The Martial Unity

Rui wanted to smack Kane over the head, abstaining only because Kane would probably dodge. Such a shame.

"On average I train for seventeen hours a day." Kan replied.

"You... what??" Rui questioned him with palpable disbelief.

"I mean it's not that hard with the three potions I mentioned earlier; healing, physical rejuvenation and mental rejuvenation."

"Physical and mental-rejuvenation potions?"

"Yeah, physical rejuvenation invigorates the body, mental rejuvenation invigorates the brain so that you don't need sleep. These are the two types of rejuvenation potions."

"Does that mean if you had limitless mental rejuvenation, you would never need to sleep?" Rui asked with wonder.

"Yeah right." Kane scoffed. "The potion's effectivity drops with each consecutive usage. Its effectivity returns to one-hundred percent once I sleep naturally."

"I see, that's still extremely useful though. It's like buying more time!"

"True."

"How many potions do you take before the potion's effectivity reduces to zero?"

"Usually, I can go about three to four days before I need to sleep naturally."

That was lower than Rui hoped.

"Don't get carried away, there's known risks to consuming mental rejuvenation potions on a regular basis."

"Oh?"

"It rejuvenates the brain. But psychologically, staying awake for much longer periods is detrimental to the mind. Your mind is not designed nor used to receiving such large amounts of information for so long continuously without a break. Your brain maybe fine, but your psyche will be strained. There runs the risk of losing your sanity if you push it, atleast that's what my supervisors told me." Kane shrugged.

"Damn..." That makes sense. Just like every other part of the body, the mind had also evolved through natural selection in a particular way. In order for it to maintain its optimal state, it needed to be carefully subjected to only what it was evolved to handle, and not beyond that.

"Do you monitor yourself with the mental-rejuvenation potions?

"Heck no." Kane grumbled.  "My training-supervisors carefully regulate my mental-rejuvenation potion intake. They do some check-ups before giving me the potions I'm allowing to consume while also giving me a schedule for their consumption."

"Huh, sounds like it may be dangerous to do that stuff by yourself."

"I dunno, but probably yeah. Don't worry though, the Academy also has a capable and established medical department that handles this kind of stuff. There are supervisors there that ensure students don't push themselves beyond their limits. This also comes from the funding I mentioned before."

"I see. You sure know a lot about the Academy huh?"

"Of course, I do!" Kane replied emphatically. "I've been eying the Academy for almost five years now. You have no idea how badly I'm looking forward to it. I've done a fuck ton of research on it."

Rui chuckled in response. He could sense Kane's enthusiasm was just as strong as his, though their motivations differed immensely. He was glad they shared a strong interest.

"I'm looking forward to training with you in the Academy."

"Same but we probably won't be able to hang out as much initially." Kane sighed melancholically.

"Why not?"

"Well, I'm already a Martial Apprentice. I'll be directly heading into the training stages they have planned out for Martial Apprentices to help them reach Martial Squire. I haven't even been told the criteria needed to become a Martial Squire. Even Father said it was far too early for that, apparently."

"I see, well, we can hang out in our free times and breaks then." Rui consoled.

"Sigh, we'll have to stick to that, I guess."

"By the way, the fact that you're a Martial Apprentice Stage means you've already completed the Foundation and Exploration Stages right?"

"Yeah."

"What's the name of the Stage after one becomes a Martial Apprentice?" Rui asked out of curiosity.

"It's called the Expansion Stage."

"Hmmm... I see, that's a cool name. What exactly do you do in this stage?"

"Well, once you discover your Martial Path, the only thing left to do is tread down it. You have to begin expanding your Martial Art, or so I was told."

"Expanding? As in adding more techniques and skills to your Martial Art?"

"Yeah, you gain access to Apprentice-level techniques, from where you can explore, learn and add those techniques to your Martia Art repository."

"Hmm... Interesting. So, this when the actual construction of your Martial Art begins, huh? That sounds incredibly fun."

Rui was dying to be able to get his hands on the Apprentice-level techniques that Kane mentioned. Techniques like Outer Convergence, Parallel Step, Anti-Cadence were all extremely exciting techniques that were incredibly effective. It would be a while before he could learn them though, unfortunately.

"How long did it take for you to complete the Foundation Stage?" Rui asked, out curiosity.

"Half a year, or so." Kane replied.

"How does that compare to the average?" Rui asked, scratching his head. He figured it was likely well below average, considering Kane was a genius.

"...I dunno."

"..."

"Hey don't look at me like that!" He reprimanded embarrassedly, as Rui gave him a blank stare. One moment he sounded extremely knowledgeable, the next he sounded clueless.

"Is the Foundation Stage difficult?"

"Well, I had to train a fuck ton, it was quite tiring. The foundational techniques I learnt in the Foundation and Exploration Stage were really easy though."

"Hmm..." Rui pondered. Were the Foundational techniques actually easy or was Kane just being too much of a genius here? He wasn't sure. They chatted for a while after consuming their potions, before Rui decided to take his leave.

"You sure you don't want to have you dropped off?" Kane asked once more.

"Yeah, I'm good. I'm full of energy anyway, I don't mind getting back home on foot." Rui reassured. He didn't want to indulge in Kane's hospitality anymore, although he was growing to really liking the kid, they had only met thrice. Rui wasn't comfortable feeling so indebted to someone he had met recently, and only a handful of times.

Rui fell into a deep thought walking back, having bade Kane goodbye. He had a lot to think about, having learnt and experienced many things. The Martial Academy, the prowess of potions and most importantly; the prowess of Apprentice level Martial Art techniques.

"Such a fruitful visit, perhaps I should hang around him more..."