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.𝗏𝗅xt.𝗇t
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.