The Martial Unity

Not a day after he informed the Martial Union that he wanted to proceed with the measurement process, an appointment for the procedure was promptly arranged for the very next day. The very next day after he mastered the Mind Switch technique and verified its success.

Rui peeked into a large room with many machines and equipment. There was a team of men and women, who glanced up at him.

"I'm Apprentice Rui Quarrier." He told them holding his Martial license up. "I was informed that my measurement process would be conducted in this facility."

"Indeed, welcome. I'm the supervisor who will overlook the process. My name is Fylic."

They exchanged pleasantries as the final preparations were made, discussing the process.

"We will be taking static measurements first," Fylic informed him. "This includes things like, but not limited to, your weight, height, proportions, and lengths of your figure, your muscle and bone mass, cardiac and other metabolic parameters among other things."

Rui nodded. It made sense they would start with static measurements; those were always the easiest, simplest and quickest measurements to be made. Even when he was constructing the VOID algorithm, he would start with static measurements of his test subjects.

"Once that's done, we'll move on to active parameters. We'll measure the maximum force generated by every muscle group, reaction time and reflex time, balance, body-eye coordination, and stamina among other things." He informed Rui. "Once that's done, the data will be transmitted to the relevant department that will begin carefully customize the evolution process to ensure that the evolution process will evolve your current parameters to the parameters of the desired Martial body that you have chosen."

He turned to Rui. "Ah, I am to inform you. Once the measurement process is completed, you need to begin the evolution process as soon as possible. You also must abstain from mastering any new Apprentice-level technique after the measurement process today is completed until you break through to the Apprentice Realm."

"Why so?" Rui asked, curious. He had no intention of going out of his way to master yet another technique before he broke through to the Squire Realm, but he was curious about Fylic's statement.

"The data we collect in the measurement process is delicate, in a sense." He replied. "It needs to be accurate otherwise the evolution process that was created based on that data will not yield the desired body and could potentially lead to death in the worst-case scenario."

"I see..." Rui immediately realized. "The static and dynamic parameters can and do change over time, leading to inaccurate data that can be gravely problematic."

"Correct." Fylic nodded.

They conversed a bit more, warming to each other until it was time to begin the measurement process. Rui was subjected to test after test as they began testing his static parameters. Thankfully, the boring measurements were completed quickly, within reason. Yet there were so many measurements that despite the quickness of each one, it stretched on longer than he had imagined. Only a few hours later did they move to the dynamic measurements.

Rui was a little more interested in this one. He felt a little childish as he longed for the stamina test. He was prohibited from using active techniques during the tests and there were even devices that he had to wear that could apparently detect the activation of techniques by a Martial Apprentice.

Thankfully, the Mind Switch technique was not an active technique. It was largely passive and did not require any specific voluntary actions that activated the autophagy, all he needed to was experience enough pain.

And sure enough, when the stamina test began, the device didn't pick up on the autophagy when he triggered it by crushing his tongue and the insides of his cheek just hard enough to trigger the autophagy.

"This..." Fylic's eyebrows knitted in confusion and amazement as he witnessed Rui maintaining peak human exertion without the application of Apprentice-level techniques. Rui should have displayed physical parameters that were perhaps at the peak of normal humans, but to his shock, Rui last well past what would be considered normal human limits!

"Did he consume a physical rejuvenation potion somehow?" He frowned.

The question was rhetorical, of course. He was being carefully monitored by the assistants, the device he was wearing on his head would have detected the activation of an Apprentice-level technique that allowed them to exert themselves beyond human limits using the technique actively.

Yet it hadn't detected anything of the sort.

"Has he mastered some rare passive stamina conditioning technique?" Fylic frowned as he read through Rui's profile, scouring through all the techniques present in his file.

There were some passive training techniques that permanently improved stamina, but Fylic had already gone through Rui's mastered techniques prior, and there was nothing, as far as he could see, that would give Rui enhanced superhuman stamina.

Rui had mastered a total of thirty Apprentice-level techniques since becoming a Martial Apprentice, however, he could not see a single passive stamina-boosting Apprentice-level technique.

He turned back to Rui with complete confusion. Hours flew by until Rui finally collapsed, unable to maintain the continuous high-effort exertion. Even autophagy had limits. However, he was quite pleased with the result. This would undoubtedly help him obtain a more powerful Martial body once he broke into the Squire Realm.

"You skyrocketed past human limits despite not using an Apprentice-level technique!" Fylic told him energetically. "How did you do that?"

"Well..." Rui scratched his head as he caught his breath.

He looked Fylic straight in the eye. "A wise and powerful man once recommended a powerful training regime that would help me become stronger."

"What training regime?" Fylic asked with curious eyes.

"One hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten-kilometer run," Rui told him with a dead-serious expression as his strong mind exerted pressure on Fylic. "Also, you can't use any air-conditioning esoteric technology when you're done. Only then can you forge such stamina and endurance."