The Martial Unity
An avid, passionate researcher and lover of martial arts and combat sports finds himself reincarnated in a fantastical world of Martial Art. No longer shackled by the disease that afflicted his body on Earth, he decided to dedicate his body, heart, mind and soul to becoming a Martial Artist. Follow Rui as he journeys through his Martial Path in a world of fantasies and tribulations.
The Martial Unity #Chapter 1 Rebirth - Read The Martial Unity Chapter 1 Rebirth Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT
The doctor moved his stethoscope away from the child's chest while glancing at the test reports before him. The data was very clear.
"Unfortunately, it's a Non-Type-2 Inflammation type of severe asthma."
"What does that mean for him?" The child's mother asked, as she gripped the child's hand harder.
"It's a chronic type of Asthma that doesn't respond well to drugs or steroids. Unfortunately, it seems to be particularly severe in his case. His lungs are crippled and he'll need to take regular nebulizations just to lead a semblence of a normal life."
She shook when she heard that. As for the boy, he didn't understand a word of what was being said, but his mother's somber anxiety had trickled into him. He felt his throat choking up, as tears welled up , threatening to spill despite his furious endurance. His breathing grew more agitated and laboured as the conversation progressed, and his mother's despair grew more palpable, he felt like he was trekking a mountain. He felt like he was being snuffed by a pillow. He felt as though the air was growing thinner.
"Mom.." He desperately gasped as he began crying.
"John!" She held his face in her hands. He could feel her fear through her quivering palms.
"I need five milligrams of albuterol stat." The doctor immediately paged.
"Calm down, son." The doctor calmly coaxed, immediately after. "Take a deep breath, everything is ok."
He was lying. The boy didn't know how he knew, but he knew in his heart that the man was lying. His vision grew red as he felt his mind blurring
"M..om.." He whispered as he struggled to hold onto her.
The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness was his mother screaming his name.
John woke up with a jerk, breathing heavily and coursely, drenched in sweat. It took him only a moment to remember.
"…Tsk, the same nightmare flashback.." The worst kind of nightmares were the realest ones. He'd rather have the stereotypical free-falling off a building nightmare, but nope! He would relive the worst day of his life. The day he was diagnosed with severe chronic asthama, a curse that crippled his dreams and passions, shackling his body.
"The things I would have accomplished if it wasn't for this goddamn disease…" He managed to choke out, while still gasping for air. Sports, exercise, travel, treks and of course, what he yearned for most;
Martial arts.
John Falken was a lover of martial arts. Ever since he laid his eyes on Enter the Dragon, the first martial arts movie he had ever watched, he could never get over how amazing they were, how could he? The way they moved enraptured him, their stances, their checks, their footwork, grapples and of course, their strikes. He'd spent his entire life dedicated to them, albeit not in a way that one would expect a lover of martial arts would.
He was born with severe asthma, preventing him from ever engaging in any physically intensive activities, martial arts included. So instead of practicing them, he'd decided to dedicate his life to learning about them. If he could not study martial arts as a practitioner, he would do so as a scientist.
By the age of twenty-five, he had obtained a bachelor's degree in Physics and a diploma in human anatomy, and a minor degree in statistics and probability. Armed with the knowledge of these three fields as his foundation, he spent all his time performing research on martial arts and combat sports. He would perform surveys, studies and experiments on different martial arts and gather data on several variables and attributes on them and draw conclusions as well as hypotheses based on them before publishing them in respected peer-reviewed journals.
As the advent of MMA and UFC truly arose as a major industry with a large market for combat sports entertainment at the birth of the twenty-first century, his work became the foundation for modern MMA. The sudden rise in the significance of martial arts in the twenty-first century was a dream come true to John. He built upon to publish research that would become the bread and butter of combat sports.
And then, he died. At the age of fifty-nine, his already-compromised lungs collapsed, and he passed away a peaceful death. He'd spent his entire life dedicating his heart and soul to the one thing he loved, and died loving it, while still cursing the shackles that prevented him from truly embodying it.
Yet, this was not the end.
('Hm?') John stirred as he felt a strange sensation enveloping him.
('Didn't I... die?')
John wasn't sure what was happening, but he was relatively certain he was to die when he last felt his consciousness slipping in the hospital, his last sight being that of hastened doctors injecting him with something or the other.
('I guess not? But what the fuck did they wrap me in? A jelly coated condom?')
He could barely move, yet could feel that he was in a fetal position though.
('I'm going to sue these motherfuckers so hard, there is no way this falls within ethical practice. Can't they just let me chill in peace for fuck's sake?') He cursed.
Just then, he felt a force pushing onto him, it seemingly pushed down on his butt attempting to push him through what seemed to be an opening of some sorts. At this point he was positive that something was definitely off, he was just far too bewildered and frightened to even attempt making heads or tails of this situation. A few seconds later, he felt his body being forced out of an opening, and that's when he panicked, calling for help.
"waaaaaaaaaa!" Was what actually escaped his mouth.
('Eh...? Did I just... cry?')
He opened his eyes, only to behold a giant woman holding him.
('No, she's not giant... I'm the one who's small!') He barely managed to glance with his stubbornly half-closed eyes, at his clenched folded tiny arms, horrified.
"Quick, treat her! Her breathing is dangerously shallow and pupils are dilated."
What ensued was a long session of attempting to stabilize his biological mother's condition. The presumed-doctors and nurses all diligently performed variety of actions with great determination, but alas, to no avail. Slowly but surely, her eyes lost their light, yet they never once turned away from John.
"Time of death, 17:42."
John didn't understand the language they spoke, but he understood what had happened. Although he still half-believed this was some hallucination, he felt a pang of grief even as his consciousness drifted away.
('Fuck me... Please let this be a drea...')
Alas, fate deigned to ignore his wish, yet again.
He woke up later that evening in a daze, yet he needed only one moment to know that that was no hallucination. He really was reborn as a baby, despite how absurd the notion seemed to him. He was in a rather small medical room, waddled in a thick towel in a wooden cradle, the room had windows on opposite sides of the room, one leading outside and the other to the corridor where he could see nurses and doctors walking through occasionally through the gaps in cradle. He glanced around only to realize he was not alone, there were several other babies just like him in their own cradles.
('An incubation room.')
He sighed. He hadn't the faintest idea where he was, but judging from the foreign language they spoke in, as well as the difference in clothing and even architecture, he was far, far away from the US.
('It's not just that, the technological level of this place is really low. Incubation rooms like this are filled with devices that monitor babies' vitals, furthermore, there was no electronic technology when they delivered me either. Even this room doesn't have any lights, just lamps.')
That being said, the lamps were strange, the source of light was not fire, which flickered whereas the the lamp's light did not waver, it most certainly wasn't electricity. In fact, as far as he could tell there was no electricity in the room at all. It really was a bewildering notion to someone from the 21st century, was there really a nation with such primitive technology? John wasn't sure.
('This is insane, this shouldn't be fucking possible. What the fuck is happening?')
Assuming he was reborn, he didn't know if he was even reborn in the 21st century. What if he was reborn in a dystopian future? Or the past?
('No wait... Is this even Earth?')
He didn't know yet, but he would find out sooner or later, assuming he had anything resembling a life he used to have. These experiences had shattered his subjective worldview of reality, only time would tell what his new one would end up looking like. He braced himself, in fear and partially with a tinge of excitement, for his future to unfold.
Report chapter Comments
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.')
Report chapter Comments
"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?"
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.
Report chapter Comments
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.
Report chapter Comments
"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."
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.
Report chapter Comments
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?"
Report chapter Comments
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.
Report chapter Comments
"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.')
Report chapter Comments
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."
"Applicant 10756; failed."
"Applicant 65784; failed."
"Applicant 45786; failed."
…
"Applicant 00037; 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!')
Report chapter Comments
"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.
Report chapter Comments
"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!')
Report chapter Comments
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.
Report chapter Comments
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.
Report chapter Comments
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.')
Report chapter Comments
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!')
Report chapter Comments
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!"
Report chapter Comments
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?
Report chapter Comments
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.
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...')
Report chapter Comments
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."
Report chapter Comments
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."
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.
Report chapter Comments
('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.
Report chapter Comments
('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.')
Report chapter Comments
('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.
Report chapter Comments
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!
Report chapter Comments
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."
Report chapter Comments
"...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...')
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.')
Report chapter Comments
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.
Report chapter Comments