The Martial Unity

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.