The Martial Unity

"I can pick a mission as of this very moment?"

"Indeed, as long as the difficulty grade does not exceed our evaluation of your capability to complete missions."

Rui noted her choice of words. "How does the Academy evaluate our capability to complete missions and how is it measured?"

"The Academy evaluates mission-completing competence by looking at academic records, compatibility between Martial Artist and mission, experience and mission track record. Your evaluation is indicated on a grade from 1-10, just like missions." She explained.

Rui nodded. "Am I qualified to jump right into missions even if I have never attempted one before?"

"Yes, however the Martial Academy strongly recommends beginning with the lowest of difficulty grades of missions for your initial missions, regardless of your Martial skill, it's best to steadily accumulate experience with the process of mission completion before undertaking missions of higher difficulty grade."

"I see." Rui nodded. "I believe I need only pick a mission bill and have it assigned to me in the commission department, correct?"

"Yes."

"Alright, thank you."

"If you have any additional questions, you can read the mission completion guide created by the Martial Academy to learn more." She said, handing him a small booklet. "Or you can approach the Commissions Department for clarification."

"Got it, thank you." Rui said as he began reading the mission completion guide.

Thankfully the mission completion guide was not an extremely elaborate read. It mainly focused on basic mission completion protocol. Pre-commencement protocols, mission protocols and post-completion/failure protocols to ensure smooth management. It was only thanks to ever Martial Artists following these protocols that the Martial Union could smoothly and speedily function as a whole.

Pre-commencement protocols involved registration as the assigned Martial Artist to the commission, it involved recording the time of dispatch, verification with the client, recording the time of commencement.

Mid-mission protocols were more norms rather than rules about how to go about different kinds of the most common missions among different classes.

Post-completion/failure protocols were report submissions and remuneration protocols.

"Simple stuff." Rui shut the book, having speedily digested it. "Now time to pick a mission." he muttered to himself excitedly. After a year of training in the Academy, he had finally reached the stage where he could complete a mission!

"I'm graded three, huh?" Rui scratched his head. He wasn't entirely sure what that meant. He lacked the necessary context and experience to discern what it meant. Maybe he could ask Kane, Fae and Milliana their evaluated grades so he can have a frame of reference to understand how much the Academy actually evaluated him to be.

"Well, I don't intend to pick a grade three mission right off the bat."

For his first mission, he decided to pick the most straightforward mission possible. He did not grow arrogant and assume that he would be able to nail the mission because he was oh-so-great.

"Grade one is the way to go." he concluded. "But what class?"

He eyed each section, carefully considering them.

"Covert ops and miscellaneous are a definite no-go." Rui had no intention of being a shadow or a weirdo for his very important first mission.

"Assault is also a no-go." He didn't want to engage in royally-authorized missions for his very first mission.

"That leave defense and hunting class." Rui concluded, before making his decision.

"Hunting class missions are much less straightforward and have more sophisticated objectives and conditions and pre-requisites." For his very first mission, he wanted to be down to earth.

"Defense is the way to go." He decided.

He began scanning through the outer-most layer of the defense class section, the layer with grade one missions.

"Hm?" Rui squinted as he paused upon a mission bill.

[Defense class: Bodyguard mission

Difficulty grade: 1

Target of protection: Bella

Specified/estimated location/range of mission: within 30 kms radius of (2.5, -1.8)

Time Period of mission: 3 days

Mission commencement: immediate

Successful completion renumeration: 20 silvers / 52 Martial credits

Skillset pre-requisite: one apprentice-level defense-oriented technique]

It caught his eye because its remuneration was higher than most other missions of its grade, and it was relatively close to the Academy in comparison.

He picked up the bill from the slot, and flipped through it to learn more.

* * * * * * * * * *

"We haven't received any word from the Martial Union as of this yet, miss." A young woman anxiously reported.

The recipient of the report turned to face her handmaid with a grave expression. "If only I had enough money at hand for the rapid assignment fee."

There was usually a time period between the submission of the commission and the acceptance of the mission. This was usually anywhere between zero and three days. Thus, most clients of the Kandrian Martial Union were accustomed to placing commissions well ahead in advance and specifying the date of the mission commencement. Thus, regardless of when it was accepted, the missions would commence when they wanted.

However, the Martial Union offered to have missions be accepted immediately in exchange for an extremely expensive fee relative to the mission to the cost.

"Miss Bella..." The handmaid sullenly responded.

"We even had to undersell the difficulty of the mission just a little to be able to pay the up-front expense." Bella sighed, hoping the Martial Union would not notice. "Thankfully we didn't violate the rules of the commission contract explicitly."

"We will have to wait here until the Martial Artist arrives." She gestured to the small quarters they were in. A toilet and a single bedroom were all they were able to afford in the hotel they were in.

"Do you intend to dispatch as soon as the Martial Artist bodyguard is dispatched?" Her handmaid asked with a worried expression.

"We have to." Bella nodded. "We will inevitably be discovered if remain here indefinitely. The sooner we leave, the lower our chance of being discovered. We need to get away the Town of Hajin as soon as possible." She glanced out the window. "The Lowminers have too much influence in Hajin. We need a Martial Artist who can stall their pursuers when they inevitably discover us."

She sighed.

"I hope our bodyguard arrives soon."