"I heard Kane was a favourite." Rui said. "Does that mean the other favourites among the descendants of the Martial community are also at his level?"
Fae nodded. "Talen-wise Kane is considered a top three among all the descendants of the Martial community. Though he isn't the most talented."
Rui's eyes flew wide open at those words. "You're telling me there's a prodigy even more talented than Kane??"
Rui found that hard to believe. Kane broke through at the age of eleven, and was so talented that he was easily on par with Rui, despite all of Rui's huge advantages. Up until, recently, Kane was comfortably stronger than him too. Rui was certain that if Kane loved Martial Art as much as he did, he might have gone to even greater heights.
Fae nodded. "Her name is Fiona. Fiona Roschem. The granddaughter of His Honour Grandmaster Sage Damian."
The granddaughter of His Honour Sage Damian, who was the Grandmaster of all the Academies in the Kandrian Martial Union, lived up to her pedigree.
"How strong is she?" Rui asked with sparkling eyes.
"I haven't seen her in almost two years, I don't know how strong she currently is." Fae replied. "But she's strong. I haven't beaten her a single time in any of our spars, despite being two years older than her. She's the strongest Martial Apprentice of our generation, probably."
"Damn, you're killing me." Rui complained. The more Fae went on and on about this girl, the more he felt impatient for the Kandrian Martial Festival to arrive.
"Don't be so hasty, get a hold of yourself." Fae threw a disapproving look. "It's still some time away, and as you are right now, you probably won't be able to beat her. Forget fighting her, you can't be sure you'll be elected as a representative."
"What is her Martial Art like?" Rui asked curiously.
"She's a perfect all-rounder." Fae stated.
"Ah, a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none." Rui mused.
"No." Fae shook her head. "She's more of a jack of all trades and a master of all."
Rui had another outburst of excitement, as Fae shook her head at the sight.
('If Fae is speaking so highly of her, she must be something else.') Rui thought.
A master of all fields? If that really was the case, then Rui had quickly surmised he stood no chance as he was now. He knew that he was far from a master of any one particular field, he had barely managed to become above average in all fields, which wasn't unimpressive, because most Martial Apprentices could manage becoming average in one or two particular fields.
But thanks to his potion tolerance cheat code, he had managed to grind and get stronger at an incredible pace, yet he wasn't even near being a master of all trades. He wondered how long it had taken for her to reach her level.
"How long has she been a Martial Apprentice for?" Rui asked curiously.
"Five years." Fae replied.
Rui's eyes flew wide open. "Wait, you said you were two years older than her. Doesn't that mean...?"
"Yeah, she broke through at the age of nine." Fae confirmed with a complicated sigh.
"There's only a handful of people who have broken that young in the history of the Kandrian Empire." She paused, turning to Rui. "All of them became Martial Masters and some even Martial Sages."
Her implication was clear. Fiona Roschem was pretty much a confirmed future high Realm Martial Artist.
Rui grew engrossed in thought as he attempted to evaluate his chances of winning the contest and fighting her at all.
In order to be elected as a representative of the Mantian Martial Academy, he needed to grow to be the strongest of the Martial Apprentices of the Martial Academy, he did not think he was there just quite yet.
He did think that mastering the four techniques he'd set out to master gave him a decent chance, by then his wealth of techniques would probably be higher than most Martial Apprentices.
Most Martial Apprentices in the Martial Academy had broken through after a few years of training in the Foundation Stage and Exploration Stage, and then needed to a few more years to build the foundation of their Martial Art.
The descendants of Martial families like Milliana, Dalen and especially Fae and Kane were quite different from these Apprentices. The latter four were talented and had broken much earlier than the norm and had spent more time as Martial Apprentices, thus their Martial Art were much more developed and mature than the norm, especially Fae and Kane
Rui had also broken through early and had also possessed a Martial Art much more developed than the norm.
Still, that didn't mean his election was guaranteed, he had lost plenty of times against some of the more Senior Apprentices of older batches.
A little less than one year was usually nowhere near enough to become significantly stronger, but the same couldn't be said for Rui.
('Just you watch.') Rui thought to himself. ('I'll be so strong by the time the tournament roles by that not a single person will recognize me.')
Only then he would have a chance of fighting the best Martial Artists of his generation in the Empire.
Just the thought of it pumped him up to the brim with energy like no rejuvenation potion ever could.
If he could develop his Martial Art as strong as he hoped to by the tournament rolled by, then he might be able to win.
Unfortunately, he lacked too much information about his opponents. He could only speculate. Still, there were a few things that could be established. As always, he had the VOID algorithm, a powerful advantage that allowed him vastly superior predictive and counter-deductive capabilities, altering his fighting style to be most suited to his opponent's fighting style.
Rui winced when he recalled she was an all-rounder. Just his luck, all-rounder were the hardest to predict and counter-deduce.
Rui would need to go above and beyond to be able to win.