui wouldn't be surprised if they offered remuneration that was even
greater than what the technique was worth, just to ensure he develops a
particularly good impression of the Sect as fair and charitable.
Chapter 598 Remuneration
"Now then," The man began once they finally sat down in his office. "Let us
talk about our end of the deal,"
Rui simply stared at him silently, waiting for him to begin.
"The evaluation of your technique isn't out yet officially, however,

unofficially, I can tell you that we value the technique that you've developed
immensely. However, our concern is the low dissemination viability of the
technique due to the burdensome mental calculations that need to be rapidly
executed within a short timeframe. This is an extremely high hurdle of
difficulty. So much so that we see fit to grade its difficulty as nothing less
than ten." The man commented.
Rui didn't bother refuting this, he knew that this would most likely be the
case. He didn't think it could possibly be graded below nine due to how
demanding the mental faculties of the Martial Artist aiming to use them were.
"Don't get me wrong, this does not take away from your personal
accomplishment, in fact, it makes you even more impressive. But
unfortunately, it does significantly reduce the impact the technology will
have on the Martial world," He sighed, a hint of regret flashing in his eyes. "I
don't know how many Martial Artists there are with the qualifications to
attempt mastering this technique there are, but I can be damn well sure that
they are no more than a minute portion of the Martial world."
Rui nodded, agreeing. "I take it this significantly impacts the value of the
technique to the Martial Union, correct?"
"Yes, I'm afraid," He sighed. "Of course, every technique is valuable, and
grade-ten techniques are no doubt extremely valued for increasing the peak of
what Marital Artists are capable of. However, its direct impact is not as
revolutionary as I truly hoped it would be."
"Won't the Martial Union work on researching ways to increase the

dissemination value of the technique though?" Rui asked.
"Of course we will, but the outcomes of research projects cannot be

guaranteed," The man sighed. "A preliminary research endeavor will be
undertaken to gauge the difficulty of the project, depending on the results
after a year of research, we may either proceed with it if it shows promise or
abandon the research project if no progress is made even after a year.
However, the research we conduct is not considered a part of the
remuneration and recompense that the Martial Union will give you in
exchange for the technique."
"That's fair," Rui nodded. Unless he was personally contributing to the

research, he could not demand remuneration for the fruits of their research
labor.
"Alright," The man nodded. "For a grade-ten Squire-level technique that is

viable across even higher Realms and showing us a brand-new paradigm of
accuracy that has produced shocking results, we have decided to award you
one million Martial Credits!"
Rui raised an eyebrow.
That was an enormous amount of funds. Rui made less than ten thousand
Martial credits with Squire-level missions. Meaning this reward was the
equivalent of more than one hundred Squire-level missions.
Rui was extremely rich!
This degree of wealth would allow him to potentially commission Martial

Masters for an extremely low-grade Master-level mission, who were among
the most strategically powerful Martial assets of the Union and the Empire!
"I'm a little confused," Rui scratched his head, reacting in a way that Senior
Ceeran did not expect. "I thought that the Martial Union would provide me
with all manners of recompense that were exclusively offered to those who
made contributions. I'm a little surprised at only being offered a huge sum of
money."
Senior Ceeran chuckled, understanding Rui's confusion. "All of the various

kinds of recompense that you're referring to can be purchased with the sum
that we provided you with."
"So, anybody with money can purchase them?" Rui frowned.
If these goods and services were not exclusive to the Martial Artist, then the
incentive to share techniques with the Martial Union was very little. Any rich
douchebag could easily purchase all these services that Rui had to give up a
precious personal technique to obtain.
"No," The man shook his head. "The exclusive goods and services that the
Martial Union has can only be purchased by Martial credits. And Martial
credits cannot be exchanged with Kandrian gold coins or any other legacy.
The only way to obtain them is through contributions, such as missions,
submitting techniques, training methodologies, intelligence, etc."
"I see," Rui sighed inwardly in relief. "I'm glad to hear that."
This meant that the one million Martial credits that Rui had were extremely
valuable and could probably purchase him all kinds of goods and other
services.
"As for what you can purchase..." The man pulled out a thick book from his
shelf. "There are far too many things for me to convey to you in a
conversation. This is a collection of all the various exclusive things that you
can purchase from the Martial Union using Martial credits. I will only be
going through a number of the most sought-after and significant things. You
can go through the rest here, or you can access a digital version through your
accounter."
The size of the book was large.
"I see..." Rui narrowed his eyes as he considered the matter.

"The Martial Union offers many things to its contributors. We generally
divide them into a number of categories. I will be going through the broad
categories, while you can indulge in a deep dive through them in your own
time."
Rui nodded, paying close attention to his words.
He wanted to make sure he got a thorough understanding of everything the

Martial Union had to offer before making a decision on how to spend them.
Hell, Rui wasn't even the neediest person. He was doing just fine training and
completing missions on his own. However, that made his decision even
harder. After all, now his choices weren't as obvious as before. He needed to
work on choosing what fulfilled his interests the best.
Chapter 599 Product
"We divide our exclusive goods and services by their nature," The man began
by explaining. "The first and foremost broad category is, of course, material
products. This category very broadly includes goods whose value lies in the
material physical product that we offer."
The man paused, before continuing. "Things like Martial gear, that you won't
find in the utility department, that aids Martial Artists beyond what normal
products can. You can think of extremely powerful versions of the gear that
you already rely on. Particularly high-grade monocular, abnormally effective
restraining gear, potent healing potions, even Martial garbs that can provide
defensive protection against other Martial Artists or, in your case, Martial
Squires!"
Rui widened his eyes. He knew that for something as small and thin as a
Martial garb, providing any amount of defense against Squire-level power
was definitely a difficult task!
"Why aren't such products more commonly available to Martial Artists?" Rui
asked.
"Because the materials used to make them are strategically valuable," The
man replied. "I'm sure someone as shrewd as you have figured out that the
sheer quality of the material must be high in order to allow cloth fabric to
provide any kind of defense against another Martial Squire, correct?"
Rui nodded. He wasn't stupid. The quality and quantity of a material

determined what the limit of the product, created with that quantity of
material, was.
If the quantity was very low, like that of a Martial garb, then the quality
would have to be exceedingly high!
"If I'm not wrong..." Rui gulped. "Such a Martial garb would need to be made
out of Senior-level materials."
"Correct," The man grinned.
Rui shook his head, chuckling weakly.
To think he could potentially purchase a Martial garb made out of a material

whose tensile strength was an entire Realm above his own power!
This was certainly not a privilege that many Martial Artists could afford.
Only weapon-oriented Martial Artists possessed such products, and only
because it was necessary.
"That isn't all, however." The man smiled. "The Martial Union offers all
kinds of products whose utility is not exclusive to field usage. For example,
we offer potions that can permanently boost the physicality of a Martial
Squire like yourself."
Rui's eyes widened. "By how much?"
"The effects vary," The man replied. "But it provides a fifteen percent boost
on average."
"For a singular potion, that is incredibly amazing," Rui murmured in

amazement. "Can it be repeatedly consumed to stack its effects?"
"I'm afraid not," The man shook his head with a rueful smile. "If life was that
convenient, Martial Artists as a class would be far more powerful than we are
right now. Most high-grade Martial Squires end up having consumed one by
the time they've spent enough time in the Squire Realm, you are the only one
who has an opportunity to consume one this early in the Squire Realm."
"I see..." Rui rested his chin on his hands as he considered the matter. "I bet
with the combination of my latest technique and the potion, I'll be promoted
to grade five very soon."
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you," The man replied.
Rui furrowed his eyes in confusion. "Is there such a large difference between
the grades? In the Apprentice Realm, I jumped between grades much more
easily."
"The Squire Realm is generally far larger than the Apprentice Realm, young
man. Our evolved, varied and customized bodies obtained from the
breakthrough process make synergy between Martial Art, techniques, and
Martial body a much more powerful variable, allowing for a greater
difference between the base and the peak of the Squire Realm compared to
the Apprentice Realm." Senior Ceeran explained. "Grade-ten Martial Squires
are a sight to behold within the Squire Realm. Any one of them would utterly
annihilate multiple of you simultaneously in combat, based on the mission
records of yours that I took the liberty of going through. You cannot simply
extrapolate your stunning rate of growth in the Apprentice Realm to the
Squire Realm, I assure you your journey in the Squire realm will be long and
grueling."
"I see... To think that even a grade-ten technique and a fifteen-percent boost
would not be enough for a jump in grade..." Rui sighed. He was being
overloaded with information at the moment. He could consider this matter
later, for now, he needed to focus on the discussion at hand.
"But this is all irrelevant," The man waved dismissively. "The point is you
can gain an important boost to your physicality in the long run. Normally,
Martial Squires have to spend many years grinding on missions to finally
save up enough funds to purchase such potions."
Rui would be lying if he said he wasn't deeply attracted to this option.

Gaining such a boost to his physicality was immense. Although fifteen
percent may not seem that game-changing, it would allow Rui to become
strong enough to decisively win against his previous self every time. The
effective boost it provided to his combat was not something that could be
dismissed so easily.
Of course, Rui had yet to hear about the rest of the goods and services that
the Martial Union offered, but this was a solid competitor. However, Senior
Ceeran hadn't even finished covering the first broad category. He looked back
at the man with a measured look.
"As far as potions go, that isn't the only kind that we offer. We offer
extremely potent potions that take significantly less time to work and can
heal even critical wounds extremely quickly. Or mental rejuvenation potions
that lessen the burden that prolonged lack of sleep causes on the mind. Even
longevity potions that can extend your lifespan beyond even the evolved
lifespan of Martial Artists."
Each of these was a highly desirable potion, especially the latter which was
the dream of not just Martial Artists but also the human species in general.
No one objected to being able to extend their natural lives beyond their
limits!
Chapter 600 Internal
The man proceeded to lay out several sub-categories within material

products. Many of them didn't even necessarily have anything to do with
Martial Art, earning Rui's apathy due to that. He wasn't interested in products
that didn't aid his Martial Path and Martial journey.
"That is a general overview of the material product categories," He explained.

"You can go through the digital library available on your accounter to gain
more information regarding specific details."
"The next broad category is information and intelligence," The man

explained. "This includes Martial Art oriented information such as techniques
and research centered around Martial Art that you may be interested in for
developing a new technique, for example."
Rui nodded. He had already expected this. The Martial Union invested a
tremendous amount of its revenue into the budget for research and
development of Martial Art techniques and training techniques, training
regimes, and other training resources.
Unfortunately, just like the research and development in another field, not all
avenues and projects of research and development were successful. In fact,
many of them were not. Rather than allowing all of the research to be in vain,
the Martial Union documented and stored the data and sold it to third parties
that were interested in purchasing that data, particularly Martial Artists who
may be able to successfully make breakthroughs in that particular field thanks
to unique circumstances surrounding them and their Martial Art.
This was the most productive way to squeeze value out of failed research.
Not only did it fetch them revenue, but it also increased the probability that
Martial Artists would succeed in their endeavors of creating and developing
new techniques that would ultimately funnel back to benefit the Martial
Union even more.
"We offer a wealth of knowledge in our attempts to learn more and

strengthen Martial Art much more readily and easily than we would to third
parties that are not connected to the Martial Union in any way. This is the
advantage of being a contributor to the Martial Union." The man smiled. "In
addition to information related to Martial Art, the Martial Union also possess
a library of information outside Martial Art, on all worldly matters, both
general and specific knowledge within reason. Our extensive intelligence
department and network have allowed us to grasp highly valuable and
confidential information that would otherwise be very difficult to obtain. Of
course, you do not possess the sheer required number of Martial credits to get
your hands on the particularly juice stuff such as national secrets, confidential
observations on the Beast Domain, etc."
Of course, Rui didn't care about this in the slightest. He was not going to
waste money on something irrelevant to his goals and objectives.
"Now now, don't be too quick to dismiss this category of information," The
man smiled, noticing Rui's lack of enthusiasm. "You can even commission a
covert investigation and intelligence-gathering operation around a matter or a
person, or to obtain information that you're looking for. For example, and
forgive me if this is personal, but I read that your mother died when you were
born, and your father is a complete unknown. Our intelligence department
can dig up the truth about their identities, your heritage, and your roots if you
want."
It wasn't as though he had never thought about who his biological parents
were. He wouldn't be human if he wasn't curious. He still had a memory of
his mother before she died, though he never knew her name, as she had been
taken in in an emergency. As for his father, he hadn't the faintest clue who he
was.
Still, it wasn't enough for him to care too much. He had a family that he was
more than happy with.
Rui shook his head. "Next,"
"Alright," Senior Ceeran immediately acquiesced, wisely not pressing

further. "That pretty much sums up the information and intelligence category,
it possesses only two sub-categories, but they are both immensely deep and
wide with more information than you can fathom. This brings us to the next
category; authority and power."
"In order to explain this category of services, I need to explain the structure
of the Martial Union and its relationship with its associated and constituent
Martial Artists." The man explained. "Martial Artists like yourself are
considered to be external members; Martial Artists who have only signed a
partnership contract with the Martial Union where you complete missions
and receive half the pay while the Martial Union receives the other half for all
the services and systems in place that allowed for the transaction between
client and Martial Artist to smoothly take place."
Rui nodded, following his words. He even understood where this was going,
but he kept silent, allowing Senior Ceeran to finish his point.
"Whereas Martial Artists like myself, are internal members of the Martial
Union. We do not merely sign a partnership contract with the martial Union,
but also a conditional employment contract where we undertake few
responsibilities and duties while also gaining more authority and power
within the Martial Union, in the form of security clearance to access
information that external members simply cannot purchase regardless of how
many Martial credits one possesses. As well as commissioning authority; the
authority to commission the Martial Artists of the Martial Union using the
Martial Union's treasury to fund the commission instead of my own. Of
course, this cannot be abused, but it still does give us internal members a lot
of power."
"So..." Rui pieced together his implicit offer. "Are you saying I can purchase
my way into the Martial Union's inner circle to obtain greater power and
authority?"
The man eagerly nodded. "That's right. There definitely are some constraints
and burdens, but it's not bad. There are several more benefits such as an even
greater degree of impunity from the law and the penal code, as well as easier
access to more powerful Martial Artists, you can leverage your position to-"
"Thank you, sir, but I have no intention of becoming an employee, I value my

freedom and autonomy too much."
Chapter 601 Key
Rui didn't even hesitate in refusing the last option that Senior Ceeran had
provided to him. Rui simply had no interest in the various ways that the
Martial Union could grant him influence, wealth, and power.
At least, that wasn't the kind of power that Rui was interested in. Rui wanted
to dedicate his life to pursuing his Martial Path and developing his Martial
Art. If anything, positions in the Martial Union would burden him with
explicit and implicit responsibilities and burdens that he simply didn't care for
and would also hinder him from focusing on what he wanted to focus on.
He didn't want long periods of training frequently intruded by responsibility

calls from the Martial Union.
"Well, that's fine. Quite understandable actually, especially at your stage,"

The man explained. "There's plenty of time to change your mind when you
get stronger and reach higher Realms."
Rui raised an eyebrow. "You make it sound like it is something that will
inevitably happen,"
Senior Ceeran smiled melancholically. "Why do you think so many Martial

Artists of the Martial Union spend so much time in Martial Sects?"
Rui scratched his head. "Because they want their field of Martial Art to
receive more funds and capital for research?"
"Of course," The man nodded. "But my question had more to do with why
this was the case?"
"Hm..." Rui scratched his head.

"An overwhelming proportion of the research and development happens in
the lower Realms, after all, it is extremely difficult for research teams to aid
Martial Artists of the upper Realms. These beings have reached such an
absurd level of power across the centuries that they're no different from
natural disasters. Just being in the same region as them is dangerous," The
man explained. "So why is that Martial Artists in the higher Realms get
involved in this matter that has no direct relevance to them so fiercely?"
Rui didn't know the answer. In truth, he wasn't sure why these Martial Artists
that were so vastly above such matters cared so deeply about the research and
development allocations of the Martial Artist.
His first guess was that it was a matter of ego and pride. Perhaps seeing their
field receive lesser capital than those of their peers was interpreted as an
indication of inferiority, causing them to fight hard to get their field more
recognition than they believe it deserved.
Yet for some reason, Rui didn't think that this was the case.
Were the Martial Artists of the upper Realms really that petty?
"It's because progressing becomes much harder the higher the Realm of the
Martial Artist," The man sighed. "It's almost impossible to maintain the rate
of progression in the higher Realms than it is in the lower Realms. This is
true for any two successive Realms. You reached the Squire Realm after
spending around four years in the Apprentice Realm, this is impressive and
very optimistic but it is hardly unheard of. However, I can assure you that
you will almost certainly not reach the Senior Realm in the next four years, or
less than three, since you have already spent around eighteen months in the
Squire Realm."
Rui could already feel that. He started out at grade three thanks to how potent
his Martial Art was, and his extra-enhanced body, however, his rate of
progress across the Squire Realm was slower than he had expected. He could
especially feel that when he learned that mastering a synergetic grade-ten
technique along with a permanent augmentation potion wasn't necessarily
enough to move up a grade.
He would probably spend many years in the Senior Realm before he could
take a step into a higher realm of power.
"But what exactly does this have to with higher Realm Martial Artists joining
factions and being involved with the Martial Union?" Rui scratched his head,
confused.
"It has to do with the difficulty of treading down your Martial Path,
individuality generally becomes much harder to come up with. It's like
climbing a mountain, easiest at the bottom, but gets continuously harder as it
grows steeper," The man explained. "Oftentimes, Martial Artists hit into
nigh-insurmountable barriers. In times like these, the innovations and
creations of the humblest of Martial Artists can often serve as the key to
progressing forward. These Martial Artists have a high capability to
deconstruct the essence of lower techniques and adapt it to their need. One of
the variables that decide the availability of such techniques is the amount of
capital for research that the Martial Union allocates to their fields."
"I see..." Rui narrowed his eyes in thought. "So it is, at least, partially fueled
by personal and self-centered reasons."
"Correct," The man nodded. "Martial Artists that reach this level are highly
driven, it takes an immense amount of perseverance to transcend your limits
multiple times and reach the upper Realms. That is why these Martial Artists
are willing to look any and everywhere to obtain inspiration or solutions. I
can tell you that someone very high up and special in the Longranger Sect is
particularly interested in your Pathfinder technique. Joining the Martial
Union is ultimately something all Martial Artists find great value in doing."
He gave Rui a measured look.
"Well, if and when that day comes, I'll consider joining the Martial Union,"
Rui sighed, throwing him a bone.
"It's always good to keep an open mind," The man smiled. "And that just
about brings us to the end of the brief overview of the services that the
Martial Union offers. The one million martial credits have already been
deposited in your account, and you may spend them how so ever you deem
appropriate."
Rui nodded. "Thank you for your help, Senior Ceeran, it is much
appreciated."
"No," The man shook his head vigorously. "I'm the one who should be
thanking you, young man, you have shown me a new path forward that I had
never even known existed. In comparison to that, the aid I provided you is
rather trivial."
Rui had plenty to consider on the way back home. He had a huge array of
choices to spend his million Martial credits on, and he didn't want to be too
hasty.
('I'm not under a tremendous amount of pressure in any regard at the

moment.') Rui sighed. ('I can take my time to think it through. Hell, I don't
even think it is ideal to spend all of it on one go.')
It was best to keep a smaller proportion in his account as a part of his savings,
or he could even give it to the Quarrier Orphanage and allow them to spend it
on things that even the income supplied by both Rui and Julian would
normally not allow.
('I should prioritize spending the credits on something that will aid my
Martial Art and my power.') Rui decided.
Those two were different, albeit very closely related. Progressing his Martial
Art made him stronger, but becoming stronger did not necessarily progress
his Martial Art. The clearest example of the latter was the perma-
augmentation potion that augmented his physicality but did not impact his
Martial Art in any way.
Of course, this was not bad, not by any means at all. But Rui would rather
have an option that made him stronger by making his Martial Art stronger.
But, of course, there was no straightforward way to make progress in your
Martial Art, it certainly was not something that could be purchased. No
potion boosted one's Martial Art.
('Still, it is an option worth considering,') Rui noted.

The Martial World was dangerous. That potion could mean the difference
between life and death where he would not have been able to overcome an
opponent had he not consumed said potion. Thus, Rui was very open to
considering consuming said potion.
('Although there is nothing that can straightforwardly strengthen my Martial

Art, there's a variety of smaller things that should be able to aid.') Rui
realized.
Things like being able to purchase a lot of research data surrounding a field
to learn more about it were certainly quite useful. He had done just that when
he purchased information relating to the compatibility between poison and
symbiotes.
The next time that he wanted to obtain information surrounding a field that
was relevant to a technique development project that he was working on, he
could be much less reserved in the amount of money that he spent on it.
Doing so would increase the probability that he would obtain some degree of
success in regard to the project that he was working on, or, if the project was
not viable in the first place, then he was less likely to waste time on that
avenue of development.
He could also be much less reserved when spending on training resources in

the Martial Union, for one. After all, with the sheer number of Martial credits
he had sitting in the bank, he didn't need to worry about spending too many
training resources.
Rui could even commission Martial Artists of higher Realms like Martial
Seniors to aid him if he ever experienced any difficulty with training or a
particular technique.
Martial Artists of higher Realms possessed knowledge and experience that

far surpassed that of a relatively young Martial Squire like himself. There
were insights and wisdom that came with the sheer quantity and quality of
experience in regard to Martial Art that these Martial Artists possessed that
could not be replaced by anything else.
Of course, he highly doubted he could commission them too many times
before even his expansive reserves of Martial credits emptied up.
('It's probably best to spend a certain degree of Martial credits on immediate

boosts such as the perma-augmenting potion while keeping the rest to be
available for future expenditure on continuous purchases that can help the
growth of my Martial Art in many ways.') Rui nodded.
Ultimately, this was the most prudent way to handle the way to spend these
funds. While the goods and services of the Martial Union were no doubt quite
impressive and alluring, ultimately, they weren't something that Rui was too
willing to spend much capital on. He didn't particularly need or want most of
them, and while there were no doubt products that could aid his mission
completion, he was content with augmenting his physical prowess.
Anything else was simply too temporal and would grow obsolete as time
passed. There was no way that he could retain most of these products when
he stepped into the Senior Realm, but the perma-augmenting potion would
certainly aid him throughout his entire journey.
By the time he gathered his thoughts on the matter, he had already arrived at
the Quarrier Orphanage. As he sky-walked down, he found Max and Mana
sparring fiercely outside the Orphanage. Thankfully, he already had the mind
mask on, thus his arrival didn't draw their attention. The two were so
intensely focused on their combat sparring that they didn't even notice Rui
descending from the sky.
It was only after they paused of their own volition that they finally saw Rui
smiling at them from a distance.
pàпdá-ňᴏνêι.сóМ "Big brother."
"You're back."
"Have you finished your business in the Martial Union? It sure took a while."
"I did," Rui nodded. "How is training going?"

"It's going as tough as it usually does, but we can handle it just fine," Max
replied.
Rui had been paying close attention to them as he has been increasingly
putting them through the VOID algorithm training, sparring with them with
an adapted style produced by the VOID algorithm, using the bare minimum
amount of energy and power that he needed to beat them, while also
replicating their own styles against them.
He had watched as time passed, the two of them had gained an immense
amount of self-awareness about their fighting styles, learning their affinities
and capabilities at a remarkably young age, the kind of thing that one would
really learn about only in the exploration stage that students went through in
the Martial Academy.
Chapter 603 Team
('Of course, this alone probably isn't enough to discover one's Martial Path
and break through to the Apprentice Realm.') Rui noted.
For example, if their Martial Path happened to be related to a non-standard

field like poison, then no amount of self-awareness of their existing style and
combat would be able to allow them to discover their Martial Path until they
were actually exposed to poison.
Of course, it was highly unlikely that they had Martial Paths related to
poison. Now that Rui had gained access to some lesser-known secrets of the
impact of one's personal experiences throughout their life on their Martial
Path, he knew that their life experiences would almost certainly not morph
their Martial Path into something niche and esoteric.
Furthermore, Rui already had some suspicions about their Martial Paths.
Max was likely going to have a Martial Path centered around offense or
power, or both. His combat style contained a lot of both, thus it was not
unreasonable for Rui to suspect that the boy would be going down this path.
Of course, Rui could not specifically say what his Martial Path would be.
Both offense and power were extremely broad fields of Martial Art, and there
were a large number of possible specific sub-fields that his Martial Path
could be.
The same could be said for Mana, who seemed to excel in all-around
maneuvering and agility. Even within those fields, she could end up pursuing
numerous particular sub-fields.
He decided to, at the very least, give them decent levels of exposure to
various unorthodox fields, it would expand their Martial Art worldview and
give them a better understanding of the various kinds of Martial Art there
could be.
"Big brother, can you spar with us again?"
The two of them looked at him expectantly.
"Alright, fine." Rui sighed, relenting.
"Alright!"
The two took their positions and stances while Rui simply stood where he
was, waiting for them. He took his time to observe their stances and
movements in slow motion.
Yet more than that, what drew his attention was their demeanor and
impression. Rui recalled that a few months ago when they attended the
Martial entrance exam, while they were certainly passionate and excited, he
couldn't help but think that they were quite childish and naÃ¯ve.
However, ever since their loss in that exam, the two had grown a lot more
determined and worked much harder and fiercer than they did before. They
lost their childish demeanor rather quickly as they persevered through much
more intense training than before.
Rui had to admit that he was quite proud of them.
"Begin."
The two of them rushed at him once he uttered the word. Mana reached him
first, launching a remarkably swift kick to his chin. What impressed Rui was
that she did not even shift her body to launch the attack, her knee reached her
shoulder as her leg flexibly flew up unhampered.
WHOOSH
Rui stepped back five centimeters slowly, having begun the moment her
attack began. Her kick missed him narrowly, disheveling his hair with the
gust of wind she generated.
She sidestepped as Max charged in with a powerful blow charged up,

swinging it with all his might against Rui.
POW
Rui partially redirected the strike while also partially dodging, applying the
bare minimum amount of power needed to successfully defend against the
attack. He leaped to the side, putting some distance between them as he
analyzed their teamwork.
('She reached first, launching a swift attack, yet her goal was only to give
Max enough time to charge up all the momentum and power so that he could
launch it in a single attack.') Rui noted as he watched them turning towards
him in slow motion.
Rui glanced at Max.
pàпdá-ňᴏνêι.сóМ ('Maybe Max's Martial Path will be a combination of

offense and power in the form of maximizing one-hit power. He doesn't seem
to have much of an interest or knock for grappling.') Rui mused.
Rui had taught them both Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a martial art that Max was not
too very fond of.
He watched as the two of them rushed at him again, using all kinds of tricks
and coordinated maneuvers to try and maximize their chances of pushing Rui
farther than they ever had before. Rui noticed that, since the entrance exam,
the two had really begun to specialize their combat styles even more. Max
focused mainly on landing the most powerful impacts that he possibly could,
while Mana created opportunities that allowed Max to land his powerful
blows on their opponent.
They made a good team, as far as their specialties were considered.

Furthermore, they had a lot as a team. Though Rui also made sure that they
trained and sparred individually as well. Ultimately, it would be quite
dangerous if their combat styles became too dependent on each other. This
would hinder their path forward to the upper Realms.
Furthermore, it might warp the development of their Martial Paths in an

unhealthy manner too, which was worse than just being hindered. Thus, Rui
ensured that both of them spent more than half their sparring training,
sparring one on one, rather than two-on-one.
Still, teamwork was useful, especially when they were trying to crack one of
the most difficult Martial exams in the country.
Rui just had to ensure that there was a balance. Teamwork would still be
useful even after they join the Martial Academy if they did choose to form a
party. They could complete missions together, allowing them to leverage the
many years that they had been fighting together. Although their fighting
styles would certainly evolve as time passed, as long as they spent a healthy
combination of individualistic growth and team growth, they could become
formidable Martial Artists in the future.
It was a future that Rui was looking forward to. He definitely took pride in
them as both siblings and students. Every time he trained with them, he made
sure to give it his all as a mentor and as an older brother.
Chapter 604 Spendings
THUD
The two of them collapsed to the ground, exhausted.
"Good job you two," Rui remarked with a smile. "The two of you have grown
stronger."
"But we still couldn't even land a proper blow on you even though you were
moving at a normal speed!" Max complained, earning a nod from Mana.
Rui had held back his movement and reaction speed to human level by
deliberating delaying his movements to match those of normal humans, yet
despite his raw movements being that of a normal human being, and often
slower than them, they were unable to land even a single clean strike on him!
Max and Mana were dumbfounded at how Rui was able to accomplish such a
feat. Their understanding of combat had not yet matured to a level where they
could actually grasp the means by which Rui was able to pull off such a feat.
"I've told you many a time, have I not?" Rui chuckled, amused. "Accuracy of
timing and placement matter more than raw speed."
"But what does that actually even mean?" Mana raised an eyebrow.
"I can predict your movements rather easily, I just need to evade or deflect at
the right time and place that I know will be enough to deal with predicted
strikes," Rui shrugged.
"Can you teach us how to do that?" Mana asked, intrigued.
Rui shook his head. "Most Martial Artists obtain the ability to predict simpler
and primitive combat styles like yours after lots and lots of experience.
Although there are exceptions, I am afraid they cannot apply to you."
The two of the children sighed, looking crestfallen.
"Cheer up, the two of you are making respectable progress," Rui tried to coax
them, much to no avail.
He decided to try and give them some good news.
"I've decided to switch your Apprentice mentor," Rui explained.
The two of them looked at Rui with knitted eyebrows. "But why?"
"I want to expose you to all kinds of Martial Art," Rui explained. "It helps to
broaden your perspective regarding what the two of you aspire to pursue. I'm
going to be commissioning all kinds of Martial Artists with all kinds of
Martial Art for you to experience. And let me tell you, there aren't just a few.
Aren't you excited to see just the kinds of things that Martial Artists are
capable of?"
The two of them lit up with eager interest at Rui's words. As avid admirers of
Martial Artists, the two of them were quite excited at the prospect of meeting
all kinds of Martial Artists.
Of course, the reason Rui did this was that he wanted to hasten the discovery
of their Martial Path. This required both external and internal exploration.
Rui had been doing a great job of significantly hastening their internal
exploration by exposing them to the VOID algorithm turned down to match
their prowess.
However, he hadn't given them too much of the latter. They needed to be
exposed to different kinds of Martial Art, otherwise, they would likely never
come to the realization of what their affinity out of all these possibilities was.
In fact, that might have been the reason why Crea broke through earlier than
Mana and Max despite receiving less tutelage from Rui than those two. While
Rui greatly accelerated her self-awareness regarding her patterns and combat
style, her strong foundation as the daughter of a Martial Senior who was also
loaded, gave her vastly more exposure to Martial Art than Max and Mana,
who, up until now, had only met two Martial Artists in their life.
('Tsk, had I come to this realization earlier, they might have already broken
through by now.') Rui sighed.
Of course, this was not necessarily true. Rui didn't really possess the funds to
commission Apprentice mentors full-time back when he was a Martial
Apprentice. He had commissioned a mentor for them pretty much as early as
he could financially afford to.
If it weren't for his debt, he would have been able to pay for tutelage much
earlier.
('Oh wait, I completely forgot about my debt.') Rui immediately realized.
It couldn't be helped, because it didn't have a time limit and didn't snowball
interest, it didn't put too much pressure outside biting a chunk of all of his
paychecks, however, once he got used to that it simply became normal.
('Currently, I actually have the funds to get rid of my debt in full... Should I?')
Rui wondered.
On one hand, it would eventually get cleared even if he didn't do so himself,

as he grew stronger, he would be completing higher grade missions that
would yield even greater income than he currently had and he was already
able to manage with what he currently had. There was no need to spend a
solid chunk of revenue on paying back his debt.
pàпdá-ňᴏνêι.сóМ On the other hand, there was a saying that a man in debt
was never truly free. The psychological freedom of getting rid of his debt
alone was worth it at the end of the day. It was not nice having to constantly
remember that he had a large sum of money to pay back to the Martial
Academy for his time in it.
('That alone with the perma-augmentation potion, as well as the tutors for the
kids will be my initial spending.') Rui nodded inwardly, having made up his
mind regarding this issue.
He didn't intend to spend the rest of his Martial credits immediately,

however, he was not opposed to spending them on pricey things here and
there that he needed that he otherwise might not have deigned to purchase
due to a lack of funds.
For now, however, he intended to get back into completing missions, rather
than jumping into training back again. He was eager to put his new
techniques to the test.
('Perhaps I should undertake a mission that allows me to use the Flux Earther
technique in the field for once.
It was a less flashy and shocking move and also a mundane part of normal
combat, thus it wasn't as impactful as the Pathfinder technique, but it was
something Rui looked forward to using.
Chapter 605 Administer
Rui headed back to the Martial Union soon enough after he made up his mind
on how to initially spend a proportion of his one million Martial credits.
"Yes, how can I help you?" A support staff member at the Martial counter
inquired.
"I would like to purchase the Benetein Blood potion," Rui informed her.
She quickly accessed the inventory database, typing, before turning back to
him.
"That costs about one hundred and thirty-seven thousand Martial credits,"
She replied. "The administration procedure costs nine thousand Martial
credits, and the pre-administration blood test to confirm that you are
compatible with the potion costs five hundred Martial credits."
The fact that the administration procedure cost that much meant that it most
likely wasn't a straightforward injection into his body. Though, because of his
augmented physique, just piercing his body to inject blood into it required
special measures, thus that wouldn't be as cheap as it was when he was in the
Apprentice Realm.
He wasn't too concerned about the pre-administration blood test. It was only
to ensure that Rui didn't have any blood conditions that would make
administering the potion into his bloodstream harmful.
"I have taken numerous blood tests that the Martial Union should have a
record of," Rui pointed out. "Wouldn't that suffice?"
"As long as they're within two years of the administration of the potion, they
are viable." She confirmed.
"Good to hear, then I shall proceed with purchasing the potion and the
medical services that are necessary along with that," Rui nodded.
Rui wasn't sure if it was because the Martial Union held him in higher regard
than it used to before, but the process happened quite rapidly and the
procedure was immediately ready.
"Squire Quarrier, you're just on time. I'm doctor Brenix and I'll be overseeing
the procedure," The doctor waved friendlily when Rui entered the operating
room.
"Pleasure to meet you, can we begin the procedure soon?" Rui asked
impatiently.
Part of the reason that he wanted to get the procedure done and over with as
soon as possible was because he knew it would take a little while to get
perfectly acclimatized and used to his new power.
Of course, it wouldn't take much time, perhaps a week or two at most. Far
less time than it took him to get acclimatized to the Martial body that he got
breaking through to the Squire Realm. After all, the former was just a fifteen-
percent boost, while the latter boosted all metabolic processes by a factor of
one hundred on average!
It was no wonder that Rui needed three months of habilitation for the latter. It
was a revolutionary experience that changed everything.
Fifteen percent required only enough training to learn to apply just a little less
power on a day-to-day basis. Furthermore, with how much he held back on a
regular basis when interacting with regular humans, a fifteen percent increase
in his held-back power wouldn't even lead to nearly as much of a drastic
consequence as opposed to being unable to control any of his power at all
like when he first broke through.
Thus, it was unlikely that Rui would be held back for a habilitation phase like
he had when he broke through to the Squire Realm.
"Ah Squire Quarrier, all the preparations are ready. We have gone through
your bloodwork after you became a Martial Squire and have found no
elements that would make you incompatible with the potion." The doctor
informed him.
"Good to hear," Rui nodded. "Let's begin immediately."
"Absolutely, please sign this consent form." The doctor provided him with a
sheet of paper and an ink pen. "It's just a statement declaring that you are
aware of the discomfort and pain that the administration process may cause to
you and that the Martial Union isn't liable for any suffering so incurred
during the process."
"Is such a thing really necessary?" Rui voiced out loud as he signed the form
before handing it back.
"It wasn't necessary a while back until there was an issue with a Martial
Apprentice who filed an official complaint regarding the pain of a different
potion administration procedure." The doctor sighed, talking openly. "Ever
since then, it became a mandatory protocol to follow for all such procedures."
"The Martial Union heeded to the complaints of a single Martial

Apprentice?" Rui frowned. "That doesn't sound right."
"I'm afraid it very well does when the Martial Apprentice is from an
important Martial Family that occupies several high positions within the
Union." The doctor sighed, resigned.
"Ah, that makes more sense," Rui nodded. Arrogant elitists were a thing of
both Earth and Gaea, it seemed.
"Alright, please lay down on the operating bed inside the chamber and we'll
strap you down." The doctor requested.
Rui nodded, having already expected this. Martial Squires were generally in
control of there, even involuntarily thanks to the extensive habilitation
training that he had undergone. However, the risk of Martial Squires
massacring the entire medical team due to an outburst reaction to immense
pain was something that was not insignificant. Even shockwaves made by the
movements of Martial Squires could kill regular humans.
Thus, it was almost standard practice to isolate Martial Artists as far away
from the medical team as possible to ensure safety.
Rui settled in as mechanical cuffs restrained his limbs and head.
"Squire Quarrier, we will begin soon." The doctor's voice could be heard
projected into the chamber.
"Any time," Rui replied, having already mentally prepared himself for the
pain.
The pain was generally described to be like a searing hot liquid being injected
into your body. It sounded horrific, but Rui wasn't too concerned, he was
confident that he would be able to bear the pain.
And he wasn't wrong.
The description of the pain was accurate, Rui judged, once a syringe pierced
into his body and injected the potion. He grimaced as he felt the painful heat
flowing across his entire body, making him feel like all the blood in his body
was boiling.
Chapter 606 Outcome
Rui gritted his teeth lightly as pain flowed through his veins, simultaneously,
several syringes piercing into his limbs, injecting another liquid seemingly,
having a cooling effect on the pain sensation, lessening it as time passed.
Soon, it was entirely gone, causing Rui to heave a sigh of relief.
"Squire Quarrier, the procedure has been completed, we will be unshackling

you. However, the chamber will remain closed for a while as per protocols.
As long as you can demonstrate that you have sufficiently high control over
your new state, you will be released."
"Understood," Rui replied.
CLACK
All of the mechanical shackles opened.
('Fifteen percent less effort than usual,') Rui noted.
He exhaled before sitting upright slowly.
"Woah," Rui muttered.
He felt much lighter than before, though nothing too debilitatingly different.
After all, this was an overall fifteen percent boost, not a fifteen percent boost
in every single physical parameter identically. The difference was
manageable.
Rui turned slowly, as his feet touched the ground. He exhaled before getting
up on his feet with as little effort as possible.
('This isn't that bad,') Rui realized as he landed on his feet just fine.
STEP
He carefully took a step forward.
VRMMMM
The operating table disappeared into an opening in the ground that promptly
closed to serve as ordinary flooring, giving Rui more space.
The chamber was just large enough to allow him to test elementary control.
STEP
He took another step forward.
STEP
STEP
STEP
"Oh this is easy."
Of course, he could feel that he wasn't nearly as comfortable with his body as
he normally was, but his motor controls were largely retained because the
effort he put in wasn't too different from what he needed to, and what he
normally put in. He was stronger, but within reason where he would retain all
of his muscle memory as long as he got used to his new body.
"You are showing good hand-eye coordination, the fact that you haven't made
a single imperfect movement thus far is a very good sign of control. Still, you
will be guided out of the Martial Union in a different route to minimize risks.
Good luck and goodbye, Squire Quarrier." The doctor bade him.
"Thanks for the treatment doc," Rui called out.
VRMMM
A door opened in the wall on the other side of the chamber, it was a hole in
the ground that led straight down.
Rui shrugged, jumping down.
THUD
There was a path that led to the exterior of the Martial Union complex, with a
pair of Martial Squires guarding the opening out.
They did not say a word to Rui as he walked out.
Rui, for one, felt amused. He had basically taken something of a secret route
out of the Martial Union complex. He walked over to the closest gate
carefully before exiting the branch office entirely.
Rui recognized the risks of sky-walking immediately after the procedure, but
he couldn't care less, he just wanted to see what the difference would be like.
"Woah."
He unsteadily rose into the air as he pedaled against the atmosphere. Sky-
walking required skill to leverage the power of the Martial body to apply
Newton's third law of motion to generate a constant but low thrust to
increasingly escalate into the sky.
Rui could truly test how far he was from his normal degree of comfort,
familiarity, and accuracy he was by sky-walking.
"Not bad at all," he muttered as he increasingly regained all of the finesse he

had with sky-walking
WHOOSH
He managed to nail a somersault midair.
"A few rough patches here and there, but not bad at all." Rui nodded.
The few awkward motions could be fixed quickly enough, there was nothing
glaringly wrong, and Rui was becoming more proficient by the second,
reaching very close to his previous level of accuracy and precision.
There were only a few minute problems that could easily be fixed in a short
amount of time.
"The benefits far outweigh the downsides," Rui grinned as he enjoyed the
feeling even lighter than before.
He could feel that his body was much more powerful than before while still
maintaining the physical configuration of his Martial body. He would not
dare purchase a potion that disrupted the parametric configuration of his
body, and he highly doubted whether the Martial union would even offer
such potions to Martial Squires in the first place.
The martial Union, of all organizations, would know the importance of not
selling products that would disrupt the parametric configuration of the
Martial bodies of Martial Squires. This was something that could ruin their
future Martial Path, thus Rui had been very stringent regarding this issue,
going to great lengths to ensure that the potion would not affect his
configuration in any way.
Rui inhaled deeply, before opening his mouth lightly.
THWOOM
An incredibly charged and powerful Sonic Bullet blasted across the

atmosphere at an incredible speed.
"Nice," Rui nodded, satisfied. The attack was definitely more powerful than
what he would have been capable of prior to the Benetein Blood potion being
administered to his body. "The boost in power alone is worth it.
He faced down, looking at a distant rock in an uninhabited area a great

distance away. His eyes narrowed as he executed the ODA System,
completing the calculation rapidly before a small, but potent, Sonic Bullet
was launched out of his mouth.
THWOOM
BANG
The Sonic Bullet struck the target head-on, blasting the rock into smithereens
before digging a hole more than a hundred meters deep.
"Its potency has also increased," Rui nodded, satisfied. "Executing the ODA
System has also grown a little easier."
This meant that he could push the boundaries of the Pathfinder technique
beyond what he already thought was possible.
"Man, if only Senior Ceeran was here to see this." Rui smiled, he could easily
imagine the passionate long-range Martial Artist growing excited at the
improvements in his execution of the technique that Rui just made. He would
definitely have called Rui back to test his limits again.
Chapter 607 Spar
POW POW POW
Rui just barely managed to dispel the impact of three incredibly swift and
powerful blows.
RUMBLE
The sheer might of two Martial Squires permeated across the land as a fierce
maelstrom of pressure radiated from the two focused Martial Squires.
The two of them locked eyes before lashing out at each other once more.
Two weeks had passed since Rui consumed the Bentein Blood potion. He had
received a significant boost to his combat prowess. In order to acquire the
degree of control and accuracy over his body and movements that he had
prior to the administration of the potion, he had commissioned a grade-five
Martial Squire to serve as a combat training partner.
He wanted someone about as strong, or perhaps even stronger than himself to

put a lot of pressure on himself to whip him into shape.
What he didn't fully comprehend was how strong a grade-five Martial Squire
was.
In hindsight, Rui should have heeded Senior Ceeran's words regarding the
size of the Squire Realm and the significant difference between grades of
Martial Artists in the Squire Realm.
However, it was difficult to appreciate something one hadn't seen yet.
This was part of the reason he had commissioned a grade-five Martial Squire
in the first place; curiosity.
Well, he got what he wanted.
His opponent was Squire Jamil, a man who had been in the Squire realm for
nearly a decade, and he was not someone to be trifled with.
WHOOSH
Rui barely managed to avoid a devastatingly powerful roundhouse kick

ducking backward. His eyes widened as the very air ignited due to the sheer
friction caused by the blurring speed of Squire Jamal's attack!
"Tsk," he tutted before resuming his onslaught.
His large arms wound backward flying forward with incredible speed and
power!
BAM BAM BAM!
Rui gritted his teeth as he pushed himself to the absolute limit trying to dispel
the man's offensive prowess. If not for Flux Earther, Rui wasn't sure he
would have been able to even handle the man's potent impacts.
Furthermore, he could feel that Flux Earther wasn't able to entirely dispel all
of the kinetic energy of Squire Jamal's power. He could feel the pain pulsing
in his arms every time he intercepted and negated an attack with Flux Earther.
This would have been a much greater problem if not for the fact that Rui's
healing factor had risen considerably beyond human limits once he entered
the Squire Realm. Furthermore, the Mind Switch technique that he had
modified and mastered aided his recovery greatly.
The man swung an exceptionally charged strike at Rui, yet it simply landed
on an empty image
WHOOSH
It was a well-timed feint.

BAM!!
Rui slammed his knee into the man's face, catching him off-guard at the
perfect time. He had exploited a little opening in his attack patterns once he
created the predictive model on the man, allowing him to thoroughly exploit
it with Phantom Step.
"Hm?" Rui's eyes widened as he realized that he hadn't even budged the
man's body despite a direct slam into his face.
WHOOSH
Rui barely managed to evade a bear hug, having predicted it with the
predictive model based on subtle and tiny tells and movements that allowed
him to deduce his future movements based on pattern recognition, as well as
aid from Primordial Instinct.
If not for these two, Rui didn't think he would have been able to dodge the
blurringly fast attack.
Squire Jamal rubbed his bleeding nose as he frowned.
Rui's eyes widened as his eyebrows knitted, his mind was at peak alertness,
and he knew that he would not be able to keep up with his combat sparring
partner if he did not give it his absolute most.
Despite his gargantuan physique, the man was extremely fast and agile, even
more so than Rui. Seeing him launch himself forward as though he was as
light as a feather was more than just a peculiar sight, Rui would not have seen
such a sight had he been in the Apprentice Realm still.
Martial Artists were still limited by their mortal coils in the Apprentice
Realm, sights such as juggernauts moving around like little birds, faster than
someone like Rui was almost unheard of.
Yet in the Squire Realm, it was all but possible, and normal, even.
Rui could feel that the man's physical superiority over him was not just due to
techniques, but also due to a superior physical body. His power, speed, and
durability exceeded that of Rui's considerably despite the fact that Rui just
consumed a potion that made him fifteen percent superior overall.
On top of that, the man had a wealth of experience in the Squire Realm and
had no doubt devised a lot of techniques.
In fact, Rui was the one who was an anomaly for being able to keep with him
in combat and even gain a tiny upper hand every now and then, even though
he struggled to do so and had been bullied plenty by his opponent.
Ordinarily, he should have been crushed, even Rui understood this. His body
was significantly inferior and his opponent had mastered a greater number of
techniques. There was no question who the victor between them ought to
have been.
But Rui was no ordinary Martial Artist.
('Double-hand drop strike; 98.7%!') Rui promptly began moving ahead of

time, and yet;
BOOM!
RUMBLE
The land around them groaned as the full power of a Martial Squire struck it.
Rui just barely managed to evade the swift and powerful strike despite the
boosts provided by the VOID algorithm!
Yet he pulled it off flawlessly, objectively speaking.
"Huff... Huff..." Rui panted, taking his stance one more, preparing for yet
another strike.
Yet to his surprise, the man made a timeout gesture, indicating the end of the
spar.
"Huff..." Rui sat down, exhausted.

"You truly are a confounding Martial Artist, Squire Quarrier," The man
walked. "Today is the last day of the commission, come, I wish to speak with
you."
Chapter 608 Talk
Rui had fully mastered the boost in physicality that he had received in the
past two weeks under high-pressure combat, and both of them knew that this
would be the last sparring session between them.
"Why do you say that?" Rui asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I've never seen someone as deviant as you, eh?" The man replied
straightforwardly. "Your Martial Art, your techniques, and even your Martial
body and your grade as a Martial Artist. They're all more than just a little
confusing,"
Rui shrugged. "I have a high-grade Martial Art, and my body has received
non-standard empowerment. That's all."
The man snorted, before shaking his head. "Your body is definitely strong,
much stronger than I would expect of an eighteen-year-old Martial Squire
who hasn't even spent two years in the Squire Realm. And the potion alone
isn't enough to justify the difference."
Rui was surprised. The man had also noticed the boost in power that he
gained thanks to the Mind Switch technique increasing his stamina beyond
human limits, which he had then managed to sacrifice for greater physical
parameters when he underwent the Squire evolution breakthrough procedure.
"Yet despite the fact that your body is stronger than someone who has only
spent a year and a half in the Squire Realm, your body is actually weaker
than what I would expect from a grade-four Martial Artist."
"Hm?" Rui couldn't help but frown. Despite the boosts that he had received,
his body was weak for a grade-four Martial Artist?
"You are aware that Martial bodies grow stronger as time passes, correct?"
The man asked, turning to Rui.
Rui nodded. He was aware of this basic fact, although he hadn't been
informed of the specifics.
"Normally, Martial Squires with your youth in the Squire realm have bodies
that are quite weak and immature. All Martial Squires would start out with
what is informally classified as a grade-one body," The man explained. "You
should have been in that category as well. Yet you have received
empowerment that made your body stronger than that of someone of your age
in the Squire Realm. Still, this would at most make your physical body as
strong as that of the average grade-two Martial Squire. Yet your Martial
Artist grade is grade four."
Rui immediately understood the source of the man's confusion surrounding

Rui. Ordinarily, Rui should have possessed a body that the average grade-one
Martial Artist would have because he had spent only eighteen months in the
Squire Realm. However, due to the Mind Switch technique making his
Martial body stronger than normal from the start, and the Benetein Blood
potion he received recently made him stronger than a Martial Squire of his
youth in the Squire Realm should have been.
Which meant that his body was probably much weaker than the average
grade-four Martial Artist!
('Back then in the Zurtun mission, the Martial Squire I fought back then
definitely had a powerful body. He could negate my strikes easily with a
single technique and his body. Part of that must have been due to his superior
Martial body in addition to synergy. No wonder he seemed so invincible!')
Rui realized.
Rui knew that victory would have been quite unlikely had he failed to get a
good strangle on the man and maintain it, a tactic that the VOID algorithm
had given him.
That was also when his Martial Artist grade had upgraded.
('The Martial Union gave me a Martial Artist grade higher than my youth in
the Squire realm would warrant because of the strength of the VOID
algorithm!') Rui realized.
That's why he started out with a grade-three evaluation despite only

possessing the equivalent of a grade-two body!
Rui narrowed his eyes, absorbed in thought. A lot of things that he hadn't
given much thought to in the past were making much more sense with the
information that Rui had managed to extract from just a short conversation
with a much more experienced Martial Squire.
"You must have a truly potent Martial Art." The man noted. "That's what
allowed you to keep up with me, even if barely."
Rui snorted. "I probably would have lost if the fight prolonged. Your stamina
is greater and eventually, it would have been game over."
Rui now understood why Senior Ceeran had told Rui to restrain his
expectations of being upgraded to grade five as a Martial Artist. In fact, he
felt he was rather naïve and ignorant for making that strength in the first
place.
"True, but... it has been both humbling and inspiring to see you fight. Makes
me more motivated to work harder and finally lay foot into the Senior
Realm." The man got up. "That challenges that need to be surmounted in
order to step into a higher realm of power for a third time are not... trivial."
Rui raised an eyebrow as he looked at the man. "You know what it takes to
become a Martial Senior?"
Rui hadn't heard so much as a peep about the actual breakthrough to the
Senior Realm.
The man nodded. "It is truly profound."
"Why do you say that?" Rui casually said.
"Nice try," The man chuckled. "You're hoping I will divulge what I know,
eh?"
"Tsk,"
"You're a tricky brat. Do not be impatient, when you become a grade-five

Martial Squire, you will be eligible to learn more." The man nodded. "With
your rate of growth, I suspect that that day isn't that far away."
Rui shrugged.
He was glad that he didn't need to wait until he became a Senior candidate or
something, to learn more about what it took to become stronger. Now that he
had witnessed the power of a grade-five Martial Artist, he knew that it
wouldn't be easy to reach that level of power in a short amount of time, that
was for sure. All he needed to do was progress forward, one step at a time
and he was sure to reach not only higher grades but also a higher realm of
power.
Chapter 609 Next
Once they finished conversing, the man sky-walked away. Rui considered the
conversation that they'd just had. It was quite insightful, and he had learned a
lot from the man.
"Now what?" Rui asked himself, having yet to get up.
In truth, he already knew the answer.
"I need to push myself to the absolute limit applying my power in the real
world."
He had only gotten to use the Pathfinder technique once in a mission, and he
was not satisfied with that at all. Furthermore, he had also gotten a boost to
his body and thus wanted to test that as well.
"Well, off to the Martial Union I go," Rui shrugged.
Five minutes later, he had reached the Martial Union, quickly making his
way through all the security check-ins before immediately heading towards
the mission library. He walked towards the shadow class of missions,
browsing through the missions.
Right off the bat, there were a lot of missions that would allow him to accrue
more fame for his sniping capability, but Rui was looking for something
more than that. He didn't want a simple elementary mission where he needed
to get into position and take a shot before leaving.
He wanted a mission that would also allow him to exercise his capability as a
Martial Artist.
An assassination mission that would require fighting Martial Squires would

be ideal for him, while he was excited to apply Pathfinder and show the
world the power of his techniques, he was not an assassin. He was a Martial
Artist, first and foremost. He could already feel himself itching for a good
fight where he exercised his Martial Art, and he was growing more reluctant
to do simple and static assassinations.
Doing it once was fine with the mission commissioned by Fauche, however,
he had no interest in doing it any further.
However, there was just one problem.
('I cannot judge whether a mission of this kind actually involves me fighting
other Martial Artists, after all, it sort of runs contrary to the point of Shadow
class missions.') Rui sighed.
Shadow-class missions were all covert and clandestine by definition. Fights

between Martial Squires were not covert by any means. Thus, the proportion
of missions that involved straightforward clashes with Martial Artists was
actually quite a few.
Furthermore, it was extremely difficult for Rui to judge whether a mission

would entail him fighting other Martial Artists based on the publicized
information available. These descriptions only offered the basic facts of the
mission, they did not offer any details that would allow Rui to judge whether
he would find the real combat that he was looking for.
Rui had to make a choice out of several options here. He could try to make
the best judgment he could regarding whether the mission would give him
opportunities to exercise both his combat and his assassination capabilities.
It was definitely extremely difficult, but Rui had a shot at doing so.
Another choice was to simply accept that finding both of these elements in a
single mission was not really practical. What was much more practical was
alternating between missions that definitely gave him one of what he was
looking for. He could go for shadow-class missions that would give him the
opportunity to exercise his assassination capabilities, and then go for an
offense class or hunter-class missions that would allow him to exercise his
combat ability as a Martial Artist.
That was much more reasonable than hoping to find both in a single mission.
('That seems quite logical,') Rui shrugged, it was the best option he had.
('Since I already picked a shadow class mission last time, I'll go with an
offense class mission or a hunter class mission.')
Offense class missions were generally preferable because they allowed him to
pick missions where he could be guaranteed combat against other Martial
Squires, especially since he was now a grade-four Martial Squire.
('Well, since my previous mission was an assassination mission, I should go

for an offense-class mission.') Rui shrugged, walking towards the offense
class section.
As always, the offense-class missions were either international or sanctioned

by an authorized governmental entity. There were even a few authorized by
the Martial Union as well, that also possessed the right to issue such missions
within the Kandrian Empire.
Rui sauntered through the section in the library as he looked for a suitable
mission.
[Offense-class mission: destruction mission
Client: Feruir Cerni
Difficulty grade: four
Target of destruction: Supply shipment convoy
Target location: Fruid trade route; [45.3, 24.6 to 46.5, 23.2]
Remuneration: 11,000 Martial Credits / 418 gold coins
Mission summary: The target of destruction is a supply shipment convoy

from the Kingdom of Violis heading towards the Commonwealth Duchy of
Vinfrana. The protection outfit assigned to the supply shipment consists of
ten Martial Apprentices and a defense-class Martial Squire.]
('Interesting, a mission relevant to nations that I have already completed

missions in before.') Rui mused.
The Kingdom of Violis was the nation where he had been deployed by the
Kandrian Bureau of Investigation to capture Faraday Lowminer, while the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was the nation where he had been
commissioned by the Martial Union itself to annihilate a hidden research
facility that was researching the breakthrough to the Squire realm. It was
thanks to the research data that he had procured from this mission that he had
finally managed to learn the truth about the mechanics of the breakthrough to
the Squire Realm.
Both of these missions were quite memorable to him, and now he had the
opportunity to undertake another mission involving both of these nations.
Of course, it wasn't particularly surprising. There weren't an infinite number

of nations, so he was bound to run into the same nation as long as he
continued doing foreign-based missions.
('Alright, I'll accept it, why not.') Rui shrugged, it wasn't as though this didn't
fulfill the conditions that he had set. He plucked the mission bill out of the
slot on the shelf before heading towards the mission application counter.
Chapter 610 Video
"Ah, Squire Quarrier. I'm afraid the client's commission contract includes the
conditional-approval clause that requires them to approve of any and all
Martial Artists that apply for the commission," The staff member
apologetically informed him.
Rui sighed, he'd forgotten that this was closer to the norm in the Squire
Realm than it was in the Apprentice Realm. The clients who had the capital
to commission Martial Squires were much more particular about the
qualifications and inclinations of the Martial Artists that they had
commissioned.
"And will they contact me and give me a location to meet up with them?" Rui
asked tentatively.
"I'm afraid not, Squire Quarrier. It seems they cannot physically meet you.
They have offered to communicate via a video call as their most preferred
means of communication." He informed Rui dutifully.
"Video call?" Rui's eyes widened. "That's a feature?"
Rui felt like a country bumpkin. At that moment, he regretted not knowing
the extent of the technological development of this world, but alas, it was not
easy gaining an understanding of the best of what technology had to offer.
Part of this was because the best of what technology had to offer was highly
restricted, expensive, and highly resource intensive, even for a Martial Squire
like himself prior to recently.
For example, the accounter that he was currently in possession of was

considered a luxurious and high-class product that only the upper echelons of
society could afford. This was because the resources required to construct the
device and to maintain its functionality were prohibitively scarce. Yet, its
functionality was much inferior to even that of the earliest touch-screen
phones produced at the dawn of the twenty-first century back on Earth.
Rui knew that his accounter was unable to perform video calls. However, he
wasn't aware that the technological development of human civilization on the
Panama continent had reached a level where they could achieve video calls.
It was surprising because it was highly unlikely that his client was
particularly elite from the perspective of human civilization. After all,
someone who chose to commission a Martial Squire was unlikely to be able
to also commission Martial Seniors, which put a hard ceiling on how rich
they were.
This meant that the general public and even ordinary rich people were likely
unable to get their hands on such technology.
"Yes sir," The man finally replied after a while, from Rui's perspective. "As
far as I'm aware, only higher-grade Martial Squires tend to have accounter
models with such a feature."
"I see," Rui nodded. "I'll apply for the commission anyway."
"Understood sir."
Rui swiftly breezed through the paperwork before heading down to the utility
department, taking a good look around. It resembled a posh and lush version
of the market districts in the town of Hajin. There were various shops of
different tech manufacturing companies that set up highly monitored outlets
within the Martial Union for purchasing utilities, products, gear, and
equipment relevant to Martial Art and missions.
"Could I purchase some accounters with a video call feature?" Rui asked at
the store if he had purchased his current accounter.
"Of course, sir," The saleswoman nodded with a courteous smile. "Are there
any other parameters you would like to select by?"
"Affordability, portability, and user-friendliness, I suppose," Rui replied. "I
don't want to buy extravagant options, and I want an accounter that won't get
in my way in missions while also one that is simple to use as far as its core
functions go."
She presented several options.
"I recommend the FRN-W31." She told him, presenting him with a product.
"It, more or less, ticks all the boxes you're looking for..."
Rui nodded after a brief explanation. "Alright, I'll take this one."
"That will be forty-thousand Martial credits, sir,"
Rui almost double took at her words. "I thought you said it was affordable."
She gave him a sheepish, apologetic smile. "I'm afraid that this is quite
affordable as far as rates of accounters with video call functions go."
Rui couldn't be bothered to scour the entire department to test that claim. He
wouldn't have even dared to consider purchasing one in the past, but his
recent windfall made it practicable to purchase.
Once he purchased it, he immediately logged into his account, only to find a
message in his inbox.
[Squire Falken, I am Feruir Cerni, the individual who commissioned the

mission that you applied for. Please accept the video call that I have initiated
with you so I can converse with you regarding the mission.]
('I probably shouldn't hold this conversation in an area filled with people.')
Rui realized.
It wasn't long before he was sky-high in the air, mingling with the clouds,
using them as a cover. He used Tempestuous Feel to make sure that there
were no Martial Artists sky-walking within a kilometer of him.
Once he accepted the invitation for a video call from the client, it wasn't long
before a choppy image of a man appeared on the screen. Rui cringed
inwardly, the quality was quite low. It appeared that the technology wasn't
refined enough for more affordable accounters with this feature to have a
more refined feed.
"Squire Falken?" The man spoke, his voice nearly drowning in a sea of white
noise. "I am Feruir Cerni. It is a pleasure to speak with you, are you alone?"
Rui felt like he was using a walkie-talkie.
"I am, rest assured." He assured the man. "You can speak freely."
"That is good to hear," The man nodded. "Let me begin by thanking you for
accepting the commission. I have gone through your profile, and your skill
set is more than satisfactory for what I have in mind. While your experience
since becoming a Martial Squire is a bit lacking, your success rate is quite
impressive. As long as you are able and willing to abide by certain
conditions, I am more than willing to accept your application for our
commission. These conditions are laid out in the contract, of course."
Chapter 611 Converse
"So, what did you want to discuss with me, Mr. Cerni?" Rui asked
tentatively.
"I wish to discuss the modus operandi that I hope you will be engaging in
when completing the mission," Feruir Cerni replied. "I wish for you to spare
the lives of the crew of the convoy while wearing a particular Martial garb of
another nation. I require you to kill the Martial Squire, followed by
handicapping and incapacitating the convoy."
Rui immediately understood the motive of the mission.
('He wants to compromise the supply line of the Commonwealth Duchy of

Vinfrana coming from the Kingdom of Violis and frame it on another nation
or group.') Rui realized.
There was no other reason to have Rui wear a separate Martial garb and spare
the crew of the supply shipment convoy.
"Of course, you don't have to particularly spare their lives in a manner that
makes it obvious. All you need to do is allow them to escape when you spar
with the Martial Squire assigned to protect the convoy," The man explained.
"Once you defeat the Martial Squire and kill him, do not pursue them.
Instead, let them escape back to the Kingdom of Violis."
"So, if I'm understanding this right, you want me to, first, engage with the
Martial Squire alone and kill them, while ensuring that the crew of the
convoy managed to escape while making sure they see the Martial garb that
you will provide, correct?"
"Correct."
"And this is all part of the commission contract, right?"
"Right."
"I'll hold you to that." Rui pointedly told him.
"Please do not worry, I have no intention of crossing lines that will

undoubtedly result in my death." The man assured.
"Alright," Rui tentatively replied. "Where do I pick up the Martial garb?"
"I will send you the address where a correspondent will provide the
appropriate Martial garb," He stated.
The two of them conversed for a bit more before finally coming to an
understanding.
"Alright, that is all I wished to convey and confirm," The man nodded. "I will
immediately accept your application to this mission."
Rui scrolled through his notifications once the call had ended, and sure
enough, there was a notification informing him that the client had accepted
Rui's application.
('Not that he is the true client, anyway,') Rui mused to himself.
Rui was relatively certain that Feruir Cerni was not the true client of the
mission, but was most likely a subordinate of the person who had truly
commissioned the mission. Rui had observed his mannerisms, demeanor, and
speech patterns throughout their conversation, and the man had many tells
that indicated that he was likely a highly trained individual in the service
industry.
Rui wasn't particularly surprised. There were, no doubt, many clients who
wished to keep their hands entirely clean of any connection to the
commissions that could perhaps serve as proof of their involvement with a
particular operation.
('The Martial Union isn't exactly the most trustworthy in all aspects,') Rui
noted. ('Especially if you're an outsider. I wouldn't be surprised if the
Kandrian Martial Union sells confidential client information highly
covertly.')
He had grown increasingly familiar with the Martial Union's conduct as time
passed and his engagement with them increased.
('Not that any of this matters at all,') Rui shrugged.
Regardless of who the true client was, Rui's mission did not change in the
slightest. What Rui needed to do was simply execute the operation like he
was supposed to.
Rather than wondering about the identity of the true client, he was more
curious about the Martial Squire that had been assigned to protect the supply
shipment convoy.
('Oh?') Rui raised an eyebrow. ('An offense-oriented Martial Squire whose

Martial Path is centered around torque-driven strikes?')
This was much more interesting to Rui.
A torque-driven striking-oriented Martial Art did not sound like a particularly

unique Martial Path, but Rui did not underestimate it. Torque was powerful,
it allowed Martial Artists to generate impacts that would surpass that of their
weight and power class.
Back on Earth, one of the most powerful striking martial arts was
Taekwondo. This Korean martial art was a striking and largely kicking
martial art, that focused on delivering devastating impacts driven by torque
accrued through rapid rotation before the strike.
Furthermore, the rotation of the body that would be used to empower the
impact also made it trickier to predict the timing of the attack as opposed to a
more static launch form for a kick.
He was evaluated to be a grade four Martial Artist, thus Rui could be

relatively certain that at the very least he was not outclassed. While the man
was older and certainly had more experience in the Squire Realm, Rui was
not intimidated.
Of course, he did not underestimate his opponent either. He made sure to

temper his mindset appropriately.
('I get to test Flux Earther in the field.') Rui grinned.
It would be the first time, and while it wasn't as shocking of a debut as that of
the Pathfinder technique, it was still something Rui was going to look
forward to.
He was also curious as to how well he would be able to handle swinging

kicks driven by torque with the help of Flux Earther. None of the Martial
Artists he had tested it against possessed a style similar to this, after all.
Regardless, it was something that would get him more data and help him
figure out the strengths and weaknesses of this technique when it came to this
field.
Thankfully, knowing the Martial Path of his opponent ahead of time was
useful to anyone, but it was especially useful to Rui who could prepare the
most with this information. He could already form the bare bones template
for the predictive model that would most likely be what he would be creating
when he fought his target.
This would reduce the time he would need to form the predictive model on
his opponent, not by much, but by enough that it was worth it.
Chapter 612 Intercept
The Kingdom of Violis was sending supply shipments of particular esoteric

resources that were necessary for maintaining the communication technology
that facilitated remote communication in the Commonwealth Duchy of
Vinfrana.
This was the supply shipment that Rui was supposed to be targeting.
When Rui had finished scrolling through the mission bill, he had come to
understand the greater picture behind the motives of the mission.
('They're trying to cripple Vinfrana,') Rui concluded.
Although the Kingdom of Violis was the prime target of the commission.
Although the supply shipment was from the Kingdom of Violis, the Kingdom
did not lose anything regardless of whether the supply shipment made it
through or not, though they most certainly would be losing a Martial Squire.
The mission bill clarified the identity of the true client as well, referring to
some hotshot from a neighboring nation.
As for why they were trying to accomplish what they were, Rui couldn't care
less.
"This doesn't fit all that bad," Rui murmured as he tried on the Martial Art
garb that he was obliged to.
"We've bought various different fits for different physicalities," The assistant
added. "Furthermore, they're self-adjusting to a certain degree, thus there
should be no problem. Of course, if there is a problem, feel free to try
another."
"It's fine," Rui finished adjusting, testing it out.
Once he was done with that, he could focus on finishing the mission.
He immediately took the air, flying high as he headed east, towards the
supply route that the supply shipment convoy was supposed to be taking.
Reaching the Kandrian border took him only fifteen minutes, however, he
needed to keep himself to the ground while he was out of the country.
Especially when he was wearing the garb, as that could potentially violate the
non-exposure clause in the contract.
('Which means I cannot travel through the many nations on the way to the
traveling route between the Kingdom of Violis and Vinfrana.') Rui noted.
Generally, he transited past the many small, satellite sovereign nations that
were in the geographic surroundings of the Kandrian Empire.
('That might make the journey longer,')
He would need to take certain detours around these states and travel through
the small cracks in between their borders.
('If it's a nation with no Martial Squires though, I don't need to bother.') Rui
shrugged.
These nations were too weak to stop him even if he dashed passed their
sovereign borders.
Regardless, he needed to get to his destination as fast as possible.
('The convoy has actually already been dispatched a day ago. I need to make
sure that I intercept them at the right point in the convoy's journey to the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.')
He simply needed to camp ahead of time at a particularly suitable location

and ambush the convoy when it did reach him. Thankfully, he had gotten
pretty detailed information on the convoy's structure and constituents, its
speed and path among other things.
('This seems about right,') Rui reached a particular spot on a hill.
Down below, a large, wide road of sorts winded as far as the eye could see in
both directions.
He had reached a point on the route that the convoy in question would run
into in about an hour or so.
He didn't want to reach a point that was too close to the convoy at the time
that he would arrive for he might not get the timing right. He wanted enough
time to where he could choose a good spot that would allow him to spot the
convoy coming but was probably too far for any of the few sensory Martial
Artists that he had been informed would be present.
As for the measure he took?
"Huff..."
He sat down behind a tree.
He was monitoring the situation with both Seismic Mapping and

Tempestuous Feel, so there was no risk that he would somehow miss the
convoy passing through at this point.
In truth, Rui didn't intend on exploiting his element of surprise too much. He
didn't want to land a critical blow on his Martial Squire opponent via such a
method. That would render the whole point of the mission rather
meaningless.
He would let the crew members, including the Martial Apprentices, escape,
so he could have a fair one-on-one with his opponent so that he could test
how effective the Flux Earther technique was against a powerful impact-
centric Martial Artist like.
If he managed to land a critical blow when his opponent was unharmed, then
the following fight would likely become meaningless.
Of course, Rui was aware that this attitude wasn't exactly most commensurate
with the mission, which was defeating and killing his opponent at all costs
and subsequently handicapping the supply shipment. Furthermore, he didn't
have unlimited time as the surviving crew members would no doubt manage
to contact the Kingdom of Violis and reinforcements would be dispatched the
moment they alerted their home nation of the ambush.
This meant that Rui had to work fast the moment that he initiated the ambush.
Thankfully, his opponent was an offensive Martial Artist. Had he been a
defensive or an endurance-type Martial Artist, then Rui would certainly have
had an incredibly hard time trying to take them down within a short amount
of time.
But the situation was a lot more manageable since his opponent was an
offensive Martial Artist. Now, as long as he exploited his opponent's
weaknesses while mitigating his strengths well enough like he always did,
then he would be able to pull a win.
In the worst-case scenario, Rui didn't think his life was in danger. At worst,
he highly doubted if the Martial Artist in question could possibly restrain him
from escaping. A Martial Artist that focused on using torque to deliver highly
potent singular impacts was likely far unqualified to be able to prevent Rui
from escaping from the scene.
While he would fail the mission, he would gain partial credit for the attack,
and while failing sucked, staying alive was worth it.
Chapter 613 Clash
"Hm?" Rui's ears perked as Seismic Mapping and Tempestuous Feel picked
up some heightened activity coming from the direction that the convoy was
supposed to come. Furthermore, it should have been about time for the
convoy to approach, by his estimations, give or take.
He got up before crouching down to a knee behind some vegetation on the

hill.
It took a while for Rui to finally be close enough to make out details about
the approaching source of the activity that he had perceived using his two
techniques.
('Twenty-eight carriages,') Rui counted. ('Matches the information I was

given about the convoy.')
The convoy was transporting esoteric supplies to the Commonwealth Duchy

of Vinfrana, most of these carriages were storage carriages that were filled
with the esoteric raw supplies needed to sustain the communication sectors of
the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana. Thus, Rui didn't think it would be
easy for them to be able to evacuate with supply carriages.
As long as he disrupted the vanguard and the rear, they would be forced to
abandon the entire convoy as they escaped.
Rui's eyes narrowed as the convoy approached closer. His Primordial instinct
alerted him to the presence of a strong Martial Squire. He could sense his
opponent increasingly clearly.
Of course, Rui was quite certain that his opponent couldn't sense his own
Martial Squire status. After all, Rui had been strongly concealing his mental
pressure aura with the Mind Mask technique.
Soon the convoy had entered his field of vision, and Rui had already prepared
what he was going to open with.
It was time.
Rui leaped into the air, launching seven Sonic Bullets at the rear row of
carriages.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
In less than a second, the carriages had been carefully crippled, and broken
apart in a manner that made it impossible to turn around and run back from
where they came. The cohesion of the crew broke apart as immense panic
beset them, Rui could hear the crew members screaming as they tried to
follow whatever protocols they could when attacked.
THUD
He landed in the path of the convoy, unleashing the bloodlust of a Martial

Squire.
He launched a powerful Sonic Bullet in the direction of the convoy, but it

was too late.
POW
A man appeared in the path of the attack, dispelling the attack with a spinning
kick.
('Squire Crillian,') Rui smiled behind his mask.
The man barked instructions to the crew members in a foreign language

never once taking his eyes off Rui. His gaze ran up and down the latter's
body, noting the garb, only for his expression to grow even graver.
The crew ran away as though their life depended on it, even the Martial
Apprentices assigned to the mission did not dare to stick around and try
intervening in the fight.
The air grew frosty.
One could almost feel the frozen atmosphere growing tauter by the second as
it was wrung under the maelstrom of pressure the two formidable Martial
Squires exerted.
It was only half a second in real-time, yet from their perspective, it was all
the time in the world.
The man's expression grew increasingly contorted with rage, inducing bone-
chilling terror in any human who bore witness to it.
STEP
...
STEP
STEP STEP STEP
He walked towards Rui as he gathered every ounce of power in his muscles,

his body shook as it brimmed to the rim with power!
BOOM!
He launched himself forward with tremendous momentum. The sheer power

with which his body tore through the atmosphere left violent sonic booms in
his wake. His body contorted as he released a thundering swirling kick to
Rui's face.
And yet;
RUMBLE
The man's eyes widened in shock as Rui intercepted his strike with a single
palm. What was even more bizarre was that the palm didn't even try to stop
his attack!
Yet to his greatest shock, the power of his attack disappeared!
By the time his kick had fully extended, Squire Crillian felt weak. He felt as
though someone had extracted the power of the attack and thrown it away.
His will steeled as he contorted his body, extracting his leg before launching
a spinning kick that sent it coming from the opposite direction!
RUMBLE
The ground shook as Rui once more intercepted the attack, channeling its
power through him elastically, before dispelling it into the ground via
Had Squire Crillian witnessed the exhilarating grin behind Rui's mask, he
would have lost his temper even more. Yet Rui valued keeping his
appearance a secret too much to try and provoke his opponent using non-
verbal triggers.
Thankfully, it wasn't needed.
"RARGH!" The man launched into a tirade of torque-empowered blows,

trying his best to overwhelm Rui's defense. A torrent of strikes befell Rui,
swinging at him from all directions.
"Ngh." Rui gritted his teeth as he barely managed to negate every single swift
and powerful strike that his opponent threw.
Rui realized that his opponent's fighting style contained more nuance than he
had given it credit. Every attack that his opponent launched was a set-up for
the next attack. If he launched a roundhouse kick, then he would use the fact
that his body core was twisted, to generate torque for a right hook when he
untwisted his body from the previous body in the opposite direction. That
then also served as the set-up for the next attack after!
He employed a dynamic attack style that employed all four limbs while also
using each attack to charge up torque for the next attack. Which meant that
each of his attacks was nearly as strong as a fully charged attack!
Rui, on the other hand, only had two palms which were also the sole limbs
that could use the Flux Earther technique, against the torque-empowered
dynamic strikes that involved all four limbs.
POW!
A straight punch managed to wind past Rui's defense, landing on his torso.
"Urgh," Rui grimaced as he stepped back, yet his opponent had no intention
of letting Rui go.
Chapter 614 Void Pathfinder
It wasn't that Rui wasn't aware of this shortcoming, he was shrewd enough to
realize that a dynamic defense that relies on palm interception is held back by
the fact that he has only two palms. Arms were part of the upper body, which
meant intercepting powerful torque-empowered strikes to the body below the
waist took a greater amount of time and energy, and had a larger margin for
error.
Furthermore, if the one launching the attacks was someone with as much of a
relentless dynamic and flexible offense as that of his opponent, there was no
doubt going to be several opportunities that his opponent could probably
exploit to land strikes against him.
This was one of those instances.
"Heh," A wild grin covered his mouth as he launched himself toward Rui,
oozing an aggressive savage aura. The success had given him great
confidence that he could eventually completely crack Rui's strangely
effective defense. He threw a wild attack at Rui, yet to his surprise
BAM!!
"ARGH!" The man grimaced in pain as Rui's elbow dug deep into his gut.
Rui had evaded the attack cleanly before launching a powerful attack deep
into his gut as he charged forward. The sheer power of the impact flung him
hundreds of meters away!
"Rgh!" The man stopped his momentum midair, furious.
Yet Rui didn't intend to give him any leeway. Yet, this time, he didn't close
the distance between them to launch attacks. Instead, he opened his mouth
slightly.
THWOOM!
POW!
The man grimaced as an expression of pain and fury enveloped his face. The
long-range attack had caught him off-guard, he did not expect that his
opponent possessed such a capability given that he fought close range from
the very get-go.
What surprised him more was that the ability had struck him right in the face.
Was that a fluke?
He didn't think so, only Martial Artists specialized in long-range combat

could achieve such accuracy in the middle of combat.
He must have gotten lucky, surely.
Regardless, that didn't change the fact that he couldn't let his opponent turn
this into a long-range battle. After all, he was a close-quarters combatant. He
was utterly harmless in a long-range battle!
WHOOSH
He swiftly pedaled through the atmosphere in a zig-zaggy pattern as he

closed the distance between them, while also trying to throw Rui's aim off as
much as possible!
BAM!
A large Sonic Bullet slammed into him!
"AAARGH!" The man roared in frustration, as his body emerged covered in

light bruises.
How did this infuriating Martial Artist tag him this cleanly yet again?!
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!
Rui launched Sonic Bullets rapidly one after the other. His opponent, being a
Martial Squire, had learned to recognize the atmospheric tremors that the
launch of the technique created. He dashed about in the air, desperately trying
to evade them.
Yet to his greatest shock, each and every single attack found its mark.
BAM BAM BAM!
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" The man screamed in frustration in his native

tongue.
He had dodged after Rui launched the attacks!
Yet somehow, the attacks still landed on him after Rui had already launched
the attack, despite him also dodging after the attack was launched.
For that to happen, Rui would need to have correctly launched the attacks to
exactly where Squire Crillian would be when they crossed the necessary
distance.
Squire Crillian was slow, but even he wasn't stupid enough to miss the
obvious implication of this.
('He knows!') The man gritted his teeth as his expression morphed into one of
shock and frustration. ('He knows where I'm going!')
The man shivered as he eyed Rui.
A maelstrom of pressure crashed against his mind as a faint sense of fear

clutched at his heart, trying to crush it. He only saw darkness when he gazed
into his opponent's eyes, the kind that sucked the very light out of the world
around it.
He felt naked under the piercing eyes that never lost track of him.
He felt transparent in his opponent's vision.

He felt like air.
Like a hollow shadow that merely impeded the soul-piercing stare of his
opponent, and paid the price.
His heart rate started spiking as his body began perspiring. His instincts only
told him one thing.
To run.
This was the power of the ODA System combined with the VOID algorithm
in combat. A mind-numbing number of calculations flashed through Rui's
Mind Palace as his mind strained under the furious processing of his mind.
With the data provided by the predictive model that he had meticulously
constructed through the VOID algorithm's data processing protocols, he
could then apply that data to the ODA System. Instead of using current
coordinates, he uses future coordinates!
He was not attacking the present, he was attacking the future!
He had never gotten to test the Pathfinder technique in this manner; however,
he had spontaneously developed this application of the Pathfinder technique
in battle!
It was a commonsense application to a certain extent, to be fair, however, Rui

had underestimated how effective it actually ended up being in practice.
This combination was so special, that it deserved its own name.
('Void Pathfinder,')
It was a spontaneous name that he had nearly subconsciously generated, yet it

was a fitting yet simple name.
('Trying to run?') Rui raised an eyebrow as he watched the man trying to

escape once he realized the futility of the fight. His compatibility with Rui
was bad, fighting would simply prolong the inevitable and increase his
chances of dying.
Still, Rui had no intention of letting him.
THWOOM
BAM!
A single shot destabilized his sky walking, causing him to collapse into a
mountainside.
Rui quickly followed through as he swiftly ran after where his opponent had
crashed. He didn't have too much time. Thus, he had to kill his opponent as
fast as possible. The escapees would likely have informed the Kingdom of
Violis remotely about the attack by now, which meant that Martial Squire
reinforcements were most likely already deployed.
Chapter 615 Outcome
Rui's perfect aim had battered Squire Crillian significantly. He had constantly
aimed for Squire Crillian's vital spots with potent and powerful Sonic Bullets,
causing the man to accrue too much damage to have any chance of winning,
most likely.
Yet the man's expression grew grave when he saw that Rui had already
caught up with him after blasting him from the sky. What had shocked him
was that Rui had gotten his aim perfect despite the fact that he had moved
nearly a kilometer away from Rui!
The fact that Rui still managed to launch a potent attack that knocked him out
of the sky from such a great distance away was beyond shocking right now,
but he had more important matters at the moment.
Surviving.
The damage disparity between them was large. Rui had negated almost every
single strike that the latter had launched at him, bar one. Whereas Rui had
pummeled him with a large number of potent Sonic Bullets that had hurt him.
The damage wasn't too much, but it was enough that it would serve as an
advantage to Rui in their fight.
Furthermore, Squire Crillian was cognizant enough to realize that Rui also
probably had a stamina advantage at the moment. Sky-walking was quite
energy-intensive, especially when used at maximum speed continuously for
quite a while to fail to avoid powerful attacks while Rui had been stationary
the entire time.
However, these two factors would be most problematic if Squire Crillian was
trying to win, however, he was also cognizant enough to know that help was
probably on its way. All he needed to do was last.
In fact, if he managed to hold Rui back, then he would also get to capture the
annoying bastard!
Squire Crillian's eyes blazed with fury and exhilaration as he gave Rui a
wide, bloody grin. He launched himself at Rui, putting his arms together
before him as he charged forward.
('He wants to tank the attacks with a guard and force his way through to reach
me.') Rui mused.
"RAAAA-!"
BAM!
A powerful torque-empowered kick slammed into his jaw from the side. The
sheer impact, having caught him off guard, caused his body to droop as he
felt immensely dizzy.
POW!
The final strike to the jaw sealed the deal as the blunt-force trauma exceeded
the threshold, even by Martial Squire standards.
THUD
The man fell to the ground
Rui sighed. "Idiot. You're not the only one who can use torque, you know?
I'm a big Taekwondo fan."
Rui knew that if he engaged in what the man wanted, it was unlikely that he
would succeed in the mission. While the Pathfinder technique was certainly
powerful, it was not a lethal technique against Martial Squires. It would hurt,
bruise, cut, and perhaps even crack, but it most likely would not be able to
take down a grade-four Martial Artist this quickly.
At least, not while Rui himself was a grade four Martial Artist.
Thus, Rui swiftly switched tactics as he employed his opponent's own
strengths against him to launch a game-ending blow to the side of his jaw
with a powerful spinning kick.
('I don't have much time.')
Rui was aware of this. He quickly knelt down next to the Martial Artist's
unconscious body, turning him up as he stiffened his index finger.
SPLAT!
Blood spurted from deep within the wound in his eye as his heart stopped
beating due to the irreparable brain damage caused by the deep jab. The
brains of Martial Squire were evolved, however, they were still nowhere near
strong enough to withstand the power of a Martial Squire directly
unprotected.
As soon as Rui confirmed that he was dead, he took off. He knew that the
Martial Squires of the Kingdom of Violis most likely wouldn't take long to
get here given the fact that they could travel faster than the speed of sound.
Especially in an emergency.
Rui immediately dashed away from the scene as he headed back to the
Kandrian Empire.
He immediately sent the mission completed notification to the Martial Union

that would inform the client that the mission had been completed.
Rui on the other hand, thought about his fight against Squire Crillian. While
the Fluc Earther performed very well, negating almost all of the great power
of his opponent, it wasn't perfect and certainly had shortcomings.
Furthermore, Rui didn't think that the Flux Earther technique was nearly as
groundbreaking and revolutionary as the Pathfinder technique was.
He didn't like it, but there was an objective reality to techniques. If he gave
the Flux Earther technique to the Earth Sect, he highly doubted he would
receive another million Martial credits. Rui suspected it probably would not
earn him more than a hundred thousand Martial credits.
Unlike the Pathfinder technique, the Flux Earther technique simply wasn't
grade ten. Rui suspected that it would probably be graded as a grade eight
technique. After all, it could negate impacts much greater than what the
Martial Artist would generally be able to defend against, and it was especially
compatible with him because it worked most effectively and reliably when
the user had foreknowledge of the incoming attack, which Rui did have
thanks to the VOID algorithm.
Grade eight defensive techniques were techniques that generally required an

affinity for defensive techniques and talent for Martial Art in general. Rui
would normally not be able to master such techniques within a reasonable
timeframe, and thus would usually avoid grade-eight techniques. The fact
that he had mastered such a technique was thanks to his synergy with it.
Thus, while Project Bounce was not as paradigm-shattering and

groundbreaking as the end results of Project Sniper, Rui could still take pride
in the end result as one that allowed him to go past his conventional limit.
The Pathfinder technique, on the other hand, was the gift that kept giving.
The synergy between the ODA system and the VOID algorithm was more
potent in combat than he had ever given it credit.
Of course, the sheer strain that it put on Rui could not be understated. Neither
the VOID algorithm nor the ODA system was easy to apply completely in the
heat of combat, especially the former.
However, together?
Together they were a whole other beast that truly pushed even Rui's
prodigious superhuman mind to its absolute limit. He didn't think he would
be able to maintain for any extended period of time. He had only done so for
about ten minutes before the battle transitioned.
('Very effective against close-range experts,') Rui noted. ('Unfortunately, I

cannot maintain it for the entirety of a battle, thus it cannot serve as a
universal solution against close-quarters specialists.')
There were certain templates that fights between certain kinds of Martial
Artists followed. After all, while every Martial Art and Martial Path was
unique, that did not mean they had zero intersections and similarities.
Fights between long-range Martial Artists and close-range Martial Artists

generally went the same way. If the long-range Martial Artist was able to
open and maintain the distance between his opponent and himself by firing
attacks at them to stop them from coming closer and also moving back, then
there was a good chance that they would not lose. Furthermore, if they
possessed the capability to inflict meaningful damage with every attack, then
their chances of winning were also more significant.
In cases where long-range Martial Artists won, they usually never allowed
the close-range Martial Artist to close the distance between them, and fire off
powerful attacks from a distance, inflicting enough damage with each attack
such that, over time, their opponent would lose, one way or another.
Close-range Martial Artists also had their work cut out for them. Their win
conditions were closing the distance between themselves and their opponents
so that their opponent was within striking range. At such close range, their
victories were almost guaranteed. There was simply no way the average long-
range Martial Artist could possibly keep up with a close-range Martial Artist
at close quarters.
There were even existing paradigms for close-range Martial Artists as a

means to accomplish closing the distance that had already been tried and
tested as solutions that were effective enough. For example, one popular
solution was to master maneuvering techniques that allowed one to weave
through incoming fire from range while closing the distance. Evading the
attacks while closing the distance prevented the long-range Martial Artists
from pushing them away with said attacks.
Another solution was to either withstand the attacks with a powerful passive
defense or to power through them with momentum and strikes.
Regardless, close-range Martial Artists that were able to overcome or bypass

the long-range offense usually won by successfully reaching their opponents
and overwhelming them with their powerful close-range offenses.
One of the disadvantages that long-range Martial Artists often suffered was
that it was too difficult to keep close-range Martial Artists away from beyond
a certain range. Some of them could prevent them from approaching closer
than a hundred meters, though they were very few.
The issues were too many, it was far too easy to avoid attacks at that distance.
Rui, on the other hand, could keep them away from a huge distance thanks to
the fact that Sonic Bullets were difficult to perceive after the launch and the
fact that Rui's accuracy was too high even at great distances away.
Furthermore, the combination of the ODA system and the VOID algorithm
allowed him to ensure that even though his opponent did his best to avoid
being a target by moving around in random trajectories, Rui could still hit
them very accurately!
This meant that Rui the maximum distance at which Rui could force his
opponents away and from entering was incredibly large. Large enough that
almost all long-range Martial Squires would burn in jealousy if they found
out.
Of course, this was not a viable strategy because not only could Rui only
maintain it for a short amount of time due to the mental toll it took on him,
but also, when he did eventually reach his limit, his mental strain would
hinder his performance significantly, preventing him from fighting optimally
against an opponent in close-quarters combat
Thus, unless he somehow massively improved the ease of usage of the VOID
algorithm and the ODA system, it was highly unlikely that this would ever
become a one-size fits all strategy. Rui didn't think that the difficulty of the
VOID algorithm and the ODA system was something that could be lowered.
If anything, it would probably only keep increasing as time passes.
He had spent an enormous amount of time trying to reduce the difficulty of

the VOID algorithm but to very little avail. The principle of diminishing
returns had already long stalled the research of optimizing the VOID
algorithm to make it easier to execute.
Rui didn't think that he would have better luck in this world. Even if it was
possible, it was simply not worth the time and effort that would almost
certainly be needed to make any meaningful progress. It was far easier for
him to pursue other avenues of strength, even in regard to the VOID
algorithm itself.
For example, Rui was still very cognizant of the fact that the VOID
algorithm's protocols were still not adapted to the new world that he had been
reborn. He still needed to reconfigure the protocols of the VOID algorithm
and perform new original research or borrow from existing research to form
the new basis of the adaptive evolution model that actually allowed him to
adapt to his opponent's Martial Art.
That was a far more productive and vital area of research to go into.
Even if Martial Artists lived longer, time was a precious resource that they
needed to spend wisely and allot appropriately.
('The ODA system is good, but I do not have a need nor a desire to spend too
much time trying to optimize it,') Rui noted. ('I am an all-rounder, not a long-
range Martial Artist, after all.')
Chapter 617 Invitation
It didn't take Rui long to reach the Kandrian Empire. What took longer was
reaching the Town of Hajin because he couldn't run on the ground at top
speed, he sky-walked, which was much slower than running on solid land.
He quickly finished the boring and tedious post-mission protocols, detailing

statements and a report that conveyed all events occurring since the
commencement of the mission and the completion of it. He wasn't too
concerned that he didn't have proof that he killed the target of elimination;
Squire Crillian. He was sure that the martial Union had already verified and
confirmed his death, knowing their extensive information network.
Hell, Rui wouldn't be too surprised if the Martial Union had dispatched a
sensory specialist Martial Artist that had already witnessed the entire mission
from start to finish.
ραпdα Йᴏνê|(сòm) What he didn't expect was to be stopped when he finished

the report by an assistant.
"Squire Quarrier," She bowed deeply, expressing the respect that Martial
Artists garnered from normal humans.
"Hm?" Rui turned, facing her.
"I'm here to notify you that Martial commissioner Derun Berfheim has
invited you to his office. Please pay her a visit as soon as possible," She
courteously informed him.
Rui frowned. "A Martial commissioner has invited me? Why?"
"I'm afraid I was not informed about this; I was merely instructed by the
Martial commissioner to convey her invitation to you." She replied, before
pulling out a card from her pocket and presenting it to Rui. "This is the
address of her office."
Rui plucked the card out of her palms, studying it. On one side, generic
details about the Martial commissioner were written, on the other side was
the address to his office.
"A rank three Martial commissioner?" Rui raised an eyebrow. He had learned
a lot more about the Martial Union in the years that he had spent completing
countless missions. He was aware of the significance of a rank three Martial
Artist within the Martial Union.
Martial commissioners were executives of the Internal Commissions

department. This department was an executive branch of the Martial Union
that looked at the various interests, agendas, objectives, and liabilities of the
Martial Union as compiled by the Internal Affairs department and formulated
missions that addressed them and assigned them to the most optimal Martial
Artists most suited to completing them.
These missions fell under the internal missions clause of the Martial contract
that every Martial Artist signed with the Martial Union, conditionally
agreeing to complete these missions when assigned to them.
Martial commissioners were agents or executives of the Internal

Commissions department whose job was to create just the right missions that
would address a particular interest, need, or liability of the Martial Union,
and assign these missions to the most optimal Martial Artist for the mission.
They required a broad competency and knowledge base in order to be

qualified for their roles. They required adept competency in administration,
law, sociology, and economics, as well as a deep understanding of Martial
Art and Martial Artists.
They were divided into ranks that correlated with the level of importance and
significance of the interests and issues of the Martial Union that they dealt
with.
Rank one Martial commissioners were the lowest-ranked Martial

commissioners. They exclusively dealt with domestic, localized interests and
issues whose significance and impact did not extend beyond that of a town of
the Kandrian Empire. They dealt with issues such as mitigating lacking
intelligence in certain circles or networks of society, or particular locations by
dispatching Martial Apprentices to gather intelligence and data. They focused
on increasing the ease of access of the Martial Union to customers in low-
income and high-crime districts, to increase the amount of business that the
Martial Union got, by building highly accessible and secure commission
offices that were protected by Martial Apprentices.
These missions, while not highly important and significant on a large scale,
were necessary for furthering the interests of the Martial Union and
mitigating its issues.
Rank two Martial commissioners dealt with issues on a larger scale, they
dealt with matters whose scale, importance, and significance extended to an
entire region. They tackled issues such as the ever-present underworld
Martial Artist services in certain regions that sought to wring away the
unshaken dominance of the Martial Union in the Martial Art industries in
certain parts of the Empire. They dealt with optimizing the securities of estate
and assets of the Martial Union by weighing the risk factor vs their
importance and significance. These were much more important and could
affect the martial Union in a meaningful, albeit small, way.
Rank three Martial commissioners dealt with issues of even greater

importance.
Rui wasn't even sure what these dignitaries of the Martial Union dealt with on
a day-to-day basis, his Martial Artist Realm was not high enough to have
access to such information. All he knew was that these dignitaries possessed
enough authority to assign missions to Martial Seniors!
What would an executive like that want with a grade-four Martial Artist like
Rui?
Rui had some vague guesses, but he couldn't be sure. He didn't think this was
about trying to pry a technique out of Rui. Martial commissioners were not
Martial Artists, and generally, the more informal Martial Sects dealt with
pure Martial Art-related matters.
"...I understand, I shall meet with her," Rui nodded.
The only time Rui had met with a high-ranking Martial commissioner was
during the colonization of the Serevian Dungeon, however, that had been
highly impersonal as the dignitary had addressed many Martial Apprentices
in addition to him.
However, this would be the first time that he would be particularly invited by
one.
It took him a minute to reach the address given, leading to a large extravagant
office.
"Squire Quarrier," She smiled once she noticed Rui entering the office, and
getting up. "I've heard a lot about you, a pleasure to meet one of the most
promising assets of the Martial Union among the younger generation."
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, mam," Rui replied with a measured tone.
Chapter 618 Diplomat
"I had sought you out earlier, only to learn that you were away on a mission,"
She told him as she gestured to the seat opposite to him. "I had an assistant
staff member convey my invitation to you when you returned."
She gave him a courteous smile. Despite possessing a higher standing within
the Martial Union than he did, she did not put on any airs nor was her
demeanor and attitude condescending. Part of this, Rui figured, was no doubt
due to internal training and guidelines that reinforced the status and
importance of all Martial Artists to the Martial Union.
No Martial Artist would face any disrespect from a baseline human being
within the Martial Union. The higher-up Martial Artists that held the greatest
sway over the Martial Union were no doubt wary of normal humans
consolidating power with the power that many of their high positions gave
them.
In fact, one reason that Martial Artists themselves didn't occupy each and
every single position of power was that there were far too many of them.
Another reason was that Martial Artists were warriors that pursued their
Martial Path. They did not belong behind the desk, completing administrative
and bureaucratic work all day long. That would be the greatest disservice to
themselves, and to the Martial Union.
"I was curious as to what a rank-three Martial commissioner wanted to do

with a young inexperienced Martial Squire like myself," Rui scratched his
head.
"You don't need to engage in false modesty, Squire Quarrier." She shook her
head lightly. "Your prowess is unique and surpasses the limits of your Realm
in some parameters. That alone means that there is special value and utility in
you that isn't there in other Martial Squires."
Rui smiled wryly, not saying a word.
"As I'm sure you have figured out, I invited you here to speak to you about a
mission," She explained. "A mission unlike anything you have ever
completed, as far as your record goes.
She leaned in closer. "We require you to be a diplomat,"
Rui jerked his head back as his eyebrows furrowed. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me correctly, Squire Quarrier," She smiled, amused at his

reaction.
"I'm not sure I did, commissioner Derun," Rui managed to squeeze out.
"After all, that seems more reasonable than believing that the Martial Union
would commission a Martial Artist, of all people, to be a diplomat."
"In ordinary circumstances, you would be correct," She sighed.

"Unfortunately, the circumstances at hand have left us with no choice."
"Please explain," Rui frowned.
She cleared some documents from her desk before opening a map of the
Kandrian Empire and the surrounding nations and geography.
Her finger moved to the Nam Ocean that bordered the Kandrian Empire,
before tapping onto an extraordinarily small speck of land barely visible on
the map to the ordinary eye.
pαпdα-ňᴏνê|·сóМ "This is Vilun Island," She said. "It is an island home to

many tribes whose way of life resembles that of human civilization at the
dawn of the Age of Martial Art. In other words, they're four centuries behind
civilization on the Panama Continent. The tribes are in a constant state of war
with each other, fighting for territory, supremacy, and most importantly to
them; prestige. Due to the varied topography of the island, different tribes
developed different philosophies in combat having dealt with different
environmental circumstances, focusing all their Martial Art endeavors in one,
or at most, two particular fields to an extreme degree."
She pulled out another document, passing it on to Rui. "The K'ulnen Tribe
pursues an aggressive striking fighting style to the absolute extreme,
subjecting their progeny to heavy conditioning towards striking to ensure the
Martial Path of the Martial Artists that emerge out of them are all centered
around striking."
Rui read through the document that detailed information on the tribes of the
Vilun Isle.
"What is relevant to the mission that the Martial Union wishes to commission
of you is actually the G'ak'arkan Tribe." She mentioned. "This tribe occupies
the top of the only mountain, Mt Kelato, of the Vilun Island. Its Martial
traditions are entirely centered around long-range offense, specifically,
techniques centered around atmospheric manipulation."
Rui raised an eyebrow at that statement, gaining a clearer idea of what the
Martial Union wanted from him.
"The underlying goal of your mission is their techniques," She

straightforwardly divulged. "The Martial Union has a vested interest in
obtaining their techniques."
"The Martial Union, the same organization that allocates a large number of
funds and resources for the budget of research and development of long-
range techniques, cares about the techniques of a primitive tribe?" Rui asked
with a raised eyebrow. "Furthermore, with the number of long-range Martial
Artists in the nation, it no doubt receives a lot of original development as
contributions from Martial Artists, right?"
"Correct," She agreed. "However, that does not mean the value of the
techniques G'ak'arkan Tribe isn't high. The number of long-range Martial
Artists of the G'ak'arkan tribe isn't too far behind that of the Martial Union.
While this tribe is incomparably smaller than the Kandrian Empire and the
Martial Union, almost every single Martial Artist is centered around long-
range offense, unlike the Martial Union. Furthermore, they have developed
their craft for four centuries, and their rate of dissemination is high. Every
Martial Artist has access to the techniques of every other Martial Artist.
While they are certainly inferior to the long-range Martial Artists of our
Union in some parameters, they possess truly remarkable techniques that
allow them to outmatch the long-range Martial Artists of the Union in other
parameters."
Rui raised an eyebrow. That was truly an incredible accomplishment and a

testament to their dedication to long-range Martial Art. Obtaining those
techniques would bring great benefit to the Martial Union, so Rui could
definitely understand why the Martial Union wanted them.
What he didn't entirely understand was why the Martial Union bothered with
diplomacy as opposed to more heavy-handed measures as it did with the
other smaller satellite states in its orbit. He wasn't entirely clear why they
dragged him into this either, though he definitely had an inkling. There were
many things that didn't make sense to him about this at the moment.
"I'm confused," Rui admitted. "For one, why is the Martial Union even taking
a formal diplomatic approach? We dominate the weaker and smaller nations
around us much more forcefully because we can. Isn't it more efficient and
effective to apply this same approach to the G'ak'arkan Tribe? Furthermore,
why me? A Martial Artist with no competence in the field of diplomacy?"
"Your point is valid," She nodded. "We generally do not take such a soft
approach when dealing with third parties that are vastly smaller and weaker
than us. The two strongest Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe are merely
Martial Seniors. If we deploy a single Martial Master or even our best Martial
Seniors, we could dominate the entire island... However, our intelligence
department and foreign affairs department has long since decided against
such an approach,"
Rui waited for her to complete her point.
"The G'ak'arkan Tribe and the many Martial tribes of Vilun Island generally
possess a highly warmongering and prideful culture. Based on the profile our
foreign intelligence division has created on them, there is an extremely high
probability that the G'ak'arkan Tribe are entirely willing to fight a bloody war
to the very last warrior, if need be, than to submit or lower their heads." She
paused, before continuing.
"Based on the extreme responses that we have recorded from them to a show
of domination or hostility, we have deemed that the probability of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe willingly submitting their techniques to us if we adopt a
forceful and hostile approach is very low. It is much likelier that they would
get themselves killed, knowingly, than to cooperate with us to avoid conflict
with us. While this may not necessarily be true for every Martial Artist
among them, there is a preponderance of warmongering, reckless, and
conflict-seeking elements in their culture that will simply cause most of them
to respond in an undesirable fashion to our objectives."
"I see..." Rui narrowed his eyes, absorbed in thought.
This was one of the few explanations that actually made sense. The Martial
Union's fundamental goal was to progress Martial Art and the interests of
Martial Artists. It was not a sovereign state that cared too much about
territory or other capital and assets. The Martial Union did not seek to
dominate the Martial tribes of Vilun Island. It would far rather cooperate with
the Martial tribes of Vilun Island than it would engage in conflict that would
end up annihilating those Martial tribes, causing their reservoir of techniques
developed across centuries to be forever lost.
Short of these techniques falling into the hands of a technique, there was
nothing else less desirable than this outcome to the Martial Union.
"That is why we do not want to take a forceful approach that could very
easily lead to this outcome," She sighed.
"That does make sense," Rui nodded. "But I still don't understand why I'm
being assigned the role of a diplomat."
"I was getting to that, young man," She chided him. "We have tried making
peaceful initiations before, however, they have generally been to very little
avail for several reasons."
She raised a finger. "First, their highly insular tribe as well as their enmity
with all external entities on the island have led them to develop an inherently
hostile and uncooperative attitude towards foreigners. This has heavily
hampered any and all diplomatic measures that we have taken in the past to
gain their friendship and engage in a mutually beneficial exchange of Martial
Art."
Rui could see why this hindered the attempts at befriending the G'ak'arkan
Tribe. Diplomacy and negotiation came only after there was an established
intent to cooperate due to mutual interests or issues. Between more
standardized sovereign states or independent third parties on the Panama
Continent, this was a lot easier because everybody played within the same
broad framework with each other. Money, resources, political, economic, and
militaristic incentives, and disincentives guided the interactions between all
of them. There were broad interests, both mutual and exclusive, that all these
nations and groups shared with each other.
However, all of that was thrown out due to the highly unique circumstances
and history of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, making regular means rather ineffective.
The G'ak'arkan Tribe almost certainly didn't care about the Kandrian currency
in the slightest bit at all. From what Rui understood of highly insular and
small tribes whose culture and lifestyle were deeply rooted in their natural
environment, they probably rejected foreign influence on their culture
vehemently and would most likely adopt a close-minded outlook on the
modern technological resources that the Kandrian Empire could provide.
Rui could easily imagine the Martial Union and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Kandrian Government getting frustrated as the G'ak'arkan Tribe
remained indifferent to money, esoteric natural resources, technological
resources, knowledge, and the various other assets that the Kandrian Empire
and Martial Union could muster.
Of course, there were still elements that didn't entirely make sense, but each
time she spoke, it became increasingly clearer.
"Another hindrance has been the fact that they only respect strength above all
else," She explained. "They do not respect normal humans anywhere near as
much as even Martial Apprentices. This applies even to our diplomatic teams
consisting of normal people that underwent higher education in diplomacy
and foreign affairs before being hired and trained by the Martial Union. The
status and authority that our diplomats have are meaningless in the eyes of
the G'ak'arkan Tribe, and they have received less than lukewarm receptions
from them."
"Why not dispatch strong Martial Artists capable of earning the respect of
even the strongest Martial Artist of the G'ak'arkan Tribe?" Rui asked, gaining
a clearer picture of why he was being assigned this mission."
"Martial Artists are capable of superhuman feats in the domain of physical

conflict, but unfortunately, that is the one trait that is the most unnecessary
and perhaps even definitively unconducive with the field of diplomacy." She
sighed. "We have found that blindly sending in Martial Artists has a high
propensity for even worse outcomes where fights almost broke out between
the Martial Artists we dispatched and the G'ak'arkan Tribe and our Martial
Artists."

Chapter 620 Suited
This was also something Rui had half-predicted. Martial Artists of higher
Realms were a different breed compared to a normal human, both literally
and figuratively. There were many things that Martial Artists required in
order to reach higher Realms, things like individuality and synergy in their
Martial Art were paramount. However, at the root of it all, there was a core
trait that every Martial Art had in order to undergo to climb up their Martial
Path, Realm by Realm.
Willpower.
Determination.
Perseverance.
There were important differences between all of them, however, they could
generally be treated as a broad singular temperamental and personality trait.
Without the willpower and determination to strive and continue climbing up

their Martial Path, nothing else could come. Martial Artists could persevere
through the difficulties of developing their Martial Art only if they had the
willpower and determination to. It could be said that Martial Artists
comprised a tiny proportion of the population that possessed the talent, luck,
and willpower to break through and attain a new Realm of power.
Of course, no rule was absolute, and all rules related to human civilization
had exceptions. There were some Martial Artists who possessed such a
tremendously high affinity to Martial Art that they could break through
without the willpower and determination that was normally necessary.
Rui had even come across one such example himself. Fiona Roschem was so
abysmally talented that she seemingly breezed through the breakthrough to
the Apprentice Realm.
However, for the average Martial Artist, it could most certainly be said that
they possessed a psychological profile that less than zero-point-one percent
of the population possessed!
Regardless of what their driving motivation was, most people could not
fathom the sheer amount of mental strength it took to reach higher Realms.
However, Rui could easily see why this highly exalted group of people, while
strategic and priceless, were perhaps not the most suited for diplomacy with
their unyielding determination and willingness to directly confront problems
head-on.
Rui recalled his encounters and interactions with the Martial Artists of higher
Realms. Asides from a few exceptions, almost all of them had a foundation of
determination and willpower beneath their surface temperament. Colonel
Geringan was driven by loyalty to his family and his nation, Senior Ceeran
was driven by a purist passion and ambition in regard to his Martial Path and
Martial Art that was similar to that of Rui.
"I can definitely see why sending Martial Artists is extremely risky and prone
to causing the situation to degenerate detrimentally as far as engaging in a
diplomatic relation with the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Diplomats are trained to cut
away their self and replace it with that what they represent from their
perspectives when interacting the foreign parties and entities. Such a mindset
is almost fundamentally incompatible with that of higher-ranking Martial
Artists," Rui keenly observed. "However, this is not an absolute rule. Surely
there are Martial Artists with not just the necessary ability to adopt the
mindset needed to conduct long attempts at persuasion and negotiations that
would eventually yield success, but also the intelligence to do so fruitfully
and effectively."
Even before Rui finished talking, he had understood why the Martial
commissioner had approached him for this task. He smiled wryly,
recognizing that he himself had supplied the answer for why she did.
She even smiled back, amused as they exchanged a knowing glance with
each other.
"Our Martial Union has built an elaborate profile on you," She began. "You
are highly intelligent and have demonstrated an almost unprecedented degree
of deductive and inductive logic and reasoning all the way back at the age of
thirteen when your mental parameters were evaluated after you first joined
the Martial Academy. You have demonstrated remarkable strategic
intelligence in many of your missions, ranging from identifying the Earthen
basilisk infestation through clever tactics just in time to prevent them from
spreading. The clever strategy you once employed in using their ambush to
trap and ambush them, the brilliant idea you came up with in the Serevian
Dungeon war that ended up winning the Martial Union and the Kandrian
Empire the most lucrative parts of the Serevian Dungeon, and your other
exploits make you a truly unique and incredible Martial Artist in this regard."
She paused, letting her words sink in.
Of course, Rui wasn't naÃ¯ve. He could tell that while sincere, she was
certainly trying to flatter him to a certain extent.
"Furthermore, your record-high time period of mastery of the Fauna Flow

communication technique makes us confident that you are qualified to
undertake the necessary training and education needed to converse with the
G'ak'arkan Tribe." She elaborated.
Rui's eyes furrowed as he realized the implications of those words. "Wait, I

need to learn their language?! I was under the impression that I would be
supplied with translators."
"In the past, with other Martial Artists, this certainly was the case inevitably.
However, you are certainly capable of mastering a new language, especially
given that you have mastered the Mind Palace technique to a rather extreme
degree," She pointed out.
"True, but languages are not simple to master," Rui complained. "I do not
wish to dedicate much time to mastering a new language."
pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ "You do not need to be too concerned about that," She
shook her head. "The G'ak'arkan dialect is a small and primitive language
whose lack of sophistication is commensurate with that of their culture,
knowledge, society, and capability. With your gifted cognition, your
Mindmirror Symbiote, and your mastery of the Mind Palace technique, you
should be able to reach a stage where you can communicate competently with
them in a short period of time."
"True, but as a Martial Artist, I do not wish to waste time sitting around with
books learning languages when I neither the need nor the desire to." Rui
insisted.
Of course, Rui had learned Vinfranese, but that was only because he needed
to unlock the secrets of the breakthrough to the Squire Realm, there were
clear personal benefits back then.
Chapter 621 Agreement
"Don't dismiss this measure too quickly, Squire Quarrier," Martial

commissioner Derun told him calmly. "We intend to compensate you
accordingly. The details can be negotiated, yet the Martial Union is willing to
go above and beyond to make this measure worth it."
She extracted a document from her desk, handing it to Rui.
"This..." Rui's eyes widened when he read through it. "It seems that the
Martial Union must truly value the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe to get
to go this far to get me to undertake this role."
"Indeed we are," She smiled. "Do not look down this opportunity, young
man. The standard offense, shadow, and hunter-class missions that you
normally undertake regularly are a dime a dozen and will forever be that way
for as long as Martial Art exists. You will never run out of them, and they
will always be available whenever you seek them. They are not special nor
unique experiences that can meaningfully nourish your experience and
worldview of the Martial World. While it is true that you are extremely
attractive as a prospective diplomat to us, it is also true that this is an
opportunity that you will probably never ever receive again for the rest of
your extended lifespan."
This was a much harder rationale to refuse for Rui. It was true that the
monotony of the standard mission could get too boring for him, and it did not
hurt to go for a change of pace every now and then. Furthermore, his love for
Martial Art inevitably fueled a deep curiosity about the Martial tribes of
Vilun Island. New experiences that diverged immensely from anything he
had ever experienced ever before could greatly fuel his imagination and serve
as fuel for new inspiration.
This new inspiration could potentially serve as fuel for new techniques.
Individuality was not easy to generate, in order to exercise his imagination to
come up with something new and original, he would do himself well by
expanding his worldview on what is possible. It could potentially serve as a
rather solid boost to his individuality in the meantime.
This alone was worth undertaking the mission as a diplomat. The exaggerated
remuneration that the Martial Union was willing to give him in exchange for
taking this measure was simply the cherry on top.
"...Alright," Rui sighed. "I accept the mission and the preparation it entails."
"Brilliant," She smiled. "That is quite relieving to hear."
"What I'm unclear about is the degree of preparation that will be necessary
for me to serve as an adequate diplomat," Rui pointed out. "I'm also unclear
on the negotiation capital that the Martial Union is willing to concede for this
diplomatic endeavor."
"You will undergo basic training on the fundamentals of diplomacy, the

Kandrian Empire, and the Martial Union. You should be competent enough
to be able to quell any queries that the G'ak'arkan Tribe may pose to you if
the negotiations go well. You will also receive instruction on the specifics
and the limits of the diplomatic capital that the Martial Union has set aside
for the endeavor." She explained. "Furthermore, you will need to thoroughly
familiarize yourself with everything related to our diplomatic targets, directly
on indirectly. That includes the known history, geography, and topography of
Vilun island, its cultural profile as well as the details surrounding its
demographics. Ultimately, you will be familiarized with their interests and
issues intimately. This will allow you to know what they want, and what they
don't, and you will be able to correspondingly navigate how to go about
establishing a Martial Art trade by knowing what the Martial Union can and
is willing to offer; Our negotiating capital."
Rui nodded.
He actually had a good understanding of the thought process of diplomats in

a general and broad sense. Diplomats furthered the interests of the entity that
they represented by accordingly persuading and negotiating with foreign
parties to act or engage in a manner to further their own interests. In practice,
this included trades and exchanges, offers and threats, and other transactions.
However, it was one thing to have a good qualitative understanding of the

role of diplomats and how they fulfilled it, and another thing entirely to
obtain the competencies required to do that successfully.
Of course, neither Rui nor commissioner Derun expected Rui to obtain the
competencies on par with that of the actual professional diplomats of the
Martial Union, not at all. That was an impossibility for the most part and
would require many years of studying that Rui would not even consider
doing even for the slightest millisecond. However, Rui was sure that he could
reach a stage where he would at the very least abstain from making
tremendous blunders like his predecessors did.
"All of these matters will be addressed once you sign the contract," Martial
commissioner Derun told him. "We will specify all of the agreements we
have made in the contract as clauses. In exchange for serving as a diplomat to
engage in a diplomatic endeavor to obtain the long-range techniques of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe, you will be given extensive remuneration in return as
shown earlier."
Rui nodded as a tiny smile broke onto his face.
A small little world isolated from that of the rest of human civilization.
Martial philosophies that he had never encountered before and Martial Art
techniques that he had never seen before. There wasn't a single element of
this experience that wouldn't be entirely brand-new to Rui. He probably
would have experienced such a culture shock since he was reborn into this
new world!
Rui couldn't wait to get going with this mission immediately. He intended to
give the training and tutelage his very absolute best so he could immediately
head over to Vilun Island and convince the tribal folks to trade techniques.
He wasn't sure how he was going to go about it, but he was very confident
that he would figure out some plan that would make things proceed in a
desirable manner.
Chapter 622 History
Once they came to an agreement, Martial commissioner Derun drafted a

contract that specified the details of the mission before Rui signed it and once
the stamp of the Martial Union hit the document, it became official.
"So, now what?" Rui asked as he relaxed back into his seat.
"I'll have the department of foreign affairs and the intelligence department set
up a team and a training program to train, instruct and brief you on
everything you need to know to accomplish the mission as well as possible,"
Commissioner Derun informed him. "Unfortunately, that takes some time.
We cannot subject you to ordinary training programs that our diplomats have
gone through, that would take too long. Not even you with your supreme
cognition could complete it within a reasonable timeframe, as we've agreed.
That means our internal training department will need to cooperate with the
department of foreign affairs and the intelligence department to come up with
a tailored training and briefing program just for you and this particular
mission."
"I understand," Rui nodded. "Can I access the historical reports and records
documenting all of our diplomatic endeavors with the G'ak'arkan Tribe?"
"That can be arranged," Commissioner Derun nodded. "Although that will be

thoroughly covered in the briefing program arranged by us, it won't hurt for
you to go through them if you wish to."
They conversed extensively, discussing the details before the conversation

finally came to an end.
Rui had a lot to think about on his way home, there were so many things to
think about that he felt like he could do so forever.
"This will probably be one of the most unique missions that I have
undertaken thus far," Rui murmured to himself as he sky-walked home. "At
the very least, it's probably the only Martial Art barring training partner
missions where my combat prowess is entirely irrelevant."
The Martial commissioner was absolutely right when she said that this was a
unique opportunity. Where else would Rui have the opportunity to serve as
an ambassador for the Martial Union?
Rui had already rejected the invitation to become an internal member of the
Martial Union rather than just an external associate. This meant that, unless
very necessary like it was in this circumstance, he would not be assigned to
handle truly sensitive matters of the Martial Union.
Rui was firmly against putting himself in a position where he had to

undertake responsibility for matters and people other than himself, and
perhaps his family. While he did not regret this decision, and had no intention
of changing it in the short term, it was also true that he would generally not
be given the juiciest and most important of missions to the Martial Union.
"That's fine by me," Rui shook his head.
Once he reached home, he locked himself in his room, opening up his

accounter as he accessed his inbox. He had already received documents of the
Martial Union's diplomatic history with that of Vilun island.
He opened them, browsing through their history.
[Naval exploratory team EW778 'Eagle's Flight' daily report
Date: Year three hundred and seventy-one, 53rd August
Title: Discovery of a new island.
....]
Rui raised an eyebrow as he read through the report that preceded all the
other files in the digital document that the martial Union had sent him.
"To think she literally sent me the entirety of all documentation of the Vilun
Island since the very initial discovery of the island thirty years ago," Rui
smirked.
What surprised Rui more than anything was that they only happened to
discover the island thirty years ago. This seemed to indicate that the
exploration and mapping of the world by the human civilization on the
Panama Continent was disproportionately lacking behind other aspects of its
progression.
This was an interesting revelation, but not one Rui focused on too much.
Rui read through the report of the initial discovery of Vilun Island. The team
reached the island and immediately deboarded and began hastily scouring the
island, after noting that there were no signs of civilization. This was as per
protocols at the time, of course. The naval team was not supposed to make
contact with inhabited land with clear signs of civilization such as the
infrastructure of buildings, roads, ports, etc. They were supposed to merely
record the location of the land before promptly returning to the Kandrian
Empire.
However, this did not appear to be the case with Vilun Island. The island was
covered in a lush, dense, and rich forest without any signs of human
inhabitation. The naval exploratory team mistakenly assumed that the island
was uninhabited and endeavored to explore the new island extensively.
They discovered valuable esoteric natural resources, yet the second they
began aggressively extracting them, they received a shocking welcome from
the Martial tribes of Vilun Island who retaliated after witnessing the outsiders
harming their island.
The naval exploratory team suffered many casualties as they retreated and ran
away from the island in a haste.
('Interesting,') Rui was faintly reminded of the story of Columbus with this
tale. Of course, the outcome of that discovery was radically different. The
fundamental difference between the opposite outcomes of the two discoveries
was the balance of power.
The natives of Vilun Island were strong enough to drive away the naval
exploratory team dispatched by the Kandrian Empire. However, the same
could not be said for the natives of North America.
Ultimately, power was all that mattered.
Rui resumed reading through the files, gaining a broader understanding of the
events that followed understand.
The naval exploratory team of the Kandrian Empire was part of a larger
exploratory endeavor to map out the oceans while also seeking land and
natural resources. The Martial Union partook in this endeavor by supplying
the much-needed aquatic Martial Artists that at the time was a special niche
in which the Kandrian Empire lacked enough of a foundation.
The discovery of a new isolated and small island filled with many Martial
Artists was a much more interesting development to the Martial Union and
Chapter 623 Mystery
While the territory and esoteric natural resources of the island were of interest
to the Kandrian government, the Martial Union had grown a lot more
interested in the discovery of a primitive civilization entirely distant from the
Panama Continent that also happened to develop Martial Art.
Rui also got access to confidential analytical reports of the Institute of Martial
Anthropology regarding the Martial Artists of Vilun Island as well as the
transcripts of the internal moderated caucuses of the Martial Union regarding
the situation.
The fact that Vilun Island was many thousands of kilometers away from the
Kandrian Martial Union made the plausibility of Martial Art existing
independently on the island quite interesting. This was plausible.
After all, the breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm was entirely a natural
phenomenon. It wasn't implausible that the Martial Tribes of the Vilun Island
independently discovered the Apprentice Realm.
After all, these Martial Tribes lived a life of conflict. They engaged in a
drastically disproportionate amount of physical conflict that far exceeded that
of nearly any society on the Panama Continent. Furthermore, unlike that of
human civilization on the Panama Continent, the Martial Tribes of Vilun
Island did not develop excessive reliance on technology to augment their
warfare.
This meant that all of the physical conflicts were conducted with their
physical bodies. Rui was sure that this was, no doubt, the reason that the first
Martial Apprentice of Vilun Island came to be. It was probably the case that
the first Martial Apprentice of Vilun Island was a particularly skilled fighter
who had dedicated themselves to increasing their combat prowess by training
before finally discovering their Martial Path and becoming a Martial Artist.
The first several Martial Apprentices of the Martial Tribes of Vilun Island
must have set a precedent and facilitated the coming generation of their tribes
to develop the mindset, body, and approach to combat that was conducive to
them discovering their Martial Paths.
Over time this process must have become significantly refined and an
increasing number of Martial Apprentices would go onto blood from each
generation.
The analytical report of the Institute of Martial Anthropology speculated that

this hypothesis was the likeliest explanation when one only considered the
breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm. However, this hypothesis became
much less likely when one considered the fact that the Martial Tribes were
discovered to have also discovered the breakthrough to the Squire Realm and
also the Senior Realm!
This discovery made the then prevailing hypothesis that the Martial Tribes of
Vilun Island became Martial Artists independently of the Martial Martists of
the Panama Continent much less credible and likely.
This was because the breakthrough to the Squire Realm was an artificially
constructed product of science and not a natural phenomenon.
The original evolution breakthrough that gave birth to the first Martial Squire
was developed by a researcher. Although it was absolutely true that this
breakthrough procedure was highly crude, unsophisticated, and primitive
compared to the modern evolution breakthrough process that the Martial
Union currently employed, it still was the origin of the Squire Realm.
The Martial Artists produced by that original process, while far weaker than
that of modern Martial Squires, were still bonafide Martial Squires.please
visit
This was not something that could be accomplished without a technological

foundation.
This was something that the Institute of Martial Anthropology found
puzzling. But as an institute that extensively documented and studied the
history of Martial Art and Martial Artists and their impact on society and
civilization, they had managed to come up with an alternate hypothesis.
While it was true that Vilun Island was separated from the Panama Continent
by thousands of kilometers, that was by modern standards. According to
historical records as well as modern extrapolations of geography, climate,
and the environment used to be like in the past, it was entirely possible that
Vilun Island was connected to the main continent by land for a brief period in
history during the birth of the Age of Martial Art due to elevated land and
lower sea levels.
This meant that the Martial Art that currently existed on Vilun Island may
very well be a strange mutation of a relic inherited from the Panama
Continent.
Of course, this was just a hypothesis. There was no proof that this was
actually the case. Ultimately, the history of the Martial Art of Vilun Island
was nebulous and unclear to this day. Not even the diplomatic endeavors with
Vilun Island had managed to shed light on this mystery.
Part of it is due to the failed diplomatic endeavors on setting up cooperative

and mutually beneficial trade between them and the G'ak'arkan Tribe as well
as the other tribes. Another part of it was certainly due to the fact that the
natives themselves did not have sophisticated documentation and recording in
their culture. What history and heritage they seemed to know about were
vague legends that had been passed down by word.
If there had been any specific details surrounding the birth of Martial Art on
Vilun Island, they had long been stripped, leaving uselessly ambiguous tales
that did not clarify this puzzle.
Of course, it was not particularly important, all things considered.
At the end of the day, who particularly cared about how Martial Art
originated on Vilun Island? Once the initial speculation hit a dead-end, it was
forgotten about. The Institute of Martial Anthropology, an institute founded
by the Martial Union, never received too much support in its proposal to
uncover this historical mystery above other matters.
Rui was the same, to an extent. Of course, he was curious about the truth, but
he cared much more about the actual Martial Art of Vilun Island!
He moved to the files that contained the reports detailing the Martial Art
techniques that the Martial Artists of Vilun Island, and specifically, the
G'ak'arkan Tribe employed. These were not only much more interesting and
valuable, but also much more relevant to his mission. In fact, it was the
driving force behind why this mission had even been created in the first
place!
"This..." Rui's eyebrows rose as he read through the files that contained
reports of observed techniques employed by the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
A variety of long-range techniques that were truly unlike anything Rui had
seen in the libraries of the Martial Union or in the field ever before.
One report spoke about a magical telekinetic-like technique that allowed the
user to exert magical invisible force on anything within a certain range as
though there were invisible arms extending from the user's body!
This user could simultaneously fight enemies by using this technique to exert
a crushing force on their opponent, while also using the technique to form
invisible barriers. Furthermore, the user reportedly possessed a lot of finesse
with this technique. She was reported engaging in a variety of activities
simultaneously. Trees cleanly chopped themselves into wood, food cooked,
toys magically played with by the young ones, etc.
It was a magical degree of control that was hard to believe. If not for the fact
that this outcome was verified by multiple sensory/stealth-oriented Martial
Artists who engaged in long-range surveillance, Rui wasn't sure he would be
able to accept this so easily.
Rui had no doubt that the Martial Union possessed Martial Artists that could
replicate these feats, the important point was that these Martial Artists would
certainly be Martial Seniors and Martial Masters. The report alleged that the
Martial Artist performing these feats was a young and otherwise
unremarkable Martial Squire.
This was the shocking part.

In a way, this was very similar to Rui's situation.
Rui's Pathfinder allowed him to strike targets with extreme accuracy from
remarkably great distances away. No Martial Squire was likely his equal in
this regard.
However, this did not apply to the Senior Realm or the Master Realm. Rui
did not dare to assume that his feats were even impressive by such standards,
let alone irreplicable.
Despite this, the Martial Union and the Longranger Sect greatly valued his
technique. The reason for this was that it was a technique that allowed a
Martial Squire to replicate a feat that should have ordinarily been impossible
for Martial Squires.
Allowing Martial Artists of lower Realms to accomplish what should have

otherwise been impossible to achieve was what Rui was contributing with the
Void Pathfinder technique.
Evidently, the technique that he had just read about was of a similar value.
Of course, the difference was that Rui developed the Void Pathfinder
technique all by himself, while the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe were
probably developed over an extensive period of time.
Regardless, Rui could only imagine how much the Martial Union yearned for
techniques like these.
The value of such techniques was not low. Rui could easily imagine the
potential these techniques had as far as strengthening the Martial Union.
Although the difference wouldn't be too drastic, it was still extremely
relevant.
With how powerful the Martial Union was, even a single percent boost to its
net Martial power was something that was extremely valuable. It was not
easy for the Martial Union to obtain such a straightforward boost.please visit
Of course, whether this was even possible depended on the difficulty of the
technique and its dissemination viability. These two factors decided how
widely such a technique could be spread. Rui's Pathfinder technique scored
high as far as the difficulty of mastery went and low as far as dissemination
viability was concerned.
If this technique was a grade-ten technique like Pathfinder, then its value
would decrease, but it would still be a highly desirable technique capable of
strengthening the high-end capabilities of Martial Artists.
Rui studied the reports as he tried to figure out how the technique worked.
Of course, given that he had nothing but reports, albeit detailed, to work with,
Rui wasn't particularly optimistic about his chances of figuring it out.
('But if I had to guess...')
If he had to guess, then he highly suspected that she was using a breathing
technique to generate powerful wind currents, and then using intricate
movements of his body to manipulate those wind currents to exert force in
certain ways.
In a way, she would be manipulating objects like they were puppets, where
the winds acted as the strings.
This hypothesis matched up with the observation that she was never still
when applying this technique. If that was the case, then Rui had to admit that
he would be more than just a little curious as to how such a technique was
able in the first place. He would have loved to have mastered this technique if
it was viable. However, he probably would not be compatible with such a
technique in the first place.
The reason that the Pathfinder technique was a technique that he had a high
affinity, compatibility, and synergy with was that the technique almost
fundamentally depended on his unique strengths to be viable for him to use at
all.
The technique that he was reading about was probably a grade nine or grade
ten technique, Rui highly doubted that it had a difficulty lower than that.
Regardless, it was definitely valuable. Rui could easily imagine Senior
Ceeran growing extremely excited at this technique.
('Actually, given the fact that he's the deputy director of the long-range
research division, he's probably already aware of the matters surrounding
Vilun Island, the G'ak'arkan Tribe, and the various techniques that they
possess.
Given how excited he had gotten when Rui showed off what his Pathfinder
technique could do, he was probably heavily involved with the analysis of the
techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Hell, Rui wouldn't be surprised if he had
been one of his predecessors and been dispatched to Vilun Island as a
diplomat.
He could also imagine why the endeavors failed if that were the case. The
Martial Senior was certainly driven, and that was probably what would
disqualify him in the first place.
Rui shook his head as he continued reading through the recorded techniques
and capabilities of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, growing more interested in what he
read the more he did.
Chapter 625 Limitations
Rui spent time going through the reports that the Martial Union had provided
him with, gaining a more nuanced understanding of the G'ak'arkan Tribe's
techniques. He understood that while the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe
were truly spectacular in some regards, they were truly lacking in other
regards.
"They have shitty range limits," Rui sighed.
They were unable to target extremely distant techniques, at least, nowhere

near as far as the Martial Artists of the Kandrian Empire could. Rui
understood what Martial commissioner Derun meant when she said that they
had their own shortcomings and their own unique strengths.
"Their potency is also lacking, relatively speaking," Rui realized as he went

through the techniques that were of special interest to the Martial Union.
The G'ak'arkan Tribe possessed a diverse set of techniques that, while strong
in some ways were much less than optimal when it came to range and
potency.
"But this is an area that the Martial Union's techniques thrive in," Rui
nodded. "While the Martial Union's techniques less gimmicky, they possess
greater superiority in some of the more fundamental aspects of long-range
offense."
Part of this has to do with the fact that the Martial Union dumped a fortune
for the budget allocation of long-range techniques research every year. Not
all of this funding went into creating new techniques, a lot of it also went into
optimizing existing techniques.
Considering that this had happened for nearly four centuries, it had
snowballed tremendously over time, leading to much stronger long-range
foundations as far techniques went. The G'ak'arkan Tribe did not possess
such an advantage, and thus their techniques were less solid in many ways
compared to that of the Martial Union.
Part of the superiority of the techniques of the Martial Union came from the
fact that the Squire evolution breakthrough process of the Martial Union was
much superior to the much more primitive version that the G'ak'arkan tribe
seemed to have.
The Martial Union was able to grant Martial bodies that had high affinities
for long-range targeting to long-range Martial Artists. Once these Martial
Artists developed techniques that were highly synergistic with that of their
body and their Martial Path, then they were able to exhibit power greater than
what the technique by itself was able to merit at times.
This was an advantage that the Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe were
unable to match. It was one of the reasons that the Martial Artits of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe were unable to match the Martial Artists of the Martial
Union.
Rui studied the reports surrounding their techniques extensively until he was
finally satisfied.
('There is definitely plenty of merit to befriending these tribal folks,') Rui

concurred by the time he was done.please visit
It wasn't just the techniques that they had already developed and refined thus
far, but also the advancements they would make in the future. These people
had many Martial Artists every generation, considering how much progress
they had made in centuries, Rui could not imagine how much further they
would go in the future. New techniques and improvements to existing
technique were almost a guarantee. It was a waste to try and kill them, or
dominate them. The Martial Union would benefit the most by keeping them
alive and growing stronger, which in turn would make the Martial Union
stronger.
('I can also see why the Martial Union is relying on a diplomatic strategy
instead of an espionage strategy to try and steal those techniques.') Rui
nodded.
The Martial Tribes possessed remarkable senses, they had grown so familiar
with their forest and island that encroaching upon it had considerably higher
risk of detection. And reaching close enough to try and spy on them was even
worse.
Meaning, any stealth and sensory oriented Martial Artist would not be able to
get particularly valuable information because the tribal folks were highly
cautious of their techniques being stolen due to the presence of multiple
Martial Tribes. When training, they took measures to obscure any secrets
surrounding their techniques. Esoteric natural resources found on the island
that dampened matter and energy flux through them were quite effective in
hampering sensory although they could only be used in a small isolated area.
In order to avoid detection of all the Martial Artists including the Martial
Seniors, while also gaining deep sensory insight into the training
methodologies and techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe could probably not be
accomplished by shadow-class Martial Seniors.
Rui suspected that it would probably take Martial Masters to accomplish such
a feat.
('The problem is that Martial Masters are scarce and highy strategic resources
that need to be employed on matters that truly warranted their power.') Rui
sighed.
The G'ak'arkan Tribe was significant, but it did not weight down on priorities
of far greater importance such as the deadlock between the Martial Union and
the Royal Family. Or the power struggle between the Kandrian Empire and
the other super-nations such as the Britannian Empire, The Republic of
Gorteau and the Sekigahara Confederation.
Maintaining surveillance of the most powerful assets of their adversaries was

a near full-time job and required these powerful Martial Artists to invest
conisderable time and energy on them.
These matters were of existential importance and were far more needy of the
most powerful Martial Artists of the Martial Union than the curious and
interesting, but ultimately harmless G'ak'arkan Tribe.
That was why Martial commissioner Derun had approached him, outside of
the upper echelons of the Martial Union who possessed the power to extract
the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, simply because such a mission wasn't
worth the time of Martial Artists who possess far more important matters to
attend to.
The more Rui read, the more he comprehended why she decided to entrust
this mission to him. He also gained a deeper understanding of how he would
likely go about it. Of course, he abstained from making any specific plans.
He was still quite far away from that stage and there were plenty of things
that he needed to before he was ready to serve as a diplomat.
Chapter 626 Trainer
Rui spent the entire day reading through all the files and documents that the
Martial Union had sent him before finally putting his accounter down,
massaging his forehead.
He had already memorized the data and stored them in his mind palace,
organizing them most appropriately.
The data could roughly be divided into a number of categories:
Surveillance data which was obtained through low-risk and low-yield

surveillance.
The diplomatic history between the tribes of Vilun Island.
Analytical reports from various departments and divisions regarding the data
procured.
Surveillance reports could be divided between that of the surveillance of the

G'ak'arkan Tribe and the other tribes of the island as well as general discreet
surveys conducted of the island itself. The surveillance reports could further
be bifurcated into surveillance surrounding their Martial Art and non-Martial
Art surveillance.
Rui still needed to take time and process all this information thoroughly.
It was one thing to memorize them word for word, it was another thing to
have properly processed them and derived and inferred all the information
from them that he could. He couldn't do that in a short amount of time. He
would need to spend an extensive amount of time immersing himself in the
information before he was content
Fortunately, he didn't really need to. A few days later, he received a message
from the Martial Union regarding the preparation for his briefing and training
program had been completed, which was sooner than Rui expected, but the
Martial Union could not keep him waiting for too long.
"Squire Quarrier," An aged man bowed to him, greeting him with a smile
once he reached the briefing office where he was supposed to be. "I am Carl
Sullion, a senior diplomatic trainer for the Martial Union. I am a former
diplomat of the foreign affairs department, having served for twenty years as
the assigned representative of the Martial Union to the Town of Xeron before
retiring and spending eighteen years as a trainer. I have been tasked to
provide you with the basic training to help you complete your diplomatic
mission in the G'ak'arkan Tribe."
Rui studied him and the men and women behind him. The man possessed
grace and dignity while still maintaining an appropriately modest and
adequately deferential attitude. He managed to convey the respect that
ordinary employees of the Martial Union ought to have for Martial Artists
while still maintaining a sense of pride and self-esteem. He gave Rui an
impression of a wise man who had a wealth of experience.
Rui could instantly tell that the man must have been one hell of a diplomat
when he was occupying his post. Rui was very adept at reading non-verbal
communication, courtesy of a combination of his shrewd awareness as well
as his mastery of the Fauna Flow technique. Rui got the impression that the
man had impeccable control and mastery over his demeanor.
Rui smiled. "Thank you for your help, it seems that I am in good
hands,"please visit
"Thank you," The man responded with a gentle smile. "I was the assigned
diplomatic trainer for your predecessors. I have a lot of experience with this
particular mission and am the most qualified faculty of our internal training
department to aid you with it."
"That's quite reassuring to hear," Rui nodded. "Well, if there are no other
matters at hand, can we begin the training and briefing immediately."
"Of course, though since this is your first day, we will begin talking about the
actual objective of the mission thoroughly and deeply, before naturally
shifting to basic diplomatic theory and its relevancy here. We will also look
at the broad and basic information and the facts surrounding the mission,
including information about Vilun Island, and the martial Tribes, including
your target; the G'ak'arkan Tribe. We will also touch upon the constraints that
you will be expected to abide by as a representative of the Martial Union."
"I see," Rui nodded. "That will set up a good foundation in aiding me to
actually understand what is necessary to succeed, and how I can ensure those
conditions are fulfilled."
"Indeed," Carl smiled. "I have prepared a presentation for you focused on
ease of assimilation of the understanding that I aim to convey."
Rui nodded. "I shall endeavor to learn as much as possible."
Rui didn't try to disrupt the plans that Carl had made by pointing out that he
had already memorized and considered pretty much all the relevant data
surrounding the mission. Carl's familiarity and expertise on all relevant
matters were much greater than his, and there were plenty of insights that he
could gain from Carl's presentation.
Although Rui was aware that he was very intelligent, he was not arrogant
enough to assume that he could beat a veteran specialist in their intellectual
field of a specialist. Intelligence alone was far from enough to beat education
and experience.
The only reason he somewhat broke that rule when talking to Julian about
research and science was that he had spent a lifetime as a researcher and a
scientist, thus he had the qualifications to speak to Julian as an equal on this
matter. Of course, he restrained himself as he did not want to expose his alien
degree of understanding of science beyond cutting-edge Kandrian theoretical
physics.
"Have a seat," Carl gestured.
The room was large with many chairs and tables facing the podium where
Carl promptly walked over to as his assistant faculty prepared the table with
the necessary stationery.
"Today we will begin the training and briefing program that we have
prepared for you, Squire Quarrier" Carl began with a solemn tone. "I have
personally gone through your profile and created a training and briefing
program that is best suited for you. I was very pleased to learn that you have
particularly high cognitive parameters, this makes both our tasks much easier
and greatly increases the probability of success. Your mission requires your
finesse more than it needs the standard parameters that you are most
accustomed to using in Martial missions. Acknowledging and completely
accepting this fact is the first step that you need to take."
Chapter 627 Breakdown
He was right.
Rui walked into missions knowing that his Martial Art would allow him to
overcome hurdles and obstacles that ordinary humans couldn't even dream of
doing so. Although he was conscious enough to know that his combat
prowess did not have any direct role in this mission asides from being taken
more seriously, it was not easy to alter his subconscious attitude.
Still, Rui's attitude was driven by his conscious thought, since he put a lot of
thought into each and every one of his decisions when completing missions,
so this wasn't too much of a problem.
"One of the biggest issues with the previous Martial Artists who had been
appointed as the diplomat was that they were largely unable to shake the
subconscious attitude that physical power was the answer to all missions, in a
way. Or at least necessary for all missions," He sighed. "In this mission, any
displays of your combat prowess will only reduce the chances of success of
your mission."
"I understand that sir," Rui nodded. "Fear not, I do not intend to act in a
manner that will jeopardize the mission."
"I am glad to hear that," The man nodded. "Of course, there will be some
degree of psychological training regardless, but it is already a very good sign
that you have so easily agreed with this."
Rui felt a tinge of sympathy for the man. How incompetent were the previous
Martial Artists when it came to diplomacy for the man to be relieved by
something so basic?
Of course, since he had gone through the reports so he knew exactly how
incompetent they were. But he could only imagine the heat and flack this
man must have gotten for the incompetence of others.
"With that out of the way, I intend to go deeper into the briefing and training
program that we have put you through." The man nodded as he pulled out a
device from his coat, fiddling with some buttons.
The board behind him lit up differently before an image of a flowchart

occupied the screen.
"This is the progression of your briefing program," The man nodded as he

pointed to the first box in the flowchart containing the word 'objective'.
"The most fundamental part of this mission is, of course, the actual objective.
What is your objective when you serve as a diplomat for the Martial Union to
the G'ak'arkan Tribe? I'm sure Martial commissioner Derun has informed you
that the Martial Union wishes to obtain its techniques. But which techniques,
exactly? What exactly about them do we wish to obtain?"please visit
These were good questions, even if they seemed silly and pointless on the
surface. The first question wanted to precisely establish the techniques that
the Martial Union wanted. After all, the Martial Union did not want each and
every single Martial Art technique that the G'ak'arkan Tribe was in
possession of. Some of them were extremely poor that the Martial Union
would rather not obtain them at all, while there were several key gems that
the Martial Union sought after the most.
"The Martial Union is interested in these particular techniques," Carl nodded

as he pressed a button, the slide changed and a brief list of techniques and a
brief explanation for each of them covered the screen. "These techniques
were observed and reported by our sensory and stealth techniques who
managed to catch the occasional employment of these techniques despite the
distance that was between themselves and their surveillance targets."
Rui scanned the list quickly, nodding. This list has more or less abided by his
understanding of why the Martial Union was bothering with the mission at
all.
"Furthermore, we want the techniques, their mechanisms, and principles as
well as the training methodology used to train this technique," Carl added.
"All of these are part of the goal to obtain those techniques.
"The Martial Union has ruled out a forceful approach for reasons we will go
into later, although I am told that you have been briefed about that to a certain
extent. But for now, that means we will be relying on a peaceful approach
that involves the G'ak'arkan Tribe giving us their techniques voluntarily. The
most immediate and basic question that arises is, how can we accomplish
such a thing?" The man patiently explained.
"And this is where the necessity for diplomacy arises," the man continued
before switching the slide to another one. "Why would the G'ak'arkan Tribe
willingly divulge their Martial Art techniques, when they seem, as you have
already been informed, quite protective about their Martial Art techniques?"
The man asked. "In a broader sense, why would anyone give up anything that
they possess a strong attachment to and are unwilling to give up?"
Rui bore with the man's somewhat patronizing lecture because he understood
why the man was beginning with something so elementary and simple, as far
as Rui was concerned. It was probably the case that the previous Martial
Artists were so shit at these topics that the man realized he needed to start the
basics of the basics.
"Because they could be provided with incentives greater than their

attachment to their belongings or given disincentives that are greater than
their desire to not give up their belongings," Rui noted. "In this case, the
Martial Union has already ruled out forceful methods that include threats and
forceful coercion. Thus, we can effectively say that for my mission, we
cannot get them to divulge their techniques via disincentives like the threat of
death or pain and suffering for their loved ones. Instead, we need to levy
enough a number of high-enough incentives in order to get the G'ak'arkan
Tribe to willingly hand over their techniques."
Carl's eyebrows rose as he realized that Rui actually had a much more
thorough understanding of the basics of diplomacy than he had given credit
to the Martial Squire. He seemed remarkably sharp and had already given
what was effectively a perfect self-framed answer that encapsulated the core
philosophy underlying diplomatic theory very well.
Chapter 628 Interests
"That's correct," The man nodded, evidently pleased with Rui's answer.
"Everybody has needs, interests, and issues. These can be and are leveraged
to foster mutually beneficial relationships between two parties."
He turned to Rui. "Can you figure out what are some of the most universal
interests that are frequently leveraged in diplomatic negotiations and
deliberations between two parties such as sovereign nations on the Panama
Continent?"
Rui nodded. "The most universal interests that are likeliest to be leveraged
are the fundamental necessities of every sovereign nation. Things such as
sufficient food supply and security are absolutely necessary for the
sustenance of any viable society. These are primary needs that are required
for any form of human civilization."
Regardless of the culture, traditions of a society, the surrounding geo-

political landscape, and other parameters of said state, food, and security
were absolute necessities for human sustenance.
"On a secondary level," Rui continued. "Technological sophistication is also

vital for maintaining a baseline modern lifestyle and is a highly desired asset.
Things like the communication sector and networks that the most important
significant sectors and institutions of our empire use to function viably.
Without it, our empire would almost certainly be crippled immediately. As
such, every nation prioritizes building a sustainable communication sector
within the nation."
While remote communication technology had not spread as far as to reach the
average common citizen, it was still quite important in the functioning of the
nation. All executive branches, ministries, and departments of the entirety of
the government frequently relied on esoteric communication tech for remote
coordination across the entire country.
Even the Martial Union frequently used it all the time for the remote
coordination of Martial Artists, clients, and within the Martial Union between
branches and employees.
"That is quite true," Carl nodded. "In fact, I once negotiated a highly
favorable agreement for the Kandrian Empire with one of the surrounding
satellite nations that I was, at one point, the appointed Kandrian
representative and ambassador for, thanks to the universal interest that is
sustained communications."
Rui's eyebrows rose in interest. "That sounds interesting, and confidential."
Carl chuckled. "I have been authorized to share personal anecdotes and
experiences if it aids in your training, within a certain limit by Martial
commissioner Derun. This thanks to the fact that you are a Martial Squire,
that too one of interest, to the Martial Union."
"I see," Rui expected as much. "You were saying?"
"This nation lacked a sustainable supply of Ire Slagpowder, which is an

esoteric substance that is one of the most commonly used battery fuels for
communication devices. Because the nation needed it so desperately, I was
able to negotiate remarkably favorable terms for the Martial Union, including
but not limited to heavy annual remuneration, significant reductions in import
tax, and tariffs imposed on the Martial Union's Martial goods and services as
well as highly favorable amendments to the extradition treaty between the
Kandrian Empire and said nation, among other things."
Rui raised an eyebrow at his words.
Those were considerable concessions!
The heavy remuneration was guaranteed, and Rui was relatively certain that
the price paid by the nation was not low, given this was nothing short of a
strategic resource. The nation must have bled dearly to obtain it. On top of
that, they had to lower the import tariffs that were imposed on all imported
goods from foreign nations. This clause would cause the Martial Union's
international business to boom in the nation. After all, the price of
international goods factored in the import tariffs and duties, this meant that
they were generally pricier than the equivalent of the same goods in the local
economy in order to maintain standard profit margins. However, with a
reduction in import tariffs, the Martial goods and services that the Martial
Union could provide would outcompete its other international competitors.
This would stimulate the Martial Union's internal economy surrounding

Martial Artists and other departments that earned secondary streams of
revenue.please visit
What Rui didn't understand, however, was the third clause that Carl
mentioned. "Why negotiate for favorable amendments in the extradition
treaty between the Kandrian Empire and said nation? Isn't that a clause that
benefits the Kandrian Empire more than it does the Martial Union?"
"That is true," The man nodded. "We internally negotiated with the Kandrian
Empire and obtained concessions and compensations before proceeding with
the deal. It also makes the environment safer for completing missions
because we can recover our Martial Artists who are compromised to the
nation. It also serves as a good training ground for younger and more
inexperienced Martial Artists who don't have much experience in foreign and
international missions."
"I see..." Rui thought about it. "That sounds like it must have been an
exceedingly complicated negotiation and lobbying effort on your part."
"It took a few months to settle, but it is one of my more significant and
prouder accomplishments," The man nodded.
"Which nation is this, by the way?" Rui wondered, curious.
"It is a nation you are actually familiar with, as far as your record goes," The
man smiled. "The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana."
"That actually makes a lot of sense," Rui nodded.

He had always wondered why the Martial Union deployed him and a few
other Martial Apprentices on such a mission. It made a lot more sense if the
Martial Union viewed the territory of the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana
as a somewhat safer zone.
"Coming back to the main point, you aren't incorrect in your analysis of the
most common interests of nations that are frequently levied to negotiate
agreements between two parties," The man smiled.
"Thank you."
"But unfortunately, your worldview is a bit oversimplistic," The man pointed

out.
Rui raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"It is true that food and security are absolutely paramount. But is also true
that most nations are able to fulfill this interest to a much larger extent than
you suspect. It is actually rarely the case that food and national security are
interests levied in negotiations between two parties. This is because there is a
correlation between the fundamental importance and necessity of a certain
interest and the ability to obtain it."
Rui narrowed his eyes as he absorbed the information that Carl divulged to
him.
Chapter 629 Estimate
"If we humans were unable to obtain things like food and security that are
fundamental to survival with a certain degree of ease and certainty, then we
would not have prospered to the degree that we have," He commented. "It is
because they are important that nations do everything to make sure that they
have enough of both. While there are certain impoverished and vulnerable
nations that make heavy concessions to obtain one or both of these interests
from foreign parties. Most nations have obtained satisfactory national and
food security. Or to be more accurate, most nations have acquired enough of
the two to, at the very least, not be in a crisis."
"I see..." Rui nodded as he understood his error. "That definitely makes
sense."
"If anything, it is the secondary set of interests that you mentioned that are
levied in diplomatic negotiations. Things like securing enough resources to
maintain highly vital technological sectors, institutions, and foundations of
the country usually play a much bigger role when trying to incentivize
foreign parties to engage in a trade with you. You mentioned
communications, which is certainly very important. Another important sector
of modern society is transport, the ability to move to distant locations in
relatively short amounts of time and with no personal effort is an important
ability that has become a sector that is akin to the blood of the country," The
man noted. "Development and maintenance of infrastructure is yet another
highly important aspect of modern society. The fulfillment of each of these
interests is much more difficult and thus can be used as powerful incentives
in negotiations."
The man paused before continuing. "That is the underlying driving force of
diplomacy, negotiation, and trade. Different parties have different needs and
desires. One nation may be lacking food security, another may lack national
security. Giving food to the latter and protection to the former is, of course,
foolish. In order to offer what they want in return for what we want, we need
to know what they want in the first place."
He turned to Rui. "How would we go about knowing what they want? After
all, most parties will not divulge their weaknesses and shortcomings so easily
to others. It gives an advantage to other parties in negotiations. If a man
trying to purchase water were to reveal to me that he hasn't drunk water for
days due to being stranded in the desert, then I may very well raise the price
of water since I know that that water is priceless to him. I know that he will
be willing to pay a fortune for just a mug of water."
Rui smiled wryly as the man droned on about ruthless and dubious ethical
practices. Of course, Rui was cognizant enough to recognize that that was the
way the world worked.
"That is where one of the foremost steps of diplomacy and negotiations come
in," The man continued. "We have just discussed how you can levy the
fulfillment of others' interests to fulfill your own. However, you cannot do
this if you do not know what the interests of said parties are. And as I just
mentioned, other parties will not come out and tell you what their interests
are, because it generally puts them at a disadvantage at the negotiation table.
So, you do not know what their interests are, and they are not willing to tell
you... How do you find out about them, then?"
"Recognizing the signs of deficiency of one of the primary or secondary

interests in a country through signs that cannot be hidden that would
inevitably arise if such interests were not being met, or on the verge of not
being met," Rui replied quickly, having already anticipated the conversation
to go this way.
"That isn't incorrect, but let's get specific. What exactly does that mean in
practice? What signs are you talking about? How will you even come to
recognize such signs even if they do occur? What signs would we see were
there, say, a chronic food shortage problem in a certain country that the
country was doing its best to compensate for and cover up?"
"That's simple. We rely on data gathered through various means. Part of it

would originate from public records, another part of it we would no doubt
have to rely on our intelligence department," Rui replied.
"What data specifically?"
"We would need several things. First, we need to estimate the annual food
consumption of the nation. This is rather simple to obtain as we can easily
estimate this from the population and population demographics of the nation
that should be easy enough to obtain. Then, the important question is whether
the domestic food production sector of the nation is able to produce the
necessary food needed to sustain the population's food consumption." Rui
explained.
"And how would you go about finding out?" The man asked, curious to the
degree to which Rui understood this matter.
"It's complicated, but there are still ways and means to do this. We can
estimate the size of their crop and animal agricultural industries by gauging
the amount of land that is used for these two sectors. This is also something
that can't be hidden. Estimating food production from fishing or other broad
sources of food is also not difficult. Together, they can be used to gauge the
limit of the food produced by said nation. With that estimate, we can then
learn whether or not there are signs of a chronic food shortage problem or
not." Rui replied, before continuing. "We can also look at the price of food
and food ingredients. That allows us to also gauge the balance of supply
versus demand. If food production is less than that of consumption while the
price of food is reasonable, then it can be concluded that the problem is being
averted through imports from foreign parties."
The man beamed as he nodded. "This is all correct, and in fact, these are the
steps that we go take and have taken. It is quite remarkable that you have
such a thorough understanding of economics. If I did not know better, I
would have assumed you were a promising trainee of our foreign affairs
department!"

Chapter 630 Warped
"You flatter me," Rui smiled.
"No no, I'm quite optimistic about your prospects of successfully completing
this diplomatic mission based on our discussion up to this point alone," The
man shook his head. "Coming back to the main point, as I said, you are
correct about the means by which we identify how well a third party is able to
fulfill primary interests such as food security. However, I did choose food
shortage as hypothetical for a reason. It is, by far, the easiest to identify and
recognize through the means that you have identified and more. However,
identifying the degree to which other interests are fulfilled is not nearly as
easy. Even other primary interests such as national security are more
complicated than the hypothetical that I gave you, mainly because it is easier
to hide."
Rui nodded. He was aware of this fact.
National security depended on factors such as the size of the military, the
quality and quantity of militaristic technology, the Martial prowess of a
nation; the number of Martial Artists it has, and its demographics as far as
Realms went. These were far more difficult to estimate. For such complicated
matters, it was safer and more reliable to directly rely on intelligence-
gathering agencies and departments to directly gather such facts through
espionage, surveillance, and infiltration among other things.
"However, this alone isn't enough," The man explained. "Yes, it's true that we
can utilize a variety of means to understand whether or not a third party is
able to fulfill a particular interest, it is also important to verify whether or not
that particular interest is even an interest in the first place. Do you understand
what I mean by that?"
Rui nodded. "I do. Not everybody will value all things equally. Still, there
should be a broad intersection. Food and physical security are absolute. Even
the secondary interests are largely universal."
Carl smiled. "Largely, yes. But not absolutely universal. Take examples that
we have discussed earlier, for example. Technological sectors like
communications, motorized transport, development and maintenance of
complex infrastructure, and military and defense technology are all almost
universal interests among all sovereign states on the Panama Continent. Yet
there are examples of third parties that do not fall into this paradigm."
Rui had a feeling he knew what the man was talking about.
"What if there was a somewhat isolated society that is devoid of

technological development in most sectors? What if there was an ecosystem
of parties that each led a lifestyle that is so deviated from what you and I are
familiar with, such that technological sectors and industries such as
communications, transport, and military tech are all entirely irrelevant to
them?" The man smiled knowingly. "In this case, you would be dealing with
parties with highly warped interests that fall outside of standard and classical
paradigms that we deal with regularly. How should we proceed in such a
scenario?"
Rui smiled. "We should do our best to understand their interests thoroughly
before proceeding to levy the fulfillment of them to get them to fulfill our
interests."
"Correct," Carl nodded. "I'm sure you've already figured out the reason that I
have brought this up."
Rui nodded. "The G'ak'arkan Tribe perfectly fits the hypothetical that you
gave me. They are part of an isolated ecosystem and have developed a highly
warped culture and society that is highly divergent from modern civilization.
For example, their little quasi-society has not developed any dependence on
technology to sustain itself. This alone would be very rare on the Panama
Continent."
"That is very aptly put, Squire," Carl nodded. "The G'ak'arkan Tribe has been
very inscrutable to us for quite some time, and still is, to a certain extent.
Their highly unique and warped culture and mentalities have rendered most
of our negotiation chips, tactics, and capital to be useless. They reject our
technology vehemently as they perceive it as a threat to their culture and way
of life, as well as a primal aversion to what they don't understand. This is
problematic because that means that they not only reject technology but also
many esoteric natural resources that are valuable because of their high utility
in technology. For example, what value is Ire Slagpowder to people who
reject remote communication technology in the first place? To them, this
otherwise valuable resource is no more than a strange form of dust. Vilun
Island is quite rich in its natural resources, yet the indigenous natives have
not extracted these resources from the land, the fauna, and flora all that much
because they simply do not use it."
Rui nodded. These insights matched those of his own. Diplomacy, trade, and
negotiation were highly developed fields with rock-solid paradigms built
upon universal traits and interests that everybody possessed. This led to a
framework within which everybody operated. Diplomats and ambassadors
were trained to excel within this framework, Rui had no doubt that it
frustrated the Martial Union to no end that the G'ak'arkan Tribe did not play
with these rules and within this framework at all whatsoever.
Perhaps that was another motivating reason to deploy Martial Artists as

diplomats to negotiate with the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"So, coming back to the main point," Carl continued. "The G'ak'arkan Tribe's
interests are warped and are considerably deviated from expectations. As you
promptly said earlier, we should learn as much about their interests as much
as we can. In order to learn about their interests, we inevitably have to learn
about them intimately, their history, their culture and values as well as their
surrounding circumstances."
Carl paused, looking at Rui. "I was informed that you were given the case
files and documents surrounding everything related to the G'ak'arkan Tribe."
"True," Rui nodded.
"How much of them have you gone through?"

"All of it," Rui smiled.
To his credit, Carl did not display any outward sign of surprise. Perhaps he
was able to control his body just that well. Or perhaps, he wasn't surprised at
all, having studied Rui's profile before their meeting no doubt.
Chapter 631 Profile
"That's quite proactive of you," Carl nodded. "I had suspected that you might
have read and remembered a bit of it when I read through your profile and
saw the Mind Palace technique, but it is quite impressive that you have
managed to get through it all."
The man looked quite impressed at Rui.
"It's not all that much, I didn't have much to do, after all," Rui modestly
replied.
"If you have gone through it all, then we can begin by going through your
thoughts on the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Carl nodded.
Rui paused for a second, gathering his thoughts as he considered it. It was
one thing to read through and store all the vast information in his mind
palace, and it was another entirely to infer all relevant important information
and present it in a neatly tied package. Of course, since this was just a
preliminary class in his training and briefing program, it was okay even if he
wasn't being as concise as possible.
"The Ga'ak'arkan Tribe possesses a highly diverged culture and sets of values
due to their extreme history and circumstances," Rui nodded, beginning by
revisiting this basic fact. "This warps their interests greatly as well, albeit not
entirely."
Carl gazed at him silently, unwilling to break his train of thought.
"The one universal interest that they share with us, by virtue of being human,
is survival. Outside of this, there are far too many divergences from the
norm," Rui stated. "However, surprisingly enough, it is not their greatest
interest. The extreme willingness to provoke and engage in conflicts with the
other tribes of the Vilun Island despite victory not necessarily being
guaranteed shows that surviving, while still desirable, is not the most
important thing to them. I believe it is because of this trait that the Martial
Union has chosen not to antagonize them."
Carl nodded slowly, acknowledging Rui's points.
"When I read through the diplomatic dialogue with the G'ak'arkan Tribe, I
was able to get a better understanding of why the G'ak'arkan Tribe is so
extremely warmongering with the other tribes of Vilun Island," Rui
mentioned. "It isn't entirely clear, perhaps due to linguistic barriers and
inaccuracies in translation, but it does seem that they are primarily motivated
by a desire to assert supremacy and dominance, as well as battle lust and
pride. These three abstract interests are so strong to them that together they
even trump their desire to survive! This is why they are so incessantly
warmongering. These are their greatest interests without a doubt."
Carl smiled. "That's a very apt albeit slightly incomplete profile that you have
created there. Well, follow up with logical conclusion of the premises that
you just have included with the diplomatic theory that we went over prior.
What can we do with the information that you have just inferred?"
"We can offer aid to them with fulfilling these abstract interests. We can help
them achieve dominance on Vilun Island, we can help them fulfill their
intense battle lust. But..." Rui paused, sighing.
"But?"
"But we have already tried that according to the diplomatic records of our
negotiations with them," Rui shook his head. "The problem is the third
abstract interest that I identified earlier; their pride. They possess an immense
amount of pride. Too much to accept our help in defeating the other
indigenous tribes of Vilun Island."
"Exactly," Carl nodded, sighing. "They are extremely prideful and have
vehemently rejected any aid from us in their eternal conflict with their rivals
and enemies. Sometimes I personally cannot help but wonder whether they
actually want to win at all, as opposed to maintaining this deadlock of
conflicts that they currently have."
Rui could understand that sentiment.
"Regardless," Carl continued. "Your analysis is spot-on; their pride prevents

them from accepting the aid of any kind in their conflict with the other
Martial tribes. They do not care for our tech and our resources. Currency is
utterly meaningless to them. I'm sure you can understand our frustrations.
However, despite this, there is one resource that we offered them that they
showed some interest in. Can you tell what that is?"
"Martial Art techniques," Rui replied immediately.
"And what makes you say that?"
"The negotiations where we deliberated regarding the techniques that we had

to offer lasted the longest, and had the greatest amount of engagement and
initiative from the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui replied. "It can be surmised that out
of all our attempts at attempting to levy their interests to earn their
cooperation, our Martial Art techniques had the greatest degree of success."
"Shrewd of you to notice that," Carl nodded with a pleasant smile. "And can
you discern why they failed?"
"...Not through my own merit, no. Martial commissioner Derun informed me

about the reason." Rui admitted. "The measure of respect they have for those
they interact with is entirely dependant on one's Martial prowess. Many of
our attempts to negotiate with them were doomed simply because our
diplomats were normal humans and were thus entirely dismissed despite
representing the Martial Union."
"That is indeed what happened," Carl nodded. "Our foreign affairs

department had to grind against a wall as we dealt with members who simply
did not possess as much power or influence within their tribe. It was only
after that we switched to the nearly unprecedented decision of sending a
Martial Artist as our main diplomat. I can assure you that this was not an easy
decision to make. From my perspective at the time, it was nothing short of
insanity. You do not send Martial Artists for diplomatic negotiations for the
same reason you don't send diplomats to complete Martial missions. It is a
suicidal idea that will lead to heavy losses in nearly every case."
Rui smiled wryly. "'Nearly' being the keyword here."
"Yes, the most important word there," Carl heaved a resigned sigh. "In these
particular circumstances, sending in Martial Artists to negotiate with the
G'ak'arkan Tribe was quite remarkable in so far as how effective it initially
seemed to be turning out."
Chapter 632 Failures
"They took our diplomatic team much more seriously when we first trained
and sent a Martial Squire to head the negotiations," Carl continued. "Our
diplomatic team was even able to negotiate with one of their most powerful
and influential Martial Squires. However, we had never managed to draw the
attention of the shot callers of the G'ak'arkan Tribe. The three Martial Seniors
are considered the three leaders of the Tribe. They regarded our Martial Art
technique offers with curious intrigue, but never took us too seriously
because of the gap between their ranks and ours. We were not able to give
those three particular individuals anything they considered worth their time,
since they were Martial Seniors."
"Why didn't they consider the benefits it would bring to the rest of their tribe?
Even if they can't use it, surely the rest of the Martial Squires would benefit
from such a trade." Rui frowned as he scoured through the transcripts of the
negotiations in his mind palace, looking for the relevant files.
"That is a painfully rational and logical reason, and one I completely agree
with," Carl sighed once more. "Unfortunately, as you may have noticed,
rationality is, well, lacking in this particular ecosystem. Leadership in this
tribe is merely a consequence of being the strongest and is not considered to
be a burden or a responsibility. They rejected it because their attachment to
their techniques was higher than their desire to strengthen the rest of their
clan. Another part of it is paranoia since their Martial Art techniques are their
lifeline in not getting overrun by their rivals and enemies. They rejected
disclosure of their techniques when we deployed Martial Squire diplomats.
Another part is also the fact that our Martial Squires acted out of order when
they experienced the disrespect that they were shown despite being the
diplomats of the Martial Union. They may have partially succeeded if they
kept their cool."
Rui could easily imagine this happening. While Martial Seniors were stronger
than Martial Squires, Martial Squires had their own pride. Furthermore, there
was the fact that they were representing the Martial Union. Rui could easily
imagine Martial Squires who was used to commanding respect and had no
conception of the mindsets of diplomacy losing their temper and spoiling
negotiations.
"But things weren't the same when the Martial Union finally tried sending a
Martial Senior to try and get them to take us seriously," Carl sighed once
more. "It is absolutely unprecedented and wild, mind you. That decision. It is
one thing for Martial Artists to converse with foreign Martial Artists over
highly specific matters. It is absolutely another to send Martial Seniors as an
ambassador to alien third parties."
"I can imagine that this decision sparked a lot of controversy within the
Martial Union," Rui smiled wryly.
"You are quite correct. Martial Sects and factions got embroiled in the
controversy, but ultimately, we decided to go forward with sending a Martial
Senior."
"I read the transcripts. The Martial Seniors were definitely taken seriously.
The problem was that their pride and competitiveness got in the way. It
created an atmosphere where the G'ak'arkan Tribe would effectively be
admitting inferiority and defeat if it accepted our deal at the time."
Both of them sighed.
The problem was how the Martial Senior handled it. It was almost the
textbook example of how not to conduct diplomatic negotiations with the
G'ak'arkan Tribe to exchange and trade techniques. The Martial Senior
deployed had turned into a competition by aggressively touting the
techniques of the Martial Union and claiming superiority, thereby triggering
immense competitiveness and wounding the pride of the Martial Senior
leaders of the G'ak'arkan Tribe. If not for the fact that the diplomatic team
accompanying the Martial Senior had managed to cut off the negotiations and
had one of the Martial Masters of the Martial Union directly order the Martial
Senior to retreat, a fight may have broken out then and there!
It also helped that the Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe did not break
out into a fight then and there because their devastating power would have
annihilated almost all of their tribe.
Rui wasn't even surprised that this happened as recalled the identity of the
Martial Senior that had been sent as a diplomat.
"Senior Ceeran is a Martial Senior that is highly competent and powerful

when it comes to long-range techniques... But unfortunately, his immense
pride and passion for long-range techniques drove the negotiations downhill,"
Rui chuckled amused.
"Correct," Carl nodded. "Senior Ceeran was chosen because he is the deputy
director of the Long-range Research Department of the Martial Union as well
as the fact that he is in the upper echelons of the Longranger Sect. That has
worked against the diplomatic mission. But it makes little sense to send
Martial Artists from other Martial Sects."
"I was made an exception because of my personal profile, I imagine," Rui

noted.
"True, but anyways, coming back to the big picture. Let us revisit the things
that we have discussed until now. We have discussed the elementary
diplomatic theory. Levying other people's primary and secondary interests to
fulfill your own interests. We discussed specific examples n the most
common types of such occurrences, such as food and national security, and
the maintenance of the technological sectors. Then we recognized that while
these interests are almost universal, there are exceptions such as the
G'ak'arkan Tribe. We then proceeded to form a profile of them and laid out
their most important interests, before proceeding to discuss why our
diplomatic endeavors with them have failed up to this point due to this reason
and others. Is there any part of this that you have any doubts, questions, or
issues with?"
"No, you are a great instructor and have made complicated matters easier to
digest," Rui replied earnestly.
"I believe your remarkable understanding and foundation in the humanities

and social sciences despite no formal education in them is what has facilitated
our discussion to be smooth," Carl replied with a smile. "It has taken me
weeks and even months to reach this point with some of your predecessors."

Chapter 633 Solutions
"Regardless, we've gone into the basics of general diplomacy, the uniqueness
of the G'ak'arkan Tribe as well as their warped primary interests, how we
could negotiate with them based on these warped interests, and finally, the
reasons for why those negotiations failed," Carl paused, for a few seconds,
inhaling and exhaling deeply. "That brings us to the heart of our talk; your
mission. Your goal is to successfully trade techniques with the G'ak'arkan
Tribe. Based on the conversations we've had all this while, how would you go
about the diplomatic negotiations of the G'ak'arkan Tribe?"
...
Rui's eyes wandered as he spent some time considering the question.
It was a difficult question to answer, even for Rui.
"The principle of the negotiation strategy that we have previously employed

isn't necessarily wrong... The issue is the execution that has caused previous
failures. Specifically, we need to execute our negotiations in a way that
leverages their competitiveness and pride in our favor," Rui carefully stated.
"Senior Ceeran caused their competitiveness to be riled up against us while
wounding their pride with his aggressive insistence on superiority. That needs
to be avoided at all costs."
Carl nodded as he waited for Rui to continue.
"Let us consider their primary interests that we have established so far," Rui
said as he raised three fingers. "The desire to dominate their enemies, the
desire to engage in physical conflict, and the desire to take pride in all their
decisions and actions. These are the three primary interests that we will have
to contend with. We need to appeal to each of these interests strongly in our
negotiation strategy."
He paused for some more time as he gathered his thoughts. "The desire to
dominate their enemies is the easiest interest to levy in our favor. The power
that our techniques in combination with that of theirs will produce should
allow them to become overwhelmingly stronger in the long run."
Any third party that desired more power to dominate its enemies could not
resist the allure of new and powerful Martial Art techniques as long as it was
handled properly. The foolish Martial Artists that went before he screwed up
by clashing against their competitiveness and pride.
Rui did not intend to do that.
As long as he demonstrated that he could give them the power they desired to
dominate their opponents, he will have already taken a major step toward
earning their cooperation.
"The desire to engage in physical conflict isn't something we can necessarily

directly levy, unfortunately. But the good news is that it cannot work against
us as long as we are careful. It will most likely work out to be a neutral
variable." Rui noted. "In ideal circumstances, it could work in our favor if
they recognize that they can engage in a much greater amount of conflict by
gaining more power. But that will depend on whether I am able to effectively
paint a compelling picture for them."
It could not be leveraged in a direct fashion since it wasn't as though Rui

could fabricate new and more native tribes out of thin air for the G'ak'arkan
Tribe to fight against. In the worst-case scenario, if their desire to engage in
physical conflicts would turn against the diplomatic team of the Martial
Union, then this diplomatic endeavor would be as good as screwed.
This was one of Rui's biggest concerns.
On the flip side, if he could create an alluring image of even greater and more
successful physical clashes with their enemies, then it could be leveraged as a
positive force that would drive the G'ak'arkan Tribe further into cooperating
with the Martial Union.
"The last element is, of course, the trickiest out of all of the three abstract
interests of the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui sighed.
Their pride was the least understood variable out of all the three. Their pride
caused them to deny military aid from the Martial Union despite possessing a
strong desire to defeat and dominate their enemies and rivals. It also caused
previous diplomatic endeavors to fail, Rui understood all of this, but it still
wasn't clear what exactly might offend their pride in a detrimental fashion
and what wouldn't.
At the very least the previous variables were well understood. Rui wasn't
entirely sure what he ought to say to manipulate them such that their pride
would work in his favor. He was highly intelligent, but he wasn't some
mastermind manipulator!
"I'm not entirely sure how to levy their pride in our favor. I guess we can
pretend their techniques are superior. That feels extremely insulting and
disrespectful as a Martial Artist of the Martial Union though," Rui sighed. He
wasn't the most prideful of people, but even he found it very unpleasant to
have to lower his head to this degree.
"Your predecessors reacted along the same lines, except they were intensely
vehement to employing such measures," Carl mused. "It is unfortunate and
even a bit strange to me personally because if I were in your position, I would
have been extremely happy and joyful rather than insulted."
"Why's that?" Rui frowned.
"Because if all it takes is lowering pride to achieve our goal, then we

diplomats would have done so without hesitation. One of the key necessities
of being a diplomat is knowing when to drop your pride and humble yourself
when representing your group or nation in certain circumstances. Pride is not
as important as concrete benefits from success. While you find pretending
our techniques are inferior as a strategic means to achieve our goal, we
diplomats are trained extensively to have no problem and even consider such
means a boom because of how simple they are," Carl sighed. "It seems that
even for rational and intelligent Martial Artists like yourselves, such a thing
is still not possible. It's a shame."
"Well, sorry about that," Rui smiled wryly.
"Oh, it's no matter. Besides, that strategy still isn't the best at hand. Though it
probably wouldn't hurt to employ to a minor degree."
Chapter 634 Confidence
"Not the best strategy?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"
Rui was sure that the strategy, although infuriating, would definitely appeal
to their pride. He wasn't able to think of a singular better way to do so than to
give their techniques greater esteem.
"Although it does leverage their pride well, it does so at the cost of the
perceived value of our techniques," Carl explained. "If they perceive our
techniques to be much less valuable than their own, then their trade will
inevitably become far too skewed in their favor. What we desire from the
G'ak'arkan Tribe is an equal and fair trade, not a scam."
"That definitely makes sense," Rui nodded.
"Besides, Senior Ceeran will never tolerate the downplaying of the long-
range techniques of the Martial Union and, by extension, all of the techniques
of the Longranger Sect. As one of the upper echelons of the Longranger Sect,
he would rather declare war against the G'ak'arkan Tribe than tolerate the
techniques of his sect being diminished. If he hears you go in that direction
during the negotiations, he may even pick a fight then and there."
"You make it sound like he will be part of the diplomatic team that will be
deployed to the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui raised an eyebrow.
"You need an expert on long-range techniques with you. You are far from
sufficient; you have only mastered three long-range techniques in your career
as a Martial Artist. If the negotiations proceed favorably, then we need
someone who can demonstrate the techniques that we will be trading." Carl
explained patiently.
"Is it wise to send the previous diplomat who failed spectacularly?" Rui
sighed.
"The wisdom of the choice of the Martial Artist chosen for this role is up in
the air. However, Martial commissioner Derun was the one who made the
decision. I was told that you and Senior Ceeran have a good relationship,
which probably factored into her decision. The diplomatic mission is hard
enough already, we cannot afford disunity in our diplomatic team."
Rui sighed. He suspected as much himself, it couldn't be a coincidence that

Senior Ceeran was the one appointed as the long-range expert and consultant.
Martial commissioner Derun was probably aware of the submission of the
Pathfinder technique that Rui had given to the Longranger Sect.
"How much diplomatic training did Senior Ceeran undergo when he was
chosen as a diplomat?" Rui asked.
"He tried going through all of it, to his credit." Carl sighed. "However, by the
time the negotiations took place..."
"He may as well have not gone through any training or briefing," Rui
chuckled, saying what Carl was reluctant to say out loud. "Well, putting that
aside. I guess we should place just enough weight on their techniques to
tickle their pride but not to the point we stand to make a loss," Rui noted.
"Right, there other things you can that will incentivize their cooperation with
us," Carl said, before continuing. "For example, and this is risky if
misapplied, if you make it so that their pride compels them to master our
techniques, you could make a fruitful exchange likelier."
"True, but that won't be easy to accomplish," Rui sighed.
"Don't worry, you'll undergo some training on how to address their pride in
their Martial prowess in my training program," Carl assured.
"Also, I noticed something when I was going through the reports I was given
on their techniques," Rui noted. "They have a lot of remarkable techniques
that allow them to accomplish impressive feats given the Realm of the
Martial Artist performing them, but at the same time, what we would
consider being fundamentals, they're actually quite lacking from our
perspective. I think rather than bombarding them with our most powerful
techniques to impress them, they would likely be more receptive to
techniques that may not be the ones we're most proud of, but would actually
address some of their shortcomings. Senior Ceeran should have definitely
been aware of their shortcomings, but I don't know why he didn't think of this
tactic."
"Senior Ceeran is not the most rational person when it comes to long-range
anything, let's just say," Carl sighed. "Your tactic sounds quite useful. You
should flesh it out more when you go through my training program. Which
should be significantly shortened by the fact that you have already
memorized all the files surrounding this case."
Rui nodded as he gathered his thoughts.
Appealing to the pride of their techniques, appealing to their pride in their

ability to learn difficult techniques, and offering techniques that would
specifically shore up all of their strengths and weaknesses.
These were three mini-objectives that Rui had come up with in order to make
the negotiations with the G'al'arkan Tribe go smoothly.
Of course, this wasn't everything, but it was a start. He had plenty of time to
flesh out the strategy once he began his training. Furthermore, his strategy
would get naturally refined as time passes due to the communication training
that he would receive from the training program. Verbal and non-verbal
expression were avenues that any diplomat needed to master, and with the
high cognitive parameters that Rui had demonstrated, he would probably be
judged to be able to handle much more rigorous training than his
predecessors.
They spoke for quite some more time until the conversation finally winded to
a halt.
"This has been the fruitful of discussions, Squire Quarrier." Carl smiled,
getting up. "This discussion was meant to gauge the depth of your
understanding and capability in several areas to judge where I would have to
begin and to finetune the training and briefing program to suit your needs.
But you have made my job considerably easier, you cannot imagine how
difficult it was to train your predecessors to a bare minimum acceptable
degree, and ultimately, I failed, clearly. But I am quite optimistic about you, I
look forward to seeing the outcome."
Rui smiled, getting up himself. "I appreciate your confidence in me, and I
will strive to do my best."
Chapter 635 Chieftain
Rui's training began in earnest. Yet for what was perhaps the first time in his
second life, he was not training in his Martial Art. Instead, he dedicated most
of his time to verbal and non-verbal communication as well as the most
optimal communication tactics with the specific high-profile members of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"This is tribe leader N'Kunu," Carl brought up an image that the previous
diplomatic team managed to snag of the unsuspecting fellow.
It was an image that Rui had seen before, just looking at it gave him an
impression of power. The man had light skin and an imposing figure. His
face and body were vividly colored in a manner that was traditional to the
indigenous tribe he wore several adornments in addition to the traditional
garb of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, indicating his status as the tribe leader.
"As I'm sure you know, N'Kunu is ninety-seven years old and has been the
leader of the G'ak'arkan Tribe for the past thirty years, taking over from the
previous tribe leader." Carl rehashed the facts. "It has taken us quite some
time to form a profile on him, but we have managed to do so. Contrary to our
expectations that we have of the leader of a highly militant, aggressive, and
proud tribe, chieftain N'Kunu is more stable than the other Martial Artists of
his tribe, relatively speaking. There have been several instances in previous
negotiation sessions with the G'ak'arkan Tribe that were quite dire and could
have easily deteriorated for the worst. It is not an exaggeration to say that the
composure that chieftain N'Kunu displayed is one of the greatest reasons that
hostilities didn't break down between the G'ak'arkan Tribe and our diplomatic
team."
Rui nodded as he recalled the transcripts of the diplomatic meeting between

the Senior Ceeran and N'Kulu. There is no doubt that the man was being
highly considerate of the fact that a fight breaking out at that point in time
would end up causing a lot of damage to the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Even if he had,
like the rest of his tribe, grown up possessing their highly aggressive,
warmongering, and proud temperament, he needed to have greater awareness
and foresight as the leader of his tribe. Otherwise, his poor decisions would
lead to the destruction of his own tribe.
"He is the greatest stakeholder of the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Carl pointed out. "As
the peak of the only hierarchy that is centered around power, his word
possesses the greatest weight. He is the oldest and the strongest, and that is
why he's the leader. If the negotiations go poorly such that he refuses any
possibility of a trade, then you can rest assured that it doesn't matter what the
rest of the tribe thinks. Even the other two younger and weaker Martial
Seniors are unlikely to question him."
He turned to Rui. "In addition to the set of interests of the G'ak'arkan Tribe
that we have gone through in previous conversation, what additional interests
do you think this man possesses?"
"It seems clear that his desire for the survival of his tribe is greater than that
of his fellow tribesmen. I'd say that the responsibility that he bears has been
made less insane than the rest of the tribe he leads. He's probably the reason
that this tribe is doing as well as it has," Rui analyzed as he stared at the
image of the man. "Still, that's by their standards. From what it seems like, he
still has demonstrated highly militant and aggressive tendencies, it's just that
he's likely much more careful. In fact, I would venture to guess that the
reason hostilities haven't broken out between us is that he has realized the fact
that someone as strong as he has been deployed as a mere diplomat means
that the 'tribe' that we represent is unfathomably stronger than the G'ak'arkan
Tribe. While he has still demonstrated highly aggressive tendencies towards
us despite likely realizing this, he has never crossed a line. I believe that he
should be most receptive to our negotiations. It is a shame that the Martial
Union is unwilling to divulge the secret to the Master Realm to Chieftain
N'Kulu. I'm sure he would agree to our dealer in a heartbeat, just based on
that alone."
"Martial commissioner Derun has been exceedingly clear and explicit with
the negotiation capital that you possess as a diplomat," Carl replied with a
measured look. "She has, in no uncertain terms, made clear that the secret to
the Master Realm is more valuable than every single technique of every
Martial Tribe on Vilun Island, and cannot be used as a negotiation chip. Even
if you did bring it up as a negotiation chip, you would be penalized and the
Martial Union would never follow through. So forget about it."
Rui wordlessly stared at Carl as he tried to reign in his curiosity.
Of course, he highly doubted that Carl knew anything about the secret to the
Master Realm. He was a diplomatic and foreign affairs trainer and was only a
mid-level ambassador in the prime of his career. Hell, he was sure that even
Martial Commissioner Derun was unaware of this highly sensitive piece of
information. At best, she was informed of its value.
Of course, Rui could also understand why they had chosen not to divulge it.
Martial Masters were strategic assets of extremely high value. They were
significant forces to be reckoned with by every nation. Handing over the path
to the Master Realm to forces that didn't possess the secret was a reckless
move.
It was no different from nations on Earth freely teaching other nations on

Earth how to construct short-range ballistic missiles in exchange for a few
hand grenades!
Rui put this matter aside as they discussed the profiles of the most significant
personalities of the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Rui had to keep track of all the
significant stakeholders of the tribe, which happened to be the strongest
Martial Artists of the tribe.

Chapter 636 Concerns
"You're pronouncing it wrong!" A woman hissed at Rui. "It's H'ahmatouoho,

not H'ahmatoooho!"
"H'ah-H'ahmatouoho?" Rui stuttered.
"Not bad but do better!" She glared at him, seemingly uncaring of his status
as a Martial Artist.
If not for the fact that Rui retained the patience and maturity that came with
fifty-nine years of life, he may very well have lost patience with his highly
passionate linguistic trainer in his training of the Vilun dialect.
Rui struggled with the tongue-twisting number of syllables that every word
seemed to have. Even a simple greeting had as many syllables as a normal
sentence in the Kandrian language.
"I would like to revisit the wisdom of relying on a translator." Rui

straightforwardly told Carl.
"Nice try, but no," Carl replied, amused.
"Senior Ceeran could rely on a translator," Rui pointed out. "Why can't I do
the same?"
"Senior Ceeran easily has enough clout to do away with having to learn a
dialect," Carl honestly replied. "Learning new languages is too difficult for
him and is far too not worth his time as a Martial Senior. The first point
entirely does not apply to you, and the fact that you're an external member of
the Martial Union does not help you either."
Rui sighed as he resumed his training with the linguistic trainer.

Thankfully, it appeared that the dialect was much smaller, simpler, and less
sophisticated structurally. This was reflected in the state of their development
as a society. They were highly primitive in every sense. Their developments
as far as theoretical, esoteric science and technology were practically non-
existent with the sole exception being their mysterious and albeit much
inferior version of the Squire evolution breakthrough.
Asides from that, the very concept of economics was non-existent, their
geography was limited to that of the island, their history was not well
documented and recorded, and their sense of sociology was highly warped
and limited.
This meant that their language was equally limited because their
communication was also highly limited. As a citizen of the Kandrian Empire,
there were vast amounts of information that could and was communicated
regarding matters of the world they lived in and their lives in it.
The same couldn't be said for the Martial tribes of Vilun island.
Their conception of reality was fundamentally far more limited.
Thenouns and verbs could be listed down on a single page, if one really tried
hard. They fought, they ate, they slept and they built families.
This made Rui's job easier, had it been a highly complex and sophisticated
language of the Panama Continent, Rui didn't think that he would have
agreed to the mission if they had insisted on learning the language. However,
its simplicity managed to compel him.
"You have a meeting with Martial commissioner Derun soon if I'm not
wrong," Carl mentioned to him once the Vilun dialect learning session came
to an end.
"Indeed," Rui sighed.
The two chatted informally for a bit. They had grown more familiar with each
other and had dispensed with formalities as they focused on preparing Rui as
much as possible for the diplomatic mission.
Rui simply headed for Martial commissioner Derun's office when the time for
the appointment came.
"Squire Quarrier, you're here right on time," She smiled as Rui walked in.
"Hello, Martial commissioner," Rui walked in.
"Please, have a seat," She waved at it. "I've heard your training and briefing
program has been going quite well."
"I'm just doing my best," Rui modestly offered.
"And yet Carl has informed me that at the rate that you're growing, you will
achieve the desired results within a third of the total projected time," She
smiled.
"Part of it has to do with the fact that the Mind Palace technique has allowed
me to memorize all the data that would otherwise have to be painstakingly
studied," Rui shrugged. "Still, it is optimistic nonetheless, I suppose."
"Indeed," She nodded. "I called you here today to finalize your team. I
figured you ought to know."
"I thought that had already been decided," Rui raised an eyebrow.
"Not officially, no," She shook her head as she pulled out a document from
her desk, handing it to Rui.
"Much of your team are diplomatic assistants and employees who partook in
the previous diplomatic endeavors with the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Including, of
course..." She gave another document.
"Senior Ceeran..." Rui muttered as he opened the document, detailing the

profile of the man.
"I heard you may have had some apprehensions with Senior Ceeran," She
mentioned. "I wanted to hear your thoughts from you personally."
"I have had a decent dynamic with Senior Ceeran, though I do not possess
any working relations with him at the moment. He evaluated my technique
and was quite pleased by it, and we got along well enough thanks to that. It's
truly nothing special," Rui clarified. "I did have some concerns. I understand
that a long-range Martial Artist is needed to demonstrate techniques, after all,
the G'ak'arkan Tribe is not going to take us at our word for this matter.
However..."
"You can speak freely," She said, noticing a hint of hesitation from him.
"I am fearful of the impact Senior Ceeran can have on the mission," Rui
sighed. "He is a prestigious Martial Senior, I can easily see him becoming the
spiritual leader of the diplomatic mission and hijacking my position as the
lead diplomat due to this. I also fear for him triggering a conflict with the
leaders of the G'ak'arkan Tribe due to his extreme pride in his techniques and
the techniques of his Martial Sect. I have gone through the transcripts of his
interactions with the chieftain, and let's just say they are not the most
reassuring."
"Your concerns are very valid," Martial commissioner Derun nodded.

"However, you can rest assured. Senior Ceeran has taken responsibility for
his failures as a diplomat and has fully conceded the role. He has also, in
writing, guaranteed his cooperation with an assisting role."
Rui's skeptical expression revealed that he did not find her reassurances very
reassuring.
Chapter 637 Month
"You seem skeptical," Martial commissioner Derun noted.
"Writing isn't much of a guarantee. Especially when we're thousands of

kilometers away from the Kandrian Empire," Rui replied, with a measured
tone.
"That is true, but you can rest assured about Senior Ceeran's sincerity. He has
vowed not to overstep his boundaries to his direct superior, Master Haloen,
the co-leader of the Longranger Sect," She informed him. "I can assure you
that Senior Ceeran would not break his work against that personage for any
reason."
Rui raised an eyebrow at her words. The fact that Martial commissioner
Derun went this far to obtain a guarantee for his compliance meant that the
Martial Union had considerable interest in the mission succeeding.
"Alright then," Rui shrugged. "I suppose I'll just have to be content with
that."
He turned towards the first document that she had given him. "And how do I
know that these members assigned to my team are going to respect my
authority? What if they naturally defer to Senior Ceeran?"
"You can rest assured that that won't happen," She reassured him. "Those
diplomats were present when Senior Ceeran nearly jeopardized any chance of
the mission succeeding. And it was they who did their best to prevent that
from happening. They do not have any natural inclination towards following
Senior Ceeran's leadership, instead, as long as you show them that you are
level-headed and are going to execute this mission rationally, they will
undoubtedly follow your lead and support you when you need it."
Rui nodded.
It wasn't as though there was anything else that he could do in the first place
at all.
They conversed for a bit more before the conversation ended.
Time passed as Rui continued his briefing and training. With each passing
day, he would become increasingly adept at the Vilun dialect. The biggest
problem with him was not memorizing the language and the script but being
able to fluently pronounce all the words. He simply gritted his teeth as he
bore the tough and harsh linguistic training from his passionate tutor.
The other aspects were far easier and quicker. Communication was an
important field that he spent a lot of time on. Gaining a greater degree of
awareness of his demeanor, tone, facial expressions, as well as his micro-
expressions, allowed him to learn to exert an appropriate amount of control
over them at all times.
He found the process of learning to exert fine control and manipulation to be

quite fascinating. His tutor would engage in a number of honest and earnest
discussions with him at all times. Each discussion was meant to evoke certain
emotions and reactions out of Rui to record and measure what his authentic
non-verbal communication looked like when he was angry, happy, sad, and a
number of other more elementary reactions.
Then the training team took those recordings and created an extensive
training program that was aimed at teaching Rui how to bring up those
authentic facial expressions and micro-expressions identically. Rui not only
learned exactly what he looked like when he was genuinely experiencing a
particular emotion or particular sets of emotions but also learned to replicate
it on demand.
Much to the surprise of the training team, he absorbed the lessons and
training like a sponge. It was just a matter of time before he reached a level
that was competent even by their standards.
Rui also fleshed out his negotiation strategy and tactics with Carl in long and
extended meetings with the man. They had already fleshed out the broad big
picture with him long ago, but now they filled in every chink they could find
to the best of their abilities. Rui had come up with plans to buy the support of
every major stakeholder of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
They focused on opening statements, initial persuasion, and negotiation

tactics as well as the initial presentation of their case. By the time they were
done at the end of the month, Rui was actually proud and confident in what
they had managed to hatch up.
He had also gotten acquainted with his team before his briefing and training
program ended, and they soon became part of the program to establish an
understanding between everyone on the team.
Even Senior Ceeran showed up when Rui's training and briefing ended.
"To think we would meet again under these circumstances," The man eagerly
greeted Rui. "When I heard that you had been chosen as the new diplomat, I
had to admit it was a great choice. Given how shrewd you are, you have a
better chance of succeeding than I did!"
"Haha... Thanks for your vote of confidence, Senior Ceeran," Rui laughed
awkwardly as he observed the man.
To his surprise, he didn't show any reluctance in his position on the mission.
"Any help you need my boy, you need only ask, those idiots got mad when I
pointed out that they had much more to gain from this transaction because
our techniques shit all of theirs. I hope you'll get those uncouth savages to see
reason," He nonchalantly insulted them with a contemptuous expression.
"Honestly, even to this day, I do not understand why I failed. It's a wonder,
really."
"Yeah, I wonder why," Rui sighed.
He would have worded that stronger, but Senior Ceeran's immensely

powerful aura, even when suppressed so as to not knock out all humans in the
vicinity, was a glaring reminder that he could eradicate Rui with the slightest
exertion.
"Never mind, it's all in the past. This time, we will succeed," His eyes
narrowed as his restrained aura grew sharper. "I will get my hands on their
techniques no matter what happens."
('Oh boy,') Rui once more questioned the wisdom of getting Senior Ceeran on
board the mission.
He mentally prepared himself for constantly being aware and alert of Senior
Ceeran, he could already sense that he ought not to let his guard down around
Senior Ceeran, the man was simply not someone who could be trusted at all
at this point in time.
Chapter 638 Driving Force
"How do I look?" Rui asked as he adjusted his Kandrian version of a tie.
"You look good, sir. It appears that the suit fits just fine" One of the
attendants of the assistance team assigned to him replied.
He had just been provided the formal wear that he would have to wear for his
role as a diplomat. It was different from the one that was normally provided
to diplomats. This particular set of clothes had been specially designed to
incorporate Martial elements to it, making it seem more like the ceremonial
battle garb of a warrior king.
"I haven't been this formally dressed since..." Rui's eyes glazed over as he
recalled the interviews he had given back when he first announced the
completion of the first iteration of the VOID algorithm. It was one of the few
times that he had truly gone all out with his grooming for the momentous
occasion.
"Are there any discomforts or anything else of the sort, sir?" His personal
attendant asked politely. "Alterations or replacements can be swiftly issued."
"None at all, it fits just fine," Rui nodded as he looked at himself in the
mirror.
He glanced at his suitcase. "How much more time until boarding time is
ready?"
"A little under three hours sir. The crew aboard the Veomine Starling are
nearly done with their final preparatory protocols," She informed him with a
courteous tone.
"Hm," Rui nodded as he glanced over at the suitcase lying at the other end of
the suite.
He had been staying at a coastal branch of the Martial Union for the past day
as the final preparations for the diplomatic expedition were being completed.
He spent the remaining time he had in the Kandrian Empire making sure that
he had missed nothing. None of his personal belongings that he needed, and
most certainly none of the documents and other things that he needed to
complete the mission.
"Proof of identification... check, proof of authorization of representation of

the Martial Union... check, four sets of official diplomatic uniform... check,"
He murmured as he meticulously ruffled through his oversized suitcase.
Sure enough, everything was in order and it was finally time to leave for
Vilun Island.
"Squire Quarrier," Senior Ceeran grinned excitedly, exerting faint pressure on

Rui with his elevated excitement alone. "It's time. I presume you have done
everything needed to nail this diplomatic endeavor?"
"Of course," Rui nodded, maintaining a perfect faÃ§ade of casual

friendliness. "I intend to succeed without a doubt."
"Good to hear!" The man nodded with an approving expression.
The two made their way to the harbor, sky walking through the air.
Rui breathed deeply as he enjoyed the distinct odor of the ocean. It was easy
for Rui to forget that the Kandrian Empire was a coastal nation of the north-
eastern side of the Panama Continent due to the constant cold that the town of
Hajin experienced.
The town of Farund was a town that was very different from that of the town
of Hajin. For one, it was the only town he had seen that was busier and more
bustling than the town of Hajin, barring the capital of the nation; the town of
Vargard.
It was also a commercial trade hub, however, unlike the town of Hajin, it was
also a coastal seaport. There was an immense amount of traffic in and out of
the town. Rui could simply feel the brimming energy in the town as he
skywalked towards the Farund seaport.
What drew his attention was the sunrise over the ocean. The rising sun's
reflection flickered over the morning ocean.
"Good view, isn't it?" Senior Ceeran said with a surprising degree of
calmness.
"The best," Rui nodded.
"You know... One of the best parts of being a Martial Artist is the ability to
escape the confines of land," Senior Ceeran sighed, appreciating the beautiful
visage. "It was actually one of my greatest driving motivations to become a
Martial Artist, if I'm being honest."
Rui turned to him in surprise. "Is that so?"
"It certainly is," He nodded. "I used to look up at the sky and feel a burning
desire to walk across it."
Rui felt quite surprised. He had always thought Senior Ceeran was a simple
man with a singular motivation and objective not too different from his own
at all. A person who single-mindedly pursued a single objective; his Martial
Path.
Perhaps there was a greater nuance that Rui wasn't aware of, people were
complicated.
"Of course, that was just one reason," The man sighed.
"Does that mean you grew less motivated after you became Martial Squire?"
Rui asked.
"Perhaps..." The man admitted, surprising Rui once more.
"That's hard to imagine," Rui admitted. "Given how driven you seem to be,"
"Thank you, it's reassuring to hear that from you," The man smiled. "It gives
me more hope for reaching the Master Realm. Perhaps, I still meet the
threshold to cross into the upper Realms."
Rui's eyebrow furrowed as he considered the implications of his words. "Did

you... just inadvertently reveal the breakthrough condition to the Master
Realm?"
"Haha, no." The man chuckled, amused. "It's more like one of the implicit
necessities for eventually reaching higher Realms."
Rui raised an eyebrow at those confounding words.
"It makes sense when you think about it," The man explained, noticing Rui's
confusion. "How far one can go, in any field of pursuit, depends on how
strong their driving force is. The stronger the driving force, the further you
can go before you stop. The same is true for the Martial Realms,"
Rui wordlessly listened as the aged Martial Artist candidly offered valuable
insights.
"People strive to be Martial Artists for various reasons... Power, money,

prestige, and love. These motivations, desires, and objectives are our driving
forces. Unfortunately, most driving forces, regardless of which category
they're in, aren't strong enough to drive them to the upper Realms. Do you
understand?"
Rui nodded. "You need strong motivations to reach the upper Realms."
"Well yes, but that wasn't what I meant," He shook his head. "The truth is,
not only are they not strong enough to reach the highest of Realms, but
they're too weak to even survive beyond a certain level."
Chapter 639 Surpass
Rui's eyebrows knitted at those words. Unlike his previous words, they didn't
make any intuitive sense to Rui. Driving forces of Martial Artists being too
weak to survive beyond a certain level?
"I don't understand," Rui interjected. "What does that mean?"
The man remained silent for a few seconds, before finally replying. "Take,
for example, one of the examples I just gave you; money. You would be
surprised by the number of people that pursue Martial Art to gain greater
wealth. After all, Martial Squires like yourself can earn an income in the top
five percent to the top one percent of incomes in the entire nation."
Rui nodded. Lashara had even refused the significant sums of money that Rui
offered her, it was so much money that the Quarrier Orphanage didn't know
what to do with it! Lashara did not want to aggressively expand the
Orphanage's scale because there was no way that the current caretakers would
be able to handle anything drastic. She was extremely reluctant to rely on
hired aid, causing her to reject any such notions.
"However, if one becomes a Martial Artist in their pursuit of wealth. What do

you think happens to their motivation once they obtain wealth? As I said,
Martial Squires like yourself are quite wealthy. A person whose objective to
obtain money is their driving force will lose motivation to grow stronger and
pursue their Martial Path after they have accomplished that objective,
naturally. After all, they have completed the objective of the pursuit which
caused them to grow stronger. They will no longer have reason to grow
stronger, and thus no longer have a driving force to grow stronger." Senior
Ceeran explained. "That's what I mean by their driving force not even
surviving past a certain stage."
"That actually makes a lot of sense," Rui grew absorbed in thought. "Unless
the person has extremely difficult ambitions with wealth, like becoming the
richest person on the entire continent or something, they will lose their
driving force long before they reach higher Realms."
"Exactly," The man sighed. "That is the true core reason why so few Martial
Artists reach the highest of Realms. It takes a truly powerful and resilient
driving force to push through the restrictive barriers within each Realm and
the gigantic walls that stand between each Realm. Martial Masters are all
truly powerful beings with driving forces that drove them all the way past
three Martial Realms and into the Master Realm. These personages possess
driving forces that are much stronger than any shallow objective such as
wealth."
"I haven't met many Martial Masters, I've only spoken to one more than once,
a retired one." Rui sighed.
"You shouldn't underestimate him just because he's retired," Senior Ceeran
gave him a measured look. "The old man didn't become a Martial Master by
sitting at his table doing nothing. He isn't a headmaster because he wants to
kick back and relax. The old man has grand ambitions and designs for the
Martial world that cannot possibly be achieved without the power that he
possesses today."
Rui grew extremely curious at those words. In all the time that Rui had
known Master Aronian, he had never learned anything truly significant about
the man, asides from the fact that he held Rui with high regard.
"And what exactly is he trying to achieve?" Rui asked.
Senior Ceeran shook his head after a few seconds "It's not for me to say. The
point is that while there are strong impediments that Martial Artists face
within each Realm, the true reason that many of us don't overcome them is
because of ourselves."
Rui processed his words. "Is that why you're willing to go far to accomplish
your goals?"
Senior Ceeran nodded. "It's reaffirming my own conviction and ambition."
Rui felt that he had come to understand the man much better in the span of
this small conversation than he did before. The man drove himself far,
perhaps too far sometimes, in order to ensure that he never got too
comfortable with what he currently possessed. He did not want to let his
driving force grow dull and soft. He primed himself to never let that happen.
He also felt better about his own situation. That was because his driving force
was extraordinarily difficult to achieve.
('It's not so simple though,') Rui shook his head.
On a fundamental level, Rui simply wanted his pursue his Martial Path for as
long and far as he could, preferably forever!
This desire was open-ended and could never be fulfilled no matter how
strong he became, intrinsically.
On the other hand, he also did possess a more specific objective; fulfilling
Project Water. The project that he set out to achieve a lifetime ago.
Furthermore, he had upgraded the difficulty of the project astronomically
more difficult by expanding it to include everything in this world too, which
was exponentially harder than if he had just limited it to Earth standards.
These two desires served as his greatest driving forces in his pursuit of
power, and he was very confident that they were powerful enough to drive
him to much greater Realms of power and much deeper down his Martial
Path. Up to this point, his rate of growth was truly spectacular and didn't
seem to show any signs of slowing down, if anything, it had only accelerated
the stronger he got!
It was a good reaffirmation that he was on the right path. As long as he gave
himself time, his driving forces would propel him to heights that even he
couldn't fully imagine!
"That's good," Senior Ceeran suddenly said with an approving nod as he

watched Rui. "You possess what it takes to enter the Senior Realm, at least. I
can't say if you'll go any further, but I'm certain that one day you will surpass
me as I am today. Truly, I cannot wait to see that day."
"Neither can I," Rui replied.
The two of them silently sky-walked slowly towards their destination.

"Welcome aboard the Veomine Eagle, sir," A man wearing a naval cap with
the emblem of the Martial Union said as they boarded, bowing. "I am Captain
Crartas, the captain of this ship."
"Pleasure to meet you, captain," Rui replied with a smile. "I believe the
journey to Vilun Island will take ten days?"
"That's correct sir. This ship is an Eagle-class ship with an occupation

capacity of five hundred passengers and a storage capacity meant to carry
goods that would enable medium to long-term inhabitation aboard the ship.
Furthermore, this ship possesses battleship grade hull and thus also weighs us
down, slowing us down in the process" The man replied seamlessly.
"Therefore its speed isn't its strong suit."
"I get it, it needs to be able to handle a hit or two in case the diplomatic
mission goes awry," Rui instantly figured.
"Yes sir," The man gave Rui a measured stare.
After all, whether it took a beating or not depended on whether Rui was able
to do his job as he was expected to.
"I presume we won't be able to take a straight route to Vilun Island, correct?"
Rui asked as he looked at a map placed in the conference room.
"Not exactly, sir, there will be several deviations in our route to avoid the
many landmasses in between the Kandrian Empire and Vilun Island," Captain
Crartas turned towards the map, himself.
It was large enough that even though it covered the entirety of the Panama
Continent, Rui was able to have a clear view of all the landmasses between
Vilun Island and the Panama Continent.
There were countless such islands in the ocean.
It was as though the Panama Continent was a half-eaten cookie with eaten
edges and the surrounding islands were chunks and smaller pieces of the
cookie. They grew smaller the further they were from the main continent.
It was an interesting map.
It gave Rui the impression that there only was a singular continent once, but
perhaps some major geological event happened that caused the edges of the
continent to break off, causing all kinds of islands to form all around the
Panama Continent. Some calamitous planetary events eons in the past with
such tremendous power that the very continent suffered damage.
Rui thought about it for a few seconds before shrugging.
Regardless of what it was, it wasn't as though it would ever affect him, right?
"How much more time till the journey begins?" Rui asked.
"The ship crew have all long boarded and have assumed duty, the diplomatic
team, the security team, and the intelligence team are nearly done with their
final steps sir," The captain duly informed.
"Hm…" Rui nodded.
Each of these teams was there to facilitate the mission in their own way.
The diplomatic team, of course, was the only team that Rui was familiar with.
These included assistants that would help him with any and all needs
regarding the actual diplomatic mission. In the past month, he had spent some
time with them just enough to get a bare basic understanding of each other so
they didn't get in each other's way.
The security team was a team of Martial Squires meant to guard the Veomine
Eagle against any damage of any kind. This was a considerable investment of
Martial capital from the Martial Union, but Rui understood why they had
offered such a degree of security.
Without the security of a Martial Squire team protecting them, Rui and
Senior Ceeran would not be able to focus on the mission of worries about
their security. Furthermore, neither of them was particularly effective at
underwater combat that involved fighting against powerful underwater
creatures, unlike aquatic-oriented Martial Artists.
Admittedly, Rui did feel safer and at ease. Especially when there were
Martial Squires engaged in constant surveillance so that he didn't have to.
The intelligence team was there to help Rui obtain any information that he
might seek in the middle of the completion of the mission in order to
successfully complete it. It was reckless and stupid of him to try and obtain
them himself, thus there were specialists who were assigned for this specific
possibility.
The best part was that because both the technology and diversity of Martial
Art of the G'ak'arkan Tribe were highly limited compared to that of the
Martial Union, the technological measures and systems that were employed
to gather intelligence were going to be much more effective than they usually
were. The best part was the lack of awareness on their side, thus they would
not take the measures that they could take with what they had and what they
could.
"Ah…" Captain Crartas looked at his comms device. "The assigned heads of
the diplomatic and the security team are on their way here, sir, I imagine
they'd want to meet you as well,"
"Of course," Rui nodded. "I look forward to meeting them, they are valued
assets on this mission, after all."
Soon enough, a man entered the conference room where the two of them
were. He wore a Martial uniform of the Martial Union, but Rui sensed his
concealed Squire-level aura coming from a mile away.
"Captain Crartas, Squire Quarrier…" He nodded at both of them. "I am

Squire Captain Vermeal Clonsky, a pleasure to meet both of you."
The two men greeted him, engaging in light topics such as the coordination
of their nominal duties and teams before Squire Vermeal turned to Rui.
"Oh yeah, one thing," He said, recalling something. "I heard that one of the
Martial Squires of the intelligence team wanted to speak to you. He's coming
along with the captain at this moment."
"Is that so…?" Rui frowned. "Are you sure it's a Martial Squire?"
His senses told him there were only two humans walking toward the
conference room.
KNOCK KNOCK
Rui turned towards the door, before widening his eyes in shock.
"Captain, Squires. I am special agent Cravis," She said with a completely

neutral tone. "And this is the Martial Squire assigned to our team…"
She gestured to the green-haired and green-eyed young man standing beside
her.
"…Squire Kane Arrancar."

Chapter 641 Kane
"Kane?!" Rui blurted out in surprise.
"What's up Rui?" Kane grinned, as he walked forward. "Didn't expect to see

me here, huh?"
"At all," Rui laughed.
The two clasped hands, exchanging a hug.
"What are you doing here?" Rui asked.
"Well, after re-mastering the Void Step technique and some others in the past
ten months, the Martial Union gave me an internal commissioned mission
very recently," Kane shrugged. "I was highly inclined to apply for a
decline… until I learned that the mission was surrounded around you. So I
accepted, and here I am."
He opened his arms with a smirk.
Rui's eyes lit up at that story.
"Of course, how could I possibly forget? You would be highly invaluable on
this mission," Rui realized.
Rui wouldn't be surprised that out of all the possible Martial Squires that
could be deployed with the intelligence gathering team, Kane was probably
one of the most attractive candidates due to his mastery of the Void Step
technique. It was no wonder that he was offered the spot, especially
considering that he had most certainly shown a pattern of picking
international missions in order to spend as much time away from his family's
sphere of influence.
"This just makes things much better," Rui grinned. He would have a friend
tagging along with him.
The four of them exchanged some words before Rui and Kane walked away
from the conference room.
"So you've come here in your capacity as an infiltrator… Interesting," Rui

noted. "I thought they'd send a long-range sensor."
"Well, they already have esoteric tech that can do that," Kane shrugged. "But
infiltrating into the base camp of the G'ak'arkan Tribe is something that it
can't."
Rui nodded. That was definitely a good asset to have at hand.
"You've improved," Rui told him. "Even right now, I can't sense anything but
a normal human. This technique…"
"Mind Mask," Kane nodded. "You'd told me about it a long time ago, and
frankly, it's too relevant to me for me to ignore it. So I did master it."
This meant that sensing Kane had just gotten much harder.
Rui recalled how effective the fusion of the Mind Mask technique and the
Shadow Step technique that he had back when he was a Martial Apprentice
was. While it still was inferior to Void Step, Rui had managed to achieve a
knock-off that was not too far off.
However, he wasn't sure that he would even be able to sense Kane at all now
that he had mastered both techniques alone.
The two bantered along for a bit more, talking about certain matters before
they reached their current mission.
pαndα`noνɐ1~сoМ "So, diplomat mission huh?" Kane mused. "Never

expected you to take this kind of mission given how much you care about
pursuing your Martial Path and elevating your Martial Art. These kinds of
missions never see combat."
"You're right, they don't," Rui nodded. "But what they do see are things that
you could never see otherwise. The Squire Realm is all about diverging your
path, well, it helps to see what others who have diverged their lives from
everybody else have accomplished. The G'ak'arkan Tribe may not be able to
compare to the Martial Union at all, but given what they had, they sure have
accomplished a hell of a lot."
"That is true, this is an interesting mission. Not to mention that is one hell of
a distance away from the Kandrian Empire so I'm happy to be here too,"
Kane mused. "Hell, maybe I can consider this island as my hiding spot from
my family. They sure as hell won't even think to look here."
"And what? Spend the rest of your life amongst warmongering tribes who
will pester you worse than your family does?" Rui joked.
The two of them bantered for some more before finally splitting ways.
"I got some protocols to follow, so I probably won't be able to see you very
often during this mission," Kane informed him. "Still, anything you need, let
me know."
"Will do," Rui nodded before they went apart.
Rui sighed as he focused back on his mission.
Suddenly, he heard the speakers project a voice.
[This is your captain Crartas speaking, we will be departing right on schedule

for the departure of mission code MU42Wi413… Please be sure to…]
"Finally," He sighed as he felt the cruise ship moving away from the port as it
head deeper into the ocean.
The mission was a lot more complicated than almost any other mission that
he had ever been a part of, except for the Serevian Dungeon wars. However,
back then he was simply a strategically valuable foot soldier. But now, he
was leading this diplomatic mission, which meant the burden placed on his
soldiers was much higher.
"Ah, Squire Quarrier," A familiar voice called out to him.
"Senior Ceeran," Rui turned, smiling. "What can I do for you?"
"Oh, it's nothing at all," He shrugged. "I just learned that you have seen fit
not to put me on your counsel."
Rui sighed. "Look, with all due respect, Senior Ceeran, this is a decision that
received near unanimous support from the diplomatic team. It was
recommended against unless there were specific interests needed, and I'm
afraid that this just isn't the case this time Due to certain incidents, I'm afraid
I really cannot change my decision."
There was silence.
Rui was relatively certain that he had been the first Martial Squire that had
been this blunt with him since he became a Martial Senior.
Still, Rui was relatively confident in his decision to be straightforward and

honest with the man. Based on everything he understood about him, he was
quite certain that Senior Ceeran was not somebody who would lose his
temper and leverage his political power or, worse, his Martial power to
suppress Rui and jeopardize the entire mission.
Even if he was that kind of a person, Rui was relatively certain that he had
very little wiggle room as far as what he could accomplish went in this
particular mission due to the past.
Chapter 642 Week
To his credit, Senior Ceeran did not display even a hint of anger or
suppression of anger. So unless his mastery over his non-verbal
communication had reached a level similar to what Rui's was, it was highly
likely that Rui had been right.
"That takes courage," Senior Ceeran smiled. "I hadn't expected you to be that
firm."
"Well, it is my mission, not yours," Rui reminded him. "I do not want this
mission being botched, and I certainly don't want it happening under my
watch."
"Relax kiddo, I had no such intention. I don't want control over your mission
or anything of the sort, believe it or not," Senior Ceeran huffed. "The reason I
brought it up is that there was a reason that a Martial Senior like me was
chosen for this mission. You're a Martial Squire. They won't take you as
seriously. I don't think you'd even get to meet that bastard N'Kulu."
"Yeah well, that won't be an issue," Rui replied.
"Why not?" Senior Ceeran asked, curious.
"Because of this," Rui closed his eyes as he used an ability he truly had not
used in a long time. He exercised his imagination as he created a powerful
mind mask that would boost his projected power tremendously.
The atmosphere grew taut as the sheer amount of pressure that Rui gave out
wrung it to the limit. The sheer amount of peril he exuded far surpassed
anything a Martial Squire of his caliber should have been capable of.
This was the projected power amplification that the Mind Mask technique
was capable of at its peak. Normally, the degree enhancement wasn't this
exaggerated, however, Rui was far more capable of doing so that any other
person that had mastered the technique.
However, despite all this, Senior Ceeran was completely unfazed.

"Impressive, you're exuding the power of a grade nine Martial Squire, almost
grade ten. Though you should not be above grade five. I had forgotten about
this technique of yours, you had used it to bring us a great many victories for
the Martial Union in the Serevian Dungeon wars. The favor for which we still
owe you, by the way. But I see, that's how you plan to circumvent it,"
Rui nodded. "If I'm not wrong, then there isn't a single Martial Squire in the
entire Martial Tribe. Which means that by their own standards, they're going
to need to call in at least one Martial Senior to address me and that's a good
enough start."
"...I see," Senior Ceeran accepted it with grace. "You genuinely seem to have
it all covered, so I should probably stop getting in the way. Call me when you
need me."
"Thank you," Rui bowed, expressing the respect that someone like Senior
Ceeran deserved.
The journey was quite different from anything Rui had ever taken in the
second life. In between breaks, he would stand on the deck, enjoying the
ocean while he occasionally chatted up with Kane.
Most of the time he spent, however, went into solidifying everything about
the case.
"Alright, let's go over the opening dialogue to the M'etkanun Tribe," Rui
sighed.
The M'etkanun Tribe was a tribe that lived out on the outskirts of the island,
forming a ring around it. They were largely beach dwellers that were
particularly fond of water, wishing they were amphibian, if not aquatic.
The Martial Artists of this tribe also slanted entirely in the affinity of aquatic
environments, and so did their Martial Paths and Martial Art. They were the
first ones who originally attacked the original naval exploration team that
originally discovered Vilun Island. The next several diplomatic endeavors
from the Martial Union's side required extensive and severe peacekeeping
efforts from the Martial Union until the relationship finally returned to
neutral and the tribe left the subsequent ships of the Martial Union alone.
In order to enter the island, Rui would most likely need to interact with this
Martial Tribe and would need to earn some degree of non-conflict with him.
"Sir, I think what we have is definitely the best," One of the assigned
diplomats of his team informed him. "There is historical precedent, thus the
Martial Tribe knows that to expect, having encountered this multiple times in
the past from outsiders. They willingly play along because they are the only
Martial Tribe that gets tipped in this manner and gets to benefit the most out
of everybody,"
"That definitely makes sense," Rui nodded.
There was no need to fix what wasn't broken.
"Alright then, putting that side matter aside, let's go over our initial contact
with the G'ak'arkan Tribe then," Rui nodded as he sat back down at the table
filled with files and documents as he scrolled through his accounter. "Make
sure we're missing nothing and that nothing is out of order. Even the slightest
mistake can set us back indefinitely. If anybody here wants to be the reason
that Senior Ceeran is delayed from returning home, then be my guest."
This motivated his team significantly as they went over all the information.
However, while they paced through the documents at a slow pace, Rui had
already made sure to memorize every piece of information that could even
possibly be relevant.
He closed his eyes as he opened his Mind Palace, scouring through the vast
amount of information stored in it up to this point since he learned the
technique all those years ago.
The week to Vilun Island was one of the most nerve-racking pre-mission
time periods that Rui had ever come across as he checked and rechecked
everything.
('How is a mission isn't even a threat to my life making me more nervous

than all of the ones that did?') Rui wondered, before sighing.
Of course, he knew. The stake, the scale, and the responsibility that he bore
were far greater than that of every other mission that he had come across ever
before in his entire life. Still, he couldn't help but feel quite excited about the
adventures that lay ahead.
Chapter 643 Gift
Rui tapped his feet as he waited in the cockpit.
"The island has come in view," Captain Crartas as he gestured, before turning
around to the crew of sailors behind him. "Alright folks, let's slow down
according to protocol,"
pαпdα`noνɐ1`сoМ Rui ignored the surge in the bustling of the sailors behind
him. "Why slow down when the island is that close?"
"It was protocol that came into play after we realized that they cooperate
better when we aren't rushing at them at top speed. They're a paranoid
bunch," The captain replied.
"They already know we're here," Rui replied.
Half of the coast of Vilun Island was sharp cliffs with dangerous rock
formations that protruded from below the surface. The other half was more
gentle beaches that the M'etKanun Tribe resided near.
The Martial Union had no intention of infringing on the territory of one of the
Martial Tribes of Vilun Island with a cruise ship, thus the only route was to
scale up the cliffs that were naturally uninhabited.
Of course, the intelligence made it clear that they would not be able to
interact with the M'etKanun Tribe due to their frequenting the oceans around
the island.
That was why Rui was waiting for the inevitable confrontation with the
M'etKanun Tribe.
He had worn the attire that the Martial Union had given to represent them,
and he also had his mind mask ready and prepped to put on the second he
sensed something or was alerted of something.
Rui was actually quite grateful that he had other Martial Artists engaging in
surveillance because his sensory techniques weren't of much use.
Tempestuous Feel was utterly useless when it came to sensing phenomena
underwater, while Seismic Mapping was largely useless due to how different
sound waves propagated underwater vs how seismic radiation propagated on
land.
Unless the M'etKanun Tribe was incompetent enough to generate tremendous

amounts of noise underwater, he would not be able to sense them coming up
to him.
This had really shown him how useless he was in aquatic environments.
('I can't allow that to remain this way in the long run," He sighed.
His Martial Path was adaptive evolution, and Rui had set high ambitions that
he had no intention of reneging on. That meant that he would need to learn
how to adapt to even aquatic-oriented Martial Artists even in their home
element.
"Sir, they're here," Squire Kravis nodded when they reached close to the
island. "A few seconds."
Time slowed down in their perspective as they exchanged a nod with each
other while Captain Crartas was frozen mid-air. Rui walked out of the cockpit
briskly as he headed toward the front of the ship.
"They're here, sir," Another Martial Squire seamlessly shot out of the ocean
and onto the ship.
"Good work," Rui nodded. "You have 'it' prepared, right?"
"Of course, sir."
Rui gazed into the waters before the ocean. His sharp senses couldn't pick up
a thing aside from a few fish, except for his eyes that saw several human
figures emerge to the surface of the water, skywalking before the ship.
They wore garbs that seemed to be fashioned from the aquadynamic scales of
aquatic animals and other adornments that all originated from the oceans. Rui
spotted many corals and shells adorning necklaces on their neck and other
parts of their body.
Their patterns and designs across their body were done with squid ink.
Yet what drew his attention was their eyes.
They were prepared and willing.
Rui knew that they, like all other Martial Tribes, had no problem with picking
a fight with the entire ship if necessary.
They too had set their eyes on him as well. For he had long donned the most
powerful mind mask that he could muster.
Even the Martial Artists around him felt bewildered at his tremendously
overpowering presence.
The five Martial Squires of the M'etKanun Tribe could see that he was the
most powerful Martial Artist on the boat. Of course, this was only because he
had told Senior Ceeran to wrap his aura and vibe as deep as he could, Rui
could only hope that his highly magnified aura would be able to hide and
overpower his highly diminished aura as well.
Thankfully, it seemed to work out.
"Greetings, respected warriors of M'etKanun Tribe," Rui smiled at them as he

spread his arms, speaking fluent Vilun dialect. "We come in peace,"
"What is your purpose for coming to this island, outsider?" The strongest
Martial Squire standing at the lead asked him.
His voice was deep and his tone was detached. He didn't bear any hostile
intentions, but he wasn't going to be particularly friendly with them either.
"We come in peace," Rui repeated, before continuing. "We come for
friendship, and we have a gift to offer to the M'etKanun Tribe."
None of them were particularly surprised.
Rui waved his hand as one of his assistants gave him a large and ostentatious
box. They swiftly accepted the box from Rui's hand unceremoniously, before
opening it up.
"Hm," The man nodded. "We accept the gift. Thank you. Continue"
The five of them returned to the ocean as unceremoniously as they had

arrived.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
"They're gone," The Martial Squire nodded.
"That was easy," Rui shrugged. "Hope the negotiations with the G'ak'arkan
Tribe are that easy."
"They won't," Senior Ceeran's voice interjected from behind. "Trust me."
At this moment, Rui was not inclined to trust anything the man had to say
regarding the case, but he was right. It was one thing to respect the general
claim the M'etKanun Tribe had over the waters surrounding the island as
outsiders. It was another thing entirely to manage to compel the G'ak'arkan
Tribe to cough up their most valued techniques that were a heritage for
centuries, most likely.
"Proceed towards the island, and continue as per protocols," Rui instructed
once he stepped into the cockpit.
"Aye aye, sir," The man smiled, nodding. "Onwards we go, men,"
Rui breathed deeply as the ship reached the island.

Chapter 644 Contact
Once the ship hit the island, the protocols were to immediately set up an
elementary preliminary security perimeter around the ship. The ship was the
most important asset to the mission as that was the only easy way back home.
Thus the Martial Union had stuffed her up with enough Martial Artists to
protect her at all costs.
The second step in the chain of protocols was to construct a temporary

preliminary base on neutral territory.
The base, of course, was no more than a set of tents that would be guarded by
the security team. The necessary supplies and personnel would be escorted by
the cliffside by the skywalking Martial Squires.
"Just a day, correct?" Rui asked.
"Yes sir," A man behind nodded. "As soon as that is done, we initiate the
diplomatic negotiations."
Rui nodded as he turned back to face the mountain at the center of the island.
The development proceeded quickly, as Rui and the diplomatic team

completed the final steps of preparation for the diplomatic endeavor.
A day later, it was time
"Are you ready, Stemple, Zeyra?" Rui asked the two people behind him.
The two of them were dressed in highly professional attire themselves. They
carried briefcases that contained files and documents that were translated into
the Vilun Dialect.
Rui turned as he breathed deeply.
The time for the first swing had arrived.
The game plan had been set, and now it was time for Rui to make sure he
executed it perfectly.
"Let's get going," Rui nodded as they headed out of the tent.
Waiting outside was a motorized chariot that was specifically meant to travel
through narrower paths of the mountain. It would cause a minimal amount of
damage to the surrounding environment.
Rui had made sure to not give the G'ak'arkan Tribe any reason to dislike their
little convoy, and that included not harming the natural environment of the
mountain that they cared so much about. It was narrow, flexible, and even far
more silent than a standard motorized chariot that burned special esoteric
substances that caused a lot of noise.
Rui could already sense motion in the surroundings with his sharp senses and
techniques. Several humans.
('Scouts of the G'ak'arkan Tribe,') Rui noted silently.
They maintained their distance from the small convoy as they made their way
up a path in the small mountain.
Rui just prayed that they wouldn't use long-range techniques to try and snipe
them from a great distance away. The fact that they hadn't probably meant
that the G'ak'arkan Tribe was not unwilling to meet with them.
The Martial Union had taken the initiative to build good decent, albeit
superficial, relationships with all of the Martial Tribes, it had taken quite a
long time of occasional but regular contact with the Martial tribes. Over
many years, contact and communication slowly and painstakingly elevated
from highly cautious and tense interactions to increasingly familiar
interactions.
Only then did the Martial Union begin the diplomatic missions to try and
negotiate a way to try and obtain their highly-guarded techniques. Which led
to the history of diplomatic failures to succeed with the mission.
Rui had no intention of joining that list.
It quite some time for them to reach the top of the mountain. Rui could have
skywalked to the very top very quickly, but he didn't want to leave behind his
assistants.
The top of the mountain was scenic and picturesque, so much so that even
Rui paused for a moment to admire it.
When he turned back, he saw several humans walking toward him.
Behind them in the distance were visible signs of a settlement.
Rui got off the chariot slowly, as he took slow and measured strides forward,
as his assistants nervously followed.
The air was tense, so much so that one could nearly cut it with a knife.
Rui's demeanor was calm and relaxed, yet inwardly he was sweating bullets.
First impressions mattered, and they mattered a lot.
That was why he hadn't retracted his mind mask since he put it on. He was
basically a glowing beacon that irresistibly drew the attention of the warriors
of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
All of them were Martial Squires, yet every Martial Artist knew that they
were all weaker than him.
Or, at least, so they thought. Rui was the only one who knew that wasn't
necessarily true.
"What brings you here?" An older man stepped forward amongst all of the
approaching warriors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
('He's the strongest without a shadow of a doubt,') Rui noted.

The man exuded a combination of power and experience, a dangerous
combination that Rui didn't want to be on the receiving end of.
"We come in peace," He smiled.
His voice was clear and calm, and his speech as fluent as a gentle ebbing
stream.
"We bring gifts," He waved his hand as his assistants brought forward boxes
similar to that which was given to the M'etKanun Tribe. "We wish to talk,"
Rui bemoaned the lack of formal synonyms in the Vilun Dialect inwardly.
"Speak about what?" The man didn't budge as he peered down at Rui.
"An important matter," Rui replied, unyielding as he continued walking

slowly towards the man.
"Speak about what?" The man insisted as he enunciated each word. "
pαпdα`noνɐ1`сoМ "You are not qualified," Rui calmly stated out loud for
everybody to hear. "We will negotiate with an equal, or a superior."
The man's expression soured.
Yet Rui didn't hesitate. He would not have dared to utter such words against
any other dignitary of any other group or state, but with the G'ak'arkan Tribe,
it was truly the right approach, and that was one of the truly remarkable
things about the tribe. Their hierarchy depended on power. Unlike with other
groups where Rui would rely on standard negotiation tactics, Rui needed to
double down. He was not going to earn their respect without the
acknowledgment that he was stronger.
This, of course, was a bit of a gamble, but they had long decided that it was
worth it.
Chapter 645 Hospitality
It was more important to take a not entirely probable success versus a

relatively certain failure.
"What did you say?" The man stepped forward.
The air changed as his expression crumpled in rage. His aura became more
aggressive and savage.
"I respect you. I'm asking for you to respect my power," Rui replied. "Are
you a warrior who cannot sense the truth?"
Rui waved around. "Because the truth is clear to everyone except you. Any
warrior can see this is as plain as day."
The man followed the gesture as he looked around.
Their expressions were clear.
According to Rui's senses, he probably was a grade-six Martial Artist at most.

His own projected power was leagues superior. The man-made eye-contact
with his fellow tribesmen as his expression turned sour.
"We come in peace," Rui replied. "We respect your strength,"
He paused, before turning to all of them. "We respect all of your power. That
is why they sent someone as powerful as me."
He gestured to himself. "We came to the G'ak'arkan Tribe because its proud
and powerful warriors are the most powerful warriors of the entire island."
Had he been conversing with a trained diplomat, or even a normal Martial

Artist of modern society, none of them would have fallen for flattery that
shamelessly obvious.
Unfortunately for them, both Rui and Carl came to the agreement that even
the age-old classics of communication and manipulation tactics would be
utterly useless against people extremely aware of such tactics.
The same could not be said for the warriors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe with no
culture of refined communication, no education in the field, and almost no
experience in negotiating with genuine outsiders.
Of course, they weren't too stupid, but Rui's words had clearly spoken to all
of them and had tickled their pride in the process. Still, that didn't make them
chummy with the outsiders, however, their hostility had reduced.
"We want to talk to the G'ak'arkan Tribe because it is the most powerful
Martial Tribe on Vilun Island," Rui nodded, before pausing. "But, just as we
have given you the respect that all of you mighty warriors deserve, we
deserve the respect of speaking with an equal, or superior."
This time, the old man was a lot more pliable.
('Don't fight the pride, harness it,) Rui smiled inwardly.
Just as he opened his mouth to respond, things changes rapidly.
A mightily powerful presence exerted itself on every sentient being. If not for
the two Martial Squire bodyguards that gave them mental protection with
their own auras, they would have very well fainted.
"My lord," All of the Martial Squires bowed deeply in the presence of the
newly arrived figure.
The atmosphere that had previously warmed up a bit quickly crawled to a

freezing halt as the gears ground and jammed.
The unadulterated might of a Martial Senior washed onto his body. Rui
smiled unchangingly as he bore the mental pressure that the man
unscrupulously had thrown all over him.
Rui felt more pressure put on him than he ever did before.
('Martial Senior,')
This was the first time that he had seen the mental force of the Martial Senior
laid and bared out in the open.
Neither Colonel Geringan nor Senior Ceeran had demonstrated their own
prowess to him in their talks. Rui never bothered asking, but he was quite
curious regardless.
Suddenly, the pressure disappeared.
"He's right," The man lightly nodded, with a hint of respect. "He is stronger
than all of you, and we will not leave him with someone not fit. No one in the
second rank is fit to take him on."
The comment hurt, and Rui could feel that the older Martial Squire did not
appreciate it.
Still, it did not matter.
The Martial Senior had already overridden his authority and control with the
discussion with the diplomatic team of outsiders that had approached their
Martial Tribe.
('The first objective, achieved,') Rui smiled inwardly.
The first objective in the initiation of contact with the G'ak'arkan Tribe was to
enter diplomatic talks with one of the three Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan
Tribe. The Martial Squires were pawns or, at best, slightly more valuable
pieces.
Rui hadn't expected it to this be easy to obtain what he wanted, the Martial
Seniors were the only ones who had the influence and power to make a
decision such as trading the Martial techniques of the Marital Union.
('I pressed the right buttons and it happened.') Rui nodded.

"But, you are guests," The man straightforwardly informed Rui. "Take some
rest. We will talk later."
"Thank you, we have traveled very far, thus we are tired,"
Rui didn't need the rest, but he needed to build a friendlier relationship with
the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Declining an invite for hospitality would be an
especially bad choice considering it was not necessary.
The Martial Squires reluctantly escorted all of them closer toward the
G'ak'arkan Tribe settlement.
Soon enough, they arrived at the village of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Rui kept his eyes wide open, not wanting to miss a single detail.
Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to join the village, he was given a small hut
at the corner of the small mini-village.
('The intelligence did not paint the most accurate picture of their nomadic
lifestyle, or their lack thereof.') Rui noted.
Of course, not every piece of intelligence was one of high confidence, the
Martial Union probably had the highest rate of credibility, and not everything
could be accurate all the time.
('Thankfully, this doesn't change anything of my plan,') Rui noted.
"You two, get back down and back to the case, inform them that I have
accepted the hospitality of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
They needed to engage in all the detail-oriented technical stuff to be

approved. While Rui played along with his hosts that had gone out of their
way to show him some hospitality. He was willing to do whatever he could as
long as it primed the future discussion with the G'ak'arkan Tribe in his favor.
Chapter 646 Initiation
Rui wasn't a fool, and apparently, neither was the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
('Let me, a Martial Squire rest because I'm a guest?') Rui chuckled.
Currently, he was inside a hut in the village of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, sitting on
a bed, contemplating what had happened.
('As I'd expected, the Martial Squires were aggressive and prideful, but that
man… He kept his cool and smoothly delayed my plans after he confirmed
that I was too strong to be dealt with by them,') Rui noted.
Of course, he recognized that Martial Senior.
Even without the Mind Palace technique, he would not possibly forget one of
the three youngest Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
('Hm, there may be some deviations from expectations, this early…') Rui
sighed.
The intelligence on Senior F'ahru, the youngest Martial Senior out of the
three Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe was limited. Unfortunately for
Rui, there wasn't too much data on the man in previous diplomatic
negotiations with the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
The problem was that the Martial Union jumped from directly dealing with
the Martial Squires of the G'ak'arkan Tribe to dealing with the leader of the
tribe, N'kulu. The issue was that while the previous Martial Squires that had
been chosen to delegate dealt with Martial Squires, Rui was portraying
himself as too strong to be dealt with any of the Martial Squires of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe.
However, that did not necessarily mean he would be dealing with the Martial
leader of the tribe immediately. If Rui was understanding what the
intervention of the third and the youngest Martial Senior meant, then that
would be the person that the G'ak'arkan Tribe was sending to negotiate with
Rui.
This was a little sub-optimal for Rui because he knew the least about the man
out of the three Martial Seniors.
('He seems a lot calmer and rational than the other Martial Artists of the
Martial Tribe,') Rui sighed. That was exactly what he didn't want.
He would rather deal with someone more simple as far as their mentality
went, than someone who could retain their composure.
Of course, Rui didn't think it was too big a deal. Part of it was because the
man was a Martial Senior, and that meant there was a limit to how much Rui
could impact his emotions. Rui had already long begun to feel this way about
Martial Apprentices. There was very little that Martial Apprentices could do
that would shake his composure.
"Only time will tell…"
And time did intend to follow through.
Soon enough, a Martial Apprentice informed Rui that the G'ak'arkan Tribe
was willing to meet with him at any time. All Rui had to do was inform his
assistants to hurry themselves up, and eventually, the diplomatic team
reunited as they were led through the village.
Rui ignored the piercing stares from the many members of the G'ak'arkan
Tribe. People of all ages came forward and out as they stared at the striding
diplomatic team.
Rui was only grateful that their gaze wasn't filled with fear or contempt, but
mostly curiosity. It was a good sign that the tribe did not have a strong bias
against the ambassadors of the Martial Union.
Soon, the team was led towards a larger hut closer to the center of the village.
Rui didn't even need to walk in to know who was in there.
"Senior F'ahru," Rui smiled as he walked in. "I'm honored that you have
chosen to hear us out."
"Have a seat, ambassador," The man gestured to the stools on the opposite
side of the table. "We will humor you, even though we know what this is all
about."
"What this is about…" Rui said as he took a seat. "…Is the mutual benefit of
both G'ak'arkan Tribe and our Martial Union."
"Your Martial Union has failed to convince us of this matter numerous times
in the past. Enough is enough." The man scoffed.
"Our Martial Union is invested in pursuing this matter and seeing it through
to the end. I hope to succeed, as long as you give me a chance," Rui smiled.
"A chance, yes," The man replied smoothly. "But I assure you, getting our
techniques will be nearly impossible."
pαпdα`noνɐ1`сoМ "We are aware," Rui nodded. "Your techniques are highly
precious to you."
"They are sacred," The man insisted. "They are the foundation of our power."
"Entering an agreement with us will strengthen that foundation," Rui

explained. "What was sacred before will become divine, if you agree to
cooperate with us."
"And you think your techniques are so much more special, do you? Do you
think you're so much ahead that your techniques will strengthen ours? Is that
what you're saying?"
The man stood up and he leaned forward with a stern expression.
To his credit, Rui remained fearless in the face of a Martial Senior glaring at
him even as his assistant diplomats were shivering below the table.
Both Rui and F'ahru could sense it, but neither of them cared. They were
irrelevant to the outcome of the diplomatic meeting, and they both knew it.
Rui paused for a moment as he considered his situation.
This was the tricky part that every Martial Artist that had been chosen as an
ambassador for the G'ak'arkan Tribe had come across, and one that none of
them had managed to overcome.
It was at this point that Rui hit an important crossroads.
He had two conventional choices at hand.
He could either refute that assertion and go down the route where he got into
a pissing contest over which side had the better Martial Art techniques,
challenge their pride and provoke their competitiveness and aggression and
most likely get into some kind of physical conflict or competition by the end
of it.
Or, he could concede that point in order to not do that, but end up devaluing
the Martial techniques of the Martial Union and perhaps end up chalking up a
deal where the martial Union is forced to trade thrice the number of
techniques that the Martial Union was going to receive.
"How our techniques compare, I cannot say. I certainly have not mastered all
of the long-range techniques of the Martial Union, and I have but a shallow
understanding of the sacred techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe." Rui replied.
"Unfortunately, there is not a single person in the world who can say which
side has better techniques."
"Then how can you say that your techniques will benefit us to the same level
that ours will benefit you?" the man asked.
"Each technique can be individually evaluated by both sides and be traded

with other individually evaluated techniques from the other side," Rui let him
know.
"And who gets to evaluate the value of techniques in this plan?"
"We can form an evaluation board of Martial Artists on both sides that will
together come to a fair consensus or compromise," Rui explained.
He knew that the Longranger Sect would celebrate in joy if that ever
happened.
Although learning a new language was difficult, the Martial Union would
have no problem would getting a few volunteer Martial Artists to undergo
tutelage in learning the language. And although Rui did breeze through his
tuition fast, it was not easy learning a new language, especially when they
were Martial Artists.
This was one of the preliminary routes that Rui had created when confronted
with the very dilemma that caused numerous failures in the past.
"We do not trust your Martial Artists to be fair with our techniques," The
man retorted sternly.
"There are other measures that can be implemented to ensure that that won't
happen," Rui explained.
"Maybe, but that still requires us to place a certain degree of trust in your so-
called measures." The man shrugged lightly.
Rui paused for a moment as he considered his opponent.
"Our techniques when used along with the techniques of that of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe can result in tremendous results. Results that would directly
benefit your entire tribe."
Rui leaned forward towards F'ahru. "You will dominate the entire island, and
all the other Martial Tribes on it,"
This was not a small claim, it was bold, but did not an unsubstantiated
reasonable cause of doubt meant that it was something seriously concerning.
The truth was that F'ahru could not afford to dismiss Rui's claims regarding
the techniques being able to strengthen the entire clan to the point that it
could overwhelm the entirety of the Martial Tribes on the entire island.
"But, it gets better," Rui explained. "You can offer greater to the protection of
the most vulnerable part of the Tribe."
"We protect them just fine as we are now," He snarled.
Rui nodded. "Yet, is there such a things as too much protection for the ones
that we care about most and fight for the most."
"That's not enough, I'm afraid," F'arhu declined Rui's advanced once more.
Rui sighed as he sat back in his chair.
Of course, Rui could continue in that regard, but he paused for a moment.
('If he's playing this hard to me at the face of every proposal, then this is more
than just a simple disagreement.
He thought back to the three interests that he headed done deep into his talks
with Carl. He needed to harness their desire for domination of the other
Martial Tribes of Vilun Island. Of course, he did not expect that it would fail
to be effective at all.
Rui got the faint feeling that he was probably missing something. These kinds
of situations usually meant that his gut was onto something.
"Well, with the techniques we give you, then you could easily fight multiple
wars at once with your newfound power," Rui offered. "You could pick a
fight with all of them and still come out on top."
The man stared at Rui hard.
Rui smiled magnanimously.
He had already revealed to the man two of his three opening arguments to
win over the three abstract interests of the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Unfortunately,
they did not seem to be as shocking as Rui has hoped it would.
"That… is still not good enough reason for us to part with the techniques that
we hold sacred, ambassador," The man gritted his teeth as he stared at Rui.
"Unless you have something more?"
"I don't understand…" Rui leaned in forward as he dropped his diplomatic

front for a moment. "You don't want our techniques even though it is going to
help you dominate the various Martial Tribes on Vilun Island. It is a
technique that will allow the G'ak'arkan Tribe to eternally engage in war with
how many ever martial Tribes you wish. Furthermore, despite the solution of
allowing Martial Artists working together to ensure that each technique,
regardless of which side that they were on, would allow you to foster greater
exchange with the techniques of both sides. Yet you seem very determined to
decline my offers."
The man snorted, waving his hands.
"I don't know… because it seems to me like you're rejecting our offers due to
the fear of something else," Rui wondered, asking out loud
"What did you just say to me?" The man stood up as he towered Rui.
Rui's two diplomatic assistants shivered at that.
Yet Rui was as cool as a cucumber. He was highly certain that the Martial
Senior would not do anything to him for any reason.
There were far too many friendlies in the surrounding area, for whom Rui
had gotten all of them to serve as a passive shield.
Rui was too strong for a Martial Squire of his projected caliber, for F'ahru
would require to exert himself far too much to kill Rui that would also cause
a lot of casualties in the village. A senior-level attack is no joke.
This was, of course, a high-level attack that be far too overpowering,

especially when he was a long-range martial Artist, and that meant that he
could not turn act on his any towardly desire that he may have momentarily
been overcome by the fact that Rui had chosen his tactics well.
Chapter 648 Outcome
Of course, Rui knew what he was doing.
His dedication and training had paid off.
"I'm afraid that it truly does seem to me that maybe you don't think that the
Martial Artists of your Martial Tribe could master our difficult techniques?"
Rui shrugged.
"That is not true!" The Martial Senior insisted. As he gritted his teeth, glaring
down at Rui.
"If you say so," Rui sighed. "Because it would be a true insult to the mighty
warriors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe if they were implied that they couldn't handle
something as simple as the training required our techniques."
At this point, Rui was not even talking to him at all.
He was talking to every Martial Squire that was listening to the conversation.
This was, once again, triggering their pride. The more he riled them into
potentially believing that the Martial Tribe did not think they were capable of
doing so. After all, why else would they refuse the offer?
Rui graciously built up a good image of the warriors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe
with swifter smooth talking.
"Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be going anywhere," Rui shook his head,
sighing.
He had already coaxed them with numerous offers and incentives, but Senior
F'ahru rejected him every time, straightforwardly.
"I would like to hold these conversations later on once more." Rui smiled. "If
you would be so gracious."
"If it's nothing new, don't bother," He huffed.
Rui and his assistants quickly got out of there, descending the hill.
"I'm sorry sir, but it seems the initial negotiations are a failure," They sighed.
"Yeah, but... what's more important is why it happened," Rui sighed. "Why
exactly did they reject the so many favorable terms that I brought up."
"Ah, regarding that, sir. You stepped a bit out of bounds with some of those
officers. You were not authorized to offer several things that you did make
the offer to them.
"I know," Rui nodded. "It made the deal that much harder to resist, yet he did
it regardless. What I am more interested in is what is it that keeps him from
agreeing to our deal. Are the techniques they have truly something they
genuinely consider to be sacred?" Rui wondered.
None of them had an answer to that question.
"I get the feeling that he didn't have enough trust in us to abide by our
words," Rui frowned.
Rui's eyes narrowed.
"That's probably one of the reasons, at least," Rui sighed. "Still, if we want to
obtain success on this, then we need to do better than this next time."
"Next time, sir?" One of them asked. "What's the point of trying again?"
"Why do you say that?" Rui frowned.
"Sir you tried the primary opening offers and arguments and even went into
the deep end of the stuff that I don't even entirely understand,"
"We can still succeed with this mission, alright?" Rui nodded. "Have faith in
us,"
The two of them looked at him dubiously.
"What?" Rui returned with a disapproving look.
"How can we possibly succeed after this failure?"
"By figuring out a new way to make them want to voluntarily trade their
techniques," Rui replied.
In fact, he had already come up with a few plausibilities.
"We need to work harder in earning the support of every stakeholder in that
goddamn Martial Tribe," Rui narrowed his eyes.
"Sir, I'd suggest that go back ho-"
"No, not yet," Rui shook his head. "We're gonna get those techniques
together,"
BEEP BEEP
It was a call with Senior Ceeran.
"Yes sir?" Rui sighed.
"I got your message, it didn't go that well, did it?"
"Not at all, sir."
"Well, I don't blame you, my first time was not that good either."
Rui's eye twitched as he smiled sardonically.
Rui had merely failed to compel them, whereas Senior Ceeran had come near
provoking a war.
"Never mind, there's nothing that can be done. For now, we can only-" "I'm
afraid I can do that right now, sir. I believe I can succeed with just some
time." Rui replied.
"How do you plan on doing that?"
"Long story sir, for now, I just plan on refining and altering my approach.
"I don't know how much longer Martial commissioner Derun will tolerate
this mission if it isn't yielding meaningful results, Rui."
"I understand,"
"Also, if this becomes something of an extended operation, then I will have to

return back to the Martial Union." Senior Ceeran informed him. "I cannot
afford to spend so much time away from the Martial Union not
accomplishing much. However, if and when you ever need me, I'll be sure to
return to the mission, just like that?"
They spoke for some more time before their conversation finally ended.
Once he left, there was a lot less peace of mind with what was happening.
The fact of the matter is that the reason he felt confident in poking people if
he needed to was that he knew that Senior Ceeran has his back,
professionally and personally.
"Looks like I'll have to be looking to become more cautious," Rui nodded.
Of course, he wasn't averse to this.
"What exactly are you planning to do, sir?" One of his assistants frowned.
"I need to find a way to lower their trust, and also strengthen their incentives
to agree to our deal. We will get our hands on those techniques no matter
what happens.
One thing Rui needed to do was gain more information on the timing.
"Information will allow me to make more accurate decisions," Rui

straightforwardly informed them. "Oh man, I am so glad that Kane is here, he
is really useful for things like that."
Infiltration was a highly useful niche. And Kane was extremely good at it.
Rui would need to only worry about him getting caught, which may happen
in the vicinity of Martial Seniors. However, as long as Kane avoided some
really dangerous spots, Rui was still quite confident that he could get him
what he wanted
Chapter 649 Obstacles
"You're telling me those idiots refused us again?" Senior Ceeran frowned.

"Why can't they be objective and rational about this? No matter how you spin
it, it's a great deal! They're lucky we in the Martial Union have decided not to
pursue a forceful approach!"
He turned towards Rui. "So, what are you planning on doing?"
Rui considered the question for a brief period, before sighing. "The most
important matter to understand is the core reason, or reasons, that they do not
want to engage in a trade. If we can understand that, we can come up with a
better plan."
His fingers drummed on the table as he was deep in thought. "Still, there are
measures we can undertake regardless."
"And what might that be?" Senior Ceeran asked inquisitively.
"The G'ak'arkan Tribe does not have a good idea of what our techniques are
capable of," Rui stated. "At the very least, they do not have as much of an
idea of what it is we are capable of as we do of their capabilities."
"That is true, sir," Stemple, one of his assistant diplomats, said before
continuing. "However, this is usually not a problem as we readily
demonstrate the basics of what we are offering once the intent to cooperate
has been established. The issue here is were unable to even reach the stage
where we can arrange for a demonstration of our techniques to them,"
"That is definitely one of the issues here," Rui nodded. "The impression I got
is that the G'ak'arkan Tribe definitely thinks their techniques and Martial
Artists are superior, regardless of how true it is or isn't. I suspect their
ignorance of our capabilities is definitely getting in the way of productive
exchange."
"Then all we have to do is show them what we are capable of!" Senior
Ceeran declared.
"Yes, but we cannot be too direct and overt about it. That will be interpreted
as a challenge to their capabilities. At the very least, we cannot walk up to
them and rub our prowess in their face. That would definitely be seen as an
affront to their pride and a challenge, based on what happened in previous
negotiation talks."
Rui gave Senior Ceeran a measured look, who, to his credit, noticed and even
understood what Rui was trying to convey.
They both knew that in his previous negotiations with the G'ak'arkan Tribe,
Senior Ceeran had rashly used a long-range technique in the middle of the
negotiations with the G'ak'arkan Tribe. It had instantly caused hostilities to
break out and the G'ak'arkan Tribe came close to war with the diplomatic
convoy that had been dispatched to the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Rui found it truly astonishing that even after going through some diplomatic
briefings under the experienced and wise Carl, he still thought using a
powerful Senior level technique in the middle of an official meeting was not
a bad idea.
"Well, if you're not going to go up to them and shove the technique in their
faces, then how are you going to solve this problem?" Senior Ceeran.
"There are other ways to demonstrate our long-range capabilities implicitly,"

Rui informed him.
He got up abruptly before Senior Ceeran could respond.
"I need to speak to Martial commissioner Derun, I'm afraid. The plans I have
in mind cannot be implemented without her help," Rui informed them.
He walked away to his own quarters briskly as he considered the matters at

hand.
('It's not just a matter of demonstrating our techniques blindly. We need to

make them feel the need for our techniques otherwise they will never truly
accept our deal," Rui had carefully paid attention to the demeanor of Senior
F'ahru.
The man was either ignorant about the Martial Union's techniques or also
deluded that theirs were better, or both. Furthermore, the G'ak'arkan Tribe did
not have a pressing need for what the Martial Union had to offer, thus there
wasn't a pressing incentive.
('They neither know, are too proud to express care, nor need to care,') Rui
summarized three of the intangible barriers that had gotten in the way of a
successful negotiation.
These problems had not been highlighted during his briefing program under
Carl, and Rui could understand why.
('The problems I had faced are problems that had never been faced before,
probably because no one had even reached the stage I have,')
This wasn't a statement coming from arrogance. It was a rational observation

and inference. The first set of diplomats sent were normal humans who
earned no respect from the G'ak'arkan Tribe which only respected Martial
prowess. The second set of diplomats sent were Martial Artists who botched
the negotiations by triggering hostilities due to crude negotiation approaches.
Rui had faced neither problem. He was powerful enough, or at least appeared
to be thanks to the Mind Mask technique, to earn the audience of one of the
most powerful Martial Artists and leaders of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Furthermore, he had directed the negotiations in an ultimately safe manner.
While he did provoke Senior F'ahru, he had shielded himself by cleverly
appealing to the pride of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, while his predecessors had
wounded their pride foolishly.
Rui would need to come up with a plan to bypass all of those barriers and
obstacles to eventually get them to agree to engage in a trade of techniques
with the Martial Union.
('One thing is for sure, negotiations alone aren't going to pierce the barriers of
ignorance, pride, and aggressive competitiveness of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.')
He sighed.
Just talking to them was not sufficient. Senior F'ahru had sternly ended every
attempt at alluring the G'ak'arkan Tribe to the trade. He even crossed the line
and promised things he wasn't necessarily allowed to as an experiment, yet
even those were shut down.
Which meant he needed to implement measures outside of the diplomatic

negotiations to get the G'ak'arkan Tribe to acquiesce.
('This will be fun,') Rui smirked as several ideas popped into his head
regarding how to handle and overcome these issues.
Chapter 650 Plan
"Commissioner Derun," Rui smiled as her image popped upon his comms
display.
He had been issued a premium comms device that allowed him to

communicate with the Martial Union reliably despite being a great distance
away for the duration of the mission, for mission-related purposes only.
"Squire Quarrier, good of you to contact me, I just finished the report that
your diplomatic team filed. Good job, your execution as a diplomat was
better than had been anticipated." She smiled ruefully. "It's a shame that the
diplomatic missions failed, engage with them a bit more, and increasing your
offers by a certain margin is the only option left. And if that fails… then I'm
afraid we will have to question whether this mission is even worth pursuing
in the first place."
Rui raised an eyebrow at those words. "Is the Martial Union willing to give
up on obtaining those techniques?"
She considered his question. "That's outside of purview, officially at least.

However, the Martial Union is cognizant enough to distinguish which
avenues of approach are worth investing in, and which aren't. There have
been numerous attempts at negotiating for the techniques of the G'ak'arkan
Tribe. Granted, those missions failed for foreseeable reasons that could be
rectified on our end, and you managed to avoid those reasons for the most
part, it seems. Yet you failed to achieve any success at all beyond that. It is
clear that talking to them over and over again is not going to help."
Rui smiled. "Those were my thoughts exactly. However, I am quite

convinced that any further negotiation is meaningless toward actually
convincing them, actually. I would rather not spend any time on it. I certainly
wouldn't rely on it."
She raised an eyebrow at that statement. "It seems you do not intend to go for
another negotiation session."
"Not any serious one, anyway," Rui nodded. "As I said, it's futile."
"Then what are your intentions?" She asked, curious.
Rui paused for a few seconds before replying. "The biggest problem is their
ignorance of what it is we are actually offering because demonstrations in
these kinds of negotiations only come after a mutual interest to cooperate.
However, we cannot be overt and direct in demonstrating the power of our
techniques the way Senior Ceeran did, otherwise we will trigger their pride in
their own techniques and their aggressive competitiveness. Then it won't
matter how valuable our techniques are, they will refuse to cooperate. I have
a better idea to implicitly and passively demonstrate the complete and whole
value of our techniques."
"And what would that be, Squire Quarrier?"
"It's simple. We inhabit a part of the island, self-sustain, and flourish purely
on the merits of our techniques," Rui simply explained.
"Excuse me?" She frowned.
"What I'm saying is… we show them exactly what we are offering through
and through by putting ourselves in their situation and environment, and
demonstrating that the techniques we are offering perform far better in the
parameters and avenues that they are weak at, allowing us to solve mutual
issues that plague us both," Rui explained.
Her eyebrows widened, as she considered his suggestion.
It was beginning to make sense, in theory at least.
After all, the 'value' of a technique as far as utility went was nuanced and
multi-layered. Pure numbers on the parameters of a technique alone could not
convey the practical long-term benefits and utility of a technique.
In reality, it was impossible to predict the entirety of all direct and indirect
benefits and impacts a new widely adopted technique might have without
actually doing so and observing the results.
Thus, such intangibles were generally not accurately conveyed, not as

explicitly and objectively as numbers of the performance parameters of a
technique were.
But what Rui was offering was a way to convey both the explicit and the
implicit value of the techniques that the Martial Union was offering.
"I see…" She mumbled as her eyes widened as she shrewdly understood
exactly what Rui was trying to achieve. "That's actually a great plan, better
than any non-forceful measure that we have come up with."
She turned to Rui with an amazed expression. "You came up with this all by
yourself?"
Rui nodded.
"Did you have this in mind before the diplomatic negotiation with the
G'ak'arkan Tribe?" She couldn't help but wonder aloud.
"I came up with it fifteen minutes ago as I considered the various measures
that we could take to make them more pliable to our demands."
"Quite remarkable," She nodded. "Thus far, you have completed your role as
a diplomat of the Martial Union quite professionally. As professional as our
actual professionals, dare I say."
"Thank you. Still, I haven't gotten to why I actually called you," Rui told her.
"If this was something that could easily be achieved with our own prowess,
then I would have straightforwardly gone and implemented it. After all, I
possess the authority to do so since it is my mission. However, this plan
requires measures that I do not possess the authority and means to execute."
"And you need my authority to help you fulfill your plan?" She smiled.
"That's right," Rui replied to her.
"You are aware that the moment I exert my authority to cede to your
demands as a Martial Artist fulfilling your mission, then I become more
liable and responsible for the outcome of the mission than I already am?" She
asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"I am aware of that, commissioner Derun," Rui nodded. "I can only request
you to aid me on this mission."
She considered the matter for several missions before looking back at him.
"Alright, Squire Quarrier, I am willing to give you some leeway. What is it
that you need exactly?"
Rui smiled.
The fact that she acquiesced to his request meant that his plan had likely
earned her confidence and that Rui himself had earned a bit of her trust, as far
as his capability went. That was optimistic to Rui as far probability of success
went. A rank-three Martial commissioner was anything but incompetent.
Chapter 651 Drastic
"What I need…" Rui explained. "Is to have a team of Martial Squires of the
Longranger Sect aid me in building a settlement on neutral territory on the
island for the skilled laborers employed on the cruise ship, the diplomatic
team, the security team, and the intelligence team. We seek to be self-
sufficient, so we would also require the necessary skilled expertise and the
necessary supplies and goods needed to build a self-sustaining settlement on
the island."
The current personnel as well as the goods and supplies that had been
assigned to the mission were very insufficient in accomplishing what Rui was
trying to accomplish. He needed more than what he already had.
"Hm, alright. As for the specifics…"
"Those can be haggled over, but the main point is that we need to
demonstrate the totality of all the value that our techniques can provide," Rui
mentioned. "The most important part of my request is the Martial Squires of
the Longranger Sect. Specifically, their Martial Paths need to line up with
what we are offering."
"I see, so you want to get the Martial Squires of the Longranger Sect to have
Martial Paths centered around the kinds of techniques that the Martial Union
is planning to offer to the G'ak'arkan Tribe?" She asked.
Rui nodded. "The techniques we are offering are those that shore up the
shortcomings of the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Thus having Martial Squires that are
experts in those fields that the G'ak'arkan Tribe is lacking in really allows us
to showcase exactly what it is we are offering. The Martial Squires need to
perfectly fit our needs."
"That is understandable, I'm sure Senior Ceeran can arrange for that." She
replied. "Have him work out the choices of what Martial Squires he thinks
are most fit, and send that list to me, and I will see what I can do with
assigning them to this mission."
"Thank you, commissioner Derun," Rui smiled.
"Not at all. Is there anything else?" She asked.
"Well, yes. I'm a little hesitant, but I think this next plan has enough merit to
warrant mentioning," Rui said. "I wanted to get your opinion on this idea that
I had."
She nodded, waiting for him to finish it.
"I was considering the idea of introducing a powerful species of fauna to the
Vilun Island that would disrupt the island and would make life harder for the
G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui told her.
The idea sounded so absurd and out of pocket that Martial commissioner
Derun was stumped for a second. It was truly out of her expectations that Rui
would make a request like this.
"What?" She frowned. "What merit is there in such a pointless plan? You'll
simply cause harm to the tribe that we are already struggling to befriend."
"Yes, but the species of fauna that I'm considering must be one that can easily
be dealt with by the kind of long-range techniques that the G'ak'arkan Tribe is
lacking in, the kind that we are offering to them because they are lacking in.
If we do that…"
"Then the value of our techniques would be much greater," She quickly
understood. "You want to introduce a brand-new problem and crisis that
would increase the value of what we are offering and introduce an additional
need for the G'ak'arkan Tribe to accept our proposal to trade techniques."
One of the problems that Rui had highlighted earlier was that the G'ak'arkan
Tribe had no driving motivation to accept the trading offer that the Martial
Union had made for them. They were satisfied with their Martial prowess and
had great pride in their own techniques. There simply was nothing strong
enough to put down that pride and take interest in the techniques of the
outsiders.
Rui had recognized this and realized that there was only one viable solution.
If there was no driving motivation for the G'ak'arkan Tribe to accept the
trading offers of the Martial Union, then Rui realized that he need only
introduce a reason for the G'ak'arkan Tribe to develop a driving motivation
into accepting the offers of the Martial Union.
"You're plotting against them, if the G'ak'arkan Tribe discovers or suspects

your ploy, then you will have forever destroyed the relationship between the
tribe and the Martial Union, do you understand?" She warned him.
"I am aware of that," Rui nodded calmly. "Of course, it cannot be done in
haste. And it will require some preparation and a lot of deception. But I am
confident that as long as we plan thoroughly, and execute the plan
thoroughly, we can be reasonably confident that the G'ak'arkan Tribe will
eventually acquiesce to our trade offers."
She considered his words quietly for several seconds. "I will get back to you
on this, I am afraid I cannot make a decision regarding this request of yours
on the spot,"
Rui understood why, of course. If the plan failed, then the Martial Union
could forget about getting all of its techniques through diplomatic
negotiations. The G'ak'arkan Tribe would instantly become sworn enemies of
the Martial Union, and hostilities would break out immediately.
In the worst-case scenario, they might break out into a war with the
diplomatic convoy of the Martial Union then and there, leading to the entire
convoy being ravaged.
Rui was not optimistic about Senior Ceeran's chances of taking on three
Martial Seniors at once. Although Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe
were much weaker than that of the Kandrian Empire, on average, three-on-
one was still very one-sided as far as the odds went.
Of course, he was quite certain that Senior Ceeran was probably very strong
even for a Martial Senior of the Martial Union.
Even if he could win, the destruction of their battle would be immense and
would likely end up hurting the entire convoy. Furthermore, the G'ak'arkan
Tribe outnumbered the diplomatic convoy as far as Martial Artists of lower
Realms went, too.
The consequences of being discovered would be devastating, Rui wasn't sure

he would even survive in such circumstances.
Chapter 652 Pespective
Life in the G'ak'arkan Tribe was quite simple.
One ate, slept, and fought.
This was their daily cycle and everything else in their lives revolved around
it. Each day they would prepare the entire day to engage in some physical
conflict with another Martial Tribe that also occupied Vilun Island, or they
themselves would find themselves to be the target of some attack or assault of
another Martial Tribe.
The G'ak'arkan Tribe were mountain folk, although the Vilun mountain was
not too large, it was the sole mountain on the island and the G'ak'arkan Tribe
occupied it. The mountain gave them a natural advantage as they could
leverage their long-range specialty the best with the natural inclination that
the terrain gave them.
The conflicts between the Martial Tribes of the island were straightforward
and head-on. They did not ever seem to engage in asymmetric warfare and
covert operations that could turn the tables in their favor, for some reason.
The outcomes of conflicts were largely contingent on the quantity and quality
of warriors involved. An overwhelming proportion of the conflicts that
occurred on the island were limited to human-level and Apprentice-level
spats.
A smaller proportion of conflicts involved the Martial Squires that fought

independently, for their destructive power was too strong to be fighting
between humans. None of the Martial Tribes of Vilun Island wanted their
own Martial Squires accidentally massacring their own people inadvertently
in the middle of fighting against Martial Squires. This was a universally
undesirable outcome, thus across time, an unwritten agreement had naturally
formed between all of the Martial tribes of the island.
Conflicts need to be segregated by Realm.
Every day, human-level clashes would spark between different Martial

Tribes, and Martial Apprentices would frequently also get into fights with the
Martial Apprentices of other tribes.
The deployment of Martial Squires was much more special and was reserved
for targeted moments. These conflicts were much more destructive and every
Martial tribe needed to be careful with where and when these Martial Artists
fought.
However, the most destructive fights in Vilun Island were between the
leaders of each of the Martial Tribes; the Martial Seniors.
These exalted beings were so far above everybody else, that the rest may as
well have been no different from insects. These warriors did not pick fights
frivolously, even if there was an opportunity for a Martial Senior to wipe out
hapless Martial Apprentices or Martial Squires of enemy tribes, they would
not bother lifting a hand themselves to destroy the lessers. It was beneath
them, no different from an adult bullying little children.
The few times they did fight against Martial Seniors, the entire island would
sit tight and grit its teeth.
Such was the power of the most powerful warriors of the island, even
separating one's self from the battlefield of these mighty warriors to the other
side of the island did not guarantee safety. Their power was too oppressive.
The few times that they did fight would leave scars on the island that
sometimes never faded away!
It was the pinnacle of physical conflict
Such was the life of the Martial tribes of Vilun Island.
A static monotony of head-on and straightforward physical conflict that all

participating tribes had grown not only intimately familiar with but also
comfortable with. It was all they had known, and all they would know;
eternal conflict on this chunk of land that was surrounded by infinite seas.
Or so they thought.
The arrival of aliens to the island was one of the most shocking events to
have ever happened on the island.
They arrived on a strange, large vessel that lumbered aboard water towards
the island. Not a single Martial tribe on the island had missed the arrival of
the original ship of the Kandrian Empire and the Martial Union that first
discovered Vilun Island. Their innate fears had largely been dispelled when
they saw that even the Martial Apprentices and Martial Squires of their tribes
were able to obtain a dominant victory against the outsiders who had boarded
onto the island and had begun exploring and even extracting resources
aggressively the moment they arrived.
A single attack sent the hapless aliens packing where they came from, but not
before a lot of them, died because they weren't strong enough.
They weren't much of a threat, it seemed.
Yet despite getting beaten black and blue and running away entirely in a
shameful display of cowardice, the aliens returned. This time, they smiled,
offered gifts that the Martial tribes appreciated, and even attempted to hold
dialogue, as difficult as that was initially. They went all out in pleasing the
Martial tribes and making friends with them despite their fellow aliens being
killed by their people.
In the eyes of the Martial tribe, this was a sign of weakness and cowardice.
What kind of tribe befriended the murderers of their own tribesmen?
It became clear to the tribe folks that the alien tribes were probably weak and
cowardly, and not worth paying much attention to. They strongly rejected the
strange contraptions and objects that they brought along, disdaining them as a
pathetic means to cover up for their weakness.
They scoffed when the aliens sent mere ordinary humans as representatives
of their entire tribe, or their 'union' as they insisted on calling it. Only the
strongest of the tribe could represent the entire tribe.
Yet the aliens sent a bunch of ordinary humans to represent their entire tribe?
What a joke.
Furthermore, these humans were not even Martial Artists, but they had no
combat ability whatsoever. Even the children of the Martial tribes were
strong enough to beat them up.
What the Martial tribes found to be most humorous was that despite being so
weak and cowardly, the alien tribe had the gall to offer a trade to obtain their
techniques.
The sacred techniques that they had inherited from their powerful and
glorious ancestors?
The diplomats were laughed away.
Yet their laughter froze when the aliens seemed to regain basic common
sense and sent a Martial Artist to represent them for the first time.
Chapter 653 Changes
These weak aliens suddenly seemed to bring about a Martial Artist out of
nowhere. Furthermore, A Martial Squire, not a Martial Apprentice.
That caught the attention of the Martial tribes of Vilun Island.
Power was all that mattered to them, which meant that those that had power
definitely were much bigger in their eyes.
The Martial Squire offered to trade them the techniques of his 'union' for the
techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Yet that was not what had angered the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"Our techniques are much superior to your primitive techniques, so you have
every reason to accept our offer." The alien Martial Artist told them with a
contemptuous expression.
The Martial Squires of the G'ak'arkan Tribe felt boundless rage boiling from
deep within their being as they exerted superhuman willpower to control
themselves from attacking and tearing the fool apart!
If not for the fact that they were too close to the ordinary tribe-folk of their
village that would die from just the minutest fraction of their power, they
would have killed him on the spot.
What followed was even more bewildering to them.
The ordinary humans that had accompanied the Martial Squire chastised the
Martial Squire in their native tongue!
They dared to adopt a strong tone with the Martial Squire despite being
ordinary humans.
This was unheard of to the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
What dumbfounded them, even more, was that the Martial Squire heeded
their words and apologized for the insult. Later that day, they sent even more
gifts as a token of apology.
Truly incomprehensible behavior.
Yet what was even more shocking was that much later after several more
attempts, they returned with a Martial Senior!
Now, this was a jolting event even to the highest leaders of the Martial tribes
of Vilun island. The birth of a new Martial Senior was always a defining and
significant event on Vilun island and one that could influence the power
dynamics of the many Martial Tribes.
Every Martial tribe paid close attention as the Martial Senior specifically
headed towards the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
The offer was the same as before; their techniques for the techniques of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe.
This time, there was more gravitas to the offer.
Yet the problem was the phrasing. The previous Martial Squire was bad
enough, but this one was far worse.
"Your primitive techniques are much weaker than ours, the only reason we
want them is that you have certain novelties that we are interested in. Don't
be stupid and accept our offer." Senior Ceeran had conveyed to them, despite
his pleasant smile.
Hostilities had nearly broken out then and there, frankly, it was a miracle that
they hadn't. If not for the fact that N'Kulu, the leader of the G'ak'arkan Tribe,
had more maturity in him than his clansmen, it may very well have turned
into a war then and there.
At this point, the G'ak'arkan Tribe was very confused.
Its lack of understanding of the aliens which stemmed from having dismissed
them for many years after their initial underwhelming appearance was
starting to get in the way of how they ought to deal with them.
At the very least, they never showed any overt hostility to the Martial tribes
of the island. They maintained a peaceful relationship and continuously made
offers to trade Martial techniques.
Alas, the G'ak'arkan Tribe, at least, was not interested in sharing their
techniques to obtain the techniques of people whose Martial Artists were
disrespected by normal humans. How could such Martial Artists have worthy
techniques?
They may have reached higher Realms, but their conduct with lessers gave
the Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe very little confidence that they had
any merit in them.
Then came the latest Martial Artist in the long line of ambassadors.
A Martial Squire with pitch-black hair and eyes. He blazed with more power
in a Martial Squire than any Martial Artist on the island had ever seen. It was
a wonder to them how he was still in the Squire Realm.
For the first time, the G'ak'arkan Tribe had a serious discussion with the
ambassador of the 'union' that managed to actually end on a peaceful note.
The G'ak'arkan Tribe skeptically listened to his tale of offering techniques
that covered some of the shortcomings of the G'ak'arkan Tribe in exchange
for some techniques that covered their shortcomings.
There was only one problem.
What shortcomings?
The G'ak'arkan Tribe did not see any of the so-called shortcomings that the
ambassador had suggested that their techniques had; their range and power,
among other things.
This made no sense to the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Their long-range techniques had
more range and more power at range than any other long-range techniques on
the entire island!
This was naturally true since they were the only Martial tribe that developed
an affinity for long-range techniques that other Martial tribes did not, due to
their environment.
Long-range techniques were particularly useful at elevated heights and

distances.
Regardless, the G'ak'arkan Tribe simply failed to make heads or tails of the
mentality and thoughts of the relatively friendly but strange aliens that
continuously had been pestering the G'ak'arkan Tribe to obtain their
techniques for quite some time now.
At the very least, their talks had made more progress than in the past, but it
had become very clear that both sides were nowhere near each other on the
same page. This was the fundamental barricade between a fruitful negotiation
session.
Soon after, the alien outsiders seemed to receive reinforcements that brought
over more people to the island. This was an alarming development. If not for
the fact that the outsiders had spent many years slowly building up goodwill
with the Martial tribes of Vilun Island, they would have long kicked them all
to the curb as they did many years ago the first time they stumbled upon the
island.
The vigilance of the G'ak'arkan Tribe grew stronger as they closely observed
what the outsiders were up to on the island, whatever it was, it was not
insignificant.
Chapter 654 Requirements
"This is quite the novel idea," Zeyra, an assistant diplomat of his, remarked
after Rui finished explaining his initial idea.
"I agree," Stemple, the other assistant diplomat, nodded. "Did you really
come up with this sir?"
"I did," Rui nodded. "I proposed it to Martial commissioner, and she
approved after giving it some thought. There are many merits to the plan I
have proposed, after all. The best way to demonstrate the value of our
techniques to the G'ak'arkan Tribe is by putting ourselves in their position
and showing them the value that our techniques bring us when we are in their
position. I have already identified some areas in which we can make very
demonstrable impacts that will no doubt make all of their Martial Artists
quite jealous. I'll have to rely on the intelligence team to aid me in uncovering
more ways in which we can demonstrate the power of our techniques. As
long as we can sufficiently sway over enough stakeholders of the G'ak'arkan
Tribe we can move past the biggest hurdle hampering our discussion."
They were both speechless. For a moment, Rui sounded like an actual
diplomat rather than a Martial Artist. It was hard for them to reconcile his
remarkable insight with his being a Martial Artist.
"So, I guess we'll be settling on Vilun island for the time being?" Zeyra
asked.
"That does seem to be the case," Rui nodded.
"We'll need to be careful while selecting the location of our settlement,"

Stemple noted.
"That's true," Rui nodded. "Ideally, we can look to settle on a different part of
the Vilun mountain, but I am unsure about how the G'ak'arkan tribe will react
to that."
The G'ak'arkan tribe was most certainly not large enough to occupy the
entirety of the area on the mountain. However, the mountain was viewed as
the G'ak'arkan Tribe's territory. It would be a foolish move to rashly build a
settlement in their own territory without permission.
Rui was sure that regardless of all the goodwill that the Martial Union had
spent building with the G'ak'arkan Tribe, they would not hesitate to drive
them out of their territory. It was one thing to engage in discussions and talks
about the mutual trade of Martial Art techniques with the Martial Union, it
was another thing altogether to start building a house in their front yard.
"I think they are quite likely to accept that, sir," Stemple said thoughtfully.
"The Martial tribes of Vilun island have all demonstrated a high value for the
sovereignty of their territory."
"That is the troubling part," Rui sighed. "I think getting them to agree to us
building a settlement on the mountain that they have claimed as their territory
is unrealistic. However, building a settlement at the mountain base or on the
surrounding hills should not be that much of a problem," Rui explained.
"The further away we are, the longer it will take for this plan to take effect,
sir," Zeyra chimed in. "The plan would be most effective if we are able to be
as close to them for them to observe us with the greatest amount of ease and
thoroughness."
She had a good point. The entire point of the settlement plan that Rui had
come up with was to thoroughly demonstrate the tangible and intangible
benefits and utility that the techniques that they were offering to trade,
provided to them when they were in similar enough circumstances as the
G'ak'arkan Tribe.
However, consequently, the time period for this plan to succeed would stretch
out increasingly further away from the G'ak'arkan Tribe that they were. How
could the G'ak'arkan Tribe effectively surveil the settlement if they were on
the opposite side of the island? It would be many, many years by the time the
G'ak'arkan Tribe naturally came about to discover the value of the techniques
that the diplomats of the Martial Union were offering to trade to the
G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"That is also a valid point," Rui sighed. "We'll have to find a good spot that is
able to fulfill our requirements. The two of you and the rest of the diplomatic
team will have to help me chalk out a list of requirements and conditions for
the potential locations that we could inhabit so that we can provide this to the
intelligence team and have them discreetly conduct surveys across the island
for locations that could fulfill our requirements."
"That's a rather large burden to place on the intelligence team, sir," Stemple
remarked. "This island is small only in the context of a continent map,"
Stemple glanced over to the gigantic map of the Panama Continent in the
conference room. "It is still a gigantic amount of area that the intelligence
department will have to surveil. Furthermore, this island is dangerous not
only due to the Martial Artists but the abundant fauna that inhabits the natural
uninhabited portions of the island."
"I am aware of that," Rui nodded. "Thankfully, they don't have to scour the
entire island literally, as Zeyra pointed out, the location cannot be too far
from the G'ak'arkan tribe. This means there is a hard limit to the distance
from the G'ak'arkan tribe beyond which it is no longer able to fulfill our
requirements. It significantly cuts down on the area that they have to surveil,
and the risk associated with surveilling the area around the mountain is lower
considering that the G'ak'arkan tribe is unlikely to go out of their way to kill
simple scouts of ours."
Rui continued fleshing out the list of requirements that the land that they
would eventually inhabit would need to have. The list turned out to be longer
than expected, but that was not entirely disadvantageous since that would
mean making a choice would be easier due to the fewer choices.
Their work wasn't done just by locating a place, however. They would need
to gain a very thorough understanding of the final location in order for the
settlement construction process to proceed smoothly.
Chapter 655 Location
Before long, the intelligence team received a full list of requirements in order
of importance that needed to be scouted within a certain range of the
G'ak'arkan village. The intelligence department got to work immediately,
there was a lot of lands to be covered, after all.
Furthermore, they needed to take the environmental survey and recording

devices with them that would allow them to measure the environmental
parameters of the candidate locations for their soon-to-be settlement to
occupy.
However, that alone wasn't enough. Once the choice was made, the
diplomatic team would need to send the data of that location back to the
Martial Union, to commissioner Derun who would then make the necessary
preparations and dispatch another cruise ship with the supplies and personnel
that would be necessary to make the settlement work.
"I had suspected it would be the case, but I guess that hill paralleling Vilun
mountain is indeed the best choice," Rui sighed.
He was in a meeting with his diplomatic team in the conference room as they
piled through all the reports and data that the intelligence team had
painstakingly gathered across twenty days. They had curated and sorted all of
the viable venues within range of the G'ak'arkan Tribe
"There are many merits to colonizing the G'una Hill, but there are other
candidates as well, sir," Stemple remarked. "For example, the flattened crater
at the center of the island seems like a good place to settle."
"No, that's a bad idea." Rui shook his head. "Haven't you memorized all the
previous anthropological and environmental data the Martial Union has
collected on Vilun island?"
"Uh… no?" Stemple sheepishly admitted.
Of course, this wasn't necessarily a fault of his. It wasn't really his business as
an assistant diplomat to memorize data that was well outside his expertise
and purview and did not possess any direct relevance to his job as a member
of the diplomatic team.
"That crater… was created by the clash between Martial Seniors," Rui smiled
weakly, sighing in admiration.
The many assistants in the room jolted as they halted their work, turning to
Rui in shock.
"Tha-That's impossible!" Zeyra's eyes widened. "That crater is nearly two

kilometers in diameter and nearly a hundred meters in depth at the center!"
Rui couldn't blame them for their shock, he hadn't been any less shocked
himself when he had come across the report himself.
He had never seen a Martial Senior in action, but now he realized that may
not have been a bad thing. If he stood too close to a fight between them,
significant injury from just the aftereffects was guaranteed. Death was the
worst-case scenario.
The assistants assigned to the diplomatic team began to gain a clearer

understanding of why hostilities hadn't broken out in the previous diplomatic
endeavor with Senior Ceeran. If they had broken out, the G'ak'arkan Tribe
would be annihilated through and through barring the stronger Martial
Squires.
"Regardless, the other Martial tribes avoid that spot because it served as a
battleground for some of the powerhouses to intercept enemy powerhouses
before the battle takes off into the air, building our settlement there is utter
suicide," Rui shook his head.
That was a pretty good reason to avoid that location.

It took a while, but the diplomatic team finalized the location. As Rui had
predicted, choosing a hill, that too one that was closest to the G'ak'arkan
Tribe was the best idea. The elevation was important to Rui because it
allowed them to demonstrate the utility of their techniques at a height, which
was relevant to the G'ak'akran Tribe.
Once the decision had been made, Rui sent the data to Martial commissioner
Derun.
"Hmmm, definitely a logical choice," She told him when he called and
informed her of their choice. "I'll start making preparations immediately. It
shouldn't take too long, as long as Senior Ceeran sends me the profiles of
Martial Artists of the Longranger Sect as soon as possible."
Rui nodded. "Understood. I haven't had a chance to inform him of the choice
of locations yet, but I will let him know as soon as possible."
"Good," She nodded as she read through the data that Rui had sent her.
"Another thing," Rui remarked. "I wanted to inquire regarding the matter of
authorization of the second plan of action that I had proposed to you."
Her expression did not change at his words, but Rui could sense the
hesitation in her demeanor.
It was understandable, what he had proposed was much riskier than the more
innocuous plan of building a settlement on the island to show off the explicit
and implicit utility of the techniques of the Martial Union on a day-to-day
business as well as their value in physical conflict.
"Unfortunately, your other proposal and request are not nearly as easy to
grant as this one. It will take more time for me to come to a decision on that.
Thankfully, it is not something that can be rushed anyway, I want to make
sure that I am absolutely certain before using my authority to facilitate
something of that sort," She replied.
"That's understandable," Rui nodded. "Personally, I think that your prudence

and thoroughness are quite apt. I myself am bogged with the mission so I do
not have much time to speculate on the pros and cons of yet another potential
plan when I am burdened with having to manage the execution of the
ongoing mission at the moment."
"Good, be sure to focus on making sure the settlement operation runs

smoothly. I cannot guarantee I will approve your other plan if the settlement
operation succeeds, but I can definitely guarantee you that it will never
receive my approval if you are unable to make sure the settlement runs
smoothly. Although you have received some basic training and tutelage from
Carl in the humanities and social sciences in one month, do not think that
running a self-sufficient settlement on a foreign island is simple or easy."
"Of course, I can assure you I don't have any hubris in regard to this matter,"
Rui nodded.
Chapter 656 Issues
"So, your plan is to form a settlement on Vilun Island?" Senior Ceeran

frowned even after Rui thoroughly explained everything.
"As I said, there are many merits to this plan that I just laid out," Rui neatly
disguised his exasperation with patience.
"How long will be settling on the island?" Senior Ceeran wondered.
"For however long it takes," Rui replied calmly. "But I am predicting for
several weeks to potentially a few months. Worst case scenario it would take
years of grinding at their reluctance before we succeed."
Of course, Rui did not think that would happen. Frankly, he was most
optimistic about wearing down the G'ak'arkan Tribe's continuous refusal to
trade techniques with his second plan, more than anything. The settlement
plan only addressed one hurdle out of the several that blocked the path to a
successful and fruitful trading agreement with the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"And you said you wanted me to compile a Martial Artist profiles for
commissioner Derun whose expertise and Martial Paths are centered around
the kinds of techniques that we are offering to the G'ak'arkan Tribe?" Senior
Ceeran turned to Rui with an inquisitive look.
"That's right, you can limit to Martial Apprentices and Martial Squires only,"
Rui nodded. "From what I have concluded from a preliminary analysis, the
G'ak'arkan Tribe is lacking in range and power, compared to our techniques,"
Rui remarked. "So perhaps getting a lot of Martial Apprentices and Martial
Squires who greatly excel in these two parameters specifically would suit our
needs the best."
"Those aren't the only avenues that they are lacking in," Senior Ceeran
snorted.
"Then feel free to include any additional parameters that they are lacking in
additionally, as well," Rui replied. "I'd suggest picking Martial Art techniques
that are low in difficulty as possible while still having a high enough potency
grade to be significantly superior to the G'ak'arkan Tribe in any given avenue
or parameter. We want to impress them with how powerful our techniques
are, but impressing them with how manageable they are to master is also
equally important. They will not be receptive to trading techniques with us if
our techniques will be damn near impossible for them to master. At most, the
high-difficulty and high-grade techniques can be used additionally to impress
them."
"That's a shame, they would certainly be very impressed with your Pathfinder
technique that just so happens to cover one of their weaknesses," Senior
Ceeran smiled, turning to Rui.
Of course, Rui had long realized this himself. It was most certainly true that
his Pathfinder technique ought to be nothing short of shocking to the
G'ak'arkan Tribe. He wasn't even sure if even the Martial Seniors of the
Martial Tribe could replicate its feats.
Rui did intend to leverage it to seduce the G'ak'arkan Tribe into having a
trade with them. He only needed to figure out the best way to make the most
lasting impact on them. He hadn't yet come up with an aptly satisfactory
timing and situation yet.
"Regardless, please be sure to send the Martial Artist profiles to

Commissioner Derun as soon as possible," Rui requested him. "The sooner
she gets that information, the sooner she can put together a team for the
mission."
"This mission has escalated more than I ever imagined it would, I never
realized that facilitating diplomatic relations with foreign parties can be
accomplished through such indirect methods as well," He noted. "As
expected, Derun made a great choice by assigning you to this mission."
"The two conversed before going separate ways.
Rui's immediate work was done, now he just needed to make sure he was
informed of all the latest updates to the settlement operation preparations.
It wasn't as simple as rounding up some skilled laborers needed to build the

basic infrastructure of his settlement from the natural resources abundant on
the island and manage the logistics of the settlement, he would need to rely
on the ecologists of the Ministry of Environment and Ecology that would be
dispatched and figure out a way to build a self-sufficient settlement. They
would need to secure food and water supplies, they would need to establish
security measures based on the fauna of the island.
Thankfully, Rui's plan involved building only a highly primitive settlement.

He was not adept at statesmanship, if he had to build a modernized
settlement, he would probably fail as he struggled to build viable mini
communications, energy, and transportation sectors.
Still, just because he was building a simple settlement did not mean his job
was simple. The G'ak'arkan Tribe made it look simple because they were
highly unified in their warped culture, and their hierarchy of authority was
entirely centered around Martial prowess.
The same could not be said for the settlement that Rui needed to construct.
Things were more complicated, unfortunately. As the lead diplomat and the
initiator of this operation, he was the highest in the chain of command,
despite neither being the strongest nor probably sufficiently qualified.
He would most be delegating almost all of the work to the settlement team
that Martial commissioner Derun would dispatch, who had their own orders.
It was messy and complicated.
Still, as long as it looked nice on the outside, Rui was fine. They were not
trying to create a settlement that was highly efficient and viable forever in the
long term. It was merely a means to show the G'ak'arkan Tribe exactly what
they were in for if they decided to accept the trading offer that the Martial
Union had repeatedly made to them.
"Those techniques better be worth all this effort," Rui sighed in frustration.
The workload, even when he delegated a lot, was not easy. Just staying on
top and making sure things were in order to much of his time. Yet Rui did his
job diligently until the Martial commissioner informed him that all of the
final preparations had been made and the settlement team was soon to be
dispatched to Vilun island.
Within two weeks, a new and larger ship arrived at the island.
Chapter 657 Plan
"Squire Quarrier, I am captain Shevy Leola, the interim leader of the Vilun
settlement team, sir," A tall sharp-eyed woman greeted him
straightforwardly.
"Pleasure to meet you, captain," Rui shook her hand. "The settlement
operation is an attempt fulfilling a mission of significant importance to the
Martial Union. I hope to work with your to ensure that it is a success."
"Martial commissioner has informed me of the purpose of this operation, and

I have been briefed about your mission. I have also been highly familiarized
with all of the protocols surrounding the execution of the settlement operation
from the very first to the last step, all of the details of the operation as well as
the authorized chain of command. I am second in command after you, I hope
to work by your side to ensure this is a success as well sir," She replied curtly
Rui nodded, appreciating her professional conduct. It was good to have

somebody who knew exactly what she was doing.
"Alright captain, commissioner Derun has already briefed me, but let's go
through the settlement building operation thoroughly," Rui suggested.
She nodded curtly, before beginning. "The Vilun settlement operation begins
with the preliminary security measures, such as security permeter, patrol and
scouting deployments. Building a settlement without some guarantee of
security is a foolish move. It is unknown whether we'll be targeted by other
Martial tribes and predators of the forests of Vilun island."
Rui nodded. Security was certainly one of the most primary concerns of
building any establishment in a potentially hostile environment. Rui recalled
his discussions with Carl regarding security being one of the primary interests
of any third-party groups above a certain scale. He was seeing that discussion
manifest in real-time.
"Once the necessary preliminary security measures have been deployed and
undertaken, we will establish a transportation channel between the ship and
the island to be able to transport goods and people up and down the cliff.
Relying on Martial Artists may have worked when the only thing being built
were several tents, but it is far too impractical to expect Martial Artists to
undertake all of the heavy lifting," She told Rui.
He nodded, this definitely made sense. "Manual labor is outside of the

purview of the Martial Artists anyway, and I think it would have been much
more difficult to get the Martial Artists of the Longranger Sect on board if
they were going to simply be engaging in mundane manual labor."
"Once security and transportation of goods and resources are taken care of,
we can move on to the construction phase. Our laborers and esoteric
machines will engage in the necessary development of basic infrastructure.
The settlement will be divided in the following manner; housing, storage, and
security blocks. The latter will form the outermost layer, while the former
two will be separated and will occupy the optimal proportions of the area
within."
"The best part is that the housing and storage units can easily be converted
into each other to suit whatever need arises," Rui nodded. "Allowing for a
flexible infrastructure."
"Indeed. The housing and storage are further divided into subsections such as
housing for the different teams that are partaking in this operation and in your
mission. The storage will also be further divided into further sections for
storage of different groups of goods, resources, and other material needs."
"That will more or less conclude the construction phase, I believe," Rui
noted.
"Correct, sir," She nodded. "Once that's done we'll simply have all personnel
occupy the settlement, and then bid the ships goodbye."
"Hm," Rui nodded. "What is the estimated time for completion of the
construction phase?
"About three months," She curtly replied.
"Then we don't have any time to waste, I'm afraid," Rui sighed. "Let's begin
immediately, I'll familiarize myself with your team on the run."
"Understood sir, the security teams are already finishing their preparations to
begin," She gestured around at the bustling personnel running around the
ship.
"Good, I believe the Martial Squires have moved to the Veomine Eagle to
meet with Senior Ceeran, correct?"
"They took the liberty of doing so as soon as we reached," She sighed

disapprovingly. Unfortunately for her, as an employee of the Martial Union,
she did not have much authority over them.
"I see. Well then I ought to meet up with them as well, I'll see you later
captain."
He bid her farewell as he took his time making his way to the Veomine
Eagle. All of the new incoming Martial Artists were of the Longranger Sect,
meaning they definitely possessed a high degree of deference towards Senior
Ceeran, who was part of the upper echelons of the Martial Sect.
Rui was worried that despite having to report to him officially, they would
dismiss his word over that of Senior Ceeran. Rui wasn't even naive enough to
believe that this wouldn't happen, they were far too beholden to Senior
Ceeran for him to expect anything else. It was definitely frustrating, but it
wasn't too bad.
Thankfully, Rui could reasonably expect Senior Ceeran to cooperate with

him on this matter and ensure that the Martial Artists did not disregard the
chain of command. Much to his surprise, Senior Ceeran had surprisingly been
on his best behavior during this entire mission. He did not disobey Rui's
request to remain as scarce as possible, nor did he try to butt into the mission
or try to reign the mission out of Rui's control. He only asked to be kept in
the loop on all of the happenings, which Rui was more than happy to oblige
in return.
Now he had to hope that Senior Ceeran would ensure that his lackeys would
play ball with Rui. This entire plan would go to shit if they ran around doing
whatever it is that they wanted rather than following the plan.
He intended to speak with Senior Ceeran and them separately and remind
them that obtaining those techniques was most important. Thankfully, they
were long-range Martial Artists, so that wouldn't be too difficult to do.
Chapter 658 Construction
The Martial Union had dispatched dozens of Martial Apprentices, and several
Martial Squires, all of them belonging to the Longranger Sect and each
having a Martial Path centered around long-range techniques.
Rui could sense the dense sense of power emanating from the Veomine
Eagle. "Those idiots, they were told to lay low until authorized otherwise."
He quickly headed to the conference room, where they had all gathered to
meet Senior Ceeran.
"But sir, why can't we just take ove-!"
THUD
Rui slammed the doors open, inspecting the Martial Artists who had arrived.
They all stared at Rui as their eyes scanned him from top to bottom, sizing
him up. Rui could sense surprise and caution in their demeanors, and it was
understandable. He was supposed to be a grade four Martial Squire, but for
some reason, he had an overwhelming aura that they had seldom sensed
within the Squire Realm.
Rui had still donned his mind mask from the moment he had arrived at the
island without ever having taken it off. Appearing much stronger than he was
gave his words more gravitas, and certainly helped him in being taken
seriously by the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
And it would be of invaluable help in the Squire Realm as well, being taken
seriously by these Martial Squires who mistakenly thought they were weaker
than him thanks to the projected power that came with the technique.
"Ah, Squire Quarrier, you're here," Senior Ceeran smiled well-meaningfully.
"Allow me to introduce these good Martial Artists; they're good members of
the Longranger Sect that I have handpicked as recommendations for Derun.
I'm sure you'll get along with them."
"I'm sure you're correct," Rui lied, before turning to all of them. "I am Squire
Quarrier, the leader of this diplomatic mission. As I'm sure you've all been
informed, the objective of this mission is to obtain several potent and exotic
long-range techniques. The settlement operation that you have all been
deployed as a part of is our plan at obtaining the techniques they want. When
the time comes, you will all have the opportunity to show off your long-range
prowess, be sure to go all out when that happens."
Rui turned around, leaving abruptly. He did not expect them to warm up to
him on the first day, or ever. He could try and earn their respect by
demonstrating the Void Pathfinder technique, but that ran the risk of
revealing it to the G'ak'arkan Tribe. He decided to trust Senior Ceeran with
ensuring they all remained in line. No matter what they thought, Senior
Ceeran was determined to obtain their techniques, and would not allow lower
members of his sect to get in the way of that.
The construction began immediately, yet steadily. Rui did not want to
accelerate the construction too much because that would draw too much
attention. The machinery and equipment needed to finish all of it within a
month would be particularly eye-drawing. He did not want to inadvertently
provoke a Martial Tribe into attacking them.
Thus, the reliance on large esoterically-derived machinery was reduced and a

larger proportion of the work was done with manual labor.
Rui returned to back to the island before proceeding to inspect the

happenings on the hill. The security perimeter was being constructed, Rui
could already see the perimeter being outlined as the Martial Artists aided in
setting up the lift transportation system between the ship and the top of the
cliff above.
Within a day, the goods and supplies to complete the security measures had
already begun coming in.
The goal was to create multiple layers of fencing around the marked area.
Thankfully, the process was relatively simple as already prepared building
blocks for the necessary constructs made assembling the perimeters rather
simple and straightforward.
The Longranger Martial Artists also got off their asses as a portion of them
distributed themselves across the marked perimeter. Until the security
measures were complete, they would take shifts watching over their newly
acclaimed territory.
Time flew by as the security measures slowly came into place, and the fences
were built rapidly.
A secure route between the ship and the hill that the settlement would be built
upon was constructed. The necessary goods and supplies flew through, as the
construction of the settlement rapidly began.
The outermost layer of the settlement was for the Longranger Martial Artists
assigned to the mission, they would protect the settlement from external
threats and thus their quarters were placed in between the inner parts of the
settlement and the external parts of the settlement. Before soon, the
construction of this had also begun.
Yet, the construction wasn't the only thing that Rui had his hands full with.
"So, most of our food will come from hunting and gathering?" Rui frowned
as he skimmed through a document prepared by the many experts gathered
for the Vilun Settlement operation.
"At least initially, sir," A man sitting opposite to him nodded. "Unfortunately,
the environmental parameters make it somewhat unsuited for a lot of the
crops that we grow, harvest, and consume in the Kandrian Empire. It will be
a while before we are able to establish an adequate agricultural setup.
However, given that this operation isn't projected to extend for too long, it's
under question whether even endeavoring to set up an agricultural sector
within the settlement at all in the first place."
"I see," Rui mumbled as he was absorbed into the report that the
environmental experts had compiled for him regarding the matter of
agriculture. "Can hunting and gathering alone take care of all of our
nutritional needs then according to the resident nutritional expert?"
"Not easily, no. But it does certainly most of our needs, and the food pills that
we have on board can certainly compensate for the rest if need be. It is much
more practical to rely on those to cover our shortcomings than to engage in a
tedious and painstaking agricultural operation."
"That's fine, I suppose," Rui shrugged. "It doesn't really take away from my
mission, thus it's not at all problematic."
Chapter 659 Choices
The aliens never ceased to confuse the Martial tribes of Vilun Island. Now
these outsiders seemed to be trying to build a modest village atop a hill on the
island that wasn't too far from the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
All of the Martial tribes knew that for some reason the outsiders held a lot of
interest in the G'ak'arkan tribe, more than any other tribe on the entire island.
None of them, except the G'ak'arkan Tribe, had any idea why this was the
case.
It wasn't as though the G'ak'arkan Tribe was the strongest Martial tribe on the
entire island or anything of the sort. It was rather strange for them to
constantly be sending people to the Martial tribe.
And now, they were building a small village very close to the G'ak'arkan
Tribe. This was certainly no coincidence.
Why were the aliens bothering trying to build a home on the island in the first
place? Even if they did, why did they do it so close to the G'ak'arkan Tribe?
While most of the Martial tribes spread across the island scratched their head
at this development, the G'ak'arkan Tribe had a slightly better understanding
of the situation.
"This must have something to do with that trade offer that they've been
pestering us for many years with," N'Kulu, the chieftain of the G'ak'arkan
Tribe solemnly said. "They haven't given up it seems."
"Those annoying pests!" Senior K'ahru glowered. "We should treat them like
any other Martial tribe and destroy them!"
That earned many nods from the Martial Artists who were a part of the
meeting.
Back when the outsiders first greeted the G'ak'arkan Tribe and tried to hold
dialogue with them and expressed an intent for a peaceful relationship, many
members of the G'ak'arkan Tribe were a little confused and at a loss for
words.
Such a thing rarely happened on Vilun Island. To them, everybody else that
they had ever known prior were all enemies. The very concept of establishing
friendly relations with other parties was largely lacking in their minds.
This was why the process of befriending the G'ak'arkan Tribe took far longer
than it would have with states on the Panama Continent. It took a tedious and
painstakingly slow build-up to where it was today, it had begun with the
smallest of tokens and gifts between ordinary humans for an extensive period
of time, before escalating the gestures and tokens that they expressed. It even
took providing a little bit of aid to the G'ak'arkan Tribe during certain times
of need.
Years and years of doing this was what finally led to a stage where they could
even talk to the tribe without being treated like an enemy.
However, despite this, the G'ak'arkan Tribe was simply much more
comfortable in picking a fight with the diplomatic convoy than they were
trying to maintain a friendly relationship. The latter was something that was
uncomfortable and strange while the former was normal and regular.
They were much more comfortable knowing that they were their enemy than
wondering if they were friends.
Yet, not everybody was supportive of the idea of engaging in hostilities with
their strange alien 'friends'.
"I strongly believe we shouldn't make them our enemy," A third strong voice
interjected, drawing all the attention to her.
The third Martial Senior of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.

"Sister K'Mala…" K'ahru gritted his teeth.
"I believe that their offer has merit, I have always said that," She voiced her
opinion, uncaring of the frowns that it drew. Her sharp eyes swept across the
many members who were an audience of this discussion.
"Hah!" Her brother scoffed. "Their Martial Artists listen to the words of mere
humans, even submitting to them! How can such weak and pathetic Martial
Artists have anything worth offering to us? It's a miracle that they even
managed to become Martial Artists in the first place."
This once again earned many nods from the members of the meeting.
K'ahru's logic was sound in their minds.
"Their customs are… strange. But that does not mean they are weak. Have all
of you forgotten the Martial Artist of the third rank that sought an audience
with us many seasons ago?" She addressed her gathered tribes-folks with a
calm and composed voice, striking a chord with them.
She turned to K'ahru and N'Kulu. "You remember how strong his aura was,
do you think he has nothing of value to offer?"
K'ahru gritted his teeth. He could not, in good faith, insist that a Martial
Senior was useless when she focused on his rank. The Martial tribes of Vilun
Island worshipped power more than anything else, after all.
"You both have offered valuable insights," The heavy voice of N'Kulu
drowned out the presence of the two younger Martial Seniors. "It is true that
Martial Artists of higher ranks cannot be useless."
He nodded towards K'Mala, acknowledging her point. K'Mala smirked as she

reveled in her victory over her younger brother.
"Yet, that is entirely different from whether they have enough merit to be
able to offer power that is worth our sacred Martial Art techniques," His
voice grew graver. "Our techniques are everything, they are the foundation of
our power against our many enemies that seek to annihilate us in war. That is
what they desire to have from us. Today they have settled near us, tomorrow
they will move closer, the day after they may pierce their way into our tribe,
or take away members of our tribe possessing the techniques they seek. They
have relentlessly chased after our techniques for many years now. I do not
believe such a group will be satisfied with our refusal."
The air grew solemn as everybody stared at the elderly warrior chieftain,
awaiting his verdict.
"I will not tolerate this forever," He declared. "I will give them one last
opportunity to accept our final refusal in the next talk. Should they continue
to strive for our technique despite that, then it is clear that they do not respect
or fear us enough to ever stop. When that happens…"
He opened his eyes. "We will destroy them. We will hurl our mighty
techniques at them from the skies, and wipe them out with the techniques that
they desired! Long live the G'ak'arkan Tribe!"
"Long live the G'ak'arkan Tribe!"

Some distance away in a recently constructed hall, Rui listened to the

chieftain declare his ultimatum for the diplomatic settlement that they had
correctly guessed had something to do with their techniques.
"First of all, brilliant job Kane," Rui nodded at the Martial Squire. "The fact
that the G'ak'arkan Tribe's technology is practically non-existent is very
useful when it comes to espionage. It also helps that your stealth has grown to
the point where you are able to sneak in and place a wiretap that would have
been discovered by most modern security measures!"
Like almost all technology, the wiretap technology of the Kandrian Empire
and of the Panama Continent was derived from various esoteric substances
that had properties that effectively allowed them to record sound. The wiretap
in question was a particular substance whose physical characteristics were
partially altered by sound. The wiretap functioned by exposing the substance
to sound before figuring out exactly what sounds it was subjected to based on
its end shape.
However, it had also become common enough that most security departments
or agencies of most states on the continent had developed means to detect it.
Thus, it had become a little obsolete.
Yet, they were still useful against technologically primitive groups such as
the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Rui had had Kane sneak it into their little hall at a time with his formidable
stealth when each of the Martial Seniors would be assured to not detect him.
It was still a risky move to deploy Kane, even if two of the Martial Seniors
were outside the village in a rare coincidence and the third was in a slumber.
However, after having listened to the entire conversation, Rui could say it
was worth it.
"Why was the conversation so grainy? It's hard to make out everything
everyone is saying," Rui frowned.
"That's because it becomes increasingly difficult to extract information from

the sound recording Derium Jelly that is used to record sound the longer it is
exposed to sound," Special Agent Cravis explained to Rui.
"I see, that's a shame. Still, it has served its purpose well, I heard the most
important parts after all. And that is good enough," Rui nodded.
He had much to think about. He did not expect the chieftain to take such a
bold stance and force an ultimatum such as that. This was not something that
he would expect from any normal group that was in a friendly relationship
with the Kandrian Empire. Normally, that group would do everything in its
power to ensure that its relationship with the Kandrian Empire was friendly,
but Rui had long known that the G'ak'arkan Tribe wasn't part of this group.
Still, he didn't expect them to be this decisive on how to proceed with their
relationship with the diplomatic settlement.
"This is going to take a while, that's for sure," Rui sighed. "Just sitting around
peacefully isn't going to help either."
He could see that the settlement plan was a little inadequate, now that he
actually heard the senior most members of the G'ak'arkan Tribe speak
unhampered. He needed something more shocking, in addition to basic
demonstration.
His eyes widened as he came up with an idea. "If we want to show them that
our techniques are highly useful to them. Then we need to demonstrate its
value in the one activity that they spend more energy, time, and power to than
any other…"
"Sir?"
"Rui?"
Kane and special agent Cravis exchanged a look before turning back to him.
"We need war. Conflict. Not that different from what they regularly engage
in with the other tribes across the island," Rui grew more certain. "That is
much more effective than the passive plan of simply hunting and playing
defense and safe. That is much likelier to impress them more than anything
else is likely to."
"I need to speak with my team, and Senior Ceeran… and commissioner
Derun too…" Rui murmured as he got up with an excited expression.
The idea of actively entering into conflicts with the other Martial tribes of
Vilun island was one that he should have come up with earlier, but
unfortunately, he had never seriously considered it due to the fact that the
Martial Union had painstakingly built even a decent relationship with the
native indigenous of the island. Even reaching a stage where they weren't
enemies was one that took several years of courting.
Waging war would instantly and forever ruin all of that hard work that the
Martial Union had put in, thus Rui never considered it. But now that it was a
potential necessity to achieve his mission, Rui had to admit that it was an
actually alluring option.
He was also quite optimistic about the chances of it being well-received.
The Martial Artists assigned to this mission were, frankly, bored. There
wasn't a whole lot to do, and their presence in the mission wasn't actively
needed beyond some mundane duties and some simple hunts to gather food.
Rui knew that because he was starting to feel the same way. Yes, he had been
chosen as a diplomat, yes, he was the leading authority in this whole
operation. But he was a Martial Artist first, and exercising his Martial Art
was something that he needed to do otherwise he would feel suffocated!
He could imagine that even Senior Ceeran wouldn't have a problem with
picking a fight with other Martial Seniors if it not only didn't clash with the
interests of the mission but also fulfilled them. He simply needed to ensure
that it remained in control and within proportion so that it aided the mission,
and didn't completely blow it away. If he ended up sparking a conflict with
the G'ak'arkan Tribe inadvertently, then he would be screwed big time and
would have to take responsibility for the complete failure of the diplomatic
endeavor that was of interest to the entire Martial Union, but particularly the
Longranger Sect, the Martial Artists of which were all around him at the
moment.
"That sounds like a great idea!" Senior Ceeran declared without hesitation.
"Let's rally our troops and rush down and attack another Martial tribe
immediately."
"No, we're not going to do that, will all due respect," Rui tried to hit the
breaks on his enthusiasm as soon as he could. "We've painstakingly built an
image of a peaceful and friendly group over many, many years of sustained
diplomatic efforts. We cannot destroy all of that in the blink of an eye by
provoking a conflict out of the blue. It will destroy our credibility."
Senior Ceeran frowned. "Then how do we engage in conflicts with the other
tribes?"
"Oh don't worry about that," Rui smiled. "There are many ways to indirectly
provoke a conflict without actually aggressing it."
"What ways are those?" Senior Ceeran raised an eyebrow.
"Well, for one, infringing on their interests is one. Ordinarily, this alone
wouldn't lead to conflict, but given how violent the natives of Vilun Island
are? They won't hesitate to lead an assault on us."
Senior Ceeran frowned, throwing a puzzled look at Rui.
"Don't worry about the details, we'll handle that. I'll inform you when the
preparations are made," Rui nodded.
The two split ways as Rui headed towards the diplomatic office to flesh out
the plan with his assistants.
He initially planned on telling commissioner Derun but eventually decided

against it. The reason he had called her regarding the settlement plan and the
sabotage plan was that he needed her authorization for it to work.
He needed her to dispatch the necessary Martial Artists, skilled labor and
manpower, supplies, and the necessary means of production. And he still
needed her to make all the preparations for the sabotage plan that she hadn't
yet approved.
However, this was still his mission, and he had the autonomy to operate
within the confines of his mission.
"And that is the plan," He said, after having explained all of it to the
diplomatic team.
They were taken aback, wordless, at his bold plan.
"I don't know boss, there are risks to this plan, and there definitely will be
losses," Zeyra was the first to reply. "You don't spark conflicts if you don't
want to suffer losses."
"That is absolutely correct," Rui nodded. "What we need to do is be very

careful, and be highly calculated. Thankfully, we've collected a lot of
anthropological data on the Martial tribes of Vilun Island. We can use it to
ensure that whatever conflict arises will be controlled, and limited to the
degree that suits our interests."
Rui was quite confident that this plan, albeit difficult would be quite
successful as long as they acted with scrupulous care.
"Well, if we're going to provoke them to trigger hostilities to break out, then
we need to cross the lines of the right target just enough," Stemple nodded.
"Deciding the target is more important," Zeyra interjected.
"That's right," Rui nodded. "There are several conditions that the target would
need to fulfill in order to serve as a viable target for us."
"Such as?"
"Well, for one. They need to be unable to dedicate all of their war capital
against us if push came to shove," Rui replied. "They need to be in already
constrained circumstances that prevent them from escalating any conflict
with us to the peak."
The members of the diplomatic team frowned. They hadn't quite caught on
yet to what Rui was suggesting in a pragmatic sense.
"I mean, that they need to be in existing ongoing, long-standing, and

continuous conflicts with other Martial tribes," Rui said. "That is the only
thing that these damn tribes are ever preoccupied with in the first place;
conflict. So, we find a Martial tribe that cannot afford to go all out against us
because they are already fighting against preferably two or maybe three other
Martial tribes."
The diplomatic team nodded as realization dawned on them. Rui's suggestion

was a good way to minimize risk and inevitable loss. If they waged an all-out
war against a Martial tribe with no other militaristic preoccupations, then they
would end up eventually having to withstand all of the militaristic power of
the Martial tribe.
The losses would be devastating, the Martial tribes on the island were almost
all highly aggressive folks that fought like there was no tomorrow. On top of
that, they had more militaristic capital than the small settlement of the Martial
Union on the island, meaning there was a chance that the settlement that they
were building would lose, and even if they didn't many Martial Artists and
people would die without a doubt. The only reason it was a fair fight at
despite the difference in numbers was that the quality of Martial Squires of
the Martial Union was much greater thanks to a superior Squire breakthrough
and evolution procedure. Maybe one Martial Squire of the Martial Union
could manage to fend off two of the native Martial Squires at the same time.
That is what it would need to come to if a focused all-out war broke out.
Ultimately, even if Rui did succeed in getting the techniques from the
G'ak'arkan Tribe in the long run, it would be a highly pyrrhic victory, and Rui
doubted that his efforts would be appreciated.
And if he failed to obtain the techniques even after all of the time, energy,
funds and resources, and most importantly, all the Martial Artists lost. Then
that would be a complete and utter fiasco with no redeemable outcome
whatsoever.
That was why Rui was extremely paranoid about getting everything
absolutely right. They could not afford to make a single mistake, at all,
whatsoever. Rui had already resolved to personally double and triple-check
all the work and data that he would be making crucial decisions and
judgments upon, while also making sure to double-check the entire team's
work as well. If they made a mistake that blew the whole operation away, it
wouldn't matter, he would be fully and completely liable and responsible for
the outcome.
Chapter 662 Vetting
"Sir, are you perhaps overestimating how bad an all-out large-scale conflict
would be?" Zeyra couldn't help but ask. "After all, there are several other
advantages we have asides from just higher-quality Martial Artists. We also
possess a massive advantage in covert operations like intelligence gathering,
sabotage, infiltration, destabilization, and assassination. We also possess an
advantage in tactical and strategic asymmetric warfare. These are all
considerable advantages that would no doubt, in conjugation with higher
quality Martial Artists, grant us an advantage against any Martial tribe.
Wouldn't we be impressing the G'ak'arkan Tribe more if we go all-out and
defeat a Martial tribe?"
"You're not wrong, but your analysis is too shallow," Rui shook his head.
"Yes, it is true that we possess advantages in the field of covert operations
and intelligence, we also possess a more sophisticated approach to war. Not
to mention, we even have better technological aid in the form of potions. But,
have you forgotten why we are trying to execute this war operation? Hm?"
Rui looked around. "We want to demonstrate the prowess and utility of our
Martial Art techniques, not everything else except that. What message does it
send when we win a war through all of the aforementioned advantages and
not the prowess of our Martial Art?"
Realization dawned on the team as their heads tilted downwards in thought.
"It overshadows what we are offering to them, the one thing that they have
responded to positively," Rui sighed. "We cannot allow the only thing of ours
that they have shown interest in to be overshadowed and trivialized to a
certain extent. That's self-sabotage."
"Furthermore, an all-out war will still lead to too many casualties and too
much expenditure. It would cross our bottom line and this whole diplomatic
mission can be kissed goodbye," Rui explained patiently. "We need to ensure
that this remains a scuffle, but scuffles that we overwhelmingly dominate and
dazzle the G'ak'arkan Tribe scouts that will no doubt be paying close
attention to us. Martial Apprentices mostly, Martial Squire conflicts too, and
to top it off maybe one exchange between Senior Ceeran and a native Martial
Senior."
His reasoning was solid, leaving the diplomatic team speechless. For a
second, they had forgotten that Rui was not a career diplomat and was
actually a Martial Squire. For several seconds, it was difficult to reconcile
that fact with the image that they had inadvertently built in their head.
Squire Rui Quarrier. Shrewd and Sharp. Intelligent and rational.

Knowledgeable and wise.
"Now," Rui interrupted their brief reverie. "Let's get to work. Break into
teams and look into every Martial tribe and evaluate how well they satisfy
these conditions."
"First," Rui raised a single finger. "As we just discussed, the Martial tribe
needs to be preoccupied with existing opponents, or, otherwise preoccupied
with its Martial forces."
The entire team nodded.
"Second," Rui raised another finger. "Their compatibility with long-range

techniques must not be high. We aren't going to be able to show off much if
our techniques aren't intrinsically effective against their Martial Art. Winning
better is always going to make a better impression than losing better. Still,
none of you are experts on Martial Art, so I will mostly evaluate this
parameter by myself. Still, I want you to be aware of this condition
nonetheless."
"Three, there needs to be an avenue or interest of theirs that we can clash

with. Something justifiable," Rui raised a third finger. "Remember, we are
not going to trigger hostilities to break out, we are going to provoke them to
break hostilities with us. Which means we need an effective and guaranteed
way to provoke them. The simplest way that comes to mind is infringing on
home territory, however, that will most likely be interpreted as an act of war.
Perhaps something more benign like infringing on hunting territory or
airspace. Whatever works."
Rui listed out some more minor conditions before finally being done.
"Alright, let's get started."
While the assistants immediately got up and ran around, picking and scouring
through the documents that detailed the relevant information that they
needed. Rui simply sat down on a chair and drummed his fingers on the table,
absorbed in his thoughts as his eyes flickered around.
Unlike his team, he didn't need to reach for the physical documents, he only
needed to enter his Mind Palace and access all the documents that he stored
there.
The Mind Palace technique had proven to be invaluable to him during this
mission. It could be said that because Rui was able to speed through
information like a breeze thanks to it, the entire schedule and pace of the
mission had increased a lot. The long and extensive process of familiarizing
himself with the G'ak'arkan Tribe was finished in a matter of hours and days,
after all.
What was going to be a long-term mission from the Marital Union became a
much more mid-term almost solely due to this fiendish cognition.
"Sir, the X'erhnu Tribe might fit the bill," One group of assistants reached out
to him after a few hours.
"No, they're not fit," Rui shook his head. "They are indeed in hostilities with
two martial tribes, but the level and scale of the conflicts is too low and
doesn't seem to be escalating any time soon."
All of them did a double-take at that. It had appeared as though Rui was
simply daydreaming away, but now they weren't even sure what to say.
"Sir, the Q'ueta Tribe might be a good target,"

"Their Martial Art techniques give them remarkable maneuvering, allowing
them to penetrate past offense and defense. They are a poor match for our
techniques when you pair that with the environmental familiarity and
expertise that they have, having lived on this island their entire lives. It's all
they know and you do not want to challenge them on that part, trust me," Rui
shut down the suggestion of yet another team.
Hours flew by as Rui vetted all of the work of his team.

Chapter 663 Triggers
"Sir, I think I may have found the perfect candidate," Stemple announced,
exhausted. "The K'ulnen Tribe. A Martial tribe centered around close-
quarters combat, mostly focusing on striking. They have a warmongering
culture, as expected. And they are very touchy about their hunting territory.
They are a good distance away with no other Martial Tribe territory butting
in."
"Hm…" Rui considered the suggestion.
The diplomatic team's eyes lit up at this sight.
"You might actually be right," Rui murmured. "Furthermore, one of the

Martial Tribes that they are in conflict with at the moment is the G'ak'arkan
Tribe. It's a very direct measure of the performance of our techniques. There
is no clearer perspective to offer them."
"Then…" Stemple peered at Rui with hope.
"Everybody double-checks everybody's work, make sure we have not missed

anything," Rui announced. "I'll go through it myself as well."
The diplomatic team spent an entire week making sure there was nothing
wrong at all.
While the diplomats of the Martial Union were fleshing out their plans, the
G'ak'arkan Tribe had their own things to consider.
"Sir, we received reports from one of our scouts regarding one of their
hunting sessions," K'Mala patiently explained to the chieftain of her tribe.
"And…" N'kulu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The same as the previous one," K'Mala sighed with a hint of admiration.
"Their techniques allow them to strike down Dusk Eagles with a single
attack, all while on the ground, never having sky-walked into the air. These
were all from Martial Artists of the second rank."
"What…?" K'ahru was the most surprised out of all of them. "Impossible!
Martial Artists of the second rank should not be able to do that."
"And yet…" K'Mala followed up with a smirk. "They are clearly capable
unless you think the scouts were daydreaming."
The two bickered back and forth until N'Kulu intervened.
"Enough…" He raised a hand, silencing the two immediately.
"What should we do, chief?" K'ahru sighed.
"Nothing," N'kulu replied straightforwardly.
"Huh?"
"They are simply hunting game within their territory," N'Kulu calmly
recognized. "While this has led to interesting discoveries. That's all that is."
"It also gives their claims of their own techniques more merit." K'Mala
pointed.
"It's just one or two techniques in the second rank. That's far from enough
from being able to chase after all of our techniques!" K'ahru snarled.
"Neither of you is wrong. K'Mala, you're correct in saying their claims of

their own prowess are more credible, however, K'ahru is also correct that this
in and of itself is far from enough for possessing the merit to exchange all of
our Martial Art in an equal manner," N'Kulu pointed out. "For now, nothing
has changed. My ultimatum still stands."
His eyes grew narrower as his aura grew more perilous. "We will destroy
them should they cross the line."
The G'ak'arkan Tribe was content with observing the Martial Union
settlement while it was constructed. The Martial Union, on the other hand,
ironically didn't have any time or leeway for the G'ak'arkan Tribe at the
moment.
For now, the construction was still underway, and Rui had been concretely
fleshing out the various potential plans for provoking them to trigger a
conflict.
He needed to carefully measure how much aggression the Martial Union

could show, by looking at the responses to such aggression displayed by
other Martial tribes to their target the K'ulnen Tribe. By looking at how
vehemently the G'ak'arkan Tribe responded to certain kinds of provocations
or slights against the Martial Tribe.
"Kidnapping some of their women is a big no-no," Rui murmured as he

scoured through the documented history and the second-hand intelligence
gathered from the other Martial tribes and such.
Another Martial tribe had once done such a thing to have more women to
increase the birth rates of their tribe, and the K'ulnen Tribe had dropped all
conflicts with the other Martial tribes in a heartbeat and had deployed all of
their forces against the offending Martial tribe to retrieve their women.
"Infringing on their hunting territory and airspace are much less severe slights
against the tribe in their eyes,"
This led to parties present at the time of the infringement to escalate the
situation and get into a fight. It also caused more frequent clashes between
the two sides.
"Stray attacks in their direction are declarations of war and will be treated as
such. Also, infringing on their water source the Challan River is a pretty
serious slight against them too. Perhaps this wasn't at the level of all-out war
despite water supplies being very important because rivers were not confined
to one location.
"Spats between human-level conflicts aren't that big a deal," Rui shrugged as
he read through how human-level conflicts happened even without the
knowledge and authorization of the higher-ups of Martial tribes.
Apparently, these conflicts were so inconsequential to the big picture that all
of the martial tribes let all of it slide, they could not be bothered and even
viewed it as a good thing given their warmongering nature.
"Hm, this is starting to become more transparent,"
Rui had become increasingly clear regarding exactly what buttons he could
press and what lines he ought to cross in order to trigger an initially mild
conflict that would go on to escalate just at the pacing that Rui wanted it to.
He intended to take his time with Apprentice-level conflicts, followed by

more serious Martial Squire conflicts.
Maybe the Martial Union could really cross the line and abduct some women
of the K'ulnen just to piss them off enough to deploy their Martial Seniors so
that they could display the prowess of their Martial Senior versus Martial
Seniors that were native to the island.
"I bet Senior Ceeran would have no issue with that whatsoever," Rui
chuckled.
Of course, Rui did not intend to toss him into combat with many martial
Seniors only for the man to very likely die. That would ruin not only the
mission but also Rui's career in the process.
Chapter 664 Fleshed
Months passed before the construction had finally been completed, and the
Martial Union settled into its first colony on Vilun Island.
Rui considered holding a big speech in celebration but decided against it at

the end of the day.
This was merely part of a mission, and the settlement would be dismantled
once they got over. It wasn't as though this would end up being one of the
permanent residences of all those who were partaking in this mission and
operation.
The settlement plan was already underway, and Rui had already expected that
the G'ak'arkan Tribe would have had their eyebrows raised on more than one
occasion since the construction of the settlement.
"The hunting… and the security, they're nothing compared to how impactful
this next move is going to be," Rui couldn't help but smile when he tried
imagining how impactful the victories of the Martial Union would be on the
G'ak'arkan Tribe.
The plan was ready. They had scrupulously fleshed out all of the details and
accounted for multiple possible routes that it could go down, as well as
developing multiple contingencies.
"Let's go through the final plan one last time," Rui nodded to the diplomatic
team. "Stemple, Zeyra."
The two of them nodded in acknowledgment as they walked up to the sets of

pinboards in the conference room while Rui took a seat.
"The objective of the K'ulnen Operation is to engage in controlled physical

conflicts with the K'ulnen Tribe," Zeyra began. "The constraints and
conditions on this operation, however, are not little, and are arguably more
important that the actual objective itself."
"The constraints that we will have to be working under include but are not
limited to ensuring that the K'ulnen Tribe never dedicates the entirety of its
Martial capital towards us. This alone is a complex condition that
encompasses several other constraints. This means that we cannot cross any
line when casualties or any kind of damage upon their civilian population,
particularly the children, elderly, and women. We cannot dedicate the entirety
of our Martial capital to each other since they won't settle for anything less
than at least matching our effort. We cannot allow their conflicts with the
other two Martial tribes to grow less extreme."
Rui nodded. Each of these was a constraint that they needed to adhere to and
stay within, otherwise, the entire operation could be damned.
"The contingencies that we have in place all ensure that these constraints
never disappear, or if they do slip away, then we have perfectly viable
replacements that will ensure that we never engage in an all-out war with the
K'ulnen Tribe," Stemple continued. "Having established the objective and
constraints, we can move on to standard course of actions that we've
chosen… The first step is to trigger regular and frequent conflicts at the
human infantry level. As we have gone through before, conflicts at these
levels, unless at a gigantic scale, simply do not register much in the radars of
the leaders of the Martial tribes. The intelligence department decided it was
best to proceed slowly and organically."
Essentially, the conflicts would begin at the human level, before proceeding
to escalate. The plan was, to begin with, individual conflicts, before
escalating them to group conflicts, and finally bringing in Martial
Apprentices.
"The moment one side deploys Martial Apprentices against the other side, we
will officially have broken hostilities with the K'ulnen Tribe. From that point
on, we suspect that K'ulnen Tribe will most likely not seek to voluntarily
escalate the scale of conflict with us, at least not when they're fighting against
two other Martial Tribes at once," Zeyra continued.
"This is the idea stage where the conflict growth of scale stagnates, and we
can demonstrate all of the long-range prowess we have at the Apprentice and
Squire Realms thoroughly. With a good strategy and the techniques of the
Longranger Sect, the extreme value of our techniques to the warmongering
and power-hungry G'ak'arkan Tribe will be made amply clear. Once we have
sufficiently demonstrated the value of what we are offering and get that past
their thick skulls, we can move on to ending conflicts with the K'ulnen
Tribe."
"Except, as a highly warmongering clan themselves, they are not going to

drop hostilities with us easily, making peace with them is highly dubious,
thus we have Operation Endline," Zeyra stated, pointing to the final section
of the board. "Operation Endline is a covert operation with Squire Kane
Arrancar. We abduct some women of the K'ulnen Tribe, and plant them in
one of the rival Martial tribes, leaving enough trails and evidence leading to
them. Once that happens, we predict that the K'ulnen Tribe will forget about
us and dedicate all of their militaristic capital towards the Martial tribe that
we framed, putting an end to all of it."
The two of them paused, walking back and sitting down.
The general plan had long been fleshed out, but the details of conflicts were
outside the expertise of the diplomatic team. Rui had already resolved that he
would handle it with the interim captain and the Longranger Sect. Together,
they would be able to figure out the best way to handle the demonstration of
their long-range techniques.
"Alright, that wraps things up here," Rui announced to the whole team. "If
this operation succeeds, then the next diplomatic talks with the G'ak'arkan
Tribe will not be our last. If not, then at the very least we can say that the
diplomatic approach will have failed for certain."
The atmosphere was a little tense with those words.
Rui however, was not being entirely sincere. There was, of course, the second
plan that he had proposed to Martial commissioner Derun. She had yet to
approve the measure, unfortunately.
('She's observing,') Rui knew. ('Observing the outcome of this operation,')
If the K'ulnen Operation failed, then Rui could forget about getting
authorization for something much riskier and more difficult to pull off in
nearly every way that he could think of.
"Alright, I got some work to do," Rui left the office.

Chapter 665 Escalate
All the necessary preparations were made, and the plan was implemented
immediately, and smoothly. Of course, the initial part of the plan was rather
straightforward and easy, and low-risk. All they had to do was stage low-risk
conflicts, before slowly turning up the heat and increasing the numbers that
they dispatched each time.
They breached the hunting territory of the K'ulnen Tribe, infringing on the
game, and water sources among other things, ensuring that they got into
scuffles, and ensuring that they won.
It was nothing special and drew no large attention from any martial tribe,
including even the K'ulnen Tribe.
Vilun Island was a relatively large island, especially when compared to the
actual amount of land that was inhabited by humans. The Martial tribes were
suspected to not attempt building empires by expanding their territory and
population due to wanting to ensure that there remained enough of a
separation between their territories and that of their enemies and rivals.
What that meant was that ordinarily, it wasn't easy to actually run into the
groups belonging to the other Martial tribes.
Yet, it happened all too frequently on Vilun Island.
A good distance away from the Martial Union settlement, a large group of
soldiers of the Martial Union was working together.
Today's operation was particularly important. Amongst the human soldiers

were actually two Martial Apprentices of the intelligence team that had
hidden and disguised themselves as ordinary humans. Their goal was to
intercept any Martial Apprentice that the K'ulnen Tribe dispatched when
conflicts broke out.
According to the data that they had at hand, they had managed to correctly
identify the scale of human-level conflict at which the K'ulnen Tribe tended
to escalate by deploying a Martial Apprentice.
The Martial Union had hit that stage very recently, and Rui had deployed two
shadow-class Martial Artists and ensure that when that did happen, their
forces were more than adequate to catch the Martial Apprentice off-guard.
Once that happened, hostilities would officially be broken with the first
Martial Artist clash between the Martial Union and the K'ulnen Tribe.
Rui had even posted some Martial Apprentices some distance away further
behind in case the K'ulnen Tribe deployed more than one. Rui didn't want the
first Martial Art conflict between the Martial Union and the K'ulnen Tribe to
go poorly. That would reflect very poorly on the Martial Artists of the
Martial Union, even if it was only a superficial understanding of what
happened.
"The A-team is about to make contact with a hostile group," An intelligence

officer reported.
Rui and Captain Cravis stood together in the intelligence facility.
There was a team of analysts and intelligence agents that were coordinating
with the large group of infantry personnel that had already been deployed to
cross the K'ulnen Tribe's hunting territory.
Rui leaned forward as he glanced at the screens on the terminals resembling

something one would see in the ancient spy thriller movies that were made in
the twentieth century. The screen showed the approximate positions of the
Martial Union infantry team, and the interception team that was deployed by
the K'ulnen Tribe was only a minute away from clashing with the infantry of
a Martial tribe that took itself too seriously.
"The teams have made contact, so says our surveilling scout at the sight," An
intelligence officer cited.
Far away from the intelligence facility in the settlement, two large groups of
infantry had already clashed with each other.
"Get off our turf!"
"Fuck off outsiders!"
"Alien bastards!"
Perhaps it was due to the fact that they were especially frustrated and wound
up due to the many conflicts that they were involved with, at the moment.
They launched themselves at their opponents without any hesitation. Rushing
forward with primitive weapons in their hands.
"Bring it on!"
The Martial Union's infantry may pale drastically compared to its Martial
forces, however, even the infantry was very well trained and honed. They
were highly professional, and these kinds of missions and operations were the
one place where their prowess had any meaning and bearing at all in this
respect.
That section of the forest had so much noise coming from it that it drove
away any of the animals away at the first century.
Suddenly, a strange noise drew their attention from all of the fighters on the
battlefield.
Everybody turned just in time to witness a single small projectile elevate into
the sky quickly before;
POP!
A large amount of smoke was the first thing that they all saw. For a moment,
everybody stopped fighting for a second.
"They've deployed a signal," Captain Cravis announced to the teams. "Seems

like the prediction was accurate after all."
Everybody exchanged glances. "Martial Apprentice. One."
"Let's go with plan B then," Rui nodded, sighing. He hadn't expected that two
Martial Apprentices would be deployed from the very start.
"Understood, sir."
The two Martial Apprentices raced forward at a great speed, it hadn't taken
them very much longer to reach their destination.
Yet just as their two Apprentice-level auras were about to completely

overwhelm the human forces, three more rose up. Yet before the surprised
K'ulnen Martial Artists could reply.
POW POW POW
The two Martial Apprentices guarded as they barely managed to block three
wind projectiles, halting them in their paths.
"Targets' approach to our team has been halted," Captain Cravis smiled
mildly at that news.
Rui on the other hand, was much more cautious, despite feeling happy
himself.
"All that training and prep has paid off nicely, it seems," Rui nodded.
It wasn't just enough to have really good techniques, that's why the Martial
Artists had been tested and trained enough to coordinate their attacks to make
sure that the impact is also very high. Stopping two Martial Apprentices
simultaneously would certainly look very optimal for the G'ak'arkan Tribe
that was no doubt watching the fight, they probably developed a much greater
impression of their techniques that has just grown much bigger. This was just
the first step out of many.
Chapter 666 Personal
More importantly, the scale of the conflict had just crossed an important
threshold which meant that the conflict would no longer be unofficial and
under wraps.
"We are now at war with the K'ulnen Tribe," Rui softly stated out loud.
The mood was a little somber, yet everyone wordlessly waited for the reports.
BAM BAM
The K'ulnen Tribe Martial Artists gritted as they withstood the attacks from
the long-range Martial Artists of the Martial Union.
"What's going on here?"
"Damn! How are they hitting us so hard from so far away so accurately?"
The two Martial Artists that had been used to take down the K'ulnen Martial
Apprentices were in a sense heavy artillery. They embodied the sniper's way
of doing things, powerful aim and power while sacrificing personal close-
range prowess in order to pursue range.
They could not avoid or defend against attacks like this in order to give
everything that they had toward long-range offense.
They were perfect for a first-time entry and debut to the Martial tribes of
Vilun island.
"Tsk, retreat!"
Eventually, one of the K'ulnen Tribe Martial Apprentices realized how futile
and bad this situation was, ordering a full retreat of all their people.
Immediately, all the people belonging to the K'ulnen Tribe retreated back to
where they came from, seriously.
"Operation success!"
There were some general celebrations in the war room in the Martial Union
settlement. The debut of the Martial Union as a party that is capable of
competing with the other Martial tribes in, at least, lower grades.
('That will change given time,') Rui nodded.
Soon, Martial Apprentices would begin partaking in this war regularly.
Eventually, that would escalate to Martial Squires.
"Order full retreat," Rui nodded.
That team truly could no longer afford to stick around in the hunting territory
of the K'ulnen Tribe. If they stuck around, then the K'urnen Tribe would soon
send stronger reinforcements that were much more capable of handling the
specialties and the competencies displayed by the Martial Artists that had
been part of the team covertly and some ways behind the team.
While the Martial Union cheered and the K'ulnen cussed them out, a third-
party spectator watched silently, with many different emotions spiraling
through their mind. Surprise, caution, skepticism, and fear.
"…That's quite impressive," One Martial Artist sighed.
"Maybe… Maybe exchanging techniques with them isn't a bad idea…"
The G'ak'arkan Tribe's attitude towards the Martial Union had begun
changing slowly for a while. It all began with the hunting that had begun a
while ago, hunting that was used to regularly bring in enough food for the
entire settlement.
That, however, was against prey. The circumstances were highly in favor of
the hunter in such scenarios. After all, the hunter has too much power over
his prey. This was one of the reasons that the G'ak'arkan Tribe had
reservations about putting too much weight on such feats.
However, what they had just accomplished, was much greater than the last
time. They had walked into the K'ulnen Tribe's hunting territory, and beaten
them back in their own territory despite the K'ulnen Tribe escalating the level
of the conflict to the Apprentice Realm first and foremost.
The techniques that had been demonstrated were each solid and reliable, and
very powerfully covered the areas of weakness and shortcomings that the
G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Rui was absolutely confident that the G'ak'arkan Tribe was having a serious
meeting that would deliberate once more on the matter of the Martial Union.
Now, whatever part of the G'ak'arkan Tribe had already expressed support in
increasingly in was growing stronger and stronger in its political weight and
capital.
"Can you handle the rest, Captain Cravis?" Rui asked the captain of the
intelligence leader.
"Yes sir, but do you plan not to?" Captain Cravis threw Rui a puzzled look.
"For now, no," Rui shook his head,
The brain-storming part of the mission was done for now. Rui had to make
personal preparations to make sure that he was personally ready to take part
in the incoming Martial conflicts with the K'ulnen Tribe.
('Any longer, and my battle instincts will begin to dull,') Rui sighed, before
steeling his expression.
In the past three months, he had been receiving very little logistical support in
helping the mission succeed had, meaning that he was very busy, they did not
have the capital to help him out despite the fact that he had something that
could stay for him to suffer.
"Thankfully, this phase of the mission can safely be delegated to other
qualified personnel," Rui grinned.
What this meant was that he had more free time than he had ever had in the
past three months. What he was going to use that free time for, was entirely
obvious.
"I need to train hard, and strong," Rui murmured.
His situation was particularly sensitive. The Mind Mirror technique causes
him to be evaluated as far more dangerous than he actually was. This worked
just fine when he was a diplomat on a warmongering island, but it did not
create the best situations when he himself would be fighting out there against
people who think that he was much stronger than he was.
Meaning, that it was quite likely that powerful martial Squires would be
dispatched to target him specifically. Martial Squires were equipped to take
down someone that they perceived was a grade nine or grade ten Martial
Artist.
This was bad because Rui was much weaker than grade-nine or grade-ten
Martial Artists. Rui needed to get back into absolute peak form otherwise, he
did not stand a chance against any such measures if he did not go all all-out.
"This is going to be some good old fun times, just like in the old day," Rui
smiled. Despite the tribulations that were incoming, he couldn't help but grow
genuinely eager and even excited at the prospect of engaging in some
conflicts, with meaningful and important relevancies to him. Growing
stronger was something Rui was highly accustomed to doing.
Chapter 667 Debut
In an underground facility in the Martial Union settlement sat a lonesome

figure. He sat on the ground with folded legs and his arms resting on his
knees.
He had donned his combat attire, as opposed to the formal attire that he had
grown accustomed to wearing in the past three months.
His black hair was unkempt, an increasingly rare sight to see due to his
position.
His visage was hardly strange or unusual, yet almost everyone standing in the
room as him would be paralyzed with primal fear. The fear that came from a
great threat to one's well-being and life.
Not only had Rui donned his strongest mind mask as usual, but his mind
which had been consumed with the diplomatic mission for more than three
months had entered a state it hadn't in recent times.
He had ejected all considerations regarding his mission from his previously
scattered mind. For the most six hours, he had been honing his mind on his
Martial Art and Martial Path. It took him a while to gather the entirety of his
focus, conscious and unconscious.
His eyes were closed, yet it wasn't the darkness that plagues his vision.
He saw a path.
One he was standing upon.
It stretched on forever onwards and upwards.

It winded on and about.
Yet it wasn't just the path that drew his attention.
What the path winded through was equally eye-drawing.
Monsters of all kinds plague his path, each more horrifying than the last.
Calamities and catastrophes of all kinds made any attempt to try and reach
the end of the path almost impossible!
It was a terrifying path, yet it was all too beautiful.
Yet despite that, it called out to him. Lulled him in.
('…It's been a while since I've been down here.')
He could only ever enter the mental landscape of his Martial Path when he
immersed his everything into it. Yet, now that he was here, he realized how
long it had been since he had actually come down here. It used it be a
frequent visit for him, given how immersed in his training he would get. Yet
he hadn't done so in the past three months.
('…A blunder.')
He couldn't help but feel some regret.
Playing diplomat was a new and refreshing experience. It was even

enjoyable, yet now that he was immersed in his Martial Path, he realized that
it could never compare to the path that he had already chosen. A path that he
had perhaps been neglecting in recent times.
('Never again.')
A powerful yet stifled presence suddenly grazed against his senses drawing
his attention and moving closer toward him.
STEP
STEP
STEP
"You know, it has been fascinating to see your work as a diplomat. I had
completely predicted that you would be able to ace this mission when Derun
informed me of her choice of picking you for it… but I have to say…" Senior
Ceeran paused. "I still like this you more than that one, at the end of the day."
Rui opened his eyes slowly.
It was as though his pitch-black eyes had grown a few shades darker.
A mild grin broke out at the edge of Senior Ceeran's mouth. "It's not even a
contest, in hindsight. Look at you, if I was a little sleepy, I might even
mistake you for a Martial Senior. What a potent aura. I can't wait to see how
strong it will be when you enter the Senior Realm."
Rui smiled mildly. "I'm assuming it's time?"
"Just about, you should get going."
"You didn't have to come down here to inform me of that yourself, you
know?" Rui remarked as he got up.
"Yes, but I was just wondering how you were doing. It seems my concerns
were unwarranted," Senior Ceeran shrugged.
Rui made his way up, taking in the busy bustling atmosphere in the
settlement.
Today was the day, after all.
In the past few weeks, the scale of the conflicts between Martial Apprentices
had reached the precipice, it had reached the tipping point where it would
crossover into a higher realm of power.
The conflict would only keep escalating, and the only way up was into the
Squire Realm. The analytics team had projected that the scale of the conflict
that was planned today would cross the bottom line of the K'ulnen Tribe and
a Martial Squire would be deployed, perhaps more than one.
That was why Rui would be joining today's operation. He would be there to
intercept the Martial Squire that would inadvertently be deployed to handle
the overwhelming scale of Apprentice-level conflict.
That wasn't necessarily the hard part. The hard part was that Rui needed to
handle the man with his one and only long-range technique.
That wasn't easy to accomplish, even for Rui. His decision to take part in the
first Squire-level conflict between the settlement and the K'ulnen Tribe was
not well-received by everybody, especially the Longranger Sect Martial
Squires.
If not for the fact that he was the leader of the mission, as well as the fact that
he had accrued a lot of prestige for a Martial Squire his age and his apparent
high Martial Artist grade, he probably wouldn't have gotten his way.
He had also managed to placate them with good reasoning.
"I am the face of our settlement to the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui had told them
some time ago. "For now, at least. Their scouts have no doubt seen me
managing the settlement, and I was the lead diplomat in our talk with them a
while back. Taking down a Martial Artist in the manner that I intend to will
be good for increasing the amount of respect that I will command from them.
It will increase the chances that I will be able to secure a win on the
diplomatic end in the future."
As long as it was for the sake of the mission, he could justify his actions well
enough.
Chapter 668 Dispatch
Rui's plan was straightforward.
He would employ his Mind Mask technique and diminish his presence to an
Apprentice level and his appearance and identity with a mask. The Martial
Apprentices all wore masks anyway as Martial Apprentices normally did, so
there was nothing suspicious or abnormal about that.
The Martial Apprentices had all been debriefed about his presence in the
operation. However, they had all been informed very firmly that Rui would
not divulge his power until the Martial Squire appeared. He would be
operating at the level of a modern grade-ten Martial Apprentice of the Martial
Union. When, and only when the Martial Squire from the K'ulnen Tribe
would be deployed would he intervene and fight with them.
They were to retreat when that happened, for they could all potentially die
being near the fight between Martial Squires.
('Not that it will even reach that stage,') Rui kept that thought to himself. If
his plan worked out, then he would achieve the most shocking victory a
Martial Squire could have over one of their peers.
Of course, this wasn't that easy given that he wasn't all-powerful within the
Squire Realm like he used to be in the later years of his time in the
Apprentice Realm. He was in grade-four, perhaps verging on grade five.
The natural growth of the Martial bodies due to evolved muscle hypertrophy
and enhanced cell adaptability meant that the strains that came with
subjecting the body to training and combat made the Martial body stronger
that was one of the reasons that the Squire Realm was so much larger than the
Apprentice Realm, the body was a constant, rather than a variable, in the
Apprentice Realm. What didn't kill a Martial Squire always made them
stronger in the long run.
('Still, it's not like they're going to send in their top Martial Squires just to
protect their Martial Apprentices from a losing battle against other Martial
Squires,') Rui noted. ('It's quite likely they'll send in someone on the lower
half of the grades of the Squire Realm. Which means it isn't likely that I'll be
overwhelmed in a fight.')
Soon enough, it was time for the preparations for the operation to begin
immediately.
Rui entered the military facility in the outer ring of the settlement, heading to
the dispatch grounds.
"Squire Quarrier,"
The gathered Martial Apprentices bowed to him.
"Not anymore, no," Rui replied, before adjusting his mind mask to diminish
his presence to the peak of the Apprentice Realm. "I'm a Martial Apprentice
for the time being. Treat me that way."
This was a little hard for the Martial Apprentices. They all gazed at Rui with
awe and admiration in their eyes. After all, at this point, there wasn't a single
Martial Apprentice that hadn't heard of the great Rui Quarrier. There were
many rumors and legends floating around him in many circles. He was the
reason that the Martial Union adjusted the grading standards for Martial
Apprentices. He killed a Martial Squire with his team. He was the reason the
Kandrian Empire won the Serevian War.
Once all the preparations were done, they simply left the settlement, heading
towards the K'ulnen Tribe at a solid pace.
('They should be getting ready in a hurry by now,') Rui noted calmly.
All the Martial tribes had scouts watching all of the others. Their means of
surveillance were much more primitive than that of the Martial Union, but
they were still enough to get the job done. It would be impossible even for
the Martial Union to dispatch such a large force without the K'ulnen Tribe
realizing what was going on.
('A little over ten minutes to the tribe at this rate, though we will be
intercepted by a force sooner than that,') Rui mused.
The speed at which they were running meant that even ten minutes was a
huge distance between the two tribes was quite large, it was just that with
how fast Martial Apprentices were, that distance was quite manageable to run
across.
"I sense something," Rui said calmly as they were running.
Even if he was going to limit his aura and combat prowess to the Apprentice
level, there was no way that he could suppress his own senses. He could
sense far beyond any of the Martial Apprentices in their forces.
"How far away sir?" One of the Martial Apprentices asked.
"Four minutes," Rui replied. "Their force isn't as large as that of ours. Maybe
about five to ten percent lower than that of ours. Hm."
This was a good sign. Not just because they were likelier to win, but also
because it meant that they really were being stretched by conflict in three
ways. It seemed as though they were hitting their limits with Martial capital.
The force they gathered was the bare minimum to ensure that a loss wasn't
guaranteed.
('That means the likelihood of a Martial Squire being dispatched is quite

high,') Rui noted.
No group, Martial tribe or otherwise, could afford to lose too many Martial
Apprentices. Although a single Martial Squire would win against even
dozens of Martial Apprentices, that did not make a single Martial Squire
more valuable than dozens of Martial Apprentices.
Martial Apprentices were all, in some ways, Squire candidates in a sense. In

the future, dozens of Martial Apprentices would yield a few Martial Squires.
In the long run, the value of Martial Apprentices exceeded their combat
prowess alone due to their potential to discover their Martial body and enter a
higher realm of power.
The K'ulnen tribe was the same, they would not allow their Martial
Apprentices to get butchered, and hence would send in reinforcements
capable of helping and saving them; Martial Squires.
('When that happens, I'm going to kill them so quick they won't know what
hit them... Literally.')
Soon enough, the two forces ran into each other.
The Martial Apprentices paused the moment they sensed them, before
retreating slowly. They each began firing long-range attacks at their
opponents from a great distance. A flurry of wings, sounds, and even rocks
flew forward as the battle began.
Chapter 669 Variety
The battle began as the Martial Apprentices of the Longranger Sect fired all
kinds of long-range attacks at the Martial Apprentices of K'ulnen Tribe once
they entered the firing range of the Martial Apprentices.
Rui watched with interest as he studied the battle in slow motion.
('There is more diversity among the Martial Apprentices' long-range offense

than I expected,') Rui noted with interest.
He even saw one Martial Apprentice wielding Seismic radiation as a weapon,

used to destabilize the ground that the enemy Martial Apprentices traversed
on.
('Nice. Bet the G'ak'arkan Tribe would really love to have that one.') Rui
mused.
He hadn't seen many of the kinds of techniques that he saw with these Martial
Apprentices. He had to admit, the Longranger Sect certainly knew its long-
range.
('Still… Rocks?')
He glanced in interest at the Martial Apprentice who was hurling literal rocks
at the enemies. Furthermore, she was doing it in the most primitive fashion,
seemingly. She literally just kicked at the ground and debris flew forward at
tremendous speeds.
('Wait a minute… She's not just kicking.') Rui realized as an eyebrow of rose.
('She's doing something similar to the reverse of my Flux Earther technique.')
The Flux Earther technique involved elastically converting the kinetic energy
of an attack into the kinetic energy of his body through an elastic collision,
before grounding it into the ground with the help of the Reverberating Lance
technique.
What she was doing on the other hand was elastically converting her own
kinetic energy into the kinetic energy of anything that she could kick. Once
the object inherited her kinetic energy, it would naturally end up moving at
tremendous speeds forward.
It was a bizarre technique, but Rui couldn't complain about its power or
effectiveness.
('It doesn't require learning breathing techniques or any additional crutch

techniques that many long-range techniques, so the difficulty was probably
much lower than a wind-based technique. Quite practical, really. I bet the
G'ak'arkan Tribe would like that.')
There were several other techniques that caught his eye. He didn't even
bother contributing as he spent his time analyzing their techniques in interest.
('The seismic radiation technique is in a way the opposite of the rock flinging
technique,') Rui mused.
He was converting the power of his strikes into surface-level seismic

radiation techniques that allowed him to disrupt the grounding of
approaching techniques.
('It's like a failed version of the second half of my Flux Earther technique,')
Reverberating Lance in the Flux Earther transmitted the impact of the attack
deep into the ground such that it did not affect the surface, but if he didn't
then it would affect the surface.
('The difference is that he's directing the seismic radiation in one direction;
towards his enemies, rather than in all directions. Quite impressive.') Rui
acknowledged.
His eyes ran across all of the other techniques being employed. Wind was the
norm, but he even saw arm extensions, and even fire. Something that he had
only seen once.
('The gimmicks are quite attractive. But that isn't the area in which the
G'ak'arkan Tribe is lacking,') Rui turned back to face their opponents, taking
a good look at them as well.
They all simply rushed forward with balled fists or open palms.
From the few attacks that they had tried to launch, it didn't seem as though
they had anything interesting at all.
Of course, Rui was starting to understand why the Martial Union hadn't been
pining to obtain the techniques of the K'ulnen Tribe. Unlike the G'ak'arkan
Tribe, the K'ulnen Tribe did not possess any remarkable novelties, thus the
Martial Union had no interest whatsoever regarding that tribe.
('Well, let's speed this up a bit, shall we?') Rui sighed as he opened his mouth.
THWOOM!
He employed the power that he was capable of when he was a Martial

Apprentices, which while nowhere near what he was capable of now, was
still enough to overwhelm most Martial Apprentices.
BAM!
The sound projectile struck a charging Martial Apprentice, knocking him

unconscious and giving him a concussion.
BAM BAM BAM!
Three more attacks invited three more groans and wails of pain. Broken ribs,
face, and arms were just the direct consequences. In less than a second, he
had taken four Martial Apprentices.
"Move backward and maintain distance!" The leader of their unit bellowed.
The Martial Artists of the K'ulnen Tribe were closing too much distance even
if the Martial Apprentices of the Martial Union were doing a great job
mowing them down and hurting them with long-range attacks.
Retreating backward was a common way for long-range Martial Artists to

ensure that close-quarters Martial Artists never managed to get their hands on
them.
They moved backward as they continuously rained a volley of attacks on

their opponents. Although one or two of the Martial Artists of the K'ulnen
Tribe managed to sneak past the volley and get close to their opponents, Rui
subtly launched a sound bullet, knocking them down before they ever
managed to reach close.
Although he wasn't interested in fighting the battles of Martial Apprentices

for them, this battle was important. He wanted to make as perfect of an
impression on the G'ak'arkan Tribe as possible.
Not a single casualty, and not even a single injured Martial Apprentices. A
literally perfect battle. Of course, if not for the fact that Rui had taken down
some of the key Martial Apprentices while also sabotaging their success in
breaking through, it would definitely have not been possible for the victory to
be this squeaky clean.
Now Rui just needed to ensure that they pushed hard enough to force the
K'ulnen Tribe to deploy as strong a Martial Squire as they were willing to
deploy. The stronger the Martial Squire, the more impressive it would be
when he took them down effortlessly.
As for how he intended to do that, he had spent weeks preparing a plan and
making preparations to fulfill that plan when the time came.
Although it wasn't easy, he had gone to extreme lengths to ensure that not a
single thing could go wrong.
Chapter 670 Changes
Time passed on more monotonously than Rui had expected, the entire battle
was happening in slow motion within his eyes, so he had gotten rather bored
for quite a while now. As time passed, his intervention in the battle reduced
bit by bit, to ensure that the battle proceeded more organically, otherwise he
would end up taking too much credit from the Martial Apprentices of the
Longranger Sect that were partaking in this battle.
He had been launching fewer attacks and had also been sabotaging his
opponents less as time passed by.
The problem for the K'ulnen Tribe was the fact that the advantages that came
from the initial numbers advantage, as well as the higher-quality Martial
Artists in general. On top of that the accumulated advantage that came from
having an immensely successful battle up till this point was also adding on
top of the pile.
It was slowly starting to get overwhelming at this point. Unlike before, a

single Martial Apprentice of the K'ulnen Tribe had to face more than one
long-range Martial Artist of the Martial Union and the Longranger Sect since
their numbers had been cut down since the start of the battle.
It was already difficult for them having to deal with just a single Martial
Apprentice, but now that they had to deal with a lot more, not a single close-
range Martial Apprentice of the Longranger Sect was able to penetrate the
wave of attacks that were coming from the distance and close the distance
faster than the Longranger Martial Artist was moving back.
The Martial Artists of the Longranger Sect had also coordinated their
matchups much more excellently than at the start of the battle. It helped that
they had a solid intelligence advantage over the K'ulnen Tribe.
The heavy long-range artillery Martial Artists focused on the heavyweight
durable close-range Martial Artists in the K'ulnen Tribe. The latter was
extremely difficult to halt in their path and required serious firepower within
the Apprentice Realm to stop them.
They were generally handled with techniques with high single-hit power or
techniques that could be used continuously, resulting in a tremendous amount
of power being outputted every second.
Only such techniques could stop the momentum of heavyweight power and
durability-oriented close-range Martial Artists.
On the other hand, there were plenty of middle and lightweight maneuvering-
oriented Martial Apprentices that were able to dodge the attacks of such
unwieldy, albeit powerful, attacks. These kinds of Martial Apprentices did
not fear such attacks since it was extremely difficult to hit them with such
attacks.
Instead, they were handled by the Martial Apprentices of the Longranger Sect
which was capable of highly flexible and adjustable, quick and wider attacks.
Such techniques were inherently harder to avoid due to the higher area of
effect, while also being easier for the long-range Martial Artist to tag due to
their flexible nature.
The biggest downside to such techniques was the fact that their power was
quite lacking. This meant that it would be nearly impossible to take out
heavyweight power or defense-oriented Martial Artists. On the flip side,
lightweight Martial Artists almost always tended to have low durability and
toughness which meant that even such power-lacking techniques were strong
enough to be effective against them as a means of offense.
BAM!
"Argh!"
Another powerful K'ulnen Martial Apprentice fell to a key shot that hit a
vital, incapacitating them. The momentum of the K'ulnen Tribe's charge had
stalled to a tipping point.
BAM BAM BAM!
Attacks rained on them wave after wave. Not only did they significantly
hamper the path forward, but they were also beginning to push back!
Step by step, leap by leap, the Martial Apprentices of the K'ulnen Tribe
backed off as the overwhelming amount of artillery piled on them.
('Anytime now,') Rui grew more alert as he waited for the signal.
"Chase after them!" An order was bellowed once the Martial Apprentices of
the K'ulnen Tribe learned that they had effectively lost the battle.
The Longranger Martial Apprentices began charging forward swiftly,

unwilling to let their enemies retreat easily when they had such dominant
odds.
That's when it happened.
PEWWW…
What appeared to be a firecracker of some sort was launched into the air.
BANG!
It exploded, producing a lot of sound and light.
Rui grinned. "It's time,"
This was the signal that the Martial Apprentices were supposed to launch
when they were in real trouble, according to the intelligence that had been
gathered on the K'ulnen Tribe
That served as a signal to summon a Martial Squire to clean up the mess.
"Retreat!" Rui ordered them Martial Apprentices.
They were well aware of what was about to come, having been debriefed
about this operation thoroughly.
Rui remained behind as he prepared himself to use the Void Pathfinder
technique.
Normally, the Void Pathfinder technique, which was the VOID algorithm
applied to the Pathfinder technique could not be applied to Martial Artists of
which he hadn't prepared a predictive model and thus an adapted style to
counter them.
That was why Rui had painstakingly built predictive models for all of the
Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Tribe for almost two months. It had been quite
difficult and had taken quite some time, but he had done all of that not just
for today's spectacle, but also for future conflicts against the Martial Squires
of the K'ulnen Tribe.
The VOID algorithm was necessary in this case for when the target of his
Pathfinder technique was in motion since it would require some degree of
prediction that he would use to input into the ODA System. Together, he
would be able to achieve a feat that ought to leave even the G'ak'arkan Tribe's
jaw-dropping.
('Now then… Which one will it be in the end?') Rui wondered.
BEEP BEEP
His comms device vibrated, drawing his attention.
[Code H]
Said the message that Kane had sent him.
('…Unexpected,') Rui shrugged as he prepared himself to execute the ODA

algorithm in a split second when the Martial Squire arrived. ('But not a
problem.')
Chapter 671 Outcome
Even if Rui had made predictive models for all of the Martial Squires ahead
of time, he could not know which Martial Squire was being deployed when
the K'ulnen Tribe's Martial Apprentice inevitably failed, ahead of time. That
was why Kane had been deployed outside of the K'ulnen village, waiting to
identify which of the Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Tribe had been
dispatched against the Martial Apprentices of the Martial Union to protect the
K'ulnen Martial Apprentices.
He was to immediately inform Rui of which of the Martial Artists had been
deployed via a pre-decided code since they did not know the names of all of
the Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Tribe.
Code H was a low-grade Martial Squire, lower than Rui but not by much.
Based on the intel that the intelligence team had gathered on the man, he was
an extremely close-quarter striking-oriented Martial Squire whose Martial
Path was centered around elbow and knee striking. This caused his Martial
Art to turn out to resemble something like a fusion between Muay Thai and
Silat, two traditional martial arts of Earth from Thailand and Southeast Asia.
Rui had painstakingly constructed a predictive model of his incoming

opponent based on the intelligence gathered by the Martial Union as well as
data that he himself had collected based on surveillance of the battles
between the K'ulnen Tribe and other Martial Sects that Squire H had partaken
in.
Rui closed his eyes as he brought up the predictive model for Martial Squire
code H from his mind palace, readying it to immediately fire in an input and
pass the output to the ODA System.
And soon enough, Squire H entered the very periphery of his Tempestuous
Feel technique. One of the challenges of applying his Pathfinder technique to
Martial Squires was the fact that Martial Squires often traveled and fought in
the air, which meant that Seismic Mapping was useless in this scenario, the
only thing that he could do was rely on tempestuous Feel.
The second that Squire H hit the edge of Rui's Tempestuous Feel sense, Rui's
pupils dilated. His brain went into overdrive as the entirety of his mind fired
up, furiously rushing to ensure that the VOID algorithm and the ODA System
would be completed as early as possible.
He pumped his latest sensory data into the VOID algorithm, and immediately
he extracted a high-certainty prediction of his opponent's position. Almost
reflexively, he tossed that prediction of his opponent's future position and
trajectory into the ODA System, establishing the predicted data as the
position of the target.
Instantly, he computed it and obtained the trajectory of the Sonic Bullet that
he would be launching against his opponent.
The second half of the ODA System was also computed rather swiftly.
Thankfully the atmosphere was tranquil, the atmospheric factors were rather
easy and simple to predict.
It all came together.
An image formed inside Rui's head.
The exact movements he had to make. From the position of his limbs to the
center of gravity. He could see exactly what he needed to do, where he
needed to be, and when he needed to be there.
With almost no delay, he shot into position, opening his mouth and launching
a small, yet potent Sonic Bullet.
THWOOM
The sound bullet flew for just three seconds... before stopping. Stopping after
it crashed through the right eyeball of Squire H.
There was no scream, nor a struggle. There was no resistance, nor evasion.
THUD
The body of Squire H fell from the sky, falling straight down to the ground
like a puppet whose strings were cut.
Rui heaved a deep sigh as he began panting slowly. The sheer mental strain
of pulling off what he did was not low. The VOID algorithm was hard
enough as it was, the ODA System piled on top of that, on top of yet another
layer of difficulty being the fact that his opponent was a sprinting Squire gave
him no room for error whatsoever. He had to be exactly perfect, and not even
the tiniest bit less.
Yet, one could be quite certain that he'd succeeded, given the unmoving body
of his target. Rui couldn't even sense a heartbeat through Seismic Mapping.
Rui hit a button on his comms device, before sky-walking above the trees,
revealing himself to the world. He donned his grade-ten Martial Squire mask,
allowing any scout of any Martial Tribe to feel his presence and the illusion
of power he projected.
He also wanted to highlight the distance from which he had successfully

taken that shot, highlighting the power of his technique quite deeply.
He quickly began retreating towards the Vilun Settlement at top speed. The
K'ulnen Tribe would no doubt be extremely furious at the death of a Martial
Squire, and he did not want to wait around to deal with repercussions
directly. He did not think he stood a chance if he had to deal with more than
one Martial Squire at a time unless they were extremely weak.
His mouth broke into a shark-like grin as he rushed back towards the Vilun
settlement at top speed.
He couldn't help but feel quite excited at the feat that he had just
accomplished. It was not hard at all to believe that he was a grade-ten martial
Squire given that he just nailed a Martial Squire from nearly a kilometer
away!
If the G'ak'arkan Tribe was merely interested before, he had no doubt that
they were extremely shocked at this point. After all, the feat he accomplished
was not something that any Martial Squire could possibly accomplish, yet if
there was one that could, it could only be a grade-ten Martial Squire, correct?
He did not think that even the Martial Squires would be able to keep their
composure when they learned what Rui could do despite the distance. If Rui
was not wrong, then he had achieved a feat that they likely were not
confident of replicating with their own long-range prowess.
Chapter 672 Reaction
As he had predicted, the impact that his feat had was not low. The most
immediate of which he could see the moment he returned.
"As expected!" Senior Ceeran grinned excitedly. "You were able to pull it
off! I did not doubt you for a second!"
It was true, Senior Ceeran was one of the few people who expressed his full-
fledged support for Rui's plan after he had brought it up and proposed it.
The Senior had long known and had directly witnessed Rui's spectacular
long-range accuracy, he had even begun training in the technique after Rui
sold the technique to the Martial Union. His support for Rui came from solid
foundations as opposed to blind faith.
However, it had become clear to Rui that of all of the Martial Artists of the
Longranger Sect that had been deployed to the Vilun Sect, none of them had
any knowledge regarding the Pathfinder technique at all.
They all stared at Ves like he was an alien that landed from outer space. Their
stares were wide-eyed, their silence was loud, and they naturally parted ways
for Rui as he walked through the crowd.
"Rui, great job!" Kane grinned.
He had been quite surprised when he had heard Rui's plan. Of course, this
wasn't the first time that he had heard of the Pathfinder technique from Rui.
Yet this certainly was the first time he learned what the technique was
capable of. Rui had merely introduced it as a long-range technique.
Of course, knowing Rui, he knew that it would be anything but a normal

mundane technique, having benefited from Rui's previous original technique
greatly as a Martial Squire. Still, he had been more than just a little surprised
when he learned about exactly what Rui had been setting out to accomplish,
and what he had ended up succeeding in accomplishing.
"Thanks Senior Ceeran, Kane," Rui smiled at the two of them, before turning
to special agent Cravis. "What is the response from the K'ulnen Tribe?"
"Your feat has caused quite a bit of ruckus within their village. A lot of rage,
shock, and even panic," Special Agent Cravis replied. "The body has already
been retrieved by a high-grade defensive Martial Squire. It is quite clear that
despite you retreating from the battlefield in an overt manner, they are still
taking remarkable precautions to ensure that what happened will not repeat."
Rui nodded, having expected that. Even if Rui left, they would feel incredibly
stupid if the same thing happened yet again because they let their guards
down.
"We have observed a warmongering spark within the tribe. It seems that the
impact that this shocking death has had on them is much greater than if he
had died in an extended fight. It appears that they are highly unsatisfied with
the seemingly vain and meaningless death of their Martial Squire." Special
agent Cravis explained.
Rui raised an eyebrow and looked at him with a hint of concern. "Surely this
won't escalate beyond the expected degree, right?"
"Rest assured sir, we are quite certain that the K'ulnen Tribe will not abandon
all their pursuits and engage in an all-out war against us purely because of the
death of a single Martial Squire. Though, as expected, you can rest assured
that we have gained the highest priority of all of their ongoing conflicts."
Special agent Cravis explained.
"Good, because it sounded like they were going to do something rash based
on what you'd just described to me," Rui sighed in relief.
"They cannot afford to do that, sir," Special Agent Cravis explained. "We
have not crossed their bottom line by engaging in gross violations of their
purely civilian population. We killed a Martial Squire that they had deployed
to a battlefield that was supposed to be only for Martial Apprentices.
Considering that their Martial Squire perished on the battlefield, a battlefield
he was not supposed to be a part of, they do not have much of a compelling
incentive to react extremely."
"You would think the death of a Martial Squire would be a more compelling
reason to lash out than the death of civilians, at least that's the way it is
everywhere on the Panama Continent," Rui mused.
"On the Panama Continent, perhaps. But we are quite far away from the
mainland. The culture here is different. Deaths of warriors on the battlefield
are anything but unusual to them. Sometimes one side wins, and sometimes
the other side does. Every Martial tribe is intimately experienced within both
outcomes. However, an attack on civilians is something entirely different. If
they let that slide, it would be no different from announcing to the entire
island that they have grown weak, and that their warriors were too weak to
protect their own people. Not only is that a disgrace that they are highly
repulsed by, but being perceived as weak or soft would invite greater
opposition and pressure from their rivals and enemies."
"Their values are fundamentally different from that of ours. Their strong
desire for war and conflict is what allows them to cope with the deaths of
their warriors since it is an unavoidable consequence of their very way of life.
But a dastardly attack on their non-warrior members isn't," Rui shook his
head, sighing in resignation.
It was this warped culture that had made what should have been an open-and-
shut diplomatic endeavor long ago, draw out across many years.
"Never mind all of that," Rui continued. "Just be sure to update me on any
and all abnormal movements of the K'ulnen Tribe. And also, keep an eye on
the surrounding Martial Tribes as well, it won't be bad to cue in on their
situation as well."
Rui paused in his tracks as he realized he forgot to inquire about arguably the
most important party on the island.
"Tell me what we know about the G'ak'arkan tribe's reaction. We already

know that there's no way they missed a conflict of this scale in their
geographic vicinity, relatively speaking."
Chapter 673 Incredulity
"What?!"
A wave of incredulity spread across the members of the village council

meeting of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Inside the little council meeting room at the center of the village were many
dozens of members, each of them being a Martial Artist. This was the
prerequisite to being qualified to be a member of this meeting. The three
Martial Seniors of the tribe faced the rest of the Martial Artists, whose seating
position was determined by their power. The strongest of Martial Squires sat
the closest to the leaders of the tribe, while the weakest of Martial
Apprentices sat the furthest away.
Currently, they all faced one of the youngest Martial Squires of the tribe who
had just returned from observing the latest battle between the K'ulnen Tribe
and the Martial Union. The sheer scale of the battle was so high that the
G'ak'arkan Tribe decided to send a Martial Squire to observe the happenings
of the battle rather than a Martial Apprentice.
Normally, a council meeting would never be called just to hear the report of
such a battle. However, the leaders of the Martial tribe decided to call one
nonetheless when they heard his shocking accounts of the battle.
"What? What did you just say?" One of the eldest Martial Squires of the tribe
couldn't help but murmur in shock.
"It is exactly as I said, sir H'Rulu," The Martial Squire scout managed to
squeeze out. "When the Martial Artist of the second rank was dispatched
from the K'ulnen Tribe, one of the Martial Apprentices stayed behind and
waited for his arrival, seemingly. And when the K'ulnen Martial Artist was
just a little under a few kilometers away… the outsider Martial Artist opened
his mouth and launched an attack, a few seconds later the K'ulnen Martial
Artist suddenly collapsed to the ground a kilometer away bleeding from his
eye… And then the rank of the outsider Martial Artist went up by one! His
aura became that of a powerful rank-two Martial Artist. It was unbelievable. I
thought I was daydreaming! How could something like that happen? I'm not
sure, it was…"
The scout had become absorbed in his own thoughts, losing cognizance of
where he was.
"Wait wait!" Another Martial Squire raised his hand. "You're telling me this
rank one outsider Martial Artist became a rank two Martial Artist?! After
launching an attack that killed the K'ulnen Martial Artist from a kilometer
away?! Ha! Do you think we're fools? Have you been drinking?"
A few nervous chuckles rose from the crowd. It was easier to believe that this
was merely a drunk man's ramblings than to accept that this was the actual
truth.
The scout's eyebrows furrowed at the accusation. "It's the truth! I know what
I saw. I confirmed it many times. I even pierced my own flesh because I
thought I was literally in a dream!"
He pointed at the reddened layers of cloth wrapped around his palm. "It
happened. I checked! I saw the K'ulnen Tribe drag away its corpse very soon
after! The blood on the ground is still there! I carefully verified the distance
between the battlefield where the outsider Martial Squire was present, and it
was without a doubt a huge distance!"
The members of the council meeting stirred at those words, this was far more
undeniable proof of the man's words.
"Enough," K'Mala, one of the Martial Seniors of the tribe, said with a
measured tone to the members of the council who tried refuting the scout.
"X'Na is one of our best scouts, his word is very credible. We have already
verified with other scouts watching the K'ulnen Tribe of his report. It is true."
One word from her, one of the most powerful and important members of the
tribe ended all of the reluctance from the recalcitrant members. As a Martial
Senior, her word was nearly absolute to the rest of the tribe.
"But… how can this be?"
"How can a rank one Martial Artist jump to the second rank so quickly and
without the ritual?"
"That too in the middle of battle! Is this a technique of the outsiders?"
The atmosphere of the council meeting grew chaotic and unstable, the
reluctance to accept the scout's report as true was understandable. After all,
the implications of the truth were scary.
"That outsider Martial Artist… I can't be sure of this... But his aura felt
exactly like that of the diplomat who came to meet us a few months ago.
Almost identical, really. It's a shame that I couldn't see his face," The scout
squeezed out, breaking the silence.
"If that is the case… then that means he has the ability to hide his strength,"
K'ahru, the youngest Martial Senior realized. "It's unheard of, but it's a much
less insane explanation than a rank one Martial Artist jumping to the second
rank in the middle of battle…"
This earned some nods as several members sighed in relief.
If the outsiders had the ability to break through to the second round without
the Sacred Ritual, then they would have been a terrifyingly powerful force.
However, this explanation made more sense and was grounded closer to what
they knew.
"Still… launching an attack from that far away, hitting the eye of the target
accurately and killing a rank two Martial Artist…" K'ahru gritted his teeth.
"His powerful aura does not do his prowess justice. This is the strongest
outsider we have ever come across after the rank three Martial Artist… the
strongest rank two Martial Artist that I have ever seen, at least."
This earned the nod of many members of the meeting. Such a statement
would normally wound the immense pride of the rank-two Martial Artists of
the tribe, however, given the magnitude of the feat that they were being
compared, not a single one of them dared to express any disagreement.
"Honestly… I don't think I could replicate this," K'Mala honestly admitted as

she heaved a sigh of admiration. "That technique that he used to accomplish
this… I wonder if he is willing to trade it with us…"
Chapter 674 Opposing
That statement turned heads, filling their eyes with greed at the thought of
obtaining such power.
Were the outsiders willing to offer them this technique, among others?
If so… that made the prospect of trading with them much more alluring than
before. As a long-range-oriented Martial tribe, obtaining such a technique
would likely boost their power significantly.
"Do not lose yourselves in your greed," The chieftain ordered, immediately
drawing the attention of all the members of the council meeting. "Even if we
were to obtain that powerful technique, it is quite likely that very few of us
will be able to master it. Such power does not come easily, and the greater the
power of a technique, the greater the difficulty of a technique. With how
immensely capable this technique is, it may be so that none of us can master
it."
This dampened the excitement and greed in the atmosphere of the council
meeting. The chieftain's words weighed the heaviest, and everybody took
them seriously. Of course, they were all aware of the correlation between
power and the difficulty of techniques.
"Furthermore, we don't know if they are willing to trade it with us in the first
place…" Senior K'ahru. "But even if they aren't…"
He gritted his teeth as his aura intensified, bathing the entire council in his
heavy aura. The Martial Squires present shivered as they felt his immense
greed and battle lust.
"Even if they aren't…" He continued. "Can we really let them keep such a
technique to themselves?"
The question awoke the fighting spirit of many members of the council. He
had directly appealed to the battle lust that every G'ak'arkan warrior was
imbued with from birth. He had directly appealed to their greed to obtain
such power.
"That's right…" Their eyes widened. "We must obtain this technique at all
costs!"
They were warriors. They fought. It made sense. Why give up their sacred
techniques when they could simply obtain what they wanted by force?
"Enough," K'Mala warned them with a stern tone. "Have you forgotten why
you want their techniques in the first place? Because they are strong. Do you
think such strong people will roll over and let you have their techniques?
What if they decided to do that with us? Would we roll over and let them
have our techniques?"
This stirred up the council members even more.
Giving up their techniques just because someone was attacking them for it?
Just the very thought of that was disgustingly alien to them.
"Never!"
"We will fight to the last warrior to protect our techniques!"
"Then you can be assured that you'll have to fight to the last warrior to obtain
their techniques as well," K'Mala retorted. "We will lose more than we have
gained."
"Your words are cowardly, sister," K'ahru's icy tone grew dangerously
perilous. "Do you think we are weaker than them? They don't even have a
single rank three Martial Artist right now!"
"Don't be naive, little brother," She scoffed contemptuously. "Look at all of

their actions thus far. Do you really think they trust us to act friendly after
showing us their treasure? I wouldn't be surprised if there was a rank three
Martial Artist lurking in their village, laying low."
"Ha! A rank three Martial Artist lowering his head and hiding among lesser
Martial Artists? That is absurd!" K'ahru snarled.
"The outsiders have absurd customs. We know too little about them," She
retorted. "Waging war with them will bring us many losses. Even if we win,
we will be too weak to defend against our sworn rivals and enemies… Does
anybody want that to happen?"
This struck a greater chord with them. Unlike the Martial Union, the
G'ak'arkan Tribe's relationships with the other Martial tribes on the island
were more than just extremely bad. They had centuries worth of bad blood
built up. The very thought of losing and being destroyed by their enemies and
rivals put a stop to all of their momenta. The stakes were too great for even
thick-headed warriors like them to rush in.
K'ahru gritted his teeth as he sensed the ceding flames that he had tried
stoking in the warriors of his tribe. He turned towards his older sister with a
hateful look. "A little coward who's too afraid to fight even lesser Martial
Artists. Pathetic. You're a disgrace of a warrior!"
Her eyes sharpened as he insulted her in front of the entire tribe.
She walked towards him. "An immature child who needs to needs to be
treated like a baby. Think with your brains instead of your balls, for once,
fool."
The two of them surged forward with furious expressions.
"Enough," An overpowering aura suppressed theirs.
They winced under the overwhelming pressure of the most powerful warrior
and the leader of their tribe.
"Yes, sir," They bowed toward him.
"I have heard enough," he raised his hand, heaving a sigh. "I have made my
decision."
The atmosphere of the council meeting grew more severe as everybody
waited for the chieftain's decision. His word was absolute. His power was
much greater than that of K'Mala and K'ahru, and his experience on the
battlefield dwarfed that of theirs. Even the two of them did not possess the
capital to defy his orders.
"As usual, the two of you have opposing views," He began. "And, as usual,
both those views possess merit nonetheless."
He turned towards K'Mala. "Your concerns are valid and sound. There is a lot
at stake here. Cooperating with them in a trade is a much better outcome than
having to wage a war against them. We can grow considerably more
powerful without suffering any material loss."
K'Mala nodded, delighted to see her opinion being given its due credit.
"However, K'ahru is also right. Our tribe is much larger than their settlement.
Furthermore, in the past three months, we have not seen a hint of a rank three
Martial Artist leading their settlement. We haven't yet come across an
individual possessing such power. While it isn't impossible that they are in
hiding. To remain in hiding for nearly an entire season seems very far-
fetched. It is much likelier that there is no rank three Martial Artist, this is
consistent with that rank two diplomats clearly being the leader of their
village," He said.
K'ahru grinned at the chieftain's words. "Does that mean-!"
He froze as a wave of anger washed across him.
"Do not interrupt me," The chieftain's sharp eyes glared at him. "I see much
merit in both your stances. However, what we lack is the necessary
information we need to make this decision. Therefore, I have decided we will
wait until we can move with confidence. None of us wish to weaken
ourselves with a war that doesn't need to be waged just to be consumed by
our real enemies. Yet, at the same time, none of us wish to simply hand over
our precious and sacred techniques so easily."
He stood up, indicating the end of the meeting.
K'Mala and K'ahru felt ambivalent, while they did not get what they wanted,
at the very least what they definitely didn't want happening did not happen.
Thus the outcome was tentatively neutral.
The council dispersed quickly as each member processed what they had
learned from it.
Back in the settlement of the Martial Union, Rui and Special Agent Cravis
were still concerning themselves with the reaction of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"It's unfortunate that we do not have a functioning wiretap in the council

meeting room anymore," Special Agent Cravis sighed with regret.
"There hasn't been an appropriate opportunity since then," Rui shook his
head. "The presence of three Martial Seniors concentrated within such a
small village makes it difficult to infiltrate the place."
Martial Seniors possessed tremendously powerful natural senses, Rui had
confirmed. Senior Ceeran's natural senses were sharper than all of Rui's
sensory techniques combined. This meant that trying to infiltrate the village
when there were Martial Seniors was a suicidal operation for the most part.
"Last time, it was an exceedingly rare opportunity that the two younger
Martial Seniors K'Mala and K'ahru had left the village temporarily at night
while the chieftain was asleep. That is the only reason I approved Kane
infiltrating the village and planting wiretaps," Rui sighed. "Even then, it was
extremely dangerous. If the chieftain woke up for any reason, Kane would
have zero chance of survival."
Rui was not willing to put his best friend on such a dangerous mission again.
"Forget the wiretaps, what can the intelligence and analytics teams tell me
about the impact that this battle will have on the G'ak'arkan Tribe?"
"There are only a few possibilities as we had discussed briefly when you
suggested the idea," Special Agent Cravis calmly replied. "For one, we can
be assured that they will be shocked regardless of what course of action they
choose to come to. Your feat is unprecedented to them,"
Rui took some pride in knowing this. The fact that his Void Pathfinder was
able to shock a tribe that had been practicing and refining their long-range
techniques for centuries was greatly validating, but that was beside the point
of the discussion.
"Well?"
"We believe that they will eventually choose to cooperate to obtain our
techniques, or they will choose to wage a war against us to obtain our
techniques," Special Agent Cravis explained. "Cooperation would be the
common sense option were they a normal state, but given their warped
culture as well as the fact that they perceive a Martial Squire instead of a
Martial Senior leading our settlement will likely make the latter option more
alluring than it normally would be. As for which route they will choose to go.
Only time will tell."
"Then it is time to prop Senior Ceeran back up, I presume?" Rui asked as he
quickly understood the circumstances and immediately came up with a
straightforward solution.
"It will serve as a deterrence, that is true," Special Agent Cravis nodded.
"However, the problem is that propping up Senior Ceeran may also make the
situation worse."
Rui turned towards Special Agent Cravis with a knowing expression. "His
previous interactions with the G'ak'arkan Tribe."
"That's exactly so, sir," He nodded in return. "Senior Ceeran had wounded
their pride in his previous endeavor to negotiate with them. One of the
reasons that war didn't break out then and there was because he apologized.
Martial Seniors apologizing are an extremely heavy and significant gesture in
the G'ak'arkan Tribe, after all. Although Senior Ceeran never intended to
offend the and was merely being brutally honest, that doesn't change their
impression of him. Given how irrational the G'ak'arkan Tribe is, they may be
more driven to wage war seeing him. After all, one Martial Senior is not
enough to defeat three of them, in their eyes. Extracting the techniques of a
Martial Senior may even appeal more to the Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan
Tribe."
"May?"
"Unfortunately, we are unable to model all of their thought processes and

patterns. Thus it is unclear how they will respond. However, the results of
propping up Senior Ceeran cannot be undone, good or bad. Please keep that
in mind."
"Can we switch him out for another Martial Senior?" Rui wondered half-
heartedly.
"Definitely not," Special Agent Cravis shook his head. "Senior Ceeran
enthusiastically volunteered for this mission. That is one of the reasons that
Martial Commissioner Derun got him onboard. Martial Seniors are at the
peak of the lower Realms. It will take a lot of time, capital, and justification
to replace Senior Ceeran with another Martial Senior. Furthermore, Senior
Ceeran strongly desires to be here, it is impossible for you to override his will
on that matter. Remember that you are able to command him to a small extent
because he has graciously allowed you to exert authority over him."
Rui knew that. Senior Ceeran was a purist, quite like himself, when it came to
becoming stronger. If allowing Rui to take charge of a mission that he was
part of meant that he could obtain the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe and
become stronger, he was more than willing to allow it. It also helped that he
was fond of Rui for creating the Pathfinder technique.
"I'm aware of that," Rui sighed. "Keep a closer eye on their movements, if we
see something alarming, then we can reveal the presence of Senior Ceeran."
"Yes sir."
Chapter 676 Escalate
The latest battle between the Martial Union and the K'ulnen Tribe had
reached the ears of all the Martial tribes on Vilun island. The manner in
which Rui had downed a promising K'ulnen Martial Artist had impressed
many Marital Artists. Some found it to be absurd, while others were shocked.
There were some who even wanted to challenge Rui to a fight to test
themselves against someone of his caliber.
The battle marked the escalation of the conflict between the Martial Union
and the K'ulnen Tribe. Now that not only had the first Squire battle been
fought, but Squire blood had also been spilled, the battle would no longer go
back to being fought between Martial Apprentices.
Of course, Martial Apprentices would still be involved in the conflict, but

their conflict would wrestle around less important avenues and assets of the
many reasons that there was friction between the K'ulnen Tribe and the
Martial Union.
The more prime reasons such as the war over the hunting and water sources,
as well as claims over secondary and extended territories, would now be
fought by the Martial Squires of both sides.
The Martial Tribes had their primary territories which were the lands that
their villages occupied. However, the Martial Tribes did not tolerate other
Martial tribes getting too close to their village. For example, if another
Martial tribe tried building a village just a kilometer away from an existing
village of another Martial tribe, the latter would most definitely do everything
in their power to drive away the intruders.
They were territorial and did not tolerate other entities and groups infringing
within their direct domain of influence.
This was the reason that the Martial Union could not build their settlement on
the Vilun mountain even though there was plenty of space. The Vilun
mountain fell within the domain of influence of the G'ak'arkan Tribe and thus
the Martial Union's attempt to build a settlement on the mountain would not
be tolerated. It would definitely be a source of intense conflict between the
G'ak'arkan Tribe and the Martial Union.
And it was one of the sources of conflict between the Martial Union and the
K'ulnen Tribe.
"And that is the point of today's conflict," Rui said out loud.
He eyes his audience, which consisted of the Martial Squires of the Vilun
settlement.
"This is the first Squire-level conflict that consists of more than just a few
Martial Squires," Rui told them. "There's going to be a lot of chaos, and
unlike the previous Squire-level conflicts that we've had with the K'ulnen
Tribe it is much harder to control the flow of the entire battle, or plan the
entire battle as well as we'd like to."
It has been a week since the first Squire-level conflict between the Martial
Union and the K'ulnen Tribe. Since then, several clashes had occurred
featuring more than one Martial Artist. Rui had partaken in a portion of them
after carefully planning and making all the preparations that need to be done.
He couldn't just enter the battlefield rashly. After all, he was targeted far too
aggressively and hatefully. The K'ulnen Tribe identified him through his
build, not to mention the overpowering aura that he was projecting thanks to
the Mind Mask technique. He was still a grade four Martial Squire at the end
of the day, maybe grade five at best. Any Martial Squire at a higher grade
would be able to fight and eventually overwhelm him. Since the K'ulnen
Tribe was fooled, like everybody else, that he was an extremely powerful
Martial Artist, they would undoubtedly send especially powerful Martial
Squires to take him down if they ran into him in combat.
He had experienced something similar in the Serevian Wars, the only

problem was that back then he was actually strong enough to deal with even
such measures, but this time he definitely was not.
This meant that he absolutely could not get any close to any of the K'ulnen
Martial Squires for more than an instant, otherwise, he might suffer grave
damage. In order to be able to do that, he needed to make much greater
preparations in advance to close the gap. He spent a greater amount of time
analyzing the Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Tribe, sharpening his predictive
models. There was no upper limit to the degree to which a predictive model
could predict the target, the more data it had, the better it was.
However, because he didn't have much time, he needed to cut down on the
number of targets that he had.
He looked through all of the data that the Martial Union had on the K'ulnen
tribe. Especially, he scoured through the conflicts that they had partaken in
and the Martial Squires that had been respectively deployed in each of those.
By organizing and tabulating the parameters and nature of their battles vs the
parameters and nature of the Martial Squires that were deployed in those
battles, he was able to develop a predictive model for the Martial Squires that
would be deployed in any given battle, given that he had access to enough
information.
This was not part of the VOID algorithm, of course. What he was doing was
employing the same branches of statistics and probability that were used to
create part of the predictive capabilities of the VOID algorithm.
This allowed him to anticipate which Martial Squires were likely to be

deployed Knowing that, he could make more extensive and deeper
preparations for the Martial Squires that were likeliest to be deployed against
the Marital Union.
('They're pissed off at me, so they won't fight back half-heartedly,') Rui knew
that. But he was actually somewhat happy to know that. Since it meant that
he could make better preparations due to having access to better information
regarding his opponents.
"Be careful, this battle is going to escalate the scale of conflicts once again,"
Rui reminded them. "If things go as planned, then it's entirely plausible that
this conflict will reach the Senior Realm."
Chapter 677 Contingency
The Martial Union wasn't interested in a long-drawn conflict that would

stretch out for many months to half a year. The goal of this entire conflict in
the first place was to demonstrate the power and utility of their long-range
techniques and draw out the greed of the G'ak'arkan Tribe for those
techniques so that the next time that Rui makes an attempt to negotiate with
them, it would go much better than it did before.
That was why Rui had no problems rushing the conflict between the Martial
Union and the G'ak'arkan Tribe to the next level. After all, once the conflict
between the two groups reached its peak, then their little exhibition conflict
would be done, having exhibited everything that they need. At that point, the
conflict was no more than a liability that did nothing but sapped away the
capital of the settlement.
Once that happened, Rui would immediately have Kane execute Operation
Endline, an operation that would frame another tribe of having abducted the
women of the K'ulnen Tribe. Once that happened, that tribe would earn the
absolute ire of the K'ulnen Tribe. It was far worse than killing one of their
Martial Squires fair and square on the battlefield.
"Hm?" Rui's attention was drawn by one of the younger and weaker Martial
Squires raising a hand. "Speak, what is it?"
"Uh, sir? I thought that this plan could only be executed when certain
conditions were fulfilled, conditions that weren't always fulfilled?"
"Correct," Rui nodded. "The goal of this operation can only be accomplished
if the K'ulnen has already dedicated a considerable portion of its Martial
Squire capital to other battlefields. The intelligence team very recently
discovered that this soon going to be the case, most likely. Once we verify
that this is the case, and the K'ulnen Tribe dedicates greater manpower to its
battles against H'Nata and the F'Ruku Tribes, then we shall swoop in and
attack in its temporarily spent state. It will need to muster out all of its
remaining Squire-level assets once that's done."
This also helped Rui's predictive model, allowing him to make far better
predictions with the information that he currently held.
"What about the mission bill for this operation?" Another Martial Squire
asked.
Each of the Martial Squires had grown so accustomed to the system of

mission bills that contained all of the information that they needed to know in
a compact form that the settlement adopted the same briefing to all of its
Martial Artists.
"They've been composed, of course," Rui nodded to the team of assistants in

the room. "I'll break down the most important parts of the plan myself here,
you can go through the details in your own time immediately after. Of course,
there isn't much time left before the commencement of the mission."
Rui paused for a moment as each of the Martial Squires received a mission
bill, before continuing.
"The goal of this operation is to make a final demonstration of all the cards
relevant to the trade that we wish to make happen between the Martial Union
and the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui informed them once more. "Which means, by
the end of it, we'll have deployed every Martial Squire we have, and more."
Several Martial Squires frowned mildly at that.
"And more?" One of them asked as her eyes widened. "You mean..."
"That's right," Rui nodded. "If all goes as planned, then Senior Ceeran will
have intervened in this battle."
The otherwise composed Martial Squires stirred at those words. Their

reactions ranged from excited and motivated to a little anxious and uncertain.
"Based on our estimations, the K'ulnen Tribe does not possess the assets to
push back against the forces in this room with their Martial Squires. This
means that they will be forced to deploy a Martial Senior if they wish to
avoid incurring heavy losses. After all, the remaining Martial Squires in their
village at the moment are the only Squire-level assets between us and their
village," Rui explained, before continuing. "If we deploy all of our long-
range Martial Squires at once, then it is quite likely they will take one look at
our numerical advantage and immediately deploy a Martial Senior, with or
without their Martial Squires."
The Martial Squires looked a little pale at the scenario that Rui just described.
While the gathering of the Martial Squires within the military conference
room was certainly impressive, none of them thought they could fight a
Martial Senior and win.
"Of course, I think we can all agree that such a scenario is undesirable," Rui
smirked. "Instead, we will begin by deploying a number of Martial Squires
just five percent below the number of Martial Squires that they are able to
deploy at all once they have committed Martial Squires to other battlefields.
This is just enough of a margin to be assured that the K'ulnen Tribe won't
deploy its Martial Senior from the get-go."
"What if it isn't?" One of them asked, with a skeptical expression.
"Even if it isn't, and this is very unlikely, but even if it isn't, we have Senior
Ceeran waiting on standby and on high alert. He'll move in at top speed the
second we have even the first indication that a Martial Senior will be
deployed immediately."
This brought some relief to their faces. As Martial Squires of the Longranger
Sect, all of them looked up to Senior Ceeran. Furthermore, as a long-range
Martial Senior, he could protect and intervene even before he actually
reached the battlefield. This was an even greater reassurance.
"The likeliest scenario is that we will be embroiled in a heated conflict with

the Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Sect," Rui reminded them. "We will need
to fight hard and fight strong and produce good results. You have all been
assigned duties and roles that are suited to your strengths so that your very
best performance can be drawn out of you. Be sure to go all out and show
them what we are capable of one last time."
Chapter 678 Comparisons
Those words motivated the Martial Squires a lot. Since this would be their
final battle against the K'ulnen Tribe, they were definitely going all out.
"If this is our final battle, then that means that Senior Ceeran will be taking
part anyway, correct?" Another Martial Squire asked.
"Of course," Rui nodded. "The battle will begin with only Martial Squires,
however, as it progresses, we will have reinforcements giving us the edge
against their Martial Squires. The K'ulnen Tribe will have no choice asides
from deploying their Martial Senior and by that point, it will be outside our
hands."
The Martial Squires nodded, understanding the plan.
This way, they get to demonstrate the full power of the Squire-level assets of
the Martial Union, before then demonstrating the full power of the sole
Martial Senior of the Martial Union settlement.
"Um… The K'ulnen Tribe has two Martial Seniors, right? Will Senior Ceeran
be able to handle them by himself?" Another Martial Squire boldly voiced
out.
Of course, he immediately turned himself into a target for the glares of his
fellow peers and sect members. It was a considerable lack of faith on his part
to ask that question, though Rui did appreciate the caution.
"Had it been more than just a handful of Martial Seniors, I would entirely
share your concerns," Rui smiled. "But just two of the native Martial Seniors
of this island are not enough. Senior Ceeran is in the upper echelons of the
Senior Realm by the Martial Union's standards. That's good enough."
There was a moment of silence as the air turned awkward. Not everyone was
convinced.
Rui sighed. "The quality of our Martial Apprentices is greater than that of
theirs. This is true across all Realms to varying degrees. The difference is the
least in the Apprentice Realm."
The power of Martial Apprentices had the fewest variables controlling them
out of all of the three lower Realms. The potency of one's Martial Path, the
quality of techniques that one had mastered, physicality, and experience were
the major factors that decided the power of Martial Apprentices.
"Because there are fewer variables that determine the power of a Martial
Apprentice, that ends up meaning that there are fewer advantages that our
Martial Apprentices possess over theirs," Rui explained. "Which is why the
gap is the smallest. From what I can see, their Martial Apprentices are about
two grades lower than that of ours, on average."
Rui was absolutely certain that his Martial Apprentice self would have
crushed any and all Martial Apprentices on Vilun Island with laughable ease.
He was once the strongest Martial Apprentice in the entirety of the Kandrian
Empire, it was possible that he would have been mistaken as an extremely
weak and young Martial Squire on Vilun Island. Especially when he had the
Mind Mask technique making him look like a weak grade-one Martial
Squire.
"However, the story is not the same when it comes to Martial Squires," Rui
smiled. "The power of Martial Squires comes from not just all of the
aforementioned factors for the Apprentice Realm, but also the compatibility
and synergy between each of the Martial body, the Martial path, and the
Martial Art techniques. The synergy between each of these three provides
tremendous amounts of power."
Rui would know. He produced a grade-eight defensive technique, something

that was probably beyond his ability to learn otherwise, and a grade-ten long-
range technique that put even Martial Seniors like Senior Ceeran in a fervor.
"In this regard, it is absolutely the case that we are well beyond them. Take a
look at our revolution breakthrough process. We each possess Martial bodies
that are most aligned with our Martial Art and Martial Path. However, do you
think the same can be said for them?"
The evolution breakthrough process of the super-nations of the Panama

Continent gave the Martial Squires a physicality best suited for their Martial
Paths. However, the intelligence and analytics teams had come to the
conclusion that their sacred Ascension ritual was incapable of providing the
same benefit to the same degree that the Martial Union could.
This meant that on top of all of the advantages that the Martial Union
Apprentices had over the Vilun Apprentices, the Martial Squires had the
advantage of a superior and more customized evolution breakthrough
process.
On top of that, they also possessed a greater diversity of techniques and a

much stronger foundation due to the sheer amount of research and
development that went into optimizing and creating techniques.
"By my estimate, we, on average, are superior to the native indigenous

Martial Squires by two grades. Two grades of the Squire Realm," Rui
continued.
The difference between grades was larger in the Squire Realm than it was in
the Apprentice Realm, which meant that there was a greater gap between the
Squires of both sides than the Apprentices of both sides.
"Now, if we extrapolate this to the Senior Realm…" Rui smiled. His point
had become apparent at this point. It was a solid rationale that was quite
convincing to the Martial Squires present.
Of course, not all of the Martial Squires were aware of the conditions to
break through to the Senior Realm, and he highly doubted any of them were
actually aware of what the apotheosis to the Senior Realm actually was. Still,
even if there were no additional variables in the Senior Realm that further
widened the gap between the Seniors of the two sides, it could certainly be no
smaller than the gap between the Squires of both sides.
"And that alone is enough to have confidence in Senior Ceeran," Rui calmly
told them. "I have already spoken to Senior Ceeran regarding the matter, and
rest assured that his confidence was quite compelling and reassuring to me. In
fact, he seemed quite excited to see action after a long time of doing nothing
but laying low. All of you can talk to him when you get the chance."
Rui's words reassured them, his logic was sound which made his confidence
much more relaxed.
Chapter 679 Deployed
The preparations were soon made. Each of the Martial Squires equipped
themselves with the bare minimum unlike what they would for normal
missions. Since this operation involved direct combat and nothing else, there
was no need to make other kinds of preparations or take utilities that they
wouldn't need.
The only thing they took was a pair of potions, a rejuvenation, and a healing
potion. Though, since the G'ak'arkan Tribe was not inclined to accept their
technology that they did not understand or trust, using them was not
conducive to the goal of the operation.
"Is everybody ready?" Rui asked once they all gathered back in a dispatch
facility in the outer ring of the settlement.
He didn't even need to ask, he could feel their steeled wills and determination
through their aura.
"We've just gotten word from the intelligence team that the K'ulnen Tribe
seems to be about to dispatch a large chunk of their Martial Squires to
another battlefield very soon. As soon as we've received confirmation that the
battle has begun and that it's too late to call them back, we'll immediately
head out ourselves, got it?" Rui informed them, receiving a series of nods in
return.
Just then, an extremely potent yet restrained presence entered their senses.
"Senior Ceeran," Rui bowed his head lightly, expressing the respect that the
Martial Senior deserved by virtue of being a Martial Senior.
Rui had also noticed the differences in his demeanor as well. Usually, the
man was in a light-hearted albeit highly passionate state of mind. He
resembled an excited adventurer or even an artist pursuing their craft into the
unknown, looking to improve their craft. Yet today, he was nothing short of a
grizzled warrior. His focus was single-minded, single-mindedly on the
upcoming battle.
He had long been briefed about his role in the battle, and he knew that his
role was pivotal, it was no surprise that he took it extremely seriously
Nobody said a word as they all waited. A brief time passed before Rui finally
received the confirmation that he had been waiting for.
"Alright, it's time," Rui quickly signed on the last bit of paperwork to
commence the operation officially, before eight Martial Squires set out
immediately.
They sprinted through the sky at top speed, zipping through the reluctant air.
While they could travel much faster when they were on land, there were far
too many obstacles that they would have to permanently destroy in order to
surpass their speed through the sky. They had chosen to avoid doing so since
their environment was very necessary to their self-sufficiency and sustenance
on the island. All of the Martial Tribes were well aware of this. It was why
there was an unwritten agreement to avoid certain parts of the island when
engaging in conflict because if something went wrong, everybody would
suffer.
Martial Squires generally avoided the ground the only time that Martial
Seniors clashed on the island had left a gigantic crater that seemed to
permanently wipe out any and all vegetation and served as a battlefield for
many of the occurring conflicts that came much later.
As they flashed through the sky at tremendous speeds, it was only a short
matter of time before they could see the village of the K'ulenen Tribe in the
distance from their elevation. Even though the Martial Union settlement and
the K'ulnen village were separated by several dozens of kilometers, such a
distance meant very little to Martial Squires.
"They're coming," Rui's eyes narrowed as he managed to distinguish several
tiny dots escalating from the village, headed directly toward them. "Just as
we predicted, all nine of the remaining Martial Squires in the K'ulnen Tribe
have been dispatched to defend their village. Let's pause here."
This confused his peers. "Why do you want to stop? Shouldn't we drive the
battle as close to their village as possible?"
Rui shook his head. "If we're too close to their village, Senior Ceeran will not
be able to intervene in the battle in time, even with his long-range attacks, to
handle the Martial Senior that will inevitably be killed."
This made sense. The rest of the Martial Squires immediately acquiesced,
none of them wanted to be left alone facing a Martial Senior, that was a
suicide battle that they had no hope of winning whatsoever.
"Tsk, looks like they're not so stupid after all." Rui tutted as he saw the
Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Village covering their eyes.
It was clear that they were extremely wary of Rui's super long-range
accuracy. None of them wanted to have their brains scrambled by a sound
bullet crashing into their eyes.
"That's a shame, but it isn't outside of my expectations." Rui sighed. It didn't

take a genius to figure this solution out. "Alright, get ready, they're starting to
get close enough."
The Martial Union's Martial Squires took their stances as they prepared their
long-range attacks.
Rui went even further back since he had a much greater long-range
capability. He was arguably the weakest Martial Squire on the battlefield
since this battle was meant to showcase long-range techniques. Which meant
that he could not use the vast majority of the techniques that he had mastered.
This was a serious handicap. If not for the fact that he had a grade-ten long-
range technique, he would be utterly inconsequential in this battle. At best he
would be able to provide distractions and brief moments of relief for his
teammates.
Of course, Rui had long predicted that this would be the case. He had not
come this far only to be helpless in battle.
('This is going to be one the most challenging battles I will be putting myself
through since I became a Martial Squire,') Rui grinned. Although he was
displeased that he wouldn't be able to utilize his Martial Art, he did enjoy the
prospect of pushing his mind to the limit as he tried to make the best of what
he had, and he intended to excel at it.
Chapter 680 Clash
"I WILL AVENGE MY BROTHER!"
Was the first instance of communication between the two groups. The
woman who bellowed those words from a few kilometers away was one who
led the charge of the K'ulnen Martial Artists.
Rui could feel her hateful glare pinning on him even from that distance away.
"He just had to have a muscle-brain high-grade Martial Squire for a sister,
didn't he?" He sighed. This was outside of his prediction, but it didn't alter the
battle too much. However, he had to be careful about how far this Martial
Squire would be willing to go to take him down.
She was powerful, he could very clearly feel that she was several grades
above him, which meant that she was very capable of ending his life if she
wanted to.
Even though Rui was a grade-four Martial Squire, this grade was above the
power that his techniques and Martial body should have yielded.
It had been less than two years since he had become a Martial Squire, the
growth that his Martial body would have had thanks to the evolved muscle
hypertrophy and evolved passive tissue conditioning that every Martial body
had would have been minimal. He had been told that the power of his Martial
body was a few grades below what one would expect from a grade-four
Martial Squire. The number of techniques that he had mastered was also
lesser than that of other grade-four Martial Squires.
It took many years to reach close to the halfway point in the Squire Realm
power-wise, years that Rui had certainly not fulfilled
The reason that he was in grade-four despite his infancy in the Squire Realm
was thanks to the VOID algorithm and also little thanks to the powerful
techniques that he had created.
However, those were no longer factors in this battle due to the fact that his
Martial Art was restrained. The only thing he could use was the Void
Pathfinder.
This meant that the difference between some of his opponents and himself
was much more exaggerated.
('Especially against that vengeful grizzly bear of a woman,')
Her body was huge, packed with muscles that he didn't even know existed.
Hell, considering how strange Martial Squire could be, it may very well have
been that they didn't exist in normal human bodies. Rui wasn't sure he could
take more than even a few attacks from her.
Thankfully, she didn't seem too agile, and most of her prowess was likely
centered around muscular power and defense. As long as he avoided allowing
her to enter within a certain range, he could be assured to be safe.
It would have been too dangerous for a long-range Martial Squire to fight
another Squire many grades above the former, but Rui had a grade-ten
technique, perhaps even above grade ten after he used it along with the VOID
algorithm.
He opened his mouth.
THWOOM!
A powerful Sonic Bullet flew through the atmosphere, traveling at the spend
of sound. The Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Tribe noticed that gesture,
scrambling the direction furthest away from when he seemed to have
launched the attack, covering their eyes.
BAM!
"Argh!" One of the Martial Squire groaned as immediately reached to caress

their bruised and bleeding neck, leaving his eyes exposed for just a split
second.
That was the last gesture he ever made as a second Sonic Bullet crashed into
his eyeball the second he dropped his arm guard over his eyes instinctively.
...
All of the Martial Squires froze as they realized what had happened.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" The leader of the K'ulnen Squire team screeched as her
expression grew even more intense and hateful. The other Martial Squires
also threw hateful glares at him as they raced forward more intensely Seeing
their comrade fall so easily and quickly shook all of them, angering them to
their core.
It instilled their hatred and fear of him, atop the grief of losing a brother.
Yet, this was no time to mourn.
Rui grinned wildly, further enraging his opponent. ('Taste the power of a
predictive model refined over many weeks!')
The only predictive models of his that were more refined were that of his
friends who he had spent many years observing.
"I'LL HANDLE HIM. THE REST OF YOU FIGHT THE REST!"
"Fire!" Rui ordered once their opponents entered the more limited firing
range of his comrades.
The remaining Longranger Martial Squire immediately began raining attacks

galore on their opponents. As much as Rui would have loved to fulfill his
curiosity and analyze their attacks, he didn't have much leeway. After all, this
wasn't an Apprentice-level battle that posed zero danger to him, one that he
could perceive in slow motion.
This was a powerful battle that could get him killed with even the slightest bit
of carelessness. Furthermore, he was facing someone very determined to kill
him.
"YOU'RE DEAD!" She raged as she sprinted across the air toward him.
She was extremely careful of his one-shot attack, of course. She was
infuriated, but she had not lost her mind. Rui could sense the wariness in her
demeanor even as she chased after him. He could tell that she was putting a
lot of attention on his mouth. Guarding her eyes every time he opened his
mouth.
THWOOM!
BAM!
The attack crashed against her neck.
"IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!" She snarled as a brief smile
cracked at the edge of her mouth.
Rui tutted. He had already known that the same trick wouldn't work twice,
but what really displeased him was how little damage his attack caused.
('Her body is a fucking tank!') Rui groaned.
The Sonic Bullet was not a tremendously powerful attack. He could not
possibly inflict much meaningful damage on her body unless it hit a vital,
like her eyes.
Honestly, it was an impossible scenario, if not for a few elements.
Firstly, Rui did not need to win. He merely needed to engage with his
opponent to a respectable degree, and that was enough for the most part. The
other Martial Squires were genuine experts at long-range battle and would
take care of evoking the greed of the G'ak'arkan Tribe's techniques.
Secondly, her combat style was elementary, which meant that his already
extra-refined predictive model was especially effective against her.
Chapter 681 Catapult
That battle was intense and heated from the very start. The Longranger
Martial Squires demonstrate their prowess and their worth as they rained all
kinds of attacks on their opponents. Not only did they demonstrate techniques
centered around the same principles that Rui had seen the long-range Martial
Apprentices employ, but there were also many techniques that Rui hadn't
seen ever before.
Techniques became a lot more absurd in the Squire realm since the Martial
body allowed for the application of power in ways that the human body was
simply unable to even attempt to replicate.
Still, he was more concerned with his opponent than anything else.
Their battle became independent of the others. Rui was forced to

continuously move away from his opponent while she launched herself after
him. Despite being much more powerful than him, she was quite heavy. The
power canceled out with her mass, preventing her from drastically out-
speeding Rui.
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM
Rui fired Sonic Bullets one after the other relentlessly as he tried
accumulating damage on her neck. Thanks to the extra-refined predictive
model that he had built on her, he was able to accurately aim for her throat
despite both of them chasing after him at top speed.
What he did discover was that even her throat was ridiculously tough! He had
already landed numerous attacks on it, and the most he was able to do was
bruise her.
('What the fuck? She has got to be grade seven at least, if not grade eight.
That kind of defense is stupid.') He groaned inwardly as he relentlessly
launched attacks, trying to slow down her momentum in vain.
She chased after him, barrelling through his attacks like a rhino. His attacks
didn't do too much to slow her down. She gritted his teeth and bore all the
attacks that he tried directing at her vitals, defending them or plainly tanking
them head-on.
Unfortunately, she was extremely wary of any attacks to the eye. As tough as
she was, not even she believed that she would be able to withstand an attack
of that caliber to the eyes. If Rui succeeded in hitting her eyes like he did the
previous two Martial Squires, then that would almost certainly kill her, or
cripple her forever at the very least.
The K'ulnen Tribe was much more sensitive towards injuries than the Martial
Squires of the Martial Union were. After all, the Martial Squires knew that
healing potion technology was a deeply developed field. Although the cost of
healing potions for Martial Artists was progressively more expensive and
restrictive as one went up the Realms, they were still certain there was an
extremely little chance that they would incur an injury that the Martial Union
would be unable to heal, or that even their potions would be unable to heal.
"ARGH!" She snarled in frustration as Rui began maintaining the distance

between them that much better.
The distance between them was a few hundred meters. Far enough that the
chances of her reaching were not too high, and he didn't need to fight like he
was treading on extremely thin ice. But close enough that he could aim for
her vitals despite being highly consumed by maneuvering away from her. It
was much harder to aim accurately when both the shooter and the target were
moving at top speeds in a dance of high-effort maneuvering.
Unfortunately for Rui, he couldn't do much more than that at the moment.
She put an immense amount of effort and care into ensuring that Rui would
be unable to take her down the same way. Even if he so much opened his
mouth, she would immediately tighten her guard around her vitals. Her eyes
were perenially guarded. It was clear that she possessed some sensory
technique that allowed her to sense his location from a good distance away,
and that was enough.
Even if her sensory capabilities were much lower than that of Rui's it didn't
matter all that much. Even if she couldn't sense the motions of his limbs, it
didn't really affect her all that much. As long as she had clarity on his
location at any given moment, it was good enough. Her goal was to get close
to him and pummel him to death. Sensing his location was enough because
once she reached his location, it did not matter what Rui did to defend against
those attacks, they both knew that the fight would be over with a single clean
attack.
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM
Rui launched another barrage of attacks against her as his movements began
growing increasingly effective and accurate. He smiled as he began using the
data that he was obtaining in this battle to further refine his predictive model
of her.
('If you cannot defeat me at the start of a battle, then you cannot defeat me,')
This was very true for Rui. The VOID algorithm ensured that he grew
stronger with every passing second. His power growth against particular
opponents in the middle of a battle meant that the best and only opportunity
to take him down was at the start of the battle.
It was his one and only weakness.
('You have long crossed the threshold,')
That was why Rui was quite confident that she would not be able to take him
down despite clearly being several grades higher than himself.
However, that only applied if this was a one-on-one battle.
('Hm?') Rui's noted another Martial Squire circling around their own
opponent to reach Rui's opponent, meeting up with her.
The man twisted his upper body as he wound his balled fist back behind his
body preparing for a punch despite being very far away from Rui.
Yet Rui's eyes widened as he saw his opponent bracing her body before her
fellow tribal member.
('Shit!') Rui cursed as he realized what their plan was. He scrambled away at
top speed as the man swung his wound fist, catapulting the woman forward at
an extremely high speed, straight towards Rui.
"HAHAHA!" She cackled as she flashed through the sky at a tremendous

speed, quickly catching up with the frantically retreating Rui. "YOU'RE
DEAD!"
Chapter 682 Plan
This battle came to remind Rui of one of his other weaknesses. Perhaps it was
more of a shortcoming, but regardless, Rui had come to remember how much
larger scale conflicts and team battles could catch him off-guard.
The last time he had been part of a conflict this big was in the Serevian War,
however, back then he was the most powerful and dangerous person on the
battlefield, thus he never felt this shortcoming nearly as much. However, he
realized that he was too accustomed to analyzing and making combat-centric
decisions in a vacuum with his opponent and himself, and the environment.
He did not have much experience in group battles.
The last time he truly fought together as a group was with his four friends
against the newborn Martial Squire of the Commonwealth Duchy of
Vinfrana. Even then, that was against one opponent.
Rui swore that he would rectify this problem when he got the chance. For
now, however, he had to deal with the consequences of being caught off-
guard due to not having factored in such an elementary solution.
His opponent shot across the sky at an extremely high speed towards him,
laughing maniacally winding her leg back to slam him with a powerful attack
no doubt. Rui scrambled away from the trajectory of her motion, but she
carefully made sure to adjust her trajectory to keep up with Rui via sky-
walking.
Rui felt Primordial Instinct screaming to him about the incoming danger as
she got closer to him until it was too late for him to avoid her.
"RARGH!" She kicked hard, contorting her body to generate as much torque
as she could. She employed power-boosting supplementary techniques not
too dissimilar to Outer Convergence. However, it was exponentially more
powerful than that of Rui when she used it. Hell, Rui was sure that she was
proportionally more powerful than even Fae if their Realms and grades were
hypothetically equalized.
Her leg blurred in his vision as it lashed out against him with tremendous
power. Rui gritted his teeth as he intercepted the attack with his palm,
immediately activating Flux Earther.
BAM!!!
CRACK!
WHOOSH!!!
Her eyes widened at an incredibly strange occurrence. The attack landed, and
she even felt his wrist cracking, yet what surprised her was that the impact
seemed to suddenly send him hurtling an incredible distance away at
incredible speeds as though he had been launched by a catapult. It was a
strange sensation unlike anything she had ever felt and a strange sight, unlike
anything she had ever seen.
"Ugh…" Rui groaned as he finally managed to stop his momentum. "I almost
died…"
He grimaced as he looked down at his swollen wrist. As bad as it looked, the

situation wasn't all that bad. After all, he wasn't fighting with his arms in this
battle.
('Unless, of course, I need to do what I just did again,') He sighed.
In the last second, he used Flux Earther to intercept the strike, however,
instead of completing the full technique from start to finish, he only executed
about half the technique. He elastically converted the power of her attack to
kinetic energy to accelerate his body and send him flying as far away from
her as possible.
Considering that he wasn't able to prevent his wrist from cracking, Rui
considered it a partial success.
('This is still better than any other solution I had,') He sighed as he consumed
his healing potion. He had brought multiple since he knew that it was entirely
possible he would end up needing them given how restrained he was in this
battle.
('Now then…') He turned back to face his opponent. She was still rushing
down towards him, unwilling to give up on taking him down. She barreled
down, passionately cursing him in increasingly creative ways to take him
down. ('How do I handle this?')
He needed an actual solution here. Her tribe mate was already winding as he
wrung his body to generate as much power as he could when he flung her the
next time.
('I can't stop them from cooperating,') Rui braced himself as he prepared
himself to take on yet another K'ulnen human cannon shot. ('They only need
a moment to get their little combo off,')
WHOOSH
In the distance, she braced herself as her tribe mate launched her forward as
he withstood the attacks of his actual opponent with raw durability to ensure
that he could help her against Rui.
('Can't escape, can't defend,') Rui summarized even as she shot towards him.
('I guess the only possible way out of this situation is to retreat from the battle
entirely or…')
His eyes narrowed. ('Win.')
A germ of an idea formed in his head as he came up with a strategy.
Even as she flew towards him, guarding her vitals, she was prepared to not
ensure that he could not possibly escape this time. She took a partial
grappling position as she decided to crush him in a midair grappling contest,
rather than allow him to escape yet again with that strange technique.
Yet her eyes widened as Rui began sprinting towards her at top speed,
closing the distance rapidly.
('Does he have a death wish?') She wondered in confusion as her senses

picked him getting increasingly closer to her increasingly faster.
What kind of a long-range Martial Artist purposely drew closer to a close-

quarters specialist barreling straight towards them with every desire to kill
them? She didn't understand, this made no sense!
Hundred meters.
Fifty meters.
When they were only ten meters away from each other, Rui finally opened
his mouth, launching two Sonic Bullets in rapid succession.
THWOOM THWOOM
He was staking a lot on this plan, his opponent didn't understand what his
intentions were. He should have known that those attacks were almost
entirely ineffective against her thanks to her ridiculously high passive
durability. There was no way that any attack would be able to stop her from
reaching Rui, and she certainly didn't think they were capable of preventing
her from crushing him alive.
Chapter 683 She Comes
In human anatomy, the ulnar nerve was a nerve that ran near the ulna bone;
one of the two bones that the forearm was comprised of. The nerve was one
of the largest nerves in the body that was also unprotected by muscle or bone.
It was covered by the skin and thus was quite prone to injury. When cleanly
struck by an impact, it would send an electric jolt across the body, while also
causing a knee-jerk or, rather, an elbow-jerk reaction in the arm.
Colloquially, most people knew the ulnar nerve as the funny bone at the
elbow joint, a strange not-really-a-bone nerve that caused electric-like
sensations and jerks in the arm.
That was why when Rui's first Sonic Bullet struck his opponent's ulnar nerve.
Her body shuddered as the potent, precise, and accurate strike send electric-
like shudders across her body her arm involuntary displaced itself in a jerk,
consequently leaving her eyes exposed again.
Rui grinned, as a terrible sense of fear arose in his opponent.
He had aimed for this from the very start!
Her pupils dilated as time slowed down in her cognition, it was as though her
brain went into overdrive, realizing how dire the situation was. She struggled
to drag her aching arm back up, trying to protect her eyes.
Yet it was too late.
SPLAT!
The second Sonic Bullet that Rui had launched earlier flew unhampered,
crashing into her left eye, crashing through it, and dove further into her skull
even as her body accelerated forward inertially.
BANG!
She crashed into Rui violently, and the two tumbled out of the sky, free-
falling out of the sky.
THUD!
A crater as wide and deep as a dozen meters formed, with the two Martial
Artists at the center of it.
('One Martial Artist, and one corpse, more like,') He shoved her large body
off him grimacing even as blood pissed out of her eyeball onto his face.
THUD
Her massive body shook the ground even as it fell, having weighed as much
as a grizzly bear.
('Honestly, I'm a little surprised that actually worked,') Though Rui would
never admit that out loud.
The first Sonic Bullet had been reduced in size. He needed precision far more
than he needed raw power to strike her ulna nerve to achieve the desired
effect. Ordinarily, this would have been extremely difficult, but considering
how thin and small the ulna nerve was, it was very difficult to strike it in
exactly the right way to achieve the desired effect, even when it came to one's
own ulna nerve.
('If not for the extra-refined VOID algorithm, it probably would be nearly
impossible to not only locate and aim accurately but also time and angle it
accurately to cause the desired reaction,') Rui sighed.
Of course, he wasn't going to complain. He was happy that he survived.
('It's not like that strategy is something I can consistently employ in my

battles,') He shrugged.
Just how many times would he be in a scenario where he would be facing off
against a primitive group that made gathering intelligence on them easily due
to their lack of technology, allowing him to make remarkably deep
preparations against any possible enemy that could be deployed in him?
Rui was relatively certain that this was the last time that he would ever be in
this kind of situation again.
He grabbed her corpse by the head, lifting it up with him as he sky-walked

into the air.
Despite being a good distance away from many of the other battles, he could
sense that they all were eying him.
He could sense their emerging shock, rage, and hatred.
THUD
He dropped the corpse, after having achieved the result he wanted.
('The battles are stagnating, though we have a winning edge.') Rui noted.
At the moment, there were an equal number of Martial Squires on both sides.
They had mostly sorted themselves out against opponents closest to their own
grade. Resulting in balanced battles.
('The fight's gone on long enough for now, time to move on to the next
stage,') Rui noted as he pulled out his comms device, hitting a few buttons.
Rui immediately rushed back to the battlefield.
Now that the Longranger Martial Artists had plenty of time to demonstrate
the prowess of their techniques, Rui felt that it was time to move on to the
next stage of the battle.
Drawing out the Martial Senior.
Senior Ceeran was probably on extremely high alert and on immediate

standby at the moment. This was the moment that Rui and the others had to
be very careful of. If not, they may very well just end up dying before Senior
Ceeran could arrive.
Rui no longer attempted any spectacular assassinations. The goal of this
battle was not to kill as many K'ulnen Martial Squires as possible. It was a
sales pitch. And Rui had already done enough for his own techniques. The
other Martial Squires needed their own time in the spotlight.
Rui half-heartedly launched a few attacks here and there for a brief amount of
time to apply more pressure on the K'ulnen Martial Squires.
Until, of course, reinforcements came from the Martial Union as planned.
What followed was rather hard to watch.
The Martial Artists of the Martial Union already had an advantage that would
have snowballed in the long term. However, with the arrival of even more
Martial Squires. The odds of the battle tilted completely.
It was overwhelming.
The Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Tribe gritted their teeth, refusing to
retreat. How could they? They were the final line of defense within the Squire
Realm!
…Within the Squire Realm, that was.
Everybody froze.
It was abrupt.
Rui knew that it was coming, and yet, he never saw it coming.
Everybody froze as the atmosphere shifted, both metaphorically and literally.
The air chilled.
It was cold.
Chills crawled up their spine as an unprecedented amount of pressure crashed

onto all of them.
"She comes…" One of them murmured with a maniacally wide smile. "You
have courted death, outsiders!"
Chapter 684 Calamities
It was one thing to predict, on paper, after having analyzed historical data.
And it was entirely another to experience that prediction in the flesh.
For none of them were ready.
None of them were ready for the unhampered and unhindered bloodlust of a
Martial Senior.
Even Rui shuddered as he gritted his teeth. His mental fortitude among them
was probably the greatest, but even he was not mentally prepared for the
avalanche of pressure that washed through them all.
It felt like a bomb had gone off on the island. The fauna in the forest broke
into a frenzy as the creatures, regardless of their status in the food chain, ran
away from that section of the forest as their lives depended on it.
Of course, they did.
"Don't retreat," Rui managed to squeeze out when he noticed the Longranger
Martial Squire instinctively backing away, nearly making for a run. "Have
faith in your senior!"
They barely heeded his words.
Rui was the only one who maintained a fierce expression.
He opened his mouth, aiming to launch a Sonic Bullet at one of the K'ulnen
Martial Squires.
Yet he froze, once more.

His eyes widened as a tiny figure entered his vision in the distance behind the
K'ulnen Squires.
It was merely a dot in the distance.
Yet, it was larger than all.
Not even the Sun drew as much attention to itself.
Not even the Sun shined brighter than the tiny figure emanating bloodlust so
thick that one could nearly cut it with a knife.
Rui blinked, yet when he opened his eyes. His heart nearly jumped out of his
mouth.
"You..."
She stood right before him.
In just a second, she crossed the many kilometers between him and the
K'ulnen Village.
She, matriarch R'An'Alnen of the K'ulnen Tribe, stared at him with bloodshot
wide eyes. The sheer amount of power that was contained within her
feminine figure made Rui feel insignificant.
Staring him in the eyes. "You d-!"
Every hair on Rui's body stood on edge as an unprecedentedly powerful wind

attack slammed into her, just barely missing Rui!
Rui was frozen in midair, unable to move. He felt like he just barely avoided
being hit by a tactical nuke!
Before he could even process what happened, a tremendous explosion shook

the entire island to its core!
Rui turned to the right, his eyes widening in shock.

Where a hill used to be, was a mighty crater!
"What... No, this can't b-" Rui subconsciously murmured.
Another mighty presence washed over the entire area, one less chaotic and
more focused.
And one that was more familiar.
"Rui."
It was soft, yet it reverberated across the sky.
Rui turned his head in the direction it came from.
"Senior Ceeran!"
He heaved a sigh of relief.
"Good job distracting her," A brief smile cracked at the edge of his mouth.
"You've all done great. Now leave. This is beyond you."
At that moment, Senior Ceeran appeared larger than life. Had Rui been an
ordinary man, he may very well have gotten down to one knee and bowed in
devotion to one that many may call a god.
He never even looked at Rui.
No.
His eyes were fixed in the direction of the second Senior-level aura.
Rui didn't even need to turn in that direction to know that she had already
emerged out of the crater of that attack. Every sense in his body, even ones he
didn't know existed, told him that he needed to get out of there immediately!
Whether it was out of consideration for their own Martial Squires, or whether
they were sizing up each other, they did not engage in hostilities
immediately.
It gave the fearful Martial Squires the time that they needed to get as far away
from the battlefield as they could.
None of them had any thought of trying to circle around in order to try and
continue their battle with the other side. At this very moment, both sides
needed to return back to their respective homes.
The Longranger Martial Squires especially needed to be careful, they needed

to protect their settlement from any side effects that may come in their
direction. Even though the two Martial Seniors were situated far away from
the Martial Union settlement, only an idiot would think that that mattered at
all! Especially after witnessing what Rui just had.
In a single second, she crossed a little under half the distance between the
K'ulnen Tribe and the Martial Union Settlement.
Furthermore, Senior Ceeran launched an attack from so far away that Rui
could even sense it despite his incredibly large sensory range.
Furthermore, that attack sent the matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe a dozen
kilometers away, crashing into a sizeable hill, and leaving nothing but a crater
behind. The flying debris alone crashed a small part of the forest!
That was what shocked Rui the most.
Of course, he always knew that Martial Seniors were incomparably more

powerful than Martial Squires. Perhaps to an even greater degree than Martial
Squires were stronger than Martial Apprentices.
Still, it was hard to visualize what that looked like.
Now, he didn't need to.
Now, he knew.
They were forces of nature. Calamities bound to human form. There was no
other way to describe them.
Yet, as shocked as Rui was, he was even more excited.

And as excited as he was, he was even greedier.
He yearned to elevate his Martial Art to that level of power!
When would the day come when he could alter the topography of a small
region all by himself?
('Not anytime soon, that's for sure,')
He knew that he was a truly long way from becoming a Martial Senior. He
did not know what the conditions for breaking through to the Senior Realm
were, and whatever they were, he needed to go through much before he was
qualified to undergo the breakthrough process to the Senior Realm.
RUMBLE!
The land shook, startling Rui.
"They've begun," He murmured. "This battle will decide the fate of many
people."
Chapter 685 Unprecedented
Senior R'An'Alnen rose from the giant crater spanning hundreds of meters in
diameter with a hateful expression on her bruised face.
She glared at him.
Senior Ceeran smiled helplessly as waves of pressure washed over him in

vain.
Her expression crumpled into one of venomous hatred, rage, and plenty of
shock.
The two had completely lost any interest in the Martial Squires that were still
scrambling away. The matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe stayed her hand briefly
to ensure that she did not inadvertently hurt her own Martial Squires. She no
longer cared about Rui who had already put a good distance between himself
and them.
After all, as impressive as Rui was, he was but an infant in her eyes. The
adult that had stepped in to protect him was a far worthier and more
meaningful target of her ire and hatred.
"Rank three outsider Martial Artist, you have returned," She spat those words
with venomous contempt, from many kilometers. Not even Rui would have
heard her despite his remarkable senses, yet Senior Ceeran shrugged mildly
at her words.
"Have work here," He replied in the Vilun dialect.
Four months ago, when Martial Commissioner Derun had requested him to
return to Vilun Island to aid Rui in a mission that he was previously assigned,
he took the liberty to begin learning the language. Of course, his Vilun was
broken and he couldn't understand complex sentences yet and he definitely
couldn't read or write its script. But he had reached a point where he was able
to understand her words and reciprocate basic replies.
"You outsiders… You dare infringe on our domain. You dare to challenge us.
You dare to kill our warriors!" She snarled. "You will pay for your
transgressions!"
The atmosphere grew taut.
The two of them narrowed their eyes as their expressions grew more severe.
A maelstrom of pressure radiated from their powerful frames wrung the air
between them. It was as though their very presence weighed down on the
world.
Chaos began to consume the island.
Humans, animals, and even the flora.
Nothing was the same.
The Martial tribes sensed the brewing pressure that was churning the
atmosphere.
Children cried as their mothers comforted them while fathers guarded them.
The many animals and beasts of the island ran amuck as their instincts
warned them of the terrifying conflict that was to come.
Only the Martial Squires across the island retained their composure, and only
the Martial Seniors were unfazed.
"Enough…" Senior matriarch R'An'Alnen spoke softly. "It is time for you to
die."
The air grew tumultuous as their expressions grew more severe.
What followed beggared the minds of those who witnessed it.

Their eyes began glowing.
Thin glowing red lines began trickling across their entire body.
An increasingly devastating sense of power and peril radiated from their

bodies. Their muscles brimmed with power as their skin grew taut with
restraint.
It was as though they were volcanoes, on the cusp of erupting in a mighty

explosion of power.
For a moment, it seemed as though nothing happened.
Yet in the very next, all hell broke loose.
"RARGH!" She snarled with an inhumanly intense expression.
The atmosphere behind her ignited into a small inferno!
The sheer force with which she launched herself forward generated a sonic
boom the size of a small town as the pressure was enough to ignite the
flammable constituents of the air!
The sheer friction generated by the velocity of her launch ignited all her
clothes on fire.
Yet she flashed forward at a blindingly high speed unperturbed.
Her eyes were fixed on Senior Ceeran, and nothing could stop her.
Senior Ceeran inhaled deeply, and powerfully, causing a vacuum so large that
animals in the surrounding area had trouble breathing for several seconds! He
extended one arm in front of him, spreading his fingers far apart.
His other arm went behind him with his palm facing forward.
When he exhaled, he did not exhale an ordinary transparent gaseous breath

like normal humans did all the time.
No.
What he exhaled was opaque, heavy, and powerful.
His lungs had compressed a gigantic volume of air into a temporarily solid
state with sheer pressure!
His highly dense breath dispersed at a speed far surpassing that of sound. Yet
his finger began moving rapidly as though he were manipulating a puppet, he
began inhaling and exhaling in patterns. The combination of movements
created wind currents and areas of higher and lower-pressure air.
The result?
A culmination of highly dense and powerful wind gusts formed as the many
winds and currents superimposed over each other, congregating into a single
attack.
The attack was so dense that not even light could pass through. It flashed
across the sky, heading straight toward his ignited opponent.
Matriarch R'An'Alnen's glare grew more severe, yet unfazed. She kicked
downward, and a burst of flames lashed downward as the recoil of the sheer
force and energy allowed her to avoid Senior Ceeran's attack at the last
second thanks to an extremely high acceleration that the gesture had
generated by recoil.
She burst forward, leaving the attack behind her. Yet her sense of danger
spiked when she saw a grin erupting on her opponent's red line-ladened face.
Her eyes widened as she sensed his earlier attack changing trajectories!
It turned a whole one-hundred and eighty degrees as it quickly caught up with

her
"Tsk," She tutted as she kicked the air again, releasing a blast of flames as
she somersaulted out of the returning attack that sought to strike her in the
back.
The attack rushed towards Senior Ceeran, seemingly about to strike him, yet
he was unperturbed. He brought a balled fist before him, suddenly opening
his hand and spreading his fingers as he inhaled and exhaled in a pattern.
Matriarch R'An'Alnen's eyes widened as the attack split up into dozens of

smaller attacks that each turned curved around before flying in her direction.
Some chased after her directly while others pirouetted to intercept her from
other directions from various angles!
Chapter 686 Spectation
"What is happening?" Rui murmured subconsciously with a bewildered

expression. His sharp senses strained themselves to the limit as he did his
best to get a good view of what was happening.
So many of the things that he had witnessed from the very start of the battle
had flummoxed him, he wouldn't even know where to begin had someone
asked him what was wrong.
Normally, he shouldn't have been able to even perceive what was happening.
Martial Seniors were exponentially faster than Martial Squires, or at least, the
two Martial Seniors who were currently fighting most definitely were.
The Matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe was moving so fast that both her clothes
and the air caught on fire due to the friction caused by drag. However, Rui
knew that only rockets moving at dozens of times the speed of sound
generated such a degree of friction due to their speed!
It was a level of speed that he could only dream of achieving. Not even Kane
with the Squire-level version of the Godspeed technique could hold a candle
to it, Rui suspected.
The reason he, and other Martial Squires, were able to perceive the battle at
all was because of the size of the attacks and techniques that each Martial
Senior was using, and also due to the distance away from which they were
spectating the battle.
The further away an observer, and the larger the size of the event one was
perceiving, the easier it was to perceive extremely rapid events.
This was due to the fact that at great distances away, the field of vision
covered a massive area, which meant that despite the fact that the Martial
Seniors were engaging in attacks and maneuvers that crossed massive
distances in seconds, they still did not exceed the boundary of the field of
vision of the spectating Martial Squires, allowing them to barely keep up with
the battle, even if incompletely.
It was the same reason that ordinary humans could perceive a rocket take-off
despite the fact that they moved at Mach twenty-three, or the same reason
that humans had no trouble perceiving the moon despite the fact that the
moon was moving at supersonic speeds.
Size and distance mattered. Many of the techniques that the Martial Seniors
were using definitely had the latter.
He was shocked when Senior Ceeran breathed what looked to be a dark-

colored opaque gas, but once he realized that it was an enormous volume of
gas that was highly condensed, his mind was boggled.
He gritted his teeth as he pushed back against the force of the air currents that
the mere presence of the temporarily-solidified dense gas had created. Wind
currents naturally emerged flowing from high-pressure areas of air to low-
pressure areas. The side-effect wind currents that were created from Senior
Ceeran's opaque breath were so powerful that Rui had to exert himself to a
little degree to prevent himself from being blown away despite the gigantic
distance he was from them.
When Senior Ceeran harnessed those wind currents and directed them at his
opponent along with his breath, the scale and power of the attack were greater
than Rui had ever seen before in his entire life. That attack alone would easily
destroy both the Martial Union settlement and the K'ulnen village many times
over.
That was why Rui had grown even more shocked when, in the face of such a
shockingly fast and powerful attack, the matriarch of the K'ulnen village
casually ignited and blasted away a huge volume of the atmosphere,
generating an immense amount of accelerating via Newton's third law of
motion, evading the attack at the last moment.
She was literally a rocket in human form!
Senior Ceeran was like a tactical homing nuke launcher in human form!
"I see... so Martial Seniors are no different from superweapons disguised in

human flesh!" Rui laughed weakly. "I wonder if that has something to do
with the glowing thin red tattoos that they both have on their bodies.
Rui would have to be as blind as a bat if he missed that incredibly peculiar

feature that the bodies of both Martial Seniors had come to bear. He hadn't
even the faintest idea what they were, and how they were related to the
Senior Realm, if at all. But he noted that both Martial Seniors had grown
much more powerful since they appeared on their body. They resembled
volcanoes in Rui's eyes.
('They're not much weaker than volcanoes, if at all!')
Rui watched the ensuing battle like a hawk as the two mighty Martial Artists
clashed against each other violently. The battle between them had stabilized
into a pattern, reaching an equilibrium.
The Matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe, despite her magical techniques, was
clearly a Martial Artist whose Martial Path was centered around speed and
agility, as opposed to power and toughness.
She had yet to land a strike on Senior Ceeran, who expertly foiled all of her
attempts to get close to him so she could pummel him into bits.
('The fact that she's content evading all of Senior Ceeran's attacks instead of
clashing against them with her own indicates that she most likely is not a
power-oriented striker,') Rui analyzed the battle as he calmed his beating
heart.
The battle began morphing into the most common model and template for
battles between long-range and close-quarters Martial Artists. Though, there
were clear differences. Rui recalled that Senior Ceeran's Martial Path was
post-launch trajectory manipulation, allowing him to alter the trajectories of
his attacks even after they had long been launched. Rui got to witness exactly
what this looked like. In the distance, dozens of infernos rapidly extended
across the sky for a dozen kilometers in every direction, all before Rui could
even react to a single one of them.
The matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe danced across the clouds as she was
pursued by dozens of homing projectiles. While Senior Ceeran continued
launching an increasing number of attacks at a pace that was invisibly fast
even to Rui's eyes.
The battle only continued to get more serious.

Chapter 687 Unfair
WHOOSH!
Matriarch R'An'Alnen narrowly evaded a wave of homing breath projectiles

leaving behind an inferno. Her clothes had long burned off, revealing her
naked feminine red line-ladened body. Yet it did not inspire lust, merely fear
as one could nearly see power itself condensing within her body, the same
power that allowed her to leave infernos in her step that could burn down an
entire village!
WHOOSH
Matriarch R'An'Alnen dodged yet another attack, yet her eyes widened as she
surveyed the area to a shocking discovery.
She was trapped!
No matter where she looked, she was beset by attacks that weaved a closing
net together, preventing her from escaping in any direction.
The smirk on Senior Ceeran's face angered her as she realized that he had
been carefully planning for this. He had launched the right number of attacks
in the right manner, manipulating their trajectories such that he could
eventually cut off all paths of escape!
She gritted her teeth, whipping her leg in a rotating kick as she created a
small inferno around her, attempting to intercept the attack.
BOOM!!!
A tremendous explosion of wind and fire emerged with her at the epicenter.
The explosion was so large, that it rapidly expanded to the ground, despite
the fact that it originated in the sky!
The ball of wind and fire could not only be seen across the entire island but
could also be seen nearly a hundred kilometers away at sea!
"Cough... Cough..." The Matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe coughed. Every inch
of her skin was bruised, and she was bleeding from multiple areas. Her body
possessed a mild healing factor, however, it would not do much in the short
term.
And the short term was her biggest obstacle to overcome.
She immediately tried lashing out from that area, refusing to fall victim to the
same trap again.
Yet, she discovered, it was too late.
Senior Ceeran had already prepared yet another powerful wave of attacks
even as she had been bombarded by the previous set of attacks.
"It's over," Senior Ceeran smirked as a giant wave of wind enveloped her
location preventing her from escaping.
BOOM!
A humungous blast of wind arose. The attack would have undoubtedly

ravaged her already battered body. After all, she was not a defensive Martial
Artist at all. Her lean and petite body was extremely able to maneuver around
the atmosphere aerodynamically, yet it was not conducive to withstanding
barrages of potent projectiles blasting her across her entire body.
Yet something was off.
Senior Ceeran froze, pausing his next attack as his eyebrows furrowed.
"Tsk," He tutted in irritation as he saw a second figure standing beside the

battered matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe. "Two on one... this not fair."
"Everything is fair in love and war." The patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe
replied to Senior Ceeran's broken Vilun, turning toward his mate.
Senior Ceeran inspected the newcomer. He had a gargantuan body, unlike his
partner. It was rather clear that his Martial Path was most certainly not
centered around speed and agility.
"YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET EVER COMING TO THIS ISLAND!" The

wounded matriarch roared as her aura soared.
Yet the two of them froze suddenly froze as their senses were rocked by an
incredibly potent burst of pressure.
Senior Ceeran's smile was gone. His expression grew graver and increasingly
severe as the glowing red lines that wound about his body began glowing
even brighter as his. His eyes become increasingly bloodshot, growing redder
by the second.
"You're right, nothing is fair. Just like this battle," He told them. "You two
are no match for me."
He exhaled deeply, launching breath projectiles that were more than twice as
large as before!
The eyes of the K'ulnen Martial Seniors widened as they realized that despite
their numeric advantage, they needed to go all-out with the risk of death if
they wanted to win!
The glowing lines cracking across the skin of the patriarch instantly emerged
as his expression grew severe. He had emerged, thinking that the battle was
as good as done, with his partner and him double-teaming Senior Ceeran.
He rushed forward, accumulating momentum as he prepared an attack. Senior

Ceeran narrowed his eyes at the sight. He knew that he couldn't deal with the
man the same way he dealt with the matriarch.
He moved his fingers as he launched a powerful breath attack at the man. He

didn't even bother broadening it to prevent him from trying to dodge it, he
knew the man wouldn't dodge it.
He was right.
The patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe confidently rushed forward at the attack,
shaking the atmosphere with each step as he threw a powerful kick.
BOOM!!!
A gigantic wind explosion expanded outwards as the patriarch of the K'ulnen

Tribe was flung away.
A shocked expression emerged on his face when he realized that Senior

Ceeran possessed the power to push him back!
The patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe was a power-oriented striking Martial

Artist, his Martial Path was core-driven striking. he had developed the core of
his body to an extreme degree and empowered each strike and even every
movement with it in a manner similar to Outer Convergence.
Yet Senior Ceeran had not only neutralized his attack but also the moment
that the patriarch had gathered.
All while simultaneously fighting his partner with volleys of attacks in the
exact opposite direction.
('How is he so strong?') The man tried to conceal his shock as he rushed in

for another attack. He could not let up his offense for even a second,
otherwise, his already injured partner might die!
The patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe was more than a hundred years old, and
yet he had never come across a Martial Artist this strong. None of the other
Martial Seniors on the island could possibly fight both the matriarch and
patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe simultaneously, and not only not get
suppressed, but also push back and even gain an upper hand in battle!
Rui's emotions fluctuated immensely throughout the entire battle. When

Senior Ceeran and the matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe began showing their
true strength at the start fight, he had been shocked by the true capabilities of
both Martial Artists. Not only was their raw prowess incredible, but their
techniques were very interesting as well.
The matriarch employed the same principles that rockets did to achieve
extreme acceleration. Except unlike rockets, she could apply that speed in all
avenues in combat while rockets accelerated in linear motion exclusively.
This allowed her to dart across the battlefield at blinding speeds. Frankly, if
not for the giant infernos she left behind with every step, Rui would have had
absolutely no chance of tracing her movements and trajectories.
However, while her technique was a novel and extreme application of

Newton's third law of motion, it was elementary at heart. Senior Ceeran's
techniques thus far held far more of his interest than hers. Senior Ceeran
employed the tendency of the gaseous particles to move from high-pressure
areas to low-pressure areas.
('It's an advanced application of the Pauli Exclusion Principle,') Rui noted.
The Pauli Exclusion was a principle of quantum electrodynamics that stated

no two electrons of an atom or molecule could have the same quantum
numbers and states. In a general context, the principle stated that two
particles could not have the same positions and velocities, and the closer one
of the two parameters was, the greater the difference in the other parameter.
This principle of quantum mechanics was the reason that densely packed
particles experienced a strong repulsion from each other. It was the reason
that the atmosphere functioned the way it did, and it was the driving force
behind Senior Ceeran's techniques.
('He densely packs particles together in his lungs, and when he exhales them,
he uses breathing techniques to manipulate his high-pressure breath which
alters the directions of the wind currents that they produce from his high-
pressure breath to low-pressure areas.') Rui analyzed. ('Means he doesn't
directly control the wind currents themselves, he controls their starting point;
his high-pressure breath, and the ending point; the low-pressure areas and
vacuums. This allows him to manipulate the trajectories of the attack even
after he has launched them!')
Rui couldn't help but marvel at the ingenuity of the technique. It was quite
remarkable and gave a genuinely high amount of flexibility and efficiency
with his attacks. Unlike Rui's, his attacks were not dealt with when
successfully evaded once. He could keep reusing them even after they filled
to hit their target. Of course, their potency greatly decreased with time until
they fizzled out, but it made his offense extremely efficient compared to more
generic Martial Paths and Martial Art.
('It's definitely one of the reasons that he's able to keep up with two clearly
experienced and veteran Martial Seniors of the K'ulnen Tribe
simultaneously,') Rui noted.
Because he was able to save a lot of power due to this technique against the
matriarch who was forced to waste energy evading the same reused attacks
over and over, Senior Ceeran still had enough power left to also overwhelm
the patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe simultaneously.
This was a feat that was extremely impressive to Rui. The patriarch of the
K'ulnen Tribe was a mountain in human form. The man made the Martial
Squire that Rui fought look like a little girl, in comparison.
His abdominal and back muscles, the muscle sets that comprised his core,
were especially quite formidable. Each of his charges was as heavy as
meteorite impacts, and yet Senior Ceeran managed to push him back.
The battle's dynamics had changed once the third Marital Senior had joined
the battle, yet they once more fell into a pattern and a paradigm.
Senior Ceeran was much more concerned with the patriarch of the K'ulnen
Tribe than he was with the matriarch. There were several reasons for this.
Firstly, the matriarch was already wounded. And while she did possess a
resilient body by virtue of being a Martial Senior, her affinities did not lie
towards endurance, thus it was inevitable that her combat prowess had taken
a solid hit. Even when she was healthy, Senior Ceeran was capable of taking
her down swiftly even when holding back, but in her current state, it was safe
to say that the patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe forcing Senior Ceeran to
dedicate a significant chunk of his power to handle his offense was the only
reason that she was able to fight against Senior Ceeran without dying.
Senior Ceeran had to divide his attention between both his opponents, and
Rui could sense that balancing them was not easy.
Handling the matriarch was more complicated since he needed to make sure
that he never left a chink in his waves of attacks that could allow her to hurt
him. But she was less of a threat due to her injuries, and hence he could
afford to use less energy in her direction.
The patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe was extremely simple in comparison. His
attack consisted of charging at Senior Ceeran as hard as he could hoping to
land a powerful strike on the man. Although he had much greater raw power
than his partner, Senior Ceeran didn't need to think m
He only needed to ensure that he was using a marginally greater amount of

power than his opponent to ensure that there was no way that he could
possibly get through.
The one that was more dangerous and powerful, at the moment, requires
more raw power but less thought to handle. The one that was less dangerous
to her injuries required more thought and less raw power to handle.
Senior Ceeran needed to balance both in order to ensure that he was not
overwhelmed by either one of them.
('However, I don't know if he can win this way...') Rui frowned.
At the end of the day, Rui was not sure whether he possessed greater stamina
than the two Martial Seniors combined. While he was able to stalemate the
battle for now, it was quite questionable whether he would be able to do the
same for an extended period of time.
Chapter 689 Course
"Tsk," Seniro Ceeran tutted in irritation as he once again failed in taking

down the matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe. He, unfortunately, had too little
work with the remaining power that he could afford to spare after
overwhelming the K'ulnen patriarch's attacks.
('This can't go on forever,') He sighed.
He needed to find a way to ensure that this stalemate did not go on for too
long, otherwise, he would lose the power needed to change the battle from a
stalemate to a checkmate. He needed a change in plans.
('I can't take either of them down individually,') He established, he had

already tried doing pretty much that for half an hour, and it was clear that he
was not quite at the level where he could accomplish that just yet
unfortunately. Even if he had better techniques and a better Martial body, the
two Martial Seniors were clearly extremely experienced and elderly within
the Senior Realm. They were remarkably strong and together stood at the
upper echelons of all the Martial Seniors on Vilun island.
Senior Ceeran was much stronger than either individually, he was sure, but
together they were capable of not only withstanding his full power but
refusing him to give much of an advantage, if any.
Of course, technically, still possessed an advantage. He was the only

unharmed Martial Senior in this battle. The matriarch had been hurt
significantly, and the patriarch had also incurred a certain degree of damage;
with many bruises and wounds across his entire body. The problem was that
it was not enough in the long run, most likely.
Senior Ceeran was consuming his stamina at a pace far higher than he was,
both physical and mental. He had to chase after and barricade the matriarch
with sophisticated and complex manipulations of the trajectories of his
attacks, spending at least as much energy as her, and even more energy than
her partner each time Senior Ceeran slapped his attack and him back. He
definitely was consuming more mental energy than them having to divide his
attention across both targets when both of them needed only focus on him.
Even if his physical reserves could somehow keep up, he would most
certainly end up feeling mentally exhausted before them and would likely
make a mistake that would allow one of them to close the distance and get a
good hit on him.
('That's an unacceptable outcome,') He resolutely decided. He refused to

allow that to happen, and that naturally included going down the path that
would allow that to happen. He needed to find a new course of action to
allow him to win the battle and avoid a slow defeat.
('I need to focus my attention on just one of them for long enough to
overwhelm them without incurring too much damage from the other,') He
decided.
The question was which one he ought to focus on, and how he ought to go
about it.
('Of the two of them, I can take down the matriarch the fastest,') Senior
Ceeran noted. ('But conversely, turning my back to the patriarch will be quite
painful when he slams me with his powerful physique,') Senior Ceeran
hesitated. He was not a particularly tough Martial Artist, he would not be able
to survive many attacks from a striking-oriented Martial Artist of that caliber.
This was especially the case if those attacks struck his vitals. He would easily
get knocked out from a single strike most likely.
('I need to ensure that there is enough of a distance between us if and when I
choose to go for the matriarch,') Senior Ceeran thought to himself.
Had Rui been in his position he would have come up with a more
sophisticated plan with many layers and steps while also using predictive
models that he would have undoubtedly created by now, while also relying
on the outputs of the VOID algorithm to deal with them.
Senior Ceeran was certainly not as intelligent as shrewd as Rui, but he was
far more experienced.
He exhaled the largest breath of solidified breath he could, getting ready to

immediately manipulate both it and, in turn, the wind currents that it would
create. Normally, he would divide them into two batches for both the Martial
Seniors. Yet this time, turned all off toward the patriarch, shocking both his
opponents.
WHOOM!!!
A titanically powerful wind current slammed into his opponent, completely

crushing his momentum and sending him flying dozens of kilometers away.
The matriarch's expression grew grave as she dove towards Senior Ceeran at
top speed even as her partner was being blown away, looking to exploit this
rare opportunity to close the distance between her and her opponent.
Several infernos blasted off behind her as she propelled herself forward with
the recoil force, reaching her top speed nigh-instantaneously. She shot across
the sky at an unprecedented speed, flying straight toward Senior Ceeran.
"RARGH!" She snarled with excitement as she finally reached within striking
range of him, launching a powerful flaming straight at him!
The temperature of the flame spiked as she poured in every ounce of her
power, turning blue instead of orange as it reached another level of potency
and power.
BOOM!!!
An explosion of flames and wind blasted outwards with Senior Ceeran at the
epicenter of the attack.
"URGH!" She grimaced as she was pushed back, incurring even more
damage. Yet a savage grin emerged on her face until she realized something
was wrong.
WHOOM!
Suddenly, thousands of projectiles seized an opportunity, emerging from the

smoke as they weaved a net around her. Her eyes widened as Senior Ceeran
emerged from the smoke with first-degree burns all over his body.
"Watch out, R'An'Alnen!" The patriarch's voice frantic voice echoed from
afar as he rushed in to try and intercept the attacks like he originally did.
"Too late," Senior Ceeran softly murmured even as the wind current net that
he had created collapsed on her, crushing her at the epicenter.
BOOM!!!
"NO!" The patriarch's bellow echoed across the entirety of the island and
beyond.
Chapter 690 Perspective
The battle unfolded in a manner that shocked all of the spectators, especially
the Martial Seniors of the island who were most certainly paying rapt
attention to the conflict between two of the most powerful Martial Seniors on
the island and the single outsider Martial Senior who had come to the island
as a diplomat last time.
They had been quite surprised when they saw him intervening to protect his
Martial Squires from the matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe. After all, none of
them knew that he was even present on the island. Still, they cared much less
about why he was here than they did about his battle with the leaders of the
K'ulnen Tribe and his Martial prowess.
And, without a doubt, every last one of them was shocked at his techniques.
Yet, none of them were more shocked than the Martial Seniors of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"HOW IS HE DOING THAT?!" Senior K'ahru's jaw dropped as he

momentarily lost all of his dignity and bearing as a Martial Senior as he
witnessed Senior Ceeran elegantly manipulating his attacks like a magician.
"To think that the outsiders possess techniques that allow you to manipulate
your attacks to such an extreme degree!" Senior K'Mala was unable to
maintain her composure either. "Truly enlightening! It's a good thing we did
not rashly attack them with just the two of us, isn't it little brother?"
She said with a measured tone as she threw a bit of a smug expression at
Senior K'ahru. "If that man can fight the leaders of the K'ulnen Tribe and
even injure them while remaining in pristine shape himself, the two of us
would definitely have died a quick yet glorious death had we tried attacking
their village."
Senior K'ahru gritted his teeth at her words. He was indeed the one who held
the opinion that they ought to attack, dominate and extract the powerful long-
range techniques of the outsiders because they clearly seemed to not possess
a rank three Martial Artist like themselves, only rank two Martial Artists like
the dark-haired diplomat who came to the tribe earlier.
Now he realized that had they tried to implement his suggestion, both he and
his elder sister would have undoubtedly died. The two of them had fought the
vaunted matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe together years ago and had almost
died. They certainly would have died if not for their tribe leader intervening
to protect them from the powerful woman at the last second. They had spent
many weeks healing before they finally recovered from the burns that the
matriarch had inflicted on them.
They both knew that she was a fierce and powerful warrior that had
dominated them from the very start. She was worthy of her position as the
leader of the K'ulnen Tribe.
So what were they supposed to make of the Martial Artist who bullied her
with a fraction of his full power?
Just how exponentially more powerful was this Martial Artist relative to
them?
They would die on the spot, and not even their chieftain would be able to
save them in time, most likely. Maybe if the three of them took him on at
once, they might be able to make it a fair fight, still, after witnessing his
ridiculous Martial prowess, the three of them did not want to provoke a battle
against him unless there was a real need to. Besides, unlike their hatred born
of their many enemies and rivals on the island, they had no ill will toward the
outsiders.
At the same time, they felt a great deal of quivering excitement at the
prospect of fighting such a powerful being as dangerous as it was, they were
warriors, after all. Not even the chieftain was able to quash such a temptation
entirely.
Part of this was definitely also because of the fact that he was a long-range
Martial Artist like themselves. This roused their interest and curiosity
tremendously.
In the duration of their audience of the fight, they had already forgotten about
the outsider's offense when he tried engaging in negotiations with them. He
had already apologized, which had become much heavier after witnessing
just how much power the man wielded.
He had the capital to look down on their techniques to a certain degree, they
painfully realized, yet he apologized to them nonetheless all to prevent
hostilities from breaking out and facilitate cooperation between both groups,
all to obtain their techniques. Was this not a sign of respect?
The three of them found their reluctance in engaging in trade with the
outsiders melting away. The events that had occurred over the past few
months had shown them all of the merits of choosing to cooperate with the
outsiders.
They had demonstrated the value of their techniques in both explicit and
implicit manners, holistically in many avenues that were highly relevant to
the G'ak'arkan Tribe. After watching the settlement flourish in every way
possible, in many ways, thanks to their long-range prowess, not even K'ahru,
in good faith, could deny the merits of cooperating with the outsiders.
In fact, Senior K'ahru was one of the most eager to master many of the
techniques that were highly relevant to the Martial Art techniques that were
highly relevant to his Martial Path. The prospect of making jumps into power
overcome any xenophobia he had. Martial Artists hungered for Martial
power, after all.
"Hm?" The chieftain N'Kulu had been the first to notice something strange in
the battle between the outsider and the K'ulnen leaders. Their eyes widened
as they saw Senior Ceeran launch a powerful surprise attack at the patriarch,
breaking his existing pattern of alternating between them. The attack had
been so powerful that it crumpled all of the momenta that the patriarch of the
K'ulnen Tribe had gathered, it flung him so far away that he ended up outside
of the island!
The three Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe had realized that the battle
had reached a new stage as the Senior Ceeran targeted the matriarch of the
K'ulnen Tribe momentarily unhampered.
Chapter 691 Outcome
The patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe cursed his massive frame for the very first
time in his life as he dashed across the sky as fast as he could, wishing he was
faster. He pushed himself to the limit reaching where he had been before
Senior Ceeran had expelled him.
BOOM!!!
"NOOO!" The patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe dove into the fray desperately
hoping to save his partner in time.
The devastating attack resulted in a wind blast that reached the ground from
the clouds. Senior Ceeran narrowed his eyes as he prepared another set of
attacks to launch at his enemies. He wasn't sure if he succeeded, after all, the
patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe may very well have protected his partner from
Senior Ceeran's devastating attack.
"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" The patriarch bellowed as the attack subsided.
His voice was inflicted with grief and rage.
His body was wounded.
Yet he didn't care about that. His eyes were fixed on the heavily battered
corpse in his arms. The attack had broken the matriarch's entire body, she had
already been injured previously, and now he had bombarded her with his
absolute most powerful attack. She had succumbed to critical injuries,
passing away.
Even if she hadn't she would have been in a highly critical state, unable to
fight at all. The battle would have likely ended then and there as the patriarch
would have most certainly retreated.
"She's dead," Senior Ceeran smirked smugly. "And you're next."
The atmosphere grew taut, both literally and metaphorically.
If not for the fact that he was holding his wife's corpse, the patriarch would
have rushed Senior Ceeran immediately. However, they were many
kilometers above land and even farther away from the village. He did not
want to just drop his partner's body down to the ground.
"I'll kill you when I'm done paying respects to my partner." The patriarch
swore, struggling to choke out the words. "Be prepared. I will kill you if it's
the last thing I do!"
His eyes were completely red, accentuating his intense glare. Yet he retreated
slowly, never taking his eyes off the murderer of his partner.
"Where are you going?" Senior Ceeran asked with a puzzled expression.
"TO BURY MY WIFE!"
"And who said you could do that?" Senior Ceeran mercilessly asked with a
mocking expression as he exhaled dense breath once more, weaving a
barrage of powerful attacks.
The patriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe was dumbfounded. "How dare you
desecrate the right to bury the dead?!"
The Martial Tribes regarded the warriors that fell in death with respect and
honor. Martial Tribes allowed each other to collect the corpses of their
warriors and return them home to give them honorable burials.
"This battle isn't over," Senior Ceeran declared.
WHOOSH!
Powerful wind currents slammed into the patriarch, pushing him back.
He gritted his teeth, forced to drop the corpse of his partner as he guarded his
vitals.
"HOW DARE YOU?!" The patriarch's skin cracked as glowing red lines
trickled across his entire body like rivers. The patriarch's aura grew more
intense and perilous as his expression crumpled with rage and hatred.
He rushed forward, charging at top speed.
"You're no match for me alone just like your pathetic little wife," Senior
Ceeran laughed brazenly, angering the patriarch.
"RARGH!" The man felt like his very sanity was being consumed by his
rage. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
Senior Ceeran's expression grew serious as he exhaled a large volume of

dense breath. He took a greater amount of time as he shaped and shifted
around such that the resulting wind currents were extremely narrow and
small. Their power was highly focused.
An entire second passed as Senior Ceeran continuously compressed and

focused the power even further.
It may not have been much time to ordinary humans, but to a Martial Senior,
it was enough time to cross the dozen kilometers that separated them.
The patriarch grew increasingly excited as he reached within ten meters of

Senior Ceeran! Just ten more meters and he would be able to pound that
wretched man who murdered his partner!
That was when Senior Ceeran opened his eyes.
The lines on his body glowed as his expression strained. A deep sense of peril
radiated from him.
SWHOOSH
A tremendously powerful beam of wind flew towards the patriarch at a

tremendous speed.
"HAH!" The man braced himself for an impact. He was extremely

determined to withstand the attack and take the final step to get his hands on
his opponent.
BAM!!!
The attack slammed into him as the largest blast of wind thus far rose,
spreading far past the battlefield. An entire portion of the forest spanning a
kilometer in radius was crushed, leaving a crater behind.
"Cough!" Blood spewed out of the patriarch's mouth.
Yet his eyes were fixed on his abdomen, where once there were flesh,
muscles, and bone was now a gaping hole. He weakly glanced up at Senior
Ceeran, who waved him goodbye with a pleasant smile, before darkness
assailed his vision and his mind.
THUD!
His corpse struck the ground heavily.
"Huff..." Senior Ceeran sighed as he pulled out a healing potion, and quickly
consumed it. He exhaled in relief as the potion wound through his blood,
working its magic on his wounds as his tissue regenerated and healed the
burns that the matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe had inflicted on him.
"Well, that's that," He heaved a sigh, inspecting the battlefield.
His senses pricked as he sensed incoming figures in the distance.
"Congratulations on your victory, Senior Ceeran!" The Longranger Squires

were ecstatic at the magnificent display of long-range prowess that Senior
Ceeran had demonstrated.
"Why thank you," he smiled. "Will one of you fetch the corpses of the two
Martial Seniors of the K'ulnen Tribe? The Martial Union will definitely want
to have access to it for research purposes, that is for sure."
He glanced at another figure approaching the group, smiling when he saw

who it was. "Rui,"
"Senior Ceeran," Rui smiled. "That was an amazing fight."
"Haha, thanks. It's been a while since I had a fight that pushed me to the
limit. Watching all you younglings get all the action had me impatient for my
turn," He paused, before asking. "Do you think this will be enough to
convince the G'ak'arkan Tribe?"
"I cannot guarantee it, but I would be surprised if they were still resolutely
averse to obtaining our techniques," Rui replied thoughtfully. "With
everything they have witnessed, there should be plenty of reason for them to
be leaping at the opportunity of obtaining our techniques."
Senior Ceeran nodded, no longer pursuing the matter. He had done his part
and he trusted Rui to do his. So far, Rui had not yet given him any reason to
doubt him. The young man had proven his competence many times in the
time that he had known him. In fact, Senior Ceeran doubted that anybody had
figured out that Rui was not a high-grade Martial Squire. This was despite the
fact that Rui had fought multiple times in battle, yet no one had realized that
he was actually much weaker than he claimed to be.
This was because Rui's Martial Path and Martial Art were so potent and
powerful that they gave enough credence to the mind mask that Rui was
wearing, that nobody questioned Rui's prowess at this point in time.
"Why the long face?" Senior Ceeran raised an eyebrow as he noticed Rui's
solemn expression sticking out of the excited and ecstatic Martial Squires.
"Hm? Ah, it wasn't much. I was just thinking about the K'ulnen Tribe," Rui
replied. "We've killed their leaders as well as many of their warriors,
including Martial Squires. Without their leaders and in their dysfunctional
state on top of their existing irrationality, I fear they may react aversely to
this. Worst-case scenario, they may just decide to go all out in a suicide
attack against us."
"Hm, that isn't much of a problem right?," Senior Ceeran shrugged. "After
all, they're only left with Martial Squires and Martial Apprentices. They have
zero chance of taking us down."
"That is true…" Rui smiled wryly. The issue was that it was unlikely that
Senior Ceeran would fight Squire-level battles for them. This meant that if
the Martial Squires and Martial Apprentices did decide to launch an all-out
war, it would most likely be the Martial Squires and Martial Apprentices of
the settlement doing all the hard work.
Of course, Senior Ceeran would definitely intervene if things were starting to

get too ugly, still, Rui would rather they didn't have to deal with the K'ulnen
Tribe at all. They had just finished accomplishing their goal, and now Rui
was finally ready to move back into negotiations with the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Their schedule would be significantly delayed yet again if the K'ulnen Tribe
if the latter lost their minds and decided to try and annihilate the Martial
Union settlement.
('I should send Kane to wiretap the entire place,') Rui's lit up as he came up
with a good plan. The reason they had to be careful with trying to send Kane
into any Martial Tribe to try and gather information directly or indirectly was
that Martial Seniors were too much for Kane to misdirect the attention of
with Void Step, meaning that he wouldn't make it out alive.
Now that both the Martial Seniors of the K'ulnen Tribe were dead, Kane
ought to have no problem infiltrating the K'ulnen Tribe and gathering
information while bugging the place to hell and back.
Still, Rui wasn't too concerned by the K'ulnen Tribe. After all, the Martial
Union's settlement was not the only enemy that they had. They were still
engaging in active war against a few other Martial Tribes. Unlike the Martial
Union, these Martial Tribes had an active interest in getting rid of the K'ulnen
Tribe. Rui was sure that at this very moment, these other Martial Tribes were
preparing an all-out war with the K'ulnen Tribe to completely crush and take
everything that they wanted from the tribe.
Though Rui highly doubted that the Martial Tribes would massacre the non-
combatants for no reason, he was pretty sure that all the Martial Squires and
Martial Apprentices were as good as dead. They would be eliminated by the
other tribes to ensure that none of them would ever reach the third rank; the
Senior Realm to ensure that the K'ulnen Tribe would never return to power
ever again.
Regardless, Rui didn't care about what happened to them as long as the
Martial Union did not get dragged into the mess. He only wanted to ensure
that their plan succeeded.
"Hm?" Rui paid more attention to the corpses of the two Martial Seniors that
the Martial Squire found and dragged up.
The patriarch's body was still in a good condition aside from the gaping hole
in his gut, but the matriarch's body was quite unsightly. Senior Ceeran had
bludgeoned her extremely well, and the post-mortem time had not done
anything good for it.
Still, there were insights to be drawn from their bodies. And Rui had already
gained one when he inspected the bodies deeply.
('Their veins… are bloated and inflamed…') Rui realized when his eyes
widened with a particular thought. ('Could it be that those sharp red lines
were in fact all part of the circulatory system?')
It was a shocking thought, but now that he tried recalling the exact position of
those lines, which wasn't easy due to the distance between him and them and
the fact that they moved blindingly fast, he could see that the positioning of
the red lines was not inconsistent with the locations of veins and arteries.
('What exactly does that even mean?') Rui's mind was filled with all kinds of
hypotheses, but none of them made too much sense at the moment. ('If they
are the veins and the arteries, then that means that their veins and arteries are
glowing inside the skin very brightly. Only then could any amount of light
could pass through the skin.

The human body was not absolutely opaque. This was something that an
overwhelming majority of people were not aware of. In reality, the human
body was translucent; It allowed light to partially pass through it. This was
partly because of the fact that seventy percent of the body of the human body
was comprised of water, which was perfectly transparent. This was what
largely gave the human body its translucence.
The translucence of the human body could even be tested and measured at
any give point in time.
One need only place a bright and intense source of light behind one's thumb,
and one would notice the thumb glowing red due to all the light passing
through and bouncing off the red blood and flesh, becoming red.
("If that is what is happening with the circulatory system of Martial Seniors,
then that would explain the red flowing lines across the body,') Rui realized
in excitement.
The exact same thing would be happening if the veins and the arteries of the
body also glowed bright white, for Martial Seniors.
('But that's so bizarre!') Rui tried making sense of why such a thing would be
happening.
Why would veins and arteries starting glowing bright white in the middle of
combat? How would such a thing even help at all? Why even bother trying to
do that with them?
After all, they certainly did not directly intervene in the battle he just
witnessed, did they?
('Well, maybe such a flash function is useful, but I don't know how,') Rui
considered. ('But if they aren't useful…')
Then why glow bright white?
('Things that tend to glow super bright white are usually…') His eyebrows
rose as he had an interesting thought. ('…filled with energy.')
If that applied to the strange phenomenon of the glowing veins and arteries of
the Senior Realm the…
('Maybe I've discovered an important secret of the breakthrough to the Senior

Realm.') Rui tried his best to suppress his excitement with the non-verbal
communication control training that he had received in his training for
serving as a diplomat of the Martial Union. Thankfully it played out, and
nobody noticed his inner turmoil and excitement.
They quickly wrapped up and headed back to the Martial Union settlement
once they had secured the two bodies. They needed to bring them back to the
settlement as quick as possible where the medical team would be able to
ensure that their condition didn't deteriorate.
On the way back, Rui couldn't help but comprehend the recent insights that
he had made regarding the power of Martial Seniors. He continued to remain
enraptured by the matter.
('If the glowing veins and arteries are a sign of extremely dense energy and
power in their blood, then wouldn't that mean that the cells of Martial Seniors
are supplied with a tremendous amount of power?') Rui considered the
thought before frowning. ('I'm not sure how much sense this makes though,
considering that the human cells generate power with ATP molecules. Blood
vessels carry nutrients and compounds, not raw energy in a manner that
inadvertently generates light.')
Of course, Rui was aware that his argument would have made perfect sense if
it applied to the baseline human. It could not be applied to human beings that
had undergone accelerated Darwinian evolution.
('It makes sense that this is a trait exclusive to Martial Seniors if the evolution
breakthrough process is what allows it to be possible anyway,') Rui
speculated.
Still, even if that was a plausible explanation, it did not address many other
questions that Rui had. One of the biggest ones that Rui was that if they were
supplying energy in some kind of form, then where was that energy coming
from? After all, he highly doubted that Martial Seniors could break the first
law of thermodynamics; the law of conservation of energy.
While Martial Artists were spectacularly and inhumanly powerful, he had yet
to see an instance of them warping reality itself.
He wasn't able to answer that question, though he did have a few guesses.
Rui took a good look at Senior Ceeran. He knew that the man would not
divulge the secrets of the Senior Realm to him, even if did his best to
persuade him.
Regardless, there was no way for him to verify what he had come up with. He
would just need to get stronger until he qualified to know.
He recalled that a grade-five Martial Squire had once told him that upon
reaching grade five, he would be told of the conditions that needed to be
fulfilled to undergo the breakthrough to the Senior Realm. Without them, he
would not be able to break through to the Senior Realm.
From what he had once been hinted at, the breakthrough to the Senior Realm
was not like the breakthrough to the Squire Realm, which was entirely man-
made instead of a natural phenomenon that naturally occurred. If anything, it
was quite likely that the breakthrough to the Senior Realm was similar to that
of the breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm, a spontaneous event.
Eventually, Rui overcame his rapture once they reached the Martial Union
settlement. The Settlement was in a great mood, having heard that Senior
Ceeran won the battle that broke out between himself and two native Martial
Seniors of the indigenous tribe that the Martial Union settlement had been at
war with.
When the members of the settlement heard that Senior Ceeran had been
engaged in a battle against two Martial Seniors, they had grown quite
worried. Not just for him, but also for themselves. If he died, then there was a
good chance that their little settlement was doomed. After all, the K'ulnen
Tribe would have an overwhelming advantage against them in terms of net
Martial power. A single one of their Martial Seniors would be powerful
enough to annihilate all of the Martial Squires of the Martial Union
settlement.
Thus when they received word that Senior Ceeran won a solid victory, they
couldn't all help but heave a collective sigh of relief.
It was good to be alive.

Once Rui returned, he immediately began issuing orders to relevant

personnel. They had acquired the corpses of two Martial Seniors whose
conditions could not be allowed to deteriorate any further.
While Senior Ceeran could excuse himself and treat himself to a good hot
bath for a job well done, Rui had immediately visited the intelligence team
regarding some important matters.
"You want me to infiltrate the K'ulnen Tribe and bug the entire place? Sure,
that's no problem now that those two looming threats are gone. I'll walk right
past those Martial Squire chumps and place wiretaps right under their noses.
"Be careful though. Wiretaps lose their invisibility and imperceptibility once
they leave your person," Rui warned him.
Kane himself was invisible and imperceptible to almost all other Martial
Squires. However, the moment that an object left his small area of influence,
it would immediately be perceivable. What that meant was that if there was
any other Martial Artist in the immediate vicinity of the location where Kane
was placing a wiretap, then there was a chance that they would notice the
wiretap seemingly appearing out of thin air. In which case, they would
definitely investigate the object.
"Relax, don't be such a worrywart," Kane reassured. "If I do this mission, it

would be at night when at least a good portion of them will be sleeping."
This was true and definitely did alleviate the risks of the operation.
The rest of the meeting proceeded smoothly as he informed the intelligence

team of his concerns regarding the more zealous Martial Artists of the
K'ulnen Tribe that would choose to retaliate against the Martial Union
settlement for having killed their highest leaders and most powerful warriors.
The intelligence team immediately formed several plans to implement greater

surveillance on the K'ulnen Tribe to ensure that they did not even miss the
faintest signs of anything the tribe might planning that was less than desirable
Once that was done, Rui left them to their devices and their plans. He had a
lot of people to talk to, after all. He reached the conference room and used his
comms device to reach out to Martial commissioner Derun. She generally
received reports of all happenings naturally, but the matters that had occurred
today were significant enough that he felt the need to report it to her directly.
"Squire Quarrier," She picked up rather quickly, giving Rui a courteous

smile. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"
"Good news, mam," Rui smiled. "We have finally concluded the show-off
plan just now as Senior Ceeran defeated the two Martial Seniors of the
K'ulnen Tribe that we picked a fight to demonstrate the might of the Martial
Art techniques of the Martial Union. We have also retained their corpses that
have been adequately stored by our medical team."
Her eyes lit up as her smile grew more genuine. "That is indeed good news. I
presume that now that the war is over you intend to go through with the
negotiations talks once more?"
"That's correct," Rui nodded. "I do not dare to guarantee success, however, I
am not pessimistic about our chances. We have truly performed really well."
"So I've read," She nodded. "The fact that you took down a Martial Squire
with a single attack, and a relatively high-grade Martial Squire all by yourself
makes it hard to believe for a Martial commissioner like myself that you are
technically a low-grade Martial Squire at the moment."
Rui could sense that she was being genuine. It was to be expected, after all.
His prior feats did not measure up to the ones that he had performed during
his participation in the war effort against the K'ulnen Tribe.
He had killed Martial Squires before, but they were in the same grade as him
when his Martial Path was taken into account. And that was also after an
intense battle.
In this conflict, however, Rui had taken down one low-grade Martial Squire
with a single attack and had taken down a relatively high-grade Martial
Squire despite her receiving assistance from another Martial Squire.
These were feats that far exceeded what one would expect of a grade-four
Martial Squire.
"Well, I've been putting my latest technique to good use," Rui smiled
humbly. "With good preparation, one can exceed their limits in a given
situation, and that is mostly what I did to ensure that my facade of being a
high-grade Martial Artist did not fail. After all, the G'ak'arkan Tribe will give
me much less respect if they realize that I am only average, maybe a bit
above average by their standards."
"Hm, I see," She said. "Regardless, I'm sure you didn't call me just to tell me
that, correct?"
Rui smiled. "That's right. I wanted to inquire about the approval and
authorization of my proposed failsafe plan."
The martial commissioner took a moment to consider his words, before

responding. "I decided to authorize the plan if it is needed,"
Rui raised an eyebrow at her words. "I see… Thank you. Frankly, that is a
little bit unexpected."
"It was to me as well," She sighed. "After all, it is a plan that necessarily
guarantees losses to our side regardless of the outcome. We'd be planning a
disaster that would affect the Martial Union settlement on the Vilun Island…"
"Then why…"
"Why did I authorize it nonetheless?"
Rui nodded with an expression of curiosity on his face.

"It's because your conduct and execution of this mission has been impeccable
and assuring, young Squire," She told him. "Your Martial prowess is not the
only attention-drawing aspect about you. You have handled the settlement
quite professionally and aptly. I do not know if you realize the significance of
this matter, but it is quite reassuring to see that you are capable and
competent."
"You flatter me," Rui smiled wryly.
"Regardless," She moved on. "In addition to that, we have invested a lot in
obtaining those techniques. We must have them no matter what. Be sure to
succeed."
"That is my intention, mam."

Chapter 695 Rejection
"Good," She nodded. "The competence and knowledge that you've

demonstrated in your role as a diplomat, and as the interim leader of a
settlement of the Martial Union is quite impressive and desirable. The
Department of Foreign Affairs has informed me that you most likely meet the
qualifications to become a qualified entry-level ambassador of the Martial
Union. A Martial Artist that also satisfies the expertise and competence
requirements to become an officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs is a
greatly valuable asset."
She gave him a measured look, before asking. "What do you think?"
Rui raised an eyebrow at her question, a little at a loss for words. "I think that
the Department of Foreign Affairs might be overestimating my capabilities. I
have no formal education at all. I was home-schooled by my mother and
older brother. I certainly have no higher education in diplomacy, foreign
affairs, and international politics."
"Oh, it is probably true that, at the moment, you lack a foundation in some of
the aspects that we expect from our foreign affairs officers," She casually
replied, nodding. "However, given your demonstrably high ability to absorb
information, that isn't much of a problem is it?"
Martial commissioner Derun had received reports from the Department of

Foreign Affairs that stated that the assistant diplomatic team that they had
assigned to Rui had reported that he was the most knowledgeable out of all of
them when it came to understanding, and knowledge regarding Vilun Island.
She had been considerably impressed by this considering that the assistant
diplomats assigned to the mission had been studying Vilun Island for more
than a year. Yet Rui, in the span of one month, had already reached a level
where he could be considered one of the foremost experts of Vilun Island and
the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
A Martial Artist who could also serve as an ambassador was a desirable asset
for the same reason that it was needed in this particular mission. This was the
Age of Martial Art and Martial Artists were by far among the most respected
and exalted beings in human civilization. Just by being a Martial Artist, he
would be able to accomplish more as an ambassador than another with a
similar level of competence.
"Are you sure you don't want to consider this line?" She asked gently.
"I am," Rui replied unhesitantly. "I do not regret this mission that I undertook
or my role in it. However, in the past four months, I haven't gotten the
opportunity to train or fight all too much outside of the conflicts that I
participated in against the K'ulnen Tribe. That is a huge gap for someone who
is accustomed to constantly fighting or training. Now, this mission has been
helpful and insightful in many ways, but at the same time, I cannot say that it
is something that I would be willing to do more than one time,"
"I see, for what it's worth, I agree," She nodded. "I was merely passing on the
suggestion from the Department of Foreign Affairs. Personally, I believe that
Martial Artists should stick to what they're best at, and leave the rest to others
who are qualified."
"I agree with that as well," Rui nodded.
It was one of the most effective and efficient divisions of labor. Society could
not afford specialists practicing in another field that was entirely separate
from their field of expertise. Civilization would only progress if the people
did what they were best at, and continuously got better at it.
Rui quickly concluded his call with the Martial commissioner, before
growing absorbed in his thoughts. It would seem that his execution of the
mission thus far was quite satisfying to the Martial Union. Perhaps there was
a chance that he would be able to earn extra credits.
He put the matter aside, after all, he had actual urgent matters to tend to.
It was time to roll up to the G'ak'arkan Village once more and request an
audience with the leaders of the tribe. He quickly sped to the diplomatic
office, gathering the entire team.
"Alright, as you all have surely learned by now. The war against the K'ulnen
Tribe has come to an end; our victory. The two leaders of the K'ulnen Tribe
are dead, and every long-range Martial Squire in our settlement has
participated multiple times, demonstrating the prowess of our techniques
thoroughly." Rui announced to all of them. "We have finished our little sales
pitch, and now it's time to actually conduct the sale. The intelligence
department has supplied us with all the information that they can gather on
the G'ak'arkan Tribe, and it is your duty to go through it all, gain a good grasp
of the impact that our war with the K'ulnen Tribe has had on the G'ak'arkan
Tribe, and then formulate a course of action that will serve as our negotiation
strategy. Once that's done, we'll refine it before executing it. Get to work."
The assistant diplomats scrambled once more as they went through the stacks
of documents and files consisting of the intelligence reports of the
Intelligence department. Now that the war had ended, the spotlight once more
fell on the diplomats of the Martial Union. They would be taking action once
more.
Honestly, Rui felt quite confident that if they walked up to the G'ak'arkan
Tribe right at this very moment, then there was a very good chance that they
would immediately jump at the opportunity to trade techniques. Yet Rui had
still chosen to take a cautious and thoroughly prepared route anyway because
he didn't want careless overconfidence to ruin what was otherwise a slam
dunk opportunity.
There was more to negotiation than merely getting both sides to be invested
in cooperating, which was the stage at which they were right now. After the
actual trade that was going to take place was training the Martial Artists in
their techniques while having their own Martial Artists be trained in the
techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.

Chapter 696 Barriers
For example, when conducting the trade, both sides would not want to be
short-changed and be given techniques the net value of which were inferior to
the techniques that they gave the other side.
That meant both sides needed to agree that the value of the techniques
exchanged needed to be agreed to be equal by both sides.
This was where the complications arose.
For starters, what decided the value of a technique?
The Martial Union already defined the value of a technique objectively, using
several parameters that it valued in a technique. Rui had already learned
about it when he submitted the Pathfinder technique to the Martial Union.
The Martial Union judged the value of techniques based on four parameters;
individuality, potency, difficulty, and dissemination viability.
Individuality was a parameter that was a measure of both uniqueness and

originality. The value of a technique was low to the Martial Union if it had
zero originality and zero uniqueness. It would mean that the Martial Union
most likely already possessed such a technique in its vast database of
techniques, and thus there was no point in purchasing the technique that was
being offered.
Potency was a measure of how effective and impactful the technique was in
combat in whatever field the technique was of. High-grade techniques
excelled in the field they were in and produced much greater results than low-
grade techniques. It was the foundation of the value of techniques.
Difficulty and dissemination value were both similar parameters that

generally measured how difficult it was to spread a technique. The easier it
was to spread a technique among Martial Artists, the more valuable the
technique was, since such a technique would singlehandedly be able to
increase the Martial prowess of the Martial Union.
However, it was possible that the G'ak'arkan Tribe had different conceptions
of what was valuable in a Martial Art technique and what wasn't. It was
entirely possible that what the Martial Union deemed to be junk was quite
valuable to the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Of course, it was unlikely that there would be drastically different values. At

the end of the day, power was power. Power was what all Martial Artists
sought, and was what set them on their Martial Path.
With that common value, it would be possible to come to an agreement in

trade.
The problem wasn't the big picture, the devil was in the details. Being able to
cleanly form a trade that both sides would be satisfied with was not going to
be easy.
That was one of the things that the diplomatic team had to handle.
In this particular matter, Rui took the initiative to iron out the structure of the
trade all by himself. Since he was a Martial Artist and a competent diplomat,
he was by far the most qualified to work on this particular matter.
('Firstly, the trades need to be simplified. Rather than doing a singular large
bulk trade of techniques, it is best to proceed with a large number of simple
and smaller trades. Ideally, we can trade one technique for a technique that
both sides agree is a fair and acceptable trade,')
Of course, Rui knew that it was not quite so simple. But it was definitely far
simpler than if they tried to trade a group of ten techniques for another group
of ten techniques.
('Of course, it is best to remain flexible, rather than forcing a one-for-one

technique exchange rate. It's not bad to obtain two mid-grade techniques for
one higher-grade technique as long as the net value on both sides is generally
the same.')
What both sides would consider what comprised the value of a technique
would need to be negotiated with the G'ak'arkan Tribe. But Rui was relatively
sure that that was also manageable.
One thing that could potentially be problematic was the training of the
Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe in the techniques of the Martial Union.
This was an issue that the Martial Union would not be able to easily solve.
For example, almost all of the training methodologies of the Martial Union
were centered around specially developed training equipment, gear,
machines, and facilities that were used to efficiently and effectively train the
Marital Artists of the Martial Union.
What that meant was that for every technique that was traded to the
G'ak'arkan Tribe, the Martial Union needed to ensure that it had the facilities,
faculties, and resources needed for the Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe
to train and obtain the techniques of the Martial Union.
This was not simple, while the Martial Union settlement already possessed
some training and sparring facilities and infrastructure, they were quite paltry
and underdeveloped. The Martial Union would need to build the
infrastructure needed and transport the supplies and resources needed for the
settlement to be equipped with the many things needed to train the Martial
Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe in their techniques.
Another issue that the G'ak'arkan Tribe might have would be the propagation
of these techniques once the Martial Union left. Rui wasn't sure whether the
Martial Union would choose to continue having a settlement on the island
once his mission concluded, but even if they left, the G'ak'arkan Tribe needed
to ensure that they could train their future Martial Artists in these techniques.
That was the biggest problem that the Martial Union would need to
overcome. Of course, it wasn't as though training these techniques would be
impossible without the training resources of the Martial Union, it would
definitely be much more difficult. Maybe Rui would need to consult with
some experts and provide them with the best training methodologies that are
devoid of technology.
Though, given that the G'ak'arkan Tribe was used to training in this manner,
Rui could be relatively confident that they would probably find a way to train
their Martial Artists in those techniques regardless. They might be irked,
however, to find that the way that they would be trained was not the way that
their Martial Artists would be training it in the future.
Chapter 697 Audience
Another problem was the language barrier. Training the Martial Artists of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe was going to be a complete pain in the ass for the Martial
Union. Rui was truly thankful that his role in the mission was only to serve as
an ambassador and get the G'ak'arkan Tribe to cooperate with the Martial
Union.
He would rather avoid serving as a trainer if he had the choice to. Though he
suspected that he would not be able to avoid it at the moment.
After all, he was currently the only master of the Pathfinder technique. It had
been a little over four months that the Martial Union was in possession of the
technique, after all. That was probably not long enough for a long-range
Martial Artist to have mastered it. Hell, he highly doubted that any Martial
Squire had even attempted to master it at the moment. As far as he knew, the
only Martial Artist who had attempted to master this technique was Senior
Ceeran.
And thus far, it looked like he hadn't mastered it yet at all, from what Rui
could tell. He was relatively certain that Senior Ceeran would inform him,
given their relationship, if he did successfully master it.
('And he would be insanely powerful if he had successfully mastered it.')
Not that he wasn't already insanely powerful, but Rui meant that even by the
standards of the Senior Realm, he would have been extraordinarily capable,
he would have most likely been able to fight the matriarch and the patriarch
of the K'ulnen Tribe from across the island!
('I can see why he wants to master it, the synergy between the Pathfinder
technique and his techniques is quite incredible,')
Combining the ODA system with his ability to manipulate trajectories of
attacks after they've been launched would allow him to accurately hit targets
that he wouldn't be able to hit with just the ODA system alone since it meant
that he would be able to make adjustments to the shifts in the trajectories of
the already highly accurate attacks, thanks to the ODA system, to ensure that
he could correct any mistakes he made over extremely long distances.
('Given how much range he already possesses by virtue of being a Martial

Senior, it is entirely possible that Senior Ceeran would be able to accurately
snipe people from across the entire island!')
Such a feat was so far beyond what Rui was capable of that it wasn't even
funny. He could only sigh at the power that Senior Ceeran would obtain if he
successfully mastered the Pathfinder technique.
However, until he did, Rui was the only Martial Artist that had mastered the
Pathfinder technique. Furthermore, Rui already possessed a good foundation
in training other Martial Artists, on top of that, he had also become fluent in
the Vilun language. He was literally the perfect trainer for the Martial Union
to have trained the martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
He sighed, shaking his head. He could think about this matter later, for now,
they needed to focus on establishing the intent to cooperate full-fledged for
mutual benefit.
A few days passed as the diplomatic team came up with a final negotiation
strategy, along with Rui. The reason they were able to hurry up the process
was that the diplomatic team had not been sitting on their thumbs doing
anything. They had been quite busy as the intelligence team supplied them
with intelligence on the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
What that meant was that the foundation for the negotiation approaches for
the G'ak'arkan Tribe for various outcomes was already established at its core.
They simply needed to refine it.
And soon enough, they had.
It was time for Rui's second visit to the G'ak'arkan Tribe.

"Ready, Zeyra, Stemple?"
"Yes sir," The two of them replied confidently.
"Good, then let's get going."
They headed out, getting into the prepared motorized carriage that
immediately began driving off.
On the way there, Rui wondered whether it was a good idea to leave Senior
Ceeran behind. After all, the native indigenous Martial Artists of the island
respected power above all else. Senior Ceeran would most certainly obtain far
more respect than Rui would.
Still, Rui was sure that the G'ak'arkan Tribe had already figured out that
things were working differently for the Martial Union's settlement. Rui was
the interim leader, and that technically included Senior Ceeran as well.
They had already seen Rui act as the diplomat when it turned out that a
Martial Senior had been with them the entire time.
At this point, he highly doubted that they would give him the cold shoulder,
especially when Rui himself had merit even as a Martial Squire.
It took a while for the carriage to tread up the mountain. It gave the
G'ak'arkan Tribe plenty of warning that they were coming so that the
G'ak'arkan tribe didn't feel caught off-guard or disrespected.
Rui could already sense a distant scout maintaining surveillance from a

distance as they followed them up the mountain. Rui bet that if he made any
threatening actions, they wouldn't hesitate to launch an attack on them.
Nothing of the sort happened.
Even before Rui and his assistants got off when they arrived, they had
already been faced with a rather large crown that had left the boundary of the
village to take a good look at the outsider.
At the foremost were Martial Squires that sought to shield the civilian
villagers that stared at him with awe and fear.
('Looks like my feats are making the rounds in the village,') Rui smiled
pleasantly at all of them even as his high-grade mind mask amplified the
sense of power he radiated.
Suddenly, a far greater presence weighed on everybody's mind as a figure

descended down from the sky.
"Outsider." She said with a mild smile. "Welcome to our village once more. I
am K'Mala, one of the leaders of the G'ak'arkan Tribe. What brings you to
our village?"
('She's a bit stronger than the Martial Senior I dealt with last time,') Rui noted
as Primordial Instinct gave him an impression of her power.
Chapter 698 Concerns
"Thank you for welcoming us," Rui began. "I am Rui, representative of the
Martial Union. We are here to facilitate successful cooperation and trade
between our villages. We hope that the G'ak'arkan Tribe will heed us and
accept our offer to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship."
Rui stared at Senior K'Mala as she processed his words. He could

immediately tell that she was not averse to the offer that the Martial Union
had made. Although she did not do anything overt to reveal her thoughts on
the matter, Rui was relatively certain that she did not possess any disregard
for his offer.
Her subconscious non-verbal communication betrayed her interest in his

offer.
"We are interested in listening to and considering what you have to say,
warrior Rui," She replied carefully as she reached the ground. "Has the rank-
three warrior not chosen to accompany you? Do you truly represent your
village when he is a part of it?"
Rui was aware that the G'ak'arkan Tribe assigned numbered ranks to each
Realm, ascending with the power of the Realm. Rank three Martial Artist was
nothing but a Martial Senior, while he would be considered a rank two
Martial Artist.
"As I'm sure you have long been made aware of, the rank-three Martial Artist
and myself are both part of a group that is extremely large and powerful," Rui
smiled. "Both the rank-three outsider and I are following orders. I am the
leader of the village, and he is the rank three guardian and protector of it."
"I see…" Her eyebrows knitted briefly as she tried wrapping her head around
the matter. She couldn't imagine why the group that they claimed to be a part
of would ever order a rank-three Martial Artist. She especially couldn't
imagine why a rank three Martial Artist would willingly bow his head to a
rank two Martial Artist like Rui, yet she was open-minded enough to
understand that they were outsiders with customs and norms that were
entirely different from that of theirs.
They had already taken him seriously last time, and now they took him even
more seriously after witnessing what he could do. Thus, it wasn't nearly as
much of a problem as it would have been.
It spoke volumes about how impressed they were with Rui.
"Come with me," She said as she turned around and walked toward the
village. The crowd parted ways for her as Rui and his assistants quickly
followed suit.
Not much had changed in the village since Rui's last visit four months ago.
There was greater greenery as it was the season of spring, it seemed. Yet
everything else had more or less remained the same.
She didn't say a word until they reached the larger hall that they used for
important discussions and meetings.
"Have a seat," She gestured at a large table in the room. The room was
heavily guarded with several Martial Squires at every corner and on both
sides of the entrance.
Rui waited as a servant placed clay cups of water on the table for all of the
four seated members.
"Now then. Please begin."
Rui smiled. "As the G'ak'arkan Tribe is very well aware, our Martial Union
has offered all of you the opportunity to engage in a trade of techniques
between both sides. We believe that both sides have unique advantages,
ensuring that both sides stand to gain power from this trade. We see every
reason to proceed with this trade and no reason not to. Today, we are here for
that very reason. We hope that the G'ak'arkan Tribe will acquiesce this time."
"…" She stared at Rui wordlessly for several seconds, before opening her
mouth. "We… are not unwilling. But we wish to ensure that this trade of
Martial Art techniques is truly beneficial to us in the way that you claim it is.
We do not wish to rashly give our word in an agreement that is exploitative
or deceptive of us. If you are able to truly convince us beyond any shadow of
a doubt that our tribe truly benefits no less than your so-called Martial Union,
then and only then will we accept your offer to engage in trade with us. If you
are unwilling to accept this, then there is no possibility of cooperation.
This was the very first time in all of the diplomatic interventions with the
G'ak'arkan Tribe in history that the Martial Union had managed to not get
rejected by the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Rui and his assistants were unfazed to the
eye, yet they were celebrating inwardly.
Of course, their response was far from affirmative. But this was already a
really good result considering history.
Finally, a mutual intent to cooperate had finally been established, with that
out of the way, Rui could slowly and surely break through every last
compunction and shred of reluctance with compelling arguments. Now that
they were finally going to be actively engaging with what the Martial Union
was offering, they could finally get to the heart of the issue.
"Of course, most certainly. We are very much willing to address any and all
concerns that you may have," Rui smiled. "Please do not feel troubled to
share any and all concerns you may have on this matter."
She nodded blankly. "The first concern we have is our confidence in your
commitment to this trade. We are aware that you possess the ability to leave
the island with all of the villagers of your village. What is to stop you from
leaving our island the second we give you all of the information regarding
our techniques? Information that may very well be enough for your so-called
Martial Union to recreate our techniques based on it."
Rui had somewhat expected this concern. After all, it was a fundamental
issue with the very nature of trading with the Martial Union. It was true that
he was very much capable of leaving with the employees of the Martial
Union any time he wanted with some preparations ahead of time.
Chapter 699 Assurances
"This is an entirely valid concern of yours," Rui nodded. "It is absolutely true
that we possess the ability to leave this island at any point we want."
Senior K'Mala's expression relaxed slightly at those words. She was afraid
that the outsiders would deny this in an attempt to deceptively hide their
capabilities and placate the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
However, the fact that Rui openly admitted to this straightforwardly was a
good sign, it meant that they did not have any intentions of deceiving the
G'ak'arkan Tribe by leaving the moment they got their hands on the
techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe regardless of whether they had paid their
end of the deal or not.
"We have accounted for this concern that you have brought up," Rui
continued. "One way can accommodate it is by fulfilling our part of the
bargain before you do yours, regardless of what agreement we come up with.
This way, we cannot ever deceive you by swiftly evacuating from this island
at any given point."
K'Mala raised an eyebrow at that. It was quite relieving for her to hear that
they were willing to make that concession. By fulfilling their end of the
agreement before the G'ak'arkan Tribe, it was indeed impossible for them to
get away with deceiving the G'ak'arkan by retreating from the island at a
particular moment.
On the other hand, it meant that they were supremely confident that the
G'ak'arkan Tribe would not use that advantage to their benefit.
('Is it that they believe that we wouldn't, or that we couldn't even if we

wanted to?') She couldn't help but wonder.
It was true, but the G'ak'arkan Tribe did not possess the ability to trick the
Martial Union in the same way. After all, they did not possess any ability to
retreat from the island, they possessed no naval capabilities whatsoever. They
were going nowhere, and the Martial Union knew it.
Of course, the Martial Squires and the Martial Seniors did have the ability to
leave the island by sky-walking, the Martial Union could rest assured that
these Martial Artists wouldn't even dream of leaving the Martial Apprentices
and the civilians of their tribe as they escaped away from their island. The
G'ak'arkan Tribe possessed an immense amount of cohesiveness with each
other. They had to, who else could they rely on on an island where everybody
else was trying to kill them?
That was why the diplomatic team had few compunctions granting this
condition to the G'ak'arkan Tribe. It was of no consequence.
"If you of the Martial Union are truly willing to make that concession, then I
can only be relieved by the sincerity that you are showing in this agreement,"
She said with appreciation. "We will graciously accept your offer."
Rui nodded, smiling. "That's good to hear. Then is that also an indication that
the G'ak'arkan Tribe is accepting our trade offer?"
"Not yet…" She admitted. "One concern that we have is whether you are
willing to disclose all of the techniques that we have witnessed your Martial
Artists using in the past. Particularly the more powerful ones that we are
interested in."
"Of course, we are willing, on the condition that the G'ak'arkan Tribe also
reciprocates all of its techniques," Rui smiled. "We will reciprocate the
sincerity that you show us. I hope that we can come to an agreement for a
full-fledged exchange between both sides. Doing so will only be of greater
benefit to both sides."
"Do you want all of our techniques?" She frowned.
"Not exactly… We are hoping that you will be willing to exchange any or all
of your techniques without restriction. It would be troublesome if after
confirming the intent to exchange techniques, we discovered that the minority
of techniques that you are unwilling to disclose happen to include all of the
techniques that we do desire, while the techniques that you are willing to
disclose to us are of no interest." Rui explained. "As long as you are willing
to exchange any of the techniques that you have, you can rest assured that the
Martial Union will also be open to exchanging any of the techniques that we
have demonstrated in the past few techniques."
"I see…"
"Of course, we will still want to make fair and equal trades regardless."
"What are the techniques that you desire?" She asked with some degree of
uncertainty.
"We are willing to disclose what techniques we seek, but I think it would be
more productive if both sides are aware of what the other side wants," Rui
stated perfunctorily. "I believe it is best if we make a simultaneous exchange
of the lists of techniques that we desire from each other."
Rui did not want to disclose the specifics of what they wanted too soon.
Handing over that information to them prior to establishing a final agreement
to cooperate would be giving them undue initiative in the discussions. Once
the means of exchange were confirmed and ironed out, only then was it fit to
talk about the actual trades and exchanges that would be occurring.
Of course, if the G'ak'arkan Tribe was willing to divulge the techniques that
they were interested in, then Rui didn't mind also doing the same.
"How do you want us to exchange techniques exactly?" She asked. "We pass
on our techniques to our descendants by personally training them in it. We do
not possess any physical form containing the techniques."
"I see… In that case, training our Martial Artists will be just fine." Rui
nodded. "We are also willing to train your Martial Artists."
"But we do not speak the same language…"

"We have translators on our side. It will be difficult and long. However, once
it is completed, then both sides will permanently become stronger than ever
before. Thus, it is worth it," Rui nodded.
"Hm…" She considered the matter, losing a bit of apprehension.
The meeting proceeded as Senior K'Mala went through the list of issues and
concerns that had already been discussed in the village some while ago.
Rui was glad that he had come thoroughly prepared, for many of the concerns
and issues that Senior K'Mala brought up were things that he perhaps
wouldn't have been able to confidently provide a solution for. But thanks to
having fleshed everything out with the diplomatic team, he could be grateful
that they could present a strong first impression.
Well, it wasn't really a strong first impression considering this was far from
the first time that the Martial Union or Rui had had an audience with the
G'ak'arkan Tribe. But it certainly was the first time that the Martial Union had
had a serious and fruitful discussion with the G'ak'arkan Tribe over the trade
that the former was proposing. Being able to account for all of the concerns
and accommodate them gave the G'ak'arkan Tribe much more confidence that
the trade was a good idea.
"How do you propose that we come to an agreement on whether a particular

trade is fair or not?" She asked, getting closer and closer to the heart of the
trade with her concerns.
The fact that she had already reached the stage where she was most
concerned with the fairness of the trades was a good sign, it meant that Rui
had probably addressed all of the more fundamental concerns that dealt with
the foundations of the trade such as the lack of trust that she wasn't able to
poke holes in them at the very moment.
"It is best that we agree upon a general means by which we can evaluate the
value of techniques. If we can agree upon that, then it will be possible to
ensure a deal is fair to both sides." Rui explained.
Of course, the way Rui framed it was a little different from the way it actually
was. For example, both the G'ak'arkan Tribe and the Martial Union had been
in possession of Martial Art techniques for a long time. This inevitably meant
that both groups had developed their own thoughts on what distinguished
valuable techniques from those that weren't particularly of any value.
There was no saying whether these were going to be the same or not.
Of course, there certainly would be a lot of overlap. Both sides certainly

valued potency and ease of mastery. These were highly foundational areas
that every Martial Artist would undoubtedly value. The G'ak'arkan Tribe
would have to be utterly insane to deviate from this particular standard.
However, beyond that, things got a little hazy. Things like individuality were
not necessarily to be guaranteed to be valued by the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Thus it
was possible that techniques that the Martial Union appraised to be high
partly because of their individuality would not necessarily be appraised.
That was one thing that could potentially impede the trading.
"The Martial Union generally tends to evaluate a technique's value with three
parameters," Rui told them. "Power, difficulty, and dissemination viability."
In reality, there was an additional parameter: individuality. However, Rui had

chosen to discard this variable for several reasons. For one, the reason this
variable was considered when the Martial Union evaluated techniques was
that if a Martial Artist in the Kandrian Empire submitted a technique with
very little individuality, it usually meant that said technique or something
extremely similar already existed in the Martial Union's database.
After all, that's what individuality stood for. It was a combination of

originality and uniqueness. If a technique submitted by a Kandrian Martial
Artist did not even have a shred of originality or uniqueness, then it meant
that this technique was shamelessly copied since it wasn't original, and it also
meant that the technique was probably very common; since it wasn't unique.
That was why the Martial Union cared for individuality.
However, this only applied to Kandrian Martial Artist. If a Kandrian Martial

Artist submitted a technique without individuality; then it was a cheap knock-
off that the Martial Union already possessed. However, that wasn't true for a
G'ak'arkan Martial Artist. Even if one of the G'ak'arkan techniques that the
Martial Union sought was a cheap knock-off of another G'ak'arkan technique,
its value did not decrease since the Martial Union did not possess it.
Individuality was a filter to ensure that the Martial Union did not purchase
what it already had, G'ak'arkan techniques were techniques that the Martial
Union did not have, thus there was no fear of purchasing techniques the
Martial Union already had. Thus individuality was not a large concern when
it came to evaluating unique foreign techniques.
Furthermore, by getting rid of it, there was less of a chance that the
G'ak'arkan Tribe would have an issue with the means of evaluation that Rui
had just proposed.
"Dissemination value...?" Senior K'Mala raised an eyebrow.
Rui nodded. "Essentially, it depends on how easy it is to spread a technique

amongst a large group of Martial Artists. The greater the number of Martial
Artists that are able to master the technique, the greater the value of the
technique. After all, it is able to provide a huge boost in power if you
consider the number of Martial Artists that have received a boost in power
after mastering the technique."
"Perhaps that is where our two groups differ slightly," She remarked. "In the
G'ak'arkan Tribe, we do not try to spread techniques as much as possible, but
rather encourage our Martial Artists to create their own techniques the second
they discover their Martial Path."
Rui raised an eyebrow at that, surprised.
That was very different from how the Martial Union dealt with guiding their
Martial Apprentices forward. At the Apprentice Realm, individuality was
definitely important, but it wasn't as vital to growing stronger. It was mostly a
means to become Squire candidates since individuality was a necessity. At
the Apprentice level, individuality did not make one stronger than techniques
that were purchased from the Martial Union. Not by any solid degree.
Rui suspected that that was why the Martial Union did not place as much of a
heavy weight on the individuality, relative to the Martial Apprentice, of the
techniques that Martial Apprentices chose to master.
Chapter 701 Philosophical
Differences
The reason that Martial Apprentices did not gain much power from
techniques of their creation or contribution that were highly individualistic
versus techniques of another's was that their bodies were still shackled to
human limits, barring their brain. Martial Apprentices also possessed nascent
Martial Paths, thus even if a technique was highly synergetic with their
Martial Art and body, it did not end up resulting in the kind of explosive
power that the Void Pathfinder technique gave Rui by virtue of being
synergetic.
The Martial Union had probably judged that while it would be truly ideal if
Martial Apprentices did not use others' techniques and instead mostly created
individualistic techniques that were compatible and synergetic with their
strengths and weaknesses, it was an extremely difficult standard to hold them
all to. The strength that they would gain would not be too much greater than
if they mastered pre-existing techniques before slowly warming themselves
up to the idea of creating techniques or contributing to them.
It was a pragmatic and rational approach that weight the pros versus the cons
of the matter. However, it seemed that the G'aka'arkan Tribe was more
idealistic surrounding the matter. Which Rui wasn't too surprised by, they
were certainly not the most rational bunch.
However, it also meant that, to a degree, the G'ak'arkan Tribe valued

dissemination viability to a lesser degree than the Martial Union. They would
not aggressively spread the techniques that they would obtain from the
Martial Union, most likely. They would probably keep using it as a stepping
stone for creating new and more powerful techniques that incorporate
elements of the Martial Art techniques that they would end up obtaining from
the Martial Union.
"We encourage our Martial Apprentice to draw from existing techniques

rather than using those same very techniques," She confirmed Rui's thoughts.
('It is probably because of this philosophy that the G'ak'arkan Tribe has
developed unique techniques that even the Martial Union is lusting after,')
Rui sighed inwardly with admiration.
From the very moment that he had been briefed about this mission, he had
wondered something since.
How did a primitive tribe such as the G'ak'arkan Tribe develop so many
unique, odd yet powerful techniques that even the Martial Union was willing
to go out of its way to obtain them?
It didn't really seem to make much sense when one thought about it critically.
After all, the Martial Union invested a huge amount of wealth and resources
into funding research and development that optimized existing techniques
and attempted to create new ones. This massive effort led to the research and
development department of the Martial Union developing, or at least
contributing to the development of nearly half of all the new techniques that
the Martial Union happened to obtain.
The remaining came from Martial Artists like himself who submitted the
technique for personal use and a license for propagation of the technique.
This was a significant influx of techniques with varying degrees of

individuality that the Martial Union got in return for the tremendous amount
of wealth.
Yet despite that, the G'ak'arkan Tribe had created numerous techniques that
had attracted the greed of the Martial Union.
The reason for this was most likely because of the philosophy of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe that allowed them to diverge from existing paradigms better
than a Martial group of their size should have been able to, had they followed
a paradigm of Martial Apprentice guidance that was quite similar to the one
that the Martial Union.
('Maybe, the Martial Union should follow in the G'ak'arkan Tribe's

footsteps,') He mused for a second, before shaking his head inwardly. He was
getting distracted.
"Well, thankfully, it seems that that may be the only difference in our
evaluation of the value of techniques," Rui nodded. "It isn't ideal, but it
shouldn't pose too much of a problem."
At the end of the day, as long as neither side perceived the value of what they
were giving to be less than that of what they were receiving, the deal would
be acceptable to both sides. There were ways to ensure that this was the case
even if both sides did not have the same appraisal of techniques.
For example, the Martial Union could offer techniques that with low
dissemination viability in exchange for techniques that it would have valued
more than what it was offering since it did care for dissemination viability. In
this case, the trade would be acceptable to both sides since the G'ak'arkan
Tribe did not care for dissemination value as much as the Martial Union and
the Martial Union would have what it would consider to be a winning trade.
The same could occur in the reverse. The G'ak'arkan Tribe could give
techniques with high dissemination viability in return for techniques that
were even more valuable, to the tribe, since it cared less for dissemination
viability than the Martial Union did.
Rui was confident that it was possible for both sides to come from trades that
both sides found agreeable and acceptable.
"Hm..." She hummed as she considered Rui's explanation. "Even if that

manages to work out, demonstrating the power of a technique is not that
straightforward. After all, techniques do not exist by themselves, they exist in
Martial Artists who can execute them. I think the evaluation of their power
depends on the mastery of the Martial Artist, does it not?"
She raised a very good point. Even if a technique was powerful, if the person
executing them had not mastered them properly, then the technique would
not function properly and would produce shitty results.
On the contrary, a technique could be evaluated to be more valuable than it

actually was if the Martial Artist had mastered it to an extremely high degree.
One example of this that immediately came to mind was his friend Hever and
his trusty sole technique Meteor Swing. That technique was a grade-nine
technique, however, Hever had mastered it to such a ridiculously high degree,
that it had eventually obtained parity with a grade-ten technique.
Chapter 702 Mastery
Mastery of techniques, as well as the quality of the Martial Artist mastering

them, were two variables that severely impacted the evaluation of the power
and potency of a technique. It was impossible to separate the quality of a
technique from the mastery of it when judging the results that a Martial Artist
produced when executing that technique.
"Correct," Rui nodded. "However, we have accounted for this. It will require
both sides to be forthcoming, however."
Rui was the one who had realized this problem a long time ago and had
already thought of several solutions.
"What do you mean?" Senior K'Mala frowned.
"I mean that it is possible to gauge the power of a technique, as long as we

have enough information on the Martial Artist executing them," Rui replied.
"We can evaluate the competency of the Martial Artist at hand based on
available information at hand, such as the time it took to train that technique,
and the time that the Martial Artist has used that technique in combat. The
speed at which that Martial Artist mastered other techniques and the general
competency and skill of that Martial Artist."
"I see…" She realized his point. "You wish to understand the limits of the
Martial Artist to gauge how much of the results of their execution of a
technique is because of them and how much is because of the technique,
correct?"
"Correct," Rui smiled. He was pleased that she was caught on to his
intentions quickly, it was clear that even if she was uneducated by the
standards of the Kandrian Empire, she was very intelligent, and furthermore,
she had a great understanding of Martial Art as a Martial Senior.
This made his job much easier.
"However… that would require both sides to be honest…" Her eyes

narrowed.
"Correct," Rui nodded.
This was an inescapable requirement. This gave both sides a lot of power
since it was possible to deceive the other side by presenting false facts
regarding the information that Rui suggested was needed to truly evaluate a
technique's power.
"Then how can you guarantee that the trades will be fair?" She asked
skeptically.
"Because such lies will inevitably come out and would trigger war," Rui
replied calmly. "Would let the Martial Union get off lightly if and when it
became clear that we have blatantly lied to oversell a technique's grade?"
"No…" She shook her head resolutely. "We would definitely annihilate all of
you."
Rui felt his nerves tingle at the sight of a Martial Senior announcing their
demise if they were to deceive the G'ak'arkan Tribe
That caught him off-guard. The intelligence that the intelligence team had
gathered on Senior K'Mala suggested that she possessed a much more
rational temperament compared to her brethren. Yet it was clear that she did
not deviate too much considering she said something so undiplomatic in a
diplomatic meeting.
Of course, considering how diplomatic the Martial Artists of the Martial

Union have been, he still had to admit that she was doing a much better job
than Senior Ceeran did.
"And that would be a highly undesirable outcome for us," Rui smiled
pleasantly as though she just hadn't said what she had. "I can assure you that
the Martial Union will be very infuriated if it turned out to be the case that
you have deceived us, and I think we can both agree that a successful trade of
techniques that will strengthen both sides is more desirable than an all-out
war with no gains."
She did not deny that, simply considering his words.
There was a brief period of silence as Rui let her consider the matter.
"I cannot make a decision here and now…" She eventually said, shaking her
head. "That being said, I am personally in favor of this successful trade. You
have been reassuring in your replies to our concerns and issues. I can promise
you that I will do my best to convince those that need to be convinced for this
trade to go through."
"I see, that's good to hear," Rui smiled, he wasn't surprised. The moment he
saw Senior K'Mala deliberating with him all by herself, he knew that he
would not get a handshake on the deal today. A matter as important as
disclosing their sacred techniques to outsiders was something only the
chieftain could make.
The chieftain N'Kulu had chosen not to deal with Rui alone probably because
his ego and pride refused to allow him to speak to Rui as an equal, regardless
of if Rui represented an organization exponentially more powerful than the
G'ak'arkan Tribe could ever hope to be.
He knew that she would have to take back his words to the Martial Seniors,
although he was absolutely certain that the two Martial Seniors and several
Martial Squires had been listening to their conversations. Their sharp senses
would not be stopped by clay and stone.
They would probably deliberate, then approach Rui and give him their
response.
"Please take your time," Rui smiled, getting up before Stemple and Zeyra
followed suit. "We understand that this is an extremely important matter to
you. Feel free to visit our village if and when you have any further queries or
concerns or wish to proceed with the discussion. I can assure you that you
will be treated with hospitality."
"Thank you," She replied straightforwardly, before turning to the Martial

Squires in the room. "Please escort our guests."
And just like that, the second audience between Rui and the Martial Union
came to an end. The three of them entered their carriage before it began
taking them down the mountain.
"Submit the preliminary reports," Rui ordered his two assistants, speaking in
the Kandrian dialect to prevent the scouts who were following them
potentially listening from understanding.
"Yes sir, congratulations on succeeding,"
"We'll celebrate after the deal has been concretely established," Rui replied.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, we are still some ways away from
achieving our goal. Still… it is true that we have achieved preliminary
success.
Chapter 703 Desired Technique
The settlement was in a good mood after having heard that Rui was
successful in engaging with the G'ak'arkan Tribe in regard to his diplomatic
efforts. Having achieved more than any diplomatic venture with the
G'ak'arkan had ever achieved before, naturally, the many employees and
Martial Artists that had been dispatched to the settlement were glad to hear
that this tedious ordeal was at least making solid progress.
"Nice!" Senior Ceeran grinned when he heard the news. "Finally, I can get
my hands on their techniques!"
Rui glanced at him. He knew that the man had been pining for their
techniques for a long time. "
Just the fact that he, a Martial Senior had decided to not only serve as a
diplomat but also decided to prolong his stay away from the Martial Union
and the Kandrian Empire for this long.
This couldn't have been easy, considering his position and authority within
the Martial Union. It was usually quite unusual for a Martial Senior to spend
this much time away from the Martial Union for a mission that wasn't his
own. Rui knew that Senior Ceeran was very motivated, he wouldn't have
gone through all this effort if he wasn't.
"Which of their techniques are you most interested in, if I may ask?" Rui was
curious.
"All of the unique ones that we've been looking to obtain, really," He replied
nonchalantly. "They're all unique techniques that would definitely strengthen
the Longranger Sect."
"I meant, which ones are you interested in for your Martial Art, if that's not
too much," Rui probed.
"…"
Senior Ceeran was silent for a few seconds, before replying. "Currently? I'm
most interested in their ability to create sustained long-range force over
longer periods of time and manipulate it with a great degree of precision and
delicacy. If I can just get my hands on that…"
Rui understood what he was referring to. A few Martial Squires of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe had the ability to maintain constant force regardless of the
angle at which they were being launched from range via the atmosphere,
similar to telekinesis. They could hold objects mid-air from a distance via the
air.
This was unusual because most long-range projectiles were singular, or a

continuous emission in a singular direction. Even if Senior Ceeran could
manipulate the trajectory of his attacks after having launched them, he wasn't
able to maintain a constant stream of force that could be precisely adjusted as
though he was using his very own hands.
"You would be able to use your power more efficiently and lethally…" Rui
completed his sentence as he tried imagining Senior Ceeran with that kind of
power.
He would have just straightforwardly crushed his two opponents where they
were sky-walking in his previous battle.
"That's right, and once I master your Pathfinder technique and use the so-
called ODA system along with the mechanisms of the techniques of the
G'ak'arkan Tribe…" His eyes lit up in excitement. "Who knows just how
absurd the end result will be? It may just help me take one step closer to
becoming a Martial Senior."
"I see…" Rui remarked.
No wonder he was so pumped about the success that Rui had managed to
obtain. He was one step closer to eventually obtaining their techniques.
"Well, I'll definitely do my best. It's just that…"
"Just what?" Senior Ceeran raised an eyebrow.
"It's just that there are a lot of issues that need to be overcome and a lot of
work that will need to go in before we actually get those techniques," Rui
sighed. "Honestly, it might be best if I request the Martial Union for
specialized Martial Squires that have experience in training other Marital
Squires…"
"Don't bother, that's not going to happen, don't even bother," Senior Ceeran
shook his head.
"Why not?" Rui frowned.
Senior Ceeran turned to face Rui with a strange expression before realization
dawned on him. "Ah, I see, you haven't been informed yet."
"Informed about what?"
"Had you been in the Kandrian Empire at the moment, you would have
gotten the news without a doubt." Senior Ceean nodded, with an
understanding expression.
"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're referring to."
"Hmmm… Well, it's not confidential at all, so there should b no issue in

telling you this."
"…"
"A new dungeon was discovered," Senior Ceeran told him straightforwardly.
Rui's eyes widened. "What? Really??"
"That's right," He nodded. "It's a Squire-level dungeon too, located not too far
away from the Kandrian Empire."
"I see…" Rui processed the information with a lost expression. "That's what
you meant when you said that I won't be able to have the Martial Union
deploy any more Martial Squires here."
"That's right," He nodded. "In fact, you can be sure that once the deal is
made, every non-essential Martial Squire here will be brought back to the
Kandrian Empire."
"I'm guessing there's going to be a huge colonization war again," Rui

remarked.
"Not, actually, that won't be happening." He shook his head.
"Why not?" Rui frowned.
"Because the dungeon is not habitable to ordinary humans. It generates a

similar level of fear and pressure in normal humans as Martial Squires do,
meaning they would be suffering from severe anxiety and panic attacks to
even fainting," Senior Ceeran explained.
"So then… Only the Martial Squires of all nations will be sent with the hope
of plundering and looting the dungeon." Rui realized.
Dungeons were land and subterranean structures created when the roots of
flora came across highly rich and energetic esoteric mineral and compound
reserves deep underground. The roots began expanding, pushing the land
above ground by natural displacement as it expanded in size from having
absorbed the esoteric mines bearing fruit, both literal and metaphorical, that
were highly valued.
"Squire-level dungeons are different from the Serevian dungeon that you
discovered. As I said, there's going to be no army to colonize you. You
Martial Squires will be deployed in a much more independent capacity, and
you will face the Martial Squires of other countries on your own."
Chapter 704 News
This sudden piece of news that came from seemingly nowhere threw him off-
guard a bit. For half a second, he regretted taking this mission. After all, he
could have been part of this exciting new adventure had he chosen not to
accept this mission from Martial Commissioner Derun. Still, this mission was
worth it on his own. It was a choice that was worth it, and it broadened his
worldview even more and exposed him to new techniques that nourished his
imagination and inspiration.
Hell, it could even potentially end up making him stronger.
"You said that Martial Squires would be dispatched independently, did you
not?" Rui frowned. "What did you mean by that?"
"Unfortunately, the dungeon has fallen within the territory of the Shionel
Confederation," Senior Ceeran sighed. "The nation is not on par with the
Kandrian Empire or any of the other super-nations. But unlike most of the
nations on this continent, it is not a pushover. It is a Sage-level nation,
unfortunately."
"A what?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, it's just a convenient way of categorizing the Martial prowess of nations.
We put them into the category corresponding with the Realm that their most
powerful Martial Artist is of," Senior Ceeran replied. "It gives you a rough
idea of their Martial prowess very easily, after all.
"That means they have Martial Sages?" Rui sighed.
"Just one. But, just one is enough to prevent other powerful nations from
straightforwardly trampling over them, our Kandrian Empire included."
"So… if the dungeon is part of the territory of another nation that isn't weak,
then… why do the Martial Squires of the Kandrian Empire get to partake in
delving into the dungeon?" Rui asked with a confused look on his face.
"Well, just because they're not weak does not mean they're strong enough to
hoard all of it for themselves…" Senior Ceeran shrugged.
"They must have cut a deal or given some opportunity for other nations to
make gains of the dungeon?"
"Exactly," Senior Ceeran nodded. "They cannot withstand the combined

pressure of the nations in the geographic vicinity just because they're not
weak. If they do not cooperate, then they will definitely get trampled
eventually. They have agreed to open the dungeon to the outside world with
the condition that they keep twenty-five percent of the haul that foreign
Martial Squires made from entering the dungeon."
"That's not insignificant."
"They originally tried to get more than fifty in a private diplomatic summit
between the many nations, but were forced to hit twenty percent," Senior
Ceeran casually revealed what was probably classified information.
"It must be because destroying dungeons is pretty straightforward, and is too

easy to do for many nations," Rui noted as he shrewdly understood why they
had made such heavy concessions. "Other nations pose far too much of a
threat since they can just send a Martial Senior and ravage the dungeon."
"That's probably true, now that I think about it," Senior Ceeran noted with
casual boredom. Since it was a Squire-level dungeon, he had nothing to do
with it and didn't particularly care.
"So the Kandrian Empire will be officially deploying an army of Martial

Squires, I imagine? Since they can't deploy the actual Royal army due to the
extreme mental pressure?" Rui wondered.
"Not exactly, this is different from the Serevian Dungeon, as I said before,"
Senior Ceeran sighed. "All of the work will be done by Martial Squires
themselves, and not a large colonization team that will be handing things in
the background. It's a lot simpler, and the martial Squires inherently have a
much higher degree of autonomy. Thus, the Martial Union has also relaxed
the degree of control that it will exert on Martial Squires during the degree
exploration. There is no official mission."
"What?" Rui's eyes widened. "Why not?"
"Because it isn't worth it in this case, the Martial Union has incentivized the
Martial Squires to explore the dungeon and bring bang loot by alerting
available Martial Squires of an attractive exchange rate for the loot that they
will bring back from the dungeon. There are a lot of Martial credits and other
rewards to be earned by being successful in the dungeon exploration and
cooperating with the Martial Union.
"I see…" Rui nodded. "This certainly a way that lacks a lot of hassle, that's
for sure."
By simply creating a powerful incentive structure, the Martial Union could

get just the right number of Martial Squires heading towards the dungeon to
take part in its exploration and plunder.
"Can foreign Martial Squires enter the dungeon without any official
representation?"
"Martial Squires do not need any backing or serve as representatives, any and
all Martial Squires can come and attempt clear the dungeon."
"That is remarkably open," Rui remarked.
"Indeed. Regardless, coming back to the main point. Martial Squires are
already becoming scarce, thus you can forget about trying to get too many
reinforcements to make your life easier. I bet that woman Derun is losing
sleep with all the stress. Hehehe…" He chuckled lightheartedly.
pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ Rui on the other hand, wasn't even listening to him.

Senior Ceeran's news was not immediately relevant to him at the moment,
but, Rui wouldn't remain on Vilun Island forever.
Perhaps when he got back…
('That remains to be seen until after I've completed this mission,')
For now, he could safely put away what he had learned. The only important
point surrounding it was the fact that Rui was a bit on his own at the moment.
('That's not too much of a problem, thankfully. I'm pretty sure that we can
handle anything that the G'ak'arkan Tribe throws at us.') Rui was sure.
The settlement had a solid foundation as far as Martial Artists went. Even
without Squire trainers, it was not impossible for the training to be conducted
smoothly. Of course, the language barrier and the relative inexperience of the
Martial Squires meant that it was definitely not going to be easy, or quick.
But Rui was willing to take what he could get.
Chapter 705 Second Meeting
A few days passed, and not much had changed. At this point, Rui could only
wait for news. They had done everything that had to, and now the ball was in
the G'ak'arkan Tribe's court. Rui just had to make sure that they were
prepared for anything.
And he was when it did end up happening.
"Sir, a Martial Squire from the G'ak'arkan Tribe has arrived, announcing that
Senior K'Mala of their tribe would be arriving at dusk," An agent of the
diplomatic team rushed into the diplomatic office, announcing to Rui.
"Well," Rui stood up. "At least they had the courtesy to tell us ahead of time.
Almost all of the preparations have already been prepared. Make sure they're
all ready."
"Yes, sir," The man nodded, before rushing away to do his job.
"You heard that, Zeyra, Stemple?" Rui raised an eyebrow at his two
assistants.
"Yes, sir, we'll ensure that we are ready by then," They nodded.
"Good,"
And the settlement was thrown into a bit of a hurry as they made preparations
to welcome for the first time.
('I'm just glad that the K'ulnen Tribe has not postponed this moment,') Rui
sighed.
It would have been a pain if they decided to go into an all-out war against the
Martial Union. But unfortunately for them, they were far too busy trying not
to get torn to shreds by the sharks in the geographic vicinity that smelled
blood.
Thus, Rui could peacefully focus on receiving his guests.
pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ They came precisely when dusk arrived.
Rui could sense a powerful Senior-level force approaching the Martial Union
settlement at a slow pace, so as to not alarm them. She did not want to be
blasted away with a powerful attack from Senior Ceeran if he interpreted a
high-paced approach as a sign of an enemy trying to catch them all off-guard.
She even took the precautions of descending a good distance away from the
entrance of the settlement, choosing to walk the rest of the distance.
"K'Mala," Rui smiled. "Welcome to the Martial Union village."
The G'ak'arkan Tribe did not have honorifics for Martial Artists, thus Rui had
no choice but to call her directly by her singular name.
"Thank you," She replied shortly, reaching her hand out toward Rui.
It was a gesture that was not of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, but she had learned that
that was how the outsiders greeted each other.
Rui smiled appreciatively as he shook her hand, before gesturing her in.
Once they entered the village, her attention was drawn to the sheer alienness
of what she was witnessing.
The outsiders did everything differently, after all.
Their buildings were entirely different from the huts made up of clay and
stone that the G'ak'arkan Tribe had. This was the first time that she had
realized just how different from the G'ak'arkan Tribe, no, all the tribes on this
island were from the outsiders.
She didn't even understand how they built such large structures that seemed
so stable and solid. The structures that her tribe built were unstable beyond a
certain height and size, thus they were forced to be constrained by their
inability to build larger homes.
She looked at the various strange objects that they used that seemed to have a
life of their own. They seemed capable of moving on their own and even
giving out their own light.
She watched in wonder as the humans of this village sat inside some of them,
and be carried around by them. It was a drastic culture shock and the first one
that she had ever received in her entire life.
"We have arrived," Rui smiled, gesturing inside a conference hall. "Let us
hold our talks in here."
"Now then," Rui began once they were seated. "We are glad to have received
you this quickly after our previous talk, K'Mala. Please begin however you
would like."
He left the stage open for her. After all, he truly had said everything that he
needed to and everything that he could. Now it was time for the G'ak'arkan
Tribe to issue their response.
She was silent for a few moments before opening her mouth and simply
uttering:
"We accept the conditions of the trade that you have proposed."
Those words were delightful to Rui, yet he didn't allow them to impact his
perfunctory smile one bit.
But inwardly, he was fisting the air yelling 'WOOOHOOO!'
"I have with me a list of the techniques that we are interested in trading with
you," She brought out a rough parchment of somewhat thick wood-like paper.
"I am willing to trade this with you as long as you provide us with the
techniques that you outsiders are interested in."
"We accept that offer," Rui nodded as Zeyra immediately plucked a

document from her bag of files, handing it to Rui wordlessly.
"In this," He gestured to the file he holding since the G'ak'arkan had no noun
equivalent for the word file or document. "We have detailed the techniques
that we desire in quite the detail, in the Vilun language, of course."
The two simultaneously exchanged their lists, before immediately going over
the other's.
At the top of the list was a description of none other than the time he used the
Void Pathfinder technique in his debut battle.
It wasn't as though he hadn't expected this. He would be a fool not to expect

them to want the technique that allowed him to maintain his facade of being a
high-grade Martial Squire. Not that they knew that part.
Still, he didn't expect that it would be at the top of the list. That was, well, an
honor in a way. That meant that despite the presence of so many long-range
oriented Martial Artists, his Pathfinder technique still somehow managed to
steal the spotlight from them all. This included Senior Ceeran, it seemed. His
trajectory manipulation techniques were very next on the list, also earning the
interest and greed of the Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Rui skimmed through the remaining techniques listed there.
They were within his expectations. Power, range, and accuracy were the
cornerstones of the techniques that they sought. Based on what she'd just told
him, their intention wasn't to just spread the techniques themselves across
their entire tribe but to spread the elements of these techniques that they were
lacking to their tribe to be incorporated into the techniques that Martial
Squires would end up creating. This would allow them to fundamentally
improve the quality of their techniques.
On the other hand, the techniques listed in the document that Rui gave Senior
K'Mala were different. The techniques that the Martial Union sought were
sought after due to their uniqueness.
Techniques that allowed them to exert sustained force in any direction with
remarkable precision and accuracy as if the atmosphere was part of their
body. Techniques that allowed them to project wide-area defenses; allowing a
single Martial Apprentice to extend protection over many people
simultaneously. Techniques that incapacitated opponents from a distance by
depriving them of air, causing them to choke on the spot in the middle of a
fight. Techniques that caused blood to tear out of their opponent's body
because of a rapidly created vacuum causing the internal pressure of the body
to momentarily overwhelm the flesh that was withholding it.
The G'ak'arkan Tribe was a formidable Martial tribe, and not without reason.
It was for these techniques that the Martial Union wanted to engage in trade
with them.
These were not techniques that were foundationally strong, but they were
techniques that opened new avenues for the Martial Union to explore. Once
the Martial Union got its hands on it, it could spread the technique to other
Martial Artists while also spending a lot of funds and resources on improving
and optimizing them.
Both finished reading through the other's desires, and it didn't seem as though
either side was particularly surprised.
Rui wasn't surprised because this was part of his plan from the very start.
Show them techniques that allowed them to push past their limits. For the
G'ak'arkan Tribe, however, it was only natural that the Martial Union would
want techniques that it didn't already have. Thus, when that logic was applied
to their repository of techniques, it wasn't particularly surprising that they had
managed to predict many of the techniques that the outsiders would want.
Once both of them had digested what the other side wanted, they provided
each other with basic information about the techniques that they wanted, as
agreed. They would later also have to look at demonstrations and the
competency of the Martial Artists performing those techniques as agreed,
after all.
Once they reached the basic degree of familiarity, they could resume the
negotiations.
"This so-called Pathfinder technique that you wielded in your first battle on
this island, we strongly desire this technique. Tell me more about it," She told
him.
As per their agreement, the Martial Union would take the first step when it
came to both providing information and techniques, thus Rui obliged her
request as Stemple passed her a document detailing some data on the
technique. None of it was confidential information regarding the mechanics
of the technique, but it gave them a good idea of what it was capable of.
"The Pathfinder technique is a technique that I created. What it is, is a

technique that allows one to aim accurately without relying on the inherent
accuracy of the marksman, but a more calculated accuracy," Rui explained
vaguely.
He did not want to give them any specific information, just very vague and
general information on what they could expect if they wanted to master the
technique.
He did not hold back in explaining the difficulty of mastering the technique.
It was a grade-ten technique for a reason, after all. Furthermore, these were
primitive people when it came to science, which is what the ODA system of
the Pathfinder technique was based on. So the difficulty for them was perhaps
even higher than that of the Martial Artists of the Kandrian Empire.
Then again, Kandrian Martial Artists were also generally quite scientifically
uneducated, thus he didn't think that there would be too much of a discovery.
"As I said, it is an extraordinarily difficult technique; what we consider to be

a grade-ten technique, the highest level of difficulty a technique can be
classified to have," Rui concluded.
"...How difficult are grade-ten techniques, exactly?"
"Grade-ten techniques are the kind of techniques that one, or perhaps a few
people at the very most, master every generation despite a huge number of
people trying to master it," Rui replied.
Grade-ten difficulty was a bit different from the other grades that had upper
limits to their difficulty above which there was a higher grade of difficulty. A
grade-ten difficulty technique was open-ended as far as the upper limit of
difficulty went.
After all, difficulty in and of itself did not have a limit. A technique could be
difficult such that only one in ten Martial Artists could master it, or one in a
hundred, or a thousand, or a million, or a billion and so on and so forth, there
was no end till infinity.
In practice, however, there was very little meaningful difference between a

technique that was so difficult that only one in a million could master it, and
one that only one in a billion could master it. The distinction between these
two was not worth making. Nor was it possible to distinguish between the
two unless one had a billion Martial Artists.
Thus, grade ten was an open-ended group for all techniques that were so
difficult that generally, only one Martial Artist in a large Martially-rich
country like the Kandrian Empire could master it.
Thus, sometimes Rui felt that grade ten undersold the Pathfinder technique,
he suspected that his technique could potentially be on the higher end of the
grade.
In which case, he wasn't sure that anybody in the G'ak'arkan Tribe could
possibly master it.
The worst part was that he was going to have to train them to master it.
Chapter 707 Difficult
This was the disadvantage of being the creator of a grade-ten technique. The
very next person that mastered the technique would most likely need to be
trained by the creator.
"So it is extremely difficult to master, hm…" She considered his words. She
didn't seem very surprised to Rui, which was understandable, it was very
rarely the case that a technique's power was not proportional to its difficulty.
"I want to see demonstrations of the technique. As well as the relevant

information of Martial Artists who have mastered this technique as agreed,"
She demanded.
"No problem," Rui sighed. Since he was the only Martial Artist to have
mastered it, he would need to divulge a lot about his own personal
competency. This would probably dampen the value of the technique since
she would quickly discover that he had a powerful mind, something very
relevant to his execution of the Pathfinder technique. "I suggest, however,
that we complete all the demonstrations of techniques and the exchange of
the relevant data on the mastery and competence of the Martial Artists that
have mastered these techniques, in one go. Rather than having to do this
every time we want to discuss a new technique. This way we can smoothly
proceed once this process is done in an orderly manner."
She considered his words, before nodding. "Alright. Please provide us with
all of the information on your techniques, since you have agreed to go first."
"No," Rui resolutely shook his head. "We have already gone first when I
provided you with information regarding the Pathfinder technique. It is your
turn to show some sincerity by giving us information on the technique on our
list."
She narrowed her eyes mildly before nodding. "Alright, we'll do that in the
next meeting. For this meeting, however, we would like to confirm our
willingness to proceed with a trade of Martial Art techniques under the
conditions that we have laid out."
"That is great to hear," Rui smiled. "Then let us draft the agreement on paper
then."
"What for?" She frowned.
Written contracts were unheard of in the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Verbal promises

meant a lot within their culture.
"Just to ensure that neither side forgets, or tries to back out of the deal, or
tries changing one of our agreements. Writing it down and signing on it
makes sure that there isn't any possible way to break them sneakily," Rui
explained.
"Signing on it?" She tilted her head in confusion
"You just have to write your name at the bottom of the parchment," Rui
explained patiently.
"Alright, I don't really understand, but if that is what you want," She nodded.
Stemple quickly fetched two thicker parchment-style sheets of paper detailing

the terms and conditions of their agreement that would be able to weather a
lot. Since it probably was the case that the G'ak'arkan Tribe would probably
not store their copy of the contract as prudently as they perhaps ought to, Rui
wanted to make sure that there was no way they could damage it unless
intentionally.
"Just so you know, in the Martial Union, these mean a lot, just as much as
verbal promises mean to the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui warned her before she
could sign it. "Once you sign this, it will be considered binding, and we
cannot be content with allowing you to break it. The Martial Union that sent
me here will not be pleased, and will most likely take action. So, please
ensure that you are certain about this."
"I have already given you my word in the name of my tribe," She casually
replied. "I have no intention of breaking it unless you outsiders do, this piece
of paper is for your comfort, that is all."
"That's fine too," Rui smiled, amused, as he signed both documents before
passing them onto K'Mala.
"Well, the agreement has been set, we look forward to trading with you," Rui
smiled as he offered his hand to her once she signed the document.
"When should we conduct the demonstrations of the techniques that both of

us are interested in, as well as the exchange of information surrounding the
Martial Artists?"
"We can do that in a week," Rui nodded.
"Why so long? Can't we do it today?" She frowned.
"No, unfortunately. We need to transcribe and translate the information to the

Vilun dialect, and that cannot be done in just a few days. We will inform you
when we are ready, rest assured we will try to get it done as soon as
possible," Rui offered.
"I understand," She nodded, realizing how convenient the outsiders were
making it for this trade to occur. She would have expected that
communication with outsiders would have been quite difficult even after one
of the outsiders was successfully taught the language, but apparently that was
enough for dozens of outsiders who spoke the language fluently to show up.
They made it look easy.
That in combination to carry many people across the vast seas, and build a
remarkable village unlike anything anybody had seen, she realized that she,
and her brethren, had probably only seen a small drop of the power of this so-
called Martial Union.
"…"
Rui raised an eyebrow at her. "Is there anything else that you wanted to
discuss in this meeting?"
"…I was just curious."
"About what?" Rui asked with a hint of curiosity.
"The world that you come from, what is it like?" She wondered.
"…"
"So, I was hoping you could tell me more about it," She said.
Rui had to weigh his options here. On one hand, information was power. The
more he revealed about the Kandrian Empire and the Martial Union, the more
information he was providing to her. On the other hand, this could serve as a
good way to strengthen his relationship with her and ensure that the
likelihood of them falling out with the G'ak'arkan Tribe was low.
Besides, it wasn't as though she was asking for strategically important

intelligence or confidential information. What she was asking for was basic
knowledge that even the most uneducated person on the continent would
know.
Chapter 708 World-Building
"Zeyra, Stemple, the official negotiation is over for today. Begin the due
process," Rui told them.
"But sir…"
"Just do it,"
The two bowed before taking a leave.
They were his official assistants and advisors, but this wasn't an official
meeting from this point forth.
He loosened his tie a bit before drinking some water.
"Now then," He began. "You wanted to know about the world we came
from? I can tell you. Well, we come from a faraway place, it took us quite
some time before we got here."
"How far away?" She asked.
"I cannot reveal that, unfortunately," He shook his head. "But the distance is
much greater than the size of this island, I can tell you that much."
Revealing the distance between the Kandrian Empire and the G'ak'arkan
Tribe would increase the, albeit low, probability that they could run into the
Kandrian Empire someday. If hostilities ever broke out, then this would
become yet another headache for the Kandrian Empire.
"What is your world like?" She asked once more.
"…What is our world like, eh? There's so much to say that I don't know
where to begin." He paused for a moment, before starting. "Our world is
large. Very larger. Larger than you can probably imagine."
"Large?"
Rui nodded. "The number of people, the size of the land that we come from.
The territory, everything is magnified."
"I see…" She muttered. "How many tribes are there in the world that you
come from?"
"About that, we don't have tribes." Rui smiled wryly. "We have something
called countries. You can think of them as very large tribes, that are much
easier to enter and exist. Most countries are bigger than this entire island, you
know?"
"What?!" Her eyes widened. "Those must be gigantic tribes!"
"You can think of them in that way," Rui shrugged. "But countries are not as
tightly bound as your G'ak'arkan Tribe. Usually, most people can enter and
exit them with some ease."
"What?" She frowned. "That sounds horrible, why do these tribes allow
anybody to enter??"
Rui scratched his head, her question was so fundamental that he needed a
moment to gather what he had always taken for granted. Not just in this life,
but in his previous one as well.
"Principally, it is because countries hold that people have the right to freedom
to leave the country if they want to. Practically, it's because the vast amount
of trade that happens between and through countries would be impossible if
people weren't allowed to leave their countries and join other countries."
She just stared at him, too confused to even know how to respond to that.
"Er, countries and people of those countries trade things with other
countries… Kind of like how we just have agreed to trade Martial Art
techniques with all of you," Rui explained.
"Oh, I see! You all trade Martial Art techniques with each other, correct?"
"Well, not really. We mostly trade many kinds of things, ranging from food
to resources, technological pro-"
He paused when he saw confusion creeping into her expression, before

shifting his explanation. "You see all the various objects of all sizes and
shapes that you see our people using"
He gestured out the window.
She nodded. "Like those strange moving ones that have people in them."
"Correct, people exchange those things from other countries, among other
things," Rui explained.
"I see…"
Rui continued helping her understand what the Panama continent was like bit
by bit. The G'ak'arkan Tribe was so vastly different that she didn't have even
the slightest bit of familiarity with concepts that would have otherwise been
ubiquitously known back on the Panama continent.
The G'ak'arkan Tribe lacked an economy. The tribe satisfied everybody's

needs to the best of its capabilities, and it did a well-enough job. If there was
something that somebody in the tribe wanted from another one of their
members, they needed to simply ask, and they would oblige. People naturally
did everything they could to help their tribe. Boys and girls who had the
potential for Martial Art dedicated everything to it, becoming the new
generation of Martial Artists that would protect the tribe from the hostile
enemies on the island, while the remaining children would take on more
ordinary roles befitting their capabilities.
This is why she was unable to comprehend the very concept within a country.
She still fallaciously attributed the values of a tribe, but on a larger scale, to
countries.
"People do not give each other what they want just because they want it, that
kind of behavior is limited to within families. Outside of family, If you want
something, you need to offer something worth its value. A fair exchange,
similar to what we are trying to do between us."
This was technically true since money counted, but it still sounded like the
barter system which existed prior to the invention of the concept of currency.
But he hadn't even gotten to the concept of currency yet. She still had far too
incomplete a worldview for him to even broach that topic yet.
Slowly but surely, she began gaining a somewhat clearer yet blurred view of
what the continent was like.
"Do these countries fight the way that the tribes on this island do?" She
asked, curious.
"Well, some of them do. But largely, most countries do not fight with each
other like the way the tribes of this island do with each other."
Of course, war was by no means gone. There was plenty of conflict that
occurred across the entirety of the continent. Yet the countries did not fight
each other as intensely as he had seen the tribes of the island do with each
other.
They knew nothing else but war, they were born in it, molded by it. There
was no diplomatic cooperation between any of the tribes for the most part.
This was something that surprised her the most.
"They are so big, yet they do not use their size to fight with each other?" She
wondered aloud.
Chapter 709 Desired
An entire hour passed as Rui helped her gain a crude understanding of the
outside world. In the span of the discussion, K'Mala had her mind blown
more times than she could count. By the time, the discussion ended and she
left, she was left in a little daze with the information overload.
Rui hoped that their discussion hadn't gotten her to forget the official
negotiation talks that they had had.
Rui immediately sent a request to Martial commissioner Derun for the

confidential information that was required as per the terms of the agreement.
He immediately set the entirety of the translators in the diplomatic team into
translating the data into the Vilun dialect so that they could comprehend.
Of course, things weren't that simple, there was also the need to, to a certain
degree, simplify the data and spell out the conclusions that could be inferred
from it. The G'ak'arkan Tribe lacked the personnel that could analyze and
process the data in its raw form. This was why Rui had requested a week, it
was needed.
A week passed soon enough, and the day for the exchange of information and
demonstrations had arrived.
The demonstrations would include many techniques from both sides, at the
Squire and even Senior level, they could not be conducted within the
settlement or the village. In the end, Rui and Senior K'Mala decided to hold
the demonstrations in one of the barren patches of the island where their
demonstrations would not harm the natural environment of the island.
"You're a little late," She tapped her feet as Rui and the others arrived at the
location that they had agreed upon.
"You never specified a time in the first place," Rui sighed, amused.
"I said the first crack of dawn," She snorted.
"You do realize that the timing of dawn depends on altitude, right? You guys
are on a mountain, we're on a hill, therefore we'd see the light of dawn after."
"Excuses," She snorted, unconvinced.
Rui sighed with resignation. "Regardless, we're all here. Let's begin."
Rui looked around.
Numerous Martial Artists had gathered here, among which were two Martial
Seniors and many Martial Squires. On Rui's side, there were several normal
humans as well, they were to serve as translators for the Martial Squires, each
tending to one Martial Squire.
"Alright, as agreed, you will begin the demonstrations," She told him.
"We'll go alternatively, in the order of the techniques that we listed," Rui

added. "…And the first technique on your list was… me."
"That's right," She nodded with impatience. "It's your turn to begin.
Demonstrate that technique in any way you wish."
Rui sighed, as the many Martial Squires looked at him in interest and
anticipation. Even Senior Ceeran, who had resolved to stay silent in fear of
getting in Rui's way, was smiling. Rui looked around as he spotted a suitable
target for demonstration.
There was a larger boulder in one direction that was just at the right distance
from Rui.
"That will work,"
He opened his mouth and launched a Sonic Bullet at the boulder.
THWOOM!
BANG!
A foot-wide crater emerged. Rui had reduced the power of the attack to the
standard of a mid-grade Martial Apprentice since the reason this technique
was sought after was because of the aim, not the power. He also did not want
to destroy that large boulder with a single attack, since that would miss the
point of the demonstrations.
WHOOSH!
He immediately took off into the air, lashing around zig-zagging within a
constrained area, all while firing many Sonic Bullet techniques in the
direction of the target.
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Each attack he launched in the middle of rapid and non-uniform flight, landed
exactly where he had launched his first shot. Not a single attack deviated by
even an inch, maintaining the perfect crater that only grew deeper with each
attack.
The many Martial Squires on both sides stared in wonder as Rui nailed the
bullseye that he had created with his first shot, from more than a kilometer
away from the target. For Martial Squires, such accuracy from such a
distance away with such a small projectile, that demanded greater precision,
was pretty much impossible!
Even Senior K'Mala's eyes widened as Rui casually fired many attacks
rapidly one after the other and they all traveled a great distance before hitting
perfectly on the already deep crater.
BANG!
The Sonic Bullet broke through to the other side as a clean hold had passed
from one side to another. Rui landed on the ground before launching a final
attack that passed straight through the hold, hitting another rock that was
behind it without ever touching the drilled boulder despite going through it.
"That should be enough for a demonstration," Rui remarked nonchalantly as

he casually glanced at Senior K'Mala.
"…Yes, that's good enough…" She managed to squeeze out.
The Martial Squires of the G'ak'arkan Tribe moved over to the boulder to take
a closer look at Rui's handiwork. They studied the hole that his repeated
Squire-level attacks had made.
"The hole is not that rough," one of the G'ak'arkan Martial Squires mentioned
as they rubbed their palms along the inside of it. "What incredible accuracy!"
None of them were concerned regarding the lacking power of the attack, they
knew that he had limited himself since the entire bould would have been
reduced to smithereens with a single attack or two had he used his full power.
"This technique, we definitely need to get our hands on this technique!" The
Martial Squires' greed for this technique only grew deeper. They had long
heard about this technique when Rui had first used it in his debut battle
against the K'ulnen Tribe. It had been hard to believe back then, but seeing it
in the flesh was almost harder to believe.
It took a while for them to get over their fascination, to the point that Senior
K'Mala needed to drag one of them back herself with force!
Chapter 710 Domain
"We have taken the initiative as promised, now it's your turn to follow up,"
Rui calmly reminded her.
"We do not intend to go back on our word… The first technique on your list
was the Sacred Lotus Blooming Gale, correct?"
"…Yes," Rui sighed.
The names of the Martial Art techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe were overly
metaphorical and figurative. They offered no insights onto the techniques
themselves.
The differences in philosophies of both sides were entirely evident in the way
they handled the naming of their techniques. The Kandrian Martial Union
and most Martial Artist organizations of a similar nature usually took a more
pragmatic approach to name techniques. Techniques usually alluded to their
purpose and their capabilities. Although it wasn't as though they were entirely
literal themselves, it was also true that they were grounded in reality.
To Rui, Sacred Lotus Blooming Gale was an unnecessarily ostentatious name

that accomplished nothing.
A Martial Squire stepped forward from that G'ak'arkan Tribe. Rui recognized
her. She was the one that they had seen use the technique that they sought.
Senior Ceeran, in particular, was quite impressed with this technique and
wanted to use elements of the technique with that of his own techniques to
strengthen them, Rui could sense that he was paying greater attention to her
ongoing demonstration.
"Uhm… My technique is a wide area technique, so I cannot demonstrate it

here…" She nervously said as she notices Senior Ceeran's intense stare. This
was quite a lot for her to bear even if Senior Ceeran was suppressing the
pressure that he was exerting since the G'ak'arkan Tribe placed a lot of weight
on Martial power when it came to their social hierarchies.
Once she took her place in the distance. She closed her eyes, focusing, as she
raised her arms. She inhaled and exhaled in a pattern while her body swayed
smoothly yet swiftly in a particular matter. Rocks, stones, and soil rose from
the ground slowly as they began swirling in a circle, forming a dome around
her.
The intensity of the mini sand storm continued increasing until it reached a
peak before suddenly freezing. She breathed in and out rapidly as she
continued with her gestures. The sand and rocks flew inward before
compressing into a smooth sphere in her hand, that smoothly crumbled into
dust that the wind dragged away.
Senior Ceeran's eyes had lit up in excitement at the sight as she continued to
demonstrate the manner in which she could apply her technique.
('She is able to maintain a directed and controlled stream of force by reducing

the amount of power that she was exerting per second,') Rui noted in interest.
Usually, with long-range techniques, there was a rapid discharge of power in

a brief amount of time to create a powerful singular impact or a decently
strong barrage of impacts, or forceful streams of attacks. However, what she
was doing was reducing it even further where she could exert continuous
force over a much longer period of time. She was able to control the angle
and locations of force to a much higher and more precise degree while also
having a much greater degree of control over how she exerted her force.
('In exchange, her power is lacking compared to long-range techniques, but

she makes up with her control and flexibility.') Rui remarked.
It meant that she would be a real menace to deal with in a battle of attrition
because she would be able to o on for a long longer than most Martial Artists.
In a battle of attrition, she would brutally squeeze her opponent,
metaphorically and literally like an anaconda.
It was a particularly clever application of force, and Rui could see why Senior
Ceeran would want it. It could help him last much longer in battles of
attrition like his latest battle against the leaders of the K'ulnen Tribe. He
would be able to apply his force much more efficiently in longer battles.
"Next," Senior K'Mala broke Senior Ceeran out of his reverie.
"I believe your trajectory manipulation is the second on the list of techniques
that they desire, Senior Ceeran," Rui offered.
Senior K'Mala directed a cautious look toward the Martial Senior. She had
witnessed his power and knew for a fact that if a fight broke out here, she
stood no chance of surviving against him, let alone beating him.
Senior Ceeran wordlessly rose to the air. His energy was lethargic, but
everyone present grew more tense yet excited. It wasn't every day that they
got to witness the power of a Martial Senior being demonstrated for them at
close range, without their life being on the line.
Everyone watched with hawk eyes as a dense and opaque breath escaped
Senior Ceeran's mouth. It immediately split into several directions as Senior
Ceeran harnessed the wind currents that it generated, directing them
diagonally downwards as Senior Ceeran skillfully manipulated the
trajectories in all kinds of directions. He made sure to demonstrate his ability
to alter techniques at all speeds. Even at the highest of speeds of his attack, he
could make relatively sharp curves across the air, showing everyone that
nobody could juke his attacks even if they tried.
And everyone believed him, of course. They had not forgotten how even the
matriarch of the K'ulnen Tribe was not able to cleanly avoid the attacks of
Senior Ceeran for more than a short time. If not for the patriarch of the
K'ulnen Tribe intervening at the right moment, she may very well have died
then and there.
The long-range pressure and suppression that Senior Ceeran was able to exert
were quite impressive and was clearly why the G'ak'arkan Tribe sought after
his techniques. Even if heavily restricted almost all of his power, people
could feel how oppressed they would be if they had to fight him even with his
highly restricted attacks.
"Incredible," Senior K'Mala's eyes widened as she stared at the power that
Senior Ceeran effortlessly demonstrated to all of them without breaking a
sweat.
Chapter 711 Unique
One after the other, Martial Artists of both sides came forward to demonstrate
the techniques that the other side wanted to obtain. The demonstrations were
different, as none of the techniques were too similar, and they had different
parameters that made them impressive.
Rui watched with interest as they came up one by one, executing their
techniques. It was one thing to read reports and analyses on them, it was
another to actually witness them in the flesh.
He realized there were many nuances that he had missed prior.
For one, despite their lacking of impact power in their attacks. They were not
necessarily less lethal than the Longranger Martial Squires of the Martial
Union by a great degree. They had a surprising amount of lethality through
means besides impacts.
There were many ways to inflict damage on a person. Impacts through strikes
or wind-based projectiles were just the most straightforward and easiest ways
to inflict damage on people.
In reality, there were entire fields of Martial Art that were dedicated to
inflicting damage on people through unusual and non-standard means. The
most significant ones that came to mind were poison-oriented techniques.
These techniques were lethal in ways that did not involve inflicting more than
a bit of a wound. Sometimes, no wounds were required to be inflicted at all.
Of course, these techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe did not operate on the
same principle as poison techniques, but they also inflicted damage through
non-standard ways. Thus, despite not having techniques that exerted powerful
impacts, they possessed techniques that were just as damaging as powerful
impacts, and sometimes even more.
One of the techniques that Rui had come across caused debilitating damage
to ear drums through directed sound waves. Another Martial Artist used
techniques that caused a rapid vacuum around their opponent spontaneously,
causing the internal pressure generated by the body to momentarily exceed
skin durability for just a brief moment caused by the extremely rapid shift in
pressure. The enhanced durability of Martial Squires prevented this from
happening under ordinary circumstances, however, the rapid pressure shift
allowed for internal pressure to surpass the durability of outer flesh such that
it could cause flesh to tear, inflicting wounds on the body using its own
pressure.
Another technique suffocated their opponent with vacuums, which was a

form of inflicting damage that was radically different from impacts, yet quite
dangerous. If the target spent too much time affected by the technique, the
lack of oxygen would quickly weaken them, causing them to lose the strength
to leave the technique's area of effect and eventually causing them to die.
Rui could even understand how the G'ak'arkan Tribe had come to discover
this technique in the first place. It was most likely because Martial Artists, in
pursuit of individuality, came up with newer means to harm their opponents
than just by standard impacts or tears.
This wouldn't have happened if the G'ak'arkan Tribe did not hyper-emphasize
the individuality of Martial Artists, and encouraged all of them to pick their
own unique paths from the very start of their journey down their Martial
Path. Had they not done that, then Rui highly doubted that any of the Martial
Artists would have gone so far off the beaten path.
After all, if they were not encouraged to find new ways to hurt their
opponent, then they would have straightforwardly inherited and mastered
existing long-range projectile techniques that allowed them to rely on
existing paradigms to inflict damage on their opponent.
Rui wondered if this demonstration proved that there was merit in the Martial
Union adopting the approach that the G'ak'arkan Tribe had taken with its
extreme pursuit of individuality. If this little tribe was able to generate so
many unique techniques that even the Martial Union chased after, then
perhaps it would make sense for the Martial Union to adopt the same, or at
least a similar approach to encourage and foster more individuality, even if it
was difficult with no immediate benefit of power to the Martial Apprentice.
If these techniques were interesting to Rui, then there were several that really
interested Rui.
THWOOM!
A thin potent sound bullet moved at an incredible speed as it pushed through

the atmosphere.
Rui widened his eyes as he watched it cover nearly a kilometer in less than a
second. He had read about this technique in the reports but realized that there
was more going under the surface than he had realized.
('That's an attack made of sound.') He frowned. ('Yet it moves faster than the
speed of sound by a huge degree.')
This was generally not possible unless…
('Unless the pressure that she's exerting far exceeds atmospheric pressure.')
Rui noted. All sound waves were restricted at the speed of sound due to
several factors, such as atmospheric pressure. The pressure that the
atmosphere had on air molecules that served as the medium of sound largely
decided, when other factors were constant, the speed at which sound
propagated through the air.
The pressure constrained the speed and rate at which air molecules bounced
at each other, and only in special circumstances could this be changed.
Among these, were ensuring that the pressure of the sound wave exerted that
of the shackling atmospheric pressure by a large degree.
('Is that why her attack is so small?') Rui glanced at the bullet-shaped crater
that her attack had made on her target wall.
By reducing the size of the projectile, she was increasing the energy density
of the wave and thus the pressure that launched the wave forward.
Allowing her to break the threshold that allowed the sound wave to propagate
forward. With this, she was able to launch incredibly speedy projectiles that
were extremely difficult to dodge.
('This technique… There is so much potential in this technique.') Rui

realized.
It could potentially make life a lot easier for Rui, he had to admit.
('There is worth in mastering this technique…') Rui's eyes lit up in interest as

several ideas for a new technique flashed through his head.
*****
Author's note: I will be adding more priv chapters, as for what form that
takes, that remains to be seen. Also, there will be a mass release in the month
of May.
Chapter 712 Idea
Rui's eyes glinted as a germ of an idea formed in his head.
('Being able to alter the speed of sound waves through the air and surpass the
speed of sound… There are applications of this beyond just creating speedy
projectiles that move many times the speed of sound,') Rui realized.
In fact, the increased speed of the projectile was actually just the simplest of
applications.
('The constant speed of the Sonic Bullets was shackling, but with this
technique, there are routes that I can consider that I couldn't before,') Rui
noted.
With sound projectiles of much higher speed, the execution of the Pathfinder
technique became much easier since the sound bullet traveled to its target
much faster and thus took less time to reach its target.
This significantly allowed Rui to expand his targeting range since the bullet
can cover much greater in the same amount of time, thus the ODA system,
which had a time limit as to how many seconds ahead of time he could
predict atmospheric conditions would also allow him to hit much more
distant targets since the distance the bullet could travel within that time limit
was greater.
At the moment, he could only predict atmospheric conditions for three

seconds ahead of time at the most. This may not seem like much, but given
how complicated the math and the physics were and the sheer amount of data
he needed to sense and process himself, it was actually a bit of a miracle that
he was able to process all that data to that degree in that short amount of time.
Given that sound only traveled a little over a kilometer in three seconds, that
was also his maximum for guaranteed perfect hits. In order to hit with one
hundred percent accuracy beyond that range, he would need to be able to
predict the atmosphere deeper than three seconds in the future.
He knew that that was damn near impossible given how much he was
straining himself with his current limit.
However, now that he had come across a technique that could potentially
allow him to send his attacks further than a kilometer in three seconds, that
meant that he could also have a one hundred percent accuracy beyond a
kilometer.
This alone was an excellent reason for Rui to pursue this technique.
('That's just the most straightforward application of the technique,') Rui

smiled.
Rui had considered an even crazier idea.
('If I'm not wrong, this technique can allow me to surpass the limits of the
attack power of my Sonic Bullets,') Rui thought to himself with excitement.
An absolutely crazy idea popped into his head, he wasn't sure if this would
even work in the first place. But if it worked at all, then there was no way he
could possibly afford to miss such an opportunity to create yet another
powerful technique.
('I have to learn this technique no matter what!') Rui decided.
Thankfully, he was the boss here. Senior Ceeran would definitely not object.
Hell, he was sure that the Martial Senior would be keeping a close eye on the
techniques that Rui would be developing.
"An incredible technique…" Rui nodded when the demonstration was done.
"I look forward to mastering it myself."
Senior Ceeran raised an eyebrow at Rui. They hadn't yet decided which of the
Martial Squires on their side would master which techniques.
The rest of the demonstration proceeded quickly and both sides took their
time examining the techniques of the other side, ascertaining their value
themselves.
This would allow them to get a good grasp of the cards that both sides had.
"The demonstration has come to an end," Rui turned toward when the last
G'ak'arkan Martial Artist had ended his demonstration.
Senior K'Mala nodded absentmindedly, deep in thought.
"Why don't we reconvene tomorrow at our village?" Rui offered when he

noticed her state. "After all, both sides have a lot to think about."
Both sides had already received the information detailing the degree of
mastery and competence of the Martial Artists of the other side. There was a
lot that needed to be considered before both sides settled on a discrete
appraisal of the other side's techniques.
"…Alright, at the break of dawn, don't be late this time," She nodded.
('You're the one coming to us though,') Rui sighed inwardly, not wanting to
spark a fight over something so silly and childish.
The two of them bade each other goodbye before setting off in opposite
directions.
"Interested in the Mighty Roar Flash Blast technique?" Senior Ceeran asked
with curiosity.
"…Yes," Rui cringed a little at the flashy name of the technique. Fiction
normally had such techniques, but Rui had to admit that there was no way
that he could possibly give his own techniques such flashy names.
"What technique do you plan on creating?" Senior Ceeran grew even more
interested.
"The technique will greatly benefit the Pathfinder technique as it is," Rui
began. "That alone is good enough reason to master it."
"That is true. Your ODA system will definitely perform much better if your
projectile speed was faster, considering that the ODA system's predictions are
constrained by the time period of projectile flight, and not distance. Thus
faster projectiles will travel greater distances in the same time limit,
increasing your accuracy range."
"It seems you have gained a good understanding of how the ODA system
works," Rui raised an eyebrow at Senior Ceeran.
"Of course! I intend to master that technique no matter what. I have had to
spend a lot of time understanding the theoretical reading material that you
had given me a while back. But I think I am slowly getting it," He nodded
energetically.
Rui had to admire his motivations and perseverance. Trying to understand

and master the partial differential equations that described the system of wind
current vectors among other things with no scientific foundation was
extremely difficult.
They chatted as Rui explained some of his plans while concealing his most
ambitious yet compelling ones. They seemed so difficult that he didn't want
to count his chicken before they hatched.
Chapter 713 Constructive
Rui immediately handed over the data that they had recorded with a remote
recording device that a few people possessed. The analysis team quickly
began appraising the value of a technique when weighed against the Martial
Artists' competence and skill. This would allow them to objectively isolate
the technique's capabilities from that of the Martial Artist's mastery.
The way this worked was by taking the average time it took for other Martial
Artists of the Martial tribe to master the technique. Then it would be
compared to the time it took for the Martial Artist that demonstrated the
technique to Rui, to master it. If the demonstrating Martial Artist achieved
basic mastery of it sooner, then one can presume that the Martial Artist likely
possesses talent or affinity that is perhaps biasing the results. The value of the
technique will be increased or reduced by one or two grades if the difference
in the time it took for the demonstrating Martial Squire was too great
compared to the average.
The same would be done for the amount of time that the Martial Squire has
mastered the technique.
If the Martial Artist had mastered the technique for decades, then it can be
assumed that part of the quality of the performance came not from the
technique, but how deeply the Martial Artist had mastered the technique.
Obviously someone who only just mastered it would be much inferior in
performance, which would be a more accurate reflection of the technique.
In that regard, Rui's Pathfinder scored quite high. He had only mastered the
technique in a little under four months and had spent nine months creating the
technique.
This way, the value of the technique can be gauged while accounting for
talent and mastery.
These estimations were relatively simple, partly due to the simplicity of the
information that they had to work with. What surprised them was that Rui not
only understood their work but was completing it even faster than them!
"This is completely wrong," Rui shook his head as he inspected the work of
one of the analysts.
"Um… Sir?"
"The time period of mastery of a technique is not the same as the time period
needed to create it from scratch, the Sky-splitting Tempestuous Whirlwind
Sword technique was a technique that was created from constituent
techniques that the Martial Artist had already mastered. You need to account
for these differences in order to accurately gauge the proportion of the
empirical potency grade of the technique that is caused by the time period of
initial mastery."
"I-I see…"
Soon enough, they had the data they needed. The actual and accurate value of
the techniques of the Martial Artists in the form of power and difficulty
grades of the techniques, as well as their dissemination value in the form of
the success rate of the mastery of the technique.
"Interesting…" Rui hummed as he studied the analysis on the Mighty Roar

Flash Blast technique. "This just might work…"
Rui smiled as some of his excitement leaked out.
('The fact that it can surpass the speed of sound… means that constructive
superposition is possible,') Rui's eyes lit up.
Constructive superposition was a phenomenon described in the classical

theory of waves like that of sound waves. When two simple harmonic waves
met and overlapped, there were three possibilities; either the two waves
canceled each other out to a certain degree resulting in a weaker wave, or
they added their strength to create an even stronger wave with a greater
amplitude.
It could be envisioned with ocean waves. If two ocean waves overlapped

them such that the crest overlapped with the crest, it would yield an even
greater crest. However, if the crest overlapped with the trough, then the two
would naturally cancel each other out resulting in still water.
The former was known as constructive superposition, and the latter was
known as destructive superposition.
Rui was interested in the former.
('If I launch a sound bullet, before launching a second sound bullet that was
even faster. I could potentially merge the two attacks into one using
constructive superposition…')
He wasn't sure if it was possible or not. But if it was possible…
('The power of my long-range attacks would increase a lot. Maybe I wouldn't

have had so many clean shaves against the woman,') He recalled his final
against the Martial Squires of the K'ulnen Tribe.
The female Martial Artist he fought against could shrug off his Pathfinder
Sonic bullets like they were a child's attack. If not for his idea of striking her
funny bone to shove aside her arm, he may not have won that fight.
Winning a fight with tactics and strategy when his power was insufficient
was definitely something he had done plenty of. What he would rather
happen was to never be put in a situation where his power would be
insufficient.
If he could superimpose two Pathfinder Sonic Bullets into one attack making
twice as strong, or perhaps even more than two, then he would be able to hit
far above his grade, most likely. His grade was already higher than it should
have been on paper by more than one grade thanks to the VOID algorithm,
but with this, he might even end up being two grades higher than he actually
was!
('I don't if this will work or not, but will I really get another chance to
strengthen the Pathfinder technique's attack potency by such a degree through
any other means…?') Rui wondered, before shaking his head.
There was very little chance that he would get such an opportunity. What
were the odds that he would find a technique whose system and mechanics
were centered around sound and wave mechanics, that would allow him to
amplify the power of a technique beyond his ordinary limit thanks to synergy
with his strengths?
('Almost non-existent… really.') He sighed.
That just made his decision that much more certain. There was no way that he
could let it go after making the realization that he just had.
Chapter 714 Efficiency
What would it look like if he stacked three sonic bullets on top of each other
in constructive superposition, creating an attack that could be thrice as
powerful as what he would normally be able to dish out in a single impact?
Of course, he could also release those three same bullets normally in a

barrage, but singular impacts were often more desirable than barrages. This
was because damage was not necessarily linearly related to power.
That meant that three equal attacks did not cause an equal amount of damage
as one attack thrice as powerful as one of those three attacks. There were
many exceptions, such as piercing attacks and other means of inflicting
damage.
But by and large, the damage rate of barrages of smaller attacks was lesser
than that of one large blunt force attack.
One could clearly intuitively understand this when considering a feather

following on one's head one million times, or a boulder that weighed as many
as one million feathers following on one's head one time.
The former would not cause even an ounce of damage while the latter could
potentially kill an ordinary person.
Rui could use this principle in his favor when it came to his Pathfinder
projectiles, by summing up attacks that would do less damage than if he
summed into a single attack. He was basically increasing the efficiency of the
power he spent versus the result he obtained, and increasing the effectiveness
of every single attack that he could potentially deal if he truly mastered what
he was looking for.
The reason that he needed the Mighty Roar Flash Blast technique was that he
could not have superposition happen at all if his attacks were of the same
speed, with the reason being relatively obvious. In order to superimpose, they
needed to overlap the same location at some point. This was not possible if
they were moving at the same speed when launched one after the other,
obviously. The distance between them would never shrink.
Thus, this technique that allowed him to increase the speed of his sound
projectiles was absolutely vital to Rui if he wanted to master constructive
resonance and use this principle of physics to augment his attacks.
The day moved agonizingly slow as Rui waited for the appointment with
Senior K'mala. He even made sure to ensure that they were well-prepared
ahead of time to ensure that Rui would be ready to handle the negotiations
with her even if she showed up an hour earlier insisting that dawn had
already broken back home.
"Senior K'Mala, I'm glad you're here," Rui smiled when she finally arrived.
"Today is going to be an important day."
"Mmm," She nodded wordlessly, uncaring for etiquette. Such a concept did
not really exist in their culture, since they almost never had any meaningful
diplomatic relations with anybody in their entire lives prior.
Once Rui led her to the conference hall, they immediately began.
"We have an issue with the information that you provided us," She
straightforwardly began with a stern expression.
Rui frowned. That was a rather bold accusation. They were basically
implying that the Martial Union was lying and engaging in deception.
"You people are lying and engaging in deception."
…And now she straightforwardly declared what was implicit earlier.
Rui remained silent for a few moments.
Had this been another country, Rui would have responded strongly and
sternly. He would have accused them of defamation and would warn the
other side to avoid making statements that are patently false. Although it
would lead to friction, maintaining a strong front was generally the right
move to go for. Any half-hearted response to slanderous claims would be a
sign of weakness that others may seek to exploit.
But this was not another nation that operated within the same framework of
international political engagement where the perception of the Martial
Union's tolerance, or lack thereof, was extremely vital for the deterrence of
deception.
This was an entirely different situation. If the G'ak'arkan Tribe accused them
of lying, it was almost certainly genuine earnestness and sincerity rather than
a deceptive ploy. The G'ak'arkan Tribe was much more trigger-happy than
other nations, thus Rui needed to change his approach.
"I can assure you we have done no such thing of the sort, K'Mala," Rui
calmly, yet confidently stated. "I'm sure this is a misunderstanding, can you
tell us what exactly you believe is a lie?"
"It is you,"
"…Sorry?"
"You are definitely lying about yourself," She tossed the document with the
information of the Martial Artists of the Martial Union on the table. "This
says that you have been a rank two Martial Artist for eight seasons. This is
impossible!"
She snorted as she folded her arms as she stared at Rui with a stern
expression, albeit calm.
Rui on the other hand was putting in effort as he resisted the sheer amount of
pressure and fear.
That was until he heard an explanation.
"I'm sorry?" He frowned. "I have been a Martial Squire for eight seasons, this
is an absolute fact."
"Do you think I'm a fool?" She growled as she leaned forward. "You are
stronger than every rank two Martial Artist we have ever seen. Including
those that have been in the second rank for decades! How is it possible for
you to obtain such power so quickly? How can someone so inexperienced
exert such kind of pressure? It is impossible!"
Rui's eyes widened as understanding dawned upon him.
It was the Mind Mask, as well as Rui's thorough preparations before battle
that allowed him to convince them that he was an extremely high-grade
Martial Squire. When they read that he had only been in the Squire Realm for
a little under three years, they undoubtedly that the Martial Union was trying
to sell them nonsense to deceive them to make his techniques more valuable.
('Fuck…') Rui cursed inwardly. Not even he, with all his foresight, had
considered the possibility that the decision to make himself seem stronger
would come and bite him in the ass this late in the game.
"You have it all wrong," Rui heaved a sigh. "That data is entirely accurate."
"That's impossible," She snorted, her aura growing more forceful by the
second."
"The reason that it is possible… is that I'm not as strong as you think I am,"
Rui sighed, revealing to her.
He would not have gone for this choice had he been dealing with another
nation on the Panama Continent. After all, revealing that he wasn't a grade-
ten Martial Squire would be giving them more strategically important
intelligence.
This was especially the case when one considered the fact that Rui wasn't an
unknown Martial Artist. When he was a Martial Apprentice, he earned
himself a name in other countries during the Serevian Dungeon War. After
all, he had destroyed many Apprentice-level assets in the war, and the Martial
Union had been forced to prove that he was a Martial Apprentice to prove
that they didn't violate the clauses of the Serevian pact that the many nations
had agreed to.
Thus even his identity had been exposed to a certain degree.
Revealing that he was actually much weaker than he had initially presented
himself was risky. It wouldn't be impossible for other nations to potentially
exploit this fact to their advantage.
However, he was dealing with the G'ak'arkan Tribe. He could rest assured
that there was very little chance that they would engage in deceptive
subterfuge when there was no record of them having ever done so in the
history of the Vilun island.
"What?" She frowned. "What nonsense is that?"
"I am presenting myself to be stronger than myself using a special mental

technique," Rui calmly explained. "See? I'm not as strong as you think I am."
His passive aura of pressure diminished significantly as he got rid of his mind
mask.
Her eyes widened as she stared at him with an incredulous expression.

"Eh…?"
"I can even use it to suppress my aura entirely," He explained as used a mind
mask to present himself as an ordinary human.
She simply stared at him with an open mouth, wide eyes pushing back
against her furrowed eyebrows.
"So, yes… The information is accurate. I just have been altering my power to
ensure that people don't belittle me or doubt whether I am fit for my job or
not," He revealed with complete honesty.
"…"
"…"
Rui smiled wryly as she continued staring at him wordlessly. One of the
reasons that he had been able to speak with Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan
Tribe instead of Martial Squires was that he presented himself as stronger
than all of the Martial Squires of the G'ak'arkan Tribe with the help of his
Mind Mask technique.
It was the very reason that he was speaking with Senior K'Mala instead of
some Martial Squire of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"…But you killed that rank two Martial Artist with a single attack… You
defeated the daughter of the leaders of the K'ulnen Tribe swiftly even when
she had help… How was that possible?"
"The Pathfinder technique… and some preparation…" He replied, after
giving it some thought.
Now he was being just a tad little deceptive.
It wasn't just 'some' preparation.
He had spent the months that the settlement was being built absorbing any
and all data that he could get his hands on the Martial Artists of the K'ulnen
Tribe, to build more accurate and extensive predictive models on his
opponents. He had even spectated other battlefields where the Martial Squire
of the K'ulnen Tribe were fighting against other Martial Tribes, building
predictive models on every single one of them.
What that meant was he entered the battle against the K'ulnen Tribe
effectively far stronger than he normally would be and only grew stronger as
he refined the existing predictive models on them. Thanks to this, he entered
the battlefield much stronger than he would have been had he not done so.
But, the more he diminished that, the more valuable the Pathfinder technique
would be.
('…And it seems to be working.') He watched her open the document he had

given her to the Pathfinder technique as she stared at it in amazement, reading
through all the information listed on it, before turning back to Rui in
amazement.
"I assure you, if you saw me fight against a powerful Martial Squire, I would
struggle to win and would lose in most cases," Rui added.
He was a little concerned by her reaction to the deception, but thankfully he

had already created a favorable impression of himself to her, having
conversed with her extensively off the record.
"I see…" She murmured. "I suppose in that case the information you have
provided to us is accurate."
"Indeed," Rui nodded. "Is there any other issue that you had regarding the
information that we provided you with?"
"No," She shook her head. "I appreciate the honesty. You are one of the most
shocking rank-two Martial Artist I have ever seen"
"Thank you for the kind words, you flatter me," Rui smiled. "In that case, I
presume that there are no further issues that may delay the main matter at
hand then?"
"Yes… We may begin…" She regained her composure. As even more

amazing Rui had become in her eyes, she needed to ensure that the
G'ak'arkan Tribe got a favorable agreement regarding the exchange of
techniques.
"Alright, why don't you open the negotiations with an offer?" Rui offered.
"You can begin with any of the techniques that you've listed as ones that you
desire and are interested in obtaining."
"In that case, we'll begin with the technique that we are most interested in,"
Her demeanor grew more serious. "The Pathfinder technique…"
Rui's smile did not faze as he stared at her wordlessly before finally
responding. "Well, that is an objective, not an offer. We evaluate the
Pathfinder technique to be quite valuable, especially when considering the
G'ak'akran Tribe's more limited long-range capabilities. So the question is…
what are you offering in return?"
Rui felt a little embarrassed as he spoke highly of the Pathfinder technique as

the representative of the Martial Union.
Chapter 716 Offer
"We are willing to offer two techniques; the Catastrophic Thundercrack

Whiplash and the Dark Abyss Bloodsurge technique, in exchange for the
Pathfinder technique," She replied.
Rui immediately shook his head. "That is not enough. Those two techniques
are of much less power and capability and don't have an alluring
dissemination viability."
Not all of the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe that the Martial Union
sought were for their actual capabilities. Many of the techniques that the
Martial Union sought were for research purposes. These techniques were
novelties that presented them with new paths to obtaining power.
In other words, they had great potential. And the Martial Union intended to
exploit its formidable research and development department to expand on
those techniques and build upon them to create more optimized and powerful
upgraded versions of the technique that follow the same principle.
However, the G'ak'arkan Tribe did not know this, and this was one of the
advantages that the Martial Union had in these negotiations.
They did not know that the techniques they had were valuable to the Martial
Union, far more so than it was to them. Thus they could get away with deals
that, while fair in the eyes of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, were quite advantageous
"Those techniques are too little in value in combat compared to the

Pathfinder technique," Rui replied, as he falsely expressed a lack of too much
value for two such techniques that possessed great potential in the eyes of the
Martial Union.
"Then what more do you propose we give you in exchange?" She asked.
"…How about the Mighty Roar Flash Blast technique additionally?" Rui
pointed out. "According to our evaluation of the technique, it would be fitting
in addition to the two techniques that you offered earlier?"
Rui had been interested in that technique ever since he identified that it could
help him grow stronger and allow him to remarkably improve existing
techniques. He decided to try obtaining it in this negotiation. After all, they
would not be exchanging techniques all at once, since both sides lacked a
guarantee, especially the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
The G'ak'arkan Tribe had agreed to this deal under the condition that the
Martial Union would fulfill its agreements of an individual trade before the
G'ak'arkan Tribe did theirs. This was to ensure that the Martial Union did not
swiftly leave the island and run away once it got what it needed at the
expense of the G'ak'arkan Tribe not obtaining what it did first.
By ensuring that the Martial Union would always fulfill its obligation a bit
earlier than the G'ak'arkan Tribe, this possibility was entirely erased.
However, the Martial Union, on the other hand, did not want to give away all
of its techniques and then expect the G'ak'arkan Tribe to give up all of its
techniques. It was entirely possible that this group of irrational warmongering
idiots would decide to renege on their end of the agreement.
Thus both sides agreed to not conduct all the trades simultaneously.
That was why Rui was quite determined to ensure that he got the technique
he was looking for in the very first trade that the Martial Union and the
G'ak'arkan Tribe conducted.
"Three techniques for one?" She narrowed her eyes as she frowned a bit.
"That's too much."
"My technique is that valuable," Rui insisted. "And I'm sure you realize that,
especially after learning that I am not a powerful Martial Squire. It makes the
technique that much more impressive, does it not?"
She remained silent at his words.
It was true.
She had to reevaluate the value of the technique then and there.
In a way, Rui was glad that she found issues with his personal information
since that gave him a good reason to explain the truth while simultaneously
making the technique more valuable.
Of course, the technique was even more powerful when he used it with the
VOID algorithm to create what he called the Void Pathfinder, but this was
just fine too. They would still be gaining a huge boost.
"One of the many good things of the Pathfinder technique is that once
mastered, it can be applied to any sound-based technique," Rui informed
them. "It can also be applied to lesser degrees that decrease its difficulty. Its
value is greater than that of its combat applications. This is quite the fair deal,
and I'm sure you realize that."
She remained silent for a few seconds, before sighing and nodding her head.
"Fine, the Catastrophic Thundercrack Whiplash, the Dark Abyss Bloodsurge
technique, and the Mighty Roar Flash Blast technique in exchange for your
Pathfinder technique.
Rui felt a headache just listening to those stupidly long names. Hell, he was
surprised she didn't bite her tongue trying to enunciate all of those names so
rapidly.
('No technique, no matter how grand and powerful it is, needs such
inconveniently long names are absolutely unnecessary!') Rui resolutely
declared.
It was then he remembered that he was the one who came up with the names
'Variable Objective Inverse Derivation' algorithm and 'Objectively Derived
Accuracy' system.
At that moment, he could not help but feel like a hypocrite.

('…At least I have the decency to make cool-sounding acronyms with them!')
Rui nodded to himself.
"Hm? What was that?" Senior Ceeran noticed.
"Ah nothing, since we have come to an agreement on this matter, let us

quickly draft the agreement on paper before we begin then," Rui smiled with
an encouraging expression.
He wanted to ensure that the deal went through. After all, there was no way
he would allow the technique that he wanted to be delayed.
When it came to his Martial Art, he was not a patient man. Waiting for a few
weeks before he would have another chance to bargain for it was too much
for Rui.
('Also, since the Pathfinder technique is their very first technique, it means I
will be teaching and learning simultaneously.') Rui scratched his head at that.
That was definitely new for him.
Chapter 717 Done
They quickly chalked out the first agreement on paper and both sides signed
it, making it official.
After that, the dominoes fell one after the other. Rui and Senior K'Mala
haggled over the exchanges a lot.
Most of the trades were one technique for another. However, like the first
technique, there were techniques that were valuable enough to warrant two
techniques from the other side.
However, none of the remaining techniques on either side ended up being

exchanged for three techniques.
After a few hours, each of the techniques that both sides wanted and were
willing to give had all been traded off in the agreements.
"Huff…" Rui fell back in his seat after the final set of contracts had been
drafted and signed. "Finally… It's done."
It had taken a long time to reach here, but finally, he had completed his
mission.
('In fact, if not for the fact that I have to pass on my Pathfinder technique, I
might have been sent back home,') Rui noted.
After all, Martial Squires were not deployed in areas where their mission was
completed and their objectives were satisfied.
"You sound tired," Senior K'Mala snorted mirthfully.
"You have no idea how much we have gone through to obtain this result,
K'Mala," Rui sighed, before turning to his two assistants. "Finish all the
protocols and the due process surrounding the contracts."
"Yes sir," The two assistant diplomats obediently collected all the documents
carefully before leaving the room.
Rui turned back toward K'Mala.
"I still can't believe you're just an immature rank-two Martial Artist," She
murmured.
In her mind, Martial Squires who hadn't even spent five years in the Squire
Realm were still immature children as far as Martial Squires, the fact that the
martial Squire who was so powerful he seemed like he was on the verge of
becoming a Martial Senior was actually just one such immature Martial
Squire was quite the shock.
"Well, I'll take that as a compliment," Rui shrugged with a wry smile.
"It is a compliment," She insisted. "I'm looking forward to learning that

technique of yours."
Rui raised an eyebrow. "You are going to be my student?"
"That's correct," She nodded with a blank expression.
"…"
"…"
Rui wasn't sure whether he ought to laugh or smile.
"Why are you willing to become the student of a Martial Squire?"
She smiled at that question. "Why, did you assume that I was too proud and
egotistical just like the other rank three Martial Artists to lower my head to a
rank two Martial Artist?"
"…"
"Hmph," She snorted. "I thought so. I am not as block-headed as my brother
and the chieftain."
Rui was impressed. He had to admit, that she was definitely more rational
than her brother who had dealt with Rui the last time.
"After all, becoming stronger is already so difficult once you reach the third
rank… If I want to step into a higher rank, I cannot afford to allow things like
pride to get in the way," She sighed.
This was not an insignificant thing for her to say. This was the first
confirmation that Rui had heard from the Martial Tribes of Vilun island that
they were aware of the existence of a higher Realm of power.
Rui remained silent as he considered how to respond. He did not want to

reveal anything that could potentially give her more information about the
Master Realm. Even though he probably knew way less than she did due to
her being closer, he had met a few Martial Masters in his life, which she
hadn't
If she truly was aiming for the Master Realm, she would definitely try to pry
out information surrounding it from him.
"Be honest," She began as she turned toward him. "Your world… has rank
Martial Artists, doesn't it?"
"…"
"You don't have to be so wary. It isn't that difficult to conclude." She sighed.
"Less than one out of ten rank-one Martial Artists becomes a rank two
Martial Artist, and less than one out of ten rank-two Martial Artists becomes
a rank three Martial Artist. You said your world was large. It would logically
follow that, given your size, you most likely have many rank-four Martial
Artists, maybe even rank five Martial Artists. After all, why else would a
rank three Martial Artist like that of yours be dispatched by superiors?"
Rui smiled. "Well, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that I
cannot answer your questions surrounding this topic. The good news is that
you are intelligent enough to potentially master the Pathfinder technique.
Probably never as good as I have, since I am the creator of the technique who
created it to suit my strengths. But still, you will definitely make good use of
it as long as you are willing to put yourself through the wringer."
"This isn't the first time I have persevered past a hurdle," She snorted. "I did
not reach the third rank by being a quitter."
"I admire that, but do not be too overconfident, I can absolutely assure you
that you have never ever come across a technique like this in your entire life,
K'Mala."
Rui earnestly warned her about the challenge of mastering the ODA system.
He had already laid out the difficulty of the technique more extensively in the
documentation that he had provided them, but he was worried that it would
perhaps not be enough.
After all, the reason for the difficulty of the Pathfinder technique had to do
with the ODA system which was probably unlike anything that they could
possibly fathom.
Rui was unable to put into words to explain to someone with zero
background in science how difficult it would be to master the ODA system.
On top of that, he had to teach her this in the Vilun dialect. That was
torturous. He wasn't sure if he could possibly handle the sheer amount of
effort and tutelage that it would require to teach her and ensure that she has
mastered it to an adequate degree.
Chapter 718 Education
"Hmph, I'll handle whatever you throw at me," She confidently stated.
The two conversed for a while before she decided to get up and leave. "See
you tomorrow morning sharp at the crack of dawn. I can't wait to begin
learning this new technique. It'll be fun to have my blood gushing through my
body as I push it to the limit."
Rui smiled bitterly as he realized she still had no idea what she was in for.
She would not be pushing her body to the limit any time soon.
Not at all, what she would be pushing to the limit was her mind. In every way
possible.
He would be pushing her learning comprehension, her intellect, her memory,

and her patience.
She would be learning the classical wave theory from scratch, while he would
be giving mini crash courses on the various mathematical concepts that she
should be needing to understand the ODA system. This included the entirety
of algebra, trigonometry, exponents, calculus, and differential equations,
partial and whole, of multiple orders.
There would probably be a lot of other mathematical concepts that she would
be involved in that Rui would normally take for granted that she clearly
would not know. But he would need to handle that on the run.
This was not going to be easy, several months would most likely go into
getting her to understand and master the ODA system.
On the other hand, this process would probably not stretch out for as long as
it did in school back on Earth because the objective of her education was
highly objective-oriented. He had one goal; to get her to understand and
embed the ODA system into her bones.
This meant that educating her was going to be much more straightforward.
He wasn't going to give her a shred of knowledge beyond what she needed to
know to understand the ODA system.
He could construct her education program to ensure that he was only giving
her what was necessary to ensure that she understood what she needed to
understand. This way, he could really cut away a lot of the fluff that the
education system had when teaching students these concepts.
This way it was more efficient than if he had to start all over.
He shook his head, putting away the thoughts for the time being. He had not
needed to go to such lengths when it came to pass the technique on to the
Martial Union. The Kandrian Empire just barely possessed enough
theoretical scientific advancements that the ODA system was not
incomprehensible to them. After all, the mathematics and physics that it
relied upon were very far away from cutting-edge theoretical science. The
knowledge itself was from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
He would need to spend some time today to create an educational training

plan for her.
('I should take the advice of Senior Ceeran,') Rui mused.
Senior Ceeran was also trying to master the ODA system, he should consult
the man at least once to ensure that there wasn't anything that he should be
taking into consideration when accounting for her being a Martial Senior.
('Speaking of which…') Rui's eyes narrowed. ('She said something strange

just then.')
Rui recalled her exact words.
(' 'It will be fun to have my blood gushing through my body as I push it to the
limit' is what she had said')
They were insignificant in a vacuum.
However, when he contextualized that statement with the insights he had

made regarding Martial Seniors and those peculiar glowing veins of those, he
couldn't help but wonder if she meant that statement in a more literal way.
His eyes narrowed before his body loosened up, as he shook his head. ('I have
a lot of work to do.')
When he returned back to the business of the settlement, he was unsurprised

at the positive atmosphere. People greeted him with greater respect and
appreciation.
This was especially true in the diplomatic team, that celebrated the most.
"This wouldn't have been possible if you hadn't done your job so perfectly
well, sir!" Zeyra had told him when he ran into her once more.
"Good job young man!" Senior Ceeran had told him with an excited grin.
"Now I can proceed with obtaining what I have always wanted."
"Neatly executed as always," Kane had given him a thumbs up.
It took him a while before Rui was able to finally get back to his own
quarters and relax for a bit.
He looked at his personal accounter as he skimmed through his credit

balance.
"As expected," He smiled.
The Martial Union had already deposited a huge sum of money into his
account. He bet the second that Zeyra and Stemple had finished the
preliminary report of the success of the negotiations and signing of the
contracts to the Martial Union, they paid him his due. His official mission
was not successful to obtain all the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
His official mission was to serve as a diplomat to successfully ensure that the
G'ak'arkan Tribe would officially sign the contract agreeing to a number of
trades that included all of the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe that they
possessed an interest in.
And now, he had very successfully accomplished that goal when all of his
predecessors had failed spectacularly.
('Oh, there's another message…') He skimmed through it.
[Squire Rui Quarrier, as per the trade contract between the Martial Union and
the G'ak'arkan Tribe featuring an exchange of the techniques Catastrophic
Thundercrack Whiplash, Dark Abyss Bloodsurge, and the Mighty Roar Flash
Blast of the G'ak'arkan Tribe and the Pathfinder technique of the Martial
Union, you will be expected to abide by the terms and conditions of the
contract. The royalties surrounding the international distribution of the
Pathfinder technique, as per the Martial Art licensing contract, will be
credited to your account shortly after the transaction is complete.
-Department of Foreign Affairs]
('Essentially telling me I need to stick around to teach them my technique and

will get paid my royalties as agreed.') He mused.
Chapter 719 Supremacist
"And thus… we require you to reign over the settlement for the time being of
the exchange…" Martial commissioner Derun told him.
Rui had contacted Martial Commissioner Derun soon after, to find her
beaming at him as though she was his aunt.
"You've really managed to cleanly complete this diplomat endeavor that has
been plaguing the Department of Foreign Affairs for many years, in just a
matter of three months," She sighed in appreciation. "They're quite
impressed, so much so that they have insisted on retaining you."
"I've already made my stance on that quite clear, I'm afraid," Rui shook his
head.
"And I have conveyed that to them, don't worry," She told him, before
turning to Rui. "I forgot to inform you, but your grade will most likely be
pushed to grade five."
Rui raised an eyebrow at that.
"You were already quite close, being able to keep up with grade-five Martial
Squires quite well, and then you got even stronger. On top of that, your feats
in the battles against the K'ulnenTribe are quite impressive."
"I see…" Rui nodded with a smile on his face. "That's very nice to hear."
He had known he could take on grade-five Martial Artists for a while now.
Though he wasn't too very hurried with getting the Martial Union to allow
him to leave.
After all, he cared more about progressing in his Martial Art than he did care
about the fact that he was officially a grade-five Martial Squire.
"Grade five within three years of reaching the quire Realm. That's a record,
you know," She glanced at Rui with immense interest.
Rui found the piece of information interesting. Aside from taking a bit of
pride in it, however, there wasn't much of a reaction from him.
"Martial Art is not a race, commissioner," Rui replied. "It's a marathon, and
you are your only competitor."
"That is remarkably wise coming from a Martial Artist of your inexperience,"

She mused.
"Normally, it takes thrice as much to make the progress that you have. Your
body is that of a grade three Martial Artist, and yet your combat prowess is
two grades above your physical limit. That indicates an immensely potent
Martial Path and powerful techniques." She remarked. "I've heard that you
have expressed interest in one of the techniques of the G'ak'arkan Tribe?"
"Yes," Rui nodded. "I hadn't realized it when I went through the descriptive
reports, but actually witnessing it in the flesh was quite revealing. The
technique will definitely benefit me a lot just by learning and
straightforwardly applying it. However, if I am able to realize my ambitions,
then I should be able to progress my Martial Path significantly better."
"That's quite pleasant to hear as an executive of the Martial Union, Squire

Quarrier." She smiled. "The growth of all Martial Squires is highly desirable
to the Martial Union. We need every ounce of power that we can get our
hands on, you see. The greater the power we possess, the greater the ability
we have to deal with the greatest threats that lay just beside us…"
Her expression grew intense.
Rui had a strange feeling about those words.
His eyes narrowed. "What… are you referring to?"
"The Royal Family, of course," She replied as though it was the most obvious
thing ever. "The very Kandrian government is our enemy that we have no
choice but to cooperate within our mutual interests against the other Sage-
level super-nations in the geographic vicinity."
Rui furrowed his eyebrows as he felt something was off.
"…The Kandrian government are our sworn enemies…? Why in the world
would you say something like that, if I may ask?"
"That should be obvious by now, am I right?"
"Uh… no?" Rui felt lame saying that, but he was being honest.
"…Martial Artists are humans who have shed a portion of their mortality and
surpassed their limits. They have transcended ordinary humanity. How does
it make sense for Martial Artists like you to acquiesce to the royal family,
who are merely ordinary humans?" She turned towards Rui. "Martial Artists
ought to be the ruling class. Anyone who opposes that is an enemy of our
civilization and species."
Rui just stared at her for a few seconds, waiting for her to say 'I'm just
messing with you lol'.
But it never came.
"Take a look at the Martial Tribes of Vilun Island," She smiled when Rui
refused to respond. "Look at how cohesive they are. Look at how united they
are. Look at how much loyalty their tribes-folks possess toward their leaders.
Ordinary humans cannot convey such natural dominance over others."
Rui furrowed his eyebrows as he realized what was happening.
('She's part of the Martial supremacists!') Rui realized.
He had heard about the political factions that supported the political, socio-
cultural, and economic dominance of Martial Artists. He thought he had
never run into a single one of them.
Yet he could now see that he had known one for quite some time now. He
wondered how such a crazy entered the Martial Union in the first place.
('Well, it is the Martial Union. Pro-Martial Artist sentiment is probably never

welcome.') Rui noted belatedly. ('Her political faction is probably an absolute
enemy of that of Colonel Geringan's political faction.')
He recalled the Martial colonel who had hired him to train his daughter. The
man belonged to the Merger Faction that wanted to fuse the power and
resources of the Kandrian Empire and the Martial Union so that they created
a single entity that was stronger than the sum of the two individually and
separated.
('Is that part of why she had me undertake this mission?') Rui wondered. The
Martial Tribes of Vilun island were a good embodiment of her ideals and
political beliefs. She took the initiative to introduce him to them.
Rui wondered if that was the motivation for sending him to Vilun Island.
There were many ways in which she could influence his view on this matter
without directly trying to convince him of her political beliefs.
Chapter 720 Interests
"I'm afraid I don't understand," Rui replied earnestly. Frankly, her extremism
was starting to freak him out a bit.
Even if it was a political ideology that benefited Martial Artists, he had to

admit that he wasn't particularly drawn in by it. He had never been too into
politics, but he believed in the equality of opportunity. However, from what
he could see, she definitely did not believe that.
She glanced at him for a few seconds, before opening her mouth. "It comes
down to what form of society is best for human civilization."
"And you believe that a Martial Kraterocracy is the best for society?" Rui
raised an eyebrow with skepticism.
Kraterocracies were systems of governance where power was seized by

physical and martial force. There existed nations on the Panama Continent
where the head of state was a Martial Artist, and power was distributed via
Martial merit.
She simply smiled at his question. "Of the many nations of this world, what
form of government, on average, do you think has the most amount of
cohesiveness and unity?"
Rui frowned as he considered that question. He didn't know the answer, and
he wasn't sure if he was going to like it.
"Of the many forms of government in this world, the kind that harnesses and
uses the power and resources of a nation most efficiently are those that are
driven by Martial power." She explained. "This is not an argument or a
prediction. It is purely an observation, and we have since understood the
reasons for this."
She turned toward Rui. "Do you know why this is the case?"
Rui remained silent for a few seconds before sighing. "Martial Artists are one
of the main stakeholders of every nation that the head of state and head of
government need to appeal to. They are one of the most important interest
groups because they possess tremendous Martial power, which translates into
political power as long as they are able to unite as a group with baseline
common interests. They serve as constraints to leaders of nations since their
interests need to be met because if they aren't met, they will either migrate or
rebel…"
Martial commissioner Derun nodded appreciatively. "But…?"
"But this doesn't apply to systems of governance where the Martial Artists
themselves are the leaders. They are not constrained by themselves, after all.
While other forms of governance are constrained by Martial Artists and need
to appeal to their interests, sometimes at the cost of their own, Martial leaders
do not need to pay such a price since the Martial Artists are the leaders."
She nodded. "Correct, Squire Quarrier. Take a look at our own nation, the
Kandrian Empire. The Royal Kandrian family is considerably constrained by
the Martial Union. The Kandrian Emperor cannot make unscrupulous
legislations that harm the interests of the Kandrian Empire, because the
Kandrian government does not possess the ability to enforce legislation that
the Martial Union vehemently is opposed to, logistically. That is a
tremendous constraint on the Royal family."
Rui listened to her wordlessly. Technically, there wasn't anything false about
what she said.
"Yet what if the Kandrian Emperor and other people in positions of power
were all the powerful Martial Artists? If they themselves were the rulers, then
there would be no powerful Martial Artist interest groups that they would be
constrained by, they are that group!"
She turned toward Rui. "When leaders are not the Martial Artists of the
group, they are constrained by the latter. It is only when Martial Artists lead a
nation that they are unconstrained and unhampered in their mobilization of
the power and resources of a country. In other words, only Martial Artists can
bring out the true power of human civilization in a sense."
She paused before continuing. "Take for example the Britannian Empire. It is
an example of a Martial Kraterocracy, and it also happens to be the most
powerful nation in this section of the continent. The Britannian Emperor is
the head of state and happens to be the most powerful Martial Artist in this
section of the nation. All of the other examples of Martial Kraterocracies are
similar, this includes the G'ak'arkan Tribe to a good extent as well. Do you
think the tribe would be cohesive if the chieftain was decided by democracy
and if there was an ordinary person leading the tribe"
Rui couldn't, in good faith, say no.
"That's partly because their culture would conflict with such a system. It does
not mean that such a system is inherently bad," Rui pointed out. "And
regarding Martial Artists taking over the legislative branch of any
governmental structure, I believe it was you who told me that Martial Artists
ought to spend their time training and fighting, as opposed to engaging in
non-Martial related work. This seems contradictory to what you're telling me
now."
She smiled at his argument. "That is true. However, when I say Martial
Artists ought not to spend much time on matters unrelated to Martial Art, I
mean quite literally time spent on it. It is possible to be in positions of power
while not having to engage in administrative or bureaucratic work. There is
one such example right before your eyes."
Rui had already known what she was talking about. "The Martial Union…"
"Correct," She smiled. "The ultimate positions of power are held by Martial
Artists, and most of the bureaucratic and management work is handled by
executives like myself, who can entirely be dismissed from our positions of
power the moment our Martial Artist superiors deem so. In this way, they can
maintain power over a large organization while still not being swamped with
executive duties. Senior Ceeran has spent months away from the Martial
Union while still retaining his position of power within our Department of
Research and Development, has he not?"
Rui nodded.
He had to admit that there was the logical foundation in her arguments. Their
disagreement was more fundamental than that. He had to admit that the
Martial commissioner had a point though.
Chapter 721 Kraterocracies
In a sense, while she was dramatically opposed to the Merger Faction that
Colonel Geringan was a part of, their end goals had some commonalities. The
Merger Faction wanted to merge existing institutions of the government with
that of the Martial Union to create a hybrid singular ruling structure with a
division of power that placated all of its constituents so that the constraints
and restraints on and from the government, and on and from the Martial
Union would go away, strengthening the nation as it became more unified.
Martial commissioner Derun, on the other hand, also wished to retain the
constraints that the two groups placed on each other, however, she believed
that only one of the two groups possessed the ability to truly unify a country
and draw out its full power. She even extended this philosophy to the entirety
of human civilization.
"Your propositions make sense," Rui admitted. "When the biggest

stakeholder interest group with unshakeable hold over military do not possess
legislative power, then they do end up hampering those in seats of legislative
power with conflicting interests. The most straightforward solution to prevent
this conflict of interest is to place such said Martial Artist stakeholders in
positions of power themselves."
She nodded. "But…?"
Rui smiled wryly. "While it is true that lack of political opposition from
stakeholder interest groups leads to a less fragmented political power
dynamic, that is not necessarily a good thing."
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow at his words. "And why do you say that?"
"Such a power system lacks too many checks and balances. Conflict of
interest groups may slow down a country, but it also prevents any one
stakeholder from extreme exploitation of others. This is a bit of a guess since
I've never studied political philosophy all that much, but the nations that are
Martial Kraterocracies most likely also have greater occurrences of human
rights violations and economic exploitation of the lowest classes of society,
am I wrong?"
When legislators were constrained by conflicting interest groups with

comparable influence and the ability to compete for political power, it
became much harder for the former to exploit the citizens of the nation.
She simply stared at him for a bit, before finally replying. "Perhaps, but I do
not believe that it is inevitable. And even if it were… I believe that the pay-
off is worth the benefits."
Rui furrowed his eyebrow in confusion.
Why did he, a Martial Artist, seem to care more about the average person in a
tyrannical system than her, a normal human being?
It was rather odd.
"I might have to disagree with you there, commissioner Derun," Rui
shrugged. "I can't dismiss the costs so easily I am afraid."
"There's no need to be apologetic," She shook her head. "We are all entitled
to our own opinions, after all."
Well, she was at least open-minded. She didn't try to spend too much time
trying to persuade Rui. She accepted that he disagreed with her, and moved
on.
For now, at least.
"I'm surprised that you are willing to be within a system run by people who
would die from a single attack from you. Would it not feel better to be in a
system where people at the top have the power to crush you effortlessly?
Martial power proportional to their political power?" She seemed genuinely
intrigued.
"I'm just worried that they'll screw things up if I'm being honest," Rui shook
his head. "We Martial Artists are not entirely normal in the head. And that
becomes increasingly true the higher we go up the Realms."
Martial Artists were driven to pursue power for whatever core reason it was
that any Martial Artist pursued power. This meant that they would be willing
to go to insane lengths to obtain what they wanted to obtain. Who knows if
some Martial Sage would be willing to let a country go to ruin just to become
stronger or something like that?
They could very well destroy a country without batting an eye. Furthermore,
with how strong Martial Seniors were, it was not entirely inconceivable that
Martial Sages may be able to destroy a country if they let loose and fought
within the borders of the country.
They were two Realms of power above that of Martial Seniors, after all. Rui
could not even possibly imagine that he did not have any clue as to what
degree their power would exceed.
With these considerations in mind, how could he possibly feel comfortable

letting these beings take rule over the country, he would be unable to sleep at
night with just paranoia alone.
Of course, he was cognizant that this was paranoia, rather than a well-
justified fear. There were countries ruled by Martial Artists, and they did not
befall calamities and catastrophes caused by Martial Artists. Regardless, it
just wasn't a good idea, and certainly one he wasn't willing to entertain at the
moment
The conversation proceeded a bit more before it ended.
Rui sighed as he put his communication device away.
('The average person sure has a lot to fear with people of her mindset,') Rui
couldn't help but sigh as he thought of the tumultuous world that his family
back at the Quarrier Orphanage lived in.
Frankly, if not for them, he would not be too opposed to the Martial Union
taking over the Kandrian Empire and establishing Martial law.
He was not a saint. He helped people immediately within his capacity to help,
but he did not go out of his way.
He shook his head, he was never interested in political lobbying in the first
place. Multiple Martial Sects and factions had already approached him,
hoping for support for their cause or goal or whatever.
('Don't care,') Rui shrugged.
He immediately got back to work. Given that his training and teaching would
both begin tomorrow, he had a lot to sort through. He needed to plan and
flesh out Senior K'Mala's crash course to ensure that she had learned the
necessary and relevant theory.
Chapter 722 Homework
He divided her crash courses into two simultaneous courses.
The first course would be to help her develop an accurate model of the
atmosphere, air, wind, and sound. This included what they were, how they
worked, what were the laws that governed their motion, and why these
phenomena occurred.
It was important to develop a good foundation, even if not absolutely

necessary. She would have no fathoming of what the ODA system was and,
how and why it worked. She most likely would be able to use it well without
a theoretical foundation for the technique.
The second course would be about the technicals. She would need to learn
many mathematical concepts, as well as memorize the processing protocols
of the ODA system. This would definitely be the harder of the two courses,
and by a good degree as well.
What he needed to figure out was a way to get her to absorb the latter well
enough. Unfortunately, there was little chance that she would be able to
master the Mind Palace technique. He would need to grind it into her head by
force.
He spent the entire day chalking up and fleshing out a course, before finally
presenting it to Senior K'Mala the next day.
"What do you think?" He asked her with a perfectly normal expression, yet
he was sweating inside.
Her eyes were wide open, yet not as wide as that of her open mouth. Her
eyebrows were knitted and she stared at Rui with an incomprehensible
expression.
"What is this?"
"Er... Well, like I said-!"
Her aura flared before flooding Rui with pressure that he struggled to bear.
Thankfully, a friendly aura washed over him, shielding him from her.
"Watch it," Senior Ceeran grumbled mildly.
He was also invested in mastering the technique, thus when he learned that
Rui was creating a program for her to master it, he decided to join in and
learn from Rui himself.
Senior K'Mala warily glanced at him before subsiding her pressure, leaving
Rui relieved.
His mind was strong, far stronger than an eighteen-year-old Martial Squire
ought to be, but she was still an entire Realm and a half above him.
"What. Is. This." She demanded. "What is all of this? This isn't a technique!"
She was so overwhelmed that she defaulted to elementary confusion where

she couldn't even ask pointed doubts.
('This is going to be rough,') Rui sighed.
"This is the knowledge that you need," Rui explained.
"Techniques don't need knowledge! Techniques only need movements!"
"Well, first time for everything. If you want to master this technique, you will
have to follow this." Rui gave her a smug grin. "Didn't you say that you could
handle whatever I threw at you?"
She stiffened as she recalled those words.

"Well well well… I wonder what the Martial Tribes on Vilun Island will
think when I inform them that the mighty K'Mala got bested by a Squire's
technique?"
She gritted her teeth. "Fine! I'll master it!"
"That's the spirit," Rui grinned, receiving a note of approval from Senior
Ceeran. "Let us begin with the basics. What is air?"
"Air is to be breathed to survive," She replied.
"What is it made of?" Rui probed.
"Air is made up of something?" She frowned.
"…I see."
The challenge was looking even tougher as seconds passed.
The first session lasted only three hours. A laughably small amount compared
to how long students would generally study.
Yet, she was exhausted by the end of it. She had spent the entire session as
Rui began explaining the composition of the atmosphere and its traits and
principles.
Rui wished he had recorded her reaction when he told her about molecules
and atoms. It appeared that the Martial Tribes of Vilun Island still believed in
the continuous model of matter that believed that matter was not made up of
individual particles but was continuous and singular.
She gaped in wonder as he gave her a brief breakdown of how sound worked.
It was odd, that despite now knowing what it was or how it worked, they
were still able to leverage sound in their Martial Art techniques that allowed
them to use it in their favor. Rui suspected that it was a highly instinctual
process that they were able to execute because of extreme familiarity with the
phenomenon intuitively after immense hard work and subjection of
themselves to it.
This was also how the Martial Union trained its Martial Artists, to a certain
degree, although it was also true that they were more objective as far as the
quality of training went.
Rui was probably the first Martial Artist to be able to substitute passive skills
such as accuracy and aim with a conscious and thought-driven system that
cleanly substituted for the intrinsic capabilities and parameters such as aim.
And if she mastered it, she would be the second.
By the time the first lecture was done. Senior Ceeran looked wound up, but
Senior K'Mala looked like her soul had been sucked out.
"Oh come now," Rui tutted disapprovingly. "It wasn't that bad. I made it as
fun as I possibly could. There was no way you did not enjoy that."
Both the Martial Seniors gave him a look of incredulity.
Rui felt offended, he had served as a teaching assistant at a university long

ago, and he enjoyed organizing classes.
None of his students reacted this way to his teaching when they came to him
for aid.
Then again, this was their first conventional class, so perhaps he ought to cut
them some leeway.
He took two copies of certain pages before tossing them before them.
"What is this…?" Senior K'Mala had an ominous feeling.
"What is it?" Rui smiled. "It's called… homework."
They shouldn't have known what it meant. Yet it was as though they were
subconsciously able to sense all of the hatred all students had for homework
all the way from Earth. Senior K'Mala threw a resentful look at him before
defiantly picking it up and leaving without bidding him goodbye.
"Oh dear…"
Chapter 723 Windfell
The second that his two students left with solemn expressions and demeanor,
Rui immediately rushed off to the G'ak'arkan Tribe as early as he could. After
all, during this time, he would also be serving as a student, not just a teacher.
He quickly finished the bit of paperwork he needed to do before immediately

shooting off to the G'ak'arkan Village. This time, he wasn't accompanied by
his assistants, so he could freely move at his top speed through the sky.
THUD
He landed with an impact some distance away from the G'ak'arkan village.
He could see that people had begun gathering the second that he had arrived,
looking at him with curiosity and awe, as well as skepticism and intrigue.
"What business do you have here, outsider?" A Martial Squire stepped forth.
"I have come to learn the technique, as agreed," He replied calmly.
Another Martial Squire stepped forward from the crowd behind, whispering
something in the former's ear.
He then turned to Rui with a grudging expression. "Alright, we will guide

you to Kt'obila."
The name was pronounced with a click, a sound that the Vilun dialect
employed frequently, both in words as well as in names.
Soon enough, Rui was taken deeper into the village than he had ever been.
The borders of the G'ak'arkan Village did not strictly encompass only the area
that was inhabited by the tribes folk. It included several other areas and
places that weren't frequently inhabited with housing but were still
considered directly part of their village.
He was led into their mountain through an extensive cave network that led
into a large internal cave that spanned a huge area. There were glowing
crystals and other gems sticking out of the walls. Thin holes in the ceiling
gave beams of light that caused them to sparkle.
Across the area, there were a large number of Martial Artists that were deeply
absorbed in some training or the other.
('What a picturesque scene,') Rui couldn't help but sigh in appreciation. It

reminded him of the trope of martial art masters training in the serenity of the
mountains for extended periods of time.
While the Martial Union was obviously more sophisticated, efficient, and
effective, there was a degree of profoundness in the way these Martial Artists
trained to become stronger.
('In a way, these Martial Artists pursue individual capability to the absolute
maximum,') Rui couldn't help but sigh. They relied on themselves and nature.
Nothing else.
"Kt'obila," One of them addressed a meditating man, who promptly opened

his eyes when called out.
"You're here?" He asked, glancing at Rui, sizing him up from top to bottom.
"I am," Rui nodded. "I'm here to learn the Mighty Roar Flash Blast
techniques. I look forward to your guidance."
Kt'obila expressed respect for Rui, having got up and even shook hands with
him out of respect.
('It seems Senior K'Mala hasn't spread the news of me not being grade ten to
the Martial Squires,') Rui noted their respectful yet wary demeanor of him.
She definitely would have told the Martial Seniors of the tribe, but it seems as
though she did not see any reason to inform every Martial Squire.
"Your training will begin today," Kt'obila remarked. "Today we will look at
the way through which we train in order to facilitate our body in applying this
technique."
"Follow me," He gestured to Rui, before heading deeper into the mountain.
It wasn't long before they arrived at an isolated part of the mountain, a small
cave that was a dead-end.
Inside was just barely enough space for two people two sit. There was a tiny
body of water just a meter wide, yet it extended incredibly deep according to
his Seismic Mapping technique.
Furthermore, the walls were even prettier in this little cave dead-end. They
were covered in all kinds of esoteric minerals and stones.
"This technique requires a powerful breath and a powerful voice," He

explained as he tapped his diaphragm, and tapped his larynx. "Only when
both of those are strengthened to the limit can you apply this technique to
surpass the speed limit to sound blasts?"
"And how do we strengthen this?"
"By pushing them to their limits, of course," He smiled, gesturing to a small

body of water in the small cave.
Rui glanced at the small hole filled with water inquisitively, it seemed that it
clearly had something to do with his training.
"The best way to push one's self beyond one's limit is through the fear of
death," He explained. "Only via the fear of death, can you truly push past
your limits and obtain new power."
Rui didn't try arguing with him. Even if he disagreed, he was here to listen
and learn whatever he could.
"Now then…" He plucked a rock tied to ethnic garb. "I was there to witness
your technique, so around this much should be okay…?"
He broke the rock into two pieces, tying one back to his garb.
"What is this?" Rui frowned as he studied it.
It was a purple rock with a hard and rough texture.
"That there is what we call Windfell Stone," He explained. "It's special, when
one puts it in water, the water immediately begins to absorb air, the only way
to release air from the water is through sustained powerful sound. If you do
not release enough air by producing enough sound underwater, you will
suffocate to death."
He walked out of the cave before tossing the Windfell Stone into the water.
The water immediately turned purple as a powerful wind current was
generated.
Rui widened his eyes as he realized the powerful wind current was being
caused by the sheer amount of the atmosphere the water that the windfall
stone had dissolved in.
('This is ridiculous!') Rui frowned. ('What kind of solute causes a solution

with water such that it causes a spontaneous exothermal reaction that
somehow absorbs air?')
He was no specialized expert in inorganic chemistry, but he was absolutely

certain that there was no substance equivalent to this on Earth!
Chapter 724 Pressure
Rui stood in place as an extremely powerful wind current pushed at him. An

ordinary human would have long succumbed to the wind pressure.
Rui turned to clear his doubts, yet his eyes widened as he saw the man
sealing the entrance to the cave with a gigantically long boulder that was
sealing the entrance shit
"Don't bother trying to break your way out, this place is close to the center of
the mountain that is reinforced for huge distances in all directions with many
strong rocks that will be extremely difficult even for you to break out before
suffocating to death! This will last for about three hours since this is your
first time. Please don't die."
Rui didn't even have time to complain about the lacking explanations and
elaborations on the technique. He was accustomed to knowing the entirety of
his training regime involved before he began it. Yet it turned out that this was
not how things necessarily operated in the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
And he had no choice but to acquiesce, he would not allow Senior K'Mala to
dictate how he would teach her, thus he could not expect the G'ak'arkan Tribe
to do that for him.
THUD!
Somehow, the rock covered all the edges to ensure that there wasn't even a
single avenue for air.
In less than a second, all of the air in the cave had disappeared, absorbed into
the water. There was no replenishing air from the outside since the entrance
to the cave had been shut.
Suddenly, Rui could not breathe anymore.
('I need to release sound in the water!') He recalled what Kt'obila said before
jumping into the narrow hole of purple water.
THWOOM!
He immediately released a Sonic Bullet downwards.
A tremendous gush of bubbles pushed him back to the surface, where he

found fresh cool air hitting his skin.
He gasped for air, but he only had a split second before the water absorbed all
of the released air back into it.
He went back down again, mustering the air he just barely managed to inhale
before launching another Sonic Bullet.
THWOOM!
Once more a huge wave of bubbles of air pushed him back to the surface
where he once again gasped for air, before diving back down again and
launching a Sonic Bullet.
THWOOM!
He barely managed to supply himself with the oxygen he needed t each time
as he released sound time and time again to get what he needed.
Rui was just barely cognizant enough to realize that there was nobody around
this cave, through Seismic Mapping.
('Meaning if I fail, then I'll suffocate to death and actually die here!') The
thought flashed through his head as he gasped for more air.
This meant that he could not afford to mess up, his very life was on the line.
This drove his mind and body to their limit as he began going all-out while
ensuring that he didn't miss a beat.
Very soon, his entire body began aching. The medium that he was in was
water, which made things a lot different. The pressure and drag to
movements that water produced were exponentially greater than the drag and
pressure produced by the atmosphere. This applied regardless of how
powerful one was. He had to exert much more effort than he would if he was
doing those movements in the air.
The struggle of breathing reminded him of his asthma back on Earth. It was
labored, hampered, and tiring. Each breath felt like he had to pull a huge load
of rock with his inhalation
Furthermore, he had to admit that the fear of death did indeed put pressure on
him.
His nerves were tingling, even Primordial Instinct warned him of the danger
of the situation he was in. His body temperature rose he began sweating a lot.
His heart rate was permanently high too.
This continued for about three hours.
Until the water turned normal as the purple solute of the solution subsided
and delved to the bottom.
Finally, he could breathe properly.
He could even hear Kt'obila moving the large amount of rock and debris that
he had closed the entrance of the cave with.
"Huff… Huff…" he panted as he enjoyed the ability to breathe normally. If

nothing, this training at least taught him to appreciate things that he was
starting to take for granted. Breathing normally was a gift.
Suddenly, the boulder shifted as he found Kt'obila at the entrance, who

inspected his condition, before scratching his head. "I would have expected
you to feel better given how strong you seem to be."
Rui didn't even bother responding. Even if he wanted to correct his
misunderstanding, he did not want to talk, it would interfere with breathing
after all.
"This technique puts a lot of pressure on the breathing force and your voice,"
He explained. "This will help strengthen it to the level that is required."
The man continued going into deeper detail as he explained more than he did
initially.
"Once you've achieved the strength of breathing force and voice, we will
move to learn how to shape the sound with your mouth before releasing it.
Once you have mastered that, your training here with the Mighty Roar Flash
Blast technique will be complete."
Rui nodded, wordlessly as he got on his feet. He was completely drenched, so

he needed to squeeze the excess water out of his clothes before he could
leave the place.
Rui was beginning to understand why the Martial Artists of Vilun Island
were able to master techniques within reasonable periods of time despite
severely lacking the technological training and growth resources of the
Martial Union.
This has always been something he had pondered. How on Earth were the
Martial Artists able to actually accomplish this? So far, there hadn't been any
definitive answers even with the help of the intelligence team. The only thing
that he had come to learn was the fact that their techniques were sacred and
thus kept secret at all costs.
Yet, now he was starting to get an inkling of why they could master
techniques at respectable paces despite not possessing the training resources
of the Martial Union.
Chapter 725 Risks
The G'ak'arkan Tribe mastered sophisticated and powerful techniques in

reasonable periods of time. Not only that, they also created a large number of
unique Martial Art techniques at a remarkable pace and frequency.
They did all of this without the training and growth resources that the Martial
Union had. That was extremely worthy of respect, Rui had to admit.
('They do this by placing a tremendous amount of mental pressure with the

genuine possibility of death
Still, he highly doubted that this was all fun and games.
"How many Martial Artists have died in the training that I just underwent?"
Rui asked with narrow eyes.
"About two or three in ten," He replied nonchalantly, without batting so much

as an eye.
Rui on the other hand widened his eyes at that mortality rate.
It was no wonder. They were able to match the training speed of the Martial
Union because they were willing to tolerate insane mortality rates to obtain
that result.
The cost of the lives of twenty to thirty percent of Martial Artists of the
Martial Union was something no one in the martial union would ever tolerate.
Hell, Rui suspected just suggesting this to someone like Martial
commissioner Derun would earn him strict reprimands.
Even if they wanted to have such training methodologies, no sane Martial
Artist of lower Realms, like Martial Apprentices would voluntarily subject
themselves to that. They would leave the Martial Union in droves.
It would instantly turn into a stream of migration of Martial Apprentices and

even Martial Squires to the Royal Army and the Kandrian government, as
well as to other nations.
Still… In the G'ak'arkan Tribe, it didn't even seem that out of place. The
G'ak'arkan Tribe's culture was so extreme that it felt normal when he
considered that this was their way of doing things.
Still, he had to admit that he had come to gain a certain degree of respect for
the Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, they put their lives at risk to a
much greater degree than the Martial Artists of the Martial Union. Even
training was probably a significant threat to their life and bore a significant
risk of death.
Of course, that did not necessarily mean that their way of doing things was
better or superior. He just had to admit that people who successfully reached
higher Realms of Martial Art in the G'ak'arkan Tribe had overcome obstacles
and barriers that most Martial Artists in modern nations of the Panama
Continent did not.
As far as net output went, the Martial Union would still take the win. Even
ignoring the fact that the Martial Squires of the Martial Union had stronger
Martial bodies, just the fact that the Martial Union had twenty to thirty
percent more Martial Artists than any group of the same size that tried the
same kind of risky training as the G'ak'arkan Tribe was enough.
A twenty to thirty percent advantage in quantity would be damning in an all-

out war. Thus the Martial Union's means of training could be evaluated to be
superior as far as the context of resulting net Martial war potential.
Still, he wondered if he, as an individual, ought to care about this parameter.

After all, a net increment across large sample sizes did not necessarily mean
that the Martial Union's way of doing things was better for him.
('Maybe I should consider borrowing from the G'ak'arkan Tribe's ways to a
certain degree…') Rui's eyes narrowed.
His training speed had reduced, to a lesser degree as a Martial Squire, when
he implanted the Mindmirror Symbiote.
('Maybe I could regain a part of that speed if I made my training life-

threatening,') Rui's eyes lit up in cautious interest.
Of course, Rui was aware that was incredibly risky and substantially
increased the probability of death across his lifetime.
('But… there are benefits, clearly,') Rui noted. ('These martial Artists surpass
their technological limitations by putting their bodies in a state of fear of
death. That cannot be ignored…') Rui's eyes lit up in even greater interest.
Of course, he wasn't some hot-headed fool who didn't care for his life. He
absolutely cared for his life, and he definitely wanted to avoid death, even if
he wasn't actively scared of it.
However…
('I can't say I care for my life more than my Martial Path, honestly.') Rui
sighed. He would rather die than not have his Martial Path, Art, and the
VOID algorithm, for example. Project Water had become a multi-incarnation
project and had only grown dearer to him than it was back on Earth, and it
only seemed to continue to do so as he grew stronger.
When he first joined the Martial Academy, he was not as driven as he was
today, and when he was a Martial Apprentice, for the most part, he didn't
even know if his dream was possible in any capacity for a long time!
Once he mastered the Mind Palace technique and used it to finally execute
the VOID algorithm in its entirety from the start, he had to admit that he
definitely had grown only more zealous and determined to fulfill Project
Water, after having gotten the taste of success for the very first time in two
lifetimes.
And now he had reached a level of commitment that he simply had not
reached prior to at this point in time. He was not unwilling to risk his life to
become stronger quicker and in the long term. He just needed to make sure
that it was definitely worth it as far as the probability of the risky possibility
unfolding.
He was willing to risk his life, as long as he gained something concrete that
was worth it.
('This means that this training regime will be a good test for whether the
benefits are worth undertaking the risks,') Rui concluded.
Over the next few months, he would be testing whether the training regime
was going to be worth it. It was possible that this training phase would
determine how the rest of the training phases for the rest of his life go.
Chapter 726 Skip
Time quickly passed as Rui's life took on a bit of a routine. He would teach
Senior K'Mala and Senior Ceeran about mathematical concepts, the
theoretical framework of the atmosphere, and the classical wave theory.
Senior Ceeran had already read up on the theoretical framework in the time
after Rui had submitted the technique to the Martial Union. Thus, he was able
to follow Rui's classes better than Senior K'Mala.
The latter found Rui's training vastly more difficult than she had ever
imagined. She found that she had come across a problem that she couldn't
just overcome with hard-headed perseverance. She needed to exercise her
patience in trying to overcome difficulties with problems that she had never
even fathomed before.
"You failed," Rui stated calmly as he scribbled crosses across a sheet.
Senior K'Mala's eyes narrowed at those words. "Tsk,"
"You just barely managed to pass, Senior Ceeran," Rui announced as he gave
the man a smile.
Rui had been grilling them on their fundamentals very hard. He put an
immense amount of pressure on them, and despite his instinctual fear towards
both of them, he suppressed it and made sure to never let them off easy.
He couldn't give them an easy fun and joyful education when it came to what
mattered, unfortunately. He had to impart an education intensity that matched
high-intensity exam-prepping coaching classes.
What they were aiming to crack was much harder than any exam Rui planned
to give.
Of course, when it came to the qualitative theoretical classes, he was a lot

more patient, understanding needed to be nurtured, it could not be forced.
His own training was not easier than theirs.
The sustained underwater-sounding training drained his stamina at a rate that

was scarcely believable. He was exhausted and his throat was sore to the
point where he had trouble talking. If not for the healing and stamina potions
he would have been extremely tired.
Yet as the weeks passed, he made improvements. He grew less tired from that
particular exercise as he learned to execute it more efficiently and lower his
heart rate and body temperature, among other things that allowed him to last
much longer than his first time. He grew increasingly better and better as his
diaphragm strengthened, and his larynx toughened.
Until finally, the day came when he could begin with the training of
executing the technique.
"You have come far very fast," Kt'obila remarked with a surprised
expression. "As expected of a Martial Artist as strong as yourself."
Rui smiled, without replying.
The truth was that he would have had to take at least twice as much time to
master those techniques if he didn't have healing and rejuvenation potions.
Thankfully, it helped to keep up his facade.
"Now that you have come this far, you simply need to take one more step,"
Kt'obila said as he got up, turning to face another direction.
He deeply inhaled, before opening his mouth ever so slightly.
THWOOM!
BANG!
The attack soared forward at a tremendous speed, far faster than his own
Sonic Bullets did, before destroying a boulder the size of a building to
smithereens in the distance.
"Wow…" Rui
"You need to leverage the strength that your breathing force and voice have
gained," He explained. "Use all your power to force all that power into a
small space in your mouth, and give it only the smallest opening to escape
from your mouth while expelling it spontaneously and instantaneously."
"I see…"
Rui got up, inhaling deeply before attempting the technique with the
instructions that Kt'obila had come up with. He pushed his diaphragm to the
absolute limit, minutely opening his mouth before spitting out an extremely
potent Sonic Bullet, that was much smaller and denser than any Sonic Bullet
that he had ever released.
But…
('It hasn't surpassed the atmospheric pressure to the degree that is needed to
surpass the speed of sound,') Rui sighed.
"It's not bad," Kt'obila nodded. "Rather it's surprising that you're this good
already. I have no doubt that you will master it soon enough."
"Well, I'll have to keep training to get there," Rui sighed.
And he did.
Within three months after he originally began training, he had gotten hang of
the Mighty Roar Flash Blast technique. He simply needed to make small, but
enough progress every week, and eventually, he reached the stage where he
could launch supersonic sound projectiles with tremendous pressure and
energy density.
However, to Rui, this was just the beginning. The first step in his mind.
This technique was not the end goal. It was simply one of the ingredients that
was necessary for his goal. It was simply one of the building blocks for his
new technique. The fact that it helped the existing ODA system was also just
a bonus at best.
He wanted to create a power accumulative technique that allowed him to

surpass his long-range power limits.
('Once I create this technique, my long-range formidability will likely reach

on par with that of my close-range formidability.') Rui noted.
He was never under the illusion that the Pathfinder technique alone could
make his long-range prowess on par with his close-quarters combat. Yes, the
technique was evaluated to be grade ten, but that did not instantly mean that
his long-range combat would be on par with his short-range combat.
Pathfinder was best for assassinations. It still worked well in head-on combat
but to a lesser degree. Compared to short-range where he had numerous
techniques that were largely short-range, he had to admit that there was no
way that he would be able to overcome those advantages with Pathfinder
alone.
('But with this new technique…') Rui's eyes narrowed. He would become a
genuinely well-rounded Martial Artist as far as range went. He would be
effective at short-range, mid-range, and long-range.
"Time to set out on a new training phase!" He grinned. Now that he was free
from Kt'obila's training, he could dedicate all that time towards the
development of his own technique.
Chapter 727 Wavestack
In the past three months, all of the other contracts signed between the
G'ak'arkan Tribe and the Martial Union had begun. The Longranger Martial
Artists had begun training more than a dozen G'ak'arkan Martial Squires,
helping them learn their techniques.
As expected, the language barrier slowed down both sides, however,

considering both sides understood that they stood to benefit a lot as long as it
worked out, they put their patience to the test as they worked through the
slow communicative process of translations.
Things had settled down in the settlement of the Martial Union as its primary
purpose had already been achieved, now it only needed to function and be
protected until they got what they wanted and left the island.
Rui had more or less forgotten about his role as the manager and leader of the
settlement. It no longer needed him, as the administrative work that needed to
be completed was delegated to qualified personnel who were capable of
handling the workload.
He secluded himself in one of the larger long-range open training facilities.
('Alright,') He thought to himself meditating. ('New project. Project goal? To

create a technique that increases my long-range offensive power limit
significantly via the help of constructive superposition through sonic
projectiles of different speeds.')
This was easier said than done. The classical wave theory, while simpler than
the quantum wave theory, was not a particularly easy thing to apply in
combat.
('I don't think it will be more difficult than the ODA system,') Rui noted. ('But
it certainly will require an immense amount of mastery. I first need to begin
by establishing the conditions needed to ensure constructive resonance occurs
between, say, two sonic projectiles of different speeds.')
The constructive resonance between two waves occurred when the crests and
troughs of two waves occupying the same points in space at any given time,
were overlapping. The two waves would merge and form into a single
stronger wave with crests and troughs much greater than the two constituent
waves.
('Essentially, I need to ensure that the two waves are always in phase.') Rui
noted. ('They need to have the same frequency, and their initial angular phase
difference must be a whole number factor of pi, also…')
Essentially, Rui was simply establishing the conditional equations that

needed to be fulfilled for two waves of different speeds moving in the same
direction to superimpose constructively.
Waves like sound waves were generally described by simple harmonic

equations where the 'height' of crests and troughs were defined by sinusoidal
functions. He needed to only equalize the simple harmonic wave equations of
all the sound projectiles and he would gain the conditions that needed to be
fulfilled for the two waves to be in phase.
If he could do that, that was most of the work.
He would gain the launch conditions for each of the sound projectiles and
then he could simply use a standardized timing every time. Once he figured
out how constructive superimpose a single time, he simply needed to
memorize that particular timing and placement and it would work every time.
This was one of the convenient aspects of this hypothetical technique. Unlike
the ODA system, this technique would be more static. With the ODA system,
every Pathfinder shot was unique and needed the ODA system to be run
every single time. With the technique of this project, he just needed to find
the launch conditions for constructive superposition once, and he could
simply memorize it and would never have to calculate it ever again.
('The mental burden is much less than the ODA system in that regard. Every
time I use it would be the same as every other time, whereas no two ODA
system outputs are the same. Every situation is unique, and it needs to be
executed every single time I use the Pathfinder.')
This was good because he was seriously starting to reach his limits with
mental processing systems, for now. He already needed to use the VOID
algorithm and the ODA system. If he needed to use a third system every time
he used this technique, his mind would explode with the sheer amount of
calculations, Mind Palace or not.
('Find the launch conditions to create two sound projectiles in phase with
each other, and then memorize those launch conditions and burn them into
my blood, because I never have to use other launch conditions again') Rui
nodded as he came up with the plan for the new project.
('What should this project be called…?') He wondered as he gave it a few

seconds of thought. (Project Wavestack… Good enough.')
With that trivial issue out of the way, he began delving into it immediately.
The math was not difficult. Constructive superposition in simple harmonic

waves was a topic that was taught in high school and college. The
challenging part was fulfilling the conditions.
The frequency needed to be similar, ideally identical, otherwise the

constructive resonance grew increasingly inefficient mechanically and would
result in the loss of a lot of energy.
('Which means I need to be wary of the 'pitch' of my Mighty Roar Flash Blast
projectiles and of my Sonic Bullet projectiles. I need to ensure the pitch of
my voice is the same in both cases, I cannot have them be different.') Rui
scratched his head.
He had never been a good singer, due to his asthma, but even taking that into
account he was quite bad. He was nearly tone-deaf, thus learning to match the
pitches of the techniques that were quite different and were executed
differently was going to be very difficult.
Furthermore, the frequency of both those attacks was deep in the ultrasonic
range due to the high energy density of the projectile, thus he couldn't even
hear whether the frequencies were the same. His hearing range had improved
far beyond that of a normal human when he obtained his Martial body, but
still, it was not enough for such powerful techniques.
('This is going to be brutal.')

Chapter 728 Indicator
Unfortunately, due to his lack of ability to be able to objectively measure the

frequency of the sound that he produced, he would need to rely on trial and
error to a large degree. Furthermore, unlike when he was creating the Flux
Earther technique, it would be much more difficult to observe the success or
failure of his trial-and-error method.
Since the technique involved constructive superposition of two sound

projectiles, he would necessarily need to release two sound projectiles of
different speeds.
The first projectile would be the Sonic Bullet technique which moved at the
speed of sound, and the second technique would be the Mighty Roar Flash
Blast technique, which moved faster than the speed of sound. He would need
to use both those techniques and ensure that he timed and placed them and
ensured that they were in phase with each other such that they would engage
in constructive superposition.
The difficult part was ensuring they would be launched in phase with each
other. Because he had no way to ensure that they would have the same
frequency, he was at an impasse.
He glanced at the large target barrier more than five hundred meters away.
The barrier wall was made up of Apprentice-level materials, however, they

had been extensively engineered with the right kind and mix of esoteric
substances that they could withstand even the power of Martial Squires.
Rui had wondered why they couldn't apply such a methodology to weapons
to create even stronger weapons that allowed them to be more ubiquitous but
thinking about it, he could come up with a rather straightforward answer.
Weapons needed to be strong enough such that even if the power of the
wielder was focused across a millimeter square of its surface area, it would
not break. It needed to be so strong that every millimeter square of the
weapon was individually capable of withstanding the full power of the
wielder focused on it, without breaking.
When blades clashed with each other, only such a tiny amount of the blade
ends up bearing the primary brunt of both the wielder and the opponent. If it
every millimeter of a sword's tensile strength did not greatly exceed that of
the user, it was an unfit weapon.
With human-level weapons, it was easy to ensure this was true. No ordinary
human could ever break the edge of a sword made with steel alloys no matter
how strong their muscles were. The difference between the tensile strength of
steel and the muscular strength of swords was like that of the sky and land. It
was a large gap. That was why humans could fight with full power without
having to worry about breaking their weapons with their own power due to
this big gap.
It became increasingly difficult to maintain this same gap for Martial Artists.
This same rationale did not apply to larger structures. With larger structures
disproportionately greater than the human body in size, all forms of esoteric
materialistic engineering of different esoteric resources could b employed to
ensure that these structures could withstand punishment from powerful
Martial Artists.
He found it to be an interesting albeit irrelevant detail.
('As long as it fulfills my needs, I am fine,') He mused.
He took his stance before opening his mouth.
THWOOM!
He closed his mouth after having shot a Sonic Bullet, preparing the Mighty
Roar Flash Blast technique rapidly after.
THWOOM!
The latter trailed three meters behind the former, rapidly catching up to it due
to being faster than it.
Soon the two sound projectiles overlapped with each other.
BOOM!
A wind blast emerged from the union of the two projectiles, causing a huge
gale.
('Hmph, they were completely out of phase, causing destructive

superposition,') He sighed.
And the problem was, as predicted, different frequencies.
('This time, same pitch,')
THWOOM!
THWOOM!
BOOM!
A huge wind blast emerged once again.
The reason the explosion was violent was because the crests of the wave were
meeting the troughs. The waves were oscillating in opposite directions when
they touched, which basically meant that they were directly crashing into
each other, and the molecules of the air were blown away.
That was what caused the violent dispersion of air.
('Wait, can't I judge the degree to which there exists a difference in frequency
between the two projectiles based on how violent the superposition is?') Rui
realized.
The more violent the blast, the more the waves were out of phase. The less
violent it was, the more they were in phase. If they weren't violent and
formed a single projectile, then that would b a sign of success; that they were
in phase with each other.
He felt better. After all, he had come up with an objective way of measuring
the degree to which the two waves were out of phase with each other.
Now he just needed to do it over and over until he learned via muscle
memory how to get it right. It was sheer and raw experience needed to master
the frequency equalization of the technique and nothing else.
Still, his job wouldn't be over once he mastered just constructive resonance
between two sound projectiles. He wanted to learn how to accomplish it
between three, and perhaps even four and five.
Of course, he highly doubted that the latter two would be viable in most
combat. At most, if he ever happened to be put in a situation where he needs
five times the singular offensive power of his strongest attack that he
possesses at the moment, then he would be able to muster it up.
In the right circumstances, he could potentially end up outputting power that

was on par with Martial Squires who were several grades above him.
('Now wouldn't that be one hell of a technique that the Martial Union would
love to get their hands on?') Rui smirked with anticipation. He wondered
what Senior Ceeran would think when he learned of this technique that Rui
was working on, given his fascination for new techniques!
Chapter 729 Kane
Kane yawned as he reclined back in his housing quarters. It had been half a
year since he had been deployed to the G'ak'arkan Tribe. He had been
deployed on many espionage and infiltration missions on the G'ak'arkan
Tribe and the K'ulnen Tribe.
Against the G'ak'arkan Tribe, he mostly had to gather as much information on

their movements as much as possible.
Prior to the success of the mission, every ounce of information mattered

when it came to adjusting and optimizing their approach and plans
surrounding this mission. After that, he spent most of his time gathering
information on the K'ulnen Tribe before and during the war with them.
However, that too ended.
Once the diplomatic mission with the G'ak'arkan Tribe succeeded, his job
was more or less completed for the time being. Rui quickly ensured that the
negotiations with the G'ak'arkan Tribe were successful as both sides managed
to come to agreements and trades that were satisfactory and fair to both sides.
Now, he didn't really need to be there. In fact, most of the intelligence team,
both agents and Martial Artists had immediately taken the opportunity to
return back home once the bulk of their mission had been completed.
Not Kane, though.
Kane had adamantly chosen to remain on the island, he had no intention of

going back home too early.
There were two reasons, firstly, he had reason to stay away from the
Kandrian Empire. The further away from his family he was, the better it was
for him. As Kane's Martial prowess grew, he only became more valuable to
his family. Even if his Martial Path was different from that of many of the
Martial Artists in his family, having him would increase the power of his
family. The many more influential members of his family were not content
letting him go.
One thing he found a little odd was the fact that his father never made an
effort to bring him back directly.
It was strange.
The man was a Martial Sage, someone who had reached one of the highest
Realms of the Martial Path. He had the power, both Martial and political, to
drag Kane back without caring about the consequences. While the Wind and
consequently the Lightning Sect were willing to protect him from the Fire
Sect, it was a different matter if his father acted personally in the capacity of
a father rather than as a Sect leader.
Kane knew that he was far from worth the political capital that would need to
be spent to protect him from a Martial Sage that personally sought him out.
Sage Viranaka, the leader of the Lightning Sect, would need to personally act
for Kane to be protected.
And there was no way that was happening.
('Still, it's good to be far away from them.') Kane nodded to himself.
The second reason was that Rui was here. Although they didn't as much time
hanging out together as they would have liked to. After all, Rui had become
the manager of the settlement of the Martial Union and the highest in the
chain of command. He had a lot of duties that had him busy.
Even when he wasn't working he was training. Once the deals succeeded, he
shifted to full-time training. Spending his time isolated in one of the training
facilities in the settlement.
('He's definitely found something new to pursue with his Martial Art,')Kane
smiled.
He knew his friend well.
Suddenly, he got up from his bed and leaped to his feet. He wanted to visit
him, perhaps it may not be the best time. But it was fine to try regardless.
"Have you seen Rui?" He asked one of Rui's assistants.
"Ah, he's in training facility fourteen sir," Stemple bowed with respect.
"Thanks,"
('Fourteen… That's that super long one for long-range techniques…') Kane
noted.
Most of the training facilities in the settlement were centered around long-
range techniques. After all, the settlement was loaded with long-range Martial
Artists. They had to cater to the majority, and also they needed the training
resources that were necessary for learning the Martial Union's techniques for
training the G'ak'arkan Tribe in the promised techniques.
('He must be training some new long-range technique that he's cooked up,')
Kane concluded.
He had no doubt that Rui was working on something significant. He recalled

when he first saw Rui killing a Martial Squire with a single attack from a
huge distance away. Martial Squires weren't supposed to be capable of such
feats.
BOOM!!
He grew startled when he reached the entrance of the facility, a huge gust of
wind washed over him following a loud explosion.
('What in the world?') He sky-walked to get a good look into the open
facility.
BOOM!!
His eyes widened as he saw Rui making strange fish-like mouth movements
rapidly before a huge boom followed.
('Was his long-range offense that strong?') Kane frowned.
No, that couldn't be the case. He had seen Rui's attacks from range and while
they were decent for his grade, this attack was much stronger. At least twice
as strong as before!
('Is this the technique that he learned from the G'ak'arkan Tribe?') Kane
considered it for a moment before shaking his head. ('He wouldn't use
techniques created by others without adding his own individuality to it…')
But that made what he was seeing even more impressive. Rui had managed to
rapidly create a powerful technique that allowed him to grow this much
stronger already.
Kane landed at the edge of the range far behind Rui.
He watched as Rui launched more attacks one after the other, celebrating or
cursing alternatively.
It was a while before Rui finally heaved a sigh before turning around to
leave.
"Woah!" Rui's head jerked back when he spotted Kane. "Since when were
you there?"
"For a while now," Kane yawned. "I'm surprised you didn't even notice me."
"Ah sorry," Rui laughed. "I lose track of my surroundings when I train, tend
to get sucked into it, especially if I'm enjoying it,"
Chapter 730 Plans
Rui was pleasantly surprised to see Kane. He didn't have anybody else he
could consider a friend in the settlement. Stemple and Zeyra were firmly
assistants and no more, and Senior Ceeran was a friendly Senior benefactor
with mutual interests.
He could not talk to anybody else too casually given his position in the
settlement. Kane, on the other hand, had not changed his interactions with
Rui even the tiniest bit. This was something that Rui appreciated.
"So, what was that technique you were using?" Kane asked with a curious
expression.
Rui would have been more opaque and vague had anybody else asked, but he
had no compunctions about being honest with Kane.
"It's a technique where I combine multiple attacks into a single much stronger
one," Rui explained briefly, yet Kane's head cocked back a bit.
"I've never heard of a technique like that before," Kane frowned "Wouldn't
that mean you can surpass your limits greatly to match much higher grade
offense?"
"No, unfortunately," Rui grimaced briefly.
In the past few months, Rui had only come to master double superposition. It
was an accomplishment he was very proud of, of course. Still, it wasn't the
limit of what he wanted to accomplish. He wanted to be able to extend to a
higher number of attacks stacking into a single attack.
He had been attempting a threefold superposition in his training, but it blasted
violently more than half the time. He hadn't yet memorized the correct timing
as he had with the two-fold superposition.
It took time, effort, and experience to slowly get better at nailing the timing.
If not for the fact that he had been solving equations to help him achieve
proper constructive superposition, he would have taken forever to reach
where he had.
"It has many limitations," Rui sighed. "I won't be able to match high-grade
Martial Squires just yet, at most I would struggle to keep up."
"Why's that?" Kane frowned. "That attack just now looked really strong."
"It's because I need to launch two attacks to form that one attack, while a
high-grade long-range Martial Artist needs to launch only one attack to
achieve that level of power. They can fire far more strikes of that level of
power in a period of time than I can."
"Ah, that makes sense," Kane nodded. "You really have been into long-range
stuff recently, haven't you?"
"I suppose I have." Rui shrugged.
It couldn't be helped, soon after creating the Pathfinder technique, he was

thrown into a mission to which long-range Martial Art techniques were
highly relevant.
"Hehe… Do you plan to become a long-range Martial Artist?" Kane teased

him.
"Hah. No," Rui shook his head, snorting. "I will always strive to maintain my
balance as an all-rounder. Once this mission is over, I will go for new
projects that balance me out as a Martial Artist even more."
He had been becoming increasingly long-range in his Martial Art inclination.

When he got back to the Kandrian Empire, he intended to fix that problem
immediately. He even had some consideration for how to go about it.
The two conversed for some more time.
"Glad to hear that some of our Martial Squires have mastered the techniques
of the G'ak'arkan Tribe," He said.
In the past six months since the deals had been signed, many of the Martial
Squires had finally mastered the techniques that they were sent to obtain.
Now they were simply in the process of 'giving' those techniques to the
Martial Union by allowing the Martial Union to thoroughly test the
techniques through and through, while also having them train the basics to
several other Martial Squires.
Rui had to go through this for a brief period as well.
It was necessary to allow the Martial Union to get their hands on the
technique while also having a few more Martial Squires learn the core of the
training regimes so that the Martial Union could gain the full ability to spread
the technique to other Martial Artists when needed.
That was how it ensured that a technique never died. By trying to ensure that
they spread.
Of course, this wasn't always possible such as with grade-ten difficulty

techniques that could be propagated. The Martial Union had no choice but to
make do with what they had, at least, they had to strive to ensure that it
wouldn't happen with other techniques.
"Which means that we'll be leaving soon…" Kane said with a mixed tone.
On one hand, he did appreciate being far from his family.
On the other hand, he also felt bored staying on the island.
"Don't look so sullen," Rui tutted. "I know you want to stay away from the
Kandrian Empire, but there are other ways to do that you know, other
missions. For example, I heard that a new dungeon had opened months ago.
Maybe you could choose to head there."
Kane considered the suggestion. "That's not bad, though dungeons are not my
specialty."
"This one is different from Apprentice-level dungeons that humans can enter
and colonize like the Serevian Dungeon." Rui shook his head. "It poses too
much mental pressure on ordinary humans due to its danger, thus it cannot be
colonized by humans. The only ones who may enter it are… Martial
Squires."
Kane's interest was piqued. If only Martial Squires could enter, then that
served as a much greater degree of security than if all Realms of Martial
Artists could enter.
It meant that his family was extremely restricted in what they could do if they
randomly decided to use a forceful method with him.
"Also… The Martial Union won't be deploying external Martial Artists like
us," Rui smirked. "You know what that means?"
"What?" Kane gave him a wary glance.
"It means that you and I would have greater freedom in how we choose to go
about that mission," Rui grinned. "It's a rare chance. We don't have to follow
the annoying protocols and other shit that we have to deal with missions. We
can jump in, and retrieve treasure by ourselves!"
Chapter 731 Hiding
Rui found it to be quite refreshing. Heading out and exploring of his own
volition rather than the commission of the Ministry of Ecology and
Environment or the Martial Union was something he hadn't done much of.
He had to admit, that this mission had given him a taste for independence. He
had complete control over the diplomatic approach to the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
And he also had complete control over the settlement.
He had to admit, the freedom was relieving, although it certainly came with
its fair share of responsibilities and burdens. Since he was taking care of
others.
However, this venture would most likely come with all of the freedom of the
former, and few of the responsibilities that had come with this diplomatic
mission.
The only people they would be responsible for were themselves.
"Well… Now that you mention it, that does sound interesting," Kane
admitted. "It will be very dangerous though."
"Oh come on, we're Martial Artists. That is par for the course," Rui shrugged.
Neither of them was wrong, of course. Considering that the dungeon would
be attracting Martial Squires from all over their section of the Panama
Continent, it was no doubt going to be fierce in competition.
"Regardless, that's not happening any time soon," Rui shrugged. "It's just an
idea I threw out there. We could choose to do something else. Or if you have
your own plans, that's fine too. We can talk about it when the time comes."
"Yeah,"
The two parted ways after talking some more. Rui had students to mentor,
after all.
In the past six months since Rui had begun mentoring his two students, they
had made a lot of progress. It had been grueling and brutal. But he had
managed to get his students to work hard and get past a lot of the hardest
parts.
Senior Ceeran faired better for the earlier part of the education session, but
Senior K'Mala not only caught up to him, much to his dismay but also
surpassed him.
This was very impressive considering he had already been studying it for
quite some time by then. He simply needed to get her up to speed. He had
suspected that this would happen, K'Mala was quite bright and while the
culture shock and a drastically different worldview had held her back at first,
it had begun to grow on her as she immersed herself in studies. The only
concepts of mathematics that both of them studied were ones that were
necessary for the execution of the ODA system.
He did not even go one hair beyond what was necessary. He knew damn well
that being able to master what they were learning at the given moment was
going to be difficult as all hell.
"You're late," Senior K'Mala grumbled.
"Sorry, I was caught up with my own training," Rui smiled.
"Working on that new technique, are we?" Senior Ceeran's eyes twinkled. He
had noticed that Rui was using the long-range facilities quite frequently. It
was entirely clear that he was working on something new.
"Perhaps," Rui shrugged it off. "I am not relevant at the moment. But what is
relevant are the elementary first-order differential equations you solved." Rui
handed out papers to both of them. "You both did decent, congratulations."
At that moment, one would find it hard to believe that these were both
vaunted Martial Seniors. The feeling of cracking an exam was a universally
good feeling.
"I think you have reached the proficiency that I require you to have," Rui
remarked. "Your calculation skills have grown better as well."
Rui had them do their calculations on an abacus. Abacuses were great means
to improve mental math calculation capabilities. The instrument allowed for
quick calculations, and once they reached a high level of mastery, they would
be able to essentially envision the abacus in their mind and solve large
calculations instantly. This was a modern method of improving mental
calculations back on Earth that had very promising results.
He didn't need it himself, compared to the Mind Palace that serves could
serve as RAM, Random Access Memory, for him. He could complete even
greater calculations extremely rapidly through means of processing that
resembled that of computers. Abacuses were primitive to him, but they were
just what the two Martial Seniors needed.
Their growth was appreciatable when considering that they were elder adults.
Younger adults and adolescents would not have taken nearly half a year to
get to where they currently were. Rui in his previous life as a student would
have completed it in less than a month.
Still, it wasn't bad, all things considered.
"Alright," He smiled. "It's time."
"For what?" Senior K'Mala raised an eyebrow.
"To learn the ODA system," Rui's smile remained unchanged.
Senior Ceeran's expression grew more solemn and yet more enthusiastic. He
had seen the ODa system before since Rui had submitted all the data to the
Longranger Sect. However, he had to admit, that its complexity greatly
surpassed his wildest imagination. He had immediately come to learn that he
was vastly unfit to learn the so-called ODA system. Looking at the equations
and protocols, he may as well have been reading languages that he didn't
understand.
He could only laugh at how unworthy he was of the technique back then.
('Things are different now, however,') His eyes narrowed. His understanding
of algebra, exponents, trigonometry, calculus, and differential equations was
much better than they were when he had first attempted to try and master
them. Maybe, this time he could pull through.
He couldn't help but gaze at Rui with respect and admiration for having
created such a technique. The more Senior Ceeran had learned about the
relevant math and physics in the past nine months, he had to admit, the more
he found it absurd that an eighteen-year-old Martial Squire had come up with
that technique. It was mind-boggling and simply didn't make sense. Yes, Rui
had a proven mind that was extremely capable in any endeavor of the human
intellect, but Senior Ceeran had a nagging suspicion that that alone was not
the whole truth.
There had to be something else, something Rui was hiding from everybody.
Chapter 732 Mind Matters
"You're telling me you perform all these calculations in the middle of combat
every time you use the Pathfinder technique?" Senior K'Mala asked him with
a horrified expression.
('More actually,') Rui smiled. "Just about, yes."
The Martial Union and the G'ak'arkan Tribe knew about his remarkably
potent Martial Path, but nobody asides from him knew about the VOID
algorithm. Nobody knew the sheer amount of calculations that fired through
his mind and the Mind Palace every time he created an anti-style to counter
his opponent.
Senior Ceeran just sighed with a wry smile. He had already gone through this
shock a long time ago and had gotten used to this truth, but the same could
not be said about Senior K'Mala who had been presented with the ODA
System for the first time.
Up until this point, she had been entirely unfit to even learn about it. The
G'ak'arkan Tribe's mathematics had not progressed beyond the four basic
operations of mathematics. However, she had finally gotten up to speed
where she could read the ODA system protocols and calculations and not feel
like a fool.
Yet, when she realized that Rui had executed all these protocols continuously
in his fights against the K'ulnen Tribe but also in that impressive
demonstration of the technique that he had given, she couldn't help but lose
her composure for a brief moment.
"How?" She narrowed her eyes. "You're just a rank two Martial Artist, your
mind should be slower than that of ours! Yet you can perform this technique
faster than we ever could!"
Rui couldn't help but smile awkwardly at that outburst.
His mind went back to what his brother Julian had told him regarding some
of the empirical research that had been conducted regarding the neurological
enhancements that Martial Artists received.
Martial Artists possessed superhuman mental faculties and cognition when it

came to mental and/or physical activities surrounding Martial Art. The
further away the activity they were performing was away from that of
physical combat with their Martial Art, the less superhuman their mental
faculties and cognition were.
That meant that even the most powerful Martial Artists would not be able to
read sophisticated literature faster than a human scholar or make
mathematical calculations faster than a human. But if it came to processing
their opponent's attacks and the battle, Martial Apprentices and Martial
Squires were dozens and thousands of times superior to baseline humans.
Rui had strongly suspected that this was due to the fact that only some parts
of the brains of Martial Artists were augmented and enhanced. He suspected
that out of all the regions of the brain, almost all of the augmentation went to
the parts of the brain that were relevant in combat such as the cerebellum, the
occipital lobe, and the parietal lobe. This would explain why Martial Artists
were extraordinarily superhuman mentally in combat but otherwise normal
when it came to ordinary mental activities. The parts of the brain being used
for the two activities were different and mutually exclusive, and only the
parts of the brain used for one activity were vastly superhuman while the
other one was normal.
At this point in time, he hadn't figured out whether the VOID algorithm and
the ODA system fell into the non-combat or combat group. The two were
mental systems that involved a lot of mathematical and statistical calculations
which were certainly not related to the combat parts of the brain. However,
their purpose was for combat, and it ultimately was performed in the midst of
combat, thus it could not be said to be non-combat related. It was most likely
leaning toward the latter.
As far as Rui could see, his intellect and extra-grown mind most likely made
up for any gap it had.
However, the same could not be said for Senior Ceeran and Senior K'Mala.
The calculations of the ODA system were daunting to them because they did
not have his remarkable intellect.
He knew that in a direct comparison between him and them, he would most
likely fall back a bit because their minds were still vastly faster, but that was
purely because of their rank. They would not be able to use it as smoothly as
he did, against other Martial Seniors.
And that was fine. Their goal was to merely use the ODA system as a
contributing element in the long-range techniques that they themselves would
be developing.
"I have an affinity for these techniques because I built them for me and my
strengths and weaknesses. It's part of the reason that the technique has so
much individuality," Rui explained patiently. "It is obvious that the two of
you won't use it as well as I do. Now, get to memorizing this. You need to
embed the ODa system into your bones otherwise you have no chance of
mastering it."
And so the grind began as Rui had begun the third course of his education
program, pushing them through rigorous and tough education and testing.
Senior K'Mala gritted her teeth as she did her absolute best to keep up. Every
time she even remotely felt like giving up, Rui reminded her of her haughty
statement regarding being able to handle everything he threw at her. Her
pride and ego would not allow her to let Rui force her to swallow her words
back.
It was frustrating because Rui even seemed to enjoy it to a certain extent. It

put a fire under her ass and drove her to learn everything he gave her as fast
as she could. She was determined to master it and prove herself right.
Though, she half suspected that that was exactly what Rui was after every
time he teased her. He did not seem like a needlessly cruel or vindictive
person, and with how shrewd he was, he may very well have figured out that
this was the best way to motivate someone like her. With how sharp he had
proven himself to be, she knew that this was probably the case. She had
always been one of the few intellectual and rational people of her tribe, yet
she felt slow in front of Rui.
Chapter 733 Faulty
While Senior K'Mala and Senior Ceeran slogged hard to master the ODA
system, Rui had been furthering his depth with Project Wavestack.
He had reached a point where he could comfortably do double superposition

at any point in time after more than a year of hard work since he first began
learning the Mighty Roar Flash Blast technique.
However, he had quickly run into some of the disadvantages of the technique.
('It requires a lot of attention and focus,') He sighed.
Of course, this was expected to a certain degree, but it still was a constraint
that he had to work with. Even if the technique did not require active
calculations once he memorized the launch conditions of the two sound
projectiles such that he could launch them in exactly the right way to
constructively superimpose with each other, it still required attention and
focus.
Which meant that he could not use the ODA system to the same degree when
he was using constructive superposition. The more he used it, the shorter his
maximum range grew. He found that simplifying using double superposition
had cut his max range by half. Successful triple superposition cut his max
range by sixty-six percent.
And he had yet to get even a single successful quadruple superposition attack
off. Though he was slowly getting better at triple superposition. He suspected
that quadruple superposition would reduce his range to roughly about two
hundred and fifty meters.
One of the things that he had underestimated how drastic the power boost he
got was, he had expected there to be discrepancies between his predicted
values and reality due to things like inefficiencies and loss of energy, but in
reality it was even better than what he had expected from it.
('This technique… it's ridiculous. If I theoretically superimposed ten attacks

atop each other, then I would be able to launch quasi-Senior level attacks!')
Rui gaped at the thought.
He had seen what Martial Seniors were capable of, launching quasi-Senior
level attacks was an incredible accomplishment. At the very least, he was
certain that grade-ten Martial Squires probably were not ten times above him
in offensive power.
Still, when he witnessed Senior K'Mala and Senior Ceeran training with the
VOID algorithm, it became all too clear that he was far, far behind them.
THWOOM!
BOOM!!
"TSK!" Senior K'Mala tutted as she tried hitting a target five kilometers
away.
Because their inherent accuracy and senses were so much greater than that of
Rui's their baseline was still greater than Rui's greatest range limit even
though their proficiency of the ODA System was faulty and far below that of
Rui's.
Admittedly, Rui felt proud about the fact that two Martial Seniors wanted his
technique, but after seeing that even with a highly primitive and elementary
use of it, they were still way better than he probably ever could be as a
Martial Squire, he had to admit that he was humbled to a certain extent.
It was hard to tease Senior K'Mala when she was launching powerful attacks
that would break his body if they hit him.
"Why am I missing?" She turned toward Rui.

"Your execution of the first phase of the ODA system isn't bad, honestly. It's
still far from perfect given that you are a Martial Senior and should be able to
do better. The problem with you arises from the second phase of the ODA
System, I'm afraid," Rui explained.
The second phase of the ODA system was related to the prediction of
atmospheric conditions such as pressure and temperature shifts, and air
currents. The importance and significance of the second phase of the ODA
system increased the greater the distance the target was from the user. After
all, wind currents could significantly affect the trajectory of a sound projectile
over the course of a kilometer.
This was less true for shorter ranges. Rui had even discovered that he didn't
need it most of the time for targets lesser than a hundred meters away. His
attacks would cross that distance in a split second and that was too little time
for any atmospheric factors to throw the sound projectiles off trajectory.
"I'm actually a little surprised at the power of your projectiles, however," Rui
scratched his head. "Though I suppose holding back does make it easier?"
She considered his words a bit before nodding. "You're right, I was
restraining myself from the power of the third rank, but my goal is to be able
to use this technique with my full power, not without it."
Suddenly, the atmosphere grew heavier.
Rui's felt a chill crawl up his spine as a heavy wave of pressure crashed over
him. Red light emerging from deep within her skin glowed as it trickled
across her body.
She opened her mouth, and an incredibly dense attack emerged rushing
forward at a tremendous pace!
BOOM!!!
A gigantic crater in a barren part of the island several kilometers away

emerged.
Rui's eyes widened, as he wiped away some sweat from his forehead.
"Maybe… You should dial back the power. Now we don't know if you
actually hit it or not because everything within hundred meters from that
point has been destroyed…"
Senior K'Mala scrunched her eyes as she studied the site. "Tsk! You're
right…"
The red glowing lines subsided.
Rui, on the other hand, had seen enough.
('I was right!') He grew excited inwardly. ('Those are glowing blood vessels!')
He hadn't been able to make out last time because they were too far away
from him. But now that he had been given the opportunity to study it up
close, he could clearly see that the red lines traced the circulatory system
inside. This strongly supported his hypothesis that the red lines that were
blood vessels that were glowing for some unknown reason. That would
explain this strange and peculiar visage that all Martial Seniors possessed for
some reason that clearly had to do with the Senior Realm.
Although this didn't add to his understanding of the Senior Realm, it did
bolster his suspicions.
Chapter 734 End
He still had no idea what they were, or why Martial Seniors had those, and no
way of knowing yet. He knew that neither of the Martial Seniors was going to
breathe a word to Rui, most likely.
('Although Senior Ceeran did let slip that the breakthrough to Martial Senior
was a spontaneous event that could even occur in the middle of combat,') Rui
recalled.
Perhaps that information was too trivial for Senior Ceeran to care to bother
hiding. Furthermore, he was recounting his own breakthrough to the Senior
Realm which had occurred in the middle of a battle according to him.
Regardless, when he glanced at the Martial Senior, things weren't looking too
good. Senior Ceeran was having much greater difficulty than Senior K'Mala.
He was not the type that was suited for the ODA system. In fact, Rui was
sure that if he did end up adopting the ODA system in some new technique,
he would probably use a portion of it.
And that was fine.
The point of learning the ODA system was to gain access to a unique and
powerful ingredient and building block for new techniques that could have
higher accuracy than what they used to have prior.
"Senior Ceeran," Rui addressed the struggling Martial Senior gently.

"Perhaps you should consider ignoring the second phase of the ODA system
and focus on just the first phase alone. In reality, I only created the second
phase because I had very high expectations of the ODA system in the first
place and because I was capable of handling even greater difficulty when it
came to mental requirements and burdens.
"You're probably right, young man," Senior Ceeran sighed. "In reality, the
second phase is not all that relevant to me because I can manipulate the
trajectory of my attacks really even after launching them," He shrugged. "So I
can make corrections to my trajectory of attacks that may be displaced by
atmospheric conditions. In reality, I had already resolved to master the first
phase more than anything. The second phase is not bad and would help, but it
is not that deep of a matter if I cannot master it."
Rui nodded, agreeing with his logic.
The two continued training hard as Rui overlooked their training. Every day,
they would start training their executions of the ODA system, growing better
at it as time passed.
In time, Senior K'Mala's rate of calculations with the first phase of the ODA
system had soon reached a stage where she could apply them in combat
against other Martial Seniors. She had begun bullying her little brother in
fights as she firmly kept him out of range. Her accuracy had risen
tremendously and she could hold him off further away than he could attack
her, creating a situation where she steadily accumulated damage on him while
he could not even hurt her in the slightest.
Her mastery of the second phase of the ODA system was still imperfect, and
it seemed that after many months of training it, she had finally hit her
deadlock. She was unable to master it perfectly the way Rui had, yet it was
still viable to the point that it helped her greatly.
Rui himself had made great strides in Project Wavestack. He had come to a
point where double superposition was effortless, and triple superposition was
consistently successful. He had even managed to get a fluke with quadruple
superposition, but it was far too difficult for him to even consider mastering
at the moment.
Pursuing superposition could go on infinitely, thus Rui decided to

temporarily put an end to Project Wavestack as a success. A powerful
technique that could amplify his offense by a factor of two or three had been
created and it was finally time to give the technique a name.
('Transverse Resonance,') Rui spontaneously came up with a name.
The name was a bit ironic since sound wasn't transverse waves, it was carried
by what was known as longitudinal waves.
Regardless, it was a cool name, so Rui didn't particularly care. Ten months
had passed since the contracts had been signed between the Martial Union
and the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Every single technique had been successfully
exchanged and traded.
The mission objective was achieved, in every way possible. He had to admit
that it was one of the most satisfying missions that he had ever completed and
was certainly the longest he had ever undertaken, and also the most unique all
combined into one.
"We have accomplished our objective," Rui calmly informed Senior K'Mala
in an official meeting between the Martial Union and the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"We are grateful to the G'ak'arkan Tribe for cooperating with us in an
exchange of techniques. We hope to maintain our good relationship with the
G'ak'arkan Tribe."
He had told her with a pleasant smile as they shook hands and bade each
other goodbye. There was a very good chance that he might not see her again
or any of the other Martial Artists of the tribe.
They exchanged a final smile before the migrating process began. The
members of the settlement transferred all movable valuables. They left the
infrastructure as it was, after all, there was no need to break it down. The
Martial Union didn't give a damn what the native indigenous Martial Artists
of the island did with it once they left. If they ever decided to come back, it
could make another settlement process much easier than the first time since
they could rely on the foundation that they had left behind.
The migration process proceeded swiftly. Rui had been discharged from his
duty as the leader of the settlement, and specialized personnel had been
dispatched by the Martial Union to ensure that the various personnel and
supplies, and inventory would be transported back to the Martial Union
appropriately.
Soon enough a dozen large cruise ships sailed away from Vilun island,
heading straight towards the Kandrian Empire that very day.
Had anyone asked how Rui was feeling that day, he wasn't he would be able
to reply.
Chapter 735 Plans
"Missing them already?" Kane asked Rui was gazing back at the island.
"It's not like I spent too much time with any of the Martial Artists, in all
honesty," Rui replied.
"What about that one Martial Senior chick though?" Kane asked uncouthly.
Rui furrowed his eyebrows in response. "Yeah, I suppose I am going to miss

her."
"Hehe, do you have a crush on her? Did you guys have a thing going on? Rui
and K'Mala sitting on a tree…"
Rui shook his head with a resigned smile. He was too old mentally to be
bothered with juvenile jests. "By the way, have you figured out what you're
going to do next?"
Kane grew more serious upon hearing that. He knew why Rui was asking that
question, it was regarding the proposal that he had made to Kane a while
back on Vilun Island. It was one proposal that he had to give credit to as
being alluring.
Kane didn't know much about the dungeon.
But he did know a lot about Rui. If he thought that visiting the dungeon was a
good idea for both of them, then Kane definitely thought it was a good idea
as well.
"Alright, I'm in," Kane shrugged. "What was the dungeon called again?"
Rui threw a disapproving look at his friend. "You should have familiarized
yourself with the dungeon before agreeing to it straightforwardly. You're
prone to getting exploited with an attitude like that."
Kane shook his head inwardly. He would have instantly rejected almost
anyone else had they suggested partnering up with him and diving into a
dangerous dungeon with immense competition from other Martial Squires
across this section of the continent.
Yet it was different from when it was Rui who was the one making that
proposal. Not only was the man sharp and shrewd, but he was also someone
Kane trusted deeply.
That was why he had accepted Rui's proposal. In reality, he had accepted the
moment Rui had made it months ago inwardly, this was the first time that he
was informing Rui about it.
"I'm glad you're willing," Rui turned back towards the ocean. "It definitely
reduces the risks than if we went alone."
Rui was confident in his capability, however, at the end of the day, he was
only one person. He could make mistakes, he could be caught off-guard. It
was always better to have another person with you.
Kane was reliable in his eyes, and quite trustworthy. There were very few
Martial Squires he could say that for.
"But unfortunately, neither of us is ready yet," He sighed.
"Hm?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"The dungeon is a gathering ground for some of the most accomplished

Martial Squires in this section of the continent. We're not going to be dealing
with any low-level Martial Squires. I highly doubt anybody below grade five
is going to be able to compete effectively."
"True that," Kane nodded.
He had broken through a lot more recently than Rui did and was two grades
below him. He was especially unfit to be partaking in an endeavor as crazy as
this one.
"Also, I need to gather as much information regarding the Shionel Dungeon

as well," Rui pointed out. "We can probably purchase detailed information
and intelligence on the dungeon from the Martial Union. But just that isn't
enough. We'll need to analyze that information and come up with a strategy
and course of action that will allow us to maximize our fruits from the
venture."
Rui was not someone who undertook ventures like this without preparation.
Getting to know everything relevant that he had to do.
The dungeon was probably like the one in the Serevian forest, except its
underground system was firmly intact because it was not forcibly filled with
land to prevent security holes. It would extend deep underground.
He needed to find information surroundings its structure, the level of

competition, and the esoteric material yields that could be taken up for grabs.
Furthermore, he needed information surrounding the beasts that occupied the
dungeon, those would greatly factor into his evaluation of the difficulty of
delving into the dungeon of the Shionel Confederation.
"We also need to get stronger," Rui noted. "While we gather and analyze
information we should go ahead and increase our power to the bare minimum
degree."
Kane nodded, sighing. "That's not gonna be so easy, you know. Becoming
stronger as a Martial Squire is so much more complicated than it was as a
Martial Apprentice. Back in the Apprentice Realm, you could just master
techniques that weren't your own and call it a day. But in the Squire Realm,
without the synergy that comes with using techniques that you have an
affinity for, your growth will be stalled. And without the individuality that
comes with having created, even partially, your own techniques, one can
forget about trying to reach the Senior Realm."
"If it was easy, everybody would do it," Rui replied calmly.

He didn't necessarily disagree with Kane. He was right in saying that growth
in the Squire Realm was different than it used to be in the Apprentice Realm.
To Rui, however, this was a good thing. He had suspected it before, but
recently he had confirmed it. But he was great at developing his own
strength.
He had a lifetime of experience and knowledge from another world. He could

apply it to create techniques that nobody else could fathom creating. Because
of the knowledge about the human being and the mechanics of reality that he
had inherited from his previous life, he had plenty of fuel and source material
to build techniques out of.
Where other Martial Squires struggled, Rui thrived. He was certain that no
Martial Squire of his youth and experience, or lack thereof, in the Squire
Realm, could have come up with so many powerful techniques.
He recalled one of the Martial Squires he had sparred with when creating one
of his techniques told him that the path to the Senior Realm was difficult and
hard. Well, Rui realized that may not entirely apply to him.
Chapter 736 Return
The climate changed as the days passed. It was a sign that they were getting
increasingly closer to the main continent. The journey was more cumbersome
because there was a lot that needed to be transported back, after all.
Yet, eventually, they finally reached their destination; the port town of
Farund that they had set out from.
Even from a great distance away, Rui could experience the familiar feel of
the Kandrian Empire. The site of modern civilization, alone, felt relieving and
refreshing. While living on Vilun Island was an experience unlike any other,
it was not familiar nor comforting.
It had been only days since he had been relieved from his duties, yet Rui felt
quite relaxed and comfortable. While the freedom that he got in his
G'ak'arkan Tribe mission was great, the responsibilities; were not so much.
Now, he was back to being just another Martial Squire.
And that felt natural.
('I can't wait to see everyone back in the Orphanage now,') Rui's smile grew
more eager.
He hadn't seen his family for ten months. He had to admit, that he was sorely
missing them.
('That reminds me, they said that they had a surprise waiting for me back
home,') Rui was curious about that. He wanted to know what it was that they
were keeping in store for him.
('Well, post-mission protocols first,') Rui groaned.
The post-mission protocols for this mission were going to be painful, that was
for sure. He highly doubted he could get away with just an hour of paperwork
like he normally did.
The second that they reached, he immediately leaped off, reaching the dock.
He breathed deeply, taking in his first breath of the Kandrian Empire in a

long time. The Martial Artists quickly followed suit, each getting off even
before the bridge between the ships and the dock had been made yet.
"You heading for post-mission protocols too?" Kane asked as he walked to

Rui.
"Yeah, best to finish it off as quickly as I can and then head home in peace,"
Rui nodded. "Let's get going,"
The two stepped into the air as they sky-walked at a swift pace, heading
towards the Mantian Region and the town of Hajin.
The two of them quickly passed through the familiar old security check-ups
before letting them pass through.
It wasn't long before they began filling up the statements and reports of the
entire mission.
This was an extensive process for both of them. They had to go over ten
months' worth of events and they couldn't skip out too many details.
Although the Martial Union had received routine reports from all of the
teams and departments of the settlement on Vilun Island, they still required
thorough details from the two of them.
Rui had to describe the initial negotiation hearing between the Martial Union
and the G'ak'arkan Tribe, the coldness of Senior K'ahru, and their swift
rejection of any offer that Rui made in regard to them.
He had to describe his actions and executive decisions during the settlement
construction on the island. This was the period that he was the most busy in.
What followed was the decision to trigger a war with the K'ulnen Tribe.
There had been a lot of thought that had gone into the strategy and approach
that they would employ with the K'ulnen Tribe. He especially needed to
describe his battles in detail, which he had no problem doing.
After that, Rui went on to describe the success of the negotiation deliberation
with the G'ak'arkan Tribe, and eventually the exchange of techniques and the
training phases.
About four hours later, he was finally done.
Kane had long bade Rui goodbye because his report was far smaller and
lesser than that of Rui's. He was merely acting as a shadow-class Martial
Artist; a covert agent and an operative. He also had been largely free and
jobless for much of the time that he had spent in this mission compared to
Rui.
"Ughh…"Rui groaned once he left the Hajin branch of the Martial Union. "At
least I can go back home now."
He didn't want to waste any time.
And he didn't.
He crouched with one leg stretched back before he dashed off at top speed
towards the Quarrier Orphanage.
In less than fifteen seconds, he had already arrived.
A loud gust of wind announced his arrival to all of the members of the
Quarrier Orphanage.
"RUIIII!!!" Alice immediately greeted him the second she saw him, leaping
to embrace him. "It's been so long! You've grown taller!"
"I've missed you too Alice," He earnestly returned her embrace. It took him a
while before he could extricate himself from her tight hug.
Soon enough, the rest of the adults came out to greet him.
Farion, Mica, Myra and the many adults who had looked after Rui when he
was just a little child couldn't help but fawn over him after having not seen
him for nearly a year. Lashara indulged herself by cupping his face with an
affectionate expression, before embracing him gently.
The children were no different in their enthusiasm to see him either. Most of
them had begun to hit their growth spurts by now and were growing taller
rapidly.
"Big brother, you're back."
"You have to tell us about your adventure this time."
Rui smiled. "Of course, I will… By the way. Where are those two?"
"Ah… Max and Mana? They're training in the woods right now at their usual
spot," Lashara smiled. "Can you go call them? It's about time for lunch.
Besides, they have been dying to meet you and show you something."
"Sure, not a problem," Rui put his belongings inside before taking off to the
sky toward the training space that he had prepared for them nearly a year ago
after their attempt in the Martial Union entrance exam.
"There they are…" Rui smiled as he spotted their figures. Yet suddenly, his
eyes widened. "Wait a minute… This feeling? It can't be that those two
have…"
"This feeling…"
How could he not recognize it? He had sensed it countless times in his life.
"Martial Apprentice…" He murmured as he rapidly reached their location.
The two of them paused their sparring match as their senses picked up his
approach. They turned to meet him with smiles on their faces.
Even before Rui could talk to them, he had already noticed how much they
had grown. Their energy was calmer and more composed. They had lost their
childish and immature demeanor. Their eyes, which used to be filled with
wonder and curiosity, were not filled with determination.
Rui felt his heartache at the thought that he missed their breakthrough to the
Apprentice Realm. It was a shame, but alas, it could not be helped.
STEP
He landed before them.
"The two of you…" He smiled. "To say that you have made me proud is an
understatement. Congratulations, you are now Martial Artists."
He ruffled their head in adoration, though perhaps they were getting too old
for it, admittedly.
"Thank you, big brother," Mana beamed at his praise.

"Thanks, big bro!" Max grinned.
"This must have been the surprise, eh?" Rui chuckled. "It's not nice to keep
secrets from your big brother, you know?"
"Hehe… We wanted to tell you about the news in person," Max smirked.
The three of them shared a chuckle.
"Now then, tell me about your Martial Paths," Rui instructed.
Their expressions grew more serious.
"My Martial Art is centered around dynamic maneuvering," She explained.

"My style of combat focuses on three-dimensional maneuvering for defensive
and offensive applications. No attack must touch me, and no defense must
restrict me."
"Interesting…" Rui nodded.
It made sense given how she had fought all this time. She always placed and
timed her movements to position herself most appropriately. Thus he could
see her Martial Path leaning in that direction.
He turned to Max, he had a feeling he knew what his Martial Path was as
well.
"My Martial Art is cumulative momentum strikes!" Max grinned. "I rush,
gather as much energy I can, and break my opponents with one big crash!"
"As expected…" Rui nodded. Max loved rushing in and throwing every
ounce of energy that he had gathered into a single crash.
In a way, his Martial Path was pursuing the Flowing Canon technique that
Rui used to have, to the extreme. Of course, this meant that his Martial Art
was extremely narrow and extremely focused. This was not a bad thing.
He knew of Martial Artists who had reached fearsome heights purely

focusing on a singular specialty.
The first one that came to mind was Hever.
Hever had, to this day, only mastered a single technique. He had incorporated
elements of other techniques into it to elevate the technique. But it was still
considered part of one technique.
Thus Rui did not dare look down on singular and focused Martial Art. It was
because they gave everything to that one singular thing. Dedicated everything
they had to offer in one direction, and they were able to accomplish feats that
were simply incredible.
If Max kept pursuing a path to maximizing the lethality and dangerousness of

his bullrush strikes, then he would no doubt become a fearsome Martial
Artist.
"By the way, big brother?" Mana interjected his thoughts. "Our senses have
grown so much better, and yet why can't I still sense even a shred of your
power?"
Rui had still put on his human-level Mind Mask. He did not like drawing
attention from others, after all. He had no interest in being the object of
attention of normal human beings.
This was especially the case when considering the fact that he had been
walking around with the aura of a grade-ten Martial Artist for ten months!
He had spent every day instantly attracting the admiration or fear of

onlookers continuously for that long all because he needed to maintain the
illusion of his strength. Now that he had returned back to the Kandrian
Empire, he no longer needed to do that and could peacefully return back to
not walking around as what was effectively a blindingly bright light to
ordinary humans
"It's because I'm using a technique to suppress my power from being

projected," Rui sighed replying. "It's not something I'm fond of."
"Enough talk brother. Let's spar!" Max was really excited to spar against Rui
ever since he had broken through to the Apprentice Realm.
"Hehehe… You have been dying for this haven't you?" Rui smiled. "Who
knows, even if you are Martial Apprentices, two against one might be too
much."
He tried getting their hopes up a bit, hoping they did not understand the
disparity between the Apprentice and Squire Realm.
"Don't fool us, big brother," Mana pouted. "We fought our hardest against our
Apprentice Verema. But we were utterly helpless against him!"
"Ah… right," Rui had almost forgotten that he had hired a number of Martial
Apprentices of different Martial Paths to expose his two siblings to different
kinds of Martial Art. To show them what was possible. "Haha, I hoped I
could pull a fast one over you."
The duo had been surprised at how helpless they had been against a Martial
Apprentice, even if they were older.
"The Apprentice Realm is wide. It is divided into grades, ranging from one to
ten," Rui explained. "The two of you at this moment are not even grade one,
as you have not yet mastered a single Apprentice-level technique. Your
Martial Apprentice mentors and trainers are all around grade-five."
"Is the gap between grade one and grade five that big?" She frowned. "It's
two on one you know!"
They were still limited by their human experience. Generally, two-on-one

between trained human-level fighters was a decisive victory for the two.
Especially, if the fight was a fair duel. Humans did not have the ability to
reach such high levels of skill that they could overcome a numbers advantage
that also had skill themselves.
The same was absolutely not true for Martial Artists, and they were soon
coming to learn that.
Chapter 738 Spar
"Of course it is large," Rui smiled. "The difference between the bottom of the
Apprentice Realm and the peak of it is immense."
The two of them were quite surprised by this.
"So we have a long way to go before we can reach the Squire Realm?" Max
heaved a sigh.
Rui couldn't help but be amused. These two did not have any idea about the
difficulty of breaking through to the Squire Realm, clearly. He did not intend
to divulge all of it, either. He had not been told about the evolution
breakthrough process to the Squire Realm for multiple reasons, and he could
understand why in hindsight.
For starters, the power that it provided was too alluring, while Martial
Apprentices were generally young and inexperienced, and lacking in
maturity. The evolution breakthrough gave the Martial Artist a Martial body;
a body that had transcended the limits of humanity through Darwinian
evolution. It was a dreamlike power that any normal Martial Apprentice
would feel an immense amount of greed and lust for. There was the fear that
if divulged too early, their greed for this power would warp their Martial
Paths to revolve around their body, rather than molding their body to revolve
around their Martial Path.
That was why Martial maturity was one of the conditions for Squire
candidacy. It was to ensure that the Martial Apprentice had developed their
Martial Art to a certain degree and had set it in stone so that an excessive
amount of corruption of it due to greed would not occur.
Rui could appreciate this, even though he did believe that he would not have
been corrupted regardless.
There was another reason for not disclosing the secret of the breakthrough to
the Squire Realm. The breakthrough to the Squire Realm was a man-made
way to allow Martial Artists to climb higher Realms. It was not something
that could naturally be obtained. Thus it was a way for the Martial Union to
ensure that others did not get their hands on it by some young and immature
Martial Apprentice spilling the beams by some foreign power like the
He had faith that the Apprentice and Squire instructors of the Martial
Academy would take good care of them. He was especially reassured by the
fact that Headmaster Aronian was watching over them.
"By the way, big brother," Mana drew his attention back. "What does it take
to become a Martial Squire? Can you tell me? It could help us become
stronger quicker."
Rui smiled, shaking his head lightly. He reached out for the top of her head,
ruffling her hair a bit. "Focus on your Martial Paths. Grow stronger. Make
sure your Martial Paths truly belong to you and not to anybody else.
Remember these words, okay?"
They nodded solemnly. They had an immense amount of faith in their older
brother. His words, especially regarding Martial Art, were
He said the latter half with a pointed tone, making allusions to the concept of
individuality. He had considered explaining the concept of it to them but
ultimately decided against it. Individuality in their Martial Path was not such
a dire necessity in the Apprentice Realm.
Besides, the creativity needed to add individuality to your Martial Art by

creating your own techniques with uniqueness and originality needed some
foundation to come from. These two had not yet mastered a single technique,
how could they be expected to create their own techniques? He did not want
to burden them with information that they not only could not make use of in
the short to medium term but would only serve as a thorn of insecurity as
they grew stronger.
"You're not gonna tell us about what the breakthrough process for the Squire
Realm is either, are you big brother?" Max remarked with an unsatisfied
expression.
"Most certainly not," Rui smiled pleasantly.
"Figures. But I don't care about that right now," Max shook his head. "I just
want to fight you as a Martial Apprentice at least once."
"Hehe…" Rui smiled. "Alright, enough talk it is."
He stepped ten meters away from them, before raising an arm and gesturing
them to attack. "Come, let's begin."
The two of them did not even hesitate.
They lashed out towards Rui, Mana reaching him a beat earlier. Her sprint
was efficient and rapid, she reached him in an instant before launching a
driving kick straight toward his torso.
WHOOSH
Rui simply sidestepped gracefully as he twirled out of the way of the attack.
Yet as soon as he finished that maneuver, Max had already arrived. His right
arm was coiled beside his ribs lashing forward as he channeled all of his
momentum straight towards Rui.
Rui's eyebrows rose as he studied Max's form in slow motion.
('This attack is good enough to match the Flowing Canon technique,') Rui
noted with pleasure.
He wasn't too surprised considering the concept of the Flowing Canon

technique was what Max's Martial Path was related to. Max would be able to
wield that technique, and techniques similar to that far better than Rui ever
could due to his Martial Path's affinity towards it.
While Mana was outside of his field of vision behind him, he could sense that
her agility and fluidity were much better than that of his when he had broken
through, for the same reason; it was her Martial Path. She rapidly turned all
of the missed momentum of her first attack a complete one hundred and
eighty degrees before throwing it back at Rui once more from behind. The
two had times their attacks that he would end up facing their attack from
opposite directions simultaneously.
('Their coordination has improved yet again,') He smiled as he leaped

slightly.
BANG!
Their fists cleanly crashed into each other as the two of them grimaced.
STEP
Rui landed on both their fists gracefully, looking down at them from above
with an amused, yet proud smile. "That was a good combo, did you prepare it
just to use it against me?
Chapter 739 Accelerate
A few hours later, the two of them were flat on the ground, exhausted.
"Man… Huff… We couldn't land a proper strike on you even after we

became Martial Apprentices!" Max complained.
"That too… Huff… He was moving slower than us… And we still couldn't
even touch him," Mana panted. "How is that even possible?"
Rui, who was enjoying the rare pleasant weather of spring, smiled at their
words. "It's a matter of timing and placement, my cute and adorable siblings."
"What does that even mean?" Max furrowed his eyebrows. He was much
bigger than he was before, and he disliked being treated like a child.
Unbeknownst to him, Rui found this part of him to be the most adorable.
"I can evade everything you throw at me because I can see it coming, and
because I pick and choose the right evasion move in response," Rui replied.
"Which is why even if I delay my response and reaction time to be slower
than yours, I can still handily evade you with ease for the most part. I see
your attacks coming sooner than you realize, thus I make the necessary
preparations to avoid them sooner."
"Does this have anything to do with your Martial Path, big brother?" Mana
asked, curious. "Your Martial Path was… adaptive evolution, correct? Are
you adapting to us? Allowing you to do what you just described?"
That was a nuanced question. Mana had always been smarter of the two,
though she was more tactically indecisive in combat compared to Max.
"My Martial Path is indeed adaptive evolution," Rui nodded. "But… what I
did now is not an application of Martial Art…"
The truth was that his normal and natural insight had grown to a level where
he could easily see through their moves even without using predictive models
of those two. This wasn't particularly shocking or surprising. Any decent
Martial Squire with enough experience would be able to do that more or less.
Their movements were far less refined than what he was accustomed to
fighting.
They stared at him dumbfounded.
"Don't look at me like that," Rui couldn't help but feel a little proud of the
admiration that they were showering him with. "When you go to the Martial
Academy, you'll meet even more amazing Martial Squires."
"Even more amazing than you?!"
"I'm not even all that special in the Squire Realm at this very moment," Rui
shook his head, trying to downplay himself. He didn't want them to have an
over-inflated view of their brother. When they joined the Martial Academy,
they would come to learn that their big brother was a bit of a celebrity in the
Martial communities of the Kandrian Empire. Currently, Rui had come to
find that almost all the people he had come to interact with within this
community had heard about him, directly or indirectly. Fame from being the
dark horse finalist of the previous Martial contest more than five years ago,
fame from his win streak in the Martial Games, fame from killing a Martial
Squire and achieving unprecedented power as Martial Apprentice that forced
the Martial Union to re-evaluate their power grading system, and the man
who had singlehandedly won the Kandrian Empire victory in the final battle
of the Serevian Wars.
He had never informed them, or anyone in the Orphanage about it, mostly
because he was far too self-conscious to brag so blatantly and because it did
not truly matter. But now that the two of them would be going to be passing
the Martial Entrance Exam that was less than a month away and attending the
Martial Academy, he suspected that his reputation would be of use to them.
"Anyways, the two of you had made great progress and have become
remarkably strong… remarkably quickly." He said that with a proud smile,
but inside he was absorbed deep in thought.
('Did these two possess the talent needed to breakthrough at the age of
thirteen?') Rui couldn't help but wonder. In reality, he more or less knew the
answer to that question. ('…No, they did not.')
It was unfortunate, but they were above average as far as talent went. Yet,
they broke through to the Apprentice Realm earlier than Fae had. Fae herself
was a renowned talent, even if she wasn't in the genius-level territory like
Fiona, Kane, and Ian, who all broke through even well before they had begun
to go through puberty.
This made them very favorable prospects since they broke through nearly
five years earlier than the average age to break through to Martial Apprentice.
So what had changed? They hadn't shown dominant talents for combat from a
young age, yet now they had broken through to the Apprentice Realm at the
age of thirteen. Something had to have caused that.
Rui already had a strong suspicion as to what it was.
('The VOID algorithm must have accelerated their self-awareness since they
got to witness themselves in me when I copied their movements with the
predictive model, and when I showed them their strengths and shortcomings
when I mildly adapted to them.') Rui sighed.
The breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm was one born from self-discovery.
Self-awareness was vitally important and decisive among other things. Rui
suspected that the VOID algorithm had facilitated the self-awareness that was
needed to break through to the Apprentice Realm.
('First Crea… Now these two…') Rui noted.
Back when Crea had abruptly broken out of seemingly nowhere in the middle
of the Martial entrance exam, he had only suspected that perhaps the VOID
training had something to do with it, but now he had two more cases.
It was a lot more convincing and likely that his Martial Path could accelerate
the rate of discovery of other Martial Paths of aspiring Martial Artists. That
made his Martial Path and Martial Art that much more valuable.
('If the Martial Union found out…') Rui shook his head.
The Martial Union was very careful about extracting techniques from Martial
Artists. It had worked hard to develop a reputation for being fair.
Chapter 740 Consequences
However, they found that Rui had a way of vastly increasing the number of
Martial Artists in the country over a longer period of time by a factor of ten,
then they would do anything and everything in their power to get that
technique.
The first thing that would happen would be that Rui would likely be secured
by two powerful defensive Martial Masters. In the case that information
about his ability leaked to the rest of the world and unscrupulous parties
decided to try and kill him before he breaks the balance of power, the Martial
Union would definitely secure his life and well-being with their very best.
It would not absurd for even a Martial Sage to take responsibility for
protecting him.
They would probably begin by trying to compel him to voluntarily divulge

the technique of his own accord. That way, a mutually beneficial deal could
be established that satisfied both parties. Rui could end up obtaining a fortune
worth of wealth with ease. He could end up gaining a huge number of highly
beneficial privileges and status that only Martial Artists that stood at the peak
of the nation could obtain.
ραпdα---nᴏνa| сom The Martial extremists would start worshipping him since
he had the ability to bring fruition to their ambitions and dreams in the long
run.
However, if he refused to divulge the technique, then things would take a turn
for the worst very easily. Their policy of not forcing or coercing Martial
Artists to divulge their techniques be damned, they would do everything they
could get his technique. Rui highly doubted that they would not go as far as
taking the entirety of his orphanage hostage to compel him to divulge the
technique.
Regardless, they would get the technique. They would have Rui personally
train as many trusted Martial Artists in that technique as they could, or
develop new training technology based on the VOID algorithm. They would
do everything in their power to become stronger through the new way that
Rui's VOID algorithm will have shown them.
Rui probably would lose his freedom for a long time, and that absolutely was
not something that he wanted.
('I cannot have any more of my pupils to break through to the Apprentice
Realm,') Rui shook his head.
Three was already suspicious, but not unheard of. There were experienced
mentors and teachers who've had far more pupils become Martial Apprentice.
The issue might arrive due to his one hundred percent success rate thus far.
He needed to abstain from training pupils or at least ensure that he doesn't use
the VOID algorithm training for them if he does mentor them. These were the
bare minimum precautions that he had to take.
Eventually, the three of them returned back to the Quarrier Orphanage.
"Rui, I told you to get them back immediately."
"Ah, my bad. Haha…" Rui laughed with an apologetic expression.
He had been caught off-guard by the breakthrough of the two siblings that he
had completely forgotten that he had been sent to get them back in time for
lunch that he ended up inadvertently missing as well.
"Now now, I'm sure he must have been too absorbed by Max's and Mana's
breakthroughs, let us cut him some slack," Julian smiled.
"Right right," Rui turned towards Julian. "It's been a while."

Julian had gone to work, and Rui hadn't seen them in the morning. The two of
them exchanged a hug, they had always been particularly close with each
other thanks to the many extensive conversations that they had with each
other over topics that they had common interests. Julian engaged in research
of all kinds, and he did specialize in the research of Martial Art as well.
While Rui was a Martial Artist who had researched martial arts and combat
sports for most of his life back on Earth.
That gave them expertise and understanding over many areas that only they
had in the orphanage.
"How was your mission, Rui?" Julian asked. "This has been the longest
mission that you have ever undertaken, correct?"
"True," Rui nodded. "Honestly, it was quite difficult and tiring, but at the end
of the day, I managed to succeed."
Julian's eyes glinted with curiosity.
Rui had informed him of the gist of what he was up to. When Julian heard
that Rui had been chosen as an ambassador of the Martial Union to negotiate
the deal with the native indigenous Martial tribes of a faraway island, he
couldn't help but be surprised. Yet he was shrewd enough to immediately
recognize the merits of the idea and why the Martial Union had made this
decision.
Although he had maintained correspondence with Rui, the latter had not been
specific about the information that he had relayed.
"Sounds like quite the adventure," Julian smiled as they took their seats
opposite each other. "What were they like?"
"They were barbaric and warmongering," Rui sighed. "They waged war
against other Martial tribes on a daily basis. We had to carefully and
delicately navigate them with scrupulous care, and it was tedious and
patience-consuming, really. But quite satisfactory when we succeeded in the
end. I managed to learn one of their technique and become stronger myself, I
even created a new technique on the island."
Julian knitted his eyebrows in surprise. "You had time to train when you were
the leader of the entire diplomatic operation?"
"…I delegated all the troublesome work to other more qualified personnel,"
Rui shrugged.
Julian sighed with amusement and resignation. Of course, considering that

Rui succeeded, the Martial Union probably couldn't care less, especially since
he was a Martial Artist.
"Tell me all you can about it," Julian urged Rui.
He was not an anthropologist, but even he had a lot of curiosity regarding

other Martial Artist models. The fact that the Martial Union had deployed Rui
probably meant that the natives had Martial Squires, in that case, he was quite
curious as to how technologically inept had managed to stumble on the
breakthrough to the Squire Realm.
Chapter 741 Unsophisticated
"Wait," Julian raised a hand. "You're telling me that their version of the
Squire evolution breakthrough process takes years to complete?"
Rui nodded. "Their evolution breakthrough process, or their sacred

Transcendence Ritual as they called it was speculated to work with crude
applications of some highly potent esoteric substances that can be found on
the island."
The intelligence team assigned to the Vilun settlement had managed to

collect information on the Squire evolution breakthrough process across the
entirety of the duration of the mission.
They had come to the conclusion that the procedure was absurdly long and
required the Martial Squire to undergo a truly extensive process.
"That might actually make sense," Julian nodded deep in thought. "Their
technology is non-existent and they do not possess healing potions that
rapidly heal grave injuries, which is one of the reasons that the Squire
evolution breakthrough process of the Kandrian Empire is able to occur
within a short amount of time."
And still, it yielded inferior results despite taking exponentially more time.
This was the difference that the sophistication in technology was able to
cause.
Regardless, the Martial Union did not have anything beyond curiosity
surrounding the Squire evolution breakthrough process of the Martial tribes
on Vilun island, they had no desire to obtain a crude and primitive process
when they had their own state-of-the-art and cutting-edge technology when it
came to Squire evolution breakthroughs.
The two conversed for some more time about a variety of matters, including
Max and Mana breaking through. Rui was intrigued to know that Julian had
already had a handful of discussions about the Apprentice Realm with them.
He was happy to know that he had exercised discretion and controlled the
amount of information that he gave them unlike with Rui, who he had far
more trust in.
Rui spent the next few days relaxing with the family and taking care of the
children. He had truly missed them and wanted to squeeze in as much time
with them in a brief period of time.
After all, he was going to get really busy real soon.
STEP
He stopped before the Hajin branch of the Martial Union.
"Identity and purpose of visit?" The Martial Squire security guard asked him.
"Squire Rui Quarrier," Rui replied calmly as he handed them his Martial
license. "Purchase of information."
"Alright," The guard nodded, returning his license and passing him through.
ραпdα---nᴏνa| сom Rui navigated the Martial Union reaching the Martial
exchange department and counter. "Excuse me."
"Yes," An employee addressed him with a smile. "How may I help you
today, sir?"
"I would like to purchase all the information surrounding the Shionel
Dungeon, please," Rui calmly requested.
"Give me one moment, sir," She replied as she accessed her terminal.
"That will cost around fifty-two thousand eight hundred and ninety Martial
credits, sir," She replied straightforwardly.
Rui winced inwardly at the enormous price but nodded. In reality, while the
price is high, he was probably being given the information at a lower price.
He did not think for a second that an outsider to the Martial Union would be
able to purchase all the intelligence on the Shionel Dungeon at this price.
"Please deduct the price of the information from my account,"
"Of course, sir. Kindly provide me with your Martial license please,"
"Squire Quarrier, the transaction is complete. Is there anything else that you
would like to purchase?"
"Not for now, thank you,"
"In that case, the information will shortly be available on your accounter,"
She informed him. "Thank you for your purchase."
Rui left the Martial Union heading back home. Unfortunately, he wasn't
allowed to directly share the information purchased from the Martial Union
with other parties. After all, that became far too ripe for exploitation where
they sell the information at a slightly lower price and end up attracting all of
the customers of Martial Union while selling something that the intelligence
department of the Martial Union had spent a lot of resources in obtaining.
The funds that the Martial Union obtained from this little side business were
one of the sustainable sources of funds for the intelligence department of the
Martial Union. They could not allow themselves to be ripped badly.
Thankfully, that rule did not extend to indirect and transformative distribution
of the information. Meaning, Rui could read everything, understand and
assimilate it before conveying it to Kane and making their plans based on that
information. Even the Martial Union understand it was stupid and impractical
to try and restrict such application of information.
He quickly reached home and secluded himself in his room with his
accounter as he began scrolling through the information that he had
purchased.
"This is…" Rui's eyebrow rose. "I can see why they charged that much for all
this information."
The information was more extensive than he had expected, though, in

hindsight, he shouldn't have been too surprised. The Martial Union must have
bolstered its intelligence network in the Shionel Confederation once the
discovery of the new dungeon had come to light. Thus it was no wonder that
they were able to gather so much information regarding the matter.
The information was divided into multiple categories, starting with the
foundational information regarding the Shionel Confederation itself as a state.
"Oh…?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
The Shionel Confederation was a state that was ruled by the Shionel
Merchant Guild, it's governmental structure could more or less be
characterized as a corporatocracy. The state had been founded in a time and
region of war between surrounding small kingdoms and tribes that were
perenially in conflict with each other. A large number of wealthy merchants
and businessmen had come together and formed a guild that manufactured or
purchased arms and ammunition, logistical resources, essential goods, and
supplies and supplied it to external parties that were engaging in war with
another party. They had bolstered just enough of a military to disincentivize
an attack and had formed pacts with the forces that would go on to win the
wars and become the established kingdoms of today.
Today, the once humble opportunistic merchant guild had absorbed many
merchants and businessmen, businesses, and corporations and had matured
into a commercial and economic state.
A massive dungeon had been unearthed in such a place.
"Oh boy…" Rui couldn't help but feel an ominous chill.

Chapter 742 Capitalism
It couldn't be helped. It was clear that the Shionel Confederation was nothing
more than a group of greedy businessmen who were only interested in
accumulating more capital, one way or another.
These greedy businessmen were untethered and unhampered by anybody but

themselves, as the Shionel Merchant Guild served as the legislative branch of
the Shionel government. As such, the legislations in place were highly
capitalistic in nature and were highly inviting for any aspiring merchant.
They had signed several treaties and bilaterals with the surrounding sovereign
states that gave them significant reductions and cuts in import tax and tariffs,
as well as lowered regulations and a
Now, what would such a group of people if a dungeon opened up in their

nation?
The answer was obvious.
They would exploit it to their best to make as much money as possible!
Senior Ceeran had already informed him that they were far too weak to
monopolize the dungeon, thus they had no choice but to share it.
If they did do that, then they would probably erect a system that would allow
them to commercialize the dungeon to the greatest degree possible!
"I hope those money-grubbing snakes haven't turned their dungeon into the
biggest market on this side of the continent!" Rui slammed his face.
This made things more complicated and dangerous, but at the same time, a
little more interesting than they had been before. Still, Rui hoped that he
would be able to simply explore a dungeon in peace with his friend and make
away with as much plunder as possible.
What he found interesting about the Shionel Confederation was its Martial
Artist situation. Martial Artists were treated as mercenaries whose only goal
was to aid with security and intelligence. By contributing to peace and
security, they gained wealth and status that was proportional to their value
and contribution.
It made sense that a lot of Martial Apprentices and Martial Squires would be
attracted by the wealth and status that the Shionel Confederation would be
providing. It was harder to imagine how they managed to reel in Martial
Artists of the upper Realms. They even managed to get their hands on a
Martial Sage.
('So there are even Martial Sages who chase after wealth and status huh?')
Rui couldn't help but sigh in disappointment. He had already long learned
that Martial Artists were different from those that he would frequently come
across in the fictional media of Earth. Movies, anime, manga, and even
novels would frequently portray martial artists as highly pure and idealistic
warriors driven by profound philosophy that was deeply embedded in
whatever martial art they practiced.
Still, this was all just unrealistic and naive bogus in a world where genuinely
powerful Martial Art existed. No more than childish romance.
He kept needing to remind himself that Martial Art was viewed as power. A
powerful means to an end. Most Martial Artists did not pursue their Martial
Path for the sake of their Martial Path, or out of pure ambition to pursue their
Martial Path to its end.
Most people did it because they wanted something that Martial Art could
give them. The most common being power, but there were a variety of
reasons. Social status and money were also powerful drivers for people to
aspire to pursue Martial power. And it appeared that there was one who
wanted to status and power to such a degree that they were able to become a
Martial Sage.
It was a little depressing to Rui, who pursued his Martial Path for the sake of
his Martial Path, for the sake of Project Water.
ραпdα---nᴏνa| сom He shook his head, as he swept through the information

that the Martial Union had gathered.
Unfortunately, his suspicions were right.
The Shionel Merchant Guild had created a Shionel Adventurer Guild that
essentially served the same purpose that the Martial Union serving as a
highly effective liaison between the consumer market for Martial services and
Martial Artists.
The difference was that the Shionel Guild's Martial Artists were only
interested in exploring and plundering the Shionel Dungeon. And the parts of
the consumer market for Martial services that the Shionel Martial Guild
catered to was the part of the market that had become invested in the Shionel
dungeon.
There were many merchants, businesses of all scales, and investors of all
kinds that were interested in directly procuring a chunk of what the Shionel
Dungeon had procured.
The Shionel Martial Guild allowed for an easy way for Martial Artists to
undertake commissions of all sorts from all kinds of people, relating to the
dungeon.
Of course, given that this guild was brand new and an infant compared to the
long-established Martial Union, the two could not even be compared with
each other. It was lot less credible and reliable, and its sophistication fell far
behind the far larger well-oiled machine that was the Martial Union.
Besides, Rui was not interested in undertaking a mission from the Shionel
Martial Guild. If he was, then he would rather go ahead and take it from the
Martial Union which was far more reliable and trustworthy in his eyes.
This time, however, he wanted the goal to be open-ended. He and Kane could
decide what to do when it came to exploring the Shionel Dungeon.
He skimmed through the bits regarding the Martial Guild, mindlessly

dumping the information into his Mind Palace. He would review it later in
more detail, for now, he was interested in the dungeon more than anything
else.
"The Dungeon is measured to extend for thirty kilometers in any direction?!"

Rui exclaimed out loud as read about the dimensions of the Shionel Dungeon.
"That's gigantic!"
It made the Serevian Dungeon look like a tiny little kitten. The sheer vastness
of the volume and area that the dungeon covered was mind-boggling.
Furthermore, half of the volume of the Shionel Dungeon was below the
ground, while the other half had risen over the ground as the Serevian
Dungeon had in the Serevian Plateau.
"Just what is it like inside...?"

Chapter 743 Dungeonification
Rui read on with great amazement. It was formed when a tree underwent
dungeonification after absorbing soil deep below the surface that was rich
with highly powerful esoteric mineral resources. In a process that was not
very well understood yet, the flora enlargened and mutated, expanding as it
absorbed more.
What the scholars of this world had not quite understood yet was how flora
was able to naturally integrate esoteric mineral ores into it and develop into
all kinds of strange manners that utterly defied how said species of the plan
evolved.
Some thought that the esoteric mineral ores were somehow slowly refined
and naturally integrated into the biology of the plant, giving it strange and
seemingly reality-defying properties and characteristics that created strange
environments inside the dungeon.
This was something even Rui wasn't able to find an explanation for. It was
part of the fantastical phenomena in this world that entirely defied what was
possible in his previous life. He was unable to extrapolate a satisfactory based
on his scientific background.
He shrugged. "No point in breaking my head over it."
What he was more interested was in the further details surrounding the
dungeon.
The dungeon was equally divided into a tower above the ground and an
underground dome that was both equally vast. There were a number of small
and large pockets of space connected by tunnels that were suspected to
contain reservoirs of processed or raw esoteric mineral ores referred to as
floors. Each of the floors was numbered to make it convenient for reference.
The floor that was level with the ground level of the Shionel Great first that
the dungeon was in was numbered as Floor Zero. Floors that went up in the
tower were numbered with positive numbers, while floors that went down
were numbered with negative numbers.
"Fascinating…" Rui scratched his head as his mind flashed back to some of
the more modern anime that were around. "Isn't this concept quite similar to
some of the dungeons that occur in some anime?"
He wasn't entirely sure, he was an old-school anime fan, and he generally

couldn't really stand the newer anime and their more childish appeal.
Regardless, it was quite fascinating to see such an otherworldly natural

phenomenon and have the opportunity to visit it and even explore it.
He went through the data collected on the floors of the dungeon, yet when he
reached the mapped areas, his eyes widened.
"Only a minority of the floors of the dungeon is mapped," Rui frowned. "And
an even smaller portion has been cleared."
pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ This was surprising to Rui. The dungeon had been open
for more than three months now, how was it that such a small portion of the
dungeon had been cleared?
Even if the dungeon was large and dangerous, a huge number of Martial
Artists were undoubtedly exploring it at the moment. They should have been
clearing it at a rapid pace, with the sheer amount of powerful Martial Squires
that would no doubt be joining from all across this chunk of the continent
would no doubt be taking part in this grand opportunity.
After all, it was a fleeting opportunity that would no doubt allow
"Ah…" Rui read on as he comprehended the reason. "There are mutated

beasts… so-called monsters occupying all of the floors…?"
The animals in the ecosystem that existed before the Shionel Dungeon were
all integrated into the dungeon after having fed on the mutated vegetation,
which in turn made the entirety of the food chain increasingly mutated.
('Mutation… Does this have something to do with electromagnetic

radiation?') Rui frowned in confusion. ('Is this a process similar to the
evolution breakthrough?')
He wasn't sure. He knew for a fact that the highly potent esoteric mineral ores
would have been entirely lethal to fauna life forms if consumed directly, but
somehow when consumed when the esoteric mineral was integrated into flora
directly or indirectly, it was for some reason not unstable.
Of course, this did not mean it was entirely safe. There were still a huge
number of animals that died regardless, while the remaining populated the
dungeon. In that case, it was probably not safe for him, or for anyone else to
consume any of the processed esoteric minerals integrated into the
vegetation.
He would need to make sure that he kept that in mind. Even if it was related
to the Squire evolution breakthrough in principle, it meant that it was
particularly dangerous to Martial Squires, since they had hit their absolute
limit when it came to radiation-induced evolution. Otherwise, the procedure
could be extended for much longer if not for the limits of the brain.
Regardless, he could understand why the exploration and clearance of the

dungeon had taken so long. The explorer Martial Artists had run into a lot of
hindrances, to the point that the exploration could not proceed. They had not
even mapped out most of the dungeon yet!
('Not just that…') Rui read through the remaining details listed in the
intelligence procured by the Martial Union.
('It appears that sensory techniques are highly restricted due to the high
concentration of esoteric substances that insulate or disrupt the flow of
energy that was often used in sensory techniques,') Rui frowned.
That was inconvenient.

His long-range sensory techniques were dependent on air currents and
seismic radiation. With those crippled, Rui would not be able to use those to
sense past one floor to another, which would explain why much of the
dungeon was simply shrouded in mystery.
('I need to find a way to bypass the sensory restrictions that prevent Martial
Artists from being able to easily map out the dungeon…') Rui's eyes
narrowed as thought of a few possibilities.
Furthermore, with Kane's abilities…
('It may not be impossible for us to clear the dungeon before any other force
in the Shionel Dungeon…') Rui's eyes twinkled with interest.
He continued to browse through all of the information that the Martial Union
had collected for him. There was much to be studied.
Chapter 744 Goals
Rui had spent the past few days going through all of the information that the
Martial Union had gathered regarding the Shionel Dungeon. Thankfully, the
Martial Union had organized and presented in a way that was quite user-
friendly. Martial Artists were not known to be the brightest tool in the box,
and intelligence management and processing was not their strongest point.
Thus, the Martial Union first provided an extremely broad outline of all of
the information present that was simple enough for even a child to
understand. The complexity slowly increased only if the Martial Union then
further studied any particular aspect of the information provided.
Of course, this was an unnecessary measure for Rui, but it did make things
easier. He needed time to process all that information once he stored all of it
in his Mind Palace. After all, memorizing it did not necessarily mean storing
it.
('But before that, I should try and clarify the goals and objectives of this little
adventure…') Rui narrowed his eyes.
They weren't going on a picnic to the local hill, or anything like that. They
were going to be partaking in an incredibly dangerous and risky adventure
that could while stimulating them and pushing them forward in their Martial
Path, also take put them at grave risk and even kill them if they made a single
mistake.
Thus, they needed to make sure that they were aware of the risks and aware
of what they were seeking.
('Kane doesn't particularly seek anything asides from putting distance
between himself and his family… And he has a lot of trust in me so he's
willing to follow me along in pretty much anything I do. I shouldn't take that
trust for granted, and I should make sure that Kane not only doesn't regret
trusting me but also rejoices in doing so,') Rui had resolved himself to make
sure that would end up being the case.
In which case, he needed to iron out exactly what their objectives were, and
how they were going to achieve it.
('The first objective is to be the first to clear the dungeon after having
explored the entirety of it,') Rui smirked.
Rui did not want to subject himself to a safer and more peaceful objective of
simply exploring the dungeon at their own pace. That was boring and did not
pressure him enough to gain meaningful experience or to stimulate him to
develop his Martial Art with even more individuality. He came here to get
stronger, and only by holding himself to the highest standard could he
possibly achieve that.
This was not a light objective. He wanted to be the first to reach the
extremities of the dungeon, both the tower dungeon and the underground
dungeon.
('Second… earn enough money to sustain long-term exploration of the

dungeon…') Rui concluded.
Rui did not want to eat into his savings for months and months on end to
sustain his little adventure, he wanted to make sure that he always had
enough earnings from his little escapades, and then some. He wanted to make
sure that he was earning as much as he would have had he been doing regular
and normal missions.
For now, these two objectives were good enough, and he wasn't the only one
who thought so either.
"You want to be the first to explore and clear the entire dungeon?" Kane
furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at Rui with scrutinizing eyes, looking for
a hint of humor.
ραпdα---nᴏνa| сom Even though he knew Rui was not joking.
The two of them had agreed to meet at Kane's little cottage in the town of
Crene. The latter did not feel comfortable residing in the town of Hajin where
his family's main manor was. Although it wasn't likely, if they got word that
he was residing that close to them he would not be able to resist them.
"That's incredibly ambitious and incredibly difficult, you know that right?"
Kane sighed, half resigned and half amused.
"I'm aware," Rui nodded with a calm expression. "But that is the objective I
have set for myself."
"You do realize that you are competing with many Martial Squires across the
nation, right?" Kane sighed.
"Of course," Rui snorted. "But we'll win the race anyway."
"Alright, I'm in," Kane shrugged. "You also said something about earning
enough money to sustain our activities and still have enough to match the
equivalent time spent in completing normal missions?"
Kane frowned. "That is really difficult, you know?"
"We're going to have to earn a lot of money, that's all," Rui shrugged.
"Shouldn't be too hard considering how lucrative this adventure will be."
Kane scratched his head as he thought about it. "Well, how do you plan on
doing that?"
"There is the most straightforward way; we plunder a huge amount of

esoteric mineral supplies and then sell them in the market."
"Hmmm," Kane considered that possibility, before shrugging. "I guess that
could work, but we'll be competing against people who will also be selling a
ton of that stuff too, right?"
"True," Rui admitted.
In reality, he knew that there was a limit to how much they could earn with
just the two of them. Yes, they could be considered geniuses, but at the end
of the day, their actual Martial prowess was not shocking or anything of the
sort. They did not possess too many advantages.
"That's one plan that we could go with," Rui mentioned. "As of right now, I
have another idea but… it will take some time to confirm whether it is viable
or it isn't. I'll also need to come up with a way to realistically achieve the first
objective too so, this whole endeavor will require an immense amount of
preparation, that is true without a doubt."
Kane nodded. "I'll work on a technique and grow stronger."
"That is definitely on the list of things that I'm planning to do before we set
out for the Shionel Dungeon," Rui nodded. "I have no intention of going
there as weak as I am now.
Chapter 745 Monsters
The two of them had settled on the basics of their objectives that meeting
before Rui returned back to the town of Hajin quickly.
He had a lot of work to do.
('I need to become more intimately familiar with the threats innate to the
dungeon,') Rui noted.
He had memorized all the information about the various species that
inhabited the floors of the dungeon. What he needed to do was intimately
familiarize himself with them, their strengths and weaknesses, among other
things.
pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ According to the information that the Martial Union had

provided him, there were many powerful species living in the Shionel
dungeon. There were triple-tusked catoblepas, a species that resembled
buffalo that had fused with a dinosaur, warthog, and hippo. They were
aggressive herbivorous creatures that aggressively attacked any threat.
Their threat level was evaluated to be low-grade Squire level at most.
However, their numbers made them difficult to deal with. According to the
information provided by the Martial Union, many a Martial Squire had fallen
to their rampages due to an underestimation of them.
One needed to deal with them with finesse rather than brute force unless one
possessed a huge number of Martial Artists on one's side.
One of the species of the upper floors of the dungeon was the longfeather
cinnamy bird species. These creatures tended to have a wingspan that was
more than two meters long and were capable of rapid and swift flight thanks
to it. They could even manipulate the air currents to optimize their flight with
their breathing in what eerily resembled a breathing technique.
The problem was that these creatures were now much stronger than their
previous baseline forms due to having consumed a lot of the esoteric
substances making their way into the blood of the animals present through
the food chain.
What that meant was that Rui did not possess a good understanding of what
was worth undertaking just yet by looking into the scholarly literature
regarding these species, at most, he would understand what the baseline
performance of the monsters in the Shionel Dungeon would be.
Most of the intelligence that the Martial Union provided was first-hand
intelligence gathered by the internal Martial Squires of the Martial Union that
were deployed to the Shionel Dungeon.
These Martial Squires had fought the monsters of the Shionel Dungeon
personally and had collected valuable information on their physical
parameters, their lethality, and their approach to combat.
Rui had an opportunity to study the available data and chalk out solutions for
them.
Thankfully, it wasn't as though each floor of the dungeon had its own brand
new species, thankfully, that would be truly troublesome and would most
likely stall the exploration of the dungeon by several extra years.
That made his job of scouting the dangers of the dungeon easier since he had
a lot less data to sift through to get what he needed.
He was doing this not only because it was better to be prepared than not to
be, but also because it would be relevant to his next training phase and the
next set of technology projects that he would be setting out to work on.
Both Kane and himself had come to the agreement that they were unequipped
to take on the Shionel Dungeon themselves at the moment. Thus they had
both agreed to work on getting stronger so that they were more prepared to
succeed in their endeavor and able to handle the risks.
Kane's path forward was relatively simple. He was an evasive maneuvering

specialist and used any and everything that could allow him to evade better,
this included stealth. At the moment, the best thing he could offer was stealth.
It was true that he had the VOID Step technique, as well as other stealth-
oriented techniques to aid with his stealth, however, it was not invincible. Rui
could still sense him, roughly to the degree that he had been able to sense him
in their fight in the preliminary contest more than five years ago.
Of course, Rui was special. His mind was vastly superior to every other
Martial Artist, he possessed a cognition that was great enough to be able to
resist Kane's misdirection in addition to possessing three sensory techniques.
However, it was possible that there would be other Martial Artists that could
sense Kane. He was not absolutely imperceptible even when this was taken
into consideration.
('For example, if there is someone who has mastered the All-Seeing Eye,')
Rui noted.
This was the only grade-ten sensory technique that he had ever come across
to this day. He had yet to meet anyone who had mastered it, the Martial
Union did not sell such information, after all.
Still, he would be a fool to assume that that was the one and only grade-ten
sensory technique in existence that they could run to. Just how many
countries were partaking in the Shionel dungeon exploration and raid?
Who knows what kind of techniques might come about?
Of course, Rui was not too worried, even if there was a Martial Squire who
possessed the ability to sense Kane, it wasn't that big a deal. Considering how
utterly titanic the Shionel Dungeon was in its size, the odds of Rui and Kane
running into them were minuscule.
Kane's stealth was the key to mitigating their inability to confront too many
monsters or hostile Martial Squire forces. Rui would have very little
confidence in their ability to be the first to plunder and explore the rest of the
dungeon without Kane.
Still, there were other issues that Kane's stealth would not be to overcome, he
couldn't possibly do everything himself.
('I can take it upon myself to overcome these issues,') Rui nodded.
He intended to on three more projects. This was his absolute limit to

accomplish in a standard training phase. He needed to make sure that each of
the techniques that he would be developing would contribute to his Martial
Art while staying true to his Martial Path and having high synergy, while also
being geared to overcoming the barriers and hurdles of the Shionel dungeon.
Chapter 746 Projects
Would three techniques be enough to handle all of his problems? He wasn't

sure. He wasn't able to predict the end outcome of a project before he even
started it. He could only do his best.
So far, he had a seventy-five percent success rate. Out of the four Martial Art
projects that he had set out on, he had successfully completed three of them,
while one of them had failed.
That wasn't too bad. He was sure that it was far higher than the average
Martial Artist. He highly doubted anybody could create new techniques the
likes of which no one had ever seen the way he did thanks to retaining the
knowledge of his previous life.
That was reason enough for confidence.
He shook his head, putting aside such superfluous thoughts, before getting
back to business.
('One of the biggest problems is the fact that Kane cannot maintain Void Step
with two people forever,') Rui sighed.
Kane had once maintained it for twenty-four hours in their mission in the
Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana in their mission to destroy the research on
the Squire evolution breakthrough process. However, that was by himself. It
was much more mentally strenuous to misdirect attention from not just
himself but also Rui, who was also a Martial Squire.
He would definitely need to take breaks in between. At that time, the two of
them could potentially be overwhelmed by a peak Martial Squire or by
greater numbers of Martial Squires, or monsters, since there were so many of
them.
Then there was also the fact that sensory techniques were hindered by the
esoteric properties of the high-density esoteric mineral resources that were
predominantly present across the entirety of the vegetation of the dungeon.
He needed to find a way to overcome to obtain an unhampered sensory

technique or some way of retaining his ability to sense through the sense-
hampering vegetation.
For that, he needed to figure out exactly why senses were being hampered.
According to the intelligence provided by the Martial Union. One's sense of

hearing was hampered the most. It was further revealed that sensory
techniques based on air and the ground were also quite hindered in
comparison.
Furthermore, sensory techniques based on perceiving heat were also highly

hampered. The sense that was the most hampered after that was actually the
sense of sight. For some reason, even peering through the tunnels was harder
than it normally was and their range of vision had been reduced.
According to the Martial Union, the high density of large amounts of esoteric
substances was disrupting the flow of energy through which senses and
sensory techniques functioned.
('The fact that even infrared vision and normal vision are being affected
strongly suggests that the esoteric substances, or at least the ones that are
present in this dungeon, can meddle with electromagnetic radiation,') Rui
concluded. After all, both those techniques relied on perceiving radiation.
('It's quite likely that my Primordial Instinct will be hampered as well,') Rui
sighed.
eαglesnovel`c,om Primordial Instinct was a powerful technique that had great

synergy with him. However, it was a combat-oriented sensory technique, not
a long-range technique geared toward surveillance. Of course, it would still
be immensely helpful in increasing his likelihood of survival, but he needed
something else to be able to help gather information on the Shionel dungeon
effectively. He could not afford to be able to go out in the dark inside such a
dangerous dungeon.
That was one area he could try and overcome with the help of a technique.
('Alright, that's project number one,')
A project to develop a sensory technique that would allow him to surveil

larger amounts of area despite the sensory jamming effect of the Shionel
dungeon.
('As for the name… Hm,') Rui thought about it for a second. ('Let's go with
Project Eyespy.')
It was a cool quirky name that he took a liking to immediately.
As for how he was going to go about this project, frankly, he wasn't sure.
This was the first time that he had started a project for developing a technique
whose mechanics and principles he had not even a shred of an idea at this
point in time. After all, this was the first time that he had come up with a
project out of sheer need rather than an idea that could potentially lead to a
project.
This was the case even for his previous project.
Project Wavelap was born with a clear-cut idea for the mechanism of the
technique. It relied on the ability to produce supersonic sound that allowed
for two separate sound projectiles to meet and overlap in constructive
resonance.
The same could be said for his first three projects as well.
For this project though, he had no idea what this technique was going to look
like on any level. He just needed it to come to fruition.
('Well, I can work on it in a second after I figure out what I want to do with
the remaining two project slots…') Rui pushed it aside for the time being. He
could work on it full-fledged once he began all three projects.
The sensory issue was one of the biggest issues of the Shionel dungeon and
was one of the largest contributing factors to why the exploration had stalled.
With that out of the way, he could focus on handling another issue.
('The monsters,') He sighed.
The VOID algorithm was bad at counter monsters because the adaptive
evolution model was not created to address non-human animals. He usually
had to toss it out and rely on his own combat sense and intuition as well as
his reflexes and instincts to take them down.
Considering that the Shionel Dungeon is infested with beasts and monsters,
he could not afford to walk into such a dangerous place with such a
shortcoming. He needed a way to mitigate the threat of the beasts without the
help of Kane's stealth. Having a strong failsafe would greatly improve their
chances of survival and success.
Chapter 747 Success
Thus, he decided that the goal of the second project would be to develop a
technique that would allow him to drastically reduce the threat of beasts and
monsters.
It was a general goal, but it was vague as far as what he wanted the technique
to look like. Even more so than Project Eyespy, after all, project Eyespy at
least aimed to develop a sensory technique.
He had no idea what category this technique would even fall into. It would
require a huge amount of work regardless.
As for the third project, he couldn't necessarily think of anything too great
right off the bat, the biggest two problems were already addressed by the
previous two projects. While there were other smaller issues, there weren't
any that were on the magnitude of the previous two problems that he
dedicated a project to.
('I should create a technique that is centered around maneuvering,') Rui

scratched his head, as he realized it had been a long time since he had
improved his maneuvering.
The last time that he had improved his maneuvering was back when he
completed his first training phase in the Squire Realm a few years ago. He
hadn't improved his maneuvering since he had mastered Wind Breathing and
Phantom Steps.
His speed and agility were definitely more important in the Shionel Dungeon
than his striking power or any other offensive parameter. Even his long-range
offensive was not as important as his ability to outrun his enemies.
('Furthermore, if I'm too slow, I'll hold back Kane as well,') He sighed.
Kane was extremely fast. Barring the absolute fastest creatures in the
dungeon, none of the creatures would probably be able to keep up with him,
especially when his stealth came around.
However, this was not the case with Rui. He was not a particularly high-
speed Martial Artist, as unfortunate as it was. And Kane was not the type to
leave his comrades behind. Especially when it came to Rui, the two of them
were really close and Rui knew that Kane was willing to die fighting by his
side than run away by himself.
It was precisely because of that that Rui had to come up with a way to ensure
that at the very least he wouldn't hold Kane back too much. He refused to be
the reason that his best friend died, he would rather die alone.
('Thus a technique that improves my speed and agility is worth looking into,')
Rui nodded.
He sighed.
All three of these projects were born out of necessity, rather than an idea.
This made them more difficult to go through with than his earlier projects.
('It's hard to know where to begin,') Rui sighed.
Suddenly, his comms device began ringing.
[Fae]
Rui's eyes lit up in delight. ('She made it!')
While Rui and Kane had gone away for his mission, Fae had reached the
peak of the Apprentice Realm before finally achieving the conditions for
Squire candidacy and going for the Squire evolution breakthrough procedure
during the end of Rui's diplomatic mission.
Rui had long supplied her with his customized Mind Switch technique that he
had chosen to dub Hungry Pain, and after mastering it she had immediately
gone for the Squire evolution breakthrough process.
"Fae!" Rui greeted her with a delighted smile. "Long time no see, how did it
go?"
"Hello Rui," She smiled at him. "According to the doctors, the process went
flawlessly, all of my tests and results have come back just fine with no issues
or complications, it seems."
Rui could sense the relief in her tone, he could sympathize too.
The Squire evolution breakthrough process was not perfect. The possibility
for complications, minor and serious, as well as death, existed. Furthermore,
the Martial Artist was utterly helpless in this situation, and could only trust
the medical team and hope for the best. A single stroke of bad luck could end
a career.
Rui took a good look at her new Martial body. Even though they weren't
face-to-face, he could sense tremendous power within her entire body. She
most certainly chose a configuration that maximized her striking power, more
than anything else. Furthermore, with the Hungry Pain version of the Mind
Switch technique, she had access to far greater power than a baby Martial
Squire like her ought to have access to. Rui had the power of a grade-two
Martial body of his configuration from the very get-go due to the extra
energy and power that the autophagy process had naturally supplied to the
body.
There was no doubt that despite breaking through to the Squire Realm
extremely recently, her Martial body probably had the power of a grade-three
body even as of this moment. When she finally got around to mastering
techniques, she would probably blow the minds of everybody in her Martial
Family, her status as the heir of the Dullahan Family was guaranteed.
"That's great to hear," Rui nodded. "So what are your plans from here on
out?"
eαglesnᴏνel Rui was glad to have contributed a little to her cherished dream.
('She's grown more beautiful too,') Rui noted. ('Good for Kane, hehe.')
"I have the need to master new techniques, of course," She replied. "But
before that, I need to finish the Squire habilitation phase."
"Right, good luck with that," Rui smiled, noting her wearing the power
suppression suit that she needed to wear for her training. "What about after
that?"
"I haven't entirely decided, however, I do suppose the basics would be to start
undertaking basic Squire-level missions, correct? I do need experience with
combat in the Squire Realm, so I should focus on sparring a lot as well."
"You're going to need to develop your own techniques as well," Rui

reminded her. "No more simply learning existing techniques verbatim, not if
you don't want your rate of growth to stall, and lose any chance of becoming
a Martial Squire.
"True," She nodded at him. "I have learned of the importance of individuality
in one's Martial Art once one becomes a Martial Squire."
Chapter 748 Idea
"By the way, Kane told me that the two of you are planning on an outing to
the Shionel Dungeon, though he also told me to keep it a secret," She told
him. "I must admit that I'm rather frustrated at my inability to partake. Even if
I finished my Squire habilitation at this very moment, I would be far too
weak to even consider participating in the Shionel Dungeon exploration and
plunder raid. Quite unfortunate, really."
Rui raised an eyebrow. He didn't know Kane was close enough to her that he
would confide that in her. It seems that their relationship was going better
than he had expected.
The two had always bickered back when they were all in the academy. Yet
despite that, Rui felt that they always had an affinity for each other.
"He told you that, did he?" Rui smirked. "Heh."
"My, what is that supposed to mean?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not much… I guess he must really trust you," Rui smiled. "The two of you
must have a close relationship."
"We do not," She plainly stated.
"Is that so, it seems I'm mistaken then," He smirked even more. "Not that it's
a problem of any sort, kids like yourselves ought to get along."
"I'm older than you," Her eyebrows furrowed.
"Ah right," Rui smiled wryly. "Still, don't mind me. It's just a nice thing to
see."
"What is?"
"You know, his intimate trust in you…"
"Listen here you. First of all, we don't…"
Rui laughed as she grilled him for it. Her exaggerated response only made
her look more suspicious. No one would want to deny something this benign
if it wasn't true.
Half an hour, later, he managed to end the conversation, laughing all the way.
"Alright, I need to get to work," He smiled.
The three projects Eyespy, Monster Spray, and Keep Up With Kane were set
in stone. He felt rather depressed looking at their names, but his creativity
sucked when it came to things like this.
He began with the first one.
('The intelligence of the Martial Union makes it clear that the Shionel
Dungeon disrupts and jams flow of energy in general,') Rui quickly analyzed
all of it.
Techniques like Seismic Mapping and Tempestuous Feel relied on currents

and vibrations across the ground to infer information on their surroundings.
This would naturally be quite suppressed if the Shionel Dungeon did not
allow for kinetic energy to flow through its structure in the form of waves
through the air or the ground.
Furthermore, techniques that involve perceiving temperature have also been

reported to be suppressed, in addition to normal vision as well. From that Rui
could infer that the Shionel Dungeon's jamming of energy flow was not
limited to just kinetic vibrations, but also included radiation.
eαglesnᴏνel These covered an overwhelming majority of techniques. Only

techniques that explicitly relied on sensing matter such as the sense of smell
were less affected.
('Smell lacks the precision and accuracy at the Squire level to navigate the
entirety of the Shionel Dungeon, unfortunately,') Rui sighed.
This made things really rough, there wasn't a single sensory technique that he
had ever come across that did not rely on perceiving some form of
phenomena that ultimately involved the flow of energy between the user of
the sensory technique and the object being sensed by that technique.
It was almost as though the Shionel Dungeon was the very antithesis of
sensing itself. He was encountering a very difficult dilemma.
There were almost no sensory mechanisms and principles that he could use to
sense a large amount of area.
('I bet Martial Artists with immensely powerful smell and taste senses are
probably being heavily sought after in the dungeon,') Rui noted.
However, he did not think that these Martial Artists possessed the ability to
sense vast chunks of the dungeon by merely sense and smell. That was
probably a feat that could not be achieved at the Squire level.
('Maybe there is some obscure grade-ten smelling technique out there that
maybe one Martial Squire in the modern era has managed to master, but that
individual alone is not going to be able to influence the exploration and raid
rate of the entire dungeon by themselves,')
What he needed was something new that utilized his knowledge and mental
ability to be able to sense despite the sensory jamming effects of the Shionel
Dungeon.
('If it jams energy flow then… perhaps I need a way of accessing information
of my target without a flow of energy from my target and myself,') Rui
mused. ('At the very least, there can't be a direct flow of energy.')
Suddenly, Rui's eyes widened as an interesting idea popped into his mind. A
way that, if successful, could hypothetically allow him to sense the entire
layout of the Shionel Dungeon within a certain range.
Yet his vigor immediately cooled down when he realized that his idea was
probably far too crazy, it was frankly ridiculous.
('All mass and energy warp space-time according to the General Theory of
Relativity… if there existed a way to detect the warps in space… then maybe
I could use that to read the layout of a large chunk of the Shionel Dungeon.')
Rui wasn't too enthusiastic about this idea.
It seemed too insane, even for the Martial Art techniques of this world. What
he was attempting to do was something that even technology back on Earth
had not yet accomplished. However, he knew that this principle was used in
astronomy.
If… he had no idea how, but if he could somehow find a way to sense the
curvature of space…
('It would be game-changing, frankly,') Rui knew that.
It would probably be one of the most revolutionary sensory techniques in the

Squire Realm. He highly doubted that any other Martial Squire across the
entire continent could possibly have such a technique.
('There's a good reason for that, however,') Rui mused. ('It is an insanely
difficult challenge, one that I'm not going to find easy to overcome.
Chapter 749 Esoteric
Rui considered the matter deeply. Frankly, this was the only hypothetical way
he had come up with at the moment. The task before him was so difficult that
he couldn't even begin to come up with a way that could allow him to sense
the curvature of space. Even if he could, it didn't necessarily mean that he
could comprehend it.
He had taken the General Theory of Relativity as an elective in his bachelor's

degree and had been fascinated by the subject. He had never had to the
entirety of all topics that could fall under the umbrella of the General Theory
of Relativity, but he had learned the core theory itself, and based on what he
understood of it, it could hypothetically serve as a way of perceiving the
world.
The concept of the theory was simple in a qualitative sense. Einstein had one
day come to the realization that if one were in an elevator with no windows
or any way to perceive the outside world, then one would not be able to
distinguish between uniform motion with a constant velocity, and being
stationary. The only way we distinguished whether we were in motion or not
was by looking at the outside world.
He found that this could be extended to all kinds of motions in general. Who
could say whether one was moving while the world was stationary, or
whether one was stationary while the world was moving?
Einstein was quite satisfied with the notion until he realized that it was not
universally true. There was one phenomenon that disagreed; gravity, it did
not adhere to this principle. One could not say that falling objects were
stationary while the world was moving due to the fact that gravitational
forces caused a squeezing effect due to what is known as tidal forces. Thus
one could distinguish between being pulled by gravity towards a planet and
the planet moving towards one due to the squeezing effect present in the
former. Einstein wiggled his way around by stating that gravity warped space
and time in a manner that squeezed nearby bodies, which explained the
phenomenon well while still being consistent with the principle of relativity.
It was precisely this curvature of space and time that Rui was hoping to use to
try and estimate the mass, volume, position, and distribution of mass.
Still, he had no way at this point in time.
('I don't have a way to sense space curvature, that is the biggest issue, if I
could just somehow come to sense it, with my knowledge of the field
equations of general relativity, I can come to be able to understand and
decipher it…')
eαglesnᴏνel Unfortunately, to this day, he still had no idea, even

theoretically, how would one develop any ability to sense curvature in space?
It wasn't even as though there were any substances on the periodic table that
were especially reactive to gravity.
The periodic table contained every known element to mankind, and their
susceptibility to gravity was not high enough for Rui to be able to accomplish
that. No known element on Earth would suffice.
"Wait a minute…"
Rui's eyes widened as he realized he had discounted another possibility.
('Even if no element on the periodic table can work… what about substances
that chemistry from Earth cannot account for?')
There were such substances on the Panama Continent.
('Esoteric materials and substances fall outside the norm in all ways and
manners!') A grin formed on his face. ('This whole problem was caused by
esoteric substances in the first place! I can fight fire with fire, maybe I can
solve this problem with other esoteric substances!')
Specifically, what he was hoping for was some sort of esoteric substance that
was highly reactive to gravity or space curvature. He wasn't sure whether
such an esoteric substance existed, but he wouldn't be surprised. These
strange substances had already done things that defied physics before, or the
field of physics that he was aware of at the stage it was on back when he was
alive on Earth.
Thus the possibility that there perhaps existed one kind of esoteric substance
that would exhibit some kind of reaction to different kinds of gravity was not
low.
('I need to consult someone on this,') Rui immediately thought of Julian.
Although Julian had focused on the field of research on Martial Artists, he

had also spent a good amount of time on research in the fields of esoteric
science, there was a good chance that he would be able to point Rui in the
right direction.
This was one of the best advantages of having someone like Julian around.
Unfortunately, Rui was not familiar with esoteric science, he had no
background in the field after all.
He had never had an interest in pursuing it either, although he was fascinated

by what these strange substances were capable of, as well as how and why,
ultimately he was far too invested and dedicated to his Martial Path.
Any time spent on learning esoteric science was time that was not spent on
Martial Art, and to Rui, that was an unacceptable compromise.
Martial Art always had to come first. There was no point in general in
learning about esoteric material science either since he had no intention of
becoming a scientist. Though, he knew that if he mastered esoteric science in
conjugation with his existing general theoretical and non-esoteric science, in
time he would be capable of wonders that could only be seen in science
fiction movies. He could probably revolutionize the world into a level of
technology that made even the cutting-edge engineers of the twentieth-first
century of Earth look like primitive cavemen.
But, he had no intention of going down that route. Perhaps he would have
had Martial Art not existed in this world, but alas, it did. And thus the fate of
the world changed when Rui on the career choice that Rui made nineteen
years ago when he arrived in this world.
Chapter 750 Help
"An esoteric substance or compound that reacts to gravity?" Julian frowned.

"Such things do exist but… Why on Gaia could you poss-"
"They exist?!" Rui's grin was wide.
Julian frowned as he furrowed his eyebrows, taking a good look at his

younger brother. Usually, he possessed quite a composed temperament. Even
at an extremely young age, Rui demonstrated the serene patience that one
would really only see in the elderly.
The only exceptions were when a matter was related to Martial Art, then for
some reason, he became as excited as a child.
Julian had no doubt that whatever this was, this had to be related to his
Martial Art. Not even all the wealth in the world could shake Rui's
composure as much as his passion for Martial Art did.
"Yes… They do, or at least that is what seems to be the case with many of
them. As you know, we mostly test hypotheses with experiments, and there
are esoteric substances where the only reasonable prevailing hypothesis is
that they are especially reactive and susceptible to gravity," Julian explained.
"Brilliant!" Rui grew absorbed in his own thoughts.
"…Why exactly are you seeking esoteric substances that are especially
reactive to gravity?" Julian raised an eyebrow, he couldn't help but be
curious.
This was not the first time that Rui had consulted Julian before, yet he was
usually a lot more composed, even if energetic.
The last time that Julian had seen Rui exhibiting this kind of energy was
when Rui had returned home from a mission after receiving a message
informing him that Julian had finished compiling his explanation and report
on the research data that Rui had brought from the Commonwealth Duchy of
Vinfrana and had translated himself.
"I'm trying to develop a technique that allows me to sense my environment

through the forces of gravity that the environment generates," Rui sighed.
When explaining it to Julian, he used a different model of gravity; the

Newtonian model of gravity which stated that gravity was a force and not a
war in space-time like it was in Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
The reason for that was that he was absolutely confident that the theoretical
physics of this world had not reached a stage where such a theory existed, so
even if he told Julian, he would probably get a bewildered look.
"I lack a fundamental way to sense gravity itself," Rui sighed. "If there are
esoteric substances that are reactive to gravity, then it is possible for me to
integrate them into a technique and figure out a way to use them to sense my
environments."
"That's… ambitious," Julian cautiously murmured. "It is possible that what

you are going for may very well be impossible, you know?"
"That's always a possibility for every endeavor I undertake," Rui replied

calmly, unfazed. "Now, can you help me out with these esoteric substances
brother, please?"
"Of course, it will take me a while because I don't know all of them off of the
top of my head since it is a little outside of my field of expertise, but I can get
your data on them within a week for sure. From there you'll be able to handle
yourself, right?"
"Of course," Rui grinned. "Thanks a ton, brother, you're awesome. See you
later."
"Good luck."
And just like that Rui disappeared from his seat, leaving Julian chuckling.
Usually, Rui didn't use his super speed inside the house, since it was scary
and startling to everybody.
"He must be extremely excited…" Julian smiled, amused and resigned.
He was right.
Rui was quite excited to get his hands on the data that Julian had promised to
get him. However, until then, he did not intend to sit still. He had other
projects to work on.
('Project Monster Repellant and Project Keep Up With Kane are not going to
be easy,') Rui sighed.
He did not ask Julian about the former because zoology had never been a
focus of his. Rui would need to do his own research on the matter.
('What I need is a technique that uses my strengths to grant me an effective

solution against monsters of their caliber,') Rui noted.
His strengths lay in the parts of battles and techniques that employed mental
faculties. Thus techniques that provided great results while having high
demands of, or burdens on his mental faculties were what he was looking to
create.
('The first issue is that there is a great variety in the fauna of the Shionel
Dungeon, thus I cannot create a technique that is highly customized to focus
on particular species, I need to exploit traits that these monsters all share.
There are many species in the Shionel Dungeon, and trying to create a
technique for only one of them is pointless, and creating separate techniques
for all of them is highly impractical.') Rui sighed. He needed to create
something that was effective against all of the monsters. Even if it was less
effective against each species than a technique that was created only to deal
with one species, it was more useful to Rui.
This means that he had to focus on a technique that used a mechanism that
applied to almost all monsters.
This narrowed it down considerably.
('Massively superhuman physical prowess, affected by esoteric substances in

their bodies, and low intelligence…') Rui immediately came up with three
traits that matched all of them.
If he could somehow use all of them against the monsters with a technique
that requires a lot of brainpower to produce great results that he would not be
able to reproduce always, then that would be extremely convenient.
eαglesnᴏνel ('I don't think I can really use their superhuman physical
capabilities against them, those are plainly huge disadvantages for me… But
the other two…') Rui smiled as a few ideas came to mind.
The matter surrounding low intelligence was easier to exploit. Low

intelligence meant it was easier to trap and fool, Rui absolutely intended to
use it to whatever degree he could.
Chapter 751 Classified
For example, simple misdirection would be way more effective against

almost all of them based on the intelligence that he had bought from the
Martial Union. The kind of tactics that he would never use against an adult
human because humans were intelligent enough to see through blatantly
obvious tactics unless they were mentally challenged.
Thus Rui could be a lot less stringent on the quality of his tactics as long as
he was cautious and careful despite that.
Though he highly doubted their lowered intelligence alone was enough to

develop a technique that allowed him to be extremely effective against them
by itself.
('Which means I need to exploit the fact that they have somehow integrated
esoteric substances into their bodies.') Rui concluded.
This would require some research on Rui's part. One thing he needed to was
gathered more detailed information on the esoteric substances and
compounds that the beasts had ingested, turning them into monsters.
If he was not wrong, then there likely was something about these esoteric
substances being in their blood that he could exploit to use against them.
eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ STEP
That was why he was currently standing before the Martial Union, once
again. He needed the data they had on the esoteric substances that were
abundant in the Shionel Dungeon and in the monsters of the dungeon as well.
He quickly headed towards the Martial exchange counter after having passed
the security check-ins.
"Excuse me, but I would like to purchase esoteric material science

information and data on the following esoteric substances and compounds,"
He addressed an employee before handing her a list of the following
substances and compounds.
She took the list, before turning to him.
"May I see your Martial license, sir?"
Rui obliged, before receiving it back after she verified his identity.
"Unfortunately, this will take some time to confirm and procure, some of the
data you have requested, while within your confidentiality clearance requires
some due processing regarding approval," She informed him.
Rui sighed.
He had half-expected that. When it came to information that wasn't related to

Martial Art and also around strategic matters, it wouldn't be so easy to gain
access to information.
Just based on her reply alone, Rui had inferred that the esoteric substances
and compounds that were highly abundant in the Shionel Dungeon were
probably quite important significant, and were of strategic importance.
Basically, he was probably asking for something close to the equivalent of

data and information on radioactive isotopes and their applications. Such
information could allow one to develop nuclear technology which was
detrimental to the one providing the information.
Thus, he wasn't necessarily surprised when he learned of the restrictions.
"That's unfortunate, how long will the process take?" Rui asked.
"It should happen within twenty-four hours, sir," She informed him. "We will
notify you if and when it is approved and you will be able to access the
information through your accounter,"
"I see, thank you," Rui sighed before taking his leave.
('The first two projects are a little stalled by the delay of information, but it's
fine, I need to dedicate time towards the third project as well, after all.') Rui
noted.
Project Keep Up With Kane was not going to be easy. Kane was extremely
fast, even if Rui could not match his top speed, he needed to at least be able
to keep up with Kane's run.
('A technique that improves my travel speed is definitely worth it,')
Currently, his top speed was born from a combination of Wind Breathing,
Outer Convergence applied to run, and Parallel Walk, which he had managed
to naturally adapt to the Squire Realm over the years. It was one of the first
techniques he had ever learned and it had been with him for a long time.
Yet even these three techniques were nothing but slowpokes compared to
Kane, he needed an extra technique that, together with the others, would
allow him to keep up.
He also had the advantage that his body was more mature in the Squire
Realm due to having spent more time in the Squire Realm, though Kane's
Martial body is dedicated to speed and motion countered that advantage. That
left the comparison of techniques, where Kane would still win when it came
to travel speed.
('I need to figure out the general nature of the technique,') Rui mused.
('Unfortunately, in this case, I don't think my mental faculties can possibly
help me.')
This was because running was not a mentally strenuous or demanding

activity, thus there was really no area for his mental faculties to shine.
('That's a shame, but my mind isn't the only thing special about me,')
He had also inherited his scientific background from his previous life. This
wouldn't be the first time that he's developed a technique centered around a
scientific principle that wasn't known yet in this world.
('Still, what principle can be applied here to create a maneuvering

technique?') Rui's mind brushed through his scientific acumen, which took a
lot of time due to how much of it he had.
('Maybe something from human anatomy or physiology?') Rui frowned.
Unfortunately, the relevance of his knowledge of human physiology and

anatomy had lost a lot of its value ever since he had become a Martial Squire
and had become an evolved human being.
Unfortunately, the fact that he was no longer a homo sapien meant that he
could not entirely apply the knowledge he had on homo sapiens to his body.
At the very least, he needed to extensively test whatever it was that he hoped
still applied to his body. Because any project based on human biology had a
chance of failing miserably due to how evolved past human limits his body
was at this point in time.
It was a shame because there were a lot of cool techniques that he could think
of at this point in time that could work really well with the human body with
the experience that he had with creating new techniques. He found it to be a
real shame.
Chapter 752 Drag
('It really is a shame because had I possessed the knowledge and experience
with creating techniques that I possess now, back when I was a Martial
Apprentice, I would have come up with a lot more techniques that would
have been quite amazing at the Apprentice-level,')
Unfortunately, in the Apprentice Realm, his familiarity with the concept of

individuality was incomparably lower than it was today as a Martial Squire.
Back then he underestimated the importance of it as far as creating techniques
that progressed one's Martial Path due to the individuality and creating
techniques that were compatible with his Martial Path and his Martial Body.
Back then he had been too fascinated with the techniques that the Martial
Union possessed and had still been exploring what Martial Art was even
capable of in the first place. By the time he had obtained enough experience
and understanding of Martial Art and Martial Art techniques, he had already
reached the peak of the Apprentice Realm when he created the Hungry Pain
technique, his altered version of the Mind Switch technique.
('Maybe I can create techniques for Max and Mana,') Rui shrugged.
Given the fact that he had a good understanding of their Martial Paths and
had already made updated predictive models for their Martial Art in the
Apprentice Realm.
('I could potentially create techniques that have a high affinity and synergy
with them but…') Rui sighed
They would gain zero individuality from such a technique, even if it made
their immediate power jump, it would hinder their long-term growth.
The Martial Academy gave them enough support and help, he did not want to
give them anymore.
After all, none of the Martial Families of the Martial Apprentices at school
ever intervened to boost their growth at school. Not even Fae's family, a
prestigious and powerful Martial Family in the Kandrian Empire.
('Anyways, putting that thought aside, I should focus on getting the third
project off while the first two stall,') Rui focused. ('For now, I guess I can
focus on exploring the potential ways I can improve my speed.')
He had ruled out biological mechanisms, which left him with physics for the
most part. He highly doubted that there was anything in chemistry that could
help him, he was never that good with it in the first place either.
('Physics it is,')
Could he somehow increase the efficiency of the power used to accelerate his
body? It would result in a greater force that would increase his acceleration
and top speed.
('Hm, I can't think of any good way to do that.')
It was true that the human body was not the most efficient, but his
movements had already been quite refined as they would for quite some time,
and no principle of physics he could think of could improve that at the
moment.
('If I can't increase the force that propels me forward, then maybe I can
decrease the hurdles that hamper my speed,') Rui wondered.
Friction was something that opposed all motion fundamentally, but it was
actually not something that was bad in this case. It was quite necessary.
Without the friction of the ground, people would not be able to even stand
straight.
However, that was not the only kind of friction that opposed movements.
There was also the friction generated by the atmosphere known as drag.
eαglesnovel`c,om Drag was inconsequential to slower movements, that's why

normal humans did not notice it on a daily, but it became more relevant the
faster one was. This was because the drag was proportional to the square of
the speed of the body experiencing the drag. Meaning, if one became twice as
fast as before, drag would be four times greater than before. If one grew to be
thrice as fast as before, then drag would become nine times greater than
before.
Now, what would happen if a human ran one thousand times faster than
before?
Drag would follow through and become a literal one million times greater
than what they would be experiencing before.
That is the situation that Martial Squires had found themselves in. They
experienced a drag that was millions of times greater than what normal
humans experienced. What was a pleasant breeze to the latter, was an
oppressive force and a wall that constantly opposed their motion.
('What if I created a technique that mitigated that?') Rui's eyes lit up with
interest.
If he could, he would become substantially faster due to the lack of

resistance. The only question was how would he go about manipulating the
air such that the air would no longer hinder him. The problem was that he
didn't know of a way to do that.
('Breathing techniques!') Rui's eyes lit up with excitement as he finally came

up with an idea that was exciting enough to have him fully motivated.
('Breathing techniques allow for extensive manipulation of the air!')
He was quite confident that it was possible to do what he was looking to

accomplish.
('What if I go further than just getting air resistance out of the way?') The idea
further developed in his mind. ('What if I make the air not just not hind my
movements, but also propel me forward?')
This was where he was entering dicey territory, he had to admit that he had
no idea whether this was possible or not for the most part.
('Then I'll have to get to exploring and testing existing breathing technique
models and see if it is possible to manipulate the air in such a way that I can
erase air resistance and instead, have the atmosphere propel me forward
towards the direction that I want to move in.
('This probably still won't be enough to beat Kane,') Rui noted. As long as
Kane had the Godspeed technique, he would forever be ahead of Rui as far as
peak speed went and was still beyond Rui's reach even without it, but Rui
was content not being embarrassingly slow compared to him in travel.
Chapter 753 Experimentation
Ironically, he figured out the mechanism and the principle of the technique of
Project Keep Up With Kane earlier than he did the other projects despite
focusing on it last.
('If I'm able to use a breathing technique to get rid of the air resistance, then
that would be perfect. But really, the only way to get rid of air resistance is to
get rid of the air or get rid of the laws of physics,') Rui sighed.
The latter was out of the question. Although Martial Artists seemed like they
broke the laws of physics on Earth, it had become clear to Rui that this was
not the case. Just that the laws of physics had an additional element beyond
what he just knew that allowed Martial Artists to perform ridiculously
superhuman feats without breaking the laws of physics.
Not even Martial Artists violated the laws of physics, and not even Martial
Artists could warp reality. At least, none that he had ever seen thus far were
capable of such feats.
Thus, for now, he could only think about the former.
('Getting rid of air in my path; in other words a vacuum,') Rui's eyes lit up.
('That's definitely quite practical in comparison. After all, all breathing
animals do that to a certain extent.')
When inhaling, the part of the air closest to the nose or mouth would
immediately be sucked in, and for just the briefest of moments, there would
be a small vacuum or area with less air density before the atmosphere would
refill the area and return it to normal air density.
That was the limit to what ordinary humans could do, but that limit was
irrelevant to Martial Squires like Rui.
('Creating a vacuum before me would not only help with getting rid of air
resistance, it would also accelerate me due to the pressure difference,')
The air was constantly exerting pressure in all directions, the reason it was
rarely noticed was that the same air pushed back against itself in the opposite
direction on the other side of the body, air on the opposite sides pushing
against each other.
Yet what would happen if the air in front of Rui was removed, and only the
air behind him was pushing him?
He would not only be unhampered by air but would also end up being
accelerated by it.
('Brilliant! I have to start immediately,') Rui grew even more excited.
He needed to work out the mechanism that he would be using for the
breathing technique.
Normally, he would need to purchase a technique from the Martial Union that
possessed principles and mechanisms somewhat to what he was looking for,
then master them and then finally adapt and change them to become a fit
building block for his new technique.
This was time-consuming, he would also have to return to the Martial Union
after just having returned from it.
Thankfully, he did not feel the need to do that this time.
He mastered many breathing techniques throughout the years. Harmonic

Breathing, Final Breathing, Wind Breathing, and the breathing techniques
used in Tempestuous Ripple technique he had mastered as a Martial
Apprentice, the breathing mechanism in the Sonic Bullet technique as well as
the Mighty Roar Flash Blast technique from the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
Together, these had given him a good understanding of how to manipulate

the skies with one's breath. As long as he dedicated enough time to trial and
error and continued to make enough progress down this path, he was
confident that he would develop a sound and viable breathing technique
mechanism that suited his needs.
eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ As long as he wasn't too unlucky anyway.
He secluded himself in the forests of the Mantian Region as he dedicated

himself to refining his breathing to learn to create the vacuum that he was
looking forward to.
He tried varying his inhalation between different speeds, forces, angles, and
patterns, making observations regarding the outcomes of each experiment.
('Inhaling through the nose seems universally less effective than that of the
mouth when it comes to creating vacuums or areas of less air density,') Rui
noted as he ruled out the former. ('Which means that I'll have to create the
vacuum with my mouth.')
He had run into several issues when doing that. He wasn't inhaling air swiftly
enough while in motion to be able to create a sustained vacuum before him.
Furthermore, he wasn't able to isolate it to just the area right in front of his
body making contact with him, instead, he inadvertently created areas of less
air density momentarily that were spread over a wider area.
These were the two issues that he needed to focus on, otherwise, he had no
hope of formulating the technique that he was looking for.
While he inhaled with his mouth for being able to create the vacuum the way
he desired better, he exhaled through his nose, pushing the air down rather
than forward. If he exhaled with his mouth, then he would generate a recoil
pushing him back and obstructing his sprint.
Pushing it downward would have no effect on his horizontal speed.
He grew so absorbed in the training that he had secluded himself a for a

week, relying only on food pills and Hungry Pain's autophagy to sustain
himself the entire time.
In just a week, he had made commendable progress.
('This technique will take less time than the remaining two projects,') Rui had
already realized that. Not only had he completed the theoretical structure of
the technique fully, but he had also taken a step or two, albeit the easiest,
towards completing the technique. In fact, he was quite certain that Project
Keep Up With Kane would take the least amount of time to be completed in
all the projects he had attempted.
The other two projects were more complicated, and most likely would require
much more extensive research since they required knowledge outside of his
knowledge base and would most likely require more extensive research and
experimentation.
Chapter 754 Candidates
He was quite satisfied with the progress that the had made in a week. It was
very rare that he would flush through so much of the process of creating a
technique from the very get-go. The beginning was usually the slowest and
the hardest, fleshing out the technique from a simple idea.
He returned back home after a week, before heading straight to Julian's room.
"So you've come back," Julian gave him an amused smile. "Right on time
too, that's why I assured everybody you would be back within the week. I
know you wouldn't want to delay getting your hands on this even by a single
minute."
Rui smiled wryly, not addressing that. "Thanks, brother. Much appreciated."
He took the documents that Julian handed to him.
They were quite thick, all in all. Rui would need to spend quite some time
reading them. It seemed as though Julian had not held back on the amount of
information that he had extracted.
Of course, this was no doubt that Julian was quite confident that Rui would
have no problem absorbing all the information. Despite being a Martial
Artist, Rui possessed the most powerful mind that he had ever come across.
Rui bade him goodbye before isolating himself in his room and taking a good
look at the documents present before him.
It was quite likely that the information present in these documents would
decide the outcome of Project Eyespy. He highly doubted that there was any
recourse beyond the idea that led him to get Julian to compile data about
esoteric substances and compounds that were highly reactive to gravity in
some way or the other.
Rui opened up the document at the top.
"Oh…?" He raised an eyebrow. ('He's given me a run down on esoteric

material science as a field of science before actually diving into the
information that I requested. That's actually quite useful.')
The document spoke about the basics of esoteric material science. The field
of science was essentially dedicated to substances, materials, and compounds
whose properties and fundamental nature were a complete mystery.
Thus, the only thing that all substances and materials that were deemed as
'esoteric' had in common were that they were strange in nature and largely a
mystery.
('That probably means that radioactive isotopes would also be considered an

esoteric substance,') Rui mused with intrigue.
The world had many strange compounds and substances that had all kinds of
strange and bizarre properties. Until they were understood, they would be
considered esoteric substances.
"Interesting…"
The document then went on to lay out the ways in which esoteric substances
were classified. It turned out the field was even more sophisticated than he
had ever given it credit. They had truly approached it with the scientific
method; the principle of scientific induction.
Rui briefly familiarized himself with the basics before jumping into the
empirical data surrounding the many esoteric substances, the information
around which Julian had given Rui.
[Freren Ore]
Freren ore was an ore that was abundant across the continent. It was tough
while still sufficiently ductile and malleable to have widespread applications
in esoteric engineering. It was classified as an esoteric substance because its
state become increasingly less solid and tended towards becoming a liquid,
the higher it was above sea level for reasons that were not understood.
It even turned into a gas at extreme altitudes.
Rui's eyes rose in interest. According to the document, one of the prevailing
hypotheses was that its state of matter was, for some unknown reason, tied to
gravitational force. This would principally explain why its state of matter
changed with altitude.
It was previously suspected that air pressure was the reason for a change in
its state of matter, yet when subjected to vacuum through Martial Art
techniques, its state of matter remained unchanged. Since then, the hypothesis
has been considered to be disproved.
"Interesting…" Rui skimmed through the document. There had been many
many such experiments that had been conducted for freren to disprove or
provide evidence for many hypotheses and theories, at the end of the day, it
seemed that gravity was the most likely explanation based on all the data and
evidence there was at hand.
"It's interesting… but, probably not usable," Rui sighed.
eαglesnᴏνel Of course, this was not too disappointing. It would be awfully

convenient if the very first esoteric compound he ran into was the solution to
all of his problems. He was a realist in that regard.
There were dozens of such documents for dozens of esoteric substances.
He intended to go through all of them very carefully and ensure that he had
not left a single stone unturned. He did not want to read this more than once,
after having already inputted all the information into his Mind Palace.
[Grainer Pollen]
It was an organic compound that was repelled by gravity, rather than being
attracted towards it. This hypothesis was arrived at after many continuous
experiments, the same as with Freren.
It moved away from gravity regardless of temperature and pressure, this

applied to both the gravity of Gaia and the Sun, but also other objects with
their own minute gravitational fields. The second existing hypothesis was that
it was repelled by radiation rather than gravity, but this was contradicted by
the fact that it was repelled away from the Earth than it was from the sun.
This strongly implied that electromagnetic radiation was not what caused it to
have motion in the direction furthest away from the source of electromagnetic
radiation.
('This one… might be a little useful,') Rui's eyes lit up in interest. Although
he didn't think that this alone would be able to give him what he wanted, it
was a good sign that he found something that was at least partially useful on
the second try, it made his search more optimistic. As long as he could just
find something that would give him the edge that he needed, he would be
able to perhaps formulate a sensory technique based on one of these
compounds.
Chapter 755 Steps
Over the rest of the day, Rui rapidly consumed the many research journal
documents that Julian had handed to him. Each of them was surrounding an
esoteric substance or compound, and each of them was an esoteric compound
that was strongly suspected to be tied to gravity in some form or manner.
Rui was quite impressed with the quality of the science, he didn't think he
would do too much better if he only knew what they did. He had to admit, his
inner scientific curiosity was roused to a little extent after his desire to build a
sensory Martial Art technique centered around gravity.
He had to admit, esoteric science was fascinating, based on what he had seen.
Had Martial Art not existed, he certainly would have enjoyed becoming an
esoteric material scholar.
Yet by the end of the day, he found himself closing the last of the documents
that Julian had given him, before sighing and massaging his head.
"Tsk," He tutted. ('Not a single one of them could fully give me what I
wanted.')
It was unfortunate, but such was reality. They are all reactive to gravity in
some way that could allow him to indirectly detect gravity, but they were all
lacking in the details that he desired.
He specifically needed two parameters; gravitational field intensity and the

many gravitational field vectors collectively known as the Ricci tensor.
eαglesnᴏνel These two parameters could allow him to figure out the layout of
his environment, as long as he had enough data points and detail.
(But even if a single one of them isn't enough… then maybe multiple of them
will be!') Rui's eyes lit up.
The many esoteric substances gave him incomplete pieces of the puzzle.
Individually, they could not help him, but if he used the best of them
together, then it was possible that he would be able to acquire what he
wanted.
('It's not just a matter of picking the right selection of esoteric substances
either, though,') Rui sighed.
No, that was just the first step. He needed to figure out exactly how he was
going to use and apply these esoteric substances to be able to detect gravity
itself.
His organic biological sense organs were directly connected to his brain and
directly supplied information through the nervous system. However, this
obviously would never be the case with external and non-organic esoteric
substances. He could not turn them into organic sense organs that were
connected to his brain.
('Good thing I don't have to,')
These esoteric substances may not be connected to the brain or to the body,
however, it was still possible for them to serve as indirect pseudo-sense
organs. By carefully observing the way they reacted, he could make
inferences about the gravitational space curvature field around and on him.
Based on the gravitational space curvature, he would be able to infer the
layout of his surroundings that produced said gravity.
It was through this mechanism that he would be able to thoroughly improve

his sensory range without caring about the sensory jamming of the Shionel
Dungeon. This would give him a massive advantage in the Shionel Dungeon
that he was absolutely certain that almost no other Martial Squire would be in
possession of.
However, he had not yet completed even the first step of making his choices
of which esoteric substances to choose, let alone the next few steps. He
needed to figure out how to apply them to gain the maximum amount of
information on the curvature of space.
('I can't just carry them in my pocket, that would be useless…') He snorted
before his eyes grew more solemn. ('I need to figure out a way to integrate
them into my body.')
This was a dangerous path, but it was the only way he could be sure to have
access to them at all given times.
Of course, he did not intend to go extremely far with the invasive integration
of foreign esoteric matter. Even light integration into his body would suffice.
This was far less dangerous, and would still play their role and would allow
him to perceive them through the sense of touch.
Furthermore, his body was exponentially more tolerant to foreign compounds

entering it. While Squire-level poisons had proven to be too much for the
most part, no ordinary human poison or Apprentice-level poison technique
was going to be able to harm his body.
On top of that, Hungry Pain had given his body even greater nourishment for
his body and his healing processes and made him healthier in general.
He just had to pray that none of these esoteric substances were toxic enough
to pose any meaningful threat to him in any capacity.
However, even if all of it worked out, he still needed to figure out how and
where he was going to integrate them into his body. He couldn't just swallow
all these exotics and hope that when the time came he would be able to sense
their reactions inside his body. That would be extremely foolish, and
extremely useless. He needed to design the integration of these esoteric
substances into his body carefully, taking into account Einstein's gravitational
field equations to maximize the ease of sensing.
('I need to turn my body into the equivalent of a gravitational radiation

sensing receiver dish,') Rui mused.
And that still wasn't the end of the process, even once he figured out the
optimal integration into his body, he would still need to dedicate quite some
time to learning how to interpret and analyze the many new sensations and
feelings that he would develop across his entire body.
That last step alone would probably take as much time as mastering an
ordinary sensory technique from the Martial Union.
('However… when I'm done, the technique that will be born from this project
will be of a caliber that is almost unrivaled in the Squire Realm. My senses
will be ever-present, and unextinguishable, not even Kane would be able to
hide from them by the time I'm done.')
Chapter 756 Palace Sections
He had spent quite some time absorbed in his thoughts regarding the esoteric
scientific data that Julian had given him. While Julian did go through some
effort in contextualizing the scientific jargon of this world to help Rui
understand, it was still an immense amount of data. Even if he stored it in his
Mind Palace, that merely got rid of the need to constantly access the
documents.
Though, with his sophisticated application of the Mind Palace technique,

there were definitely plenty more advantages. Martial Art techniques
theoretically usually didn't have an absolute upper limit to proficiency and
degree of mastery, and the Mind Palace definitely fell into the category.
Of the few Martial Artists that had completely mastered it, their application
of it was limited to simple and straightforward storage, and nothing more.
However, this was not the case with Rui. Rui's mastery of the Mind Palace
had reached a level that was entirely uncharted by human cognition in the
history of Martial Art.
He didn't just merely store data. He distinguished, organized, and categorized

data extensively.
The size of his Mind Palace had now gone from just being the size of the
Martial Academy that it was when he first mastered it to becoming as large as
the town of Hajin. He had divided his Mind Palace into many different
sections.
The first Section was the chronological section. Any and all important and
significant data was organized in order of his learning of it, he also made sure
to document the time and place of learning said data as well. This helped him
remember what happened when and where.
The second section was the same data but organized into categories
surrounding their topics. For example, the information that he had just
mastered fell into the esoteric material science category and the gravitational
category that overlapped with each other at the avenue in his Mind Palace
where he had stored the information.
The third section was by lettering so that he could access words and
sentences as long he knew just a little about them. He had 'tagged' the
information in this section with the tags of the categories they were in, in the
second section.
The remaining sections had to do with different types of sensory data, as well
as records of his own internal thoughts among other things.
eαglesnovel`c,om This was a level of application of the Mind Palace

technique that turned his mind into a quasi-computer. It was a level of
mastery that no other being on the continent would even be able to begin to
fathom.
It was one of the reasons he excelled at data processing and management in

his previous job. There were times when both the diplomatic and intelligence
teams had grown utterly bewildered by his cognition.
Yet, while all of this was useful, it was not helping him make much progress
on things like progressing with his projects beyond these benefits. The core
progress needed to be done.
Still, he felt that it was very convenient, especially when he was gobbling
down even more information regarding Project Monster Repellant.
This time also, he was processing the information that he had purchased from
the Martial Union to assess whether he could exploit the fact that these
esoteric substances were present in their body with a technique.
These creatures were not evolved to handle such strange and bizarre
substances running through their body, Rui was sure that there was some way
to use that against them.
What he was specifically looking for was violent, or unstable reactions that
could potentially be applied to stop them.
"Hm?" His eyebrow rose as he came across something interesting.
[Grocher Iron when coming into contact with heated Sentiol Gust leads into
an exothermic and exovolumetric reaction where the Grocher Iron reactant
expands instantly and rapidly. Its volume tends to increase by a factor of a
hundred in less than a millisecond. This is suspected to be due to the…]
His eyes lit up with interest as he tagged the information as a potential

solution to developing an offensive technique that was extremely effective
against the monsters of the Shionel Dungeon, and added it to the appropriate
section of his Mind Palace.
By scouring through the noted reactions of esoteric substances in contact with

other reactants and in different circumstances, there was a wealth of data on
all of these esoteric substances.
('Well well, this search is going easier than the search for appropriate esoteric
substances for Project Eyespy,') Rui noted optimistically.
He was glad. He had thought that after how difficult and troublesome the
search for appropriate esoteric substances for Project Eyespy was that this
would be just as difficult, but it turned out that this wasn't necessarily the
case.
('Well, the theory of General Relativity is much harder than basic and
elementary chemical reactions,') Rui smiled.
With this, he had taken steps for all three projects within the first week of
officially beginning them. He suspected that these projects probably wouldn't
take as long as the projects that he had done when he first broke through to
the Squire Realm which led him to create Flux Earther and the Pathfinder
techniques.
('It probably won't be too long before Kane and I are ready to undertake an
adventure in the Shionel Dungeon.
('Hehe… I can't wait,') Rui smiled as he quickly assimilated the information

that he had purchased from the Martial Union. What he was truly looking
forward to was the actual implementation and practice of the techniques
whose blueprints and conceptual functioning he will have fleshed out. He
was already doing so with Project Keep Up With Kane, but that technique
was much more ordinary and grounded to Earth compared to the remaining
two techniques that he intended to create. Practicing those two would require
a genuine amount of hard work and perseverance, probably even more so
than the Flux Earther technique required. He suspected that both projects
would yield something tremendously important and valuable to the world as
long as he saw them to the very end.
Chapter 757 Freshmen
Two months passed.
Rui spent the time mastering Project Keep Up With Kane while he conducted
extensive research with the remaining two projects, he had nearly come to an
end with the theoretical and research phase and had almost fleshed out the
entirety of all of the chinks of the technique blueprints.
Project Keep Up With Kane on the other hand, had already nearly reached
flawless proficiency.
Compared to the other two projects, he was able to master this technique at
quite the pace since he first began.
WHOOSH
He dashed through the woods at top speed.
"Fwuuuuu…" He inhaled with his mouth at just the right pace while his arm
movements were positioned such that the resulting vacuum was formed right
before him. His body posture was such that he maximized the volume of the
vacuum.
Suddenly, his speed more than doubled as he shot through the woods even
faster! The lack of the oppressing drag caused by the atmosphere and the
atmospheric pressure pushing him from behind led him to move much faster
than he normally was limited to.
"Fuuuuu…" He exhaled as he dispelled the technique allowing drag to slow

him down and stop him
STEP
He paused as he looked at his pocket watch before turning back to look at the
distance he covered.
"That's fifty in a row without a single collision, I guess that makes this a
wrap. I'm glad I was able to overcome the discrepancies between this
technique and Wind Breathing," Rui casually remarked.
The problem with creating a breathing technique to use when maneuvering

was that he was already using Wind Breathing while maneuvering. It was not
easy to use two breathing techniques simultaneously due to clashing
requirements of timing, frequency, and force among other things.
Thus Rui had created a technique that was compatible with Wind Breathing,
to the point where he ended fusing the two techniques to create a single
maneuvering technique.
Gale Bolt Breathing.
('I wonder how this corresponds with Ian Nepomniatchi's Lightning

Breathing,') Rui casually pondered the matter.
The Wind Breathing that he had mastered was actually merely a downscale of
a much more potent version of the technique; Lightning Breathing, a
technique that Ian had used in the Martial Contest.
Rui had lacked the talent needed to master the technique and thus had
resolved to master a more downgraded version to suit his needs.
Now, having ascended to the Squire Realm, he had upgraded that technique
by merging it with another one while it was in development.
('It's not the same as his Lightning Breathing in principle, but I don't think it's
that much weaker,') Rui smiled.
He was quite satisfied with the outcome of the technique. Although this
technique was not revolutionary, or enough to put him equal with Kane, he
would at the very least not hold Kane back much when the two of them were
in a situation that require escaping at top speed. It had served its purpose, and
he did not want or need more than that from this technique.
He had two other techniques that he wanted to work on.
('I'd like to get back to working on them this moment, but…')
Today was the first day of the Martial Academy.
Max and Mana had attempted the Martial Entrance Exam more than a year
ago prior and had failed. The two of them had since then grown extremely
driven to become stronger and had discovered their Martial Paths at the age
of fourteen under the guidance of Rui and his special training.
They had then attempted the Martial entrance exam just a month ago,
dominating the exam and passing with flying colors as Martial Apprentices
attending the exam always did. One month later, today, they would be
leaving the Quarrier Orphanage and would move to the Martial Academy and
begin their training there.
('I'm going to miss them,') He sighed as he reached home.
At the entrance, there was a large congregation of children and adults in the
front yard. They had gathered in a circle around Max and Mana, exchanging
words and hugs. Rui patiently waited for Max and Mana to finish, yet even
when everybody else had had their fill, Lashara was still quite stubborn,
refusing to let go of them.
"Mom… We're going to be late you know," Max murmured.
Mana didn't have the heart to refuse Lashara, having been quite emotional
herself.
"Be safe…" She cupped their faces in her hands before finally letting go.
"Goodbye."
It wasn't long after they exchanged a final farewell with everyone else, that
they managed to leave the house.
"Are you two ready?" Rui asked as he studied them.
They had changed a lot over the last year. Their first crushing defeat and
disappointment had sobered them up and forged their determination. They
had matured a lot in the past year as a result.
The two of them nodded wordlessly with solemn expressions.
"Good, let's get going then."
WHOOSH
The three of them took off from the Orphanage, running as fast as horses. It
only took them an hour before they reached the Martial Academy.
"The extra traffic slowed us down, but we still got here well within time," Rui
nodded.
"Was it necessary to reach here this early?" Mana asked.
"Not strictly, no," Rui shook his head. "But it's best you get acquainted with
your environment before things proceed. After all, you'll be under a lot of
pressure from your peers soon enough,"
Max and Mana furrowed their eyebrows, giving him an odd look. "I still can't
believe how famous you are, big brother."
eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ "Hehe…"
When they attended the Induction Ceremony, they had been surprised by the
sheer number of people that recognized Rui and went out of their way to
greet him. Even the headmaster himself went out of his way to meet with
Rui, even having an informal chat with their big brother. The aspiring Martial
Artists stared at him with admiration and awe.
Rui, on the other hand, felt a little awkward and embarrassed by the reactions
of his siblings.
Chapter 758 No Choice
"Well, looks like that gate has opened," Rui gestured. "I guess this is it."
He glanced at the two of them who had mixed expressions, sighing. "I know
how it feels, but your future is your future. You will have plenty of time to
spend time with your family when you graduate, if that is what you desire
just like I am doing at the moment. So cheer up, okay?"
The two of them smiled at those words, nodding.
"Thank you, brother, we wouldn't be here without you,"
It wasn't long before he could only watch their figures disappear into the
massive crowd that was pouring into the Martial Academy.
('Well, their training is no longer something I will be guide,')
This wasn't a bad thing. Martial Apprentices were meant to make their own
decisions when it came to Martial Art. This was a sacred principle that not
even the strictest of Martial families violated. Forcibly interfering once the
Martial Path was absolutely detrimental to their progress. All influencing of
the Martial Path was done prior to the breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm.
The Martial Union even made it a crime that could be enforced and penalized
over, by virtue of the judiciary authority they possessed according to the
jurisdiction of Martial criminality clause of the Kandrian Martial Covenant,
to try and force Martial Artists to change or alter their Martial Path in any
way.
('The Squire mentors of the Martial Academy are highly qualified and
experienced, they know what lines they ought not to cross,') Rui smiled
warmly as he fondly looked back at his time with Squire instructors Kyrie
and Dylon.
He had gained a lot more respect for them after having become a Martial
Squire and having trained guided Martial Apprentices. He had come to
understand exactly what it meant to be a Martial Squire capable of guiding
Martial Apprentices to the Squire Realm while also being high-grade Martial
Squires themselves.
Rui, at the moment, could not be considered a high-grade Martial Squire.

That was reserved for Martial Squires above grade six, which he was not, at
the moment.
"Anyways, time to head back ho-… Ah," Rui smiled as recalled something.
"I actually have something to check up on."
He sky-walked, uncaring of the attention he drew as he navigated his way

through the town of Hajin, before making his way to a weapons shop.
The weapons shop was quite large, featuring a great volume inside, and a
great many weapons on the walls and on tabled beneath a glass cover.
A large crowd of people wandered about, looking at the weapons.
Most of them were human, but some of them were Martial Artists, and only
one of them was a Martial Squire. Rui ignored them as he went about his
business.
He made his way past the showroom as he went deeper into the building, his
ears pricked as he heard banging sounds.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Rui peered into a large workroom at the other end of the building from where
a continuous metallic banging sound seemed to originate.
Inside was a huge forge around a gigantic fireplace. The flames were a bright
white, rather than orange, Rui could feel the prickling heat of the fire from
outside.
BANG!
He turned towards the source of the sound.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
A gargantuan man swinging a big hammer down on a long piece of molten

steel at a regular pace.
"Mr. Derkean," Rui smiled, calling out.
"Hm? Who's disturbing my work?" He turned around, glancing at Rui with

squinted eyes. "Ah, Squire brat. What do you want?"
"I was just wondering how went the forging of two products that I
commissioned you for," Rui smiled, amused.
It was rare for a normal human being to treat him rudely, he hadn't
experienced anything of the sort in a long time and appreciated the nostalgic
feeling of being treated like a normal human being.
In the past two months, Rui had come to a realization while working on
Project Monster Repellant.
"My body is too inadequate to be the basis of a technique meant to be

extremely effective against the monsters of the Shionel Dungeon," Rui
sighed.
It couldn't be helped. He already had resolved to stuff his body with a few
esoteric substances for Project Eyespy. He couldn't do the same thing for yet
another technique simultaneously. It was too much, and the associated risks
had exceeded the threshold that was his limit.
('If my body is insufficient, then…')
There was only one solution.
Something other than his body had to serve as the basis for the technique that
he was trying to create.
"Weapons…" Rui had sighed.
It wasn't that he was extremely averse to weapons, certainly not. It was just
that compared to his understanding of unarmed combat, his understanding of
armed combat was far underdeveloped. It couldn't be helped, given his
profession.
But the world did not care about that. Although weapons were not ubiquitous
for Martial Artists, they were still a relevant and significant field, and if he
truly wanted to be able to adapt to all Martial Artists, then perhaps it was
inevitable that he would need to lose his discomfort with them.
There hadn't been any strong incentive to do it thus far.
Until now, that was.
"In this situation…" He had sighed. "There's no excuse. I don't have too
much of a choice. It's either weapons or be helpless against herds of high-
grade Squire-level monsters. And that's not even a real choice."
Thus, he had spent quite some time on exactly what kind of weapon he
wanted, and what it was supposed to do, before taking the liberty of
commissioning a renowned blacksmith in the town of Hajin to forge what he
needed.
"Weapons don't just take half a month to finish, you think they grow on
trees? Do you? HMM?" The man glared at Rui with such a comically
exaggerated scowl that Rui had to exert himself to suppress a bout of laughter
at the man's hilarious antics.
Chapter 759 Blade
"I'm just inquiring," Rui raised his arms lightly. "I have no intention of
pressuring you at all."
"It's taking time because you want such a bizarre esoteric like Tethered
Bellhorn Steel," The man scowled. "Why on Earth would you want such a
heavy esoteric alloy to fashion the blade out of?"
Rui smiled. "Everyone has their necessities."
"Any why on Earth do you want a scabbard that cools it?" The man furrowed
his eyebrows. "That does not help in battle!"
Rui didn't even bother gracing that with a reply, simply smiling instead.
The man sighed exaggeratedly before shrugging. "Whatever, you're paying a

huge amount of money, so it's fine I guess. There are all kinds of strange
people in the world."
Rui did not mind being perceived that way. He was not going to genuinely
inform the man what his intentions were, after all.
Rui had dug deep into the information surrounding the most ubiquitous
esoteric substances and compounds of the Shionel Dungeon very thoroughly,
going beyond just the information that Julian had provided him. He had
found great detail on several phenomena and chemical reactions involving
the Shionel esoteric substances as well as others that could potentially serve
as the basis of the technique that he was looking to make.
In his deep studies, he had somehow managed to run into one particular
obscure journal of a now-dissolved small private research institute in the
Kandrian Empire, detailing a series of experiments between one of the
ubiquitous Shionel esoteric compound Whitemane Dust and a rarer esoteric
alloy known as Tethered Bellhorn Steel. The experiment revealed that a
reaction between the two compounds in their natural states at low
temperatures caused a violent exothermic reaction where the Whitemane
Dust exhibited extreme phobic tendencies towards cooled Tethered Bellhorn
Steel. The greater the amount and the lower the temperature, the greater the
force with which Whitemane Dust repelled away from the cooled Tethered
Bellhorn Steel.
The reaction was so violent and exothermic that the procedural

experimentation chamber that was isolated from the observation lab to protect
the researchers was unable to contain the violent reaction. The Whitemane
Dust subjected to cooled Tethered Bellhorn Steel blasted away with such
force that it breached the safety measures and the barrier between the
observation lab and the procedural chamber, almost killing all of the
researchers in the process. The experiment was called off and the overarching
project was deemed a failure and had thus been dismissed in the eyes of the
esoteric science community.
Rui had only found this after six weeks of scouring scientific literature for
additional information beyond what he had been provided by Julian.
Julian had given him a good place to start, however, the solution that he
sought wasn't within the information that his brother had organized for him.
He scoured every library in the country in the span of six weeks aggressively
inputting, processing, and assimilating all the information he had come across
before finally running into something experiments hadn't even heard of
before.
('This is perfect,') He had grinned when he came across the research journal.
('One man's trash is another man's treasure.')
To think that Whitemane Dust, an esoteric confirmed to have been present in

the epithelial and blood of all of the species existing in the Shionel Dungeon,
was so unstable in such a reaction.
('It's just what I need,') Rui nodded. ('What if a blade fashioned out of cooled
Tethered Bellhorn Steel pierces their flesh that is saturated with Whitemane
Dust?')
The wound would be extremely exacerbated by the cooled Tethered Bellhorn

Steel reacting to the Whitemane Dust in the flesh and blood of the monster,
causing the latter to blow apart from it violently and magnifying the size of
the injury while causing a ton of internal damage.
Even if it was a high-grade monster, Rui strongly suspected that even a single
swing would be enough to cause a lethal wound and a vast amount of internal
injuries. It would allow Rui to exert a level of lethality within the Shionel
Dungeon that would be unheard of for a grade-six Martial Artist like himself.
('On top of that, I have had plenty of time to prepare,') He smiled

mischievously inwardly. ('Which means the full power of the VOID
algorithm could be unleashed.')
Rui had been working on expanding the scope of the Adaptive Evolution
model by incorporating simplistic sword-based maneuvers.
He had been scouring through the data collected on the approach to combat
the various dominant species of the Shionel Dungeon and had formed basic
adaptations to each species with a combination of a thorough analysis of the
data as well as some common sense.
While this was absolutely by no means a universal solution for all fauna, it
was a small first step in that direction.
"You better be practicing hard with that sparring replica I gave you," The
man spat. "This sword's center of gravity will be gone completely to shit
because you insist on using such a heavy esoteric substance as the main
blade," Veins had started popping on his forehead just thinking about it. "Any
sword techniques you knew will become largely worthless with a sword like
this. Tsk, it's so horribly off-balance that I almost want to hack at you with it
when I'm done for forcing me to forge you this sword."
Rui burst out laughing. "You do realize I'm a Martial Squire, right? What you
said just now could be interpreted as a threat, and I'd have the right to kill you
without facing any persecution. Perks of being a Martial Squire within the
Kandrian Empire due to the Serevian Covenant."
Rui directed just a tiny bit of bloodlust at the man, yet to his surprise, the man
was entirely unfazed.
"You're gonna have to do better than that, boy," The man scoffed.
Rui raised an eyebrow. "Seems like you're not just some old blacksmith, are
you?"
"Maybe, maybe not," He turned back, returning to banging away at the

molten bar of metal before him.
Chapter 760 Choice
Rui bade him goodbye before sky-walking away. The blade made out of
Tethered Bellhorn Steel was one of his solutions to the problem of the
monsters that he hoped to handle with Project Monster Repellant.
He had commissioned a single-handed curved sword with a blade fashioned

out of Tethered Bellhorn Steel. The reason for this kind of blade was rather
simple, he would likely be putting himself in a situation where he would be
facing multiple threats omnidirectionally, thus he needed a blade whose
application was flexible and versatile and could be rapidly adjusted to fit his
situation.
In this regard, slashing was a more desirable means of attacking than stabbing
or thrusting. The former was much more flexible as it had a large number of
directions and angles of attack, and was less committal allowing the
swordsman to return back to a guarded stance swiftly and easily. Stabbing
and thrusting were more lethal, yet also required more commitment from the
swordsman.
The latter style of sword combat was unfit for the circumstances of the
Shionel Dungeon. He could not focus on committing everything to a sure-
shot way of killing a single opponent when his goal was to cope with the
monsters in a situation where he would be facing many, not just one.
Furthermore, he did not need to commit too much inflicting damage why
thrusting thanks to the presence of the cooled Tethered Bellhorn Steel blade
that would magnify the damage his attack inflicted on the monster
tremendously.
Thus Rui decided to go for a basic slashing-oriented sword style.

Furthermore, he wanted to minimize the commitment that he gave as far as
his body went when wielding it, thus he decided to commission single-
handed curved swords that were meant to be wielded by a single arm and
were suited towards slashing rather than stabbing or thrusting.
He had even ordered a special scabbard laced on the inside with a rare
esoteric that constantly had a standard temperature many degrees below the
freezing point of water. Even when heated, it would seemingly violate the
Zeroth law of thermodynamics and lose heat to its surroundings before
reaching its standard temperature.
Thus he had a natural cooling system for the Tethered Bellhorn Steel blade,
allowing him to ensure that it had a low temperature that was needed to
obtain the reaction that he was hoping for.
That was his first solution against the monsters. He had already begun
training in basic swinging forms for the blade with a replica whose size,
shape, and mass distribution of the set of blades that he was commissioning.
He knew his limits, of course. He was not arrogant enough to believe that he
could master swordsmanship in a matter of months. Swordsmanship was a
field deep and vast enough to be qualified to be the Martial Paths of Martial
Artists.
However, he had no intention of mastering the in a matter of months, what he

was subjecting himself to was basically the Martial Foundation Stage
equivalent of swords. He needed to make sure that, at the very least, his
fundamental maneuvers with the sword were solid.
The rest he could make up for to a great extent with the VOID algorithm
which would allow him to predict monsters with remarkable accuracy and
depth, while his elementary and basic adaptive-evolution model would allow
him to appropriately deal with them. Even if the latter was primitive in
comparison to the adaptive evolution model that he developed for unarmed
humans, it still allowed him to make decisions quicker than if he had to
process and make a choice each time.
However, he also was planning to bank on Primordial Instinct which would

help him test whether a counter is good or bad.
These were the measures he had come up with for Project Monster Repellant.
The unique thing about this project was that, for the first time, he would be
creating a technique that wasn't actually a technique, not truly. Technically it
was, but it wasn't something he would ever use again after the Shionel
Dungeon raid, realistically.
On top of that, he was not interested in pursuing swordsmanship. It wasn't

that he particularly disliked it, it was just that it required exclusive
commitment for the most part.
Once one picked up the sword, all of one's combat was centered around it. He
would not be able to perform unarmed attacks anywhere nearly as well with a
sword compared to without it. Punching and kicking became far more
constrained when holding a sword since merely holding it was detrimental to
the kind of balance and maneuvering needed for unarmed attacks.
He could effectively forget grappling if he ever decided to pursue

swordsmanship. The number of times two swordsmen ever got into a
wrestling match in the middle of a fight could probably be counted on one
hand.
Every other field became much harder to use if he pursued swordsmanship. It

was because of this demand for exclusivity that he could never pursue the
blade seriously.
That still did not mean that he was against the mastery of weapons in general,
just not swordsmanship and similar weapons that demanded an exclusive
commitment to them. He did not mind a smaller weapon that could be used in
conjugation with his existing unarmed-based techniques.
However, he had not felt the need to adopt such a weapon, nor had he come
across a weapon that would suit his Flowing Void Martial Art.
For the purpose of fulfilling the difficult goal of exploring and plundering the
entirety of the Shionel Dungeon before all other forces, he was willing to
adopt the sword for a limited amount of time.
Yet that was not the only weapon he had readied.
STEP
He landed in front of the Martial Union.
('Time to procure the other 'weapon' that I have commissioned,') He thought

to himself with an eager smile.
He quickly passed through the security check-ins before heading straight

towards the commercial wing of the Union branch, walking over to one
specific store.
Chapter 761 Pipe
While the Tethered Bellhorn Steel blade was one of his trump cards, it was
not the only one.
He had come up with two ideas when he finished his long research endeavor.
These two were the most promising of ideas, and when it came down to it, he
was unable to choose between them.
The second idea after the blade was something he had managed to dig up on
another Shionel esoteric called Mercurite, a semi-solid esoteric substance
known for its elasticity. He had stumbled upon an experiment surrounding
the substance that involved subjecting it to high pressures and to high-
temperature air in a gas chamber. Mercurite, known for its elasticity, would
immediately grow rigid in these circumstances, developing a temporarily
high tensile strength for the duration of the experiment and some a brief time
even after being returned to standard pressures and temperatures.
The fact that this substance existed on the skin of the monsters after being
secreted along with sweat made it something that Rui could use.
The question was how he could subject monsters to high-pressure and high-
temperature air.
('The pressure is honestly manageable…') Rui's eyes narrowed his eyes.
If he could adapt the Tempestuous Ripple technique from when he was a

Martial Apprentice, he could subject the skin of monsters to high-pressure
air, but he wasn't sure about pressure.
('Should I just purchase a bunch of hot air grenades or something,') Rui

laughed, before shaking his head. There were too many impracticalities even
if he took the idea seriously, which he simply couldn't as a Martial Artist.
Instead, what he had sought to procure was a device that could take in air,
heat it rapidly and supply it to him if he needed it.
('I can inhale it and use the Squire-level version of the Tempestuous Ripple
technique to blast it into the monsters at a high pressure, but…') Rui
narrowed his eyes. ('It has limitations.')
The first problem was that the hot air technique would lose heat very quickly.
Rui had already conducted several experiments that revealed the projectile
was useless outside of roughly seven meters. Which was a lot less than the
maximum range before it lost all force.
Still, the ability to hamper the monsters within seven meters with ease was
quite good.
At the end of the day, when it came down to choosing between one of them
to form a technique, he ultimately decided to go with both.
('I can use the Mercurite on their skin to paralyze or hamper them when they
enter within seven meters before slashing at them with the Tempered
Bellhorn Steel blade,') Rui had spent quite some time refining his strategy
and tactics.
After nearly two weeks, he had come up with a model of solutions that
allowed him to deal with a ridiculous number of monsters all by himself.
('If I'm not wrong… not even high-grade Martial Squires will be able to
match the efficiency that Project Monster Repellant will give me when it
comes to killing monsters in the Shionel Dungeon,')
The only thing he couldn't be certain about was grade-ten Martial Squires. He
already knew that the Squire Realm was a wide plane, thus he couldn't really
figure out what grade-ten Martial Squires was capable of.
He had once been told that even a squadron of grade-five Martial Squires
would get annihilated by a grade-ten Martial Squire, thus he couldn't be sure
that he was more effective than those powerful Martial Artists who stood at
the precipice of a higher Realm of power.
"Ah, Squire Quarrier, welcome back!" An employee of a large store greeted

him the moment he walked in. "The product you commissioned is ready just
like we informed you!"
"That's great to hear," Rui smiled in response. "I'd like to see it as soon as
possible."
"Of course, please come this way, just one moment,"
Soon enough, she fetched a small box, bringing it over to Rui, before opening
it up.
Inside was a smoking pipe that looked to be made up of wood with a

relatively ordinary design that wouldn't really raise an eyebrow.
In reality, it was the device that Rui had brought to heat air to extremely high
temperatures and supply it to Rui on the inhaling end.
Rui would simply need to suck in hot air and employ it in his technique.
Anyone who saw Rui would only think he was being irresponsible by
smoking on the job. No one would think that this was an instrument that
would allow him to deal with the Shionel monsters with a level of efficiency
that one simply could not fathom coming from a grade-six nineteen-year-old
Martial Squire like him.
This way, he could keep his abnormal success more inscrutable even if
people started getting suspicious.
Of course, he also intended to hide under the grade-ten Mind Mask he had
created such that his success would not be too odd. He had already fooled an
entire island of Martial Artists that he was a grade-ten Martial Squire, he was
pretty confident that he could pull it off yet again.
He quickly paid for the pipe before leaving with it for home.
He wondered what the Orphanage would say if they saw it. He could already
imagine the various funny and amusing reactions that would follow.
Still, he didn't intend to tell anyone about it asides from Kane.
The many preparations that Rui was making were all starting to come
together. With one project completed and the other project approaching
completion, he only had one project that was still a little past midway.
Project Eyespy was definitely the most difficult project, in hindsight. Rui had
been carefully forming a blueprint for the technique as he performed research
while also working out what esoteric substances he would be using, how
much, and where he would be integrating them into their body. Trying to
optimize the end outcome such that it reduced the difficulty and burdens of
the technique was an extremely difficult process, even for someone like him.
Chapter 762 Sensing Mechanism
The techniques yielded by Project Monster Repellant were not really

techniques as much as they were tactics and strategies. Furthermore, they
were tactics and strategies that were exclusive to the Shionel Dungeon for the
most part.
They were quite different from what Rui would normally attempt, but his
circumstances demanded that he go beyond his comfort zone and develop a
way to make his objective of being the first to clear the Shionel Dungeon
more realistic.
In order to master the two techniques that were born from Project Monster
Repellant, he needed to engage in a decent amount of training. He had
already been dedicating quite some time to mastering the foundations of a
sword identical to the ones that he would be commissioning.
On top of that, he had been subjecting himself to some light conditioning.

Specifically, he wanted to grow completely comfortable with extremely hot
air in his lungs. While he found out that his Martial body was durable enough
such that even the more delicate tissue inside his respiratory system, it was
still hot enough to cause a lot of discomfort and could cause burns or blisters
over time.
Thus he had been conditioning his respiratory system to handle the heat
without experiencing any issues to any degree. He had to ensure that he was
ready rapidly fire his heated air Tempestuous Ripples, which he also needed
to focus on adapting to the Apprentice Realm.
The project was coming along very well, he had already reached a stage
where he was absolutely certain that the project would be a perfect success.
There was no ounce of uncertainty in that regard.
However, the same could not be said for Project Eyespy.
He had more or less figured out the esoteric substances that he would be
using to create the foundation for the technique.
Cryllin Stone and Grainer Pollen were two esoteric substances and
compounds that individually lacked what he needed, but together, they could
provide him with what he wanted as long as he applied them correctly.
Cryllin Stone was an esoteric substance whose temperature was entirely a

product of gravitational field strength. The closer it was to the source of
gravity, such as a body of matter or energy, the colder it would get.
Yet what ultimately made Rui go for this esoteric substance was the
mathematical relation that was empirically observed to exist between
temperature and the distances between the stone and the source of gravity.
It was observed through rigorous experimentation and observation that the

temperature of the body was proportional to the fourth root of the distance
between the Cryllin Stone and gravitational sources.
What that meant was that if the distance was increased by twice, then it
would not grow twice as hot, it would grow sixteen times as how. If the
distance was increased by thrice, then the temperature would grow eighty-one
times as hot compared to before it moved.
It was precisely because of this radical relationship that Rui had decided to
use it. The fact that it was so sensitive to even the slightest shift in position
and would react drastically, made it extremely useful to Rui who needed
sensitive data. He could rely on the clearly radical shifts in the temperature of
the Cryllin Stone inside his body to understand the distance between him and
some body/object that was obviously producing gravity.
However, while this told him the distance between him and his surrounding
objects, it did not tell him what direction they were in. Without knowing what
direction his surrounding objects were located, he could not pinpoint their
locations, and thus could not form an image of his surroundings.
This was where Grainer Pollen came in. This esoteric moved away in the
exact opposite direction of the direction of the gravitational pull caused by
the curvature in space. This meant that he could obtain the directions he
needed.
Together, he could find out both the direction and distance of the closest
body or mass, and when applied to all directions, he would be able to picture
his environment quite accurately.
The problem was that he needed to distribute the esoteric across his body in
the right way, otherwise, it wouldn't work the way he wanted it to. What he
was applying was a principle of triangulation and the Parallax Method, one
that was frequently used in astronomy. Astronomers, when wanting to
pinpoint the location of a celestial body, would record it with observatories
from opposite sides of the planet. If the triangle formed between these two
points and the celestial body was thin and sharp, then it could be concluded
that the celestial body was very far away. If the triangle formed by these three
was short and stout, then it could be concluded that the celestial body was
closer.
He was effectively applying this principle with all of his environment, using
the distribution of esoteric substances across his body.
It had taken him quite some time to design the distribution configuration of
these esoteric substances. He couldn't just blindly dump them all across his
body, that would take a longer time to master and the sensory input would be
too much. He needed to find exactly the optimal amount to ensure that he can
still make out all of his environment precisely and accurately without an
excess of sensory input.
It had taken him two months, but finally, he had completed the blueprint for
the procedure. He had completed sensory details of the positioning of the
esoterics within the body, he had gotten Martial doctors to overlook the
procedure and vet it to ensure that it would not impact his health or life in any
way. That alone had required him to revisit the blueprint several times due to
some health hazard or the other. This process had happened several times
until he had finally created a satisfactory blueprint for the space-curvature
sensory technique.
Now, all that was left was to undergo the procedure and begin training to
master this new sense that he had given his body.
Chapter 763 Procedure
Eventually, the time for the implantation procedure had arrived. As brilliant
and competent Rui was, he could not complete a medical procedure of such a
scope by himself by any means. He needed help.
Much to his surprise, the Martial Union swiftly proceeded with the process
without too much delay. He had already been surprised that the Martial
doctors were so easily offering their consultancy on the distribution
configuration of the blueprint of his technique.
However, in hindsight, it shouldn't have been so surprising. While it was a

little unusual for Martial Artists to create their own medical procedures to
allow them to utilize a technique, it was not too unheard of. A system already
existed in place to help Martial Artists develop such procedures with the help
of medical experts and implement them with the help of qualified surgeons.
Though, based on the reactions of the consultants, it was rather clear that they
hadn't run into anything quite like what Rui had sought their consultancy
over.
"Squire Quarrier, pleasure to meet you. I am Dr. Dranim Vel, I will be the
lead surgeon of the medical procedure that you're scheduled to undergo,
you've arrived just on time," A doctor bowed to him courteously when Rui
reached the medical wing. "Please follow our team's instructions to have you
prepped for the surgery according to our guidelines."
Rui, who had just walked into the room, nodded. "Pleasure to meet you as
well, doctor. I'll be in your care."
Thankfully, the preparations were limited. The main pre-op procedures had
already been completed ahead of time. Rui had already had several tissue and
blood samples collected to ensure that there weren't any concerning issues
surrounding his compatibility with the esoteric substances that he would be
implanting into his body at the moment.
Rui was guided into a separate operation chamber that was isolated from the
surgical team that would be operating on him remotely. Based on Seismic
Mapping, there was a three-meter barrier between them constructed from
low-grade Squire-level esoteric alloys. It could very briefly contain even
high-grade Martial Artists.
"Squire Quarrier, if you could please lie down on the operating table," The
doctor courteously requested him.
CLACK CLACK CLACK
Several cuffs locked him into place automatically the second he lied down.
"We will soon begin the procedure," The doctor informed him. "Proceeding
with the administering of a general anesthetic."
Rui huffed, unsatisfied as a breathing mask latched on his face, covering his
nose and mouth before administering him a gas. Rui had objected to the
administration of a general anesthetic but had ultimately had no choice when
this was one of the iron-clad guidelines for deeply invasive procedures like
the one Rui was about to undergo.
A dozen seconds passed since the gas had been administered to him, Rui just
sat there awkwardly.
"…Squire Quarrier, are you employing a Martial Art technique at the

moment? Please desist from resisting the procedure. This violates the terms
and conditions," The doctor's tone was stern.
"I'm doing no such thing, doctor," Rui furrowed his eyes in confusion.
"Are you experiencing no side effects?" The doctor's tone was incredulous.
"I suppose I am feeling a little drowsy," Rui admitted.
He was curious why he was able to resist it to such a degree. He suspected it

had something to do with his enhanced neurological parameters, however this
was much too outside of his area of expertise to be confident on.
"…We will be administering an undiluted dose since the Squire-grade

version does not seem to be effective on you. I'm afraid if even this doesn't
work, we may have to delay the procedure,"
('Damn, it's at times like these my stranger qualities are a burden," Rui tutted.
Suddenly, he felt a strong wave of drowsiness wash over him as the world
went dark.
"Mmm…" He got up with a bit of a headache, being greeted by a white

ceiling.
He got up massaging his forehead.
His body felt strange.
"Ah, Squire Quarrier, you're awake?" A voice called out to him.
"Hm?" Rui looked up.
A nurse greeted him as she walked over to his side.
"Your procedure was a success," She informed him. "I just have to conduct
some basic check-ups and then you can be discharged as long as there isn't
anything wrong.
"How long have I been asleep?" Rui asked.
"Around half a day. Please open your mouth," She began as she conducted a
basic check-up.
Rui couldn't even voice out the surprise from knowing he had been asleep for
that long. He closed his eyes he focused on the strange sensations within his
body. The Cryllin Stone and Grainer Pollen inside his body stirred and
shifted in position and temperature with his own movements. They were no
different from his other senses which were also stirred by his movements, and
the movements of the world around him.
He tried focusing and applying the Gravitational Sensory System that he had
developed applying the data of the two esoteric substances, the equations of
relativity, and the Parallax Method to try and perceive the world through the
curvature of space. But alas, it was extremely difficult.
It took him nearly two minutes, but eventually, he succeeded
Rui gasped as a black-and-white image of the world formed in his head,

mapping out the world around him. The room he was in, the nurse skimming
through some paperwork, and the furniture.
Even if it was his very first try, the time it took him as well as his range were
very poor, but he intended to fix that over time.
('So this is what it feels like to sense space itself,') Rui grinned.
"There are no issues surrounding your health, Squire Quarrier," She replied.
"Please sign these papers if you wish to be discharged immediately."
Rui found himself leaving the Martial Union a few minutes, later as he closed
his eyes, trying his best to grow familiar with the new artificial sense that he
had embedded in his body and the new stimuli that his brain was indirectly
receiving.
Chapter 764 First Day
Max and Mana felt a little strange with all the stares at them. Ever since their
names had been called out when they were assigned their dormitories, a lot of
the other students had been staring at them with amazement and awe,
whispering to each other.
"I heard that they're HIS siblings…"
"Do you think that maybe they'd let us meet him…?"
"Uhm, why is everyone staring at us and whispering?" Max scratched his

head feeling awkward.
"Because they heard our last name," Mana sighed.
She had already realized that this was coming based on the experience of the
induction ceremony, thus she had been more composed.
The two of them quickly headed to their dormitories, before unpacking their
things.
"Er, what should we do now?"
"We have a mandatory sparring session with the combat Squire instructor,"
Mana replied as she went through their schedule.
"Right, what was her name, again?"
"Squire Kyrie…" Mana replied. "She's been teaching in this academy for
nearly fifteen years. They say she was one of the top Martial Squires in this
town back in her prime. They called her the Berzerker of Hajin."
"I remember big brother telling us about her," Max nodded, before grinning.
"He said she was very strong! He said that he couldn't beat her even after he
became a Martial Squire."
"She was a high-grade Martial Squire, apparently," Mana replied as she went
through the rulebook of the Martial Academy. "Come on, we should get
going for the sparring session already. We don't want to be late on our very
first day."
The two of them quickly changed into their sparring attire before heading
toward the Apprentice-level sparring facility.
Inside were a large number of Martial Apprentices, either sparring with each
other or waiting on the sides.
Yet their attention was immediately drawn by a powerful presence at the

center of the facility, overseeing some fights.
She had a heavy presence, weighing down on the minds of all Martial
Apprentices, including them. They instinctively felt that she was, at the very
least, as strong as their brother, perhaps even stronger. Her aura oozed with
the grizzled confidence that came with a lifetime of physical conflict. She did
not hold back her mental pressure, uncaring for the chills she sent up their
spines.
"So you've come," She glanced at the two of them the second they walked in,
sizing them up the second she laid her narrowed eyes on them. "Max and
Mana Quarrier."
"Squire Kyrie," The two of them bowed deeply. "We look forward to your
guidance."
"Get in the center ring," She instructed curtly. "We'll be beginning soon."
Soon enough, the two of them entered the large spacious ring along with nine
other Martial Apprentices.
The two of them ignored the stares of all the other Martial Apprentices, to the
best of their abilities, yet there was one that refused to look away from them.
A small petite girl looked at them oddly with intense eyes and a surprised
expression.
"Wait a minute," Max's and Mana's eyes widened as they recognized. "You…
were the one who beat us in last year's entrance exam!"
Crea was about to open her mouth to address them when suddenly she was
interrupted.
"You don't have time to chitchat with each other," Squire Kyrie sternly
quashed the interaction. "From now until the end of this sparring session, you
won't have time to do anything other than fight me with everything you
have."
Her eyes sharpened as a heavy wave of pressure descended on all of the

Max and Mana gulped as they did their best to maintain their pressure. Rui
always hid his mental pressure with the Mind Mask because he disliked the
mixed looks of awe and fear that he got from everybody in the vicinity,
especially because he did not want to subject his family to that pressure.
The only time he didn't was when he was training their mental fortitude.
Yet it was clear that Squire Kyrie had no intention of doing that.
She was merely oppressing their minds within reason.
"Your goal is to defeat me making me leave this ring," Squire Kyrie

explained impatiently. "I will be restricting myself to Apprentice-level
parameters. Do your best."
CRACK
She cracked her neck, before continuing. "In the long time that I have been
conducting sparring sessions, no one has managed to succeed. Though…"
She glanced at Max and Mana pointedly. "…There was one Martial
Apprentice who forced me to go all-out in his time here."
Max and Mana's eyes widened as they realized who she was talking about.
The other Martial Apprentices stirred at those words.
Forcing a Martial Squire to go all-out at their level? They would not survive
such an accomplishment, even if they managed to accomplish it.
"If you hope to have any desire to replicate his feat," She growled lightly as
the pressure she exuded grew even more perilous. "Then push your mind and
body to the absolute limit."
She took a stance, causing the others to do the same, "Come."
The battle broke out as all of the Martial Apprentices forced themselves
forward, launching themselves at her.
Squire Kyrie mercilessly beat them up for the next four hours calmly.
Unsurprisingly, none of the Martial Apprentices managed to replicate the feat

that that one Martial Apprentice she spoke of did. Squire Kyrie went around
in rounds, thoroughly breaking down the weaknesses and blindspots that each
of the Martial Apprentices had that they ought to work have worked on.
In the end, she finally rounded up three Martial Apprentices separately
"Crea Geringan. Max Quarrier. Max Quarrier," Squire Kyrie addressed them.
"Given your age, time spent in the Apprentice Realm and stage… I have no
overt recommendations to pass on based on your performance. Train as you
see fit. Martial Apprentices are genuine Martial Artists, unlike the
foundational students. You must forge your Martial Path. I may only pass on
my observations."
Crea did not look surprised, having already experienced this.
Max and Mana were flummoxed on the other hand. "Uhm… We just became
Martial Apprentices… Shouldn't we be filled with weaknesses and
shortcomings?"
The mildest of smiles broke onto Squire Kyrie's face. "Given who has trained
you, I am not surprised in the slightest. I look forward to seeing how far you
three will go."
Chapter 765 Priority
Rui had taken the day off, something he almost never did. But he wanted to
spend at least twenty-four hours gaining some basic acclimatization with his
strange and new body. While the change wasn't anywhere nearly as drastic as
when he broke through to the Squire Realm, it was not insignificant.
"So, how was it?" Julian asked.
Rui immediately reached home, spending time with his family, especially his
brother.
"The procedure was a perfect success with no complications at all," Rui

explained, sighing. "However, I have yet to grow accustomed to it. And as for
mastering it, I don't see it happening any time soon, unfortunately. It will
definitely take time."
"That is to be expected," Julian sighed. "The fact that you came up with such
a technique surrounding something as immaterial as gravity. Even for you,
this is truly remarkable. I'm glad there are no complications, it's a good thing
you are a Martial Squire."
A lot of the time Rui had spent on the technique had gone into verifying that
his body was capable of taking in the two esoteric substances and compounds
without any long-term health detriments. He had had Julian aid him to a
degree with optimizing the amount of esoteric mass he would be implanting
into his body.
"Work hard to obtain proficiency with your new senses," Julian told him. "I
too am curious to know about the end outcome.
"Don't worry, I can't wait to master it," Rui had replied.
Unfortunately, the upcoming part of the training was something that he

would rather complete with the help of the Martial Union. While it was
possible to train his new sense by himself, it was far more inefficient. The
biggest hindrance was that his senses were too strong.
At this stage, he had three sensory techniques and none of them were weak,
his mind would not be able to increase its proficiency if he could not stop his
existing powerful senses from allowing him to perceive the world. His mind
was subconsciously too dependent on his existing senses to be able to use his
newfound gravitational sense to its best.
The Martial Union, however, had come up with the perfect solution. It had
developed special training rooms and facilities that were capable of sealing
off all of the normal senses that Martial Artists, as well as any of the sensory
techniques that existed in the Martial Union.
By sealing off all of the existing senses of a Martial Artist and throwing them
into complete darkness, it accelerated their mastery of a new sensory
technique significantly.
The principle behind this kind of training was the same as the reason why a
human being's other senses grew far sharper once a person lost their sense of
vision.
Thus he hastily returned to the Martial Union, applying to book a training

session with the resources needed for the special sensory training
methodology of the Martial Union.
"I'm afraid, we do not have the available training rooms and slots needed to
allow you six hours of daily training," The employee bowed her head when
she checked up on his request.
This had initially come as a surprise, but in hindsight, it shouldn't have. It had
been five months since the discovery of the Shionel Dungeon, and not even a
third of the dungeon had yet been explored to the waves of monsters and the
heavily hampered senses within the Shionel Dungeon.
It was only natural that the number of Martial Artists running to master
sensory techniques would skyrocket. He wasn't too surprised that even the
large Martial Art training facilities were starting to run a little low on the
available training and growth resources that were available at any time.
"Is that so…" Rui sighed. "Please allow me to purchase all that is available at
the moment."
"Of course sir," She nodded. "Can you please provide me with your Martial
license?"
Rui handed over his Martial license glumly. He was not happy with this
development but there wasn't much that he could do at the moment. He could
simply make the best of what he had at the moment.
"Ah…" The employee turned back to Rui. "It appears that you will be able to
procure the daily six hours of training that you have requested after all,
Squire Quarrier."
"Hm?" Rui's eyebrows furrowed. "Did the booked slots really clear up in the
past ten seconds?"
"Not at all, however, your profile has been marked with a priority tag over
the goods and services of the Martial Union over a lot of other external
Martial Squires," She explained.
"What?" Rui frowned. "I've never heard of this before."
"It is unusual for the Martial Union to be unable to meet the demand for its
Martial Art services, after all."
Rui considered her explanation, it was most likely correct. However, it was
also likely that it had contributed to his speedy service with the Martial
Union. His purchases were delivered as early as possible while any procedure
he booked could be scheduled as early as a few hours later, at times.
These were things that he had perhaps been taking for granted.
"I see…" Rui nodded. "In that case, I'd like to go ahead and purchase six
hours a day for the next three months, for starters."
"Will do, sir," She nodded.
Soon enough, Rui found himself in the sensory training facility of the Martial
Union's training wing.
He quickly donned a special suit that suppressed the five natural senses of the
human body. Rui had a lot more insight into how the suit functioned now that
he had brushed up a lot on esoteric materials science.
While the suit alone would take care of the five senses, as well as
Tempestuous Feel in his case, the training room would take care of the
Seismic Radiation.
Primordial Instinct would naturally be suppressed with all of his other senses
being suppressed since the technique wasn't a form of physical sensing but
highly enhanced danger sense.
He wasn't sure when he was given a priority status when it came to the goods
and services, however, he was sure that this was reflective of the value that
the Martial Union had in him.
He had contributed a lot to the Martial Union in the nearly seven years that he
had been a Martial Artist, he had also accomplished a lot and made
tremendous strides in his Martial Path and contributed to Martial Art in
general.
There was no doubt that he was a valued asset, and he had no compunctions
about using his status to cut in line. If this was a line to the movie, he would
respect public etiquette, but when it came to his Martial Art, he didn't care.
He would obtain what he needed.
One small dose of a potent drug inhabited his instincts to suppress Primordial
Instinct completely, and soon enough he was inside the training room, in an
absolute void.
He could not sense a damn thing about his environment through his old
senses.
Yet the Grainer Pollen and the Cryllin Stone across his body stirred, changing
in temperature and the internal force that they applied on him.
Their reactions to their environment told him about their environment

because he knew exactly how they reacted to everything. The only problem
was that he had yet to master 'reading' their reactions.
That was what this was all about.

He had begun the training with a simple moving environment. He was far
from ready to apply this in a combat situation. His current training
environment was simply comprised of ordinary moving objects of different
sizes and masses.
His initial goal was to reach a stage where he could simply avoid them
without ever getting touched.
BUMP
"Tsk," Rui tutted, having bumped into a small moving pillar.
He focused hard as he paid attention to the fluctuations of the esoteric

substances inside his body.
The Grainer Pollen were constantly shifting their directions of push due to
the fact that the objects in their vicinity were also moving.
Had they been stationary, the Grainer Pollen would also be less chaotic,
although never stationary, since they had a wide range of senses.
Soon enough, a rough image of his immediate surrounding formed in his

head. It was low in clarity since he still had yet to be able to read the details
of the information that he was getting from the esoteric substances.
STEP
He moved aside as he avoided another object.
He spent the first few hours simply growing absolutely comfortable with this
simple exercise. Getting rid of the simple and elementary mistakes that he
was making.
In combat, he wouldn't have time to make complicated calculations, this was

different from the VOID algorithm. The VOID algorithm could afford a delay
since it was not absolutely fundamentally necessary to his combat every
second.
However, if he was in the Shionel Dungeon, then he needed a way to ensure

that he could always rely on it at any given moment. He could not afford to
sit around twiddling his thumbs while he ran complex calculations in his head
just to sense his surroundings.
The monsters were not going to be polite enough to wait for him to finish.
He needed to reach a stage where he could complete the 'reading' of the

Cryllin Stone and the Grainer Pollen in his body at any given moment
subconsciously and reflexively.
He simply was not at that stage at the moment.
As time passed, he upped the speed of the movements of the obstacles. Of

course, at this point, it was still at a stage where a fit human would be able to
dodge them under normal circumstances.
('The tricky part is reading all of them at the same time, and then combining
the data from the two esoteric substances together,') Rui tutted as he bumped
into another obstacle by mistake.
His mind was in full focus at the moment. He was not only absorbing
everything he sensed subconsciously but was also documenting every
moment of the training session rigorously into his Mind Palace.
He intended to thoroughly revisit his experiences later inside the Mind

Palace, allowing him to introspect and look back better. Furthermore, it
would allow him to correlate the sensory reading he got from the esoteric
substances and the actual phenomenon.
Then, he would hammer it into his head until he could accurately recount it
even if he was drunk.
In this manner, he could be able to maximize his rate of growth.
('I should consider increasing the amount of training time,') Rui mused to
himself, before shaking his head.
He still needed to dedicate time to mastering the techniques of Project

Monster Repellant.
Six hours later, Rui was finally done with his training.
('Not bad for a first day,') He sighed.
Still, he wasn't too pleased. He usually progressed much faster with sensory
techniques. However, what he was attempting at the moment was so
ridiculously difficult that he couldn't possibly speed through it like he had his
previous techniques.
"Phew," He wiped the sweat off his forehead as he left the training room
having removed the suit.
('Woah,') He was surprised by how many Martial Squires were crowding the
facility. He needed to sky-walk over them at one point to get past the crowd.
('These guys… They must be the people that I bypassed in line through my
priority status in the Martial Union,') Rui smirked inwardly, ignoring the few
glares that he got from the Martial Squires who saw him leave after hogging
the training room for six hours.
('They must all be here in preparation for entering the Shionel Dungeon,') Rui
noted casually.
The Shionel Dungeon exploration had stalled significantly, inviting long-term

plans for Martial Squires who couldn't enter immediately, since it was quite
likely that the dungeon would not be cleared any time soon whatsoever.
Thus he was not surprised to see a ton of Martial Squires equipping

themselves with the necessary sensory techniques, after all, wasn't he doing
the same thing?
Chapter 767 Not Average
Four months passed soon enough.
Rui spent the entirety of the four months training on the two remaining
projects. His blades and scabbard had been prepared and given to him in
time, and he got to train with the real deal.
His basic swordsmanship had reached a solid satisfactory level in the six
months that he had spent training it, and he was confident of, at the very
least, not failing due to incompetence. The sword was his close-range
solution against the beasts and was really the only thing that was going to be
protecting him from a horde of Squire-level monsters.
The smoking pipe on the other hand had turned into a good long-range barrier
that was able to freeze the monsters of the Shionel Dungeon in their spots
when he used it against them. In the past six months, he had polished his anti-
Shionel monster tactics and strategies as well as he could in the span of half a
year.
He had come up with numerous ways that he could take them down
depending on the surrounding circumstances.
On top of that, he still had Kane's stealth. Not only was stealth especially
effective in the Shionel Dungeon due to the hampered sensory prowess of the
dungeon, but Kane had improved his stealth by mastering a few stealth-
oriented techniques that he had altered to suit himself.
Rui had also considered improving his stealth, however, it was ultimately a
redundancy with Kane around. They had no intention of splitting up by
themselves at any given point in time, and it was better for Rui to contribute
in a concrete way around issues that they would otherwise be helpless
against.
Being able to sense despite the sensory jamming circumstances of the Shionel
Dungeon was a priceless contribution and one that Rui had struggled to
make, but eventually succeeded.
Mastering the technique that was born out of Project Eyespy was difficult, far
more difficult than any of the previous sensory techniques he had mastered
thus far, eventually the technique that he came to call the Riemannian Echo
was born. This technique's range was even greater than that of his other
techniques as well as a higher degree of clarity, thanks to Rui's meticulous
eye for detail and precision as well as range when it came to the placement of
the esoteric substances.
While techniques like Seismic Mapping and Tempestuous Feel could still be
hampered, so far he had not come across anything that could restrain his
Reimannian Echo.
The technique was named after Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, a

mathematician of the nineteenth century who created the field of mathematics
known as Riemannian Geometry that was absolutely vital to Einstein's
Theory of General Relativity, and also for the creation and mastery of Rui's
gravity sensory technique.
Rui was merely offering homage to him as a Martial Artist, and as a scientist.
With the help of his Riemannian Echo, he was absolutely confident to saunter
through the otherwise treacherous and inscrutable floors that had already laid
claim to many a Martial Squire who had dared to step in.
He had once read what the Squire-level version of All-Seeing Eye, the only
grade-ten sensory technique was capable of, and when he compared it to his
Reimannian Echo, even putting aside his personal bias, there wasn't any over
superiority, purely based on the information that he possessed.
Of course, he would refrain from judgment until he ran into the technique to
compare it to, but even then…
('If I'm not wrong… My Riemannian Echo is not much inferior, if at all,') Rui
noted.
At the very least, he was sure that it was impossible to fool his sense at the
Squire, and probably even Senior Realm. However, the All-Seeing Eye could
surpass his technique in other ways, potentially. For example, it was said to
be able to give the user microscopic detail of one's surroundings, this was
definitely a parameter that the technique surpassed him in. Riemannian Echo
was far below the level that was needed to accomplish such a feat.
('For now, at least,') Rui mused.
The best part of Riemannian Echo was that it was upgradeable, and the path
forward to upgrading was quite straightforward and simple. He highly
doubted whether the All-Seeing Eye could be upgraded nearly as easily.
('Regardless, I've obtained what I wanted,') Rui mused as he closed his eyes,
feeling his environment through the restless esoteric substances in his body,
constructing an image of the entirety of his environment far and wide.
"Kane, you're here already," Rui noted as he greeted apparently thin air.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
"Tsk tsk," Kane appeared out of thin air. "I spent half a year reaching a much
higher level of strength, and yet you catch me so easily. It makes me feel like
my efforts are useless you know."
"Well, don't worry, your confidence will return when your stealth dominates
in the Shionel Dungeon," Rui scoffed lightly.
It was true that with his other senses, Kane had reached a level where he
couldn't sense them anymore. However, with Riemannian Echo, it was as
though Kane was not even using his stealth ever.
('Not even the formidable Void Step is able to escape my senses,') Rui
mused.
At that point, it was probably impossible for anything in the Squire Realm to
catch him off-guard with stealth alone. He highly doubted that anything short
of a stealth-oriented Martial Senior could bypass his senses or anything of the
kind.
"So, what's up?" Kane asked. "You were the one who called me out here."
"We need to discuss our plans," Rui informed him. "We have completed the
necessary preparations when it comes to our personal capabilities. However,
that isn't necessarily enough, I'm afraid."
"Hm?" Kane frowned. "What do you mean? Can't we just go to the Shionel
Confederation and enter the dungeon and clear it? Isn't that what the average
Martial Squire is doing?"
"You're not wrong," Rui shook his head. "But you said it yourself, it is what
the average Martial Squire is doing."
"However," He turned to face Kane with a smirk. "We are anything but
average, and unfortunately that necessarily entails doing things a little
differently."
Chapter 768 Dilemma
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"It means that if we partake in ordinary measures in the dungeon, and

accomplish ordinary results, there won't be any problem in going the ordinary
route," Rui explained. "But have you forgotten our objective?"
"Clearing the dungeon, right?"
"Right, we want to explore the dungeon and plunder it before everyone else,"
Rui nodded. "The other objective is to earn enough money to fund all
expenses, some of which are going to be a bit extravagant. However, while
we have made sure to equip ourselves to outdo our competition in the
dungeon, that doesn't necessarily mean the same is true for all matters outside
the dungeon."
Kane's eyes narrowed a bit, as he realized what he was walking about. "You
mean Shionel Merchant Guild, and the market for the resources of the
Shionel Dungeon?"
"Right," Rui nodded. "Let's say we do succeed in achieving our first goal, we
make greater progress than our competition and end up plundering all of the
esoteric material resources from the dungeon for ourselves, and selling it
ourselves, what do you think would happen?"
"…We'd gain a ton of money, and the Martial Artists who would enter floors
after we do would gain close to nothing?" Kane scratched his head.
"Right," Rui nodded. "Do you think all the Martial Artists who have migrated
from many places from this section of the continent would simply sigh and
shrug in resignation? What do you think they would do if they see us
basically stealing all of their success?"
There were too many powers and entities with a personal vested interest in
the esoteric resources that were being extracted from the Shionel Dungeon.
The sudden supply of high-grade esoteric substances was capable of shifting
the economy, industries, and sectors of society that revolved around the
supply and demand of those esoteric substances and could shift the power
dynamics between the various power blocks competing with each other
across the entire section of the continent.
Rui had long known that acting in a manner that was detrimental to these
interests was nothing short of a foolish blunder that would get him killed on
the spot.
"They would probably take some kind of action against us," Kane's eyes
narrowed. "But that's only if they come to know that it was us who managed
to bypass monsters and plunder all the resources in the dungeon. With my
Void Step, isn't that basically an impossibility? How would they ever detect
and confirm our identities as the ones who are plundering the dungeon
completely and leaving nothing for everybody?"
Rui shook his head inwardly. Kane had always been shrewd, but his lack of
understanding of how the world worked often held him back.
"There are other ways to trace the identity of people who have plundered a
large plunder of esoteric extracts from the dungeon," Rui replied. "Just
because we plunder it, doesn't mean that's the end of the story if we choose to
sell it in the local Shionel market that has recently spiked in size for the
demand of the esoteric supplies of the Shionel Dungeon, then it can be traced
back to us. After all, if we do choose to sell it, then at some point, we need to
hand it over to a third party in a transaction, be that a customer from the
consumer market, a retailer, or a large-scale supplier. That cannot be hidden,
and even if we use aliases that were different from what we used to register
when entering the dungeon, that would still not be enough to fool the
countless intelligence networks that have probably infested the Shionel
Dungeon at this point."
There are simply too many logistical avenues for data leaks to occur if they
handled things normally. Martial Art techniques only worked in avenues of
physical conflict, they were not useful in the world of business and commerce
beyond a certain point.
Kane's expression grew a little troubled at that. "True…"
"On top of that, we have to submit twenty percent of our plunder to the
Shionel Merchant Guild, unless you have plans of engaging in
embezzlement," Rui sighed. "The tax alone makes it a dead-giveaway."
"It's a shame that the Martial Union isn't employing external Martial Artists
in a mission," Kane sighed. "That way we wouldn't have to be too concerned
with backlash as we would have other comrades that would be with us. Any
force picking a fight with us would mean picking a fight with the Kandrian
Martial Union."
"Perhaps, but the Martial Union would be too suffocating," Rui sighed.
"Didn't you manage just fine on our last mission? You spent ten months as
the ambassador of the Martial Union," Kane raised an eyebrow.
"True, but it's not quite that simple," Rui shook his head. "The purposes of
the two missions were different as far as my objective went. My desire to
explore the Shionel Dungeon is different from the reason that I accepted the
G'ak'arkan mission. I do not want to be constrained at all at this time while
exploring the Shionel Dungeon as an adventurer, that would largely defeat
the purpose of going that far to the Shionel Dungeon. Orders, constraints, and
reports. No thanks."
Rui had accepted the ambassador mission to be exposed to a foreign Martial

philosophy, and because he was truly one of the few people capable of
succeeding in the mission. To a large extent, he was content observing the
G'ak'arkan Tribe and interacting with them.
The Shionel Dungeon, however, was an opportunity for an adventure, and for
battle against monsters and power Martial Squires from across a chunk of the
entire Panama Continent. He did not want to go to the Shioneul Dungeon for
an internal mission of the Martial Union.
"Well, then what's our solution?" Kane raised an eyebrow. "Do we find a way
to conceal our identities as the ones who cleared the dungeon, or do we look
to find a way to gain the protection necessary to continue clearing the
dungeon?"
Chapter 769 Solution?
"Both of those options individually are unviable," Rui shook his head.
"Especially the first one. If all the esoteric supplies go missing from the
dungeon, and suddenly a mysterious source appears on the market selling
gigantic quantities of those very same esoteric resources appears, every force
with a vested interest in the esoteric supplies of the Shionel Dungeon would
investigate the matter aggressively. I'm sorry to say that not even your stealth
is enough to save us from that predicament. Furthermore, even if you
magically had the ability to evade investigation with your stealth, there are
two entities who would we will most likely not be able to fool even then."
"And who would that be?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"The Shionel Merchant Guild and the Martial Union," Rui explained.
The atmosphere grew more solemn.
"Do not forget that even the Martial Union is a competitor for the resources
of the Shionel Dungeon, and the Kandrian Royal Family is one as well," Rui
calmly explained.
"But why those two specifically?" Kane asked.
"They have too many ways to gain information on us," Rui explained. "The
Shionel Adventurer Guild requires all Martial Artists to register in their guild
as adventurers with valid proof of identity, even if we do not undertake
commissions from the guild, to enter the Shionel Dungeon. That, along with
the fact that they have information on all suppliers, consumers, and Martial
Artists in the nation, means that it won't be too difficult for them to narrow it
down to us even if we have Void Step covering for us every second of every
day. Their intelligence and access to information will be the richest of all."
"And why would the Martial Union find out?" Kane asked.
"Because they have too much information on us," Rui sighed. "Even if we do
our best to conceal our abilities, they will eventually notice patterns, starting
with your Void Step."
"I see, that actually makes a lot of sense," Kane nodded, absorbed in thought.
"The Kandrian Royal Family doesn't have either of those advantages though."
"True, but we are still citizens of the Kandrian Empire," Rui explained.
"Wouldn't that be considered treason, then?" Kane frowned.
"No," Rui shook his head. "Treason is the act of betraying one's country by
breaking one's sworn allegiance to the state or one's oaths and vows. What we
would be doing is merely engaging in the very common business of resource
acquisition and sales, and we'd be simply doing it with an extreme degree of
success, at the indirect cost of everyone else. This is not an irregular
occurrence, and has never been treated as treason."
"Are you sure?" Kane raised an eyebrow. He was rather intent on staying far
away from that line.
"Certain," Rui replied. "An example of this would be the DiVilier Martial
Corp. He has severely restrained the Martial Union's and the Royal Family's
share of the Martial utilities' and amenities' domestic and international
market, yet he has yet to be charged with treason. The Kandrian Royal
Family simply cannot justify adjusting the definition of 'treason' to include
indirect harm by successful fair competition against the state's commercial
ventures. If they even dare to pass such a tyrannical and oppressive
amendment to the Royal Constitution, the Kandrian Empire's economy would
collapse due to the mass migration of businesses that are afraid of being
charged with treason. The same applies to us, especially in the circumstances
that we are in right now. Our identity as Martial Squires and member of
interest of the Martial Union also makes this even more unlikely than it
already very much is."
"I see," Kane nodded. "When you put it that, that does make a lot of sense.
Doesn't seem like it's that big of an issue though then."
"We can't be accused of treason, but do you really want to be put in a

situation where the Martial Union and the Shionel Merchant Guild know that
we are acting against their interests by monopolizing the resources extracted
from the dungeon?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"This wouldn't necessarily be against the interests of the Shionel Merchant

Guild, right? The amount of esoteric organic and mineral resources that they
would get from the fee would not change regardless of who ends up
plundering the resources," Kane pointed out.
"That is true, however, if I'm not wrong, the Shionel Merchant Guild's most
important priority is not the fees of esoteric resource supplies that they are
obligated to from all of the Martial Artists who plunder them from the
Dungeon. As the ruling body of a corporatocracy, comprised of the most
powerful merchants in the state, they probably care more about the boom in
business, both domestic and international, than they care about the fees that
they extract from all Martial Artists. The former has far greater long-term
benefits to them compared to the esoteric resource supplies themselves. This
huge growth in the market is their greatest boon from the dungeon. However,
what do you think would happen to their precious supplier market if a
singular entity monopolized all of the esoteric supplies of the dungeon?"
Kane's eyes widened as he realized what Rui was getting at. "If we somehow
monopolized even a large chunk of the esoteric resource supplies of the
dungeon, then the supplier market would dwindle due to suppliers that are
unable to get their hands on what we monopolized. That's not something they
want to see."
"Correct. Especially when the one doing all the monopolizing is not a
constituent of their guild or even a citizen of their nation. That would be
highly undesirable to them," Rui nodded.
"This is such a headache to even think about," Kane sighed with

exasperation. "So we absolutely cannot avoid the eyes of the Martial Union
or the Shionel Guild, and we also cannot earn their support because, as you
said, we're clashing against their interests, or at least the latter's interests. So
what's the solution? Because it sounds like there isn't anything we can do."
"Don't worry," Rui smirked. "I wouldn't have told you all of this had you all
of this if I hadn't thought of a solution."
Chapter 770 Map
"The conditions for us are avoiding the eyes of the ones whose interests we
are clashing with, and two, to placate the interests of those whose eyes we
cannot avoid," Rui explained. "As long as we can fulfill these two conditions,
we can go all out without holding back in the Shionel Dungeon."
"And let me guess," Kane smiled wryly. "You have a way of doing both,
correct?"
"Just right," Rui smirked.
"First, regarding the Martial Union. We cannot avoid their eyes forever, but
we can delay them," Rui explained.
"And how would you go about that?" Kane asked.
"We can create a red herring," Rui explained. "It's not that difficult to plant
false information and throw them off-guard for a while. Once you understand
how information flows, manipulating it becomes far more feasible. Traveling
to separate destinations, paying off information brokers, and commissioning
copycats to take our place from the local Martial Art group will hinder them
to a certain extent."
"That makes sense," Kane nodded. "Though what do we do when they get us
eventually? Isn't that back to square one?"
"True, but we will have obtained at least some time without them breathing
down our backs," Rui tutted.
"What do we do then?" Kane wondered with a raised eyebrow.

"We'll have to buy their support," Rui smiled.
"With the esoteric supplies?" Kane asked.
"No, with information," Rui replied, calmly. "Specifically, an extremely

detailed map of the entire layout of the Shionel Dungeon."
"Hm?" Kane frowned. "Why would such a thing-"
He paused abruptly as a thought entered his mind.
"Seems you figured it out," Rui smiled. "Remember how shit the maps for the
Shionel Dungeon are?"
Rui plucked out and spread a folded piece of paper that turned into a map.
"Look, they're all extremely abstract since all the floors are represented with
identical circles," Rui tapped on them.
It was an obviously inaccurate representation of each floor since he already

knew that they were not circular, and certainly not of the same size.
"Look at the paths and tunnels leading to each floor," Rui tapped across the
map. "They're represented by straight lines, again exaggerated inaccuracy,
and only one set of routes between floors are depicted despite the fact that
there were countless tunnels mazing in and out. Furthermore, the distances
between each of the floors is identical on map. None of this is meant to be
treated seriously, on purpose."
Kane nodded. "Despite being official maps that we purchased from the
Martial Union, the actual information that this map offers is very little, which
probably means they don't actually have any accurate and precise information
on the locations of anything in the topography and geography within the
dungeon."
"Exactly, and the reason for that is the severe hindrance that all senses face.
I've heard that even the vastly superhuman eyesight of Martial Squires is
reduced to less than that of human-level. Light is scarce too. How on Earth
are they going to accurately map the entirety of the Shionel Dungeon dome
that's sixty kilometers wide? The sheer volume of the dungeon is enough to
comfortably fit the population of a large country. They cannot use
sophisticated technology because Martial Artists are utterly incompetent at
any technical matter, and technology would face the same problem as the
Martial Squires. Nor can they rely on actual cartographers who create maps
for a living since no ordinary human can enter the Shionel Dungeon," Rui
smirked. "That means they're desperate for accurate and precise information
on the Shionel Dungeon."
"That makes sense…" Kane nodded. "But will that be enough? After all, even
with the information that they have, the exploration process is still ongoing, it
doesn't seem particularly necessary."
"You're not wrong," Rui replied. "However, it could be accelerated if they

possessed accurate and precise information of the entire dungeon. But that
isn't the true benefit of possessing such information."
"What else could one gain from it beyond the exploration?" Kane asked with
knitted eyebrows.
"The Shionel Dungeon's value exceeds just the booming business that it
brings to Shionel Merchant Guild and the Shionel Confederation, and the
esoteric organic and mineral resource supplies. It's long-term value lies in its
potential for real estate," Rui smirked.
Kane's eyes widened. "You mean once the entirety of the process of
exploration and plundering is over?"
"That's right," Rui nodded. "It isn't too very common for a single nation to
colonize a dungeon once cleared since they rarely spawn in the territory of a
single nation and usually form in pieces and chunks of the Beast Domain that
penetrate into the Human Domain. However, what happened to the Serevian
Dungeon once the war ended?"
"It was colonized by all the participating nations of the Serevian Pact," Kane
replied as realization dawned.
"That's right," Rui nodded. "Dungeons are still useful as real estate,
especially the Shionel Dungeon which has created a three-dimensional
complex filled with many large city-sized spaced interconnected with tunnels.
Spanning sixty kilometers"
"That's… a country inside a country. That's priceless!" Kane gasped. "It's

huge amounts of free territory that increase the 'size' of the nation the moment
they ensure safety and habitability."
"Right on. And the value of an accurate and precise map of the Shionel
Dungeon is instantly extremely precious," Rui smiled.
"That gives a huge bargaining chip," Kane laughed out loud. "Since you are
probably the only one who can sense extensively inside the Shionel Dungeon
thanks to your Riemannian Echo!"
"Correct," Rui nodded. "That's the bargaining chip that can be used to
negotiate with the Shionel Merchant Guild. Once I dangle that over their
heads, I can get them to be a lot more pliable around me being a market
monopolizer to a certain extent with a minor concession at most."
"You'll have to make concessions at all with something this important?" Kane
frowned.
"Well, our positions and capital are too different for me to act too tough. It
would be risky to push it too far. I have no interest in playing silly games
with them."
Chapter 771 Guildmaster
Given that the Shionel Confederation was a through-and-through

corporatocracy governed by the Shionel Merchant Guild, they were naturally
involved in all kinds of commercial trades and industries, and real estate was
certainly part of it.
Now, they had just been given the chance to acquire a large amount of
uninhabited area if and when they cleared the Shionel Dungeon, given that
the Shionel Dungeon fell inside their territory.
Perhaps other nations would have treated it as a base of sorts, and armed into
a national inventory for storage of military resources, among other things.
Perhaps some would treat it as a shelter in times of disaster.
But not the Shionel Merchant Guild. It would undoubtedly choose to make
the bold and highly capitalistic decision of turning the Shionel Dungeon into
a real estate commodity even after the dungeon had been explored and
plundered.
"But how do you know what their plan with the Shionel Dungeon is
definitely going to be turning into real estate?"
"I studied the Shionel Merchant Guild's history, and more important the
history of the current guildmaster Bradt Partick," Rui explained. "Once you
look at the decisions they've made in different kinds of circumstances, it
becomes rather clear what the decision they will make is going to look like."
Rui had become even more certain of his prediction on Bradt Partick when he
looked at the legislative bills he passed ever since he was elected as the guild
master. The man was a ruthless capitalist. An absolute proponent of free
markets, and economic liberty. It had very quickly become evident to Rui
that this man viewed everything as money, and that he had no bottom lines.
One of his first legislative acts as guildmaster was to leave the East Panamic
Narcotic Drug Convention, a convention that had been ratified by forty
nations, including the Kandrian Empire. This was directly based on his
philosophy of individual libertarianism and free-market capitalism. The man
had decided that if adults wanted to ruin their lives with narcotic drugs, they
had every right to and that the state had no right to restrict that.
He had revealed in a press conference additionally that, funds that were being
funneled into the underworld through the black market for narcotic drugs,
would not be funneled into law-abiding manufacturers, suppliers, and
distributors, thereby invigorating the economy of the nation significantly and
dealing a powerful blow to the underworld and the black market.
That same year guild master also left the Slavery Convention and legalized
slavery within the Shionel Confederation, declaring that even human lives
were products that could be exchanged.
Of course, this still needed to be abided by the law as forcibly enslaving a

person through violent means was still a violation of the law, constituting
battery and assault, as well as unlawful slavery.
He had set up an executive branch within the government that overlooked

and regulated slavery and ensured that the slave industry was not violating
the many laws that it had the propensity to violate.
"Those aren't the only examples, the man has gone to levels you won't believe
when it comes to commercializing and capitalizing everything into goods or
services. I am very confident that regardless of what shape or form he and the
Shionel Merchant Guild will find a way to commercialize and capitalize the
Shionel Dungeon in some way or the other. I suspect they will find a balance
between turning some of it into government property while selling the rest
free to the Shionel Confederation." Rui calmly analyzed the situation.
"Regardless of what form it takes, they need accurate and precise information
on the Shionel Dungeon's geography topography, and layout before they can
make any venture with it," Rui continued. "Thus my ability to sense
extremely large distances accurately and precisely inside the dungeon, and
also memorize it extremely accurately thanks to my Mind Palace will be
priceless in the eyes of the Shionel Merchant Guild. Accommodating our
disruptions to the market with some limits will become one hell of a deal for
the Shionel Merchant Guild."
"Hm…" Kane scratched his head, deep in thought. "I gotta admit, you've
thought this through incredibly well."
"Thanks," Rui smiled.
"I'm curious though," Kane continued. "Do you really need to drain each
floor of as many esoteric substances as possible? I feel like if we just take a
little, that wouldn't be as much of a challenge."
"The whole point of the venture is to push ourselves, Kane," Rui explained.
"Why do you think I even set an objective as high as being the first individual
to clear the dungeon? Do you think it's for fame and money? No, it's because
being the first to clear the dungeon and its resources is extremely difficult,
and it's only because of the sheer difficulty of the objective that I managed to
push myself to create extremely powerful techniques. You need to set high
standards for yourself, otherwise, you'll grow comfortable with lower
standards. Acquiring all the esoteric resources and supplies of the Shionel
Dungeon is a high-enough target, that has already aided in my growth."
"That's extreme, you know," Kane raised an eyebrow. "Are you really willing
to go that far to get stronger?"
"I'm willing to go that far to develop my Martial Art and go even further
down my Martial Path," Rui corrected him before raising an eyebrow. "Are
you perhaps having second thoughts?"
"No, just curious," Kane shrugged. "But coming back to the main point, you
intend to buy off the Shionel Merchant Guild with an accurate and precise
map of the Shionel Dungeon, to let you off the hook for disrupting the
market?"
"Among other things yes," Rui nodded.

"And what about the Martial Union?" Kane raised an eyebrow. "They're not
going to be happy you threw them off the scent and are hurting their team of
Martial Squires by being too successful, right?" Kane asked.
"True, at that point, I'll have no choice but to placate them with an attractive
price, we'll probably make a bit of a loss, but it should be able to handle our
expenses, I hope."
Chapter 772 Storage
"Hope?" Kane frowned. "Our expenses are not going to be that extreme, you
know."
"That's where you're wrong, the covertness of our operations itself will
require a lot of money, my equipment requires constant funds, and the
portable dimensional storage device that we're going to need to purchase to
keep our loot hidden costs a small fortune."
"Wait," Kane cocked his head backward. "You want to buy a portable
dimensional storage device?? Do you have any idea how expensive that is?
Why on Earth do we have to go for such extravagant and ostentatious means
just to transport some goods?"
Kane's reaction was not an exaggeration. Dimensional storage esoteric

technology was extremely expensive and scarce. It was based on esoteric
substances that had the property of making matter in contact with it
seemingly disappear when its temperature rose too much. Numerous
experiments revealed that matter it made disappear when its temperature
exceeded its standard temperature would return unharmed, and also
unchanged. The duration of the disappearance was dependent on the time
period that the temperature was maintained.
Further experiments that the 'disappearance' of the objects was such that it did
not affect change anything about the matter that disappeared. Objects whose
physical and chemical states had been carefully measured prior hand had
found to have the same physical state, to such a degree that it could be said
that time did not pass for the disappeared objects. Food did not spoil or even
grow colder, and corpses did not rot. Living creatures returned unharmed,
and the first time a human subject had been used, it was found that even
memories of the time they disappeared did not form.
It was one of the most astonishing esoteric phenomena, even by the standard
of esoteric material science. There were a lot of theories as to what was
actually occurring, with the most prevailing theory being that the esoteric
substances were connected to a parallel space where time did not pass.
Another popular theory was the information storage theory which stated that
the disappeared objects were actually destroyed and only the information of
the object was stored, which when released reconstituted the destroyed mass
back to its original state based on the information stored.
Regardless, it was an incredible phenomenon. At the time, it was thought that

this would revolutionize the world, yet that quickly turned out to not be the
case. The biggest problem was that it cost too much energy to keep anything
stored for extended periods of time. This meant that transport, distribution,
and storage could not be made easier with the help of dimensional storage.
Any and all industries and sectors could not afford to turn this into their
regular inventory system because it was simply far too expensive to maintain.
Individual businesses would go bankrupt within merely one hour of usage of

the dimensional storage for their inventory. While wealthier and larger
businesses could last longer, they too would suffer plummeting losses.
It was simply not worth it. Thus what could have changed the world
ultimately became an extremely extravagant and ostentatious that would end
up being used in only a minority of circumstances.
"It's the only way to keep our identities as the ones who plundered all of the
esoteric extracts of the Shionel Dungeon, after all," Rui explained. "While
they are too expensive to maintain generally, that only applies to merchants
and businesses who generally have small profit percentages and cannot afford
to add another significant expense on top of that. Furthermore, once we're
successful, we'll easily be able to afford the dimensional storage and maintain
it. We can store an overwhelming majority of our loot in there while we'll
walk out with a normal amount of plunder in bags and things of the lot. That
way we'll completely blend into the crowd without attracting any attention."
"That makes sense," Kane nodded. "Though wouldn't we use Void Step while
exiting?"
"No," Rui shook his head. "That actually invited more suspicion. If anyone
ever notices that we entered the dungeon but seemingly never exited, and
then suddenly enter the dungeon the next day, that is what will truly invite
suspicion. We need to be ordinary in every way that matters."
"I see, that actually makes sense," Kane nodded. "Makes my life easier too."
"Don't worry, I don't intend to rely on you alone and dump all the hard stuff
on your shoulders. The techniques I've developed will ease your burden a lot,
although your Void Step will definitely be crucial nonetheless."
"I appreciate that," Kane nodded. "Although I don't need to be coddled, I can
pull my weight."
"I don't doubt that at all," Rui smiled at his determination.
Kane was probably going to be one of the least experienced Martial Squires
in the Shionel Dungeon, if not for his Void Step technique and the Godspeed
technique, he would also be the weakest without a doubt. As far as Rui knew,
he had yet to have the opportunity to develop an offensive technique. Which
meant that his ability to take down his opponents was very low. To the point
that he could forget trying to hurt Martial Squires who were above grade
four.
Rui knew that the road ahead was going to be difficult for him. Unlike Rui
had knowledge and experience from another world and another lifetime,
Kane did not have anything that would allow him to develop techniques as
fast as Rui did.
It would take a lot longer for him to the strides that Rui had taken.
That was why Rui had decided it was absolutely paramount for him to
develop means and ways to be able to handle himself just fine even if Kane
faltered at some point. He already knew Kane could not maintain Void Step
for extended periods of time when he had to expand it to other people.
In the times that he couldn't it would be Rui's turn to carry them,
metaphorically, while Kane caught a break for a while. Rui was confident
that he would be able to fulfill that role.
Chapter 773 Preparations
The two of them discussed some more details, before setting off to complete
the preparations. The plan Rui was proposing was not simple at all, and it
required plenty of preparation and planning. Rui needed to make sure that he
knew exactly what he was getting into, otherwise, things could easily fall out
of his plans.
The two of them needed to covertly acquire new masks and Martial attire.
Using the Martial attire they got from the utilities and amenities department
of the Martial Union would be an incredibly foolish move.
The two of them went on to commission a few sets of Martial attire from an
international company. Purchasing it from a company native to the Kandrian
Empire would be no different from announcing that he was part of the
Kandrian Empire. That would easily allow his competitors to track his
identity given time.
He couldn't help it with the weapons that he commissioned, commissions for

blacksmiths could not be internationally for the most part.
The biggest preparation he needed to make was throwing the Martial Union
off for a while. Specifically, he needed to spend some money on the false
propagation of rumors in a foreign nation, as well as someone who could
cosplay as him to spread the misinformation that he was hoping would be
spread.
It took him a week to complete the task. He left the country on a simple
mission in the general vicinity he was looking to plant his red herrings, and
quickly made all the preparations to ensure that he and Kane would not be on
the list of suspects of the identities of those who disrupted the market of the
Shionel Confederation.
Rui had to rely on unofficial means to commission a people and a Martial

Artist to make it seem like he was still in that foreign nation.
The reason for that was the fact that the Martial Union probably kept a close
eye on the happenings of all the Martial organizations in the geographic
vicinity, and all matters related to Martial Art.
Otherwise, they would not have found the top-secret information of the
research lab for the breakthrough to the Squire Realm in the Commonwealth
Duchy of Vinfrana.
What that meant was that Rui could not rely on any existing well-known
organization in an official commission. He needed to approach a Martial
Squire individually and pay them off.
However, most Martial Squires would not accept such a shady commission,
thus Rui needed to research.
Finding an appropriate Martial Squire who was in need of a large number of

funds took time, however, with the information of the Martial Union alone
under the pretense of necessity for his expenditure, he managed to find the
right Martial Squire for the job.
Once the deal was sealed, Rui would simply return for the Martial Union, and
go about his day like nothing happened.
The biggest issue was the dimensional storage device.
Rui could purchase that, but…
('It takes away almost eighty percent of my savings,') Rui sighed.
Still, he did not want to back down after everything he had been through. He
wasn't surprised that the Martial Union had the ability to sell him a
dimensional storage item, but he was surprised that he was easily able to gain
access to it.
It meant that his value to the Martial Union was enough that he could gain
access to their inventory that easily.
However, he knew that he was investing an insane amount into this venture,
but that only made him more motivated to go all out and succeed.
He quickly bought the item, which was a ring that he put on his finger.
Once all of those preparations were finally made, the two were finally ready
to leave for the Shionel Confederation.
However, they couldn't just straightforwardly travel to it, unfortunately. They

needed to keep up with the act and extensively take a detour. They could
even be seen leaving at the same time, thus Kane left the Kandrian Empire a
few days before Rui did, heading in the opposite direction of the Shionel
Dungeon.
A few days later, Rui also set out.
"How long will you take this time?" Julian asked.
"Hard to say, but probably quite some time," Rui replied.
"Well, you're planning to pull off some risky adventures, so stay safe," He
bade Rui.
He was the only one in the Quarrier Orphanage who knew the truth about
where Rui was going and what his goal was. Rui felt bad for lying to his
family, but he could not afford to spread the truth too much.
Of course, they would never actively rat on him, but it was far too easy for
the truth to be extracted from them in ways that they could not be able to
fathom. Julian was definitely much more trustworthy in that regard, and
would also have figured it out naturally with all the requests that Rui had
made of him.
"I intend to," Rui told him before bidding him and his family goodbye and
heading off for the border. Like Kane, he too had chosen a nation in a
completely different direction than the Shionel Confederation.
It only took him a few hours to reach the border, when he was intercepted by
the Kandrian Border Patrol Force and escorted for a formal exit of the
country.
"Purpose of transit?" The officer processing his documents asked him.
"Personal venture," Rui smiled.
"Destination?"
"Including but not limited to the Kingdom of Viola,"
Soon enough, he had left the nation.
He began traveling on land, heading to the transit port of the Kingdom of

Viola. Normally, he didn't bother entering a small nation legally, but this time
he wanted his arrival in the Kingdom of Viola to be recorded. It would make
it more credible if he was ever investigated.
Yet he intended to leave illegally without using their formal port of transit,
which would support the notion that he hadn't left the nation upon a cursory
glance.
Chapter 774 Reached
"Welcome to the Kingdom of Violis, sir," An officer smiled at him before

passing him through.
"Thank you," Rui nodded before leaving the transit port office and heading
across the busy streets of the Kingdom of Violis.
He didn't want to keep Kane waiting, but he couldn't just leave the nation
either. Based on his understanding of the intelligence-gathering capabilities
of the Martial Union's intelligence department, the amount of information
that they possessed on any given subject of any sort depended on the
importance and necessity of that information as well as the difficulty of
obtaining that information.
He was relatively certain that the Martial Union would very soon find out that
he had entered the Kingdom of Violis. Of course, they wouldn't set up a tail
or a spy on him, since the importance and necessity of his current
whereabouts and intentions were not all that important.
He intended to make sure that there was nothing wrong on the surface of the
matter, thus he intended to use his Martial Union account, which was widely
accepted as a valid form of payment to book a hotel and spend some money
on some items here and there before setting out.
It would not be enough to fool the Martial Union if they conducted a serious
investigation, however, it was unlikely they would do this any time soon,
they had no reason to, and the Martial Union, like all intelligence agencies,
was probably very particular regarding what they could spend the resources
of their department on. At the moment, Rui probably did not qualify.
Half a day later, it was time.
STEP
He quickly jumped over the fence that marked the border the nation, before
heading away from the nation, as he traveled to the Republic of Henerin,
where Kane was situated at the moment. They had agreed to meet outside the
Republic before heading towards the Shionel Confederation.
Thankfully, the distance was not that great, and it was only half-an-hour later
that Rui met up with Kane.
STEP
"Hey," Rui greeted him, landing on the ground. "You are sure you followed
all the steps, right?"
"Yeah yeah don't worry, I made sure that I did everything you said," Kane
reassured him.
Rui had given Kane precise instructions to ensure that the Martial Union
would only find that he hadn't moved from the Republic of Henerin, ever
since he entered it.
Of course, with Kane, however, there was also the matter of his family
keeping an eye out for him, thus Rui had had him go through more steps to
obfuscate his family from figuring out the truth.
If the Arrancar Family ever managed to catch wind of the fact that he was not
where he claimed to be, then they could raise an inquisition to the Martial
Union and the Martial Union would quickly realize that the two of them had
left their last known locations.
Rui could only do his best and create as much of an information illusion as he
could. Still, he was not an intelligence agent, and he did not think that his
efforts matched up to actual covert agents who successfully fed foreign
nations false information using more refined versions of the methods that he
was using.
"Alright, let's head out then," Rui nodded before the two of them headed
towards the Shionel Confederation in the shortest route that they could find
on map.
The two of them were wearing the indistinct Martial attire that they had
commissioned that purposely did not strongly attribute to any particular
nation's style. Their masks too were different from what they normally used
in missions.
The Shionel Confederation was quite far away from the Kandrian Empire,
even with their remarkable speed, it would take them a few hours to reach
their destination.
"You've grown faster," Kane complimented him with a surprised expression

beneath his mask. "Much faster than I remember you being, is this thanks to
the Gale Force Breathing technique that you developed?"
Rui nodded. Kane was easily keeping up with him relaxed while Rui was
going all out with Gale Force Breathing, Outer Convergence, and Parallel
Walking. Rui had known this, but seeing Kane casually keep up with him
with a fraction of his speed was still quite revealing.
"You've grown faster too, it seems," Rui huffed.
"Well, stealth isn't the only thing I've improved, I am an evasive maneuverer,
after all," Kane replied casually. "At my current level, I can forget about
facing the monsters of the Shionel Dungeon head-on, my only option is to
avoid them, so I have been polishing my agility and speed to a higher level."
The two chit-chatted on the way there, though that wasn't too easy since Rui
needed to maintain Gale Force Breathing which made it more difficult to
converse with him.
"There are floors in the Shionel Dungeon where your specialty is especially
relevant," Rui informed him. "At that time, you're going to be the one that
will be leading the charge, my friend. Of course, I have made preparations for
that as well myself, so I do not believe I'll be left behind."
Rui had extensively studied the intelligence of the monsters of the Shionel
Dungeon, he had spent quite some time building predictive models on them,
although they weren't complete yet due to a lack of complete intelligence.
Unfortunately, second-hand data did not compare to observing them first-
hand.
He pulled off the same trick with the K'ulnen Tribe of Vilun Island, but at
that time, he and Kane had spent quite some time observing their targets,
allowing Rui to build a predictive model of their targets better due to more
access to more accurate information.
Of course, once he began observing the monsters in person, he would be able

to develop better predictive models for them, that was one of the things that
he was hoping for when they finally actually entered the Shionel Dungeon.
Time passed as the two of them ran across the continent, due to the great
distance between them as well as the many countries and other settlements in
between they were unable to maintain their top speed the entire time.
At long last, they finally reached the Shionel Confederation six hours later.
Chapter 775 Rush
The Shionel Confederation was more than what Rui had pictured. He had
initially thought that he would not be surprised or overwhelmed by what he
saw since he lived near the town of Hajin, which was a popular and dense
trade and Martial hub in the Kandrian Empire, but he was extremely wrong.
"This is…" Kane murmured, his voice trailing off.
"We haven't even entered the nation yet," Rui's eyes widened.
The rush to enter the Shionel Confederation was absurd. Even outside the
walls of the country, there were huge swathes of people trying to enter.
Rui glanced around them, scrutinizing the many people outside. A large
chunk of the population seemed like a makeshift flea market. A lot of the
market seemed like small-time merchants, making a living out of a small-
time business selling a small set of goods or offering some basic manual
labor services.
There were also small housing units that offered stay to people who were
trying to enter the Shionel Confederation, yet had failed, for one reason or the
other.
Rui's eyes narrowed as he spotted a ton of Martial Squires as well,

unsurprisingly enough. Their grade wasn't too low, either, based on the sense
of pressure and danger that they generated in him.
"I'd read about this… But it's more than I had expected," Rui admitted as he
took in the sheer population of people outside of the borders of the nation.
"How can the Shionel Confederation allow such a large proportion of people
to stay outside its borders in this fashion?" Kane frowned. "Isn't that, I dunno,
not good for a nation?"
"You're not wrong," Rui replied. "It's just that the Shionel Merchant Guild
implemented a policy of taxing all these people for infringing on the domain
of the Shionel Confederation."
"Ugh, is there nothing that these people won't extract money from?" Kane
frowned.
"No, actually. Not at all." Rui smiled wryly.
"Why don't these people actually enter the Shionel Confederation and sell
their goods and services there, rather than outside the nation? Seems like a
weird choice to choose sell here rather than in there" Kane wondered.
"That's because it isn't a choice," Rui calmly explained. "These people aren't
able to sustain their small-time sales in the Shionel Confederation. They're
people who got crushed and shoved out of the nation by more fierce
competitors that monopolized estate, supply lines, distribution capital, etc."
"What does that actually mean?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"Every nation has a hard limit to the amount of resources and capital that can
exist within the nation," Rui explained. "Normally, this maximum amount is
extremely high and is usually enough that most of the supplier market can get
a share of it. However, the competition in the Shionel Confederation is so
extremely high, that only the best can actually obtain the resources needed to
sustain and allow their business to thrive."
"I see," Kane looked around. "So, all of these people couldn't cut it inside
their nation, so they're losers who have no choice but to make do with scraps
outside of the nation?"
"That's a harsh evaluation, but it is true,"
"Wait, we intend on participating in this competitive commercial

environment?" Kane jerked his head back. "Are you sure this is going to
work? How can we compete?"
"The market for the esoteric resources is currently the biggest at the moment,
any group of Martial Squires that achieves a reasonable amount of success
can compete fairly well," Rui explained. "On top of that, we don't just intend
to succeed, we intend to dominate. There is absolutely no way that, as long as
our plans in the Shionel Dungeon succeed, we'll fail."
"If you say so," Kane shrugged. "Alright, what do we do now?"
"We can enter the nation for starters," Rui smiled wryly. "We'll have to go
the legal way this time."
"That would require registering with our actual identities, correct?" Kane
frowned. "Wouldn't that be too dangerous?"
"Yes, but it's inescapable unless you want to have our identities forged with a
fake identity card," Rui sighed. "Not that it's far harder for Martial Squires to
fake our identities because we're massively more high-profile than normal
citizens. I can assure you that every nation in the geographic vicinity of the
Kandrian Empire probably has a file on both of us."
Kane's head jerked back as he turned towards Rui, surprised. "Wait what?"
"Did you really think countries didn't keep tabs on the Martial Artists of other
countries?" Rui glanced at him with an amused expression. "We're no
different from walking weapons of destruction in the eyes of not just other
nations, but also our own nation."
"Damn," Rui murmured.
"Yeah, so it's better to just stick to our real identities for the paperwork," Rui
noted. "Thankfully, the Shionel Confederation has been pressured by all
nations participating in the Shionel Dungeon raid for a higher level of data
security since the Shionel Merchant Guild did set up the Adventurer Guild
that requires information about the Martial Squires of other nations. So it is
unlikely that the documentation of our identities will spill easily, or be easy
to acquire. The Shionel Merchant Guild is trying to create an attractive
avenue for commerce, and being able to enforce its own rules and its own
data security is necessary for building up the trust in its services."
"If you say so," Kane shrugged. He was content leaving the details of the plan
to Rui, without butting in too much. Had he been partnering with anybody
else, he would definitely not have left his fate in their hands and would have
involved himself deeply with the plan. However, with Rui, he could trust his
intentions, and most certainly his competence and intelligence. Rui was
cautious and careful, usually. And he certainly would not do something that
would be detrimental to Kane for his own benefit.
They quickly got into a massive line of people inside the transit port
department. The process was even more rigorous than the entry to the
Kandrian Empire.
Chapter 776 Time-Consuming
"That took ridiculously long!" Kane complained.
Three hours had passed since they went in for a transit registration, and they
were finally out after an extensive registration process.
"True," Rui huffed, massaging his head. The process had been as tedious and
lengthy as the sheer amount of processing one went through when traveling
internationally by flight back on Earth. He did not expect the immigration
process would be so tedious in a relatively more primitive world where the
concept or the equivalent of passports and visas did not even exist.
The international immigration policy of nations on the Panama Continent was

more primitive and relied on basic government-issued identification proof,
and was closer to how things worked in the nineteenth century of Earth.
"Yet they were so meticulous and rigorous," Rui sighed. "It must be due to
the astronomical influx of migrants since the discovery of the Shionel
Dungeon. I highly doubt that their system has always been this sophisticated.
They probably needed to step up the security in their processing for national
security, they cannot allow such a large number of migrants to enter without
any security measures. However, that is only more relieving to me."
"Why so?" Kane turned to him.
"Their interrogation room and identity check-ups were conducted in a

separate room walled with the same kind of energy-jamming esoteric
substances that prevent espionage and spying," Rui explained. "They have to,
with the sheer concentration of Martial Squires in that facility. It's the same
thing that the Hajin branch of the Martial Union uses for important matters.
That gives me an even greater assurance that our data will not be leaked."
"Makes sense," Kane nodded, before scanning his environment. "So we're
here huh? The Shionel Confederation."
The two of them took a good first look at the port town of Kanour of the
Shionel Confederation as they stepped out of the transit port facility.
The visage they captured could only be summed in a single word.
"Chaos…"
An ocean of people could be seen in the vicinity outside of the airport. A

majority of them were people entering or exiting the nation, while the
remaining people consisted of those who wanted to make money off of them.
"Sir! Do you need a rickshaw? Come this way!" One man suddenly appeared
out of seemingly nowhere as he began bombarding them with offers and
praising self-proclamations about his rickshaw services, among other things
in the international dialect. If one closed their eyes and took the words at face
value, one would think he was offering a five-star carriage journey.
"Sir!" Another man reached out to them. "Sir come this way! I'll offer you a
discount!"
"Nonono! Come this way, I know the best hotels in town!"
Soon several rickshaw men began quarreling for them.
"Enough," Rui's expression grew cold as he exposed a portion of his mental

pressure on all of them.
Their expressions paled as they squirreled away.
"Tsk," Rui tutted. "I normally dislike attracting attention, but it might be
better to unveil my power to drive away scam artists who wish to exploit
foreigners.
"Hehe," Kane chuckled. "Where do you want to actually go though?"
"First, we ought to head to the Adventurer's Guild and register as adventurers.

We have already decided to not undertake the mission from the Adventurer
Guild's library, but at the very least, we need to register in order to be able to
enter the Shionel Dungeon." Rui reminded him.
"Sounds like a plan," Kane nodded.
Rui had already memorized detailed maps of the Shionel Confederation and
stored them in his Mind Palace, he did not want to handle cumbersome maps
once he entered the nation. He quickly waded past the chaotic crowd,
straightforwardly heading in the direction of the Adventurer Guild situated in
the town of Kanour. Every town in the nation had a built Adventurer's Guild
that could accept new registrations, while also distributing missions.
One branch of a guild would be unable to handle the sheer amount of

workload that would come with being the bureaucracy that was responsible
for managing matters surrounding the Shionel Dungeon.
"It's convenient that you've memorized the map," Kane noted. "Now that I
think of it, doesn't that mean you know the entire layout of the entire country
in your head right now?"
"That's right," Rui nodded.
"Doesn't that also mean you could do the same thing for the entire
continent?" Kane looked at Rui with amazement.
"It would be difficult, but possible, yes," Rui nodded as they jogged through
the more remote parts of the town.
He had no reason to go through the difficulty of doing such a thing, of course.
"Still," Rui looked around as he absorbed the town of Kanour. "It's even more
busy than I'd heard. The migration must be causing such a spike in growth to
the native markets and sectors of the Shionel Confederation that even
relatively recent intelligence might quickly already be outdated."
The town of Kanour was a bustling town of commerce and business with an
intensity that far surpassed the town of Hajin. The town was divided into ten
wards, nine of them centering the first and the largest ward. On the outskirts
of the wards were countless flea markets comprised of smaller-scale
individual retailers and merchants selling a limited variety of products of
services, while the center of the wards was infested with showrooms, shops,
factory outlets, and even malls. The infrastructure was even better than that of
the town of Hajin and came one step closer to resembling modern first-world
rich cities of Earth, Rui could even see that the proportion of sky-scrapers
was significantly higher than that of the town of Hajin.
"Incredible," Kane murmured.
"Yeah, I can see why this is one of the largest trade hubs in the easter section
of the Panama Continent," Rui nodded as took his novel new surroundings.
"Life here must be quite interesting."
Kane snorted. "Yeah, interesting is a mild way of putting it. I wouldn't spend
a day in this country if it weren't for the dungeon."
Chapter 777 Adventurer's Guild
Soon enough, they reached the Adventurer's Guild standing prominently in

the central ward of the town. The rush and the population density only grew,
and Rui and Kane almost bumped into other Martial Squires despite sky-
walking in the air!
"This is ridiculous," Rui murmured. "I know that the Shionel Confederation
probably has the highest Squire population density, but still. They're
everywhere right now."
The two of them squeezed their way into the Guild, making their way over
the support counter.
"Excuse me, we'd like to register as adventu-"
"The adventurer's registration counter is in the left wing of the guild," She
curtly interrupted him. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"No, thank you fo-"
"Please move along, there are other customers who are waiting," She
interrupted him yet again.
Rui and Kane quickly shifted aside with surprised expressions. It wasn't that
they were entitled arrogant little brats, it was just that they were entirely
unaccustomed to being treated with rudeness by a customer service employee
of an organization.
"Well, I suppose the value and esteem of a single Martial Squire have
probably gone down ever since their population has spiked in the country,"
Rui noted.
"She must be dealing with hundreds of us every day," Kane chuckled.
The two of them headed towards the left wing of the guild, joining yet
another massive queue formed for the adventurer registration in the
adventurer's guild.
"Oh come on," Kane groaned. "We just got out of a huge line prior."
"Have patience," Rui sighed. "This is inevitable."
The fact that several months had passed since the opening of the Shionel
Dungeon, and there was still such a rush to register as adventurers meant that
his predictions about the Shionel Dungeon were correct. The fact that its
clearance rate after nearly half a year was still low meant that there was
plenty of time before the dungeon actually ended up being cleared, and plenty
of time that it would remain open.
The fact that it wasn't a fleeting matter like the Serevian Dungeon, as well as
its open nature to all Martial Squires meant that the influx was far greater
than one might normally expect in these circumstances.
Rui and Kane spent nearly an hour before they finally got their turn. A copy
of their transit pass obtained from entering the Shionel Confederation through
the transit port was provided to ensure that the two of them didn't migrate
illegally before they were directed to separate isolated rooms and provided
thick stacks of paper constituting the application form.
The questionnaire was remarkably thorough and made sure to record all the
essential data surrounding his identity, followed by his purpose of application
as well as the 'settings' of his adventurer account.
Both he and Kane had already decided to not take any missions, thus he
ticked the 'do not display profile, or make profile publically available' option,
which would ensure that the Shionel Adventurer Guild would not announce
their presence in the Shionel Confederation.
There was a promotion system in place that promoted the presence of
prominent and powerful Martial Squires as well as the most successful ones.
The system existed because there were a huge number of Martial Squires
coming from a huge number of places, and the market that would be
commissioning these very Martial Squires. The unfamiliarity between the
clients from across the East side of the continent and the Martial Squires
across the East side of the continent was problematic, and thus the promotion
system and the public profiles helped.
Martial Squires, dubbed as 'adventurers' were ranked from E to S. With Rank

E adventurers referred to the weakest of Martial Squires, and Rank S
adventurers referred to the strongest of Martial Squires.
They had to undergo a brief ranking test where their rank would be confirmed
and broadcasted on their public rankings page.
Thankfully, Rui and Kane chose to opt out of the publicization system and
didn't need to undergo any test that would reveal their skills.
('Assuming the ranks scale linearly with the grading system of the Martial
Union, then I would probably be ranked at Rank B,') Rui noted. ('Kane would
probably be ranked at Rank D, maybe Rank C.')
Soon enough, their application process ended, and both of them walked out
of the guild with an Adventurer license in their possession.
"Why do they deviate so much from the norm when it comes to grading
systems?" Kane frowned. "Seems redundant to not stick with the basic
numeric grading system that most nations use universally. It's what everyone
is used to, right? Forcing people to adapt to this new bullshit is just
annoying."
"It's deliberate," Rui replied. "They're trying to create a distinct system, and
have the Martial Squires, who will probably be spending quite some time in
the nation, get used to it."
"Why do that when they'll be returning home after?" Kane sighed with
exasperation.
"Because they don't want them to," Rui replied. "Their goal is to culturally
and normatively tie down at least a portion of the Martial Squires who have
entered the nation from abroad."
Kane's eyes widened. "I see, the vast number of foreign Martial Squires who
have entered the nation can be potentially poached. Thus they're trying to
create a distinct and unique system to get the Martial Squires familiarized and
comfortable with it, in hopes that some stay."
Rui nodded. "Of course, I'm sure they're well aware of the fact that this is a
long shot. However, given that this was a low-effort measure, any success at
all can be considered a win. Not all Martial Squires come from large and
powerful nations like the Kandrian Empire, there are many from smaller
nations who could potentially be swayed by the Shionel Confederation. It is a
Sage-level nation, after all. Besides… It isn't even that unique."
"Hm?" Kane glanced at him.
"I heard that the Panamic Adventurer Guild that caters to the Beast Domain
as a whole also has a similar system that the Shionel Adventurer Guild has
copied to a certain extent.
Chapter 778 Inn
The Panamic Adventurer Guild was a continental organization that connected

the market and demand for Martial services surrounding the core of the Beast
Domain, and Martial Artists who frequented the Beast Domain.
This gigantic organization catered across the entirety of the Panama

Continent, and Rui suspected that due to being short on time due to the
sudden discovery of the Shionel Dungeon, the Shionel Merchant Guild might
have copied the Panamic Adventurer Guild.
"Regardless, the ranking system doesn't have much to do with us," Rui
replied.
"True," Kane nodded. "Now then, the next move according to plan is…"
"Before that, let's get some rest and a real meal," Rui sighed, wiping sweat
from his forehead. "Best to complete the more important stuff when we're
freshened up. I'd rather not have to use a potion when it is unnecessary."
"Makes sense," Kane nodded. "You wanted to avoid higher-end hotels,

right?"
"Hotels have more thorough registration and management faculty," Rui

calmly explained. "There is a greater chance for a data leak to occur. I'd
rather go to a more humble and smaller inn with no paperwork and upfront
payments."
"Aw, man," Kane sighed. "I really wanted to dive into some nice luxurious
beds."
The central district of Kanour was far too luxurious in the possible avenues to
book rooms. The two found a small inn on the outskirts of the outer districts
run by a family.
"No need for registration, pay up-front and we'll give you a key." The man
smiled with a thumbs-up. "You can also get two meals a day for two bronze
coins each. That's quite the discount you know? My wife's cooking is the
best!"
"Two rooms side-by-side please," Rui smiled.
"Will do!" The man laughed. "That'll cost five bronze coins per day."
Rui quickly took the amount from the Shionel currency that he had
exchanged with the physical Kandrian currency that he had withdrawn from
his savings. He did not want to withdraw it from his Martial Union account
directly as that would instantly alert the Martial Union of his current
whereabouts.
"Thank you for your patronage! Here are the keys, room numbers five and
six," The man pushed two keys toward them.
"Thank you," Rui and Kane quickly made their way to their rooms.
They were both wearing ordinary clothes, and they both hid their presence as
Martial Squires. Rui employed his Mind Mask while Kane employed a highly
diluted version of Void Step where his presence was detectable, but his status
as a Martial Artist was not.
Rui quickly drew himself a bath in a tub, before sinking in.
"Ahhhh…" He groaned with relief and relaxation. "That hits the spot."
He was surprised that even smaller-scale inns such as this possessed a

bathtub, that was remarkably luxurious and something that only luxury hotels
in the Kandrian Empire.
('That standard for all goods and services is several levels higher in the
Shionel Confederation than it is in the Kandrian Empire,') Rui mused as he
gave it deeper thought.
It made sense, there was a reason all the small-timers they ran into outside the
Shionel Confederation were not even qualified to set up shop inside the
Shionel Confederation. That meant that all those who were people who were
able to stay competitive inside the Shionel Confederation. It was no wonder
that the basic quality of goods and services was higher than even what he had
seen in the town of Hajin.
It was only after an hour that Rui managed to muster up the willpower to pull
himself out of the comfort of his bath, before dressing up and meeting up
with Kane.
"You all freshened up?"
"Yeah, got a good bath and caught some rest," He nodded with a relaxed
expression.
"Good let's catch some dinner before talking about our plans," Rui suggested
as the two of them headed down to the small little makeshift canteen that
existed on the floor below the ground floor, before quickly collecting meals
and retreating to their rooms.
"No one's nearby at the moment, regardless, speak extremely quietly," Rui
told him.
Being Martial Squires, even the mildest of whispers were extremely clear and
audible to them, thus they could converse extremely lightly. Asides from
remarkable esoteric wiretap technology, and another Martial Squire, Rui was
relatively certain that their conversation could not be spied on. He was
equally certain that neither option was the case here at the moment.
The possibility of a wiretap that could pick up even the minutest of

conversations was probably cutting-edge technology, nothing he saw from
the intelligence team assigned to the Vilun settlement was capable of this.
And his senses were extremely sharp and very few Martial Squires could
possibly hide from his sharp sense.
"So what's the next move?" Kane asked.
Rui considered the question for a few seconds, before replying. "Assuming
our first dungeon raid goes as planned, we'll gain a huge harvest from the
dungeon. The question is what route do we ought to go with the plunder
specifically. A solid minority of all Martial Squires raid and plunder the
dungeon for missions from the Adventurer's Guild. Another solid proportion
of Martial Squires raid and plunder the dungeon for patrons in the city. A lot
of the wealthier merchants and corporates in the nation directly approach
powerful Martial Squire parties and make lucrative deals with them privately
outside of the jurisdiction and purview of the Adventurer's Guild. The
remaining Martial Squires are deployed military or special forces or internal
forces of the various nations' militaries or organizations like the Martial
Union. The smallest minority of Martial Squires sell their harvest and plunder
on the open market, usually through some third-party organization in various
forms."
He looked at Kane. "We're going to be falling into that last group, for now, at
least. We need a means to sell our harvest in the market. So, what that means
is… we'll need to start a supplier corporation right here in the Shionel
Confederation."
"What?" Kane's eyes widened as Rui grinned.

Chapter 779 Arrived
"You're telling me that we have to become businessmen?" Kane frowned so

hard that Rui burst out laughing.
"You don't have to do anything, I'll handle it," Rui assured. "But yes, we're
going to have to become businessmen. Specifically, I want to set up a
nationwide supplier that can sell the esoteric harvests that we get from the
Shionel Dungeon to the industries and sectors that require a supply of the
esoteric resources of the Shionel Dungeon."
"Isn't that going to be extremely burdensome and tiring?" Kane groaned.

"How on Earth are you planning on doing all of that by yourself? You have to
manage all of the things that chairmen and presidents have to manage which
is very much a full-time job! Isn't it better to just get a singular patron?"
Rui shook his head. "Patronage gives patrons some degree of control over the
actions of those they are patroning. I do not wish to sell that right to others.
What I want is a simple and effective way to distribute the plunder and
harvest we get without empowering any one particular section of the
consumer market."
"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Kane asked with an
"Don't worry about it, I have a pretty good plan in mind," Rui smirked.
"Alright, I'll leave all of it to you. I honestly have no idea what you're talking
about at the moment," Kane sighed. "So what is the next step that also
involves me?"
"Get some good sleep, then tomorrow, we'll head to the Adventurer ring
town," Rui replied.
The two of them were currently quite far from the dungeon, which was on the
other side of the country. The Shionel Merchant Guild had redrawn maps to
accommodate the creation of an 'Adventurer town' that accommodated all of
the matters directly related to the dungeon itself. The Adventurer Ring town
was a ring-shaped town that circled the perimeter of the Shionel Dungeon.
Thus, if one wanted to enter the Shionel Dungeon, one needed to go through
the Adventurer Ring town.
That was the plan for now.
"Alrighty, good night it is then," Kane shrugged.
The two of them split up for the night before quickly going to sleep.
That night Rui couldn't help but grow excited. He was eager to jump into the
dungeon and put his newly-created techniques to the test in the circumstances
that they were created for.
The night passed as Rui did his best to get a good sleep while suppressing his
excitement. Thankfully, he was fatigued enough to fall asleep despite that.
The very next morning, the two of them got up quickly before packing up and
heading out quickly.
"Not staying?" The innkeeper asked as the two returned their keys.
"Unfortunately not," Rui smiled before bidding them goodbye and leaving
the inn.
Normally, Rui would not be comfortable sky-walking outside the Kandrian

Empire for drawing far too much attention in an unsafe and unfamiliar
environment, but there were so many sky-walking figures in the sky, that it
was a futile worry, they would not be particularly eye-drawing among others,
and it was quicker than wading through the highly dense streets of the town
of Kanour.
Even though sky-walking was much slower than racing on the ground, it still
took them more than an hour to cross the distance.
"I know we're sky-walking but, damn, it's unbelievable that we can see the
dungeon tower from all the way back here," Kane murmured.
Rui nodded.
It was truly gigantic, standing far larger than even the biggest of mountains,
dwarfing them in comparison. It represented the net volume of all the tunnels
and floors inside the Dungeon, being the earth that was displaced and
removed to create the empty tunnels and dungeons.
"No wonder it's taking time to clear the dungeon, it's huge!" Kane exclaimed,
awed at the sight.
"Indeed," Rui stared at it with anticipation. "I am glad that I got to be part of
this transient part of history. It's not every day that a Squire-level dungeon
opens up."
They passed a myriad of Martial Squires on their way there, each staying
above the chaotic and dense streets of the Shionel Confederation, they were
all heading either to or from the Adventurer Ring.
Rui scrutinized all of them, gathering more information about the

competition.
"Most of them are in larger groups," He remarked. "Makes sense given that
larger numbers can partially mitigate the risks that come with the hampered
senses within the Shionel Dungeon."
An ideal party would be comprised of the right combination of Martial Paths

of varying ranges and fields, thus Rui could see why Martial Squires decided
to team up in groups of five to be able to deal with the various challenges in
the Shionel Dungeon.
"It would be annoying if we ran into them," Rui mused with narrowed eyes.
Half of his strategy and planned tactics would not work on Martial Squires as
they were designed for monsters, which were the more prevalent and
dominant threat. However, there were plenty of Martial Squires that clashed
with each other inside the dungeon.
This was not prohibited either, nor could any prohibition of such a kind
possibly be enforced by the Shionel Adventurer Guild.
He needed to keep an eye out for all of them
('The good news is that I can see them coming from literally a mile away,
while they're not gonna perceive me until I come within a limited range
where they can sense me, Kane will and I will be able to kill anybody who
tries to pick a fight with us,') Rui did not have any intention of attacking
Martial Squires while they were plundering the dungeon, but he would gladly
kill anybody who dared to try and take their lives inside the dungeon. He was
not a large-hearted man who could overlook attempted murder and forgive
and forget.
Soon enough, the two of them reached the Adventurer Ring town around the
Shionel Dungeon, and it was finally time to raid the dungeon.
Chapter 780 Floors
The concentration of Martial Squires increased exponentially the closer they

got to the Shionel Dungeon. There were many Martial Squires sky-walking at
certain points that it became easier to travel through land!
"Unbelievable," Rui grinned as he felt tingling excitement from the visage

before him.
The countless Martial Squires gathered in the town, the bustling markets
dense with vibrant energy.
It was only natural that this would infect even the most lethargic of people.
Even Kane grew more energetic once they entered the large town.
The outer ring of the town contained all of the markets and bazaars of all
kinds. Many of the goods and services were catered to Martial Artists who
were headed towards entering the dungeon, or towards those who had exited.
Rui didn't spare them a second glance. He already had everything he needed,
the only thing they were looking for was an inn where they could reside in.
('We can look for that later,') Rui noted. ('For now, we can drop our luggage
at the Adventurer's Guild in our inventory that comes with registering with
the Guild.')
The Adventurer's Guild guaranteed protection and management of the

personal belongings of the Martial Artists who chose to store them there, in
exchange for a small fee.
They quickly headed over to the closest Adventurer's Guild office in the inner
ring which was restricted only to Martial Artists, yet despite this, the rush in
the office was remarkably high. It took another half an hour before they could
finish their business and exit the Adventurer Guild.
"Ugh, that was tiring," Kane complained. "Now I just want to go back and
sleep."
"We still have a dungeon to raid, can't have you dropping dead already my
friend,"
"Ugh…" Kane stretched a bit before sighing. "Alright let's get going
already."
"That's the spirit," Rui chuckled, half serious and half sarcastic.
Rui could feel dominant pressure originating from the very dungeon itself. It
was no wonder that ordinary humans simply stood no chance of coming close
to the dungeon without feeling a traumatic amount of fear and anguish from
the Shionel Dungeon. Not only did the vegetation absorb the esoteric mine
reserves to grow to form the dungeon and possessed an enormous amount of
power that exerted pressure onto hapless humans, but the many monsters
inside the dungeon also exerted a lot of pressure.
The air grew somber as Rui and Kane walked toward the elevated land with
steeling expressions. The light-hearted mood from just a minute prior had all
but gone, and the Martial Squires within this distance from the dungeon could
feel that entering the dungeon was not a light decision to take.
They soon reached the final barricade that separated the dungeon from the
inner ring of Adventurer Ring. Rui could sense that many Martial Squires of
the Shionel Confederation military manned the barrier, alert and ready to
intercept any monsters that escaped the dungeon.
Not all monsters peacefully remained in the transmuted environment of the

Shionel Dungeon, there was a small proportion of monsters that emerged
from the dungeon and migrated outwards. Part of the reason that Adventurer
Ring town was created was to protect the rest of the Shionel Confederation
from the outbreak of monsters.
The inner ring was filled with Martial Squires both of the Shionel
Confederation and of other nations. This strong presence ensured that no
monster could ever get past a certain point and start wreaking havoc on the
rest of the nation.
Soon enough they crossed the final gate, and the elevated land of the dungeon
was just some distance before them.
Rui could already feel his senses straining. All five of his senses, as well as
Tempestuous Feel and Seismic Mapping, grew increasingly hampered the
closer they walked toward the dungeon.
"So this is the sensory jamming trait of the Shionel Dungeon, hm?" Rui
narrowed his eyes. "If it's this bad despite us not even having entered it yet,
how bad will it be when we're actually inside?"
Thankfully, there was one sense of Rui that still functioned unperturbed. His
Riemannian Echo allows him to detect the curvature of space and gravity
generated by the Shionel Dungeon's external and internal shapes and layouts,
allowing him to generate an image of the structure of the dungeon
unproblematically.
At this point, Rui was truly grateful that he had taken the initiative to develop
such an incredibly powerful and useful sensory technique. He couldn't
imagine how enormously difficult it would have been trying to clear the
dungeon without it.
"Damn…" Kane murmured, clearly discomforted by his increasingly

hampered senses. "This is going to be rough."
"Ready?" Rui asked with a solemn tone.
"Is it too late to go to the bathroom?" Kane smiled wryly.
The elevated land had an immense number of cave entrances emerging from
its walls, most of them had not been mapped or entirely explored, as it was
extremely dangerous to simply jump into the caves. One could potentially run
into an unexplored floor and be swarmed by an army of Squire-level
monsters.
STEP
What they saw atop was a large cave that had been marked and gated.
"This is one of the known entrances to the first floor," Rui noted.
The Shionel Adventurer Guild had marked all the known tunnels that led to
the shallowest floor which had been marked as floor number one. This
allowed adventurers to be able to follow known routes to known floors where
they could pool their power with other adventurers that had also followed the
same route.
Although they would be competing with them for resources, they would also
be in the presence of other Martial Artists, thus the chances of being
overwhelmed by sheer numbers were far lower. It was a safer bet for most
Martial Squires who were simply looking to go for exploring and plundering
that had less risk to it.
"I don't necessarily have intentions of sticking to the known path though,"
Rui murmured. "Floor one has long been cleared and the Shionel Adventurer
Guild has even occupied it to a certain degree so that discoveries of new
floors can quickly be confirmed and routed."
Chapter 781 First Blood
The tunnels in the Shionel Dungeon were effectively no different from

'cracks that formed between each of the larger spaces that had been dubbed as
floors. What that meant was that there were tunnels that connected every
floor with every other floor.
However, there were also a huge number of tunnels that simply ended in
dead-ends, sometimes extending for dozens of kilometers before still ending
in dead-ends. What that meant was that anybody aspiring to enter the
dungeon would need to risk an immense amount of failure, as well as losing
track of where they were and how to get out.
The Shionel Dungeon's dangers were not limited to just the monsters. Even
Martial Squired could get endlessly lost inside the dungeon if they were not
careful.
Thus most Martial Squires ventured down known routes to known floors.
The First Floor of the Shionel Dungeon had been quickly discovered once the
dungeon was discovered, probably due to close it was to the surface of the
elevated land, and from there, numerous runnels leading to the first floor had
also been reverse-tracked. From there, tunnels to other floors had been
quickly discovered by Martial Squires who chose to venture further out.
"As much as I instantly want to pick a new route, I think we should get
ourselves accustomed to the Shionel Dungeon's environment first," Rui told
Kane. "It's one thing to make preparations, it's an entirely different to have
experience and familiarity."
Kane nodded. "I'm one hundred percent on that."
He looked particularly relieved that they were not jumping some unknown
cave tunnel right off the bat.
The two of them quickly strode forward before taking their very first step into
the Shionel Dungeon.
"Woah," Rui's eyes widened.
"This…" Kane grew speechless as the two of them walked in deeper.
Just stepping into the dungeon was a novel experience.
Their senses all diminished drastically and continued doing so the deeper
they stepped in, more so than they did on the outside due to being surrounded
by the walls of the tunnels of the Shionel Dungeon.
Rui couldn't believe that his eyesight felt worse off than it was when he was a
human!
It grew deathly silent inside the dungeon as even sound was extremely
dampened inside the dungeon.
"Rui… Are you still able to sense properly with that technique?" Kane asked,
his voice growing a tad bit edgy.
"Yeah," Rui nodded calmly. Even now he could feel the layout and the
internal structure quite carefully. "It's working just fine, as expected."
"You're absolutely sure, right?" Kane asked once more.
"Absolutely," Rui nodded. "Trust me, I got you back."
Rui turned back as he admired the tunnels. "They're prettier than in the
pictures."
The esoteric mineral resources that were processed into the vegetation of the
dungeon, as well as the earth, glowed with light. It glowed with its own light
despite absorbing light from other sources that reached it or passed by it.
Thus not only was vision hindered, but the little field of view that the Martial
Squires had left was also infringed upon with the light that was given off by
the esoteric vegetation and the earth.
"Pretty, but goddamn annoying when you can't see what you want to," Kane
grumbled.
"This is how humans feel all the time. Honestly, how do they even manage?"
Rui sighed before his eyes widened.
('Wait, have I subconsciously disassociated with the human species?') Rui

wondered with incredulity as he heard himself utter something he never
thought he would have.
"We were human ourselves at one point you know," Kane murmured. "But
that feels like a long time ago. Even though I've been human longer than I've
been a Martial Artist."
('I've spent a whole lifetime as a human,') Rui thought to himself. ('A crippled
one at that. And yet, I identify less with those experiences than the five years
that I've been a Martial Artist.')
The experiences of discovering the Martial Path, and discovering the Martial
Body were both truly life-changing, which made for the less time Rui had
been a Martial Artist.
Rui shook his head. "Let's focus on the matter at hand. For now, we'll make
our way down to the latest floors that are being explored and raided."
"Alrightey," Kane nodded.
The two of them cautiously headed down the tunnel as Rui paid deeper
attention to his Riemannian Echo sense. The first floor was already within the
range of his senses.
('Wow, there are a lot of people,') Rui noted.
That probably meant that there was nothing worth checking out there.
He did something that he hadn't yet applied practically, which was extending
his Riemannian Echo in one direction.
The way he did this was by diverting all his focus and mental energy on
interpreting the parts of the distribution of the Cryllin Stone and Grainer
Pollen in his body that are needed to sense in a particular direction,
increasing the distance and range he can sense in that particular dimension
due to processing more information.
He could treat it as a less precise RADAR that swept across the entire
dungeon. The range of the extended and focused sensory field was so wide
that his sense enveloped not just the entire first floor, but also the second
floor!
Just as he was marveling at the first floors, his eyes widened as something
rapidly entered his Riemannian Echo.
SHING
He drew his sword as a sole monstrous catoblepas jumped out of a tunnel

beside Kane.
SLASH
A single light swing of Rui's blade cut at the monster's skin, yet the ensuing
wound was anything but proportional to the attack.
SPLAT
Blood gushed from a gigantic wound. That single swing had almost cleaved
the monster, which resembled a fusion between a bull and several other
beasts, in half.
"Shit!" Kane swore as he glanced at the corpse of the catoblepas with fear. "I
hadn't sensed that coming."
"You haven't grown acclimatized to your new conditions," Rui explained.

"You need to be more alert to sense things that you previously would have
seen coming from a mile away."
"Damn, you're right… Thanks, Rui, I might be dead right now without you,"
Kane thanked him earnestly. "Still, I can't believe you almost cleanly split it
with just a heavy nick!"
"Hehe…" Rui grinned. "It was even more effective than expected. Let's go
kill some monsters, my friend."
Chapter 782 Second
Rui glanced at the ice-cold Bellhorn Steel blade in admiration and

excitement, the blade's destructiveness to the Whitemane Dust present in the
monster's body was greater than he had imagined. He had gained a lot more
confidence in dealing with the monsters of the Shionel Dungeon. He hadn't
had a chance to use the heating pipe that he had brought with him, but that
was more meant for a situation when he was back up against the wall against
a larger number.
Rui had to admit that he had grown a little too careless for a moment
scanning distant locations away with his Riemannian Echo, that he didn't
notice a monster arriving that close to them for quite some time.
He glanced down at the heavily sliced corpse. "But a catoblepas, huh? I heard
they were supposed to be annihilated on the earlier floors, but I guess not
entirely."
It must have been a straggler that managed to escape into the countless
tunnels that existed in the Shionel Dungeon. Unless someone ran into it, they
would never know it survived since nobody asides from him could surveil
worth a damn inside the Shionel Dungeon.
"Come on, the first floor is just up ahead," Rui helped Kane up as they
headed onwards, before eventually reaching their initial destination.
"Woah," Kane muttered when he finally got a look at it. "It's huge!"
The first floor had clearly been cleaned up especially well, to the point that
the Shionel Adventurer Guild permitted the temporary occupying of it. Thus
several patrons and merchants had set up outlets selling essential items like
healing and rejuvenation potions.
Rui could already see that the Shionel Merchant Guild was clearly trying to
push in the direction of private ownership and occupation of the Shionel
Dungeon even before they started.
He had not forgotten his plan of selling map data of the Shionel Dungeon to
the Shionel Merchant Guild, he had already been mapping the Shionel
Dungeon in his head, carefully storing all the data that he had gathered with
his Riemannian Echo in his Mind Palace.
He intended to put it to good use later on. He had not only been measuring
the distance that he traveled relative to his own height which he had a precise
measurement of, but he had also been documenting the 'footage' of his
Riemannian Echo sense into the Mind Palace, going as far as to timestamp it.
"This does not feel like what I expected from a dungeon, I'm going to be
honest," Kane scratched his head.
The overlapping image of a relatively peaceful floor was juxtaposed with the
scary and dark image he had inside his head.
The Martial Squires on this floor was a tag bit more relaxed, and there was
even a level of security in place, monitoring the tunnels to ensure that nothing
came up and to warn the others if something did.
"The second floor's tunnel is that way," Rui gestured to a marked tunnel that
let further down. "Let's get going immediately."
Rui kept Riemannian Echo up the entire time as they descended to the second
floor.
Yet the change was abrupt.
The air grew more tense. Kane gritted his teeth as he felt his nerves tingling.
Rui narrowed his eyes as he never stopped monitoring their environment with
Riemannian Echo.
"Monsters," Rui murmured.
"What?!" Kane whispered back with urgency. "Where?!"
"In all directions," Rui replied softly.
"Are they coming towards us?!"
"No," Rui shook his head firmly. "They're circulating in the tunnels, but they
aren't moving towards us, they don't even know that we're here. They have
the same limitations, after all. They cannot sense us as vividly."
Rui concentrated as he spotted several monsters lingering around in tunnels

in the distance. He wanted to make sure none of them could approach them.
Soon enough, they reached the second floor, yet Rui stopped at a distance
from them.
"What's up?" Kane frowned.
"It's time, get ready," Rui replied without expanding further.
Yet Kane understood what he meant, they had discussed their strategy plenty
of times in the past, and he knew exactly what needed to be done.
He put his hand on Rui's shoulder before they began moving. Yet both of
them disappeared into thin air as they walked towards an entrance into the
dungeon.
Kane's eyes widened as they were greeted by dozens of rabbit-like creatures,

their eyes were blood red with no pupils of any kind.
Rui and Kane quietly moved past them, without making so much as a peep.
Kane looked quite nervous in contrast to Rui's calmness. He knew that Void
Step has extremely empowered in the dungeon thanks to senses being
jammed, there was zero chance that the bloodfury rabbits would be able to
sense their presence.
"URGH!" Kane paused when a human voice grimacing reached them.
The two of them glanced over as they saw three Martial Squires bleeding
profusely, being swarmed by the bloodfury rabbits.
FWHOOSH
SPLAT
"ARGH!" The Martial Squire in the center grimaced as a bloodfury rabbit

took a bite out of his leg swiftly.
Kane exchanged a silent glance with Rui, but they never stopped, the
technique only worked when they were moving. Rui shook his head and
turned away from them.
He generally tended to help people around him if they needed help before his
eyes, but that did not apply in risky situations that the people themselves have
put themselves in, knowing full well the risks that came with it.
He could not afford to take the risk of helping the Martial Squires around him
in the dungeon who may need help, especially when Kane's life was in the
balance as well. He simply offered them a prayer as his eyes turned to their
objective.
The glowing fruits, rocks, and veins popped out of the floor walls. He had
long trained to distinguish between all of them, a nifty skill to have if he
needed something specific, he readied his dimensional storage ring as he and
Kane executed the maneuver they practiced.
Chapter 783 Massacre
The one flaw of the Void Step techniques was that the misdirection
techniques were maneuvering-based. Kane misdirected attention in the
opposite direction that he was heading, creating a large gap between where he
was and where his opponents were directing their attention to.
Thus, they could not be stationary when extracting the esoteric ores from the
walls. Thus Rui and Kane had practiced a method where they extracted
esoteric horizontally, line by line from top to bottom, requiring them to move
left and right by a section while Rui used his tools to pluck them out of the
wall and into his dimensional storage ring.
He was initially surprised by how responsive the dimensional ring was. It

operated based on a pretty nifty mechanism that could be activated at any
given time.
He didn't spare the dying Martial Squires a second look, he did not want to
concern himself with problems that were not his, nor ones he could afford to
try and solve.
He extracted the toolset that he had procured discreetly to aid with the
extraction of the fruits and the stones from the Earth. Thankfully, the process
was rather simple. It was a matter of positioning the instruments, pressing a
small lever that gained a grip on the stones and organic esoteric deposits in
vegetation.
CRACK
He pulled out a giant glowing crystal, before tossing it into a portable bag
that he would be filling before tossing into his ring. The two of them swiftly
walked and sky-walked across an entire section of the huge floor for a few
hours, filling up several giant bags worth of esoteric harvest.
"Unbelievable…" Kane murmured to himself as they walked past nearly fifty

Squire-level bloodfury rabbits that completely ignored their existence.
He glanced at the corpses of the three Martial Squires that were previously
fighting for quite a bit. Roots from the ground had already emerged, pulling
their corpses into the ground.
Individually, each rabbit was at a low squire level. However, together, they
were a menace that could overwhelm parties of weaker Martial Squires. Kane
was not confident that he would be able to survive this floor without Void
Step.
This made him feel a tinge of nervousness because he could not maintain
Void Step forever, and the time period he could maintain it was especially
limited when he had to use it on not just himself but also another Martial
Squire.
"Rui, you have ten more minutes before I need a break," He panted before
wiping some sweat off his forehead.
Rui simply glanced at him, unperturbed by his remark, nodding. "Gotcha.

Let's get to the ground then. I want to be prepared for when the exact time
comes."
"You're going to be alright, right?" Kane was worried.
He knew that Rui was strong, especially when he extensively prepared for
certain circumstances as he had done so for the Shionel Dungeon. But, at the
same time, could he truly handle dozens and dozens of low Squire-level
creatures all by himself?
It was true that he had even seen one of Rui's countermeasures personally,
Rui's sword attack possessed an absurd amount of lethality that one could
simply not expect from seeing his swings.
Rui did not even bother replying, instead, he closed his eyes and began
focusing.
A focused mind was vastly superior to a scattered one. And Rui could not
afford to give anything but his very best.
"Fuuu…" He exhaled.
Kane was about to ask him again when his eyes widened upon a gush of
pressure from Rui. Rui got rid of his Mind Mask as he drew his blade and
procured his pipe, putting it to his mouth.
STEP
He immediately leaped out of Kane's reach all of a sudden, rushing towards

the herd of bloodfury rabbits with his blade drawn and poised to swing.
"Wai-!"
SLASH
The initial attack killed five bloodfury rabbits in a single swing!
Unlike the bullish and massive catoblepas, the rabbits did not possess an
outstandingly durable constitution. The second the freezing cold blade
pierced their flesh, it was as though a grenade had been set off inside their
body, and the flesh on either side of the blade blasted away from the freezing
cold tethered Bellhorn Steel violently as the blade cleaved through the flesh
of the monster like a knife through butter.
SPLAT
The remaining bloodfury rabbits did not even realize what had happened until
after it had happened.
"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!"
They aggressively lashed out at him in their reactionary aggression. Yet they
couldn't help but falter when they senses his fearsome aura weighing down
on them. His pitch-black pupils inspired their fear of death, while his blade
caused it.
The Bellhorn blade ceased to be a blade. It had become an arc of destruction,

annihilating every monster it so much as touched.
"FUUU…" he exhaled cracklingly hot air at three rabbits before him,

enveloping them in extremely hot air. Their fur grew a shade lighter as the
Mercurite esoteric hardened, paralyzing their movements.
SLASH
Another three monsters to his right died.
SLASH SLASH
Four bloodfury rabbits in front of him were cleaved in half before he

smoothly transitioned to swing to his left, stepping about his position to
accommodate the swings.
"FUUUU…" He froze six rabbits on the spot before his blade followed
through a moment later, butchering the frozen bloodfury rabbits.
Rui ceased being a simple Martial Artist, it was as though he had become a
sphere of death. A sphere that killed anything that dared entered it.
Every single bloodfury rabbit lashed out at him.
Every single one of them died.
Soon enough, there were none left.
SLASH
Rui killed the final bloodfury rabbit of the herd before exhaling and turning
to Kane who retained the ability to use Void Step for himself.
"It's done,"
Kane was utterly speechless, staring at Rui with shock and awe.
"Come on, we have work to do,"
SHING
He sheathed his blade, walking back unperturbed at the carnage left behind.
Chapter 784 Carnage
Kane had watched the battle with an increasingly bewildered expression. Rui
had already caught him off-guard when casually leaped out of Kane's
physical contact, and outside of the influence of Void Step. He had almost
had a heart attack.
"Wai-"
SLASH
Kane's eyes widened as Rui's blade disappeared and bloodfury rabbits split in
half before his eyes. The battle abruptly began as the rabbit immediately
pounced on the intruder that came out of nowhere and attacked their herd.
Yet despite swarming him with all their numbers, everything that came
within a certain range split in half. It was as though there was a forcefield
around Rui that cut anything that dared to cross it.
The domain encompassed by his swinging range ceased to be ordinary space.

Instead, it had become a field of carnage, gushing with blood and death.
Kane observed Rui's movements in bewilderment, yet he didn't understand

what was happening. Every time Rui inhaled from the pipe and exhaled onto
his hapless would-be victims, they froze solid, before his devastating lethality
annihilated them. They were entirely powerless.
Rui's face was covered in a malleable mask attached to it, yet Kane could still
sense a cold ruthlessness on it. His reactions to the rabbits were excellent, it
was almost as though he could see the future and knew exactly where each
one was, whenever. His attacks were all proactive, and his blade never rested,
whizzing around him smoothly, annihilating anything that came close
enough.
Kane was impressed with how well Rui had honed his foundation. He did not
use any fancy Squire-level sword techniques, but his basic passive
application had reached a respectable stage in just a matter of half a year.
His movements were stable, and the edge of the blade was in perfect
alignment with the direction of motion of the blade at every given moment,
ensuring that there was not a single avenue for wastage of energy an ill-
angled blade.
Rui's sword style at the moment had taken on the shape of a counter-
offensive sword style, a fusion of offensive interception of attacks as well as
evasive maneuvering. He engaged in just enough evasive maneuvering not to
dodge and avoid attacks, but to put enough distance between himself and his
opponent. The sword was generally not a close-quarters weapon and required
a bit of distance at close range, thus Rui's footwork and maneuvering were
targeted to provide adequate distance between him and his target. Thus
despite moving away from the swarm he was always on the offensive.
"Unbelievable…" Kane murmured.
SLASH
Soon enough, the final rabbit had been felled. Rui glanced at him despite him
being imperceptible.
"Come on, we have work to do," He casually remarked, walking past the
death and destruction that he had just unleashed.
"Right…" Kane smiled wryly. "Were you hurt anywhere?"
"Nah," Rui shook his head. "Thankfully, these are primitive creatures.
Creating predictive models on them was easy due to how uniformly simple
their patterns are. They just attack straightforwardly, with the same identical
pace the second that they get a chance to. Predicting them and ensuring that
they never touch me is not even a workout."
Kane could scarcely believe that Rui just described a feat that not even a
party of three Martial Squires could accomplish before dying, in such a trivial
manner. He realizes that when Rui had assured him that he was very well
prepared to handle the threats of the dungeon… He was not exaggerating in
the slightest whatsoever.
That was even more amazing. Kane had seen what Rui could do firsthand
when he prepared for certain circumstances. He had taken down a powerful
Martial Squire with a single attack on Vilun Island, something that was only
restricted to powerful high-grade Martial Squires as far as such feats went.
Furthermore, he rapidly defeated a high-grade Martial Squire at the time in
head-on combat!
His ability to accomplish feats far beyond his physical limits never ceased to
amaze Kane. His faith in Rui being able to fulfill their objective in the
Shionel Dungeon only grew after witnessing his remarkable performance
against a large herd of bloodfury rabbits.
"We still have tons of harvest to plunder," Rui smiled. Before pointing further
down the city-sized space that was inhabited by even more herds of
bloodfury rabbits and esoteric harvest. "There are a lot more monsters too,
but as we've come to see, that should not be a problem.
Rui walked over to the bags in Kane's hands, reaching out for them, before
fiddling with his ring.
FWOOP
"Woah!" Kane jerked his head back in surprise when the bag disappeared.
"That's the first time I have ever seen one in action."
"They're extremely impractical cost and energy consumption-wise, but one

cannot deny that they are also extremely useful," Rui smiled as all of the
many bags of esoteric harvest disappeared into the ring one by one. "In our
circumstances, they're golden."
"Hm," Kane nodded. "Alright, what now?"

"Let's continue," Rui replied. "We're going to plunder all of the remaining
esoteric harvests on this floor."
It was a mad thing for a single Martial Squire of a team of two to say, but
Kane could not even deny it when it came from Rui, he scratched his head.
"Alright, but I am surprised that there are so many reserves of esoteric
minerals and organic harvest left, honestly. Why wasn't this floor completely
cleared before heading to another floor?"
"That's because the difficulty of completely clearing a floor increases the

more progress you make, and the reason for that is the ratio between
monsters and plunder increases the more progress you make. The monsters
grow cornered and then group up in big herds that we ran into," Rui
explained. "It's easier to just start on a new floor where the esoteric harvest
reserves are more bountiful and ever-present."
"Easier?" Kane smiled wryly. "Less insanely difficult you mean."
Rui shrugged casually. "Same difference. Let's not waste any more time,
we're clearing this entire floor of the remaining pockets of esoteric reserves
before heading down deeper to the frontier floors."
Chapter 785 Incentive
"Mam, are you sure that you want to focus on the second floor today? It's not
going to be easy clearing it at the moment. All the surviving bloodfury
rabbits have grouped up densely rather than being more spread out than they
were before. We would need to face hundreds, if not thousands, of bloodfury
rabbits mam!"
There were several Martial Squires in a room listening to a conversation

between their manager and their leader.
"It's a more attractive prospect than going down deeper floors at the
moment," The red-haired woman calmly replied. "Floors become exceedingly
harder to clear for adventurer parties when most of the floor is already
cleared, that is why everyone is avoiding the second floor and going straight
down to the tenth floor, correct?"
"Yes!" The grey-haired man whined, readjusting his spectacles. "There are
more monsters herded together for less loot and plunder. It makes sense to go
to deeper floors, that's what every adventurer party is doing!"
"It's because that is what every adventurer party and every individual
adventurer is doing that makes it clearly the universally recognized superior
option!" The man desperately explained.
"That is only true if you're trying to earn more money," She replied, unfazed
by his vigor. "There is far greater competition in the deeper floors because no
one is interested in defeating thousands of bloodfury rabbits to gain access to
less plunder than you would gain access to if you only defeated a hundred
monsters in the lower floors. If we go to floors nine, ten, or eleven; the three
frontier floors, then we would also have to compete with other adventurers
and adventurer parties!"
"With your caliber as an S-rank adventurer, you should have no problem!"

The man insisted.
"Enough."
The air grew chill as she expressed a portion of her mental pressure in
response to his constant nagging.
The man shivered as he straightened up, lowering his head reflexively, yet he
managed to retain his voice. "S-Squire Fren, I am the liaising representative
of Ridlen Mercurite Co. Your patron. Desist from engaging in this mental
suppression. Our patron will be displeased to hear that you're not going to be
pursuing avenues of greater yield."
Fren narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. Unfortunately, despite being a
disgusting little worm in her eyes, he was right. The significant patronage
that she had received from the Ridlen Mercurite Corporation was not
something that she could simply ignore entirely.
"There are also other reasons why I wish to pursue the second floor of the
Shionel Dungeon," She continued. "First, the floor has not yet been cleared.
Any adventurer or party that successfully clears the floor will gain a
significant amount of prestige and esteem, which will naturally funnel to our
patron, given how exceedingly explicit his patronage of our party Saberstrike
is. If we succeed clearing the floor, then it would be of benefit to Lord
Ridlen."
She pointed to several places on her Martial attire that bore the trademark of
the Ridlen Mercurite Corporation. It was definitely the case that any attention
directed to them would inevitably attention directed to the Ridlen
Corporation.
"Thirdly, I am a veteran beast hunter Martial Artist," She said with pride.
"Our entire Saberstrike party is comprised of experts who have experience
against beasts and monsters. Thus we will simply perform better and mitigate
risks. Entering a dungeon is not a picnic, after all. I have plenty of sound
reasons to go for the decision that I have chosen to go for. Please inform the
president of the Ridlen Mercurite Corporation of that."
"Understood, Squire," The man bowed and readjusted his spectacles before
leaving abruptly.
"Haaaah…" The spectating Martial Squires broke their silence.
"Tsk, why are they getting all up in our business?" A gargantuan man with
brown hair tutted. "We don't tell them how to run a corporation, and they
should stop telling us what to do after we enter a dungeon!"
"That arrogant man dares try to order us just because he gave us money and
resources, I ought to kill him right now," A purple-haired woman coldly
remarked.
"Calm down, Darbun, Seli," Fren replied, not losing her composure. "It's the
way things work here, things do not work here as they do in our homeland
the Republic of Gorteau. Money is the heaviest currency in this nation, and
we knew that before we came here. But to think that they would be this bold
is a little out of my expectations."
"Whatever it is, we managed to get our way this time, but it probably will be
the last unless…" Another dark-haired Martial Squire remarked, drawing
everybody's attention before continuing. "Unless we succeed in our claims
and clear the second floor of the dungeon."
"Fuuu…" She narrowed her eyes, as she steeled her will. "We will.
The remaining Martial Squires shuddered as their hair stood up on end as a

tsunami of pressure crashed into them.
None of them were particularly weak, in fact, they were all A-rank
adventurers in the Shionel Confederation according to the Shionel Merchant
Guild.
But the might of an S-rank adventurer, a grade-ten Martial Squire, exceeded

even theirs.
"We will crush all those disgusting rabbits, and claim the glory that comes
with clearing the dungeon," She sternly declared. "Failure, will not be
tolerated. That goes for all of you as well as myself equally. That goes for
us."
The four members of her Saberstrike Party nodded solemnly.
"If we're successful enough…" She continued. "We can break away from this
patronage and obtain success going solo. That is my ultimate goal."
She gestured at the contract on the paper. "If we're able to hit pinnacle
success without any patronage, then that is worth pursuing. At the very least
we won't need to give squirming weakling like that man the time of the day."
That alone was worth pursuing this option for!
The other reasons she provided were definitely true, but aiming for their
current level of prestige and success without patronage was the greatest
incentive.
Chapter 786 Already
"Alright, it's time, let's get prepped," Squire Fren instructed. "I don't want to
waste another second. The sooner we succeed, the better."
The other four Martial Squires nodded, exiting her room as they headed for
their own to change into their Martial attires and adorn the necessary utilities
and instruments.
She sighed as she began preparing herself. As a hunter-class Martial Artist,

she was accustomed to carrying a lot of gear, equipment, and utilities along
with her. She had a large set of tools that she could freely select to bring with
her if she deemed them to be necessary.
Soon enough, the entirety of Party Saberstrike was ready. They quickly left
the Adventurer exclusive hotel situated in the outer ring of the Adventurer
Ring town before quickly heading inwards
"It never ceases to amaze me no matter how many times I look at it and feel
it," One of her party members Seli said.
"Indeed," Another, Darbun, replied. "A dungeon spanning sixty kilometers

from end to end is something I hadn't had the opportunity of laying my eyes
on prior to coming to the Shionel Confederation, and thanks to it I have had
the pleasure of entering it."
The pressure mounting on them grew increasingly high as they entered the
inner ring and crossed the final barrier.
"Focus," Squire Fren sternly ordered. "Anything can happen once we enter
the dungeon."
"Yes, leader," They replied to her as they grew increasingly wary.
The sensory jamming of the Shionel Dungeon unnerved every Martial

Squires that entered it, for it was a circumstance that they were highly
unaccustomed to. The sense that they had honed their entire career as Martial
Artists had now been taken away from them, and they had been left to fight
in the dark, literally, without it.
That was why despite their power and experience in the Squire Realm and
with hunting beasts and monsters, none of them were comfortable or
particularly confident, despite their determination. As things currently stood,
a hoard of one thousand Squire-level monsters could be rushing toward them
at the moment, and none of them would have any idea about it ahead of time.
The first floor was a bit of a safe space at the moment due to how extensively
it had been cleared and occupied by human forces. The space was city-sized,
and Martial Squires had already occupied a small portion of it, offering
services to adventurers who were currently in the dungeon.
This way, these adventurers who were currently in the dungeon had no need
to exit the entire dungeon and return back to the outer ring of the Adventurer
Ring if they needed to purchase any goods or services.
Of course, they moved right past the first floor and headed down to the
second floor, they had just entered and had no reason to take a break on the
first floor.
They took their time, they could afford to run at top speed when their senses
of what they were running into were extremely hampered.
STEP
Squire Fren paused the moment they arrived at the second floor.
"Take your stances, we might need to fight the second we walk in," She told
them with a tense tone.
The five of them readied themselves physically and mentally before jumping
into the second floor with metaphorical guns blazing.
Yet they were greeted by a sight that they had not expected.
"W-What is this?!" Squire Fren's eyes widened in shock as she beheld a

puddle of blood that reached her ankles!
Blood, gore, and cleaved rabbit corpses as far as they could see greeted them.
"Hundreds… No thousands!" Squire Fren surveyed her surroundings. "Did a

large S-rank party make it their mission to destroy the bloodfury rabbits on
the second floor?"
"I almost feel sorry for the rabbits, they may be hideous monsters, but even
that was not enough to prevent them from getting slaughtered," Squire Seli
remarked. "A large number of Martial Squires must have beaten us to the
punch."
"No…" Squire Darbun murmured.
"Hm? Squire Fren turned towards him. "What do you mean by that?"
"This was not done by multiple Martial Squires…!" Squire Darbun

exclaimed. "I can tell based on the uniform similarities in the cuts that
decapitated all these rabbits, this was all done by a single Martial Squire!"
"What?" Squire Fren's eyes widened.
Squire Darbun was a swordmaster Martial Artist who specialized in hunting

beasts, he narrowed his eyes as he scrutinized the wounds inflicted on the
bloodfury rabbit corpses.
"The force with which all these rabbits were killed is identical!" The man
exclaimed. "These were all killed by a single Martial Squire!"
The remaining members of Party Saberstrike were shocked and speechless.
"All of these… by one Martial Squire?"

"Clearly, it's a veteran S-rank adventurer," Janeson, the fourth member of the
party, stated. "Anything less is absolutely impossible."
"No, even for a grade-ten Martial Squire…" Squire Fren's voice trailed off as
she considered the scene at her feet. She turned forward before rapidly
heading off ahead.
"Wait for us!" They followed her hurriedly.
"There's more!" She murmured emphatically. "A single Martial Squire

eradicated all these hundreds, no, thousands of bloodfury rabbits all by
themself?"
She was strong herself. Strong enough to take on many Martial Squires and
come out victorious. She was known for having defeated ten Martial Squires,
albeit low-grade, in a fight back in her home nation after all. She was very
confident that with the party that she had formed with her trusted comrades,
they would be able to handle the bloodfury rabbits of the second floor. Their
Martial Art and Martial Paths had great synergy, they had great synergy with
each other as well as great trust. The bloodfury rabbits were decisively
insufficient to take them out as long as they were careful and engaged in their
strategic tactics.
However, would she be able to clearly annihilate so many all by herself, just
running into a seemingly endless swarm of bloodfury rabbits?
"…" She picked up her pace she surged forward at a tremendous speed,
leaving behind giant sonic booms in her wake.
('Bloodfury corpses everywhere…') Her eyes widened. ('Could it be that this

floor is already…?')
Chapter 787 After-Effects
That day, an odd tale spread across the Shionel Confederation.
The thankless task of clearing the second floor which had only a portion of its
yield left for proportionally a lot more monsters than the frontier floors of the
dungeon where most adventurers spent their time plundering loot, had been
completed.
Not only that, word on the street was that it was completed by a single
adventurer!
Yet, that wasn't the strangest occurrence.
It turned out that whoever completed this feat, did not even bother claiming
credit for singlehandedly destroying a huge number of monsters all by
themself, harvested all of the remaining esoteric harvests on the floor, and
had simply moved on without bothering any further about it.
The information came from a report from the party that discovered the state
of the second floor; the Saberstrike party. One of the small proportion of
adventurer parties that was led by an S-rank adventurer Martial Squire. The
Saberstrike party is estimated to have arrived at the scene just fifteen minutes
after the absurd feat was performed, based on the timelines estimation of the
autopsies of the monsters.
The analyses of the expert hunters of the party were verified by expert
consultants on media outlets, as well as the Shionel Adventurer Guild itself!
This news sent a ripple across the Shionel Confederation. Especially the news
that the culprit responsible was not yet found.
"Culprit?" Squire Fren frowned as she read the official statement from the
Shionel Merchant Guild just a few days later.
Two days ago, they had reported the clearing of the second floor of the
dungeon, as well as everything knew about it. They had expected that one of
the S-rank adventurers in the country presently would take credit for the
clearing of the second floor of the Shionel Dungeon, yet, seventy-two hours
later, the Shionel Adventurer Guild had not yet even indicated that the
individual who had performed this feat or were even aware of the identity of
the person.
"It's strange that they don't know yet, and it's strange that they're calling him a
culprit rather than a hero," Squire Fren frowned.
"Honestly, it's strange that they don't know who it is yet. They surely would
be able to find out from the tax paid, right?" Squire Seli asked.
Because the culprit had cleared the dungeon of the remaining large reserves
of esoteric harvest, they would naturally be paying a huge amount of tax
proportionally too, since the tax for being allowed to profit from the
resources of another country was twenty percent of the yield.
Thus someone who was walking away with hundreds of large bags of harvest
would be paying dozens of bags of harvest as tax, the Shionel Dungeon ought
to instantly know who the person responsible is.
"The fact that they don't know despite that means…" Squire Fren's eyes
widened. "That individual hasn't paid their tax to the Shionel Merchant
Guild! That's why they are referring to that person as a culprit."
The other Martial Squires' eyebrows rose. That made definitely did make
sense. It would also explain why the official statement of the Shionel
Adventurer Guild is criminalizing that individual.
"To not abide by the international agreements, as well as the contract that
they themselves signed," Squire Fren's eyebrow rose as she frowned. "It
seems we're dealing with a very powerful troublemaker. The Shionel
Merchant and Adventurer Guilds are not going to be happy with this
outcome."
The guilds did not care for minor skirting, pursuing minor matters to the end
took more capital than it was worth, however, it definitely did care about
being scammed of tons of esoteric harvest and yield.
"How did this mysterious adventurer even manage to smuggle the esoteric
harvest and yield out of the Shionel Dungeon?" Squire Darbun snorted. "It
would surely be conspicuous,"
"There are several realistic possibilities," Squire Janeson remarked. "I'm sure
that the Shionel Adventurer Guild will be aggressively pursuing this matter."
Squire Fren nodded. "I don't know who the culprit is, but that person will not
be having an easy time, they may be a strong Martial Squire, but that does not
mean that that alone would be enough to evade pursuit. Honestly, it's strange,
why don't they just plunder the dungeon honestly and legally? They could
gain fame and glory without having to hide."
None of them understood the motives of the perpetrator. This wasn't their
fault, they couldn't imagine that the perpetrator's plans were so much grander
than just the clearance of the second floor, and would likely end up becoming
so disruptive, that publicizing their identity would be inviting danger to their
life.
The word spread across town as all of the S-rank parties, including Party
Saberstrike, declared that they had nothing to do with the incident, which
only sparked more uproar. After all, the only people capable of such a feat
would be the various S-rankers in the Shionel Confederation. They had no
intention of being accused of tax fraud that they did not commit in the first
place, no amount of fame was worth that in the first place.
That meant that there was an unknown grade-ten Martial Squire in the
Shionel Confederation that had cleared the second floor all by themself. That
was extremely strange since grade-ten Martial Squires were not a dime a
dozen, they were extremely rare and inherently high-profile. Nations
maintained a tab on all of them since they were all Senior candidates. How
could such a person go unnoticed?
Squire Fren had initially half-wished that they had taken credit for it seeing as
the real culprit wasn't coming forward, but after realizing how much trouble
that would have gotten her, she had thanked her stars that she had initially
decided to go with honestly and report everything, thinking that the person
responsible would definitely take credit for such a feat.
The adventuring industry and sector began referring to the person that cleared
the second floor as the Voider, for how there was no information surrounding
this person, to refer to them whenever they was brought up in discussions, or
in media.
Chapter 788 Bradt
"HAHAHA!" Kane laughed out loud. "They're calling you the VOIDER.
This shit is hilarious!"
Kane leaned forward, caressing his ribs as he laughed his heart out.
"Very funny, Kane," Rui sighed with an amused smile as he let Kane engage
in his typical teenage and juvenile humor. "I'm surprised I got an epithet at
all. Seems that the gossip community for the dungeon and its adventurers has
grown a lot over time."
"Well, of course," Kane shrugged. "I think you forget that we are naturally
celebrities in this world, Rui."
"…Perhaps," Rui remarked. He didn't particularly care about that, never had,
and never would.
"Though, maybe slaughtering every single monster in a large town-sized area

was a bit too much, if you didn't wish to attract attention," Kane chuckled.
That day the two of them successfully bypassed the monsters with Kane's
Void Step as planned and harvested all of the esoteric yields from the floor.
Yet Rui had had Kane return from the dungeon while he decided to annihilate
all the monsters anyway.
"I won't get that many chances to hone my skill without being detected huge
proportion of Martial Squires on the floor in the future," Rui had told him
back then. "I will push myself to kill all of them and gain more experience,
you go back and book our rooms at a lowkey in the same way we did last
time."
Kane had tried to convince him otherwise, but Rui had been quite adamant.
That day later, Rui returned, having killed all of them.
"Valuable experience is a valuable experience, Kane," Rui informed them.

"Right now we're behind the frontier of the dungeon, but that will not always
remain the case, I intend for us to be far ahead of the curve, and this
experience will only be useful then. The floors get harder the deeper we go,
don't forget that."
Kane nodded. Now that Rui had proven his competencies, Kane could only
agree that he wasn't in over his head, not that he had ever seen his friend be
so. "Still, remind me why we didn't pay the taxes. Are we thieves?"
"For now," Rui straightforwardly admitted. "However, by the time we leave

the Shionel Confederation, we will have given everybody what we owe them,
and more. But we are contract violators for now."
"…You do know what you're doing, right?" Kane grumbled.
"Of course," Rui chuckled. "Several merchants of the Merchant, all of whom
are bigshots, are our competitors in the esoteric supplier industries. The
merchants of the Shionel Merchant Guild have complete access to the data in
the Shionel Adventurer Guild's database. If we pay our taxes legally at the
moment, they'll instantly know who we are, looking at the tax registration
data. That's not good for us, because they'll come at us guns blazing when we
inevitably disrupt the market and hurt their businesses."
"Didn't you say that they would inevitably find out?" Kane peered at him
suspiciously.
"I did," Rui smiled. "I also said that I would need to 'buy' over some of 'them'
to our sides with incentives and benefits like the map, did I not?"
"Right," kane nodded, as he recalled Rui's conversation. Frankly, the plan

was so sophisticated that he often forgot parts and bits of it, and needed Rui
to keep reminding him about it. "Well, how do you intend to go about this?"
"I intend to talk to the right people, or rather, the right person," Rui replied
casually.
"And who would that be?"
"The most powerful person in this nation, of course," Rui replied. "Bradt
Patrick. The guildmaster of the Shionel Merchant Guild, and the leader of the
libertarian faction."
"There are factions in the Shionel Confederation?" Kane frowned.
"There are factions everywhere, Kane," Rui chuckled, shaking his head
slightly. "It is fundamental to the human race to be divided on any and
everything. Naturally, there will be power blocs struggling for power, with
different visions, policies, and ideals regarding how things ought to be run in
the country. The Libertarian Faction is one of them, and the leader of the
faction is Bradt Patrick, he's been the Guildmaster of the Shionel Merchant
for quite some time now, and has been in the lead up until very recently."
"You mean…" Kane's eyes narrowed.
"The discovery and opening of the Shionel Dungeon," Rui replied. "That is
the variable that has shaken his dominant position."
"How does that even work?" Kane frowned.
"It's complicated, but the position of Guildmaster is earned through an

internal election of the Shionel Merchant Guild," Rui replied. "Thus in order
to win the position, you need the most number of votes. This means you need
to persuade the most number of voters, each of whom is a stakeholder and
shareholder of the nation, each with their own businesses and conglomerates
in the nation and out. Meaning that you need to demonstrate that giving you
more power is beneficial to them. Do you know how Bradt Patrick managed
to do that?"
"Not a clue," Kane replied, bored.
"It was by tying up interests of the various groups in question with his own
field of business, one which is absolutely central to the concept of business;
distribution and transport."
"You're telling me the oh-so-mighty merchant Guildmaster of the Merchant

Guild runs a measly distribution service?" Kane looked thoroughly
unimpressed.
Rui sighed with a troubled expression. "Don't look down on him. Distribution
of goods and services from suppliers and service providers is a fundamentally
necessary and important avenue of business. The Bradt Distribution Network
is one of the most reliable, fastest, most efficient, and also the cheapest
available services for the quality and reliability that it provides. Multi-
national companies all over the east side of the continent have contracted the
Bradt Distribution Network for serving as a very firm channel between their
customers, clientele as well as the market in general, to a level that they could
forget about achieving by themselves. He managed to tie up enough interests
by leveraging his company to aid the stakeholders of the Shionel Merchant
Guild, thereby buying their votes."
In a world where a network like the Internet had not taken hold yet,
communication and distribution were vital and scarcer services for business
and commerce. While communication technology did exist, it was not
enough to facilitate large-scale mass communication over great distances.
Satellite technology, that on Earth allowed for communication from one end
of the planet, did not exist in this world. Thus all communication had
significant bandwidth and range limitations.
In such circumstances, how was one supposed to conduct extensive

international trade over a large number of foreign markets?
That was where the need for communication services allowed one to be able
to connect to a market that is extremely distant without necessarily having to
invest an impractically huge sum of capital into building one's own network
and power base in an entirely different nation.
These services functioned by building a deeply entrenched communication

network in the form of media promotion, showrooms, factory outlets as well
as more informal manners of promotion.
The distribution services followed after building a demand for a certain brand
or goods and services, allowing for a smooth transfer of funds and goods and
services between the market and suppliers and service providers.
Bradt Patrick had come to dominate this sector with a gigantic

communication and distribution empire oligopoly that was unrivaled within
the market in the geographic vicinity of the Shionel Confederation. This was
one of the reasons that he was able to see
"Ok, but what does that have to do with the Bradt Patrick and the Shionel
Dungeon contributing to the loss of stability in his power?" Kane wondered,
scratching his head in confusion.
"The reveal of the Shionel Dungeon has been good for everybody," Rui
began saying. "Most sectors and industries benefitted from it, some more than
others. And some, far more than others."
He turned towards Kane. "Guildmaster Patrick's business and trade falls into
the category that hasn't benefitted as much as, say, raw esoteric suppliers and
the manufacturing sector."
Of course, the increase in the sheer number of goods and services flowing
inside the Shionel Confederation was definitely something that significantly
benefitted his trade, however, not as significantly as the industries and sectors
centered around the trade.
"Mercurite and Whitemane Powder, two of the esoteric substances

ubiquitously found in the Shionel Dungeon, are valuable esoteric substances
in the esoteric technology sector. The prior scarcity of it meant that the
industries and sectors surrounding it were malnourished, but now that that is
no longer true, these industries and sectors have undergone a great rebirth,"
Rui explained. "Unfortunately for Guildmaster Bradt, one of his political
rivals runs a conglomerate centered around esoteric technology development
and manufacture. He's dealing with a rival that has basically gotten a steroid
injection or the equivalent Squire evolution breakthrough, and is growing
'stronger' every day."
"I see," Kane finally realized. "So Bradt Patrick, whose position used to be
very secure and dominant, is now in trouble of losing his power due to the
increasing growth in power of his rivals'?"
"Correct," Rui nodded. "In such circumstances, if I were him, I'd be looking
for any variable that could break the current ongoing trends, or come to the
next election, he could very lose his position as Guildmaster. He would do
anything to avoid that."
Rui smiled as Kane's eyes widened when he fully understood Rui's intentions.
And he had to admit, the plan was insane but could work. Though he had no
idea about how Rui intended to execute that.
"Leave the details to me, like I said, I have this under control," Rui explained.
"Remember what I said about the map?"
"Right," Kane nodded. "The Shionel Merchant Guild intends to

commercialize the free real estate that would be left over after the Shionel
Dungeon is completely cleared."
"Correct," Rui nodded. "And one of the many things needed to successfully
embark on such an endeavor is a map, which I can provide… But also, it
most certainly requires a highly robust distribution and communication
network to establish the infrastructure and a flow of capital and goods and
services from within and out."
"I see.." Kane understood. "So that means that Bradt Patrick will also be
highly invested in ensuring that the commercialization of the cleared dungeon
in the form of real estate is a successful endeavor."
"That's right," Rui nodded, grinning. "Now, I have to get to work, enough
time has probably passed."
"Enough time for what?"
"For the search to have hit a dead-end," Rui explained.
"The investigation has only been around for a few days, correct?" Kane
frowned.
"That's right, however, the prospects of finding the culprit become evidently
clear at the beginning of the investigation," Rui explained. "There is a large
window for the possible entry and exit of the culprit from their point of view,
the suspect pool is large, and the means of smuggling the yields are unclear
as well. They basically have no way to narrow down the suspects. They
cannot engage in search warrants for all possible Martial Squires because that
would piss off all the nations partaking in the Shionel Dungeon exploration,
and as annoying as the theft is, making an enemy out of all the surrounding
nations that contribute to business and are markets and clients of the Shionel
Confederation is an infinitely worse outcome that could go as far as causing a
recession in the economy."
"Right…" Kane tried following all of that. "So you're saying that you intend
to deal with them after it has become evidently clear to them that they have
very little hope of catching you in the act?"
"Correct," Rui nodded. "With that out of the way, I only need to provide them
with a strong incentive to cooperate with me, or rather, him. As long as I can
do that, I've won. And the two of us can go as all-out as possible with the
clearing of the Shionel Dungeon. I have a lot of preparations to make before I
can go ahead with that, thus I'll probably be busy for a day or two."
"This is unacceptable!" A man banged his arm on the table as he skimmed

through a few documents.
The noise drew the brief attention of many others, who glared at him for the
disturbance.
"Order, Chairman Deacon," a calm deep voice suppressed the murmurs in the
large hall, drawing everybody's attention to the source of the command.
The man stood at the center of the podium that overlooked the semi-circular
array of chairs and tables, occupied by many people.
"The best we can do is look into the matter more extensively with our
intelligence and Martial law enforcement agencies," The man replied with
measured words.
His every word seemed to stick to all those who heard him. He had an aged
appearance, yet it wasn't enough to hide the spark in his sharp eyes. The
man's demeanor, grace, and grooming conveyed a magnetic gravitas that
nearly lulled all those who beheld him into complying.
"Guildmaster Patrick," Deacon gritted his teeth and stared at him with a
frustrated expression. "I'm afraid those measures are clearly insufficient! The
progress reports and forensic and psych analyses are clear, there is no trail of
evidence that can be used to make meaningful progress in finding out who
the tax-evading culprit, who annihilated all the bloodfury rabbits of the
second floor and plundered all of its loot, is. We need to do more!"
"And what exactly would you propose?" Bradt Patrick looked at him with
casual boredom. "Would you rather we dispatch an even greater number of
agents on the case? Dump even more resources? Do we continue chasing
after this mysterious 'Voider' even if the expenses exceed what they stole
from us? Are you suggesting we endeavor in making a loss?"
His eyes sharpened. "Is that a befitting suggestion from a member of the
Shionel Merchant Guild?"
Deacon gritted his teeth as he stared at Bradt Patrick with a stern expression,
reigning in his anger. In reality, they both knew perfectly well why the
Guildmaster seemed to treat the issue as trivial, and why Chairman Deacon
was taking it extremely seriously.
In reality, neither one of them gave a single damn about this particular
instance of tax evasion. Yes, it was a violation of the adventurer contract that
every Martial Squire signed to become an adventurer, and yes, the Shionel
merchant Guild was being stolen from. However, the losses were trivial to
the capital that the Shionel Merchant Guild had. In a vacuum, both of them
would certainly be on the same when it came to catching the culprit who
evaded the tax, however, nothing ever occurred in a vacuum.
Things always occurred within their surrounding circumstances. In these

circumstances, chairman Deacon, Guildmaster Bradt's biggest rival, had
plenty of reason to be concerned by this particular instance of tax evasion,
and the fact that it was untrackable.
The fact that this individual could clear the second floor by themself but also
evade detection and could smuggle huge amounts of esoteric resource
harvests without being detected was very troubling to him, who was in the
esoteric mineral and organic supply industry. Based on the capabilities that
the culprit had already revealed, it was entirely possible that a new force
could take the supplier market of the esoteric organic and mineral ores,
thereby reducing the growth that even someone like himself would
experience, killing his greatest hope at becoming the guildmaster of the
Shionel Merchant Guild.
Guildmaster Bradt Patrick, on the other hand, was in a trade that was largely
unaffected by such an outcome, regardless of who monopolized or dominated
the supplier market of raw esoteric ores, the distribution and communication
service sector would be almost entirely unaffected. Thus, he had no issue in
letting a new variable that could potentially harm his biggest competitor take
stal
Chairman Deacon, on the other hand, needed to ensure that this did not
happen, and that necessarily began by identifying the threat. That was why he
was most invested in the outcomes of the investigation by the intelligence
and law enforcement agencies. The second that they identified the culprit, he
would deploy the entirety of the closest local branch and have the culprit
imprisoned regardless of the international pressure that he would suffer as a
consequence.
Guildmaster Bradt had cleverly used the losing proposition of extensive

investigation as a way to discredit Chairman Deacon's desire to pursue the
investigation as aggressively as possible. The value of a merchant was
measured by their ability to make money, after all, any merchant that could
not make money was not even a merchant in their eyes, and any merchant
that made losses was even worse.
That was the attack that Guildmaster Bradt Patrick was implicitly levying
against him.
Still, he was not a member of the Shionel merchant Guild for nothing.
"The only way one can conclude that it is a losing proposition is if one only
looks at the past, rather than the future," He sharply retorted. "Surely, the
great Guildmaster of our Merchant Guild is not foolish enough to believe that
a thief that has already stolen once, will never ever steal again."
Several murmurs could be heard in the hall. That was a valid point. What
kind of thief engaged in this kind of heist only once? Especially when the end
outcome was a perfect success?
"The future can be speculated, but never known," Guildmaster Bradt Patrick
replied coldly. "What you are asking for is demanding this guild to allocate
precious limited capital in an avenue that isn't confirmed to be needed, versus
the myriad of issues that need investigation and are of national importance. Is
this little thief more important than national security? Background checks and
identity verification? International espionage? Are you truly saying that,
Chairman Deacon?"
Chairman Deacon gritted his teeth, he had to admit, that was a really clever
framing and retort. He didn't have too much of an avenue for being able to
bulldoze his way through to increasing the investigative capital for this
particular case of tax evasion.
Chapter 791 Envelope
Of course, Chairman Deacon knew better than to argue and push for it any
further than he already did. Guildmaster Bradt Patrick held the final say and
had done far too good a job at painting Chairman Deacon's proposal as
unreasonable.
('That miserable serpent…') He gritted his teeth. "Guildmaster Bradt, I am

merely conveying a proposal centered around a potentially dangerous issue. It
may be an unconfirmed fear, but I did not rise to the position and power that I
possess today by having dull instincts and intuitions. I believe that this issue
will escalate, and merely wanted to nip it in the bud. However, seeing as you
have denied my proposal, you will naturally take full responsibility for what
ensues. I apologize for wasting the precious time of the Guild Forum, please,
let us continue down with the remaining agendas seeing as how much time
my paranoia has wasted."
He could not hammer his proposal through, but, he intended to at the very
least pin the blame for anything that occurred regarding this matter on the
guildmaster. Furthermore, by self-deprecatingly pushing the matter away and
moving the meeting along, he made it a little more inconvenient for
Guildmaster Bradt to be able to strongly retort.
Optics and perception mattered, if Guildmaster Bradt pursued the matter any
more aggressively than he already had after that, then it would reflect badly
on him and would send the message that he most likely has a personal
interest vested in the matter.
Guildmaster Bradt's eyes narrowed ever so slightly before he nodded

pleasantly. "Of course, Chairman Deacon, you've always been a man of
reason. Let us proceed with the next matter, then."
The rest of the forum proceeded along fairly smoothly and normally as the
Shionel merchant Guild addressed the many agendas for the meeting. Several
bills were passed, and several executive decisions were made before the
meeting ended, and the many cabinet merchants constituting the Shionel
Merchant Guild dispersed.
That went for Guildmaster Bradt Patrick as well. His distribution and
communication empire was not going to run itself.
He walked past the guards in the main branch of his company, nodding the
many guards that saluted him, before heading into his large extravagant
office.
"Hm?" his eyes narrowed as he noticed a conspicuous envelope sitting on his

table in the center with all of his other tabletop items and documents shoved
to the side.
It was an incomprehensible sight.
He picked up the envelope with furrowed eyebrows.
[To: Guildmaster Bradt Patrick
From: The Voider]
There was no address on the envelope, indicating it did not arrive by mail.
That meant that someone placed it in his mailbox?
('No…') His eyes narrowed as he looked at how someone had placed it bang
in the center of the table, shoving the other things aside in a crude matter.
It was to gain his attention and interest specifically.
('Someone unauthorized placed it here in that manner to do that, without a

doubt,') He realized as his eyes narrowed.
"Guards!" he bellowed to them.

"Yes sir!" They got down to one knee, bowing their heads.
"Who entered this office in the time that I wasn't there?"
"…No one sir," the guards replied.
"…" The guildmaster's expression grew colder as he realized that either his
guards were bought, or someone had infiltrated his office and placed the
envelope there without any of his Squire-level guards noticing.
Both outcomes were not good news.
"Bring me Feliton at this very moment." He instructed them to summon his

personal secretary and chief of staff.
Soon enough, a short and petite woman entered the office. "You called for
me, sir?"
"I want the log of all those who entered the premises today, and those that
entered the inner section of this branch immediately," He commanded her.
"Also, I want a detailed security check and a forensic analysis of this
envelope, he gestured to it on the table.
He was not a fool. Opening a strange envelope that was illegally deposited
into his office on his table, addressed to him was not safe. There were plenty
of ways this could pose a threat to his life if he opened it. Maybe it would
release a poisonous gas that was concealed in it, maybe it was a highly
compact bomb.
He was the head of state and head of government. He could not afford to
casually open such unknown items and objects in person. Assassination
attempts on his life were routine, but this was a strange incident regardless.
He was always accompanied by Martial Seniors at all times, however, the

culprit had infiltrated his office when he was away, along with the Martial
Senior protecting his life.
('Is it really from the Voider?') He narrowed his eyes. Given that the Voider
was clearly an individual with covert capabilities having avoided detection
and leaving nothing behind that they could use for an investigation besides
that he wielded a weapon, most likely.
He did not expect to be contacted by the person that had stolen from the guild
that he was the leader of, that was something no criminal that engaged in this
kind of crime would ever bother doing. There was a good chance that this
was just someone impersonating him for some sort of scam.
Still, he couldn't help but wonder if this was the real deal. If it was, he could
not help but be very curious as to why this person would go out of his way to
not just contact him, but forcibly draw his attention in this manner.
('I should at least read it if it really is a letter and not some contrived way to
try and kill me.') He thought to himself.
That possibility always was there, but he did not think that it was particularly
likely. Making the assassination weapon stand out rather than blend in and
catch him off-guard would be an extraordinarily foolish decision, and he did
not believe that anybody who possessed the ability to infiltrate his office
would make such a foolish decision.
Chapter 792 Contents
The presence of such an envelope stirred things up in his office's security.

The head of security couldn't help but be extremely ashamed regarding the
lacking security measures in the office, and security was immediately
doubled. A thorough search of the office had been conducted to ensure that
nothing had been stolen or otherwise tampered with. It took a while before
Guildmaster Bradt could return to working again under normal
circumstances.
Yet, he himself wasn't able to, or rather, chose not to, yet.
"Sir, the security check and the forensic analysis have turned up with nothing.
There is no risk or threat from the envelope, and we weren't able to gather
any data on the sender or the infiltrator," His secretary, Feliton, informed him
about the results of the two processes while handing the related documents to
him. "It has been deemed safe to open."
It was a good sign to the guildmaster that the forensic analysis had been
unable to derive anything from the envelope regarding the perpetrators. That
suggested a good level of care and caution on the side of the sender, which
meant there was less of a chance that this was an idiot who wasn't worth his
time.
"Hm," Bradt took a good look at the documents before nodding and putting
them aside. "Then, I shall take the liberty to read it in private."
"Yes sir," She bowed before the letter was promptly delivered to him, and she
left the room.
[To: Guidmaster Bradt Patrick
From: The Voider]
('I truly hope that's true,') He sighed while opening the seal and taking out the
letter.
[Dear guildmaster Bradt,
I imagine finding this letter in your office must have come as a shock. And
for that, I do apologize. I assure you, my only intention in leaving this
envelope in such a conspicuous manner through, admittedly, duplicitous
means was to draw your attention, interest, and perhaps even suspicion.
After all, the chances that you would take this letter seriously had it arrived
through the post and into your, no doubt, large daily mail arrivals was close
to zero. Unfortunately, I couldn't be sure that you would even see such an
envelope under normal circumstances, and even if you did, I don't know if
you would even pay it any mind.]
Guildmaster Bradt had to admit, that while he certainly disdained and

disliked the infiltration of his office, the words of the sender were true. He
would not have taken such a letter or that envelope seriously. It seemed
nothing short of a silly prank, and at best was someone taking the effort to
engage in a scam by pretending to be the person who cleared the second
floor.
In that regard, he had a negative impression of the current chain of events that
had come from the infiltration and the placement of the envelope on the table.
Unless this letter ended up being positive and good news for the guildmaster,
he would not be pleased with the choices that the sender made.
[Regardless, I understand that my choices may have led to the souring of

your impression of me, still, I believe that may change with the contents of
this letter. I urge you to read this letter with an open mind. I believe you will
most certainly be interested in what I have to say, what I have to offer, and
what can come to be if you decide for it to be.
The reason I have gone through such an effort to gain your attention and
perhaps even your interest is simple.
I have a proposal for you. A business proposal.]
Guildmaster Bradt has suspected this, honestly. Now that the possibility of
assassination had been dealt with, there were only a few realistic possibilities
left. And they all fell into the category of the sender seeking something from
him, while most likely offering something in return.
He could imagine what the sender wanted if the sender was really the
notorious Voider that had taken the adventuring community in the Shionel
Confederation by storm, at least, as far as gossip went.
He wasn't necessarily averse to cooperating with the Voider, however, that

doesn't mean he would be open to any trivial arrangement that the Voider
proposed.
At the end of the day, the Voider was a criminal, and not just a small one
either. As the head of the Shionel merchant Guild, he could not afford for any
engagement with such a criminal to be exposed, it would mean the end of
everything. He would at the very least lose his position as the Guildmaster of
the Shionel Merchant Guild, by law. Even if that didn't happen, he would lose
the support of the stakeholders and shareholders of the Merchant Guild, and
that was no different from losing the next election to that scoundrel Chairman
Deacon.
The matters at stake were not trivial, unless whatever business proposal this
individual claiming to be the Voider, something that wasn't even proven yet,
truly appealed strongly to his interests, he could not afford to engage in any
shady deals at this point in time.
He continued reading, with a mixture of interest, apprehension and even

hope.
[Allow me to begin with what I'm offering. I'm aware of your predicament as
the current guildmaster of the Shionel Merchant Guild. I am aware that the
discovery of the Shionel Dungeon, while generally a very positive event for
the Shionel Merchant Guild and the Shionel Confederation, has not boded
well for your previously unshakable position as the guildmaster of the
I am aware that the dungeon has benefited your biggest rival and opponent,
Chairman Deacon of Deacon Industries, far more than it has benefited you.
The sudden and drastic increase in both the availability of esoteric resources
as well as the corresponding demand has benefited the esoteric supplier
market and the esoteric technology sector, both of which your opponent
Chairman Deacon has an unshakable dominant position in. His rate of growth
skyrockets, and there is very little you can do about that.
Well, what if I told you that there was something you could do about it?
What if I told you that I have the ability to break his dominance in the
esoteric supplies market with an unparalleled harvesting capability? Thereby
reducing his growth drastically, and allowing you to secure political
dominance.]
Chapter 793 Requirements
He had initially expected that the sender would fail to appeal to him strongly
for him to cooperate with whatever the sender had in mind. However, the fact
that the sender was able to pinpoint what was his biggest political problem at
the moment was a good sign. I meant that the sender had a good
understanding of the political situation of the Shionel Merchant Guild.
This was quite impressive as the happenings of the Shionel Merchant Guild
were not publicized, and thus the actual political maelstrom that existed at the
moment was something an overwhelming majority of the populous was
mostly unaware of.
It showed that the sender had the right connections inside the Shionel
Merchant Guild, or possessed an astute and shrewd mind, and was able to
discern the political landscape of the Shionel Merchant Guild.
This was good, it was further reinforcement that the person really was at least
not an idiot that was completely not worth cooperating with.
[Before I jump into my proposal, I need to lay out what I aim to seek from
you rather straightforwardly. The first and foremost thing I seek is the ability
to pay taxes anonymously and untrackably, I do not wish to thieve from the
Shionel Merchant Guild, I simply wish to ensure that my identity will not be
disclosed in the process as it inevitably would if I pay taxes according to
legal protocols. The reason for this has nothing to do with the tax, itself, I had
made this decision to not disclose my identity as the one who solo-cleared the
Shionel Dungeon long before I didn't pay my tax, for reasons I'm sure you
can understand why.]
He could, it wasn't hard to imagine why such an absurdly strong and capable
Martial Squire, capable of singlehandedly clearing and plundering the second
floor of the Shionel Dungeon would want to keep their identity mum for the
time being.
If the Voider intended to apply their remarkable prowess in clearing floors to

the rest of the floors of the dungeon, then there could easily be another force
that perhaps even surpassed the S-rankers that were currently partaking in the
clearing of the Shionel Dungeon.
However, doing so would earn him the ire of the many forces competing for
the clearing and plundering of the Shionel Dungeon. It would be no different
from declaring war against the established oligopolies that currently existed
at the moment. That was an incredible burden and risk to life. If the identity
of such a person was known, they would be fraught with covert and overt
assassinations from all kinds of groups who would do anything against a
person that was able to outcompete them all.
On top of that, their ability to clear dungeons was not proportional to their
ability to fight against other Martial Squires outside of the dungeon. Success
in an environment as strange and different from the norm as the Shionel
Dungeon was most certainly not the same as being able to succeed against
hordes of Martial Squire assassins if not even Martial Seniors.
The fact that the Voider went so far out of their way to hide their identity was
only proof that they knew very well that they could not survive such a
scenario. In comparison to certain death, tax fraud was an extremely alluring
choice.
('Seems consistent so far, still, this alone isn't enough,') Guildmaster Bradt
Patrick calmly analyzed all the information at hand. ('They still have not
proved that they are the Voider, so all of this is just meaningless until then.')
He did not get swallowed up in fantasies about any collusion with the Voider,
as much as a fruitful endeavor was desirable, at the end of the day, he was a
man who operated in reality and not in fantasy. There were still far too
conditions that needed to be fulfilled and issues that needed to be cleared up,
before he could even consider engaging in such a venture.
Still, thus far the message that he was reading did not blatantly disqualify the
sender of the letter as a candidate for a partnership of some sort.
[Secondly, I wish to be able to exercise my dungeon-clearing prowess

without restriction. This may sound like a simple and trivial issue that already
exists, but I'm sure you understand that any individual entity in the Shionel
Dungeon that aims to dominate the supplies of the esoteric resources of the
Shionel Dungeon without the corresponding political capital to do so without
facing suppression, will not be able to come out unscathed. At the very least,
I will become the target of many constituents of the Shionel Merchant Guild,
I'm sure you have a far deeper understanding of this dynamic than I do.]
He definitely did. The Shionel Merchant Guild did not want to see a single
oligopoly which referred to a monopoly over the market, that too of an
outsider, in the esoteric resource supplier market. This was true even for
Guildmaster Brat Patrick principally. A market with no monopoly was
generally more desirable. At the moment, the Shionel Merchant unanimously
preferred the latter, when purely considering the interests of the nation.
Of course, Guildmaster Bradt had his own interests to consider over the
matter, considering his rivalry against Chairman Deacon and his desire to
maintain his stronghold over the political landscape of the Shionel
Confederation.
The sender had realized this and had taken the liberty to present a demand
that required the president to act against the interest of the Shionel
Confederation, for the sake of his own interests, which were greater.
[Thirdly, I wish to sign a partnership with Bradt Distribution Services to

engage in the distribution of my esoteric harvest to the open market.]
Bradt Patrick's eyes widened at this condition as understood another reason

why the sender, if they really were the Voider, had decided to contact
Guildmaster Bradt Patrick and gain his cooperation over various matters.
Guildmaster Bradt Patrick was perfectly in a position to aid the sender over
his most difficult challenges.

Chapter 794 Heavy Demands
In Guildmaster Bradt's eyes, one of the biggest issues that the Voider,
whoever that was, had was being able to actually sell and distribute the
esoteric resources that they had harvested from the dungeon. This was
practically impossible when one considered the sheer number of obstacles
that came with trying to do while still hiding their identity as the person who
was clearing the floors of the dungeon and illegally embezzling them from
the dungeon.
Forming a company in the Shionel Dungeon required registration of identity,

among many other things. Although the restrictions and difficulty of forming
a company whose goods or services were specifically related to the Shionel
Dungeon had been exclusively laxed by Guildmaster Bradt Patrick himself,
for the sake of increasing the number of companies and businesses formed
around the Shionel Dungeon.
Because there was an enormous amount of potential for business surrounding

anything related to the Shionel Dungeon in the Shionel Confederation, a huge
number of people wanted to start a business venture surrounding it in the
Shionel Confederation. The lowered restrictions and difficulty made it far
more appealing and inviting for foreigners to migrate to the Shionel
Confederation and start up a business.
This change in policy allowed for a huge boom in any and all sectors that
could even remotely be tied to the Shionel Dungeon, including things as
distantly related as blacksmiths forging tools and weapons that were
particularly useful in the Shionel Dungeon. However, despite this,
registration of identity was required by law.
This policy would definitely be very problematic for the Voider, who was
clearly very determined to keep their identity secret. Guildmaster Bradt still
hadn't figured out how exactly the Voider intended to overcome that problem,
but relying on the Bradt Distribution Services to handle the heavy lifting was
definitely a clever idea, it would minimize involvement and prevent too much
exposure.
The only way they could bypass this was if they was specifically deployed by
conscription from a nation and were decreed to supply all of the harvests
back to the nation, thus the limitations of the market were not all that
restricting to the Voider in that case.
However, at this point, Guildmaster Bradt Patrick was around ninety-percent

certain that the Voider was acting alone, or at best with a few limited
associates. The measures and precautions taken by this individual were too
cautious for a person with strong backing and protection. Nobody would dare
attack a Martial Squire from a power Sage-level nation with plenty of
protection even within the nation.
Assassinating such a well-protected superstar with Martial Squires would be

damn near impossible and very costly, and deploying a Martial Senior is an
extremely high-profile measure that would instantly expose the perpetrator
behind such an assassination. Martial Seniors were far too high-profile. This
applied to even the covert ones.
The identities would be revealed very quickly once the Senior-level

techniques were used to identify the Martial Senior, and if the nation that the
Voider belonged to was a bigshot like the Britannian Empire, Kandrian
Empire, Sekigahara Confederate, or the Republic of Gorteau then they would
interpret it as a declaration of war, and the perpetrating entity would have no
choice but to brace themselves for their wrath.
Thus he was sure that the Voider was not from these nations, or at the very
least, was not being conscripted and deployed by them, or anything other
nation worth its weight.
[Specifically, I'm willing to concede half of all the profits to the Bradt
Distribution Services for serving as a liaison between myself and the
consumer market.]
That was quite the concession, this further reinforced the fact that the Voider
did not have any third-party backing or patroning them, for that entity would
not tolerate the concession of half of the profits earned by them. He could see
why this wasn't enough.
[I do have one last demand. I would like to request you pass a bill that allows
for anonymous registration and creation of a supplier company surrounding
my esoteric resource harvests of the Shionel Dungeon.]
Guildmaster Bradt Patrick tilted his head as he frowned deeply, narrowing his
eyes. Perhaps he misjudged the sender, maybe he was in over his head.
Demanding the head of government to pass such a bill as a condition for
cooperation that they themselves were proposing to him?
"Fuuu… And here I was getting a little interested and even excited to
collaborate with someone who seemed shrewd and sharp. What a joke," He
shook his head with disappointment.
The earlier bare basic terms and conditions that had been established were
much more understandable and agreeable.
The sender claiming to be the Voider wanted anonymity as far as tax

payments went, and cooperation with the distribution of their esoteric
supplies to be handled by his distribution company.
In exchange, he would break Chairman Deacon's dominance over the supplier

market of the esoteric resources supplied from the Shionel Dungeon with his
demonstrably high ability to plunder and clear dungeons, while also
conceding half the profits made from this venture to the Bradt Patrick.
This was a reasonable exchange of trades, however, the last condition was an
absurd demand that far outweighed what he was giving Guildmaster Patrick
in exchange. The leader of the Shionel Merchant Guild was not someone who
allowed himself to be exploited and played for a fiddle.
"Hmph, to think he would demand such a thing given what he is offering,"

He snorted, a little irritated. He wanted to toss the letter into the bin, and
immediately strengthen the investigation into the break-in, but maintained his
composure. He ought to at least finish reading the letter.
In the following paragraph, the writer shamelessly described the condition for
the bill that he had requested be passed, before finally moving on.
[Ah, I have yet to mention the final thing that I am offering. What I am
offering is a detailed, fully scaled, accurate and precise three-dimensional
map of the interior layout and structure of the Shionel Dungeon, featuring
accurate information and depiction of all the floors and tunnels across the
entire dungeon.]
Chapter 795 Shock
That day the Martial Squire guards of the chairman's office of the Bradt
Distribution Services' main branch experienced something that they had
never encountered before.
It was the Guildmaster raising his voice.
"WHAT?!"
The Martial Squires rushed to his office in shock and alarm. They, who had
witnessed the good guildmaster and chairman being nothing short of cool as a
cucumber in extremely dire circumstances, could not imagine what could
cause their target of protection to exclaim in such a manner.
"Sir! Are you Ok?!"
In just a matter of milliseconds, they had already formed a defensive

blockade. While his most trusted chief of the security detail made sure that
the guildmaster was not afflicted by any external influence.
"Sir?" She asked with concern. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Fine. I appreciate your alertness and diligence but return to your
positions," He quickly dismissed them before turning back to the letter with
widened eyes.
('A fully detailed and accurate map?') He couldn't help but be incredulous at
such a claim.
As the largest gargantuan in the distribution and communication sector of not

just the Shionel Confederation, but also the local international markets, he
knew the importance of accurate and precise mapping more than anyone else
within ten thousand kilometers.
It was absolutely paramount.
In a world where the internet, satellites, satellite world mapping, and GPS
tracking did not exist, hand-drawn maps with high accuracy and precision
were no different from a strategic resource! Information was power, and
maps most certainly fell into this category.
He even prided himself in being one of the few elite entities in the world that
possessed an updated, complete highly accurate, and detailed Panama
Continent map, including the five inland oceans and the seven inland seas.
The only exception to this was the depths of the Beast Domain, but he did not
give two hoots about the depths of the Beast Domain since there was no
human civilization inside the Beast Domain that he could sell his distribution
services to.
This was a map that only the most powerful countries across the nation had
the power to acquire or create. In the eastside section of the Panama
Continent, he estimated that the only entities that possessed this information
were the four powerhouse sage-level nations, and himself.
This intelligence was part of the cornerstone and the foundation of his
distribution empire that he had painstakingly built over thirty years. It took a
considerable amount of skilled labor in the form of his cartography
department, funds, and resources to not only obtain a highly accurate and
precise map of the entire continent that stretched for many, many dozens of
thousands of kilometers in any direction but also maintaining it as time
passed.
Much of the continent was very much in chaos and flux, outside of the most
powerful and stable nations.
Huge oceans of people migrated, villages, settlements, and towns appeared

and disappeared over time, and topography was constantly changing at varied
paces due to the natural elements that afflicted the continent. The larger a
map, the more frequently it needed to be updated before it become inaccurate
and irrelevant.
Yet it was worth it despite all of this difficulty.
The profits, influence, and political capital that he made and gained were
directly proportional to the size of the market that his Bradt Distribution
Service had access to. In turn, the size of the market that he had access to was
limited by the size of accurate and precise maps that he was using.
His company was only as big as his maps!
That was why Guildmaster Patrick visibly shook when the author of the letter
offered a detailed complete map of the internal layout and structure of the
Shionel Dungeon with high accuracy and precision.
('Just how many of my attempts to accurately map even the most surface-
level parts of the dungeon have failed or proved to be too taxing?') he
wondered. He had lost count by now. Human cartographers could not enter
the dungeon, and there was no such thing as a Martial cartographer, even if
they were somehow given the necessary training, the commonly used
instruments were completely useless in the environment of the Shionel
Dungeon. Even the most powerful and accurate of compasses were helpless
against the jamming effects of the Shionel Dungeon.
That left extremely primitive analog methods such as literally measuring

distances, directions, and dimensions using many kilometers of rope!
Such a primitive method of mapping would take decades to complete given

that the Shionel Dungeon had a diameter and depth of sixty kilometers,
effectively having the volume of a country inside of it.
Thus he had all but resigned, with grave regrets and pains, in trying to map
the Shionel Dungeon. When he saw the author of the letter casually throwing
in this offer, he could not help but lose his composure.
The person on the other side of the letter had dangled one of his greatest
desires and deepest regrets in front of him after making such a titanic demand
from him like passing a bill that affected the entire country and the hottest
economy on the East side of the Panama Continent.
('There's no way a single Martial Squire can possibly map the entirety of the
Shionel Dungeon,') His rationality kicked in.
The difficulty was so ridiculously high that singlehandedly soloing the

dungeon was easier than mapping it!
How could he possibly take such a statement, no, a declaration, at face value?
This had to be a scam!
[I understand that you no doubt strongly suspect this to be a scam. I

understand that at the moment that you are reading this, you have no
evidence of any sort to suggest that my words are the truth. I can provide you
with proof, as long as we iron out the intent to cooperate under the many
conditions the two of us no doubt have. However, this cannot be done with
remote communication. Thus, I'd like to set up a meeting between you and
me, face-to-face.]
Chapter 796 Possibilities
Guildmaster Bradt had to admit that this was one of the most novel letters
that he had ever read in his entire life. It was truly an experience in and of
itself.
He suspected that the author intended for it to be that way, they could have
been a lot more cut and dry regarding this matter, but they chose not to. He
had gone in-depth into a lot of the other conditions and offers but lightly
added the most shocking offer in the entire letter. Which was the offer of a
detailed map of the Shionel Dungeon that was highly accurate and precise,
allegedly.
He still wasn't convinced that the claim was true. However, if it was true,
there really was only one way that such a thing was true.
"A Martial Art technique, hm?" He mused to himself.
It was one of the more frustrating things about trying to predict the future of
civilization as a merchant. While he possessed the ability to evaluate
sociological, cultural, commercial and economic, and even technological
trends to a certain degree, he possessed very little insight into Martial trends.
This was because Martial Art, as a field and a sector, was far more prone to
being influenced by individual influences than any other field of pursuit that
currently existed. It was a highly exclusive field that denied entry and insight
to those who were unworthy to enter this realm of Martial Paths.
Unlike in the fields of science, where scientific progress was generally

hoisted by the scientific community at large, it was much easier for a Martial
Artist to make radical progress by developing a powerful technique with high
dissemination viability that shook up Martial trends out of the blue
He could look at scientific fields and make much more accurate gauges of
their trends with some consultation, but the same could not be said for
Martial Art. Sometimes he went to sleep afraid that some Martial Master
would develop a revolutionary technology that would allow for instantaneous
transport between great distances.
He had no indication that such a thing was particularly unlikely, he could

only handle them as they came.
In this case, the sheer confidence with which this particular individual
declared his ability to provide a highly accurate and precise map of the
Shionel Dungeon would probably be based on a Martial Art technique, rather
than through conventional means. This was still assuming that there was truth
to this claim and it wasn't fabricated lies and nonsense.
[I'd like to set up a meeting in the Inner Ring of the Adventurer Ring town.
Specifically, in the Guild office number thirty-two, at nine PM on the fortieth
of Winter. I will offer you proof of my identity of the Voider, and proof of
my claims regarding the map.]
The Guildmaster frowned at that date. That date was special as it was five
days from now and also was the day that the native Martial Squires of the
Shionel military would be attempting to raid the latest floor discovered, the
thirteenth floor of the Shionel Dungeon.
Furthermore, the time of the meeting had been scheduled after the many
Martial Squire adventurers of the Shionel Confederation would enter the
dungeon.
Guildmaster Bradt couldn't help but feel suspicious. He also noted that the
location of the meeting necessarily excluded the presence of Martial Seniors,
since they could not be anywhere near the Shionel Dungeon. This was
probably intentional and the reason for the location of the meeting since
Martial Seniors would obviously catch him and Guildmaster Bradt would
have an overwhelming advantage in any engagement that they then come to
an agreement over.
"Clever…" He narrowed his eyes.
This was good because it meant that the person was competent, which meant
the probability of failure of any such endeavor was very low. However, it was
not good in the sense that it would be difficult to force an agreement that was
disproportionately beneficial to him. Still, it was overall a positive thing. He
would still rather deal with an intelligent and competent person than a
careless idiot, especially when the person he was dealing with had a very
important role in all of this.
"Hm…"
He had no choice but to go especially when proof of identities and proof of

the dungeon map was guaranteed. Especially the latter, he absolutely could
not allow a dungeon map to slip out of his hands under any circumstances
whatsoever.
Still, he had some preparations to make, so he appreciated the few days that
he had for the meeting. He had many considerations to go over as well.
For one, couldn't he just capture the Voider with force in that meeting?
True, the Voider was obviously powerful for soloing the second floor,
however, could he really handle a huge number of Martial Squires outside the
dungeon?
Probably not.
In that case? What was to stop Guildmaster Bradt Patrick from capturing
them then and there once their identity had been confirmed under the charges
of tax evasion and breaking and entering the guild master's office illegally?
Then he could use all forms of persuasion to use the Voider as he wished.
Wasn't that a less risky route to go? Than to trust some random stranger into
keeping their word, and ensuring that they act carefully and cautiously at all
times.
He was not averse to engaging in such measures, certainly not for moral
reasons. He had walked over a mountain of corpses, that he was responsible
for, to reach where he was, and he did not mind adding one more to the list if
necessary.
If necessary, of course. Frankly, it entirely depended on the Voider. If it

turned out to be the case that the Voider had arrived in person with no
countermeasures against such a foreseeable outcome, then Guildmaster Bradt
Patrick was inclined to capture them alive than let such a moron run around
freely.
However, if it turned out to be the case that they had fully accounted for this
possibility, then he would be a lot more reliable and credible in his eyes.
STEP
"Alright, this should be far enough," Rui nodded. "Thanks, Kane."
Kane nodded, before sighing. "You sure you have this all figured out right?"
"Of course I do," Rui nodded. "I appreciate your concern, but trust me, I have
spent an enormous amount of thought into this."
Rui had been extremely busy since they cleared the second floor, doing
things that Kane couldn't even imagine.
He even had Kane help him a lot, even though his demands were quite
shocking. Like when he asked Kane to deposit a letter crudely at the center of
the table pushing everything aside and off after infiltrating the main branch
office of the guildmaster of the nation. That was unnerving, but Kane had
done a lot of such covert missions thanks to his Void Step technique. Even in
Vilun Island, he had been tasked with infiltrating the G'ak'arkan Village to
wiretap multiple locations despite the presence of a Martial Senior in the
village, albeit sleeping.
Thus, it wasn't that big of a deal for him to infiltrate the guildmaster's office
at all since there were only Martial Squires guarding the place.
What he didn't understand was the necessity of such a measure when Rui
could have simply mailed the envelope to the guildmaster's office like a sane
person. Still, he learned that Rui always had a reason for doing everything, so
he simply decided to trust him with this matter.
"Still… Why the hell are you dressed in that manner?" Kane frowned. "It's
giving my senses a really strange and annoying sensation like in the dungeon.
Rui was completely clothed in a seemingly thick black cloth that made it
seem like he was wearing four layers of clothes at the moment.
"It's all part of the plan, my friend," Rui said.
"Alright," Kane shrugged. "Good luck,"
He vanished into thin air right before Rui's eyes.
"Fuuu…" Rui sighed before looking at all the things that he had brought
along with him.
To his left were several bags filled with the edges of the tails of the bloodfury
rabbits that he had slaughtered. He had barely managed to get them all before
the Saberstrike Party happened upon the scene. He managed to escape with as
many as he could having sensed them when they were kilometers away for
him. He could not be caught off-guard by any being inside the Shionel
Dungeon, it was absolutely impossible.
The tail ends of the bloodfury rabbit corpses ought to have served as pretty
solid proof of identity. Considering the estimated time of death through the
autopsies and the arrival of the Saberstrike Party, it would be inconceivable
for anyone else to have cut their tails off.
Furthermore, only the Voider would feel the need to do such a thing. No sane
adventurer would go through such a thankless task without an extremely
good reason. Although there were still some potential objections that
Guildmaster Bradt Patrick could raise, it was still pretty compelling, as far as
he was considered.
Besides, he highly doubted that Guildmaster Bradt would be particularly

pedantic about this point. Frankly, with the map offer in place, he was mostly
certain that Guildmaster Bradt no longer gave a damn about whether he was
the Voider or not.
If he was the Voider, and he did possesses a map, then Guildmaster Bradt
would be eager to deal with him.
If he wasn't the Voider, and he did possess a map, then Guildmaster Bradt
would still be quite eager to forge a deal with him.
"Still…" Rui glanced at the three books that he was carrying with him. Each
book contained a folded map that formed its pages. Because the Shionel
Dungeon was a three-dimensional structure, a single two-dimensional was
inadequate to map it, since it could not account for the third dimension.
Thus, Rui had decided to create three maps, each map mapping the surface
level of the Shionel Dungeon from two of the three dimensions. Together,
they provided every ounce of information one could want from a map.
Rui had spent quite some effort in creating, and among the many preparations
he had made back in the Kandrian Empire when he and Kane had yet to leave
was gaining a good foundation in cartography. Cartography was not a
discreet field and required many skillsets and an understanding of other fields
to learn it. Thankfully, the presence of his power senses and the Mind Palace
allowed him to dismiss several otherwise necessary skill sets in mastering it.
What he had particularly learned was the art of creating a map. With his
learning cognition, it didn't take long before he developed a sufficient
foundation with that particular skill. His maps were plenty adequate as far as
detail, proportion and scaling, accuracy and precision went.
And that was good enough.
Soon enough, it was time. Rui pulled out a pocket watch, glancing at the time
when he noticed some movement at guild branch number thirty-two. Several
high-grade Martial Squires wearing the Shionel Confederation's emblem had
arrived at the guild in a high-profile manner.
('That must be them,') Rui nodded.
THUD
He leaped out of the dungeon cave he had been hiding in, landing on the
ground before walking towards the large gate that separated the dungeon
from the inner ring of Adventurer Town.
Despite being completely covered in a thick black fabric from head to toe, he
didn't draw too much attention. Surprisingly enough, that probably wasn't the
most ridiculous thing a Martial Artist had worn.
He entered the guild branch, before simply taking a seat in the guest, picking
up a newspaper while skimming through its pages, even though his entire
face was covered with the unusually thick black fabric. He drew strange
looks, but he didn't particularly care.
"Excuse me?" A powerful high-grade Martial Squire approached him, eying

him sharply. "I believe you have scheduled an appointment in this guild
branch, correct?"
"Oh, is it that time already?" Rui wondered aloud. "Time sure does fly."
"Please come this way, we have made the appropriate preparations to receive
you,"
Chapter 798 Trap
He could tell why the Martial Squires that led him to the meeting room eyed
him carefully, frowning mildly. He had carefully stuffed this makeshift with
the same insulating esoteric substances that jammed sensing in the Shionel
Dungeon.
He was not stupid, he was certain that the Guildmaster of the Shionel
Merchant Guild would make at least one attempt to figure out his identity. He
was pretty sure that there existed Martial Squires that could track his identity
or his location through their senses. Thus Rui had gone to great lengths to
ensure that that was not possible. He had taken multiple measures to ensure
that there was no way that they could figure out his identity otherwise.
CLACK
They opened the door, before gesturing inside. "The meeting will be
conducted inside,"
Rui found two other Martial Squires inside, as well as a strange and
sophisticated contraption at the end of the room.
There was no sight of Guildmaster Bradt.
"Is this a trap?" Rui asked calmly and openly.
The two stared at him for a moment before one walked forward, pressing a
few buttons.
FVOOM
Suddenly the device projected an image of an elderly man sitting on a chair
on the other side of the table.
"If it was a trap, Voider, what would you do?" Guildmaster Bradt's projection
asked.
('Three-dimensional projection, eh?') Rui's eyes widened as he admired the

technology. This was definitely extremely advanced esoteric technology that
probably required rare and powerful esoteric substances. He wouldn't be
surprised if it had high-energy demands. That would explain why he had
literally never heard of such technology before.
Still, he wasn't too taken aback. Three-dimensional technology was abundant

in the vast fictional media industries of Earth.
He had predicted that Guildmaster Bradt would not be personally arriving,

that was extremely dangerous, to an unnecessary degree
"Threaten you," Rui replied.
Guildmaster Bradt narrowed his eyes. The obvious question that was
presented was how Rui intended to threaten him if he wasn't in the room, but
it became evidently clear, that he was confident enough for whatever he had
in mind.
"With what?" Guildmaster Bradt's stared at him sharply. "Are you hiding
explosives under your thick full-body attire?"
"Hah, you already know that is not the case, don't you?" Rui chuckled, before
shaking his head. There was no way that he had already undergone covert
security checks the second he entered the guild branch.
"True," Guildmaster Bradt admitted. "It's also curious as to why I shouldn't

order my men to capture you for tax evasion and breaking into my office
illegally. Anything you have to say to me, I can hear after you're at my
complete mercy, don't you think? I could legally make you my slave and
force you to work for me against your will."
"You could," Rui admitted. "But you would lose a lot in the process."
"Like what? Enlighten me,"
"The Shionel Dungeon, and all of the Martial Squires inside," Rui replied.
"What?" The man's eyes narrowed.
His expression did not betray much emotion, but Rui could feel the tension in
the room instinctively.
"Did you know… that there are a lot of special Martial Art techniques in this
world?" Rui asked lightly. "They can do all sorts of things, you won't believe
the kind of things that they allow us Martial Artists to do."
"Get to the point," The man growled.
"Among the many techniques that I have mastered. I have a technique that
allows me to increase my projected power and sense of danger to other
creatures that have an evolutionary sense of danger to them," Rui explained.
"It allows me to project danger that exceeds the limits of the Squire Realm."
"You…" Guildmaster Bradt's eyes widened.
"Here's a question, Guildmaster Patrick, do you know what happens to a

dungeon, when it faces a significant enough threat?" Rui asked as a smile
formed under his mask.
The two Martial Squires grew increasingly tense as Rui began mounting a
great amount of pressure reaching, reaching the peak of the Squire Realm.
The sheer pressure he exerted was stronger than anything that they had
sensed in the Squire Realm.
"When a dungeon faces a perceived threat that is evaluated to exceed its

acceptable threshold… then it triggers a retaliatory response, it throws
everything towards the threat until it's out of range, or eliminated. In doing
so, it warps its structure, inevitably causing a lot of damage," Rui explained
some common knowledge as he noted the increasing tension in the room,
turning towards Guildmaster Bradt. "It would be a shame if something like
that happened right now, wouldn't it?"
Then, for just the briefest of moments, he put on the most powerful Mind
Mask that he was possibly able to produce. The ten months of continuously
using this technique during his time on Vilun Island massively increased his
proficiency with this technique due to the continuous usage of the technique.
On top of that, he had grown much stronger than he was when he first joined
Vilun Island. Having mastered a technique and undergone strength training
for the G'ak'arkan technique that he had mastered as well as the development
of the Transverse Resonance and the new set of techniques and tactics that he
created had put him well above where he was a year and a half ago.
If his strongest Mind Mask back then produce a grade-ten Squire-level aura,
then what would his very best be currently?
For less than a millisecond, a powerful Senior-level aura descended in the

area. The Martial Squires in the area shuddered as they felt a sense of danger
that transcended the Squire Realm!
It disappeared as quickly as it appeared, yet before the Martial Squires could

even feel relief, they felt a wave of light tremors through the ground.
RUMBLE
"You…!" Guildmaster Bradt's expression had turned severe as he understood

what had happened from the tremors, as well as the reaction of his Martial
Squires.
"Heh," Rui chuckled lightly. "That was dangerous. I only maintained it for
the briefest of moments to prove I could do it, but it still reacted nonetheless.
Looks like the Shionel Dungeon did not appreciate that. No sir, it did not."
He turned towards Guildmaster Bradt, leaning forward. "Now then, what was
that about making me your slave?"
Chapter 799 Map
Rui was taking a bit of a gamble with his bold brashness, but he knew that it
would be impossible to earn the respect and fear needed for the guildmaster
to take him seriously. The latter was a tremendously powerful man with
power, authority, wealth, and influence that far surpassed anything Rui could
deal with in ordinary circumstances.
And they both knew that.
That was why Rui had decided that he needed to convey without a shred of
doubt that this wasn't one of those circumstances. Rui would not tolerate
being pushed around unduly, or being threatened.
Still, he put on a cool facade, but even his heart skipped a beat when the
ground started trembling. He realized that he had underestimated how
powerful the Shionel Dungeon was. Had he maintained for even half a
second more, a calamity might have occurred.
"H…"
"Hm?" He focused on the guildmaster again with furrowed eyebrows.
"Haha… HAHAHA," The man started guffawing.
That made Rui quite nervous. He had expected that the man would grow
unnerved, and would instantly put on a pleasant salesman facade to appease
Rui. But instead, he not only seemed unperturbed but also emboldened.
"It's been a while since someone has had the balls to threaten me," He began
speaking more informally as his toothy grin widened. He stared at Rui with
an intense fixation reflecting in his bloodshot eyes.
Rui's eyes widened as he felt his nerves tingling.
('This man… is able to pressure me?')
He wasn't even physically present in the same room, he was supposed to be

just a normal human that Rui eviscerate with ease. Yet that did not translate
into the unshakeable confidence that Rui had with other humans, for some
reason.
"I have to say, I'm impressed," He settled down as he regained the composure
that he momentarily lost. "Rest assured, brave Squire, I have no intention of
enslaving you. Instead, I am quite intrigued at the prospect of cooperating
with you. Still…"
His eyes narrowed. "There are several issues that need to be addressed. First,
your identity. That little trick earlier is noteworthy, but it cannot help you
clear dungeons as spectacularly well as you claim you can. Are you the
individual who cleared the second floor of the Shionel Dungeon?"
Rui replied by dumping the huge bags of bloodfury rabbit tail-ends on the
table. "As you can see, I have collected proof for each rabbit I killed. You can
conduct tests and verify that the time of death of the tissue is around the same
as the time of death of the corpses, and I'm sure the missing tails have been
noticed too."
Guildmaster Bradt had clearly expected something of this sort, he did not
show any immediate reactions to the matter.
"I understand that this isn't necessarily absolute proof. Though I'm sure it is
compelling given the timeline that you have, no doubt, constructed as well as
the fact that I even bothered going through such a tedious task at all," Rui
shrugged. "Though I can always provide greater corroborating proof in the
future if need be. This should not be a contentious issue, I'm sure."
"You're correct," He simply stated. "Still, the fact that you went out of your
way to gather this evidence when clearing the second floor, means that you
had planned this well ahead of time, correct?"
Rui shrugged, not replying.
"Well, putting that aside," He said, seeing as Rui was not willing to talk about
this matter. "I want to confirm the map."
Rui could feel that he had grown a lot more intense and serious regarding this
matter. If Rui messed up in this particular regard, he would not laugh it off
like when Rui pulled off that bold move earlier.
Rui pulled out three books and he tossed them onto the table. The Martial
Squires in the room moved forward as they opened the various books,
unfolding the pages as they each formed large maps that mapped the surface
level of the dungeon and the vicinity of the first floor and second floors rather
accurately and in a detailed matter.
The guildmaster's eyes widened as he beheld remarkably detailed and precise

maps. The tunnels were drawn to detail, showing their varying and
fluctuating diameters and directions.
The cardinal directions on the map allowed the man to know which dungeon
was facing which direction, something that was almost impossible to do due
to compasses not functioning properly inside the dungeon.
"This…" Guildmaster Bradt was unable to hide his greed and amazement.
"… Is far more detailed and precise than I was expecting while also abiding
by the norms of the field cartography, I can see that you're someone who is
adept at cartography."
Rui did not respond to that, it was not as simple as he made it out to be since
he was using his remarkable mental faculties to skip half of the work that
came with drawing maps. Still, he had no intention of revealing that to the
guildmaster.
"Still," he turned to Rui, staring at him with sharp eyes. "There is no proof
these are accurate,"
Rui chuckled out loud. "The only way to confirm for a fact that a map is
genuinely accurate is to verify it firsthand. You can keep those maps as a
token of my sincerity. They constitute about two percent of the Shionel
Dungeon, although it did take me quite a long time before I was able to make
those, only then did I proceed to actually clear the second floor."
That was a lie, and quite the believable one. He wanted Guildmaster Patrick
to believe that he had been working on this particular venture for an extended
period of time in the Shionel Confederation. This would throw off the
investigation that Guildmaster Bradt would inevitably begin on finding out
Rui's true identity. Regardless of his evaluation of Rui's competencies, he
was still better off knowing the true identity of the person he was making
such a significant deal with, than not.
***
Author's note:
Dear tier non-priv readers, I apologize for the delay in chapters that occurred
due to a WN priv glitch that caused tier 3 priv to require 8 more chapters
against my wishes. I spent the 1st and 2nd of June filling tier 3 priv up. I will
publish 6 extra chapters this month to compensate, so you will get what you
paid for.
Apologies for the inconvenience again, and than you for your support. :)
Chapter 800 Verification
Guildmaster Bradt was a powerful individual. No matter how capable and

competent Rui was at clearing dungeons, the second his identity was given
away, he would be at a disadvantage when interacting with someone of his
stature and power.
He had command over the intelligence, military, and agencies of the Shionel
Confederation. He could easily have Rui assassinated if he knew his true
identity, and Rui did not want to put himself in that position.
Thankfully, it seemed he believed Rui's words, for the most part.
"It's quite impressive that you managed to make this within a reasonable
timeframe at all," The man nodded. "You have completed the task quicker
than a team of cartographers from the intelligence department of my
company would have, and you seem unbothered by the jamming effect of the
dungeon. That would explain your ability to be able to gather the information
needed on the layout and structure of the dungeon without too much
difficulty."
He turned towards Rui, taking his eyes off the map.
"That's also why you have stuffed that ridiculously oversized attire with the
esoteric substances of the Shionel Dungeon that also jam senses, correct?"
The man gave Rui a knowing look. "I have been unable to gather any
information on your appearance ever since you arrived at the guild branch."
Rui didn't reply, but his silence was an answer enough.
"I'm quite optimistic about the maps that I'm seeing here," He said, turning
back to give them another look. "Although it is true that I cannot verify their
accuracy this very moment, I cannot see anything that would cause me to
discredit it, and the sheer amount of detail there is in it raises their value
significantly if accurate."
He turned back to Rui. "All in all, I am quite appreciative of them as a token

of sincerity. Now then, let's get down to business. How confident are you in
your ability to dominate the supplier market of esoteric resource supplies?"
"I am quite confident of that," Rui shrugged. "I possess the ability to bypass
monsters in the same way that I bypassed human surveillance when I sneaked
my harvest uncaught. My combat ability is at the peak of the Squire Realm,
and beyond those of any gathered here in the Shionel Confederation to raid
and plunder the dungeon. I have already demonstrated what would take teams
of Martial Squires to accomplish, I can accomplish by myself."
He did not even hint at the existence of Kane and was quite careful to not
drag him into this particular matter. He knew that his friend was exercising a
lot of trust by giving him free rein on such a sensitive matter.
"True, still, your ability is not as rigorously proven as I would be most

comfortable with," Guildmaster Bradt replied.
"Perhaps," Rui shrugged. "That's an issue that can very easily be fixed, but
regardless, it's not an issue in the first place."
"What?" The man stared at Rui.
"I have already proven my ability to map the Shionel Dungeon, or will have
proven the moment you have confirmed it," Rui explained it. "That is a
powerful bargaining chip that is worth making the deal over by its own
merits."
Guildmaster Bradt did not deny Rui's words. In reality, he was already quite
pleased with this meeting, regardless of what else he could make of it.
"If my ability does not nearly pan out as I so claim, you still gain a lot, after
all, you gain fifty percent for handling all matters of ensuring that my esoteric
harvests reach the consumer market and I get paid the remaining half. That's
quite a profitable deal in and of itself. You stand to make a profit in all
scenarios. If I live up to my claims, then you make a large sum of profit, and
you also hamper your political rival's growth significantly, if I don't, you still
stand to make a profit off the deal. In both circumstances, you stand to gain."
Guildmaster Bradt knew that that was true. "Yet your demands are not
limited to distribution and transaction management, you also wanted a bill
passed that allowed you to operate anonymously officially, and legally. That's
an extremely high demand to make, and I cannot simply do something like
that in return for appreciable but ultimately trivial profits."
"My condition for you to pass the bill is quite high, I admit," Rui nodded.
"But would you truly say that the map is not worth it? That transaction exists
separately from the transaction of obtaining fifty percent of the profits of the
esoteric resource sales in exchange for managing distribution and the
transaction itself. The latter also has the added bonus of hampering your
political rival, which is actually quite the benefit."
"I still haven't verified the map yet," He pointed out.
"Then perhaps we ought to continue this conversation when you have verified
the map," Rui shrugged. "Or to save time, why don't we draft a conditional
agreement that can proceed once you are convinced of the legitimacy of the
maps that I have provided to you?"
"That sounds agreeable, still, it will require convoluted conditions to

objectively lay out the conditions for whether the map can be said to be
legitimate," He remarked.
That was true, it was difficult to draw a clear line between whether the map
could be considered legitimate or illegitimate. At what level of inaccuracy
does the map become illegitimate? No one would say a map is illegitimate if
its accuracy is at ninety-nine percent just because of the remaining one
percent. However, everyone would agree that a map that is fifty-percent
inaccurate was a worthless map.
The question was where the line was between one percent and fifty percent.
"I don't need an objective criteria laid out," Rui clarified. "As long as you're
satisfied with it, I'm also satisfied. I believe you are more than capable of
evaluating a map's value and coming to the right decision regarding whether
this deal is worth it or not."
Guildmaster Bradt narrowed his eyes. He understood what Rui meant. Rui
did not need an objective set of standards laid out because he was confident
in the legitimacy of his map, and confident that the guildmaster would
willingly and voluntarily come to an agreement with him regarding all of
these matters.
He had to admit that Rui was actually right. As long as the map was
legitimate, he had every incentive to cooperate.
"Agreed," He stated.
"I'm glad we could come to an agreement regarding this matter," Rui smiled
underneath the full-body attire.
"Only if your map is legitimate enough," The guildmaster snorted. "I have
high standards. I need to, for my trade."
The intent to fully cooperate had been established, which was a good
development according to Rui. The two of them went on to iron out the
chinks in their agreement and lay out all the terms and conditions for
everything.
It was best not to let anything be undefined or unclear. Rui specifically

needed to make sure that he specified all the services that he was demanding
from the Bradt Distribution Services, and he needed to make sure that he
didn't miss anything that could be used as grounds to screw him over.
Thankfully, he had been quite prepared for this and had spent quite some
time studying and researching the Bradt Distribution Services as well as the
supplier market of the Shionel Confederation when he was planning
everything out back in the Kandrian Empire.
"Well then," Guildmaster Bradt eventually said. "Seems like we've come to
an agreement."
"Indeed," Rui nodded.
"I'll initiate our agreement when I've verified the veracity of these maps," He
stated.
The two of them had come agreed that guildmaster Bradt had seven days to
verify the legitimacy of the map and initiate the agreement by passing the bill
that Rui had demanded him to. The bill that would allow Rui to operate
ananymously while still being entirely legitimate. Once that was done, Rui
could interpret that as the final seal of the deal nd the approval of the maps,
and the terms of contract would continue as specified.
According to the terms and conditions of the contract, Rui would be

responsible for burying his harvest in a specified location and providing the
Bradt Distribution Services of the location of the harvests via a marked letter,
as well as the specifications of how he wanted the esoteric harvests to be
sold.
The Bradt Distribution Services would dig it up and execute his instructions,
ensuring that the esoteric resources that he harvested would be distributed in
the manner that he specified.
Another issue that needed to be resolved was how the money earned from
Rui's sales would be returned to Rui. Ultimately, an amendment was added to
the condition surrounding the bill that Rui got Guildmaster Bradt to agree to,
which allowed for the creation of anonymously registered financial accounts
where Rui could access his funds anonymously. It was the only leverage that
Guildmaster Bradt had over Rui that ensured that Rui would not attempt to
screw him in some way.
One thing that the two of them fought over a bit was Rui revealing his true
identity, which he refused in a heartbeat. His anonymity was the only reason
that the Guildmaster did not have powerful leverage over him. He could not
afford to simply give it up with no problems. It would give the guildmaster
far too much power, and would slide the power dynamics to his favor.
Guildmaster Bradt pushed for it, yet Rui was willing to not have the deal
altogether if he was adamant about this condition.
Inwardly, Guildmaster Bradt approved, he would have to reconsider dealing

with Rui if he gave up his true identity so easily.
Eventually, two copies of a contract were drafted that both of them signed,
Rui signed with his alias, of course. And finally, the deal was officiated.
"I'll be watching the news very carefully this week," Rui informed him as he
left the guild branch. "I look forward to hearing news about the bill. I look
forward to doing business with you."
He quickly disappeared into the Shionel Dungeon.
"Fuuu…" Guildmaster Bradt switched off the projection as he exhaled

lightly.
"Hm," A small smile emerged on his face.
Although the outcome was not as perfectly ideally in his favor, it was still an
extremely good outcome. He could not complain. He found a way to kill two
of his biggest problems at once.
('And he knew that,') Guildmaster Bradt's eyes narrowed. ('He knew exactly
what he was doing long before he walked into this. He must have long known
that he had the potential to disrupt the supplier market, and had also correctly
evaluated that rashly doing so was a bad idea. He must have extensively
researched the political landscape of the Shionel Confederation before
finding the perfect candidate to cooperate with; me.')
His opinion of this individual had risen greatly during their time together. He
had come well-prepared. He even had the perfect counter for any threat of
capture, with his little trick. It was another show of power, and it was him
revealing that he had leverage that he would use if Bradt tried pulling some
schemes that would push him too far.
Now, Guildmaster Bradt was far more restrained if he wanted to try and
exploit Rui in any way. He always had to know that Rui could ruin the
blessing that the dungeon was, and turn into a curse if he wanted.
That threat alone was enough to make Guildmaster Bradt forget any schemes
that could potentially push Rui too far.
('It didn't feel like I was talking to a Martial Artist,') He noted.
This was true, he did not treat Rui like he would treat a Martial Artist, he
instead treated him as an opponent who was worthy of competing with him,
and earning his respect.
This was the first time he had met a Martial Artist whose combat prowess
was not the most significant trait about them.
***
Author's note:
Dear tier 1 priv readers, I apologize for the delay in chapters that occurred
paid for.
Chapter 802 Outcome
"Phew…" Rui exhaled deeply with relief when he entered the depths of the
Shionel Dungeon. It was quite a strange reaction since most Martial Squires
had the exact opposite reaction. Yet Rui felt quite secure in the dungeon,
oddly enough.
Because he knew that every other creature in the dungeon was extremely
insecure about their safety. He was the predator in the dungeon.
He considered the discussion that he'd just had with Guildmaster Bradt.
('A good outcome, for sure,') Rui nodded. Thankfully, it more or less went as
he predicted, though he felt as though he had perhaps underestimated how
much Guildmaster Bradt would look into his identity.
This was rough, he shouldn't have walked legitimately into the dungeon when
he first cleared the second floor.
('Tsk, made a bit of a mistake,') Rui tutted. Still, it was far from a blunder,
just a sub-optimal decision that reduced the solidity of his plan from as high
as he'd ideally have wanted it to be.
He would need to take more precautions when it came to entering the

dungeon, for one, he could not enter the dungeon normally on the same day
that he planned on performing an extreme feat like clearing the dungeon.
That would simply further narrow him down as a suspect. He needed to
frequently raid the dungeon normally, and he could not do anything extreme
on those days.
He also needed to make use of his regular accounts in the Adventurer Guild,
and basically act the way the average Martial Squire did. He did not want to
go too crazy.
He would save that for when he covertly entered the Shionel Dungeon with
the help of Kane's Void Step. Thus no one would be able to tie him clearing
floors to his true identity.
Furthermore, he could get rid of any attempt of trying to track him via who
enters the dungeon and when this way, thereby clearing removing any
potential issues of him for coincidentally entering the dungeon when he first
cleared it.
Of course, new Martial Squires were pouring in every day, so it was frankly a
meaningless coincidence and did not increase the probability that he would
be found by any meaningful degree.
Still, he did not want to take any chances.
However, ultimately, he was quite satisfied with how this meeting turned out
to be.
"You're finally here, Kane," He said abruptly said to seemingly no one.
"Look," Kane appeared out of thin air. "I understand you can sense me, and I
understand you can sense in the dungeon. But how do you do both
simultaneously? Shouldn't the difficulty of sensing me in the dungeon be
astronomically higher? How do you still have no problem."
Rui chuckled at the outburst. "It's because I'm not directly sensing you. I'm
sensing something inanimate that is reacting to you."
"Huh?"
Rui considered his words for a moment. "It would be like if you were
walking on a very marshy plain, leaving behind footprints while using Void
Step. A normal person could not possibly sense you, but they can still pay
attention to the marsh and the mud, and notice your footprints. Thus, they can
track your location even if they cannot directly sense you. I'm basically doing
the same thing but with space itself, rather than a marsh."
"I have a technique with which I can walk without leaving footprints behind,
though,"
Rui furrowed his eyebrows as he gave Kane a pointed look.
"Alright fine, that does make sense," Kane sighed. "So, how did your little
meeting go?"
"A success," Rui replied calmly, getting up to his feet. "We'll get the
affirmation before the weekends."
"Good to hear, but what's taking so long?"
"Well, he can't just take me at my word regarding the map," Rui replied.
"He'll verify it, then we'll get the message."
"What message?"
"A new amendment to the existing rules and regulations of the Adventurer
Guild," Rui smirked.
"That's one hell of a message,"
"Indeed,"
The two of them walked out of the Shionel Dungeon freely with Void Step in
effect. Rui did his part by suppressing his power to that of a normal human
with the help of his Mind Mask.
Later that week, his prediction came to be. He joined the large crowd at the
center of the town where a giant equivalent of a press hearing was being held
by Guildmaster Bradt on behalf of the Shionel Merchant Guild announcing
the revisions and amendments to existing policy surrounding the necessity of
identity verification and registration to start companies and financial guild
accounts.
A huge uproar rippled across the nation at the seemingly abrupt change in
policy as the Shionel merchant Guild surprisingly laxed its registration
protocols, despite having set those in the first place, for seemingly no reason.
A lot of speculation emerged around this as many theorized that the Shionel
Merchant Guild was unable to withstand the pressure from foreign companies
regarding the high level of requirements needed to operate comfortably in the
Shionel Confederation in regard to any venture of the Shionel Dungeon.
After all, this certainly benefited foreign Martial Squires more than any other
group.
Many speculated that this was an initiative to allow for an even greater influx
from those Martial Artists whose identities were quite tricky. After all, the
Shionel Merchant Guild has signed extensive extradition treaties with all
foreign nations in the geographic vicinity, it was the bare minimum that was
required, and they were required by law to hand over any criminals who were
fugitives from other nations.
This new amendment made it a lot easier for people with less than clean
backgrounds and histories to enter the nation and partake in the raid and
plunder of the Shionel Dungeon and even operate in the markets legally
thanks to the new anonymous registration policies.
However, there was no genuine official reason barring meaningless

diplomatic blubber, and there were only two people in the world who
understand the reason for the significant and important event.
"'I accept your deal'," Rui voiced out loud as he read the message that
Guildmaster Bradt was conveying to him, and nobody else.
Chapter 803 Passed
"All in favor of the proposed motion?" Guildmaster Bradt looked around the
Guild Forum.
A few members of the Shionel Merchant Guild raised their hands, while most
did not.
"All against the proposed motion?"
This time, most members of the Shionel Merchant Guild raised their arms tall
and straight.
Guildmaster Bradt nodded. "The motion is firmly rejected by the forum with
a majority of seventy-eight votes against twenty, with a voter turnout of
ninety-eight votes out of a hundred. Are there any objections to this
outcome?"
He was greeted by silence before he proceeded with the meeting.
"Then the motion to instate amendment C-16 into the constitution is hereby
firmly rejected," He paused for a second, before continuing. "With the power
vested me in as the Guildmaster of the Shionel Merchant Guild, I hereby
choose to exercise my veto authority and my decision vote for the instation of
amendment C-16."
This sent ripples of shock across the Guild Forum. The current ongoing
meeting was the legislative process of the Shionel Merchant Guild, where the
one-hundred cabinet merchants of the Shionel Merchant Guild gathered to
decide policy and address agendas for the day.
Policy was addressed in the form of amendment or addition proposals backed
by at least ten members of the forum, which would be presented and argued
by the proponents of the amendment in an open moderated caucus, and an
unmoderated caucus, both of which were forms of discourse that occurred in
legislative bodies such as the Shionel Merchant Guild. Once extensive
discussion and debate surrounding the policy proposal were conducted, the
matter would come to a vote.
Any proposal needed more than sixty percent of the votes of the Guild Forum
in order to be passed. Guildmaster Bradt's policy proposal, which only had
twenty, fell far below the necessary bar to be passed.
That was why it was quite surprising to everyone in the forum to see the good
guildmaster fully exert the veto authority and the decision vote that undid the
outcome of the votes and returned the proposal back to the discussion stage,
and the deciding vote which of the Guildmaster which counted for sixty-one
votes.
The latter was a privilege that could be used a limited number of times and
excluded matters such as the electoral process. It was also limited to being
used only once per Guild Forum atop all of that to ensure that it couldn't be
abused. Still, this particular policy proposal was one where it could be and
was used.
The fact that it was a limited ability meant that it was quite precious to the
Guildmaster and was generally reserved for their most important and
significant policy matters. No one had expected that Guildmaster Bradt
would use one of his decision votes randomly in favor of an absurd policy
like drastically relaxing the identity verification and registration
requirements.
Guildmaster Bradt had never expressed any support for this kind of policy
change in the past, he had not engaged in even a shred of political lobbying
or campaigning to gather support from the constituents of the Guild Forum,
which was an extremely basic and standard norm that all of them necessarily
engaged in.
What was especially surprising was that he was willing to go as far as to use
his decision vote to overrule the votes of basically most of the Shionel
merchant Guild for what was clearly his own self-interest.
This was generally frowned upon and most guildmasters tended to avoid
doing this as it would lose the support of these same constituents and voters
when the next election came around. These were the checks and balances that
every guildmaster faced to ensure that they did not go too far with
tyrannically using their veto privilege and their limited decision votes to
blatantly overrule the entire Merchant Guild on matters.
Guildmaster Bradt Patrick himself was one who abstained from doing this too
often and still won most political conflicts through excellent lobbying and
campaigning. He was powerful, and extremely shrewd, and even without his
authority, he was more than capable of coming out on top.
Yet, this time he had diverged from that pattern and straightforwardly used
both his privileges at once. The many cabinet merchants of the Shionel
Merchant Guild could not help but be extremely surprised about this turn of
events, they could not help but wonder what exactly was going on. Clearly,
something had happened that had made Guildmaster Bradt impatient and
extremely adamant on this matter.
"Motion for an open-forum unmoderated caucus on the topic of Bill C-16 for
a duration of ten minutes," Chairman Deacon loudly declared with a stern
expression, drawing the attention of the entire forum to him.
Guildmaster Bradt glanced at him, nodding, before turning back. "All in

favor?"
Every single hand went up.
"Motion is granted in light of unanimous voter support," Guildmaster Bradt

declared
An unmoderated and open-forum caucus was an informal meeting where the

constituents of the forum did not need to abide by any norms while engaging
in discussion with each other barring a few basic rules.
"What is the meaning of this?" Chairman Deacon coldly demanded, speaking
as soon as the motion was granted. He glared at Guildmaster Patrick with
burning eyes. Of all the people in the Merchant Guild, he was the one who
had been the most vehemently opposed to this policy.
The first reason was that he naturally opposed the policy itself. It would
cause nothing but problems for the Shionel Confederation down the line, and
even when judged purely on its merits, he could only evaluate it to be poor, at
best.
The second reason he opposed it was that it was against his own personal
interests. It meant that if a person somehow disrupted the Shionel supplier
market, he would have a far harder time tracking that person down and
identifying them. This was something he was especially sensitive to, given
that someone recently had singlehandedly shown the ability to disrupt the
market. He could not help but feel that the guildmaster was partly passing the
policy to hinder his own growth.
Chapter 804 Debate
The final reason was that the policy came from his largest political opponent,
and he was almost obliged to push back on the matter unless it was truly
something that he ought not to oppose.
"What do you mean?" Guildmaster Bradt replied blankly.
"Don't play dumb!" Chairman Deacon barked back. "What is the meaning of
this policy? How could you force a policy that is ripe for exploitation from
the underworld and criminals of all kinds? You'll turn the Shionel
Confederation into a breeding ground for criminals all across the continent!"
"Criminals who are mostly criminals in other legalities," Guildmaster Bradt

corrected. "Furthermore, these criminals will immediately be captured and
deported to other nations where we have extradition treaties as per our
international protocols, correct? At worst, they will be denied entry into our
nation because the new policy that has just been passed laxes identity
verification registration only for legal and passed migrants after they have
already joined the nation. It does not apply to immigration protocols, do not
pretend as if you do not know this."
Chairman Deacon gritted his teeth. Technically, he was not wrong. After all,
it was true that any wanted fugitive would get deported, or at the very least
denied entry into the country, however, that did not mean they could be
stopped from entering the nation.
"Those immigration protocols only prevent them from entering the nation
legally," Chairman Deacon pointed out. "They do not stop them from
infiltrating the nation. The borders of the nation are simply too far and vast to
prevent all Martial Artists from entering them."
"That's an issue that has to do with border security and surveillance than
anything to do with the internal policies of the Shionel Adventurer Guild,"
Guidmaster Patrick frowned. "Why do you bring that up?"
"Because the new policy allows for illegal immigrants to register with the
guild anonymously and set up businesses anonymously," Chairman Deacon
retorted coldly. "That used to not be the case, as only those who entered the
country legally were allowed to register with the guild, this allows illegal
immigrants to freely enter the Shionel Dungeon and register with the
Adventurer Guild."
This was a valid point that could not be denied.
"That is true," Guildmaster Bradt nodded. He had already anticipated that

somebody would bring this up. Denying such a thing with pedantic
arguments would only reflect bad on him. "However, the solution to our
inadequate security cannot be to mold every other law to account for that. We
should instead strive to secure our borders as much as possible. Even without
this new policy, it is still possible for illegally immigrated Martial Squires to
engage in work surrounding the Shionel Dungeon due to fake identities and
backgrounds that can be obtained from the underworld. We need to develop a
far more rigorous and secure system that can ensure that we do not need to
bow down to those who exploit the holes in our system. Your suggestion
reeks of cowardice and fear, I instead aim to show the world that our
country's security is not a joke that can be treated lightly. That is why I intend
to bring forth a motion to explore a higher budget and a greater allocation of
resources to the Shionel Border Force that will allow our protectors to fulfill
their duties better."
This earned some approval from the cabinet ministers, Guildmaster Bradt had
cleverly relied on a nationalistic sentiment to deflect Chairman Deacon's
criticisms of the policy that he had passed being harmful to the nation.
"And if it doesn't work out, are you willing to take full responsibility?"
Chairman Deacon narrowed his eyes.
"I have always taken responsibility for my decisions and actions,"
Guildmaster Bradt remarked, giving Chairman Deacon a knowing look that
the latter did not understand. "In time, you will understand the true wisdom
behind my actions."
Those were cryptic words, but people did not doubt them immediately when
they considered the man uttering them.
Who was Bradt Patrick? A man who came from truly nothing. He had risen
to the very peak of the economy of the Shionel Confederation through his
deeply shrewd and ruthless analytical insight and decision-making, before
sizing.
His credibility was extremely high, and it became clear to everyone that there
were deeper considerations to this policy change that they did not quite
understand yet.
Chairman Deacon only grew more alarmed at that realization. It brought him
deep anxiety at not understanding his opponent's actions and decisions. There
was no doubt that this policy was in the interests of the guildmaster more
than anyone else, which meant that it was naturally against his own interests.
He didn't know what to think about the matter, but he intended to get to the
bottom of it.
If he didn't keep up, he would have the rug pulled out from under his feet,
and he will have squandered the one opportunity that had presented itself in
the form of the Shionel Dungeon to usurp his formidable rival. The Shionel
Dungeon truly benefited him more than it did anybody else given the sector
that his company operated in was almost made for it.
The previously hopeless gap between him and the guildmaster of the Shionel
Merchant Guild had been shortening at a steady pace. The massive capital
that he had gained as a result allowed him to sway more support from many
of the cabinet merchants of the Shionel Merchant Guild, steadily building his
political capital. His faction was slowly catching up to that of Guildmaster
Bradt, and he predicted that there was a realistic chance of him winning when
the next election, which was in over a year, came.
That was why he was particularly paranoid about the timing of this policy
change. A single policy change could cause a ripple effect that could
snowball in that time and ruin his plans. He didn't like that he was unable to
understand the full depth of his opponent's plan, though he knew that it was
by no means as innocent as it seemed on the surface.
Chapter 805 Show Off
"Is that everything?" Rui asked from under a mask.
"No, just a few more signatures here and here," A support staff member of
the Shionel Merchant Guild replied, pointing to where he needed to sign. Rui
quickly nodded, following through.
"And that's everything, Mr. Falken," She replied with a smile.

"Congratulations, you are now officially a merchant of the Shionel Merchant
Guild."
"Thank you," Rui replied, smiling.
"Here is the guild-issued key that will allow you to identify yourself as the
owner of your new company," She handed him a key. "Be sure to never lose
it, otherwise your identity can be usurped and your company could
potentially be taken."
"I understand," Rui nodded. "I do appreciate the warning."
About three days had passed since Bill C-16 had been passed in the Shionel
Confederation. A rush to anonymously create a company in the Shionel
Confederation without the need for identity registration had formed. It was
clear that, for whatever reasons, a lot of people had compunctions about
registering their real identity in the Shionel Merchant Guild, thus this new
amendment was quite welcome to all these people.
Rui walked out, before running towards the inner ring of the Adventurer
Town. He didn't want to take any chances, in case Guildmaster Bradt
managed to track his location, being near the dungeon increased his security
since he could use it as a threat, and quite the effective one at that.
"You're here," Kane noted. "Is it done?"
"Yep, I'm officially a merchant now," Rui grinned wryly.
"A Martial Artist merchant," Kane scoffed.
"They're not even unheard of in this nation, quite strange, isn't it?" Rui noted.
"What's going to happen to your new company when we leave though?"

Kane asked.
"It's going to die, of course," Rui snorted. "It will serve its use while I'm here,
but I have no care for it once we leave the Shionel Confederation."
The two of them disappeared into thin air before returning back to their inn in
the outer ring o the Shionel Confederation.
The dungeon served as a good gateway to lose any trackers or surveillants

since no Martial Squire could possibly track them with the Void Step and the
Riemannian Echo, that Kane and Rui possessed, and Martial Seniors couldn't
go anywhere near the Shionel Dungeon without destroying it advertently.
Thus, they could be relatively certain that nobody knew that they were
associated with the identity of the Voider.
"So, what now?"
"Now, we finally go all out and begin doing what we originally came here
for," Rui explained. "We have the cover for our identity as well as sufficient
backing. We have the means of selling our harvests without anybody
interfering, while Bradt Patrick handles all the distribution and sales on
behalf of us."
"What's the name of the company, again?" Kane asked.
"Esosale Suppliers," Rui replied, earning a frown from Kane. "That's

surprisingly down to Earth, I thought you would call it the 'Void Supplies
Company,' or something like that. Your naming sense genuinely sucks, after
all."
"Naming it Void is stupid, that would be a very direct association with the
Voider and would fulfill the standards of probable cause for investigation, not
even the guildmaster will be able to protect us in that case without being
charged with obstruction of justice," Rui replied calmly. "Being lowkey is
better in this case. Although some people will still figure it out, it won't mean
much since there is no avenue for starting an official investigation."
"So that means that they are completely unable to do anything to us?" Kane
grinned.
"It's not that simple," Rui explained calmly. "They may be unable to use the
resources of the guild and the state to track us, but they can still engage in
their own investigations, the people who will be pissed off by us are not
incompetent and incapable. Each of the hundred cabinet ministers of the
Shionel Merchant Guild is a chairmen or president of the top hundred
companies of the Shionel Confederation across all industries and sectors.
Including distribution, suppliers, manufacturers, firms, media companies,
brokers, weapons contractors, Martial contractors, etc. These people possess
a great amount of power and influence and usually have established
investigative or intelligence departments or divisions inside their companies.
Do not underestimate them, if we slip up, we'll be caught."
"Damn, and here I thought we could relax," Kane sighed dramatically.
"That's not true," Rui raised an eyebrow. "You knew that this would be far
from a fun little trip."
The two of them immediately began preparing for their next dungeon raid
after they reached home. The time for politics was over, and the time for
plundering the Shionel Dungeon in earnest had arrived. Even their previous
dungeon raid could be considered to be a part of the preparations.
But now, all preparations were done.
"Ready?" Rui asked him when they were nearly done. He had equipped
himself with his sword and his air pipe, as well as his dimensional storage
ring.
"Yep," Kane adjusted his attire, nodding. "Let's head out."
He put his arm on Rui's shoulder, before inhaling deeply.
The two of them vanished into thin air as they left their inn, heading for the
Shionel Dungeon.
No one knew that the two of them were inside the dungeon at this point in
time, and thus no one could possibly suspect their true identities as the
collective identity for the Voider, this was another safety measure that Rui
had come up with, since he was officially always with Kane and the Voider
was probably strongly suspected to be acting individually by Guildmaster
Bradt. This way their real identities as registered in the Shionel Adventurer
Guild would probably be removed from the suspect pool quite quickly by
Guildmaster Bradt.
"We've arrived," Rui noted as they crossed the inner barrier. "Let's get to
work immediately."
"You said you didn't want to go for the third floor, right?" Kane carefully
asked.
"That's right," Rui replied. "We're going to have to show off a bit more this
time."
Chapter 806 Venom
"The twelfth floor is the current frontier of floors," Rui told him. "We're
going to clear it."
"If it's the current frontier of floors, then that probably means that it's going to
take quite some time to harvest all those organic and mineral ores, right?"
Kane asked.
"Right," Rui nodded. "Your stealth is going to be quite necessary to keep our
identities hidden."
The two of them navigated through the many tunnels in the dungeon. Kane
mostly followed Rui who confidently plodded through them without any
hesitation.
Suddenly, he drew his sword, swinging to his side.
SPLAT
Kane's eyes widened as a decapitated serpent collapsed to the ground, still

slithering while its head rolled away.
"Careful, stay away from the head, it's still alive and will bite anything that
goes near it," Rui warned him, while carefully avoiding the snake. "The head
can survive for days after its decapitation, and its venom is still extremely
potent. Neither of us will survive a single bite."
"Woah…" Kane murmured as he kept a healthy distance away from the head.
"Is that a snake native to one of the floors of the dungeon?"
Rui nodded in response. "It's known as the Inland Shionel Taipan. A highly
venomous species of serpent."
"What floor is this from?" Kane asked.
"The twelfth floor, of course," Rui replied before he sheathed his Bellhorn
Steel blade.
"Which is our destination, correct?" Kane glanced at him with a wry smile.
"Correct," Rui nodded. "Let's get going, we're not that far."
Because Rui had the ability to focus his Riemannian Sense in one particular
direction, he could fully explore tunnels while also committing the tunnels to
memory in his Mind Palace, for later use in creating the map.
Thus he did not need to go down a tunnel in order to see what was at the end
of the tunnel. That was something that no other Martial Squire could do, it
would save him time when he would begin exploring and discovering new
floors all by himself.
STEP
He paused, gesturing for Kane to stop and signaling for him to use Void Step.
PAT
"We're here?" Kane asked as his eyes narrowed as they started walking to
ensure the Void Step technique stayed active.
"That's right, look," Rui gestured as they entered the floor. "We're in a really
special place."
Kane's eyes widened as he beheld the environment they had just stepped into.
"I… I thought we were underground?" Kane looked up high.
"We are underground," Rui replied as he too looked up with raised eyebrows.
"Then… You wanna explain why we're looking at the sky?"
Where the dark ceiling of the dungeon was supposed to be was a clear blue
sky, for some reason. It was an extremely bizarre sight that made them
question their sanity for a second. Perhaps they were dreaming this all up.
Rui had gathered intelligence on this before, thus he wasn't too caught off-
guard. "The reason is unclear, however, it is not the sky. The ceiling of the
floor still exists, it's just giving off a light that matches the sky, for some
reason. Nobody has been able to study since only Martial Squire can enter
here.
"That's really novel," Kane murmured.
"It is, but it isn't what we should be focusing on," Rui gestured around.
"There are countless Inland Shionel Taipans infesting this area outside of
eyesight.
That drew Kane's attention and he immediately began paying attention to his
surroundings. The snake they killed earlier freaked him out a lot, thus he
couldn't help but be very much on guard even if he did trust Rui's senses and
alertness.
Their environment was tall grasslands with grass that exceeded their height. It
obstructed his vision and made it harder for him to sense things that could be
a threat to him.
Rui glanced in a certain direction, before quickly pacing over to a certain

location, dragging Kane with him.
"This floor is the frontier as well, so, monsters aren't the only thing we'll run
into," Rui said as he slowed down, gesturing ahead of them.
There was a Martial Squire a few meters ahead of them lying on the ground
unconscious. Her skin had completely turned purple, and in the immediate
vicinity was the corpse of another big taipan.
"Is she…?" Kane asked grimly.

"She's alive," Rui replied calmly. "But she won't survive even if we did
everything in our power to bring her back out of the dungeon, she's going to
die soon."
Rui glanced around at the shattered landscape in the vicinity, indicating a

fierce battle.
"From the looks of it, she's actually a high-tier Martial Squire," He noted.
"The battle seems pretty onesided. She must have crushed the serpent swiftly,
before making the mistake of turning her back on it thinking it was dead
because of the severed body, and the still-alive serpent must have caught her
off-guard with a single strike from behind, sinking its fangs into her chest,
instantly injecting her entire chest cavity with its potent venom into all of her
vital organs. Hence, it explains why the serpent's body is so battered and
wounded all over from being overwhelmed by her lethal attacks, and why she
only has a single wound. I'm surprised she's even alive, even if barely. She
must have undergone poison resistance training, but that has merely
prolonged her suffering all this time, even if she probably only has a few
minutes left."
He pointed at the two deep black necrotic fang wounds visible above her
chest.
"So there's nothing we can do, huh?" Kane sighed.
"That's not quite right," Rui replied, as he drew his sword.
SPLAT
Faster than the eye could see, the blade effortlessly decapitated her. Rui
swung his sword, ridding it of blood before sheathing it. Kane didn't
begrudge his decision. If there was no saving her, then ending her suffering
was the least that could be done for her.
"She overestimated herself and underestimated the dungeon," Rui replied

with a solemn expression. "We should learn from her example. Always stay
alert. Don't let your guard down just because we have a powerful strategy."
Chapter 807 Gathering
The two of them left the corpse of the Martial Squire behind, Rui had no
intention of lugging the corpse back to the surface in order to return it to her
dependents or friends. It seemed that she had entered the dungeon alone too,
as opposed to being part of a party.
"Alright, what do we do?" Kane asked, turning to Rui.
"Our goal is to harvest all the esoteric ores of this floor," Rui explained. "The
biggest threat on this floor is the bite from the taipan which would kill us.
The simplest way to avoid them is by sky-walking, however, if we do that,
we cannot get at the esoteric ores that are on and beneath the ground."
Rui calmly analyzed the situation that they were in. "I would rather avoid
combat with the serpents. This is different from the second floor where the
rabbits, while very dangerous, were not extremely lethal. Here, even if I chop
up all of the taipans, there is still the chance that I would get bitten by a
surviving head hiding under the pile of corpses and flesh that I would leave
behind. My Riemannian Sense is different from Primordial Instinct in the
sense that its affinity for combat is not too great."
Primordial instinct was simply his danger sense and risk evaluation sense
highly trained to detect and counter threats based on the sensory data that he
naturally gathered from all of his senses. The latter was hampered, thus
Primordial Instinct was also naturally hampered.
However, that did not mean that the Riemannian Sense could replace
Primordial instinct. It was not an instinctual sense and was actually closer to
reading a language than it was sensing his surroundings.
"That makes sense," Kane nodded. "So it's a simple plan of harvesting the
esoteric ores on the ground when we're in stealth, and then moving back to
the air when I time out, right?" Kane asked.
"It's a simple plan but entirely effective," Rui replied. "However, we cannot
go too high, I don't want to be spotted by others even if their senses are
hampered and it wouldn't really matter."
"Wouldn't that mean that we're within their striking range?" Kane asked.
"Yes, but I am more confident of ensuring that I can't be caught off-guard if

I'm sky-walking. Because their decapitated heads would fall back to the
ground and won't be able to hurt me from the ground. Furthermore, all the
attacks would come from only one direction, down. Dealing with attacks
coming from one direction is vastly easier than dealing with directions
coming from all directions, which is liable to be the case if you time out on
land and we're in a snake-infested pit."
Rui was confident that as long as he could turn his back up to the ceiling of
the floor without fearing an attack on his back, he could handle even a
barrage of snake attacks.
"Let's begin," He told Kane, who promptly nodded, putting his arm on Rui's
back before the two of them descended into the grasslands.
Rui could see why this kind of environment was great for the snakes, the lack
of visibility as well as the sensory jamming meant that it was difficult for
many Martial Squires to safely identify all of the snakes ahead of time. They
would need to react after an attack was initiated, which wasn't easy, albeit not
impossible.
Rui, on the other hand, not only knew the locations of all the snakes within a
few kilometers of radius around him but also verified that they could not
sense him thanks to Void Step. Thus the two of them were confident that as
long as they were in any level of meaningful motion, they could avoid being
detected.
Rui was more than fast enough, by virtue of being a Martial Squire, to set up
the instruments, apply them to extract both the mineral and organic ores from
the land and from the roots of the dungeon and the grass, and put them in a
bag, all before he walked a single step.
There were even moments when he extracted mineral and organic ores right
in front of the faces of a bunch of taipans, and they did not even so much as
budge!
('What a remarkable technique,') Rui grinned to himself
PAT PAT PAT
Kane quickly tapped him twice, indicating that he was about a minute away
from his limit. Even though one minute was no different to a Martial Squire
than an hour, Rui did not want to take any risks whatsoever. One minute was
not worth risking their lives by accidentally not being prepared for the time-
out in time.
If it just so happened that they timed out when Rui was just digging, even he
would not be able to draw his weapons and kill all of them before at least one
of them gets a bite in, which would be game over for him.
"Phew…" Kane elevated himself a meter higher than Rui.
SHING
Rui drew his sword from his scabbard before the technique was deactivated.
Instantly, three snakes shot up from the ground, lunging meters high into the
air.
"SSSSK!"
Their lunges were so extraordinarily fast that the atmosphere itself recoiled in
a sonic boom as they shot forth with enough power to destroy an entire
building.
Yet, the second they reached Rui, the world suddenly went dark for them.
They lost all sight, awareness, and even consciousness.
SPLAT
A single arc from his Hellborn Stell blade cleaved past their skulls, splitting
their eyes in half. Rui specifically make sure that he destroyed the brain, to
ensure that the head did not retain consciousness where it could hurt
unsuspecting Martial Squires.
The two halves of their skull blasted away from each other so faster that it
was almost as though they were magically parting way for the blade.
SHING
He immediately sheathed his blade to ensure it reached maximum coldness

once more. The only disadvantage that the blade had was that it needed to be
cooled, which meant he needed to periodically sheath his blade in order to
maintain its effectiveness over time.
***
Author's note:
Dear tier 2 priv readers, I apologize for the delay in chapters that occurred
paid for.
Chapter 808 Harvest
Several more taipans gathered before lunging at them from the ground, yet all
of them split apart like butter to a warm knife. Although the sheer quantity of
taipans on the floor was not something that could be underestimated, each
individual monster was not that strong, most of them were more or less
between grade one and grade three, depending on their size.
Every once in a while he would run into one with the speed and power of a
grade-four Martial Squire, yet, it did not matter.
"FUUUU…" Rui blasted a snake with cracklingly hot air, paralyzing the
snake the second the air hit its skin.
SPLAT!
A full-body swing of his blade split it apart so forcefully that it launched the
two portions flying away from each other.
Rui glanced at the greenish-black blood on his blade.
('The monsterified snakes have undergone a change in the color of their blood
due to ingesting food in the dungeon,') Rui noted as he swung his sword,
cleaning it of all blood., before sheathing it to cool it down.
"Alright, great job," Kane told him. "I'm ready for another round."
Rui nodded. "Let's begin immediately."
The two of them went through the same process multiple times, as they
scoured the grasslands. Rui made sure to take routes that avoided coming in
contact with other Martial Squires, though that wasn't always easy.
Many a time, they ran into parties of Martial Squires, in which case they
would take a detour to return to later, or they would continue extracting
resources if Kane indicated he had enough stamina to ensure that they
wouldn't have to reveal themselves by being forced to deactivate his Void
Step while in their vicinity.
"Argh!" Rui heard from a distance. "Who mined all the ores without killing
the snakes first?! How is that even possible?!"
"Did the snakes eat all the ores?! Where did they go?"
It seemed as though a party of Martial Squires had just come across the area
that Rui had finished mining from. He laughed to himself as he continued
extracting all the esoteric ores that he came along by on his way.
They continued scouring entire districts with a huge area before large chunks
of the floor had been completely plundered despite the taipans seemingly
intact.
A general wave of confusion spread across the Martial Squires in the

dungeon, this didn't make any sense, after all. The Martial Squires began
growing increasingly frustrated that despite fighting so many taipans and
killing all of them in the vicinity, they ended up digging through only to find
that the soil had already been dug up and ores had clearly already been
extracted.
Many had even had their comrades die due to a venom bite that killed them
before they were able to get them to safety. And at the end of it all, they
found that the sacrifice had been in vain. It was unbelievable.
Everyone realized something was very wrong. This had never happened to
date from the day that the Shionel Dungeon had been opened. In order to get
past the monsters, you needed to kill them.
Yet here there was someone who was able to bypass these rules!
Half a day passed before Rui had reached his storage limit.
"Damn, we had a good haul," Rui stretched his arms. The two of them
inspected their goods before Rui quickly stored them in his dimensional
storage.
The two of them had stripped the floor of a considerable proportion of its
esoteric ores. Even if the floor was as wide as a large town, two Martial
Squires could get a lot of work done across half a day!
They had worked extremely hard until they physically could not work harder.
"Let's get going, we can come back tomorrow," Rui told Kane. "Assuming
the rest aren't finished."
He considered the fact that a lot of monsters had been left while the esoteric
ores in their areas had been mined. What would that mean for the monsters?
In time, he suspected Martial Squires would leave them alone at increasingly

high rates. There were very few people that would be willing to fight and kill
the monsters for no reward.
That would probably slow down Guildmaster Patrick's ambitions of

commercializing the dungeon and dominating it with the fact that he would
be the only one who had a map on it and would be able to maintain stable
operations in the Shionel Dungeon.
However, if the dungeon was still infested with monsters that hadn't been
killed, then that would be quite problematic for him.
Thankfully, Rui had not divulged the ways in which he intended to extract
ores. Still, this would hurt his political opponent even more since getting
people to extract ores would become harder now that the difficulty was also
starting to rise now that Rui intended to go full throttle with his abilities.
This meant that his remarkable growth climb would also be hindered by that
fact. That was extremely desirable to the guildmaster, thus Rui was certain
that he would be pleased by this outcome. On the other hand, the number of
esoteric ores in weight being mined and extracted from the dungeon would
not decrease with Rui and Kane sweeping up the floors of the Shionel
Dungeon, and thus there were little to no ways in which the distribution of
these esoteric resources would negatively impact his own business endeavors.
In fact, if Rui and Kane happened to work even faster, then Guildmaster
Bradt would actually experience a boost in growth himself, even before he
used the map to dominate the commercialization of the Shionel Dungeon
after all of it was completely emptied and erased.
"Still, there's going to be a storm way bigger than last time, that's for sure,"
Rui murmured with a resigned smile. The mystery of the missing ores would
become prime gossip in the Shionel Confederation and he knew that there
was no way that he could possibly avoid inevitably becoming the center of
attention even if nobody knew who he was.
"Damn it! He got me!" Chairman Deacon slammed the table with his fist with
gritted teeth.
An outrage had erupted in the Shionel Dungeon with many Martial Squires
suddenly reporting that esoteric mineral and organic ore deposits and extracts
from the twelfth floor of the Shionel Dungeon had begun disappearing in
large droves without any evident cause for their disappearance.
They were clearly dug and extracted, however, for some reason, this had
happened despite the taipans, of the area over which they had been extracted,
still being alive. It was as though the ghost had walked in and harvested all
the esoteric ores and simply disappeared.
That wasn't all.
The net yield that was predicted for the day from all of the Martial Squires
was far less than the norm. The Shionel Adventurer Guild published the daily
amount of esoteric ores harvested and mined from the Shionel Dungeon.
Since it was still early into the exploration of the twelfth floor, the industry
experts had predicted a great increase in the supply of esoteric ore deposits,
yet the opposite had happened, due to this strange phenomenon. The Martial
Squires reported a stark absence of the presence of the esoteric ore deposits
on the twelfth at an increasing rate as the day passed. As though someone
was magically sucking them up without anybody else noticing.
However, what followed was even more surprising, a brand-new supplier

company that nobody had ever heard about called Esosale Suppliers came out
of nowhere and suddenly began selling quantities of esoteric resources to
many large-scale manufacturers in the consumer market.
What was even more puzzling was that the company appeared to be in a
heavy partnership with Bradt Distribution Services. The Bradt Distribution
Services thoroughly and wholly liaised as a representative for any third party
that wished to purchase supplies of esoteric resources from Esosale Suppliers.
The only way to contact Esosale Suppliers was through the Bradt Distribution
Services. Many purchasers scoured the nation looking for some sort of main
branch or even a small office for Esosale Suppliers, yet not a single person
could find any trace of this company. This company did not have any
presence in the economy in the form of employees, contracts and
partnerships, a face for the company, any sort of establishment, or any
interaction with any of the sectors and industries that an esoteric resource
supplier company would inevitably get involved with. There was nothing out
there in the nation for anybody interested in the company to tangibly interact
with. Nothing.
In other words, it was what was commonly referred to as a shell company, a

company that only existed in name, registered in the ownership of an
anonymous merchant whose identity was unknown thanks to the policy
amendment that the Guildmaster Bradt had passed with nothing else to it
asides from a bank account, also anonymously registered.
This was a strange but ultimately inscrutable oddity to the market, and
consumers quickly flocked to the Bradt Distribution Services to purchase
substantial quantities of esoteric resource deposits from Esosale Suppliers,
and the small imbalance that was caused between momentary lack of supply
was stabilized.
People could not help but venture to wonder where this ghost of a company
was getting a large sum of money from. After all, it was an inescapable fact
that a large number of Martial Squires were required to harvest esoteric
resource deposits from the Shionel Dungeon. Where were these Martial
Squires coming from? It would be impossible to hide dozens of Martial
Squires working for a company since every Martial Squire that entered the
Shionel Dungeon was registered to the Shionel Adventurer Guild, and it was
possible to track the general affiliations and patrons of the various Martial
Squires attempting to clear out the Shionel Adventurer Guild.
Not a single Martial Squire registered with the Shionel Adventurer Guild was
verifiably associated with Esosale Suppliers. Furthermore, there was no way
they could enter the Shionel Dungeon without being registered to the
Adventurer Guild anyways. So where exactly was the company getting such
a large supply of esoteric resource deposits?
Furthermore, the timing of this was suspicious to many people who possessed
greater information and insight. It seemed quite clear that it was highly likely
that there was some connection between Esosale Suppliers and the missing
esoteric ore deposits in the Shionel Dungeon on the twelfth floor.
"It's that bastard," Chairman Deacon's expression crumpled with anger. "It
has to be him."
Chairman Deacon was not incompetent, the fact that Esosale was completely
represented and even managed by the Bradt Distribution Services was a clear
indication to him that Esosale Suppliers was an empty shell meant to draw
attention away from Guildmaster Bradt. He was relatively certain that
Guildmaster Bradt was the one who created Esosale Suppliers anonymously,
and he was the one pretending it was another third party.
"That may have been why he passed that policy in the first place. No, it must
be related at the very least," He murmured with a grim expression.
The only question was what the precise reason that he needed to hide the
registered owner of the company was. Guildmaster Bradt had gone as far as
to use his limited and precious decision vote to do so.
He could have just straightforwardly created a public esoteric supplies

division in his company, or started a new company without having to rely on
such deception. In fact, it would probably bring him even more prestige
which yields him more political capital. Yet he went out of his way to change
policies to allow the creation and registration of a company to be anonymous,
specifically, the Esosale Supplier Company.
"The reason he didn't do that… is because he couldn't? But if this was his
idea, and he created the plan and is also managing it then no one could stop
him," He frowned, before his eyes widened. "Unless it wasn't his plan or his
achievement in the first place…"
He felt as though he had come close to hitting the truth of the matter.

Chapter 810 Voidhunters
The idea of some unknown entity conspiring with Guildmaster Bradt send a
chill down his spine. However, his deductions were not without merit. If
Guildmaster Bradt truly was the sole mastermind and the sole cause for the
strange disappearances of the esoteric ore deposits as well as for Esosale
Suppliers, then he would have had plenty of reasons and incentives to be
more straightforward, open, and even flashy about it.
Yet he didn't, even if it was very much for his interests. That means that he
probably was not the sole mastermind responsible for everything related to
these recent events, if there was another entity that was also responsible for
this with differing interests, then it would explain why Guildmaster Bradt has
not acted on his interests alone. He has a partner who is aiding him with this.
Maybe even more than one!
('But what exactly is that serpent gaining from this supposed partner or
partners?') He furrowed his eyebrows as he thought long and hard about it.
Passing the anonymous registration policy amendment was not something
that was to his benefit since being famous was better for garnering greater
prestige and influence than being shady, thus the passing of the anonymous-
registration policy amendment may have been for someone else.
('But wait, that hypothesis doesn't make sense either,') The man gritted his
teeth as he grew engrossed deep in thought. ('Why would Bradt use his
limited and precious decision votes to pass a bill for someone else, even if
that person is a potential partner? Are the profits from the monopoly of
esoteric supplies really worth it?')
Of course, Guildmaster Bradt would also gain the advantage of hampering

his opponent, but just those two conditions alone couldn't be worth passing
the bill.
('There has to be something else,') He couldn't help but feel quite certain
about this evaluation. There was just far too much that was off here. He
couldn't quite put his finger on it.
('No,') He shook his head. ('It doesn't matter. Regardless, what I must do
wouldn't change. I need to find the way that he is acquiring all those esoteric
supplies through, and then destroy it, or at the very least render it obsolete.')
Regardless of what had happened behind the scenes, what he needed to do

had not changed. He could not allow the one and only chance that he had to
break away from the guildmaster's stronghold over political power to be
taken away from him.
The appearance of the Shionel Dungeon was truly a blessing from fate, he
intended to protect it at all costs.
('There's only one way to gain access to a huge supply of esoteric resource
deposits,') He noted to himself. ('Martial Artists,')
He was relatively certain that the guildmaster had not found a way to get
around this limitation.
('Which means he's using Martial Squires for sure, furthermore, they're based
here in the Shionel Confederation,')
This meant that he could find them. As long as they were inside the country,
they were within his primary domain of influence and power.
('It's unlikely that the guildmaster managed to gain all those esoteric
resources using a large quantity of Martial Squires. That would have been
noticed by now and is far too conspicuous to hide.') He shrewdly noticed.
('Furthermore, even with the sense-jamming properties of the Shionel
Dungeon, there is no way a larger group of Martial Squires would have gone
unnoticed on the twelfth floor.')
This strongly suggested that the guildmaster was compensating for a lack of
quantity with sheer quality.
('That means the number of Martial Artists he actually has is probably few,
probably lesser than five if I had to take a guess,') He tutted with a grim
expression.
The smaller the quantity of Martial Artists made it harder to find them, as
opposed to a small battalion of Martial Artists that was far easier to find.
('It's not going to be easy…') His eyes narrowed. ('There's really only two
ways to go about this, from what I can see. I need either need to track their
identity by narrowing down the possible list of suspects by eliminating
Martial Artists who can't possibly be them, or directly target them by
catching them in the act.
Both ways were going to be difficult. He could tell who were this or these
Martial Artists were, they were either extremely powerful or possessed some
powerful techniques that were extremely well suited to the Shionel Dungeon.
Or both.
In which case, simply deploying some Martial Squire to keep an eye on the
floors of the dungeon wasn't going to be enough in and of itself.
('Damn it all, that fucking snake,') He gritted his teeth.
This new development posed a big problem that would require a lot of
resources and manpower to succeed. This would hinder his growth since he
would need to invest a lot of capital into killing those pesky Martial Squires
who were working with Bradt Patrick.
He was not worried about the legality of killing Martial Squires, he was far
too powerful as far as his resources and political power to be perturbed by
such a thing. Furthermore, killing Martial Squires inside the dungeon was not
criminalized, thus if he assassinated them inside the dungeon, he could even
brag about it.
('I need to get to work, otherwise, those Martial Squires will steal what is
rightfully mine,') His eyes became bloodshot with anger.
"Maynar," he turned to his secretary standing before his table in his office.
"Yes sir," The man bowed lightly. "Put together a team of veteran hunters
together. I want the best of the best. All the S-rank and A-rank hunters.
Promise them twice as much as their current contract and give them generous
terms and conditions to join our hunting team."
"Immediately sir, any details for the team?" He asked.
"I'm going to call it…" He considered the matter for a second. "The
Voidhunters. That sounds fitting for a group of hunter-class Martial Squires
that are going to be dispatched to take down a couple of their own kind."
Chapter 811 The Name
He had no proof, but he couldn't help but wonder if this incident was caused
by the one who had been dubbed as the 'Voider', as silly of a name he found it
to be, was related to this incident.
There were some commonalities, the fact that both incidents had occurred
extremely covertly that not a single soul perceived. Furthermore, the taxes for
both events had not been paid, though with the unregistered taxing, he didn't
even know if that was true or not.
However, he did not care if the two were the same or now, they could be
treated as the same, and he could use the infamy to lure them in with the
prospect of glory and prestige for killing such a powerful Martial Squire.
Soon enough, his secretary had set up an appointment between Chairman

Deacon and the remaining Martial Squires that had taken interest in his offer.
He was quite famous in the Shionel Confederation, and outside of a few
powerhouses in the Shionel Merchant Guild, he could easily poach Martial
Squires with simply far superior contracts with way better terms and
conditions. He had even offered to fully pay their severance pay.
The sum was a little too much for them to break the contract lightly,
however, for someone as filthy rich as himself, it was not even with thinking
about.
Just merely a few days later, his secretary had brought them along to his
guest office. This was where he invited people when he wanted to show off a
bit.
There were sixteen Martial Squires In total that he had managed to gather
using his offers to them. Sixteen was a decent number by his standards, but it
was hardly enough in the long run, each floor was as large as a large town,
and the Shionel Dungeon itself had the holding capacity of a small country.
Of course, for now, he would have to make do with this amount. He could
not gather a hundred Martial Squires in a single day, that would take time.
He wasn't too good at evaluating the combat capabilities of Martial Artists

himself and merely relied on the data he had been provided on them. Only
one S-rank thus far, and the rest were all A-ranks, barring one B-rank.
"Welcome, adventurers," He told them. "I am Chairman Deacon, and I

appreciate all of you taking the time to come all the way to meet me
regarding my offer, and patronage."
His voice was heavy and straightforward. He betrayed neither arrogance nor
humility, he was willing to give them the respect that Martial Squires
deserved, but they were not worthy of him bowing his head down to.
Soon enough, all of them were seated and poised to begin the discussion.
"As you all know," He began. "Recently, there was an event stirred up in the
twelfth dungeon multiple times recurringly. Large swathes of esoteric ore
deposits have been disappearing without the inland taipans occupying the
territories from which they were extracted from being exterminated."
He paused for a moment. "There's a lot that can be said about it in detail,
however, those details will be provided to you separately. What I want to get
across here is what I'm hiring you to do. The objective is simple. Find the
people responsible for extracting the extremely large quantities of esoteric ore
deposits in this fashion, and eliminate them."
The Martial Squires raised an eyebrow at that.
"You will possess the full cooperation of the intelligence division of my

company that has already begun gathering all the intelligence surrounding the
matter. You can even make requests that will be considered by the division
and be processed accordingly," He explained, before continuing. "As
promised, the remuneration is of no consequence, I'll even double or triple it
as long as you bring me the head."
That earned a reaction out of most of the Martial Squires. The terms and
conditions were extremely generous, and that was clearly the point. He
wanted to buy them over and get them to go all out with generous rewards
that were basically no different from bounties.
"Those are some extremely generous conditions, chairman," One of the

Martial Squires noted. "However, how are we supposed to engage in tracking
measures inside the dungeon, it is difficult to engage in any kind of
intelligence gathering."
"I am aware of that," Chairman Deacon would not have gone out of his way
to gather the best of the Martial Squires he could at the moment if this were
such a troublesome issue. "Rest assured that you will have full support from
my side, and you will be compensated hourly regardless of success or
failure."
That relaxed them, they were afraid that their recompense would be withheld
if they did fail to track down the one or ones responsible for mysteriously
draining a floor of much of its resources. However, if they would get paid
even in the event of their failure for their efforts and pains, then there was
quite the merit in undertaking this contract.
"Out remuneration will also be relative to our rank, correct?" Squire Fren, the
leader of the famous S-rank party Saberstrike asked.
She had been looking to cut her contract with her current patron after she
failed to be the one who cleared the second floor, which gave the former even
more power to try and exert control over her adventuring abilities.
However, her severance fee was considerable, thus she had been quite
interested when she heard of an offer that paid for her severance pay
regardless of what it was.
"Of course," Chairman Deacon nodded. "Merit will certainly be the

foundation of your remuneration."
"Can we opt for an open-ended contract with an hourly remuneration rate

without a bare minimum amount of time spent on fulfilling the objective?"
The only B-rank Martial Squire asked.
Chairman Deacon frowned inwardly as he tried recalling the identity of the

weakest Martial Squire in the room. "You… what was your name again?"
"Ah. The name's Quarrier. Rui Quarrier,"

Chapter 812 Clarifications
It hadn't been Rui's intention to try and infiltrate a hunt targeting him,
however, when he saw the offer in the Merchant Guild as well as agents of
Deacon Industries trying to poach Martial Squires to join a hunting team to
target the adventurers who had been responsible for the event, he decided to
at least check it out spontaneously.
It hadn't been in his plan to work as a spy, for himself that too, but now that
had the opportunity to do so, he didn't see any reason why he shouldn't at
least check out the Martial Squires assigned to hunt him.
He had expected that Chairman Deacon would take some measure to stop
Rui's dominance on the dungeon floors, still, it hadn't clicked that he could
infiltrate it and keep tabs on it.
He highly doubted that they had any chance of tracking him, but it was better
to be safe than sorry. As long as it did not take much of his time, he did not
particularly lose anything.
"Hmph, it sounds as though you're not very committed to this, Squire

Quarrier," Chairman Deacon sternly pointed.
"I'm unable to dedicate all of my time to such an operation unfortunately," He

scratched his head, laughing awkwardly. "But I am willing to aid the
operation if that is not a problem."
"Your remuneration will also be decided by how committed you are, your
contributions to intelligence, and the measures you've undertaken to aid with
the objective, is that clear? You will stand to gain far less than those who are
entirely committed." He coldly clarified.
"I have no problems as long as I get what I worked for," Rui replied with a
pleasant smile. "Will I still have access to logistical and intelligence support
even if I am not operating on this mission full-time?"
"That will also depend on your merits," Chairman Deacon replied. He could
not be bothered by a low-grade Martial Squire in the first place, he was just
answering his questions patiently because other Martial Squires might have
the same issue or uncertainty.
"I see," Rui nodded. "In that case, I'm more than willing to be a Voidhunter."
Rui found the name to be amusing and ironic, but he didn't let it show.
"The formal terms and conditions of the contract can be laid out in full later
on, however, the most important thing is that there's a mutual understanding
of what we expect from each other, and also what a lot of your work will
entail," He informed them.
"Murder is illegal in the Shionel Confederation, however, it is not illegal or

even considered murder in the Shionel Dungeon, which is the most apt
location to kill the target or targets," Chairman Deacon informed them.
He actually didn't give a damn about the location where they eliminated
them, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to get away with trying to commit
murder. For all he knew, one of them would defect to Guildmaster Bradt, and
if the latter found out that Chairman Deacon supported unlawful killing, then
he could use that to charge the latter with murder conspiracy, which could
land him in hot waters if the guildmaster used his executive power to ensure
that Chairman Deacon couldn't wiggle his way out of a thorough
investigation and would probably find him guilty. That would give
Guildmaster Bradt the ground to use authority to cast Chairman Deacon out
of the Shionel Merchant Guild.
If there were a time when he had located and identified the ones responsible
for cleaning up the Twelfth floor, and the ones responsible for clearing the
second floor, and they were outside the dungeon, then he would
straightforwardly deploy his own private Martial Artists to kill him rather
than relying on hired mercenaries. There was no way he was going to untrust
them if he had a choice.
"Assuming that this entity will be engaging in the same activities for other
floors, then there will be plenty of opportunities to find and kill him,"
Chairman Deacon explained. "According to the Analytics Division of my
Deacon Industries, covering as much area with as many Martial Squires in a
floor that our target will definitely be aiming for at some point has the highest
chances of success."
The biggest problem of the Shionel Dungeon was its sensory jamming that
greatly limited the surveillance range of the Martial Squires, otherwise, just
five competent Martial Squires would be more than enough to surveil an
entire floor.
"Grid searching, maintaining surveillance of a large area is our best choice at

the moment," Chairman Deacon informed them. "The chances of you coming
into someone whose ability to harvest esoteric resources will be much higher,
at that time, please record their appearances to the best of your ability with
certain instruments we provide you. Of course, these instruments are also
highly limited by the same sensory jamming effect of the Shionel Dungeon,
but they will still be able to capture a rough appearance of our target, which
instantly increases our chances of identifying them outside of the dungeon."
The reason why the search for their target had stalled was because there was
absolutely no tangible information on them, that was why there was no
headway to be made.
However, once they had an appearance about their target, then suddenly there
was a lot that could be done.
Height, weight, sex, body structure, race, and other factors could be gleaned
which could drastically cut down on the pool of suspects. With the suspect
pool narrowed down, he could use his considerable resources to then dedicate
more thorough investigations into each individual suspect and would be able
to further narrow down the suspect pool in time.
That was why Chairman Deacon was willing to go big and aggressive right
off the bat, the more he invested immediately, the likelier he was to gain
some returns that would allow him to considerably increase the chances of
finding and killing his target. He didn't think he was likely to fail.
***
Author's note:
Dear readers, especially priv, I do sincerely apologize for the delay in

updating priv. There was an error and WN did not delete a new priv setting
that I had discarded, and instead went with it. So I had to rush with
publishing 8 new chapters when I had no stock pile.
Regardless, I take full responsibility. I owe all of you 6 chapters, and I

promise you'll have them by the end of the month. Once again, sorry for the
delays, hope you understand, and thank you for your support :)
Chapter 813 Issue
"I have another question," Rui raised his hand.
"What is it?" Chairman Deacon couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows in
irritation.
"What degree of coordination do you expect from us?" Rui asked. "And also,
what level of autonomy do we gain?"
This was a pertinent question in general since it was unreasonable to gather

large groups of Martial Artists and expect them to coordinate with each other.
Any plan that relied on extensive coordination between the Martial Squires
that Chairman Deacon was hiring was bound to fail.
"I do not expect perfect teamwork between all of you, I am well aware that
this is an extremely absurd thing to expect out of all of you," He clarified,
bringing relief to their faces.
In truth, most of them would definitely have rejected his offer had he insisted
on perfect coordination as demand from them for his plans. Most Martial
Squires had strong individuality, especially at the higher stage, and it took
many years of familiarity and trust for them to develop great coordination
with other Martial Squires.
"I do expect very basic things such as non-conflict, and some other rules that
would effectively allow you to engage in basic coordination without the need
to actually communicate with each other," He explained. "This is possible as
long as everyone follows some basic rules and guidelines, which will be
thoroughly laid out once the contracts are signed."
He turned back to Rui. "As for autonomy, that can be decided by yourselves,
however, your remuneration will be lesser if you wish to retain more
autonomy, if you're willing to follow orders, you will be given much greater
compensation than those that act entirely independently. Anyone who wishes
to act entirely independently will only receive nominal compensation unless
their contributions are great. While those that are willing to follow orders will
be greatly remunerated regardless of the outcome."
That was quite fair, all things considered. The Martial Artists looked relieved
at this, the fact that not only did Chairman Deacon intend not forcing orders
on them, but also intended to allow them to choose what level of adherence
they wanted to be subject to was quite relieving.
Rui, on the other hand, was not pleased by this.
('He understands how to manage large groups of Martial Squires,') Rui

mused. ('Fitting for someone of his position who no doubt has a large number
of Martial Squires under him. If he finds out even a sniff of my identity, then
I'm screwed.')
That was why Rui was glad that he had joined this meeting. He wanted to
understand what he was going against, and he realized that perhaps his
position was not as secure as he hoped.
('If they somehow manage to capture an image of Kane and me, even if it's
not clear, we're screwed.') He realized.
Them being a pair would remove a lot of the suspects that would otherwise
still be in consideration.
('I underestimated how much my success would infuriate Chairman Deacon,

and just how far he was willing to go. A hundred Martial Squires just to track
one or many completely unknown Martial Squires of whom there is no
tangible information surrounding? That's crazy,') He sighed inwardly.
('Crazy, but not completely ineffective.')
This changed how he would need to deal with other Martial Squires lingering
in the surroundings. He could not make even a single mistake around them.
The information that he gained from being part of this meeting alone had
been worth the trip, but now, he had even more reason to at least stick
around.
"We can start with the twelfth floor, the mysterious disappearance of esoteric
resources has yet to cease, furthermore, there are still sections of the twelfth
floor that remain. Based on the information we have, it is highly likely that
the Martial Artist known as the Voider will make an appearance to drain the
remaining esoteric resource plunders of the twelfth floor, and aim to clear it,"
Chairman Deacon explained. "The fact that the floor is being cleared at a
large rate leaves only a few districts' worths of esoteric resources on the
twelfth floor. That reduces the area over which the sixteen of you need to
surveil and keep an eye over."
That was indeed true, that made their job easier, although sixteen of them
were nowhere near enough to surveil the entire floor, it was certainly a lot
easier if they had to surveil a portion of the entire floor.
The Martial Squires grew more optimistic with this plan. They had initially
walked in expecting that there was no chance in hell that they could possibly
catch such an evasive person and simply were attracted by the terms and
conditions that Deacon Industries had promised them.
Rui also had a pleasant expression, but inwardly, he was frowning as he

considered how to deal with this.
('The biggest issue is that Chairman Deacon's analysis is right, I was planning
on sweeping up the remaining esoteric resource deposits in the Shionel
Dungeon in one fell swoop,') He scratched his head.
It was tempting to simply avoid the twelfth floor now that he knew this.
However, Rui knew better than to go for such a simple bone-headed plan.
There were problems with this. Firstly, the fact that Chairman Deacon's
analysis and predictions were solid meant that any blatant inaccuracies would
be suspected.
Why would the Voider not appear when there was strong reason to believe he
would? He certainly would finish the job like he did on the second floor.
Unless, of course, he had reason not to. If he somehow came to learn of the
trap that had been planned.
In that case, that would make all of the Martial Squires in the Voidhunter
team at the moment extremely suspicious. Since they would be the likeliest
breaches of any information.
While it was possible that some employee of his was an agent, the first
avenue for investigation for Chairman Deacon would be all sixteen of them.
Rui didn't think he was a bad person, but he wasn't generous enough to
reduce the suspect pool to sixteen for his enemy.
Chapter 814 Terms
This was Rui's biggest problem, he could not avoid walking into a trap that he
had just learned of, that would make Chairman Deacon too suspicious. Rui
did not think this man was not smart enough to come to the conclusion that a
potential intelligence leak had occurred through the Martial Squires.
In which case he could not possibly afford to make such a mistake. Such a
mistake would only increase the probability that he would suffer
tremendously.
That meant that he needed to harvest esoteric mineral and organic esoteric
resources with Kane while still partaking in this operation as a Voidhunter.
('This is going to be rough,') Rui grimaced inwardly.
He could make his life easier by not being part of the same operation, but he
didn't want to forsake an opportunity to get closer to the investigation.
"What exactly is the strategy by which you hope to catch the Voider?" Rui
asked. "You've only outlined a vague plan."
"That is true," Chairman Deacon did not deny this. "However, the issue is
that none of you have signed the contract yet. I do not wish to go too deep
into the plan before ironing that part out."
That was quite the valid and sound reason. In fact, he was extending quite the
big of good faith and sincerity, and unfortunately for Rui, it seemed as though
everyone around him was inclined to go with the offer.
Chairman Deacon glanced at his secretary, nodding. Immediately, the latter

procured contracts for each of Martial Artists. They were surprisingly small,
but Rui understood why he had done that. He wanted to ensure that the
Martial Squires felt comfortable with the contracts rather than submerging
them in pages and pages of litigative jargon that they simply were not
equipped to understand.
Many of them would not be eager to sagree to something that they had no
understanding of, and most of them did not have lawyers with them when
they migrated to this state, they did not necessarily trust lawyers in a state to
proof read a contract from someone with far more power than them.
Chairman Deacom seemed to be well aware of this dynamic, and clearly did
not want to push them. Thus each clayse was framed using as simple
language as could possibly used without affecting their meaning.
The contract specified an exchange of services and aid with the investigation,
intelligence, surveillance, tracking and potentially elimination of the
individual or group of individuals that were responsible for the mass
harvesting of esoteric mineral and organic deposits in the twelfth floor.
In exchange, the Martial Squires would get remunerated at an hourly rate

which was contingent on their rank, willingness to adhere to orders, and
actual merits achieved.
The remuneration included an immense amount of wealth, the sheer amount

even a Martial Squire of his rank could earn made even his earnings from the
Vilun Island mission pale in comparison. These were numbers that he would
never be able to earn even if he spent years taking the most lucrative missions
from the Martial Union.
This alone was worth the contract in the eyes of most of the Martial Squires.
Then there was the fact that there were other benefits promised, such as
promotion which would increase the number of private commissions they
got, free access to Martial Art techniques and other growth and training
resources.
This was also an attractive offer. All Martial Artists cared about Martial Art
techniques, because techniques were the foundation of Martial Art. Thus, one
could expect that Martial Artists were certainly attracted by the prospects of
obtaining thise Martial Art techniques.
Even if Martial Squires did not necessarily need existing techniques to

progress, and ought not to solely master existing techniques to progress, they
were still a useful resource in creating modifications and even new
techniques.
That wasn't the only offer that was made, the contract even specified that
Deacon Industries would subsidize and foot the bill for all expenses related to
the mission, including supplying the necessary gear and equipment and things
like healing and rejuvenation potions.
This was also attractive as those expenses piled up over the many months of
constant dungeon raiding.
What was especially alluring was the fact that yhe contract did not try to
bond them in anyway, and Martial Squires were allowed to cancel their
arrangements with Deacon Industries very easily, all they needed to do was
give a formal notice one week ahead of time, and they could collect their
remuneration and leave.
They did have to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Deacon Industries

surrounding their
These was quite the generous terms and conditions. And this meant that there
was no way that the Martial Squires could be worried about being trapped in
some kind of slave contract.
Rui noticed that the other Martial Squires had already signed it, he quickly
followed suit as he intended to sign it from the very start, and he did not want
to draw any attention by being the only one who had yet to sign it.
"Brilliant," He smiled at all of them. "I look forward to our partnership. Now
then, all of you are now officially Voidhunters of Deacon Industries. Thus,
we can begin with our official planning session."
His secretary handed him an extremely rough and inaccurate pictorial

representation of the twelfth floor, with several highlighted sections.
"This map is certainly not a literal and accurate representation of the twlefth
floor. As I'm sure you all know by now, no accurate and precise map of the
Shionel Dungeon exists. It cannot, due to the sensory jamming of the Shionel
Dungeon the Voider cleanly sweeps the floor, section by section. The
sections are numbered in the order they were cleared, and dated on the dates
they were cleared. "
He tapped on the map. The sections were squares, and each one was back-to-
back with each other.
There was a clear pattern, that Rui was starting to regret in hindsight. He had
thought deeply about it, but he did not anticipate that Chairman Deacon
would somehow manage to get such kind of information.
Chapter 815 Replicate
This meant that Rui had underestimated the kind of information that
Chairman Deacon was able to gather. Of course, this wasn't a particularly
deep fault on his end, but due to a lack of understanding of how deep the
intelligence-gathering capabilities of Deacon industries were. He remembered
feeling somewhat similarly about Guildmaster Bradt Patrick, who had also
exceeded his expectations. Perhaps he needed to reevaluate how he evaluated
other normal human beings.
('At least I can be more careful from here on out,') Rui mused to himself. It
was a miscalculation, but fortunately, it was the more benign kind rather than
the damning kind. However, now that he saw that Chairman Deacon had
access to this kind of information, he could more or less figure out how he
had come about such information.
('He must have extensively gathered the descriptive accounts of Martial

Squires who have been to the twelfth floor, in a combination with his own
personal Martial Squires who must have done some basic scouting and
surveillance in the dungeon.') Rui figured.
However, he was once more in a predicament where he could not drastically

cause any change in patterns without causing Chairman Deacon to grow
suspicious about it.
He would need to purposely fall for their traps to at least a minor extent,
meaning he would need to abide by their predictions. He would need to
ensure that he didn't get an image of him taken, and certainly ensure that he
didn't get captured, that would be game over without any shred of a doubt.
After he passed this ordeal, he would be able to more prudent measures, since
this would not be strange given that the Voider would then know that
someone was specifically targeting him. Thus any countermeasures that the
Voider took after that would not be suspicious given his obvious awareness
of some group actively hunting him in the Shionel Dungeon with a clearer
understanding of some of his patterns.
Chairman Deacon proceeded to lay out the entire plan before him. The
sixteen Martial Squires were assigned particular areas in the remaining
section of unharvested esoteric deposits on the twelfth floor of the Shionel
Dungeon. Each of them had been instructed to ensure that they did not surveil
overlapping areas with their peers in the Shionel Dungeon. In this case, they
had to move away and ensure that there were no redundancies in the areas in
which they were surveilling. They had to keep their recorders on standby and
capture the images of all the Martial Squires who appeared in their vicinity
and observe their harvesting. The Voider undoubtedly possessed an
unparalleled ability to extract esoteric mineral and organic ore deposits from
the Shionel Dungeon, thus any Martial Squire that extracted resources in a
strange manner at a rate that far exceeded the standard means could be
reasonably assumed to be the Voider. Their identity was to be captured and
was to be recorded before the Martial Squire engaged with them.
The reason for this was that any Martial Squire that would get into a fight
with the Voider had a high chance of dying. The sheer combat ability
demonstrated by them when they soloed the second floor was immense. Thus
they were suspected to be an S-rank veteran Martial Squire with decades of
experience, who was just on the very cusp of becoming a Martial Senior.
Thus it was too dangerous to try and provoke such a Martial Squire alone.
After all, if they died in the process of picking a fight with them, then the
data that they had recorded would also be lost. Since communications were
also highly jammed in the Shionel Dungeon, any recording from recording
devices could not be remotely transmitted. Thus, if they died in a fight, their
bodies would be consumed by a taipan, and the recording device on their
body was as good as gone.
Chairman Deacon was more anxious about getting his hands on direct and
tangible evidence and information on the Voider. There were a whole
plethora of measures that could be undertaken when he had this information,
and it was more important than gambling trying to take down a dangerous
ability unprepared around his abilities. If the opportunity to fight and kill him
presented itself in the very first operation, then it probably was the case that
they would run into opportunities in the future where they would be more
prepared.
Thus at the moment, Chairman Deacon had stressed the importance of

gathering as much information on the Voider than fighting them.
"In fact," Chairman Deacon said. "I would rather you simply watch them
even if they're standing right in front of you with their back turned to you."
That showed that Chairman Deacon valued information on the Voider more
than just killing the Voider, at least at the moment.
('I see, he intends to try and replicate the means that I'm using to extract the
esoteric resources of the Shionel Dungeon as fast and as easily as I do,') Rui
quickly realized this when he analyzed Chairman Deacon's intentions.
This was understandable. If he could somehow replicate Rui's methods, then

he would be able to achieve a level of dominance in the supplier market that
would be absolutely unimpeachable. He would achieve a level of growth that
would put his already high growth up till now to shame.
If he managed to replicate Rui's methods, then beating Guildmaster Bradt

would certainly be very much a realistic probability based on the sheer
amount of economic and commercial capital that he would have that would
allow him to sway many constituents of the Shionel merchant Guild and
allow him to buy their votes.
('Too bad for him that he cannot replicate my means,') He shook his head
inwardly. Even if he managed to capture Rui alive and tortured the methods
out of him, he would not be able to replicate the means whatsoever. The
circumstances and factors that came together to allow such a thing to happen
were simply beyond his ability to replicate.

Chapter 816 Counter-Op
"Huff…" Guildmaster Bradt heaved a sigh as he leaned back on his chair.

Ever since he had forged an agreement and a partnership with Rui, he had
been tremendously busy with diplomatic and management work. Although it
was true that the Voider was the fundamental reason for the large sales that
Esosale Suppliers had made, it was also true that the services that he and his
company provided to Esosale Suppliers were considerable, they had almost
become part of the company itself while still maintaining themselves as
separate partners.
That was why Rui did not even try bargaining for more than fifty percent, it
would be an insult to the Bradt Distribution Services, and more importantly,
it would reveal that he didn't think highly of them.
However, that also meant that Guildmaster Bradt had received an abrupt
increase in workload. He had quickly set up an entirely new department in his
company dedicated to Esosale Suppliers. This was a privilege that only a
limited number of companies had, these companies needed to be big enough
and deeply partnered enough for the company to assign an entire division
tasked to manage the affairs related to one company.
Guildmaster Bradt had actively put this company in that category

immediately since he knew that this company had the same merits as the ones
that had their own divisions as well. He quickly found competent staff and
assigned an experienced manager who would be able to handle the rush hour
that he knew would be coming to Esosale Suppliers soon enough.
And he was right, the moment he promoted Esosale Suppliers through the
brand of his own Distribution Services, many customers immediately placed
orders for supplies from Esosale Suppliers despite the fact that it was
completely unknown and a clearly a shell company to anyone who had eyes
and looked into it.
Yet people still flocked to it and placed orders for supplies of esoteric
resources, even going as far as to pay advances. All of this came from the
Bradt Distribution Services' credibility. People believed that the Bradt
Distribution Services which had a truly stellar reputation for credibility and
reliability would not aggressively promote a scam. That would ruin their
reputation forever.
Of course, Guildmaster Bradt did not make promises that he could not be
sure of, he may have had a working partnership with each other, however,
neither side trusted the other, and both sides were aware of this.
Guildmaster Bradt only made single-sale transactions with customers and

expressed refusal to sign any long-term supplier contracts on behalf of
Esosale Suppliers. After all, how could he be sure that Rui would continue
supplying at a steady rate regularly? He could not.
The Voider could very well abandon their partnership at any given time and
vanish into thin air and Guildmaster Bradt most likely would not be able to
do anything about it. After all, he neither knew his identity nor his location
nor did he hold any major leverage over Rui barring perhaps his income.
However, that was not much leverage since Guildmaster Bradt did not want
to sully his reputation, which would affect the reputation of his company
which was known for being credible and reliable.
Thus he could not leverage it by blatantly blackmailing Rui with money that
he lawfully owned. If Rui decided to go public, everything that Guildmaster
Bradt had spent his life building would collapse in a day.
The revenue that Esosale SUppliers was not worth that, not even close.
Thus he kept his distance and did not promise anything, all sales were made
after Rui restocked the inventory by giving them the esoteric supplies that
Rui had harvested, using the method that they discussed.
Still, even with the reduced capital, his work load had increased, a lot causing
a lot of his days to grow even more densely packed with matter he needed to
handle.
"Sir, there's an urgent report from the intelligence department," His secretary
informed him.
"Hm?" Guildmaster Bradt turned to face her with narrowed eyes. "What is
it?"
"It's related to Chairman Deacon and his recent measures, sir," She replied,
placing the documents on the table.
Guildmaster Bradt immediately grabbed them and began reading through

them, before making a preliminary analysis.
"So… he's already charted out an operation to gather information on the

twelfth floor," Guildmaster Bradt mused. "Once the Voider gets past the
twelfth floor, and moves onto a newer frontier, it will be a long time before
Chairman Deacon gets a hold on his position because due to the fact that
there is only one target left," Guildmaster Bradt mused. "Sixteen Martial
Squires are not bad, but there is only one S-rank, fourteen A-ranks, and even
a B-rank, who is no doubt going to be entirely useless to them."
He already had verified the sense of danger that the Voider gave off to his
direct subordinate Martial Squires was correlated to the upper ends of what
an S-rank martial Squire was capable of. That meant that only the sole S-rank
hunter-class Martial Squire of the Voidhunters at the moment had a chance of
defeating the Voider, the way he saw it.
And she probably didn't stand a real chance was his prediction.
Still, it was quite likely in his eyes that the Voider was unaware of these
plans, and the two of them had decided that direct communication was to be
used as sparingly as possible, Guildmaster Bradt could not simply choose to
ignore this. He needed to find a way to ensure that this operation did not get
the best of the Voider, therefore he could not avoid leaving this alone.
"Draft up a new operation," He ordered his secretary.
"Would you like me to register it in the books of the Bradt Distribution

Services, sir?"
"No, keep it unofficial, I don't want word of this leaking out to that bastard
Deacon."
"Yes sir, as for the operation…"
Guildmaster Bradt considered his words for a moment. "The objective will be
to annihilate the Voidhunters before the predicted time of the Voider.
Chapter 817 Measures
"So you're telling me the super powerful merchant guy that we pissed off is
forming a literal hunting team to gather information on us so that he can
eventually take us out?" Kane frowned.
"Right," Rui nodded.
He had informed Kane about everything he had learned. After all, he couldn't
withhold such information that had an impact on Kane.
"Alright, so what are we gonna do?" Kane asked.
Rui smiled back wordlessly. He had entertained the possibility of Kane

quitting which would not be unreasonable. But he appreciated his friend's
loyalty and commitment.
"You don't have to do this if you don't want to," Rui reminded him, just to
make sure. "You can just leave it to me if this becomes too much at any given
point."
Although things would become far harder for him, Rui did not want to use
this as a justification to pressure his best friend to tag along with him in crazy
circumstances.
"Don't worry about it, I intend to see this through to the end," he lightly said.
"So what is it that we are going to about this predicament?"
"We cannot avoid it," Rui explained. "At least, now that I've joined the
Voidhunters, any indications that the Voider learned of the plans to gather as
much information on him as possible will put the sixteen Voidhunters in
suspicion. That's far too much suspicion on me, and I cannot allow that to
happen."
"So we're going to continue with our plans to harvest the twelfth floor… in
the midst of sixteen Martial Squires that are literally there only to track us?"
Kane scratched his head.
"Don't worry about it, they don't stand a chance of detecting us with your
Void Step, however, we need to be more careful about how we use it from
here on out," He explained. "From here on out, you indicate your time limit
warning three minutes ahead of time, then I will locate a place where we can
safely reach and dismount. Preferably even in tunnels and stuff like that.
Going to such degrees is worth it, I don't care if we're slower, it's better to be
safe than sorry."
"How will you even harvest esoteric resources if you're part of the
Voidhunter team though?" Kane scratched his head, confused. "Won't they
immediately realize since you wouldn't be part of the team?"
Rui shook his head. "There is no close-knit team, we need to surveil a large
area, thus we're spread out, there is absolutely no benefit to grouping in dense
areas. Thus none of the Voidhunters will actually be sensing me, since we're
supposed to cover as much area as we can with no overlaps, which requires
being outside of each other's sensory ranges. Although we have a general idea
where each of us is supposed to be, they would not notice me gone."
"I see," Kane furrowed his eyebrows as he considered the matter and all the
issues surrounding it. "That makes sense."
He turned towards Rui. "So you intend on successfully harvesting all of the
esoteric deposits from right under their nose? That's something else entirely."
He laughed. It was such a diabolical plan, but it fit Rui.
The two of them worked out the details of how they would handle this
particular extraction mission, they had worked out a really good system prior
and had even practiced, thus any changes to it needed to be made carefully
and prudently.
In the end, Rui increased the safety measures including the forewarning time,
as well as the minimum distance that they maintained from every Martial
Squire they came across.
With these measures, he reduced the probability that something that bad
would happen. He needed to find a way to ensure that he didn't screw up
matters for himself. These measures aided in that and ensured that the
probability of something going wrong was low.
The downside was that their harvest was not going to be as great. Since they
would be spending less time on mining the deposits from the land of the
twelfth floor, but would also be reducing the net area over which that they
would be mining over.
That was more than just an acceptable trade to Rui, he was more than willing
to allow that to ensure that there was no way that he could possibly be
overwhelmed by these circumstances and that nothing went wrong.
With that established, they had more or less made all the preparations that
they needed to make as far as planning went.
Rui, however, still wasn't done. He was not one to be satisfied with basic
half-assed measures as opposed to very concrete ways to improve their
probability of success.
"What's this?" Kane frowned as Rui handed him a tiny vial of a strange black
liquid.
"It's Festerine Venom," Rui explained. "It's a powerful Squire-grade poison,

that paralyzes a target extremely quickly and costs an absurd sum of money
for just half a milligram of it. We're going to equip you with a poisoned blade
with this coated on it. You'll get a few uses to poison a Martial Squire and
paralyze them and drop them on the spot."
Kane's eyes twinkled at the mention of that. This allowed his lethality to be
relevant against the likes of Martial Squires, despite being a low-grade
Martial Squire.
"Poison isn't really in-line with my Martial Path though," Kane murmured.
This was true, his Martial Path was centered around evasive maneuvering,
which was exclusive of a field like poison arts.
"It's not a Martial Art technique," Rui told him. "Just a temporary measure,
there's no saying what can happen in the circumstances that we're going to be
entering now, just take it for now, and use it if needed, you'll thank me if you
need to."
"Well, that does make sense," Kane shrugged. "I suppose that is true, at the
very least. Better safe than sorry."
Now that the several preparations that they had made had been completed,
they were both ready to ensure that this operation ended in success.
Chapter 818 Joint
Rui's own preparations were not necessarily done though, his prior measures
were related to their coordination and to their work. Now he had his own
preparations to make.
('I need to gather information on the other Voidhunters,') he noted to himself.
His Martial Path was adaptive evolution. He gathered all kinds of information
on his opponents through all means, including extra-combat means. He did
not necessarily need to fight them to be able to develop an adapted anti-
fighting style to take them down. As long as he had enough information, it
was possible.
As for how he was going to procure all that information?
"I'd like to purchase all the combat information on all fifteen of these Martial
Squires," Rui stated to an employee in the information transaction section as
he handed her a list of names
He simply was going to buy it straightforwardly as Rui Quarrier. He didn't

need to use subterfuge, since learning about the people that he was going to
be working on a dangerous mission and going to be trusting to a certain
extent was perfectly reasonable, if uncommon. But there was no room for
there to be any suspicion of him being the Voider based on this alone.
Thus, he needed to own it and go ahead with making such a purchase. After
all, in the eyes of others, if he was the Voider, would he truly be so crude in
his attempt to learn more about his enemies? It was quite unlikely.
"There you go sir, it will cost you about five thousand gold,"
Rui winced slightly as he paid up.
He lifted the large box of documents, carrying it home before studying it

privately, opening the first document.
[Squire Fren Burenha]
"Hmmm…" Rui's eyes narrowed.
Squire Fren was an S-rank adventurer and was the leader of the S-rank party
who had discovered that the second floor of the Shionel Dungeon had been
cleared. Now she had joined the Voidhunters to hunt him down. He
wondered if she held a grudge against him for clearing the second floor when
it was clear from that incident that she had wanted to be the one to claim that
fame.
Regardless, she was extremely strong. Rui had felt it even though she tried
restraining her aura.
It was heavy.
It possessed a weight that simply could not be hidden. When he looked at her,
he felt just the tiniest spark of what he sensed from the Martial Seniors when
they fought on Vilun Island.
('I can't beat her as I am now,') Rui shook his head.
Her Martial Art, the Double Fist Binding Serpent Style was a grappling
Martial Art meant to subjugate extremely powerful beings and beasts. Her
Martial Path was Joint Submission. A Martial Path that focused on
immobilizing their targets by putting them in positions where resisting would
stress and hurt their own joints.
Joints were almost universally the weakest points of animals and monsters
possessing joints. Thus any position where a person was forced to apply force
in a way that stressed their own joints would cause them to experience strain
in their joints, and be unable to resist at all without dislocating it.
"Interesting," He mused as he went through the intelligence on her quite

thoroughly.
Although joint-hold submissions were a very universal form of submissions

back on Earth being featured in Aikido, Judo, Sambo, and even Shoot
Wrestling, she had a very distinct full-body type submission joint-holds that
reminded Rui of one style in particular.
"Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu," He murmured.
He could even understand why her Martial Art seemed to feature a whole lot
of full-body holds.
"She can't put large beasts into submission with just an arm or two, she needs
to apply her whole body," Rui realized.
She specialized in subjugating powerful Squire-level beasts that simply could

not be subjugated through any other means. He could see why she had chosen
to enter the dungeon with a party rather than by herself.
"She's not suited having to take on a large number of monsters that need to be
killed rather than subjugated," He concluded.
Of course, that did not mean she was useless, far from it. She was still more
valuable than any grade-eight and most grade-nine Martial Squires. With her
party, they could easily take down Squire-level monsters, and even beasts
that surpassed the limits of the Squire Realm as far as physical parameters
went!
While she alone could not win, with her party Saberstrike, she could
definitely be able to kill one as long as she was careful.
('I can't beat her as I am now,') Rui sighed, shaking his head. He held
confidence in himself, but even he was not arrogant enough to believe that
his Flowing Void Style could take down a grade-ten Martial Squire. There
was far too much of a gap between them. If she was just one grade, maybe
even two grades above him, he would be a lot more confident with good
preparation, but now if she was literally four grades above him.
He shook his head, putting the matter aside, as he quickly inputted her data
into his Mind Palace, rapidly creating an incomplete predictive model
regardless.
The goal of this was not to fight her but to be able to predict her movements.
He had already memorized as much data on all fifteen of them when they
gathered to meet Chairman Deacon and storing it in his Mind Palace, that in
conjugation with this allowed him to create quite the imperfect and rough
predictive models, but at the very least he would see any abrupt changes
coming ahead of time and not be caught off-guard by any strange movements
that could potentially ruin his plans.
He did the same for the others while also studying their Martial Art and
adding all details surrounding it to his Mind Palace. These Martial Squires,
while not as impressive as Squire Fren, were still highly relevant threats that
he needed to keep an eye on as well when he entered the dungeon.
Chapter 819 Remind
Soon enough, the date and time had come.
"Alright, I'll meet you on the twelfth floor," Rui bade him goodbye.
"Good luck, see you there," Kane replied, seeing him off.
The two of them could not enter the dungeon together. Rui had to join the
dungeon along with the Voidhunters, after all, to partake in their operation of
finding and catching… himself.
He merrily made his way to Deacon Industries putting on a facade of casual

calmness, when in reality he was quite tense on the inside. He needed to play
this perfectly, otherwise, there could be irreparable damage done to his plan.
STEP
He landed outside the gate to the main branch of Deacon Industries, greeted
by two Martial Squire guards. They were quite strong from his senses,
although Rui was confident he could beat them one-on-one. He wasn't using
Mind Mask at the moment, and the strength that he was portraying was very
much the real deal, thus he could not act like he was a grade-ten Martial
Squire
"Squire Quarrier, the master has been expecting you," They addressed him,
before letting him passage.
"Rich bugger," He muttered to himself as he beheld the ostentatious main

branch office of Deacon Industries. If wealth had to have a face, then this
would be a good candidate for it. It was closer to a castle than an office.
"Squire Quarrier," A man greeted Rui as he approached the main building.
"Chairman Deacon awaits, among some of your other peers."
Rui recognized him as the secretary of Chairman Deacon, his right-hand man
"Oh dear," Rui sighed. "Am I late?"
"Not at all," The man offered a courteous smile. "You are on time, please
come this way,"
Rui nodded as he spotted even more Voidhunters arriving. They all

eventually bunched together as they headed towards the Chairman's office.
"Hmph, so you decided to come after all, little B-rank?" He heard a voice
from behind him.
"Hm?" He glanced behind him with raised eyebrows as he beheld the

gargantuan man who had insulted him. He recognized the man instantly, no,
he already knew who he was.
A-rank Adventurer Squire Darbun of Party Saberstrike.
"Did you expect me not to? After I signed the contract?" He turned away
from the man with a disinterested look.
"Hah," He snorted. "A weak Martial Squire like you does not belong here. I'd
suggest you leave and get the hell out before you die. Know your limits,
weakling."
Rui's turned back and studied him with the strange kind of interest he would
have if he came across a pre-historic caveman.
"Darbun," A soft yet domineering voice spoke up, intervening. "Stop that, he
is a member of our team and has chosen to be part of the Voidhunters
voluntarily. There's no need to respect him."
The red-haired Martial Squire glanced at Rui. "I apologize for my party
member's rudeness."
"Fren, there's no need for you to apologize to someone like him!" Squire
Darbun barked.
"Enough," She glared at him, quietening him down, and turning back to Rui.
"There's no need to apologize for someone else's rudeness, Squire Fren," He

smiled.
"I am the captain of Team Saberstrike, thus I am obligated to take

responsibility," She replied simply.
She did not need to act extravagant. Rui felt a burden on his shoulder just
being near her even when she was restraining her aura. She possessed a
gravitas to her, unlike anything he'd sensed from a Martial Squire.
Soon enough, they arrived at the dispatch facility of Deacon Industries
"Welcome," He said, spreading his arms. "I appreciate your punctuality. The
dispatch time is upon us soon enough. You will be taken to the Shionel
Dungeon in one of our most luxurious motorized carriages."
This was strange, but they chalked it up to the hyper-consumerist lifestyle

and culture of the Shionel Confederation. It was strange being taken to a
dungeon in such a matter. However, Chairman Deacon had a brand to
maintain, after all, as one of the richest and most powerful men in the Shionel
Confederation.
Soon enough, it was time.
A large carriage, big enough to host all of them comfortably in it arrived.

They quickly boarded it, admiring the quality. Such a means of transport was
seldom seen in their respective nations. The Shionel Confederation was more
than just a little extra when it came to how ridiculous its luxury standards
were.
Regardless they'd already forgotten about it by the time they reached.
They drew a lot of attention from everyone around them, not just because
they were a large group of Martial Squires, but because a lot of their
equipment was provided by Deacon Industries and because of the extravagant
carriage bearing the emblem of the company.
"Let's get going," Squire Fren told everyone, unperturbed by the attention she
received. All Martial Squires were treated differently, and while this was
greater than what they were accustomed to, it was well within what they were
comfortable with.
Although she was not the official leader, everyone deferred to her as she was
the strongest out of all of them without any question whatsoever.
They sped through the security measures before quickly heading towards the
inner gate of Adventurer Ring town.
The air grew more tense and serious, and it only grew heavier when they
reached the Shionel Dungeon.
"Remember," She turned towards all of them with a solemn expression.

"Anything can happen in a dungeon. It doesn't matter how strong you are. It
doesn't matter how experienced you are, or how talented you are. All of that
doesn't matter in the dungeon. Just a single moment of carelessness, just the
slightest mistake, and you could be ambushed from the shadows by a monster
you never saw coming. Life is vulnerable in the dungeon, and we are no
exceptions. Do not let down your guard for even a second, it may very well
be the last thing you do."
Rui had to remind himself that he was the only one who saw the Shionel
Dungeon as a safe space.
Chapter 820 Intercept
He actually felt less tense the moment they entered the dungeon, but he
couldn't show that on his face, he needed to maintain a severe expression. His
spatial senses swept across the dungeons as he noted the location of a few
monsters in the general vicinity. A katoblepas, a bloodfury rabbit that
appeared to have survived from the second floor, and even an inland Shionel
Taipan.
Rui had no problem with these monsters attacking their group, in fact, he
welcomed it. It would be a good way to end this operation quickly if one of
the members of this group were taken down early due to a surprise monster
attack.
In that case, he would be able to finish the twelfth floor without any issues
whatsoever, and he would be just fine.
Of course, he highly doubted that something like that would happen. The
Martial Squires that had been gathered for the Voidhunter team were not
amateurs, they were all Martial Artists who were nominally more powerful
than himself. Most of them would not succumb to a surprise attack, even in
circumstances like the Shionel Dungeon where their senses were hampered.
They followed the scouted paths that were confirmed to lead to a particular
floor. These paths were marked and indicated by the Shionel Adventurer
Guild. Doing this ensured that Martial Artists could enter lower floors
without getting lost, ensuring that Martial Artists didn't have to try and scour
the extensive maze of tunnels inside the dungeon. Every time a new floor was
discovered, the Shionel Dungeon went through an effort of finding large
enough tunnels that connected existing floors to new ones that adventurers
could use.
Despite having a secured route, there was still a deep tension as they traveled
through them.
"Alright, we've reached the first floor, be sure to stay together while we go
down to the second floor. Do not get lost, and do not break away from the
group or from the scouted paths. Getting lost in this maze of a dungeon is
suicide," She warned them once more.
Rui suppressed a laugh. Being with a group of normal adventurers who

raided and plundered the dungeon like normal adventurers did was so
strange. He was starting to see the concerns and problems that normal Martial
Artists had to face in a dungeon such as the Shionel Dungeon.
Still, he couldn't help but frown mildly at their sheer vigilance so early on in
their entry into the Shionel Dungeon.
Being so wary before even crossing the first floor? The uppermost layers of
the Shionel Dungeon were basically no different from a relaxing hiding spot
for Rui.
Soon enough, they reached the second floor, when Squire Fren turned around
and did a headcount. "Good, we're all here. Let's continue downwards."
This was also a strange thing to Rui, he hadn't realized that ordinary Martial
Squires had to go through the effort of making sure that all the Martial
Squires were there, from time to time.
('Imagine entering this dungeon without having some counter to the sensory
jamming property of the Shionel Dungeon despite knowing of it ahead of
time,') He shook his head inwardly. ('Could not be me.')
Finally, they reached the twelfth floor. For ordinary Martial Squires, just
getting to the twelfth floor was an ordeal while Rui may as well skip down
the tunnels humming given how casual he was.
"Alright, we've reached the twelfth floor," Squire Fren stated. "It's unclear
what direction the last remaining section of the floor is, but we'll just have to
reach the center, split up in all directions and locate the last remaining section
of the floor, and meet up back here in five minutes, one of us will have
definitely have found it. It's unfortunate, but without a map, we cannot even
navigate this floor without using such means otherwise, we'll get lost."
This was why a map was so incredibly valuable, yet so incredibly difficult to
obtain. Even Martial Squires found it difficult to navigate the Shionel
Dungeon even with marked routes, how on Earth would normal humans and
merchants commercialize such a place to other normal humans without at
least a map?
Witnessing how serious and difficult this matter was even to a grade-ten
Martial Squire convinced him of the value of his map even more. No wonder
Guildmaster Bradt immediately passed a bill that affected the entire country
on Rui's demand once he verified that the maps Rui produced were actually
very accurate and precise.
Rui had long located the remaining section of the Shionel Dungeon with his
Riemannian Echo sense, but he had to play dumb and go along with this
tedious plan, he couldn't just point them in the right direction, that would
make him instantly suspicious.
Soon enough, they split up in different directions after reaching what should
have been close to the center of the floor. They wouldn't be able to return
quickly since the sixteen of them had to search across a large area, about as
large as a city.
Thus Rui decided to simply go visit Kane, who had already reached the
dungeon and was waiting in a tunnel just outside it where he had shifted
around using Void Step to stay imperceivable. Rui had sensed him the
moment he had entered the dungeon.
STEP
"Kane, you're here," He smiled once he reached the tunnel, talking to

apparently nobody.
Kane appeared out of thin air, sighing. "It's so stressful entering this dungeon
without you. Is this how it's always going to be from now on out?"
"Relax," Rui shook his head. "It's not going to be like this from here on out or
anything like that. This will be the last time, I promise you."
"That's great to hear," He nodded. "Alright, what now?"
"Come along with me, but make sure you're using Void Step from the get-go,
once we split up, we'll immediately start harvesting this entire place, right
under and around their noses. They're going to be shocked to realize that
despite their best, they couldn't catch a glimpse of us,"
Chapter 821 Target
He and Kane casually chatted while they returned back to where Rui was to
scout, looking for the final remaining section of the twelfth floor. Rui was
glad that they had decided to split up, this operation would have been a lot
harder if everyone stuck to each other like glue. Even though Rui was clever
enough to still think of ways, it would be truly difficult, even for him.
Thankfully, the sensory jamming and the loss of the natural sense of direction
in the Shionel Dungeon made his job easier, since he could even say 'Oh, I
completely lost my sense of direction and got lost' and it would be extremely
believable.
Such a thing was a very regular occurrence in the Shionel Dungeon, after all.
Furthermore, it would be very believable considering Rui was only a young
B-rank Martial Squire who had spent only under four years in the Squire
Realm, thus his natural senses would undoubtedly be weaker than that of the
others.
Most animals relied on the magnetic field of the planet to gain some basic
foundation for a sense of direction. This phenomenon was known as
magnetoreception and was a very well-documented phenomenon back on
Earth. It was by this very sense that animals were able to migrate accurately
across the entire world without ever losing their direction, following the same
migration routes year after year.
Normal humans did not possess magnetoreception to any meaningful degree,

but the same could not be said for Martial Artists.
However, in the Shionel Dungeon, even this magnetoreception sense was

completely jammed. It was why the monsters in the dungeon lost their way
and ended up getting lost in the maze of tunnels of the Shionel Dungeon. It
was why many Martial Squires had gone missing since entering the Shionel
Dungeon despite their being pre-established paths that were marked. Their
sense of direction had been completely sabotaged, causing them to take
completely different paths than the specified directions, or diverge largely in
large broad tunnels where their sabotaged sense of direction made them make
just one error in the choice of tunnels they chose to go.
Eventually, it was time to get back to the group.
"Be sure to keep the Void Step active at all times, without fail, got it?" Rui
stressed the importance of this.
If Kane just randomly revealed himself out of the blue, it would ruin
everything!
"Yeah yeah, I know, don't baby me Rui," He grumbled.
"Sorry about that, it's just particularly important," He replied apologetically.
He was not afraid that the Martial Squires would be able to sense Kane.
Sensing Kane was something only a small proportion of Martial Squires
could do outside of the Shionel Dungeon, but it would be absolutely
impossible for almost anybody barring Rui to detect him inside the Shionel
Dungeon.
That was why he stressed the importance of not making any mistakes since
that was the only way his presence could possibly be revealed inside the
dungeon.
"You're late, Squire Quarrier," Squire Fren blankly stated.
"Ah, sorry, I got a little lost on this floor," Rui meekly replied. He
deliberately wanted to paint himself as a little clumsy. Once Chairman
Deacon read the report, his evaluation of Rui as a threat would most likely be
lowered a bit.
And that was exactly what Rui was hoping for. He did not want to stand out a
lot.
"Hmph," Squire Darbun snorted, sneering at Rui. "This is why an

incompetent weakling like you should not have joined the Voidhunters."
Rui was about to respond when he suddenly froze. Something had happened.
Squire Fren was sharp enough to have caught that.
"What happened?" She asked, peering at him with her eyes.
"Nothing at all," Rui managed to squeeze out. But his attention was diverted
elsewhere.
('Is that big group of Martial Squires heading towards us?') Rui frowned as
his Riemannian Echo had just picked up a large group of Martial Squires,
with fifty percent more Martial Squires than their own group moving toward
their group specifically, despite just having entered the dungeon.
This kind of trajectory was either a large coincidence or…
('Or they're specifically moving towards us,') Rui grew increasingly tense.
He was not a fool, no group of Martial Squires moved in this manner towards
another intentionally if their intentions were not malicious.
Rui tracked the group of Martial Squires moving towards them with a
growing tingling sensation across his nerves. Even his suppressed Primordial
instinct was sensing grave danger.
('Damn it is an attack,') He cursed.
But who? Why would anyone randomly attack a group of sixteen Martial
Squires? How were they aware of their location? Did they have an excellent
grade-ten sensory Martial Squire who could at the very least sense their
presence partially? Or…
('They had intelligence on us ahead of time,') Rui cursed. ('That would

explain it, that means there is an actual data leak to someone who really does
not like Chairman Deacon and is opposed to them, and has the power to
dispatch twenty-four Martial Squires on short notice.
There was one name at the top of the suspect list that stood out to him.
('Could it be Gui- No wait! The identity doesn't matter right now! I need to
fucking survive,')
There was about half a minute's worth of time before the two groups collided.
Normally this would be far too little time to make a decision. Martial Squires
did not possess accelerated conscious thought outside of combat-related
cognition and thought processes. Yet Rui's mind far surpassed human limits
even without the evolution that came with being a Martial Squire.
His pupils dilated as his mind furiously began processing his circumstances.
('The primary objective is Kane's and my survival,') Rui instantly established.

('The secondary objective is to ensure our identities are not revealed.')
Against twenty-four Martial Squires, Rui had absolutely no grand ambitions

of fighting them head-on and winning. As long as he survived and their
identities were not revealed, he would consider it a big win.
Chapter 822 First Blood
The first thing he did was cough thrice into the back of his hand. "Man, this
place sure smells weird, it's itching my throat."
"Hmph, the air is completely normal," Squire Darbun snorted. "You can't
even breathe normally, are you even a Martial Squire?"
He could not be bothered to give the slightest bit of a damn about the
overzealous insecure juvenile with a crush on his team leader. The three
coughs were a signal to Kane that an unexpected danger was due.
Since he knew he would not be able to directly communicate with Kane, he

had devised many actions that were coded signals. Scratching his head
indicated that Kane needed to leave immediately and hide in some tunnel
leading to the floor. A yawn meant that Kane needed to leave the dungeon.
He had even devised fifteen separate coded signals that each told Kane which
Martial Squire he needed to kill with his knife in some emergency.
Kane immediately stiffened as he became even more vigilant of his

surroundings even as maneuvered around the group to maintain Void Step
actively.
('Fifteen more seconds,') Rui cursed inwardly. "I don't want to waste any
more time, so I'm going head to my assigned location. The rules have already
been laid clearly, and remember, we don't need to coordinate from here on
out. Cough cough cough."
Rui immediately sky-walked away from the direction that the intruders were
coming at a rapid pace without trying to seem too suspicious, in a moment he
had already moved a hundred meters away from them.
Two more seconds!
"Hey," Squire Darbun growled. "Where-!"
BAM!
A powerful Martial Squire shot into their sensory range, startling them as
they bull-rushed into him hard. A huge swarm of Martial Squires
immediately rushed the entire group.
"!!!" The fifteen Voidhunters shook as they immediately entered battle mode
at the sudden ambush.
BAM BAM BAM!
They had engaged in battle as a clash of fists between the two groups had
immediately ensued! Thankfully, Rui had already moved to the edge of their
sensory range thanks to hurriedly moving away from the group under the
guise of wanting to begin their operation. This gave him great plausible
deniability for the timing since no one could possibly chalk it up to him
having known in advance that they were going to attack and thus moving
away from the target group at the right time.
He glanced at the battle even as he rushed away from it.
Squire Fren was surrounded by a few Martial Squires who did not let her
escape. The sheer amount of pressure that emerged from that battle made
even Rui stiffen just a little.
BAM BAM BAM!!!
A grade-ten Martial Squire pummeled her guard with heavy blows. He

twisted his body with each attack, generating remarkable power that shook
the entirety of the atmosphere violently on the twelfth floor. Each motion he
made tore past the sound barrier as they left several sonic booms in their
wake
Rui did not think that he would be able to take more than several blows of
that caliber even with his Flux Earther technique before he was effectively as
good as dead.
He was outclassed. There were simply no other words for it.
BAM!!!
Squire Fren grimaced as she withstood the blow with her guard, yet she had
not come out unscathed. Her arms were bruising heavily, even swelling
visibly, yet they seemed to mend and subside quickly as her high-grade
healing factor kicked in. It was clearly much faster than Rui's and was
healing wounds very rapidly.
"RARGH!" the Martial Squire threw a powerful blow, at her face, aiming for
a knockout.
WHOOSH
The blow hit empty air. Her body coiled around that of her opponent as she
began strangling him hard. Her arms locked his arm around himself in a way
that strained his shoulder joint extremely hard.
CRACK CRACK CRACK!
The man screamed in pain as her knee borrowed itself into the back of his
ribcage from behind cracking it as she tightened her grip.
SPLAT
"ARGH!" She grimaced, gritting her teeth as her back was exposed to a blade
attack.
She had no choice but to let go, but she didn't intend to let him go free.
Her legs uncoiled from around him, yet her arms tightened as she spun about
using sky-walking before hurling him down in a wrestling-style throw. She
employed several gripping techniques, torque techniques and several
supplementary technique to throw her opponent down with as much power as
she could.
BOOM!
A shockwave the size of a small district rippled across the atmosphere as her
opponent shot down towards the ground faster than a bullet!
Normally, this would not be a particularly lethal attack for a grade-ten

Martial Squire like him. Yet they were not in normal circumstances at all.
Not at all.
"SSSK!"
Several serpents lashed out, camouflaged below the ground Their mouths
opened as their fangs emerged. Yet despite being rushed at with many
Squire-level threats, the Martial Squire simply grunted.
BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!
Seven strikes.
Each with titanic power that blasted literal holes in the bodies of the serpents.
A veteran grade-ten Martial Squire whose Martial Path was centered around
offensive rapid-fire could not be overwhelmed this easily.
Yet, neither could the tenacious ability of the taipans to survive without a
body. Just when he turned back up to return to his assassination target.
SPLAT!
"RGH!" He grimaced as the bodyless head of the serpent still midair,

managed to land a single fang into the fleshy muscle above the collar bone.
"AAAAARGH!" He screeched violently in pain unlike anything he had ever

felt since the evolution apotheosis to the Squire Realm.
BAM!!!
The head of the serpent almost blasted into fleshy confetti from just a single
strike, yet the damage had already been done. The man lost strength in his
muscles as the world went dark.
Squire Fren had a vindictive expression in place of her normally detached

expression as she watched the man succumb to a potent poison.
Chapter 823 Turntables
Rui didn't have time to spectate the fights of others as he ran away, yet it
appeared that he had moved a second too late.
A Martial Squire chased after him rapidly.
"Tsk," Rui tutted.
He was faster than Rui. Rui ran away at top speed, using Outer Convergence
to funnel muscular power from all of his muscle groups into acceleration. He
even used his newly created Gale Force Breathing, which made him more
than twice as fast as before. Yet even that was not enough to outpace his
opponent.
BAM!
Rui was forced to turn around and block a powerful attack with his guard.
The two of them came to just a momentary standstill as the assassin
succeeded in his goal of preventing Rui from running away while Rui failed
in his goal of getting away.
The two of them faced off against each other. Neither of them got a glimpse
of the other's appearance since they were both masked, but considering that
the enemies had information on them, he probably knew Rui's identity as
well. That was probably why he himself had targeted Rui thinking he was
only an ordinary B-rank Martial Artist.
They both radiated massive pressure brimming with hostility as they stared at
each other, sizing each other up.
It was just a moment in real-time, but to them, it was more than enough.
"Go help the others. Make sure some survive," Rui said out loud. "I'll be fine.
GO!"
His opponent didn't respond but was incredibly confused. Was he insinuating
that his fellow assassins were in need of help because the Voidhunters were
so strong? But why did he say 'I'll be fine'? What did he mean by 'Make sure
some survive?'
He didn't know, but he didn't linger on the matter for more than a moment,
before rushing in aggressively.
He threw a swift palm jab lunging right for Rui's throat.
A lethal attack aiming for a vital.
Rui reacted immediately, raising an arm to intercept the attack and nullify it
with Flux Earther while preparing his right fist for a follow-up attack. Yet;
THWACK!
The palm jab twisted and curved around his interception with inhuman
fluidity and flexibility, before dashing forward and striking his throat
regardless! It simply walked around Rui's block and rushed forward uncaring
the block that it made look stupid.
"ACK!" Rui coughed some blood as he felt the wound on his throat bleeding.
The surprise and shock did not help him gain his bearing either.
The man did not give Rui a moment of respite as he rushed forward with a
barrage of palm jabs. Rui guarded against them once more, with maximum
vigilance as he observed the incoming attacks.
The man's bones seemed to detach from their joints as they avoid obstacles
and barriers blocking their way in a wave-like motion.
"RGH!" Rui grimaced as all of the attacks once more bypassed his guard like
they didn't even exist!
flesh wounds had already begun bleeding steadily across his body, yet he
wasn't too concerned by them at the moment. His healing factor was good
enough to ensure that they would be healed over the span of the fight, even if
not immediately. The wounds would certainly not burden him.
Instead, the confirmation of his opponent's combat style and Martial Art were
worth it!
('This… His Martial Path must be centered around homing jabs. He takes an
uncommon Tai Chi-like stance that is entirely centered around his palms.')
He swiftly analyzed. ('His Martial Art must have a paramount focus on
granting lethality with each palm jab, while also granting him the ability to
bypass any active defense with remarkable trajectory manipulation through
sharp muscle control and flexibility.')
The man rushed in with even greater victory at the sight of the successful
damage inflicted with his previous barrage as he launched another swift
barrage of attacks. He had gone with the expectations of taking Rui down
swiftly with just two, or at most three barrages of flesh wounds that would
deteriorate Rui's combat ability to the point where he could just kill him in an
instant with a single attack.
He did not expect to hit empty air.
WHOOSH
Where Rui was a moment ago, he no longer was as his image faded in the
face of the assassin's attacks.
BOOM!!!
CRACK!
A devastating knee blow landed on his ribs, cracking them. He rushed

backward in shock and in pain as he witnessed Rui chasing him with a
strange stance that was different from before. His elbows and knees flexed
and raised, resembling a Muay Thai stance from Earth.
Rui rushed after him without any moment's delay, refusing to let him even a
moment of respite.
BAM BAM BAM!
Each attack came from only half a meter away from their target's body. The
distance between them had shrunken to such a degree that a mere swing of
the elbows and knees landed square on the body!
('Sucks, doesn't it?') Rui continued pummeling him as he never once ceased
focusing on his opponent, watching him incur more damage with each blow.
('This martial art from Earth is suited to taking you down.')
That was what he had concluded as he analyzed his opponent's Martial Art
with the VOID algorithm.
He had already observed that every palm attack that his opponent had
launched, had struck when his opponent's arm was fully extended and
stretched out. Even when Rui shifted forward, he would shift back half a step
to ensure that his arm would still be fully stretched when his attack reached
Rui. He would even adjust the alignment of his body for each strike to ensure
they were just perfectly stretched out when it hit the target. His arm needed to
be stretched out, and thus at a particular distance.
That was a pattern.
And the VOID algorithm loved patterns. The pattern recognition protocols
gobbled it up as it formed the prediction model, which when Rui analyzed
with the adaptive evolution protocols resulted in a combat style that deeply
resembled two of his favorite martial arts!
('The super close range of Muay Thai and Silat from Earth is perfect for
countering your Martial Art!')
Chapter 824 Part
The assassin coughed blood as Rui pummeled him with close-quarter attacks
with his knees and elbows. He struggled to get away but Rui did not let up
even a moment of respite. Even as he did his best to block Rui's attacks, he
couldn't help but wonder how he had even reached this level.
His initial two sets of attacks were effective, and they bypassed his guard and
landed on his vitals, piercing his flesh. Things had been proceeding according
to plan, when suddenly, the target of his attacks had disappeared in the face
of his attacks in an illusion, appearing right in front of him!
Rui had used his trusty Phantom Step technique to feint a step back when
instead dove forward with a flying knee kick. Phantom Step was a technique
whose effectiveness also depended on its application. When the feints of the
technique were used to show the opponent what they wanted to see and what
they expected to see, then the technique was more than thrice as effective as
normal!
The resulting outcome was a drastic shift in reality that entirely caught the
assassin off-guard on top of the titanic damage that had been inflicted by a
powerful attack striking his solar plexus. The fact that he had not seen even a
shadow of the attack incoming meant that he had not defended against it
passively or actively. He took that attack purely with his raw durability,
causing massive damage internally that left him reeling.
Even though Rui had endured several bleeding flesh wounds, his movements
didn't indicate any sluggishness as his healing factor had already staved off
the most debilitating parts of the wounds and was already on its way to
recovering most of the damage he had sustained.
On the other hand, despite having endured only a single attack, the damage
was far more debilitating than anything Rui had endured. The fact that Rui's
opponent had not defended passively or actively means that he was basically
withstanding the might of multiple Squire-level techniques with his body
alone.
Furthermore, his Martial body's configuration did not place too much weight
on toughness and durability, as opposed to speed and flexibility. Thus, the
damage it had withstood was tremendous. The biggest problem was the fact
that Rui had struck his solar plexus with that attack, directly striking his
diaphragm and shocking it so hard with damage that it had become paralyzed
for precious several seconds. The assassin was literally unable to breathe at
all for that duration, let alone activate a breathing technique to use in combat.
Although it only lasted several seconds, that was a world of difference for
Martial Squires. It was more than five minutes in the perspectives of both
Martial Squires!
By the end of those five minutes, the assassin was battered with bruises and
wounds that had already begun to swell up even as Rui whaled waves of
elbows and knees down on his opponent.
"ENOUGH!" The man bellowed once he was able to activate his breathing
techniques to outspeed Rui again. "My Curving Lance style will not be
belittled! My attacks are as nimble as the winds, yet as sharp as lightning!"
He rushed forward with far greater speed and power than before as he did not
dare hold back. A dreadful amount of menacing pressure rose from him as he
channeled his rage and fury from being pummeled like a punching bag for
five minutes into his attacks. They were so fast they almost disappeared in
the eyes of Rui!
Yet that alone was not enough.
CRACK CRACK CRACK!
"Huh?" The assassin's eyes widened before he even realized what had
happened before he could even feel pain.
An expression of horror rose onto his face as he glanced at his fingers, which
had been broken and twisted in a grotesque figure after clashing with Rui's
elbow, getting crushed in the process.
BAM BAM BAM!
Rui exploited the moment of shock
('Your Martial body does not lend itself well to toughness conditioning. Your
fingers are not too tough, and that is why you keep targeting vitals and softer
fleshy regions of the body. If you hit a bone, your fingers will be severely
damaged getting crushed by the power of your own attack,') Rui mused as he
relentlessly attacked his opponent.
He had noticed that his opponent only struck softer parts of the body that
were not reinforced by bone or tough muscles. This wouldn't be done unless
he had no choice, since it only restricted the number of striking targets he
could strike, making him even easier to predict. The VOID algorithm
greedily consumed this pattern with its pattern recognition processing
protocols, creating a more fleshed-out prediction model.
Rui didn't need to avoid his attacks. He needed to use his opponent's speed
against him by shifting at the very last second to cause his opponent's attack
to crash into hard bone instead of a fleshy weak point.
This was one of the counters and adaptations to his Martial Art that Rui had
come up with. The adaptive evolution model was something that Rui himself
had created and was nothing short of a crystallization of his expertise in
understanding what worked against what styles, and how it could be used
against them. While he had formally laid out an official adaptive evolution
model for other fighters who were training in the VOID algorithm, it was for
the sake of others. He himself did not need it. He was the adaptive evolution
model, in a sense.
He himself was part of the VOID algorithm himself.
Rui's eyes widened as he felt he came across a profound realization and

epiphany.
('I am… part of my Martial Art?') The thought thundered across his mind.
For a moment, the fight faded away from his mind as he immersed himself in
his Martial Path.
The boundless path extended seemingly eternally into the distance, yet he felt
as though he had just taken a step forward deeper than he ever had before!
The pattern recognition system of the VOID algorithm functioned with two
models working side by side. The predictive model inputted any and all data
on his opponent before outputting a statistical predictive model on said,
opponent. Followed by the adaptive evolution model, which inputted the
newly created predictive model to create a fighting style that was adapted and
evolved to counter that opponent.
He had spent many years creating the adaptive evolution model of the pattern
recognition system. It had taken him years upon years, almost two decades'
worth of rigorous empirical research into all existing martial arts and
unarmed combat styles. He had come to gain a level of understanding that
very few humans in the history of planet Earth had ever come to possess.
Despite not being a fighter himself, John Falken had come to touch the
essence of the most ideal form of applying one's mind and body.
The pinnacle of martial arts.
"Be Water, my friend,"
Yet he had created the VOID algorithm for everybody else.
Not himself. Thus, even if he himself had achieved what was nothing short of
enlightenment, it was useless.
Project Water was a project that was for everyone else, not for himself. It was
to give everyone what he could not have. The ability to practice the greatest
martial art that his idol Bruce Lee had come in touch with
How could he pass on his understanding to others? How could he allow
others to replicate his thought process, harness his knowledge and
understanding that came with a lifetime of learning and exploring?
That thought was what led to the birth of the adaptive evolution model. A
rigorous database system that outputted a counter for every input from the
predictive model. It was the crystallization of his understanding of how to
counter every predicted move in the most optimal manner possible.
It was him, himself, was it not?
He had always subconsciously treated it this way, it was one of the reasons he
loved the VOID Algorithm. It contained the fruit that bore the blood, sweat,
and tears that he had put into it. It contained nothing short of his very life
itself.
Yet, only now had he realized that perhaps this was not just a sentiment.
Perhaps this realization… this accomplishment was a key to the higher

Realms!
"I am a part of my Martial Art and my Martial Art is a part of me."
He had felt as though he had been blind his entire life and had truly opened
his eyes for the very first time.
At that moment, he felt boundless peace and serenity.
And yet.
He felt boundless energy and power.
BAM!!!
A titanic blow more powerful than any that Rui had ever launched impacted
his opponent's gut like a meteorite.
"ARGH!" he vomited blood as his broken ribs pierced into his lungs, that was
what he violently spewed when Rui's fist crushed his lungs flat. "I'LL
FUCKING KILL YOU!"
His body coiled to an inhuman degree as he accumulated a tremendous

amount of potential energy, yet before he could even unleash it.
THWOOM!
An invisible blast of sound crashed into him, sending him tumbling backward
in the air. Rui had taken the liberty to launch the Might Roar Flash Blast
technique that he had acquired from Vilun Island and blast his opponent
before he could execute his flashy move. Because the attack could vastly
surpass the speed of sound, he was able to strike his opponent before he
executed a time-consuming attack.
Rui immediately rushed after his opponent with Gale Force Breathing,
Parallel Walk, and Outer Convergence, unwilling to let him any respite or let
him escape. His opponent froze seeing Rui rush after him, before turning
away, and running away as fast as he could. He was faster than Rui, thus he
had some hope of running away from Rui at top speed.
Yet, what he hadn't taken into account was the difference in their conditions.
Rui had taken far less damage than he had and had haled more of his damage
than his opponent had. As Rui had expected, that made all of the difference.
CLASP
Rui caught his shoulder, and a second later his fist whaled down on his
opponent.
BAM BAM BAM!
"ARGH! Let me go!" He struggled to escape. "Ack!"
He choked when Rui's coiled around his neck as he squeezed down on his
carotid arteries that supplied blood to the brain. Martial Squires could hold
their breath for a very long time, thus there was no point in shutting his
airway down alone. However, all cells required oxygen supplied to them via
blood, thus shutting down the arteries was quite effective.
The man struggled desperately to break Rui's grip over his neck, yet Rui
refused to yield as he continued to squeeze harder.
Eventually, the man's resistance grew weaker, until eventually his arms
dropped. His breathing stopped and his heart slowed down as well.
It was done.
Rui simply let go of the unconscious body, watching it fall down to the
ground. Three meters before it reached the ground, two taipans lashed out
from beneath the soil before they dug their fangs into the unconscious Martial
Squire's body, before wrangling the body from each other.
He would die very soon with all that poison coursing through his body.
He sighed in relief as he relished in his victory. ('He was probably an A-rank

Martial Squire.')
That meant that he was at least a grade-seven Martial Squire if not grade
eight. However, Rui still managed to win, even if he was on the losing
initially. His revelation mid-battle seemed to deepen his journey down his
Martial Path as he felt a surge of power that aided him in battle.
He had gotten stronger. He wasn't sure if he would concretely count himself

as a grade-seven Martial Squire at the moment, he didn't entirely understand
what he had experienced, after all. Still, he was sure that it was a positive
outcome.
Of course, the entire battle would have ended instantly had he fought the
Martial Squire with Kane, but ultimately he chose not to.
There was a reason why he had gotten Kane to help some of the others.
Chapter 826 Suspicion
('I cannot be the only one to survive this ambush,') He knew this.
Out of the sixteen Martial Squires that were ambushed out of the twenty-four,
it would be far too suspicious if he, perceived to be the weakest Martial
Squire as a grade-B Martial Squire, was the only survivor.
Such an outcome would be extremely hard to believe, and anyone who hears
it will definitely find it very odd, even if they didn't suspect anything
immediately. He was sure that Chairman Deacon would be very suspicious.
He was also sure that Guildmaster Bradt would be quite suspicious too.
Chairman Deacon's suspicions would be that Rui is either hiding his power or
is a spy from the group that ambushed his Voidhunters. Guildmaster Bradt
knew that Rui was not colluding with the assassins that he had sent, thus he
would suspect that Rui is hiding his true power. Furthermore, Guildmaster
Bradt also knew that Rui could project power greater than his actual power, a
trick that Rui had been forced to reveal to hold a gun to Guildmaster Bradt's
head.
This information was enough for the shrewd old man to grow suspicious of
Rui being the true identity of the Voider, and that was something Rui would
rather avoid being suspected of at all costs.
Thus he needed at least one other, preferably two other Martial Artists to also
survive, and thankfully Kane understood what he meant.
This was purely out of self-interest. Rui did not give a damn about the
Voidhunters personally, given that they were actually hunting him. If he
could get away with being the sole survivor, he would have no problem doing
so and abandoning the Voidhunters behind, but couldn't. He was far too
careful to make such a careless and short-sighted move.
He scanned the ongoing battle with Riemannian Echo as he observed it.
('They'll die soon, the only reason they're holding on is that Squire Fren
seems to have taken down that grade-ten Martial Squire. Currently, it's
twenty-two Martial Squires vs fifteen, and if not for Squire-Fren taking on
three grade-nine Martial Squires, they would have been long dead.,') Rui
mused.
Kane pranced around the battle intervening in dangerous moments just to

ensure that they barely managed to avoid death in an inconspicuous manner.
Rui approved of this, killing them with his poisoned blade rashly would be a
foolish move and his presence would certainly be realized even if nobody
could even remotely close to sensing him.
He considered his course of action from here on out. He was quite confident
about surviving and not having their identities revealed. Thus, he focused on
his third priority, which was ensuring that his survival was not strange and
suspicious.
('Now then,') He considered his options calmly. ('What to do?')
If a larger proportion of Martial Squires survived the improbable attack, it

became less likely that they were all spies. This was why he wanted more
numbers, but there were other considerations on which targets he ought to
have Kane protect.
('I should pick a survivor from each group may be,') He wondered.
That would also reduce the probability that the survivors were all in on a
single scheme as opposed to if a single party survived. It was less likely that
these parties all just happened to betray each other for the sake of someone
like Guildmaster Bradt when many of these parties had been together for a
long time before the Shionel Dungeon had even been discovered.
Thus, if there was a survivor from each group, the probability of betrayal was
just drastically reduced.
('All in all, four survivors including me, and three others from three other
groups will make a lot of sense, and is probably the way to go,') Rui mused as
he coldly analyzed and calculated the outcomes and the aftermath of all
combinations and permutations of survivors and victims.
('Alright, I've made up my mind,') He decided. ('Squire Fren from party

Saberstrike, Squire Cale from party Frontburner, S quire Meenal from party
Trionel.')
He chose the strongest Martial Squire and the two weakest Martial Squires,
as far as rank went, as the three survivors. This was the objectively best
outcome as far as outcomes go.
Rui nodded, having made up his mind before carefully entering the edge of
Kane's sensory range while making sure to stay out of the sensory ranges of
the others.
"You made it!" Kane heaved a sigh as they both separated from the fight for a
second. "I knew you wouldn't lose, even to an A-rank Martial Squire. There's
just no way!"
"You're damn right I wouldn't," He smiled goodheartedly before his

expression turned more solemn. "Alright, I've figured out what you need to
do. You need to nick the Martial Squire assassins fighting the grade-ten
Voidhunter, that Voidhunter, and that one as well with your poisoned blade.
Ensure that it's just enough that those three Voidhunters get an edge and win
or escape. The remaining Voidhunters, you can poison them and ensure that
they die."
This would ensure that the three survivors' Martial Squires would gain the
edge that they needed to survive or escape. While the remaining Voidhunters
would all die.
He had no problem with the rest of them dying, they were his enemies, after
all. Rui didn't think he was a bad person, but showing compassion to people
who accepted an assassination contract to kill him?
('That's not even a funny joke,') He snorted, shaking his head.
The Martial Squire battles had all spread out as each of the Voidhunters had
tried scattering and escaping when the ambush launched, unfortunately for
them, they did not have prior warning, nor did they have a headstart to escape
like Rui, thus they were bogged down by their opponents.
The only reason that the Voidhunters had survived even this long was that it
was more difficult to kill someone who did everything in their power to
escape and survive than someone who resolutely fought head-on even when
they were at a disadvantage. That delayed the process of killing them.
Chapter 827 Plan
Rui had no intention of making an appearance in the battle. That was highly
unwise on his part. His intentions were to make a highly injured appearance
at the Deacon Industries main branch after the other three survivors returned
alive, giving off the impression he just barely managed to escape a bloody
battle with his life intact.
The only reason he was still waiting around and watching was to jump in and
save Kane if anything happened even by mistake. Even though Kane was
pretty much impossible to sense in the Shionel Dungeon, that did not make
him invulnerable. Kane was so weak that even a single attack from any of
these high-grade Martial Squires could kill him. If a single attack from these
A-rank Martial Squires fighting all out hit a vital area, the sheer damage
might instantly kill him.
He was not a tanky fighter. He was an evasive maneuverer, his fighting style
revolved around not being forced to withstand attack by ensuring he avoided
being hit by them be it through speed, agility, highly efficient and effective
footwork, maneuvering, and supplementary breathing techniques as well as
powerful stealth techniques.
Rui watched with a nervous expression as Kane did as he was instructed. Rui
was even waiting below the fights happening hundreds of feet in the air with
a healing potion in his hand. If Kane got hurt and fell, Rui would
immediately catch him and heal him with a high-grade healing potion. He did
not intend to let his friend die.
He may not have given a damn about the Voidhunters whose team he was
technically and officially on, but most certainly would do everything in his
power to save Kane.
Fortunately, Kane was good at what he did, a combination of talent that was
in the genius-level territory, as well as a lot of training and experience with
covert missions meant that such an operation was well within his capabilities.
FLICK FLICK FLICK
He mildly nicked each of the three assassins fighting Squire Fren with just a
minute amount of poison.
He leaped about to find the others that Rui had instructed him to poison,
nicking each of them with a minute amount of poison, not enough to instantly
paralyze them, but enough to weaken them.
"AAARGH!"
"I.. feel weak,"
"Urgh,"
Each of the battles decisively folded in the outcome that Rui ordained. All
thirty-eight Martial Squires fighting in this section of the floor were dancing
on the palm of Rui's hand as he guided their battles.
SNAP!
Squire Fren mercilessly snapped the necks of her weakened Martial Squires,
killing them on the spot. Though she couldn't help but frown. She had come
close to the verge of losing and dying when all three of her opponents
suddenly grew weak, allowing her to easily overpower them as they lost a lot
of their strength.
Just before she could catch a break, the other assassins returned from their
other fights almost simultaneously, almost as though it was timed like
clockwork.
"…! She's still alive!" They were shocked. "Tsk, get her!"
She did not even bother trying to fight back as she dashed away at top speed,
while the assassins tried their best to catch up to her.
('She'll escape,') Rui nodded. ('She's faster, and careful with her surroundings.
Given the intelligence that she displayed earlier, she'll probably realize that
she can go into a random obscure tunnel, consume a healing and rejuvenation
potion, and regain her full power. She's also smart enough to realize her
teammates are dead given that the assassins fighting them returned, and she'll
probably focus on surviving this ordeal more than anything.')
It was not her that he was worried about, it was the other two that he was
worried about, he quickly reached their locations while keeping a tab on
them.
('Tsk, she's going to get caught even though Kane went through such effort of
weakening her opponents,') He tutted disapprovingly as he observed Squire
Meenal trying to escape from her opponents. ('I'll have to intercept at the
right moment.)
He went up high as he waited in the direction that she was frantically running
away to, hoping to find a tunnel where she could perhaps escape to.
He predicted the tunnel she would enter based on positioning and size,
making sure he was at an elevation far greater where neither of them could
sense him, while he prepared himself.
"Fwoooo…" He sucked in a huge amount of air while he waited for the right
moment. ('It's been a while since I used this technique, so I definitely need to
focus all out here.')
He waited as they reached the right place at the right time before his mind
kicked into action and began executing Transverse Resonance: Tier Four. He
fired four Mighty Roar Flash Blasts in rapid succession, each slower than the
one that came after it flying down at a speed that greatly exceeded sound
before combining into a single attack with four times more powerful than
each of the individual attacks.
BAM!!!
An attack with power scraping at the peak of the Squire Realm crashed onto
the head o the assassin that had almost gotten a hold of Squire Meenal,
cracking and crumpling into his head on the spot while blasting his whole
body downwards.
"SSSSS!" A large mid-grade Taipan lunched out, swallowing his corpse

whole.
('Well, there goes the evidence,') He smirked as he watched Squire Meenal

get away safely, very confused but very relieved as well. ('Nice, all three of
them escaped.')
"So what now?" Kane appeared out of thin air.
"Let's leave," Rui calmly replied as he gestured towards the tunnels. "The
plan was a complete success."
"I can't believe you created a plan that turned something inconvenient into a
benefit for yourself," Kane sighed with furrowed eyebrows. "Even an ambush
isn't enough to catch you truly off-guard."
The two of them chatted while they reached the upper part of the Shionel
Dungeon.
"Alright, now what? We go home? I wanna go home and get something to

eat,"
"Now I play the role of a victim who almost died," Rui calmly replied as he
summoned his sword out of his dimensional storage ring.
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT
He gave himself significant gashes.
"Woah!" Kane frowned. "But why though?"
"To stave off suspicion," Rui calmly replied. "Here, take my utility belt and
my dimensional storage ring with you back to the inn."
Chapter 828 Return
"Why do you want me to take them?" Kane frowned.
"I can't have them taking the ring when they inevitably treat my wounds," Rui
replied. "And I need a reason to justify why I didn't drink my healing potion
despite such wounds when I return back to the main branch office of Deacon
Industries."
"Ah, that makes sense, yeah," Kane nodded. "What about the assassins
though, once you leave the dungeon, won't you be targeted by them since
they'd be on the lookout for the survivors who left? The moment you appear,
they'll be on your back to finish the job. Same with the other survivors too."
"No," Rui shook his head. "Their goal was not to kill all the Voidhunter
Martial Squires discreetly and covertly, as much as it appears to be so. They
also can't kill once we leave the dungeon, it would make them liable and turn
the law against them, and everything that comes with it. They were
dispatched because someone doesn't want the Voidhunters doing what they
were going to do. Someone who has a strong vested interest in preventing the
Voider from being caught. They want to discourage other Martial Squires
from joining the Voidhunters after word of a targeted attack on the
Voidhunters on their very first operation is spread, in addition to stopping the
attack itself. Once the four survivors, including myself, inevitably blame the
obvious data leak on Deacon Industries and break away from our contract.
Nobody will want to join the Voidhunters. Chairman Deacon will have to
work ten times harder for the same result. That is the desired outcome that
'he' probably wanted."
"He?" Kane tilted his head.

"The one who planned the attack, of course," Rui replied. "Guildmaster Bradt
has every interest and incentive to foil all of Chairman Deacon's efforts to
catch, interrogate and kill me. He is the only one who has the intelligence-
gathering ability to learn of the Voidhunter operation today, while also
calling twenty-four Martial Squires, including a grade-ten Martial Squire, on
short notice. There is almost nobody else who has the ability and the motives
to pull that off."
"Mhm, yep. That's what I was thinking too," Kane nodded earnestly, lying
through his teeth. He felt too embarrassed to admit that he hadn't even
considered that the guildmaster was responsible, hell, he hadn't even thought
about it. In his mind, there was no way to figure such things out in the middle
of a battle, obviously.
But apparently, this was not a restriction that affected Rui at all.
"Makes it all the more solid if we both came to the same conclusion
independently," Rui remarked as he handed his belt and ring to Kane.
"Alright, I've bled enough. Time to go, bye-bye."
He quickly exited the tunnel, with a pained and exhausted expression as he

panted out loud, while Kane disappeared into thin air before leaving the
dungeon.
Rui landed on the ground, walking slowly and unsteadily as if he no longer

had the strength to sky-walk. He ignored the concerned and odd looks he got
as he traveled to the main branch of Deacon Industries. The blood loss was
bad, but he had carefully made sure that he wouldn't be over-taxing his
healing factor, but at the same time he needed to make sure that his wounds
didn't heal either. It took a precise understanding of how good his healing
was to make sure to inflict the optimal wounds.
STEP STEP STEP
He reached the front gate of the main branch of the Deacon Industries. The
guards immediately pulled out a communication device.
"This is Squire Delmin reporting from the front gate. A masked Squire
wearing attire matching one of the Voidhunters has just appeared before the
front gates severely injured and bleeding," He hastily reported, listening to
the replied instruction before nodding and heading forward to give Rui a
hand.
"Hey, you made it, the master has promised that you'll be given the best
treatment available, so don't worry," He put one of Rui's arms over his
shoulder before sky-walking carrying Rui along with him inside where he
was quickly given emergency treatment and supplied all kinds of potions for
an absolutely optimal recovery without any flaw on even a cellular level.
Rui rested in a medical room, relaxing peacefully, pretending to be asleep for

several hours before finally getting up, acting all groggy.
"Urghh…" He rubbed his eyes, shaking his head slightly as if to orient

himself properly.
"Squire Quarrier, you've been asleep for quite some time," A nurse nearby
told him. "How are you feeling?"
"…Where am I?" He frowned as if having a hard time remembering.
"You arrived at the main branch of Deacon Industries on the verge of

collapsing, having lost a lot of blood. You must have been dizzy with the
blood loss, causing you to not remember it all that well."
"I see…" Rui murmured. "…What about Chairman Deacon? I strongly wish
to have an extensive discussion with him."
"The Chairman has invited you already, having heard of your awakening
already," She replied as she accessed a communication device. "You have
been thoroughly treated and healed, and have made a full recovery, so don't
worry about your health."
Rui nodded when a woman entered the medical room.
It was Chairman Deacon's secretary. "Squire Quarrier, Chairman Deacon has

invited you for a dialogue with the other survivors."
"Other survivors…?" He frowned. "How many died?"
"All but four," She replied straightforwardly.
His eyes widened. "You're telling me that out of all the sixteen Voidhunters
that left for the dungeon, only four, including myself, survived?!"
"That's correct, Squire Quarrier," She replied impassively. "Chairman Deacon

is willing to accommodate you at any time, given your previous health
condition. If you want to postpone the mee-"
"No," Rui shook his head as he got off his bed. "I wish to speak to him
immediately."
A steely look of determination rose on his face as the secretary bowed before
escorting him to Chairman Deacon's office.
('I'm not a bad actor, even if I do say so myself,') He mused inwardly.

Chapter 829 Compunctions
Rui knew what he had to do. He needed to play the role of the injured and
tormented weak Martial Squire that had barely made it out alive. He needed
to project righteous anger that anybody in their circumstances would have. In
fact, it would be rather strange if he didn't have at least some misgivings
about what had happened, and would make him more suspicious.
Soon enough, they reached Chairman Deacon's office.
"The chairman is awaiting you inside," The secretary bowed to him,

gesturing inside.
Rui nodded, walking in as he pushed open the doors to the office.
"Squire Quarrier," Chairman Deacon greeted him. "Welcome, I'm pleased to

see that you've recovered well."
Inside were Chairman Deacon as well as the only three survivors of the
Voidhunters.
Instantly, Rui could read the atmosphere. It was dark. The Martial Squires
was furious, yet they were holding back, waiting for Rui to also appear so
that all of them could discuss the most important matters together.
Squire Fren in particular seemed to be on the verge of exploding. Her eyes

were widened and bloodshot as she glared at Chairman Deacon. She did not
bother to hide her aura or her strength in her anger and grief over the loss of
her Party Saberstrike. The pressure she exerted on Chairman Deacon was so
heavy that his bodyguards needed to guard him against it with their protective
auras, shielding his sense of danger and cooling it down.
Rui had memorized her data, so he was aware that she had been with her
party for nearly fifteen years ever since she met them after they had just
discovered their Martial Path. Their loss must have been nothing short of
traumatizing to her, so he could completely understand her state of mind
being what it was.
('Should have stayed from the assassination contract,') He shrugged inwardly.

He empathized with her, but he wouldn't change a single thing he would do if
he got a chance to redo the entire thing.
He quickly directed his attention back to Chairman Deacon.
"Thank you, Chairman Deacon," Rui coldly replied with a stern tone. "It's
frankly a miracle that I survived, in all honesty. When we were ambushed by
a force of Martial Squires that outnumbered us significantly, I was shocked.
If not for the fact that I had already begun to move into our assigned
positions, I would have been locked in and would have certainly died instead
of standing before you here today."
"I am pleased to hear that you managed to get away," He nodded with a
heavy tone. "If you don't mind, can you give us a more detail-"
"I do mind, Chairman Deacon," Rui coldly interrupted him.
In ordinary circumstances, Chairman Deacon would not have tolerated such

blatant disrespect. It did not matter if Rui was a Martial Squire, a mere
Martial Squire was nothing to him. He had many Martial Squires and even
Martial Seniors under his direct command. No ordinary would even dare
interrupt him in the middle of his statement.
Still, these were anything but ordinary circumstances. He could not act
heavy-handed when he was liable for the clear data leak that had occurred
when a group of assassins greatly outnumbering the Voidhunters, ganged up
on them and slaughtered twelve members of the Voidhunters, leaving only
four to survive.
In reality, he did not entirely know the point of the information leak. It could
have been on his side, however, it could also have been on the side of the
surviving Martial Squires. Of course, he did not think that all four of the
surviving members were responsible for the leak, that was far too unlikely.
In this situation, he needed to take responsibility regardless. If he didn't, he

could forget about trying to salvage what remained of the Voidhunters. That
was his biggest issue at the moment.
"We can talk about my story later. That isn't the most important thing at the
moment," Rui coldly continued. "Fact of the matter is, someone sold us out,
and instead of looking for a single adventurer, we were instead greeted by,
like, twice as many assassins as our own group! I actually am having trouble
believing that everybody else but we died!"
That number was an exaggeration, but Rui didn't want to appear perfect with
the information he had. That would make him suspicious without a doubt, to
Chairman Deacon at least.
"I understand your anger," Chairman Deacon tried to say in a disarming tone.
"No, you don't," Squire Fren growled. "I lost the four most important people
to me. SOMEONE SOLD THEM OUT."
The other two Martial Squires that also survived nodded with stern
expressions. "Those Martial Squires knew exactly when and where we would
be. That's not a coincidence. Someone supplied information to them about
us."
"I understand your complaints and concerns," Chairman Deacon raised his
hands. "I have already launched a thorough investigation looking into the
data leak and the perpetrator. And I will make them pay the second I found
out who they are."
This was a lie. Chairman Deacon was already aware of who the perpetrator
was. There was no one else it could be asides from Guildmaster Bradt. Rui
wasn't the only one who could come to this conclusion.
Rui was pretty certain that Chairman Deacon had not only figured out the
perpetrator but had also figured out why Guildmaster Bradt had chosen to
sabotage this particular operation.
('He wouldn't have become the economic and political powerhouse he is

today if he did not have at least that much insight,') Rui mused inwardly.
"Chairman Deacon, the past is already the past. The question I want to know
is what measures you're going to undertake to ensure that this never happens
again."
Chairman Deacon's eyes lit up as he finally got around to a point that he had
been wanting to get around to, yet much to his dismay, he was interrupted
once more.
"I don't care about what measures you're going to undertake because you've
already shown that you cannot be trusted and that you have powerful enemies
that are willing to go to any length to hamper your agents. I'm quitting,"
Squire Fren got up after declaring coldly, leaving the room.
Chapter 830 Bounty
That declaration came as a bit of a shock, but, in hindsight, it shouldn't have.
('I can see why she wants to leave the place whose negligence and enemies
caused the death of the people she cared the most for,') Rui completely
understood her decision.
The other two surviving Martial Squires also followed suit when they saw
that even the strongest Martial Squire among them refused to continue
working under Chairman Deacon.
"I think I too can't afford to continue under this contract,"
"I did not come to the Shionel Confederation to get embroiled in some kind
of political conflict,"
The three Martial Squires left the room, leaving only Rui left.
To his credit, Chairman Deacon did not seem fazed by them leaving. He
turned towards Rui with a blank expression "What about you?"
Rui considered his next course of action, he had not expected that the three
other survivors would exit the equation this quickly, and that was a bit of an
unexpected outcome.
At the moment, he could choose to stay or leave. Regardless of which

outcome he chose, he did not have much to say.
"I'm not too inclined to leave just yet," Rui replied.

"I'm surprised. You just saw three Martial Squires stronger than you leaving
the Voidhunter team," Chairman Deacon commented.
"I didn't say I was going to stay yet," Rui added. "If I don't like what it is to
follow, I just very well might decide to leave as well. So, I suppose I am
interested in hearing what you have to say. I also do have some conditions."
"Like what?" Chairman Deacon raised an eyebrow with interest.
"I do not wish to partake in official operations such as this anymore, since it's
already been made clear that you are unable to keep such things covert from
your enemies, whoever they are. I don't mind staying as a part of the
Voidhunters if you are willing to grant some guarantees as a bare minimum.
For one, I do not wish to partake in any official mission since it's clear that
whoever your enemy is, they can access information through your people
somehow. In which case, I would rather operate independently without
informing anyone of my plans to allow for a potential leak in information,"
Rui explained.
"That level of independence makes it pointless to even stay," Chairman

Deacon snorted.
"Don't you grant independence according to the contract?" Rui raised an

eyebrow
"We do, but at the very least, you're registered as a Voidhunter in official
documentation," He replied. "With this arrangement, you're no different from
a distant mercenary."
"I think that's a more viable way to go about this," Rui replied. "At the very
least, I can't be officially paraded around as a Voidhunter anymore after what
happened."
"…" Chairman Deacon sighed. "Alright, fine. But your remuneration goes
down. And we won't be covering expenses."
"Deal," Rui nodded. "However, I need access to intelligence on the

investigation in order to keep up. There's no point in doing this otherwise."
"That's a given, I intend to be more liberal and reduce the level of
coordination and partnership anyway, after this incident," He mentioned.
"You can look forward to that."
"Reduce the level of coordination?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "What exactly do

you mean?"
"To a certain extent, it's similar to what you're proposing, but the Voidhunter
idea is a flawed way to go about it," He replied. "A dungeon bounty is a
better way to go about it, you might even be interested yourself."
Rui's eyes widened as he understood the man's plans. "You plan to gather
more people with a more free and independent engagement. You can gather
more people using a bounty, but you have far less control, you still can
mobilize a greater amount of Martial resources. Furthermore, the legality is
not a problem since it would be a bounty to kill the Voider inside the
dungeon. Whoever is after you cannot possibly hamper so many independent
agents."
"It's quite shrewd of you to have realized all of that in an instant," Chairman
Deacon remarked, giving Rui a look of interest.
Rui cursed himself inwardly as he realized he got carried away with his
analysis. It was careless, however, he had been momentarily taken aback,
losing his cool.
"But you're correct," Chairman Deacon continued, without giving it much

further thought, causing Rui to sigh in relief. "Thus, if you want to work as a
bounty hunter, that can be considered as well. It's just that you won't be a
Voidhunter anymore. You can choose to go either way."
He got up. "Give it some thought, you can contact my secretary directly and
inform them of your choice. For now, we can put a pin in this discussion as I
have some other pressing engagements."
"I understand," Rui got up.
"For what it is worth, I am quite sorrowful about what happened," He replied

with a hint of emotion flashing across his face for a moment before
disappearing.
"Thank you," Rui replied, before leaving the office entirely absorbed in his
own thoughts.
('This isn't good. He is handling this more prudently than I had expected,')
Rui tutted.
Chairman Deacon quickly realized that the Voidhunter model alone wasn't
enough to succeed, seeing as how Guildmaster Bradt had interfered heavily at
a crucial juncture. Word of the devastating loss suffered by the Voidhunters
would have undoubtedly spread, either naturally or forcefully by Guildmaster
Bradt's own doing.
Once that happened, Chairman Deacon could kiss any chance of trying to reel
people into the Voidhunters. It was a losing battle.
He too had realized this and had decided to take another road altogether.
By simply placing a gigantic bounty on Rui's head, he could gather a large

amount of manpower working to locate and track down Rui. Although these
people would not be under their own direct control, which was certainly
vexing to someone like Chairman Deacon, at the very least he couldn't be
hampered that easily anymore.
('Damn, it was a great move,') Rui sighed. ('No wonder he is considered a

rival to Guildmaster Bradt.')
Chapter 831 Rise
"Tsk," Tui tutted. ('You've made my job harder, Guildmaster Bradt.')
Guildmaster Bradt probably thought he was doing a favor to Rui and to

himself, and frankly, given that he didn't know that Rui had infiltrated the
Voidhunters, it made sense that he thought this way.
However, Rui couldn't even tell him to stop. Because even doing that would
reveal that he was involved somehow. That would instantly make the four
surviving martial Squires suspicious, two of whom were women.
That would be no different from revealing that he himself was the Voider.
Thus his hands were tied in that regard.
('On top of that, Guildmaster Bradt cannot stop Chairman Deacon from
placing a bounty on my head,') Rui knew that.
After all, placing a bounty on someone inside the dungeon was legal, thus
there was no avenue for Guildmaster Bradt to fight this with the power of the
state. On top of that, he could not use his own power to fight back publically.
Since that would be no different from announcing that he was associated with
the Voider.
That would mean that he was colluding with a criminal who had evaded tax
at one point. That would be enough to launch a formal investigation against
him, even if he was the Guildmaster. That would be damning.
He couldn't intervene from the shadows either, since his own private force
could not possibly fight off all the people who accepted the bounty. The
losses were also not worth the gains.
('All of this means that I'm kind on my own,') Rui's eyes narrowed.
Chairman Deacon indicated that he was considering publicizing the

intelligence on the Voider. That would allow all the bounty hunters to track
him more efficiently and with better awareness.
('That's not all,') Rui sighed. ("Chairman Deacon, Guildmaster Bradt. Those
two are undoubtedly the two most powerful people in the Shionel
Confederation. But they are not the only ones around, and they are not the
only ones with power, and with interests that criss-cross with mine.')
There were many powerful merchants in the Shionel Confederation who were
in the supplier industries that Esosale Suppliers was beginning to dominate.
After all, the Shionel Merchant Guild was comprised of the top hundred most
powerful and successful merchants. Number one was without a doubt
Guildmaster Bradt, followed by Chairman Deacon, yet while quite far
behind, the other ninety-eight were not weak.
Many of them were undoubtedly wishing death on the Voider for disrupting
the market. While none of them were as powerful as Chairman Deacon, they
too could make their efforts into stopping Rui under the wing of Chairman
Deacon's publicized intelligence and the giant bounty that Chairman Deacon
was inevitably going to be placed on his head.
('From the very start, the Voidhunters were merely the first step,') Rui
realized in hindsight. ('There are greater measures that he can and will take.')
A large portion of the Shionel Merchant Guild would willingly lend their
power to Chairman Deacon in the form of their privatized Martial Squires,
and other resources.
That would grant Chairman Deacon a titanic amount of power at his disposal.
('However, that's not all,') Rui narrowed his eyes. ('It's not just the
disenfranchised merchants that are on his side. He also has other stakeholders
supporting him. But they're just not from the country.')
The merchants of the Shionel Merchant Guild were not the only ones who
had a stake in the Shionel Dungeon. The many countries participating in the
dungeon raid and plundering process were all stakeholders as well, who were
no doubt pissed off by the Esosale Suppliers gaining access to a dominant
share of the esoteric resources from the Shionel Merchant Guild would also
most likely implicitly cooperate with Chairman Deacon.
The reason for this was that it was pretty clear that the Guildmaster Bradt was
a staunch supporter and partner of Esosale Suppliers. This meant that they
would naturally support his rival if they wanted to hamper Guildmaster
Bradt.
So that meant that not only would Rui have to deal with the many freelancer
bounty hunters that would arise from the bounty, but he would also have to
deal with the pressure from the many disenfranchised and disgruntled
merchants of the Shionel Merchants that were quite powerful and rich
themselves.
On top of that, he would need to deal with the pressure that would emerge
from the disgruntled nations that were each trying to carve out a portion of
the Shionel Dungeon for themselves.
"Not gonna lie," Kane said after Rui reached home and explained everything.
"That's insane."
"Yeah, it seems we'll have to be even more careful than we already are," Rui
mentioned.
"That we already are?" Kane emphasized with a surprised expression on his

face. "Is that even possible? I haven't been as careful in any of my past covert
missions as I have been in this mission. The sheer number of things that
we've gone through out of care is insane."
"True," Rui nodded. "Still, it's better safe than sorry. We'll have to revisit
some of our established rules and protocols and refine them even more."
Rui needed to proceed with deep care and caution. "Honestly, avoiding
already discovered floors with human presence is probably the only way to
avoid all of this."
"Hm?" Kane tilted his head.
"I'm saying that existing and discovered floors are going to be infested by
Martial Squires who are going to be looking for us," Rui calmly analyzed
their circumstances. "While we could somehow still harvest. It's too
dangerous. A single mishap and it's game over."
This was true. They had gone through so much to try and keep their identities
as the Voider a secret in the operation with the Voidhunters. The difficulty
was only keep getting higher and higher.
Rui didn't think that it was wise to keep subjecting themselves to compete
with an increasingly hostile dungeon. They were not perfect, they would
make a mistake at some point or the other.
"Thus, we need to rise above this competition and ensure they can't reach us."
Chapter 832 Farlo
"And now, please welcome Professor Farlo Vernint of the Shionel

Universities of Humanities!"
A huge round of applause ensued as an elderly man walked onstage, waving

at the large crowd that had gathered that day, before proceeding to shake the
hand of the man who announced and introduced him. The two men then took
a seat, waiting for the applause to die down before engaging in a dialogue.
"Professor Farlo is one of the foremost authorities on the happenings of the

Shionel Dungeon and its impact on the economy. He has published many
research papers on the matter, as well as the bestseller book on the topic
called the Dungeon Chronicles," The host cheerfully explained, before
turning back. "Professor, thank you so much for coming on tonight."
"Thank you for having me," The professor smiled.
"Professor Farlo, we have a lot of exciting things to delve into," The host
energetically began. "For one, it's been a year since the Shionel Dungeon was
discovered and opened up. And rapidly soon after a supplier and consumer
market quickly formed, surrounding the Shionel Dungeon and the untold
resources that it could provide to the world. The sheer impact that it has had
on our country is truly immense, is it not?"
"Well, I think immense is an understatement, Jimmy," The professor began

with an interested tone. "Frankly, I think the impact that it has had is nothing
short of historical and revolutionary. The Shionel Confederation is a state that
was formed on the basis of commerce. Among all the nations in this section
of the Panama Continent, our nation's population has the highest proportion
of merchants and businessmen. We're the only nation whose international
consumer market dwarfs our domestic market, and we're truly the only nation
whose supplier market dwarfs our domestic consumer market. Meaning our
economy truly runs on the countless merchants, businessmen, and
entrepreneurs who offer goods or services. Commerce is the bloodline of our
nation. That is why the discovery of the Shionel Dungeon, which is nothing
short of an oasis of untold resources, is a boon to our nation. The world wants
what it can provide, and we answer the call and supply the demand."
"Indeed," The h0st replied. "You're truly correct in saying that it isn't short of
revolutionary. The GDP per capita has increased by a factor of eight in the
span of a single year! That's an absolutely unprecedented spike in the
economy since the very founding of the Shionel Confederation!"
Professor Farlo nodded vigorously. "Furthermore, the GDP per capita has
increased despite the population also spiking up due to mass immigration.
The net annual GDP in the past twelve months has been the single highest
recorded GDP in any continuous twelve-month period in the history of our
great nation."
"Not only has the discovery of the Shionel Dungeon invigorated our
economy, but it has invigorated many parts of our culture as well," The host
remarked. "This is one particular consequence that I am personally familiar
with our little weekly discussion events. There's so much to talk about that
we have considered doubling the number of events we hold a week to get to
all of it! The biggest and most exciting aspects of all of this are the countless
Martial Squires that have taken part in the exploration and plunder of the
Shionel Dungeon. Those are the most fun to talk about it."
That earned an approving cheer from the crowd that strongly agreed with that
sentiment. The crowd had basically begun to treat the most prominent Martial
Squires that raided the dungeon as superstar celebrities.
S-rank Martial Squires earned a lot of admiration and attention. It was to the
degree that they had their own dedicated fanbases and fan clubs. For a brief
period of time, Martial Squires had gained more prominence than higher
Realms.
Of course, this was very temporary, once the dungeon was largely raided and
plundered, the artificially boosted value and prominence of Martial Squires
would soon dissipate, and things would return back to normal. Every
generation of Martial Artists would experience having their value artificially
boosted temporarily, and also experience Martial Artists of lower Realms
experiencing the same thing.
"The cultural impact of the Shionel Dungeon on our nation has not been
small," The good professor nodded. "If there's anything to be criticized about
the impact of the Shionel Dungeon, it would be the fact that the impact of the
Shionel Dungeon has had an adverse effect on our culture. That is one of the
strongest critiques that critics leverage against the Shionel Dungeon."
"Oh, and what exactly is this so-called adverse effect?" Jimmy asked with
curiosity.
"I should clarify that this isn't my stance or my personal view," The professor
prefaced. "But to characterize their argument, it is that the discovery and
open policy of the Shionel Dungeon has invited far too much foreign
influence into our country. It is generally not desirable to have an abrupt and
huge amount of immigrants hailing from different cultures and languages join
and settles into the country in such an inorganic and unnatural fashion. It
dilutes the original culture of the country and threatens to usurp the nation.
Furthermore, it leads to a lot of cultural tension and even conflict. Multi-
culturalism without a tying identity is generally undesirable. After all, the
world is an example of that, and the world is at war."
"I see," Jimmy frowned. "That makes sense, yet, I feel as though that doesn't
apply to a nation like the Shionel Confederation."
"I agree," The professor nodded. "Any concerns regarding culture are, in my
opinion, misplaced. The Shionel Confederation was not born out of a
population with a united culture. If anything, the original constituents of the
originally established Shionel settlement were vastly more diverse than the
current state of the Shionel Confederation. Yet there was one force and also
one identity that was strong enough to unite them despite that. Do you know
what that is?"
Jimmy smiled knowingly. "Money. They were merchants."
"Exactly!" The professor grew more animated. "Their identities as merchants,

as people who employed resources, capital, and manpower to produce
demanded goods and services to earn a profit is the fundamental identity that
united them together to create a nation!"

Chapter 833 Culture
The original Shionel settlement was nothing more than an attempt at earning
more money. It was difficult for individual merchants, entrepreneurs, and
skilled laborers to be able to consistently receive a consistent demand for
their goods and services and also be remunerated in a commensurate manner
in that era and region.
The reason for this was that markets were nowhere near as sophisticated as
they were today. There were no regulations or enforcement. Currency as a
concept was still immature and in its infancy and the barter system was still
in place for the most part. Furthermore, the fragmented groups were too small
to have any meaningful currency that could be used universally within a
certain geographic region, or could at least be exchanged for other currency.
This was why the many struggling merchants and laborers gathered together
in a large enough settlement to form the original Shionel settlement. Their
sole aim was to unite their interests in one big interest group comprising
thousands of merchants, entrepreneurs, and laborers, and negotiate and
bargain as a larger and more powerful group that is better able to secure their
interests and access the existing demand for goods and services they were
capable of providing.
"In short, money was the unifying factor. Not shared culture or values. The
only shared value is money. Money can transcend language, cultural,
biological, and perhaps even species differences!" The professor grew
increasingly excited. "The only way for the Shionel Confederation could ever
lose its 'culture' is if the state stops revolving around money. And that is why
I respectfully disagree with my colleagues who are skeptical and or against
the extensive commercialization of the Shionel Dungeon."
This earned an applause of approval from the audience. It seemed that his
sentiment was quite attractive.
"I see," Jimmy nodded. "That does make a lot of sense, I have to admit. It
doesn't matter what the dominant culture is, so long as the highest value is
money. However, what we do care about is who the dominant adventurers
are, and also who the dominant market players are. The Shionel
Confederation has become a melting pot for many powerful forces that are
competing to carve out a share in the Shionel Dungeon. It's been exciting
watching different groups bring out their best Martial Squires while also
doing their very best to buy the best Martial Squires and parties to plunder
the dungeon for them. What are your thoughts on that?"
"Oh, it's most certainly been quite fascinating to study the supplier market
patterns of the Shionel Confederation in the past year. A lot of it has been
more or less in line with my predictions. Deacon Industries completely
dominated a lion's share of each floor's yield, making him the strongest force
in the supplier market. There are tons of sectors and industries that are
consumers of the raw esoteric resource supplier industries, this directly gives
Deacon Industries a giant amount of influence over all of them, which
Chairman Deacon has surely put to great use in many ways. He was who I
bet as the ultimate winning of the Shionel Dungeon, given that his stronghold
over the market had been unbreakable for an entire year."
"'Had been'," Jimmy offered him a wry smile. "Not anymore it seems."
"Not anymore, no," The professor laughed good-heartedly. "Or, to be more

precise, someone has successfully broken his dominance on shares of the
yield of the twelfth floor of the Shionel Dungeon. It has been all the buzz
around town recently. The mysterious, unknown, and anonymously created
and registered Esosale Suppliers that had very recently begun to be
aggressively promoted by the Bradt Distribution Services have taken
everyone by surprise. Frankly, for all my knowledge and experience, I had
never predicted something like this happening even in my wildest dream, I
have to admit. A random force appearing out of nowhere and dethroning the
titan from its throne and suddenly supplying massive amounts of esoteric
resource yields that had been disappearing from the twelfth floor? Such a
thing sounds like a tale from a fictional novel, rather than a real event. Yet I
have to admit that I was quite excited at this revelation as well. The world is
full of surprises, without a doubt."
"The sheer number of theories, speculations, and conjectures that have been
flying around leave my head spinning. I'm unable to tell what is true, and
what isn't," Jimmy sighed. "I was hoping you could shed some light on this
strange phenomenon."
"Haha, I can understand why it is so confusing," Jimmy laughed

goodheartedly. "Unfortunately, it is a very confusing outcome frankly. Even
I'm not entirely certain of my theories. But I can share with you some of my
insights, hypotheses, and suspicions, if that's alright."
Jimmy nodded vigorously. "Most certainly,"
It was actually the main reason that the professor had been invited in the first
place, instead of popular S-rank parties or other more flashy guests. The
Esosale Supplier phenomenon was so interesting and fascinating to literally
everybody, that it was worth bringing on a more mundane and boring yet
highly knowledgeable guest to shed some light on the matter.
"There's a lot of information to sort out here, so we might jump around a bit,"
The professor warned lightly. "Chronologically, the first outlying event was
the clearance of the second floor anonymously, and the tax evasion. That was
the first interesting event that gained temporary traction, but it was not all that
significant since the second floor was a dead floor. However, the next
shocking event was the drastic change in policies from Guildmaster Bradt
that allowed for anonymity in a lot of areas in the Shionel Confederation that
were previously impossible. This was a drastic amendment to protocols that
were not on the agenda of matters that Guildmaster Bradt had based his
campaign. It frankly still doesn't make a lot of sense to us, but it could make
sense under the hypothesis that the amendment was to allow for the
anonymous creation and registration of Esosale Suppliers that Guildmaster
Bradt aggressively promoted after."

Chapter 834 Know
The lower echelons of society generally lacked the information that the
highest echelons of society possessed. This was a result of lacking authority
to access classified information or lacking means to access information that
only came with being rich and powerful. Thus, they were far more lacking in
knowledge that was common and basic knowledge amongst the upper
echelons.
In the halls of the Shionel Merchant Guild, the situation was mostly clear to
all of the Cabinet Merchants. Chairman Deacon was Guildmaster Bradt's
greatest rival and had been undergoing massive amounts of growth that
allowed him to shake the otherwise rock-solid political stronghold that
Guildmaster Bradt had created by securing the interests and benefits of a
majority of the voters.
They had absolutely no misconceptions about why the Guildmaster had

passed the bill, in hindsight. It was obvious that the passing of the bill had
something to do with the anonymous creation and registration of Esosale
Suppliers. It was no coincidence that this empty company that he
aggressively promoted somehow magically seemed to gain access to huge
amounts of resource yields that were then sold to the consumer market and
was formed immediately after the bill he passed regarding the changes in
protocols for identity registration and verification. There was simply none of
them who bought this highly mysterious company that Guildmaster Bradt
was aggressively promoting came right after he made it easier for everyone to
be connected.
It was clear to the Cabinet Merchants of the Shionel Merchant Guild that
Esosale Suppliers was the reason that Guildmaster Bradt had passed that bill.
Esosale Suppliers was Guildmaster Bradt's solution to hampering the growth
of Chairman Deacon.
The only thing that was unclear to the Cabinet Merchants was the
relationship between Guildmaster Bradt and Esosale Suppliers.
Some thought that Esosale Suppliers was created by Guildmaster Bradt who
had employed the mysterious force that was able to harvest huge amounts of
esoteric yield from the Shionel Dungeon. Others thought that it was created
by an entity that had developed an incredibly revolutionary way of extracting
resources from the Shionel Dungeon, but did not want to be targeted.
Regardless, even this was completely unknown to the public. An

overwhelming majority of people had not worked out the connection between
Esosale Suppliers and the popularly-dubbed Voider that was suspected to be
the reason for the disappearance of the esoteric yields on the twelfth floor.
"And so, I believe that this is most likely a move from Guildmaster Bradt
who is eager to break Deacon Industries' dominance in the supplier market. It
would explain why Chairman Deacon created the Voidhunters team that has
been said to have been largely wiped out in the dungeon by some group of
assassins targeting them," Professor Farlo continued, after explaining
everything, absorbed in his own words. "Although we don't have proof that
the Voider, the individual responsible for mysteriously clearing the second
floor is actually responsible for the disappearance of esoteric resources on the
twelfth floor if Chairman Deacon believes it, then that probably means that
he has some information that we don't have."
"Incredible!" Jimmy exclaimed. "That almost sounds like a crazy conspiracy

theory, but it makes a lot of sense."
"In this case, unless we truly are missing a lot of information or are operating
on misinformation, I think probably is not too far from the truth. The truth
about Esosale Suppliers is most likely deeper than we can all imagine. There
are likely powerful forces conspiring and fighting for political power, right
before our very eyes, disguised in plain sight, and we're simply unable to see
the truth."
This was shocking to hear to the crowd that what they had simply treated as
an exciting oddity and mystery was actually a deep political powerplay and
conspiracy between the most powerful political leaders fighting for power
through the Shionel market.
"That is truly fascinating and incredibly terrifying to hear," Jimmy laughed as

he remarked. "Honestly, I don't even know if I'll be able to sleep at night. To
think that the Voider has gone from being a relatively momentary gossip
story to potentially being the key to victory in a political battle that will
change the Shionel Confederation."
"It most certainly will. Whoever emerges as a victor at the end of this debacle
will most likely remain unchallenged for a very long time. Thus neither side
is willing to cede easily. Chairman Deacon may have suffered a bad setback
with his preliminary Voidhunter operation. But realistically, that doesn't
matter. The death of a dozen Martial Squires is barely a sting to such titans.
That team was something put together on extremely short notice. The two of
them can leverage their massive economic capital to pull in a much greater
number of Martial Squires. I imagine you can expect a storm to occur in the
Shionel Confederation and in the dungeon as well."
This raised waves of murmurs from the crowds. Many of them were excited
to see the two political giants duke it out and to see which one of them comes
out on top. The scale of this event was so large and beyond that it didn't have
too much to do with ordinary citizens of the Shionel Confederation like
themselves. Thus they could, to some, extent regard the situation with a
certain level of detachment.
"Of course," The professor followed up. "That's just a theory. I don't have any
proof that this is the case. It could be the case that I'm reading too deeply into
certain things or not reading deep enough into other things. I want to be clear
that none of this is fact."
It didn't matter what he followed up with. The crowd was too excited with the
information that he had provided to let it go this early and judge it
objectively. They weren't qualified to do such a thing in the first place, and
would just simply put their trust in his thoughts given that he's an academic,
and cheered on as they excited themselves on such a fascinating conspiracy
theory.

Chapter 835 Bounty
Soon enough, as Rui predicted, a bombshell dropped in the Shionel

Confederation. Deacon Industries published an announcement in their media
outlets and posted posters, and Chairman Deacon himself held a public press
conference on the issue.
Deacon Industries was issuing a public bounty on the Voider for ten million
Shionel gold coins. This sum of money shook the nation, ten million gold
coins was an astronomic sum of money to kill a single Martial Squire. This
sum of money was unprecedented as a bounty for a Martial Squire.
In fact, as far as everyone could tell, never in the history of the Age of
Martial Art had a Martial Squire had such a gigantic bounty placed on their
head. Such an enormous sum of gold was not trivial even for the mighty
powerhouse that Deacon Industries was.
Bounties in the Shionel Confederation were usually placed on criminals by

the state as a way to mobilize freelancer Martial Artists into aiding law
enforcement. The reason they were otherwise illegal was that they violated
the law and constituted conspiracy to murder and assault, and would
normally instantly land Chairman Deacon in prison and disbarred from the
However, this was only under normal circumstances. The Shionel Dungeon
was not subject to these constraints and restrictions, mostly because no law
could be enforced within the Shionel Dungeon.
Chairman Deacon was exploiting that loophole to the absolute fullest. Killing
the Voider inside the Shionel Dungeon was legal, and now would fetch one
ten million gold coins.
Of course, things weren't as simple as that. For one, how did one verify that
the individual, or individuals that were killed were the Voider?
Such a thing was harder to gauge as their identity was unknown. Regardless,
Deacon Industries had laid many conditions that would go into identifying
whether the individual was actually the Voider, or not.
For one, each bounty hunter was encouraged to purchase a recording device
and record the individual suspected to be the Voider for whatever reason.
Bounty hunters were also encouraged to procure the corpse or corpses and
give it to Deacon industries that would analyze whether or not they were the
Voider.
The way to do this would be to analyze their means of harvesting, the identity
of the corpse, the existing harvested yield, etc. The Voider had a very unique
way of doing things when it came to the extraction of esoteric resource
deposits, storage, and transport. These could be analyzed and could be used
to verify this individual possessed the remarkable ability to harvest at titanic
rates that the Voider was confirmed to have.
This sounded a bit flimsy and not concrete at all, the conditions were
subjective. However, the reward was absurd. The Shionel currency was
weighted very heavily, each gold coin meant a lot when converted to most
other currencies. Ten million Shionel golds were nothing short of a small
fortune.
Furthermore, if this bounty was made by a smaller and less credible party, it
wouldn't have garnered much trust at all. However, this was the Deacon
Industries. On top of all of that, they had made such a big and loud show
about it attracting attention internationally, that they did not dare intend on
betraying any bounty hunter that succeeded!
Credibility, reliability, and history were some of the more intangible

variables, yet also some of the most important variables that merchants and
businesses needed to pay attention to. In fact, these were variables that made
or broke success.
It wasn't because of moral reasons that companies worked hard to maintain
honest operations, it was purely because companies that broke their word,
deceived third parties, and generally engaged in shady operations were
avoided like the plague. There were extremely practical reasons to ensure that
one's transactions and operations were clean.
In that regard, Deacon Industries was extremely rigorous and solid. Its sheer
credibility and reliability were huge reasons that it was able to reach the level
that it had reached. If Deacon Industries dared to blatantly cheat bounty
hunters and break their word, the decades that had gone into building up its
pristine credibility and reputation would be utterly annihilated overnight.
Prospective third-party clients, customers, and business partners would
seriously reconsider the wisdom of collaborating with a company that
unhesitatingly broke its word despite making such a big fuss about it and
announcing it to the world.
Deacon Industries would rather lose ten million gold coins than their
credibility and reputation. Losing the latter would cause far more damage in
the long run, as would letting Rui run around. That was why Chairman
Deacon did not hesitate to go big from the very get-go and offer a huge sum
of money as a bounty.
That was why the general sentiment and response to the bounty was quite
positive, no one believed that this was a scam. A huge number of Martial
Squires expressed interest and eagerness to hunt the Voider. A bounty meant
that they could still get paid if they succeed, and they didn't need to abide by
orders from Deacon Industries. As long as they succeeded, they would get a
huge bounty in return.
On top of all of that, Deacon Industries was providing full access to all of its
intelligence surrounding the Voider, which was a huge help, since it allowed
all the bounty hunters to gain a basic understanding of the Voider and made it
likelier that they would catch the Voider. Without the information, they
would be running blind and would have a much harder time catching even
basic information about him.
The intelligence of Deacon Industries would also be updated with all

information on the Voider available, meaning any time any progress was
made. That progress would also greatly aid Martial Squires in the future
allowing them to act on more updated information.
The sheer number of bounty hunters acting with this information made
people quite optimistic that the Voider would eventually be hunted.
Soon enough, huge numbers of Martial Squires registered as bounty hunters

in large droves, looking to be the ones to catch the Voider.
Chapter 836 Trap
"Hmmm," Rui hummed as he analyzed the latest happenings. "This is rough,"
"Are we screwed?" Kane sighed. "It was a good run while it lasted."
"Relax, we're not screwed," Rui replied. "However, we can forget about
trying to explore already discovered floors. From here on out, we should
avoid it altogether. We always planned to reach this stage, but perhaps we'll
have to accelerate the process. There are too many threats around us. I don't
feel comfortable with all of this."
He got up, heading for the door. "I'll be back,"
"Where are you headed?" Kane asked.
"I'll register as a bounty hunter," Rui replied. "Get prepped, we're going
dungeon raiding soon enough."
Rui headed towards Deacon Industries where the basic registration process
was happening. What surprised Rui when he got there was how large the
crowd was.
('What the…') He frowned as he got in line. ('Why on Earth are so many

people joining? Surely most of these adventurers have other arrangements.
Patrons, contracts, places of employment… How can they possibly also take
up something as time-consuming as bounty-hunting when'-)
His thoughts halted when he realized the answer. ('It's because it's an open-
ended bounty that they can afford to register. Simply registering is not
problematic since it does not convey any burdens or responsibilities. It
simply allows them to access the intelligence that Deacon Industries is
offering to bounty hunters and allows Deacon Industries to keep score on the
number of Martial Squire registering as bounty hunters for this mission.')
What that meant was that even if they did not find the Voider, or even try to,
they would still have no problems, however, if they did find and kill him,
then they could immediately provide his corpse to Deacon Industries without
any issues.
Furthermore, they could access information on his more easily too.

Furthermore, the non-committal nature of the registration meant that there
was no issue with spending as much or as little time whenever they wanted.
It was quite convenient and there was no harm in registering.
('Hm, quite the good strategy on Deacon's part,') Rui mused with mixed
feelings as he navigated the crowd.
He only intended to register to be able to access the investigative reports on

himself, and nothing else.
He was aware that he was probably giving himself away to a certain extent
since Chairman Deacon could be sure that the Voider would register to keep
tabs on his own investigation, but he had decided that this trade-off was
worth it.
Even if Chairman Deacon became more certain that the Voider was among
this group, the number of Martial Squires that had already registered and
would continue to register would make the suspect pool absurdly large and
impractical. It was no different from having no clues whatsoever.
Further, Chairman Deacon would also have to consider the possibility that
the Voider was accessing information through an associated third party,
which further made his job harder.
Ultimately, the negatives were not worth the positives.
However, Rui was not naive enough to think that there was no scheme in any
of this. While the world might simply think Chairman Deacon was simply
trying to be good-hearted and help the Martial Squires. Rui was shrewd
enough to make out how Chairman Deacon could exploit the fact that the
Voider would be paying attention to the investigation for manipulation.
There were ways that he could potentially manipulate the Voider by planting
false information that would cause the Voider to act a certain way, or choose
to make a certain decision that Chairman Deacon would be on the lookout
for.
For instance, if Chairman Deacon managed to convince the Voider that they
had managed to develop a way that allowed them to narrow down the
Voider's positions through his Martial attire marked with some esoteric
substance, then the Voider, if convinced, would naturally do his best to
dispose of it and procure an alternative perhaps.
In that case, Chairman Deacon could potentially notice any suspicious

movements. Worst case scenario, if he kept tabs on all the Martial Squires, he
might just be able to catch someone who would act exactly as they would if
they were afraid of getting caught.
Essentially, Chairman Deacon was also using this bounty to get into the mind
of the Voider and manipulate him to reveal himself using elaborate deception,
traps, and even misinformation.
Rui was pretty sure that this was the true intention of Chairman Deacon.
Still, he wasn't fazed. ('Neat, but that's not going to work on me.')
Had it been any other Martial Squire, they would not be able to avoid falling
into his trap and eventually revealing themselves. But Rui was probably the
only Martial Squire shrewd enough to not only understand the true purpose of
the publicized intelligence but also capable enough to avoid the traps and
pitfalls that came with that.
('All he needs is a single slip-up to accelerate his progress in his

investigation,') Rui narrowed his eyes as he eventually got to the registration
part. ('We definitely need to discover our own floors and harvest esoteric
resource deposits there. No amount of scheming will be able to get us if we're
there where they can't reach us.')
Every time a new floor was discovered, the Martial Squires who discovered it
informed the Shionel Adventurer Guild which rewarded them extremely
handsomely for the discovery. This was to ensure that no Martial Squire kept
new floors a secret when they discovered it.
Thankfully, Rui didn't give a damn about the measly reward compared to the
esoteric plunders of a whole floor. Thus, he intended to keep it a secret.
When the floors that he would discover would naturally be discovered by

other Martial Squires, they would only find empty floors that were infested
with monsters but not a single deposit of esoteric resources left.
There was no amount of scheming that would be able to make up for such a
drastic gap in explorative and navigation capability, and Rui intended to
show Chairman Deacon that he did not stand a chance.
Chapter 837 Future
"Ready?" Rui asked.
"Yep, this should be entirely very fun," Kane sighed.
"Cheer up," Rui told him. "We're going to see new sights."
The two of them had already been in Void Step together for quite a while
now. Yet it was only after they entered the dungeon that they stopped the
technique. Inside the dungeon, nobody could sense them beyond a certain
range anyway, thus it was better to let Kane save his stamina and use it when
it was necessary, like when they were harvesting resources.
"We're going to ignore all of the established paths to the existing floors
right?" Kane asked.
"Yep, we're going to randomly explore tunnels until we hit a new floor, or die
trying!" Rui grew a little excited, exclaiming emphatically.
"How about trying another day?" Kane asked blandly. "I'd rather fail than die
trying to succeed like, you know, a sane person."
The two of them bickered as they randomly picked a large tunnel at a random
part of the entry into the dungeon before following it down merrily.
"Doesn't this feel so much better though?" Rui asked Kane at some point
while still being extremely vigilant of their surroundings. If he got careless,
they could very easily die from some lethal attack from a monster. If they got
hit by a taipan, then they were dead for sure. "Don't you enjoy the pure and
sheer freedom that comes with choosing your own path and looking for a new
destination?"
"It would be relaxing if it weren't for the fact that I'm basically blind to my
Martial Squire standards standing in probably the most dangerous
environment anywhere within ten thousand kilometers," Kane explained. "It's
a shame I can't be as nearly at ease as you are. Hell forget ease, you're
basically beaming right now."
"Yeah," Rui nodded with a smile. "Because this rough adventure has entirely
been of my own creation thus far, no missions, no Martial Union, no
clientele. It's fun to do things for your own self than for others."
"I suppose I can see that," Kane shrugged. "I'm pretty far away from the
Arrancar Family, so I suppose that is definitely a plus. Furthermore, I have to
admit, helping you set off bombs in the Shionel Confederation has been
pretty exciting. More exciting than most things that have happened in my
life."
Rui gave Kane a knowing glance.
Kane had spent most of his life trapped by the Arrancar family because of the
dramatic talent for Martial Art and combat he had demonstrated even when
he was a toddler. It had caused him to develop a deep hatred for his family,
and a deep yearning to escape them and go far away from them in the world.
It had been to the point that even getting into the Martial Academy had been
one of the best things that had happened to him. Rui was sure that this was
the first time he had even gone this out of his way for none other than
himself.
"Heh, maybe you can stay here," Rui shrugged. "Build a new life here far
away from your family."
"Maybe," Kane replied nonchalantly. "But they'd probably find me here as

well. If I want them to not find me. I need to erase myself from their sights
entirely. But I'm not strong enough to do that, for now."
Kane's family was a powerful Martial Family comprising many Martial

Artists of all Realms, barring the sole Martial Sage of the family. The only
reason he was able to stay away from them from the moment was the
protection that came from his political affiliation.
The second that he left the country forever, that protection was gone. The
Lightning Martial Sect would not help a Martial Artist that was not going to
aid their cause and even leave the country forever.
"Not strong enough you say," Rui echoed his words. "Then for how long do
you intend to wait?"
Kane considered his thoughts. "I think if I even break through to Martial
Senior, I'll be able to use Void Step to such a level that they won't be able to
track me."
"Hm," Rui considered the matter.
The problem was that both of them knew too little of what Martial Artists of
higher Realms were capable of. Rui had seen three Martial Seniors fight, but
that did not mean he knew that Martial Seniors in general were capable of.
Nor did that mean he knew what Martial Masters and above were capable of.
These mighty beings were so beyond his reach that he genuinely could not
fathom what they could do.
Thus, as much as he would like to have affirmed the soundness of Kane's

plan, he couldn't do so, not in good faith.
"There are several possibilities," Kane explained to Rui. "I could either stick
with the Lightning Sect forever under their protection. I could grow stronger
to be able to resist the Arrancar Family. I could gain the patronage of a
powerful political force instead of the Lightning Sect, or I could polish my
covert capabilities as well as my stealth, and plan to leave the Shionel
Confederation and set out to the other side of the continent. Far away from
their sphere of influence. Frankly, I think the last plan has the highest
probability of success when you consider the difficulty of execution, time
period, and margin of error."
"You've thought really this through deeply, haven't you?" Rui remarked,
impressed at the level of thought that Kane had given it.
"Well, yeah, I kind of have to. It is my future and all," Kane shrugged. "I'm
not as smart as you, but I'm smart enough to know that if I don't plan this out
carefully and take into account all variables, things could end extremely
badly for me forever."
"That's quite prudent of you," Rui replied approvingly. "If you need any help
with anything, you can definitely be sure to reach out to me and ask me for
any help that you may need."
Chapter 838 Corpse
The two of them had been walking for quite some time. There was no point
in sprinting when they didn't have a destination yet. Furthermore, Rui needed
time to scan his surroundings and explore direction along all three hundred
and sixty degrees around himself. He didn't bother reading all the space
curvature all around him within a certain radius. Instead, he focused all of his
reading in one particular direction at any given moment, sweeping across his
surroundings across time by individually scanning each direction to the
maximum distance, replicating Radar mechanics.
Thus he needed to take his time, if they traveled too fast, then he wouldn't
thoroughly be able to sweep his surroundings. The two of them chatted a bit
more about lighter topics before Rui paused, abruptly turning his head
forward.
"What happened?" Kane grew more wary and vigilant. "Is it a monster?"
"Not exactly," Rui murmured. "I think I just happened across something
interesting. Let's check it out."
He began picking up the pace heading towards the strange stimulus he felt in
his sensory sweep.
It wasn't long before he reached it. He narrowed his eyes, as his expression
grew more grim.
Kane quickly caught up as well, his eyes widened as he too beheld what Rui
had sensed. "Is that a human?"
Rui nodded. "A corpse, but…"

He didn't even need to complete his words. The corpse had a sickly black
color to it, which immediately suggested poison or venom to Rui. That wasn't
what was shocking about this corpse to Rui, however.
"This man… was a normal human being, when he was alive," Rui's
expression under his mask morphed into one of shock.
This should have been entirely impossible!
Humans were unable to enter the inner ring of the Adventurer Ring town due
to the sheer pressure that the dungeon exerted on their psyches. That meant
there was no way for humans to enter the Shionel Dungeon without suffering
traumatizing and crippling fear and stress. Many would even be rendered
unconscious, while many would lose their sanity.
There were very few humans that could withstand the pressure of the Squire
Realm. The old blacksmith that Rui had met in the town of Hajin, as well as
some remarkable men in the Shionel Confederation were probably the only
exceptions.
The fact that a human being had made it so deep into the Shionel Dungeon
was something that Rui was unable to wrap his head around.
Was this human being one such remarkable person who possessed
otherworldly mental fortitude?
"A normal human being?" Kane gasped, before cringing at the disgusting
rotting odor while he knelt down to take a good look at the corpse. "You're
right, these remaining scraps of clothes are not those of the Martial attire of a
Martial Artist."
Kane keenly noticed that the surviving scraps covering the corpse were not
those of a Martial Squire. Martial Squire attire was made out of very special
esoteric fabrics that could at the very least survive their power, even if they
could not offer any protection to the wearer.
"Not only that," Rui murmured. "This body is most certainly not that of a
Martial Squire. It's not a Martial body, it's that of a normal human."
He grabbed a rock, kicking it at the dead skin of the corpse. The motion
immediately opened up a tear in the skin.
"Even a dead Martial Squire's body would not be that fragile," he remarked
with narrowed eyes. "On top of that, observe the muscle tone and definition
and body fat to weight percentage, it deviates from Martial Squires. This
person has never undergone the equivalent of the Foundation Stage of the
Martial Academy. In fact, this person is most certainly not a fighter in any
way."
"That makes sense," Kane nodded. "That makes this discovery even more
bizarre. How on Earth did a non-combatant human enter the Shionel
Dungeon so deeply, and even die here?"
That was the question that begged itself to both of them. Neither of them
could understand how such a thing came to be.
"This mystery isn't exactly relevant to us, but it's a shame that we cannot find
out anything about this person," Kane sighed.
"That's not true," Rui refuted him as he keenly scrutinized the body. "This
person most likely did not live in the heart of the Shionel Confederation, and
most likely was part of the lowest class of the state."
"How can you possibly figure that out?" Kane frowned.
Rui pointed to a scar on the man's neck. "He was cut quite deeply on his
neck, but the scar still remains, furthermore the wound was professionally
stitched and healed naturally from the looks of it. That meant that there was
no usage of potions during the treatment, which automatically puts a bar on
the economic class this person could have been a part of and also eliminates
the possibility of being a resident of most places in the Shionel Dungeon,
given how widespread the application of potions in medicine is."
He felt the fabric of the remaining scraps with his fingers. "Simple cotton.
That's not proof of anything, but still, it's frankly hard to fathom what a
person like this would be doing anywhere near the Shionel Dungeon, let
alone go anywhere inside it, let alone go this deep."
"What else can you deduce from this corpse?" Kane asked with interest.
"Based on the degree of coagulation and rotting of blood I'd say it probably
hasn't been more than a few days since death," Rui pointed at the tear in the
skin that he had created half a minute ago, before turning to the arms of the
corpse. "The biceps and triceps are much more underdeveloped compared to
the muscles of the forearm. That indicates a profession, job, or lifestyle that
involved rigorous use of the fingers and hands, but not of the entire arm.
Most likely no manual labor, but a manual skilled profession. This is also
further supported by the fact that the nails on his fingers are uniform while
the toenails are messier."
Chapter 839 Shock
He lifted the corpse up briefly, paying attention to the hips. "An anterior
pelvic tilt, which generally implies an unhealthy amount of time continuously
spent in a seated position."
He opened up the mouth of the corpse glancing inside. "A mouth-breather

with enlargened adenoids and constricted airways."
"Regular grooming of facial based on the inclination of hair despite clearly

not being groomed recently."
"Deep calluses on the sole of the foot, indicating a lot of time spent
barefooted despite rough environments."
"Low of minute old scars on the finger, most likely from repetitive mistakes
caused by using small, precise but sharp tools."
"Long-time user of spectacles based on the subtle marks on the nose, most
likely broken and/or lost in his time in the dungeon."
"Married based on the ring indention on his ring finger with a lighter skin
tone. But more importantly, that eliminates several possible geographic
origins of such a person."
"Lost a lot of weight recently, not just from being in the dungeon based on
the stretch marks around his body."
He continued to inspect and infer a great number of facts about the corpse,
analyzing every inch of it as Kane watched with bewilderment. He had
thought that he had made some sharp deductions, but Rui showed him how
wrong he was about that as he seemed to conjure up information where there
shouldn't have been any information.
"In conclusion, this man was a small-time married craftsman living on the
outskirts, or even entirely out of the Shionel Confederation in a small village
or settlement, probably making a living selling small crafted trinkets outside
the Shionel Confederation in the flea markets that we rank into when we were
entering the Shionel Confederation," Rui concluded.
"How are you getting all of this?" Kane furrowed his eyebrows.
"The science of deduction," Rui replied while analyzing the corpse. "You
gather all the pieces of information that you can and infer truths from them.
But it's not absolute, far from it. My conclusion could be wrong. And there
are things that don't really make sense."
"Like what?" Kane asked.
"It's hard to judge because this sickly black color of his skin is from
poisoning, this is not natural rotting," Rui explained patiently. "I can also
sense esoteric substances of this dungeon inside his body based on the fact
that my ordinary senses are not able to sense through his body as clearly as
they should. But the issue is that he hasn't been dead for too long as
established, yet it seems clear that he has been in the dungeon for much
longer than he has been dead. What question naturally presents itself?"
Kane's eyes widened as he understood what was wrong. "How the fuck did he
survive this long in the dungeon?"
"Exactly," Rui nodded. "This is a revolutionary discovery. Frankly, I'm

unable to come up with a compelling hypothesis as to how this could possibly
happen. What's even more astonishing is that he did not die of a wound."
"Which means that he wasn't killed by a monster this entire time?" Kane
frowned. "That's impossible! Even Martial Squires die when they get lost in
the dungeon. To other monsters."
"Exactly, yet this fellow died due to an affliction with poison despite having
clearly spent a lot of time in the dungeon based on the scraps that his clothes
have been reduced to, the clearly overgrown facial hair among other things,"
Rui paused before continuing. "That just means that this man somehow
survived this long in the Shionel Dungeon. Hell, he's outsurvived even
Martial Squires. There are loads of esoteric substances in his body. It's
actually a miracle that he did not die instantly."
The two of them silently pondered about it for several seconds, before
agreeing to give up. It was a fascinating curiosity, but ultimately not too
relevant to them.
"What should we do with the body?" Kane asked.
"Not much to be done," Rui shrugged. "It's a corpse. But I am interested in

which direction came from. Maybe we can trace the man's footprints."
"Will they even be discernable beyond a certain distance?" Kane frowned.
"Not too, but I can work with anything," Rui closed his eyes as he focused
Riemannian Echo across the tunnel, following any traces of human footprints
that he could. "It helps that this tunnel route is not subject to wind drafts, or
other things traveling across it too much. Otherwise, it would be long gone."
He opened his eyes. "I've found a brief path, but it stops at a certain point,
might as well investigate it."
Kane shrugged. "Sure thing."
The two of them proceeded to swiftly follow the path that the corpse had
taken.
"It's undiscernible beyond this point," Rui announced as they arrived at a

juncture of many tunnels. They couldn't tell which direction the man came
from.
"Well, why not just do a super long-range sweep anyway?" Kane suggested.
"We can proceed normally from here on out.
"True," Rui nodded, before extending his senses in one direction. "I doubt
we'll find anything worth-!"
His eyes widened as his jaw opened up a bit.
"What?" Kane noted his reaction, raising an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"It's… It's a new floor!" Rui grinned. "Let's go!"
He rushed forward before Kane could even respond to him, forcing the latter
to break into a run to follow him.
"Here it is," Rui stopped a few meters as a large tunnel opened up to an

enormous cavity. "This is the thirteenth floor!"
"Woah…" Kane peered in, squinting. He wasn't able to see too much due to
the vision range limits. "What's it look like in there?"
"Hold up, let me scan it properly first," Rui replied. "It's pretty big. As for
what inhabits it, I'm only seeing some-!"
A genuine expression of shock and bewilderment suddenly occupied his face.
"What is it?" Kane grew more nervous at his even exaggerated reaction.
"This can't be," Rui murmured. "This should be absolutely impossible. How
can there be even more humans on this floor?!"
Chapter 840 Explore
"What?!" Kane almost whispered as he glanced back at the new floor.
The ceiling of the floor was strangely lit up, as it usually was. There wasn't
much he could see on the ground due to the high density of esoteric resources
that obscured his vision greatly.
"There's no mistaking it. They're human beings. Some even have clothes on
that are clearly man-made," Rui murmured, his eyes lost as he focused on his
Riemannian Echo. "They're not Martial Artists, I highly doubt that they are.
Besides, that's not all there is. This place is unbelievable. We need to get to
the bottom of this."
He turned towards Kane. "You're up. It's time for us to vanish."
Kane nodded as he put a hand on Rui's shoulder as they began sky-walking

down, vanishing into thin air.
STEP
They reached the ground, looking around vigilantly as they walked forward
in the direction that Rui directed them in.
"You said that's not all there was," Kane turned to Rui with a mixture of
interest and concern. "What else is there?"
Rui didn't reply, instead choosing to gesture forward.
Kane frowned as he turned forward squinting as a large object made its way
into his hampered field of vision. Yet it wasn't until after he actually realized
what it was, that his eyes widened with complete shock.
"Is that a… building?!" Kane raised his voice.
"Ssshh!" Rui told him to quiet down but nodded anyway. "You're right."
"That's insane!" Kane couldn't believe that he would run into a building on an
undiscovered floor in the Shionel Dungeon.
It was already a shock that there were non-Martial Artist humans on the floor,
but to think that they were creating buildings? Inside a dangerous floor that
had yet to be cleared? That was on another level of unbelievable.
The building wasn't particularly large, it was just a small single-story house,
from the looks of it. Furthermore, its condition was extremely poor as he
identified several places of collapse. It was hardly habitable, if at all.
Still, that did not change how absurd the notion of a house inside an
uncleared dungeon floor was.
"Don't shout," Rui urged. "You might attract their attention."
"Their? The humans? If they're alive we ought to help them. The least we
could do is inform the Shionel Adventurer Guild. Why don't you want to
attract their attention?"
"It's better if I show you," Rui sighed as they walked forward.
"Show me wha-!" He underwent his umpteenth shock for the day as he

beheld a strange creature that entered his field of vision.
No, not a creature.
It was human, but it may as well have been a creature.
The skin across her bare body was a sickly black from head to toe, just like
the corpse that they had encountered. Yet she wasn't dead. She was very
clearly alive. Her eyes were blackened too, where they should have been
white.
"What the fuck." Kane couldn't help but whisper. He didn't even care that she
wasn't a Martial Artist, he was not undoing Void Step. He could feel a sense
of threat to him regardless of the fact that she wasn't a Martial Squire.
Her body retained its human figure even though her skin had taken a sickly
black creature that made her look like a walking corpse, her skeletal and
muscular structure had remained unchanged. Her flesh too had retained
normal human features, as did various features like her face, hair, and
secondary sexual features and characteristics. It just appeared as though she
had been rotting from the inside, rather than the outside.
Kane abandoned any thought of trying to communicate with the humans. It

was very evident that such a thing was not going to work out.
"She's mindless, almost like a monster," Rui confirmed his own thoughts.
"Dilated pupils, incoherent noises, lack of awareness of surroundings or even
self-awareness."
The two of them watched speechless as she aimlessly seemed to wander

about without purpose. It was clear that she had no conscious cognition of the
world around her. From what Rui could see, she was not operating on even a
primal instinct or drive. Her movements were slow and lazy, as she was
dragging herself forward.
"What the hell is going on here Rui?" Kane asked, disturbed by what he saw.
"What is that? Is that the same as the corpse we ran into? Was that man also
like her? Are they all like her? Where in the world did the buildings come
from if these people are all mindless? No, where in the world did these
people come from? Are they monsters that deeply resemble humans? Is that
it? Is that why they're unaffected by the psychological pressure?"
Kane had so many questions that he had no idea where to begin. He was
witnessing multiple impossibilities unfold right before his very eyes!
He had no idea how to even begin approaching analyzing such a thing.
"Calm down," Rui told him with a composed voice, yet even his expression
was very severe and grim. "Let's gather as much information as we can
before we make sense of this. There's no point in trying to force ourselves to
make do with less information."
Rui already had some thoughts on the matter, but he refused to voice them
until he was at least less incredulous about them. It felt far too absurd to
voice out what he was thinking.
"…You're right," He sighed.
They ignored her as they proceeded forward, exploring this strange new
floor. The two of them ran across multiple buildings and even road-like
pathways between them. Most of the buildings were homes, they were all
extremely damaged with many being reduced to complete rubble.
Rui's eyes widened as he came across some normal human corpses in some of
them. "These aren't sickly black like the others. It's rotting the same way a
normal corpse does."
It looked to be about a year old and the corpse had largely deformed and the
skeleton was visible.
Chapter 841 Veril
This was definitely a strange outcome. There were corpses on the floor that
clearly died of natural causes that rotted normally. Furthermore, the skin of
many of these corpses was sickly black.
"So the skins of these corpses that rot naturally and have been dead for quite
some time were not the greenish-black like the others," Rui made an
empirical observation. "That's interesting… That implies a correlation
between them."
He glanced at the buildings. "Furthermore, these buildings were not

constructed after the Shionel Dungeon was discovered. Not only is the age of
the exterior worn away to a degree that is impossible to occur within a year
but there's also an indication of erosion due to rain, which is absolutely
impossible inside the Shionel Dungeon."
"So you're saying this isn't some strange feature of the floor, but that these
buildings were constructed before Shionel Dungeon even came to exist, but
wouldn't that mean…?" Kane frowned as the answer came to him.
"The town of Veril was a town that existed right outside the outskirts of the
Shionel Confederation," Rui explained. "It used to occupy a place that is now
occupied by the massive Shionel Dungeon. It was presumed that the town
and all its inhabitants had been completely annihilated when the Dungeon
erupted, as not a single trace, not even so much as a single brick from the
entirety of the town had been found. People assumed that this meant that the
town was utterly annihilated and crushed within the dungeon… There was
even a large memorial honoring the deceased town and townspeople even if
wasn't explicitly a part of the Shionel Confederation. However, if I'm not
wrong, then this place is probably…"
Kane turned back to the corpse and the abandoned building with a dropped
jaw. "And just like that, it became a dungeon floor? What are the odds,
honestly?"
"I don't know," Rui admitted. "But it makes sense. The town would have had
zero vegetation given that it was densely colonized, which meant that there
was no vegetation in the village whose roots eventually reached the deep
subterranean mine of esoteric mineral deposits, absorbing them and
undergoing dungeonification. Thus the town as a whole was not overrun with
roots immediately and instead got absorbed into the dungeon as a single
piece."
"That's unbelievable, honestly," Kane sighed. "It's really hard to believe that
despite being in the middle of everything, the town survived."
"Well," Rui remarked. "Survived is a strong word."
He gestured around to the broken building of which only the foundations

were intact, the many long-rotted corpses that clearly died painful deaths. The
corpses were mangled and broken, some corpses had heads that were
completely flattened by debris.
"True," Kane nodded. "Still, that alone doesn't explain everything. Even if
this town is the town of Veril that somehow survived being absorbed into the
Shionel Dungeon. How does that explain the state of all the surviving people?
How the hell did they become mindless monsters."
Rui considered the question, before sighing. "The same way all the animals
taken into the Shionel Dungeon became monsters. I can't believe it, but the
mutations and physiological changes caused to the humans that survived
ingesting esoteric substances into their bodies caused them to all become
those sickly creatures."
That was the only explanation that made sense to Rui, he genuinely couldn't
conceive of even a somewhat reasonable explanation asides from this. It also
matched his senses being hampered when he tried to use them to gather
information on the man's corpse, thereby indicating the presence of the same
esoteric substances that were ever present in the Shionel Dungeon.
"So these poor people had consumed whatever they found, and inadvertently
started becoming like that?" Kane asked with a grim expression.
"Most likely," Rui nodded, sighing.
"Can they be helped?"
"…I can't be entirely sure, but almost certainly not," Rui evaluated. From his
understanding of esoteric medical technology, this level of mutation and
poisoning of esoteric substances probably could not be accomplished. "At the
very least, if there does exist some solution out there. It almost certainly
cannot be applied to humans on such a large scale as such a solution would
include prohibitively rare and important esoteric resources. The Shionel
Confederation would never spare such expenses and assets for low-class
citizens that weren't even officially part of the nation."
"I see…" Kane sighed.
"Still, that doesn't mean we can't do anything for them," Rui replied. "All of
them must be suffering horrendously on the inside, even if it doesn't look like
it. The least we can do is end their nightmare and put them to rest."
"Yeah, I can definitely agree with that," Kane stood up. "Let's do that before
we plunder this entire floor."
The two of them were under no obligation to do this. They could have
followed their normal plans and harvested the floor of any esoteric yields that
it had to offer. Yet, despite this, they both unanimously agreed to kill all the
humans in the thirteenth floor and put them out of their misery.
"Be careful, however," Rui warned him. "If I'm not wrong, these people are
no different from monsters at this point, they'll resist and fight back. They
probably will display aggression as well considering that even docile species
when monsterified turn hyper-aggressive. We'll have to fight."
In Rui's eyes, they were basically zombies.
"No problem."
The two of them stepped out in the open, releasing the Void Step technique.
"Hurh?" Many wandering humans were in the vicinity as they noticed the
presence of the duo. Their bloodshot, black eyes widened and their pupils
sharpened as their eyes seemed to regain focus and awareness.
"AAAAAARGH!"
They let out guttural screams as they blasted forward toward the duo
inhumanly fast with widened drooling jaws and arms stretched out.
WHOOSH
BOOM!
Rui avoided a bullrush as the woman crashed into the ruins of the buildings
that they had just exited, completely destroying it with her remarkably
powerful momentum.
"They're as powerful as low-grade Martial Squires," Rui noted, "Don't let

them bite or scratch you though. It's probably highly toxic."
Chapter 842 Painless
CLASP
SHING
Rui summoned his sword from his dimensional storage ring before drawing it
rapidly as he was beset by zombies from all directions. Despite their
aggression, Rui didn't feel any hostility towards them. It was probably his
imagination, but he almost could see the pain, suffering and the longing for it
to end in their eyes.
"You won't feel any pain," He subconsciously murmured before they reached
his striking zone.
SLASH
In an instant, the Bellhorn Blade arced through the air, disappearing in the
eyes of the beholder for an instant.
SPLAT
The heads of the monsterified humans cleaved in two as their eyes instantly
lose their light, and their bodies collapsed like puppets cutting their strings.
Rui made sure to destroy their brains to ensure that there was no possible way
for them to suffer from his attacks. They did not experience any pain, their
vision, senses, and even consciousness disappeared when the sub-ice cold
Bellhorn Steep triggered the repelling effect of the esoteric substances in their
tissue, destroying the tissue on a molecular level.
Frankly, they didn't stand a chance. Not only were they only as strong as he
was when he evolved to the Squire Realm, but they also did not possess the
ability to hurt someone as strong as him. Even without the Bellhorn blade, he
would have utterly massacred them, it was just easiest to give them painless
deaths with the bellhorn sword as opposed to any other way.
His offensive techniques would cause too much pain. Techniques such as
Reverberating Lance, Flowing Canon, Sonic Bullets, Mighty Roar Flash
Blast, and Transverse Resonance would cause far too much pain as it would
devastate their bodies, causing them suffering before they finally succumbed
to my wounds.
He didn't even need to employ a single defensive technique. None of their

attacks were able to reach him. They simply used straightforward attacks, and
Rui simply killed them before they got the chance to kill him. The range
given by his arm and the length of his sword meant that even if they stretched
out their arms as much as they could in order to reach him, his blade would
always kill them long before they could.
There was simply no attack that could even reach him for him to defend.
He didn't even bother employing the VOID algorithm this time around. Their
attacks were so simple and elementary, even Max and Mana were less
transparent than them.
Not only were they not trained, but they were fighting primally, and to Rui
their attacks were telegraphed long before they had even begun. He could
even predict what they were going to do long before they had even begun the
thought process to do it.
The bellhorn blade ceased being a simple sword. It became an arc of death
that brought peace to the living that suffered a fate worse than death.
He even had the leeway to focus his attention on Kane with Riemannian
Echo. Unlike him, Kane did not possess the ability to solo battalions of
Squire-level combat threats head-on. He relied on Void Step to evade their
senses while he made launched his most powerful attack into their vitals
which killed them swiftly enough.
He did not have the kind of sheer offensive potency that Rui had, thus he
needed to carefully time and place his attacks. Swiftly, he killed the
monsterified humans left and right at a rate that, while still much slower than
Rui, was far higher than a Martial Squire of his youth in the Squire Realm
should have been capable of. It was quite impressive that low-grade Squire-
level combat threats were this helpless against him even though he should
have been a low-grade Martial Squire himself since it had only been a year
and a half since he broke through to the Squire Realm.
Yet he was already graded as a grade-four Martial Squire on account of his

phenomenal stealth-based evasion and remarkably powerful Martial Squire
constitution thanks to having mastered the Hungry Pain Martial Art technique
as a Martial Apprentice. His progress and rate of growth were only surpassed
by Rui himself. Only Rui could handle him as easily as he did thanks to the
highly potent Riemannian Echo that categorically bypassed the Void Step
technique.
In front of almost any other Martial Squire, his rate of growth was startling,
as was the potency of his techniques. Yet it was only before Rui that he
appeared ordinary.
The two of them were killing the monsterified humans of the town of Veril at
a rapid pace, yet their seemed to be no end. It appeared that more humans
than Rui had initially expected had survived the eruption of the Shionel
Confederation. The sheer number of monsterified humans exceeded the
number of monsters in any of the other floors that Rui and Kane had cleared.
('We're basically fighting against half a large town,') Rui sighed.
He was grateful that the monsterified humans were extremely weak Martial
Squires, and were also largely mindless and primal.
If they retained all of their human intelligence and rationality while still being
hostile to Rui and Kane, they would be much more formidable. Many
thousands of low-grade Squire-level combat threats were a huge problem in
theory, but their mindless irrationality made them simpler to deal with.
This was why Martial Artists were, as a population, not weaker than beasts
and monsters despite being a much smaller group. Martial Artists were of a
higher quality, Martial Art allowed them to apply their power better.
Furthermore, in individual fights, combat parameters mattered more, but in a
larger-scale comparison, strategy, and tactics mattered more.
That was why the Martial Squires in the Shionel Confederation clearing the
Shionel Dungeon were making steady progress defeating the monsters
despite possessing fewer numbers. Each Martial Squire could, on average,
take down many Squire-level monsters by employing highly effective
techniques applied in tried and tested tactics and strategies.
This was part of the reason that Rui and Kane were dominating despite being
so outnumbered.
Chapter 843 Mark
If the monsterfied humans realized that their current approach was an

absolute failure and employed more sophisticated approaches that maximized
the effectivity of their numerical advantage, they would have been vastly
more problematic than they currently were to him.
POW POW POW!
Kane took down a monsterified human with lethal attacks to her vitals, before
becoming visible.
"Huff…" He panted. "Let's take a break."
This was the last monsterified human in the area, thus two of them saw no
problem with just sitting on two rocks.
"It's actually easier, but for some reason, it feels way harder than killing
ordinary monsters," Kane sighed.
"Probably has to do with the fact that they resemble humans pretty closely,"
Rui remarked. "It does feel like we're committing acts of genocides, which
we kinda are, technically, even if it is for a good reason. So it feels pretty
messed up."
"That, it does,"
This whole floor had unlocked a new fear for Rui, of a giant dungeon
spawning in the Kandrian Empire and swallowing the Quarrier Orphanage
up. That would be something that he found to be too disturbing, and
something that he was disturbingly powerless against. If that did happen, then
they were as good as screwed. Even if they somehow survived, Rui highly
doubted that they would be well by the time he found them.
That was assuming that the dungeon was a Squire-grade dungeon that he
could enter. If it was a Senior-level dungeon then he decided that he might as
well give up.
He shook his head, putting aside his silly paranoia. The two of them
consumed rejuvenation potions, before getting back to work. They would
rather finish this quickly rather than drag it out any more than they needed to.
It wasn't too long before Rui and Kane had hunted down every single one of
them.
"You sure there aren't any more left?" Kane wiped sweat off his brow.
"Yep, they're all dead," Rui noted.
"Great," Kane sighed. "Let's proceed with the harvesting then,"
"Yeah, about that…" Rui smiled awkwardly.
"What?" Kane glanced at him nervously.
"The floor unfortunately doesn't have as much of a harvest as a normal floor

does," Rui replied. "The reason for that probably has to do with the fact that
the land did not have the dense vegetation that could absorb from the esoteric
mine and bring it to the surface needed for the esoteric substances to reach
the surface. The amount is much less than a normal floor, but still far beyond
any individual Martial Squire or even a party would normally get their hands
on."
"Hm, so we're still short then," Kane hummed. "What do you want to do after
we harvest all of the esoteric substances on this floor?"
"I think we still have plenty of energy left, also plenty of potions. We got a
good nights sleep last night so we can handle mental rejuvenation potions for
quite some time," Rui replied. "Let's continue exploring the dungeon deeper
and see if we can clear another floor today."
"Only you could possibly say that and not be joking or lying," Kane laughed.
"Soloing two floors in a single day? Oh if only the Shionel Confederation
saw us right now. They would all lose their minds."
"They would, before killing us after having discovered our identities," Rui
snorted.
"We have masks on," Kane pointed out.
"Masks are too useless beyond a certain point," Rui reminded him. "It's the
whole reason I wanted to avoid getting a snap of me taken when the
Voidhunter operation had been planned out by Chairman Deacon."
The two of them quickly proceeded with harvesting the fewer deposits of
esoteric mineral resources on the thirteenth floor. Given that they did not
need to maintain Void Step as they normally did when harvesting esoteric
deposits, meaning both Rui and Kane could work independently and gather
esoteric deposits simultaneously, doubling their speed.
"Look," Rui gestured to a structure as they reached the edge of the other side
of the floor.
It was a giant gate at the edge of the floor, and the town.
"Is that…?" Kane squinted as he inspected it. The structure had a board with
words of a language Kane didn't understand inscribed into it.
"It's the entrance gate to the town," Rui replied. "It says 'Welcome to the
town of Veril'. It must have survived being absorbed into the town. I have an
idea what to do with it."
"What to do with it?" Kane frowned.
"Well, if we were normal adventurers, then we would just have to inform the
Adventurer Guild of the floor. But we're not. That would instantly give us
away. Even if I used the discrete letters that I communicate with Guildmaster
Bradt through, it would give away too much. That man is exceedingly sharp,
he might glean something I don't want being gleaned. Still, I'd rather convey
to the Shionel Confederation what happened somehow, I imagine that the
destruction of town has ruined lives and caused untold suffering that gets
swept under the fortunes and the boons of the Shionel Dungeon."
"That's a nice sentiment," Kane remarked. "What do you plan on doing

though?"
"I can take the board and place it on the first floor," Rui replied. "Maybe even
mark a way to the thirteenth floor by digging up a deep line all the way to the
thirteenth floor to indicate a path to get there so that the world finds out. It
won't take much time at all. We can immediately resume our exploration of
the Shionel Dungeon."
"You know," Kane paused. "You can be a pretty good guy sometimes."
Rui snorted. "Thanks, I guess. I like doing what I can with things in front of
me as long as its practical."
He went through with his word, marking a path all the way from the
thirteenth floor to the first floor while dropping the board in a place that
could not be missed on the first floor. Beyond that, he did not intend to do
anything.
The two of them immediately resumed their adventure.

Chapter 844 Reason
That day, a shocking discovery was unveiled to the world. The world came to
learn about the board that bore the words 'Welcome to the Town of Veril'
inscribed on it. The previous assumptions that every shred of the town had
been completely destroyed were now called into question.
Another strange part of the report was the presence of a burrowed line that
began from where the board had been found extending all the way down into
one of the tunnels of the Shionel Dungeon. Almost as if someone had drawn
a deep line with the board into the first floor before tossing it in a place where
people would eventually run into it.
What followed was many adventurers and parties following the drawn line all
the way to the very end. What they found shocked the entire nation.
People could scarcely believe that after all this time, the town of Veril was
still somehow not entirely annihilated. The many citizens who had a
connection to the town of some sort gained a shred of hope that the town was
salvageable and that the citizens had survived.
Yet, all those hopes were crushed painfully as the floor dubbed as the
thirteenth floor came to be discovered, and the sheer carnage left behind
shocked everyone. A large town filled with corpses indicating that none of
them died anything short of a gruesome death.
What really shocked the world was that half of the corpses were natural and
expected.
Their decomposition did not fall outside of the expected parameters, and
there were no unexpected parameters. The other half, however, completely
ming-boggled them.
The scene left behind by Rui and Kane thoroughly confused everyone that
laid their eyes on them. The ghoulish corpses that had clearly died very
recently were a bizarre anomaly that was hard to understand since they had
not had access to as much information as Rui and Kane had. The latter had
witnessed the corpses when they were alive and thus was aware of their
tendencies when they were alive.
The former had no idea what the monsterified humans were like when they
were alive, which would have assuaged a lot of their doubts regarding what
exactly these sickly greenish-black corpses were like.
Another mystery was how on Earth the board of the entrance gate to the town
reached the first floor. While it was true that the dungeon was not exactly the
most stable or normal environment, there was absolutely no way that such a
thing could happen normally.
The tragedy of the town of Veril was once more brought into the spotlight as
the many people who had a connection to the town, be it having family
members or having been born and brought up in the town of Veril. The many
thousands of people who had lost loved ones, and their homes entered
mourning as another day of remembrance was declared.
On the other hand, Rui and Kane continued their adventure as the two of
them ventured down the Shionel Dungeon.
"Why do you insist on exploring tunnels that end in a dead-end?" Kane

frowned as they hit another dead-end. "You know that there isn't anything
worth here, yet you insist reach them to the very end."
This was something that Rui had insisted on doing very frequently, earning
the ire of Kane. He couldn't see why Rui would go out of his way to do such
a seemingly futile action. What was the point in exploring something one
knew would not give one what they desired?
"That map I owe Guildmaster Bradt isn't going to draw itself," Rui calmly
replied. "Have you forgotten that I'm mapping the entirety of the Shionel
Dungeon? That means that I at the very least need to sense every nook and
cranny of the entire dungeon at some point."
"Ah, right, Still, that can be done organically when we eventually clear the
entire dungeon, right?" Kane asked him. "You're kind of being redundant
wasting time exploring places you would eventually explore anyway, so why
not just give Guildmaster Bradt frequent updates of the parts of the dungeon
that you've naturally mapped?"
"Because that would also tell Guildmaster Bradt about our routes in the
Shionel Dungeon," Rui calmly explained. "If I only give him information that
I have mapped during our natural exploration paths, then he can figure out
exactly what routes we've been using this entire time when he figures out the
radius of my sensory range based on the limits of the information I give him."
Kane hadn't realized this. "That does make sense. But it's almost impossible
in a practical sense to actually use that against us."
"You'd generally be correct," Rui replied. "But that doesn't apply to

Guildmaster Bradt. The man is fiendishly shrewd and devious. Furthermore,
he had access to practically endless wealth and power within the Shionel
Confederation. All he needs is a single opening to exploit and he could very
soon be on our asses."
"Damn, that's something I would rather avoid,"
"As would I," Rui smiled wryly. "That's why I'm going out of my way to
explore other parts of the Shionel Dungeon so I can supply him with mapped
information outside of our routes so that he won't be able to exploit it. It's
worth taking such precautions. I've met both Guildmaster Bradt and
Chairman Deacon in person, and trust me, there's no such thing as being too
careful when it comes to tangling with those two."
Kane nodded appreciatively. He knew that if he had been running this

operation instead of Rui, he probably would have long been caught by
Guildmaster Bradt and Chairman Deacon long ago. He was not qualified to
compete with these political titans of the Shionel Confederation. Hell,
ordinarily, no Martial Artist would have anywhere near the necessary
competencies with them.
But Rui was probably the only Martial Artist that defied this pattern. Despite
being a young Martial Squire who had dedicated his life to Martial Art, in
Kane's eyes he possessed almost otherworldly insight that compensated for
his lack of a background in these fields.
Chapter 845 Discovery
"Besides," Rui shrugged. "Even if these are dead-ends, who knows? We

might run into something interesting."
"Yeah ri-" He paused when Rui suddenly stopped walking as he cocked his
head and stared hard in a particular direction. "What is it?"
"I sensed something strange at the edge of my sensory sweeps," Rui frowned.
"Is that… Is that a big tree?"
He jogged a bit ahead, to extend his sensory range in that direction as his
eyes wandered around, lost, as he was absorbed in the sensory feedback that
he got from Riemannian Echo.
"A tree? Is that all? That doesn't seem exactly out of place given that the
dungeon is basically overgrown trees," Kane remarked.
"It's the size of a small mountain," Rui informed him with a surprised
expression. "It's inside a cavity large enough to be a floor."
"Wait, so that's the next floor you discovered?" Kane's grin lit up. "That's
awesome, we've finally run into something tangible after exploring this
much."
"Yeah, let's get going," Rui nodded as he picked up the pace. "I think this
floor might be special."
"Because of the tree?" Kane asked.
"Yeah, and also, I don't sense any monsters on that floor. Everything is
strangely stationary," Rui remarked as he ran forward with Gale Force
Breathing. "Honestly, there might be nothing worth having there. It's hard to
tell from this distance. Regardless, let's reach it first. The problem is, I can't
immediately detect a tunnel route to the floor immediately."
The tunnels in the dungeon did not interconnect in an orderly fashion, instead
resulting in messy mazes. The presence of these mazes was an additional
reason why Rui's maps were basically priceless, the ability to know which
direction to go was special.
Rui could either spend a lot of time trying to find a natural tunnel path that
leads to the fourteenth floor, or he could try a more forceful method.
"We could try breaking out way through to it, honestly," Rui scratched his
head.
It allowed them to create a direct path to the fourteenth floor and they didn't
need to waste time running around looking for a tunnel leading them to it.
After all, there was no guarantee that such a thing existed. There was no rule
that the dungeon abided by that said all tunnels must necessarily be
connected to all floors. It could be that there were isolated tunneling systems,
and they were simply in the wrong one and would never get to the destination
that they were trying to get to even if they ran around for all time.
"Hm," Kane did not want to waste too much time. "How far away is it?"
"About three kilometers in that direction," Rui pointed straight towards the
wall of the tunnel. "It's a bit much, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Kane concurred. "Not to mention, the walls of the tunnels in the
dungeon aren't weak, it's going to take some effort getting there. Still… I
think I prefer the certainty that comes with it."
Kane did not want to spend any more time running around in the tunnels of
the dungeon than they already had. Breaking holes into them instead was a
fresh way of going about things.
Unlike Rui, he could not sense beyond a certain range outside of his
immediate vicinity. This was an incredibly discomforting feeling that he
would rather not subject himself to. The prolonged subjection to the sensory
jamming could be stressful. Even though he had spent much longer time in
isolation on covert missions, at the very least, he had complete awareness of
his surroundings.
"I concur," Rui nodded. "Let's get started. We can do alternating strikes. I'll
start us off."
Kane nodded as the two of them took their stances.
Rui rushed forward as he used Flowing Canon as the main strike. All of the
muscle groups across his body generated a tremendous power with which he
smoothly empowered the strike. He breathed deeply as his fist shook,
vibrating back and forth extremely fast, yet extremely mildly.
The vibrating fist collided with the wall as the superhuman might of his
Martial body empowered with Outer Convergence, Flowing Canon, and
Reverberating Lance struck the wall.
BAM!!!
This one strike alone created a two-meter wide and deep crater that almost
entirely blasted a hole in the tunnel.
"Tsk, so small and shallow," Rui tutted, unsatisfied with the result. "The
walls of the tunnel must have some decent Squire-level esoterics protecting
it."
At his current level, every single strike possessed the ability to fragment
buildings to pieces. Yet he still wasn't able to blow a hole in the wall.
BAM!
Kane followed up with a swift piercing kick.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
A hole emerged in the wall. "Still, this might not take as much time as I
feared if a single combo can break a hole in it."
"True, still, it's three kilometers," Kane sighed. "Let's not waste time dilly-
dallying."
Despite their fears, it took them only three-quarters of an hour before they
broke through three kilometers of tunnels.
BAM!!!
"Finally," Rui grinned. "We're here."
The last wall of the tunnel opened up into a huge space with a glowing
ceiling that radiated sunlight. "That never fails to surprise me. Do you see the
tree?"
"It's blurry as hell, but yeah, kind of. It's freaking huge," Kane squinted his
eyes.
Rui on the other hand could clearly get a good image of it with his
Riemannian Echo. "That it is, I still don't see any monsters. Which is
strange."
"What about the esoteric resource deposits?" Kane asked.
"Hehe," Rui grinned, "You're not gonna believe where they are. Or rather,
where it is."
"It?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"The tree's trunk is slightly elevated above the ground, meaning it's uplifted
by its roots that are dug deep into the ground, deeper than even my senses can
reach," Rui explained. "And under the trunk is actually a small space,
relatively speaking where a huge singular ore is sitting half buried in the
ground. A big singular ore the size of a large building."
Chapter 846 Problems
"That's huge!" Kane's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
"Dead serious," Rui grinned. "Furthermore, there are no monsters. This is a

gold mine it seems. Still, we should use Void Step regardless, I'd rather not
go without it."
"Sure thing,"
Kane put his hand on Rui's shoulder as he activated Void Step and the two of
the sky-walked down in the direction of the tree.
That was when it went wrong.
The branches of the giant tree lashed out toward the two of them at a
shocking speed, rocking the very atmosphere of the floor as it shot toward
them, reaching them in an instant.
WHOOSH
SPLAT
"…!"
The piercing power of the branches was high, and it surely would have
impaled them effortlessly had it actually hit them. Yet it didn't the two barely
managed to avoid lethal, incurring only a few light flesh wounds.
They immediately leaped back, shocked.

Kane had reacted because evasive maneuvering was the very core of his
specialty. His reflexes, agility, and speed greatly surpassed even Rui. He too
had mastered Primordial Instinct a few years ago, and because of extreme
compatibility and synergy as well as Kane's own inherently swift reflexes, the
technique worked far more powerfully in his hands than it did in Rui's even
with the Mindmirror Symbiote.
Rui, on the other hand, managed to avoid it, because, unlike Kane, he saw it
coming from much further away thanks to his Riemannian Echo. However,
the Riemannian Echo was a reading technique rather than a sense, thus it was
slower, which prevented Rui from completely avoiding the attack.
The two of them grimaced as they stepped back.
"What the fuck?" Kane cursed as he covered his wounds.
"That… was unexpected," Rui's expression turned grim. He didn't bother

with his wound, his healing would heal them up soon enough. "The tree has a
protective mechanism, apparently. It does not allow people to get close by.
That much alone is not shocking."
Dungeons also possessed such a feature but it was limited to threat levels
above a certain degree. Even the Shionel Dungeon possessed such a trait. It
was the whole reason that only Martial Squires were able to enter the Shionel
Dungeon while Martial Seniors and above weren't.
That wasn't what shocked the two of them, really.
"What is shocking is that it detected us while we were using Void Step!"

Kane gasped.
"Yeah, that's really bad news," Rui grimaced. "Our model of success relies on
your Void Step quite heavily. Frankly, without it, we're not that special."
That wasn't entirely true. Rui's methods of fighting monsters in the Shionel
Dungeon were very effective and there was no way that that would disappear
with the Void Step being effective. In fact, Rui had developed those means of
fighting the monsters in the Shionel Dungeon because of scenarios like this
where they couldn't rely on his Void Step.
Although he hadn't predicted this particular scenario, he had predicted that

there would be instances where they would have to discard the technique. In
those instances, the two of them needed to be able to handle themselves.
"I don't get it," Kane grew a little flustered. "How on Earth can it possibly
detect us through Void Step? Are its senses just that incredibly sharp?"
"No," Rui shook his head, having already analyzed the matter. "It's because
the tree probably doesn't even have consciousness. Its defensive mechanisms
are purely reactionary. It is closer to a machine than a sentient being. The
Void Step technique relies on misdirecting attention and focusing in the
opposite direction of the direction the user is moving in. However, that won't
work against something that does not have any awareness that can be
misdirected in the first place."
"Damn," Kane cursed as he understood what happened. "So that means that it
is super resistant to my technique."
"Not even super resistant. It is literally categorically immune to misdirection

completely," Rui told him. "Even if you were a Martial Senior, you would
have no chance of successfully using misdirection against that tree."
"Damn…" Kane sighed. "Now what?"
"Based on the fact that it only attacked us after we approached it, its
defensive mechanisms are triggered by a range condition," Rui analyzed the
circumstances that they were in. "I highly doubt that there is any route to the
esoteric ore deposit sitting under the tree that avoids getting attacked. Still,
we can definitely give it a try. There are probably several things that we
should test in general before we come up with a way to get past the annoying
defense mechanism system of the tree."
Rui glanced at his flesh wounds, verifying that they had nearly entirely
healed.
"That sounds like real fun," Kane remarked flippantly, feeling deflated. He
had been quite hyped that they had finally found a floor after half a day of
searching and scanning. Yet the moment they did, it turned out to be a floor
where he was entirely useless for the most part. He had no way of
contributing beyond Void Step.
He clenched his fists. ('I can't be this weak forever.')
Of course, he was aware that given that he hadn't even spent two years in the
Squire Realm, his current strength and capabilities were quite impressive by
the norm. Groundbreaking even, considering that Rui's Hungry Pain had
allowed him to achieve new heights that surpassed even what a prodigious
genius like himself should have been capable of.
But he long stopped caring about comparisons to the norm. He wasn't

interested in the norm. When he looked at Rui, he couldn't help but feel
useless. Not only did he create brand-new powerful techniques on the fly like
they were nothing, but his growth rate was staggering even when compared
to Kane. On top of that, the sheer amount of competence, knowledge, insight,
and foresight that he had shown not just during their time in the Shionel
Dungeon, but also during the mission on Vilun Island.
Although he wouldn't admit it out loud, half the reason he grew stronger was
to avoid being left behind by Rui.
Chapter 847 Choices
SLASH SLASH SLASH
SPLAT
Rui grimaced as he leaped back, caressing the wound on his neck. He had
attempted to see whether his incredible sword-based offense was able to cut
down the branches that lashed out at him when he triggered the defensive
mechanism.
Unlike the first time, where both he and Kane were caught greatly off-guard,
he was prepared this time when he entered its range. He had just tried to see
whether he could potentially make progress against the volley of branches
that inevitably blasted toward him.
It was clear that the tree, like all living beings in the dungeon, had been
monsterified with the esoteric substances running through its veins. This
meant that the chilled Bellhorn Steel ought to be able to destroy the branches
apart pretty easily, all things considered. What Rui was hoping for was the
destruction to be potent enough to prevent the branches from actually
reaching even as he proceeded moving towards the large singular esoteric
deposit
He just realized he couldn't.
('It's not a matter of my sword being too weak, my sword is cutting through
just fine, the issue is that my slashing frequency speed is not enough to
prevent the branches from ever reaching me, especially when moving
forward,') He tutted to himself.
It was harder to prevent the branches from striking him when he moved
forward for multiple reasons, the first reason was, of course, he had less time
to slash at them when he was moving towards the branches than if he was
standing in one place. The relative velocity between them grew higher and
the branches would only be moving faster from his perspective, making it
even harder to cut them down before they could reach him.
Furthermore, the number of branches attacking also increased the closer he

got. He had hypothesized that each branch's defensive system was
autonomous to a certain extent, and they would simply attack whatever
entered the radius. The closer he got to the tree, the more branches detected
him and lashed out at him, making it even more difficult than it already was.
('If it's just standing stationarily at the edge of the range of the branch's
striking range, I can manage, so can Kane to a lesser degree,') Rui noted.
('But that's not enough,')
Another thing that frustrated Rui was the fact that there was really no scope
for the VOID algorithm to succeed. Although the VOID algorithm wasn't
strictly limited to humans, it was truly out of its element against a non-
sentient tree that only had a single attack pattern; straight. Normally, Rui
could drastically reduce his reaction times and lag with the help of the
predictive model, but even though he had already created a predictive model,
it was nowhere near as shockingly effective as it normally was.
The reason for this was that anybody could predict it, it was just that
elementarily simple. The problem was that it didn't really help, this was one
challenge that required adequate amounts of speed and destructive power,
and unfortunately, Rui's Martial Art could not make up for the gap as easily
as he normally did.
"Damn," Rui cursed after hours of attempts. "This isn't good news."
"Yeah," Kane sighed. "We've tried basically anything. Hell, we've tried more
than I would have had I tried doing this alone."
"Honestly, this is the first real setback we've faced in the Shionel Dungeon,"
He said out loud, there have been a few headaches here and there, but this is
the first time our winning strategy has been shut down this hard."
"True," Kane concurred, nodding. "What do you think we should do?"
Rui considered his options. There were a few avenues to be considered. The
first avenue was simply relying on themselves to slowly make progress and
hopefully find a way to break through the tough defensive measures of the
tree.
It wasn't that this method was without merits, but to Rui, it was simply far too
inefficient. The two of them would have to spend a lot of time hacking it, and
Kane was basically useless when it came to cutting down the branches, the
only reason he could avoid dying was that he was an excellent evader, that
was able to avoid critical wounds.
There was another avenue that Rui was considering.
"Maybe we don't have to do all the hard work," Rui remarked.
"Huh?" Kane tilted his head in confusion. "Like, abandon the floor and look
for ones that we're less incompatible with?"
"No," Rui shook his head. "What I am talking about is the fact that we can
literally get others to do all the dirty work for us."
"How?" Kane frowned.
Rui smirked. "There are ways to go about this."
From what he could see, it required far too much effort and time for the two
of them to slowly chop off all the branches that would attack them if they did
try to extract the giant deposit under the hollow space beneath the trunk.
Frankly, if he was not willing to, then he could simply get others to do it for
him. Of course, no one would willingly do all the hard work and let Rui and
Kane steal the fruits of their labor.
Willingly, being the keyword.

If they were tricked, then Rui could get them to do it under deceived
impressions of the fourteenth floor. Still, he needed to trick a large number of
people, and that wasn't easy. He couldn't just pass out flyers with a map to the
fourteenth floor and the location of the giant esoteric deposit on the
fourteenth floor. That would instantly backfire in record time.
It was practically impossible to manipulate a large number of Martial Squires

one by one and somehow convey the information to all of them through a
hundred different ways, it was just far too impractical to go about such a
crude of manipulating Martial Squires. There were more efficient ways of
manipulating Martial Squires, and also more poetically satisfying ways of
doing it as well.
Chapter 848 Buried
"You wanna go back?" Kane frowned. "Are you sure, after we haven't even
made any progress yet?"
"It's because we haven't made much progress that we need to go back," Rui
explained calmly. "Also, I'm honestly not even sure that we'd be able to fit
that big esoteric boulder into my dimensional storage ring. At the very least,
I'd need to empty out all the other stored goods and items in there. So even if
we succeed right now, we still need to go back."
"Damn, right, I forgot about our inventory limits," Kane muttered. "Alright,
let's head back for now. I'm actually quite tired and could use a recharge
honestly. Drinking rejuvenation potions works, but it's not as satisfying as a
genuinely natural period of rest."
"True," Rui admitted. "Alright, let's head back for now. I also am curious
about the reaction of the Shionel Confederation to the board of the gate of the
Town of Veril, honestly."
The two of them had spent more than a day and a half in the dungeon
between exploration and trying to break past the defensive countermeasures
of the giant tree. It was finally time for them to return back.
The actual travel back did not take that long. Even though Martial Squires
could not run at top speed given that there were no straight paths for them to
build up speed without slowing down, it was still quite enough for them to
jog to quickly cover the diameter of the Shionel Dungeon. The reason that
they didn't was also because the tunnels formed a complex maze the path
back to which was extremely difficult for most people to navigate. Thus most
Martial Squires spent at least an hour both traveling to and back to new
floors. Many a time, scouting teams that necessarily spent a lot of time in
dungeons needed to spend a lot of time getting back because they were not
going to known locations and were instead searching for new floors.
None of this applied to Rui. He didn't need to waste time like every other
Martial Squire did when returning since he had memorized the way they
came, and also could sense the easiest way out of the dungeon from any
given point with just a short time spend scanning with Riemannian Echo.
Within fifteen minutes, they had come out.
Kane grew especially focused as he made sure he made no mistakes when

they stepped out of the dungeon with his Void Step technique. This was
arguably the most important role Kane played, which was making sure that
no one sensed them when they left the Shionel Dungeon. The reason this was
extremely important was that the consequences of being spotted when
leaving the Shionel Dungeon during one of their genuine raids were high.
They never entered the dungeon officially when they went on one of their
mass harvests of esoteric deposits, and instead used Void Step to enter the
dungeon. What that meant was that they could never leave the dungeon
normally either.
After all, how could Martial Squires that never entered the dungeon
magically leave the dungeon?
Of course, most people would not pay much attention to such a thing, and
most people would not care to be careful of such a thing.
But Guildmaster Bradt, Chairman Deacon, and Rui Quarrier weren't most
people. Each of them was extremely aware of the sheer size of the role that
logistical details such as this played. The former two because of a lifetime of
experience in the world of business and commerce and intelligence gathering,
and the latter because of otherworldly shrewdness and intelligence. None of
the three would miss an oddity such as Martial Squires magically exiting
from a place that they never entered, and none of the three were stupid
enough to make such a mistake, especially when they were going against
each other in a battle of information and intelligence gathering.
If Kane made a mistake, then as far as Rui was concerned, it would be time to
run and run away far.
Thankfully, Kane was far too careful, and the two of them successfully
reached their inn discreetly.
"Ahhhh," Kane sighed in relief. "I can't wait to get into the hot tub."
"You can go ahead and eat without me, I have the usual stuff to do," Rui told
him.
"Gotcha," Kane nodded nonchalantly. This had already been the norm, thus
he didn't really see anything odd about it. "See you later."
Rui left the inn as he headed toward a particular destination that was actually
on the other side of the country. This location would serve as the location for
the burial of the esoteric resource supplies that Rui and Kane had harvested,
which they would be selling in the name of Esosale Suppliers through the
Bradt Distribution Network.
He needed to regularly restock the inventory of Esosale Suppliers, otherwise,

the brand that he had built with the help of the guildmaster would be affected
to a certain extent. Although he made sure not to shackle himself with such a
thing, it was still something he was willing to consider when it was easy and
affordable.
It took him a little while to reach the other side of the nation, finally reaching
his destination.
"Alright, no one around for five kilometers, let's get to work," Rui pulled a
shovel from the dimensional storage ring, before swiftly digging up a huge
hole with it that was six feet deep.
THUD
He brought out all the esoteric harvests that he had in his storage, dumping
them all in the big hole that he had just buried, before hurriedly covering the
hole up once more. He blew some hot air at the sand with his windpipe,
getting rid of the moisture in the dug-up sand that darkened it, making it
completely indistinguishable from the dry sand around it.
('Let's get out of here before I'm spotted by anyone,') He quickly disappeared
as he left behind a big sonic boom in his path.
Chapter 849 Letter
The burying part was easy. What he needed to be more careful of was the
envelope that he would send to Guildmaster Bradt that would inform him of
the location of the esoteric resource supplies that he had just buried on the
other side of the nation.
This was a bit more dangerous since Rui needed to make sure that he didn't
by mistake clue Guildmaster Bradt in on his location or identity.
He used the most generic and commonly available and supplied kinds of
paper and envelopes with the most common kind of cheap pen. This way,
there ought to be no real way Guildmaster Bradt could possibly track him
based on the kind of paper, pen, or envelope used. Some might say Rui was
being paranoid, but Rui knew better than to assume that Guildmaster
wouldn't at least thoroughly look into this avenue once.
He didn't know the extent of the forensic investigative capabilities of this

world, even if he knew it most likely was not on par with cutting-edge
forensic investigation and analysis in the twenty-first century of Earth. In
which case he had to be extremely careful not to leave even a speck of his
DNA on the paper. He wore a head cap, a face mask, and gloves that went all
the way up to his elbows among other things.
He also used his left hand to write instead of his write one in case
Guildmaster Bradt put his letters through a thorough graphological analysis,
even using handwriting very different from what he normally used. In his
paranoia, he artificially boosted the humidity and moisture in his room by
vaporizing a lot of water with his hot air windpipe. This way if Guildmaster
Bradt had some means to gauge the location the letter was based on moisture
absorbed, he would be sorely thrown off.
With all of these measures, born out of paranoia, in place, even he finally felt
confident to begin writing down his letter.
It was a standard coded encryption cipher that the two of them had agreed
upon in their meeting when they signed the contract, to convey the exact and
hyper-precise coordinates of the buried supplies.
That was the easy part. The hard part was deciding whether he should try and
scam Guildmaster Bradt by telling him about the location of the fourteenth
floor in the new pierce of the Shionel Dungeon map that he would also be
sending to the man as per their agreement.
He had already decided that he was not going to waste time trying to destroy
the branches of the tree himself. Instead, he would rather get others to do the
dirty work for himself.
('That's not very nice of me,') Rui mused.
He was aware of that. Still, he surprisingly didn't even feel any compunctions
about using others to get to his goal. This surprised even himself.
('I suppose it comes down to whether or not I deceived them directly,') he

considered.
He did not intend to lie to anybody, or even misconstrue the facts. Hell, he
didn't necessarily have intentions of even communicating any information.
He could just guide them to the fourteenth floor and let them make their
conclusions and decisions, that too would work out in his favor. At the end of
it, when they successfully spend all the necessary time clearing the tree's
branches, he would then swoop in, store the thing in his dimensional ring,
and then leave peacefully. That, he had no problem doing.
There were no rules in the Shionel Dungeon, and there was a titanic amount
of competition. Such a thing was completely normal, expected, and implicitly
consented to.
Any Martial Squire who entered the dungeon did so aware of the difficulty,
risks, and dangers, there was an awareness that such a thing could happen and
was allowed to happen, and was expected to at least be attempted to make
happen. That, to Rui, was consent to being subjected to such a thing. Of
course, he expected resistance, but he knew he could overcome it.
Although Kane's Void Step did not work on the tree, it worked perfectly well
on Martial Squires, and even more so in the Shionel Dungeon. Thus, there
was nothing that they could do to stop them.
The only issue he had at the moment was choosing how to get a large group
of Martial Squires to work hard on tearing down the branches of the tree in
the middle of the fourteenth floor. The manner in which occurred needed to
be organic and natural. He couldn't slip a letter detailing the location of the
floor and put it under the front door of his target's house.
He could go about it by directly individually informing a large number of

Martial Squires about the location indirectly, and have them raid the floor,
but the issue was that it was too impractical to do this one by one.
Furthermore, one of them was liable to blab and inform the Shionel
Adventurer Guild about the location of the fourteenth floor in order to earn
the huge bonus that came from doing so. Once that happened, the countless
bounty hunters that were hunting for Rui and Kane would also flood the
fourteenth floor, partaking in the raid but also keeping a close eye on anyone
that could be the Voider.
This was an undesirable sequence of outcomes for Rui.
Why had he made the decision to seek out new floors and clear and plunder
them before any other adventurer found them? It was precisely to avoid the
hoards of bounty hunters that were greedily eying the extravagant hundred
million Shionel

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Chapter 870 Aggressive

Generally, floors were pockets of esoteric resource reservoirs, monsters

Rui suddenly paused as his senses picked up something strange.

"No, actually, it's a bunch of Martial Squires in different groups in different

"Chairman Deacon sure is being aggressive, as predicted," Rui snorted. "The

This was on a whole other level compared to asking Guildmaster Bradt to

"Hmmm…" Rui narrowed his eyes. "What to do indeed… I can think of

He hoped so, it would make his life easier.

He felt as if he was overflowing with limitless energy that he urged to

('I hope that isn't the case.') He sighed.

A minority of people carried belongings in makeshift bags made from cloth,

Just as he was admiring and absorbing his surroundings, the blonde-haired

('Hm, an economical occupation with a low barrier of entry.') He noted, there

('Lashara is her name?') Rui wondered.

"Alice." Lashara smiled back.

"Welcome back." Alice replied before turning to Rui with a curious

('This... I can get used to this.')

('Wait a second.') Rui's eyes lit up.

('Is this a martial artis-')

Rui's eyes flew wide open at this sight.

"Floating Tiger Fist style: Roaring Impact." The man whispered.

The man turned and glanced at Rui and Alice, unperturbed.

Lashara sighed as she finished working on the accounts of the Quarrier

Their monthly expenditure included food, clothes as children were constantly

They would be home-tutored in their early years by Lashara mainly, she

('Yet another expense, but we didn't have much of a choice. Chopping it

"Fu fu fu... I wonder if he'll strive to become a Martial Artist..."

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

He pestered the adults until he was able to comprehend their nuanced

Martial Apprentice, Martial Squire, Martial Senior, Martial Master, Martial

It served as a connection between the demand in the consumer market for

The Martial Union was an organization with a vested interest in the

Furthermore, according to Depp, the Academies had a hefty yearly tuition

Thus, the Martial Academies offered a scholarship program that allowed

Rui's eyes sparkled.

"I'm going to become the best!" Rui declared.

"Alright, let's begin." Farion said, glancing at Rui.

That left only a few possibilities.

"That was your longest record so far." Mica noted.

Rui nodded. "Alright, let's continue."

Rui breathed deeply, readying himself. He couldn't do it in his previous life,

"That's bad manners, Rui." Lashara gently reprimanded him.

"Thanks for the delicious dinner, I love steak."

"Alright, thanks, good night."

('I've only learnt the Kandrian dialect, though.') Rui noted.

These potions allowed ordinary humans to match the superhuman prowess of

A significant portion of the commissions that the Martial Unions of the

its governmental system was a monarchy, as he would expect from nations in

"Rui, it's time to sleep." Lashara said, standing at the doorway.

('I should be decently well built by the time I'm done.')

('Think! How do I create an opportunity to escape?') He wasn't sure. The

('Fuck, I need to go ano-')

('It's no use, I'm too weak.') He knew this, giving up.

('I'm not just weak, I'm pathetic.')

Just as his vision was turning red-

('What the fuck just happened?')

"Are you alright my child?"

He was naïve. He had underestimated what it meant to be a warrior. This