The Martial Unity

He left the maneuvering training facility with a smile on his face. He had decided, every training session of the Stinger technique needed to be followed up with Phantom Step training!

This was the key to making this training phase a success!

Only by coupling the tormenting training of the Stinger technique with the ecstatic and soothing one of the Phantom Step would he be able to endure the former in the long run.

“Alright then.” Rui sighed. “Time for the final training session.”

Out of all the techniques he was learning this time, he was actually most excited for the Primordial Instinct technique. He knew the technique had the highest amount of compatibility with his Martial Art and could be the first through he adapts the VOID algorithm to the world of Gaea.

“Squire Instructor Maxime.” Rui greeted with a respectful bow for the third time. “I’ve returned to learn the Primordial Instinct technique.”

The man stared at him before making the faintest of head movements that Rui could barely identify as a nod, before walking away.

(‘?’) Rui tilted his head. (‘Er. Should I follow him?’)

He sighed as he trailed the man’s back. Rui had forgotten that he didn’t speak often. Once they reached a certain training room, he paused, gesturing Rui to enter.

“…” Had Rui not had a thorough understanding of what the training regime entailed, he would have had the worst time with this Squire instructor.

The training was specially designed to restrict as much sensory input as possible, though it would only be a partial restriction of senses. Rui wasn’t even sure how it managed to accomplish this; this was something that even the technology of Earth was not capable of. But he had long come to accept that the esoteric and exotic material resources of the Panama Continent were capable of some crazy things.

Once all the preparations were made, Rui could feel his perception of his surroundings dimming. His vision had plummeted, as had his hearing and smell. It was like he had entered a void.

Suddenly he perceived a faint shadow in front of him despite his heavily restricted vision, he instinctively put a guard up.

BAM

He felt an impact, even before he could regain his senses, he felt a slight tingle of the nerves.

BAM

Another impact struck him from behind, this time, he hadn’t been able to block it.

Rui grimaced in pain. The impacts were not light, especially when he was having a tough time timing his defensive techniques.

This was on purpose, of course. If the attacks weren’t painful, then his sense of danger would not be activated, the attacks needed to be dangerous, only then would Rui’s subconscious mind push itself, and only then would his instinct increase.

BAM

BAM

BAM

The impacts came from all directions, and were equally distributed across the entire body, so Rui wasn’t able to come up with a useful model of pattern recognition that he could apply here to be able to more

Before every impact, Rui felt a tingle in his nerves.

This sensation was something every human experienced, there was a very simply way of understanding what this felt like.

Take a finger, and point it in between your eyes, with the tip just a millimeter away from your skin and keep it there for several seconds. Ninety-percent of the time, one would feel an uncomfortable tingling sensation. This was because one’s subconscious mind and brain were freaking out at the presence of an object that close to a vital spot.

The effect was even stronger if it was someone else pointed their finger doing the point-blank pointing. This was because the brain didn’t know that it was safe like it did with one’s own finger.

And Martial Apprentices were capable of having much more sensitive and stronger reactions to stimuli naturally, even more so when they trained this instinct like Rui currently was

Rui never knew that his instinct generated this tingling sensation before. The reason for that was because he was too accustomed to relying on all senses to perceive his surroundings, his instincts rarely played a role, especially when Rui’s fighting style was logically and rationally driven, he rarely moved on instinct or his senses alone, he usually applied the system of the VOID algorithm and made his decisions inculcating that and other rationality-driven thought processes.

Thus, the entire experience was quite new to him.

But he was starting to understand the value of the Primordial Instinct technique. It was not only supplementary, but also capable of helping Rui in areas where the VOID algorithm had trouble and difficulty operating. This made incorporating the Primordial Instinct technique as a variable into the VOID system much more alluring!

This revelation was quite motivating to Rui, as it was the first true step that Rui had taken to perfecting and evolving the VOID algorithm to the world of Gaea and coming one step closer to fulfilling his dream.

Still, that was a while away, Rui had still not gotten the hang of relying on pure instinct to dodge attacks. As a scientist and a researcher, the very idea of not thinking was unthinkable, he wasn’t used to relying on instinct, even after he became a Martial Artist in this world, all his battles were conscious rationality driven.

Only now did he realize the untapped power of the subconscious mind!

This was a power he hadn’t yet harnessed, but if he could harness it and combine it with the power of conscious mind, just how strong would he become? Just how much more developed would his Martial Art become? Just how much deeper down his Martial Path would that alone take him?

BAM

He successfully managed to block another impact.

He didn’t know what the end outcome would be, but he sure as hell couldn’t wait to see what lied in store for him.

“Unlimited possibilities.” He murmured to himself with giddy excitement. “This is why Martial Art is beautiful.”