The Martial Unity

"Hallucinogens and hypnosis, huh?" Rui murmured.

It seemed extreme at first, however, it made sense. It was very difficult to figure out the most optimal Martial body as far as the configuration of physical parameters went without something like this. How else could Rui personally experience a particular kind of Martial body?

The only other viable possibility was some kind of temporary-enhancement potion that enhanced his body in one particular kind of way that would allow him to experience a particular kind of body for him to decide whether or not he was compatible with that kind of body or not.

However, this was an incredibly expensive and wasteful solution. Temporary-enhancement potions were military assets that allowed ordinary trained humans to keep up with Martial Artists. They were not resources that could be splurged on training.

Hallucinogens and hypnosis techniques were much more pragmatic solutions to the problem.

They allowed Rui to experience various configurations of physical parameters inside a hypnotized hallucination. If he wanted, he could try out a power-defense configuration where his body was extremely big and muscular possessing great power and defense at the cost of speed. Or a speed-mobility configuration where his body was light and nimble, sacrificing power and durability for speed, agility, and mobility.

All inside his head.

"Alright." Rui nodded. "I understand."

"The discovery of the Martial body requires experiencing all kinds of Martial bodies, but the Martial Union has perfected the way of narrowing down on the ideal body for you. We begin by subjecting you to the configurations suited for every primary field. You will experience a Martial body suited for power, defense, speed, striking, grappling, and so on and so forth. Of the many basic templates, you can zero in on the types of body that suited you the most when you experienced them in the hallucination. From there will begin a process of adjustment. The bodies that you expressed compatibility with will be continuously adjusted with repeated refining until we hit the most optimal configuration suited for you." He explained.

"And that would bring us to the final procedure?" Rui raised an eyebrow.

Squire Gunther nodded in response. "The Martial Union will document the particular body that you experienced optimal compatibility with and will then devise a procedure in order to create an identical Martial body when you undergo the breakthrough to the Squire Realm."

"The procedure needs to be devised from scratch?" Rui asked.

Squire Gunther nodded in response. "Because the Martial body of each Martial Squire is unique, a unique procedure is required to achieve each of them. The procedure needs to be customized perfectly for you so that when you become a Martial Squire after the evolution procedure, your Martial body will be perfectly suited to you."

As Rui had expected, the Martial Union's breakthrough procedure to the Squire Realm was much more elaborate than the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana.

The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana hadn't yet even conceived of the concept of customized evolution processes.

These processes were alterable and customizable because the evolution procedure worked by subjecting the Martial Apprentice to various procedures that caused cell death, round after round. The surviving cells would pass on the genes that allowed them to survive the procedure in the first place and the next generation of cells would be superior. That was how the evolution process functioned.

However, the degree to which the filtration processes caused cell death could be manipulated. A particular process that caused evolution to the toughness of the body could be reduced in exchange for increasing a particular process that increased speed, resulting in a faster, but more fragile body. A particular process that evolved agility could be reduced for a particular process that evolved power, resulting in a slower but stronger body.

By increasing and reducing the timeframe of these procedures, different kinds of Martial bodies could be produced.

The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana had only just very recently stumbled upon the secret to the Squire Realm. They had not yet devised a system that allowed each Martial Apprentice to obtain the perfect body when they broke through to the Squire Realm.

('Man, I'm so glad I'm born in the Kandrian Empire.') Rui sighed in relief.

Had he been born in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana, he would have had to deal with inferior Squire breakthrough processes, however, that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was he would have had to deal with being given a body that doesn't align with his Martial Art and Martial Path.

Squire Caella Freelia, the successful Squire subject that the research facility had created, was supposed to be a defensive Martial Artist, yet her body was not aligned with that because the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana had not yet conceived of the idea of customized and personalized Martial bodies.

Her Martial Path was inadvertently ruined because of the inadequacy of the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana. In comparison, The Kandrian Martial Union had a strong foundation in that regard. Going so far as to develop procedures centered around hallucinogens and hypnosis techniques in order to make the very absolute best of the breakthrough to the Squire Realm. He was absolutely certain that the filtration processes that caused the evolution to occur over time were also likely to be far more effective and efficient, given the fact that the Martial Union had doubtlessly invested an immense amount of research into the matter.

After all, the quality of the breakthrough procedure to the Squire Realm decided the quality of not just Martial Squires but also the quality of Martial Artists of the higher Realms. It had already been made clear that the breakthrough to the Squire Realm was not something that could be undone or reversed, any flaws and shortcomings would bear down on the Martial Artist for the rest of their life. In a way, he had done a favor to Squire Caella, he would rather die than live with a ruined Martial Path.

Rui glanced at Squire Gunther.

"When can we begin the process?"