The Martial Unity

Rui should have seen it earlier but his amusement at the purpose of the technique had created a blind spot around it. If he had treated it as a normal technique, he would have seen this application of it instantly, but because he looked down on it subconsciously, he wasn't able to.

The potential of this technique, to him at the very least, was extraordinary. As long as he could master it and perhaps tweak it slightly to suit his needs, it should not yield poor results. This was especially taking into account the fact that this technique had an extremely high affinity with his enhanced cognition.

('Stupid.') He cursed himself. ('It was almost obvious, yet I missed it because I was being cocky.')

Still, he was glad he saw it now in such a timely manner. He picked up the scroll without any hesitation as he added it to his pouch.

Four techniques down, two more to go.

('The next two-to-three techniques need to enhance my versatility and variety.')

The first four techniques strengthened his foundation and aimed to mitigate the VOID algorithm's weakness. Now, he needed to expand his capabilities to give him more options and choices in combat. He had several ideas of what he would have liked.

"I could really use a boost in range." He muttered to himself. If he gained the ability to hurt his opponent from a distance, life would be a hell of a lot easier.

Also, among all the fields his Martial Art didn't possess, a longer range was the most optimal counter for the greatest number of Martial Art and combat styles. Meaning, by giving his Martial Art long-range capability, he would increase the number of Martial Art he could adapt to more than he could if he mastered some other technique or some other field. Long range was vital, and remarkably powerful in many scenarios.

He even knew what technique he would have liked to master.

He immediately went to the offensive section and began browsing through the techniques in a particular section.

"Aha." His eyes lit up. "Found it."

[Tempestuous Ripple]

An offensive long-range technique that projected shockwave attacks from a distance. The user used a combination a breathing technique as well as body movements to create a small localized region of high-density solid-like air, and then struck said air with a powerful strike launching a wind attack.

He reached for the scroll, picking it up.

This was the technique he wanted to acquire. It was the technique that representative Ana Marianne had showcased in the Martial Contest, he had been quite impressed by her techniques, even if she did lose in the first round.

Rui did not fault her techniques for that. Her opponent in the first round was Mia Marnt, who was remarkably powerful and managed to reach the semi-finals of the Martial Contest, losing to Fiona of all people.

Furthermore, he did think Ana could have beaten Mia if she used her techniques more effectively to counter Mia's sound attacks.

Still, this was indeed was he sought for. If he mastered this technique, he would gain a huge boost in the number of potential solutions he could apply. Furthermore, the quality of his adaptive evolutions against close-quarters fighters would increase substantially.

"That's five techniques, one or two more to go."

He scratched his head. He really wasn't sure what else he ought to get. Perhaps he ought to bolster up his grappling to ensure that he wasn't lagging too far behind in that regard.

He shrugged, that was a good idea, and with the Stinger his striking had over-taken his grappling, enhancing his grappling so that he would be able to adapt to Martial Art that could be countered by grappling was useful. Furthermore, with the Adamant Reforging training technique, Rui's security in grappling combat will have increased a lot.

He immediately walked over to the grappling section as he strolled around, looking for techniques he could learn as he stumbled into something quite interesting and familiar.

[Flow Flux]

A counter-offensive technique that destabilized balanced through intercepting and applying targeted force on incoming strikes in specific angles and directions.

Rui's eyes twinkled as he recognized the technique, or at the very least the principle behind it. This was the core of Hafbor's active defense. The difference was that Hafbor's technique applied this principle purely defensively, while Flow Flux aimed to create vulnerabilities and openings for the user to exploit.

Rui didn't want to learn the defensive version of the technique anyway, not in this training stage atleast. Flow Flux was attractive to him because it had the ability to create vulnerabilities, this was a trait that was extremely compatible with the VOID algorithm. It would allow for him to have a higher probability of being able to squeeze out victories in fights where he was completely losing.

It was a grade-seven technique too, which meant that it was powerful, but not overwhelmingly so. As long as Rui used to efficiently and effectively, it should serve as a valuable trump card for a quite some time to come.

Rui picked the scroll out of the slot, before nodding.

"This should be enough for this training stage."

None of the techniques he had chosen were particularly easy to master, all of them were grade seven, which was around the grade where the difficulty was just low enough that it was worth Rui to engage in mastering. At higher grades, it was often the case that hard work alone was not enough. Many a times, techniques that fell from grade eight to grade ten required affinities and talent.

Rui did not want to waste time on a technique only to discover he lacked the needed talent and affinity needed to master the technique in a needed amount of time.

Rui glanced at all the techniques he intended to purchase.

Flame Breathing.

Wind Breathing.

Adamant Reforging.

Mind Palace.

Tempestuous Ripple.

Flow Flux.

He wasn't even sure how long it would take, but he intended to master all of them.