The Martial Unity

"How high of a risk is death?" Rui asked.

He had previously been under the impression that becoming a Squire candidate got rid of all the risks of the procedure.

"Not insignificant, that's for sure." He sighed.

"I thought the point of the first condition of Squire candidacy was to ensure that the subject survived the procedure." Rui probed.

"The first condition of Squire candidacy is the bare minimum to ensure you won't automatically die due to brain death due to the procedure." He explained. "There is no way to guarantee the absolute success of the procedure, not without extraordinarily high-grade potions and things of that nature. Certainly things beyond your reach as a Martial Apprentice."

"I see..." Rui pondered deep in thought.

"Each Martial body is usually perfectly tailored to suit the Martial Apprentice and their Martial Art and Martial Path of the Martial Apprentice in question." He told Rui. "We do this by allowing the user to experience a taste of what the Squire Realm is like through certain hallucinogens and hypnosis techniques."

"What?" Rui's eyes widened in surprise. "I need to be drugged and hypnotized in order for me to discover my Martial body?"

Squire Gunther nodded. "The goal is to figure out exactly what kind of Martial Art body is best suited to your Martial Art and your Martial Path. There is an endless kind of bodies that can be forged by adjusting the process and changing several parts of it. It is possible to obtain a heavy body with high muscular and bone mass relative to net body mass. It is possible to obtain a light nimble body that places weight on speed, agility, and mobility at the expense of power and durability. It is possible for the procedure to be adjusted such that the Martial body obtained is a perfect all-rounder."

The biggest problem in such a case was figuring out the most optimal configuration and balance for each particular Squire candidate in question. If the wrong configuration was applied, then the Martial Path of the Martial Artist in question would forever be ruined by a Martial body that conflicts with their Martial Path.

That was why the Martial Union had invested an immense amount of research and development funding into this matter so that Martial Artists had a more reliable and less risky route of breaking into the Squire Realm.

The most effective solution in the modern era was the process of mental induction by a combination of hallucinogens and hypnosis.

It wasn't easy to hypnotize a Martial Apprentice, least of all Rui. The hallucinogens reduced the resistance and made it easier to exercise imagination, all it did was require a powerful suggestion to allow the user to imagine exactly what it was like to possess a different body.

It was this out-of-world experience that worried the authorities of most nations had resulted in the plan to simply ban all of the relevant hallucinogens.

However, it was quite useful in allowing the Martial Apprentices to experience the hallucinogen with realistic Martial bodies before the actual breakthrough procedure. This was effectively highly altered experiences of reality that were often bad, but often could be useful when used correctly.

"Are the effects of the drugs and hypnosis harmless and temporary?" Rui asked sternly.

His mind was extraordinarily important to him, more so than any other part of his body, he would watch his own body get annihilated before he allowed something to happen to his mind.

"The procedure is harmless with no permanent influence on the body." He reassured.

Rui stared at him with stern eyes. "I have the Mindmirror Symbiote in my head, does that change anything at all?"

"Not at all." Squire Gunther replied "The procedure is verifiably for all kinds of Martial Art and Martial Path. It is a perfectly harmless procedure that does not negatively impact symbiotes in the body."

Rui looked unconvinced. "So what exactly are my tasks to do in this maelstrom of drugs and hypnosis?"

"Your goal is to experience the hallucinogenated state as well as the highly accurate and precise images and sensations of a completely different body" he explained. "Once you have locked down a general type of Martial body that you are looking for, your job is to narrow down the precise and exact kind of Martial body that clicks with you and your Martial Art. Once you have done that, your initial goal will be quite complete."

"So... I'm just going to have to take some amount of drugs and be hypnotized in order to discover my Martial Art?" Rui asked.

"Well, not just some, but a fair amount is." He replied. "The worst part is not having as much agency as you'd like, it can be pushy on them. The drugs and hypnosis are absolutely necessary, furthermore, the value they provide exceeds any potential demerit that comes with them."

"So, how do I figure out whether a particular configuration is my particular Martial body or not?" Rui asked, testing him.

"Mostly by gaining experience with that particular configuration of physical parameters." He replied. "You'll know when you've run into the perfect body that suits you to the T."

"What happens if I don't find the ideal physical parametric configuration?" Rui asked.

"There exists a unique configuration of unique parameters for every Martial Apprentice." He reassured him. "All it takes is some amount of time and energy and dedication. However, when you hit the unique configurations of physical, you'll know for sure, and personally, it is an incredibly eye-opening experience."

"Once I've discovered my Martial body," Rui added. "How much time will it take before I'm ready for the actual procedure?"

"That depends on how complicated the kind of Martial body in question is, A strange and more exotic kind of Martial body to suit rare techniques is quite unusual, and is usually much harder to be able to replicate in reality. Depending on how strange or esoteric that is, it is something that can take some time for the Martial Union to fully figure out.