"Adaptive evolution?" Kane tilted his head in confusion.
"Yeah, my Martial Art adapts and evolves to counter my opponent's Martial Art." Rui explained.
"A Martial Art that adapts to all other Martial Art? That sounds difficult as hell, is that even possible?" Kane asked.
Rui remained silent at that question.
"Possible or not, it is my path. I will traverse it as far as I can."
Kane remained silent at those words. He realized how much resolve it must have taken to fully dedicate himself down a path that may end in a dead-end. No wonder Rui took two days to think about his Martial Path and his Martial Art. It was probably the most important decision in his life, and it wasn't something that could be done lightly.
They bantered a bit before splitting ways. Rui headed to the administration room to receive a guidebook and his room number and keys.
"Rui Quarrier? One minute." A staff member reached to grab a box. "Here you go."
She rattled off some instructions and information before he left. It was only after he reached his room and sat down to go through the guidebook that he realized how different things worked for Apprentices.
"Damn, we get our own rooms? That's lit." He'd remarked prior as he looked around. It was definitely more comfortable than his previous dormitory room. It wasn't just the lodgings that worked differently. Apprentices trained differently. For starters, the biggest surprise he received as he went through the Apprentice guidebook, was that Apprentice level techniques weren't free!
The foundational techniques of the Foundation stage where the absolute bare basics of basics. To call them techniques was almost an insult. The Exploration Stage had more valuable techniques, but they were still not too significant to the Academy or the Martial Union, apparently.
However, the Apprentice level techniques were different. They actually held value and utility such that a majority required one to amass merits! These techniques were true Martial Art techniques even if they were of the lowest Martial Realm. The Martial Academy, and the Martial Union by extension, was not willing to give them away for free.
The only way an Apprentice could earn merits was make contributions or complete Apprentice level missions. There were mandatory missions to give Apprentices experience anyway. However, the mandatory missions did not yield merits, only by voluntary undertaking and completing missions outside of curricular activity would yield merits that could then be exchanged for techniques. Meaning students had to go out of their comfort zone if they wanted more techniques.
Of course, the Martial Academy wasn't stupid. It realized that brand new Apprentices would not be able to complete Apprentice level missions without Apprentice level techniques. Thus, a set of foundational Apprentice level techniques in all fields were given to Apprentices free of cost.
"These must be the same foundational Apprentice level techniques Kane told me about when we first sparred." Rui recalled.
According to the guidebook, higher-ranked techniques above the foundations would require students to complete missions.
Rui could immediately see the multiple reasons for this system. Asides from Apprentice level techniques being too valuable to give away for free, the Martial Academy could also complete the many Apprentice-level missions that it received on a daily basis.
Furthermore, the end goal of the Martial Academy was to produce Martial Artists that were able to competently complete missions.
Giving the Martial Apprentices of the Academy some real experience and a glimpse of what the career of a Martial Artist was like would ultimately greatly aid in this end goal.
It was a policy that killed multiple birds with a single stone.
"Most of these missions are probably going to be really small-scale matters with low risk." Rui inferred.
The Martial Academy would probably not place students in extremely important or risky missions. This would be counter-productive in the long run. He suspected that the missions would likely be insignificant grunt work type missions.
Furthermore, these missions would probably be the domestic type, as well. They would likely be missions in the Mantian region.
There were several other interesting things that the guidebook went in-depth into, as well.
The Martial Union had developed a system of categorizing Martial Art. There many, many kinds of Martial Art. It was easier to divide Martial Art into categories, this helped in mission assignment. Ensuring missions were completed by Martial Artists who actually possessed the relevant and necessary tools to complete them. A hunting mission would be better suited to be completed by a Martial Artist with a lot of stealth and sensory techniques. An offense mission would be better suited to be completed by Assaulters with an offensive Martial Art. Although it wasn't impossible for Martial Artists of other types of Martial Art to also complete such missions, it wasn't optimal, and ultimately reduced the probability of success.
Thus, the Martial Union had developed a system of categorization for Martial Art;
Type I Martial Art: All-rounder Martial Art fell into this category.
Type II Martial Art: Offense-oriented Martial Art fell into this category.
Type III Martial Art: Defense-oriented Martial Art fell into this category.
Type IV Martial Art: Maneuvering-oriented Martial Art fell into this category.
Type V Martial Art: Supplementary techniques-oriented Martial Art fell into this category.
Type VI Martial Art: Martial Art that were largely centered around a particular physical attribute or parameter like strength, speed, durability, endurance, stamina etc, fell into this category.
Type VII Martial Art: Martial Art that were centered around one or very few particular techniques or sets of techniques or principles or systems fell into this category.
Type VIII Martial Art: Martial Art structured and built for covert operations and missions.
Type IX Martial Art: Martial Art specifically designed for specific environments.
Type X Martial Art: Irregular Martial Art that cannot be grouped into any of the prior groups due to failing to satisfy the conditions to be grouped into them.
('Interesting...') Rui pondered. ('So my Martial Art would probably be categorized as Type I?')
These classifications were decided by the Academy, and later the Martial Union. Which made sense to Rui, after all, it was only useful as long as the system was used accurately by set standards.
He skimmed a few pages ahead, until he reached something unexpected.
"An inter-academy Martial Games?" Rui read with curiosity.
Apparently, the Martial Academy held an annual Martial Art contest at the Apprentice level between all sixteen Academies in the entire Empire. The event held multiple contests for different fields with different structures and systems.
('What an exciting event!')
Rui grew more and more absorbed into the guidebook and the many intrigues that it offered.