The Martial Unity

"...And that is how we'll be measuring your compatibility with each of the poisons you've applied for." The doctor explained as Rui was being prepped. "Any questions?"

"None at all," Rui replied. The doctor had just explained what he had already come to learn from his own research into poison, he didn't even need it in the first place, but the doctor was mandated to explain the procedure.

The doctor smiled wryly at his words, no questions meant that either nothing was understood, or everything was. He did not even need to wonder which of the two it was considering Rui was a Martial Artist. But it did not matter much to him, he had already done his duty.

"We will be taking blood samples and conducting brief preliminary tests to ensure that you're not particularly vulnerable to any of these poisons." The doctor explained as the nurses around him drew blood with specialized syringes that were capable of piercing even his flesh. "There are certain conditions that are benign but are such that certain poisons are extremely lethal to said Martial Artist, and even the minor dosages that we subject them to will end up causing extreme damage and potentially death."

Rui nodded, it was a good measure in place to prevent any accidents. Thankfully, he didn't need to wait long for the results of the tests to come in.

"Good news, you don't have any particular vulnerabilities towards any of the poisons you wish to test your compatibility of." The doctor informed Rui as he read through the test results. "We can proceed with the tests immediately."

Rui was taken into the chamber where he was strapped and cuffed into the bed. He had correctly guessed that the cuffs and straps could restrain even Martial Squires like himself. The nurses began attaching all kinds of instruments and devices across his body, a lot of them resembled those of Earth, and it even seemed that they were meant for the same purpose; to collect physiological and metabolic data.

After all, in order to verify the symptoms that Rui would experience due to the poisons, they would need to be able to measure them objectively. A bit of time passed as the medical team overseeing the procedure collected enough data on his normal state, which would serve as the control dataset for the evaluation of his compatibility with the various poisons.

"Alright, Squire Quarrier." The doctor's voice was projected into the chamber. "We will now begin the procedure. A remotely controlled syringe will inject the appropriate doses of the particular poisons in your blood, you may experience varying degrees of discomfort or pain, please try to remain as composed as possible."

Rui nodded. "Will do."

"Good, the poison will be administered now. We will begin with Hurndrum Nectar."

Rui glanced down at the two tubes sticking into his arms as a teaspoon of an ominous dark purple fluid passed through it into his body. Rui gritted his teeth because he knew what he was in for. The Hurndrm Nectar poison was the poison that caused an intense and lifelike sensation of burning.

"RRRGHH!" Rui gritted his teeth with a restrained scream as he felt his entire body igniting on fire instantly. It was his very first time experiencing a burning sensation to such an enormous degree. He felt as though someone had dunked him in kerosene before igniting him on fire.

He did his best to restrain his urge to lash out. Thankfully, his pain tolerance had reached a much higher level thanks to the boundless agony that was the breakthrough process of the Squire Realm, compared to that, this was a lot easier.

He closed his eyes as he focused on his breathing. The pain never ceased to go away but Rui managed to bear it much better rapidly as time passed, even his heart rate returned to normal despite the enormous pain. This poison was a high-grade poison in the Apprentice Realm but its effectivity as it passed through higher Realms decreased significantly.

('As expected, this poison will only cause surprise in my opponent at most, that too only once.') Rui sighed. Having finally experienced the Hurndrum Nectar, he was confident that it was not as useful as he had hoped it would be. While it was certainly startling and even shocking to his opponents when they felt an inexplicable burning sensation, they would probably quickly get over it without any meaningful difference in their combat ability.

Of course, startling one's opponent could cause openings in combat that could be exploited, but that benefit was not worth learning a whole separate poison technique for, especially when there were other more suitable poisons at hand. He was pretty sure he could already shock his opponents with his Mind Mask technique in the first place, thus he didn't have any particular need for this poison even if the other poisons didn't work out.

He opened his eyes only after the pain dissipated.

"You endured that very well, Squire Quarrier." The doctor told him. "We will now be administering the next poison; Gangaer drop."

The Gangaer Drop poison was a poison that caused slow and steady necrosis; cellular death and breakdown. Such a technique would ordinarily be considered an extremely dangerous poison, however, its rate of affection was quite slow, and only in extremely long and drawn-out battles could its effectivity be maximized.

A few more instruments were remotely manipulated as made their way over to his hands, wrapping around his wrists and squeezing hard, so much so that his hands began feeling numb with the strange itchy feeling that came along with suppressed blood flow to any particular part of his flesh.

('This is probably to ensure that the necrosis is contained within a specific area rather than to have it spread across the entire body.') Rui noted. It was much easier to deal with a localized necrotic spread rather than one that was occurring across the entire body.

A syringe was pricked into the center of his palm and a strange translucent liquid was injected into his skin.