A day had passed since Rui had moved to a different dormitory; the process was smooth since he had very few belongings in the first place. He had quickly tried to familiarize himself with his environment and some of his peers to some degree, it didn’t hurt to make some friends who could help him out, like Kane did.
He tightened his sparring attire. It was a two-piece attire, consisting of a light jacket-like top and a pant that were bound together by a belt.
The attire was knitted out of a very light, yet durable and flexible fabric, allowing Martial Apprentices to go all-out and fully exert themselves without having to worry about tearing apart their sparring attire to shreds.
Today would be Rui’s first time entering the Apprentice library, he intended to get his hands on foundational Apprentice level techniques.
One of the things the guidebook explained to him was how techniques were classified and categorized. Techniques were categorized in three different ways:
The first system of categorization was by field. Whether a technique is offensive or defensive, or maneuvering oriented or supplementary. This system of categorization was for the sake of convenience and clarity. This was categorization by their function.
The second system of categorization was by Realm pre-requisite. A technique of a certain Realm meant that it could not be learnt by Martial Artists below that Realm. Apprentice level techniques were techniques that only Martial Apprentices and above could use, they could not be mastered by novices. This was because normal human beings did not possess the focused psyche needed to learn Apprentice level techniques, which required a superhuman level of focus and fortitude to learn. Those who had discovered their Martial Path underwent a subconscious psychological shift, their minds were hyper-focused on their Martial Path, allowing them to learn power and difficult Apprentice level techniques. This was categorization by the necessary pre-requisite condition to even begin to learn these techniques.
The third system of categorization was efficiency. This was related to the actual quality of a technique. Techniques were a set of actions that produced a desired physical result. Generally, each technique required physical energy, for the physical movements, and mental energy for executing them accurately and precisely. Techniques with greater efficiency produced greater results for the same amount of effort. The efficiency of techniques were indicated by grades. Low-grade techniques had low efficiency, mid-grade techniques had medium efficiency, and high-grade techniques had high efficiency.
An Apprentice-level offensive high-grade technique was a technique whose utility was offensive in nature, could only be used by Martial Artists of Apprentice Realm or higher, and whose efficiency was high.
Rui found the categorization to be aptly sophisticated. Back on Earth in his previous life, martial arts techniques did not have such sophistication in their categorization. There many reasons for this, for starters, Martial Artists Realms did not exist. This bluntly cut away the second system of categorization. Another reason was that techniques did not have vastly differing levels of efficiency inherently, their effectivity depended on how they were applied only, as well as a lot of luck.
Although techniques on Earth could be divided by field, there were no meaningful named techniques for defense or maneuvering. Those were simply considered skills that needed practice and experience. The concept of supplementary techniques; techniques that could supplement, aid, or augment a physical attribute or other techniques, did not exist.
This was why martial arts techniques were uncategorized, there was simply no point in doing so.
Rui already knew what kind of techniques he was looking for even before he entered the library.
His first decision was to once again balance the techniques he chose evenly among all the fields. In order to adapt to his opponents properly, he needed a good grasp over not just all fields but also all ranges. He also needed diversity of techniques within each field.
This was a tall task and it would take him a long time before he truly achieved this.
Another decision he made due to this was to choose flexible techniques that could be useful in all situations. His Martial Art was adaptation, it was practically a necessity that at the very least his foundation of techniques needed to be flexible. He was willing to sacrifice efficiency for flexibility. He would rather have a foundation of lower efficiency techniques but with great flexibility and versatility than have a higher efficiency technique but with very low flexibility, something that could only be used in a handful of ways and situations.
(‘I guess I have my work cut out for me.’) Rui thought. He intended to work harder than he ever had in order to build a foundation of Apprentice level techniques. Currently, although he was indeed an Apprentice, his combat prowess had yet to touch that level. Apprentice level techniques were far superior to Exploration level techniques. He remembered the Apprentice level techniques Kane had showed him, they were truly surpassing the bounds of human limits! Kane would have utterly mopped the floor with him had he used Apprentice-level techniques in their spar.
Until he built a foundation of Apprentice level techniques he would feel uncomfortable calling himself an Apprentice.
What kind of an Apprentice couldn’t hold a candle against any other Apprentice?
He shook his head, putting aside such thoughts having reached the library.
The moment he walked in; he could already see the Apprentice library was much vaster than the Explorer library. The section dedicated to each field were larger than those of the Explorer library, further each field section had many, many sub-sections.
(‘As expected of the library dedicated to an actual Martial Art Realm, it’s comprehensive and vast.’)
He looked around, taking in the sheer size.
(‘Where do I even begin?’) He sighed.
There was just so much. He wasn’t sure how to approach all of this in a time-saving manner.
(‘Thankfully, a decent proportion of the techniques are marked with a price of merits.’) Rui sighed.
He could avoid these techniques and head straight to the free techniques.
He grasped the first technique he ran into.
(‘Alright, let’s begin.’)