The Martial Unity

It wasn’t for no reason that he thought of Kane. Kane was an evasive maneuverer, which meant that speed and maneuvering were extremely vital and significant to him. To him, speed and maneuvering were what the VOID algorithm was to Rui, it was central. If anyone could help Rui, it was him.

On top of that, Rui knew exactly how he could help him.

After all, Kane was still in possession of the most powerful speed technique that he had ever known in his entire life.

“You want me to teach you Godspeed?” Kane looked at him incredulously when Rui approached him with his request. “You know you have absolutely no chance whatsoever? Like absolutely no chance in hell, or heaven, or anywhere else for that matter. Zero.”

“Thanks for the vote confidence,” Rui retorted sarcastically.

“Hey, I know you like it straight, and I’m giving it straight to you,” Kane shrugged. “It’s not possible, you’re super talented, but you lack the immensely strong affinity to both speed supplementary and maneuvering techniques that is needed to master it. In practice, that means the enhancements you got from breaking into both, the Apprentice and Squire Realms, do not match the necessary configurations needed to master the Squire-level version of Godspeed.”

He was, of course completely correct. Rui would be arrogant if he believed that he could simply master a grade-ten speed and maneuvering technique. Furthermore, the one thing Kane was wrong about was that Rui was talented. Of course, someone who didn’t know the truth about Rui would think he’s an absolute genius who simply bloomed later than people like Kane, Fiona, and Ian did.

In reality, Rui was not talented in the conventional sense. He made up for his lack of innate advantages with his mind that had gone through two lives of growth, as well as the knowledge and memories he had inherited from his previous life. With these advantages, it appeared to others that he was just a genius who took some time to discover his own talent.

He knew that he did not have the raw talent for Martial Art mastery, and in this case, he did not have an affinity for the technique that he was looking to master either.

“I’m well aware of that,” Rui replied to him. “What I want is to learn the principle and the mechanics of the technique.”

Kane considered his words. This was definitely a lot more reasonable in his eyes. There were grade-ten techniques of which much weaker and diluted versions were meant for other Martial Squires. Rui had even mastered one such technique; Wind Breathing which was a weaker version of the original Lightning Breathing.

“Sure…” Kane shrugged. “I suppose that’s worth exploring if you really want to. But are you sure? Even if you master the core principles, they’re meant for people who have an affinity for movement speed techniques. The technique only improves your movement speed not your reaction speed. Because your Martial Path and your Martial body are not speed oriented and have no affinity for speed, you definitely lack the reaction speed necessary to use the technique properly.”

Rui smirked at those words. “Don’t worry, I have it all figured out, probably.”

Kane was a little worried for a second. But he did trust Rui’s judgment, even if it was a little scary at times.

Besides, he was curious as to what Rui was hoping to achieve. After all, whatever Rui achieved with the Void Step, Kane ought to also be able to replicate.

Although it would not further his own Martial Path by copying someone else’s techniques, he had no intention of doing that. After all, it would not deepen his Martial Path, nor would it help with his path to the Senior Realm.

Still, it might help him with creating his own techniques. This is something he had an immense amount of difficulty over. He had come to learn that extremely gifted individuals like himself tended to face greater difficulty in the Squire Realm because they were far too accustomed to blindly mastering the techniques that they wanted to without any issues whatsoever, that the idea of creating their own techniques for their Martial Art was a much more shocking difference than it was for more ordinary Martial Artists.

Kane even recalled the warning that Squire Kyrie and Squire Dylon had warned all the Martial Apprentices in the Academy of that. That talent was not decisive and mattered less the stronger they all became.

He could feel that already.

As a Martial Apprentice, he was much more dominant than he was as a Martial Squire. Now he had to work much harder to achieve lesser amounts of power.

It was one of the reasons he admired Rui. For some reason, Rui only seemed to grow stronger faster as a Martial Squire than he did as a Martial Apprentice.

It was utterly confounding to Kane.

“Alright then,” Kane agreed after deciding to take Rui at his words. “Let’s get started then.”

“You seem enthusiastic,” Rui smiled.

“I am, I’m curious to know what you’re up to with this technique,” Kane pointed out. “Let’s get going. Where do you want to start training?”

“We can probably use one of the empty sites that we would use as a deposit site for esoteric ore deposit deliveries for Guildmaster Bradt,” Rui told him. “Let’s go,”

The two of them set out for their location after quickly deciding it. The location for esoteric ore deposit deliveries was remote and uninhabited for several kilometers, making it easier to get away from prying eyes. They could also leave the nation temporarily since that wasn’t a problem with their speed.

Regardless, Rui definitely wanted to make sure that he wasn’t being spied on. Although it was entirely and completely normal for Martial Squires to engage in training, he was a little paranoid that something about his techniques would give him away as the Voider, still, he was willing to endure a little bit of risk to train and grow stronger.