“Yeah, we’re scheduled to begin some Academy supervised Apprentice level missions in a few months.” Kane confirmed the next day.
“What kind of missions?” Rui asked out curiosity.
Kane shrugged. “Dunno.”
“So they haven’t told you…” Rui muttered. “Though since it is the kind of missions that an Apprentice could complete, the scale of the missions will be low, I doubt you’d be forced to fight against other Martial Artists.”
Kane nodded. “That stage of our Apprentice curriculum won’t begin any time soon though. Maybe you can join me if you discover your Martial Path and become an apprentice before that.”
Rui nodded in return, completing mission with Kane and the others sounded extremely fun.
They bantered a bit before heading down different paths. Rui soon entered the Explorer library. The Explorer library contained techniques in all fields and forms of combat that were far more advanced than the Foundation techniques.
The Foundation techniques were all techniques that Rui was familiar with, these were no different from the martial arts on Earth for the most part; things like kickboxing, wrestling, brazillian jiu-jitsu etc.
The Explorer Stage contained techniques that were more effective; things like special breathing techniques to increase the energy generated by your cells, special offensive, defensive and maneuvering techniques that generated far more force and speed than ordinary techniques.
The techniques and their details were recorded on scrolls. Each technique was described in a brief manner initially with more detailed explanations following, there were detailed depictions with various measurements and indications in these diagrams, as well as detailed explanations and diagrams on the training method for these techniques.
However, this alone was rather insufficient for mastering these techniques. Thus, Explorers like Rui could consult the many Apprentice instructors and guiders that existed in the Explorer training facilities for demonstrations and basic instructions as well as guidance upon mastering these techniques.
These Apprentice instructors would not enforce or mandate any training, of course. The Exploration Stage gave a lot of freedom to students.
The techniques in the library were broadly divided into five categories; offense, defense, supplementary, maneuvering and miscellaneous.
Rui had pick one technique from each section. The offensive technique he had decided to choose after careful consideration was called Collision Optmization-I
“Sounds like a course in an engineering degree, rather than the name of a Martial Art technique.” Rui murmured.
In the movies, anime, novels he’d read. Martial Art techniques usually had flashy names. When he first initially visited the Explorer library, he’d expected flashy metaphorical flowery names like ‘DiVinE gOdkiLler fiSt’ or ‘DeViL DeStrUctiOn AtTacK’, but instead he was greeted with very technical names that perfectly encapsulated exactly what the technique was comprised of.
On one hand, this was very down-to-earth and logical. This was a library meant to organize techniques in a convenient manner, thus such names helped Explorer students like himself sift through techniques with great ease.
On the other hand, the Martial fanboy in him felt a bit unsatisfied that the techniques did not have such flashy names.
As much as he would deny it to his colleagues back on Earth, these flashy names were the best part of Martial Art! He would love to launch a flash attack while shouting its flashy name!
Rui shook his head, putting aside such silly thoughts.
Collision-Optimization was a broad formless technique that taught him how to inflict greater damage with each strike by adjusting the precise location he lands his strikes on.
The human body was neither monolithic nor uniform. Some parts of the body were extremely durable and hard, while others were extremely vulnerable and weak.
It wasn’t as simple as targeting the throat or the testicles, this technique illustrated which precisely portions of the body were most susceptible to pain and damage.
This was outside the standard MMA training that prevailed Earth. Mostly because fighters were too uneducated and incapable of learning the information needed to use this technique, they were also largely unwilling to engage in such training. It was impractical in many ways.
But not in this world!
But this world had potions, allowing students to learn what MMA fighters couldn’t.
This applied even more so to Rui, because of his great tolerance of mental rejuvenation potions.
Furthermore, Rui had an extremely high affinity with this technique, which was one of the reasons he picked it. His scientific and academic background was extremely synergetic with this technique, in fact, with his knowledge, he suspected he might even able to improve and optimize the technique to some degree!
Another reason he picked this technique was that it was very broad and diverse and could universally improve his striking, but the degree of improvement wasn’t high.
He glanced at the remaining three techniques he’d picked.
The defensive technique was Damage Mitigation-I, it was basically an extremely sophisticated system of rolling and moving with strikes to reduce their impact. It was like baseballers catching baseballs, no sportsman caught a ball in one position, they always moved their hand along with the trajectory of the ball to reduce the impact.
This technique relied on the same principle.
The maneuvering technique he picked was called Balance Direction, it was a technique that allowed him to move faster by almost falling in the direction he wanted to move in, the unbalanced weight directed in the direction of motion rather than towards the ground allowed for greater speed.
The supplementary technique was called Harmonic Respiration, a form of breathing technique that strengthened metabolism in the middle of the fight to increase his output.
These were the four initial techniques he picked from the Explorer library after browsing through the available techniques with careful consideration.
These techniques matched his existing style and also had lower difficulty compared to the other techniques. He picked only four, one from each field so that he wouldn’t overburden himself. There was no point biting off more than he could chew, he’d only end up choking. He intended to get a good measure of how many techniques he could simultaneously study so that he could pace himself appropriately, to maximize his productivity.