The Martial Unity



"At first, I just wanted to feel that sensation again, so I began allowing myself to be hit by lightning. Ah, don't give me that look, I took proper precautions and even had potions nearby," He placated Rui who furrowed his eyebrows when he heard of what Kane had been doing. "I soon discovered that my senses and nerves grew kinda super jumpy at everything. Like, I would overreact to simple stuff like thunder."

He paused for a moment, before continuing. "The jumpiness disappeared after some time, but the more I did this, the longer it lasted. So for the first month, I just subjected my body to lightning and… just did that and nothing but that."

Rui's expression had already morphed considerably, conveying what he thought about all of this.

"Okay, but hear me out Rui," Kane gestured with his hands before him. "By the time the second month came, the pain was minimal. I found that when I did it bare-footed, it didn't hurt at all!"

Rui's eyes widened.

That shouldn't be possible!

The human body was not a good conductor of lightning. That was the main reason why people got hurt; their flesh burned when lightning struck them. Electrical currents passed through mediums by replacing the electrons of the atoms or molecules in that medium, and making those electrons part of the current instead. Thus the electrons that entered a medium were not the same electrons that exited.

Mediums with high resistance towards electricity like rubber tended to get heated when a current passed through them.

The human body was one such medium. It was an insulator towards the current and did not conduct it well. That was why when electricity passed through the human body, it tended to heat up the human body significantly, causing it to burn due to this reason.

However, the fact that Kane was able to reach a state where he wasn't feeling pain with the electricity that passed through his body could only mean one thing to Rui.

('His body is able to conduct electricity extremely well!') Rui realized with a shock. ('But how?!')

Although Martial Squires were certainly an evolved species of humanity, they still shared many similarities with the homo sapien species. In fact, they were more the same than they were different.

That was why Rui couldn't believe what he was hearing. It meant that Kane's Martial body had evolved in a way that allowed it to be able to handle a flow of electricity far better than the ordinary human, or even his own Martial body.

"And then the next few months were spent focusing on controlling my jumpy nerves," Kane casually continued like he hadn't just dropped a bomb on Rui. "I had a feeling that my nerves had somehow managed to retain a portion of the lightning bolt that passed through me. I also instinctually felt that if I could just somehow control the effects it had on my nerves and reflexes, it might turn into something amazing. I had a feeling that mastering this lightning energy was definitely the way to go forward!"

Rui was so surprised by this line of logic that he couldn't help but do a double-take, jerking his head back as he furrowed his eyebrows with incredulity.

Was this how normal Martial Artists developed techniques?

('If that's the case, then I can definitely understand why normal Martial Artists take forever to create a technique!') Rui couldn't believe it.

The thought process that Kane had revealed was so devoid of any logic or rationality that it actually hurt to listen to someone like Rui.

Rui applied the scientific method when he went about developing new techniques. He usually went about it two ways. He either had an objective for a technique or a concept of a technique in mind.

An example of the former was the Riemannian Echo technique, which he created to fulfill the objective of being able to sense the internal layout of the Shionel Dungeon. For these kinds of techniques, he took a scientific approach to thoroughly researching the possible means by which he could achieve the objective he wanted, starting with what was the likeliest.

In the second case, he systematically established the core problems and hurdles he would need to overcome and researched the best way to actualize the technique by exploring different principles and mechanisms that he could incorporate into the technique, after creating a list of all possible broad solutions.

He had never ever created a technique by relying on instinct and feelings!

Instead, he applied his lifetime of experience with research and development to the creation of techniques.

However, he knew that Martial Artists most certainly did not possess that, thus what else could they do? Most Martial Artists were sparingly literate. Being educated on the basics that were expected of every person in society was the limit, they had no concept of the scientific method!

That was why they relied on their gut and intuition that they had developed as Martial Artists.

Rui stopped listening to Kane's vague and unspecific rambling as he got drawn into his own little stupor. He suddenly needed a lot to consider. He did not consider his way of doing things to be bad because they were different from the norm.

If anything, given the sheer success that he had achieved, he was probably training the superior way.

However, he still couldn't help but consider it. Would he have truly come up with this strange and fantastical technique that Kane had come up with had he been in his spot?

('Probably not…') Rui shook his head.

The very notion of getting hit by lightning so that he could somehow absorb a bit of its power and use that to stimulate his nervous system and heighten his reflexes to be able to use the Godspeed technique was absurd to him.

He would have never even considered it in the first place. He was sure that he would have come up with another solution, and he did, with his new ability to sense the destination of lightning. But it was an inferior solution to that of Kane's.

That made him think.

Could he be missing out because he only listened to his rationality than his instinct?