The Martial Unity

Outer Convergence and inner Divergence handled the pure combat-oriented aspects of his Martial Art. Seismic Mapping increased his competence in mission solving.

He had three hundred and fifty-three martial credits left. He wanted to splurge all of it on one more technique in order to get something that would benefit him all-round.

He wasn't sure where to go with this. A condition like that was too vague to allow him to narrow down his search.

He began by dismissing environmental techniques, that was too specific. Labour-centric techniques were also instantly disqualified.

Beast-centric techniques were interesting, but he did not intend on deep diving into hunting class missions just quite yet, he also wanted something a bit more fundamental before expanding to esoteric fields and applications.

Weapons-mastery was certainly interesting, but he felt it was far too much of an initiative. Mastering even a single weapon was no joke, and usually required many years of hard training.

He also wasn't particularly interested or attracted to them. He was a hand-to-hand purist fanboy. Though dealing with weapons was something he would eventually have to do. Upgrading the VOID algorithm to deal with weapon users was part of the long process of adapting the VOID algorithm to the world of Martial Art.

He also hadn't seen much of hand-held weapons either, he wasn't sure why, perhaps he ought to ask one of their squire instructors when he got around to it.

('That leaves...') He glanced at the final section he left untouched. ('Stealth.')

Stealth techniques were mainly useful for covert operations, but being capable of some degree of stealth was probably generally useful.

('If I had stealth capabilities, I might have been able to hide Bella to safety.') He thought. But again, there was no way he could have.

He skimmed through the sub-section, unsure of what to expect. What he saw blew his mind.

[Void Step]

A technique that employed the highest degree of misdirection to completely escape the target's cognition, bypassing all manual surveillance and perception. At the highest level of mastery, a user could effectively move around a room filled with Martial Apprentices and not be noticed at all.

Six hundred and sixty martial credits.

Grade ten difficulty.

('What???') Rui was flabbergasted. He did not think such ridiculous feats were possible via Martial Art techniques. It was truly a ridiculously beyond what he thought would be the norm. He glanced through some more techniques, ascertaining their prowess.

[Blank Melt]

Avoid detection by travelling outside the peripheral vision of observers with a combination of light misdirection.

[Dead Step]

Avoid the production of noise in the air by manipulating air via a coordinating breathing technique that cancels out the sound waves in the air.

('You're kidding me.') Rui wouldn't have been surprised if someone told him he was being trolled. ('There's no way this is possible.)

But alas, it was. Rui set aside his disbelief and skimmed through them. If the previous sections had intrigued him, it was nothing compared to the fascination he felt as he shuffled through the stealth techniques.

He had already decided to pick one of them for his final technique, he just wasn't entirely sure which one to go with.

Void Step was the highest graded technique in the entire sub-section, and this was despite the it's extremely high difficulty of mastery. Rui, for one, did not think it was over-graded or overpriced, the stated capabilities of the techniques professed by the technique summary was utterly nonsensical.

Rui was almost grateful that the technique extraordinarily difficult to master, he would be scared to leave the house if every Apprentice had mastered that technique!

Still, he hadn't yet decided which of them to purchase. Just as he began skimming through, a particular technique caught his eye.

[Blink]

This was a relatively simple technique. It was a technique that trained the user to be able to act during an observer's blink, partially bypassing their vision. It was a technique that could be used to bypass ordinary observers and even had some utility in combat, allowing them to catch their opponents by surprise by initiating attacks during blinks. It was useful in pretty much all fields and classes of missions, including the hunting and assault class missions.

It was a beautifully simple technique, that could be incredibly powerful depending on how well it was timed and how the user exploited it. Another technique with good compatibility with the VOID algorithm.

Furthermore, it costed three hundred and twenty martial credits, falling well within his budget, unlike the highest-grade techniques.

And that put an end to his shopping spree.

Four techniques; Outer Convergence for power and speed, Inner Divergence for defense, Seismic Mapping for sensory and Blink for stealth.

Rui was satisfied to with his choices. He had only gone for four techniques, prioritizing quality over quantity.

Once he mastered these four techniques, he was confident he would be able to hold his own even in higher grade techniques.

Perhaps soloing missions at grade six and above would still end up being too much, but grade five and below would be completely fair game.

"Made your choices?" A voice called out to him, breaking him from his reverie. "That was quick."

Rui didn't even need to turn around to recognize him. "Kane, what's up?"

"Not much, same as you." He said. "Looking to get some techniques to bump up my fluidity in maneuvering."

He paused, before looking around. "But still, you're getting a stealth technique huh? That's a bit unexpected. I thought you weren't too interested in covert stuff."

"Not particularly." Rui admitted. "But it's dawned me that some degree of covert capacity is needed. Have you made your choices?"

"Not yet." Kane said. "I just arrived. I think I'll pick two techniques this time."

Those words earned a wince from Rui. "You better master them quickly my friend, otherwise I'll be leaving you in the dust when I'm done training." He playfully said in a challenging tone.

"Heh, don't get ahead of yourself." Kane smirked. "I'll run circles around you when I'm done."