1546 Evaluation
"Naturally, the Martial Union is deeply delighted with the contribution that you have made," Headmaster Aronian smiled. "The Martial Union had always rewarded contributors in accordance with the value of the contributions made, and we intend to do the same in your case. Rest assured that you will be rewarded accordingly. The Martial Union is particularly anxious to not let go of a talent like you."
The more Headmaster Aronian had spoken about the technique, the more Rui realized just how impactful his contribution had been. It wasn't too big a deal for him, but it was a treasure for the Martial Union.
An immediate fifty-percent boost in power for all future Martial Squires and above, free of cost, was a dream come true for Martial forces. Ordinarily, the only way to improve the effects of the Squire evolution breakthrough was to increase the expenses of the process by enormous degrees.
Orders of magnitude, even. There were diminishing returned as the prices of more potent esoteric substances were greatly inflated past their actual value due to scarcity. Rui's solution may as well have conjured up power out of thin air since the costs were peanuts compared to the actual power that it gave.
With that in mind, he could see why the Martial Union went insane for the Hungry Pain technique.
This made him more excited to hear the remuneration of the Martial Union. While he was doing pretty well these days, the Martial Union was a powerhouse in the Martial Art industry, with resources for growth and training that only an extremely minute proportion of Martial Art organizations could match.
Earning their favor was highly beneficial for young Martial Artists like himself who didn't have tons of accumulation.
"Now then, young Rui, let us go into the details of what this means for you." Headmaster Aronian grew a bit more serious. "Are you familiar with how the Martial Union evaluates the value of techniques?"
Rui nodded as he recalled what Senior Ceeran had told him long ago when he submitted the Pathfinder technique to the Martial Union. "I believe the Martial Union evaluates the value of technique by technique potency, difficulty, and dissemination viability."
Technique potency measured how powerful a technique was, as in a technique's impact on combat. This was in an of itself a variable with many sub-parameters such as the technique's mechanical efficiency of raw energy supplied versus the produced outcome, as well as consideration of how tactically and strategically significant the produced outcome was in combat.
"In this regard, the Hungry Pain technique is extremely impressive. Allowing a Martial Body to be fifty percent stronger than it would otherwise be is a remarkably significant improvement to the Martial Body," Headmaster Aronian remarked. "Fifty percent may not sound like for active techniques, but passive techniques are treated with different standards to active techniques, especially passive techniques relating to the Squire evolution breakthrough. No other passive Squire evolution technique we have ever seen comes even close to a mean boost of fifty percent in the resultant Martial Body. Thus, the Hungry Pain technique excels in this regard."
Rui nodded, simply listening.
"In regards to difficulty, this too is an area where the Hungry Pain technique excels. It is a modification of a mental technique with low difficulty originally. The only real difficulty is the pain and the hunger that the Martial Apprentice must endure, but given the boost in power that it results in, it is easily worth it. Especially when compared to the suffering of the Squire evolution breakthrough procedure," Headmaster Aronian explained.
The lower the difficulty of the technique, the more people could master it, increasing the value of the technique.
After all, what was the point of an extraordinary grade-ten technique that was so difficult that literally nobody could master it?
The impact of such a technique was zero because it did not improve Martial Art or Martial Artists in any way. It did not change anything.
This had been an issue with the Pathfinder technique that he had contributed to the Martial Union which had reduced its value. The Hungry Pain technique had no such problems, literally every single Martial Apprentice could master it without a problem.
"Dissemination viability is also similar," Headmaster Aronian explained. "There are no barriers, or hurdles that prevent a large number of Martial Artists from mastering it. It doesn't require niche affinities and is a very broad and general principle. Thus, the Hungry Pain techniques scores extremely well on all three parameters that you have mentioned. However, there are parameters in addition to these three that you don't seem to be informed on," Headmaster Aronian remarked, earning a confused look from Rui.
"I heard this nearly ten years ago," Rui remarked, recalling the distant interaction.
"It is a more recent amendment to our evaluation protocols," Headmaster Aronian informed Rui. "We have now also evaluate techniques based on Realm viability. This variable measures how well a technique from a certain Martial Artist can be applied to Martial Artists of other Realms. A technique that is limited only to the Senior Realm such that it cannot be used by weaker Realms and is useless in greater Realms is something that limits the value of the technique than if it could be used across all Realms. This previously used to be swept under the rug of dissemination viability, but we have decided that it is important enough to gain its own category."
Rui nodded, that made sense. Powerful techniques that could be applied to all Realms were significantly superior to powerful techniques that were limited to one Realm.
"This area is perhaps the one place where the Hungry Pain does not score nearly as well. It cannot be applied to existing Martial Artists above the Squire Realm, although future Martial Artists above the Squire Realm will have already mastered it," Headmaster Aronian. "This means that it is viable for all Realms, but not immediately and never for those who have broken through to the Squire Realm without it. While they can still master it, the proportional benefits are lower since there is none of the extreme synergies between the Martial Body's energy consumption and the seemingly endless supply from the Hungry Pain technique."
