The Martial Unity

He had made his choices for offense, the next was defense. This was a remarkably easy choice for Ves.

('Inner Divergence and Adamant Reforging it is.') he nodded.

These were his two most powerful defensive techniques. Inner Divergence was an active defensive technique that worked by spreading the impact of the strike across all muscle groups. Effectively the muscles of the body acted as a shock absorbent for the entire body. The impact was safely dispersed instead of inflicting damage on the area of the collision.

Adamant Reforging was a training technique that strengthened the flesh of the user. Flesh would grow more reinforced across many rounds of restorative healing from wounds inflicted in just the right manner, allowing for a tougher exterior. This would result in a passive defense for the user in question.

A good balance between passive and active defenses.

That left two maneuvering techniques.

One of them was definitely the Phantom Step technique. The technique was incredibly useful and had helped Rui immensely since the very day that he mastered it. However, none of the other techniques were all too alluring at this point in time. Out of the remaining four, two of them were foundational techniques that automatically ruled them out in his head.

That left Blink and Shadow Step. However, one was obsolete in the Squire Realm while the other was not combat-oriented. It was suited for infiltration and other operations that required genuine stealth. He didn't have another technique.

('I guess I can go for Wind Breathing?') Rui wondered, scratching his head. Technically, it was a supplementary technique, not a maneuvering technique, but it boosted his agility and speed. Still, it suited his needs.

That was his technique roster;

Outer Convergence.

Wind Breathing.

Phantom Step.

Inner Divergence.

Adamant Reforging.

Reverberating Lance.

He quickly picked the scrolls of the techniques he was looking for. However, what he wasn't prepared for was the price of the techniques.

"Sheesh," Rui muttered aloud.

Squire-level techniques were far more expensive than Apprentice-level techniques. The total sum was nearly an order of magnitude more expensive than even his most expensive training phases in the Martial Academy.

If not for the fact that the mission in the Serevian Dungeon had yielded him a tremendous amount of income, he would not have been able to

Of course, this wasn't greed. Squire-level techniques were far more precious than Apprentice-level techniques, that was for sure.

('Furthermore, I have to pay for guidance and equipment, unlike when I was in the Martial Academy.') Rui groaned inwardly.

Thankfully, he was very familiar with these techniques. He didn't need any guidance from an experienced Martial Squire, or even a Martial Senior to help him train with the techniques. All he needed was some basic aid in operating some of the equipment.

Once he purchased the techniques, he sat down at one of the tables in the library with his scrolls, skimming through all of them and inputting all the data into his Mind Palace.

('Interesting.') Rui noted as he processed all of it.

The techniques were not entirely the same as their Apprentice-level versions. It seems they weren't scaled identically all the way to the Squire Realm.

('The Squire-level version of Outer Convergence is most suited to Martial bodies with high muscle mass to body mass ratios.') He quickly realized, studying the details of the technique.

The technique was more compatible with users with larger muscles, which allowed for a greater amount of energy transfer across the body. Of course, this did not mean that Rui couldn't use it, however, it meant that it would not nearly do him as much good as it would do a heavyweight power-oriented Martial body.

As Rui went through the other techniques. He quickly realized that each technique wasn't nearly as apt to him as their Apprentice-level versions were to him. Because Martial bodies could have all kinds of wacky configurations and quirks compared to normal humans, the variety and diversity of Martial bodies of Martial Squires were much larger. There were all kinds of configurations that led to unnatural types of bodies. Techniques needed to cater to a significant portion of the Martial Artist population, otherwise, they were useless. If a technique could only be used by a handful of Martial Artists due to its incompatibility with other Martial Artists, then its impact and contribution to Martial Art were minimal.

Thus, each technique was generally catered to be compatible with a larger proportion of the Martial Artist, which meant that it could not be too compatible with any one particular Martial Artist, otherwise, its compatibility with a lot of other Martial Artists reduced drastically. It needed to be more generalized.

This was the issue that Rui was undergoing right now. A lot of the techniques he had chosen to learn were in a similar spot. Of course, it wasn't as though this would be a hindrance, just a bit of a bigger shortcoming that he had realized it would be when he was informed about this by his Squire habilitators.

('This must be one of the driving incentives for creating your own techniques. Or at least personalizing and altering all the techniques you do use, to some degree.') Rui mused.

The abundance of techniques in the higher Realms was much lower and only grew progressively lower and lower with each Realm. This was because of the scarcity of Martial Artists in higher Realms, but also because of how difficult it was to conduct research and development of techniques in the higher Realms.

Martial Artists were inevitably forced to develop their own techniques if they wished to reach higher Realms. What Rui was experiencing was likely just the beginning. As time passed on, purchasing techniques to master them the way he already had all this time, would become more and more unfeasible.

It was both scary and exciting. On one hand, the difficulty of growing stronger would increase, without a doubt, on the other hand, it was that much bigger a canvas to express himself.