The Martial Unity

“You want to use the Mind Switch technique to trigger everything associated with extreme starvation?” A Martial Squire frowned at Rui.

Rui had opted for the guidance of a mind-oriented Martial Squire to guide him in the mastery of the Mind Switch technique. Squire Juvier’s face had scrunched in confusion when he learned of Rui’s objective of trying to trigger the sensation of extreme starvation using the Mind Switch technique.

Normally, people learned this technique to retain calmness and composure in the middle of combat. There were many Martial Artists that found it difficult to retain calmness and composure in highly dangerous situations. In such situations, fear and panic could cause them to act in sub-optimal ways, increasing their probability that they would make mistakes.

The Mind Switch technique was created to give Martial Artists a way to reduce the probability of such things happening to them. It allowed them to hone their mind and impact it favorably.

Thus, Squire Juvier’s surprise was quite understandable when Rui approached him, asking if it was possible to trigger the mental processes that came along with extreme starvation.

“I suppose it’s theoretically possible, maybe” Squire Juvier frowned scratching his head. “I can’t be sure because I’m positive that nobody has ever tried to use the technique in this manner. Why do you want to in the first place?”

He peered at Rui curiously, wondering why he would want something that odd.

“Ah…” Rui smiled awkwardly. “Just something I wanted to try. If it doesn’t work out, it can be scraped, but I have to give it a shot.”

“Huh.” He frowned, confused. “Well, that’s your choice, I guess. Have you read the technique scroll?”

“I have.” Rui nodded. “I’ve understood and memorized all of it, I just hope to gain your guidance when undergoing the training for the technique.”

“Well, you did pay for Squire guidance.” He shrugged. “So that’s perfectly fine. Hope you don’t regret your decision though.”

“Me too.” Rui sighed. Even if it turned out that he was wrong, the technique could be reversed by hypnosis from a Martial Apprentice. The only risk he was taking was wasting time, but the very real and likely possibility of him being able to become a stronger Martial Squire was too much to pass. With his affinity for mental techniques, he wouldn’t be wasting much time mastering it.

Furthermore, it was a grade-three technique. The single lowest-grade technique he had ever chosen to master. The lower the grade of the technique, the lesser time it took to master it, generally. Even though the Mindmirror brain had gotten rid of his superior training speed, he was still quite the sharp learner.

“Well.” Squire Juvier shrugged. “We can begin whenever you want. If you’ve memorized the training regime, then you know that it is exceedingly simple. You’ll be induced into a state of mind where you’re open to suggestions to be implanted into your mind. Then, the mental state you desire will be artificially induced while you perform the trigger. Due to the state of mind, your mind will more easily form a connection between the trigger and the mental state you’re in, allowing you to trigger the mental state with the trigger after extended periods of this kind of association training.”

Rui nodded.

“The only problem is I don’t think we have a way of artificially inducing starvation.” He murmured thoughtfully.

“That’s fine,” Rui replied. “I can induce it by simply reducing my consumption of food.”

“You won’t be able to train for too long, though.” Squire Juvier noted.

“I have physical rejuvenation potions.” Rui reminded. “They don’t directly get rid of hunger, they simply directly supply the energy and nutrients needed to the body.”

“Smart.” He admitted. “You can get started then, as long as you know what you want as the trigger and the mental state you want to trigger.”

Rui was already starting to feel a tad bit of hunger, but it wasn’t intense enough. He wanted to reach a stage of starvation, otherwise, he couldn’t be sure that the Mind Switch technique would make maximized autophagy as the targeted phenomenon that he wanted to trigger.

There was another problem, however.

(‘What should I make as the trigger?’) Rui wondered.

The trigger was something he needed to be able to effortlessly use to trigger autophagy. Ideally, it would be something that he did constantly and involuntarily so that he would need to consciously trigger his autophagy.

Ideally, something like blinking or breathing would be the trigger for autophagy, but the problem with trying to make those the trigger was that the trigger had to be something Rui was conscious of all the time for it to actively serve as the trigger.

Most of the time, breathing and blinking was done subconsciously. Therefore, if he ever got too focused in a fight where he wasn’t conscious of his breathing or blinking as a trigger, then he would not be able to trigger the autophagy.

(‘What if I associated the autophagy with a sensation like pain?’) Rui wondered.

The only problem was that it wasn’t as much of a voluntary trigger unless he was willing to hurt himself every time he needed to trigger autophagy.

(‘Is that a problem considering every time I am hurt I could benefit from enhanced healing that would require energy and nutrients?’)

One of the benefits that came from the all-rounder Martial body was that it gave him enhanced healing thanks to the evolution of his endurance and survivability. Healing required energy and nutrients, that could be swiftly provided by autophagy.

Furthermore, any instances where he would genuinely require healing would be instances where he was injured. If he was injured, then he would certainly experience significant pain.

(‘In that case, making pain the trigger to autophagy might actually be the ideal trigger.’) Rui realized.

He took his time pondering the idea, making sure he was not mistaking anything wrong in regards to his already scant knowledge of neurobiology.