The Martial Unity

“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.