The Martial Unity

Fylic gave up trying to pry into the source behind Rui's supreme stamina after multiple failed attempts. Rui simply deflected all of them skillfully.

Once the dynamic measurements resumed, it didn't take long after that, the stamina test was the most time-consuming of them all. The rest of the dynamic measurements were taken rather quickly, and the process came to an end.

"How long will the Martial Union take to create the customized and personalized Squire breakthrough evolution process?" Rui asked Fylic.

"It usually takes about two to three days," Fylic replied.

This wasn't beyond Rui's expectations. He certainly didn't expect that the breakthrough to the Squire Realm would happen then and there, or even within the day.

After all, a vast amount of information needed to be processed for the exact conditions of the personalized evolution breakthrough process to the Squire Realm to be done.

Rui simply bade the team farewell as he returned back home. He had done everything he needed to do, and now the only thing left was the breakthrough to the Squire Realm.

He returned back home peacefully and all he had to do now was wait.

"Have you prepared yourself mentally?" Julian asked him, at some point.

"For how awesome becoming a Martial Squire is going to be?" Rui asked blandly.

"For the risks associated with the breakthrough to the Squire Realm." Julian sighed replying.

"Ah..." Rui pondered the matter. "Generally, yes."

Despite the fact that the Kandrian Empire had developed an immense number of safeguards and fail-safes, it was impossible to guarantee that there was no possibility of failure. Although the rate of death was low, the rate of failure was a little higher.

The most extreme outcome was, of course, death. However, there were other ways for the breakthrough to the Squire Realm to fail. For instance, it was possible that the process would go horribly wrong in so far as the mutations developed that it would permanently cripple him in some horrible way that would almost certainly destroy his career as a Martial Artist.

One of the reasons that few Martial Apprentices went on to become Martial Squires wasn't just because of the difficulty of achieving enough individuality, or the difficulty of also achieving Martial maturity.

It was because some Martial Apprentices failed to successfully break through to the Squire Realm. Furthermore, there were Squire candidates who were unwilling to take the risk to become a Martial Squire.

After all, not all Martial Artists were as ambitious as Rui was. There were some Martial Apprentices who were unwilling to risk everything in order to become Martial Squires. To them, being a Martial Apprentice was more of a profession than it was an integral part of their identity.

It earned them money.

It brought them a status over most of the population.

They were able to remain lowkey in order to avoid the attention of powerful and dangerous people while still reaping enough benefits.

Furthermore, the missions were also a lot safer and easier. Most domestic missions within the Kandrian Empire were Apprentice-level missions. Of course, there was room for missions within the Empire for Martial Squires, and perhaps even Martial Seniors.

However, the three upper Realms had no place engaging in conflict anywhere near settlements. Their power was simply too destructive.

The higher the Realm that a Martial Artist was, the more their missions were perennially outside the borders of the kandrian Empire. Foreign missions were much more dangerous than domestic missions, on average.

There were Martial Apprentices that did not want to take on the amplified risk that came with foreign missions. Even if they made it smoothly to the Squire Realm through the breakthrough. They would largely be forced to abandon the safety blanket that came with the domestic Apprentice-level missions within the Kandrian Empire. The psychological safety that came from knowing that the Martial Union was always just around the corner was valuable to Martial Apprentices that weren't too driven.

Not Rui, however.

"It is scary," Rui admitted. "But not enough to try and get me to stop, nowhere near enough. If that's even possible to do in the first place."

Of course, he wasn't immune to fear like some stone-hearted unfeeling rock. But his desire and ambition to elevate the Flowing Void style and the VOID algorithm to as high as possible was too strong.

At the end of the day, the process was beyond his control. He had already done his best. Autophagy would increase the healing rate of the cells during the procedure. And it most certainly would be triggered by all the pain he would inevitably suffer.

That was the scariest part of the procedure.

The pain.

He had already gotten a good understanding of what the procedure was going to look like from both the Martial Union and the data from the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.

It wasn't possible to use anesthesia because of the sheer amount of cell death and regeneration that would be occurring in the breakthrough to the Squire realm. This meant he would have to feel every ounce of pain that procedure would cause him for however, long the procedure would take.

This was another reason why some Martial Apprentices simply opted out. The breakthrough was sheer unadulterated torture. There weren't many Martial Apprentices who were willing to endure horrific amounts of pain and all the risks that came with the procedure.

Not Rui, however.

"I can't wait until they're done." Rui grinned excitedly. "This is going to be absolutely unbelievable."

It had been three years since he had become a Martial Apprentice, and very soon, he would be elevating himself to a higher Realm of power.

('Ah, I haven't told my friends yet.') Rui realized. He immediately got up, sending messages to each of them.

Time passed in the Orphanage, too slowly for Rui's taste. The more he longed for the message to come, the slower time ticked, but it did tick, slowly and steadily. And sure enough, the day had finally arrived.