The Martial Unity

“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.