The Martial Unity

"Individuality... and maturity?" She frowned.

"That's right." Rui nodded. "Individuality and maturity. Your Martial Art needs to obtain enough of both, otherwise, you won't be able to even survive the breakthrough process to the Squire Realm."

"What exactly do both of those terms even mean?"

"I was getting there." He nodded. "Individuality is a measure of how much your Martial Path diverges from others, and how much of its depth comes from you."

She wordlessly stared at him with a skeptical expression.

"Your techniques and the way you apply them, that is what need to possess individuality. They need to possess a measure of uniqueness and originality."

"So... I need to create my own techniques?" She frowned. "That's super difficult!"

"If it were easy, everyone would be a Martial Squire." Rui snorted. "But you don't specifically need to create a technique from scratch, and all kinds of viable modifications and alterations to suit yourself, newer applications of an existing technique, combinations that you yourself derived from existing techniques, and really anything that originated from you that sets you apart from the others will be one step deeper into your Martial Path."

"I see..." She hummed as she processed her words. "So that means your Martial Art is much more unique than any other kind of Martial Art that exists out there?"

"You can say that." Rui nodded.

In reality, one could say much more than that. The fact that he inherited the VOID algorithm from his past alone meant that his individuality was on another level. He wasn't even sure how much of it he had, in all honesty. He knew he had more of it than any other Martial Artist his age, without a doubt. It would be rather shocking if there was.

"So, my Martial Art just needs to gain enough individuality, hm." She nodded. "Will do. But why is that necessary?"

Rui paused for a moment, considering whether he could answer her question, before shrugging. "To survive the procedure."

"Hm?" She frowned.

"The greater your individuality, the deeper your Martial Path, and the greater your mind can withstand," Rui told her, arriving dangerously close to the limit of what he could tell her.

individuality do you think I have?"

ran his gaze across

covering her chest

just observing you." Rui sighed, shrugging

awkward pause before she

she even puffed her chest out a bit, as if that would somehow make his job

It didn't.

Furthermore, while his mind was pure, his seventeen-year-old hormonal

it over with." She looked away with a miffed expression, yet her

back to meet

('She's hot.')

to look at her body without his cursed hormonal teenage body revving up, ever since

He sighed. "It relies

"Clouded?"

it."

the individuality condition to be able to survive the breakthrough to

Rui shrugged, before freezing.

where a Martial Squire evaluated whether he had indeed fulfilled both conditions for Squire candidacy. The way she had verified whether

able to withstand pressure above a certain degree, then that Martial Apprentice would at the very least not die

and since he was also a

perform that here, not in front

asked him, noticing his

question, but I can't do it here." He told her. "You need to come to my personal quarters, it's detached enough from the main camp

threw a skeptical glare at

Rui raised an eyebrow,

"You know what."

haven't the faintest

to your personal quarters where nobody can see us