The Martial Unity

"Because we charge higher rates and fees for missions whose operation requires fielding Martial Artists outside the border of the Kandrian Empire, most of the international and foreign missions we get are not from small-time bodyguard missions by singular individuals with an average occupation or anything such as that." Headmaster Aronian said. "No, most of them are missions from wealthy individuals with high socio-economic status, powerful cooperations, landowners, political or governmental figures, a large variety of Beast Domain missions and things of that sort."

"I see..."

"Your bodyguard mission in the Basara Mountains is a good example of what foreign missions are like, at bare minimum mind you. Foreign missions are regularly fraught with such danger because there are no limits to what can happen in a foreign mission whatosever. You can run into Martial Artists of higher Realms from different nations who will unhesitatingly slaughter you in an instant. Anything can happen and you're absolutely all on your own, there's no safety net of any kind, you just die from a single mistake."

Headmaster Aronian ended up convincing Rui. At the end of the day, Rui was not a daredevil who enjoyed staking his life for tasks he wasn't qualified for just yet. He didn't mind waiting half a year or so until he was much stronger after mastering even more techniques and diversifying his Martial Art.

"Furthermore..." Headmaster Aronian continued as he stroked his beard. "Although you did not win the Martial Contest, you reached the finals and you put up one hell of a fight. You have already received many commissions from specific clienteles who are interested in commissioning you for missions." Headmaster Aronian told him.

Rui's eyes lit up in interest at those words.

He had expected this beforehand, to some degree. Even if he did lose, and even he was not happy about it, the status of a Martial Contest finalist was not low. He was basically the publicly crowned number two of the Martial Artists of his generation.

the Martial Contest was extremely prestigious, there was no doubt that

since the Martial Contest began?" He asked,

expression. "Much lower than a finalist would receive,

at those words. "Why

your Martial Art. You're not just a Type I all-rounder Martial Art, your fighting style fluctuates completely depending on your opponent. It's optimized for pure head-on physical conflict. The reason elite and wealthy clienteles send commissions to the Martial Contest representatives is because they have proven their competence to be at the elite

one particular field. Dalen and Arjun will probably always be better than me at defense-class

you surpass offensive Martial Artists at offensive class missions? Can you surpass defensive Martial Artists at defensive missions? Is there any class, type or even a particular mission that

his eyes at those words. He didn't like what headmaster Aronian was telling

of

hunter, shadow and miscellaneous. Four of these classes had dedicated specialists to them, and Rui knew that he could not compete with the specialists in their specialized

could do much better than any other Martial Art

singular opponents in the best manner possible, in a head-on conflict was certainly not