The Martial Unity

"You look rough." Kane noted.

"I've had a rough a day." Rui replied. "My mission was hard, and I failed."

Kane glanced back at Rui. "Oof, that must be rough. But hey, it happens to everyone. Chin up." He put an arm around Rui's shoulder. "What mission did you choose?"

"Bodyguard." Rui replied with a single word.

Kane's eyes widened as he realized why Rui had been looking so down, and why the failure had hit him so hard. "...Damn."

"Yeah, it was rough." Rui sighed. "I had chosen a bodyguard mission of grade one, looking to take things slow with an easy mission to break the ice. Turns out the mission was actually a grade five mission, at the very least." Rui paused.

Kane jerked his head back in shock. "Grade five?? Those are only for missions that are able to threaten the lives of Martial Apprentices. You and I shouldn't even be allowed to take missions of that grade."

"Yeah, the mission's difficulty was severely underestimated by the Martial Academy, apparently." Rui sighed helplessly. "My target of protection was being hunted down by a huge local behemoth of an esoteric supplier, we were being pursued by gangs and even a Martial Apprentice."

"That's actually insane, what the fuck?" Kane was entirely in disbelief. "I'm impressed you survived."

"I only managed because their prime target wasn't me, they managed to hold me back with a Martial Apprentice who pulled me away from my target, and my target was killed after she was eperated from me."

"That's messed up."

"Yeah."

in silence, before Rui broke it with a

asked.

"Had to hunt some

"Deer?"

the mission had a high pre-requisite as far as maneuvering techniques went. So I chose the mission because it was right up my

mission was it?" Rui asked out

mission to ensure I didn't have to go home,

mirthfully at Kane's words. Talking with

right?" Kane asked. "Since you must not have gotten any significant amount

"No, I did."

Kane tilted

failure of the mission, and would be remunerating me with the mission-success reward in addition to the minimum guarantee payroll

Credits

of fifty-seven

not bad, you should be able to purchase a somewhat not-bad technique with that." Kane politely

I wanted to set out to grow stronger immediately

amassing some more credits as well as mission experience before jumping

impatient. He had really

sure his growth trajectory was extremely optimistic. What he needed was a well-founded, stable growth.

were enough to get a 'somewhat not-bad' technique with that, which was a polite of

he was not because his techniques were super powerful, but because he used them much better

Art in a less constrained way. This meant accumulating enough martial credits to be able to buy higher grade