Chapter 124 Priorities

,m Author note: Hey priv readers. Yesterday I uploaded the wrong chapters by mistake. I fixed it within an hour of uploading, so you may not have noticed. However I urge you to reread those chapters just in case.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

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Rui stopped listening after the extra bonus was mentioned. He frankly didn't care all that much about anything else the Lowminers had to say. The rest of the meeting passed in a daze as the branch manager tried to make as good an impression in the limited amount of time they had left.

Soon enough, Fae promptly excused all of them and left the branch, heading to the Martial Union. Once they arrived at the Martial Union, Rui raced to complete the post-mission protocols as fast as he possible could.

"What's he all excited about?" Dalen asked with confusion. "We just got back after a tiring mission."

Kane and Fae sighed.

"Forget about it." Fae shook her head.

"Nerds spend time in the library." Kane said. "That's exactly what he wants to do."

Rui couldn't even be bothered retorting to the barbs. Once he filled up the forms and signed the what needed to be signed. He rushed to the Apprentice library the second his work was finished.

"See you guys later!" He yelled as the figure of his friends grew smaller in the distance.

Seeing that Kane got up, stretching. "Well, I should probably train too, I can't have him surpassing that easily."

Fae agreed with Kane, as she rarely did. "It would be embarrassing if the runt I smacked in the Entrance Exam one-upped me in just a year."

Saying this the two of them proceeded to bid Dalen and Milliana goodbye.

Once Rui entered the Apprentice library, he was so excited he felt jittery. Like a child who had entered a gigantic toy store after saving up his or her allowance for a whole year.

What techniques should he learn? In what direction should evolve or develop his Martial Art in? There were so many options he simply didn't know where to begin.

The foundational techniques were not only limited in grade, they were also limited in variety. The premium techniques consisted of a much more diverse set of types of techniques that relied on different mechanics and principles.

Before Rui could even dive in. He first calmed himself down, inhaling and exhaling deeply, regaining his composure. There was no point in getting too excited and making stupid decisions about how to spend his martial credits, these were hard-earned credits. He needed to spend them wisely.

Firstly, what was he here for?

To develop and expand his Martial Art.

In what manner did he want that to happen? What were the constraints to the development trajectory of his Martial Art?

This was a bit more complicated and nuanced. First, he was an all-rounder. This meant he could not allow his Martial Art to develop disproportionately higher in any one field.

Another constraint at this point in time, would be to fill in the holes in his Martial, and avoid filling what is already well-filled.

What were the relative strengths and weaknesses of his Martial Art?

('My offense is still lacking in general lethality.') Rui immediately surmised.

In his last training session, he had tried to bolster his offensive arsenal with Flowing Canon and Mirage Dive, a striking and grappling offense move respectively. However, both of these techniques lacked flexibility. They could only be used in a handful of all the circumstances that Rui normally found himself in.

Flowing Canon was a technique that required a run-up to accumulate momentum. This turned out to be much more limiting than Rui had hoped. After all, it wasn't possible to run back and forth every time you wanted to strike your opponent.

Most of the times, he was limited to using Vital pressure, a technique system that targeted vitals in the most effective way with every strike by optimizing hand form, location as well as angle of impact.

However, this was nowhere near a lethally threatening move, all it did was allow his strikes to inflict damage greater than he normally would.

That wasn't enough.

Thus, Rui decided to fundamentally improve his offense on a general level. What else?

('Another lacking aspect of my combat is combat speed.') Rui mused.

Although he had mastered maneuvering techniques like Parallel Walk and Balance Direction, those helped only in more locomotive speed, allowing him easily increase or shorten the distance between his opponent and him, allowing to engage in guerilla tactics well enough. But the fundamental speed of his combat was still too low.

Thus, he quickly added combat speed to the list.

Those were the two most glaring holes in his Martial Art. Everything else didn't have any overwhelming insufficiency.

His defense wasn't all too outdated, surprisingly. Though that was partially due to the fact that the defensive techniques he had mastered; Acute Edge and Elastic Shift were dependent on timing and placement of the techniques. The better Rui's timing and placement was, the more effective these techniques were.

The VOID algorithm loved such techniques, since it provided Rui with as close to the optimal timing and placement of these techniques adapted against specific opponents. Which is why Rui didn't particularly notice a deficiency.

('Still, bolstering my defense with a technique will help regardless.') Rui mused. Defense was what protected his life. He did not want to be dismissal of it.

('I can't think of any other critical shortcoming...') Rui scratched his head. All of the fields of his Martial Art and attributes were not unsatisfactory.

('Well, we'll see.') He shrugged. He could always decide what to do with the leftover reserve of martial credits once he finished handling the most important aspects of his Martial Art.

He could add trump cards with high efficiency that would allow him to vanquish his opponents instantly, or he could add more esoteric techniques that are difficult to counter, making him much more of a menace to deal with. Or he could be conservative and add a technique that increased his chances of survival and avoiding severe damage in battle. He wasn't sure.

Having decided what exactly he was looking for, he finally dove into the offense section of the Apprentice library.