The Martial Unity

He had yet to choose a technique, he had grown far too engrossed in the creativity these techniques displayed.

He wasn't entirely sure what technique to pick, he didn't want to go all out on defense and pick an extravagant technique since his defense was sturdy enough. He skimmed through the section a bit more as his eyes landed on something interesting.

[Inner Divergence]

This technique was a defensive technique that dispersed the impact of strikes across the entire body by positioning the area of impact as close to the center of the body as possible. By conducting the impact across the entire body and not just the area of impact, the impact would be diluted and not inflict any damage.

It was similar to how a weight placed on top of a pyramid would be burdened by every block in the pyramid. By dispersing the impact cross the body, it was easier to withstand than if a single portion of the body withstood it.

The technique was extremely high-grade, however for some reason it was not priced very high, a meagre two hundred martial credits

As Rui skimmed through the scroll, he quickly realized why.

('It has a disproportionately high degree of difficulty of mastery.')

The more difficult a technique was to master and execute, the less its value was. Two high grade techniques with different difficulties of mastery had different value.

It turned out that Inner Convergence was such an obtuse technique that its effectivity of application was one hundred-percent dependent on the timing and judgement of the user, it's effectivity could potentially be worser than Exploration techniques. It required remarkable judgement, timing and placement, far more so than most other techniques.

If timed well, it could apparently surpass its grade, but if timed poorly it could even get one killed in the worst-case scenario.

The technique specifically warned the reader of the high requirements of mental faculties, and advised the reader to not purchase the technique if the reader's mental attributes were not significantly above average.

Rui's twinkled as he felt an uncontrollable laugh boil from his stomach. It took superhuman effort to restrain himself, but he did not want to look like a weirdo to the other Martial Artists and staff in the library. Above average mental attributes? That was all Rui had going for him! He put his hand on the scroll without much hesitation.

Outer Convergence for offense and combat speed.

Inner Divergence for defense.

('With the power of Convergence and Divergence, I will elevate myself to the next level.') Rui mused to himself.

He still had a total of five hundred and fifty-three martial credits left. He wanted to expand his Martial Art's general capability beyond just offense, defense, maneuvering and supplementary measures.

The last ten days had taught him that missions were much, much more about just hand-to-hand combat. Missions were not official duels where the only thing that mattered was one's combat prowess. In fact, he had come to realize that pure straightforward combat prowess was at most half of what was necessary to complete missions more optimally.

Having additional useful skills that would help him out in the field. They would not only increase the probability of success, but could also save his life.

This was one of the reasons he was reluctant on splurging on defense. His defense wasn't nearly weak enough for him spend that kind of money.

He walked over to the miscellaneous section of the Apprentice library, skimming through the techniques that they offered.

"Wow." Rui raised his eyebrows. The section was divided further into several sub-sections;

Stealth

Sensory

Environment-centric

Beast-centric

Labour-centric

Weapons-mastery

…

And several other niche fields. These sub-sections were too small to form their own major sections like offense, defense or maneuvering, but also too big to not be categorized in some way or the other.

Rui was immediately interested in the sensory sub-section. This sub-section broadly encompassed techniques that in one way or another allowed the user to perceive or gain more information about the environment and surroundings or specific phenomena or targets.

[All-Seeing Eye]

This technique trained all five senses using techniques that exploited the cognitive boosts of the Martial Path to exponentially increase the range of all senses, allowing the user to cleanly perceive all objects within a range far greater than the normal human limit, allowing the user to form a detailed three-dimensional model of everything within said range. Furthermore, it was more of a technique than a passive state, meaning the user could deactivate it when unnecessary.

This was the highest graded techniques in the entire section, costing a whopping four hundred martial credits. This technique almost entirely guaranteed that all covert operations within a certain range of the user would not go undetected.

It was useful in every single scenario.

Rui was extremely temped to purchase this technique, but he did not need something this extravagant. The sheer prowess of this technique was meant for Martial Artists who routinely performed in extremely dangerous environments and situations rife with immediate risk.

Rui definitely wanted to purchase a sensory technique, but he wanted to purchase something a little less extravagant that would still serve its purpose.

[Sixth Sense]

A technique that trained the danger evaluation intuition of the user, allowing them to subconsciously detect dangerous phenomena within a certain range.

This was also quite the high-grade technique, but a bit more manageable as far pricing went.

Just as he was about to reach for it, another technique caught his eyes.

[Seismic mapping]

This was a systematic training system rather than a technique that put the user through a series of training sessions using highly specialized training facilities in the Martial Academy that allowed the user to map out general topography as well as moving objects in contact with the ground. It did this by sensitizing the user enough to be able to detect vibrations in the ground.

Different topographies and physical properties of the ground would result in different micro-vibrations, allowing the user to reliably detect their surroundings.

Rui sighed. If he had had this technique during his first mission, there was a pretty good chance that Bella might've been alive. He would have detected the gangs being mobilized by the Lowminers in all likelihood, as well as the racing Martial Artist who was sent to separate him from Bella.

Alas, there was no way he could have gotten his hands on the technique before the mission.

('But I have it now.') He thought, gripping the scroll.