The Martial Unity

“Impact… is it?” Rui considered his words, understanding what he meant.

“Impact,” Senior Ceeran nodded. “Allow me to briefly explain the four parameters, that I just described, deciding the ‘impact’ of a technique. Individuality is one you should be familiar with, considering you’re overflowing with it. Individuality is considered an attribute that encompasses both uniqueness and originality. A technique that has zero individuality is not that valuable, because it adds no value. Anything a technique with no individuality has to offer, we can already be certain is already ubiquitous, almost by definition.”

Rui nodded, this was rather straightforward.

Why would the Martial Union try to acquire something that is neither unique nor original? Such a thing would not be able to offer anything that everything else didn’t. This was an important parameter to consider when evaluating the value that a technique had, perhaps even the most important and foremost parameter to consider.

In this regard, Rui was quite confident that his technique would blow the minds of the Martial Union. The ODA system was probably nothing short of game-changing as far as its uniqueness and originality went. It literally stood for the Objectively Deduced Accuracy system, a means of obtaining accuracy outside of intuitive judgment and muscle memory, which was the only known paradigm for accuracy, Rui was sure.

“The next is potency,” The man explained. “Potency is just as important as individuality when evaluating the value of a technique. It’s all fine and dandy for a technique to be unique and original, but it would still be worthless if it was extremely weak and had no potential to be potent. It is simply a measure of how much a technique is actually able to accomplish.”

Rui nodded. He was rather confident that the Pathfinder technique would do well in this parameter as well. After all, the potency of the technique was what drew the Martial Union’s attention and interest in the first place.

A technique that allowed one to snipe targets accurately from nearly a kilometer away was far too potent.

“The last two are related to each other to some degree,” He explained. “Difficulty and dissemination viability are two parameters that decide how much the potency of the technique can be propagated. A technique that cannot, to any degree whatsoever, be passed on to others or even modified to facilitate other applications from it is not a particularly valuable technique. After all, these two parameters are ultimately what decide the actual impact that degree will have for its potency and individuality.”

Rui nodded unhappily.

A technique with grade ten difficulty was something an extremely minute proportion of the Martial Artist population could possibly master. Thus, the impact it had was limited. One thing Rui knew for a fact was that the technique was extremely difficult to master. The ODA system was extremely taxing and demanding of its user for it to be useful. Most Martial Artists stood no chance of conquering the sheer number of calculations that needed to be made.

Dissemination viability looked at the factors influencing how easy propagation of the technique was. Really harsh conditions such as requiring the Mindmirror Symbiote to perform it drastically reduced its viability.

Of course, Rui’s dependence on the Mindmirror Symbiote had reduced significantly since he ascended to a higher Realm of power. His own brain had evolved to a large degree compared to the much meager boosts that the symbiote had received.

Still, he was different, he did not think that the average Martial Squire could come even close to mastering the ODA system without some kind of mental processing boost, at the very least. Mastering the Mind Palace technique was the bare minimum to achieve this. Even Rui would not be able to use the ODA system without the Mind Palace technique.

“Having explained all of them, we can proceed to actually talk about the evaluation of your technique,” The man explained. “Only once we have done this can we actually talk about the remuneration and recompense that we will trade to you in exchange for an exclusive license to use, distribute and adapt your technique and use it however we may deem fit.”

“So it will be treated as intellectual property?” Rui raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, at least all the information about the technique will be considered intellectual property that is owned by you, and only you,” He nodded.

“Does that mean I will earn a cut every time this technique is sold?” Rui asked, curious.

“Of course, about fifty percent in general. The technique may be yours, but ultimately the Martial Union is the one that engages in lots of research and development to increase its dissemination viability by making the technique easier or developing highly effective training regimes. All of this costs money, which is why we take at least fifty percent. Though if the technique is adapted to something that is very different from what was originally purchased, then we will be obliged to take an even higher cut.”

Rui found the system to be interesting, though he didn’t particularly care all that much about the money being earned through the commission cut.

“If you have no further questions, then let us proceed to the evaluation process of the technique.” Senior Ceeran impatiently coaxed him.

“How does the process work, exactly?” Rui asked.

“You will begin by giving a scrupulously detailed report about the development period of the technique; the manner in which you came up with it, before finally divulging every ounce of information on the technique, even if it is just remotely relevant. Once that is done, you will be subjected to a bunch of tests that will gather the data which, in conjugation with the aforementioned reports, will allow us to have a clear idea of exactly how valuable the technique is. Once that is done, the Martial Union will be sure to offer recompense that is commensurate with said value. The details can be negotiated as there are plenty of exclusive techniques, goods and services, opportunities and avenues that the Martial Union can provide in return.”

Rui’s eyes lit up in interest at those words.